Blood Magik- A Cold Day In Hell

by Corwyn Matthew

  “Yeah? Then I’ll fill him in on how you Insta-stock his sister, you fuckin’ creep.”

  “Dude…you were checkin’ her picks out with me!”

  “Yeah, but I’m not the one who saved ’em so he could Photoshop a collage for his desktop background.”

  Jimmy shrugged. He really didn’t see the big deal. “I was gonna use the image to screen-print pillow cases for my room. You know, so I could wake up every morning next to her.”

  “Ha!” Terry couldn’t help but let out a bark of a laugh. He pictured Jimmy rolling over in bed with an infatuate grin, whispering “good morning” to Alex’s picture on his pillow and giving it a peck on the cheek. “That’s fuckin’ genius, man. You should try applying that amount of creativity to something that might actually get you somewhere.”

  Jimmy thought now might be a good time to share one of his more ambitious ideas with his companion.

  “I thought about putting the faces of celebrities on toilet paper. You know, like some of the more infamous? I bet people would pay extra to wipe their ass with Charlie Sheen’s shit-eating grin or with the president of the United States.”

  Terry thought his friend might be on to something. “Put me down for an eight-pack of Steven Tyler. That guy’s lips bug the shit outta me.”

  Jimmy chuckled at his pun. “Eighties, nineties, or now?”

  “Surprise me.”

  “Have you ever fired a gun before?” Tara wanted to keep Kitty’s mind from wandering. She was worried if she remembered what she saw, she might freak out and become a liability.

  Kitty shook her head. She’d never even held a gun before, let alone fired one.

  “It’s not as easy as it looks on TV. It’s heavy and loud, and the kick packs a punch.” Kitty didn’t look too comfortable with the idea of handling one. “But, don’t worry. You won’t have to use one yet. We’ll watch out for you until we can get some distance between us and the city.”

  “What about my parents?”

  Tara felt terrible for the girl but knew she couldn’t say for sure if they were alive or dead…so she said what she thought she’d want to hear if she were in her place.

  “There’s no way to get a hold of them right now, with the phone lines and internet down, but as soon as all this blows over, I promise, I’ll help you find them. After we meet up with Alex and Marty, we’ll get the hell out of here and figure out what to do next.”

  “How…how do you even know your friends are still here?”

  It was a good question. Tara realized she hadn’t given it much thought now that she brought it up. Originally it seemed like such a casual task to go with the boys to meet up with Marty and Alex…but things had gotten hectic. It wasn’t so simple a thing any longer. Now it was a quest to find their friends, and they were about to drag this innocent bystander along with them. She hoped they knew what they were doing…

  “It’s…kind of a long story… But we know Marty will wanna find his sister, and Alex told us to meet her at her house. …If…if they’re…alive…then they’ll be there. And for some reason we’re not sure of, they know more about what’s going on than anyone, so it’s important we find them.”

  Kitty nodded obediently. Her personality was pretty docile in general, but with her feeling so helplessly out-of-place, she was almost agreeable to a fault. She just didn’t want to be alone anymore.

  A distant boom caught Tara’s ear and the ground shook beneath them – the vibrations amplified by the sound of shelves rattling in the store – and Tara looked up at Kitty, then over at the boys when another explosion shook the ground. The guys stopped their childlike chattering and everyone stood motionless as two more quakes threatened the permanence of their shelter.

  “What the fuck was that?” Jimmy, staying true to his vocally expressive anxieties, was the first to speak after the quaking settled.

  “Sounds like the military finally decided to join the party.” He looked over to his fretful gang of do-gooders. “Either that or God’s using the planet as a speedbag.”

  “Oh fuck… Are they bombing us? They’re fucking bombing us, aren’t they! They’re gonna fuckin’ nuke us, dude, we need to get the hell outta here!!”

  “They’re not gonna nuke L.A., man…” he sighed. “At least, not this soon they won’t. So, relax.” Terry was always impressed with how quickly his friend’s imagination flew awry.

  “Kitty, are there any windows close by?” Tara wanted to see what fresh turmoil was hounding them now.

  “The front’s blocked off… Th-the only ones you can see out of are up-upstairs in the breakroom.”

  “Show us.”

  They ran in single-file, darting up the stairs in the back. It took two tall flights to get to the top and a few more seconds to make it through the halls. When they got there, they ran past the lunch tables and up to a long, glass window where they all froze in awe of plumes of fire and smoke in the distance. The force of the explosions cleared out the crimson mists, opening their view to the distant skyline saturated in red.

  Fire lit the skies again when they stood witness to a second hail of explosions five miles from where they were. They watched as the fiery chaos gave birth to giant, wormlike creatures coiling in the clouds, and all felt their stomachs turn and hearts sink at the sight of the slithering evil in the sky.

  Hulking serpents swam effortlessly through the blood-skies, spreading in every direction, snaking through the clouds over the city. It wouldn’t be long before they covered the entire county, making it entirely impossible for the military to execute an aerial assault.

  “Ho-ly-fuck…” Jimmy let the curse fall from his mouth along with his utter shock and ail. “Am I seein’ what I think I’m seein’?” He tried to swallow his fear as he stared into the abomination that’d become of the sky. He was pretty sure that if his last meal hadn’t already vacated the premises, he would’ve had another vomit-pizza-pie between his knees to hopelessly loom over.

  “…Jesus Christ…this…this can’t be happening…” Tara turned away from the window and slid to the ground with her back against the wall. “…I…I don’t know if we can do this…” Her stomach felt so knotted up it was hard for her to breathe. She put her elbows on her knees, head sinking into her palms. “Maybe we should just leave… I don’t think we should be here… We shouldn’t be here…”

  Terry snapped out of his daze when he heard Tara’s repeated mumblings. His first thought was that maybe she was right… Maybe they needed to get the hell out of there as fast as they could and never look back. But then he remembered the condition the freeways were in on their way into downtown.

  Where would they go? The blood-storm and wave of zombie insanity had already gotten a head start on them and would undoubtedly continue spreading outward to engulf the rest of L.A. They were in the eye of the storm for the time being and should probably take advantage of it while they still had the chance. The only strength he could think to find was that of their strength in numbers, and the single most badass beast of a compadre on the planet was still M.I.A. As long as there was hope of finding Alex and Marty, he felt they really had no other option…other than cowering in the frozen food section of All-Mart with the rest of the poultry and spineless slabs of meat, hoping not to be noticed…

  He squatted next to her and put his hand on her shoulder, speaking in a calm and sympathetic tone. He wasn’t sure if what they were doing was real high on the list of intelligent things he’s done in his life, but it felt right at least… He hoped it was logic and reason guiding him and not some subconscious drive to follow in the footsteps of popular heroes playing in dramatic movie roles. Everyone wants to be the brave guy playing the leading part in the zombie apocalypse movie, but does anyone ever really think those roles through? Is it really in their best interest to be smack-ass in the middle of a shit-storm that could quite possibly be the end of the world as they k
new it? He wasn’t sure… But he figured they had already come this far…

  “We can’t exactly just hop back on the freeway and go for a road trip right now.” He let out a breath to release his tension. “There’s still a chance we can find Marty at Alex’s place, and if we can, we’ll be better off with him on our side. If he’s not there…we leave…”

  “Dude…” Jimmy sounded like wasn’t sure Terry should give up on Marty so easily.

  “We leave.” He made it clear that what he was saying was what they were doing. “If he’s not there, we have no idea where to look for him. And it’s not like we can just stroll through the usual hangouts and hope to stumble across him…”

  Jimmy appreciated his friend’s speech, but thought Terry might’ve gotten the wrong impression when he interrupted him before.

  “That’s…not the type of ‘dude’ I was gonna say…” Terry stopped to listen but wasn’t sure he wanted to. “…I was gonna say, even if we find them, how the hell is that gonna help us get out of here? Marty’s a badass motherfucker…but against those things?” He pointed out the window into the worm-infested billows. “Let’s be honest; it’s not like he’s fuckin’ Conan the Barbarian or some shit. He’s just a man.”

  Terry was irked by his friend’s words. He understood his point, but Jimmy seemed to be missing his.

  “He’s our friend.” It couldn’t get any clearer than that. “And Alex knows something.” He paused to see if he was getting through, and Jimmy’s silence told him he was. “Do you understand how important that is? …She knows something. …Something really backwards and fucked up is happening to the world and she might have an idea of what that is. She might be the only one who has an idea of what that is… So, we find her. We go to her house like we said we would and we wait for as long as we can.”

  He waited to see if Jimmy’s allegiances strengthened or continued to waver, but he seemed to be on board. Jimmy never wanted to suggest they leave Marty or Alex behind, he just thought it wise to clear the air and bring everything to the table. He could tell Terry knew that and didn’t think any less of him despite his brief detour in personal ethics.

  Tara took heed to his words and used them as a tool to steady her breathing, quieting her mind. His hand on her shoulder comforted her, and she used his strength to fuel her own. She raised her head from her palms to look Terry in his eyes. His stare told her he would do whatever was in the best interest of them all, and she nodded to let him know she was with him.

  The others had been too caught in their own dissension to realize Kitty was frozen solid behind them; pupils black saucers, mouth caught in a gasp. The sight of the world outside flipped a switch in her brain that caused her to recoil into her own delusions and relive some of the hazier moments in her recent past—

  It was three hours earlier. The store had just closed and the first news of evacuation was making its way around the city. Jake, the thirty-two-year-old security guard, had waited with Kitty for over an hour and was thinking it wasn’t a bright idea to stick around.

  They were playing rummy in the breakroom, watching the clouds over downtown incessantly consume the night sky. He’d suggested leaving a half-hour earlier and waited until now to convince her it was time to make their move. They had no way of reaching her parents – or anyone else for that matter – and he told her he’d give her a ride outside the city beyond the storm so they could find their bearings and regain contact with the rest of the world. He had a friend living along the edge of the county and figured once they escaped L.A. they could wait the crisis out and reunite with friends and family later. She agreed, since it’d already been close to two hours after her father was supposed to show. She thought that maybe her parents were forced to leave without her and were hoping she’d make it out of downtown on her own. It was up to her now to find a way out of the city, and her friend Jake, who she trusted, was willing to take her with him, but he wasn’t going to wait forever. He’d grown restless and was eager to leave the confusion and uncertainty of the chaos outside behind. If she didn’t leave with him now, she’d end up stuck there alone.

  Kitty hated to be alone.

  They started down the stairs for the ground-floor when the sound of glass breaking in front of the store put them both on alert. More glass shattering, along with the clanking of metal against metal, ricocheted through the vacant aisles of the store. Someone was pounding on the security doors at the entrance, trying to break through, but Jake was off the clock and not feeling too enthusiastic about putting in any overtime on a night like this. He decided he was only a company security guard for as long as he was getting paid, and he and his friend’s safety meant more to him than the store’s fully insured surplus of shoddy merchandise.

  They headed for the back through the employee access doors, weaving through the storeroom’s heavily packed aisles. They figured they could slip out and away from what sounded like a drunken circus of hungry hobos pounding on the front if they hurried and were quiet about it. All they needed was a bit of luck to go their way…

  Jake grabbed Kitty’s hand, leading her toward the exit. When they got there, he checked the peephole on the back door before opening it to be sure their escape-way was a clear path.

  “Alright, Kay, stay close.” The noise from the vagrants pounding on the front carried to the backdoors, picking at his rising anxieties. He pulled his keys from his belt and nervously fingered through them until he found the right one. “They’re too busy trying to break through the front to catch us back here. As soon as I lock the door behind us, were gonna sneak up to the alley and take off running towards the lot. I’m parked pretty close so we’ll make it with no problems, okay?”

  She nodded and Jake looked her over to be sure she was ready to go before he turned back around to unlock the deadbolt.

  “Wait! Wait!” she whispered loudly, and he stopped in his haste and locked the door. He looked back to see her kneel and fidget with her shoelace as she retied a bow and pulled it tight, then tightened her opposite lace just to be sure. She stood up afterward and gave Jake a nod.

  He reopened the door slowly, peeking his head out to be sure the loading dock was clear, then pulled Kitty out behind him and locked the door.

  The short alley in the back of the store extended one hundred feet before intersecting another alley that led toward the back lot to the left. If all went well, they’d be around the corner, in his car, and hauling ass down the block in under a minute.

  “Let’s go.”

  He kept Kitty’s hand tight in his palm as they walked on eggshells toward the main alley. The keys on his belt jingled when he stepped so he used his free hand to stifle their chime. Adrenaline swelled his heart and his vision tunneled. The night outside spawned a strange air – it tasted different than the usual back-alley stench he was used to trying to avoid. He thought he may’ve just been imagining it, being so worked up from the calamity taking place outside the building, but couldn’t shake the notion that the air tasted of blood, its humidity only making the horrid tang more tangible on his tongue.

  They snuck down the empty driveway where the company trucks would unload shipments, and slid by two industrial-sized dumpsters to their left. There was ten feet of space in between them and the main alley and Jake slowed his approach to be sure it was safe to go on. He put his hand up to instruct Kitty to stay as he inched closer to the edge of the building, cautiously creeping along the wall.

  Kitty’s heart was beating so loudly she thought that if anyone was close by, it’d give them away…

  Jake turned to face the wall and slowly tilted his head to look around the corner, squeezing Kitty’s hand as if leaning over a bottomless precipice, clutching for dear life. The only thing Kitty could make out before Jake was dragged by his head around the back of the building was a disgusting, clenching hand with black fingernails and dry skin gripping the top of his unwarned scalp.

&n
bsp; Such force yanked him around the corner that his hold on her pulled her with him and she skidded out into the open alley. At first, she was too shaken to see what grabbed them, only able to make out her friend’s brief attempt at a scream before it was muffled by him choking. She frantically tried scampering away, but when she caught sight of the dead soldier in front of her – eyes glowing evil orbs – she froze to bear witness to the most terrifying sight she’d never imagined…

  The six-foot, blackened figure stood square, holding her friend suspended in the air by the top of his head with one hand, and his torn-out esophagus bleeding in the other. Jake’s feet kicked while blood spurt from his throat as he choked on his own fluids, drowning right in front her amidst a city full of air. When his feet stopped twitching, the soldier trained his sights on Kitty as she found the courage to climb up from the asphalt. By the time she realized what had happened next, the soldier was only inches away, his fist plunged into her stomach and an evil smile etched into his soiled face.

  She opened her mouth to breathe but couldn’t – the pain was too intense. She stumbled back a few steps, and the soldier held his ground along with her intestines in his grip that stretched out of her like a thread unraveling from a seam while she backed away.

  “Where d’ya think you’re goin’?”

  The creature addressed her with a tilted head and a sick, teasing tone, then reached out and grabbed her by her face with the same hand that held her guts. He pulled her toward him and turned her around so the back of her head pressed against his chest, then savagely dragged her and her friend deeper into the alley. The last thing she remembered was the taste of her own intestines smashed against her mouth and the sound of her friend’s body being dragged alongside her as everything around her went black…

  “Kitty!!” Tara had the girl’s hands in her grasp, squeezing, trying to break her from her paralysis. “Kitty, wake up! Snap out of it, girl, we gotta go!”