Caught in the Web

by Jason R Davis

  If they got in the car, he could just drive away. How long and how far would he have to go to get out of there? She wasn’t going to help much. The damn bitch couldn’t even cook, and the kid was only going to make it harder.

  How far could they get? How far would they need to go to find help? How much gas was in the car? Shit, with how she ran the damn thing, the tank was probably empty and she was driving on fumes until he put some gas in it. She had that habit of trying to see how far she could drive the car until he would go and fill it. When was the last time he put gas in?

  He wasn’t sure. He’d taken his own damn truck here, knowing it had enough gas for at least one more trip to the bar and back.

  How far would they need to go to get help? It didn’t matter because they didn’t have enough gas to get there.

  He looked back to the bar and the locked door. The steel reinforced door that was a damn near brick wall when it came to breaking in. There was no way they were going to get through that, and he doubted the people inside even wanted them back in there. That damned pompous cop, that truck driver, the damn college kid… Not a single one of them wanted to let him back in that door.

  They could all go fuck themselves. He was going to find a way to get his ass back in there, then he would be safe.

  They only had to make it a couple of hours, then the military would swoop in, kill all those zombie assholes, and they would all be okay. They only had a couple of hours to go.

  “Everything’s going to be fine. Just hold on,” he said as he looked at Jaime.

  Everything was going to be fine. There was no way he was going to let himself die…not here, not now.

  CHAPTER 15

  “Jason!” He heard the word, but it didn’t feel like it was meant for him. He heard it but, while it felt familiar, it just didn’t seem like it was for him.

  “Jason! Dude! Come on!” the voice said again.

  * * * *

  Rob watched as Sullivan reached down to the young man who was sitting on the floor, propped back against the kitchen counter, and started to shake him. Rob winced when he heard the loud crack as Jason’s head hit the wood, and Rob instinctively started to reach forward to stop him. He didn’t have to because Sullivan was already backing away.

  “Dammit,” he said as he raised himself up and turned back to look at Rob and Bruce, who were both standing in the doorway.

  “What the fuck’s wrong with him?” Bruce said.

  Rob knew there was a tenderness there, but the years on the road had weathered the man, and he was hard to read. He only recognized it as it was. It was the same tenderness his dad had, and Rob had learned how to recognize it long ago. Bruce’s warm smile that he had gotten used to had long since vanished, the cheeriness gone. The man that stood in the doorway was a caring man, but he was also a worried man.

  Rob looked back at Sullivan. “Something happened to Lucy, I’m guessing. Who is she?” Rob asked.

  Jason let out another laugh, this one deep. It turned into a coughing spasm, but then ended with him hunched over, laughing some more. Then he looked back up and was again watching the feed from the security cameras.

  When he had seen the old man taken down by three of those things, Rob had stopped trying to watch what was happening outside. He had come back there when they had heard the kid laughing. When they found him, Rob saw what he had been looking at. If he hadn’t had the years in Chicago as a hard-nosed beat cop, he didn’t think he would have held it together.

  One of the things had been at the old man’s throat, another one had been biting into his arm. The third had started biting into the old man’s good leg.

  Rob was glad they were in the kitchen. He was sure that if they were in the other room, they would have been able to hear him screaming. It wasn’t easy watching it on the little screen like a silent movie, but if they had to endure hearing it while seeing what was happening… At least with watching the video without the sound, there was a disconnection which made it possible to believe none of this was happening.

  “His little sister. He called me up here to watch the bar while he went back to the house to check on her. Something happened to Tina earlier, and they were worried someone might be there to hurt her, I guess. That’s what I’ve been able to figure out from his aunt. She’s the other one out there.”

  “That’s his aunt? She’s no older than him,” Bruce scoffed.

  “She’s a couple years older, but isn’t the responsible one of the family.” Sullivan pulled up Jason’s face to look him in the eyes. “Come on, man. Wake your ass up before I have to beat the shit out of you. Don’t be that guy. Don’t be the one who loses it to this shit and gets everyone else killed. Come on, man. You know the story. Get your ass up.”

  Rob could see Sullivan clenching his fists. It seemed strange that Sullivan was more irritated than concerned by his friend’s reaction. Was it because Jason was losing it, disappointing him, or was it that he couldn’t seem to get through to the kid?

  Rob heard the clinking of glass coming from the other room and turned around to see that Bruce was gone. He had seen the man already have one drink, and guessed he was probably grabbing another. They all had their vices. To be trapped in a bar with all this shit going down was both a blessing and a curse. It sure did make it easy to just want to sit there and drink while the world around them all went to hell.

  He really couldn’t fault the man for drinking it all away. A part of Rob kept telling him he should do the same. There wasn’t any point in fighting it. If they were saved, they were saved. Until then, why not just drink his cares away? Get a drink and throw it back. Why worry about all this shit going down? He couldn’t do anything about it anyway.

  That was also how men lost themselves and never made it back home. He had his wife and his little boy, Jake, to think about, and he wanted to get back home to them. There was no way he was willing to just leave them without a husband or a father. He needed to get back there for them. If nothing else, he needed one last kiss from his wife. The little peck he gave her that morning was not enough, and he needed that one last hug and ruffle of his son’s hair. He needed them, and he wasn’t going to let himself fall into some bottle and run the risk that he would not make it back to them.

  And this boy had already lost his loved one, the one he probably needed to make the world make sense.

  Just what would I do, he thought, if I didn’t have the ones that I love and value so much in my life anymore?

  He would probably be on the floor, too, laughing and losing his mind as the world around him went completely crazy. When he thought about it that way, going crazy and giving up did seem to make sense. Could he see himself being that way? He liked to think of himself as the protector, but could he stay that way without his anchors?

  * * * *

  “And another one, and another, and another they go. Where they stop, nobody knows. What goes up, doesn’t come down. The night is long, without a frown. And the story goes, and the story goes. And Jason couldn’t stop laughing, so says the story.”

  Jason was sitting there, his laughter coming in droves and he just couldn’t stop it. Nonsense came to him, then memories. His head was fogged with so many thoughts. It made his head hurt, but with the tumble of thoughts, he just couldn’t keep hold of one for too long. They were there, then gone. However, once gone, he had only a fleeting sense of what the memory had been.

  He thought about Lucy. He remembered watching as she had come out of that window. He didn’t know why, but it just made him laugh harder. She had nearly fallen on her face. She, the graceful ballerina, just fell right through that window and straight down. He was surprised she had even been able to stop herself from breaking her nose, but her hand had caught her just in time.

  Outside, Mr. Jones, that poor son of a bitch, was being ripped to shreds. Jason had always hated the bastard. He loved watching as they bit and tore right into him. And the three of them looked so funny on the security screens as they tried to
get away. Too bad they were in color. Cheesy zombie movies should be watched in black-and-white.

  Zombies… Who the fuck ever thought there would actually be zombies? Sullivan had been saying it for so long, but Jason didn’t think even he had ever truly believed it would happen. Zombies, just like right out of a fucking horror movie.

  Right now, they were in their own damn horror movie, and he knew that he was becoming the one who lost his mind. The one who grew weak, lost his mind, then those guys standing over him were either going to have to kill him or die. Eventually, he was probably going to do something stupid and they were all going to die. They should just kill him now.

  That brought another round of laughter, and he could feel his stomach hurting from laughing so much. “One plus one plus two plus one means there are no bullets in the gun,” he said and exploded in laughter at the shocked expressions looking down at him.

  “Great. Now he’s quoting Tim Curry,” came a voice that tried to break through the fog. Jason thought he should know who said it. He saw the face that was looking down at him and it seemed so familiar. It was somebody he should know.

  “Hey, Tim. How are you today? I’m Jason, and I’m going to get us all killed,” Jason said, little giggles coming out between the words as he spoke them.

  “Come on, Jason. Snap the fuck out of it,” the voice said.

  “One plus two plus one, and I’m a sweet transvestite.” He heard his voice crackle with laughter. “I said I’m a transvestite.”

  “Here, son,” a deep voice said.

  It was more solid than the other voices he had been hearing, and he could actually feel the fog around him clear a little. He could clearly see that there was a new man standing over him. He was a large man, unshaven, and Jason was sure he didn’t really know him, but the man was putting something in his hands. It was a small glass, and there was a liquid that swished around inside it. Little droplets splashed over the edge, and Jason could feel the coolness of it as it ran down his hand.

  The big man reached out and grabbed both of Jason’s hands, steadying them. Then he brought them up to Jason’s mouth. He looked up from the glass and saw the man had gotten closer to him so that they were only six inches apart.

  Jason had a brief fear the man was going to kiss him, and he giggled at the thought. Not because he wanted it, but because everything was so dreamlike and surreal, he knew none of it could be happening.

  “Drink this. Let it clear out some of that darkness. Okay, son? Drink it and feel it burn that stuff away.”

  Jason just looked into his brown eyes as they looked down at him, and something about that deep voice helped push away more of the fog. He felt himself opening his mouth, and he let the brown liquid rush into him.

  And the fire blossomed. It started with his throat, burning an acid trail. He felt the fire reach down into his stomach and his body was suddenly awash with sensation. He sensed the laughter inside of him come to a stop. The world around him became cold and he could feel the tile of the floor under him, the soreness of his ass from sitting there for so long. Pins and needles stabbed deeper into his butt as he started to move around.

  Then he felt it in his mind, and it helped to slow the world and thoughts around him. He could feel the fog receding, and the painful thoughts were slowing. He remembered Lucy, and how much he loved her, but she was gone. She was gone, and he still had his mom and his aunt. As long as he stayed calm and smart, he would see his mom again one day. He was definitely smart, and he would make sure Tina made it through all this, as well.

  He looked up at the security monitor and saw that the things still had Mr. Jones. Well, he couldn’t bring himself to feel any different about that. He still hated that old bastard, but he tried to tell himself he should feel something about him. He had known the man.

  And what about the baby and the couple. Had they gotten away? He couldn’t see them on any of the screens. Where were they?

  A loud crash came from the other room and a woman screamed. The things were getting in! He couldn’t waste time thinking about what happened to the family. They had to take care of themselves. He had to take care of his own family.

  Rob and Bruce left the room quickly, and Jason watched as they hurried out. He tried to stand, but he quickly realized that being on the floor like that had not been good. His muscles had turned to jelly and his head, while it had felt like the fog had lifted, had a pain shoot through it when he tried to move. It was a stabbing pain that tried to immobilize him, reminding him he had just been through a hellish battle in his mind and it was not yet ready to do much work. He knew the pain as the type of migraine that always seemed to happen after crying too much, or for taking too short a nap after being exhausted. Not that he had that too often. Oh no, not him, never after dealing with everything with his dad.

  “You okay?” Sullivan asked. Jason looked up to see that the big man, his friend for nearly fifteen years and the man who was like a brother to him, was still standing there.

  “Yeah, just give me a minute. You should go check and see if they need help.”

  “I will,” Sullivan said, but he wasn’t moving.

  “Zombies.”

  “Yeah. Zombies.”

  “I’m sorry, man. Here was your big thing, and you’re stuck here. I’m sorry. I’m just-” Jason let a couple tears fall down his cheek. He looked down to try and hide them.

  “Dude, don’t. I came to help a friend.”

  “Yeah,” Jason croaked.

  “You know, once this is all done…”

  “Yeah?”

  “We’re going to have to do a z-day marathon. Night of the Living Dead, original and Savini remake; Dawn original; Day original; Shaun of the Dead. We’ll finish it off with 28 Weeks Later.”

  Jason looked up, giving Sullivan a glare. By his smile, he saw that Sullivan was teasing him, and it helped. “You know, 28 Weeks Later is not a zombie film. It’s an infected film. Zombies don’t run.”

  “There’s the horror junkie that I know. Let me help you up.”

  * * * *

  When Jason appeared at the end of the bar and saw what the hell was happening, he could have sworn he had just stepped into a nightmare in motion, and that it just shouldn’t be this way. They should be safe, but some fucking asshole had to fuck something up.

  At least he wasn’t that asshole. Take the win where you can find it.

  The nurse, who was the closest to him, was holding the baby, and as Jason approached, he wondered how the baby had gotten back in. It had taken a couple more steps for him to see past the cooler so he could see the rest of the bar.

  He could hear the yelling. Men screaming at each other, the grunts of fighting, the cursing. He rounded the corner and stopped short.

  The back window, the one too tall for the things outside to have ever gotten close enough to climb through, was shattered. It didn’t take long for Jason to figure out how it had happened. There was a large rock sitting in a fresh dent in the pool table. Glass was scattered in little shards all across the top of the table, and the floor was covered in the larger pieces.

  Travis, who had thought he had been so damned smart, was trying to crawl through the window. Jason couldn’t see how he was managing it, but he could see the asshole wasn’t alone. Hands from inside and outside were around him, trying to pull him to one side or the other. He must have been standing on something, but whatever it was, it was wide enough that they didn’t have a clear reach of him.

  The hands reaching for him from the outside were pale and grey. The hands had deep, dark gashes, but there was no blood. They were dead hands.

  Rob and Bruce were at the window, trying to pull the damned redneck into the bar. What the hell were they thinking? He had been out there. Who knows what kind of exposure he had. He could be changing. Had they never seen a zombie movie?

  At least Sullivan had some sense. He had hurried out of the kitchen and was screaming at them to push him back out. He had grabbed one of the pool cues a
nd was using it too swat away at the hands.

  Then the redneck slid into the room. They had helped him in and were now helping him over to a corner and away from the things. Sullivan stayed at the window, slashing down at the hands, trying to keep them from getting any grip.

  Jason turned and saw that Tina was in a dark corner away from the light that filtered in through the now broken window. She sat there, her knees pulled to her chest, crying.

  He knew she was thinking about Lucy.

  His aunt wasn’t that much older than him and they had grown up almost as brother and sister. He had always been lapping at her heals, following her around. When she had been a teenager and had sleepovers, he would always “visit” his grandparents’ house and just kind of hang out there until it was too late for him to ride his bike home and he would have to stay the night.

  He remembered it was often during their sleepovers that he first started to watch horror films. Her and her girlfriends would rent a bunch of movies and take over the living room, spending all night with popcorn and horror flicks. They would try to scare each other with the lights off then, at the end of it all, they would all do each other’s hair and call it a night. Of course, he would hide for most of it, then would leap out at them whenever it was a scary moment in the film. She would come screaming at him and chase him back to the kitchen where his grandparents would be playing cards or reading books.

  They would just smile at him, give him some fresh popcorn, and send him back in there to make peace.

  Before he and Sullivan had started watching horror films, it had been him, her, and her friends. They had never been much into zombie films. That would come later when he and Sullivan would watch movies together. No, the girls would watch slasher films. They had seen all the Sleepaway Camp movies, all the Friday movies, and would often find the B-movies that no one had ever heard of.