World of Dead | Vol. 1 | Issue 1

by Johnson, Broderick

  Kyra was so involved in finding out who the man was that she didn’t realize how close he was getting. She began to panic before turning and running towards the front door. She wasn’t sure how close the man was behind her, but she didn’t turn to look. She put her head down and ran as fast as she could. It wasn’t until she made it to the door that she turned around to see the man still walking at his slow pace towards her.

  Confused, Kyra took a step back down towards the man and reexamined him. He wasn’t reacting to her at all except for the fact that he wanted to come near her. He’s covered in blood, but he’s not screaming. Kyra heard a footstep behind her and pointed at the man to ask her dad what was going on.

  “There’s something wrong with that man, dad,” Kyra said, as she turned to look at her dad she was suddenly grabbed on the shoulder by a woman. The woman groaned and opened her mouth as if she wanted to bite onto Kyra’s shoulder. Frightened, Kyra pushed the woman off of her, but the momentum of doing so caused Kyra to fall to the ground. She let out a scream as loud as she could.

  Crawling backward, away from the woman, Kyra stood up and turned to run but immediately found herself staring into the face of the man. His eyes were rolled back into his head and his mouth was open. Blood dripped from his chin as if he had just eaten somebody. Kyra let out another scream just as the man grabbed onto her. The weight of him caused her to fall back to the ground, but this time with him falling on top of her.

  Kyra closed her eyes as tears blinded her from defending herself. She realized that this was going to be the end of her life. This monster of a man and woman were going to eat her alive and she was going to die a painful death. It felt like an eternity before, for some reason, the weight of the man was lifted from her body. Kyra opened her eyes to find that her dad had tackled the man off of her and that he was punching the man in the face repeatedly.

  Dave was a bigger guy, not by weight but by size. He was six foot four inches tall and had a good build on him because of his job as a carpenter. Taking down the skinny man on top of his daughter was easy. After hearing her scream, Dave charged outside to see what was going on and found a man falling onto his daughter. Also walking towards his poor girl was a woman who seemed to be limping along towards them.

  Dave didn’t waste any time. He charged, pushing the lady out of the way and tackling the man off of his daughter. He then began to punch away at the man's face and was losing control of his anger. Finally, Dave realized that the man was not reacting to the punches, in fact, the man was continuously trying to bite at Daves fist. His skin was pale and blood dripped from his teeth and chin. Dave was just figuring out that something was wrong when he was suddenly grabbed from behind.

  Out of nowhere, Dave felt the jaws of the woman that he had pushed out of the way, clamp down onto his neck. He screamed in pain and pushed the lady off of him. As she fell away, however, her teeth pulled and ripped the skin from the side of his neck. Dave attempted to get up, but the man that he had tackled was grabbing onto him. Before Dave could react, the man bit down onto Dave’s forearm and he screamed out in pain once again.

  Kyra, frozen by fear, watched as her father cried out in pain. She wasn’t sure what to do. These two people were literally trying to eat her father alive right in front of her. Kyra looked around to see if she could use anything to help and located a shovel near the garage door. She jumped to her feet and raced to the shovel. Her hands wrapped around the handle as she lifted it and immediately aimed for the woman.

  Kyra slammed the back of the shovel blade into the woman’s face, knocking her off of Kyra’s father. She then turned around and slammed the man on the ground with the back of the blade crushing the man’s nose and teeth. Dave cried out in pain as he got to his feet. He grabbed the shovel from his daughter and used the cutting edge of the shovel blade to cut the man’s head in half.

  Without wasting another second, Dave pulled the shovel from the man’s head and slammed it into the women’s neck, decapitating her. Kyra, horrified by the scene, felt her stomach become uneasy and turned around to vomit. Her father had just murdered two people in front of her. Not without good reason, of course, but the sight of it was too much for Kyra to handle.

  Dave dropped the shovel on the concrete and fell to his knees as he covered his neck wound with his hand. The blood was gushing out at a pace that he knew would be too much to make up for. Not to mention that the nearest hospital was forty miles away. Kyra turned back to help her father make his way into the house. She turned and closed the door behind them, making sure to lock it.

  Kyra’s mother was already in tears as she had seen the incident unfold from the window. Karen grabbed on to Dave and helped him to the couch so that he could lay down. She ordered Kyra to go grab some towels as she sat there with her husband, tears streaking down her face.

  Kyra was frozen, though. Everything had happened so fast and now she didn’t know how to react. Although Kyra knew that those people were sick with whatever virus had infected the world, she still found herself questioning their attack. Was this virus really making people attack and eat other people?

  She found herself staring at her mother holding her father’s hand on the couch as he suffered in pain. Blood was flowing strongly out of her father’s neck and onto the couch before dripping onto the floor. It was turning into a puddle quickly and the blood coming out of his arm wasn’t any better.

  Kyra’s mother turned to find her and, realizing she hadn’t moved to get any towels, screamed, “Kyra! We need towels, now!”

  Shaking herself out of her shock, Kyra turned to head into the hallway, but her father spoke up to stop her. “Stop,” he said. His voice sounded weak with the fear of death around the corner, but he knew what was going to happen. Dave continued, “It’s too late, now.”

  “No, it’s not. We just need to stop the bleeding,” Karen said. She attempted to stand up so that she could go grab the towels herself, but Dave grabbed her wrist to keep her from going.

  “Karen,” he said. She stopped and looked back down at him with tears in her eyes. Karen knew that he was right. He was going to die because they didn’t have any medical professionals to go to in a timely manner. There was too much blood leaving his body at too fast of a pace. At this point, it was just better to sit there with him and watch him go.

  Karen collapsed as her knees landed in her husband's blood on the ground. She began to sob heavily into her husband's chest. Dave looked up at his daughter and motioned for her to come join them. Kyra slowly made her way to her father and every step closer to him caused the tears to fall that much faster. She didn’t know what to say or what to do.

  As she took a knee next to her mother, the tears now coming out with no restriction, she found herself heavily in guilt. “I’m so sorry, dad,” she cried out. He shook his head and reached out to her with his undamaged arm, touching her cheek with his rough palm.

  “This isn’t your fault, Kyra,” he said, “You are so strong and so smart. I am the one who is sorry that you have to live in this world, now. I am so sorry that these last three months have been terrifying and confusing. But, if there’s one person that is strong enough and smart enough to make it in this new world, it’s you.”

  Kyra’s eyes burned from the tears that were pouring out at this point. She only remembered how angry she was at her father for his secrets, but never considered that maybe he only had secrets to protect his family from an ugly truth. What was once resentment was now gratitude for her father’s choices.

  “I need you to make me a promise,” her father said to her. Kyra nodded as she stared her father in the eyes. She could see the light in him fading away. His skin was becoming increasingly more pale as more blood flowed onto the floor. Dave continued with his request to his daughter, “Promise me that, no matter what, you will protect your mother and your baby sister.”

  Kyra nodded as she choked on the words, “I promise.”

  “No matter what, okay? Nothing comes between you,
your mother, and your sister,” Dave said, “You will survive in this world and, even if it seems impossible, you will find happiness in this world. Don’t let this world take anything more from you.”

  Kyra nodded as she grabbed her mother. Her father touched her cheek one more time before reaching over to touch his wife’s cheek as well. He mouthed the words, “I love you,” just before his eyes faded off and his hand collapsed to his abdomen.

  Karen watched her husband take his last breath and then pass away. The reality of the situation was beginning to kick in as she began to sob heavily. She laid her head down and cried into his shirt, letting out aggressive groans of pain as she did so. Kyra held her mother tightly as they both mourned their loss, but all Kyra could think about was the anger that she felt towards the monsters outside.

  Kyra stood up and, with the tears beginning to dry, made her way to the front door. With every intention of going back out, grabbing that shovel, and continuously beating the dead corpses until she felt better, Kyra grabbed the door and turned the latch, unlocking it. Just before she opened it however, she heard her baby sister begin to cry and suddenly everything came back to her. She locked the door once more and turned away with her senses.

  Kassidy had been in her highchair at the kitchen table during the entire nightmare, as she ate her food. Kyra approached her little sister and picked her up, out of her chair. She looked over to see her mother still sobbing into her father’s shirt and decided to take Kassidy back to her bedroom with her.

  Kyra laid there, with her baby sister in her arms, thinking about the events that unfolded that night. This was the world in which they lived in and, as much as she didn’t want to admit it, her father was right. She was strong and smart and if anybody would be able to survive this, it would be her.

  She stared at Kassidy and, although she knew that her sister would not understand her, she said, “We’re going to make it through this, Kass. I promised dad that I would keep you safe. You, mom, and I are going to make it through this. I promise you.”

  After everything that had happened, Kyra fell asleep thinking about the sight of the stars reflecting off of the lake as she and her mother sat on the dock together. She thought about that being the last decent moment she would ever remember. The last time she felt somewhat safe in the world under the protection of her parents. Now, she knew that her role in the family was going to be much more significant. Kyra knew that she was going to see the worst and experience the worst, but whether she was ready for that or not didn’t matter.

  This was her world now and it was the world of dead.

  Written by Broderick Johnson

  Want to find out what happens next?

  'World of Dead' is a short-story series with new issue's being released on the first day of every month. For updates on where to find more 'World of Dead,' visit @BroderickWrites on Instagram or www.facebook.com/broderickwrites.