“I don’t think we can take the bathroom with us, you’ll have to bring me down so I can go to the bathroom,” Ma replied.
I laughed and walked into the kitchen and opened the closet door. I took the mop out of my mother’s scrub bucket and walked back to the hallway.
“This will be your new bathroom,” I said, then jumped up on the chair and set the bucket quietly next to the opening in the attic.
“You’re joking,” my mother said looking indignant.
“Sorry Ma,” I grinned. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
“I’ll stay down here and just stay in the bathroom,” she replied.
“Out of the question,” I said. “Those people will rip that little folding door off the frame in two seconds. Now why don’t you gather up a few things that you will need while I do the same.”
“The police didn’t answer the phone,” Ma said.
“It must be getting bad out there,” I replied. “We better hurry before those people decide to break into our house next.”
“What if I don’t want to go up there?” ma asked.
“I’m not leaving you down here by yourself, if you aren’t going, then I’m not going,” I replied.
“OK, I’ll go get my things,” she said and walked out to the living room.
I quickly moved back out to the kitchen as I tried to think of what we would need if we had to hide in the attic for more than a few days. The first thing that came to mind was food. I grabbed a loaf of bread, cheese, canned soups, pretzels and chips and a handful of bottles of water. I took all of it over to the chair in the hallway and piled it on the floor next to the chair. I then went into my bedroom, grabbed my computer, blankets and pillows and a long-sleeved shirt.
I then went out and started putting the items I had selected up into the attic. I considered those items to be the most important that I needed to get in the attic now, hopefully I would have time to look around for other important items that I couldn’t think of at the moment.
When I had finished, I dropped back down to the floor to find my mother again standing there, holding a pencil, her crossword puzzle book and a bottle of high blood pressure pills.
“Is that all your taking?” I asked.
“I don’t really do much except for my crossword puzzles,” Ma replied.
I took her medicine and her crossword puzzle book, “Why don’t you go get your blanket and pillow?”
“It is filthy up there,” Ma replied.
“It is also going to be very uncomfortable,” I replied. “You better bring all your pillows so will have something soft to sit on.”
Ma nodded and shuffled off.
I knew she didn’t like or understand why we had to go up in the attic, but she was trying to humor me. I was hoping that she wouldn’t have to spend much time up in the attic, but I knew it would be just too dangerous to stay down in the house tonight. I’m afraid she will find out why we need to go up in the attic soon enough.
Ma finally came back, dragging her blanket.
I threw the blanket up into the attic, followed by the pillows.
My next problem was, when the time came, how would I get my mother up into the attic without a ladder.
The distance from the chair to the trap door was almost too far for me to get up into the attic, my mother would have a difficult enough time just climbing up on the chair.
Lifting her up to the trap door from the chair was out of the question.
I noticed that the kitchen table would get us another foot closer to the trap door, not much but better than nothing, so I moved the table directly under the trap door and moved the chair next to the table. I looked at what I had done and hoped that it would be enough.
I walked out into the living room and found my mother on her stuffed chair with another one of her puzzle books working on a crossword puzzle.
“I can hear them outside,” my mother said, studying her puzzle book. “Why do they have to make that sound?”
“I don’t know Ma,” I replied. “I’m sorry I can’t give you a better answer, but there is a lot that I don’t understand yet.”
“They smell too,” my mother said. “The house is going to smell just like them soon if they don’t go away.”
“They do smell,” I replied. “I wonder why they smell so bad?”
“They probably haven’t had a bath in months,” my mother said seriously.
“Let me have the remote?” I said.
Ma looked away from her book long enough to find the remote and handed it to me, then refocused her attention back to her puzzle.
I turned on the TV and immediately hit the mute button so that there wouldn’t be any sound.
I could see that the station was just showing footage from their remote cameras and there wouldn’t be anyone talking yet, but I didn’t want to take the chance that someone would come on live and start talking.
The first picture on the screen was from a camera in the Hill District. I remembered Michelle Wright saying earlier that the violence hadn’t spread to the Hill District yet, but from what I was watching, it was there now. I could see residents of the Hill District trying to fight off the invaders, but they weren’t being very successful.
I stopped and stared when I saw a man run out with a gun and begin firing into the mob coming his way. I watched the crowd where the man was shooting, I saw blood and bits of flesh exploding from the backs of some of the attackers as the bullets struck them, but I didn’t see a single person fall to the ground.
The man was soon surrounded and taken to the ground by many of the same individuals that he had just shot. I briefly saw the anguish and pain showing on the man’s face before he disappeared under the wave that swarmed over him.
The camera changed, and now I was looking at a view of the west end bridge. The bridge was now covered by hundreds of people running for their lives.
Their effort to reach safety was soon thwarted as another mob of people ran onto the bridge form the other end.
I watched as the people found themselves trapped in the middle of the bridge as bloody staggering bodies pressed in on them from two sides.
I saw some of the people jumping off the bridge as the attackers began swarming over the group that was trying to escape.
I sat up and listened as the camera again changed to another view of people being slaughtered when the sound of bodies scraping against the side of the house increased.
I knew it wouldn’t be long before they turned their attention to who was in the house. We had been quiet, but I kept thinking about what I had seen outside earlier today, as the bodies out on the street stopped and searched, as if sensing the people hiding inside their houses.
“Ma, why don’t we get something to eat,” I said, figuring that once we went up into the attic it could be a while before we had a decent meal again.
My mother’s eyes lit up, “I have some left over perogies in the refrigerator, I could heat them up for us. Would you like that?”
“That sounds great Ma,” I replied.
She smiled and got up and headed into the kitchen as I turned my attention back to the TV.
The cameras switched from downtown to the southside, both areas looked like Times Square on New Year’s Eve. The screen was filled with staggering bodies, shoulder to shoulder, pushing through the streets. It was an unbelievable sight. What was even more disturbing was that the southside was just down over the hill form my neighborhood. There were a lot of bodies outside my house now, but from what I saw on the TV, I also knew that there was a lot more coming my way.
As I watched the footage on the TV, my attention was drawn to a loud beeping sound. I looked around for a few seconds before I realized what it was, it was the microwave oven in the kitchen.
“Oh shit,” I exclaimed when I realized what was happening. The staggering bodies outside the house had also heard the microwave timer going off. The moaning we had been listening to suddenly got louder, then the sou
nds of people pressing up against the house grew. First the thumping against the front door started, then the window in the living room rattled as something hit against it. When I heard a window breaking in my mother’s bedroom, I knew we were in trouble.
I got up and ran into the kitchen.
My mother was taking a plate of perogies out of the microwave.
She looked up at me and smiled, “You’re going to like these, I added some extra butter and onions.”
“Ma, we have to get up in the attic now, those people are pounding at the front door and I just heard a window in your room breaking, they’re going to be in the house in a few minutes,” I said. “We have to go now!”
“But the perogies are ready?” Ma said.
“Now, Ma,” I said as I reached out and gently took her arm.
As we moved through the hall and passed the doorway to the living room, we heard the big window in the room shatter.
When we reached the table, Ma just stood and stared at the table, “What am I supposed to do now?”
“Get up on the chair,” I said trying to think this through.
I took her hand and helped her get up on the chair, “Now up on the table,” I added.
“This is high,” Ma said as I helped her get into a shaky standing position on the table. “I think I’m getting lightheaded.”
“Now Ma,” I said sternly, “we don’t have much time and probably only will have one chance at this, so do what I say and don’t ask any questions. Remember how you and dad gave me piggyback rides when I was little, well now I’m going to pay you back. When I turn, put your leg over my shoulder.”
“What!” Ma exclaimed.
“Just do it, Ma” I said.
I held on to my mother as she struggled to get her left leg out over my shoulder. I wish I would have had more time to work out a different plan, but that wasn’t an option at this point.
When she had her leg over my shoulder, I raised myself up a little so that she was sitting on my left shoulder with her legs straddling my body. I reached up and held her arm with my right hand, then wrapped my left hand around her waist to balance her. I stood up on the chair, then stepped up on the table.
I took a fast look up at my mother and saw that from the waist up, her body was up above the opening to the attic.
“I’m going to push you up, grab anything you can and try to pull yourself into the attic,” I said, then grabbed her legs and pushed before she could complain or think about where she was.
Suddenly I felt the weight lift from my arms and shoulders. I looked up again to see my mother disappear into the attic.
I was just about to pull myself up when I saw my mother look down through the trap door.
“Get the perogies,” she said.
I was going to tell her that I didn’t have time, but I took a quick look, listened carefully for a second, then made a mad dash into the kitchen to grab the plate of perogies. I returned a few seconds later and handed the hot plate of perogies up to my mother.
As I heard the front door give way and crash into the living room, I pulled myself up into the attic and slid the trap door back over the opening.
“Let’s eat the perogies before they get cold,” my mother said, like she did every night at dinner as if this was normal night at the Hodge’s household.
My body was shaking as I laid back on the attic floor, as the sounds of breaking furniture and falling lamps sounded from the house below.
Chapter 23
We spent the night listening to the sounds of our house being trashed below as our intruders turned the house inside out looking for us.
My mother made frequent use of the bucket during the night. Her grumbling stopped after the first use and from that point on she acted as if she regularly used a bucket every night. I wondered if she had just decided to be cooperative of if her failing memory just forgot about the bathroom in the house below.
My mother seemed to rest comfortably during most of the night, but I don’t think I was able to get much sleep.
I spent most of the night worrying about how long those people were going to remain in the house. I worried about how I was going to get out of the attic, and I worried about my mother. I worried about where we would go if we ever managed to get back out of the attic. As much as I had worried, all my worrying just resulted in more questions for which there didn’t appear to be any answers.
When morning approached, the attic began to brighten as the early sunlight managed to find its way through the vent on the east facing wall. My past experiences had always been that the terror of nightmares would always disappear with the morning light. Today was the exception to my past experiences. Today the horrors only seemed to be magnified by the morning light.
I was lying on my back, letting my eyes drift over the complex pattern of a cobweb above my head as a ray of sunshine struck the cobweb and made it glow against the dark boards of the roof.
I watched a fly that had been caught in the web, trying to get itself free from the massive entanglement that was holding it in place. I felt like that fly, but I also felt that the web I had been caught in was much more complex than the web the fly was caught in, but that little fly continued to struggle and wasn’t going to give up.
I admired the little fly, his efforts to escape and his determination to get away. I admired him right up until the spider darted in from the edge of the web and bit his head off. At that point I no longer admired the little fly, but I did sympathize with it. That fly and I had a lot in common, unfortunately we both were probably going to die by having our head bitten off.
Thank God my train of thought was diverted by a soft beep coming from my pocket.
I reached down and pulled out my cell phone, opened the phone and was about to hit the text icon, but I saw instead of a text, Wilson was calling me.
“Hello,” I answered.
“Are you still there?” Wilson asked.
“For now, I am,” I replied.
“Have you been watching the news?” Wilson asked.
“No, Ma and I spent the night hiding in the attic. They broke into the house last night,” I replied.
“All the cities are being overrun,” Wilson said.
“Pittsburgh was being overrun yesterday before we had to hide in the attic. I saw a guy on one TV report shooting into a crowd of these people yesterday, but the bullets didn’t stop or kill a single one of them,” I replied. “This is unbelievable.”
“Of course bullets didn’t stop them, they’re zombies, they are already dead,” Wilson replied.
“Zombies, I’m afraid I can’t seem to think in those terms,” I replied. “Zombies and aliens were never my thing.”
“You better start thinking like a zombie if you want to survive,” Wilson said.
“How are you making out?” I asked.
“So far, so good,” Wilson replied. “But I’m calling you for two reasons. First, you need to get out of the city. Anyone still in the cities isn’t going to live for much longer.”
“I’m stuck in the attic with my mother, I’m not sure how the hell I’m going to get her out of here. She can’t get around very well and I don’t think her mind understands what is taking place,” I replied.
“No choice. The TV reports all show large groups of zombies moving towards the cities. You have to get out of there while you can,” Wilson said.
“And go where?” I asked.
“That’s the second reason I’m calling you, I’m about two days away. I was thinking of trying to meet up with you if I can make it that far. I wanted to connect with you before our phone batteries died. The TV reports that the power stations should all be going offline in another twenty-four hours. Once our batteries are dead, we won’t be able to communicate any longer. The world is dying my friend, I would like to get together with you. Maybe between the two of us we can find a way to live through this,” Wilson said.
“When you get here, I’ll be in the attic,” I replied.
>
“You can do better than that,” Wilson said. “Any chance that you can make it back to Ohiopyle? By all reports the cities will all be ghost towns in the next few days. We both need to get away from the cities as fast as we can, or we’ll be overrun along with anyone else still trying to survive in the cities. Ohiopyle, in the mountains and away from the big population centers, would increase our chances of surviving five-hundred percent. Zombies don’t travel well in the mountains.”
“I doubt with my mother that I could get more than a few blocks away,” I replied. “Any ideas to help me get through the next few days?
“The only advice I can give you is that you have to find a way out of Pittsburgh,” Wilson replied. “The zombie population is growing and getting massive, I believe we have a three-day window to find a secure location to regroup or we aren’t going to live to see the end of this.”
“What do you mean the zombie population is growing?” I asked. “How many people did the aliens abduct and give those damn brain implants?”
“If you remember zombie folklore?” Wilson started.
“Do I remember my zombie folklore, Wilson, remember who you are talking to,” I quickly replied. “The only thing I know about zombies is what you’ve told me.”
“OK, I didn’t know if this would apply to alien created zombies, but regular zombies when they bite someone, that person would become infected and also turn into a zombie,” Wilson continued. “The same thing is happening with the zombies created by the blue liquid. I saw a piece this morning showing a scene at Times Square in New York. The camera showed what looked to be thousands of dead bodies lying on the streets. The zombies swarmed Times Square last night and killed everyone. The reporter was showing the aftermath of the slaughter.
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