Apocalypse- the Plan

by Gary M. Chesla

  When Dave approached the house, he could hear groaning coming from inside.

  He slipped up to the door, raised his gun and stepped into the doorway.

  As Dave stepped into the doorway, three figures turned and looked in his direction.

  Each of the figures were covered in fresh blood.

  One of the figures opened his mouth and began to moan loudly when it saw Dave.

  Dave was overcome with rage when he saw a shred of blue material, probably from Jim’s uniform, hanging from the blood covered teeth of the first body.

  When the three figures began to stagger towards Dave, he aimed his pistol and pulled the trigger.

  Bits of flesh and blood splattered over the wall behind the body he had just shot, it staggered backwards for a second, then started for Dave again.

  Dave unloaded his gun into the grotesque figure, but he was stunned to see that the guy was still coming towards him.

  Dave reloaded and emptied his gun again, putting three bullets into each of the approaching bodies.

  “What the hell?” Dave asked himself. “Why won’t those bastards go down.”

  Dave put another clip in his gun and began firing again, but the bodies continued to get closer.

  Dave turned and ran back to his car.

  He got in the car, started the engine and roared down the street.

  “I don’t know what the hell is going on,” Dave thought, “but I can’t handle this by myself. I have to get help.”

  Chapter 5

  Michelle hung up the red phone, took a deep breath and sighed in frustration as she reached for the black phone.

  She dialed in the number for the police station and waited until Carrie picked up the phone.

  “Carrie, this is Michelle,” Michelle started to say.

  “If you have another emergency, you may as well just start making a list. I can’t handle any more calls,” Carrie replied sounding frustrated. “Dave hasn’t come back, I don’t have any more people to send out. I’ve been trying to reach the guys, but no one is answering. Where is this emergency? Is this another call from Sunnyside Drive?”

  “No, this call was from the Best Western over on Hospitality Avenue,” Michelle said.

  “Well at least this call is close enough to walk to,” Carrie replied. “What’s their problem, is someone over there overturning their trash cans?”

  “No, they are reporting someone outside banging against the windows, scaring their guests,” Michelle replied.

  Carrie sighed loudly.

  “Look, as soon as I can get someone on the radio, I will let them know, but I have six other calls pending that I haven’t been able to have check out yet,” Carrie said. “I don’t know what the hell is going on tonight. I’ve never had this many calls before in one night. You’re not making up all these calls are you?”

  “I would never do that,” Michelle protested.

  “I know you wouldn’t, I’m just frustrated. I don’t know where all our people are,” Carrie said. “Calls are coming in from all over town, it’s a damn epidemic. I have always been able to get Dave and the guys on the radio, but tonight it feels like the radio isn’t working. No one is calling back in tonight. I’m starting to worry about them.”

  “I’m sorry I’m calling you so often,” Michelle said.

  “It’s not your fault,” Carrie replied softening the tone in her voice. “It’s the job, it’s what you are supposed to do. I didn’t mean to take out my frustration on you.”

  “I was wondering if I could ask you a favor?” Michelle asked sheepishly.

  “I don’t know what I can do with everything piling up like it is tonight, but what is it?” Carrie asked.

  “Well, Betty went to lock the doors about an hour ago and she hasn’t come back,” Michelle said. “I’m worried that something has happened to her. I can’t leave my station to go look for her, especially with all the calls coming in. I was wondering if when you talk to Dave, you might ask him to drive by here and see if he sees her. Maybe she locked herself out and is walking around in the parking lot or something.”

  “When I talk to him, if I talk to him, I’ll tell him,” Carrie replied. “If she locked herself out, I’m sure she’ll come over to the police station. If she does I’ll let you know. But knowing Betty, she probably just went out to have a smoke. Maybe she ran out of cigarettes and went down to the corner to buy another pack. She should be back before too long. I wouldn’t worry too much.”

  “OK, Thanks, Michelle said.

  “Keep the calls coming,” Carrie laughed, “but just inform the callers that it could be a while before we will be able to send help. That is unless it’s a medical emergency. In that case send an ambulance right away.”

  “Is there a back up ambulance service I can call?” Michelle asked.

  “Don’t tell me that no one is answering over at Medic One?” Carrie asked.

  “I talked to Bill about thirty minutes ago, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone there now,” Michelle replied.

  “Shit,” Carrie said under her breath. “You might want to try calling St Mary’s Ambulance Service up at Saint Mary’s until you hear from Dave.”

  “OK,” Michelle replied.

  “Keep your chin up kid,” Carrie said. “You’re doing a great job. If you can get through tonight, the rest of the week will be a breeze.”

  “I hope so,” Michelle replied.

  “Hey, I don’t see how it could possibly get any worse,” Carrie said encouragingly.

  Chapter 6

  Dave picked up the mic as he sped out of the development.

  “Carrie, are you there?” Dave asked.

  “Where have you been?” Carrie replied. “I have a list of calls as long as my arm and no one to send out to investigate.”

  “I’ll look them over when I get back, but I’m afraid unless they are something serious, they will have to wait or refer them to the State Police,” Dave replied. “We have bigger problems to deal with.”

  “I know about the four or five dead bodies over at 81 Sunnyside Drive,” Carrie said. “Has something else happened?”

  “Pete and Jim are dead,” Dave replied.

  “Oh my God, what happened?” Carrie asked.

  “I didn’t see it happen but I’m starting to form a theory about what is going on,” Dave replied. “I don’t know what caused it, but something is affecting the residents out this way, driving them crazy or something and they are going on a bloody rampage. They are killing anyone they come into contact with. I left Pete and Jim at 81 Sunnyside Drive to keep an eye on the place while I went down the street to respond to that other call. When I came back, someone had broken into their car and killed them.”

  “How were they killed?” Carrie asked.

  “Like the people inside the house at 81 Sunnyside Drive,” Dave replied. “I saw movement inside the house, so I went inside to confront the intruders. I assumed they were the ones that killed Pete and Jim. When I went in, they started coming at me, so I shot them.”

  “Good, I hoped they died a slow and painful death, the bastards,” Carrie replied.

  “But that’s the problem,” Dave said. “They didn’t die. All getting shot did was slow them down temporarily and they kept coming. Carrie, we need to get the State Police down here, this is too much for me to handle.”

  “It sounds like drugs,” Carrie replied. “Some of those druggies get so high they don’t feel a thing. I’ve heard of people so high on drugs that they were walking on a broken leg and didn’t even realize it.”

  “It’s something far more disturbing than drugs,” Dave said. “I just can’t explain it. I’ll tell you more when I get back. It’s fucking unbelievable. Call the State Police and ask them to send as many men as they can spare and ask them to meet me at the station as soon as they can. Tell them we have a killing spree in progress, we have lost two of our own and we need help fast.”

  “OK, I’ll call the right away,” Carrie replied.


  “After you call the State Police, call over to the hospital and see if you can get an update on Joe’s condition,” Dave added.

  What happened to Joe?” Carrie asked.

  “We tried to immobilize one of the crazies at 92 Sunnyside and Joe was bitten on the arm,” Dave replied. “I had Bill take Joe in for treatment along with one of the crazed men we encountered so he could be analyzed.”

  “God, this night is turning into a nightmare,” Carrie said.

  “The term nightmare doesn’t do what I’ve seen justice,” Dave replied. “Just get started on the calls and I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  “Dave, I don’t know if you want to take the time, not with everything that has happened,” Carrie said. “But if you could take a minute, when you come back, the new girl over at the 911 Dispatch is worried that something has happened to Betty.”

  “What does she think happened to Betty?” Dave asked.

  “She said Betty went to check and lock the doors an hour ago and hasn’t come back. She is worried that something might have happened. If you can take a minute, maybe just stop in for a second. It’s her first night on the job.”

  “I’ll see what I feel like when I get back,” Dave replied. “Anything else I need to know about?”

  “Nothing that can’t wait,” Carrie replied. “I’ll make the calls and see what I can find out for you and have a report for you when you get back.”

  “Thanks, Dave out,” Dave replied.

  Dave sped down Route 40 as he ran down his mental checklist of what he needed to do.

  As he glanced towards the dark horizon off the left side of the car, the direction of the naval base, he added another item to his list of things to do.

  He wanted to call the Naval Submarine Base to see what information he could find on Tom Jeffries, the man that lived at 81 Sunnyside Drive.

  The fact that Jeffries’ last known employer was the U.S. Navy nagged at the back of Dave’s mind.

  The military was always working on secret projects to improve our military’s ability to defend the country.

  Maybe it was just all the old science fictions movies he had watched as a kid, movies where military or science experiments always went horribly wrong and resulted in monsters or mutated creatures that attack the world.

  But he felt it would be prudent to check out Mr. Jeffries background and see if he had been involved in anything that could help explain what was going on in Kingsland tonight.

  Since he couldn’t think of anything that would have caused to happen what he had seen tonight, all he could think was that he needed to explore every possibility, no matter how absurd it sounded.

  “An impossible explanation could be the only answer to the impossible things he had seen tonight.

  Dave finally saw the station up ahead as he rounded the bend that led in to the main business district in Kingsland.

  He glanced at the Public Safety Building across the street from the station.

  He had a lot on his mind, a lot more important things to deal with like a killing spree, cannibalism and the loss of his men to worry about where Betty was off to.

  Betty had a habit of sneaking out for a smoke and that was probably where she was tonight.

  But he could imagine how the new girl, her first night on the job, might be freaking out with what was happening tonight.

  He guessed it would only take a minute at the most to stop in and give the poor girl a kind word and some encouragement.

  Dave knew he was starting to freak out himself and he had been on the job for six years, he could imagine what was going through this girl’s mind about now.

  The Dispatch Center had a hard time keeping anyone for the night shift, the center had been going through two girls a month for over the last six months.

  He had talked to her briefly earlier tonight, she seemed like a nice girl, he guessed he could afford a minute to put her mind at ease.

  He couldn’t undo what had happened tonight and he had a feeling that a lot more was going to happen tonight that he wasn’t going to be able to do anything about before he would be able to get things under control.

  Maybe a short break would help him clear his mind and maybe lead him to stumble on to something that would finally make sense.

  Dave swung the patrol car to the right and drove down the alley that led to the parking lot behind the Public Safety Building.

  He kept glancing at his watch, but he knew that the time had little to do with what he had witnessed tonight.

  In fact it felt like time was standing still, like he was trapped in some nightmare and no matter what he did he couldn’t wake up.

  It all seemed like the horror version of Groundhog Day.

  Dave pulled his cruiser into the parking lot, found a parking spot under the one dim light that was barely able to cast a soft glow over the parking lot.

  There had been four street lights around the parking lot a few months ago, three had burned out and by the looks of the fourth street light, it would only last for a few days longer before it would be out too and leave the parking lot totally in the dark.

  Dave had filed two separate reports requesting that the Public Works Department replace the light bulbs, but like everything else in the county, nothing had been done.

  Budget problems was the usual excuse he was given, it apparently was the same everywhere.

  His to do list was already too large to handle tonight to add another item, tonight’s burned out lights were the least of his problems.

  Dave got out of his car and for a moment, he just stood and studied the parking lot.

  He studied the parked cars until he found the dark blue Jeep Cherokee he had been searching for.

  “Betty’s car is still here,” Dave thought. “Hopefully that means that if she did go out for cigarettes that she was now back.”

  Dave turned and started to walk through the parking lot to go inside and see if Betty was back and to have a short visit with the new Girl.

  “Hopefully she didn’t quit and go home already,” Dave thought. “I couldn’t blame her if she did.”

  As his attention turned towards the building, it struck Dave the area around the Public Safety Building smelled just like what he had experienced over on Sunnyside Drive.

  He had been subjected to that odor all night and due to the fact he had been smelling it all night long he had almost overlooked that same smell here.

  “Shit,” Dave said to himself, “Don’t tell me that what was going on over on Sunnyside Drive is spreading this way. What the hell is happening?”

  Dave looked over at the building as he started walking again and noticed that the door to the building was hanging open.

  “Of all nights to leave the door hanging open,” Dave thought as a chill ran through him. “This is not the night.”

  Dave quickened his pace, fearing that the open door was a bad sign and he began to worry about what he would find inside the building.

  Entering buildings tonight had not turned out to be a pleasant experience.

  As he got nearer to the building he stopped and listened when he thought he heard a strange sound.

  He wasn’t sure, but he thought he heard what sounded like a starving animal devouring the first meal it had in days.

  That mental image made him think of the poor little old lady, and then about Pete and Jim and all the people at 81 Sunnyside Drive.

  This new thought made him freeze where he stood.

  He slowly undid his holster and removed his gun.

  He then pulled his flashlight from his belt, turned it on and began to slowly scan the parking lot around him.

  Dave heard the sound again, this time he thought it was coming from over near the building.

  He quickly shined the flashlight in the direction of the sound.

  There didn’t appear to be anything in the parking lot, but as the beam of his light began to shine on the grass between the parking lot and the building, it landed on wh
at looked to be a pile of bodies.

  The image of the two bloody figures on top of the old woman again flashed through his mind.

  A vile taste rose up in Dave’s throat as he moved towards the bodies.

  It only took a few steps before Dave was able to confirm his worst fears.

  There were at least four of the crazed bloody figures attacking someone or something.

  Dave briefly debated the merits of just running to the open door as opposed to confronting the individuals.

  It was a fast decision, he would have to deal with this sooner or later, better now while he could do it on his terms.

  “Hey!” Dave yelled attempting to get their attention.

  Three of the four bloody figures turned their heads to look in Dave’s direction.

  The eerie milky white eyes glowed as they reflected the light from Dave’s flashlight back in his direction.

  Dave could feel a knot tighten in his stomach.

  The three figures struggled to get to their feet.

  As they moved away from the person they had been attacking, Dave recognized Betty’s body, her mangled, shredded bloody body on the ground.

  The four crazed animals had done a devastating job on Betty.

  Her insides had been ripped out and were scattered on the ground around the body, there was barely enough of her face left for Dave to recognize that it was her.

  Dave stood frozen in place as he stared at the horrific sight, until the three figures made it to their feet and started moving his way.

  He raised his gun and began firing until the chamber in his gun started to click.

  However, like before, the three figures continued to move in his direction.

  Dave put his gun back in its holster.

  He pulled his Billy Club from his belt.

  The club was the only thing that he had seen used that seemed to have any affect on these crazed animals.