Apocalypse- the Plan

by Gary M. Chesla

  He had no idea why it worked when a gun seemed worthless.

  He had seen chunks of flesh and bones blown from their bodies when he shot at the group at 81 Sunnyside Drive, with little to no effect.

  However, hitting the ones at 92 Sunnyside Drive over the head with his club had stopped them in their tracks.

  Dave didn’t have the time to think this mystery through, all he knew was it had worked and at the moment he needed a way to immobilize these bastards.

  Dave moved towards the awkward bodies, then darted quickly to the left and brought his club down on top of the first one’s head.

  The body dropped to the ground.

  He didn’t have the time to think about why it had worked as he darted to the right and hit the second one over the head.

  The third one was easier as it tripped over the body of the first animal he had clubbed.

  Dave walked over and quickly disposed of the third figure.

  Dave glanced over at Betty’s body where the fourth animal was too consumed with finishing the job it had started on Betty to pay any attention to Dave.

  Dave crept up behind it and brought his club down on top of its head and watched as it collapsed on top of Betty.

  Dave turned from the sickening sight in front of him and walked towards the door.

  He expected that he would probably throw up before he reached the door, but instead of feeling sick, Dave felt angry and confused.

  Dave reached the door and reluctantly looked inside.

  He expected to see another group of crazed animals inside the building, tearing apart the new girl.

  The poor girls first night on the job, this wasn’t the introduction he wanted, but whether he wanted it or not, this was the way it was going to be.

  As Dave looked around the side of the open doorway, he saw one bloody body staggering down the hallway illuminated by the soft light coming from down at the other end of the hallway.

  Dave shined his flashlight into the hallway and traced the bloody foot prints.

  The crazed animal, the only term that Dave could think of to describe these people, had been working its way slowly down the hallway.

  Dave shined his light on the sides of the hallway and could see where the crazed animal had bloodied the doors and windows to the offices in the building.

  All Dave could think was that it was looking through the windows searching for its next victim.

  It was just a thought based on what he was seeing, but overall, Dave had no idea what the hell was running through these animal’s minds or if there was anything in their damn heads at all.

  Suddenly Dave was surprised when he heard the sound of a phone ringing down at the end of the hall.

  The ringing stopped and was followed by the sound of a muffled female voice.

  A small sense of relief went through Dave’s body, apparently the new girl was still alive.

  Dave also noticed that he wasn’t the only one to have heard the ringing phone and the muffled voice.

  The bloody animal stopped, cocked its head then slowly turned to face the other end of the hall.

  After a few seconds, the mangled body began to move and started staggering down the hallway away from Dave.

  “That son of a bitch is heading for the Dispatch Center,” Dave thought.

  Dave stepped inside the hallway, pulled the door shut and locked it behind him.

  Then quietly he began to walk down the hall, holding his club out in front of him as he kept his eyes on the staggering movement in front of him.

  He picked up his pace to be sure he reached the door to the center first.

  He didn’t try to keep his steps quiet any longer as he narrowed the gap, his total concentration was on connecting his club to its target.

  As Dave reached his target, he brought his club down on top of the bloody hairless skull.

  A loud crunching sound echoed down the hallway.

  The body crumbled to the floor where the skull split open and a black thick liquid began to pool up on the floor next to the head.

  Dave studied the body, its dead dark skin and that sickening sweet smell now magnified by the fresh blood oozing out of the body.

  Dave was confused as hell about everything he had seen tonight, but there was just something about that smell he felt was familiar and that he should recognize.

  Dave sighed then turned away from the gruesome sight and walked over to the door of the 911 center.

  He looked through the window and saw the back of the new girl sitting at the desk with the black phone to her ear.

  When she hung up the phone, Dave knocked on the door.

  “Come in,” Michelle said, relief clearly sounding in her voice.

  Michelle turned as Dave stepped into the office.

  Michelle’s eyes grew large and she screamed, jumped out of her chair and ran behind her desk.

  “What do you want?” Michelle asked, fear clearly showing in her eyes as she trembled and stared at Dave.

  Michelle saw a man in uniform that was splattered with blood.

  Blood splatter also covered the man’s face and he was holding a bloody club.

  Blood dripped to the floor from the end of the club and splattered on the floor at the man’s feet.

  Michelle was terrified.

  “I’m Dave,” Dave replied then he looked down at his uniform and understood what the new girl must be thinking.

  “Don’t be afraid, Michelle,” Dave said. “I know I must be a sight, but I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “Dave who?” Michelle asked.

  “Dave, from the police department,” Dave replied. “I just stopped over to check on you.”

  This made Michelle calm down a little.

  “What happened to you?” she asked.

  “It’s been a difficult night,” Dave replied. “A lot is happening out there tonight. You may have realized that by the number of calls you have had.”

  “But you are covered in blood,” Michelle said. “Are you hurt?”

  “No, fortunately none of the blood is mine,” Dave replied.

  “Whose blood is it?” Michelle asked, still trembling and staring at Dave.

  “It’s a long story,” Dave replied.

  “I’m listening,” Michelle said, still reluctant to come out, making sure to keep the desk between her and Dave.”

  “There are some really strange things going on out there,” Dave added. “A lot of people have died and I still don’t understand why. I just stopped over on my way back to the station to make sure you are OK. Carrie also asked me to stop by and see if I could help find out where Betty was.”

  “Did you find her?” Michelle asked.

  “Yes,” Dave replied softly then added, “she was killed, her body is out behind the building.”

  “What?” Michelle asked. “Who killed her?”

  “Like I said, there are a lot of strange things happening tonight,” Dave replied.

  “I sort of guessed that by the calls,” Michelle said. “What happened to her. She just went out to make sure the doors were all locked.”

  “There is something turning people into crazed animals,” Dave replied. “I don’t know what it is or how it happens, but there are people out side everywhere, they are out of their mind crazy and they are killing everyone they run into. I’ve lost two of my men and I’ve seen at least another dozen people dead. I’ve had to fight my way out of a few tight situations, that’s why I have so much blood on me.”

  Michelle slowly walked around the desk and sat down in her chair.

  “In fact when I came here, the door was hanging open,” Dave continued. “I had to kill one of those crazed animals right outside your door.”

  “They are in the building?” Michelle shrieked.

  “I only saw one inside the building,” Dave replied. “I had to kill four others to get inside the building. All the doors in the building are closed, so I don’t think there are any more of them in the building.”


  Michelle looked up at Dave with fear again showing in her eyes.

  “I have to go home,” Michelle said.

  “Not now,” Dave replied which made Michelle’s eyes grow even wider. “It’s not safe out there. In the morning, when your shift is over, I will personally see that you get home safely.”

  “But my parents,” Michelle started to say.

  “Call your parents and tell them to stay inside, don’t open the door for anyone and don’t go outside for any reason. If they do that they should be safe.”

  “But it’s four o’clock in the morning,” Michelle replied. “I can’t call them at this time of the morning, they will think I’m crazy.”

  Dave thought for a second, then said, “Michelle, come out in the hall for a second. I want to show you something that will impress on you what we are dealing with tonight.”

  “I don’t want to go out in the hall,” Michelle replied.

  “I hope it isn’t because you are afraid of me,” Dave said. “I’m here to help and protect you. If I was someone else and wanted to harm you, I seriously doubt that there would be anything you could do to stop me.”

  Michelle looked at Dave, “I guess you are right about that. You are a lot bigger than me and you have a gun and that bloody club.”

  Dave smiled and put the club back into its holder.

  “Come on, I’ll go first, but you need to see this so you understand,” Dave said, then he turned around and went out in the hallway.

  Michelle stood and slowly walked over and peeked around the open doorway.

  She was tempted to slam the door shut and lock it but figured that Dave wouldn’t have much problem breaking down the door to get back in if he wanted to, besides Betty said Dave was the guy that she should get to know and be nice to.

  Michelle slowly stepped out into the hall.

  She let out a loud gasp when she saw the body on the floor only a few feet from her feet.

  The guy looked like he had been hit by a car and then had been dragged behind the car for a mile.

  His body was covered with cuts and seeping wounds, his milky white eyes were open and stared into space blankly.

  Most of the guy’s hair was gone, it looked like he had been scalped.

  When Michelle saw the man’s bloody teeth she staggered against the door frame to keep from falling.

  “What happened to him?” Michelle asked, “beside you killing him?”

  “He looked exactly like this when I found him in the hallway. He looks like all the others that I’ve encountered out there tonight. I don’t know how or why, all I know there seems to be more and more of them outside roaming around killing people.”

  “He looked like this before?” Michelle asked. “He looks and smells like he has been dead for days.”

  “That’s what Bill said,” Dave replied. “He even suggested that they are zombies.”

  Michelle just stared at the body, “Zombies?”

  “Why don’t you call your parents and tell them what I said you should tell them,” Dave said. “Tell them I will make sure you get home safe in the morning.”

  “OK,” Michelle replied.

  Michelle turned and went back inside the office, dropped down in her chair and dialed her parent’s number.

  Dave listened as Michelle talked.

  He could tell from the tone of the conversation that her mother thought she was crazy, but he also thought the Michelle sounded convincing.

  He hoped that the call would at least keep them indoors until morning.

  When Michell hung up the phone, Dave asked, “Michelle, would you please call Carrie and tell her that I’m here. I would do it myself, but I don’t want to get your phone bloody.”

  Michelle nodded and dialed the number for the police department.

  She sat and listened.

  After a minute, Michelle turned and looked back at Dave and said, “No one is answering.”

  “That’s strange,” Dave said. “I just talked to her no more than ten minutes ago.”

  Dave walked over to the one small window in the room and looked across the street at the police station.

  When he turned to come into the Public Safety Building a short time ago the streets had been deserted, now the streets were full of staggering bodies.

  “No,” Dave moaned when he saw the ugly bodies staggering in and out of the police station.

  Dave turned from the window and stared at the floor.

  “What’s wrong,” Michelle asked as she got up from her chair and walked over next to Dave and looked out the window.

  It took her a few moments of staring out the window before she saw that the figures were awkwardly staggering around on the street.

  When she noticed the condition of the bodies as they moved from the shadows into the light under the street light, she was shocked.

  “Everyone out there looks like the guy out in the hall,” Michelle said.

  She continued to stare at the scene out on the street.

  She let out a scream when she saw one grisly figure dragging the mutilated body of a blonde girl out the door of the police station.

  “Is that Carrie?” Michelle shrieked.

  Dave took a quick glance, but quickly turned away from the sight.

  “Yes,” he whispered.

  “We have to go help her!” Michelle screamed.

  “It’s too late, she’s dead,” Dave replied angrily.

  Michelle continued to stare out the window.

  “My God, the others are trying to take Carrie’s body away from the one that dragged her out of the building,” Michelle shouted. “Now they are all attacking her. What are they doing?”

  Dave wiped his hand against his uniform then took Michelle’s arm and pulled her away from the window and made her sit back down in her chair.

  “This is going to be hard to hear, but you have to listen to me,” Dave said. “After those crazed animals kill someone, they tear their bodies apart and then they….”

  Dave paused, “Then they eat the body.”

  Michelle was now almost hysterical, “We can’t let them do that, we have to stop them. This is insane.”

  “Yes, it is insane,” Dave replied. “If there were only a few of those animals out there, I would go out and stop them, but there are hundreds of them out there now, there are too many for me to stop.”

  “You have a gun, you can shoot them,” Michelle pleaded.

  “Shooting them doesn’t do a damn thing,” Dave replied. “I unloaded three clips into the ones over on Sunnyside Drive, they didn’t even notice I was shooting at them. The only thing I’ve seen that works is hitting them over the head with my club. I don’t know why that works and bullets don’t work, I haven’t figured that out yet.

  In fact, there is a hell of a lot going out there that I haven’t figured out.”

  “What are we going to do?” Michelle asked.

  “We have to pull ourselves together and start using our heads if we want to live through this,” Dave said. “I believe we are safe in here for now, so we need to put our time to good use and find a way to stop all of this.”

  Michelle slowly stopped trembling and looked up at Dave. “What can I do and how are we going to figure out how to stop what is happening outside?” Michelle asked. “Don’t tell me your going to give me a club so we can fight our way out of here, I have to hit a fly three times with a fly swatter before it dies.”

  “I want you to use the phone,” Dave replied.

  “I don’t think I could kill anything with a phone either,” Michelle answered.

  “No, we need to use our heads,” Dave said. “I sent two ambulances to the hospital. Joe was bitten on the arm, some kid was chewed up pretty bad at 81 Sunnyside Drive and one guy I hit over the head and tied up from 92 Sunnyside Drive.”

  “I remember the call from 92 Sunnyside Drive,” Michelle replied. “That was the old lady that said there were some bloody people at her back door. She was particularly u
pset because one of them was in his underwear. What happened to the little old lady.”

  “She didn’t make it,” Dave said and quickly got back to what he was saying. “I want you to call the hospital and ask for the doctors that treated the people I sent over. We need to know why these people are turning into crazed animals. If we can find that out, then maybe we can find a way to deal with this situation.”

  “OK,” Michelle replied as she reached for the phone as the helpless feeling that had overwhelmed her began to be replaced with a feeling of purpose.

  As Michelle dialed the phone she said, “Maybe you should try shooting them in the head.”

  “What?” Dave asked.

  “Shoot them in the head,” Michell repeated. “You said that shooting those animals didn’t do a thing, that only hitting them over the head with your club stopped them. Shooting them in the head would be like hitting them really hard over the head except you wouldn’t have to get so close to them and maybe you wouldn’t get so bloody.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Dave smiled.

  Dave had actually started to think along those lines himself as the shock of the night began to wear off.

  It had been hard to think or analyze things out in the field tonight under the constant barrage of insanity that had been assaulting his senses.

  “I’ll have to give that a try later,” Dave said as he looked out the window. “However, I think I am going to need a lot more bullets.”

  Chapter 7

  Michelle held her hand over the phone and looked at Dave.

  “They are transferring me to the emergency room where the ambulances come into the hospital,” she said.

  Dave paced back and forth between Michelle’s desk and then over to the window, watching as the number of bodies continued to increase out on the street.