Outbreak of the Living Dead

by Aaron Guerra

  “What happened to the news?” he said as he pointed at the television. His wife came over and placed a small table in front of him which had his plate of food sitting on top. She returned with a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade and handed it to him.

  “It was just working a minute ago, dear.” she said while standing by his side. “Maybe one of the new workers at the station pressed a wrong button again.” The man had sat up slowly before grabbing his fork from the little table in front of him. He glanced down to stare at his delicious food before taking a bite of the mashed potatoes. She sat beside her husband and pointed the remote to the television. Pressing the button on it caused another channel to appear on the screen. The news was back with a reporter standing near the basketball court where their son always liked to hang out at. The reporter was an older man named Steven Reynolds. He use to be a clown back when he was in school, but now he settled down and took his work very seriously.

  “This just in!” said Steven Reynolds from the television. He caught their attention as they immediately focused on the box in front of them. “We’ve found the remains of what appear to be a couple teenagers at the ball court in down town. I am very troubled to report that they have been torn to shreds by a group of vicious wild animals that are possibly loose in town. The only victim that we can identify at this point is the sheriff of Little Bow’s Police Department’s son, Kyle Matthews.” The reporter looked a bit confused for a moment before finishing up his statement. “I’m sorry, apparently I wasn’t allowed to release the name of the deceased. I’m very sorry about that.”

  The fork in the Sheriff’s hand had slid out and landed next to his boot on the floor. The woman beside him fainted over to the side from crying her eyes out when they decided to show a small clip of their son on TV. He was mutilated with bite marks and large gashes all over his body. A few of his bones were sticking out of his chest with some of his organs missing. Bruce’s eyes widened as tears came streaming down his wrinkly face. The man violently knocked over his tray of food when he stood up to point at the TV.

  “T-This is a joke…some sort of sick joke Ma!” Bruce had said while wiping his face dry. “You know how our boy likes to play jokes! This little prankster has gone too far this time!” His wife had knelt down to pick up the food that was knocked over.

  Bruce started to walk around the living room while rubbing his chin and combing his fingers through his hair.

  “I’ll punish the boy and his friends when I find them!” he had said. “They aren’t getting away with this prank! No way!” He went over and grabbed his jacket to put on again. His wife was still on the floor, picking the food off the carpet without saying anything to him. “Listen here,” he said to her in a calm voice. “I’m going to bring him back. I’m going to bring our boy back home.” He went outside and sprinted to the truck before hopping in as fast as he could. Bruce placed his cowboy hat on and backed out of the driveway. He glared at himself when he saw the tired weeping man in the rearview mirror. “Stop your crying, Bruce!” he had said to himself. “We have to see go see our boy.” The man drove on down towards the old basketball court that was located in the middle of town.

  By the time he arrived at the place, there was a crowd of people that surrounded the area. He placed his portable light on top of his truck which showed the people that he was there to take over the scene.

  “Alright, everyone make room.” the man had said while shoving some of them to the side. “I am Sheriff Matthews! So go on home and get out of here!” He whistled loud which made some of the people break off and leave. Bruce had made it to the basketball court to see that his only son was laying in a body bag with his head sticking out. “Boy!” Bruce had said while staring down at his son. “I will not tolerate this kind of shit! Now get your ass up and let’s go home!” He lightly kicked where Kyle’s shoulder was, but it felt empty in that spot. The smell, the smell of death came out of the bag when he unzipped it from the neck to his feet. That’s when he learned that half of his son’s body was missing. Only his head was intact while everything else was mauled on or ripped apart. “Kyle?” the sad father had said while his hands trembled. He couldn’t help but weep as he knelt down by his son, Kyle.

  Officers Paul and Terrance came up from behind and soon removed their hats in respect. A minute went by when the Sheriff finally stood up tall once more. Rage was fueling him like it never had done before in all of his life.

  “You two! We’re going to hunt down whatever did this to my boy and the rest of these kids!” yelled the sheriff as he stared at the two men in front of him. The officers quickly nodded and ran off to their separate vehicles. The Sheriff looked down at his son’s face one more time before he left the courtyard. Both officers followed after the Sheriff’s truck as he sped off towards the police station. The two police vehicles started their sirens and lights which helped clear the road from traffic.

  The crowd of people that stayed behind were now being pushed away by the officers that showed up late. Within the large group of people, a distasteful smell began to leak throughout the area which made everyone cough and wheeze. It was disgusting, rancid and unbearable.

  “What is that smell?!” a man had said while coughing through the stench.

  “Where is it coming from?” said another man near by.

  Every body started to look around to see if they could find the source of it. Suddenly from within the body bags on the blood stained court, was the sound of a unpleasant loud groan. The people turned to see that the bags started to move around violently at the same time.

  Hysterically, a woman screamed with a bright happy look on her face, “T-They’re alive! It’s a miracle!” The woman clapped her hands together and said a little prayer before walking towards Kyle’s bag. She knelt down beside him, waiting for him to awaken like the others. He did. Both of his eyes slowly opened up to reveal a cold white lifeless glare towards her. “You’re alive!” she had said with the bright expression still on her face. “Your parents will be so happy to see that you’re okay! Now don‘t you worry, I‘ll get one of the EMP members over here!” she told him.

  With haste, people ran to the black body bags and released them one by one. Each of them had fallen back due to the horrible smell which allowed the victims to easily climb on top them. They started to tear through their flesh like razorblades with each bite they took. The screams were soon blocked out by their own blood that covered their mouths. In horror, the people watched as the others were being devoured right before their eyes.

  The woman had glanced back down to Kyle as the others were being attacked around her. She turned to see his mouth open wide with his eyes staring into hers. The young man shot his arm out of the bag and grabbed a good portion of her hair to pull her closer to him. His teeth sunk deep down into her neck as she screamed for help. He finally pulled away which removed a lot of her flesh from the neck. Her blood splashed all over his face when she tried to cover the wound with her hands. Soon after that she suddenly fell forward with the blood flowing out onto the cold basketball court. Kyle slowly crawled out of the bag with his one arm. The ghoulish creature climbed onto her back and started to punch the back of her head to reach the brains. Her lifeless body below him twitched each time he took a bite out of her skull.

  The police officers armed themselves with their guns and opened fire at the attackers. Some of the teenage flesh eaters got up from their prey with blood sliding down their chins. They sprinted to the police that were firing many rounds towards them. Their rotting bodies had jumped off the ground and tackled them down to the grass. The hungry beasts started to bite down into their bodies as the officers screamed out for help. Only a few of the police got lucky enough to land a headshot when the dead jumped at them. They started to shoot at the ones eating their comrades on the ground near them. But the monsters continued to eat even with bullets piercing through their bodies. One cop had glanced back to see some of the civilians still standing there to watch the horrid ev
ent. He waved his gun around in the air, getting their attention.

  “Everyone! Get the hell out of there!” he had shouted while waving his arm around. “Move it! This isn‘t a safe place for anyone! Now go!” The crowd came back to watch what was happening to the police force in front of them. “Please, for your own safety!” the officer had said before he continued to order them out. “Get out of here now before it’s too late!” A few of the creatures stood up again when the officer’s had their back to them.

  The people that were attacked by the body bags started to get up with their eyes turning white. The officer turned around to see a large number of the people standing in his way now. Without warning, each of them started to scream out loud after reawakening from their very own slaughter. The monsters quickly rushed to the couple of officers that were still standing. All eight of the cops were forced down from the number of creatures that pinned them down. The officers were shooting randomly as they were trying to fight off the dead. A few stray bullets hit some of the civilians that weren’t far enough from the chaos. They fell over bleeding in immense pain. The people that were hit by the projectiles watched as a few of the monsters came limping towards them with their hands reaching out for their flesh. Constant screams could be heard before there was no sound left.

  James and Sarah finally drove into the parking lot in front of the police station. They were sitting there for a little while without saying a word to each other. The female officer looked at her reflection through the mirror in that was in front of her. She could barely recognize herself with the short hair she has now. Sarah glanced at James and then to the front doors to the police building. The woman wanted to go in and tell everyone what happened earlier, but the truth would’ve sounded crazy, because it was crazy. The officer in the driver’s seat looked at his watch on his wrist, then back to her.

  “You ready to go in? Someone in there has to believe what we witnessed earlier.” said James. She nodded for a brief second before the sound of a honk made her jump in her seat. Another police car had drove into the lot and parked beside them. It was Jen that came out of the vehicle.

  “Sarah?” Jen had said when she looked through the window to see her friend all banged up and dirty. “What the hell happened to you?!”

  Sarah opened the door and stepped out to feel Jen’s arms wrapping around her. The two women held each other tightly when Bruce’s truck drove in with two other squad cars behind him. The Sheriff hopped out of his truck and walked to Sarah with an angry expression on his face. She looked at him to see that his eyes were red and a vein on his forehead was pulsing fast. The man stood his ground while glaring down at the women in front of him.

  “Sarah, what the hell is going on?!” he had yelled while staring down at her. Sarah broke out of Jen’s arms and ran to Bruce. She grabbed onto his arms tightly and began to tell him what happened back on Route 45.

  “Sheriff! They’re all dead! They got them! Harvey, George, Erik and John are dead!” said Sarah as she stared up into his eyes.

  “What the hell are you talking about?! Have you damn well lost your very mind?! Some kind of deranged animal killed a few teenagers at the basketball court in town earlier! My son Kyle was one of them!” Bruce had yelled as he removed the woman from his jacket.

  “Sir, some kind of evil fucking group attacked John after we found Sarah walking alone in the dark!” said James. “They ripped him apart like a piece of meat in front of us!”

  The sheriff looked back to Sarah, then to Jen. “That’s what happened to Ryan earlier in the Men’s Bathroom. Some drunk asshole was chewing on his face in the men‘s room.” he had said while stroking his mustache.

  Sarah looked over to Jen after learning what had happened to their friend Ryan.

  “Are you serious? He’s dead? When did this happen?” Sarah had asked before she turned over to face James now. He backed up somewhat while holding his hands up to defend himself incase she decided to swing at him.

  James calmly told Sarah, “I figured you would’ve found out as soon as we arrived here.” Jen grabbed onto Sarah’s uniform to hold her back from hitting the officer.

  “It’s okay, Sarah.” Jen had said quietly. Sarah lowered her hands and took a deep breath to calm herself down.

  “I’m sorry, I’ve just been through a lot today.” Sarah had said to the others.

  Suddenly Jen took a step back while making a disgusted look on her face.

  “You guys smell that?” she had said while waving her hand in front of her. Everyone stopped what their doing and took a moment to sniff around. They noticed the smell that she did. Sarah’s heart started to race when that familiar scent came back to her. She had reached for James firearm and held it firmly in her hands. He was going to retrieve it from her, but the look in her eyes made him stop. She started to look all around the area to see if she could find one of the monsters lurking around.

  “It’s them.” said Sarah. “They’re close if we can smell that horrible stench from here.” Jen was standing in front of Sarah when her eyes widened a bit from suddenly realizing something that had happened earlier.

  “I caught this scent outside the public library awhile ago.” Jen said. “I thought the smell was on me because of what happened to Ryan, but that means…” The image of the Librarian being attacked by a crazy person popped into Jen’s mind. She placed her hands on her head and tried her best not think about it. “That crazy old bat should be fine!” she had thought to herself. “It takes a lot more than a bunch of weirdo’s to take her down!”

  The Sheriff looked down as he remembered the smell from early in the morning. He ignored Jen’s little random rant and continued to talk to Sarah.

  “Yeah, it was outside on Route 45 this morning at the wreckage.” he had said to her. “Then it was in the bathroom where Ryan was attacked earlier.” The Sheriff placed his hand up to his moustache and stroked it a few times while thinking to himself. Suddenly he turned to the officer to his side and poked his chest with his boney finger. “James!” the sheriff said. “Is that cop killer still in his cell?” The officer nodded as he followed Bruce into the building from the parking lot. Sarah and Jen quickly went after them as they made their way down to the basement level.

  The man that killed Ryan was banging his body against the bars when the group entered the room. His eyes were pure white with both of his arms reaching through the bars for them. It grunted and snarled as it tried to grab one of them and pull them in. Bruce had pointed at the person behind the bars before raising his voice so that it could hear him clearly.

  “You son of a bitch! Did your buddies kill my son?! DID THEY?!” Bruce had yelled at the man. The thing kept opening and shutting it’s mouth as it looked blind from the lack of eye color it had. Sarah walked up to it with the gun firmly in her hand. She quickly brought it up and put a bullet between it’s lifeless eyes. The body had fell back against the hard cement floor under him. The ominous odor grew stronger the second it stopped moving.

  The one that put that thing to rest turned around to face the others in the room.

  “They emit that disgusting scent when they’re around, and it gets even worse after they’ve been put down.” Sarah had said as she returned James’s handgun before looking up to the sheriff. “The people responsible for your son’s death are still out there…maybe turning others into these monsters.” she said to him. The sheriff backed up into a wall as he pictured his son returning to life as a monster.

  “No! No I won’t believe that!” said the sheriff as he stormed out of the room. Jen and Sarah stood beside each other when they noticed that James was the only one that was keeping his cool during that time. He slowly turned to face the girls before looking down to the body on the floor.

  “I want you two to accompany me from now on.” he said to them. “We’re going to figure out what’s causing this, and we’re going to stop it! But first we need to stock up on some ammunition and stronger weapons if what you say is true. This sounds
like it’s coming straight out of a horror movie,” said James. Jen brushed her bangs out of her eyes and smiled somewhat.

  “A horror movie? I wonder which one of us is the main character in this flick then?” she said as James and herself both looked at Sarah, then to each other.

  James opened the door to the armory to see that it was pitch black inside. But there was someone in there, or something.

  “Who’s in here?” James had said as he moved his hand against the dark wall inside. He was finally able to find the light switch to the room. After flipping it on, he was able to see Ryan eating a fellow female officer on the cold floor. The dead man was covered in blood as he continued to bite off huge chunks of flesh from her back. Jen and Sarah walked in to see the evil sight which alerted Ryan. He stood up and started to growl like a mad man as the smell came back and filled up the room. James immediately went up to him and bashed his fist against Ryan’s chest which knocked him back against the lockers. Sarah quickly ran over to the wall where the guns were located and threw a Shotgun that was fairly heavy towards Jen. She then handed James two clips for his pistol before reaching for another shotgun from the wall. Sarah then went over to the other drawer to find the shells they needed for their heavy weapons.

  Ryan slowly got up as the deceased female officer on the cold floor started to move. James turned around to see that Ryan was rushing over to him with his bloody mouth wide open. The two males struggled in the corner which caught Jen’s attention. She went over to Ryan from behind and had swiftly used the butt of the shotgun to hit him off of James. The limping corpse had fell down from the strong blow to the head. But it didn’t stay down for more than a few seconds. It forced itself off the floor and started to let out a low torturous moan. Sarah and Jen faced the thing that was letting out that annoying sound, but James grew tired of it. He easily pulled out his pistol from it’s holster and brought it up towards Ryan. Jen couldn’t help but look away when James had pulled the trigger to his weapon. A loud thud sound was made when the muscular body collapsed onto the floor. Jen and Sarah started to stash a few pistols in a large black bag along with the ammunition that goes to them. On the floor, the revived female officer got up with blood spilling out of her open back. But before she could attack any of them, James had put her down like a rabid animal with his gun. He watched as the body fell back onto the floor next to Ryan.