Around 11:00pm everyone went to bed. Joel volunteered to keep watch while they slept.
The next morning Katie was startled by Joel leaning over her, breathing heavily.
"What's going on?" she asked, sitting up.
"Nothing," he laughed. "Another mostly uneventful night. The neighbor's tree did fall over on his car though, around three. Katie, I don't know how you can sleep so heavily!" He laughed again. "It woke everyone else up because it set his car alarm off!"
She shrugged. "I've always been a good sleeper."
"You'd sleep through your own eulogy!"
"Yeah? I'll be dead when my eulogy is read, so I hope to sleep through it," she replied.
"Good point."
She stood and looked outside. It was still raining lightly, but the wind had died down. Branches and leaves were down all up and down the street. The neighbor's BMW lay flattened and mangled beneath the remains of a two-hundred-year old oak.
At 9:00am the power came back on. The cable and Internet were still out, so they spent the rest of the morning watching zombie movies. It only seemed appropriate.
While they ate lunch, after the second movie, they heard a man's voice being amplified outside. They all ran to the window and saw a National Guard Humvee approaching.
"Attention citizens of Buffalo. The quarantine restrictions have been expanded. Please continue to remain inside and await further instruction. We advise you to barricade your doors, if possible, and have a secure room in your house to retreat to, if necessary. If anyone in your household is ill with signs of Owasa Disease, please hang a red towel, red sheet or red shirt in a window facing the street and isolate them in an interior room. Medical personnel will come as soon as possible to treat the ill. Please continue to await additional information," the Humvee broadcasted the message on a loop from a loudspeaker as it drove by slowly.
"What a great introduction to Twenty-Eight Days Later!" Rachel said excitedly as she walked to the television. It was her favorite zombie movie.
At 4:00pm, the power went out again. They resumed playing board games and poker.
At 6:00pm, they heard a woman's scream from outside. They watched in horror as they saw a woman in the middle of the street being attacked by a group of people who appeared infected. As the infected set upon the woman, Katie noticed a large group of them shuffling up the street.
"Guys, upstairs, now!" Joel hissed quietly.
Everyone ran upstairs. Katie ran to the foot of the stairs and watched from just outside the field of view of the front porch. An infected man approached the door and scratched at it, sniffing the air. Katie saw his eyes and saw the same look in them she had seen in the library, the same cold deadness mixed with intense fury and hunger. After a few tense seconds, he turned and stumbled off the porch.
The wave of infected individuals passed through fairly quickly and after about a half hour, the street was quiet again. The poor woman who had been attacked lay in the middle of the street in a pool of blood, clearly dead.
That evening everyone was still processing what had happened in the street.
"What was wrong with those people?" Megan asked, still horrified.
"They were obviously sick," Rachel replied.
"But sick people don't suddenly become violent!" Megan protested.
"They do sometimes," Amber replied. "When I was ten my cousin got bitten by a rabid dog. For some idiotic reason he didn't tell anyone. So when he developed symptoms of rabies, they took him to the hospital. He had to be restrained!"
"No dear, people don't usually become violent when they contract rabies," Rachel replied. "They do sometimes need to be restrained though."
"I think you are all missing the point here. What kind of illness makes someone become homicidal?" Anthony asked.
"Wait! What's going on out there?" Megan asked in horror, pointing out the window.
Katie turned and saw the dead woman sit upright and slowly rise to her feet. Then she shuffled away.
Michelle ran upstairs to the bathroom. Retching sounds echoed down the hall.
"How did that just happen?" Anthony asked in horror. “How did she just return to life?"
"She didn't!" Amber said, annoyed. "She returned to 'life,'" she said, making exaggerated quotation marks with her fingers.
"Yeah, but how?" Anthony repeated.
"Maybe she wasn't really dead?" Katie guessed.
"Yeah, but Rachel said there was no way someone could have survived that!" Anthony exclaimed. “That lady had been eviscerated!”
"Well, that's true," Rachel said. "But I guess maybe it is possible."
"But how could she be in any condition to just get up and walk away?" Joel asked.
"I don't know. Sorry, we haven't gone over surviving grievous wounds in any of my classes!" Rachel replied, becoming frustrated.
"I'm going to go check on Michelle," Katie said, standing up and making her way upstairs. She walked to the bathroom door and knocked. "You okay Michelle?"
"Yeah," she replied as the toilet flushed. She opened the door. "I guess I was just a bit overwhelmed by what just happened."
"Yeah, it was pretty horrifying," Katie replied.
"What do you think's going to happen?" she asked. "I mean I haven't been able to get a hold of my family at all. I tried everything!" She started to cry. "Are they all going to end up like that?"
Katie hugged her. "Let's go sit down in your bedroom."
They walked to Michelle’s room and sat down. They were quiet for a long time. Finally, Katie spoke up. “I’m sure your family is okay.”
"You really think so?"
"Yeah, I mean they all live out in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming, right?”
Michelle nodded.
“See? If they aren’t near a city they have nothing to worry about.”
“Thanks Katie.”
Everyone fell asleep around midnight. Anthony kept watch on the stairs with the baseball bat. Everyone realized they needed to be extra vigilant given the circumstances.
Later on, Katie was jolted awake. What time was it? She felt around for her phone. It was dead. It was still dark out. She saw Joel's watch. The glowing hands indicated it was 3:05 am.
What had awakened her? She looked around and was just starting to fall back asleep when she heard it again: a thump from downstairs. It sounded like it had come from the front door.
She heard glass break. She bolted upright and looked around. No one else moved. Several people were snoring softly. She quietly stood up and tiptoed out of the bedroom and down the hall to check on Anthony. As she reached the stairs, she saw Anthony slumped over, leaning against the wall about halfway down. He was snoring. He had fallen asleep! She quietly ran down to him and shook him. He stirred.
“Anthony! Wake up! Be quiet, I think someone is trying to break in!” she whispered tersely.
“Huh?” he replied in a daze.
“Anthony! There is someone in the house!” Katie whispered again.
He sat up and looked around. “There is?” he whispered back.
“Yes!”
He stood and quietly made his way down the stairs with the bat. Katie followed him. There, in the front of the living room, they saw the source of the noise; the woman they had watched die in the street earlier was climbing through the front window, sniffing at the air. She seemed unaware the broken glass in the window frame was slicing her hands open.
“Are you okay Miss?” Anthony asked quizzically as he shone his flashlight on her.
The woman looked up at Anthony and hissed, baring her teeth.
“Anthony! Why did you do that?” Katie whispered angrily.
“Katie! I had to see if she was okay!” he replied defensively.
“Anthony! She’s dead! We watched her get disemboweled out in the street earlier!” Katie’s voice had taken on a hint of panic.
The woman finished climbing through the window and began to advance toward Anthony and Katie.
“Miss, you loo
k like you’re hurt!” Anthony said. “Let us help you.”
The woman growled in response as she staggered toward Anthony and Katie.
“The bat Anthony! The bat! Hit her with the bat!” Katie yelled.
He froze, unsure of what to do.
“Anthony! Hit her with the bat!”
He remained frozen. The woman was getting closer to their position at the bottom of the stairs. Katie heard stirring upstairs.
“Anthony! Hit her with the bat!” she screamed.
The woman was just an arm’s length away. Her intestines dangled from her open stomach. She growled again.
Katie wrenched the bat out of Anthony’s hands and swung it into the side of the woman’s head. It made a sickening crack as the woman stumbled to the side into the wall. Picture frames clattered to the floor and broke.
“Kathy! What are you doing?” Anthony yelled hysterically.
The woman growled and started to approach again. Katie swung the bat at her head again. And again. And again. And again. Every swing of the bat produced another sickening cracking sound. At last, the woman fell to the floor and Katie delivered a final blow with the bat. The woman didn’t move anymore. Katie dropped the bat and it clanged to the floor.
“Kate! What happened?” Joel asked from behind.
Anthony was sobbing hysterically behind her.
“I killed her Joel,” Katie said mutely. “I killed her.”
A light swept over the living room. Blood and fragments of bone and brain were everywhere: on the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling, on the bat, on Katie’s hands and face, on Anthony. Katie looked down and saw that she had crushed the woman’s head; nothing was left recognizable. Katie suddenly felt nauseous.
“Katie! Was that the same lady from the street earlier?” Rachel asked.
Katie spun around and saw everyone standing at the foot of the stairs. Michelle and Amber had gone white. Rachel looked like she was going to vomit. Joel’s face was tight with worry. Suddenly the room began to spin around Katie and she felt dizzy. Then everything went black.
The next thing she knew she felt hot and flushed. She opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling. It was dark in the living room. Someone had turned the lights back off.
“What happened?” she asked.
“You killed an infected woman and then fainted,” Joel said as he cradled her head in his lap.
Katie slowly sat up and looked around at the bloody carnage. She saw that everyone else must have gone back upstairs, everyone except Joel and Anthony.
“Anthony! I don’t know what you thought you were doing, but you did multiple stupid things tonight that could have gotten us all killed!” she yelled angrily at the pathetic man who sat glumly on the loveseat. His white shirt had splotches of blood all over it. He looked shell-shocked.
“Katie, calm down,” he replied remorsefully. “Go upstairs and go back to sleep and I’ll finish the night down here.”
“No. You go upstairs and get some sleep. You’re a coward. I will stay downstairs and keep watch and protect us. I’ll do a better job than you. I won’t fall asleep. I won’t chicken out when there is a bloodthirsty monster staggering toward me. You coward. Go upstairs and go to sleep. I couldn’t sleep now even if I wanted to,” she replied coldly.
“I’m sorry!”
“No you’re not. Now go upstairs!” she glowered at him.
He stood and skulked upstairs, his head down.
“The girls and I decided we would clean up in the morning,” Joel said quietly. “Katie, you saved Anthony’s life tonight and our lives as well! I knew I picked a great fiancée!” He kissed her.
“Joel! I’m covered with nastiness!” she protested.
“And I love you despite the nastiness!”
“Gee, thanks.”
“No problem. I’ll keep watch with you.”
“No, I’ll be okay. I’m wide-awake now. Angry too.”
“You sure?”
“I’m positive Joel. Go back to bed.”
“Okay,” he said reluctantly. He stood and walked back upstairs.
Katie walked over to the stairs and sat down, picking up the now bloody baseball bat. She mulled over what had happened. She was seething with anger toward Anthony. That idiot could've gotten them all killed!
She reflected on her family. Everyone else had family they were worried about. All Katie had was her aunt. She hoped Catherine would be okay, but she knew her aunt was a smart woman, and Katie expected her to be fine. Aside from her, however, Katie was alone.
Her mother had died when Katie was eleven. Her little brother died when she was eight. Her older brother Robby had died when she was in high school. Then her father had cracked and shipped her off to Canada to live with an aunt and uncle she barely knew. While that had turned out well, Katie still nursed a strong grudge against her father for essentially abandoning her.
He had been away with work a lot when she was little, but she had some good memories from then. He loved his job but hated how it took him away from his family. When Katie’s little brother died her father became distant. He would come home from work but wouldn't be as present as he could have been.
Then when her mom died, her father just started ignoring her and Robby. He would come home from his trips and just retreat to his office, engrossed in more work. It just got worse when Robby went off to college.
Robby. Her big brother. Katie sighed out loud as she thought of him. She had so much fun with him growing up. She had looked up to him in so many ways. The summer before he went off to college was just great! It was probably the best summer she had ever had.
And then Robby died. And it was more than her dad could bear, so he sent her to live with her aunt and uncle. She was a broken girl who needed healing and love from her daddy, and she never received it. Instead Katie had to find healing in the winter winds sweeping off Lake Ontario and in the forlorn paintings of Tom Thomson and in the quiet stillness of Algonquin Provincial Park. She hadn't spoken with her father in more than five years. She had wanted him out of her life in much the same way he wanted her out of his.
She didn't want anything to do with him.
Chapter Six
Randy Eccleston
Day 1
Gunfire erupted across the river as the friends sat down on benches on one side of the rail station beneath the bridge’s roadway. The station's power was out. Casey held Missy and Adam and Jillian sat quietly beside Randy as he tried to figure out what had happened. What was Owasa Disease? He remembered hearing about MERS and Ebola and SARS, but never Owasa Disease. Why was a virus causing such a violent response by the authorities?
“We should try to get to my house when everything dies down a bit,” Casey said quietly.
Randy nodded as the others murmured in agreement.
“What happened over there?” Adam asked. “I mean, the military just destroyed bridges into Saint Louis!”
“I don’t know,” Randy replied. “That virus the cop was talking about must be a pretty nasty bug.”
“I’d say!” Jillian exclaimed.
“Why do you think those soldiers started shooting at people?” Missy asked.
“They probably panicked,” Casey said.
“But why? They weren’t just shooting at a few people, they opened up!”
“You didn’t hear what the one soldier asked Randy?” Adam asked. “He asked if Randy was infected. When Randy said no, the guy screamed at us to run!”
“Hey wait!” Randy said urgently, putting his index finger to his lips. “Listen!”
Screams erupted from a nearby casino. Gunfire rang out from the parking lot.
The others looked at him in alarm.
“We’d better be ready for whatever might come our way,” he said nervously.
Suddenly he heard a train whistle. He looked up and saw a Metro train approaching from the east at a high rate of speed.
“They’ve got to stop!” Adam exclaimed. “The bridge is out!”
The train careened past the train station, its wheels screeching on the track. It then flew over the edge of the tracks and plunged into the river with a horrifying crash.
Jillian screamed.
“What the…what just happened?” Casey asked.
“That train just flew off the tracks,” Randy said quietly. Missy and Jillian were both crying.
“We’ve got to get to my house!” Casey whispered urgently.
“No, not yet. Don’t you hear the gunfire?” Randy asked. “How far are we from your house? Twenty miles? It’s dark, we don’t know what’s going on down there, and at least up here we’re somewhat out of the way.”
“Randy, all we have is this one machine gun with its single clip. Besides, we don’t know if the military is going to bomb anything else!”
"No Casey, Adam has a pistol he lifted from a cop," Randy said.
"It's only got six bullets in it. We do have night sticks at least," Adam replied.
"Okay, but still," Casey said.
“How did you get that gun, anyway?” Adam asked.
“I knocked the cop that arrested me out and took it from him!” Casey replied defensively.
“Look!” Missy said, pointing at the casino.
Randy turned and saw people fleeing from the entrance of the building as several dozen people staggered out.
“What’s wrong with those people?” Adam asked.
“They look sick,” Jillian replied.
Randy watched in horror as one of the staggering individuals tackled a person and began clawing at them.
“What is he doing to her?” Jillian asked.
“He’s attacking her,” Casey replied quietly.
“Look alive guys, there’s a stairwell right over there and one across the tracks. We’ll need to keep our eyes peeled,” Randy said.
“What if one of those people comes up here?” Missy asked.
“I’ll shoot him,” Casey said, patting the gun.
“What? Why? Those people are sick!” Jillian protested.
“Yeah, and they appear to be feasting on innocent bystanders down there. Unless we want to be on the menu, I’m shooting any of them that come up here.”
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