Existing Dead

by Lyle Perez-Tinics

  “Hurry up and finish your lunch. Doctor Greenly wants to meet all newcomers. He’ll also want to know about Morgan,” Virginia said just as Kyle finished putting the last piece of his sandwich into his mouth.

  “I’m ready,” Kyle said with a mouth full of food.

  “Where is Greenly?” Ricardo asked, looking at Albert.

  “I think he’s in his lab.”

  “This place has a lab?” Kyle asked.

  “Not a good one,” Albert replied. “I’ll take him. Everyone else can relieve the guards and take their place.”

  “I go too,” Ignacio said.

  “Fine. Everyone get to your posts and you three, come with me,” Albert said with authority. It was clear from everyone’s actions that Albert was the man in charge.

  “It’s fucking hot outside. I’m sweating so much my balls are starting to stick together,” Carter mumbled as he began making his way out the door. “And I’m out of fucking baby powder.”

  “Oh, shut up,” said Virginia, pushing Carter out the door.

  Albert led them back through the door with the generators. They marched across the quad to another section of the school. It was there that Kyle saw more survivors. They stood on the roof looking out into the open space with rifles in their hands.

  “Just through this door,” Albert said.

  They entered the room and instantly were greeted by the memorizing scent of death and decay. The odor was so bad that it made Kyle’s face fold with disgust.

  “I forgot to warn you about that,” Albert said. “Sorry.”

  Kyle nodded.

  The classroom itself was altered to look more like a laboratory. The carpets had been ripped out and replaced with tile. Four metal tables lined the far right wall, two of which had bodies laid out on top.

  “There seems to be more to this than I could have possibly imagined,” a voice from one of the small offices said. “Every time I am given a new specimen, it surprises me.”

  “Doctor Greenly?” Albert called out.

  “It seems now that the heart of the parasite is pumping. The pink liquid that erupts from the boil is being pumped through the body making them …”

  “Doctor Greenly?” Albert called out again, this time louder.

  Doctor Greenly flipped the switch on his recording device and stepped out of the office. Kyle imagined Doctor Greenly would be a frail old man, but that wasn’t the case. He was an older gentleman; his many years were easily seen by the wrinkles on his face, but he moved quickly and with much vigor.

  “Who do we have here?” Doctor Greenly asked, sticking his hand out to Kyle.

  “I’m Kyle. Glad to finally meet you Doctor Greenly. I listened to your broadcasts.”

  “Ah, yes, well, hopefully you found them informative, hmm?” Greenly spoke every word as though he pushed out a large gust of air. “And who is this young lad?”

  “Morgan’s son,” Albert answered.

  Victor seemed uninterested in what was going on around him. He hadn’t even so much as looked in Doctor Greenly’s direction.

  “Ahh,” he said. “And where is Morgan?”

  Every time someone mentioned the name Morgan, it felt as though a fresh needle pierced the young boy’s heart and filled it with cold water.

  “Dead,” Ignacio said very boldly. “I see remains firsthand.”

  “Oh,” Greenly said staring to the ground. His glasses began to slip to the end of his large nose. He pushed them back up and said, “Poor dear. I’m sorry for your loss, young man.”

  “Thanks,” Victor said.

  “Are you two thinking about staying here and joining our little community? We could sure use some extra hands around here.”

  Kyle shook his head. “No. We’re heading into California. The sooner we can get back on the road the better.”

  “California? What part?”

  “Southern. Poway area.”

  “Oh.”

  “I know it’s crawling with them. Would you be able to give me some information?”

  “Of course,” Greenly said. “But it will be dark within the next five to six hours, and it will take you that long to reach your destination. I recommend leaving first thing in the morning. You do not want to be caught outside at night. Albert, take them to the gymnasium so they can shower.”

  “Sure,” Albert said.

  “I have much work to do before nightfall comes. We can have a chat after dinner. Also, Albert, please set up a cot for them in one of the classrooms.”

  “Very well.”

  “Thank you for your hospitality,” Kyle said sincerely.

  “Don’t mention it.” Doctor Greenly turned and headed back to his office. “Ignacio, please follow me.”

  “Si, we have new tings to mention.”

  “Come on,” Albert said, turning to the exit.

  “Are you military?” Kyle asked Albert.

  “Former, yes. Me, Ricardo, Virginia, Carter and Ignacio. We are what’s left of our squad. Everyone else is a civilian survivor.”

  “How many people are currently here?”

  “Eighteen. Twenty, counting you two.”

  “I see all of you are fully armed.”

  “Yes, what are you getting at?”

  “My shotgun. I’d be out of my mind if I tried to fire it in its condition. With all of your fire power, I was hoping you might have a cleaning kit, maybe just a rag and some lube.”

  “Sorry,” was all Albert said.

  Kyle took that as a ‘Yes, we do have some, and no, you can’t have any’.

  “Do you have any extra guns I can have?”

  “Sorry,” Albert said again, stone faced. “You leave with what you came with.”

  “We’ll that Ricardo guy took my Glock. It was the only gun I have that still works. Can I at least have that back?”

  “Yes, when you leave, we will return it.”

  Kyle and Victor were led into the boy’s locker room which was right next to the gym. Kyle put down the shotgun he had been carrying and searched the back for spare clothes. He didn’t have any more.

  “We should have picked up more clothes for you,” Kyle said.

  “What I have on is fine,” Victor replied.

  “There’s hot water, but don’t use a lot of it. Take a cold shower if you can muscle it out, we need to save fuel. I’ll be waiting outside. There’s a pile of clothes around this corner, feel free to pick at it and take whatever fits.”

  “Thanks,” Kyle said.

  Albert stood outside the door while Kyle searched the mountain of clothes to find something that would fit. He found a plain black large t-shirt and a dark blue pair of jeans, size 38-34. There was also a pair of large boxers. He did feel a bit weird wearing used boxers, but in the apocalypse, beggars can’t be choosers. He grabbed the pair.

  “These might fit you,” Kyle said, throwing clothes at Victor.

  “I said I was fine with what I had on.”

  “Come on, Victor. Your clothes reek.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Is this about your mother?”

  “She should have been here. I went through so much trying to find her, and not twelve hours later, she’s gone again. This time there’s nothing I can do to reach her.”

  “You’re right, there is nothing you can do to bring her back. So the best thing to do is move forward.”

  “That’s easy for you to say. You still have hope. I don’t know why, Jasmine’s probably long dead anyway.”

  “Maybe, but even if she was, I wouldn’t be a dick to everyone.”

  “You are a dick.”

  Kyle laughed as he stood from the bench. “I am, but at least I can hide it.” He took off his shirt.

  “Tell me what happened?”

  “Huh?”

  “Tell me what happened to my mother.”

  “I already told you. You saw her roll her ankle. She couldn’t reach my hand so I could pull her to the roof.”

  “How could she not reac
h it? I saw the distance. Even if she jumped a few inches, she would have been able to grab your hand.”

  “Fine, you wanna know what happened? It was dark and she tried to jump toward my hand, she completely missed it and fell back down.”

  “That’s all I wanted to hear.” Victor stood and walked toward the exit. Kyle heard the sound of the door opening and slamming shut.

  Kyle sighed and finished undressing. He’ll come around, he thought. He’ll come around and I’ll be his father again.

  The water falling from the shower head was colder than an ice cap. He moved the knob to hot and the water turned lukewarm then hot. He stuck his head under the water and closed his eyes. There was a bottle of shampoo tied to the shower head. It smelled fruity, but Kyle didn’t care. He poured a handful of it and rubbed it against his head. The rinsing felt invigorating and refreshing, as if the shower were washing away all of his sins.

  When he opened his eyes, he was standing face to face with Morgan. He yelped and took a step back.

  “Hi, Kyle,” she said. Her form stood in the path of the water, but the water did not affect her. The stream went through her and found a spot on the ground.

  Kyle turned away, only to face Mary and Eddie holding hands. “Kyle, put some clothes on, we don’t need Eddie to see you like that.” She looked at the faceless boy. “Well, it doesn’t look like he will be seeing anything any more.” She laughed, and so did Eddie. Blood squirted out of the hole and arced until it hit the ground.

  “No, please don’t cover up,” another voice said. Kyle turned in the direction of the unknown voice, and there was Chet.

  “Is that what you were married to, Mary? It’s so tiny, I’m sorry for you,” said another voice. It was the voice of Susie.

  “What do you want?” Kyle said, almost walking in circles to see everyone.

  “We want you to admit what you did to us. We want you to pay,” Morgan said.

  “You’re all just in my head. You’re not real! Go away!”

  “We’ll go away Kyle, once you are dead,” Mary said. “I can understand what you did to Chet over there. He did deserve it.”

  “Hey,” said Chet.

  “I guess Susie deserved it, too. But Morgan? Morgan, Kyle? Victor’s own mother!”

  “Don’t you fucking do this to me, Mary. You’re the one who fucking told me that I needed to get rid of Morgan, and I did. Even in death you’re trying to fucking pin your shit on me.”

  “Did it feel good, Kyle? Now you have Victor to yourself?”

  “Yeah, Victor is coming with me to California, but he’s an empty fucking shell.” Kyle turned off the water. Fog and steam made it harder to see the apparitions. “And no, it didn’t feel good having to kill Morgan. In fact, I feel more like a fucking monster.”

  “Careful what you say Kyle, it could cost you everything,” Mary said as she dissipated along with everyone else.

  “You killed my mom?”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Victor stood by one of the rows of lockers. “You killed my mom?”

  Kyle’s heart pounced as if it were trying to escape his body. With everything he had done the past few of days, it was a surprise that he even had a beating heart. “No, I didn’t.”

  “I just heard you say that you killed her. Who were you talking to?”

  “No one,” Kyle said, wrapping the towel around his waist. “I meant that it felt as though I killed her. Because I couldn’t reach her.”

  “Don’t fucking lie to me, Kyle!” Victor yelled. His body tightened, eyes filling with rage, jaw locked and ready to pounce. “You just said you killed her. Did you not even try to reach her?”

  “I did, she was just out of reach!”

  “Liar!” Victor screamed, reaching for the shotgun Kyle left by the lockers. He pointed it toward Kyle, finger on the trigger and ready to fire.

  “Don’t you try to fire that thing,” Kyle warned, with good reason. The Winchester still hadn’t been cleaned, and Kyle was sure it was either not operational, or it would blow back on the boy. “There’s a good chance that if you pull that trigger, it will blow up in your face.”

  “Good! I want to die, I want you to die. Fuck everyone!” Tears ran down his face. “My whole world has gone up in flames, and it’s all because of you!” Victor pulled the trigger.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Crank. Click. Click.

  He pumped the shotgun and tried firing again. Nothing happened. Victor grabbed the weapon by the barrel and ran toward Kyle. But the second he entered the shower, the boy slipped on the soap-filled tile. The shotgun flew out of his grasp and went wild into the air, smacking into one of the nearby lockers. The gun went off, exploding the slug from the barrel.

  Victor lay flat on his back, unconscious. He had hit his head on the floor. Kyle slowly walked to the boy.

  “Victor,” he said shaking the boy with one hand and holding the towel with the other.

  Albert swung the door open, his rifle lifted in a firing position. “What the hell happened?” he yelled before he could see Kyle.

  “Victor slipped on the ground. The gun fell and went off.” He looked back down to the unconscious boy. “Victor!”

  “Get dressed,” Albert said pushing Kyle out of the way. “I’ll take him to Doctor Greenly.”

  Kyle quickly put on the clothes he had picked. He didn’t want to miss where Albert was taking Victor. He lifted the boy carefully and began walking to the exit, but stopped and looked at the dent in one of the lockers. “It fell, huh?” he said as he continued to make his way to the exit.

  Kyle grabbed the Winchester and followed Albert out. They headed for Doctor Greenly’s lab, but didn’t enter the same door.

  “Is this not the place?”

  “No, there’s a different room for us. You don’t want Greenly treating him with the same instruments he uses for his experiments, do you?”

  “I guess not.”

  A few doors down from the lab, Albert stopped. “This door. Open it.”

  Kyle reached and opened the door. Albert stepped inside and laid Victor on one of the medical beds.

  “Where did all this stuff come from?” Kyle asked.

  “We weren’t the first survivors here. All this stuff was left behind. I’ll go get Greenly so he can take a look at him.”

  Albert walked out of the room. Kyle stared at Victor, who was lying on the bed like a poor defenseless animal. He was so weak, so badly beaten, both physically and mentally. He rubbed his hands down Victor’s hair. There was nothing he could do. Victor had figured out that it was Kyle who was behind his mother’s murder.

  Many things were running through his head. Would Victor wake up screaming at the top of his lungs? Would he even remember what happened in the showers? Could he be convinced that it was all a dream? No. Hopefully Albert would be able to tell Victor he had slipped on the tile.

  It’s easy, he thought, I’ll just have to kill Albert. Yeah, that’s it, kill Albert. Wait, but if I kill Albert, everyone will be suspicious of me. I got it; I’ll kill all of them. It’s perfect. One by one I’ll take them out. Before Victor wakes up, I’ll have to kill everyone. Kill everyone, and me and Victor can go to California. Go to Jasmine, be the family that I should have had. But first I have to kill everyone.

  Kyle smiled as he reached for a scalpel. He grasped the weapon in his hand and raised his head forward. Directly in front of him was a mirror that reminded him of the mirror that had hung on the wall of the bedroom he shared with Mary. He looked into it and tried to stare at his reflection, but all he saw was his past, his memories of better times now completely forgotten. He saw an image of him throwing Eddie into the air at a park. They spun in circles as the scenery around them burned and crumbled. The boy’s face was full of life, full of joy and happiness. He shuddered at what he saw next. The man standing in front of him with wild eyes, a half-cocked smile with a few teeth poking through the opened mouth. Scabs already healing over themselves. Wet hair fallin
g down the side of his face completed the look. There was no doubt about it, he loathed this image. It was a reflection of the man he had become.

  Kyle looked at the boy and then at the scalpel. Water welled up in his eyes as he dropped the weapon back onto the medical tray. Tears ran freely down his face as he felt sorrow for what he’d done to Mary, Eddie, Susie, the corpse of Angel, the confused man on the street, Chet, and now Morgan.

  Albert walked back into the room with Doctor Greenly close behind.

  Kyle wiped away tears with his hands as he stepped away from the medical table.

  The doctor looked at Kyle and asked, “What happened?”

  Kyle composed himself as best as he could. “He slipped in the shower and hit his head.”

  Greenly turned and began opening cabinets. He grabbed a few things and then turned to Victor.

  “I didn’t want to say anything,” Albert began, “but what happened to his face?”

  Doctor Greenly began to check the boy’s injuries.

  “He didn’t want his mother to know, but a day or so ago, before we made it to his house, we were held up at the post office. We met a man there. His name was Chet.”

  Doctor Greenly dropped the instrument he was using to check the head injury. “Did you say Chet? What did this man look like?”

  “Let’s see, he was white, scruffy beard, talked with a British accent.”

  “Was he wearing a trench coat?” Albert chimed in.

  “Yes.”

  Albert and Doctor Greenly shared a look.

  “We have an idea of what happened to him,” Albert said as Greenly went back to examining Victor’s head wound. “There was a man here who called himself Chet. He did things, terrible things. We thought killing him would make us barbaric, so we exiled him. You must have run into him.”

  Kyle didn’t know what to think. The man he killed was once a resident here, but from the sounds of it, it didn’t seem as though these people cared.