by Gary Chesla
“Night of the Living Dead was filmed not too far from Johnstown,” Ryan laughed. “Maybe some of the cast got lost and are still out wandering around these here hills,”
“Well, maybe you can get a part in the sequel,” Mike grinned as he opened the door to the outhouse. “Good Luck.”
Mike smiled and closed the door.
Ryan slowly moved toward the backlit silhouette, slowly and a little unsure of himself without Mike by his side.
“Hey Buddy,” Ryan said. “Are you OK? Are you lost?”
The shadowy figure didn’t answer, but he did stop.
Ryan could see the figure slowly turn in his direction. Then the figure began staggering towards him.
“Oh shit,” Ryan said to himself.
“Nice day for a walk,” Ryan stammered. “It sure is beautiful out here.”
The figure silently continued to make its way toward Ryan.
Ryan stopped moving and stood nervously looking at the awkward moving figure.
“Mike, are you done yet?” Ryan called out over his shoulder.
He heard the sound of Mike laughing in the outhouse.
Ryan turned back towards the figure which was now only ten feet away from him.
Ryan gasped as the figure staggered into the shadows in front of him where he now was able to see clearly what he had been unable to see when the figure was only a silhouette against the bright sun.
Ryan stood frozen as he stared at what was little more than a bloody corpse.
The right side of the man’s face was gone and his bloody cheekbone grotesquely jutted out from his face.
His clothing was shredded and bloody.
The man’s arms began to rise and reach out towards Ryan.
The right arm was mere bone.
The man was still wearing pants, but his shoes were gone, leaving his two bloody, boney feet visible.
Ryan tried to call out to Mike, but his mouth wouldn’t move.
He was unable to make a sound until the grisly figure lunged at him and began to tear the flesh from the left side of his face.
Ryan screamed at the pain of the side of his face being ripped away shot through him.
Blood sprayed from the massive wound, covering the attacker’s face and chest.
“What the hell are you shouting about, you chicken-shit,” Mike laughed as he came out of the outhouse and turned towards where Ryan was.
Mike’s laughter quickly changed to a look of horror as he saw the flesh being torn from Ryan’s head and neck.
The blood covered monster glared up at Mike as Ryan’s blood ran out of the mouth of the mutilated bloody face that looked up at Mike and moaned loudly.
Mike hesitated for a second, but then he ran at the bloody figure.
He wanted to pull the grisly creature off Ryan, but didn’t know what part of it to grab, so he kicked the guy in the head.
A dull sickening thud sounded as Mike’s foot connected with the bloody face.
The creature flew backward and landed on its back, five feet behind Ryan’s unmoving body.
Mike dropped down next to Ryan and looked down at his face.
Mike was barely able to keep the burger he had eaten for lunch from coming up as he gagged at the sight of Ryan’s mangled face.
Mike looked up when he heard the monster that had just killed Ryan begin growling and moaning again.
The figure was back on its feet and started for Mike.
“What the hell happened?” Tony asked as he ran up behind Mike.
“This….., whatever the hell it is, killed Ryan,” Mike managed to choke out the words as he looked up at Tony.
Tony stared but couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Mike rolled to his left to dodge the grasping bloody hands that reached down for him.
“Shoot that son of a bitch,” Mike said when he looked up and saw Tony holding Ryan’s rifle.
“Shoot him,” Mike yelled again frantically.
Tony stared for a moment, but then raised the rifle and fired.
The bullet hit the figure in the heart, blowing a hole through the creature’s chest, but the figure reacted as if nothing had happened and continued to stagger towards Tony and Mike.
Mike scrambled to Tony’s side.
“You missed,” Mike yelled.
“The hell I did,” Tony replied as he took three steps backwards. “I blew a hole straight through him.”
“Shoot him again,” Mike yelled.
Tony raised the gun and fired again.
The mangled creature’s right arm flew off, landing six feet behind the creature that was still coming towards them.
Tony fired again, this time blowing away the right side of the creature’s stomach.
The bloody creature continued to come at them.
“The bastard won’t go down,” Tony screamed. “What the hell is it?”
All Tony heard was Mike yelling, “Oh Shit!”
Tony took a quick glance at Mike, but quickly brought his eyes back to the advancing figure.
“What is it?” Tony shouted.
“We have to get back to the cabin,” Mike yelled back.
“Not until I kill this thing,” Tony yelled back.
“Forget that bastard,” Mike screamed back, “We have bigger problems.”
Tony fired the rifle again, this time shattering the creature’s right leg.
The figure fell to the ground, but never stopped moving as it now began to crawl towards Tony.
Tony glanced back at Mike, “What do you mean we have bigger problems. This son of a bitch is still moving.”
“Look,” Mike yelled. “If we don’t start running, we will never make it back to the cabin.”
Tony took a quick look at the crawling figure, then turned to look at what Mike was trying to tell him.
He stood in disbelief as he saw dozens of bloody staggering bodies coming out of the surrounding woods from every direction around them.
The distance between them, the creatures and the cabin was quickly shrinking.
“Damn it,” Tony said then yelled, “Run for the cabin.”
They ran for the cabin as what looked to be a hundred of the grotesque bodies staggered out of the woods.
They managed to reach the cabin as the wall of bodies moved within ten feet of them and the cabin as they ran inside and slammed the door.
“Get your rifle,” Tony yelled.
Mike ran over to the closet and took out his rifle and the two boxes of bullets he had brought up for the weekend.
“Grab my box of ammo,” Tony shouted.
Mike grabbed Tony’s ammo and tossed it over to him.
They both started jamming bullets into their guns.
“You take the left window and I’ll take the right,” Tony shouted.
“But shooting them doesn’t seem to do a damn thing to them,” Mike yelled.
“Shoot their legs off,” Tony shouted back. “At least they can’t walk.”
“If you say so,” Mike replied and rushed over to the window.
Mike cautiously opened the shutters, pushed the barrel of the gun out between the partially open shutters and began shooting.
“My God,” Tony yelled as he fired out his window, “There are hundreds of them out there now.”
Mike shot until the firing pin began to click against the empty chamber.
“This is useless,” Mike screamed as he shoved the last of his bullets into his gun, pushed open the shutters again and unloaded his gun into the mass of bloody bodies.
Mike quickly closed the shutters and threw his gun onto the lower bunkbed.
“I’m out,” Mike shouted.
“Me too,” Tony replied.
But they didn’t have time to sit and try to figure out what to do next.
Tony yelled and ran to the door, “The latch on the door is breaking!”
Mike started frantically looking around, finally finding a hammer and a few nails on the floor of the closet as Tony f
ought to keep the door closed.
Mike ran over to the door and started driving nails through the edges of the door and into the door frame.
After driving the eight nails he had found into the door, he stepped back, “Maybe that will keep them out.”
Tony looked at the door as the creatures outside threw themselves against the door causing it to shake.
“I don’t know Mike, I think we are going to need more nails,” Tony replied.
They both looked around the cabin.
“You watch the door and windows,” Mike said. “I’ll have to tear apart the table and some of the furniture to get more nails. A few of the floor boards look loose too. I’ll see what I can do.”
They both looked at the windows as the shutters began to vibrate.
“What the fuck are they?” Tony asked.
“The hell if I know,” Mike replied. “All I know is I want them to stay out there.”
“Then we better find something to nail across that door,” Tony yelled as he ran back to the door, “the nails are coming loose. That door isn’t going to keep them out much longer.”
“Shit!” Mike yelled as he started frantically trying to pull up a loose floorboard.
Chapter 12
2:00 AM, May 8th, Fallon Naval Air Station, Nevada
“Are we going to have to man this damn station twenty-four hours a day,” Davis growled. “When the hell are we to get any sleep? We’ve been here now for twenty-four hours.”
“Sleep!” Rogers replied. “How the hell are we supposed to sleep after what happened over at the infirmary today?”
“I think Chervy was full of shit,” Davis said. “How the hell could all those guys have been dead but still moving and fighting with the MPs? You don’t believe that shit do you? It sounds to me like Chervy and Doc have gone without sleep longer than we have. Besides, have you seen any dead bodies walking around? I know Doc and Chervy wouldn’t lie to us, but dead people walking? Holy Hell!”
“I don’t know what to believe,” Rogers answered. “All I know is between Russian biological weapons and then that story, something crazy is going on around here. I plan on keeping my eyes open until someone tells me what’s really going on or until I see it with my own eyes. If you want to go to sleep, go ahead and I’ll watch the monitors, there is no way I could sleep right now anyhow.”
“If you don’t mind, I think I will take a little nap,” Davis replied. “Just don’t fall asleep without waking me up. It’s all we need is for someone to come in and find us both asleep. Both our asses would get court marshalled.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Rogers said. “I’m too damn creeped out to fall asleep. Go ahead and get some rest.”
Davis leaned back in his chair and slid his hat down over his eyes, crossed his arms over his chest and made himself comfortable.
Rogers watched Davis get comfortable and just shook his head.
He turned back to the monitor and watched as different colored dots blinked and moved slowly across the screen.
“Shit, this is boring,” Rogers sighed.
He pulled out a deck of cards and started to play solitaire on the desk in front of the computer screen.
Rogers yawned and his eyes began to feel heavy.
He got up and walked over to the water cooler and got a drink of cold water.
He walked around the room and tried to force himself to stay awake.
Boredom and lack of sleep was having more of an effect on him than he thought, staying awake was turning out to be more difficult than he expected.
When he reached the other side of the room, he turned, crumpled up his empty paper cup and tossed it back towards the waste paper basket next to the water cooler.
“Nailed it,” Rogers smiled.
He then sat down and looked back at the monitor.
“It would probably help if I knew what the hell I was looking at,” Rogers growled. “That green dot looks interesting, but why don’t I have a chart to tell me who it belongs to? That way at least I would know which ones were ours and which ones I needed to keep an eye on and hope that they get hit by a meteor or something.”
Rogers started to deal the cards again.
He had almost finished dealing the cards when the sirens around the base started blaring, causing him to almost fall out of his seat.
Rogers stood straight up and cocked his head and listened.
“Now what the hell is going on,” Davis asked as he ran over and stood beside Rogers.
“I afraid to ask,” Rogers replied as he ran over to the desk and picked up the phone.
He punched in a few numbers and held the phone to his ear.
“Is that you Martinez? This is Rogers over at the situation room,” Rogers yelled. “What the hell is going on now?”
“I don’t have time to chit chat Rogers,” Martinez replied. “We have a situation out at the east fence. You can hear about it tomorrows, I have work to do.”
The phone clicked in Roger’s ear.
Davis looked at Rogers.
“Martinez said they have a situation out at the east fence,” Rogers said. “It’s probably another bunch of drunk teenagers again from Fallon trying to see if they can make it out onto the runway without getting caught.”
“Assholes,” Davis growled and walked back over to his chair, sat down and pulled his hat back down over his eyes. “I wish they would shut that damn siren off so I can go back to sleep. Haven’t they ever heard of silent alarms? For God’s sake, it’s two in the morning.”
Rogers nervously sat back down in front of the monitor, but he couldn’t stop listening to the siren.
He jumped up again when a second siren joined in and then heard the sound of gun shots coming from the east side of the base.
“Drunk teenagers my ass,” Davis growled as he got up and adjusted the hat on his head.
Rogers picked up the phone and dialed security again and waited, but this time no one answered.
“I don’t like this,” Rogers said.
“There are fifteen hundred men stationed on this base,” Davis said. “I’m sure they can handle whatever it is.”
“After today, there are only about thirteen hundred left,” Rogers replied. “This shit is going to drive me crazy. I think I liked it better when nothing ever happened around here.”
Davis sat up, “Did you hear that?”
“I can’t hear anything for that damn siren,” Rogers replied.
“Listen,” Davis said.
“Listen to what?” Rogers growled.”
“The gun fire,” Davis replied as he strained to listen.
“What about it?” Rogers asked.
“It sounds a lot closer than it did before,” Davis answered. “I think it is getting closer.”
Rogers listened.
They both jumped when an automatic weapon went off outside near their building.
The gun fired a continuous burst for about thirty seconds, then the sound of gunfire went silent, replaced by the sound of running feet and muffled shouting.
They turned towards the door when Chervy burst into the room, slamming the door behind him.
“Is everything alright in here?” A wide eyed Chervy asked as he came in, shut the door and quickly surveyed the room.
“Chervy,” Rogers asked. “What the hell is going on? Was that someone firing a machine gun outside our building?”
“The east gate has been over run,” Chervy said breathlessly.
“I called security and they said they had a situation at the east gate,” Rogers said. “We thought it was those damn kids again playing one of their pranks. But what’s with all the gun fire, who are we shooting at? Certainly not a bunch of drunk teenagers? They are a pain in the ass, but other than that they are pretty much harmless.”
Chervank stood by the door, leaning his head against the door and listening.
Twice Rogers and Davis noticed him checking to be sure the door was locked.
“Cherv,
what’s the matter with you,” Davis asked. “What the hell is going on out there that has you so worked up?”
Chervanak finally pulled his ear away from the door and faced the two men.
“We’ve got a big problem,” Chervy said, “and I don’t know if we are going to be able to handle it.”
“We sort of figured it was a problem when you hear sirens blaring and someone is shooting outside your door,” Rogers said.
“Why would the U.S. Navy not be able to handle a few drunk kids,” Davis asked. “Come on Chervy, none of this is making any sense.”
“There are thousands of them,” Churvy gasped.
“A Thousand drunk kids?” Davis asked.
“Why didn’t the security monitors detect them coming before they reached the fence?” Rogers asked.
“They weren’t kids,” Churvy replied nervously. “The motion sensors were going crazy, but when the heat sensors said there wasn’t anyone there, they thought the motion detectors were malfunctioning or it was just a pack of coyotes or something. The infrared cameras didn’t show anything so they sent out a patrol to check it out, but after a few minutes they lost contact with the patrol. So they sent out another patrol to see what happened.
It was only a few minutes before the second patrol called back for help.”
“Who was it?” Rogers asked, now sounding confused and impatient.
“An army of the dead,” Chervy replied.
“An army of the dead? Come on Chervy,” Davis asked. “Are you feeling OK? Quit jerking us around. What’s going on?”
“The Russian virus that killed our men didn’t just come down over our base, it came down over everything surrounding our base for hundreds of miles in every direction.