by Victor Cruz
The huddled group disbanded and they all began to crawl down the ladder that lead them to a smaller building. They would have to walk to another ladder to reach a deck of one of the stores.
“Shouldn’t we tell him the plan, too?” Tyler asked of Konrad as they walked towards the second set of ladders.
“No. Don’t bother. He’s going to do what he wants anyway.” Maxson said. “He sees us going. His choice to follow.”
They left Konrad behind to follow the rest of the crew that had descended down and regrouped at ground level.
The team was just about to start towards the body shop, when from above, Konrad called down. He had decided to follow them, but that wasn’t what he was grabbing their attention for. They all had to look up from the ground to see Konrad standing on the roof and pointing into the construction pit, “Check this shit out!”
Once again, the group stepped to the fence so they could look down into the pit. Maxson instantly noticed the odd behavior from the walking corpses inside the giant dirt hole. They had surrounded the injured one that had broken its leg after being lured in by the Boomer Blaster. It faced up while rolling around on its back with its legs up. One leg was kicking out towards the other dead creatures that surrounded it while the broken leg flapped around. The corpse’s screeching could have been mistaken as a cry for help, but the dead had nobody to listen to their pleas.
The healthy dead began to crowd in further, closing in around the one of its back. With each inch, the creatures lashed at the injured one with the one on the ground swiping back in defense. From all angles the injured creature had to defend itself from the multiple surrounding standing dead. It reminded Maxson of an injured animal being attacked from multiple angles by a pack of wild carnivores. Inch by inch, the creatures closed in on the injured one until the largest one out of the hundreds came forth.
“Yo, what the fuck is that!?” Reggie asked.
Konrad hooted and yelled out, “That’s one huge motherfucker!”
The large walking corpse pushed its way to the front. Uglier than the rest, its bald top head was taller than the others and towered over even the second tallest of its kind. Maxson could tell, just by staring at it, that it was taller than himself.
Adorned with a snarling face that had a torn cheek in the shape of a smile and big psychotic white eyes that were surrounded by the dark fluids. The darkness dripped down its cheeks to dry like tears had long coagulated and dried to give it a face of shrieking perma-terror. Standing tall above the injured one with the broken leg, it reached down and grabbed the kicking leg.
The size difference between the two dead gave the giant the advantage and allowed it ragdoll its victim. Dragging it towards itself the creature on the ground was unable to stop the strength of the one attacking it.
The giant suddenly grabbed at its victim’s broken leg and ripped it off like it was ripping out the final roots of a turnip from the ground. The sound in the pit even sounded similar in Maxson’s ears.
“What…. The… fuck?” Inez watched the two corpses turn on one another.
“Holy shit,” Tyler mustered.
The giant held the part it had ripped from the corpse still wriggling around on the ground under it. It looked at the limb, but overall was uninterested with it and threw the leg behind itself into the crowd. Immediately, the giant went back into attack-mode and was right back on top of the smaller one. The one beneath it did its best to thrash with its hands at giant, but it was clearly too weak and at too much of a disadvantage on its back.
The giant’s-built arms flexed and dark black veins popped from its pale arms. Big paws for hands climbed up the injured corpses torso until it was in a complete dominant position. With the new position, it grabbed at the creature’s head beneath it. With a twist and a pull, the giant ripped the injured corpse’s head from its body killing it instantly and lifting it above in a fashion that almost resembled a human raising a trophy.
He had never seen one do anything like that and looked to the others in the group. Their faces were as stunned and their mouths speechless.
“Wooo! Now that was a show!” Konrad blustered out to end the silence
The crowd swarmed the headless corpse that laid at the big bald giant’s feet. Bones breaking and limbs tearing could be heard from the group for a minute before the swarm dispersed. The injured creature was gone besides a few pieces of scraps that were picked up by a few scavenging dead and all that was left was a puddle of black goo.
Konrad had since climbed down to join them, “Well all knew that they ate us, but did you guys know they ate one another?”
Everyone shook their head to say no.
“I told you all I saw that one with the sledgehammer,” Maxson said to them.
“Oh, that don’t mean nothing!” Konrad yelled down. “You don’t see any of them with a weapon, do ya? And you never said nothing about none of them eat each other!”
He made a valid point. None of them in the pit had a weapon in their hand and Maxson never saw them devour one another. Konrad had actually managed to shut him up.
“You damn fool,” Konrad added for good measure.
Tyler always had an explanation for everything and gave his opinion. “It’s because they were feeling claustrophobic. Too many are occupying the same space and they want to give themselves more room to walk around.”
“Possible. But it looks more like they were eliminating the weak link,” Maxson responded to the opinion.
“This shit freaks me out,” Reggie commented.
“But why would they eat one another?” Asked Inez, looking perplexed.
“Nature always seems to have some sort of reason for doing the things it does,” Konrad said with a surprising wisdom that Maxson actually agreed with.
“Like natural selection,” Tyler recalled his years of schooling that was part of a well-balanced general education.
“Yup! That’s right, college boy! Only the strong survive! Just like us,” Konrad boasted in a cocky manner.
The creatures in the pit were stirring after finishing their fallen comrade. Grumbling a snorting growl was the noise the creatures made as they digested rotting flesh. It sounded part human and part animal, but entirely beast.
“That ain’t nature or natural,” Reggie said shaking its head while watching the dead digest one of themselves.
“What is nowadays?” Maxson rhetorically responded, before adding. “Let’s just hurry so we can get the hell outta’ Dodge.”
“Greenbrook. We’re in Greenbrook, not Dodge,” Tyler tried to correct Maxson.
“It’s an expression, know-it-all,” Maxson bluntly informed Tyler as he began to make his way down the empty street towards the body shop.
He tossed the keys to Reggie, “Pull the truck up, we’ll get the trailer attached.”
Reggie caught them and with only a nod before he began to jog towards the truck. Konrad seemed displeased that Reggie was asked instead of him to do it, but had given up complaining for the moment. They made it to the shop and Konrad recklessly kicked the door with his large boot.
“Inez, stay out here to wait for your man yell if you see anything,” Maxson said before leading Konrad and Tyler inside the building that had a garage door that was currently closed. They would need to open that before they could leave. The shop was open and there were no cars being worked on at the moment.
“Wouldn’t have minded finding us a nice red sports car,” Konrad said without caution. “Bet Tyler here had a few.”
“Sort of. It was silver though,” Tyler agreed. “But convertibles aren’t exactly assets nowadays.”
“Damn, boy, what the hell did you use to do?” Konrad asked.
“Worked for the family company as a consultant,” Tyler said, before realizing he never asked them the same questions. “Why? What’d you guys do?”
“I lived on the land,” Konrad said cryptically.
“And I lived off the streets,” Maxson was less cryptic.
/> Maxson’s attention turned to the trailers that were vertically standing against the wall to save more floor space in the shop. None of them were that nice and all looked used making Maxson wonder if they were rentals. When Konrad began to pull down the chain pulley to lift the garage, a flood of sunlight lit up the dark shop. While Reggie back the truck up to the garage Maxson noticed a door with a small window in the back.
When he took through the glass, he noticed an entirely new garage with something in interest in the back. The door was unlocked unlike the front door and he was able to open it with a twist of the knob. Walking into the second garage, Maxson passed a coat rack that was almost toppling over from all of the mechanic jackets that hung.
Amongst the rack was a pile of scrap parts that looked to be put in a pile to scrap for metal. There was lift above an opening and there looked to be a basement where mechanics could stand underneath a car parked above them. On the other end of the garage Maxson could also see an old tarp covering a vehicle and was intrigued. The tarp was canvas and covered in streaks of multiple colors from dried paints and must have belonged to a painter at one time or another. He gripped at the canvas and was just about to unveil what was mystery lay underneath.
“Damn, there’s a-whole-‘nother room back here!” Tyler announced as he entered. Clumsily knocking into the pile of metal in the process. A few pieces fell off the pile to hit the ground with a scraping ting. The rest of the pile luckily stayed intact, otherwise would have been a mess for someone to clean up.
“Damn, I almost knocked that whole pile ov–” Tyler’s words were interrupted by the entire hill of junk metal beginning to topple over. Clinking and scraping against the ground as it rained its content against the hard floor.
“You dumbass!” Maxson yelled at the younger man. Mostly because it felt good to.
The noise of metal continuing to topple sounded like something was moving over it. Soon, a groaning noise vibrated against the steel parts that it rested upon. Maxson realized it wasn’t the kid who knocked over the pile.
One of the dead was inside the garage, but Maxson didn’t see anything until something started sliding over the bottom of the scrap metal. It had no legs or anything else beneath its waist as its torso dragged against the ground streaking a dark wet trail of black goo.
It was fast, real fast, for not having legs and the way it moved it looked like it had learned how to walk on its hands a long time ago. One of those hands reached out and grabbed at Tyler’s legs to pull itself up his pant leg. Tyler tried to kick at it, but the creature held onto him. The creature moved up Tyler’s leg, tried pushing down at its chest to keep it from climbing him. The younger man was not a weakling, but the corpse was strong and wriggled out from his grasps. Giving one last push made Tyler lose his balance while wrestling the creature that was now clinging to his upper body. On his back now, Tyler was trying to slide away, but the creature had a vice like grip on him. It made a couple of bites, but was unable to break through Tyler’s layering of clothing.
“Ahhh! Maxson! Help!” Tyler screamed as he tried to push the creature off of him.
Maxson ran over towards them with his axe in hand, lifting it high above his head ready to chop the creature’s head like a log he had practiced on hundreds of times. He shouted with the axe ready to come down and end the chomping corpse. “Keep him still!”
“I can’t!” Even though Tyler who had been an athlete in high school and regularly worked out, didn’t have the strength to loosen the biter’s grapple on him. It pulled itself closer into the younger man’s chest and was nearing his face and neck. The entire time wrestling around and not giving Maxson a clear shot without risking hitting Tyler instead. Tyler was nearly crying, “Do it! Do it!”
Maxson couldn’t and dropped the axe to the side. He reached down to grab at the creature back, but his fingers ripped right through its skin. Its lunge down was abnormally powerful and its teeth aimed to sink into Tyler’s neck. Maxson could hear Tyler wailing and his head smacking against the ground beneath him as he repeatedly pulled away. Soon, he would be unconscious and an easy meal to the creature.
“Get it off! Get… it off!” Tyler pleas were becoming weaker. The thing was scrambling and slithering around on top of his torso
Maxson grabbed at the creature head, carefully avoiding its teeth. One hand under his chin and neck with the other wrapped around its forehead.
“FUCK….!” Holding the creature’s head, he gave one powerful jerk and began to use his legs to pull up and twisting the creature’s head with all of his might. “… YOU!”
The sound of twisting and ripping came from above Tyler and by the end of it all, Maxson stood up completely with the creature’s head in its hand. He held the head by the hair and held it up like he had seen the giant one in the pit from earlier do.
The headless creature’s arms flailed around and its neck erupted more of its blood high int the air, only to rain down onto Tyler. Maxson stared at its lifeless head to remember it before he tossed the head aside. Tyler pushed the decapitated body off of himself. His hand extended up to Maxson who he thought was giving him a hand.
Maxson ignored the hand and grabbed his axe. “You bit?”
Tyler was currently wiping the tar like goo off his face and neck as best as he could. Its consistency was a coagulated stickiness that was impossible to get off clothing and difficult to get off the skin. He was reaching for his neck to see if he could feel any ruptures in his epidermis. “No, I think I’m okay…”
“Let me see,” Maxson said with caution offering to give the younger man a second opinion with the axe clenched tightly in both hands.
“Uh… yeah… okay,” Tyler said with a fear in his voice that Maxson could sense. However, he still presented his darkly smudged neck up to Maxson, with tightly closed eyes.
Maxson inspected Tyler’s neck until he finally raised the axe, to rest it on his shoulder. He finally offered his other hand down to Tyler, “Look good to me, kid.”
Tyler opened his eyes in relief, with a bead of sweat forming on his forehead. He then looked up to Maxson and before he took his hand he praised. “You fucking ripped that things head clean off its shoulders!”
“Sure did,” Maxson nodded. And don’t ever forget it.
Tyler took Maxson’s hand to get lifted up, “Thanks, Maxson.”
“No need, your just in debt to me for life… or until you save me back, now,” Maxson gave him one firm pat on the back. “Let’s check out what’s under here.”
Maxson motioned to the car before grabbing at the canvas tarp once again. With the help of Tyler, the two man unveiled the shiny metallic black vintage muscle car that waited underneath.
“Wow!” Tyler exclaimed. “Is that a Comanche?”
“Not just any Comanche, but a ’68 Comanche,” Maxson walked around the vehicle slowly. He stood in front of the custom hood that was vented and noticed the similarly chrome designed vented grill. Maxson tapped on the hood. “In here is a V8 engine with over 400 horsepower that can take you 0-60 in 6 seconds flat. This tank of a car is classic muscle and power, the good ol’ American way.”
“We need to find the keys to this thing,” Tyler seemed inspired by Maxson’s admiration for the vehicle.
“G’damn right we do. Now you’re finally talking my language, college boy!” Maxson replied with bravado.
Tyler began to rummage through drawers of a desk that was in the corner. Maxson continued to inspect the car and noticed the roll cage inside of it. Much attention detailed had been put into the vehicle and it was clear to him that somebody loved it dearly. The owner of the vehicle must have been dead to leave such a beautiful vehicle behind and Maxson made peace to their spirit by promising to take good care of it.
“Bingo!” Tyler lifted a set of keys that had a Comanche logo keychain attached. He gave them to Maxson, by tossing them over to him. “You can do the honors.”
Maxson caught the keys and hopped into the driver seat with a
n unnatural feeling inside. It had been so long that it took him a moment to realize that he was feeling excited. With the keys now in the ignition, Maxson turned them to start the engine. It squealed and moaned as it tried to start, but Maxson gave up fairly fast when he realized the issue and also why he never allowed himself to become excited.
Nothing works out. Nothing ever works out!
“Maxson, you fool,” Maxson softly said aloud.
Suddenly the same door that Tyler and Maxson entered through, swung open.
In walked Reggie, strutting in like he owned the place, “What the hell is taking so lo–, Damn! Look what we found.”
“Reggie, how much gas do we have in the truck?” Maxson asked.
“You know as well as me it’s difficult to know with this old gas we use, but probably enough to make it home and another stop at Bookers if we had to,” Reggie guessed. There was no reason to go to the pharmacy as it had been wiped clean, but it gave Maxson a good reference of distance.
“Not enough, you’re saying,” Maxson grasped disappointingly.
“Nope,” Reggie deduced why he was asking.
Tyler added his observation, “And the gas station has a sign that says they’re out of gas.”
“I think we’re going to need to come back here anyway,” Reggie began. “We’ll bring some 5 gallons and syphon some tanks on the way next time.”
But I want it now, Whined Maxson internally to only himself before replying to Reggie with a sigh. “Sounds like a plan then.”
The promised land
It wasn’t depression, but it didn’t sit right with Maxson leaving his dream car behind in Greenbrook. Even going as far as contemplating filling the car and towing it behind the pickup instead of the trailer. That wouldn’t be possible though with some of the larger items they were planning on grabbing. He covered it back up with the tarp before they left. There was no need for it to receive any sun damage or become covered in dust. Maxson would have considered that injustice to the beautifully sculpted muscle car. When they returned back to the Parson Farm that night, Achilles greeted them by chasing down the red pickup truck with the trailer lugging behind. The furry beast yelped and barked to show the big rolling hunk of metal that he wasn’t afraid.