Eves of the Outbreak

by Lilith Assisi

  Chapter 18

  Judy took a stance behind her brother’s right side as he reached for the doorknob. He twisted it, and exchanged another nervous glance at his sister as it turned without impendence. The door was unlocked.

  Greg pulled out his gun but kept it pointed down, and then slowly pushed the door open the rest of the way with his foot. He crossed the threshold silently.

  Judy followed closely at his heel as they walked forward in to the darkened home. She went for the light switch but tapped her brother on the elbow to point at the switch first before flipping it. He nodded at her and turned back around, ready for whatever the light might reveal, or startle.

  The lights went on, and the familiar whitewashed walls and beige carpet of the entry hallway stood in front of them. Looking to the right Judy saw the kitchen, which looked untouched and exactly how she remembered it, exactly how it always looked. All the countertops were clear, her mother preferring to keep all the appliances and kitchenware tucked away, making the room look like it was never used. Judy always felt uncomfortable with clutter and used dishes, as well as other signs of habitation strewn about in plain view in anyone’s homes, probably a result of inheriting some of her mother’s taste.

  With the kitchen in pristine form, the two headed towards the living room on the left. Just then a thud resounded from down the hall. Judy and Greg jumped in unison, glancing towards where the noise had come from. It sounded like it had come from their mother’s bedroom.

  Greg tried to ignore the noise for the moment, not wanting to be caught by surprise by something he overlooked while heading towards the noise. He glanced in to the living room, Judy peering around his shoulder. The TV was broken and resting on the floor, but there was no sign of movement or other damage.

  Turning back towards the hallway, the siblings continued forward. The first door on the right was an open entryway in to the dining room, which connected with the kitchen they had already walked past. Greg did a quick sweep of the room and came back to join Judy.

  Another thud coming from the door at the end of the hallway kept Judy’s attention focused forward. Luckily for her, Greg was smart about these situations and had been in worse in the Middle East. Keeping his wits about him, he still didn’t let the noises from down the hall distract his sweep of the house. He stopped at the next closed door on the right just after the dining room, the one to the bedroom of Judy’s youth. The door was shut.

  Turning his back to the third thud heard down the hall, Greg stared at Judy. He placed a finger to his lips to silence Judy, and then slowly moved his hand away from his mouth back to the door handle in front of him. Gun still at the ready, he carefully timed a quick opening of the door with another thud from down the hall.

  Judy flicked the light on at almost the same instance, and the room appeared empty. Judy’s childhood posters were still on the wall, her dusty old science kit still sitting on top of her dresser.

  The two directed themselves back towards the hallway and continued on.

  The next door on their left was propped open, revealing Gregory’s childhood bedroom. This one was adorned with model planes and posters from military movies. Greg turned on the light switch and saw that nothing was out of the ordinary.

  With a shiver of anticipation the duo stiffened and headed towards the last door. The door was just before the sliding doors to the backyard. It was to their mother’s bedroom.

  Their mother’s, not their parents’, seeing as their father had died in a car accident when they were still in primary school. Their mother had raised them alone, and with intensity. She was always worried her children would have deficits from their lack of a father figure, and as a result she dedicated her life to giving her children as many opportunities as she could. Her bedroom door was rarely shut when they were growing up. Their mother had always wanted her children to feel they could access her for anything at anytime. And she had also been a strong presence for them, breaking social norms in order to fulfill the role as father concurrently, their mother was also the bread winner and the enforcer of the family.

  Judy had felt at unease ever since entering the house, but being here in front of an uncharacteristically shut bedroom door, her apprehension tripled. There were still thuds coming from behind the door.

  Being this close to the door, one could even see tiny vibrations spreading through its surface with each thud. Someone, or something, was on the other side of this door, and these pathetic thumps were the best they could achieve at trying to get out.

  Silently, as with the last doors, Greg positioned himself with his gun ready in front of the doorway. He looked up at Judy and pointed for her to position herself behind him, their backs to the sliding glass doors at the end of the hallway. This time, not wanting to time it with a thud, Greg waited for another thud that sent shivers down Judy’s spine. A second later he quickly turned the knob and tried to push the door open.

  The door slammed in to something hard, only to be crashed back shut, followed by moans, groans, and unorganized banging.

  As the door was closed again the monster behind it had become more frantic, emitting a low constant roar in addition to the thudding and now scratching at the door. Judy tried not to acknowledge that she was hyperventilating.

  A higher pitched bellow caused both of them to turn their heads back towards the sliding glass doors behind them, though they saw no movement from the yard. Before they knew it, a cacophony of moans began between the two individuals, one inside the bedroom and one outside in the backyard. It was like a pair of birds calling back and forth to each other, some sort of unfamiliar language the two were sharing knowing those that heard it could not translate it.

  Even after being shoved back in to the hall, Greg was still holding the doorknob tightly. He looked at Judy again and rested the entire weight of the left side of his body in to the door. She could see him flexing his muscles, ready to push it open against the beast inside with all his might. Whatever waited behind the door was frantic now, clawing and bumping against the door as it moaned and groaned.

  “Judy, I am going to shove this door open as hard as I can, and I want you to come in from behind me and flick the light on,” he instructed her. She nodded and got herself in position. She tried to calm her breathing and pounding heart as she braced herself for their moment of action.

  Greg began his countdown. “On the count of three. One…two…three!”

  Greg twisted the doorknob and shoved whatever waited for them behind the door back in to the room as hard as he could. Judy followed closely behind, bringing the room back in to the light.

  Eyes squinting from the sudden brightness, Gregory had rounded the doorway easily and stood with his gun pointed at the now stumbling, moaning man before them. Judy moved behind him for a better view.

  Well, it probably had been a man at some point. The figure was still dressed in a black uniform with an assault rifle dangling around his waist by its shoulder strap. It struggled to right itself on the side of the bedframe, teeth gnashing behind blue lips.

  Judy caught the look of disgust on Greg’s face as he continued to stare for a few seconds. Then he shot a round through the creature’s forehead just as it seemed to start gaining its balance again.

  The body slumped on to the floor. Its movement ceased.

  Judy took the moment to better look at the creature. Just like the victims at the lab, it’s eyes, lips, and nail beds were cyanotic, having a blue tinge from lack of oxygen to those areas. The blood that had leaked from the bullet hole was not quite black, but still seemed a much darker shade of maroon than normal blood. Old wounds covered the creature’s fingertips, and the flesh that hung from them was putrid. The man, and subsequently the whole room, stunk of death.

  Sweating, Greg turned back to Judy. “Well, I guess you weren’t lying or imagining things kiddo.”

  Greg started laughing maniacally, and Judy couldn’t help but giggle. The two of them sat at the end of the bed and looked aroun
d, pleased their mother had not been found have eaten or otherwise deposed of.

  Their mother she thought again.

  She pulled back from Greg and started looking around the room with angst.

  “But mom?” she asked.

  “I know, I was so worried it would be her too,” Greg confided. He coughed as if choking on something briefly.

  “Still, where is she?”

  Judy felt cold as the sweat covering her finally registered the evening breeze coming from the open window in the room.

  Then the breeze brought something else in to the room.

  The now forgotten high-pitched groan returned from the backyard. Greg reached down and held Judy’s hand briefly, a moment of acknowledgement and solidarity in what they had to face next.

  Chapter 19

  Judy squeezed Greg’s hand even harder as he pulled away and stood up. Then instead of heading for the backyard, or even for an escape out the front, he went over to the dead soldier. He gingerly removed the assault rifle from the corpse’s body, and placed it over his own shoulder, holding it like a long-lost friend.

  “Judy, you should take my Beretta. I know I’ve taught you the basics,” Greg said, handing her the gun he had used to finish off the soldier. She took it readily. She was also grateful he didn’t remind her how horrible his training her in basic firearms use had gone.

  “Let’s get a flashlight too,” Judy suggested.

  “Good idea.” Greg stepped back in to the house and returned a couple minutes later with two flashlights.

  Judy saw he had duck-taped a third flashlight to the end of the rifle. He handed her one and placed the third and smallest torch his pocket.

  Turning on his spotlight-rifle combination, the two walked towards the end of the hallway.

  Flicking on the porch light first helped them spot some movement by the rose bushes along the wooden fence in the backyard. The fence had been broken in many places, especially right near the figure moving there. The best description of what the fence looked like was that a wooly mammoth had torn through it during a stampede.

  The back of a woman resembling their mother appeared trapped in the fence. It seemed as if her clothes were stuck on a slab of wood and she could not back away properly without tearing the fabric.

  The back door made a swooshing sound as Gregory slid it open and the two walked step by step together towards their mother.

  As they approached, the horrid moan they had heard earlier came from the mouth of this mother impersonator. Judy felt ears begin pelting down her face. She didn’t realize she was sobbing so loudly, but their mother seemed aggravated by what she was hearing behind her. She continued groaning and trying to turn towards them, still unable to do so.

  Gregory slowly advanced on his mother from the side. She was now frantic, snarling and trying desperately to turn her head towards them. As the beam from the flashlight shown across the front of the woman Judy let out a whimper. Underneath the horrific, dead face, she recognized what was once her mother’s aging and dignified feature.

  Her mother’s eyes were cold and dead, her lips blue. That face contorted as her jaws snapped open and shut at them. The light revealed her torn dress and blood stained front, and they could also see why she was acting as if she was stuck: one of the boards from the fence had been shattered, and a piece still attached to the remaining fence was jabbed through her ribs, pointing upwards and out the back of her shoulder. The piece of wood seemed to be stopping her frail and feral figure. The actual appearance of them gave her some extra strength, and Judy heard the sound of tearing flash as her mother reached towards her, her arms outstretched for a tearful embrace.

  Next to her Judy heard Greg’s rifle shaking in his hands. The two of them were speechless as they gazed upon the woman who had raised them with love, tenderness, and a firm hand, now turned in to a monster that was no longer human, let alone their mother.

  Without thinking about it any further Judy raised the pistol like Greg had taught her. With one quick pull of the trigger the figure in front of them fell limp. Their mother’s arms and head slunk forward as she remained pierced on the fence, a single hole between her eyes.

  Judy dropped the gun, and for the second time that week everything went black.

  Part 4: Isolation

  “Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run

  than outright exposure.

  The fearful are caught as often as the bold.”

  –Helen Keller

  Chapter 20

  I turned the key to the engine of my truck off and looked out the front windshield. Horror struck wasn’t quite the word to describe what I felt watching the scene in front of me, but it was the closest thing I could think of. Shocked, in denial, shivering with antici---pation?

  Students walked across the lawn, chit chatting as they headed up the hill towards the campus center. A middle-aged man was walking his black lab, an IV catheter still in the dog’s leg, around the front lawn as he marked some of the bushes in front of the hospital. There was a technician at the very back corner of the building in the smoking area finishing a cigarette. A group of students at the top of the hill were walking horses from their outdoor pens toward the school barn.

  I was sitting in the parking lot outside the small animal hospital, and as I looked around the campus, it seemed as peaceful as any other autumn day, which terrified me.

  In other words, it looked completely and utterly normal. I have never thought of myself as crazy. Over-achieving, ambitious, geeky, obsessive, passionate- yes to all of those things. But this moment was the first time that I thought of myself as truly, legitimately crazy. Like I must have just hallucinated all the scenes at my house earlier. Sadly that was unlikely, as the last time I took any hallucinogenic was freshman year of undergrad. But maybe the world wasn’t falling apart? There was no zombie outbreak?

  I must have imagined the whole scenario. But then the other possibility came crashing in to my head like a bull in a china shop. Those events I had been a part of had to have been real, since the alternative was I had just mistakenly killed an innocent person thinking him to be zombies. I shivered at the thought and got out of my truck, taking my pack and River along with me.

  Earlier at the house I had followed River back in to the house, leaving the door open so that the zombies continued to follow me in to the house. River and I didn’t pause as we jumped over the body of the dead zombie from earlier, but it did seem to attract the three walking ones. They had all stopped and started gorging themselves on what they must have thought was a smorgusboard.

  With my pack in hand, River and I left them shut inside as they took slimy bites out of the corpse. We made it to my truck and took off with ease.

  Before I had regretted not taking the whole zombie family out of their meat-infused misery, but now I found myself wondering if it had all been a figment of my imagination.

  The toughest part was where to go: grocery store? Police station? I ended up settling on the campus, since it seemed like a safe place. Plus might be a good place to get more supplies.

  On the drive over I had come across another lone, shambling zombie.

  The worst part had been recognizing the zombie. It had been one of the regular joggers in the neighborhood. On many occasions the woman and I had exchanged nods or waves as we ran past each other on early morning runs. The woman was still wearing her black running pants and hot pink jacket when I drove past her. I had almost made the mistake of pulling over to offer her a ride, but River started growling. I slowed the car and saw her piercing, cold eyes as they locked with mine, confirming the fear that had swelled up along with bile rising in my throat after hearing River’s warning cry. I swerved wide to avoid running her over.

  Again, was that the better choice? Or should I have run her over and given her a good death? Better die than suffer in that state, right?

  It’s what I would have wanted for myself. Now whether or not hitting her would have actually killed her was
not something I really wanted to contemplate.

  Eventually I came to my senses and stopped at a gas station before continuing my drive to the campus.

  In all honesty my mind was really lingering on Peter. I tried calling him but there was no answer, and whether or not he had taken his phone I did not know. Despite the horrors I had seen, and not to mention committed today, my mind kept lingering on his eyes as he drove away.

  It should have been making me mad, enraged, and even violent. And I did keep thinking the phrase that fucking bastard fairly frequently. But on the whole I felt weak, vulnerable, and like an empty shell. And like a giant curtain of hebetude was blocking all else out of my awareness.

  Thankfully River seemed to sense this, or at least I assumed she could. She was spending even more time then usual pressed against my leg or in my lap for comfort.

  As I walked up towards the back entrance of the hospital I did notice that a lot of the people on campus were on their phones, several talking rapidly or looking worried. I still didn’t know whether or not I wanted this to mean that I was not indeed crazy, and that there was some commotion going on as people started hearing stories about zombie like people.

  Using my electronic ID card to enter the back door to the hospital, I was also struck by this heavy sense of quiet as the door closed behind me. Normally the distant din of beeps, conversation, and even dogs barking would be heard, but not today.

  My office mate wasn’t in the office. Rather than leave her there, I let River come with me to the break room outside the ICU. I knew she would be well behaved, but it was generally frowned on by the hospital management to allow any dog, doctor’s pet or not, around without a leash. Normally I would have been thrilled to make it through the building and hallways without running in to anyone when I was breaking the rules with River off leash. This time I was perturbed that the halls were literally empty. It was a rare sight, normally one I only witnessed during those three am emergency surgeries when the staff was bare boned and the students weren’t around.