by Josh Vasquez
***
Everyone began to feverishly gather the remaining things to put in our cars. Hailey was prepping our dogs for the trip. She struggled to get Millie, our Siberian Husky, into her kennel. Millie was nearly as tall as Hailey, which isn’t saying much given Hailey’s “vertical handicap.” Opie, a Boston Terrier and Hailey’s dog, eagerly waited at her side. Opie has always been extremely loyal to Hailey, even going as far as allowing himself to be dressed up in pretty pink princess clothes. I didn’t really care for either of the dogs, but I had to feel sorry for Opie sometimes. He was a good and loyal dog.
Dad broke my attention when he shoved a box in my hands. He pointed his elbow in the direction of the cars, indicating for me to follow him outside. Once our cargo, the last of the boxes, was secure, he turned and looked at me. I could tell he was sizing me up again. I tried my best to hide my confusion and uneasiness.
“Look son,” he started gently, a change in his whole demeanor from this afternoon. “This is going to be hard to explain and maybe even hard to understand, but what is happening and why we are leaving is-”
Dad was cut short by the quick popping of gunfire behind us. We spun around quickly to see the same man from earlier who fired his pistol. He stumbled back out from behind the far house, tripping over his feet into the cul-de-sac and falling to the pavement. He scrambled clumsily to get back on his feet, but was unable to do so. If he would have used both arms, maybe he could have gotten up, but he kept his gun pointing shakily in the direction he came from.
A group of four people walked out from behind the house. Their pace was slow and their footing seemed equally unsure. From the distance I was at, they all seemed to be in a daze, but were focused intently on the man with the gun.
He began firing into them.
The only time I’ve come close to seeing people shot was in movies or the online shooters I played with my uncle. This was nothing like that. As the man unloaded the rest of his gun into the approaching people, I could do nothing else but stand there with my jaw dropped. It all happened so fast, but almost seemed to slow down in time.
The gunfire didn’t slow the mob. The man must have been a real sucky shot.
No, there’s no way. He’s not even ten feet away from them. Hailey could hit something from that distance.
I could see blood slowly trickling down the front two’s chests. The man definitely made contact, but they weren’t stopping. Not even slowing down. They didn’t even do the natural human reaction and try and shield themselves from the oncoming gunfire. I could see now that most of their clothes were tattered or torn in some way.
“Back! Back!” The man screamed, as they closed in on him.
The leader of the pack fell to his knees, grasping the man around the ankle. He howled out in agony, as the hand clasped around his leg, and tried to kick himself free. The others followed suit and began latching onto the fallen man. He screamed, fought and tried to kick them away, but they very quickly overpowered him.
They began biting him.
It was then that I realized what was going on. Why everyone was so panicked. Why my family was all wishing Uncle Josh was here and that he would know what to do. It was also the reason my Dad had me strap my .22 rim fire rifle to my back.
Zombies.
II. Loss
“CJ! Get in the house!” My Dad yelled, as he took off running in the direction of the attacked man. He was pulling his Glock from its hip holster, taking aim at the nearest zombie. I froze, not being able to take my eyes off of my father as he systematically dropped each one of the zombies. Apparently, his military training was a lot fresher than I gave him credit for . Each dead freak received a bullet to the head, ending the attack on the screaming man.
“CJ!”
My Dad yelled again and I snapped out of my stupor, spinning around to run into the house. G-Dad was there motioning for me to come into the house. He was yelling something, but sound seemed to fade away and everything fell silent. A last, single gunshot reverberated throughout the neighborhood. I quickly did the math, adding up the number of zombies and realizing that Dad had fired one time more than there were zombies. My stomach turned as I understood that the final bullet fired was not intended for a zombie but reserved for the man who had been attacked.
My stomach began to twist in knots but before I could throw up, Dad was behind me pushing me into the house.
“Alright, everybody,” he started, strangely calm for someone who just shot five people. “It’s time to go. Now. Mom and Pops, you two are gonna get Laura out of here and lead the way. We’ll be right behind you. Just get her out of here.”
He motioned towards Aunt Laura. G-Dad and G-Mom nodded, but I could tell that G-Mom was not happy about the situation. That makes two of us. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Zombies weren’t real. They were video game and movie stuff. How in the world are they real?
Millie was going crazy inside her kennel. She couldn’t decide if she was excited or scared. She peed. I looked around, figuring Opie would be playing it cool as he always did. He wasn’t in the kitchen.
He wasn’t in the kitchen.
“Where’s Hailey?”
My question brought a flash of silence to the kitchen as everyone else realized that Hailey was missing. The silence didn’t last long as the room erupted into chaos and yelling.
“HAILEY!” My Dad yelled.
“Hailey! Where are you?” My Mom cried out.
“Let’s split up and look-”
“No,” Dad interrupted G-Mom. “You two need to get her out of here. We’ll be right behind you. Now go.”
G-Mom started to protest, but G-Dad placed a hand on her arm, assuring her it was time to go.
“Get them to safety Chris,” she said in a low tone.
My father nodded.
“I will.”
With that, the three of them left. I heard G-Dad’s truck crank up and saw them through the back door pull away from the house. My mother was beginning to frantically look around the house, when my Dad stopped her and looked at me.
“CJ. Take your mother and get her in the truck. Remember when I let you drive it around the neighborhood? Get it running, pull it out of the driveway and be ready to go. Get Millie in the truck too.”
I nodded, too scared to say anything. He ran off into the house, calling out Hailey’s name. My mother was now visibly shaken and was crying. Her sniffle was back.
“C’mon Mom, let’s go.”
She whimpered something, but it was unintelligible. I guided her outside and into the front passenger seat. Her movement was stiff and she wasn’t really cooperating. Her eyes seemed to glaze over, as if she was lost deep in thought. I didn’t like it. I buckled her in and turned back to go get our dog.
Millie had finally decided between excitement and freaking out. She decided she was freaking out. She circled around within the medium-sized cage, barking protests. Me and her had not always been on good terms with each other, so I’m sure this was going to be somewhat difficult.
When she was a younger puppy, she made it a habit to always try and get away when I took her for walks. She wasn’t as big then as she is now, but she’s always been strong. Whenever I would finally catch her, let’s just say I made it clear that I was unhappy with her.
She eyed me with distrust as I began to unlatch the kennel’s door. As soon as it was undone, she body-slammed the door, knocking me flat down on my butt. She made straight for the back door and was gone.
“Millie!” I yelled, but it was too late.
Stupid dog. I hope you get eaten.
I stood up, rubbing my sore bottom. There was nothing I could do about it now, and I’m sure Dad wouldn’t be too concerned about the dog. I saw him run from his bedroom to up the stairs. I needed to get back outside with Mom.
She was still in her seat, eyes fixed on something in the distance. There were now more zombies in the neighborhood. Some were being fought off by neighbors, others were… feedi
ng. I watched as our next door neighbor brought the claw end of a crowbar down onto a zombie’s head, caving it in. The claw yanked away dripping in red.
I heard screams from my left. They sounded like they were coming from Ms. P’s house. I looked at Mom and then back at the screams. I had to do something.
“Mom, I’m going to check on Ms. P. Lock the doors and stay here.”
She mumbled something, but acknowledged me as the doors locked shut.
I pulled the .22 from around my shoulder and ran towards Ms. P’s house. My gun was loaded and semi-automatic. For every time I pulled the trigger, one bullet would leave the gun. I’d practiced with this gun many times. Dad always seemed to be impressed with my shooting, saying, “I was one of the quickest learners he’s ever met.”
But no amount of target practice prepared me for what I saw when I entered her house.
She was on the floor, struggling to fight off two zombies. One was fumbling with her bathrobe, struggling to find some flesh to bite into. The other had just sunken its teeth into her arm and was chewing on a wad of meat.
This was the closest I had been to them. They smelled so bad, like rotten garbage. The smell was bad, but how they looked was what gave me problems. They weren’t all decayed and gnarly like you see in the movies or in video games. No, they were just grey, their skin ashen and colorless. Their pupils were a pitch black void, absent of any color. And worst of all, they were recognizable.
The one dining on arm meat was Mr. Zach, a friend of my Dad, who also at one time served in Ranger Battalion. He’d often come over and hang out with Dad. They’d grill hamburgers out by the garage and talk over glasses of cold sweet tea.
The other was a man who I usually see jogging through our neighborhood every morning. He always wore these ridiculously short shorts, that were smaller than anything a grown man should wear. Shorts he was wearing right now.
I knew these people.
I lined up a shot on Mr. Zach first. With his head in my iron sights, I winced as I pulled the trigger. I knew it had to be done, but hated doing it. My aim was accurate; the .22 caliber bullet hitting him directly in the eye socket. I watched as his head rattled back and forth before he dropped solid to the ground. The .22 must of had enough punch to enter his head, but lacked enough to exit. I’m sure his brains were now a scrambled mess.
The other zombie seemed unfazed by my killing of his friend; he had finally found skin and had torn a large chunk from Ms. P’s neck. I fired another shot, hitting it in the back of the head. Its lifeless body slumped over hers. I went over and pulled its heavy deadweight off of her.
I kneeled down next to her, noticing her robe was slightly open. I did my best to look away out of respect and closed her robe. She looked up at me, green eyes wide in shock. She had lost a lot of blood; her skin flushed of color. I felt so bad for her; I knew there was nothing I could have done.
“CJ… Thank…”
That was all she could get out before she exhaled for the last time.
I stood up and left her there. I knew that she would most likely come back as a zombie, but I couldn’t find the strength to make sure she didn’t. I steadied myself on the door frame as I walked back outside. The tears came from nowhere and started to flow freely from my eyes.
No! Stop it! I fussed at myself. There’s no time for that now!
I pulled myself together and made my way back over to our car. Mom was still there, but Dad and Hailey were not. I’d been gone several minutes now; they should have been here.
Oh no…
I checked on Mom real quick and ran back into the house. I passed the kitchen quickly and was going to race upstairs, but was greeted by my father and sister at the bottom of the steps.
He had Hailey on his right hip; she was clinging tightly to Opie. Dad didn’t seem to be bothered by all the extra weight he was carrying.
“CJ! What are you doing in here? Where is your mother?” He asked quickly.
“She’s safe in the car. I came in to check on you. What took so long?”
He looked at Hailey, who smiled sheepishly.
“Your sister had her earbuds in and couldn’t hear us yelling for her,” he said, somewhat annoyed but I could tell he was also relieved. So was I.
I laughed, but I decided not to tell him just yet about Ms. P. He’ll find out soon enough I’m sure. I was surprised he hadn’t already read it on my face.
There was a crash against our front door.
We froze.
Another thud and Dad set Hailey down, despite her scrambling to stay in his arms. She lost Opie in the process, but unlike his canine companion, he stayed put underneath his mistress. Dad unholstered his sidearm again.
“CJ,” he whispered. “Get your sister to the car. I’ll cover you.”
I nodded hesitantly, but grabbed my sister by the arm as a final thud landed against the front door and two zombies crashed into our living room. My Dad opened fire, hitting the first one right in the forehead, but I looked back and saw that four more were now entering the front door. I heard more gunshots behind me.
We ran for the car. I heard screaming from in front of me that sent shivers down my spine. It was my mother. A zombie was clawing at her window, trying to get in to devour her. I motioned for Hailey to stay behind me. I took her whimper as an, “okay.”
I pulled my rifle up and zeroed in on the zombie’s head. The bullet entered in the left temple, dropping the zombie like a rag doll. I picked up Opie off the ground and looked at Hailey.
“Go get in your seat.”
She nodded and went to the other side of the vehicle. I opened Mom’s door and handed her Opie. She seemed to relax and went back into her absent-minded state. Dad was coming from the back door, covered in thick, dark red blood. I watched his eyes go wide and everything slowed down again.
I remember hearing my sister scream and watched as she was pulled away from her door. She was in the middle of climbing into her seat when something grabbed her ankle. The upper torso of a zombie crawled out from underneath our car and snagged her. Dad exploded.
He sprinted towards Hailey. When he got there, more living dead were stumbling towards the fresh blood dripping from my sister’s ankle. My Dad used up all his ammo inside the house, so he resorted to pistol-whipping the crawler on the ground. He smashed the butt end of his pistol into the zombie’s skull, over and over, collapsing bone with metal. There was a sickening crunch and sloshing of brain matter that made my stomach twist for the hundredth time today.
Realizing I froze while watching my father in action, I snapped out of it and ran to Dad’s aid. He was now fighting off the three approaching zombies barehanded. I had never seen him like this. He was lost in a bloodlust or rage. He tackled the closest one to the ground and proceeded to bash its head into the concrete. He didn’t stop until his hands were red in a bloody pulp.
The others weren’t bothered by this at all; their arms stretched out towards him, teeth snapping. They continually jawed. I got to a place where I could fire, but as I put a head in my sights, my Dad got in the way. I pulled my finger off the trigger.
“Dad! Move!” I yelled.
He turned his head and looked at me, his stare of hatred softened. As I raised my rifle again, he grabbed the zombie and held it still. I fired, spraying my father in wet brain mist. I reset my sights and dropped the final one.
Dad scrambled over to where Hailey was lying. He was now covered in blood and organs; the sight of him was disturbing. As she began to settle into a state of shock, he pulled Hailey up into his arms. Tears were streaming hot down my face.
No, no, no…
My mother was turned in her seat; her eyes locked on the scene. She was no longer emotionless, but tears freely fell from her face. She seemed to try and get out of her seatbelt, but it was almost as if she lacked the strength to get out of the car. Dad’s heavy breathing and tears pulled me back my sister and him.
“No, no, not my little girl. Lord, not my li
ttle girl…”
My heart broke. It broke for Hailey. It broke for Dad. The bite kills you, I knew this for a fact. My sister was dying. And there is absolutely nothing we can do for her. Her small face turned pale, as she whimpered in her Daddy’s arms.
After several minutes of labored breathing and small, helpless whimpers, she was gone.
Just like that.
My little sister was gone. I knew immediately she was in a better place, not just wishful thinking, but I knew it to be true. It still hurt though. There was a pain deep inside of me that I had never felt before. I’d give anything to have her annoy and bother me again. To hear her giggle again.
More zombies were approaching. And quick. I looked at Dad who was still clenching my sister’s body close to his. Her little head resting against his blood-stained chest.
“Dad…”
Nothing.
“Dad, we have to go. More are coming.”
He looked up and looked around. There were more zombies in the area and they were all beginning to take notice of us on the driveway. Dad head hung low again.
“C’mon Dad, we have to go!” I yelled, a fire now burning within my own chest.
He nodded slowly and stood. I watched as he went to put her into the backseat of the car. Into her seat.
“Dad! We can’t take her with us! What if she comes back as one of them?”
The slap came out of nowhere.
My right cheek burned from the back-handed strike, but I held back the tears. It stung like crap, but I knew he didn’t mean it. He didn’t. He’d never hit me before now. This was a fluke. This was not like him. It was the grief.
I knew it immediately because he began sobbing again.
“I’m so sorry Son! I’m so sorry…”
He reached out and pulled me in tight. He smelled of death. I let him hug me for a few seconds, before pulling away. The smell was too intense up close.
“Dad…”
He understood my plea.
He reached back into the car and pulled my sister’s lifeless body from the backseat. Her light blonde hair blew gently in the small breeze. Dad took her back inside. I watched as he laid her down in the pantry and closed the door. He came back out, put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed.
“Let’s go Son. Let’s go,” his voice still uneven.
We got into our SUV, pulled out the driveway and sped away from our house. I watched as it grew smaller and smaller behind us. Until finally, we weaved through our neighborhood, losing sight of my house for the last time.
My Dad white-knuckled the steering wheel tight, as he sped out of the neighborhood. His eyes focused on swerving around debris, wreckage, and the occasional zombie. He looked exhausted. His eyes were heavy and his breathing long and deep.
My Mom sat holding Opie tight to her chest, back to staring at something in the far-off distance. Something that never moved, that never changed. I was afraid that she was gone for good, unable to cope with what just happened.
We rode in silence for a long time.
III. Sorrow
It has been three days since we left our house.
Three days since we lost my sister.
Three days since the dead started walking.
We made it to the cabin without any other problems. I think we were able to make it out of the city before anyone else was able to. Our ride was a quiet one. I don’t think anyone spoke a single word. It was horrible. The only thing you would hear was the sniffles of crying.
When we reached the cabin, G-Dad, G-Mom and Aunt Laura were all there. They had made it there safely too and were on the front porch waiting for us. The relived looks on their faces were quickly extinguished as we got out of the Explorer. Noticing that Hailey was absent and the looks on our faces was enough for them to realize what had happened.
Everyone reacted differently despite that it was all the driven by the same emotion: Sorrow.
Aunt Laura put one hand over her mouth and rested the other on her stomach. She sat back down in her rocking chair and wept quietly.
G-Mom, with growing tears in her eyes, walked up to Dad and slapped him in the face. He never flinched as she began to sob and yell at him for losing her granddaughter. I knew the things she said were out of grief, not legitimate anger. I think that Dad knew that too, because once she lost steam after a minute or two, he wrapped his arm’s around her and she hugged him back just as tight.
G-Dad went to Mom and held her as he cried.
Now, in the safety of her father’s arm, my mother finally broke down.
I don’t remember how long we stood outside, but it seemed to stretch on forever. When we did finally go in, I remember Aunt Laura pulling me aside and giving me the biggest hug. She tried her best to smile.
“Have you heard from Uncle Josh yet?” I asked.
“No. Not yet,” her smile slowly fading.
I nodded and wondered if maybe I shouldn’t have asked that.