Dead Nightmares

by James Lawrence Jr.

  “Come on Pat, I think it broke his neck.” I got up and saw that Patrick and I were covered in mud, sweat, and rain. I ran my hands through my dreads that were drenched in water to push them to the back of my head and felt slightly relieved.

  We make our way out from among the trees and into the opening. We get onto the street and started walking towards the entrance of the zoo. When suddenly my arms are flung behind my back and thrown onto a wet car.

  “What the hell man?” I said, trying to turn around to look at my captor.

  “Watch your tone.” said a familiar stern voice while holding me still.

  “Crap, how did you know I was here, I thought I left before you saw me?” I said, somewhat defeated.

  Pat watched and tried to plead for me, “Principal Brian you need to let-...”.

  “I was given an anonymous tip from a good officer that some students of mine were skipping and hanging around the park,” He said, as he pushed me into his car ignoring Pat.

  “Officer fucking Jordan snitched on me!!” I cried irritated.

  “Watch ya mouth!” Principal Brian said holding on tighter to my hands, “He is a good man who does his job to protect and serve.”

  The sudden shock hit me, and I struggled, “I GRRR... I GOT TO GO, LET ME GO!!”. The principal laughed a little, shut the door in my face, and turned around to at the other door, whichPatrick went to without a fuss. Principal Brian then turned and leaned against the car and whipped out his cell phone. He dialed a number and paced back and forth.

  I turned to Pat and said, “We got to go, man, as soon as he turns we are going to dip on your door side.” Pat seemed to hesitate at first, but I guess he saw my determination and changed his mind. That plan however took a rapid turn within a matter seconds.

  I turned my head towards the sound of nasty screaming and was instantly filled with laughter and disgust. I saw the flaring of arms and gushing of blood onto the wet pavement on the street. I heard the mumbled, gurgling voice screaming in horror at his own demise. It wasn't dead after all and finally got a taste. That big bastard lay atop the powerless fighting back principal, enjoying his lunch. A broken neck couldn’t stop him from missing his meal. Pat said weakly, “Damn.”

  “We got to go,” I said, while surveying the floor for a weapon. I found a metal baseball bat and a pistol under the passenger side chair.

  “Damn Brian, I didn’t know you pack.” I chuckled a little while examining the new toy. I tucked the gun into my pants and stepped out of the car.

  “ALRIGHT, YOU DUMB BASTARD. IT'S ROUND TWO!!”.I howled. It turned to my direction, growling and angry that I was disturbing its meal and began standing up.

  “STILL HUNGRY!!” I yelled. It let out a loud bellow while charging at me. With a deep breath, I felt for a brief moment an overwhelming power surge through me and I knew that I could not die here. The bat took a mind of its own; homing down the it’s head which made him instantly lay sideways in midair. With a loud BINK sound, it fell silent, but I wasn’t done. I threw a few more heavy hits towards its head and even though I knew it was dead I was still mad for all the chasing it did. But I knew better than to think it was over. I turned my attention to the silently still half eaten principal lying on the ground. I caught my breath for a second and then walked over calmly. I raised the bat over my head and begin to feel the heavy rain beat upon my back making the weapon seem heavier than normal.

  “BAD KIDS!! VERY BA-..” the principal was quickly interrupted with a swift blow that was followed by many more.

  “Let’s go, my brother needs me,” I said breaking into a run. Patrick and I made it to the front entrance and we see a bus littered with kids and a woman screaming her head off looking around. I run over, holding my hand over my eyes blocking the rain.

  “What’s wrong, are you my little brother’s teacher, where is Keith!?” She panicking said, “I...I don’t know. I turn for a second and Kyle, Mike, and Keith are gone. I looked at her with disgust and then dashed into the park with Pat.

  “Wait!! Do you see Keith?” she yelled to me, but I ignore her.

  The Bear Exhibit

  I look over to the gate where Kyle is screaming at the bear to get its attention, but the bear doesn’t care. It is giving me a look that sends chills down my spine. The beast starts to move towards me slowly, eyes glowing red with the intensity to kill.

  My fists clench and I start howling, “ Get Away!! Shoo!! Back up!!” but the attempt fails again. I can’t tell if it’s getting harder to see because I am crying or the rain keeps getting in my eyes. The bear is now about seven feet away and decides that I have had enough fear. It now starts charging at me wildly. I run to the side at the last second and fall to the muddy ground. The bear seems to be having trouble stopping because he slams into the brick wall. I turned my attention towards the gate, which is now reopened for me along with Kyle screaming at me to come on. I scratched and clawed the dark earth to get back to my feet.

  I started running for the gate again until I see Kyle falling to the ground with Mike standing behind his body with a large bloody brick. He turns to me with a crooked grin, and an angry glare then shuts the gate before running off.

  “WAIT!! NO MIKE WHAT DID YOU-...” a long howl of a wolf cuts me out mid-sentence. My heart freezes when my stare locks on with a large brown bloody wolf foaming at the mouth next to Kyle. A second wolf comes up and starts nibbling at my friend on the ground.

  “Get away!!” I cry bursting into tears before a giant paw connects with my right side, hitting me into the mud. My body aches, an overwhelming feeling of fear takes hold as it becomes harder and harder to contain the tears inside. I just close my eyes, curl up and think about how much I wish my brother were here. A low growl charges in closer and closer to me. I open my eyes when the rain momentarily stops beating upon my sore body. My eyes can only focus on a pair of scissors lying beside me and the colorful remains of my book bag. The last thought pops into my mind of what my brother would do. I exhale my fear and inhale a massive breath of courage. A feeling of anger surges through my body, making me feel like a new person. The bear, mouth wide open, dives in for his dinner but is quickly disappointed.

  I grab the scissors and thrust my hand quickly at the bear screaming, “ GET AWAY FROM ME!!” A mist of blood, pus, and mud spray through the air as I scream out in desperation and drown out the bear’s cry of pain. I barely catch its eyes in my quick swipe of my scissors. Quickly, I scoot back and scan the area to see a large tree I can quickly climb.

  The bear goes to the ground and starts violently sniffing the ground looking for its food. I tuck the scissors into my cargo pocket and grab ahold of the wet tree bark to climb. I guess it heard the scratching of the tree because it quickly followed. I thought bears were good climbers, but maybe this one never knew how. While watching its attempts, I learned that it couldn’t move its legs and arms correctly to climb. I reached the top and looked over to Kyle, still surrounded by wolves biting at him.

  “GET AWAY FROM HIM!!” I cried again, but the rain still drowned me out. Getting angrier by the second I look down at the hungry bear down below. I grab the scissors out of my pocket; take a deep breath before sliding off the branch and dive down onto my fear below. I strike down with great force to the head of the unsuspecting bear, and we both dropped to the ground. I immediately scream out in pain, look and see my fingers still inside the scissor loops. They were pushed in new directions and hurts a lot. The bear appeared dead...again.. And with a painful grunt I pushed the scissors further into the bear before slipping my fingers out of the loop. I turned over and sat up on top of the bear and starting sobbing, immediately feeling very bad for what I had done.

  The Zoo Fights Back

  My legs were running as fast as they could but I felt slow somehow. Maybe my heart is not running at the same rate as my legs, I thought. There was blood, the fur of different types and animal carcasses everywhere. I couldn't find the animal exhibit signs and this tirelessly runn
ing was starting to piss me off.

  “DAMN IT!! Where the hell is the bear exhibit!? The rain was making it hard to see. A long howl catches my ears, and my heart aches. I turned sharply to catch the corner where the noise came from, and something ran into my chest pretty fast. I jumped back, swung my bat and hit it pretty well, it dropped immediately. I realized it was a small child about the age of my little brother, but now he’s knocked out on the ground bleeding from the nose.

  “Awee Shit!! He came out of fucking nowhere.” I said while checking over the kid. I turned to Patrick and said sighing, “Can you take him to the car?”.

  “Yeah but why not to the teacher?” he said lowering down and picking up the small child.

  “I don’t want the teacher to call the police and make this more difficult later.”

  I started running down the path and left Pat with the kid. While I ran, I sensed eyes piercing my body from all angles, and I gripped the bat harder as I ran. Something sprinted in front of me and I knew it wasn’t human because it hissed while getting closer. When it arrived close enough, I could see a small fat dark body, it’s long flat teeth pointed at my legs. I swiped my bat with both arms and felt the impact as I sent it flying towards the metal cage of the beaver exhibit. My pace sped up once I realized the sickness has spread to the animals as well. Charging onwards I screamed out to my little brother hoping he could hear me. I slowed down for a second to listen to a response but what I heard back wasn’t a child’s voice but a kid. I turned around and saw this little goat foaming puss at the mouth. Bite marks, black blood, and guts hanging out of its side.

  “Dang. Not the kid I wanted.” I laughed to myself.

  “Ok, time for some discipline.” I readied myself like a batter waiting to strike a home run. It stampeded towards me at unrelenting speed, and I rammed the bat so hard through its head I was sure I could feel its memories in the bat. The sounds of breaking bones rung out the sound through the downpour of rain. I looked down at the slaughtered carcass and then my bat and swung off the dripping leftover memories.

  “GET AWAY FROM HIM!!”, A voice echoes from the path to my right. I could recognize that voice anywhere, and I instantly regained my energy. I broke the corner with a wide smile on my face, but it quickly faded when I saw two wolves eating something on the ground some yards away. I ducked down quickly and grabbed the gun from out of my pants. I examined the weapon and tried to focus. The only experience I have with guns is my BB rifle. The weight difference showed me that this wasn’t a game. I peered around the corner, held out the gun and with the other hand covered my eyes from the rain. With a slight pull of the trigger the gun went off, falling out of my hands onto the ground but I missed the wolves when the gun recoiled. If the goal was to get their attention it worked because they turned revealing their repulsive faces.

  “Fuck!!” I immediately knew they were infected. Their bloody smile opened wide inviting the new food source. I reached for the gun which was a cue for them to dash at me. I held up the gun, and the wolf closest to me bit down with incredible wrath at the gun thinking it was my flesh. I shot the gun, but with my foe this close, made sure not to miss. It went down silently, but the other was not ready to have the same fate.

  I turned the gun to it but it’s fairly large paws brushed it aside and I was instantly knocked to the ground. Just inches before the jaws of death spelled my end, I threw my bat into its mouth. I gritted my teeth trying to hold the wolf in place. It’s rage was acknowledged once it started breaking its teeth to get through the metal bat. The massive weight made it nearly impossible to move this beast off my body.

  “Troy!!” Keith cried in delight relieved to see a familiar face. I turned to see his head peeking through the fence.

  “I’m coming! Give me a second,” I said, turning my attention to the beast itching to rip me apart.

  “You scaring my BROTHER?” I thrust my fist into its chin, and with a whimper, it backed up enough for me to turn it on its back. Its claws got me a couple times pretty good, but it made up for what I did to it next. I managed to stand up and made a series of fast whips of the bat into its head like a drum solo. Breathing heavily, I dropped the bat and turned to my frightened brother’s face.

  “It’s ok man, I’m on your side.” I began walking over and opened the gate after pointing to my little brother to move. He was holding his hand wincing at every other step. My heart immediately raced, I looked closer to his hand, and he took notice.

  “What?” He said panicking a bit in fear like he was in trouble.

  “What happened to your hand?” I said curiously hoping for the best. I reached out and saw his eyes get bigger as I got closer. His fingers looked like they were dislocated.

  “Aw jeez,” I said rubbing my head. They looked like swollen little hotdogs. “Alright hold your breath.”

  “Why-?” was all he could say before screaming in pain as I pulled his fingers to try fixing them. Luckily I managed to do it right after watching this sort of thing on T.V. “I sprained it fighting that,” he said still tearing up as he points with his uninjured hand to the big brown fur animal lying on the ground in the distance.

  “What’s that? IS THAT A FUCKING BEAR!? Did you kill-?” my eyes surveying the scene until they met up with big heavy eyes. “Oh, I’m sorry little bro,”

  “I..dddin’t want to.. but it was mean...” he said breaking down in tears again. I pat his head, “I know you loved bears.”

  No Time To Rest

  We stood there for a good five minutes until I was able to control my crying.

  “C’mon bud, we gotta go. It’s not safe to linger here.” Troy said ushering me out of the gate and onto the path. I saw Kyle motionless, and his white shirt with a lot with bloody holes of where the wolves were eating him. I started to cry some more but tried to be strong. I bent over and picked up the bloody dented bat off the ground and handed it to Troy. He grabbed it then took out his gun and examined it to see how many bullets he had left.

  Behind us, a snorting and grunting sound came echoing from around the corner and Troy broke off in a dash yanking my hand. A couple seconds later loud stomping noises were coming behind us. I turned to see what we were running from. It had large long bloody horns that proudly waved through the air as it stampeded towards us at fast speed. I didn’t need to know anymore to know it was a bull. It was now two feet away but we broke the next corner sooner than we needed to. The speed of this huge beast was too fast to stop and it demolished the wooden framework. It looked unfazed and turned towards us thrusting its body it knew by instinct. Troy turned back and fired a quick round and hit it in the nose.

  “HA!!” He said feeling proud of his shot. The creature looked in pain for a second but then sped up faster in anger.

  “Shit. Run faster, Run faster,” Troy said shoving me further ahead.

  “Keep running!!”, as he jumped to the side behind a wide brown tree. I looked at Troy confused but decided to trust him and kept running. I could hear this huge bull storming behind me and thrashing forward in raw anger. I then heard a loud crashing noise followed by my bro shouting and turned back to check on what happened. I saw this motionless bull lying on the ground twisted up due to some great impact. I could see one of its legbent in the wrong direction. I guess that’s how my brother beat it. I turned to Troy and saw him sitting against the tree, the bat on the wet ground bent sideways and a red and white object sticking out of his left arm.

  I ran to him shocked, “What happened!?”

  “Don’t worry lil bro, I handled it,” he said still wincing in pain and blood running through his arm mixing with the rain. He grabbed the white and ran thing in his arm and yanked it out.

  “DAMN!! AAHHHH!! MAN, ...that hurt, “ Troy said trying to go back to smiling. He tried hiding his arm away, picking up the bat with his right hand.

  “I’m ok, let's go.”, He said pointing forward. I could easily see through his bluff.

  I put my hand on his head and said with a wi
de smile, “Good job.” He looked at me startled, I turned and started walking hearing my brother behind me grunting, getting off the ground.

  We pushed onward and made it outside the park. I was expecting the teacher to be still here waiting with the other students in line or on the bus. Instead I see the bus looking like it tried to leave us but crashed into another car a little further out. There is a small fire dancing in the crash and the sound of screams coming from inside the bus amidst the sound of rain. I run toward the bus because it didn’t seem like a typical crash. I stopped halfway and after my brother got closer to me, he knew why. Strange screams came out of the red stained, broken windows. Outside the bus I could see children huddled around my teacher who was on the ground twitching.

  “Let’s go, before they notice.” my bro said whispering.

  I shook my head whispering back, “Aren’t we supposed to help? They are from my class.”

  He gently pulled me back, “Not anymore.” “I don’t understand,” I said not whispering anymore.

  “Keep your voice down,” he whispered to me, looking back to see if they heard us. “NO. I want to help my classmates,” I started raising my voice.

  “Stop being a brat! Lets-...” he stopped mid-sentence. His face froze and just kept

  looking behind me. I turned and saw pale white eyes peering inches away from mine. My heart gripped with fear, stopped me in my tracks. Parts of torn, missing skin and black blood were streaming down their faces. I could see there were a circle of them around us.

  The one closest to me shouted, “PLAY!!PLAY!! PLAY!!” It opened it’s bloodstained mouth and tried to bite me when a gunshot rang through my ears. It fell to the ground. The others started shrieking and snarling. Troy and me turned and ran. A car horn could be heard in the distance and we soon saw a familiar car speeding towards us. The car screeched to a stop and the door opened and out of the window Pat yelled out, “GET IN!!” I opened the back door and almost didn't want to get in. The one person I could not stand at this moment was comfortably sleeping in the back. “Why is he here!!” I shouted trying to close the door. My brother yanked the door open and threw me in ignoring my screaming. Patrick slams onto the pedal, and the car took off like a rocket.