Survivors in a Dead World

by Gary M. Chesla

  Jim crawled to the end of the building and looked out across the football field. Today it was clear. Yesterday when he came out, there were three of those creatures staggering around in the middle of the field. After making sure his parents weren’t part of the group, Jim sat back and watched until they moved on. He often wondered if the dead had any memories of their old lives. If they did, he wondered what memories the three staggering around in the middle of the field had that brought them here to the football field. The male creature didn’t look like a football player and the two female creatures, even in their better days, could have never been cheerleaders.

  They looked pathetic as they staggered around in circles in the middle of the field.

  Fortunately he didn’t have to look at any of the dead out on the field today. Running from the dead was terrifying, watching them from a safe distance reminded Jim that they had been living people at one time. He couldn’t help but wonder about what had happened to them. It reminded him of what could happen to them all at any time. It reminded him of what the future could possibly hold for him. To think of Debbie or Moni out in the middle of that field staggering around was even more terrifying than having the dead chase after him. Trying to survive was hard enough without having to be reminded ever day of the consequences of failing.

  Jim turned and crawled back to the coal bin door.

  “Hand me Moni first,” Jim whispered down to his sisters.

  Debbie cupped her hands for Monica to put her foot so she could get a boost up to the open bin door.

  Jim grabbed Moni’s hands and pulled her out through the two by three foot opening. Ed came shooting up through the opening next and was quickly corralled by Monica.

  Jim helped Debbie out next and quietly lowered the lid down over the opening.

  “Follow me,” Jim said quietly and crawled out from behind the dumpsters.

  Jim led, Monica and Ed followed Jim and Debbie brought up the rear.

  They stayed close to the side of the building until they made it to the front of the school.

  When the coast appeared to still be clear, Jim led them across Ligonier Street and behind the shrubs in front of the library.

  Monica glanced at the bodies in the cars, but just kept walking and leading Ed between the cars. Ed was curious and wanted to inspect the cars, but Monica kept him moving. They had seen so many dead bodies over the last year, moving and nonmoving dead bodies, Monica like Jim and Debbie had learned to just ignore them.

  It was probably easier for Monica, she didn’t think of the people as being real. To her it was more like walking through a haunted house at Halloween. Jim and Debbie on the other hand knew they were all too real, especially when they recognized them. It had been a long time since they had recognized any of the bodies. The bodies in the cars and the bodies that wandered through the streets were now too badly decomposed to be recognized anymore.

  Next they all ran in through the front of the library. The windows and front door were shattered and scattered across the front lobby. The carpeting in the front of the library was faded and smelled musty from the last year of having been exposed to the weather. Everything in the library was also damp. Jim often wondered how much longer the books in the library would last before they rotted and started to fall apart. He had never been a so called book worm, but he would feel bad when that day came. In front of him now stood the written history of what mankind had accomplished. Information that most people had never given a second thought and just took for granted before the end came.

  Even though he had never come here to study the past, it would be a shame to see all this information disappear. The history of mankind would soon be lost along with mankind itself. What would remain would be in a way, the final chapter in the history of mankind. A large heaping pile of garbage and debris. A rotting pile of the works of man, dead and rotting like what was left of mankind.

  Of course there would probably not be any future generations that would miss all the information here. But he would miss this place when it was gone. He would miss what the library represented, like he missed his past life. Both were now gone and would never return.

  Jim turned his thoughts to the task at hand and had Debbie and Monica watch from the front of the library while he walked each of the aisles between the long rows of book shelves. He wanted to be sure there weren’t any of the dead in here, doing research on how to catch the living, before he let the girls go look for a book.

  “It looks OK but just be careful and keep your eyes open,” Jim said to Debbie as he walked out between the last rows of shelves. “The kids section is in the back on the left. You take Moni and go on back, I’ll keep watch and try to find Ed and Moni some new crayons out here.”

  “Ed likes red crayons the best,” Monica whispered.

  At hearing her name, Ed wagged her tail.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Jim smiled.

  The girls took Ed and walked between the shelves to the back of the Library.

  Jim walked to the front windowless frame and looked outside, so far so good. Then Jim walked over to the front desk and started to open the drawers on the receptionist’s desk. This was where he had found the last box of crayons for Moni, hopefully he would be lucky today too.

  Jim gave the girls, he guessed about an hour before he walked to the back of the library.

  Monica was flipping through a large Doctor Seuss book looking at the pictures. Ed smelled each page excitedly as Monica turned the pages. Debbie was a few feet away reading the titles on the books at eye level on a tall shelf.

  “Did you guys find anything good?” he asked.

  “Look at my book,” Monica said. “Debbie said you would read it to me and then I could color all the people in it. I’m going to color this duck yellow. Did you find me any more crayons?”

  Jim smiled and handed her a pack of unopened crayons, “These were the only ones I could find, don’t let Ed eat them. We’ll find her something red to chew on later.”

  Debbie signaled Jim to move closer to her, “The Shrimp picked this book out first. She asked if maybe we could read it to her each night before bed. I told her that the Doctor Seuss book would be a lot more interesting.”

  Jim looked at the book Debbie was holding and cringed when he saw the title, Night of the Living Dead.

  “We should burn that damn book,” Jim said.

  “If we ever get out of this, I think we could write a pretty good sequel,” Debbie smiled.

  “No Thank You!” Jim replied. “Did you find anything you want to take?”

  “I found a couple James Patterson books and a People magazine I thought would be good. I grabbed a few other books for the Shrimp,” Debbie grinned, “in case Ed eats her Doctor Seuss book.”

  “Talking about eating, are you ready to go fishing?” Jim asked.

  “I’d rather go to McDonalds,” Debbie replied. “My stomach has been growling ever since we got here.”

  “Trust me, you don’t want to go to McDonalds,” Jim smiled.

  “Let’s put the books up front, we can pick them up on the way back,” Jim said. “I think we should get moving. I saw about a dozen of the dead moving around behind the football field. I think we should go before too many more of them show up.”

  “Do you think we should go back to the school instead of fishing?” Debbie asked.

  “No, as long as we don’t see any of them moving up this way we should be OK,” Jim replied. “I think once we get under the bridge we’ll be fine. Hopefully the fish will be biting and we can catch a few and get back before things get too active around here. There usually isn’t too many of those things out until later in the day.”

  “OK Shrimp, time to go,” Debbie said.

  Monica closed her book and tucked it safely under her arm, grabbed Ed and followed Debbie and Jim to the front of the library.

  They piled their books and Monica’s crayons on the front desk and went back to the front of the library to check the street b
efore leaving.

  “Ok stay close to me,” Jim said.

  “Are we going fishing now?” Monica asked.

  “We’re going to try,” Jim replied.

  “Where we going fishing?” Monica asked again.

  “Down by the river,” Jim answered.

  “Will there be fishing poles down by the river for us to use?” Monica asked.

  “No, we will just use string and hooks,” Jim replied as he studied the street.

  “Don’t we need poles?” she asked again.

  “No, just worms,” Jim answered again.

  “Can me and Ed dig up the worms,” Monica asked.

  “If you’re quiet until we get to the river,” Jim said.

  “Yea Shrimp, be quiet,” Debbie said.

  Jim smiled at Debbie and motioned for them to follow him.

  They slipped out the front door and walked close to the side walls of the library until they reached the back of the building. They turned right and walked next to the shrubs and trees on North Franklin Street. They only had two short blocks to go until the end of Franklin Street and the start of the hillside that would take them down under the bridge.

  When they reached the hillside, Jim led them down through the thick brush.

  The hillside was only about fifty feet down until they came to the river. They followed Jim until the bridge was directly overhead.

  “That wasn’t too bad,” Jim said.

  “This is where you have been coming to fish?” Debbie asked as she looked out across the Conemaugh River. The river here was about two hundred feet wide. The water moved down stream swiftly, giving off a hypnotic sound as the blue water flowed down stream and splashed against the stones and bridge pillars.

  “Yea this is the spot, if any of the dead cross over the bridge, this spot is well hidden. If they fall off the bridge, the current is fast out there and they will get washed down stream. With all that brush on the hillside, as long as we’re quiet, I don’t think they will come down here,” Jim replied.

  Monica tugged on Jims pant leg.

  “What is it Moni?” Jim asked.

  “Can me and Ed dig for worms now?” she whispered.

  “OK,” Jim answered, “but just stay under the bridge.”

  “OK,” Monica smiled and started to run around overturning stones. Unlike most little girls, she didn’t mind bugs and worms and soon came back with two hands full of wiggling night crawlers.

  Debbie moved away as Monica got close. She tried not to let Monica know she was afraid of worms or Monica would probably take a pocketful of worms back to their room to torment her with all night.

  Jim took the worms and started to put them on the hooks attached the end of the string he pulled out of his pocket.

  He tossed the end of one line in the water and handed the other end to Debbie. Unlike Moni, Jim knew Debbie was afraid of bugs and worms.

  “Want me and Ed to get more worms?” Monica smiled.

  Jim laughed quietly, “OK, just stay under the bridge.”

  “All right!” Monica said and took off to find more worms.

  “Shrimp and her worms, she should have been a boy,” Debbie grinned.

  “If you’re nice, I could probably get her to bait your hook for you,” Jim said in a threatening voice.

  Debbie smirked.

  They spent the rest of the morning fishing under the bridge. Jim and Debbie caught seven fish, Monic and Ed got muddy.

  They had a productive morning. They all enjoyed being out of the school building and sitting by the river, listening to the sound of the water.

  Jim was starting to think how much he was enjoying today’s trip when he heard Ed whine.

  Jim looked at Debbie. This was the first sound Ed had made today.

  Jim quickly turned to locate Ed and Monica.

  Before he saw Monica, he heard the first thud.

  Jim looked in the direction of the sound in time to see Monica, who was busy digging in the mud, look up. Terror filled her eyes as a grotesque body hit the ground a few feet away from her.

  Then the groaning started from on the bridge above them.

  Jim pulled an old plastic bag out of his pocket and tossed it towards Debbie. “Put the fish in the bag,” he said urgently.

  Jim ran over under the edge of the bridge.

  Monica and Ed had wandered twenty feet out from the side of the bridge.

  Jim looked up to see dozens of mangled faces staring down over the side of the bridge at Monica.

  More bodies began to fall and bounce on the ground between him and Monica.

  Ed was getting nervous and began to tug against her rope.

  The first few bodies broke their arms and legs as they hit the ground. They thrashed around frantically on the ground, trying to get at Monica, but were unable to do much more than thrash around in the mud.

  “Moni,” Jim called out.

  Monica’s eyes slowly moved from the bodies in front of her and looked at Jim.

  “Stay there and hang on to Ed,” Jim said. “OK?”

  Monica nervously shook her head up and down, pulled Ed close to her and picked her up.

  The puppy wiggled around nervously as Monica clutched Ed against her body.

  Jim glanced back at Debbie. She was standing, holding the bag of fish and looking nervous.

  Jim signaled her to stay there.

  He edged closer to the concrete bridge pillars as he studied the dead above.

  Then he made a dash out to Monica and scooped her and Ed up in his arms.

  The dead were now even more agitated, seeing both Ed and Monica below them.

  The number of dead bodies falling off the bridge began to increase alarmingly.

  The bodies that hit the ground were mangled from the fall, but the bodies that began to land on top of the other bodies were not as badly broken up.

  They began to crawl towards Jim.

  Jim couldn’t see how many of the dead were up on the bridge, but from where he stood, there seemed to be an endless supply of them pushing up against the railing above.

  Three bodies were dragging themselves closer.

  A fourth body struggled and finally managed to get to its feet.

  The barrier between him and Debbie was growing larger.

  More of the dead were crawling away from the growing pile of bodies, coming for Jim and Monica.

  Jim looked up and made a dash for the cover of the bridge.

  He almost fell and dropped Monica and Ed when a body fell right in front of him.

  He dodged to the right and got back under cover of the bridge.

  Jim ran over to Debbie and set Monica down.

  “We have to get out of here,” Jim said.

  “No Shit,” Debbie replied.

  “Take Moni and wait over under the other side of the bridge,” Jim instructed, “we are going to have to go out that side. Just go there and wait until I tell you to run.”

  “Where the hell am I going to run?” Debbie asked, wide eyed.

  “We’re going to run out that way about a hundred yards,” Jim said pointing. “We should be able to go up over the hill and get up to Walnut Street and come up behind the football field.”

  “OK, let’s go,” Debbie replied.

  “I’m going back out there and make sure the dead watch me and stay on this side of the bridge so they won’t see you running out that way,” Jim said.

  “No damn way,” Debbie yelled back, “You’re coming with us.”

  “Watch your mouth Debra Ann,” Jim said.

  Debbie looked startled, he hadn’t called her Debra Ann since they were little.

  “Now stand here and wait for me to tell you to run,” Jim ordered. “I’ll catch up with you and Moni before you get very far. And don’t lose Ed.”

  Debbie nodded.

  Jim ran back to the other side of the bridge.

  There were now seven bloody bodies crawling towards him. Two more bodies staggered awkwardly, but kept falling over
the bodies on the ground.

  Jim picked up a hand full of stones and started pelting the bodies trying to get at him.

  He moved along the concrete pillars, dodging the arms reaching up from the ground where the bodies were piling up.

  Jim looked up and started yelling at the dead above.

  For effect, he threw two stones at the ugly faces staring down at him.

  The groaning again started getting louder as the avalanche of dead bodies began again.

  Jim looked over at Debbie, “Run now!”

  Debbie looked hesitant, but clutched Ed in her left arm and pulled Monica with her right hand as they began to run.

  Jim used three larger stones to knock down the three bodies that had managed to get to their feet, then he began to run for his life.

  He hoped all the dead were now at this side of the bridge. He didn’t bother to look as he shot out from under the other side of the bridge.

  He held up his hands to swat the branches of the shrubs and small trees away from his face that covered the hillside on this side by the bridge as he ran after the girls.

  He caught up with Debbie and Monica a few minutes later as they struggled to make their way through the thick brush.

  When he reached Debbie he said, “You can slow down now.”

  “Won’t they be right behind us?” Debbie answered glancing back through the brush.

  “They’ll try,” Jim replied, “but I think most of them will be pretty messed up from jumping off the bridge. Even the ones that can manage to get to their feet won’t be able to follow us through this brush. Just keep moving. As long as we don’t run into any more of them up on Walnut Street, we should be OK.”

  “Shit, they scared the hell out of me,” Debbie said.

  “Tell me about it,” Jim smiled feeling better to be moving away from the dead. The sound of the dead’s inhuman groaning faded and sounded further off in the distance behind them as they moved.