Nathan frowned. As he did so, I could see the faint wrinkles that were beginning to form around his eyes and mouth. It was oddly endearing, but he looked so saddened by my response that I felt compelled to say more.
“That’s not as bad as it sounds.” I assured him. “As long as you keep your body alive, I figure that the spirit can always return later. It’s a contingency plan. If the world around me ever becomes bearable later, I’ll be all ready to go. In the meantime, I just have to keep my momentum—to keep pushing myself forward.”
I guess that was exactly what I had been doing for a long time now—just propelling myself forward.
Looking lost in thought, Nathan replied, “Momentum can’t be a long term solution, Tempest. You have to find something to care about or you’ll die—if not physically, at least on the inside.”
“Having nothing to protect means having absolute freedom.” I offered.
“Having nothing worth protecting is having nothing worth living for.” he countered.
We were both silent for a moment. We seemed to have managed to sum up our two disparate approaches to life pretty accurately. And we hadn’t even officially begun the meeting yet. God help us if this was a harbinger of things to come. The weight of this meeting might just form a black hole that sucks up everything around it, pulling us all in. Oh, well. Good riddance if it did.
I patted Nathan on the arm, intending to reassure him and diffuse some of the heavy vibe.
He smiled at me, but it was a sad smile.
We were flirting, which was nice, but the conversation had gotten more intense than I would have hoped. And it wasn’t going to lighten up anytime soon.
“I’m sorry about asking this, but it has been on my mind. Would you stuff her?”
“What?”
“Your Mother. If she weren’t animated. Would you stuff her? I mean like taxidermy—stuff her corpse and keep her around—like a doll or a collectible? A keepsake?”
I recoiled. “God, no. That’s very Norman Bates. I wouldn’t do that.”
A smile gently tugged at one corner of Tempest’s mouth.
“It’s the same thing, isn’t it? You’re keeping her physical body, Nathan, but she’s long dead. She’s just a creepy sentimental memento. Unfortunately, it’s really kind of worse than having a brittle corpse propped up in bed though because she’s a dangerous, animated memento.”
“As I said before, I think that you have to find something to care about or you die—at least on the inside. For a long time, I wanted to make that something my mother. Having said that though, I think you should know that I put Mother down. Her remains are at rest now.”
I was surprised by how calm I was while talking about this formerly touchy subject. A month ago, the conversation would have had me squirming.
“Oh, I’m sorry?” Tempest said, her voice rising to transform the words into a question at the end.
“Nothing to be sorry about. It needed to be done a long time ago.”
“Well, I’m glad then. Relieved. It’s for the best for you.”
“I know. Thanks.”
I knew she was right. I had known even when it was the last thing that I had wanted to hear, and I respected her for having been the only one brave enough to say it to me.
Dave called the meeting to order. As we turned to join the circle, Tempest clasped my hand in hers and squeezed.
The meeting this month was inside a university library. The university had been closed when the first signs of outbreak occurred and had remained largely free of looting. Maggie had suggested it before the conclusion of our last meeting, and we had all agreed, figuring that it would offer a exceptional opportunity for book scavenging.
After a moment of silence for Maggie, the minutes were read, and then the floor was opened. Ron began to tell a story about Tex’s latest exploits, patting the dog’s head affectionately as he spoke.
Almost immediately, Ron was drowned out by a series of cacophonous noises. It sounded like a succession of things crashing, shattering, and clattering.
“What the hell?” Gabe said.
Dave rose and went to the nearest window to see what was happening.
In addition to the sound of things breaking, there seemed to be a low hum. Or maybe it was more like the soft moaning of an ominous wind.
“It should be safe—nobody has been here since the dead first rose.” Ron said.
“Was it empty at that time?” I asked with an intentional edge in my voice.
Still looking out of the window, Dave said “It looks like we’re pretty damned far from safe at the moment.”
We all rushed to the window to see for ourselves.
There was a full-fledged herd of zombies in the yard below us, and they had apparently caught whiff of the living—us—nearby. They were moving slowly because of the poor conditions of their bodies, but they were definitely moving, in mass, toward our location. Some of them were even visibly raising their heads as if they were looking up at us.
University classes, of course, had been cancelled at the first sign of trouble. Shortly after, the university’s gates had been closed. But it seemed that, in the confusion and panic that had ensued when the outbreak first began, nobody considered that people might be on campus even if school wasn’t in session. These people, probably mostly dorm residents, must have been trapped inside the grounds and simply forgotten. And here they were—falling apart—literally. Three year dead zombies are a pretty pathetic lot. But, although they were excessively decomposed, with hundreds of them, we still didn’t stand a chance.
“Shit.” Ron said.
Tex was beginning to growl.
Offering his assessment of our situation, Dave matter-of-factly commented “ We’re going to be overwhelmed and subsequently consumed.”
Gabe looked on silently.
Nathan exhaled slowly. “How much time do you think we have before they reach us?”
Nobody even bothered to suggest that we barricade the doors. The first floor was comprised mainly of glass windows. What the hell had we been thinking, really? Greed was the only explanation I could come up with for our blatant eschewing of common sense safety standards. Greed and gross complacency. We had all gotten careless. Seeing Maggie in pieces should have at least put us on our toes, but we had been imprudent and lackadaisical nonetheless.
Our last few minutes before the zombie horde reached us were spent fruitlessly looking for makeshift weapons to augment our normal gear (I had my standard machete and handgun) or hunting for a cubbyhole in which to hide.
Then the dead were at the doors. They had hardly any strength left in their limbs, so individual zombies striking the glass produced little effect. But the sheer weight of them as more and more pressed forward quickly began to crack the glass. It gave under the crush of their weight, and then they were inside.
Nathan reached out and grabbed me, protectively wrapping his arms around me, placing his own body between me and the herd. As a meat shield, Nathan wouldn’t slow that army of the undead down for more than maybe a minute or two at most. But even in the midst of this crisis, I was overwhelmed by that silly fool’s valiance. He was a goddamned comic book hero. I loved him at that moment.
The throng was advancing. The most agile, intact zombies were at the front; impaired, partial zombies proceeded with greater difficulty, often crawling. They made up the rear of the horde’s haphazard formation.
Dave was the first to go down. I saw his arms briefly flailing, and then his body sank out of sight as the sea of the dead surrounded him and swallowed him up.
Nathan had a tight grip on my hand.
“Follow me!” he urged, pulling me toward the reading rooms. As we ran toward them, I heard the sound of Tex yelping inconsolably.
Things went from bad to worse very quickly. I pulled Tempest along with me as I headed for the reading rooms. There was an emergency exit back there. When I worked in this library during college, my co-workers always kept it propped open so
that they could use the exit to sneak out for a smoke.
As we ran down the hall, I glanced back and could see that a couple dozen zombies were already at the glass door through which we had just passed. And one of them was Gabe.
The dead would get through that door at any moment, so there was no time to waste. Still pulling Tempest along after me, I swerved right, then left, then right, and then flung open the exit door.
Our escape from the library had only bought us a momentary reprieve. The herd would track us down again in short order. We couldn’t breathe with complete ease for even a brief moment because there were a few stragglers still milling about aimlessly outside the library.
“This way!” Tempest said, gesturing toward the liberal arts building.
“No, this way, Tempest. I came in the Hummer. We need to reach it.” I pointed toward the parking lot near the student union.
We started to run for it but quickly began to attract unwanted attention. Coming to a stop in the middle of an open quad, we could see that, in every direction, there were three or four zombies expressing visible interest in the two of us.
“Ugh.” Tempest said.
I had to agree. Looking toward the library, I could see that zombies were also starting to reemerge from its front facade. This was bad.
“Run for the university center.” I instructed Tempest. I pointed to make sure she knew where I was indicating. She nodded, and then I made a break for it.
It was like playing dodge-ball with zombies. Thank goodness for their poor motor skills and general lack of coordination. Half of them fell over when they tried to lunge for us. I zigzagged forward toward the student union, ducking out of the way of each lumbering zombie as it began to get close. From what I could tell, Tempest was doing the same.
By the time I reached the nearest side of the building, there was a wall of the dead amassing behind us.There were just too many of them. Hundreds upon hundreds, milling about, looking rank and hungry.
Catching up to me, Tempest stopped, panting, and said, “There’s no way we’ll make it to the parking lot right now. We’ll just have to play dead.”
I looked at her incredulously.
“What, just drop to the ground and go limp?” I asked.
Tempest gave a half-chuckle. “Hardly.” she said. “The zombies would catch our scent in no time.”
“So, what then?”
“Come here.” she instructed. She ran for the broken glass facade of the campus bookstore located at the corner of the student union,. I could see from the carnage that a violent struggle had taken place here. Stepping over jagged glass, Tempest entered and immediately began moving pieces of the slimy corpses, gathering them into a pile.
“Our scent will be camouflaged if we hide amidst the bodies.” she explained.
I nodded. “That smell would camouflage anything.” I agreed.
The zombies were rapidly getting closer and would reach us soon, so we lay down and covered ourselves with the dead.
The zombies were soon all around us.
I knew that I should just keep my damned eyes shut, but I couldn’t do it. I was looking straight into the face of a corpse that hadn’t been alive for some time now. The top quarter of its head was completely missing; in all likelihood it had been shot off. His ears appeared to have mummified. They were shriveled, dry and black. I was sure that if I had reached up and clasped them in my hands, they would have just crumbled away like burnt paper. It seemed strange to me that the ears could be so desiccated when the face was so horribly moist. The eyes had liquefied long ago, yet the sockets still appeared to be goopy and dribbling. Putrefied skin hung from what remained of its forehead and also from along its jaw, dangling there in thin, wet sheets. Slimy, receding lips curled away from the black hole that had once been a mouth; hanging ever so slightly open, it provided me with an unwelcome glimpse into the disease, unspeakable rot, and filth festering within the body. I had to remind himself that this body had once been a human being. The worst part, though, was that my eyes kept fixating on the maggots that were happily worming their way in and out of the rancid flesh of its cheeks.
I stifled a gag, desperately trying to remain quiet as I did so. My stomach was churning. Finally, I had to force myself to shut my eyes. If I threw up, the zombie horde would be on me within moments and would completely tear me apart. I would be completely devoured. They would gnaw on my bones.
My fear was overwhelming, and the smell was unbearable. God, why couldn’t my body have mercy on me and just let me pass out?
The sound of shuffling was all around me. The herd must be passing directly around the piles of bodies beneath which Tempest and I were hidden. I shuddered involuntarily and then prayed that none of the undead had perceived the motion.
I was biding my time and trying not to breath. I hoped that Nathan wouldn’t inadvertently shift or sneeze or anything else to give us away.
The worst part about my situation was that the mound of bodies I had buried myself under had shifted, and now I had decomposing genitals dangling in my face.
Eventually, the noises around us died away. Unfortunately, so did the light.
“Nathan?” I whispered.
“Nathan?” I hissed again. Please, oh, please, could he just hear me? I didn’t want to have to speak any louder.
Then I heard a muffled “Mmmffph.”
“I think this is probably our best chance to try to run for your car.”
“Mmmgkk” he responded.
The bodies began to shift as he slowly pushed them off of him. I began to do the same.
Nathan wiped his mouth roughly against his shoulder and then whispered “If I had opened my mouth, something very nasty would have fallen in.”
I nodded, indicating that I completely understood.
We were both so covered in corpse muck that, if we had moved slowly and stiltedly, we probably could have walked right up to a group of zombies and passed for one of their own. We didn’t test that though.
It was night now, and I couldn’t see very well, but I kept close to Nathan as we ran for his vehicle.
Although no longer as tightly packed, the herd was still ambling around the area. Several of them took notice of our movement and began to lumber toward us, but we easily made it to the parking lot ahead of them. We got in and tore out of there.
Chapter 12
Things Could Be Worse
WE WERE HEADED FOR NATHAN’S place, which was fine with me. I just wanted to change out of my clothes, which were plastered to me with corpse seepage.
As Nathan shifted, a pained look spread across his face. Then I noticed that there was blood on his shirt. Which was torn.
Shit. He was hurt.
“You’re injured.” I said. “Let me see it.”
Nathan winced as he lifted his shirt but said nothing. He had cut himself on broken glass. Around the main laceration, there were smaller abrasions in which tiny fragments of glass were still embedded. I breathed a private sigh of relief. He would be okay. It didn’t look as though he had injured anything vital, but the cut was pretty deep, and I bet it hurt like hell.
“It’s not bad. I can dress it.” I said.
Nathan nodded, going rigid as he tried to hide his pain when I touched around the wound.
“You know, suffering stoically is incredibly sexy.”
“I’m glad it’s good for something.” he said. Then he asked me, “Tempest?”
“Yes?”
“What’s your real name?”
“That doesn’t matter.” I answered.
“Well, that sucked.” Tempest offered conversationally as we got out of the Hummer.
“It did. It did indeed.” I replied. I unlocked the door to my house, and we stepped in together.
We showered (separately, of course) and changed clothes. I gave Tempest a pair of my sweatpants and a t-shirt and then changed into similar attire myself. She cleaned and dressed my wound.
I was planning to give Tempest m
y bed for the night and take the sofa. In the morning, I could take her home or wherever she liked, or she could stay, if she so chose.
She followed me into my bedroom when I went to change the sheets and set out fresh candles, but stopped first and glanced at Mother’s door.
“You don’t want to go in there.”
“Is that where you kept her?”
“Yes. I’ve tried to clean it up, but it still reeks...”
No matter how much I clean, the walls are still stained and caked with textured filth.
Looking at the door somehow as if I’d seen it for the first time, I added “I’m ashamed that I lived that way for so long. “ I surprised myself with my own candor.
“We’re all ashamed of things we have done. Just let it go.”
Then Tempest came into my bedroom and put her arms around me.
We both had a lot of pent up emotions to vent. I won’t kiss and tell. All I’ll say is that our evening suddenly got a whole hell of a lot better.
We fucked each other’s brains out. Oh, come on, did you expect us to just blush and hold hands forever? We’re adults, and there is no tomorrow. We sure as hell are going to live for today.
The first kiss was gentle. Nathan leaned down and softly kissed my upper lip, then my lower one, then ran his tongue just lightly between them. Those first kisses were fluttering. Then we kissed deeply, our tongues passionately twisting and turning tumultuously, like two ravenous serpents, as they intertwined.
I threw myself into it. God only knows I needed something to throw myself into. And desire is like intoxication; it allows you to let go and forget everything else.
I practically tore Nathan’s clothes off of him. He was slim but defined, and I wanted to run my mouth over every inch of him. I had to remember to be careful of the wound on his chest, limiting my nail raking to other areas of his body.
Making the Best of the Zombie Apocalypse Page 7