Storm of the Dead

by D. P. Sloan

  Katy then sent a quick text to Gregg and told him that Mrs Smith told them they’ve to go to the assembly hall so that all pupils are accounted for. He quickly sent one back saying that they were heading down right now. Katy replied that she would see him soon.

  She went over to her pals’ desk where they were watching YouTube; various videos were being uploaded with regards to the hurricane outside. Wheelie bins flying down the road, people getting blown every which way they could. Trampolines rolling down the roads. Trees were falling and causing destruction, cars being crushed. By the looks of all the videos the emergency services looked close to breaking point.

  Then she laughed out loud and her pals turned to her and looked at her waiting on what she was laughing at. She stopped laughing and tried to catch her breath, she thought she was about to pee herself.

  “Scotland is trending on Twitter guys! Well the hurricane is anyway, someone has called it, ‘Hurricane Bawbag,’ oh my God hash tag Hurricane Bawbag is the number one worldwide trend!”

  The whole class including their teacher were in stitches. But they put their phones away as they were ushered out of the classroom and down to the assembly. All the classes that merged down there were talking about Hurricane Bawbag. It was literally the talk of Facebook and Twitter. Everyone was laughing. Then Gregg made his way over to Katy.

  “Hey babe,” he began leaning in for a kiss which she gave him right back, “this is mental isn’t it!”

  Katy nodded, “Yeah my mum said the rain is hot as well, a bit like a tropical rain. Have you spoken to your mum yet?”

  Gregg nodded but looked a bit worried, “Yeah she called me not that long ago, actually she called like three times but I missed the first two calls but when I answered she sounded upset, something about my dad being sick and a fall. I didn’t make her out as much because the line was bad, but hey that’s O2 for you. I tried phoning her back but couldn’t get through; I got a voice message from O2 saying engineers are on site trying to fix a mast in your area please bear with us!”

  “God,” Katy began. She gave him a cuddle and stroked his hair, “I hope your mum and dad is okay. My mum told me that my dad went into work – he’s loaded with the flu and he still went to work in this weather.”

  “My dad had the same,” Gregg told me, “Well the both of them would stand outside in the pouring rain. It’s their own fault.”

  Katy laughed, “How long have they known each other? Around 20 years or something? I mean best of mates and they work together and we are dating. It practically makes us family.”

  Gregg laughed, “Well Mrs Katy Summers has a nice ring to it don’t you think?”

  Katy smiled and gave him a long lingering kiss. Just then his phone went again. He pulled it out of his pocket – it was his mum.

  “Hi mum,” he answered smiling at his girlfriend, “what’s up?”

  His eyes went wide and he went as white as a ghost. Katy reached forward and grabbed his hand squeezing it tightly.

  “He did what?” he shouted, “right mum calm down. I’ll come home straight away! Mum I don’t care if there is a storm out there; he has no right attacking you. I’ll be home soon. Have you called the police? What do you mean the emergency services are pushed to the limit with this bawbag of a storm?”

  Katy watched as her gorgeous boyfriend became angry, the first time she had ever saw him get angry. He stood up screaming down the phone at his mum.

  “It’s a bloody storm how the Hell are the emergency services stretched to breaking point mum! Listen I’m heading home now. Yes, I’ll be walking. Yes, I’ll be fine. Look I’ll see you soon mum. Where is dad anyway do you know? He ran away after he fell what the Hell! Ok be home shortly mum love you, oh and keep the door locked at all times in case he comes back.”

  He hung up the phone and turned to his girlfriend, “I have to get home babe.”

  She smiled at him and he smiled back, “You’ll have to try and sneak out, you know the teachers don’t want us to leave the school until the worst of the storm has passed.”

  He nodded, “I know babe, but I’ll sneak out the first chance the teachers’ backs are turned.”

  Katy turned and looked at the teachers all standing down at the front of the assembly hall. She then turned back to Gregg, “Go now, if they stop you say you are going to the toilet. They aren’t going to follow or check on you.”

  He smiled, reached over and grabbed her, holding her tight he planted a warm kiss on her lips. She held him tightly, “I love you so much Katy. Listen I’ll phone you once I get home so you know I’m okay.”

  She nodded and with that he sneaked off out the assembly hall, passed the main door and she watched him leave through the fire exit. For a few minutes something in the pit of her stomach told her to be afraid, she didn’t know what it was but it was like a warning going off that something bad was going to happen.

  CHAPTER 8

  DECEMBER 8TH 2011

  Steve sat in the corner chewing on a piece of Kenzie’s intestine, blood splattered all over his face and clothes, what human form Steve was before had all but gone now. Blank glazed over eyes – dead eyes, his skin was turning a weird yellow colour. He could not speak normal now all he could do was groan. He sat there on the floor chewing the intestine as though it was a pork sausage, then he heard groaning. He looked up and watched as the body of Kenzie the nurse sat up into a sitting position, the hole in her mid-area started spilling out around her. The gaping hole where her tongue used to be housed poured of blood as she groaned out loud. Steve groaned back and began to shuffle to a standing position. He shuffled over to the nurse groaning as he went and reached out his hand to her which held her intestine. Kenzie looked at it and grabbed it off of him; she raised what was left of the organ to her mouth and began to eat it. Steve shuffled back and watched as she chomped down on her own organs.

  The minced-up intestine made its way down her throat and what was left of her stomach, it then started to spill out and down onto the floor. Kenzie looked down and groaned, “More foooooodddddd.”

  With that said both Steve and Kenzie shuffled out of the room and into the main corridor. No one was insight as they both shuffled down the corridor. As they neared the main entrance, people were busy rushing about trying to stay out of the storm that was ripping the streets apart. Cries of, ‘the rain – it’s burning me!’ and, ‘What the Hell is going on?’ both Steve and Kenzie, looked about with their dead eyes and groaned loudly before pouncing on unexpected members of the public. Biting, ripping, and tearing at the human flesh that was standing in front of them.

  Screams ran out in the hospital, screams of pain, of death. Security began to rush Steve and Kenzie, only to fall at their feet. A receptionist dialled directly to the police only to have an automated voice tell her, ‘All our staff are currently busy with the current storm situation. Please leave a message with a contact telephone number and we will get back to you as soon as possible.’

  People began to take a chance outside with the storm by running out the main doors. Within minutes they were blown over or hurt with flying debris. Steve and Kenzie feasted on the bodies lying about or trying to hide.

  It was carnage. Screams of pain, of torture. The smell of fear, of death lingering in the air. Steve growled over the deathly silence, put both hands in the air and let out an almighty cry.

  A cry of pain – no a cry of success, then all around him the bodies that he and Kenzie feasted on began to shake and shiver. The dead began to move. The injured that didn’t die but were only bitten watched in horror as loved ones, as friends, as colleagues began to rise and move about.

  The dead were coming back to life and were led by Steve and Kenzie.

  They all turned on the injured and began feeding on them, making them stronger, faster. The hospital known to a few as the death star was now simply – the dead zone.

  CHAPTER 9

  DECEMBER 8TH 2011

  Gregg snuck out of the fire exit with his hood ov
er his head tied on tightly, his jacket fastened all the way up to the top, gloves on and now he ventured out and battled through the wind and rain that engulfed him straight away. He noticed trees uprooted, rubbish flying about everywhere. The rain bounced off the ground and the wind got wilder as he left the school grounds, he battled his way down Kinfauns drive, his hands buried deep into his pockets and his hood drawn tightly around his head.

  He remembered what his mum said about the rain burning her. He tried running down the street but the wind was way too powerful, for every step he took, he was blown back five. He watched as tree branches cracked and fell on parked cars. But still he battled onwards to his house. He got to the top of Peel Glen Road and just as he crossed the road in front of the funeral directors he turned and looked down the road, just before the dental surgery, a man was screaming in pain as two other people – a man and a woman, were on top of him and from Gregg’s point of view looked like they were biting him.

  Gregg stopped dead in his tracks and through the howling wind and the powerful rain he yelled with all his might, “Hey you two. Leave him alone!”

  The man and woman stood up and slowly turned to stare up the road at the schoolboy. The man that lay on the ground started to crawl backwards before getting up and running down the street away from the couple.

  Gregg watched as the couple opened their mouths and let out an almighty scream before walking fast up the road towards Gregg.

  “You….you just stay there,” Gregg shouted, “don’t come any closer!”

  But the couple didn’t listen, as they neared the boy they both yelled, “Foooooddddddddddd!”

  Gregg’s eyes went wide with fright as the couple continued to shuffle towards him. He just shook his head, turned and began running down the rest of Kinfauns drive past the primary school and down past St Mark’s church. The wind and rain held him back at a steady pace but he was making progress. He looked behind him and saw the couple shuffle towards him, still a bit of a distance behind him, but they were certainly following him.

  Gregg heard screams coming from all around him, from houses in each of the tenements, too the derelict fields across the road from him.

  Screams mixed with the howling wind and the rain bouncing off the ground made for a very weird situation he was in.

  Gregg turned and still saw the couple shuffle down the road towards him. He tried to pick up speed but the wind just kept him back. He continued his journey to his house and climbed the stairs into the close. When he entered, he heard screams, screams coming from his neighbours – on the ground floor and up the stairs as well. He stood at his front door, fumbled for the keys but then the door opened – slowly. He raised a hand and pushed it a bit more before stepping through into the hallway.

  “Hello mum?” He called, “Mum it’s me Gregg are you in here?” he closed over the front door and walked into the living room first but no one was there. He walked back out into the hallway, had a quick check of the kitchen and yet again saw nothing. Then he walked up the hallway and saw the bathroom or what was left of it. He peered in and saw that the door had been clawed and scratched and what looked like blood all over it. He knew then that his mum was telling the truth. He backed out and walked up to the bedrooms firstly his bedroom. Walking in he looked around, his bedroom was unscathed, not disturbed and left the way he left it when he left for school that morning. He turned around and entered his parents’ bedroom. There sitting on the bed rocking back and forth was his mum.

  He walked over to her and stood in front of her, “Mum. Are you okay?”

  “It…..it bur…..burns,” his mother stuttered still rocking back and forward.

  “What burns mum?” he asked bending down to a kneeling position.

  “My…..my skin……so wet……but it’s……it’s burning,” his mum stuttered again.

  Gregg reached out and stopped his mum rocking back and forward. He held her hand and then her arm; he rolled her sleeve up on her right arm and touched her skin.

  “Mum you are so cold!” he told her.

  “So…..so cold,” she stammered, “So cold and hungry!”

  Gregg looked up to her face, “Hungry?”

  “So, so hungry want food,” she replied.

  Gregg stood up, “I’ll make you something okay. What do you want? Toast? A sandwich?”

  She didn’t answer; instead she just started rubbing her arms again. Gregg nodded and turned, leaving the room. He headed down the hallway to the kitchen. He pulled out the bread, turkey ham and butter, and then reached for a knife. He buttered some bread before put some ham on the pieces. He began cutting them in half when he was interrupted by his mother standing at the kitchen doorway.

  “Mum you startled me,” Gregg began, “I’ve got you a ham sandwich here.”

  His mother didn’t look up; she just stared at the floor, her hair covering her face. Then she uttered the word, “Foooooooooodddddddddd!” she craned her head upwards, saliva pouring down from her opened snarling mouth. She began cocking her head to each side as it began to make cracking noises, “Fooooooddddddddd,” she screamed again.

  Gregg backed away towards the kitchen sink behind him, grasping hold of the knife he used to cut the sandwich, “Mum what’s wrong with you?”

  But he got no answer, instead his mother shuffled into the kitchen towards him moaning and groaning. She looked up at him through wet hair that clung to her face, opened her mouth and let out an almighty scream before rushing towards her son. Gregg looked startled as she was on him within seconds, but then she let out another scream, this time a scream of pain as the knife that Gregg held – was now deep in her stomach. She fell back, falling onto the kitchen floor. Twisting and rolling about, the knife digging deeper, and deeper into her flesh. She screamed and screamed and Gregg began to go a nice shade of white.

  The moment came when his mother lay still, not moving and not screaming. Gregg threw up a little in his mouth before swallowing again. He waited a few moments before stepping over her body to go retrieve his phone from the bedroom. Just as he stepped over his mother’s body – her eyes shot open and she grabbed hold of his leg. Gregg screamed.

  “Mum let me go, please mum let me go!” he cried, trying to shake her off.

  She snapped and snarled and tried to scratch and claw at her son.

  “Mum please what’s got into you?” Gregg cried.

  But his mum didn’t listen all she kept saying was, “Foooooddddddddddd!”

  Gregg shook his head before raising his free foot and bringing it forcefully down on his mums’ head. Once, twice, three times before it finally caved in, bone and head meat spilled out surrounding him, his mother in a puddle of her blood. Gregg shook his leg free from his mothers’ cold icy and now dead hands and moved into the hallway. He stumbled backwards and fell to the floor, pulling his knees up to his chest. He began to cry.

  He tried to take it all in, his mother tried to attack him, he stabbed her, and she fell only to then try to attack him again, screaming for food, before he caved her head in. His father attacked his mother before falling out the bathroom window, only to get up and run away. People were eating another human being in the street before turning their attention onto him.

  He tried to digest everything, take in everything that had happened since leaving for school this morning, but just couldn’t figure it out.

  Tears started rolling down his face before he got up and walked down the hallway and into his parents’ bedroom to retrieve his mobile phone. He walked over to the window and stared out at the greyness of his hometown.

  The darkness brought on by the hurricane, he watched as bins flew down the roads and pavements spilling rubbish everywhere.

  Watched as cars were crushed by falling trees and slates from roofs. Then he saw people shuffling down the road, over into the empty fields where once there stood houses. He heard screams and groans. He unlocked his phone and dialled Katy’s number; the number rang out for a few seconds before it connected.<
br />
  “Hey babe how’s your mum?” Katy asked happy to hear her boyfriend.

  Gregg sniffled and then muttered, “Mum’s dead. I killed her.”

  For a few seconds the phone line was silent before Katy asked, “What? What do you mean? Dead? What happened?”

  “She…..she tried to eat me I think,” Gregg replied, “She came at me groaning only one word – food, before attacking me. I stabbed her and thought that was it. But she, she – she came back to life and I caved her head in. Katy, I don’t know what the Hell is going on but outside I saw people eating another person. They, they – they chased me but I got away.

  Outside is crawling with people groaning and screaming for food. I’m going to stay here for a while till at least the storm fades away but please Katy stay in the school, stay safe something weird and bad is happening outside and I don’t know what it is. I’m going to barricade the front door and make sure all windows and the balcony are securely locked tight I love you honey.”

  Katy took it all in before nodding as if Gregg would see it then simply replied, “I love you too stay safe and take care.” She came off the phone and stood up from her chair in the assembly room and walked down to the front to speak to the teachers. She pulled the headmaster to one side and told him what Gregg had told her – not all of it. The headmaster looked puzzled yet intrigued to the point where he pulled out his phone to read the news online. His eyes went wide with shock as he read the stories:

  ‘Southern General under attack’

  ‘People attacking and eating other people’

  ‘Storm causing chaos’

  ‘People going crazy’

  “What the Hell is going on here?” the headmaster said bewildered. He looked up at the hall full of school pupils, breathed out a sigh, “Listen up students.”

  Katy turned around and watched as the rest of the school stopped talking, stopped looking at their phones and updating their statuses on Facebook and Twitter to listen to the head teacher.