When the Dead

by Michelle Kilmer

“Here,” Rob nudged her, “you probably want this.” Seeing that she’d regained composure, he gave her back the gun she’d relinquished.

  The Allen’s curtains were all drawn, the apartment closed up tight since they were out of town. It took only moments for the group to move the non-perishables from the cupboards and into a laundry basket that Moira had provided.

  All Kinds

  When things get difficult there are several types of people. To be more specific, three types:

  1. Those that will do anything to keep surviving

  2. Those who have an equal want to live but don’t have the guts that the fighters do

  3. Those that would prefer to submit and simply fade to black

  Ben and Tom Vaughn were in the first category. Isobel was in the second with many of the other residents. The renters of apartments 105 and 106 were squarely in the third.

  Suicides

  The gunshot that the Cabels heard on the second day was Juan Vaziri saying farewell to the newly fucked up world. They found his body in the hallway just outside the second bedroom. Like his security deposit, there was no way that Juan was coming back because most of his head was further down the hall, ruining several walls and doors. Moira said a prayer for Juan while the others went to work in the apartment.

  Ben, Jeff and Markus blocked the windows and doors. No one touched his body because it was too messy to move to the tarp. Isobel and Rob took any food and first aid but also a few warm blankets, a radio, batteries and three flashlights. The supplies were piled onto a blanket to lug upstairs. There was time to grab more but the scene was gruesome and depressing and no one wanted to stay in 106 longer than necessary.

  Before leaving, Edward took the gun from Juan’s hand.

  “Thank you, young man,” he said quietly. His heart felt heavy and sad for Juan but he was very grateful that his death had enabled Edward to acquire a gun.

  Katie Finnerty, a college student living alone in 105, went less messily. She had emptied a bottle of pills and a bottle of alcohol to end her life. Because her brain was relatively undamaged from her chosen method she came back, only it wasn’t a problem for her uninvited guests because Katie was crippled from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair.

  “How’d she end up in a wheelchair?” Isobel asked as she watched the younger girl drag her undead self around the dirty kitchen floor.

  “I’m not quite sure but I think it was a car accident in high school,” Markus replied, he was looking at pictures of Katie’s childhood that were stuck to the fridge. “She didn’t have the wheelchair in all these photos.”

  “We need to get her out of the kitchen so we can search the cupboards,” Ben pointed out. “Maybe we can move her into the living room?”

  “She’ll bite us if we try to touch her.” Isobel shivered.

  “There is no way I am putting a finger on her,” Markus added.

  “She wants to bite us anyway so why don’t we taunt her in that direction? It will be slow going but I’m sure it will be worth it. She shops for large amounts of food at a time to minimize the number of trips so we’ll find some quality stuff in here.”

  Rob volunteered to coax Katie out of the kitchen. She really wasn’t a threat, except to their ankles and the closer Rob stood to her, he found, the faster she moved. The promise of living flesh kept her going.

  Finally clear of the kitchen area, Rob and Ben trapped her in a makeshift pen made out of the coffee table, a recliner, and the entertainment center. She spent the rest of the visit holding her body up with one hand while clawing the air with the other. How desperately she wanted to consume them.

  “Shouldn’t we shoot her?” Moira was looking at Katie with concern while the others unloaded the kitchen cabinets. Edward raised the handgun he had acquired from Juan.

  “No,” Ben placed a hand on the gun to stop him, “that will attract more and I don’t think we should kill anything unless our lives depend on it. We need to stay human as long as possible.”

  Moira nodded in agreement but Edward wasn’t ready to lower the gun.

  “So we’re just going to leave her here to starve? I don’t see how that is more human.”

  “Edward, leave her be. You might need those bullets for someone else.” Moira had stepped in front of the gun to show her husband how serious she was. He dropped the gun to point at the floor and hugged his wife.

  Ben and Rob dragged the tarp of bodies to the basement while the others followed. They placed the corpses in an empty storage unit in a far corner. The tenants had a moment of silence in front of the tidy stack of dead before closing the door.

  “Farewell to all of you. Ryan, Susanne, and you two strangers, whoever you are, rest in peace,” Moira said softly.

  “Look!” Markus pointed out a half-window that was placed high on the wall of the basement. It gave them a view of the front lawn. Their eyes were level with the directionless feet of the dead. Everyone gathered at the small pane of glass and watched for a few minutes until it became too much.

  Isobel felt it routine to mark #4 off the list of tasks. Collect all bodies and place in basement. Check.

  The group went back up to the first floor hallway but, the work wasn’t done.

  “Markus, Edward, Moira, you should grab everything you want and move it upstairs. We can help carry any larger items. Leave your things in the common area at the top of the stairs for now. We can sort out living arrangements later,” Ben directed.

  “I don’t want anything but some clothes, my tea and books, a place to lie down, and my reading chair,” Edward replied.

  “Jeff and I can help with the chair and your bed,” Rob offered.

  “How nice of you both,” Moira smiled and led the way back into their apartment.

  “I can keep watch while you help Markus, Ben,” Isobel suggested.

  “If you are ok with that, away we go!” Ben cheered half-heartedly.

  While everyone else was gone, Isobel found a few precious moments to herself. She sat down on the carpet about halfway down the hall and waited for everyone to return. The handgun was starting to feel heavy in her hand but she couldn’t trust the world enough to set it down, even for a second. She needed a sense of security and sleep, both desperately.

  Last Second Thoughts

  “Maybe we should stay, Austin.” Jill had her bags packed and stacked next to their front door but she was standing in the nursery. The smell of fresh paint, pale lavender, had finally faded from the air just two days prior. It felt like a room now instead of an idea.

  Austin had come into the room. He had his jacket on and the car keys in his hand. “Don’t start with that again . . . please. There is no way that baby is coming out of you anywhere but in a hospital.”

  Jill slowly sat down in the rocking chair and placed a hand on her belly. “Too bad the baby doesn’t know about the world. If she knew, she could wait for a bit. Stay safe inside of me.”

  “You are being weird. Can you focus? The neighbors are going to lock us in here if we don’t hurry.” He extended a hand to his wife. “We should go downstairs.”

  “Are you sure about this?”

  “We can’t risk a home birth without help. I’ve been waiting for nine months to meet our first child. I’m not going to let what is going on outside take this opportunity from me.”

  Really Secured-Access

  The moving of the Cabels and Markus only took twenty minutes. Ben and Rob brought hammers and nails down for everyone to share. The decision was made to board up the doors on the first floor with cabinets, more doors, and furniture from the other apartments. There were just too many windows to worry about within each unit. It was noisy work and it attracted a lot of unwanted attention from the dead outside.

  “Phew. I didn’t think it would take that long,” Ben said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead some forty-five minutes after they started.

  There was one door left, the front entrance, and then the complex would be sealed from the crypt th
at was the world. The Coopers were standing by, waiting for the perfect moment to make a run for the car. Most of the dead had left the front entrance area for the sides of the building but a few stragglers remained.

  “Are you ready?” Austin asked his wife as he grabbed her hand and pushed open the front door.

  She didn’t answer; she only followed him with her eyes closed tight. She couldn’t stand to look at what they were running into. But the cold air of the evening hit her body like a brick and her eyes shot open. An involuntary scream emitted from her mouth.

  “Shhh!” Austin shot back as he squeezed her hand.

  The other tenants watched as the couple finished crossing the lawn in front of the building.

  “I think they are going to make it!” Isobel cautiously hoped.

  “Look! The zombies are moving toward them. Austin better pick up the pace.” Rob was standing next to Isobel at the windowed front door.

  Front Row Seat

  They finally reached the car and dumped the bags near the trunk. Austin took Jill to the passenger side door and, despite his shaky hand, had it quickly unlocked and open for his wife. Jill slowly lowered herself into the seat and closed and locked the door. She watched nervously as her husband returned to the bags at the back of the vehicle.

  The dead were headed towards the car. Austin was able to get the luggage in the trunk and get around the car to the driver’s side door. His adrenaline had kicked in and his hands were shaking more than before. The keys weren’t cooperating in his hand.

  “Come on!” Jill yelled. She was trying to lean over and unlock the door for her husband. In that moment she cursed herself for not getting automatic locks. Her belly was too large to allow her to stretch across the center console and driver’s seat to the small lock in the door.

  Austin leaned down to the window. “I love you, Jill,” he said before breaking into a run. He planned on doubling back when the crowd of dead had thinned out.

  Isobel was pounding on the thick pane of glass set in the front door. “Austin, keep moving!”

  “Where is he going?” Moira asked. She couldn’t see well in the darkening evening.

  “He ran behind the building across the street,” Rob answered.

  Jill was looking around frantically; yelling her husband’s name. Behind the building Austin ran straight into a horde of no less than fifty of the undead.

  “Shit!” He yelled and turned back around. A hand gripped his arm. One set of teeth and then another fell on his jacket. The leather would protect him for a moment but he had to get away so he slid out of his jacket. Free from them he ran back around the building and into another group of corpses.

  Jill saw him reemerge from the south side of the building. She resumed yelling his name but it only drew more dead into the path between him and the car. It seemed that with each minute that passed, another two bodies came shuffling into the mix.

  Austin had only twenty more feet to cover before reaching the car. He pushed past body after rotting body. The moaning was increasing as the dead grew agitated at the passing meal. They became more determined than ever to get a piece of Austin. He made it to the car door but stopped short when he realized that the keys were back in his jacket pocket behind the office building across the street.

  Even if he could make it back, even if he could find the keys in the little daylight left, it would be too late because a set of teeth caught his bare arm. He looked at his wife as his body was pulled to the ground; he looked at her until he disappeared under the dead.

  “They got him,” Isobel said as she backed away from the window, her stomach reeling from what she had witnessed. Moira embraced her.

  Ben moved closer to the door and caught a glimpse of the growing pile of dead, all trying to feed on Austin’s body. “He’ll be covered in wounds if they don’t tear him completely apart,” he observed.

  Jill was screaming but forced herself to stop and mourn silently with hope that the zombies would slowly lose interest.

  “What do we do now?” Markus was sitting on the floor leaning against a wall of the hallway, his head in his hands.

  “I’m not going out there,” Jeff said as he climbed the stairs to the second floor.

  “We won’t be able to do anything tonight. It’s too dark to send anyone out,” Isobel reasoned, but really she didn’t want to go out there either. She hoped that someone would volunteer by morning.

  “They insisted on leaving,” Moira added. “They didn’t listen to any of us.”

  “But she is pregnant. She could have that baby at any moment,” Edward said.

  “We should board the door for the night and discuss it in the morning. It’s been a long day for everyone.” Ben picked up a hammer and some nails. Markus grabbed some wood and they set to it.

  “I’ve got to check up on Molly and Gabe. See you guys upstairs.” Rob trudged wearily up the stairwell.

  Isobel stayed and watched until the last nail was in.

  Unrequited Love

  “Hey guys. How’d it go?” Rob asked Molly but Gabe answered.

  “She ate all the crackers,” he said, lifting the empty box upside down to prove the point.

  “Sorry. I burned my breakfast and my lunch was small.”

  “It’s fine. You can come eat our crackers anytime you want.”

  “Dad! No she can’t! I like crackers too,” Gabe pouted and ran to his bedroom.

  “Thanks for watching him. I’d better go comfort him over his cracker loss,” Rob smiled.

  “Is there anyone alive downstairs?” Molly asked.

  “Three people. But Austin died trying to leave and Jill is trapped in their car outside,” he said sadly.

  “What?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it anymore right now. We’re dealing with it tomorrow.”

  “Ok. Night,” Molly said briskly. She was a little pissed that Rob was unwilling to fill her in completely on the events that had unfolded below. Molly returned to her third floor apartment. She felt sadness for Jill, who had always looked after Molly like a mother; though Jill was more like a sister at only two years her senior.

  A knock on her door startled her from her sorrow. She jumped up from her couch and opened the door, hoping to see Rob standing before her.

  “Hey baby,” Tom Vaughn barely slurred out. He was so completely sloshed that he was leaning on the door frame for support.

  “Tom, I’m not in the mood. I’m never in the mood. Austin is dead. Jill is trapped and I’m alone up here with you.”

  “I’ve got something that will make you feel better.” His hand travelled down to his crouch. “You said it yourself; we got the whole third floor.”

  “That’s not what I meant.” Molly had fear building in her chest. The sadness was making her feel small and vulnerable. She knew Tom could see that. She knew he could take advantage of that and she wouldn’t be able to fight him off. She was trapped now too.

  “Shit I have to crap. I’ll be back,” Vaughn excused himself back down the hall.

  Molly closed her door and ran to pack her things. She found herself praying for Vaughn to be constipated which was strange and made her laugh a little. She didn’t care if she’d have to sleep in the second floor hallway, she was moving no matter what.

  Numb

  An hour had passed and the dead people had gone off in search of easier meals than Jill; a sardine in a sealed tin.

  She had seen Austin when they were done with him. She couldn’t cry anymore, only watch as he rose again, covered in his own blood, to join in the hunt as one of them. She felt nothing; as though she herself had the symptoms of the infection spreading through her limbs.

  Second Floor Slumber Party

  “Edward and Moira, you can move into 206. It’s a bit empty but we can all donate some items tomorrow to help supplement what you brought up.” Isobel gestured to the door across the hall from hers.

  “I’ve always loved moving into an empty apartment,”

 
Moira said happily but Edward looked unhappy. 104 had been his home for many years and it would take a lot to make 206 feel like home to him.

  Markus was about to move his things into Angela Turner’s apartment when Molly came down from the third floor, a suitcase in her hand.

  “Tom is going to do something horrible one of these days and I won’t let it happen to me. Do you have any spare room?”

  “You can take 204,” Markus offered.

  “No one’s heard from Angela?” Molly frowned. She was overjoyed to have the opportunity to move away from Vaughn but she felt a bit odd taking someone’s place that was unaccounted for.

  “Ben and I saw her outside, Molly. She hasn’t left the neighborhood but she is . . . gone,” Isobel assured.

  Rob and Gabe were naturally in their own apartment and Ben and Isobel were happy with their arrangement. That left Markus without a place to stay.

  “I guess I’ll have to ask Jeff if I can room with him.”

  “Neither of you will have a choice. Ben’s place is out of commission,” Isobel reminded everyone. “Don’t try to go in there.”

  Everyone was ready to go to sleep but the zombies were relentless. Smashing glass could be heard down on the first floor. The undead battering on the building had increased ten-fold since the hammering and Austin and Jill’s botched escape earlier in the evening.

  “Let’s gather as much crap as we can and throw it in the stairwell. We have to block it in case they get in and figure out how to climb stairs,” Ben said. “We can take a lot from my place and then reseal it.”

  “There’s stuff in Angela’s place that I could do without,” Molly offered after reemerging from her new apartment.

  When the stairwell barricade was finished, a few of the residents stood around surveying their work.

  “What happens if we need to get out?” Markus asked.