When the Dead

by Michelle Kilmer

  “Put it down, it’s a dog. A very friendly dog I might add,” Vaughn said, his voice booming in the darkness and quiet of the garage. Molly lowered the bat and pushed the door open. A large, dirty dog stood before her, tail wagging ecstatically.

  “Cute!” Molly ran and embraced Cheddar, allowing him to lick her face and to thrust his paw towards her. “I love dogs!” she exclaimed as she silently read his name off his collar’s tag.

  “Good, you can shake that paw then.” Vaughn had a strange hint of relief in his voice.

  “He knows tricks?” she asked, looking around for a treat or something to give the dog.

  “I wouldn’t call that a trick. It’s more of an annoyance. It gets old fast.”

  “I’ll play with you all you want, Cheddar. Vaughn just doesn’t like anything cute or friendly. Don’t take it personally.” She talked to the dog’s face as though it could understand her but really she was enjoying an opportunity to put Vaughn down in a playful manner.

  “I like plenty of cute things especially if they are willing to get friendly with me,” Vaughn said with a wink as he stared down at her.

  “Don’t touch me with your eyes either, Vaughn.” Molly looked at her shirt to make sure he couldn’t see down it.

  “You’re too young to be a prude.”

  “And you’re old and alone. How is that working for you?”

  She looked directly and defiantly into his eyes.

  Ben wasn’t around. He had left them to check the house. Vaughn wanted to smack Molly for the insult, watch her body fall across the floor but she toppled over without his help. Cheddar had pushed his paw full force into Molly’s shoulder, making her lose her balance. She hit the floor with a thud and burst out laughing. Vaughn laughed too, dissipating the tension of the moment.

  “I told you,” Vaughn said. “He’ll do that all day long.”

  Molly reached out to Cheddar, jokingly asking for his help to lift her off the floor. He extended his paw again and Molly took it as she returned to a more upright position. Molly and Vaughn walked further into the house and Ben rejoined them in the kitchen.

  “That dog hasn’t gone to the bathroom inside at all.” Ben noted.

  “He uses a doggie door to let himself out back.” Vaughn pointed to a flexible rectangle set low in a door at the end of the galley kitchen.

  “It looks like he’s a self-sufficient pup,” Molly said as she stepped over the huge bag of kibble that lay ripped open on the kitchen floor. Crumbs sprinkled the outer edge of the mess like an asteroid belt.

  “I put that there for him you know. And the water bowl too. I’m not a total asshole.”

  Molly said nothing in response. Ben had already begun looking through cabinets for rations and chose to ignore the comment. Three of the lower cabinets in the kitchen were filled with cans of vegetables and fruit. It was Molly’s turn to load up her backpack. Ben also managed to fit a few more cans into his own bag, having to sacrifice some baked beans to make sure the zipper could still close.

  Vaughn switched out the water in the dog bowl. Molly gave the dog a rawhide bone she’d found in a cabinet and pet his head. She bent down and shook his paw delicately. “It was so nice to meet you Cheddar. Thanks for the people food.”

  They climbed back out the window of the garage.

  “Is that dog the reason you don’t use the front door?” Ben asked Vaughn.

  Vaughn nodded. “The world is a dangerous place. He’d meet all sorts of people and end up shaking the wrong one’s hand.”

  Family Reunion

  With Molly gone on an unwanted adventure, no one was focused on watching Jill and the baby. Concern in her had dropped three days prior, when she’d stopped looking for Austin. He hadn’t shown up and Jill was defeated and decidedly saner. No one could be sure why Austin picked that day, that moment, to shamble back into view and back into Jill’s life. From around the corner by the convenience store his torn and rotting body slowly made its way towards its old home.

  “Come on baby. Let’s go see if Molly is back yet.” Jill said as she picked up her child and walked outside to the balcony. “Do you see her anywhere? There’s a lot of people down there but not the one we are looking for.” Jill’s eyes scanned the crowd of undead, searching for quick movements or changes in direction that would signal the group’s return. Her eyes fell on a head covered in patchy red hair and her heart leapt.

  “It’s daddy! Annabella look! Do you see him?” Jill hurried back inside to grab the backpack-like baby carrier. She placed Annabella in it and strapped it tightly to her back. She walked back to the balcony and leaned over the edge. “Austin! Honey, it’s me! Look who I have here!” She yelled as she pushed the fire escape ladder into position for her descent.

  “Did you hear that?” Edward asked Moira as they sat at home in 206. Edward had been reading an old newspaper that had been printed just before the world fell apart. It was filled with stories that didn’t matter anymore, issues that had been resolved overnight, and photos of people that were most assuredly dead or undead now. Still, he found it interesting.

  “Maybe Molly and the others are back!” Moira exclaimed happily as she put her crossword puzzle down and grabbed a sweater. Edward followed his wife out to the balcony. They were speechless for a minute as they watched Jill continue her climb down the neighboring balcony’s fire ladder.

  “Jill!” Moira whispered. She didn’t want to draw more attention from the undead gathering below. Jill paid her no mind and instead began yelling to her deceased husband once more.

  “Austin, come here! Annabella won’t stop talking about how much she wants to meet you.”

  “What is she saying? That baby can’t talk,” Edward said, confused.

  “She’s crazy. Stark raving mad and it’s going to get them killed. Go get Isobel,” Moira said with a slight gesture toward the apartment behind them and hallway beyond. Edward did as his wife told him and returned with Isobel a moment later.

  They gathered on the balcony and called to Jill urgently. She was moving slowly down the ladder but she had finally made it to the bottom rung and let go, dropping to the ground and nearly falling backward onto her child. Austin had arrived on the small lawn that surrounded the building. Jill ran through the corpses that had gathered around her, driven by love and devotion to her idea of family. She continued calling his name and he moved toward her but she was mistaken in thinking that it was his name, or any sort of recognition, that was drawing him. Just as eagerly, dozens more of the undead and unknown were coming nearer, as though they might all happen to be named Austin. The real Austin was three feet away when Jill took off the carrier, set it upright on the ground, and pulled the baby gently out of it.

  “No!” Isobel yelled. “Jill, stop it! He’s going to kill you!”

  At this comment Jill finally acknowledged Edward, Moira and Isobel. She turned to them and smiled but said nothing. They watched, terrified of the reunion below. What should be a thing of beauty and happiness, a family reunited, turned nauseating as Jill presented the newborn child to Austin.

  “It’s our baby, Annabella,” Jill said through a half sob, half maniacal laugh. The baby, its arms and legs wiggling around, cooed and spit up. Its healthy pink flesh contrasting wildly against the grays and blacks of Austin’s rotting hands as they took the baby. There was no fatherly love or care in his grasp.

  “We can’t watch this. We can’t,” Moira said to the others. Isobel and Edward followed her back into 206. Outside, Austin lifted his child and brought it to his lips, not to kiss, but to devour. The oversize knit cap, now speckled with blood, fell from Annabella’s head to the ground. Her blood fell onto Jill’s face and into Jill’s mouth; she was still laughing insanely. Soon the blood mixed with her own, as Austin and the other zombies devoured her too.

  Old Habits

  The Boat House

  The Boat House was full of what Ben thought of as “fancy food”. He couldn’t believe the delicious things he found li
ke sardines, caviar and oysters, all the wine (of which they only took one bottle), crackers, tuna and cheese that hadn’t been covered in mold yet. He felt greedy in the Boat House and he found ways to stuff more into his backpack and the pockets of his cargo pants. He also took a few books from the library including Walden by Thoreau and The Road by Cormack McCarthy. It didn’t make a dent in the collection. The previous residents must have owned around four hundred books. Ben didn’t think it made much sense why the owners of the house chose this area or this neighborhood to reside. Their tastes and income level were above those around them. But the spoils in his pockets made him happy they had settled there.

  Molly was uncomfortable in the Boat House. The stuffy décor, the unused formal living room, and the expensive china, it all reminded her of her parents. They were a well-off and selfish couple with no time or money for her, even when she was very young. They lived across Lake Washington in Bellevue, an affluent city. She wondered briefly if they might be alive but she knew they couldn’t cook for themselves and they would die if the water stopped running.

  Molly, Ben and Vaughn spent only a short time in the house as most of what they found lacked any nutrition. Vaughn led them back outside to the boat that was parked in the driveway.

  “There are more valuable supplies in there. Molly, I want you to climb up and grab the first aid kid, the flare gun, and all the food you can find. Ben and I will stay down here and keep guard.” Molly hesitantly did as Vaughn asked. He stared at her ass as she climbed the side of the boat.

  Inside and alone for a minute, Molly sat down and did nothing. It was a lovely feeling to be alone. No mother and child to watch, no others to answer to. She felt tired from the long walk and lack of food in her stomach. Mostly she felt drained from putting up with Vaughn’s company. She dug around in the cabinets of the boat and found a huge stash of food.

  “They think a tiny girl like me can move around this much and not eat a thing?” she said to the darkness of the inside of the boat. She looked at the cans of food and carefully selected three to eat. They all had pop top lids which made it quick for her. Three cans turned into five, which turned into eight. Finally she had to stop herself because she knew Ben and Vaughn would grow suspicious of the time it was taking her. She found a flashlight and the first aid kit and flare gun that Vaughn asked for. She loaded some food into a sack she found on the floor and climbed back into the daylight.

  “Sorry it took so long. There had to be like, fifty cabinets to look through.” She smiled and hoped she didn’t have any food stuck in her teeth.

  FedEx

  The yard of FedEx was pleasantly manicured and a wind chime played a calming song with the help of a gentle breeze that was swirling around the cul-de-sac. Vaughn walked by the abandoned FedEx truck at the house’s curb and made a muttered alteration to an old motto:

  “Come rain, snow, sleet, shine, or zombie Armageddon . . .” He chuckled to himself.

  “Don’t you think we should look inside here?” Ben said as he slapped the side of the giant brown vehicle.

  “Haven’t you seen the movie Castaway? No one ever mails useful stuff,” Molly said.

  “We can take a peek I guess and a break more importantly. Climb in everyone.” Vaughn walked back to the rear door of the truck and opened it. Molly feared that the missing delivery man would be inside but the back was half full with undelivered packages and space for them to sit.

  Inside, they closed the door and rested their feet. Molly didn’t have any more room for food but she politely accepted a small can of fruit. Ben opened a bottle of water and took out one of his novels to browse. Vaughn produced a can of beer from somewhere and started opening packages with a pocketknife, stopping every so often to drink.

  “We could use these!” Vaughn exclaimed after sorting through nearly fifteen useless mail items. Ben looked up from his novel to see what had excited Tom so much.

  “Walkie-talkies? We don’t go anywhere and they make too much noise.” Ben was disappointed that it wasn’t something better.

  “Come on. Didn’t you want some as a kid? These were supposed to be for someone named Brian on his 10th birthday, according to the card.” Vaughn chucked the card to the opposite corner, turned both the walkies on and tossed one to Ben. “Happy Birthday Brian!” Vaughn yelled happily into the walkie mic and it came out loudly in the speaker of Ben’s. Thump.

  The three of them jumped. Something had hit the side of the FedEx vehicle. Ben held a finger up to his lips. “Shhh,” he said. He clicked off the walkie-talkie. Vaughn did the same. The back of the vehicle was windowless making it difficult to determine what or who was on the other side of the thin brown metal. Vaughn pointed to the cab of the truck and made his way slowly forward until he had a view of the side mirrors. A single zombie was hanging out by the truck, drawn by the noise from inside their rest area.

  “I’m going to make some noise on the back right corner of the truck and you guys can exit through the driver’s side door. Run straight to the house, the door is unlocked,” Vaughn directed them.

  Molly climbed to the cab first and waited until she saw the zombie disappear behind the corner of the truck in its pursuit of the source of the noise.

  “Go!” Ben whispered from behind her but she sat frozen.

  “How can I run outside when one of those things is so close? We should stay put.”

  “This place is hardly safe. Go or I’ll climb over you,”

  Ben said seriously.

  “We could drive this thing away and just go back home.” Molly had placed her hands on the wheel.

  “There aren’t any keys Molly.” He pointed to the empty ignition.

  Molly looked to see that Ben was right. It made her want to cry. She felt sick and wanted to vomit. The weight of the food in her body was really what was bothering her. There would be a bathroom inside the house if she could just get out of the truck. Ben gave her no more time but instead of climbing over her he pushed her out of the door. She tripped when she hit the pavement of the driveway and scraped her knee. Ben was right behind her to pick her up and hustle her to the door.

  The door was unlocked as Vaughn had promised. Ben opened it and they flew inside. He slammed the door closed; not thinking of what trouble the noise could bring them. Molly collapsed in the living room. The carpet she fell on was bright white and it smelled wonderful like it had just been cleaned. The smell of her body, how dirty she had become in the days that had passed since the trouble had started, wafted up to her nose. It made her cringe. Her scraped knee bled lightly onto the pristine expanse of white beneath her.

  Ben, in auto mode, cautiously took a look around. Anyone or anything could be in this house if the door was left unlocked. Vaughn had said that the zombies didn’t turn doorknobs but Ben could think of several worse things that could. A long, straight hall ran in front of him to the back of the house and the back door; it was open.

  “I’m gonna . . . barrrragghhh.” Molly vomited on the immaculate floor. “Where the fuck is Vaughn?”

  Her chin was covered with her undigested meal and her heart, racing. She was done with politeness. Ben turned back to the front of the house and dared to look through the curtains of the living room window.

  “I don’t see him anywhere. The door of the truck is open like we left it,” Ben said.

  “Someone’s making noise in the kitchen. Do you hear it?” Molly said quickly, worried that she would barf again.

  “Maybe he came in the back. I’ll go check it out. Wipe off your face.” Ben pointed to some decorative pillows on the couch behind her. Molly picked what she thought was the ugliest one and cleaned her face off on it. She put the pillow on top of the mess she’d made. Before Ben could make it down the hall he saw that someone was coming toward him from the back of the house.

  A man, thirty-something and nude except for one dirty sock hanging halfway off his left foot, came stumbling down the wood-floored hall. Ben saw a single bite mark on the man’s left s
houlder but no other trauma.

  “It’s not Vaughn, Molly. We have company.”

  “Who is it?” Molly asked as she stood up. The man emerged from behind the wall and Molly screamed. He whipped his head toward her and jumped over the loveseat between them. She put her bat at his neck but didn’t have the strength to hold him away from her. “Help me! Ben!” Stepping backward, she lost her footing on the pillow she’d left on the floor. Ben couldn’t shoot the dead man without hitting Molly. He had to wait for the right moment. As she lost her balance, Ben got one clean shot in the man’s head.

  Molly broke down where she landed. “Is there blood on me, anywhere? Do you think it got in my mouth?” Her face was covered in tears but miraculously, no blood.

  “Calm down Molly, you are fine. This carpet is really done for though,” Ben joked.

  More noise from the back of the house. Ben aimed his gun and walked part way down the hall.

  “Get that shit out of my face,” Vaughn said, his mouth stuffed with food.

  “Where have you been? You left us on our own and Molly was almost bitten. Are you eating? How long have you been in the kitchen?”

  “Whoa there. One question at a time,” was all Vaughn said in reply.

  “Ok. Have you been in the kitchen this entire time?”

  “Yes.”

  “And why didn’t you come help us?”

  “Field test. I wanted to see if you learned anything.”

  Vaughn walked up to the corpse and kicked it with his booted foot to make sure it was dead.

  “Nice shot Ben. You passed.”

  “Passed what?” Molly asked, unsure of what Vaughn was talking about.

  “Nothing, Molly,” Ben said. “Vaughn, have you searched the kitchen? Anything good?”

  “A few things. I’ve already put them in my pack.”