She tried the doorknob of the Cooper’s old apartment and found it still unlocked from her time with Ben. Closing the door quietly and locking it behind her she exhaled and started looking for the boxes of baby stuff.
“I hope it’s a girl,” she said as she felt the softness of the pink bedding of the crib in the nursery. Feeling suddenly energized she began to organize the room, readying it for her and her child. She found a box of baby clothes and took each item out individually, folding onesies and infant shirts and placing them neatly into the shallow drawers in the dresser next to the changing table.
“I think everything is going to be ok, little baby,” she said to her belly. “Tom will take care of us.”
A Different Approach
Rob had made it back to his own apartment just as Gabe was waking up. His son looked terrible and just as sad as when he’d put him to bed.
“Hey champ. Are you ready for breakfast? I heard Moira say the other day that she’d have hot chocolate for you,” he said, trying to start the morning off pleasantly.
“Will she have enough for Charlie?” Gabe asked with a small bit of hope in his eyes.
Rob sighed. Had his son been so traumatized that he’d become delusional overnight? “Charlie’s gone, remember?” he reminded him.
“He can’t be gone!” Gabe yelled. “He was the only friend I had! You stupid grownups killed him.” Gabe picked up a wooden train he’d left on the floor and threw it at his father.
The train hit Rob in the face. Rage grew in him and he ran at the boy, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him.
“I’m doing the best I can! The best I can!” he yelled.
“Do better!” Gabe yelled back with defiance.
Rob raised his hand open-palmed and slapped Gabe hard on his cheek.
“Don’t ever talk to me like that again,” Rob said through gritted teeth as anger rippled through his body. “Now get dressed and ready to eat.”
Gabe broke into tears as his skin grew red from the impact.
Death without Dignity
“Where are we having breakfast today?” Ben asked Isobel after he’d finished brushing his teeth with bottled water. The residents of Willow Brook had taken to having weekly group breakfasts to create a better sense of community.
Isobel took a moment to think to herself who’d hosted the last breakfast. “At Edward and Moira’s place,” she said as she stretched in front of the living room window, “though I could easily have slept a few more hours.”
“Don’t go back to sleep, I’m hungry!” Ben said.
Isobel grabbed a sweater and opened the door to the hallway. Markus and Jeff had just arrived at the door of 206 and Markus was knocking on it.
“Normally they have their door unlocked if they are hosting breakfast,” Isobel said as she pointed to the doorknob.
Jeff reached out and tried it. “Locked,” he said.
Markus knocked again, this time harder and louder. A moment later they could hear growling within the apartment. The growling became pounding and clawing as Moira and Edward reached the other side of the door. They sounded desperate to get out; like wild animals trapped in a cage.
“Not them.” Ben burst into tears and collapsed, hitting the floor heavily.
“What’s going on?” Rob asked as he and Gabe approached the four a bit late. He’d had to wait for the redness on Gabe’s cheek to diminish before leaving their apartment. His son stood a small distance from him, still slightly terrified of his father.
“Something happened to the Cabels. They are infected,” Isobel said flatly. She was shocked.
“Gabe, go to Molly,” Rob told his son. He didn’t want the boy seeing anything more that would traumatize him.
“But I’m hungry,” Gabe whined quietly and without making eye contact with his dad.
“Breakfast is going to be a bit delayed. Go to her!” Rob yelled at him. The others were surprised at the interaction. It wasn’t like Rob to be so severe with his son. Gabe ran next door to find Molly while the others decided what to do.
“It was only a matter of time before this would happen. We just didn’t know when or to whom,” Jeff said.
“That doesn’t make this easier,” Isobel replied shortly.
She sat down next to Ben. “We need to deal with this,” she whispered to him.
“I know,” Ben responded just as quietly.
“We should get Vaughn,” Isobel suggested.
“No!” Ben said. “He’ll turn it into a show. These are our people, not his. We’ll kill them ourselves.”
“Come with me to get some weapons then, Ben,” Rob said. “The sooner we get this over with the better we’ll feel.”
Ben stood and led Rob into Isobel’s apartment where he had a few unused weapons kept. Molly came from her place to get more information.
“Gabe said something happened to Edwar . . .” she stopped mid-sentence when she heard the wood of the door being torn apart and a wild shriek from within the Cabel’s apartment. She shook her head in disbelief and walked back stunned to her apartment and Gabe.
Ready with weapons the group stood in a half-circle around the door.
“I never thought I’d be trying to get into a room with zombies,” Markus laughed faintly. He was scared to death about what he was about to see.
“We can’t leave them in there. They’ll get out and infect us or they’ll rot,” Isobel reasoned.
Two swift kicks with Ben’s steel toe boots and the door broke inward pushing the corpses deeper into the apartment. They instantly started back towards the hallway. The semi-circle of residents expanded as the Cabels approached. Moira’s mouth and neck were covered in dried blood. One strap of her thin, blue nightgown had fallen from her shoulder, leaving a flat gray breast exposed. Isobel wanted to pull the strap back up to cover her nakedness but Moira wasn’t concerned with her partial nudity. Rob shot first but he only hit Moira in her neck, which did nothing but absorb the bullet.
“Shit!” he said nervously. He aimed again and hit her in the forehead, just left of center. She fell near the doorway.
“No no no no no no,” Markus repeated as he held his head and stepped backwards, further away from the scene. He couldn’t take what he was seeing. He would never be able to forget it. He nearly backed into Isobel’s gun.
“If you can’t help, get out of the way!” she yelled at him. Markus did as he was told and went back to Jeff’s apartment.
Edward was disgusting. His face was unrecognizable as it was one open wound. Moira had eaten the skin and chunks of muscle tissue from his cheeks and nose. One eyeball was missing. A gentlemen in his life who had prided himself on being clean and well-groomed, it was devastating to see that he had wet and soiled his striped pajama pants before he passed. The smell was overwhelming.
“Oh Edward, I’m sorry,” Ben pulled his gun up with heavy arms and took out Edward’s other eyeball and brain, causing his body to fall in the hallway.
Hayden and Vaughn had come down to investigate the source of the gunshots. Hayden’s hand went up to her mouth in surprise and Vaughn leaned in to get a closer look. They didn’t say anything, only gawked and left.
Ben and Rob donned gloves and wrapped the bodies of the Cabels in their bloodied bed linens and then dumped them off the balcony. The dead surrounded the two concealed bodies, doing their routine investigation for food but, finding no life left, they dispersed.
The men spent midday with gloves and masks on cleaning and disinfecting each lamp, side table, and every inch of carpet in 206. They couldn’t afford to lose another apartment on the second floor to the gore of violent death. Every last speck of blood and body matter was gone by three p.m.
“What happened here?” Isobel asked as they finished the job.
“Moira didn’t have any wounds so I’m guessing that she died somehow, came back and then killed Edward,” Ben said as sweat dripped from his brow.
“Why do the dead come back even if they aren’t bitten? How
did she get the infection?” Isobel wondered aloud. “That bicyclist did, now that I think of it.”
“Maybe it’s airborne too. Maybe we are all hosts and the processes of death set off the disease,” Rob suggested. “You can die from a bite and then the disease takes hold of you or you can die naturally but it will end the same. We’re all doomed to be monsters.”
“Have you been thinking about this a lot? Maybe you could give the CDC a hand. You sound like one of them,” Ben said.
“It’s all Gabe talks about so I’ve been thinking a bit on the subject,” Rob replied.
Isobel went into the bathroom. The rest of the apartment had been covered in blood. The bathroom was spotless but for an empty pill bottle in the trash.
Honor the Dead
The residents ate dinner together that night. It felt much better to be a group than to be lonely individuals, especially after losing Edward and Moira to the infection. Ben, Isobel, Rob and Gabe, Molly, Jeff and Markus all found a place at the makeshift table setup in the common area of the second floor. Even Hayden came to eat and to offer her condolences but she hadn’t been able to convince Vaughn to join.
“On the menu tonight,” Ben announced, “is Edward’s apocalypse favorite.”
“What’s that?” Gabe asked with an equal mix of caution and curiosity. He didn’t want his dad to hit him again.
“Hmm, I know,” Isobel smiled. “Cream of chicken soup, green beans, and crumbled crackers all mixed up together.”
“Sounds gross,” Gabe said.
“Gabe,” Rob said. “Be polite.”
“Sounds like the poorest excuse for a casserole I ever heard of.” Markus shook his head.
“Taste it, Markus. You may change your mind. You too, Gabe,” Ben suggested.
They drank the last of Moira’s tea stash with dinner and chatted softly in the candlelight as they ate. Ben stood up part way through eating to read a paragraph from one of Edward’s favorite classics: Grapes of Wrath.
“’They's a time of change, an' when that comes, dyin' is a piece of all dyin', and bearin' is a piece of all bearin', an' bearin' an' dyin' is two pieces of the same thing. An' then things ain't so lonely anymore. An' then a hurt don't hurt so bad.’”
“I wish I could agree. This hurt doesn’t feel any different though. In fact, it feels worse,” Molly sighed.
Ben closed the book. Dust was forced from its pages and, rising, it brought to his nostrils the smell of Edward, a comforting mix of tobacco, paper, and pomade. He sat down heavily, enveloped in the smell.
“I liked them,” Gabe said.
“I did too, Gabe,” his father said. “They were good people.”
“We all liked them a lot. They would be happy that we are thinking of them,” Isobel added.
“We’re going to die too and come back, aren’t we?” Gabe asked, directing the question at Molly. Rob was too taken aback by his son’s complete understanding of the situation to answer. Besides, he had asked Molly so Rob waited for her to address Gabe’s question.
“Not for a long time, ok?” Molly smiled gently at him. “So we don’t have to worry about it.”
“Do you think Mommy came back somewhere?” he asked his father.
Rob answered quickly. “No, she didn’t. She’s been gone for too long. We talked about that already.”
“But it would have been nice to see her though, don’t you think?”
“We can look at her pictures.” Rob tousled his son’s hair lovingly.
“You can show us all a picture of your mom, Gabe. I think it would be nice for us to see her,” Hayden said.
“But it would be nice to see her for real again,” he countered.
“Gabe, it wouldn’t be mom!” Rob was clenching his fist on the table, holding his fork tightly in the grip; suffering the old pains of his lost love.
“But . . .” Gabe’s eyes had started to tear up.
Molly put a hand onto Rob’s clenched fist.
“Yeah, ok, you are right. It would be nice to see her again,” Rob admitted solemnly, his hand relaxing under the warmth of Molly’s. There was no point in arguing with a child that his mother wouldn’t be beautiful, or loving, or even clean. She would be just another of the walking dead on the lawn, covered in her own gore, rotting away with no love in her heart.
“Ben, you were right,” Markus said after licking his paper plate clean. “That was delicious.”
“Well you can’t have the recipe,” Ben said playfully.
“It has three ingredients!” Markus held three fingers up.
Rob was happy for the change of topic and he’d try to thank Markus and Ben for that later.
“Hey everyone, I think it would be fantastic if we went around the table and each of us could say something that reminds us of the Cabels. I’ll start! A tobacco pipe,” Isobel chimed.
“That’s too easy!” Rob yelled. He thought for a moment. “Talk radio. Edward always had that thing on.”
“Mummies!” Gabe exclaimed. His answer made everyone laugh uncomfortably until Rob explained how Moira and Gabe had talked about them in “school”.
Hayden closed her eyes and thought for a second. “I didn’t know them very well,” she said. “I guess maybe knitting needles.”
“Nice one, Hayden,” Jeff said.
“Books, of course,” Ben held up the novel.
“I’m going to have to say religious conviction. It may have been questionable these past few weeks but they went to church every Sunday and every Wednesday evening as well,” Markus added thoughtfully.
“How do you know that?” Jeff asked.
“Hello, I’m gay. I don’t know how many times they invited me to go with them.” Markus silently counted on his fingers for added affect.
“They tried to ‘save’ you?” Rob asked incredulously.
“Informally, yes. I don’t hold it against them,” Markus said holding his hands up.
Vaughn appeared at the head of the table. He had been listening from the top of the stairs and had finally come down to join the group. “Blue, blood-soaked night gowns,” he said with a smile. Stunned silence fell over the diners.
“What did you just say?” Ben asked angrily.
“Blu-” Vaughn began to repeat himself.
“Don’t say it again.” Ben pounded a fist on the table. Rob had pulled Gabe’s chair closer to his side. Vaughn sauntered over to Hayden, paying no more attention to the rest of the group.
“Come on, girlie! Now that we’ve said our goodbyes to the old folks let’s ditch this somber party and go have some fun!”
He took one of Isobel’s extra crackers and chomped it messily, getting crumbs on his shirt. He reached his hand forward again but this time he was aiming for Hayden’s breasts. He didn’t see the horrified look on Markus’ face. He didn’t see Jeff rest his own face in his hands. He didn’t see Ben’s right hand set down his fork and disappear under the table to grab his gun from its holster. Vaughn was looking only at Hayden but she didn’t want to go with him. She tried to pull his groping hand from her body but he grabbed her hand and pulled her from her seat. Her chair toppled backwards.
“Hey!” Molly stood up and yelled at him. “Can’t you see she doesn’t want to go with you? Have some respect and leave her alone!"
Vaughn had turned to face Molly and just as she finished her berating, he punched her. She fell back into her chair and blood started to fall from her nose. Ben was out of his chair with his gun pulled on Vaughn. Vaughn saw the gun and Gabe’s wide eyes full of fear. He saw the blood on Molly’s face, the tears on Hayden’s. He released his grip on Hayden without a word; no muttered apology, nothing and he went back upstairs to his porn and his bottle.
“What the fuck was that?” Isobel asked.
“Inhuman,” Ben said as he holstered his gun with shaking hands. “He would have shot me if he’d had a gun with him!” Ben walked weakly to Hayden’s side. He picked up her chair and sat her back down in it. “Are you ok?” He asked h
er, stroking her hair. Hayden didn’t respond. She only brushed his hand away and continued eating what was left on her plate.
“Unfortunately the night is still young,” Markus said eerily. “I’m going to bed before anything else happens.”
“Ditto,” Jeff said as he picked up his trash and threw it in a garbage bag. “Night everyone, don’t forget to lock your doors.” He waved a farewell as they walked back to his apartment.
Rob picked up his son who had been crying into his side and carried him off to bed.
“Are you going to be ok, Molly?” Ben was looking at her nose, trying to be helpful, but anything he did only made her flinch more.
“Can you just walk me to my couch?” she asked in pain.
“I can take you,” Isobel offered.
“I’ll stay here until you get back, Isobel. I’m going to watch for Vaughn,” Ben said.
It was now only Hayden and Ben at the table. Ben returned to his chair and sat back down. He collected dirty paper plates within his reach and stacked them in a pile, ready to be thrown away. He waited for Hayden to say something, anything at all. But she was embarrassed beyond belief at being publicly groped. She especially didn’t want to talk to Ben, who she’d shared a bed with. She carried what food she still had to finish and sought refuge in the apartment she shared with Molly.
Evicted
Later that night Molly still lay on her couch with a cold washcloth pressed to her face, wondering if her nose might be broken. Hayden walked by her without a word and out of the apartment to climb the stairs to Vaughn. When Hayden came back three hours later, Molly was still on the couch.
“You’ve got to move out of here.” Three hours had been plenty of time for Molly to decide that her nose was definitely broken and that she no longer wanted to hold the title of caregiver. Hayden refused to make eye contact and that was infuriating to Molly who had taken her in; convinced the others to let Hayden stay in Willow Brook.
“Did you hear me? I want you out of this apartment. I can’t believe you went to see him after he did this to me! Let alone after the way he treated you! I defended you for nothing? Did your parents raise you to be an ungrateful bitch?”
When the Dead Page 21