When the Dead
Page 27
Now! She yelled at herself. Do it now! She lunged at him, threw the rope around his neck and tightened it with everything she had. Jeff dropped the glasses and brought his hands to the rope that was taking his life. She imagined a similar scene, only with Jeff’s hands around his wife’s neck. Don’t let go, she thought.
“I know you killed Hayden. She could have lived but you wouldn’t let her,” Molly whispered in his ear. “Well I’m not going to let you get away with it!”
Jeff’s body went limp and heavy. Molly checked for a pulse and found that his heart was still beating. She couldn’t shoot him with the gun he’d taken. It would make noise; bring the others to his apartment. She lowered him to the floor of the kitchen and continued the pressure to his neck until her arms grew weak. When she checked for a pulse again she felt nothing. With tired arms she pulled his body to the balcony and pulled and pushed it over the edge.
“I told you I’d help you with your trip outside,” she said to the corpse. “Say hello to Sheila for me!” Minutes passed before his body came back to life. Molly stayed and watched as Jeff Brown stood up and walked out of her life.
Ripple Effect
Isobel stood in the third floor hallway looking down at Rob as he in turn looked down at Ben. They’d dragged him out of the apartment while the smoke aired out.
“Hey, are you ok?” Rob asked as he shook Ben’s shoulders gently, trying to rouse him back to consciousness. Ben coughed loudly, his eyes still shut, as he curled into a tight ball. “None of that! You’ve got to get up!” Rob shook him with more force.
“Why didn’t you just let me die?” Ben cried out.
“Were you trying to kill yourself? You could have killed the rest of us too with that stunt! If you want to die, please do it in a more considerate manner.” Rob pulled himself from the floor and started to walk away from Ben, who he determined to be hopeless.
“I wasn’t trying to die. But I wouldn’t be hurting so much if I had,” Ben said. “Things would be better.”
“The problem with this place, all along, is that everyone’s been thinking about what they could do for themselves. Things might be better for you if you were dead but what would it mean to everyone who’s left?” Rob asked him.
“Selfishness. It’s the American way,” Ben laughed.
“Well it sure as hell hasn’t done us one bit of good. Now get off the goddamn floor and stop trying to ruin things for the group.”
Shut In
Three days had passed since Hayden and Vaughn’s death. Isobel hadn’t seen Molly for that entire time. Ben and Rob confirmed that she hadn’t left her apartment to their knowledge. They feared the worst but they couldn’t deal with another zombie in the building to kill or an even smaller group, so Isobel was determined to find out if she was alright. She grabbed the ring of keys and went to Molly’s door.
Pounding on it she yelled at Molly. “You have to let me know if you are still alive in there!”
Molly was still full of anger that she’d been lied to by everyone, forced into punishment for her own acts while Jeff had been given little more than a warning. And while she had taken care of that she was still traumatized over the event with Vaughn and Hayden. And even though they’d shared a moment in Vaughn’s apartment, she had nothing to say to Isobel. In fact, she was happy to see Isobel losing control. It was getting hard to concentrate on the book she was reading with Isobel nearly breaking down her door. Molly looked around her apartment for something to slide under the door. She found a piece of printer paper and drew an unhappy face on it. She had considered leaving it blank but that would look like a white flag of surrender and she was not surrendering.
She slid the paper under the door.
“What is this? Proof of life?” Isobel shot angrily through the door, her words overwhelming Molly with sadness. “I want to see your face!”
Molly didn’t want to open her door. Isobel would force her way in beyond the entry and see all the food she’d stolen. “Maybe tomorrow,” she said through the door. In the entry sat Jeff’s backpack, in the backpack the gun. No matter what tomorrow might bring, Molly was ready.
Rob appeared behind Isobel. “Looks like she still needs that ‘time’ you were telling me about.”
“Can you blame her? She’s lost everyone; the baby, Jill and Hayden,” Isobel said.
“Me,” Rob added.
Isobel patted him on the back. “I’m not going to tell you that things will be ok because that would be stupid at this point.”
“Yeah. How’s Ben?” Rob asked her.
“Almost back to his usual self. He’s been reading a lot.”
“I thought he hated books with a fiery passion,” Rob laughed.
“Not funny, Rob. Hey, have you seen Jeff?”
“I checked on him yesterday but I couldn’t find him. He left. Maybe to find Markus?”
“That’s probably for the best.”
Nothing to Do List
Back in her apartment she found Ben staring at the coffee table.
“What are you doing?” she asked warily.
“I thought ‘killing any undead’ would be the most difficult,” Ben said. He was reading a piece of paper on the table.
“What are you saying?” Isobel rubbed her eyes from tiredness.
“Our checklist. I thought number three was going to be hardest.” He slid the paper across the coffee table. Isobel recognized her handwriting, remembered the feelings of being organized, in control, sane.
“It was so easy. We checked it off like we were shopping for vegetables. This one is where all the trouble lies,” she said as she pointed at number eight.
8. Wait it out until the end
“I fear we won’t survive to check it off the list,” Ben agreed.
Isobel stood up and went once again to her balcony to watch the dead; the street so full of them, her life so empty. Only this time she wasn’t looking for the dead she knew, she was looking for the ones she hated. She sought in the undead crowd all the citizens that had driven her crazy while they were alive. She looked for the people that couldn’t figure out how to function at a four way stop. She looked for the folks that would stand in the middle of a grocery store aisle, unmoving as she tried to squeeze by. She looked for the parents of noisy, uncontrolled children. She looked for the people who littered, continued shopping from the checkout line, parked crooked, and talked too loud at restaurants, and the ones who didn’t use their turn signals. In the writhing crowd of the undead she saw reflections of the downfalls of their group, the weakness of the Cabels, the desperation of families trying to stay together like the Coopers and the selfish lives of the city – so close to that of Vaughn’s existence. Isobel found every last one of the failing, fragile, and hopeless and then she didn’t care that they were all dead. She was happy they were.
Dead (ded) adj. 1. . . 2 . . .
3. Lacking feeling or sensitivity.
All this waiting and she was finally dead.
Out for Repairs
Rob and his son were coloring in the common area. He’d stopped looking outside every day because the view no longer changed. The clouds rained and the dead filled the streets.
“Dad, do you think the ‘copters are gonna come?” Gabe asked.
“I haven’t heard any for a long time, so I don’t think so.”
“Maybe a tank?” his son continued.
“No, Gabe. A tank would have come already too if it could.”
“Maybe it broke from driving over all the people and they just hafta fix it.”
“I bet you’re right,” was all that Rob could say. He had little hope left for rescue. And if someone did come, how could they know it was alright to trust them? The world was full of horrible monsters, dead and alive both.
When the Dead . . .
When the dead come back even if you don’t get bitten there are other infections that will do you in. Infections of the mind and heart like hatred, paranoia, greed, anger, and depression.
All of these diseases spread like wildfire in Willow Brook. The building itself still stands. The barricades have held firm. But inside the building, life crumbles as the remaining tenants lose hope and the will to live on. In times of duress, we are the biggest threat to our survival.
When the dead come back you are forced to choose only the lesser of two evils: cabin fever over the zombie plague.
They can’t get in and you can’t get out.
End
About the Author
Michelle Kilmer is a fan of the macabre, especially zombies.
When she isn’t writing zombie novels, she enjoys sewing, playing guitar, gaming and daydreaming about owning a Pomeranian.
Michelle is co-owner/designer of a web and graphic design company; her day job and dream job.
She currently resides in a secured-access apartment in Seattle, WA that is uncomfortably close to a cemetery, two hospitals and a police station. Basically she won’t survive the zombie apocalypse.
She lives with her husband, a machete, two baseball bats and a fear of the dark.
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
The Infection
Fucked
Willow Brook Apartments
The First Day
S.O.S.-less
The Second Day
Tissue Thin
The Devil’s Work
A Promise
Coping Mechanism
The Plague in Pixels
Ben on the Third Day
The Fourth Day
Behind Closed Doors
Imagination Infected
Anna
Fuck It List
The Fifth Day
The Main Office
Meet the Neighbors
3rd Floor
Expectations
2nd Floor
(Un)Charismatically Cold Blooded
1st Floor
Uncertainty
Gate to Hell
Snack Time
Spooked
All Kinds
Suicides
Last Second Thoughts
Really Secured-Access
Front Row Seat
Unrequited Love
Numb
Second Floor Slumber Party
An Inquiry
Lullaby
The Sixth Day The First Meeting
Noise Complaint
Tom Vaughn’s 1st Assignment
Run, Fat Girl
In Good Hands
Molly Mathay, Caretaker
Macabre Parade
Urges
The Second Meeting
DIY Birth
Afterbirth
The Photograph Isn’t Enough
Full Access
One for You and Two for Me
Litter Bug
The Third Meeting
Tom Vaughn’s 2nd Assignment
A Thieves Market
Beat to Re-Death
Pink Horse
Dead Lawn
Family Reunion
Old Habits The Boat House
FedEx
Gnome City
No Blood on Our Hands
Best Before . . .
Sanitation
Finders Keepers
Hayden
Love in the Dead Air
Teen Spirit
Our Own Little World
According to Plan
Shelter
Let it All Out
Crash Course
Appearances
First Impressions
A Minor Issue
The Morning After
Careful Confrontation
Fresh Air
Loneliness
Living On
Forms of Decay
Left Out
The Mall
Zombified
You Are Here
On the Run
Missing and Missed
Brace Yourself
(Below the) Surface Wounds
Distractions
Admitting Defeat
Another Stab in the Heart
Home School
Deadbeat Dad
A Glass of Courage
Smoke on the Horizon
Comfort in Chaos
Reason to Live
Permission to Leave
Fresh Fare
A Gut Feeling
Speculation
Sneak Attack
Role Playing
Proof of Death
Curiosity
Play Time
Killing as Kindness
Friendships Forged . . .
. . . and Lost
Movers
Picking up the Pieces
A Rough Night Selfishness
A Difficult Decision
Cold Feet
To The Point
Promise or Prayer
The Best Way to Go
A Rougher Day
Baby Blues
A Different Approach
Death without Dignity
Honor the Dead
Evicted
Alternate Ending
Versions of the Truth
Street View
Careless Confrontation
Out of the Bag
Screw This
Struggle Within
Molly Mathay, Alone
Punishment, Banishment, or Death
Gossip Mill
Hindsight
Unlikely Advisor
Sleep
Torrential
The Trial of Jeff Brown
On the Outside
A for Effort
Normalcy
Tunnel Vision
Mind Games
Disorder
Exit Stage Left
Molly Fights Back
Liars Not Welcome
Botched
Tom Vaughn’s New Plan
Armed . . .
. . . and Dangerous
Game Changer
Off
Unhappy Ending
Spent
Bang
It All Adds Up
Self Worth
Separate Ways
The Good Old Days
Pages
Revenge
Fire and Rescue
Options
Molly Mathay, Actress
Ripple Effect
Shut In
Nothing to Do List
Out for Repairs
When the Dead . . .
About the Author