by Chesla, Gary
She picked up the two plates and went to the back door.
As she opened the door and stepped out on the porch, a foul odor assaulted her nose.
Linda raised George’s tuna to her nose and smelled the plate.
“It’s not George’s tuna,” she thought. “It can’t be the peanut butter and jelly but something stinks.”
Linda began to look around for the source of the smell, but the only thing she saw was that Jamie was no longer in the back yard.
She walked out and set the two plates down on the picnic table.
Her next stop was the four-foot high wooden fence between their yard and the Ramsey’s.
The Ramsey’s had a little boy a year older than Jamie. For some reason, Jamie was fascinated with the boy and anytime they couldn’t locate Jamie, more often than not, she would be over visiting the neighbors.
“This was another reason,” Linda thought, “Mike needs to curb Jamie’s Pajama aversion problem.”
Jamie reached the fence and looked into the neighbor’s yard, but there was no one there.
Linda began to check off in her mind the places where Jamie liked to go.
She looked under the porch but Jamie’s dirt den was empty.
She looked up in the tree, but Jamie and George weren’t there.
Linda was about to check the outside steps to the basement when a light breeze blew in from the street behind the house.
The horrible smell made her look out in the street.
Linda stopped and stared at the unusual sight out on the street.
There was never much traffic out on the back street behind their house and few people ever did much back there.
But today there were at least ten people moving around out back.
She stopped and looked at the people out on the street as the horrific smell continued to blow her way.
It took a few minutes to register, but the people were walking funny. The way they were walking was awful strange as they swayed wildly from right to left, dragged their legs and their heads were crooked at weird angles.
Linda stopped and looked closer at the people.
At first she was confused, but as what she was seeing sunk in, she became horrified.
The clothes worn by the people were dirty, torn and bloody.
Many of their arms were obviously broken and hung at painfully awkward angles.
Many were missing shoes, and the gruesome look of bloody feet made her gasp.
When Linda looked closely at their faces, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
The dark, mangled morose looking gray faces were something she had only seen in late night horror movies.
The most disturbing thing of all was when she saw Jamie out on the street on her hands and knees reaching for something under a parked car.
Linda began to panic when she realized the staggering bodies were all heading to where Jamie was looking under that car.
Linda didn’t know if she should scream out to Jamie or what she should do.
If she called out to Jamie, it might confuse her and attract the attention of those people and she wasn’t sure what problem that would cause and she decided she didn’t want to find out.
When Linda saw the first of the staggering bodies were within twenty feet of Jamie, she threw open the back gate and ran towards Jamie.
“All kind of possible horrific outcomes raced through Linda’s mind as she ran, making her run even faster.
When she reached the car, she saw Jamie pulling George out from under the parked car.
The gross bodies, now only a few feet from the car, began to moan and raise their arms to reach for Linda and Jamie, Linda grabbed Jamie and George and ran for the yard.
Linda felt the cold gray hands brush against her arms as she darted away from the car.
When she reached the yard, she rushed through the gate and closed the gate behind her.
As she heard the lock on the gate click shut, she glanced back out towards the road.
The people that had been on the road were now starting up over the sidewalk, but there were dozens more of the staggering monstrosities now coming down the street.
Linda ran and carried Jamie inside the house and closed the door and stared out through the window in the door at the grisly mob now standing at her fence.
She put Jamie down on the floor.
“Go up to your room,” Linda ordered.
“Something scared George and he ran under that car,” Jamie said. “I told him to get back in the yard but you know George, he doesn’t listen very well.”
“It’s OK,” Linda replied. “Just go up to your room and lock the door and wait for me. OK?”
“OK,” Jamie answered and looked at George. “You’re in big trouble George. You wait until Daddy gets home!”
Linda watched Jamie go up the stairs then nervously looked out in the back yard.
She couldn’t believe how many mangled faces were now staring over the fence at the house.
Linda picked up the phone and dialed 911, but the phone just rang and rang.
When she saw the gate on the fence crash into the yard from all the bodies pressing against it, she dialed Mike’s phone.
His phone went straight to voice mail.
“Mike, there is something terrible happening. Please come home as fast as you can. Please Mike.”
Linda clicked off her phone and for a moment watched the bodies staggering through the yard towards the porch, then she turned and ran for the stairs.
Chapter 14
Morning of May 9th, The Cabin
The boards over the windows started crashing to the floor as Mike and Tony stared in disbelief.
They both started looking around frantically.
“We have to do something fast,” Mike said. “There are too many of them to fight off. Any ideas?”
Tony continued to glance around the one room cabin.
His eyes finally settled on the floor where Mike had been pulling up floor boards to salvage nails and to get boards to nail over the windows and door.
“What’s under the floor?” Tony asked.
“Nothing but dirt,” Mike replied. “This isn’t a very well built cabin, you can see straight down to the ground.”
Mike’s eyes lit up.
“Hey, if you help me pull up that last board I couldn’t get up by myself over near the corner, I think there just might be enough space for us to get under the cabin,” Mike said looking hopeful.
“It’s worth a try. Let’s go, we don’t have much time left,” Tony replied sounding worried.
Mike and Tony jumped up and ran to the corner of the cabin next to the bunkbeds.
Mike had pried up one board and had the one next to it loosened before he had to run and help Tony at the window earlier tonight.
The space left after the one board was removed wasn’t big enough for either of them to get through, but if they could remove the other board or at least pry it up a bit, they just might be able to squeeze through.
Mike ran over to the opening, bent down and grabbed the loose board.
“This is the one,” Mike yelled.
Tony leaned down across from Tony and gripped the board and they both began to pull.
The board creaked in protest as they began to make progress.
They had the one end of the board pulled up about a foot off the floor when Mike turned at the sound of something landing with a thud on the floor behind him.
The first of the dead to make it inside the cabin was thrashing around on the floor below the window.
Two bloody gray hairless skulls were fighting to be the next one to crawl in through the window.
“Shit, they’re getting in, we have to go now,” Mike yelled as he strained to lift the board. “Can you get through that hole if I hold this board up like this?”
“I think so,” Tony replied. “But if you hold the board for me, how are you going to climb down?”
“Just go,” Mike r
eplied.
Mike grabbed the end of the board again and pulled as hard as he could.
Tony began to climb down head first.
His belt caught on the edge of the opening, causing him to get stuck. He began to squirm around until the buckle finally slipped off the board, allowing him to pull himself down through the opening. Then his legs disappeared into the opening.
A cloud of dust from Tony moving around in the dirt below the cabin floor rose up out of the hole.
Mike glanced back at the window and saw the first of the two figures now below the window staggering to its feet.
“Come on,” Tony called out, “I’ll push up on the board with my feet. When you come down, crawl away from me towards the front of the cabin. You’ll have more room.”
As the mangled body took its first step towards Mike, another body fell in through the window.
Mike quickly turned and pushed his arms and head down through the opening.
Tony rolled over on his back in the small crawl space under the cabin and pressed up against the loose board with his hands since he didn’t have the room to lay on his back and push with his feet like he had hoped to do.
Mike being ten years younger and twenty pounds lighter, quickly slid down into the crawl space and called over to Tony and said in a low voice, “Pull the board back down if you can.”
Tony reached up and Grabbed the board and pulled down.
“This way, quick” Mike whispered and began to crawl towards the center of the space under the cabin.
Tony followed as two boney arms began to reach down through the hole in the floor trying to grab him, missing him by only inches.
When they reached the center of the crawl space, Tony asked, “Now what?”
“Now we wait until it gets light out so we can see if we can figure out how to get away from the cabin and hope they can’t get down here before then,” Mike replied. “There were a couple of them in the cabin that saw me crawl through the opening, but I don’t think they can get down here.”
“Yeah, one of them just tried to grab me,” Tony replied. “He was trying to get his head down through the hole, but I was able to pull that board we were trying to pry up, back down in place. His boney head wouldn’t fit, but they know we’re down here,” Tony said.
“As long as they can’t get down through the floor, I think we’ll be fine,” Mike replied. “I don’t think they are very smart and won’t put two and two together that if they go back outside they could just crawl under the cabin. If we are lucky they will all go inside the cabin and lock themselves in.”
“We’d need a bigger cabin for that to happen,” Tony answered and thought for a second.
“I thought we were a goner. Shit, how the hell could something like this happen. Those things were people, right?” Tony said. “I feel like I’m having a damn nightmare.”
“They look like zombies,” Mike replied. “I can’t believe it. Where the hell did they come from? How would zombies get up here?”
“I don’t know,” Tony replied. “The world has been fucked up for a long time. I’ve often wondered when it was all going to come apart at the seams. I mean, between the shit that is going on in the Middle East, that asshole in North Korea, Putin and Russia, The Chinese hacking into everything. You look at our own country, the Democrats and Republicans couldn’t agree on anything if their lives depended on it. It’s no wonder that out government hasn’t done a damn thing for the common man for the last twenty-five years. No one gets along with each other anymore. You had to know that it wouldn’t take much to bring it all toppling down. I’m surprised we’ve kept it together as long as we have, but how the hell zombies got into the mix is beyond me.”
“But what the hell would cause something like this to happen up here in the mountains?” Mike asked.
“You mean something like a squirrel gets rabies, goes mad and goes on a tear and bites all the hillbillies, turning them into zombies?” Tony replied. “Who knows?”
“It’s hard to believe something like this could happen up here,” Mike said. “On the other hand, I guess it’s pretty hard to believe this could happen anywhere, but up here?
“Wasn’t it a passing meteorite that started it in the Night of the Living Dead,” Tony replied. “After seeing what we’ve seen, I wouldn’t be surprised by anything. My rabid squirrel theory sounds as good as anything else I could imagine.”
They just laid there for a few minutes and listened as the commotion in the cabin above got louder.
There wasn’t much furniture, but what was there made a loud crashing sound as it was knocked over and landed on the floor.
Then, that was followed by the sounds of bodies falling over the debris and landing on the floor with sickening thuds.
The sound of moaning echoed through the cabin, as the things in the cabin staggered around in a frenzy.
Next, they heard the door give out and a loud smack sounded as the door swung open, hitting the wall as it flew back into the cabin.
The scraping sound began to get louder as those things flooded into the cabin through the open door, dragging their feet across the floor boards.
Finally, Mike broke the eerie silence.
“God, seeing what that thing did to Ryan made me sick.”
“Yeah,” Tony replied softly. “I can’t believe what I saw. I have never seen anything like that in my life. That’s worse than anything I saw in Iraq and I saw a lot of things over there that I would like to forget.”
“I think I can understand that,” Mike said. “That is going to give me nightmares for months after I…..”
Mike stopped for a second, “God, I hope everything is OK back home?”
“This shit couldn’t possibly be going on anywhere else if that’s what you’re worried about,” Tony replied. “I can’t believe it is happening here. For this to be going on anywhere else too, the odds would have to be astronomical.”
“I hope so,” Mike said. “I just wish I had my phone so I could call home to be sure Linda and Jamie are OK.”
“If we would have had our phones, I would have called the damn police or the army hours ago,” Tony added.
“Who came up with the big idea to lock the phones in the car so we could disconnect from the world for a few days and not be tempted to call home?” Mike asked.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Tony sighed.
“God, I’m beat,” Mike finally said as he laid his forehead down against his arms.
“Why don’t you catch some rest,” Tony said. “Since we won’t be going anywhere for a while, I’ll keep an eye open while you take a nap.”
“OK,” Mike replied. “Wake me in half an hour and I’ll take the watch so you can get some rest too. When it starts to get light out, I have a feeling both of us are going to need all the energy we have to get away from here. Do you have any ideas?”
“I have one idea, but it makes me sick to my stomach,” Tony replied.
“What’s that?” Mike asked.
“I figure the only way we can get away from here and not be followed,” Tony replied, “is if we take Ryan’s Jeep.”
“You have the keys?” Mike asked.
“No,” Tony answered, “That’s the sick part. We have to go out and take the keys out of Ryan’s pocket. That’s providing most of these damn things have wandered off so we have a chance to get out to Ryan and then make it back to the car.”
“I suppose that is better than trying to go it on foot if we don’t have to,” Mike said. “If it makes you feel any better, if that was me lying dead out there, I’d want you guys to take the keys and get back home to safety. The damn keys wouldn’t be doing me any good.”
“Yeah, but it’s still sick,” Tony replied. “I guess what really bothers me is when I was Iraq. Whenever any of my men were killed, it was my job to collect the dog tags and write home to the widow. I did that seventy-three times. Each time was harder than the time before that.”
“S
orry, Tony,” Mike said. “I didn’t know about that. You never said anything about that before.”
“If you would have been in my shoes, you wouldn’t have wanted to talk about it either,” Tony replied.
“I guess not,” Mike said. “Why don’t you get some rest first. I’ll keep watch. I think you probably need the rest more than me right now.”
“Thanks,” Tony replied and closed his eyes as he rested his head on his hands.
Two hours later
Tony jumped as Mike shook his shoulder.
“Relax, we’re fine,” Mike whispered. “It’s getting light out.”
“It sounds like our friends are still with us,” Tony said as he listened to the moaning coming from up in the cabin.
“Yeah, they are still in the cabin, but I moved around near the edge of the cabin and it looks like there are no more than a few dozen of them in the clearing around the cabin,” Mike replied. “Come take a look. Now might be a good opportunity to go out and get the keys to the jeep.”
Tony yawned and rolled over.
“How long have I been out?” Tony asked.
“About two hours,” Mike replied.
“Better than nothing,” Tony replied as he started to crawl in the dirt.
“This way,” Mike said. “Don’t get too close to that hole where we came down.”
Tony looked up ahead as an arm reached down under the floor boards, scraping the dirt and creating a cloud of dust.
“He is still at it, I see,” Tony said.
“Yeah, it seems that when one of them start doing something, they stay at it until something else gets their attention,” Mike replied. “Over this way, you can see out in the clearing in front of the cabin.”
Tony followed Mike towards the front of the cabin.
Out in the clearing they could see about twenty or thirty bodies staggering around aimlessly.
“I think if we grab a couple clubs, we can get out to Ryan by knocking down any of them that gets close to us,” Mike said. “The ones in the cabin will probably come out and join the ruckus when they hear us, but if we hurry, we should be able to get the keys and get back to the car before we get too outnumbered.”