by Lanza, Marie
As Dan hammered the first nail into the wood laying over the window, I began to laugh.
“What?” Dan smiled holding the hammer.
“This is going to be a bitch to patch when all this blows over.”
With those words there came a surge in the electric power, and everything went dark.
“Well, I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did.” Dan let out a long sigh and hammered in the nails.
We finished the large front windows and moved around the house working as fast as we could while we still had daylight. We concentrated on just the bigger windows, leaving the small higher windows throughout the house open.
Between the lack of electricity and the boards that stopped even the smallest glimmer of moonlight, our home was even darker. We each carried a candle around with us and piled all the others we had in the kitchen along with matches.
I stood in the back doorway listening to the world around us while Mayhem roamed in the backyard. The neighborhood seemed especially silent beyond our fence. I was beginning to think that even the bugs had abandoned the city. Locking ourselves in the house had kept us safe so far, but we began to question if we had made the right decision. Mayhem and I headed back inside, and I heard Dan in the office calling over to his dad on the radio.
I walked in but could tell he was too stressed to acknowledge me. “Anything?”
“Nothing yet.” Dan sounded frustrated.
I kissed his forehead and walked back in the living room to leave him alone.
I must have fallen asleep as soon as I hit the couch. When I woke up it was still dark out. I had no idea how long I had been sleeping, but Dan was not in the room with me.
I didn’t even bother to light my candle again. Walking down the hall I could hear him in the office still attempting to reach his parents.
“Baby, what time is it?” I asked as I entered the room.
His skin glistened against the candle light, and the shadows cast across his face made him appear ten years older than he was.
“I’m not sure, maybe around 4am.”
“Honey, did you sleep at all?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
He just let out a long breath and placed the radio on the desk. “They’re only a mile away. I need to get to the house and make sure they’re alright. We need to get them here with us.”
I couldn’t disagree with him knowing I’d do the same thing if I hadn’t heard from my sister.
“We’ll go as soon as the sun comes up.”
CHAPTER 3
It seemed like forever before the dawn began to illuminate the new darkness we were living in.
Because Dan and I weren’t sure how safe the streets would be, nor did we want to draw attention to ourselves, we decided we weren’t going to drive to his parents’ house. Taking the running trail up the hill and down into the neighborhood was the fastest way over on foot. When we got there, we could load them up in their car and drive back.
Dan and I grabbed a pre-packed bag with water, snacks, and a first aid kit. We both were sure we wouldn’t need anything from it, but it was ‘just in case.’ He then pulled down two machetes and handed me one.
“We’re taking Mayhem, right?” I asked, looking at our loyal companion holding his leash in his mouth. He already seemed to make that decision for us. “He’ll sense anyone – or anything – around us before we even hear them.”
“Yeah, of course,” Dan said distractedly, zipping up the backpack and wrapping it around his back.
Dan and I went through the backyard fence as it seemed the least conspicuous.
The air smelled like a bad BBQ, but peeking out to the street, it looked clear.
“When I say, just run for that trailhead,” Dan whispered as he looked down the street.
My stomach felt like a bunch of butterflies fluttering around and finding their way up to my throat. I needed a minute. I wasn’t ready, I thought to myself.
What if we spring out and people – either sick or well – are just around the corner waiting for us?
But I knew we didn’t have a minute. We needed to move fast.
“Go now.” He nudged me, and we dashed together from the backyard.
Mayhem knew exactly where we were going. This was his daily run, and he was as happy as ever to be outside. Everything was normal in his world.
I didn’t look back once. My eyes stayed focused on my dog ahead of me, and I kept the goal of reaching the trailhead firmly in mind. I could hear Dan jogging behind me staying so close I could practically feel his breath on my neck.
It took several minutes for us to reach the first branch of the trail where it turned off the main path. From this vantage point, the devastation was overwhelming. Black smoke clogged the sky from what appeared to be the burning remains of entire neighborhoods. It looked like a war zone. Military choppers hovered all over the city appearing only to monitor the ground. There was no media in the air anymore.
Our part of town wasn’t left without significant damage. Several homes at the end of our street were smoldering piles of rubble. We could see cars piled on top of each other jamming the roads. It looked like everyone who had fled was forced to abandon their vehicles, or maybe they were picked up.
We traveled down the trail cautiously, cringing with every leaf and twig that cracked under our footsteps. As we neared the bottom, we heard what sounded like several big truck engines. Dan and I both ducked behind the trees. A military convoy turned around the corner, slowly driving through the neighborhood. Soldiers patrolled on foot alongside the trucks and Humvees.
“Infected!” a soldier suddenly called out from the convoy in the distance.
The soldiers moved in unison and trained their weapons in the direction of a man moving slowly towards the column. From our vantage point, it was just a man. He was moving slowly and looked disheveled and somewhat grey, but other than that he was just a man. On any other day, he could have been somebody walking to his mailbox to check the mail or retrieving a forgotten item from his car. But today, he was the focus of over a dozen automatic weapons. My thoughts were broken by a shout of “Fire!” I watched as bullets tore through cloth and flesh.
I turned my head and buried my face in Dan’s shoulder. “Oh, my God, they’re just shooting people?” I whispered, mostly to myself. I didn’t want to look. I didn’t want to believe this was happening in front of me. Through the rattle of automatic gunfire, I heard Dan murmur, “Oh my God.” I slowly raised my eyes, expecting to see a grim vision of death. But what I saw was a man moving slowly, a little disheveled and a little grey, still moving towards the column of soldiers. At that moment it was apparent that we had our first sighting of what they called “the infected.”
I watched as a soldier slowly dropped to a knee, took careful aim, and shot the man clearly through the head. Finally, the man collapsed.
Mayhem stirred and moaned at the turmoil ahead of us. Dan calmed him, rubbing his ears. I couldn’t read Dan’s mind, but mine was regretting we had ever left the house. Melody was right; it was just too dangerous on the streets.
More infected began to appear from throughout the neighborhood, slowly encircling the soldier. We watched as a soldier was attacked from behind by two of the infected. His scream of agony was silenced by a fellow soldier who gunned him down along with the two infected.
The headline ‘NO CURE’ entered my mind. I had never felt such real panic until that moment.
The rattle of automatic weapons continued for only about a minute before all of the infected, along with at least one soldier, were killed.
Several soldiers quickly gathered the bodies and doused them with gasoline. A soldier stepped forward, removed his helmet, and bowed his head. After a moment of silence, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a flare, struck it against the street, tossed it onto the pile of bodies, and signaled to the convoy to move on.
“Mom and Dad are five houses down,” Dan said, ignoring the scene we just witnessed. “We need to
move quick, babe, OK? As fast as you can go and as quiet as you can.”
“I’m not ready.”
“Honey, look at me.” Dan gently pulled my chin so I would face him. “Honey, I need you to run as fast as you can.”
I could only look away from him, and stare at what was ahead, nodding my approval. I gripped Mayhem’s leash knowing he’d pull me in a sprint if I let him.
Without another moment, we bolted from the trees and ran through the yards, staying closer to the homes and away from the street where we were more exposed.
Dan’s parents’ house looked quiet and untouched from the front. Dan rushed past me to the fence leading us to the backyard where we slipped through the gate.
More fear set in when we saw the sliding glass door wide open with the curtains flowing out with the breeze.
Dan peeked his head in. There was no movement from within the house.
“They’re probably still asleep,” I whispered, too afraid to imagine what could have happened inside.
The house was eerily silent, with a slight metallic smell, like a penny. Dan, Mayhem, and I stood in the door for a moment just listening. The silence was broken as Dan walked farther into the house, and his foot fell with a loud squish. He lifted his foot to see a thick puddle of blood staining the floor. Mayhem sniffed it and was clearly bothered. He began tugging at his leash to continue moving. Nothing else seemed too out of place; no broken glass or turned over furniture. There were some papers on the dining room floor, but we assumed they blew there from the sliding door being open. But as we snuck further into the dark home, we could see the outline of smears and what appeared to be blood spatter on the walls. I felt a chill run through me that I could not ignore, although I kept following.
When we determined that the downstairs was clear, we carefully crept up the stairs. There was more blood on the carpet and walls, like someone was injured, bleeding, and walking through the house without a care that the blood was dripping everywhere. Each step caused a creak that seemed louder than the next. It felt loud enough that the entire neighborhood could hear our every step as we climbed the stairs. Despite climbing these stairs thousands of times over the years, I don’t think I had ever realized how loud they were until that very instant as we tried so hard to stay unnoticed. Dan sensed it too, and motioned to move to the side of the staircase where the boards creaked less.
Mayhem took the lead and began to whimper at Dan’s parents’ bedroom door.
It hit us the moment we reached the top of the stairs.
Death.
I took a deep breath, bracing myself for what we would find.
Maybe they’re alive, and they locked themselves inside their bedroom while their house was being looted by people or these monsters.
Dan reached the door first and quieted Mayhem. I took his leash and pulled him towards me so Dan could enter.
Dan slowly opened the door and peeked around the corner to scan the room. I saw him stiffen and drop his gaze to the floor as he opened the door the rest of the way.
They lay together on their bed. His mother, peaceful and untouched; his father, stained with blood across his body and a single gunshot which had left an ugly jagged wound on his temple. The side of the bed closest to his father was disheveled with the side table and sheets stained with more blood. They hadn’t been dead for too long.
Dan was visibility in a state of shock. He slowly backed against the wall next to the bed, and upon reaching it, slid to the floor with his head in his hands. Given the amount of blood we saw downstairs and on the stairwell, I think we both knew what we would find. Neither of us spoke. We just stared at their bodies. I walked over to his mother where I found a handwritten note next to the bed along with a bottle of pills.
DEAR DAN, DAD GOT INFECTED AND I WASN’T GOING TO LET HIM LEAVE THIS WORLD WITHOUT ME. WE’RE SORRY WE KEPT THIS FROM YOU. WE DIDN’T WANT YOU TO WORRY. ALL OUR LOVE. MOM & DAD.
I took the note to Dan so he could read it. Tears began flooding my eyes and falling down my cheeks. I was finally feeling this reality we were in. It was the reality that this virus doesn’t discriminate. We could all be victims of it; us, our loved ones, our friends, and neighbors. I wanted to be strong for Dan, but I was lost for words and lacked any idea on how to comfort him.
“Baby, I’m so sorry,” I whispered, wiping the tears away. It’s all I could come up with.
“They did it their way. At least they’re together,” he said, looking at his parents.
Suddenly, a crash downstairs.
Someone was inside.
***
We barricaded ourselves in the bedroom with a dresser, moving the large piece of furniture as quietly as possible. Our ears instinctively pressed firmly against the door, with Mayhem below us sniffing the space between the door and carpet.
It was so quiet.
“Maybe the wind knocked something down,” I whispered, hoping that we were overreacting.
Dan just stared at me and listened for a few more seconds.
Nothing.
“Get to the floor. Let’s keep low to the ground just in case there’s a loaded weapon, and they’re just as afraid as we are,” Dan whispered, moving to the floor in front of the dresser.
We sat next to each other only hearing Mayhem’s nose sniffing the door.
“We need to get out of here.” There was a new panic in my voice.
“No one is coming through this door, you hear me? We’ll wait it out, and I’m sure whoever is down there will just leave,” Dan said.
Our attention was quickly drawn to another crash from downstairs, and then Mayhem’s low growl. His hair spiked up along his spine and tail.
Dan leaned over and grabbed his collar to guide him to us. We both pet him in an effort to calm his nerves, but his attention could not be budged.
The stairs creaked. It was a slow creak, like someone took one step and was now debating if they should continue up.
Dan and I both moved our bodies to lay flat with our bellies on the floor, trying to look under the doorframe. Our movements were slow, our breathing was light and shallow as to not make any unnecessary sound.
Mayhem’s growl was low and agitated.
With his growl, a groan from downstairs replied, and footsteps moved quickly up the stairs. It didn’t just sound like one. Then what appeared to be two shadows passed by the door.
We couldn’t see much more by looking under the door from behind the dresser. Dan slid the dresser a few inches away, still safe to where nothing would get through. Both our faces planted on the carpet.
Mayhem began to whimper, and the bodies on the other side pressed against the door.
Then the smell seeped under the door. It was a rotten smell like meat gone bad mixed with old blood.
Infected.
Do they remember how to open doors?
Dan and I pulled away and sat back against the dresser. Mayhem became more frustrated and interrupted his own growl with a small yelp which caused the infected to be more aggressive towards the door.
I jumped to my feet, grabbed Mayhem by the collar, and dragged him into the bathroom, shutting him in. His nose now sniffing and snorting from behind another door helped to muffle his noise and calm the infected, but it was not enough. They were determined to enter. The infected on the other side knew we were in here and weren’t going to back down.
I made my way back over to Dan.
“Here’s the plan. The door will open enough for me to get a good look at whatever is out there but nothing will get through. You stay seated here bracing this thing just in case.”
“And?” I asked, hoping he had answers, but I realized he may not have thought that far ahead or he had and didn’t want me to worry.
He stood up and I braced myself against the dresser, hoping my body weight would help prevent them from breaking through. Dan looked down at me one last time, and I nodded letting him know I was ready.
With that, Dan opened the door. Neither of us w
as prepared for what would come next. The sounds of their growl was a wet gurgle and hiss, the smell was of raw meat that had been decaying for days, and from the expression on Dan’s face, the view was equal to the horrid smell.
Everything moved in slow motion. Dan jolted back, and the infected behind the door piled against the open gap with desperate determination, trying to reach Dan. From my viewpoint, I could only see their arms and hands tipped with dirty fingernails reaching for him. Their ragged clothes were caked with dirt and blood. Their skin looked rotten; open wounds exposed muscle and tendons, and the blood didn’t look right. It was black and congealed across their skin. I couldn’t see much more from my position and I didn’t want to.
Dan stood frozen, glanced down at me, and then back to the infected. He lifted the machete and struck desperately at the groping arms. The first swing went wide, and the machete slammed into the door frame. He pulled with all of his strength, and after several frantic pulls he managed to free the blade. The next swing was true. I grimaced as the blade struck and ultimately passed through flesh and bone. Blood spattered the wall and Dan’s arm. Outside, one of the infected fell to the ground. It sounded as if he dropped a watermelon to the ground with the squishy inside splattering on the floor. Dan managed to slam the door, and we heard the second of the infected fall against the banister at the top of the stairs and ultimately tumble down the stairs, apparently entwined in its own limbs.
“I just killed someone.” Dan dropped the weapon and tried to catch his breath.
“Not someone. Something. Something that would have killed us,” I reminded him.
“Oh, my God, Harmony.” Dan looked like he was in shock. He went to the bathroom, and as soon as he opened the door Mayhem ran straight for the bedroom door, sniffing crazily at the space under the door. Dan began washing his arm off, cleaning the goopy mess of blood that came from the infected.
When Dan was finished, he made his way over to the bed, picked up his father’s gun, and then opened the side table drawer and pulled a second one out along with a box of bullets.