A New Death: CJ's Story

by Vasquez, Josh

  “It’ll be ok Laura,” I heard my Mom say. “If anyone knows what to do now, it’s Josh. He’ll get back to you.”

  “I know,” she said through sniffles. “I just wish he was here. And I wish we were all at the cabin.”

  “Ok then,” my Dad said. “Well, let’s get started packing. The sooner we finish that, the sooner we can get out of here.”

  ***

  Everyone was quiet as we packed the vehicles with the food and supplies. We had our SUV, and G-Dad brought his pick-up truck, so there was plenty of room for cargo. Mom and G-Mom worked in the kitchen, packing up food and cooking utensils. I carried the boxes out to G-Dad who was cramming them into every nook and cranny he could find. Hailey was coloring at the table, out of the way, but I noticed that Dad and Aunt Laura had slipped away from the rest of the family.

  After taking a box outside, I went back in and said I had to go to the bathroom. Mom nodded and told me to hurry. I went towards the bathroom, but kept going and went into my parent’s bedroom. I heard voices in their bathroom.

  Aunt Laura and Dad were talking quietly.

  “Josh probably will assume we went to the cabin, but just in case he comes here to check and see if we’re here, this note will point him in the right direction,” I heard my Dad say.

  “Yeah, I know he will probably come here first before heading out west or trying to head in town,” Aunt Laura answered. “At least to see if we made it out. With the house empty, he’ll know where to go next. What’s the safe passcode?”

  “3836.”

  “Got it. You think-”

  She paused.

  “You think he’ll use it?”

  “I doubt it, but I’d like for him to have the option, just in case he gets in trouble.”

  “Yeah… trouble…” Aunt Laura trailed off.

  “He’ll be fine, Laura. He’s probably already got his hands on a machete. Heck, I’m surprised he doesn’t already walk around with one!”

  I heard her laugh half-heartedly, which I felt was my cue to walk into the bathroom.

  “Do you have any boxes I can take?” I asked nonchalantly.

  “No, CJ. We’re good in here. C’mon let’s go finish in the kitchen,” my Dad said, pulling me out of the bathroom.

  I had enough time to catch a glimpse of the note they were talking about. Written in lipstick on the mirror was:

  Gone to cabin.

  Safe code: 3836

  I love you

  Ps- don’t leave me to do this by myself

  Don’t die on me

  What? Don’t die on me? I thought. What does she mean?

  My brain began to race. I had no idea why everyone was so worried and talking in ways where I couldn’t understand them. I had no idea why we were packing everything up and leaving to go to the cabin. I had no idea why I was carrying my gun around and I had no idea why Aunt Laura was afraid of Uncle Josh dying.

  And why do they keep saying they wish he was here? That’d he know what to do?

  Uncle Josh was good for a lot of things, don’t get me wrong, but they were mostly related to video games or movies. If I ever needed to know where to get a certain Pokemon, Uncle Josh was the guy to go to. But serious things? The only serious thing I ever heard my uncle talk about was the Bible.

  My Dad looked at me. He knew that I was trying to piece things together, despite how much I tried to play it off. He could always see right through me.

  “What’s going on Dad?” I asked, very cool and grown up-like.

  The adults all looked at each other. I could tell they were “telepathically” arguing about whether to tell me or not. My mother’s and grandmother’s eyes both screamed no, while G-Dad simply shrugged. My Dad looked back at me.

  “I’ll explain once we’re on the way, Son. Promise.”

  I nodded. My father always kept his promises. I’m sure there was a reason why they weren’t telling me. A reason on why they were acting all weird. I went to ask when we were planning on leaving, but didn’t get the chance to, because a gunshot was fired in the distance. Another two shots were fired, then silence.

  ***

  “What was that?” Aunt Laura asks, as everyone move towards the back door.

  “Sounded like gunshots,” said G-Dad.

  Dad turned to me.

  “Keep your sister in the house, CJ.”

  He then turned back and walked outside with the others. I looked at Hailey, who was still coloring and now had her headphones back in. She didn’t hear the gunshots. As if she knew I was thinking about her, she looked up and smiled, but went back to coloring.

  Dad said I had to keep her in the house. Ok, done. I crept closer to the back door to try and hear what was going on out there.

  The adults were all standing at the bottom of our driveway, which sloped at almost a forty-five degree angle down away from our house. I could see one of our neighbors talking with Dad. He lived next door to us on our little circle. From where I was standing, I could barely make out what they were saying. I edged a little closer to the door, trying my best to stay out of sight.

  “Did you hear it?” The neighbor asked. “Where did it come from?”

  “I don’t know,” Dad answered. “But it sounded close.”

  The neighbor mumbled something, but I still couldn’t hear him from my closer position.

  “I don’t know,” I heard Dad say again.

  He went to say something else, but was interrupted when another man walked out from behind a house on the far end of our circle. He was holding a police-special style revolver in his right hand.

  “Don’t worry y’all! I got ‘em! Sorry for all the alarm,” he yelled.

  “What do you mean? Are they here already?” Our neighbor asked.

  His question and this new man’s arrival seemed to agitate the small crowd of neighbors who were now gathering near the end of our driveway.

  “No, I think it was just one of them. Must have wandered into the neighborhood somehow. Not sure how he got past the Parkside though,” the man with the gun answered.

  Our neighborhood was split into two sections. Parkside was up near Highway 21 and was called such because the neighborhood clubhouse and park was located within it. Our half of the neighborhood, Lakeside, was filled with tiny little lakes scattered around the landscape. The neighborhood wasn’t split like this on purpose though. It was originally supposed to be developed more, but was never completed. Dad said when the housing market dropped (whatever that means), the plans to build more dropped too. Which was a bummer, because there were plans to build a grocery store and a shopping center towards the front of the subdivision. It would have been cool to ride my bike up there and get a snack or something. I inched closer to try and hear what exactly wandered into our neighborhood.

  Maybe some kind of animal, I thought. No, they keep referring to them in the plural.

  “What are we going to do?” Someone asked.

  “I’m getting out of here.”

  “Me too!”

  Everyone started talking about leaving and arming themselves with guns and other handheld weapons. My thoughts on the probability of it being an animal were now very low. Unless of course, it was a pack of rabid bears or something. But I seriously doubted it was a pack of rabid bears.

  I noticed Ms. P standing at the edge of the group. She was dressed in a bathrobe and slippers. Her hair was dry, so maybe she was fixing to get in the shower when all the commotion started. She noticed me staring at her and forced a smile in my direction.

  Ms. P often would look in on us for my parents, whenever they would go out on dates. They still felt I was a little too young to stay home and watch Hailey, so she was kind enough to check on us. A lot of times she’d come over and play games. She was young and pretty, and well, I didn’t really mind her coming over. She smelled nice too.

  The man with gun raised his voice, breaking up my thoughts about Ms. P, and tried to speak over the murmuring of the crowd.

  “Ev
eryone, calm down! It was just one of them for crying out loud! We’re not even near the city!”

  The crowd seemed unsatisfied with the man’s words. It really only seemed to stir them up more. My Dad raised his hands, trying to quiet and calm everyone down.

  “Listen everybody,” he said. “We all need to go back to our homes, secure them and sit tight.”

  Sit tight? I thought. That’s not what we were doing. Why would he tell them that?

  “If you have firearms,” he continued. “I’d suggest you keep them loaded and close by you. If you don’t, I’d recommend you find any type of hand tool, such as a hammer or crowbar. We don’t need to panic; that’ll only cause us more trouble. If everyone keeps a cool head about this, we can all get through this safely. Now everyone go home.”

  The crowd swallowed what my Dad said much better than the other man’s words. He gave my Dad a smug look and walked back towards his house. One by one, everyone went back towards their homes. Our neighbor gave my Dad a head nod and walked back to his house. Once everyone was gone, Dad motioned for the rest of our family to follow him back into the house.

  I darted back into the kitchen and quickly sat at the table next to Hailey. She looked at me strange, wondering why I was sitting so close to her. Her music was still going strong. I gave her a smile, to which she mouthed, “You’re weird,” and went back to her crayons and paper.

  The adults all looked more worried now than they had been all afternoon. Dad was pulling on his goatee again.

  “What do we do Chris?” G-Mom asked, her voice somewhat shaken.

  Without any hesitation at all, Dad answered her.

  “We leave. Now.”

  ***

  Everyone began to feverishly gather the remaining things to put in our cars. Hailey was prepping our dogs for the trip. She struggled to get Millie, our Siberian Husky, into her kennel. Millie was nearly as tall as Hailey, which isn’t saying much given Hailey’s “vertical handicap.” Opie, a Boston Terrier and Hailey’s dog, eagerly waited at her side. Opie has always been extremely loyal to Hailey, even going as far as allowing himself to be dressed up in pretty pink princess clothes. I didn’t really care for either of the dogs, but I had to feel sorry for Opie sometimes. He was a good and loyal dog.

  Dad broke my attention when he shoved a box in my hands. He pointed his elbow in the direction of the cars, indicating for me to follow him outside. Once our cargo, the last of the boxes, was secure, he turned and looked at me. I could tell he was sizing me up again. I tried my best to hide my confusion and uneasiness.

  “Look son,” he started gently, a change in his whole demeanor from this afternoon. “This is going to be hard to explain and maybe even hard to understand, but what is happening and why we are leaving is-”

  Dad was cut short by the quick popping of gunfire behind us. We spun around quickly to see the same man from earlier who fired his pistol. He stumbled back out from behind the far house, tripping over his feet into the cul-de-sac and falling to the pavement. He scrambled clumsily to get back on his feet, but was unable to do so. If he would have used both arms, maybe he could have gotten up, but he kept his gun pointing shakily in the direction he came from.

  A group of four people walked out from behind the house. Their pace was slow and their footing seemed equally unsure. From the distance I was at, they all seemed to be in a daze, but were focused intently on the man with the gun.

  He began firing into them.

  The only time I’ve come close to seeing people shot was in movies or the online shooters I played with my uncle. This was nothing like that. As the man unloaded the rest of his gun into the approaching people, I could do nothing else but stand there with my jaw dropped. It all happened so fast, but almost seemed to slow down in time.

  The gunfire didn’t slow the mob. The man must have been a real sucky shot.

  No, there’s no way. He’s not even ten feet away from them. Hailey could hit something from that distance.

  I could see blood slowly trickling down the front two’s chests. The man definitely made contact, but they weren’t stopping. Not even slowing down. They didn’t even do the natural human reaction and try and shield themselves from the oncoming gunfire. I could see now that most of their clothes were tattered or torn in some way.

  “Back! Back!” The man screamed, as they closed in on him.

  The leader of the pack fell to his knees, grasping the man around the ankle. He howled out in agony, as the hand clasped around his leg, and tried to kick himself free. The others followed suit and began latching onto the fallen man. He screamed, fought and tried to kick them away, but they very quickly overpowered him.

  They began biting him.

  It was then that I realized what was going on. Why everyone was so panicked. Why my family was all wishing Uncle Josh was here and that he would know what to do. It was also the reason my Dad had me strap my .22 rim fire rifle to my back.

  Zombies.

  II. Loss

  “CJ! Get in the house!” My Dad yelled, as he took off running in the direction of the attacked man. He was pulling his Glock from its hip holster, taking aim at the nearest zombie. I froze, not being able to take my eyes off of my father as he systematically dropped each one of the zombies. Apparently, his military training was a lot fresher than I gave him credit for . Each dead freak received a bullet to the head, ending the attack on the screaming man.

  “CJ!”

  My Dad yelled again and I snapped out of my stupor, spinning around to run into the house. G-Dad was there motioning for me to come into the house. He was yelling something, but sound seemed to fade away and everything fell silent. A last, single gunshot reverberated throughout the neighborhood. I quickly did the math, adding up the number of zombies and realizing that Dad had fired one time more than there were zombies. My stomach turned as I understood that the final bullet fired was not intended for a zombie but reserved for the man who had been attacked.

  My stomach began to twist in knots but before I could throw up, Dad was behind me pushing me into the house.

  “Alright, everybody,” he started, strangely calm for someone who just shot five people. “It’s time to go. Now. Mom and Pops, you two are gonna get Laura out of here and lead the way. We’ll be right behind you. Just get her out of here.”

  He motioned towards Aunt Laura. G-Dad and G-Mom nodded, but I could tell that G-Mom was not happy about the situation. That makes two of us. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Zombies weren’t real. They were video game and movie stuff. How in the world are they real?

  Millie was going crazy inside her kennel. She couldn’t decide if she was excited or scared. She peed. I looked around, figuring Opie would be playing it cool as he always did. He wasn’t in the kitchen.

  He wasn’t in the kitchen.

  “Where’s Hailey?”

  My question brought a flash of silence to the kitchen as everyone else realized that Hailey was missing. The silence didn’t last long as the room erupted into chaos and yelling.

  “HAILEY!” My Dad yelled.

  “Hailey! Where are you?” My Mom cried out.

  “Let’s split up and look-”

  “No,” Dad interrupted G-Mom. “You two need to get her out of here. We’ll be right behind you. Now go.”

  G-Mom started to protest, but G-Dad placed a hand on her arm, assuring her it was time to go.

  “Get them to safety Chris,” she said in a low tone.

  My father nodded.

  “I will.”

  With that, the three of them left. I heard G-Dad’s truck crank up and saw them through the back door pull away from the house. My mother was beginning to frantically look around the house, when my Dad stopped her and looked at me.

  “CJ. Take your mother and get her in the truck. Remember when I let you drive it around the neighborhood? Get it running, pull it out of the driveway and be ready to go. Get Millie in the truck too.”

  I nodded, too scared to say anything. He
ran off into the house, calling out Hailey’s name. My mother was now visibly shaken and was crying. Her sniffle was back.

  “C’mon Mom, let’s go.”

  She whimpered something, but it was unintelligible. I guided her outside and into the front passenger seat. Her movement was stiff and she wasn’t really cooperating. Her eyes seemed to glaze over, as if she was lost deep in thought. I didn’t like it. I buckled her in and turned back to go get our dog.

  Millie had finally decided between excitement and freaking out. She decided she was freaking out. She circled around within the medium-sized cage, barking protests. Me and her had not always been on good terms with each other, so I’m sure this was going to be somewhat difficult.

  When she was a younger puppy, she made it a habit to always try and get away when I took her for walks. She wasn’t as big then as she is now, but she’s always been strong. Whenever I would finally catch her, let’s just say I made it clear that I was unhappy with her.

  She eyed me with distrust as I began to unlatch the kennel’s door. As soon as it was undone, she body-slammed the door, knocking me flat down on my butt. She made straight for the back door and was gone.

  “Millie!” I yelled, but it was too late.

  Stupid dog. I hope you get eaten.

  I stood up, rubbing my sore bottom. There was nothing I could do about it now, and I’m sure Dad wouldn’t be too concerned about the dog. I saw him run from his bedroom to up the stairs. I needed to get back outside with Mom.

  She was still in her seat, eyes fixed on something in the distance. There were now more zombies in the neighborhood. Some were being fought off by neighbors, others were… feeding. I watched as our next door neighbor brought the claw end of a crowbar down onto a zombie’s head, caving it in. The claw yanked away dripping in red.

  I heard screams from my left. They sounded like they were coming from Ms. P’s house. I looked at Mom and then back at the screams. I had to do something.