Zombies on the Rock

by Paul Carberry

  “What in God’s name!” The story was unbelievable.

  “That’s what I thought. I tried to tackle the guy off Sean but he was very strong. So I had to really put my shoulder into it and when I did, some strange, awful smell just overpowered me. Stopped me dead in my tracks!”

  “The smell?” Ruth had all the blood washed away from his arm. She poured some rubbing alcohol on a rag and began to rub the bite mark. Byron flinched, but to his credit he managed to keep his arm fairly steady.

  “Ooouchh!! That stings!” Byron let out a tiny cry of pain as she continued to clean the bite mark. “The smell was like a rotten pile of meat. Just pure, rancid decaying meat!”

  “Jesus, was he some kind of homeless person?”

  “His clothes didn’t seem like it. He was in a nice suit and tie, but It was covered in dirt. It looked like he crawled out of his own grave!”

  “That’s odd.” Ruth applied some pressure to his arm to try and stop the bleeding.

  “It sure was. When I pulled back a little, he sank his teeth right into my arm. Sean managed to knock him over and we ran over to the ATV and took off.”

  “That’s quite the story sir.”

  The door opened and Dr. Winston stepped in. “Good day Byron. Little accident up to the cabin today?”

  “Well, not exactly.” Byron looked at his old friend in the door way and got ready to tell his tale once more. At least that should help take his mind off the pain of getting stitches.

  ***

  Gloria sat at her desk grading papers from last Friday. Normally she was not such a procrastinator, but she had went back home for Thanksgiving so she took the weekend off. Her students did not seem to mind the delay in getting their marks back. Most children in grade five did not care much about tests, they were still too young to know how important doing good in school was going to be in their future. Who could blame them? They were just enjoying life, playing out on the playground, making new friends.

  Gloria was glad to eat her lunch alone at her desk, she did not have many friends at school and her best friend had not shown up for work today. That was very strange for Tracy. Not even a phone call, she hoped that nothing was seriously wrong.

  “GLORIA!!! Get Sally’s EpiPen. She’s having a major allergic reaction!” Principal Cromwell shouted as she ran down the hallway towards Gloria’s classroom.

  Gloria opened the drawer of her desk where they kept Sally’s spare EpiPen. It was school policy to make sure that any of the students who needed puffers, or other life saving devices have a spare on hand in case of an emergency.

  “Got it!”

  Gloria jumped up from the desk and started to run down the hallway with the EpiPen in her hand. She removed the plastic guard and got it ready for injection on the way towards the cafeteria. This was not the first time Sally had a reaction. One of the children’s parents probably packed peanuts, or peanut butter in their child’s lunch. Damn! When would they realize how important it was to keep that stuff out of this school?

  As Gloria ran into the cafeteria she could see Sally on the floor, gasping to catch her breath. Her face was turning purple and her lips had already begun to turn a dark blue. “It’s going to be ok sweetie. Just hang in there.” Gloria tried to reassure Sally, she did not need her to panic any more than she already was.

  She drove the needle of the EpiPen into Sally’s leg and pressed the button to inject the epinephrine. Sally’s face kept turning a darker shade of purple.

  “Why isn’t she getting any better?” Principal Cromwell’s voice was riddled with panic.

  “I don’t know. It should be working by now!” Gloria pressed the button again and again, but it wasn’t working.

  “Get your car, we need to get her to the hospital now!”

  Principal Cromwell rushed towards the exit. Gloria pulled the pen out of Sally’s leg. The needle was out so what was wrong? She turned it over and looked in horror as she realized it was expired. She scooped Sally up into her arms. She was much heavier than Gloria expected, her back muscles straining to lift the child who was like a lump of dead weight. Gloria managed to cradle Sally into her chest and struggled to run towards the car with the child in her arms.

  ***

  Calvin stared into the empty grave. The loose dirt he had put there earlier in the morning had been disturbed. In all of his years working at the graveyard he had never seen anything like this. It turned his stomach to think that someone dug up a body. Did they mean to rob it? He had heard about it in stories, but never thought he would bear witness to it. The family would be angry, and rightfully so.

  “Fucking sickos!” Calvin said out loud to himself.

  It was now his job to dig out the casket and find out what was missing. Then he would have the priest notify the family of what had taken place last night. Calvin had used the tractor to dig up most of the dirt, but the last little bit would have to be removed by shovel so the casket would not be damaged.

  As Calvin started to remove the dirt, he was finding splinters of wood amongst the loose gravel. There was a putrid smell in the air that was coming from just below the loose dirt. Calvin had smelt dead bodies before and they were never pleasant. Usually bodies did not smell this bad until much later, this was probably the worst he had ever encountered.

  As he scrapped the last bit of dirt from the casket something frightening caught his attention. The wood was splintered outward, as if someone had pushed their way out of the casket from the inside. Dirt had fallen into the empty space and it now filled the casket.

  Calvin had no choice now but to scoop out the last bit of dirt with his hands. This would not be a pleasant task. Calvin knew that the bottle of rum in his cupboard at home would be emptied tonight to help him sleep. As he scooped more and more dirt out of the casket, a startling realization was beginning to make itself more apparent. The man’s body was missing.

  “Fucking dirtbags. What the fuck are they going to do with a man’s body?” Calvin cursed out loud.

  “That is the question my son!” Father Jon spoke from above the grave. “Let’s get you out of that grave.” Father Jon held out his hand to Calvin and helped pull him out of the grave.

  “We need to call the cops Father!” Calvin’s blood was boiling at the thought. Fucking Grave Robbers.

  “We certainly do. You go call them. I will visit with the family and explain this terrible tragedy to them.” Father Jon looked up into the sky as if he were looking into heaven to God for answers. “May God have mercy!”

  “No mercy for those mother fuckers!” Calvin stormed past the gravestones as he stomped towards the church.

  ***

  Tina Caines sat on the couch inside the psychiatrists office. She was waiting for him to come back, she had not slept since she discovered the body. The gruesome image that she had seen that night burrowed deep into her subconscious. All of her thoughts seemed to get warped into the darkness that clouded her mind. No matter what she tried to think about, when she closed her eyes all she could see was the bloodied massacre. Her parents urged her to seek help from a professional. Her father had picked her up from school and brought her to their family doctor early that morning. Doctor Winston did not have the skills to help her properly so he sent her to the hospital to see the psychiatrist. Her father was still waiting for her down in the cafeteria. He was probably sipping on a cup of tea, worrying about her.

  Tina had told all of her problems to the psychiatrist and he did not seem to have much to say. It was very apparent that he was listening intently to her, taking in her every word and responding at the appropriate times with well timed I see or how did that make you feel? She was a little concerned when he walked out of the room without saying a word. She was even beginning to wonder if she should just get up and leave, did he plan to come back?

  “Sorry Ms. Caines,” Dr. LaMar said in his French accent that Tina found very sexy. “Well, seems like you are suffering from post-traumatic stress. Very understandable, considerin
g what you’ve gone through.”

  “So, what do we do now?”

  Tina had never taken much more than a Tylenol or the rare antibiotic her whole life. She was a little worried about being drugged up, how would it affect her school work? She was concerned that if she was put on prescription antidepressants, her entire personality would change.

  “Well... For starters you’re going to come in and see me three times a week. That way I can make sure your ok.”

  Tina was a little more than excited at the prospect of seeing him on a regular basis. He was a very handsome man, Tina was ashamed to be thinking like that, but she couldn’t help it.

  “Anything else?”

  “Well, I’d like you to go fill this prescription. It will help you relax and sleep. I spoke to your father and he’s going to bring you back tomorrow so I can check on you.” Dr. LeMar handed Tina a green piece of paper with something illegible scribbled over it. As Tina headed towards the door the handsome doctor held the door open for her. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Tina.”

  “Sure thing.” Tina left the office and headed towards the cafeteria to find her dad. She walked down the white corridor and kept her head down, the floor sparkled brightly, she could still smell the lemon scent from the mop water.

  She hoped that no one would see her walking out of the psychiatrist office. In a weird way she felt ashamed to have seen one, but she knew she needed help. Just before she entered the cafeteria the doors flung open and her father was being escorted by two nurses. They were holding a bandage over his arm and guiding him towards the emergency department.

  “Dad! What happened?” Tina asked her father, puzzled by what was happening.

  “Oh, it’s just a little scratch honey. Some young girl just ran up and bit me. Little bugger!” Tina followed as the nurses led her father into an empty examination room. They seemed to wait there for hours before a doctor finally showed up to stitch up the bite mark. He apologized for taking so long, but for some unknown reason they were completely overwhelmed by an surge of patients flooding into the hospital.

  ***

  “Well Mr. Rowsell, how does that feel?” Ruth asked as Dr. Winston finished the last stitches.

  “Much better!” Byron held his arm out in front of his face and admired the handy work.

  “You feeling ok Byron?” Dr. Winston asked. “You look a little pale.”

  “Well, I do feel like I have a fever.” Byron wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his dress shirt.

  “Well, let’s take a quick look.” Dr. Winston reached over to the thermometer that was hanging from the wall. He placed it in Byron’s ear to get a temperature reading. “Hhmmm … it’s fairly high. I say you have an infection. After the story you just told me I wouldn’t be surprised at all.” Dr. Winston took out his white pad and wrote down a prescription for some antibiotics. “Here you go, take these just in case you have an infection. Also, I’m going to write you a pain reliever for that nasty bite.”

  “Thanks!” Byron took the prescription from the doctor and stuffed it into his pocket.

  “Well, all that’s left is for Ruth to put on some fresh bandages and you can be on your way. I’ll see you up to the cabin?” Dr. Winston stood in the doorway.

  “You will. I’m going to head up there later today.”

  “Alright Byron. Let’s get that arm wrapped up.” Ruth began to wrap a fresh bandage over the bite mark on Byron’s arm. She could not help but stare at the wound on his arm. The skin around the bite marks had turned a brownish red, and looked extremely irritated.

  Ted looked at his bank statement. His wife would have been furious with him if she was still alive. She had passed away years ago after a long, drawn out battle with cancer. Even when she was sick, she made sure that Ted had kept money aside for their children’s future. Every time he looked at them he saw her face. Her deep green eyes, her rosy cheeks and her little, rounded nose.

  Working as an accountant for the Pharmakon Medical Research facility had been a very lucrative career. It had allowed him to provide a life of luxury for his two little girls. They were spoiled. He did not know how to deal with his wife’s passing and raising his children all alone. They had no other family here. All Ted could think about now was keeping his little angels safe.

  It cost him all of his savings, everything he had. To be honest, Ted wasn’t even sure if this was not some sick scam. Watching the news lately had persuaded Ted to take the offer. If what his employer had said was true, he did not have any other choice. If they were lying to him, he was ruined. The sounds of his little girls running around upstairs was beginning to wear on his last nerve.

  “Girls! Have you packed your bags yet? We need to be ready to leave soon!” Ted yelled upstairs. No response. Ted checked his email again, hoping to see one from his boss Gordon Purchase. Nothing yet, what was he waiting for? Ted needed to know where the extraction point was, he had not spent all that money for nothing.

  “Girls!” Ted got up from his computer and headed upstairs. After Ted left the room an alert popped up on the computer screen.

  New E-Mail

  Subject: Buchans

  Chapter 13

  High Fever

  Jason stared through the glass at the mountain of a man towering in front of him, his shoulders were so wide he blocked out the sunlight, leaving Jason to shiver in the cold, dank cell. The man had a crooked smile, it was infuriating to Jason. The smug bastard looked like he wanted to tell Jason some deep, dark secret, he was definitely hiding something. The goliath outside was wearing a bullet proof vest over a black sweater, on his hip a handgun dangled from its holster, a fully automatic rifle attached to a black strap around his neck rested on his bulging chest.

  “Mr. Cook, I hope you have found your room up to the highest of standards!” The man let out a low cackle that boomed against the walls and rattled the glass.

  “Yeah, they are just swell. Think I’ll book a room for my vacation next month.” Jason was not in the mood for this.

  “I will check and see if we have any available!” Reaching into his pant pocket, he took out a cell phone.

  “Why am I here?” Jason was desperate for an answer, this seemed so unreal.

  “I have something I want to show you.” The man pressed his cell phone against the door.

  “You bastard, what have you done to her!!!” Jason looked in horror at the image on the phone. Tracy was in a cell similar to Jason’s. She had her hands bound together, and it appeared her leg was chained to the bed, a gag had been stuffed into her mouth. Jason felt like he was about to burst into tears, but he denied the man that pleasure. Even though Jason felt hopeless and afraid, there was no way he was going to let this animal have the satisfaction.

  “Where are my manners! My name is David Steele. I am the head of security here on Fox Island, and you were trespassing on our property. You stuck your nose into some business of ours, where it does not belong. It’s your fault she is in there!”

  “I swear, I am going to kill you!” Jason blurted out. Jason instantly regretted what he said, what if he had just put Tracy in more danger?

  “As much as it would amuse me to let you try, Mr. Purchase has allowed me to make you a little proposal.” David put the cell phone back in his pocket. “Now Mr. Purchase is a fair man, and he will give you a chance to save her. If it was up to me, you would already be dead! He will inform you of his offer soon.”

  Jason felt a faint ray of hope shine somewhere deep down inside of his body. “Well, where is he?” A fire began to burn in Jason’s soul, it was everything he could do to suppress the rage that was begging to be unleashed.

  “He’s tied up in a meeting right now, but he will be by shortly.” David jingled a set of keys, taunting Jason with them.

  David reached down to the bottom of the door and unlocked a smaller opening. David stepped out of view. Jason looked down at the tiny opening realizing it was much too small to crawl through, it was barely big enou
gh for Jason to stick his arm out. The smell that came in through the tiny hole was stale, and it carried a fowl taste. David reappeared with a tray of food and slid it under the door. “You’re going to want to be at full strength if you want any chance of saving your wife.”

  “Why do you care?” Jason looked down at the meal, but refused to pick it up in front of David. Jason’s stomach was growling, but he dared not show any weakness.

  “Well at some point, no matter what you chose, I’ll have a chance to kill you myself. I enjoy a challenge.” David seemed to be appraising his opponent, like a boxer training for a fight.

  “Well, don’t worry, you’ll get that chance,” Jason snarled back. “What was your name again?”

  “David Steele, why?”

  “So I can say your name as I beat the life out of you.”

  “I’m going to enjoy this Mr. Cook. I look forward to watching you try to save your wife. I’ll be rooting for you.” David had a smile on his face, he was enjoying this. This abhorrent situation made David happy in the sickest kind of way. David strutted down the empty corridor out of sight, and Jason watched his shadow get smaller and smaller.

  “Jesus Christ!” Jason muttered to his self, he couldn’t help but take notice of the wonderful aroma that arose from the dish. Jason thought what a great last meal this would make, it was all of his favourites.

  How did they know? Was it a lucky guess, or was it information that they received from Tracy?

  Garlic mashed potatoes with sour cream, a giant, succulent burger with all the toppings, on the edge of the plate wrapped in a napkin was a Boston Cream donut, and a mug filled with coffee to wash it all down. Jason was going to enjoy this meal almost as much as killing David Steele.

  ***

  Eric stared blankly at the screen in front of him, the note that Frank had left addressed to Eric was tormenting him. Eric did not know if he should read it here in front of everyone, or delete it before anyone would have a chance to read it. Maybe they had already read it before they called out to him? Everyone seemed to be staring at him, and it was making him uncomfortable. Their eyes were burning a hole right through him and fixated on the computer screen. Eric thought it would be best to let Gary see the note.