The sounds continued in the hallway. It could have been the wind whistling up the garbage shoot. He went back to the bathroom and brushed his teeth and shaved in the glow of two small candles. The toothbrushes were all in their usual holders, standing up in a ceramic cup. There were three toothbrushes in total. When he put his mouth under the faucet, he discovered that there was no more water to be had.
His face appeared to have aged awkwardly since the last time he saw his own reflection. The darkness may have accentuated the shadows, but there seemed to be slightly discoloured ellipses under both his eye sockets and the eyes themselves were red with thick veins. There were random strands of white hair at his temples – more than he recalled seeing before.
There was a package of ham and bread, both partly frozen in the freezer. Jess had no way of defrosting it quickly enough to make a sandwich, so he tore open the package and ate most of the cold ham by itself. It was processed meat that his sons would use to make sandwiches for school. It tasted like cheap meat but still filled up his belly enough that he could focus on the moment.
He had no way to tell how much time had passed but his body seemed to be telling him it had been about an hour. He rummaged through the rest of the cabinets and drawers and found a bottle of red wine – a gift of some sort by the look of it. It was sealed with a metallic cap that screwed off and Jess inhaled the smell, associating it with blood, like the kind found in an under-cooked steak. He drank almost half the bottle in one go and walked around the apartment, peering at darkened photographs of his family on the walls.
The kids always posed best in their sporting uniforms, trying to emulate their biggest and best heroes. Flexing muscles, jutting chins. Appearing confident.
The wine felt heavy in his belly. He went out to the balcony and the dark view of the street below made him wonder if he was drunk enough to lose his footing and tumble over the edge. If anything bad had happened to the boys, tipping over the edge might now be the best ending. He smelled the drifting aroma of cigarettes in the air.
“You there?”
“Yeah,” came the reply.
“What are you going to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“You can’t stay here forever. You’re going to run out of food eventually.”
“I know that.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I’ll do what I have to.”
There was a crash of noise behind Jess. Something out in the hallway but close enough to sound like it was in the apartment.
Something was pushing on the door from the outside.
“What is it?”
“Something trying to get in.”
“I thought you said you fortified your door?”
“What do you mean, fortified my door? I fucking locked it!”
“Didn’t you push something heavy up against it? Please tell me you did!”
Jess looked at the door, watching it rock violently; back and forth. Something slammed hard against it – it sounded like the wood was splintering.
He stood transfixed, looking around the room for something to push up against it. The banging sound continued and Jess stopped to concentrate on deciphering what it could be.
“Hurry, find something!” Aaron said, but it was too late. The wood cracked at the hinges and the door came loose, falling down with a single thud.
There were human-shaped bodies standing in the darkened doorway with strange unfamiliar objects in their hands that were probably used to bang down the door. Now that the object that obstructed their forward movement was gone, they simply dropped the tools, now clearly identifiable as an axe and shovel. They were dropped like useless objects no longer serving any purpose. There was no celebration, just half a dozen stumbling sick things that were once healthy, sane men and women, coming into the void that was his apartment with the look of hunger a century old upon their face.
There was a momentary stand-off where Jess grabbed everything nearby – a wireless speaker, a small video game device and a glass sculpture treasured by Toni. He threw the sculpture first. It shattered in the face of a woman who lived at the end of the hall. The woman had made it most of the way through the door wearing nothing but a slip – personal nightwear – and one of her breasts was exposed, which didn’t seem to bother her in the least. It had smashed against her forehead and dazed her for a moment but her eyes almost immediately returned to Jess’s position and she continued slowly moving forward with her arms raised before her.
Jess ran for the balcony, knowing full well that the bridge between his apartment and Aaron’s was a wall of concrete about 8-inches thick. Jess reached out, and prepared to swing himself over the abyss into Aaron’s side when a hand came out to grip his, grounding him against a possible fall. He made the mistake of gazing down and saw several other balconies below, and nothing but empty black space directly below his body. One of the things made it out onto the balcony behind him. Its movement was strangely quiet and it managed to get a hand on Jess’s arm before he even knew it was there. He swung back with an elbow and connected with its head. When he looked back the thing was on its back and was already trying to get back up. Behind it were more of them trying to get through. He was out and over the empty space in almost no time at all, landing in a familiar but alien space with a few chairs, a table and candles burning to light the way.
More hands came outstretched the other way now, from what was his family’s side of the balcony. They came around the edge and snatched at both of their clothes. Aaron grabbed a candle and waved under the reaching arms, minor fires sparking on the tattered cloth that covered their arms. It was enough to send one or two of the preternatural beings cascading over the edge and down to their presumed doom, their lit arms flailing on the way down.
He and Aaron retreated soon enough with the understanding that the space between the two homes was enough that they would never be able to cross it such as things were. It was entirely possible that Jess himself would not have been able to cross it without Aaron’s aid.
He had pulled something in his knee during the daredevil move across – some old and cantankerous muscle that acted up at the exact wrong moments. It was a familiar pain now – each time he tried to push off with the ball of his foot the tendons groaned. Many years ago when he played football, each step had become more treacherous than the last and like most aggressive and quick games, they’re simply not meant to be played by individuals with too much going on in the head. Sports are intuitive more than anything else, a key connection to ancient man when he was fighting for his life and making split-second decisions that led to the survival or decimation of his existence. Football was without a doubt a game made on split-second decisions, and one too concerned about future repercussions would never do well in such an environment.
The inside of Aaron’s apartment was seemingly even darker than his own, although Jess knew that was most likely impossible. Aaron had an army of lit candles lined up no more than ten-feet apart, throughout his apartment. The layout of the place was the same as his, only mirrored, and with one less bedroom. Against a far wall, Jess saw what appeared to be a corkboard with photographs of people pinned up on it. His eyes quickly adjusted to the low light levels and he noticed that they were all photographs of young blonde women, most with cleavage showing.
The two of them slumped together against a far wall with a good view of the balcony ledge. Hands continued to come across the void, outstretched, and grasping at empty air.
“Friends of yours?”
Aaron just looked at him. Jess motioned with a nod of his head to the corkboard.
“You could say that.”
A few more of the things managed to get out into the space between, only to lose their footing and plunge down into the darkness below. Half a dozen bodies fell within an hour and it’s uncertain if the others learned better than to keep trying, but the efforts at bridging the gap stopped entirely before too long. You could hear them and hands s
till reached out from the other side, exploratory in nature, but no more attempts to try daredevil tasks of swinging from one balcony to the other occurred. They may have appeared dumb from a distance but they eventually caught on.
Aaron had brought out makeshift weapons from his front hall closet. A small hammer, pliers and three screwdrivers with different-coloured handles were scattered on the floor before them. All had a heft to them, feeling dense enough to do some damage if they were heaved or jabbed at a predator with sufficient force. Not traditional weapons perhaps, but capable of doing some harm nonetheless.
“What do you think happened?” Aaron said.
“What?”
“Something must have brought this on; do you think it was the East Asians?”
“I have no idea,” Jess said. “I was in a subway tunnel when it happened. The power cut out, everything went black and there was a collision; the train crashed. I can’t tell you what caused it. I only know what happened where I was.”
“You haven’t had any contact since then? Do you have a phone? Batteries? Anything? My solar cells are basically useless in this never-ending darkness.”
“I’ve got my PAL,” Jess said. “But all the networks are down.”
Aaron shook his head and laughed.
“I have a flashlight that burned out a day ago. Don’t need anything for the radio at least. There’s been nothing. I must have at least four of them in this place. One I bought specifically for emergencies. You power it up by winding a handle. No need to plug it in. I’ve got nothing from it. You’re the first person I’ve spoken to in days. A couple of our other neighbours ventured out into the hallway, but they didn’t make it very far before I heard their screams.”
Aaron was staring straight ahead as he spoke. Both of them still had their backs to the wall but Aaron still seemed to be on the alert, as if one of the things on the other side might crawl over at any second.
“I’m starting to get hungry again,” Aaron said. “Don’t supposed you snuck over any food in that commotion?”
“No, sorry. I packed two bags but forgot them in the melee.”
“Well, we have one last option.”
“What’s that?”
“C’mere and I’ll show you.” He handed back the smartcard.
Aaron got up and walked down the hallway of his apartment. When Jess caught up, Aaron was standing in the doorway of a bedroom. There was a woman tied to the bed. She was on her back, with barely any clothes and had a strip of duct tape strapped over her mouth. Her eyes looked like they were glowing white, even in the dark room. Worst of all, she was young, blonde and had round boobs, pushed up in a fancy bra.
“I found her in the hallway not long after the blast. She was kind of dazed at the time. I thought I could study her, but I didn’t learn much. She’s dumb as a doornail. Just looks at me like I’m food. Still pretty good looking though, but you gotta watch those teeth.”
The girl noticed Jess and he thought he heard her growl under the tape.
“I don’t understand what this has to do with us being hungry.”
Aaron took a step forward and grabbed one of the girl’s breasts.
“She’s not much use to me if I’m dead too. But she does have some meat on her bones.”
“Jesus,” Jess said. “You’re fucking sick!”
Jess stomped out of the room and went back to the balcony, wondering how he could get out of the building. His hands clenched around the smartcard.
Jess hit a few buttons and it was soon dialling Michael’s number. The kid never went anywhere without his PAL.
The line cut out like it couldn’t make the call.
“Orson, can you try again?”
Sorry, this customer is currently unavailable. Please try again later.
“I need to get out of here,” Jess said, and stood up.
Aaron put a hand on his shoulder. “You can’t,” he said. “Not yet. We have to figure out a plan.”
Jess knocked his hand off.
“Where is the radio?”
“In the kitchen,” Aaron said, and he followed quickly behind, unsure of Jess’s mind frame.
The radio was sitting on the stove beside a clear plastic bag filled with dozens of tea lights, one of which was glowing in the corner of the kitchen. The radio was roughly the size of a television remote control, but cylindrical. Jess found the handle, turned it around in circles, the sound of which would have made Dustin think of helicopter blades whirring in the distance. He found the button that turned it on and a dial that navigated through the various channels. Aaron was right; they were all dead, giving off varying levels of empty static.
He sat back down beside Aaron.
“I was just kidding about eating the girl.”
“I don’t care about the fucking girl, but I’m still not eating her. I just want to get out of here. How many of those things do you think are outside the door right now?”
“I don’t know. There always seems to be a handful out there, but I’ve never opened the door to find out. My guess would be maybe four or at any given time.”
“But don’t you think that most would have been attracted by the opening at my place? They’ve probably all gone in to see what the commotion was about, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know man; all I know is every crazy motherfucker who has gone out there probably became hamburger meat.”
Aaron was repeatedly looking towards the hallway that led to the bedroom. Jess was trying to put the thoughts out of his mind about what had happened there. Hunger has many meanings.
They took turns using the bathroom. Aaron was insistent that someone always eye the balcony and Jess couldn’t help but wonder how long it had been since Aaron had slept. They were there for about an hour. Jess was trying to formulate plans of escape.
Just when Jess started to feel certain that it was pointless to watch the balcony, the monsters on the other side found a way to break apart the wall that separated the two balconies.
The crumbling barrier was an altogether different sound that had both of them on their feet instantly. The things had been scraping at the bricks all night long. Soft scratches – flesh against concrete. It seemed harmless, like a prisoner banging his head against steel pipes. But something brought the wall down. Only a crescent moon section about a foot wide fell away, but it was enough to let some of them bridge the distance and others to whittle away what remained even further.
Aaron put his ear to the door.
“There’s still some in the hallway. Fuck!”
The creatures were coming over the expanse now like the critically injured from the worst of imaginable wars. They were all carcasses, walking somehow, some of them with flesh that was missing and hanging from their bones like old rotting leather.
Four of them were in the apartment when Aaron decided to dash to the kitchen. Jess picked up a screwdriver from the floor. Aaron came back with fire in his hand. A torch perhaps, or a burning rag – it was hard to tell, but he flung it at the first of the beasts through the balcony door.
“Back!” Aaron yelled, pushing Jess out of the way.
The first creature had a little patch of flame on his chest that slowly grew into an-out-of-control blast of fire.
The second and third creatures forced their way past, catching and dragging Aaron down to the ground. There were screams – first Aaron’s and then more coming from the bedroom. More were behind, coming towards Jess. His hand was already on the deadbolt of the door and he turned it, pulling open the door and flinging himself into the darkened hallway.
There were indeed monsters out here. Two in fact, but both in such bad shape that they couldn’t stand up. One was a short old man in a blue workman’s outfit on who growled at Jess as he stepped over them carefully and found the stairwell that led him back downwards.
Going down the stairs presented new difficulties, and although it was less strenuous physically than going up, he was moving slowly, making sure his foot was firml
y planted before shifting his weight. His footsteps echoed all around him and small noises could be heard off in the distance. It was like a giant concrete vacuum that he descended and it created a strange cocoon of sound. At one point he heard screaming and panicked. He started to move faster, despite the darkness, only his foot slipped on something and he fell down the better part of a flight of stairs, slamming his shoulder and face into the wall.
He stopped in the foyer and stepped forward to the glass, peering into the darkness. Those things were still walking around the front lawn, though there seemed to be less than before. He waited a few moments, wondering if Toni was going to show up again, perhaps noticing his scent.
There were also some lying on the ground, writhing grey bodies on the grass and concrete like they had all come out the wrong side of a gang war. These were likely the ones who had fallen from above. Broken bones and twisted appendages but still none of them quite seemed to be dead. Some moved, low groans escaping their mouths. None asked for help.
He checked his pockets for something, anything that could be used as a weapon. He came up with Toni’s keys in one hand and in the other a small vial of vodka, enough to warm him up and possibly give him the courage to carry on. The key was ridiculously heavy. In years past people used to apparently walk around with a dozen keys on a ring, which now seemed completely preposterous.
The lone key was for the safe place at her parent’s house. The old couple were sensible that way at least – he was still a parent and they seemed to genuinely care for the welfare of Dustin and Michael.
The lobby had a small cloth sofa against a far wall. Jess made his way to it and sat down. He opened the bottle of vodka and questioned his motivation.
He had been fighting all this time; the thing keeping him going was the thought that Toni and the boys would be alive. Now Toni was one of those sick monsters and the boys were missing - potentially anywhere in this giant rat maze.
Among the Roaring Dead Page 14