Dead Soil: A Zombie Series

by Alex Apostol

  Charlie looked up and watched the breeze from Lake Michigan blow through the leaves of the trees with a soothing rustle. She’d never been out in the country before, but as she took a deep breath of the fresh air and let the heat from the sun warm her face, she thought maybe when she married Gretchen they would settle down somewhere like that. Maybe even return to Chesterton and work on rebuilding some sort of relationship between her and her family. Hope filled her warm heart.

  They stood in front of the large oak door in heavy silence. Neither made a move to announce themselves. After a long minute dragged by, Gretchen raised her hand to knock, but stopped. Her entire face scrunched together as her eyebrows pulled inward and her nose crinkled. She extended a single finger and pushed it against the door, which creaked open a tiny crack. She looked at Charlie, her face still contorted, and then back at the door. Something wasn’t right.

  She took a step forward to go in, but was stopped by Charlie’s wiry arm.

  “Don’t. What if someone’s in there?”

  Gretchen nodded. It wasn’t normal for her parents to leave their house unlocked, even when they were home. They were close enough to the city to see crime spill over into their middle-class suburbia. Gary, a crowded town that gave birth to the Jackson Five, but had also once held the title of murder capital of the United States, was only a straight shot down highway twelve, the highway Gretchen’s parents’ lived off of.

  “Stay behind me,” Charlie whispered as she pushed against the door. With every inch it opened the hinges gave a ghostly groan.

  Gretchen remained in the light of the doorway. She bit down on her lip until she drew a small drop of bright red blood.

  Charlie inched inside. She craned her neck to look around the corners of the entryway. The house was dark, the blinds still closed from the evening before. There was a wafting scent of dead animal carcass as the breeze from the open windows charged around the room.

  Gretchen wrinkled her nose again and wondered if something had died in their backyard. It wouldn’t have been the first time, just one of the perks of living in the middle of a wooded state park.

  Charlie looked over her shoulder and waved her hands for Gretchen to follow. “Seems empty.” But Charlie stopped immediately when she saw Gretchen’s face drained of all its color.

  “Mom?”

  Charlie turned around just in time to see a set of rust-colored teeth clamp down onto her shoulder and tear through the skin. She let out a piercing scream as she reached her free arm out to Gretchen for help.

  Gretchen stood fixed in the doorway as her mother dragged her girlfriend down to the wood floor. She begged her trembling legs to move, for her body to do anything besides stand there, but they wouldn’t.

  The fifty-four year old fresh corpse was dressed in a floral patterned, summer nightgown. The short sleeves displayed a battle field of bite marks and scratches with black blood smeared on her grey, mottled skin. There was a jagged gash along her jaw line as if someone had dug their nails in and dragged them across with ferocity. The leathered skin hung loosely from the bones, discolored and wrinkled.

  Gretchen couldn’t take her eyes off the thing that used to be her mother. A loud bang came from the dining room as the door swung open and hit the wall. Her brain screamed for her to look, but she couldn’t take her eyes away from the massacre in front of her. Her girlfriend was still alive as her dead mother bore her decaying hands down into Charlie’s soft gut and ripped out her entrails. The sound of blood bubbling up in her throat was soft, but rang in Gretchen’s ears like a siren telling her to run.

  Footsteps pounded on the hard floor and echoed throughout the old house. Gretchen moved only her eyes to look. Standing tall on the other side of the couch was her dad. A dark reddish-brown ooze dripped from his mouth over the jean overalls he only wore when he did yard work. His dead, vacant eyes stared her down. Teeth bared, he swayed where he stood as he groaned.

  Tears slid down Gretchen’s cheeks. “Dad?” she whispered.

  The soft exhale of that single word was all it took to turn the focus from Charlie, who lie dead on the floor with her eyes wide and her jaw wretched open in an eternal scream, to Gretchen. She shook fiercely in the open doorway as the dead forms of her parents gazed at her with milky eyes. Her mother struggled to raise up from the ground as her dad lumbered over. Both groaned with the desperation for her flesh.

  Gretchen viewed Charlie for the last time. She didn’t want to leave her there, but she was out of options. Her girlfriend was gone and she would be too if she attempted to drag her body with her. She still heard Charlie’s sweet voice in her ears, saw the gleam in her elfish eyes as she smiled, felt the touch of her fingers as they wrapped around her leg…

  Gretchen let out a sharp cry. Her mother’s corpse had grabbed onto her leg and was pulling itself closer, using Gretchen to raise itself up.

  The primal instinct for survival finally kicked in. Gretchen danced her legs around as she tried to shake off her mom’s dead, forceful hands. She screamed wildly. She hoped someone would hear and come to help, but there was no one around. She drove her free foot into her mother’s already mangled jaw. There was a loud snap as it jutted to the side. It hung loose and unhinged like a broken cabinet door.

  “You’re not my mother!” Gretchen screamed over and over again as she kicked out with everything she had in her.

  Her mother’s face cracked, broke, and finally caved in on itself after a relentless beating.

  “You’re not my mother!”

  The grip on Gretchen’s leg released as the cold hands fell to the floor, her father’s lifeless body still trying to maneuver its way around the furniture to get to her.

  Gretchen ran for the car just as her dad made it to the doorway. She fumbled her way inside and slammed the door behind her.

  Instead of pursuing, the large, overall-clad corpse turned around and kneeled over Charlie’s mangled body. It lowered its face to devour what little was left of her.

  Gretchen put the car in reverse and slammed the gas pedal down to the floor. The tires kicked up a cloud of gravel and dust as she sped down the driveway and back to the two lane highway.

  She sobbed uncontrollably as she gripped the steering wheel. Her arms shook violently. She screamed as the images of Charlie’s bloody, horrified face tormented her, a single hand reaching out for help. Why didn’t she help her?

  Gretchen wiped at her face, but the tears were falling too fast. Unable to see, she ran off the road at the first turn and drove head on into a tree.

  XIII.

  Gretchen walked aimlessly as Charlie’s face clouded her mind. Her feet dragged along as she wandered with Gale’s large knife held limply in one hand, a flashlight in the other. Charlie was gone and it was all her fault. She didn’t think she could ever forgive herself for being such a coward that day.

  A twig snapped and brought her back to the dark woods that surrounded her. Sweat dripped down the back of her neck as her hairs stood up on end. What was she thinking going off by herself? She wasn’t ready to take on any decomposing, vicious zombies one on one. She’d made that clear back at her parents’ house.

  Anita watched Gretchen from high up in a tree, crouched on one of the thick braches while she held on to another above her head. For a moment she considered going down to reveal herself once more to another human being, but couldn’t. She’d been watching them for days and knew the shoulder-length, blonde-haired woman who walked alone in the dark wasn’t really alone, but part of a group Anita wanted nothing to do with. “Gretchen,” she whispered, just wanting to say something, anything, to someone else in the world.

  Gretchen stopped in her tracks and whirled around in a circle. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to see through the darkness. She didn’t want to shine her light out into the trees in case there were dead walking nearby. She kept it pointed at the ground. It made it impossible for her to see the person just twenty feet above her head. “Hello?” Gretchen whispered into the black vo
id.

  No one answered.

  “Not funny, guys,” she whined. She turned to go back to camp, but her body slammed into something hard and cold. A soft wheezing filled her ears.

  A female with patchy, dirty blonde hair, red gaping holes where her eyes used to be, and loose strips of meat that hung from her cheeks grabbed onto Gretchen with strong hands.

  Gretchen couldn’t contain the scream that escaped her lips as she tried to break free from the grip of the monstrous thing’s long fingers. Jagged teeth bit the air just inches from her nose. She had to break free. She had to get out of there and get back to the group. She couldn’t die there alone.

  Her arms shook as she forced her hand with the knife up to the zombie’s head. The thing inched forward, its teeth getting closer to Gretchen’s supple shoulder with every bite. It leaned forward as Gretchen pushed away, her weapon unable to make its way upward to save her life.

  The scraggly, female zombie’s head cocked quickly to the side as it went for Gretchen’s jugular.

  It was a split second when Gretchen’s hand was freed to make its final move. She drove the blade into its temple with a sickening crunch just as its teeth were about to clamp around her throat. The grip on her loosened as its body slackened to the ground with a soft thud.

  Gretchen heaved deep breaths, completely unaware of the tears that spilled down her cheeks. All around her she heard the rustle of uneven footsteps scraping along the grass, dirt, and dead leaves. She slowly raised the shaking flashlight in her hand. Everywhere, dead bodies were shuffling between the trees. They turned to her when her light passed over them. They moved as a herd, their course changed.

  “Oh, God,” Gretchen whimpered. Her knees were ready to buckle from fear, but she had to push forward and get back to the group. She had to warn them. She couldn’t let them die the way she allowed Charlie die.

  Gretchen’s body propelled forward on legs she had no control over. Her arms pumped hard as she ran back to the camp. The deep moans grew faint as the distance grew wider, but she knew it wouldn’t last long. Those things moved relentlessly with no need to stop until they had flesh between their teeth.

  Gretchen approached the camp loudly with pounding footsteps. She attempted to dodge the trees and bushes in the pitch black of night. A few times she tripped over a root and caught herself against a rough tree trunk. Each time she stumbled forward with her eyes trained ahead on the dimly glowing fire of the camp, with its unsuspecting bodies gathered around as they slept.

  Lonnie went from dead asleep to alert in mere seconds from the sounds of someone running nearby. He shot up to his feet and aimed his gun into the woods with one eye closed as the others stood behind him.

  Gretchen ran into the exact spot where Lonnie had his gun pointed. She dug her heels into the ground to bring herself to a skidding halt, her arms raised in the air. “Whoa, don’t shoot! They’re coming! A bunch of them! Maybe hundreds! They’re headed right for us!” she yelled. Adrenaline coursed through her veins. Her hands and knees shook.

  She didn’t have to say who the “they” was. Lonnie swept from left to right with his weapon as he searched for the corpses, but he couldn’t see anything past the orange ring of the fire. He only heard the faints sounds of moaning, growling, and endless shuffling.

  “Grab your shit! Let’s go!” he said before he took off in the opposite direction. He didn’t wait for the others and he didn’t turn around to make sure they were behind him.

  Gretchen only had her purse to grab, which she’d pulled out of the car after the accident. She slung it over her shoulder and across her body. It slapped against her thigh as she jogged after Lonnie and Rowan at a pace which Gale, Mitchell, and Carolyn could keep up with.

  Lee brought up the rear even though he could’ve caught up to and surpassed Lonnie and Rowan with his long, muscular legs. There wasn’t anything he needed to collect to take with him. What little medical supplies he had bounced in the cargo pockets of his tan shorts as he jogged. And yet, he remained behind the rest.

  XIV.

  The group followed the faint pattering of Lonnie and Rowan’s footsteps up ahead. Luckily, neither could keep quiet as they breathed heavily, swore loudly, and let out whimpering cries of exhaustion. It wasn’t hard for the others to keep track of where they ran, though with each passing minute the sounds grew dimmer in their ears.

  Gretchen and Mitchell had their flashlights out, but couldn’t hold them still to see as they ran. Bursts of light streaked the ground and the tree tops as their arms pumped with desperate effort. The slow, clumsy bodies that walked through the trees lit up quickly and disappeared again, like a disco for the undead.

  Mitchell Barnes hobbled as he tried to keep his weight off his wounded foot. He kept turning his head to see how close the ever moving herd was to him. Each time the details of their putrid bodies were more distinguishable through the darkness, but it seemed impossible. They didn’t move that fast. How could they catch up? Mitchell’s head spun and his legs wobbled. He was going to faint. He could feel it. His foot throbbed with every step.

  The din of the dead was all around. The bloodied corpses moved with slow, shuffling feet that scraped along the ground coverings. Gretchen wanted to fall into a crumpled heap and cover her ears. She imagined what it would be like if she did and let the dead overcome her—their hands digging into her, the indescribable pain as their fingers wrapped around her intestines and ripped them out with a quick jerk, the world fading away as she died in agony. She had to keep going.

  Gretchen linked her hand in Gale’s and forced the older woman to pick up her pace. She wasn’t going to let them go down without a fight. She wasn’t going to give up. Hungry moans seemed to come at her from behind every tree. How would they ever make it out alive when they were surrounded? She looked over her shoulder and saw that Mitchell had fallen behind.

  Lee stopped and bent down in Mitchell’s path. With the encasing darkness, blinded by fear, Mitchell ran right into Lee and tumbled head first over him. He scrambled back up to his feet.

  Lee Hickey fell forward and caught himself on his large hands. He reached out to Mitchell so he couldn’t run off in a panic.

  Mitchell jerked away at the touch of a hand on his leg.

  “Get on,” Lee said.

  “What?” Mitchell asked as his eyes adjusted to the blackness around them to see Lee squatted on the ground.

  “Get on!”

  Mitchell didn’t waste any time as he jumped onto Lee’s back and held tightly around his neck. His shotgun, still clenched in his hand, hit Lee repeatedly in the chest as he bounded forward to catch them up to Gale, Gretchen, and Carolyn.

  A slew of curses echoed out as Lee tried to regain his footing after he stumbled over a tree root that stuck up out of the ground.

  “Oh, shit! They’re coming!” Mitchell yelled.

  A tall male in soiled khakis and a ripped polo shirt reached out as he closed the distance between the two living men. The skin around his jaw had been peeled away from ceaseless consumption to reveal two rows of tall, red teeth.

  “Come on!” Mitchell yelled as Lee raised himself up. “Let’s go!”

  Cold, hard fingers grazed the back of Mitchell’s neck as Lee took off again. The grasping, ravenous corpse fell forward from the momentum of trying to grab onto Mitchell’s warm flesh. Once the spongey body hit the ground with a revolting splat, it pulled itself forward with weak muscles, like an infant learning to crawl for the first time. Several others tripped over the body as they continued onward after the group. The pile squirmed and writhed as it tried to stand up again as a whole.

  “Where are we going?” Gretchen called to Lonnie once she’d caught up to the two men with Gale and Carolyn at her side.

  “Anywhere these fucking things aren’t!”

  Lonnie had no plan, no direction, no clue where to go. All he knew was that if he wanted to live he had to keep his legs moving, and he had to keep them moving faster than the people behin
d him.

  XV.

  Zack Kran grabbed Marianne Dunbar’s feet while Liam Scott hooked his hands under her arms. They lifted her up and carried her out of her darkened apartment and through the open hallway to the back of the building. The sun shone brightly in the center of the sky and Liam had to squint his eyes as he took small steps backwards. Hers was the last body to be taken outside that day.

  They walked along the tan wooden fence that surrounded the perimeter toward a small chain-link fence that encased what was formerly knowns as the “Bark Park”. A pile of dead bodies lay on the green grass where dogs used to run and play.

  “Wait,” Sally Sherman said in a shaky voice as her husband opened the gate for them to bring her mother through.

  “Sal, we have to—” he started to say, but she him off.

  “I know,” she said. “Just…over there.” She pointed to a corner away from the already rotting bodies stacked in the middle. “She should be separate from…those things…” Lilly shifted endlessly in Sally’s arms as she tried to turn to look up at the expansive tree. The leaves and branches waved in the hot breeze.

  Christine rested a hand on Sally’s shoulder and guided her back to the picnic table in the shade off to the side. They sat with their backs to the guys, who shifted the bodies around and shut the gate behind them.

  Liam walked over and stood in front of the two women and baby. His face was lax with emotional fatigue and there was a sickly green tinge to his pallor. “We’re ready.” He held out a hand for Christine.

  She linked her fingers through his as they walked back to the fence. They stood outside to focus on the bodies of everyone they knew in the building and some they had never met.

  “I just want to say,” Sally said and then stopped to take a deep breath. “I want to say that I loved my mom very much. Even though she could be stubborn and hard to deal with at times, she was always there for me when I needed her…I just wish I could have been there…when she…needed me.” She broke down and handed the baby off to Ralph to hide her face in her hands.