The Last Days

by Gary Chesla

  John could also see out to the road.

  A few of the dead staggered around out on the road. Not the thousands that had traveled the road yesterday.

  John liked to think the fewer numbers out there today was because the rest of them were down in the creek. They had fallen over the side of the bridge in their efforts to get at him and the girls.

  Hopefully they followed the ones in front and just kept falling into the creek and then couldn’t figure out how to get up the banks to get out of the creek.

  He felt certain they did that for a while, but eventually they would have been distracted by something else that would have turned them back to continue staggering down the road.

  He had no intention of going back to the creek to see how many were in the creek, no matter how curious he was.

  John also noticed that a section of the fence out in front that blocked access to the building had been knocked down. If possible that is how he would like to get away from the building. He would go over the fence if he had to, but he preferred a less painful exit.

  He crawled to the top edge of the steps.

  The smell of the dead was strong here. He assumed it was because of the broken front window.

  Thuuup! Thuuup! Thuuup!

  The sound eliminated that idea.

  He peered down over the edge.

  Two more of the dead shuffled through the empty showroom.

  John moved back and laid his forehead on the carpeting and thought.

  The front was the preferred way to get out of the building. Whichever way he went, he had to get past the dead. One at a time would be the best option, so he guessed he would go back to the service bay and start there.

  He crawled back to Barb and Cindy.

  “Let’s go back to the room for a minute.” John whispered.

  He led them back the way they had come.

  When they were back in the room, John started.

  “There are two zombies out front.” John whispered. “Whichever way we go, we have to get past the dead. I think we should go down the back steps since there is only one of them back there.”

  Barb looked worried. “How to you plan to get by the dead?”

  John held up his crowbar.

  “You’re going to kill them?” Barb looked shocked.

  “They are already dead, they just don’t know it.” John replied. “Besides, you’ve seen how they scream and moan when they see something. We can’t let them alert any others we are here. There seem to be only a few of them out in front of the building. If we let them follow us outside and start to get loud, we could end up with thousands of them chasing us again.”

  Barb nodded but John could tell she didn’t like where John’s plans were going.

  John sighed. “I want you to wait at the end of the hall near the balcony. Stay there until you hear me calling you. I am going to run down the steps and club the one down in the service bay before it can make too much noise.”

  Barb’s eyes got wide.

  “Don’t worry. She was a ninety pound teenager. Her leg is all mangled below her knee. She shouldn’t put up much of a fight.” John said. “But she will probably call out before I can get to her. The ones out front will then come back to see what all the fuss was about.”

  Barb looked speechless.

  “After I take this one out, I’ll call you. I want you to go over to the left side of the balcony. I am going to go to the corner by the hall. You can see what is coming down the hall before they get to me. I want you to watch and see how many come down the hall. There are only two of them, so hold up one or two fingers.” John said looking at Barb to make sure she understood what he was trying to do. “I plan on hitting them in the head with the crowbar as soon as they come around the corner and into the service bay. If they both come at one time, I’ll just have to be more careful and be ready for them.”

  “Understand?” John asked.

  Barb nodded.

  “OK, wait here until I call your name.” John said and started to crawl to the top of the steps above the service bay.

  He kept his head low until he spotted the girl.

  She was standing with her head hanging down. She seemed to be staring at something on the floor.

  “What the hell could be on the floor that would of any interest to the dead?” John thought. From where he was he couldn’t see anything but the drain cover on the floor.

  At the end of every day where he worked, they would always hose down the service bay. There was always a drain in the middle of the floor to drain away the water.

  Other than to remove some large piece of dirt or grease that was blocking the holes in the cover that caused the water to back up in the bay, he had never seen anything in the drain that interested him.

  But then he wasn’t one of the dead and he hoped not to be one of them if he could help it.

  Even though she was staring at the drain, the angle of her head would allow her to see him if he tried to go down the stairs right now.

  He waited and hoped something else would get her attention so she would move somewhere else. As soon as her back was turned, he would go down.

  John watched and waited. She just stared at the drain.

  After two minutes John thought. “Damn, once these things get concentrating on something they don’t let go of it. Not until something else distracts them.”

  John looked on the floor where he laid on his stomach. He saw a small piece of gravel.

  “It might not be as interesting as what is in that drain, but it might work.” John thought.

  He reached out and picked up the small stone.

  He crawled backwards a few feet so she wouldn’t see him when he threw the stone.

  He tossed the stone up over the railing. It landed a few feet behind her, making a clattering noise as it bounced across the floor and bounced off the bottom of the wall.

  John crawled forward to look down again.

  The dead girl turned towards where the stone laid on the floor and began to move towards the stone.

  Her back was now facing John.

  He stood slowly, watching the dead figure move towards the stone.

  He began to go down the steps. One step at a time so his tennis shoes would softly make silent contact with the metal steps.

  He was halfway down the staircase when he saw the girl stop. She raised her head up into the air.

  John couldn’t tell whether she was smelling the air or listening. She slowly began to turn.

  Whether it was smell or hearing, John couldn’t believe a dead creature could do either with the degree of accuracy it would have taken to detect him. He couldn’t believe those dead bodies had the ability to hear or smell anything at all.

  Whichever sense it was that detected him, this thing must have a better nose or ears than he had.

  John started to move faster. If it could hear or smell better than he could, he knew at least it couldn’t move as fast as he could.

  He took the last part of the stairs two steps as a time. He arrived at the dead girl just as she had turned completely around and was now facing him.

  It raised its arms towards him as its mouth opened forming a larger than possible distorted open mouth. He saw she still had all her teeth, black crud covered but still all there, as she let out a blood curdling muffled sounding scream.

  John angled to her left side to avoid her outstretched arms and the black shit that came flying out of her mouth. He brought the crowbar down hard on top of her head.

  The loud sickening thud affected John more than he thought it would. He watched her fall face first onto the floor. Black slime poured from her head and formed a small puddle around her head on the floor.

  John looked down at the now unmoving body.

  From the back, unable to see that grotesque face, she looked like what she had once been.

  A teenage girl.

  She didn’t look nearly as terrifying from this angle.

  If it wasn’t for
the sickening gray color of her skin, John almost wanted to kneel down and see if she was alright.

  He looked down over her body. He looked at her almost normal hair, the pink dress, but was jolted out of his thoughts when he came to her leg. The ragged torn flesh brought him back to reality and he didn’t like it.

  Reality sucked.

  “Barb!” John called out softly.

  He turned to see Barb walk over to the railing on the balcony and gasp as she looked down at John and saw the girl lying in the puddle of blood on the floor.

  John pointed to the balcony that overlooked the corner of the hallway.

  He moved over to the corner and looked up at Barb.

  He could hear it. Thuuup! Thuuup! Thuuup!

  Barb moved, holding onto the railing to steady her shaking body. By the look on her face she was terrified.

  She moved to the end of the balcony and stole a quick look.

  John watched as she looked back down at John and raised a shaky arm. Finally she held up one finger.

  Thuuup! Thuuuup! Thuuup!

  John raised the crowbar and waited.

  At the first sign of motion, John stepped out and brought the crowbar down hard.

  It connected with the head of an older man.

  John stared. It had been the man that had sold him food a few days back at the little store in town.

  He had both arms and legs, but the dead had obviously feasted on everything in between.

  John moved back to the corner, hitting the wall hard as he pushed his back against the wall and breathed quickly, trying to settle himself down.

  Thuuup! Thuuup! Thuuup!

  John tried to control his breathing.

  This was the first of the walking dead he had recognized. A kind man that had sold him food for his family. A man that had seemed at the time, like he wouldn’t hurt a fly.

  A man that would have now killed him without hesitating.

  A few minutes later, John was now looking down at the body of an elderly woman.

  He wondered if this had been the man’s wife.

  Did they both get killed and infected at the same time. Had they recognized each other as they staggered along together? Did the dead have any memory of what they had been before? If they did, it had to be torture, because they didn’t have the ability to express themselves.

  Were they able to watch each other and see what their spouses had become and what they now were doing?

  It would be like being locked in prison, watching a closed circuit view of what had happened to their loved ones.

  It would be agonizing to be forced to watch helplessly as your body too did horrendous things that were beyond your control to stop.

  John hoped not. He hoped they were just dead unthinking robots.

  He didn’t want to believe the world was as unbearable for the dead as it was for the living.

  If it was, Hell had just won the battle of good versus evil.

  Evil had won and he was now in Hell.

  “John!” Barb called down. “John!”

  John slowly looked up.

  “Give me a minute. Wait for me to call you!”

  Barb nodded and disappeared, moving back to where Cindy sat trembling on the floor.

  John first grabbed the man by his shoes. He was happy he didn’t have to touch the man’s cold gray flesh.

  He dragged his body and left it by the teenage girl’s body.

  Next he moved the old lady next to the others.

  “Barb!” John called.

  He waited until Barb and Cindy appeared at the top of the steps. Cindy had her eyes closed as Barb led her along the balcony.

  John waved them down the stairs.

  When they reached the bottom of the steps, Barb stared at the pile of bodies in the center of the service bay.

  John tapped her on the arm.

  When she finally looked over at him, he motioned for her to follow him.

  He listened until he was sure nothing was moving, then led them down the hall towards the front of the building.

  The far end of the hall was brightly lighted.

  They stepped out into the showroom.

  John walked over to the broken window. He could see the road. Two of the staggering dead moved towards town and disappeared behind the houses on the street out front.

  John surveyed the area around the road.

  “It looks like we have an opening. Stay close. We are going to run through the hole in the fence and go into the trees behind that house on the corner.”

  John looked at Barb as she held Cindy’s hand. Cindy’s eyes were now open wide.

  John grabbed Barb’s hand and led them through the broken showroom window. He pulled them along quickly.

  They had just ducked into the trees when the heard the groaning start to get louder again.

  “They’ve seen us!” Barb said frantically as her eye’s darted over the area.

  “Come on, if we stay behind the trees and shrubs, maybe they won’t be able to follow us.” John said and started to pull the girls through the back yard of the house. They ran through the yard and pushed through the shrubs that separated the house from their neighbor’s yard.

  They traveled a few blocks into town.

  They were paralleling the main street that led into downtown Ligonier.

  Barb pulled on John’s arm.

  He looked to see her pointing through the yard towards the street in front of the house. On the other side of the street was the town’s small Ford dealer, Laurel Ford.

  “Can we get a car from there?” Barb asked.

  If there situation wouldn’t have been so dangerous, John would have teased her about who now wanted to steal a car. Maybe later when they were somewhere safe. He didn’t have time for humor now.

  He looked at her and shook his head no. “I don’t want to take a new car. Too many security features. They are too hard to steal. I would probably set off the alarm and alert every one of the dead in Ligonier. Look for an old car. It will be easier to start.”

  They weaved around through the back yards for two more blocks before John spotted an older vehicle. John nudged Barb. “Over here. A 1998 Chevy Cavalier. That one will be easy if it isn’t locked up.”

  John led them over to the car. He tried the driver’s door while Barb pulled unsuccessfully on the passenger’s door.

  John and Barb looked surprised when Cindy pulled the back right door open.

  “They must have kids!” John said as he looked at Barb.

  Barb reached inside the back door and unlocked the passenger’s side front door.

  She hurried Cindy into the back and closed the door. She jumped into the front, locked the door then reached over and unlocked the door for John.

  “Lock your door!” Barb said as she turned around to look at Cindy.

  She turned around to see John pulling wires out from under the dashboard.

  John started twisting wires together.

  Barb breathed a huge sigh of relief as the engine started.

  John sat up as the engine started. His eyes darted over the gauges on the dash.

  “What’s wrong?” Barb asked.

  “Nothing. I’m just checking the gauges to make sure this thing will run.” John replied as his eyes landed on the gas gauge.

  The car only had a quarter tank of gas. John dropped the car into drive. A quarter tank of gas could be a problem if they had a long way to drive. The farm and New Stanton was only twenty-five miles away. They could make that trip with a lot less.

  The more immediate threat was the dead that were now on the street in front of him.

  He hit the gas and plowed through the dead on his way towards the main street.

  Barb screamed as one of the dead bounced off the hood and hit the windshield. Blood splattered across the windshield as a large crack spread down the window.

  John started down the main street that led into the center of town. He could see the street three blocks ahead was packe
d with the dead.

  Barb gasped. “That’s Ben Carson!” She screamed as he dove into the front of the car.

  John quickly swerved onto a side street.

  He worked the side streets trying to get to Route 30 on the other side of town.

  But the dead were everywhere. The side streets weren’t as bad as what he had seen further into town, but they were still bad.

  John collided with the dead as he drove from one side street to the next. He had to hit two or three of the dead to get through each street.

  After fifteen streets, John finally pulled down the street that passed Giant Eagle Foods. At the end of the street, a now nonfunctioning traffic light hung over the center of Route 30.

  John didn’t bother to stop to be sure the road was clear, because it wasn’t. A large horde of the dead moved down Route 30 from Ligonier towards him.

  He roared out onto Route 30 and headed towards Latrobe, the next town on the highway on their way to New Stanton and the farm.

  More of the dead bounced off the sides of the car as they staggered out onto the road reaching for the moving vehicle.

  “Go faster!” Barb screamed.

  “I can’t go faster!” John called back, holding onto the steering wheel to keep it from being jerked from his hands. “If I hit these things any harder I’m going to wreck the car. As it is this thing is going to be beat all to hell long before we get to the farm!”

  John continued to drive.

  There were fewer of the dead going in this direction, but there were enough that they continued to bounce off the car every few minutes.

  Chapter 20

  Mike drove slowly down Route 182. He drove the small car no faster than twenty-five miles an hour. It would take forever to get home at this speed, but he was afraid to go much faster.

  There didn’t seem to be many of the dead in this direction, but the occasional dead would still come staggering out of the brush and onto the road and lunge at their car.