by Gary Chesla
The car bounced as it ran over the bodies. Their heads would have bounced off the inside of the roof had the seat belts not restrained them.
John heard what sounded like an explosion as the car bounced up and down over the dead on the road.
The rear right of the car sank down. The sound of metal scraping on the road vibrated throughout the car.
One of the dead creature’s bones must have been thrust through the rear tire causing the tire to blow out.
The speedometer was now down to fifteen miles an hour and dropping.
The dead were now all around the car, banging on the sides and windows. The sound of their groaning and the pounding on the car was terrifying. All the windows were now cracked and the windshield was so slimed John could barely see outside.
The car slowly plowed through the onrushing dead bodies. Thankfully the car was front wheel drive. The front tires were still inflated and managed to find traction on the rare places on the road not covered with blood and body parts. The back of the car was being pulled along despite the loud vibrating sound of metal against concrete.
The dead continued to bounce off the front of the car. The car continued to slow with each crushing collision with the creatures.
The back window was still clear, unlike all the others. John could see black smoke pouring out from the back of the car. He didn’t know if it was from the remaining rubber on the rear rim that was being ground into the road, or if the little engine was burning up from the abuse.
The engine temperature light had been flashing bright red since shortly after the first contact with the dead.
John floored the gas pedal. It did little more than keep the car moving through the dead at slightly under ten miles an hour. The front wheels spun and jerked as they lost and regained traction on the roads slippery surface.
Bodies bounced over the hood, up over the windshield, across the roof and off the top of the trunk.
Barb and Cindy had stopped screaming a while back. They now just sat stunned, staring straight ahead, fear in their eyes, afraid that looking at the dead along the sides of the car would encourage them to try harder. Or maybe they were just trying to look invisible and hope the dead wouldn’t see them if they didn’t move.
John had decided approaching the dead at a high speed or at a low speed, that neither was a good choice.
If he lived through this, the best way to go would be not to run into them at all.
Suddenly the car pushed out of the other side of the mass of dead bodies.
One hundred feet ahead the next wave of bodies slowly approached.
The next wave of the dead was now at the intersection of Route 30 and Route 817. Route 817 was the main route that went into Latrobe. John couldn’t see down Route 817 from where he was, but he was sure there were more of the dead, many more coming out of town from that direction.
The car was in no condition to take on the next wave of the dead that were only seconds away.
The car protested as John turned the wheel sharply to the right and went into Latrobe Chevrolet’s parking lot. Thick black smoke was now pouring out from under the hood and from the sides of the car near the doors.
Barb started to cough when smoke began to shoot out of the vents on the dash and into their faces.
The car chugged and sputtered as the engine finally gave out as they were halfway across the parking lot.
The dead were coming from every direction.
They had one chance. Get into the car dealership.
This was where John worked. He remembered he had his key ring in his right pocket. As the head mechanic, he had a key to get into the building.
If they could make it to the side door by the service department, he should be able to get in the building through the employee’s entrance.
“Get out of the car, follow me and run.” John shouted as the dead moved closer.
Barb jumped out of the passenger’s door, but Cindy was too terrified to move.
John rushed to the back of the car. He cringed as he grabbed the bloody door handle and pulled the door open. He quickly wiped his hand on the back of the passenger’s seat before pushing the release button on Cindy’s seat belt. He pulled Cindy out of the car and began to run. Barb desperately followed.
When they reached the door at the employee’s entrance, John thrust Cindy into Barb’s arms.
He pulled his key ring out of his pocket and nervously fumbled through the keys.
He finally found the right key and struggled to get it in the lock.
There was only ten feet between the dead and his family when the door opened.
He pushed them inside and slammed the door.
The dead began to pound against the door as he pushed in the lock and fell back against the wall.
John panted trying to catch his breath. His heart was pounding so hard against the walls of his chest, his head hurt.
Barb just stared blankly as she tried to catch her breath.
Tears ran down Cindy’s face. She didn’t understand what was going on but it was scary.
Barb finally looked at John. “Are they going to get in here?”
“Yea I think they will, but we have a little time before they do.” John replied. “Come on, let’s use what time we have to figure a way out of this.”
“How?” Barb asked looking terrified and defeated. “There are so many of them and they are everywhere.”
John took her and Cindy’s hand and led them back the hallway into the service department.
They walked into the open bay area. The dead pounded against the doors and walls. The sound echoed through the building.
John understood how the squirrels felt when pounded on a hollow tree to chase them out into the open during small game hunting season.
The dead knew they were here even though they couldn’t see in through the frosted windows that lined the back walls. They continued to pound and wail.
“This looks like where we were at the deserted dealership in Ligonier.” Barb said. “We could go up into one of the upstairs office and hide.”
“This seems to be common design a lot of car dealers use.
We can go up there if we can’t find a way out.” John replied. “There are so many of the dead outside, I don’t think we should stay here. If we do, we might never get out.
“How are we going to get out of here? They have us surrounded.” Barb cried.
John looked around the service bays. Latrobe Chevrolet hadn’t been deserted when they were forced to close up when the government issued the emergency alert.
They figured they would reopen in a few days and just let the cars that were in for service remain in the bays.
Four cars had been in for service when they temporarily closed their doors.
John looked at the cars.
A Chevy Sonic was up on the rack in bay one.
It was smaller than the Cavalier they drove here from Ligonier. It didn’t interest John.
In Bay two sat a Chevy Spark. It was even smaller than the Sonic. With the number of dead outside, it would never even make it out of the parking lot.
In bay three sat a shiny new Corvette Stingray. It could certainly out run the dead. It was only a two seater. The three of them could manage to squeeze into the car, but the fiberglass body wouldn’t survive the first contact with the dead. Besides that much speed wasn’t what he needed. He could outrun the dead on foot if he had a clear path to run on. Finding a clear path was the problem.
What John needed was something that would get him through the dead and still run when it made it out the other side.
In bay four was a large Chevy Tahoe. The Tahoe was a large truck based four wheel drive SUV. It was high enough to hopefully run over the dead without sustaining too much damage. The four wheel drive would be able to maintain traction if he had to run over a large number of dead bodies, but more important he would be able to drive off road to go around the dead instead of hitting them, which he had decided w
as the best way to get by the dead.
The car belonged to Charles Whitnak. He remembered the owner of this particular car because the guy was a real pain in the ass. John remembered when Mr. Whitnak bought the SUV three years ago. He brought the vehicle back for service at least once every month ever since, complaining about phantom problems that John could never fix to Mr. Whitnak’s satisfaction.
The SUV was here now because Mr. Whitnak had complained about it being hard to start. John tried to explain that the SUV had the big four hundred cubic inch diesel engine. They always started slowly. It was normal.
Charles Whitnak agreed that once it started it ran great but he felt it should still start faster than it did.
John agreed to see what he could do. When he left work on the last day before the dealership closed down for the emergency, he had removed the glow plugs. He was going to replace the plugs when he came back the next day.
The big SUV sat in Bay four with the hood propped open.
“I think if we take that big SUV, we can plow through all the dead around the building. Once we get through the first wave, we can get off road and go out through the fields of the Firestone farm. The fields are too rough for the dead to follow. We shouldn’t run into too many of them out there. We can get on the back roads on the other side of the farm.” John said. “The going should be a lot easier on the back roads.”
Barb looked up to the second level offices.
“If we can’t get out of here, then we can go up to one of the upstairs offices and try to wait them out.” John said. “With as many of the dead as I saw coming in this direction, I think our best chance is to get out of here before the building gets surrounded by thousands of those things.”
Barb nodded. She really didn’t want to go back outside. But John was probably right. She really didn’t want to stay here either.
“Bring Cindy and help me with the Tahoe.” John said.
“What’s wrong with it?” Barb asked.
“Nothing really. I just have to put the plugs back in the engine.” John replied.
“How long will that take?” Barb asked, nervous with all the pounding against the building.
“Ten minutes tops.” John answered.
“Do we have that long?” Barb worried.
They followed John over to the SUV. He quickly went to his tool box. He didn’t think he had time to go back in the parts department to find new plugs. Fresh plugs would be the ideal thing to do, but there was nothing wrong with the old plugs. He decided to put them back in the engine. It would save him at least fifteen minutes.
The guys in the parts department had just reorganized their department and John hadn’t figured out their new system yet. Fifteen minutes was probably being optimistic.
John grabbed his wrench and crawled up on the fender and leaned into the engine.
Five minutes later he had finished reinstalling the plugs on the left side of the engine.
He moved to the other side of the Tahoe and put the first plug in the engine block.
He was going to enjoy hitting a few of the dead with Whitnak’s truck. He only wished he would be able to return the truck to Whitnak covered in blood and body parts.
He would have even been willing to personally drive it to Whitnak’s house to save him the trip back to the dealership.
Charles Whitnak would die. Then Whitnak would have a real problem to complain about.
John had just finished installing the second plug when he heard the large showroom window out in the front of the building, crash into the show room.
He was tempted to load the girls in the truck and try to make a run for it with only six cylinders working, but he knew the truck’s engine would miss so bad it wouldn’t have any power, that is if it would run at all.
He hurried trying to get the seventh plug installed when he heard Barb screamed.
“They’re in the service bay!” She screamed.
John jumped down off the SUV. The dead were pouring into the service bays from the hall that led into the back from the showroom.
He could see at least fifty of the dead staggering toward them. The hall behind the gross creatures was packed with more of the dead pushing into the backs of the ones already in the room.
The dead were also falling over the steps that led to the second floor offices as they tried to get around the other creatures blocking their path to John and the living flesh they craved.
John and the girls back up plan of hiding again in the upstairs offices was no longer an option.
The dead where flooding into the bays. Soon they would be completely surrounded in a room packed wall to wall with these creatures that all wanted one thing – Them!
John grabbed the girls and pulled them into the only place left to hide. The small utility room in the back corner of the service department.
The room was maybe twelve feet square. This room was where all the dealership’s utilities came into the building. It held the breaker boxes that distributed the electrical wiring to all other areas in the building. The water came into the building in the utility room. Other than the sewage pipes that ran into the room from the buildings bathrooms, there was nothing else in the room.
‘He pulled the girls inside, slammed and locked the door.
Since the room didn’t hold anything of value, the owners hadn’t bothered to put one of the heavy metal doors on this room like the ones that protected the entrance to the parts department and the business offices.
John knew the light wooden door would not hold out for long.
They were going to need a miracle if they were to survive.
The Night of the Living Dead flashed through John’s mind.
There were no miracles in the movie. In fact, all the main characters had died by the end of the movie. The one man that had managed to survive until morning ended up being mistaken for a zombie and getting shot in the head by one of the people sent to save them.
So much for The Night of the Living Dead being the survival guide for surviving the zombie apocalypse.
In fact the closest thing John had seen to a miracle in the last year was when a contestant on the Price is Right guessed the exact price for a new BMW convertible.
John didn’t expect any miracles today. Since this whole ordeal started, his luck consisted of only the few extra seconds he had been given to keep his family one step ahead of the dead.
He knew this thin wooden door would not be strong enough to continue to keep the dead that one lucky step away.
The door cracked under the growing weight of the dead as they threw themselves against it on the other side.
The door began to split down the center as the soft wood gave way.
The screws holding the hinges to the inside of the door began to pull out of the door.
John and his family could do nothing but watch as the last barrier between them and a horrible death at the hands of the dead, crumbled before their eyes.
They huddled together against the pipes that ran up the back wall.
John pushed the girls behind him.
When the dead broke into the room, he would be the first to die. They would have to take him first.
He felt it was the last thing he could do to protect them.
He realized all it would accomplish would be to have them watch as he was torn to pieces before their eyes, seconds before they too would be savagely mauled by the dead.
He stood in front of them anyhow. What else could he do? He felt it was better than dying like a coward, hiding behind a six year old girl.
Chapter 23
Mike’s eyes moved around behind his closed eye lids. Another nightmare assaulted his mind.
His worst nightmare had come to life last night and constantly haunted his every thought.
After Kimmy had been bit last night, He and Kelly sat holding her, waiting for the terrifying moment when she would turn into one of those dreadful creatures.
Kelly had sobbed uncontrollably when Mi
ke had retrieved the screwdriver from the corner of the barn. She knew what he was going to use the screwdriver for.
Mike was not going to allow his little girl to become one of the dead.
Their future hopes and dreams for Kimmy were ending, but Mike would not allow her new future be that of a roaming creature, destined to search out the living to satisfy her hunger for living flesh. He didn’t know if the minds of the dead would remember anything of their past lives. If they could, it would be a life of horror and torment being forced to suffer through those memories.
If she could not continue to live, he would also not allow her to continue to suffer.
They had waited, wanting to share Kimmy’s life with her to the very end.
At the end, Mike intended to use the screwdriver. A quick thrust in through the ear into the brain would end her suffering and let her go in peace.
They waited long into the night, suffering and in pain as they waited.
Mike opened his red bloodshot eyes. The ache in his heart came rushing back, almost overwhelming him as the memory flooded back into his mind. Tears began to run down his face.
The first thing he saw was Kelly lying back over the bale of hay they had sat on in front of the Prius as they waited.
Mike’s mind struggled to remember last night. The agony he felt over Kimmy he could remember, but something didn’t feel right.
He couldn’t seem to remember the dreadful end they had been waiting for.
He glanced down between him and Kelly.
Kimmy’s body wasn’t there.
He didn’t expect it to be there. He knew he didn’t want her body to be the first thing he saw when he woke up.
But his mind was blank when he tried to remember where he would have put her body until morning. He planned on burying her out behind the barn.