An undead fell through the door and onto the dead man in front of her. It growled and sunk its dead teeth into the corpse. Abby cursed and tossed herself forward, shoving the undead off of him. It growled in protest as more of the undead tried to push through the small doorway. Abby realized that even if the undead could not see her, they could easily stomp her to death. She moved forward to push them back when she spotted something in the hand of the dead man beside her. It was a crumpled up paper. She started to ignore it when something inside her pulled her towards it. She ripped it from the man’s hands causing some of the paper to tear and stay in his hand.
She stood quickly; and with all her might, she threw herself into the mob at the doorway, causing them all to fall backwards. She landed on them and felt their cold dead skin under her warm palms. She sneered in disgust as they waved their hands at the empty air. The smell in the room was almost becoming too much to bare. She gagged as she stood up and began to cough. She tasted bile in the back of her throat. She hurried back to the small room and grabbed the dead man’s legs. He was very stiff yet easy to pull. She pulled him into the middle of the room as the undead surrounded her. She dropped the man’s legs and stumbled backwards as the undead fell onto the corpse.
She turned away at the sound of teeth hitting bone and old flesh filled the room. She rushed back to the small room and grabbed the counter inside gasping for breath. She cried as she tried to calm her breathing. Her muscles ached as her bones shook. Even though she had become healthier since Haven, she still became exhausted quickly. She rubbed fingers threw messy bright red hair and stood up straight as she stared at the black spot on the floor. She saw a pistol nearby it and grimaced.
She eyed all of the supplies around her and knew it would take more than one trip to get it all. It made her frown. She did not want to be here any longer. She wanted to go home and just forget she had ever been here. She gazed out of the room, pretending the sickening, eating frenzy close by was not happening. She saw a gurney and hurried to it and rolled it towards the room. Then she went to the other side of the room to grab up old dusty white sheets. She grabbed as much as she could to fill one of the sheets then tied it up and put it on the gurney. She did this with four other sheets. She would have to come back for the rest.
She rubbed her neck and breathed. The coldness in the room was making her sleepy when she remembered the note she had ripped from the man’s hand. She had mindlessly placed it into her pocket. She pulled it out and studied it with narrowed eyes. She wrinkled her nose at it. All it had on it written in a rushed handwriting was; they lied to us. It was written over and over again with dark black ink. She shined the light onto the black spot that was once red blood and back at the paper and at the part that had been torn away. She turned back to the frenzy.
She walked forward pulling the gurney behind her wanting to know what else was on the paper, if it was the same thing or something different. But when she saw the large group around the dead body, she looked away with a twisting ache in her stomach. She placed both hands onto the gurney readying herself to wheel it out of the room and into the awful hallway when something strange caught her eye. She glanced over at a thin old man lying on the floor. The undead sounded as if it were coughing up a hair ball that would not come out. It lay on its stomach shaking and started to screech and drool badly. It clawed at the ground, ripping black nails from its fingers. Abby watched in horror as its body began to convulse violently. She watched for a good minute before it stopped and froze like a stone.
She waited for it to move again as black blood dripped from its open mouth. Her heart was screaming at her to leave this place. That something was very wrong, and that she had to get out now, but she wanted to know what was happening. She took small steps towards the old man then nudged its head with her boot. It did not move. She hit it harder and still nothing. Her eyes dilated when she realized it was actually dead. She went to reach down towards it when she heard more screeching and gasps for air. She twisted around shining the light on the group around the corpse and gasped.
The undead were all rolling on the floor drooling and coughing violently. They clawed at nothing as their white eyes rolled into the back of their heads. They hacked and coughed and black blood pooled around their thin lips. Abby watched in horror as they slowly and painfully finally died. A tear rolled down her hot cheek as silence filled the room. The only sound was of her own heartbeat and the undead groaning in the hallway outside the room. She was alone in the room with dozens of new corpses. Confusion filled her, and fear followed close by. Something killed these things, and she feared it could kill her too.
She was about to leave the room when she thought of the paper in her hands. She turned back towards the corpse and saw that it barely looked human now. Its face was gone and the skin that once was had been all pulled away to reveal gray bones. Abby hesitated to move now. She missed the sound of the undead shuffling around her. Silence was one of her worst enemies. It meant something alive could be around hiding, waiting, watching her. She leaned downward, breathing in short gasp as she reached for what was left of its hand. She had to force the fingers open to get the small piece of paper from its palms.
Abby pushed herself upwards making the world spin around her as she stumbled back to the gurney. She opened the piece of paper and laid the two by each other as her heart stopped. Her teeth chattered, and her mind spun. The world around her blurred as she read the paper with disbelief and excitement. She gazed with amazement at the dead around her, and her stomach dropped. She grabbed the sides of the gurney and forced herself to see it and read it.
they lied to us
they lied to us
they lied to us
it can be stopped
there is a way to cleanse the world of the virus and its carriers
they lied to us
but I am scared
I don’t want to die
About the Author
Coushatta LaRue was born in Cameron Louisiana and now lives in Texas with her family and beloved dogs. Writing has been her passion since she was a young girl. In addition, even though she suffers with dyslexia and dysgraphia she strives to become an author. She hopes to help others with learning disabilities with her writings. She currently is writing on the second novel of Amour and a new series.
Thank you for reading.
The Amour series (Book 1): The Embers of Amour Page 24