by Weeks, TJ
Approaching the last few parking spaces before reaching the door Bryan and Kelsey heard banging from behind the closed doors. They
carefully approached the doors and were able to see a horde behind the glass.
“Open the door.” Kelsey
demanded. Bryan looked at her in confusion and looked back at the mob that was itching to get to them on the outside.
“They will pile out, you won’t have time to shoot them all before they get to us both.” He advised.
“It’s fine, push the last door where there is only the one.” She poked him with the barrel of the gun.
Bryan stepped forward and pushed the barrel away from him. “Kelsey, that thing is loaded, can you be careful with that please?”
Kelsey poked him again. “GO!” She hollered. Bryan grabbed the bar across the door and slowly pulled letting out the one that kept running into the door. He fell face first onto the concrete outside. Bryan backed up, let him fall then kicked him in the head with his steel toed boots.
“Go.” Kelsey whispered. Bryan stepped inside the door and readied himself to deal with the others. They all turned hearing the squeak of the door and clumsily stumbled his way. Kelsey backed away from the door while pulling it closed behind Bryan. Bryan raised his knife and tried to stab in and out of their heads as quickly as he could. Bryan was bombarded and backed into the door. He grabbed the door and pulled it to try and get out. He slid out the door and closed it.
“Are you trying to get me killed?” He asked.
“Better you than me!” She replied quickly with an attitude.
“Woooowwww!” Bryan drew out the word. Bryan calmly watched a stumbling man quietly making his way up behind Kelsey.
“Thanks for nothing at all. I never could have imagined how back stabbing you are.” Bryan admitted.
Bryan took off running in the opposite direction as the zombies were busy with Kelsey. He stopped at the corner of the huge building turning as he remembered that she had his gun. He watched until there was only a partial body left of her. The zombies turned from her and began to walk away. Bryan hunkered down and walked against the wall to get closer to her hoping to grab the gun. He rounded a small half wall and stood up when he thought there were none in sight. He rushed to Kelsey’s body to grab the gun just as a man charged at him. Bryan jumped back without his gun and began running across the parking lot to the road.
He stopped at the side of the road and scanned around him as he tried to catch his breath.
“Where the fuck did he come from? I am too old and big for this running bullshit!” Bryan expressed out loud to no one.
He took a look around and realized he has to get somewhere. He started walking down the small road. He saw a convenience store up ahead, the closer he got to it the more noise he was able to hear coming from inside. They were trapped inside just waiting for him to take the chance to come in. Bryan passed it up and caught
movement out of the corner of his eye while looking back to make sure that none were sneaking up behind him. He quickly turned and raised his knife and a horde was making their way towards him from the top of a hill far ahead. Bryan stepped one way and then the other, knowing that he had to get off of the road but could not make a decision on which way to go. Finally, he made the decision to go left. He hurried to the side and ran out into the wooded area. Mesquite bushes poked through his pants as he ran and pulled at the skin underneath his pants. Bryan winced at the pain, but kept moving. H turned circles as he ran, looking for any that may have made their way into the woods. He kept running until he couldn’t see the road any longer.
H leaned up against a tree, keeping his knife ready while again catching his breath. He kept his eyes peeled constantly looking around. Bryan was destined to not be killed by these assholes.
He decided he would need to make his way back to the road and at least follow it down to somewhere that would be safer than out in the open. He took his first step, caught sight of two women that had apparently drifted off of the road and down into the woods. He was too tired to kill anymore and decided to try and make his way around them. Unfortunately, they decided that they needed to come after him. They tripped over their own feet as well as the fallen limbs and vines. He went ahead and started making his way to them, stabbed the first woman as she fell over a large branch then imbedded the knife into her head. The second one came at him almost instantly like she was trying to protect the other. He pushed her backwards and gave himself a few seconds to pull the knife from the first and raised it up. The woman made a low growl and came at him with mouth open wide full of rotted teeth. Bryan came down hard and gouged her in the eye as she raised her head to bite down at him. He pushed her backwards and let her fall to the ground. Bryan stepped over both of their bodies while looking for others and continued on making his way to at least be able to see the road.
Bryan stopped quickly when he heard growling and the roaring from what sounded like a large motor from a vehicle. Bryan began to run towards the sound. He knew this could be his way out of this madness and possibly to safety. Bryan’s short legs carried his oversized and out of breath body back through the woods. He cleared the wooded area, was out in the open and immediately dropped to the ground when he saw the truck that was surrounded by zombies.
“Maybe this wasn’t the best idea.” Bryan whispered to himself. He laid there watching the truck and the zombies following as it slowly rolled. Bryan pulled his knees up under him and began crawling in the same direction the truck was going. He had to get to that truck. He had to get off the road before he died of dehydration or starvation, he knew he had to find safety.
The herd of men, women and children began falling underneath the truck and he saw a small opening as they all gathered towards the back of the truck. Bryan quickly caught his feet and ran faster than he had ever ran in his life. He caught the door handle of the truck and flung it open, hoping that the men inside were not going to shoot him. He placed one foot on the step that led into the truck and swung himself inside, pushing another man out of his seat. He slammed the door shut and noticed that he had caused the truck to begin to veer off to the side of the road. He grabbed the wheel and guided the truck back to the middle of the road and away from the abandoned cars. Drool sprayed from his mouth as he began to apologize and try to explain that he needed help.
Thankfully the two men were not ready to kill him, but were a bit perturbed at the fact that he seemed to be trying to high jack their truck.
The Hispanic man he had pushed out of the seat, was a bit angered that he was in his seat and told him rudely to move.
Bryan gladly hit the brakes, put the truck in park, moved from the seat and let the man back into his original spot. With the truck only being a two seater, the only place to sit was the floor. Bryan peered at the small space and turned his ass towards it. He lowered himself down and wiggled himself into the spot. He finally hit the floor of the truck and breathed a sigh of relief. He dropped his head and took in another deep breath before explaining his situation.
CHELLEY JORDAN
“Finally done!” Chelley gasped as she wiped the dirt from her hands. “We should be plentiful in
vegetables this year Chelley, you sure you planted enough?” Her husband laughed.
Chelley glared at him. “Screw off Kevin, you will eat it and be happy I planted it. Just water the garden!” Chelley playfully shot back.
Kevin picked up the spray hose and shot the water across the dirt. “Cucumbers, green beans, corn, squash, onions, tomatoes, okra, potatoes, watermelon, strawberries and just a few of the cantaloupe. I think we are set.” She named them off.
“A few is not twelve.” Kevin joked again. Chelley grabbed the sprayer and pointed it at her husband and soaked him down. Kevin spouted water from his mouth at her. The two sat down in the fold out chairs nearby and looked at their accomplishments from the day. Both were ready to have their plethora of goodies they had planted and chatted about what they were goin
g to do with it all.
The sun was setting as Kevin led his wife by her hand to the front door of the house and the two cleaned up from the playful water fight they had.
Chelley and Kevin had been married for sixteen years; they had built quite the life for themselves. They both had jobs that were well respected. Chelley ran management at a customer service office and Kevin as a surgeon. They had decided to not have children as they were very busy and wanted to build their lives to be perfect before they decided to bring children into the equation. However, all of that did not happen until
recently. They had just paid off both of their vehicles and their house in the same month. They had overpaid on their taxes to get ahead and both had so much vacation built up through the hospital they were forced to take some time off. They talked seriously about starting their family they had decided to put off. Chelley felt that she was too old to have kids now, but Kevin disagreed and thought it was the perfect time and they were in the perfect situation to start having kids. Both of them only wanted two and Kevin explained that they would be able to have them back to back. Chelley had thought about it a lot the last few days they had been off of work.
“Chelley, can you get me a towel?” Kevin yelled from the shower. “Because you didn’t think you would need on when you got in the shower?” Chelley hollered back as she walked the towel to the bathroom.
Kevin was a well sized broad man. He stood six foot one, brown hair and well-built with the steadiest hands in the surgery field and was requested by many. His defined jaw line and stern looking face along with the toned muscles always made Chelley wonder how many nurses hit on him at the hospital. Chelley was five foot nine, blondish hair with a hint of curl that would turn a bit into frizz if she didn’t throw it up into in an up do or do something with it. She wore glasses and had worked her way up in the technical company she worked for to manage the whole office of customer service inbound calls. She oversaw hundreds of employees and kept them all in line with no problem. She didn’t wear much make up and with her concern of flirty nurses with her husband, she wondered if they tried to take Kevin away from her and why he didn’t go. Their relationship was fun. They loved being around each other and enjoyed each other’s company. They had very few friends that they spent any time with; mostly it was just the two of them working together on their lives and spending their time keeping their relationship alive.
“It’s fine, I can just do this!” Kevin stepped from the tub and began to shake his wet head onto Chelley.
“STOP!!!” Chelley laughed. Water flew all over Chelley and the bathroom. Chelley threw the towel at Kevin and hit him in the face with it as he stood up.
“Clean up your damn mess you ass!” Chelley joked as she began to undress and stepped in the shower.
Kevin wiped up the water from the floor and walls and wiped himself down. He slipped on some shorts and hung the towel up for Chelley to use.
“How about some of my famous grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner?” Kevin said over the running water.
“That would be great, I a m starved after all of our work today.” Chelley gurgled with water running across her face.
Kevin made his way to the kitchen and began removing all of the things from the cabinets and refrigerator that he needed. He clicked the button on the side of his phone and slid his finger across the Pandora icon. Prince’s Purple Rain rang out from his speaker,caught the place of the song and began to belt out the lyrics in tune with Prince. Chelley walked into the kitchen in one of his old tshirts and nothing else drying her hair while Kevin screeched the chorus into a black spatula. Chelley laughed and tried to back her ears up from the sound of her tone deaf husband. Kevin continued to belt out the wretched noise towards his wife. Chelley laughed as her husband grabbed her arm and pulled her to him, sang out and twirled her around the kitchen.
Chelley pushed Kevin away and ran to the living room. Kevin
followed singing out the famous tune.
‘BANG!!!!’
Chelley and Kevin stopped in their tracks and stared at their front door. “What in the hell was that?”
Chelley whispered. Kevin put his hand up to her mouth to stop any noise. He lightly pushed Chelley back towards the kitchen and softly walked towards the door. He placed his ear to the door and listened. There was no noise. He pulled his ear away and looked out the small
peephole and saw nothing but
darkness covering the front yard.
Kevin turned to Chelley and
shrugged his shoulders. Chelley shrugged back and the two walked back to the kitchen to finish preparing dinner. The two continued their playful banter as another song started and Kevin again belted out words to it when a faint scream was heard from outside.
“Kevin, something is wrong!” Chelley told him interrupting the Cher tune.
Kevin pulled the red flowered curtain back from the small back door window and peered out into the fenced off backyard. His dog, Rocky was slumped in corner of the yard and he could hear him whining. Kevin opened the door and hollered his name. The large black Great Dane hobbled into the house and Kevin closed the door behind him. Chelley made her way to the family pet and bent down to check him.
“It looks like he has been bit by something. I’ll get some medicine and wrap.” Chelley stated.
Rocky laid down on the floor and rest his head on his hurt paw. Kevin locked the door behind him and went to comfort his injured dog. Chelley came back and doctored the bite and wrapped his leg.
Kevin smiled at his wife mothering the only child they had.
“I can’t wait to have babies with you.” Kevin admitted.
“We should do that soon!” Chelley looked up at him. She rubbed her hands together in a job well accomplished manner and patted Rocky on the head.
“Well, let’s go then. Let the baby making commence!” Kevin expressed his want forgetting about the
uncooked sandwiches.
Chelley smiled as they headed down the hall way. They got into bed and Kevin spoiled her in a slow and sweet session of lovemaking for the next few hours.
The sun peeked through the
window early the next morning and warned Chelley that it was time to get up and start her morning routine of letting Rocky out and making coffee before her shower and then breakfast.
Chelley wiped the sleep from her eyes as her bare feet drug across the tiled floor. She pulled on her red fleece robe Kevin had bought her for Christmas.
“C’mon Rocky.” She muttered. Rocky stood and limped to the door and outside into the grass. Chelley closed the door and fumbled through a nearby cabinet to locate the coffee and filters and began to scoop out three scoops of coffee. She stopped after the second scoop, turned back to the door she had just closed and walked back to it. She pulled back the curtain and looked out to confirm what she thought she had seen. She hurried out of the kitchen and back down the hallway.
“Kevin, Kevin!! I need you to get up honey. There is a body in our back yard!” She finally expressed.
Kevin sat straight up in bed. “What!” “Someone is laying in our yard.” She hollered as she made her way back out of the room.
Kevin hopped up and slid on a pair of shorts from the floor. “Wait, what do you mean a body?” He asked sleepily heading down the hall way.
Chelley moved out of the way while pulling back the curtain. Kevin scanned the yard and saw a body lying in the far corner of the yard and Rocky walking in circles around it. Kevin pulled the door open and stepped out, flinching his feet as he walked bare foot across the grass and was stuck by small twigs. He leaned over the body to view the face of the man. It was bloodied and looked as though he had been beaten.
“Rocky, get in the house!” Kevin pointed toward Chelley standing on the small back porch.
Kevin grabbed the shovel that he had leaned against the fence last week. He pulled the body with the shovel and turned him over. The man’s arms flopped to his sides and hit the ground with
a thud. Kevin jumped back quickly when he saw the man’s face. The skin had been torn off and hung onto the ground. The bone was exposed and looked like a chunk had been bitten from his forehead.
“Chelley, get in the house and take Rocky.” He instructed. Kevin backed away slowly and held the shovel over his shoulder; he scanned the surrounding alley way and the other back yards. He made it to the steps without seeing anyone when a man slowly stumbled into sight from the neighboring yard across the alley. Kevin watched him as his deformed legs tried to hold the weight of his decaying frame. He spotted Kevin across the way and made a beeline towards him, never taking his fogged eyes off of him. The man hit the fence and stopped, his arms and legs kept moving, but the man was blocked, but still trying nonetheless. His shirt had blood dried to the front of it and his dress pants had been torn at the bottom up to his knees, he only wore a pair of socks and a tie hung untied around his neck. The man growled at the sight of Kevin and he knew instantly what he was.
Kevin became unconcerned about that man when he saw a woman walking outside of the fence and heading down the alley. She paid no attention to the man in the yard, but laid her eyes on Kevin as soon as she rounded the bush that had blocked her from viewing him. Her head bounced around on her shoulders as she pointed her eyes in his direction. Her body turned and started walking towards him and as the man, she also ran into a fence except this time it was his own fence but kept trying to make her way to him.
Her eyes were fogged over like the man’s were, her hair was matted together and hung over her shoulders, her arms and legs were dirty along with her knee length shorts and t-shirt that both appeared to have once been a light color but were now dark. Her cheek bones protruded from her face and her chin had blood smeared across it. Kevin backed up the one step and into the door Chelley had left partially open for him. He slammed the door, locked it and watched the woman from inside the house. She soon turned and began her clumsy strut down the alley from the way she had come.