Chatter

by Kurt Horning

  “Maybe they are friendly,” said Trina softly.

  “Well we’re going to find out, quiet,” said Vick from beside the closet.

  Hank and Autumn were in the bathroom so the young one would not see any death if things went badly.

  They could hear 107 being turned upside down and knew the moment of truth was coming. “Everyone quiet, and be careful,” said Cade.

  The door to 108 was still. They all knew a breach was coming just as had happened to the previous rooms. Talking could be heard outside the door. They are coming,

  Now.

  Chapter 5

  A hush fell across the motel room as the door knob moved slightly back and forth. A slam was heard, probably from the butt of a rifle and the door flew open. One man entered without checking his corners. He stood in the middle of the room.

  “Nothing here again Clyde,” whispered the man in front.

  “You ain’t even looked,” said the man entering behind him.

  Both held shotguns sloppily at their sides as if expecting no danger. As soon as Clyde was out of the door frame Cade cocked the manager’s pistol and planted it on the man’s temple.

  “Do NOT move.”

  Both men froze in terror. Cade followed this with, “What are you doing here? You looking for us?”

  The man in the middle replied, “Who in the hell are ya? We just looting for supplies.”

  Vick crept out from his spot and took the man’s shotgun. “Then why are we finding people murdered by guns around here?”

  Clyde tried to back step out the door but Cade pushed the gun deeper into his temple. They would get some questions answered. He kicked over the other gun to Dwayne who scooped it up and aimed it at the men.

  “I think you saw us pull in and saw us as easy marks. Didn’t you,” said Vick. “You kill any chatterers or just real men and women?” Vick was fast becoming pissed off and things were looking ugly.

  “God damn I seen you on the tv haven’t I,” said the man.

  “No,” replied Vick in a mean tone.

  “Yeah I remember this..”

  “Quiet Ben, he said it ain’t him, so shut it,” yelled Clyde.

  Cade stood at the door thinking a minute. They could not just kill the men. The group were not killers. Not yet. “Ok guys. See that fire truck down there. The keys are in it. Take it and get out of here.” He looked straight at Clyde, “If we see you again, we kill you. End of story.”

  The two men backed out of the room. Dwayne, Cade, and Vick all followed to the door with guns aimed. They watched Ben and Clyde make their way down to the truck stop and enter the truck.

  A middle finger came out of the window as the truck started. Cade chuckled remembering the gas was almost empty.

  The rest of the group met the men in the room. “We cannot stay here now,” said Keiko. “It is not safe.”

  Cade looked around and saw every door kicked in. “You are right, we need to get a van or truck and move on down the road a ways before sleeping.”

  Suddenly it started. Click click click click of the teeth. Four chatterers had come from behind the motel.

  Bam bam, Cade shot one of them and it dropped. Boom, Vick and Dwayne shot in unison and decapitated another chatterer. Two more remained walking towards them, eyes white and teeth chattering.

  “Let’s run towards the store. There was a van and a few cars,” said Cade. “We need to save ammo.” The seven ran as fast as possible in the night. Some of the street lights were still on but it was hard to see anything.

  Rounding the corner of the third block they all stopped and ducked behind a dumpster. There was a red minivan about fifty feet to their left. Luck had to be on their side. Chatterers lined the sidewalks and several were in the road.

  “Alright, Vick and I will check the van. Dwayne, you cover us and the others,” whispered Cade.

  Vick and Cade ran slowly in a crouched position towards the van. One chatterer was smashed in the temple and reeled to the ground. Vick wiped the butt of his shotgun off and kept moving.

  “So what’s in that freaking bag dude,” whispered Cade.

  Vick frowned but kept moving. “Mind your business, we are not friends.”

  “Yeah yeah,” chuckled Cade, “it was worth a try.”

  The two easily made the rest of the way to the van. It was parked just outside the market Cade and Keiko had looked through earlier. They tried the doors and Cade’s on the driver’s side popped open. He opened Vicks and they sat. “Ok good start,” said Vick. “Now we need keys.”

  They searched through the van, mirrors, glove box, and found nothing. “Shit,” said Cade. “Now what?”

  The men sat a moment as sniffers and chatterers both lumbered by the van. “We need to check the bodies in the store. I bet one has the keys,” said Vick.

  “Alright good call,” said Cade. “Take a couple of these knives I found, they are quieter than the guns.”

  Vick grabbed two good kitchen knives from the bag Cade had gathered earlier. They exited the van and went inside the market. Nothing much had changed since he had been in earlier.

  Vick went to the deli and office looking through employee pockets. The poor deli slicer was chattering in a corner, scraping his nails against the wall. Vick crept up behind him and leveled the knife through the skull of the poor slicer. He then kneeled and went through his pockets. “Nothing here.”

  Cade went right for the shooting victim and also kneeled. He searched every pocket until finally in his jacket he found a set of keys that matched the model of the van outside. “I think were good,” he said waving the keys.

  They exited the market and as they did Vick grabbed a whole cardboard cutout of chips.

  “I’m hungry.”

  Cade laughed, “whatever you say big man,” and they went to the van.

  They sat in silence and Cade turned the key. Vrooooooom. It started on the first turn. He put it in gear and pulled up to the dumpster, “All aboard.”

  The seven were now on the road again. Heading north they had about three hours nonstop of travel before hitting Michigan. All of them devoured chips like they were fine cuisine. “Everyone lookout for another motel or something.” He kept his eyes on the road as cars and trucks were stopped everywhere. Chatterers littered the interstate worse than the vehicles. Many times one of them would wake up to a splat when Cade had crushed one at high speed. Goo on the window made Autumn vomit once or twice.

  About thirty minutes had passed and Trina said, “There’s one.” They looked to their right and sure enough lights were on in a pull barn of some sort. They took the next exit and pulled in the lot.

  Vick and Dwayne held guns at ready and crept to the door. Vick kicked it open and they both jumped in.

  “What the fuck,” said Vick.

  Chapter 6

  The group peered into the building wondering what could be the problem. They had seen their share of odd and disgusting in the last day but Vick had never reacted like this before. The building itself was in decent shape. The grounds itself left a little to be desired however. The grass and shrubs were dead and tall. There was an old beat up boat in the parking lot that looked as if it last saw water in the Nixon years.

  They all walked in with Vick and saw where his horror laid. It was a building for children’s gymnastics. There looked to be about twenty girls strewn about the mats, all dead. One girl must have climbed the rope to hide but fell. Her body was misshapen after hitting the ground from such a height and her head was completely sideways.

  The pack slowly walked through the gym looking for any life. Body after body of young girl lay dead in various stages of gore. “I don’t think they were infected,” said Cade looking about. “Someone got to them.”

  They walked past one poor little thing with her back broken over a balance beam, guts torn from her stomach. He face looked as though it were eaten; eyeballs gone. In fact as they checked each body all of the faces were torn away with eyes missing.

 
“Do chatterers take the eyes,” asked Trina.

  “Everyone look around, there could be a few lingering,” said Cade. “Be careful.”

  One by one they split up and began looking for survivors and monsters. The building itself was not very big. There was a large workout area with beams and bars which they were in. Cade could make out a few other doors and a stairway. Some must be rest rooms or changing areas, and maybe a viewing room for parents and an office for the manager slash trainer or both.

  Vick and Cade looked through the rest rooms finding only one dead little girl. It appeared she was trying to hide under a bench from whoever attacked. Her eyes and face were missing and her fingernails were gone leaving bloody stumps in their place. “Poor little girl must have been dragged out of hiding,” said Vick.

  Dwayne was in the manager’s office. Nothing was in there alive or dead. He searched through drawers and found some bagged snacks. In the mini fridge there was a case of bottled water, “This will come in handy.”

  The three girls stayed in the workout area looking around. Autumn was stuck to Keiko like a leech. They looked at each girl for signs of life but found none. The chalk stand was spilled over with one girl inside it. Two little ones were under mats. At least ten were strewn around the room in various designs of gore.

  They all met back by the door to leave, Dwayne showing off the water he had found. Cade looked around disheveled, “Well we may as well go; we were too late to find anyone here.” He gave the place a quick gaze, “And I sure as hell don’t want to stay the night here.”

  “Wait. Where is dad,” said Autumn with concern.

  “Ah shit let’s find him fast,” called Dwayne and Vick together.

  He only place no one had gone was up the stairs. He had to be there somewhere. All of a sudden they heard, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.” Climbing the steps three at a time they got up in time to see Hank on the floor with a woman on top of him.

  She had clawed his chest open deeply. Her face had transformed into a toothy horror. The thing bit at his neck and chest working up the face.

  “No, shoot it,” cried Autumn.

  Vick ran over and slammed the butt of his shotgun into the woman’s head. She reeled over onto the floor with parts of Hank clinging to her teeth. He cocked his gun and squeezed the trigger. “Boom,” rang out in the attic space.

  The chatterer exploded. Her face and head tore into fragments spraying the area with blood, bone, and muscle. Vick dropped the gun and puked.

  “No dad, no,” screamed Autumn.

  Hank lay there gurgling and sputtering on the floor. His bare ribs were showing through the torn flesh. The man’s face area was a mess. Blood was everywhere.

  The rest of the group backed up as Autumn went to her fallen father. “You can’t leave me daddy, you can’t,” she cried. Tears rolled off her little cheeks and onto Hank. He gurgled noises as if trying to speaking but nothing intelligible came out.

  Suddenly his eyes rolled back into his face. His nose began sniffing loudly. “Oh shit,” said Trina. She grabbed Autumn and the group ran down the stairs and outside. Only Cade remained, though no one noticed.

  “I’m so sorry Hank. I tried to get us all to safety. Don’t worry about Autumn, we will look after her. I promise you.”

  Hank was trying to get to his feet. The newness of the infection made it slow. “Is this why there are chatterers and sniffers? The originals chatter and the ones they turn sniff?”

  Cade wiped a tear from his eye and lowered the pistol. Hank stopped moving, somehow maybe knowing what was coming. He put the pistol at Hanks brain, “I am so sorry.”

  “Bang.”

  The would be leader went outside with the others. They all were consoling Autumn who was on her knees in tears. “You killed him,” she cried.

  “Sweetie he was already dead,” said Cade wiping more tears that had fallen to his dirty cheeks. “But yes I shot him. So he wouldn’t hurt anyone who might come here next.”

  Vick and Dwayne closed the gymnasium door and put a chain around the handles that was on the ground. Vick then told Cade to hitch up the boat and park it tight against the doorway.

  “That way no one gets in or out without a lot of work,” said Vick.

  After securing the door with the boat they got back on the interstate. The group was quiet except for the occasional wailing of Autumn crying for her, “daddy.”

  Chapter 7

  Two hours pass on the long lonely road. The group had only made it about 50 miles. The roads were cluttered badly with abandoned cars and wreckage. Both chatterers and sniffers lumbered in and around making traveling difficult except at a slow crawl. The vehicle had run over to many on the way to take much more damage.

  “We need to sleep somewhere soon,” said Trina.

  Vick looked in the rearview mirror at the people behind him. Poor Autumn was in a ball tucked close to Keiko. The others were weary, tired, and hungry.

  The vehicle chugged and slowed to a stop. “Oh god,” cried Keiko, “Why did we stop?”

  The men piled out and popped the hood. “I think we’re done here, we stole a clunker.” Cade rubbed his face and looked into the car. “Everyone out, were going to be on foot for now.” Everyone but Autumn grabbed what they could of the weapons and supplies. She slowly followed as if in a trance.

  “No guns out here unless there’s no other choice,” said Dwayne. “We have to move quietly and find some shelter.” The group agreed that sleeping outside was a bad idea all around.

  They moved as stealthily as a group of six could. Cade led the group down the shoulder and followed the road from the ditch. The darkness made it difficult to see anything very far ahead. Vick followed in the rear making sure no strays were attracted to his group.

  The six of them walked about 2 miles without incident. Cade knew from the interstate that they were a good hour’s drive at full speed from his family home. On foot it would be days.

  “Look,” said Keiko with excitement.

  She pointed off to their right. It looked through the darkness like a farm, a barn at least. It looked like one of those old abandoned farms with no house left standing, the family long gone. Everyone was excited. They turned towards the barn and suddenly came face to face with five chatterers.

  “How the hell did we not hear them,” asked Vick.

  “I don’t think they do it all the time, the bastards,” replied Dwayne.

  Knives from the market came out. Cade slipped and fell in mud. A chatterer dove onto him spitting and clicking its teeth. Once again the big fangs came out as its mouth tore open wanting flesh.

  Cade pushed the knife up into the jaw of the monster. He twisted and pushed as hard as possible. Finally, it must have punctured the brain and the chatterer fell to the side, splashing some gore chunks onto Cades face.

  The others dealt with the remaining four quickly while Cade pulled himself up and wiped the ooze and blood off of his face and hands. He regrouped with them and they proceeded to the barn.

  There was nothing special waiting inside the barn. It was a typical rundown one often found in Indiana. The wood was rooted, the doors barely attached to hinges. Old bales of hay lay strewn about.

  “Let’s move all the hay to a couple horse bins,” said Vick.

  “We will at least have some safety to rest that way.”

  In no time at all they had arranged all the old stale hay into two adjoined stalls. It wouldn’t be very comfortable but at least off the roads for the night.

  The night was long and most of the people struggled with sleep. In just one day their whole world had changed. From a normal spoiled American life to something out of a horror movie is tough to deal with. Most assumed and were dealing with the fact that their families and loved ones were dead or transformed into one of the chatterers. Poor Autumn had just lost her father hours ago. Who knows what is going through her mind.

  The morning light shown through the cracks in the barn walls, slowly waking everyone. They stre
tched and stirred about. Today was the start of a new day. Much was lost yesterday and all of them still held a faint glimmer of hope that it was a fluke. Something outside would remind them that life as they knew it still existed.

  “Everyone get moving. It’s early and we could make it to my house today if we get lucky,” said Cade.

  The group shuffled about, waking up on their own. Autumn wandered up to him and pulled him down as if to tell a secret. “I want a gun please.” He looked at her astonished. “Kid I barely know how to shoot one, I can’t just hand a gun over to a little girl.”

  Autumn frowned, “I’ve been shooting guns for ten years you ass-sack.” Cade cracked a smile at that line. “Can you handle a shotgun or you need my pistol?”

  She smiled broadly, “The pistol will do until we find a rifle. That’s what I’m good with.”

  He handed over his pistol and she cocked it and put it in her waistline. “Alright guys, just so you know, Autumn is now packing.”

  No one said a word but filed out of the barn into the morning air. In the daylight they could see a gas station by the interstate that wasn’t visible in the night. “Let’s head over there and get some chow,” said Dwayne.

  They walked for about ten minutes and came to the station. It was a run of the mill off the interstate gas station like the thousand others in the country. The men and women filed in grabbing what they could. None had even thought to check the building or the perimeter.

  As they filled their pockets and bags close to a dozen undead lumbered out of the back stock room amid the noise the group was making. No one seemed to notice except one.

  Vick was the first to look up, “Guys, we have a problem.”

  Chapter 8

  “Boom.” The shotgun erupted into the face of a chatterer. Vick had alerted the others just in time. They sprang into action instantly and fought for their lives. The group made a circle and stuck to it. The ones with knives depended on the ones with guns for protection but held their ground.

  “Stick to formation, we will be fine,” said Cade.