“Lana?”
I could hear Ethan calling my name in the distance. But, the echoes of the sound of Lisa’s head slamming against the sidewalk played over and over in my mind, drowning out everything else.
“Lana!”
I shook my head, refusing to believe what had just transpired.
“Lana!”
Ethan shook me like a rag doll and I looked up at him finally, his eyes wide with fear. Just like that, everything in our world had changed. I could hear more screams from the street as the Undead overpowered the uninfected and then Ethan closed the door, sealing us inside the walk-in of our store.
My crazy husband had installed a trap door in the walk- in to the basement below years before and converted it into a makeshift apartment. His fear then was for break-ins and robberies. We weren’t in the best neighborhood. Eventually it turned into a place to stay when we worked late and didn’t want to walk to the bus stop. I had no idea that eventually it would be our bug-out for the apocalypse.
The apocalypse.
That first day was chaos. The sounds of glass shattering and screams went well into the night. Ethan and I boarded up the only window that looked up onto the ground, but no one ever bothered us — not human, not the Undead. We stayed together in the corner and waited, wondering if our time would soon come. I spent the next four days crying
—crying over Lisa, crying over our situation, our demise. Then, I just stopped crying.
A week later Ethan removed the boards from the windows. But, we still didn’t dare leave. The radio told us nightly that people were being rescued across the country and taken somewhere else. Then, one night the broadcast said there would be no more transmissions. The Undead were listening to them and taking people.
“Taking?” Ethan asked.
“A nicer way to say killed, I suppose?” He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“So, what do you think it means?” A chill ran through me and I hugged myself.
“You don’t suppose they’re just taking people like hostages do you?”
“And doing what with them?”
Ethan just looked into my eyes as I watched his well up with unshed tears.
“Should we try to leave?” “And go where?” he asked.
“I don’t know, find others? I’m sure there are people out
there who are escaping.” “What makes you so sure?”
I looked back out the window to the deserted street. Closing the shutters made me feel safer, though I realized it was pointless. Maybe if they couldn’t see us. I mean, why make it easier for them, right? My endless anxiety wore my poor husband thin. I jumped at every sound, every movement. It was only a matter of time before it was our turn. The end was inevitable. There were times I welcomed it. There were other times, like now, that I cowered from it. I turned our conversation over in my mind. Was it really possible that we were losing? Was it really possible that this was the end for us?
I couldn’t believe how easily, how quickly we had come to accept that. Yet, here we were, doing every stupid little thing we could to prolong our fragile lives as long as possible. Every conceivable object that could be used as a weapon had been stacked randomly throughout the basement. It wasn’t a
matter of if we would die, only a matter of how gruesome and terrible, and when the end would be. You’re probably wondering why we weren’t doing more, cherishing our moments together. Why we didn’t try to live more. We didn’t. We just waited.
Thirteen
Lana
November 4th, 2021
I peeked outside the window again and saw a young teenage girl, one I had never seen before, running quickly towards the front of the shopping complex — running, away from something? I tensed and held my breath as I anxiously waited. Her healthy color meant she hadn’t been infected... yet. I kept watching, expecting them to be running after her. But there was no one. We had yet to see one of them since that first day. But, we had heard them. Throughout the night and day, we would hear a sound here and there — glass breaking somewhere in the distance, a grotesque snarl near our window, a scream in some building somewhere. I kept waiting for something to happen with the teenage girl, for some other sign, but after she ran past there was nothing. I let out my breath in disappointment.
You would think it would make me feel better, that they weren’t out there at the moment - that the young girl was safe. It didn’t. A sick part of me hoped they would run after her, kill her and maybe get their feed - giving us one more uneventful night — leaving us alone. Don’t judge me. Ethics and morality no longer exist in our world. It’s a luxury of the past, afforded only to those who had a future. I realize I just wished the death of a teenage girl. But that was mundane compared to the things people were doing in the name of – in the name of whatever it was we were facing. The news reports didn’t hold back.
There was a time we had wished for peace among our countries. It was a time where we would cry together when something tragic happened. What a joke. Our countries were definitely united now. They united it. They were united, against us.
Be careful what you wish for.
More movement caught my eyes as I peeked outside our window. Suddenly, I felt vulnerable. My heartbeat sped up.
My husband must have seen me tense because he stood next to me now. I could feel just a breath of space between our bodies. It didn’t matter as we hadn’t touched each other since that first day. We no longer sought comfort in each other. I don’t know exactly who stopped touching whom and I don’t know when we became strangers. I still had some awareness of our surroundings. But I was pretty sure that my husband had become lost within himself long ago.
We’d heard on the news shortly before it went black that it was a sign of acceptance of what was to come. Don’t fight it; it’ll only make things harder, was what the newscaster had said, her face void of emotion, as she told us that giving up was not necessarily a bad thing. So a large part of us did just that, and a small part of me wished, in a fleeting moment, he would reach out and only rest his hand on my shoulder. I pushed that thought far back into the depths of my mind to that place I wouldn’t dare go anymore. The same place that held memories of the life that once had been.
He took a deep breath, a mere gasp as he relaxed next to me. Then I saw what he saw. I closed my eyes as a tear dampened my cheek. I didn’t even know I could still cry. But the time had come for us.
I jumped when I felt the warm skin curl around my fingers as my husband, my husband who hadn’t spoken a word since that day in the shop, wrapped his hand into mine, squeezing tightly.
I thought the beacon of light was a hallucination at first. I hadn’t seen light like that in so long. It’s amazing what a little thing like a helicopter’s search light can do to the soul that has given up. It woke my husband’s soul. He touched me.
He touched me.
We could die now and I would be happy. Feeling hope blossom in the far reaches of my belly was like taking a first breath of air after nearly drowning. It burned my lungs and made my precious heart beat - my heart that had been threatened by evil for so long. They had taken so many millions of beating hearts and turned them into living, rotting flesh. They wouldn’t take mine. The sun would perch on the equinox in the middle of the day, again; the light would no longer dim because that beacon of light had shown its face.
I turned to my husband and saw the light cast dancing shadows across his paling features. His cheeks were still sunken and lips still dry and cracked, but I saw that light reflect in his eyes from within. One beautiful beacon of light lighting us up like the 4th of July. Happy Independence Day to us!
“Should we wait for them to get us?” he whispered as if we could be overheard by the Undead. I could hear the hoarseness of vocal cords long unused even through the low whisper.
“No,” the crackle of my own voice had startled me. How long had we been holed up? “No, we definitely don’t wait.” My eyes burned with the thought of sta
ying in this refuge as hostages any longer.
He nodded. He still held my hand. Please don’t ever let go again - My god, his skin felt so good against mine. The warmth radiated from every pore and my body hungered for that touch. I had almost died within and didn’t even realize it. We were already letting them take us, even without being infected.
“Please don’t ever let go of me,” the words escaped my lips on a choking sob. My throat ached from the pain it took to hold back my desperation.
“Never again,” he said, pressing his lips against my dampened cheeks. “Never again.”
“Will we make it?” I asked, scared of stepping outside. “We will.”
I wasn’t sure in what sense he meant, but it didn’t matter. He held my hand as we stepped outside and the stench of death blasted our faces like a furnace. I had to hold the sleeve of my sweater over my mouth to fight back the vomit that threatened to surface.
That’s when I heard the unmistakable snarling rounding the corner of our building.
“We’re not going to make it,” I panicked. “We’re going to make it.”
My husband pulled me and we ran. I felt every pebble of gravel underneath the sole of my sneakers. Every step seemed to last a lifetime as I heard the snarling grow louder. We wouldn’t make it; I knew we wouldn’t make it.
The sounds grew louder quicker than we could run. The helicopter hovered just a few feet above the ground. I saw the soldiers crouched in the threshold of the helicopter doors, their eyes shone of hope and desperation that we would make it. At least I thought that’s what it was until one lifted a rifle aiming right at our heads. The bullet whistled by us disturbing the air around us like a cold breeze.
The snarling stopped.
My husband hoisted me into the helicopter, and feeling the cold metal brush against my hand as I pulled myself in was my salvation. I turned and watched as the two soldiers lifted my frail husband in just behind me.
The bird lifted us up in the air and I looked back to see the Undead lying face down on the ground.
“Where are we going?” my husband called out over the whirring of the blades.
“Russia.”
Fourteen
Mallory
Russia
November 5th, 2021
The stupid dog gave me away. It was unfortunate too. I took such great pleasure in the sounds of the scroungy mutt whimpering under my touch. My daughter was scared and calling out for me. Whatever instinct I had to protect her was long gone. It took everything I had not to burst out into a fit of laughter.
Where the hell was Frank? He promised he would come for me and it was taking longer than expected.
The stupid doctors didn’t know I could hear them talking about the temperatures freezing the Undead out in the snow. I wondered about that. Why would they even try to walk through the snow? I shuddered as I realized that perhaps there were very little living left.
“Mallory, I love you, I’m sorry this happened to you,” Harry said from the other side of the glass. I could still hear how fake that sounded. It made me wonder if we’d ever loved each other, or if it had always been a relationship of convenience.
He’d been magna cum laude at Harvard and I was president of the political society. We’d been set up on a date by one of the sisters at my sorority a lifetime ago. He put me in bed that night and I didn’t even care then. I figured it was what he wanted and I thought that sleeping on the first date would get rid of him. After all, a man of his stature wouldn’t want a woman that easy. It did just the opposite. I didn’t know the asshole was a virgin. He followed me around like a little puppy the rest of the school year and we had become an item. Our parents were in on it too.
Next thing I knew, I had a giant rock on my finger and everything was planned. The second the ring was on my finger, the asshole started sleeping around. It was too late then. A lady of proper upbringing, a lady in a political family, didn’t break up with men like that. I never loved him. I especially didn’t love him now. He wanted a lot of kids and I didn’t. Somehow the birth control that he didn’t know I was taking failed and I got pregnant with our daughter. He didn’t know I secretly got my tubes tied during my c-section. Maybe if he hadn’t been such a coward and could have stood being in the surgery room while they pulled our daughter out he would’ve known. Serves him right.
Now I just stared at him and pure hatred coursed through every vein in my body. I wanted him in the room so I could just snap his neck in half. He was practically drooling over me. It helped that my shirt had been almost completely torn off when the guards dragged me in here. It had taken six of them to restrain me. I didn’t know how strong I was until that moment. Now it thrilled me because I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. I just needed Harry in the room to show him exactly what I was going to do.
He was wrapped around my little finger, I could see it in
his glittering eyes.
What a joke. I watched his every step, loving that I caused a shiver to go through him. I could tell he was nervous. I deliberately tilted my head to the side, like an animal seeking out its prey. He was hypnotized once I smiled at him. So when I approached the glass to rest my hand against it he almost came toward me. There must be something about seeing your wife, the First Lady of the United States, become infected that becomes mesmerizing.
“Mallory? Do you understand me?” he asked.
“I understand you,” I hissed at him and he flinched. I had never spoken to him in any manner except political obedience. I smiled.
“Can you tell me what you’re thinking?”
“Harry, what are you thinking? Are you wondering what it would be like to sleep with an Undead?” I took a step closer to the thick glass of my cell, wondering just how strong it was. “Someone who’s your wife? What would that be like? I can tell you right now that you’ve never had it so good. Or are you wondering what it would be like to slit my throat and be done with me?” I watched him for a few minutes as he paled. He glanced quickly at the sealed door and I knew that he too questioned the strength of my cell. I pressed my palms against the glass. “Am I really so different from you?”
“You aren’t you anymore.”
“Harry, you really think this is the end of us? We are taking over. It is almost done. You might as well let us take you with us and be ruler of the real free world. There is no freedom like letting your savage out. All those things you fought so long to refrain from letting out. Now you can, and you will be praised for it.”
My stupid husband’s eyes sparkled. Typical greedy asshole. I just stood there. I had forever and wasn’t going anywhere. Patience was on my side but not on his. That’s what happens when greed is the foundation of your soul.
“What is it babycakes?” I whispered through the vent of the glass. He loved that nickname.
I could almost smell him through the thick glass. The low growl escaped me without thinking and I thought I would have lost him with that. But no, it just thrilled him. He even licked his lips.
“Open the door, babycakes.”
I pressed my palms against the glass, parallel to his. I may have been locked up in this strange cell, but I was free while no one else in this facility was. He knew it; he sensed it. He could see it in my every fiber that I was free and he wanted that. Not only did he want that, he wanted to rule it.
“Open the door, baby.”
His hand pulled away from the glass slowly. He probably thought it was too slow for me to even notice. But I noticed everything. I could see from the corner of my eye that it rested on the door handle. My freedom and his death were only seconds away. I smiled.
He smiled back. “Mallory,” he whispered. “Yes baby?”
“You’re in there, aren’t you?”
“I am. You can come and see for yourself.”
He stepped toward the door and his hand rested on the steel handle. I watched it in my peripheral and licked my lips for him. I heard the distinct click of the handle. Just then
I saw one of the men in white lab coats appear in the doorway behind him.
Fifteen
The President of the United States
November 5th, 2021
One of the doctors that I had never seen before was the one who had the balls to tell me the worst news yet. The worst news ever...Because the slow annihilation of our entire race hadn’t been the worst thing I would ever hear.
“Sir? I’m afraid this confirms our worst fears.”
I turned to face him. I had no words, I had no reaction because I didn’t want to hear it. I could only nod for him to continue while he watched Mallory with obvious fear.
“The infection is airborne.”
His focus turned and he stared somewhere behind me. I froze in fear and didn’t turn around, afraid of what I was about to face.
“Doctor?”
He collapsed, folding onto himself and collapsing to the ground. It was then that I noticed the gaping hole from the doctors back, his entrails visible. I thought about my daughter immediately and how I could possibly get her to safety, away from her own mother. The thought froze me. Mallory was so fast there was no way to protect anyone anymore. She had stepped out of the cell and managed to go around the room and behind the doctor without me even noticing. I silently cursed myself for opening the cell.
Mallory would have protected Katelyn from the world with her own life. Now I was trying to protect Katelyn from Mallory.
My wife stands over the dead doctor and watches me, smiling. She rams my body against the stone wall behind me. At least she’s focused on me. And geez, is she strong! My vision blurs as I feel my head crack against the cement. Stars dot my vision as I try to understand what is happening. I open my mouth to yell for Patrick to grab Katelyn and run, but Mallory slams my jaw shut. I feel my teeth crack under the pressure and the pain shoots through my jaw, neck, and even my spine. I only hope that someone is watching the cameras in the room so they can save themselves, and especially save our daughter.
The Apocalypse Page 5