One Hour to Live

by Gary M. Chesla

  Kevin switched off the dome light and made a left turn onto the side road that would take them back to the Pink Flamingo Motel.

  Chapter 9

  September, One year ago

  Bob sat on his back porch working on a crossword puzzle in the newspaper he had picked up in New Florence. He bought the paper when he went for his physical therapy appointment yesterday.

  He always bought at least one newspaper each week when he went for his therapy.

  He never bothered to read the front page, the news and headlines only served to piss him off, instead he always went straight to the inside back page for the puzzles and games.

  “There wasn’t much in Bolivar to entertain him, so he would get a paper to take up the quiet hours each day.

  Besides, he understood that crossword puzzles were good to keep your mind sharp.

  The light was disappearing as the sun began to set.

  His eyes weren’t what they used to be and as soon as he figured out the next line, he was going to put the puzzle away until tomorrow when the light would be better.

  At least he hoped he could fill in the next word before he called it quits for the day.

  This question was hard.

  “A ten-letter word for when zombies take over the world,” Kevin stared at the spaces and scratched his head.

  “Abunchofshit,” Bob said out load as he counted the letters. “Damn, that is twelve letters. Too many.”

  Bill came walking around the front of the house.

  He and Bill usually had a beer together on his back porch before they turned in for the day, and Bill was right on time. Bill never missed an opportunity for a free beer.

  When Bob spotted Bill coming around the house, he called out.

  “Hey Bill, I need a ten-letter word for when zombies take over the world.”

  Bill pulled up a chair, then grabbed a beer and popped the tab.

  He took a long drink, which ended in a clank as he set the can back down on the wooden table.

  The clank was then followed by, “Ahhhhhhh!”

  “You say ten letters?” Bill then asked.

  “Yeah ten,” Bob replied, “If you hold up both hands and stick out all your fingers, that many.”

  “I can count without using my fingers,” Bill protested.

  “Well, any ideas?” Bob asked.

  Bill thought for a minute then his eyes lit up.

  “How about nightmare,” Bill grinned. “If zombies took over the world, I think nightmare would describe that.”

  “That’s only nine letters,” Bob said.

  “Read the clue again,” Bill asked.

  Bob sighed, “A ten-letter word that describes when zombies take over the world.”

  “OK, I see where I went wrong,” Bill smiled. “The clue said zombies, which means more than one zombie.”

  Really?” Bob asked. “Do you think that makes a difference how many zombies you had?”

  “Yes, if you only had one zombie then you would have one nightmare. But since zombies has an ‘s’ on the end, the answer would be more than one nightmare. It would be nightmares,” Bill said looking proud of himself.

  He had another drink of beer.

  “It is ten letters, but I don’t think that’s right,” Bob said. “But I’ll pencil it in until I have more light to see. I’ll check the other clues tomorrow in the daylight to see if that fits in with the other words going across.”

  “Well I hope it works out,” Bill smiled, “I don’t know much about zombies.”

  “Who does,” Bob muttered.

  Bob set the paper down on the table in front of him and leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes.

  “How did your bet on the Penguins work out?” Bob asked. “Who did they end up starting in goal?”

  “Hell if I know,” Bill replied. “None of the stations ever came back on. I just checked again before I came over. Nothing but static.”

  “Well, I hope you won your bet,” Bob said.

  “Me too,” Bill smiled, “The winnings would be enough for two six packs of Iron City.”

  “If you wouldn’t have lost all those bets, betting on the Pirates last month, you would have enough money to buy two six packs,” Bob added. “Maybe you should give up that gambling shit. Gambling never pays off.”

  “I know I should, but I just like to gamble,” Bill laughed. “What else do we have to do around here?”

  “Drink beer,” Bob laughed.

  Bill took another drink.

  “Kevin and Lisa still haven’t come home?” Bill asked.

  “Not yet,” Bob replied.

  “They must really like carnivals,” Bill said.

  “Oh, I somehow doubt they have been at the carnival all this time,” Bob chuckled.

  “Where would they be,” Bill asked as he took another sip of beer and stared out through the yard.

  Bob laughed, “Come on Bill, you’re old but you’re not that old. What the hell do you think they would be doing?”

  “Oh,” Bill chuckled. “That would be moving fast. Do you really think they would be doing that on their first date? I know Kevin’s eyes really lit up when he saw Lisa yesterday. I can’t say I blame him, but that would be moving fast.”

  “Not really,” Bob smiled.

  “Hmmm,” Bill said thoughtfully, “Kevin said they had only dated a few times. I didn’t think they were that close.”

  “That summer before Kevin left for school, things got pretty hot and heavy between the two of them. I honestly thought I was going to have a daughter in law before he left for school,” Bob smiled. “I never said anything to him, but a friend of mine told me he had spotted them at a little place down the road. Apparently, they were frequent visitors there.”

  “Damn,” Bill grinned, “You never told me about that.”

  “I’m not real smart Bill,” Bob smiled, “But I’m not stupid. Since you can’t keep a secret if your life depended on it, I didn’t want it spread all around town. They’re good kids, I figured, let them have their fun. Life is too short. They sort of reminded me of myself and Monica when we were young. As you know, that ended way too soon for me. But I did have a talk with him one day. I told him I wanted to be sure that when he went to school, that he was careful. I wanted him to have fun, but to stay level headed. I didn’t want him to get himself into any situations that could mess up his future.”

  “What do you think happened?” Bill asked. “Kevin said he hadn’t seen Lisa for two years.”

  “I think it was her dad, I don’t think he wanted her to get too involved with Kevin until she finished school.” Bob replied. “The first year, every time Kevin came home from school, he would run over to Lisa’s parents hoping to see her. He went over every other day hoping for a message or to get a phone number. I could tell he was heartbroken. I think when he never got any response, he figured she had found someone else and so he just let it go.”

  “We’ll I hope you’re right about what they might be up to,” Bill grinned. “That lucky bastard.”

  “Me too,” Bob replied. “I always liked Lisa. She had that same ornery look in her eyes that Monica had. If Lisa is anything like Kevin’s mom, I couldn’t be happier for him. When we see them later, I think we’ll know by the look in their eyes.”

  Bill laughed as he took another drink.

  “Sorry I never knew your wife Bob,” Bill said.

  “Me too, she was quite a girl,” Bob replied sadly.

  They sat quietly as they drank their beer.

  The sun had now completely gone down. The area was now lit only by the low glow of the sky as its final light began to fade.

  They finished off the last of the six pack and six empty cans now sat on the table in front of them.

  Bill stood, ready to say goodnight now that all the beer was gone.

  He stood for a second and stared off in the distance past Millers Service Station.

  “Bob, what’s that down past Millers,” Bill pointed. “My
damn eyes aren’t too good, but it looks like something moving out that way.”

  Bob looked past Millers and stared into the fading light.

  “I see something too. I wonder what the hell that is?” Bob replied. “It looks like a bunch of people doing something down there.”

  “What do you think they are up to?” Bill asked as he continued to stare past the old service station.

  “I don’t know but there seems to be lot of them,” Bob added. “I haven’t seen that many people in Bolivar for years. That’s strange as hell.”

  They continued to stare towards the activity as the crowd seemed to grow as more people moved in behind the others.

  “I can’t understand what the hell they are doing. Where the hell did they come from, there aren’t that many people left in Bolivar,” Bob said.

  “Why are they walking?” Bill asked. “Who the hell would walk through Bolivar? It’s not like we are a tourist attraction or anything. There isn’t anything here to see. Maybe they are up to no good, Mac.”

  Bob laughed, “Right, like there is anything to steal in Bolivar.”

  “Maybe it’s those damn rioters from Pittsburgh coming out this way,” Bill laughed.

  “If they are, they won’t get any damn sympathy from anyone around here,” Bob growled. “Whoever they are, they must be drunk because they walk like you.”

  “Funny Mac,” Bill said.

  As they crowd moved closer, they could see the people at the front of the group staggering and swaying from side to side.

  As they stared at the strange group of people coming up Market Street, a light breeze blew past the house.

  “God Damn,” Bill swore. “Did you smell that?”

  “Shit, that’s gross,” Bob added. “That smells like the time that damn groundhog crawled under the porch and died. I couldn’t get the son of a bitch out from under the porch. We couldn’t sit out here for over a week.”

  “This smells worse if you ask me,” Bill growled. “This shit is making me gag. What is it?”

  As they watched the crowd, the mob began to move off Market Street and start up through the yards of the houses between the street and Bob’s house.

  A loud continuous groaning began to fill the air and echo off the buildings.

  “Bill, I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I don’t like this. I think we should go inside until this group moves on,” Bob said.

  “Do you think they are dangerous,” Bill asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t like the way they are coming around those houses and through the yards. There isn’t any good reason for them to be doing that,” Bob replied, “Besides it smells like hell out here.”

  Bill nodded and they went inside.

  They had been in the house for only a few minutes when the strange low groaning sound that they had heard outside, now seemed to surround the house.

  A moment later, the house began to vibrate from all the pounding against the doors and windows.

  “This is starting to piss me off,” Bob yelled as he walked over to the closet, opened the door and pulled out his shot gun. He searched around in his hunting vest that hung in the closet until he found two shells and shoved them into the shotgun.

  Bob walked over to the back door that opened on to the back porch where they had been sitting a few moments ago and flipped the light switch for the back-porch light.

  “Get the fuck off my property!” Bob began to yell as he held up the shotgun and pulled the curtain to the side of the window on the back door.

  Bob stopped mid-sentence and stared at the window.

  A one eyed, bloody emaciated face slammed into the window. A bloody lipless mouth slid across the glass, smearing blood across the window.

  Another face crashed into the window next to the first face.

  A chorus of inhuman groans grew louder from behind the two faces.

  Bob was finally able to tear his eyes away from the grotesque images at his windows and look out into the area lit by his porch light.

  Bill moved next to Bob.

  “What the fuck are they?” Bill asked.

  Both Bob and Bill stood frozen and stared at the window.

  Neither of them had an idea what they should do.

  Suddenly the glass in the door window shattered and a gruesome looking face thrust in through the opening.

  The sound and the smell was overwhelming.

  Two arms came in through the opening next as the mangled bodies began to struggle against each other to be the first to crawl in through the window.

  “Quick, up the stairs,” Bob shouted as more bodies slammed against the door.

  Bill hobbled over and opened the door to the stairs that led to the upstairs bedrooms.

  As they closed the stairwell door, they could hear the other windows in the house breaking.

  When they reached the top of the steps, Bob said, “Old Timer, if they could break through the back door, it won’t take them long to break down the flimsy door to get up here. Let’s grab a few mattresses and bed stands and toss them into the stairwell. It might keep them from getting up here, because unless you can fly, we don’t have anywhere else to go.”

  “What the hell is going on Mac,” Bill asked, “This is a fucking nightmare.”

  “Nightmares,” Bob replied, “Plural. I think we have more than one zombie.”

  Chapter 10

  September, One year ago

  Kevin drove the Subaru into the parking lot of the Pink Flamingo.

  He pulled the car off to the side of the office.

  “Good, Mike is still here,” Kevin said. “Would you go in and ask him if we could have a few towels and the keys to unit 10? I don’t think I should go inside looking like this. I don’t feel up for explaining what happened. In fact, I don’t know how to explain this.”

  “OK,” Lisa replied and opened the door.

  “Would you also ask Mike if he has a spare sweatshirt or something I could borrow? Tell him I’ll wash it and get it back to him tomorrow, but I would appreciate whatever he could lend me.” Kevin asked.

  Kevin watched as Lisa walked into the office.

  Mike’s face lit up as she walked up to the counter.

  Mike soon got up, took the keys hanging on a peg board behind him and handed them to Lisa.

  Kevin watched as Mike talked to Lisa.

  Mike stood and listened for a moment, then shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

  Next he saw Lisa put her hands on her hips.

  A second later, she pointed at something behind the counter.

  Mike now seemed to look embarrassed, but quickly turned around, picked his jacket up, which was hung over the back of his chair. He took something out of the pocket and handed the jacket to Lisa and smiled sheepishly.

  Lisa quickly turned and started back towards the door.

  Kevin could see the triumphant smirk on her face as she walked out of the office.

  Lisa came back to the car, opened the door and dropped into her seat.

  “I got you a jacket,” Lisa smiled. “You don’t have to worry about returning it. It’s yours now. I’ll hold it until you take your shower so you don’t get it bloody too.”

  “What was that all about in there?” Kevin asked as he started the car and drove towards the end of the building to the last unit.

  “I was making a trade,” Lisa grinned. “Mike didn’t have another shirt and he didn’t want to give up his jacket, so I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”

  “Ah, what kind of offer?” Kevin asked warily.

  “I traded him my panties for the jacket,” Lisa grinned.

  “I thought you lost your panties?” Kevin laughed.

  “I did,” Lisa grinned, “But the pervert must have found them and stuffed them in his jacket pocket, you know for some fun later tonight at home.” Lisa giggled. “When I spotted them hanging out of his jacket pocket, I asked him what he was doing with my panties. He kind of turned ten shades of re
d. I told him if he gave me the jacket, he could keep the panties and who knows, I might even leave him another pair tomorrow. He couldn’t give me his jacket fast enough.”

  Kevin laughed again, “You’re bad.”

  “If you say so,” Lisa smiled. “But I got you a jacket. Now let’s go get you a shower so we can go home and get out of here.”

  “That sounds good to me,” Kevin sighed.

  Kevin pulled around the side of the building next to unit 10.

  Lisa carried the jacket while Kevin opened the door and turned on the lights.

  Lisa ran over and flopped down on the bed.

  “God I’m tired,” she said.

  Kevin took off his clothes and headed for the bathroom.

  “Don’t get too comfortable, this is going to be fast,” Kevin said as he disappeared through the door.

  Lisa heard the water running in the shower as she sat up.

  Normally, she would have gone in and harassed Kevin in the shower. But after today, she was tired and confused.

  She literally didn’t know what had just happened to them.

  Now she would be happy to just go home and sleep, hoping tomorrow would bring some reasonable explanation for what they had seen.

  Something like a mass escape from Torrence State Mental Hospital, but even that couldn’t explain what they had seen. A mass escape from Woodlawn Cemetery might be closer to explaining what had actually happened.