One Hour to Live

by Gary M. Chesla

  I will wait until the end of time for you if I have to.

  Please don’t forget me.

  Lisa’s eyes grew wide and she began to tremble.

  Kevin, I’m so scared

  I Lov………..”

  Lisa’s head slumped forward as the screen blurred.

  When the image on the screen refocused, Kevin was looking at an image of the floor, then the screen went blank.

  Kevin stared at the picture of Lisa’s eyes.

  Looking into Lisa’s eyes was the first memory that he had ever had of Lisa, and now it would also be his last.

  Kevin held the phone tightly in his hands as his head slumped forward.

  Chapter 23

  Today

  Kevin staggered through the grass.

  It was so hard to move, he knew he would not be going much further.

  He entire body felt numb and his legs no longer seemed to do what he wanted.

  Kevin stopped.

  Breathing was a struggle with each breath being more difficult than the last.

  Kevin raised his head and stared out into the distance.

  “Bolivar,” Kevin said.

  Kevin was now standing at the edge of the woods overlooking the end of town.

  Down below him was the little bridge that crossed over the sulphur creek that ran through the middle of town.

  “I almost made it,” Kevin said to himself.

  He felt himself begin to sway and then he fell to the ground.

  Kevin tried to lift his head, but he only managed to move his head a few inches.

  His eye sight was failing, but something strange lying by his head caught his attention.

  He slowly moved his arm until he could touch the object with his hand.

  He pulled it over in front of his eyes.

  It was pink.

  Kevin smiled as he said, “Lisa.”

  Kevin had kept the ugly pink cell phone with him all the time.

  He never had used it as a phone. The phone system had gone down before he was able to make any phone calls, but that wasn’t important to Kevin.

  The pink phone was all he left of Lisa.

  He had watched Lisa’s final message to him many times, until the battery finally went dead.

  He never re-watched the first video because it was too painful.

  Besides, he preferred Lisa’s last video, he could look in to her eyes and listen to her voice.

  He could listen to Lisa talking to him and remember the times when he and Lisa laid in each other’s arms and talked.

  After the battery went dead, Kevin doubted he would ever find a replacement, but the phone itself held so many good memories, it comforted him to just look at the phone each day and talk to Lisa.

  The pink phone had been the only thing he had to remind him that at one time, good had existed in the world.

  Kevin’s vision began to grow dark.

  He took his last glance at the ugly pink cell phone that Lisa had made him buy.

  He wrapped his fingers around the little phone and held it as tightly as he could.

  As his mind shut down, his last thoughts were, “I have to find Lisa.”

  Chapter 24

  Today

  Bob ate his final piece of Rabbit.

  He had saved the final few ounces of beer to wash down the last taste of the roasted meat.

  Bill sat across the table watching Bob finish his meal.

  Bill drank all his beer first, then finished his dinner.

  It had been so long since they had any beer, Bill wanted to finish his beer just in case he choked to death on a rabbit bone so the beer wouldn’t go to waste.

  To Bill, wasting beer was the worst of all the deadly sins.

  “Damn that was good,” Bill said as he leaned back in his chair. “You don’t happen have another beer hidden in the house somewhere do you?”

  “I wish I did,” Bob replied. “I could sure go for hanging one on tonight.”

  Bill sat thinking.

  “Do you know if Kevin ever checked out the storage lot behind LaMantia’s?” Bill asked.

  “Not that I remember,” Bob replied. “We didn’t have any use for a truck. Especially after all the car batteries started to die. We didn’t have any use for gas any longer then either. We were too busy trying to keep from starving.”

  “Well I was just thinking,” Bill said.

  “That’s dangerous,” Bob replied.

  “I don’t know where the hell my brain has been this last year,” Bill said standing up and looking excited.

  “If you find it, let me know,” Bob smiled. “I’ve been wondering the same thing myself.”

  “We should have scouted out the storage lot,” Bill said. “They parked their beer trucks out there overnight so no one would break into them and steal their beer.

  “Now you think of that,” Bob growled.

  Bob got up and walked over and looked out the window.

  “Any sign of Kevin yet, Mac?” Bill asked.

  “No,” Bob replied. “It’s too dark to see anything now. Shit, this worries the hell out of me.”

  Bob walked over and looked at the meat they had set aside for Kevin.

  Bob picked up the meat and slipped it into an old plastic bag and set it in the sink.

  “The damn bugs are going to eat Kevin’s dinner,” Bob growled.

  “I’ll wait up with you for Kevin if you want,” Bill said. “It’s not like I have anything else to do.”

  “Thanks Bill,” Bob replied. “I’d appreciate the company. My damn insides are tied in a damn knot. I have a bad feeling, Bill. I don’t know what I would do without Kevin. Besides, Kevin has suffered so much since all this shit happened. I honestly don’t know where he found the will to go on after Lisa died. He doesn’t deserve to have something else happen to him.”

  “Yeah Mac,” Bill replied. “He’s been a good son and a good friend. I think it was you that kept him going all this time. He loves you.”

  “Yeah,” Bob replied.

  They sat quietly and waited with the only sound, the crackling of the fire, coming from the wood burner.

  The light from the wood burner cast a soft warm glow through the kitchen.

  Bob saw that Bill had dozed off on his chair when he returned to the table.

  Bob sat down and waited.

  There could have been many reasons why Kevin hadn’t come home, but Bob just knew the reason wasn’t any of those things.

  It had been a long hard year.

  Bob had a feeling that their luck was just running out.

  He knew they had been dodging the cruel hand of fate for a long time now.

  As he looked back over the last year, he knew they should have all died long ago.

  They were hopeful that they would be able to survive when it had all first started.

  They were a happy group with a lot to live for.

  They all got along, planned and worked together.

  Then everything started to go wrong.

  After Lisa died, Kevin was never the same.

  He dragged himself along for the next few months, not caring if he lived or died.

  Even after he seemed to pull himself together, he was never the happy guy he had always been.

  He always seemed so sad after that time.

  But he pushed on, probably like Bill had said, if for no other reason but to help his old man survive.

  Two months later, when food was so hard to find, Sandy ate something she found in one of the neighboring houses.

  She became ill and had died a few days later.

  They buried her out back next to Lisa.

  The ordeal of burying another girl next to Lisa’s grave, reliving Lisa’s death and burial, it took Kevin another two months to recover.

  Food had become so scarce, that none of them felt they would live through the coming winter.

  But it had been Kevin that had kept them all keep going the last few months.

  He had
spent a lot of time out at the graves talking to Lisa.

  Bob knew the dead didn’t talk back, but something had inspired Kevin to want to live again.

  After he found a case of soup in the trunk of an abandoned car, they all ate well for a few days.

  This seemed to have revived the three of them and their luck actually got better for a few weeks.

  Recently, things had become almost desperate.

  More zombies were coming through town again.

  In their weakened conditions, it became much harder to avoid and fight off the dead.

  Now Kevin hadn’t come home.

  Bob knew this could be the beginning of the end.

  Their group of five would be down to two, and the two remaining were the least capable or suited to survive on their own.

  Bob leaned back on his chair and watched the door.

  He prayed that Kevin would knock at the door any time now, but he knew his prayer would not be answered.

  He had been praying now for the last year, but apparently, there was no one listening.

  Bob closed his eyes to give them a rest.

  The night passed quietly as Bob slept.

  Bob awoke when the chill in the air made his back hurt too much to sleep any longer.

  As he opened his eyes and shifted his body on the hard-wooden chair, he saw Bill staring out through the cracks in the shutter that covered the kitchen window.

  Sun light coming in through the shutters cast a glow through the kitchen.

  “What the hell are you looking at?” Bob asked.

  “It’s strange Mac,” Bill replied. “There is a zombie out back. It’s been standing out there ever since it got light.”

  “What’s it looking at?” Bob asked. “Did it kill something and is out there eating?”

  “No, it’s just standing there,” Bill replied. “Those bastards don’t sleep do they?”

  Bob grabbed his cane and struggled to his feet.

  “I never saw one of them sleeping,” Bob answered. “All I’ve seen them do is wander around.

  Bob walked over beside Bill and looked out into the back yard.

  He studied the lone figure standing by the picnic table.

  When Bob saw the sun reflect off something the zombie had in his hand, tears filled Bob’s eyes.

  Bob walked over to the closet and took out the shotgun then went over to the back door.

  “Bill, you wait here,” Bob said.

  Bill looked at the shotgun in Bob’s hand.

  “What are you doing Mac?” Bill asked. “We don’t have any shells for that thing.”

  “Just stay here Bill,” Bob replied.

  Bob opened the door and hobbled across the porch and then out in to the yard.

  He walked up behind the zombie and stood and studied the familiar form.

  The dirty jeans, old work boots, the red plaid shirt and the old black ball cap.

  “Kevin,” Bob said softly.

  Kevin slowly turned to face Bob.

  The face was dead gray, the eyes were pure white, the body was stiff and his motions were jerky, but through all of that, Bob could see enough familiar features to know he was looking at Kevin, or what had been Kevin.

  Kevin looked at Bob and began to moan.

  He held out his arms and began to reach for Bob.

  “Forgive me Kevin,” Bob said as his eyes filled with tears. “I only mean to set you free.”

  Bob raised the butt of the shotgun over his head, and as Kevin grew nearer, Bob brought the shotgun down on top of Kevin’s head.

  Kevin’s body crumbled to the ground as the pink cell phone tumbled from Kevin’s hand and rolled over to Bob’s feet.

  Bill came limping across the porch and came up alongside of Bob.

  He stared at the body lying motionless on the ground.

  “Is that Kevin?” Bill finally asked.

  Bob nodded as a few tears escaped from his eyes.

  He used his sleeve to dry his face.

  Bill put his hand on Bob’s shoulder.

  “He came home to you, Mac,” Bill said softly.

  Bob looked at the pink cell phone on the ground at his feet.

  “No Bill, I don’t think that was what happened,” Bob replied. “I think he came back to find Lisa. But that’s OK. Maybe it was Lisa that brought him home to me to set him free. Whatever the reason, I only hope he is now at peace and those two are finally together again.”

  Bill stood with Bob for a long time as Bob stared down at Kevin and remembered their life together.

  Bob remembered all the times they had spent together and how Kevin had helped him get through the last year.

  He especially remembered how happy Kevin had been during his short time with Lisa.

  Bob hoped that somehow, Kevin and Lisa were once again together, like he hoped he and Monica would be one day.

  “Good luck son,” Bob finally said as he wiped at his face again with his shirt sleeve.

  Bill and Bob buried Kevin’s body next to Lisa.

  They were only able to dig the grave three feet deep and still be able to crawl out of the hole.

  Bob slipped the pink cell phone back into Kevin’s pocket after they laid him in the grave.

  Bob covered Kevin with a blanket before they filled in the grave.

  When they were done, Bob put his hand on Bill’s shoulder.

  “What do you say Old Timer that we take a hike over to LaMantia’s storage lot,” Bob smiled. “We just might get lucky.”

  “That’s a long walk Mac,” Bill replied, “It could also be dangerous for the two of us to attempt to go out that far.”

  “Did you have other plans?” Bob smiled as he looked up in the sky. “Hey look over there, birds.”

  Bill looked where Bob was pointing.

  “Damn,” Bill said. “First rabbits, now birds. What they hell is going on?”

  “I don’t know Bill,” Bob replied. “I haven’t seen birds and animals for a year. Something must be happening.”

  “Are you serious about going over to LaMantia’s?” Bill asked.

  “I am,” Bob replied.

  “Like I said, it could be dangerous,” Bill added.

  “I really don’t give a damn,” Bob replied. “Do you want a beer or not?”

  “Hell yes,” Bill answered. “But what’s gotten into you. You just buried Kevin and now you want to go off looking for beer.”

  Bob looked at Bill.

  “Bill, who knows how much time we have left. I don’t want to waste any more of our time hiding in that damn house. I don’t know what caused all of this shit to happen, or why we have had to endure all that we have. I don’t know about God or any of that stuff, but for the first time in a year, I have a feeling someone just might be looking out for us or at least waiting for us when all this shit is over.

  Hell, who knows, we might even live through this.

  Until then, I think I want to try living for a change instead of just surviving.”

  “If we find as much beer in those beer trucks as I think.” Bill grinned. “How are we going to carry it all back?”

  “We aren’t,” Bob grinned. “We’ll stay there until we drink it all. Kevin and Lisa can keep an eye on the house until we get back.”

  Bill looked at Bob strangely.

  “You OK, Mac?” Bill asked.

  “You know Bill, I think I am,” Bob grinned. “I honestly think I am.”

  Bill smiled.

  “I get dibs on the Iron City Beer,” Bill said.

  “You can have that shit,” Bob replied. “I’m not drinking anything but Budweiser from now on.”

  “You need anything from the house?” Bill asked.

  “No, I’m good,” Bob replied as they walked down through the yard.

  “Is that a duck?” Bill asked pointing towards the bridge.

  “I think your right,” Bob replied as he studied the sky. “It also looks like a nice day for a walk.”

  They had just reac
hed Market Street when Bill stopped and ran his hand over the top of his head.

  He pulled his hand down and looked at his hand.

  “Damn it, the fucking pigeons are back too.”

  Bob laughed.

  Thanks for reading One Hour to Live, I hope you enjoyed it.

  If you’re not on my email list and would like to be notified of any future releases, please email me at:

  TheExchangePost@comcast.net.

  Subject line: email list.

  Your questions and comments are always welcome.

  Until then, I hope you will have a chance to look at some of my other books.

  Your interest and support are greatly appreciated.

  Thanks Again,

  Gary Chesla

  Due to numerous requests, two projects in the works for 2017:

  It’s not Over: Book 6

  The Final Days: Book 2

  Plus, much more to follow!

  .