Dead Endz

by Kristen Middleton

  “Oh God!” I choked in horror, thankful that there were metal bars separating us.

  The zombie moaned in pleasure and then lifted its rotted face, staring at me absently while chewing on a piece of the man’s flesh. That, the horrifying stench of death and the bloody gristle smeared across the floor did me in. I soon found myself hurling violently over the side of the cot. Because there wasn’t much in my tummy, dry heaves soon followed.

  “Eck…” I whimpered. I don’t know why but puking always brought me to tears.

  When I was finished spitting out the last of the acidy foam, my throat and chest were sore from heaving. I brushed away the tears and lay my head back down, closing my eyes.

  Mom, I thought; aching for her comforting presence. I missed her so much and felt like the distance between us was growing every day. I knew she and my sister needed me though, so I reached deep inside and found the strength I needed to get moving. There was no time for melancholy.

  Opening my eyes again, I swung my legs over the cot, standing on very shaky legs. It was then that I noticed I was wearing some sort of hospital gown and underneath it, I was butt-naked.

  What the hell?

  My mind was still pretty muddled but I somewhat recalled struggling with Eva and then her actually sinking her teeth into my flesh. I looked down at the back of my leg and found that the wound she’d given me was actually healing pretty well.

  The zombie, only now figuring it out that he had a living person with fresh blood just a few feet away from him, stood up and tried reaching for me through the bars.

  The lustful hunger in the zombie’s reddened eyes stirred my temper. I glanced down at his soldier who, thankfully, was no longer suffering and glared at the zombie. “Finish your meal before you go for seconds, you greedy son-of-a-bitch.”

  The zombie growled and continued to reach for me, getting more aggravated by the minute.

  I shook my head in disgust and decided to ignore him, for now. Instead, I took slow and steady steps around my cell, looking for clothing or something I could use as a weapon. Not finding anything but a few empty IV bags and some ace bandages, I knew my situation was bleak. Not only would I be pretty defenseless against the zombie, but my bare ass was hanging out. Sure, I’d been through a lot in the last few days, but my modesty was still somewhat intact.

  “Hey,” hollered a shadow in the cell across from mine. It was a girl’s voice.

  I took a step forward. “Hello?”

  The zombie was also caught by surprise. It jerked around and half dragged its gruesome body towards the other cell.

  “Get the keys, Wild,” demanded the other prisoner.

  My jaw dropped. “Oh my God… Nora!” I cried. “You’re alive!”

  She snorted. “If that’s what you want to call it. Now move your skinny ass over to the dead soldier and grab the keys so we can get the hell out of here.”

  “Um, okay,” I said, moving towards the slimy mess the zombie had left of the man. I shuddered in disgust as I stuck my hand through the bars and reached for his pockets. When I touched the ring of keys, I sighed with relief.

  Nora came out of the shadows and I noticed that she was also dressed in a hospital gown.

  “You want some of this zombie boy?” she taunted. Nora then turned around and shook her own bare butt at the zombie who stared at her white cheeks in fascination.

  Yeah, it was a disturbing scene.

  I cleared my throat and she glanced back while I held up the keys to show her I’d been successful.

  “Good, I’ll keep him busy while you get out and pound the living crap out of him,” she said.

  “Easy for you to say,” I said. “Unless I have a gun or something to stab him with, this thing won’t be easy to keep down.”

  She pointed to the gun on the floor lying near the zombie. “Problem solved.”

  I nodded and looked through the ring of keys. The zombie apparently heard me jingling them because turned back towards me.

  “Hey ugly,” called Nora, trying to regain his attention. He looked at her and with a mocking grin she flicked her tongue across her arm. “Mmm…this is so yummy,” she said licking her lips. “You want some of this, don’t you, Freak-show? Yeah, come closer…come on…”

  The zombie grasped the bars of her cell and started shaking them in frustration, trying to get to the snack that was just out of reach.

  I quietly turned the key in my lock and swung the door open. As I tiptoed and reached for the soldier’s gun, the zombie turned to me and gave me a sickening grin; the buffet was actually coming to him.

  “You’re such a glutton,” I muttered and then aimed the pistol at his head. Unfortunately, when I pulled the trigger, nothing happened. I began to panic. "It's empty!”

  The zombie, who thankfully, was missing part of his foot, stumbled slowly towards me as I looked desperately for something to hit him with.

  “Just kick him and then use the gun itself to pound the crap out of his face.”

  “Oh,” I said, thinking that made sense. I walked over and kicked him as hard as I could; knocking him to the ground. Then I smashed the gun into his face several times. When it was all over, his brains were splattered across the floor and I was feeling much better.

  “Wow,” said Nora with a satisfied grin, “and I kind of thought you were a candy-ass. I guess that also means you’re over that germ phobia of yours, now?”

  I shrugged and opened her cell door. “A little bit.”

  She studied me and then sighed. “Don’t mean to sound like a bitch but you really look like crap, Wild.”

  I stared back at her and was amazed that she looked so good. The dark makeup was gone and she actually looked… pretty. With her large blue eyes and pale skin, she almost reminded me of Dakota Fanning. “Wish I could say the same of you,” I answered. “This zombie apocalypse seems to have brought out your eyes.”

  She snorted and brushed passed me. “Not by choice. I feel naked without my eyeliner.”

  “Hey,” I said catching up to her. “So how in the world did you get here?”

  “It’s a long story, I’ll explain it sometime if we live that long,” she answered. “Let’s find clothes and get the hell out of this place before we run into more zombies or soldiers.”

  “So, why exactly are we running from the soldiers?” I asked in confusion. I still had no idea what was going on.

  She stopped abruptly and turned to me. “Because, they’re the ones who locked us up in the first place; they’ve been holding both of us prisoners and if they catch us, they’ll throw us back in the slammer.”

  “But…why?”

  “Because they need you. As for me, I’m just too much trouble to let go.”

  I looked at her incredulously. “They need me? That doesn’t make sense. How long have I been here?”

  “A few days, maybe…I really don’t know.”

  I felt dizzy. Things were worse than I thought. “I’ve been here for three or four days?”

  She shrugged.

  “What happened to my dad or Bryce?” I rubbed my forehead. “How in the hell did I end up in this place?”

  “Sorry, I don’t know that much about it.”

  “Jesus, I have to find my family,” I said.

  She nodded. “Fine, let’s get our hands on some clothes and weapons first.”

  I followed her down the corridor.

  “So, where are we?” I asked.

  “We’re in Atlanta, in some kind of temporary holding cell at the C.D.C.”

  My heart began to race. “We’re at the C.D.C.?” I wanted to shout with joy. Finally a break! My mother and sister had to be somewhere close.

  “Yeah, but don’t get too excited. There have been a lot of zombie attacks and things aren’t looking good here for anyone. I think that’s why they were holding you in this place, to study you and keep you from leaving.”

  “I still don’t’ understand why they would do that?”

  She stopped aga
in and stared at me. “From what I could tell in the last few conversations from these quacks, you beat the virus.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, Wild. The soldiers were talking about you. They said your blood is good. Some scientist wearing a lab coat came in and performed a few tests. When it was all said and done, I overheard them say your body’s built a natural immunity to the zombie virus. You know what that means?”

  “That… they might be able to create a vaccine or something?”

  She sighed. “What it really means is that your life is no longer your own, especially if you’re caught. You’re a gold mine to these guys and they won’t let you go if they catch you. Not ever.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  As we continued to search the facility, my mind was racing. I still couldn’t believe what Nora had said, that I’d actually beaten the virus? Did that mean that Allie was alive and well? I could only pray my sister was doing okay.

  “Supply room,” said Nora, after opening one of several doors in the hallway. The room was a little dark but we did our best to rummage through the shelves, which unfortunately, were mostly barren.

  “Thank God,” I said, finding a large unopened bottle of water. I took a few sips and listened as Nora crunched down on some crackers she’d apparently found.

  “Cheap skates only fed me once a day,” she said through a mouthful of crackers. “At least they had an I.V. in you for a while, although,” she said, “you look like a twig right now.”

  I had noticed my legs were bonier than ever.

  “Here,” she said, handing me some crackers. “Knock yourself out.”

  My stomach growled in response. “Thanks.”

  “So much for finding something else to wear,” she said.

  It was true, the supply cabinet held a bunch of cleaning and medical supplies but no clothing.

  “I wonder where our stuff is,” I said. “Not that I had much when I arrived…”

  Nora grabbed my arm. “Listen,” she whispered.

  Shouts and gunfire echoed somewhere in the building.

  “We have to get the hell out of here,” she said.

  “Wait”, I said, then grabbed a metal walking cane I’d noticed sitting on one of the shelves. It seemed heavy enough and could possible do some damage. “Okay, let’s go.”

  She snickered at my weapon and then looked around for something to defend herself. When she came up with some sort of hacksaw, I couldn’t believe her luck. It might not do much against the soldiers, but it would probably come in handy against the zombies.

  “You know what they use this for?” she asked.

  “No, not really.”

  Her eyes grew round. “Lobotomies.”

  I shuddered. “Wow…that’s disturbing.”

  Nora smiled wickedly. “Come on, Wild, let’s go give some.”

  ***

  We made our way down several hallways until we reached the front entrance of the building, where we found two other soldiers on the ground, dead.

  “Okay, those guys certainly weren’t killed by zombies,” I said, noticing the bullet holes.

  She nodded. “Yeah, and from my experience these last few days, they might be renegades.”

  “Renegades?”

  “Yeah, thieves basically. You haven’t run into any of those yet, huh? Lucky you. There are some real assholes out there taking total advantage of this new zombie apocalypse. Believe it or not, some people are having the time of their lives right now.”

  “That’s right,” said a gravelly voice behind us. “Everything’s ripe for the pickings, why let it go to waste?”

  Nora and I turned around and found what had to be two of the ugliest human beings left on the planet. One of them was a tall skinny dude with long stringy hair and missing teeth; the few he had were blackish yellow and crooked. The other one was a squat dumpy man with some kind of crazy lazy eye that darted all over the room. Unfortunately, at the moment his good one rested on my legs.

  “Can I have the skinny one with the cane?” asked the short one, licking his wormy lips. “Please Dewey?” He reminded me of an old bulldog with his dark watery eyes and drooling jowls.

  Nora burst out laughing. “Dewey? What kind of pansy name is that?”

  Dewey smiled coldly and raised his gun towards her head. “The kind that’s going to blow your brains out if you don’t shut the fuck up.”

  “Um,” I said, raising my hand, trying to defuse the situation. “I’m sorry; she didn’t mean anything by that. We’ve just been through a lot of stress these last few days.”

  Dewey shrugged. “Well, then the bimbo better keep her pie hole shut if she wants to live any longer.”

  Looking back now, I’d say it was very fortunate for us that Nora hadn’t yet learned to control her temper, even with her martial arts training. I held my breath and watched in morbid fascination as she erupted like a volcano and let out a shriek so loud that it would have woken up the dead if they hadn’t already been wandering the streets.

  “Asshole!” she screamed, launching herself at Dewey, slamming him to the ground. She was much smaller than him but she packed some real powerful punches, and that’s exactly what she started doing to his face. He’d somehow lost the grip on his gun and I knew with her rage, it was all over for him.

  The stunned look on Dewey’s craggily face was enough to wake me up. I moved towards Wandering Eye and kicked him in the face so hard, I’m pretty sure I corrected his vision.

  “Oh, my God, you bitch!” he growled, holding his bloody nose.

  “Really? That’s so… original,” I said.

  “You’re dead,” he spat, moving towards me. “I’m going to kill you and then really have some fun.”

  That sounded a little creepy and not in my best interest. Before he lived up to his sick fantasies, I picked up a metal chair and slammed it against his head. He fell to the ground and groaned.

  “Are we done?” I asked. “I’m tired and I have more important things to do than deal with your crap.”

  “Whore,” he whispered in anguish, reaching towards his ankle. It was then that I noticed the gun holstered to it.

  “I’ll take that,” I said, kicking at his hand. I grabbed the gun and pointed it at him. “Last chance to stop embarrassing yourself.”

  “Screw you. That’s my gun, bitch.”

  I cocked the gun, but really only to scare him. Even though he was an asshole, I wasn’t about to kill anyone still breathing if I could help it. The zombies would eventually get their hands on him, anyway. “Listen creep, we’re leaving with the gun. You should probably take a break anyway,” I said. “Your, um, face looks a little more messed up than usual.”

  The look he gave me would haunt my dreams even more than some of the zombie horror I’d witnessed in the last few days. One eye burned into mine with murderous rage, the other stared furiously at some kind of wart on his nose. It was…unsettling.

  “You’re fucking crazy. I hope a zombie eats your brains,” he growled. Then he groaned and put his head in his hands.

  At least he knew when to give up.

  I sighed and then glanced at Nora to see if she needed help, but she was still pounding Dewey in the face, who I think may have stopped fighting some time ago.

  “Nora,” I said evenly. “He’s either dead or going to wake up needing something much stronger than aspirin. Come on…let’s get the heck out of here before someone or thing shows up.”

  Nora was still breathing heavily when she finally lifted herself off of Dewey’s still form. Just when I thought she was finished with him, she kicked him in the side of his stomach one last time. “Nobody calls me a Bimbo,” she growled.

  And I thought my temper was bad.

  Keeping my eye on Wandering Eye, who now looked like he may have passed out from his injuries, I studied the gun I’d taken and it appeared to be a Sig Sauer P226. It was also loaded. Things were definitely looking up.

  The sound of gunshots from somewhere out
side startled us both and we rushed over to look out the glass entrance.

  “More zombies,” grimaced Nora. “And someone else is definitely packing.”

  Several zombies were shuffling around in the courtyard surrounding our building but no sign of the shooter.

  “Okay,” I whispered. “I’m going to try and make a run for it so I can get to the main building. I have to see if my parents or sister are there.”

  Nora shook her head. “Actually, they’ve pretty much evacuated the entire area after the zombies started busting through. You’ll be wasting your time.”

  “Well, then what am I supposed to do, now?” I said, my voice becoming shrill. “Where in the hell am I supposed to go to find them?”

  “Calm down, Wild,” she said evenly. “You’re not the only one looking for answers. In fact, that’s why I crossed several states to get here. My dad is also here in Atlanta, too. They flew him over from Europe a week ago.”

  “Why? Was he bitten?”

  She bit the side of her lip and nodded. “He was and Bernie, his manager, found a way to get him over here before all hell broke out in the U.S. I guess the remaining researchers left at the C.D.C. have been looking for this scientist who’d been experimenting with an antivirus. The last time I spoke to Bernie was four days ago and I’m just as lost as you are.”

  “We have to find out where they moved everyone. Let’s try and find someone still breathing around here who can answer questions.”

  She nodded and then lifted Dewey’s gun. “I’m ready when you are.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  We left the building and stepped outside into the daylight, where we were now at the mercy of the zombies. Actually, the zombies were now at the mercy of Nora and her pent up aggressions from being an abandoned rock star’s daughter.

  “Save the bullets if you can, Wild,” she hollered at me. She’d also grabbed the hacksaw and looked more than ready to use it.

  “I’ll try,” I answered as two zombies headed my way immediately. I took a deep breath and kicked one in the head and then turned to bash the other one in the eye with the cane.