“Sure thing boss,” was Gerard’s reply.
Gerard put his hand on the door adjacent from the room they had just came from while Damion took the door to the immediate left which was down about five feet. Christa tightened her grip on Damion’s hand as he pushed the door open at the same time Gerard did.
As soon as the door flew open on Damion’s side a corpse came straight for Damion from only a couple of feet away. Christa also noticed an undead child directly in front of Damion, which he didn’t notice, and as Damion pushed the taller corpse backwards Christa crouched down and drove her knife through the undead child’s skull just in time. After Damion swung with his sledgehammer and exploded the corpse’s head he had pushed back his attention drew to the little corpse in front of him that Christa had just dispatched. He looked at Christa with eyes full of astonishment. “You saved my life.” He looked down at the half decayed little body in front of him. “I didn’t even see her. She could have bit me easily.”
Christa held his hand again, “But she didn’t baby. I would never let that happen.”
“Christa promise me if I get bit you’ll kill me and not put yourself in danger.” Christa couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“No Damion I wo-“
“Christa, please,” he said with an urgent and stern tone. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you being in danger because of me or worse…..me killing you.”
Christa turns Damion towards her and puts her hands on the side of his face, “Damion I won’t answer that because it is ridiculous. You are not going to get bitten. Odds are if you get bitten I will have already been bitten and if that’s the case I guess you will just be stuck with me for eternity.” She couldn’t help but kiss him, but quickly because she was well aware of the situation and where they were and the fact that the room wasn’t fully cleared yet.
They cleared the room and as they were leaving something caught Christa’s eye. The name tag of the corpse Damion dispatched. Sgt. Donaldson. Her mind immediately went to the room prior and the picture she saw there. She couldn’t help but to feel that she knew a little bit more about Sgt. Donaldson’s story and the fate of one of his little girls. He must’ve brought her and possibly the rest of his family here thinking it would be a good place to stay only to find out it wasn’t. She couldn’t help but wonder which one of them turned first. Did Sgt. Donaldson have to go through what she did with Bree? She didn’t wish that hell on anyone else. At least they both were resting in peace now together.
They all met up back out in the hallway. “Did you find anything in there,” Damion asked Gerard.
“Not really. There was just some more desks but I did find this key chain. I took it incase we needed it at some point in time. What about you guys?”
“We ran into two, but we took care of them,” Damion added.
Gerard looks at Christa, “Are you ok?”
“Yes Gerard, she’s fine. You think I’d let anything happen to her?” It was clear Damion’s patience was being severely tested. Everyone could feel the tension in the air as Damion replied. All Gerard did was glance over at Damion and then back at Christa.
“I’m fine.”
They cleared out the rest of the offices in the small building before they headed for the garage area. They walked up to the door and Damion peered through the double paned glass trying to see if he could see any movement. Damion started to smile.
“What are you smiling about baby?”-Christa had to ask.
“There’s a generator out there. They were using it but apparently at some point in time it was abandoned. We should go see if they still have any stockpile of fuel out there and fire up that generator. It’d be nice to have heat and we could stay here, at least for the rest of the day and tonight.”
“Be careful. Seriously Damion. That is a big, dimly lit garage and there is no telling what is in there.” Christa scooted closer to Damion and whispered in his ear, “That was a close call earlier and I-“
Damion puts his finger to Christa’s lips and leans in and kisses her, “Nothing will happen to me. I’ll keep an eye on my surroundings. Promise.”
Damion goes to turn the knob except it is locked. “Oh, keys.” He looks at Gerard and Gerard hands him the keys they found earlier. He goes through five keys before he finds the right one. He turns the knob, slowly opens the door and steps inside. The stench was only slightly unbearable and that was mostly due to weather. Whatever was in the garage didn’t decay as much as it would have if it were warm out. No one could see it but they could sure smell it.
They all were in the garage now and slowly they walked around trying to clear the room.
It was hard to see every part of the garage with the only light coming from the emergency lighting system. It was still enough to see a good portion of it. There were a few big trucks in the garage and a door that lead to the side storage room.
There was a loud shrieking scream that echoed throughout the garage. Everyone looked at one another to take a mental head count. Tara was missing. They all ran towards the door that opened into the storage space. Gerard was the first one through the door. He found Tara pinned against the floor with a living corpse on top of her at arm’s length trying to bite her. The skin from the decaying body was giving way under her fingers and its teeth were inching ever closer to her face. Gerard ran over to her and grabbed the shoulders of the undead and started pulling backwards but it slipped right through his fingers as the skin slid off. Its teeth were even closer now and it nearly grazed Tara’s cheek. Suddenly the chomping of the teeth stopped and it lost all momentum. Christa had put her knife through its skull. Tara pushed the body to the side and stood up quickly. She just stood there traumatized, her body shaking. Christa came up to her and shook her shoulder. “It’s over. You are fine. Keep it together, don’t fall apart on me now.” Christa hunches over slightly to look directly into Tara’s eyes. “You good?” Tara nods. “No, I need to hear you say it Tara. You good?”
Tara replies in a low voice, “Yes.”
“Good. Let’s look around and see what is inside here. There has to be something useful here in this storage.” Christa started looking through the various boxes in the storage room while keeping an eye on Tara. Tara stood there a few moments before she finally moved and started looking through boxes.
“Baby, you gonna be okay in here while I clear the garage,” Damion asked Christa.
“Sure. Take Darren and Gerard with you. Tara and I will be fine in here.”
“No. Damion and Darren will be fine clearing the garage. I’m not leaving Christa in here alone. Tara is too shaken up to be of any use if you need back up,” Gerard stated.
Christa could feel some sort of altercation coming on, but was surprised when Damion replies. “For once Gerard we agree on something. Keep a watchful eye. I’ll be just outside Christa clearing the garage ok.”
“Be careful. I mean it.” It was all Christa could say while she watched him walk away.
As Christa was going through boxes she could feel someone near her and she knew who it was. “Thank you Christa for getting that thing off of Tara. It slipped through my fingers…..and I thought for sure she was going to get bit because I couldn’t hold it. You saved her.” Gerard’s face expressed how bad he felt.
“Gerard, how were you suppose to know? Don’t be so hard on yourself. You tried. Things happen, nothing more nothing less.”
“Maybe so….but still….thank you.”
“No need for thanks. We all do what we can for each other.”
“Yeah. I guess so.
It was obvious that wasn’t the only thing Gerard wanted to say but that is what he left it at. He walked off as they finished looking through storage containers. Christa could feel his eyes still on her as he left the room for the garage.
“He needs to be more careful,” said Tara from
Christa looks over at Tara with a look of confusion on her face, “What are you talking about?”
Tara respo
nds, “You mean you don’t know? Christa it’s obvious by the way he is always looking at you. Damion can even see it. Well he sees it seventy-five percent of the time but the other twenty-five percent goes unnoticed. I see it though. I’m not sure what’s going on there but I know he needs to be more careful. I can see that whole situation coming to a head and I’m not sure how far that’d go, especially seeing how murder isn’t exactly a punishable offense in the world today.”
Christa let that thought sink in. Could that really happen? I can’t see either of them killing each other. It’s not enough that we have to worry about the living dead but now we have to worry about each other? It was a thought Christa didn’t need on her mind among the obvious others, but it was also a possibility she couldn’t ignore. She just realized that Gerard went into the garage where Darren and Damion were. In the back of her mind that doubt crept in and she turned for the garage. The next thing she heard was gunshots and a loud yell. Christa couldn’t help but think Oh no! Damion!
She ran into the garage as fast as she could with Tara trailing behind her. Christa found herself suddenly faced with the unthinkable. Gerard was standing there amidst the smoke from the gun he had just fired. He still had it pointed but where she couldn’t see. She also couldn’t see Damion. Her heart raced and she ran over to Gerard to see his line of vision. When she reached him she looked where he was pointing. Darren had his back up against the truck as if he was dodging something. Her eyes looked for Damion and she found him on the ground. Her heart dropped instantly and she found it hard to keep her balance. Staggering only momentary she ran to Damion’s side. He turned over with a look of astonishment still on his face. Christa couldn’t believe it. She had thought he was dead due to Gerard, but there he was looking at her. He was also looking at Gerard and his stare made Christa wonder if her initial thought was correct.
“What the hell man. You could’ve killed me!”
“True. But if I hadn’t fired you would’ve been dead regardless. You’re welcome.” Gerard walked off back into the storage room.
“Holy shit man. Holy shit,” was all Darren could get out while he was still leaning up against the truck like he was frozen in time. “I thought I was about to get shot and then I found out I was about to get eaten. I can’t take this much stress. Hell I was a friggin’ accountant because I can’t stand intense stress and this FAR surpasses intense stress.” Darren looks around at the carnage, “Far surpasses.” Tara runs over to Darren and hugs him.
“Are you ok? I was so worried.”
“Tara, I’m fine,” Darren put his arms around his sister.
Christa helped Damion get up and took his hand in hers, “There’s some boxes in the storage room. I’m not sure what is of use or not but we should go through that together. Let’s not split up again. There seems to be too many issues that come about from doing just that. Besides, I can’t lose you Damion.”
“You won’t. I can tell you one thing though. I’m definitely going to keep one eye on Gerard because I don’t trust him nor his intentions,” Damion looked at Christa directing his last statement directly at her. “He’s been trying me since day one and I’m getting a little sick and tired of his shit. I have this feeling it’s gonna come to either him or me at some point and it damn sure won’t be me.” Damion took Christa’s hand and headed for the storage room. She could feel the rigged tension in his grip that let her know he was past his point of tolerance when it came to Gerard.
The light outside turned to darkness as they went through the countless boxes in the storage unit. Mostly it was just uniforms and various other military clothing. Some boxes held MRE’s and a various assortment of equipment that could be beneficial such as canteens, night vision goggles, bullet proof vests, etc. Christa couldn’t help but wonder why so much was left there. She couldn’t figure out why they found so many useful items, but she didn’t dwell on that fact.
They gathered as much as they could and packed the back of the two trucks in the garage. No one had even started them up to see if they were operational. “Wait a minute. Does anyone even know where the keys are to these vehicles? We might wanna make sure they are around here before we go through all the trouble of loading them up with supplies.” Tara couldn’t help but to vocalize her query.
“They were in them. I already checked,” Gerard said.
Something just didn’t sit right with Tara when she heard that. “Don’t you think that sounds a little too convenient? I mean really. They were already in the vehicles? I dunno. Something just doesn’t feel right.”
Gerard stopped what he was doing to address Tara, “What doesn’t feel right? The fact that the dead come back to life to eat on the living or the fact that a vast majority of the population is dead already or-“
“-ok, ok. I got it. I don’t like it but I got it.” Tara still didn’t feel right about it but she was willing to let it go.
After they loaded up the vehicles they went through the remaining offices and rooms looking for whatever they could find. They didn’t find much of anything else so instead they scouted out the rooms for a possible place to sleep for the night. They found two rooms that were adjoining and decided on those two. Everyone took a sleeping bag from the supplies and found a spot on the floor in one of the two rooms. Darren, Tara and Gerard were in one room while Damion and Christa were in the other. For the time being they left the door open that joined the two rooms.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m just going to the restroom and maybe to take a look around. Don’t worry Damion, I am only going to the garage. I won’t be long. Just need a moment or two. Ok?”
“Ok, but if you need me you scream got it?” Christa nods. “If you aren’t back soon I’m coming to look for you.” Christa knew he would too.
Christa walked to the end of the hallway near the entrance to the garage and took a sharp right to go into the restroom. After using it she was washed her hands and stared into the mirror. Her face looked all too real. The darkness beneath her eyes revealed the loss of decent sleep as well as the stress of it all taking its toll. Her eyes were glazed over in a sleep deprived haze. She didn’t even care.
In times like these you didn’t care what you looked like and usually you didn’t care what you smelled like. What you did care about was that you were unscathed and able to survive another day. What you did care about was the well-being of your loved ones. Everything else was just trivial frivolous perks that didn’t mean much nowadays. So while Christa was well aware she wouldn’t be winning any beauty contests soon she also didn’t really seem to give a shit either.
After exiting the bathroom she opened the door to the garage. It was easily a good 30 degrees colder in the garage due to the lack of sufficient heating. She couldn’t help but look around and take stock of the dead bodies that seem to litter the area like scattered glass laying where they landed in whatever situation they expired in. Christa was so sick of dead bodies but in a sense she was becoming partially desensitized to it as well. The commonality of it among the places they went to slowly took away its shock value. That didn’t mean it still didn’t effect her in some way though because it did.
She felt the need to at least clear out the room so they wouldn’t have to constantly step over a dead body. Christa noticed a door that lead to the back of the building. She walked through the center of the garage and made her way to it. She placed her hand upon the knob and paused momentarily to get her mind ready for whatever she may find. She quickly thrust open the door and immediately saw a snow mound right new the door. There was nothing else. No undead. No vehicles. Nothing except a small clearing, minus the snow mound, and some shed that was placed right before the railroad tracks.
She propped open the door with a nearby box and started to pull the nearest body to the door. She made it outside the door and pulled the body near the mound, but slipped and fell on top of it. This mound felt funny. It felt like a solid mass that wasn’t just snow. She pushed herself up, getti
ng leverage with her hand, off the mound. Her hand broke through something and it felt slightly warm inside. She pulled her hand back quickly and blood flung from her fingertips onto her shirt and face. She let out a scream from the initial shock of it. After realizing what had just happened she started clearing away the snow and discovered the mound of snow was actually a mound of dead bodies.
After inspecting the bodies closer she could tell from the markings on the face and the appearance of the eyes that it looked as if these people were not infected. This was puzzling and she couldn’t quite make out why they were killed if that was the case.
Just then Damion rounded the corner in a rush followed by the rest of the group. “Are you okay,” he asked as he ran over to her and put his hands on her arms. Damion noticed the blood on Christa’s hand, shirt and face and panicked. “Oh my god Christa are you okay? Is that your blood?! Where are you hurt??”
“No Damion, I’m fine. That’s not my blood. I fell on top of this mound, which I thought was just snow, but as I went to get up my hand went through a dead body. Look at these bodies. More importantly look at their faces, especially their eyes. Do you notice anything?”
The whole group went over to the bodies and looked closely as if they were trying to crack a thousand year old mystery. As they stared no one made a sound. “Not one of you can tell? Their eyes are like ours. They don’t look like they were infected before they were shot. Plus when I put my hand through that one corpse there was still a tiny amount of warmth there. I don’t have to tell you what that means. This didn’t happen that long ago. What I can’t figure out is why they were killed if they weren’t infected.”
Gerard spoke, “Well we don’t know enough about this disease to know if the appearance of the eyes are tale-telling really Chris. I mean I can’t even remember their eyes after they were killed.”
Christa replied immediately, “Well I can and they don’t look like that Gerard. I’m telling you I have this gut feeling about this. I don’t like this place. Everyone started looking around in the black abyss of night once Christa spoke those words. Their visuals only reaching so far.
Day Beyond the Dead (Book 1) Page 7