This is the End (Book 2): Not Dead Yet

by Lisa Biesiada

  When there was little left but bones, he sauntered slowly over to me and waved the carcass in my face. “You want some too?” He exploded in laughter at his own hilarity as I glared at him between dry heaves.

  He held it close enough that I could smell the dead flesh and fur and all I could do was turn my head away and press myself further against the wall trying to escape the noxious aroma.

  Yelling from upstairs interrupted his game and he quickly made his way back up the stairs, stopping only to throw the carcass on the ground near me before disappearing. I looked at the fresh blood trailing down the faces of the zombies then down to the dead cat and prayed fervently that animals couldn’t turn. Then I thought about Roscoe and prayed he was ok. No one had seen him after we’d been captured so I could only hope he was alive and unscathed somewhere out in the wilderness.

  It wasn’t long before rats came out from somewhere in the walls to finish off the cat and in a sudden burst of clarity I knew I had to find a fucking way out. I was losing it and if I stayed down here much longer any humanity left in me would be wiped out.

  Trying to block out the sound of tiny mouths tearing at what was left of flesh and the moans of the zombies, I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the wall, mentally revisiting every idea of escape I’d previously had and dismissed in the event I missed anything.

  Chapter 12:

  The door creaked. I opened an eye at the startling sound and tried to swim to the forefront of consciousness. I’d been chained to the wall in the basement for days without food or water. It had been so long since anyone had come down that I’d started to wonder if they’d forgotten about me, but apparently not.

  The footsteps at the top of the stairs were little more than a whispering wind as the girl who’d bathed me so long ago floated to the bottom of the stairs. She walked over to me and the sympathy on her face was more than I could deal with.

  She held a bottle of water to my parched and dry lips and I drank greedily, choking on the warm liquid but grateful nonetheless. Moonlight was streaming in through the little window which at least told me it was nighttime, although I still had no idea how many days I’d been down here.

  Producing a key from her skirt, I closed my eyes and steeled myself for movement as she went about unlocking my chains. Finally free, I fell to the ground with great gasps. Everything in my body protested at the movement after being chained upright for so long but I languished in the pain I once resented.

  Kneeling, I took a few deep breaths, fingers closing around the item that had been my focus.

  Sometime before, I’d managed to grab a hold of the femur of the dead cat after the rats had finished with it and had been using my foot to first break it then drag the jagged edge across the cement floor to sharpen the broken end.

  I took a final breath and shot to my feet, lodging the bone deep into the girl’s throat and watched the surprise play out over her plain features. I’d hit the larynx just right, preventing her from calling out as blood flowed freely from the artery, spraying my face and the wall behind me.

  When the light faded from her eyes, I gently lowered her body to the ground and pulled the bone out of her neck and rammed it through her ear, effectively destroying her brain just in case.

  The zombies chained to the other wall went wild with bloodlust and hunger which only made me hurry considering all the noise they were making would draw attention.

  I ran over and stabbed all four of them repeatedly with my crude weapon until they were undead no more. Relief flooded through me as I watched the little girl cease her flailing and fall lifelessly against her chains.

  I stood there panting from effort for a few moments, staring at the five corpses surrounding me; if I didn’t count the cat. I was now covered in more blood and gore that had splattered me from the zombies, but I frankly couldn’t care less.

  Turning back to the girl I’d killed; I pulled the keys from her hands and tied them to my own dress. I used the femur to shred the bottom of my dress until I could rip it off from below my knees so I didn’t trip.

  Standing, I looked to the door she had come from then to the window. I had no guns, no knives and fuck only knew where my beloved machete was so the window was my best bet.

  The window was too high for me to reach and I looked around frantically for something to stand on. The only things in the basement were me and the bodies. I walked over to the now dead zombies and started unlocking their chains and dragging them over to the wall, where I proceeded to stack them on top of each other. I grabbed the girl who’d been alive and threw her on top and hoped it was high enough.

  Barefoot, I climbed the mountain of rotting flesh I’d created and tried not to give too much thought to whatever was squishy between my toes. Reaching up, I could just reach the window so I jammed the bone underneath and started to wriggle it loose.

  It wasn’t locked, but definitely hadn’t been opened in a while and it took a lot of jiggling to get it loose enough that I could slide it up. A chill of night air hit my face, causing tears to slide down my cheeks from sheer joy.

  Not wasting any time, I tucked the bone into my dress and grabbed the sill, pulling myself up. Under normal circumstances it would’ve been impossible for me to pull my weight up to the window. After being injected, it would’ve been slightly inconvenient. After being beaten and starved for days it was a struggle.

  I placed my toes in the cracks in the concrete and used that as a foot hold to launch myself up until I could pull the top of my body out of the window. I stopped and hung there for a minute, trying to catch my breath and take stock of my surroundings.

  The window faced the back of the house and I could see the entrance to the cells they’d kept us in when we’d first arrived, but there thankfully wasn’t anyone around.

  Dragging myself the rest of the way out of the window, I grabbed the bone and rolled onto the grass with a heavy ‘thump’. I lay there and stared at the stars through the tears still falling from my eyes and let my anger build until I had the strength to keep moving. Pulling myself to my feet, I half ran, half stumbled across the great lawn in a mad dash for the fence.

  There wasn’t anyone patrolling this area at the moment, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be around sooner or later. I reached the fence and threw my body against the chain link, desperately searching for a way out.

  Dropping to my knees, I crawled along the bottom until I found a section that wasn’t as secure and used every last bit of energy I had to pull the fence up from the dirt high enough that I could slide underneath it.

  I flattened against the ground on my belly and slithered under the fence, wincing as the edges dragged across the still very angry wounds on my back. When my knees were clear, I turned and sat up and pulled my feet out, making sure to push the fence back down so it wouldn’t be obvious where I got out.

  Certain I’d covered my tracks well enough, I got to my feet and started to run for all I was worth, barefoot and bloody into the night.

  I couldn’t be sure how long I’d been running, but there were no sounds of footsteps behind me nor did I hear the moaning of the dead. My feet were torn and bloody from stumbling over the pine needles and tree roots but after a while I started to hear the sounds of running water.

  I sped up until the trees gave way to small stream meandering its way through the woods. Wasting no time, I waded in and fell to my ass, letting the water rush around me. Once upon a time I would’ve thought about water moccasins and leeches before entering a body of water in the south, but I just didn’t give a fuck anymore.

  Still sitting in the river, I tore the disgusting dress off and threw it onto the bank with the bone and the keys. I pulled my hair down from the braid and dunked my head under, trying to scrub as much of the dirt and blood from myself as I could.

  It was freezing but even that didn’t faze me as I continued my baptism of freedom. When I felt clean enough, I stood up and stared at the stars, water rushing languidly around my
knees and welcoming the night air against my exposed skin. I didn’t even care that I was standing half naked in a river in the dead of night, bloody and beaten and starving; all that mattered was I was free. I was fucking free.

  The joy left me just as quick as it came when I realized it wasn’t over; I would have to go back for the others. Sooner rather than later when they discovered I’d gotten out.

  I was momentarily distracted by things brushing against my ankles and reached down into the water until something slippery passed through my fingers. I closed my hand and pulled the fish out of the water, bringing it to my face and staring it right in the eye.

  It struggled valiantly and I could only watch with a numb fascination as it slowly suffocated to death and I just continued to hold it. Once it stopped thrashing, I looked at it a moment longer before sinking my teeth into its scaly side and ripping away a mouthful of fish flesh and guts. Blood and other things dripped down my chin and I just continued to tear into the poor thing like a crazed bear.

  I picked the body clean and tossed it down river, wiping my mouth on the back of my hand and scooping up a handful of river water to wash out my mouth with. I was crazy thirsty but there was no way I was drinking river water I had no way of sanitizing; even I wasn’t that desperate.

  Sitting down in the water again, I cleaned up the mess I’d made eating the fish and made my way to shore; I felt human again. I was glad no one had been around to witness the complete deconstruction of human morality I’d just exhibited in the last hour or so and I could only hope I gained some sense of rationality before I had to make contact again. I was actually mildly concerned that I’d finally been reduced to little more than the zombies that had destroyed civilization.

  Finding a large rock, I sat down and dunked the dress into the river to finish washing the grossness from that as well. After beating it against the rock for a while I was sure the fabric was as clean as it was going to get and proceeded to tear it up.

  I ripped the dress into two pieces. I ripped the top all the way down the front, then pulled it on like a button down shirt and tied it off in the front. Taking what was left of the skirt I held it up for inspection. It was too large to put on as is, so I tore it all the down the seam on one side and wrapped it around my waist, tying it like a sarong. I now had a very ugly beach ensemble, but at least it was somewhat clean. Using what was left of the fabric, I wrapped the pieces around my feet, using large leaves from the tree to secure it into makeshift shoes. Fuck, it was like I was on ‘Survivor’ or something.

  Shaking my head, I looked up at the tree and got an idea. I shoved the bone through the waist of my skirt and looped the keys into my bra, grabbed the lowest branch and started to climb. When there wasn’t anywhere else to go, I stopped and looked down. I was a good fifteen feet off the ground and there was enough foliage below me to offer a little protection from view if someone decided to look up.

  You could see me from the other side of the riverbank, but I doubted anyone would be coming from that direction until at least sometime tomorrow. Finding a not terribly awful position, I settled in to rest. The whip marks across my back had closed but still hurt and my face was still puffy from the Ogre using me as target practice for his fist.

  Making sure I was stable, I closed my eyes and drifted into the first real rest I’d had in days.

  I awoke to hear footsteps in the brush below me. I was startled and almost fell but caught myself before I could shake the branch causing any leaves to fall.

  Peering down through the leaves, I saw some of the guys from the compound trekking through the woods with rifles at the ready. They had Austin tied up and leading them on the rope again.

  They spoke in low tones but I got just enough to know they were out looking for me. I held my breath as Austin jumped up onto the rock I’d been sitting on the night before and looked around. He turned away from the river to look at the men as they discussed where to look next.

  Austin suddenly went still and looked up, right into my face. I held my finger to my lips, eyes pleading with him to not give me away. His eyes got wider for a split second then went back to normal as he continued to causally survey the area, turning his looking up into a stretch.

  The men walked over to the river and started to follow it upstream. Apparently that’s the route a smart person would take. Good thing I wasn’t a smart person.

  When I was sure they were far enough away, I climbed down out of the tree and started following the river downstream. I was heading south and I knew the compound was to the east, so as long as I kept on an eye on where the sun was, I should be ok.

  I followed the river for a few hours until signs of what was once life started to sprout up around me, forcing me to keep to the trees for cover. There were zombies wandering around aimlessly in a small yard encasing a tiny shack the vegetation had obviously been threatening to reclaim for some time now.

  I hid behind a tree and watched them for a while, trying to figure out how many there were. Five were wandering around the yard, but that didn’t tell me if any were left in the house or the small shed at the edge of the property.

  Deciding to take my chances, I crept through the trees until I was near the shed, waited until they were all facing the other way, and darted in through the door as quietly and quickly as I could.

  It was dark, but there was enough light to find a small trowel and an axe. I hefted the axe over my shoulder, tested my grip on the trowel, took a deep breath and marched back out the door.

  “Hey! I’m over here!” I called. No sooner than the words left my mouth did the zombies spot me and start a mad dash in my direction.

  I started running towards them as well, swinging the axe and jabbing out with the trowel as I slid by the first two. They were twin teen boys and built like Mack trucks but it was my good fortune they kept their tools in good working order as the metal slid through their paper thin skin. They’d been in the sun for too long and it had thinned out their skin which combined with the rotting, made getting to their spinal cords to sever their heads easier than normal.

  Watching the matching heads fly by, I turned and focused on the three that were left. I let them get within arm’s reach before swinging the axe in a wide arc so hard I turned a full circle. It worked though, as limbs went sailing by and I kept hacking away until I was sure they were good and dead.

  I stopped to catch my breath before dragging the bodies into the shed and closing it up. If anyone from the compound came by and saw the bodies, they’d know for sure I was out here and that just wasn’t going to work for me.

  Limping my way up the walk, I dragged myself up the stairs and paused inside the doorway, waiting to see if anything else jumped out.

  “Hey!” I yelled out, banging the trowel against the door for good measure. I waited several minutes but there was nothing but silence.

  “Thank fucking god, man.” I breathed a sigh of relief and entered the shack, closing the door behind me.

  It was a one story building and a quick look around revealed two bedrooms, one bathroom and a modest kitchen. It wasn’t in the best shape, but they’d kept it pretty clean and for that, I was eternally grateful.

  I got to work chopping up what furniture I could to board up the windows and seal the front and back door and when I was done, I collapsed into a pile of exhaustion on the sofa.

  Somewhere a clock was ticking, which felt like a strange sound and something was rustling in a closet. It sounded bigger than a rat and I thought for a moment I might have a raccoon or a badger on my hands.

  Creeping towards the door the noise was coming from; I slowly raised the axe and prepared to strike. I took a deep breath and pulled the door out fast with a little yell.

  “Holy shit!” I almost had a heart attack when I saw Roscoe cowering in the back of the closet, unsure for a moment if I was going to try and eat him. He recognized my smell fast though as his tail started a wild thump and he leaped at me, licking my face.

  I starte
d to laugh as I let him knock me to the ground with kisses. “I missed you too, boy!” I rubbed his head hard, never having been more thankful to see anyone, man or beast, in my life.

  Grabbing his snout I looked him over. “How long have you been out here? Are you ok?” I cooed at him. The dog snuffed at me in reply and lay down next to me, belly up and expectant.

  I absently rubbed his belly while looking around. They’d been dead for a while and the house hadn’t been fortified which told me they were likely caught off guard and hadn’t had time to eat all their food yet.

  Climbing to my feet, I brushed the dog hair off and wandered into the kitchen with Roscoe hot on my heels. I started opening up cabinets and digging through the contents until I happened upon a giant can of refried beans, some sealed dry jerky and a can of Spam. Glancing at the refrigerator, I considered checking it too, but decided against it due to the incredible amount of time the power had likely been out for. Opening that door was just asking for trouble.

  I dug through the drawers until I found a can opener and spoon. “You hungry?” I asked Roscoe as I opened the Spam. His tail thumped the floor excitedly and I took that for a yes.

  Dumping the canned meat onto a plate, Roscoe had his nose in it before I could even set it down all the way. Pulling my hand out quick lest he accidentally mistake me for food, I went about opening the beans and jerky and dumped them into a large bowl. I was overjoyed to find a few bottles of water still left in a case in the pantry and continued to dump one into a bowl for Roscoe before taking my treasure back to the sofa.

  Curling up, I ate every last bit of the food and drank two entire bottles of water. Roscoe had finished his food and was lying at my feet. I briefly wondered at how smart eating an entire can of beans was, but figured with no one around to hear the windfall, it wouldn’t really matter anyway.

  Once we were both fed and watered, I headed to the bedrooms and started digging through drawers and closets in search of new clothes. The woman had been tiny so none of her pants would even come close to fitting, but I did manage to find a pair of black jeans in what I was guessing was her husband’s side that fit well enough. He’d been a tall man so I continued rummaging until I found a pair of scissors and proceeded to cut off the bottoms, making insane looking crop pants.