The Last Days (Books 1-3)

by Julie Cooper Brown

  “You got lucky that I decided to look out the window to see who had crashed. You may not have made it to the door.” Mojo said.

  “And for that, my little friend, I am thankful to you and shall be indebted to you for the rest of my days.” He said jokingly.

  Taking a cut a Mojo’s height was not a good idea but he thought just this once he’d slip it in and Mojo thought that just this once he’d let it go.

  “That’s the only one you get, Troy. Next time you won’t have any days left at all.”

  They continued chatting and everyone joined in the conversation. Just for a little while, it seemed like a regular group of people enjoying a drink with friends at a bar.

  Upstairs, Tank lay deeply immersed in dreamland, with his wife and daughter. They are happy and laughing, they are alive.

  He kisses Debbie for the first time in a long time and he savors the feel of her lips and the smell of her breath. Everything is good and they are in a place where there is no such thing as the living dead.

  His subconscious is unaware that it is only a dream. They were happy and that was all that mattered. He didn’t feel a thing when his heart gave up.

  October 25, 2013

  9:35 a.m.

  Kimmy had stolen the pretty little purple heart from Angel’s pocket as she lay sleeping in the booth. She had seen it while they were in the van, it was peeking from Angel’s pocket and she couldn’t wait to get ahold of it. She didn’t want to ask for it, afraid that Angel would say no.

  Once she had gotten it, she had stared at it for long periods of time when no one was paying attention. The pretty little heart was a light in the darkness for her.

  She only showed it to Kate because she had wanted Kate to chase her and play with her. No one seemed to want to play anymore because Kate did not come after her.

  Yes, Kimmy was a bad little girl in their eyes, but down inside she had just wanted someone to talk to her without being mean, someone to hold her with love instead of restraint.

  So, no matter how bad Kimmy was, she was not a demon spawn after all.

  In fact, if you had known her before all the problems at home began, you would have said she was a sweet tempered, beautiful child. She washed her hands before and after every meal, said please and thank you, and said her prayers every night at bedtime.

  She could not help that her world was turned upside down when her father lost his job. He began drinking heavily and abusing her mother relentlessly. Her mother, being a weak and spineless woman, let it go on and in turn, took her frustrations out on the only thing that her husband loved. Kimmy.

  Every time her husband beat her, she would wait until he left to take it out on the innocent child that she hated with a passion that no mother should be able to possess for her child.

  The last time she exploded on the poor girl; she had taken scissors to Kimmys long, black wavy hair.

  Her father had never allowed it to be cut, he wanted it to grow long and beautiful, and so it did. Her mother did not see the beauty of her child, though. She saw only the man that abused her and ruined her life, every time she looked at her.

  Kimmy looked just like her father, deep black hair and even deeper brown eyes, except Kimmys irises were insanely large. Even through extensive testing the doctors could not determine the cause. Her mother thought it creepy and called her evil.

  Besides the crude hacking job she did to Kimmys beautiful tresses, she had also blacked both of her eyes and bloodied her lips.

  Poor Kimmy did not understand what she had done wrong and did not allow herself to cry. She took her beating in silence.

  Upon arriving home, her father was very drunk and when he saw the condition Kimmy was in; he beat her mother relentlessly until the screams ceased and she lie motionless with her eyes open and staring accusingly at Kimmy.

  The sight frightened her terribly but she was not afraid of her father. He walked over and picked her up to hug her and remained that way until the police showed up to take him away.

  The State social services were called in to take custody of Kimmy for she had no next of kin to be released to.

  Miss Blake had fallen in love with Kimmy immediately and understood why she behaved so aggressively. She continued to show her love and kindness through all her temper- tantrums and let the child mutilate as many Barbie’s as she wanted to. She figured that if Kimmy could take it out on the dolls, then she will have gotten over the anger and violence by the time she reached her preteens.

  Too bad Miss Blake didn’t make it. To others it had seemed that Kimmy had been laughing at Miss Blake’s demise, but she was not. She was crying in the only way she knew how.

  No matter how rotten of a child she had become in the span of her short, sad and lonely life…she had died a death she did not deserve.

  Kimmy had been left with people that had misunderstood her, had thought she was a demon, and had allowed her to be attacked by a flock of birds and eaten by ghastly creatures.

  No, she wasn’t a demon child at all, but she was now a part of the growing population of undead. Her face and hair is partly melted away from the fires in the church. There are hundreds of little holes covering her body from the pecking of the birds. She sat in the street, Indian style, gnawing on the fresh corpse of a cat that had wandered across her path. She had no thoughts or memories, luckily for her. She only knew that she was hungry and the cat had filled the void. So, she continued feeding.

  10:00 a.m.

  It had been only one day but Kate decided it was time to go. Her ankle was still a bit sore but she could put her weight on it and after making several short laps around the crypt she had taken for shelter, discovered that she could run if need be. It would be painful but she could do it.

  Her pack on her back and armed only with great courage, she exited the cemetery through the front gates. She was unaware that Dave’s decaying body lie only a few yards away. It was best that she did not see it.

  She had no ammo for her gun and was only a little worried. She had given in to the fact that if she were to come upon a horde of infected, she would die. Still, she walked on and was able to avoid the few she had seen. It would not be so easy when she reached the city.

  If she is attacked, she will let her mind wander far away and try to achieve inner peace as her body is being torn to shreds and consumed. What else could she do?

  Her only goals at the moment were to find ammo or a loaded weapon and a vehicle. She had a long walk ahead of her until then. If she happens to get that lucky, she will join her friends in Ohio. She had to find out if Angel had made it.

  She had just made it out of the field and into a little suburb when she saw Kimmy sitting in the middle of the street, feasting on what looked like it might’ve been a cat or a rat.

  She wasn’t sure but the size of the child and the burned and tattered dress led her to believe that it was definitely Kimmys reanimated corpse. The hair had been burned away.

  She stood still for she didn’t want to attract her attention. She looked all around her and the only thing she saw was a large heavy slab of rock.

  A weapon, yes, but it posed a problem. She would have to get close to use it and if she was too close, the blood spatter would get on her and when blood spatters, it does so in such fine tiny droplets that you can’t see everywhere it went. She didn’t want it on her.

  Just then Kimmys head lifted from her victim and her spine stiffened. She thought must have smelled her.

  Kate picked up the rock and as Kimmy wobbled to stand on her feet, Kate ran up and kicked her back down, knocking her on her back and slammed the rock down on her face.

  It was okay though, the slab of rock was wide enough all around and served also as a blocker from the spatter.

  She still checked herself and satisfied that she had found none, she turned and walked away from Kimmys now truly dead corpse.

  She cursed to herself as she thought about the purple heart; it should still be in Kimmys dress pocket. She sighed
and found a long twig on the ground that she used to poke at the pockets to see if there was anything in them. Not feeling any resistance she decided that it was so small she would have to look harder. She got down on her knees beside the body and cringed at being so close the carnage. She dismissed it quickly and lifted one of the pockets open with the twig and peered into it, seeing nothing she tried the other pocket. Nope, no purple heart. She stood and tossed the twig on the ground and proceeded to the abandoned military jeep that was a hundred or so yards away.

  Inside the jeep, she found a rotting corpse and a nine millimeter pistol, almost exactly like Dave’s.

  She rooted through the jeep and found several clips for the gun and more food rations. She put all she could in her pack and checked the ignition for keys as she exited the vehicle.

  Grateful to have ammo, she walked on in search of a vehicle that she could drive away.

  12:30 p.m.

  Allen awoke with boundless energy, being the young man he is, and wanted to hear a little music. He looked through all the bags for his I-pod. He wanted to use it while he could before the battery died and he was getting upset because he couldn’t find it. He had asked everyone if they had seen it lying around. No one had, so he figured it must be outside in the car.

  He sat at the bar brooding because he knew he wasn’t supposed to go outside and he wanted so bad to go and get it.

  At this point mojo was asleep at a table in the far corner and John had taken the pallet in the floor upstairs when Allen had gotten up. The only ones left were Woody, Troy and the two girls. The only one he didn’t want to piss off was Mojo.

  He was contemplating not saying anything to anyone and just going on outside to get it. It was daylight and he would be able to see and there probably weren’t many infected out there anyway. Just as he started to get up out of his seat Woody spoke to him. “Whatcha thinkin’ bout doin? I can see it in your face. Spill it.” Woody lit a cigarette and blew the smoke in his face. Allen coughed and waved the smoke out of his face before he replied “I think I left my i-pod out in the car. I want it. I’m gonna go get it.”

  “Not without me you don’t! I will watch over you but I want to listen to it, too. That’s the deal and you better make it fast. I don’t plan on being zombie kibble and I promise that if they attack; I will run!”

  “Then just stay in here, I don’t need you if you ain’t gonna help.” Allen said and then got up to go through the dark kitchen to the back door.

  “I was joking! Wait for me!” and Woody ran in front of him to block the door.

  “Wait! Look out the peephole first. We don’t want to run head first into a crowd.” He said.

  Allen looked out the peephole and didn’t see anything. He started to open the back door slowly and Troy quietly entered the kitchen and slammed his hand on the stainless steel table behind them, startling them both. They all but jumped into each other’s arms, Woody letting out a high pitched squeal and squeezed his eyes shut.

  “It’s just Troy.” Allen said and pushed Woody away from him. Woody let out the breath that he was holding and Troy spoke.

  “What the fuck are you two twits doin? You gonna risk your life for a fuckin’ I-pod? Are you serious?” He asked with serious attitude.

  Allen shrugged and said “Well, yea. I mean, it’s just right there. I’m pretty fast. How hard could it be?”

  “It can be very fuckin hard; you ain’t using your head. They come out of nowhere sometimes. I ain’t agreeing with this at all but if you insist on going, I’ll stand right by the door and listen for you, but I’m telling you man, you better hurry.”

  “Okay, let’s go.”

  Woody eased the back door open and peeked his head out slowly. He looked left to right and up and down and saw no infected. There was no telling what might be around the other side of the building but they wouldn’t know until they got to the car if there were any over there.

  Allen shoved him out the door and ran in front of him to the mustang they had arrived in sitting in the third spot from the door. He flung open the passenger door and dived in the back looking for it in the floor boards.

  Woody tiptoed his way to the car, looking all around for anything to move. Satisfied with his conclusion that none were near, he lit another cigarette and leaned back against the trunk and stared at the side of his building which shared a lot with Tank’s.

  He so wanted to go home and see if his cat was still okay. He was thinking of talking Allen into going over there with him when he was done here. He had done him a favor, so Allen could do one for him.

  He put cigarette in his mouth and rubbed his hands together and looked down at them. There were getting dry and cracked, they looked like old people’s hands. He looked up and the cigarette fell from his mouth.

  The infected that had somehow made his way towards Woody unnoticed was only a few feet away. Woody recognized his recently dumped lover and tried to scream but no sound escaped his lips. He paid no mind to the other infected moving nearer to Allen as his former lover attacked him.

  Allen had searched the floor boards and down in the seats as well and found no sign of the missing i-pod. He decided that the glove compartment was his last resort, maybe one of them had found it while he was sleeping and placed it in there. He opened it and the little light inside came on, casting its dull glow onto the papers inside. He took them out and noticed the name on the title. “Well, thank you Mr. Eggerton for the use of your fine vehicle.” He folded it back up and put it back in the glove box. He was finally accepting the fact that he wasn’t going to find it, that he had probably left it at the church.

  “All right, Woody.” He yelled, “Thank you. Let’s get back in-.” He turned to exit the passenger door that he had left ajar while searching and was stopped by the massive bulk of a dead man reaching for him, and he screamed.

  Tisha woke up with a start and flung the blanket off of her. “Where’s Allen?” She asked alarmed.

  “Him and Woody went out to get his I-pod, Troy is watching the door.”

  “Are you serious? You guys let him go out for that?” She ran towards the kitchen and slammed into Troy, who was running back in to get the shotgun, he screamed that Allen and Woody were being attacked.

  Tisha ran ahead of him and barreled out the back door. She could see Woody being mauled by an infected but could not see Allen on the other side of the car.

  She ran unarmed to get sight of him and screamed loudly as she saw he was lying under two infected and his eyes were glazed, blood bubbling from his mouth, his hands pushing weakly at his attackers.

  She barely heard the shot gun as Troy blew the head off of the zombie that killed Woody and the second shot that insured that Woody would not come back.

  Tisha whaled at the zombies mauling Allen, her hands and legs flailing and landing wherever they could, while she continued to scream out at the top of her lungs.

  “GET OFF OF HIM! GET OFF! GET OFF!” She screamed at them as she beat at them with her fists and kicked at them as hard as she could.

  They lost interest in Allen and fell upon Tisha, ignoring her blows, one sinking his teeth into her shoulder the other stayed on its knees and grabbed her leg; his teeth ripping through her blue jeans and the blood spilling out instantly.

  She screamed and continued fighting, ripping chunks of hair off of their heads, and feeling their skin smoosh grossly beneath her hands with each blow, nausea swept over her and she gagged. Tisha knew it was over for her but she was so angry and distraught; she would continue to fight until she was dead. She wanted revenge and she was going to have it. They have killed her precious nephew, the only thing left of her baby brother.

  She reached down and gouged her thumbs into the eyes of the infected mauling her leg. Unaware that the zombie on her shoulder had been shot and fell away from her until the head she had her hands on exploded in a gory mess right before her eyes.

  Still she did not relent from stomping on it and kicking it. Then she dropped
down to the ground weeping and holding Allen, who was still hanging on but the blood now streamed from his mouth and his stomach was a mass of entrails.

  She held his hand and kissed his face. All the memories of his birth, his growing up and his pain when his father died flooded her mind, the pain of her failure to protect him as she had promised.

  She was not afraid to die, now. In fact, she welcomed it with open arms.

  She looked up after seeing legs in front of her and it was John. He was crying and pointed the gun at her. She closed her eyes and nodded her head. “I Love You.” He said. He shot and the bullet entered her face just below the cheekbone, but it did the job. He shot Allen as well.

  By that time everyone had gathered outside, all were quiet and surprisingly, there were no other infected around.

  John dropped the rifle on the ground and hung his head as he walked back inside of Tank’s. Troy picked it up and followed in behind him. Mojo shut and locked the door.

  “I’m going up to check on Tank. He didn’t come down.”

  No one said a word as John went into the bar ahead of them and cuddled up to Angel, who seemed to still be sleeping soundly. He stifled the scream that threatened to leave his lips in fear of frightening her awake. He could not believe that his whole reason for living had just died and he had fired the bullet that had made it final.

  Somehow, needed to find the strength to carry on.

  Angel was only pretending to be asleep. She had heard the screams from outside and when she sat up, she saw no one.

  She got up to go see if anyone was left and ran back into her pallet and pretended to sleep when she heard the door open. She didn’t know if it would be her friends or the scary monsters.

  Now that John was lying behind her crying, she wanted to cry herself, because that meant that someone was hurt.