The Shuffling Dead Box-set

by Ian Woodhead

  Like a racehorse, Dean jumped away from the gangster and shot across the path and jumped over the gate, into the back garden. The man holding Alison threw her towards the cursing gangster holding his ankle.

  “You’re a fucking dipshit, Craig.” He made sure that Craig had her secure before walking towards the gate. “Keep her safe.” He found the catch and opened the gate. “I’m going to kill you real slow,” he said looking back.

  The man disappeared into the back garden. Craig stood up, grabbed her hair and pulled Alison’s head back. “You’ve got such a pretty throat,” he whispered.

  The man dragged her through the gate. She immediately saw the other one stood outside a large wooden shed. He placed one finger over his lips. Alison knew exactly what that meant. Dean must be hiding in that shed!

  She tried to get away from the bastard holding her. Alison had to warn him. For her trouble, she received a fist against the side of her head. The blow knocked her sideways; the man pulled her back upright, Alison’s head spun.

  “I hope one of those dead things bites your off your fucking cock.” She snarled at him.

  The man giggled. “You’ve got a potty mouth.”

  Through her tear blurred vision, Alison saw the gangster open the shed door and gasped in delight as he fell back when a huge, black dog jumped out of the shed.

  The one holding her then cried out and released Alison. She turn and saw the gangster on the floor, Dean stood above him, holding a spade he then lifted the tool above his head and slammed it into his face. He dropped the spade and pulled her out of the garden.

  “What did you do?”

  Dean pulled off a pair of thick gardening gloves and threw them behind him. “Gruff got one of them and I pressed a nettle plant into the other bastard’s face. Come on, lass. Time is running out.”

  They ran back into the house, Dean raced up the stairs with Alison right behind him. He turned before he reached the top and pressed something heavy into her hands. She looked down to discover he’d given her a pistol.

  “It’s time to end this shit right now.” He hissed. Dean folded her fingers around the gun. “If anyone comes out of that room, kill them.”

  She nodded and watched him rush into one the rooms above her. She turned around and gasped. The fat gangster stood at the foot of the stairs.

  Alison pointed the business end at the man’s face; he just laughed and put his foot on the first step. There was no fear showing whatsoever.

  “Put the gun away, missy. We both know that you won’t pull that trigger.”

  He took another step up.

  “Look, you have shown that you’re a resourceful girl, so I’ll do you a deal. Put away the shooter and I’ll let you live. You’ve got more guts than I thought.

  Alison looked down at that smug face and gently squeezed the trigger.

  “At least my guts are still inside me.”

  Dean rushed out of the room holding two syringes. He looked at the scarlet mess splattered over the wall; he then gazed at the smoking pistol in Alison’s hand. He smiled. “Good job,” he said, joining her on the stairs. “Come on, let’s get this finished.”

  She saw the teacher and the woman rush into the hallway. Sean’s father stood behind the woman, when he saw the mess, he turned and ran back into the room. Dean ran past Alison and pressed one of the syringes into the teacher’s chest. He cried out and dropped to the floor.

  The teacher and other two rushed into hallway, Dean pressed first syringe into teacher’s chest and stepped back as he fell to floor.

  “What have you done?” screamed Anne.

  “Don’t get all moody, you bitch. I’ve got you one as well.” He pushed the other needle into the woman’s arm. She followed the teacher’s example and hit the floor. Dean jumped over the prone bodies and stood onto the steps. He dug another syringe out of his coat pocket; Alison noticed that the fluid in this one was bright green, almost fluorescent. He threw it at Alison. “I’ll let you have the honour. Inject that into the man then step back.”

  She nodded and did what he said.

  “Don’t just stand there, lass! Get back here.”

  She ran to the stairs, turned and watched the teacher’s skin stretch like an inflating balloon before bursting open like a wet paper bag filled with blood.

  Dean’s father stood by the living room, his hand over his mouth. She watched him give another syringe to the old man; he held the stuff in his trembling fingers like the green fluid would jump out of the container and eat him.

  “You’ve got a few seconds left, dad. You need to inject your girlfriend or she’ll get off the floor and eat you.”

  “I can’t do it.”

  Dean shrugged. “If you don’t, then you’ll die too. It’s no skin off my nose, you spineless bastard.”

  “Anne was right about you, Dean, you are evil.”

  The woman raised her head and slowly began to get up, Alison heard her start moaning. Dean jumped over the woman and joined Alison on the steps. She raised the pistol.

  “Wait,” he said, shaking his head.

  Dean’s dad held the syringe out in front of him; the woman finally got off the floor and staggered towards him. The old man screamed out and pushed the needle into her chest. The woman fell back.

  Are you happy now, you fucker?” Screamed the old man.

  Dean sighed, “Watch, dad.”

  The woman’s skin slowly returned to normal colour, she groaned, and then sat up. “What happened?” she asked.

  Dean went up to the confused woman; he pulled her onto her feet and pushed her out of the house.

  He glared at his dad then took Alison back upstairs.

  “What’s going on?”

  He pushed her into a bedroom and collapsed onto the bed. “I designed the solution to be airborne. That vindictive bitch is a walking cure; it shouldn’t take too long to spread.”

  “How did you know it would work though?”

  He grinned, “I tried it out on the dog when you were upstairs.”

  “So is it over?”

  He nodded. “What say you and me disappear somewhere?”

  She joined him on the bed and stroked his hair. “Where do you want to go?”

  “I don’t give a fuck as long as it’s away from Seeton.

  Epilogue

  Ralph Kasnovski struggled to keep up with his friends, this just wasn’t fair. They were way older than him, Gary, their leader had turned thirteen; he was almost an adult now. Ralph climbed onto the rusted remains of a burned out van and saw his four friends scampering across the field. Now that he was higher, Ralph could now work out their destination. They were heading towards one of the region’s quarantine zones. They’d been told time and time again never to go near those places.

  He grinned; Ralph should have guessed that they’d be making their way over there. Gary had refused to tell him where they were going. They said that he’d tell and had threatened to beat him up.

  Well, let them go in there and get all contaminated. Ralph didn’t care. It’s not like any of them were nice to him. The only reason why they let him hang around was Because Ralph’s dad was their district’s cadaver exterminator.

  Not that there was much call for his services these days, even so, the other kids all thought his dad was way cool.

  “They would say that if they had him as their dad,” he muttered.

  Ralph climbed off the van and walked in the opposite direction. He wondered if he’d be able to sneak into the west district. He knew that the district wall just beyond the habitation zone had more than a few missing bricks knocked out of it. Ralph overheard his father complaining that west district were hoarding food again. Apparently, they even had apple trees.

  He tapped the dial on his giger armband, gave those other boys one last glance before breaking into a sprint. He’d have to hurry, it would be dark soon, if there were any ground bursters left, the night time is when they came out.

  Something stuck out of the grou
nd, caught his moccasin. Ralph cried out and crashed into the long grass.

  “That flipping hurt!” he shouted. Ralph gazed at the bright red blood leaking through a large hole in his trousers; he knew his mum would be furious with him. It had taken her a whole week to make these for him.

  He examined the ground, trying to find out what had tripped him up, he gasped in surprise when he saw the corner of appeared to be a metal box sticking out of the ground. Ralph had expected to find a rock.

  The dirt around the box was soft, if didn’t take him that long to excavate enough to allow to pull the bizarre contraption out of the ground. After walking round and round the box, he eventually identified what appeared to be an opening. This was so exciting! Ralph fell to his knees and with shaking hands; he managed to prise the lid off. His excitement diffused when he gazed inside, the only thing in the box was a dead animal. It looked a like a small rat. He shook his head in puzzlement, it definitely wasn’t a rat, this thing had a furry tail. He thrust his hand in the box.

  Ralph screamed in agony when the animal suddenly came to life and bit into his finger.

  The End.