Donna of the Not Undead (...of the Not Undead Book 1)

by Bryan Mosier

  “But..” starts Brandon but is interrupted when“We don’t have time to argue. Get in there…now!” says Alex, the sternness in his voice harsher than he would have liked.

  As the rest of the group files into the spacious walk in closet Alex points to Justin and Bryanto take up positions on either side of the door. “Stay low” he instructs them,“go for the knees and maybe we can get them on the ground and overpower them.” Hearing the sound of boots on the hard wood floor of the hallway, Alex crouches, finding cover on the opposite side of Donna’s king size four post bed. As the sound of the boots tracking down the hallway gets louder, Alex can feel his heart beating in his chest. Feeling as if it is about to thump its way out through his sternum he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. His heart rate beginning to slow, Alex feels a calmness start to come over him but as a light comes shining under the crack of the door, what calmness he had achieved begins to falter and, seeing the doorknob turn and the door start to creek open, his Zen state reverts to near full on panic. Swinging open the door, the large muscular frame of a man stands outlined in the rectangular structure of the entrance. Taking a step into the room, even in the candle light Alex can make out the details of the stranger, details that only serve to increase his level of anxiety.

  Looking at the chiseled jaw of the stranger, his stern expression enough to make the hairs on Alex’s neck stand up. The hair on his head, a fiery, perfectly quaffed helmet of orange is matched by a thick horseshoe mustache that creates the impression of a perpetual grimace. Standing well over six feet tall his height and build can only be described as intimidating. Wearing a military style olive green tank top and baggy, camouflaged army cargo pants tucked into his tall, tightly laced combat boots, their heavy tread sinking deep into the soft carpet and littered clothes of the bedroom floor. Seeing the thick muscular arms and broad, heavy shoulders of the stranger, Alex begins to second guess his attack strategy. “Overpower him I said” he thinks to himself, the thumping of his heart now deafening in his ears. “Ah hell, here goes nothing” he mutters to himself. Summoning what little determination and courage he has left, Alex yells “NOW!” giving the command to attack.

  Leaping to his feet, Alex jumps onto the bed, planting them hard into the soft mattress, hoping to get some added momentum as he rushes towards his would be attacker. With every ounce of strength he has Alex bears down with his legs, forcing himself forward towards the large frame of the invader. Feeling the toe of his shoe snagging on the billowy, soft fabric of the bed linens, Alex realizes too late the critical flaw in his attack plan. Springing forward, his trajectory and momentum perilously altered, Alex finds himself somersaulting through the air. As he falls, hurtling towards the floor, Alex’s can only take comfort in the fact that Donna, being a typical teenager, thus a total slob, has littered her room with piles of clothing. Crashing hard into one such pile, Alex is relieved as he is enveloped in a aromatic tomb of lace, cotton and denim. Lying there in the darkness, the soft feel ofdelicate fabric on his face, the scent of faded perfume filling his nostrils, Alex thinks to himself“Okay that could have gone a little better.”

  Hearing Alex’s command and witnessing the spectacle of his attempted assault on the stranger, Bryan and Justin leap from their hiding places, yelling incoherently at the tops of their lungs hoping to instill fear in the stranger. Leaping forward with a full head of steam, Bryan and Justin propel themselves towards their foe. With little more than a quick, dismissive glance to the left and right, the large man takes one step back, removing himself from Bryan and Justin’s flight path. Unable to halt their forward momentum, Bryan and Justin crash hardinto each other, their heads rattling against one another’s hard enough to send them falling to the floor.

  Moaning with their hands clamped hard to their foreheads, Bryan and Justin find themselves looking up at the stranger, his grim expression unchanged, looking down at them. Raising himself from the cover of his cloth sarcophagus, Alex looks up at the large man and starts to speak but is quickly interrupted.“Son, before you say anything you might want to get them there undergarments off your head. It may just be me but little pink bunny rabbits tend to inhibitany intimidation factor you might hope to achieve in a situation such as this.” Reaching to remove the underwear from his head, Alex stops to briefly examine them, their soft white cotton surface indeed decorated with an assortment of little pink bunny rabbits in an assortment of playful gestures.“Um…sir…we don’t want any trouble” starts Alex but is again interrupted.

  “Son, unless you have been locked in a basement for the last three days it is beyond me how you could not realize that trouble is exactly what you have right now. There are dead people walking around trying to eat living people. If that ain’t the definition of trouble,I don’t know what is.”

  “I was just…” says Alex, as he tries again to explain but suddenly a familiar voice comes from the hallway. “Isaac? Everything okay in there.” As the second stranger comes through the door, Alex feels his heart almost leap from his chest. Seeing the squat, round frame of the second man, Alex knows immediately who it is. Standing next to the first stranger, the duo couldn’t be any more dichotomous.

  Standing a full foot shorter than his muscle bound counterpart, the second figure is an exercise in comedic relief. Carrying a rifle nearly as big as himself, the second man’s natural girth is exaggerated by a heavy flak jacket covering a tight black t-shirt tucked neatly into his pleated khaki, elastic waist banded nylon dress pants. Looking at him with his oversized army helmet, its rim resting on his thick, black framed glasses pushed firmly against the bridge of his bulbous nose, his round face framed by the scruffy stubble of his beard Alex can barely allow himself to utter the word, fearing it couldn’t be true. “Dad?” he says, with disbelief in his voice.

  “Al!” comes the excited response of relief. Dropping the rifle to the floor, he drops to his knees, the oversized combat helmet tipping forward nearly fallingoff of his head. “Finally.” Comes the exasperated response as he wraps his thick round arms around Alex’s neck.

  “So these’re your boys Steve?” asks Isaac, still standing like a stone statue in the doorway. Looking down at the trio of boys scattered on the floor Isaac, Justin and Bryan still rubbing their foreheads in pain from the collision, he shrugs and gives them a dismissive“Hrmph…. SealTeam Six they are not”.

  “Yeah, but they’re the best band of rangers this side of Greyhawk” adds Steve, a look of prideful joy beaming across his face. Looking to Justin and Bryan, Steve’s expression suddenly turns from happiness to concern. “Where’s…where’s Brandon? Where’s your little brother Al?”

  Seeing the concernon his father’s face, Alex puts his hand on his shoulder“It’sokay dad. He’s fine” he says, his voice not more than a whisper as he chokes with emotion. Finding his voice, Alex yells to the others“It’sokay. You guys can come out now.”

  As the door slowly creaks open the icy expression on Isaac’s face suddenly melts. Stepping from the closet, Melody, still unsure of the situation, the blade of her curved samurai katana held forward in defense looks across the room. Dropping the sword to the floor she runs across the room and leaps into Isaac’s massive arms. “DADDY!” she yells with tears flowing freely down her freckled cheeks.

  “Melly-Belly? Thank god” he says kneeling down to take her up into his massive arms. As she wraps her tiny arms around his thick neck she buries her face into his massive chest and begins to sob uncontrollably. “Dad?” asks Darla, her mind still not registering the reality of the moment. “How? How did you find us and how did you two…” she starts but the emotion of the moment finally consumes her and, unable to find the words, she and Carla both wrap their arms around their father, squeezing him tight to make sure that he was in fact real.

  Walking over to his dad, Brandon, tears spilling down his own face, wraps his arms around his dad’s neck, not saying a word.

  “There, there now. I got you. It’s all gonna be okay now” says Steven as
he pads his youngest son gently on the back.

  “Dad? How did you find us?” asks Alex, a million questions rushing through his mind as he tries to make sense of the moment. “How do you two know each other?” he continues, looking up at Isaac, still smothered in the loving embrace of his three girls.

  “Well, that’s a bit of a story. When everything went crazy, your mom and I were in town and before we knew what was going on the National Guard swooped in and started rounding everyone up. They said the president had declared a nationwide state of emergency and that they had to take anybody who wasn’t already affected by…by whatever this is…and we had to go to what basically amounted to refugee camps.” He explains. Taking a deep breath as the emotion of those moments come rushing back,“Son, I promise you, we tried to get back. We did everything we…” he starts but the words get lost in his own sobs of joy at being reunited with his children.

  “It’sokay dad, we know” says Alex, offering his father the comfort he needs to ease his conscience.

  “Well, they took us to a big camp out around Winchesterand they kept us locked up for a day to make sure none of us were gonna turn into one of those zombie things. After that they let us move around the camp on our own and that’s when I met Isaac here. We got to talking and he told me how he and his wife Sarah were here looking for his girls and that the best he could figure they had been dropped off here in town. He said he had a plan to sneak out of the camp and come find his girls and I told him that I wanted to go with him and luckily he said yes. So we…borrowed...a Humvee from the National Guard and here we are.”

  “So mom is...” starts Alex.

  “Back at the camp” confirms Steven,“with your aunt Sharon and the others” he continues, seeing the sigh of relief come over Justin and Bryan’s faces.

  “Mom’s here? In Kentucky? And she’s okay?” asks Carla, the happiness and relief on her face evident as Isaac nods a confirmation.

  “But, how did you know we would be here…at this house?” asks Darla, looking up at her father for an answer.

  “Let me just say someone…” starts Isaac as he gives the boys a menacing glare,“…needs to learn the value of radio silence when engaged in a covert action. We heard your friends here talking to some girl on the CB.” Looking at the three boys, the glare in his eyes becoming more of a playful twinkle,“In the future you probably don’t want to broadcast your position or troop movements to any potential enemies that might be out there listening.”

  “I’m sorry…” says Donna, interjecting into the conversation,“they wouldn’t have done that if it wasn’t for me. They…they came here to help me…to help us” she says, as she takes Anna’s hand in hers.

  “Well, I guess I can’t fault you boys for wanting to help a damsel in distress” says Isaac. “And I guess there was no way you girls were gonna stand by and do nothing either” he adds.

  “Nope” says Melody, the tracks of her tears dry on her cheeks. “You raised us better than that” she declares as she hugs her father tight around the neck once more, smothering his face in the tangles of her thick, curly red hair.

  “Okay, I think maybe we should all get out of here” offers Steven, helping the three boys to their feet.

  “Yeah” says Isaac,“We got a long way to go back to get to the camp”.

  “So…” starts Darla,“We’re leaving?” she asks with clear concern in her voice as she looks over to Alex.

  “We gotta go back and get your mom and the others” he says, seeing the look of distress on her face.

  “But are we going back home…to Tennessee?” asks Carla, the same sad look coming over her face.

  “Well about that. Back home took a pretty hard hit when the crap hit the fan. Shoot, from the looks of things it got hit just about as bad as Atlanta. So home probably isn’t an option” he explains.

  “So…we can stay here?” asks Melody in a pleading tone.

  Looking over to Steven, Isaac shrugs and says“Here is as good a place as any. Besides, it looks like you’ve made some good…friends…here” he adds, placing heavy emphasis on the word friends as he once again glares at the boys.

  “That settles it then” says Steven.“We’ll go back to get the others and then we’ll come back and sort things out here.”

  Seeing the smiles come over the faces of everyone in the room, Isaac motions for the girls to follow him outside,“C’mon girls. Somebody’s gottashow me how this lawn mower four wheeler thing out here works. I’m guessing that was all you Melly-Belly?”

  “Brandon helped” she says, shooting Brandon a mischievous smile over her father’s shoulder as he carries her out the door.

  “C’mon boys,” says Steven,“We should get going. I do want to ask one thing…the house?

  “About that…” starts Bryan. “The house…well…it kind of…burnt?” he admits, cringing as he awaits the reasonably expected angry response.

  “Hmh. Oh well” says Steven. “It’s not like there’s a shortage of empty homes around here now.”

  “Yeah” says Donna. “You guys could all live here with us. All the houses around here are empty and there’s plenty of room.”

  “And if we fixed the gates it would be pretty secure” adds Justin.

  “Sounds like a plan then. I’ll tell Isaac” says Steven“C’mon, let’s go see what he thinks.”

  Leading the rest of the group outside into the cool pre-dawn air, the blackness of the night sky slowing giving way to the crimson glow of a spring sunrise, Steven leaves the boys with Donna and the others to go talk with Isaac. Letting the two men have a moment to themselves to discuss their future, Darla, Carla, Melody and Helga rejoin the group on the front porch of Donna’s home.

  “So…” starts Alex,“You all are gonna be living here now?” he asks, unable to hide his joy at the notion.

  “Looks that way” says Darla, unable to hide her own happiness at the thought of staying.

  “Well, I guess if we have to putup with you that would be okay” says Bryan in mock disappointment as he takes Carla’s hand in his.

  “HRMPH” comes aloud grunt as Isaac and Steven approach the group, the stone cold menacing glare having returned at the site of his eldest daughter holding hands with a boy. “Son, how many hands do you have?”

  “Um…uh…two?...Sir” comes the stumbling reply.

  “Do you want it to stay that way?” growls Isaac. Pulling his hand away from Carla’s Bryan stammers,“Um…uh..yes…yes sir…sir yes sir.”

  “Well, it’s decided. We’re gonna go back and get your moms and then come back. We can’t fit everyone in the Humvee so we’re gonna take theto two little ones with us. The rest of you can stay here until we get back, okay?”

  With a collective nod of agreement,the boys walk with their father to the passenger side of the Humvee as the girls go with Isaac to the driver’s side. Hearing a squeaky“Ruff, ruff” from inside the Humvee, Brandon looks in to see a familiar black and white bug eyed face scratching at the window trying desperately to get to him. “Virgil! You found him” he says, getting a nod from his dad. With that Isaac turns to give one last emotional goodbye hug to his eldest daughters before leaving when abruptly the moment is interrupted. Looking back to the front of the house, he inexplicably belts out a loud “Shazam!” There standing on the front porch, Donna and Anna once again are locked in an emotional embrace, their lips pressed against one another in a passionate kiss.

  “Shazbot!” exclaims Steven, somewhat taken by surprise at the site of the two nearly naked nubiles having a romantic moment. Looking at Justin, Bryan and Alex, all three boys lost in their own drooling fantasies, Steven chuckles and says“Soak it in boys, you know there’s no more internet.”

  Hearing these words, Brandon and Melody lock eyes, both youngsters faces a mask of terror and disappointment with the same thought slowly fading from their trembling lips,

  “Howwill we…?”

  The end.

  />   Bryan Mosier, Donna of the Not Undead (...of the Not Undead Book 1)