Dry Rot: A Zombie Novel

by H. E. Goodhue

  “A kite?” Jared asked.

  I would really need to work on the whole explaining things and people skills thing if I didn’t want to sound crazy all the time. Or at least for whatever time was left.

  -12-

  Boxes of old toys and clothes were stacked in one corner of the basement. I hate clutter, but could never bring myself to throw away any of Kara’s things.

  “There should be a kite in that box.” I pointed to the box labeled ‘TOYS.’ Jared began searching through it. Both he and Danni had put on NBC masks and suits. I still couldn’t be sure what was going on outside, but wanted to be safe. I remembered something coming through the bus radio about an attack on cities, but found it hard to believe that any terrorist group could pull off something like this. Maybe a volcano had erupted or maybe Yellowstone finally blew? Those seemed more plausible than a terrorist attack. But with no TV or radio, we had no real information and any guess could be true.

  “So what are you going to do with this, Ben Franklin?” Jared asked as he handed me the kite. I could see him smiling behind his NBC mask. He was a good kid.

  I began putting the kite together. “Go get that thin spool of wire from the work bench over there.”

  “You’re not really going to try and catch a lightning bolt, are you?” Jared handed me the wire.

  “No,” I laughed. It had been a while since I heard the sound of my own laughter and it sounded clumsy and out of practice. There wasn’t much to laugh about in prison, unless of course you were a psychopath, in which case prison was hilarious. “That signal we picked up last night was weak. We need to find a way to boost our range. My HAM radio antenna is on the roof and I’d guess that all the ash that’s in the air is screwing up the signal. This might help us get a better one.”

  “You’re going to tie the wire to the antenna and try to fly the kite above some of the ash?” Jared studied the kite. “That’s a good idea.”

  The kid was smart, too. That’s probably how he managed to survive the string of losers that his mother brought home. I couldn’t blame Danni. Hell, I was a loser too, but I never would have hit Lisa or Kara.

  “Danni, you ready to go?” I asked. She walked out of the bunker. “You’re going to need to hold the ladder. Jared, you go about halfway up and feed me the wire as I let the kite out.”

  “I’m as ready as I’m ever gonna be.” Danni started up the stairs. I had offered to let her take one of my guns, something easy to use, like a .45, but she refused. Guns scared her. Besides, she had argued, everyone outside was dead, so what was the point of a gun? Jared volunteered to carry one. Danni looked like she wanted to kill him. I promised him I’d show him how to use one later.

  Outside of my house was silent. There was a light wind blowing ash down the street like ragged black ghosts, but I didn’t see any other people. They could have been holed up in their houses. They were probably dead.

  “There’s an extension ladder around the back,” I said and walked off the porch. Small clouds of ash puffed underneath my boots with each step. I found myself wishing for rain to wash away some of the crap that choked my yard and street.

  My ladder was underneath the back porch. Jared helped me pull it out and lean it against the gutters on the second story. I never was a fan of heights, but figured there were worse things to worry about these days. Danni held the bottom of the ladder as Jared and I climbed up.

  “Wait here,” I said to Jared when he was a little more than halfway up. I didn’t want the kid to slip. “Feed me the wire as I let the kite out, okay?” Jared nodded.

  Ash covered the roof of my house. It looked like Christmas in Hell. At any moment, I expected to see Satan flying by in a sled with skeletal reindeer and flames. He was evidently busy somewhere else. I was alone on the roof.

  The HAM radio antenna was bolted to the side of my house at the highest point of the roof. I made my way to the top and sat with one leg on each side of the roof. The wind felt stronger up here, but it could have just been my fear and imagination getting the better of me.

  I held the kite up and tested it against the wind. The fabric bowed and puffed out. It looked like it would fly.

  “You ready?” I asked Jared. He gave me a thumbs up from where he stood on the ladder.

  I angled the kite and let it go, feeding the thin wire through my hands. It climbed higher and higher. Jared continued to feed out the wire. I squinted, trying to keep the kite in view.

  “Hold up,” I said to Jared. I felt the wire go taut in my hands. I reached to my belt and withdrew my Leatherman from its sheath. Flicking my wrist, I opened the pliers. After the wire had been wound around the antenna, I cinched the wire with the pliers. A few belt clamps completed the job after I tightened them around the antenna with the flathead screwdriver. I checked the wire again. It looked like it would hold. It would have to, there were no more kites in the basement.

  “Is it all set?” Jared asked as I shimmed down to the ladder.

  “We’re good,” I said. “Now let’s go check the radio before we lose our chance.”

  I was almost to the bottom of the ladder when I heard Danni cry out. Jared leapt the last few rung and landed on the ground in a black cloud of ash. I was close behind.

  Ian, or what had once been Ian, stood in my backyard. A leathery corpse, clad in Ian’s clothes, shuffled towards Danni. Its hair was gone and eyes a dull, dusty gray, but it definitely had been Ian. She held my shotgun I left it near the ladder. Now it was in her trembling hands. The barrel danced all over the place. There was no way she would be able to get a clean shot off.

  “Ian?” Danni asked. Her words sound weak and distorted through the mask. She looked frozen.

  “Mom,” Jared yelled and ran to his mother’s side. “Come on.” He tugged at the sleeve of Danni’s NBC suit. Danni didn’t move.

  I got there just as Ian lunged for Danni. His fingers were little more than bone wrapped in hardened, yellow skin. The boils on his face had burst and dried into black rings with jagged points of skin surrounding them. Images of that ice mummy some scientists had found flashed through my head.

  I swung my arm, smashing it into Ian’s neck. He stumbled back a few steps and then dove for my extended arm. I felt a strong squeeze on the sleeve and realized Ian was biting my arm. The thick fabric and layer of charcoal lining in my NBC suit kept him from getting through, but it still hurt like hell.

  “Give me the gun,” I said as I reached with my free hand. Jared grabbed it from Danni and passed it to me. I drove the stock into Ian’s face and felt his nose crunch beneath it. He stumbled backwards and fell to the ground with his legs splayed out like a giant toddler.

  I aimed the barrel in Ian’s face. “Get the fuck out of my yard.” He showed no recognition of the threat or command and scuttled forward on all fours.

  Jared leapt past me and dropped onto the middle of Ian’s back with both feet. I heard a dull snap and Ian’s legs stopped moving.

  We all watched, stunned and silent, as Ian continued to crawl across the yard. He showed no reaction to the damage or pain that had just be inflicted. His yellowed teeth chattered and clacked as he pulled himself forward.

  “Shoot him.” Jared pointed at Ian. “Shoot him.”

  I didn’t hesitate. Ian’s head exploded in a cloud of black and red. Bits of him splashed across my dusty yard, getting lost in the drifts of ash.

  “I thought you said Ian was dead?” Danni asked, waking from her stupor.

  “I checked him,” I said. “He was dead.”

  “He is now,” Jared snorted and toed the headless corpse with his boot. A thick black gel oozed from the ragged stump that had once been Ian’s neck, but there was no blood.

  “Let’s get inside,” I said and racked another shell into my shotgun. I had a feeling I was going to need it.

  -13-

  After rinsing off in the decontamination shower, I hung my suit and went to check the radio. Jared and Danni joined me soon after.

 
“Is your arm okay?” Danni asked. A large purple bruise in the shape of Ian’s mouth blossomed on my forearm.

  “It hurts,” I said, “but he didn’t break the skin.”

  “What was wrong with him?” Danni asked. “He looked sick.”

  “Sick?” Jared laughed. “He wasn’t sick, mom, he was a fucking zombie.”

  “Don’t curse,” Danni said.

  “Sorry,” Jared shrugged, “but that doesn’t change the fact that Ian was a zombie. What else would you call him? Lucas said he was dead and then Ian shows up and tries to bite a chunk out of his arm. Sure sounds like a zombie to me.”

  “You’ve been playing too many video games,” Danni said. She turned towards me. “What do you think Lucas?”

  “No idea,” I said honestly. “Ian was dead. I’m sure of that. But that thing outside was Ian or at least had been.”

  “But do you really think he was a zombie?” Danni asked.

  “Shit,” I said. “I hope not.” I looked at my arm, remembering all of the zombie movies I had seen.

  “You’re fine,” Jared said, examining my arm. “He didn’t break the skin, so you’re cool.”

  “Thanks,” I said and turned back to the radio.

  -14-

  Static popped and crackled on most channels. I had written down the channel we heard talking on the previous night. Now it was only white noise.

  “Keep looking,” Jared said. “Someone is out there. They have to be.” I scrolled through a few more channels. I still couldn’t make sense out of what Ian had become. He looked dried out and hardened, almost mummified. He most definitely looked dead, but could he really have been a zombie? I thought shit like that only existed in movies and videogames, but I couldn’t argue with Jared’s rationale. For lack of a better definition, Ian was a zombie.

  “…little more than husks of who they were…entire East and West Coasts...”

  The voice rattled through the radio. Everyone inside the bunker held their breath. My hand trembled, as if moving it might lose the voice. We were desperate for information.

  “Can you talk to them?” Danni said. Her voice was barely above a whisper. I nodded.

  “Please repeat,” I said.

  “Who is this? What’s your location?” the voice asked.

  “My name is Lucas,” I said. “I’m on the East Coast. Where are you?” I wasn’t going to tell them too much too soon. Disasters made people dangerous.

  “We’re in Buffalo. Wait, did you say East Coast? Holy shit, Lucas,” the voice said. “How are you still alive?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked. “I’ve been holed up for over a day in my basement.”

  “The entire East Coast is gone, so is the West,” the voice said. “Some kind of coordinated terrorist attack. They set off multiple dirty bombs around major cities. You’ve seen the ash falling, right?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “But I didn’t think dirty bombs would be capable of everything that I’ve seen outside. I’d expect some fallout and radiation poisoning, but nothing like what we’ve seen.”

  “You’ve seen the husks, haven’t you?” the voice said. “A handful of survivors are out there and they’re all reporting husks in their towns and cities.”

  “What the hell is a husk?” I asked. I was pretty sure that I already knew the answer.

  “The dead,” the voice said. “Those bombs weren’t just radioactive. They loaded them up with a myriad of viruses. Something happened when the bombs exploded, some kind of radioactive virus or something. Anyone who breathes in too much of the ash dies, but they don’t stay that way. The radiation kills them and dries them out, but the virus brings them back. They come back as withered human husks. Then they eat. Have you or anyone you’re with been bit?”

  I looked at the bruise on my arm. It had spread and yellowed on the edges, but it didn’t look like anything more than a bruise.

  “No,” I said. “No one has been bit by one of those things. One tried, but didn’t break the skin.”

  “That’s good, that’s very good, Lucas,” the voice said. “That’s how the virus spreads.”

  “He’s talking about zombies,” Jared said. “See I told you Ian was a fucking zombie.”

  “Jared!” Danni snapped.

  I shrugged. The kid sounded pretty spot on.

  “Are you saying people are coming back as zombies?” I asked into the radio. “That seems a little crazy.”

  “You must have seen one or two by now, Lucas,” the voice said. “People have been calling them ‘husks’ because I guess that’s easier to wrap your head around. But, call them whatever you want, you’re dealing with zombies.”

  “So how are you in Buffalo?” I asked. “You said the East Coast was gone. Is that part of New York safe?”

  “New York?” the voice said. I heard a garbbled laugh under the static. “New York is a wasteland. I’m in Buffalo, South Dakota. There’s a group of us that have joined up. The ash clouds haven’t gotten this far. We’re hoping that the Rocky Mountains will keep it on the West Coast and that everything in the East won’t make it this far. Look, Lucas, I have no idea how you’re still alive, but you need to get as far away from the East Coast as fast as possible. Maybe try and head this way. You’re obviously a resourceful man. The world is going to need people like you.”

  Whoever was on the other end of this radio spoke like it was his job. The words came too easy. In prison, I learned not to trust someone who always knew the right thing to say. There were only two types of people that spoke with that level of confidence – con men and politicians. Not that there was much of a difference between the two. I hated them both.

  “We should go,” Danni said. She stood up and paced the length of the bunker.

  “Leave?” I asked. “We don’t know who is on the other end of this transmission. Could be a bunch of psychos, or worse, liars. They might be worse off than we are.”

  Danni looked upset, but didn’t argue.

  I turned back to the radio. “How do we know we can trust you?”

  “Lucas, I know you have no reason to trust or believe what I’m telling you, but there’s going to be more husks with each day that passes,” the voice said. “Come here or don’t, it’s your call, but you need to get away from the East Coast.”

  “I don’t even know your name,” I said. “Why am I going to suddenly pack up and leave?”

  “My name is Senator James Heathway. I think I’m all that’s left of the US Government,” Heathway paused. “You need to leave soon, Lucas. I hope you make the right choice.”

  “Senator Heathway?” Jared asked. “I did a report about him for my social studies class, some kind of current events thing about Second Amendment rights or something like that. I remember that he was from South Dakota. Maybe it really is him?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Maybe it is, but that doesn’t mean much.”

  “Doesn’t mean much?” Danni asked. “He said he’s what’s left of the government. If we have any chance of surviving this, I’d say it’s in South Dakota. I vote we leave.”

  “Me too,” Jared said.

  I hesitated. “I’m not making any snap decisions just because someone who may or may not be a US Senator told me to. Besides, I’m not going anywhere until I see my family.”

  “Your family?” Danni asked. I could see that she was conflicted. She would never tell me to give up on seeing my family, but she couldn’t pass up the only chance that she might have to save hers.

  “Okay,” I sighed. “But you can’t leave yet.”

  “Don’t you mean we?” Jared asked.

  “No,” I said. “Look, I’ll give you supplies, guns, and a map. I’ll even help you find a better car than that pile of crap I saw in your driveway, but I’m not going with you. I’m sorry, but I just can’t.”

  “Yes, you can,” Danni said. She knelt down and looked into my eyes. “You don’t even know where they are. Lucas, you can’t pass up your only chance to go chase some memories. And
even if you do find them, it might be worse than not knowing.”

  “Mom, that’s not cool,” Jared said. “Chill out about Lucas’ family. I’m sure they’re fine. I’m sure he had them just as prepared.”

  “I know where Lisa and Kara are,” I said. I stood up and walked to the other end of the bunker. “I’m staying. You’re going. That’s the deal.”

  “What’s first?” Danni asked.

  “First?” I repeated. “First we get something to eat and then we get some rest. We’ll start in the morning.”

  “Should we wait that long?” Danni asked. “Senator Heathway said we should leave as soon as possible.”

  “He also said that there were going to be more of those things like Ian, more husks,” I said. “Do you want to go outside in the dark to find out if he’s right? I don’t.” I grabbed a can from the shelf without looking at its label and began opening it. I wanted to do anything other than continue this conversation.

  Danni shook her head. She was upset, but being impulsive would get someone killed. I would help her and Jared, make sure they were safe, but I wasn’t going with them. I was going to see my family.

  -15-

  I listened to the sound of Danni and Jared snoring softly. Once I was sure they were asleep, I fished my cell phone out of my front pocket.

  Kara: I miss you, Daddy. I love you.

  I thumbed the keys on my cell phone, but nothing happened. The keys must have been broken as I was thrown to the ground and arrested. I wanted to write something back to Kara. I wanted to tell her that I loved her too, to tell her that I even still loved her mom. I wanted to be where they were, to make sure that they were safe.

  Tears stung my eyes as I read Kara’s text message for a second and then a third time. She was my little girl and I wanted to tell her that I loved her, but my shitty phone was broken. Lisa thought it was funny to tease me about still having a flip phone. She and Kara had smart phones. I resisted, claiming that those phones gave away too much personal information, but I would have traded anything for a phone that could reach Kara. But who knows? Even if I had been able to send it, it wouldn’t have made the situation any better. She was still there and I was still here.