Z Fever

by Jay Mouton

  The three Westside Elementary students sat in a circle, on the hard, tiled floor of Altman’s Grocery, and shared a mid-day picnic that they had not at all planned, but one they were thankful for.

  The children stuffed their faces full of chips, rapidly chewed, and took swigs of juice to wash it all down; the meager fare fulfilled its purpose, and soon they were all full.

  Gavin, had he possessed the vocabulary to express it, would have said that the entire morning had been an absurdly surreal nightmare. Little more than the cuts and bruises he, Ariel, and Justine had acquired, as the day continued to transpire, seemed real; well, he thought, that and their bellies now being full. Everything else that had occurred seemed like something right out of a scary movie to the boy. As he was finishing up his OJ, he tried to imagine that the pile of body parts just around the corner, down the store length of the aisle they were sitting next to, wasn’t even there. The bloody imprints smeared all over the glass of Altman’s front door probably wasn’t even there. He tried to imagine, but it wasn’t really working.

  He swallowed down the last of his orange juice, and remembered that he was responsible for all of them. And he reminded himself that he wasn’t dreaming; the world outside of Altman’s Grocery was, indeed, a real nightmare come to life and thrust upon them with the help of real life dead people that seemed to be more than walking the earth.

  Gavin thought, again, of the television series he’d managed to sneak some time watching, The Walking Dead.

  He knew what a zombie was, thanks to Granddaddy Kingsley’s penchant for falling asleep as the television glowed from the corner of his living room cutting through the darkness they would share.

  Zombies, Gavin!

  The voice jumped back into his head, reminding him of what he was, almost, positive about.

  As if she’d been sneaking a peek of her own inside of Gavin’s head, Justine broke the silence between the circle the three of them had formed. Point blank, she asked the question that had been at the forefront of her mind since they were escaping from the school grounds, in their bus, earlier that morning.

  “Do you think Mr. Stuart is a zombie, Gavin?” the little red-headed girl whispered, leaning into his right ear, so Ariel wouldn’t hear.

  Gavin, looked right into the girl’s pale, blue eyes; she really was pretty, he thought, and then immediately pushed that thought out of his head.

  The boy, in turn, leaned into her and whispered back, “do you think Mr. Stuart is a zombie?”

  As if on cue, and they were all actors in some campy horror movie, Ariel chirped in, “I know what a zonbee is, Gavin.”

  “Zombie,” he corrected his little sister.

  “You do, Ariel?” Justine asked the little girl.

  Ariel’s head bobbed up and down, as a dribble of her grape juice spilled down over her chin; she’d forgotten that she was taking a drink at the same time she was telling Justine she knew about zombies.

  Ariel swallowed her drink, brought a sweater sleeve up to her mouth to wipe the grape juice from her chin. With her head now turned, but still nodding yes, she looked at her big brother and simply said, “uh-huh.” It sounded more like, “I told you so, Gavin!”

  The little girl turned her attention back to Justine.

  “Uh-huh, I know what they are,” she insisted.

  “How do you know what a zombie is, Ariel,” Gavin, with some doubt, asked his sister.

  “I saw one on Granddaddy’s TV!” she said, throwing a glance back at Gavin, adding “so there!”

  “I believe you, Ariel,” Justine said, soothing the ruffled girl.

  Gavin sighed.

  “I believe you, too, Ariel.”

  The little girl swallowed the rest of her grape juice, wiped her mouth off, and let out a loud burp.

  That was all it took.

  All three of them burst out laughing, loudly, at the little girl’s act.

  It felt good to laugh, and even better to let out just a smidgen of all the built-up tension inside that each one of them was feeling.

  They continued to giggle, circled together on the floor of Altman’s Grocery, until Mr. Stuart made another run for the door.

  “WHAM!”

  They all stifled their mirth at once, and life became serious—again.

  “Shush,” Gavin instructed, for what seemed like the tenth time that day. Still, he was just as guilty, of drawing the attention of the creature outside, as his sister and Justine.

  Gavin motioned for them to stand up; the girls rose, Justine taking hold of one of Ariel’s little hands.

  “Come on,” Gavin whispered, “and don’t look down that aisle, either!” he added, sternly.

  The three of them crept forward, and when they reached the door to the back room, Gavin quietly opened it. They walked inside, Gavin in the lead, and then the boy closed the door behind them.

  * * * * *

  Three sets of eyes looked over in the corner, to where the sound from the flat screen was pouring softly from the tiny speakers, but steadily into the small storage area.

  It was if a little bit of what remained of their old world was steaming into the back room of Altman’s Grocery, if only to remind them that there still was a world outside of the confines of the store.

  Gavin slid the bolt securely in the door, as he had on the front, and then turned to the girls.

  Ariel had already jumped up on, and was sitting in, a swivel chair that she’d pulled out from a desk facing the wall of the shopping area on the other side of it

  Gavin glanced over at his sister, and she was smiling up at him. She was leaning back in the soft cushioned seat. She had, already, pushed her chair away from the desk with her feet, and was spinning herself around and around in the chair. She giggled. While it seemed to her brother that she was enjoying her ride, her giggle sounded less and less one of pleasure and more and more like she might be closing in on hysteria. Still, the boy thought, let her occupy herself.

  Gavin looked about the room, this time giving slightly closer inspection, and found a folded, metal chair. He opened in, and slid it forward to Justine for her to rest upon.

  The boy snooped about a little more, then found a cleaning ladder in a small closet toward the very back of the, small enclosure. He brought it out, unfolded it, making sure it was secure as his rear was starting to ache from his earlier spills. He was just about to sit down on it when Ariel stopped spinning and spoke.

  “Look, Gavin, I can see out to the store from this little window,” she said, sounding as if it were the most amazing thing that she’d encountered that day.

  He walked over to his sister, and slid the rolling chair a little further back away from the big desk.

  “Hey,” she said, sounding slightly offended that her brother would move her away from her new discovery.

  “Shush, girl,” Gavin said, using his, I’m your big brother and I’m serious voice.

  He leaned over the large desk, cluttered with the paperwork accoutrement that, somehow, kept small businesses afloat. He peered through the glass pane, and out into the store. He’d not noticed the little window on his inspection, but it offered a clear line of sight to a good bit of the store’s open floor area.

  Gavin, remembering the pile of dismembered, bloody body parts at the end of the last aisle, craned his neck, as he pushed his nose up against the cold pane trying to see if the gore could be seen from the window; if he could help it, he did not want Ariel to see it at all.

  Try as he might, he could not see the woman and her child.

  He corrected his thought.

  He could not see what was left of the woman and her child; her baby.

  He winced, as a wave of emotion swept over him when he wondered, for the first time, if he knew just who they were. He wondered if they had attended the same church as he did. The Taylor Church congregation was not that big, but he didn’t know everybody. From time to time, on some Sunday’s, he had heard the cries of a baby.

  Was that
the baby?

  As he’d done with a dozen thoughts that had already flashed through his mind over the transom of the morning, he would have blocked it out of his head. But the voice he kept hearing was one that he seemed to have no control over.

  Gavin Kingsley, sure that his little sister could not see the remains of the dead not ten feet on the other side of the glass, sighed with no small amount of relief and turned back to the girl. He took hold of one arm of the swivel chair, and slowly pulled it back a little closer to the desk.

  “Yeah, that’s kind of cool, Ariel,” he said, referring now, nonchalantly, to her tiny window to the world that was Altman’s Grocery. Still, he glanced over at Justine and rolled his eyes.

  The little redhead smiled up at Gavin, but inside she was a frightened, little fifth grader.

  Gavin smiled back at her, hoping it might cheer them both just a little bit.

  Virus outbreaks all over the European continent, and some reports out of several East Asian countries, a woman’s voice said.

  Gavin, who’d simply thought the television was droning along with some mid-morning show, realized that maybe, just maybe, the television could tell them what was going on.

  He took a quick look about the room, hoping to find the TV’s remote; he did, it was sitting on top of a stack of papers atop a two-drawer file cabinet, that was, in turn, sitting near the far, right edge of the huge desk.

  The boy looked over the remote, found the volume tab, and pressed the arrow pointing up; the woman’s lilting voice rose in volume, and now was loud and clear enough for the children to hear what she was saying.

  Ariel, who’d been spinning herself dizzy in the swivel chair, brought her ride to a standstill, and stared up at the pretty lady whose face filled most of the flat screen’s surface.

  Gavin and Justine, too, peered up at the screen, and listened, intently, to what the woman was saying.

  Not only China, but Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, and some reports are even filtering out of North Korea. For the most part, we’ve had little information coming from any countries on the African continent, or the middle-eastern countries, so we’re not at all sure if the same incidents are happening there, but for the most part, it’s highly likely.

  Gavin looked over to Justine, but her eyes were locked onto the flat screen. He glanced at Ariel, and she, too, was staring wide-eyed at the newswoman, while both of her hands were white knuckling the arms of the chair she was leaning back in.

  Authorities suggest that last night’s meteor shower, totally unpredicted, has been, indeed, a global phenomenon. Not only did the shower inundate the northern hemisphere, but reports out of several South American countries, as well as Australia and New Zealand have confirmed the reports of the meteor showers as well.

  “Did you see,” Gavin and Justine both blurted out the same question to the other at the same time. It was clear to them both, that the other had seen the beautiful shower of stars, too.

  Both of them shook their heads, yes, but immediately turned back to the flat screen.

  The Federal Government, less than an hour ago, issued a DHS security level increase to red, its highest level. While our news feeds have been unable to secure a link to any messages coming out of the White House, beyond the basic color coded alarm, we will remain attentive and try to get any more information from the administration as soon as it becomes available.

  Ariel turned her eyes to focus on her brother, then she asked him if red was a bad color for them.

  Gavin nodded his head up and down, but did not take his attention away from the news lady that still filled most of the wide, flat television screen.

  Local authorities, here in the Jacksonville viewing area, have asked that all citizens shelter in place. Local schools have been instructed to send all bussed students home, immediately, and that all students requiring a pick-up to let the students remain on school grounds. Students will follow local district procedures for DHS and severe weather protocols.

  Gavin wasn’t quite sure what every word that the woman said meant, but he did realize enough of what she had presented to know that things were serious all over. And that things were going to go, as his daddy would say, “from bad to worse, PDQ; Pretty Damn Quick!”

  Zombies!

  There was that voice, again, pushing its way to the front of the boy’s mind, and yelling out at him. He ignored it, as best he could and kept his eyes and ears open to hear the lady on the news channel.

  The three of them listened as the woman continued to provide information that, for the most part, they did not, fully, comprehend. Still, they all knew, even little Ariel, that whatever was happening in Glen Saint Mary, and just outside Altman’s Grocery store with Mr. Stuart, was happening all over the world!

  The woman on the flat screen explained a little more about what they knew, but it didn’t seem like they knew a whole lot about what was happening. Still, the information started to get even fuzzier when she began to try to explain about all of the crazy attacks that had been occurring, at a rapidly increasing rate, all over the city, and elsewhere. She stated, emphatically, that local police in Jacksonville, were unable to keep up with all the emergency calls coming in from all over the city. In fact, she made it a point to tell viewers that, apparently, many of the Jacksonville city police and emergency groups were, for all intents and purposes, unable to answer any but the most serious 911 calls for help.

  The last bit of information the pretty lady provided, and it was provided between her sobs, because it was clear as day that she had started to cry. Tears began to make their way down her cheeks, causing her eyeliner run in erratic furrows and lines down her face. She nearly yelled, when she announced something concerning the Florida National Guard being activated, and that all citizens were asked to cooperate fully. With that, the woman on the flat screen yanked a tiny device from her ear. Then, with a scream that blasted out from the television’s speakers, threw the device at something in front of her. After that, things happened very quickly as she turned away from the camera, and appeared to be running in the opposite direction. At the very moment that the, once pretty, news caster turned her body to the side and began to run, something that looked at least a little bit human jumped on top of her.

  And then, a scene that was becoming insanely familiar to Gavin, the creature brought its churning jaws down to the news lady’s lovely neck.

  The monster, now filling the flat screen, clamped its jaws tightly upon the news lady’s throat. With its teeth firmly embedded in the taunt flesh of her flailing body, it clutched her head. Then the beast bit down even deeper into her and, with a loud, ugly sound, it tore the woman’s head from her body.

  Ariel screamed, as did Justine, too. Gavin simply gasped, and nearly fell off the collapsible ladder that he’d sat back down on.

  The creature that attacked was caught on the camera for just a few moments, but the images would burn in the minds of all that witnessed the horrible incident in real time. It was clearly visible to anybody that had their television turned to the Jacksonville, Florida channel signal. To Gavin and Ariel Kingsley, and to their schoolmate, Justine Webb, the creature sure looked a whole lot like the one that was, more than likely, still waiting for them just on the other side of the walls of Altman’s Grocery.

  And, they knew that it was hungry.

  The flat screen flashed a colorful test pattern, but only for a few seconds. Then, thanks to the marvel of modern technology, the pretty news lady was back. She sat, calmly, completely unruffled, behind her huge desk. Her make-up and hair still looking impeccable, her blue dress, once more, hugged her figure snuggly, if not suggestively. Her wide, brilliant smile beamed into the camera, which seemed in love with her. And, in that same sing-song voice, began to deliver some interesting, spirited news about the previous evening’s colorful meteor shower.

  The three school children continued to watch, not quite sure what they were now seeing, but it appeared that things had quieted down a good deal.
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  It didn’t take long, though, for them to realize that they had heard something very similar to what the woman was now saying. Indeed, it was familiar to them, because they had heard what the woman had said, only a few minutes earlier. Apparently, the station was running the same video feed, over and over.

  True to the first digital scene they’d just seen, in less than five minutes’ time span, the woman, who had been calm and warm in demeanor at the beginning of her program, began to cry, again. Her make-up and eye liner began to stream down her face, again, in the same patterns as they had only minutes before. And, less than thirty seconds later, she was screaming into the camera as she was attacked by —!

  A zombie!

  This time, neither girl screamed, although both had tears welling in their eyes.

  Gavin did not try to block out the voice in his head; not this time.

  This time, when he heard the voice, he had to agree with it.

  Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Stuart, and, his eyes welled up at the thought, his mother were all, now—zombies!

  Gavin pressed the channel select, moving the signal to another broadcast; the picture was solid blue. The boy hit the channel select, again; once more, a blue screen projected all of nothing.

  Again, again, and then again, Gavin pressed down on the channel selector.

  There seemed nothing more.

  The boy pressed down on the off tab on the remote, and the flat screen went black.

  Both girls, wiping tears away from wet eyes, turned toward the boy. This time, they were not crying, not anymore. This time, they were both aware that life would never, nor could ever, ever be the same.

  * * * * *

  The three of them remained quiet, while the silence that pervaded the little room closed in on them just a little, bit tighter.

  It was Ariel who spoke up first.

  She sat, her back against the swivel chair, and told her big brother that she wanted to go home, now.

  He looked over at the girl, thinking her, somewhat, silly thinking that they could just up and stroll out the front door and “go home, now” as Ariel had so succinctly put it.