by Steve Wands
"Sit, hold this to your neck," he told her.
She didn't listen, she simply groaned and moved her jaw toward him as if taking bites out of the air. She smelled like piss, shit and death. Jay caught on quick and backed up. He was close enough at first to feel her breath, he now realized she hadn't breathed. She was not weeping and she seemed unaffected by the pain of her all-too visible wounds. Jay dropped the towel, and stepped back farther, putting the phone back to his ear.
Please be patient. All lines are busy. Your call will be answered in the order it was received.
He had no choice but to continue backwards. He was now behind the counter blindly reaching for the big wooden spatula that was standing against the big oven door. His fingers found it and pulled it into his palm. He raised it in front of him.
"Get back. I'm warning you," he was calmer now than before.
She said nothing.
"Well, fuck you too."
Jay put the wide end of the giant spatula into the woman's cold abdomen. Her movement was halted. He pushed, she was not stepping back, he pushed harder and she staggered backward. Groaning in disapproval she attempted to steady herself. Jay didn't give her the option. He pushed again, harder still, and she staggered roughly to the wall behind her. Jay kept doing this till they were back at the front door. He played a similar game at times when a rat would make its way into the store, though he used a broom instead of the spatula, and the rats were never this big. He managed to pin her against the wall holding her there as he awkwardly opened the door. Finally, he was able to shove her out. He quickly did so and locked the door. He stood, spatula in hand, staring out the glass door. She shuffled back toward the door, hitting the glass with her hand, scraping with her nails. Though she probably couldn't see, her dead mutilated eyes stared right back into Jay's eyes. Neither of them blinked. Behind the dead woman, more shadows stirred. Illuminated by the yellow streetlights the shadows turned into figures, those figures walked toward Jay's Pizza Palace and they were hungry.
Bark had made his way back to his underground suburbia. A fire was crackling in the pit. The makeshift milk-crate couches were deserted. It was surprisingly quiet for this time of the evening, not that Bark knew what time it was. He knew it was dark out, and most folk were sitting by the fire and shooting the shit; telling tall tales of the day and comparing currency by now. A rustling noise was coming from one of the shacks. Bark walked over to it, knocking on the plywood door.
"Hey, Spotz, you in there?" Bark asked.
The rustling became frantic. Bark slowly opened the door, peeking inside. It sounded like someone was looting shit or playing the one-handed shuffle. He hoped to find neither. The door nearly opened, revealed Spotz shoving his belongings into his backpack. Spotz swung his head around. He looked terrified.
"Aggh!" Spotz yelled.
"Hey, man, it's jus' me. Where you headed?"
"Outta here. Peeps on the street gone crazy! Fuck, man, they was eatin' each other---rippin guts out an' shit!"
"What the fuck you talkin' bout? You whacked out? Thought you quit that shit," Bark replied.
"Man, I ain't on nothin'! You were out there. You didn't see anything? I ain't making it up, people attacking people, eating them---just ripping them apart!" Spotz sobbed.
"Aight, aight, relax..."
"Fuck you! Relax? You must be on some shit, we need to get the fuck outta here man, outta the city, and now!"
"Well, do what you gotta do. I'm staying right here."
"You do that, and yer as good as dead, man."
"Yeah, sure. Have a good trip," Bark said as he turned and left the man to his packing.
Spotz didn't comment. He finished shoving his things into his bag, grabbed his cap and slung the bag over his shoulder. He stepped out of his little shack looking warily in all directions. His eyes found Bark sitting by the fire, stoking it back to a proper size. Spotz quickly walked over to Bark with the intent of getting him to flee the city. Then he heard the noise of moving rocks under shuffling feet. Spotz turned to the usual entrance and sure enough; the neighbors were coming home.
"Bark, get yer shit and let's go, now!" He snapped, pointing in the direction of the entrance.
"Man, chill the fuck out. You're freakin' me out."
"Just get up and look, they ain't normal," Spotz insisted.
"Alright. Alright... just can it," Bark stood up.
"See?"
"Yeah, I see everybody coming back."
"Fuck this, I'm outta here you blind bastard."
Spotz took off down the tunnel. He started a quick jog, following the tracks, rats scurrying as he did. He knew the tunnels well and planned on making it toward the south end of the waterfront where the main tunnel came to an end. Bark watched him take off, shaking his head in disbelief. Crack heads always did crazy shit, he remembered a time when another friend of his got hooked and tore apart the insides of his home with an axe. His friend was convinced that creatures and midgets were living in the walls, pimps and animals were in the trees, but they were okay so long as they stayed outside. Bark turned his attention back to the slowly approaching group. They were grumbling something. It sounded like moans.
"Hey, Joey-G! You score some bug juice?" His question turned into laughter.
His question went unanswered. He could now see Joey-G and the rest of them; Big Ricky, who was the smallest guy you'd ever meet without being a dwarf; Gumbo, who didn't have any teeth and would put anything in her mouth for a hit of the rock. Then there was Randy, who everybody thought was crazy, and when crack heads called you crazy you were certified bonkers. It looked like Buddy or Wes was in the back, but he couldn't be sure.
They continued to move closer to Bark, closer to the light of the fire and closer to being revealed as bloodthirsty ghouls. They moaned and hissed, louder now; Bark got a sense that maybe Spotz wasn't too far off. He felt something was wrong. He cocked his head, as if it would help him see the faces of his friends better. The moaning and noises made Bark shiver, his blood turned to ice. He turned and ran, hoping Spotz was going slow enough that he'd be able to catch up.
Bark had only sprinted for about a minute but his legs burned and his lungs were screaming for air. Though he walked a lot, Bark did not have the stamina for running, he was malnourished, aging poorly and had taped his sneakers together. He called out for Spotz numerous times only to hear his cries bounce back at him. His run turned into a labored speed walk, he continued into the depths of the tunnel system. He could barely hear the moans now; he heard only his breath, and the dripping and hissing of pipes and steam. Rocks shifted under his feet as he hurried through the tunnel. The tunnel emptied out into a larger room with a half dozen other tunnels to choose from. Bark quickly decided to head to the waterfront, he chose the second tunnel from the right. The squeaks of rodents pierced his ears as he entered the tunnel.
"Spotz!" He yelled. He could hear the desperation in his own voice thanks to the echoes.
His voice was hoarse. He felt like shit and was covered in sweat; his sneakers were taking on water. He trudged on, and then quickly came to a pause. He heard the sounds of moving rocks, the kind of sounds that were made by someone or some thing walking on them. He listened. The sounds were slow and steady, calculated. The tunnel was dark, damn near pitch black, shimmers of reflected light acted as road signs in the tunnels. Bark wasn't looking for a destination, he was looking for the shimmers of light to be broken, and sure enough, they were. Straight ahead, inside the tunnel, no more than ten feet from the tip of his jagged toe something crept toward him.
"Hello?" He called, no answer.
"I know you're there," Bark continued.
"I just want to pass, I don't have anything," he pleaded with the shadows.
"Please."
"I swear if you try to take one bite outta my fuggin' ass you will die in this tunnel. You hear me?" Spotz spoke up.
"Oh, fuck, thank God it's you, you scared the shit out of me!" Bark wheezed out.
> "You were right, some thing is wrong with everybody, they
wer--"
"Can it and let's move. This way," Spotz cut him off.
They walked fast and purposefully, nearing the end of the tunnel. They stepped out. A grate in the ceiling allowed a bit of light to shine down on them. Stumbling at them from behind was a grotesque mangled body with outstretched arms. It didn't moan, and probably couldn't. It's throat looked like it was chewed out, his jaw was slung to the left. The tips of his fingers were bloodied and dark, fingernails bent back and chipped. He managed to get his hands around Bark's neck. Bark gasped and reached for the cold dead hands around his neck. Instead of thinking he reacted, and reacted poorly. It was his instincts that led his life underground, and if he kept it up, those instincts would lead to his death. Spotz grabbed a large rock. Holding it with both hands he raised it over his head and brought if full-force into the face of Bark's attacker. Spotz held onto the large rock, almost losing his balance doing so. He lifted it again, pulling the rock out of the smashed-in-face, revealing bits of gore, chipped teeth, and bubbling blood as thick as paste. The creatures grip loosened and Spotz brought the rock down again. This time he put all his weight into it, knocking both himself and the creature to the ground. The rock became a headstone on top of the twitching mangled corpse. Blood oozed from beneath the rock. Bark held his neck and gasped for air as he ran over to Spotz. Spotz was lifting himself up as Bark stood over him. Bark thanked him, but the expression on his face was more than enough.
They carried on their way through the dark maze of tunnels and train tracks. They passed familiar landmarks and other homeless shacks; all of which were unattended, thankfully. The tunnel emptied out into another room. To the left there was a staircase leading to a storage room. To the right of that was another door which led to a service level between them and eventually the street. Neither of these would do. The storage room was a dead end and the service level would have Transit workers and possibly other obstacles especially since Spotz insisted the streets above were running red with madness and murder. Instead, they picked the next tunnel and hurried down it.
They were approaching the end of the tunnel. The tunnel emptied out into a gravel pit with walls on both sides. The tracks continued over the water via a bridge and were reduced to two lines, coming and going. There were plenty of lights along the top of the walls. They climbed out of the pit clinging to the right side of the wall. Spotz peered over the edge and glimpsed a look at hell. He and Bark now stood behind a fence atop the wall they had just climbed up. They both stood flabbergasted. The scene before them was total and utter mayhem. Gunshots filled the air, as did screams and cries. A woman crashed into a parked car, she was driving an SUV with two kids in the back. She tried to reverse the vehicle and ended up hitting another. People surrounded her, a slow swarm but surely a lethal one. As she tried to free the vehicle they were able to break the windows, pulling the children and the woman to the street. Their screams and shrieks were things no human ears should ever have to hear--calling for God, crying for help, a mother reaching for her children as they screamed for her to help them. She couldn't. She watched the creatures pull flesh from her children's faces and throats, before she blacked out from her own exploration in pain she watched one of the creatures pull the intestines from one of her small children's bellies. The creatures feasted, eating the flesh in pulled clumps, hair, lips it didn't matter. One of them ripped the tongue from the mother's mouth and ate that too. They couldn't help but watch.
Bark scanned the area, looking for a break in the mayhem, while Spotz looked for a place in the fence to sneak through. Spotz found an area of the fence that had been cut and used many times over. Bark couldn't find anywhere to go once they crossed the threshold of the fence. He looked back at the tunnel, and was surprised when he saw people staggering out into the light. On the wall opposite them, behind the fence was a gathering of flesh-eaters. They were pulling on the fence, sticking their hands through, gnawing at the mesh. They had to move; there was no going back and no other choice.
Off in the distance by the dock were two boats being boarded. A horde of slow moving ghouls were approaching the scene. They were kept at bay by a group of Police officers. Their patrol cars were parked as makeshift barriers creating an "L" shape with the building behind them; which was a strip mall for tourists. The officers had shotguns and were firing wildly. The boats, one of which was a commuter ferry, and the other a large dinner cruise boat, were being loaded with people. A simple point and a grunt led them (Bark and Spotz) in a hurried run to the dock. Gore was strewn about. They found themselves stepping over body parts and dodging groping, dead, swollen hands. Spotz stepped into a puddle of blood and innards. It was slick, causing him to lose his footing. He fell forward, jamming his wrist into the dirt. Bark came up behind him and pulled him to his feet, kicking one of the ghouls in the gut to push it away from his friend. They drew more attention to themselves from this little stunt and found that they had a small cluster of blood soaked savages to their backs. They pushed on, almost at the dock, the Police were too busy fending off the large horde that they didn't notice Bark and Spotz running to the boats. They did however notice the smaller secondary horde behind them. If they didn't acknowledge the threat this posed they would be totally surrounded. The youngest of the three officers, officer Warden, stepped up and moved closer to them. He was a bulky man, athletic, with a squared frame and small fingers. He cocked his shotgun and took his aim. He squeezed off a shot and then pumped and shot again. He thinned the cluster by two. He stood his ground and convinced his fellow officers to close the gap between them and himself. The officers continued to pick off their dead attackers.
Bark and Spotz had made it to the dock, making quick progress toward the boats. The small ferry had exceeded its capacity and shoved off. The larger boat looked to be full, but held its ground. It was further down the dock and you had to get to the upper level to board it. By the time Bark and Spotz got to the upper level, they saw why the boat hadn't taken off. A commotion had stirred up, a man who looked like the captain of the ship was trying to calm everyone down, but the people were not listening. As they got closer they heard some of the arguments and by the time they boarded the boat they had a good idea of what was going on.
"She's turning into one of them!" Shouted a burly man from the crowd.
"She's just sick, we've been running for miles!" The girl's mother fired back.
"Fuck that, she must've been bit!"
"Yeah, get her off the boat!"
"Knock it off, or you can all get off!"
"Let's just leave already. Why don't we leave?"
"We're waiting for the cops. If they didn't show up we'd probably be dead."
"Well, where the fuck are they?"
"Listen to the gunshots, asshole, they're still shooting those crazies!"
The bickering and bitching seemed to be endless. Bark was numb to the noise. It was an exchange of insults and curses, question marks and exclamation points, finger pointing instead of helping hands. Bark was all-to-used to this side of humanity. He was quickly shaken from his thoughts as the gunfire became erratic and closer. The people on the ship shifted their collective attention to the lower level of the dock. Officer Warden was leading the other officers toward the boat; they were being followed by a horde of lurching assailants. The crowd watched in unabated awe as the officers shot these attackers point blank. Brain matter misted the air, chunks of skull and flesh fell to the ground and blow back stained the dark blue uniforms. One of the officers panicked, he was grabbed by multiple clawing hands and pulled into the crowd. He managed to shoot one of his attackers as another officer assisted by shooting another creature. There were too many, however, and the officer was bitten on the shoulder. He screamed as teeth broke through his shirt and skin, the attackers jaw clenching down and twisting. Tearing a chunk of flesh from the officer's shoulder, he screamed and began shooting wildly. More hands pulled the officer back
and down. His screams turned to gurgles. He fired again and again. The last shot he fired before being silenced hit his fellow officer in the hip and lower stomach. The wounded officer fell to the ground, holding his gaping wound. The bloodthirsty flesh-eaters groped at the hole and began to pull the man's insides out. Two officers were left--Warden and Nicolini. Nicolini was one of the few female officers in the department. She was a looker with thick lips and natural curves. She went to grab her fallen friend but instead, officer Warden grabbed her by the arm and started running.
"Fuck this, let's go, he's as good as dead now!" He huffed.
She didn't respond. She ran, they both darted for the stairs and quickly made it to the second level. On board the boat, the two officers silenced the crowd and told the captain to shove off. They did just that. They stared at a dock full of the walking dead. The fallen officers were now among them, badges covered in gore, intestines dragging along the dock. Everyone was quite, they couldn't help but stare at these things that used to be alive. It was almost too much to handle. Bark grinned a little, it was almost a smile, he was happy as shit to be alive. Spotz noted his friend's expression and mimicked it.
The sick girl that was the center of attention earlier was nearly forgotten now. Her long dark hair covered a chunk of missing flesh from her neck. Her mothers arm was draped around her shoulder, she tried to keep her warm, the little girl's body temperature was dropping. Her stomach pained, her complexion paled, her eyes grew dark. She was hungry.
* * * * *
About the author
Steve Wands lives in New Jersey with his wife and son. He's a comic book letterer for DC Comics by day, and an artist and writer by night. He drinks massive amounts of coffee, and sleeps very little. He is the author of Stay Dead: The Stranger and Tunnel Rats, Modern Nightmares, Damaged, and plenty of short stories.