by Travis Tufo
“Let’s finish on a bloody high note!” he screamed, swinging the hammer harder than any major league baseball player ever swung a bat. The hammer connected with her face and with its mighty force, ripped it from her head. Along with the flesh, half her skull went flying down the street. The back half of her head remained, cradling her brain. Blood spurted out like a punctured water balloon. She dropped to the ground dead, but he wasn’t done. Crushing blow after crushing blow he swung his hammer into her lifeless body. He turned the bones to powder and beat the flesh into the concrete. An officer showing up to this crime scene would have thought a wood chipper had been involved. David swung the hammer at her until he finally collapsed from exhaustion.
The sun’s warm embrace woke David from his blood drenched slumber early the next morning. His bloodshot eyes shot open, and he quickly stood to his feet acting as if he wasn’t feeling an immense amount of pain and soreness from last night’s slaughter. The world’s strongest man would have had a hard time getting out of bed after swinging the heavy sledge that many times the day before, but David had some screws loose; with that came an extreme tolerance for pain. He gritted his teeth and looked at the massacre around him. To say corpses littered the streets would be an understatement.
“Another day, another slaughter.” He grabbed his hammer and went back to his home to retrieve his infected hounds.
“Come on boys! We have hearts to stop!” With two giant chains in his hands acting as leashes for the mutant dogs, he set off, looking for the infidels who had interrupted his insane bonfire.
Chapter Fifteen
MILES AWAY, AT around the same time, the trio was just starting to wake up, not because they had gotten enough sleep, but because some unwanted guests were downstairs, banging against the door to the shop. Eli was the first to wake.
“One of these nights I will get enough sleep, I swear,” he said, sitting up. Immediately the soreness hit him harder than a freight train.
“Oh damn!” His legs felt like noodles.
“What is it?” Shaun woke up frantically.
“My legs!” Eli exclaimed.
“Oh shit! Were you bit? Are you turning?” Eli laughed, but Shaun’s pale, frighten face showed he didn’t get the joke.
“No, I’m just sore from carrying your limp ass last night.” A sigh of relief left Shaun’s mouth. Aurora too was now up, giving a great big stretch, then, of course, she reached for her gun.
“Already? The day just started,” Eli said watching her stand up with her rifle.
“Someone’s got to kill those freaks. Are you going to do it?” She left the room.
“You don’t want to fire that gun!” Shaun yelled to her.
“Why’s that?” she called back.
“You’re going to wake the entire neighborhood. The five that are out there are a pain, yes, but it’s better than, oh I don’t know, a million.”
“Show me to the silencers then.” She wasn’t serious, but Shaun took her to an aisle that had knives and machetes. She was happy to take the most brutal machete there. It had a razor sharp front blade and on the back were jagged teeth. It was jet black.
“I think I’ll take this little guy,” she said. Shaun couldn’t help but smile at her being so interested in something she was going to kill people with.
“Now what are you going to take?” Aurora diverted her attention to Shaun.
“Well, I…I don’t know.” He was hesitant to take any blade.
“Look, Junior, you need something to defend yourself with.” Before he could respond, they heard a large thud from upstairs. It was like someone had dropped a bowling ball.
“Eli, are you alright?” they both yelled. They rushed back upstairs only to see Eli face down on the ground.
“My legs…they just don’t work anymore.” The others burst into laughter.
“Screw you two and your working legs! Does this place have wheelchairs?” He was kidding, but he did look pathetic.
“We can just leave him behind, right?” Shaun looked to Aurora who nodded her head in agreement.
“Oh great. Now you two are on a team against me.”
“Well, it’s us and your legs all conspiring against you, bud,” Shaun laughed. Eli gave him a dirty look.
“Ok now, cripple, come grab a machete.” Aurora was still thinking about the blades; she wanted to make sure these city boys armed themselves.
“A machete? No way, I hate machetes!” Eli said, shaking his head. Shaun and Aurora looked at each other, this time confused.
“You…hate machetes? I mean, like, I’m not blaming you, dude, but that’s a little off the wall, right?” he questioned Eli.
“I took one swing, just one swing, and mine broke on me.” Eli was looking down, remembering that horrible day.
“I guess it’s official, Eli has completely lost it, or he just has a traumatic past with blades. Well, on another note, there’s all sorts of supplies and weaponry downstairs. We need stuff for wherever the hell we are going,” Shaun said, eager to leave the building because he was getting worried about the infected downstairs.
“Did I see correctly that this shop has a clothes section?” Aurora asked.
“Yeah it does. I mean, it’s not like your average mall or anything, but I think it has hiking clothes and stuff like that.”
“Good. I could use some clothes with less...” she looked down at her filthy, bloodstained shirt, “viscera on them.”
“Good luck keeping them that way,” Eli joked, struggling to stay on his feet. His knees buckled a few times, but eventually they held him up.
“It’s alive!” Shaun exclaimed when he saw Eli on his two feet. The group headed downstairs and managed to find new clothes, new shoes, new bags, and knives. Eli took two large knives, one for each front pocket. Aurora took a second machete, and Shaun only took a small knife to shut Aurora up.
“You won’t be able to kill anyone with that little thing,” she said when she saw Shaun grab the small pocket knife.
“I could kill you with this.” He held it up like a mighty sword.
“Bring it on tough guy,” she challenged him, but all he could muster was a big gulp.
“Uhhh, yeah, just kidding.” He quickly snuck his sword back into his pocket.
“Smart move,” she winked.
“Hey, I just looked and there’s not really much in the way of food over there,” Eli said, approaching the two in his new hiker outfit. Aurora laughed at him.
“You look like you’re all ready for Katahdin,” she joked.
“What the hell is Katahdin?” he questioned.“The biggest mountain in Maine!” she replied.
“What the hell are you talking about? You look just as dumb as me! Look at your tiny little khaki hiker shorts! You look more like a girl scout than a survivalist,” Eli fired back.
“Keep it up, and this machete is going inside you, tough guy.” Her smile flew from her face. Shaun went wide eyed.
“Aww...little Aurora doesn’t like looking like a mountain girl?” Eli kept instigating.
“Eli, I will kill you where you stand!” She stuck the blade out in front of her, pointing at Eli.
“Calm down, you maniac, or else we’ll give you up to that hammer guy.” Eli laughed.
“Yeah, or, like, we’ll give you up to the outdoors club,” Shaun chimed in with a grin. Aurora turned her head to Shaun. Her look was even more deadly than David’s, and if hers could kill, Shaun would have been long gone. Shaun was too intimidated to look her in the eyes, a smart move.
“Really, though, there’s just a few more cans of soups over there.” Eli got back on track.
“What? Did you eat all of our food, Shaun?” Aurora snapped back to joking.
“Look, a man’s gotta eat right? I didn’t know I was going to have to feed two more mouths, otherwise I wouldn’t have saved your two asses last night.” His sarcasm was pushing Aurora to the edge, but he was right; this had been his hideout.
“Maybe we should
cook you up and eat you, little boy,” Aurora said as she approached him with her machetes.
“Now now, kids, we won’t be eating anyone…today,” Eli said, pushing her weapons down. Shaun knew she was kidding, but gave a sigh of relief anyway.
“Not yet at least. But you’ll be the first to go Shaun.” His eyes widened again as Aurora threw her last punch.
“You two are scarier than those mushroom things, I swear. But I think I may know where we can get some food.”
“Another shop like this?” Eli questioned.
“Yeah? Where at? I always wanted to know what human tasted like.” Aurora played the crazy girl card almost too well.
“Jesus! I never know if she’s kidding! But even better than a little shop like this!” Shaun continued.
“Where?” Eli was interested.
“Walmart!” Shaun’s face lit up like a firework. Eli looked to the ground in disappointment and Aurora gave him a dirty look.
“Are you kidding me? Have you never seen a zombie movie?” she questioned him.
“I agree with her,” Eli said, joining her side immediately.
“What are you guys talking about? Walmart has just about everything in the whole world. And you two don’t have to look like you’re going camping during the apocalypse anymore.”
“Everyone in the entire world goes to Walmart and loots everything good there the minute shit hits the fan!” Aurora was certain she was right.
“You’re joking, right?” Shaun continued, undeterred. “You realize that this is real life, not a movie? Also, this plague-like spore thing hit the U.S. so goddamned fast no one had enough time to prepare, let alone go out and steal stuff from the local Walmart. I can guarantee you guys that place is barren.”
“Yeah, barren, as in there’s nothing on the shelves that would serve a purpose to us. And you know for a fact that we aren’t the only survivors! People probably flocked there in droves trying to get their hands on supplies,” Eli countered.
“Well, if you’re so certain so many people survived let’s just hope they’re as ignorant as you two and decided that Wal-goddamn-mart, home of everything, was off the table.”
“You know what? Let’s just go.” Eli was shocked to hear Aurora side with Shaun. Both of their jaws nearly dropped.
“Wait, what?” Eli was confused.
“No, he may be right. I mean, people got infected millions at a time and it seemed like it was a few states a day that succumbed. Walmart might just be ripe,” she said, reinforcing her stance.
“Well, at least I know how to get there, it’s maybe a few miles away, but I bet it will be worth it.” Shaun was ready to go.
After a few minutes of stuffing their new bags full of whatever they could use, they set off. Eli had a bad feeling about the whole plan, but he was up for any chance that some good could come from it. He figured staying in hotel Walmart at this point would be like living the high life. The group had no choice but to fight their way out the front door. There were five infected blocking their exit, two banging against the door and three shuffling around behind the two in front.
Aurora kicked the door open, knocking the two to the ground. She was already armed with both of her machetes. One great swing with her left arm and another with her right and she had three inches of steel inside the heads of two more infected. Eli, the next one through the door, took his knife and rushed over to the last standing infected. He grabbed the bloodied, no longer human man by the shoulder, and rammed the knife under his jaw and up towards his brain. Blood spat out of the thing’s mouth and dripped down Eli’s knife, he was dead. One of the infected that Aurora sliced died on contact, but the other one, with a machete lodged in its brain, was still alive and reaching out for her, blood trickling down its fungal face. Shaun saw Aurora struggling to remove her blade from the infected girl’s body, so he dashed over to help, knocking the infected over with a ram of his shoulder, sending her to the ground and taking Aurora’s blade with her. While she had the chance, Aurora took her other machete from the previous kill and used it to finish off the infected girl on the ground by driving the tip of the blade through the center of her chest, right past many fugal cords stemming out. The group decided to continue on towards their goal rather than killing the other two infected who were just getting to their feet. They ran off, following Shaun towards what they thought would be the next best destination.
Chapter Sixteen
DAVID, IN THE meantime, was continuing his bloodthirsty streak. He was hunting the trio in Portland. The probability of finding three people when you have no idea where they could be during an apocalypse might come off as strange and impossible, but to someone like David, it was common sense; it gave him purpose. He held the thick chains connected to his two infected hounds in one hand and in the other he held his notorious bloody sledge down by his side. Strapped to his back was a machete, a popular weapon in Portland at this time, and he carried the large buck knife in his boot. David used no gun, which didn’t seem to slow him down. He killed countless more infected as he walked down the once busy streets of the largest city in Maine. He never shied away from an infected chasing after him, he took it upon himself to meet them half way and then cleave them in two. It could have been argued that his hounds were harmless, as they never showed aggression towards other infected humans, however, once they got the scent of fresh blood from another living thing, they would become a near unstoppable force.
David had no real idea where the three were or where he was going, but deep down he knew he was on the right path. His mind, though it was corrupt and hindered by a type of evil, worked rapidly. He quickly analyzed every situation he stumbled upon and always made the right choices. He travelled with some immunity; even in the worst possible spot he could find himself in, he was never really in any danger. He halted abruptly in the middle of the road, with houses on his left and his right. He stood there staring forward, then with one quick jerk, he threw his neck to the left, locking his menacing eyes with another pair behind a window. The mysterious eyes quickly pulled away and hid behind the curtain. It was too late though; David already knew what he was going to do.
“Oh, this will be fun. You smell that boys? Meat!” David yanked on the chains and diverted his hounds to the yellow townhouse to his left. He was getting his monsters all riled up. He pointed and let the chains go. The beasts rushed for the door slamming against it hard. The thud startled whoever was inside; David could hear their shriek.
“Ahh...a young girl. A shame really.” The dogs clawed at the door relentlessly, tearing off large chunks of wood and even bits of their paws from the force of their determined scratching. They snarled and bared their sickening teeth as they tore at the door. David was now at the door with his fist cocked. He slammed on the door even harder than the dogs battered against it.
“Knock knock! Is there anybody home?” he yelled, smiling a terrifying smile. More screams could be heard from inside.
“Two girls now? I hope their skin is soft.” He gritted his razor-like teeth, his wide eyes seemingly lidless.
“Please little piggies, let me in! It would be rude for me to have to let myself in, now wouldn’t it?”
“No! Please just go away!” a female voice yelled back.
“You…you don’t want to play?”
“There’s a child in here, you freak!” the woman yelled back.
“Don’t worry, I’ll kill her last!” David raised his hammer into the air and smashed it into the door, easily taking out one of its four panels. He stuck his head inside, still smiling. He immediately locked eyes with a mother holding her little girl in her arms on the couch. His smile widened, but before he made another move, a knife was forced into his shoulder. David quickly pulled back, taking the knife with him. It was lodged about two inches into his flesh. The father of the house had been hiding behind the door and stabbed David as he peeked in.
“Look whose blood we’re spilling first!” David yelled. David was no longer cheerf
ul. He grabbed one of his hounds off the porch and pushed it through the open square of the door. Immediately upon landing, it lunged at the father, locking its jaw around his entire face. The last thing that man saw as he slowly lost enough blood to pass out was that creature’s soulless eyes and gruesome teeth around his face.
“You want me to throw the other one in?” David yelled. The only response was intense sobbing and screaming.
“Hmm, I thought you would say ‘no’ for sure. How moronic.” He then proceeded to lift up the other hound and shoved it through the hole. The screams became louder and more frantic and David walked down their driveway and took a seat on the street. He then took his time working the knife out of his shoulder, never feeling much pain. He sat there the while his hounds ripped the flesh from the family’s living bodies. He just listened to the slowly fading screams until it was silent, well, other than the sounds of blood dripping.
“I guess they’ve had enough.” He stood up and headed towards the house. He reached in through the opening, unlocked the door, and stepped inside. The three bodies looked as if they had been put through a meat grinder or thrown in a tub full of starving piranhas. The dogs were still cleaning the gristle off their bones. The father’s neck and most of his face had been removed completely, leaving only a bare skull. The mother’s stomach was eaten so far down that you could nearly see the floor where her back lay. And the daughter? She was no more. The two hounds continued devouring the bodies at blazing speed. Their guts were hanging low and bulging out as they filled up on multiple pounds of raw flesh.
“Let’s go you two—before you vomit from eating too much!” Loud snaps, cracks, and sounds of liquid splashing on the floor filled the entire house. They obviously weren’t listening and continued on with their meal. This angered David. He grabbed their chains and pulled them right out the door, dragging them to the lawn. They were completely drenched in blood and dripping all over the grass. They laid there for a few minutes, their stomachs pushed to their absolute limits—about to burst from the pounds of human they’d devoured. David waited long enough for them to get back to their feet, and slowly, very slowly they headed off in their previous direction. The dogs were traveling much slower now, almost waddling. Not even a quarter mile away from the house one of the dogs stopped to let out a constant flow of vomit. The demon hound puked for a solid minute just evacuating a pool of blood and scraps of skin and muscle. The pile of meat grew as the hound continued to disgorge its insides. Even David felt a little queasy about it. He just looked away and managed to deal with it, but when he turned back to see that the second dog was now eating the new slop on the street, David, too, let loose some of his insides. The first dog saw David throwing up, and following the second dog’s actions, went over and began to feast once more, this time on David’s food from yesterday.