Dead Man Walking

by Gary M. Chesla

  They would be distracted like you said, but the creators of the agent would have the solution at hand whenever they wanted to stop the cycle.”

  Charlie looked at the screen, the cells were dead, the cell activity they had been observing the last few days in all the infected cells was gone.

  “Do we call the military and tell them we have the means to stop the infection?” Charlie asked.

  “Not yet,” Eric replied, “There are still a few problems. We have a limited quantity of the agent. If the military decides to take it all, they could create a bigger problem by infecting thousands of people that haven’t been infected yet. We are now able to analyze the dead cells now that they are no longer mutating. Hopefully we have given the military enough information so they can recover their men and keep this thing from spiraling out of control until we have thoroughly tested our theory. We don’t want any surprises.”

  “Fair enough,” Charlie said, “What is our next step?”

  “Call the Air Force and tell them we need two more subjects,” Eric answered.

  “We are going to sentence another man to this horrible fate?” Charlie asked.

  “Actually no. I’m hoping to save them from this horrible fate,” Eric replied, “To save us all from a fate worse than death.”

  Chapter 16

  The limo pulled under the trees outside the small rustic building next to the complex where Logan and Jamie had been married less than an hour ago.

  The photographer sat in the front seat with the driver, giving Logan and Jamie the back seat all to themselves.

  The sunset over at Lake Arrowhead had been spectacular. The photographer was thrilled and planned to include one of the sunset pictures in the wedding album, providing Logan and Jamie approved.

  But she was sure when Logan and Jamie saw what she had seen, there would not be any question.

  The pictures would look beautiful in the album.

  As Logan opened the limo door, they could hear music coming from the other side of the complex.

  “Ah, Macarena,” Jamie began to sing along with the music, holding her hands out in front of her and dancing in her seat as she smiled over at Logan.

  “I am starting to hate that song,” Logan groaned. “In fact, I told the DJ he was only allowed to play that song one time tonight.”

  “Well I like that song,” Jamie smiled as she continued to dance in her seat, “Don’t you like the way I dance to the Macarena?”

  “I love the way you dance to the Macarena. In fact, I like the way you dance to anything,” Logan grinned, “It’s that song I don’t like.”

  “Well, I like it,” Jamie repeated and looked up at Logan and gave him an ornery smile.

  Logan smiled, “OK, he can play it two times.”

  A smile spread across Jamie’s face as she held out her hand for Logan to help her get out of the car.

  The photographer hopped out of the front seat.

  “I’m going to go check on my assistant, give me about five minutes before the two of you come in,” she said, “I want to get some pictures of you as you make your entrance and I’ll need a few minutes to get set up.”

  “No problem,” Jamie replied. “After seeing all that water at the lake, I have to go to the bathroom and powder my nose.”

  “We might need fifteen minutes,” Logan joked, then looked at Jamie out of the corner of his eye and added, “But it will be worth the wait.”

  The photographer laughed and whispered to Jamie, “You seem to have him well trained.”

  “It wasn’t easy,” Jamie whispered then grinned. “It took me almost a week.”

  The photographer laughed out loud, shook her head, then started up the walkway that would take her around the building to the amphitheater where the reception was being held.

  Logan and Jamie held hands and followed about twenty feet behind until they came to the door where Jamie had dressed for the wedding earlier today.

  “I’ll be right back,” she smiled and disappeared through the door.

  Logan sighed as he thought about how his day had gone.

  It had all gone so well he almost couldn’t believe it. The ceremony was beautiful, the way the tables were decorated for the reception was beautiful, the wedding cake was beautiful and Jamie looked more beautiful than he had ever seen her and he didn’t think that would ever be possible.

  If his first day as a married man was any indication, life was going to be amazing.

  Logan looked at his watch.

  “I should have a few minutes,” he thought as he looked inside the door and saw the bathroom door was still closed. “I think I’ll go see how Connor and the boys are doing.”

  Logan started walking on the path alongside the building.

  The Macarena got louder as he neared the corner of the building. In fact, it sounded like the record was stuck, repeating “Ah Macarena, over and over and over.

  The song was bad enough as it was, this way it was going to drive him crazy. He didn’t understand why the DJ hadn’t done something to fix the problem.

  On the plus side, however, if the record was damaged, hopefully the DJ would not play that song again for the rest of the night.

  Despite the sound of the song repeating over and over, Logan smiled at the thought.

  As he took a few more steps, the sounds of people talking and laughing and having fun began to sound unusual, not at all what he thought he should be hearing.

  Suddenly he felt that something was off, but how could it be, everything had been going so well.

  “What could possibly be wrong at this point,” Logan thought.

  He pushed the thought out of his mind.

  He had been paranoid all week, afraid something would go wrong, but things couldn’t have gone better.

  When Logan stepped around the corner of the building, he saw the photographer lying face down on the path.

  Blood had pooled around her head and covered the gravel around her.

  He began to run towards her, but slowed down as an obnoxious smell hit him.

  When Logan stopped running and covered his nose with his arm, he noticed over the sound of “The Macarena” repeating over and over, that he could now hear the sound of the crowd much clearer.

  The low drone he had heard when they got out of the limo, should have changed to the sounds of people talking now that he was this close to the reception.

  But instead of changing to the sounds of people talking, the groaning had only become louder.

  The groaning was also mixed with what sounded like George eating one of Logan’s shoes.

  “This is weird,” Logan thought.

  Logan’s eyes began burning from the strong smell in the air and the tears were blurring his sight as he knelt next to the photographer.

  As he knelt, something to his right near the base of a large pine tree caught his attention.

  He turned his head and blinked his eyes to clear his vision because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing and he wanted to be sure he was seeing clearly.

  After wiping at his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket, he knew something was very wrong.

  Connor, his best man, was lying against the trunk of a pine tree.

  That in itself wasn’t unbelievable. What was unbelievable was that Connor’s stomach had been torn open, his blood was everywhere, and Logan couldn’t tell what else was in the bloody pile on the ground next to Connor.

  Connor’s face was a pale white. His eyes, unseeing, lifeless eyes were open, staring blankly into space.

  His jaw was hanging open with dried blood clotted near the sides of his lips.

  Connor’s suit had been shredded, the right sleeve of his jacket had been torn away, his shoes were nowhere to be seen.

  It looked like Connor had been attacked by a lynch mob, but when they were done with him, they had decided there wasn’t anything left to lynch.

  Logan had known Connor all his life, in fact they were first cousins. They had practically b
een raised together.

  Their families had spent almost every Christmas together.

  Connor had been so excited when Logan asked him to be his best man.

  Logan just stared.

  He couldn’t comprehend why he was seeing Connor like this. “What happened?”

  He wanted to go over to Connor, but he couldn’t make his muscles move.

  Logan lowered his head, stunned.

  Lowering his head brought his eyes back into contact with the bloody sight on the ground in front of him.

  When Logan moved his head to look away from the grisly sight, he began to see there was more he hadn’t noticed.

  Two bloody legs extended past the corner of the building to his left. There wasn’t anything to give him a clue as to who they belonged to. He only knew with the condition of the legs, he wasn’t sure he wanted to see what the rest of the body looked like.

  The smell shocked Logan when he let his arm slide away from his nose.

  He quickly covered his nose again.

  Logan stood, his body shaking, as he staggered to the corner of the building.

  He leaned into the building and began to slowly move his head so he could look in to the reception area.

  Everything around Logan seemed to be moving in slow motion, but knowing he was in shock did little to clear his head.

  Logan just wished he would wake up.

  This nightmare was worse than any nightmare that had awakened him in the middle of the night this past week.

  As Logan looked in to the reception area, his head began to spin. It was all he could do to hold himself upright against the building.

  Bodies and blood were everywhere.

  As his gaze moved over the maze of bodies that covered the floor and dining tables. He began to recognize the bodies.

  Bridesmaids, groomsmen, guests, relatives, friends, all mauled, mutilated, their bodies all horribly mangled.

  Blood covered bodies were still attacking the guests that were still moving.

  But there wasn’t much moving now.

  Just blood, body parts, death and that horrible smell of death. “This wasn’t a dream!”

  “Ah Macarena” echoed in his ears as he slid to the ground, unable to understand what had happened.

  But this had to be another of his nightmares.

  Logan turned his head away from the scene in front of him when he heard a growling sound coming from behind him.

  He almost felt like he was outside his body, watching himself turn to look back.

  “It was Connor,” Logan thought, “But Connor couldn’t move because he was dead.

  But it was Connor, and he was moving.

  Logan watched as Connor struggled to get to his feet.

  His insides hung out through his stomach and dragged on the ground as Connor began to move.

  Logan and Connor’s eyes met.

  Logan felt like Connor’s milky white eyes were looking in to his soul and could sense the terror that griped Logan’s body.

  Connor took two staggering steps towards Logan, stopped and let out an eerie groan.

  Then Logan began to hear that same eerie groan, as if in answer to Connor’s call, coming from the reception area.

  Logan slowly turned and saw the bodies that were lying on the ground around the dining area, begin to climb to their feet.

  As the bodies stood, they all seemed to turn and look in his direction.

  One by one, the bodies began to move towards Logan.

  Logan’s brain began to scream inside his head for him to run.

  But he could barely move, let alone run.

  Then one word popped into his head, “Jamie”.

  If he couldn’t make his body move before, he now found the strength to act.

  Logan stood and began to walk on shaky legs back towards the bathroom where Jamie had gone.

  As he stood, the sounds of groans began to multiply and now seemed to be coming at him from every direction.

  Logan held on to the side of the building as his speed started to increase.

  After what seemed like an eternity, he reached the door to Jamie’s dressing room.

  He pulled the door open, stepped inside and slammed the door behind him as he fell against the inside of the door.

  He held his hands up to his face and watched his hands shaking uncontrollably.

  Jamie walked out of the bathroom with a cheerful look on her face.

  “How do I look?” she asked.

  Logan just stared, unable to answer.

  Jamie ran across the room and threw her arms around Logan to give him a kiss.

  She quickly moved back when she felt his body trembling.

  When she saw the tears running from his red swollen eyes, her jaw dropped.

  She slowly asked, “Logan, what’s wrong. You’re scaring me.”

  Before Logan could find his voice, a pounding sound came from the door.

  Jamie let go of Logan and started towards the door.

  Logan reached out and his hands tightly grabbed onto Jamie’s arms.

  “Ouch, that hurts Logan,” Jamie said looking startled.

  More hands joined in, the volume of noise at the door was now deafening as the door began to shake on its hinges.

  Next hands began pounding against the glass on the windows. A chorus of groans joined the sounds and echoed throughout the dressing room.

  Jamie looked at Logan. Logan shook his head, “No.”

  When the glass in one of the windows shattered and a gray skinned, bloody, mangled body fell into the room, Jamie screamed.

  Logan finally found his voice, “Jamie, we have to get the hell out of here.”

  Jamie’s confused, pleading eyes looked at Logan, “Logan, what is going on?”

  “I don’t have the least idea,” Logan replied, “This has to be a damn nightmare.”

  The body that had fallen through the window had now managed to get to its feet and moved slowly towards Logan and Jamie.

  Jamie looked stunned, “Danielle?”

  Danielle opened her mouth and a low growl escaped between her black, bloody teeth.

  Her milky white eyes glared at Jamie.

  Jamie screamed again.

  Logan grabbed Jamie’s arm and roughly yanked her across the room.

  Jamie just stared back at Danielle as Logan dragged her across the room.

  “We have to get away from here,” Logan said. “maybe we can go upstairs.”

  Jamie didn’t answer, she just followed, her body offering no resistance to Logan’s tugs, as she began to sob.

  Chapter 17

  Levi pulled Jamie and Lottie into the cabin.

  He closed and locked the door.

  “Leave the lights off,” Levi said as he felt his way into the bedroom where he had left his phone and car keys on the dresser, “Until we know what the hell happened, it might be better if no one knew we were in the cabin.”

  “But I can’t see, it’s so dark,“ Jamie said.

  “Pull the curtains and I’ll light a candle,” Levi replied as he came out of the bedroom clutching his phone.

  “I would if I could see,” Jamie said again.

  Levi pressed the power button on his phone and the screen lit up. He held the phone over his head and the room began to glow a soft blue color.

  “Jamie began to run from window to window, pulling the curtains together with one hand while the other hand was wrapped around George, holding him tightly at her side.

  George for once was quiet. Maybe he too had finally sensed that something was wrong.

  For now, at least, he was content to be tucked under Jamie’s arm.

  After she had closed the curtains, Levi found a candle and a box of matches on the fireplace mantle.

  After two attempts, the match flared brightly. Levi lit the candle and left it on the mantle.

  The room glowed softly in the warm candle light.

  Jamie walked over and sat down on the sofa next to Levi.
<
br />   “What happened back there?” Jamie asked and began to sob. “It was like Logan’s wedding was attacked by terrorists. But why? I don’t understand.”

  “I don’t understand either,” Levi replied as he began to punch in 911 on his phone. “I don’t know what to think. I couldn’t possibly have seen what I thought I saw back there. If I did, then I’ve gone insane.”

  Levi hit the send button and held the phone to his ear.

  He listened to the phone ring about twenty times before it clicked and he heard a voice on the other end.

  “I wanted to….,” Levi started to speak but stopped as the voice continued. It was a recording.

  “All lines are busy at this time. Please try your call again later.” The phone clicked in his ear and then all was silent.

  Levi quickly punched in the numbers 911 again and waited.

  He received the same recorded message.

  Jamie asked, “What?” when Levi didn’t say anything else and sat the phone on the sofa next to him.

  “I got a recording,” Levi said, “the network must be flooded with calls. It said to try again later.”

  “Later,” Jamie protested, becoming hysterical. “Are they crazy? People are getting killed. This can’t wait until later. We need to talk to someone now.”

  “Relax,” Levi said, “I’ll keep trying. We’ll get ahold of someone before long.”

  “What if those people come here? What are we going to do?” Jamie sobbed for a moment then looked up at Levi. “Did you see if my brother got out? I don’t remember seeing him. Maybe you should try to call Logan. If he and Jamie come back from getting their picture taken they could get killed.”

  Levi picked up his phone and pressed Logan’s number.

  He waited a few seconds, then spoke into the phone, “Logan, this is Dad, call me as soon as you get this.” Levi paused again then said, “Whatever you do, do not go back to the reception area without talking to me first. I’m at the cabin, if possible come here first, but call me right away.”