Dead Man Walking
Page 16
Jamie started to sob again and turned to look back at her brother.
Suddenly Jamie turned back and pulled Logan up next to her, “I saw Jason move. Maybe he isn’t dead? We have to go down and help him.”
“Not yet,” Logan replied as he looked out at Jamie’s brother. “Remember what I said about Connor?”
“But,” Jamie started, “Look he is moving. He needs our….” Jamie stopped and stared.
Her brother rolled over on his stomach. Jamie gasped when she saw the back of her brother’s head. The hair on the back of his head was gone. Dark blood and dirt covered the back of his head.
When her brother staggered to his feet, his right arm remained on the ground where he had been laying. A bloody sleeve dangled from his right shoulder.
Jamie held her hands to her face as she sobbed.
When her brother looked up at the window where Jamie stood, Jamie screamed and dropped to her knees.
Then other bodies began to move and get up off the ground near where her brother stood. Soon twenty bloody gray bodies stood staring up at the window where Jamie and Logan watched.
The groaning started outside, and then was joined by the groaning in the stairwell as it grew louder.
When the door leading out to the reception area began to vibrate as bodies started to slam into the other side of the door, Logan pulled Jamie away from the window.
“I think they saw us, we need to get out of this room.”
“Go where?” Jamie asked, “They have both doors blocked.”
“There is a window in the bathroom. It leads out back behind the building. I don’t think it is too high off the ground. Maybe we can get out through the window if there isn’t anyone out back,” Logan replied and started to pull Jamie towards the bathroom door.
“Do we have to leave?” Jamie asked. “Can’t we do something to help them?”
“Like what?” Logan asked. “Look at what they did to Connor, your brother and everyone else out there. I don’t know if any of those people are still alive, but I don’t think people can still live if their insides have been ripped out or their arms torn off. At best, they are totally out of their minds. Worst case which I am beginning to believe, is that these people were killed and are now coming back as something that wants to kill us, or worse.”
“I can’t believe this,” Jamie said.
“Neither can I, but I don’t think we need to believe anything except we need to get out of here and find someone that can explain what is going on,” Logan replied.
Logan went inside the bathroom and quietly opened the small eighteen by twenty-four-inch window.
He stuck his head out through the open window and scanned the wooded hillside outside the bathroom. Behind the building was clear, for the moment.
“I think we can get out here if we hurry,” Logan said as he turned and watched Jamie squeezing into the bathroom, her wedding dress catching on the door way as she pushed into the room.
“Take off your dress,” Logan said. “You’ll never be able to get through this window in that dress.”
Jamie blushed, “I’m not going out there in my underwear.”
Logan took off his jacket and handed it to Jamie, “You can wear this until we can find you something else. This is no time to worry about being modest.”
“Well, it’s not you who is going to out there in your underwear,” Jamie added.
“I don’t think there is anyone out there that is going to care about what you are wearing,” Logan replied.
Logan then ran out of the bathroom and came back with a pair of tennis shoes. One was missing the shoe laces and the front of the shoe had a ragged hole where her toes would be.
“Here, wear these instead of your high heels, “Logan said. “It will make it easier to run in the grass and through the woods.”
Jamie stared at the shoes, “What happened to your new Nikes?”
“George,” Logan replied, “Hurry.”
Jamie quickly took off her dress, slipped on the shoes and put on Logan’s jacket.
“I look like some homeless clown,” Jamie sighed as she looked at the over-sized jacket that hung on her small frame and down at the big floppy shoes on her feet.
Logan smiled, “We can discuss fashion later, right now …”
Logan stopped in mid-sentence when he heard the front door, under the weight of all the bodies pushing against it, pull away from the hinges and crash into the room.
The groaning now sounded like it was coming from only a few feet away.
Logan quickly shut the bathroom door, then turned and stuck his head out the bathroom window for a quick look.
“Come on, you’re going out first,” Logan whispered.
Before Jamie could say a word, Logan grabbed Jamie’s arms and pulled her close to him. He then reached down with his right arm and scooped her off the floor.
He turned and pushed her out the window feet first.
When Jamie landed on the ground outside the window, Logan followed head first and landed on his head as he fell the last foot to the ground.
He got up off the ground and rubbed his head.
Logan took Jamie’s hand and led her down the embankment behind the building.
“Where are we going?” Jamie asked as she griped the inside of the shoes with her toes to keep them from falling off her feet.
“We’re going to go out back and see if we can take the limo,” Logan replied.
“Good,” Jamie replied, “It’s getting dark, my butt is cold and I’m going to kill myself in these shoes.”
When they reached the bottom of the embankment, Logan stopped then quickly looked around the corner of the building.
“I can see the limo,” he whispered.
“Then let’s go,” Jamie whispered back.
“I don’t see the driver,” Logan replied, “I hope he left the keys in the car. Stay behind me.”
They moved slowly with their backs against the log cabin style siding on the building until they were at the corner.
The limo sat twenty feet away on the gravel access driveway that led from the parking lot in the front of the building.
Logan took a quick look.
“Shit,” he said. “There are about ten people, or whatever they are now, coming this way. When I say go, you run to the passenger’s side and get in. I’m going to run to the driver’s door.”
“And if there isn’t a key?” Jamie asked.
“We run,” Logan replied, “If we don’t go now, we’ll never know if the key is in the car or not and we’ll have to run anyhow.”
Jamie nodded.
“Go!” Logan said and they both began to run.
The gross bodies began to moan loudly when they saw Logan and Jamie run out from the building.
When they reached the car, Jamie called out, “My door is locked!”
“Mine too,” Logan replied and began to look around frantically.
Finally, Logan spotted the driver, his bloody body lying in the grass near the door that Jamie had used to go in to the bathroom.
“Wait here, I see the driver,” Logan yelled over the eerie groaning that filled the air around them, “I’m going to see if I can find the keys in the driver’s pockets.”
Logan ran towards the driver. He was ten feet away from the body when he heard Jamie scream.
He stopped and looked back towards the car.
Jamie was screaming as two grisly figures were coming around each end of the limo.
Some guy, or what was left of him, was closing in on Jamie from the front end of the car. A woman, dressed in a bloody slip and bloody bare feet, was coming from behind the car.
Logan took a quick glance at the driver’s body and then at the gruesome mob that was now only fifteen feet away.
He turned and ran back to Jamie.
When he reached the car, Jamie was screaming hysterically as the man had ahold of one of her arms. The woman moved closer and grabbed Jamie’s free arm.
Logan ran around the back of the car and grabbed the woman and pushed her to the ground.
The woman tumbled to the ground, but she managed to maintain her grip on Jamie’s jacket.
Jamie fell to the ground, pulling the man down next to her as she fell.
Logan kicked the man, but it appeared neither of the two creatures were going to let go of Jamie.
Logan knew if he tried to pull the man away, the woman would probably bite Jamie.
If he tried to stop the woman from getting to Jamie, the man would bite her.
He quickly decided he didn’t have the time to fight off both creatures that were frantically struggling to get to at Jamie.
He only had enough time to deal with one person at a time.
Logan quickly bent over and ripped Jamie’s jacket open. He then grabbed Jamie’s feet and pulled as hard as he could.
Jamie slid out of the jacket as her arms broke free.
Logan dragged her away, about five feet from her two attackers, before pulling her to her feet.
She looked too confused and stunned by what had happened to run on her own.
Logan threw her over his shoulder, turned and ran.
The mob coming from the reception area arrived at the car as Logan ran up the gravel drive way.
When he reached the parking lot, he found the parking lot was full of parked cars, but he couldn’t see anything moving.
“You can put me down now,” Jamie said.
“Quiet,” Logan replied as he walked quickly across the parking lot.
When he reached the path on the other side of the parking lot that led to the cabins, he walked a few feet into the woods and gently put Jamie down.
“Are you alright?” he asked as he looked over her arms in the fading light. It was getting dark and the stars were starting to appear in the sky. “They looked like they were trying to bite your arms.”
Jamie first looked at her arms and then rubbed her butt, “I think my arms are fine but my butt feels like I was dragged behind a horse for two miles.”
“Sorry,” Logan replied, “That was the only way I could think of to get you away from those two.”
“Logan, it was horrible to see those people up so close,” Jamie said, her voice shaking, “They smelled so bad and they were like animals. Their teeth were bloody and their eyes were all white. They didn’t have any pupils or whatever it is that gives your eyes color.”
Jamie looked at Logan, “Their skin was so cold. I can’t believe how cold they felt. That man had a big chunk missing from his leg. Logan, they weren’t alive. They had to be dead, but that doesn’t make any sense.”
Logan started to take off his tie and shirt, “I don’t think any of this makes sense and I’m not going to try to figure it out. We are going to go someplace safe, then we can try to find out what’s going on.”
“Why are you getting undressed?” Jamie asked as she watched Logan pull off his shirt.
“I’m just taking off my shirt,” he replied, “I think it will do more good on you than it will on me right now.”
He slipped the shirt over Jamie’s arms and began to button it for her.
“Logan,” Jamie said as she started shaking all over and raised her arm, pointing at the parking lot, “Those things are coming across the parking lot.”
Logan buttoned the last button, “This path leads to the cabins. It’s going to be dark soon. We need to find someplace safe to hide until morning.”
Jamie took two steps then stopped, “I can’t go through the woods in my bare feet. I lost my shoes back at the limo and it hurts my feet too much.”
Logan looked down at Jamie’s bare feet. There was blood covering her little toe and the side of her foot.
He quickly pulled off his shoes and set them in front of Jamie, “Put these on.”
“I can’t take your shoes,” she said.
“We’ll you can’t go in your bare feet and I don’t think I can carry you any further,” Logan replied. “I think you’ve gained a few pounds.”
Jamie’s eye grew large.
“I’m joking, let’s go,” Logan said as he grabbed Jamie’s arm and started quickly down the path. “I think we will go over to my Mom and Dad’s cabin.” Logan said.
Jamie could hear his voice begin to shake as he mentioned his parents.
“We can stay there tonight and we should be able to find some clothes that we can change into.”
“OK,” Jamie whispered as her eyes teared up and clouded her vision.
She tightened her grip on Logan’s hand to steady herself and to comfort Logan.
It was not going to be the wedding night that she and Logan had planned on for so long.
Chapter 20
Levi ran into the cabin as he heard another scream.
Buddy and George were barking fiercely.
Levi reached out and hit the light switch, but nothing happened.
“The power is out,” he remembered.
Levi looked around in the darkness of the cabin.
Light was shining out from under the spare bedroom door where he had left Jamie, Lottie and the dogs when he left to go up to the office.
He rushed over to the door, turned the handle and pushed the door open.
The light coming from the candle blinded him after all the time he had spent making his way around the Pine Rose Resort with only starlight to guide him.
His eyes slowly adjusted enough for him to see Jamie on her back on the floor.
Lottie was on top of her mother, growling fiercely as she grabbed and pulled at her mother’s arms.
Levi heard a strange sound that he couldn’t identify. He moved closer to his wife and daughter.
“Lottie, Jamie, what are you doing?” Levi shouted.
Lottie stopped attacking Jamie. Her head stopped moving for a second, as if she was thinking. Her head tilted to the right side.
Jamie looked up at Levi when Lottie stopped her attack.
“Levi, help me,” Jamie screamed, “Lottie is trying to kill me. She’s gone crazy.”
“Lottie!” Levi said. “Get off your mother.”
Lottie’s sat up straight, her head started to turn towards Levi.
Levi gasped when he saw Lottie’s face.
The gray color of her skin made Levi freeze.
Then he saw Lottie’s lifeless dull white eyes that seemed to glare at him.
When her black teeth began snapping together, he knew what the strange sound was he had heard.
“Levi, get her off me,” Jamie shouted again, “she’s crazy!”
Levi’s heart sank as he looked at Lottie.
He knew she wasn’t crazy. He had seen this look earlier tonight. It was the look of the man that had killed Matt, ripped out his throat and was chewing on Matt’s flesh.
He had seen more than just the man that had killed Matt in this condition.
He had seen dozens of people that looked like Lottie, all attacking and killing the guests at the wedding reception.
They were all animals, killing machines, and now Lottie was one of these peoples.
Lottie again began to moan. Dark blood was now running from her mouth and nose as she growled.
Buddy ran out of the room.
George ran behind Levi and then looked out around Levi’s legs and began to growl and bark.
“Come here Lottie,“ Levi said. “Jamie just hold still and be quiet until Lottie gets off you.”
Jamie looked pissed, but did as Levi said.
“Come here Lottie,” Levi said as tears began to run down his cheeks.
Lottie staggered to her feet and stared at Levi.
“Jamie, slowly get up and get out of the room,” Levi said.
Levi moved slowly away from the door.
&nbs
p; He looked at Lottie, at the moaning creature she had become. Her white eyes, black teeth, gray skin and the blood running down her chin.
But all Levi saw was his little girl. The little girl he had taken to dance classes and then attended her dance recitals. The little girl that he taught to ride the horse her grandmother had bought her. How many times over the years they had fed and brushed Waffle together. His little girl that had grown up and gone to college and got her degree in theatre.
He remembered all the plays he had attended to see Lottie doing what she had always wanted to do.
Levi snapped out of his memories when Jamie rushed by him.
“Take George,” Levi said as Jamie rushed by.
Jamie grabbed George and screamed, “She’s crazy, Levi.”
Levi pushed the door closed behind Jamie.
“Lottie, can you hear me?” Levi asked sadly.
Lottie growled and shuffled closer to Levi.
Levi looked at the seeping wound on her shoulder. The place where she had been bitten at the reception.
He understood what had happened.
The bite had infected Lottie and made her become what was standing in front of him.
Levi also knew, if Lottie bit him, he would also probably become what Lottie had become.
He wanted to help Lottie, but he didn’t know how or even if helping her was now possible.
But he was going to try to help his little girl, not trying wasn’t even an option.
Levi moved closer.
When Lottie raised her arms to reach for him, Levi grabbed her wrists.
The first thing he noticed was how cold her skin felt.
The second thing he noticed was her face thrusting towards his hands as her teeth loudly snapped rapidly as her face moved closer to his hands.