Dead Man Walking

by Gary M. Chesla

  “Maybe the news channels just haven’t picked up the story yet,” Jamie suggested.

  “This has been going on for what, four days now. It would be impossible for something like this to not be on the news somewhere,” Levi replied. “The damn networks get word that some politician looked at some girl sideways and it’s all you see on the news for three days.”

  “Do you think that guy knew what he was talking about?” Jamie asked.

  “It’s beginning to look that way,” Levi replied. “He told me he knew what had happened, but he wouldn’t say any more. He told me it was better that we didn’t know.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Jamie said.

  “He said if we didn’t know anything then we couldn’t tell anyone and get ourselves killed,” Levi replied.

  Jamie started to cry.

  “We can’t let them get away with it,” Jamie sobbed, “Lottie and Matt are dead. Jimmy and his family are dead. Jean, Jason and Jamie’s family are all dead. We have to call the police.”

  “I know,” Levi said. “But let’s go to bed. It will be morning in a few hours. Let’s see what we can find out in the morning and decide what to do then.”

  “I’m not going to be able to sleep,” Jamie said.

  “Me either,” Levi replied, “but we have to try. We’re almost dead om our feet.”

  The next morning, Levi walked out of the bedroom.

  He had dark circles under his eyes.

  Sleep had come in fits, each time interrupted by nightmares.

  It felt as if all the horror and frustrations from the last few days were exploding inside his mind all at once.

  He looked at Jamie who was glued to the TV, punching the remote every few seconds, changing form one station to the next when she didn’t find what she was looking for.

  “Have you seen anything?” Levi asked.

  “Nothing,” Jamie replied throwing the remote at the couch, “Not a damn thing. There was something about riots in Central LA, but that’s nothing new.”

  Levi walked over and opened the front door.

  He picked up the newspaper and sat down on the couch and began to flip through the pages.

  After flipping through a few pages, Levi jumped up and ran over to the phone mounted on the kitchen wall.

  Jamie looked at him, puzzled, trying to figure out what he was doing.

  “Logan,” Levi finally said. “This is Dad, I want you to run over to Costco and pack your car full of groceries. Get as many cases of soup, snacks, crackers, beef jerky, granola bars and anything else that will last for a few weeks that you can get in your car.”

  Levi listened for a moment.

  “Use your Costco card, don’t worry about how much it is going to cost,” Levi said almost yelling. “Fill your car, bring Jamie and George and meet us at your grandmothers in two hours. Trust me. I’ll explain when you get there. Hurry.”

  When Levi hung up the phone, Jamie looked at Levi as he stood by the phone thinking.

  “What was that all about?” Jamie asked. “Why are we going to my Mothers to meet Logan?”

  “Because her house is like a fort,” Levi replied.

  “So what?” Jamie asked.

  “Look at the paper, page six,” Levi replied. “The heading about two thirds of the way down on the right.”

  Jamie opened the paper, turned to page six and began to read the heading out loud.

  “Riots in Central LA don’t deter fans. Zombie walk clashes with rioters.”

  “I saw about the riots on the TV,” Jamie replied. “These other people are crazy to try something like that in Central LA on a normal day let alone during a riot.”

  “Jamie,” Levi said slowly and with a quiver in his voice that made Jamie look up at him.

  Levi slowly repeated himself, “Jamie.” Then he paused, “look at the picture.”

  Jamie raised the paper in front of her face and looked carefully at the picture.

  “Shit!” was all she could say.

  Chapter 36

  Eight months later

  Levi woke up when the sun began to shine through the bedroom window, the sun’s bright rays shining directly across his face.

  He had another restless night’s sleep.

  But that wasn’t anything unusual.

  Every day was a living nightmare in many ways, the nightly dreams were just a replay of what he had seen during the day, or his minds way of coping with what had happened over the last eight months.

  There was no escape.

  It was just the way things were now.

  Levi ran his hands through his long hair and scratched at his face.

  His long beard always made his face feel itchy when he first woke up each morning, but shaving was just too much trouble.

  Besides, he didn’t have to go to work anymore, so who cared. He had always wanted to grow a beard.

  The beard protected his face against the sun and wind and occasionally against flying objects.

  He sat up and pulled on his jeans and buttoned his shirt.

  He located his hat and pulled it down over his head, pushing his long hair out of his eyes and tucking it up under the brim of the hat.

  He stood and stretched, picked up his machete from beside the bed and walked out into the living room.

  Logan was sitting on the couch and smiled at Levi as he entered the room.

  “You want an Oreo Dad?” Logan asked. “I think we have three left. We’ll have to find more if we can. I like Oreo’s. Mornings just wouldn’t be the same without a double stuff Oreo.”

  “No thanks, I’m not hungry this morning,” Levi replied.

  “Where are we going today?” Logan asked.

  I don’t know, I thought we would go down to the pier and maybe try fishing today. I haven’t had fish for a while. I’m kind of hungry for a grilled flounder. What do you think?”

  George ran into the room and barked at Levi, snorting and sniffing as he circled Levi, eyeing him cautiously.

  It usually took George a few minutes each morning, every morning, to recognize Levi now that he had a beard and long hair.

  It usually took George three or four good sniffs or hearing Levi’s voice before he calmed down, his mind finally at ease, before he was satisfied that they weren’t being attacked.

  “It sounds like George is up for fish,” Levi laughed.

  “You would think George would have learned by now that it’s you with a beard,” Logan laughed, “I never realized he was this dense.”

  “Jamie laughed as she trimmed the hair in Buddy’s ears,” I could have told you he was as dense as a rock the day you got him.”

  “Mom, that’s mean,” Jamie (#2) laughed.

  “It’s true,” Jamie said flatly. “Any dog that runs around with a shoe with someone’s foot still in it has a problem.”

  “Mom,” Logan laughed, “that only happened one time.”

  “That’s only because he hasn’t been able to find another shoe with a foot in it,” his mother added.

  Levi chuckled, “What are you girls going to do while Logan and I are out?”

  “Besides keeping George from eating the house,” Jamie replied, “I’ll probably see if I can get the stove to work. It’s been acting up. I think the propane tank might be low. Maybe you should find us another tank unless you want to eat sushi tonight.”

  “I’ll see what I can find,” Levi replied. “We can check out that boat shop on the pier. They should have a tank of propane lying around somewhere.”

  “Sounds good,” Logan replied. “Are our fishing poles still down on the boat?”

  “Hopefully,” Levi replied. “If not, there should be others on one of the other boats. You girls just keep alert while we’re gone. We should be back in a couple of hours.”

  “I want a trout,” Jamie said as she got up to give Levi a kiss.

  After the kiss, she scratched her face.

  “That thing is itchy. I wish you would find some razor blades an
d shave,” Jamie complained.

  “I’ll think about it,” Levi grinned. “And I’ll see if I can catch you a flounder. Trout are fresh water fish and we can only catch those up in the mountains.”

  Jamie (#2) got up and gave Logan a kiss, “Be careful.”

  “I always am,” Logan replied and winked.

  Logan and Levi went out the back door.

  Jamie locked the door after they left.

  They listened at the gate for a moment before quietly opening the lock and stepping out on the street.

  Levi closed the gate, made sure it was tightly locked then turned and started walking.

  They walked down Newport Boulevard towards the pier which was about ten blocks away on the other side of West Balboa.

  Newport Beach is a nice town, or should I say was a nice town.

  Now most of the buildings had been burned out or at best, had been looted long ago and had most of their doors and windows smashed in.

  Cars were scattered haphazardly across the streets and sidewalks.

  Dead bodies covered the streets, sidewalks, yards, the insides of the cars and buildings and just about everywhere else you could think to look.

  It was a sight out of a horror movie.

  The bodies, or what was left of them, had stopped reeking with the sickening smell of death months ago.

  The bodies now were just part of the landscape.

  Logan and Levi had stopped trying to move the bodies away from around their house after the first month.

  There were just too many to move.

  As long as the bodies didn’t stink to high heaven, it was easier to just ignore them and let them be.

  Besides, there was nowhere they could move them that wasn’t already overcrowded with other dead bodies.

  So, they just ignored them. It had become easy to ignore them because there were so many bodies, that they no longer seemed to see the bodies as the gross remains of the dead.

  They often thought how strange is was what the human mind could adjust to and learn to ignore.

  The only time they had felt the need to move any of the bodies anymore, was when they got in their way or when they took George for a walk.

  George liked to chew on bones and thought he had died and gone to heaven whenever they took him for a walk.

  But, hey, that was George.

  They had all come to expect such things from George.

  When it came to George, nothing he did surprised them anymore.

  Eight months ago, when Levi spotted the picture in the newspaper of zombies and rioters clashing in Central LA, it had scared the hell out of him. He knew what was coming, again, and he knew what they had to do.

  The picture reminded him of their three long days at Pine Rose Cabins Resort.

  They went to Jamie’s mothers house in Newport Beach that day, arriving only hours before it began all over again.

  Her Mom’s house was like a fort. It was a two-story building surrounded by a ten-foot high concrete security fence in a gated community. It was exactly what they needed when all hell broke loose.

  It was Pine Rose all over again, but only now on a much larger scale. There were millions of bodies instead of hundreds or thousands.

  Levi knew better than to try and go out of their fortress until everything had run its course.

  The only thing they could do was ride it out.

  He had planned for them to hold up in the house for three days, hoping the dead would begin to drop dead again, like had happened up at Lake Arrowhead.

  However, this time it took two weeks instead of a few days.

  Levi had begun to worry that it was never going to end this time.

  After two days, the power went out.

  The phones stopped working one day before that.

  That was the last they had heard anything about what was going on in the rest of the country or the world.

  The last they did hear, it appeared that the same thing was happening throughout the entire country.

  Levi knew what was coming, but the rest of the world didn’t have a clue what was about to happen.

  It was a relief after two weeks when the dead began to collapse in the streets and their constant groaning finally stopped.

  The smell of death and rotting corpses lasted for a month, but overall, hadn’t been that bad since. Either that or they had just become used to the smell.

  Either way, it wasn’t a problem any more.

  When Levi and Logan finally felt confident enough to go out and explore, they found few clues that there might still be a others that had survived.

  But in eight months now, they never saw another living person.

  Newport Beach was a ghost town.

  As far as they knew, the world was one big ghost town now.

  Maybe one day they would learn differently, but they would worry about that if that time ever came.

  Now they spent all their time just trying to survive.

  Newport Beach had plenty of deserted houses, stores, and boats where they could go to search for food and supplies.

  Someday, Levi knew that they would have to move on.

  The West Coast had numerous other large cities where they could go, when they felt it was time to move on.

  It would be a long walk if they couldn’t find a ride. Most of the car batteries had already died, but that didn’t worry them, they had everything they needed in Newport Beach.

  Maybe Levi would learn to sail a sailboat when the time came.

  But for now, they didn’t bother to plan more than a few days ahead at any one time.

  Life was too uncertain and unpredictable to worry too much about the distant future.

  The distant future or even the near future, may never come.

  The odds were heavily tilted against there being any future, period.

  For now, Newport Beach was their home. The weather was always good and with the ocean for fish and a place to go for an occasional dip, they really couldn’t ask for much more.

  They could ask, but there was no one left to listen.

  “It is what it is,” Levi always told the others. “We learn to cope.”

  The others would always laugh when Levi would say, “We need to be more like George and just live in the moment, except it would probably be best if we didn’t chew on any dead bodies.”

  The only problem they had, other than the struggle to survive, was the confusion caused by all the women in the world having the same name.

  But somehow Levi felt, that even if the girls would have had totally different sounding names, he and Logan would have still spent most of their time feeling like George, confused.

  Thank You for reading Dead Man Walking.

  I hope you enjoyed the story.

  If you would like to be notified of future releases, please email me at” TheExchangePost@comcast.net

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  Your comments and questions are always welcome.

  Until then, I hope you will have an opportunity to look at some of my other books.

  Your interest and your support is greatly appreciated.

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  George likes Zombie Books,

  In fact, he ate two of them this morning.