The Z Strain

by Matthew Isaiah Crawford

  “Look for yourself bub.” Gary said pointing at the door. Andrew Spencer, recently appointed assistant daytime manager as of ten days ago walked confidently past the police officer to the front door. On the ground there is a crumpled mass of a woman whose face had been caved in. This was only his second shift where he was left in charge, and he knew when he walked in this morning that something was going to go wrong, though he never would have imagined any scenarios even close to this. He figured they would run out of diet Pepsi or something.

  “Jesus. And you say she did this to herself.” Andrew asked turning back towards the police officer.

  “Yea, throwing herself at the door, trying to get in. Trying to get at us.” That sent a shockwave of reality through the crowd that could be seen and felt by all present.

  “What do we do now?” An unseen man in the back called out.”

  “For now, let’s make sure all the exits are secure, I’ll try the radio again, see if I can find out what the hell is going on out there.”

  Gary moved walked behind the counted and into one of the store rooms off of the kitchen where he could get some quiet. The rest of the dining room erupted in chatter. At least he could see that they were locking the front doors and the little snot-nosed manager Andrew was running off towards the back door, presumably to lock it as well. Gary proceeded to go through each of the police channel attempting to get someone else on the line. Gary had gone through all the channels with no results, every channel was static. He was almost through with his second pass through all the channels and was about to give up when there was a squelch and a voice came over the line. It was so abrupt it made Gary jump back from the radio a bit.

  “This is Brian McCaffery. I’m not law enforcement, but I monitor the police bands. If anyone can hear me, please respond.”

  “Gary Ford, Moline PD, I’m held up with about a dozen people at the Burger King. Do you know what’s going on out there?”

  “I have a good view of town where I live, and I can tell you that you are on your own. There is unrest in every corner of the city.” Gary didn’t respond. Shit, did you say the Burger King? I’d keep your heads down, there’s a large group coming out of the high school looks to be about a thousand of those fuckers.”

  “A thousand what?”

  “Zombies man. Fucking Zombies. And they are heading straight for you.” The radio squelched off. Gary stood there for a long moment contemplating how to share this news with the group when a hushed voice echoed down the hallway.

  “Shh, Shh, get down, be quiet. Turn off the lights.” A whispered voices came from the other side of the room.

  “What is wrong with those people?”

  “Stay down and shut up.” Tension hung high in the air and began to compound when the group started to hear the sound. It was almost indistinguishable at first, but then it got louder, and louder. It was moaning. All of them outside were moaning, suddenly it sounded like there was a swarm of bees or something outside the doors. Some of the children were crying, one woman out of the group was panicking as a result and was nearly smothering her child, a young boy who only appeared to be two or three years old. Outside the swarm of dead would run into the building as you would hear a thud resound throughout the room every once and a while.

  All of them kept their heads down, under tables and against the wall until finally the sounds of the undead started to fade. They all waited for a solid minute before someone broke the silence. A flood of conversation followed.

  “Okay, they’re gone. What the hell is going on out there? Did you see those people, why were they were all fucked up?” A cacophony of panicked voices began to fill the room. Gary walks out from the back room with his hands in the air. The crowd hushed and gave him his full attention.

  “Officer, officer, what the hell is going on out there?” One man blurted. Gary’s hand came to his mouth, and he thought for a long hard moment before deciding to respond as simply and as plainly as he could. He lifted his hand from his mouth making a guessing gesture with his hands.

  “Zombies.” He said blankly. That was returned by a room full of blank stares and confusion.

  “You mean, like night of the living dead? Zombies?”

  “That’s what the guy on the radio said, that would explain why that woman killed herself trying to get through the door.

  “So, what now?” A brunette woman with glasses asks.

  “Now? I don’t know. I think we hold tight, it’s going to be dark in a couple hours. I say we move to the back, get away from these windows, and hold tight till morning.” The officer turned to the manager. “Andrew, right?” Andrew, a slightly overweight kid with his shirt tucked in haphazardly nodded. “Andrew, two questions. Is there access to the roof from inside the building?”

  “Um, yea, in the back-storage closet, there’s a ladder. The hatch is padlocked though.

  “Do you have the key?”

  “No, not yet, they just made me manager a week and a half ago, I only have the shift keys, not the manager keys.”

  “Are there any tools or bolt cutters to cut the lock?” Andrew nodded and pointed. He was about to speak when Gary interrupted him.

  “Look, Andrew, we’ve got a lot of scared people here.” Andrew nodded in acceptance. “We don’t want to add to their panic, but we need to move everyone into the back of the house.

  “Those areas are for employees only.” He said. Gary’s face changed, Andrew could tell he was annoyed, and regretted saying it as soon as the words left his mouth. “Sure, sure. I’m sorry.” Andrew said turning towards the dining room. Gary looked around the room. There was a mother with her three children who looked to be near a state of panic. There’s a husband and wife, young. You can just tell that she’s whispering passive aggressive comments in his ear about something. Then there was a single man, or man child depending on your definition. He was overweight with round glasses. With a light blue shirt with a Nintendo controller on it and the phrase “Classically Trained” inscribed across the bottom.

  “You, sir, blue shirt, come her for a minute please.” He pointed at the curly haired man who looked over at the officer in shock.

  “Sure officer.” Magnus Pritchard, a five-foot five asthmatic whose greatest accomplishments to date in his twenty years of life have been touching a boob (Inadvertently at Lenny Gellers birthday party he grabbed Lenny’s older sister’s breast in the pool), and of course winning a Madden football tournament at the age of sixteen. Which in his mind was his true crowning achievement, and he boasts about as frequently as possible.

  “What’s your name son?” Gary asked.

  “Magnus, but my friends call me Mag.”

  “Listen Mag. I want to cover up these windows, I want you to go in the back and ask Andrew if he can give you some paper, or cardboard boxes and some tape to cover up these windows. If they can’t see us, maybe they won’t try to get in, right?”

  “Um, right, um. I don’t think I’m allowed back there.”

  “Mag, the restaurant is closed, no one else is coming in, and no one is going to say anything to you being in the back okay?”

  “Um, sure, okay.” He said as he began walking. Gary couldn’t help but notice the amount of flesh that was moving underneath that blue t-shirt. Magnus walked passed the counter and into to the back of the restaurant. As Gary had predicted, no one cared.

  Friday August 16th, 6:22 PM

  New York City Subway Tunnel

  Abilene Washington had spent the last decade living on the streets of New York City. An overweight black woman in her late fifties, she had swaths of grey hair running in streaks through her thick curly hair. She had always known that she had never been what people would call normal. Abilene had suspicions beginning at a very young age that she was not, nor would she ever truly be sane, though she did put on a very convincing act for a very long time. She believed that she saw a layer of existence beneath what most people could see. As if she could catch glimpses into a person’s true self,
their hidden self. Abilene graduated high school like she knew she was supposed to. She went to college, because that was what was expected of her. She received a degree in business management, she married her college sweetheart just out of college. She had two children and was married for nearly five years. She had a beautiful apartment near Central Park, she drove a leased Mercedes, and rarely wore the same outfit more than once. By most accounts people would say that she had a perfect life.

  One morning nearly fifteen years ago, she awoke from a dream, and was absolutely convinced that she had seen beneath her own family’s true intentions. She believed that her husband and children were in fact demons. She knew that they had been sent here to deceive and trick her into condemning herself to hell. She understood that they would then proceed to corrode the souls of anyone they could get their hands on.

  She couldn’t allow that to happen, so she calmly collected her still sleeping children one and then the other. She drowned the demons in the bathtub with a look of calm and resolve. Holding their little devil heads under the water as they thrashed. She has personally blessed the water herself just before so that hopefully their souls could be separated from the demons and returned to the kingdom of heaven.

  She laid her children side by side on the marble floor. She closed their eyes and crossed their little hands across their chests. She used her nails to fix their hair.

  She then walked into the kitchen as if nothing in the world was wrong with her life. She proceeded to smash a chair and assemble a makeshift cross with a wire hanger. Holding the cross in her hand she walked back into the bedroom. She looked down at her husband, a pang of pain flashed across her face for the briefest of moments before plunging the cross into her husband’s chest.

  After the murder of her family Abilene made herself a pot of coffee, read the morning paper, took a shower, and got dressed before calling 911 and explaining to the dispatcher that her family was actually a hoard of demons in disguise sent from hell to destroy her, and they had to be sent back to hell.

  At the trial Abilene Washington pled guilty by reason of insanity, and she was remanded to the state health facility where she would remain for seven years. It took her that long to convince them that she had changed. She had to put on a very convincing act to prove to the doctors that she had returned to sanity. It took years, but she finally freed herself from that hell. A hell which had included regular rape by the hands of the guards, physical abuses both at the hands of other wards of the state, as well as by the doctors, and wards who were supposed to be caring for her.

  Initially she was released to a halfway house. They were supposed to help her rejoin society. It didn’t take Abilene long to figure out that she was never going to make it in a “regular” life. She was no longer suited for a nine to five job, or any semblance of a relationship. It took less than six months before she was on the verge of being evicted from the halfway house. Abilene knew that she would be returned to the hospital should that happen. So instead she took to the streets and disappeared. On the streets the parameters set by her own mind were reasonably sound and kept her safe. She never talked to men if they were alone, only if there were other people around. When heading to her home which was a hole in the wall under an old subway platform. Inside was a hollow large enough for her to spread out, but easy to conceal when she was away. She regularly walked past several times to make sure she wasn’t followed before entering. She was always armed with several blades and had become fairly adept at protecting herself. When the virus began to spread it was her self-imposed isolation that kept her safe.

  As someone who had grown to despise most of humanity, when she heard screams of terror coming from the surface this morning, she decided to stay in. She placed the cardboard back in front of the hole and ate some breakfast. A little after noon she was walking through the sewers. She had to venture out to find some more food. She was passing underneath a grate when she saw someone hit face first above her. A stream of blood cascading down into the sewer water in front of her. She stood and watched for a few moments as the young man’s eyes glazed over. She thought to herself that it was strange that someone would by lying dead in the streets and no one was coming to help. When the young man jumped up and ran off. Abilene knew exactly what was going on. The rapture had finally come, and demons now ruled the earth. She knew she had to be careful to avoid their detection, as it sounded as though they were many. She also knew where she would need to go next.

  She ventured out far enough to see the demons attacking the living. She watched as the recently killed then joined the fight of the dammed. Abilene knew from that moment that she had been chosen. She knew that she was a soldier of God. Her husband and children had been demons. She had to kill them to lead her here. She had to follow this path so that she would be able to survive and fight.

  Summerville South Carolina

  Friday August 16th, 8:01 PM

  At 7:15 AM this morning Carla Henderson served her family breakfast. Her curly hair hung just below her cheekbones. Freckles were splashed across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. She had always hated them, but her husband Nick thought they were adorable and swore that he had kissed each and every one at some point in their relationship. Their three daughters sat with them at the breakfast table. They ate, talked, and laughed fore Nick left for work at 7:42 AM. His work attire consisted of a plain blue t-shirt, and a pair of jeans. He worked at the shipping yards driving a forklift.

  Their three daughters lined up in age order to give their father a long and loving embrace before he departed for work. First the impatient toddler, her blonde hair in messy pigtails. Then 4-year-old Sarah with her dark hair cut with straight bangs. Last it was their 8-year-old daughter Molly. Her straight blonde hair clipped out of her face with pins. Nick then kissed his wife Carla before heading out the door.

  Carla sent the children out to the back yard to play for a while. Around 10 Molly came in with a scrape on her knee. Carla applied a Band-Aid, gave her three freezer pops to distribute to her sisters, and sent her back outside. At 11:10 AM the kids came back inside, where Carla served the children Kraft macaroni and cheese with tuna fish and peas. One of the children’s favorite dishes.

  During lunch, the children were seated at the table watching some nameless children’s show when an emergency news broadcast interrupted the programing. At first Carla hardly noticed, she continued cleaning the kitchen until one phrase caught her attention. Never before had the words “zombie outbreak” been uttered on a news broadcast. She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the television. Her children continued to hoot and holler at the dining room table.

  “Shush now. Momma’s tryin to hear the news.” The

  “Put show back on!” yelled Brittany, who was now adorned with her princess tiara that had a large number 2 on it. She’d received on her recent birthday, and hadn’t taken it off other than to bathe.

  “Hush now!” Carla belted out, after that, the voices quieted. There wasn’t much more information flowing out of the television yet, a young woman with a bad perm advised for everyone to stay inside your house, barricade windows and doors and await further instruction. Within a matter of minutes, she had ushered her children into the basement. She locked them down there as she scurried around the house as quickly as possible securing the windows and doors and gathering some supplies.

  Now, hours later, Carla Henderson found barricaded herself in her basement with her three daughters, who were playing quietly in the corner for the moment. Carla turned on the television though the news so far this morning had done nothing but terrify her. She had told herself that she wasn’t going to watch any more of the news until her husband returned home.

  The story displayed on the local news were images taken from a helicopter. The cameras above showed the flood of people trying to flee the cities. They were overwhelming the ships at the Detyens Ship yard where her husband worked. There were shootings first, fighting, stabbings, then came the creatures. Th
ey were running, screaming, killing, and bleeding. She began to cry watching the horrific images on the screen. Fearing for her husband, her children, and her own life. The shipyards are a short drive from their home. She had been trying to reach her husband on and off for hours with no success. The phone said the same thing every time she tried to dial out.

  “I’m sorry all lines are currently busy, please try again later.”

  She was hopeful in the beginning, but now, with so many hours passed and so many attempted phone calls, she knew in her heart that her husband Nick was dead. She thought about what to tell the children, how horrible their reactions would be. They loved their father so much, Carly decided that she didn’t want to let on to the children yet. She was also very concerned that they would not be able to stay in this basement for long. There were only about four day’s rations in the hurricane box. The news broadcast continued its broadcast with a somber tone. Guy Richards paused, took a deep breath and looked directly into the camera.

  “To all the citizens in our viewing area. I’m told that I only have a few more moments before we go off the air, and switch to the emergency broadcast system. In the alert it will tell you of the local safe zones where the US military has set up temporary bases. If you have the means I strongly urge you to try to get to one of these safe zones.” He paused and took another long breath. “If you do not have the means or are too afraid you must barricade yourself in your house. Locking doors will not stop them for long… Okay, I’m told we only have thirty seconds. The following images are disturbing, but please for your own safety and wellbeing, I urge you to watch.” The screen showed images of a downtown area that was being swarmed and overrun by the creatures. They then switched to the weather screen with a thermal imaging camera. It seemed to be spreading out like a science fiction virus. Waves and waves of the creatures spilling into every street. Carla covered her mouth in shock.