Children of the Dead, page 18
He pushed up to his knees and then to the door, pressing firmly against it. The effort prodded his headache into a new screaming fit. The door gave a little, and only a little. The clink of chains sounded from the other side. He was locked in. Dizziness crept in and he plopped back to the floor. His last thought was, I don’t think you’re supposed to go to sleep with a concussion, and he passed out once again.
Siege
The dead swarmed the Campbell house from everywhere; from nowhere. The afternoon had been so still, a tease of benign days ahead. Not anymore. The house fell under siege by a hungry, gnashing mob.
“You’re in trouble, Jodi. You’re going to get it.” Jessica giggled with all the pleasure of a rattlesnake. There was a large, red welt on her face from Jodi’s little tap.
“Shut your mouth.” Jodi stared at her sister in shock. How was this the same girl she had mostly raised and cared for, when everyone else had abandoned them? The animosity from Jessica was transparent. For perhaps the first time, Jodi felt what others experienced upon spending any time with her “special” sibling: fear. No, she thought. It’s nothing so dramatic. It’s the same fucked up mind games Jessica played with anyone, usually at the least appropriate moment. There were graver concerns than Jessica’s taunting. HE was coming, but he would not be getting into that house without a fight. Daddy’s dead, she thought. The idea was emotionless and irrelevant. Jodi, pushing adrenaline, got to her feet and took command.
“Tommy, help me to move this back in front of the window. And YOU.” Jodi pointed at her sister. “Stay right there.” Jessica smirked in response. Jodi and Tommy replaced the table boards across the shattered window, barring the one adjacent as well. The defense out here was weak at best.
“I had to bweak it. I couldn’t get it open. I’m sowry—” Tommy began, blubbering.
“It’s okay, Tommy. You saved my life.” Jodi bent down and gave him a firm, reassuring hug. She felt a series of sharp aches and pains from her torso. Pulling back, she left fresh blood stains on Tommy’s clothes. “Wonderful,” she said surveying the personal damage. Jodi couldn’t tell the severity. They might not be too deep or she could drop unconscious of blood loss before long. In any case, there was no water to wash her wounds or time to dress them.
Jodi peered through the edges of their defense into the backyard. It was a sudden effort not to fall into blind panic. There were dozens of them out there now and the aimless wandering was over. The dead had a destination, a purpose, and Jodi was trapped inside it. She turned to her two charges and took a few deep breaths. Tommy returned an expectant look. Jessica’s face was amused.
For an instant there was quiet, as if out of sight meant a simple escape. The moans outside, which had been rising in intensity, subsided for a moment. Jodi wished nothing more than to walk calmly back to her Grandmother’s bedroom and fall to the bed, peacefully asleep. She even entertained the fantasy that she was there now, this awful experience a product of a cheap microwave burrito and stress. Then, the first wave of the horde hit the house. Jodi and Tommy jumped a rush of loud banging. Jessica was composed, expectant. The sound of a few dozen hands slapping at the siding and windows made for a chilling beat.
“What do we do, Jodi?” Tommy asked beside her, slipping his hand into her own. The beating, clawing cacophony outside grew as the number of dead at the house nearly doubled. The origin of the zombie mob was baffling. The empty yard and quiet day was camouflage. They had never left the house, only moved off into the forest where living things still scurried about. The dead required only the basic stimulus of life to come running. Jodi had rung the dinner bell.
She and David had talked over their tactics, retreats, and weaknesses. The most furious assault was being laid to the laundry room and back door. The entire rear extension of the house vibrated with it.
“Let’s get further inside. Now!”
*****
Time in a dream is immaterial. It doesn’t conform to what the dreamer feels is appropriate. Nightmares stretch their minutes into hours and endless scene changes. A sudden awakening reveals to the sleeper only the passage of moments in an enduring night full of horror. So the nightmare wreaks havoc even upon the sleepless.
David was back in his bedroom, laid out on his twin mattress. He could not move or talk; could not react in any way. All he could manage was eye contact with the corpse of his mother. She stood above him, crushing his throat with one rotten claw. The electricity within her shell coursed down the arm. David’s body felt the rushing electrical tingle of the dead’s touch, but this time there was no flight. His vision and his life folded away and he awoke on the dirt floor of the shed yet again. He had lost count of the nightmare cycle inside the tin shed. The light was failing in the early fall evening. He had no idea how long he had been lying here.
Voices came from just outside the shed, and the sound of chains and locks releasing. He sat up and his head did not swim. He was finally and firmly awake. The door of the shed creaked open and Rodney came striding in. There were others outside but David could make out nothing past those sweaty, burning eyes. He instinctively went for his pocketknife, but the bulge was gone. They had taken everything from him.
“Some said you were screamin’ in here, sweetheart,” Rodney said. “You got friends outside and they’re convincing. I’m gonna let you out of here. But understand, this ain’t a pardon. You pointed a fucking gun at me.”
“Why didn’t you shoot me or just run me over or something? It’s not like you’d go to jail for it.”
Rodney beamed a smile and squatted down. “I don’t like you, David, never did. I don’t know why I didn’t kill you. I’ve been a real hard-ass these last few days.” Rodney looked towards the dirt. His eyes were bloodshot and under slung with dark circles. “Some things had to be done to make sure me and mine survived. Maybe I coulda done different. I don’t know. It’s a broken world out there.” His attention snapped back to David. “Maybe I’m just saving you for later.” He stood up. “Like I said, I don’t know. They took responsibility for you.” He cocked a thumb over his shoulder. “Said you’d be quiet and might even get to be useful. If not, there’s always later.” Rodney turned and walked outside and another entered right behind.
Maria Wheeler, seventeen, was a mousy girl and, until the zombie apocalypse, one of the smartest in her class. She had been a classmate of David’s since kindergarten. The two hadn’t stayed in the same social strata, not since the end of middle school at least. He still counted her as a friend. They had begun to grow close again leading up to his mother’s cancer diagnosis. She had shown real care for her childhood friend. David watched his mother shrivel, his father neglect them both, and he let everything else fall away. School since had become like a dream; disjointed, fractured, and easily forgotten. He skipped a quarter of the days in between to take care of his mother.
Maria fell aside as well. She had been missing a lot of school over that past year, and generally seemed to have fallen off the face of the Earth at times. It had been months since they had actually seen one another. Otherwise, it was an occasional text, a clipped instant message “hello” or just web stalking the social sites for status updates. Neither of them cared to post much of their personal lives anyway. Now she was right in front of him and something was different. Maria came forward with a wet washcloth and pressed it to the wound on David’s head.
“Hey, David. I know this hurts, sorry.” She looked back at the empty doorway. “I thought he wasn’t going to let me in here?” She looked frightened.
“Maria? Where am I?” David winced at every press of the cloth.
“Come on. Let’s get out of here.” Maria stood slowly and popped her back. There was the difference: a noticeable bulge to her stomach through the faded sun dress.
“Maria, are you—“
“Hey, fucker. Why’d you go and piss off Rodney?”
Wayne Gooch stepped into the doorway. The grin on his face was bright, almost enough to cover the severe strain of fatigue in his eyes. He entered and helped David to his feet. “I’m glad you made it.” He followed the sentiment with an unexpected gesture. He gave David a warm hug.
David was stunned at the appearance of his friends, alive in all the chaos. He flashed briefly to the image of the twin brother, Todd, lying shattered in the creek bed. There was a strong urge to beg Wayne’s forgiveness, but he held back. Instead, he met his friend’s smile and his embrace. David even allowed himself a small measure of relief. The three of them exited the tin shed and immediately David recognized his surroundings.
Jack Hugh’s Auto Salvage was a massive enterprise in relation to the rest of Harmony. It covered about ten football fields of battered automobiles and God knows what else stacked in a teetering, twisting maze of metal. The entire area was surrounded by a ten-foot high reinforced steel fence rimmed with coiled barbwire. In the midst of these new dark ages, someone had found a fortress.
David surveyed the glittering wrecks stretching across the expanse behind the shed. Massive power poles jutted from the ground at intervals but were dead with the sun still up, though low on the horizon. The shed was an underused storage building turned holding cell. Beside this was a much larger roofed structure, the engine barn. Its open front revealed row after row of engine blocks stacked on shelves as high as 20 feet. A forklift sat on the oily concrete floor. Next to this was a set of loading docks for parts delivery. The largest building was a few hundred feet away at the front of the yard. It housed the front office, sales floor, and other various functions demanded of a used auto parts enterprise. Beside the office was a large wrecking truck used for hauling. It was the only visible intact automobile.
“The junk yard. How long have you guys been here?” David asked.
“Since the first night,” Wayne began. “I was at Joe’s house drinkin’. His parents don’t give a shit about the beer as long as we leave the liquor cabinet alone. Rodney showed up and said the most fucked up thing was happenin’. We turned on the news and freaked out…” Wayne trailed off here.
“Rodney works here,” Maria continued. “He brought us all here. It’s the safest place in town.” She rubbed her stomach, looking weary and a decade older.
“The fence keeps them out, David. We’re safe.” They crossed through the loading dock and on towards the main sales building. An outside flood light flickered on as dusk crept along the tree tops. Night was coming. David remembered his mission.
“Shit! Wayne, can you spare an extra car?” David asked. “There are others, trapped in a house out on 11. You remember Jodi Campbell? Her grandmother’s house.” Maria nodded. “I have to go get them, bring them here.” His vision swam and he would have collapsed, save for Wayne’s quick hand. “That is why I came into town,” he finished with a struggle. “The city water cut off. Not much food.” David steadied himself.
Wayne shook his head. “We only have the wrecker and the Blazer running. Not many cars left un-wrecked around town. Some son of a bitch ran me off the road the first night coming here. My fucking truck is totaled.” Wayne spat on the ground, obviously still pissed.
“Anyway,” Wayne continued. “Rodney keeps all the keys, but he’s not going to let you have either one. Especially with it gettin’ dark soon.” He gave David a strained smile. “Rodney runs this place. Don’t cause too much trouble. We don’t have anywhere else to go.”
“There are cars all over town, you’re telling me you got none of them up and running?” David didn’t believe it.
“Where are we going to go, man?” Wayne asked, angry. “It’s been all we can do to keep the fence clear on this place and make it worth living.” He calmed. “I’ve tried, but Rodney gets pissed if you bring it up. He goes out to get us things and he picks who he takes along with him. So far, it ain’t been me and I stopped asking. I just want to stay safe and making Rodney mad ain’t the way.”
“I’m sorry. You know I’m a little hard-headed sometimes.” David gave his friend a familiar smile.
“I know you are, and it makes me mad as hell every time.” Wayne returned the smile. The boys had had plenty of heated arguments before, whether over a video game, sports, or just because they were bored. Two stubborn boys bounce off one another as easily as they get along.
“I’ll ask Rodney for you, David,” Maria said. “But it’ll have to be tomorrow. Sorry. Nobody leaves at night.” Maria tried her own calming smile as she let him down.
“I can be back before dark if I go now!”
“Sorry, buddy.” Wayne shrugged. “It can’t happen tonight.”
David walked up to a bench outside the main office building. He plopped down and looked at Wayne. “I need to tell you something.”
“I’ll see you soon, guys. Can’t be late with dinner. I’m glad you’re okay.” Maria patted David’s shoulder and went inside.
Wayne noted the sorrowful expression on David’s face. It had taken days to crush back the worry and deal with just surviving. He could only hope his family was locked up at home and safe. Todd wouldn’t let anything happen to their momma, or his little sisters. Wayne had kept his mind focused on watching the fences and general busy-work. He let it all wash over him and sat down beside David. He knew what was coming.
“Todd’s dead,” David said.
Wayne thought for a second about real men not crying and let the tears fall. He could be a boy again, just for now. Todd was dead, then most likely so was the rest of his family.
“They were at home that night. Todd said he didn’t feel like drinkin’ so he stayed gaming online. After we got here, I called home but no one answered. Maybe if Momma would’ve allowed us to have a cell phone, I could have gotten through earlier. Warned them to come to the yard. Maybe they could’ve called me. I didn’t quite believe what was happening, you know? I just followed Rodney here. I think I knew they were gone, when they didn’t answer the phone. I just tried to put it away.” Wayne broke the glare of the memory. “Tell me everything you saw, David. Let’s just get it out of the way.”
David told him about the tree house and the chase. He refrained from describing Todd’s ultimate fate, but David was here, alive and well. That pretty much confirmed how the confrontation ended. He put his arm around Wayne’s shoulder and let him cry, though his thoughts went to Jodi and Tommy back at the house. He hoped they were locked up safe and that it would be a quiet night if he couldn’t get back to them.
*****
Jodi wedged a slab of heavy board under the handle of the door leading to the laundry room. She backed into the kitchen, pulling Tommy and Jessica along with her. The pounding fists and moaning came at them from the other side of that door and rolled like a wave down the length of the house. The assault picked up fury. The walls almost seemed to rock back and forth at the onslaught. She glanced at the stove top clock as it flashed 6:07 pm.
“Wiwl David be back soon? It’s getting dawk.”
Tommy gripped her thigh in a bear hug. Jodi thought about a lie and instead just ignored the question. David probably wasn’t coming back for them.
“All right. Tommy, let’s all go upstairs. Jessica, let’s go.”
Jodi grabbed Jessica by the shoulder and wrenched the girl right out of the enthralled grin on her face. Tommy went up first while Jodi pulled her screeching sister along behind. Once upstairs, Jodi put them both in David’s bedroom. She reached behind the door and produced the wooden leg of an end table, snapped off during their fortification.
“Tommy, hang onto this, okay? Stay here. Where do you hit them—”
“In the head. I know.”
“All right slugger, just don’t hit me. I know it will be hard, but don’t hit Jessica either. I’m going back downstairs.” Jodi looked for a reaction from her sister and met only the little girl’s cold gaze. At least her mouth was shut. “Be quiet up here, guys. I hope they’ll forget and go away like last time.” Her demeanor failed to convince anyone. Jodi was petrified and shaking. “Okay?” she asked again, looking for comprehension or better, reassurance.
“It’s not okay, Jodi.” Jessica snarled. “Daddy wants to protect us from the boogeyman. That’s why he wants in. You don’t want him here. You hate him.”
Jodi regarded her sister and noted the loathing from the girl’s gaze. Jodi’s guard dropped and she spit back at her sister. “Jessica… daddy is the boogeyman.” She still regretted saying it, but to her it was no less true. Jodi didn’t wait for a reaction, but left the room and shut the door behind her.
Jessica visibly shook, sitting on the corner of the mattress. Hate seethed from the girl, filling the room with oppressive tension. Tommy gave her a wary look and slid away from Jessica. He gripped the wooden stick tighter.
“He won’t save you,” Jessica said. “He’ll let them eat you and I’ll laugh. I’ll laugh when you are all. Gobbled. Up!” Jessica screeched and bared her teeth like a wolf.
“Shut up, weiwrdo! David wiwl come back. We’wl be safe, and maybe we’wl weave you hewre with daddy.” Tommy sneered right back at Jessica. He was still terrified in her presence, but he wasn’t going to let her see it. The girl stood from the bed and walked to the window, peeking around the edges of the blanket hung there. Tommy never took his eye off her.
Outside, the violence intensified. The cacophony raised by the undead carried through the forest and along the wind. One creature heard the cries and answered it, sending out a telegraph that food had been found, alive and waiting. The message travelled to the next hungering corpse and on and on. All who heard now turned towards the house. This time, there would be no forgetting, no respite. The target was locked in. The house would fall and all inside consumed. Even so, the dead would find no rest.
*****
Jodi sat on the bottom step, gripping a chair leg and profusely sweating. She was in near panic mode and the feeling of being trapped was suffocating. She whispered prayers for safety, for David’s return, or for anyone living to return. She prayed for the windows and doors to hold up just a little bit longer. She ended on a wish to wake up from the nightmare. She sat there almost half an hour and by the end of this time, she merely prayed for a quick death.
