Life Among the Dead (Book 4): The End (8 page)

19

“…increasing reports of bizarre behavior and acts of violence have officials baffled. We have been asked to issue a warning to all in the listening area and surrounding counties to stay inside, do not leave your home. If you are hearing this and are out, try to seek shelter. The streets are not safe.”

Luke Stemmer turns the volume down on the radio that comes on once he starts the sitter’s large late model Cadillac. He doesn’t want his grandkids to worry, he also doesn’t want to second guess his decision to take them out in the chaos. He needs to get to Suzy, if only to make up for the past six years.

“…a state of emergency. The Center for Disease Control has yet to make a statement over the cause of the hysteria. Impossible as it may seem, reports are coming in that the individuals behind the attacks are in fact dead…”

The news fills one listener with dread, Killer B sits in the dark, relatively alone on the bus aside from her snoring friend, Rocky Roadkill. Her teammate, Penelope Bruise, had gone back into the hospital to check on the rest of the girls and see what was taking so long. That was hours ago, she has not returned. After the startling encounter with Santa, the world beyond the bus has grown more disturbing, people running from slow moving figures on the streets, never ending sirens, and more than a few gunshots in the night.

“…the rash of violence just seems to be spreading, even into more affluent neighborhoods like a virus. More than one insider has claimed that ‘a virus’ may actually be to blame and seems to be transmitted through human bites…”

“Of course it is,” laments a recent bite victim. She took her eyes from the road to inspect the burning wound on her right arm, making the sting worse on herself when she shifts her skin to get a better view of her tricep. Nina is missing a small chunk of flesh on the back of her arm, and a few of the alchemy symbols she had tattooed there during college. She has made it out of Breckinridge and is flying towards Waterloo. Feeling feverish already, the word over the wire only exacerbates her condition. Prickly beads of sweat spring across her brow, she turns on the air conditioner but it doesn’t help. Waves of nausea swell in her stomach that makes her eyes water. Her original intentions were to try to double her windfall by re-selling the sample back to Wilkes, now she just wants answers.
If anyone knows what’s going on it’ll be Wilkes.

The advice to stay off the streets was not heard by one man that runs for his life tonight. The advice to seek shelter would have only been ignored as he races towards Breckinridge University, he has to see the woman he loves in person. With all the craziness he passes and avoids, he has to know she is all right. He pictures himself as a knight in shining armor, charging to rescue a damsel in distress as he skirts around abandoned automobiles and changes his course to circumvent interactions with any individual in his path, especially the suspiciously slow ones.

Navigating solely from memory, Archie had looked up where Amber’s school was in relation to the Breckinridge branch of Plasmacore knowing he may need to earn some quick cash. Once he gets there all he has to go on as far as finding her is three Greek symbols. His heart’s desire wore a tee-shirt in one picture that displayed what he assumes is her sorority. He races down a lane of houses, all have different combinations of the characters above their doors.

It isn’t until he hits Greek Row that he realizes just how odd the behavior is of the peculiarly slow figures. He has barely registered the chill of the air either until he comes to a sudden halt. Three of them are in the middle of the road, hunched over a still body, eating it.

The shudder Archie is struck with escapes his mouth in a cloud of steam, he feels chilled to the bone in an instant. More wander in and out of shadows from every direction, attracted to the panting man.

The three before him rise to their feet upon his arrival, neglecting the inert feast in favor of fresher fare. They approach him, hands out ready to grab, but he’s already moving again, desperate to find the right house.

20

“What do you mean ‘the National Guard is busy’?” Luke asks perplexed by the notion.

“This is happening everywhere,” Murphy responds over the phone. “The local wing…or branch…or whatever is out of Waterloo. They said they have their hands full and will try and get units to us.”

The rookie sounds rattled. He’s in over his head. He told Luke that they’ve lost a lot of manpower tonight, their men are falling out there on the streets. Many have abandoned their posts all together and are missing in action. “It’s a fucking war, sir.”

“What about the regular, full-time Army?” Luke suggests, inspired by the word war.

“Mobilizing. But, for the most part they are ‘taking stock of the situation’.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Luke curses to the delight of his grandsons. He’s parked near the hospital, tucked away in a dark alley.

“It means we’re on our own.”

The task at hand is to get his daughter out of the hospital, which he can already imagine is going to be hell given how crazy it was before. That leaves him with what to do next.
I get Suzy, then what?
“Look, Murphy, if the Guard can’t come to us, we’ll go to the Guard. Or, any of the military posts nearby. I want you to get as many men as you can and start grabbing folks. We’ll evacuate the city.”

“How in the hell am I
supposed to do this?”

“Just get it done!” he ends his call on that, and just sits for a second.

“Are you all right?” Killian asks.

“Yeah, buddy. I’m all right,” he answers, feeling far from ‘all right’. He doesn’t like the idea of leaving the boys out here while he goes in to get their mom. He further doesn’t like that he had to lie to Hippo by telling him he will be grabbing his father. Josh was bitten, if he isn’t a part of the problem by now, he soon will be.

From where he has the borrowed Cadillac parked he can see one of the lots that surround the hospital. A large bus blocks his view of the door he had exited from previously. He had passed an unattended fire truck on the block, that’ll be his first stop since he’ll need a new weapon. “Killian, I told you about respecting guns, right?”

“Yup,” the boy sleepily responds from the backseat. His brother is curled up beside him on the large back seat like a dog. The boys share a massive knitted afghan the car’s owner had made as a seat cover.

“I’m leaving my gun,” Luke tells him. “It’ll be right here on the front seat. Don’t touch it unless you absolutely need it, kay?”

“Kay,” the boy says, drifting off to sleep, the night’s excitement taking its toll.

The keys are left in the ignition with the engine off. It’s going to get cold, but he hopes not to be long. Figures pass by on the street aimlessly shuffling along. Luke silently exits the car, the modest sound of the door closing is covered by the sounds of chaos. He had locked all the doors save for the passenger side, a fact he will have to remember when coming back.

Like a thief in the night, he creeps to the corner to ensure the passersby are still passing by. He quickly jogs to the large red truck to claim a matching axe from the tools attached to its side, an axe that also matches the red suit he wears. Armed, he heads to the hospital using the bus as cover.

21

“Are we there?” Rocky sits up, groggy and disoriented. She doesn’t feel the bus moving and assumes they’ve arrived.

“Christ, Rocky!” Killer B exclaims, clutching her chest over the sudden arousal of her captain. “You scared me!”

“Why are you so jumpy?” the woman asks in her usual early morning grumpy tone. Her dry, hoarse throat makes her voice crackle.

“I tried to wake you,” Killer B says beside her so she can keep her voice low. “This town is frigging weird.”

“My kinda town,” Rocky quips with a smile. She quenches her thirst with a shot from her sports bottle. The burning gin washes away the stickiness and eases the building headache she often feels upon waking.

“No. There’s people running around. Gunshots. A report on the radio that warned—Oh my god!” Killer B loses her train of thought when she looks out the window and sees Santa again, stalking past the bus, carrying an axe. “He’s back!”

“Ok, that is friggin’ weird,” Rocky agrees. “Where’s Penelope?”

“She went in a while ago to see what the hold-up is.”

Rocky watches Santa enter the hospital while she ponders the situation. “Stay put. I’ll be back in a sec.”

“You’re leaving?” Killer B panics, she’ll be all alone if Rocky goes.

“We need to get our girls and get the fuck to Waterloo,” the woman answers at the front of the bus. She crouches to attain something under the seat. “I’ll be fine, I’ll have this.”

Instead of keeping the bus’s tire iron with the spare in the luggage compartment along the under carriage, Rocky made it more accessible should the need arise to use it for any reason other than its intended use. She’s named it Ugly.

Before Killer B can change her mind, Rocky is off the bus, confidently strolling to the door. The worried woman left all by herself rushes to close the door and waits.

22

Matching the Greek symbols he remembers from Amber’s shirt to those adorned on the eaves of a pink house, Archie is certain he has found her sorority. He can only hope that she is inside as he rushes up the walk and climbs over the cars that have been parked in front like a wall. He is in too much of a hurry to think it odd, he simply embarks the short flight of stairs onto the porch and knocks on the door.

Behind him, from the street, the bizarre people follow the sound of his rapping. They are thwarted by the circle of autos, left to reach and moan for the caller at the door.

Another set of knocks. Louder and more urgent than the last. Archie jiggles the knob impatiently as if whoever had created the barrier may have forgotten to lock the door.

He stands on his tip toes to make himself taller so he can peer in through a window, having to look over the curtain that covers it. His weight is pressed against the door to give him balance, until it opens and he falls into the house.

He lands hard on his chest having barely enough time to react and break his fall. All he can see around him are feet. Before he can correct himself he is held down by unseen hands, a large weight is applied to his back making it hard to breathe, let alone address those that detain him.

“Hit him in the head!” one voice advises.

“We don’t know if he’s one of them,” another calmly states.

“Is he bit?”

“I don’t see a bite,” the weight on his back says.

“His arm is bandaged! Hit him in the head!”

The weight eases off of him, leaving his ribs sore. He has to take a minute to collect himself before rising to his feet in the brightly lit house. The men that greeted him so harshly back away. They are armed with bats that they keep poised to strike should the intruder give them a reason.

“Who are you?” one of them asks, Archie recognizes the voice as the one that called for his head. He also looks vaguely familiar.

“Archie Mead!” the new arrival answers.

“What do you want,” the largest of the three men inquires. Archie assumes he is the one that had sat on him.

“I’m looking for someone. I want to make sure she’s safe.”

“Who?”

“Her name is Amber. She’s…”

“Oh!” the three all say in unison with much relief. They relax their weapons.

“So, you know her?” Archie asks.

“Of course we know her,” the smallest of them answers, grinning broadly. “Well, we know her now.”

“Before we just knew her from afar, around campus, followed her on Gander.”

“Followed her around campus,” the largest one quips. “When this happened, we all had the same idea: Gotta save Amber.”

“What’s going on down there boys?” a voice asks from upstairs that stills Archie’s heart, it’s her.

“Just welcoming a new arrival,” the smallest explains.

“Another one?” she asks sounding excited. “One more and I have all seven!”

“All seven?” Archie asks, heading for the stairs, anxious to meet her at long last.

“Dwarves,” the large one explains, not sounding too happy about it.

The three follow Archie as he steps onto the flight. “Dwarves?”

“Amber loves the Story Book Land characters, when we started showing up she said we were like the Seven Dwarves to her Snow White.”

“Then, she started renaming us,” the large one adds grumpily.

“Oh my god! Guys, look what I did to Bashful’s hair!” Amber appears at the top of the stairs, holding a short young man for all to see. She has braided his long hair into dozens of thin strands and bound the ends with brightly colored rubber bands. He doesn’t look as if he appreciates the make over until she places her hands on his shoulders to turn him around so the men below can see the back, his view becomes of her chest for many seconds. When she turns him back around his face is set in a wide smile.

“Looks great, Amber!” the three trailing the newcomer applaud her handiwork.

“Can you do mine next?” one begs.

“So, what shall I call you?” ponders the girl. She appraises Archie thoughtfully.

“My name is…” he attempts but is cut off when she comes to her own moniker.

“Bashful,” she announces.

“I thought I was bashful,” the newly braided dwarf says sounding downtrodden, his face still flushed from his close-up peek of her chest.

“Actually, my name is…”

“Ok, I got it! My new thoughtful helper will be known henceforth and forever more as Dopey.”

“The fuck I will!” Archie rejects the notion. He hasn’t come all this way, been through all he’s been through to play a dwarf.

The dwarves and Amber are shocked at first. Amber laughs, “Uh-oh. Somebody’s Grumpy.”

“He can take Grumpy!” the large one says on the stairs. “But I don’t want to be Dopey.”

“Look, I came a long way, been through a lot tonight to get here,” Archie tells his princess. Everyone on the planet says the same thing about nice guys, he is compelled to assert himself for once in his life. “I’m Prince Charming.”

Amber looks at him for a few seconds, taken aback that someone has actually challenged her. “Ok.”

The dwarves can’t believe their ears, all thinking the same thought,
why didn’t I think of that?

Not knowing if his name is still Bashful or if he is the new Dopey, the braided dwarf is cast aside so the princess and her Prince can stand closer to one another, look into one another’s eyes, getting lost until Amber finally speaks, “You look familiar. Where do I know you?”

“I follow you on Gander,” he responds in a whisper as he goes in for a kiss.

“You!” she seethes upon recognition, her beautiful brown eyes stare angrily into his. “You’re the one that embarrassed me!”

“No…I just…” he tries to explain that all he did was say that she didn’t have to post such revealing images of herself.

“I haven’t been able to show my face on Gander because of you!” She refuses to hear him out though it was more than just her face she was showing.

“All I said was…”

“This is the guy!” Amber tells her other admirers. “The one that humiliated me on my own page!”

The helpers close in around him, ready to cast him out, especially since he has just arrived and taken the role they all came for. With him gone perhaps one of them can be the new Prince Charming. The four of them stare at the man, awaiting the word from Amber to show him the door.

“Kick his ass!” she commands.

They hesitate. Though they outnumber the guy, though the world as they know it has a new set of rules, they aren’t sure if they can take him. “Uh, Amber?” one questions.

“Whoever makes him cry gets a blow…“

She doesn’t even have to finish her proclamation, the dwarves set upon the infidel at once, the intruder of their perfect fantasy world. Archie has only been in a few fights in his lifetime, won some of them, he doesn’t have a very violent nature, but at that moment he will do anything to leave. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.

Hands grab at him, thin and frail hands designed for rolling multiple sided dice, as well as Grumpy’s meaty mitts, Archie evades them. He shoves one of the dwarves hard against the others so he can make for the stairs, all the while Ambers calls for his head. The knight in shining armor bounds down the steps as fast as he can take them with the dwarves already on his heels.

At the landing, Archie slides into the front door. He opens the portal wide and to his shock he sees the odd people from the street have made it over and under the barrier of cars the helpful nerds had constructed to protect their princess. He’s quick to close the door but the berserkers are on the porch. They reach in as he closes it, their arms block the jam. He must hold his weight against it as they do the same from the other side.

The dwarves are oblivious to what is happening at the door, too focused on their foe to see that he is actually holding back what they are here to defend against. All they see is mental images of their lovely Snow White fellating them, and the means of making that a reality.

Grumpy is in the lead, allowing his bulk to be taken by gravity, increasing his inertia as he bellows and barrels towards his target. Archie has no recourse but to dive away, he feels awful about it but the dwarf has left him few options.

With Archie’s absence from the door, it opens wide. The strange people from outside topple in as Grumpy continues to the landing. He’s unable to stop, to his horror. He runs right into their waiting arms.

The other dwarves, Archie, and Amber watch as the mob tears Grumpy apart. The young man screams as his ample flesh is bitten and torn away in generous portions. The victim reaches for help, calls out for aid in anguished screams to no avail. The foyer is splattered and flooded with his blood as the ghouls gnash greedily, the wet sounds of their feeding fill the air as his cries cease.

Archie is in a state of disbelief, he can’t quite comprehend what he’s just seen, further he can’t believe he was running around with these things lurking about. He’ll have to brave the streets once more, the way out is blocked by these insane individuals. He looks around the sitting room he’s found himself in as the crazies rise to their feet, done with Grumpy and ready for more, he needs to find a way out. A back door.