Rotten (5 page)

Have you ever opened a window that hasn’t been opened in a long time?  Have you seen the bodies resting on the windowsill?  It’s not just flies; it’s moths, ladybugs, spiders, and other strange entities you can’t even identify.  That’s what we saw on that block.  We saw the dead.  Some of what we saw was just pieces, a hand here, a foot there, a thigh and torso tossed over a tree branch.  Others were like the burned out crap you find when you change the bulb in the front porch light fixture, just hulls of what used to be alive. 

On the block that the church owned were hundreds of dried out bodies.  They were once human, but I guess they chose to follow the light to their absolute damnation.  I assumed that they were seeking something they remembered, something familiar, and that was why there were so many outside the church.

“Go faster,” Rotten said.

“Yeah, man, what the hell?” Princess dropped her head onto her knees.

“Kick it, Moon, we got a ways to go,” I said and covered my eyes as well.  It was hard to see the dead outside of the church.  I ached for them and thought of my mom.

“I’m thirsty,” Moonshine said.  “And fucking hungry.  I’m stopping up here.”

“What?”  Highland was caught unaware.  “There’s food and water at my house!”

“And fucking zombies!”  Moonshine jumped a median, the Escalade handling the upset surprisingly well, and slid into the parking lot of a convenience store.  “I need food now!”  He pocketed the keys and threw open the door.  “Now!” He slammed the door. 

“I guess he’s hungry.” Rotten opened his door.

“Fuck my life.” Highland picked up the gun from the seat.

“Foodies sound good to me.” I opened my door.

“We’re so freakin’ doomed.” Princess slid out behind me. 

“You folks are insane.” Sully rolled over the backseat and crawled out of the vehicle behind Rotten.

“How do you know there are zombies at my place,” Highland asked, slowing Moonshine with a hand on his arm.  He turned to us and held up the gun.  “Any other weapons, peeps?”

Shit.  I had forgotten mine and so had Rotten and Princess.  We ran back to the SUV and grabbed our gear; frankly we were acting like amateurs in the whole apocalypse thing.  If it had been a video game we’d be on our third life. 

“You think your mom survived it, Highland?  I don’t think my mom or dad did.  What about you, Rot?  Think your folks survived it?”

“How the hell do I know, Moon?  They’re in freakin’ France.”

“How ‘bout you, Dove,” Moonshine asked.  “Think your mom is alive and kicking or burned up outside of Our Lady of Peace?”

“What the ever-loving fuck, Moon?”  Princess hit him in the back with her fist.  She didn’t really hurt him, but she made her point.  “Yeah, everyone’s dead, we get it.  Deal with it, you whiny ass, pampered bitch.  Are you hungry or not?”

Moonshine frowned.  “Hungry as hell.”

“Then quit bitching.” Princess led the way to the door.

The store was locked tight.  No one was inside and Moonshine pounded on the glass.  “They’re all gone,” he said.  “We’re so screwed.”

We stood for a moment and then Rotten raised his weapon.  It only took three hits to break the glass.  No alarm sounded and we busted out the rest of the glass to get through the opening.  Moonshine ran to the candy aisle and shoved an entire Snicker’s bar in his mouth; he grabbed a few more and shoved them in his pocket.  Highland gathered bottles of water and energy drinks from the fridges and I grabbed some caffeine pills off the counter.  Rotten was on the bread aisle and stuffed packs of sticky buns in the pockets of his cargo pants. 

Princess ran to the restroom and came out complaining.  “When did they replace the tampon machines with condoms?  Really?”  She stalked down the paper towel aisle and grabbed a box of Tampax.  “Who in the hell makes these decisions?”  She stomped back to the bathroom.

I laughed and I’m pretty sure Highland and Rotten blushed, but Moonshine was too busy stuffing his face to have a response.  I went to the aisle Princess had stomped down and grabbed the rest of the tampons.  How was it tampons never came up in our apocalypse plans?  Hell, I grabbed all the pads, too, and went behind the counter and stuffed them into the bags I found there.  It was hitting home now.  I mean, I know, the dead bodies and stuff should have done it, right?  But the idea of an unstoppable monthly flow messed with me.  I know it’s nature and stuff, but for just a moment the idea of not having a tampon was suddenly worse than dead folk outside of a church. 

Sully grabbed wine from the small display in the corner of the store, while Highland started stacking cases of water.  Moonshine was tearing through the candy aisle, shoving in more sugar than a body needed in their lifetime into his pockets.  Rotten grabbed batteries, duct tape, cheap flashlights and for some reason, air fresheners. 

Princess came out of the bathroom, carrying the box of tampons and I met her with the bags.  She dumped them in and then grabbed some Midol, Tylenol, and Excedrin off the shelves.  “It’s gonna suck being a woman during the apocalypse, Dove.”   She grabbed a few six-packs of sugary drinks. 

“Yep.” I bagged her selections.  “A real freaking bitch.” 

“You know we’re fucked, right?” Moonshine said, snatching a bag from my hand and tossing in boxes of Twix bars and M&Ms.  “Totally fucked.  Everybody is dead and we’re gonna have to start the new world.  Us!”  He laughed.  “Can you imagine?  Us?  Shit, we’re the biggest bunch of losers that ever came from Washington High School and we’re going to have to restart the world?  I’m the most normal one of us, I’m the only one with a real job, and I’m still the most screwed up person I know other than y’all.  Princess lives and looks like a homeless person, Rotten believes that aliens are going to appear any day, and Dove spends more time in bed than in school and then there’s Highland.  Hell, if it wasn’t for Highland, none of us would’ve graduated.”  He laughed harder.  “And if it wasn’t for us, Highland never would’ve gotten laid.  How are we going to restart the world?”

“He’s lost it,” Princess muttered.

“Yep,” I agreed.

“Wanna flip a quarter?”

“No, I got it.  You’ve had a rough day.”  I stepped up to Moonshine.  I stood tall, using all four inches above the five-foot mark.  “Stop it,” I said softly.  “Just shut up,” I whispered.  I didn’t want to embarrass him, but we were all scared.  “Quit being a dick.” 

For a moment I thought he was going to hit me and that would have been bad.  Not just because he could knock me out, he’s a very big guy, but also because the others would stand up for me.  It would be chaos, as though there wasn’t enough insanity happening all around us.  I felt the rage swell through him and it seemed even his eyeballs expanded with the emotion.  And then he dropped to his knees and sobbed.

“There’s nobody.” 

We descended on him.  “We’re gonna make it, dude,” Rotten said, his hand on Moonshine’s shoulder.

“Yeah, Moon, it’s gonna be all right.” Highland touched Moon’s back briefly and pulled away.

“Moon Man!” Princess wrapped her arms around his neck.  “You and me, you know.”  She whispered something in his ear and kissed him on the cheek. 

“I love ya’, Moon,” I said.  “We’re gonna be okay.”  I rubbed his head and kissed him on the cheek.

As I stood I caught sight of Sully standing behind the counter and double-bagging bottles of wine.  Our eyes met for a moment and I suddenly understood why girls my age chased a man old enough to be their father.  His hair was longish, wavy, and still dark, his beard was just beginning to gray, and his jeans still fit as they would on a much younger man. Whatever the girls went for with Sully, it wasn’t his curly dark hair or his nice ass, it was his eyes.  I’d heard the word golden brown since I was a child, but I’d never actually seen it until those few moments.  Sully’s eyes were golden brown.  Not yellow, not brown, and certainly not green, but somehow they were both bright and dark. 

“I’m good,” Moonshine said, sniffing and wiping his nose on the sleeve of his shirt.  “I’m sorry, guys, I shouldn’t have said that stuff.”

“It’s okay, Moon Man, we’re all freaked out.”  Princess handed him a box of Kleenex and then started stuffing packs of toilet tissue and paper towels in bags. 

“We should go,” I said.

“Yeah, let’s load up, guys,” Highland said.

And that’s what we did.  We loaded up our unpaid purchases and climbed back into Sully’s Escalade.  Rotten took over driving and Highland sat beside him.  Princess and I settled in the back seat and then Sully climbed in beside us.  Moonshine took the rear, stretching out as best he could and covering his eyes with his arm. 

As we passed the elementary school Rotten slowed.  “Look,” was all he said.

“Jesus, dude,” Princess barked. 

He stopped the car.  “No, look.  Highland, look,” he said.

And we did.  The schoolyard was littered with the burned out husks of children.  They covered the playground and the sidewalks and were piled up outside the double doors that allowed entrance to the building. 

“Why?” Princess said.  “Why were they at the school?”

“It’s a weekday, a school day, I think they remembered that they were supposed to be in school.  Like the church, I think the zombies still remember pieces of being human.  The kids went to school because that’s what they do and I think the other people went to the church because they were seeking hope and peace.  And those folks outside of the coffee shops, restaurants and donut shops were seeking their regular morning pick me up.  They still remembered something about being human,” I spoke what I had been thinking earlier when I saw the husks outside of the church. 

“Weird, I don’t remember that from zombie movies.” Rotten pulled away from the curb.

“This could be a good thing,” Highland said.  “Or at least it gives us an advantage, if they have a memory, we can figure out what they’re going to do next.” 

“The school and Starbucks make sense, they’re remembering their schedule, but a church on Friday morning?  And not even a Catholic Church?” I smiled with tears in my eyes, thinking of my mom and her church friends.  Yes, they were at the church every morning it seemed, but a Baptist church?  They were different than us Catholics.  They never covered this stuff in zombie movies.  “Maybe the folks outside of the church were remembering God.”

“God!” Sully sneered and unscrewed the top off a bottle of wine.  “To steal you guys’ vernacular, what the fuck, dude?  God?”  He took a long swallow of cheap red wine.  “So what you’re saying is that church is where the retards go to die?”

“Hey, man!”  Princess punched him in the arm.  “Shut up.  Folks believe in God and it damned sure doesn’t make them retarded.  You’re about the only retarded one here.” 

“Dove’s right, some are remembering their schedule, off to school, off to work with a cup of coffee and a donut, and others might be seeking God or safety or something.  Okay.”  Highland rubbed his head for a moment.  “Pull over, Rotten.  Where else would people gather in the morning, a weekday morning?”

Rotten stopped, not bothering to pull to the curb.  “The bank,” he said.  “People get paid on Friday and go to the bank.”

“Go to the corner and turn left.  There’s a bank a block up.” 

Rotten pulled forward and turned at the next corner.  We were silent, nearly holding our breaths as he passed a florist, a funeral home, and then slowed at the corner and there they were, a small pile by the ATM and a larger pile by the front door. 

“Turn right,” I said. 

Rotten glanced at me through the rearview and cautioned with one word, “Dove.”

“I know, just turn.”  Our Lady of Peace was on the next corner, my mom’s church, and the church I grew up attending. 

Princess put her hand on my arm.  “Are you sure?”

I nodded.  “Just do it, Rotten.”