Stay Dead: A Novel (12 page)

He raised the gun and aimed it at her but before he
could squeeze the trigger she ran to the edge of the roof and
jumped off. Ben ran to the edge as well and watched her land just
past the rows of dead folk. She twisted her ankle as she hit the
ground, but kept moving.

Ben aimed at her again and fired. The bullet grazed
her arm, but she kept running, letting out only the mildest of
whimpers. Ben fired again but only wasted the bullet. She
disappeared into the night.

As Ben turned around Frankie appeared behind him and
cracked him in the face with the butt of his shotgun. Ben was
knocked out cold, falling to the ground hard. Eddie, Damian, and
Chung-Hee rolled him over and searched him for any other weapons,
but found none. A few others made their way to the roof to see what
all the commotion was about.

“
I knew something was off with him
the moment I saw him,” Chung-Hee said.

“
What the fuck do we do with him
now?” Damian asked.

“
Fucked if I know,” Eddie
replied.

“
I got an idea,” Chung-Hee said,
looking hesitant to share his thoughts, but thinking it might just
give them the chance to get out of the school while they still had
the chance to.

CHAPTER 11
: The dead come slowly,
but steady as the morning sun

After Jeff and Walter told their loved ones what
they saw, and what had happened with Sheriff Davis’ friend Alan, it
was as if they had been stricken numb with silence. The daylight
lit the inside of the house a hazy orange. The skies outside grew
grey, not like the grey of a storm coming, but more like the blue
in the sky died kind of grey.

The kids were kept comfortably in
the dark on the topic of citywide destruction. They knew of the
walking dead but their exposure to it was minimal. They usually
only grew scared come night: during the day it was just difficult
to keep them inside. They played in the house, kids on parade, with
little metal cars and plastic men.

Their adventures were grand, and their imaginations
ran wild. They turned their room into one giant fort, and were in
the midst of creating more around the house. The adults just sat
staring at the walls, as if they would burst into flames and be
nothing more than dust. They wished they could be kids, where the
biggest worry would be how to make the next fort.

Walter wondered what kind of bomb it could have
been. Nuclear was on the top of his list. Considering the explosion
and cloud appearance he was guessing it could’ve been an atomic
bomb, or hydrogen bomb. Though Walter wasn’t familiar with
biological or chemical warfare, he also thought those were
possibilities as well. And with modern warfare going the way it was
couldn’t they devise a weapon capable of doing both?

Walter’s mind swirled out of control and he was no
better off for trying to figure out what type of bomb he had
witnessed exploding. There was also the possibility of it being an
entirely new type of bomb. After all, man loved finding new ways to
kill.

Jeff pulled himself off the couch, which was no easy
task, and sat closer to the kids. He watched them play, wishing he
could do the same. He felt it coming and tried as hard as he could
to keep it down: but once the first tear forced its way out of his
eye the rest came running. No matter how much he tried to fight
each tear he had rivers running down the sides of his tired face.
All those buried feelings had finally crawled their way to the
top.

“
What’s wrong daddy?” asked his
little princess, Sandra.

“
Nothing baby,” he lied. “Daddy’s
just sad.”

Everyone turned to look as they heard Jeff’s
quavering voice. His eyes red and wet, he couldn’t look at them.
His sons, Wally and Tommy came over to him, and Maria went to join
him as well. It wasn’t long after that, when everyone began to
cry.

“
I…just want you to know that
daddy loves you kids so much, okay. No matter what happens, I love
you. I love all of you, Dad, Ma, Barb.” He wrapped his arm around
his wife. “I love you babe.” Then he broke down and sobbed in
Maria’s arms.

His kids told him how much they loved him too,
wrapping their arms around his legs. His parents and sister also
expressed their love as they tried to fight back their own tears.
Walter didn’t cry though. he couldn’t allow it—he had to remain
strong. His throat dried up and his eyes itched. He wanted to let
himself go, but he gripped his nerves and refused to give in to
them.

***

On the other side of town, in Susie’s apartment,
which he affectionately called the Kemp Estate, Dane washed
vigorously. He had blood and bits of gore all over his body, even
chunks of it stuck in his hair. He took a rag to his nails, and
scrubbed them till they nearly bled.

Susan sat on the lid of the toilet, as pale as the
porcelain below her, staring at Dane’s blood covered uniform.

“
What are we going to do?” She
cried.

“
We’re going to do nothing,” Dane
replied in a voice as monotone as a robot.

“
What? But why? We have to do
something don’t we?” she pleaded.

“
I’ve done all I can right now. I
haven’t slept in days. When I’m done washing this shit off I’m
going to lie down on the bed and hold you till I fall asleep. And
when I wake up this nightmare will be over and I’ll be back to
handing out speeding tickets and breaking up parties under the
tressle.”

“
Yeah, so I should just go open
the deli and turn on the grill right?” Susan quipped. “Cause when
you wake up the world is gonna be right back to fucking normal.”
She shook her head and walked out of the bathroom.

Dane had a funny comeback but decided to keep it to
himself. He only had a few hours before he had to report back to
the roadblock and didn’t want to waste them fighting and then
apologizing.

He turned off the water and grabbed his towel off
the rack. He gave himself a once over with it and walked out of the
room and into the bedroom where Susan was holding her face in her
hands and crying on the bed. Dane wrapped the towel around his
waist and sat by her side.

Shortly after, Cher, their old mutt of a dog trotted
in and jumped on the bed next to them, nuzzling her way in between
them. Susan rustled Cher’s head and ears while wiping away her own
tears.

Dane smiled at her and asked, “do you want to lie
down for a while?”

“
Sure, but don’t expect me to fall
asleep or do anything else,” she said.

“
Fair enough,” Dane said as he put
his head on his pillow and close his eyes. “I’m too tired to do
anything anyway—it would just be embarrassing.”

“
Isn’t it always,” she joked,
giving him a sly smile.

The three of them lay on the bed, spooning one
another. Dane fell asleep almost instantly, and despite her
declaration otherwise Susan joined him shortly after that. Cher
slept with one eye open, ever the watchful guard dog.

Sal and Jones finished their shift, having only
fired a few rounds. There had been a dozen or so lurkers
approaching town and despite the events of late it had been an easy
few hours. Their replacements them were Keith, a fellow officer,
and Henry, an avid hunter and probably better with a rifle than the
rest of them.

Keith reeked of whiskey, but no one said anything.
And who could blame him. He had a drinking problem years ago but
went cold-sober of his own accord and never faltered. They
exchanged hand shakes with one another and parted ways.

Immediately they took to surveying the area with the
scopes of their rifles. There were plenty of targets, slow and
spread out. They cleared the area in a few minutes, and Keith went
over to his truck to fetch himself another drink. He had a little
more than half a bottle of Jack Daniels. He took a swig and offered
some to Henry who wasn’t foolish enough to turn it down even if he
did hate Jack.

Sheriff Bruce Davis was patrolling the town, driving
through the areas of town that were blind spots to the roadblocks.
He’d dispatched a few of the dead things he came across by his
lonesome. He also went around at random, checking on the
townspeople, making sure those who stuck around were doing as well
as they could. He did his best to avoid lengthy conversations, but
he wanted people to be at ease. So if getting his ear chewed off
was what he had to do, he’d do it for them.

During his drive he came across a dead thing that
had made it half way through town. It made him wish he could build
a fence around the whole town: barbed wire, spotlights, and guard
decks. And the works, and why not, it was his wish.

He drove past Alan’s house and since he was in the
mood for wishing, he wished his friend didn’t just off himself.
Alan hadn’t been taking anything well lately. His mother died last
summer, who was the only family he had. And a few months ago his
cat died, which he loved just as much. He hadn’t had a steady woman
in over two years, and the last time he tried talking to one, the
woman’s husband punched him in the mouth.

He was also in debt up to his ears. Which was no big
thing if you asked around, but he made it a big thing. Then he
nearly lost his mind when the dead started trying to eat people, as
did everybody else. But he really took it badly, from the moment he
heard word of it. He thought God was mad. And if he was, he had
every right to be. Bruce wished his friend was riding along with
him right now. But wishing never seemed to work, so he kept on
driving.

***

Walter continued to play out all the scenarios in
his head, and it was quickly getting clustered. He eventually
decided that if it was a nuclear attack, then surely there would be
nuclear fallout to follow. He remembered reading up on what to do
in case of fallout years ago, and only now did what little
information he could recall seem useful.

The first priorities were food and water. Food they
had plenty, water they had some. But he remembered reading that any
empty container should be filled, and used before any bottled
water. He rose to his feet, quite excitedly, and began giving out
duties for everyone. He instructed everyone to find any bottles or
jars and fill them with water, any pots or pans as well. He ran to
the bathroom, and turned on the faucet to the sink and tub, to fill
them.

Walter instructed Jeff to go around and seal up all
the windows so that no fallout dust could get inside. Walter then
ran down to the basement, fetching a plastic tarp and a roll of
duct tape, with it he sealed up the fireplace. Once all of th empty
containers were filled with water they were brought to the
basement.

After that everybody helped to move the seating
furniture directly in the center of the room as best as possible.
Walter remembered that the more distance there was between you and
the radiation outside the better off you were. He recalled that
with every passing hour the radiation weakened. He didn’t, however,
recall how long it took for the radiation to be harmless. He knew
it could take years and remembered something called half life, but
didn’t remember much about it. They were far enough away that the
larger quantities of dust wouldn’t be an issue, but if the wind
blew it in the direction of New Haven they’d have to worry all the
same. It might not ever come to New Haven but Walter wasn’t about
to bet on it, nor anyone else in the family. They agreed to stay
indoors for a few days, and only go out if they had to leave for an
emergency, or to ward off the random dead.

Thinking of the dead gave Walter a horrible thought.
The kind of thought that took the wind right from his sails—the
dead would be perfect carriers of radiation. His mind spun out of
control and hit a telephone pole. He sat back down, again at a loss
for words. His family could tell something bothered him, and they
could tell that he was keeping it to himself, like a hungry dog
chewing on a bone.

Barbara looked out the window and gasped. Three dead
things were coming toward the house, and they didn’t look like they
wanted to borrow a cup of sugar. She continued to watch, and was
happy to see the Sheriff show up. He pulled his car to the side of
them, got out with his handgun drawn. He walked up to them and put
two bullets in each of their heads at point blank range. It was
enough to keep them down till he could send someone out to burn
them up.

Barbara didn’t smile, she was relieved he did what
he did. But she was disgusted by the brutal manner in which he did
it.

CHAPTER 12
: School’s out
forever

Chung-Hee searched through the school for rope or
something strong enough to bind Ben. He had discussed his plan with
those on the roof who witnessed his actions as well as Shorty who
wasn’t there at the time. He objected to Chung-Hee’s plan but
didn’t have a better one. And, anyway, the majority sided with
Chung-Hee, and during the end of the world the majority rules.

Uncertain of when to carry out this plan, they held
an impromptu meeting in the gymnasium. Everyone was gathered, and
no one was left to keep watch, though they did quickly check and
make sure the place wasn’t being infiltrated.

Eddie spoke loudly. “Everybody listen up, please. We
have some terrible news and a tough decision to make.”

“
What do you mean? What’s wrong?”
a number of people asked in the crowd.

“
If you’ll let me talk, you’ll
know everything,” Eddie replied to them. He paused, waiting for a
silent confirmation. When he got it he continued. “Boone, and his
friend Milah, were murdered by this man.” He pointed to Ben, who
was lying bound on the ground under Chung-Hee’s foot.