The Gorging (18 page)

“What is going on out there,” she said to herself as she tried to focus on the people in the street. She stepped away from the door and unlocked it without thinking to look out of the window first. After opening the door, she would wish she made a better choice. Her mother had always told her to never open the door for strangers and to never open it if you didn’t know what was happening on the other side.

On the street there were three people in the middle of it directly in front of Nikki and Bobby’s house. She recognized two of them as neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas. The third person she didn’t know. Her neighbors seemed to be enjoying themselves to a hearty breakfast of flesh and blood as they tore at the other person’s face.

Nikki placed a hand over her mouth and shook her head in disgust. She ran back into the house. She grimaced as she quickly closed the front door and tried not to let out a scream. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she rushed to the phone to call 911. Her thoughts raced as she tried to make sense of everything happening inside and outside of her home.

When she pressed the TALK button on the phone, she felt relief at first when she heard nothing, waiting for the dial tone to come through. She started to pull the phone from her ear to dial 911, but heard the recorded operator coming through saying, “We’re sorry. All communication systems are experiencing an overload of call volume. Please try your call again later.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said as she poked the TALK button with her finger. “This is crazy.” She sat the phone down on the kitchen counter, went back to the window, and peeked through the curtain. “Oh God, what are they doing?” She watched as her neighbors continued to feast away at the woman on the ground that was surely dead by now. Mrs. Thomas ripped open the dead woman’s blouse and opened her mouth wide. She leaned down and started biting at the woman’s chest. Mr. Thomas was still gnawing on the woman’s face. Nikki shook her head and started to cry. The tears ran down her cheeks and dripped from her chin. “This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening.”

A loud thud came from the closet in the hallway. She turned and looked toward it.

Eddie.

She realized Eddie had awakened again, only this time he wasn’t screaming and growling. She hoped that it was his fists he was beating against the door and not his head.

What am I going to do?

She stood by the window watching the closet door shake vigorously. She sobbed as she fell down to her knees and put her head in her hands.

“Please God. Please make my son stop.”

The beating stopped. She remembered the people in the street and turned to look out of the window. She pulled the curtain back slowly and saw that Mr. and Mrs. Thomas were gone. The dead woman was still in the middle of the street. Nikki leaned her head against the window and tried to look as far as she could in both directions to see where her neighbors had disappeared. She saw nothing, but the glimpse of her car in the driveway gave her an idea. She thought carefully about the risk of getting Eddie into the car and taking him to the hospital. Now did she not only have to worry about what Eddie may do to her when she would take him out of the closet, she would also have to worry about her neighbors that have obviously turned crazy. The horrific scene had made her think of “Night of the Living Dead” and how the people were stuck in the house and were being bitten and ripped apart.

Nikki sat down on the living room couch and turned on the television again. The same white noise and snowy background still showed on the screen. She turned it off, walked over the stereo, and turned it on. She turned the radio tuner knob until she found a station that actually worked. She caught the middle of a broadcast coming through. The radio disc jockey sounded distraught and his voice was very shaky.

“This is Henry Watson with KWTC radio,” said the radio jockey. “I’m now going to turn you over to a live report that is being sent to all radio stations across the country. Please listen carefully and God bless you all and good luck.”

The live report was coming in from Washington, D.C. Someone in a high-up military ranking position came on and spoke.

“Be advised. I’m going to have to make this short and to the point. I’m sure you are all aware of what is occurring in our cities across the country as I speak. If you are listening to this then you are clearly not infected. We are not sure of what is causing a majority of our citizens to become hostile. Terrorism has not been ruled out, but we are currently working on this issue. Please do not leave your homes. Find somewhere safe to hide and do not come out. We do not know how long you will need to go into hiding, but you will be much safer if you remain unseen. If you see anyone acting strangely do not approach them. If you become bitten care for your wounds and please seclude yourselves from others. We do not know if those that become bitten turn hostile or not at this time. Use of necessary force to protect yourself is a must and is completely authorized at this time...” The radio transmission faded out and turned to static.

Nikki stood, staring at the radio with her hands over her mouth. She could not help but to think about Eddie. He had become hostile. She feared the worst of losing her son and if he would ever be normal again. She needed Bobby more than ever now. She needed him to be home and help her with their son. If only she knew that he had almost died in a plane crash and that he is dealing with his own set of problems right now. She didn’t think about it at first when the government official came on the radio and spoke about how it’s happening across the entire country. She could only think about what is happening inside of her home and on the street out front. She looked down at the bite wound on her arm and thought about what the radio transmission had said about hostiles biting people. She prayed that it would not be true that people turn hostile when they are bitten. It’s the last thing I need at this moment, she thought.

Nikki jumped at the sound of a light tapping noise on the window in the living room. She tensed up as she looked over to the window and saw shadowed outlines of two people. Her first thought was that it is Mr. and Mrs. Thomas wanting to drop in for a late morning snack. She watched as one of the shadowy figures raised a hand and tapped on the window, this time a little harder. Any harder and the glass would surely shatter.

Nikki felt the cool linoleum on the bottom of her feet as she stepped into the kitchen. She grabbed the biggest knife she could find. She held it by its walnut handle with the 12-inch steel blade sticking out in front of her.

The tapping on the window grew louder, this time with both shadowy figures tapping on it as if they were attempting to drive her insane. She could have sworn she heard hideous laughing coming from outside, but reassured herself that it’s just in her mind and it’s not real. She wished she could say the same about everything else that is going on. Nikki’s hands shook and she could barely hold the knife steady as she walked out of the kitchen and back toward the window. She wrapped her left hand around the right, holding the knife as tight as she could. The tapping continued in a steady rhythm.

“Go away,” she shouted. “I’ll call the police.” She knew this was a bold-faced lie. “I have a gun.” Another lie. “If you don’t go away, I’ll shoot you dead.” Stop lying Nikki. You’re not very good at lying.

The tapping stopped. Nikki stopped. She took a deep breath and watched the shadowy figures disappear from her window. She let out a sigh of relief and dropped to her knees, letting the knife fall to her side when she did. She was surprised they believed her and left. She held the tears back and brought herself to her feet and sat in the chair in front of the closet. She leaned back, letting her head touch the door softly. The tears began to fall again.

“Eddie,” she said softly to the closet door, hoping that he would hear her through it. “I love you, honey. Everything is going to be okay. We can get through this together baby. Just please hang on sweetheart.” She was only assuring herself everything would be okay. She knew it was wrong to feel selfish, but she is the one dealing with having been bitten and now having to worry about psycho people lingering outside of the house. She ran her finger along the closet door softly and stared at it, wishing that she could just hold Eddie without having to worry about him trying to eat away at her once again.

The sound of smashing glass made her jump up from the chair and look toward the master bedroom. She heard the sound of another smash. She jumped out of the chair and grabbed the knife she left on the floor. She stepped around the corner into the kitchen away from the hallway. She listened to the sound of shoes stepping on the shards of glass on the bedroom floor as they cracked into smaller pieces.

Oh my God. They’re in the house. Oh, no. This isn’t happening.

Her breathing picked up to a heavy pace and her chest started pounding. She broke out into a sweat, which was already dripping from her forehead. She clinched the knife tight in her palms. She had no plans of dying today, not with her son shoved in the hall closet and her husband 2,000 miles away. She wanted to scream, but refrained from doing so because that would give away her position. She learned about that kind of stuff from Bobby. He always talked to her about his service and the deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. “I may have been a combat photographer,” Bobby would say, “but I was right there in the middle of it so I had to know all about the grunt stuff. We learned how to cut a man’s throat out with one stab to the neck and then a pull to rip out the esophagus.”

Nikki would rather Bobby be holding the knife instead of her. The grunt stuff and the stories were interesting to hear, but living them out inside her own house was not on her agenda.

She listened as she slid down the kitchen wall into a squatting position. She heard shoes squeaking with each step across the hardwood floor of the bedroom. She peeked her head into the hallway just in time to see the bedroom door open. She froze stiff, looking at the door as it creaked open. She couldn’t move. Through the door stepped her neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas. The front of Mr. Thomas’s shirt is covered in blood. The blood around his mouth had began to dry. Mrs. Thomas’s flower dress is also soaked in blood. The elderly couple shuffled their way through the bedroom door and down the hallway. It was as though they could smell Nikki’s fear and knew exactly which direction to go.

Nikki shook vigorously as she tried to keep quite. She managed to take control of her body and pull herself back into the kitchen out of the Thomas’s sight. She let go of the knife with her left hand and covered her mouth. She was terrified she was going to let out a scream and they would know exactly where she was hiding out. They already knew. It wasn’t the fear they smelled. It was the smell of fresh meat. It was the smell of Nikki. They wanted her more than anything. Whatever was happening to the people who turned hostile had an overwhelming desire for human flesh. It tasted better than anything. No hamburger, steak, or any kind of meat tasted as good as the human skin and muscle. The blood made everything extra juicy, nothing like a greasy cheeseburger.

Nikki watched as the shadows of her neighbors in her house crept up the hallway and slid up the wall near the kitchen. She could hear the foot steps as they got closer. She heard their deep, raspy breathing and could tell they were out for blood. She knew she could jab the knife into the first, but what would she do about the second one. She thought maybe if she stabbed the first one in the chest, pulled the knife out quickly, and rushed at the second one if that would work. Then she thought, what if the knife sticks in the first one’s chest? What would she do then? She gasped for her breath and felt her chest rising and falling quickly. She felt faint and her stomach started to twist, making her want to throw up. She swallowed and tried to keep everything down while the two people, or hostiles, moved closer to her. It was all or nothing. She grasped the knife tighter with both hands and took several deep breaths. She prepared herself for the inevitable. She was ready to attack—

The closet door shook on the hinges as Eddie started into one of his frantic rages again. The pictures on the wall shook, too. Nikki seized the moment and ran out of the kitchen screaming with the knife held up above her head, ready to stick it in which ever one was leading the way.

The knife went deep into Mr. Thomas’s chest and pushed his shirt out to a point from his back. Blood quickly spread on the front and back of his shirt. He let out a deep groan as Nikki screamed, trying to pull the knife back out. She ran at him so hard that she pushed Mr. Thomas up against Mrs. Thomas. The knife stuck about two inches into Mrs. Thomas’s neck. She was shorter than her husband and it worked to Nikki’s advantage.

Nikki kept screaming as she tried to pull the knife from his chest. It lodged tight between his ribs. His eyes met Nikki’s as he growled and then fell to his knees. Mrs. Thomas grabbed her throat as blood spurted through her hands and sprayed onto Nikki’s face. When Nikki figured out the knife was not coming out, she screamed and ran back into the kitchen. She grabbed the next largest knife she could from the cutlery set and went back to the hallway. Mr. Thomas lay dead on the floor, but Mrs. Thomas was still holding her throat as she bumped from wall to wall in the hallway, gargling blood and gasping for air. Nikki thought of running at her and finishing the job, but it couldn’t take much longer before Mrs. Thomas would be just as dead as her crazy husband. How much blood could be in this crazy bitch’s body, thought Nikki.

“Fucking die already,” screamed Nikki as she waved the knife at Mrs. Thomas. “Die you crazy bitch!”