The Real Night of the Living Dead (12 page)

“Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing,
darlin
’,” said Billy, throwing his arm over the muddy nurse’s shoulder. “As long as
I’m
here,
ain’t
nothin
’
gonna
happen to you.”

The square window on the front door was cracked. One of them hit it with a kitchen utensil.

Hank was nervous now, saying, “Okay, okay, we get to the tunnel. We’ll go to the dormitory. From there, we head east to the guard house on the boulevard…”

That’s when the lights went out, followed by a loud crash.

They busted through the front door. And we couldn’t see a damn thing.

Chapter Eighteen

A few of us were screaming. But the maniacs screamed louder, and our screams only enticed them to move faster toward us.

Hank was quick to grab the flashlight on his belt. He shined it on the approaching monsters. From the slim path of light hitting them, we could see that there were four, still about thirty feet away, but they were moving fast.

“The racks.
The racks.”
I shouted.

Hank was smart. He kept the light on them, while the rest of us wrapped our hands around the beams of a rack section, dragged it across the floor, knocking cans of food from the shelves, and pulled it out in front of us, doing our best to shield us from them.

They didn’t have time to react. All four ran into the metal rack. One hit so hard that she was knocked back, falling to the floor.

Hank stood behind us, shining his light, as we held the rack steady.

One of the creatures got smart and started moving around the rack.

“Push it over. Hurry!” shouted Hank, the beam of light bouncing as he grew nervous and shaky.

We grunted, pushing the heavy rack. It toppled over on to the creatures, pinning them down for the moment, burying them under a few hundred pounds of weight that consisted of the metal rack and canned foods and fruits.

Hank shined the flashlight on the rack; hands cleared a path through the food and were reaching up into the air, trying to grab hold of any one of us. One of the arms reaching up was layered with blood and bites, chunks of flesh gone; another helpless victim forced to become one of the infected. The infected woman, who had crashed and fallen, was free from the chest up. The heavy rack had broken a few of her
ribs,
two of them were poking out of her side. She flailed as we followed Hank around the fallen rack and past the creatures.

The others ran out of the storage room when I remembered Melvin’s wallet. I ran back inside ― it was pitch black ― and crouched down, feeling around for Melvin’s body.

I found him.

My hands were wandering around his waist, feeling for his pocket with the wallet and keys.

The infected woman, with the broken ribs, was still pinned, but was close enough that the tips of her fingers were scratching at the back of my pants, trying to capture me.

I found them and ran out of there, but I forgot all about my weapons, the mop and broom.

It took me a few seconds to catch up with the group. They were still in the cafeteria.

We followed Hank through the cafeteria, the beam of his flashlight bouncing in the darkness. We did our best not to make a sound, but couldn’t help the sound of our footsteps every time our shoes and feet hit the terrazzo floor. Even those sounds were being drowned out by the sound of the trapped creatures in the storage room.

My heart was beating fast. It was a chilly night, but that didn’t stop the sweat from running down my face. Felt like I was running a goddamn marathon. I guess, in a way, I was. But I kept thinking how they could be only inches from me and I wouldn’t even know it. It was so dark, I couldn’t see a thing. It was as if I was running with my eyes closed. The only thing that kept me at ease was that we didn’t hear any of them, their screams or tired moans, save for the ones trapped in the storage room.

Until we entered the hallway from the cafeteria.

The moment we pushed that door open and entered the hallway, we were welcomed with echoing moans filling the entire stretch. Wherever these things were, they weren’t too far off.

The group of us continued running, chasing Hank’s dancing tunnel of light.

A few times, the lights flickered. But for the most part, the building was dark.

The echoing moans continued. I adjusted to them and the dark as we moved closer to the tunnel that would lead us out of this living nightmare of a building.

It sounded like the moans were getting closer now. They
were so close that Hank slowed down a bit, not wanting
to run head on into a crowd of them.

We were approaching a stairwell where the moans were originating from. Once we passed it, the moans turned to screams. The one thing helping us the most, the flashlight, was what gave us away. The creatures saw the dancing beam lighting up a section of the hallway and became excited.

The moment we heard the screams, we jumped, goddamn full speed ahead.

Behind us, we heard the stairwell door slam open and the screams and snarls intensify.

“They’re coming!” shouted Pearl. She and Billy were bringing up the rear of the group. She may not have been able to see them, but she could hear their feet smacking against the floor as they ran after us, and that was enough for her to let out a crying scream.

We were at the back of the building, fifty or sixty yards away from the main entrance. If that army had made it inside, chances are, they were still not in this part of N-5.

“When we get to the end of this corridor,” Hank shouted, as he continued running, “we’re
gonna
take the second to the last door on the left.”

“Got it,” I said.

A few yards ahead of us, the path of light picked up what appeared to be a door, to the right, opening.

It was too late for us to react.

We ran right into them.

Chapter Nineteen

Hank crashed into the first of the infected and fell with her to the floor. The flashlight flew out of his hand and was spinning on the floor beside him; the beam of light, running in a circle along the walls of the hallway.

Once they collided, I couldn’t tell if we bumped into each other, or if we ran into the creatures. But now we were all on the floor, and someone was ripping at my clothes. I swung wild, doing my best to fight off this maniac in the dark.

I could hear Pearl’s screams blending with the screams of the infected, but hell, I couldn’t see anything.

Then a shot was fired from Hank’s gun.

The lights began to flicker again. On, off. On, off. On, off.

It looked as if a strobe light was flashing on us as one of the monsters kept trying, fighting to get my flesh in his mouth. I kicked at him. My right foot caught him in his chin and knocked him back.

Hank grabbed me and pulled me to my feet.

The lights were still flickering as the group that was chasing us from the stairwell was just reaching us now. There were three of them, and they grabbed Pearl.

Billy was fighting off one that he had crashed into. He was shouting, “The dirty scoundrel bit me, Stanton. You hear that? Lil’ dog bit Billy the Kid.”

My heart dropped. No, please tell me he was lying.
This crazy bastard who was an honest-to-God good kid.
He just hit a few roadblocks down the path of his life.

I was about to help Billy when I heard the woman attacking Hank again. With the lights still flashing, I saw the professor push an infected woman back into the room they popped out from,
then
he went to help Billy.

Pearl was doing her best to fight off the creatures; every time they had a grip on her, she managed to slip free.

I helped Hank with the woman. He shot her again. This time, he hit her in the corner of her forehead. She dropped.

The one I had kicked to the floor was grabbing hold of the professor’s leg as he tried to help Billy. The professor was naked, except for the open gown that he was wearing. He stomped his bare foot over the infected man’s head, stopping him for the moment.

Hank grabbed the professor and pulled him free. The professor went running down the hall.

“Where’s the doctor?” shouted Hank. I had no idea, but I was more worried about helping Billy and the nurse.

Hank came to my aid as the man from the floor tried to attack me from behind; he used his baton to beat on the man’s head.

I was helping Billy, but he saw the three had their hands on Pearl now and were about to devour her.

He screamed and ran to her side, pulled her free, but trapped himself. They jumped on him. One was biting into his neck, snarling; another, into his face; the other, ripping his pants off to get to his legs.

I wished I could have done something, but it was far too late. Even if we did pull him free, we all knew by now what would become of him. Sooner or later, he’d be dead.
Then alive again.

We had to save ourselves.

Me and Hank grabbed Pearl and ran down the hallway.

The few other infected people had joined the others in their mutilation of Billy.

We reached the door. The professor entered, then Pearl, followed by Hank.

I was about to enter when I heard Billy shout, “Daddy! Please, come to take me home…I want…I want you…To hell with them
Japs
…I’m Billy the Kid, goddamn it!” I looked back ― the lights were on now ― to see Billy covered in, and surrounded in, blood. The creatures were tearing off flesh from his body and savoring every bit they stuffed in their mouths.

Billy the Kid was dead.
For now.

I let out a gut wrenching cry and kicked the damn door open.

At the bottom of the staircase, there was a door, the entrance to the tunnel. Doctor Cochran was waiting there with the rest of the group.

“Billy’s dead,” I said. “We lost Billy.”

Pearl was crying. She already knew he was gone.

I gazed at Cochran, ran down the stairs, grabbed his shirt and shook him. “Why’d you leave us? Huh? You help? Get me?” I let go of him. “How’d you like it if we left you behind to fend for yourself?”

“I was scared,” he shouted. “Okay? I wanted to get away, so I did.”

“Shut up, both of
youse
,” said Hank. “Let’s get moving before they finish with him and come looking for us. That crumb was a no good nut anyways.”

I exchanged glares with Hank. I didn’t like the son of a bitch.

“You got something to say about it?” said Hank.

“Give me your stick,” I said, sounding calm. He squinted, not understanding what I wanted.
“The baton.”
I motioned to it with my eyes. “I need a weapon. You really want to be the only one with a way to hurt these things?”

He hesitated, but he wound up giving it to me. He knew it was the smart thing to do. Then he said, “I’ll go first.” He looked at me, saying, “You’re last. Keep your eyes peeled for what’s behind us. What happened back there,” he shook his head, “I don’t want it happening again.” I nodded. He turned to Cochran, “Open the door. But be prepared to close it.”

“How will I know when to close it?” said Doctor Cochran.

“How?” said Hank. “When I scream like a goddamn schoolgirl. That’s when you know to close it.”

The doctor let out a nervous chuckle and blushed, saying, “Excuse me. I’ve just never…been involved in something like this before. I feel like I’m in a war.
A battle.”

“You are, doc.
Tonight
, this is a battle to live.
To make it to the next goddamn day.
Now on the count of three, I want you to open,” said Hank.