The Week of the Dead (4 page)

“I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on outside. We need to get you to a hospital. Erica…Erica?” Devin motioned toward her; she shifted her body to force her face into a corner. “Erica, I know things are fucked up, but we can’t just sit here. We have to get to safety. There is no telling how long it will take for those things to break down that door. Erica, take a jumpsuit. It will cover you better. I’ll turn around. You need to change,” Devin said as he handed the spare one-piece denim jumpsuit still crisp from the wrapper.

Robert had ordered some new ones because the men’s oil stains were getting on the furniture, but he forgot to order the right size for Frank. Devin found the idea of a new grease suit to be ridiculous because it would just get dirty after an hour of this job. Garry would never give up his lucky jumpsuit for a new one, so they just sat in the break room. Erica didn’t turn until she heard the screams of her attacker. Through the wall, they all heard what sounded like Ivan the Rapist getting torn apart. “He screams like a bitch,” Frank said jokingly as he coughed up some blood. Devin was pacing back and forth, listening to lead Ivan getting eaten by the three creatures on the other side of the dry wall.

“Wait, what about Gary?” Devin looked at the others; the only person to respond was Frank with a shoulder shrug. “We need to get out of this room. It’s a death trap,” Devin said as he was looking for an alternative exit. He noticed a ladder behind some lockers. “I found it!” Devin said excitingly.

Devin climbed the ladder and opened the hatch to the roof. He hopped down. At this point, Erica had changed into her extra-large denim jumpsuit and began to zip up the front as Devin had come around the corner, and they exchanged a glance. “OK, Frank, are you ready to climb?” There was no response from the bleeding man on the ground.

“Frank?” Erica whispered. Devin reached down to feel a pulse.

“Erica, he’s burning up, and I can’t find a pulse.”

Devin stood up and grabbed the shotgun. He aimed down the sights at the dead dwarf. As Devin closed his left eye to align the line of sight down the bridge of the double barrel, he began to squeeze the trigger. All of a sudden, the deceased’s head turned straight ahead. As the eyes opened and a shriek was released, Devin fired the left barrel into the dwarf’s chest. As Frank leaned forward, the forehead of the bitten man pressed against the smoking barrel of the shotgun. Without hesitation, Devin fired the right barrel into the cranium of the corpse that had regenerated life. “Oh fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Shit! What the hell is going on?” Devin shouted as he pulled the ladder down.

Erica had turned away from the final blow. She had pressed her forehead against the rungs of the steel ladder for a reality check. “This has to be a dream,” she said as Devin realized he had fired both barrels of Frank’s double barrel. He thought about searching the little man’s pockets for more ammunition, but he resisted. He knew the round to the chest would have killed a normal man, but he wasn’t sure about what the bitten man could have taken. Devin took the gun, turned it around, and began to bash the remaining skull of the dead man.

Savagely, Devin beat the twice-dead man’s head into a pulp. When he was finally out of breath from a good number of blows from the butt of the shotgun, Devin collapsed on to his knees. He began to hear moaning from the other side of the door. “Fuck, I can never catch a break.” The beings on the other side of the door began to pound at the door. The crappy wooden door wouldn’t keep them out for long. Devin began to rapidly search the little man’s pockets for anything he could find. Car keys, a wallet, a pocketknife, a pack of cigarettes, and some loose change. “No fucking shells!” Devin said as he started to pocket all the items from Frank’s pants. Hands began to come through the cheap wooden door; Devin looked up in time to notice. “Fuck!” he exclaimed. “Erica!”

By this time, Erica had climbed the ladder, and to her dismay, the world she knew was covered in smoke, and alarms and sirens were wailing. Screams and explosions could be heard in the surrounding area. “Here!” Devin shouted as he tossed the shotgun onto the roof. Erica didn’t flinch. The shotgun clanked onto the gravel roof. As Devin climbed onto the roof, he too felt the surge of destruction. Suddenly, a hand appeared and grabbed Devin by the ankle. He fell on his face and felt himself being dragged toward the creatures that had begun to ascend the ladder. Devin tried to kick the hand free; he didn’t want to kick too hard because he didn’t see the head of the creature. If Devin knew anything, he knew he didn’t want to be caught in the jaws of the creature on a missed kick. Devin reached for the gun. It was just out of arms reach. He turned his head to see what was behind him. It was the lead Ivan.

Devin reached out and grabbed Erica’s denim-covered calf. She came back to reality; she looked down and realized that Devin is in trouble. Erica grabbed the shotgun and tried to fire it at the arm of the attacker, but the trigger clicked with emptiness. She followed the arm to the face. It was Ivan, the man who tried to rape her. She felt the rage fill her soul. She turned the gun around and began to pound the butt of the shotgun into the face that was sticking out of the roof hatch. Without mercy, she continued to beat the face of the attacker until it released the grip on Devin’s leg. Devin stood up and kicked the hatch closed. “Fuck! Erica, where is your car?” Devin expelled full of adrenaline. Erica pointed to her Bug’s tail sticking out from the front of the office parking lot. “Too far! We’ll take Frank’s truck. It isn’t too far. We can jump!” From the pounding coming from the roof hatch to the explosions, Devin and Erica heard a scream for help. Somewhere close. Gary was being chased through the junkyard by a bloody creature. Devin shouted at Gary, trying to get his attention, but Gary was too concerned with the blood-soaked creature, which was naked and covered in mud, chasing after him with great force and speed. Erica watched in dismay as the naked man was gaining on Gary. With a great leap, the naked man tackled Gary and began to feast on his chest. Erica and Devin watched in horror as this man, this thing was eating the flesh off old Gary’s chest.

Devin grabbed Erica and put her face into his chest. Devin watched as the naked man and other creatures found the meal, and they too began to consume pieces of flesh from the motionless body in the junkyard. Suddenly, the creatures stopped feeding and began to walk away. After a few paces, they twitched, and red oozed around the backside of their bodies. Then, Gary stood back up. His eyes met Devin’s with a glanced stare. Gary was awake, and he was hungry. Gary began to stumble toward the building. “Um. Shit! OK, we’ve got to get out of here. Erica, do you trust me?” She nodded in compliance.

“I’ve got Frank’s keys. He had the shotgun. We need more ammo. There is bound to be some in the truck. OK. Are you with me? I don’t know what these things are. All I know is that they are going to come through that hatch, and we don’t need to be here when that happens.” She nodded in agreement. “I need you to get their attention. I’m gonna go get Frank’s truck; then I want you to jump in the back when I back up to the roof. OK?” They shared eye contact. They were both scared, but they knew they needed to do something and do it fast.

Devin grabbed the shotgun. Even though it didn’t have any ammo, he could still use it as a blunt object. He held the keys in his mouth and the shotgun in both hands. When Devin began to get to the edge of the roof, Erica began to scream. She screamed all of her frustration and rage out. She was almost raped, her dad was one of the creatures, and she just demolished the head of her attacker with the butt of a shotgun stolen from a dead man.

All the while Erica was screaming, Devin jumped down with a crash. He didn’t even flinch when he hit the trash dumpster; he just started off running toward the white dual-wheeled pickup truck. Devin saw the naked man covered in mud staring at him. As the naked man began to run toward Devin, Devin turned the shotgun into a lance and knocked the naked man aside. With a swiping motion, Devin hit the keyless entry for Frank’s pickup with his teeth.

The blinkers flashed. And a ray of hope filled Devin, and he jumped into the cab of the pickup and fired up the diesel engine. Devin turned the key. Nothing happened. The dashboard came to life. A bloody face and a hand came alongside the driver side of the truck, leaving a streak of blood down the window. Devin tried the key again. The engine wouldn’t turn over. “Goddamn diesel piece of shit!” he shouted as he had to wait for the hemi engine to prime itself. After an icon had disappeared from the dashboard, the engine roared to life. Devin flipped the gear into reverse, running over the first naked man with a crunching sound. As Devin revved the engine in reverse, he backed the bed of the truck up to the building with a crash.

Erica, scared out of her mind, took a leap of faith into the back of the truck, and Devin reached the back to open the back-window slit to allow Erica into the cab. As she started to crawl into the cab, Devin peeled out of the junkyard and forced his way onto the street with Erica’s legs still dangling out into the bed of the truck.

As Devin veered the truck right along the shoulder, left across the median, and into oncoming traffic, he didn’t know where he was going, but he knew he wanted to get far away from the junkyard. In the cab of the truck, there was pure silence. Outside the truck was pure chaos. People were running, screaming, and being chased and eaten. Vehicles were crashing and burning. Creatures were running amok. Creatures were feeding on the slow and those who were more interested in their cell-phone screens than to notice those around them. “Turn the radio on. See if there is any news. Hang on!” Devin finally broke the silence as he swerved to avoid a motor-vehicle crash.

With the push of a button, the radio lit up and started playing a country song. “Jesus, not this!” Devin said as he refused to die listening to country music. Erica dialed it to the FM frequency and began to scan the stations. “
…tion. Attention. This is KPPX news. Memphis has been attacked. At the moment, we don’t know who is to blame or what is going on. What we do know is that there are a group of ravenous people going around and biting people. This group of people seems to be infected with some form of virus. Again, we are not sure how this started. But from what our sources have gathered, these groups of people came from the Mississippi River and have begun infecting anyone they come in contact with via a bite. We will continue to give updates here on KPPX. All we can tell you is to stay indoors and keep away from the infected. The infected have some if not all of the following symptoms: bloody eyes, fever, pale skin, awkward movement, bad breath, and a hunger for human flesh. Again, I am told to inform you to stay inside and keep away from anyone who I have just described. {Silence} Attention. Attention. This is KPPX new….
” Devin flipped the radio off. “Well, got any ideas?” he asked Erica, who was silently crying with her head in her arms and her knees to her chest.

Devin knew he couldn’t stay on the interstate. “Look, we can go to my house. I need to pick up a few things. Do you trust me?” There was no response from the girl in the fetal position. “Before we do that, I need you to look around the truck for ammo to the shotgun. We’re out, and I don’t know how many more whacks it can take. These fuckers are resistant. Can you do that for me?” She lifted her face from her arms and searched for Devin’s eyes, but he was too concentrated on driving through the wreckage that used to be Danny Thomas Boulevard.

Erica relaxed her stature and began to search the glove box and door shelves, and she jumped in the backseat and began to rummage around. “Shit! Hold on!” Devin said as he stuck a hand toward the backseat to help hold Erica from sliding. Her mind was focused; she was halfway into the backseat when Devin connected the grill of the truck with the skull of a bloody naked person.

“Was that what I think it was?” Erica politely asked.

“Probably. Didn’t stop to ask questions,” Devin said with a smile that reflected in the rearview mirror.

“Did Frank ever have any modifications to this truck?” Erica asked facing the backseat.

“Don’t know. Why?”

“I found something,” Erica responded.

“Well, what is it?” Devin asked.

“The backseat is fake.”

The Text

Chapter 10

Monday 1215 CST

Memphis

“W
hat do you mean the backseat is fake?” Devin retorted.

“It’s a facade. The cushion is not a cushion at all. It’s like a storage cupboard,” Erica responded. “I found a box of bullets, a little gun, and a cheap cell phone.”

“Show me,” Devin said, seeing out of the corner of his eye.

Erica held up the items individually. “Hey, that’s a nice handgun. Read the side of the barrel. What does it say?”

“Taurus…3-5-7 magnum. 8-7---- The rest is scratched off.”

“That is the make, caliber, and serial number. Should be a lot more numbers? Wait a minute, a hidden space for storage, a handgun with a scratched off serial number, and a disposable cell phone…holy shit! Frank is a runner!”

“What’s a runner?” Erica asked shyly.

“I don’t know what he was running, but he didn’t want anyone to find it, for example, the police. Frank was carrying contraband. He gets…well, got…hired to transport materials that were probably illegal. Holy shit balls! Frank was a drug runner!”

“He sure saved our asses back there. I just never knew he was in this line of work. Are there any rounds in that gun?” Devin asked.

“I don’t know. What’s a round, and how do you figure that out?”

“A round is another term for ‘bullet.’ You check it by…wait, point the gun at the dashboard. Safety first. Now on the left side there is a button that you should slide toward the barrel. The cylinder will open to the left.”

“OK. There are six ‘rounds.’”

“Did you find any in the back?”

“No, but I got excited when I saw the box of shotgun rounds.”

“Check again. If I know Frank, he would go…down fighting,” Devin said as he wiped his cheek on his sleeve.

“Where are we going anyway?” Erica asked as she poked her head out from the back of the front seat.