The Week of the Dead (5 page)

“My house. I need to pick up some things. Is that OK? I figured we could lay low for a while.”

“Nope, no rounds for the .357,” Erica said as she climbed into the front seat, “but I found an orange and a new pack of cigarettes.”

“Good, I need a cigarette. Light me one. I’m just trying not to get us killed,” Devin said as he was still trying to lower his heart rate.

Erica pulled out two cigarettes from the red paper pack and lit them with a flick of a lighter. “I don’t want to roll the windows down,” Erica said sinfully.

“Just crack them a little, enough to let the smoke out, not enough to stick a hand through, in case we come in contact with those fuckers.” Devin and Erica took long drags on their cigarettes as silver smoke came out of the lit end.

All of a sudden, the cheap, disposable cell phone from Frank’s fake backseat came to life and started buzzing on vibrate. “Is that you?” Devin asked Erica.

“No, I left all my stuff at the junkyard. Is it you?”
Buzz. Buzz.
Erica rolled up her window to find the source of the noise. The cell phone began to dance on the armrest. “It’s a text message.”

“What does it say?”

Erica began to read the text message aloud. “
Frank, shit has gone bad. Come to the dungeon. Got plenty of munchies. Bring friends. No nibblers. -Phoenix.
” Erica looked to Devin to find a response.

“Type this. ‘Phoenix, Frank is a nibbler. Friends looking for safety.’”

Erica finished the text message and stared at it waiting on a reply. “Who do you think this is?” Erica inquired.

“I don’t know. But it sounds a lot better than here.”

“A dungeon sounds better?”

“Yeah. If it is a dungeon, that means it’s solid, defensible, and probably underground. The thing we have to worry about now isn’t the “
nibblers
” as this guy said but what the government will do. If they are still around, I don’t think they would go ahead and risk more lives of their forces to fight on the ground.”

“What does that mean?”

“If they are still around, they will end up using nuclear weapons,” Devin said.

His adrenaline was still high. As a result he began to talk faster. “I don’t believe that!” Erica said as she ashed her cigarette on the ledge of the cracked window.

“Well, hear me out. If you were the president, would you send troops out on the ground? There are three possibilities to this: One, the troops would be told only to shoot the infected. This means picking their shots, probably using snipers and recon teams. Two, they would give an “open fire” order and kill anything that moves, which means people on the ground shooting at normal people. And three, skipping all that. Skipping the napalm runs and tanks, they would jump to conclusions and use nukes to wipe everything out while they hide in their mountain hideouts.” The buzzing phone broke the silence.

Erica picked up the phone and read aloud, “‘
Come on down. We’ll have a party. Sending you the directions. Hope to see you soon. Namaste. -Phoenix.
’ The place is in Glasgow, Kentucky. Who the hell is this guy? What was Frank into?” Erica asked.

“Guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

Devin’s Neighborhood

Chapter 11

Monday 1245 CST

Memphis

“A
re we going to your house?” Erica asked. Ever since her attack, she just wanted to sit in a shower and cry, but she put on a brave face for Devin. She knew he was scared and he didn’t want to show it.

“Yeah, I want to grab some stuff. We need to put fuel in the truck anyway. I want to make sure my folks are all right.”

“You live with your parents?” Erica had never asked Devin about his life or past. Ever since he began to work at the junkyard, he had kept to himself. He would let out a chuckle or a random “good morning.” But he never indulged about his life. “Yeah, I moved back in with them a couple of years ago after I got out,” Devin responded.

“What did you get out of?”

Devin just had a one-word answer. “Prison.”

Erica gazed at him with a wide-eyed look. “Well, c’mon, what did you do to get into prison?” Erica wanted to keep him talking. His voice was the only thing keeping her calm.

“I’ll tell you later. We’re almost there,” Devin said as he ran the passenger side of the truck onto the sidewalk to avoid a burning car.

“When we get there, we’re going to jump out and run to the door, OK?” Erica nodded in agreement. “Get ready, we’re coming up on the house. Oh fuck! Hang on!” Devin shouted as he flattened a small child covered in blood.

Devin’s house was situated in an old part of the town. Everyone kept to themselves. In the last twelve hours, Devin’s neighborhood had become a battlefield. As Devin turned his head left, he saw a house on fire. Coming out of the burning house was the silhouette of a man, Mr. Helms. He was chasing a woman and her small child, still clad in their pajamas. Devin followed them with his eyes toward the front of the truck; there they were met with a creature, Harold. Standing there in his boxers, arms outreached as if he were giving a hug. The woman and child were looking at the flaming creature chasing after them and to the semi-naked one in front of them. They had no foreshadowing of Harold or what used to be Harold, reaching out for them. Harold sank his teeth into the woman in the pajamas. Her daughter was standing there in horror as the Harold-creature began to feast on her mother. “Hey! Kid! Run away! C’mere!” The young child stood there in shock as Devin motioned for the girl to get in the truck with them. She stood there as the Harold-creature had his fill of her mother.

As the child stared in dismay at the Harold-creature feasted on her mother, Erica watched as the burning Mr. Helms fell to the ground and stopped moving. “Kid! Get in the truck!” Devin shouted out of the cracked window. The child in her pajamas just stood there clutching her stuffed panda. As if it was in slow motion, she turned her head to look at the truck; her eyes met Devin’s in fear. Without expelling a cry, a pair of hands pulled the child down to the ground. It was her mother or what used to be her mother. Her mother had become pale with blood loss. She held onto her child as the Harold-creature continued to eat her from the right shoulder. “Fuck this!” Devin said as he revved the truck engine over the makeshift Thanksgiving feast including the burning man. “What the hell?” Erica shouted as she held on to the handle and braced her foot against the dashboard. With a crunch under each of the axles and a high-pitched squeal, Devin and Erica ran the large pickup over the creatures in the street. Erica looked at Devin as he rolled over them like roadkill.

“What? They were dead or as good as dead! People can save themselves. She could have gotten in the truck, but she froze!” Devin explained as he flicked his cigarette out the cracked window.

“She was a little girl! How was she supposed to save herself?” Erica asked.

“Here’s an idea…Run! She could have run! She could have said ‘Fuck this! I’m outta here! Away from the man who was on fire! She could have gotten in the truck with us. Any able-minded person would have realized these fuckers can’t speak English, much less speak, period. What do you do when someone says ‘run’ when something is chasing you? You realize something is chasing you, and you run!”

“When did you become so cold?” Erica asked as she gave him a glare.

“I…I’m just trying to survive. It is an instinct. Fight or flight. Have you taken any psychology classes or watched the Animal Planet?” Devin fired quickly after a pause.

“Well yeah, why?”

“When the smaller animal is being attacked by the bigger animal, what does it do? It either fights back, aka hitting them with the truck, or takes a flight, as in driving the truck away from them.”

“Ha-ha-ha!” Erica exploded in laughter.

Devin chuckled. “What’s so funny?”

“I can’t believe you know what the Animal Planet is. You don’t seem like the ‘penguins and goats’ type.”

“I’m not. I’m more of the ‘ocean and coral’ type,” he said with a smile.

“What’s so cool about the ocean and coral?”

“Two-thirds of this planet is covered with water. There is bound to be something interesting down there. Also, when I was in prison, I read a lot of news articles about how the governments of the world were taking inactive vehicles, like tanks and boats, and they sink them into the ocean to create artificial coral reefs to help grow the plant life in the ocean.” Devin’s adrenaline had returned.

“Hmm, that’s pretty cool; Dad took us to the beach once,” Erica stated as she began to look out the window and quietly sob to herself over her recently deceased father.

“I’m sorry about Robert. I liked him; he gave me a chance when other people wouldn’t.”

“I wish the government would come and save us,” Erica said as she tried to keep herself from crying by changing the subject.

As the vehicle rounded the corner to Devin’s house, Devin spoke. “Hold that thought. We’re almost there. Are you ready to jump?” Devin asked.

“Yeah,” Erica said as she pulled her hair up into a ponytail and took her seat belt off.

“Here we go!” Devin said as he crushed a creature in a flannel nightgown in his driveway. “Quick! Carport door! Now!” Devin shouted as he turned the engine off and kicked the truck door open.

Devin and Erica met at the front of the truck and held hands as they ran the thirty paces to the storm door on the carport. “Hurry up! They’re coming!” Erica shouted as Devin tried to get the keys out of his pocket. Devin fumbled for the keys. Then he tossed the set of keys to Erica as he drew Frank’s shotgun to his shoulder and fired both barrels into the oncoming horde of creatures. “Which key?” Erica shouted from over her shoulder.

“The gold triangle!” Devin exclaimed as he reloaded the double barrel. As Devin propped the shotgun back to his aching shoulder, Erica let out a whimper. “Devin!” Devin turned around to see a couple of creatures making their way toward Erica from the side of the house. As Devin put his hand on Erica shoulder and rolled her out of the way, Devin fired both barrels, connecting the shotgun ammunition with the soft rotting flesh of the creatures. As Devin popped the barrels down to reload, the door opened, and a pair of hands reached around and grabbed Erica by the waist and dragged her into the house. “Devin!”

“Well, how’s your day going, Son?” Stephen asked Devin as he bolted the door shut with all his might.

“What are you doing here, Uncle?” Devin asked as he checked his ammunition.

“I came here to check on your mom. What are you two doing here?”

“Same thing, where are they?” Devin asked inquisitively.

“I don’t know. I figured she was here. Where would she be? Who is this young lady?” Stephen said as he eyed Erica in her demin jumpsuit.

Erica returned the stare at the midfifties’s man standing against the door in his Tennessee Volunteers Polo shirt. “Uncle Stephen, this is…,” Devin paused. He couldn’t find the right word for Erica.

“My name is Erica. We used to work together at the junkyard.” Erica finished Devin’s sentence as she stepped forward.

“Well, aren’t you just a cutie?” Stephen commented as he tried to get Erica’s dimensions from outside her baggy denim jumpsuit.

“You gotta watch out, Erica. My uncle is a bit of a hound dog,” Devin said as he grabbed Stephen’s shoulder and shared a hug with the old man in orange.

“Well, this isn’t my house, so you’re more than welcome to stay,” Stephen said.

“Do we still have power?” Devin asked.

“Yeah, but I haven’t turned on any lights ’cause I figured those fuckers would see us. What do you think?”

“I don’t know. We came for supplies. I didn’t know where else to go. I got a strange message from a friend’s cell phone. It gave me directions to this place in Kentucky. It said he was safe and that we should bring friends,” Devin explained to Stephen.

“Yeah, you’re willing to truck across a couple of states to go hang out with some weirdo who used text messaging during a crisis? Yeah, that sounds like a fine plan!” Stephen said sarcastically.

“Well, it was the first offer. Got any other ideas?”

“Yeah, stay here, and make sure none of these fuckers eat me or take my beer,” Stephen said as he sat on the couch on the opposite side of the room.

“I was taught that if I was ever in a situation where I needed to stay long, it should be easily defensible. This house isn’t defensible. There are no fences, no barbed wire, and no food. Did you open the gun safe yet?”

“Hell no, this isn’t my house. What’s in there?”

“Well, I’m hoping the guns are still there.” All three of them walked over to the stand-up gun safe that the small television rested upon. With a spin of the numerical dial and an unlocking of the mechanism, Devin let the door naturally swing open. Inside were two handguns, a .270 lever action with a scope, and an automatic 12 gauge shotgun and a note attached to the rifle. Erica was the first to notice it. She turned to Devin and Stephen. “What does it say?” Stephen asked.

“It says she took HR to the hospital,” Erica said as she handed the note to Devin.

Devin read it furiously. As his eyes scanned the page, he became flushed, and his eyes began to water. “She knew I would come here,” Devin said as he passed the note to Stephen.

“Wait, so she left you a note in the gun safe because…?” Stephen said as he began to read the letter.

“She took the peashooter,” Devin explained.

“That old rusty gun?” Stephen asked as he gave the gun locker another look around. “I cleaned it before I went to prison. It works fine. She took a box of rounds for it. We have to go after her,” Devin said as he started toward the door.

“No way, kid! Not going to happen. Do you know what the hospital is crawling with? Those fucking things! I don’t understand why she thought she could go to the hospital,” Stephen said as he held Devin from opening the door. Devin turned to the front of the house. After a tearful stare out of the kitchen window, Devin motioned for them to come to the window. “She didn’t make it to the hospital.”

A Knight in Shoulder Pads

Chapter 12

Monday 1045 EST

Philadelphia