The ZWD Trilogy (Book 1): Zombie World Dominance [The Destruction Begins] (19 page)

Mary’s
head was in Jerry’s
lap. Her dirty, auburn hair was draped across her
face. It was matted with sweat and dirt. She was still asleep.

Jerry
placed his hand on Mary’s shoulder and gently shook her awake. He was ready to
go, other than his boots, which were on the floor. He was wearing a sleeveless
tee shirt. He had been into working out since he was thirteen, and he loved
showing off his muscles.

Mary
sat up, leaning against Jerry’s shoulder. She brushed her hair out of her face
and looked at Jerry.

“Morning,
babe. Did you sleep all right?”

“Not
so good,” said Mary. “Every time someone screamed outside, I woke up. You made
it easier for me to sleep when you came over to my bed, though. But Jerry, I’m
still so scared. When I did sleep, all I dreamed about was Stan and Rosie
getting killed. I don’t want to stay here any more.”

“I
know, babe. We’ll be leaving after we eat something. We can go downstairs and
grab a cab to take us back to the train station, and go home.”

“Okay.
I need to be home when my parents get back from the beach.”

Mike
had run hot water run in the bathroom sink to warm up the leftover hot dogs.
Not the ideal breakfast, but it was better than nothing.

“Awwwright,
guys,” said Mike. “Your hot dogs are ready. Grab a couple for breakfast and
chow down, and get everything packed up and let’s get out of here. I want to be
able to grab the first cab that we find.”

“Thanks,
man,” said Jerry. “And when we go, let’s only take one backpack each. Just take
what we need to stay alive. Everything else can be left here. It’s important
that we’re not loaded down so we can move or fight if we need to. I don’t think
this is over yet, after listening to the screams last night.”

After
they had eaten, Mike had everyone go to the window to see what he had been
looking at when the sun was coming up.

“Look
at all the dead, bloody bodies down there on the street,” he said. “It looks
like a slaughterhouse had a record night. There’s so much blood and torn flesh
lying around. Those things — whatever they are — owned the night. There are thirty
or forty bodies laying out there. All night long we heard them, killing one
person after another. The night is not a time to be outside. We all know the
creatures came up the steps from the subway tunnel as the sun was going down.
What we didn’t know is that they kill all night. I know when I was awake I
could hear people screaming. It was that way all night long, as far as I know.
”

He
pointed down the street, where the rising sun was casting giant shadows. “Look
at the parts of the street that are still in shadow. See the creatures standing
there? They’re just standing there, weaving back and forth. They’re all staring
at the sky. I’ve looked, but I can’t tell what they’re looking at. Their mouths
are hanging open and they’re drooling. I tried to count them, but I keep losing
count because they keep moving around, just in this one area it looks like
there’s something like 60 to 75 of them down there.”

Mary
squeezed in beside Mike. She stood, staring down at the creatures, holding
Jerry’s arm tightly. Then she let out a small yelp. “Oh, my god, Jerry! Look at
the bodies. The street is covered with blood, guts, and body parts… Do we
have
to go down there? Is it safe for us? Look at the creatures standing in the
shadows across the street? They’re waiting for us to come out, I know they are.
If we go down there, we’ll all be killed. Jerry, I don’t want to die. I’m
scared!”

“Look
at them, Mary,” said Jerry. “See the other people walking up and down the
street? The creatures don’t seem interested in them. Whatever is going on
around here, I don’t want to be a part of it. We need to get the hell out of
New York before this gets any worse, or spreads. I know that the only way to do
that is to go down there. Mike, you’ve been watching the street for a while.
Did you see any taxis?”

“I
haven’t seen anything moving except those people walking. Nothing else is
moving. I haven’t seen any vehicles at all. Not a delivery truck, a bus or a
cab. Nothing, dude. I think we’ll be walking to Grand Central Station. I think
it’s about four or five miles from here. It’s not that far to walk if the creatures
stay in the shadows, but we’d better take our weapons just in case. We can’t take
anything that we don’t need right now. Girls, that means whatever’s in your
suitcases has to stay behind.”

Jennifer
said, “So what do you want us to do, Mike? Do you expect us to trash our nice
dresses, along with everything else we brought? Going down there is all it’ll
take for us to get killed. I’d rather stay here until help comes.”

“Hang
on, Jen,” said Mike. “Take a close look at the creatures. They aren’t trying to
attack anyone. See the other people down there, walking around? They’re on the
sunny side of the street. The creatures are staying in the shadows on the other
side. As the sun rises, the shadows are getting shorter. If we are going to do
anything, we need to do it now. If we don’t go now, we might as well plan on
staying here another night.”

“So
let’s get our weapons ready,” said Jerry. “We need to dump all of the crap out
of our backpacks, and pack them with all the food and water that we can carry.
Only take things we can eat or use as a weapon. Nothing else. And yes, ladies,
you’re gonna have to leave all your ‘essential’ stuff here. If we try to drag
all your stuff along with us, it’s only gonna slow us down, and today, slow
people are gonna be dead people. Any questions?” He paused a moment. There was
silence. “Great. Let’s get started. I want to be out of here in five minutes.”

Jennifer
frowned a moment and said, “Jerry, when can we come back to get our luggage? We
can’t just leave it here for anyone to steal, you know. We paid a lot of money
for some of it.”

“Jen, it’s
like this,” Jerry replied. “Do you want to live, wearing dirty clothes, or do
you want to be dead, dressed nice, with your makeup done just right? It’s that
simple. If we try to haul your stuff all over town trying to avoid the
creatures, we’re gonna get killed. If it were up to me, I’d choose my life over
a hundred Louis Vuitton bags full of designer stuff, any day of the week. If I
had to, I’d walk out of here buck naked. How about the both of you? What are
you gonna decide?”

“Oh,
man… I really don’t want to lose my dresses or my shoes or any of the other
stuff I have,” said Jen. “If the police get rid of all of those creatures, can
we come back for our luggage?”

“Jen,
if it turns out it’s safe, Mike and I will come back for everything,” said
Jerry. “But right now we need to get out of Harlem and get to the train
station, then get out of Manhattan and back home to East Norwich. For all we
know, this might only be happening in New York City. I promise, if it turns out
everything is all right, Mike or I will come back for all of your stuff. We
promise.
Remember, these rooms are paid for through Sunday morning, so our bags will be
safe here at least until then.”

“Okay…
if you promise to come back when this is over, then I’m good with that,” said
Jen. “Is that cool with you, Mary?”

“Yeah,”
said Mary. “I just want to get out of here. I don’t want to think about any of
it right now. Come on, Jennifer, let’s dump out our backpacks.”

A few
minutes later, their backpacks packed with food and water and makeshift weapons
in hand, the four of them slowly walked down the stairs to the street. They
noticed right away that the creatures were not moving. They stood slowly
swaying, staring at the sky.

They
wanted to find a cab to take them to the train, but there were none to be
found. For that matter, the only thing that was moving were pedestrians on the
sidewalk. No vehicles were on the street, which seemed very strange. The four
stood on the sidewalk looking for a cab to hail, but after twenty minutes they
hadn’t seen a one, nor did they see any other vehicles.

Jerry looked
at the others. “I don’t think anything is running. We’re going to have to walk
to the train station. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to how the cab got here.
If Stan was still alive, he could tell us where to go to get out of here; he
lived here for a year. From what I recall, I think Grand Central Station was
three or four blocks from the Hudson River. If we follow the river, we should
see signs for the terminal. I see a sign over there pointing the way to the
Hudson. I think we need to walk to the river then we can go south to the
terminal. What do you think?”

“I’m
good with that,” said Mary.

“Me
too,” said Jen. “So let’s walk that way. I don’t like standing here with those
creepy things right across the street.”

“Yeah,”
said Mike. “We need to be doing something other than just standing here looking
at the creatures.”

They
started walking south towards where they believed Grand Central Station was
located in lower Manhattan. From there they planned to take the train back
home. They didn’t know that they were badly mistaken. They thought that Grand
Central was two or three city blocks from the Hudson River. What threw them off
was that Grand Central Station was nowhere near the Hudson.

The
island of Manhattan had two rivers flowing around it, one on each side. On the
west was the Hudson. On the east was the East River. The nearest river to Grand
Central Station was the East River, 3/4 of a mile from the terminal. The Hudson
River was on the other side of Manhattan, a full mile and a half from the
terminal. No matter which river they followed, they were bound to miss the
train station.

What they
could not have known was that the trains had stopped running altogether. Due to
the number of missing or dead employees, there was no way to staff the trains
or cabs. Without electrical power, all of the public services had been shut
down. The train they had taken into the city was one of the last ones that ran
before the rail system was shut down.

As
they walked, they watched the creatures as they passed by them. The creatures
didn’t attempt to attack them; they stayed in the shadows, swaying back and
forth. The sun was making the creatures smell worse; the hotter it became the
more they smelled. It was like walking in an open sewer. Continuing south, they
walked in the sun as much as they could. This appeared to work for now. As long
as the creatures had shadows to stand in, they ignored the people on the
street.

The
four of them believed their plan was working. If they were following the Hudson
River, the Grand Central terminal couldn’t be too far away, and from there, it
would only be a matter of a single train ride home.

However,
they were lost, and they didn’t even know it. By the time they realized it, they
would be miles away from Grand Central. Even if their luck changed, the trains
had stopped running, just like the cabs.

There
were a lot of people on the street, everyone walking in different directions.
As they walked farther south, the sun rose higher. The shadows they counted on
to keep the creatures away were slowly disappearing. The closer it got to noon,
the shorter the shadows became.

This
forced the creatures into the streets. At noon, with the sun high in the sky,
the shadows were gone except for under the occasional overhang or awning. This
forced the creatures into the street and into the sunlight. Now fully aware of
the people around them, the creatures began to hunt. The four of them noticed
the change.

Mike
pointed to the side of the street where the creatures stood, saying, “Guys, are
you watching this? The shadows that the creatures are standing in are nearly
gone. It must be near noon. There is something about the creatures being in the
shadows makes them more docile. We need to have another plan to handle this. I
don’t want to die out here. Jerry, what do you think we should do?”

            “With
all the people out on the street now, I don’t think we need to change anything
just yet. All we have to do is keep other people between the creatures and us.
This is a life or death situation. We don’t want to have anyone die, but if
somebody has to die, I’d rather it be someone besides any of the four of us.
Keep watching where the creatures are and where the other people are. Pick out
a safe place to go when a creature is getting too close. We need to do this at
all times to stay safe. If we need to get off the street quickly, we need to
have a hiding place picked out before we need it.”

Gradually
the creatures, one by one or in small groups, moved into the street. Some of
the other people who saw them started to run. As they ran, they began to
attract the creatures’ attention. They began moving towards the runners as
quickly as a slow moving creature could. The four of them worked to keep as
many people between themselves and the creatures. The first creature grabbed
the first person it could, dragging them down to the ground to kill them. When
that person was dead, the creatures moved on to the next person.

The
four of them kept to the center of the street. Today, at least, they would not
be the first ones who would be killed today. Jerry knew that their luck would
not last for much longer. The creatures were making fast work of people on the street.
Most of the attacks were carried out by more than one creature. This made the things
even more dangerous.