Beyond Death: Origins, Book 1 (5 page)

Richard started hammering boards to the windows with a force that hurt his arm. Still, he beat and beat on each nail with his fear fueling his power. His life and those of two women depended on it. He’d broken every piece of furniture they could spare trying to find enough wood to cover each of the downstairs windows. The cheap bookcases that they’d argued about a few years back had come in handy now. Thankfully, he’d bought more nails than needed when some friends helped him put a deck on the back last year.

“Why are we staying here?” Sherri cried.

At least she’d stopped actually crying in the last few hours. It seemed to help her to close up the windows. The house in a shambles, they sat in the dark despite the time of day. The world as they knew it just a day before had slipped away.

“Jayda is waiting for Chase, remember,” he spat as nicely as he could muster.

“And, who’s Chase again?” Sherri asked.

Richard knew that the woman knew, but she seemed not to be able to keep two rational thoughts together at the moment. She sat on the couch, now in the middle of the living room, wrapped in a thin afghan as he sweated in a short-sleeved shirt. She rocked as if frozen.

“A guy I don’t trust!” Richard grumbled in between hitting nails.

“Okay. But, how does Jayda know him?” her soft voice snapped.

Richard looked around him and listened for Jayda. Satisfied she was out of hearing range, he walked to the couch. His legs ached as he took weight off them. He’d been standing and bending and lifting for hours. His arms hurt far worse. He didn’t understand why it hurt worse to stop than to power through.

“Military. She lost her leg because of him. To hear her tell it, once she got injured he panicked and forgot protocol. Way I see it, he only cared about himself, and she lost her leg to gangrene due to his negligence. But she loved the guy at one point,” he huffed.

“So, both your stories are jaded by your own personal tie to the guy,” she sighed, her eyebrows raised. “I had no idea she lost her leg because of him. I guess I remember the name now as her ex, but she never blamed him. I don’t even think I realized he was there, just that she was married to him at the time.”

“I want to leave too. I’m sure we can find someplace safe. They’ve talked about safe houses, former military bases and hospitals, places they’ve secured that they are bringing in supplies to and guarding. I feel like a sitting duck here.”

* * * * *

Jayda sat poised on the edge of the toilet waiting for the little window at the end of the pee stick to show a plus or minus sign. It wasn’t the time to bring a baby into the world. But before the world had gone to hell, she’d told herself if she hadn’t started in another week that she’d take a pregnancy test. Today was that day.

Her breath caught when the sign began to show. Unable to register a proper response, she threw the stick in the trash and erased the result from her mind. Walking down the steps, she heard Richard and Sherri talking rather than the sound of nails being hammered. She couldn’t think on the state of her house either. With her dead neighbor in the bathroom still, she’d just as soon burn it to the ground and start over after anyway.

“Chase is no knight in shining armor, and I’d bet money the jerk never shows,” Richard grumbled under his breath.

“Sherri, ignore my husband,” Jayda said to announce herself.

She cringed though to see that the volume of her voice had startled Sherri. The pale woman with bloodshot eyes sat in a near fetal position on her couch. She watched as her neighbor blinked back fresh tears. She grabbed her a tissue and sat on a chair that now sat right up against the couch.

“Chase has connections still in the military, and he’s found us someone who can get us to a safe place,” Jayda soothed.

“There is no military!” Richard boomed. “There is no government.”

Richard stood. He shot out his finger and pointed to Jayda, to Sherri, and then to himself.

“We are the only military we can depend on now. We are fucked!” he fumed.

A sudden banging on the back door and wall surrounding it made them all jump.

“Great, you’ve alerted
them
that we are alive and well in here waiting to be eaten!” Jayda hissed.

“Yeah. I’m the bad guy. Let’s wait until our hero Chase shows to save the day. Let’s see how long it takes with him a no-show for you to give up on him too,” Richard spat as he stormed out of the room.”

After going seventy or more at times down the interstate, by the time Chase’s phone told them to get off an exit, the car started to make a grinding noise.

“Damn it!” Chase yelled as he hit his hand on the steering wheel.

“Is that the brakes?” Lucas asked, clutching the dashboard.

Smoke started to seep out from around the hood, answering the question. Pulling over onto a thankfully empty side road, Chase tried to start the truck again. It made horrid noises, but wouldn’t turn over. Smoke impaired their sight out the front window within seconds.

“I’m afraid we’re going to draw them out with the noise. It’s not going to do us any good anyway. Let me get out first, and I’ll let you know if the coast is still clear,” Chase instructed.

Lucas just nodded as Chase grabbed for one of the dissection tools they’d put in the cup holders. Back in stealth mode, he scanned the perimeters. Luckily, houses were just past a thin line of trees.

“Grab all the gear. We’re going to hike it just through that tree line. Hopefully, it’ll stay empty, and we can find a car with gas to hotwire,” Chase barked out directions in a low voice.

“Shit. Great. Can’t wait,” Lucas sighed as he got out and grabbed the gear from behind his seat. “Wait, you can hotwire a car too. Anything you don’t know?”

“Now’s not the time for that long list,” Chase huffed.

Weighted down by bags containing a frozen dead mouse and laptop among other things, Chase had Lucas just a step behind him as they went. Luck holding out, the street was clear once they got to it. Looking in cars, old ones with a better possibility of not having an alarm, he made short work of finding nothing. Car after car either had a sticker about an alarm, which he could disable if necessary, but they’d be harder to hotwire anyway.  The two older models didn’t have enough gas to get them to Jayda’s even. He doubted gas stations were safe or in working order. If empty, he had a credit card to try.

Finally finding a car that looked promising with a full tank of gas, Chase had Lucas keep watch as he used what they had to try to jimmy the door open. Sweat broke out all over him as he tried to work fast and quiet with his limited resources. A sigh expelled from both of them when the lock popped open.

“Hey!” a male voice shouted.

They turned to see a man with a gun coming out from the back of a house. Turning and raising their arms as if the guy was a cop, they said nothing.

“Get the hell away from my car or I’ll blow your heads off!” the armed man yelled.

Chase did a quick look for any zombies who could have heard the man a mile away. Seeing none, he ventured to speak.

“Listen, sorry. We thought the street was abandoned. My truck broke down just over there. We knew it wasn’t safe to just walk around unarmed outdoors. Really, I wouldn’t steal anyone’s car in a normal situation,” Chase offered.

“Yeah, right, man. You got the locked door open, didn’t you?”

“Well, I used to be military,” Chase said.

“Military, huh?”

“Used to be, over a decade ago,” Chase added.

“Still, I bet you have connections. Bet you know something about what’s going on?”

“Not really,” Chase said.

He’d finally lowered his hands since the guy had lowered his gun. He nodded for Lucas to do the same as the guy got closer to them.

“Bullshit, you’re bags read Biomedical and UCLA. You guys are like science geeks, and one with military experience. I’m guessing you know something. I’m Dax, by the way. Why don’t you guys come in for something to eat and tell me all about why you needed to steal my car,” he demanded instead of asked, motioning with his gun toward his house.

“Fine,” Chase said. ”I’ll tell you everything, but we have to be quick. Really quick.”

“Sure. This way,” Dax ushered them to the door.

Behind the door, Chase took a second to take in his surroundings. The windows were neatly boarded up, and all the doors but the one they’d entered into had boards across them as well. Some furniture like bookshelves and a cedar chest were pushed against some of the boards.

“I love what you’ve done with the place,” Chase said.

“I didn’t leave when the rest of them fled the hordes of those things the TV people are finally calling zombies, for lack of a better term they say. This is my mother’s place. I was here packing it up when the shit hit the fan.”

“Is your mother here?” Chase asked.

“No, she died a few months back. I was just finally getting around to taking what I wanted so I could sell the rest along with the house. I ended up having to make the place anti-zombie though. Don’t suppose I’ll be selling it anytime soon now anyway. I have lunch meat, chips, and a few cold beers I’d brought for my stay. You are welcome to make a sandwich,” Dax offered.

“We’d appreciate that, but do you mind if we talk as we make it to go. I’m on a tight time frame,” Chase added.

“Yeah, I bet you are. Quicker you give me the details, sooner you’ll be on your way,” Dax smiled.

Chase relented and filled the guy in. They were out in no time at all, only they had to take gun-man, Dax, with them.  

“I wish those things would stop banging on that damn door and wall and whatever,” Sherri huffed, then sighed.

Jayda gave her a sympathetic look, then took a deep breath to calm herself. The sound of whatever guttural groans they made, and the constant knocking sound that was just them continuously walking into the door and walls of the house, did tend to wear on one’s nerves, even when it hadn’t been going on that long.

“I’d suggest music to go with our fancy dinner, but it would probably only encourage them. I don’t know what their hearing is like, but they haven’t seemed to follow us, as in they haven’t come around to this side of the house just because we changed rooms. Maybe they just hear a sound or pick up a scent, like a bloodthirsty dog, and keep at it. Any home would smell of humans,” Jayda thought out loud.

“Here is your fancy dinner ladies,” Richard said as he sat down at the table with a steaming plate of microwaved chicken patties.

“Yum,” Jayda exclaimed in a soft voice.

“We couldn’t risk the banging of pots and pans. We don’t want them surrounding the house. I’m not sure how the wood on the windows will hold for one,” Richard said in disgust as he kept glancing through to the living room. “And as they seem to multiply out there, I meant just given the sound increase I’m guessing they have, I don’t even know how the house will hold. I can’t imagine they’d come busting through a wall, but a few days ago I thought the dead stayed dead and meningitis was just a nasty disease, not a supernatural one.”

“I really want to get out of here,” Sherri sobbed lightly, her assembled but uneaten sandwich poised at her lips.

“We need to wait for Chase. He’ll have answers, I’m sure. We don’t even know what it’s like out there. Can a car outrun them? Do they just overtake the car?” Jayda asked no one and then took a large bite of her sandwich.

The patty was hard to chew. Her already dry mouth moved the mush around as she willed her throat to swallow. She’d had fresh hamburger buns in the house, but that didn’t seem to make the food more palatable.

“We need to eat,” Jayda encouraged. “No matter what happens once Chase gets here, I’m sure we’ll need our strength.”

“I don’t get why you trust him,” Richard grumbled as he chewed. “You just forgave him for all he did to you.”

Jayda jumped in her seat to turn her body squarely at Richard as she rebutted, “There was nothing to forgive. Accidents happen. People do the best they can in the horrible situations they’re put in. I try to keep in mind that whatever happened, and I’m fuzzy on details, Chase would never have intentionally hurt me. He loved me.”

“Obviously, in his own deluded way, he still does,” Richard said to her, his blazing eyes looked right into hers. “It’s been how long you’ve been divorced from the guy? Wait, let’s count back from the years we’ve been married.”

“I won’t have you treating him bad when he gets here. He’s risking his own life to save your hide,” Jayda spat, though her voice remained stifled for the sake of those whom it seemed lived again only to harm them.

“He doesn’t care about my hide. He only cares about yours. A little too late if you ask me.”

“Well, I didn’t,” Jayda added as she chomped on another big bite.

“How can you just forgive him? You lost your leg! I was the one here to help you heal. Seems that means nothing,” Richard threw his words at her. The hushed tones did nothing to disguise the anger in the room.

“You’re unbelievable. I don’t compare. And I don’t give out hero awards,” she countered.

“Really?”

“No. I’m going with the smartest bet, the one with the most connections to hopefully save our lives. You’re the one who can’t see the truth for your jealousy. You want us all to die so you can be the hero?” Jayda challenged him.

When Richard failed to answer, just glaring at his uneaten sandwich, Jayda let the subject drop. She focused all her efforts on eating. And at the moment, it took every ounce she had to get the rubbery excuse for meat down.

“So, Sherri, tell us how you met your husband. I’m sorry if you mentioned before, I can’t seem to recall now,” Richard asked.

Jayda shot him a quizzical glance.

“What? I’d like to talk and maybe drown out that infernal sound. Thought maybe it would be nice to remember him with good memories,” Richard explained himself.

“Nothing exciting. A mutual friend introduced us at a party. We didn’t have a lot in common, but somehow we never ran out of things to discuss. He opened my eyes to being a much more accepting and compassionate person. The chemistry between us was undeniable, and neither of us over the years seemed to dare to let some differences of opinion get in the way of that,” Sherri smiled as she talked, her sandwich now just a prop she held. “I remember the wedding and the honeymoon like it was yesterday rather than eighteen years ago. We had so many great years together. I want to grow old—”

Sherri’s quiet sobs drowned her words. Jayda shot Richard a look. She was appalled he’d make the poor woman cry again for his own selfish reasons. She figured if the woman wanted to talk about her dead husband she would, on her own terms.

“Do you think he knew that I allowed him to be killed? Do you think they understand anything, sick or dead or whatever, that some part of them still remains?” Sherri asked as her lungs tried for large gulps of air.

“No,” Richard said a little too loudly. He looked over his shoulder then as if he could see anything. “It was not him anymore, Sherri. Whatever is happening in their bodies, it’s not human. He was gone already. You did the humane thing for the man you love.”

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing will really ever matter again,” she sighed, her lungs still fighting for jagged breaths she tried to stifle.

“Sherri,” Jayda began, “Do you remember that trip we all took to your parent’s cabin? What an amazing time. We had so much fun.”

“Yeah. That’s a great place. I’ve used it more times than they’ll ever know,” she grinned, though it was short-lived.

A loud sound of furniture moving drew their attention. Jayda saw one of the boards over the big picture window start to give way. Hands, ones with flesh hanging from them, soiled with dried blood, forced their way through the opening, grasping at the air. Before Richard could get there, the board gave way, and the zombie fell through.

The thing rebounded fast. He moved at them without grace, but with great speed. He reached Sherri first, but Richard struck it with his trusty bat. He pushed Sherri behind the island in the kitchen.

“More are coming,” Jayda pointed to the window. “You need to fix it. I’ll deal with him.”

Richard moved fast. He struck several heads coming through. He pushed their stunned bodies back out through the window, and grabbed the fallen board. He yelled to Sherri to come push against it as he pounded in more nails.

As they worked, the zombie in front of Jayda stirred. Wrapping her hand in a dishtowel, she grabbed a kitchen knife. With a swift dexterity, she plunged the knife into the zombie’s eye. He stopped moving almost instantly. Grateful it wasn’t anyone she knew, she stayed poised over it in case it reanimated again.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Richard work. Not muscle-bound like Chase, he still got the job done. He’d always taken care of her, but he wasn’t the best of protectors. She’d never needed anyone but herself. She was the one with the training. He loved her, and she him, but something about Chase wiggled in her brain, wormed its way back into her heart with just a thought.

Ancient history
, she thought as she watched her husband finish up at the window and wrap a hysterical Sherri in his arms. She knew she loved Richard, and she hated his jealousy. She and Chase had history, a whole hell of a lot of it. Touched he’d still think of her after all this time, in this type of unbelievable situation where it seemed from the news that the living and the dead were only out for themselves, that was all it was. She’d appreciate any help he offered and make sure Richard did the same.