"There's no way he could still be alive!" Zack finally managed to speak.
"They both look alive to me."
"How the hell could that be?"
Neither one of them could take their eyes of the grisly figures. Mr. Clancy began to stumble down the front steps while the soldier slowly turned in circles in the center of the street.
"I heard some rumors on the ‘net." Matt said.
"Not the ‘Cannibal Plague’?" Zack averted his eyes away from the morbid display outside to glare at Matt sourly. He’d heard the rumors at work also, and they were just too ludicrous to believe.
"I was surfing the ‘net the last day of work, reading the conspiracy sites. I was scanning for any news about what the hell was going on." Matt's voice had taken on a haunted sound. "I read some strange rumors. Even saw a couple pirated webcasts."
"What did they say?" Zack could feel the ‘Cannibal Plague’ story coming.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Anyway, they're just rumors."
"Tell me." Zack was practically demanding. Matt was silent a moment, continuing to stare out the front window.
"You know how we heard reports of plague victims going on homicidal rampages, killing people? Well this report I read said it was more than that. It said the Plague didn't affect you until you were dead."
"That doesn’t make any sense." Zack said a bit surprised. He hadn’t heard that one.
"The report said that once you die, the plague causes some kind of chemical reaction, causing dead people to come alive again."
"You have to be kidding me?" It was even more ludicrous than the ‘Cannibal’ story. But what was they witnessing outside, right now?
"That's what this report said. It said recently dead bodies were coming back to life."
"Why haven't you mentioned this before now?"
"Why would I? Listen how crazy it sounds! Besides, I figured the government would figure it out, take care of things like they always do."
"That's pretty funny, coming from a conspiracy nut like you." Zack snorted.
"I know. But even though I loved the conspiracy theories, I didn't want to believe them. The Kennedy cover-up or secret government medical experiments, or a massive terrorist attack planned on the USA is one thing...but zombies? Thats some crazy shit!"
"Looks like it wasn't a conspiracy after all." Zack muttered. "What else did it say?"
"It was just rumors." Matt was uncomfortable talking about it, and with good reason. Outside the corpse of Mr. Clancy and the soldier were proving these rumors true.
"What else?" Zack had to know the rest, even though he suspected what Matt would say.
"It said they were attacking and eating living people, like some kind of cannibalism."
"That's where the 'Cannibal Plague' rumors came from."
"I don't think they were just rumors." Matt said, looking back outside.
"What are we going to do?" For the first time since this all began, Zack was really feeling scared.
"I don't know. But we can't go out there, because if it's true those things out there will tear us apart."
"I don’t know about that," Zack said. "Look how slow they move. And look how confused they look. I bet we could run right past them."
"Why don’t you go out and test that theory?" Matt taunted.
So they sat there, crouched in the window, peering out at the zombies wandering in the street.
A few minutes later one of the large Military trucks they had seen for several days now collecting the sick and the dead came rolling up the street. Behind it was a Humvee with three more soldiers. The truck pulled to the side of the road and let the Humvee pass. It came to a halt about ten feet from the zombie in the street. The dead soldier had turned toward the oncoming vehicles, arms outstretched, mouth twisted in a snarl. It walked like someone stone faced drunk, practically stumbling. On the porch, Mr. Clancy began to stagger down the steps.
One soldier got out of the Humvee and raised his M-16 to fire and squeezed off one bullet. It punctured the center of the dead soldiers forehead, and he crumbled to the street. The soldier casually turned his sights to Mr. Clancy and shot him through the head with a single round. He fell back against the steps, his arms spread wide. Another soldier exited the Humvee and followed the first up to the house. They appeared to speak a few words to one another before entering the front door. Meanwhile, four more soldiers jumped from the back of the truck. They wore green environmental suits and carried large plastic bags. The slipped one end of one bag over the dead soldiers feet and enveloped his entire body before zipping it shut. Two soldiers picked the body up by handles at either end of the bag and carried it to the back of the truck. The other two were doing the same to Mr. Clancy. By the time they had carried both bodies to the truck, the two soldiers emerged from the house. The four in the environmental suits headed into the house and over the next five minutes they carried out three more bodies. Once they were all loaded in the truck, the soldiers climbed back in the vehicles and drove away.
"The rumors were true. They've know about the dead rising all along," said Matt. "Since it first broke out in Europe. That's why they had a media blackout with anything concerning the plague. That's what they were hiding."
"Those son-of-a-bitches." Zack felt betrayed. For up to now he had always had faith in the government. Despite some crooked politicians involved in some drug smuggling, shady land deals or money laundering scams, he had always believed that the United States government would do the right thing to inform and protect its people, but this? Hiding the truth and preventing people from defending themselves once it was finally known? It was insanity! "Why the hell didn't they just tell the people?" But he knew the answer to his own question. Because people were sheep wanting to be told what to do and something like this would be more than the masses could handle. And that was that.
"I'm thinking maybe we should try and get the hell out of here before its too late. Maybe try and head up to the cabin with Adam and Kelly." Matt said.
"The time to leave was six months ago, before they started this bullshit curfew. We try to leave now and we’ll be arrested and relocated somewhere else." Martial law had been in full effect for over six months, but up until two weeks ago you could still go to military checkpoints and get rations of food. Now if you wanted food you had to stay at a rescue station.
"Well, we better think of something. After what happened across the street, they might just start expecting hostility when they try to relocate people. Maybe they won't hesitate to shoot first and ask no questions."
"And you call me paranoid." Matt said. But he couldn't disagree. Once the shooting had started across the street, the gunners didn't even bother to see if there were innocent people in the house. They had just opened up with their machineguns.
"Besides, we’re just about out of ramen noodles." That’s all they had eaten for nearly three weeks…Noodles.
"We're fucked." Matt sat heavily on the couch, morally deflated…
They sat there the remainder of the day, waiting for the soldiers to return to their street and finish relocating the remaining citizens. By nightfall, they still hadn't come. Later that night, two of the neighborhood families on the block slipped away in their vehicles. They just piled into their vehicle and left.
The FEMA broadcast continued looping a recorded message detailing safety and relief shelters at the University of Utah Hospital, the Salt Lake City International Airport, The South City Campus down town, as well as a few other places in the outlying suburbs of the city. But there was no mention of walking dead…
Chapter 2
Saturday, June 16, 2001
South Salt Lake City
8:24 AM
Zack Thomas’ house was a comfortable one, built of red brick in a once quiet neighborhood. But during the mid eighties a lot of the older residents began to retire and sell their houses to move down to sunny St. George in southern Utah. At the same time families began fleeing the urban sprawls of the west coast, and many came to Utah, most to Salt Lake City. The population swelled, as did the number of cultural and ethnic neighborhoods that stuck primarily to themselves, bringing the hate and prejudice they had fled with them. Gang violence in the city had increased to the point where the police were no longer able to deal with it. They could just clean up the mess the gangs left in their turf wars. Zack's neighborhood wasn't exactly a war zone, but then again they weren't the safest streets to walk at night. That was how it had been up until the shit hit the fan last year. The martial law had changed everything.
"I think we can make it." Zack said as he looked out the window that morning. For getting less that six hours sleep in three days he felt surprisingly full of energy. Probably just adrenaline from the anticipation of what he was planning. He had proposed they leave the city and head into the Uinta Mountains. Adam & Kelly Prescott, friends of theirs, owned a cabin beside a lake. They had fled the city several weeks ago and had invited Matt and Zack to come with them. Both of them had declined, figuring the government would handle the problem in short order and everything would be back to normal. How wrong they had been.
"You’re kidding right." Matt said. It wasn't a question.
"I'm serious. The Army's pulled out of this area. I’m betting the highways will be fairly clear. A few stragglers here and there not withstanding, anyone who was going to leave town did it months ago. If we get on the nearest highway entrance and hit I-80 east, we could be out of the city twenty minutes. With a bit of luck, we can be up at the cabin inside a few hours." Zack also had his reservations about leaving, but he knew staying was also a worse idea. They didn't have any food left.
"If we run across troops we tell them we're headed for the relief station at the University. They shouldn't give us any shit. And if they search for guns, we'll give them up. There's some hunting rifles up at the cabin."
"Let’s do it." Matt said.
Without much fuss they packed a few changes of clothes into a knapsack and piled into Matt's 1994 Eddy Bauer Ford 4x4. They were just backing out of the driveway when the neighbor, Frank Young, stepped out onto his front porch and flagged them down. Matt stopped the truck as Mr. Young approached.
Frank Young was in his early forties, with thick salt and pepper hair, and a bushy mustache. A diesel mechanic by trade, he was a hard working, average American guy. Zack liked him and his wife. They were quiet and friendly. Zack and Matt especially liked Frank's twenty-year-old daughter, Susan. She had long blond hair, emerald green eyes, and the type of body that had all the right curves in all the right places. Zack heard her coming and going at all hour's of the night before the curfew, a real party girl.
"Heading out?" Frank asked, stating the obvious.
Zack nodded. "It's getting too dangerous. You saw what happened to the Clancy’s didn't you?"
Frank's face soured as he nodded his head. "I saw what happened afterward as well."
"Its hard to believe." Matt said. "But its true. Dead people are coming back to life."
"And them reports of cannibalism from California? It wasn't cannibals, it was those dead things. And not one goddamned mention of it on the news." Frank snorted bitterly.
"You might want to think about getting out of the city while you can." Matt said. "It appears the Army has pulled out and there’s nobody to stop you from leaving."
"I got nowhere to go." Frank said. "Besides, I got my family to think about."
"What are you going to do?"
"Most likely go to one of the rescue stations."
Matt and Zack gave each other a long look, an unspoken agreement passing between them.
"You could come with us." Zack said. "We're heading up to the Uinta Mountains. Friend of ours has a cabin up there. He's waiting for us." In the distance, sporadic gunfire could be heard. "The city is going to get a hell of a lot worse before things get better. Looter's, riots. Just like in L.A. Pretty soon, this whole city's going to be crawling with zombies."
It was all the convincing Frank needed.
"Why don't you two come inside while I get everybody ready." Frank turned and went into his house. Matt followed. Zack looked up and down the street before he went in…
Frank’s family consisted of his wife Sharon, a thin, blond, nervous wreck of a woman, their daughter Susan, and their son, David. David was fifteen years old, tall and lanky and fair-haired like his mother. They each packed two suitcases full of clothes and filled another with plastic wrapped packages of ramen noodles before loading them in the back of their family station wagon.
Even in a crisis like this, both Matt and Zack couldn't help but notice how attractive Susan Young was. She was wearing Levi cutoffs, and a white T-shirt. As usual, her body strained against her skintight clothes. Matt felt a stirring in his groin. It had been awhile since he had been with a woman. But now was not the time to think about sex.
With some effort, he turned his attention to keeping watch down the street. To his dismay he saw three walking dead at the east intersection of the street. He pointed them out to Zack and the Young family. Sharon Young began reciting scriptures, a frantic look about her. Susan looked indifferent and David actually seemed excited.