Respect for the Dead (Surviving the Dead Book 1) (7 page)

Beth realized she had been staring at the first three words at the beginning of the new chapter for about ten minutes.  “This is ridiculous!”  She thought as she slammed the book shut.   “Everything is going to be fine!  This is no different from Swine Flu, West Nile, SARS and all those other Epidemics or Pandemics or whatever.  This is America we don’t die from that kind of stuff.”  This was the argument Beth had been having with herself as she tried not to worry.  This reassurance filled many houses and many talk shows. 

She lay on her bed staring at the cover of the closed book.  A smile crossed her face as the words she had just thought met her ears from the TV in the other room.  “Damn right.”  She breathed.  Reopening the book she found her place at the beginning of the chapter and tried again.  Five minutes later she had made it half a paragraph in. 

“Errgh!”  She grabbed a book mark, roughly jammed it in between the pages and slammed the book shut.   Frustrated she sat up.  “I’ve had enough of this.  I’m going over there and settle this.  His Stepdad will be sick but he’ll be fine.  Just like when Dad and Steve get sick.  They are men; tough until they get the sniffles then they need all the help they can get.  We’ll load him up and head out of town until this all settles down.” 

Getting up from the bed she crossed to her desk and opened her backpack.  She slipped the book inside. “Hey Dad, I’m going to walk over to Wes’s and hang out for a little bit.”  She yelled down the hall.  She threw on her jacket and grabbed the backpack.

“I really don’t want….” Her father was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass.  “Who the hell are you?” Her father yelled. “Get the hell out of my house!” 

Beth ran into the living room, skidded to a halt at the entry to the living room and stood frozen.  The scene before her eyes was impossible.  Two men, covered in blood, were wrestling with her father.  A woman stumbled through the shattered sliding glass door into the room.  Her bare feet crunched and cracked the broken glass.  It was their neighbor Mrs. McGee, but there was something very wrong.  Her face was torn and bloody, her arm had a piece missing and blood oozed from her cut feet with each step.  She walked slowly, seemingly unaware of any of her injuries.  The commotion of the struggle caught her attention.  She turned and shuffled quickly towards Beth’s father and joined the others in the attack.

“Beth!  Run!  Get out!  Get out!”  Her father screamed as one of his attackers bit him in the face.  Mr. McDaniel threw the man off of him. The body crashed onto the coffee table sending broken wood splintering across the room.  Beth screamed and took a step toward her father. “BETH RUN!”

Mrs. McGee turned her grey eyes on Beth and lunged at her.  The woman who had once been her baby sitter, the woman who never missed Beth’s birthday, waved at her as she left each morning, was now coming at her with teeth bared and a look of anger and hunger.

Mrs. McGee raised her arms reaching out for Beth.  As the limbs came up her left arm cracked at the elbow and her forearm fell free of her shirt to the floor.  Falling back against the wall Beth screamed, she saw past the approaching woman to her father.  It looked the two men were ripping him apart even as he fought them.

“Beth…Gooooo ARRRGG.”  The man who had been thrown on the coffee table had a large chunk of wood sticking out of his shoulder.  He leaned in and sunk his teeth into Mr. McDaniel’s throat; blood sprayed the white living room wall.

Mrs. McGee’s fingers pulled at Beth’s hair.  Heart pounding in terror Beth ran for the front door.  She heard more glass breaking and saw a girl from down the block trying to getting through a bedroom window, the girl was also covered in blood.  Beth clicked the dead bolt and threw open the door.  The sight that met her eyes again rooted her to the spot.

Cars screamed down the street, people were running from their homes.  Some people stumbled about bleeding.  Across the street there were three people crouched over a fourth who was still clawing to get away.   It looked as though they were trying to eat him.  Their hands, covered in blood seemed to be pulling bits of him to their mouths.   

Beth was pulled off balance as the shoulder strap of her back pack tightened; she stumbled into the door frame.  She spun around to see Mrs. McGee lose her grip on the strap.  Beth let out a short scream and ran from the door the backpack now swinging from her arm. 

A car tore around the corner and sped toward her.  It was coming fast as it jumped the curb and went into a skid sliding on the grass the tires threw mud and grass into the air.  Beth slid on the lawn, her feet slipping as she stumbled backward, terrified of being hit yet not want to back to close to the house.  The well manicured lawn was shredded as the station wagon skidded to a halt right in front of her.  The passenger side door flew open. 

“Get in!  Beth McDaniel!  Get! In! The! Car!” 

Beth took a step forward cautiously.  A howl from behind her snapped Beth out of her shock, she jumped in slamming the door.  Immediately she was thrown back against the seat as the car accelerated for a moment.  She was thrown forward as the vehicle suddenly stopped.  More dirt and grass flew in the air as the tires clawed at the lawn trying to get traction.  Beth urging the car forward as Mrs. McGee slowly approached.

The woman’s face smacked against the window, Beth yelped jumping away knocking into the driver who barely noticed.  The front tires bit into the concert of the driveway Beth was again thrown back in her seat.  The car lurched forward and squealed back onto the street, leaving a muddy blood streak on the window from Mrs. McGee’s hand. 

Beth watched her former neighbor grow smaller in the side view mirror as they sped away.  Turning from the mirror to the window she watched the road as cars and people flew by.  She looked down at her lap and played with the clasp of backpack.  Realizing she was in a speeding car she looked over at the driver.

“Mr. Reager?”  She stuttered in shock.

“Are you hurt?  Did they bite you?”  He asked frantically.

“No…… Oh god noo, Dad!”  She turned in her seat to look out the back window down the street but couldn’t see her house.  All she saw was a chaotic street and an empty backseat.

“Where is Denny?”  She asked turning back to the front.  Mr. Reager didn’t say anything as he hurled the car down the road missing an oncoming truck by inches.

“Dead” he finally replied.  He turned the car toward downtown and the road to the highway.

Doctor Gillian Olsen sat in her office at the Noah’s Ark animal hospital.  She looked at the note pad with the office logo on it and sighed.  She had always meant to change the name when she took over the practice, but by then the clients all knew it and it had a good reputation so what could she do?

   “The only places with Noah’s ark are daycares and Veterinarians.”  She grumbled.

Putting the last of the files away she was disturbed by noise in the kennel.  The room was always active but tonight it was louder and more…anxious than usual.  The animals had been skittish all day, whining, barking, meowing, howling and pacing in their cages. 

“What is with you guys?  It isn’t even a full moon.”  Gillian stood up, heading into the kennel to check on her patients, she was distracted by the front doorbell ringing. 

“I didn’t think anyone was picking up late tonight.”  She told the poodle in first cage.  The dog whined at her as she turned to the schedule on the wall to check.  Running her finger down the blocks she confirmed there were no pickups scheduled.   The familiar tightening of her stomach at the thought of an injured animal sprang up.   

“Must be an emergency!” She grimaced, the poodle barked in response.

  Rushing out of the kennel to her office she grabbed her stethoscope and hurried toward the front of the building.   Reaching the door that separated the examination rooms from the lobby the sound of shattering glass and the bang of the front door made her skid to a halt.   

“Oh shit! I’m being robbed.” She yelped, immediately covering her mouth with her hand.  She always talked to herself and to the animals and she always knew it would get her into trouble.  Reaching into her lab coat pocket she pulled out her new cell phone.  Dialing 911 with shaking fingers, she edged quickly and as quietly as possible into one of the examination rooms.   Cautiously closing the door to the slightest crack she listened through the space as two voices began to argue.

“Dude!  Why did you break the window now they can get in!” Exclaimed a voice of a young man. 

“What the fuck man, you rang the bell?  Like anyone was gonna answer or even be here this late!” replied and angrier male voice. 

“All circuits are currently busy please try your call again later” was all the help Gillian received from her phone. 

“Let’s get into the back then maybe we can barricade the door.” 

“Oh no! Not back here don’t come back here.”  Gillian panicked, “They’re going to find me, they’re gonna find me.”  She scanned the room for anything she could use as a weapon.  Her eyes fell on the plastic cut out of a dog’s skull.   It was a heavy model, solid.  Grabbing it and holding it over her head like a club, “Break into my office and mess with me?  You’re gonna wish you hadn’t!”  She breathed. 

Kate was curled up in a the large chaise lounge in the living room reading a heavy leather bound copy of “The Lord of The Rings”  her father had given her. 

“You’ve got to be kidding.”  She said to the man standing in front of her holding out her jacket.  She let the book fall into her lap.

‘What?  Why not?”  Martin asked his daughter.

“I don’t know…It just feels inappropriate.”  She shrugged but had already put in the book mark and slipped on the thick black leather jacket.  “Was this your idea?” 

The rumble from outside answered her question and made her shake her head, smiling all the while.  “Bear’s idea then?  Are we going to be making any stops along the way?” 

“Maybe, why?” 

“Because if we are traipsing all over the war memorial, these,” she pointed to the purple Converse high top canvas sneakers, “Are coming with us.” 

Martin crossed the room heading back to the closet.  The front door opened.  A huge hairy man entered the room, “Bear” grunted a greeting; Kate barely straightened up from untying her shoes to give him a wave in return.   He passed Martin and headed straight into the kitchen.  Martin dropped a pair of boots by Kate’s feet and followed Bear.   Pulling on the boots Kate threw her shoes into her pack and joined the two men in the kitchen. 

“Totally empty out there.”  Bear was explaining, “Should be a great ride up the mountain to the memorial.” 

The memorial was the huge monument to the fallen soldiers from the area killed in war.  Bear’s father’s and Kate’s grandfather’s names were on that monument, as were several of Martin and Bear’s friends.  

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”  She asked even as she zipped up the jacket and pulled the straps of the pack over her shoulders. 

Bear downed his glass of water, his smile barely visible through his thick beard.  Patting Kate on the head, “Kit, when isn’t a good idea to ride?” He was past her and out the door before she could answer. 

Kate laughed shaking her head at his back.  She knew Bear owned a car but in all the time she knew him he never drove it.  “I swear he would ride in the snow if he could.” 

“I think he has.”  Her father laughed.  Martin held the door to the garage open for his daughter.  Kate thanked him with a laugh, he gave her a short bow.  She hit the button to open the garage and passed the expensive German luxury car.  Martin stopped at the shining Harley Electra Glide.  Kate hurried around her older Honda Accord to grab her helmet.  Pulling her hair back in a pony tail with several bands on it in a faux braid she watched her father get the bike ready.  The huge cycle roared to life then purred loudly.  Kate allowed herself a second to listen the rhythm of the pistons. 

Martin pulled out of the garage and was waiting for Kate.  Adjusting her hair and she slipped the helmet over her head.  Martin clicked the remote to close the garage door as Kate hoped on the bike behind him. 

“Ready?”  He shouted over the rumbling engine.

She bonked her helmet against his in affirmation. 

Martin pulled in the clutch, clicked the bike into first and eased down the driveway.  A smile broke out over Kate’s face as the bike accelerated.  “Swing by the Harley shop.” She yelled.  “I want to see my girl.” 

Martin nodded.  Bear pulled up next to them.  The two bikes rumbled down the empty street of the neighborhood.   At the end the road they stopped at a stop sign.  Martin told Bear of the side trip downtown.  “Getting anxious to get your own?”  Bear laughed. 

Kate just smiled at him, “I don’t want to hang onto my dad forever.” 

“I’ll miss having my girl with me.”  Martin smiled over at Bear.   

“Don’t worry; I’ll still ride with you, just on my own bike.”

“They gotta grow up sometime Marty.”  Bear gruffed.  “But Kit, don’t be so quick to let your Dad Go.” 

“Seriously, I’m twenty and it might be time I…” 

“You’ll always be a itty bitty princess to me, and a daddy’s girl.”  Bear laughed.  Kate’s reply was drown out by the roar of engines when the light turned green.  Bear pulled quickly away.  Slapping down her visor Kate chuckled at him. 

“Coward, knew you were going to get an earful,” she thought.  The smile on Kate’s face faltered as they continued toward town.  Empty street after empty street flew by.  They had not seen another vehicle on the road since they left the house. 

“This is just eerie”.  She thought.  A small laugh escaped as she continued to think, “this is the safest I’ve felt riding through town though.”  She looked at all the empty cross streets, nobody on a cell phone, looking in the wrong direction, or not stopping at a stop sign.  Tonight it was just two bikes rumbling through a ghost town. 

The light ahead turned red.  Martin slowed to a stop; Bear pulled up next to them in the same lane.  A beautiful red Mustang eased to a stop next to them.  Kate glanced over at the car.  “Not bad,” she thought about both the car and the driver. 

“So when we pick up your bike, do you think they’ll have training wheels for you?”  Bear laughed, grabbing Kate’s attention.

“I just figured I borrow the ones you took off your bike last week.”  Kate shot back with a laugh.   She glanced over at the Mustang driver.  He was looking at her.  “He is cute.”  She thought as her eyes caught his.   

Bear’s barking laugh was covered by the roar of the bike’s engines as the light turned green.  Martin followed.  Kate noticed the Mustang didn’t move.   “I wonder if he is thinking about following us.”  The thought quickly left her mind as she noticed they were only a couple of blocks from the Harley shop. 

A few more minutes on the empty streets then they were pulling into the completely empty lot.  The store’s sign was off, the inside was dimly lit, it appeared to be closed.  This was not a surprise as most businesses had closed early; some had been closed for a couple of days due to the illness. 

Even though she was disappointed at the dark shop, Kate leapt down from her father’s bike, all thoughts of empty streets and cute boys in cools cars were gone.  She only had eyes for the glistening chrome and steel with the sold sign that she knew was just inside the door. 

Walking up to the huge picture window she peered in, searching for her bike.  Her hand found her wallet in her jacket; she could almost see the motorcycle endorsement printed on her license.  She had passed the safety course a couple of weeks ago.  She had picked out her bike.  Worked all summer to save up for it and Monday the three of them would return to pick it up.  A long and twisty ride was planned for that day. 

Her imagination had her twisting the throttle through a turn, the road rushing by her feet.  She didn’t even hear her father and friend walk up behind her. 

“I haven’t seen her this excited since that Lego set came out a few years back.”  Martin laughed. 

“I still can’t believe she went for the blue one.  I thought sure she wanted a pink one.” 

Kate spun around to glare up at Bear.  He took a step back holding up his hands in mock defense, a board smile playing under his beard.  “I have never,” she poked him in his broad chest, “and will never,” another poke, the large man backed up a step, “like pink.”  Kate emphasized her point by punching him in the shoulder, repeatedly. 

“Call her off Marty, call her off.” 

Martin laughed, “You got yourself into this you get yourself out.”

“Ok ok, you don’t like pink.”  Bear laughed out.  “still buying you a basket for the front.”  He mumbled.

“Dork!”  Kate said, as she shook her head trying not to let the smile break out.  With one last punch she turned back to the store.  A flash on chrome caught her attention, a light appear through a doorway in the back of the shop. “Hey look, Dusty is here.”  She pointed the light out to the two men.    Banging on the window to get his attention she yelled for him. 

Dusty Rhode’s head snapped up at the noise, he looked to the window.  He saw Kate, she smiled and waved at him.  He hesitated for a second, looked down at his hands and shirt.  He hurried back through the door he had just come through. 

Kate turned to look at the other two who wore the same confused expression she did, “That was weird.”

“Maybe he isn’t supposed to be here?” Bear pondered.

“Huh” Kate grunted and stared back into the ever darkening store.

The crunch of gravel told her that the two men were heading back to their bikes.   A cold wind whipped her hair over her face.  She shivered slightly but wasn’t entirely sure it was the wind. 

“Come on Kate, let’s get going.”  Martin called as he started the bike.   

Kate stood staring between her bike and the closed door.  Something was amiss.  When they had been here on any other occasion Dusty would go out of his way to talk to them, to the point they had to make excuses to get away from him.  Now he didn’t even return a wave. 

A bike revved. “We can pick you up Monday if you like.”  Bear shouted over the engine. 

Kate returned to the bike.  “Hold on a sec.”  Another cool breeze had caused her to zip her jacket up all the way.  She opened one of the hard bags on Martin’s bike and pulled out a pair of heavy leather pants.  She pulled these over her jeans and jumped on the back of the bike.  Pulling on her helmet she bonked her dad to let him know she was ready. 

“Can we go now?”  Bear complained, throwing his hands in the air. 

Kate waved him off while Martin put the bike in gear. 

In the back of the store Dusty peered through a small gap in the door.  He watched the taillights disappear from the lot.  He looked down at the bloody wrench on the table and his blood covered hands and shirt.  Would they have believed him?  Behind Dusty the service manager lay on the floor.  The front of his head was caved in.  Dusty’s fingers rubbed lightly on the blood soaked cloth covering the bite he had received from the slain man.  He flinched at the pain; the wound was already feeling very hot and Dusty’s head began to ache.   

Back on the road Bear’s unease grew with each block now.  He had noticed the small group of people as they left the Harley shop.  They had been slowly wandering down the block.  Something about the way they moved bothered him.  They just…weren’t right.  “Probably, bunch a meth heads.”  He grumbled to the wind. 

The further they rode the more they saw.  Up ahead was a woman hanging onto a sign post.  Down a side street there were four or five of them wandering down the middle of the road. 

“What do you reckon? The sick have started wandering about?”  Martin shouted the question at the next stop light. 

“What the hell is wrong with everyone?”  Bear returned.   His eyes went wide, “Marty!  Kate! Look out!”  He was pointing behind them.   

Martin’s head snapped in the direction bear pointed.  A Bloody man in a suit stumbled off the sidewalk toward them.  He reached out a hand and grabbed Kate’s forearm.  It felt like a vice closing on her.  Kate screamed, Martin revved the engine and let go of the clutch.  The front wheel of the heavy bike left the ground.  Kate fell back painfully against the metal of the backrest.  Her free arm held tightly to her father his left arm holding tightly to her’s as he felt her being pulled sideways.

Kate cried out in pain as she felt like she was being wrenched from the seat.  The man stumbled to keep up but lost his grip and fell.  Kate could still feel his hand and knew her arm would be bruised.  Even with the pain she wrapped it tightly around her father as the bike increased in speed. 

The two bikes flew down the road.  Everywhere they looked bloody and battered people seemed to be materializing.  Bear nearly ran down a kid who was blindly wandering across the road dragging a skateboard behind him with one arm, his other arm was missing.

Martin was ahead and motioned to take a side street.  They barely made the turn.   When they did they faced a wall of people.  Smoke billowed from the bike’s rear tire, rubber screeched, Martin shouted and Kate screamed.  The heavy Electra glide slammed into the bloody wall of the stumbling horde.  The handle bars snapped out of Martin’s hands and turned sideways.  The bike lurched; Kate lost her grip on her father.  For a moment she was airborne, she had left the back of the bike.  Time slowed, she twisted in the air, hands reached and grabbed at her and Martin.  Time caught up, pain exploded in her back and stars burst before her eyes.  She slammed onto the pavement then rolled painfully, her shoulders slamming one then the other until she was stopped by knocking down a woman who was in the road.  

The woman fell across Kate’s legs and Kate’s helmet slammed into the ground again.  She was sick and dizzy.  Her neck ached as it hung in the air.  Kate had landed in a somewhat seated position due to her backpack.  The world spun, she felt as if she were just waking, that had to be it.  That was the only explanation for what had just happened.  It was a dream, a nightmare. 

Reality crashed down in the form of pain, pain that was shooting through her leg.  The woman Kate had knocked down now had a grip on her thigh, the woman’s teeth pinched the flesh like a clamp while she was trying to bite through the thick leather pants.  Kate’s knee felt like it was being ripped off.  Then her arm was in a vice and being pulled up to a man’s mouth.  Fingers dung into her chest trying to rip through her jacket. 

In a blur of motion and sound the woman at Kate’s knee flew backward, her head nearly separating from her body.  To Kate’s horror the eyes still followed her every move.  A Huge arm reached down and lifted Kate off the ground and for a moment off her feet.  Hands still clawed at her, fingers tangled in her hair, her arm still being held by a disheveled man.  Kate screamed in agony, her shoulder felt as if it was separating from her body.