Stay Dead 2: The Dead and The Dying (15 page)

“
FUCK YOU!”

“
Such a flirt, girlie.
Don’t worry I’ll be seeing you in a bit and then we can finish what
we started.”

“
Go to hell!”

“
This is hell. How ‘bout
you Jimbo? I’ll let you run free if you let me in right
now.”

Jim hesitated and Sarah could see him
thinking it over. She began to back up the stairs shaking her head
and whimpering.

“
Get lost dirt
bag.”

“
Your loss,
kid.”

Jim turned to Sarah, “How did that
thing know my name?”

“
What?” She asked, not
realizing that he’d called Jim out by name.

“
My name, he knew my
fucking name! What is he?”

“
I don’t know! He’s one of
them, but he’s different. He’s still himself, he can
talk…”

The sound of the truck starting ended
both of their trains of thought.

“
Is there another way out
of here?”

“
There’s a back door but I
boarded it up cause it’s mostly glass.”

“
A way out the windows?
Maybe we can jump to something?”

The truck roared as it sped toward the
house. A crashing noise and the sound of crushing aluminum filled
the house. He was driving through the garage door!

“
Let’s try for the kitchen
downstairs, maybe we can get out the window.”

They ran as the sounds grew more
chaotic. The noise of the truck filled the house.

There was a small window behind the
sink in the kitchen overlooking the backyard. Jim ran to it and
opened it up. He knocked the screen out but while doing so he
noticed that if he climbed out the window he’d land right into the
arms of the living dead.

“
Fuck. It’s no good. Back
upstairs!”

The noise of the truck seemed to
settle and the sound of feet over the garage door took its
place.

“
There in!”

They were in mid-stride as the door to
the garage burst opened. It had been locked, but Ben, the dead man
with the yellow smile, kicked it open in one shot. His strength
appeared to have grown but he knew it was only because he didn’t
feel the pain of his movements. Had he been alive he’d have felt
his ankle sprain, and his muscles pull and tear. He’d have felt the
shattering of his heel and he would recoil in pain instead of
following through and making his grand entrance.

“
Jimbo, nice to meet
ya.”

They stopped dead in their tracks and
backed into the kitchen. Jim opened the draw of silverware and
grabbed the largest knife he could. Sarah grabbed a dirty pan from
the sink.

“
Stay back you
sicko!”

“
Hey, you know what, I’m a
good sport. Go ahead…run.”

“
What? You’re just going to
let us run out of here?”

“
Out of the house? No. But
go ahead, run upstairs. I’m guessing that’s where the bedroom is,
right?”

Sarah’s face went rigid with
disgust.

“
Not like you got any real
options. I’ll even back up a step. There. Now go ahead and
run.”

“
Fuck it.” Jim took off in
a sprint and Ben began to clap his hands and laugh. His laugh
sounded like a smoker coughing up a lung.

Sarah, not seeing any other choice ran
right behind Jim, and swatted at Ben as she ran past. The pan hit
him in the elbow and he made no gesture to show it even touched
him.

“
Okay, now let’s have some
fun,” Ben called out as he ran up the stairs behind
them.

Sarah shrieked in terror as she felt
his footfalls behind her.

23 BACK ON
COURSE

(back to
top)

Chuck was following behind the
three-vehicle convoy in an old Toyota Corolla. The four men felt
like clowns in a clown car but even that was better than holding
onto the roof racks of a SUV speeding down the debris covered
roadways.

The roads were far worse than any
apocalyptic movie any of them had ever seen. Even The Road Warrior
paled in comparison to the landscape of disaster that lay before
them.

Heading north, much like heading to
Titan City, seemed like another pipe dream. They hadn’t been on the
road a day and already their collective hope was diminishing.
Totaling the van and nearly killing Jon-Jon left them road weary
and worse for the wear.

Eddie felt as if he aged ten years as
he checked his face in the cosmetic mirror in the cars sun visor.
The dark rings and hard lines obscured the youthful man who only
weeks ago still thought of himself as nothing more than a kid in a
man’s body.

“
You going to put on some
eyeliner?”

“
You got some?”

Chuck shifted uncomfortably, but then
Eddie and Joseph laughed.

“
You think the congestion
will get any better once we’re out of Jersey?”

“
I don’t know, I figure it
would, right? We do have one of the most densely populated states.
I’m thinking maybe Massachusetts will be about the same, but I
haven’t thought much more about anything other than getting out of
Jersey. I guess it all depends on what roads we can travel on and
how far they are away from the bigger cities.”

Chuck nodded, “One thing at a time
then I guess.”

The convoy moved swiftly through the
congested roadway. The road seemed to have a rhythm all it’s own.
Areas where the road was clear, then congested, then a few sparse
autos, then burned out husks and wrecks, and emptiness. It was
cyclical. Driving through it you could almost picture how some of
it played out. Drivers trying to run each other off the road,
others bumping slower drivers to speed it up or get out of the way.
Too many egos, too many emotions, and not nearly enough
lanes.

On the empty bits of the road one
could notice the trees. Tall and hopeful. Leaves falling to the
ground with the most vibrant colors ever seen. Even the blue of the
sky seemed particularly bright. The clouds were sparse and blended
too well with smoke and ash from the fires of a hell on
earth.

Frankie slept a dreamless sleep. His
head rocked with the motion of the vehicle. His eyes opened on
occasion and when he figured out he was still stuck in a nightmare
he closed his eyes again, hoping harder with each time that he
would dream of a better place, or at least a better
time.

Jon-Jon is running again. Darkness is
all around. He is alone now. Everyone he loves is dead, and in turn
everyone who loved him is dead. There is no greater loneliness. The
tentacles lose all their might, the darkness loses its depth, and
the cold loses its bite. Lightning strikes in his mind, but it’s
not lightning. His eyes are opening and his head aches. The
memories, daydreams, and nightmares coalesce. Melding into one
reality.

Jon is awake. His vision blurred, but
only for a few waking moments. He hears his name. There is surprise
and warmth accompanying it. His vision sharpens and he knows where
he is and who is around him.

“
My head is killing
me.”

Dawn wraps her arms around him and
hugs him so tight it’s almost violent.

“
Ow,” he yelps.

“
Sorry, just glad you’re
awake.”

“
You had us worried,” Judy
said.

“
Not me. I knew you’d get
up eventually. I just figured you’d try to eat us.”

“
Scott!” Judy slapped his
arm.

“
Is everyone okay?” Jon
asked, remembering what had happened.

“
Janice is a little banged
up but other than that we’re pretty okay.”

“
Sorry, Janice. That wasn’t
my intention.”

“
It’s okay Jonathan. You
took most of the damage, I think.”

“
Sure feels like it. We…we
didn’t lose anyone?”

“
No.”

“
Thank Christ. How long’ve
I been out?”

“
Just a few
hours.”

“
Are we back on course? Did
I miss anything else?”

Scott answered, “Back on course and
moving quick. We had to get out of there in a hurry after you
flipped so a bunch of the guys had to hold on to the roof till we
could get clear. They got a car now though, so were moving
along.”

24 DESPAIR

(back to
top)

Jim turned the corner into his bedroom
and bolted to the window. He tore off the blinds and opened it with
a slam. He kicked out the screen. Sarah was right behind
him.

“
Go! Jump, he’s right
behind us!”

Jim hesitated. It was a long fall, and
the dead were all over the place.

“
Go!” She
screamed.

“
Ben stood in the doorway.
His chest not heaving up and down like Jim and Sarah’s. Running
didn’t make him out of breath—he had no need for breathing since
his body had no longer any need for oxygen.

“
Jimbo, don’t you want to
stay and join the party? I know you had some nasty ideas in your
own head didn’t ya?”

“
No. No I
didn’t.”

“
You’re a terrible liar,
kid. She’s a pretty girl, certainly you thought of tying her down
and playing stuff the turkey. Actually, I know you did. You watched
her while she slept. You wanted her. You didn’t want to risk
rejection or time by getting to know her. You just wanted to
satiate your need.”

“
No…fuck you, I
didn’t.”

“
Fuck you. You did. I can
see inside your head. You’re just like me.”

Sarah felt so small. She stood in the
middle of two men that only wanted to use her for their own sick
enjoyment. She had never wanted to die before. Now she prayed for
it. She wanted so badly to be gone from this world. There was no
deeper depth of despair in her mind.

“
If you stick around, I’ll
let you have sloppy seconds. How’s that sound? Better than jumping
out a window, ain’t it?”

Jim thought about it. It was better.
If he jumped he’d probably end up getting eaten down there. If he
stayed, maybe he could befriend this abomination. Maybe he could
make it out of this alive.

Sarah saw the look in his eyes. She
knew what he was thinking. She could see it in his body language as
he shifted his weight back into the room. Before Jim shifted his
weight entirely off the windowsill Sarah charged him and smashed
him in the side of the head with the frying pan. His head smacked
against the top sash and cracked the window. She hit him again and
then kicked him out the window. He screamed as he fell.

Sara was putting her foot out the
window, ready to jump down after him, but Ben came up from behind
her and pulled her back by her hair.

“
Not this time,
bitch.”

She screamed, making a hoarse noise
that sounded more like an animals dying howl than anything remotely
human.

He pulled her head back and smashed it
into the window. Shattering the rest of the glass and cutting her
face up in the same movement. Behind them the room filled with the
dead that came into the home through the garage. They stayed back
as if they were there only to bare witness.

“
Let’s watch,” Ben said as
he leaned out the window with Sarah, whom was now barely
conscious.

The dead outside had gotten Jim when
he fell to the ground. He landed on his leg, his femur rupturing
the skin upon impact. His screams were drowned out as the dead
things tore out his throat and his mouth filled with his own
blood.

Ben watched eagerly as the dead things
moved effectively over the body. Their bony fingers digging through
the skin to get to the choice cuts. In minutes they had opened his
stomach cavity and pulled out an endless buffet of intestines. The
blood was so bright and his fatty tissue was a nasty yellow color
that adorned many of the fingers of the dead as they pulled through
it to get to his organs.

Several of the deaders worked on Jim’s
head and face, pulling out his eyeballs and tongue. One ate his
nose as another chewed off bits of his cheek. Some of them bit at
his head as two others pulled small clumps of brain from his ocular
cavities.

By the time Jim’s blood ran cold he
had become one of the dead things. He was a ravaged mess of remains
with no eyes. His guts poured out further once he sat up. The dead
things moved away from him sensing he was now one of them. The
lower part of his ribcage was visible and chunks of brain dropped
out of his eye sockets. He shambled closer to what was his home and
began to follow the dead as they sought a way in.

“
Isn’t that
beautiful?”

Sarah wept. She knew she was as good
as dead. She willed herself to die right there. She tried to shut
her mind off. No matter how hard she prayed. How much she cried.
How desperately she wanted to die. How badly she wanted to lose her
mind and not be aware of what was happening was of no consequence.
She was there. Her sanity intact and the fear of the horrors that
this sick bastard had in mind for her was burning like a torch in a
catacomb.