Joanne pushed out of bed putting her long blonde hair into a ponytail and trying to shake the sleep from her. “So dead people are walking around this town? Is there anything else I need to know ma’am?”
“Yes, he said if you get bit that you will die. Once you die you come back as one of them but that you are a bit faster than those that have been dead and in graves.”
"This was a serious call, right? I mean you don't think maybe he'd be better off with a straight jacket in a padded room?" Joanne asked.
"Well, he'd be safer there if this was true. I want a report as soon as you have the chance to roll through town. If I were you I would take it easy, don't just go flying into town scope things out before you head in," Karen said.
Joanne said, "Yes ma'am, well I'd best get going if this is an urgent matter right? I need to try and round up Kayla, this is our off weekend so I am hoping that she is home."
“Well you let me know if she isn’t available and I will see if there is anything that I can do on my end to try and help you out,” Karen said.
“Will do, talk to you soon,” Joanne said.
Joanne hung up the phone and pulled on a pair of Levis she had laid on the floor and buttoned them. She dialed her partner Kayla Youngs phone number from memory and waited while it rang. She looked at the clock seeing it was barely four in the morning and could just see the glimpses of sun cutting through the dark sky.
"Jesus could she seriously have called any earlier, God."
When the phone answered a tired, groggy voice answered. "He- hello. Who is this?"
Joanne said, “Kayla is that you?”
“I don’t know yet. I am still asleep,” Kayla said.
"Well, you need to wake up and now. There is either some sort of crazy outbreak happening or there is a complete lunatic about an hour away. The head of the CDC shift called me personally saying the two of us are in charge of going and checking it out. Isn't that awesome?" Joanne said.
Kayla said, “I don’t know Joanne, does that mean I have to get out of bed right now and go get it? Because if that answer is yes than no, no that is not very awesome, rad, or cool at all. I am going back to bed. Can you call me after you eat lunch and try and fill me in on how things are going?”
Joanne said, “Oh sure I'll just call her back and let the director know you are too busy to come and check out the end of America as we know it. I am sure whatever you have going on is way more important than life as we know it. I’ll talk to you later okay?”
"Oh my God you are so dramatic! Do you think I’m stupid and I would really have you call her and tell her I'm too busy to do this? Christ, do you know what would happen if you did that? She might send a man to do a woman's job and then we would be completely screwed if this
was
the end of the world shit. Besides this sounds totally ignorant. If the world was going to come to an end it sure as hell wouldn’t be in nowhere Missouri. Is there anything there we even need to worry about?"
Joanne said, "Other than a chemical plant, I can't think of anything and I am pretty sure it is always voodoo that starts up those zombies in the movies. We are good to go. If you are okay to get out of bed I will swing over by your place in twenty minutes. I'm going to brew some coffee for us for the ride there and then we can be on our way. The quicker we get back there, the quicker we still have a chance of being able to enjoy our weekend right?"
Kayla said, “Oh honey I try to enjoy every day.”
“Well then it works for me okay, I'll be there in a bit,” Joanne said.
Kayla said, “Sounds like a plan, see you in about twenty.”
The two women both hung up their phones and ran to the bathroom to get the quickest shower that they could and get dressed to head out on what they both assumed was some crazy man’s hoax.
Chapter Nine
Escape
Jude set the phone down looking at the other three men all staring at him eyes filled with hope. Jude said, "You know I can't say for sure, but I think she actually believed me. She said we should stay here, but I have to say I think we need to get out of this place."
Chuck said, "You know that is genius Jude, it really is, but, unfortunately, there seems to be something you are overlooking here Jude."
“Am I Chuck?” Jude asked.
Pete who was starting to lose it yelled, “Yes these things are trying to bust through the door. If we open it they are gonna flood this damn place in waves and rip us to pieces. I don’t want to open that damn door. If that lady said wait, then we wait. If you can’t come up with a better plan than we don’t go nowhere.”
Jude said, "Well I don't know how much better off we are gonna be but I was thinking these things are on both sides of our room right? Well, what about if we went to the next room over? It ain't like there's probably all that much between these walls, you've done construction, its just some drywall and studs in between. We can bust through with one of those bed rails left over from our makeshift wall. Those things are already trying to get themselves in here so what is it going to matter if we make a racket in here?”
Chuck walked to the edge of the room peering outside just barely able to see anything with all of the dead trying to fight their way in. He said, “I don’t think going through the rooms is gonna work buddy. I can see those things for as far as the eye can see.”
Jude paced around the room for a few minutes. The men watched waiting for him to come up with an idea, something they all knew given enough time that they were sure he would. He pulled a chair out from the desk and sat down putting his head on his arms for a minute. He looked up with tired eyes toward the heavens but saw only the plastered ceiling. He tilted his head staring up and a small smile grew across his face.
Roger said, “What is it? What the hell are ya smiling at you crazy son of a bitch?”
Jude pushed up from the chair grabbing a piece of the bed rail left over and standing on the chair. He started stabbing the drywall above him trying to shield his eyes as the pieces began to fall atop of his head.
Chuck said, “You know Jude, we are all a little upset about the whole thing but there’s nothing that going bat shit crazy is going to do, to help us out brother.”
Jude said, “The ceiling Chuck, you said it yourself you genius they are everywhere, but they aren’t on top of the roof right?”
The three stared at the ceiling chuck said, “Hell I hope they aren’t up there.”
Jude said, “The way those things are moving, I’d be damn surprised if they are.”
Pete said, “Sorry to be the negative one here, but what happens if they
are
up there? I mean what do we do then guys?”
Jude started striking the ceiling again, hitting it with everything he had and in between grunted strikes he said, “We aren’t going to consider that Pete.”
Pete said, “And why is that such a bad idea?”
Jude went to say something and Chuck placed a meaty hand on his shoulder squeezing. He said, “Because if we go and have to worry about those things when we finally get to climb out of here I think you already realize the outcome is that we would and will be fucked. There isn’t anything we can do about it, and we all know waiting here while more of these things start coming this way might just be one dumb ass idea. Some plan is better than no plan is the way that I look at it.”
Pete shrugged not having anything to come back with and grabbed a second bar and started stabbing at the walls drywall. Roger said, “Ceiling Pete, not the next door over man.”
Pete said, “It's high man, we ain’t going to be able to get our big asses up there especially since we went and stuck the mattresses and the bedrails all up against that door and window. If we don’t have a way to get up to that hole it ain’t going to do us a helluva lot of good now is it?”
Roger said, “Damn you got yourself a valid point man. I’ll just stand out of the way and you keep doing what you are, you seem to have a good rhythm going here for yourself.”
Twenty hard hitting minutes later the four men were staring up at the ceiling hole. Jude said, “You don’t let those things bite you, you understand? I don’t see how there is going to be very much coming back out of that mess if you do and I'll feel real bad later about having to smash your heads in guys if you get bit.”
Chuck said, "Man we need weapons or something. We need a damn army worth of guns. We could shoot the hell out of those things and be heroes man."
Jude said, "I'm not worried about being a hero, but I can't think of anything that is going to get us guns. There isn't a shop in town and the sheriff wasn't answering."
Chuck smiled never one that was worried about bending rules. He said, "Well how about we just go to the office and check on him. If he is there then we can let him know of the death coming his way and if he isn't well, maybe he has a few guns we might just be able to borrow."
“You mean steal, right Chuck?” Jude said.
Chuck nodded and started climbing up the hole, “Its better than letting those damn things eat us. I don’t got much but Christ man, we need to get you back home to Patrick. He and Maria aren’t ever going to believe us that this shit happened.”
Jude said, "Well let's hope they don't have a reason to believe us. I hope with enough time these damn things like go back to their graves or they die again. I still can't believe this shit. If I would have known about this I would have told Shaw to stick it up his ass and he could come down here and chop his own damn wood. There ain't no amount of money that is worth my life. I got a family to look after."
Chuck pulled himself up to the rafters the drywall was connected to and said in a grunt as he kicked hard at the ceiling opening up the hole for the rest, “We are gonna get back to your family don’t ya’ll worry about that brother I can guarantee you that much.”
Jude started to climb up to the rafters he said, “And what exactly gives you so much confidence about our chances out there Chuck?”
“Because I'm not going to let one of those creepy fuckers bite my ass. I got plenty of pipe left to lay in my life and I sure as hell ain’t going to be able to do that with a giant zombie bite out of my ass or anywhere else,” Chuck said.
Jude pulled himself up and together the two started hitting the roof trying to splinter the slabs of wood that went across the A frame in the attic. Jude said, "We are going to make it. How about we hit up the sheriff’s on the way out and by the time we leave we might even be able to try and warn a few people about the shit storm that is brewing outside."
Chuck said, “Do you really think anyone is going to believe us?”
Jude laughed and said, “It shouldn’t be that hard to convince anyone when they look outside and see their relatives walking down the street.”
Chuck got serious and said, “That would be some serious fucked up shit. If I saw mama walking down the street dead in that pretty blue dress we buried her in, I do believe my mind could be considered blown, Jude.”
He thought about his wife and how peaceful she had looked when he laid her to rest and the thought made his stomach turn. Jude said, “Well let's just be thankful this is only here. These things don’t walk all that fast so hopefully they can be taken out before it gets much worse.”
Chuck said, “Do you think you did a good thing calling and telling the CDC to send people down here?”
"I don't know man. All I know is if I called someone and told them a line like I had to tell them, I probably would not expect them to believe me either. I couldn't think of anyone else to call, though," Jude said.
The two men started pounding on the roof until small beads of sunlight started to make their way through. Within a few minutes they were close to having a man-sized hole they could squeeze out of.
Chuck said, "Well at least there is one good thing about all of this."
Jude said, “What the hell good has happened?”
Chuck said, “Well that's simple stupid. There ain't no zombies on the roof. That's the best goddamn news I've heard all day man.”
Jude could not disagree with sound logic like that. He continued striking the ceiling as if he hated it until he had cleared enough out of the way that there was plenty of room for all of them to be able to squeeze through. Jude yelled down to Roger and Pete who were waiting anxiously.
He said, “Unless you boys want to stay down there I suggest you get up your drywall ladder and let's get moving.”
The two men had no interest in staying and we're up the hole and climbing out of the roof before Chuck and Jude could say anything else. The four men stood on top of the motel’s roof gazing at the field of dead in the street.
Chuck said, “Man I wish I would have brought more bullets down for my piece.”
Jude said, "I say we hit the sheriff's office first. I have nothing against your shooting ability Chuck, but I do believe four of us with a gun versus one of us with a gun is a hell of a lot better odds."
Pete and Roger nodded their heads and the four men headed to the opposite end of the motel trying to find a place where they would be able to make a break for it. The men saw the courtyard of the motel as they ran across and realized there would be no escaping through it, as it was filled with the dead. There were many of them though who were preoccupied with the warm meals that had not been as innovative as the men had in fortifying their rooms.
Jude noticed men and women walking around in nightwear and realized after seeing multiple bite wounds that this definitely was an infectious disease or virus. He was unsure what to call it. The only thing he could think of that sounded fitting was
hell
.
Jude yelled, "Not that any of y'all need me to tell you this, but you make goddamn sure you don't get bit by those son of bitches. You see those people down there in their pajamas, they weren't in a coffin anytime recently."
Chuck said breathing heavily as they made their way across the roof, “Yes you are right. I sure as hell don't need anyone to tell me not to get bit by those … those things.”
They made it to the opposite end of the motel courtyard and found an old truck parked close enough that they could jump without having to worry about breaking their necks or twisting an ankle. Jude went first landing on the roof of the truck cab, trying to be as quiet as possible, the rest of the three might as well have been trying to impersonate the three stooges. Chuck was the worse one in the group. He tried to mimic what Jude had done but when he hit the roof his feet went out from beneath him and landed on his ass hard cracking the windshield and smashing in the hood. The noise was loud enough to wake the dead, but this was something that had already been done previously.
The three men cringed at the loud noise and Jude pulled Chuck off the side of the truck and helped him to his feet. Jude patted his shoulder and said, “Jesus man are you okay? Did you break anything?”
Chuck said, “Yep, my ass. This plan sucks you realize -”
Chuck stopped speaking immediately when a moaning, more like a chorus of moans came from around the corner. Jude said, “Well I think it is safe to say your ass just brought all of the dead over here. I mean think about this we just broke through the motels ceiling just to end up still having these things on our asses.”
Jude stepped back a foot looking at Chuck and saw there was a trail of blood coming from his jeans. Chuck saw it and started to look like he was going to pass out. Jude gripped his shirt tightly holding up his best friend with one arm and kindly slapping his face making sure the stars he was beginning to see weren’t going to continue.
“Chuck, you okay buddy? You aren’t going to go and pass out on us now are you?”
Chuck said, “Hell no I'm - I'm -”
Jude slapped him hard across the face wanting to guarantee that he wasn’t going to pass out with a horde of zombies coming. Chuck’s eyes popped open shocked by the hit. Chuck said, “You slapped me. What the hell did you hit me for?”
Jude said, “Are you okay? Are you awake now?”
Chuck said, “My butt hurts Jude.”
Jude spun him around realizing they didn't have much of a lead on those things but wouldn't be able to get Chuck moving if he was lame right now. Jude bent down near his ass seeing a large piece of glass protruding.
Jude said, "Now you got quite a big piece of glass coming out of your ass buddy. This is gonna hurt, but we need to pull it out, are you ready for me to yank it out?"
Chuck said, “Yeah - yeah I'm ready, I think I am anyway. Can you pull it out on three for me?”
Jude patted him on the side of the leg. "Yeah, anything for you buddy you ready?"
Chuck nodded and Jude said, “Okay, one, two,-”
Jude yanked it out blood squirted covering the ground. Jude pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and gave it to Chuck.
“Here put this on it, I'm not going down there again. Come on we need to get moving.”
They walked through town while the dead were following them swaying walking slowly. As long as they kept moving they would be able to keep the ones following them at a safe distance.