Jude set down his gear and took a seat on a wooden bench. Resting his head against the cool air-conditioned walls and taking a long deep breath thinking what the next plan of action was going to be. Jude looked at Joanne and said, “What are we going to do with Kayla though? She isn’t going to be able to walk, and you seem like you might need some help with getting her places and getting the research you need. Do you have the first clue where we should go to try and get any answers on this shit?”
Joanne said, “No, our main job was going to be coming down here to look and see if what you reported was true or not, we had no clue coming here that we were driving into hell’s mouth.”
Jude said, "The only thing I can think of is that all of the dead we have seen had to have come from a cemetery. All we need to do is go take us a drive around and see which one of them has a thousand or so missing dead from it and I'd say that's going to be your best damn bet about finding out who or what caused this. Just hope it isn't some crazy voodoo or something that brought them back to life, cause I doubt there is a hell of a lot that science is going to be able to do about that. Do you need to report this to your boss or are you going to be okay with gathering your information first?"
She said, "Well other than the fact that these things are real, there isn't anything we can set into motion without knowing what to start researching. You know the army coming here to help eradicate these things might not be too bad."
Jude said, "Yes the army might be a damn good idea, it's too bad I don't think their standard rifles are going to be able to handle these things though unless they put a shit ton of bullets in it. We did best with our shotguns and the chainsaws and axes something we can split them with."
*****
Joanne nodded and went behind the receptionist desk to use the phone. She dialed home to her director and waited impatiently for her to answer. Karen picked up the phone at the center for CDC. “Hello this is director Karen Dziegiel, how can I help you?”
“Uh hello, and let me start off by saying this is Joanne, I am completely sane which let me tell you is quite impressive given the shit storm that Kayla and I just went through. Oh and thank you very much for picking us because this has probably been the worst thing in my entire life I ever have or ever will encounter. I mean the shit I have seen isn’t even in textbooks because nothing like this has ever happened before. What the hell were you thinking when you sent the two of us down here by ourselves, you should have sent a goddamn army with us.”
Karen sat forward in her seat the fact that she had somewhat believed the man when he called made her stomach turn. She started speaking slowly, “What exactly is it you are seeing Joanne?”
“The dead, the god-dead-damn it, I'm seeing the dead! I’ve seen these things walking after people and eating them, they are killers and they need to be put down for good. We don’t know what started it yet but as soon as Kayla gets her broken leg fix-”
“Broken leg? What the hell happened to Kayla?”
"We were driving into town, and these three men were walking in the middle of the road, they left town when they realized it was the safest thing to do. They didn't even have a car they could drive out of there. We swerved and when we did I don't actually know what happened next, but we crashed the van flipping it and Kayla broke her leg. The men helped us get into town and to a doctor's office and she's in with the town doctor right now trying to get her leg fixed up."
Karen said, “Oh my God, I'm so sorry I sent you there, but I figured what were the chances the man was telling the truth. I mean the dead are walking, how the fuck does that happen. I don’t even know what the protocol on something like that is? Christ do we send in a fleet of priests to throw holy water on them?”
Joanne said, "Wait so you don't know what to do? What the hell did I do calling you then besides waste valuable time? Can you send the national guard here?"
Karen said, "I can submit the request, but it isn't going to be today, there wouldn't be any chance they could get there that quick and be ready. It'd be at least a day before they were able to get all of the men available and ready. Do you think you can hold up in town that long before we are able to get someone to you?"
Joanne said, "We have an idea where we are able to get answers. We are going to start once we get a car that is able to take Kayla around in and see if we can figure this out. If you can't send any help that is fine, we will do what we can with what we have. But if you start making calls to get help that might be the smartest thing you can do. I don't know if this is just here, or if you are going to start getting what will sound like crazy reports from others saying their dead relatives are up and walking around."
Karen thought of her own parents walking around looking the same as when she had put them in the ground and wanted to vomit. “Okay report back to me with anything maybe we can find a way to take them out. Is there anything else I need to know about these things?” Karen asked.
Joanne said, "Yes there are a couple of things; one big one is don't let them bite you, one of the four men were walking in the rain and drank the water. They said once he had some time for it to move through his system he died and came back as one of the dead, trying to kill and eat his own friends. He didn't have the slightest clue who they were."
Karen parted the curtain that was on her window hearing the patter of rain on her window. She said, “You said rain was what caused the man to turn by drinking the water huh? Does the rain do anything else that you are aware of?”
Joanne said, “No,” and they bid each other a goodbye.
Karen set the phone down standing frozen, looking outside at the kids playing in the streets running around mouths open and smiling in the rain. She thought how glad she was that she was hundreds of miles away from where she had sent the girls. The young parents and grandparents in the park watched the kids smiling from under their umbrellas and were jealous of the energy the youths were capable of enjoying. She went back to her desk trying to think of who to call and really the military having a presence down there couldn’t be thought of as a bad thing. She called a general she knew and advised him that they needed to set the wheels in motion.
She spoke to him for the better part of an hour wondering what in the hell chances she actually had of making this thing happen were. When she had finished the call she felt better that within a few days they'd have a few hundred heads there and could help with taking care of the dead that were roaming the streets. She pushed up from the desk and stared out the window trying to think of what she wanted to get for a late lunch. She looked down into the park and fainted. When she came to she opened her eyes blinking slowly at first and then quicker. She looked around seeing the office like she'd never seen it before from the flat of her back. She looked to the left and right realizing she had completely passed out. She pushed over to an elbow trying to sit up and falling back down not realizing she was still feeling the effects of being dizzy from passing out.
She sat for a second waiting for her normal senses to come back to her. She tried remembering what had made her pass out and it took her a minute. She couldn't believe what her head was telling her and she looked out the window trying to confirm it because it was too unreal to truly believe without visible proof. When she stared down at the park she saw children still spread out still enjoying themselves but these children weren't enjoying themselves going down a slide, playing red rover, or going on the swing set. No, these children had their heads buried neck-deep on the inside of their parent’s stomachs. Men and women tried to reason with their children and those that were dumb enough to pick them up had become meals.
She went back to call the general but set the phone back down, she realized there was going to be calls coming and they were going to want help for something there apparently wasn’t any cure for. Her secretary came in walking to the window and seeing Karen down on the ground.
She said, “Christ are you okay? What the hell are you doing down on the ground? What is going on outside? What is wrong with those kids, are they on drugs?”
Karen said, “No - no they are dead.”
"Was there an accident or something?" she asked.
Karen said, "All I know is that it seems to have started back in Missouri, but I just don't know how? Before I called the army general there was rain, I remember the kids drinking the water and they were smiling and then in less than an hour they were or better yet
are
little demons running amuck and killing everything they can get their little teeth on. I don't know what we are going to do with those damn things. I don't know enough yet until Joanne calls back I don't know what to do. I'm - I'm so confused, for the lack of a better term it just looks like we are so fucked."
The secretary put a hand on her shoulder and said, “What do you want to do until we hear back from them ma’am?”
Karen looked up with fresh tears starting to come from her eyes. She said, “Oh that is the one thing I know I've got the answer to already. I want you to get your ass on the phone, I want you to call security and tell them to lock the front and back entrances and put every damn extra chain they have around the door handles, I want the gates brought down, and if there is anything else they can think to keep those damn things shut I want to have it done!”
The secretary looked at her notepad unsure if she should be writing it down or if she should already be moving. When Karen saw her staring she snapped, "Oh for God’s sake I'm going to put my foot so far up your ass if you don't get moving, God help you, woman, go go go!"
The secretary threw the notepad in the air turning around and running out of Karen's office and slamming the door behind her. Karen crawled over to her desk pulling the bottom drawer open and pulled out a bottle of whiskey unscrewing it and pulling a heavy glass out as well and then thinking it over and dropping the glass back into the drawer and unscrewing it and throwing back a large gulp of the amber colored liquor. She took a long look at the bottle and then looked back outside at the children and the horror she couldn't possibly wrap her head around and took two more long pulls until the fire she felt in her head moved down into her belly and made her feel a little bit better if only from the whiskey.
Chapter Ten
Seeking Answers
Jude watched as Joanne set the phone down. “So what, are they going to send help? Or is everyone stupid enough to stick around here going to be on their own?”
Joanne shrugged, she said, "I don't know Jude it's hard to tell. It didn't sound like they were going to be able to send anyone immediately. She said it might be a day or two. Hopefully, these people in town have got something to eat while they wait for help."
"Well, I can't imagine what these people are thinking, waking up and seeing hell walking around in front of them. Just hope they aren't dumb enough to go out there and try to help them," Jude said.
The doctor came out wiping the blood off his hands. "Well I got good news, and I got bad news."
Joanne stood worriedly for her friend. She said, "What, is she alive?"
The doctor loaded a pipe and struck a match lighting it up taking a seat. He said, "Well now if she was dead you see I'd just have bad news and well bad news. No, you see she ain't going nowhere and well since you all are in a hurry I think that was the bad news."
Joanne looked through the door and saw Kayla who was resting peacefully and out for the count. She looked back and said, “How long is she going to be sedated for? Are you sure she won’t be able to move?”
The doctor laughed shaking his head. He said, "Well ma'am I reckon that I've been doing this longer than you have been alive. She might move, but it's going to be from the flat of her back. She gonna have some serious pain coming over the next few days. The only thing that might keep you at ease is that these houses were built to last. This here was my daddy's house and it is just as strong as it was when it was built in nineteen hundred. So she can stay here, ya'll go about your work whatever it is that you think is so damn important now. She was just barely coherent when I was working on her, but she said something about trying to figure out about the dead and why they are alive."
Joanne said, "Well she is right, we need to figure things out and see what we can do. It might not be something that can be stopped, but we need to at least find the answers so we can report back in."
*****
Jude disappeared into the back room and called home. He waited for it to answer and it rang much longer than he had expected which immediately made him worry. He said, "Oh Christ where the hell are they?"
Maria opened the basement door and slid out to the kitchen. She motioned for Patrick not to come upstairs and quickly grabbed the phone and went back to the basement door. "Hello, Jude, is this you?"
Jude sighed in relief, “Oh thank God, I am glad you are okay. Is Patrick good, the two of you are okay still, there’s nothing weird going on out there?”
Maria said, "Are you effing kidding me, is something weird going on? Hell yes, there's something weird going on! You know old lady Sandlin?"
"Yeah, the one that passed away a few weeks ago from a heart attack?"
“Uh huh - well, she just went by a few minutes ago, yeah she was walking, and when the mailman went up to check on her since you know everyone and their mother in town knew that she was dead, do you know what she did to him Jude?”
Jude said, “Let me guess, they went up and found themselves getting eaten.”
“Hell yes they did, I mean what the hell, you weren’t kidding earlier were you? I can’t believe this shit, I don’t understand what made them or her come back?”
Patrick whispered, "You said the ‘S’ word, Aunt Maria."
Jude said, "Did it rain there? I mean today has it rained? I think that is the cause of all this stuff, there's something evil in the rain and it is bringing the dead back to life. Whatever you do don't go out there and let any water get into your mouth, it will make you turn into one of those things. Don't get bit by the dead that are walking around either. If she left anything of that mailman there's a good chance he is going to be up and moving around also. Just do me a favor and stay in the damn basement. You can come out to get some food but it's a sturdy door and if you keep your ass in there, you ought to be okay."
“Sorry Jude I don’t see what is going to be okay about any of this here.”
Jude was quiet for a second. He looked out the window at the dead and they were back and weren’t going anywhere now without a reason. He sat on the desk shaking his head.
He said, “Well I don’t know what is okay about it but I need you to give me a couple days and try to keep your head about it. We don’t have a ride right now, but we are going to get one. With all of these dead around, there’s bound to be a car or two that we can get some way to get home. But I called the CDC asking to have them send someone down here. They sent to doctors down, these two ladies, and well we were in the middle of a road on our way back, and she crashed because of us. Her friend broke her leg, now there is only one of them there to try and figure out what happened.”
“Wait she’s there to try and find a cure or something?”
Jude laughed looking outside at the pile of dead from his blade and said, "Well so far there's only been one solution to these here things and that is a chainsaw through the head or a twelve gauge shell through their skull. The blade seems to be a bit easier but there are so many of those damn things out there I don't know how long it's going to take to try and get the lady the help she needs. I just need you and Patrick to stay patient. I'll make it back there if it kills me I promise."
“You better get your ass back here damn it. We can hold tight and we can keep away from them things. You just make sure you get back here. If we aren’t here then go check for us at you and Chuck’s hunting shack you ought to be able to find us out there.”
Jude said, "You only go there as a last resort. You take a minute and head to my room and grab my rifle and shotguns out of my cabinet and drag that ammo chest with you as well. You don't leave home without it. I don't know if the rifles will be all that useful, but I'm telling you a slug to the head from the shotgun is definitely a way to make things change for you. They drop you move to the next one and the next one and you don't stop for nothing or no one if you need to leave. You get out to that hunting property on Mishler's land and you stay there. He won't know who the hell you are if he sees you so you make damn sure you tell him you are with me and he'll probably let you stay. If you need to use the rifles you take out a knee and they are just like a regular person, and will fall down which is good enough to get away from them."
Maria looked at Patrick who was sitting on the steps to the basement slamming two hot wheel cars together and being none the wiser to the dead that were roaming the streets. She said, “Jude you do whatever you need to, to get back here, but you be sure of the fact that you get back here. God knows the crazy shit that is going to go down because this stuff going on.”
Jude said, “You stay safe okay Maria, I'll get back or die trying.”
Maria snapped, "You don't go dying goddamn it, you get your ass back here, and you save us from these things. There has to be somewhere we can go damn it. You get back here so we can head out and find it. You get moving now so you can get your ass back here. We got a pantry full of food and the two of us here should be just fine to not have to worry about starving."
Jude said, "If anyone is stupid enough to break into the house, you put one in their gut. You don't trust anybody until we get back, you hear me?"
Maria said, "Yeah that won't be a problem. You just don't go wasting any time getting back here, okay."
Jude laughed, he said, “You know how you told me we ought to stay a few extra days down here and mess up some sheets with someone, well I'd have been home already if I hadn’t been busy trying to get laid.”
Maria laughed she said, “Oh you couldn’t even make that happen Jude?”
“She got eaten and then turned into one of the dead, it wasn’t as if I wasn’t trying to fulfill your wishes,” Jude said.
“Oh my God, you are okay right? I mean I don’t have to worry about you coming back here and trying to eat us right?” Maria asked.
Jude said, “Nah she chased me out of the room half naked, and I ran into the boys. Chuck used a two-by-four and bashed it upside her head and took her out. That’s when we started to learn about the thing that if we strike them in the head and break it open that we would be able to take them out. It isn’t a quick process that is why we started using the chainsaws. Well that and the fact that it was all we had available to try and do it with.”
"Okay Jude I don't think I need to have any more details about what ya'll are doing down there, quit wasting time talking to me and get heading out there will ya? God knows keeping Patrick inside more than a day is going to be a mission in its own," Maria said.
Jude said, “Just don’t underestimate those things. They might be slow but once they fan out and block your paths, you got only one choice and that’s to go through them. I don’t think you want to have to worry about that, especially with Patrick with you.”
“Don’t underestimate the dead, check. I think I can easily handle that. Like I said I'm not going outside unless this place catches fire. There isn’t any intelligent reason for it. You get back here. Is there anything else I need to worry about?”
Jude said, "No. So far the rain and the dead walking are all that you should have to be wary of."
“Alright, well goodbye then Jude. We will see you soon then yes?” Maria said.
"Yes, I promise. Give Patrick a kiss for me, and tell him dad loves him very much," Jude said.
Jude set the phone down in its cradle looking at the dead outside and realizing that he might lose his mind if he saw his beloved wife walking the streets again. He pushed up from the desk heading back out into the main area of the home and its entryway.
Jude said, “Well are we ready to get this started or what?”
The doctor said, "I don't know what cure ya'll think you are going to find. What good is it gonna do knowing what brought them back? Seems smarter to me that you just need to spend your time killing these damn things. I don't know what you can do to kill them besides what I saw you doing with that blade. Which let me tell you was something to see, that's going to haunt you for a night or two that is for sure."
Jude nodded and went over picking up his chainsaw. He said, “Is there any chance you got a car doc?”
The doctor said, "Well of course I do, why the hell wouldn't I have a car? Be damn hard to go out on house calls if I couldn't get there, now wouldn't it? I got a caddy and I got an old work truck I bum around in for supplies or throwing dead deer in the back of it. It isn't that great of a truck, but it will get you wherever you need to get to. All you need to do is make sure ya'll don't crash it and the keys are yours."
Jude smiled and said, "Well I'm thinking that means Joanne won't be driving then. We can handle that, though."
The doctor fished into his pocket pulling out a set of old keys and tossed them to Jude. He said, "It's parked out back by the garage, you clear them things out of there and you can get your ass moving. You just get outta town before they have a chance to block you guys in. I gave Chuck a list of the cemeteries in town especially the big ones. One of them has to be the reason these damn things are up and moving around. If not then they've been walking for days and I find that hard to believe no one would have noticed them up and about."
Jude looked to Chuck confirming he had the list, and they went to the back door. Joanne walked up to the doctor giving him a hug. She said, “Thank you so much for watching Kayla. I promise we will be back to get her. I know when she comes around she is going to be so grateful for you taking care of her.”
The doctor patted her on the back and said, “It’s just part of the oath we take as doctors, don’t you worry about it. You four just make sure you come back now you hear? This ain’t a hotel and at some point I fear these things are going to get into this place. You guys are welcome to a few of my shotguns if you think it would help? I got slugs, that is what Chuck said you guys were using when you went into the sheriff’s office.”
Jude nodded and they went to a back room where he opened up a safe and handed out two pump action twelve gauges and gave each of the men six boxes of slugs holding five each. Jude looked out the curtain in the back and said, “Well there’s about twenty of those things and we can load in five at a time.”
Chuck was looking at his hands and Jude said, “How have you lived this long? So that leaves us ten more we need to take out. We are going to need the saw then. Not that I planned on leaving it behind.”
Chuck and Roger loaded the shotguns and put the extra boxes in their back pockets. They knew they wouldn’t be any good to them once they clicked empty on the shotgun.
Jude said, “So it looks like I take the saw huh?”
Joanne said, “So wait I'm going out there without anything?”
Jude said, “Nah you get to carry all your medical stuff we are going to need. You just make sure you stay right next to us, don’t let any of those things next to you. I’m sure that goes without saying though doesn’t it?”
Joanne said, “You make sure none of those damn things get close to me then if I'm putting my life in your hands again. I’ll go to the front and grab my gear and we can get a move on. I want to be done looking before we have to worry about it getting dark, I can’t imagine having to move around here and not being able to see with all of the dead walking around.”