Wake Up Dead - an Undead Anthology

Copyright © Crowded Quarantine Publications 2011

All Rights Reserved

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

ISBN 978-0-9571033-2-0

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

WAKE

UP

DEAD

CONTENTS

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR – Suzanne Robb
7

EUTHANASIA – Chantal Boudreau
60

SUGAR SKULLS – Rebecca Snow
83

RANDY'S NIGHT OUT – Douglas Vance Castagna
101

VOODOO CHILD – Caitlin Gunn
122

SUICIDE SOLUTION – R.D.Teun
134

OUTBREAK ON THE COMMONS – Guy James
183

ANNIVERSARY – Mia Darien
197

FLORENCE'S DIARY – Adam Millard
209

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR

Suzanne Robb

Clare Jones worked a double shift at a local restaurant to help pay her tuition and rent. Tired and ready for a break, she felt her heart stop when
she
walked in, the girl of her dreams beautiful with perfect breasts. Dana, she overheard it while eavesdropping, her smile made Clare weak in the knees.

As usual Dana sat in Clare’s section with some girl. Dana came in at least three times a week that Clare knew of, and always sat in her section. She wondered if perhaps this was some sort of torture.

She braced herself as she walked towards the table to give them their menus. Their fingers grazed one another and all thought left Clare’s head, she was fairly certain she was going to pass out.

“Hi, my name’s, Clare, and I’ll be your waitress. Can I start you with something to drink?”

“I’ll have my usual. You remember what it is right?” Dana laughed sweetly, and Clare didn’t even care she was laughing at her.

She was about to walk away and get Dana’s order when the other girl cleared her throat.

“I’ll take a strawberry milkshake.”

Clare hated her immediately.
Who likes strawberry milkshakes?
She thought to herself.

“I’ll be right back with those.” Walking away from the table Clare headed for the back room.

Clare took several deep breaths in the safety of the supply closet. After a moment she left the room and prepared for what was to come.

“Here you go ladies.” She placed their drinks on the table. “Our specials today are pea soup and glazed chicken breasts with garlic sauce.”

Dana looked at Clare and smiled. “Are the breasts good?”

Clare knew she was doomed to say something stupid if she opened her mouth, but couldn’t help herself.

“Your breasts are fantastic…I mean the chicken breasts are good. Yes, they’re tasty, you’ll like them.”

“We’ll get the special then,” Dana said.

“Great, I’ll be back with your breasts in a few minutes.”

What is wrong with me? Am I terminally stupid in the presence of Dana?

Clare walked away from the table begging God to strike her down, send in a team of commando lesbians to revoke her dating card. Anything so she didn’t have to show her face at the table again.

Clare decided to ask Lisa, the other waitress if she would switch tables with her.

“Lisa, you need to help me.”

“Let me guess,
she’s
, here, you said something stupid and want to switch tables.”

Apparently this happened a lot more than Clare realized.

“Yes.”
“Nope, last time she got all huffy when I refused to let her talk to you.”

“She wanted to talk to me? Why didn’t you tell me?” Clare got flustered at the news.

“Of course not, you make a fool of yourself when you get within ten feet of her.”

“Right, point taken.”

Clare needed to bring them their food at some point. She couldn’t toss it, or slide it to them in order to stay out of the ten foot
idiot zone
. She would have to do it herself. Clare needed to be a
waitress
.

A ringing bell roused Clare from her musings, their order ready. Grabbing the two plates Clare walked to their table as if she was about to face a firing squad. Eyes focused on the food, she placed the plates on the table. She began to turn around when she felt a hand on her arm forcing her to turn around.

Looking at the hand Clare realized it was Dana, and almost tripped in her haste to turn and face her. Dana wore a hopeful, but slightly guarded expression on her face.

“Hi, for the last few of months I’ve been trying to work up the nerve to talk to you, so I’m just going to put it out there and ask if you would like to go out sometime.”

Clare almost laughed, sure it was a joke. Dana couldn’t really be asking her out. Then again, she came in here with a different girl each week. Perhaps Clare was the only one left she hadn’t tried, and if that was the case she was totally okay with it.

“Hello…would you like to go out?”

Clare nodded, remembering if she spoke within ten feet of Dana it was bad. She watched Dana write something on a piece of paper and hand it to her. Looking down Clare saw a number, it even consisted of seven numbers. Clare smiled, walked into the kitchen and fell to her knees pumping her fists in the air, “
Yes!”

On the second pump she realized a date meant conversation, which was bad, Clare was doomed.

*

“Go check on the bodies, we’ll stay here in the observation room, just in case,” Colonel Ryan Myers said. “Wouldn’t want a repeat of what happened last year.”

Doctor Henry Theodore nodded, and then turned to exit the room. He entered a large chamber with armed guards manning the exit. In the center of the room were ten gurneys, on top of them were ten men, more specifically ten dead men.

They
volunteered
for the mission by avoiding a death row sentence. They were filled in on the probability of death,
after
all the proper forms were signed, in triplicate.

Doctor Theodore approached the bodies step by step. When he reached the first one, he looked down and lifted its hand to check for a pulse. He noticed his own hand shook, and hoped those in the observation room didn’t see it.

All the monitors had gone flat three hours ago, the volunteers were clinically dead. Though the first body he examined had no pulse, no heartbeat, no brain waves, he thrashed around. Doctor Theodore stared the body in front of him as it broke free of its restraints and sat up. Henry began to yell to the others watching him.

“We’ve done it, he’s alive.”

A moment later he felt his neck being ripped out and warm blood was pouring down his chest. He looked into the eyes of the test subject; they were devoid of all color. Henry caught a glimpse of hell in those eyes, and knew where he would be going for what he’d created.

“Lock it down, dump enough cement to bury this place.”

“But, Sir, what about the others?” Private Frank Williams asked.

Colonel Myers looked at him. “That’s an order Private, not a question.”

As the private ran out of the room to do as ordered the colonel used a key to open a hidden panel. He jabbed a stubby thumb into a red button. Lights started to flash, and sirens sounded. As he watched doors shut, he made his way out of the underground compound.

This had been their second attempt, and it would not be their last. All the data had been backed up in an off site server. There was a lab ready to start examining the results from here, and begin a new phase of testing within a few years.

He would create a serum for his soldiers; there would be no more loss of life on his watch. Come hell or high water, the serum would work.

*

Clare and Dana were sprawled out on their bed relaxing, when Clare’s head perked up.

“Hey, Dana, can you turn up the volume on the television? Looks like something’s going on,” Clare asked.

“
According to military scientists, the recent outbreaks are due to some sort of virus. They, along with the Center of Disease Control have created a list of things for people to watch out for. The infected appear dead and attack unprovoked. Avoid contact with any fluids, since this is how the infection spreads.”

Images were flashing on the screen behind the reporter as he spoke. Places like Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and a multitude of other states were reporting problems. The military was trying to calm people, but the utter chaos was shocking to see. Clare developed a bad feeling as the newscast continued.

“
If you are infected, you are to turn yourself into a military outpost immediately for treatment. That is all we have for now, we’ll leave you with the horrific footage that has come in from over twelve different states thus far. Be warned, the images are quite graphic.”

Clare watched the screen in morbid fascination. Images of people covered in blood ran to and fro. Bodies were strewn about, and the so-called
infected
seemed to be feasting on them. When she heard Dana make a shocked noise at a rather graphic image of a child holding a teddy bear in one hand, while gnawing on a hand it held with the other, she turned the television off.

“Do you think we’re safe?” Dana asked.

Clare didn’t know how to answer. She’d never lied to her and had no intention of starting now.

“I don’t know. I bet the military will have it under control soon.”

She could feel some of the tension leave the body next to her, but it wasn’t enough. Clare laid her head on Dana’s chest, needing to feel close to her, and also in an effort to try and reassure her.

“Dana, are you okay?”

“I’m fine why?” Dana readjusted herself to look at Clare.