As the World Dies (8 page)

    Pepe, desperate to relieve himself, was good enough to do it in the bathroom next to the toilet and Eric felt a pang of remorse for letting the dog to suffer. But he could hardly bring himself to crawl out of bed that day. All he wanted to do was lay in the bed, listening to the air conditioner hum, and watch TV.

    The day after Brandy's death the networks continued with their live feed. From the expressions on the newscasters' faces and the continuing terrible news, it was obvious there was no going back. The world was ending and the dwindling TV audience, locked up in their homes and rescues centers, watched just like Eric did: in numb silence.

    He tried calling his brother in Fort Worth, but the phone rang endlessly and the voicemail never kicked on. His parent's phone in Galveston had a busy signal. His sister's cheery voice exclaimed "hi!" when he called her, but then immediately launched into telling him to leave a number.

    Finally, needing food, he had ventured downstairs. The darkness was unnerving and he turned on all the lights to soothe his nerves.

    After a meal of leftovers, he sat down at the aging computer in Mrs. Waskom's office and tried to find any other news on the Internet. His email was actually full of messages from friends, but they were now a day old. He answered every email and explained in detail where he was. In his heart, he knew it was a fruitless endeavor, but he had to try. After an hour of responding to emails, he logged onto his IM service. None of his friends, co-workers or family members were logged on.

    On his MySpace page he found a message from his sister saying that she was on her way with her kids to his parents' home to ride out the plague. He felt sick to his stomach when he read her message and the busy signal he had encountered whenever he called his folks tormented him. He tried hard not to think of what may have caused the phone to be off the hook even though in his heart he knew what was most likely the truth.

    That night, he opened another bottle of wine and tried all night to call his family over and over again.

    No one ever answered.

    By the next day, the major networks began to carry the feed from the emergency broadcast system. All the channels looped the same information endlessly and the news never seemed to be updated. He checked all the news websites again to find them unchanged. His emails remained unanswered. No new messages were on his MySpace.

    A random message came through on his IM service just as he was about to log off.

    It read:
Are you really there?

    His hands trembling, he typed back that he was.

    There was a long pause then more words spilled across the text box:
I’m afraid. They're outside the door.

    Eric let out a long sigh then typed as he spoke aloud, "Are you alone?"

    The words from pinkgrrl16 made him sigh sadly:
I'm alone. They're all dead. I'm scared. Can you come get me?

    Despite himself, Eric typed back, his voice a whisper, "Where are you?" Maybe he was giving her false hope, but if he could do something…

    Pepe looked up at Eric with concern. He had been chewing happily on a stuffed toy, probably an antique, he had found on a low table when he noticed the trembling in his human's voice.

    "It's a girl, I think, somewhere else. Trapped by the zombies," Eric explained.

    The dog continued to chew on the toy's foot, his eyes looking up at Eric thoughtfully.

    Pinkgrrl16 wrote:
St. Louis. Are you nearby? Can you get me? I can crawl out the window and jump down from the roof.

    Eric let out a long, strangled sigh of remorse. "I'm in Texas," he said softly as he typed. "I'm sorry, Pinky."

    It seemed painfully long before words in bright pink text wrote out:
It's okay. At least I'm not alone.

    For thirty minutes, they chatted back and forth. He found out that Pinky was really Stephanie and she was now eighteen, not sixteen, and she was home visiting from college when it had all gone to hell. He told her about Brandy and how Pepe was with him and she told him she was worried about her cat that had run away when the zombies first stormed the house. She was in the attic, behind a thick oak door, on her laptop, hoping the Wi-Fi from the neighbors’ house continued to hold up. Alone, scared and hungry, she was trying to find help when she had found him online via the news forum he had logged onto.

    "She's so scared," Eric whispered to Pepe. "I can't do anything."

    The dog whined a little and started chewing on the toy's other foot.

    He was typing out a message to her when suddenly the word "bye" appeared in the box.

    Feeling sick to his stomach, he pressed ENTER to deliver his message and waited.

    Despite her online status, she didn't answer.

    He typed to her a few more times, but there was no response.

    Her status remained online, but idle.

    The next morning, groggy and hung over again, he checked online to see if she had ever answered. Her status was still online, but idle. Gibberish filled the text screen. He logged off.

    Overwhelmed, he fell to the floor and wept.

Chapter Eleven

Hope

    Eric woke up with a cold nose pressed against his own. He groaned and ran a hand over his face feeling the scrubby nastiness of three days of no shaving scrape his palm. He opened his eyes and Pepe's worried expression came into view and he mumbled that he was okay and the little dog jumped down. The sun noon sun was pouring through the bedroom windows and the stained glass threw vibrant colors of the walls.

    He had been dreaming about Stephanie and as the last threads of sleep faded from his brain, he let out a soft moan. Rolling off the bed onto the floor, he crawled to the bathroom and threw up. It was probably the best thing for his tired body considering how much he had drank the night before.

    Pepe regarded him with a very serious expression on his little face through the whole process and when Eric half fell, half climbed into the shower with his clothes on and turned on the water full force, Pepe actually looked relieved.

    Sitting under the slowly warming water, Eric sighed sorrowfully and thought of all that had happened the last few days with a startling amount of clarity despite how much he had been drinking. The despair he had felt overwhelming him the last few days as Brandy's death, the probable deaths of his family, and the end of the world became a reality was still lingering, but was now fought back by his growing determination.

    Stephanie had just been a girl home from college. Ten years younger than he was, she had been on the cusp of her great college adventure and the beginning of her adult life. Instead of enjoying her spring break with her family, she had ended up barricaded in an attic trying to escape their hungry undead assault. It had hurt him to know he was her last friend in this life and that he had not been able to help her. But her bravery, her determination, even to the end, to reach out and somehow find help, had touched him.

    After he had accepted she was no longer at her computer or safe and perhaps not even alive, he had drank too much and had fallen asleep. He dreamed of her scrambling out the attic window and away from the zombies breaking into through the door. He had watched her through his murky dreamscape climb up onto the top of the roof and sit there, clutching a wind vane as the dead moaned all around her house. And just when she had given up all hope, a helicopter had zoomed down out of the sky and plucked her to safety. As dreams have a tendency to do, his had quickly shifted and he was sitting with Stephanie in the helicopter as Brandy turned in to the pilot's seat to say, "See, we're safe now."

    He let out a soft moan and leaned his forehead against the wet tiles.

    Pepe set his paws on the edge of the tub and stared up at him with concern.

    "I'm okay," Eric assured him and stripped down to take a decent shower.

    Now that his drunken binge was over and his head was clearing, he realized that he needed to decide right here and now if he wanted to live or not. The world was in its death throes, his family was most likely gone, Brandy was dead and even his very last friend, Stephanie, was gone. All that was left was he and Pepe.

    He looked over at the little dog anxiously watching him and felt a pang of guilt. How could he let himself go this far? Pepe needed him. The Jack Russel Terrier was faithful and loved him. Eric often called him "my furry little boy" and the small dog was all he had left. To some people, that would mean nothing, but to Eric, it meant everything.

    "We're going to be okay," Eric said to Pepe. "I promise. Somehow, someway, we'll make it."

    Pepe wagged his tail and that made Eric smile.

    "We'll even go for a walk if there are no zombies around," Eric added.

    Pepe wagged his tail even harder at the word "walk" and Eric found himself laughing despite everything.

    After shaving, changing into fresh clothes, and a lunch of sandwiches and what was left of the fresh fruit, Eric felt better and a little more clearheaded than he had in awhile. His dream, though disturbing, had reminded him that fighting for his life to the bitter end was something he could do.

    He was a good Episcopalian and he believed in God and the afterlife. The ruined bodies of the once living did not hold the souls of those people. Just the ravaged shells. He had to believe that the souls of his folks, Brandy and Stephanie were in a different place. Free of pain and fear. But he was still alive and he could fight for that life. For what reason, he wasn't too sure. He believed that his life had a purpose. He always had. What it was now, in this new dead world, he wasn't sure.

    "I feel like Job," he said to Pepe as he finished his strawberries. "Like God is testing me to see if I will curse His name or keep going."

    Pepe looked up from where he was chewing on the antique toy. It was pretty much destroyed now, whatever it had been. It had looked like either a cat or weird cow.

    "Maybe this is Satan's big plan to take over the world from God," Eric mused. He hadn't really thought about spirituality in a long time. He went to church on occasion with Brandy, but for the big holidays. Though he had remained faithful in his belief in God, Satan, demons, angels and other spirits seemed fanciful. But now that the dead walked the earth, he couldn't help but wonder if maybe there was just a bit more to it all than he had considered.

    "Maybe all of humanity is Job. Being tested by Satan to see if we turn on God." He chewed a blueberry thoughtfully. "Maybe this is some kind of big reset."

    Pepe yawned dramatically and flopped next to the ruined doll. He had tinkled in the bathroom again and Eric felt bad for making the dog rough it. He needed to check the perimeter of the house before they ventured out. Clearing the table, he took a deep breath.

    Maybe Stephanie had climbed onto the roof. Maybe she had only enough time to type "bye" before plunging out a window to scramble to safety. Maybe she was already rescued. Of course, she was most likely dead or undead. But that tiny spark of hope that maybe, just maybe, she had made it out of that attic made him feel more hopeful for himself and Pepe.

    He did his regular routine that he always did before they ventured out. Checked out all the windows, off the balcony, studied the view through the peephole, looked at Pepe to see if he was alarmed, then finally opened the door. It was a lovely afternoon and perhaps deceptively calm. Pepe skipped down the walk to find a suitable place to do his business and Eric yawned loudly.

    Above them birds soared on the spring breeze and the insects buzzed in the garden. It was hard to believe that the world as he knew it had ended.

    Once Pepe was done with his business, they walked down to the parking lot together. Eric held the revolver in his hand and had the shotgun slung over his shoulder.

    "Okay, boy, are any zombies around?"

    Pepe looked back at him, kicked up his back feet, and trotted to the end of his leash. Eric wasn't sure why he trusted the dog so thoroughly, but he felt himself relax as the started down the drive. The walk was uneventful and despite his trepidation, Eric walked down far enough to take a look through his binoculars at the community center.

    Shadow figures lurked inside, but none were in the streets.

    "We're still safe," Eric said to Pepe.

    The dog skipped along the edge of the road after a bug, ignoring him.

    The walk back to the house was tranquil. Pepe trotted along without a care in the world and Eric felt comforted by that. They were lucky the entire town was locked away in that center or else everyone had taken off to other places to be with their family. He wondered about Mrs. Waskom, but he had a bad feeling about her fate.

    Once back inside the house, he locked the door and let Pepe off the leash. The little dog skipped down the hall to the kitchen to take a long drink of water from his bowl. Eric went back to Mrs. Waskom's office and turned on the monitor.