Day Beyond the Dead (Book 1) (3 page)

     “Come on man, we can’t afford to break down out here in the parking lot. Who knows what’s lurking around here. This isn’t gonna help her.”

     “There are no doctors.”

     “What?”

     “I said there are no doctors so it doesn’t matter. Nothing is going to help her now.”

     “What are you talking about?”

     Gerard stands up and turns to Darren trying to contain the rage inside, “What don’t you get?! He stabbed her as they drove away. I saw it! Do you have a degree in medicine?? I know I don’t so it doesn’t really matter. She’s dead.”

     “Hey listen man you don’t know that for sure. Did you see her die? Then don’t talk like that if you don’t know for sure. Now let’s go see if we can find a vehicle. Wait a second. I keep a second set of keys in the glove compartment.” Darren walks over to his car and busts out the back window and climbs to the front seat. “I got it. Let’s go.” He starts up the car as Gerard gets in the front seat on the passenger side.

Chapter 4

     They took off down the highway in the direction Christa’s SUV went. Their eyes were scanning each side of the road looking for any sign of her or the vehicle. So far there wasn’t a sign. Gerard started to wonder if they should search any of the side roads or stay on the straight way.

     “What should we do Gerard?”

     “Let’s head towards Morgantown. Christa would want that. Hopefully we find her along the way.”

     “Okay.”

     The driving was slow due to the conditions, not to mention the wreckage along the way. Gerard wasn’t quite desensitized to the constant carnage and he wondered if he ever would be. A part of him had hoped he never would be because that would mean he had lost part of himself. The part that made him human.

     They were approaching Clarksburg and still there was no sign of Christa. As they got closer to Morgantown with no signs of her, Gerard got visibly more upset. His mind was thinking the unthinkable. He kept wishing they had just stayed in the cabin then none of this would have happened. Christa being Christa though wouldn’t have it any other way.

     “How much longer you think it’ll take us to get to Morgantown?” asked Darren.

     “Usually I would say around forty-five minutes but seeing as how the weather is bad and I’m not sure what we could run into I think it will be more like ninety minutes at least.” As soon as he said it Gerard couldn’t help but think that sounded like an awfully long time to be stuck in a car doing nothing when he just wanted to find Christa.

     Time passed on and the silence only made it seem even longer. As they arrived right outside of Morgantown they could tell they were getting close due the pile up of cars on the interstate.

     “Oh….my……god…” Gerard was completely flabbergasted at the sight before him.

     “What?” Darren was concentrating on the road before them but looked over at Gerard to see the direction he was looking. He followed his eyes and then he saw it. The University was saturated with the living dead. There were mobs of them just standing on the football field and others just aimlessly walking around. The roads even had scattered masses of them. They knew maneuvering around Morgantown would be a bit trickier than they had expected.

     “Isn’t your sister there? On campus I mean?”

     “….yes….” Seeing how many zombies were roaming the campus gave Darren this horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t want to admit it but the look on his face told all he didn’t want to say. Gerard knew this would be anything but easy. As a matter of fact he was dreading even stepping one foot onto the premises. “Where is Bree located?” Darren seemed to want to delay the inevitable.

     “She is about seven miles past the campus.” Gerard looked over at Darren and the expression on his face that relayed his immense sense of fear. “Darren, we might as well go to the campus first because to be honest if we get Bree I don’t want to take her there. There are a crazy amount of undead there. C’mon, let’s go get your sister.”

     They drive towards the University and turn down the street next to her dorm. The street is riddled with dead bodies, some of them not so dead, and abandoned cars. A few of the undead came up to their car as they passed and put their hands on the windows trying to get in.

     “I don’t have a good feeling about this. I look around and wonder how anyone can survive this and it makes me think she’s not even alive anymore. If she’s not I can’t take seeing her as one of those things. I just don’t think I could deal with that. I know I couldn’t. Besides, I have no idea how we are even going to get in there. This place is crawling with them and we don’t have any weapons. That douchebag took them.”

     Gerard could tell that Darren was conflicted and wasn’t sure what to do, but he knew that if he didn’t at least try he would always wonder. “We need to at least try. You know that if you don’t you’ll regret it and always wonder. Wondering eats at you,” pausing Gerard couldn’t help but to think of Christa and how he was left in the dark about that. “So let’s find the path of least resistance and do what we can.” As soon as Gerard said those words he felt like he wished he hadn’t.

     They pulled over to a space between buildings to use as cover to get in and out of the car. They figured the seclusion would help them to get into the building with the least amount of issues.

     They put the car in park and looked around to assess the immediate dangers. Darren crawled through his car to the backseat and pulled the seat down to grab the tire iron in the back. He looked over at the broken window and realized that would pose a major danger around this many undead. He knew they had to get in and get out if they wanted to make it out of there alive.

     “All I have, weapon wise, is this tire iron. Hopefully once inside we can find something else. There is bound to be a bat in one of these rooms somewhere.”

     Gerard didn’t really like the idea of getting out of the car without something to protect himself with but he had no other option at this point. They both exited the car and lightly jogged down to the corner of the building. There were four undead between them and the door, but who knows what they would find inside.

     “That’s her door. If these things are as slow as they always seem to be we should be able to run right past them. If they happen to be faster well then only one of us will reach the door and not sure what to tell that person on the way back out.”

     “Wow, I feel better already.”

     They look around one last time before they make a mad dash for the door. The four undead focus on Darren and Gerard as they run towards them. Darren runs past them and swings at one that grabs onto his shirt, knocking its arm clear off. Gerard runs past them next but as he dodged to miss Darren’s swing he slipped in the grass and fell on his face. He quickly rose to his feet and realized he was backed up against a wall with three undead around him and no weapon. He looked around and saw the one with no arm to his left and decided to go through it. Gerard pushed on its chest to move it out of the way, but instead fell over with the corpse on top of him. Grabbing its neck and jaw to hold it at bay. While he holds the one on top of him he notices the others advancing on him.

     “Darren! Help!”

     With a loud thud the undead on top of him was flung off by Darren’s tire iron. Darren extends his hand to Gerard and pulls him up quickly and they both run to the door. They go inside securing the door and turn around to notice a person knelt on the floor over a body. They look at one another and then head towards the individual. Darren goes up to the woman and places his hand on her shoulder. “Mam’ are you ok?” A second passes which feels like forever and with a swift turn and growl the woman turns around and tries to bite Darren’s hand. Darren swings the tire iron almost by pure reflex and bashes open her head.

     Gerard notices that Darren is just standing there frozen breathing heavily so he reaches up and touches his shoulder. Darren flinches and pulls back the tire iron as if he was about to hit Gerard but he pauses as soon as he realizes what he was about to do.

     “I’m so sorry man. I don’t know what came over me. It all happened so fast and then afterwards I kept thinking I’m scared of what I’ll find here. I don’t know if I can Gerard. If I saw her and she was one of those things I couldn’t just bash her head in. I’d end up dying because I can’t hurt her, even then I can’t.”

     “You don’t have to bear that burden Darren. Give me the tire iron. It’ll be fine. Let’s go. I don’t want to be here any longer than we have to be, especially when it gets dark and it’s getting there.”

     Darren looks down at the blood drenched tire iron and hands it over to Gerard. He wipes the blood from his hands onto his shirt and follows Gerard down the hallway stepping over bodies as they go. He took one last look at the woman he had just bashed in the head and couldn’t help but wonder what fate brought her to where they found her. Did she try to get out but got bit? Did she scream and no one heard her cries? Did she think someone would save her? He didn’t even know her name. He knew he had to stop thinking along those lines because it would just hurt him in the long run. Bringing emotions into these situations would only prove detrimental.

     “Which floor?”
     “Second floor.”

     Gerard saw the door marked ‘stairs’ and headed for it cautiously. Opening the door he looked inside and saw nothing but darkness with some illumination sporadically from the safety lights. He instantly knew he didn’t want to go up those stairs but knew it had to be done. He mustered up the courage and stepped inside and started to ascend the staircase. Gerard could see the door to the second floor but the next flight above it was completely dark and that made him very apprehensive.

     “Ok, I can see the door. Let’s get to it and get inside it as quietly as possible.” Darren just shot Gerard a look and grabbed the railing for leverage. Gerard took off swiftly but quietly up the staircase and opened the door. A long, drawn-out squeak echoed in the stairwell as he slowly opened the door. Gerard put his head through the door and looked around. Nothing. He motioned for Darren to follow him. “What number?” Darren holds up three fingers. Gerard nods and heads in that direction.

     They make it to number three and stand outside by the door. Gerard looks over at Darren who seems to be trying to brace himself for whatever is behind the door. He gives a nod to Gerard and Gerard opens the door with one swift movement. As soon as the door is fully open Gerard dodges a book to the face and notices a girl standing in the direction from where the book was thrown.

     “Oh my god! Darren! Is it really you??”

     “Tara!” Darren races over to his sister and puts his arms around her.

     “I knew you’d come. I just knew.” She smiled at him holding his face in her hands as if she hadn’t seen him in years.

     “I don’t mean to break up this beautiful reunion but daylight is fading and we have one other stop so we need to get out of here.”
     “No, I am ‘not’ going back out there. I barely got away last time. Sarah and I were going to make a run for it. We got as far as the first floor and we got attacked. She didn’t make it and I barely got away. I ran back up here and barricaded myself in my room. I noticed these things can’t open doors so for the most part I didn’t worry about that, but I haven’t eaten in three days now. I’m so hungry I can’t bare it.”

     Darren grabs the side of Tara’s arm and reassures her, “Tara, we have to go now before we lose light. We made it in and we can make it out. If you stay here you’ll die. Let’s go. There’s a little girl waiting on us. Would you want her to die because you’re too afraid?” Tara lowers her head as she shakes it slowly, gesturing no. “Good. Ok, let’s go.”

     Gerard looks into the hallway and heads towards the door to the stairwell again. They make it down the stairwell and onto the first floor. They walk down the hallway and approach the front door as Tara pauses in the hallway. Placing her hands over her mouth she begins to cry. Darren approaches her and notices she’s looking at the body of the woman from before.

     “Sarah…”

     Darren grabs Tara’s arm and pulls her to the exit. “There’s nothing you can do now. Let’s go.” They headed out the door, made their way through the scattered few undead outside and back to their car. They got inside the car only Gerard was in the driver’s seat this time with Tara in the back.

     Tara notices the knocked out window, “I don’t think I wanna sit back here anymore.”

     Darren looks at Gerard and they both laugh.

     “Why are you guys laughing?? It’s not funny!”

     “Sorry sis, I think we possibly have lost our minds or at least that’s my excuse.”

     “Don’t worry we’ll get something to cover up that window. We just have one other stop for today. I made a promise to someone and I intend to keep it.” Gerard’s mind drifts off to Christa and his curiosities about the whole situation involving her. He hoped she was okay and that Bree was too.

     They pulled out from between the two buildings and maneuvered around sever cars before getting back on the main road which would take them to where Bree lived. Traveling through the denser part of the city revealed more undead, scattered fires that were barely burning due to all the snow and cars everywhere that sometimes blocked off certain areas. It was more than obvious that the effort to leave was a chaotic one and it cost many lives.

     They made it to Damion’s house. Gerard at once noticed the broken bay window at the front and his heart instantly dropped. He parked along the curb in front of the house and scanned around the neighborhood.

     “There’s only one zombie I see and he’s over there stuck in his own truck. C’mon Gerard let’s go. Tara, stay here,” Darren said.

     Tara looked at him and replied, “I’m not staying here with this window busted out.”

     “If you don’t make any noise you’ll be fine. I’m not taking the sister I ‘just’ rescued into a situation where I have no idea what we’ll find. To me that’s counterproductive. So please just wait here, ok?”

     Tara made a face, “Fine.”

     Gerard and Darren exited the car and made their way towards the door with tire iron in hand. Gerard reached for the door and went to turn the knob but it was locked.

     Darren said, “Guess we are using entrance number two, the window.” Darren led the way towards the window, pulled the long curtain aside and looked around as best he could. Seeing nothing he decided to step inside and hold the curtain for Gerard to enter.