Day Beyond the Dead (Book 1) (7 page)

     “I understand that but can you understand that out there we could possibly die? Do you understand that we barely got here in the first place? We don’t really have the luxury of just picking up and leaving whenever we decide to. I think we should make the most of this place and then leave. I mean seriously it just makes more sense.”

     Darren puts his hand on Tara’s, “Sis, please. I wouldn’t want to stay some place if you were dead upstairs. I know you’re scared. I know, but I promise I won’t let anything happen to you and you know we can’t stay here forever. So let’s just go, please.”

     Tara sighs, “Fine Darren. Let me just go on record though stating I think this is a bad idea but I’ll go along with it.”

     “Thank you,” Christa said.

     Tara looked over at Christa with empathetic eyes and nods.

     They all proceeded to gather things about the house. Christa went back upstairs to go to her former in-laws bedroom and see what clothing she could find in there. She walked past the door where Bree was. She paused outside for only a moment and then proceeded to the end of the hallway.

     Going into the room wasn’t any better because it was littered with pictures of her, Damion and Bree. Slowly she walked over to the dresser and picked the family picture up. Walking over to the bed she sits down on it while she looks at how happy they all use to be.

     “I remember that day. You wanted Bree to match and she was dead set against it. She just had to wear that purple unicorn shirt with her bright green shorts. I distinctly remember you relenting and letting her.”

     “Never could say no to that face.”

     “I know. She has a lot in common with her mommy. Never could say no to you either.” Damion sits down next to Christa. “I promise to keep you safe.”

     “I don’t even care anymore at this point Damion. That’s the easy part, not caring. If I weren’t here anymore then the pain would stop. I can’t stand it. It hurts like I’m dying over and over again and I don’t know how to stop the pain.”

     “You can’t stop it Christa. You just have to embrace it and really feel it. Denying it does no good and giving into it doesn’t do any good either. Feel it but don’t let it control you. You think I hurt any less? It’s killing me but I have to keep it together on some level because I know Bree would want me to take care of her mommy. I intend on doing just that. Don’t give up on life. Don’t give up on me and damn sure don’t give up on yourself. Like it or not Christa I need you.”

     Christa looks at the picture and places it down. She turns to Damion and kisses him, “I know. I need you too.”

      “Now let’s get this stuff and get out of here. The sooner the better.”

     They gathered their stuff and headed out to the vehicles. Darren proceeded to put a few last things into his car while Christa and Damion put stuff in Damion’s dad’s truck.

     “I guess we’ll follow you guys,” Gerard told Christa and Damion.

     “Be careful,” said Christa.

     “Yeah, you too.”

     Christa took one last look at the house as they drove off. She knew all the bad memories she incurred there would have to be buried there if she was going to survive. Looking over at Damion he gives her a smile and takes her hand in his.

     It was still daylight when they took off and would be for quite some time. The freshly fallen snow just made the traveling more tedious and slow. Damion and Christa were at an advantage because Damion’s truck had snow tires which helped quite a bit. They often found themselves stopping to wait for Darren and the rest. His car would get stuck ever so often. Christa would think to herself what would happen if they needed to get away fast but couldn’t because they got stuck. It was hard to not have certain situations or possibilities go through your mind. You had to be ready for any scenario.

     Christa looked out the window and watched the scenery roll by. Everything was so white it was hard to tell which direction they were going. She realized she didn’t even know where they were headed.

     “Damion, where are we going exactly?”

     Damion paused before he spoke, “You know, I have no clue. I hadn’t really thought about it. I just figured we would drive and if we ran across some place that seemed promising we would take shelter there.”

     “I guess that is as good an idea as any. What other options do we have really anyhow.” Christa was resolved in the fact that from this moment on things would be very different. Things would be a question mark and every day would bring something knew. Something unknown.

Chapter 8

     The sun was quickly heading down as they came upon an armory. It looked abandoned so they pulled into the parking lot. After they parked Christa started to get out of the vehicle.

     “No Christa. You stay here. Let me check it out first.”

     “I’m not letting you go inside without me. That’s not going to happen.” Christa proceeded to get out of the truck. Christa walked over to Damion and grabbed his hand, “You’re not going anywhere without me.” Damion gave her a smile and gripped her hand tighter.

     “Hey love birds are we gonna do this or what?” Gerard’s sarcasm was made quite evident. Christa just gave Gerard a slight glare in response.

     “Sure princess, just make sure you pay attention,” it was obvious Damion couldn’t help himself. And it was obvious by Gerard’s scowl he wasn’t amused.

     Walking up to the door Damion puts his hand on the knob and tries to turn it. It’s unlocked. He turns around to make sure everyone was ready. They all stood there weapons in hand giving nods. Damion turned back around, twisted the knob, and flung the door open. There was nothing but debris everywhere.

     Damion turned to Christa, “You stay close to me.” Christa nods.

     The door opened up into a narrow hallway with rooms stemming off from it. The hallway got darker the further in it went which gave off an ominous feel. There was no noise except for the occasional creak of some part of the building settling or the rattle of something from the wind.

     “I’m not sure if being at the back is a good thing or not,” Tara said while clutching the hammer in her hands.

     “Just look at it this way, if we have to go back the way we came you will be first,” Gerard was trying to lighten the mood.

     “Yeah, I’m still not sure if that’s a good thing or not.”

     Damion walked silently towards the first door on the left and reached for the knob but pausing. Slowly Damion tries to turn the knob and it turns all the way till it clicks open. Damion takes a deep breath and pushes open the door swiftly. There in the half lit room was a desk with scattered papers and traces of blood everywhere. On the desk the name plate said Sgt. Donaldson and to the right of it was a picture of a blonde haired man with a woman and two little girls. Christa went and picked up the photograph and couldn’t help but think about Bree. She wondered how many other tragic tales were untold. Lives lost that no one would know about because there was no one to tell the stories.

     “This room is clear. I don’t even think there is anything in here that we can use. We can clear the other room. The one that is adjacent to this one,” Damion said.

     “How about we divide into two groups but stay relatively close and clear rooms that way? We can make a bigger impact and move this along,” Gerard suggested.

     Each person looked at one another and gave their affirming nods of approval before moving back into the hallway. After they stepped back out into the hallway they discussed how they would divide and decided upon Darren, Tara and Gerard in one group, which left Christa and Damion in the other.

     “I’m not comfortable with this division but I’ll agree to it,” Gerard said aloud but was clearly making eye contact with Christa.

     His eye contact didn’t go unnoticed by Damion, “It will be fine. We’re just two but I got her back and she has mine. If for some reason we need more help we’ll let you know and vice versa. Ok”

     “Sure thing boss,” was Gerard’s reply.

     Gerard put his hand on the door adjacent from the room they had just came from while Damion took the door to the immediate left which was down about five feet. Christa tightened her grip on Damion’s hand as he pushed the door open at the same time Gerard did.

     As soon as the door flew open on Damion’s side a corpse came straight for Damion from only a couple of feet away. Christa also noticed an undead child directly in front of Damion, which he didn’t notice, and as Damion pushed the taller corpse backwards Christa crouched down and drove her knife through the undead child’s skull just in time. After Damion swung with his sledgehammer and exploded the corpse’s head he had pushed back his attention drew to the little corpse in front of him that Christa had just dispatched. He looked at Christa with eyes full of astonishment. “You saved my life.” He looked down at the half decayed little body in front of him. “I didn’t even see her. She could have bit me easily.”

     Christa held his hand again, “But she didn’t baby. I would never let that happen.”

     “Christa promise me if I get bit you’ll kill me and not put yourself in danger.” Christa couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

     “No Damion I wo-“

     “Christa, please,” he said with an urgent and stern tone. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you being in danger because of me or worse…..me killing you.”

     Christa turns Damion towards her and puts her hands on the side of his face, “Damion I won’t answer that because it is ridiculous. You are not going to get bitten. Odds are if you get bitten I will have already been bitten and if that’s the case I guess you will just be stuck with me for eternity.” She couldn’t help but kiss him, but quickly because she was well aware of the situation and where they were and the fact that the room wasn’t fully cleared yet.

     They cleared the room and as they were leaving something caught Christa’s eye. The name tag of the corpse Damion dispatched. Sgt. Donaldson. Her mind immediately went to the room prior and the picture she saw there. She couldn’t help but to feel that she knew a little bit more about Sgt. Donaldson’s story and the fate of one of his little girls. He must’ve brought her and possibly the rest of his family here thinking it would be a good place to stay only to find out it wasn’t. She couldn’t help but wonder which one of them turned first. Did Sgt. Donaldson have to go through what she did with Bree? She didn’t wish that hell on anyone else. At least they both were resting in peace now together.

     They all met up back out in the hallway. “Did you find anything in there,” Damion asked Gerard.

     “Not really. There was just some more desks but I did find this key chain. I took it incase we needed it at some point in time. What about you guys?”

     “We ran into two, but we took care of them,” Damion added.

     Gerard looks at Christa, “Are you ok?”

     “Yes Gerard, she’s fine. You think I’d let anything happen to her?” It was clear Damion’s patience was being severely tested. Everyone could feel the tension in the air as Damion replied. All Gerard did was glance over at Damion and then back at Christa.

     “I’m fine.”

     They cleared out the rest of the offices in the small building before they headed for the garage area. They walked up to the door and Damion peered through the double paned glass trying to see if he could see any movement. Damion started to smile.

     “What are you smiling about baby?”-Christa had to ask.

     “There’s a generator out there. They were using it but apparently at some point in time it was abandoned. We should go see if they still have any stockpile of fuel out there and fire up that generator. It’d be nice to have heat and we could stay here, at least for the rest of the day and tonight.”

     “Be careful. Seriously Damion. That is a big, dimly lit garage and there is no telling what is in there.” Christa scooted closer to Damion and whispered in his ear, “That was a close call earlier and I-“

     Damion puts his finger to Christa’s lips and leans in and kisses her, “Nothing will happen to me. I’ll keep an eye on my surroundings. Promise.”

     Damion goes to turn the knob except it is locked. “Oh, keys.” He looks at Gerard and Gerard hands him the keys they found earlier. He goes through five keys before he finds the right one. He turns the knob, slowly opens the door and steps inside. The stench was only slightly unbearable and that was mostly due to weather. Whatever was in the garage didn’t decay as much as it would have if it were warm out. No one could see it but they could sure smell it.

     They all were in the garage now and slowly they walked around trying to clear the room.

It was hard to see every part of the garage with the only light coming from the emergency lighting system. It was still enough to see a good portion of it. There were a few big trucks in the garage and a door that lead to the side storage room.

     There was a loud shrieking scream that echoed throughout the garage. Everyone looked at one another to take a mental head count. Tara was missing. They all ran towards the door that opened into the storage space. Gerard was the first one through the door. He found Tara pinned against the floor with a living corpse on top of her at arm’s length trying to bite her. The skin from the decaying body was giving way under her fingers and its teeth were inching ever closer to her face. Gerard ran over to her and grabbed the shoulders of the undead and started pulling backwards but it slipped right through his fingers as the skin slid off. Its teeth were even closer now and it nearly grazed Tara’s cheek. Suddenly the chomping of the teeth stopped and it lost all momentum. Christa had put her knife through its skull. Tara pushed the body to the side and stood up quickly. She just stood there traumatized, her body shaking. Christa came up to her and shook her shoulder. “It’s over. You are fine. Keep it together, don’t fall apart on me now.” Christa hunches over slightly to look directly into Tara’s eyes. “You good?” Tara nods. “No, I need to hear you say it Tara. You good?”

     Tara replies in a low voice, “Yes.”

     “Good. Let’s look around and see what is inside here. There has to be something useful here in this storage.” Christa started looking through the various boxes in the storage room while keeping an eye on Tara. Tara stood there a few moments before she finally moved and started looking through boxes.

     “Baby, you gonna be okay in here while I clear the garage,” Damion asked Christa.

     “Sure. Take Darren and Gerard with you. Tara and I will be fine in here.”

     “No. Damion and Darren will be fine clearing the garage. I’m not leaving Christa in here alone. Tara is too shaken up to be of any use if you need back up,” Gerard stated.

     Christa could feel some sort of altercation coming on, but was surprised when Damion replies. “For once Gerard we agree on something. Keep a watchful eye. I’ll be just outside Christa clearing the garage ok.”

     “Be careful. I mean it.” It was all Christa could say while she watched him walk away.

     As Christa was going through boxes she could feel someone near her and she knew who it was. “Thank you Christa for getting that thing off of Tara. It slipped through my fingers…..and I thought for sure she was going to get bit because I couldn’t hold it. You saved her.” Gerard’s face expressed how bad he felt.

     “Gerard, how were you suppose to know? Don’t be so hard on yourself. You tried. Things happen, nothing more nothing less.”

     “Maybe so….but still….thank you.”

     “No need for thanks. We all do what we can for each other.”

     “Yeah. I guess so.

      It was obvious that wasn’t the only thing Gerard wanted to say but that is what he left it at. He walked off as they finished looking through storage containers. Christa could feel his eyes still on her as he left the room for the garage.

     “He needs to be more careful,” said Tara from

     Christa looks over at Tara with a look of confusion on her face, “What are you talking about?”

Tara responds, “You mean you don’t know? Christa it’s obvious by the way he is always looking at you. Damion can even see it. Well he sees it seventy-five percent of the time but the other twenty-five percent goes unnoticed. I see it though. I’m not sure what’s going on there but I know he needs to be more careful. I can see that whole situation coming to a head and I’m not sure how far that’d go, especially seeing how murder isn’t exactly a punishable offense in the world today.”

     Christa let that thought sink in.
Could that really happen? I can’t see either of them killing each other. It’s not enough that we have to worry about the living dead but now we have to worry about each other?
It was a thought Christa didn’t need on her mind among the obvious others, but it was also a possibility she couldn’t ignore. She just realized that Gerard went into the garage where Darren and Damion were. In the back of her mind that doubt crept in and she turned for the garage. The next thing she heard was gunshots and a loud yell. Christa couldn’t help but think
Oh no! Damion!

     She ran into the garage as fast as she could with Tara trailing behind her. Christa found herself suddenly faced with the unthinkable. Gerard was standing there amidst the smoke from the gun he had just fired. He still had it pointed but where she couldn’t see. She also couldn’t see Damion. Her heart raced and she ran over to Gerard to see his line of vision. When she reached him she looked where he was pointing. Darren had his back up against the truck as if he was dodging something. Her eyes looked for Damion and she found him on the ground. Her heart dropped instantly and she found it hard to keep her balance. Staggering only momentary she ran to Damion’s side. He turned over with a look of astonishment still on his face. Christa couldn’t believe it. She had thought he was dead due to Gerard, but there he was looking at her. He was also looking at Gerard and his stare made Christa wonder if her initial thought was correct.