Medora: A Zombie Novel (2 page)

“No.” He
really had two more.

The crosswalk light turned and the crowd started to cross together as one fluid body. Approaching their office building, dozens of people were entering at once as they followed behind into the glorious air-conditioned foyer. Cramming into an elevator, Keith recognized a few people from their company in the elevator talking about the Tuesday morning meeting.

“Hey, did you guys see that data from June?”

Dave turned around to one of them, “No, when did we go over that?”

“Last Tuesday morning meeting with Janice.”

“Oh, that makes sense
, since I never listen to her.” Everyone gave a small chuckle and exited the elevator.

The meeting was long. Janice always conducted it with malice and pleasure. She wore flower pattern dresses that draped over her gigantic body. Every time she lifted her arm to point at the projection on the wall, half the room would look at the fat roll hanging from the back of her arm. Keith enjoyed hating her; it sometimes really filled the day
. She was droning on about an advertisement campaign for a new client that sold cough syrup.

Keith stared at Dave from across the table
. He was texting someone on his phone. Keith drew a stick figure on a memo pad of a little man tying a noose around his neck. He sighed and thought about coffee.

*****

Ellen called the police anyway. The cop was crouching in front of the front door, staring at the scratch marks. From his crouching position, it was easy to tell that he had a hairpiece, but Ellen thought it actually looked pretty good from a normal angle. The other policeman was asking questions.

“Did you hear anything last night or see any movements outside?
Any cars?”

“
No, I didn’t even know anything about this until my husband saw the front door this morning.” Her arms were crossed and she was squinting in the sunlight.

“Have you had any recent workers
in the house, like painters or lawn care, anything like that?” He was jotting some notes down on a pad of paper.

“Uh,
yeah, actually we have some carpet people putting some carpet in our basement but they really haven’t done any work yet. They just came and took some measurements. They are actually coming by later today.”

“Okay, I see.” He turned to the other cop, “What do you think?”

“It looks like someone was definitely trying to force an entry here, but I don’t know. It doesn’t look like they tried very hard to get in. They just left these scratches and cracked the window a little bit, leaving a little blood. It could have been an animal, maybe a big dog.” He cleared his throat and stood up, dropping his sunglasses down to his eyes.

“Okay, well we have filed the
report, Miss… ah…”

“Mrs. Sanders”

“Mrs. Sanders. We can’t really tell much from what was left behind so just keep your doors locked and maybe ask some neighbors if they saw anything last night.” They started towards the cruiser.

“Okay, well
thanks, guys. Thanks for coming by.”

“We actually have a breaking and entering report a few blocks away,
so if we see a connection, we might come back.” They drove off.

She reluctantly started towards one of the neighbors, the Jacksons. There had been a falling out ever since they accused Keith of poisoning their dog after an autopsy revealed the presence of a toxin in the dog’s corpse.

The heat was heavy and the sun was blaring down the street. Oil spots on the driveway reflected sunlight into her eyes. She gave a grunt and crossed the lawn to the Jacksons, knocking on the door and staring at her reflection in the window.  No one came, so she knocked again. No one. Sighing at herself in the window, she started walking back down the steps when the door flung open and a man in a tank top, shorts and long black socks stood at the door.

“Oh, Hank,
hey, you’re here.”

“Uh huh…” He stared down at her with a cigarette between his lips.

“Um, there may have been a break in over at our house last night. Did you happen to notice anyone or a car last night?”

“No.” He stared with a frozen expression, cigarette hanging.

“Okay, thanks.” Always a pleasure
,
she thought
.
She walked away with his eyes following her. She turned the corner and heard the door slam. She headed for the house to wait for the carpet guys to come.

“Good morning, ladies and gentleman, and welcome to flight 5328 direct to Holland. We will be boarding within twenty minutes, once our flight crew has arrived. At this time, we are asking for any passengers who would like to have their bags checked at the gate. Today, you may do so as a courtesy. We are offering this service to expedite the speedy departure of our flight this morning. Please come forward and we'll attach a red tag to your bag for checking. Thank you, we appreciate your patience as we prepare to board.”

*****

“This place sucks, why would we ever come here?” Dave dropped the flat burger on the table.

“Yeah, I always feel ill right after I eat at places like this.” Keith was staring out the
window, watching the lunch rush of people on the sidewalk.  “Who were you texting in the meeting?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you
. It was Lindsey’s sister.”

“Who?”

“Come on, you know her name.”

Keith stared blankly, aware of what he was doing.

“The girl I’ve been dating.”

“Right, right.
There’s just been quite a few lately.” He laughed.

“Shut up. It was her sister texting me
that she hasn’t heard from Lindsey since yesterday morning. I told her I saw her last night, but after that, nothing. I’ve been trying to call her all morning but she won’t answer. She probably went to the beach. It is kind of nice having a break away from her, since I was thinking of ending it anyway.”

“Either way.”
Keith wiped his mouth and emptied his tray in the trash. “Let’s go. We’re late and Janice is going to flip.”

They walked outside into the sun where a man fell into Dave’s chest, grabbing at his arms and neck.

“Hey, hey, what the hell! Get off of me!” Dave pushed him off and the man recoiled with sweat running down his face and tears dripping from his eyes. He had a suit on but his tie was undone and it was barely hanging from the collar. He breathed out a few incoherent words and fell right back into Dave as if he was fainting.

“What the
…?” Keith grabbed him from behind, underneath the arms and slowly lowered him to the pavement.  “What’s wrong with him?”

“Damn
it, he got sweat or snot or something all over me. He’s just a crazy ass, let’s get out of here.”

“Would you hang on a minute?” Keith shook his head at Dave. “Jeez, the guy is in pain
. Look how much he is sweating.”

The man was
lying on the sidewalk, staring at the sky with sweat pouring down his face. Fluid was coming out of his ears and nose with a constant flow of some white discharge and his head looked like red oozing membranes of sweat and mucous. The sidewalk was wet with moisture from his drenched back. He sat up and attempted to get his legs underneath him to stand up as people walked by pointing. There was an oval shaped spot of sweat on the ground where he was laying. He placed his hand on the ground to get up, but his elbow cracked at the joint and hyper extended backwards. Screaming out loud and long and looking down at his elbow, he saw that it was now fixed in one straight position. He tried to bend it with his other hand but it was stuck.

Keith bent over him, “
Hey there, sir, I think we should get you to a hospital.”

The man swiveled his head upward, “Ye
…yes, I will go… the hospital. Where?”

“We’re going to call an ambulance for you.” Keith reached for his cell phone but the man got up onto his knees and then stood up. “No, I think you should
lie down, because you look pretty sick and your arm looks like it… ah… well, you just need to see a doctor, now.”

The man turned and started running, pushing through the crowds while holding his elbow. He knocked over a blonde girl on a bicycle and then stepped on her arm as he started to run away.

“What is wrong with that guy? Did you see his arm? It snapped like a twig!” Dave laughed, pulling his phone out to text.

“Hey, can you just think about the guy for one minute without pulling out your phone to text somebody about it?” Keith angrily walked in front of him, towards their building.

“Okay, relax.” Dave shamefully put his phone back in his suit pocket.

The crowd, watching the scene, adjusted quickly and
again started to move in normal fashion.

They made it back to the office without Janice noticing that they were late. The office consisted of a dozen cubicles all facing inward, towards each other. The unnatural lighting from the fluorescent bulbs made the grey carpet on the cubicles even duller. The employees shuffled back and forth from the cubicle desks to the drinking fountain and the break room.

Keith stared at the Dilbert calendar hanging next to his computer. He fixed his eyes on it without reading it and regretted lunch. The remnants of a tasteless hamburger started to make its way back up his throat in gaseous belches. He pondered the possibility of vomiting in the near future, but quickly started to fumble with the computer mouse as Janice lumbered her way up between the cubicles. He closed out of the current game of minesweeper that he was playing and brought up a graphic design for the cough syrup campaign. She stopped at the threshold of his cubicle and rested her arm on the top of the wall.

“Hi Janice, what’s up?”

“Where is Dave?” She let out a very intentional sigh.

“I don’t know
. He’s here somewhere, because we just came back from lunch together.” Keith noticed sweat was accumulating in the furrows of her blonde eyebrows.

“
Well, I haven’t seen him since this morning and I need to talk to him.” She slowly lifted her doughy bloated arm to her forehead and wiped off some sweat.

"Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine. If you see Dave, tell him to come see me.” She lumbered off.

Keith quickly resumed his minesweeper game but saw that he had failed to find all the mines in time.

*****

“Hi, do you have those little animal vitamins? You know the chewy ones?” Ellen leaned her elbow on the shopping cart as she watched the skinny stock boy investigate the row of children’s medicine.

“Uh… I’m not seeing it. I don’t know…” The boy slowly glanced up and down the rows of colorful boxes, feigning a search for the vitamins. There were numerous gaps of supply amongst the cough syrups, Band-Aids and fever suppressants. “There has been a lot of people buying medicine and stuff the last day or two. Everyone is scared of the flu season. I think we have been a bit under stocked.” 

“
Okay, thanks.” She wheeled her way to the cashier and began placing her items on the conveyer belt.

“Hi, how are you doing today?” A cheerful and unusually enthusiastic cashier with a cascade of freckles and double chins greeted her.

“I’m good, thanks.”

“Did you find everything you were looking for?”

“Yeah I think so. Oh, except for some little animal vitamins for my little girl. I think you guys are all out.”

“
Oh, I’m sorry. I think you could probably get some around the corner at the gas station if you need them real quick.” The cashier started to weigh some pears at the cash register.

“
No, it’s fine, there's no rush.”

“
Well, you might want to make sure you get some flu medicine for your kids too. I think every person in my family is at home sick with the flu right now. It’s going around.”

“
Oh, I know I’ve got plenty of stuff at home for that just in case.”

“Oh good…
Okay, it’s $32.76.”

“Here you go.” Ellen placed her bags in the cart and made her way to the parking lot. There were a few
ambulances with a huddle of EMTs surrounding someone lying on the ground. Ellen stopped for a closer look and saw an elderly woman heaving her chest and kicking her legs into the air. The woman’s hair was wet and matted on the front of her face as she shook her head back and forth across the pavement.
Ellen glanced back occasionally at the ambulance as she loaded the groceries into the back of the car. The medics finally injected the white haired woman with a syringe and loaded her into the back of the ambulance.

Ellen climbed into the driver seat and heard her phone ringing from her purse.

“Hello?”

“Hi, is this Ellen Sanders?”

“Yes.” She switched the phone to her other ear and turned on the ignition.

“
Hi, Mrs. Sanders, this is Gary from Winsor Carpets. I was just calling to let you know that we are still planning on being at your house around two. Does that still work for you?”

“Yes,
yes, I’m going to be home in a bit so I will be there to let you in.”

“Okay, we will see you soon.”

She flipped her phone closed and pulled out of the parking lot. Low rays of sun were streaming from scattered clouds. She could see a low cloud system moving in. Her mind suddenly projected to picking up Jayne later that day from school in pouring rain. She knew the men from Winsor carpet were going to take a few hours to get the work done in the basement and she frowned at the thought of leaving them alone in the house when she would have to go pick up Jayne.