Stay Dead 2: The Dead and The Dying (10 page)

He stretched out across the bed,
eyeing the doorway, picturing Sarah walking in and taking her
clothes off. Straddling him. His hand found its way down his pants
and he urgently wanted to run into the other room and show her what
it found.

***

Laura fell asleep in his lap in the
rocking chair, and despite his body’s every ache and his mind’s
general good sense to not further hurt himself Walter carried her
to the bed and tucked her in. He filled another few fingers of
brandy and left the love of his life to sleep soundly. He gently
closed the door and joined his children downstairs.

“
What’s the occasion,
dad?”

“
Can’t an old man have a
drink without everyone raising an eyebrow?”

“
If you can’t have a drink
now, then when can you?”

“
Exactly. Now, what have I
missed?”

“
Well, we were thinking
maybe it was time to start searching through our neighbors homes
for supplies.”

“
Nonsense. We have plenty
here.”

“
Actually, Walter, we
don’t. Considering how many of us there are we’ll go through
supplies much quicker than we thought.”

“
When are you going to call
me dad? When I’m dead?”

“
Sorry, dad.”

“
Did you count everything
up?”

“
The tally is right here,”
she handed him the notebook.

“
I trust ya.”

“
We might as well do it now
before we get surrounded by these things. The longer we wait the
worse we’re going to make it on ourselves and let’s face it, no one
is coming back to there homes any time soon…if ever…”

“
Fine, you kids are old
enough to make up your own minds. What can I do?”

“
I don’t know, I figured me
and Barb could go into the homes. You’re more than welcome to join
us. Maria is going to stay here. Honestly, we really haven’t
thought it out much.”

“
We just know we should do
it, and there’s no sense in waiting.”

“
Who knows what could
happen in the next few days, right now they are spread out far
enough that we can maneuver through them, take care of the close
ones, get what we can and get back home.”

“
All right. Can we at least
wait till daybreak before we do this?”

“
Of course. We weren’t just
going to go and do it now.”

“
Well how am I supposed to
know? You all look ready to go.”

“
Just trying to be ready,
dad. You don’t want us sitting around in our pajamas do
you?”

“
No, not at
all.”

“
Why don’t you go sit down
and enjoy your brandy?”

“
Only if one of you will
join me.”

“
I’ll go get a bottle of
wine,” Maria said, smiling.

“
Two glasses…please?” Barb
said, holding out two fingers like a peace sign.

Maria went into the kitchen, fetching
a bottle of Pinot Noir from the wine rack her father-in-law built.
There were several bottles left—not nearly enough—and mostly just
bottles of Pinot Noir. In the cupboard next to the rack were the
wine glasses and Maria almost dropped one while she reached on
tiptoes to get them.

She returned to the living room,
uncorked the bottle of wine and poured herself and Barbara a full
glass each of the deep red fluid.

They sat down on the couch with Jeff.
Walter sat in his chair. The room was quiet and dark.

“
So, what shall we drink
to?” Walter asked.

“
Being alive.”

“
A better
tomorrow.”

“
How about world
peace?”

“
The ladies got it right.
Maybe you should be taking some notes. Here’s to being alive and
for a better tomorrow.” Walter raised his drink. Maria and Barbara
did the same; Jeff reached for the bottle of wine. Then they all
took a swig of their fluids and began to talk about looting their
neighbors homes for supplies.

***

Carrie was just one of the most
unlikeable people on earth, and must have been before the world
went to hell. It was in her body language and in her expressions,
probably more so than in her words, but it oozed from her. Alexis
was certain that was the main reason she was still alive—that and
even the deaders probably didn’t want her as one of their own. She
probably would taste sour to them.

Alexis wanted to pull her hair out.
The kids were growing restless and bored. Chris, the youngest, in
particular was having a hard time sitting still. He was climbing
and squirming over the others, which in turn bothered them and made
them squirm.

It had gotten to the point where they
were starting to hit each other. Alexis was quite simply out of her
area of expertise. She was growing short with them, losing her
patience, and she could tell Carrie was ready to snap. If that
happened Alexis was ready to go off on her but she really didn’t
want to. She knew it was just the mounting frustration.

Gerty would’ve known how to handle
them. Alexis was barely out of her teens, just having turned twenty
in the spring, and she had no siblings.

Yussef played with Nick, passing Hot
Wheels back and forth and riding them along the seats and
headrests.

Then Chris started crying for
chocolate milk.

Abdul-Ba’ith had to have felt the
tension building in the car, and was probably feeling the stress as
well because he finally spoke after at least an hour of silence.
The only reason he spoke before was because Alexis was trying to
make conversation. “I’m going to signal to the others that we need
to pull over.”

“
Why what’s wrong?” Carrie
looked nervously about the vehicle.

“
We need a break. The kids
need to get some air. We all need to get some air. And we should
stretch—my leg is cramping.”

“
We should dump these kids
out and keep going,” she said coldly.

Abdul-Ba’ith pushed down on the horn
and put his hazards on. Once he saw the break lights in front of
him he began to pull over to the side of the road.

Scott jumped out of the car and jogged
over to Abdul-Ba’ith as he stepped out of the truck. “Everything
okay?”

“
Yes. We just needed to
take a break…the kids are growing restless.”

“
Fine with me. I gotta take
a leak anyway. I’ll go tell the others.”

“
Thank you.”

Carrie stepped out and began
stretching. Alexis ushered the kids over to the side of the road
and had them stretch as well. Most of them decided to horse around,
but at least they were moving around and getting out some of that
energy.

“
Does anybody have to go to
the bathroom?”

They all did.

“
Oh, okay…”

Leela cupped her hands over her crotch
and began to jump up and down, “I gotta go!”

“
Okay, Leela. Girls! Come
on, follow me over this way and we’ll go.”

Leela followed urgently. Stacey slowly
moved in pursuit, clutching a filthy lion Beanie Baby named Roar,
which her father brought home for her one day after
work.

“
Abdul, can you have the
boys go?”

He looked at her, his rigid eyebrows
curling up and his eyes widening in uncertainty.

“
But I…I, oh man,
okay.”

Abdul never had any children of his
own and in his family many of the men were very hands off with
their children. He looked at the boys. To him they looked old
enough to know what to do and hoped he was right. He looked to
Carrie for support but she just looked at him and said, “Not me, I
hate kids.”

He shrugged his shoulders, “Boys. You
have to urinate?”

Yussef turned to him and nodded, Chris
did too. Nick looked at the ground away from everyone.

“
Well, then spread out and
go. You know how to go right? You’re big boys now, yes?”

“
Yes.”

“
Uh-huh.”

“
Good, go.” Abdul-Ba’ith
breathed a sigh of relief, then noticed that Nick had not moved
from his spot. Maybe he was bashful, he figured.

He moved over to him, kneeling down
and putting his hand to his shoulder. “You’re Nick,
right?”

The boy nodded.

“
How old are you
Nick?”

“
Five.”

“
Then you don’t need help,
right? You can go like the other boys. Just walk over there and do
it in the grass. No one will look.”

“
I…I…”

“
Are you
afraid?”

“
No…”

“
It’s okay if you are. I
know it’s scary now.”

“
It’s not that.”

“
Then what?”

“
I already went.” Nick
said, as he pointed to his wet pants.

“
Oh. Well, uh… I don’t know
what to tell you. Do you have any more in there?”

Nick nodded.

“
Then get the rest out and
I will tell Alexis. I’m sure we can find you something to wear.
Next time, just tell me you have to go, and I will stop the truck,
okay?”

Nick nodded again and then ran off to
finish the job.

Abdul-Ba’ith rubbed his temples.
Dealing with the living dead was easy—kids were the real
challenge.

13 LEFT BEHIND

(back to
top)

Hours had passed before Sarah had
woken up. She felt groggy and disoriented. She had to look about
the room before she remembered where she was. Her eyes found the
clock and after realizing how much time had passed she grew both
agitated with Jim and thankful because she was able to rest. The
extra sleep made her feel a million times more human.

She got up and walked out of the room
almost stumbling into Jim, “Oh, hey. Thanks for letting me sleep,
but I guess we should get going, huh?”

“
Yeah, I’m all packed and
ready to go. I heard you stirring so I figured I’d come and see if
you’re ready.”

“
Good to go.”

“
I’m really nervous. I
haven’t had to deal with them much close up.”

“
You’ll be fine. Just move
quickly and don’t let them grab you.”

“
Grab?”

“
They won’t let go and once
they get a hand on you, their teeth will be next.”

“
Now I’m not nervous at
all,” he paused, thinking about pushing her into the room and
closing the door. “I uh…my car is packed up. I didn’t have much
water, but I just about filled the trunk with all the food and
drinks I do have. Suitcase and backpack in the back
seat.”

“
Do you have any
weapons?”

“
Not really. I have a
shovel and an old baseball bat that I had to use a few
times.”

“
That’ll do. Are they
inside?”

“
Yup. In the
garage.”

“
Perfect,” she said,
heading for the stairs, “let’s go.”

He followed, picturing himself
grabbing her by the neck and pulling her back.

The garage was dark but enough light
came from underneath the bottom of the garage door to highlight
most of the objects in the small space. She moved swiftly to the
passenger’s side as Jim grabbed the shovel and bat from near the
door. After shoving them in the backseat he hopped behind the
wheel.

“
Ready?” He asked,
nervousness pouring from his voice and evident in his shaking hands
and sweaty forehead.

“
I am, are you?”

“
No. But let’s do it,
right?”

“
Right.”

Jim pushed the open button on the
garage door remote and watched intently as light flooded the
room.

“
Fuck, I’m
scared.”

“
Me too.”

The garage door seemed to open so
slowly. They could see a pair of legs staggering forward—a simple
silhouette against the pale yellow daylight. By the time the door
opened the dead thing stumbled inside. Jim drove forward, knocking
the dead thing back. The thump of its dead body on the car startled
Jim terribly.

“
Go!”

Jim gassed the car and hit the close
button on the remote, dropping it afterwards.

“
Fuck, fuck, fuck, which
way?”

“
You said you knew where
you were going!”

“
I do, I’m sorry,
just…fuck!” Jim was almost hyperventilating.

“
Just drive. Breath. And
drive. Just start moving away… now.”

“
Okay, okay,” Jim said as
he pulled out of the driveway and into the road.

The garage door closed and the dead
thing got to its feet, staggering after them.

Jim drove through town toward the
school. He was trying to keep his breathing under control but so
far hadn’t been successful. Sarah just sat back and kept her eyes
on their surroundings. She took note of how run down everything
looked now that no one was taking care of their lawn or sweeping
the streets. Lawns were being overrun by weeds and once proud
landscapes were now nothing more than tall grasses and specimen
plants aching for pruning and shearing. Sarah realized how quickly
everything falls apart when no one is tending to it.