Stay Dead 2: The Dead and The Dying (23 page)

“
There’s got to be one of
them trapped inside a car.”

“
Poor bastard.”

“
Fuck them.”

Thump.

“
There. It’s got to be one
of these.”

Thump.

Frankie peered into a car.

Thump.

He had the right car. He could hear
the thumping as clear as day, but he didn’t see anything. It was
dark inside, and the windows were smeared with blood and
grime.

Thump.

“
See anything?”

He did. His eyes found what was making
the sound and he wished he didn’t. He wished they never even gave
it a thought. “Wish I didn’t man. Don’t look--”

Too late. Eddie began to wretch,
throwing up the canned food he fought so hard to gulp down to begin
with. It was warmer going out than it was going in.

“
Fuck man. That’s horrible.
That’s so fucking horrible,” he said, wiping the spit from his
lip.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

“
We can’t leave
that.”

“
I’m not opening the door.
I can’t look again.”

“
We don’t have a gun, Ed,
and I can’t go in there.”

“
Let’s set the car on
fire.”

“
Got a rag?”

“
Yeah, I have a spare
shirt.”

“
Joe. Get everyone away.
Get a few cars down.”

“
You got it. Everything
cool?”

“
Far from it. We’re going
to take care of it, but don’t come over here—trust me. Gonna set
the car on fire.”

“
You think that’s a good
idea?”

“
No. But if you saw this, I
think you’d agree that we can’t leave it alone.”

“
Fair enough
dude.”

With that Joseph and Scott led the
way. Avoiding the car and getting the others further down the
bridge.

Eddie tore a strip of cloth from a
spare shirt in his backpack. Frankie pulled out a lighter and a
small can of lighter fluid, which had come in very handy since the
world nearly came to a screeching halt.

Frankie soaked the cloth with the
lighter fluid and jimmied open the gas door with the pry-bar. Once
the gas cap was off Frankie shoved in the cloth and forced it down
with his finger till there was only a small strip hanging
out.

“
Let me do it,” Eddie
offered, “you’re hands are soaked in that shit.”

“
Go right ahead.” Frankie
tossed him the lighter.

Eddie snatched it out of the air.
Frankie and Joseph walked away towards the rest of the
group.

Thump.

Eddie flicked the lighter. The rag lit
with ease and the flame crawled inside the gas tank. Eddie ran away
expecting the car to explode behind him, but it didn’t.

The group watched in
anticipation—moments passed and the car still didn’t explode.
Flames grew from underneath the vehicle, and it was smoking, but
far from what they had expected.

“
Why isn’t it blowing
up?”

“
I’m thinking when it
happened to Gerty that it was a fluke. Everyone always says only
cars blow up on TV.”

“
Yeah, but shouldn’t it be
a bigger fire though?”

“
It’s building, you can see
that.”

“
Yeah, man, it’s doing the
trick. The whole thing will burn out soon enough.”

“
Fuck it, let’s get out of
here.”

“
The quicker the better.
The bigger that fire gets the more things will be drawn to
it.”

40 A FAMILIAR
ODOR

(back to
top)

The night continued to grow cool,
allowing it’s darkness to seem all the more sinister and it’s
shadows all the more deeper. Though they had nearly made it to the
end of the bridge the light from the car fire burned
bright.

Chris had fallen asleep on Abdul’s
shoulders. He slid one way and then the other as Abdul continued to
walk. His back and neck ached furiously. His legs burned and his
arms kept falling asleep. He wanted to drop to the ground and just
give up, but he pushed on.

The abandoned vehicles on the bridge
continued to tell a story. Cars were smashed into the sides. Trucks
were left rammed into the back of other vehicles. Windows were
smashed in, windshields kicked out, doors left ajar. Police cars
were stuck in between lanes, unable to weave through traffic. A bus
in the distance lay on its side.

Frankie climbed on top of a car.
Standing on the roof of the sedan he peered forward into the dark
distance.

“
Anything?”

“
Don’t see
shit.”

“
How much
further?”

“
Almost there. Maybe
another ten minutes. Twenty tops.”

Frankie jumped down and they continued
to move down the tight twisting lanes of wreckage.

As they passed the bus, Chung-Hee
could hear a scratching noise.

“
Guys?”

Chuck turned, hearing it too, followed
by excited grunts. Several deaders clawed their way out of the bus,
knocking aside one of it’s emergency exit windows.

“
Oh, fuck.
Guys!”

The group halted. Frankie and Eddie
jumped on top of a car to see past everyone and to make eye contact
with Chung-Hee.

“
What is it?”

“
Don’t stop, keep moving,”
Chung-Hee pleaded, “We got company.”

“
Joe, lead everyone down
the bridge quick.”

Joseph didn’t want to lead the group
away from the action, he wanted to stay and fight alongside his
brother. Had his mother not been among the group he would’ve sent
them on their way alone and stayed by his brother’s side. Instead
he simply nodded and kept moving.

Scott stood aside, “Eddie, we can just
out walk them. There’s no need to stay back and take them
down.”

“
We’re not going to take
them down. You’re right. But we’re still going to make sure
everyone gets some distance, and that those fuckers aren’t right on
our asses.”

“
Okay man, just be
careful.”

Scott caught up with Judy and Frankie,
Eddie, Chung-Hee and Chuck hung back to deal with the
deaders.

“
You got any of that shirt
left?”

“
Yeah, what do you got in
mind?”

“
I say we start some more
car fires.”

“
Sounds like a
plan.”

Eddie dug through his bag and dug out
the shredded shirt. He ripped into two pieces and tossed one to
Frankie.

Chung-Hee opened a nearby car to check
the gas gauge. The tank was more than halfway full.

“
This one looks
good.”

“
Pop the tank.”

“
Guys, they’re getting
closer.”

“
Moving pretty quick for
deaders.”

“
Yeah, they must be
hungry.”

Chung-Hee popped the gas tank as
Frankie doused the rag in lighter fluid. After he was done shoving
it in Eddie lit the rag. They moved back a few more cars and did
the same thing. Both cars were slow to burn but the time the
deaders neared them they had flames licking up from underneath the
chassis and from out of the open doors and cracked
windows.

“
That oughtta slow ‘em
down.”

“
Come on, let’s catch up
with the others.”

They jogged over to the others. Eddie
and Frankie returning to lead the pack and Chuck and Chung-Hee in
the back.

“
We’ll keep an eye on
them,” Chuck said. “Just get us off this bridge like
now.”

“
We’re almost there,
man.”

The deaders had no choice but to
continue walking through the flames from the blazing cars. They
didn’t hesitate or flinch, but as they moved slowly through the
flames that lapped at them their skin singed and burned. Small
blotches of skin and cloth caught fire, but as they continued
forward the flames died off.

“
Dude, do you…”

“
Shh. Just keep fucking
moving. Don’t even say it.”

“
You can smell it,
right?”

“
Just keep moving man.
Quickly.”

“
Fuck dude. It
reeks.”

“
I know, I
know.”

“
I knew this was a shit
idea.”

“
Don’t fuckin’ start
Frankie, we’re right at the end.”

Scott walked up to the three in the
front. He tapped Eddie on the shoulder, “Eddie, if there’s one odor
I’m familiar with--”

“
Yeah, man, we smell it
too.”

“
You see anything up
there?”

“
Not yet. Just more of the
same.”

After a few more steps they
practically froze. At the end of the bridge were about three-dozen
deaders staggering in their direction.

41 NOW OR NEVER

(back to
top)

Clem was up and pacing about the cell.
His movement had excited the dead, renewed their interest whether
or not it ever waned. Danni was asleep. Topher was reaching for his
toes. Keith was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. Davis
was watching the dead following Clem around the cell. They shifted
depending on where he was in the cell. They didn’t seem to
understand that he would come back around. It reminded him of a
certain cat his niece had, always following around a red light from
a laser pointer.

“
Clem. Do me a favor. Stand
in that corner. Keith, please do the same. Topher you
too.”

“
What for?”

“
Just do it. I want to see
what these dumb zombies do. That’s it, now squeeze in, don’t be
shy.”

“
Yeah, they’re following
us. So? Isn’t that what they’ve been doing?”

“
It is, but look, they’re
not trying to get in by the gate or anything, they’re following you
around the room as if they had the chance of getting you. And look
at the gate. They’re not even blocking it anymore. Like they have
no concept of it.”

“
You think we can get out
somehow?”

“
I don’t know yet. There’s
too many to get around though, and no idea what’s out of
eyesight.”

“
Anything’s better than
sitting in here. How much longer can we stay in here like
this?”

“
Maybe one of us can give
it a try? We can try to get their attention while one of us runs
out and gets around them, but I think once one of us is out there
we won’t be able to keep their attention. Then whoever gets out
will have to lure them away so the rest of us can get
out.”

“
I would’ve called you all
crazy, but that seems like the best thing we can do. And Keith is
right; we can’t last much longer in here. I’m getting real thirsty
and the thirstier I get the more I keep looking at that toilet and
keep thinking that maybe, just maybe I’ll be thirsty enough to
drink what’s in there,” said Clem.

“
Thanks for that thought,
old timer, you just gave me one more reason to volunteer my ass for
this crazy escape plan.”

“
Maybe we should wait. If
these things thin out a bit we’ll have a better chance,” Davis
suggested, hoping Keith would agree and sit back down.

“
Wait till when? More could
show up too. There’s no reason to wait,” Keith replied.

“
Fine. We’ll give it a
shot, but is there some way we can take some of them down without
taking the last few rounds? Anyone got a screwdriver by any
chance?”

“
There’s nothing in here,
Bruce, let’s just get on with it while I still have the balls to do
it.”

“
Fine.”

They exchanged a quite moment, the
hard lines in their faces softening just a touch, as they looked at
each other for what they figured might just be the last
time.

Davis broke away. He walked over to
the cell door, reaching his hand through the bars and putting the
key into the lock. The dead things grasped at his arms and hand but
he was able to put the key into the lock and pull back without them
getting a good hold.

“
Wait till we get them good
and worked up. Then, run like a motherfucking bull and tear ass out
of here. Don’t look back. I’ll close the gate, you just keep
going.”

“
Fuck. I think I’m gonna
throw up.”

“
Everyone into the far
corner. Get ‘em worked up. Keith, hang back with us,” Davis
commanded.

They squished into the corner, yelling
at the dead, getting them worked up. The dead smashed into each
other, fighting to get closer to their would-be prey. The dead
reached through the bars, grasping at air with stiff fingers. Their
limbs were greying, covered in dried blood and bodily fluids. Their
fingers had missing fingernails and shredded tips, broken fingers
and some even had bones jutting from their forearms.