Stay Dead: A Novel (13 page)

Everyone gasped. Some of them began to cry while
others proclaimed their newly found hatred for Ben. Shorty, though,
just felt shame, and took a step back.

“
We have a suitable punishment in
mind for this bastard. But it’s going to depend on us leaving.
Which is the reason why we’re having this meeting. We need to
decide whether to stay or to go. As most of you probably know, we
are surrounded. We can still access our vehicles. But if we wait
much longer we may have to leave them behind.” He paused, letting
that sink in, before continuing. “And if we wait too long we may
never be able to leave this place.”

“
How many are there?” Ricker
asked.

“
Maybe a hundred,” Frankie
answered.

“
There are more and more by the
hour. Most of our weapons are outside in the vehicles. Maybe, if we
had them, staying wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Eddie postulated.
“There’s plenty of food and space, and the building is ideal. But
we can’t punch these things to death. I think its best if we leave
now. What do you all want to do?” Eddie asked.

The majority ruled once again. It was time to leave
and head back to the road. Not everybody was happy with the
decision, but no one knew what else to do. It would be too
dangerous to try getting to the cars and back: that was a one way
street.

Chung-Hee and Eddie explained the plan. While some
would’ve said Ben’s punishment was cruel, this was a cruel world,
and always had been. The façade of pleasantries and complacency
died when the dead rose, and the animal side of man that lay
dormant for so long now stepped in without hesitation.

Ben was a killer, and if he remained free then he
would kill again. There was nothing left for him to do on this
world but die a slow painful death like all the ones he’d bestowed
onto others. With his punishment, he would finally be able to give
back and not just take. His death would let others live.

Eddie regretted the leadership
position thrust upon him by the untimely demise of Boone, but just
as Boone fell into it so did Eddie
.
After the meeting people came to him, wanting
answers for which he had none. And they wanted something to do,
which he was more than happy to give them.

Damian, Jon-Jon, and Joseph gathered the others by
the front doors. Scott and Judy stayed near the door where they had
initially broken in, waiting for a signal from Julio and the tall
man, Corey. Julio and Corey were waiting for the signal from
Chung-Hee, Eddie and Shorty, who were tying Ben to the fence
outside.

Their intention was to use him as bait once they
opened the fence to let the dead things in. Ben tried to struggle
and break free. But every time he did, one of them would hit him
hard to take the fight out of him just long enough to finish tying
him up. Once he was tied up they ran to the fence opening closest
to the building and started to make some noise.

They readied themselves as Eddie opened the fence,
still hollering and yelling at the dead. “Dinner’s ready
motherfuckers!” Chung-Hee ran to the cafeteria and Eddie followed
behind just as the dead things began to creep inside the area.

But Shorty hesitated.

“
They’re just going to chase us.
They won’t even know Ben is out there!” Shorty yelled. “I’m going
to lead them to him. Go!”

“
Wait! What about you?” Eddie
asked.

“
I’ll get there. Just wait for
me,” he yelled over the moans of the oncoming dead.

Shorty back stepped toward Ben, yelling at the dead
things in order to pull them further into the fenced in field. In
one hand he held his crowbar, and in the other his handgun. He
raised his gun to fire and took aim to the head of the dead thing
closest to him. It was a gruesome looking thing, full of tear marks
and gouged flesh. Its eyes were bulged and nose nearly gone. He
would’ve been naked if it weren’t for his underwear and lonesome
sock. Shorty fired, and the thing dropped. The noise shattered the
night, an owl cooed, and a familiar voice whispered something into
Shorty’s ear as a knife plunged into the lower right side of his
back. Shorty turned around to see Ben and his bloodied face
smiling.

“
That’s what you get for letting
the gook tie me up. I thought we were friends, man,” Ben smiled,
his face swollen.

“
H…how…,” Shorty
grunted.

“
Fuckin’ magic is how. I’ve been
hiding knives since I could hold one.”

Shorty dropped to his knees clutching at his back.
Ben stepped closer and snatched his gun and crowbar. Then he kicked
Shorty onto his back, driving the blade deeper. Shorty screamed.
The dead things swarmed over him. Ben stepped back to watch for a
bit, amazed at how fierce the dead things were. And how hungry.

“
Looks like your plan is still
going to work, eh?” Ben laughed. “Wish things could’ve been
different, you were all right in my book,” Ben shook his
head.

The front doors of the school burst open. It was
like the last day of class as everyone ran for their vehicles.
Eddie, Frankie, Jon-Jon, and Joseph made sure everyone got out of
the building and safely into a vehicle. Cars and trucks started at
random, and some prematurely drove away with no destination other
than the road. A safe zone was a pipe dream and they’d settle for a
mall if they came across one.

Eddie looked from the vehicles back to the school,
wondering if they could make it back. There was still thirty of
forty of those things near the front and more coming from behind
and to the side. It was too risky, but was it riskier to get back
on the road, he wondered.

Ben began working his way through the flesh-eating
creatures, knocking them down and out of the way so he could get to
the roof access. It was impossible for him to reach the door to the
school, and he was in no shape to climb the fence and face what
wait in the darkness, so he figured it was the next best thing. His
captors may have not done the best job tying him up or checking
him, but they did a good job at beating the hell out of him.

As the convoy waited for Shorty, some of the dead
creatures from the front saw the convoy and began moving in their
direction. Ben had made it to the roof and was surprised to see how
well the plan had come together. He laughed with wholehearted
sincerity, then raised his gun and began firing. A bullet pierced
through Jon-Jon’s van, finding a home in Damian’s shoulder. Another
ripped through one of the children’s throats that sat in Alexis’s
car. Yet another shattered the windshield of Julio’s truck.

All heads turned to the roof to see Ben firing away
at random. Ben fired again, hitting nothing but the night air
before his gun clicked on empty chambers, dry firing at the
survivors.

Gerty, weak and out of breath, stepped from her car
and fired at him repeatedly, nearly collapsing from exhaustion in
the process. One of her shots hit its mark. Ben fell backward,
clutching at his gut. Gerty clutched at her chest, gasping for air.
She wasn’t certain, but thought she may have ripped her wound open.
She pressed the pad to her chest, and fought to steady her haggard
breaths.

The girl that had been shot in the throat came back
after having only been dead for just under a minute. The others in
the car had barely been able to get out with their belongings by
the time she came to unlife.

Alexis rushed the other two children, Yussef and
Stacey, to Jon-Jon’s van. The three of them jumped in, leaving the
dead girl in the car with it still running. Damian blocked out the
pain as he helped the kids inside. It was a tight fit, but they
would make it work.

Gerty got back in her SUV, taking a moment to catch
her breath. Her breathing had become labored. And though the others
noticed it, they kept it to themselves and chalked it up to her
being out of shape and exhausted.

Assuming the worst, that Shorty was dead, Eddie led
the convoy away from the school. The dead followed slowly behind,
Shorty now among them. Ben lay on the roof of the school holding
his gut. Through his fingers ran red rivers of blood. He knew his
time was short, but he didn’t care. He was looking forward to
seeing what life was like on the other side. He was looking forward
to tasting human flesh again.

CHAPTER 1
3: Two for the
road

Eddie led the convoy through devastated suburban
streets much like the ones he left behind, in a past life. A life
that seemed as much a dream now as his dreams did then. They passed
burned out cars, boarded up homes, and dozens upon dozens of dead
people that staggered through the streets looking for something to
devour.

They passed a large bus that sat upside down,
half-in and half-out of the road. Smears of blood were visible on
the inside of the few windows that remained intact. Every street
was like the one before it. The blood left behind had stories to
tell but no one had the time to read them. They were stories of
struggle, that was for certain, whether they were tragic or
triumphant no one would ever know.

To put his mind at ease, Eddie told himself that
those boarded up homes had survivors inside. They were having
apocalypse parties and sipping wine and eating fancy cheeses. Life
was good beyond the boards, he thought. They were sheltered and
secure, and playing Monopoly. They came across a few swarms that
they needed to drive through to continue moving, so they did. But
what damage it had done to their vehicles they wouldn’t know.

Whether tired, delirious or both, Eddie swore he saw
a ghost. As he continued driving the feeling came back repeatedly,
even to the point where he thought he drove through one. No one
else in the vehicle had mentioned anything, so he kept the thought
to himself.

With no particular destination in mind they drove
on, heading in the general direction of Titan City. Eddie stumbled
upon a desolate road, free from housing developments. It looked
like the start of an industrial complex but ended abruptly due to a
train lying dormant on the tracks that cut the road in half. They
turned around, heading back into the previous development in a
quiet and dreadful little round trip. The people that comprised the
convoy stared hopelessly out the window at a world they could no
longer recognize.

Eddie heard the rapid sounds of automatic gunfire.
He turned to see if anyone else could hear it. They did. They
looked around for the source of the gunfire. But before they could
find the source, the source found Gerty’s SUV.

A military Humvee barreled into Gerty’s SUV, caving
in the entire side of the truck and sending it into a roll. The
sounds of twisted metal and shattering glass broke through the
noise of the night and would surely alert the dead to where they
could find a fresh meal. The SUV landed on its topside as the
convoy came to an abrupt stop, with many rushing out of their
vehicles.

Inside the SUV Gerty wheezed her agonizing last
breath. Many of her bones had been crushed on impact—it was a
miracle she remained conscious at all. Corey, who was in the
passenger seat, hung from his seatbelt with blood, and drool coming
from his now mostly toothless mouth. His face was badly smashed,
and he was surely bleeding internally. He couldn’t move his arm,
nor could he feel anything below his aching chest.

A woman from Corey’s group, Lana, died on impact.
She was in her late sixties, and ever since her husband passed
years ago she wanted a peaceful death so she could be with him
again. She never knew what happened. It was not peaceful, but at
least it was quick. Next to her was another woman, one that had
traveled with Gerty’s group of survivors for a number of days. She
had barely been more than a dead thing herself, having hardly
muttered a word in the entire time she came to travel with these
people. She never really did anything besides bite her nails and
twitch nervously. No one remembered her name, if she ever gave it.
She was awake, confused and terrified as the smell of gasoline
burned her nose. No matter how hard she tried she couldn’t get out
of the vehicle. The door was so badly damaged it wouldn’t move.

The Humvee remained upright. The driver lay slumped
over the steering wheel. A man staggered out of the passenger side
seat, holding his head, while another emerged from the rear of the
driver-side rubbing his neck. Julio raced to Gerty’s overturned
wreck to help his friend Corey. Once he got a look at his
condition, he pulled out his gun and walked over to the two
soldiers.

“
You mothafuckers!” Julio
screamed, pointing the gun at the closest soldier.

“
Easy, man,” the one said. “It was
just an accident,” he proclaimed.

“
Accident? I don’t fucking care!
You killed my friend,” he screamed. His eyes were rimmed with
hateful, angry tears that could’ve been venom.

Julio shot the soldier in the face, spattering blood
on his self as well as the other soldier next to him. Eddie came
behind Julio and snatched his gun quickly before he could fire
again. The other soldier dropped to his knees crying. Those that
gathered around never thought they’d see a soldier do such a thing.
He took off his helmet, and his young face betrayed his uniform. He
was only a kid.

“
It was an accident. I’m so sorry.
We were just fucking around, getting drunk. We haven’t seen any
other people in days,” the kid soldier broke down into
tears.

“
Please, tell me you’re ARMY,”
Eddie spoke.

“
No. We found them at the
recruiting office,” he confessed. “It’s where we stole the Humvee,
and the guns. No one was there. We just took the shit.”