The Dead Live On (7 page)

  In the Resident Evil games, it could take a zombies head right off! I had hoped it worked that well for us and it later proved to be true.

Old Joe was still occupying the asshole on the corner keeping his back to us. Again we shot through the yards and into the back door of our house. We came out of the front of the house as he was returning from his talk with the soldier and he came up on the porch to sit with us. I gave him the chew he asked for and we told him about having to kill some Infected, and about finding the gun. He asked us what we did with the weapons we had, and I told him we left them there. I didn’t want to bring them home with that nasty shit on them, we had the gun now. We didn’t need them.

I went back in the house to get my cell phone and I had a missed called from A
pril and she left a voicemail. April and Marie were on their way to a shelter in downtown Cincinnati.  She said that soldiers came and evacuated everybody, directing them to drive their vehicles to a supposedly safe place, The Y.M.C.A., and she would call me when they got there, if I didn’t call her first. She said they loved me and hoped I was okay. So, I tried to call her and there was, again, no answer. I was a little ticked off that I missed the call.

Downtown?
That’s the last place I would go, downtown is so heavily populated, and if there are infected there, and I would think it would be in large numbers. That didn’t sit right with me, now I was crazy worried!

I never got the call. Thirty minutes after I got her message I tried to call again. My phone just beeped three times and said “NO SERVICE’ on the screen. So I tried using Evan’s phone, he also had a ‘NO SERVICE’ message on his screen. I then got on the computer to try to get on Facebook because she had internet on her phone, but the little computer icon at the bottom of the screen had a red x across it. I clicked on it and it said ‘No Internet Access’. What the hell? Now they were
cutting us off from the rest of the world? We still had electricity; I plugged both of our phones in to charge, thinking that it may just be temporary.

I don’t know why, with everything I knew about zombies, I just wasn’t willing to accept that this was real. I just went with the flow, of course I did what I had to do at times, but….it was surreal. We could do nothing at that point except obey the orders of the military to keep ourselves safe, maybe if we’d have tried to run away soon after, we wouldn’t have lasted a day. Who knows?

Chapter Eight

I know you’re probably wondering what happened to Evan’s family, he had none, just me.  He was orphaned as a child and spent most of his teen years in foster homes until he ran away at the age of sixteen and went out on his own. He did spend some time in prison for felonious assault in his early twenties, (the reason why we couldn’t just out right buy a gun). He had calmed down by the time I met him. Thank God, because he would’ve been a handful.

I went back out to tell him about the internet and phones and just as I started to speak, we hear
d a gunshot from Jake’s house.  So, of course we ran over there and Old Joe was the first in the door, he told Evan to come in, but I was to stay outside. I didn’t want to see anyway, I already knew in my heart what he had done. They had taken his wife and his children; he knew they weren’t coming back, so he killed himself. We didn’t even know he had a gun, he didn’t mention it. When they came back out, Evan had Jake’s gun. It was a .357 as well. We were suddenly finding ourselves fully armed
.

We stepped down off his porch, and again I looked up to see movement behind the curtains at Dan’s house. We hadn’t seen him since the day before and with that, I thought of Evelyn. I had to go and check on her, but before I get into that I need to take a picture of Evan as he changes.

Evan has been moving restlessly in his sleep. He tried to speak but I could not make out the words even when I put my ear up to his mouth. His lips are dry and cracked now and his nose and mouth have formed a sticky white film inside them. I drizzled the last of our water into his mouth, and lovingly placed my hands on his face and kissed him. I don’t care how gross that may seem to you. He is the love of my life and I will have killed us both by the time the virus could disable me. With that kiss, everything we’ve ever done together raced through my mind… I saw our first kiss, first fight, our first apartment, the sexual chemistry between us, and our wedding. It’s true, your life really does flash right before your eyes.

I am afraid that Evan will be a Halfer. So I tied him up with some rope I found in a box up here along with a photo album, a utility knife and the pen and paper I am using to write this with. I only bound his feet and hands. I did not hog tie him because I don’t want him in more pain than he’s already in. He has begun to jerk around a little bit, and a couple of times I thought I heard him say my name in a whisper, but I’m not sure.

I won’t kill him yet. I can’t because I know that he’s still in there somewhere, and yet another part of me tells me that it’s cruel to let him lie here like this just because I can’t bear to let him go. I think he’s probably ready, but I’m not. I also know that what I’m about to do will definitely land my soul in Hell (if I weren’t already headed there), but I keep praying for forgiveness. If not, then I can only hope it will be a much nicer hell than the one I’m in right now. I don’t think it can get any worse than this.

Chapter
Nine

On the way to Evelyn’s house, the Holts and Briars were outside, huddled together talking. I waved and no one waved back. They only glared at me. What was that about? These people didn’t come out when they were taking Brian and Bobby and acted like they were the only important people on the street. Whenever we did see them I was used to them ignoring me like I wasn’t even there. I mean, we’d never spoken before. I never really had the opportunity. When I was working I left for work at six a.m., and didn’t get home till late afternoon sometimes. I didn’t really associate because I was tired and had things to do at home as well. So, fuck ‘em.

I didn’t have time to buzz around the neighborhood making new friends. Oh, well. No love lost. We kept to those close to us, our neighbors on each side, Evelyn and sometimes the Pattons.

Evelyn was fine, for the moment.

I asked her about the Holts and Briars, and she said they were just mad because no one from our house was taken, that we were being favored for some reason. I said that that was just ridiculous. Neither one of us was sick. How petty and childish. I filled her in on what had happened so far and she didn’t have anything to say about it. I then asked her to come to our house and she refused, she refused when I offered for us to stay with her, and refused when I told her Old Joe said she could stay with him. She wanted no part of it, she didn’t care about what was going on outside, she was perfectly safe in her own home. She had plenty of books to read and her cats would keep her company. She said she’d been having ‘the insomnias’ and was looking for her medication. I went to the bathroom and opened
her medicine cabinet, there they were. The type on it was so small I could barely read it, no wonder she couldn’t find it. I gave her two from the bottle and set them on the end table next to the chair. I kissed her forehead and told her I’d check on her later.

You must understand, for the first few days, it was nothing like the movies. There weren’t zombies running around everywhere, there were a few, and the troops took them out pretty quickly. Our little street was a dead end, with woods and dense brush at the end and behind every house, the only cross street was Tamiami Trail, and our street did not pick up on the other side. I think that is why we didn’t see a lot of the things that were going on, it seemed we were cut off from everything else and our little world was the only one that existed. We were sort of secluded.  I think that’s why we bought that particular house, for the privacy.

Continuing on, for the most part they showed up sporadically. It must’ve been because the amount of time it took for them to change. It didn’t get out of hand until the soldiers began changing. I may, or may not get into that later; there are still a few things I want to tell you right now, while my memory is still clear. I feel a faint tingling and a funny taste in my mouth and feeling a little… air-headed. I better get on with this, while I still can. I think it’s the virus from
kissing Evan. This reminds me….

Friday morning, I sat on my porch steps with my back to Evan and Old Joe who were sitting on the porch swing talking. Through all of the things happening lately, we hadn’t seen Dan. I wondered what was going on with him, he was alone now. I also wondered if he and Dawn had split up, they just didn’t say anything to anybody. They didn’t seem like they had many problems, but everybody does. I felt sorry for him, so I decided I would go and check on him, Evan broke me from my thoughts.

“Jill, we’re going down to talk to the watch dogs on the corner, there are two now. The one from the dead end is gone and two new ones replaced him, there’s also a new one up at the corner with Captain Crude. I want to see what else is going on and if things are changing for the better.”

“Oh, really, two now huh?” I said as I craned my neck out to see. So Little Asshole had a partner now. “I hadn’t noticed. Well, while you guys are doing that I’m gonna go and check on Dan, see if there’s anything he needs. I noticed he didn’t take the bus to the pantry with the rest of us. He may need some food.”

“No, come to think of it, I haven’t seen him, have you?’ he asked Old
Joe, and he shook his head no. “Just be careful. And I’ll be right back.” They went on down to the corner and I went in the house and made a small bag of canned goods and fruit for Dan and headed over there.

As I crossed the street, I looked up towards Evan and he had his hands on his hips and looked back over his shoulder to meet my eyes. He was going to have something to tell me.

I knocked on the door and stood there waiting for him to answer. After about thirty seconds I knocked again and put my ear to the door to listen for him. I heard nothing at first, but then I could hear faint music coming from the back of the house. I went around the side and I could see the garage door was open. The music was coming from there.

I walked back to the garage, bag in hand and saw the CD player sitting on the work bench next to an open Playboy magazine and a crushed cigarette in the a
shtray that continued smoking. I went to the back door and knocked, still no answer so I peeked through the window. No movement. Maybe he was in the shower. I headed back toward the front and planned on leaving the bag of food at his door, but passing his side window I saw a flicker of light and stopped to look through the small slit in the curtain. I was beginning to feel like a peeping tom. I closed one eye to get a better view and I could see the door on the other side of the room was open. I put my hand over my eyes to shield from the early morning light and pressed my face against the window and what I saw still sends shivers up my spine.

Dawn was not in Tennessee like he said. A lamp without a shade was on the end table and was shining brightly over her form. She was strapped down to the bed, her hands bound at the wrist and hung from a hook in the wall above the head board. Her head was propped up on a pillow, and a bungee cord was strapped across her chest above her breasts, making her bosom look full and swollen. Her legs were spread far apart and tied to the foot board by her ankles. Her skin had a bluish hue, and her face was bruised severely. Her eyes were closed and she was still.
At first I had thought he beat her to death and was getting angry with myself for not seeing the signs or hearing her screams. How could someone do this? I was not a nosy neighbor and I was ashamed looking in on this, but there was no gag on her mouth so why didn’t anybody hear her?? Then her eyes opened, they were the eyes of the dead.

I could clearly see now, that she was infected. Her head jerked in the direction of the door. She began to …what seemed like sniffing the air, she was snapping her teeth together and turning her head at odd angles, and I don’t think she was able to see. She was beginning to struggle. W
hy would he keep her like this? I was about to find out, and what he did made this whole scene so much worse.

Dan had come into view, he was completely naked and
his organ was small and erect. I thanked my lucky stars for the size of Evan. (It’s amazing how you think the most inappropriate things at the worst times.) I should’ve turned from the window just then but I couldn’t. He then slathered some kind of lubricant onto his - you know, while he looked at her. And for just a second I thought that maybe he was going to masturbate instead, which isn’t much better considering he’d be beating off to a dead woman. He didn’t look nervous or afraid and he certainly didn’t look ashamed. Which he should have!!! I could not believe he was going to do this. But he did! I gathered that this was not his first time. I watched with disgust as he got onto the bed between her legs and sat back on his calves, put his thighs under her legs, causing them to bend at the knee and fall further apart. She was still sniffing and snapping at the air, he entered her and grabbed both her breasts, squeezing and twisting them in a way that would have brought a living woman to tears. His head went back and he proceeded to rape the reanimated corpse of his wife.  There’s a word for that, necrophilia, or maybe now we gotta come up with a new word. One for screwing the living dead.  Zombiphilia?