The Last Days (30 page)

He pushed them inside and slammed the door.

The dead began to pound against the door as he pushed in the lock and fell back against the wall.

John panted trying to catch his breath. His heart was pounding so hard against the walls of his chest, his head hurt.

Barb just stared blankly as she tried to catch her breath.

Tears ran down Cindy’s face. She didn’t understand what was going on but it was scary.

Barb finally looked at John. “Are they going to get in here?”

“Yea I think they will, but we have a little time before they do.” John replied. “Come on, let’s use what time we have to figure a way out of this.”
“How?” Barb asked looking terrified and defeated. “There are so many of them and they are everywhere.”

John took her and Cindy’s hand and led them back the hallway into the service department.

They walked into the open bay area. The dead pounded against the doors and walls. The sound echoed through the building.

John understood how the squirrels felt when pounded on a hollow tree to chase them out into the open during small game hunting season.

The dead knew they were here even though they couldn’t see in through the frosted windows that lined the back walls. They continued to pound and wail.

“This looks like where we were at the deserted dealership in Ligonier.” Barb said. “We could go up into one of the upstairs office and hide.”

“This seems to be common design a lot of car dealers use.

We can go up there if we can’t find a way out.” John replied. “There are so many of the dead outside, I don’t think we should stay here. If we do, we might never get out.

“How are we going to get out of here? They have us surrounded.” Barb cried.

John looked around the service bays. Latrobe Chevrolet hadn’t been deserted when they were forced to close up when the government issued the emergency alert.

They figured they would reopen in a few days and just let the cars that were in for service remain in the bays.

Four cars had been in for service when they temporarily closed their doors.

John looked at the cars.

A Chevy Sonic was up on the rack in bay one.

It was smaller than the Cavalier they drove here from Ligonier. It didn’t interest John.

In Bay two sat a Chevy Spark. It was even smaller than the Sonic. With the number of dead outside, it would never even make it out of the parking lot.

In bay three sat a shiny new Corvette Stingray. It could certainly out run the dead. It was only a two seater. The three of them could manage to squeeze into the car, but the fiberglass body wouldn’t survive the first contact with the dead. Besides that much speed wasn’t what he needed. He could outrun the dead on foot if he had a clear path to run on. Finding a clear path was the problem.

What John needed was something that would get him through the dead and still run when it made it out the other side.

In bay four was a large Chevy Tahoe. The Tahoe was a large truck based four wheel drive SUV. It was high enough to hopefully run over the dead without sustaining too much damage. The four wheel drive would be able to maintain traction if he had to run over a large number of dead bodies, but more important he would be able to drive off road to go around the dead instead of hitting them, which he had decided was the best way to get by the dead.

The car belonged to Charles Whitnak. He remembered the owner of this particular car because the guy was a real pain in the ass. John remembered when Mr. Whitnak bought the SUV three years ago. He brought the vehicle back for service at least once every month ever since, complaining about phantom problems that John could never fix to Mr. Whitnak’s satisfaction.

The SUV was here now because Mr. Whitnak had complained about it being hard to start. John tried to explain that the SUV had the big four hundred cubic inch diesel engine. They always started slowly. It was normal.

Charles Whitnak agreed that once it started it ran great but he felt it should still start faster than it did.

John agreed to see what he could do. When he left work on the last day before the dealership closed down for the emergency, he had removed the glow plugs. He was going to replace the plugs when he came back the next day.

The big SUV sat in Bay four with the hood propped open.

“I think if we take that big SUV, we can plow through all the dead around the building. Once we get through the first wave, we can get off road and go out through the fields of the Firestone farm. The fields are too rough for the dead to follow. We shouldn’t run into too many of them out there. We can get on the back roads on the other side of the farm.” John said. “The going should be a lot easier on the back roads.”

Barb looked up to the second level offices.

“If we can’t get out of here, then we can go up to one of the upstairs offices and try to wait them out.” John said. “With as many of the dead as I saw coming in this direction, I think our best chance is to get out of here before the building gets surrounded by thousands of those things.”

Barb nodded. She really didn’t want to go back outside. But John was probably right. She really didn’t want to stay here either.

“Bring Cindy and help me with the Tahoe.” John said.

“What’s wrong with it?” Barb asked.

“Nothing really. I just have to put the plugs back in the engine.” John replied.

“How long will that take?” Barb asked, nervous with all the pounding against the building.

“Ten minutes tops.” John answered.

“Do we have that long?” Barb worried.

They followed John over to the SUV. He quickly went to his tool box. He didn’t think he had time to go back in the parts department to find new plugs. Fresh plugs would be the ideal thing to do, but there was nothing wrong with the old plugs. He decided to put them back in the engine. It would save him at least fifteen minutes.

The guys in the parts department had just reorganized their department and John hadn’t figured out their new system yet. Fifteen minutes was probably being optimistic.

John grabbed his wrench and crawled up on the fender and leaned into the engine.

Five minutes later he had finished reinstalling the plugs on the left side of the engine.

He moved to the other side of the Tahoe and put the first plug in the engine block.

He was going to enjoy hitting a few of the dead with Whitnak’s truck.  He only wished he would be able to return the truck to Whitnak covered in blood and body parts.

He would have even been willing to personally drive it to Whitnak’s house to save him the trip back to the dealership.

Charles Whitnak would die. Then Whitnak would have a real problem to complain about.

John had just finished installing the second plug when he heard the large showroom window out in the front of the building, crash into the show room.

He was tempted to load the girls in the truck and try to make a run for it with only six cylinders working, but he knew the truck’s engine would miss so bad it wouldn’t have any power, that is if it would run at all.

He hurried trying to get the seventh plug installed when he heard Barb screamed.

“They’re in the service bay!” She screamed.

John jumped down off the SUV. The dead were pouring into the service bays from the hall that led into the back from the showroom.

He could see at least fifty of the dead staggering toward them. The hall behind the gross creatures was packed with more of the dead pushing into the backs of the ones already in the room.

The dead were also falling over the steps that led to the second floor offices as they tried to get around the other creatures blocking their path to John and the living flesh they craved.

John and the girls back up plan of hiding again in the upstairs offices was no longer an option.

The dead where flooding into the bays. Soon they would be completely surrounded in a room packed wall to wall with these creatures that all wanted one thing – Them!

John grabbed the girls and pulled them into the only place left to hide. The small utility room in the back corner of the service department.

The room was maybe twelve feet square. This room was where all the dealership’s utilities came into the building. It held the breaker boxes that distributed the electrical wiring to all other areas in the building. The water came into the building in the utility room.  Other than the sewage pipes that ran into the room from the buildings bathrooms, there was nothing else in the room.

‘He pulled the girls inside, slammed and locked the door.

Since the room didn’t hold anything of value, the owners hadn’t bothered to put one of the heavy metal doors on this room like the ones that protected the entrance to the parts department and the business offices.

John knew the light wooden door would not hold out for long.

They were going to need a miracle if they were to survive.

The Night of the Living Dead
flashed through John’s mind.

There were no miracles in the movie. In fact, all the main characters had died by the end of the movie. The one man that had managed to survive until morning ended up being mistaken for a zombie and getting shot in the head by one of the people sent to save them.

So much for
The Night of the Living Dead
being the survival guide for surviving the zombie apocalypse.

In fact the closest thing John had seen to a miracle in the last year was when a contestant on the
Price is Right
guessed the exact price for a new BMW convertible.

John didn’t expect any miracles today. Since this whole ordeal started, his luck consisted of only the few extra seconds he had been given to keep his family one step ahead of the dead.

He knew this thin wooden door would not be strong enough to continue to keep the dead that one lucky step away.

The door cracked under the growing weight of the dead as they threw themselves against it on the other side.

The door began to split down the center as the soft wood gave way.

The screws holding the hinges to the inside of the door began to pull out of the door.

John and his family could do nothing but watch as the last barrier between them and a horrible death at the hands of the dead, crumbled before their eyes.

They huddled together against the pipes that ran up the back wall.

John pushed the girls behind him.

When the dead broke into the room, he would be the first to die. They would have to take him first.

He felt it was the last thing he could do to protect them.

He realized all it would accomplish would be to have them watch as he was torn to pieces before their eyes, seconds before they too would be savagely mauled by the dead.

He stood in front of them anyhow.  What else could he do? He felt it was better than dying like a coward, hiding behind a six year old girl.

Chapter 23

Mike’s eyes moved around behind his closed eye lids. Another nightmare assaulted his mind.

His worst nightmare had come to life last night and constantly haunted his every thought.

After Kimmy had been bit last night, He and Kelly sat holding her, waiting for the terrifying moment when she would turn into one of those dreadful creatures.

Kelly had sobbed uncontrollably when Mike had retrieved the screwdriver from the corner of the barn. She knew what he was going to use the screwdriver for.

Mike was not going to allow his little girl to become one of the dead.

Their future hopes and dreams for Kimmy were ending, but Mike would not allow her new future be that of a roaming creature, destined to search out the living to satisfy her hunger for living flesh.  He didn’t know if the minds of the dead would remember anything of their past lives. If they could, it would be a life of horror and torment being forced to suffer through those memories.

If she could not continue to live, he would also not allow her to continue to suffer.

They had waited, wanting to share Kimmy’s life with her to the very end.

At the end, Mike intended to use the screwdriver. A quick thrust in through the ear into the brain would end her suffering and let her go in peace.

They waited long into the night, suffering and in pain as they waited.

Mike opened his red bloodshot eyes. The ache in his heart came rushing back, almost overwhelming him as the memory flooded back into his mind. Tears began to run down his face.

The first thing he saw was Kelly lying back over the bale of hay they had sat on in front of the Prius as they waited.

Mike’s mind struggled to remember last night. The agony he felt over Kimmy he could remember, but something didn’t feel right.

He couldn’t seem to remember the dreadful end they had been waiting for.

He glanced down between him and Kelly.

Kimmy’s body wasn’t there.

He didn’t expect it to be there. He knew he didn’t want her body to be the first thing he saw when he woke up.

But his mind was blank when he tried to remember where he would have put her body until morning. He planned on burying her out behind the barn.

The barn would be the marker that would help them find her when they came back to visit her.

It would be a landmark that would help them find her grave.

When this was over, if it was ever over, even if it was never over, hopefully travel would be easier sometime in the future, they planned on coming back to plant flowers.

To remember Kimmy’s life and the good things and hopefully not remember her final days.

He knew they could never forget Kimmy’s final days, but hopefully the pain would subside with time, enough to let the good memories outweigh the bad.

He knew that would take a long time for the horror they felt to ease.

He knew all good things came to an end, but they weren’t supposed to end so fast and in such a horrible way.

Mike slowly lifted his head.

Every muscle ached almost as much as the pain he felt in his heart.

But he couldn’t help feel something was wrong.

Something was definitely wrong, but there was something else.

Mike sat up. He could still feel the screwdriver in his hand.

He didn’t want to look at it.

The sight of it covered in Kimmy’s blood would be too much for him to handle.

He didn’t want to look, but he did.

Mike jerked upright on the bale of hay he was sitting on.

The screwdriver was clean?

“Was this why I couldn’t remember last night?” Mike thought “Did I fall asleep?”

If he fell asleep, he didn’t finish what he had to do when Kimmy turned.

He didn’t want to remember what he had to do, but he also knew he had to do it.

But then a horrible feeling ran through his body.

“If I didn’t set Kimmy free?” Mike froze. “Where is she?”

He knew if he hadn’t set Kimmy free from her horrible fate, she must have turned when he fell asleep.

His heart sank. Not only had he failed to keep his little girl safe, but he had failed her again. He let her become one of those horrible monsters.

He had failed to do the last night the last thing he could have done for her. No matter how hard it would have been, it was the last decent thing he could do for her.

And he had failed her again. He couldn’t bear the pain. Tears poured down his face.

He sat still as another horrible thought filled his mind. “Why didn’t she attack me when she turned?”

He knew the first thing they did when they turned was attack the first person they saw.

An even more terrifying thought hit him. “Maybe she didn’t see me first, she saw……..Kelly!”

His head jerked towards Kelly.

She was lying bent backwards over the bale of hay.

Her legs laid bent over the bale of hay. Her upper body laid down over the other side of the bale, out of his sight.

Mike froze. “Kelly!”

The thought that he had failed not only his little girl, but that his stupidity and inability to stay awake had also cost Kelly her life was more than he could bear.

He saw in his mind the devastating horror Kelly must have felt as her daughter had sprang upright in her arms. Kimmy, her milky white eyes staring at Kelly, right before sinking her teeth into Kelly’s neck.

Mike closed his eyes and sobbed. He wished Kimmy had seen him first. He didn’t want to live. Maybe the commotion would have awakened Kelly and she could have escaped somehow.

Mike opened his eyes and slowly crawled over to Kelly. He didn’t want to see this, but he deserved whatever pain it would cause him. All of this had been his fault. He could have easily prevented all of it. They both counted on him and this was their reward for putting their faith in him.

Mike crawled over the bale of hay and looked down at Kelly.

She was breathing comfortably.

His heart felt relieved, but he was confused.

He had a sinking feeling that he was missing something, something terrible.

Thuuuup!    Thuuuup!    Thuuuup!

Mike heard a shuffling sound coming from behind him.

He quickly turned his head to look.

Whatever it was, it was behind the car.

“Whatever it was?” His heart sank. “Whatever it was? It’s Kimmy! He had just referred to his little girl as ‘It’.”

Mike looked down at Kelly. He thought about waking her up. But he decided not to wake her. He didn’t want her to relive this horror all over again.

He wouldn’t do that to her.

She lived it once and once was one time too many.

She was sleeping comfortably, or at least as comfortably as could be expected after what she had endured.

She believed it was over.

As horrible as it was, it was over in her mind.

He had failed them enough. He wouldn’t make her go through this again.

He would finish what he should have done last night.

Mike quietly crawled back over and picked up the screwdriver. His legs didn’t want to stand.

He didn’t want to do this, but if he didn’t, no one else would.

Kimmy deserved peace and Kelly deserved to not have to relive this all over again.

For everyone’s sake, it was his job to end this.

He could not live with himself if he didn’t.

It was going to be hard enough to live with himself as it was.

Mike gripped the screwdriver and forced himself to stand.

The tears began to flow down his face again as he pushed himself over to the car and moved slowly down alongside the car.

He knew the sight of Kimmy, as he knew she would now look, was going to tear him apart.

He took a deep breath and stepped around the back of the car.

“Whack……….MEOW!”

Mike jumped back from the car as a large orange and black cat frantically flew out from behind the car……………followed by Kimmy holding a stick in her outstretched arm.

Kimmy looked up at him. “That’s a bad kitty…..It Bites!”

Mike dropped the screwdriver and stared.

His heart almost jumped out of his chest. Tears of joy ran down his face. He bent down and scooped Kimmy up in his arms and hugged her against his body.

“Why are you crying Daddy?” Kimmy asked.

“Daddy’s happy!” Mike sniffed.

“Oh!” Kimmy replied looking confused.

“Let’s go make Mommy happy too!” Mike said.

He carried Kimmy over to where Kelly was still sleeping spread out on top of the bale of hay.

Mike sat down on the bale of hay next to Kelly’s legs.

Mike reached out and squeezed Kelly’s leg.

Kelly slowly opened her red eyes.

It took her a few seconds to focus, but when she did, she jumped up off the floor and yelled. “Kimmy, you’re alive!”

Kelly took Kimmy from Mike and hugged her.

Mike looked at Kelly. “It wasn’t a zombie, she was bitten by a damn cat!”

Kelly pulled Kimmy away from her and looked at her. “Did a kitty bite you?”

Kimmy nodded. “I was going to the bathroom and the kitty walked by me. I reached out to pet it. The damn kitty scratched me and then it bit me!”

Kelly looked at Mike and laughed, tears of joy continued to run down her face. She hugged Kimmy tighter.

“When are we going to eat? I’m hungry.” Kimmy said.

Mike laughed. He felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. He couldn’t remember when he had been this happy. The horror and agony he had gone through quickly disappeared.

He looked at Kelly and Kimmy.  The horror was gone, but the meaning of it all was still very clear in his mind.

Life was precious and could be taken away in an instant.

With what the world had become, death and loss could happen at any time. Danger was now waiting behind every tree and bend in the road.

He would not take anything for granted any longer.

He was more determined to protect his family now more than ever.

The world was too dangerous to take chances with their lives.

In the days ahead, he had to put his family first. He needed to think about the future, whatever it would be, and figure what would be the best thing for his family.

He wanted to keep his family together and safe for as long as he could.

“I’m hungry too.” Mike said. “After we eat, maybe we could put that soft bed you made up in the loft to good use.”

“We aren’t going to get back on the road this morning?” Kelly asked.

Mike smiled. It felt good to smile again. “I don’t know about you, but I’m in no condition to move on yet.” Mike said. “I could use a day’s rest to recover before we try this again.”

“You won’t get any complaints from me.” Kelly smiled. “I’ll go see what I can make us to eat. Any requests?”

“I want a candy bar!” Kimmy said.

Kelly was going to tell her how candy was bad for breakfast but stopped. “Candy bars it is!”

Kelly sat Kimmy down on the hay bale and went over to the car and opened the back hatch.

Kimmy looked up at Mike and whispered. “I have to go to the bathroom!”

Mike’s heart jumped at the word bathroom. He nodded and walked to the barn doors in front of the car. Kimmy followed.

“Here we are!” Mike said.

“You want me to go to the bathroom inside the barn?” Kimmy looked at Mike.

“Yep! Right here in the barn!” Mike smiled.

Kimmy got a big grin on her face, then down came her pants.

The candy bars tasted good.

The bed in the middle of the hay was comfortable.

After reassuring Kimmy that damn cat couldn’t get up in the hay loft, they all quickly fell asleep.

Kelly on the left, Mike on the right and Kimmy squeezed comfortably in the middle.

Two hands held on to Kimmy to make sure she didn’t wander off.