The Real Night of the Living Dead (20 page)

Antonio stepped on the gas as the creatures on his side punched their bloody hands through the cracked window. The window exploded, sending pieces of glass onto Antonio’s face, which gave him a few fresh slices on his left cheek.

The Plymouth moved slow as it forced its way through the undead. Some of them on the front of the car fell back, while others were run over.

I was still firing as the creatures had such a good grip on my shirt that I was lifted from my seat. An infected man had his near toothless jaws so close to my face that I could smell Death coming from his mouth. I looked into the gaping hole as his tongue trembled in madness, trying to get a taste of my flesh. I saw what looked like the upper half of a finger lodged deep in his throat, and it vibrated every time he screamed. I shoved the revolver through his bloody gums, pointed it toward the roof of his mouth, and pulled the trigger.

He fell to the ground, his grip still firm on my shirt.

The professor kept firing, but had to switch sides and help the cop break free from the ones who were grabbing onto him.

As the Plymouth kept moving, making the left turn from Southampton Road, the creatures on the side of the car, the ones grabbing onto myself and the cop, began to fall back. A couple of them held onto me, and one held onto the car door, but they were killed as we drove away; the professor shot one holding me, and I shot the other two. Then I broke the grip of the dead man with the toothless bite.

I adjusted myself in the seat to look out the back window and saw the army was bigger than I had first thought. I couldn’t even see the road we left behind. All I saw was a wall of shadowy figures, like the darkness was moving. There were at least a hundred infected creatures, most of them slow movers, but they were following us toward the children’s camp. I said, “We’re going to have to move fast. There won’t be much time before they’re at the camps.”

“Why is it so hard for them to go down?” said Antonio.

The professor said, “Because they are deceased…”

“I don’t
wanna
hear that crap…”

“Whether or not you believe that they are dead,” I said, interrupting the cop, “the only way you can stop them is by shooting them in their brain, or hitting their brain with something hard.”

“What?” said the disbelieving cop, his neatly pressed shirt now baring wrinkles, with a few buttons, having been ripped from their places during the confrontation, now resting in the
footwell
.

I turned back in my seat, looking at Officer Antonio now. “Hey, that’s how the doctor explained it to me and my pal and it’s been working, so I’m sticking with that method.”

“Where’d you two get the guns?”

“The guard house.
Why?” I said.

“Well, for one thing, this gentleman here is a patient. He shouldn’t be in the possession of a firearm.”

I was getting a little upset at the way this guy wanted to play Dick Tracy when we were in the middle of a war for survival. “Hey copper, this ‘patient’ just saved your life. And he saved mine plenty of times throughout this mess, so if anybody here deserves to carry a gun, he does. If you want to smack cuffs on him after this is all over, and God willing we survive, then that’s swell, but make sure one end of the cuffs is on my wrist, ‘cause if you arrest him you arrest me.”

“Calm down, calm down,” said Antonio. “No one’s getting arrested. If anything, you two will probably be commended.”

The banged up Plymouth was approaching the small bridge that passed over the creek. Along the way, we passed a few of the infected, spread out behind the trees lining the road, heading toward the children’s camp. They were slow movers, dragging their feet and not making a sound. As they saw the headlights appear, they would turn to us and let out a loud aching moan.

I watched them as we passed, saying to Antonio, “After we cross the creek, there’s going to be a building about a hundred yards down on your right. Turn in there. That’s the building we need to get to.”

I was desperate. Looking up at the dark sky, watching the moon break through the storm clouds, showing its bright familiar face for the first time tonight, I could only think of Clara. I don’t believe it had even been an hour ― I wasn’t too sure ― since I called and spoke with the nurse who said a few of them were bitten. She better be okay. Let it play out in her favor. Please. Christ, if I find that she’s one of them, I’ll do myself in. I swear. Without her, I’m nothing. I’m empty inside.

Stop worrying about it, I thought. Get it out of your head. I blinked away a tear and turned to the professor. His eyes were focused. Curious as to what he was looking at, I gazed down. The old man was staring at the wedding band on his finger.

Poor guy.
He must have really loved his old lady.

I saw his lips move, like he was talking to himself, or to his wife, wherever she was. Then he passed his fingers on his right hand over the wedding band, caressing it.

“How’s that shoulder, tough guy,” I said, trying to pull him out of his misery.

The professor looked away from the wedding band, into my eyes, and said, “It stings. I can’t seem to move it very much, but I shall recover.”

I nodded, saying, “Good. Glad to hear it. Keep your chin up, pal. We’re going to be just fine.”

The cop slowed down as we approached the creek.

It was beginning to overflow and swallow the small bridge, but we were able to make it across.

There was an infected woman moving slow across the bridge. She turned as the headlights reached her. When her eyes landed on us, she moaned and walked in our direction.

The cop stopped the car and said, “She’s one of them?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Shoot her. I don’t want to run her over.”

“She’s dead.”

He snapped at me, “Please, just shoot her. I’m not shooting any of these people unless I have to.”

“Sweet Mary,” I said. “You must have been the head boy scout back in your day, am I right?” He ignored me as he watched the woman move toward the car. I looked around, making sure there were no creatures near who would grab me once I poked my head out.

It was clear.

I climbed halfway through the broken window and fired a shot at the woman. It nicked her cheek, and she continued. I fired another. It blew the bottom of her jaw away. She kept coming.

Geesh
, I was really getting tired. I needed to sleep. At times, my vision would blur for a second or two.

I wiped my eyes, as she slammed her hands on the hood, and fired a third shot. That hit its target. She was down. The top half of her corpse was resting on the hood of the Plymouth.

Antonio backed up slow, letting the corpse fall to the ground, and drove around it.

Then we crossed the creek.

Antonio sped up, dodging a few straggling creatures roaming the road. Some, I noticed, were children. “They got to the kids.” I didn’t have to say it, but I did. The cop already knew. I could tell by the disgusted look that swept over his face.

He said, “We’re going to do what we can to secure these buildings before the rest of them get here.”

“You don’t get it,” I said. “Some of them already made it to this side.”

“I see that, but there can’t be too many. The place seems quiet. We’ll get rid of the ones that are here and safeguard the camp.” He paused. “Backup should be here soon to help put a lid on this mess. We’ll do our best to keep everyone safe until that happens.
There plenty of ammo in those bags?”

“Not enough to do away with the storm headed this way,” I said. “But enough to hold them off for a while.
As long as we’re not wasting bullets missing our mark.”

The Plymouth pulled into the parking lot of S-3. It was the administration building for the children’s camp and one of the hospital’s older buildings. Whereas the N buildings were built in the late forties and were still very new, this side of the campus was erected during the twenties and its age showed. A lot of the cottages and S buildings had leaking roofs; some of them were unstable buildings and were supported with planks wedged into the ground. They were blistering cold in the winter and boiling hot in the summer.

He parked the car right in front of the entrance to S-3.

We all stepped out. I was surprised to see not one of the infected was roaming the parking lot.

Our guns were loaded. I had one satchel over my shoulder, and Antonio took the satchel from the professor and was carrying it over his.

I led the way as we marched up the stairs.

The sound of moaning was heard and grew louder as we got closer to the entrance.

I peeked inside, through the small window, and saw an infected male attendant with the side of his face plastered to the door. His dead breath was fogging up the window as his lifeless eyes stared through the glass.

He saw me and began to scream, going crazy, banging on the door.

I looked back at Antonio and the professor. “Follow me, but stay alert.”

The professor nodded, holding the gun to his side.

Antonio wore a look of determination; his mouth tight-lipped, breathing through his nose, as he held the gun up, ready to take down anyone who would attack us.

I was exhausted. I held the gun in front of me, ready to take this creature down, breathing through my slack jaw as my chest rose with each spring breath I sucked in.

My eyes were stuck on this man as I lifted my leg and rammed my foot against the door.

It flew open. The man stumbled back a few steps,
then
charged toward us with his mouth open. I aimed at his head and pulled the trigger.

His forehead disappeared, and his corpse collapsed to the dingy floor.

As we passed over him, Antonio looked down at his stomach; it had been torn open, and most of the intestines and organs were gone. The rest of him, his legs and chest, were almost completely covered in his own blood.

I saw that Antonio’s eyes were wide; almost bulging out of their damn sockets. He said, “How…How can it be? This can’t be…true.
Gotta
be a nightmare.”

No one answered him as we moved down the empty hallway.

The silence for me was too eerie.

The hallway was empty; no one in sight. Blood was smeared on the wall that ran down to the floor where it collected into a small pool.

As we avoided the red pool, moving further down the hall, we heard footsteps in the distance.

When we turned the corner, three infected children were straggling out of the ward. Their yellow eyes gazed at me, the professor and the cop, and they ran toward us.

Being smaller than the others, they moved much faster. My gut reaction was to hold out my foot, which I did, and I kicked one of them in the face, dropping him to the floor.

Another grabbed my right arm, but I wrapped my thick hand around his small neck, lifted the screaming maniac a few feet from the ground and tossed him back into the ward.

The third one, a little girl, ran past me and tried to bite the professor.

That’s when I flinched at the sound of the gunshot. I turned back to see Officer Antonio holding his smoking gun. His eyes were wet and filled with horror. Then he aimed past me and fired another shot.

I spun around to see the infected kid, who I kicked to the floor, dead.

A scream erupted.

Our eyes followed the scream to the creature that I tossed in the ward. He was charging at us. The cop aimed his gun. I pushed it out of the way and fired a shot into the charging creature’s skull. He was dead.
Couldn’t have been more than fifteen.

We felt horrible for what we were forced to do. Antonio dropped against the wall, put his head in his hands and cried.

“You can’t think of them as children,” said the professor. “Their souls were already taken. Those were lifeless beasts sent to destroy humanity.”

Antonio stared at the professor, saying, “No, those were kids.” Pointing at the girl’s corpse, “I got an angel at home who looks just like her.”

I placed my hand on his shoulder and said, “Look, it won’t make what we did any better, but our only saving grace is to make sure the rest of the children are safe. Like you said, we’ll check the buildings and try to hold down the fort until help arrives.”