The Reawakening (The Living Dead Trilogy, Book 1) (6 page)

“Okay, Dar, let’s go home. Our bags are still outside.”

“Can I go upstairs and say goodbye to Susan before we leave.”

“That okay, Rick?” I asked.

“That should be fine. Just don’t get too close to her, okay? I don’t want you catching any of this crud going around.”

“All I’m going to do is to sit with her for a few minutes and make sure she’s all right.”

“Yeah, that should be fine,” Rick said.

Susan had always been Dar’s favorite aunt. When she was a young girl, she used to spend a week in New York City with Rick and Susan every summer. Susan would take the week off from her law firm and take Dar to all the museums and parks, and then they would stroll around Central Park eating hot dogs and watching the street performers. The two of them developed a close bond during those visits, and it was one of the reasons Dar used to want to come and spend time with them at the farm.

I desperately wanted to get on the road and drive the hell out of here. As much as this situation terrified me, I pushed it to the back of my mind and accepted Rick’s explanation for what had happened. My brain couldn’t begin to process the horrors we’d seen, nor could it explain this perverted reversal of life that had taken place. My mind began to play tricks on me. For a brief moment, it crossed my mind that my brother’s genetic dabbling was somehow responsible for these freakish events. But Rick had a PhD in biological engineering from MIT and had taught the subject for many years in New York City. If he didn’t know what he was doing, then no one did.

His reasons for leaving the academic world had always been a mystery to me. I found it difficult to believe that he’d just decided to pick up one day and leave his challenging and respected position behind in order to farm vegetables in the hills of Maine. I rarely brought it up in his presence, as it seemed like a sore subject. I accepted his desire for independence and self-reliance for what it was. It had been his choice to make. He’d long ago earned tenure at the university and was held in high esteem in his field. The only way he could have been removed from that position was if he’d committed some egregious crime.

“Take this rifle with you, Thom, just in case. You never know if you might run into another pack of dogs.”

“The wife will kill me if she sees me with a gun,” I said, laughing. “She’s planning a petition to absolve the Second Amendment.”

“Good luck to her and the army of her choosing, trying to get these guns out my hands. You just tell that wife of yours that owning a gun is our God-given, constitutional right.”

“You know Margaret, Rick. She’d hand me my divorce papers if I ever said such a thing.”

“Always was a bleeding heart liberal, that girl. Too bad.”

“That’s what happens when you grow up in Brookline and then matriculate at Smith College. She’ll be a bleeding heart liberal till the day she dies.” I snatched the rifle out of his hands.

“These college professors love nothing more than to brainwash their students, turning them into liberal zombies. And I should know, having taught with these pretentious assholes my entire career.”

Just then, a vehicle roared into the driveway and screeched to a stop. Rick and I rushed over to the window to see who it was and watched a young man get out of the driver’s side door. He ran around and opened the passenger side and helped a child and a woman holding an infant get out. He seemed nervous and in a great rush. As he closed the door, I saw a terrifying sight out of the corner of my eye. The three dogs Rick had shot earlier stood between the family and the house. They growled menacingly and hunched their backs. The man held out his arm and told his wife and kids to remain perfectly still. One false move and the dogs would rip them to shreds.

“Christ!” Rick said, grabbing his rifle and heading towards the door. The second he opened it, the three dogs turned their heads and glanced back at him. Each of them had an oozing black hole in their skull. “You going to come out here and help me, Thom, or what?”

I followed outside, praying that my shot would be accurate. The dogs hesitated for a moment, glancing between the family and ourselves, as if debating which of us to attack first. Rick raised the rifle, and as soon as he did, the mangy mutt turned on his heels and charged. I shouldered the rifle and took aim, watching as the black lab followed behind it. Rick fired a shot and dropped the first dog. I aimed and fired a split-second later and put a bullet in the black lab’s head. When I looked back down, I saw the mangy mutt lying motionless on the ground—again.

Buster turned and charged towards the family. Rick and I raised our weapons, but we were too far away to be accurate; we might accidentally hit one of the kids if we fired. Buster, bloodied and caked with dirt, headed straight towards the older girl. The girl’s father threw himself in front of his daughter at the last second and wrestled the dog to the ground, holding him by the scruff of his neck. The dog snapped its jaw inches above his throat and reversed positions, standing on top of his chest. I pointed the rifle at Buster and fired into the dog’s ribcage, but it had no effect because Buster kept attacking, single-minded. The children cried out in horror, scared to leave their mother’s side. She kicked the dog’s underbelly, but it did little to deter it.

“Have to shoot it in the head!” the man shouted, holding Buster at bay. “These things ain’t alive. They’re goddamn dead or some shit. Put a bullet in his skull.”

“Okay, buddy, hold tight!”

Rick pulled out his Glock and positioned himself next to the man. The dog snarled and looked over at Rick with a newfound hatred. He jumped off the man and leapt towards his former master, but Rick managed to fire a round into Buster’s head just before it reached him. Buster collapsed in mid-air, momentum causing him to topple over and onto Rick. He heaved the dog off and watched as it fell back to the ground. We all stood around in stunned silence.

“Hurry! Get inside!” Rick yelled.

“Come on, kids. You heard him,” the man said.

I looked down and noticed that the older girl had a nasty bite on her hand. Buster’s sharp canine teeth had penetrated the skin. Rick stood staring down at his former canine friend as he backed up towards the house.

“That’s your dog, ain’t it, Swiftley?” the man asked.

“Yeah, he was,” Rick said. “That’s Buster’s corpse all right, but that sure as hell wasn’t the dog I raised.”

“Wasn’t your fault, man. It’s this crazy thing going around making all them animals go haywire. Something’s gone seriously wrong around here. Animals lost their goddamn minds or some shit.”

“There’s got to be an explanation for it.”

“Oh, there’s an explanation all right,” the man’s wife said. “It’s the end of times, and it says so in the Bible. Satan’s come to collect what is rightfully his.”

“Shut the hell up, Delia. You’re scaring the kids with that damn religious talk,” the man said. “Swiftley’s right. There’s an explanation for all this. And he should know, being a goddamn bigshot scientist at one time.”

“How’d you know that, Gunner?” Rick asked.

“Hell, everyone in this small town knows everything about each other, Swiftley. You think we’re all bunch of stupid-ass bumpkins?”

“I never said that.”

“It’s all good, man. Let’s clean Emily up. You got some medicine to take care of this bite?”

“You seem to know everything about me, so I assume you know that I do. Come on, let’s get the kids inside.”

“Much obliged for taking us in,” Gunner said. “A couple of them crazy-ass dogs busted in our house and wouldn’t leave. Didn’t have time to get my gun, so we jumped in the car and came over to your place.”

Rick shot me a look as if to say that this was going to be a long night.

Chapter 5

T
HE KIDS WERE HYSTERICAL BY THE
time we managed to gather them inside. Rick retrieved his medical kit and tended to the girl’s wound while her mother cradled her on her lap, trying to calm her down. He cleaned the cut and dabbed it with ointment. Dar carried the infant into the other room to distract her from the chaos. The girl’s father paced back and forth, watching as Rick worked on her hand. The girl screamed in agony, burying her head in her mother’s chest. After cleaning it off, Rick took the gauze and bandaged it. Once finished, the girl rested her head on her mother’s shoulder and sniffed back the tears.

“What’s her name?” Rick asked.

“Emily. And the baby’s name is Amber,” her mother said.

“Well, Emily, you should be all right now. The cut is not too deep and should heal properly.” Rick stood up and turned to the father. “Why’d you drive over here, Gunner?”

“I told you, Swiftley, got scared when I seen them dogs tearing through our house. I was out tending to my rabbits at the time, and all of them were acting strange and going crazy in their cages, attacking each other left and right. The girls were playing outside when a bunch of them coyotes come off the hill. Tried like hell to scare them off, but they kept coming like they wasn’t even scared. Good thing I had my shotgun nearby. Brought the girls inside and then went back out, but them damn coyotes wouldn’t leave, so I blasted away. Thought they was dead, but then a few minutes later them bastards got up and ran away.”

“It’s a sign, Gunner,” his wife said. “A sure sign of the devil.”

“Thought I told you to shut your trap,” Gunner snapped.

“What else did you see out there?” Rick asked.

“All the animals seemed out of whack, even the birds. And did you see the color of that sky? After I shot them coyotes, a couple hawks swooped down and tried to attack me. Nearly took out my eyes. Lucky I ducked at the last minute or else they would have.”

“That’s because they were sent by the devil himself.”

“For the last time, Delia, shut up!” Gunner shouted, pointing his finger at his wife. After regaining his composure, he said, “I never seen a coyote get up after being shot like that. Them things raised up from the dead, I swear on my mother’s grave.”

“Now we have to figure out why.”

“Which means if it can happen to them animals, then it can happen to all of us,” Delia said.

“Who’re them two?” Gunner asked.

“This is my brother, Thom. Thom, these are my neighbors Delia and Gunner Clayton.”

“Please to meet you,” Gunner said, extending his hand.

“Wish it could have been under better circumstances.” I shook his calloused hand.

“Me too, man. Me too.”

I looked over at Delia, but she was in some sort of a trance. She was a pretty girl, not much older than Dar, with long blonde hair that fell to her shoulders. She had a hardened look on her face, a result of many years surviving in the rugged hills of northern Maine. She cradled Emily in her arms, rocking her gently. Upon returning to the room, Dar introduced herself to the family.

“Your daughter is asleep now. You want me to take her sister so you can take a break?”

“Sure, and thanks,” Delia said.

Dar took Emily by the hand and led her into the other room.

Many questions whirled in my mind. Was this crazy phenomenon happening in just this isolated area of Maine or had it spread far and wide? Were humans at risk or only members of the animal kingdom?

We heard a cry coming from the second floor. Susan! Rick bolted up the stairs, and I followed right behind. We entered the bedroom and saw Susan coughing and spitting up. Balls of sweat beaded up on her face and neck. She arched her back over the mattress as bubbles percolated out of her mouth and snaked down her throat. Rick felt her forehead and then turned to me with a look of concern.

“She’s burning up. Go in the bathroom and run a cold bath. Bring back a cold cloth to put on her head. Then put some ice cubes in a bucket and start dumping them in the tub.”

Once in the bathroom, I turned on the cold water and let it run. I found a towel in the storage cabinet. I soaked it in cold water until it was wet, wrung it out, and then ran back into the bedroom. Rick snatched it from me and started to wipe it across her head. “Strip her down,” Rick ordered. I removed her socks and sweatpants and tossed them aside. Then I pulled her shirt over her head. Susan wasn’t wearing a bra, which embarrassed me, but there was no time for that. Her face was beet red and her breathing shallow.

“Jesus Christ, I don’t have time to wipe her down. I need to get her into that bath right away.”

Rick scooped her up and carried her into the bathroom. As soon as he was inside, he fell to his knees and placed her into the running bath water, scooping up handfuls of cold water and splashing it over her face and chest. I ran downstairs, filled a bucket with ice and then ran back upstairs and dumped it in the water. Suddenly, Susan inhaled sharply and opened her eyes. Rick pleaded with her to hold on as I stood behind him, wondering what to do.

“We can still take her to the hospital,” I said.

“The hospital is forty-seven miles away. There’s no time for that,” Rick said. “There’s nothing they can do in that emergency room that I can’t do for her here.”

“You’re not a doctor, Rick.”

“Doctors make everything worse. How do you think that flesh-eating bacteria spread? Besides, I know more about the human anatomy than most of those idiots do.”