Among the Roaring Dead (15 page)

He dreamed that he was moving along the same uphill road to the building, bisecting rows of dead cars and bodies, finding irrefutable artifacts from his past along the way. A necklace with a pendant shaped like flat football uprights, inscribed with Toni’s initials in a kind of heart-like design that he agonized over for weeks. Up ahead was one of her paintings, a dolphin breaching the surface of the ocean water under a purple moon-lit night sky. A white veil with pink stitching that she wore on their wedding became a giant spider web that the car smashed through.

It was like he was picking up pieces of her until up ahead he saw a gang of the creatures huddled over something he was almost too afraid to see. He ran forward out of blind fear of the fact that it would be the boys. He woke mid-leap from the sofa, colliding heavily with the floor so that Aaron, seemingly still perched on the edge of the balcony, spoke softly into the grey snow of the night.

“Is that you?”

Jess stepped into the doorway of the balcony, wrapping a blanket around him against the cold of the night.

“Yeah, it’s me. Just tripped over something. Gonna see if there’s enough water for another shower. Be right back.”

There was just barely a trace of warmth coming from the shower. The multi-stream spray of water was loud, but Jess kept the bathroom door open as he bathed, in case there was something he needed to hear. There was not the familiar sound of a light or fan for one thing and he also felt the need to train an ear to the sounds of the place, so odd were they in their stillness. He was concerned that the creatures would try to get in, and hoped that his boys would come home.

He couldn’t have been under the water more than a couple minutes at most when he turned the stream off and tip-toed over to the front door, ensuring that it was still locked. He looked out the small eyehole in the door and saw nothing. He pressed his ear up against the thick wood and thought he heard some rustling in the hallway beyond. He dressed himself by pulling a heavy tight sweater out of Michael’s closet and finding heavy boots in a box, not due to come out of hibernation for many months.

The sounds continued in the hallway. It could have been the wind whistling up the garbage shoot. He went back to the bathroom and brushed his teeth and shaved in the glow of two small candles. The toothbrushes were all in their usual holders, standing up in a ceramic cup. There were three toothbrushes in total. When he put his mouth under the faucet, he discovered that there was no more water to be had.

His face appeared to have aged awkwardly since the last time he saw his own reflection. The darkness may have accentuated the shadows, but there seemed to be slightly discoloured ellipses under both his eye sockets and the eyes themselves were red with thick veins. There were random strands of white hair at his temples – more than he recalled seeing before.

There was a package of ham and bread, both partly frozen in the freezer. Jess had no way of defrosting it quickly enough to make a sandwich, so he tore open the package and ate most of the cold ham by itself. It was processed meat that his sons would use to make sandwiches for school. It tasted like cheap meat but still filled up his belly enough that he could focus on the moment.

He had no way to tell how much time had passed but his body seemed to be telling him it had been about an hour. He rummaged through the rest of the cabinets and drawers and found a bottle of red wine – a gift of some sort by the look of it. It was sealed with a metallic cap that screwed off and Jess inhaled the smell, associating it with blood, like the kind found in an under-cooked steak. He drank almost half the bottle in one go and walked around the apartment, peering at darkened photographs of his family on the walls.

The kids always posed best in their sporting uniforms, trying to emulate their biggest and best heroes. Flexing muscles, jutting chins. Appearing confident.

The wine felt heavy in his belly. He went out to the balcony and the dark view of the street below made him wonder if he was drunk enough to lose his footing and tumble over the edge. If anything bad had happened to the boys, tipping over the edge might now be the best ending. He smelled the drifting aroma of cigarettes in the air.

“You there?”

“Yeah,” came the reply.

“What are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“You can’t stay here forever. You’re going to run out of food eventually.”

“I know that.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I’ll do what I have to.”

There was a crash of noise behind Jess. Something out in the hallway but close enough to sound like it was in the apartment.

Something was pushing on the door from the outside.

“What is it?”

“Something trying to get in.”

“I thought you said you fortified your door?”

“What do you mean, fortified my door? I fucking locked it!”

“Didn’t you push something heavy up against it? Please tell me you did!”

Jess looked at the door, watching it rock violently; back and forth. Something slammed hard against it – it sounded like the wood was splintering.

He stood transfixed, looking around the room for something to push up against it. The banging sound continued and Jess stopped to concentrate on deciphering what it could be.

“Hurry, find something!” Aaron said, but it was too late. The wood cracked at the hinges and the door came loose, falling down with a single thud.

There were human-shaped bodies standing in the darkened doorway with strange unfamiliar objects in their hands that were probably used to bang down the door. Now that the object that obstructed their forward movement was gone, they simply dropped the tools, now clearly identifiable as an axe and shovel. They were dropped like useless objects no longer serving any purpose. There was no celebration, just half a dozen stumbling sick things that were once healthy, sane men and women, coming into the void that was his apartment with the look of hunger a century old upon their face.

There was a momentary stand-off where Jess grabbed everything nearby – a wireless speaker, a small video game device and a glass sculpture treasured by Toni. He threw the sculpture first. It shattered in the face of a woman who lived at the end of the hall. The woman had made it most of the way through the door wearing nothing but a slip – personal nightwear – and one of her breasts was exposed, which didn’t seem to bother her in the least. It had smashed against her forehead and dazed her for a moment but her eyes almost immediately returned to Jess’s position and she continued slowly moving forward with her arms raised before her.

Jess ran for the balcony, knowing full well that the bridge between his apartment and Aaron’s was a wall of concrete about 8-inches thick. Jess reached out, and prepared to swing himself over the abyss into Aaron’s side when a hand came out to grip his, grounding him against a possible fall. He made the mistake of gazing down and saw several other balconies below, and nothing but empty black space directly below his body. One of the things made it out onto the balcony behind him. Its movement was strangely quiet and it managed to get a hand on Jess’s arm before he even knew it was there. He swung back with an elbow and connected with its head. When he looked back the thing was on its back and was already trying to get back up. Behind it were more of them trying to get through. He was out and over the empty space in almost no time at all, landing in a familiar but alien space with a few chairs, a table and candles burning to light the way.

More hands came outstretched the other way now, from what was his family’s side of the balcony. They came around the edge and snatched at both of their clothes. Aaron grabbed a candle and waved under the reaching arms, minor fires sparking on the tattered cloth that covered their arms. It was enough to send one or two of the preternatural beings cascading over the edge and down to their presumed doom, their lit arms flailing on the way down.

He and Aaron retreated soon enough with the understanding that the space between the two homes was enough that they would never be able to cross it such as things were. It was entirely possible that Jess himself would not have been able to cross it without Aaron’s aid.

He had pulled something in his knee during the daredevil move across – some old and cantankerous muscle that acted up at the exact wrong moments. It was a familiar pain now – each time he tried to push off with the ball of his foot the tendons groaned. Many years ago when he played football, each step had become more treacherous than the last and like most aggressive and quick games, they’re simply not meant to be played by individuals with too much going on in the head. Sports are intuitive more than anything else, a key connection to ancient man when he was fighting for his life and making split-second decisions that led to the survival or decimation of his existence. Football was without a doubt a game made on split-second decisions, and one too concerned about future repercussions would never do well in such an environment.

The inside of Aaron’s apartment was seemingly even darker than his own, although Jess knew that was most likely impossible. Aaron had an army of lit candles lined up no more than ten-feet apart, throughout his apartment. The layout of the place was the same as his, only mirrored, and with one less bedroom. Against a far wall, Jess saw what appeared to be a corkboard with photographs of people pinned up on it. His eyes quickly adjusted to the low light levels and he noticed that they were all photographs of young blonde women, most with cleavage showing.

The two of them slumped together against a far wall with a good view of the balcony ledge. Hands continued to come across the void, outstretched, and grasping at empty air.

“Friends of yours?”

Aaron just looked at him. Jess motioned with a nod of his head to the corkboard.

“You could say that.”

A few more of the things managed to get out into the space between, only to lose their footing and plunge down into the darkness below. Half a dozen bodies fell within an hour and it’s uncertain if the others learned better than to keep trying, but the efforts at bridging the gap stopped entirely before too long. You could hear them and hands still reached out from the other side, exploratory in nature, but no more attempts to try daredevil tasks of swinging from one balcony to the other occurred. They may have appeared dumb from a distance but they eventually caught on.

Aaron had brought out makeshift weapons from his front hall closet. A small hammer, pliers and three screwdrivers with different-coloured handles were scattered on the floor before them. All had a heft to them, feeling dense enough to do some damage if they were heaved or jabbed at a predator with sufficient force. Not traditional weapons perhaps, but capable of doing some harm nonetheless.

“What do you think happened?” Aaron said.

“What?”

“Something must have brought this on; do you think it was the East Asians?”

“I have no idea,” Jess said. “I was in a subway tunnel when it happened. The power cut out, everything went black and there was a collision; the train crashed. I can’t tell you what caused it. I only know what happened where I was.”

“You haven’t had any contact since then? Do you have a phone? Batteries? Anything? My solar cells are basically useless in this never-ending darkness.”

“I’ve got my PAL,” Jess said. “But all the networks are down.”

Aaron shook his head and laughed.

“I have a flashlight that burned out a day ago. Don’t need anything for the radio at least. There’s been nothing. I must have at least four of them in this place. One I bought specifically for emergencies. You power it up by winding a handle. No need to plug it in. I’ve got nothing from it. You’re the first person I’ve spoken to in days. A couple of our other neighbours ventured out into the hallway, but they didn’t make it very far before I heard their screams.”

Aaron was staring straight ahead as he spoke. Both of them still had their backs to the wall but Aaron still seemed to be on the alert, as if one of the things on the other side might crawl over at any second.

“I’m starting to get hungry again,” Aaron said. “Don’t supposed you snuck over any food in that commotion?”

“No, sorry. I packed two bags but forgot them in the melee.”

“Well, we have one last option.”

“What’s that?”

“C’mere and I’ll show you.” He handed back the smartcard.

Aaron got up and walked down the hallway of his apartment. When Jess caught up, Aaron was standing in the doorway of a bedroom. There was a woman tied to the bed. She was on her back, with barely any clothes and had a strip of duct tape strapped over her mouth. Her eyes looked like they were glowing white, even in the dark room. Worst of all, she was young, blonde and had round boobs, pushed up in a fancy bra.

“I found her in the hallway not long after the blast. She was kind of dazed at the time. I thought I could study her, but I didn’t learn much. She’s dumb as a doornail. Just looks at me like I’m food. Still pretty good looking though, but you gotta watch those teeth.”

The girl noticed Jess and he thought he heard her growl under the tape.

“I don’t understand what this has to do with us being hungry.”

Aaron took a step forward and grabbed one of the girl’s breasts.

“She’s not much use to me if I’m dead too. But she does have some meat on her bones.”