Dead Living

by Glenn Bullion

Published by Glenn Bullion at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Glenn Bullion

Cover Design Copyright 2011 by
(http://DigitalDonna.com)

This ebook is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to
other people. If you would like to share this book with another
person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If
you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not
purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com
and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work
of this author.

For Katie, of course.

Also for Bubba, Rizzi and Scooter.

Special Thanks: Debi Faulkner and Brian
Frederiksen

Joe Thompson lowered the prongs on his
forklift and set the crate near the end of the trailer. He backed
out of the thick heat and wiped a bead of sweat from his head. The
loading dock itself was much cooler. It was beautiful outside, a
cloudless seventy-five degree day. A great day to be anywhere
except at work loading freight.

It was the Saturday before the last week of
the month, always the busiest shipping week. Someone had to draw
the short straw, and it was Joe this weekend. He tried to use his
pregnant wife as an excuse, but she was still a few weeks from
being due. The excuse didn't fly. He knew they needed the money. He
shot his supervisor Danny a dirty look as he climbed off the
forklift. He knew he should feel bad for Danny too. He had to work
every single weekend. But Joe was having trouble being
sympathetic.

Anthony, the driver for the trailer Joe had
just loaded, called his name. Joe was lost to the sounds of the
warehouse. The hum of air compressors was always in the background,
along with grinders, welders, paint sprayers. His plant made
industrial driers for plastic. It was his job to crate and ship
them.

“Hey, Joe!” Anthony yelled. “You awake over
there?”

“Oh yeah, yeah. All done. Just some
paperwork. Over here.”

Joe had known Anthony for almost two years.
He was one of the regular drivers. Joe noticed he had a bandage
around his arm as they walked back to the desk.

“You alright?” Joe asked. “Your wife beat you
up again?”

Anthony shot him a look. Anthony's wife was
an amateur bodybuilder, who was nearly two times his size.
Secretly, Joe felt bad for him. Joe was still head-over-heels in
love with his wife Sarah, even after seven years. He couldn't wait
to add to their little family in a few weeks. At least half the
time he was excited. The other half he was terrified. Anthony, on
the other hand, didn't have many good things to say about his
wife.

“No, she didn't beat me up, wise-ass,” he
said. “A homeless guy bit me.”

“Bit you? Are you serious?”

“I'm dead serious. The bastard was drunk or
something. Bit me while I was getting in my car.”

Joe laughed. “You should get your wife to
bend him in half. Teach him some manners. Did you call the cops or
anything?”

“You want me to call the cops on a homeless
guy? And stop talking about my wife, or I'll get her down here to
smack you around.”

Joe watched him as he signed a few forms. His
hand shook slightly and he looked pale.

“You might want to go to the hospital. You
don't look so good. I mean, worse than usual.”

“Ha ha, you little bastard. Wait till you see
how you feel in a few months with that newborn baby. Wave goodbye
to sleep now.”

Joe smiled. “I'll just wake Sarah up.”

“Yeah, good luck with that.”

They shared another laugh, then Joe became
serious as Anthony left through the shipping door.

“Seriously, man. Go to the hospital.”

“Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna take my nap in the
truck, drop this load off, then I'll head over.”

The door closed behind Anthony. Joe heard the
door to his truck open and shut.

The break bell rang. Saturday was only a six
hour shift. Sometimes Joe would skip break and punch out early. Not
today. He wanted a coffee from the break room.

Their break room was simple enough. Vending
machines, water fountain in the corner, some microwaves scattered
around. They even had a little television on a stand against the
wall. More people were gathered around than usual. Joe grew curious
as he took a sip of coffee.

“What's up guys? Cartoons on?”

They didn't answer. It took a good ten
seconds for anyone to notice he even said anything. Finally, his
friend Brian turned around.

“Man, check this out. There's some scary shit
going on.”

Joe stepped forward and looked over
everyone's shoulders to see the TV. It looked like a riot, filmed
from a helicopter. Sadly, the scene didn't shake him that much. It
seemed like every other day there was some kind of violence on the
news.

What did catch his
attention, however, were the words
New
York City
at the bottom of the
screen.

“A riot in New York? What are they fighting
over?”

“Not just New York,” Brian
said. “
Everywhere
.”

Joe kept quiet and listened.

“There is speculation that this is a
biological terrorist attack. However, reports are now coming in
that the mass outbreak of violence is happening in London, Tokyo,
Sidney, on every continent. Authorities are advising everyone to
stay in their homes.”

“This is un-fucking-real,” Brian said.

Danny the supervisor
walked into the break room. Joe felt an eerie sense of deja vu. The
last time everyone gathered in the break room to watch a
life-altering event was on September 11
^th
, 2001.

“Guys, I just caught some weird ass stories
on the net,” Danny said. “What the hell is going on?”

No one answered. They were hypnotized by the
news.

It almost didn't seem real. Joe actually
thought, just for a second, that this was some kind of joke.
Someone had made a gag tape and put it in the VCR. But the mood of
the break room told him this was no joke. He turned around and
grabbed his cell phone from his belt. His first thought was to his
wife Sarah.

“Hello?”

Her voice calmed him. Sarah had that effect
on him.

“Hey baby. It's me.”

“Joe, you won't believe this. There's fifteen
cop cars down the street. Someone ran a car into a house! I think
it's on fire. Can you believe that?”

“Listen honey. Are you watching the
news?”

“No, why?”

“There's something really weird going on. I'm
gonna cut out early today, soon. You stay at the house,
alright?”

“Sure. Me and Margie are just watching what's
going on outside.”

Margie was Sarah's best friend. They were in
high school together and were always close. Joe liked her. She
helped with Sarah's pregnancy a lot, especially with Joe working
extra hours.

“Okay, I'll be home soon. Tell our son I'm
leaving now.”

“You mean our daughter.”

Joe smiled. Eight months into their pregnancy
and they didn't know the sex of their child. They wanted to be
surprised. They still hadn't picked a name out for the baby, and
Joe was getting nervous. He didn't want their first child to be in
his mother's arms for the first time without a name. But Sarah had
rejected every name they'd come up with.

“I'll see you when I get home.”

“Okay, love you sweetie.”

“Everyone,” Danny said behind him. “I think
we're just gonna close up shop for the day. Let's all just go home
and take care of our own.”

Some relief passed through the break room,
before the television spoke again.

“The Center of Disease Control is now issuing
a public health warning. They believe whatever is causing people to
exhibit violent behavior could possibly be spread through a bite or
direct contact with open wounds. Again, you are urged to stay in
your homes.”

They showed different
camera feeds taken from all over the world. Joe couldn't look away.
It wasn't just mob violence he was watching. This was something
different. The people didn't carry guns or knives. They just
tackled people. A camera in Ontario showed a mob tackling a woman
to the ground. It looked like they were trying to
eat
her.

Brian noticed it too. “What the . . . what in
the hell are they doing to her?”

Joe couldn't believe it. The camera was quite
a distance away in the sky, but they could tell what was happening.
The woman struggled for only a moment, then a pool of blood began
forming under her. Her attackers didn't even care. They just sat
there in it.

Even the news anchor narrating the feed
seemed shaken.

“Uh, I can't believe what we're witnessing
here. We've heard rumors, but it looks like we have confirmation.
This virus, whatever it is, however it's spreading, looks like it
causes cannibalism.”

Joe shook his head. He felt sick to his
stomach. Then he remembered Anthony, just talking to him five
minutes ago at the loading dock.

He was bit by someone, and
he looked
very
sick.

Joe didn't even get a chance to tell Danny
when they all heard a loud crash outside. Everyone ran out of the
break room and hopped down from one of the open docks.

The warehouse was located in an industrial
complex. There wasn't much traffic. Every car that went by the
plant was either going to or leaving a job.

Anthony had jumped the curb in his truck, ran
through the fence separating them from the street, and drove right
into the side of a Honda Civic that was passing by. The smaller car
was pinned between the truck and a light pole.

“Holy shit!”

“Call 9-1-1!”

“That's Anthony's truck, isn't it?”

Everyone ran to the scene. A few men reached
for their cell phones. Joe was in the lead. He stopped near the
driver's side door of Anthony's truck and looked toward the Civic.
The entire side was smashed in. He could see a woman by
herself.

She wasn't moving. Her head slumped against
the steering wheel. Her lifeless eyes looked toward the ground
outside. Her face was covered in blood and a piece of glass stuck
out of her neck.

Joe had seen her before. He didn't know her
name. He would see her driving somewhere deeper in the complex. She
always dressed nice, so he figured she had an office job. She would
smile and wave to the guys at the picnic tables outside the plant
as she went by.

Now she was dead.

Joe had never seen a dead body before. He was
surprisingly numb. He could hear his coworkers around him.

“Oh shit! I think that lady's dead.”

“I think an ambulance is coming. I got cut
off halfway through. I lost the signal or something.”

“Is Anthony alright?”

“He's moving! Hey, Anthony? You okay,
buddy?”

Brian knew enough not to move Anthony until
the paramedics arrived. But he wanted to talk to him, make sure he
was okay. He opened the passenger's side door and leaned in.

Anthony moved his head from side to side,
like he was confused. Brian saw his bandaged arm and what looked
like a huge amount of blood under the gauze.

“Yo Anthony?” Brian whispered.

Anthony whipped his head around to look at
Brian. The sudden movement scared him, but not as much as what he
saw.

Something was very wrong with Anthony.

His skin was pale white. His eyes were sunken
with huge black circles around them. Brian could see very little of
his eyes at all, almost like he had milky white contact lenses over
them. His head just moved around like a baby's, like he couldn't
control it.

Anthony let out a deep groan and reached out
to grab Brian. He pushed against his still-attached seat belt and
bit Brian right on the arm. Brian yelled and his legs slipped out
from under him. He was hanging halfway out of the truck. Anthony
didn't bite like a child. He sank his teeth into Brian's flesh and
twisted like he was biting into a juicy steak. Brian ripped his arm
away while Joe and Danny moved behind him, pulling him out by his
legs. Brian cradled his arm as blood dropped to the street.

“He fucking bit me!”

Joe remembered what he saw on TV, about
whatever it was being passed around by bites or open wounds.

He also remembered the part about
cannibalism.

He searched everyone's faces. Some people
were thinking the same thing, as they started to back up. They kept
an eye on Anthony.

Joe didn't back up. He pulled his shirt off
and wrapped it tightly around Brian's arm. He winced in pain and
just clutched his arm close to his chest. Joe grabbed him by the
shoulders and led him to the curb.