Decay (Book 1): Civilization (6 page)

Snapped back to reality by the sight of his coworkers making their way into the hills surrounding the building, Brian began to search for a way down. The maintenance ladder was locked under a cage for security purposes, but he would have to make it work.

His decent was torturous. His fingers barely fit into the small holes in the cage. Most of the way down he was supported by only his pinky fingers. When he finally made it down his fingertips were bruised and bleeding. He pulled his car keys from his briefcase, climbed into his BMW, and reached for the first aid kit he kept under the passenger seat.

After cleaning himself up and applying several bandages to his wounds he grabbed for his iPhone. Phones were not allowed inside the building, so he left his in the center console. This time he called the number for the local police department which was saved in his contacts.

“Clay Hills police department,” the man said in a half statement half question as he answered the phone.

“Hello my name is Brian Sawyer. I work for the BCRC laboratory about eight miles outside of town. I would like to report an emergency.”

“Sure, what is your badge number, sir?”

“I do not have one. I am not a security officer. I am a researcher. There has been a major catastrophe. We were—”

“I’m sorry but I need a security officer to contact us for emergencies, sir,” the man interrupted him, yet he maintained a polite demeanor.

“The security officers are dead!” Brian exclaimed in frustration. “Most of, if not all of the other employees here are dead as well.”

“Can you hold for just a moment, sir?” The man didn’t wait for an answer to that question. The tone of his voice was that of urgency. He returned to the line a moment later. “Sir, we are unable to get a response from the security personnel there.”

“No shit you did not get a response. What did I just tell you?”

“Sir, I understand your frustration, and because we didn’t receive an answer we are sending a squad car to that location.”

“You are going to need more than one. Can you send more?” Brian asked. The frustration was still evident in his voice.

“I’m sorry, we will send a car out and wait for the report. If other units are needed they will be immediately dispatched to the location.”

“The location is going to be much bigger than that building. A contamination leak has infected numerous researchers. Now these researchers are killing each other. The area needs to be contained immediately.”

“Again I’m sorry, but this is the best I can do until I hear from a badge. If there is a contamination problem than a HAZMAT team will be dispatched.”

“Just make it fast, or this problem will be far too large to contain,” Brian said as he hung up the phone and threw it down on the passenger seat.

The containment took too long, and the contamination spread exponentially in every direction. Early reports were dismissed as a hoax. Over the next few weeks prophecies were uncovered that showed Nostradamus predicted this event in the mid fifteen-hundreds. Churches responded by saying it was God’s doing, and He was purging the world of sin. Plans, purging, and prophecies held nothing to the arrogance of man.

Chapter 4

Rays of sunlight shined through the cracks in between the two-by-fours used to board up the windows of the Channel Thirteen News building. The stairwell leading down was blocked off using filing cabinets, desks, couches, and chairs. Floors two, three, and four have all been cleared by the small group of survivors. The waves of undead came through the windows and doors like hungry wolves on the scent of an injured deer, pushing the lucky ones up the stairs while the rest were torn apart.

Reports had flooded in from all over town, but none of the news team knew what to think. It seemed to be some sort of hoax at first. People killing each other only to have their dead victims rise up and kill seemed a bit farfetched. By the time trusted sources confirmed these events, it was too late.

Bradley Andrews was one of the lucky ones, or at the very least, he was a survivor. Six people survived the attack on the news building that day. The small group managed to hold the attackers at the stairs while they built a blockade with whatever furniture could be found. Many of the people that lost their lives that day were good friends, and Bradley made it a goal to remember each and every one of them. They would never receive a proper burial. Remembering them was the best he had to give.

Frank and his wife Lisa survived the initial attack as well. Because of their actions, the barricade was completed. They were a middle aged couple who were run out of their home, but not before they could each grab a shotgun and enough shells to keep the rushing horde of undead at the stairs. It’s unclear why they chose the news building, but Bradley believed none of them would have survived without them. In the matter of only a few hours, a bite Lisa received turned into an uncontrollable infection. She turned and killed two other survivors before Frank shot her.

Sara was a ten year old girl who came to work with her mother that day because she wasn’t feeling well. She was bitten by Lisa after she turned on the group. Four hours was all the longer she could hold on before she too turned into one of the undead and attacked the group. No one was hurt this time. Frank took it upon himself once again to deal with the infected. Grief caused him to take his own life the following day.

Emalynn Austin was 16 at the time of the attack, below average height with shoulder length brown hair. Her dark brown eyes always glistened in the light as if they were wet marbles. She was visiting her father, Jared, for lunch. Jared hid Emalynn in a closet on the third floor and rushed into the attackers when they came into the building. His actions helped save the lives of the other survivors also, and for that, Bradley swore to remember his sacrifice.

Jared’s death was the most brutal thing Bradley had seen in his career as a news reporter. Jared held his ground as several of the enraged attackers pounded their fists into him. Fingernails dug deep into his flesh, tearing it away in strips. The man may not have been strong, but he would fight with everything he had to protect his daughter.

The sound of bones breaking could be heard over every other sound made in those few moments. Jared’s arms and legs were bent until the bones snapped. His head was twisted back and forth. Punches landed to his body and face. Blood was spit from his mouth in sickening gurgles. When his skull finally collapsed, his attackers dropped his lifeless body and moved toward their next victim.

Safely locked away in his office, Roger hid through the whole thing. From the moment they first started to cover the riots he was cowering under his desk. He knew nothing of the news, sports, or weather, yet his business degree said he was capable of running a TV station. For the most part he did a fine enough job, and he was a nice enough guy who was always in good spirits.

Roger was obviously well fed before the attack, standing about five-foot ten-inches tall and almost three-hundred and twenty-five pounds. How he managed not to starve to death over the past year perplexed Bradley. His black hair was kept short enough for the bald spot in the back to really stand out. The bushy eyebrows that resembled fuzzy black caterpillars rested above his dark brown eyes.

Roger had a wife who was almost as heavy as him. Together they had three children. The oldest was their only son. He was nine. Their two daughters were seven and three. Roger never once mentioned them after the attack. Almost as if he cut them off as a loss and moved on.

There was a makeshift ladder that allowed Bradley to sneak out and scavenge for whatever food and water he could find. After the first couple of months living like this, he found himself relieved that only the three of them survived. Of course he was sad for the lives lost, but when the big hauls became scarce he feared it would have provoked violence amongst the members of the group. Roger caused enough problems as it was. Most of his day was spent complaining of being hungry. Many times Bradley thought of throwing him out a window and feeding him to the undead.

After the attack, he tried numerous times to broadcast a message, yet the power was unreliable. Backup generators in the building only supplied enough power to run the lights, the security system, and a few other parts of the building. There were many attempts to procure the funding to upgrade the backup power systems to allow the station to broadcast during major power outages. However, the board of directors felt that was an unnecessary use of finances, as there was very rarely a large scale power outage in the area.

Bradley, Emalynn, and Roger managed to survive through the year living in the top three floors of the building. Food was becoming increasingly hard to come by, and Bradley felt that they would have to move along soon or starve to death. The gunshot they heard had given him hope, though. He wanted nothing more than for that to be a signal of some kind, but it was never followed up. There was no announcement of a safe house or rescue, yet he kept watch in the direction the shot came from.

He found that he grew fond of Emalynn, but he couldn’t find it in him to confront her romantically even though he sensed the same feelings from her. Instead he kept close to her like a big brother safe-guarding his kid sister from the neighborhood boys. He knew they both deserved to find love, yet he wouldn’t feel right knowing that their love came from a lack of options or even as a survival mechanism. There was still life out there, he knew it. Finding Emalynn a safe home was his only priority now.

In the days following the gunshot, Bradley took watch out the windows of the fourth floor facing east toward the hills. He moved Emalynn up there with him to keep her close. Roger’s office was just down the hall. Roger spent all of his time in there, and could often be heard shouting and beating on the walls. He was only seen when Bradley came back with more food, but as that had happened less and less, Roger became very irritable.

As the sun started making its decent to the west, Bradley caught the sight of a small object flashing in the distance. It was much too small to tell for sure what it was, but he definitely saw it. The flash appeared to come from either the roof of a house or the hills behind it. Bradley wasn’t familiar with Morse code, yet this seemed too haphazard to be any kind of distinctive pattern. It wasn’t there before, and as soon as it had stopped he knew it was definitely a human.

Chapter 5

Jonathan sat on his roof once more watching the dead roam the streets. His gunshot must have stirred them up, as he noticed that over the past couple of days they had been settling back down. They no longer roamed the town with such vigor, yet they surely did not disappear he knew.

“They must settle in somewhere,” he said under his breath as he scanned the houses.

He turned his attention from the streets to the sky. The sun cast its radiance over the ocean, creating swirls of orange and purple. It was like watching a dance performed with melted wax.

After allowing himself to be lost in the beauty of the world for what seemed like eternity, he decided to head back inside to continue sorting out his father’s story. He was unaware that the gunshot had alerted more than the dead to his presence, and that his binoculars had been reflecting the sun. This was sending a signal to several survivors that would soon come to find him.

Chapter 6

Emalynn turned to her back and slowly sat up blinking the sleep from her eyes. She looked around to find Bradley sitting against the wall looking out the window. “Anything happening out there? Anything new that is?” she questioned as she stretched her arms far over her head.

“We are going to have to move. Someone is there, but they are too far away to see or even signal from here with the limited resources we have,” Bradley stated.

“We will be killed if we leave.”

“We will die of starvation if we stay. Besides, I think I can go out and clear a new spot for us to hide. We can make our way slowly day to day moving from place to place.” Bradley could see that this scared the young woman, but he knew it was the only way they would make it. “I’ll make sure you get out of this. I promise you that.”

Emalynn sat down beside him at the window and pressed her warm body into his. She had fallen in love with him months back, but he explained to her that it couldn’t happen like that. He told her he would keep her safe, and soon she would find love. Although it was not exactly what she was looking for, she knew that she could trust this great man with her life. “What’s that?” Emalynn pointed off toward a small building with some kind of plant growing out of the window.

Bradley had been so concerned with finding the signal by the hills that he wasn’t even paying attention to the city anymore. That plant was not there yesterday he was pretty sure. If it had been then it sure was not there the day before. He stared at it for a long time before Emalynn had spoken up.

“I think it is a tomato plant,” she said excitedly. “We were growing them this semester in Ag class.”

“Why would there be a tomato plant sticking out the window of a building?” he asked more to himself than to her. His eyes squinted and his head cocked to the side slightly. “There must be someone there. I don’t really know much about plants, but it seems strange to me that one has survived this long on its own. I need to go there tonight.”

“What if it is just a coincidence? What if there is someone over there and they are hostile? What if you don’t make it back? What if—”

Bradley cut her off there by placing his hand on her face and staring into the depths of her brown eyes. With the lack of water, dirt had managed to build up in the wrinkles on his knuckles and under his fingernails.  She too was slightly dirty, yet her beauty couldn’t be marred by it.

“I have to go Emalynn. It could be any of the possibilities you can think of, but it could also be our ticket to salvation. Besides, the fiends are thinning out again, so as long as something else doesn’t happen to stir them up I can make my way through just fine.”

Together Bradley and Emalynn sat and watched out the window. They split the little food that was left, and the wheels turned in Bradley’s head as he planned his move to the other building. The streets were as clear of the undead as they would be, so he knew he could make it in a straight shot. Now he only hoped there was a way in. When the plant was pulled back into the window they both smiled. It wasn’t necessarily a sign for help, but it was a sure sign that someone was indeed there.

The sun was rising higher over the city. There was still plenty of sunlight left in the day, yet he wanted to move as soon as he could. Depending on how long it took to make his way there, he might not make it back until late in the afternoon. Without street lights the town became very dark at night. Bradley knew how well he could see in the dark, but he had no clue about the fiends.

“What do I do if you don’t make it back?” Emalynn asked. She had been crying despite this not being the first time he has set out into the city. Her eyes were red, and her dirty cheeks still wet with tears even after being wiped away.

“I will be back for you. I promise.”

“What if Roger comes out?” The fear in this question froze Bradley in place. He had not thought about Roger. Emalynn panicked as she sensed his hesitation.

“He doesn’t know that I’m leaving. We haven’t seen him in days. If it will make you feel safe you are welcome to hide anywhere you can. I will call for you when I return.”

His chance to move was quickly passing by, yet Emalynn wrapped her arms around him tightly. He could feel her body against his, and all the love she possessed washed over him. He wanted to stay with her forever. There was someone better for her out there than him, and he knew it. He kissed the smooth skin on her forehead, looked into her brown eyes, and said, “I’ll find you a place to live outside of this hell. You will find peace and happiness there.”

“I want my peace and happiness with you,” Emalynn replied.

Bradley’s heart felt as if it would beat out of his chest. He loved her, and he couldn’t deny it. This is why he wanted what would be best for her. “Let me find a place you can call home once again. When I get you out of this hell we will have more time to focus on us. Right now, I just want to keep you alive.”

Bradley checked to make sure he had the machete he found on his first trip outside for food, slid out of the window, and made his way down the ladder he had made from curtains and chair legs. Looking back up at Emalynn one last time he smiled than made his way to the end of the alley. Emalynn pulled the ladder up to the height that Bradley suggested to keep it from being noticed and sat back down by the other window to watch.

As he approached the end of the alley he looked up and down Ocean Drive.
No fiends in sight
, He thought. Holding his breath, Bradley listened for any sounds. Feeling satisfied that now was the best time he would have to move.

He had made his way around in the few blocks around the news building many times in the past on his hunt for food and water, so he felt confident that he could make it the nine blocks to the plant building. Running across the street he ducked into Joe’s Bait Shop. He had checked every building he could for weapons over the past year, but when the fiends attacked most places were cleaned out by people trying to defend themselves.

From the bait shop Bradley could go up through the ceiling and back down into a small clothing store that faced out on the other side of the building. He had cleared much of this store bringing clean outfits for Emalynn. It wasn’t long after the attack that their clothes became tattered and faded, even smelling a bit. Roger never once asked for new clothes, and he was lucky Bradley even brought food for him.

The light was working its way through the town quite rapidly now, and he had only made it through one block. He had to pick up the pace if he was going to make it to the plant building. Sliding up to the window facing out of the front of the store he could see that the street was clear. Bradley stayed low anyway and reached up to grab the bell that rang when the door opened as he had done many times before. Except this time he did not have to. The piece that held the bell over the top of the door had been bent upwards.

Maybe it was the group living in the plant building.
But why would anyone do that?
he thought. Shrugging this off, he slowly pushed open the door, checked the street again, and stepped out. He jogged across the street and rolled into some bushes that lined the park. Laying in the grass he did one final check of the street behind him and stood up to make his way through the large park that would take up most of his journey to the plant building.

As he turned around, he found himself just two feet from a grotesque man looking back at him through one sunken gray eye. The other eye had recently popped, running down his face like a disgusting clear slime. Most of the flesh on its cheeks was missing, providing a look at the brown and yellow teeth in the back of the mouth. The mucousy looking discharge from the eye socket ran into the mouth, making Bradley feel like he would vomit. Before he had a chance to react, the dead man standing before him lunged, grabbing Bradley by the shoulder and falling on top of him.

Bradley had taken some martial arts classes just months before the attack. He was taking the classes only to help stay in shape. He had not been taking the classes long enough to be a master by any means, but he did pick up a few things. He jammed his thumb into the fiends arm just under the inside of the elbow. A move that causes the arm to bend and go numb, yet it had no effect on the dead man.

Discharge from the eye, along with small bits of decayed flesh, dripped down onto Bradley’s face as he lay on his back with the dead man on top of him. The moans and gurgles that made their way from the fiends throat brought up a stagnate liquid from his stomach. This liquid mixed with the eye discharge found its way into Bradley’s mouth, causing him to vomit while lying on his back.

As he spit and choked trying to clear his mouth and throat of the vile liquid from his own stomach the weight was lifted from his body, and he was able to sit up and allow the contents of his stomach to flow freely onto the grass.

His eyes were too watery to see much more than the liquefied silhouettes of everything around him. The fiend seemed to have disappeared. Then the hand grabbed his shoulder again. In one last attempt to break free of his attacker he threw a punch with his right fist which landed right in the fiend’s jaw. Bradley grabbed the machete out of his pack and raised it high, ready to bring it down with all his strength.

“WAIT!”

Bradley froze. His experience told him the fiends could not talk, but he wasn’t ready to let his guard down. He quickly checked his surroundings and wiped his eyes clear. Through still blurry eyes he could see a Hispanic man with short curly black hair and a shaggy goatee. He was laying on the soft grass at Bradley’s feet breathing hard and holding a hand out in front of him in an attempt to protect himself from the long blade. The fiend that attacked him could be seen lying in the grass a few yards away with what appeared to be a lawnmower blade sticking out of his head.

“My name is Guillermo—Guillermo Alvarez. I don’t want any trouble. You looked like you could use a hand,” the man said in between breaths. He stood up and walked over to the inanimate fiend, pulled his blade from the split, oozing skull and turned back to Bradley. “The devils are not fast, but it won’t be long before they come out to see what is going on. We need to move now.”

Bradley was too dazed to argue, and followed this strange man through a series of buildings. As they approached what he could tell was the plant building he had been heading for it occurred to Bradley that this may be one of any number of other survivors. They approached a truck sitting behind a garage. On the side of the truck was a sticker that advertised Alvarez Landscaping. Bradley had heard of Alvarez.

“You own the landscaping company? You have a great reputation. I lived in an apartment though.” Bradley said.

“Yes, but the garage isn’t secure enough. I’ve been hiding out in the small building across the alleyway. I was able to use many things from my garage to secure the building and stay alive. Luckily I was preparing a garden for a client when the devils came, so I have been living off of vegetables,” Guillermo stated proudly.

“Devils huh? I’ve been calling them fiends.”

“I suppose what we call them doesn’t matter, but I’ve meet a lot of fiends growing up in Mexico. None of them ever tried to eat me. On that note, I guess I’ve never met any devils either.”

Bradley couldn’t help but smile. Chunky vomit and an unidentifiable slimy gunk dripped from his face, but he smiled through it. It felt great to smile like that. He knew too many things were taken for granted before, now the little things, like the opportunity to smile, really do count.

“How many are in your group?” Bradley asked as Guillermo set up a ladder to a second floor window and signaled for him to climb. He was sure the plant was seen in a window higher than this. This building was only two stories high. He couldn’t even see the roof of this place from the news building.

“It’s just me. I’ve been going crazy up there by myself all this time. You wouldn’t believe how many conversations, even arguments, I’ve gotten into with myself over the past few months.” He leaned closer to Bradley as he said spoke, as if to keep anyone else from hearing. “But seriously, I’m not crazy or anything. Is there anyone else with you?”

“I have two others.” Bradley was becoming slightly uncomfortable with his situation and quickly regretted saying there were only two others. “A man with years of combat training,” he lied, “And a teenage girl are waiting in the news building. I need to go back for them as soon as possible or they’ll come looking for me. Were you the one who fired the gun a few days ago?”

“That was not me, but I heard it. That is when I realized there may be others out there, so I used the only signal I could think,” Guillermo answered as he climbed the ladder behind Bradley. “I began placing one of my plants on the window hoping that only a living person would be smart enough to notice that it was alive and someone was here.”

“That is how I found you, so I suppose it worked.”

Bradley climbed through the window and looked around. He hoped this isn’t really where Guillermo had been living all this time. Most of the inside of this building had been ripped apart, and body parts rotted on the floor.

“Oh, keep moving. To the other side of the building we go. I don’t clean this area. I figure it may act as a security system to keep devi— fiends and intruders away.” Guillermo motioned for him to follow as they walked through a door into an office. A long plank rested on the desk facing the window. Guillermo slid it out of the window and set the far end down on a window in the building across the alley.