Lakewood Memorial (12 page)

He swallowed and hoped there weren't any
corpses in there. Mrs. Harris gurgled at him from his right,
reminding him to hurry.

He ran for the other side of the house. Fear
of Mrs. Harris pushed him around the corner without stopping to
look. He stopped when he realized what he was doing. It was clear.
No corpses between him and the kitchen door. It swung to and fro,
just as the corpses had apparently left it. He glanced back at Mrs.
Harris. She was just past the front porch now, moving slowly and
making a low choking growl.

Dalton sucked in his breath and ran for the
kitchen. He stopped when he reached the door.

Through the doorway to the kitchen, Dalton
could see the corpses crowding the bathroom. They were all in the
hallway and the kitchen looked clear. He could see the phone in its
cradle next to the microwave. The phone Brooke had used to call for
the pizza.

As quietly as he could, he crept into the
kitchen and headed for the phone.

He could hear Maylee and Brooke banging on
the door. The corpses were focused on them. None of them noticed
Dalton creeping up from behind. He was almost to the phone.

Groaning came from behind him. Dalton
turned. The corpse from earlier, the one with his head bent all the
way back, was standing in the doorway. The corpse's back faced
Dalton, which meant the corpse's head faced Dalton. The corpse saw.
He groaned at him.

Dalton screamed. The corpses in the hallway
heard and turned and groaned at him. Corpses closed in on him from
both sides.

* * *

Maylee was in the middle of hitting the
door, hand raised in mid-strike, when Dalton's scream echoed
through the house. The sound sent cold panic through her. She heard
the corpses at the door change their focus, heard their groans now
being directed at the kitchen. "Dalton!" she yelled.

"There's too many!" he yelled.

"I'm coming!" she yelled. She unlocked the
door.

"Maylee, don't!" yelled Brooke, pulling
Maylee back. "Let me do it! It's too dangerous."

Brooke opened the door. Over Brooke's
shoulder, Maylee could see the corpses moving to the kitchen.

"Hey!" yelled Brooke. She kicked one of the
corpses in the back. "Look, dumb-asses! More meat over here!"

The corpses turned to Brooke. Maylee could
see Dalton in the kitchen, running away from the corpse with his
head bent all the way back.

"That's right!" yelled Brooke at the
corpses. "Come on!" She ran down the hallway. The corpses slowly
followed her. Maylee stood as far back and as still as she could,
amazed that none of them noticed her.

When the hallway was clear, Maylee snatched
up her bat from the back of the toilet and ran for the kitchen.
Dalton was barely avoiding the broken-neck corpse, which was
stumbling around and grabbing at him.

Maylee ran up to the corpse and, screaming,
slammed the thing across the head with her bat. The thing's head
snapped up the other way, landing against the thing's chest. The
corpse groaned, muffled now, and stumbled away. She ran to Dalton
and grabbed him.

"Did they hurt you?" she asked.

"No," said Dalton. "No, I'm fine."

"Come on, we gotta go!"

She pulled him out the door and looked up
and down the side of the house. A blond woman, face in ruin, was
rounding the corner from the front. Maylee figured she and Dalton
could get around her. The backyard was too dark to chance.

"Wait!" said Dalton, pulling on her arm.
"The phone! I forgot the phone!"

* * *

Brooke ran for the living room, hoping the
corpses were following her. She stopped and looked back. Sure
enough, they were stumbling after her, groaning and working their
jaws. She looked around for a weapon. Nothing. Just toppled
furniture, a ruined TV and ...

her phone!

She rushed over and bent to pick it up. She
opened it and started punching in 911.

The corpses reached the living room. They
came at her, groaning.

No time for phone
calls
. She closed the phone. "Guys!" she
yelled, hoping Dalton and Maylee could hear. "Go out the kitchen
door! I'm going out the front!"

She turned to rush out the front door. The
pizza boy stood there, neck gaping and oozing dark blood. He
gurgled and hissed at her.

Without thinking, without time for thought,
Brooke backed away. Cold hands fell on her shoulders. She spun,
screaming. The man with no eyes groaned at her. She wrenched
herself free, backing away from the approaching group of
corpses.

The pizza boy at her back grabbed her by the
hair. He moaned and bit into the back of her head. Brooke sucked in
a sharp gasp as his teeth scraped against her skull. Then pain hit
and she shrieked.

She felt the pizza boy pull away a section
of her scalp. She heard him chew. The corpses in front of her, led
by the eyeless man, drew close. The eyeless man moaned and leaned
in to bite her shoulder. Blood shot across the eyeless man's face,
pooling in his empty eye sockets. Brooke screamed and the eyeless
man chewed.

The other corpses drew near. Brooke was
nearly lost in a haze of pain and shock. Her right hand still
gripped her cell phone.

The
kids
.

She mustered the last bit of sanity and
strength she had. She turned to face the pizza boy. He was chewing
on a hunk of her scalp. Brooke saw her own hair and skin dangle
from the pizza boy's mouth.

"Fuck you," she said. Then she flung the
phone over his shoulder, out into the yard.

Please God, let them find it.

The eyeless man bit into her neck. Numerous
cold hands closed on her.

Brooke screamed one last time.

* * *

"We have to get the phone!" said Dalton,
pulling Maylee back toward the kitchen.

"Forget the phone!" yelled Maylee, tugging
him back the other way. "We have to get out of here!"

"We gotta call Mom!" yelled Dalton,
wriggling his hand free of Maylee and running back inside.

"Dammit, Dalton!" said Maylee. She gripped
the handle of her bat and followed.

Maylee ran inside and first saw the
broken-neck corpse stumbling blindly around. His face was still
buried in his chest and he was far enough away to be safe for the
moment. Dalton was grabbing the phone off its charger. He started
dialing. Maylee ran over and snatched it from him.

"Forget the damned phone!" she said,
dropping the phone on the counter. "We have to get out of here
NOW."

Brooke's screams came from the living room.
Both Maylee and Dalton stopped and looked at each other. The
broken-neck corpse jerked in reaction to the scream, moaning into
its chest and reaching at nothing.

"Brooke!" yelled Maylee, running through the
kitchen and into the hallway. Dalton followed behind her.

The hallway was full of corpses, all pushing
their way into the living room with their backs to Maylee and
Dalton. Somewhere among them, Brooke was screaming. Maylee couldn't
see her.

"Brooke!" Maylee shouted. She slammed the
bat into the head of the closest corpse. The corpse shook and
turned to face her. It was an old woman wearing a floral-print
dress and a half-rotten old hat. Her eyes were white and she
chattered brown, rotten teeth at Maylee.

Maylee screamed and the corpses clogging the
hallway turned in response.

"Crap," said Dalton.

"Yeah," said Maylee. She turned to run back
to the kitchen. Dalton followed.

Maylee stopped as she reached the kitchen.
The blond woman missing the bottom half of her face was staggering
in. Her bloody, ruined jaw worked up and down and she let out a
bloody hiss.

Maylee gripped her bat tight and ran to the
woman. Screaming, she slammed the woman across the head as hard as
she could. The woman's head snapped to one side with a loud "pop"
and the woman staggered. Maylee ran past her and into the side
yard, assuming Dalton was behind her.

She was wrong. She spun around, looking.
"Dalton?"

"Mom?" came Dalton's voice from the kitchen.
"Mom, it's me!"

Maylee ran back into the kitchen. Dalton was
at the counter, phone held to his ear.

"Dalton!" yelled Maylee. The corpses from
the hallway were staggering into the kitchen. The two corpses
already in the kitchen were staggering around, heads limp, but it
was only a matter of time before one of them found him. Maylee
rushed over and snatched the phone from Dalton's hand. "Dammit, we
have to go!"

Mom's voice came from the phone, quiet and
metallic sounding. "Maylee? Is that you?"

Maylee looked around the room. They had
seconds to get out, maybe. She put the phone to her ear. "Mom?"

"Maylee?" came Mom's voice. "Oh thank God.
Is there..."

"They're everywhere Mom, they just keep
coming!"

"I know, honey. Just please get somewhere
safe!"

Maylee looked around. It was going to be
tight. "Mom, I'm sorry."

"What?"

Maylee swallowed. "I'm sorry for what I
said, Mom." She sniffed and wiped at her eyes.

Dalton seemed to finally notice how close
the corpses from the hallway were getting. He looked around, panic
on his face.

"Maylee honey, I'm sorry too." It sounded
like Mom was crying. "Just please..."

Dalton started screaming. Maylee looked
around. The corpses were close now. One grabbed Dalton. He kept
screaming, struggling with the corpse.

"Dalton!" yelled Maylee, dropping the
phone.

"Maylee! Dalton!" came Mom's distant voice
from the phone as it fell. Then Maylee was too far away to
hear.

Eighteen

Angie clenched at the sound of her children
screaming. She was pacing the patient hallway, cell phone against
her ear. Park had given her the other rifle. It was slung over one
shoulder, slapping against her back as she paced.

"Maylee!" she screamed into the phone.
"Dalton!"

She heard the sounds of a
struggle. And moaning. And her
children
screaming
.

Then she heard something knocking the phone
around. Feet? Hands? Her kids' hands?

"Maylee?" she yelled. Freeda ran in from the
nurse's station.

"Dalton?" Angie yelled. Tears were coming
freely now. She heard more screams, then the sound of something
crunching down on the phone. Then static.

Then nothing. The phone was dead.

Angie stopped. She was at the far end of the
hallway, in front of the window that looked out over the darkened
trees and hills behind the hospital. She listened to the hum of her
own phone.

"Maylee! Dalton!" she screamed. She was
shaking. Her phone finally recognized the connection was lost and
dropped it.

Angie was crying. "Oh god." She snapped the
phone shut and let her hand fall to her side.

Then Freeda was behind her. "Anj?"

"They're dead, Freeda."
Angie didn't look back at Freeda. She stared at the dark outlines
of treetops.
Somewhere out there are more
of the things that killed my children. Killed them while I was
stuck in here.

"You don't know that..."

"I heard it," said Angie. "Oh god, Freeda, I
heard them screaming."

"Anj..."

"I wasn't there. Why the hell wasn't I
there? My children died and I wasn't there."

Behind her, Freeda said nothing.

Angie drew in a ragged breath. "I can't do
this anymore, Freeda."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm done," Angie
said, putting her forehead on the glass.
I
could break out the window. I could jump.

"Don't say things like that..."

"What the hell am I supposed to say?" said
Angie, turning to face Freeda.

Sam Shuab grabbed Freeda from behind and bit
into her temple.

Freeda gasped. Blood spurted from her temple
and Sam chewed. His eyes were clouded and thick dark fluid oozed
from the gaping hole in the back of his head.

"Freeda!" yelled Angie.

Sam pulled Freeda back down the hallway,
chewing and moaning. Freeda grabbed at Angie but missed. Her arms
flailed at nothing as Sam pulled her back. She kicked, her legs
scraping against the floor.

Angie lunged forward, dropping her cell
phone to the floor. She grabbed Freeda with both hands and tried to
pull her away. Sam pulled back and bit deeper into Freeda's head.
Freeda screamed. Blood ran down her face and into her open mouth.
Her fingers dug into Angie's arm, strong at first but quickly
becoming weaker.

Sam wrenched Freeda away from Angie like an
animal protecting its food. He took several steps back, dragging
Freeda with him. He kept chewing into Freeda's head. Freeda started
shaking and convulsing.

Angie rushed after her. Her foot landed on
her cell phone. She stumbled and heard her phone snap in two under
her feet.

Angie stopped and watched
Sam eating Freeda. Cold reason hit her.
It's too late.

And only then did she
remember the rifle on her back.
One more
failure to add to the pile.

She pulled the rifle from her shoulder and
leveled it at Sam's forehead. How long had it been since she'd last
handled a gun? She couldn't remember.

She remembered enough. She fired and Sam's
head snapped back. Blood and bits of Freeda's head spilled from his
mouth. He let go of Freeda and fell over backward.

Freeda slumped to the ground, twitching.

Angie stepped over and looked down at
Freeda. Tears stung Angie's eyes and cheeks.

Freeda convulsed and jerked. Blood ran from
her temple and onto the floor. Freeda looked at Angie. Pain and
fear filled her eyes.

"Damn it," whispered Angie down at Freeda.
"I'm sorry."