Parish (2 page)

              “This is some kind of prank.  It has to be!” Wade jumped up from the sofa, his blue eyes as large as saucers. “Zombies! I mean come on!”

              “Wade, the president wouldn’t address the nation with a prank!” Wren continued to sit, her eyes glued at the television screen.

              “Yeah, but, seriously?  Come on, zombies? Really?  They don’t exist!” Wade’s voice grew louder.  Suddenly the telephone rang, causing all of them to jump.  Jack reached over and grabbed the cordless house phone.

              “Hello?” He scratched the back of his head. “Honey!  Yes, we just saw it.  We’re all here watching the news.  Do you know what’s going on?”

              “Is she coming home?” Wren reached over and grabbed Jamie, pulling him to sit next to her.  Jack held his hand up to silence her.

              “Yeah, I understand.  Don’t worry, Emily.  No, don’t worry.  Okay.  I love you too.  Bye.” Jack hung up the phone and turned slowly to address his children.  “That was your mother.  The president was telling the truth.  We can’t leave here.”

              “Is mom okay?” Wade asked, thundering towards his Dad.

              “Yeah, yeah, she’s fine.  It’s uh…it’s at the hospital though.” Jack swallowed hard, plopping his weight down onto the couch and running his hands through his graying hair.

              “She needs to leave!” Wren shrieked.  “What are we going to do?”

              “Relax!” Jack cried.  “We have to stay here.  We’re safe in the house.  Your mom told me we need to stay put.  She’ll catch a ride with the National Guard once they get the hospital secured.  We’ll be alright, guys.  We’ll be alright.”

              “What are zombies, Dad?” Jamie asked, looking up from under Wren’s arm.

              “A zombie is a person who is dead and then comes back and eats people who are alive.” Wade spat out.

              “They EAT people?” Jamie’s eyes grew large as his lip began to quiver, tears followed soon after.

              “Why would you tell him that?” Jack pushed by Wade to stoop down in front of Jamie.

              “Hey, guy.” Jack reached out and took both of Jamie’s’ hands.

              “Dad, are they going to eat us?”

              “No, buddy.  I would never let anything bad happen to you or to your brother or sister.” Jack shook his head slowly as he removed his glasses.  “We’ll be okay, we just have to follow the instructions that the police and military are going to give us.”

              “All the good guys?  They’ll protect us too, right?” Jamie began to chew the skin of his thumb.

              “You bet, bud.  All of the good guys will be out to fight the monsters and to keep us safe.” Jamie threw his arms around his Dad’s neck and hugged him tight.

              “Whoa, guys you should look outside.  I guess people decided they shouldn’t listen to the president.” Wade had the curtain pulled back from the window and was turning his head flush against the glass in an attempt to look both ways down their street.

              “Get away from the window!” Jack hollered.  He was staring down at his feet as he lifted his glasses and rubbed the palm of his hand over his face.  “I just have to think for a minute.”

              “Dad, shouldn’t we, like, I don’t know cover the windows or something?” Wren asked.  She was sitting on the edge of the couch, her arms wrapped around Jamie who had his face buried in her shoulder.

              “Yeah, cover the windows.  Okay, damn…with what?” Jack began to frantically look around.

              “It’s bad, just use the dining room table and stuff, tear the doors off the hinges from the doors in here and nail them up.” Wade turned from the window and looked back at his family.  “Even if the zombies don’t get us, we have to defend against looters.”

              “Alright, good plan son!  Come on, help me.  Wren, you and Jamie gather up all the candles and flashlights.  Uhh…fill the tub and sink with water and gather up batteries, well, just grab anything that you think we can use.” Jack ran to the closet in the hall, violently pulling out his beat up hunter green tool bag.

              “Come on, Jaime.” Wren stood up and pulled the small boy by his hand.  He wiped the snot bubbling from his nose with the back of his free hand as he followed his sister into the kitchen. 

              “Hurry, Dad!” Wade cried as he grabbed a screw driver from the open bag, running he made it to the nearest door and began to pull the pins from the hinges.  “We have to get all of the windows covered down here.  I think the second floor will be okay, but we need to work fast!”

              “Alright, let’s do this.” Jack grabbed another screw driver, a hammer and filled his packets with nails.  Together they removed the doors to all of the downstairs closets and began to move them to the windows.  Hoisting the doors up over the glass and curtains, Jack began to hammer them into the wall while Wade held them in place.  Wren was running to and from the living room, dumping candles and batteries she was carrying in a makeshift pouch at the bottom of her shirt.  Jamie followed closely behind his sister, not carrying anything, merely looking terrified as he watched everyone working.

Chapter Two

Jack, Wade, Wren and Jamie sat in the living room.  All of the windows and doors were blocked off, except for the front door.  Jack had his Beretta sitting on the coffee table, within arm’s reach in case anyone who was uninvited decided to come through the door.  The silence was heavy, the emergency alert still scrolling across the television provided little comfort.

              The local news came on suddenly, causing them to startle.  The woman on screen looked terrified, although she was obviously attempting to keep her fear under control and remain composed, it appeared to be a battle she was failing miserably.

              “Good evening, I’m Katarina James and this is a WRSQ special report.  If you are just tuning in Marshall Law has been declared by President Andreas.  There is a mysterious illness that had reached epidemic proportion in a matter of hours.  Little is yet known as to the source of this illness or the effects it causes.  We have reached out to the area hospitals in search of answers and have yet to reach anyone available for comment.  Wait…” Her hand went to her ear.  “We have just received word that our field reporter Jay McMurdaugh is on scene outside of St. Katherine’s hospital.  Jay, can you tell us what you have been able to find out?”

              “Katarina, I have never seen anything like this before in my life.  Pan behind me!” He spoke to the camera man as he stepped off screen.  “As you can see the military is here and have blocked off all entrances into the hospital.  We can hear the screams from those inside from where we stand across the street.  We do not know at this time, how many infected are inside. I can tell you moments before we went on air an ambulance came roaring up to the gate here, and they were denied entrance.  The passenger they were transporting, literally leapt out of the back, stumbled and then collapsed.  Fearing the worst, Dave and I tried to offer our assistance but were turned away by the paramedics.  The man who we saw die, sat up and growled before attacking a female paramedic.  Katarina, it seems insane to say this but we saw a zombie, we saw this man bite into the woman’s neck and proceed to eat her.”

              “Jay, you’re telling our viewers that the comment made by the President is in fact, accurate?”  Her eyes were wide.

              “Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying.  Hold on, something is going on, we can see the soldiers posted at the gate running towards the hospital.”  Jay side stepped to allow the camera to have a better shot.  Indeed, there were a dozen soldiers running towards the hospital.  Suddenly gun shots rang out, the camera man ducked down, showing nothing more than sidewalk.  “Run, run Dave!” Jay was screaming and the frantic running showed on the screen, shots of the ground and blurred cars were shown.  “Oh my god, whatever is inside there is getting out!  Katarina!  Oh God, get somewhere safe, it’s not safe here….IT’S NOT SAFE!”  The feed went dead.

              “St. Katherine’s is where mom works.” Wren wrapped her arms around herself.

              “She’s alright.  She’s alright.” Jack repeated picking up the phone and dialing his wife’s cell number.  He held it to his ear, the ringing on the other end could be heard by all of the children.  She didn’t answer.  “She’s not picking up.  It’s okay, she’s probably already on her way home. Wade, run upstairs and look out of one of the windows, tell me what you see.”

              “Alright,” Wade nodded as he sprinted up the stairs, pulling his khakis up as he took the stairs two at a time. 

              “How long do you think it will take before the army gets everything under control?” Wren asked as she grabbed a throw blanket from the back of the couch and covered Jamie.

              “There’s no way to know for sure.  We’ve never seen this before, but I’m sure they working as fast as they can.” Jack replied as he eyed the stairs waiting for Wade to come back down.

              “Dad! Dad!” Wade came running down the stairs, stumbling over the last few and falling onto the landing.  “There’s no one outside, it’s just empty.”

              “The news didn’t say where to go.  Where would they have gone to?” Wren asked.

              “Trying to get out of the city no doubt.  There are too many people in cities, it makes it a lot more dangerous.” Jack replied as he helped Wade onto his feet.

              “We’re not leaving though, are we?” Jamie asked from under the blanket.

              “No, son, we’re staying right here and waiting for your mother.  If we leave she wouldn’t know where to find us right?” Jack smiled weakly.

              “Right.  We have to wait for mom.” Jamie nodded, closing his eyes he laid down.

              “Dad?” Wren whispered as she stood up and walked over to Jack.  “What if…what if Mom can’t come back?”

              “She will.  She’s a tough lady, don’t underestimate your mom sweetie.  Wait and see, she’ll be home.” Jack pulled his daughter into his arms and looked to the door, praying his wife would come in any second and tell them that everything was under control.

              “Do you hear that?” Wade asked moving to the door.

              “What?” Jack asked.  Wren and Jack looked to Wade who was waving his hand to hush them up so he could listen. “I think it’s the neighbors.” Wade laughed.

              “What could possibly be funny at a time like this?” Wren asked, walking towards the door.

              “They’re talking to their dogs.  Right smack in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and they’re taking their dogs outside for a shit!” Wade began to chuckle so hard tears formed in his eyes.

              “Maybe they don’t know what’s going on.” Wren furrowed her brow.  “Dad, if they don’t know we have to tell them!”

              “Wren I don’t think it’s a good idea to go outside.” Jack shook his head.

              “So we’re just going to leave them in the dark and let them get eaten when the zombies get here?” Wren shrieked.  “We can’t do that, Dad!  We have to tell them, we have to help!”

              “Calm down.” Jack sighed.  “I’ll go but you two stay put, do you understand me?”

              “Yeah, yeah we’ll stay here.  Just please go and warn them.  They’re nice people, please.” Wren nodded quickly. Jack looked back to his sleeping child then to his twins.  Taking a deep breath he grabbed his Beretta and went outside.

              There was an eeriness that was palpable on their once lively street.  Front doors were left to swing in the wind, garage doors opened and items deemed unnecessary were strewn everywhere. Jack’s eyes skimmed over the perfectly manicured lawns, and he frowned.  Streetlights were glowing, once comforting, giving them light in the dark a way to chase away all of the unknown darkness seems to always contain.  Now the lights felt ominous and even threatening. 

              “Come on, go potty!” The neighbor pulled at Jack’s attention.

              “Hey!” Jack reluctantly refocused his attention on the Fishers. “What are you guys doing?”

              “Hi Jack, I’m trying to get these damn dogs to listen so Ellen and I can get out of here.  Ellen!” Mitch turned to yell over his shoulder, his long black hair swinging in its ponytail.

              “I’m coming! Geez!” Ellen yelled as she ran across the yard towards their car, holding a few bags in her hand.

              “I was afraid you hadn’t heard.” Jack shook his head.

              “No, we heard.  We were just waiting for everything out here to settle a bit before making a break for it.” Mitch looked up and down the street nervously.  “Why are you still here, you have those kids to worry about?”