Soul Survivor: A gripping tale of the living, the dead, and the struggle to survive in an apocalyptic world. (5 page)

   The footsteps drew nearer until it was directly beneath the att
ic hatch. Amy crept over to the hatch and pointed the barrel down.

   They could hear a low growl emanating from whate
ver it was. Then the sound of another one shuffling down the hallway met their ears.

  
This sounds like one of the regular dead,
she thought.

  
The shuffling came to the area beneath her and stopped. She heard the first one growl angrily. Evidently not happy about the arrival of a companion.

   She stood silen
tly listening. She could imagine the evil thing standing just below her. Looking up with hate filled eyes.

   Amy slowly
removed the broom handle from the door. Another growl came from below.

   With the shotgun at the ready she kicked the door open. The ladder unfolded and fell out barely missing the thing.

   It raised its head its red hate filled eyes meeting hers. Standing behind it was one of the droopy, hazy eyed slow ones.

  
Suddenly the first one leapt and started up the ladder.

  
Amy pulled the trigger blowing the top of its head off. Blood, brains and pieces of bloody scalp pelted the one behind it. The zombie winced then suddenly straightened up and turned its gaze to Amy. It was no longer droopy eyed. The stare burned right through her and chilled her to the bone. A scream exited its throat as it jolted forward. Amy pumped the shotgun once and fired again. The shot grazed its shoulder but did not slow it down.

   By this time it was almost to the top of the ladder.
Amy stepped back and attempted to pump another shell into the chamber but she lost her footing and fell over backwards striking her head on a rafter.

   The zombie grasped the top of the ladder and hoisted itself up. Standing upri
ght, its arms bent and its fingers curled up like claws, it screamed down at Amy who was laying five feet away and frantically trying to work the shotgun.

  The zombie was just about to launch itself at her when a
boom echoed through the attic. The dead thing lurched to the side as a bullet took off its lower jaw. Before it could recover another shot rang out. This one entered the left temple and blew a hole big enough to stick your fist through on the other side of its head.

   As
Amy gasped for air it collapsed to its knees at the top of the ladder.

  Tommy
, the smoking pistol gripped tightly in his hand, calmly walked from behind the boxes and gave the evil monster a shove in the chest with his foot. It fell over backwards and tumbled down the ladder.

  
Amy looked at Tommy in awe. “You saved my life,” she said.

   Tommy offer
ed her a hand up. “I guess we’re even then right?”

  “Right,”
Amy said managing a smile.

  
She stood on unsteady feet, examining the knot on her head with her fingers, and stepped over to the ladder. She shined the flashlight on the scene below.

   The
dead lay in heap. Their bodies twisted in grotesque poses.

   “What just happened?”
Amy said.

   “I don’t know,” Tommy answered leaning over to look down.

   “The first was like
Brian Lee,
but the second... the second was just a regular zombie.... and then it changed...” she said shaking her head.

  
“Into one of those... those demon things,” Tommy finished the thought for her.

   “Demons?”
Amy said looking at him puzzled.

   “Yeah they’re like demons or something.
Demon dead.”

   “
Demons, zombies, demon zombies, demon dead...” Amy said letting the words hang in the air for a few seconds. “I don’t know what they are but they’re definitely different from the others. More evil. If that’s even possible. I think demon dead pretty much sums it up.”

   “Maybe they’re zombies possessed by demons.” Tommy said.

   “You’ve been reading too many comic books Tommy,” Amy said. “Besides... I don’t believe in demons.”

   “What about zombies?” Tommy asked. “
Do you believe in zombies? I bet you didn’t a few weeks ago... what about now?”

   “You know Tommy... that’s way too deep a thought process for a kid your age.”

   “Well?” Tommy said.

  
Amy had no answer. They stood in silence for a few seconds then she lit more of the candles spread around their small living space.

   “W
e have to get them out of the house and fix the door,” Amy said. “Give me the pistol.”

   She took the 9mm, reloaded the clip and handed it back to Tommy.

   “Stay here and be ready to shoot,” she said.
“When I pull these guys out of the way climb down and stand guard.”

  
Amy climbed down and stood staring at the front door listening. She thought she heard something moving and stood still for a few more moments. When she was sure she had heard nothing she grabbed the first one by the feet and dragged it out of the way. She did the same with the second.

   Tommy came down from the attic and stood off to the side. The pistol in one hand and the
flashlight in the other.

  
Amy dragged both bodies to the back door and unlatched it.

   “Let me have the flashlight for a second,” she told Tommy.

   She directed the beam of light out into the back yard. She saw nothing but the bodies from before. She made a point not to look at her dog.  She still felt guilty about not being able to save her.

   When she was satisfied there was no danger she handed the light back to Tommy. One at a time she dragged the two bodies out into the yard the
n closed and locked the door.

   “We have
to close up that gaping hole in front,” Amy said. “Hopefully the door isn’t so damaged it can’t be salvaged.”

      “Ok.”

     “Just stand guard. If anything happens don’t shoot me.”

   “I’m not,” Tommy
said feeling a little insulted.

  
Amy took the flashlight from Tommy as they walked to the front room. The door lay on the floor but was still in one piece. It was splintered where the hinges once were attached. 

   Hearing a noise in front of her
Amy shined the light at the open entrance way.

   She recoiled with a gasp. Standing on the porch
staring at her was the mailman. Before she could act a shot rang out from behind her.

   A piece of cloth and flesh flew off the mailman’s shoulder as the bullet impac
ted. He winced but seemed to feel no pain.

   “No,”
Amy said loudly, “don’t shoot it.”

   “But it’s a zombie,” Tommy said.

   “I know but it’s one of the normal ones,” she said realizing instantly what a ridiculous thing that was to say.

   “Normal
?” Tommy asked.

   “I mean... I don’t think it knows it’s dead,” she answered.

   The mailman stepped closer to the doorway. The stack of bodies had been moved to the side. He reached into his shoulder bag and pulled out several pieces of mail and held them out to Amy.

   “Don’t,” Tommy pleaded.

   “It’s ok,” Amy said stepping slowly over to the doorway. “I don’t think it wants to hurt us.”

   She reached out and took t
he mail. The dead man grunted, turned, walked off the porch and disappeared into the darkness.

  
Amy directed the beam of light to the envelopes.

   “Oh my God! You have got to be kidding me,”
she said obviously annoyed.

   “What’s wrong
?” Tommy asked.

   “Well...,” she said
shaking her head in disgust. “Even in the middle of a zombie apocalypse I’m still getting bills from the credit card company…”

  
Amy took a box of nails and a hammer from the kitchen closet. She picked the door up and put it back in place. Then she nailed it up as best she could. They removed the door from the closet in the hallway and nailed it diagonally over the other.

   “That’ll have to do,”
Amy said. “Help me with the couch.”

   T
ogether they moved the couch and pushed it up against the door. Amy stacked everything she could find on top of it to add weight. They stepped back and were satisfied with their work.

   Retreating
to the attic, they pulled the ladder up and closed the door.

   Amy
replaced the broom handle. It took a while but they were finally able to go back to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   The following week passed without incident. They watched quietly from the windows as the uncurious dead wandered about outside the house. Oblivious to their presence.

   They continued to wait for help to come and rescue them. Amy had a picture in he
r mind of what happened after hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. She could imagine groups of rescuers going house to house searching for survivors. So far that help had not materialized. Amy thought there probably was no-one left to man or form the groups. 

   Occasionally there would be
a straggler who would come into the yard and inspect the house but none of them made any attempt to get inside.

   Then
one day as they were sitting quietly in the living room reading they heard a scream.

   “That’s not one of the dead,”
Amy said jumping to her feet and rushing to the front window.

   They peered out the
just as a woman, clothes ripped and hanging in tatters from her body, ran screaming by the house. Close on her heels was another one of the demon dead. Much faster and more agile than the others, it was closing the distance quickly.

   It caught
her in front of the house next door and tackled her to the ground.

  Tommy jumped back
from the window and looked away.

 
Amy watched as the thing began to tear the woman apart.

   She
felt her stomach retch as she witnessed the woman being disemboweled by the zombie.

   She was about to turn away wh
en the thing suddenly raised it nose high into the air and sniffed like a wolf checking the wind for the scent of prey. Then it slowly turned its head and seemed to be looking directly at her. Her blood turned cold as a chill ran through her body. Her scalp tingled, her breathing stopped. She was frozen with fright.

   She knew there was no way it could see her, but... it sensed her presence.

   One of the slow ones appeared from behind the house

across the street
. This drew the other’s attention. It growled loudly at the slow zombie which stopped in its tracks. It watched from nearby hoping to get the scraps when the demon zombie had its fill.

  
Amy stepped away from the window and pointed down the hallway. “In the attic now,” she whispered, “and don’t make a sound.”

   Tommy nodded in the affirmative and slowly tip toed back to the attic where they remained for the rest of the day.

   They passed the following days watching from the windows as the dead wandered about outside.

  
They had noticed after two weeks that some of the dead were quite literally starting to fall apart. It was not uncommon to see them missing arms, hands or even a leg. They saw a few crawling along the ground, the bottom half of their bodies useless. The majority though, unfortunately Amy thought, seemed to be unaffected and wandered aimlessly about the neighborhood.

   After three weeks
the dead who had fallen littered the streets. They had simply crumpled to the ground then lie there moaning and struggling.

  
Except for a few stragglers, the others soon wandered off and did not come back. Where they went Amy had no idea. But... she knew they were out there. Somewhere.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   After three and a half weeks they were low on water and their food supply was running low.

  
They decided to take Amy’s truck and drive into town. They had seen very few zombies near the house in the past two days.

  
Amy checked the weapons and filled a back pack with ammo, water and a days worth of food.

   She armed Tommy with the 9mm pistol
and had him put extra rounds in his pocket.

   Amy
moved the barricades and unlocked the door. They stepped out onto the patio and were smacked in the face with the stench of death. They had become somewhat used to it over the past couple of weeks but it was much stronger outside. They scanned the area for the dead but saw none.