Stay Dead 2: The Dead and The Dying (19 page)

Eddie walked over to the kids, mussing
up Yussef’s hair as he used to do to his own little siblings. He
knelt down among the kids. “Hey, listen up guys. We’re going to be
taking a long walk, okay? We need you all to listen and to be
strong. Can you all be strong?”

They nodded grimly.

Stacey said, “We’ve been
strong.”

“
I want chocolate milk,”
Chris, the youngest of them, said.

“
Me too, kiddo. And
hopefully when we are all done with this big adventure we can find
some chocolate milk. Maybe even some cookies. How’s that
sound?”

“
Mmmm.”

“
I want a cookie now,”
Leela smiled.

“
I want cookie,” Chris
said, looking around for one.

Nick laughed at the small boy, “There
aren’t any cookies yet.”

“
As soon as we find some. I
promise. Maybe we’ll find some on our walk.”

The kids were now excited about their
walk. Though if experience had taught Eddie anything, that wouldn’t
last.

Janice had been watching her son
talking to the children. It made her heart swell with pride to see
the compassion he still had in him. On the surface she likened him
to looking like a soldier—stone-faced and determined—but she knew
that inside was still her warm-hearted son. Despite how much he had
lost in terms of his own family, he was still willing to keep on
going, and to help these kids find someplace to be safe.

Maybe I’m just being selfish. Maybe I
should be trying to help these kids and this group instead of
giving up and waiting for death.

Janice felt something stirring in her
chest. She wanted to help these kids make it. If she had died
instead of her youngest children, she’d have wanted someone to take
care of them—someone to help them. There was that stirring
again—the will to live—rising up in her chest.

“
Thanks,” Alexis
said.

“
I should be thanking you.
You’re the one keeping these kids alive right now.”

She blushed. “Hey, you guys lost all
your shit, right?”

“
Pretty much.”

“
Me and Abdul have taken
everything we can carry. There’s still plenty of stuff in here.
Grab what you want and I’ll let everyone else know to check it out
before we head out.”

“
How about we eat some of
these canned goods before we start moving. We’ll all need the
energy.”

“
Yeah, the kids were
getting hungry earlier. That’d be good. I’ll let everyone
know.”

Eddie held a can of Chef Boyardee in
his hand, “Fucking cold raviolis.”

“
We have Spam, a can of
corn, canned soups, it’ll be a feast.”

Eddie looked up, and Abdul smiled back
at him, “I didn’t think you had a sense of humor.”

“
I was being serious.”
Abdul said, still smiling.

31 STARTING TO PILE
UP

(back to
top)

Jeff was already awake when Walter
painfully moved down the stairs. He was dressed and ready to go.
Maria and the children were still asleep. Laura was getting dressed
and Barbara was on watch till everyone woke up.

“
You’re finally up before
me.”

“
Yeah, well, it happens
every once and a while.”

“
It’s only because my back
is killing me already.”

“
We got a long day
pops.”

“
I know. I’ll take an
Advil. Give me a few minutes will ya?”

“
Take your time. I’m going
to head out and get started.”

“
Go ahead. Be sure to drag
them well away from the house. That stink gets in here and we won’t
ever get it out. And…be careful. Don’t get too close.”

“
Go take your
Advil.”

Walter walked to the kitchen, the
inflammation in his back causing him to lean forward as opposed to
his usual back-straight-chest-out posture.

Jeff paused on the porch before
descending the stairs. He could see at least two deaders on the
horizon; they were little more than stark black silhouettes against
a colorful morning sky, whether or not they were headed for him and
his family he couldn’t tell. He surveyed the day’s work and didn’t
see how it would only take a few hours. There were bodies
everywhere. There had to be at least two-dozen of them.

He descended the stairs, shovel in
hand, and began to walk around the house making sure there wouldn’t
be any surprises. As he rounded the house, which was surprise free,
he walked over to the shed and undid the latch.

He put down his shovel and swung open
the double doors. He wheeled out the wheelbarrow, put his shovel in
it, and began to toss a few other items in it as well; gloves,
crowbar, rope, gas can—which was so heavy it almost tipped the
wheelbarrow—and a dirty old painter’s tarp.

By the time Jeff brought the
wheelbarrow around his father was tying a bandana around his face
like an old-timey bank robber.

“
Took you long
enough.”

“
If you’re going to hassle
me I’ll call up my union rep.”

“
You leave your mother out
of this.”

“
Only for her
sake.”

“
What are you doing with
that painter’s tarp?”

“
Well I figured it might be
easier to roll them onto it and drop ‘em in the barrow that
way.”

“
Good thinkin’.”

They went to work immediately on the
task at hand. Jeff kicked the nearest deader to make sure it was
really dead and all it did was twitch.

“
Why do you think they
twitch like that?”

“
I dunno…maybe they’re
trying to get back up.”

Jeff put down the tarp right next to
the dead thing. Walter grabbed its legs and Jeff hesitantly grabbed
it from its shoulders, rolling it onto the tarp. Once on the tarp
they hefted it up and dropped it into the wheelbarrow.

“
You really think they are
going to get back up—even after we put ‘em down again?”

“
Why not?”

Walter walked behind Jeff as he pushed
the wheelbarrow forward, the dead thing’s arm dangling off the side
and its feet nearly scraping the ground, bouncing with each step
Jeff took.

“
I don’t know, I just
figured once you shoot them in the head—that’s it, they’re dead
again, you know?”

“
If that’s it, then fine,
you won’t hear me complain. But I’ve been watching them a lot. I
didn’t want to say anything around the others, but sometimes I see
them raising up their arms again, grabbing at the air.”

“
Are you
serious?”

“
I wouldn’t yank ya on
this. What if destroying their brain only kept them down for a
while—long enough for whatever is making ‘em come back to figure
out another way of making the body get up and attack us? Here’s
good enough. Dump that thing.”

Jeff emptied the wheelbarrow, the dead
thing tumbling out and falling like a rag doll to the earth. Walter
pulled the tarp from the dead thing and followed Jeff back for the
next one.

“
I guess it’s possible.
Maybe we should strike the heart too?”

“
I dunno. Might work. Might
not. My thinking is that however these dead things are getting
upright again it’s affecting the whole body so I think the only way
to really get rid of them is to burn them up. Just look at them,
it’s like they want to get back up. Like whatever is in there is
looking for a way to get the whole body up and running.”

Jeff didn’t know what else to say, in
truth he didn’t want to think about it anymore. He just wanted to
get today’s tasks finished so he could make his family a touch
safer.

“
Let’s get this sad
sack.”

They hefted the twitching deader onto
the wheelbarrow, walked it back to its friend and dumped it out.
One body became two, and after a few more trips the pile was
starting to grow. After an hour or so Barbara came out to join them
and by then they were halfway done piling up the bodies.

The two deaders that Jeff had noticed
in the distance were now close enough to be of concern. Jeff and
Barbara walked over to them, each drawing one in the opposite
direction. Jeff went for the knees with the shovel and dropped it
instantly. Barbara went for the temple with the crowbar, puncturing
the side of its head with one vicious blow. As the dead thing
dropped Jeff brought the shovel down onto the deaders neck and then
applied his weight atop the shovel till he could hear the spinal
column crack. Barbara pulled out her crowbar and kicked the deader
to the ground. She punctured its head several more times till it
stopped trying to get up.

“
Someone’s getting good at
this.”

“
It’s still friggin’
gross.”

“
If you two are done
playing, maybe we could get back to work?”

32 LIKE A
GRAVEYARD

(back to
top)

Everyone huddled around in a circle
near the back of the SUV. They were scooping out the last bites of
food in their respective cans. Eddie tilted back a can of creamed
corn and let the cool salty sweet food glide down his gullet. He
was trying not to gag on it as he swallowed. Though he knew he
needed the food in his gut to keep him going strong it was still a
challenge to eat anything right out of the can. He detested it, as
did the others, and wished that cars had microwave ovens instead of
glove boxes, but they didn’t so he tilted the can back and finished
it off.

He let the can clang to the ground
where it bounced and rolled over to the rest of the discarded
cans.

“
Everyone ready?” Scott
called out.

More cans clanged to the
ground.

One of the children burped, causing
the others to giggle.

“
Let’s roll. Hopefully
we’ll still have daylight by the time we get there,” Eddie said,
slinging a backpack over his shoulder and picking up a
tire-iron.

Frankie and Joseph followed behind
them.

“
Abdul, Chuck, Chung-Hee,
you guys want to take the rear and make sure no one falls
behind?”

Chung-Hee looked to the others. They
nodded in acceptance and Chung-Hee spoke for them all, “You got
it.”

“
Everyone else keep up.
Eyes open and mouths shut, please.”

“
Kids, if any of you get
tired let one of us know. You can sit on someone’s shoulders for a
bit, okay?”

“
Okay,” Yussef said. “We’re
going to be strong, okay.”

“
Sounds good, kiddo. Keep
up that attitude,” Scott said as he and Judy started moving
forward.

Alexis allowed the kids to move
forward first and then she stuck right behind them, already looking
around wearily.

Janice watched her as the children
moved closer to them and then she grabbed Alexis’ shoulder. She
stared her in the eyes, “I’ll do what I can to help you with the
children. You’re doing so good with them.”

She smiled, “Thanks. I…could use the
help.” Alexis couldn’t recall hearing Janice’s voice before, if she
had she knew it couldn’t have been with the strength her tone
conveyed. Even the woman looking her in the eyes didn’t seem like
the same person she’d been traveling with. This was the first time
she looked alive and not just breathing.

Carrie still clutched the keys in her
hand. She didn’t want to get out and join them, but she didn’t want
to be alone. Begrudgingly she had joined them while they were
eating, all the while voicing her opinion on how stupid everyone
was for going along with this. After not gaining any traction with
her complaints she filled her mouth with a can of cool Clam
Chowder. She complained about the soup too, but kept eating it
anyway.

Eddie led the way up the road through
the lines of traffic. Each car held the potential for danger and
there were a lot of cars on the road. Many of them were smeared
with blood—handprints and blood spatters as common as mud flaps and
spoilers. Glass shards and dried pools of blood that were now no
more than washed out stains on the roadway became mile
markers.

After only a few minutes of walking up
the road the fear of a deader being in them was replaced by the
fear of nothing being in them. Eddie was struck by the realization
that he was essentially walking through a graveyard. Aside from
their footfalls and the gentle breeze it was as quiet as a
graveyard too.

“
I wonder what happened to
all these people,” Joseph said.

“
They either survived or
didn’t.”

“
No shit,
Frank.”

“
Some of them probably got
away.”

“
I hope so.”

“
Let’s not worry about
them. Let’s worry about ourselves,” Eddie said, hoping to steer
their minds off of the very same things he was thinking. It was a
dark train of thought. He could picture in his mind’s eye how these
people met their ends.