The Mulligan Planet (12 page)

A fist went through the door as
I pulled out the nylon weave and wound it around my new friend, the
hinges of the failing white barricade creaking, I propped him
against the window, tied the other end around my waist and stepped
out onto the windowsill as the door burst open, black, dead eyes
staring into mine, her teeth gnashing together, blood and gore
dripping, “So that’s how that feels.” I let myself fall backward as
I began my descent, the roars below and above me, I looked over my
shoulder to the street and the… well, the zombies had started
massing near my landing zone, “Oh good.” I was going to have to go
through a window, first floor was the safest I decided before
dropping about a metre without me loosening the rope, my suited
friend was now peering out over the windowsill, “No! Sit! Bad
zomb-” Too late, he’d flipped over the sill and I was falling into
the open maw of the beasts below, I didn’t enjoy the idea of being
ripped apart, sounded painful and not altogether heal-able, but as
I fell onto them I felt arms crack and splint under my weight,
‘Roll and run John’ using the broken arms and skulls as a sort of
slide I managed to roll off the top of them and land feet first,
not a scratch. ‘Oh you are good' my giddy expression vanished when
I looked up to the hungry faces staring at me, “Right… Shit.” The
first few went to move for me but were stopped by the body of my
now two time saviour squishing them, ‘Run you idiot!’ My feet were
already ahead of me before another thought smacked me in the face,
“The truck!” I spun around, it was surrounded, but I needed a gun.
As I was formulating how to get into the truck a zed dragged out
from around the corner, and, even with his destroyed face and
mangled body, its legs snapped and contorted into bizarre angles,
he was still recognisable “Kyle… I’m so sorry.” He snarled and I
could see the others moving for me, most were seeming to only just
be coming acquainted with their body's, like nothing from the past
however many years had happened and they were children once more.
Cannibalistic children I quickly reminded myself as I darted for
the truck and jumped into the back, slamming the doors behind me.
There was a gap in between the front seats to the cabin, the air
conditioner was on, I was driving out of there. I scrambled through
the back and reached the driver seat, where a growling business
woman greeted me, “My truck, get off it.” I kicked her off the
driver seat, slammed the door shut and drove, “Lucy?” still
nothing, whatever was in the sky was disrupting the connection. I
sped around the corner, people running everywhere, cars crashing,
someone ran in front of me and started waving frantically before
getting tackled, I immediately felt an intense feeling of jealousy
of the people in movies who were in comas when this stuff was
happening, sure they woke up in burnt out Hell, but that must feel
better than being at the part where the flames had just crackled to
life.

I turned on the radio, no
emergency broadcast, same as Lucy, there was nothing, just the
screams and roars that surrounded me. A bus tore past, spun out in
front of me, I had no way of avoiding the crash and as I ploughed
into it a sniper rifle came launching out from behind me and into
the bus. Something went bang and fizzled in the engine as I grabbed
around for a gun behind me but instead scooped up the whole duffel
bag and jumped out of the cabin, the thick scent of blood rushed up
my nostrils, I felt like a shark in a pool surrounded by bleeding
paralysis patients. I do apologise for my animalistic
characteristics, but I’m still essentially a monster, a good old
fashion boogey man. A zed made for my arm before I slammed its head
in the door while surveying the area and noticed a park next to me.
I slung my duffel over the top of my back pack. “Help me!” a high
pitch and highly displeasing teeny voice called, I turned to the
sound and a young woman running toward me locked in my field of
vision, arms flailing with her handbag banging against her side,
her pink heels clinking and slipping on the wet road as her denim
short-shorts restricted her movement, “What’s wrong?” I peered over
her shoulder when she reached me, a small group of zombies was
pursuing her, “They attacked me!” the sound of her voice actually
kind of hurt, I noticed some blood dripping from her arm, “What’s
that?” she lifted her arm, a large wound, red and raw, “One of them
bit me, so what? Bigger problems!” she gestured to the zombies who
were now around fifty feet off, “Not really… I’m guessing you don’t
watch much TV.” Her bright green eyes shining with tears but
definitely combating between anger and sadness, “Just help me! You
have to help me!” I shook my head, “I don’t, and, I’m really sorry
for this, I won’t. Run.” Her face drooped and she clicked off away.
Yeah, I should’ve comforted her or something, maybe I could’ve
helped, given her hope, but she was dead anyway and I sure as Hell
wasn’t going to reach Kate if I was dead, that, and opening my bag
in the rain didn’t seem too bright. I ran for the park, if I could
climb a tree I’d be safe… er, just until I could properly figure
out where to go. My hair was matted and getting stuck in my eyes
which was only exacerbated by the rain which was only getting
heavier, a gunshot rang through the hubbub of roars and the
declining screams, the zeds had dominated. I reached a tree and
climbed high, the fear of spiders subverted by the fear of being
de-limbed, finding a wide branch I sat, cradled in the joint
between the trunk and branch.

Relaxing was proving difficult
as the undead sprinted past my tree and into the street, I pulled
off the duffel and unzipped it, feeling pretty safe in the shade
and relative cover of the tree, one rifle, single fire bolt action,
five boxes with twenty rounds a piece, some may have rolled out, a
few .44 rounds, no gun to match but that was more than enough to
get out, probably. I opened my backpack, rope was gone, but I still
had my compass, knife, road flares, broken binoculars, blood
bottle, torch, tarp, and a few magazines in a lunch box, I still
don’t know how they got in there, I definitely didn’t pack that. I
closed my backpack and stuffed it back into the duffel, zipped it
up and slid the straps over my shoulders. Plan; get to a building,
any building, get up high into one of the rooms and convert it to
my new base of operations until whatever this was had cleared up. I
didn’t actually think that was going to happen, if this was
happening in a place like India or China as well I knew we were
screwed. But onward and upward, well, down, I dropped from the tree
and ran back toward the truck, now surrounded by the dead, clique
girl must’ve hidden in there, “Go away!” yep, she was definitely in
there. A massive bang echoed from the cabin as the distinct spray
of a shotgun shell tore out of the back door, sending it flying
open, “Aah!” I would not want to be her ears, or her general, I
kept running down the road, looking for a place not crawling with
zombies, the scent of fear and blood flowing through the street,
the temptation to drain one of the people hiding was very nearly
unbearable. A large pack of zeds moved in front of me at the end of
the street, 'Pick a building, any building', I saw an apartment
complex and ran for it, smashing through the glass doors, not
deliberately, I thought it was plastic, and hit the floor face
first, bouncing slightly, landing face down in a small puddle of my
own blood, “Ow.” There was a low groan coming from my left, “Go
away, I’m busy hurting.” It became slightly more aggressive,
followed by a bing. I bounced off my hands and leaped into the
elevator, frantically tapping the close door button, the pack had
reached the door and the zombified bellhop had caught on that I
wasn’t quite dead, they started toward me as the doors shut and I
hit the first button I could reach, three, it was at this moment
that an unsettling realisation fell upon me. I wasn’t alone in the
elevator. I slowly turned to see a someone, probably in his
mid-twenties, headset wrapped around his neck, large hipster
glasses, clearly decorative, slightly askew, blood soaked lamp
above his beanie wearing head and his dark green shirt torn down
the middle, “Care to explain why my room-mate just tried to eat
me!?” That’s how I met Harry.

I slowly raised my hands, “Um…
well… There was a blue mist and people started eating each other.”
He relaxed and I lowered my hands, “You mean like…” I waited for it
for a second, “Zombies, yes. Flesh eating, apocalyptic, chaos
inducing zombies. What’s your name?” His arms dropped to his sides,
“Harry. How’d you get here?” I shrugged, “Lucky I guess.” The doors
slid open, “Is this your floor?” he nodded, “Is your room-mate
dead?” he frowned then nodded, “Yeah, I- yeah, he's dead, I don’t
know if anyone else is here though.” We stepped out, “Well, that’s
easy to find out, anyone home!?” I got hit in the back with the
lamp lightly, “Shhh! You’re gonna get us killed.” I turned to face
Harry and saw an elderly lady nearly on top of him, “Move!” I
shoved him to the side, caught the woman’s head as she went to
chomp where Harry stood and slammed it into the now closed elevator
doors, squelching and crunching accompanying the blood spray. I let
the body slump to the floor and tried to flick some of the blood
and gore off of my hand and clothes, “That’s just gros-“ Harry
grabbed my shoulder and spun me to face him, “What the Hell!? You
killed he- Down!” immediately I ducked as his lamp swung over my
head, resulting in a smash and a body to fall behind me before I
stood back up to see Harry panting and covered in blood, “Ok, there
are zombies. What’s in the bag?” he started walking toward the end
of the hall, “Guns, survival stuff.” We stopped at a half opened
door and went inside, “This is my place, I’ll be leaving soon, not
exactly safe.” I was surprised he didn’t ask about the guns, “I
like you, to the point, not too many questions.” His room-mate on
the floor, head absolutely destroyed, “Did a number on him didn’t
you?” he’d walked off into another room and either didn’t hear me
or was ignoring me as I walked up to his wall sized window and my
mind flashed to the break in, the screams, music and gunfire mixing
into a cacophony of pain, my friends were gone, I was alone in the
city, more and more people kept dying in front of my eyes, the
lives I’d taken, it all was dumping on me at the same time,
Germany, Vietnam, Afghanistan, millions of people dying, dead,
“Hey!” I snapped back to the present, “Yeah? What’s up?” I dropped
my duffel bag, as I turned to face him, new shirt, white, no tear,
“You screamed… or roared, whatever, then head-butted my window. You
put a hole in it, and now you’re bleeding on my… where’d the cut
go?” this was brought up a long while before I wanted to bring it
up, “Um… Well… You see, I’m a… With the sharp teeth, and aversion
to sunlight…” he stared at me, jaw hanging, I managed a nervous
smile which made him jump, “Hey, dude, I’m cool, I’m not going to
kill yo-” he threw a book at my head, “Ow! No!” he threw another,
“Back up! Not ok! You can’t be! No, you’re not, it’s not possible.”
I caught the next book, “Really, your room-mate just tried to eat
you, there’s a giant space ship outsi-” he pushed past me and
looked out through window, “There’s a space ship!?” I rubbed my
head, “Yes, my point is, with all that happening you question the
validity of a vampire?” He turned to look at me, “Then why aren’t
you bursting into flames and burning?” I shook my head and laughed,
“I don’t know, because we’re in the shade of your apartment?” he
pointed to my arm, “You’ve been standing in that sunbeam for at
least two minutes now, you don’t feel that?” I looked down at my
arm, normally I would’ve felt something by now, a tingly feeling,
as I said before I can stay in sunlight, it’s just not good for me,
but this, I wasn’t being affected adversely whatsoever, this little
beam dancing from in between the dark clouds wasn't affecting me at
all beyond a warmth that I hadn't been able to truly experience for
over two hundred years. I remained entranced until the beam
disappeared as the storm encompassed the rest of the sky, “Again,
that’s interesting.”

A gunshot brought me back, “Hey
dude, any chance that you got those guns from a security truck?” I
nodded and walked over to look out through the window, “Yeah, truck
from my mi- my truck… Why?” I heard an engine clicking over through
the crack in the window, “Someone’s got it, and I don’t know if I’m
comfortable with them with guns.” Leaving that van wasn’t my best
idea to say the least, it started backing up before spinning
around, “You said you’re moving out of this place right?” I took a
few steps back while he continued to keep an eye on the van, “Yeah,
how come?” I could hear the van picking up speed, “Wondering if you
were going to miss that window.” The revving became louder as I
marked the compromised glass in my field of vision, “Watch my bag.”
I closed my eyes, launched shoulder first into the window and was
in the air, ignoring the splinters of glass wedging into my body
and opened my eyes, the van coming up fast. I landed on the roof
and grabbed the antenna, the air in my lungs exploded out as the
surface below me came to a screeching halt, sending me flying over
the roof and landing on the hard gravel. The doors opened and I
heard footsteps, “Is he dead?” I felt something poke me in the
back, “No…” I stood up slowly, the rain causing the blood to pool
around my feet, my accelerated healing working wonders, it was
amazing, I cracked my neck for no good reason other than to seem
scary as I turned to face a young bald guy and his even younger
friend in a snap-back shakily holding a pump action, I pointed to
the van, “That’s-” I spat out a bit of blood, “That’s mine.” The
kid in the snap-back brought the gun up, “Not any more, you step
off man.” I looked up to the window where Harry stood clutching his
head, he wasn’t going to like this “Shoot them now!” He dropped as
the two in front of me spun to find him, giving me the opportunity
I needed. I moved for the bald guy's neck first, snapping it on its
axis and grabbed the snap-back kid, pushing his neck to the side
and ripping his throat out with my teeth, draining as much blood as
I could as it bubbled and gushed out of the wound. I threw the limp
corpse over toward the horde that was nearing me and they went
crazy for it while I wiped my mouth, kicked the other guy under the
truck and scooped up the shotgun, “Climb down! They ran off!” he
peaked over the ledge, “That’s a while down!” I looked around and
saw the van was still running, jumped in and backed it up against
the wall, I looked forward and realised I’d uncovered the body, I
nearly panicked but a group of zeds immediately swarmed his still
twitching corpse, “Jump down now! And bring my bag!” I waited a few
seconds, heard one loud thump, then a yell and another thump, “You
alright?” I heard some shuffling then he dropped down onto the
bonnet and climbed in the car, slamming the door behind him and
angrily tossed the duffel in the back, “What's up with you?” he
pulled his seat-belt on after several failed attempts, “I broke my
mattress.” I started to drive away before he punched me in the arm,
“Fuck you dude! Goddamn, you are such an asshole!” I started
chuckling under my breath and he punched me again, “Don’t you laugh
at me! I nearly died because of you! Twice!” he kept hitting me,
“That you did, it’s good though, we’re alive and now we have a car,
a big car with a lot of guns.” He slammed against his seat,
“Dick.”