Byron : A Zombie Tale (Part 1) (6 page)

Pam whimpered and I couldn’t blame her. Our position was, admittedly, precarious at best. We were stuck in a stalled-out ambulance in the middle of a four-way intersection surrounded by the shrieks of some damn inhuman creatures. I looked at her and could see she had been overtaken by a pall of fear. Her eyes were fixated on something she saw out the windshield. I turned my head and understood instantly!

Coming down the road ahead of us were several dozen creatures. And, they were moving fast!

I had always heard that the hallmark of insanity was when you keep doing the same thing over and over expecting there to be a different result. Well, in this case, I was insane! I kept turning the key to the ambulance’s ignition hoping beyond hope that the motor would fire to life.

Rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr…Rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr...

Nothing! And, what was worse was that the starter motor was becoming slower. The battery was draining.

Dammit!
I cursed in my head. The creatures were only feet away from us now.

“C’mon,” I rasped as I beat the ignition to death. The burning in my throat was terrible, and my muscles were becoming even stiffer. The first of the creatures struck the side of the ambulance as I slapped my hand down onto the automatic lock button. As I heard something slam into the rear doors it occurred to me that I had neglected to watch the rearview mirrors. When I finally looked, I knew that our situation had just gone from worse to impossible!

However many creatures were ahead of us, there were at least double that many behind. And now I could see that they were also approaching from the left and right.

“Pam,” I rasped as gently as I could, “I’m sssssooo sorry!”

I could see a single tear wind its way down her cheek. But, she dared not look away from the heaving mass of animated flesh outside the window. Our ears were bombarded by the constant drumming of fists pounding on the ambulance’s sheet metal skin. On occasion, a solitary fist would strike glass with a much different sound – a sound that made me cringe. The glass would only hold so long and would likely be their best way into the vehicle.

It truly amazed me that these creatures didn’t have the mental faculties that I still possessed in a similar state. The simple thought processes which we as living humans take for granted were not present within these creatures. It was amazing that the simple idea of smashing in a window, or even climbing up onto the hood of the ambulance was absent from this lethal mob. However, I was sure that through sheer dumb luck or brute force they would ultimately achieve their goals.

Again, I spoke to Pam. “Sorry,” I said with great effort and smiled weakly, “not the best rescue! I’m sssoo sssorry!” It was getting much harder to speak.

I stepped out of the driver’s seat and slid into the back of the ambulance. There had to be something we could do! I mean, here we were in a vehicle full of all manner of potential weapons and I had no idea what to do to stem the tide of oncoming creatures.

A sound from the front of the vehicle made me start. I turned around and could see that my fears were not unjustified – there was a crack in the windshield! This was bad!

“Byron!” I could hear the fear and pain in Pam’s voice as she called for me. It hurt me to hear the girl sound so pitifully weak. Instinctively, I wanted to cradle her, to hold her, to tell her that everything would be all right! Her fear, to me, was unbearable.

I turned to look at her and knew that there was no need for further explication from her. The crack in the windshield had spread into a spider-web of breaks and splinters. The creatures were actually focusing their efforts on busting through the windshield. I was impressed; they apparently retained some semblance of control and thought. But, at the same time, this was not good for us. If they knew how to problem solve, then our path to safety was getting slimmer and slimmer!

I heard one of the creatures climb onto the hood of the ambulance and begin pounding away at the windshield. The face that I saw behind those fists made me shiver for I knew it well. It was my frat brother John! As I looked at his face he seemed to stop his assault for the briefest of moments. It was almost as if there was some kind of recognition there in his eyes. I may have been mistaken, but could swear I saw him smile at me before his fists resumed pummeling the glass with a renewed passion.

I didn’t know what to think about this turn of events. It was bad enough that I was now one of the cursed undead, but the thought one of my frat brothers - who I had originally believed were playing a prank on me – were doomed as well was unbearable. I only hoped that my other brothers fared better!

I ran toward the front of the ambulance and snatched the crowbar up from where it had dropped between the seats. With my other hand, I grabbed Pam and dragged her into the back of the vehicle.

I had no idea how in the hell we were going to get out of this mess. To say the situation looked bleak was more than an understatement; it was an absolute truth! I looked around for a way to protect Pam. Luckily, there was a narrow partition wall on the passenger side of the vehicle which separated the cab of the ambulance from the service area that blocked anyone from seeing through the windshield to where we were.

As I looked at the sidewalls for any inspiration it suddenly came to me. Aha! I quickly lifted the seat cushions and found that beneath was a small storage area on the passenger-side wall beneath them. The space within was tight, but I was sure that Pam could fit in there. “Hide here,” I rasped to her, barely able to make the sounds necessary to complete the words. I was pleased to find that she just barely fit and I dropped the cushions on top of the storage. To complete the charade, I decided it would be best for me to play ‘dead’ and lay myself across the cushions.

Our preparations were completed just in the nick of time! I could hear the glass of the front windshield shatter and the mad efforts of the creatures to remove the safety-glass windshield from the cab of the ambulance. They were dead, and smart!

I lay as still as I could, which given my current status as one of the un-dead, was probably a lot easier than if I were still full living. After all, I mused to myself, I could probably now play dead better than anyone I knew!

The first of the creatures to enter the ambulance shuffled his way to the back and whirled around several times. Apparently, he was not finding what it was he was looking for! Several more filtered in through the windshield and began to pull things off the shelves. They were searching for Pam! But, none of them so much as thought about looking at the spot where I was resting.

I had no idea how long these creatures tore apart the ambulance, but could say with certainty that it felt like an eternity. In reality, it was probably somewhere along the lines of fifteen to twenty minutes. I hoped that Pam was alright crammed into the tight storage space beneath me. After another five minutes the creatures finally gave up their search as the sound of another car attracted their attention. I figured that they either needed to bait another trap or to try and capture whatever would-be survivors had just come their way. The leader who first came in opened the back doors to the ambulance and stepped back out of the vehicle into the street below. I heard him grunt unintelligibly and saw his arms swing about like he was directing them.

Through my wide-open, milky eyes I could see the crowd of animated dead clear away from the ambulance. They apparently had work to do and no longer wanted to waste time searching the ambulance. My ruse had worked! They didn’t find Pam and were completely disinterested in me.

I waited a few extra moments to be cautious, but once I felt sure that the creatures had left I stood and removed the cushions covering Pam.

Her initial reaction was one of fear, but as she recognized my face her expression changed to open relief and curiosity. “What happened?” she asked, “Are they gone?”

I nodded. It hurt too much to try and talk. Holding out my hand, I helped her out of her hiding spot and turned to look back toward the front of the ambulance.

To my chagrin, the assumption that Pam and I were alone on the ambulance was quickly proven false as I saw something in the vehicle’s cab. Sitting in the driver’s seat with a wry grin was my frat brother, John. And, the gleam in his eye made me more than a little curious about why it was that he had stuck around.

“Hey, buddy,” John said to me, “how ya’ feelin’?” His words were warm, courteous, and I noticed that they came out so easy. There was no struggle in his voice. He must have still been alive, because he had no effort like I did with my own speech.

“Wha…” was all that I could rasp out in reply. Instead, I tapped my throat and shook my head, hoping that he understood my meaning. However, I didn’t have to wait as Pam stepped up and spoke to him. “He’s dead. For some reason he has trouble speaking from time to time. It seems that he can speak better when he smells blood.”

I looked at her with incredulity. I felt betrayed. Though John was one of my Frat brothers with whom I had shared many secrets, the world had changed and I had no idea if I could trust him. After all, he looked about as dead as I. But, as I examined his appearance there were a few things that underscored the falseness of this appearance. Behind his milky eyes, I could see very active irises and pupils which were moving around, taking in the situation. Also, near his shirt collar I could see a touch of pink flesh which still much coursed with blood.

It was a costume!

John nodded in response to Pam. “So, blood, huh?” he said. He stepped past me, closed the doors to the ambulance and picked up my crowbar from where I had put it down to help Pam out from the storage area. My body was so stiff that I couldn’t move fast enough to stop him. Though, he surely saw me flinch as he reached for it and watched my reaction as he rose with it. Then he turned toward the cabinets on the other side of the vehicle. With his back to me, I saw him rifle through some of the drawers until he had found what he was looking for.

When he wheeled back again I could see that he had withdrawn a sterile diabetic testing lancet from one of the drawers. Without a moment’s hesitation he twisted the cover off and jabbed one of his fingers. Though faint, the smell of the blood flowing from his flesh suddenly struck me.

Oh GOD – It smelled so good. I needed it – I had to have it!

My mouth uncontrollably fell open and saliva began to flow. The burning grew in me again as that insatiable need I had felt earlier took over. I could feel my body begin to lurch toward John without my conscious instigation. But, I clamped my hand over my mouth and nose and held my breath. The smell began to dissipate within my sinuses.

I looked at him with fear and anger. How could he DO that? He just put Pam and himself in danger.

“Dammit, John!” I shouted at him! “What the hell did you do that for? You ass!” I wanted to hit him. That was really stupid of him. But just then it occurred to me that he had shouldered the crowbar like a professional baseball player would a bat.

He smiled at me. “Hey, buddy,” he said, “you look like crap!”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “So do you!” I replied. “What the hell is going on here?”

John looked around, left – right – behind him – upward – down. “Looks like Pam and I are standing in an ambulance with a walking dead guy. Whaddya mean what’s going on?”

I had to take a breath. Oh, the exhilaration of that smell – the burning it caused, the urge it drove. I fought the automatic responses of my body in its desire to feed.

“Me?” I exclaimed at last, “what about you? You almost look as dead as me!”

John chuckled again. “Yeah. I’m still living and breathing. You, on the other hand, have been dead for about a week!”

I didn’t know what to say, or how to respond. All I could do was stand there and stare at them both. Pam, I had noticed, now hung close to John and had put some distance between me and herself. I couldn’t help the pangs of jealousy I felt when I saw her standing there with him. After all, hadn’t I just saved her life? Several times now?

“Yeah,” I finally said, “about that… what happened?”

It was John’s turn to look confused. He furrowed his eyebrows. “Don’t you remember anything?”

I was about to respond when suddenly I heard some pounding on the outside of the ambulance.

“Dammit,” John whispered with evident frustration, “it looks like they caught wind of my little experiment.” He looked down at his finger and I understood his meaning. The smell of his little drop of blood had been enough to attract the attention of some of the nearby creatures. Looking out the window, I could see that there were only a handful of them. But, I also knew that more would come.

“We have to move,” I said to them both, “It’s not safe here. John… Where can we go?”

He eyeballed me and then looked to Pam. She gave him a slight nod. “Okay,” he said, “follow me!”

He let go of Pam, shouldered his crowbar, and stepped toward the back doors. “On the count of three,” he said. I looked around to find another weapon. There was a tire iron in the storage compartment Pam hid in – so I lifted the cushions and grabbed it.

“One…” Pam tried to stay close, but just beyond reach of our swings.

“Two…” John’s hand slid to the door handle.

“Three!” John screamed, throwing open the double doors and leaping out swinging. I was close behind him. A little background about John – when he was a freshman he was in school on a scholarship for the school baseball team. However, his lifestyle of joking around, drinking and getting into fights resulted in him losing both his scholarship and his place on the team. When he rushed our frat we were actually surprised, because he had nothing but contempt for Frat life. But still, he was willing to endure any humiliating stunt that our “Bigs” threw at us, and wound up being one of the most popular of our brothers. His background in baseball, though short-lived in his college career, was a great benefit to him now. Though I couldn’t spend a lot of time watching him due to my own oncoming horde of creatures what I saw when I managed to sneak a peak was impressive. He was swinging like a madman and each one of his blows landed in the cranium of an undead. Similarly, each of my swings managed to crumple another beast.

Within a few minutes we were able to take care of the dozen or so creatures that had congregated behind the ambulance attracted by the smell of John’s blood. As my tire iron landed into the skull of one last beast I heard a scream erupt from behind me. Instinctively, I turned and saw that Pam was leaping out of the ambulance behind us. Several of the creatures had entered the vehicle through the windshield and were now making their way toward us.

John grasped Pam’s wrist and dragged her away, running at a full sprint toward a nearby building. I slammed the ambulance doors shut and started off after them. Luckily for me, despite his batting skills John wasn’t that fast of a runner. As I heard him huff and puff I guessed that too many years planted on a barstool in front of a baseball game, cigarette in hand, had taken its toll on his stamina.

I ran up beside them both and kept pace. “So, where to?” I asked without so much as losing a breath. Though, it occurred to me that I wasn’t even feeling fatigued or winded. In fact, if I wasn’t mistaken I hadn’t even taken a breath since I had last spoken.

Several quick turns brought us to a very familiar place. We were just outside of John’s apartment building. From inside his pants he pulled a set of keys, slipped them quickly into the lock and ushered us inside. “Don’t stop,” he told us, “Byron – you know the way.”

I grabbed Pam’s hand and bolted for the stairwell. Up two flights of stair
s we ran, winding our way upward past all manner of door blocked with barricades. One barricade, in fact, had a sign decrying it quarantined by order of the Township Office of Emergency Management. At the door to John’s floor I pushed my way through the doorway into the hallway beyond. Many of the doors along the hallway were similarly barricaded with quarantine signs. However, the two doors past John’s apartment, I noticed, had been boarded over with multiple layers of plywood. It didn’t take long before we reached John’s door. I reached out, and turned the handle… LOCKED!

“Dammit!” I shouted and kicked the door. Pam shoved me aside and started banging on the door, “Hello? Is anybody in there? Please! Let us in!”

I heard a voice from the other side. It sounded familiar – weak and mousy with just a hint of nerdish twang. EVAN! It was Evan!

“Evan,” I yelled, “let us in! It’s Byron and Pam, John’s right behind us!”

I heard several locks clicking in their place before a crack finally opened in the doorway. My heart leaped with joy. But, instead of seeing the door open wide to let us pass I was surprised to see the business end of a shotgun stick out through the opening.

I leaped out of the way as quickly as I could just as the firearm discharged. The force from the blast, striking the outside of my upper left arm, forced my body to twist around.

“God Dammit, Evan! What the hell is wrong with you?!” As with the shots that Pam had taken at me earlier I felt no pain from the blast. But, was still affected by the force of it. I could hear another set of footsteps echoing quickly up the stairs. I whirled quickly, tire iron at the ready, just in case.

“What the hell are you doing out here?” I heard John shout as he got to the top of the stairs. “The sons of bitches have breached the building and are right behind me.” As he burst through the door I could hear several more sets of footsteps on the iron staircase behind him. John slammed the door shut and wedged his crowbar into the opening, wedging it shut. With any luck, he would have bought us a few moments’ time.

“Evan! Open the goddamn door, you idiot! Let us in!” John shouted as he ran down the hallway. “NOW!”

The door flew open and all three of us ran through into the apartment beyond. “Get into hiding,” John shouted, “They’re coming!” With Evan leading the way, we all ran into John’s bedroom where his bed had been slid away from the far wall. Behind the wall where the bed used to rest was a gaping hole in the sheetrock. Evan crawled through with Pam hot on his coattails.

I could hear pounding out in the hallway. The door to the stairwell hadn’t slowed the creatures down much. John slapped all of the locks into place and I helped him slide his refrigerator, which I remember being in the kitchen, not in the middle of the living room, across the doorway. From a nearby table he grabbed a bottle and splashed fluid all around the floor and doorway. The smell of it stung my nose.

We retreated to John’s bedroom, closed the door, and slid the several newly installed locks into place then followed up with sliding his dresser in front of the door. He poured more fluid from the same bottle all over the floor and around the doorway. John pushed me through the hole behind his bed and as he finally followed me in, I could hear his bed sliding against the floor, closing off and masking our hidey-hole.

On the other side of the wall, John and I stood up as Evan slammed down a large plywood panel which he began to screw into the wall.

I looked at John, “what the hell?” I asked with genuine curiosity.

“Welcome to the Sanctuary,” was his reply!