Cage The Dead (2 page)

“That’s most definitely sad,” Gaia said, rerouting herself into a circuitous path around Aubrey.

“That’s not the worrisome part. Reports are saying that after they die…they are coming back to life.” Gaia stopped and turned on Aubrey with skepticism laced upon her features, tilting her head to the side, as she remained silent for a moment, staring at her and all around them.

“You’re shitting me, right?”

“I wish I were,” Aubrey said with a frown

“What the hell channel were you watching?!”

“Mainstream news, Gaia. It’s why I want you to come back and check in on Dr. Friedman with me,” Aubrey stated more than asked. “Gaia! I’m not kidding!”

Just then, Gaia turned to take note of a rather large crowd of people as they began running past them in a panic toward the exit. People were being trampled; both women and children alike, and the sight gave Gaia pause. She could not believe what was happening.

“Are there animals loose?” she asked, wondering what was happening.

Another crazed man ran past the two of them, “the dead are alive!”

“They must have just heard the news report. It’s on in the restaurant,” Aubrey said. “And to be honest, I’m not feeling too well either. And I’m scared.”

“It’s probably psychosomatic.”

“I appreciate that you studied psychology, but you don’t have a degree. I can do without the analysis,” Aubrey said, wiping more sweat from her brow. Gaia looked at her more closely, seeing that she did look a bit pale. “And what I'm feelin’ is real.”

 “Are you talkin’ about people dying and then coming back to life!? Are you serious?! “ Aubrey nodded her agreement and looked expectantly at Gaia “Like in the fuckin’ movies?!”

But before Aubrey could answer, she caught sight of something like what Aubrey was discussing. It was something that at one time may have been a woman—an adult woman with dark hair tied up in a bun—but was now vomiting blood. Whatever it was, it wasn’t human anymore. That much Gaia could tell.

It chased down and easily overtook an older man, tackling him and leaning over him. And then it did the unthinkable: it began tearing flesh from the man’s shoulder and neck.

“What the fuck is that?!” Gaia asked in disbelief.

It was very primal and reminded Gaia of a predator in the wild, only much more…profane. The crazed woman ran at such a swift speed that Gaia couldn’t believe it was bipedal. She became immediately sick to her stomach and felt the pancakes in her stomach making their way back up.

Aubrey pulled a pistol, aimed it and fired it at the creature as it continued to rip flesh from the elderly man pinned helplessly beneath it. A dart hit the thing in the side of the head and it turned to regard the pair of zookeepers and the monkey, and then it stood looking away from its current victim to regard them, and then ran after them with terrifying speed.

“Holy shit!” Gaia said as she ran, pulling Aubrey along with her. It was suddenly clear that tranquilizer darts had no effect on the thing, whatever it was.

“What the
hell
is that?!” Gaia asked, scooping up Maye and scanning the nearby area for a place to seek shelter from the insanity erupting around her. She saw a nearby washroom and decided that it was as good a place as any in which to hide.

“It looks like…a
zombie
,” Aubrey suggested as she ran away from it, Gaia following closely behind. Another few of the things emerged from the ticket kiosks to their left. Gaia, a bike rider and a daily visitor to the gym up until about two months ago, outpaced Aubrey quickly. Suddenly, this newest group of zombies was in between the two and Aubrey freaked. There was nowhere for her to go.

“I gotta find Adam!” Gaia yelled in a panic.

The three zombies, two in front and the one chasing behind, converged on Aubrey swiftly. But, before they got to her, a shot rang out from behind them and the trailing one fell to the earth.

The pair of women looked back to see Kristen’s son, Nick, rifle in hand, waving her toward him. He had a safari jacket on and his beard was visibly soaked.

“Oh thank God!” Aubrey yelled, making her way toward him. The two zombies, seeing Gaia now, suddenly ran toward her. She spun and raced toward the bathroom, Maye hanging desperately onto her neck, arriving at the washroom door seconds before the zombies and slamming the door shut on them. It all happened so fast that she hadn’t even gotten a chance to see where Nick and Aubrey were headed.

“Shit, Maye! What are we gonna do?” she asked rhetorically, as Maye steadied herself once more on Gaia’s shoulder. She heard the banging of hands against the door and leaned against it. The door gave slightly under their assault and seconds later, a pale hand was reaching for her. She leaned against it hard and slammed it shut on fingers, which fell to the ceramic floor. Gaia’s gaze went from the severed digits to surveying her surroundings, seeing a window on the opposite side of the room.

She had to make a break for it. She panicked, knowing that this was her only shot of getting out alive. It was a tight fit, but if she dove headfirst, she could break the glass and make it through. It would have to be perfect.

“Maye, you go!” Gaia instructed, and the monkey made its way reluctantly to the window. “Go! I’m coming!” Maye easily climbed through the window and disappeared.

“She’ll be fine,” Gaia told herself and steadied her breathing as best she could.

She released her hand from the door and her heart thundered in her chest. And then it almost stopped entirely as she felt the cold grip of a lifeless hand grasp her arm. She whipped her head round to see the gray, wide and crazed eyes of her imminent killer, and she felt her bowels wanting to give way under the fear. The zombie shoved the door wide and pulled her toward its snapping jaws.

Then a loud sound broke the din. It rang out loudly and the zombie’s grip loosened and released her altogether. Another shot sounded and the second monster fell too.

There was an instant of relief under that terrible noise, as the monster fell to the ground.

Everything happened in slow motion and she felt the thunderous beats in her chest as the seconds passed by at a crawl.

She saw it happening before she could even speak. Two zombies appeared from the peripheries of her line of sight, one sinking its teeth into Nick’s shoulder as his rifle went tumbling away.

A second one tackled Aubrey, tripping her up and sending her to the grass, landing on top of her. More blood and flesh came away.

Gaia’s eyes were wide and she stood paralyzed in fear from what she had just witnessed.

Something inside her head told her to move. A voice in her head—an recognizable voice at that, and one that she now thought of as her inner drill sergeant—propelled her to take action.

Gaia raced toward the fallen gun, picked it up and driven by the frustration and anger of what she witnessed before her, swung the weapon like a club, the stock of the rifle connecting solidly with the zombie’s skull, cracking under the impact. It fell away twitching, rolling down the slight incline toward the gravel walkway.

Nick looked up at her and pointed behind her, indicating that another zombie attacked Aubrey.

“Help…her,” he said, rolling over and trying to stem the blood flow from his right shoulder.

Gaia leveled the barrel of the gun in the direction of the dead thing and pulled the trigger.

A shot rang out, echoing through the open area and Gaia involuntarily dropped the rifle to the floor.

The thing fell away, the bullet from the gun penetrating its skull as gore flew away under the impact. Aubrey moaned in pain on the ground, her blood staining the green grass. Gaia was quick to her side, removing her jacket and tying the sleeve around Aubrey’s neck where the blood ran a bit too freely, pooling up on the grass beneath the wounded woman.

Gaia noted that another victim of the zombie attacks lay right across the path, not ten feet from her. It too was a woman, and a good portion of her neck and shoulder were missing.

Gaia breathed deeply to steady herself and whispered into Aubrey’s ear as she pressed against the injured area and the khaki fabric turned hastily to a crimson color.

“Shhh. It’s going to be okay, Aubrey. It’s going to be okay….” It was everything Gaia could do to keep it together. She blanched and then focused once again on her quickly fading friend. She continued to whisper softly the same phrase over and over again into Aubrey’s ear, until the life in her eyes faded.

When Gaia looked up, she saw the other victim twitch for a split instant. She was sure of it. And so Gaia stood and took a few steps toward the body.

She peered closer as it convulsed again.

Gaia froze, her heart thundered beneath her bosom and she swallowed hard, starting to back away.

The woman’s body rolled over, got to its knees, looked around and retched up a stream of blood.

The thing was dead a moment ago, and now, it was…a…
zombie
. That was the only—logical?—explanation.

The zombie stood on unsteady legs and raced toward Gaia, covering the ground to her in an instant.

And then a shot rang out from behind her. It was so loud it rang in her ears and she could not hear anything as her mind reeled from the pain brought on by that noise. Through faded vision, she saw the zombie fall away. She turned to see Nick, his rifle in hand, on one knee, smoke coming from the barrel of the gun.

“I think I can make it,” Nick said through a series of grunts, finally getting to his feet. Blood seeped from the wound on his shoulder.  A huge chunk of flesh was hanging loosely, Gaia noted, as he adjusted the rag he currently pressed against the wound. It needed stitches for certain.

“That’s twice you saved me now,” Gaia mentioned, wiping gore from the left side of her hair where the zombie’s head exploded.

“Wasn’t nothin’,” Nick said, leaning on the rifle to steady himself.

“Lemme see,” Gaia said, handing the man back his rifle and moving behind him. “I think you’ll be okay, but we need to treat it,” she said, seeing that it was mostly muscle tissue, while chaotic screams and other moaning continued to sound all around them.

“We need to get out of here,” Nick said.

“The parking lot, let’s go,” Gaia said as the pair moved steadily, but slowly toward a row of bushes. Gaia pulled out her cell phone and began to dial Adam’s number. She waited, and after what seemed an eternity, she heard a ‘your call cannot be completed as dialed’ message. She tried again and heard a fast busy this time. Nick looked at her and shook his head.

“Everything is down. No phones and no internet so far, even though the TV networks seem to still be broadcasting,” Nick said, staring into her eyes. “Are you hearing me?!” Nick asked, taking the lead. “Stay close,” he continued, as he took his first step toward the path that would lead them toward one of the parking lots, a zombie appeared from behind them. It was something that had once been a young man, perhaps one of the teens from the school trip.

It did not see them, but looked about, as if it sensed their presence. It went about sniffing the air, which seemed odd for something that was already dead. Gaia filed that information away for later analysis.

But, after a moment, it ran off in the opposite direction, distracted by the sounds of another man running toward the parking lot. Gaia watched in horror as the zombie-thing ran after its prey with inhuman speed. It was very predatory in its pursuit for flesh. She felt a tug on her shirt sleeve and flinched, looking at Nick.

“Cmon, we gotta go.” Gaia had a tear run down her face as the chaos ensued around her. She watched in horror as Tucker, a North African elephant, was overrun by the zombies, looking to feast on flesh. It turned her stomach as she watched  as the elephant, fighting for his life and swinging his trunk franticly, fought to keep the swarm of a half dozen zombies at bay.

Tucker stomped one beneath his massive front leg, and Gaia, following Nick closely, rounded a corner as the surreal combat ensued between the living dead and the embodiment of nature. Gaia couldn’t help but think in that instant that they were the antithesis of one another—one nature’s most beautiful gift and the other, an abomination of anything Mother Nature could have intended.

The pair, Nick still badly wounded, made their way through thickets and brush along the outskirts of the throughway into the zoo, down a sloping incline where to the right could be seen a long set of cement steps, and into the smaller of the two lots. One was on the same side of the zoo and the other, a much larger space, was directly across the street.