Dead Flesh: Stories of the Living Dead (4 page)
Tea Party Patriot Bunker
“What are we going to do?” Congresswoman Shelly shrieked.
The plan had been so simple. They’d release the plague on the public and as order collapsed, the Patriots of the Tea Party would come forth with the cure. But when the vaccine was administered to the staff of the bunker they were transformed into the same savage undead as the infected outside. The slaughter had been fast and all consuming, leaving the Congresswoman and her two colleges trapped in one of the first class washrooms.
The dead pounded on the locked steel door.
“Please God save me!” Senator Eddie sobbed, his face buried in Congressman Willie’s chest. The two men were cowering together in the far corner of the first class executive washroom.
Shelly shook her head in disgust. Her place in the hierarchy had been clear. Eddie was the front man, Willie was the blowhard, and she was the woman who’d make them look strong and reasonable by comparison.
At least that’s how it’s supposed to be, she thought staring at the pathetic excuses for men cowering beneath her gaze. Isn’t that the reason I threw my Presidential campaign, because that’s what I was supposed to do?
“The Lord will come and deliver us,” Congressman Willie said absently stroking Eddie’s hair. “We are the chosen ones. It’s not our fault those bastards in California messed up the virus, our intentions were pure.”
“I thought the Jews were the chosen ones,” Shelly muttered. She winced as fists slammed against the door.
“Those bagel munchers are hell bound, my daddy says so,” Eddie whined.
“I’m glad we made it out of the carnage in the dining room,” Willie chimed in. The pudgy Texan looked at Shelly and quickly added, “Well all of us except for your husband, sorry about that.”
Shelly glared at the two men from her perch on the marble counter. Her husband had been a trusting, if naïve, man and had taken the vaccine to prove to the base staff it was safe. Now he was outside the washroom hunting down the survivors in the base.
“Do you think the others are okay?” Eddie muttered.
Shelly knew he meant the real leaders of the nation, the corporate masters who’d given them their marching orders. They were the only ones who knew all of the details of the plan.
Mittens why the hell aren’t you here with us? she thought wincing as a new round of fist pounding on the doors commenced. He’s probably cowering in the Nevada facility hoping his magic underwear will protect him from the monsters. Resolution firmed in her bony body and she dropped from the countertop.
“All right enough of this crap!” Congresswoman Shelly barked. Her head snapped around and she glared at the cowering men, her eyes blazing with the intensity she was infamous for. “Get off the floor and act like men!”
Neither Willie nor Eddie argued with her. Instead both of the men rose and took their places behind her. The power amongst them had shifted, now she was the one making the decisions and leading the way while they would be the ones to follow and do what they were told. There had to more survivors in the complex and enough true vaccine to protect hundreds of thousands of people, at her fingertips along with the means to mass produce more. Maybe it was her time to shine once more.
“Now let’s take back this shelter,” she said coldly.
The North Pole
“Ho-Ho-Ho, are we ready to go team?” Santa asked as he walked down the line of reindeer and patting each one on the head.
He was rewarded by stamping of hooves and snorting from each of the magnificent beasts. Each of the animals had a bit in their mouths and was therefore unable to speak. The younger reindeer, standing to the sides of the sleigh along with a multitude of elves, cheered. This was the night they always worked towards. This was their night to be the light of goodness in the world.
“Rudolph my boy, are we set?” Santa asked removing the bit from his lead reindeer’s jaws.
“We’re ready to fly Santa,” the young buck said a grin on his face. Behind him the eight other members of the team stomped in agreement. Santa set the bit back into his team captain’s jaws and headed back toward the sleigh.
“Santa,” a familiar voice called from the crowd. “Santa, can I talk to you for a second?” Though long retired from the team Donner, was still the senior reindeer and one of Santa’s oldest friends.
“Of course Donner,” Santa replied turning from the sleigh and joining the massive animal. The grey on his muzzle, far from making Rudolph’s father look old, lent him the air of a distinguished elder in the reindeer community. “What can I do for you?”
Donner looked from side to side and seemed to be unwilling to speak openly. Instead he gestured for Santa to join him by the shed where the special feed was stored. Just before the team took to the air they’d each be fed a bag of the high calorie mix they needed to keep up their strength during the night’s journey.
“Santa,” Donner continued once they were isolated, “I’ve been talking to some of the elves and what they’ve been hearing from the world has me worried.”
“What have they been hearing?” Santa inquired. He was anxious to begin the trip but he always took what his oldest friend had to say seriously. If Donner was worried, Santa needed to know why.
“It’s massive chaos Santa. They’ve been watching the satellite news feeds and riots have broken out in many of the world’s major cities.” Donner dipped his head in frustration as he tried to find the right words. “It doesn’t make any sense Kris,” he finished using Santa’s given name, something he rarely did.
Santa set a gloved hand on Donner’s neck and looked him in his dark brown eyes. The old souls took the measure of one another. There was never much need for them to say more than a few words for the other to know what they were thinking.
“How worried are you Donner?” Santa asked.
“I haven’t been this concerned since the Blitz,” he admitted. It was a hard thing for Donner to admit weakness to anyone, especially to Santa. “I haven’t been this worried since you were determined to fly into war torn Europe and deliver presents despite the threat of the Luftwaffe.” Santa straightened himself and a thoughtful expression crossed his face. Donner could almost see the internal debate and knew before he spoke that Santa had reached a decision.
“You’re in charge here while I’m gone. Coordinate with Mrs. Claus and Alton,” Santa said. Mrs. Claus, was the defacto Mayor of their village and Alton Silver Hammer, was the leader of the Elves. “If things get really bad I’ll be in contact with you.”
Donner nodded and stamped his front hoof in agreement.
With that dealt with Santa headed toward his sleigh. There was work to do and in the millennia he’d been custodian of the Earth’s children he’d never missed a Christmas.
This year would not be an exception.
Lucy’s House
Uncle Mark is bleeding
, Lucy thought. Whenever one of the flashlights swept across Mark she could see the blood soaked cloths Aunt Julie had wrapped around his arm
. Uncle Mark is bleeding and Daddy looks scared.
Fists slammed against the door shaking the frame as Eli, Maria, Mark, and Julie were racing from door to door and window to window engaging the locks and closing the curtains. Dianna was buried in the hall closet looking for the tool box Eli assured her was in there. Upstairs, Lucy stood on the top landing watching in terror as her family tried to secure the house.
“Are you sure it’s in here Eli?” the old woman asked. She sounded measured and calm which was in stark contrast to the chaos surrounding her. “All I see are boxes of old DVD’s.”
“Yeah mom it’s in there,” Eli huffed. He and Mark were moving the massive bookcase in front of the picture window. Breathing harder he added more to himself than to anyone else, “We have to move faster.”
Mommy’s trying the hello-phone again,
Lucy thought using her old term for the telephone for the first time in more than a year.
“Damn it! Eli it won’t connect, it keeps saying the circuits are busy,” she cried slamming the five hundred dollar iPhone down so hard the screen cracked.
The moans from the things outside the house grew louder, so loud that they blotted out the storm. Lucy clutched her stuffed Eeyore and did her best to be as small and quiet as possible. She didn’t know that when her daddy and uncle went outside they’d been attacked by monsters. Monsters who were really their neighbors.
“Eli, I’m not feeling so good,” Mark muttered slumping against the bookcase. “I think I need to sit down.”
Eli turned to tell his brother he needed him to help barricade the house from the growing horde outside but he never had the chance. The sounds of the doorframe smashing in filled the room.
To Lucy time slowed to nearly a stop and many things happened at once. First, the door fell in and too many people for her to count flooded into the room. She knew some of them but they all looked wrong, they were covered in blood and they were moaning loudly. As this happened Uncle Mark fell to the floor and started flopping like a fish on the dock. Grandma Dianna and Aunt Julie screamed while her mommy and daddy turned and headed for the stairs.
“Lily, get in your room and lock the door!” Maria shrieked when one of the monster people grabbed the back of her sweater and pulled her down. “Hide baby!” she shrieked agony filling her voice.
Lucy never saw what happened to her family. She ran to the end of the hall, dove through the doorway, slammed and locked the door, slid under her bed, and covered her ears so she didn’t have to hear the screams. She knew what was happening to her mommy, her daddy, and the rest of her family.
Please, somebody help me, Lucy thought tears streaming silently down her face. Please save me, Santa Claus… HELP ME SANTA!
Santa’s Sleigh
“Oh this is very bad,” Santa said shaking his head in shock as his sleigh flew over the city of Detroit. “Somebody has been very naughty this year and now all of the good boys and girls are in trouble.”
Fires burned across vast sections of the dark metropolis and the open areas were filled with the shambling forms of the undead. Even from his altitude, Santa could hear the relentless sounds of gunfire as the humans attempted to hold back the horrors assaulting them.
Before he could say more the sleighs radio came to life.
“Santa can you hear me?” the slightly distorted voice of Donner asked. “Santa this is the Workshop, please come in.”
“I hear you Donner,” Santa replied banking to the left in order to get a view of the Interstate below him. “Old friend, please tell me things aren’t as bad as they look.”
The line of traffic on the river of concrete was stalled and snarled. Santa could see multiple wrecks and more than a hundred of the vehicles were burning. Like ants escaping the mound, thousands of terrified people fled the walking monsters that’d not so long ago been their friends and family. Santa’s belly filled with icy fear as one by one people were brought down by the enemy.
“Kris,”
Donner replied and Santa heard the catch in the mighty male’s voice,
“I think it’s worse than you realize.”
“Rudolph, take us down,” Santa ordered indicating a small clear spot on the interstate. “I need to see what’s really happening down there.”
The team captain guided the sleigh toward the ground.
“How can it be worse Donner?” Santa asked as Rudolph controlled the descent and landing.
“Santa, it’s all over the world,” Donner replied sounding breathless. “Every major city on Earth is reporting some form of this outbreak.”
The sleigh settled as gently as a butterfly on the frozen asphalt and Santa stood to observe the area. He was in a pool of calm amidst an ocean of chaos. None of the living or the dead could see him through the magical cloaking field shrouding the sleigh and team.
What he saw broke his holly jolly heart.
There may be a being in the infinite Multiverse that loved the human race more than Santa Claus, but he had yet to meet them. For the entirely of his long and wonderful life Santa had done his best to relieve suffering and bring joy. For every one act the humans attributed to him there were a thousand they were unaware of. He couldn’t do everything but he did what he could. Now he was confronted with a problem he’d never considered. But he was Santa and he’d lived long and done much.
HELP ME SANTA!
The words, in the voice of a young girl exploded in his mind. Like in the stories by that nice boy from Maine who wrote the scary books Mrs. Claus loved, Santa had a little psychic twinkle. He could reach out and touch the minds of the boys and girls all across the globe, it was one of the ways he complied his list. But it was a rare and special thing when a child could reach out and touch back.
“Donner, my friend, are you still there?” Santa asked.
“Yes Santa, what do you want us to do?” the senior reindeer asked.
Never in the history of the human race had Santa ever considered taking such a direct hand in the affairs of men and women. But there’d never been a crisis of this magnitude, even the plague paled compared to what he was seeing. Decision firmed and joined the mirth that lived in his eyes.
“Donner, rally all of the herds and every free elf not needed to maintain the village. Get them out into the field. We need to help as many people as we possibly can. Put every resource we have into finding out what caused this and what we might do to fix it,” Santa grunted taking up the reins and indicating for the team to take flight.
“All right Santa, I’ll get them moving,”
Donner replied sounding grateful to have his marching orders. Then he asked,
“What are you going to be doing?”
“I have a good little girl to see,” Santa answered as the sleigh took to the air.