My Dead World (13 page)

I didn’t mean to but I looked in. There had to be at least twenty bodies in the pool. All of them covered.

“I use bleach to try to keep the flies away,” Lev said. “I want to burn them, but I want to wait until I have more. There will be more.”

“When did they die?”

“Days ago. You just got here, but people have been coming up for days. People have been sick up here for over a week. People came from New York, Cleveland. We didn’t turn them away. This virus it kills many ways. You can get bit and die from the bite. A few of them did. The injury kills you.”

“I know that.”

“The virus also has symptoms. Older people die from heart failure, kidney failure. Some of these people died from that. The rest, my father and Earl put down. They stopped shooting them because people got scared and they didn’t want panic.”

“Is this what you wanted to show me?”

“No.” Lev walked to the small shed that was the pool supply building. There was another padlock on there and Lev undid it. “To defeat an enemy, you have to know the enemy. The virus and what it does is the enemy. I am not a doctor so I have to learn it my way.”

“So you’re learning the virus?”

“Yes. I need to know what we’re up against. What we’re waiting out. The time scale. The news isn’t going to tell us. Please put the cloth to your mouth and don’t worry, it’s safe.”

Put the cloth to my mouth and don’t worry, it’s safe?

Lev opened the door and the smell blasted me. It reminded me of the smell of the sewing room. My immediate thought was that Lev was performing some sort of barbaric autopsy.

A foot inside, Lev held out his hand to stop me just as the sound of an unraveling chain rang out.

A snarl and gasp caused me to jump back as I found myself two feet from a completely turned infected.

“What the hell, Lev!” I blasted.

“He’s secure. He can’t get out of the chains. Not yet.”

“Not yet?”

“In a sense he will. When a limb comes off. But he can’t get out of the shed.”

Cloth held tight to my face I looked at Lev with wide eyes.

“This … is the first person to come here bit.”

“Oh my God, Lev, this is inhumane.”

“No, Nila.”

“This isn’t something you’re working on,” I scolded. “It’s torture.” I spun on my heels and walked out.

“It’s learning. He got sick. He got the virus.”

“I see that.”

“You mention necrosis. What is that? The tissue is dead, right?” Lev said. “This virus kills everything. Some slow. Some fast. But before it kills all the flesh, it hits the brain. Causing this irrational behavior. Violent behavior. The brain ignores what is happening to the body. It moves it, causing the body to act out.”

“Why are you telling me what I already know?”

“You don’t know this. Nila, I couldn’t figure it out. I hit Paul with everything I had. Everything. I am a strong man. He got right back up. Because, he is just like this man.”

“Yes. Yes he was.  And all the more reason to help this man or let him go. He’s sick.”

“No, Nila,” Lev said passionately. “He’s not sick. He’s dead.”

Three quick breaths escaped me as I nearly laughed in a shocked disbelief. “He’s not dead. There’s no way, no how, medically it’s impossible.”

“Yes and so is this virus. It kills everything from the outside in. From the flesh to the organs until all that remains is a brain, somehow still functioning, and moving the person.”

“No.” I shook my head.

Lev pulled out a flashlight from his handy belt and a screwdriver. He lit the light. “Look at the floor. Look at all this blood. All of this has come from his body. Everything that was inside his body is on this floor. Watch …” He lifted the screwdriver and as the infected grabbed for him, Lev stabbed him with a quick jab in the arm, then he retracted the screwdriver.

I jumped.

“There’s no blood. He’s not bleeding,” Lev said. “Paul didn’t bleed when I drove the hammer in his head. Why? All the blood is gone. It’s already out of his body.”

“It’s insane. No,” I shook my head. “This sounds crazy. Bobby said the dead are not rising.”

“He’s right. The dead aren’t rising. They don’t die and get up,” Lev replied. “Because somewhere in the process, they die … and keep going.”

There was one way to find out.

“No!” Cade protested adamantly.

I pleaded. “Just do this. We need to know.”

“No.” his voice nearly squealed. “You can’t be serious. Niles, do you know how incredibly insane this sounds?”

“Sounds about right to me,” my father said. “We asked. I asked my son if the dead were rising. He said no.”

“And they aren’t,” Cade said. “I know somewhere, both of you want and are looking for some reasonable explanation for this. There may not be a clear cut reason, but I can assure you the dead aren’t rising.”

Lev spoke up. “They aren’t rising. If they die before the virus finishes the job in the brain they die. But if the virus finishes attacking the brain, they die, but they don’t stop.”

Cade laughed. “Are you a doctor, Lev?”

“No.”

“Neither am I. So neither of us are qualified to judge if this is medically happening. I can promise you though, in all the years I have been a first responder I have never seen a dead person walk.”

“I beg your pardon, Cade,” Lev said. “But all you need to do is listen for a heartbeat. Verify there is no heart, pulse or blood flow. The one I have up at the pool house …”

“Whoa. Wait.” Cade raised his hands. “You have one at the pool house? Up at camp? You’re not wanting me to check the ones in the community center?”

“No, the one in the pool house,” Lev said. “I have had him there before he turned. I asked him for permission. He agreed. I needed to learn how this works.”

My father whistled. “That’s good goddamn thinking, Lev.”

“No,” Cade argued. “It’s horrible thinking. That’s just not right. And you.” Cade turned to me. “How are you agreeing with this? You are the first person to fight for the ill. Your own brother told you to put your husband out of his misery. You couldn’t do it. You were fortunate that he died before anything happened. Because I honestly don’t think you could have killed him.”

“He didn’t die before he turned,” I said.

“Nila.” Lev pulled me back. “Just, let’s …”

“Stop.” Cade told Lev.  “What are you talking about? You and him said Paul died. You carried him outside.”

“He did die,” I said. “But didn’t.”

My father asked. “He turned?”

I nodded. “He escaped. He climbed out the window somehow, when I was working on the garden he came after me. Lev saved me. I’ll tell you, he hit Paul hard with a hammer and Paul got right back up and came again.”

Angry, Cade said. “Why would you lie to us?”

“I didn’t lie,” I defended. “I just twisted the truth.”

“Same difference. And I am done. Lev, if you want me to help with those not tied up in the pool house, I will. I’ll check on them. But I am not wasting my time checking for a heartbeat on a walking and standing man in a pool house. I can give you an answer now. He has a heartbeat.” Cade started to walk away. “Right now, I have wood to cut to recreate some sort of spike thing your father saw on a damn TV show.”

“What if I did the spikes for you?” Lev called out. “I’ll do them. All you have to do is confirm that man in the pool house is dead. And check on the people in the community center. We need to know who is next.”

Cade stopped walking.

My father spoke low. “Wow, that was easy.”

“I’m not gonna euthanize the ones in the community center without permission from the families or the patient.”

“Even if the man has no heartbeat?” Lev asked.

“He has a heartbeat,” Cade said. “No euthanizing without permission. I save lives not take them. Let’s get this done with.” He walked to Lev’s truck. “And when we get back, you will start working on those spikes.”

I stood there as Cade in some sort of tirade, got in Lev’s truck. His mood was awful and had gone downhill since the morning. I understood. He was tired, my father had him working hard, and when all Cade wanted to do was forget about the virus stricken world for a day, but he was pulled right back into it.

The one thing I couldn’t figure out was Cade’s angry defensiveness. Did he truly believe that it was a ridiculous waste of his time to check pool house man for a heartbeat or perhaps, he was defensive, because somewhere inside him he was afraid it was true?

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They were gone a while. Lev and Cade had left and made it to the end of the driveway before they had to return for Cade’s medical things. In his huff of a dramatic departure, he forgot them. Lev reminded me to charge the radio, and I did as soon as they left.

I don’t know why I expected them to only be gone a half an hour. Cade had over forty people to check on in the community center.

After they had been away for over an hour, my father had me working on those spikes. I couldn’t chop the wood efficiently, but he had me cutting the edges to make them as sharp as I could.

Lev was gonna pay. It was his bribe to Cade, yet, I was doing it.

I took some time during my half assed wood whittling to remember Paul. Remember the man who wasn’t sick. He worked his way up in the Super Center, a good man who took care of his family and loved them. I did love Paul. It was a love that grew over time and I would miss him terribly and always.

A part of me felt as if it weren’t real. I believed that came from the fact that I had been to the cabin so much without Paul over the years, it was hard to believe he really was gone and not just at home enjoying his time away from us.

Did I even have a home anymore? When we left the street mayhem had broken out. The car crash spun my little road into a war zone. What would become of it? Of my neighbors who didn’t get out?

I took a break from spike work when the girls came and asked me to look at their drawings. The dry wall was perched against the long main wall between the kitchen and living room, and rested sideways. On the far left, there were two small drawings. One by Katie, the other by Addy.

My older daughter drew a flower. When I asked why she chose that, she replied. “When we came up here everything was still beautiful. The flowers were growing.”

It displayed her outlook of remembering a beautiful world.

Katie on the other hand drew a bug. A bloody bug. She shrugged when I asked why that was what she chose.

Ironically a virus is called a bug and Lev believed bugs carried them.

Maybe my child had some sort of psychic ability.

A radio call came from Boswick in the middle of my break. He wanted to speak to my father, but did talk to me first.

He called to say that he spoke to a KOA site outside of Erie.

“They called to give us a heads up. They were abandoning ship,” Boswick said.

“Why? They’re secure.”

“Seems those leaving Erie got caught up on the highway. Many were sick, many turned, got others sick. The highway was only six miles from the site and there’s no way they can secure it if the infected migrate there. They already were dealing with sick, like we are.”

“So why were they giving us a heads up? Erie is a distance away.”

“Yeah, but Seventy-Nine is not. We have a few miles to one main road and two to another. We can’t secure Big Bear enough,” Boswick said. “Especially with us fighting it inside. I’m hoping your father will take a few people, let them camp on the land in the fenced in area. Give them a fighting chance. In case things get bad here.”

I didn’t want to tell Boswick that I highly doubted it. Despite that, Boswick and my father constantly fought, my father wasn’t quite as good hearted a person that Boswick was. I couldn’t see my father going to church retreats, let alone adopting a child from another country.

After telling Boswick he needed to talk to my father regarding that, I brought my dad the radio.

He took the radio behind the cabin and I didn’t really hear what was said. I also didn’t ask my father if he was going to take people in. Maybe because I didn’t want to hear that my father said no and would turn people away.

When he brought back the radio, he set it down next to me and said, “Shame about Erie. I’m gonna put some beer in cold water. They’ll be chilled in a bit,” Then he walked away.

Erie.

It made me think about Cade. He had been on his way to Erie to see his parents. I know he had his phone and I wondered if he ever got a hold of them? Obviously, he worried about them, but would he seek them out? Leave us to find them? It wouldn’t surprise me if he did.

I felt horrible for not asking how he was doing with that.

I would.

My hands ached and I knew it was time to stop. I’d push it a little more. It reminded me of the time, when during a promotion, we ran out of French fries at Arby’s. We didn’t have enough people on the floor to go to another Arby’s and get some. There were only a few hours left and we started cutting up the potatoes we had for Stuffed Spuds. Not realizing that we only needed to go to the supermarket a block away and buy a few bags of frozen fries.

I felt really bad for our manager because corporate got mad. Not because we used the baking potatoes, but rather the amount of complaints they got because they didn’t keep the great home style fries people got that night.

I started to worry about my co-workers. I liked everyone I worked with and hoped they were safe.

Lisa’s dinner didn’t do much to ease my mind about my former co-workers. She made a bourbon glazed roast. One of four remaining meat products that were in the mini dorm fridge we plugged into the solar generator. We didn’t bring much meat, the meat we did bring was from our own freezers and the rest was canned or dehydrated.

There was always hunting or fishing.

That roast took up most of the room, so at least we could put some beers in there instead of in a pail of well water.

Just as the sun began to set, I took a cold beer, rolling it between my hands to sooth them as I sat on the porch.

My father started putting the spikes out. Well, at least the ones that were finished. He imbedded them into the ground at a forty five degree angle protruding outward. He was by the fence when Lev’s truck pulled up.

He opened the gate, but only Cade walked through. Lev extended his hand out of the truck in a wave then backed up and left.

Cade carried his bag straight to the cabin. “Hey,” he said as he walked to the porch.

“Hey. I left you supper on the stove and there’s cold beer in the mini fridge out back.”

“Thanks. I’ll need something more than a beer,” he said and walked into the cabin.

I thought to myself it had to be rough at Big Bear.

“Well, I’m done for now.” My father walked up to me. “I’m gonna go sit with the girls and read to them.”

“Don’t you want to find out from Cade what happened up there?”

“Nah, I’ll find out tomorrow. See you in bit.” Then like he used to do when I was young, he rubbed my hair, messing it up as he passed me.

When Cade finally emerged from the cabin he carried a scent of dinner, soap and whiskey. He must have cleaned up some, and got the hard stuff from Lisa.

He sat next to me, propped his plate on his lap and a huge glass of bourbon next to him.

“That’s gonna kick your ass,” I told him. “I can’t believe Lisa gave up that much of her stash.”

“She hasn’t drank today.”

“Really? I never knew her not to drink.”

“She didn’t today,” Cade took a forkful of food. “Wow, this is good.”

“She’s an amazing cook. So … Cade, listen. I am so sorry I have been wrapped up in my own stuff. How are you? Are you okay? I mean, I haven’t asked how you’re doing since your sister’s death, your family?”

“I want to be better. I’m keeping busy. I keep trying to get a hold of my father, but there’s no answer. Eventually I’ll make it there.” He lifted his bourbon and took a swig. “Thank you for asking. I mean it. Thank you. How are you?”

“Staying busy. Thinking of good things.”

“Kind of hard to do.”

“Tell me about it.”

Cade held that bourbon close to his mouth, took a sip, then another before setting it down. “None.”

“Excuse me?”

“Pool man. None. No heartbeat. It was a bitch holding him still. Had Lev not been wearing thick gloves he would have lost a finger. But no heartbeat. No breath sounds. Yet … there he was.”

“What did you guys do with him?”

“Oh he’s still there. I think …” He paused to eat. “To know what we’re dealing with, we need to leave him there to see how long it takes for him to die and what the progression is. Does he weaken, get stronger, that sort of thing. We’ll be able to gauge when it could be safe to head home. Or at least into a town for supplies. If we’re here long enough, we’ll run out.”

“What about the community center?”

“It’s bad. Another nine are sick, they didn’t even bother coming in. They just let us know. Only five wanted to die. Whether they all die or turn into some sort of rage filled monster, Big Bear is in trouble if more than a few turn at once.”

“Hence the retreat plan.” I said.