The Reawakening (The Living Dead Trilogy, Book 1) (11 page)

Dar ran out the back door before I could stop her. I limped behind, clutching my ribs in pain. I pulled open the screen door and searched for her. Behind the house sat a dilapidated barn. Dar stood near the double doors, which were slightly ajar, and waved me over. I made my way down until I stood next to her, hearing a series of moans resonating from within. Dar peeked her head inside the door as I knelt down beneath her and looked inside.

What I saw repulsed me. Three bizarre-looking creatures knelt over two adults and appeared to be pulling organs out of the bodies. The creatures appeared to be children—or
were
children at one time. But they were children no more. They fought amongst themselves over the heads, which had been ripped from the bodies. They clawed away at every orifice in an attempt to extricate the gray brain matter. Blood was smeared over their mouths and hands. They sucked at the eye sockets and slurped hungrily, screeching in competition for the bloody morsels. They pulled stringy tendons from the neck and chewed as if it were linguine. They pushed and shoved each other for the choicest morsels. I noticed some distinct physical differences between the children. The smallest one had what seemed like feathers covering his body, as well as a tiny set of wings attached to his back. The girl had a round nose like a snout and pointy ears that continually flicked away flies. She made grunting noises as she chomped down on the hair-covered skull bones. The oldest boy looked like an animal too, but nothing in particular that I could identify.

A gust of wind blew at our backs, and the three creatures stood on their hind legs and sniffed the air. Their hands, more like claws, were spattered with blood and brain matter. They turned and looked at us. The one that resembled the bird flew a few feet in the air before landing back down on one of the bodies. Each of them also had claws where there should have been feet. They shrieked loudly and began to charge towards the door. Pinkish, spongy jelly clung to their hands and was smeared across their faces. It resembled cranberry sauce.

Dar swung the door open and aimed the rifle at them. “Want a piece of me, you little fuckers?”

Her first shot blasted through the pig child’s head. Gray brain matter sprayed in the air behind it, and it collapsed on a bale of hay. I lifted the rifle but couldn’t locate the flyer. Where had it gone? Dar swung the barrel around and took aim at the nebulous older one.

“I want that feathered bitch,” she shouted.

I took aim despite the spasm in my ribs. “I’ll take out the older one.” I fired and put a bullet through his eye socket, and he fell back dead.

We opened the barn doors. Light filtered inside, illuminating the grisly scene. Dar aimed upwards and fired, but the feathered thing flew higher up into the dark loft, hiding from view. These creatures were mutating and becoming more adaptable to their surroundings. It was starting to make sense now. It suddenly dawned on me that Susan had taken on the DNA of the cow that had bitten her.

“Come on, Dar, let that one go. We need to get in that truck and get back to the house.”

I scurried to the front yard and towards the truck. My ribs felt afire, and the knot on my head pulsed with pain. Dar reached the truck ahead of me. Above us, the flock of birds rocketed back and forth, but they had not yet attacked for some reason. I fumbled with the keys, and as I did, I turned and saw the winged child heading our way. It skipped, flew up, and then scampered on the ground again. I pointed my rifle at it and fired, but missed. Dar took aim from the other side of the truck. She waited until the demon pounced at the last second before firing a round through its translucent skull. Its head exploded, and a fine spray of grayish brain matter misted down upon us. It caused my face to tingle as if pricked with a thousand pins. I walked around the truck and stared down at it lying on the ground, trying to make out what manner of beast this child had turned into. What had once been an angelic-looking seven-year-old boy was now a headless monster with mangled feathers and hands shaped like claws. Its body lay covered in blood and brain matter, and fatty tissues of pink cerebral cortex sat speared like kebobs in its sharp claws.

“That’s some radical shit!” Dar shouted excitedly.

“Get in the truck.”

“Blew its fucking head clear off. So cool!”

“Get in, Dar!”

We climbed inside the truck and shut the doors.

“Uh, Dad?” Dar said, pointing towards the left side of the road.

Four more creatures had appeared. Where had they come from? As soon as they saw us, they began to stumble up the hill in our direction.

“More of them. They’re everywhere.”

“Yes, I can see that.” I stuck the key in the ignition and turned. “Come on, truck. Please start.”

“They’re getting closer. Hurry up, and get this piece of shit moving, Dad.”

“I’m trying. It obviously hasn’t been started in some time.”

The four creatures staggered up and pawed around the side of the truck. One of them, I noticed, had been the redneck at the general store that had dragged Dar into the woods. I heard the rifle go off, and the passenger window shattered. The creature’s head jerked backward, leaking gray goo out onto the dirt.

“Rot in hell, you fucking rapist!” Dar shouted.

“What the hell are you
doing
? Now they can reach inside and get us.”

“Sorry, but I just couldn’t help myself.”

“Nice shot then.”

She pointed the rifle at each one of the creatures, blowing their heads off. I fiddled with the ignition, pumping the gas pedal like crazy. Finally the engine turned over, and the truck came to life. Dar stuck her head out the window and whooped triumphantly.

“I’ll kill all of you motherfuckers!” she shouted.

“Relax, Dar. Compose yourself.”

“Don’t you dare tell me what to do,” she snapped. “Because I’ll never relax again, you hear? We need to keep killing these things in order to stay alive.”

“Let’s just worry about making it back to the farm.”

“They’ll keep on coming, old man, one after another. Better get used to it.”

“We’ll discuss it when we get back to the house.”

“Your brother was right. Shoot them in the head, and they drop like flies.”

I pressed down on the gas pedal, and the engine stuttered, stalled, and then began to move forward. I decided to let the engine warm up a little more.

“I don’t want to flood the engine and have it die on us in the middle of nowhere.”

“Look out there. More of them are on their way,” she said, pointing at another group of flesh-eaters stumbling onto the property. “Put it in drive, and run their asses over.”

One of the dead picked up a stone and threw it at the truck. It flew through the broken window and knocked loose some jagged pieces of glass attached to the frame. The sharp crystals flew inward, and I covered my face with my arms as they sprayed back into my face. One of the creatures reached through Dar’s broken window and started to grope at her with his rotting hand. Saying a quick prayer, I punched the gas pedal. The transmission wavered for a second and then sprung to life. The truck lurched forward on the dirt driveway, crashing into the lot of them. A couple of the creatures flew into the air. Two others fell under the front end. I heard the sound of skulls cracking under the truck’s tires, snapping like twigs. It was one of the most sickening sounds I’d ever heard. Dar punched the dashboard and shouted happily. Turning onto the main road, I glanced at the dash and noticed an eight-track player with a tape protruding out of it. I pushed it inside in order to drown out the sickening noises reverberating in my head.

Black smoke poured out of the muffler. In the rearview mirror, I could see a few of the creatures stumbling through the thick haze and heading in our direction.

“What is that noise? That’s probably the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

“Tell me about it. I hope I never ever hear the sound of bodies crunching like that again.”

“No, I mean that music. What is that shit?”

“‘Fernando’ by Abba,” I said, smiling halfheartedly. “You don’t like it?”

“It’s repulsive. Please shut that off,” she said, rifling through the loose cassettes on the floor. “Here, stick this one in instead.”

I took out the Abba tape, tossed it out the window, and inserted the other tape. Upon hearing the song, I punched the steering wheel happily. Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I steered the truck down the road. Despite my love of jazz, this was one of my favorite songs of all time.

“Now this is more like it. Who’s this guy?”

“The Boss. ‘Born To Run.’”

“Who’s the boss?”

“Bruce Springsteen. Only the greatest rock-and-roller of all time.” I started to sing along.

We sang the refrain to ‘Born to Run’ as the truck sputtered down the lone country road, the two of us bonding in a way I never could have imagined. I looked down and noticed that the gas gauge indicated we were low on fuel. We passed some wobbly creatures stumbling aimlessly along the road. They howled and turned towards us as we passed. Dar stuck her head out the window and gave them the finger, cussing loudly. It was then that I realized we had a good chance of making it back safely, if we could only go a little further. We’d made it this far already and were less than a mile away from the farm.

It felt now as if Dar and I, two tramps like us, were born to run.

Chapter 8

T
HEN THE TRUCK BEGAN TO SPUTTER.
Shit!
I stepped on the gas, rocking in my seat and trying to milk a few extra rotations out of it, but realized that this was the end of the line. It slowly glided to a stop on the broken yellow median strip. Dar glanced over at me as the Boss’s voice faded to nothing. Just ahead I saw what looked to be two creatures stumbling in our direction. One of them fell to all fours and began to crawl towards us, its tongue hanging out. Thick strings of saliva hung from its mouth and dripped onto the road. The truck’s engine gasped and exploded one last time before it died. We sat there in the middle of the road, debating what to do next.

“What just happened?” Dar asked.

“We’re out of gas. Grab your rifle because we’re going to have to hoof it the rest of the way back.”

“How did we run out of gas?”

“Wasn’t like there were many gas stations along the way, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“Okay, I’m ready to do this.”

“Stay on the yellow line so we can head back together.”

“How about we just follow the yellow brick road? Lions and tigers and fuckers, oh my!”

“Funny, Dar.”

We hopped out of the truck and began to trudge down the center of the road, rifles in hand. The creatures, approaching us from the opposite side, raised their arms and hissed. One of them was a girl in her early twenties, completely naked. The other guy looked to be the same age. I imagined them as a young couple once in love. The girl looked as if she’d been the result of a wolf mating with a human. Fine hairs sprouted from her skin, and her teeth looked long, sharp and yellow. She looked skyward and let out a howl. Dar aimed the rifle and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened.

“Damn, I’m out of ammo.” Dar grabbed the rifle by the barrel. “There’s more than one way to skin a fucker.”

I took aim, fired—and missed. Dar sauntered over to the snarling beasts and cracked the gun over the wolf girl’s head. It fell back to the pavement, howling in pain. I ran over and took aim at the male heading towards Dar, hoping there was still some ammo left in my rifle. Blood dripped from the man’s yellow teeth as he grabbed hold of Dar and tried to take a bite out of her shoulder. I pulled the trigger and spilled his brains out onto the road. The body toppled over to the side and lay convulsing. I checked the magazine and saw that it was empty.

The wolf-girl got up and charged. Dar gripped the rifle’s barrel like a baseball bat and waited for the right moment. The creature bared its fangs and hissed before lunging forward. Dar swung with all her might and cracked it against its head, and it fell to the ground screeching. It started to rise, but Dar ran over and bashed it repeatedly over the head until its skull split open and grayish-pink brain matter spilled out over the dotted yellow line.

“That’ll teach you to mess with me!” Dar screamed, trying to catch her breath.

“Come on,” I said, grabbing her hand. “We don’t have much time.”

We staggered ahead. Every breath I took caused me to gasp in agony. Another creature sauntered towards us, but we easily swerved around it and continued on our way. The human ones, I realized, were slow and plodding, like zombies, and easy to maneuver around.

“Eat me!” Dar shouted as we sprinted past, flipping it off.

“I doubt they understand what you’re saying.”

“Don’t care. The only thing these things understand is a bullet to the brain.”

As soon as we’d run a couple yards, I turned back and saw that the creature was pursuing us. I tried to ignore the sharp pain in my ribs and put it out of my mind, but found it difficult. Despite the grim future facing us, all I wanted at the moment was for Dar and I to make it back safely.