When the Dead (31 page)

It was late evening. What evening, Vaughn didn’t know. He
might have known earlier what week they were in, what day of it he was living.
But now he had lost count of the beers he had downed and with them, the days.
He didn’t usually keep track of either of those things anyway.

            He was making plans to leave the complex for
good. In fact, he had readied Dead Lawn, the house down the road with the dog,
over a few days’ time. Tom was sick of the group downstairs. They had become a
hassle and he was gladly trading their company for that of Cheddar the Golden
Retriever. He’d rather put up with Cheddar’s constant need to have his paw held
than any of the other tenants. It wasn’t just the people though. His apartment,
which was small before the outbreak, had taken on a coffin-like feel, stifling
and claustrophobic. It was definitely time for a change.

            He was packing the second of two large duffel
bags and going over the plan in his head when Hayden let herself in to the
apartment.

            “Hey,” was all Hayden said. When Tom heard the
word ‘hey’ it told him that she was bored and he hated that. He wasn’t her
entertainer.

            “Don’t you knock girl?” Tom turned around on
unsteady feet. She was playing with her hair and looking around. Her eyes came
to meet his and he watched them scan down to the duffel bags.

            “What are you doing?” she asked, though Tom was
unsure if she was asking specifically about the bags.

            “Not much, just hanging out.” All his words came
out slurred but he was sober enough to decide not to explain the travel gear.
Hayden too had become a hassle and she wasn’t invited over to his new place. He
wanted to disappear.

            “Don’t you drink something other than beer? Ever
heard of water?” she laughed, but Vaughn didn’t think it was funny, just
annoying. His anger and impatience with her were beginning to rise and he
wanted her to leave.

            “Are we going to screw or are you going to get
out of here?” His impatience had won and now he was in full jerk mode.

            “You shouldn’t talk to me like that. You should
treat me better, like Ben does.”

            “Ben is a pussy of a man and I don’t have to do
anything for you Hayden. If you let him touch you it just goes to show what a
slut you truly are. Go away. We’re done.” He tried to push her towards the door
so he could continue his packing. She pushed back and smacked his face. He hit
her back, almost knocking her to the ground.

            “I’m pregnant, Tom!” she yelled; the pain of his
slap and his rejection registering and bringing tears to her eyes. Vaughn was
too drunk and dumbfounded to figure out what that meant for him. He grabbed his
cigarettes and a lighter and went for the balcony. Hayden followed so he
climbed down the fire escape, something he knew she wouldn’t do.

Jeff had to look out for himself again. He was happy he’d
removed himself from the group and been able to return to the solitude of his
apartment. He found only one issue with his idea of paradise, his food was very
low but Isobel would try to convince him to rejoin the social structure of the
group if he approached her in need. He wouldn’t ask for sustenance, he would
take it. But first he would take a gun and he knew just where to get one from.

            Feeling more empowered than usual, something
similar to the feeling he felt when he’d killed his wife, he walked upstairs to
Tom’s apartment to arm himself. When he knocked Tom didn’t answer, Hayden did.

            “Hi, um, Jeff,” she said as she held a hand to
her face where it still burned from the impact of Vaughn’s hand.

            “Hey, is Tom here?” He looked around the living
room.

            “No, he went out for a little bit. Can I do
something for you?”

            Jeff didn’t know if she was trying to come on to
him but he didn’t care either way. “I just need a gun.”

            “He won’t like that,” Hayden shook her head.

            “But you won’t tell him,” Jeff grabbed her
throat. His hand gripped her small neck hard enough to let her know that he
wasn’t there to screw around. “He has so much crap in here he won’t notice.”

Hayden nodded her head as much as
she could in his grasp and he let go. She moved out of his way. Jeff picked a handgun;
it would do the job he needed it to.

            “Knowing how psychotic he is, I bet you he’ll
notice the gun is gone. You should think about leaving before he comes back,”
Jeff suggested. Hayden thought it semi-psychotic of Jeff to choke her and look
out for her well-being in the same visit.

            “No, we were talking about something and we
weren’t finished.”

            “Well, I should go then. Thanks for the gun.”

“I’m
going to bed soon. I feel super drained. Maybe things will look up tomorrow,”
Isobel yawned and waited for Ben’s reply but he was already snoozing. She blew
out the last lit candle and made her way to her bedroom in the dark. Not twenty
minutes later Ben was shaking her awake.

            “Isobel,
get up. Jeff is here.”

            “Tell
him we can talk tomorrow,” Isobel said as she rolled over in bed.

            “Isob-
” Ben started.

The beam of a flashlight hit her in the face. The brightness blinded her
temporarily.

            “Get
out of bed. Now.” It was Jeff, his meek voice sounding strong and scary to her.

            “Can’t
this
wait
? Whatever this is?”

            “I
have a gun, Isobel. I don’t need it to kill you but don’t make me use it.” His
allusion to strangling as an option made him smile and Isobel cringe.

            She
was out of bed at the word
gun
, leading the way into the living room,
followed by Ben with Jeff and his mysteriously acquired handgun bringing up the
rear. Isobel lit a few candles for some light that would be softer than the
glare of the flashlight. She discreetly looked around the table and side tables
for Ben’s handgun. Jeff saw it at the same time she did. He picked it up and
tossed it behind the couch.

            “I
defended you to
everyone
, Jeff. Why are you doing this?” Her teeth
chattered from nervousness and the nighttime cold of the room. Isobel didn’t
want to die but she couldn’t think of a reason why Jeff would actually kill
her. Still, a gun in her face had her on edge.

            “I
just want to live like everyone else and to do that I have to eat. I need you
to give me the key to the rations apartment.”

            “But
. . .” Isobel began to argue. Jeff cocked the gun.

            “Are
you going to tell me something stupid like ‘you found it first?’ Because I
don’t fucking care. No one elected you supreme leader. I’ll bring the key back
when I take what I need.”

            “Then
why the gun? Why are you scaring the hell out of me to take something you are
going to return anyway? Borrowing hardly seems like a good reason to threaten a
life.”

            “I
want the extra key to my apartment too,” Jeff explained. He didn’t want to talk
to her he just wanted to get the keys and leave. “Don’t say anything else. Just
do it.”

            Isobel
found the key ring and relinquished the requested keys to him. Jeff left
backwards, the gun aimed at Isobel and Ben as he disappeared into the darkened
hallway and back upstairs.

Vaughn had never been outside with the dead while so
intoxicated. It was a trip that messed with his head in a way he didn’t like.
Vaughn was stubborn though and refused to climb back upstairs before he
finished a cigarette. The sky was dark; it was later than he’d thought. He had
to keep walking or the dead would catch him. The more he moved the more tired
he felt, the slower he became, like the alcohol hadn’t been fully absorbed
until this escapist expedition. He had to go back; this wasn’t working. He
would have to deal with Hayden, the girl he’d invited into his life, and face
the mistake he had made by doing so.

            He reached for the lowest ladder rung. A huge
woman came around the corner of the building. Vaughn was struck by her size.
She smelled absolutely putrid. Near five-hundred pounds alive, all of that mass
was rotting. He couldn’t stop looking at her. She seemed to be coming for him
in slow motion but slow was as fast as she could move. In the darkness her face
looked like his mother.

            “I don’t want to raise a baby. I don’t want to.
I just wanted the retarded dog.” He was talking to the thing, hoping for some
understanding, looking for a little unconditional love. The alcohol was making
him emotional and the tears started falling. They blurred his vision more than
the beer; making the monster look even more like his mother. She had her arms
open like a hug, an invitation. Vaughn put his arms out in front of him, ready
for the embrace. The woman almost had him enveloped when she turned her head
ever so slightly and took a giant bite out of Tom’s left forearm.

            The pain raced through his arm and into his
head, clearing it in an instant. He’d had twelve beers, Hayden was knocked up,
and this woman, who was
not
his mother and not really even a woman had
just infected him. He fought his way out of the clutches of the beast and
pulled himself up the ladder. Hayden was kneeling on the floor, unpacking his
duffel bags and crying. She could see the wound on his arm.

            “You bitch! You fucking bitch! Come here!”
Vaughn pulled her from the floor by her hair and threw her face down on the
couch. He ripped her clothes off and entered her without mercy.

Jeff’s hands were shaking as he stood at the doorway to the
apartment upstairs were the food was stored. He couldn’t believe he’d held a
gun to two people’s faces! He felt incredible, in control and as badass as
Vaughn. Just as he was about to turn the key to unlock the door he heard Hayden
screaming from Vaughn’s apartment. He crept to the door of Vaughn’s place and
pressed an ear to it. From the noises he heard the two of them were fucking
again. Jeff was surprised to be turned on by the sound. Since Markus had left
he was unmotivated to please himself but the grunting of Vaughn and the begging
of Hayden was far too much for him to handle. He unzipped his pants in the
darkness of the end of the hall and attempted to find a heaven similar to the
one he’d found with Markus.

“How fast do you think the infection can spread through my
entire
body? Consider it a gift to you and the baby to show how much I care about
you both,” Vaughn whispered into Hayden’s ear. His arm looked like shit and it
was dripping blood on Hayden’s back. She was screaming and struggling to get
away from him but he was too strong and too determined to see it through to the
end. He wondered if he’d have time to find Molly and be with her too before he
turned.

            “Do you see what you did to me? Huh?” Vaughn
only knew anger now. His plans were ruined, his life ending.

            “You brought me here!” she screamed. “You did
this to yourself!”

            As though he hadn’t harmed her enough, when he
was finished he flicked on some porn, something he knew Hayden despised, and
went to grab another beer.

            “Let me go. Let me leave,” she was whimpering on
the floor, naked and terrified that Vaughn would turn at any moment into a
zombie and try to eat her.

            “Oh, you want to go
now
? I was trying to
kick you out earlier but you wouldn’t leave. You know where the fucking door is,
whore.”

            Hayden picked up her clothes and started for the
exit. She saw a handgun on the side table near the couch. She reached for it as
she heard the beer bottle drop.

            “It’s happening. I can’t believe it. I’m going fucking
numb!” Vaughn yelled as he looked at his arms.

            She pulled the trigger but her shaking hands and
lack of any real firearms skills made for a lousy shot. The bullet hit wall.
She ran for the door. She had to get away before the change was complete.

Jeff had finished and was sitting in the dark enjoying the
afterglow when he heard a
pop
from Vaughn’s apartment. He was still
processing the noise when the door was ripped open. He lifted his gun, fearing
it was Vaughn himself but Hayden’s nude silhouette stood in the light of the
doorway.

            She saw Jeff sitting with his pants open in the
corner of the hallway. “
Help me
,” she had just enough time to whisper to
him.

Molly
was jarred from sleep by the sound of gunshots. Her body was stiff from lying
on the kitchen floor for hours. She felt her forehead with the back of her
hand, searching for fever but finding it cool and dry. She stood up slowly,
holding onto the edge of the counter for support, expecting to be dizzy and
nauseous. She found her feet steady, her vision acute and her stomach still
holding its contents.

            “Oh,
thank the fucking Lord. That was close,” she said, overwhelmed with relief that
she hadn’t poisoned herself with bad food. Then she remembered the noise she’d
heard and wondered if it had been real. If she wasn’t sick, it must have been.

Isobel too was startled from her sleep. The gunshots sounded as though it
had come from within the building. Her watch said that it was only an hour
after Jeff’s gun-accompanied visit. She already had clothes and shoes on but
she stumbled around to find a fleece jacket because the air inside was
freezing.

            Ben
was awake in the living room, wrapped in a thick bathrobe, and sitting upright
listening for some further disturbance.

            “Who
do you think that was?” Isobel asked.

            “I
don’t know. Jeff, maybe? I don’t hear screaming or running or anything,” Ben
answered.

            “You
think he took his life?” Isobel hoped that was the case. It would solve a few
problems.

            “Like
I said, I don’t know.” Ben shrugged.

            “Let’s
go find out.” Isobel unlocked her apartment door to find everyone else, the
small group that they were, in the second floor hall already. They all looked
just as bewildered; no one had answers.

            “Who
are we missing?” Ben asked. He had his gun, recovered from behind Isobel’s
couch, and a flashlight, one in each hand. He shone the light over the
bleary-eyed group, trying to recognize the shadowy faces of those surrounding
him.

            Jeff
wasn’t in the hallway with the others. Rob had Gabe wrapped up in a quilt.
Molly stood alone, looking stressed and tired.

            “What’s
wrong with your face, Molly?” Rob asked her, noticing strange markings across
her left cheek.

            “What?”
She raised a hand to her skin and felt shallow, long, and strangely geometric
indentations there. “Oh. I fell asleep on the linoleum.”

            Rob
didn’t ask for further clarification. It was an answer that made sense for the
marks but why would she be on the floor? Molly saw him thinking over her
response.

            “I
felt hot and it was the only cool place I could find,” she added.

            “Are
you feeling better now?” Isobel asked her with motherly concern in her voice.

            “Much
better. Thank you,” Molly answered only to end the conversation. She hated it
when Isobel talked to her like a child.

            “Has
anyone seen Jeff?” Isobel inquired. She didn’t know if he’d asserted himself
with anyone else in the time since she’d been threatened by him.

            “I
already tried to check his place but the door was locked and if he was in there
he didn’t answer,” Rob said.

            “Hayden’s
not here,” Ben said, his heartbeat growing more rapid.

            “Only
one place it could have come from then. Ben, can you lead the way to the third
floor?” Isobel asked expectantly. Ben said nothing but walked to the front of
the group to take point.

            “I
think Gabe and I will stay here, if that’s alright? If Vaughn has a gun I don’t
want it pointed at my son.”

            Isobel
turned to him in the dark of the hallway. “We could really use your help, Rob.”
Isobel didn’t feel safe with just Molly, who’d turned against everyone, and Ben
whose attachment to Hayden might lead him to angering Vaughn. She needed
another stable person with her and Rob was the only option.

            “Gabe,
can you promise to stay in the apartment until I come back?” Rob asked as he
rubbed his son’s shoulders through the blanket that enveloped him.

            “I’m
scared, dad. What if you don’t come back?”

            “I’ll
come back. I pinky promise.”

            “But
what if you
don’t
come back,” Gabe worried.

            “I
will but, if I don’t, someone else will come. Maybe Molly.” Rob looked at Molly
and she nodded lightly.

With Gabe safe in 203, Rob followed the others up the stairs with heavy
feet and foreboding. It was dark on the third floor except for Ben’s flashlight
and the light coming through the open doorway of Vaughn’s apartment at the end
of the hall. A nude form was lying on the floor, halfway in the apartment, and
halfway in the hall. In the corner opposite, Ben could see Jeff sitting,
clutching his knees to his chest. When the flashlight hit him he drew his legs
in tighter and tucked his head deeper out of view, like he was hiding.

“Oh!” Molly cried out but then covered her mouth. It was difficult to
tell if it was Hayden but the body on the floor couldn’t be anyone else.

“Jeff! What happened? Is Hayden ok?” Isobel asked as they all moved
forward. From their new position, just one apartment away from the body, they
could tell for certain that it was the teen.

“Is she alive, Jeff? Is she breathing?” Ben asked with growing worry in
his voice.

Jeff lifted his head slowly. “Shut up!” he whispered. “He’ll hear you!” A
strange growling noise came from Vaughn’s apartment. Everyone turned to the
doorway, expecting Vaughn to emerge but nothing happened.

“What the hell was that noise?” Isobel asked Jeff as quietly as she could
with still being audible to him.

“Vaughn has . . . turned,” Jeff whispered back.

“Can you crawl this way, slowly?” Rob asked him. As much as he despised
Jeff for his poor choices, he didn’t want anyone else to die.

“Get the flashlight off of me! He’ll notice.” Jeff needed darkness to
button his pants and conceal the handgun that tied him to Hayden’s murder. Ben
did as Jeff said and lowered the light to his own feet. Once Jeff had the gun
tucked in the back of his fastened jeans he started to move along the wall
towards the others. As he did, Molly got onto her knees and crawled by him.

“Molly, get back here!” Isobel ordered. “What are you doing?”

 “Hayden!”
Molly whispered, her voice trembling a bit as she
crawled closer to the girl. “Hayden, come on, we have to get you out of here.”

Another growl emitted from the unit and Hayden’s body was pulled in
entirely. A trail of blood appeared in its place. The blood drove Molly to stand
up and run forward to the light of the door. Something inside, something only
she could see, made her scream. She turned to run back as Vaughn’s half-naked
self came lunging out of 306. Ben aimed and pulled the trigger of his handgun.
The bullet hit Vaughn in the head above his left ear. Vaughn fell forward, onto
Molly, pinning her to the ground.

“Get him off! Get him off!”
she shrieked over and over. Ben and
Isobel pulled Vaughn off of Molly, careful to not get his blood on them. He reeked
of beer and there was a baseball–sized bite wound on his left forearm. He had
jeans on but his cock was hanging out of the open fly. Some of his semen had
leaked onto Molly’s pajama pants. She screamed as she ripped them off, sitting
in the cold in her underwear she began to cry. Jeff watched, and as he did a
smile grew on his face. He had fallen into the deep end of the pool of
insanity. He had killed his wife and enjoyed it. He had pulled a gun on friends
and wanted more. He had masturbated to a rape in progress and wished for it to
go on forever and he had shot a girl. As the group of residents flooded
Vaughn’s apartment to check on Hayden, he crawled back to the end of the hall
and touched the pool of Hayden’s blood on the carpet. This time he wouldn’t be admitting
anything to anyone.