and tossing a plastic bottle onto the ground wouldn’t help, but it wouldn’t hurt either. He was about to enter the truck again, when Victor who was sitting in the passenger seat looked as though he was about to take an afternoon nap. Poor boy needed all the sleep he could get, without the proper first aid, sleep was literally the best medicine they had.
Kyle had the urge to examine the head he had stored in the bucket. He didn’t know what for, but he felt that there might be something, anything, that the head could tell him about what was going on. He picked up the bucket and dropped it onto the side of the road. Water splashed out as the head rolled on the ground and stopped upright, with its teeth grinding on the pavement. He stared at the teeth, one of them looked different than the others, it was as though the tooth was a small fang. Its eyes remained open, exposing the gray gloss that seemed to be the calling card of the Existing Dead. But there was something different now, its eyes seemed to be turning red. Kyle reached for the last metal spike in the truck bed and began gently poking the head. He walked around it and noticed something that he’d not seen before. A large brown bubble that resembled a boil had appeared on the side of the creature’s face, just above the right cheekbone. Kyle poked at it once and it felt tough, but he wasn’t sure what exactly it could be. He sure as hell didn’t want to touch the growth with his bare hand.
“Was that always there?” Kyle asked, but no one was listening.
The head in front of him began to move its eyes.
No words could describe Kyle’s confusion. This was something new, something unknown, something he didn’t have any answers to.
The eyes of the monster moved rapidly, first looking directly in Kyle’s direction, then toward the truck, and finally toward the open area to Kyle’s right. Its eyelids began to open and close at an alarming rate, as if the creature had an itch that it couldn’t scratch. It stopped suddenly and stared at Kyle.
The creature finally realized what Kyle was. He was the only thing that seemed to please the Existing Dead; he was fodder.
Kyle reached for the Glock holstered at the small of his back and pointed it directly at the creature’s temple. He took a deep breath and fired. The bullet ejected from the cartridge with such speed that it met its target within a blink of Kyle’s eye. The head jerked back a few feet from the force and rolled to its side, leaving a trail of blood in its wake. Brain matter covered the pavement where ground zero had taken place.
Victor opened the truck’s door and hustled toward Kyle, the blood-covered Winchester in his grip. He stared at Kyle and gave him a look, as if mentally asking where the danger was coming from. Kyle motioned toward the ground where the head lay and placed the Glock on the corner of the truck. He held on to the spike in his hand and used it to perch the head upright again. The bullet hole that appeared on its forehead was small. The round hadn’t done much damage to the face, only to the back of the head where the bullet had ejected. Kyle called Victor over.
Victor gazed at the creature’s lifeless face. Its right eye was half open and his left fully open, resembling someone with the worst case of lazy eye ever. Kyle used the point of the spike and aimed at the growth.
“Was this here before?”
Victor squinted the best he could with his overly droopy eyes and said, “I don’t think so. I can’t be sure, though. But that fang sure as fuck wasn’t.”
“I don’t remember seeing it, either.”
Kyle and Victor stared at the head for a few seconds and jumped back when the creature’s cheeks began to twitch. Its eyes rolled around the area as it had before and stopped once it locked eyes with Kyle’s. There was no possible way that Kyle had missed its brain completely. Half of it was splattered on the ground anyway. The creature, however, continue to move its eyes.
Chapter Seventeen
No words would express what they felt right then and there. No longer did a headshot work to stop the Existing Dead. Was this what Doctor Greenly meant by the dead evolving? Had the
“I think we should go. We need to find someone who knows what’s going on,” Kyle said, gripping his weapon with more strength than needed.
“Take me home, Kyle. I want to go home.”
Kyle stared at Victor for a moment. He could see the fear in his eyes. Kyle raised the weapon toward the monster’s head and fired three shots. Two missed, but the third shot the creature through the right eye socket. Pus exploded from the wound and splattered the ground around it. The head did not roll like it had before.
Victor began to walk toward the truck, while Kyle continued staring at the head. He wanted to fire at it a few hundred more times until there was nothing of the head left. Maybe then it would finally die. But before Kyle could fire again, he heard a loud boom. He jumped in the direction of the sound. Victor stood by the door of the truck, holding Kyle’s Winchester in a firing position. His first shot missed the head by only a few inches. He pumped the shotgun and took aim.
“No!” Kyle yelled just before Victor fired the bloodied weapon.
It made an undistinguishable clicking noise, something that Kyle had never heard before. The weapon ejected the shell from its barrel, blowing out fire on its exit. Victor yelled as the backfire from the weapon forced the stock into his shoulder. The slug met its mark, blowing the head into a thousand small pieces. Teeth, brain matter and flesh spewed all around the area.
“Victor,” Kyle said quickly rushing to his aid. “Why the fuck did you do that? There’s a reason why I didn’t fire the shotgun without cleaning it first.”
Victor rubbed his shoulder. “Yeah, I think I just learned.”
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. Just hurts.”
“Move your hand,” Kyle said, holstering the Glock and putting his hand on Victor’s shoulder to check for any broken bones. “It doesn’t look like you broke anything.”
“We need to find you some cold compress ice packs. One for your face, and now one for your shoulder.”
“Just take me home. My mom’s a nurse just like that Susie chick. She has first-aid kits all over the place. I’m sure there’s a few of those ice packs.”
A moan erupted from the wooded area. They both quickly glanced in the direction of the noise.
“Get in the truck,” Kyle said.
Victor quickly got inside and strapped himself in.
Before Kyle made his way back to the truck, he stared at the splattered head when something odd caught his attention. A large piece of flesh and muscle had managed to stay together. It seemed as if that piece of mangled flesh twitched of its own accord. He examined the piece as another moan drawled closer. Kyle noticed that it was part of the head’s cheek, the same part where the boil had appeared. Could that little sack of fluid be what was causing the creature to continue moving?
Another moan, followed by another and another, began to come closer. The Existing Dead were finally in view. There were five of them, all with their eyes locked on Kyle, who had crouched down to look at the mess.
The piece with the boil twitched again, while all the other pieces remained still.
“Kyle! Come on!” Victor yelled.
Kyle stood and raised his leg into the air, then brought it crashing down on the still-moving piece of flesh. He rubbed his heel into the ground as if he was doing the Twist. A pinkish gel-like substance began to ooze from the sides of his shoe. It felt slippery under his footing. He removed his foot from the piece of flesh, exposing the ruptured boil. More pink gel continued to flow from the hunk of flesh, but Kyle did notice that it was no longer moving.
“Fuck, Kyle! Let’s go!” Victor yelled from the passenger seat.
Kyle glanced up and noticed that the Existing Dead were now focusing their attention on the yelling Victor.
Before Kyle could finish his thoughts, he sprang to action. He ran for the truck at full force and jumped into the driver’s seat.
“What the fuck were you doing?”
