The road was pretty clear. It seemed like all the Existing Dead gathered on that one point for some reason. Up ahead they noticed a figure lying on the ground with a metal spike through its heart. Its body was fried beyond recognition. Victor wasn’t able to tell if it was human or an Existing Dead as Kyle approached.
“What the hell happened here?” Victor questioned.
“That was me,” Kyle said.
“You did that?” Victor asked with a tint of fear in his voice.
“Yeah, I took out my anger on it,” Kyle said, stopping the car. “I had to leave because its friends showed up. Now I have a friend of my own.” Kyle got out of the car and looked at Victor. “This is what’s going to happen. You’re going to come out here with your gun and stand guard. If anything gets close shoot it in the head, understood?”
Victor nodded and got out of the truck. Kyle searched the bed for the saw. He found it and walked it over to the body. He stood over it for a moment. Its eyes slowly opened and it began to thrash, snapping its jaw at him.
“It’s still alive,” Victor said, stunned.
“Yeah, the only way to kill it is by destroying the brain.”
“How do you know so much about them?”
“Before I made it to the gas station, I was listening to something on the radio that was talking about them. Some Doctor Greenly was doing an interview.”
“So you just heard about them now? Where have you been?”
“I was in the basement of my house with my ex-wife and son. I replaced the wooden doors with steel ones and welded them shut. There was no way anything was going to get down there. We didn’t have a TV or a radio. The only thing we knew was that the dead were returning to life and eating the living. We didn’t know why and we didn’t care. We just went into hiding. So, like I said earlier, something like being under a rock.”
Victor gasped as he saw a small figure out in the distance. “Well, whatever you’re going to do, you need to do it soon. Look,” he said, pointing at the silhouette.
Kyle glanced in the direction of the figure. It looked small, almost child like. Gary first crossed his mind. He looked down at his hands and noticed the saw in his grip. He walked up to the zombie and jammed his steel toe shoe into its mouth. Kyle felt the pressure of its teeth clamping onto his toes. He knelt down and put the saw on the edge of his shoe. He rubbed the saw down between the creature’s mouth and began sawing its head in half. It was easy until he reached the jaw bone, but he managed to continue. The noise of the blade grinding through the jaw bone made Victor gag. Blood and pus began to seep into the creature’s throat. A gargling sound emerged from its diaphragm which made Victor vomit. Kyle ignored the kid and continued sawing. The pressure on his toes loosened.
When he sawed through the bone and reached the ear canal, it was much easier.
“How much time do I have before Gary gets here?” Kyle asked as Victor vomited. “Victor, how much time is left before that figure makes it here?” he repeated still sawing.
Victor didn’t answer.
“Victor!” Kyle shouted. A second later three shots were fired.
Kyle stopped sawing and rose to his feet. The creature’s jaw was completely sawn off; it could no longer close its mouth. Its head was still intact. Kyle scraped the creature’s head away from the rest of its body with his shoe. The top half of its head detached from its body. Kyle looked down and its eyes still moved.
Victor fired two more shots then yelled, “Kyle!”
Kyle turned in the direction of the scream. He drew his Glock and ran toward Victor. Gary was nearly on top of him. There were bullet holes on his chest and arms. Black visceral blood seeped onto his clothes as it oozed out of the wounds.
“Help!” Victor yelled.
Kyle held the pistol firm in his grip and squeezed the trigger. The gun clicked and the pistol slide kicked back. He forgot that his gun was empty and never grabbed a fresh magazine. Gary lunged for Victor bringing him to the ground. Kyle ran to them and grabbed Gary by the gray hoodie. He yanked him off of Victor and kicked him across the chest as he did earlier. Gary fell to the ground. Kyle turned and helped Victor to his feet.
“Did it bite you?”
“No,” he replied.
“Okay, come on, get in the truck.”
Victor ran and jumped into the passenger seat. He instantly began emptying the casings in his gun, loading fresh rounds. Kyle ran back to the top half of the severed head and tossed it into a large bucket in the truck bed. The creature’s eyes followed every move Kyle made. He ran into the truck and closed the door. Gary got to his feet. Kyle opened the side pockets of the robot backpack and took out a fresh magazine for the Glock. He ejected the old one, tossed it into the bag and replaced it with the new one. He pointed the gun at Gary through the open window. Before he could fire, Victor fired. The bullet shot into the air, hitting Gary through the right eye socket. The gun was not powerful enough for the bullet to exit. It bounced inside of Gary’s head, turning his brain into mush.
Kyle looked at Victor as Gary’s body fell to the ground. Victor still had his gun pointed in Gary’s direction.
“Nice shot,” Kyle said.
“Yeah, it only took me six shots to get it in the head.” Victor smiled briefly. “What did you do with that other body?”
“I put its head in a bucket. We’re taking it with us.”
“What?” Victor said quickly. “Why are we taking it with us?”
“I wanna see how long it continues existing.”
“You’re fucking nuts, dude,” Victor said in a playful tone.
Kyle turned the truck on and continued down the road. He clicked on the radio to see if the Doctor Greenly interview was still playing. He was back in an area that had a good reception; it was worth a shot. The interview was still being played, but it was repeating. The same information was coming through the speakers, as if the press conference had been recorded and being replayed on a loop. Kyle told Victor to scroll up and down the tuner while he drove. He wanted to know if another station was playing the same interview. There was nothing but white noise.
They continued up the road and were nearing Kyle’s house. He felt butterflies in his stomach as he eased off the accelerator. The truck began to coast. Victor turned off the tuner.
“There’s nothing but static and beeping,” Victor said as the truck slowly came to a stop. “Why are we stopping?”
“That house over there.” He pointed at it. “The powder blue one with the huge tree on the side lawn?”
“Yeah?” Victor answered.
“That’s where I was for the past few days, or weeks. I don’t know exactly how long I was down there. My ex-wife and son both have gaping holes in their heads in the basement of the house,” Kyle said still with no emotion in his voice.
“You don’t have to show me this, Kyle,” Victor said.
“Yeah I do. I need to show someone. You showed me where you were for the past few days. Now I’m showing you where I was.”
Victor started feeling uneasy and began to feel fearful. That was until Kyle began to sob uncontrollably. He put his hands over his face and wept. He cried for Eddie, he cried for being selfish and leaving his son. He cried for the love and affection he craved from his son. Kyle glanced at Victor and pictured Eddie sitting there playing with his video game and asking him if he wanted to play a few rounds of Donkey Kong. He reached over with his massive arms and hugged Victor tightly.
“I’m so sorry, Eddie. I’m so sorry, Eddie,” Kyle repeated.
“It’s okay, dude,” Victor said hugging him back. Victor was too young to fully understand what Kyle was going through. But he did understand that Kyle was grieving from a pain that might never go away.
Kyle’s tears began to subside and he loosened his grip on Victor. He backed away and wiped the salty water from his eyes. “I’m sorry, Victor. I really needed that.”
“It’s okay, dude. I may not know what you’re going through exactly, but as your only friend now, I’m here for you.”
Kyle was shocked at Victor’s words. Kyle never had many friends and he found it comforting that he found
