“I’ll make you a couple sandwiches, cahuna. We’re trying to eat the meat before it goes bad.”
Flashes of zombie hands and zombie mouths chomping on flesh went through me and I felt queasy at the thought of meat but I knew I needed to eat something to maintain my strength so I just nodded.
I walked over to Fannie Mae and put my hand on the back of her neck and gave her a little squeeze. It felt natural, but once I thought about what I did I snatched my hand back. Thankfully I don’t think she noticed that last part. “Barrett said something’s going on.”
She nodded. “I told him not to wake you up yet. Nothing’s really happened that warrants you to be up and missing your rest.”
“Just spill it, Fannie Mae,” I replied, rubbing my eyes some more. “I’m up.”
“Okay.” She stabbed a finger at the window. “Notice anything strange out there?”
I looked for about 45 seconds or so and then shook my head. “Not really. There doesn’t seem to be as many people out as there were.”
“People were randomly leaving and coming back up until about an hour ago. And then the people that left came back pretty quickly. I could hear the ones who came back yelling at the ones who hadn’t left yet so I opened the window to see if I could make it out a little better and I did.” She looked at me wide-eyed.
I sighed. “What were they saying?”
“That a couple of very large trees had fallen down across the road. Large enough that the road was impassable. I heard someone say they’d called 911 but that the cops said the city would have to deal with it at some point after getting the power back on. They think we might not be able to get out by car for a couple days.”
I swore under my breath. Not that we’d had a car to get out with anyway.
“Dukey,” she put her hand on my arm, “do you think the,” she paused, “
I shook my head. “I don’t see how, Fannie Mae. You’re asking me if the zombies worked together as a team and managed to cut or bring down some trees and dragged them into the middle of the road? I don’t think they work together like that.” Scenes from my dream flashed through my head but I pushed them aside. It was only a dream.
She looked back out the window. “How else would the trees have come down then, Dukey? It didn’t actually ever storm last night and it definitely hasn’t stormed today.”
“I don’t know, Fannie Mae. I surely don’t.” Images of the zombies working together in my dream flashed through my head again. No way was that possible, though. I hoped. “Do you think a lot of people are stuck on the other side?”
She started to answer me but then she let out a piercing scream. Loud enough to wake the dead. Har har. I looked at the window again, wondering what she’d seen.
Suddenly I jumped back a foot as I registered what I was looking at. Across the way from us a zombie – someone I didn’t recognize – was shambling slowly forward from behind one of the trailers. He was missing his right arm and in his left he was holding the tattered remnants of a foot. The flesh had been stripped from about half the foot and several bones were exposed. The zombie appeared to have been wandering aimlessly. His head was cracked open and I could see brain peeking out the hole; dull, gray, and lifeless. Blood and other fluids leaked slowly out of the hole.
The zombie stopped as he reached the edge of the trailer. He munched slowly on the foot like it was a crispy drumstick from KFC. If you didn’t know any better you’d think that he was chewing thoughtfully on it as he looked out at the people strolling aimlessly through the Acres. The arm holding the foot dropped to his side as he just stared at the feast before him. Apparently this one hadn’t gotten the memo as he shambled slowly into view of everyone.
No one noticed him.
Donny Marsters was the first to really see him. I felt bad about that, kinda. Though Donny was a holy terror and I’d wished he’d go away many a time he didn’t deserve this. He only noticed the zombie when the zombie bent over from the waist and took a chomp out of his neck. Great gouts of blood sprayed in the air as Donny started screaming. He struggled to get away and since the zombie’s one hand was full he had nothing to grip the boy with.
Bile rose in my throat as Donny pulled forward. The zombie hadn’t let go and wasn’t about to give up his pound of flesh. Gristles and strings of skin trailed between Donny and the zombie as Donny tried to get away. His piercing shrieks sounded like the playful screams of a nine year old girl, but there was nothing funny about it. The only thing I could liken the sight to was pulling a very cheesy slice of pizza away from the rest of the pie. Get it?
The tensile strength of the skin was finally reached and the tendrils snapped like so many pieces of cheese. Donny fell face down on the earth, still screaming and writhing madly. The zombie chewed intently as he looked down at the boy.
It was only then that I registered the screams of the rest of the people in the road. Most were frozen in shock but some parents were coming out of nowhere to scoop up their children and run away. A few of the dads were looking at each other with a
In the midst of this Donny finally stopped screaming. And moving. His bright red blood flowed heavily into the dirt.
Once the zombie was on the ground the other men came forward and they started kicking viciously at it. It kept trying to rise back to its feet but for some reason it wouldn’t let go of the foot and with that being its only good arm it couldn’t get enough leverage to get up. So it just lay there and took the beating. I don’t think it felt a thing as they beat at it. Four or five men stood in a circle around the zombie, all staring down at it as they took turns kicking it. This was Kentucky, after all, so they knew all about ganging up on and beating someone.
Suddenly one of them screamed and fell forward, landing on top of the zombie. The rest of the men pulled back, not understanding. Fannie Mae and I, from our perch at the window, understood all too well.
Donny had woken up.
