So, I go down hard, with this old bastardo on top of me! I’m holding him off me with both hands, and I tell you his breath was so bad that I gag (gagging? gagged?) and threw up – in the middle of the fight!
Next thing I know there is a loud noise between a “GONG” and “SPANG” and the old man is off me. Elena is standing over me with a cast iron pan. I quickly roll away from the old man. He was still moving! The guy should be out cold! I got up and went to pick up the walking stick but changed my mind and reached for Elena’s pan instead. She hands it over and backs into her apartment. The old guy was really struggling to get up – like his arms and legs are not responding to him. He finally gets on his hands and knees and starts to crawl over to me. I told him one last time “You stop it!” But he kept coming. I wound up and hit him uppercut style with the pan. Like I was playing golf! I hit him so hard – he flipped over backward. He went slightly to his left and fell down the stairs. It was a sickening noise! Disgustoso! He must have broken several bones in that fall.
Elena and I looked to where he has landed, and he had finally stopped moving. I looked at the pan in my hand and realized that I had hit him with the side of the pan, rather than the broad part. There’s bits of bone and brain on it. It was gross!
I dropped the pan and turned to Elena. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m ok. ... Is it over?”
At that point, some or the other apartment doors opened, and people started to poke their heads out. I guess they were all waiting inside their apartments – waiting for somebody to come along and get rid of the guy. Most of them were older folks, and once they were sure that this Alberto character had been dealt with, they suddenly got bold and started talking and arguing about what had just happened.
I kind of felt angry. But mostly I felt gross. I was covered in my own puke, so I excused myself and headed into Elena’s apartment to clean up. She followed me in and closed the door. The she got busy fixing me some tea, and I ended up talking to her from her washroom as I got cleaned up. I asked her if she had called the police, and I guess she had called the police several times but every time they told her they couldn’t send anybody because all officers were dealing with stuff. I guess their phones were ringing off a hook.
I had a cup of tea with Elena and we tried to calm our nerves. We could still hear all the other tenants talking and arguing in the hallway. Funny, we just killed a man – or killed him for the second time (I am 100% sure he was already dead!) and there we sat drinking tea casually like nothing had happened.
Elena was too scared to stay on her own, so she asked if she could come to my place. We gathered some of her things and brought them to my place after that. The girl in the window was gone. Grazie Dio. We got back here very quickly – we ran most of the way! She emailed her family and then I told her I had to put this in my blog. So that takes us to this moment.
Elena is going over to her parents’ place on the other side of town tomorrow. She says she feels a bit nauseated and complained that she feels a stomach-ache coming on. I told her that it was probably her nerves and probably nothing. I have an upset stomach too. This is enough to upset anybody’s stomach, no?
Chapter Twenty-one
October 26, 4:15 P.M.
Depression.
People are ruled by their emotions. When faced with losing all the normality of their world, and the terrible personal toll on family members, and the absence of any kind of hope, that emotion is depression. Is life worth living when you’ve watched your children die?
A TEMPORARY STUDIO is the new setting for Channel Eight News. It appears like the studio is set up in a trailer of some kind.
“We continue our coverage from our new location in the safe zone.” Tammy had been broadcasting all day. Strands of her hair have escaped the tight ponytail, and viewers can see bags under her eyes. The ticker at the bottom screen continues to display neighborhood names and phone numbers.
“Here are today’s highlights.” There are no graphics to accompany her words.
“We have first-hand confirmation that the dead are rising.” This sentence, as unbelievable as it sounded, was spoken in a sober way, with a serious expression. Tammy was not leaving any doubt. This was for real.
“Many people that have succumbed to the syndrome are re-animating. They seek out and attack the living. We do not know why they attack the living, but the latest hypothesis by the World Health Organization is that the dead are aware that they are deceased, and this makes them highly unstable emotionally.
