It Shall Be Called The End Chapter 4

Bridges to cross

Chapter 4

Over the course of the next three days we didn’t leave the apartment, just stayed in and watched out the window as the brothers moved about the streets searching for us. Every now and again we heard gunfire as the dead took notice and came out making their hunger known. Trying to keep from being detected, we kept the generator off and stayed away from the windows as much as possible. it seemed like the days were lasting for hours on end and I knew we couldn’t keep this up much longer, a person can lose themselves being cooked up like this for too long.

After waking up from a nap on the fourth day I noticed Ginger sitting by the window looking out. Curious of what she was watching I grabbed a blanket and put it around her shoulders because it was cold and as per usual when we have been sleeping, she wasn’t wearing any clothing. She quickly looked at me and back out the window when I came close, alerting her to my presence. There was a strange look of confusion in her eyes that made me a bit cautious.

“What’s wrong?” I asked with little more than suspicion in my voice.

“Him” she gestured out the window, not meeting my gaze.

I looked out the window and saw a dead fuck moving around in the street in their usual jerking motions, sniffing the air and licking its lips, pressing its hands and face against shop windows like it was looking inside, searching for something.

“What about him?”

“He’s been out there for the last two days searching….and every so often he will just fall down and just lay there motionless, for hours on end. Have you ever seen that before?”

“No I haven’t. “

“Anyway, what did you dream about?”

“Oh, just the end of the world, Zombies rising from the dead, devouring the living, running around in the streets with their decaying flesh slipping from their bones, you know the usual.”

“Sounds enjoyable” I could sense the irritation in her voice at what I said.

“I’m sorry” the words seemed too taken on a life of their own, stopping the whole moment in time.

“For what?”

“You seem irritated about what I said, so I figured I would apologize”

“No, I’m not irritated about what you said; I’m just having a hard time understanding you. It’s like nothing that has happened effects you the way it should. I mean yeah you have some sense of nostalgia with the names and ID’s, but everything else just seems to be another day in the park for you. It’s like your life before the end effects you more than now. It’s like the fact that the world ended doesn’t matter to you.”

All at once it was like everything came crashing down in my mind and I stood frozen. I had never honestly thought about it before, like the switch that clicked on the “hey dumbass the world is dead now and everything you have ever known is gone forever” mentality was in the off position. This made the dreams I had been having lately make more sense.

“My dreams haven’t been about all the shit that’s been going on….they have been about my family and the world before. Sometimes in my dreams I just sit here at the window watching people moving about the streets in everyday life. I long for those days again.”

At that moment Ginger reached up and put her arms around me, holding me like some distant lover I never knew. I could feel myself begin to choke with tears, something I hadn’t felt since I was a child. This rush of emotion was beautiful and overwhelming and came to an abrupt stop when I looked up and out the window. I saw the one thing I dreaded most, the dead fuck had just moved into the building with others following from the sound of the broken glass.

“Holy fuck!” I said as I ran to the door barring it shut with a make shift lever lock.

“What happened?!” Ginger asked with fear in her eyes.

“That dead fuck you’ve been watching just broke through the glass on the bottom floor and now all of them are flooding in!”

She just stared at me frozen in fear.

“go put on some fucking cloths and grab the two packs out of the closet!” the thought that my home, the place I built for myself was being invaded caused a rage from deep inside to rise and take over. While she was getting dressed I ran to the back room where I kept the rest of my things and threw on some black BDU’S that I had collected from the old Baton Rouge police department and got dressed. I strapped on my 45 and lead rod, and collected the several guns I knew I would be able to carry, including the nasty and the big nasty. Ginger came running in and was shocked at what she saw, I hadn’t taken her in this room. It was here that I kept all the ammo and weapons and supplies that I scavenged over the last couple years. Grabbing one of the packs, I instructed her to fill her pack with clips and as much dried and canned food as she could, while I filled mine with all the ammo I could fit. When the packs were full I tossed her a couple hand guns and extra clips to carry with her and strapped the nasty (or the shotgun) to my pack. Grabbing my bat I hand her a machete and her eyes go wide.

“What the fuck john?!”

“I like to be prepared for anything!”

I head out to the front door with Ginger in tow, and ready myself to open the door.

“By the way my real name is Devon” I say with a slight smile and unlock the lever wrenching the door open. In the hall way I could already hear the crashing and moaning coming from down stairs as they tried to make their way up to us. It was evident that they could smell our scent. Running down the hallway we reached a door that held the roof access, swinging it open I rushed her in and onto the ladder. Just as she was getting out on to the roof I heard the door to the stair well burst open and the stench and moans became louder than ever. With one last look I saw the dead rushing toward me jerking around like a hard core kid at a heavy metal show. Mounting the ladder I quickly made my way up and out onto the roof and wedged the door shut with and old piece of metal. The banging had already starting as I led Ginger over to a spot on the roof where I had made a makeshift bridge spanning across to the next building.

“You can’t be fucking serious?”

“I’m extremely serious, that door won’t hold long and this bridge is our only chance of escape!”

At that moment a loud crack came from the door signaling that at any moment it was going to give way. Ginger took a deep breath and climbed up on the rickety bridge which was mostly sheet metal and aluminum ladders, and began to shimmy across it on her hands and knees. When she got to the other side I climbed up and began to hurry my way across, which was still a slower pace than I would have hoped for in a situation like this. Without looking back I heard the door crash open and saw the look in Gingers eyes. They had broken through and it was time for me to quicken my pace. I got two thirds of the way across when I felt a hand grab my ankle and knew exactly what it was. I dropped down onto my back and swung my bat not knowing where I should be swinging with the thought in my head that if I didn’t do something I was done for. I felt the crack as the bat connected with the jaw of the dead fuck who grabbed me. My mind stopped for a second as I saw the jaw falling to the ground six stories below.

“seriously?!” the words forced their way out as I kicked him in the chest knocking him off the ladder and as quick as I could, back peddled my way to the other side with Ginger. Using my weight I scooted the bridge off the edge of the building sending the rest of the dead fucks on the bridge to the ground. Safely on the next roof I made a mental note to start trying to get in better shape, more cardio is needed. I stood up and faced Ginger only to find her standing with the machete at the ready.

“Whoa! It’s alright I wasn’t bitten!” I said as I ducked missing her swing and seeing a hand fall to the ground.

“What the hell” I whispered and turned around to see a whole group of RDF’s coming out of the open door leading to our escape.

“What are we gonna do?” asked Ginger in a slightly pathetic tone.

I gripped my bat and readied myself.

“Use the machete and hit the head, no guns yet we need to make as little noise as possible, and whatever you do DON’T-GET-BITTEN!” I say as I start swinging at the first RDF I come to, crushing its skull. Moments passed as we bashed through the small hoard sending blood and decayed flesh flying through the air, baptizing us in a sort of twisted ritual into a world of the dead. With every swing I could feel my rage intensifying, and I wasn’t sure what would happen next.

Losing myself in the battle, I didn’t notice its end, just the need to swing and cause destruction. I swung the bat intending to cause pain to everything that moved and before I realized what was happening I was swinging at Ginger. In an attempt to stop I stumbled and slipped on some poor bastards eye ball and tongue and fell flat on my back, knocking the breath right out of me. The whole world stopped as I fought to capture my breath once again and Ginger looked down at me holding my head in her arms. I tried to speak but she shushed me and spoke soft words that I couldn’t make out over the beating of my heart. Then out of nowhere I felt something gripping my foot and applying pressure.

I looked down and saw to dead hands holding it in place while a dead mouth attached to a dead face was gnawing on it. I could clearly see that it had no teeth thus it bore no threat what so ever. Intrigued by the sight, I sat in awe watching as it continued gumming my foot, fighting to quench its hunger. I was so engrossed by it that I didn’t even notice that my breath had come back. In a second’s time Ginger had scalped it with her machete and began helping me up.

“You gonna make it Lancelot?”

“Lancelot?” I could hear the sarcasm in her voice, but had no Idea what she was referring to.

“That’s what your friend called you, her dearest knight, and well…that’s what you have been for me. So I figured Lancelot, like King Arthur and the knights of the round table.”

“Hmmmm, Lancelot? I think I could handle that.”

Ending the friendly banter I grabbed my bat and her hand making our way around to the other side of the roof. There is only one way off this roof and it’s not that far of a jump. Yet with more RDF’S coming out of the roof access I figured it wouldn’t take much convincing to get ginger to jump. I jumped after her and found the gravel roof a bit of a relief, being that I had cleared this building and knew it to be safe. I came and checked it every day to make sure, since the building we were just on was filled with more RDF’S than one man could handle.

In seconds we were descending the buildings stairwell relieved to be out of the madness, even if it was only temporary. Yet with each step I couldn’t help but wonder what would be at the door when we reached it. It was an ominous feeling, but with the way things have been going the last hour it doesn’t surprise me. On the second to last floor I led her to a room that I had set up for such an occasion, stocked with dried goods and extra ammo and such. It was a place to stop for a second and catch our breath before braving the madness outside.

When we were safely in the room I had her begin to recheck our bags and I went to the window to survey the situation outside.

“Dammit, it’s like someone stirred up an ant hill out there” I say watching the dead flood the streets, sniffing the air like a wolf tracking its prey. If we were going to survive this next move we were going to have to be prepared which meant different cloths for her, especially boots after my last experience.

“Look we are gonna have to get to the police station and get you some new cloths, something with more protection than what you have on now” she silently agreed while continuing to check our packs and supplies. I could sense the fear in her movements and didn’t blame her, we were in a shitty position and getting out of it was going to be just as shitty.

“I know it’s a lot of them, but once we get to the police station I can figure it out” I say hoping the courage in my voice would be reassuring. It was then that I began to understand her fear as the roar outside became deafening.

I couldn’t believe that all this time I never heard it. The whole time we were on the roof I never thought about what consequences all that noise would bring, and now we were surrounded by a constant deafening roar which brought more of those dead fucks every second. We were being surrounded by a mass of hungry dead, which tends to make things look pretty bleak.

“How do you suggest we get there?” I could hear the transition from fear to frustration as she spoke.

“We walk” I say without thinking.

“What do you mean we walk?”

“Its something I’ve had in the back of my mind for awhile, and as crazy as it may sound it’s our only option.” She stares at me puzzled by the notion of escape, as if it is a foreign thought to her.