With the breath knocked out of me, my eyes locked onto the hammer that was just out of my reach. Pinned to the ground, with these cold monsters clamoring to sink their teeth into my body, I needed to make my move. This wasn’t where I was going to die.
Letting go of the satchel strap, I let the postman drill his forehead into my shoulder. Rocking back and forth and with two big jerks, I was able to pivot my upper body just close enough to the wooden handle that would save my life.
I brought the hammer down on the postman first. He still had the strap stuck in his mouth, unable to get his teeth clenched on any part of my flesh. I felt a cold liquid soak into my shirt when the dark red ooze flowed freely from his skull, and down across my chest.
As I pulled back to hit the second one, I heard the glass from the gas station shatter. In the flurry of the moment, Kyle had lifted one of them over his head and thrown it through the door of the shop. As the glass rained down, something moved within the shadows. There were more of them, though how many, I wasn’t sure.
Trapped under the creatures, struggling to free myself from the bastard still chomping at my face, I almost shit myself as I watched what emerged from the depths of the shadows. What appeared to be just a partial zombie, and what I quickly realized was the leftovers from the guy siphoning gas outside, slowly crawled out through the shattered glass.
Its one arm, head and torso were all that remained, and I found myself horrified at the thought of the thing still being able to function. The horror was magnified when I realized it was pulling itself directly toward me.
This torso creature was using its one arm and face to pull itself closer. Every time it brought its head down to move forward, little pools of flesh were left behind like footprints. Its lips were completely scrapped off, revealing a mouth full of broken teeth. Only one eye remained, as the other had been scraped away by the ground.
With the awareness that this thing would be on me in just moments, I violently shook back and forth attempting to free myself. Beads of sweat and tears were running down my face, my muscles burned as I pushed with every ounce of energy I had left; to no avail.
Looking toward Kyle, he was screaming as he wildly fought back the creature he was dealing with. Turning my focus back towards the fat bastard crawling on top of me, I lifted the hammer, steading my shaking arm.
“Patience, John. You’ll get one chance at this,” I whispered to myself.
Letting the bastard on top of me loose, he dove in, mouth wide open. I could see his tonsils as I smashed the hammer sideways across his head. It fell limp, lying on top of the postal worker which still left me pinned down between the pavement, the wall, and the two creatures.
My eyes were drawn back toward the abomination dragging itself closer to me. With the rhythmic beat of a drum, it continued to bring its face down over and over again on the black ground, dragging itself within just feet of where I was pinned down.
The hammer was in the opposite arm of the direction the torso creature was coming from, rending it useless.
I thought of Jenn and my child. 900 miles away. I couldn’t stop. No giving up.
With the creature just inches from my shoulder, I let out a primal scream, and drove my arm down across its head with my elbow, driving its face into the pavement and knocking it back a few feet. Its one arm wailed around, frantically reaching towards me.
In that instant, a metal rod dove down through the creatures head. I could see the blood soaked metal come down through its teeth, knocking some of them out to the ground. Saved by Kyle once again. I knew he wouldn’t always be there. If I was a cat, I had just used another of my nine lives.
Pulling the weapon out of the skull, he placed it on the ground. He then casually walked over between the building and I, and put his feet up against the wall of the gas station to help shove the creatures off me.
They rolled off, spilling that familiar dark ooze across the pavement. As I stood up, I looked down at the Torso freak and said, “You know what? I now know what is going to keep me up at night.”
Chapter 9
There are moments in our lives when time is divided into two parts.
We slept in the Hummer that night, nestled behind a low hanging billboard that read: “Retirement is closer than you think!” I remember smirking when I saw it. I had pictured retirement a little differently.
With a blue sleeping bag over my legs, I pulled my phone down from the dashboard. The solar charger wasn’t in direct sunlight long enough, and was still not turning on. Already owning one of these things, I knew that they needed to sit in direct sunlight for four or five hours before I’d get even a few bars of charge. It was the proverbial blessing and a curse.
I looked up at the full moon, watching some dark clouds pass by. Kyle was asleep, or at least as asleep as one could pull off, given the circumstances. He had told me to sleep with one eye open.
I finally drifted off thinking about my wife, hoping that she had found refuge and was safe. Once my phone was charged, I would have to find an operating cell tower and call. At the very least, I hoped to get a message to her to let her know I was still alive.
Back in those first few days of this mess, I would fall asleep with my hammer sitting next to me. Now I can’t fall asleep unless it’s clutched firmly in my hand.
The night passed uneventfully, though morning came too soon. We received a rude awakening when three zombies stumbled past the billboard, moaning loudly. Neither Kyle nor I risked moving a muscle. I held my breath, listening to them until the sound died away.
I was standing outside taking my morning piss when I heard a sound in the distance. At first, I couldn’t tell quite what it was; it was just an echo really, carried on the gentle breeze.
I looked at Kyle, his face telling me that he heard it, too. We both sat in silence, an ear turned in the direction we thought it came from. It kept getting closer, and louder.
“Helicopter,” Kyle said, scanning the sky. He pointed suddenly toward the tree line.
I looked to the north, glimpsing it through the trees. The chopper was army green with two large rotating blades keeping it airborne. Kyle called it a Chinook, confirming that it was military.
“Sure would be nice to be in that thing right about now,” I said.
He nodded, studying the aircraft with a scowl. “Maybe not.”
Looking back at the chopper as it hovered closer; even I could tell something was off. It was rising and descending wildly in the air when the tail suddenly jerked from side-to-side, and the whole thing plunged a good fifty feet. I found myself feeling glad to be planted safely on the ground.
As it passed by Kyle and I, the door on the side of the Chopper swung open. Even in the distance, I could make out a man emerging from the side. He was dressed in green, matching the color of the aircraft. I took a step back in disbelief as the person leapt from the side door. My heart skipped a beat as he was almost immediately followed by what appeared to be a woman as she cast herself out of the cabin in tow.
The guy in green pulled a parachute, but it didn’t have time to fully deploy as the woman came crashing down on top of him, crippling any chance of a slowed decent. I don’t know if they were zombies or people, but one thing was for sure as we watched the two of them tangled up together, plummeting toward the earth; they were heading for a certain death.
The chopper continued moving erratically, and we watched as it dropped another fifty or so feet.
“That thing’s coming down!” yelled Kyle. “If it stays in one piece, I can fly it!”
We both raced to the Hummer. Kyle had his head hanging out the side window directing me on where to go.