A Dead Man's Tale

Chapter 2 (Howard)

This past month has been hell! No other way to describe everything that's happened. Never known a disease that spread as quickly as this one has, not since the Black Death has something like this happened. At least after the Black Death people stayed dead. Now when people die they keep on walking! Moaning! Eating! Walking! It's unbelievable. I've been hiding in my house since this whole thing started. I just don't know what to do.

WVOD, the local news station, went off the air in the first few days. Their last story was the increasing number of infected individuals carrying the virus. After the television went out all that was left was my emergency radio I bought after a bad snow storm a few winters back. Never thought I'd have to use it. The message is the same, informing people to head for the municipal courthouse that had been designated as a disaster shelter. Law enforcement has been concentrated there and a detachment of the National Guard was scheduled to arrive. I've been considering making a run for the courthouse since it isn't that far of a drive.

***

Everything's deserted. The neighborhood is abandoned. There were thirty houses, each filled with families, on the mountain that Janice and I decided to live on. Now I think I'm the only one left here, everyone else probably left for the courthouse or to be with their own family members in other parts of the country. Janice took the kids to Seattle to visit her mother. I had work, I was always focusing on my work and now it's haunting me. The End of the World is happening and I can't even be with my family because of my selfishness. The cities got the worse parts of this outbreak. They're gone.

Supplies have started to become an issue for me. The food in the refrigerator is going bad so I had to throw them out. I still have some canned food in the garage and snack bars in the cabinets. I'll have to ration them carefully. I'll eat a little every day, just in case. I don't know how long it will take for the government to respond to the situation in force. I'm hungry and bored. My boy James was a big reader, mostly into historical fiction and science fiction so I've been flipping through some of the novels. When I'm not reading I'm looking out the windows of the second floor wondering if any infected made it up to the neighborhood or if scavengers would start looting for supplies or valuables.

Just in case, I got the rifle from the bedroom and made sure everything was in working order. I got the rifle for basic home protection but other then that I don't use it much. My coworkers were into firearms and target shooting. They were probably surviving, better then I am, with their rifles, pistol, shotguns, and plenty of ammo. The rifle is a Ruger 10/22 a popular rifle that everyone suggested I'd buy since I was a new shooter. Other then a tricky magazine I can't complain about it, especially these days. I have ammo, roughly one hundred rounds that I keep close by.

There have been some noises outside the past four nights, too far away to tell if they are trucks or moans. It sounds like they are still on the other roads. The rifle has been next to me while I sleep. I just want nothing bad to happen.

There are more broadcasts over the radio. Not just for the courthouse but for other surviving groups as well. Most of them are just small bands of people thrown together by chance or they lived close enough to group together. They described their locations as best they could on their map. Many of them were asking for help, besieged by the corpses or in need of supplies. No one was able to come to their aid. Or maybe they didn't want to, just too afraid to face the infected. I know I would be.

That was hard to hear, people begging for help with the constant moaning of the hungry dead over their voices then hearing a cold 'No' from the other end. Sometimes I even turn off the radio just to stop hearing it but it's stuck in my head like a bad song.

***

It's been quiet. No trucks or moans. Nothing. I guess that's a good sign then, but sometimes I think what it would be like having someone else to talk to instead of writing in this journal all day. It helps give me something to do other then worrying about every little thing being a corpse. I'm going to be forced to start scavenging now. I don't want to but the food is getting low. The idea of breaking into my neighbors' houses while they are away, trying to survive, makes me sick to my stomach but starvation is also making me sick. I'm bringing my rifle just in case. I just hope I don't have to use it.

***

The Williams were infected! I had no idea! Their house was so silent that I had no idea that anything was still inside. They weren't even moaning. I started at the back of the house where there was a wide panel door that I managed to force open. The kitchen was nearly bare, just some health bars and dried fruit but I took them. Something moved beneath me, in the basement. I was curious I don't know why but I went down to look what it was. Maybe the Williams had survived somehow and hid when they heard me enter. Together we might be able to help each other.

I descended into the dimly lit basement, someone left a flashlight on, the batteries were beginning to lose power and the light was fading.

"Hello, anyone down here?" I searched for a name. "Donald?" I think that was the name of the man.

When I descended halfway down the creaky staircase a figure staggered to the bottom of the staircase. It looked like a man but when the light illuminated the face I felt fear that I've never felt before. Donald Williams, an aged man, succumbed to the virus. His family had succumbed too. His wife and the two grandchildren they cared for were pale grey, skin decaying and gave off an awful smell.

Donald, or what was once Donald, stepped onto the first step of the leading straight towards me. I didn't know what else to do. If I didn't do something I would be dead. I raised the rifle and pulled the trigger. With a quick pop! Donald fell back into his deceased family. With the four of them tangled among themselves I was able to escape. I ran back to my house as fast I could. Part of me wants to go back and put them out of their misery. I'm just too afraid.

***

The Williams are agitated now due to my intrusion. They keep moaning, I wonder how long they will go at it. They know food is somewhere close but not for certain so they are walking around sounding off constantly. I left the back door open of their home and now they are prowling the yards in search for me. They walk around a little bit then stop. They continue this pattern haphazardly. What is scaring me the most is, that I find it fascinating. The effects of the disease upon the body then the way the remains behave. I've been watching them for the past day from the window in Emily's bedroom like some nature documentary. Noise plays a big factor in their 'hunting', using some stones I collected from the front yard and tossed from within the house. Whether the stone struck a tree, rustled a bush or collided with other rocks all four seemed to converge on the source of the sound. Visually, they seem less interested depending on some kind of factor; for example, a flock of birds flying overhead raised little interest in the family but when a squirrel scurried from one tree to the next, passed by the grandson by mere inches the grandson instantly reacted. Although a visual disturbance will draw their attention distance does seem to influence the level of their activity.

According to the people frequenting the radio channels, the people are dead with no trace of their former lives left. No memories, emotions or soul left in the husk of a decomposing shell. However, I could have sworn that at one point Mrs. Williams turned when her husband fell on some loose gravel. It could have simply been the change in pitch of her moan but it did seem that the acknowledgment seemed genuine. Maybe the hunger and stress is starting to get to me.

***

More corpses, a lot more! The moaning of the Williams has acted as a beacon for others in the area. I count approximately twenty-five in the front yard and another ten in the back yard. The moaning is louder with the crowd circumnavigating around my house and I'm afraid to move unless I crawl from room to room. If they saw me then they'll stop at nothing to get in. I'm completely outnumbered, surrounded and besieged.

Things are getting worse. No doubt about it. Food is down to a few snack bars and the dried fruit I scavenged from next door. I'm going to have to leave but I have no idea how to get out without alerting the crowd of walking corpses. The car is in the garage with a full tank but with the power out the remote control for the garage is useless. I'll have to open the door by hand then start the car. That wasn't the only problem, once I leave the neighborhood where would I go?

I know there are other survivor groups out there but I don't know how to approach them or their exact location. My supplies are so low that I'd be force to scavenge for what I need, which will expose me to any corpses roaming the area. God, the moans are so loud that it is all I think about anymore! I keep taking brief looks at the crowd outside expecting to see some face that I knew before the outbreak. What would my friends and coworkers look like when they start to decay? Are they out there now? What would they normally talk about? All they do now is moan.