Rise Of The Undead Part Two: An Arm for a Leg

CHAPTER SIX- GRAVE GRABBERS

I walked over to where the ground was crumbled and where the hand was sticking out from. "What is this?" I asked as I looked back at John. "You think I know..." John said. I rubbed my foot over the hand and more dirt started rubbing off and revealing more of the arm that was slowly crawling its way up. "It's some kind of... riser..." I said to John. "More like a grave grabber to me." John said laughing a little bit. I walked away from the grave grabber that was in the ground and headed back to John. John stopped and seemed to be looking far off into the distance at one of the other hills in the cemetery. "What?" I asked him. John raised his hand and started pointing behind me. "What?!" I asked him again.

I turned around and saw a pack risers headed right towards us. "...Get in the car!" I yelled to John. John ran backwards but then stopped. There was a riser right in his face. The riser put its arms on John's shoulder and John didn't have time to grab his gun. I pulled my gun out and shot the riser right in the face. "...Thanks..." John said to me. "No problem." I said. I looked behind me and saw the risers getting closer and closer, inch by inch. It wouldn't be long until they would be caught up to us. I got into the car and slammed the door shut.

As we drove out of the cemetery I looked back at Emily's grave. We headed back onto the road that would lead us to the city and back to the FBI department. That was the biggest pack of risers I had ever seen. I remember the noise of their loud stomps. I knew Charlotte would be happy to hear that John and I had buried Emily and given her a proper grave. I followed John's car back onto the street with the building that I had seen the man in the window holding a gun. I looked up at the building as we drove past it and all the windows were closed. What if they were going to follow us back to the FBI department? What if they were already there? What if Luke or Charlotte was dead?

John and I pulled the cars into the FBI department. I saw Becky talking to Charlotte and they both turned their heads to look at the cars when we pulled into the garage. "What took you all so long? It's so dark outside." Becky said. "We saw Emily's body... we knew we couldn't just leave her there." I said to Becky. When I said 'Emily', I saw Charlotte look away from me. "Well I'm just glad you guys are back..." Becky said looking mainly at John. I knew that I had to tell everyone about these 'grave grabbers', I just didn't know how that could happen. Maybe if I asked Mackenzie she would know, after all she was supposed to become a doctor.

John started to walk inside and Becky followed after him. "We buried her under a tree..." I said to Charlotte. "...That's nice..." Charlotte said in a somewhat sarcastic voice. "Really, what's the matter, Charlotte?" I asked her. "Nothing." She said as she left the garage and opened the door to go inside the FBI department. I rubbed the sweat off of my forehead. That's when I remember this 'Joe' guy. Who was he? What was his deal with going around and trying to 'help' people? Or was all of his 'helping' part of an evil plan?

I pulled out the two letters I had gotten from Joe. Joe must have been really close by when I had shot Emily. What if Joe was in the office building at the same time as us? We needed to start being more aware of our surroundings. We needed to start recognizing when something didn't seem quite right. We needed to become prepared for this life. "Hey, dad." I heard Luke's voice say as he walked into the garage from the pitch dark outside. "Hey, Luke." I said back to him. "What's that?" Luke asked pointing to the notes in my hand. "I found them... They were for me..." I said back to him. Luke looked confused. "This person named Joe... He said he saw me kill Emily. And he was the one who gave me this gun." I said to Luke. "Wait... have you ever met this Joe person?" Luke asked. "... No, but I get a strange feeling I will..." I said. "How's mom doing?" I asked Luke. "...she called Izzy Emily today..." Luke said to me. I looked up at him. "This hasn't been easy on her... she won't even talk to me now..." I said. "All she cares about now is Izzy..." Luke said to me. "No, she cares about you, Luke." I said. "How? She told me that you don't give a crap about me or her..." Luke said.

"Luke, I love you more than anything, you're my son... How could I not?" I said back to him. How could Charlotte say such a thing? She knew she was wrong. "... did you and mom ever fight?" Luke asked me. "No, why?" I asked. "Nothing..." Luke replied. "No, you have to tell me." I said. "I'm not sure if mom wanted you to come home today..." Luke said. "What?" I asked surprised. "She changed... she changed too much..." Luke said to me. I looked at him like I had no idea what he was talking about. "I just wish that I could have had a normal life, dad. I wish you were there." Luke said and I could hear him start to tear up. I walked over to him and hugged him. "I know I was terrible to you and Emily. But please, let me make it up to you. I want to be there for you." I said to him. Luke didn't respond but that was ok because I felt him give me the biggest hug I had ever felt from one of my kids.