Part 27 - Welcome home boys

Image by Martin, www.bunker-fx.de

Part 27 - Welcome home boys

Chris and Dennis left four days ago. They were only suppose to be gone overnight and their absence was making me nervous. Some may say that being with more people during a zombie outbreak makes survival harder. I don't think they meant small groups, under ten. I feel a little safer with more breathing people around who can fight.

It's been unusually quiet today. While Evie was taking her nap I even had time to sit on the couch and reflect on past memories of places I had been and things I had seen. Then I tried to imagine what those topics of reflection might have become once the first zombie started biting.

New York City was an exciting and thrilling trip. I particularly enjoyed taking the subways everywhere. Even when they were so packed you could feel the sweat of a man standing over you drip down on your bare shoulder. The humanity of it was somewhat comforting. Every class, creed, race, age and gender rode harmoniously together towards their individual destinations. Not to mention the people watching was fantastic.

The cute Spanish guy with greased hair, DC shoes balancing a long skateboard under his seat while playing on his phone. The tall, dark skinned black woman with meticulously braided hair, Louis Vuitton bag, ripped jeans and moccasins that you could tell were her favorite shoes. The cute blond who would be cuter if she didn't wear so much makeup and actually gave the acne under the layers of foundation to clear away. All of them deep in thought about the great sex they had the night before or what to pick up for dinner.

The train slams to a screening halt. The Spanish guys skateboard frees itself from under his seat and goes flying into an older woman's face, breaking the bridge of her nose. Deep red blood pours out onto her overpriced, slightly over sized, beige trench coat. One of her earrings comes unhinged by the sheer force of the blow. Her eyes roll back in her head and she's dead before the pain even registers. The black woman falls into the cute, petite blond and they both fall to the floor of the subway car. More people slam into each other and get thrown forwards. Crying, sobbing, screams, blank stares fill the subway car. The lights start to flicker and an automated voice comes over the loud speakers saying that the train has been temporarily delayed but it should be moving shortly. An Asian guy in a suit helps a man up. The front of the car looks like a huge football mound where every player on the field went for the ball. Slowly people peel themselves off the human pile with groans of agony.

Everyone is so caught up with their own pain that nobody realizes that the old woman in the trench coat is beginning to move again. Her eyes roll back down in their sockets with a new milky film over them. She turns her head to the person standing closest to her. It's an Indian man with a light purple button down shirt and black dress pants. He has his back to her and is busy looking at other people. The old woman's lips curl back, baring her teeth and her nostrils flare. She lunges at him and sinks her teeth deep into the fleshy part right under his right butt cheek. He screams but nobody notices right away because everybody is yelling and terrified. A guy in a New York Yankees jersey and sweat pants with tattoos on his neck sees the blood beginning to pool around the man's right foot and how he's struggling to get the woman off of him. He moves quickly and yanks the old woman off. She bares her teeth again, this time at the guy with the neck tattoos. He's reminded of a man he saw enraged in a fight in prison. He steps back onto the skateboard and almost looses his balance. The Indian man is on the ground vomiting.

The guy in the Yankees jersey picks up the skateboard with the trucks and wheels facing outwards. He looks like he's about to hit a grand slam, with the bases loaded. The old woman springs from her seat and he swings. The metal truck of the skateboard makes a direct and deep impact with the left side of her skull and temple. Her entire body is shaken by the blow and she falls to the ground in a heap. The man looks at the woman he has just killed and is upset, yet somehow satisfied. It felt like he had done the right thing, but, he wasn't sure why. Killing someone just because they had bit someone else hardly seemed justifiable.

He turned to see if the Indian man was okay but he wasn't there. More screams came from the front of the car as people scrambled past him to get as far away as possible. The people who were at the bottom of he pile were not fortunate enough to survive. Their necks had been broken and one man had caught a woman's stiletto heel through his throat. They were all up and moving now. Feasting on the people who had landed on top of them that were injured and couldn't get away. A guy with a full beard, now soaked with blood and pieces of flesh, tore through the unbroken leg of some poor teenager whose other leg was severely bent in the wrong direction. Another woman with blue hair found herself pinned down by a zombie eating her left breast while laying on another Zombie who was eating the back of her neck.

People were trying to pry the doors open. The man with the Yankees jersey watched the scene in shock for a moment then looked at the large windows lining the subway car. He smashed the skateboard into one of the windows several times before shattering it. This was not going to be an orderly evacuation. People almost trampled each other to get out of their only escape hatch. As they ran through the dark tunnels, only illuminated by the stalled train, they could see many more scenes of mayhem from within. The windows covered in blood casted an eerie red glow in the tunnel.

"Jamie...Jamie...Wake up...Dennis and Chris are finally back."

I opened my eyes. I must have fallen asleep . I blinked and looked at Chris and Dennis sitting in the den.

"What happened? You guys were gone for so many days. Are you okay?"

They just blinked at me and looked at each other.

"You're not going to like what we have to tell you..." Chris said. I sat up and prepared myself for the worse I could think of which didn't compare to what I was about to hear.