They Eat Page 9

  “Get the fuck on the ground,” Doug yelled from his gut. “I said get on the fuck ground now!”

  The man turned to face Doug and growled at him low and deep, pumping the terror into his trigger finger to fire the first shot. It struck the man in the back of the shoulder, which seemed to piss him off more than it hurt. The man jumped off the hood of the car and began running toward Doug.

  “You got one more chance, old man,” Doug reassured himself as he cocked the gun again, sending the empty shell falling to the floor in a shallow ping.

  He secured the weapon in his grip, breathed deep and aimed.

  “Let’s go, old man,” he said as he pulled the trigger again.

  *****

  “Fuck is going on out there, Red?” Nasir asked nervously from his shackles.

  Red leaned his body against the door and slid to the floor with his eyes fixed on nothing.

  “Red! Red! What the fuck is going on? Where’s Mitchell?” The panic set in in his body making him visibly nervous.

  “I had to put him down,” Doug whispered.

  “Fuck you talkin’ bout, Red?”

  A long silence sliced into the space between them as Doug drifted in and out of the situation.

  “He showed up out front with some – some man, some, thing beating the shit out of his car.”

  “You going crazy again, Red?” Nasir’s body tensed. He could see the truth making traces on the old man’s face.

  “I walked to the car,” Red continued. “Even after I put two shots in that thing it still wriggled on the ground biting out at me. I had to put a bullet in its head before it stopped moving. I opened the car door and Mitchell’s body fell out. Just by the look on his face I could tell he wasn’t going to make it. The thing got to him before he even called. He was ate up, man. I haven’t seen anything like that since the war. He looked up at me, told me he was hungry, that he had never been that hungry in his life, then his eyes went blank. I held him for a few minutes. I … I just couldn’t … I didn’t … I thought if I held him long enough I could help him hold on to the life that was pouring out his wounds. He died, man, I swear it. But then he got back up … he got back up like I hadn’t just watched him bleed to death. I had to put two in him too.” Red sagged deeper into himself as the last few words slowly fell out of his mouth, like he didn’t believe them as he said them out loud.

  “Uncuff me! Let me go right now!” Nasir yelled. But Doug could only see his lips moving and the veins popping out of the side of his neck as he struggled in his restraints.

  Soon, Doug fell asleep.

  *****

  “Get up, Red!” Nasir said nudging Doug with his foot.

  The big man stirred awake in a heap of confusion. “What the fuck is going on?” He pulled himself off the cold, hard floor and squinted to try to get his eyes adjusted to the morning sun pouring into the police station’s large windows.

  Doug quickly reached for his sidearm and pointed it at Nasir’s face.

  “How the hell did you get outta those cuffs?” he demanded to know. Doug’s eyes darted nervously around the empty room, from the desk, to the empty chair where Nasir was handcuffed before he passed out, and back to his prisoner.

  “Be easy, Big Red,” Nasir said with ease as he slowly lifted his hands in the air.

  “I said how the fuck did you get out of those cuffs?” Doug pulled his side arm from the holster and removed the safety. White spit curdled in the corners of his mouth and his eyes glazed with the first ticks of insanity.

  “Chill, Red.” Nasir’s diction was slower, cooler than the first time he said it. “I think you got bigger problems than me right now.”

  Nasir pointed his long, brown finger to the window at the middle aged man in blood stained overalls running toward the front door of the police station. He was gaunt and frail, but very much alive, unlike the thing chasing him. From the way his knees buckled with each stride, he wouldn’t be alive much longer.

  Doug moved toward the window to get a better look and saw the thing swipe out at the running man. He could see the heightened fear in his eyes from 50 yards away.

  The thing pursued the man, its strong muscled body in perfect running form. Its mouth moved wildly as its freakishly large, white teeth crashed into each other.

  “So you gone stand there and watch what happens next?” Nasir spat sarcastically. “I’ve been doing it all night and I can’t watch another man die.”

  “I … we’re staying right here!” Doug screamed. “We’re going to wait for this to blow over and I’m taking you to the chief myself.”

  “I barricaded the door after the first few showed up looking for help. Some of ‘em were bitten, some not.” Nasir kept his eyes fixed on the window at the running man and his gruesome pursuer as he spoke. “Then they started eating each other, man. Women, old people, all kinds of them. I watched them as they all fell to the ground and then got back up again. I can’t watch it happen again.”

  Doug’s grip loosened around his gun.

  “Please, man. Help him.”

  10 Tammy collins

  “Get out of the van, Gus,” Tammy screamed with sternness running across her face.

  “You’re a sick woman,” Gus said partially returning her conviction.

  He sat in the passenger seat of the van and stared ahead, his arms crossed on his chest like an angry preschooler.

  “I said we’re going to get your mom as soon as we wrap this up. I already got a lot of footage on our way down here, even recorded a bunch of audio to go with it, and sent it to Abe. We just have to get a few more shots and we’re out of here.” She moved closer to Gus, her heels clacking in the hollowness around them.

  The roaring fire on Crystal Waters Drive had burned out, leaving only the charred frames jutting out of the foundations of the row homes. The sun sat hovering in the eastern skyline, making the blood stained concrete, peppered with severed limbs and puddles of bodily fluids more gruesome than the night before. “Look,” she said, motioning to the empty police cars to the left of their van. “The police are already here. Everything is safe now.”

  Tammy touched Gus’ arm again and turned his head so she could look into his eyes.

  “Gus, we’re here. Can’t change that now. Let’s just do what we need to do and get out of here,” she said with a coy flirtation.

  Gus stared back at the woman he’d lusted over for so many years. She was beautiful, no doubt, he thought, and tough, just like his mom, but he just couldn’t bring himself to succumb to her thinly veiled attempts at talking him out of the van. He braced himself for impact as the thoughts he was having became words, “Tammy, your pussy aint worth my life.”

  Tammy’s face tightened and she pulled her hand away from his warm skin like it burned.

  “OK, Gus,” she spoke as she regained her composure and confidence until her chest swelled. “Since we’re obviously beyond the point of fake pleasantries, how about I put it to you like this.”

  Tammy plucked her earrings from her ears and spun her long blonde hair around her fingers until it tightened into a bun.

  “Get out of the fucking car before I punch your nose bone down your fucking throat, you spineless piece of shit.”

  *****

  Gus tried to steady the camera on his shoulder, but his knees were still wobbling.

  “Wipe your nose,” Tammy said coolly. “I don’t want your blood getting all over the camera.”

  Gus used the sleeve of his shirt to wipe the spewing blood from his face.

  “You didn’t have to hit me that hard, Tam!”

  “And you should have gotten out of the damn van,” she bit back.

  Tammy straightened her skirt over her hips again and moved her head from side to side to crack her neck.

  “How do I look, Gus?”

  “Eh, you look OK.”

  “C’mon, Gus. Don’t make me black ya other eye. You need that one to see through the camera.”

  “Alright, Tam, damn
. You look great.”

  “Why thank you for the compliment, Gus.”

  “Oh, we’re on in 5, 4, 3, 2 … “

  This is Tammy Collins here again live on the scene for WTRE News. We’re back on Crystal Waters Drive, the scene of last night’s grisly events. My camera man and I decided to come back to give you another glimpse of what’s been happening here.

  Gus sucked his teeth.

  “Gus, can you do me a favor and pan left,” Tammy said in her on-air tone of voice.

  When we arrived here just a few moments ago, we could see that the fire that raged in this very spot had recently died out. There are a few police cars at the end of the block, but given the events of last night and the traces of blood in and around the patrol car, we can only assume something tragic happened to the officers. It’s the only police presence we’ve been able to catch or see at this point and we still have yet to receive any return calls or communication from local law enforcement.

  “OK, Gus, can you pan back this way and take a few steps back?”

  We’ve been getting word from our newsroom that the community has been responding with disbelief, but what we’re seeing out here is very real.

  “Back up just a bit more, Gus.”

  Gus stepped back a few more paces and swept the camera’s lens around the neighborhood, capturing the blood stained grass and concrete; the severed limbs. He zoomed in on the cop cars, the mangled pieces of hair and skin hanging from the doors and mirrors and had to tighten his throat to keep the vomit from erupting from his mouth.

  Again, what you’re seeing is extremely graphic, but we want to give you guys a real look at this horrific scene.

  Gus took a deep breath and swiped his camera around the neighborhood, focusing and refocusing on the random body parts that littered the scene from the nursing home at the end of the dead end street to the cop cars parked haphazardly in front of the small string of smoldering row homes.

  We’re not quite sure what caused the residents of Crystal Waters sickness, but from looking at the aftermath, I can tell you it would be best to stay inside until more details emerge.

  Gus took a few steps forward, but Tammy raised her hand to signal him to stop.

  Tammy continued.

  At this time, due to the dangers of the situation, we’ve –

  Tammy stopped mid-sentence, her rosy, painted lips hanging slightly open.

  “What, Tam?” Gus asked poking his head from behind the camera.

  “Nothing, Gus. I’m just really sorry.”

  “For what?”

  The lumbering man at his back bared his teeth and sunk them deep into Gus’ neck.

  He cried out as the pain seared through him. The carnivorous cannibal tore his head away taking pieces of Gus’ jugular vein and brown skin in to his mouth.

  Tammy had watched the thing with the face of an elderly man, but the skin and eyes of a dead one take Gus from behind and put its weight on his back until his knees met the ground.

  The veins in Gus’ arms bulged as he tried to fight the creature off his back, losing his grip on the camera. Tammy ran toward them, arms outstretched, like a mother trying to catch a falling baby before it hit the ground. When the camera landed in her palms she smiled a satisfied grin and scrambled to steady the large piece of equipment on her shoulder. She focused in on Gus and the walking dead thing tussling on the ground. The thing was winning.

  “This is Tammy Collins signing off for WTRE News,” she said finally when Gus finally stopped moving.

  11 ERic Smarts

  Three Days BEFORE

  “Mr. Smarts, your schedule is full today so we have to get started,” April said as she leaned over Eric’s desk to pass him the agenda. Her firm, round breasts peeked out of the top of her pink button-down shirt, her Pilates-shaped rear neatly hugging her black, knee-length skirt.

  Eric glanced at her young body briefly, then made a mental note to remind his campaign manager to fire the girl. She was the daughter of an old college buddy of his, but that didn’t mean she was immune to the throbbing in his pants.

  “Stay focused,” he coached himself. “Greater men have fallen to prettier faces and bigger tits.”

  Since the last mayor of Trenton had fallen prey to a scandal with a leggy, blonde intern, Eric had moved from deputy mayor to interim mayor. If he played his cards right, he could secure the public vote and make his stay in city hall permanent.

  “Ok, April,” he said as he looked at the young girl with a non-threatening smile. “Run it down.”

  He blew the sexually stifled steam from his mouth in a huff, grabbed a pen, and wrote.

  Tell Mike to hire fat and ugly assistants (preferably with facial hair).

  “We’re starting at 11 with a meet and greet with the Chief of Police down at the central police station. I talked to Mike and he said the chief wanted to see you. They think it’d be good if you did a couple of ‘ride alongs’ with a few officers … it’ll be a great opportunity for a few photos.”

  Eric wrinkled the bridge of his nose in annoyance then flicked his hand to tell her to continue.

  “That should take the better part of the afternoon. But we also have to drop by the main fire station downtown. It’ll be the same deal as at the police station, but with red uniforms.”

  April giggled at her own joke, but cut it short when Eric furrowed his brow to indicate his disapproval.

  “Then there’s an early dinner party with the Misses,” she continued after clearing her throat.

  “Shit! I forgot about that!”

  “It’s OK. I already called your wife to confirm and picked up your tux from the dry cleaners. It’s going to be at the Morton’s estate in the Hiltonia section of the city. She said she figured you forgot, but wanted me to tell you it shouldn’t be that long because they plan to wrap up early. … between me and you, I heard there’s a hell of a party going on across the street at the Bellow’s house, so I think that’s to blame.” April winked.

  Eric looked down at the note he’d written about getting new assistants and underlined it twice.

  “We’ll have a car ready for you at seven and it’ll take you directly to Crystal Waters Nursing Home for dinner with some of the residents there.”

  “Fuck, April. You know I hate those places. They always smell like old people and death.”

  “Well yeah, because it’s filled with old people who are about to die.”

  Eric rose from his chair and pulled his suit jacket closed.

  “Thank you for that little tidbit, April. I don’t know how I’d get along in life without you.”

  April sank into herself, his biting words making holes in her self-confidence.

  “I was just trying to help.” she whispered. “Lighten the mood a little bit.” Her long blonde bob fell over her eyes as her head sunk deeper into her chest.

  “Look. I’m sorry, April.”

  Eric moved around his desk and approached the young woman with the grace of a groomed politician, having reasoned the fact that he couldn’t bend her over his desk and fuck her hard in the ass was making him a jerk.

  He stopped short of touching her arm when glints of tiny multi-colored stars entered his field of vision. Eric felt his knees turning to putty beneath him and grabbed the edge of his desk to steady himself. He thought he caught his lightheadedness in time to save himself from embarrassment, but the worry in April’s eyes told him otherwise.

  “Are you OK, Mr. Smart?” April inquired seriously, all thoughts of her wounded ego instantly replaced by concern.

  “Yeah, yea, I’m fine. Must be that new B12 shot the doctor gave me this morning.”

  April grabbed Eric’s arm and helped him to his plush, leather office chair.

  “I told you I don’t like Dr. Stevenson. He’s old and creepy and my dad says he almost lost his medical license when they worked together at the university. Some kind of experimental procedures. Scary shit, Mr. Smart.”

  April moved to the antique, mahoga
ny table in the corner of the office and poured a glass of water.

  “Here,” she said with concerned authority. She shoved the glass in his face. “Drink this.”

  Eric threw the entire glass of water down his throat in a few giant gulps.

  “More?”

  Eric nodded his head in approval. He looked up at the young woman and flashed her a smile, hoping it would ease her anxiety. He didn’t have time to be sick. The appointments he had for the day would either make or break his career.

  “Oh, Dr. Stevenson does teeth whitening now too?”

  April filled the glass again.

  “What?” Eric mumbled snapping from distraction.

  “Nothing,” feeling awkwardly self-conscious about complimenting her boss on something she saw, but he had yet to tell her about.

  April handed him the glass and his hand quickly brushed against hers.

  “Your hand is really warm,” she said softly. “I’m going to feel your head. Is that OK?”

  “Yea, it’s fine,” Eric exhaled as he leaned back in the chair and undid the first two buttons of his shirt. He was too exhausted to turn her down.

  April pressed her pale hand into the beads of sweat on Eric’s caramel colored skin.

  “You’re burning up, Mr. Smart,” she exclaimed. “I’ve got some aspirin in my purse. I’ll be right back.”

  April hurried to the door, but Eric stopped her.

  “Yes, Mr. Smart? Want me to cancel today?”

  “No, no. of course not. But can you bring me some food when you come back? I’m hungry as hell all of a sudden.”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Erin T. McMillon, MSM entered into the publishing industry as an advertising copywriter. She has written for numerous magazines and online media outlets in the U.S. and abroad, including an award-winning music magazine.

  Her story, “Writer’s Block” was featured in the summer 2014 of "The Horror Zine". Erin is also the author of The Becoming of Us, Vol. I: Love, The Becoming of Us, Vol. II: Lust and What’s Hiding in the Dark?: 10 Tales of Urban Lore.

  Facebook: Facebook.com/theladywrites82