As Cold As The Dead Read online

  Wendy jumped back. “What?”

  The zombie lifted Gale off her feet. Holding her up, it started pulling her, yanking her into the glass trying to break it or pull her through. Her body smashed over and over into the door. Her arms, body, legs and face smacked the glass. The whole door shuddered in its frame. Wind driven snow blew in. The zombie smashed its other hand lower through the glass door and grabbed Gale by the crotch. It pulled her through the glass slicing her face on sharp shards ripping her coat. Blood poured down. The zombie violently threw her onto the ground, lurched down and bit deeply into the side of her throat. It raised its head. Blood ran from its frozen mouth. Yellow eyes peered at us. It clacked its teeth loudly at Wendy and me. Parts of the frost bitten skin on its face had peeled off revealing bare bone. Its long thinning hair blew around its elongated head. Its arms were long and thin covered in icicles.

  Gale’s coat was torn from shoulder to gloved hand. Long streaks of coagulating blood covered her. Snowflakes landed on her dead glazed open eyes.

  The zombie ripped her open in front of us, diving its head down into her flesh.

  Other zombies out in the frozen white began to chatter their teeth. They smelled new blood. They began to shamble toward the house.

  Wendy held my back, sobbing and shivering. “Zombie…God it’s a real zombie! Oh God, Gale!”

  Ben came skidding into the kitchen buttoning his pants. He didn’t have a shirt on. His dog tags swung against his hairless chest. “Jesus!” he screamed. “What the hell!”

  Lisa followed close behind. She buttoned her pants, too, only wearing a bra.

  I yelled, “It got her! They’re here! We got to get outta here!”

  Ben stuttered, “What?”

  Lisa stared frozen in shock.

  I ran back into the other room. Wendy followed, crying. Throwing the blankets to the side I grabbed a rifle off the couch where we had stored all of our weapons. I screamed toward the others, “Get some fucking clothes on! We got to go!”

  Lisa ran past me up the stairs to get their clothes. Ben staggered into the living room and gathered up weapons with me. “We’ll take the Jeep,” he said nervously, his eyes wild. “Wendy, go get as much food as you can out of the kitchen.”

  “No!” she screamed. “I’m not going back in there! No!”

  “Here.” I handed her my rifle. I went into the kitchen, grabbed a large trash bag and started to load it with the food from the fridge.

  Outside the shattered glass door, three more zombies had gathered and were now feasting on Gale. Her head wobbled when chunks of flesh ripped from her body.

  To my horror, I recognized one of the zombies feeding on Gale. It was Aunt Brenda.

  Upset with fear, shaking my head in disgust, I tied off the trash bag, hoisted it over my shoulder and ran back into the other room. Everyone had put on coats and pulled on backpacks. Wendy held my rifle and a pistol. Ben gripped the shotgun he had killed Rainey and his Dad with. Lisa held a switchblade.

  Ben noticed the fear on my face. He asked, “Jon? You ok?”

  I nodded quickly, my lips tight, and pulled on two coats that Ben had let me borrow. The pockets on the outside coat had been stuffed with wadded up paper.

  We all ran out into the snow.

  Going out to the Jeep I was again hit by the freezing cold. I couldn’t believe how cold it was! I had no idea what the temperature was, but to me, a guy from California who had never felt temperatures below 60 degrees, it felt like I had been personally packed in dry ice. It made my chin shiver uncontrollably. It made my arms ache. The cold surrounded me like a heavy wet blanket.

  We piled into the Jeep. The seats creaked with cold when Wendy and I slid across them. We threw our backpacks over the seat into the back of the Jeep.

  Lisa and Ben moved quickly outside scraping ice off the windshield with plastic ice scrapers their heads turning on swivels watching for any zombies that might come lumbering around the house to get them.

  Crying, Wendy grabbed my arm. She only held me giving herself some sort of confidence not caring what it was or who it was she had to hold onto.

  My body was shivering from head to toe.

  Lisa and Ben got back into the Jeep. Scared, out of breath Lisa asked, “What happened in there?”

  I said, “A zombie got Gale.”

  “We’re going to die,” Wendy suddenly cried out. “They’re going to eat us all!”

  “No. Wait a minute,” Lisa said, sudden realization hitting her like a ton of bricks. “How? You mean zombies are real? They’re real? Like really real? Gale died…to a zombie? A real zombie?”

  “Yes,” I answered.

  Wendy wailed, “She’s dead! It’s not a joke! I saw it tear into her…” She broke down crying grabbing my arm tighter. “What are we going to do?”

  Ben hollered, “Get the hell away from here. Get the fuck away from here right now!”

  Lisa started the Jeep, threw it into gear and drove away from the house the wheels spinning.

  “They’re all over,” Wendy yelled. “They ate her. They ate Gale!”

  Zombies stood everywhere in the snow like scattered posts hunched down drooling.

  Steering out onto the road Lisa yelled, “I’m taking us to your reserve unit, Ben.”

  “No. We can’t go there,” he said sharply.

  Lisa asked, “Why not? It’ll be safe! They’ll…”

  “I said we can’t go there, alright?” Ben’s fists clenched in his lap. “It’s not good right now.”

  Wendy moaned, “Well we need to go somewhere! We can’t just drive around! We need shelter! Weapons! They’re going to eat us!”

  “We’re trying to figure it out,” Ben shouted. “Calm down! God damn.”

  “I’m scared,” Wendy whimpered.

  “We all are!” Lisa yelled over her shoulder. “Come on guys, we need to calm down and figure out what to do. Why can’t we go to your reserve unit?”

  Ben shouted, “We can’t go there so let’s stop even thinking about it. I had fight with a guy, ok? They told me to stay away.”

  Quietly, Lisa said, “Oh shit, I didn’t know.”

  “Of course you didn’t,” Ben said, frustrated. “You don’t call me unless you need booze or need to get laid.”

  “Wow,” Lisa whispered under her breath, her heart shattered. “Thanks a lot, Ben.”

  He turned around in the passenger seat. He asked us, “Do you guys know anywhere to go?”

  I said, “No. You know I’m not from around here. Why ask me?”

  Wendy shook her head no. She shivered.

  Ben said, “Damn! We got to think of something. We can’t just drive around dodging zombies!”

  “Let’s go to the city,” Lisa suggested. “A shelter. People will be there.”

  “No,” I said quickly. “This all started in the city.”

  Lisa asked, “How do you know?”

  “Because Rainey got bit there.”

  Wendy asked, “Oh shit, is she ok?”

  “No,” I said, my head down. “She’s dead.”

  “What about your folks, Ben?” Wendy asked. “You said they were in town...”

  “No,” he said quietly. “They’re dead too.”

  “Oh shit!” Lisa whispered.

  Wendy whimpered, “Oh God, we’re all going to die too.”

  “I don’t know where to go,” Lisa said. “What should I do? We don’t have that much gas.”

  Through sniffles Wendy said, “Let’s go to Mom and Dad’s cabin.”

  Looking in the rearview mirror, Lisa asked Wendy, “Do you think they went up there?”

  Wiping tears from her face, Wendy said, “I don’t know…

  Ben asked, “Hold on. What cabin?”

  Swerving through the snow Lisa said, “It’s a cabin my folks own up near Fergus Falls.”

  Ben asked, “Does the place have heat? Does your Dad stockpile weapons and food?”

  Lisa said, “I don’t know if he stockpiles but
I know he keeps guns locked up in his bedroom. Two years ago he bought a gas powered generator and a freezer to freeze any fish we caught. Last time I was up there it was stocked full. We only go up there during the summer. They close it down before the winter because Dad says it’s too cold and he can’t fish anyway because the lake freezes over.” She looked at Wendy in the rear-view mirror again. “Whinny do you think Mom and Dad are there?”

  “I don’t know,” Wendy answered. “Remember, I was over at…” Her voice hitched. “Gale’s…before any of this happened.”

  Ben said, “Listen, I’m sure your parents are fine. They’re smart, right? They’re probably holed up there right now. How far is it?”

  Lisa said. “Two and a half hours. But in this snow it’s going to take a lot longer than 2 hours. And we’re almost out of gas.”

  Ben said, “Guys, if we decide to do this we’re going to have to break into the cabin if your folks aren’t there.”

  “Yeah let’s do it,” Wendy said, apprehension in her voice. She actually let go of my arm and sat forward on the seat.

  “Ok, well we won’t need to break in,” Lisa said, her hands holding the steering wheel tightly. “I’ve got a spare key.”

  Lisa handled the roads well skirting past cars marooned in the blinding snow. Drifts had covered most of them. Cars sat crooked in the ditch or on the side of the road, empty, passengers long gone. The Jeep slammed through snow drifts throwing snow over the top of the vehicle. Lisa kept her eyes on the road, concentrating, following the hump in the center of the road. The dotted line wasn’t visible on the pavement. The headlights, heater and defroster were on high. We slammed through another deep drift. Snow flew up onto the windshield like powdered sugar. Heavy snow came down. With each swipe of the windshield another dusting of snow quickly covered the glass. We slammed through another large drift. Some of the snow hitting the windshield had red blotches in it.

  Lisa asked, “What the hell is that, blood?”

  Ben leaned forward for a better look. “I don’t know. It looks nasty as hell.”

  Another drift further along tossed up more red splotches when we slammed through it. “God damn,” Lisa said. “What are we hitting, cattle?”

  “Let’s check,” Ben said.

  “No,” Wendy said still sitting forward on the seat. “Zombies are out there. You’ll get eaten!”

  “No we won’t,” Ben said. “We have guns. Lisa, stop the Jeep. I want to see what that shit is.”

  “Yes sir,” she mock saluted. “Whatever you say, sir.”

  “Oh for Christ’s sake.”

  “Fine.” She stopped the Jeep on a bridge. Snow had blown off the elevated surface.

  Pushing out into the blizzard Ben said, “Come on. Let’s go see what it is.”

  Lisa turned to him. “We’ll stay here. If you want to see what it is, you can go alone.”

  “Oh for fuck’s sake, come on.” He got out and slammed the door.

  “Damn it,” Lisa said. She shoved out into the blizzard too. “Dickhead.”

  Wendy and I stayed inside where it was warm. We turned around in our seat watching them follow the tire treads back the way we came. Snow blasted past them. Wendy’s breathing quickened.

  “Up there,” Ben yelled pointing, his voice muffled. “Something’s crossing the road on the top of the snow. It’s spread across.”

  To their right, a car had gotten stuck in a deep drift on the side of the road. Both front doors stood open. Snow had nearly covered the interior. Strong wind blasted past. Ben and Lisa’s coats rippled in the wind. The driver’s side car door creaked.

  The car reminded me of the vehicles I had seen outside the Mall of America. The top had been completely caved in. Large dents covered the hood. The windshield had been shattered.

  From our viewpoint Wendy and I weren’t able to see, but other people were still sitting in the car: a woman and two children. They had frozen to death. The woman’s mouth hung open in a frozen scream. The driver had been attacked by a zombie. His neck had been ripped open from jawline to chest. Blood had blown across the front seat, out the open passenger side door and across the road.

  Lisa cried, “Oh Jesus.”

  Ben said, “Come on, let’s get back in the Jeep. It’s too flipping cold out here.”

  When they got back in the Jeep I asked, “What happened? What was out there?”

  Stuttering, her chin shaking, Lisa told us what they had seen.

  Wendy gasped, “Oh God.”

  Lisa started the Jeep. Moving forward we slammed through yet another drift. The edge of the windshield became lined with a crusty red frothy snow.

  Lisa told us normally the drive from the farm to the highway took 45 minutes but with the snow, the drifting, and all of the stalled vehicles it would take about two hours.

  I asked, “Two hours? How long does it usually take to get to the cabin?”

  Lisa said, “Three hours.”

  “You mean it normally takes three hours,” Wendy said. “If this 45 minute trip took us two hours then it’s going to take at least six hours to get to the lake.”

  “Sounds about right,” Lisa said, unblinking.

  Ben asked, “We don’t have enough gas to get there, do we?”

  Lisa said, “I told you I got a ten gallon gas can in the back. If not, we can always stop at Dad’s shop in St. Cloud.”

  Ben said, “Yeah well ten gallons of gas won’t quite be enough, will it?”

  Lisa answered, “Probably not.”

  Wendy said, “Hey maybe Mom and Dad are at Dad’s shop.”

  “Gosh I hope so,” Lisa agreed. “I haven’t seen either one of them since this started.”

  Ben turned in his seat to face her. “So why did you come to my house instead of looking for your folks? You didn’t have any gas. You didn’t have any food…”

  She looked over at him out of the corner of her eye. “Did you forget about what we talked about in your room?”

  “Was kind of hard to understand you with my dick in your mouth.”

  She slowed on the gas pedal shooting him a dirty look. “You really are an asshole.”

  He laughed despite himself. “Tell me something I already don’t know.”

  She asked, “So who did you get in a fight with?”

  “Barnes.”

  “Barnes? Dan Barnes?” She accelerated again.

  “Yea. You know him?”

  She shrugged. “I’ve gone out with him a few times.”

  “Before or after me?”

  The Jeep slammed into another deep drift. Lisa lost control for a moment but regained easily. “What difference does it make,” she asked. “You and I aren’t officially dating.”

  “Not officially...but we’ve gone out.”

  “Twice. No wait. Three times. Doesn’t mean you own me.”

  “Never said I did.” He put his hands behind his head.

  “Then what difference does it make who I go out with?”

  He said, “Doesn’t make any difference.”

  She shot him another dirty look. “Then why you being an ass about it?”

  “I’m not.” He lowered and crossed his arms.

  “Yes you are.”

  “No I’m not. I just wanted to know what you were doing stopping at my house in the middle of a fucking blizzard.”

  She swallowed. Her cheeks turned red. “Well, you told me I could call and…you were the first person I thought of.”

  “Why?”

  She said quietly, “Because you’re in the military.”

  “Yea and so is Dan Barnes.”

  “I know!”

  Ben turned to face her. “Then why didn’t you go to his place?”

  “Because he was in the hospital, I guess.”

  Ben said, “I know that.”

  “You know?”

  “Yes,” he answered.

  “How did you know?”

  “Because I was the one who put him in there.”

  “Yo
u put him there? Why, what did he do?”

  Ben said, “Before roll call he locked me out of the barracks. I screamed at him and told him to let me in but he just sat there laughing at me. He made me late. My Staff Sergeant gave me extra duty over it…so I kicked his ass.”

  Lisa asked, “Is that why they told you not to come back?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh. Shit.”

  “Yeah. Oh shit.” Ben faced front again. “I fucking hate being left out in the cold. It pisses me off. Anyone who does that to me, I make them pay.”

  Lisa glanced over at him. “I don’t like being left out in the cold either.” She sighed. “And that’s why I came over to your house. You’re a strong man. I knew you’d protect me.”

  “I will,” he said. He put his hand on her leg.

  Going down the St. Cloud exit, Lisa lost control of the Jeep on some black ice. Frightened, she let go of the wheel. She started pumping the brakes. The Jeep started a slow spin.

  “Turn in the direction of the spin,” Ben yelled. He grabbed the handle on the ceiling of the Jeep above his right shoulder.

  Wendy grabbed Lisa’s seat. “Oh God I don’t want to crash!”

  I grabbed the back of Ben’s seat.

  The Jeep did a 180 degree turn. At the bottom of the off-ramp, we hit a stop sign, knocking it over. Sliding through the intersection sideways, the Jeep bumped hard into a curbed median buried under the snow. We teetered for a second and then the Jeep fell over onto the driver’s side. The crash was soft, the deep snow cushioning the fall.

  Ben asked, “Holy shit! Everyone ok?”

  Wendy and I both said “Yeah” at the same time.

  Lisa nodded, not saying anything.

  Ben asked, “Now what the fuck are we going to do?”

  I asked, “What’s around here?”

  “Dad’s shop isn’t far from here,” Lisa said crawling up out of the Jeep. “Maybe half a mile, if that.”

  Standing behind the crashed Jeep, Ben pulled the back hatch open. He put on his Camo backpack, handed me mine, and started digging for our weapons. He found his shotgun and pocketed a box of shells. He handed me my rifle. Lisa grabbed her switchblade. I went around to help Wendy and gave her the pistol.

  “Here hold onto these,” Lisa said handing Ben the keys to her Jeep. “I don’t have any pockets.”