just staring at the spot as if my eyes were simply playing a trick on me and I could just will the bodies back into the place they were supposed to be.
Then I felt it, like a buzzing inside my head, someone or something was watching me. I hurried up the driveway backwards and stumbled into my house, unable to shake the horrible feeling I wasn’t alone.
Locking the door and shoving a kitchen chair under the knob, I went to my lookout spot and stared out frustrated at an unchanging landscape. The bird had stopped singing at some point and the squirrels were gone too, I knew that couldn’t be good.
The missing bodies were exceedingly worrisome.
Were they not really dead?
Did I not bash their heads in enough?
Could they really have walked away at some point during the night or did someone move them?
I eliminated reanimation because Brenda had been dead all along and she was gone too. That left removal by an unknown third party and frankly I liked this scenario much less than reanimation.
Why move six rotting dead bodies? I supposed there could have been some form of official removal team around but that seemed unlikely because I had not seen one single regular person during my weeks of isolation and believe me I’d been looking.
Sure there had been strange noises. Loud noises even, spurts of music, muffled explosions, strange lights in the distance and even heavy machinery. But the noises always sounded so far way, I had written them off, thinking they were the death throes of overrun cities and surrounding neighborhoods.
I knew somewhere out there some fraction of humanity raged on. I could hear it through the occasional gunshot or the sound of some far away engine. But I hadn’t heard or seen anything in my immediate vicinity in many weeks.
For several days after my street had been overrun, there was an overwhelming amount of noise as humanity died. I’d even held out hope for a rescue team of some kind but eventually those sounds dribbled away to nothing. I had been left with only the unsettling din of zombies.
Thoroughly stumped and terrified, I ran through an escalating series of crazy theories in my head. Did other zombies take them? That would imply some sort of intelligence I hadn’t seen them demonstrate but I certainly didn’t know everything. Then there was an even creepier scenario, there was a group of humans out there rounding up zombies and eating them or something. I really hoped that one wasn’t the winner. I hoped it with all my heart. I sat there thinking about it the rest of the day, only taking a break to use the bathroom and eat.
In the end I could think of only one way to get answers.
Chapter 12
“Waste Management”
The plan was to start on my street and clear the houses one by one. I would lay bodies out in the yard again to see if my mysterious disposal service was a one-time thing or a regular occurrence.
I started the next morning with the house next to Dave and Brenda’s. No zombies were on the street that I could see but I kept my head on a swivel anyway. It was so much easier to spot them in the daylight. Of course that probably meant it was easier for them to see me too.
This particular house looked like it had hosted an out of control rave that had turned homicidal. The front door and windows were smashed in, with debris and gore strewn everywhere in the main room.
Roland and his family had not lasted long. I seemed to remember he had young children. I knew it was inevitable but I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to
Then I felt it, like a buzzing inside my head, someone or something was watching me. I hurried up the driveway backwards and stumbled into my house, unable to shake the horrible feeling I wasn’t alone.
Locking the door and shoving a kitchen chair under the knob, I went to my lookout spot and stared out frustrated at an unchanging landscape. The bird had stopped singing at some point and the squirrels were gone too, I knew that couldn’t be good.
The missing bodies were exceedingly worrisome.
Were they not really dead?
Did I not bash their heads in enough?
Could they really have walked away at some point during the night or did someone move them?
I eliminated reanimation because Brenda had been dead all along and she was gone too. That left removal by an unknown third party and frankly I liked this scenario much less than reanimation.
Why move six rotting dead bodies? I supposed there could have been some form of official removal team around but that seemed unlikely because I had not seen one single regular person during my weeks of isolation and believe me I’d been looking.
Sure there had been strange noises. Loud noises even, spurts of music, muffled explosions, strange lights in the distance and even heavy machinery. But the noises always sounded so far way, I had written them off, thinking they were the death throes of overrun cities and surrounding neighborhoods.
I knew somewhere out there some fraction of humanity raged on. I could hear it through the occasional gunshot or the sound of some far away engine. But I hadn’t heard or seen anything in my immediate vicinity in many weeks.
For several days after my street had been overrun, there was an overwhelming amount of noise as humanity died. I’d even held out hope for a rescue team of some kind but eventually those sounds dribbled away to nothing. I had been left with only the unsettling din of zombies.
Thoroughly stumped and terrified, I ran through an escalating series of crazy theories in my head. Did other zombies take them? That would imply some sort of intelligence I hadn’t seen them demonstrate but I certainly didn’t know everything. Then there was an even creepier scenario, there was a group of humans out there rounding up zombies and eating them or something. I really hoped that one wasn’t the winner. I hoped it with all my heart. I sat there thinking about it the rest of the day, only taking a break to use the bathroom and eat.
In the end I could think of only one way to get answers.
Chapter 12
“Waste Management”
The plan was to start on my street and clear the houses one by one. I would lay bodies out in the yard again to see if my mysterious disposal service was a one-time thing or a regular occurrence.
I started the next morning with the house next to Dave and Brenda’s. No zombies were on the street that I could see but I kept my head on a swivel anyway. It was so much easier to spot them in the daylight. Of course that probably meant it was easier for them to see me too.
This particular house looked like it had hosted an out of control rave that had turned homicidal. The front door and windows were smashed in, with debris and gore strewn everywhere in the main room.
Roland and his family had not lasted long. I seemed to remember he had young children. I knew it was inevitable but I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to
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