When the Dead by Michelle Kilmer Page A

moving!”
    “Where is he going?” Moira asked. She couldn’t see well in the darkening
evening.
    “He ran behind the building across the street,” Rob answered.
    Jill was looking around frantically; yelling her husband’s name. Behind
the building Austin ran straight into a horde of no less than fifty of the
undead.
    “Shit!” He yelled and turned back around. A hand gripped his arm. One set
of teeth and then another fell on his jacket. The leather would protect him for
a moment but he had to get away so he slid out of his jacket. Free from them he
ran back around the building and into another group of corpses.
    Jill saw him reemerge from the south side of the building. She resumed
yelling his name but it only drew more dead into the path between him and the
car. It seemed that with each minute that passed, another two bodies came
shuffling into the mix.
    Austin had only twenty more feet to cover before reaching the car. He
pushed past body after rotting body. The moaning was increasing as the dead
grew agitated at the passing meal. They became more determined than ever to get
a piece of Austin. He made it to the car door but stopped short when he
realized that the keys were back in his jacket pocket behind the office
building across the street.
    Even if he could make it back, even if he could find the keys in the
little daylight left, it would be too late because a set of teeth caught his
bare arm. He looked at his wife as his body was pulled to the ground; he looked
at her until he disappeared under the dead.
    “They got him,” Isobel said as she backed away from the window, her
stomach reeling from what she had witnessed. Moira embraced her.
    Ben moved closer to the door and caught a glimpse of the growing pile of
dead, all trying to feed on Austin’s body. “He’ll be covered in wounds if they
don’t tear him completely apart,” he observed.
    Jill was screaming but forced herself to stop and mourn silently with
hope that the zombies would slowly lose interest.
    “What do we do now?” Markus was sitting on the floor leaning against a
wall of the hallway, his head in his hands.
    “I’m not going out there,” Jeff said as he climbed the stairs to the
second floor.
    “We won’t be able to do anything tonight. It’s too dark to send anyone
out,” Isobel reasoned, but really she didn’t want to go out there either. She
hoped that someone would volunteer by morning.
    “They insisted on leaving,” Moira added. “They didn’t listen to any of
us.”
    “But she is pregnant. She could have that baby at any moment,” Edward
said.
    “We should board the door for the night and discuss it in the morning.
It’s been a long day for everyone.” Ben picked up a hammer and some nails. Markus
grabbed some wood and they set to it.
    “I’ve got to check up on Molly and Gabe. See you guys upstairs.” Rob
trudged wearily up the stairwell.
    Isobel stayed and watched until the last nail was in.
     

Unrequited Love
    “Hey
guys. How’d it go?” Rob asked Molly but Gabe answered.
                “She
ate all the crackers,” he said, lifting the empty box upside down to
prove the point.
                “Sorry.
I burned my breakfast and my lunch was small.”
                “It’s
fine. You can come eat our crackers anytime you want.”
                “Dad!
No she can’t! I like crackers too,” Gabe pouted and ran to his bedroom.
                “Thanks
for watching him. I’d better go comfort him over his cracker loss,” Rob smiled.
                “Is
there anyone alive downstairs?” Molly asked.
                “Three
people. But Austin died trying to leave and Jill is trapped in their car
outside,” he said sadly.
                “What?”
                “I
don’t want to talk about it anymore right now. We’re dealing with it tomorrow.”
                “Ok.
Night,” Molly said briskly. She was