EYEHEARTZOMBIES

Elijah was still sitting on the floor, his legs sticking straight out in front of him. His bitten leg was wrapped in gauze and seemed to have stopped bleeding. Jones was squatting near him and they seemed to be talking quietly. They had moved toward the front doors, away from the bodies. No one had touched Naomi, it appeared, but someone had drapped a jacket over the paramedic’s face. Looked like they had also rolled her onto her back. The floor was still bloody. No one seemed eager to find a mop.

Seth and Ruth stood in the doorway to the restrooms a moment, then they moved forward to the middle of the room, his hand on the small of her back. It was an unconcious touch. When they reached the middle, Seth cleared his throat.

“So, everyone, could I, uh, have your attention for a minute?” He looked around for a bit while everyone came to where they could see him. He didn’t see the fat man, but everyone else seemed to still be here. “Thanks. I know you guys don’t really owe me or anyone else anything, but I think we should try to help each other as much as we can.” Elijah grumbled something and waved a hand at Seth, obviously not caring.

“You don’t want to work together, Elijah? That’s fine. Take your taxi and leave. Anyone else who wants to go, go. I’m gonna figure out where to go next, though. The last thing I want to run into is another….” He stopped talking and looked around. Everyone was shuffling their feet and looking anywhere but at Seth or the bodies on the ground, everyone but the paramedic at least.

“What do you mean ‘another’? You think there’s more?” His face was pale, making his curly dark hair and brown eyes really stand out. He looked down at Naomi for a second, just a glance really. His eyes darted over to his partner’s jacket-draped body, then quickly over to where Elijah sat on the floor, gingerly poking his leg around the wound.

“Yeah, actually I do,” Seth said. He didn’t mean for it be ominous, but given the circumstances…. He pointed at Naomi. “She — Naomi — was dead about fifteen minutes when she…came back. Your partner — “

“Mary.”

“Mary, has been dead how long? Ten minutes maybe?” Seth looked around for a clock, but the only one he saw was electric and had stopped when the power went out.

The paramedic consulted his watch. “Well, she was dead when I put the jacket over her. That was probably five minutes ago. I’m not sure how long she had been dead, though. I was tending to Elijah.” His eyes flitted at Elijah again, obviously thinking about the bite.

“OK, so we have five or ten minutes until she might come back. Personally, I’d rather not have to deal with another one. I mean, the first was a girl with a broken back and she killed one and injured another. Your partner is mostly whole. I’d hate to see what she could do if she revived. These…things…seem bent on killing whatever they can get their hands on.” Seth shrugged. “Of course, I’ve never dealt with anything like this before. None of us have. So, I’m out of ideas. You?”

The paramedic looked down at Mary. He started speaking with his eyes still fixed on her. “Like I said, the cops were all over the radio about these things. I didn’t believe ‘em. No way bodies come back to life. But….” He looked up at Seth again. “Now I do believe. I don’t know what they are or why they come back, but they DO come back. God help us, they come back.” His voice cracked with tears. He walked over to the fire extinguisher which was sitting by the circulation desk. The flat bottom of it was bloody and had bits of hair and flesh sticking to it. “Guess I know what I have to do.”

“What are you doing?” Ruth asked. She had that edge of panic in her voice again. “What are you doing!” More panic when she asked again. Jones just kept walking back over toward Mary’s body.

“You gotta destroy the head. I mean, that’s what’s in all the movies, ain’t it?” He hefted the fire extinguisher over his shoulder, cocked back like a baseball bat. “Destroy the brain or the head or whatever and they don’t move. Hell, it worked on her,” he pointed back over his shoulder at Naomi. Ruth hid her face in Seth’s shoulder.

“Look,” Seth said, his voice as calm as possible. “We don’t even know what’s going on here. I mean, nothing says that’ll work. This isn’t a movie, man.” He held one hand up, hoping to stop the paramedic before he did something rash.

“I know it’s not any goddamn movie, kid,” the paramedic half-growled. “But you ain’t had you friend and partner killed by a dead girl bitin’ her throat off, have ya? You ain’t had to stitch up a mouth-shaped hole in a man’s leg that’s already turnin’ black, have ya? I hate to do this, but I ain’t got no choice, kid. I ain’t got no choice.” Tears were filling his eyes. A few drops fell out when he looked down at Mary again. He bent down next to her.

“It won’t be pretty, missy,” he said, obviously meaning Ruth. “So if you don’t want to watch, you just keep your head buried in your boyfriend’s shoulder there. Plug your ears too, if you want. Kid, you keep her safe and away. Be a good boyfriend and protect her from this nasty business. I gotta do it, though. I gotta make sure she don’t come back like…like that.” He pulled back the jacket from Mary’s face.

Her eyes were open. They rolled over to look at him and her mouth opened in a hungry smile.

Jones yelped and fell back onto his ass. “Fuckin’ hell!” He scrambled to his feet, missed and ended up on his knees. The extinguisher raised above his head, fell to the tile floor with a sickening crunch at the end. Ruth flinched and held her hands to her ears harder. Seth closed his eyes, silently praying his thanks for them catching it as quickly as they had. A sucking sound preceeded another crunch. The fire extinguisher clattered to the tile and rolled away. Seth opened his eyes.

Jones was sitting on the floor, panting slightly. His legs and lower chest were covered with splattered blood, turning his dark blue jumpsuit black. He had pulled the jacket back up to hide the worst of the gore. The fire extinguisher, now with more blood and hair and skin, lay on the other side of Mary’s body. No one said anything and the only sound was the again-heavy rainfall outside.

Elijah was still sitting on the floor, his face white with fear. He moaned and rolled his eyes. “I don’t wanna be no demon, I don’t wanna be no demon,” he raved, sweat breaking out all over his face. He tried to push himself back on the tiles to a far way, trying to get away from the two doubly-dead corpses. “I don’t wanna come back — I don’t wanna die!” He looked around franticly.

“Hey, hey, calm down, man. You’ll be OK. It’s just a little bite,” Jones said. Elijah didn’t looked comforted, but he didn’t whine anymore and his eyes stopped rolling around. He still had his hands wrapped around his leg. “OK, kid,” Jones turned to look at Seth again. “What do we do?”

“Fuck, I don’t know,” Seth said. He scratched his head. Ruth was still holding on to his other arm, but she seemed OK. He didn’t hear any crying or anything. “I definitely think we need to leave the library. I mean, it’s relatively safe, yeah, but it’s also a prison of sorts. We can go down into the basement or up onto the second and third floors, but where from there? I mean, the basement is a real trap. Only the one staircase back up.”

“Yeah, but that’s also the only way down!” Virginia piped up from where she had been sitting behind the desk. “We could barricade it and hide out down there. There are two floors to the basement, too. So we’d have plenty of room.” Her face was glowing with hope.

“In the dark,” Seth reminded her. “With no food or water. And no real way of knowing what’s going on until the power comes back on. I know there’s a phone down there, but with the police and 911 out of the loop, we can’t really rely on it for any help any time soon. I think we need to leave and go somewhere safe. With food, medical attention, and reliable news.” He looked to the front doors again and Ruth picked her head up off his shoulder.

“But…where?” Her eyes were red like she had been crying, or would start soon. Seth looked down at her, then back at the rest of the people in the room.

“I don’t know.”

Everyone seemed to deflate a little. The paramedic walked over to the chairs and sat down heavily and put a hand over his eyes. Elijah whimpered softly, pressing on his bandage, and Virgina sat back down in her office chair. The elderly trio were just three pairs of eyes glinting the dimness of the reading room. Ruth started to cry softly and held onto Seth again.

“I’ve been thinking about it, though,” Seth continued. “I think the hospital, Eden Medical, would be a good place. We could get medical attention for Elijah’s leg and I’m sure there’ll be some sort of police presence there that we could tell about….” He stopped talking and looked at the two bodies on the ground. “Them.” Everyone looked down the bodies. The room was completely silent now, just the rain falling on the roof and the wind blowing down the street. Seth’s mind was racing, trying to find a way out of this mess.

“I think we need to split up, actually. Everyone just go home or wherever you want to be that would be safe. I don’t think these…things…are that widespread yet. Are they?” He looked at Jones.

Jones shook his head, “No, not too bad, I guess. Enough to keep the police tied up, but it’s during the week, so there aren’t as many police as possible. I’d say twenty or thirty of these things’d tie ‘em up pretty good, ’specially with the power out.” He looked a bit more calm now.

Seth nodded. “Right, so everyone go some place safe, lock the doors. That’s the best advice I can give anyone. Not that I really know what the hell is going on any more than you do.” He closed his mouth. No reason to keep rambling on, let the people leave. But where would he go? He didn’t really want to ride back to the university. God knows what kind of shit could be going on out there. Maybe he should go to the hospital, Eden Medical Center, where his mother was staying. Evie’d know what to do. Or at least have a good idea. He nodded to himself, his mind made up. Just in time, too.

Ruth was still clinging to his shoulder, still very shaken by the reanimation of Mary, the lady paramedic. He didn’t blame her. “Where are you going, Seth?” she asked, her voice quiet and slightly trembling. He looked down at her, very taken with her green eyes.

“I’m going to see about my mother. She’s at Eden Medical. Like I said earlier, I think it’d be a good bet for getting through this, too.”

“Oh,” she lowered her eyes a bit, sounding disappointed. “Do — would you mind if I came, too? I don’t really have anywhere else to go. I don’t want to go back to my apartment.” She paused, biting her bottom lip. “Not by myself.”

Seth nodded again. “Yeah, Ruth, you can come with me.” He wrapped an arm around her. He could get used to this comforting job. He liked the feeling of keeping her safe. Can’t get wrapped up in that, though, he thought. He turned to look at the rest of group who were beginning to mill around a bit. “So, does anyone else know what they’re going to do? Where they’re going to go?”

No one answered at first. Jones was helping Elijah stand up, seeing if he could walk on his bitten leg. He was a little stiff at first, very tender, but he could get around a bit. He was a lot slower. He winced in pain with every step and after a few, sat back down in his chair from earlier. “Wherever I’m goin’,” Elijah said, “I ain’t walkin’.” He rubbed his leg. Jones shook his head in agreement.

“Yeah. Elijah and I can take the ambulance back. We’ll be going to Eden Medical Center, since it’s closest. You said you were going there? If you wanna ride, you can.” Jones started looking around for his gear, the bag and other items. Elijah nodded at Seth, showing he didn’t mind him tagging along either.

Virgina, behind the counter, was as pale as her brown skin would allow. “I — I just don’t know what to do,” she said, her voice shaky. “I think I want to just stay here. This is what I know, after all. I’ll just lock the doors up after you all leave and just…wait it out.” Her eyes were large with fright, but she seemed very in control.

The elderly trio, husband, wife, and friend, all decided to take the train back to their condos on the ocean side of town. They figured they could walk to the subway station and ride back without encountering any more of these “living corpses”. Seth thought they had a good chance, if the… occurances… were are low as Jones said.

Seth saw that accounted for everyone who was left. The fat, coughing man had disappeared earlier, apparently deciding for himself to take his chances in the weather. He turned to Ruth. “Well? What do you think? Ambulance or some other way?”

She looked up at him and thought for a minute. “I don’t trust that cab driver, Elijah. I think we should find our own way,” she whispered, not wanting anyone to hear. Luckily her whisper didn’t echo and no one heard anything. He nodded.

“Alright, everyone just go how they’ve decided.” He turned to Jones and Elijah. “I think we’ll find our own way, thanks. We’ll see you at the hospital.” Elijah just nodded, but Jones seemed incredulous.

“What? You’re going to walk fifteen fucking miles with these… bodies! running around? Are you completely insane? Come on, you’re gonna ride in the ambulance with us and we’ll get there in ten minutes, fifteen top.”

“No,” Seth said, “we’re gonna find another way. We’d rather take our chances on foot or the train.” His face and voice were both very set and determined.

Jones sighed. “Alright, kid, fine, do whatever. Hope you make it through. These things… well, you saw.” Jones picked up his bag and helped Elijah to stand and walk out the front doors.

Virginia came out from around the desk and stood by the door, her keys in hand. “Y’all be safe, now. I don’t want no more dead bodies on my mind.” She smiled softly at everyone and jostled her keys, impatient to be behind locked doors. The elderly trio smiled at her and the woman gave her a hug before they left. It was just Seth and Ruth now. He led her to the door.

“Are you sure you’re the only person left?” Seth asked, suddenly concerned.

“Yeah, baby, I’m sure. ‘Tweren’t no one here when I opened up this morning and I don’t remember anyone but you folks comin’ in. I’ll be alright here, all by my lonesome. You just go on and get safe.”

Seth nodded, then looked back over his shoulder at Mary and Naomi. “Do — do you want me to take them outside somewhere for you?” He pointed with a thumb at the dead bodies. Virginia and Ruth both looked over, Ruth’s look just a glance. She closed her eyes and held her hands to her face.

Virgina nodded, then said, “Yeah, that’d probably be best. I don’t think I want no dead people locked in here with me. Do you think you can handle it, baby? All by yourself?” She looked concerned.

“Yeah, I can take care of ‘em,” Seth said, his heart a little heavy at the idea of dragging out a grown woman’s body.