EYEHEARTZOMBIES

The elderly trio had left the library while it was still raining. Maureen and George huddled together under an umbrella, William had his own. No one ever called him William, though. Not even Maureen and George, whom he’d known for ages. They all called him Billy and he liked it. A nickname made a man feel younger than his years. The excitement today seemed to be cancelling out that particular fountain of youth, though.

They walked down the sidewalk silently, no one really feeling like talking after what they had seen. They were travelling in the opposite direction of the hospital, moving toward the closest subway station to try and get back home as quick as they could. Billy kept repeating a prayer for the subways to still be working silently in his head with every step. The power was out but maybe the trains had their own set up or something. Something that would mean they could get out of this quickly.

By the time they reached the station, a good half mile away, they were all damp despite the umbrellas. Domes over your head didn’t do much good in a blowing rain that came at you sideways. The stairs down into the ground looked dark, but silent looks through the group showed they all wanted to go down and see what the situation really was.

The cloud-filtered sunlight illuminated the first several steps of the wide concrete staircase, but beyond that was lost in shadow. They went down as bravely as they could, letting their eyes adjust to the gloom. A few other people were standing around on the landing, still only halfway down to the level of the trains. They were all shielding their eyes from the light, trying to peer just a few more feet into the darkness.

“I — I think I heard a train pull in,” one man in a business suit said. “I wonder why it’s so dark in there?”

A woman in a pin-striped business suit looked over at him and tiredly said, “Where have you been? The power’s been out for an hour or so now. My whole office left thirty minutes ago. I don’t know if the subways are runnin’ or not, but I’m not about to stand here too much longer.” She started down into the blackness. Another woman standing on the landing looked worridly after her, then followed. That left Billy and his friends, and the business man.

“Well,” said the man, “I’m not going in there, train or no.” He turned to climb the steps leading back out.

“I thought you said you heard a train?” Maureen called to him.

“Yeah, I said I THOUGHT I had heard a train. It could have just been my mind playing with me. Or maybe it was one of those…. I’m just not going down in there in the dark. I’ll find a taxi and take it home.” He turned and stormed up the stairs, full of fake bravado and slightly flustered.

“I hope he makes it home,” Maureen said quietly. “I — I hope we all make it home.” She looked at the two men travelling with her. “Well, what do you fellas think we outta do?” She looked on the verge of sitting down and crying right where she was.

George just turned and looked back into the darkness. He stepped down another stair or two and just stood there, shoulders slightly slumped. Billy wasn’t sure what to do. On the one hand, he really wanted to see what was going on down on the platform. On the other… he didn’t want to run into any more re-animated… creatures. Two was enough for any man. More than enough. He shrugged at Maureen.

“Maureen, I honestly have no idea. I really want to see what’s going on down there,” he pointed into the darkness below them, “but I don’t want to take a chance that we’ll find more than trains and commuters. George?” George turned to look at them. “What do you think, George?”

George stood there for a few seconds, mulling things over by his facial expression. “I think we should go down,” he said, quietly. He nodded at the two of them, then turned and started down the stairs. Maureen and Billy had to hurry after him. He disappeared into thick darkness quickly, but soon emerged as a silhoutte, backlit by the orange-yellow emergency lights. The platform wasn’t crowded. The three of them made seven or eight total on the cement landing. The two women from the stairs stood near the black and yellow striped line, talking quietly to each other. Another business man stood propped against one wall, briefcase and overcoat folded under his arm. Two younger kids, probably sixteen or seventeen, were squatting on the opposite wall from the businessman, tossing pebbles around.

No one said anything when the trio emerged from the dark. The businessman looked up from staring at his shoes and the floor. His dark eyes took them all in in one look, then he went back to the ground. The kids in the corner didn’t even look up. The businesswomen ignored them, too, except for a small cursory glance from the first woman down.

No train was waiting. The map in the corner that normally showed where each train was with a small LED strip wasn’t working. Only the emergency argon lights glowed, barely illuminating the platform. The three people on the farthest edges, the businessman and the two teenagers, were partially in the shadows, halfway obscured by the short gradient from light to dark. Billy walked over to the map to look closer; Maureen sat down on the benches in the middle of the room and George joined her, standing by her instead of sitting.

The map was in remarkable condition for being stored underground where anyone could get to it. The subways in this city were free for use, so there wasn’t any ticket booth or anyone to monitor activities. Janitors and maintenance personnel regularly came through, so they could have kept tabs on everything, and cops were usually present in each of the loading areas. Still, vandals seemed to have a way to destroy anything they wanted. Just look at highway overpasses and water towers.

The map showed all the tracks that the subway trains ran through the city. Each group of lines had a color coordinated with it. They were in the downtown section of the city, so they were on the yellow line. The lines were painted on the map, but there was also a line of LEDs inset into each one with a matching color that showed were trains were waiting and travelling. It was a great way to see how long of a wait it was until the next train pulled into the station and Bill had never seen another map like it in any of his travels.

Now, though, the map was just a map. No LEDs were lit, no LEDs travelled between stations. The dim orange light of the station made it hard to read the map. After staring at it for a few minutes without really seeing it, he turned around to see what the other two were doing.

Maureen was still sitting and George had joined her. Bill walked over to them and sat down on Maureen’s other side. “Well, guys, any new ideas?”

Maureen looked at him, still close to tears, and shook her head. George looked at him thoughtfully and said, slowly, “I don’t think they’re running, Billy. Looks like they’re all froze up somewhere along the line. What do you think we should do? Should we go look for a taxi cab?” George wasn’t slow, even if he halfway seemed like it. He just preferred to take his time deciding what to say, and he spoke slow to make sure he said it the way he wanted to say it. It was a habit that was somewhat hard to get used to, but faded into normalcy after knowing him for a few years.

“Well, I think you’re right, George. The map’s out. I know that don’t mean much, since it’s electric, too. Just seems like they could power the map if they could keep the trains moving. I dunno what to do, though. I don’t know if I trust any cabs after what happened….” He trailed off, not wanting to push Maureen over the edge. “Anyway, I guess we could try walking. Or we could wait here for a train. These people seem set on doing that,” he motioned around the room at the other five people.

Maureen and George both just looked at him, Maureen even closer to tears than she had been. Seeing the little girl had been hard on her. She and George had lost a child, a girl, to an auto accident many years ago and Bill knew they still thought about her often. Today just wasn’t the day to go to the library.

“Yeah, let’s stay here for awhile,” George said. “I’d rather wait and see what happens. I got a feeling about the train. I think it’ll be the right choice.” He nodded at Bill and Bill nodded back. They’d wait.