EYEHEARTZOMBIES

Jeb’s arms were burning and his hand hurt from swinging the statue. The man finally looked truly dead, though. Good riddance to him, too. The dead were supposed to just lay there, not start movin’ around again. He was glad it had gone as quickly as it had. He didn’t know if he could have held out much longer. He walked back through the rows of books toward the spiral staircase.

“Ginny? I’m comin’ up the stairs. Everything’s alright now.” He called while he was still walking down the aisle. “Ginny?” He stopped and listened for a reply. Nothing. Oh well, she was probably hiding up on the third floor and couldn’t hear him. Or was afraid to call out or something. He’d see when he got up there.

He reached the bottom rung of the staircase and started up, keeping one hand on the railing and looking up through the hole. These staircases always messed with his head. He would have taken the grand staircase at the back, but he wanted to get up to Ginny as quick as he could. He’d deal with a little bit of vertigo.

Halfway up the staircase, he heard a gasp from above. Ginny sucked in air, then let it out in a long scream. “Ginny! What?” His voice was full of panic for his friend. “What?!” She just screamed again, this one trailing off into a whimper. He looked back down the staircase.

Bob was at the bottom, coming up. He had crawled up a few stairs, using his size to help prop him between the railings. His face was pointed straight up at Jeb and he was pulling himself with his arms more than pushing with his feet. Spit and blood was still dripping out of his mouth. He opened his mouth to let out another of his gurgling growls and Jeb could see that all of his front teeth were missing, knocked out by the flagpole. His nose was broken, too, the blood trickling from it adding to the blood pouring from his mouth. Jeb half-screamed himself, taking another couple of steps up the staircase.

Jeb reached the second floor and scrambled out of the staircase hole. He saw Ginny sitting over by the railing looking out over the library. Her hands were to her mouth and she was staring wide-eyed at Jeb. He could hear her almost hyperventilating. “Ginny, it’ll be OK. I’ll — ” He wasn’t sure WHAT he’d do.

He looked back down the spiral ramp and saw that Bob was about halfway up now, making good speed on his supernaturally strong arms. His head was bent back painfully, staring up at the hole. And Jeb’s face. He tried to smile, but his lips didn’t seem to want to obey. Another gurgle came from his throat and little bubbles appeared in the spit that was pooling on his tongue.

Jeb felt frozen to the spot. What the hell was he supposed to do now? He’d brain the damn thing twice already. Three times, counting the second whack with the flagpole. It should be choking to death on its own teeth with a smashed in skull. Another growl jarred Jeb from his trance. It came from much too close. He looked down the hole again, squinting against the darkness, and saw that Bob had only a few steps left to climb. Jeb swung his feet over the hole and put them down on the first stair.

Ginny half-gasped half-screamed behind him, but he kept himself from turning and looking. He couldn’t be distracted right now. He had to keep his mind on killing this damn… thing. He stepped down to the second step, still not sure what he was going to do. He knew the time had come to decide when he felt an ice-cold hand clamp onto his shin.

“Fuck!” The word jumped out of him before he could stop it. He felt fingernails trying to find flesh through his dungarees. He kicked with his free foot and felt the sole of his shoe connect with skull. Bob gurgled as he was pushed backward by the kick. His hand didn’t let go of Jeb’s leg. Jeb kicked again and felt his foot slide on the blood-slick skull.

Bob’s fingers began to loosen on his leg, the fingers losing their strength. Jeb was holding himself on the first step with his hands, bracing himself for the kicks. The third kick knocked Bob down a few stairs, his hand finally slipping off. He caught Jeb’s foot, though, and pulled Jeb down a few steps. Jeb let out another curse and pulled back his free foot for a fourth kick. He let it go with all the might he had left in his body.

Bob’s face seemed to split down the middle, blood gushing out from everywhere. His head went back and back and finally pulled his body over. Suddenly one hundred and eighty degrees from where he had been, he failed his arms wildly trying to catch onto anything. He fell back onto the metal stairs, his skull clanging off of one of them. He bounced and slid down to the bottom where he landed with a thud, his neck bent at an odd angle. Jeb didn’t move from his new seat four or five steps below where he had been. Slowly, Bob’s body succumbed to gravity and slid sideways until it was laying on the ground with his head, which was now twisted most of the way around. With a final snap, his body and head both lay flat on the ground. His eyes were open and completely rolled back into his head. Jeb breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank you, Jesus,” he said under his breath. He tried to stand up but found his knees too wobbly to support his weight. He turned and crawled up the stairs, all to aware of how eerie it was to immitate the recently doubly deceased Bob. He cleared the second floor and collapsed on the ground. He couldn’t breathe.