EYEHEARTZOMBIES

Bill couldn’t believe his eyes. She — the girl — Sarah — had peeled herself off the ground. And — and! — attacked a cop! At least it had all ended quickly. A bullet to the head seemed to do the trick. Not that Mike had stopped there. He seemed to be as much of a bulldog as he looked. He had shot the girl in the head again. Point blank range; just stuck the gun to her forehead and pulled the trigger. Thankfully no one else had been watching.

The group at the bench was all gathered around it, those not sitting on it turned to face those who were. Eagle was turned against Bill’s shoulder, crying quietly. It was strangely touching to see so much emotion come from someone that was expected to be so hard and cold.

The two officers climbed out of the subway tunnel. The bitten one, Mike, was bleeding pretty well from his neck, even with one hand clamped over the wound. He was holding his pistol in his other hand, which was bloody, too. He didn’t say anything as he passed Bill and the group at the bench. The other cop, Gumbowsky, stopped to talk to Bill in quiet tones.

“Hey, uh, you saw what happened, I guess. I’m gonna take him to the hospital, of course. You, uh, can you all stay here until we can get back? From the reports I’ve heard, this’ll be believed, but I’d rather have some witnesses. Unless…. No, no, I can’t have you come with us. You have your friends here anyway, and it’d be really against regulations. So, stay here, OK?” He was obviously very nervous and shook up.

Bill nodded. “We’ll stay here. Unless… something else… comes along.”

The cop paled even further. Just for a second, though. He recovered quickly, swallowed, and said, “Yeah, yeah, I understand. If we — I — can’t come back soon, I’ll send someone else. Thanks, Billy.” He reached out and Bill took his hand. The two shook and then the cop turned and jogged out of the subway station. The group around the bench tried to flag him down, but he ignored them. Bill walked over to them, Eagle in tow.

Maureen and George were still sitting on the bench, the other three standing around them. Eagle sat down on the bench, his head in his hands. Bill didn’t pity his position at all. It was hard to lose a friend, a lover. His own wife had died over a decade ago, but he still missed her every night. His thoughts were interrupted by the businessman.

“So where’re the fuckin’ cops going?” He hadn’t said much else, but his face was already starting to turn red. Apparently the cops ignoring him on top of the gunshots and no the lack of power was setting him off the deep end. “Why’d they just run out? And what the hell were the gunshots about? I don’t like all of this… this… silence. I want to know what the hell is going on!” His face was completely red now, his nostrils flaring on every other word.

The two businesswomen were right beside him, nodding along. Bill started to feel his military training rising up in him. The day was going crazy enough as it was without some self-important bean counter demanding to know what was going on. He pulled himself up to his full height, not easily done lately. He pulled in a deep breath and then poked a finger out at Mr. Businessman.

“The cops left ’cause one of ‘em was hurt, or maybe you didn’t see the blood. They’re asking us to stay here until one or both of ‘em get back. I said we’d do it, so you might as well get comfortable.”

“Hurt? What’d he do, shoot himself? Why the fuck do we have to wait here?”

Bill really wished he could just hit the man, but that wouldn’t solve anything. “If you want to know what hurt him, go look on the rails. As for staying here, we’re staying ’cause I said we are.”

The businessman puffed his chest up and shouted “Fine!” at Bill and the rest of the group, then the turned and stomped his way over to the yellow-striped line. His stomping slowed and became a lot more timid as he approached the edge. He stood there for a second, looking down at the gore below, then turned and started coughing and hacking against the wall. Some yellow phlegm-y vomit came up and he braced himself against the wall with both hands. A few more coughs and he muttered “Fuck” after noticing that he’d gotten some bile on his tie. He stripped it off and threw it onto the ground.

Bill turned to look at the other members of the group. “I take it none of you want to see what’s down there?” Everyone shook their heads or muttered “No”. Bill nodded, then looked at Maureen and George. “I’m sure you two know what’s down there already.” Both of them nodded their heads. “Yeah. So I guess everyone just needs to sit down somewhere and just wait, I guess. It shouldn’t be too long before someone gets back here. It’s just that the cops want some witnesses for the report. The incident report, or whatever.” He shrugged and everyone nodded. They all went and found a place to sit, the two businesswomen sat on the steps and Bill pulled a trashcan over and turned it upside-down to sit on.

After a few minutes of sitting in silence, one of the two businesswoman looked up and asked, “So, what’s REALLY going on?”

Bill sighed and decided to dive in. “Well, it looks like… no, it IS that the dead are coming back to life.” He knew it sounded stupid and silly and panicky, but he couldn’t help it. The woman just stared at him. She didn’t belive him, he could read it in her eyes. “I know it sounds… impossible,” he said, “but it’s what’s going on. We saw it happen at the library that we were in this morning. A little girl got hit by a car and then…. She came back. She came back to life and attacked someone else.” Bill had been staring at his hands during the telling, and now he looked up at the woman who had asked.

The businesswoman’s mouth was hanging open now. She was staring at Bill and George and Maureen. “And then what?” She was deathly quiet now but the echoes of the subway platform carried her voice to him. He looked down at his hands again and then continued.

“The woman she attacked — a paramedic that had come to help her — she died. And then she came back, too. It seems to spread through bites. That’s all I really know about it.” He kept looking at his hands but could hear the woman stand up and walk over to him. She squatted down in front of him and pushed his head up so he was looking into her eyes.

“But where does it start?”

He searched his mind, hoping, praying for any sort of answer to her question. All he knew was that it started with the little girl. He had no idea where she had gotten it. Or why. For all he knew, everyone had it. Whatever it was. He swallowed hard and looked her square in the eyes.

“I don’t know.”