Big Bite Cont

Richard was heading into work, being his own boss he could show up whenever he wanted to. He owned a resale business, he would buy and sell stuff on the internet and make a profit. He was a genius when it came to that sort of thing, and that had allowed him to buy an office and hire a few people to help him with it and things had been going great. Then this morning he had gotten a phone call from the secretary saying that things were going badly and they needed him there right away. Here he was speeding down the highway, trying to get there as fast as possible. He didn’t even notice the fact that there were so few cars on the road, so intent was he in driving and his cell phone.

His office was a little shop in a strip mall, luckily it was a busy place and the front gave much needed advertisement for him. There were a bunch of smaller stores in the strip, with a large hardware store and clothing store there as well. When he pulled into the parking lot he was not prepared for the sight that he saw. It was a madhouse. People were everywhere, and there were no parking spaces. He finally found a spot way out at the end, so he had to walk all the way across the parking lot just to get to his office.

Once inside, he noticed right away why they needed him so badly, apparently most of his office staff had either not shown that day or they had called out. ‘Is there a holiday I don’t know about? Are they all out at the bar getting blitzed without me?”

“I don’t know sir, but we have been slammed this morning for some of the strangest stuff, I don’t know if we can get a hold of it” Said Judy. She was the one receptionist that had actually shown up today, and by the looks of it she was near the breaking point as it was.

“Ensure you write down everyone who is not here today and send them there last check, they are all fired. Run an ad, we need some help.” Richard barked. Judy cringed at this but did as she was told, she needed this job real bad and couldn’t afford to piss off Richard any more than he was.

“Yes Sir, already got the list. We did get what we were waiting on, but now UPS says they won’t be back to get what we need to send out.” Obviously this was the wrong thing to say. Richard got this intense look in his eyes like he was going to rip her head off and Shit down it.

“Just take care of what I said, and don’t bother me I will be taking calls in my office.” Richard swept past Judy and slammed his door. Once inside he started to settle to answer a phone call when there was a small crash out front. “What the fuck was that Judy? Make sure you clean it up.” Turning back to his phone he answered the first one. “What the fuck do you want? A what? No, we don’t have any crossbows on hand.” Click, “What a crazy bitch, that’s it, I am going to cut the damn phone line.” CRASH “What the Fuck Judy, I said stop screwing around out there…. Judy?”

There was only silence that responded to Richard. Slowly he moved forward, not sure what he would find. He opened the door and realized what the crash was. The front window to the place had been shattered, but there was no Judy to be found. Looking around he could see blood smeared on the floor and what looked like some drag marks leading off towards the bathroom. “Stupid bitch, probably cut herself on the glass and had to go and clean herself up. Now I might have a lawsuit on my hands. God Damn it Judy, wha...” He just rounded the corner to the bathroom when he saw it.

It looked like a man was bending over Judy giving her mouth to mouth, but then he lifted his head and in his mouth was Judy’s nose. Her face had been torn open buy the things teeth and it looked like a bite had been taken from her throat as well, probably what had killed her. Richard panicked, “Wh wha what the fuck? Shit, fuck, god damn.” It then stood up, and slowly started making its way toward Richard. “What the fuck do you want? I have money, anything just talk to me, what do you want?” For its response opened its mouth and allowed Richard to see all its teeth. It just kept coming.

Frantically Richard looked around, some way to escape. The front was the only way out, but he wasn’t thinking clearly, and he tripped over something, what was it? Then he saw it, and immediately he had to thank Judy for something that she now did right, even if she were dead. It kept coming forward, at its god awful slow pace, but still always coming. It was a man, must have been a worker over at the hardware store, he still was wearing his apron. In Richard’s hand was a golf club that he had pulled out of the umbrella stand. He swung with all his might, a swing that could have taken the mightiest giant in the world down, if it had hit him. His swing had missed, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. “Shit, this is it.” The zombie also fell down, and was now crawling towards Richard. Something then stopped it, and when Richard could see what it was he was amazed and thrilled, at first.

There crawling towards the both of them was Judy, she was pulling on the leg of the zombie. All Richard thought at first was she was pulling it off of him. Then he saw her eyes and realized the error of this thought. They were glazed and faraway, like she was dead. She wasn’t trying to pull the first one off; she was joining it to get a bite. “Oh, fuck what now. This is not fucking happening to me now, God Damn it.” Bang. A moment of Silence and then Bang. All Richard could see were two dead bodies now, both their heads were missing or partially gone. Richard was covered in gore, wondering what the fuck had just happened. He then looked around just to find a barrel pointing right in his face.

“Were you bitten? Are you ok?” The mystery person asked.

“Ya, I am fine. Could you get that fucking barrel out of my face now?” Richard responded. Who the fuck was this guy to just walk in and point a gun at me?

“Just had to make sure, here let me help you up.” He handed Richard a hand.

“I can do it myself, thanks. Who the fuck are you? What the fuck is going on man?” Richard Demanded.

“Hey man, sorry. Just wasn’t sure, you know? My name is John, what’s yours?”

“I am Richard, sorry the way I snapped, that one there would be my secretary, do you know what the fuck is going on man?”

“I can’t be too sure, it just seems like these things are zombies. There are a shit ton of them around. I heard a shout and came over to investigate. Good timing if you ask me, a minute more you would have been one of them. I got my truck out here, just gotta get to it. Are you with me, or not?”

“Shit man. Oh fuck. Ya, I will go with you, all I got though is this club, what can that do?”

“Just actually hit em in the head, should work pretty well. I got some other stuff in my truck, I was able to stock up before the shit really hit the fan and everyone got here. The crowd that is when it got bad, with all the people around it only took a couple of them before everyone panicked and started to run. Looks like most of them got distracted from here, but we better get a move on.”

“Ya, ok.” This all hit Richard so hard, but he was willing to go along, as long as it kept him alive. He was also a little pissed at this John guy making fun of him. He swung that club, don’t some fucking hick farmer saving his ass then rubbing it in.

They went outside. The parking lot was a completely different scene than what it was just a short while back. There were a lot of cars just sitting around, some burning. He could see things moving inside a couple of cars, but Richard didn’t want to get a closer look at what it was that was moving around. He could see a few of them off in the distance either following someone else or moving aimlessly around. A few of them had seen them and were ambling their way towards them, but they were all a ways away.

John couldn’t believe this guy. He had saved his life, and then acted like such an asshole about it. He can understand being stressed, this whole thing is crazy, but to act that way to someone who had gone out of their way to help them, disgraceful. This is a different generation. Then he giggled to himself. John he said to himself, Now you’re starting to sound just like dad, if you keep this up you will have to start drinking and wind up killing yourself at a young age. A scream in the distance broke him out of his reverie and right back to this new horrific reality. 

Big Bite Cont

John awoke that morning the same way he woke up every morning, with the sun just coming up over the horizon right into his room. It was grueling having to wake up at the crack of dawn, sometimes earlier depending what had to get done. As usual though he got up, went over to his sink and began to brush his teeth. A middle aged man looked back at him, and although he never would admit it he was quite the looker. His farm had kept him in shape, it was hard work that he did every day and it did show on the lines on his face and the gray in his hair. He kept his hair short; he did that ever since serving in the Army during the first desert storm. It was when he got back from there that he took over his father’s farm, it was so much more peaceful and with his father’s failing health it was really the only thing he had wanted to do.

Through the years of running the farm he had isolated himself from the world, not because he didn’t like people just that he had so much to do here on the farm. Then when his mother died, John found that he could no longer do anything but keep the place going. So, he took over the Pleasant farm, even though most the time it was anything but pleasant.

After taking care of himself in the bathroom, he grabbed a cup of coffee. Sitting at the kitchen table, enjoying the warmth of it and the strong fragrance he noticed something strange. There was a silence, but at this time the yard should have been filled with the sound of waking animals and birds. Coming fully alert immediately he went outside. Sure enough there was a problem. It looked like something had spooked the cows last night because they had crashed through the gate and was now down the drive quite a ways. Whatever it was though had its way with one cow. It had been eaten, torn apart and dragged away. “Shit” John said, “Must have been a pack of coyotes or even some wolves, not unheard of, but damn.” Mad at losing a cow and having to fix the fence.

“Looks like I am going to have to go get some lumber to fix this, damn it. This farm is nothing but a drain on life, I should have sold it to that developer years ago, then maybe I could relax.” At this he reluctantly went over and started to round up the other cows. It wasn’t difficult cause they all new John and that he meant no harm. After putting them up in a different pen, he fed all the livestock and made sure that they all had plenty of water.

John got himself ready to go to town. The best place to get lumber now a days was to go to the Giant Chain place in town, where the ceiling was so high and you could find anything you wanted there. Jumping into his truck he started down the road. His truck was nothing special at all, an old ford that had too much rust, not enough metal on it. Sitting in his back window was a gun rack, and it wouldn’t be right if there wasn’t a gun lying in its rightful spot there. It was a 270, nothing too powerful, but can take a deer down at 100 yds no problem and with the scope, he was some kind of accurate with it.

While driving down the road he noticed something that was just not right. He couldn’t place it, it just seemed quiet, and even though it was still early there should have been more people about. It was close to a 30 minute drive to the store, and halfway he hadn’t seen another vehicle at all. Then though he did see somebody, but something wasn’t right. Again he couldn’t place it, they were walking down the side of the road, a little strange as there weren't really a whole lot of people that live in the area, but what was weird was the way they were walking.

They were walking as if they had hurt their ankle but they were not favoring it, just walking funny, almost like they were dragging their foot along. As John got closer he could tell that their clothes were very tattered and it looked like they were hurt. At this time they turned around and John knew something was wrong with them. He stopped the truck a short distance from them, ‘Are you OK?” John asked, “Can I get someone to call 911 for you?” But the only response that John got was a slobbering mouth opening wide like it was going to eat a giant burger, but it was staring at John. “Shit, what is wrong with this bastard?” And then it got closer where John could smell it.

It was a smell like nothing that John had ever smelled before. It reminded him of that dead coon he had found when he was a kid; it must have been rotting there for a week or more. And a close look at this fellow revealed the fact that he had a gaping hole in its neck, where it may have been chewed open by a dog or something of the like. Quickly he jumped back into his truck. Now it was right at his hood, banging on it making its way towards John in the cab.

John put the truck into reverse, pounding on the gas just as it reached the window and was grabbing for John’s shirt. He went backward about 50 yds or so; it was still coming for him. John made the quick decision, my life over there undead one. He made the connection without even realizing that he did. He knew it was undead and a zombie, how he knew it though could not figure it out. He put the truck into gear and pushes the accelerator all the way to the floor. He must have hit the thing going 45 mph. He stopped and looked into his rear view mirror, but to John’s dismay it was getting back up. Again he put it into reverse and gunned it, hitting it with the ass of the truck with a sickening thud. As it fell over it went under the tires and John could hear the head pop with a squishy kind sound, like dropping a watermelon. It never got back up.

“That’s right, gotta take out there head, I remember now. It is like one of those old zombie movies. I need to get to the store before it is too late and pick up some supplies.” With that John headed out, trying to get to the store, leaving a mangled corpse on the road. What he didn’t see was the crows coming down to eat the flesh, thinking it was an easy meal. 

Big Bite Cont

Lucille left her store. Not really hers, just where she worked at the time. It was one of those big chain clothing stores, where all the teenage girls would get there low rise jeans and tank tops. Although business had been good recently today had been very slow, felt like the day would never end. Maybe it had something to do with the fact it was a Wednesday and always the slowest day. It really didn’t matter to Lucille because she was done now and was able to go home and relax.

She was a pretty girl, but also a shy one. She had one of those natural beauties, didn’t have to wear makeup and still she got looks from guys. But with all these looks it never got to her head, others would consider her very sensible. Hardly ever did she go out with her friends, and then she never drank. Some could look at this and think that she was missing out; to her though she was very content with the way things were going and never felt the need to be outrageous at parties or do something stupid. That is why she also went straight home after work.

Driving home was always uneventful; being kind of late at night there was never any real traffic and always a smooth ride. Her car was nothing special, in fact it may have been considered the opposite of special. It was older, like early 90s model car, and ugly shade of red that made it look even worse. It was usually broke down, and she always had to bum rides to work. Right now though it was working, and it was always nice to be able to get where you want to when you want to.

The radio on the way home was doing the news at that moment, so she really didn’t listen too close. Something they said piqued her interest though and she turned up the volume. “The biggest story going on now is the one of the missing officer. Several children from the town say that he was attacked and killed by a monster. They were both shaken pretty bad and are seeing treatment now from a specialist. When the police followed their story to where the incident occurred the only thing that they were able to find was a dark spot on the road. There was no body or any sign of one, or of the attacker. The officer’s sidearm was on the road with several empty casings. They believe that he may have actually been attacked by a bear. The animal being wounded and bleeding attacked the trooper knocking him down. They believe he may have been stunned and is now confused and lost. The story that the children put out has been attributed to shock and trauma, a young child trying to cope with a situation. The police ask if anyone sees this officer or has any information to please call….” She stopped listening as she continued to drive along.

Pulling into her driveway, she noticed that the neighbors were not home. “They were probably out enjoying a date or something, good for them.” She said to no one but herself.  Her place was small, just really big enough for her. She couldn’t have any pets, good thing as she hated cats and though she would like a dog she really couldn’t take care of it so much, too expensive. It was a typical one bedroom apartment, with a small living room and dining room, and a pantry type kitchen. Not much but all that she really needed in her life at this time.

Set all of her stuff on the coffee table and went to the bathroom. Looking into the mirror she couldn’t help but think how ugly she was. Course all females believe they are ugly. With a bright blue color in her eyes and jet black hair she was not anything close to ugly. She wore those dark rimmed glasses like librarians and had a smooth complexion. It was a sort of pale color skin she had, but she did have a slight bit of Irish in her ancestry, even if the hair and eyes gave none of that away. She wasn’t what you would call fit, she never worked out in her life, but she was small. She might reach 5’6” if she was on her tip toes, but she never let her shorter size get in her way.

Lucille went about her normal routine, making herself a dinner and settling on the couch. Her apartment was always kept quite clean, she could never stand to have it messy or cluttered. She turned on the news, hoping to catch the weather. She caught a few moments of a story about some missing people and a word about some murder, but she flipped it right over to the weather channel, a place she could really find the weather. Learning it was going to be a cloudy day tomorrow, she turned it on some movie and sat back and relaxed.  She started to doze and decided it was time for bed. Shutting all the lights off she went to bed, not looking forward the dreary day and work tomorrow. Suppose though there are worse things the day could bring.

The next day brought the clouds just like the men on TV had said it would. She flipped it on and immediately regretted it. All she ever found on TV was how there was a war here or these people were mad about something or theses other people were hungry. Never anything happy ever happened and this morning was not any different. It looked like there was some rioting in the area that the officer had gone missing and they had declared a state of emergency. The National Guard and stuff had been called in but it didn’t look like was going to end anytime soon.

Once she was ready she made her way down to her car and got going. The radio was announcing a lot of the same stuff that the news was, talking about some local unrest. What was going on in the world these days?  She just changed the station until she was able to find some music that she could listen to. The drive was uneventful, though it did seem that there were a few less drivers than normal. She supposed that with things going on a few people would take a sick day or something like that.

The parking lot was mostly empty when she got to work and parked her car. She had to park on the far side of the lot because her boss said that the closer spots were meant for the customers and not the employees. That sucked because when it rained or snowed or just was really cold she couldn’t park any closer to the store. As she pulled into the spot that she was going to take her car made some funny spluttering noises, but it didn’t quit. Lucille whispered a silent prayer hoping her car was going to make it.

Opening the store was totally uneventful, after closing it the night before she knew everything had been done and really didn’t have to do much beyond unlocking the doors and turning on the lights. Lucille didn’t really expect anyone to come in right away, it was still pretty early and not much business was ever done before lunch.

The day turned out to move even slower than the day before had. There were almost no customers and none actually bought anything just came in, looked around and then left. This would have alarmed Lucille if she actually cared. If it was a slow day then all she had to do was read her book that she had brought in. She still got paid by the hour and was not worried that the company would go under on one slow day. Just as she was thinking about how uneventful the day was and how nice it was to have such a slow day a couple of people burst through the front door and closed it quick behind them. One of them was bleeding pretty badly from their arm.

Big Bite Cont

A breath in and out, another and bang, a zombie hits the floor. Both of the people in the car look around frantically, although a zombie dead is good, there are some bad things other than the undead in this world. Walking forward, Tommy beads in on the second one, bang, this one hits the sidewalk. The last one is now pounding on the glass of their car, trying to reach in and pull its meal out through the window. Not looking around, these things have a very one track mind, feed, and so it didn’t see or hear Tommy come up behind it and with a quick movement crushed its head in with the stock of the gun.

“Come on, get out of the car. I am not going to hurt you and unless you want one of those guys to shamble on over and take a large bite out of your ass, fine by me, but I didn’t waste two bullets for nothing now move.” Both of them climb to the backseat and get out the door. At this time a few more of them had made it onto Tommy’s street, but nothing that couldn’t be handled.

“Wait, I need to get some things from the trunk” Said the man.

“We don’t have the time to be getting any shit man”

“We have to, we have food and water and some weapons in here, can’t be leaving any of this behind.”

“Alright” Grumbled Tommy, knowing this guy was right and hating the fact he was wrong about something, but at least he could admit when he was wrong and learn from those mistakes. They gathered everything they could in their arms and made their way back to Tommy’s place. “Put everything in the back of the truck, except the guns, I will be right back out and we will not be staying here long.”

Running inside Tommy grabbed the rest of his ammo, a bag of clothes and some food. He was just about done when he heard a voice from the driveway. “What was that?” Asked Tommy, just then he heard a gunshot, then another. Figuring that his time was up, he ran outdoors. At the end of his driveway laid a body, and right behind that one two more were making their way towards them. Just when he had brought his gun up to shoot, one head exploded and the other fell over with an arrow sticking out of its eye.

Looking around Tommy realized that the woman had fired a crossbow, and with a smile he jumped into the truck. “Everyone get in.” They both jumped into the cab and just then he realized his huge mistake. “Shit, I forgot the key inside!” Kicking himself he went to jump from the cab.

The moment he landed, he knew there was something wrong. Earlier, when the scratching at the door stopped, he did not remember the zombie that was doing it outside in the street. That was when it hit him, and the zombie grabbed him at the same time. The zombie was under the truck, hiding. Though don’t really think that was what it was doing, seeing as how they are brainless, it probably saw a cricket and went to it. Now it had a hold of Tommy’s pant leg. He let out a mild yelp and fell to the ground. Normally he would have been ok in this situation, but the wind got knocked out of him and he was stunned for a second.

It was a putrid thing. Clawing its way forward, pulling with hands that had started to rot away and the fingernails were missing from scratching at the door the whole time. Must have been a business man, because it was wearing a tie and what was left of its white shirt, well what Tommy thought used to be white, was covered in blood and gore. Couldn’t tell you what kind of pants he was wearing when he got attacked, for he had no legs left. He was just pulling himself forward using his hands, trying to get to the meaty part of his meal. Looking up, all Tommy could see were those teeth, and this gaping mouth. Luckily he got a hand up in time to keep it from biting. It was a losing battle though, in a second it would have its meal and there was nothing he could do about it. Looking up into the face of the undead all he could see was his own death. Eye to eye, nothing now could stop it, when he was suddenly splashed with a cold fluid and the eye that was just looking at him now had the head of an arrow looking at him. Rolling the body off him, Tommy actually thanked god and got up.

“Now, I would really like to get out of here, so if you would please, go and get those keys.” The guy said grinning at Tommy and urging him on. He raced indoors and grabbed the key on the hook and was back outside before anymore showed up.  Jumping in the cab he fired the engine up. Yup, a full tank of gas, again thanking god Tommy backed out of the driveway. Hitting the gas, he moved the truck forward and towards the highway.

“Now, the only question I have, do you have any suggestions as to where we can go?”

Big Bite Cont

A blood curdling scream came from outside, just down the street, “What the Fuck was that?” Quickly getting up off the couch and moving his fat ass self to the window, peering through the curtains he couldn’t see a thing. He then went upstairs to the window up there. From this viewpoint he could see all the way up and down the street. But he wasn’t quite ready for what he saw. Another scream came blasting from this woman’s mouth, this time it sounded like it was going to break all the windows from the house.

Just like his coworker, a second scream was bellowed, but hers was cut off in a gurgling sound as the drunken man was biting into her throat. He then looked into the eyes of terror, as the man came up from his meal and to the door. The man's hands started to pound against the glass, leaving bloody prints all over it. He panicked and ran to the other door, flinging it open and making it to his truck. Within moments he was speeding out of the parking lot with now 2 shuffling persons falling behind in the rear view mirror.

“Shit” Tommy exclaimed, “This is not happening.” From his vantage point he could see two people in a car that was stuck to a light pole, apparently the driver felt it would make a good hood ornament. The car was the typical late model sedan, you know the kind that boasts about 25 mpg but only gets that brand new on the highway. Stupid car companies, when are they going to realize Ford had it right to begin with. The Model T got that, and it was 100 years ago.

His truck could never get that much, he would be lucky if he hit 20 mpg. Driving home that night was a wild ride. He could see that there were more of those shambling people walking the streets that night, with other people running from them. In the distance he could see the lights of fires, but nowhere in sight were there any sirens or trucks heading that way. Traffic was not the worse, but then again it wasn’t the best. Every half mile there would be vehicles crashed blocking the road and causing a backup. Each of these places were hectic, people running and screaming, and each time he had to drive around them or else get caught up in the craziness.

The car’s front end is mashed in, the rest is OK. The doors seem to be jammed because the two passengers are not running away, and running away would be the best thing that could possibly be done at this time. Right on cue, here comes one around the corner, shambling along in the ever familiar movement that the undead always seem to make. “Shit” Tommy says yet again, knowing all too well what was about to come, and knowing that deep down he couldn’t let it happen. “So this is why, huh god? Why I didn’t off myself, well you have a funny notion of the big plan, you know?”

He made his way home in record time that night. His neighborhood was quiet at that time, but the sounds of terror were coming from far away and closing in. With a few trips from his truck he closed up his house and hunkered down to wait it out. He grabbed his gun and sat on the couch, waiting and watching his clock.

The clock had only moved a fraction of the time that it felt. Again, time was not moving quite right, but at least this time on his side. Quickly Tommy to where his gun laid, all those times he yearned to put that stock in his mouth going through his mind. It was still sitting there, untouched since he moved it down here from storage in his closet. It was a nice gun, given to him by his grandfather, a 30-30 Marlin, it would sometimes jam and not everyone could shoot it accurately, but Tommy could. Having had enough practice with it to know where to aim for the error in the open sights. Really was a marvel, but given the chance could easily hit a target in the center at 50 yds, and that is all he really needed.

Heading towards the door he did notice one thing though, the scratching was gone, which meant that the one at the door had gone on towards the car, good news for him, bad news for them. His apartment, well really a duplex was blessed with a double set of doors with a porch in between them. This was a huge blessing, being able to block the porch door and then not worry about them getting in. All the windows in the house were close to 6 feet off the ground, Tommy could reach the bottom of the window with his head, and the only way up was the porch steps. Tommy had damaged them so that only one could stand on them at a time, but with no leverage to be able to get to the door, then with a table in front of the door it was easy enough to keep them out.

Now, after all that hard work to keep them out he was having a bitch of a time getting out the door himself. He could still hear the screaming, but it had gotten quieter and less frantic, maybe this woman had come to her senses, but it was too late now. Once one of them knew there was fresh meat, then all of them in the area knew about the fresh meat. Finally he was dancing his way down the steps and into his driveway. There sat his truck, not new but still a lot of kick left to it and a full tank of gas. It has 4 wheel drive and a big V8 engine, tow anything with this baby, course don’t really have to worry about that kind of thing anymore.

Out to the end of his driveway, he turned around the corner and was greeted with something both wonderful and horrifying at the same time. They had not gotten into the car yet, that is where the good news ended. Although there were only 3 on the car, there were many fast approaching. The term fast used loosely here. Stopping at the corner of his place, Tommy leaned up against the house for stability and aimed. Anyone who has ever read or seen a zombie movie knows to hit them in the head; it is the only way to kill them. In real life, it was a little bit different. Yes, a head shot would do it, but also dismantling them or destroying their bodies’ works, but a head shot is the quickest and easiest. 

Big Bite Cont.

Scritchity scratch, scratch creak. That is the most terrifying sound that he has ever heard in his life.

Sitting, isolated from the world, that is all he can hear. Every day he ponders about his life and why it is worth living. He hasn’t been to work in weeks it seemed, but was probably closer to 5 days. The way time has been moving, so slowly one could almost see the second hand move backwards at times, it may have been twenty years. Still he ponders taking his own life, he has a gun, and he could do it with no issues. The one thing keeping him going is the human drive to live and hope, even when it doesn’t feel like there is any hope left.

The news is on while he is getting himself ready for work. Each day he likes to keep up on the current events of the world around him. Although he only lives a simple life he would love to one day get himself into politics. One of the stories playing on the television was about a missing officer in some Podunk town. They have search parties in the woods looking for him, but have found nothing but a blood stain and tracks leading into the woods.

The living room is an absolute mess, there are soda cans everywhere. A few empty pizza boxes line the counters in the kitchen, and a sink full of dishes. The trash hasn’t been taken out in days, but I guess with the trash no longer being picked up anymore it didn’t really matter.

Work had been an uneventful time that evening. With the same old customers that come in each and every night, nothing could possibly make this day any more mundane. Finally the shift has ended and he heads home. He turns on the news yet again to see if there was more happening in the world than nothing. Immediately he is hit with an anchor talking about the missing cop. This time though it appears that there are several of the search party missing with some other locals in the area. It is all very strange and they are thinking that it may be terrorists. Plus they are talking about several towns in the area that have seen a sharp rise in crime as there have been many murders in the last day or so. A couple of survivors of attacks talk of crazy people that just wouldn't stop and would bite. These people have been taken to local hospitals to tend to their wounds. All wounded so far are expected to survive.

Lying back on the couch looking at the ceiling fan and light he realized that he still had power, “Wow, that should be out soon, can’t imagine anyone wanting to keep my power on much longer,” whispered to himself. He looked over at his name tag, Tommy with a small 2007 in the bottom right corner. Looks like there won’t be any more paychecks coming his way from that store. What a waste of time that job was, but it did pay the bills. Can’t dwell on those thoughts now though, that job and those people are long since gone. In fact everything at this point in Tommy’s life is gone, hence the gun and the want to kill himself.

Awakening the next morning was quite possibly one of the worst things he could have done in his entire life. If only he knew what was coming he would have gone back to sleep and never awoken again. The news was blaring all kinds of crazy things. The local hospitals had an outbreak of violence so bad that the local police couldn’t contain the situation. Many towns in the area have been overrun with violence as well. It appears that it is still located in the rural areas, but a lot of the injured had been sent to hospitals in the cities and they are reporting outbreaks as well. They are calling in support to contain the situation and anyone in the areas mentioned will need to stay indoors.

Tommy had plenty of food, no need going out into the world for that. The power would get shut off at some point, but not something he could control. He had till the end of the month for rent, not really like that mattered either, but Tommy doubted that he would be here all that much longer. One single bullet to the head would take care of it all, then someday someone would come along and find him, but of course his was not a unique story at this time.

He still went to work, as things in his area were still quite calm. Today though was different as many people were talking about the violence going on. There were so many stories it was impossible to tell what was real. Some were talking about toxic sludge in the water, while others were making stories as far-fetched as zombies. Either way he wasn’t going to be taking any chances if things went downhill in the area. Before the end of that shift though, things would go downhill.

Another five minutes has gone by, that scratching noise was still there and Tommy wasn’t any closer to grabbing that gun to end it all. “There is no one I can talk to. They are all gone. Why am I still here, what is holding me to this plane of existence? I have tried to end it before now, but I can never bring myself to do it. Why won’t god let me end it? Is this a sick joke that he is playing on me?”

Near the end of his shift that night a car screeched its tires and ran into the cement corner at the store. What looked like a drunken man came stumbling from the car and collapsed just outside the door. His coworker ran to check on him, while he called 911. The lines were busy on both phones and his cell. It was at that time he heard something….

Big Bite

There was a slight breeze that rustled the leaves in the tallest trees. It was a peaceful early summer day with the sun shining down and warming everything it touched. The air was dry, with the sweet smell of blossoms that seemed to just linger out of sight. The breeze moved lower and the tall grass swayed as it moved along the ground, the wild flowers bending then straightening as they leaned back into the sunlight. The breeze reached a couple of kids on an old dirt road that led to a small pond. Although it was warm and the kids wore light jackets open the breeze brought a chill that caused them both to pull in there open fronts.

The younger bounded along with not a care in the world. He had on jeans that were old and most likely were hand me downs, a t-shirt and a light summer jacket. The jacket was faded and used to be a red color, now was more like a dull pink color. He just skipped and kicked rocks, humming a tune that only he knew and could tell you the words to it. He had short hair, but being short did not prevent it from being all a mess. His face had dirt on it, and maybe a little bit of chocolate at the corners of his mouth. With an angular nose and sharp eyes he could almost be mistaken for a hawk or other bird of prey.

“Joshua.” The girl stated. Joshua stopped and turned to look at her. “I want remind you that when we get there don’t go throwing rocks in the pond. I want to actually catch some fish this time.” Joshua just stuck out his tongue at her, and then continued his skipping. With a sigh she continued following him, but couldn’t help but smile at the younger child. Oh to be 8 again, with not a care in the world. Being 16 years old she was just getting into adulthood and missing the easiness of being a child. Although she hasn’t had to work hard yet she knew that she would never have again what her younger brother now had. She would take the time that she had to relax and enjoy every moment that she could. That is why she was going fishing today with her younger brother.

She was tall, but not as tall as most guys just a little taller than the other girls in her class. With long brown hair and dark eyes she was the interest of many boys in her class, also, having been through puberty and having a well-developed body helped with the boy’s attention. She was not a woman yet, she did have a few curves and a bosom that was not exactly small. She wore a pair of jeans that were tight in the way of current fashion. She was wearing an old shirt that had a few stains on it with a small jacket that could stop the wind. Although it was not the best clothes she had it was what would be best for a fishing trip. She also carried the two fishing poles that they would need along with a bag with their worms and a snack for the afternoon before they went home.

“Jamie, how much longer till we get there?” Joshua asked the impatience of a child apparent in his voice.

“It’s only like another 5 minutes. Remember what I said a few minutes ago.” Joshua just rolled his eyes at his older sister then decided to go look at an interesting butterfly he saw landing on a flower. His attention only lasted for a moment though before he was off again to find something else that he could look at or some other small creature that he could catch. After just a few moments they walked around a bend in the road and there stood the pond.

The pond wasn’t very big, just a hundred yards across at the widest point, with most of it much narrower than that. It was an old beaver damn that had been able to withstand years of weather and neglect. The beavers were no longer taking care of the damn, most likely a trapper had caught them and now the pond stood empty. Across the top of the water one could see the ripple of fish catching flies. There was also a fog that lingered atop the surface and swirled in the light breeze.

They settled onto a flat spot that sat about a foot above the water. Jamie broke out the tackle and gave Joshua his pole and then went to set up her own. “Jamie?”

“Yes, Joshua. What is it?” Jamie responded.

“Could you put the worm on my hook?”

“You want me to put the worm on your hook? What are your friends going to think when they hear you had to have your sister put your worm on for you?” Jamie said. She had a mischievous grin on her face.

“Oh, you wouldn’t. Would you? Please don’t tell my friends that.” Joshua looked really worried. His friends would have a field day with that. They wouldn’t let him forget about this for a long time to come.

“I will do it, but only if you promise me something.” Jamie waited for his response. Slowly he nodded his head so she continued, “I want you to catch some fish today, and not do anything to scare them away.” She could see he was thinking hard about this. Finally he responded.

“I think I can do that. But you have to promise.”

“I promise. Now, let me see your pole.” She grabbed a worm from the container and put it on the hook. They settled into a relaxing afternoon of fishing, allowing the warm sun and the sounds of birds to lull them into a dreamlike state, though both were awake. Within only a few minutes they both had caught a fish; it looked to be a good day for fishing. After another half an hour they both had caught several more fish. Jamie just relaxed some more and closed her eyes. If a fish bit then she would feel the jerk in her hand and would wake up.

Sometime later Jamie woke to find that no more fish had taken her bait. She stood to stretch and realized that she had slept for at least an hour, maybe longer. Looking around though she realized that Joshua was not around, even though his pole was propped up and line was in the water. Most likely he had stepped away for a few minutes to relieve himself. Jamie looked around trying to discern what direction he may have gone off.

“Joshua.” She called, there was no response. “Joshua, where did you go?” She tried again. At that time she heard some noise in a clump of bushes off to the side a bit. The leaves were rustling and the branches were shaking. “Joshua, if that is you, let me know will ya. I am going to come over, so if you don’t want me to walk in on you, you better say something.” There was no response to her calls. She sighed and began to move forward.

The bush was a good one for using to go to the bathroom. It was thick and with the green leaves you couldn’t see through to the other side. There was some more rustling, shaking the whole bush. “Seriously, don’t joke around Joshua.” She stepped closer and the rustling stopped. She cautiously walked closer and started to move to the side of the bush in order to get a view of the other side. Just as she stepped to see what was there a hand landed on her shoulder. In that moment her heart leaped into her throat, with her heart the rest of her body launched itself into the air. A scream also left her lips, a high pitched thing that caused the birds in all the trees to flee from the area.

Once her feet landed on the ground she spun to see what had produced the hand. Standing there with an impish grin was Joshua. “God damn it,” She shouted at him, “You almost gave me a heart attack, what were you thinking?”

“I was over on the other side looking at a turtle I had seen. I saw you get up and calling me, so I came back around to see what was up.” Joshua could just barely contain the amusement he felt at scaring his sister so badly. With them both standing there, her heart still racing, him almost laughing the bush started to shake again. They both turned and looked at it.

“So, that is not you behind that bush, is it?” Jamie asked fear working its way into her voice. Joshua just shook his head and they both moved closer together. Slowly they both moved around the bush, trying to see what could make all that noise and put both these children on their highest guard. The bush started to shake again, this time with a new amount of vigor. They turned the backside of the bush and saw nothing. Then from the middle of the bush another rustling, and some other sounds that they could not put their finger on.

Out from the center of the bush a pair of squirrels burst forth. They were wrestling with one another and rolling around on the ground. When they noticed the two children standing there with the look of astonishment on their faces they both ran off, squeaking and making other noises at the kids. It was very obvious that the squirrels were very upset that their play time was interfered with. Jamie and Joshua looked at each other and they both burst into laughter.

With the mood lighter because both had lost their fear, they moved back to their fishing spot and set out to begin enjoying the snack that they had brought with them. The sun was moving across the sky and it was midafternoon when they noticed someone was coming towards them through the bushes. From a distance off the man shouted a greeting then moved forward closer.

The man was dressed in green. It was not camouflage or anything meant to hide him but more of a uniform. He had a belt on that held a gun, something like a 9mm or something close to that. His boots were a bit muddy but well maintained and he walked through the bushes like someone that does it often and was very comfortable with the environment. It was at that moment that Jamie realized that he was a conservation officer, one of those police officers that made sure people didn’t do bad things in the woods to animals or catch too many fish. She also noted that she was thankful that although they had caught some fish they hadn’t caught so many as to be over the limit.

“Good afternoon ser.” Jamie said when he was close enough to hear without shouting through the woods.

“Afternoon to you to, how are things going this day?” The officer inquired.

“Doing alright. We have had some luck with the little trout. Be a good dinner tonight.”

“That’s good. I don’t mean to interrupt but just a few moments ago I heard a scream and I was hoping that you could help me with that.” At that Jamie blushed, thinking that someone had heard that causing her to choke up a bit. Joshua on the other hand had no problems speaking at that moment.

“Ser, that scream you heard was my sister. I came up behind her and boy you should have seen her jump. I don’t think she landed for a solid minute.” As he told the story of what occurred his excitement grew and he became more animated showing just what she looked like, even a slight imitation of her scream. During the recount that her brother was doing Jamie’s blush deepened and she became even more embarrassed. When Joshua was done with his tale the officer just was grinning and shaking his head.

“Well, OK then. As long as everything is fine then I guess I don’t have anything to worry about. I guess I will be on my way.” The officer turned to head out.

“Joshua, it is getting late. I think we oughta head home as well. Let’s get everything together and get going.” Jamie began to real in her line and to put the container and leftovers from their snack back into the bag she carried.

“Well, if you’re leaving I suppose I could walk you two back down the road a bit and if you like I can give you a ride home, my truck is parked down a bit.”

“That would be very nice of you.” Jamie hurried up so that she would not keep the officer waiting for long. With everything packed they worked their way back to the road and to where his truck was parked. Joshua was a constant supply of questions; half of them were about the handgun on the officer’s side. He just answered everything with a calm and steady voice, never letting on that any of the questions were a bother at all. Jamie was looking on and could tell that he was actually enjoying answering all of the questions. Although she thought that a couple of the answers were a little off from the full truth.

Walking along the dirt road Jamie noticed that something was off a bit. When she put her mind to it she realized that what was off was the fact that there was no sound. The birds had stopped chirping and the other animals like squirrels had also stopped making their calls through the woods. This caused a very strange silence to fall across the woods, creating a very eerie feeling inside of her. In just a few short moments Joshua’s questions slacked off and they all could feel the silence pressing against them. Finally someone said something.

“I think we should maybe walk a little bit faster.” The officer spoke, his words feeling out of place in the strange silence. His words falling away fast as if the silence was fighting against any sound that was emitted. The crunching of boots and shoes on the gravel road was the only thing heard, as the steps increased so did the sound. From the left, off in the trees there was a sound that broke through the silence and reached the trio. All froze in their tracks as the sound reached their ears and it removed all the heat from the muscles and bones of their body, their blood was ice flowing through their veins. Fear, the most terrifying fear in the entire world is the only emotion that any of them felt. Even the officer could only feel fear, although he was the first one to snap out of the paralyze that held them still. He moved a step forward, putting himself between the children and the sound.

The low moaning, that was the only thing the officer could think of to describe it, was slowly becoming louder and the source was coming closer. As he watched he could see something making its way through the underbrush that was by the edge of the road. It came into his sight and it took all of his self-control to not allow any bile to come up. It was a man, but he looked to be in some rough shape. He was walking forward with a slow shuffle that kicked up leaves and dirt with each step. The clothes were old, very old and looked to be rotting off the body. Of course that could also have been the body itself. There were wounds and sores all over the place, as if it didn’t care about cuts and scrapes from branches as it was walking through the woods. It had been walking for a while, the skin was bloated and ad a greenish tint. The wounds looked to be pussy and the odor emanating from the man was overpowering, almost like a rotting piece of meat. It let out another low moan and they could see that the mouth would open, but there were more holes than just where the lips were.

“Stop!” The officer yelled, pulling out his sidearm and aiming it at the monster that was moving forward. “Stop or I will fire! State your name and if you need help!” There was no response from it except it started to snap its teeth and swiping its hands at them. Jamie realized that it was missing several fingers as well as an ear.

“I think we should just get out of here.” Jamie said, hoping that the officer heard her and listened. When he just stood there with his gun out she started to question if she had even spoken out loud. There was a scream and she found Joshua crying and coming out of his trance. Wrapping her arms around him she shielded him from view of it. “We need to go.” She practically cried as scared as she was, she still was trying to get the officer’s attention.

“Just stay behind me.” Jamie was relieved that he was starting to do something else, though she still felt that leaving was the best course of action. It was still moving closer and wasn’t even twenty feet away from the man with the gun when he shouted, “Stop, this is your final warning. If you do not I will open fire.” With no response he flipped off the safety, took aim and fired once. The shot hit in the right upper chest of the thing. There was a sickening sound as the bullet hit, it seemed the bullet his something that was a little bit thicker than jello and seemed to have no effect on the forward progress of the monster. He fired again, and again. The bullets hit directly, at this short of range it was hard to miss, but every shot just had a sound of hitting with material flying away from the spot of impact but with no effect on its course. The officer, with desperation written across his face, just started to pull the trigger. Several shots rang out as he finished with the clip that was in the gun, then the sound of clicks as his finger kept pulling the trigger with the chamber being empty.

“Noooooo!” The only sound that Jamie could emit as the monster reached the officer and pounced. The weight of the attacker knocked the man over, he hit the ground hard. The jolt pulled him from his momentary daze and he began to fight off the assailant.

“Get out of here. I will catch up in a moment, just go, and get to safety!” The officer was now wrestling with the monster. For a moment Jamie had a queer thought about the two squirrels fighting, but that passed as quickly as it had come. She grabbed her younger brother and started to move away from the pair on the ground. Looking back it looked like the officer was going to overcome the other and get away, but just as she thought that it bit the man’s hand and removed several fingers from his right hand.

He screamed and tried to remove himself from the creature that was still fighting even after having been shot several times. Its mouth moved lower and was able to take a hold of the man’s throat. With a last strangled cry and a gurgling noise that came from not his mouth but the new hole in his throat, he died. Jamie and Joshua started to move away, Joshua was retching from the copper metal smell of fresh blood. Jamie could hardly contain her tears and her vision became blurry. They didn’t have very long to recover because it started to shuffle its way towards them, snapping and waving its arms the way it had before at the officer.

Jamie grabbed her brother’s hand and pulled him along. At first he resisted, but shortly he was running alongside his sister and putting distance between themselves and the creature. The only thing she could think of was that it was wrong and shouldn’t be. The next thing that went through her mind was that she had to get back to town and tell everyone she saw what happened. Would anyone believe her?