Patrick D'Orazio - Into the Dark

“So what’s the plan?” Jeff kept his voice low, not interested in pissing off the redneck even further.

Marcus stopped and stared at Jeff. There was no anger in his look, but it was clear that he had nothing but contempt for the suburbanite. After a few seconds, he snorted and bent his neck forward. A large brown glob of tobacco juice and mucus plopped onto the pavement a couple of inches from Jeff’s shoe, splattering his leg. Jeff saw the trajectory of the confection, but kept his eyes on Marcus’s face even as the warm gruel seeped into his jeans. A line of spittle ran down Marcus’s beard, but he didn’t bother wiping it off.

“The plan is that you stay the fuck out of my way, hotshot.” With that, Marcus began walking again, leaving Jeff standing alone.

The others moved up to Jeff as he looked on in stunned disbelief at Marcus’s back. He was drifting to the right, toward one of the brown buildings opposite the Dollar General. After a few moments, it became clear which entrance Frank’s buddy was heading for.

“So what do you want us to do?”

Marcus did not stop at Jeff’s inquiry. “Check the general store out or jerk each other off. Either way, I don’t give a shit.”

Jeff stared in amazement at the back of the dirty t-shirt Marcus was wearing as he continued walking. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

The headache that had persisted since Fred from the abandoned farmhouse had walloped Jeff was creeping back to the surface. The pain had diminished to a dull throb after he had swallowed nearly an entire bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol over the course of the past couple of days. Now the headache was back at full throttle, ready for an encore.

No one spoke as they watched Marcus move across the street. As one, the teens and George turned to Jeff. Biting down on a scream, he rubbed his eyes wearily. This was going to be up to him.

“Okay, guys, here’s the plan. George and I are going in the store.” Jeff gestured over his shoulder toward the Dollar General. “You two stay outside and stand watch.” He could see the relief on both teens’ faces at the directive. George nodded as he studied the store.

It was a standard rectangular one-story brick building with a swinging glass door but no display windows. Hopefully enough light would pour in from the doorway to get a clear view inside. Jeff was reminded of the drug store he had raided back in Milfield and hoped there wasn’t a storeroom full of dead bodies in this one.

He looked around once more to see if there was any movement. There was none except for Marcus, who had reached the tavern, endearingly named “Hole in the Wall.” He was peering through the broken glass of the front door, about to push his way inside.

Jeff looked back toward Michael and Frank. They were distant specks now, several hundred yards away. The duo still leaned against the van, waiting for the group to return with the supplies the camp needed. Jeff wondered if booze was on their shopping list as he spied Marcus ducking inside the tavern out of the corner of his eye.

Motioning for the others to fall in, Jeff moved into the parking lot of the general store. There was a dumpster on the side of the building, next to a metal door that likely led to a stockroom. The building looked fairly new, and Jeff recalled that the Dollar General in Milfield had been built only a few years before. The two structures looked identical, both with a light brown brick exterior. Jeff squinted at the metal door and dismissed the idea of checking it out. They would go through the glass doors at the front instead.

“Holy crap!”

George’s expletive startled Jeff out of his mental inventory of what they needed to grab from the store. Looking over at his friend, he followed George’s eyes to the top of the building.

A woman was on the roof, moving toward them. The foursome gaped at her, watching as she limped slowly but surely toward the edge of the roof.

Ray was the first to comment. “She’s going to jump.”

“No way. Uh-uh. She’ll stop,” Teddy disagreed, shaking his head vigorously.

Jeff saw the two boys' eyes bugging out with excitement, in sharp contrast to their nonchalant words.

He studied the woman. It was clear she was infected, even from a distance, and from the looks of things, she had been for quite a while. Looking her over clinically, Jeff realized she must have been up on the roof for several weeks, as the sun had bleached most of the color out of her hair. Most of the damage to her face had probably come from heavy direct exposure to the elements. It was a puzzle how she had gotten up there, but his best guess was that she had been bitten and managed to escape to the roof before succumbing to the virus. The muggy and humid summer environment on a super-heated tar roof had caused her body to swell, and Jeff was positive that if they caught a whiff of her, she would smell like a trash bag filled with boiled beef. The bloat around her midsection was tremendous and had pushed her uniform smock beyond its bursting point. Several buttons had popped off the garment. Her skin was burnt to a crispy red and was peeling off in great sheets from her arms and legs. The bottoms of her pants were shredded, and her legs had burst through, the swelling there even greater than on the rest of her body. Part of her scalp was missing, or the hair had simply fallen out; the skin underneath was bleached bone white.

Teddy lifted his rifle slowly to line up a shot at her. Jeff put his hand on the barrel and pushed it back down. He shook his head, and the teen looked at him, puzzled.

“It’s a waste of a bullet. Look.”

She was on the edge of the roof now, staring down at them. Not hesitating even for a second, she stepped off the surface with her right foot. Her other foot got stuck on the ledge, and as she fell forward, the ghoul swung back toward the building and smashed into it. Her foot then popped free of its impediment, and she plummeted earthward. They watched as the woman sped toward the ground and did nothing to shield herself from the impact. She struck the pavement headfirst.

Her skull shattered with an audible crack, which was followed by a sudden eruption of the soft, yielding contents of her head. A foul puddle spread outward as her body landed on top of the messy remains. The ripened corpse burst with a rush of liquid as the thin skin surrounding her legs broke open. Black gruel splashed the cement and left a sodden mist in the air.

George gagged and looked away. The two teens continued to peer at the woman’s remains, fascinated. After a moment, Ray nudged Teddy. “Told ya she would jump.” Teddy pushed him back, and they laughed at one another.

George tried reprimanding the boys, but as he glanced back at the body for another split second, he looked green around the gills. He turned away to bend over as he breathed heavily.

“Did you see her? She was looking straight at us when she fell. She didn’t even care that her head was going to get smooshed. All she wanted to do was eat us. That was awesome, man!” Ray said in awed disbelief.

The two boys chatted animatedly with each other, excited by this new discovery. Jeff looked on while George worked to regain control of his stomach. After a few seconds, Jeff moved between the teenagers.

“Okay, guys, enough.” He grabbed them both by the shoulders. They looked at him, and the grins disappeared. Jeff could see the fear in their eyes hiding behind the false bravado the strange little event had brought out in them.

“Fun’s over.” He continued to hold their shoulders and moved them gently so they were facing the body. “Take a good look at her and try to understand something, okay?”

Ray and Teddy glanced curiously at each other and then back at the body congealing on the hot pavement.