Mark Tufo - A Plague Upon Your Family

Damn he must have got that scrutinous eye from his mother. I pointed the flashlight towards the holding cells, mostly to take the attention off of me. The sight was disturbing to say the least but not as bad as it could have been. Locked in the cell furthest from us was a man, he looked on the younger side. The blue tinge of death by frostbite, however, made age recognition a complicated task. He was curled up on the small cot in a fetal position, most likely trying in vain to preserve his body heat with the small airline style blanket.

“Poor bastard probably got locked up the day this whole thing went down.”

“Are we going to be able to get him out of there?” Travis asked.

“What’s taking so long?” Tracy yelled from the Jeep.

“Just doing some housekeeping.” I went back to where I had got the flashlight and grabbed the oversize key ring. I really thought they only used those in movies. I hesitated for a moment as I placed the key into the lock, what if it was a zombie playing possum.

“Dad?” Travis asked, the implied question went unasked. I had done my job well. My paranoia had been genetically passed on.

Dammit I wasn’t going to go in there and be in the middle of moving him when the damn thing decided to sit up and gnaw on my femur. “Go tell mom, to be ready. God forgive me for what I am about to do.” The Catholic in me would have a very difficult time of letting go of the guilt I was about to heap on myself but the survivalist part of me would get over it. Frozen brain matter sprayed against the far wall as I carefully placed a well-aimed shot through the man’s head. A soft crackling noise replaced the roar of the weapon in the confined space. It was long moments before I realized it was frozen blood dropping to the floor. Add that onto my list of growing nightmare fodder. I dragged the body across the floor of the office, thankful that frozen congealed blood didn’t leave a tell tale sign of my sin. I unceremoniously dumped the nearly decapitated body on the far side of the building. Little did I realize then my mistake, but I might as well have been chumming for sharks. I had just opened up the number one food group for our enemy.

I left the front door open in the expectation that the majority of stink would be gone by the time we got back. We headed back up the off ramp, which I have to admit made me somewhat nervous. For so long the laws of the road had been ingrained in me that to just drive as I pleased hadn’t quite settled with me yet. Alex was anxiously standing by the truck when we pulled up.

“How’s it looking Mike?”

I wanted to pull out the standard answer of ‘dead’. But the joke was getting tired. “Well crap Alex, my gut doesn’t like it. We didn’t ‘see’ anything, no people, no deaders and no speeders. The jail only has one way in. On a good note the windows are barred and the door looks pretty sturdy. I say we go in and park the semi pretty much right up against the front door, that way if some friends come calling for dinner we can get into the cab.”

“What good is that going to do Mike? We can’t all fit in the cab.” Alex said exasperatedly.

“You must be tired my friend I said as I clapped him on the shoulder.” He didn’t appreciate the gesture. “Fine” I said taking my hand off of him.

“Sorry Mike, I’m wiped.”

‘Yeah! Well fucking me too!’ Whoa that was an overreaction. I yelled so loud in my head I figured he had to have picked it up. “No sweat, you just need to get in the cab and then back the truck up to the doors.”

He nodded in understanding. God, he was a good friend, I hoped I didn’t screw it up. My tendency towards hotheadedness had lost me more than one potential ally in this world and right now I could ill afford that.

“What about your cars?”

“It’ll suck to lose them, but it’d be even worse to die.” I said it so casually Alex actually snorted a small laugh. “Okay the office is almost all the way through town on the right hand side, I’ll lead.” Alex climbed up into his truck without another word.

In just the ten minutes it took to get Alex and come back, the sunlight had faded to a mere shadow of itself. The door still stood ajar, it waited expectantly for our return, like a hungry grizzly for a salmon. Imagination while in survival mode is a curse. Events were already unfolding in a fantastical manner and to make them even more so, really seemed like over-kill. Yet my mind trudged on. I was wholly convinced that No-Head Fred had self-resurrected himself and was now waiting patiently for us inside. Maybe I should send Deneaux in first. That seemed the wisest thing, kind of like an offering, the whole sacrificial thing and all. Nobody was going to miss her.

CHAPTER 10

Within twenty minutes we had all entered into the office. A couple of large flashlights set up like candles illuminated most of the office except for the farthest cell, where of course my gaze kept wandering to. Jen managed to find some fuel for a small pot belly stove in the far corner. I had missed that on my first foray but I wasn’t going to hold that against myself. The stink of death had mostly been replaced by the smell of the living. We can rival our stiffer relatives. I had on more than one occasion received a dirty look from a fellow survivor as Henry let some ass gas out. Another ten minutes later, we had done what humans always tend to do. We had marked out our territory. The Talbots were taking up residency in the first cell furthest away from ‘Fred’s’ previous abode. We were on the complete opposite side of the stove, but because of that we were also furthest away from the door and the windows. I just couldn’t shake the feeling of something wicked this way comes, even with the bars and the storm shutters closed, the windows were still the most vulnerable part of this building. It would take a while for the heat of the stove to travel this far if at all, but with all the bodies stuffed in this small office that shouldn’t present a problem.

As the heat in the building increased, conversation conversely decreased. Exhausted refugees began to drift off to hopefully better places, even though it would be tough to come up with a nightmare worse than the one we were already living.

“Merry Christmas.” I said to everyone. I got a few mumbled Merry Christmases in return but for the most part the sentiment went largely unnoticed.

I was asleep in minutes, even with the hushed conversations, coughing, and the flashlights burning bright. This was a feat for me. I used to be kind of a prima donna when it came to sleeping. I needed a white noise sound machine playing ‘Summer Crickets’ before I could even begin to think of sleeping, and even then, if a mouse farted too loudly I would wake up.

“Talbot!”

I sat straight up. “What?” I asked…no one. It was impossible to tell how long I had been asleep, but it was still nighttime. Everyone was asleep except for one guard placed at the windows (Igor) and he wasn’t even looking at me. ‘Who the hell said my name?’ I was more than half convinced that someone had said it in their sleep, probably shouting my name while they were ringing my neck for some past transgression. I was on a lot of people’s shit list, hell it could have been Tracy. ‘No that didn’t feel right the tone of the disembodied voice felt male. Screw it BT can yell at me tomorrow.’ I scooted back down onto my chair cushion/pillow

“TALBOT!” It came more forcefully. I sat bolt upright, still the guard didn’t turn my way. There was no way he hadn’t heard that, come to think of it, that shout should have awoken half of the people here. ‘WTF’. I actually thought the letters WTF instead of What The F…well you get the picture, damn text age. Great I was hearing voices in my head and it wasn’t Tommy. I looked over to the big kid, he had a worried expression on his face, but he was most assuredly asleep.