Dawnland (Book 1): Pockets of the Dead Read online

  POCKETS

  OF THE

  DEAD

  By Karen Carr

  Text Copyright © Karen Carr 2014

  All Rights Reserved

  I dedicate this book to

  my amazing husband and

  wonderful children.

  My life would be

  dull and boring

  without you.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1: Zombie Bites

  Chapter 2: The Sun Rises

  Chapter 3: Hella Kills

  Chapter 4: Welcome To My World

  Chapter 5: Stranger Things

  Chapter 6: Warmth

  Chapter 7: Another Day Matters

  Chapter 8: Frozen

  Chapter 9: Psychoanalyzed

  Chapter 10: Five Minutes

  Chapter 11: Are You Home?

  Chapter 12: Lily in Town

  Chapter 13: Keys

  Chapter 14: Christmas

  Chapter 15: Time Draws Blood

  Chapter 16: Bites Can Kill

  Chapter 17: Silence

  Chapter 18: Wine Makes Nice

  Chapter 19: The Fights of Spring

  Chapter 20: Snoops

  Chapter 21: Sunday

  Chapter 22: Immunity

  Chapter 23: The Never Boutique

  Chapter 24: Guns

  Chapter 25: Zeke Bite

  Chapter 26: Shoot

  Chapter 27: As You Were

  Chapter 1: Zombie Bites

  October 5th

  302 Swandeen

  Haverlyn Village

  A chorus of faraway screams greeted my Saturday night pity-party with a blow. I had been all set to eat a quart of mint ice cream, a dozen sugar cookies and a whole bag of extra crispy potato chips.

  After Stan accused me of cheating on my physics midterm, I never wanted to see him again--at least not for a very long time, maybe even an entire week. Sure, physics was one of my toughest classes and Stan always did better than me, but that did not mean I was copying the answers from his test.

  Maybe it was my sense of pride. When he told me that he didn’t mind my cheating, it aggravated me more. Like he felt that somehow I needed him to be smart. I didn’t. In fact, I was almost on the Dean’s List every stinking semester. In nine more months, I would have my undergrad degree, and I did not need to cheat to get it.

  I tossed the teddy bear he had given me for our eight month anniversary on top of the stuffed heart he had given me for valentines, the plush cow he had given me for Easter, and the build-a-bear we had made together for my birthday. My bedroom looked more like a child’s room than a grownup’s.

  More screams came and this time they were close enough to feel the tremble of the voices rolling through my bedroom like some kind of shrieky train ride. Halloween was more than three weeks away, but I hoped an early parade of trick-or-treaters had found their way into the parking lot below.

  I hated Halloween. My mother always made me dress as a fairy because of my silky blond hair and pale complexion. I wanted to be a race car driver or a car mechanic, but no such luck.

  Another few dozen screams made me thankful to have a third floor apartment which kept me away from the havoc below. I hated havoc more than I hated Halloween. I had never been in a fight, and wasn’t planning on getting in one now.

  My apartment overlooked the parking lot and the backs of several offices, retail shops and restaurants that lined the oval-shaped green. The noise could have been coming from the Town Hall Grill. Their Saturday night bar crowd was never particularly rowdy, but it was possible that a nut was causing trouble. Those solar installers from outside of the village could get pretty drunk and disorderly.

  When the screams continued getting louder and strange moans began, I decided I had better do something—like call the police. As usual, there was no signal on my cell, and I didn’t have a phone. The strange moaning sounds grew louder and the screams grew quieter so I thought it might be a good time to peek out my window.

  I barfed my pity-party up when I saw gleaming red puddles and peachy-pink mounds. Blood had pooled like water in a heavy rain and guts were strewn all over the parking lot. Blood and guts were everywhere—on top of cars, in the street, strewn across bushes.

  Arms and legs, torsos without heads, heads without torsos, were in all directions as far as I could see. It was as if the heavens had opened up and dumped a bunch of left over body parts upon us. Guts and blood were mixed in with ripped fabrics, university sweatshirts, baseball hats, blue jeans, and shoes—dozens and dozens of shoes, most missing their owners.

  It was too much for me to take. I rested against the wall while I concentrated on my breathing. This was not real. This was some kind of extremely elaborate joke. There was just absolutely no way that this could be real. I had to believe it was fake in order to force myself to look out the window again. That’s when I saw my next door neighbor Annie dash out of her apartment.

  Annie, barefoot and dressed in a yellow bathrobe, ran across the parking lot toward her Toyota Prius. I couldn't see her face, but by the way she covered her ears and ran erratically, almost tripping over her feet, I could tell she was petrified.

  Annie was followed by a man painted in broad dark strokes with blood; however that wasn’t what made me flinch. His jaw was smashed apart, or missing entirely, but he didn’t seem to care. His leg was twisted all the way around in the opposite direction, although he could still use it to walk. His left arm was broken so badly, that I could see the bone from my window.

  Another person and two more came out of nowhere and started following Annie. It sounded like they were moaning through water, making a most inhuman gargling-growl. They took steps together and apart in a deranged and blundering symphony. Their movements filtered through my brain like a slideshow in slow motion, intoxicating my mind with their actions. If I blinked they were almost graceful.

  The first person had no visible wounds, and since he was only wearing boxers most of his body was visible, but he still showed difficulty moving forward. It was like he was learning to walk all over again. He took a few plodding steps, fell to his knees, pushed himself up and tried some more.

  The other two, though mortally wounded, were more agile than the first. One’s head, a man in blue suit, was dangling on its neck, held on only by his spinal cord. The other’s torso, a brown haired woman wearing a muted gray suit, was peppered with red circles that could only have been bullet wounds.

  In another life, they could’ve been a handsome couple or co-workers heading to lunch. But, in whatever strange and crazy life that had just seized the village; they were heading for Annie in an obvious attempt to kill her.

  As Annie fumbled with her keys, they came closer and closer to her by way of a long drawn-out shuffle. I wanted to warn her, but she had to know they were there. I wanted to distract them, but didn’t want to draw attention to myself. I was angry at her for not being able to grasp her keys. Get it together Annie!

  She managed to unlock and open her door, but that was the end of her escape. They converged on her with wide open mouths and clutching hands. I didn’t want to witness the attack on Annie, so I shut the blinds and sat on the floor digesting all of this craziness. My first thought was that I was safe as long as they didn’t see me and my second reaction was zombie.

  Everyone thinks that zombies are a myth, a made up horror story. But, it was absolutely positively clear to me that I had witnessed a bunch of crazy people that looked like they should have been dead eating my neighbor. There was no doubt in my mind that they were undead-dead people and this was not some Halloween prank. I was beyond scared, beyond terrified, and completely immobilized by my fear.
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  I crossed my legs in a yoga pose and took long deep breaths. While I did so, I listened to the battles going on outside. The screams and moans came in waves. Sometimes they were louder when my neighbors tried to make a run for it, and sometimes they were quieter and further away, but the noise of dead and dying was always there.

  I tried to make light of it, make something positive about what was going on like I always did. The only thing I could think of was that all of humanity was dying below me. It had to be epic. Mayhem moving this fast had to be felt around the world.

  I moved to the bathroom, mostly because I was scared and I thought it would be safer there, and I also wanted to wash the barf from my face. On my way I grabbed my laptop, some clean clothes and a whole armful of blankets and pillows. I layered the blankets in the bathtub and put the pillows on top, all four of them—I loved sleeping with lots of pillows, to make my new bed.

  Seeing my eyes in the bathroom mirror reminded me of my sister. They were her eyes. If I stared hard enough, it was like she was staring back at me. I wondered if she ever did that, stare in the mirror to conjure up images of me. Perhaps she was doing that right now from miles away.

  Jessica was like a jarful of precious gems, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, all mixed in together. Every one of them alone was amazing and beautiful, but together they were breathtakingly exquisite and incredibly volatile. She and I fought like demons until I left the house.

  After I washed my face and changed my clothes, I got in the tub and opened my laptop. Thankfully, the internet was not down, however I was halfway out of battery life and my power supply was still in my bedroom. Bad move, Hella Paige—really bad move because I was not leaving the tub for a very long time.

  Right away, three of my friends popped up on a group chat, Mi-Yung, Ara and Saudah. All three girls were in the honor society with me. Mi-Yung was a senior like me, Saudah was a junior, and Ara was a freshman.

  Mi-Yung: This is crazy

  Saudah: What’s going on?

  Ara: I’m scared.

  Hella: Are you safe?

  Ara: Get me out.

  Ara: I need help.

  Ara: Everyone is dead.

  Mi-Yung: Who is dead?

  Ara: Everyone.

  Hella: Not us.

  Ara: Not yet.

  Saudah: Where are you guys?

  Hella: In the bathroom.

  Ara: In my dorm.

  Mi-Yung: Turn on your webcams.

  Hella: We can’t talk, they’ll hear us.

  Mi-Yung: But we could see each other.

  We all turned on our webcams. Ara looked the worst, her olive skin was green and her cheeks were red, and she moved with a jerky quickness. Mi-Yung wore pajamas and had her reading glasses on. She looked calm through her lenses. Saudah’s dark skin was glistening with sweat, and her eyes were alert.

  Hella: What happened Ara?

  Ara: We were in the cafeteria.

  Hella: Your door is open, Ara. Shut your door.

  Ara: Boxi. Kway. Gabriel. Ohna. I saw them die.

  Mi-Yung: No, Boxi! My sister? No! No! No!

  Mi-Yung covered her face with her hands and her shoulders shook. I knew she was crying. I wished I could reach out to her and hug her for-real. Her sister had just come to this country from Korea. She was young, sweet and innocent. I felt the loss as a pain in my heart. I imagined what Mi-Yung was feeling when I thought of my own family. My sister. My brother. My parents.

  Saudah: Mi-Mi. I’m so sorry!

  Hella: Hugs, Mi-Mi. I can’t believe it!

  Ara: This weird smell filled the air.

  Ara: People started fighting, but with their teeth.

  Saudah: Just like that?

  Hella: Mi-Mi, you ok?

  Ara: Everywhere. Everyone. Fighting.

  Saudah: How did you escape?

  Ara: Everyone started running toward the door.

  Ara: I ran to the bathroom.

  Mi-Yung: No, I am not ok. My sister is dead. My little sister.

  Ara: When I came out.

  Mi-Yung: My mother’s going to be heartbroken.

  I thought I saw a shadow of movement, a brief glimpse of dark and then light, behind Ara. Her door was still open. She hadn’t read my chat, or she couldn’t process it in her shell-shocked brain. I wanted to scream at her to close her door, but I knew we had to be silent.

  Hella: Shut your door Ara.

  Saudah: If she’s alive.

  Ara: If who is alive? They’re all dead or demons.

  Saudah: Mi-Mi’s mother. Sorry Mi-Mi. She’s probably dead too.

  Mi-Yung: Shut up Saudah.

  Hella: ARA, SHUT YOUR DOOR ! ! !

  Ara: They’re all dead. Saudah is right.

  Ara: Nobody could have survived that. Nobody. That smell.

  Hella: We did. We can survive.

  Saudah: Stop it, Hella. You and your rosy outlook.

  Mi-Yung: Ara, behind you!

  Suddenly a man appeared behind Ara. She screamed, which was when I realized my laptop’s sound was on and at a very high volume. I fiddled with the controls, trying to turn my sound down, as I watched Ara being attacked by the demon-undead-person-thing.

  It came right up and bit her in the shoulder. She screamed again and fell on her keyboard. The thing was suddenly distracted by a loud noise coming from outside Ara’s door and left. I wanted to jump through the computer screen and shut that damn door.

  Mi-Yung: Ara?

  Ara’s bloodied corpse lay on her computer desk. My shaking hands turned down the volume on my laptop as I watched Ara’s head rise. Her jaw had been bitten and skin was hanging from it. Her shoulder and white shirt were covered with blood.

  Saudah: Ara?

  The thing that was no longer Ara focused on our images. Its eyes were vacant, but it could see us.

  Saudah: Ara?

  Hella: That’s not Ara.

  The thing lunged for us through Ara’s computer screen. Ara’s video went blank. Another chat popped up on my laptop and it scared the crap out of me. It was from Stan.

  Stan: Hella? Sorry about calling you a cheater.

  I closed Stan’s chat window. Was he always so clueless?

  Mi-Yung: We have to stay hidden.

  Saudah: We have to survive.

  Saudah: We can’t die like this.

  Hella: The human race can’t die like this.

  Hella: We have to help each other.

  Saudah: We have to do this together.

  Hella: We can survive together.

  Mi-Yung: Promise?

  Hella: We can meet at Saudah’s.

  Saudah: You’re too far, Hella.

  Hella: Mi-Yung’s right next to you. I’ll figure out how to get there.

  The neighbor’s dog started barking outside my door. The sudden noise caused me to shriek.

  Hella: Got to go.

  I shut my laptop and placed it outside the bathtub to avoid any faucet accidents. It killed me to ignore the chats from my friends, however I wanted to concentrate on what was going on outside. I shared the top floor with a couple of medical students in the apartment next to mine.

  The exterior stairs led first to my apartment and then to theirs. If their dog was out, that meant their door was open. If their door was open, they were either trying to escape or something had broken in.

  Something started scratching my door, but it wasn’t the dog because it released a soft and gargled moan.

  Chapter 2: The Sun Rises

  October 5th

  302 Swandeen

  Haverlyn Village

  I lay deep down in the tub, covering my head with a few towels to muffle the sound of my breathing. Moans and groans travelled into my apartment, footsteps sounded on the exterior stairs. I heard a human scream, my neighbor Ned’s voice. Then the scratching at my door stopped. I heard more screams, a dog’s yelp, and then grinding and moaning sounds. My stomach churned as I realized those things were eating Ned and his dog. Hopefully Ned’s roommate,
Mark, had not been home.

  I knew right then that I would have to stay in the tub until it was quiet outside and then wait another day and another day after that. I didn’t think I’d have any problem staying in the tub forever, because my paralyzing fear wouldn’t let me move. I would probably die in this tub if those things didn’t go away. Maybe those things would eat everything in sight and then wander off to let me escape, but escape to what?

  October 10th

  302 Swandeen

  Haverlyn Village

  The first day and night, I dared not leave the bathroom, and my only nourishment came from the water out of the tap in the tub. I didn’t get out to use the toilet, though it was right next to me. The tub had a drain, and that was good enough for me.

  I checked my laptop frequently to see if Mi-Yung or Saudah were online, but they never were. I posted to them anyway, but they never answered my chats. I even tried to contact Stan, but his account was offline too. I looked through all of my contacts, but never saw anyone online.

  Anger turned to rage against my parents for not embracing the internet; there was no way to contact them. I left messages for everyone, but no one ever answered. I was feeling very alone, sad and scared, and I didn’t know what to do.

  After the second day and night, the moaning persisted but was less frequent and further away. My stomach was also telling me that it couldn’t last much longer, which helped my paralyzing fear subside. Surely running water would be history soon, so I devised a plan to store as much as I could. I crawled out of the tub, took everything out, and cleaned up the waste that I had made.

  I tied a towel around the faucet, plugged the tub, turned on the water and let it glide quietly down towel. I did the same with the sink, except with a washcloth. My first venture was only to the bedroom to get my pity-party snacks. The ice cream had melted, however I still had plenty of chips and sugar cookies. This made me feel ever so slightly better, relieved to find out that comfort food in the time of the apocalypse still made me feel comforted.