Darkness and The Grave: A Zombie Novel Read online

  “Stop!” she warned him.

  He growled and reached for her.

  Instinctively, Katie grabbed her laptop and swung it hard into the creature’s face. He stumbled backwards and let out an inhuman shriek as the shattered screen of the laptop clinked to the floor. She threw what was left of her laptop at him and ran down the stairs toward the library’s entrance.

  Another flash of lightning revealed dozens more of the creatures in the plaza approaching the library. She turned and ran through the hallway toward the Charles B. Sears Law Library. It seemed like such a long run but she finally reached the library, closed the door and crouched behind a short bookshelf nearby. Her panting was the only thing she could hear besides the rain. The rainfall had intensified outside; sheets of rain pounded the building.

  Then she heard it, another low gurgling noise. It was coming from the other side of the bookshelf Katie was hiding behind! She heard a retching noise and a splash on the carpet. She had to put her hand over her mouth to stifle a gag as a wretched odor filled the room. Suddenly her phone rang and she screamed, startled. It was Joel! She heard the creature on the other side of the bookshelf growl and she knew she had been revealed.

  “Joel!” she whispered intensely. “You have to come save me! Help me!”

  “Kate, what’s going on?” he asked.

  “I don’t know! There are people who aren’t people anymore trying to get me! One of them is a few feet away from me!”

  “Whoa, slow down Kate, you’re not making much sense. Who is trying to get you?”

  “Joel! People who aren’t people! I don’t know, maybe they have Owasa Disease!”

  “I’ll come get you right away! Where are you?”

  “I’m in the Sears Law Library!”

  “I’ll be there as fast as I can!”

  There was pounding on the door behind Katie. That was when she became aware there was something else in the room with her beside the vomiting creature. There were several something elses in the room with her. Growls sounded all over the room.

  Katie looked around frantically at the shadows. The room was dimly lit by emergency lights, but she couldn’t see anyone else in the room with her. She did see an elevator on the far side of the room though. Maybe there was a stairwell nearby! She could climb the stairs and hopefully find a way out through one of the upper levels of the building.

  She stood in a crouching position and began to creep toward the elevator quietly. Suddenly she heard a growl behind her. She turned and saw a dozen of the infected people emerging from the shadows behind her. They were reaching for her. She screamed and ran.

  When she reached the elevator, she saw there were no stairs nearby. She turned around and saw that she was surrounded by bloodthirsty creatures that were slowly moving in.

  Suddenly the lights came back on! She turned and started feverishly hitting the call button for the elevator. The creatures were approaching.

  They were twenty feet away.

  “Come on!” she yelled.

  They were fifteen feet away.

  “Come on!” she screamed, tapping the call button frantically and pounding on the elevator door with a clenched fist.

  They were ten feet away.

  She pounded on the elevator door with both hands.

  They were five feet away. They were reaching for her. They were clawing at her.

  Finally, the elevator door opened and Katie fell into the elevator with a cry. The door closed right behind her. She reached up and hit the button for the second floor and took a deep breath as the elevator began to ascend the shaft.

  The elevator dinged and the doors opened exposing the second floor. The power went out again as she stepped out on to the balcony above the library below. She looked down and saw the monsters clawing at the elevator door below. Mercifully, she seemed to be alone up where she was. She turned and ran out of the library across the skywalk to Park Hall. She pulled her phone out and called Joel.

  “Joel! Go right on Augspurger Road when you get here! I’ll meet you in the lot in front of Park Hall! Where are you now?”

  “I’m just a couple of minutes away. Are you okay Kate?”

  “Yes, I am for now. Hurry!”

  She ran down an emergency stairwell and threw open a door leading out to the parking lot. It was pouring down rain. She took off sprinting toward the street. She saw more infected people staggering around the parking lot. She ran past them toward the road. She saw Joel’s car turning on to Augspurger Road as she ran across a muddy median. She waved her arms to flag him down.

  He drove past and spun the car around. Then he drove up and stopped. Katie opened the door and jumped in.

  “Are you okay Kate?” he asked.

  “Yes! I’m okay.”

  He leaned over and kissed her.

  She saw more infected people staggering toward the car.

  “Go Joel! We have to get away from them!” she yelled.

  He floored it and they sped away.

  “What was wrong with those people?” he asked.

  “I don’t know Joel. I just know they chased me around! I think they wanted to kill me!” She started to cry. She felt the tears flow down her cheeks.

  “It’s okay Katie. It’s okay. You’re okay now, you’re safe with me,” he tried to comfort her.

  “But what’s going to happen? What if this is happening everywhere?”

  “We have each other Katie.”

  As they turned on to Bailey Avenue from Grover Cleveland Highway, Katie saw a police roadblock ahead. A police officer in a raincoat waved at them to stop so they stopped. The cop motioned for them to exit the car.

  “Are you sick?” he yelled over the roaring downpour.

  “No!” Joel yelled back.

  “Why are you out?” the cop asked.

  “He had to come pick me up from my school’s library! I was in danger there! I was being chased!” Katie yelled as she shivered in the rain.

  “Who were you being chased by ma’am?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “Alright, stand there with your hands up, the both of you,” the cop said. He walked over with another police officer and they both patted Joel and Katie down before handcuffing them.

  “I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to take you downtown,” the other cop said. “We will send someone to check out the library. However, you violated curfew and the law is clear. Where is the library?”

  “UB’s North Campus!” Joel yelled. “Why are you arresting us?”

  “Son, you violated an Executive Order from the President of the United States!”

  The cop led Joel and Katie toward a police car. Katie started crying again; she had never been arrested before! She began to panic. They were going to die now! She was certain of it. Everything began to grow dark all around her.

  Chapter Two

  Randy Eccleston

  Day 0

  “I hear that whoever wins tonight’s game is going to be at fault for causing hell to freeze over!” a balding man sitting at the bar yelled as he lifted his beer stein.

  Randy laughed. “Who are you rooting for Casey?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know, I’ve never really been into baseball.”

  Randy laughed again and punched him in the arm. “Whatever man, I know you’re pulling for Washington.”

  “No, I think that’s you who is pulling for Washington.”

  He and Casey had been friends since high school. They had met in marching band. Randy had played saxophone, Casey had played the percussion instruments. Casey had been a Goth then and had kept his black hair long since becoming an adult.

  “Hey, looks like Adam, Jill and Missy are coming back,” Casey said, pointing.

  Randy turned and saw his best friend Adam walking up with his girlfriend Jillian. “Washington’s closing pitcher just gave up the tying run!” he yelled over the clamor of the tavern.

  Randy shrugged. “So?”

  “So? The guy is like the
best closing pitcher since Bruce Sutter! Donovan Granger is a frighteningly good pitcher, so this is a bit uncharacteristic of him.”

  “Who wants some longnecks?” Missy, Casey’s girlfriend, asked as she walked up with a bucket of beer.

  “I’ll take one,” Randy replied.

  “Me too,” Casey said.

  “Hey, what just happened?” Adam asked, pointing at the nearest television.

  Randy looked up and saw that the game had been replaced by a screen with vertical colored bars.

  “I’ll bet that storm on the East Coast is affecting the signal!” Casey suggested.

  “How? The game is in Seattle and we are in Saint Louis!” Adam replied.

  “So what?” Randy said. “You know all that network stuff is distributed these days. If a squirrel chews up a power line in Boston, then Houston loses its internet signal.”

  “Hey wait!” someone in the bar yelled as a news desk appeared on the screen manned by a sports commentator. The bar became very quiet.

  “Folks, I’m sorry to say this to you,” the commentator said grimly, “but it appears that Donovan Granger collapsed on the mound and has died.”

  Several people gasped.

  “We have received reports that he was complaining of flu-like symptoms before tonight’s game and well, those reports appear to be substantiated. If you’re just tuning in, Donovan Granger, star closing pitcher for the Washington Senators has collapsed on the pitching mound and has died.”

  Suddenly, a television that had been displaying an MMA match switched to a screen with vertical colored bars.

  “Man! I had money on that fight!” someone yelled.

  “Who were you pulling for?” the bartender asked.

  “I bet on the Comeback Kid!”

  “Well, you guys want to head back to my place?” Casey asked.

  “I guess. We can commiserate there. At least the beer will be cheaper,” Adam said.

  They all stood and exited the bar. They were in a hipster neighborhood just west of downtown Saint Louis. It was warm and breezy as they walked into the night.

  “You excited about going back to work?” Jillian asked Randy.

  “What, to the blood bank?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  He shrugged. “I guess. It’s pretty boring working the midnight shift.”

  She laughed. “I’ll bet vampires come in all the time to cash their checks.”

  “Huh?”

  “You work in a blood bank.”

  “Oh!” Randy laughed as they descended a set of stairs toward a commuter train platform.

  He, Adam and Jillian were in Saint Louis visiting Casey and Missy. They had moved to Saint Louis after college so that Casey could play guitar in a band. They lived in a little town called Shiloh to the east of Saint Louis, in Illinois. As the group reached the platform to wait for a train, Randy thought about Chicago. He decided he was looking forward to returning home. He hadn’t seen his brother Todd in a few months.

  “Attention passengers, the next east bound train is approaching and will arrive at the platform in thirty seconds,” a monotone voice boomed from loudspeakers over the platform. “Please remain behind the yellow line until the train has come to a complete stop. Thank you for riding Metrolink!”

  Randy heard a train whistle and looked down the tracks. The single headlight of a train approached. The white and red commuter train slowed to a stop as it reached the platform. Randy and his friends stepped in and realized they were the only ones on the train.

  “Huh, I guess a lot of folks are glued to a TV,” Adam said quietly as the train slowly accelerated away from the station.

  Randy sat down and watched the city race by through the window. Suddenly the train was in a tunnel. Adam sat down next to him. He shook his head.

  “You okay man?” Randy asked.

  “You know, I should be. I’m not even a Washington Senators fan! But I mean, a great pitcher just died in the Ninth Inning of Game Seven of the World Series! I guess this is a World Series that probably won’t ever be decided.”

  “Hey, are we slowing down?” Missy asked suddenly.

  Randy looked out the window and noticed the stone walls of the tunnel moving by ever slower. The train suddenly stopped.

  “What the, what’s going on?” he asked.

  “We stopped,” Casey said. He walked to the front of the train car and then returned. “This train must be automated. There’s no operator.”

  “Hmm,” Jillian said. “I wonder what happened. Was there some kind of power outage?”

  “Who knows?” Adam asked.

  They sat there for about twenty minutes. Suddenly a loudspeaker in the ceiling of the train car crackled. “Attention passengers, quarantine has been enacted. Please remain where you are. Attention passengers, quarantine has been enacted. Please remain where you are.”

  “Quarantine?” Randy asked. “What?”

  “Hey, do you guys have cell service?” Missy asked.

  He pulled his iPhone out and frowned. “No.”

  No one else had service either.

  “Now what?” Adam asked.

  Casey walked toward the front of the train car and fumbled at a small lever above the door. The door popped open.

  “What are you doing?” Jillian asked.

  Casey laughed. “I’m going to see what’s going on. Besides, aren’t you guys hot in here? I figured we could use a draft.”

  “Casey Newburgh! Get back here!” Missy yelled.

  “Relax Melissa Sanders,” he said sardonically. “I’ll be right back. Look, the riverfront is just ahead. I’ll go see what’s going on. I think there’s a station up there. I’ll be back.” He hopped out of the train car.

  Missy growled. “He’s so stubborn!”

  “Indeed he is,” Adam said.

  The lights on the train flickered.

  “Maybe we should follow him,” Jillian said.

  “No, let’s stay put until he gets back,” Randy replied as he stood and walked to the open doorway.

  Suddenly he heard footsteps in the tunnel. He turned toward the others and put his finger over his mouth.

  “Hey guys, I’m uh, I’m being arrested,” Casey said suddenly from outside the train car.

  Randy turned and gasped. A police officer in riot gear had a machine gun pointed at the small of Casey’s back. He mumbled something into a radio mounted on his vest and jabbed Casey with the point of the rifle.

  “Keep marching son,” he said curtly. “And the rest of you, stay in that train car. Do not leave it!”

  “Wait Officer!” Missy yelled, running to the open door. “Where are you taking my boyfriend?”

  “Missy, just get back in the train!” Casey yelled.

  “Shut up!” the cop yelled as he hit Casey in the back with the butt of his rifle.

  “Casey!” Missy screamed as he fell to the ground.

  The cop spun around and pointed his rifle at the friends in the train. “Get back into the train. Now!” he barked as Casey slowly stood back up.

  Randy pulled Missy back as the open door closed automatically. Suddenly the train car began moving in reverse. They rolled past Casey and the police officer. Missy was crying.

  “Where are we going?” Adam asked.

  “Back to the last station I guess, why?” Randy asked.

  “We left the main line about five seconds ago.”

  “What?” Randy looked back down the tunnel. Sure enough, they appeared to have branched off from the main tunnel. “Where are we going?”

  The train car slowly rolled to a stop in a darkened train station. Suddenly the interior of the train car was illuminated by spotlights from the platform.

  “Everyone inside the train! When we open the doors, slowly step out on to the platform with your hands in the air!” someone yelled.

  The doors slid open and Randy stepped out of the train car with his hands up. The lights were blinding. He heard the others follow.

  �
�Cuff them and take them to the quarantine ward!” someone else yelled.

  Suddenly Randy was being handcuffed and pulled away from the platform. He was led into a brightly lit hallway with white tiled floors and white walls. He saw that another cop was the one pulling him.

  “Where are you taking me Officer?” he asked as he blinked.

  “To a holding cell son. You were out violating quarantine.”

  “But Officer, how? We got on that train before quarantine was announced!” he protested.

  “Doesn’t matter. We caught you and your friends out on the tracks after quarantine was announced. We’re going to detain you until we receive further instructions on what to do.”

  “Can’t I call a lawyer sir?”

  “No.”

  “Am I under arrest?”

  “Yes.”

  “You didn’t read me my rights. Don’t I have the right to an attorney and a right to see a judge?”

  “Son, habeas corpus was suspended a half hour ago by the President of the United States. We were ordered to arrest anybody who violates curfew,” the cop replied as he led Randy onto an elevator. “We’re doing this for your own safety.”

  “Where are my friends being taken?”

  “They’ll be processed and then brought to the same cell you’ll be in,” he replied as he pushed the button for the eighth floor.

  Two hours later they were all finally reunited; all of them except for Casey that is. They were held in a large jail cell with a bare concrete floor. Metal benches with crude epithets scrawled on them lined three of the walls. The fourth wall was just a large wall of metal bars.

  “This is great!” Jillian said, throwing her hands up. “They took my phone!”

  “Yeah, they took mine too,” Randy said as he sat down on the bench. “I wonder what’s going to happen to Casey?”

  “Me too,” Missy said solemnly. “They wouldn’t tell me where they were taking him.”

  “How is this legal?” Randy asked.

  “Man, I guess the government can just suspend civil liberties,” Adam sighed.

  “What’s all this quarantine business about, anyway?” Randy asked.

  “Who knows?” Adam replied. “Maybe there’s an epidemic of bird flu or something.”

  Two cops stood near the cell in the hallway talking. Randy motioned for the others to be quiet as he strained to hear the conversation.