Friday, July 19, 2013

Howls

It's been raining pretty much nonstop all week.

Zombies aren't a fan of rain. They are like any other animal when a storm comes into town, they find a crevice and stay there. Well, most of the time.
When you live in a horror movie you plan on horrible things happening during a heavy rain.

The twins came over for coffee and board games since the rain wasn't allowing much else. After the board games and coffee we did some sit ups and crunches as well as push ups and jumping jacks. The rain still didn't let up.... then we heard a howl.

It was like a werewolf movie. Too human to be animal and too animal to be human. Charlie put a hand on her gun, "What the fuck was that?" I was trying to remember if wolves were even normal to Louisiana-- I had guessed not.

We covertly left my apartment and followed the howl.

We followed that grisly noise to the 301.

We saw candle light in the second level windows, a huge rule breaker for the group. Any notable kind of light at night would give us away to zombies or worse: other breathers.

Davis was already halfway up the stairs when we got there. Charlie opened her umbrella over us. "What? I'm not going to keep getting drenched if I don't have to." Was her response.

We followed Davis up the stairs but we were quite a few paces behind him so we ended up plowing into him at the top. Davis readied his weapon and nodded for us to do the same. Charlie sat the umbrella down to ready her weapon. When he was satisfied he slowly opened the door.

Benny and Randi were bent over a mattress in the middle of the livingroom, blood was everywhere at their knees. The three kids were huddled in a corner, the littlest ones were covering their eyes. The howl came again, much louder so up close.

We collectively took two steps forward and saw a very human Isabelle on her back, pulling her legs into her chest and howling as she pushed one last time and a baby was now being scooped up in a fresh towel by Benny while Randi cut the cord and brought over a small trashcan to plop the after birth in.

We all stood there, mouths hanging open, staring at this new life. The baby screamed tiny baby screams and was quickly places on Isabelle's bare chest. Benny finally glanced back at us and motioned for us to meet him down the hall, away from it all. Davis shook his head firmly.

"Alright, fine." Benny talked while he wiped his hands off with a towel, "Let me hear it."
"Are you fucking clinically insane?" Davis whispered in a hurried tone, a finger planted forcibly against Benny's chest.
"Now wait a minute. This is amazing! A new life! A new generation. Not a stillbirth or monster, but an infant." Benny's voice was steady and glowy. Like a new father.
"That screams and needs diapers and shouldn't be in climates that compare to the surface of the sun! What if that thing dies of SIDS and comes back as a ghoul? How will you handle that? How will your wives handle that? Your kids? For fucks sake, Ben. You never even told us. No warning, nothing." Davis ran a hand through his hair and took a long gaze at his feet.
"It's a risk we are willing to take. We lost so much in the early days, we have to replenish."
Davis cut him off, "Ben, don't give me that holistic bullshit, okay? You're not the only family dependant on those gates and these apartments. Got it? And if you want to pull 'We were here first' bullshits let me remind you who saved your ass two years ago and who mended the fences and set up a perimeter. Got it? Fuck this. My family will not be allowed in these walls, around that thing until it can walk and talk." Davis poked Benny one more time in the chest and pushed past us down the stairs. He headed towards the guard perch in the center building.

That left us.

Mouths still open.

Watching.

"Want to meet baby Imogen?" Isabelle asked us, now moved to a fresh mattress. That's when I realized they had covered her other mattress with a tarp. Benny and Randi were carefully taking the tarp out to wash it off in the rain. I hoped the human scent would be long deluded before the rain stops.
Charlie was the first to take a peek at the baby. The tiny baby couldn't have weighed more than seven pounds. Isabelle looked exhausted and pale. I wondered if she'd make it past tomorrow. I hung back. The entire situation mortified me.

Davis was right.

This was a terrible idea.

I know its not plausible for us to stay out of the 301 but I am definitely keeping my distance.

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