The Gaslight Anthem Chapter Two

“Doc? Doc, wake up” “Andy, leave him alone, you-“ “Come on Amy, stop talking to me like I’m some little kid…” The boy’s voice trailed off. Doc? Was this boy talking to him? “He must think I’m a doctor because of the smock”, he thought. He wanted to tell him that he wasn’t a doctor; the truth is he didn’t know what he was. He wanted to tell him his real name, but he didn’t know that either. Doc would have to do for now. It’s as good a name as any. He tried to sit up but his head pounded as if some epic war drum was being played between his ears. He must have fainted after…. Doc sat bolt upright. That boy just killed that man. Doc ignored the fact that he had just fainted and the fact that the wound on the back of his head had reopened partially and was bleeding profusely. He slowly took in his surroundings. The knife that was used as the killing instrument laid at Doc’s feet a few paces away. He looked at the dead figure more closely. Its skin was a grayish color and he looked as if he had died long before the boy impaled its face. It was covered in dried blood and dirt and its clothes were almost indiscernible from the filth that the creature was buried in. Its hands were gnarled and it looked as if some of his digits had been chewed away. Part of its arm had been completely gnawed away revealing the pale white bone underneath. It was enough to make Doc sick. This thing isn’t human he thought. But if it isn’t human, what is it? He turned away covering his nose. The boy and his companion were arguing now almost oblivious to the fact that he was there. He studied them for a bit. The boy was about five foot six if he had to guess. His unkempt hair fell over his ears and forehead and was jet black. Freckles dotted his cheeks and he was showing slight signs of acne. His face was very animated as he talked. His eyebrows moved freely almost as if they were hanging on to his brow by only one hair. And he scrunched his eyes as he tried to get his point across. His nose was slightly upturned and his lips were as pale as his face. He had a slight gap in his teeth and in the harsh light of the metal room, Doc could see every bit of spittle escape his mouth as he blabbered on. He was young Doc guessed, about fourteen or fifteen. His upper lip held only the slightest hint of peach fuzz. He was very skinny too, but his sleeveless shirt revealed toned arms. The shirt was stained with blood down the front and the front was hastily tucked into a pair of blue jeans held up by a thin brown belt. The girl was a little older, Doc knew, but he could not guess what age. She had an air about her, a quaint and timeless beauty that suggested she could be 18 or 25. The first thing he noticed was the softness in her face and voice. She shifted her weight to one side as she rested her hand on her hip. She had her hair pulled back into a loose pony tail which danced about the back of her neck as she shook her head. Her eyes were icy blue and they stared at the boy with intent, as she tried to quell his tone. She pushed back her bangs out of her face as she let out a long sigh. She was lean and tall, under a brown hoodie and tight jeans. She smiled as her gaze found him. “Hey Doc,” touted the boy, he squatted down almost eye level with him. Doc repositioned himself against the counter he was leaning against. “What’s the matter? One of these things eat your tongue?” “Andrew!” the girl scowled, “That is quite enough!” she let out another nervous smile as she moved a little closer. “What?” asked Andrew as he stood up and made room for his companion to bend down. “Name’s Amy. You?” She asked tentatively, biting her bottom lip as she held out a hand to help him up. Doc thought for a minute. “Doctor…cough cough…ummmmm!” he cleared his throat, “Doctor Jeffries, but you can just call me Jeff.” “I’m callin you Doc,” said the boy as he turned his attention to the rest of the room. “Forgive him, it’s nice to meet you Jeff.” Amy helped him to his feet as he brushed himself off. “Ohhh, your bandages are soaked. You’re bleeding.” He reached up and touched the back of his head. His fingers were instantly stained red. After finding some towels, Jeff readdressed his wound as Amy recanted her story. Jeff was lost in the horrors that she revealed to him. “…And that’s where I found Andy here. He was crying, holding onto a hand that wasn’t attached to anyone. I heard him sobbing behind the Arby’s in town. By that time, the madness had already spread.” “Hey! I wasn’t crying Ames, I keep telling her that I wasn’t crying but she always tells everyone that I was.” Jeff just sat there with the towel to his head. How could they just talk about this with no emotion? What could they have gone through to make them so calloused? “Where were you when it happened?” she asked. Jeff just sat there, what was he to say? He could not sympathize with her. She was holding back tears he could tell, so maybe her cool demeanor was just a front to look tough in front of Andy. He sighed and hesitated once more as he began. “I don’t remember anything before this morning. My earliest memory is looking at myself in a mirror and seeing this face, my face for the first time, and not knowing who I am looking at. That is a weird feeling, you know? Not knowing who or what I am. Every time I try to remember, try to think back before my head starts hurting worse and worse.” “You are depressing,” Andy said through snickers as the three shared a laugh. “I’m still calling you Doc.” It served as a nervous tension breaker. Quickly shifting subjects, Jeff looked over at the creature and asked, “So, what is that thing anyways?” “Zombie” Andy quipped. “Don’t say that,” Amy demanded. “We don’t know that. Besides that just sounds so Sci-fi.” Andy thought for a second before delivering his counter-point. “What else would you call it? These things attack and eat other people and then those people turn into them.” “Well whatever it is,” she said in a matter-of-fact way, “It turns them into something unnatural. I have seen the change. After the first few, everyone dismissed it as a sickness, but it started spreading fast. When I witnessed it firsthand I was in school. As soon as we all heard the news, we were told to stay where we were, the president of the college sent out an e-mail saying that the campus would run as scheduled because it would serve everyone better if we didn’t panic and maintained our integrity or something along those lines. I was in chem lab and this boy, Eric, had been ‘mugged’ as he had called it before class and one of the guys bit him on the hand. Well the teacher told us not to worry about what was going on around us. She said we would be safe where we were, because she said ‘you need a key card to even get into our buildings’. I’ll never forget it, as long as I live I’ll never forget it.” She sniffled and closed he eyes as she lowered her head and continued. “Eric started coughing and everyone just stared at him. This was before we knew that these things transferred their disease through their bites. All of a sudden he started spitting up blood and he fell off the stool. Everyone started screaming and…” she started crying openly at this, “they tried to get out but the teacher just stood there at the door, reassuring everyone that everything would be ok. She started shouting at us to help him. I grabbed a few book bags and sat him up against them and someone else was wiping the blood from around his mouth. Everyone was freakin’ out. Eric was not responsive at all and eventually he closed his eyes. Then after one last fit he passed. He soiled himself and spit up blood everywhere before he stopped moving. It was on my hands, his blood.” She choked as she coughed. “I just stood up and moved back. Everyone was cryin’ and the teacher, Mrs. Basden tried calling 911. No one answered though. Someone else laid a coat over Eric as we all moved to the front of the room. Mrs. Basden was doing her best to console us. I don’t know how much time had passed because of the shock of the whole situation but I just sat at my station, looking at my hands…” At this, she held them up, looking down at them as if they were stained in blood now. “I heard a moan as Eric tried sitting up. Someone shouted his name and a few people rushed over to help him. Something was wrong though. I could tell. You can always tell. His eyes, they were…. They were hollow. As this girl called out to the teacher Eric went crazy. He bit down on the girl’s shoulder and ripped out a chunk of her flesh. That was it then. Someone tried holding Eric down but he just kept biting. Mrs. Basden just fell against the blackboard, in shock. She slid down and sat there, staring away at nothing. We got out of there fast and I didn’t look back. I don’t even know how long that was. It’s all just been a blur since then.” “Well, I know it was longer than two weeks ago, because that’s when I met you. I know because I’ve been keeping track. I figure if we ever make it, and this blows over, people are gunna wanna know what it was like. I could like make a video game or movie and be rich.” Andy walked off looking into a few drawers as he talked to himself, mapping out in his mind an opening scene for his movie. Jeff just sat there. He rested his head against the cabinet as he held the towel up to his wound. He smiled at Andy’s youthful ignorance. If it was as bad as he imagined then money would be worthless. He was sure there was some moral to be learned and he was reminded of some Bible proverb that said something about storing for ‘yourself treasures in heaven that moth and rust could not destroy’. He thought to himself that someone would have to add “or zombie could not eat” to the end of that verse. He wanted to say something to break the awkward silenced that followed but he couldn’t produce any words. Finally he managed to eek out a feeble “…yeah…” and Amy took that as a cue. “Andy, find anything useful? We need to get going. We have to go clothes shopping.” She looked at Jeff. He felt a little self-conscious as he looked down. His shirt was drenched in blood from the back of his head. It was such an accomplishment to him that he found these clothes in the first place, because he could be sitting here on this cold metal countertop in nothing but a paper gown. “Hey we got some good canned crap we could eat before we left, right?” Andy asked, almost whining. Amy smiled and remarked saying something about being as hungry as a zombie. As Amy and Andy prepared a meal of Pork and Beans, Corn, Peas and Carrots, Applesauce, and Spinach, Jeff did his best to clean himself off in one of the metal industrial sized sinks. He took off his shirt and washed his arms and neck and took care scrubbing around his head. The warm water felt good to his aching body. He wanted to climb in the sink and just marinate. He threw the shirt to the side and put the smock back on. He thought about how funny he must look in black gym shorts and a doctor’s jacket. He examined his mid-section in a reflection of one of the counter-tops. He was pretty lean, and he looked as if before the coma, he had some definition. He didn’t know who he was before he woke up and he amused himself with the simple fact that he could have been anything when he first opened his eyes. “It could be worse”, he thought, “I could have been an old fat bald guy.” “That was good”, Jeff said, patting his stomach. Already is belly was noticeably bigger. He might pay for consuming that much food, but he didn’t care at this particular moment in time. “Well, what are we doing now?” “We are staying at this hunting and fishing store in a strip mall not too far from here. We have been safe there so far. So far as we can tell, they can’t open doors and the older couple we were with cleared out all the creepers before we got there.” Amy said as she put her plate in the sink, out of habit more than anything else. “They have a lot of stuff there; guns, knives, clothes, shoes.” She held up her feet, sporting a nice pair of hiking boots. Andy slung his own foot up on the table revealing that he had a nice new pair of kicks as well. “But we had better get a move on, it’ll be dark soon.” The trio set off for the door, they each had a few bags with them with various can goods and a few other things found in the cabinets. Jeff had raided the fridge and grabbed anything he might consider still good. He picked up the milk and acted as if he was going to open the lid. Andy pleaded for him not to do it and laughed as ‘Doc’ put it back in there. There wasn’t much that he was able to salvage, save a few two liters of cola, a block of sharp cheddar cheese and a gallon of distilled drinking water. As they raced through the flies and the stench of the outside, Jeff had a thought. Once they reached the hallway he formulated a plan. “Let’s try and get some medical supplies just in case we may need them. Look on the doors we pass and see if any of them say anything like pharmacy of medicine supplies.” “You sure you aren’t a doctor?” Andy asked, as Jeff smiled widely. They had hit the jackpot a few turns later. They raked what they could into several medical supply bags that were there. They would sort through everything once they got back to the shop. Jeff didn’t know what to expect when they ventured out into the street. They had decided it was probably best to use a side door, maybe an ambulance entrance. They would avoid the parking garage. Amy had mentioned that these creatures were attracted to lights and sounds. Jeff thought for a moment before mentioning to steer clear of the generators. “They are loud enough to wake the dead.” He said, chuckling to himself. Of course, Amy didn’t find this amusing, but Andy almost doubled over with laughter. Amy pointed to the right. “There’s where we came in.” A door marked Emergency Exit laid slightly propped open with a bloody baseball bat and a back pack lay beside it. “Jeff, meet woody,” Amy said as she grabbed up the bat. She put it to her shoulder as she pretended to spit tobacco and swung at some unknown pitch thrown by an invisible player. Andy picked up the back pack and unloaded one of the medical bags into it. The sun greeted them warmly, but the air was less kind. The smell of something burning lingered about them as they made their way down a back alley leading away from the hospital. Occasionally, a strong smell of decay would hit and Amy would stop walking and sort of duck down. They were only one block over from the main street. And amy remarked that there were more of them on the main streets. Jeff stopped suddenly. A little distance ahead, a body lay disheveled in their path. “Don’t worry. I took care of her on the way in.” She was right. As they passed over the grey corpse, the thing’s face had been smashed in. It didn’t resemble anything Jeff had ever seen, or thought he had seen before. It’s dress was stained a rusted color and it was missing a leg. The other was badly broken and its back had been eaten out. These things looked so fragile, but how could they be so deadly? Jeff didn’t know and it scared him. The buildings were suffocating and very close to one another. Jeff guessed he could stretch out his arms and touch both walls of the alley at the same time. All of the doors were the same grey color and none of them had door handles but they all had padlocks. Some were caked with dust, others with blood. There was an Anarchy symbol etched in the dust of one door and a Bible verse in another. Amy moved silently and cautiously, peering around every corner before moving on. “The End Of The World is Here, and We all are Pawns in God’s Chess Game.” Jeff stared at these words for a minute. Blood spatter covered up some of the letters but this simple statement written on the wall floored him. Jeff wanted to ask Amy if she believed in God, he wondered if he himself believed in God. But this was not the time. She had warned of talking and loud noises before they left the Hospital. Jeff didn’t really know how the world was supposed to be but he knew this wasn’t it. Could God allow this to happen? Would he allow it? He tried not to think about it because he was exhausted and his head just hurt more and more. He was now completely lost. They had avoided most of the main streets and the one’s they couldn’t avoid, they crossed briefly but they had rounded so many corners that Jeff didn’t even know which direction they had come from. They rounded another corner and he could see the open street ahead. A charred shell of a car that had been driven into a light pole lied directly in front of them. Amy stopped once more. “Our shop is on the next street. This is where we have to be careful. We are exposed the rest of the way. Jeff, can you run? Because you may need to. They are slow but there are a lot of them.” Jeff nodded, he was short of breath but he tried his best to hide it. Amy gripped the handle of her bat tight. Jeff wished he had something to swing too. Andy brandished that steel steak knife that saved Jeff’s life earlier. Jeff felt naked. He looked around for anything useful but he found nothing. He would just have to trust in his new friends and their weapons. He placed little faith in his own dumb luck that got him here thus far. “One more thing,” Amy paused, as she stared ahead. “Jan and Bill said that if the creepers follow us, we have to try and lose them before goin in. They can’t pull open doors but enough of them can break down the glass front of the shop.” Jeff was confused. He looked out trying to figure out what Amy was looking at. “Jan and Bill are the people that let us stay with them,” and declared matter-of-factly. “thought you might like tuh know.” “Now!” Amy half whispered half screamed as the word seemed to barely eek out. She shot out and ducked behind the car. Her back was to them but she held up her hand motioning them forward. Jeff and Andy followed suit, using the charred mass as a shield. Amy scanned ahead, looking right and left. In the distance silhouetted by a plume of black smoke rising up from a smoldering gas station, Jeff could see about five or six figures wandering aimlessly about. They moved with no expression, no purpose. Looking the opposite way Jeff surveyed an expanse of sky in between two sky scrapers. The sun was beginning to glow orange and it was only half visible above the shadow of the buildings it watched over. Already that shadow was growing over the street. “We need to hurry, there’s more at night.” Amy closed her eyes as she said this, almost as if she was shutting some memory off like a faucet. They moved again. Ahead, a narrow opening between two buildings led to a courtyard and a small parking lot. There were four or five stores here all arranged in a square. The one they wanted lay dead ahead. A big sign hung over the door reading, “Southern Living” Jeff could see some light emanating from the inside, although he didn’t hear a generator. He looked behind him. The buildings huddled close around the courtyard and the alleyway was the only way in or out. That was either a good thing or a bad thing. Jeff thought about mentioning that they should have some sort of fence or gate at the opening but he didn’t feel like thinking too hard. Today was the first day of his new life but it could have just as easily been his last.