We Are the Dead and We're Coming For You
kind of a horror story based on a Murderdolls song, haha
Prologue
All she could hear was the screaming of thousands of birds. She knew spring had finally arrived when the scarlet tanagers swooped past overhead. She couldn’t see them; it was too dark, and the clouds didn’t even offer a faint lightning spark. Marika sat in her used Honda and waited for Lawrence to get back in the car. His weak point, carsickness, had at length caught up to him after twenty-five miles. The fact that the couple had been on their way to see Marika’s parents didn’t help in the least. Plus, he didn’t like large bodies of water. Marika had made the mistake of taking the scenic route by the lake.
As Lawrence climbed weakly back into the Civic, she could hear the tanagers’ cries fade away. Silence took over as soon as the door was shut. Marika turned the engine and pulled off the shoulder. Nobody spoke. Lawrence sighed and turned on the radio. Static-X poured out of every speaker, masking the night in faux defiance. Marika drove on.
At length she asked, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he said.
That was that. There were no more questions and even fewer answers. Ten miles left.
Eliot and May had already cleared dinner off the table when the doorbell rang.
“El, will you get that, honey? I’m doing the dishes.”
Eliot got out of his creaky old Lay-Z-Boy and walked stiffly over to the front door. Through the screen he could see the shadow of his neighbor and good friend Bryce. The old coot had at last come to return the Black and Decker combo kit. He opened the door and started to smile… until he saw his friend’s vexed appearance.
“El, you got to call the cops or something! Please, let me in! Lock all your doors!”
Bryce rushed past El and raced for the telephone.
“What’s going on? Bryce, what are you doing?”
Suddenly, May started screaming from the kitchen. A shattering of glass could be heard and El ran for the kitchen. He heard Bryce scream into the phone, “Get me the police! The dead are here!” When he got into the kitchen, he stopped in his tracks. There lay May, bleeding on the shiny gray tile. Someone was leaning over her, with his mouth against her stomach. Someone else was climbing in through the broken window over the sink. It took El a moment to register. Then, with graceless agility, he took up a heavy acrylic bowl of bananas and apples and struck the man/beast/creature over the head with it. It turned its red eyes on
him and lunged, leaving May’s entrails to splatter on the tile. The second beast dove for her while a third made its way through the window. These creatures physically resembled people Eliot knew. But he didn’t know these monsters… they were horrible, beyond belief, and none of his friends would try to eat his wife!
He held the creature back with a random chair he picked up as he backed away. Now he could see Bryce in the living room, losing a battle against his own dead son. El whispered a prayer to whatever god would listen and took out his pocketknife. He charged the creature with full force, unexpectedly strong considering his fifty years. Cold hands gripped his head and arms. He closed his eyes against the gruesome scene of his own outcome. Stabbing blindly, Eliot could feel lifeless fingers gouging out his eye sockets. He knew he was screaming, but he couldn’t hear it for the ripping of his own skin.
The dogs had finally stopped barking. Whatever had been spooking them had apparently gotten bored and moved on down the street, because Jess detected her neighbor’s dog’s shrill yelps. She settled back down on the couch with her fruit Popsicle and resumed watching the horror marathon. As soon as her eyelids relocated to a sleeping position, her cell phone jumped to life. So did she.
In an irritable tone, she answered. “Hello?”
“Hey, Jess. Are you watching the marathon?”
It was her sister’s best friend, Inez, also a horror fan. Jess at once asked why she was up so late. Inez was trying for her doctor’s degree in philosophy, and she rarely stayed up on Sundays.
“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss The Blob for anything!”
They laughed as the credits for Night of the Living Dead climbed up the television screen. Then, much to Jess’s dismay, Inez asked about the man in her life.
“You know I’m not seeing anyone…”
“That’s only because you hole up in your little cottage with your dogs and never get out. You need to stretch your legs. Get to know some of the guys around here. Some of them are actually pretty cool.”
“Whatever. I’d much rather sleep with my puppies than any of those grimy dogs.”
Inez laughed alone this time. Then she asked about Marika. Jess’s sister and brother-in-law had gone to spend Sunday night with the girls’ parents. She remembered the constipated sort of look on Lawrence’s face as the Civic backed down the driveway. She nearly giggled again.
“Haven’t heard from either of them,” she told Inez. “I got a fuzzy voicemail from Lawrence. I couldn’t understand a word. I’m still waiting for him to call back.”
Inez chuckled at Jess’s obvious crush on her sister’s husband.
“That’s what I’m talking about! You need to take initiative and stop waiting up on them. Guys are kind of lazy if you haven’t noticed!”
“I know!”
The girls talked for ten more minutes before Inez complained of a low battery. Jess said goodnight and hung up.
I'm thinking of more to add right now.