EYEHEARTZOMBIES

Seth was surprised at how light Naomi’s body was now. When he and Elijah had carried her in from the street, she had seemed abnormally heavy. Maybe it was the rain. Whatever it was, it was gone now. She seemed to only weigh a hundred pounds or so. Mary was a lot lighter than she should have been, too. Maybe whatever turned them into — brought them back to life — was eating away at them once they had been put down again. He didn’t really care to think about it.

He dragged them both outside and laid them side-by-side to the side of the front double doors at the top of the stairs. He still felt kind of bad — disrespectful — at leaving two dead bodies out to the elements, but he supposed there wasn’t much choice. After all, they HAD come back to life and tried to kill other people. Well, Mary had tried; Naomi had very viciously succeeded. He shuddered uncontrollably for a second when he thought about her grabbing Mary’s throat. Ugh.

Before he went inside, he looked around a bit. The rain had slacked up again in the last few minutes, now back to a drizzle like it had been when he and Elijah had carried Naomi inside. That was good, he guessed. No one wants to walk through the rain when there are…. No, he wouldn’t think about it. He didn’t see anything moving out there, not even a taxi or other cars. That was strange. Grand Avenue was supposed to be one of the busiest streets in the city. Maybe this… change… was more widespread than anyone thought.

Seth turned and pulled open the doors to the library. Ruth and Virginia were both waiting in the foyer. Ruth had Seth’s jacket in her arms for him and she smiled at him slightly. Virginia was beaming from ear to ear, obviously relieved to have the library to herself and to have the bodies out. “Thank ye, baby. I don’t think I could have handled havin’ them bodies in the library with me all alone. Just woulda been too much.” She nodded enthusiastically.

“Oh, it’s alright, ma’am,” Seth said. “I guess we’ll be going now. You sure you’ll be alright?” He was just a little nervous for the kind, older black lady. She didn’t deserve to get attacked or die. The library looked pretty strong, though, and if there wasn’t anyone else in it, she should be safe enough.

“Oh, child, don’t you worry about me. I’ll just lock this here door and wait for the power to come back on. Or for it to start gettin’ too dark for me. If it does, I’ll just run on down the street to the train station and get myself home…. If the trains are running, that is.” She frowned. “If the power’s out all over, I guess the trains are stuck where they stood. I sure hope Marueen and her husband and friend get home all right. I’d hate to be stuck down in them subways.” She shook her head at the thought, but it seemed to clear her head, too. She smiled at Seth and Ruth. “Well, don’t you kids worry none. I’ll be fine and they’ll be fine and you’ll be fine. Just get on to wherever you’re goin’ and don’t stop for no dead people.” She laughed.

“Thanks,” Ruth said, sounding more confident than she had since Mary had reanimated. She turned to Seth and smiled softly at him. “You ready?”

Seth nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.” He looked around, checking one last time for anything else he should take with him. “Yeah. Let’s go.” He took his jacket from Ruth and pushed the outside door open. He held it open while she went out, then followed, putting on his jacket. She pulled a knitted cap out of her pocket and pulled it down over her hair and ears. Ruth looked into the rain and her smile faded.

“Well, here we go,” she said, not half as confident as when she had come out to find the purse. She reached over and took Seth’s hand and smiled at him. They trotted down the steps, careful not to slip in the collected rain, and started walking down the street in the direction of the taxi. “Hey, wait a sec, I never got to look in here,” Ruth said, pointing toward the taxi.

Seth led her around to the driver’s side door and she sat down in the seat. “I didn’t see anything interesting in there,” he said, “but go ahead and look. Not like we have to get anywhere in a hurry or anything.” She looked up at him and smiled slightly. Then she turned and started digging through the floorboard clutter. She pulled up a log book, full of pick-ups and drop-offs. Several fast food wrappers and empty cups stained with brown rings inside from years-old coffee. A few maps of the city were crumpled in the front passenger seat.

“Yeah, I’m not seeing anything,” she said. “Maybe the glove box?” She thumbed the button and the door popped open. A couple of cassette tapes fell out. Hits of the ’80s joined the maps and food wrappers on the floor. She stuck a hand in and leaned over to look in. “Hey!” Seth leaned down to look in when she yelled out. She turned around, her face glowing, “Look what I found!” She held up a pistol.

It was black and dark grey, the handle bumpy with little pyramids. She flicked the thumb switch and the cartridge fell out. Looked fully loaded. She was still smiling when she handed to it to Seth. “Here. We might need it.” She turned around to crawl into the back seat, but stopped with her butt sticking out of the car. “Oh, nothing back there. You think we can get into the trunk? We should take anything we can.” She looked around for a trunk release lever, but it was an older car and didn’t have one. Then she spotted the keys still in the ignition. She killed the car, pulled the keys out, and climbed out of the car.

“You really think we’ll need a gun?” Seth asked.

“Sure, especially if there are more of those…” she looked up at the front stoop of the library. “Yeah. just hold onto it.” She slammed the driver’s door and walked around to the back of the cab. The keys went into the slot and twisted, the heavy trunk lid swinging up on its ancient rusted springs. A small light went on, barely adding any light to the dim day. “Not much in here, huh?”

Seth joined her at the back of the car and peered into the dark cavern. A toolbox, a spare tire, jumper cables, and a blanket. Typical roadside emergency stuff. He opened the red toolbox and dug around inside. A couple of screwdrivers, phillips and flatheaded. A pair of wirecutters and a small metal tire iron. He pulled out the iron and handed it to Ruth. “You want this, maybe? Might be handy, I guess.” She took it and nodded at him.

“Yeah. Makes me feel a little better.” She held it in her right hand and held his hand with her left. They closed the trunk and walked back to the sidewalk, starting again on their way to the hospital. Seth knew it was several miles away, probably close to fifteen, but he hoped they’d find another taxi along the way. Or maybe they’d try the trains, but Virginia had a good point. He shrugged mentally. They’d make it eventuallly. He squeezed Ruth’s hand, glad to have someone with him, and they walked on through the rain.

As they passed the alley where Naomi had been, Seth thought he saw something across the street from the corner of his eye. When he turned to look, he didn’t see anything. Must just be my mind, he though. He squeezed Ruth’s hand again and they kept walking.