EYEHEARTZOMBIES

Seth and Ruth weren’t looking forward to walking the fifteen or so miles to the hospital. They had planned on catching a cab along the way. There weren’t any, though. The streets in this part of town, mostly old buildings housing the library, the court house, law offices, banks, and a few hotels. In the middle of the day, this part of town looked like a ghost town, everyone behind their desks working. Except today when the power was out. Everyone must have gone home, Ruth thought. Funny that we didn’t see any cars. Maybe they all take the train.

Several blocks down the street, Seth saw a police car sitting completely on the pavement, lights flashing. Sirens were off and it would have been heading back toward the library, so that explained why they hadn’t heard or seen it before. He and Ruth crossed the street a few blocks short of the car and approached it cautiously. Both doors were open and Seth didn’t see any cops around. The nose of the car was at another alley and the passenger’s headlamp was bouncing off the wall, illuminating the alley a bit.

“I wonder what happened?” Ruth’s voice was back down to a whisper. Her nails were digging into Seth’s arm which she had started holding when they crossed the street. “Where are the police?”

Seth patted her hand, which made her relax it a bit. “I’m not sure. Looks like they might have gone down the alleyway. I guess it can’t hurt to look.” They had almost reached the car and they stepped back out into the street to pass around it to the side. Once they were safely behind the car, Seth moved to look inside the driver’s side door. The radio was silent but glowing, so it was turned on. Looks like the cops were still tied up everywhere.

The squad car was still running. “We could take the car,” Ruth suggested. This was the first thing she could really count as good news since the little girl had come into the library. Take the car, check on Seth’s mom, then get the hell out of this hell that they had suddenly found themselves in.

“No, not yet. I want to see what’s down they alley.” Seth’s eyes had a far away look to them. He was getting addicted to the danger, the thrill. Ruth hoped he wouldn’t do something stupid. She didn’t really know him from Adam, but she was growing attached to this skinny boy with dark hair. “You can sit in the car, Ruth. I won’t be gone long.” He moved around the open door and took the pistol out of his jacket pocket.

Ruth sat down in the driver’s seat and closed the door. She looked around in the cab of the car. Radio, shotgun rack that was sadly empty, a box from Dunkin’ Donuts. A clipboard with incident reports attached to it. She twisted around in the seat to peer through the steel mesh seperating the backseat from the front. Thankfully it was empty, too. She hadn’t thought about the chance of there being one of… those… in the backseat.

Seth had reached the mouth of the alley. Ruth stopped looking at the backseat, which held fast food wrappers and a spare pair of handcuffs, to watch his progress. He had the pistol in his hand held down by his side. She could see him keeping his finger determinedly off the trigger. He had told her on the way down the street that he knew nothing about guns. They scared him a little, he’d said. He stepped into the alley.

The headlight illuminated the first twenty or thirty feet of the alleyway, then faded off quite abruptly. She could see him moving even after he passed that, but it was mostly picking out his shadow against slightly lighter or darker shadows down in the alley. About twenty yards into he alley he stopped suddenly. He bent over a bit to look at something and jumped with a yell that was drowned out by a sudden burst of static on the radio. Ruth jumped in her seat.

” — till coming! We can’t seem to stop th — ” The radio was quiet again and Seth had straightened up. He backed up a few steps, then turned toward the squad car again. He waved a hand at Ruth, who waved back.

“Just a cat,” he called. She nodded at him to show she had heard. He waved again and turned around to look further on. Another few steps and he reached a turn in the alley. She saw him looking down the new passageway that passed behind the buildings to his left. Something must be down there, she thought. He was leaned forward, peering at something. She saw his face go slack a moment later. He turned, running toward the car.