She was grinding on top of me, the long raven strands tickling my chest.  Her body was making waves on top of mine as if it were struggling to consume me.  The sweat made a glimmering slickness that pushed and pulled her curves over my panting chest.  Climax was building as she was rotting.  With each thrust another piece of her hair fell out, or an eye faded paler.  The skin on her face was shriveling, the flesh of her shoulders decaying to a morbid grey.  Faded brown eyes fell from their sockets and tumbled onto the bed.  She curled a black grin as the liquids gurgled from her eye sockets.
     My back flew upwards and eyes darted open.  I was covered in the slickness from my nightmare, my eyes scanned for the rotten lover.  Nothing.
     “Ah SHIT!” yelled a weathered voice from the first floor of the house.  It was Rusty, caught between a chaotic array of bangs and crashes.

     “JACK WE HAVE TO GO!” Marisol screamed from the shadowed doorway across the room, the upper half of her body hidden in blackness.
     Springing to my feet I flew towards the doorway with each crashing sound accelerating my sprint.  Gai was already hobbling down the wooden stairs as Marisol and I raced down the hall. 
     “AHHH!  Get your fuckin’ asses down here already!” Rusty yelled between the sounds of breaking boards.  Moans and screams from the things outside echoed each other into nightmarish course.
     As we reached the bottom of the stairs I could see endless shadows of the corpses through thick tinted windows.  Silhouetted hands banged against the glass, forming tiny cracks with each hit. 
     “IN HERE!”  Rusty yelled from around the corner in the dining room.  Torn arms were waving madly through broken glass, reaching for unseen prey.  Rusty was struggling in the grips of two rotten hands with blackened fingernails digging into his neck.  Gai pulled the shotgun from his left side and aimed at the window.
     “NO GAI WAIT!”  I yelled holding up a stopping hand, but the blasting sound ripped into my eardrums.  Cupping my ears I stared at what was once a window; now a gaping, vulnerable hole.  I didn’t pay attention to the others, just watched the jagged opening pointing to a dark, overgrown yard—waiting.  A wretched red face filled the hole, left eye dripping towards a hanging cheek.  The skin on its forehead was drooping like melting cheese, with strands splitting its right eye into a dozen pieces.  Its mouth gurgled and overflowed with blood and chunks of tongue as it screamed towards us.  It broke a mangled arm through the glass opening and reached for us as it moaned.
     “How do we get out!?”  Marisol squealed with her arms flailing madly.
     “The back door!  We’ve gotta try…”  Rusty was interrupted as the ground started to rumble.  The air filled with faint whispers as the house began to shake. The creature outside didn’t seem to notice as it’s dripping red arm reached further and scraped against the broken glass, slicing new openings in its rotting skin.
     “Icequake!  Icequake!” Gai exclaimed as he ran across the way into another room.
     “Come on!”  Rusty signaled to Marisol and me as we followed his wide bulk through a thin doorway. 
     Countless piles of blankets were resting against brimming book shelves.  The walls were tapered with insulation.  Not a single window frame pushed through the fabric.  Bizarre paintings of horses and mazes hung from the red walls.  Rusty lit the fireplace with a flip of a switch and turned the knob all the way to the right on a thermostat.

     “Get next to the fire and throw some these on ya’.” he ordered as he tossed piles of blankets on top of us. We scrambled through the coverings to stretch them over all of us as we sat huddled in front of the fire.  The whispers in the air became more audible, the shaking became more violent.  The monsters outside were still oblivious as they moaned and screamed with banging hands, every other bang shattering glass.

      My ears flexed as a mutant cry ripped through the world.  The bizarre mechanical roar vibrated my innards as the house seemed to near collapse.
     “Huddle up!” Rusty yelled as we wobbled ourselves closer to each other and the fire, all of us too panicked to acknowledge the insanity we all heard.  The sonic whispers had morphed into prickling crystals in the air, fading the room with a dull teal tint.  My neck jolted over my shoulder as I heard stumbling in the doorway behind us.  A black haired woman was shambling towards us, a stretch of drool intermingled with red reaching for the floor.  Frost was forming on the collar of her shirt. 
     Blue, glittering crystals grew from the floorboards to cover the ceiling in glimmering pathways.  My breaths became fumes in the air, icicles forming above the fire place.  The vexed eyes of the woman had stopped their advance, with her drool frozen to her bottom lip, inches from the floor.
     “Why aren’t we frozen?” I asked towards Rusty, beard speckled with ice.
     “Not sure.  Think it’s ‘cause they got no heat inside ‘em.” Rusty said between shivers, the air clouding his voice.  Gai stood up.
     “Now’s our chance.” he said clinging the blankets to his thick frame.
     “What are you talking about?” Marisol asked in a huddle, painted a freezing orange beside the dying flames.
     “We need to go; we can get to the truck now.”
     “Ain’t no way that truck’ll be startin’ up kid.” Rusty said as he combed a shaking hand through his rigid beard.
     “So we’re gonna wait for that chick to melt free?” he said gesturing to the black haired woman in the doorway frozen with a gaping, hungry mouth and lifeless opaque eyes.
     “He’s right, we need to go now.” I interjected, looking at Marisol, who nodded in agreement—then Rusty, who shook his head in displeasure.  Gai started for the doorway with the blankets wrapped around his back.
     “What about her?” Rusty asked pointing to the petrified black haired creature trapped inside a layer of ice.  Gai walked in front of her and pushed on her chest with a pudgy index finger.  He had to dodge the frozen stretch of drool and blood flying upwards as the blue monster fell backwards.  She slammed into the hardwood floor, shattering into a thousand red and black shards.
     “Oh my God…” Marisol panted with a hand over her mouth.
     Rusty grunted, “Not bad kid.”
     “Let’s go” Gai gestured for us as his heavy feet smashed the fleshy ice beneath him.       
     We awkwardly wobbled towards the door, trying to keep the mass of blankets over ourselves as we walked. 
     Arms, fingers and a skin covered skull were reaching through broken windows in the distant dining room, covered in a layer of blue.  The chandelier above the long dinner table had a new colored glimmer as it hung dead above the empty silver trays.  Gai reached for the knob of the front door.
    “Ah!” Gai yipped as his fingers flailed away from the frozen golden knob.  “It’s too cold.”
     “Back off kid.” Rusty said as he pushed Gai to the side and without a pause a massive boot rammed into the door.  It fell forward onto the wooden porch, layer of ice cracking and scattering from the fall.
     We all stood silent with our new view of the front lawn.  Among the blue-grey grass were hundreds of the creatures, paused in their lumbering advance.  Each face had a different expression of evil and hunger, each frozen in their unique strides.  At the bottom of the porch steps an old white bearded man was preparing his icy ascent, holding his own intestines between his fingers.  I felt a freezing hand grip mine between the blankets.  It was Marisol.
     “Look.” Gai pointed to an icicle hanging from the porch roof.  It was dripping—melting.  “We have to go NOW!” he yelled as the blankets fell off him and he sprinted towards the truck.  He bumped into the gutted old man on his way down the steps making the thing thump into the icy grass.  The man’s body tumbled into a dozen pieces, an upper jaw and eyeball watching me.
     “Ain’t got a choice now.” Rusty said as he jogged towards Gai who was already waiting in the passenger seat of the big black truck.  Marisol and I followed closely behind, the blankets flopping on the porch behind us.  The air was stinging, each stride a pain.  I weaved my way through the countless frozen bodies, attempting to avoid looking in their frozen, screaming faces.  I knew they could still see me, desperately trying to break free and lunge into my flesh.  Each creature was at a level of rot I had not yet seen, bodies held together by strands of flesh and cracking bone.  Water was beginning to drip from their fingertips as my feet struggled to keep grip.  Finally I reached the truck.
     “There’s not enough room!” Marisol cried.
     “Damn right there is just sit on my lap!” Rusty yelled back with a hint of a mischievous smile. 
     “Screw off!  Gai, I’ll sit on yours.”
     Gai didn’t respond.  Marisol climbed onto Gai’s lap in the middle seat and Rusty pulled the passenger door shut as he flopped next to them.  The truck was wheezing and whining as I turned the ignition.  My heart was racing faster.  I turned the key again and the truck whined once more.  There were holes in some of the icy bodies now, revealing glistening clothes and moist flesh.  Rusty banged on the dash board as I turned the ignition again, the truck rumbled to life as I pulled the stick into reverse.  Some of the bodies in the yard were rustling, twitching beneath the ice.
     “Let’s get the hell outta here!” Rusty yelled, hitting the dashboard again.  My foot sank into the gas pedal and half-frozen monstrosities were crushed and shattered beneath the tires as the truck whined backwards.  The hood was aimed down the main road after the first of the creatures had thawed.  A young boy, with eyes so bloodshot they looked nothing but black.  He took a few dizzied steps towards the truck before we escaped.  Then he stood straight backed and still, staring at me in the reflection.  His naked, paper white body was illuminated red by the truck’s taillights as he faded into nothingness in my rearview mirror.
     “God… thank God… thank God…” Marisol was repeating under her breath as her head rested in her hands.  Gai’s face was emotionless, staring into the endless cityscape in front of us.
     “Not much you have to do Jacky boy, just keep on headin’ straight.  If this map is right, we’ll hit the highway not too long.” Rusty said as he looked his map up and down.
     “Will it really take us home?” Marisol asked, looking towards with wide, hopeful eyes.
     “Yup” I responded with an unsure smile, looking at Gai for more confirmation.  He was silent, his face still emotionless.

     I had been driving for two hours; the others had been drifting in and out.  Nothing but massive cityscape had surrounded us, with only a few of the creatures stumbling towards the truck on our way.  Cars were parked here and there alongside the street, stores and windows intact.  It was as if there was never a struggle—that everyone there had just suddenly turned into these mindless creatures, searching for the one who didn’t change.
     There was an edge in the distance, a place where the grey blocks gave way.  Gai’s half-shut eyes were the first besides mine to notice, and they grew wide.
     “Look!” he yelled, jostling Rusty from his nap as he pointed through the middle of the windshield.  My foot sank lower on the gas pedal.  The edge was approaching faster, and beyond it were stretching fields of grass.
     “We’re gonna make it!  We’re gonna make it out of here!  Gai look!” Marisol hopped on his lap as she cried in excitement and pointed to a green metal sign, rusted with white lettering.  It read ‘Thank you for visiting Xapador City’.
     “Haha!  Yes!” I yelled as I punched the truck ceiling.  Rusty rolled down his window and stuck his head outside.
     “Hahaha!  Go suck a dick ya dipshits!” he yelled as the wind attempted to blow his hair and beard back into the city.  Marisol and I were laughing as Rusty yelled obscenities at the nightmare behind us.  Gai was sitting quietly with a massive grin spread across his face, and moisture building in his eyes.  I slowed down the truck and the others looked at me in confusion.  I pulled to the side of the highway.
     “The hell you doin’?” Rusty asked looking towards me.  I tossed him the keys.
     “Your turn”
     I climbed into the passenger seat and stared out at the window as the truck accelerated back down the highway.  There wasn’t a single building or hint of the city anywhere in the distance, just endless fields of green, not even a tree interrupting the dizzying pattern.  The horizon seemed an eternity away, but we would find a way to reach it; we were finally on our way home.

Copyright © 2009 by Chris Morey

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