markson721

Chapter 8

A question of Humanity

Freds left hand was still trembling as he reached out to help Eric to his feet. Eric took it and with his left hand behind his back pushed himself up. Once they were both standing they turned their eyes towards the lone zombie in the room. The creature in the back shirt was still pounding on the back door completely oblivious to the carnage that Eric and Fred had created.
Eric took a second to kneel down and retrieve his gun and the full clip that had been just out of reach a few seconds ago. Eric fitted the clip into the slot of the grip and as he jammed the bullets into the gun the share click of the clip locking into place finally brought the zombie to its sense.
Its head turned on a slow swivel like a rusty hinge. Its cold vacant left eye fixed Eric with its unresponsive pupil. Finding any easier meal to get to the dead thing began to turn towards Eric and Fred its bleeding hands reaching out for their necks. Eric tried to pull the gun up to level it at the approaching zombies head but couldnt, he wasnt sure if his bullet would penetrate the back wall and possibly kill one of the people behind the door the zombie had been so desperate to break down. His right hand fell back to his side crashing down like and anchor.
Fred still held the free weight in his left hand and looked at Eric with distressed eyes. It was plain on his face that he didnt understand why Eric had refused to fire at the zombie as he shuffled closer to them. He raised the weight over his head and tossed it at the undead thing as he hungrily snapped its teeth as if it could already tasted the two men in front of it. The weight smashed into the left side of the zombies jaw right below and in front of the ear and a sickening crunch could be heard over the primal grunts and growls of the creature as it continued to lumber forward.
The zombie was spun around on its heels as the weight impacted its jaw. When it swung its gruesome hungry eyes back on Eric and Fred they could see that the jaw bone had been shattered on the left side and was now hanging like a broken window shutter. The zombie completely unaware of its injury kept trying to snap its jaws in ravenous anticipation of the meal to come but its broken jaw wouldnt respond. The left side of the jaw and the creatures chin rested against the zombies neck. It had been incapacitated with the strike though it kept approaching the two men like it would tear the flesh from their bones and feast.
Eric looked at Fred, go around the other side and get the door open. Get the people outside. Fred nodded once and then started weaving through the weight racks and benches towards the back wall. While the zombies unseeing eyes followed Eric along his disjointed trek around the gym Eric seized on the chance to arm himself with a curl bar. As Eric pulled the bar into his chest he turned the bar enough to catch a glimpse of the actually weight of the bar. 25lbs, Eric felt confident that his swing could be enough to splatter the undead mans brains.
The zombie turned his attention back to Eric. The man was African American. He wore a skin tight black shirt across a broad chest of hard muscle and arms to rival a gorillas. Beside the creatures gruesome ruined jaw he could see only one injury, a large tear along the guys quad. Eric could see even from a dozen feet away the marks of teeth that had clamped down on the muscles before tearing away the flesh. The wound seeped dark blood that ran in coagulating rivers down the mans leg. Eric back up another step as the zombie lurched forward.
Eric choked up on the weight bar like a baseball player looking towards the fences as the pitch came towards the plate. He looked at the zombies shattered face and felt a pang of sadness. This man had probably not been evil, had probably been a good man, a hard worker, a good husband. Who knows what his life had been like before he had been bitten but he was now an empty shell of what he had been. A hungry monster with no greater urge than to eat, it wasnt his fault his growling stomach drove him to kill the living. The thing that had made him human was gone. Eric hoped that wherever that part of his man had gone he would understand that Eric had to kill his body. It was that or become one of the dead things.
The zombie had shambled within a few feet of Eric and with his arm cocked back for a homerun swing Eric let go of the tension in his arms. Erics aim was good and the heft of the weight bar seemed to add moment as the car moved through the air. The circular weight set at the end of the bar connected with the side of the zombies head, the force imbedded the weight halfway into the creatures skull and drove the zombie to the floor. Eric lost his grip on the bar and it went fly out of his hands. The momentum of the bar was enough to pull the round weight out of the zombies head and take with it a healthy chunk of the skull with it. The bar made a few loud clangs against the metal frames of bench press stations and weight towers before it finally came to rest. The sounds were dull and almost beyond comprehension as Eric looked at the zombie he had just killed.
Eric looked down at the zombie he had just killed and the reality of what he had done what he had been doing for the last half hour suddenly hit him like a sledgehammer to his gut. He knew in an intellectual way that the things he had been killing were no longer the people they had been when they were alive. These things were shames of the people they had once been. They didnt know happiness, or love, or sacrifice. They only had one impulse in their rotten minds now and that was to feed. Their eyes were dead and glossy, their bodies barely registered pain, they had no remorse, no self awareness and yet looking down at the zombie with his broken jaw and shattered skull as a near black blood began to ooze out of its head wound Eric could still see a trace of humanity there.
Eric would process it later. It was their appearance he thought, they still looked relatively human. He figured that would changes as hours turned into days and weeks. Their flesh would rot, their bodies would continue to degrade and eventually they would become a grey wave of nondescript bodies but today looking at the man at his feet he couldnt distance himself from the realization that this thing had been a living breathing person just a short time ago. And while Eric hadnt killed the man he had been before the zombies had gotten their teeth into him he had still killed a piece of this man.
Eric began to shake uncontrollably. He felt like he was going to shake apart, the pieces of his body and more importantly his mind were going to start shedding nuts and bolts and he would crumple into a million little mechanically pieces of the person he was, a pile of parts beyond salvage. Erics name was dull and distant in his ears like someone calling for him while he held his breath under water. He turned with eyes burned with the thousand yard stare common on the battle field at Fred who had the fingers of his left hand digging into the flesh around Erics right shoulder.
Eric quickly blinked twice and he was back in the real world, the world infested with zombies who wanted nothing more than the sate themselves on his flesh. Man are you okay? Weve got to go. Freds were more than a little anxious. Eric looked around quickly and saw a handful of people behind Fred. Three women all dressed in halter tops and yoga pants, a middle aged guy in a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. His large arms covered in quickly graying hair. And finally a skinny guy about six two in a bright red t-shirt with the gyms logo on the breast.
Yeah we have to go. Eric shook his head to through the thoughts that had been bogging him down out of his head. Like rebooting a computer Erics mind was sputtering back to life it just took a few seconds to get his wits about him again. Any of you have a big car or truck?
The three women in yoga attire and the middle aged guy all held up their hands like grade schoolers eager to answer a teachers question. The middle aged guy looked like he was pretty with it after watching some of his fellow gym nuts dying and coming back to life but the three women dressed for Pilates all looked pretty deep in shock. The guy in the gym shirt looked okay somewhere between the two groups.
Alright you, Eric pointed at the middle aged guy, you take one of the women with you in your car. And you, Eric pointed at the gym employee, you take the two others with you and drive. Only you, they look in shock so until they get better youre driving.
The two men nodded quickly and began ushering the women out of the gym. Eric caught up with Fred and they made up a rear guard as they cluster of people exited the carnage and death of the gym.
What happened to you back there man? Freds face was impassible but his eyes showed all the concern his face hid.
Just got stuck in my own thoughts Im good now, Erics voice was emotionless and hollow. Truth be told he wasnt alright but he would have to be in order to survive. Hed have to kill again, probably within the next few minutes but he didnt have to like it and he didnt want to get use to it. Zombies or not the things he killed had been human once and that was a reality that his mind could not glaze over for the sake of ease. Hey everyone, he yelled at the backs of the people he and Fred had saved from the gym. Were with a couple of cops who are filling up their car at the gas station at the other end of the block. Go over there and fill up your tanks. I dont know how far out of town theyre planning on drive but we cant have anyone breaking down in the middle of a horde of zombies. The men nodded again, they understand and had apparently accepted the grim nature of this new world. The women would get there but that wasnt going to happen this minute.
The guys climbed into their respective vehicles and fired up the engines. The middle aged man pulled out his heavy diesel truck first and cut across the street in front of the gym and turned towards the gas station. A few seconds later a white SUV driven by the man in the gym t-shirt did the same.
Eric and Fred walked back towards the gym barely twenty yards away. Eric didnt know what was on Freds mind but with the subtle glances he kept shooting back at Eric it was evident the guy was worried about Eric.
For his part Eric kept company only with his thoughts as they walked back towards the gas station. Thoughts about the nature of good and evil, right and wrong, and how fine the line between civility and savagery ripped at his conscience the whole way. Erics mind kept coming around to the same conundrum, humanity had to be saved, there was no question about that but how much of his own humanity would he have to sell to assure a future for the living?