The Demented: Confliction

  The Demented: Confliction

  A novella by Derek J Thomas

  Version 1.1

  Copyright © 2014 Derek J Thomas

  All Rights Reserved. The Demented: Confliction is an original work of fiction. All characters and concepts are solely owned by Derek Thomas. Names, characters, places, concepts, and events are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to events or actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  A huge thanks to my friend Brad. You inspired me to start and continually suffer through my ramblings to keep me going.

  Chapter 1: Zero Day

  Jake Turner had no idea that he would be dead in less than twenty four hours. Neither did the rest of the city.

  It was early, well before Jake usually got up, but today was different. He finally had a lead on a job. It had been over a year since he had obtained his degree in Computer Science. Had he known before he went to college that everyone and their brother was getting CS degrees he would have went for something else. Thanks a lot high school counselor.

  Like the average bachelor pad, a mountain of laundry was piled on the couch. Black gaming controllers were scattered across the magazine laden coffee table. The walls were blank other than a Mickey Mouse clock and a poster advertising the 1980s movie “The Thing.” The faint odor of unwashed dishes and rotting garbage lingered in the air.

  His roommate, Brent, yelled from the back room, “What are you doing man? It’s way too early.”

  “I have an interview downtown in a couple hours.”

  “They won’t hire you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Well hold it down, my head is pounding.”

  “Take a couple aspirin.”

  Jake knew he had barely made a sound since he got up and took a shower. He now stood in front of the bathroom mirror and looked over the suit he had found at the local thrift shop. It seemed like overkill for an entry level tech job, but he was sick of getting rejected and wanted to mix things up. The suit was a little too small. He held his arms straight out toward the mirror, revealing several inches of white shirt. After a few tries at relaxing his shoulders and tugging at the sleeves he gave up, coming to the realization that he should not have bought the first suit he found just because it was only fifteen bucks.

  “You look like an ignoranus.” Brent said as he staggered past the open bathroom door.

  Jake dropped his arms. “That’s not a real word.”

  “Whatever.”

  There was a loud banging at the front door.

  “Stop it!” Brent yelled from the kitchen.

  Jake was a bit surprised by the rage in his voice. Brent was usually a fairly laid back guy. He took one final look in the mirror and shouted, “I got it.”

  Before Jake could get to the door it flew open and a man and a woman came barging into the living room.

  “What’s up girls?” The man, wearing a white Portland Trailblazers jersey, said. Not waiting for a response he stepped over to the couch and shoved the mound of laundry to one side, spilling items to the floor.

  “Ahhh, come on Nate, those are clean.” Jake said.

  Nate looked up at Jake and said, “What are you, a vacuum salesman?”

  Jake hesitated briefly, not getting the jab for a second. “Business people wear suits, and it’s for a job interview.

  “What? Abby and I came over to hang out…play some video games.” He looked up at Abby and then back over at Jake. “You won’t get the job anyway.”

  “Thanks, not sure why I call any of you friends. He looked over at Abby. “Except you Abby. How’s your mom…still up at the hospital?”

  “You’re so sweet. She’s still struggling, but she has a lot of fight left. They moved her up to Harborview in Seattle.”

  Jake was about to respond when a loud groan from the kitchen caused all of them to turn.

  “You keeping a bear in there?” Nate said with a confused look on his face.

  “Brent…he’s super grumpy.” Jake took a step toward the kitchen. “You okay Brent?”

  Nate Shouted, “Hey Brent, you wanna play some Xbox with Abby and I?” When there was no response he turned back around on the couch, patted the cushion next to him, and said, “Abby, come play with me.”

  “You better be talking Xbox.” Abby responded with a smile. She bounced across the room and plopped down next to Nate, grabbing a controller off the coffee table in the process. She looked up at Jake and said, “When’s your interview?”

  “Not for about an…” Jake started to respond, but was cut short by a loud growl from the kitchen followed by dishes shattering on the floor.

  Jake ran for the kitchen. “Holy crap, you okay?”

  Abby sat wide-eyed, looking over at Nate. She slowly mouthed, “O.M.G.”

  Both of them silently wondered if they should go help, quickly leave, or just sit it out. Jake screamed from the kitchen. Nate hopped off the couch and turned toward the sounds. Instinct told Abby something was wrong. She dropped the gaming controller and stood.

  The blare of a car alarm filtered in from somewhere outside.

  There was a loud grunt followed by a deep thud from the kitchen.

  Abby raced into the kitchen and stepped into a scene that seemed from another world. Brent lay on the floor in a growing pool of blood. Jake stood over him, holding a marble rolling pin in one hand. Blood splattered his gray suit. Nate stood off to the side, looking back and forth between Brent’s body and Jake. His mouth hung open, unable to get a word out.

  Abby said, “What did you do?”

  Jake looked down at the rolling pin in his hand, a confused look crossing his face. He quickly dropped the pin like it was a venomous snake. “He was going crazy…rushed at me…I…I freaked out. He’s okay…right?”

  Abby started to say something, but stopped when a scream cut through the walls from out in the apartment building hallway. The three of them turned toward the living room. The car alarm continued to blare outside.

  “Nate, call 911.” Abby said. She hunched down next to Brent and checked his neck for a pulse. He was gone. Blood oozed out of a brutal wound in his temple. Part of his skull was crushed in, revealing the gruesome parts of a head that should never be seen. His eyes were puffy, swollen, and circled by deep red flesh.

  Jake looked down, stress covering his face. “Okay?”

  Abby knew he was in shock. She looked up and shook her head.

  “Schiznits! You guys gotta see this.” Nate shouted from the living room.

  Abby’s heart pounded in her chest. What is going on? She stood and followed Jake out into the living room. Nate held the white curtains back from the window and was peering down below. Abby and Jake tucked in next to him to see what he was looking at.

  The street below was filled with chaos. A blue delivery van had crashed head on into a compact car, sending the smaller car spinning onto the sidewalk. The car knocked a fire hydrant loose, water gushing from the exposed hole. The rear of the car had slammed into a minivan, the source of the blaring alarm. The van’s driver side door hung wide open, the seat empty. To the side of the vehicles was a mass of people. They were struggling with one another, but packed into such a ball of arms and legs that it was impossible to distinguish any individuals.

  The three of them stood watching in stunned silence for several seconds. Abby was the first to speak. “Somebody turn the TV on. I’m going to lock the door.” At the front door she slammed the deadbolt into place and stood listening at the door. Through the wood she could hear the sounds of a scuffle and shouting. The sudden blare of the TV drowned out the noises.

  Both Nate and Jake stood in front of the TV. Jake had a remote pointed
at the TV and was rapidly flipping through the channels. He stopped when he came to a news station. The three of them stood watching the anchors warning people to stay inside and lock their doors. A ticker scrolled across the top of the screen that read, “…911 immediately and do not approach them. Urgent! If you or anyone you know has received a flu shot within the past year call 911 immediately and do not approach them. Urgent! If you or…”

  All at once the three of them took a step away from each other, fear crossing their faces.

  Nate was the first to say it, “Either of you get the shot?”

  Jake shook his head, “No way, I never put those toxins in my body.”

  “Toxins?” Abby said while shaking her head. She almost laughed. “I never got mine.” She pointed back toward the kitchen. “What about Brent? Anyone know if he got one?”

  Both Nate and Jake just shook their heads, unsure.

  A loud shriek came from the TV, causing the three of them to turn back around. The male news anchor was standing behind the desk shouting. He began flinging the papers on the desk to the floor. The female anchor remained in her chair, but tried reeling away from the man. Abby gasped when the man suddenly turned and lunged at the female. His arms grabbed her by the head, while his bared teeth went for her neck. His weight and momentum caused her chair to tip over backward. Only their legs were visible at the edge of the TV screen.

  “What the…” Nate began to say, leaving the rest unsaid.

  “This is all a hoax…has to be.” Jake said.

  Nate pointed toward the kitchen. “Yeah, tell that to Brent.”

  Abby began heading to the kitchen. “What do you have for weapons?” She shouted over her shoulder.

  “Weapons? I…I don’t have anything like that.” Jake responded.

  Nate ran over to the window. He looked down below and saw that the mass of fighting people was gone, only a pair of bodies remained. They were covered in blood and gore, making it impossible to even tell if they were male or female. He saw movement further down the street. It was a young man, wearing only a pair of boxer shorts, rushing between parked cars. Boxer kept looking back as he sprinted toward the fountain of water from the broken hydrant. Rushing behind him were nearly a dozen people. They were quickly eating up the distance, rapidly gaining on Boxer like wolves on the hunt. Their movements were awkward but they were still incredibly fast. Nate felt like yelling out the window to him, but he had no idea what he would say.

  Abby was banging around in the kitchen. She hollered something, but he was too focused on the street to understand what she said.

  “There’s someone in the hall.” Jake yelled from behind Nate.

  Abby came racing out of the kitchen with some large knives in hand. “Take one.” She said to Nate.

  He grabbed an eight inch kitchen knife and turned back to the window. Boxer was just running out of view with the group of infected right behind him, leaving the street below deserted. Screams and the distant sounds of gunfire reminded everyone that the city was far from normal.

  Nate finally realized Abby had handed him a knife. “What’d you give me a knife for? You know I have some guns at my place.”

  “Your place is three blocks away.” Abby snapped back.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. We can’t leave here. We’re safe inside the apartment.” Jake said.

  As if to pound his point home, loud banging started up in the hall followed by a shrill scream.

  They all stood motionless for a moment. Abby was the first to speak. “Let’s barricade the door and hunker down until we know what is going on.”

  Jake rapidly nodded his head, relief washing over his face.

  “Get the couch over in front of the door. I’m going to try to find some news.” Abby said while moving over to the recliner. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and tried dialing her dad, but only got a message stating, “All lines are currently busy, please hang up and try again later.” She pulled up Safari to see if she could get to her favorite news site. While it sat spinning she looked back over to the TV.

  The scene on the TV had changed little. Part of the female news anchor’s legs was visible at the edge of the screen. The same ticker continued to loop across the top of the screen. Abby glanced down at her phone only to see it still trying to connect. She looked back up and began flipping through the channels. Unable to find any stations that had “live” people, she flicked it back to one of the 24/7 news stations that had an empty desk and left it there. Her phone finally had the news site pulled up and splashed across the top, in typical media fashion, was red text that stated, “The Apocalypse?” The image below the text was of a street filled with wrecked and burning cars. Amongst the wreckage were dozens of people frozen in violence. On a normal day it could have been a photograph from any of the dozens of countries that were always in turmoil. At a glance it was like the typical rebel uprising, however a closer look showed there were no police, no government officials, and no army, just civilian chaos.

  Nate shouted from the kitchen, “If we’re hanging here, I am not leaving that here.”

  Abby and Jake knew exactly what “that” was.

  She tapped on the link to get the full story and when her phone sat spinning again, she got up and headed for the kitchen. Jake had already joined Nate, and they both now stood staring down at Brent’s bloody body.

  “The back bathroom. Let’s lay him in the tub.” Jake said.

  “Ahhh man, this is wrong on so many levels.” Nate replied.

  Chapter 2: Fall

  The three of them spent the entire day trying to find any information they could on the internet, while wishing they could ignore the screams that trickled in from outside. They found bits and pieces of information, much of it conflicting. There were a few consistent parts and it could be summed in one short sentence. Something in the flu shot was causing people to go crazy with rage, their hatred so consuming that they could do nothing but attack. Everyone was calling them either the infected or the demented, neither of which fully described the crazy, rage filled monsters. By the time dark hit they were no longer finding any new information and no sites were posting updates.

  The night was filled with the sounds of sporadic gunfire, screams, growls, and occasional explosions. They were the sounds of the city being torn apart. They all wondered what they would wake up to, and the sounds at the bathroom door were not on any of their lists.

  They all stood in the narrow hallway that led to the back bathroom, squeezing together several feet back from the door. The slow, methodical bang continued from behind the thin door. With each pound at the door Jake flinched instinctively.

  “He was dead right?” Nate whispered.

  “I checked his pulse.” Abby replied.

  “His skull was bashed in.” Jake said. “What do we do?”

  “Leave him. Ain’t no way I’m opening that door.” Nate said.

  The pounding suddenly stopped and was replaced by a strange grunting noise. It was loud, almost like a dog’s bark.

  “What the hell is that?” Nate whispered.

  Abby opened her mouth to respond, but before she could get a word out something slammed into the front door, causing all of them to jump. It began banging at the door. Rapid, relentless pounding.

  Jake began to panic. “What is that? Now what are we going to do? I don’t want…”

  Abby cut him off. “The couch will hold. We have time to figure this out.”

  She left the narrow hallway and moved back into the living room. One glance at the door told her that they didn’t have much time. The thin paneling was bulging inward with each thunderous boom. She rushed over to the window and peered down at the street below. Water no longer gushed from the hydrant. Either someone had shut down the system or the huge tanks had run dry. Several more bodies littered the street and sidewalks. What was left of an SUV laid on its side near the far end of the block, its charred hulk still smoking. She didn’t see any movement, just the aftermath of the nigh
t.

  From behind her Nate said, “They’re about to break through the door.”

  “We have to go out the window.” Abby shouted loud enough to be heard over the pounding at both doors.

  “That’s twenty-five feet.” Jake said.

  “Those bushes will slow our fall and if we hang by the ledge it’s…”

  The door splintered inwards, a huge chunk of wood breaking loose. Through the gap they could see a blue shirt, stained with blood and grime. An arm reached in through the opening, and then a head. It was a middle aged bearded man. His face was split open from ear to chin, dark red blood oozed out of the vicious wound. The gap was too narrow for Scarface’s other shoulder and arm to fit through so he remained wedged partway through the door, his one arm reaching out for the three of them. Hate filled his red rimmed eyes. He must have had a buddy because the door continued to get pounded on from the outside, continuing to increase the size of the hole.

  “Either we stand and fight or we go out the window.” Abby said. She had been doing rigorous workouts at the local crossfit gym for several years now, as well as training to give the Ninja Warrior competitions a try. With this and her light frame, she knew she could make the drop. It was the other two she was worried about. “We make the streets, we can run for it and maybe get some weapons.”

  Jake was terrified of heights, but didn’t want to show it. “I say we fight.”

  Knife held up in front of him, Nate said, “Are you serious…I can’t fight with one of these. Let’s go get some guns.”

  Scarface was getting enough room to begin inching his way through the gap in the door. Abby knew what her decision was and this just got her moving. She pulled the latch on the window and slid it out of the way. She kicked out the flimsy screen. One leg at a time she crawled out of the window and lowered herself until she was hanging fully extended. She took a quick peek below and was a bit shocked to see how far down it looked. Already committed she let go.

  What surprised her most was how long it seemed to take to fall. It felt like she had several minutes to contemplate if this was the right choice or not, and then another minute or so to wish she had stayed up in the apartment. At least if I break my legs Nate and Jake will know not to jump.