The Rotting Flesh Book 1: Escatology

Thomas raced through the streets of his neighbourhood making noise with his bike. Sounding his horn, celebrating his victory. Now his face was going to be on billboards everywhere and he was already flooding the headlines, Diablo the motorcross demon.

Ohw wait until you hear this Tris you’ll flip he thought as he turned into his street.

His life was in order from here onwards, once someone starts racing in the International games they earn as much as those in the music industry and by the time he retires he’ll already be a millionaire. Tristan was going to be proud.

He slowed down his bike as he got to Mrs Miller’s house and stopped there. Throwing his briefcase containing 10 grand on the lawn he hopped off his bike and took out his phone. The lights were not on at his house so Tristan must have been working late. He switched on his phone and found 30 missed calls from Tris, 17 texts and 1 video message.

“What on earth” he said to himself looking confused

He opened the first of the texts, it read

{Good luck on the tournaments I know you can do it, I believe in you.}

He smiled then went on to the next text

{Man if you are reading this you finally decided to switch on your phone. I left 15 000 dollars under my mattress, take it and the car. Drive as far as possible from here}

He looked at his phone in confusion The fuck thats his course fees and savings why would I take it he though and opened the last text Tris sent

{Please Tom don’t come looking for me take the money and go}

“What Tris is this some kind of prank?” he said as he stood on Mrs Miller’s front porch. He then went on to open the video sent by Tris

[“Look little brother I don’t have much time they are almost in. Take the money under my mattress and leave this place if possible the country. Whatever happened yesterday at town square didn’t end there” Tris said and quickly glanced behind him heavily sweating and with so much fear visible in his eyes

“I’m sorry it had to end this way. I’m sorry I had to make you do this I love you Tom. Please promise me you'll survive”]

Tom watched with so much confusion not sure whether its a prank or not. His eyes slowly filled with tears as he noticed the fear in his brother’s eyes and heard the crying of the other people who were in the room. His hands shook as he held the phone, how could his life just change just like that. It was a cold night but he was sweating and unable to move a muscle hoping deep down it was a prank. He was in so much pain and confusion he was not sure whether to scream or to breakdown.

[“I know by the time you open this I’ll be gone so don’t bother looking for me. I love you” Tris concluded with tears flowing down his eyes. At that moment the doors behind him swung open and the whole room was filled with groans and screams

“Tris look out!!” someone yelled and the phone fell to the ground]

All Tom could see were feet going over the phone. A lot of screams and groans filled the room, powerless to act the boy just stared at the screen until someone stepped on the phone and the video stopped. He trembled as he stood on Mrs Wilson’s porch, he looked up at her house and noticed something odd. Her door was wide open but her car was missing, he looked up and down the block and noticed that people were leaving their homes in such a hurry.

He ran and stopped the car of Mr Jacobs one of his neighbors

“Whats going on, where are you going?” he asked shaking

“Son take your brother and go as far as possible from here” frowned Mr Jacobs

“What” he asked confused

“Eschatology has begun the dead are eating the living, good luck” said Mr Jacobs and he sped off without giving him a chance to say another word

Thomas ran to to Mrs Wilson’s house and called out to see if anyone was inside or if she was aware of the situation.

“Mrs Wilson!!” Tom yelled trying to keep his voice stable but the shock he was in made it impossible

As he called out fir her he heard glass break upstairs “Mrs Wilson” he said walking slowly upstairs “hello whose there?” he asked and there was no response

The lights upstairs were off so he had to illuminate using his phone. His heart was racing and he was excessively sweating. As he got to the door which used to belong to Theresa, Mrs Wilson’s now married daughter he heard a glass break again, this time in Mrs Wilson’s room. Tom slowed down and listened attentively. When he got to her bedroom door he slowly opened it illuminating the room. The rays of his phone came in contact with a sight that almost stopped his heart. Mrs Wilson was lying down face up and someone was kneeling by her sinking his hands into her abdomen.

His face went pale at just the sight, in a matter of seconds a powerful stench hit his nose nearly causing him to hurl. Tom instantly felt dizzy. There was so much blood on the floor. The person slowly turned and looked at him letting out a low hiss like groan. This was the final straw for the boy, he hurled everything he had eaten earlier during the day. His phone slipped from his grip and fell facing up blocking the torch, as he tried to quickly find it in the dark he heard footsteps coming towards him from Mrs Wilson’s direction. When they were almost on him he quickly pulled the door and shut it. The person slammed on the door letting out hiss like groans.

Sitting there on the floor still trying to catch his breath and desist from throwing up again he whaled covering his face

“Oh my God Tris” he said crying

He wept for a while then was brought back to reality by screams from outside

“Ah God help me” a female voice scream

“Trish oh no no Trish!!” a man yelled

Tom could hear loud thuds indicating people running. The voices eventually died down and there was silence once again. Realizing if he remained in Miss Wilson’s how any longer than this he would end up just like het he pulled himself together and got out of the house.He ran to his house, smashed the door open and took money, plenty of food and clothes then put his bike in the back of their open truck. While doing all this he kept an eye out for any danger. Thanks to the illumination of the full moon he did not need a torch to watch out for danger. Once preparations were complete he sped off in the direction of Crow bridge, which was the main bridge out of Chyna city. The closer he got the more he realized it was impossible to leave through there, countless people had tried to escape through there and it caused a traffic jam so he took a detour. He backed his car out before it was trapped and took a dust road which followed the river bank for miles before finding another bridge. A smaller one which people tended to avoid due to the high number if high jackings.

He wept as he drove through the night with his head lights flashed.

What is happening, is this some kind of nightmare? He thought as tears endlessly flowed down his cheeks.

Fixated on his thoughts he failed to notice someone crossing the road and ran over the person., he stopped and immediately turned off the ignition. Sweat immediately formed on his face

No no please no his pupils dilated

Sitting in the car trying to digest what just happened his heart beat was the only thing he could hear.As he was still debating with himself on what course of action to take a girl slamming against his window crying with blood allover her face and chest jolted him out of his trance nearly hiving him a stroke from the shock.

“Help me please” she cried as she kept taking quick glances behind her

Tom froze staring at her, she begged for him to let her in but it was like everything was on slow motion for him.

“Hey!!” she yelled

He finally snapped out of it and signaled for her to come to the passenger seat. Once she was in he locked the doors,started the ignition and accelerated forward

“Thank you, thank you so much” she said with a trembling voice.

The amount of blood she had allover her made it hard to tell if it was hers or someone else’s. He kept looking at her hoping she was not one of them. The longer they stayed silent the more he regretted picking her up so to clear things up he started a conversation

“Whats going on?” he asked trying to keep his voice normal “what did I hit” he added worried

“It, it” she said trembling struggling to speak

Realizing the trauma she might be in he spoke calmly even though deep down his emotions were at war

“Okay take it easy, one word at a time, I’m Tom” he said

“I’m Theresa” she replied still pale making it clear that she had been through hell

“How old are you Therry? Can I call you that ” he asked praying deep down that she was not a miner

“Fifteen” she replied

Shit she’s a minor

“Okay who was that I hit back there?” he asked

“My my dad” she said and wept even more

Damnit Thomas of all the questions you had to ask this particular one? He mocked himself

“Ohw I’m I’m” he stammered

“Its okay, you saved my life” she relieved him of the pressure of apologizing

“So where um I mean was” he struggled to choose his words wisely

“Yes he had turned into one of those things, Whats going on Tom?” she asked with a blue expression

“Well umm I’m still trying to get a grip of the whole situation” he spoke honestly “I I I Umm”

“People are coming back to life and eating the living” she said and began sobbing again

Hearing this gave Tom a chill down his spine, how was that even possible?

“They are eating people” she said

“Oh God?” he mumbled “this can’t be real” he added

“I thought the same thing myself but when half of the people who we thought died due to animal attacks came back to life at the hospital my dad worked at I believed it” she said

“You got to be joking” he commented “then how did you get here?” he asked

“I escaped with my dad when the incident occurred.He had already been bitten by one of them. We drove and he parked about a mile from where you found me saying he wanted to rest for a bit so I also fell asleep unaware that he was going to turn into one of them.” she stopped and fought her tears “th then when I woke up he was different with this hoarse groan and very pale skin, his eyes were white like like”

“Like those of a blind person” Tom remembered a glimpse of what the man devouring Miss Wilson’s intestines looked like

“Yes exactly you too have encountered them haven’t you” she said

“Unfortunately yes” he sighed

“So he trying to reach out for me, if it wasn’t for the seatbelt that he had on before we slept it would have been bad. I got out of the car and he managed to free himself and come after me. Nomatter how fast i ran or how many rocks i threw at him he kept coming and when I thought all was lost that’s when you ran him over” she concluded

My God, a child as young as this should not have to go through such events he thought

“Ohw I’m really sorry?” Tom tried to comfort her “the blood, is it yours?” he finally asked

“No it belongs to the nurses who were attacked at the hospital and my dad” she replied

“Weren’t you bitten too”

“No if I had i should have turned by now, looking at how long it took my dad to turn, it takes about……..” she paused to calculate “……..two to three hours” she clarified making Tom feel at ease

“Okay okay, just checking if you okay, thats all” he lied

“Whats your story ?” she asked

“I’d rather not talk about it” he replied and there was silence in the car