Chapter 3 written by same friend.
Twenty-Nine Murders, Eleven Manslaughters, Over One Hunder Assaults
And Plenty Of Crazy People
As told by John Gemperline
I put the phone down and immediately began looking for my mom.
"MOM!!!" I shouted out.
"I'M IN THE BATHROOM. CAN YOU WAIT?" she yelled from upstairs.
I ran up the stairs to the bathroom. I stood next to the closed door
so I didn't have to yell.
"I'm going over to Joe's house, something's going on." I said.
"Absolutely not. You haven't practiced cello, you haven't washed any
of the windows, and you haven't fed Chester." she told me sternly
through the door.
"Look, Joe's really spooked, he and some of his friends saw these
messed up looking people at the hospital. I'll try not to take long."
not even caring what my mom said I rushed downstairs and into my room.
I grabbed my keys and then ran out the kitchen door. I was speeding
off towards Joe's house on my bike in a matter of seconds. I didn't
have my liscense and my mom wasn't about to drive me. The way to his
house was simple, go to fourth street, turn right and go straight
until I get there. As I was going through downtown, a police car
rushed in front of me with its siren and lights on with an ambulance
right behind it. Iwaited for them to pass and continued down fourth
street. After another minute or two I was riding into his lawn. I
took my bike and locked it up under his raised porch. I walked up to
the front door and knocked.
"WHO IS IT!? YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS!!" that was Joe's dad.
"It's John, why?" I responded.
The door opened and I saw a shot gun aimed for my face. My jaw
dropped and I froze. Mr. Harrington dropped the gun.
"Sorry, if it hadn't been you..."
"Joe wasn't joking on the phone was he?" I asked now completely baffled.
"Hell no he wasn't, he's right back there." Mr. Harrington said as
he pointed towards the dining room.
"John!" Joe called out as he caught sight of me.
I walked into the dining room and saw Haley and Jennifer sitting at
the table. Jennifer had a large bandage on her shoulder, but it
didn't entirely cover a disgusting purpleish brown patch of color on
her skin.
"What on Earth is going on?" was my first question.
"Some ****ing ***** bit me!! Now I feel like complete ****. It must
be infected with something because it looks like ****." Jennifer said
bitterly.
"I have no idea but I'll tell you what happened." Joe said.
He went back over the encounter at Piggly Wiggly just to make sure I
knew. Then he told me about the woman who attacked Jennifer.
Jennifer and Haley both put in their own comments as well. Most of it
centered around the grousome appearence of the woman. Then they told
me about the hospital. I was in disbelief, but every time I said so,
Jennifer pointed towards her bandage. After they had finished, Joe's
dad told us what had happened with him at the hospital. He'd managed
to get away unscathed by the demented people. I stayed for a while
and talked with them, trying to offer any comfort, espescailly for
Jennifer. I looked at the clock, it was already six. I'd done what I
could to lighten the mood, but Jennifer's wound was killing her, which
was starting to make Haley sob a little.
I stood up and looked at them, "Well, I gotta get home for dinner.
You and Haley should probably call home and tell them what's going on.
I'm sure that woman is gone now."
"Oh God, Mom and Dad are gonna freak out so much when they see this."
Jennifer said half crying.
I walked up to the front door and saw Mr. Harrington still there with
his shot gun.
"Where are you going?" he asked me.
"I gotta go home."
"You're going outside?"
"Yeah."
"You sure?"
"Yeah..."
"All right it's dangerous out there, be very very careful. Don't
come back here begging to come in, 'cause I won't let you." Mr.
Harrington instructed me.
"I will."
He unlocked the front door and permitted me to pass. I went down and
unlocked my bike. Now I was really scared. I almost slapped myself
for leaving. I wanted to be back inside. Not their house, just
anywhere. I quickly hopped on my bike and high-taled it for home. On
the way back I heard more sirens in the distance. Not just from one
direction either. I peddled harder and harder as I flew through
downtown. In several moments I was passed downtown and in the college
slums. I'd pushed myself really hard and took it easy for a moment.
As I cruised along the sidewalk, I smelled something. It had the
smell of rot and filth, like a two day old dog carcass with maggots
crawling in it. I heard gut wrenching screams from inside a house. I
didn't even want to know. Adrenaline shot through my body and I
started peddling faster and faster. The screams sounded again and
again. By now I didn't know if they were real or if I was just going
insane. I saw rotary rapidly approaching ahead of me. I careened
down the side walk peddling as fast as I could towards the turn.
Then, when I was only a few meters away from Rotary street, a stooping
figure loomed onto the sidewalk in front of me. I didn't even have
time to scream before I crashed into it going full speed. I flew off
of my bike over the handle bars. I tumbled on the pavement and
finally came to a stop. I looked at the person I had knocked over.
It was a man, probably in college. His white shirt had blood staining
it. A deep moan came from him. Then his head turned towards me.
"JESUS ****ING CHRIST YOU LITTLE ***GOT!!!! WATCH WHERE THE ****
YOU'RE GOING WITH THAT ****!!!" he screamed at me.
I got up, still shaking from the scare and the fall, I seemed to be
all right with the exception of a few scrapes. I let out a sigh of
relief as the man got in my face and yelled at me. His nose was
bleeding all over his shirt which made it slightly uncomfortable.
"Holy ****! I am so sorry, I was going really really fast and I
didn't have time to stop or swerve when I saw you." I said extremely
apologetically.
"**** kid! Be more careful!! Jesus!!"
"Are you all right?"
"Well, you ****ed my nose up real nice. I think I'll be ok. Look
man, I'm sorry for screamin' at ya' like that, you just scared the
living **** outta me." the guy said to me.
"Good God, I scared you? Man, you have NO idea how ****ing freaked I
was. I'm, it's just... there's been some weird **** going on. I
mean, really ****ed up ****."
"You've seen one of those freaks too?" the guy asked unbelievingly.
"No, my friend has. His girlfriend's sister got bitten by one of
those crazy poeple. But, when you walked out on the sidewalk, I
thought you might be one of them."
"Yeah, I was driving through campus and some crazy ****er starts
groaning and everything, so I rolled down the window to see if he
needed help. That ass started tryin' to grab at me through the window
so I got the hell outta there. Man, that person didn't look right
either, his skin was all greyish. He smelled like a damn garbage dump
too."
"Man, I'm really sorry about that though. My house is right down the
street, so I guess I'll get going."
"All right man, don't run into anyone else, hehe." he said with a laugh.
I grabbed my bike and inspected it while the college student walked
off. It wasn't in good shape so I walked it home. I laughed my ass
off the whole way.
I woke up refreshed and relaxed the next day. The incidents from
yesterday seemed to fade away. I fealt relieved as I fealt my worries
leave me. I didn't even mind my mom yelling at me to get up and get
going with my chores. For probably the first time, I actually got
started on my chores. They day went by rather wuickly and
uneventfully. I thanked God it went that way. The last thing I
wanted was to hear about those things again. After all, I hadn't even
seen them and they might just be some big hoax. But Joe had been my
friend for thirteen years, he wouldn't lie like this. Then there was
the bite... I shook my head and went back to my chores. I finished
cleaning several windows and got my cello practice out of the way by
four. As I was walking through the kitchen, I took a glance at the
calendar. It was Tuesday. That's right! Power hour was tonight, a
weekly get together my Catholic youth group held at seven thirty. It
was always a relief to be there. We prayed, sang, and discussed the
week and its troubles and how to live a life in God. There was never
a moment when I wasn't proud of being a Catholic.
I spent the next hour or so watching tv. There was nothing good on
but I didn't care too much, I needed time to just unwind and relax.
Before I realized it, it was six o'clock. My mom had dinner ready and
called me and my older brother Jimmy. We ate as my mom pestered us
about something we should've cared about but didn't. I don't even
remember what it was. Me and my brother always got to power hour
early so we could hang out with our friends. We were out the door at
seven. Jimmy jumped in the driver's seat of his honda civic and we
were off.
"So what the hell is going on with Joe?" he asked me.
"Oh God, I have no idea. Some crazy person attacked his girlfriend's
sister. And his dad saw some loons escaping the hospital. Joe,
Haley, and Jennifer went there because the bite was looking really
odd. They said they saw some people with blood all over their
hospital gowns and ****."
"Looks like the malpractice suits finally got to them." Jim remarked.
"Hehe, riigght Jimmy..."
"But dude, the news has been reporting multiple homicides. They keep
saying some notorious criminal got loose." he told me.
"There's more than one, 'cause joe saw three of those weird people at
the hospital. The news must have their information wrong."
"Or maybe the news isn't telling everything." Jimmy said suspiscously.
"Oh come on, the government isn't censoring them." I said.
"Well, let's look at the situation, some crazy people are running
around biting and attacking people. How often does that happen?"
"I'm sure there are plenty of crazy people." I said, getting annoyed
with his far fetched ideas.
"Sure, but in one area? What if something really bad is happening
and the news doesn't want to say anything because it'll cause massive
panic."
"Oh shut up with your conspiracy theories."
We arrived at the youth house, the meating place for power hour. I
got out and walked up to the door. I tried to open it, but it had
been locked. Then I heard a voice from inside...
"Will unlock the door!"
The door opened and sure enough, Will Evans, the crazy little short
guy that was always ****ing around, was standing in front of the door.
He chuckled a little and walked off to get a drink. A lot of people
were already here. Will's mom, the college students that helped out
like Hania and Patrick. Aaron Lucas and William Hopkins were in the
corny laughing about something. Elizabeth Davis, Nicole, and Adrianne
were also in the youth house. I walked over to Aaron and Will Hopkins
and took a seat. Aaron was combing his fro while Hopkins told him
another one of his rediculously hilarious stories from cadet summer
camp. Hopkins (I usually called him by his last name) was in JROTC
and and had just gotten back from wanna be boot camp. He always had
some funny idiotic story for everyone at power hour. Aaron was half
white and half black so he made fun of himself along with us. Hopkins
was my age, but Aaron was a year younger. I looked over to Elizabeth
who was also my age. She didn't look happy at all.
"Is something wrong Elizabeth?" I asked her sincerly.
"When a gross deformed person attacks your car something is probably wrong."
"Oh ****, you saw one of those people too?" I said regretting asking
her what was wrong.
"What do you mean one of those people?" she asked sounding more scared.
"Joe had his own little run in with them. He saw three of them at
the hospital. When did you get attacked?"
I noticed the room had gotten quieter as people listened in on the
conversation.
"Yesterday. Me and my dad were going out to the car and this messed
up person started chasing after us. We jumped in the car and it tried
to break in. We drove off and called home on my cell phone and told
them about the person outside."
Most everyone was now looking at her in disbelief. A few people
asked her what the person looked like what else happened, if they
called the police(yes) and so on.
Hopkins, who was next to me, thought for a moment then spoke, "Wait a
minute, I think I know what you're talking about. I was driving over
here and some crazy guy stared coming after my car. He stuck his arms
out and started moaning. I thought he was about to start foaming at
the mouth or something."
"What did he look like?" Elizabeth asked him.
"He looked like a zombie or something, espescially the way he stuck
his arms out." Hopkins said as a few people chuckled at the comment.
"Shut up Hopkins, zombies aren't real, dummy." Will Evans said in
his usual degrading way.
"No I'm serious, I thought I was in the movie resident evil or
something. That guy scared the shi... I mean crap out of me." Hopkins
said, now getting a little defensive.
Then Jim, one of the leaders(not to be confused with my brother
Jimmy) burst in the door. He was a news reported so he always had
good stories for power hour. He was quite tall and had the look of a
genuine reporter.
"Boy have I got some great stories for you guys!" he half shouted,
sounding rather sarcastic.
Patrick, one of thee college students, picked up his guitar, an
indication that we were about to start.
"What are you talking about Jim?" Adrianne inquired.
"I'll tell you in a bit." he responded.
Trick(our nickname for Patrick) started strumming some cords on his
guitar and all of us joined in and began to sing. We sang about three
songs before it got quiet again. We said aquick prayer then got
started with the highs and lows of the weak.
"I'll go first," Jim said quickly.
"Got another sexy story for us?" Aaron asked, it was an inside joke.
"No, but I have plent of unearthly, demented, and gruesome ones." Jim
said flatly.
He had our attention instantly.
"Well, this past weekend and Monday, since there weren't enough
reporters, I got to cover two murders and five assaults," he said
sounding somewhat disgruntled himself, "And by not enough reporters, I
mean, not enough to cover the twenty-nine homicides, eleven
manslaughters, and over one hundred assaults there have been. Not to
mention the strangely high number of insane people that are infected
with rabies or whatever roaming around. Since there have been so many
reports, police have been called in from neighboring counties.
They're having a really hard time getting anything done because of the
sheer number of reports."
Everyone froze with their jaws dropped. That number was ridiculous.
That was impossible. There was no way all this was happening. Not in
Greenville.
"You're kidding!?" Trick said unbelievingly.
"God I wish I was. You know, whenever I get a murder case, it always
hits home. I always get some lesson out of life or something. Now,
there have been almost thirty murders, most of them involving
cannibalism. I had to specifically request not to be asked to cover
these cases anymore because each one involves some gruesome attack.
So has just about every one else at the news center. Since everyone
is requesting not to have to report these cases, we all still have
to." he said, sounding angry as the words came out.
"Oh my God, I thought I had it bad when that man attacked our car."
Elizabeth said, not seeming so uptight about the incident anymore.
The small room exploded into conversation. Everyone started asking
eachother about it. Anyone who had seen them was being drilled as to
their looks, where they saw them, when, what happened, and so on. The
noise was almost loud enough to drown out the bump on the door.
Everyone got quiet for a moment. Then, a deep horrific moan came from
outside. Something was bumping and scratching at the door.
"What the hell!?" Jim yelled out as the noises from outside continued.
"Open the door." Trick said.
"HELL NO! NO ONE OPEN THAT DOOR!!" Jim shouted, "I'm not about to
let another attack happen here at power hour. Everyone back away from
the door."
Everyone immediately jumped back from the door. Then everyone
crowded around the windows to see who was there.
Then Hopkins shouted out, "Holy ****! That's the guy that started
chasing my car!"
"All right, I'm gonna open the door just a little bit. Someone get
behind the door to help me close it if I need to." Jim ordered.
Aaron and Trick both got behind the door and braced for whatever was
going to happen.
"I'm just going to ask him if he needs any help, if I yell, slam the
door shut." he told Trick and Aaron.
They nodded in agreement. Jim turned the handle and cracked it open
the slightest bit. Before Jim could say anything, the person began
scrambling madly to get inside. He started snarling and groaning as
he clawed through the crack of the door. Just about everyone screamed
or let out some vulgarity at the shock.
"HELP ME CLOSE THE DOOR DAMMIT!!!" Jim bellowed at Aaron and Trick.
Immediately, they started pushing and shoving against the demented
person. His arms got lodged between the door and the wall, but he
didn't withdrawn them. His hands continued to wriggle around, trying
to find something to grab onto. All the while he continued to make
ungodly sounds that scared even Hopkins into the corner.
"HOLD THE DOOR!!" Jim shouted to Aaron and trick.
He jumped from behind the door where he'd been pushing and started
shoving the mans hands out the door. After a few moments he managed
to shove it's arms out and the door slammed shut. Aaron turned the
lock right after it closed. Jim backed away holding his right arm.
His sleeve was torn and soaking in blood. Everyone who wasn't scared
stiff immediately started asking him if he was all right. He
responded simply that he was ok and went into the bathroom to wash his
arm off. Elizabeth was on one of the couches crying, while Adrianne
put her arm around her to offer some comfort. Nicole was perfectly
still except for a severe shaking. I stood there like a statue. I
couldn't believe what had happened. The monster was now banging
furiously on the door, groaning and snarling in its horrible fassion.
Then my brother Jimmy gave a startled shout.
"There's another!!" the words kind of fumbled out of his mouth.
I looked out the window. There, under the darkening sky, another
figure loomed towards the youth house. It slowly made it's way into
the yard. There, in the yard lights, I saw it's face. What was left
of it. One eye was missing and the flesh was torn from it's bottom
jaw up to the forhead. It's left arm was practically only the bone.
All the flesh had been scraped off. All tha remained of it's shirt
were tattered rags, exposing chunks where flesh had been cut out. It
looked at me through the window and approached. Everyone else backed
away, but I stood there, frozen. It got to the window. All of the
sudden it's arms smashed through and shattered the bottom panes. I
jumped back and nearly pissed myself. It groped for us but was unable
to reach anyone. The house was high enough that it couldn't quite
make it through the window.
"That thing shouldn't be alive. That thing shouldn't be alive..."
Will Evans kept repeating.
Then Hopkins' words struck me... He looked like a zombie... a zombie.
Now I understood fully. We were face to face with the undead.
True story
