“Working Title – He Didn’t Need That Arm Anyway”

Jake’s eyes had trouble adjusting to the darkness of the apartment.  As soon as he had stepped completely into the apartment a sudden and violent force coming from the apartment’s small kitchen, struck him and lifted him off of the ground.  An arm was suddenly under Jake’s chin, and he felt the thud his body made as he struck the wall just in front of the still open door.  Although Jake was seeing stars, he managed to swing his entire body and thrust his left arm in between his throat and his attackers arm.   Jake’s right hand was trapped between his own body and his attacker’s body.  The attacker dropped his arm, and Jake slid his left arm over and delivered a palm strike to the man’s face.  As the man’s head bobbed back Jake felt the attacker squeeze the flesh and clothing at his chest.  Suddenly, Jake was being thrown to the ground.

“Shit man, I thought you was a zombie.”  The voice was instantly recognized by Jake as belonging to Chuck D.  “Help me get this shut!”

As Chuck slammed the door shut, Jake began to pull the nearby couch over to the door.  It was at this point that Jake noticed the apartment no longer had the smell of stale cigarettes.  The smell of Iron and a strange medicine like smell hung in the hair.

“You know some shit about first aid, right Jake?”

“I know a little, why?” Jake stated, puzzled.

“I cut off my arm.”

“What?” Jake stated, more puzzled than before.

“I fucking cut off my arm, man.”

As Jake walked towards Chuck, who was leaning over the kitchen counter, a few small unscented candles illuminated what remained of Chuck’s arm.  The entire counter was covered with small bits of flesh, and blood stained rags.  Several bloody bottles of rubbing alcohol were placed haphazardly by the sink, where the missing portion of Chuck’s arm was located.

“I was going to the Queen, everybody else was already there…Autumn included.  They had that place barricaded up real nice.  It’s stocked with food and beer.  Everything you would need for the end of the world, man.  I didn’t even make it to my truck before some lady bit me.  I ran back in here, and I wrapped a tourniquet on it.  Then I just cut, and kept cutting.  It felt like shoving my arm into boiling metal, man.  It hurt so bad.  So, about half way through I used some anesthetic.”  Chuck explained quickly, but very calmly.

“What kind of anesthetic did you use?  You need real medical attention, man.”

“I smoked some crack.  I’m surprised you aren’t high off the fumes.  There aren’t really a lot of doctors working at the hospital these days, genius,” Chuck was somewhat agitated by Jake’s question. “Can you just make sure I don’t die of infection?”

“Do you have gas burners or electric?”

“Electric, why?” asked Chuck.

“Shit, go grab clean towels,” Jake didn’t bother to answer Chuck’s question. “We have to dress the wound better, you can’t stay here.  I stirred up a lot of them outside, and this couch isn’t going to stop anything.  If we get back to my place I might be able to do more.”

As Chuck went to find towels, Jake peered through the small kitchen window.  Several of the undead were shambling up the stairway.  They seemed to have a lot of trouble maneuvering over the corpse on the stairs.

“Do you have rope, Chuck?” Jake yelled over his shoulder.  “We can’t go out the front door, and that’s a big fall out your back window.”

“Here’s the towels.  No, I don’t have anything up here.  We will have to jump.”

Jake quickly covered Chuck’s stump with a towel and tied it off tightly with a t-shirt.  Chuck’s original tourniquet seemed to be doing a sufficient job of keeping the blood flow restricted.

“That’ll have to work, for now.  Are you sure you can make it?   It’s like five miles back to my house.”  Jake wasn’t only worried about Chuck.  He was also worried about himself.  He would now have two injured in his party, and didn’t like the odds if things got tense.

“Jake I know this doesn’t sit well with you, but I’m too high to die right now man.  I can go fifty miles.”  Jake had never been a drug user, so he had to take the man’s word for it.

As the moan’s began to creep closer and closer, Jake rushed through the living room of the apartment and slid open the patio door to the balcony.  He eased out on to it, with his head low.  He peeped over the railing  and was comforted by the fact that the grass below was tall enough to somewhat cushion his landing, and also by the fact the tree line they needed to run to was less than two hundred yards away.

“You first.” Chuck sounded almost joyous.

Jake took a deep breath in, and then all at once threw his body over the rail.  As soon as he felt his feet touch ground he began to roll forward to lessen the likelihood of being injured.  As soon as Jake was at his feet he heard Chuck smash into the ground.  Jake turned around quickly, and watched as Chuck attempted to get off the ground.

“Shit, I think I broke something.” Chuck practically yelled.

Jake now had his pistol in hand and was looking for the company he knew would arrive soon.  “Keep it down, can you still walk?”

“Yeah, but not five miles.  Don’t leave me here me, man.   Please, don’t leave me here.”

“Get up,” Jake said as he began to help the man to his feet.  “Let’s just get to those trees.  Can you make it those trees?  I don’t care if you can or not, YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE IT TO THOSE TREES!” Jake commanded of Chuck.

With one arm under Chuck’s half right arm, and the other pointing his pistol in the direction they were walking the two men shuffled quickly to the tree line.  Jake scanned the area, and it looked like their retreat had gone unnoticed.  Jake looked in the direction of Katie, but couldn’t make her out from the trees.

“Okay, I’ve got a friend up the way a bit.  Let’s go find her.  I think I have a plan to get us out of here.  Do you still have your truck keys, Chuck?”