deadheads by jade swiler (top 100 books to read TXT) 📖

out of the woods, there in the distance was a lone house in the middle of a clear field. It was old, 2 story job that looked like it had been re-done to be seen by aliens from space.

 

Bright gaudy yellow paint was thick on the outer walls. All the trim was done in a bright neon green. In the yard was 20 or more pink famingo’s standing at attention along the path to the front door. I had never seen anything like it before. The strangest thing about it wasn’t the color or the birds, it was the fact that it was clean, there was no body’s outside, no deadheads, no blood or gore splattered on the walls. It was rare to find a house that hadn’t seen the virus spread horror and destruction. This was way to different, it was clean.

The path led right to the front porch, the house loomed over me and I realized it was a three story house. I tried the door handle and it was unlocked. I slowly open the door and knocked loudly to see if any deadheads were around. Quiet greeted me so I entered and shut the door behind me in cas any deadheads were outside.

The house was extremely clean as well. Fancy furniture nestled in the living room and looked like something out of stars and us magazine. A couch and 2 chairs faced a huge fireplace. A stairway the a hallway, I took the hallway and followed it to a bathroom and then the kitchen. It was a clear and clean as well. The kitchen had been painted a bright peach color and the cupboards were stark white. I opened some of them and found canned food, puddings, frostings, babyfood jars, canned meat of some kind, canned corn and beans, it was like a mini super market.

I backtracked to the stairway and started up the thickly covered stairs in a blue colored carpet. Up stairs were 4 closed doors. The first one I opened was a little boys room, trains and planes were the wall paper on the walls. A twin bed and toy boys showed the child had loved this room. Hand drawn pictures showed a woman, man and 3 kids. I wondered if one of the kids was who the room once belonged to.

The second room was done in pink and white and held 2 cribs. A rocking chair was in the middle with a dressing table to change diapers was near the door. Size 3 month clothes were in the clostet.

 

The third room was for a teenager, a male from the look of things, rock posters to a band I barely remembered was all over the walls which were white. A full sized bed was against one wall and a football uniform was hung up with jeans and shirts in the closet. It felt strange to find all this and no people.

The last room was a parents room. Pics of smiling kids and adults were on the walls. A queen sized bed and dessers were the only furniture in the room. Clothes in the clostet showed a man and woman had lived in here.

I stepped out and closed the door. Another stair way led to the third floor. I climbed slowly with my sword at the ready, upstairs was a huge room filled with books and games. Not games you played on a tv or computer, I mean board games. It was a play room of sorts. I searched all the cupboards and only found attic storage of xmas decorations and winter clothes.

I headed back down to the kitchen and used my hunting knife to open a can of butterscotch pudding, which was my favorite. That first bite was like the past slamming in to me, I remember eating some one day when my mom had taken me to the doctors and found out I had strep throat. I was almost tempted to open another can but decided not to. I saw out the kitchen window there was a small barn behind the house.

I went out the back door and found a sight that at first froze me to the ground. The whole family was together at the barn doors, they were arranged in a line on the ground. Another of a man laying a short space to the left of them. As I got closer, the smell was terrible. I knew what had happened. The father had shot his wife and kids then turned it on himself. A note was pinned to the chest of the father but I knew I would not be able to read it, blood and brains covered it.

They had been dead for at least a week.

I went in to the barn and it was empty of anything useful.

I heard a distant moaning and hurried out of the barn, in the field to the west of the house were 6 or 7 deadheads. I went east and soon was lost in the darkness of the trees. Deadheads had a radar to humans, they always showed up when you didn’t want them to. I cut back south to the road.

The sun was beating down on me when I came across a police station. A notice on a board said it was for sale.

 

A brick wall surrounded the place. Steel soild doors made up the gate. I tried the gate handle and they swung open easily. The wall was at least 12 ft high with razor wire over the top. The station must have been a something special for it to be guarded like this. A brick building stood in the middle of the walled grassy area. A path made its way to the front doors and I secured the gates and headed that way. Better to shut the gates so I didn’t walk back out to deadheads.

 

The doors to the building were also steel. The right door to the double doors was unlocked and I held my sword at the ready as I swung it open. It was dark inside. Faint light came from small slit windows near the ceiling.

 

The room was large, a desk was on the right and 2 couches with 2 chairs were on the left. It was a sitting room, a fireplace filled the wall in front of the furniture. A hallway was in between both parts of the room.

 

I stood in the doorway until my eyes adjusted to the gloom. There were light switches near the door and for some reason, I flipped them on, the lights came on! I stepped in and closed the door. The walls were a soft tan with brugany carpeting. The couches and chairs were done in a muted red. The tables a maple wood the desk was the same.

 

I started down the hallway and came to a set of doors that followed the whole length. All the doors were opened and I looked in to bare rooms, this would be a great place to make bedrooms. The light switches worked in those rooms as well. 10 bedrooms, 5 on each wall.

At the end of the hallway, a door was shut.

I opened it and found after turning the lights on that a huge kitchen with many cupboards and tables and chairs filled the room. There was food! Canned and boxed stuff fill the cupboard to the rim. The frig and stove worked and the frig was empty but cold.

In a doorway off the kitchen was a washer and dryer. Another door on the other side was a storage room filled with more food. There was enough to feed about 10 people for about a year.

I stepped back out and took another door that was closed near the kitchen island in the middle of the room. It was a huge school style bathroom with showers, 5 stalls lined the wall and sinks and mirrors lined the other wall. I walked past all that into an archway and found 10 showers ready and waiting for someone to shower, there was a shelf that held shampoo and towels, and bars of sweet smelling soap.

 

I turned on one of the showers and put my hand under the water streams, it was turning warm, then hot within mintues. I found robes of different sizes on that shelf and also deodorant. This was a dream come true. I took off my clothes and stepped in to pure heaven, the water streamed down my body in rivers of warmth and I felt each part of my body relax. Since the outbreak, my hair hadn’t been washed very good, the shampoo felt and smelled so nice. I had to wash it twice to make sure it was clean.

 

I turned off the water when it started to get cold and put on a robe of white. Taking my clothes to the washer and dryer, I quickly put them in and started the load. Everything worked. This place was perfect. I didn’t mind the gated community but didn’t really feel safe there. The lake was a big problem, when it froze this winter, it would allow the deadheads to walk across and end up in our back yards. More peple had arrived from the army compound and it was getting crowded.

 

This place was going to be a secret. I found keys to the gate and front doors, I would lock it up and go back to Seth. If he agreed, we would invite a few trusted friends and come here and start our lives over the way we wanted to. I shut off the lights after my clothes were done and I put them back on. It was time to head becak to the community.

 

I walked back towards the farm and then headed north. I had to walk slow and be careful, there were deadheads still walking around the farm house but they never got wind of me. Seth and marcus were at the gate when I got back.

“I was starting to get worried. We have a problem, billy jo and his boys want to have a vote to see who is leader here.” Seth said grimly.

“but you’re the leader right now. Why is he doing this now?” I asked as I walked in the gate and watched marcus shut and lock it.

“said he thinks he can do a better job here then I can.” Seth replied.

That was bullshit, if anyone could get this place organized, it was seth.

 

Later that night after all scouts got back, billy jo did indeeed call for a vote. He lost 100%. Seth was still in charge.

I didn’t tell seth or anyone else about the station, I didn’t know why but wanted to keep it a secret for a while more.

 

I sat on the front porch and watched the lighting and thick storm clouds move closer. We were in for a bad thunder storm. I wished we had electricity, but so far the guys hadn’t figured out how to get it back on.

 

I went inside and light the three oil lamps in the sparse kitchen and sat down at the table. I picked up a book I had taken from the living room and started to read. The people who had owned this house before the virus, had been advid readers. That was great to me because their tastes were close to mine, stephen king, dean koontz, and many other horror writers filled the shelves in the living room. All favorites of mine.

 

The thunder boomed often and loudly as the storm came over our little town. Lighting flashed and lit up the darkest corners of the room for sheer seconds only to repeat it again and again.

 

A shadow passed by my back window and startled me. I jumped to my feet and tried to see outside. At first I couldn’t see anything and then a bright flash happened that lit up the whole yard.

Deadheads!!!

They were all over the yards. I ran to get my sword and ran for the door but a body was standing there.

“well