Tony
Dear God, please hear what I have to say. Keep mummy safe and help her to be happy. Help me to be happy too. Thankyou for the lovely sunshine and I'm sorry I got in a fight. Holy guardian angel, please watch over us toda-
The SUV rocked and Tony's lungs filled with smoke. It was seeping through from outside. He began coughing uncontrollably, asthma.
He opened his eyes. Mum lay with her head on the window, blood running down the door.
He pulled her head back up and she moved, her arms flying out and wrapping around him, holding him close. The right side of her jaw was torn from ear to mouth, the skin ripped back. She began to moan and howl in pain. Tony jumped back, suddenly afraid. Opened the door and fell out down onto the road. His mother climbed out after him and fell down on top. He screamed and lashed out, pushing her off with his legs. Evian stopped moving, opened her eyes. They were milky white and bleeding profusely.
'Mum?'
A groan escaped Evian's lips.
Then she lashed out at Tony with her bruised arms. Grabbed at his legs.
Tony just lay there, stunned.
'Mum?' raging, he crashed his leg down into her face. Her nose broke with a crack. And Tony began to cry. She kept crawling, grabbing back at his legs. He kicked out again. This time her head split open.
All his strength depleted, he drew himself into a ball.
Evian lashed out at him. Tearing at his leg, with her long nails. They dug into his thighs.
Blood began to seep from the cut.
'Mum!'
Then a golf club came whistling down on her head. Then her spine.
Tony never saw the brutality. Nor felt the arms pick him up. He simply remained.
It felt like hours later, when he opened his eyes. He was lying beneath the highway. Overhead large cracks rippled in the road. A tall dark-skinned man knelt down beside him, offering a slice of bread. He just looked at it, and then turned his head. A little creek lay undisturbed down the bank, and two women with the dark skin as the man knelt in it, filling water bottles freely. A cry from over-head broke the equilibrium as a headless body sailed down from the road and crashed into the water. The two girls squealed and dashed out. He saw them clearer now; they couldn't be more than twenty.
Tony spun and saw the man looking up anxiously, a golf bag full with clubs slung over his back.
'Boy, you want to come?' the man said.
Tony looked up into his deep green eyes, and then looked towards where his car had been.
'Tory, Dana, pack the water, we'll head back up and try the road.'
'Papa, just lead the way.'
Dana had thick but tight, short-cropped hair that formed a small bun at the back. Tory wore a pink beanie and her long hair fell out the back down onto her thin shoulders.
All three began to walk away, when Tory turned and called back to him, ' come on boy, we need you as much as you need us.'
Tony stood up and realised her sentence hadn't made any sense, mainly because Tony had done nothing for them, so why would they need him at all?
He waited until the Family were a long distance ahead before he began his ascent up the dirt knoll and onto the gravel road.
He skirted the edge of vehicles before he came onto the bridge. It was quiet, just him and the cars and their bodies. Not once did the family ahead look back for him again. He reached the space they'd pulled into earlier and found his car. The left door was open where he crawled out. A body lay, head split open. It wore a pink singlet and denim jeans. Mum.
He didn't cry. He'd already come to some strange conclusion. He just knelt down, rolled her over onto her back. A deep growl emanated from beneath his car. He stepped back and lay down, peering under. 3 filthy, bloody dogs lay ready to pounce from beneath the vehicle. He walked over to them and ushered them out. Slowly they obeyed. They were big and brown with legs like signposts. A plan formulated in the 8 year olds mind. He stumbled ahead and found a broken off car-door and dragged it back to his mother. The dogs were licking at her smashed head and he shooed them away. Rolling her over onto the face of the door he then cut the cars seatbelts with the knife in the cars emergency kit. The dogs yelped when he tied their necks to the door.
Tony beat the dogs until they ran, pulling his mother along with them.
He walked beside his mother always, and kept the family ahead within the horizon. The dogs panted wildly as they pattered along the road.
All along walkers looked up at the awful grating of the door. They stumbled towards him, but he kept a hasty pace and out ran them at every turn. As he crossed a packed intersection a few miles from the bridge, he noticed one of the vehicles had ski gear for a family holiday.
The back door flew open when he grabbed the handle and grumbles from within the car could be heard. Ghoulish faces turned to look at Tony, but he did not fear them. He reached in and took two sharp ski poles. Using the remaining seatbelt, he created a sling for them to rest on his back. Then he continued on his path towards his foster family.
It was growing dark when he caught up to them; they turned and asked what the noise was. Then the dogs pulled up beside him. Dana sobbed when she saw the woman. Tory looked painfully down at Tony, as though she could empathise with him.
'Papa, we have to stop' she said.
That night, as he lay looking up at the purple streaks the moonlight on the drapes sent sprawling across the room, he thought about school that morning. He wondered where Blake was, where the Principal was, or… or dad.
He never slept, but kept his eyes closed and hands on the ski poles.
'When the sun disappears, and the moon brings out fears, where will I be, oh where will I be?
Will I hide beneath covers or run to the door? When the sun disappears, when the sun disappears.
The shadows are cast along the dark wall, they crawl and they scratch and they rise up and fall - when the sun reappears at my door.
The moon is full of faces, I say my nightly graces, and hope that by morn they'll be gone.
When the sun disappears ill be rid of the terror that gripped me so dear. When the sun reappears, when the sun reappears.'
Tony repeated the single verse for hours, till the sun did reappear and the faces of his family swam before his eyes. He saw them so vividly, so beautifully.
A bright face emerged from blankets across the room; Tory. Her hair was a tangle of light brown, and she struggled to open her eyes fully at first.
'Hey Tony.' She said, yawning wide.
'Hey.'
'How do you feel?' she asked. He shrugged in reply.
Behind her Dana began to snore loudly and then the father, Joseph, chorused her.
Tory joked and made faces, mocking them. A smile crossed Tony's lips.
After that she made him laugh and laugh. They both rolled on the floor for what seemed like hours.
Blam!
Blam!
The whole house shuddered and tears of laughter turned to salt. The others woke up. Joseph reached for his golf clubs and passed them between the girls. Tony pulled his harness of spears onto his back.
In moments they stood in the centre of the room, back to back, weapons raised.
A blinding instantly light filled the space. The glass shattered, a walker flying across the wall. Its body split as it hit the back. An arm lay at Tory's feet. She stared at it, horrified. Outside, two men were laying waste to a crowd of creatures. They were being overrun as the noise brought more and more.
'Dad!' Tory called.
' Girls, stay here.'
Dana dropped her club. Joseph raced for the door, and kicked it open, dashing outside into the bloody sunshine.
The club swung right, a brutal crunch that caved a walker's head in two. Another. Then another. Blood dripped from his driver and exploded in the air. Bullets raked the exterior of the house.
'Stop! You have to stop! You're drawing more and more in.' Joseph called to the men.
A bullet kicked him in the gut and he collapsed to the floor.
Walkers stumbled around him and he soon lost all sight of anyone else.
'Dana? Tory?'
A jaw bit into his spine and he felt his flesh tear away. Blood poured freely from his back.
'Tony?'
A steel pole withered over the top of his scalp and lodged through 2 walkers' brains. A knife came up behind them and ripped off their head's. At a moments notice, golf clubs, ski poles and blades created a swathing tide of gore, constantly pouring over Joseph's head. He felt the spray, the wet feeling, and the taste in his mouth. He stood up, hunched as he was from the wound and cracked a walker's head down into his knee.
Wielding his driver with both hands he caught one of the creatures in the space between. He pulled it close, tightening the club behind its neck. Its head writhed this way and that. Looked him in the eyes, and he stared right back. Their heads were pulled together but he tightened his grip on the driver once more. The shaft ripped through soft skin. Bone and vein ripped out. He screamed with delight and anger.
Tony saw the bullet hit Joseph in the chest, and then rip out the other side. A fine mist blew from his torso. A hundred dying corpses fell down on top of him, and he disappeared.
He didn't remember, but Tory drew the pole from his back and threw it like a spear. It arced across the front yard and came down, piercing through two walkers. A knife ripped their heads off and Tory ran in squealing, club raised high.
Tony looked back and saw Dana curse, but follow Tory out reluctantly. At the door Dana looked back at Tony.
'Coming or waiting?'
Tony darted out, swinging his last pole around like a sword. It crashed into a chest, then a head, a leg. A blood rage must have engulfed Joseph, for Tony saw five walkers go flying back as Joe gained his footing.
Then his vision blurred, wavered.
And the ground rose up to meet him.
'Tony...'
'Tony' another voice sung. A smiling woman looked him in the eyes. 'Tony.' Somewhere in the distance a siren blared. 'Tony, close your eyes. Tony.' His world rocked to the side. Thunder.
'Tony. I love you Tony.'
'I love you…'
'I love…'
'Love… I love you Tony.'
Another jolt. The woman hit her head on the window. Shattered.
Screech. Gravel and steel. Gravel and steel. Dogs barked.
Another face looked at him now. Its flesh hung from its eyelids. Its teeth were bared. The skin around the mouth was all gone. Rotted. Bloody gums and teeth remained. One eye was milky, the other stuck with glass. 'Tony.' It called. Then the dogs licked the face.
'Tony.'
'Tony!' his eyes opened. Tory looked down at him, calling. Dana walked around, hands on head, stressing.
'Dana, just slow down for two goddamn seconds.'
'Tory, what the hell? Dad's gone, and who knows what happened to those other guys?'
Tony called up to them. Tory helped him to his feet.
'Tony, dads gone and its all your freaking fault. If you weren't so slow we'd be miles ahead, and none of this would've happened.'
'Dana, slow down, that's not true and you know it!'
'It is true, bitch.' Dana hit Tory square across the face. A red mark instantly appeared. 'Dana!' Tory hit her back, and soon they were both swinging punches.
Tony was shocked.
'Mom, look.'
'Ton' what is it, I'm driving?'
Tony stared off down the corpse littered street.
He dropped his voice.
'Joseph.'
The two girls stopped. Tory clearly had a broken nose. Dana barely a bruise.
'Jesus' one of them whispered.
A body, with the limp of a walker stumbled down the street. Joseph's orange polo shirt and checker shorts hung from the flesh.
'Dad?'
'Dad!'
The two girls got to their feet and raced down towards him.
Tony was in a state of confusion. What happened when he fainted?
The girls stopped ten metres from the walker.
'Tony…' one of the girls screamed back.
He could see now it wasn't Joseph, it was a woman.
He met the girls. 'Tory… Dana? Who…what is it?'
A long pause. The moaning in the throat of the woman was the only sound in all the neighbourhood.
'…Mom…' The word barely slipped past Dana's lips.
'Mom.'
And then a gunshot echoed off the houses and a bullet hit the walker dead between the eyes. A ragged hole was left in her forehead. Dana collapsed to the gravel and held the body in her arms.
And when the sun reappears, who will be left to tell the tale?
None. For we must ask ourselves, who will be left to read it?
Once the sun disappears, once the sun disappears…