Week 14: Return to the Library

I returned to the library yesterday. It just… I had to let some time pass before I could describe what happened.

As I approached the building I saw Mike’s semi parked in front and decapitated zombies, evidence of Mike’s handiwork, were strewn all about. The front door of the library had been broken out; the plywood I had braced it with splintered and tossed on the ground. Upon entering the library I immediately recognized the sound of methodical pounding, just like I heard so many months ago when the zombies first started to show up.

As I followed the monotonous “thump, thump, thump” I noticed a second sound. Something softer, more subtle, but 100 times more powerful. Like a leak in the Hoover dam releasing its pressure one teardrop at a time. It was the sound of Mike crying.

I turned the corner to see Mike standing there leaning against one of the reading room doors. Through the long vertical pane of glass that was set inside the door I could see Caleb, his shirt tattered and hanging from his left shoulder. There were bite marks covering the right half of his face, trailing down his arm and covering his chest. Caleb was the one pounding on the door. Caleb was one of them.

Mike stopped crying as soon as he realized I was there. I started to say something, anything, and realized it was useless. Instead Mike spoke up, “Leave.”

I paused, my mind racing, trying to decide what I could do to help, to make things right.

“Leave or I’ll shoot you before I shoot my son.”

I still had some need to try to fix this. I needed to try to set things right. I knew it was impossible but I had to try.

Without taking his eyes off of Caleb, Mike pulled his gun from were it had been tucked into his waistband. Without looking he pointed it in my general direction and pulled the trigger. Considering that Mike had fired blindly, the bullet came a lot closer to hitting its mark than I would like to acknowledge.

“If you are still standing then I suggest you leave” Mike said as he continued to stare at Caleb. All the while Caleb just continued to pound on the door.

I finally accepted that I could not fix it. If the roles had been reversed there would be nothing anyone could do to console me and I was a little embarrassed that I even tried. As I passed Mike’s semi I heard a single gunshot from within the library. About a minute later I heard a second one.