I’m getting closer to having the site ready. When it goes live not all of the book links may work as they should, but I’ll continue working on them. Right now I’m in the final edits for Zomething Dead, after which I’ll set up the forms and I’ll be up and running.Richard 01/18/2024
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Zomething Dead This Way Comes
Chapter 1
If an object could be said to be alive, the Willowbrook apartments at the corner of Main Street and Fourth avenue in downtown Richmond, Virginia, fit the bill. The memory of past anguish had become permanently etched into concrete and plaster. Giving life to a thing inanimate, offering a brief glimpse into a torturous world where misery lived hand in hand with never ending pain, and where hope was but a dream. An indelible stain that could only be erased by removing the structure immersed in their suffering.
Rebuilt after the destruction of Richmond from Grant’s march on the South. Its brooding facade had borne witness to a fluctuating reputation that mirrored humanity’s greatest achievements and his most hellish nightmares. Playing host to the celebrated and infamous alike. While the facade had changed with the times, the interior continued to exude a palpable air of sadness and despair.
Contrary to the misery below, eleven-year-old Jimmy and his two friends were excited, as only children could be. Reality had yet to dampen their desire to dream of a life beyond the one they now knew. They had come to the roof to see history as the comet Alpha19 passed overhead. A stone’s throw away from towering skyscrapers that spoke of prestige, and the kind of money none of them would ever know.
Willowbrook was the end of the line for many. It was here, at the hard edge of life, where every day simple decisions were made. Eat and be homeless or go to bed hungry with a roof over your head. Willowbrook was the last stop for most, and an occasional rebound for some. Beyond the five-story apartment building, only a couple of options remained. The streets, the grave, or a jail cell.
“Mrs. Hilton said there was a time when people believed a comet meant bad things were about to happen,” Jimmy said.
“What does double butt Hilton know?” Andy responded with a nervous laugh. Andy lived in 5D with his mom, a two-bedroom apartment whose doors never closed properly. His dad left when Andy was born, and to Andy’s way of thinking, it was his fault. Had he never been born, his mom would still be happy, and his dad would still be with her. That was the nature of a child’s feelings, holding to beliefs that lived close to their heart, a blind faith with no basis in the truth.
“Double Dee butts!” Jared from 5E mumbled around the sleeve of his jacket. The boy had never been to a dentist and his crooked teeth were mute testimony to this neglect. Some of the kids at school called him snaggletooth, but only behind his back, never to his face. Doing so would prompt a bloody nose, with Jared marched to the principal’s office afterwards.
Jimmy knew there was nothing mystical about the comet, yet there remained a small inkling of doubt, a deep sense of foreboding that made little sense. When you’re eleven, the world is full of wonder, tempered by an equal measure of fear. Magic still lived in small pockets of your imagination, and sometimes a wish could be fulfilled, or a nightmare unleashed.
Though it was spring, the air still carried winter’s chill and on the roof a steady breeze deepened its bite. Every exhaled breath created a small cloud that was immediately shredded by the light wind. Around them Richmond was alive with lights, and celebration as parties were in full swing on many of the surrounding rooftops. Small islands of gaiety riding atop the steady glow of a city filled with life. The happiness standing out in sharp contrast to the sadness he’d known.
Life since his father’s death had not been easy for Jimmy, or his mother, and he was always worrying about her. Lately she seemed to have improved, moving on with her life. She was up every morning to fix his breakfast before school, always there when he got home. Usually, he’d find her in the kitchen getting supper ready. In the early days after his father’s passing, after they lost the house and moved here, he’d routinely come home to a dark apartment, his mother in bed, the pills she took to help with her depression on the nightstand beside her.
It was the pills that worried him the most. What if he came home one day and the bottle was empty? What if her sadness became too heavy, and she took too many? It was this thought more than any other that scared him. He was only eleven, too young to be left alone.
Yet after his father’s death, he’d become the man of the house, sharing the worrisome burden of what to do with their future. Making sure his mom took her medicine, even feeding her when necessary. Their roles switched as he took on the responsibility of ensuring their survival while they traveled through the bleak tunnel of despair that seemed to have no end. It did eventually end and life moved on as they moved on.
Undulating ribbons of green light danced across the night sky above them. A light show mother nature was putting on just for them. It made Jimmy feel small, insignificant, a very tiny cog in the magnificent machine that was the cosmos. What Jimmy didn’t know was the ribbons of light came from the ice crystals of the comet’s tail passing through earth’s atmosphere as they fell to the ground. Frozen droplets filled with old organisms that would soon create havoc for the world’s inhabitants.
For months, the news had reported about the near approach of Alpha19, so named as the last time it came this way, civilization was struggling to stand. Tonight, they promised, would be the best time to view it as the earth passed through its tail. The first clue that Jimmy’s sense of impending doom was more than a case of gas brought on by eating too many grilled cheese sandwiches came when Robert rushed onto the roof, terrified, and out of breath.
“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Andy said as Robert collapsed at their feet, a quivering ball of flesh Jimmy found a little disgusting. He liked Robert. Had been friends with him since Jimmy’s first day in the building. But Robert was waging a losing battle with his weight. The heart of the problem lay in his love of little Debbie cakes, and his lack of a desire to do anything more strenuous than play video games. He rarely went anywhere without one or two packs of peanut butter bars stuffed into his pocket and was known to lick the chocolate from inside the wrappers after eating the contents.
Tears ran down Robert’s face as he struggled to sit up, his breath hitching as he took off his glasses and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “It’s mom,” he whispered between sobbing breaths.
“What happened? What did your dad do this time?” Jared said, kneeling next to Robert, a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder.
Robert’s dad was a violent drunk. He’d come home late from work, usually drunk after stopping at a bar along the way. Most nights, he’d pass out on the couch or in his easy chair. But sometimes his rage at their current situation got the best of him, and it looked like tonight was going to be one of those nights. On nights like this, he would take out his anger on the two people he professed to love the most, Robert, and his mom. Everyone knew it was only a matter of time before his dad did something bad to his mom, or Robert, or both. Yet no one would interfere.
It was the thing about living on the hard edge of polite society. People looked the other way. They avoided getting involved with stuff that didn’t affect them. They had their own problem to worry about, so why add to their misery? It was something best dealt with inside the family.
Robert’s eyes were enormous and frightened, his cheeks stained with tears. “He hit her, hard this time, and when she went down, she hit her head on the corner of the stove.”
“Is she all right?”
“I don’t know. She laid there for a few minutes, then got up.” Here he visibly shuddered. “There’s something wrong with her. She didn’t look right.”
“What is it? Spit it out, retard.” Wayne said. He was the tallest, and oldest in their small group, and lived on the fourth floor with his mom and dad.
Robert stopped, his expression growing hard. “I told you not to call me that!”
“What are you gonna do about it?”
Moving faster than anyone thought possible, Robert launched himself from the rooftop, swinging wildly. Wayne stepped back, his normally smug features collapsing into fear as the back of his legs came against the parapet. Behind him waited a five story drop to the concrete sidewalk below. Had he known then what the future had in store for them, he might have let himself fall. Instead, he fought back from the brink to live another day.
“Take it back,” Robert shouted as he closed with Wayne, who struggled to defend himself. Andy and Jared got between the combatants but were a little slow, and Robert managed several good hits before they could pull him off.
“All right, all right already, I’m sorry,” Wayne said, trying to cover up his fear. The others had seen it and exchanged knowing glances. Wayne was not as tough as he liked to believe.
“I said take it back,” Robert yelled as Andy and Jared remained between them, struggling to keep the boy back.
“All right, fine, I take it back. What do I care anyway?” Wayne brushed his hands as if he were wiping away dirt.
“Is your mom all right?” Jimmy said after they got Robert under control.
Robert turned to look at Jimmy, his eyes wide with terror, sparkling against the doughy texture of his face. Jimmy experienced a quick flash of disgust that was washed away by an icy chill when Robert replied in a flat monotone.
“She tried to chew my dad’s face off.” The sound of a wailing siren punctuated Robert’s comment. From the street below, a horn blared, tires squealed, and someone screamed. There was the sound of one car striking another, punctuated by several gunshots.
The end had come, Jimmy realized as they stared at Robert in shocked silence.
“The fuck you say,” Wayne blurted out and time that seemed to have ground to a halt when Robert told them about his mom caught up with itself. Shouts came from the street below, followed by screams of fear and pain as the world barreled headlong into the coming apocalypse.
Richard Schiver 