Cast Out - Part 6

The Garcia family had just finished watching a movie, at least those members who wanted to watch a “zombie movie”. It was Raul’s night to choose the activity, and being the eldest son, he chose a movie, somewhat to the chagrin of his mother. His father and younger brother watched with him, somewhat ambivalently. Mom was never into horror movies, and had a little trouble watching one without having to deal with nightmares. Now that the movie was over, it was time to talk about it.


“So Dad, what do you think about it?” Raul asked.

“It was pretty good, actually. A bit much on the gore side for me, but I can see why you like zombie movies,” replied Tony, Raul’s father. “I thought it was good to show that even with the zombies around, sometimes the worst things to watch out for are other people.” He called to his wife, “Honey, you can come out now. The movie’s over!”

“I know the movie’s over,” said Eva, the mother. Coming into the room clutching the book she had been reading, she asked, ‘Did you boys like it?”

“It was cool mom!” blurted out Javier, Raul’s little brother. “Zombies getting their heads blown off! People getting eaten.”

“Are you going to have nightmares, hijo?” Eva asked her Javier. Hijo was their pet name for Javier.

“MOM!” Javier exasperated.

“I’m just saying. The last time you watched this kind of thing, you woke up that night.” Eva pointed out, leaving out the most embarrassing part, to which Raul was foolish enough to add.

“You woke up crying!” Raul spoke up, then realized he should have kept his mouth shut.

“Raul….” Tony warned. “You know that your mom and I don’t really like this sort of thing in this house, but we are trying to let you make your own decisions. And when you make your decisions, you have to also man up and own the outcome. In this case, if your brother wakes up tonight, we’ll be waking you up as well.”

An awkward silence filled the room. Raul hesitated, and then let out a low groan. “OK Dad.” He paused, “Thanks for letting me choose this movie,” he said, looking at first his dad then his mom.

“You’re welcome, Raul,” Tony said and smiled. His oldest boy was growing up. “Let’s turn on the news.” Tony liked his family to watch the local news before bed.

Turning it on, they watched the newscaster say “… we are cutting to a live feed from our affiliate in the capitol.”

They went to another shot, this time of a hastily called news conference, with a familiar looking guy that appeared to have been up for hours, or just woke up.

“…stay in your homes. I repeat. Do not go outside. Stay in your home. Turn off your lights and close your curtains. We have reports coming in from all over the country and it appears from other countries as well. It appears as though…the dead are rising again and…eating the living. I know this sounds too incredible to believe, but until we have a better understanding about what’s happening, it would be better for everyone to stay in their homes. If you have a gun, load it and be ready to use it. Do not go outside. If you see someone outside moving slowly, do not approach them, no matter what are the circumstances, no matter who they are. Are their questions?”

“Raul, did you turn your movie back on?” Eva asked her son, looking at him, expecting a positive response.

“No mom! This is the news!” Raul answered back.

The TV blared again.

… “We don’t know how this happened. We just know that a few hours ago we started getting calls from all over the country, all at the same time. The dead were getting back up again and attacking the living. Obviously, we have never seen anything like this before. And that I know of, there is no plan to deal with this threat…”

“C’mon Raul! Stop it! You’re starting to scare me!” Eva said.

Tony spoke up, “Give me the remote!”

“I’m not doing it! This is real!” Raul said, with quite a bit of exasperation, giving the remote control to his father.

Tony changed the channel, but it went to the same news conference, He turned the channel again, same picture. Again and again, the same news conference was on every channel, even ESPN. They watched as the Senator spoke and answered questions, but mostly he seemed to know very little of the origins of this event, but he was sure that it was happening.

Tony muted the TV and spoke, “Is this really happening?” No one answered him for what seemed like a few minutes.

Eva spoke first, “We need to pray.” The family held hands and prayed together. While they were used to praying, this time, the prayers were different and urgent.

When they finished and had agreed together, Tony looked at Raul and asked, “Son, what do we do first? You know this kind of stuff better than all of us, what do you think we should do?”

Raul paused, looked at each of his family, and then said, ‘We need to get out of the city. Away from people. We need food, guns, medicine.” He continued on with his plan.

Tony had to admit that it was a pretty good plan. Tony smiled at his son, “You’ve been giving this some thought, huh?”

Raul smiled back and then said, “Maybe this was why I’ve into zombie stuff for awhile?”

Tony looked at his wife and other son as well and smiled. “You guys OK with his plan?”

Eva kept quiet for a few moments. “Why don’t we just stay here, like they said on TV?”

Raul anticipated that question. “Mom, we have to get out of populated areas and get to the country. It’s not safe around here with so many people. Aunt Maggie’s place is perfect for us to hold up.”

Eva was silent for a few moments. She then asked, “What time does the Club store open tomorrow?”

Tony and Raul smiled. Mom and Javier would go to the store for provisions, and Tony and Raul to get guns and ammo. More ammo. Lots of ammo. Tony got on the phone with his sister Magdalena, who lived in the sticks, She had been awake already and was just about to call her brother, when he called her.