To Live and Die in Louisiana

Thursday, September 20, 2007, 7:30 PM CDT

Blue Note Jazz Club, Lafayette, Louisiana

Out in the Gulf of Mexico, a category 3 hurricane was moving westward toward Galveston, Texas. Tropical storm strength winds slapped the southern coast of Louisiana. Heavy winds and rain hit Lafayette, Louisiana.

In spite of the storm the Blue Note jazz club was occupied, though in deference to the storm there were only a handful of regulars. The Blue Note was a part of the Blue Moon guest house, a renovated home in west central Lafayette.

(The Blue Moon guest house exists. You can read about it here. The club attached to the guest house is actually the Blue Moon Saloon. For the purposes of this story, the saloon has been converted from a country bar to a jazz club. You can see a map of the location here, on Google Maps. - AWG)

Natasha Alexander, manager of the club, had just finished some paper work and was hanging out in the club. On the television were the baseball playoffs. The Chicago Cubs and the Tampa Devil Rays had the best records in their leagues, and looked likely to meet in the World Series.

Paul Lefevre was tending bar, and Sarena Corrado was waiting tables. In the kitchen, Neil Decelles was cooking up burgers and po'boys. The house band, the Festive Kennedys, were warming up; they'd never missed a gig, and they weren't going to let a little rain do that now.

Seven customers sat around the club. Regulars Chuck Williams and Bruce Campbell (played by Steve Buscemi) were at the bar. Tulane sociology grad students Lorrie Gamon and Kelly Difore were in Lafayette studying Cajun culture for a joint project, and had decided the Blue Moon guest house would be a good way to mix business with pleasure. Another guest, Norm Newbill, was in town selling software. The last two guests were Darren Isler and Eric Schroeder from Hollywood. Isler was the producer for a new indie (read: low budget) horror movie set in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. Schroeder was Isler's pyrotechnic supervisor, who was also a friend and Isler's. They were in town scouting locations.

The door to the club opened, letting in a gust of wind. In walked a soaking wet, pale and shaken woman. Natasha recognized her as Vee Sellers, owner of the guest house. Natasha got a blanket for Vee and then asked her what happened. Vee said that a woman wandered in front of her car as she was driving to the bar. She couldn't stop on the slick roads. She hit the woman, slid off the road and slammed into a tree. She got out of the car, but there was no one there! Vee walked to the bar. She just then realized that she forgot her purse and cell phone back at the car.

Natasha checked; the woman had not been drinking. She called 9-1-1, but, amazingly, the line was busy.

Vee asked if Natasha would drive her back to get her purse. Natasha insisted that Vee stay put and that she not have anything alcoholic to drink. Chuck Williams and Bruce Campbell volunteered to go with Natasha. Natasha grabbed a flashlight and threw on her coat.

They drove northeast along Johnston Street to the car. There it was, wrapped around a tree on their side of the road. There was no sign of an injured woman.

Natasha picked up the purse and looked around the car. The windshield on the passenger side was broken; that must have been where the woman hit. In spite of the rain, there was dried blood in the broken glass. Chuck found more glass in the road in the nearest of the two southeast lanes. There was dried blood there, too.

An ambulance raced down a cross street two blocks down, followed by several police cars.

Bruce saw someone across the street. It was a woman. He noticed she had a head wound. He called for the others, as he walked toward her. The woman shambled toward him, then started to jog. She leaped before Bruce could react, and sunk her teeth into his neck.

Natasha and Chuck ran over and started to hit her, to make her let go of the bleeding sporting goods manager. Natasha hit the woman twice in the head with her flashlight. Chuck punched her in the head. All the time the woman continued to grip Bruce's neck. Blood flowed down his shirt as he cried out. Chuck punched her once more. His fist penetrated an already damaged skull and sunk into the woman's brain. He pulled out his hand and stared at it as the woman fell to the ground.

"Jesus, what was that!" cried Bruce.

As Natasha and Chuck stopped to check out the woman, Bruce ran for Natasha's car, holding his neck with one hand. He tried to grab the door handle but slipped on the wet road and fell to the ground.

Chuck and Natasha saw other people on the other side of the road. The people were approaching. She glanced at Chuck, and then the two of them ran for the car. Chuck threw Bruce in the back seat and jumped in after him. Natasha started the car as the group of four people ran up to the windows. A man slapped at her window with his right arm. His face was ghastly pale. He was missing an arm. Natasha cried out, and stomped onto the gas as hard as she could without losing control in the rain. She swung the car back around and drove southeast on Johnston. The four people followed her.

She didn't want to lead the crazed people back to the Blue Note, so she turned right a couple of blocks down. Then hit a hard left. She lost them. She drove down the street, turned left again, and crossed Johnston St. After a couple more turns she was at the Blue Note.

Natasha helped Bruce into the bar. Chuck ran to his pickup, threw open the door, and grabbed his 9mm from the glove compartment. He ran back inside and slammed the door shut. "How do you lock this?" he yelled as the bar's occupants stared at them. Natasha put Bruce into a chair and shouted to Chuck to turn the lock.

The others all gathered around the bleeding Bruce Campbell. Natasha grabbed a towel. She told Bruce to apply pressure to his wound while the armed Chuck told them what happened as he made sure the door was secure. Bruce was cursing up a storm, and seemed to be light headed from blood loss. Kelly Difore, the grad student, came over to help.

Natasha called 9-1-1 repeatedly, but the line was still busy. She tried the police and the sheriff, but no one answered. She ran to her room and grabbed the .38 she kept beside her bed.

At this point Eric Schroeder's danger senses had kicked in. He went up to the bartender and handed him a credit card. He wanted to pay up, and then he and Darren Isler were leaving. After he signed the receipt he walked to the door.

Chuck would not let him out. He didn't want "them" getting in! Eric insisted he be allowed to leave. Chuck pointed his gun at Eric and told him to get away from the door.

Eric grabbed for the gun, intending to wrestle the firearm away from the Wal-Mart manager. Chuck deflected Eric's attack. The two swung at each other, but each of them dodged the other's swing. Chuck kneed Eric in the crotch. Eric gasped, but managed to block Chuck's attempt to pistol whip him.

They wrestled back and forth before Eric knocked the firearm free of Chuck's grip. Eric kicked the gun out of the way and then ran for the window. Chuck was still scrambling to get up. Eric unlocked the window and wrenched it upward.

The face of a blood covered, mutilated woman appeared in the window. She was quickly joined by a one-armed man and a teenager missing an eye. The teenager let out a moan as he tried to reach in.

Eric slammed the window back down. The teenager crashed through it. Eric jumped back, and then yelled, "Someone give me a gun!"

"No way!" cried Chuck, as he retrieved his pistol.

Natasha kept a shotgun behind the bar, just in case. She tossed it to Eric. She and Eric fired at the teenager as the boy tried to climb in the window. Chuck shot at the woman. Eric's first shot hit the boy in the chest, but he kept trying to climb in. Natasha's shot slammed into the boy's skull. He fell back out the window. Chuck's shot hit the woman in the head, but it was only a glancing blow.

Someone behind them was crying. Someone else screamed.

Eric fired at the man, again in the centre of mass. Nothing stopped him from trying to get inside. Chuck fired again, hitting the woman in the head. She crumpled. "In the head!" yelled Chuck and Eric. Natasha fired, blowing the man's head off.

The screaming had stopped, replaced with sobbing. Wind and rain flew in threw the broken window. In the distance were alarms, sirens, and screams.

Phil and Neil turned over two tables and began knocking the legs off of them. The band members joined in.

Eric said he had to get out to his car. There was a pistol in his Porsche. Chuck said there was a shotgun in Bruce's pickup. He also realized that while he had his pistol, his extra ammo was in his own truck.

They ran for the door. Natasha unlocked it, and Eric and Chuck ran out. Eric got the pistol and the ammo from his Porsche and stuffed them into his jacket. Something caught his eye. More of these things — these zombies! — were coming!

Natasha saw them, too, three of them jogging toward them. Natasha fired at the first one, taking off its leg. It fell down and started to drag itself across the road. Eric shot at the second one, hitting it in the head. It fell and twitched.

Chuck grabbed his ammo, and then ran over to Bruce's truck. He got the shotgun. He stuffed the loose rounds in his pockets, and slung the shotgun over his shoulder. As he left the truck, he saw three more zombies coming from around the other side of the building. He took aim and popped off three shots. Two shots hit the first zombie, taking off its head. The second zombie was struck near the eye socket but kept coming.

Eric sensed the danger, and swung around. Natasha fired at the zombie approaching Eric; she took off it's left arm and right leg, crippling it. Eric fired as a zombie heading for Chuck cleared the building. He struck it in the side of the head, taking the thing's head off. Chuck "killed" the third zombie with a shot clean through it's forehead.

More zombies were coming. Eric, Chuck and Natasha ran into the lounge. Natasha hunted for the bar's toolbox while the band, the cook and the bartender hoisted two tables up to cover the broken window. Some zombies pushed back. One got an arm in between the window frame and the tables, preventing a seal. Chuck grabbed a knife and hacked off the arm. It fell to the ground and twitched.

Natasha nailed the tables in place. As she tired, Phil took over. Norm looked for something he could use to help brace the tables, but all he found was a broom. Within a twenty minutes they had the tables nailed in place.

Kelly turned to the others. "I think he's dead!"

They looked at her then Bruce. He wasn't breathing. As they stared, the unliving Bruce lifted himself up, saw Kelly, and grabbed for her. He tried to pull her arm into his mouth, but Kelly screamed and pulled back. Eric fired the shotgun, blowing a huge hole in Bruce's skull. Blood splattered Kelly.

Chuck started issuing orders. They had to secure the rest of the ground floor. They had enough tables to board up all of the windows. Eric ran through the house, making sure that it was clear of zombies. Upstairs he saw that zombies were congregating around the front door and the broken window. Natasha took Kelly to get cleaned up.

The inhabitants sealed the bottom floor windows. Chuck phoned his Wal-Mart store, but no one would answer. This should never happen; he was worried about his store and his employees.

Eric came back down and told them about the zombies gathering around the club. Chuck went upstairs to check it out. He looked out and noticed that the zombies were actually sniffing around the window. They were smelling them!

Meanwhile, Eric phoned the Rapides Parish Sheriff's department. Rapides was the parish for Alexandria, a city an hour away. He got through to someone on the switchboard. Rapides was sending police and fire fighters to Lafayette. Eric said he was a member of Marine Force Recon (omitting the fact that he was retired). He gave his name, rank, and serial number. The female operator told them that there was a riot in Lafayette. Eric corrected her, saying that the "rioters" were actually infected by some sort of disease. They had to be careful and treat it as a disease. The operator took down Eric's cell phone number and the Blue Note's phone number. She would be in touch.

Chuck Came back downstairs. He told them that they were being tracked by smell. Eric went upstairs to confirm it. Natasha grabbed a big roll of plastic wrap. Chuck grabbed some towels and bleach. They packed the window around the tables with the towels and soaked them in bleach. They then wrapped the window in plastic wrap. The other inhabitants wrapped the doors and the other windows.

The guest house was now sealed. Instead of bumping up against the doors and windows, the zombies merely milled about. Some wandered off. By 10 PM less than a dozen zombies remained outside.

Natasha turned on the TV news. There was rioting in Lafayette and police were responding. The storm had made landfall. There was a tanker run aground on Marsh Island on the Gulf Coast.

Everyone sat down to rest. No one said anything. Natasha opened up the kitchen. Neil started cooking for everyone.