Dead Crazy
by William Cole


EXCERPT

CHAPTER 1

Hurricane Clyde tore through the small town of Medford, Pa. without a speckle of remorse leaving no sign of a blessing as to its end. Telephone poles made creaking noises from being tilted to a lean from gusty winds that made dangerous high voltage lines practically whip and wind themselves resembling a game of double-dutch jump rope. The storm brought hard rains that made muddy water trenches alongside soggy roads.

Joey Sumpter was driving through the storm that night with his girlfriend, Cody Miller. Joey’s car was a fairly roomy late model Monte Carlo that belonged to his father. Its burgundy color practically blended in with the dark of the night. Joey was an average built twenty-six-year old white man. He had thick black wavy-like hair he kept combed to one side. His face was kind of full with high cheeks. Joey spoke with a slight southern accent, but not as much s his girlfriend Cody.

Cody was twenty-six years old, nicely shaped, white, with long blonde hair that revealed a wide heart-shaped face.

“God, Joe. How long have we been driving in this storm?” Cody asked, shading her eyes at bright flashes of lightning.

Joe reached down below the dash and turned on the radio while he watched violent flashes of lightning from afar burn steady bright hot orange-like rods of fire before they self-extinguished in mid air. The car radio came on at a startling volume before Joey turned it down. “YES, FOLKS, IF YOU DON’T HAVE to be out there tonight driving, stay indoors! Old Clyde is out there kickin’ some ass! I’m Johnny Webster of WPGL, who’s gonna give you folks a howling Halloween,” said the disc jockey and played the song Blue Moon.

Joey’s car suddenly began to jerk back and forth as if it were running out of gas. “What is it?” Cody asked giving Joey a worried look.

“Aw, damn! It’s that damn alternator!” Joey said.

“I hope that doesn’t mean we’re gonna get stuck out here,” Cody said, looking up at the dark clouds being back lighted by flashes of lightning, then a dazzling array of lightning appeared in the sky.

“Look, Joey,” she said. The sky looked as if another dimension was opening with the way the lightning seemed to fight in the sky, then a violent bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and hit the side gate of a rural cemetery. A fiery spitfire line of sparks instantly cut down through the bars like a welding torch. The gate fell down crashing to the ground making a loud clanging noise.

“Did you see that?” Joey asked in amazement while leaning over his dashboard as the car cruised and jerked along the way.

“We have to get out of this storm, Joey!” Cody reminded him.

“God, Cody, this damn car is a piece of shit! That’s why my father didn’t hesitate with letting us borrow it,” Joey said. Violently loud claps of thunder sounded, the kind that gave one the impression that if one didn’t duck or go for cover, he or she may possibly be struck or hit. Joey and Cody ducked their heads simultaneously and the interior of their car became illuminated to where it made Joey and Cody look up and see what looked like several bolts of lightning dancing in the sky over top of transition towers that carried radio signals and local power lines. Suddenly a loud snap noise sounded as if something with tight tension popped, then one power line fell swinging and jumping wildly through the air and burned another line. More lines began to fall and swing. The wind sent electrical sparks flying in the air. The tower tilted a little then the last line swung down and hit the wet ground in the cemetery. The sky had already looked like a July 4th celebration. Blue lines of electricity danced and darted around a countless number of graves and into the ground. Six feet below, one cadaver’s body began to vigorously shake as if it were going into a spasm and almost sat up hitting its head on the inside of the coffin lid. Other cadavers began to experience the same; then those graves where the ground had literally a pool of water over them were the first of where cadavers began to unearth themselves. Bony and decayed looking fingers broke through the watery surface soil resembling the final wave of life clinging fingers of a drowning victim. Cadavers began to pull themselves up from their final resting place in other locations of the cemetery. They clawed at the giving wet soil that poured down into their graves like runny gravy. Some cadavers were momentarily stuck on rotted wood splinters of their coffins. They began to moan and click their teeth together as if they were exercising their jawbones.

Two terrifying muffled moans came through the soil as two cadavers broke the surface soil of their grave in a morbid embrace from their double grave. Another cadaver was sitting up in his grave when the electricity shot over his head then surrounded his body, completing the circuit, then its eyes suddenly opened like raising a doll from its crib. The cadaver continued to violently shake in its own electrical spasm until the electricity died down. A smell of burned clothing, hair and whatever was left of the cadaver filled the air.

After the gusty winds had subsided, a cool breeze remained in the air that helped bring a rapidly rolling fog. The fog at first seemed self-contained within the boundaries of the surrounding gates of the cemetery that ran along the deserted Route 3 before it spread beyond its perimeter.

Birds of the night began to sing and chirp within the cemetery as if they too had been awakened from their slumber.

Meanwhile, cadavers had reached out to their headstones and trees or whatever was nearby to help them stand. They stood there with lifeless eyes while they gently rocked from side to side making a low moaning noise as wet soil and skin fell from their bodies.

A small bird landed on one cadaver’s head and took a peck at it before flying off with a piece of flesh.

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