Oak Ridge

Chapter 4

With her arm over Charlie’s shoulder, Linda and her husband left the hospital. Jerry walked around to the passenger side of the vehicle to open their doors. Once they were inside, he walked back around, unable to take his eyes off his son. Jerry was just glad to be able to take him home.

On the drive back, the recently united family noticed a small gathering outside of the Sheriff’s station. As a lawyer and a counsellor, Jerry and Linda figured they may be able to offer some assistance. Besides, with a town so small, any issue that had a dozen people riled up was likely to be a cause for concern. The couple and their son pulled up to inquire about the situation. Jerry left the car running, but exited the vehicle to see what all the fuss was about. Through the shouting, he was able to pick out one man’s voice.

“It’s those damn walking dead!” the man shouted adamantly. “This can’t be a coincidence.”

Arriving late to the scene, Jerry found a lady at the back of the crowd and asked her what was going on.

“People are missing,” she said.

“I say we hunt ‘em down and kill ‘em!” the man shouted.

“Kill who?” Jerry asked.

“Those damn zombies who’ve been coming back from the dead. They’re taking our women and children.”

“I’m sorry, I just got here and I have no idea what’s going on,” Jerry confessed. “Can you please enlighten me? What zombies?”

“The returned,” the woman answered. “Each of us have had someone we love disappear without warning.”

As a lawyer, Jerry was an expert in logic and reasoning, but he failed to make the connection the lady was trying to make. “Okay, but what does that have to do with the returned?”

“We think they’re behind all this. They’re evil.”

“I don’t understand,” Jerry mumbled to himself, still confused.

“There’s one of them!” one of the main instigators shouted. It didn’t quite register with Jerry who the man was referring to as his head was still feeling a whirlwind of emotions. When the crowd started to turn on him, he wised up to the situation that was unfolding. “You got one of them zombies in the backseat of your car!”

“That’s my son,” Jerry said, unsure what words were appropriate in diffusing an angry mob. “I assure you, he has nothing to do with your loved ones going missing.”

Mob mentality was in the preliminary stages, on the cusp of boiling into an ignorant, adrenaline-filled hysteria. Before a full-on frenzy broke out, Jerry wanted to get his family out of there and somewhere safe.

Linda could hear the commotion and was growing more curious by the minute. Stepping out of the car, she asked what was going on. She saw Jerry running toward the vehicle, telling her to get back inside. Slamming the door shut, Jerry put the car in gear and sped off, leaving behind a belligerent congregation of town folk.

“What was that all about?” Linda asked.

“Apparently some people have gone missing and they’re blaming it on the returned.”

“I don’t understand, why would they think that?”

One of the townspeople continued to rile up the crowd, convincing some that in order to bring back their missing loved ones, those that had returned must be killed. While the suggestion was harsh, there was just enough rationality behind it to make sense to the small-towners. Fueled with emotions and armed with the dubious justification that killing something that is already dead is not a crime, the small lynch mob set out to kill all those who had returned.