They Don’t Like the Heat

“What does it look like out there, Félix?”

“Just like here, everything is covered in snow. Have the others returned yet?”

“No, you are the first to arrive. Eduardo came back for a few minutes to change one of his crampons, but he went back out immediately.”

Félix turned around and looked at the entrance of the mine.

“It’s ironic; we always imagined the apocalypse as a disaster full of chaos and covered in fire. Or a desert like one of those Mad Max movies. On the contrary, we have this frozen world and that dying sun above our heads.”

“Don’t forget the dead walking endlessly on the snow.”

“How could I forget them?” replied Félix.

“At least we haven’t seen any nearby.”

“They won’t get too close; it’s warm here, they don’t like the heat.”

“Are we really safe?”

“Calm down, Felix. I’ve told you, this mine has been burning for fifty years; I highly doubt the coal will suddenly run out. We’ll be fine.”

“I hope you’re right.”

They looked into the distance.

“Someone is coming” announced Marcos.

“Can you tell who it is?”

“It’s Eduardo… but he’s coming very fast; he’s trying to run.”

They looked at each other with troubled expressions.

“Shit, they’re following him” Marcos commented worried.

“Calm down; if he can make it, he will be safe; they won’t come in here.”

“You better be right.”

They waited in silence while Eduardo ran in the snow trying to reach the Mine. A few minutes later, Eduardo collapsed on the entrance ground, gasping for breath.

“What happened?” Marcos asked.

“Rafael and Héctor… ” Eduardo replied panting. “They caught them; they came out from under the snow that had accumulated; they didn’t see them… they didn’t see them; they are faster than before. I was far away, and yet they saw me and followed me here.”

“Calm down, they wont come close, they don’t like the heat” Marcos reminded them.

“No, you don’t understand. These are different; they are faster, stronger, and more aggressive. We have to go deeper into the mine.”

“No! It’s dangerous; there’s a lot of carbon dioxide, and many areas are unstable after the coal underground has burned. It’s a death trap.” Marcos warned them.

In the distance, several human shapes could be seen running towards the cave.

“For God’s sake, there are hundreds,” Felix pointed out, horrified.

“And more will come, maybe thousands. I saw them in the distance” added Eduardo.

“What are we going to do? We only have food for a week at most. They won’t leave, and now there are only three of us, we can’t fight them off”

“Well, we have about thirty bullets… that’s already thirty of them less” replied Félix.

The bodies kept approaching at full speed.

“Hey! Aren’t they getting too close? They usually stop at this distance,” observed Marcos.

“They’re not stopping… what the hell?” – Félix added.

“I told you, these are different” Eduardo warned them.

Even a few meters from the entrance, the leading corpse continued its run.

“Stop already, damn it!” Cursed Félix, raising the revolver and aiming at the pale corpse that was running towards the entrance of the mine. It was so close he could see its features: Pale skin, eyes with a milky white cornea, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans with several cuts showing the flesh underneath. The dark blood in his mouth, nose, and eyelids had frozen.

Félix stood firm a few steps from the exit of the mine while Eduardo and Marcos stepped back, frightened. As soon as the corpse crossed the threshold of the cave, Félix fired. A point-blank shot to the forehead, and the body fell to the ground. Félix approached carefully, confirming that the body wasn’t moving.

Less than two hundred meters away, a group of corpses was running towards him.

“We have to go further in; we have no other choice.”

They hurriedly gathered the food and other utensils and went deeper into the mine as fast as they could. After walking about two hundred meters deep, they stopped to take a breathe and listen.

“I can’t believe it, they’re inside the mine” whispered Félix.

“I told you, man! They’re not the usual dead”

“Shh! Lower your voice” Marcos scolded him.

They remained attentive to the sounds that spread through the mine.

“They are moving away. I think they still can’t fully tolerate the heat yet.” Félix looked back into the depths of the mine; the heat had increased, all three of them were sweating. They took off their coats.

“What do we do now?” Eduardo asked.

“For the moment, we wait; we have no choice” replied Marcos, sitting on the ground and leaning his back against the wall.

They stayed there, sitting in silence in the dim light of the cave, sweating and feeling increasingly tired. Marcos dozed off for a second, and when he opened his eyes again, it was even hotter. He saw Eduardo and Félix getting up. He got up too; it was too hot in here, and they didn’t like the heat. They started walking outside towards the cold; they liked the cold.