Darlings of Decay

by Chrissy Peebles

  “Bastian,” I whispered, my eyes picking out a figure silhouetted in the doorway.

  “Hmm,” he grunted.

  I placed my hand lightly over his lips and whispered into his ear. “We didn’t lock the doors.”

  Sebastian’s eyes popped open and he slowly moved my hand from his lips. Keeping as still as possible, I franticly searched the room with my eyes, seeking a weapon of any sort.

  “Help me.” Her voice was raspy and though she didn’t move, I knew we didn’t have much time.

  I jumped up out of bed, recognizing the voice as our neighbour’s teenage daughter.

  “Jessica?”

  “Help me, please,” she said, her body twitching. I flicked on the overhead light and Sebastian cursed.

  “We’re naked here, woman,” he said as he yanked on some clothes. I did the same, keeping an eye on Jessica the whole time, her eyes were semi-glazed and she didn’t seem to notice that we were naked. Thank goodness for small blessings.

  “Honey,” I said slipping a t-shirt over my head, “Your parents, where are they?”

  “Gone, they turned into monsters.”

  I froze in mid-zip.

  “Shit.”

  “My thoughts exactly, wife.”

  I moved toward Jessica and wondered again why she had taken Nevermore. Thin as a rail, pretty, and yet she’d had the shot, as had her mother and father. Her Caribbean-blue eyes were still human, not yet sliding into the realm of the feral horde outside. How long would it be before they turned colour and she became one of the monsters?

  I touched her arm and she flinched. “It’s okay, let’s go downstairs and see what we can do.”

  “The TV said there isn’t a cure,” she said, her voice breaking up with a sob.

  I nodded. “I know, but that could change. I’m sure they’re working on a cure right now.”

  Sebastian made a rude noise, and I shushed him. I knew when to tell a white lie. This was a teenage girl who was terrified and alone; the least I could do was try and comfort her.

  Once downstairs, seated around the kitchen table, a hot tea in front of her, Jessica told us what happened.

  “Parkinson’s runs strong in our family, so my parents wanted to make sure I never had to deal with it. They insisted I take the shot with them. You got the shot too, didn’t you?”

  I leaned forward and put my hand over hers. “No, I didn’t.” I said.

  It took some effort not to flinch as she twitched underneath my fingers, but I wanted her to be calm so that she would keep talking. “When did your parents . . . ?” I wasn't sure how to ask when her parents went crazy and turned into zombies.

  “Today, after I got back from our walk,” she whispered, staring into her tea. “I don’t have very long, do I?”

  Tears welled up in my eyes, and I blinked them back. I didn’t know Jessica well, but it was hard to see someone so young cut down by something that should have helped her live a long and healthy life. It was hard to know there was nothing we could do to help. Nero whined at our feet, and I stood and fixed him a bowl of food. I felt bad for ignoring him, but he wagged his tail and seemed to have forgiven me already.

  I thought about the fight we’d heard in the home as we’d walked and shivered. No doubt that had been no normal fight, but a neighbor shifting into a Nevermore. Crap, how close had we come to getting run down by a wandering Nevermore?

  “How long ago did they take the shot?” Sebastian asked, leaning in toward her.

  “Five weeks; I was about a week later,” she said, her eyes flicking up to him twice, maybe intimidated by his size, the way a lot of people were. Then I remembered that she had a crush on him. I could only imagine the embarrassment of finding her crush in bed naked with his wife.

  Sebastian stood up and stomped out of the house. I ignored him, knowing that Jessica needed comfort right now. “You can stay here, sweetheart. It’ll be okay.” Then I frowned. “How did you make it past the horde out front?”

  She gave me a wobbly, tear filled smile. “They know I’m one of them. They let me pass, I climbed the gate, and they . . . .” She shrugged. “There’s no other way to say it, they cheered for me, like they were happy I could get in here to you.” Dropping her head to her arms on the table she let out a sob.

  I reached over and put a hand on her head, fighting with my own rising emotions: sadness, fear, and then relief. It could have been me waiting to be turned into an animal. If not for the damn scotch broom, it would be me. I would have taken the shot in an instant.

  I ushered Jessica to the back bedroom and tucked her into bed, giving her three Benadryl, which would knock her out for the night. I took one for myself, not to sleep, but for the reaction I was having to some airborne allergen. My skin tingled all over my body, my eyes watered, and the back of my throat was itchy—sure signs I’d gotten hit with something I didn’t like. Then I went to find Sebastian, Nero at my heels, my fear beginning to turn into resolve. We could survive. We were smart, young, and in love. There wasn’t anything we couldn’t do.

  He was out on the back porch leaning against the railing, staring out at the star encrusted sky.

  I stepped up beside him slipping my arm around his waist. “I haven’t had the chance yet to thank you.”

  He gave me a quizzical look.

  I pointed down at the puppy sitting on my foot and smiled. “You didn’t have to get me a puppy, but I’m glad you did.” I gave his waist a squeeze and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

  “We’ve got to lay out a plan, Bastian. Food, water, fences, weapons. Maybe get some sort of radio up in case there are notices once the electricity is out.” I looked up and my breath caught in my throat. Tears streaked his face, dripped off his chin and plunked onto the railing.

  He wrapped his arms around me. “It isn’t fair, Mara, that girl is losing everything because she wanted to have a life, to not pass on a disease she had no say on in the first place.” His voice was thick with emotion.

  I held on to him as tight as I could, fighting my own tears, shocked at what I was seeing. Sebastian was usually so stoic. In four years, this was perhaps the second time I’d seen him shed tears—and the first time I wasn’t entirely certain it wasn’t just a hard wind causing his eyes to water.

  “Go to bed, babe. I’ll stay up and watch over you two. I don’t think I could sleep anyway.”

  I kissed him softly on his lips, holding his head in my hands. “I love you, Bastian, more than anything.”

  He kissed me back and swatted me lightly on my butt as I turned to go inside.

  I went upstairs to bed, snuggling Nero down in with me. I listened to Sebastian pace on the porch, muttering from time to time. I didn’t sleep much that night, my mind whirling with plans. In my head, I sketched out the best place for a garden—the current spot was far too rocky—where the fence needed to be reinforced, and what we could use as weapons besides the knives we had. Dan hadn’t even left us a single weapon, though he’d said he had lots at his place.

  I yawned and closed my eyes, Nero snuggling in tight next to me, his warmth a steady comfort, then finally drifted off to a fitful sleep.

  7

  The dreams that haunted what should have been a restful sleep left me wishing I’d stayed up with Sebastian. The clerk was attacking me again, but this time I was on my own, Sebastian in a pool of blood beside me, Dan nowhere to be found, Nero barking madly, and I was pregnant. In the dream, when I realized I was with child, I snapped, a mother bear’s ferocity coming from a place I never knew existed within me.

  The clerk never had a chance, his heart once more pierced by my kitchen blade, his eyes glazing over as death settled on him. A boom from the other side of the house and the back porch door swung open, a wave of Nevermores pouring in. Yanking my blade out of the clerk’s chest, I reached for the front door and pulled on the handle. It was locked and my hand slid over the mechanism to unlock it over and over, unable to grasp it. I screamed and turned back to the ho
rde. They rushed me and I fought like a mad woman, protecting the child within me, blocking hands and mouths, slicing off fingers and stabbing eyes. Nero barked and bit, but they flung his little body aside like a rag doll, disappearing into the maw of one of the Nevermores. The horde howled and swelled, slamming me into the ground, pinning me as they shook me.

  I screamed, or tried to, and a hand covered my mouth.

  “You’re dreaming, babe. It’s just a dream. You’re okay.” Sebastian’s deep rumble in my ear slowed my heart rate as I came fully awake.

  “What . . . time . . .it?” I mumbled.

  “What?” He lifted his hand off my mouth.

  “Time?”

  “It’s just after seven. Jessica’s still asleep.”

  I got up, still in my clothes from the day before. “I guess I should shower.”

  I plucked at my sweat-soaked t-shirt.

  “Might as well, at some point we’re going to lose electricity, and then no more hot showers.” He kissed me on the cheek then bent and scooped up a yawning Nero. “I’m going to make breakfast for us and the little man here.” He ruffled the puppy’s hair and disappeared into the hallway.

  I showered, taking my time in the hot water. It was hard to imagine being without the simple parts of life, the day-to-day luxuries. It looked like we were about to embark on the camping trip from hell that wouldn’t ever end. Not really the most pleasant of thoughts for a newly-relocated city girl.

  Downstairs, Sebastian was indeed making breakfast: waffles, eggs, bacon, hash browns, oatmeal, sausage, and French toast. Nero was munching on a sausage quite happily.

  I shook my head. “Holy crap, what are you doing? Shouldn’t we be saving the food?”

  Sebastian flicked his head toward the hallway where the guest bedroom was. “She’s going to be hungry and, let’s be honest, this could be one of her last meals.”

  I swallowed my irritation. “You’re a good man, my love, I hadn’t thought of that.”

  The guest bedroom was painted bright yellow, including the door; something I hadn’t gotten around to changing yet, though it seemed fitting that she was there. I knocked three times.

  “Jessica, are you awake? We’ve got breakfast ready.”

  A shuffle, and then a groan. I backed away from the door, thinking we’d made a serious mistake in letting her stay with us, even for the night.

  The doorknob turned slowly and Jessica peeked out, yawning. “Is that bacon I smell?”

  I let out a breath, relief rushing through me. “Yup, Sebastian’s been slaving over the stove all morning, just for you.” I smiled at her and patted her back.

  She flushed and ducked her head as she passed me and headed into the kitchen.

  What happened next was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Jessica, who couldn’t have been more than 5’4 and weighed maybe 110 pounds, ate at least as much as Sebastian, who was a full foot in height taller than her and was at least double her weight. To top it all off, it looked as if they were racing, popping sausages and bites of waffle in as fast as they could chew. The whole scene was more than a little disconcerting. It was kind of fun, though, to watch her face when she peeked under her eyelashes at Bastian, her blushing and head ducking almost comical in their lack of subtlety. The best part was that Sebastian was completely oblivious.

  I had a single helping, keeping it to oatmeal and a banana, then splurged and had some bacon with it. What the hell, if it was the end of the world, who cared about counting calories?

  “What’s the plan today?” Sebastian asked, looking from me to Jessica, and then back again.

  “Oh. Well, I thought that we should make a tally of all the food in the house, plant the garden, and check fences.”

  “We just had the new page wire fence put up! And haven’t even pulled down the old barbed wire on the other side,” Sebastian said, his irritation filling the room.

  Jessica slouched in her seat and stared at her plate.

  I rubbed my face with both hands. “I know that. And maybe it’s good that we have a double fence line, but the deer can still get in. I know the deer can jump, but what if there’s a little hole somewhere? One at ground level? The Nevermores maybe can’t jump, but I bet they can crawl.”

  At that Sebastian paused, his mouth open to argue, and then he snapped it shut and nodded. The thought of a horde of Nevermores pouring through a small hole was all too possible and all too frightening to take the chance that there was even one small opening on our first line of defence.

  “We also need to find some way to store water,” I said, leaning back in my chair.

  Sebastian nodded and leaned back in his chair, mimicking me. “We can draw water from the well even when the power’s out, but you’re right, we should store some anyway.” He stood up. “I’m going to start with the fences and I’ll throw another chain and padlock on the front gate. Why don’t you come with me, Jessica?” He glanced at me, and I gave him a slight nod. Neither of us said what we were both thinking. The Nevermores saw her as one of their own and wouldn’t hurt her, and it might keep Sebastian safer too, having her at his side. Jessica nodded and took another bite of a sausage, her face glowing with pleasure. I smiled to myself, it would be good to keep her distracted, and having her crush all to herself was a perfect way for a young girl to have her mind taken off the scary parts of life. It didn’t bother me, Sebastian was not the type to wander or stray, especially not for a sixteen-year-old girl.

  As they headed out the back door, I grabbed Sebastian by the hand, pulling him back to me and planting a kiss on his lips. “Don’t forget to reinforce the gate. I saw some extra bars in the grass beside it.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain.” He saluted me sharply and headed out, following Jessica’s lithe figure.

  After they left, I spent the morning going through all our cupboards, charting out canned food and preserves, cleaners, toiletries, and perishables. Once I had them stacked in order of how fast we needed to use them, my heart sank. I’d never really been a person to buy in bulk and it showed. There were three bags of pasta, less than two dozen cans of soup, one large bag of rice, eight cans of pasta sauce, seven cans of tuna, fourteen cans of fruit of various kinds, three boxes of Jell-O, one bag of flour and sugar each, a small bag of brown sugar, a half box of tea, one of each of my favourite spices, and that was about it for food of the non-perishable sort.

  I scrubbed my hands over my face. The fridge was full of fresh veggies and fruit, milk, cheese, half a dozen eggs, and two cuts of beef from dinner two nights ago. The freezer was not so full, but there were a few bags of bread, ground beef, one package of bacon, a package of chicken drumsticks, and two frozen pizzas. How the hell were we going to make this stretch?

  “We are so screwed,” I said softly, needing to break the depressing silence even if it was with a depressing statement. Nero woofed softly in seeming agreement. I laughed and rolled a ball for him across the floor, which he bounded after. I sat on the floor rolling the ball, enjoying the normalcy of the moment. After ten minutes of playing, Nero yawned, and I scooped him up, grabbed a towel, and made a makeshift bed in the tub. At least there he wouldn’t get into trouble if he woke up and I was outside.

  A huge rumble reached my ears as I tucked Nero in, a rumble that I recognized and had cursed most mornings as the neighbour and his god-awful diesel minus-a-muffler truck headed to work. Scrambling to my feet, I ran to the door, flinging it open in time to see the horde out front of our house get scattered by the black Dodge mowing them down.

  Bodies flew in all directions, screams of pain and rage coming from every side. I shouted and pumped my fist in the air. I knew we could get out with a vehicle, I just knew it.

  8

  My jubilation was short-lived. The Dodge lurched to a stop just past our house.

  I frowned. Sebastian and Jessica came running in from the far field, tools in their hands, worry written across their faces.

  “Mara?” Sebastian yelled.

  “I�
��m here. The guy with the noisy truck!” I pointed to the front of the property.

  We stared as the truck rumbled, coughed, and fell silent, choosing this moment to protest its rough usage. The horde of Nevermores swarmed around the truck, scratching and screaming, their nails on the metal making my skin jump and twitch.

  “What’s he doing?” Jessica asked.

  “I think his truck stalled out,” Sebastian said.

  The back window slid open, hands emerged, and our neighbour squeezed himself out into the truck bed.

  “Hey!” he yelled. “Little help?” He flapped his arms and pointed around him like we hadn’t noticed the Nevermores surrounding him, or like we had some magic wand that would carve a path for him through the horde.

  “What are we supposed to do? Walk out there and ask them if they would mind not eating him?” I said, not really expecting an answer.

  Jessica was nodding though. “They let me through once; maybe they’ll let me through with Tom.”

  Sebastian and I stared at her. “Jessica,” I said. “You don’t know that they won’t attack you.”

  “They didn’t attack us on the back of your property when I was with Sebastian. They just stared at us, swaying, and kind-of-like singing under their breath,” she said, her voice far more confident than I felt.

  Chills rippled over me at the picture that came to my mind, the scene I could see in my head even though I hadn’t been there. What Dr. Josephson on the TV had said slid into place along with what Jessica had said, and my mind filled in the missing bits. The horde would be working like wolf pack with an Alpha male and female, the rest acting together as hunters and protectors. A final moment of understanding came to me and I sucked in a lungful of air, the simplicity of it making more sense than I would have thought. The pack, or whatever it was, wanted Jessica, if that Dr. Josephson from the TV was right, and the Nevermores were working like a wolf pack, they’d be looking for females to increase their numbers.