by Dawn, M. K.
“Mommy!” Molly shrieked. “I’m bored!”
Britney threw back her head and swore. The kids hadn’t even gone five hours without electricity and they were already complaining. She didn’t have the heart to tell them it might never come back on again.
“Mommy!” Molly screamed again. “Where are you!”
“Comin’!” she hollered back and then headed down the basement stairs. The kids had decided that the upstairs was no longer safe, and that the basement, because it had no windows, was best place to hang out. Of course, they had no electricity and no windows, which one would think would put a hindrance on their plan. Not her kids. They had pulled out all the lanterns they could find and placed them around the room.
Britney knew she shouldn’t let them waste batteries that way, but after everything they’d been through, she didn’t want to upset them even further. After a few more hours of hanging out down there, they would tire of being cooped up anyway.
“There you are!” Molly planted her hands on her hips and did her best teenager impression. “I’ve been calling you!”
“Settle down there, girl. You called twice.” Britney patted Molly on the head before taking a seat on the bed. “What’s goin’ on?”
“We’re bored.” Seemed Molly had designated herself the spokesperson for the group. Though the boys looked content sitting on the floor playing with their Legos.
“You are?” Britney eyed the pile of Barbies and ponies Molly had carried down after breakfast. “Why? You have plenty of toys to play with.”
Molly rolled her eyes. “These are all I have. And I’ve been playing with them forever.”
“What about all the toys you have in your room? Why don’t you go upstairs and play with those?”
“Upstairs?” Molly huffed. “By myself? With a window in my room?”
“You’re on the second floor.” Trying to reason with a stubborn five-year-old made her head hurt. “Nothin’ can get in your window from that high up.”
“Carson said they could.”
Britney glared at her oldest son. “And how would Carson know what they can and cannot do?”
He ignored them.
“Yeah!” Molly turned her annoyance on her big brother. “How do you know what they can do? You’re just a big dummy!”
“Okay.” Britney grabbed Molly’s hand and guided her up the stairs before the war of insults started. “Why don’t you come with me and leave the boys alone.”
“They won’t let me play.” Molly sniffled. Damn, she was getting good at flipping her emotions.
Britney squeezed her hand. “We can do somethin’.”
“Like what?” Molly grumbled. “Something boring.”
“Enough.” Britney hated having to bring out the stern mommy voice, but the child’s attitude was grating on her last nerve. “I understand you’re upset, and there is a lot of scary stuff goin’ on, but that doesn’t give you the right to be rude to everyone. We’re all sad. And scared. And confused.”
Fat tears filled Molly’s eyes. “I miss Daddy.”
Britney’s nose tingled and her eyes blurred. She kneeled down in front of Molly and pulled her into a hug. “Me too, baby. So much. I’m so sorry all of this is happenin’.”
“Is he still in the barn?” Her little voice trembled. “Can I see him? I want to tell him bye and I love him.”
Tears rolled down Britney’s cheeks. She didn’t know what to say. The last thing she wanted was for her kids to remember John as the monster he’d become.
“Please, Mommy.”
Britney cupped Molly’s chin. “Baby… I know you want to see Daddy again, but—” The sound of dogs barking cut her off.
Molly’s eyes widened. “Why are they barking? Is there a monster out there?”
“I don’t think so. It’s probably just the people outside.” Britney grabbed her shotgun off the mantel as she headed for the door. “Stay in here. I’m goin’ to check things out.”
“Don’t go, Mommy.” Molly seized the hem of Britney’s shirt. “I don’t want you to die too.”
“Shh.” Britney brushed the fallen strands of hair out of Molly’s face. “I’m not goin’ to die. I have a gun for protection. Stay in the house with your brothers, okay?”
She bobbed her head.
“I’ll be right back.” Britney headed outside and spotted the sheriff’s SUV parked near the tree where the bikers hung out. Axel stood among them, as did two other men whose names she didn’t know. Inside the SUV, she could sort of make out the silhouette of someone else, though with the sun reflecting off the windshield, she couldn’t be sure.
“Axel,” she called out. “Can I speak with you?”
He finished the conversation she had interrupted and jogged over. “Hey. What’s up?”
“What’s up?” Anger coursed through her. “That’s all you have to say?”
“Good morning.” The corner of his mouth twitched. “Or should I say good afternoon?”
“This isn’t a joke. I told you and your friends I wanted you gone.” She waved her hands around. “And you’re still here. Why?”
Axel’s face softened. “Gus told me about your husband. I’m so sorry, Britney. I can’t imagine how you and the kids are dealing with such a loss.”
The genuine sorrow in his voice caught her off guard. The anger she’d felt just a moment ago faded. “I did what I had to do to protect my kids.”
“I get that.”
She pushed away the pain eating at her chest.
“I want to apologize for last night,” Axel continued. “We showed up unannounced in the middle of the night, expecting you to take us in with nothing to offer in return. It was stupid, and we’re lucky you just fired a warning shot.”
“Why did you come here?” Britney still didn’t understand why they’d chosen her house of all places.
Axel shrugged. “We had nowhere else to go. Don’t know anybody around here. And you were kind to us when all the rest of your town wanted to do was gossip and stare. Plus, you kind of told me where you lived.”
Britney pinched her lips together, trying not to laugh. “Yeah, well, I won’t be makin’ that mistake again.”
Axel chuckled. “Anyway, I know we had no right showing up here empty-handed and expecting a handout. That’s why we went into town this morning for supplies.”
“I thought everything in town was closed down?” Britney pinched the bridge of her nose. “That those things overran it?”
“It is, and they have.”
“So, what?” Britney’s nostrils flared. “You looted a store?”
Axel held his chin high. “‘Looted’ is kind of harsh considering the situation, don’t you think?”
“What store did you break into?” she snapped.
“The general store.”
Britney averted her eyes. She’d grown up with Bob, the owner, and his wife, Sandy. They’d worked hard keeping that store going after Bob’s father died last year. “Well, that was a stupid place to go. Bob never keeps the place fully stocked.”
“That would have been good to know.” Axel glanced back at the SUV. “I mean, we still got a trunkful, but it was slim pickings.”
“You could have asked!” Britney didn’t know why she yelled at him, but she couldn’t help it. “I would have told you not to bother.”
“We need supplies.”
“We!” she shouted. “We? There is no we. There is us and there is you. We’re not together.”
Axel eyed the gun she held firmly by her side. “You mind putting the gun down? You’re angry, and it’s making me nervous.”
“You think I’m goin’ to shoot you? Really?” Her muscles quivered. “I just… it’s just… you should have talked to me first before runnin’ into town and stealin’ supplies. You don’t even know what I have here or what we might need. For all I know, you just brought back junk.”
“Junk? I’m not an idiot. We didn’t risk our lives stealing TVs and candy canes.”
Britney couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of what he’d just said. “Candy canes? Really?”
Axel rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. “I don’t know where that came from.”
“What did you get?”
“Batteries, bags of rice, a couple of boxes of canned food. Flashlights and matches. And some camping supplies: a few tents, sleeping bags, a small grill.”
“We have a grill, so that was a waste of space.”
“Sorry,” Axel mimicked her bitchy tone. “Maybe next time you can make a list.”
She didn’t even want to think about there being a next time. “You did well on the rest of the stuff.”
Axel smiled. “Was that a compliment?”
“Don’t get used to it.” She headed off toward the SUV.
“Wait a second.” Axel wrapped a hand around her wrist and spun her back to him. “Does that mean you’ll let us stay?”
She snatched her arm away. “You don’t have to grab me.”
He raised his hands in defeat. “Sorry. Won’t happen again.”
“Thank you. Now I want to see how much stuff you brought back so I can figure out where to put it all.”
“Before you go over there”—Axel moved in front of her—“there’s something else I need to tell you.”
“What is it?” Britney tapped her foot. She wanted to get back inside and check on the kids.
Axel scratched at his five o’clock shadow. “The thing is, we saw no one in town. At least nobody who wasn’t infected and turned. That is until we left. A woman ran out in front of the SUV, scared and hyperventilating. And these things, the infected, they’re attracted to noise. They came out of nowhere. I couldn’t leave her out there.”
“So you brought her back here? Another stranger?”
“It’s Susan.” Axel rubbed the back of his neck. “I know you two don’t like each other very much—”
“What?” She pushed past him and sprinted toward the SUV. Gus shifted in front of the back door as Britney reached for the handle. “What are you doin’? Let her out.”
“Wait,” Axel called out from behind her. “She’s been bitten.”
Britney whirled around. “Are you fuckin’ kidding me!”
“We didn’t know when we saved her. It wasn’t until we were halfway here that I noticed the bite mark on her hand.”
“I told Axel to leave him,” one man said.
“Shut the fuck up, Shifter,” Axel barked before turning his attention back to Britney. “She was terrified. And lucid. I couldn’t leave her out in the middle of nowhere to die. What was I supposed to do?”
Britney peered over her shoulder at Susan, who sat in the back seat sobbing into her hands. “You shouldn’t have brought her here. You don’t know when or how fast she’ll turn. You’ve put my children—this whole farm—in danger.”
“I didn’t know what else to do,” Axel whispered.
“You have a gun.” Britney stormed past him. “Kill her before she kills us all.”
***
“We want to go outside and play,” Carson whined. “We have nothing to do in here.”
Britney took another long swig of her wine. It was early, and probably not the best idea to be drinking with everything going on outside, but she needed something to calm her nerves before she did something stupid.
“Mom!” Carson waved in front of her face. “Are you even listening?”
“You’re not goin’ outside. Not right now. So please, just go upstairs and play in your room.”
“But the window!” Blake yelled from the other room.
Britney glared at Carson. They wanted to go outside but wouldn’t go into a damn room with a window? “You need to go convince the twins that your rooms are safe.”
“But—”
She held up her index finger. “No buts. No arguin’. There is no way anything is gettin’ into your rooms from the window. There is no ledge on the outside. Nothin’ to grab hold of or pull up on. Check the windows, make sure they’re locked, and go play.”
“Fine. But if we get eaten, you’re going to feel really bad.”
“Go!” Britney pointed to the stairs.
Carson spun around and stomped his feet all the way into the living room. “Come on, you two. Mom said upstairs.”
“But the windows!” Blake said again.
“Don’t be such a baby. They can’t get in the window.”
Molly gasped. “You said they could. You’re such a liar.”
Most of the time when the kids argued, Britney would try to intervene. Right now, she didn’t care. As long as they did it upstairs.
She sat in the kitchen alone for a while, sipping on her wine and contemplating what to do next. With everything going on, she hadn’t checked on or fed the animals that morning. Plus, John’s body was still locked in the barn. And she hadn’t been able to get a hold of his parents. It wouldn’t take but thirty minutes to drive over there and speak with them in person, but that would mean leaving the house. Leaving the kids. Or taking them with her. She wasn’t sure which was worse.
Being out in the open seemed risky. Even if she went armed, if more than a couple of—what had Axel called them?—the infected came after her, she’d be screwed.
“Fuck.” She propped her elbows on the table and covered her face. The lack of sleep clouded her judgment, and worse, put her on edge to the point that she felt like she might snap any minute.
She needed a nap. With the kids upstairs and the bikers outside, this would be the perfect opportunity. She didn’t need anyone in the house to watch the kids, just someone to keep an eye out for danger lurking around the property.
Danger like Susan. Jesus, what was Axel thinking bringing her here? They had to be smarter if they were to survive. Emotions needed to take a back seat to reason. One infected, fully turned or not, could wipe them all out in a matter of days, maybe even hours. She wouldn’t let that happen.
Britney threw back the rest of the wine, grabbed her gun and headed outside. This ended now.
“What are you doing?” Axel asked as Britney sprinted past him.
Her eyes locked on Susan, who was still in the back seat of the police SUV sobbing.
“Britney!” Axel yelled. “Stop!”
Once again Gus blocked the door of the SUV.
“Get out of my way.” She aimed the gun at him. “We have to end this before someone else gets infected.”
Gus didn’t hesitate before stepping aside. “If you think you can do it.”
Britney yanked open the back door and pointed the gun at Susan. “Get out. Now!”
Susan’s blotchy face trembled. “Please.”
“Out! Don’t make me tell you again.”
Susan held up her hands and slid out. “Okay.”
“On your knees!” Britney followed her every movement with the barrel of the gun, afraid that any minute she might try to attack them.
“Get back!” Axel yelled to the others. He came up beside Britney and whispered, “You don’t want to do this.”
“I don’t.” Britney’s voice cracked. “But what choice do we have? Her bite is a death sentence. She might be lucid now, but for how long?”
“Kill me,” Susan croaked. “Just do it. I know what I’m turning into. I don’t want to be a monster. I don’t want to hurt anybody. So kill me before it’s too late.”
Britney swallowed hard and blinked away the tears clouding her vision. She looked down at Susan, a woman she’d known her entire life, and her finger twitched over the trigger. “I… I—”
“Mommy! No!” The sound of Blake’s cries sliced through her heart.
Britney’s legs buckled and she collapsed, the gun slipping from her hand.
Axel caught the gun before it hit the ground.
Angie rushed to Britney’s side and pulled her close. “It’s going to be okay. We got this. It’s going to be okay.”
Britney sobbed into her chest like a child with her mother.
“I would have killed her. My babies almost saw me kill someone.”
“Shh.” Angie rubbed her back. “They saw you put down the gun. That’s all that matters.”
“Where are they?” Britney pulled out of Angie’s embrace. Rainey had Molly tucked in her arms while she guided the boys into the house.
“Rainey’s great with kids. She’ll calm them down and keep an eye on them until you’re ready. They’re in good hands.”
Britney turned to face Susan, who was now on her feet next to Axel. “I’m sorry. I just want to protect my kids from all of this.”
“I would have done the same thing, but I wouldn’t have hesitated to pull the trigger.” Susan straightened her filthy dress and threw back her shoulders.
Britney lowered her eyes, feeling like a failure even though she’d just spared a life.
Axel cocked his head. “What are you trying to say? You’re ready to die now?”
“Of course not.” Susan ran her index fingers under her eyes, wiping away the stray tears that still lingered. “Just that I wish I wouldn’t have been so passive when it came to protecting my son.”
“Did he…?” Britney could hardly form the words. “Did he turn?”
Susan sucked in a sharp breath. “And attacked me. I left him locked in our house. Alone.”
Britney stood, wiping the dirt from her jeans. “Well, I think I killed John. Bullet straight through the heart.”
“I’m so sorry.” Susan lowered her eyes. “We should get this over with. I don’t want to risk harming your children. I actually like them.”
Britney laughed. After all these years of hating each other, Britney wanted nothing more than to pull the woman into a tight hug. “There’s a small house in the back. My great-grandparents built it when they first bought this land. There’s not much to it, but you’ll be comfortable in there until….”
“We’re just going to leave her loose?” Axel asked. “No offense.”
“None taken.” Susan swallowed hard. “You’re right. I would be better if I got as far away from here as possible.”
“There’s a bed.” Britney could tell by the way Susan fidgeted that she was terrified of being alone. “It’s handmade and heavy. We can secure you to it and keep you comfortable. If you want.”