The Reaper

by S E Lunsford

  I opened my mouth to ask him what was going on, but then I heard it, a heavy grating noise below the pull-down attic door. Silence followed it, then after a few moments a couple sets of feet that seemed to be tiptoeing as they moved whatever it was under the trap door.

  Glancing over at Cassie my stomach sank. She still lay heavily in the quilt nest I had made for her, breathing deeply, her back exposed. Fear crawled into my mouth settling into the back of my throat that immediately went dry as I tried to figure out what we were going to do. There was no way we could really move her, and I didn’t know how long my wedges would hold the door closed.

  Chris moved over to her and began to roll her up in one of the quilts being careful to not touch her back much. I followed quick on his heels seeing her wince in pain in her oblivion.

  “There’s no way we can move her,” I whispered.

  “We may not have a choice,” he replied. “I’ll carry her, you can follow me.”

  “How? They’re on the floor where we need to go,” my jaw tightened in frustration at being entirely trapped. I could have kicked myself. In making sure no one could get in to hurt Cassie, I also ensured that if someone did, then there was no way for us to get out.

  “No matter what it looks like, there’s always a way out,” Chris said as he hefted Cassie up. She groaned. “We’ve got another problem to worry about.”

  I bristled at his cavalier use of the word ‘we’ but kept my thoughts to myself as he walked towards the window. A tapping sound came from the other side of the attic door as whoever, or whatever, was below continued to try to find a way in.

  Chris swung the window wide, balancing Cassie over his shoulder as he did so.

  “I’ll go first,” he said. “Then you can follow me. We’ll go up and over the roof, then drop down the other side.”

  I wasn’t sure of the plan, but I didn’t have any alternatives. So, I kept quiet even as the door in the middle of the attic began to rattle. Whoever they were had figured out a way to dislodge at least one of my wedges and were working hard to get in.

  Just as Chris was about to crawl out the window, a voice cried out from the floor just below us.

  “Hey, it looks like there’s another way up there,” a voice called out.

  “Where?” Came an answering voice as the rattling stopped.

  “Over here, there’s a window. If we can crawl up the side of the house we can get in from the outside,” the voice trailed off as it was joined by the others.

  Chris stepped back almost bumping into me. Our eyes met in the scant light that reflected off the moon. If he had said anything it definitely would have been ‘crap’. Then we heard a higher pitched voice causing the look on his face to change.

  “Shut her up,” came a male voice. The voice which was obviously a little girls was immediately muffled.

  “I can't help it,” came another male voice. “She just doesn't listen.”

  “I do listen,” came the little girl’s voice again. “There’s nobody around to hear.”

  “Not true,” Chris’ voice dropped down from the window effectively silencing everyone including me.

  If looks could kill, mine would have had him in ashes on the floor. He didn’t even glance at me as he leaned towards the window listening to what the others were doing. Slight shuffles and movements told me that they were moving away from the window. This was followed by mumblings and the little girl’s voice again. This time loudly proclaiming, “It sounds like a nice voice.” This comment immediately made Chris smile.

  “At least someone can figure things out,” he said teasingly my way.

  He moved Cassie carefully to the ground making a move towards the window. I grabbed his arm.

  “What are you doing?” I hissed at him as loudly as I dared.

  “They’re kids Dani,” he said over his shoulder as he began to climb through. “They’re just kids.”

  I tried to push down the anger that gave way to irritation then finally resignation as I watched him climb down to the second floor and disappear into the window below. Listening carefully, I didn’t hear anyone’s footsteps, which meant whoever was down there wasn’t trying to run away.

  Cassie began to moan. Carefully I walked over to her making sure she was comfortable as I waited for a noise, any noise, to make its way up from below. As I pushed her hair away from her sweaty forehead a black figure lightly came through the window. Pulling my gun out of the waistband of my jeans I aimed at the intruder. Taking a deep breath, I slowed my heartbeats down in order to pull the trigger between beats, before I realized I recognized his scent. It was Chris.

  “Dani,” came Chris’ voice through the darkness. “It’s just me.”

  “Yeah, I could tell,” I replied putting my gun back as deafening quiet settled around me.

  “Could've fooled me,” he whispered, walking towards the middle of the attic.

  “What are you doing?” I whirled around as soon as I realized he was near the attic trapdoor.

  “Letting them in Dani,” he said. “We don’t have a choice. They’ve survived this long and there's no way I’ll let them die on my watch.”

  “Your watch,” I exclaimed, walking over to him as quickly and silently as I could. “When did they become part of your watch? You’re going to get us all killed.”

  He just shook his head as he pulled my wedges out one by one.

  “It’ll be okay, just stay close to me and don’t panic,” he said. “They’ll be fine.”

  The door dropped down into the darkness below that only revealed the shiny metal top of a ladder where they had been trying to get in earlier.

  “Come on up,” Chris said.

  A small blond head come up the ladder, followed by a white face with big blue eyes and a scattering of freckles over an upturned nose. Chris reached down and pulled the little girl up, settling her down next to him as a boy about the same age made his way up next. They were followed by two older boys. Although they had dark hair, they had the same heart-shaped faces as the other two, revealing that they were related.

  Pulling the attic closed behind them, Chris put my wedges back in place before gesturing to the children to walk towards the window. The little girl stopped when she saw Cassie rolled up in her blanket, her eyes going wide with terror.

  “It’s okay,” Chris said. “She’s sick but not with the creeping sickness. We’ve been trying to get her better, but are running out of medicine.”

  The little girl nodded and I looked more closely at them all. The two younger ones looked to be about 8, while the two older boys looked to be around my age. They looked over at me warily as I crossed my arms and watched them.

  “I’m Chris, this is Dani and that is Cassie,” Chris said gesturing to each of us in turn. I could feel my heart pump even faster than it already had been I was so irritated that he told these strangers our names even if they were just kids. In this world we found ourselves in just because kids were young didn't mean they weren't just as dangerous as anyone else. Cassie and I found this out the hard way because of her soft heart towards little ones. This soft heartedness of adults for children was something little creepers seemed to have figured out when they were early on in the disease waiting for unsuspecting adults to pick them up or hug them in order to get a free meal.

  Apparently from the expressions on their faces, these kids were just as shocked as I was that Chris was so free with our names. They stared at us for a few moments in silence, not quite knowing what to do. The younger boy began to balance his weight from one foot to another as he waited for one of his companions to speak.

  “Well, you know our names what about yours?” I was surprised to hear my own voice come softly out of my throat heavy with distrust.

  They all looked at me again. From the looks on their faces I saw that I went up a few notches on their threat meter as they took in my expression, and at least two of my weapons that I never bothered to hide.

  “If we tell you, you but you have
to promise not to laugh,” said the little girl flipping her hair behind her shoulder as if she didn’t really care what we thought, but needed to toss out the disclaimer anyway.

  Watching her stand with a slight look of defiance on her face as the boys began to squirm, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of names they had to cause such a reaction when they hadn't even said them yet.

  “We promise,” Chris said.

  I almost tossed out a “speak for yourself” at him but stopped myself because my curiosity was peaked at what these kids had to say.

  One of the older boys stepped forward slightly.

  “My name is Carlisle, this is my brother Edward,” he said pointing to the boy who looked to be a year or two younger than him. “This is my younger brother Jasper and this, this is our Rosalie.”

  I stood stock still trying not to laugh at the names that spoke of a different era and time.

  “You promised not to laugh,” Rosalie said, pointedly looking at me.

  “That we did,” Chris said, smiling broadly at all of them in turn. “It’s just those names….’

  “Yeah we know,” Carlisle said. “Our mom had a thing with Twilight.” He shrugged, “And my dad didn’t really care what we were called as long as we were all healthy, at least that’s what he said.”

  “And that’s the truth,” Rosalie said emphatically.

  Chris smiled at all of them. “You hungry?”

  “No,” Carlisle said at the same time that Rosalie and Jasper said, “Yes.”

  The older boy sighed before glaring at them.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “We don’t have much but you’re welcome to it.”

  I pulled open my bag not quite believing that I was offering the only protein bars I had, as Chris went to get whatever he had out of his bag. Soon, the very quiet sound of chewing ensued as they tore into their bars as if they hadn’t eaten in days, and by the looks of them I doubted they did.

  Just as they were finishing, a creak from two floors below made us all go still.

  “They’re here,” Chris said, his words falling quickly and hitting the attic floor.

  I didn’t even wait to ask who because the smell hit me from below. Whatever had held the creepers off until now was gone because from the sound of things they were on the first floor. It wouldn't be too much time before they made their way up the stairs drawn by the scent of our all too human body and tasty brains.

  Chris picked up Cassie and told the others what he had told me. Up and over the roof, except this time we had to figure out how many creepers were down there before we dropped.

  The moaning and scrabbling of the creepers got closer as the kids made their way out the window. I could barely hear them on the roof as I scrambled out the window myself, squinting down to see how many creepers we were dealing with. Their sickly dead kind of like skunk mixed with rancid beef smell wafted up as I looked over the edge of the roof hoping they didn’t catch sight or smell of me. A handful staggered around looking for ways into the house, with some of them just crawling over others who had fallen down trying to get inside.

  As I watched, one took a step back and looked up. At just that moment the moon decided to come out from behind the cloud cover it was hiding behind, and the creeper met my gaze. Its red eyes told me that it was well into the disease the Creator Angels had planted there, but there was something else too. Something that made my skin crawl as I watched it. Looking straight at me, its mouth twisted into a grimace that looked a lot like a smile, and it raised its arm pointing up at me, then back to itself even as more than one of its fingers looked like they would fall off at any moment.

  My stomach churned as I yanked myself back from the edge away from the red eyes that watched me with something like amusement down below. My mind struggled to comprehend what I had just seen. Every other creeper I had encountered was a thoughtless, mindless thing intent on one thing. Eating. And, it didn’t matter if it had just eaten, it still wanted to eat, but that one down below spoke of something else, a difference in them, that could only mean one thing. They were becoming able to use their minds once again, if only to target those who they would prefer to eat. And, there was no doubt, that one below, preferred to eat me.

  Reaching for my gun, I didn’t even realize my hand was shaking until I pulled it from my waistband. The cool metal calmed me, somehow making me feel better about what was below.

  Chris swung up onto the roof carrying Cassie. He set her on the rooftop and walked over to me.

  “What’s it looking like?” He asked as the others drew closer to us wondering how exactly we were going to get out of this.

  “It’s your plan,” I snapped back, rereminding myself that I was going to get Cassie and myself away from this little group as soon as she was better.

  His eyes narrowed as he looked at me, before he made his way over to the roof’s edge. Looking down at the clamoring throng below that was beginning to make a lot of racket, which meant they would attract more, he shrugged his shoulders and walked back to us. His eyes taking in the night sky as he did so.

  “Below and above,” he said with a slight smile as we heard the creepers breaking things in the house in their haste to get to us. “So far we’re safe, but not for long.” Chris was still looking up in the sky.

  My eyes followed his and my stomach clenched as I realized that we might actually have a better chance of survival on the ground. Up on this roof we were sitting ducks for whatever flew by, friend or foe, and there were a lot more foes out there than friends.

  “There’s a station wagon in the garage two houses down,” I said. “If we can get to it we can get out of here.”.

  “Keys? Gas?” Chris asked looking at me as if he couldn't actually believe what had come out of my mouth.

  I nodded pointing.

  “In that grayish house, over there.”

  A crash in one of the rooms on what sounded like the second floor told me that the creepers were trying to figure out how to get up to the next level of the house. I hoped beyond hope that there were no back stairs up to the attic that I somehow missed in my rushed attempt to seal off what looked like the main access through the pulldown stairs. Of course, if those by any chance dropped down, then they’d be one floor closer to us. I pushed down the thought that if there was more like that one that pointed at me, then we might be in more trouble than usual.

  “How is it that you didn’t mention this before?” Chris grumbled at me as he gauged the distance between where we were on the roof, and how we could get to that garage.

  The creepers were gathering in even greater numbers below us. The racket they were making was drawing even more to the area. I could see shuffling figures moving towards the house in the distance. If we didn’t make a move quickly, we’d be doomed because they would rip the house apart board by board to get to us.

  I shrugged not wanting him to know that the station wagon was my backup plan to get Cassie and I out of here alive. If she woke up that is. I still wasn’t entirely sure about staying with him and the orphans he had gathered, but now I’d all but sealed our fate with theirs. In the short term, anyway.

  He turned his back on me shaking his head and taking on the task at hand. Pulling a rope out of his pack, he wound it around each of his hands and pulled it tight before tying a lasso in one end, then the other.

  “Good plan,” Carlisle said immediately seeming to understand what Chris was doing as he and his siblings watched.

  I wasn’t so sure.

  “We’re going to just have to jump from roof to roof until we get to that house,” Chris said as he wound up the rope to throw it to the next house. Releasing it, the rope snaked its way over the creepers’ heads and my stomach clenched as I thought of what might happen if the rope actually dropped in the middle of them. Even though for the most part they had nothing going on in their brains except the rampant desire to eat more brains, you just never knew what they would actually pay attention to. To them, the rope may look like
a way to get a meal delivered to them from the sky. One they would be only to happy to scarf down immediately.

  The rope found its mark, wrapping tightly around the chimney. All of us let our breaths at once. I didn’t even realize that we had all been so intent on the rope that none of us so much as breathed while Chris threw it over. Rosalie looked over at me, and smiled carefully as if she noticed it too.

  “Take this,” Chris handed me a short rope as he secured the other side of the rope to the chimney of the roof we were standing on. “This is what we’re going to do,” he said. “I want you four to go over first,” he pointed at Carlisle, Edward, Jasper and Rosalie. “Then I’m going to come over with Cassie and,”

  “Roslie can’t go on her own,” Carlisle interrupted him. “l’ll take her over with me.”

  Chris stopped and really looked at him, sizing him up. “You’re sure you can do that?”

  “I’m sure,” Carlisle replied emphatically.

  “Alright, you first then,” Chris took the short rope from me and handed it over to the teenager. “When you get over there make sure the rope holds for the rest of us, then take this secure it on the chimney and make the hop to the next house. We’ll meet you on that second roof,” Chris said handing Carlisle another length of rope that the lanky teenager promptly put on his shoulder.

  “Will do.”

  Rosalie hopped onto Carlisle back as if she’d done this type of thing a million times before. Wrapping her skinny arms around his neck and her little legs around his waist. “Okay?” He asked her as he got ready to jump. She nodded hiding her face in his shoulder.

  Chris motioned for me to hold the end of the rope near the chimney just in case there was slack. Carlisle jumped off causing the rope to go taut, not much later we heard him land softly on the other side. He waved at us before moving to the other side of the chimney Rosalie's little shape right behind him.

  I peeked over the edge of the roof, letting out a sigh of relief that none of the creepers had figured out what was going on over their heads.