by S E Lunsford
Edward went over next, then little Jasper who insisted he could go on his own.
“You next,” Chris said looking at me while tipping his head down as if listening intently to the moans and groans coming from below us.
“I thought you said you’d be next?”
“Plans have changed,” was his simple answer as he held out a piece of rope to me.
“That your last one?” I asked realizing that there were no other pieces of rope around.
He nodded. In confusion, I looked at Cassie and then back at him.
“How are you going to get across?” I asked.
“I’ll make it across and believe me when I say Cassie will too.”
“I don’t know if I believe you,” I said immediately wondering how I could get Cassie and I out of this situation. I came up with nothing.
“You don’t have much of a choice,” he pointed out. “Now go, they're about to figure out how to get up into the attic.” No sooner had he said those words and there was a thud just below us.
“Now,” Chris shoved me towards the edge, made sure my rope and hands were well placed and pushed me off before I even realized what was happening. My stomach turned as the stink of the creepers rose up over me, and I prayed the rope held. I told myself not to look down but couldn't help it, there was more than a crowd of them ripping through each other and the doorways of the house. They’d smashed all the windows under their weight and pulled off the doorframes, losing arms and legs that lay around abandoned in the process. Thankfully, I didn’t see the one who had pointed at me.
My legs jarred on the rooftop as I landed a little more heavily than I would have liked. I no more than stood up when Chris and Cassie landed next to me. He rolled Cassie over to me, and I grabbed her as he pulled a knife from his boot quickly sawing off the rope before throwing it back to the roof we’d come from. Just as it landed a skeletal hand shot up through the roof tiles quickly followed by a head, its face peeling off as it forced its way through. Its eyes registered confusion as it looked around not seeing what it had come for.
Confusion? I couldn't believe what I was seeing. What was happening to the creepers?
“Come on,” Chris said, pulling me towards the other side of the roof, even as other creepers were dragging themselves up through the hole on the roof across from us.
The others had made it to the final roof safely and were patiently waiting for us to make our way across. Carlisle gave us a double thumbs up letting us know the rope was secured on his side. Chris grabbed me just as I happened to look up at the chimney behind us and saw the rope had caught on the metal flashing and was beginning to fray.
“Chris,” I began.
“No time,” he said pulling me off the roof and all but throwing me and my scant piece of rope off the edge. I slid over to the other side with no issues, landing carefully and pulling on the rope that seemed to go on forever in my hand before I realized it was dropping over the edge.
“Oh crap,” Carlisle swore softly.
“No swearing,” Rosalie said.
“She’s right,” was my only comment as I rushed to the side of the rooftop to see Chris and Cassie in a heap on the ground. Chris was beginning to move, slowly pulling himself up and dragging Cassie up over his shoulder. He looked up at me. I could smell the tangy irony scent of his blood before I saw it rushing from his forehead falling freely into one eye. He gestured for me to go to the garage. My mouth went dry as I watched him limp his way over to the house. With all that free flowing blood, the creepers were sure to smell them. I could see a couple starting to amble over out of the corner of my eye.
“Come on,” I tossed over my shoulder as I made my way down the drainpipe to the second floor breaking a window and sliding through to get into the quiet, too quiet house. The others slid in behind me as I made my way down the stairs drawing my gun prepared to shoot at anything that moved.
“Get to the garage,” I whispered as we made our way onto the first level. Four sets of footsteps ran off as I tried to figure out where Chris could be outside. The creepers were moving in and I needed to make sure I got him inside before they got to him and Cassie. A dull thump on one of the windows told me it was already too late, at least one creeper was out there. I gritted my teeth and took a deep breath, where there was one there were more to follow.
Running to the back of the house with my gun raised, I glanced at the back door just as one of them came around the corner. Putting a bullet in its head, I watched until it had fallen to the ground before turning my back on it to see Chris coming in my direction heading for the door.
“Hurry,” I called opening the door and taking a quick step outside as I took out another creeper not far behind him.
He rushed into the house and I followed, slamming the door closed so hard the window rattled just as hand hit it from the other side leaving a bloody handprint in its wake. A set of hungry eyes oozing black pus stared back at me before it raised its hand again trying to break the window.
I jumped back and made my way to the kitchen where the others were gathered. Jasper and Edward were scavenging what they could from the cupboards, while Carlisle and Rosalie held the door to the garage open, their arms full of blankets and pillowcases of whatever they could grab. I was shocked at their quickness and efficiency.
“Come on, they know we’re here, they could smell her blood,” Chris called out as he rushed past them into the garage, throwing open the back of the station wagon and laying Cassie inside.
“Yeah, we figured that out,” Carlisle said following him into the garage and putting the quilts and bags around Cassie.
“The rhythmic thumping on the windows and walls is usually the biggest clue,” Edward said, bringing his own haul into the car, and settling himself in the back. Rosalie slide in next to him and Jasper piled in next to her.
“Where are the keys?” Chris called out from the driver’s seat.
“Just under the front,” I said, watching as the garage door began to buckle with the weight of all the hands banging against it.
“You know how to shoot?” Chris asked Carlisle.
“Both of us do,” Edward answered before Carlisle could open his mouth.
“Okay, then here’s what you need to do,” Chris glanced at the garage door wiping blood out of his eye with his sleeve. “There are a couple of guns in my pack, I want you to get them out and get ready. Someone’s going to have to manually push the door open and shoot anything that moves.”
“That would be me,” Edward said. “I don’t miss.”
“Neither do I,” I said wondering who in the world these kids were.
“I need you in the car covering him,” Chris said glancing over at me. “You too,” he said to Carlisle.
Edward jumped out of the car as the rest of us jumped in. He stood at the side of the garage door at the ready, as Carlisle and I rolled down our windows enough to be able to shoot anything that got too close to him.
Ramming the keys into the ignition Chris turned the key and nothing happened. The engine was totally silent. An equal silence fell into the car amongst the pounding of hands on the garage door as we all sat in disbelief.
“I thought you said it worked,” Chris growled looking over at me his hand still on the keys.
“It did,” I whispered.
“Come on,” Edward called out. “This isn’t going to hold for much longer.”
We all looked back at the garage door that was starting to bend under the weight that pushed on it. The low moans were starting to get on my nerves, while my heart began to race.
“Come on,” Chris whispered as he thumped his hand on the dashboard.
Taking a deep breath, he took the key out of the ignition, closed his eyes and looked like he was praying. I didn’t know who too, but I just hoped there was someone, somewhere who was listening. Although in this world, I highly doubted it.
“Come on,” Edward called out again. He disappeared from view as he bent down to pull
the door up as soon as he could.
Looking out the windshield, Chris carefully put the keys back in the ignition, slowly turning them unti they clicked into place and the engine roared to life.
I let out a sigh of relief when the engine continued to rumble proving it was alive.
“Roll it up,” Chris yelled to Edward who flew into action pulling up the door. A wave of creepers pushed forward as he jumped on top of the car with a spray of bullets.
“Head shots, head shots,” I yelled up at him. I began shooting as soon as Chris jammed his foot hard on the accelerator pushing it into the floorboard. The station wagon responded without hesitation, it pushed at the crowd of creepers crawling over the ones that fell underneath its back tires, using them to gain purchase and roll further out.
A creeper came into my line of sight making its way next to the car and crouching as it did so, just as Carlisle started shooting. Edward screamed like a banshee the sound reverberating through the car mkaing us all sink a little lower in our seats at the sheer intensity of it. Gritting my teeth I aimed at the nearest creeper, feeling satisfaction as the creeper’s head jerked back from the shot between its eyes. My nerves instantly melted away as I began to take aim as it was replaced by another and another. Chris pushed the straining vehicle further back into the horde.
Blackish blood splattered on the windows of the car making it almost impossible to see out the back, but the creepers were pushing against us inadvertently using their weight to push the station wagon back into the garage. Chris muttered under his breath as he let off the accelerator slightly then rammed it back down again. The car lurched back over even more of the creepers as their bones broke and crunched under the tires.
Pulling the collar of my shirt up over my nose to try to cut the foul smell of them, I picked off every one of them that tried to get to Edward from my side of the car.
Rosalie and Jasper huddled in the middle of the back seat as hands smacked down on the windows of the car around them. I could see them furtively sneaking peeks from underneath their arms where they tucked their heads in an effort to not see what was happening. A half smile twisted on my face, I could understand where they were coming from, caught between the need to get away from it all, but wanting to see what was happening anyway.
As the nose of the station wagon finally cleared the garage, I saw there was more than just the ones that lay strewn around the car. From as far as I could see there were others coming, drawn by the noise and the scent of fresh blood whether it be ours, or that of the others who were infected I wasn’t sure.
Chris saw them just as soon as I did.
“We’ve got to get out of here faster,” Edward called out hitting another one between the eyes, watching as it tipped slowly backwards losing its arms in the process.
“Sorry, I thought that’s what I was doing,” Chris replied, yanking the gearshift into drive just as soon as he could.
As he pushed the car, forward and back in a strange version of a 3-point turn I couldn’t help but remember Cassie making fun of me and how I always turned a 3-point turn into a 20-point turn, as she put it.
Coming back into the present I shot a creeper who was dangerously close to car, only to have it replaced by another that had been behind it. The creeper lunged for the space at the top of my window reaching in with her hand as I pushed back. Strips of flesh hung from the fingers as it clawed at me, its mouth not far behind. Gripping the window, it began to rock it back and forth bending it until I was sure it would shatter at any time, letting it and its gaping mouth in at me.
Bringing my gun up I took aim and froze. As it rocked the window back and forth, it looked at me and tried to wink with its half an eyelid. I could feel my own eyes widen in response.
“Shoot it,” Rosalie cried from the back.
Bringing up the gun again, I realized the creeper was a female, a woman who by the looks of her tattered clothes and gold hoop earrings that somehow still clung to her ears had a pretty nice life before. Her hand continued to reach for me as I realized she was the one. The one who had pointed at me while I was on the roof. My stomach clenched as I realized she wasn’t in the space right here next to me with just a thin sheet of glass separating us on accident, somehow she had planned it.
The car continued to go forward and back as Chris gained purchase to drive away and I could hear Edward still yelling as he bashed the heads of the creepers with the butt of his rifle. But, the noise fell away as I continued to stare at her as she clung to the window, the reality of what, or who, she could be settling into my bones as horror bloomed pumping fear into my veins. Her fingers with their blackened fingernails at their tips that still had red nail polish on them whipped out and scratched my neck. The pain of her nails digging into my flesh brought me back into the moment.
Suddenly the window began to go up and down hitting the wrist and arm of the creeper as it tried to fit its head into the window. Chris was controlling it from his side as well as trying to drive the car.
“Shoot it,” he yelled in my ear.
I hesitated grabbing at my neck where blood began to run into my collar. The creepers, smelling the fresh blood, became even more agitated, and none more so than the one trying to get in at me.
As the window went up yet again, something from the back seat came flying forward at just the right angle, cutting the creepers forearm from the rest of her body. The window closed with a thunk as she looked at me rage on her face before she lunged, crashing through the glass mouth first and taking ahold of my neck with her teeth. They sunk into the soft flesh each tooth seeming to move in a grinding motion all its own as she bore down on me, pain radiating down the side of my neck into my arm.
“Oh crap,” Carlisle yelled dislodging the creeper with the butt of his rifle as the pain gained purchase in my body traveling like fire through my limbs and my hands began to twitch. “Did it break her flesh? Did it bite her? Oh shit, it bit her?” He yelled.
“She turning,” screamed Rosalie.
“No,” I heard Chris’ voice growl through a fog of pain and insatiable hunger both competing for my attention. Every heart in the car pumped blood that I could hear, their blood smelled sweet making water rush into my mouth as my jaw began to grind my teeth together of its own volition. I clamped my mouth down hard willing myself to fight, to ignore the fire in my veins and the hunger in every cell of my body knowing that I would lose the battle soon.
Suddenly my nose was filled with the scent of fresh blood. I turned towards it blindly still keeping a tight grip on mouth as the screaming continued around me. A pair of hands held my head still keeping my jaw closed as I felt something wet press against the bite on my neck. , the fire began to cool at my neck before traveling through the rest of my body, cooling the heat and satiating the hunger.
Leaning back the world tried to blacken, titling dangerously as I fought to remain conscious. Hands continued to hold my head as the car cleared the garage. Chris threw it in drive screeching towards the front lawn and bouncing towards the road, running over creepers and pushing them out of the way at the same time. I could hear Edward coming down hard on the roof every time we hit a bump. Somehow through my haze, I was reassured that he was still there.
A knock on Carlisle's window broke the silence in the car as we cleared the rest of the creepers and Chris headed towards the edge of town. Edward came into the station wagon feet first, settling in the back seat next to his siblings. The hands, which I realized were Carlisle’s, released me as I took a deep stabilizing breath and tried not to look at the stinking mess that was on the seat next to me.
No one said a word. They just looked at me.
“She’s fine,” Chris growled at the others before turning to me. “You need to throw it out the window. It stinks.”
Sighing, I carefully picked the hand and arm up so it wouldn't fall apart, and saw something glitter on one of its fingers. Looking more closely, I took in a sharp breath.
There on the ring fi
nger, was a golden ring with diamonds and a pink pearl set in a familiar swirl belonging to my Aunt Fiona. Cassie and I had been trying to find her when we came to this small seaside town where she had lived for years. Not long after the infection took hold she had gotten through to my voicemail and told me it was safe.
Tears welled up under my eyelids as I remembered that message, and how relieved I had been. That was followed by another memory. I always told her how much I loved her ring that swirled like the ocean complete with diamonds and pearls. She would let me wear it, and I would admire its glitter and sparkle on my finger. Her voice floated in my memory, as I sat there holding her destroyed hand, “I’ll make sure you have it when I’m gone,” she said.
Careful not to pull her fingers off her hand, I took the ring off and threw the rest of it out the window. I turned the ring over in my hands as the reality of what had happened settled through me. Soon, I found myself buffing it off on my clothing as well as I could before I slid it on my finger. Lacing my fingers together on my lap, I looked out the window at the ocean that was passing by far too slowly for my racing mind.
Chapter 3
“You better be careful or you’re going to end up without a finger,” Chris glanced over at me as I continued to twist the ring in circles around my finger.
Stopping, I let the warmth of the pink pearl graze my palm before I moved my hands apart.
“You want to talk about it?”
Glancing back, I saw that Rosalie and Jasper were asleep, leaning on each other looking for all the world as if nothing was remotely wrong with this world we found ourselves in. Edward and Carlisle looked out their own windows lost in thought.
I shook my head no, “Maybe later.”
Chris nodded.
I took a good long look at him not even caring if he could see me or not. Dark circles sat under his eyes, the area around his mouth was slightly paler than the rest of his face. Dried blood and grime was ground into his t-shirt that read, “Die to Live Free.” I don’t know how I didn’t notice what his t-shirt said before. I could feel my brain trying to rearrange the words in my mind to the more familiar phrase, but faced with the reality of what was actually written there, it wasn’t doing a very good job.