The Reaper

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by S E Lunsford


  “I told you,” came a girl’s voice. “It was the guy upstairs.”

  “Shush.”

  “No, we have to go with them, I told you that,” the girl’s voice came again this time louder. “Let them in.”

  A second hung just after she finished speaking, then the door moved so fast behind us that Edward and I flew into the hall. The desk that had been blocking the door moved down the hallway away from us as the door slammed open behind us. Pain flashed in my skull as my head hit the far wall followed by a moment of blackness. Hearing myself breath, I could still smell the cool mint. I took a few deep breaths as I scrabbled on the floor trying to rock myself up using the wall to brace myself until I sat in a crouch. Carefully opening my eyes so the light didn’t stab into my brain, I saw Edward push himself up on his elbows pulling his legs into a crouch at the same time.

  Glancing over I opened my eyes even wider. A crowd of bodies ranging from small to somewhat large was standing in the shadows next to the wall opposite of me. Children looked at us curiously, their faces expressing a range of emotions from kindness to sullenness to open hostility and everything in between.

  A grating sound told me the desk was on its way back down the hall. Instinctively, my eyes closed as I quickly stood trying to press myself against the wall. Edward threw himself over towards me, landing heavily on the wall, the desk narrowly missing him as it pressed itself against the door.

  “That’s not nice,” the familiar girl’s voice rang out.

  I opened my eyes just in time to see a taller boy shrug, a smirk on his face.

  “She’s right,” I said my voice sounding so strong I surprised myself because my brain was still wobbling around in my skull. “That’s not nice, especially since we’re here to help you get out.”

  “We don’t need help,” he said his brown eyes daring me to contradict him.

  “Yes you do,” Edward said.

  All eyes turned to him.

  “Because when the zom’s come in and try to eat you, no matter how much furniture you throw at them they’re still going to get to you,” he stopped, taking a deep breath letting that sink in as he pointedly looked at each of the them.

  I nodded, as the kids began to shift and wiggle where they stood.

  “True,” I said. “But we can get you out, and Chris,” I stumbled on his name, pushing down the pain that threatened to well up. “Chris made sure we could get you immunity.”

  “We don’t need immunity,” said the tall boy crossing his arms and glaring at us.

  Looking over the rest of them, I could tell they weren’t so sure. I shrugged.

  “You may not, but the rest of the kids do,” I replied pushing myself off the wall and looking down the hall towards the door that I knew stood at its end.

  Shuffling and banging from upstairs told me that if we left now, we’d just make it out in time. A shadow that flew over the window at the end of the hall, made me rethink that, my stomach clenching at the thought of the angels in the sky above us. A soft touch on my hand made me flinch back, grabbing my knife I brought it up in one fluid motion until it abruptly stopped. Looking down I saw it rested in the air so close to a little girl’s face that it would have sliced her cheek open if it had gone any further. She gazed steadily at me, not one ounce of fear in her eyes.

  “I’ll go with you,” she said, her voice barely carried on the rose scented breath coming out of her mouth.

  “Abigail,” the tall boy walked over and grabbed her arm, which she wrenched free.

  “I’m going with them, and so should all of us. I told you I’ve seen it, we’ll be safe with them, he sent them to us,” her small mouth puckered up as she finished, her irritation at the tall boy more than evident.

  “Your sight,” he spat out. “What use is it if it can’t do anything.”

  Edward and I glanced at each other. Obviously, this was a well-worn argument between the two. One that I wasn’t going to get in the middle of, and from the look on Edward’s face neither was he.

  “Come on,” he said heading for the door at the end of the hallway. “Either you come with us, or you stay here, your choice.”

  Faint footsteps that quickly got louder told us that someone, or multiple someone’s were coming down the stairs toward the door. No matter how strong this boy thought he was, there was no way he was going to hold off grown men with that desk.

  “Abigail,” I said quietly. “If you’re coming with us, we’re going.”

  She turned back to the other children. “We have to go,” she said her voice quavering as she looked from one to the other. The children’s eyes bounced back and forth between her and the tall boy like ping pong balls looking for a place to rest.

  I jumped as banging started up behind the door. Men’s voice demanded to be let in. Some of the children went over and sat on the desk to give it more stability. The moment stretched until Edward beckoned from the end of the hall.

  “We have to go now,” he insisted his voice barely carrying to us.

  “Please,” Abigail whispered to the others.

  Shaking my head, I bent down to gather up my backpack, and without a backward glance I made my way to the door at the end of the hall. Only one set of footsteps echoed behind me as the banging increased and a low laugh slowly leaked into the hallway.

  “Come on,” I whispered as I carefully opened the door listening for what may be in the stairwell. I looked back to see at least half the group following Abigail towards us, their feet ghostly quiet on the floor as they quickly made their way towards us. A faint smile of triumph flashed across the little girl’s face as she came up to us.

  “If we go around the back way, the path will be clear,” she said looking up at me her brown eyes wide with delight. “They won’t dare get to us there.”

  Less than five minutes of dodging through what could be called the small town's back roads followed by silent little bodies towards the ocean, I saw why. Waves crashed against the cliff where the path, as Abigail called it, wound its way around the sharp rock face. It was halfway up the cliff wall, which meant the waves just reached it making it slippery. Looking over I saw Edward’s face had whitened.

  “This way,” Abigail said pointing to the path as if there was no issue with it at all. “Don’t worry, we’ll make it. I’ve seen it.”

  “You’ve seen it,” Edward muttered. “Excuse us if we’ve just met you and aren’t too sure about what you’re seeing.”

  She just nodded.

  “You will be,” said a boy who looked to be about nine years old. “Abigail and I have grown up together since before this all happened, and she’s always right.”

  For the first time, I really looked at the group and saw that a lot of them were in that age group, anywhere from five to ten, which meant they had all been born before the angels. Before the creepers were released decimating the world as we knew it, leaving us with the mess it was now. Something occurred to me as I watched them with narrowed eyes.

  “Where are you parents?”

  The question might as well have been a bomb for how quiet and still they all went. Each pair of eyes shifted away from me in every direction, to the sea, to the cliff, to the path in front of us. Finally, Abigail’s eyes met my own. She half smiled and shrugged.

  “Okay,” I said filing away their reaction to pursue later. “Let’s get this over with. I’ll take the front and you take the back,” I looked pointedly at Edward.

  “I’ll take the middle,” Becky’s voice came from behind me.

  Turning around, I was mildly surprised that relief washed over me at seeing her.

  “We have to be quick about it though, because they’re coming.”

  Her words caused a not so silent stir of anxiety in the kids. Walking from one to the other, I made sure they held each other’s hands tightly until they made a human chain. I put Becky, who just slightly taller than all of them, in the middle while Edward and I positioned ourselves on either end.

  Waitin
g until a particularly large wave flowed away from the cliff, I stepped onto the path not liking the slippery feeling of it at all.

  “Hurry, they’re coming,” a voice invaded my thoughts of keeping my body, and everyone else’s, stable. This time I recognized it as Abigail.

  “I’m going as fast as I can,” I thought back forcing the words out of my mind and only being mildly surprised at her reply.

  “Go faster.”

  I made a mental note to figure out how to block her when this was done, and was met with a small giggle behind me. I didn’t even have time to look, but I knew it was her.

  Sighing, I scooted even further out on the path as another wave hit the side of the cliff getting all of our shoes wet. Glancing back I saw everyone was okay, except for a couple of kids whose faces had gone white their lips pursed in tight, desperate lines as they tried to overcome their fear. Again making sure that all their hands were tightly linked, I pushed forward just as harsh voices carried on the air from behind us.

  “Hurry,” Edward’s voice rose over the sound of the crashing waves from the back of the line.

  He was the closest to the men and women who were running towards the path. I knew he would do whatever it took to make sure we were all safe, I just needed to make sure he didn’t have to.

  Pushing harder, I ignored the slipping of my feet, not allowing any step to stay put for more than a fraction of a second. The rest did the same behind me, as we curved around the side of the cliff the spray from the water starting to splash on our faces. Finally, I saw the pathway end, but shadows of people farther up the path in front of me made my feet falter causing a chain reaction behind me.

  “Oh crap,” Becky cried out, as I felt the pull of Abigail’s hand behind me. I turned to see a little girl about five children behind me had slipped and was hanging over the edge of the cliff. She was only being held in place by Becky on one side and a very small child on the other. A wave crashed over the little girl as she tried not to cry out even as it punched her into the rock her face coming away red from a bloody gash on her forehead.

  Edward and I stood helpless trying to anchor the line as Becky did her best to pull the little girl up. Glancing out at the ocean, I saw a particularly powerful wave gearing itself up for a launch at us. I couldn’t help but say a silent prayer to whoever was up there to alleviate the power of it.

  My eyes met Edward’s and he nodded his head for me to keep going. Maybe if I put enough pressure on the line it wouldn’t break but it would help to pull the girl up. If I didn’t, there would be domino effect, and we would lose the middle of the line. I grimaced as the saying being between a rock and hard place took on a whole new meaning.

  “Everyone hang on to your neighbor for dear life,” I called out over the line.

  The kids responded, their small hands gripping their neighbors even more tightly as the little girl over the edge did her best to keep her grip on her neighbors. Becky was fine, but the little girl on the other side was slipping towards the edge.

  “Abigail, what’s that girl’s name?”

  “Kaydence.”

  “Kaydence,” I called out. “Push back a little with your shoulders, you’re doing a good job keep it up.”

  A tiny shuddering in her shoulders told me she’d heard me, as she did her best to gain her balance and grip even more tightly to her neighbor’s hand. Satisfied that she wasn’t going to fall too, I turned forward preparing myself for what might be waiting for us there.

  My arm stretched out behind me as I pushed forward feeling it tighten as everyone else pushed forward too. Voices came from the behind Edward, and the crack of a gun was barely drowned by the wave I had been watching before. It rose up out of the water as a bullet caused the rock slightly above me to explode raining shards of rock down on me and Abigail.

  Continuing to push forward, I heard voices calling in front of us, and screams from behind. The pulling pressure on my arm didn’t let up, so I moved forward until I’d almost reached the end of the pathway only to have hands reach out and pull at me. Hitting out at them with one arm, I blindly fought even as they pulled the rest of the line from the pathway.

  “Dani,” a voice called out quietly, barely making its way through the anger at being caught that surged through me.

  “Dani,” this time it was Edward. “Stop.”

  At hearing his voice, the rage partially cleared from my eyes, and I realized that the hands belonged to people I knew. Cassie stood looking at me, concern etched next to her eyes, as well as the rest of our group and a few people I didn’t recognize at all. The children were gathered in a group, huddled together around the girl who had slipped over th edge who was being treated by a woman I barely remember seeing at the hotel.

  Taking a shaky breath, I glanced back down the path which has partially disappeared, its center had fallen into the water. Bodies bobbed in the waves below that were quickly being taken out to the ocean as fast as the waves rolled backwards from where they'd come. Looking away I found Cassie again, and she smiled launching herself at me and hugging me so tightly I thought my ribs wouldn’t survive.

  “What happened?” I whispered.

  “It was crazy,” she said, pulling away from me. “One second they were gaining on Edward and the little girl looked like she was going to fall right in, and the next that wave came up and just sucked every one of them off the path and kind of pushed the little girl up and the whole line forward. Then the path sort of crumbled inot the water after you were all safe, ” She shook her head. “If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

  We stood for a moment, arms around each other's waists as our eyes roaming over the group.

  “Chris?” She asked.

  I shook my head, the threat of tears starting to pool in my eyes.

  “Oh Dani,” she whispered, pain threading itself through her words. I saw my pain reflected in the eyes of our group as they realized that he wasn’t with us.

  “He said there was another Sanctuary where we could be safe,” I could barely believe it was my voice that croaked out the words. “He said we needed to get to it.”

  Carlisle nodded, “If he said it then we need to shoot for it,” he said as he glanced toward the east. “And we’d better head out as soon as we can.”

  Looking over our motley crew, I agreed.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  About The Author

  S. E. Lunsford

  They say that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate effort to become an expert at something.

  S.E. Lunsford has been writing for years, mainly in the world of journalism, has put way more than 10,000 hours into the craft and has learned that the clock resets whenever you start something new.

  At this rate, S.E. will never become truly an expert at this thing called writing, which is okay, because being an expert isn't all it's cracked up to be.

  Furthermore, S.E. grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area on a steady diet of Ray Bradbury, Stephen King and Creature Features before discovering Philip K. Dick and Octavia Butler when they were supposed to be studing English Literature at U.C. Berkeley. Needless to say, Macbeth was never read.

  With a beginning like this, expert status in anything was never in the cards, but writing fiction that has a difficult time fitting into a particular genre and living with two cats was, which is just the way that S.E. likes it.

 

 

 


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