by Megan Duncan
I was frozen in shock for a moment, but when I heard Max cal my name I sprang into action.
One little demon was attacking Carter’s leg, it took a swipe and made three long slices through his jeans and across his calf. He screamed out in pain and I lunged, chopping its boney arm off as it raised its scaly green arm to attack again.
It turned toward me and growled loudly, its mouth opening wider than any normal jaw bone would alow. I felt bile rise from my stomach as I watched, expecting the little demon’s head to snap in half. I swalowed back the foul taste in my mouth and swung my knife at it again and it jumped out of the way. The gremlin-like demon hissed at me and grabbed its severed arm and took off out of a window.
As I watched the one armed demon leap out the window in a single bound another one of them jumped on my back and started biting my shoulder. Pain screamed through me as its dozens of tiny razor sharp teeth broke my flesh. I tried to grab it, but another one came running toward me, trying to slice up my legs with its claws. I kicked it in the face and sent it flying across the room. The sight of it slamming into a bookshelf brought a satisfied smile to my face.
I could see the guys struggling, each fighting two or three little demons crawling al over them, biting and scratching. I wanted to help them, but I was fighting my own pint sized demons. Every time I got rid of one another would take its place.
I felt warm blood dripping down my shirt, but I couldn’t get the demon off my back. I struggled, flinging from side to side, hitting with my fists, but nothing worked.
A thought flashed in my mind to try and stab it, but I quickly discarded that idea. They moved too quickly and it would almost be a worse fate, being kiled by accidently stabbing myself than by a demon, I thought. As I swirled around I saw something on a wal and got an idea. I quickly ran for it and at the last second I twisted and landed heavily into a pair of antlers. My head smacked firmly between the large boney protrusions, but the demon on my shoulder wasn’t so lucky.
It let out a loud shriek as blood dribbled out of its mouth, but let go. It went limp and hung off the wal, and I watched its dark blood drip to the floor.
Not wanting to waste any time, I turned to see Max fling one off his back and pul out his gun. I knew they had wanted to use the guns as a last resort, the bulets were hard to come by and with so many targets it would be easy to accidently harm one of us. He shot two in quick succession and their heads exploded on impact sending green gore flying.
“Abby!” Max ran to me, quickly shooting at a demon that tried to get me from behind. I was so focused on watching Max that I hadn’t noticed it behind me.
“There are so many of them Max!” I looked around and it seemed that their numbers were growing rapidly as they came crawling in through the windows like roaches.
“Where’s Taya?”
“I locked her in the bathroom,” I said as I stabbed a demon through the top of its head as it grabbed at my leg. I was expecting to hit bone, but my knife easily penetrated its scaly flesh. I puled out the knife and almost had to fling the sticky head of the demon off of the end of it.
More demons were running throughout the cabin, attacking us and causing chaos by breaking things or throwing objects across the room. Carter, Max and I were slowly being backed into a corner of the cabin as their numbers grew.
“There are so damn many of the little fuckers!”
“Abby, where is your gun?”
I cursed myself for leaving it in the bedroom. I wanted to grab it, but it was leaning against the wal right under a window.
Max sliced with his knife in a large sweeping motion, causing a gooey green line to form across the row of demons in front of us. They growled louder and a few dove at us. I kicked as many as I could, and hacked off limbs and ears with my knife when I could. Carter was holding a knife in one hand and an arrow in another.
Stabbing and slicing at the same time, but there were just too many of them. Several of them were fighting with missing limbs or even trying to hit us with their severed parts, throwing the scaly, stinking pieces of demon at us.
Suddenly a deafening blast rattled the room and I saw the look of shock on their ugly little faces.
I looked to my left and there was Taya, carrying my shotgun.
She cocked it again and shot at the back of the group again and the demons quickly started running for the windows, desperately trying to escape. The confidence they had felt by backing us into a corner had immediately dissipated.
We started to fight back harder and I yeled for Taya to grab us ammo. She ran for the bag in the kitchen and swung at a demon with the butt of the gun sending it flying onto the kitchen counter. The site of her running around with a shotgun and an oversized t-shirt with her skinny legs poking out the bottom, would normaly have been hilarious, but at this particular moment she was nothing short of an angel to me.
“Max!” Taya yeled as she tossed a magazine at him.
He caught it, quickly loading his gun and taking out demons with every shot.
I turned and helped Carter fight off a particularly fat little demon. Its round stomach protruded so far, it was odd how it kept itself upright. We quickly overpowered it and watched as it retreated with an arrow sticking out the back of its head.
Taya shot at the last few as they tried climbing out the window, their bodies faling back into the cabin like rocks.
We al stood there in shock for a moment and I quickly fel to the floor as the adrenaline in my body ran out.
“Abby!” Carter and Max ran to me. Both their faces riddled with scratches and green spots of demon blood and streaks of red.
“She’s losing a lot of blood. Max go get the first aid kit!” I heard Carter barking orders. I turned my head to see Max, but instead I saw Taya.
Her once terrified eyes had turned defiant and I smiled at her.
“You did it Taya. You saved us.”
“Yeah, good job Taya,” Carter added. She smiled up at him as tears started to stream down her face.
Max quickly came back with the kit and they got to work on my shoulder. I knew the demon had bitten it, but I didn’t think it could have been that bad. The looks on their faces, however, said otherwise.
“Put pressure on it Max, while I get the alcohol.”
“You ready Abby?” I nodded gritting my teeth. I felt someone hold my hand and I squeezed it as Carter poured alcohol onto the wound. I tried holding it back, but I screamed loudly as the alcohol sizzled and bubbled in the open wounds.
“Ok. Ok. Worst part is over.” I looked over to Taya. It was her hand I was holding and I was grateful for her comfort. She had suddenly become so strong and brave.
“Carter, we need to get out of here,” I said trying to stand up, but he pushed me back down. I didn’t want to just lay there. What if the shotgun only scared them off for a moment and they would be crawling back in through the windows at any moment?
“Taya, you keep pressure on this. Max and I are going to pack up the Bronco and we are going. Don’t let her sit up,” Carter ordered.
Taya nodded and I saw the guys quickly moving about the cabin, jumping over or kicking out of the way any demon bodies they walked past.
“You did good.” I told Taya again and she looked at me, a smal smile forming on her quivering lips.
“I didn’t know if I could do it, but I had to. I wasn’t able to help my mom…” tears started to trickle down her cheeks with more urgency, “I was afraid of what might happen, that I would be left in that bathroom alone.”
“You were brave Taya. I don’t know if we would have made it without you.”
I squeezed her hand and she squeezed back. We sat in silence then, while the guys finished loading up the Bronco.
“Ok, Abs. Time to go,” Max said as he lifted me up and headed for the door.
I looked back over his shoulder as we walked out and tried to count the number of demons that lay lifeless on the cabin floor. I got to seventeen before he was walking down the steps and
I squeezed my eyes shut not wanting to see their ugly bodies any longer.
Carter had backed the Bronco right up to the cabin and we al quickly got in before he went speeding out of the camp.
The sky was starting to turn a pretty orange. It was morning. Max laid my head onto his lap as I fel into a deep sleep. After a night like that I would have expected to have a nightmare, but I had the most pleasant dream. Max and I were at my favorite amusement park, Silverwood. Carter and Taya were there too and we were al heading to get in line for Tremors. It was a classic wood coaster and one of the scariest rides I had ever been on, but being at that amusement park were some of my happiest memories of my childhood.
When I woke up, panic instantly coursed through me. I was in the Bronco alone, and we were stopped on the side of the road. Just as I felt my heart begin to pound I saw a familiar face and my fear melted away.
“Hey, sleepy head!” Max said.
I saw him leaning against a guard rail, eating a can of pork and beans. “You hungry?” he asked, offering me the can.
“No thanks,” I said as I crawled out of the Bronco. Pork and beans looked to be one of Max’s favorite post demon apocalypse meals, but I just couldn’t stomach the stuff.
Plus my whole body was sore, especialy my shoulder and I just wasn’t in the mood for food even thought I could feel my stomach rumbling.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Just outside of Utah. How are you feeling?” Max walked over to inspect my bandages. “Looks like these need changing.” I closed my eyes as Max peeled away the bandage. I always thought it was easier to bear when I wasn’t looking.
“Wel it’s looking better. I think I did a pretty good job, what do you think?”
I hesitated for a moment and then looked down at my shoulder and saw my wound. I had to admit he did do a good job. It looked clean and he had a row of butterfly bandages to hold it together nicely. It wasn’t as scary looking as I had expected it to be.
“Looks good. Thanks Max.”
He smiled and started to smear antibiotic on it before adding fresh gauze. I watched him as he worked. His brow furrowed as he concentrated, taking extra care to cause me the least amount of pain as possible.
When he was done he looked up and caught me staring at him. “Geez, Abs. You realy scared the hel out of me and everyone for that matter,” he said letting out a breath.
“Sorry,” I looked away and puled the sleeve of my shirt back on.
“No, no. Don’t look away. Don’t ever look away.”
He grabbed my face and suddenly kissed me hard. His warms lips sent shivers down my spine as my mind whirled with shock, confusion and then pleasure. We explored each other as he held me close to his body and I felt myself give in to him.
“Oh my gosh! I’m sorry.” Max and I both turned just in time to see the back of Taya retreating behind the Bronco.
I felt my face flush as we released each other, but Max lingered for a moment brushing stray strands of hair out of my face.
“Has she woken up yet? Hey, what’s going on?” Carter’s eyes danced back and forth between us.
“He was just checking my shoulder Carter.” I knew how protective my brother was of me and I didn’t want to give him any reason to get worked up. We have enough problems as it is and Carter has quite a temper when given cause and my kissing his best friend was enough cause, I was sure of it.
“Oh ok, you’re looking better Abby. You get something to eat? Max get her something to eat.” As Max walked to the trunk while roling his eyes, Carter grabbed me in a bear hug, but quickly released when he felt me flinch in pain. “Sorry Abby. You scared the hel out of me back there, you know that?”
“Wel I didn’t mean to Carter,” I sighed. It’s not like I had meant to get bitten so badly by that demon, but I knew Carter wasn’t realy trying to chastise me, he was just realy worried.
“I can’t lose you Abby.” He put his hand on my good shoulder and I saw the fear in his eyes. I knew my brother loved me, but it was nice to see such brotherly love from him.
“I’m ok now. That was just a close cal.” I tried to reassure him.
“Wel, I don’t know how many close cals I can take.”
“Me neither,” Max added as he handed me a can of pineapples and a bottled water.
I took a seat against the guard rail and ate, while everyone else decided what we should do next. Taya and Carter seemed to be getting along nicely and I was starting to think she might have a crush on him.
“I think we should stay on I15 as planned. It is the most direct route,” Carter said.
“I agree with Carter,” Taya added a little too eagerly. Carter’s chest seemed to puff up a little at having someone agree with him, and I was sure he had no idea of Taya’s feelings.
“That wil take us right through Salt Lake City. That’s a highly populated area. You don’t think we should try to avoid it? Maybe there is another way around, how about this?” Max pointed to a place on the map.
“No that won’t work, it’s almost too isolated.” Carter explained. “If something were to go wrong, we would have no where to go. Besides I think its been proven that it doesn’t matter if the area is populated or not.”
“He has a point,” I added trying not to let my gaze linger on Max for too long. He was just so hot I couldn’t help myself. “So are we ready to go?”
“We need gas,” Taya announced while holding up a long hose for display.
“Not it!” I caled out quickly before downing the rest of my water.
“Don’t worry, Carter lost the bet already so he has to do it,” Taya said with a smile. She tossed him the hose without warning and Carter juggled it in his hands before catching it.
“Oh realy?” I looked over to Carter with my eyebrows raised and he just waived me off.
“Now are we ready to go?” he asked.
Taya saw my questioning look and answered it, “There is a street a few blocks down that have quite a few cars. We are going to head there and see what we can find. Do you want to stay here?” She asked, letting the question hang in there and flashing her eyes in Max’s direction quickly.
“Oh.” My cheeks started to blush realizing she was trying to give Max and me an opportunity to be alone. “No, I need to stretch my legs a bit. It’s not far, I’l go with you.”
“Then it's settled.” Carter grabbed our empty gas can, tossed it to Max and closed up the Bronco as we started to head down the street.
It was early afternoon and the sun was starting to warm things up. I felt naked without my shotgun, but I needed to let my shoulder heal and carrying that heavy gun wasn’t going to help any. Max had offered to carry it before we left when he saw me glance at it longingly. I declined when I saw he was already carrying a backpack of water bottles and the gas cans. Carter, of course, carried nothing but his book and the knife strapped to his leg, which I was fairly sure he had forgotten about.
“So why do you think this al happened?” Taya asked completely out of the blue, directing the question toward Carter.
“Huh? You asking me?” She nodded at him.
“Wel there are lots of theories realy. Some people believe God is punishing us, some believe they are aliens taking over our planet, some...”
“What do you believe?” Taya interrupted.
“Honestly I am not concerned about the how or why. I just want them gone.”
We al nodded silently at that. Trying to understand why this was happening or how, was just too much to fathom. Al our minds could realy think about was survival. Even if we did figure out why this was al happening, what could four smal town teenagers realy do about it? Either scenario had ominous outcomes for us.
We had to try four different cars before we found one with any gas left.
“Damn! That was a lot worse than I thought it would be.” Carter wiped his face with his sleeve after vomiting. He had nearly puked al over Taya’s sneakers, but she jumped out the way with a squeal.
&n
bsp; “That house is realy creeping me out,” Max said as he screwed the top onto one of the gas cans.
“Which one? That blue one?” Carter questioned pointing to a smal one story house.
“Yeah, I could have sworn I saw someone peeking through the blinds,” Max said.
“What?” Taya’s mouth fel open in shock and she ducked behind Carter. He looked at her a bit confused and turned back toward the house. I thought her reaction was a little dramatic, but she was young.
“Should we go check it out?” Max asked.
“Don’t look at me. I don’t want anything to do with this.” I put my hands up in the air like I was surrendering and took a step back. I saw Max smirk at me as he set the gas cans by my feet.
“Ok then, you ladies stay here. We wil go check it out.” Max tried to sound galant, but I could tel he was half sincere and half trying to be a smartass.
“Here we go,” Taya said under her breath while she flopped into the empty driver’s seat of a nearby car. I watched her as she bit at her nails and wished I had brought my radio; it had been a while since I tried to hear if the transmission was playing and I was desperate to try it.
Chapter 6
“Are there keys in that car Taya?”
“How should I know?”
“Wil you look please?” She roled her eyes and looked about the front seat.
“Nope, no keys. What the heck do you want keys for?” She asked keeping her eyes on Carter as he approached the house.
“Nothing, forget it.” I was starting to get tired and dug into the pack Max left on the street for a bottle of water. I chugged the warm water as I watched Carter and Max disappear into the front yard of the house.
We were in a typical rural neighborhood, but this house stood out like a sore thumb amongst the rest, even during a demon apocalypse.
The entire property was lined with a four foot high brick wal and appeared to stil be currently worked on, and the more I started to look, the more I realized that the cars were positioned in such a manner as to look like barricades. They were al placed closely together, and I guessed that was to prevent a demon hound from getting around them easily. This house was some sort of fortress of some sort. At the thought of the hounds I sniffed at the air, just to be sure there weren’t any nearby even though if there were we would have known already. Their overpowering stench was hard to miss.