“If I die. I just want you to know….” Mater stopped speaking when Drew looked at her. He knew her feelings were strong for him but he considered her as friend only. His heart was with someone else…. Sue Ellen.
“Never mind,” Mater whispered. She glanced down at the floor waiting for the pint sized Eater to rip them apart at any moment.
“Is your arm okay?”
Mater looked down at her arm. “Yea, just a scratch.” She brushed away at the tiny spot of blood. “I wonder if it hurts.”
“What?”
“Your heart. If it keeps getting broken over and over again…”
“What?”
“The Eater’s bites. Does it hurt if they bite? Does death come quick? Or do you suffer?” Mater changed the tune and looked up at Drew with big, droopy, brown eyes. She fluttered her naturally long and curly eyelashes.
Drew reached for Mater’s arm.
“Let’s see.”
Drew inflicted a small bite on Mater’s arm. Mater squeaked half jokingly and punched Drew in the shoulder.
“Oooo you hit like a girl,” Drew joked.
The two carried on until the Eater appeared around the corner of the aisle. It clamped down its small jaws and dashed out towards Drew and Mater. Mater started screaming and embraced for the attack covering her eyes. Drew position himself like he was the kicker on the football team and forcefully kicked the Eater sending it flying back down the grocery aisle. Drew grabbed the terrified Mater and they ducked behind a rack of hats.
“Come on Mater, I need you to pull yourself together,” Drew said trying to speak quietly. “I need the strong wood chopping girl that I fell in love with as my friend. Alright? We are going to get out here.”
Mater shook her head and took a deep breath. She had liked the responsible person that Drew had become.
Drew checked his feet and legs to make sure he was not bitten. “Did you see that? That thing almost bit me.”
“I keep pinching myself hoping this is all a bad dream,” Mater said as she thought of her sister Marley, “ I keep having breaks where I want to joke and have fun to take my mind away from the pain….”
A creaking sound with a hint of light came from the back end of the store where the bathrooms were located. Drew slowly rose up to see where the sound was coming from. He did not know if it was another Eater or someone coming to rescue them. Sue Ellen popped her head around the door giving Drew and Mater an instant sigh of relief.
“What are you guys waiting for? I thought you were behind me!” She motioned with her hand for Drew and Mater to follow her. The Eater made a gurgling sound as if it had fluid going down the wrong way. It made another mad dash for Drew and Mater.
Drew got up and pulled Mater behind him as they quickly dashed to the door. Drew pushed Mater in front of him as he narrowly escaped the Eater biting into his pants leg. Sue Ellen rapidly slammed the door shut behind the two as the Eater rammed into the steel barrier. The impact made a loud sound like a dull bell. The Eater continued to batter the door until the trio walked away.
Distant muffled screams sounded as if it were coming from back in the heart of Wiggins. Drew shrugged the yells off because he had become accustomed it. He stared at Sue Ellen as a tuft of hair fell into her eye. He went to remove the hair but Mater stopped him. Mater reached from her pocket and pulled out Beetle’s juice and gave it to Drew. Why did Mater give the juice to me? Sue Ellen is right there, Drew thought. He took the juice and handed it to Sue Ellen.
“Here is Beetle’s juice,” Drew said.
Drew stopped short as he noticed that Sue Ellen was no longer paying attention to them anymore but to something else. He watched Sue Ellen’s finger as it lifted slowly pointing at the yellow clunker. The screams were not coming from the town of Wiggins…. It was coming from the bus.
Chapter 12
Little Mr. Drew
Sat on a bus
Eating his crumbs and flakes
Along came an Eater
Who sat down beside him
And scared Mr. Drew away
The bus rocked like a cradle as Drew stood there. His heart sunk to the bottom of his feet. The bus shook and bodies move around like scrambling bugs. As they got closer to the bus the muffled screams became louder.
“What is going on in there?” Drew wondered out aloud.
Drew’s walk changed to a jog as he led the way. Sue Ellen gripped Beetle’s juice tightly in her slippery hands. Her nerves had finally got the best of her. Drew ran up to the bus’s door and began to beat on it for someone to let him in. He took out his pocket knife and pried the door open forcefully.
“You guys wait here,” Drew nervously whispered.
He squeezed through the narrow space in the bus’s door and was immediately met with hysteria and panicked students. The familiar smell of strong copper and human waste filled his nose instantly. The screams were bone chilling. Drew brought his hands up to his ears for a moment to block out the horrifying sounds of pain and anguish. The students were on the bus eating each other, alive. Some scrambled over seats others fell into each other. It was a mad mangled mess of mutilated bloody bodies. Drew could not tell at first who was an Eater or a human.
In the midst of the chaos, Drew noticed a body strewn in the middle of the aisle. As he moved back, he stepped on something hard like a miniature boulder. When Drew looked down he noticed that it was the severed ossified head of Mrs. Bond, the librarian.
Drew closed his eyes to silently pray that this was not happening. The students who fled the Eaters from the school had become zombies themselves. More shouts of agony caused his stomach muscles to clench as he fought off the urge to vomit. Drew watched on in sheer horror as the students bit into each other’s flesh not having a care in the world where their teeth landed. He began to back up cautiously as to not alert the undead. His stomach began to painfully heave again as he witness chunks of skin be devoured from necks, arms, ears, and legs. All the Eaters resembled each other. Mangled, mutilated, and bloody. Some of the children were missing eyes while others had chunks of their faces missing. The sight was more gruesome than Drew’s scariest horror movie.
Drew observed a slight movement in the corner of his eye. A young boy was hiding underneath a seat in the middle row. He reached out to Drew anxiously with his quivering hand. He shook his head at the boy and tried to prevent him from making the slightest of noise. Drew stood as still as a statue to prevent any sudden movements that would alert the Eaters to his presence. The boy’s face was wet with tears. He reached out towards Drew again.
Help me, the boy mouthed.
Drew brought his finger to his lips to quiet the frightened boy. He was shaking so bad his own self that his arm made jerking movements.
Be quiet, Drew mouthed the words slowly as he calmly backed up.
A familiar face stood out to Drew as it slowly but steadily shuffled its way from the back of the bus towards his direction. The body with matted black hair sniffed the air like it smelled bacon. It staggered towards Drew gnashing its teeth with soft groans escaping its jagged mouth. As Drew looked closer he recognized the familiar face all to well. The black frame broken glasses and braces….
Beetle.
He held out his arms as if he were trying to balance himself. He continued to stumble towards Drew. The geeky friend who had saved his life had apparently died and turned into an Eater. The boy who had saved him from Mrs. Westwood’s classroom now opened his mouth wide and was ready to devour him to pieces. Blood seeped from Beetle’s lacerated tongue and lip apparent from a grand mal seizure. The brackets and wires on Beetle’s braces were pulled apart and hanging out of his mouth. The other Eaters had taken note and followed Beetle with their hands out in front them like they were trying to guide themselves through the dark.
Crawl under the seats, Drew mouthed. He motioned for the boy to scoot underneath the seats towards him. The boy was so terrified that he did what Drew hoped that he would not do…. panic.
&nbs
p; “Don’t leave me!” The boy shouted.
The final judgment was written. Beetle, who led the attack towards Drew, quickly turned his attention to the boy. Beetle began making loud gurgling sounds as he set his unseeing eyes on the new victim that waited for him. The other Eaters became alert and joined Beetle in attacking the boy. The last image that Drew saw of the terrified boy was that of pure bodily torture. The boy squealed out like a pig as a flood of bites inflicted the back of his legs. The sounds of bones crushing accompanied by high pitch cries was enough to send Drew running to the door.
An Eater grabbed Drew’s leg causing him to fall. He could not decipher whether the zombie was a male or female because its face had been gobbled to a bloody pulp. The golden necklace with the ballerina slippers gave away secret to the identity of the Eater…. Olivia. Drew reached back with his free leg and kicked Olivia in the face. Olivia caught his shoe with in her mouth and with one bite clamped down on the rubber sole.
“Ugh!” Drew grumbled as he tried to work his foot away from Olivia’s mouth. Drew knew that the pile of mutilated mass had no intentions of letting his shoe go. He slowly reached up and wriggled himself free from the tennis shoe. Drew watched as Olivia continued to chomp away at his shoe. He slowly scooted back on his hands towards the bus’s door.
Sue Ellen and Mater, together, pulled the door apart wider for Drew to come through. Drew tumbled down the stairs to the ground backwards and then quickly sprung to his feet. He slammed the door shut in the nick of time against Olivia. Olivia’s entire body resembled a pile of red tomatoes as it slithered down the steps. It was a fact that the entire bus had turned into a live eating machine.
The pressure was too great as saliva filled Drew’s cavity and his stomach muscles tightened. He desperately tried very hard to fight the gastric contents that made its way up to the back of his burning throat. He became very dizzy as he leaned on the front side of the bus for support and violently vomited. Mater came over and rubbed Drew’s back as he continued to hurl up everything that he had been trying to hold down since the early morning.
Drew slowly walked away from the front of the bus. He wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. His eyes were red and bloodshot. The dizziness…. He felt like he would faint at any moment. He did not know how much more he could take.
“Are you okay?” Mater asked as she walked with Drew.
Drew nodded his head. He stood there for a moment staring at the bus in disbelief at what was taking place. He would never know if there were any other survivors. Those images would stay in his mind forever.
“Where is your shoe?” Sue Ellen asked as she shivered from the gruesome noises that were taking place on the bus. Her face looked hollow and worn.
“Digesting in Olivia’s stomach,” Drew hoarsely said.
“Olivia turned too?” Mater asked.
Drew nodded his head.
“I guess they got Tarynn and Beetle as well,” Sue Ellen murmured.
Drew was going to explain what happened to Beetle but looked around and noticed that they were the only ones outside conversing. Vehicles occasionally trickled in and turned down the road that led to the Fairgrounds Center. Sue Ellen pointed at a family of five walking from the rural area of Wiggins on Highway 26. They were coming from the direction where Drew’s grandmother lived. The father pulled two rolling suitcases behind him while he had a boy on his back that appeared to be around three years old. Two other children who looked no more than six and seven trailed behind their mother quietly. It seemed as if the family had walked a long distance.
A Humvee rolled by loaded with soldiers. It stopped on Highway 26 before turning down the road that led to the center. A tall lean man with black spiky hair and bright green eyes stuck his head out of the window.
“Hey! You kids need to get to the Fairgrounds Center! And now! That’s an order!” The lean man stuck his head back inside the Humvee and ordered the driver to go.
“You heard the man. Lets go. I have had enough of this. I don’t know how much more I can take,” Drew weakly said.
“Be careful what you say, Drew, because just when you think you can’t handle anymore…. more death and destruction can lurk around the corner,” Sue Ellen grimly said.
“Point taken. I am just ready to see my Mee-maw and sisters. I am quite sure you guys are ready to see your family too,” Drew slowly said as he began to walk.
“Or what’s left of my family,” Mater mumbled joining him.
Drew shook his head in agreement. For all they knew, their families could be dead as well. There would be no way they would find out until they made it to the Fairgrounds Center. The trio walked away from the bus leaving the muffled screams behind. They waited for three more vehicles to turn down the road to the center before crossing Highway 26.
“In the name of Jesus… Wait!” A tiny voiced squeaked.
Drew turned around and noticed it was Tarynn. She scrambled towards the three as she moved from behind the bus and crossed the highway. She looked like she had been in a rough street fight. Her long skirt and shirt looked like it had been through a shredder. Tarynn’s normally neat red hair that was always pulled up into a long slick ponytail, fell to her waist in uneven frazzled layers. Her face, hair, and clothes were smeared with blood. She hobbled towards Drew, Sue Ellen, and Mater with scraped bruised knees.
Drew met Tarynn as soon as she crossed the road. “I thought you were….”
“No, not dead. By the grace of the Lord, it was not my time to go.”
Tarynn looked like she had been in battle and lost. “It was Beetle,” she slowly said like she was in a trance, “He turned into one of those… Well, after he died that is. Mrs. Bond performed CPR on him….”
Tarynn stopped speaking but began to walk slowly towards the Fairgrounds Center. From far off they could see several Humvees and soldiers that were congregated in front of the building. A car turning down the road, with screeching tires, zoomed by. The kids jumped to the side to avoid being hit as they continued walking towards their destination.
Hot tears flowed down Tarynn’s cheeks slowly. She took a deep breath as she continued to explain what had gone wrong on the bus.
“It all happened so fast. It was like a blur. Beetle was struggling to breathe. Begging not to die. He was so scared. He told me he wasn’t ready to leave yet. Like, he had so much he wanted to accomplish in this world,” Tarynn shook her head gasping for air as she sobbed uncontrollably, “I still can’t believe Beetle turned into one of those human eating demons. He was one of the few people that never judged me.”
No one said anything as they continued to walk on in silence to the center. They all had their share of taunting Tarynn because of her beliefs and appearance.
Tarynn cleared her throat and spoke in a different tone of voice, which was more shaky and timid. “He latched onto Mrs. Bond’s neck like a rabid dog.” Tarynn briefly closed her eyes as if to block out the horrid image, “Beetle would not let go until someone tried to pull him off. Then he bit into that person’s face. And… and.”
Tarynn began to cry as she recalled the unimaginable events. Sue Ellen and Mater walked up to Tarynn and embraced her as they all continued to walk. They closed in on the Fairgrounds Center that was up ahead. The parking lot was littered with vehicles, traumatized people, and Humvees.
“One thing I noticed was that some of the kids on the bus turned into those Eaters within minutes while others it took seconds. I don’t understand it.” Tarynn suddenly became aware of her appearance and immediately commenced to straighten her strands.
“They pulled my hair and ripped my clothes. Luckily, I still had some of that Vaseline on me. I was so scared that I crawled underneath the seats. I was the only one that got away. Olivia was behind me. I….I…. I thought she was right behind me…. She was holding onto my shirt until I felt her absence, then her screams ….Why are we being punished?” Tarynn tearfully asked.
Drew shrugged his shoulders and looked up into the
sky. “I think us humans has finally done it and made Him mad up there. My Mee-maw always said something like this would happen. Sort of like a cleansing as she would put it.” Drew eyeballed Tarynn from head to toe. “Did you get bit?”
“Wouldn’t I have changed into one of those demons by now?” Tarynn asked wide-eyed.
“Not exactly,” Drew said as he limped along with one shoe.
“Not trying to be mean but remember, Cookie?” Mater directed at Tarynn.
“Yea, she didn’t turn for a long time,” Sue Ellen said.
“No bite marks, see?” Tarynn held up her long tresses. She moved to her tattered skirt and blouse giving them proof she was free from human teeth marks. “You see? Nothing. The Lord was my shepherd throughout all of that evilness.”
The four neared the Fairgrounds Center where a long line outside the door reached into the parking lot. Several soldiers with M16’s and AK-47’s were out inspecting the people that stood gathered in various groups and sent them to the same gender lines. Drew wondered why yelling and screaming kids were being separated from their parents. He noticed several large sized black kennels that had been placed over to the side that looked as if it had been discarded.
“I wonder what is going on up there,” Drew said, “what are in those kennels? Dogs?”
He led the girls passed the line of waiting people and walked straight over to a kennel that was put to the side. Drew kicked at the kennel.
“What is in there?” Sue Ellen asked.
“About to find out,” Drew said as he bent down to peer into the enclosed space.
A set of small bloody teeth, accompanied by a low growl, clamped down onto the tiny metal bars that held the subdued creature within. Drew jumped back so fast that he fell over into the dirt.
Death's Little Angels Page 14