Death's Little Angels

by Sylver Belle Garcia

  Drew eyeballed his mother from head to toe. It was no shock to him but his mouth slightly fell open. She was currently wearing black spandex tights, a bright red halter-top, and red ankle boots. Her overly voluptuous bosom literally spilled over the top leaving no imagination to what was beneath. Drew became embarrassed that every man’s eyeballs in the center fell onto his mother. Even the soldiers were salivating like hungry dogs.

  “Oh my word on a stick, it is absolutely hot in here,” Drew’s mother began fanning her face. Her long eyelashes blinked rapidly as she scanned the center.

  “I need a cigarette like really bad. Boy! Do you hear what I am saying to you?” Drew’s mother pulled out a stick of chewing gum from her cherry red halter-top. She quickly popped it in her mouth and the routine smacking that Drew despised began.

  “Drew… Jessie. My name is Drew, remember?” Drew said as he shyly looked at his mom.

  His mother did not want to be referred to as mother, mom, or momma in any shape, form, or fashion. She was too young to be a mother at thirty. Having three kids, starting at the tender age of sixteen, was a big mistake, as she would often say when she had one of her many drunken rages. Jessie Jacks still felt and lived like a carefree teenager.

  “Boy! We need to get out of here. I need to go to the trailer and get my—“

  “Where is Mee-maw?” Drew interrupted.

  Jessie’s eyes darted back and forth before she nonchalantly rolled them.

  “Maryann? Grace? Have you seen or heard from them?” He continued.

  “What are you asking me that question for? Aren’t you supposed to be watching them? I can’t do everything myself. That is what you are here for, boyyy!” Jessie slurred her last words before bringing her hand to her head as if she were about to lose her balance.

  A tall bald soldier, holding a large gun, cleared his throat loudly giving Jessie a signal to lower her voice. He smiled slyly at Jessie and openly winked his eye at her before the other soldier standing right beside him followed in the flirt pursuit.

  “Jessie… do you know what is going on here? Look at me,” Drew said as he turned around displaying his disheveled appearance and blood stained clothing, “The entire school has literally turned into zombies!”

  Drew lowered his voice as he turned his back to the soldiers.

  Jessie yawned and checked her watch. “All I know is I woke up in the woods. Hitchhiked back to the bar to pick up my car….” She stopped and began to concentrate as the events slowly came back to her. “Well, I borrowed about $12.00 to buy a case of cold yummy juice at Marcy’s Stop & Shop and low and behold… I walk back to my car and some wild, crazy woman bypasses me screaming that her five-year-old daughter is chewing her fifteen-year-old son’s face off.”

  “Did you see it?” Drew asked.

  “No one paid attention to that crazy woman. Who knows I had a rough night. I might have been hallucinating,” Jessie started to stumble towards the door.

  “You were not dreaming, Jessie. This is real. Why do you think you are here? The Internet says these zombies are Eaters because its children coming back from the dead. And, the adults die on the spot if they are bitten unlike the kids,” Drew tried to explain.

  “Boy, you have been watching too many of those scary movies. These soldiers will tell you anything. I was brought here because I was drunk with an expired license and no insurance. Just like the rest of these scattered losers,” Jessie waved her hands broadly around, “If there is something crazy going on out there, don’t be surprised if the government or mad scientist was involved with some stupid experiment gone wrong and caused these kids to go ape crazy out here.”

  “So you know what is going on?”

  “I wasn’t born yesterday, boy, remember my mom your Mee-maw did serve in the military. I play stupid,” Jessie flipped her long tresses over her shoulder. “If there is something going on out there then I’m going back to the trailer to ride this thing out.” Jessie continued walking until a soldier stopped her shortly before she exited the door.

  “Ma’am,” the soldier’s eyes ran a quick analysis of Jessie Jacks and was immediately in love. He changed his tone of voice and softened his stance. “Err…. Ma’am. We request you be back before 5:00 p.m. Curfew, Ma’am.”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem,” Jessie said as she blinked her eyelashes rapidly at the young soldier.

  Drew was disgusted as always and turned away from the flirting fiasco to see if he could spot Mater. Jessie strutted her way on out of the Fairgrounds Center causing a lot of stares and frowns. She sashayed her way through the crowd swinging her silky golden hair. Drew ran up behind his mother in an effort to stop her.

  “Jessie, are you going to ride by Mee-maw’s to see if they are okay?”

  Jessie turned her lips into a smirk. “Momma and the girls will be just fine. Besides, I don’t feel like hearing momma’s mouth. You can catch a ride to the trailer with me if you want and help me clean up that pigsty. That place stinks from here to the moon and back.”

  Jessie continued walking with Drew close on her heels. She hopped into a pale blue Honda that was covered with dust. Drew opened the squeaky door to the passenger side and started to slide in until a hand stopped him from closing the door.

  “I can’t find my mom anywhere,” Mater cried almost out of breath, “can I catch a ride with you guys? I can walk to my house. You don’t have to drop me off.”

  Drew looked over at his mom who was fumbling in the side door for a cigarette.

  “Is it okay if Mater rides with us? Her house is not that far from ours.”

  Jessie nervously lit her cigarette and inhaled deeply before motioning for Mater to get in. “I know where Mater lives. Literally in the back yard,” Jessie said to Drew, “sure, you can come Mater. There is no food at the trailer. Maybe a can of sardines lying around somewhere. Or maybe you can help this boy clean up. “

  Mater smiled tightly as she looked to Drew for approval. She quickly hopped into the backseat after Drew nonchalantly nodded his head and held up the front seat for her to get in. Jessie started the car after three tries and obnoxious slurs. She quickly sped out of the crowded lot ignoring the soldiers beckoning for her to slow down.

  They pulled up to the stop sign on Highway 26 where the bus was pulled over to the side of the road. Small figures still shuffled about on the bus and gave away its secret to why the windows were blood spattered. Vehicles pulled in and out of the gas station that Drew and his friends were once in. People were no longer paying for services but hurriedly looting the store taking all that their arms could carry.

  Jessie made a sour pout as she stood still at the stop sign. She stared into the bus and tried to figure out what was going on.

  “What on earth?” She quietly murmured.

  “That was my bus….” Drew said looking straight ahead. He swallowed hard. His heart raced every single time that he inhaled and exhaled knowing that Beetle was amongst the hungry figures staggering about on the bus.

  “Oh my God!” Jessie shouted as she continued to investigate. “Are those child—“

  “Yes,” Drew interrupted shaking his head. “It’s like this all over my school too.”

  “This is nothing compared to the school, Ms. Jacks,” Mater nervously added. “Marley died there.”

  Jessie turned around and touched Mater’s knee. She remembered the countless times that Mater and Marley would bring left over firewood from their house to share with them. Both sisters even helped Drew with his sisters when she was out having fun. She sincerely felt bad that Marley was gone.

  “I am truly sorry about Marley, Mater,” Jessie said as she thought about her own two girls that she never showed any affection too.

  Drew watched as his mother turned around and observed as the scene at the store unfolded in front of them. The gas station was littered with cars. People were stealing and fighting each other over goods that were not even theirs to take. A bright red umbrella of fluid appeared as a loud
gunshot rang out from a woman. She had shot some thug that was trying to steal a case of water from her daughter. Screams erupted as people scattered while some continue to lift items from the store.

  “Lets get out of here,” Jessie said as she spun onto the highway and headed out of town.

  The Jacks lived about a mile from the Fairgrounds Center, right outside of the city limits. Mater lived behind the Jacks on the next road over. She would often walk through the woods with her sister so that Marley could play with Drew’s sisters. Mater would use the excuse of watching Marley but on the sly would drool over Drew.

  The car came to a screeching halt as Drew noticed to his right a white car wrapped around a tree. It seemed as if the car had lost control and hit the tree head on. The accident must have just occurred because steam shot high up into the branches and hot liquid sizzled out of the radiator. The highway was cluttered with luggage, personal items, and canned goods. It seemed as if the occupants of the car were in the process of evacuating. A petrified, severed arm lay sprawled outside the passenger’s window. Mater patted Drew’s back, bringing his attention to the face impaled into the back window of the car. It was Austin Hickman, the big linebacker who had helped Drew push the bus. Drew’s heart raced. Austin was in such a rush to catch a ride with the coach. I wonder if he would have survived if he had stayed with us? Drew thought.

  A pool of fresh blood sat on the hood of the car. Drew’s eyes followed the trail of vital fluid up the tree where a pair of legs, accompanied by a pair of shorts, dangled from high above. The coach! Drew figured as he shook his head in dismay. A slight squeal escaped the mouth of Jessie prompting Drew to slowly follow what her gaze was fixated upon.

  In the middle of the road two boys who appeared to be around ten-years-old, shuffled towards the car. Their appearance looked normal from a distance away. They held their hands out in front like they were trying to maintain their balance. Jessie glanced over at the wreckage and then back at the kids who were closing in on her car.

  “Poor children, they must have been in that wreck,” Jessie said as she went to open the door.

  “Jessie don’t!” Drew yelled as he grabbed his mother’s arms and pointed out the window. “They are not human. They are dead!”

  Jessie leaned up closer over the steering wheel and peered into the windshield closer. As the children advanced, it was easy to tell that the first boy had a broken neck as it leaned over to the side at an unnatural angle. The second boy had huge gashes all over his upper extremities such as the neck, shoulder, and face. Both boys had the classic look of that dark gray, leathery skin. They had apparently been dead for awhile because the blood that oozed from their mouth and wounds looked like grape jelly.

  “Oh my God! This can’t be happening! This can’t be happening!” Jessie chanted over and over as she looked at her cigarette and then flicked it out the window before quickly rolling it up.

  “Hit them…” Mater said with a monotone voice from the back seat.

  “What, what?” Jessie cried out in disbelief. “I can’t run over those children! It’s murder!” Her hands began to shake violently at the steering wheel.

  “If you don’t kill them, then they will kill you,” Mater said with a matter of fact tone.

  “Mater is right, Jessie. If you get out of this car then you are zombie leftovers,” Drew added bringing his attention back to the Eaters that continued to make their way closer to the car.

  The first Eater opened his mouth widely and portrayed a tongue that appeared to have been bitten off. He opened and closed his jaws shut several times over and over with loud groans escaping from its twisted throat. The sight of the first Eater was enough to send Jessie over the edge. She pressed her accelerator to the floor and zoomed right through the two Eaters. Their bodies went sailing through the air like a ball with no direction and then hit the hard pavement with a loud thump. Jessie looked into her rearview mirror and witnessed the two Eaters scrambled to their feet and press on forward towards the town of Wiggins like nothing had ever happened.

  “They should be dead. I hit them. They should be dead!” Jessie yelled as she fumbled for another cigarette. She noticed that her cigarette carton was empty and threw it into the back seat.

  Jessie sharply turned down the road where her trailer and mother’s house was located. She shocked Drew when she flew past the trailer and onto her mother’s house. Drew watched as his mother began to cry and talk to herself.

  “Oh, I hope momma and the girls are okay. What have I done? Oh, what have I done?” Jessie continued to cry as she swerved into the yard where her mother’s two story home sat comfortably on three acres of land.

  They quickly exited the car and slowly walked towards the house. From the outside, the house looked normal but it was not as lively as Drew remembered it. It is to quiet, Drew thought. Mater pulled Drew aside as Jessie went on towards the house. A flood of gunshots, which hailed from the direction of Wiggins, came from high powered weapons. The shots went off for at least ten minutes.

  “What on earth was that?” Mater wondered out loud.

  “I don’t know but I don’t like the sound of it,” Drew wearily said as he glanced back towards Wiggins.

  “What I was going to tell you before we heard all of those bullets was, I am going to head back down the road and cut through the woods to the house. I got to see if mom is at the house waiting for me.”

  “Do you think it is okay to go by yourself? I can go with you if you hold on a minute,” Drew asked.

  He watched as desperation crossed Mater’s face. Her big brown eyes blinked fervently. She pushed her large French braid behind her shoulders.

  “I have been waiting all day Drew. I need to find my mom. She has to know about Marley, about everything and that I am okay. If I don’t come back in fifteen minutes, then either an Eater got me or I went on with my mom.”

  Drew looked Mater over before embracing her tightly. He pulled back from the hug and stared into those eyes that desperately wanted him to accept her. Drew grabbed Maters hands and squeezed them tightly.

  “I will see you in fifteen minutes…” He whispered as Mater broke away.

  Drew watched as Mater ran down the road. She stopped to look back one time to wave at Drew before breaking off into the woods. Drew turned his attention back to his grandmother’s home. No sounds of laughter or smells of an evening’s dinner erupted from the house. He walked up to Big Thunder and touched the hood. Still warm. He noticed that the front door to the house was opened and that his mother must have went on in.

  Mee-maw is making my favorite, peach cobbler, and Jessie is going to finally sit down at the table and we are going to once and for all have dinner as a family, Drew concluded. A big smile made its way across his face.

  Drew walked up to the front door and into the quiet darkness of the house. The only sound that could be heard was the ticking from the huge wall clock that sat over the piano in the corner. He walked over to a light switch to turn on the lights. No electricity. Drew continued throughout the living room, and then to the den before taking the stairs up to where the bedrooms were located. He stopped midway up the stairs and decided to go investigate the kitchen first then basement. The kitchen was built over the basement so Drew figured he could kill two birds with one stone and grab a snack out of the pantry.

  “Mee-maw? Jessie?” Drew called as he neared the dining room. Distant sounds hailed from the area of where the kitchen and basement were located. Drew became curious as he tried to analyze the muffled sounds.

  The closer he got to the kitchen the louder the sounds became. The sounds were not the kind he wanted to hear. Drew’s heart started beating so fast that he thought at any moment it would jump right through his shirt. His stomach began to churn like he had a bad case of diarrhea. As he stepped into the doorway of the kitchen, Drew was relieved to see his grandmother and mother sitting at the dining table. Mee-maw was still dressed in her camouflage accompanied by her combat boots. Her blac
k bandana that was tied around her bun earlier was now wrapped around her arm. Drew studied his grandmother’s droopy hairstyle. Her smoky white hair that was neatly pulled into that near perfect bun, fell messily around her shoulders in separate strands.

  Drew was so happy to see his grandmother that he literally knocked her over when he hugged her tightly. He covered her face with tiny kisses. Mee-maw looked up at Drew with soft tired eyes and mouthed the words, I love you. His excitement was short lived when his mother started to cry uncontrollably. He had never seen his mother cry like this. Never.

  Where are my sisters, Drew thought as his eyes wandered back and forth from the kitchen to the living room. A familiar creepy sound that Drew knew all to well crept into the kitchen once again.

  “Mee-maw, I’m so glad you are okay,” Drew said as he hugged his grandmother again. He wiped away the tiny specks of sweat that glistened on her smooth aged skin.

  He pulled back to study her face. She looked like she had been through a tug a war battle. The sounds became louder drowning out his mother’s cries. Drew’s curiosity sparked him as he cocked his head to the side.

  Where is that coming from? He thought.

  “I knew you would make it, my strong…. Sweet…Drew,” Mee-maw struggled to say.

  “Mee-maw? What is wrong? What are those sounds? Where are Maryann and Grace?” Drew asked all at once. With the flood of questions his mother cried harder as his grandmother sadly shook her head.

  “Grace is upstairs in her room playing with baby dolls and Maryann….” Mee-maw pointed across the kitchen towards the dark abyss where the sounds grew louder, “she is down there… in the basement.”

  Chapter 14

  One, two, run, Drew, Drew, Drew

  Three, four, better close the door,