A raucous popping sound came from behind the house. Drew’s neck snapped in the direction of the kitchen. Jessie looked dumbfounded while Grace whimpered and covered her ears. Grace ran to Drew and hid behind him
“What was that?” Jessie said as she tightened the grip on her shotgun.
“I’m scared, Drew,” Grace whined as she held onto her big brother’s waist.
“Let’s go find out,” Drew replied as he grabbed Grace’s hand and headed towards the kitchen.
Once they made it to the kitchen, Drew winced at the basement door and the continuous growls that escaped from underneath the crack. Grace covered her ears as she walked behind her brother. Jessie pointed towards the window as they saw Mee-maw lazily walk back from the patio. She slowly closed the door behind her. Drew noticed his grandmother seemed very tired. Maybe she was tired from dealing with Maryann earlier? Perhaps it was just the entire thought of the world coming to an end? Drew figured as he observed his grandmother. He was worn out from escaping the middle school barely alive. He could only imagine how is grandmother must have felt.
“One of those dead yunguns walking around out there…. Tried…. to get in…. through the back…. door,” Mee-maw breathed.
It looked as if with each word Mee-maw struggled for air. Her skin dripped with sweat and her coloring was pale. They all watched as she hobbled in and picked up two bullets that lay on the counter. As Mee-maw loaded the gun it was visible that the 357 Magnum had only two rounds in it.
“Aren’t you going to add three more rounds, Mee-maw? You only put two in,” Drew gently asked as he surveyed the three empty slots in the barrels chamber.
“We need to leave… and now,” Mee-maw slowly said with short sentences. “More are coming… I spec thirty… or more.” She motioned for everyone to head towards the living room.
“What about Maryann?” Grace asked as she swiped a pack of gummy worms off of the kitchen counter.
“Remember, baby? We will come back for Maryann later. After she sees the doctor,” Jessie said as she led the way out of the kitchen.
Drew glanced back towards the basement. Deep down, he knew he would never see his sister again. At least on this side of the earth. As they made it to the living room, Jessie peeped outside the window and aimed her shotgun at the door. She slowly opened the door and turned back towards her mother and nodded her head. Mee-maw smiled tightly and nodded her head back at Jessie. Jessie pulled the keys out of her bosom to the monster truck, Big Thunder. Jessie ran to Mee-maw and gave her mother a heart warming hug. She abruptly broke away from the embrace and swiftly grabbed Grace’s hand. Grace looked up to her mother and obeyed as she was told to hold on tightly to her dolls.
“Alright, there are none of those zombie kids out there. So, I say we make a run for Big Thunder while we can,” Jessie demanded, “Are y’all ready?”
Drew and Grace nodded their heads.
Jessie took off towards Big Thunder with Drew close behind. He stopped halfway on the sidewalk to look back for Mee-maw. He did not hear her footsteps behind him. His face cringed when he saw that his grandmother was not running with them but instead standing in the doorway, the 357 Magnum resting calmly by her side. Drew glanced towards Big Thunder and watch as Jessie swooped Grace up into the big truck. Unbeknownst to the horrors that were occurring all around her, Grace seemed to be enjoying the excitement as she flew up into the air like a bird.
“Let’s go! Now!” Jessie demanded as she motioned for Drew to come to the truck. “Those zombie kids are closing in on the backyard!”
Drew ignored her pleas as he walked back up the porch and to his grandmother. She leaned on the doorway frame for support. Her color had changed from pale to a deep dark, dusky color. Mee-maw struggled to keep her eyes open as she fanned Drew away with her free hand.
“Go. Go on now…” Mee-maw slowly said.
“What? We got to go!” Drew cried. He pulled at Mee-maw’s arm. Upon feeling his grandmother’s flesh, Drew immediately pulled back from the high fever that escaped from her body like a hot oven.
“My road. Ends here. Drew,” Mee-maw replied in broken sentences.
“What are you saying? Mee-maw?” Drew hollered. The tears that welled up in his eyes threatened his vision.
“Sick. I am sick, son.” Mee-maw closed her eyes and licked her lips.
At that moment, Mee-maw was the most beautiful sight to Drew with her salty peppered hair that fell down neatly around her face from the once neatly secured bun.
“It’s nothing that some cold-medicine can’t fix!” Drew begged.
He heard the all to familiar sound of tortuous moans emerging from the backyard. Eaters. They were here.
“Mee-maw, I am begging you! Please, come on!” Drew whined as he tugged at his grandmother’s arms again.
“My journey ends… Here,” Mee-maw calmly said as she pulled off the bandanna that was wrapped around her arm. She showed the impression of teeth marks that were permanently stamped into her skin. The smell that escaped from the bite was putrid. It smelled like raw fish that had been rotted for days. The gaping wound was dark purple and oozed black gooey liquid that looked like thick tar. Mee-maw’s arm flopped down; she grimaced at the pain of the garment rubbing up against her skin.
“Maryann, bit me. Twice, when I pulled her off of Grace.”
Drew did something he had never done before. Scream. Nothing or no one had ever broken him before. Not the countless nights of going to bed hungry, fighting off the bullies, being kicked off the baseball team, or arguing with his mother’s countless boyfriends.
The world and time stopped as Drew yelled loudly falling to his knees. His cries roared like a lion. The sorrow that escaped from him came deep from within his soul. The only person in the world who had ever provided an escape route for him and his sisters had succumbed to the mysterious illness, with no cure, that was going around.
A stinging, burning sensation to his face brought him back to reality. He held his cheek as his grandmother mustered up the last of her strength to pull Drew back to his feet. Drew held his burning aching throat and wiped his wet face. He wondered how long it had been since he had lost it. Mee-maw held him with one hand to his shoulder. She took a deep breath.
“I leave it to you, to get to Washington, D.C. I have someone waiting for you and Grace. ” Mee-maw pointed towards the backpack. “Open that when you are in a safe place. Everything you need to survive is in there. Trust no one….”
Mee-maw grabbed her injured arm. Her skin color had darkened in a matter of minutes. Her appearance resembled that of the other adults who had been bitten by Eaters earlier. Mee-maw reached over and pulled her grandson into a tight embrace, in which Drew wished could have lasted forever. She sealed the departure with a sweet kiss on his forehead.
“Not much time left… for me. I can feel it. Now. GO!” Mee-maw shouted as she pushed Drew onto the porch and closed the door.
Drew stared at the door for what seemed like decades until the shouts from Grace and Jessie beckoned him to come to the truck. Drew ran to Big Thunder and threw his backpack with his baseball bat into the backseat. He looked over his shoulders to make sure Grace was buckled in. Jessie went to turn on the ignition but Drew halted her.
“I am sorry,” Jessie softly said as she scanned Drew’s reddened puffy face. She placed the 12 gauge shotgun into the dash board securing it.
“You knew?” Drew asked. Jessie nodded her head. “Can we pray real quick before we leave?”
“Sure, son…” Jessie said, shocking both Drew and Grace who widened their eyes. Grace hugged onto her dolls and began to sniffle quietly.
“Lord, please look over me and my family as we begin our journey. Please protect us and other’s as we seek safety. Lord—“
A deafening sound, which resonated into the truck as a big boom went off inside of the house. Drew realized the noise came from his grandmother’s 357 Magnum. Another ear-piercing sound went off shortly after the first round was
spent. The deafening silence filled the truck as they all realized what had just happened. Jessie bowed her head at the steering wheel and beat on it hardly. Drew came to the realization that the two bullets in the 357 Magnum were not meant for the Eaters.
“Mee-maw did what she had to do,” Drew quietly said as he swallowed down the thick lump in his throat.
It took all that he had in him not to muster up another panic attack over the loss of his grandmother and now Maryann. Jessie cranked up the roaring Big Thunder and sped into the unknown.
Chapter 15
Ole Drew Jacks, Jacks, Jacks
All dressed in red, red, red
With a wooden bat, bat, bat
All down his back, back, back
I asked him, him, him
To lend a hand, hand, hand
To rid the Eaters, Eaters, Eaters
Of all the land, land, land
Big Thunder hauled it down the dirt road sparing nothing that crossed its path. Drew squinted his eyes and finally saw Highway 26 come into sight. A staggering body, near the highway, fell into the road. The person was still far off to where they could not decipher who it was. Drew figured it was an Eater until the figure got up and started jumping up and down. It seemed as if the person was trying to get the occupants in the truck’s attention. Drew looked over at Jessie and wondered if she would stop. Jessie pressed the accelerator further into the floor board. She was on a mission to kill anything that did not look human.
As they neared closer, the person must have realized that the truck did not have any intentions on stopping. The tiny figure took off running in the opposite direction towards the highway. Drew recognized the big French braid that flapped in the wind.
“Jessie, stop! That is Mater!” Drew pointed, “It’s Mater!”
Jessie careened her neck in closer to get a better look. She eased her foot off of the accelerator, as they got closer to Mater Butler. Mater had apparently changed clothes and donned all black from head to toe. She was jumping up waving two shiny pieces of metal that flickered underneath the gray, gloomy sky.
“She made it….” Jessie said out loud to herself, “the girl actually made it.”
Jessie stopped Big Thunder and allowed Mater to crawl into the back with Grace. She slid in behind Jessie and neatly tucked her two pieces of metal into her worn duffle bag. Drew turned around in his seat and watched as Mater took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
“I’m glad you made it,” Drew said. He attempted a smile.
Mater scanned the truck and blinked her big brown eyes. “Where is your Mee-maw? And Maryann?”
Drew shook his head. “Didn’t make it…”
Mater let out a big sigh and closed her eyes again.
“And your mom? Did you find her?”
“I was too late… My little cousins, who had turned into Eaters, got to her first,” Mater squeezed her eyes closed as she tried to relive what had happened. “She made it as far as the yard, in front of the car, but they got her. It was so many of them.”
Drew shivered at the thought of losing his grandmother and sister. “I’m glad you are okay,” he reached back to grasp Mater’s hand, “I don’t see how you made it out. So many Eaters were coming from your way and made it into our yard.”
Mater pulled out of her duffle bag two shiny hatchets with wooden handles. It appeared as if Mater might have tried washing them off and was in a rush because of the tiny blood spots that were dried on the wooden handles. Mater hit the hatchets together making a clanging sound.
“I made it out alive because of my babies. I would be dead without them. No doubt,” Mater said with a half smile. She frowned again when she thought of her mother and sister. “I only wish I had these before all of this happened. Maybe my mother and Marley would still be alive.”
A loud thud was heard as Big Thunder rolled over a huge bump in the road.
“What was that?” Drew said as he turned his attention back to the road and Jessie’s erratic driving.
“I ran over one of those dead looking, zombies, or Eaters or whatever y’all kids are calling them now,” Jessie said biting down on her neatly manicured nail.
“Are you sure it was an Eater? And it was dead?” Drew asked.
Jessie nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders, “If it wasn’t dead, it is now.”
Drew bucked his eyes and slid down in the seat. Mater produced a sly grin in the back while Grace carried on playing with her dolls. Big Thunder continued to roar down Highway 26 towards its final destination. Drew turned his head as they passed the accident involving the coach’s white car and its horrific scene. They finally pulled up to Airport Road where the Fairgrounds Center was located. The road appeared desolate with no traffic coming in or out. A huge cloud of white and black smoke shot up high from behind the Fairgrounds building.
“Where is everybody?” Drew asked. “Where are the soldiers?”
Jessie continued to drive on in silence as they neared the center. The same cars, about a hundred or so, were still parked in the lot undisturbed. There were no lines of people or children running about. The buses that were lined up to take the scarred, scratched, and wounded evacuees were no longer there. The kennels were gone.
Drew noticed a heap of debris that appeared like rubber in the same area where the buses were originally parked. He could not tell what the pile was because it was still a distance away from where Big Thunder had entered. But he did realize that this pile all of a sudden magically appeared out of nowhere.
“There is no where to park,” Jessie said pulling over to the side of the road. She turned off the trucks loud engine and sat for a few minutes surveying the area. “My gut is telling me, we should leave and leave now.” Jessie’s long eyelashes fluttered rapidly as she scanned the area.
“But, I promised Sue Ellen and Tarynn that I would be here, Jessie. I could never live with myself knowing that something happened to them because I lied,” Drew begged.
Jessie shook her head as if she was about to bail at any moment. She held out her hand pointing towards the Fairgrounds Center. “Something is not right. Where are the people? People don’t just disappear like that.”
“Maybe they all evacuated already?” Mater suggested.
Drew continued to study the area until he saw something move out of the same pile that he had noticed earlier. “What is that? Something is moving out there!”
“Where?” Jessie and Mater asked together in harmony.
“Over there!” Drew pointed, “Where the buses were lined up. Something is moving out of that pile!”
They all waited eagerly and watched as a human arm popped out of what appeared to be rubber garbage. Drew leaned in closer as they all continued to observe another human arm followed by two legs come out of the rubbish. Then a head with long, thick, red hair finally emerged from the heap and struggled slowly to break free.
“Tarynn!” Drew shouted.
He opened the truck door and snatched his backpack along with his bat. Drew ran to the back door grabbing Grace and pulled her with him. The wooden bat swung freely in his right hand. He met Mater and Jessie, who were already waiting, in front of the truck. They all brought their attention back to Tarynn as she slithered her way down the pile and hit the ground.
“We must go to her!” Drew said as he began to walk briskly.
“Slow, down!” Jessie hissed, “We must be careful. This could be a trap…”
Drew stopped walking and faced his mother.
“I know I haven’t been a part of you and your sister’s lives but when I tell you that an adult has an intuition then that means something.”
Drew stared blankly at Jessie without saying a word.
“I am not drunk if that is what you think,” Jessie spat, “I have been through a lot too today, okay?”
“I did not say you were drunk, Jessie. All I am asking from you is that we help my friends and then we leave. Please….”
Jessie shook her head and then stared down a
t the pavement for a moment. She threw her hands up into the air before walking back to the truck.
“Where is Jessie going?” Grace whispered to Drew. Drew became slightly amused at the sight of Grace’s dolls stuffed inside her denim overalls.
“Leaving us again, Grace,” Drew quietly said, “But we will make it. We always do.” He squeezed his sister’s hand and bent down to kiss her.
Drew dropped his head downward and then stared at Mater. Mater read his mind and knew they had to do what was best. Find out what had happened to their friends. Mater went on the other side of Drew and grabbed Grace’s hand and they proceeded to walk towards Tarynn until they heard the loud cock of a shotgun.
“We can’t leave without my sweet mama,” Jessie said as she positioned the gun to fire at any moment.
Drew winked his eye at Grace and smiled widely at Mater. Maybe his mother was changing. He disliked the fact that it took the end of the world for her to do so but at whatever costs there was some ray of sunshine in the midst of all the madness. Jessie caught up with the trio as they walked on further into the Fairgrounds Center. Drew was determined to find out why Tarynn was crawling out of a dump pile and where was the love of his life, Sue Ellen.
**********
Nothing moved. No sounds. It was as if nothing had ever lived. The Fairgrounds Center was unusually quiet. As they neared Tarynn and the mass that she climbed out of, Drew realized that the rubber looking pile was not trash.
“Oh my God….” Mater said as she brought her elbow to her nose. “The smell is horrible! What have they done here?”
“Grace close your eyes and stay back honey,” Jessie demanded as Grace obeyed and stayed put. Jessie made gagging sounds as she tried to keep from vomiting.
“Those bodies don’t look like Eaters or mummified grown people,” Mater mumbled as they came up on Tarynn. She spoke through her hand, which shielded her nose, to block out the overwhelming smell.
Death's Little Angels Page 18