by Bell, A. E.
Then Molly responded, “I hate you. I’ve always hated you. You put these fuckin stupid ass redneck strangers ahead of your family.” She slapped Jeremy in the face.
Creed intervened, “We don’t have time for this right now. We have to help Evie try to save my son.”
Evie yelled, “Scrub that ax off and bring it back with a bottle of vodka or something.”
Creed’s eyes got huge, “Please tell me you aren’t about to do what I think you are going to do?”
She screamed, “Look it works in all the shows and movies. We have to try. We have no choice.”
Jeremy came running down the steps with the freshly cleaned ax and a fifth of Grey Goose. Evie took a swig of the vodka and then poured a little bit on the ax. She looked at her son with tears in her eyes, “Drink some of this.” He did as his mother instructed. She told him, “This is going to hurt, I am truly sorry.” She called to her husband and Jeremy, “Creed I need you to hold him down and Jeremy I need you to hold his arm out to the side.” She held up the ax and with one quick hit she managed to cut through the bone and muscle. There was a small sliver of skin still attaching the arm. She cleaned her buck knife and sliced it the rest of the way off. She held a pressure dressing on it. She asked her husband, “How does he look?”
Creed cried, “He must be passed out, but I can feel his breath against my face.”
She asked Jeremy, “Do you have a way to start a quick fire. I’m not going to be able to do a proper closure. I need to cauterize his arm.” He ran inside the shed and got a bunch of paper and then to the side of the shed and got some kindling. He made quick work of getting the fire started. Evie put the ax blade into the fire and waited for it to get red hot. She then pressed the ax blade against the remainder of his arm.
He woke up and screamed, “Momma, that hurts!” He passed right back out. She once again put the blade in the fire and repeated the cauterization to make sure she didn’t miss anything. When she was satisfied with her work, she sat her weapon down and removed the tourniquet.
Creed asked, “Is that it? Are you sure this will work?”
She began to sob, “I’m not sure of anything, but what I can tell you is that he wouldn’t survive the bite otherwise. I hope we got the arm off before the virus could make it further in his body.” Then next her mood turned to rage, “Where is that fuckin’ dog? It’s that fuckin’ dog's fault that my baby got bit. I’m going to kill that damn thing. This is the last straw, he can’t keep that fuckin’ mouth shut. He’s going to get us all killed.”
Creed came over and put his arms around his wife, “Honey, he’s being a normal dog. Yes, he’s a lot of trouble, but he usually warns us when there’s any danger. The kids knew not to leave your sight.”
She pulled away from Creed, “What the fuck? Are you blaming this on your son? How could you do that?” She stood up and opened the door, “Cinnamon, get your ass out here.” The dog came running out the door. She pulled her gun back out and held it up against Cinnamon’s head. Then Cinnamon turned his head and started to lick her hand. She dropped the gun and collapsed on the ground. Creed wasn’t accustomed to seeing her this broken. She pushed him away when he tried to hold her again, “Go find us a vehicle. I’m not going to stay in that bitch’s house one more minute after she thought about killing my baby.” He stood there staring at her. She screamed with fury, “I said go find a fucking vehicle to drive and take that fuckin dog with you.” She crawled over to her son and placed her head on Oliver’s belly.
Creed looked over to Jeremy, “I’ll go find something to drive, but I think you need to stay and keep those two hot-tempered women apart before they kill each other.” He headed down the driveway and then turned right out of sight.
Jeremy walked over to Evie and put his hand on her shoulder, “Look, he will wake up soon. Why don’t I get you some food? I’ll check on the others while I’m inside.”
She put her hand on his hand, “I appreciate the thought, but I can’t eat a bite. Oh and I’m sorry I threatened your wife. I was going out of my head.”
Jeremy jested with her, “No big deal. She’s a crazy bitch. Not a day goes by that I don’t want to kill her too. That bitch took a frying pan to my head one time. I’m telling you she’s batshit crazy. I stay because I don’t trust her to take care of the kids without me telling her how to. I have no idea how those kids survived my last deployment.” He stepped inside.
Evie was wrong about who the abuser in the family was. She felt bad for thinking that Jeremy was the one hurting her. She had always prided herself on being able to read people, but this was the second time she was wrong. First with Dick and now with Molly.
The door opened, and Evie turned to see her daughter and Cassie. Cassie reached out for Evie’s hand, “I’m so sorry that Cinnamon and me got Ollie hurt. We didn’t mean to.”
Evie pulled the little girl down to her and whispered in her ear, “It’s not your fault. It’s wasn’t Cinnamon’s fault. I was just angry, and I’m so sorry for yelling at him.”
They heard a car pulling into the driveway. Evie stood up with her hand on her gun. She saw that it was Creed, she ran up to the grey older model Highlander. As soon as he got out of the SUV, she grabbed him and held him for what seemed like forever. He pulled her away and put her face in between his strong hands, “Baby, how is our son? Is he going to be okay?”
She cried, “So far he hasn’t come to yet. It will be touch and go from here.”
Molly and Jeremy came back outside. Jeremy sternly told Evie, “I think you all should stay here for a few days until Ollie is back on his feet. Molly agrees don’t you Molly?” She didn’t say a word, she just nodded her head. Evie could tell by the look on her face she was not real happy about the arrangements, but she also knew that they couldn’t travel until he was conscious.
Creed muttered, “I think they are right, honey. We can’t go driving him around until he’s a little more stable.” Evie didn’t answer, she sat down next to her son holding his hand and caressing his face. Creed attempted to convince Evie, “We need to take Oliver inside and lay him down in a bed or on the couch. He will be safer and more comfortable there.” The two men walked over to Ollie. Jeremy grabbed his legs and Creed grabbed his shoulders. They carefully carried him up the steps and onto the couch.
Molly walked in behind them and glared at Jeremy the entire time. She kept directing him with her eyes that she wanted to have a private conversation with him in the other room. He followed her into the kitchen. She angrily whispered, “What the hell are you thinking?
What if he turns into a zombie? What if he passes that infection to one of us? What if he kills us in our sleep? And on top of it, he’s going to ruin my new couch!”
He scoffed, “Jesus woman, were you always this hateful or just after I married your ass. You are the most selfish person in the world. Just for once try to help someone in need.”
She walked back out the door, she let the door slam behind her.
He walked back into the living room. Evie looked up and asked, “Are you sure that you don’t want us to leave? I don’t want to cause trouble in your relationship.”
He smirked, “Trust me our relationship was in trouble long before you all showed up. I’m telling you, I wish I could walk away from her, right now. I’m just sorry that you have to deal with her crazy ways.”
She sat down on the couch next to her son and gently rubbed his face. She begged, “Please baby, please, don’t die. I hope I did the right thing. I’m sorry I didn’t protect you. Please wake up, so I know you’re going to be okay.” No matter how much she tried to plead for him to wake up, he didn’t. He just laid there completely lifeless. She kissed him on the forehead.
For the next several hours she didn’t move from his side. She just sat on the floor next to him holding his hand. By this time, she had put a proper bandage on his arm. Creed would come in ever so often and check on them both. Evie and Creed didn’t speak any words, they just spoke through
their eyes. The showed their concern for each other and their fear of what would happen next. It was the first time Evie let herself feel completely defeated. Creed had seen her during bad times, but he never saw his wife this devastated. It was as if the light that had always shown so brightly disappeared.
The minutes felt like hours, the hours felt like days. Evie was becoming less hopeful that her son would ever wake from this wound and if he did wake up would he be infected and would she have to put him down like a lame dog. She remained next to him. She refused to leave his side for longer than a bathroom break. It was just a matter of hours before she finally drifted off to sleep with her head laid next to him.
Around 2 am she heard her son calling to, “Momma, Momma, I’m hurtin’, I don’t feel good.”
She patted his head and ran her hand down the side of his face, “I know, baby boy, I know. You feel warm. I’m going to give you some medicine to keep you from getting an infection from what I had to do to your arm.” She grabbed her bag and a glass of water, “Here baby, get a drink of water and then take this pill.”
He sounded so weak when he asked her, “What did you do to my arm? It hurts so bad.”
She had tears running down her face, “Ollie, listen to me. I had to take your arm. You got bit. It was the only thing I knew to do.” He didn’t even respond, he just drifted off to sleep again.
She crawled over to Creed and woke him up, “Our baby woke up for a few minutes.”
Creed sat up quickly, “Huh, What, Why didn’t you wake me? Is he going to be alright?”
Tears were still streaming from her face, “I didn’t have time to wake you up. He had a fever, and I wanted to give him some antibiotics. He could be getting a wound infection from using a damned ax to cut off his arm.”
He rubbed her shoulder and kissed her on the forehead, “You need to get some rest. Lay down and get sleep, he’s going to need you in the morning. Why don’t you take my spot on the couch and I will make a pallet on the floor.”
She shook her head, “No, I’m going to sit next to him. I want to be right there if he wakes up again.” She returned to her spot on the floor and laid her head next to him. She thought to herself that it’s a hell of a lot easier to take care of strangers, than your own baby.
She started having a nightmare about him dying and then coming back as one of those monsters. Her sleep was anything but restful, the bad dream seemed never-ending. At one point she woke herself up and tried to change her dream, but when she drifted back off the same nightmare was there. Her son was chasing her through the woods. He still had the bandage on that she had placed, it was covered in greenish, black mucus. She was running as fast as she could, but it felt as though she was running in quicksand. The harder she tried to run the closer he got to her. He was moaning and chomping his teeth trying to get a bite of her. She ran into a creek and tried to get across it, but she fell. What used to be her son fell on top of her. He was biting at her neck. She was trying to fight him off, but it was as if her muscles had turned into play-doh and weren’t working. She finally managed to twist her body in a way that she was able to throw him off her. She crawled on her hands and knees out of the creek. When she finally made it to the bank, she tried to stand back up, but something was grabbing at her leg. She was kicking her infected son in the face. Ironically, the only thing saving her at this point was that he only had one arm, so he couldn’t get a good grip on her. She didn’t want to, but she knew that she was going to have to put her son down. She pulled the 9mm out of her holster on her waistband, put the barrel of the handgun against her son’s head, and pulled the trigger. She laid her head on the ground and began sobbing uncontrollably.
Then suddenly she could feel something ripping out her hair and pulling on her head. She couldn’t see anything because it was pitch black. It dawned on her that she couldn’t see anything at all. She jerked herself awake, but the horror she woke up to was just as bad as the nightmare she had just woke up from. Her son was trying to kill her. He had wrapped his one arm around her neck and had his teeth biting at her neck. She was using every bit of strength that she had in her body to pull away.
She fell backward into the floor, and her infected son continued to try and attack her. Grabbing and clawing at her with his arm. She could feel his teeth trying to bite through her clothing. She let out a scream.
Creed woke up to the sight of his son trying to make a meal out of his wife. He tried to pull his son off of her, but he couldn’t manage it. He took out his buck knife and stabbed his son in his brain stem. His son’s body went limp and fell on top of his wife. She began crying and screaming, “My baby, oh my God you killed my baby. This can’t be happening. How could this happen? He was my baby.”
Her screaming and wailing woke up everybody in the house. They all came running downstairs. Jeremy made it down the stairs first. When he saw what had happened, he pointed upstairs and ordered, “All you kids need to go back upstairs.” They stood silently on the stairs. “I said, go upstairs. Go right now.” They slowly turned and slinked back up the stairs. He could hear Cassie and Sylvie quietly crying. It broke his heart, but they didn’t need to see Ollie like this.
Molly made it down the stairs a few seconds later. She was standing at the base of the stairs next to Jeremy, “I told you that they needed to leave. Now we have zombie blood on my carpet. How am I going to get that nasty shit out?”
Jeremy backhanded her in the face, “For once, can you keep your mouth shut? Do you not have the ability to feel empathy for anyone?”
She blasted back, “Don’t you ever touch me. I hate you. I hate having that damned dead monster on my living room floor, and I hate these people that you let stay here.”
Evie’s grief changed within a few seconds to rage. She charged at Molly and knocked her down. She straddled Molly and wrapped her hands around her neck and proceeded to choke her without mercy. Molly’s face turned beet red. She was clawing at Evie’s hand trying to loosen the grip before she had the chance to kill her. Creed and Jeremy both tried to free Molly from Evie’s grip, but it was like she had superhuman strength or something. Molly had a couple of tears rolling out of eyes and down the sides of her face towards her hairline, but she was quickly losing consciousness.
Creed finally managed to peel Evie’s fingers off Molly’s neck. His wife was punching and kicking. She looked like a rabid dog. He tried talking to her, but she didn't hear anything, she was only seeing that bitch in front of her. The bitch that was once again running her mouth, and she planned to shut it once and for all.
He wrapped his arms tight around her and regardless of how she struggled he wouldn’t let go. He kept whispering, “Honey, snap out of it. You can’t kill her. That won’t bring our baby back. He’s gone. Please stop fighting me. Sylvie is going to need you to be strong. Please, stop. Sylvie doesn’t need to see her mom stark raving mad right now.” She lost the will to fight anymore, she just curled up in the fetal position on the floor crying her eyes out.
By this time, Molly had made it back to her feet. She looked like a football player that was avoiding a tackle on the way to a touchdown. She made it passed Jeremy and managed to get around Creed. She bashed Evie across the head with a vase she had grabbed along the way. Creed grabbed her and threw her across the floor, “Are you truly an idiot? Do you not get that my wife just lost her only son? You are damned lucky that I didn’t just knock your god damned teeth out of your fuckin mouth.” He pointed at Jeremy, “You need to get your fuckin dumbass wife away from my wife before Evie kills her.”
Jeremy escorted Molly upstairs, yelling at her the entire way. Creed heard him yell, “Don’t you dare come out of that room. I swear if you do, I’m taking Pete and Pat and we are gone. I will leave you to figure this damned zombie apocalypse out all on your own.” The door slammed and the next sound Creed heard was Jeremy running back down the stairs.
Creed was trying to see how badly Evie was hurt. He could see blood dripping down the front of he
r face, but she was acting lethargic. Creed asked Jeremy, “Can you get me a wet washrag? I need to see where the blood is coming from.”
Jeremy ran into the kitchen and grabbed a dish towel and ran cold water over it. He gave it to Creed. Evie was mumbling the words were difficult to hear, but the words they heard for sure were, “Where is that bitch? I’m gonna knock her head off her shoulders.” The rest of it was incomprehensible.
Creed was wiping and finally found a small laceration on Evie’s forehead. She grabbed the rag, “Just give me the damn thing. I can do it myself.”
He was becoming more and more irritated, “Look, I know you are hurting, but I’m not the enemy here. I loved him too. I don’t know if either of us will ever be the same, but I’m trying to help you.”
Jeremy came and sat down on the coffee table, “I am so sorry that she did this. I have no idea what came over her. She’s freaking nuts.” He put his hand on Creed’s shoulder, “I know it’s a horrible time, but we need to decide what to do with Ollie. The other kids are probably upstairs freaking out right now.”
Creed looked up at him, “You are probably right. Why don’t we take him outside and I’ll bury him.”
Evie turned and looked at him, “WE will bury our son. TOGETHER.”
He looked down at the ground, “Honey, you are hurt. Just let me do it.”
She became incensed once again, “I’m not fuckin’ hurt. That bitch took a cheap shot and got the best of me, but if you think I’m that much of a fuckin pansy, then you really don’t know me at all.”
Both men picked up Ollie and started carrying him outside. She followed behind while holding the rag on her head. She glanced up in the air and saw Molly staring at them through what she assumed was the bedroom window. The longer that Molly stared, the longer and harder that Evie stared back at her. She eventually put her hand in the air and raised up her middle finger. Molly snapped the blinds shut.