Fallen Grace

by M. Lauryl Lewis

  I turned my face and stared into Gus’ eyes. “They brought her to me,” I whispered.

  “We need to get back to the motel, darlin.’ It’s not safe out here right now.” They’re watching, he added, speaking to me silently. I can feel their eyes on us.

  “I can’t let her go again,” I said. I was tired; so very tired. I could barely utter the words.

  “She wouldn’t want you to hold onto her. You know that. You know she’s not in this little body anymore. You know she’s with Emilie, right?”

  I looked down at my little girl’s decayed corpse and sighed. Who did this to her? Who dug her up? I asked silently.

  “I’m not sure, baby, but we need to put her to rest again. Will you let me do that?”

  “No, Gus. I can’t bury her again. Not for someone to dig up again. Can you cremate her? Please?”

  “I promise,” he said softly, kissing me gently on the forehead. “Let me take her now?”

  I looked down at Molly one last time and nodded. “Just don’t let anyone hurt her again.”

  “Never again,” he said as he reached for my baby. He picked her up as gently as he had the day she was born, and again when she died hours later.

  “Her feet are missing,” I murmured.

  Gus nodded in reply.

  “Nate. Boggs. Take Zoe back to the motel?”

  “No, I want to stay here with you,” I protested.

  “Not this time, Love. I want you to go back and wait for me. Remember Molly like she was when she was alive. Not like this.”

  “Nate, take her back please,” I heard Boggs say through clenched teeth. “I need to be here to put the baby to rest.”

  I felt Nathan’s hand take hold of my arm. “C’mon, Zoe. Let’s get back.”

  I allowed him to escort me back down the beach toward the motel. I could feel the dead in my head now. The buzzing was dull and somewhat foreign. I did my best to ignore it. The wind blew across my face, carrying with it a small childlike giggle.

  “Did you hear that?” I whispered to Nathan.

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t let it fool you. It’s not alive.”

  “Ok. Should we run?” His voice was hushed.

  “No,” I replied, trying to not sound as shaky as I felt.

  A small dark figure flitted past on our left. I barely saw it in my peripheral vision. Faint humming of the tune “Ring Around the Rosie” sounded from behind us, followed by a giggle to our right.

  Nathan grabbed my hand and squeezed. My hip was burning, an old familiar sign that we were in the company of the dead.

  Gus, I thought as hard as I could. I turned to look back for him. He and Boggs were standing several feet apart, a pillar of smoke reaching toward the sky between them. Sensing me, he looked up. I watched as his hand went to his shotgun and readied it. He understood that danger was near.

  A single thought filled my head. Run.

  Nathan’s hand still in my own, I looked forward toward the motel. My heart was pounding. Standing in the small parking lot that still separated us from the safe room door were four small children. They faced us and swayed unnaturally.

  “They’re here for me,” I whispered to Nathan.

  Their rudimentary thoughts filled my head, leaving me dizzy. Someone, or something, had told them to bring me a doll. If they brought me the doll they’d get food. They were so hungry. All four were little girls, outfitted in dresses that I was sure had once been frilly and pretty. Now, though, they were torn and stained with dirt and old blood. There was another nearby; a Runner. It was trying to hide its thoughts, even its presence, from me. I could sense it, though, in the background, as a mild flutter deep within my mind.

  “They ones in the parking lot are Roamers,” I muttered under my breath. “There’s one more, a Runner, that’s hiding.”

  “Do you have a gun?”

  “Yes.”

  The girls wanted to walk toward us. They wanted to feed on our warm, living flesh. They were held back, though, by an unseen force that told them not to advance. The Runner wanted me, and it wanted me alive. I sensed that bit not from it, but rather from the decaying girls staring at us.

  In my mind, I wondered what the Runner wanted with me. As soon as I did, its signature got stronger and I knew instantly that it was inside the safe room. It was hiding in the last place we’d suspect. It was in there with Bobby, Susan, and Abbey. It was using them. They’d have no choice but to let us in when we knocked. It knew we would kill the Roamers out front. They were disposable.

  “We have to go to the safe room, Nate. The Runner’s in there. I have to go with it.”

  “What the fuck’s going on?” Boggs was suddenly behind us, causing me to jump.

  “What are they doing?” echoed Gus.

  “Waiting for us,” said Nathan.

  “There’s five,” I whispered. “The Runner inside wants me.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?” asked Boggs.

  Before I could answer, I heard one of the girls inside yell out in pain. I flinched.

  Zoe, there’s one inside the safe room? Gus was inside of my head.

  Yes. It’s going to force the girls to open the door. It wants me.

  I turned and looked Gus in the eyes.

  ‘Ring Around the Rosie’ filled my head again, immediately followed by another shadow streaking by in the distance. There was even more going on around us than we were aware.

  There’s more around us. I said silently to Gus, who nodded in acknowledgement. I reached my free hand out for his.

  “Nate, Boggs. Take out the dead children. I’m going in with Zoe.”

  I let go of Nathan’s hand and walked forward with Gus at my side. Giggling filled my ears. It was faint and so very eerie; not quite human. I looked toward the sea and saw a line-up of forms. They were all distinctly nude, their skin charred and cracked. They watched as we proceeded forward. Five gunshots took the four dead little girls to their final deaths. Their rancid bodies collapsed to the pavement in small heaps. The humming in my head stopped immediately. I looked back to the charred creatures. They were gone, no trace of their ever being there remaining. I wondered briefly if I had completely imagined their presence.

  Someone inside screamed again, this time accompanied by a deathly snarl and several organized clicks.

  “Stop!” I shrieked. “Stop!”

  I couldn’t tell who it was that was in pain. The screaming inside stopped and the door swung open. Susan stood in front of the nauseatingly dead creature that was torturing her. It was tall and lanky. Patches of rotten flesh fell at its sides, hanging down like slabs of old raw steak. Its belly had long ago been ripped open and something foreign was attached to what I assumed was the Runner’s spinal cord. The thing was slowly undulating, and looked much like a large larvae. It was a similar shade of gray as the rotten flesh of its host. I shivered. The Runner held a long stick and had intricately twisted Susan’s left arm around it. I could tell her arm was broken in several places. Tears streaked her face and she was a sickly shade of pale.

  “Stop!” I yelled. “Let her go! I’ll come with you!”

  The creature answered by opening its dried-up mouth and emitting a shrill sound. It twisted the stick one more time, bringing Susan to her knees. Eventually it dropped the stick and Susan fell onto her side, where she proceeded to writhe in pain while trying to inch away from her abuser. I went to step forward toward the horrible beast that stood at least two heads taller than myself, but found that both Gus and Nathan were holding me back by my arms.

  “No, Love,” whispered Gus.

  I have to, I answered in my mind.

  No. Not this way.

  Trust me. They were the only words I could think of.

  One of my arms now freed, thanks to Gus and his trust, I shook free of Nate’s grip as well. I stepped forward, and the creature matched my advance. As I got closer to the tall Runner, I could hear the sloppy sounds of the abdominal parasite as it was presumabl
y feeding. I wondered briefly where Boggs was, and found myself longing for him to be at my side. I was barely aware of Nathan rushing to Susan’s side.

  I was suddenly unable to feel Gus’ presence within my core. I blinked, and the creature and I were abruptly face to face. It was breathing, although in its state of decomposition I was unsure how that could be. Cold as a wind that’s blown down from a glacial mountain peak, the breath upon my face smelled of damp earth and fecal matter. I stared up into the creature’s eyes, which were full of bright red blood that surrounded clouded-over irises that I guessed were once blue. Vague images of a woman and small child filled my mind. Their features were slightly blurred. Each time they flitted into my mind I wanted to see them clearly, but the harder I tried the more vague their faces became. The child had black hair and wore a light blue nightgown. The woman, her mother most likely, had hair a shade lighter and several inches shorter. She was crouched holding the little girl. The creature before me was showing me these images. I wondered if in its human life they were its family. As if answering me, the creature showed me new images. The woman and child were covered in blood. They screamed as they were torn apart. I felt sick to my stomach and tried to push the pictures from my mind. As my own vision cleared, the face before me grinned wickedly. The pounding of my own heart replaced the screams of the victims the Runner had shown me. I had been prepared to go with this evil creature in hopes that it would prevent it from hurting the others. Now, though, I knew it intended to kill us all, no matter what I did.

  CHAPTER 3

  I wasn’t able to unlock my eyes from those of the creature staring back at me and time seemed to stand still. Eventually, gunfire brought me back to the here-and-now, and within a split second the tall creature before me was slumped to the ground. It wasn’t dead; just maimed. I aimed my pistol at its head and fired. It was, oddly, a clean kill. There was no splatter as a result of the hole I had blown through its head. The large maggot-like creature unattached itself from the Runner and began crawling across the asphalt toward me. It was slow and silent as it made its way forward. Not wanting to waste ammo on it, once it was within range I kicked at its head until it stopped heaving itself toward me. A thick yellow-brown substance seeped from the wound I had inflicted upon its head. The resulting ammonia-like odor was unbearable. I covered my mouth and nose and began coughing. More gunfire in the background caused me to look around. Abbey was kneeling next to Susan. I hadn’t seen such a look of despair on her face since the day her sister, Kelsey, had died. Susan looked pale and I knew she was in shock. Her face was bruised and her arm, already swelling, hung limply at her side.

  As badly as I wanted to rush to her in hopes of helping, my head was buzzing with more of the dead. “Ring around the Rosie” filled the air around us once again along with an occasional evil chuckle. There were at least five of them, running around in the shadows of the building and hiding behind abandoned vehicles. I joined the men and Bobby in taking a protective stance. There was an ominous feeling heavy in the air around us. It sat heavily upon my shoulders and seemed to fill my lungs like lead. The sounds around us seemed hushed. Even the waves from the ocean seemed muffled.

  “We need to get Sue back into the safe room!” yelled Gus. “Now!”

  “They’re all around us,” I said as loudly as I dared. “They’re waiting for us to run!”

  “Back up slowly,” said Gus in his deep voice. “Nate, you’ll need to drag Susan into the room. Have Bobby help you. Zoe, help with Abbey if you can. I’ll get Boggs.”

  His last words caused my heart to skip a beat. I looked around, my eyes settling on Boggs, who was lying to my left. I hadn’t been aware that he had gone down. He was alive. I could tell by his body, which was writhing in pain, that he had been injured somehow. His cries were just reaching my ears. Blood was staining his shirt and the ground upon which he lay. In that moment, life sped up; I hadn’t been aware that it had slowed. Nathan was already at Susan’s side and was busy lifting her into his arms. The movement caused her to scream once again; blood-curdling shrieks of pain. I began to run toward Boggs, despite the directions that had been shouted at me, when I saw the children from the shadows running toward us.

  “Zoe, get Abbey!” screamed Gus, who was within two strides of reaching Boggs already.

  The shadow children were closer, their spine-chilling giggling louder by the second. I took several steps back and aimed my pistol at the closest of them. I wasn’t skilled enough to fire the weapon with any accuracy while running, so I stopped and took a deep breath in. Exhaling slowly, I pulled the trigger and felled the child. Gus was dragging Boggs back toward the safe room. The remaining children still advancing, I covered the two men the best that I could. I ran out of ammo after the fourth child fell.

  “Zoe, run!” I heard Bobby and Gus both scream from behind me.

  Going against my gut feeling on the matter, I turned my back to the remaining horde of child zombies. Their numbers had doubled and they kept advancing. I ran as fast as I could toward the open door of the safe room, where Bobby waited for me. The look upon her face was full of horror. I could hear chuckling directly behind me. Bobby was jumping up and down nervously as I approached. I knew by her manner that the child was almost upon me, and the window of time in which to close the door was soon coming to an end. I fell into the room, tripping over a crack in the concrete floor. The door slammed closed behind me, immediately followed by the sound of dead children colliding with the door.

  The sounds of little fists banging and clawing was soon replaced by pathetic cries and pleas.

  “Mommy, mommy!”

  “Daddy, we’re scared! Please help us!”

  “Mama, someone bad is out here! Let us in!”

  The one that raised the hair on my neck and made me feel like vomiting was “Molly needs her mommy. Please…she’s crying! Molly’s crying!”

  I had already scooted away from the door, but still sat on my butt. Susan was whimpering behind me. I could hear Nate trying to soothe her. Abbey was sitting near Boggs, holding a cloth to the wound on his abdomen. He appeared to be unconscious. Gus was holding my hand firmly and Bobby was still near the door. Outside, the children were singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

  The stench from the dead invaded our safe room, reminding us that eventually they would find their way in. The singing continued for several minutes. As it faded, crying began; the pitiful crying of a child who was hurting. Bobby turned away from the door to look at us. She looked sad in the dim white lighting of the battery operated lantern.

  “It sounds alive,” she whispered.

  I shook my head back and forth, and slowly put my index finger up to my lips. I looked at Gus, my eyes wide and desperate for his direction. I knew there was a chance that there was, indeed, a living child outside being used as bait.

  There’s nothing we can do. I felt Gus’ thought inside of my head.

  Bobby turned back to the door and waited. Susan’s whimpers from behind us slowly ebbed as she fell into a troublesome form of sleep, likely her body’s way of coping with its injuries. Eventually the sounds of the living dead children grew silent, but I knew they were still there. Their signatures within my mind were particularly evil, but unlike the tall Runner, they were unable to hide from me.

  They’re still out there. Gus squeezed my hand, acknowledging my thought. He then stood and reached for my hand. I took it and joined him.

  “We need to gather in the center of the room,” he whispered softly.

  “I’ll check on Boggs and Abs and be right there,” I said softly.

  Abbey looked at me, obviously scared and not sure what to do. I took the cloth from her and continued to keep pressure on Boggs’ wound. By the looks of it, it was a bite and not a gunshot. He was apparently already infected from when I had bit him in my sleep, so I could only hope he wouldn’t turn into one of the living dead.

  “Abbey, honey, I need to go over and take care of Susan. Can you stay here wi
th Boggs?”

  She nodded.”

  I crept over to where Susan was resting, halfway propped in Nathan’s arms. He wore a pained look on his face. Bobby joined me.

  “Bobby, can you help me bring some of the couch cushions over?” I whispered.

  “Sure.”

  We walked quietly together and gathered the loose toss pillows from the sofa. My plan was to decide who was injured the worst, and put that person on the couch itself. The other could at least use some of the cushions.

  Gus settled at Susan’s side and looked her over quickly.

  “Nate, I need to go check on Boggs. I’ll be right back, ok?” he said.

  Gus relieved Abbey, who joined us in our task of organizing the couch cushions.

  “Abbey. I need you to stay strong, ok sweetie?” She looked at me and nodded. “I know you’ll help hold the others together.” I smiled weakly at her.

  “Zoe, will they be ok? Susan and Boggs?” she asked.

  “I hope so, Abs. I hope so. Now let’s get them more comfortable, ok?”

  We took the cushions back to where the others had gathered. It was quiet outside, aside from the occasional whimper or short burst of sobbing from the deceased children. It was the random giggling that got to me the most.

  I helped Nathan prop Susan onto a cushion. He had already used his shirt as a roll for under her head. She groaned as I used a small pillow to elevate her injured arm.

  “She’s hurt bad,” said Nathan quietly.

  “Yes, she is,” I answered. “Has she woken up at all?”

  “No. Not since we got in here.” His voice was full of worry.

  “I need to go check on Boggs. I think whichever of them is injured the worst, we’ll put them on the couch.”

  “Fair enough,” he replied.

  I walked to where Gus was crouched beside Boggs. The bleeding seemed to have slowed, but the cloth that covered his wound was saturated. He was awake now, his body trembling.

  “How is he?” I asked.

  “I’ll live,” Boggs said between clenched jaws. “But it hurts like a mother fucking whore.”