by catt dahman
It was finally hitting all of them.
“People are violent, I mean, to the ultimate; then, they just get blank looking and go away, so they’re like zombies,” Dana said.
“No such thing, Dana. Zombies are make-believe.”
“Must be a poison gas,” someone suggested, “they’re sick.”
“Them damned North Koreans.”
“We’d all be affected” Coral disagreed. He didn’t think North Korea had bombed Cold Springs with poison gas. “It isn’t gas. You ever heard of a gas picking people out?” Despite himself, he looked back at the toddler’s little sneaker. ‘Spaghetti in the cake.’ “It’s something else.”
“A virus?”
“I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like it is,” Pax said. He didn’t know what a virus that made people react so violently would feel like, but people weren’t acting in ways that would indicate an illness. He didn’t know what to think.
“Something in the water?”
“Coral’s cooking?” A few chuckled, easing the tension.
“Hey,” Coral grumbled.
“Why would it be affecting a few like that? You ever heard of a virus that does that? Not unless it’s a zombie virus, like Dana said; they’re becoming zombies and attacking,” a woman said.
“I didn’t say all that,” Dana argued.
“Myke was chewing on that kid like a zombie.” The buzz was getting louder as people began to agree. The crowd had gone from ignoring the slashing of a family and freezing in place as they watched to building a theory of a zombie virus going around.
Coral rubbed the back of his head and hoped his headache would hold off. He raised his voice, “No one is a zombie. There is no zombie virus. If there were, we’d see a bunch of people munching on others by now, ok? There are no zombies. Zombies don’t drive cars. Period. Try to be helpful, or don’t say anything, okay?”
“Zombies don’t drive cars? That’s the best you have?” Pax almost chuckled.
Coral snickered. Dana started giggling. It was inappropriate, maybe, but several started laughing.
Coral shrugged, “Hey, it’s the best I could think of. Have you ever seen a zombie behind the wheel?”
More laughs followed.
Chapter 8
“They’re all wet,” Annie said. She pointed to the men outside and at Marla and Ed and then Myke.
“So?” a woman asked.
“So the ones who are violent are wet, and then they go blank and empty after they act out.”
Dana shook her head. “Gus was out there in the rain, too. He isn’t violent or empty.”
“He was in a slicker and had an umbrella,” Annie said. “Did you get wet, Gus?” Her eyes glittered as she spoke, her brain working furiously. Coral had always teased her that when she was really thinking, it showed on her face.
“Dry as can be,” Gus said. He went around the counter and poured himself steaming coffee and brought out the carafe to share with others, making himself at home. “But people out there, they are wet for sure. They’re out there beating on each other and doing things in the rain.” He nodded, beginning to understand Annie’s train of thought.
“But rain? Really?” Coral asked, “how? why?”
“I don’t know, but the violent ones are rain soaked. Now, they aren’t violent but just smoothed out.”
“Smooth?” Pax cocked his head as he thought that over.
Annie looked at Marla and then again at Pax. “Smooth, nothing there. In rivers, water…it smoothes out rocks. That’s what I was thinking.”
Pax frowned. “It’s about as possible as a zombie virus, right? Maybe something is in the rain, a pollutant.”
A man and woman watching out the window nervously stood together, sharing glances. He was tall and had a bit of a potbelly that stretched his thin tee shirt; she was small and flat across the chest, dressed in oft-washed shorts and a tee shirt. The man threw cash and change on the table beside their half-finished, cold dinners. They spoke in low tones, still looking out the window.
Everyone in the diner looked at the man and woman as they stood. It was clear what they intended to do.
Annie spoke up and addressed the couple that were standing and holding hands; they were heading for the door. “Hey, don’t go out there. I may be totally wrong here, but what if what I said is right?”
“That’s what I said….” the woman began, but a sharp glance from her husband silenced her.
They were scared, that much was clear, and the fear showed in their eyes, but they also had the look of creatures that were ready to turn and run full out. They looked as afraid of the people in the diner as any outside the building.
“This is ridiculous, and we are getting out of here and out of this freaking town.” The man pulled at his wife’s hand. “You folks deal with it. We don’t want any part of this; I’m sorry it’s a mess and that this is happening, but we’re leaving. You have a problem here. But, this isn’t our problem. We’re going to leave and go to the next town; you can handle things here.”
The woman shrugged and sighed with a little nod.
“You’ll get soaked,” Annie said. She wanted to tell them they were damned idiots and they were going to get killed out there.
The man looked at the umbrella the woman and children had used, but it was sitting in a pool of blood. “We’ll run for it, and the car is just around the side of the building; we’d rather get soaked than stay in this place,” the man told his wife.
“You won’t like it out there, especially if Rick runs into you with his patrol car,” Gus said.
“You saw that car; it ran over someone, and you saw those two men and what happened in here, and you heard Gus. It isn’t safe out there, regardless of what the cause is,” Coral added. He felt responsible since they were safe in his diner, but he couldn’t force them to stay.
The man narrowed his eyes and said, “We’re going to run.” He looked to his wife, “If anyone tries anything, keep running….”
“Are you sure?” Coral wondered if the man were pressuring his wife and asked her the question.
She nodded.
“Don’t start; we’re out of here. This just isn’t our problem. It’s your town, not ours,” the man said, “sorry, I hope it works out for you.”
They ran out, tracking blood across to the door as they stepped in it, grimacing as their tennis shoes made sticky sounds. The crime scene was being ruined. Annie ran over to press her face to the glass, watching the couple. Others watched as well, dreading what might happen but also seeing it as an experiment for their theory.
Outside, the man and woman splashed in puddles, darting over to dryer areas, batting at the water. Then, they stopped for a second under the sheets of hard rain, looking up, as if they had just really noticed the rain and liked it. They paused, kind of rubbing the water into their skin in a strange way. They didn’t run anymore but stood in the downpour, letting it sluice over their bodies, soaking them.
“Damn,” asked Coral as he breathed hard,“why are they doing that?” For some reason, the thought of rubbing the water into his skin made him feel squirmy. His heart hammered.
“Why aren’t they running?” someone else asked.
“It wasn’t the plan to stop like that,” Annie muttered, “I think it’s the rain.”
Outside, the woman yanked at her shirt, tearing it down the middle, exposing her white bra and small breasts. All at once, she lunged for her husband’s neck, clawing at his skin with her long, red nails, and although no one could hear her, she was snarling and hissing like a wild animal, her pretty face wild and aggressive.
Her husband backhanded her hard, knocking her down into the soaked grass and mud; she was up like a cat, scratching at his throat again. He yanked for his car keys, threaded on a big fob in his pocket, and began to stab her face and arms, drawing blood. She recoiled from the stabs but stayed close to him, scratching.
“Oh, my God,” Annie whispered. People who were watching, muttered
and gasped.
“Is it the water?” Lydia asked as she rubbed the window, wiping away the fog from her breath so that she could see more clearly.
“We have to do something,” a man said, but no one moved.
In a few seconds, the woman, outside, grabbed a broken stick from the ground and began to poke at her husband’s neck until he was bleeding, too. He dodged her, but she used it as a fencing sword, poking and jabbing. The damage to his neck wasn’t huge, just cuts and stabs, but the man was furious.
Dropping his keys in the mud, the man ran across the street to the car that had been bashing into the clothing store, side stepped it, snagged a sliver of glass from the front window of the shop, and ran back at his wife, brandishing it like a knife.
“Oh, no,” Annie moaned. People had gathered close to her to stare out the windows and were relaying what was happening to the rest. in the diner.
The woman tried to out maneuver him, but he slashed at her violently, slicing his own palms open as he did so. He cut his wife’s face, slicing into one cheek and ruining her looks.
As his brain itched, he stabbed again and again, poking at her chest, throat, and face; her hands were sliced and stabbed as she tried to defend herself, the broken stick was tossed away as the battle escalated.
The man made one more lunge at her, skewering her in the throat, and then, as she reeled backwards, he lost interest in her and dropped the shard of glass to the ground. Falling, his wife curled up on the wet grass, bleeding to death from several wounds, her throat pouring blood that washed away into the soil, twitching with residual pain and fury that were draining out of her with the water.
Her thoughts were washed away.
As everyone watched, the man dropped his arms as if the energy had left him and he had burned out; he walked away through the pouring rain with his hands cut from wielding the shard of glass. He didn’t look back at the diner or pick up his car keys.
“It’s the rain,” Annie said.
“Not necessarily,” Coral said as he seemed less sure now. He shook his head as he watched the fight outside. Had he been positive it wasn’t the rain, wouldn’t he have run out there to help the woman? Wouldn’t Pax have? Wouldn’t others have bolted to her aid? But they didn’t because they were thinking the same thing. He wasn’t ready to agree it was the rain, but he wasn’t able to debate it either, now that he had seen the fight outside.
Pax looked horrified at what had happened in the rain.
Chapter 9
“They were fine, and then the people saw them go into the rain and almost bathe in it; then, do that…that wasn’t normal. It has to be the rain,” Annie said.
“What kind of rain would do that?” Lydia asked.
“I don’t know. I bet Marla was violent before she went all smooth.”
Marla didn’t react to Annie’s accusations.
Annie looked at the pink stains on Marla’s shirt. “Did you hurt someone, Marla?”
Lydia came back into the main area. “Police said they’d get over here in a while since we have it under control and it’s not an emergency; they said to stay inside and to lock the doors, Coral.”
“This isn’t an emergency?” Pax asked.
Lydia shook her head. “They have a lot of problems going on all over town, and right when we were talking, the phone went dead, and it’s not working, now,” Lydia reported. “And Dana and I can’t get cell phone bars, either.”
“This is going on all over town!” Coral roared.
“I said it was,” Gus said quietly.
Coral just stared at Gus; yes, he had told them, but it was a little different hearing it from the police. And, that made Coral think again about the fact that Gus had said one of the police officers was one of the ones running over people with a patrol car.
“Don’t hate the messenger; that’s what they said. They have problems all over town with everyone’s assaulting everyone else. They said to stay where we are and stay out of the rain,” Lydia told him.
“That’s pretty crazy,” Gus said, “but I saw it myself. I told all of you.”
“I said it was the rain,” Annie said, moving away from the window and glaring at those who watched her. “Didn’t I say it?”
Coral went to lock all the doors. “Okay. Fine. You said it. I can accept it.”
Pax asked if Lydia, Dana, and Annie could get people tea or coffee and keep them calm. He asked a couple of men who volunteered to help cover the bodies with tablecloths. ‘Crime scene be damned,’ he thought.
Leaning on the counter, Pax looked at Marla carefully. “Marla? Hello, I’m Pax, Annie’s friend. How are you?”
“I’m fine, Pax.”
“I see you have some blood stains. They don’t seem to be yours; did something happen out there?”
“I don’t remember anything happening.” She didn’t seem curious.
“We had an incident here. I’m sure seeing that as you came in was a shock,” Pax said, watching her eyes.
With as neutral tone, Marla responded, “It’s okay, Pax. Things happen.”
“Pretty scary evening, huh?”
“Is it?” She didn’t seem afraid in the least.
“Do you have family you’re worried about?”
She looked as if she had to think about that and then shrugged, “Everything is fine, isn’t it? I’m sure there are no problems.”
Annie paused. “Who is with Kerry?” She leaned towards Pax. “Kerry is five.”
“I guess the babysitter. There’s nothing to be concerned about.”
“Marla, I have known you for years, and normally, you’d be bouncing off the walls, upset over the violence that happened here, and you’d be going crazy bitchin’ about getting home to Kerry or at least pissed off about the phones and not being able to call Kerry.”
“Everything is fine, Annie.”
“What if someone has hurt or killed your child?” Pax hissed.
Annie’s eyes went wide at what he said, wondering how he could be so hateful, but Marla’s calm expression didn’t change. No emotion was on her face or in her eyes. Annie understood now that Pax was doing a little experiment.
“It’s all fine,” Marla repeated.
“Okay. Just sit right here, and if those crazies break in, try not to get murdered,” Pax whispered in one more attempt to get a reaction. Marla nodded, sitting like a manikin.
He thought about reaching out a finger to touch her wet shirt, to get some rain on him, just a drop on a single digit, to see if it felt different or anything happened, but he couldn’t do it.
He was afraid. He knew that. He wasn’t the type to be afraid; he was a concrete thinker, usually, happy to do hard labor as a contractor, building houses, not thinking, but soaking up the sun, and doing an excellent job for fair pay. He wasn’t prone to imaginative thoughts or fears. He didn’t worry about the dark, spiders, or the boogieman, but the truth was, he was scared as hell right now.
“Okay, Pax,” Marla said.
He pulled Annie to the side. “That was weird. Annie; this is bad, really bad.”
“It’s weirder if you knew her before. She is the one who would be hysterical and loud, very emotional. This is not normal for her,” Annie pointed out, “that isn’t the Myke I know, either.”
Coral got everyone’s attention. “Look, none of us know what’s happening. We’ve seen way too much violence and some major personality shifts, and all we know is that every one affected has been out in the rain.
The good news is that we have plenty of food here and that we’re dry. The police know what’s going on and will be here in a while. I am gonna go in the back and cook for all of you; your dinners are cold, and you know food soothes all problems. So you tell the ladies what you want, and it’s on the house. If you have eaten already, enjoy some dessert and coffee on me, okay? Whatever you want, you can have.”
The waitresses forced themselves to smile a little and take new orders and clean off tables, and the diners began to spe
ak again, but it was quieter, now.
Coral asked Pax to watch the front as a kind of security and pointed out a few people he thought would help Pax keep the diner safe, or at least give the illusion of safety; safety was always an illusion.
For a second, Pax was surprised that Coral was entrusting him, especially since Pax was scared shitless, but the trust calmed him a little.
Pax found that his first job consisted of calming Lydia when she had a short, small break down and wept over the dropped and broken dishes. The events of the evening had finally hit her. She scooped up dishes while cutting her eyes over to look at the dead family. Now that there was a lull, she was about to fall apart. Pax told her to get orders while he threw the dishes into the grey pan.
Annie mouthed thank you to Pax as he patted Lydia and reassured her.
Pax didn’t have time to be subtle. “George, Dan, Jake, and Jobie, he recited the names Coral had given him, can you help me with clean up and with making this place safe by keeping a look out?” When he called out the names, he wondered who each was. As they stood in response, he gave them nods. “Coral said I could depend on all of you.”
George was an older man, and he nodded as he got up, patted his wife’s hand and walked over to Pax to shake his hand. George was a former firefighter who had lived in Cold Springs all of his life, and Coral had whispered that the man was loyal, brave, and strong, despite his age. He also had experience with first aid and rescue. “We’ll get things organized and make sure everyone feels safe here.”
Dan was a farmer that Coral liked because he was a smart fellow and a quick thinker; he had already spoken up; people listened to him when they needed to hear common sense. He grabbed a broom and helped Lydia get the floor cleared, reassuring her everything was going to be okay. Dan chattered as he worked, still ashamed and surprised that they had not reacted before, but determined to watch for trouble now and glad to be doing something useful.
Jake was a rough-looking biker-type man with a long beard and hair yanked back into a neat ponytail; Coral said he was a good person but bad assed if needed. He looked tough. He stationed himself by the two, tied up men and glanced often at Marla. If anyone tried anything, he was going to break someone’s arm real fast.