It occurred to him suddenly that this really was his opportunity, too. He would never have had the guts to do something like this before now, and he could never have taken Laura by himself, especially with her oldest daughter nearby.
Here, the three of them could do it easily and it would be even more soul-crushing than Bill doing it alone. He could manipulate the college guys into letting him lead the way. Though he hadn’t really considered it before, he decided he would have a taste of the teenaged girl, too. He believed he deserved it for being scorned for so long.
It all sounded delicious.
His decision firm, he started shuffling over, hands forward in a placating gesture, showing he was no threat. Bill’s heart pounded and his mouth dried. He drew a sticky tongue across his wormy lips, barely moistening them enough to speak. “Hey guys, wait,” he wheezed out.
From the darkness behind him, Scott charged past, knocking him down violently and destroying Bill’s plans in an instant.
CHAPTER 12
CRIMSONED TEETH
Scott had seen most of it unfold. His run to catch up with his family had turned into a full sprint when he saw the men grab the girls. For him, it wasn’t a question of reaching them in time. He knew that he would. The question was whether or not he could stop himself from killing the men who were about to try to hurt his family.
He didn’t see Bill until he caught him gawking. When Laura called out, Bill turned away for a moment. It wasn’t the craving etched in the fat man's expression but his visible erection that revealed his intentions to Scott: either direct or voyeuristic participation in the sexual assault about to happen.
Scott knocked Bill down with as much force as he could on his way past, intending to come back for a reckoning.
He approached the men about to assault his wife and his oldest daughter. He slowed to a jog and shouted, “Hi Laura, Maddy. Sorry to be so late. Why don’t you take the baby to the car while I talk to these guys?”
The two men glanced nervously at each other and let go of the women, who hurried away.
Scott's genial tone knocked them off balance. He held his hand out as if at a church barbecue. “I’m Scott. And you?”
The baby-faced one spoke up. “Uh… wait. You know, we didn't do anything to them. They're fine.”
Scott tilted his head in pretended confusion and changed from offering a handshake to reaching for his wallet. Opening his billfold, he feigned gratitude. “Hey. That fat creep back there followed them to do who knows what. And you made sure my girls were OK. I just want to thank you for what you did for them.”
They relaxed and prepared themselves for the cash. “We're just glad we were here to help.”
Scott’s friendly tone continued. “Or rather what you were trying to do to them.”
His smile never changed, but the air turned sour. Blackness gathered behind Scott’s green eyes. His anger gathered force the way lighting builds its charge before striking. He threw the bills on the ground.
Realizing it was about to get nasty for them, the stubble-bearded one began to plead. “Wait. It wasn't what it looked like. We were teasing. Putting a little scare into them. That's all. Just a little fun. No harm.”
“Want some fun? Why didn't you just say so? Let’s have some fun!” Scott snarled.
Scott’s hands shot out, and he squeezed the balls of both men through their baggy shorts, one scrotum crushed in each hand, severely rupturing both sets of testicles. Then, still clutching tightly, he yanked his hands away, ripping skin and partially de-gloving one of the men.
They fell to the sidewalk, throwing up, their hands cupping themselves as if to put their genitals back together. Their moans stopped when they had passed out from the pain.
Without so much as a glance back, Scott walked over to deal with Bill, who began to make conciliatory motions, at first flinching in fear before his typical smugness took over. “Close call, Scott. It’s good you came when you did. I was just about to…”
Scott whipped his left hand out and clubbed Bill over the ear, rupturing the eardrum and making it bleed. Scott hit him again, this time with his right fist, opening Bill’s lip and filling his mouth with blood.
“I know exactly what you were about to do.”
Bill covered his bloody mouth, “Stop. I was only going to…”
Scott smacked him hard across the side of his head, leaving a white mark on his cheek that quickly turned crimson. Scott’s hand stung from the strike. “Shut up, Bill.”
Bill looked ready to erupt. Scott could tell it wasn’t just the physical pain of his slap, it was the embarrassment of being caught.
Scott smiled encouragingly “Good, Bill. Let’s finally have this out.”
Instead, Bill backed down, his eyes watering and his jowls quivering with rage.
From behind him, a cluster of people shambled into the light. They walked with an awkward lurch; the scraping of their shoes was the only sound they made.
Scott sensed they would be a threat if they caught up to him. The world had changed so much within just a few weeks, with people devolving into violence out of fear or opportunism. He wasn’t afraid for himself, but he did worry about his family encountering more dangerous people before he could get them safely home.
Scott spat at Bill’s feet. “Coward. If I catch you within sight of my family, you will spend the rest of your life crippled and in pain.”
He pointed to the unconscious men on the ground, then ran to catch up with his family.
Bill didn’t sense the danger creeping up on him. When Scott ran away, Bill felt pleased. It was easy to threaten. Not everyone had the guts to follow through. He was strong. Stronger than most suspected. In the right circumstance, he felt certain he could beat Scott into the ground.
He shouted after him, “Who’s the coward now?” And immediately gave a high-pitched scream when a hand clutched his arm from behind.
He broke the hold and scurried away as fast as his tree-stump legs would carry him, which wasn’t very. Fortunately, most of the group had broken away to feed on the two injured men on the ground, who were shocked into consciousness when a half dozen hungry mouths tore into their flesh.
Bill turned around briefly when he heard the screams of the men behind him. He was briefly mesmerized, watching their torture. Then he saw that two members of the deadly group were still pursuing him, albeit slowly.
He tore his gaze away and ran for his car again. The sound of his own grunts kept him from hearing any more screams.
During his drive home, he was deeply preoccupied, dreaming of what he wanted to do to Scott.
The world really was different now, he told himself. Rules were getting broken all the time with no punishment for the offenders. Anything goes.
He decided to bide his time until the right moment when he would slip from the shadows to administer a lesson in what happened to those who wronged him. He would make the man suffer by putting Laura and Maddy in his control, exhaust himself on them, maybe in front of Scott himself, then he would kill the whole family.
He smiled the entire way home.
CHAPTER 13
VIRTUOUS AND VICIOUS
Laura got them safely into their silver minivan, locked the doors, and waited for Scott to arrive. She shuddered at what could have happened to her and her daughters. The close call left her afraid of what else might be out in the night. She started the car and pled quietly, “Come on Scott. Hurry!”
When her husband arrived, she slid over to the passenger seat. She was too shaky from adrenaline to be able drive. Before he could say anything, she said, “Just drive, Scott. I don’t want to talk. I only want to go home.”
“Are you OK?” he asked as he closed his door.
Before she had a chance to respond, a heavy thump came from the rear of the van. Scott scanned the empty parking lot in his rear view mirror, finding nothing. He waited a moment and shifted into drive. Again came a heavy thump, this time hard enough to rock the van.
> A blood-smeared face pressed against his window, looking like a possessed man. The man’s eyes wandered as if sightless. His hair was wild and thick with mud.
Scott had had his fill of stupid for the night. He stepped on the gas. The wild-looking man fell away from the van, his mouth leaving a trail of mucus on the glass.
In his rearview mirror, Scott saw the man’s body lying on the ground, wracked by tremors, curling and thrashing on the blacktop like a fat spider burning under a magnifying glass. The story of the Good Samaritan had been pounded into Scott from a young age. He couldn’t ignore the man, especially on such a dangerous night.
He stopped the van and opened the door to the humid night, muttering as he got out, “I’ll take another scoop of crazy, please.”
“Don’t.”
The quiet warning from Laura compelled him to pause, and he glanced at her. He turned back to discover the man already on his feet, staggering toward him.
There was something in his manner that repulsed Scott. A whiff of curdled milk reached his nostrils.
It wasn’t in him to back away from helping or hurting if necessary. But Scott surprised himself by announcing, “Right. We’re out of here.” He folded himself back into the van and drove away.
CHAPTER 14
HOLLOW SOUNDS
Throughout the game, Ridley bounced around the living room furniture as she cheered Chase on, limiting her yells to full-throated whispers to allow Katie to rest. When her son broke through the line with only open field ahead of him, ready to score the winning touchdown, she was on her feet, jumping up and down on the black leather sofa. She forgot herself and chanted at full volume, “Go! Go! Go!”
She felt sick to her stomach when Chase lost the ball. She knew exactly how he would take it. It was heart-rending to think about. When she saw a female fan attack her son from the stands, Ridley screamed furiously at the TV. Some mothers were protective, but she was a pit bull on crack. No one messed with her kids.
After the game, she surfed the news channels hoping to learn who had attacked her son and why. Instead, all the stories focused on the defensive lineman who stripped the football from a rookie running back and secured the championship for the Eagles. The linebacker was named most valuable player. Ridley couldn’t stomach anymore and switched off the TV, missing news of the after-game violence.
Chase. Desperate to talk to him, she called her husband’s cell phone for what seemed like the hundredth time. Like each time before, a mechanical voice said, “All circuits are busy now. Please try again later,” followed by a rapid busy signal.
Katie’s fever seemed to have broken for good. Her mom checked on her frequently during the first three quarters of the game. Her skin had cooled considerably and she slept peacefully. Ridley traded her intrusive monitoring for listening at the door. Wheezing had replaced Katie’s gasping for oxygen.
It was time to check on the Hales’ daughter. Even though both Laura and Emily’s parents believed her symptoms were pretended or, at most, hypochondria, they had asked Ridley to look in on her when she could. She readily agreed; the friendship between the families was so strong there was almost nothing they wouldn’t do for one another. She locked the door behind her and slipped into the quiet night.
The dramatic changes in climate, the swarms of different diseases, and the constant edginess of everyone around her were all smothering Ridley’s sunny disposition. She felt a persistent foreboding that humanity’s best days on planet Earth were over.
She broke into shivers despite the heat outside. She imagined invisible eyes tracking her on the walk to her friends’ house. She stopped in the middle of the street, like a doe warily scouting an expansive field where hunters lay in wait for her. She managed to keep from running back into her house, forcing herself the rest of the way to the Hales’ front door. She pounded on the door anxiously.
The heavy air seemed to muffle the noise of her knock as effectively as if the door had been covered with a thick blanket. After waiting a minute, she balled her hand and pounded with all the force she could muster.
Thud. Thud. Thud. “Please, please Emily. Come to the door,” she pled in a small voice.
She could almost feel things creeping in the darkness behind her. Her skin prickled as though she had a fever. She kept her eyes forward. The muscles in her upper torso were fully tensed, rendering her practically immobile. She couldn’t turn around, even if she dared.
Loyalty to her friends overpowered Ridley’s growing terror. She tore herself away from the porch and rushed around the side of the house. The garage door ran parallel to the wide driveway so that the Hale’s swung their cars 90 degrees to enter. Ridley pressed her back against the aluminum door and inched her way up the driveway until she reached the gate of the tall redwood fence that surrounded the Hales’ backyard. They had left the gate unlocked to make it easier for Ridley to check on their daughter.
She opened it cautiously, cringing at the noise even though the hinges were well-oiled and the gate moved easily. She peered around the sprawling backyard to make sure nothing lurked there. Shivers hit her spine in force, and she jumped through, slamming the heavy wooden door behind her and throwing the bolt to lock it with a loud clack.
Stepping away, she listened for the frustrated banging of creatures that she was sure were behind her. The fence creaked in a way that sounded to her like someone had leaned against the door, testing its strength.
Ridley held her breath, not daring to move. The creaking stopped. She told herself it must have been the wind.
She felt ridiculous and berated herself. She needed to make sure Emily didn’t have the life-sucking illness that had been overwhelming her daughter for the last 24 hours. If their situations were reversed, she knew Laura wouldn’t be tiptoeing in the backyard, jumping at shadows.
The Hales always left their sliding glass door unlocked. She slid it open and poked her head into the oddly darkened house.
“Emily? Don’t be afraid. It’s Katie’s mom. Are you OK? I’m coming to check on you.”
She listened for Emily’s voice. Instead, she heard thumping from upstairs, then the dull thud of something heavy falling on the floor.
“Emily! Are you OK?” She entered the dark house, flipping on a light and locking the glass door behind her to keep out her fearful imaginings.
Her inner voice went unheard, whispering, “There is no wind outside.”
CHAPTER 15
POOR AND LUCKLESS BEING
Neon signs floated behind the large windows of the trolley car-shaped building that rested at the base of a scrubby hill. A beat-up tow truck sat next to Tom’s Escalade outside the roadside diner where Scott and Tom had arranged to meet each other. Next to that was a white, newer-model Chevy Tahoe with extra spotlights and a law enforcement badge emblazoned on the door. Above the painted badge, big block letters read “Sheriff.”
The diner’s cook had a white apron and T-shirt. Grey stubble ringed his balding crown. From behind a long front counter, one waitress served coffee to the motley few who sat on red cushioned barstools. She wore a sky-blue collared dress and white lacey apron. Above her right breast pocket, her nametag read “Marilyn”.
When Tom and his son walked in, she waved to the empty booths. “Sit anywhere you like.”
Maddy walked quickly past her parents and sat down next to a depressed Chase, putting her arm around him. His body relaxed somewhat, the closest he’d come to calm since he had taken the handoff from the quarterback.
Tom appeared gaunt and pensive. His friends misinterpreted his distraction as trying to work out how best to help his son rebound after the loss.
Scott worried over his own family, anxious about how close they had come to being the victims of the two degenerates who he assumed were still lying on the campus pathway. Both his wife and Maddy appeared to be unfazed. His daughter was too young to comprehend what had almost happened. Laura was impossible to read until she decided to share what her mind. For the moment,
she’d denied being affected.
She wiped the table and high chair thoroughly with her own disinfectant wipes, according to the routine she followed every time they went out to eat. The scent of fresh lemon left behind mixed pleasantly with the mouthwatering aroma of eggs & hash.
Marilyn brought a coffee pot with her, filling mugs with fresh coffee when she greeted them.
“Hi everyone. I’m Marilyn and I’ll be your server. Just in case that was unclear, with all of the other servers tonight.” She laughed at her own joke. Even though she was the only one laughing, she plowed onward. “Are you ready to order or should I give you a few minutes?”
“We’re ready.” Tom said with a hint of gruffness.
Scott ordered last. “I’d like bacon cooked crispy, sausage, fried eggs over medium, two pieces of wheat toast, hash browns with melted cheese, and blueberry pancakes.”
Her pen stopped for a second on her notepad, and she stared over her glasses at him to make sure he wasn’t joking. “Is that all?” she asked, her lips pursed.
Scott beamed. “Yes. And please hurry before I starve to death!” he added, and playfully shooed her away.
Scott was perpetually hungry. Maybe it was spending most days eating bugs and dandelion leaves while on his survival courses, or maybe he had ingested tapeworm larvae when drinking out of slimy bogs. One year for Christmas, as a joke, Laura gave him a backpack filled with beef jerky, energy bars, ramen noodles, and chocolate. Genuinely excited by his gift, he’d finished eating his present that afternoon.
All was quiet in the restaurant. Tom, Chase, Scott, Laura, and Maddy were all battle weary, and the baby slept.
The Sheriff and the others at the counter were watching TV, gasping at what they were seeing. The Parks and Hales barely paid attention. A pretty Hispanic news reporter spoke into the camera in front of a highway full of stopped cars. “Fear of the whirlwind of viruses spreading through cities has caused mass exoduses of people trying to escape, fleeing to places where they believe, where they hope they will be safer.”
The Hollow Men (Book 1): Crave Page 5