The girls were busy in other parts of the house, working on things to prepare them for the trip as well as things to keep the house secure both for the evening and for the upcoming weeks after they left. Although they’d secured the guest room window with the rack from the overhead storage in the garage, she still didn’t feel comfortable, knowing that the window was open, so after they removed the things they’d need from the room, including the mattress, she’d shown Ashley how to nail the door shut, which she was working on now. Brenna was upstairs in the office, looking through the cabinets for the pair of walkie-talkies Daniel had bought several years ago, as well as the batteries to go with them.
As she sliced carrots, Serafina did a mental inventory of everything they’d packed so far and thought about whether or not they’d missed anything. Right off the bat, she’d come up with two things: a manual can opener and ziploc bags. As she thought of things to bring while she worked, she called them out to the home assistant device, which added them to a new list she’d created. She’d added peeler, cutting board, collapsible containers (which they’d use as bowls), and cooking utensils to the list, so far, and she was still working on identifying other things. In the end, no matter how nice it would be to have some of those things, there was a good chance that a number of them would have to be left behind. There simply wasn’t enough room for everything, and they didn’t know how much stuff Daniel and Paul would return with.
When her phone buzzed, she nearly sliced the tip of her finger off. Setting the knife aside, she grabbed her phone and checked the message. It was from Daniel.
Ran into some trouble. We’re ok, but running behind. Be home in about an hour.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she keyed in her response.
OK. Please be safe and get home soon.
As she went to set the phone down, she hesitated, then added,
Love U
She set the phone on the counter near where she was working and watched it out of the corner of her eye while she set the carrots aside and began washing mushrooms. After about a minute, the phone lit up again.
Love YouTube
Serafina laughed softly, tears forming around the edges of her eyes. It was one of their inside jokes, and the fact that he’d used it told her things were under control.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. ‘Things are going to be OK.’ Feeling recharged, she got back to prepping the food.
Once she had everything ready, she set it all aside, deciding to wait a bit before cooking. Ideally, the food would be hot when Daniel and Paul got home, so it didn’t make sense to cook it now.
Brenna came into the kitchen, holding the walkie-talkies. “Auntie, I found the walkie-talkies and the batteries, and I changed out the batteries, but they don’t seem to be working.”
“Shoot. Let me take a look.” Taking them from the girl, she popped open the battery compartment on the first one and removed the batteries. As she suspected, they’d forgotten to take out the old batteries when they’d put them away. There was a light buildup of corrosion on the contacts, which was interfering with the electrical path. She checked the other one. Same thing.
Leaning over, she showed Brenna what she’d found. “Okay, see this? This is corrosion. It happens when batteries break down. Your Dad and I should have made sure the batteries were removed before we put them away.”
“So does that mean they’re no good?”
“Not sure. We might be able to save them. Grab the lime juice from the fridge and I’ll grab some q-tips from the garage.
Serafina went to the garage, found the right bag, and pulled four q-tips from the box and put the rest back in the bag. Returning to the kitchen, she saw Ashely standing there, hammer and box of nails in hand.
“I’m done. Do you want to check it?” She asked.
“No, I’m sure you did a good job. Thanks for taking care of that.”
“No problem.”
“I was about to show Brenna how we can remove the corrosion from the contacts inside of these walkie-talkies and maybe save them. Do me a favor and grab some toothpicks from the drawer there.”
As Ashley did that, she grabbed a small sauce bowl and put about a tablespoon of lime juice in it.
“Alright.” Taking a q-tip, she dipped it in the lime juice, then let it drip off a bit before softly rubbing away the white substance from the contacts inside the first communication device. In a short time, the majority of the residue had been removed. Taking a toothpick, she began to gently remove the little bit that remained while telling the girls to do the second. “You saw how I did it, right?”
“Yes.” The sisters said in unison.
“Okay, do that one. Each of you do one side.”
A few minutes later, they were done, having removed all of the corrosive substance from the devices. After reinstalling the new batteries, a simple check showed their efforts had been successful.
“Cool!” Brenna said, keying the device.
Serafina smiled. “I agree. I learned that from YouTube a few years ago. Your father was embarrassed that he didn’t know how to fix it and I did.”
The three of them laughed at that, knowing Daniel took pride in his handyman skills.
Ashley provided a somber reminder that he was still out there, away from them. “When do you think he’ll be back?”
Serafina shook her head. “I don’t know. Hopefully soon. He said they ran into some trouble, but that they’re fine.” She looked at the clock on their home assistant device’s screen. It was almost seven, and the sun was setting rapidly now. Looking back at the girls, she saw concern on their faces and knew she needed to keep them occupied.
“You know what? We’re gonna pack the small stuff in the Jeep in all the nooks and crannies we can find. We don’t know how much big stuff we’ll need space for, but we can take advantage of all the other, smaller spaces at least.”
Ashley put on a confident face. “Sounds good.”
Brenna joined in. “Let’s do it.”
The three of them made their way to the garage, passing Ursula, who sat on the entry table, along the way. Serafina ruffled the fur on the cat’s head, and the girls each copied her. Ursula, unamused by their actions, simply glowered at them as they walked away.
Entering the garage, Serafina realized that Daniel had forgotten one crucial part about loading the Jeep in the garage. The Jeep was in its normal spot, which was all the way on the far side of the garage. That position would make it nearly impossible to load the Jeep from the driver’s side. After she explained this predicament to the girls, the three of them weighed their options. Repositioning it would mean moving all the stuff as close to the near side wall as possible, opening the garage, backing the Jeep out, and pulling back in, centered in the space.
Ashley spoke first. “I mean, having it centered will also provide more light. It’s pretty dark on the far side of the Jeep, and we wouldn’t be able to see all the available spaces to put stuff.”
Serafina agreed. “Great point, Ash. Brenna? Thoughts?”
She pointed to the garage door. “I hate the thought of opening that door, but I think it would be better, especially when Dad goes to put the racks on the top.”
“Yep. Alright, it’s unanimous. I’ll grab the keys. You two grab something to stand on and look through the windows and make sure the coast is clear before I open the door.”
“Wait.” Brenna spoke up, using her favorite attention getter. Serafina and Ashley looked at her. “Ashley could go upstairs to see the street and I could look from the front living room window. Ash can talk to you using the walkie-talkie and I can just talk to you through the open door.”
Serafina nodded, impressed. “Wow. Great idea. Ash, you good with that?”
“Totally.”
“Cool.”
Serafina grabbed the keys from the dish on the entry table while Ursula watched her closely, making sure the woman didn’t try anything. She grabbed the other walkie-talkie before returning
to the garage, where she took time to look through the windows on the door. She used the device to talk to Ashley. “We’re going to watch for a while to be sure.”
“Okay.”
Serafina called out to the younger girl to give directions as well. “Brenna, we’re going to - ”
“SHHHHH!!”
Placing the device close to her mouth, she told Ashley to be quiet until she heard from her again, then moved silently to the living room, reaching out and gently touching Brenna on the shoulder when she was next to her. Brenna pointed across the street.
On the front porch of the house, their longtime neighbor, an eighty year old woman, was on top of her son. Wearing her usual matching sweats (today they were light blue), her thin arms were a blur as she struck him repeatedly, fists hammering his face, head and neck. The younger man, a real estate agent named Doug, who Serafina had met during the holidays last year, wasn’t fighting back, apparently unconscious. Nearby, a bag of groceries laid on the ground, its contents spilled. Closer to the door, a broken pot was on the ground, surrounded by the cactus and dirt it once held.
Serafina's sharp intake of breath was enough to elicit a surprisingly mature response from Brenna, who reached out and grabbed her stepmother’s forearm to steady her. Serafina looked at her, surprised by the young girl’s actions, then took a deep breath and nodded.
Brenna pointed towards the end of the driveway in front of the woman’s house. A coyote sat there, in the waning light of the day, watching the violence, licking its lips. It was clearly hungry, looking for an easy meal.
Looking back to where the woman was, they watched in silence as she grabbed the man’s head by his ears and slammed it against the pavement repeatedly until the back of his skull was a wet mess of hair and bone.
Apparently satisfied with her work, the woman rose from her position atop the young man and began walking down the sidewalk that led to the house.
In the street, the coyote stood up, the hair on its back raised in recognition of the threat. It wasn’t backing away, though, either. It had its eyes on the potential feast that lay on the sidewalk, not fifteen yards away.
The woman shuffled forward, bent over from years without exercise, down the path from her house onto the driveway, oblivious to the coyote’s presence until suddenly, the coyote growled, deep in its throat, warning her off. Turning towards the animal, the woman met its gaze. With no concern, the woman changed her course and started shuffling quickly towards it. The coyote sunk back on its haunches, ready to pounce.
In a flash, the woman and the animal both leapt forward, intent on killing. As Serafina and Brenna watched, they met in midair, the woman’s slightly superior mass allowing her to knock the canine back. Falling to the ground, the coyote slipped from her grasp, landing on its side and rolling onto belly, getting its feet under it. It lunged forward, attacking the old woman’s bone thin legs, ripping the tendons from behind her left leg in one quick motion. Screaming, the woman swung her left arm backwards toward the coyote, barely missing as it pulled back. It circled her, waiting as she got slowly to her feet, her left leg moving limply. The woman shuffled in a circle as well, trying and failing to keep up with the animal’s quick moving feet. In a quick burst, the animal darted in and latched onto the woman’s right calf, its teeth digging deep into the muscle. The woman collapsed, falling forward onto all fours. The coyote pulled back, slowly pacing her, certain that its foe was defeated. The old woman remained still, staring at the pavement as her legs bled.
Sensing the opportunity was there, the coyote leapt forward once more, aiming for the woman’s throat.
Later, people would quietly doubt what Serafina told them she saw.
From her point of view, she saw the woman break into a wide smile as the animal’s open mouth closed in on her throat. The beast’s teeth found their target, sinking into the loose skin of the woman’s throat, severing arteries.
But at that same moment, the woman’s hands came up, grasping the animal around the throat while letting her body fall to the pavement. In a twisting motion intended to use the animal’s forward motion, her arms ripped the coyote’s jaws away from her throat, oblivious to the parts of her neck that were pulled away from her in the process, and lifted the animal high above her before bringing the animal down hard onto the edge of the curb, breaking its spine. The woman released the animal, falling face first onto the street as blood spilled from her throat. Next to her, the animal twitched once, twice, and then no more, its life ending.
Afraid to move, afraid to make a sound, Serafina and Brenna watched for several minutes before pulling away from the window. Their eyes met, wide in fear and amazement at what they’d seen.
Serafina looked out the window again, making sure the woman hadn’t moved. She hadn’t, nor had her son. Or the coyote.
She looked back at her stepdaughter. “Wow.”
“Did that just happen?” Brenna asked in disbelief.
It occurred to her that neither Ashley or Brenna has witnessed what the infected were capable of. They’d only seen what an evil man would try to do when he thought he could get away with it.
She nodded. “Yes, it did. That’s what the infected are like.”
Brenna thought about this for a while, then began to tear up, looking at her stepmother. “Does this mean my friends are going to turn into that?”
“I don’t know, honestly. I don’t know if some turn into that, or if all the infected turn into that.” Reaching out and grabbing the young girl’s arm, she added, “I just know that we need to stick together and stay safe.”
The girl looked at her, fear in her eyes.
Serafina reached out and pulled her in, hugging her tightly. “Your Dad and I love you, and we will do everything we can to protect you.”
Brenna sniffled on her shoulder. “I know.”
Pulling back, Serafina reached forward and grabbed her stepdaughter’s chin to get her attention. “Right now, what we need to do hasn’t changed, okay?”
The young girl nodded. “Okay.”
“Alright. I’m going to go look out the garage windows. You look here. I’ll check with you in a few minutes to see if everything is clear.”
“Kay.”
Serafina rose from her position on the floor and walked back to the garage. As she entered the space, she immediately broke left, over to the washing machine, and leaned on it, putting her head in her hands. ‘Holy shit’ she said to herself, trying to comprehend what she’d seen. Her neighbor had been singularly focused on hurting his wife, and had been successful in doing so. In the process, he/it had been careless, and as a result had been killed by the falling piece of glass.
In contrast to that, the old woman had seemingly let herself take mortal damage in exchange for the opportunity to kill the coyote. Was it truly possible that this virus caused people to be so uncaring about their own lives that they would willingly sacrifice it, as long as they could hurt others?
She stayed there for several seconds, trying to calm her nerves. Finally, feeling refocused and ready to move forward, she stepped back away from the washing machine and walked over to the step ladder. Climbing the first two steps gave her enough height to see out the door’s window panels. She watched, expecting more creatures to come at any minute, but after five minutes of inactivity, she was satisfied. She called out to Brenna to see if she’d seen anything. The girl responded that she hadn’t. Keying the mic on the walkie-talkie, she checked in with Ashley and asked the same question. Ashely hadn’t seen anything since she’d gone upstairs.
She keyed the mic, raising her voice so that Brenna could hear her as well. “Alright, you two keep looking. I’m going to start the Jeep, open the garage, pull out, and back in. If you see anything, let me know.” The girls responded that they would do so.
As she got in the Jeep and adjusted the seat, she started the engine, knowing that she had only a few minutes with the engine running before the carbon monoxide fumes would start to affect her.
>
Wasting no time, she hit the button to raise the garage door. It moved upwards at what seemed like the slowest pace possible, making her wish Daniel had gotten the thing serviced like he’d talked about doing so many times.
With the door finally fully open, she quickly moved the big vehicle out of the garage, stopping hard at the end of the driveway before pulling back in, moving forward until the hanging tennis ball that served as a stop hit the left side on the windshield. Trusting the visual cue, she hit the button to lower the garage, turning off the engine. She stepped out of the Jeep, looking back and watching to make sure the door fully closed. When it did, she took a deep breath, relieved that the task was complete.
She let each of the girls know that she was done, telling them to come to the garage to help pack.
Now she just needed Daniel to get his ass home.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
After leaving the old man behind, Daniel and Paul drove along the park by the bay, on occasion weaving around cars that had been left along the side of the road haphazardly.
Further down the drive, the usual groups of RVs were uncharacteristically absent, having used their primary benefit and simply relocated to somewhere safer. This left the parking lots mostly empty, but both Daniel and Paul saw people peek out of the windows of their cars, their belongings piled high in the seats around them. Daniel knew from his frequent runs along the bay that people lived in their cars, and San Diego, with its warm weather and refusal to pass anti-loitering laws (why kick people when they’re already down?), had a large population of homeless people.
He shivered unconsciously as he thought of the virus running through one of the tent cities that were closer to downtown.
There would be nowhere to hide for those people.
Surviving Rage | Book 1 Page 21