by Siara Brandt
If that wasn’t bad enough, the whole scene became even more disturbing. Several tufts of matted, dark hair were plastered against the glass along with the viscous blood. And what looked like-
An eyeball.
“What’d he eat?” a man whispered.
Maybe the real question was: Who did he eat? The eyeball looked like it could very well be a human eyeball.
“It’s just like that guy in Georgia,” Reyne heard whispered in horrified awe.
The eyeball clung there for a few seconds before it came loose, slid slowly down the glass and finally dropped out of sight.
Now a silence fell over everyone as they thought about that eyeball and what it meant. Some of them turned to look at the man who had been bitten. Maybe some of them were also looking for who might be missing.
One of the secretaries was tying a white bandage around the wounded man’s hand. The man was obviously shaken up by his ordeal. He grimaced as the bandage was wound around his hand. “Hey, not so ti- Ouch!”
“Sorry, but it has to be tight to stop the bleeding,” the secretary doing the actual bandaging apologized as she tied the two ends of the bandage together and then proceeded to clean up the blood that had dripped on the desk and the chair beside it that the man was sitting on. There were a few drops of blood staining the carpet as well.
Everyone was staring at the blood that almost immediately began to seep through the white bandage. You just didn’t expect to see something like this in an office. Maybe on the streets, but not here. It was probably a good thing the wounded man was sitting down, some of them thought, considering how pale he looked. It must have been a deep wound to bleed like that.
“He just came at me out of nowhere,” the wounded man told his silent audience, shuddering a little as he recalled it.
Reyne glanced at the secretary who was pouring a small amount of clear liquid out of a sunscreen bottle into a cup. She handed it to the wounded man and said, “You might need something a little stronger than coffee. I keep this in my car for emergencies.” Obviously, she wasn’t referring to sunscreen lotion.
Someone said, “He needs to get that looked at. Human bites are supposed to be worse than animal bites when it comes to infection. And if it’s rabies- ”
“Yeah, someone should probably take him to the hospital.”
Another man who was standing at the window suddenly swore as he pressed his face close to the glass and stared intently down into the street. He gasped and turned abruptly to tell the roomful of people that a car had just crashed into the building across the street.
Most people rushed to the window to see for themselves. A handful of people stayed to keep an eye on the conference room door. And everybody started talking at once.
“I see smoke somewhere near the downtown area.”
“Maybe it’s a terrorist attack. It could be a bomb.”
“Or more than one.”
“I heard it was a helicopter.”
“Who told you that?”
“We need to keep those doors closed,” Reyne said, knowing he had to maintain some kind of control over the situation, whatever it was, before everyone started panicking. “And the next set of doors in case he manages to get out of there. Caleb, you call 911 and tell them what’s happening here. And out there.”
Reyne could already hear sirens, but that might be because of the smoke he’d seen earlier. Or the car accident.
A woman was already talking on her cell phone. She looked up with a frightened, confused expression on her face. “They’re telling us to watch out for the elevators. There’s been some kind of disturbance down in the lobby.”
The day wasn’t even half over yet and it just kept getting better and better, Reyne thought. He asked the woman, “What kind of disturbance?”
He never got an answer. They all turned as the elevator bell pinged and the doors slowly opened. No one screamed. They didn’t get the chance, because what had started out as a bad day had just gotten a whole lot worse.
Chapter 4
“It’s a zombie apocalypse.”
Normally, Kathrin Jarrett was a patient woman. She had to be with two teenage boys to raise and no husband to help her out. Not that her ex-husband had actually helped her with anything during the course of their twelve-year marriage, particularly the raising of their two children. More often than not, he turned out to be the cause of her troubles. And most of the time, it had been like raising three children instead of two.
Right now her younger son, Athan, wasn’t helping matters any by suggesting that whatever was happening out there was some kind of zombie apocalypse. She told herself one more time that he spent too much time playing video games, and that if she was a good parent, she would limit that. Having two TV’s in one room wasn’t helping the problem any. She made a mental note to change that. Just as soon as she wasn’t distracted by all the problems that came her way as a result of being a single mother. Whatever this latest disaster might be, it was just one more thing added to a long list of catastrophes she’d had to contend with lately.
“I’ll bet it has something to do with the cemetery,” Athan said soberly. “That’s cursed ground up there.”
“Nobody believes in curses anymore,” his brother, Caleb, scoffed. “Except the people in your dumb baby games. Do you seriously think that dead bodies are going to get up and start walking around? Anyway, aren’t you too old for that?”
Athan didn’t reply. He merely shrugged and made another comment about the undead returning to life.
“Athan, I don’t want to hear another word about zombies,” Kate said sharply, more sharply than she would have if she wasn’t so disturbed by what she was hearing on the TV. “You’re not helping by talking about ridiculous things like zombies and curses. Caleb is right. You’re too old for that.”
Athan was twelve, too old, in her opinion, to believe in zombies. Or curses for that matter. Or dead bodies getting up and walking around. There was no denying that sometimes, to her immense frustration, her youngest son got pulled too deeply into his fantasy game world. She kept hoping he was going to grow out of it. If he didn’t-
If he didn’t, then she might have to follow one of her co-worker’s advice and have Athan talk to a professional to see if there was a deeper problem that needed to be addressed.
She shook her head and went back to staring at the TV screen.
“You’re too stupid to even survive a zombie apocalysp,” Athan mumbled under his breath as he looked pointedly at his older brother. Caleb, of course, was doing what he did best. He was being silently sarcastic and making faces at his brother behind his mother’s back. Athan’s mistake was in not ignoring his brother, and thinking that his mother couldn’t hear him. Kate opened her mouth to reprove him once more, but no words came out. Instead, she stared even more intently at the TV screen.
“You’re stupid,” Caleb said quietly behind her, missing the mispronounced apocalysp that would have scored a direct hit if he’d been paying attention. As it was, his comeback wasn’t half as imaginative as it might have been if he, himself, hadn’t been distracted by the announcer on the TV.
“ . . . which seems to be taking on the proportions of a global crisis,” the female reporter was saying.
There was a red box on the bottom of the screen now, with the words: LIVE COVERAGE, SPECIAL REPORT.
“Waves of violence are breaking out in major cities all across the country,” the reporter went on. “No one knows for sure what is behind it. There is some speculation that the attacks may be racially motivated. And in European countries, trouble with refugees has been escalating as . . . ”
Another reporter cut in. “This just in. A massive power blackout in the northwest has left millions without electricity.”
And then: “The President is cutting his golfing trip short and is on his way back to Washington, where he will be making a statement later today. We will keep you informed as more information is made available. Until then, everyone
is urged to remain calm and stay in their homes.”
“When did they ever tell us to stay in our homes?” Caleb asked as he moved closer to the TV. He was still holding his controller in his hands, multi-tasking.
“I told you, it’s zombies,” Athan ventured quietly in spite of his mother’s earlier warning.
“You’re so stupid,” Caleb said as he rolled his eyes.
“You’re both stupid.”
Both boys turned to stare in open-mouthed shock at their mother. They weren’t used to her talking like that. Of course, there were times when they didn’t dare question her. Times when she really meant what she said. By the look on her face, this was one of them.
“Is this how you would treat each other if a real zombie apocalypse happened?” she asked without turning, frustrated because lately it seemed they never stopped arguing. “Be quiet.”
They had never heard her use that tone with them before and it had, surprisingly, the immediate effect of silencing both of them.
Kate immediately regretted using such a sharp tone and sinking to their level of name-calling, but it seemed to be getting harder and harder to get through to them the older they got. She had managed to keep them safe during every disaster that had come their way – and there had been plenty of them. There had been Athan’s sickness. And there had been her cancer scare and surgery. Less crucial, recent problems had included a broken dryer, a clogged-up dishwasher and a water leak in the basement. Not to mention the latest unexpected car repairs. Since her car wouldn’t start this morning, it looked like she had no choice but to call a tow truck and have it taken to the shop to have it repaired. There was no telling how much that was going to cost. If something else was coming, she wanted to know about it ahead of time. She wanted to be prepared, if that was at all possible.
Without warning, both TV’s suddenly went dead. The fans stopped, too. So did the refrigerator. And every other electrical device in the house.
“Our power is out now,” Athan said, stating the obvious.
Caleb stared in horror at the TV screen in front of him. “I lost everything. Everything.”
The silence surrounding them was eerie, almost unnerving.
“This isn’t good,” Athan commented as he looked around the house like he was seeing a zombie around every corner.
No, it wasn’t, Kate thought. She had just spent more than a hundred dollars on groceries. Most of it had gone into the freezer. With all the extra bills, she couldn’t afford to waste a penny this month. Feeding two growing teenage boys could be a daunting challenge at times, especially when there wasn’t enough money to go around in the first place.
“Since you can’t play games with the power out, you can finish cutting the grass,” she told both boys.
They immediately froze like deer caught in headlights. Those were the words they dreaded the most. No doubt they were busy calculating their best strategy for getting out of the chore. Not that she blamed them. Their riding mower had finally given out completely and the grass was nearly a foot high. She couldn’t afford the expensive repairs the mower needed. As it was, she had only been able to scrape up just enough money to buy a used push mower, one that was not self-propelled. She knew it was a piece of junk, but what choice did she have? It was the best she could do under the circumstances.
The power was suddenly back on. All the technology they were used to kicked in automatically. The fans re-started. The microwave beeped. The clocks flashed.
“You’ll both do half of the yard,” Kate said as she pushed the button on the TV remote.
“Athan should go first,” she heard Caleb say behind her.
“Me? Why should I go first?” Athan protested.
“Because I have to- ” Caleb began.
“Because he has to burn the trash first,” she finished for him.
Burning the trash was a far easier job than cutting the grass, so for once Caleb didn’t argue with her. In fact, he looked more than a little smug as he opened the drawer where the trash bags were kept.
“Aren’t we going to eat lunch first?” Athan wanted to know.
“Get your chores done first,” Kate told him. “That will give me time to make lunch.”
“But, I need to eat so I have energy to work. I can’t work when I’m starving. Do you know how much work it is to push that mower around?”
She did know how hard it was, but obviously, her son didn’t know what real starvation was.
“You had breakfast only two hours ago,” she reminded him.
“Yeah. But it was just cereal.”
Kate sighed. “A lot of people would be happy to have just cereal. Go cut the grass, Athan, and for once don’t argue with me.”
“Caleb has to pour the gas in for me. I don’t know how to work that green spout.”
“Pour the gas for him, Caleb.”
“He’ll have to wait until after I burn the garbage.”
Kate sighed again. “Would it be so hard for you two to work together just this once?”
“My teacher told me I was going to get kicked out of school Monday if I don’t get that flu vaccine,” Athan said out of the clear blue.
Kate looked at her son. Athan had a knack for procrastinating. And for distracting her from the subject at hand. He’d gotten that from his father. “Why are you bringing this up now?”
Of course, she already knew why he was bringing it up. He was stalling.
“And when have we had time for shots?” she asked. “It’s the weekend already. I can’t even call the doctor’s office to make an appointment until Monday.”
“I don’t want to get a shot,” Athan said. “Will says there’s formaldehyde in them. Isn’t that what they use to preserve dead bodies? Will told me we’ll all be dead if we get those shots. They’ve also got aluminum, mercury, aborted baby cells and monkey cells in them. Should we be putting those things in our bodies?”
Kate knew that Athan envied his friend Will because he actually had a father who took an active role in his son’s life. As much as she wanted that for Athan, as much as she knew he wanted it, she hadn’t been able to make that happen. Athan had taken the divorce hard, a lot harder than Caleb. That his father didn’t want anything to do with him made it that much harder. It had been four months since he’d even called to see how either of the boys were doing.
Kate frowned as she went back to watching the TV. “Formaldehyde?” she muttered. “They give those shots to babies.”
Athan nodded. So did Caleb. For once they were in agreement. But Kate wasn’t paying attention to them at the moment. Another special report was being announced. She picked up the TV remote, turned the volume up, and quickly forgot about vaccines and all the other problems looming before her.
The new headlines were even more alarming. They were talking about cities being under siege and some kind of new sickness. Hospitals were overflowing to the point that they couldn’t handle the number of new cases pouring in. Things were so bad, in fact, that Congress was supposed to be calling an emergency session to deal with the problem. The President’s statement was going to be delayed, as if that even made a difference.
Again she heard the warning: “If your area is affected, stay inside and keep your doors locked.”
Affected? Affected by what? Kate wondered. And why would you lock your doors against a sickness?
They all looked up. They could hear the loud roar of military planes flying overhead. It wasn’t the first time that day.
“You think grandma is all right?” Caleb asked as he walked over to the window and looked outside to see the planes.
“I’m sure she is,” Kate said, hoping it was true. The truth was, she didn’t know. She didn’t tell the boys that she had been trying to call her mother all morning and there had been no answer.
She looked back at the TV screen and was alarmed to see images of chaos. People were panicking, running. What they were running to or from she didn’t know. So far, no one else seemed to know for su
re, either.
“I’m glad we don’t live in the city,” Caleb said as he turned to look at the TV with her.
“What are we going to do if it comes here?” Athan wanted to know, even though they still didn’t know what it was.
“In a small town like this?” Kate tried to reassure him, not reassured at all herself. “We probably won’t even be affected by- ” Kate knew she had to keep up some kind of appearance of normalcy for their sake. “By it.”
Athan was bending over tying his shoe laces. Caleb was picking up the loose garbage that hadn’t made its way into the garbage can and was littering the floor around it. He was stooping to pick up an empty pudding container when he straightened with the container in one hand. “Some idiot left their spoon in- ”
But he never finished. There was an explosion, a big one that rattled the windows and shook the very foundation of the house.
“What was that?” Athan asked anxiously. “Was it a bomb?”
No one answered him. No one knew if it was a bomb or not. It had certainly sounded like one. And it was close. Really close.
They all looked at the TV screen and the images of a world that seemed to be falling apart. Could they be at war without knowing it? Were they being bombed and could a strike be this close?
The boys ran to the windows but they saw nothing at first. And then they saw a black plume of smoke rising over the trees in the distance.
Another late-breaking news flash was moving across the TV screen. Another red box that said: BREAKING NOW.
“Dead bodies seem to be . . . ” the announcer began.
Then static.
“I told you. It’s- ” Athan began in a hushed voice.
Kate and Caleb both said at the same time, “Shhh.”
Kate was holding up one hand as she listened intently to the sound of distant sirens.
The power went out again and the house was immediately, deathly silent. Only the faint ticking of the clock in the kitchen filled the silence. Even though they waited for the power to come back on, this time it never did.