by Hunter Shea
As she passed Alexiana, she shouted, “Alexiana, get off the damn chair and move your ass out of here! Now!”
Alexiana blinked hard, looked at the mounds of rats invading the shelter, and jumped off the chair. She landed atop a half-dozen rats.
Elizabeth ran up the stairs with Miguel and Dakota, her ankles slipping and twisting, threatening to give way and spill her into the mass of chittering vermin. The rats were like a brown, furry waterfall pouring down the stairs at an alarming rate.
Keep running! Keep running!
Something sharp bit into Elizabeth’s ankle.
Then another at her calf.
She ran, reaching the kitchen and wondering where her husband and children had gone.
47
As they bolted up the stairs to the second floor, Max saw two rats climbing along his sister’s shirt. She was so busy trying to keep up with their father that she didn’t notice.
Max snatched them off her shirt, throwing them hard down the stairs. His hand was left wet and slimy. As one ran along the banister, he brought a heavy fist down on its head. It broke into spasms, falling to the carpeted steps.
Thankfully, so many rats had zeroed in on the basement that few bothered to follow them up.
“In there!” their father shouted.
They followed him into a bedroom. Max slammed the door behind them.
“Daniel!”
“It’s Mom,” Gabby cried. She’d jumped onto the bed, pressing her back against the wall.
“We’re upstairs, first room on the left!”
Footfalls pounded up the stairs.
Max opened the door the moment he heard them hit the landing. His mother rushed into the room with Miguel and Dakota. She tossed the survival bags on the floor. Dakota slipped from her grasp, landing on the edge of the bed. Gabby darted forward to keep her from crumpling to the floor.
A few rats had tailed them as they fled the first floor. Instead of closing the door, Max stepped into the hall, kicking each square in the snout, sending them across the hallway like furry kick balls.
“Close the door, Max!” his father shouted.
He took a second to make sure no other rats were lurking about. Funny, despite all of the madness that had just overtaken them, he’d never been frightened. In fact, it felt good to finally be out of the shelter.
Maybe, Max thought, the rats just did us a favor.
48
The rats reminded Rey of the incoming tide at Orchard Beach the day after a storm, when the water churned brown and ugly. Buck pulled him along the way his father used to hold on to him, letting the small waves break over his scrawny stomach.
“Let’s go, Alexiana,” Buck shouted. “Keep running up and don’t look back. We’ll be right behind you.”
She screamed as her feet came down on fur and flesh and almost fell over. Buck snatched her arm before she could. Alexiana ran for the stairs, hollering as if her hair were on fire.
Buck handed Rey one of the red fire extinguishers that were mounted on the wall by the shelter door.
“Blast them with this,” he said. “That’ll clear them the hell out.”
He hustled them both up the stairs, taking two at a time. The kitchen looked like something from a bad drive-in movie. The floor was crawling with frenzied, sewage-soaked rats.
Buck and Rey pulled back on the extinguisher triggers. Twin clouds of white foam cut into the tide of rats. Sure enough, they scampered over one another to avoid the onrush of carbon dioxide and powder. Up in the kitchen, Alexiana had positioned herself on one of the countertops.
“Ahh!” Rey yelped.
A pair of rats had taken meaty bites from his ankles. He flicked them across the room, then showered them with the extinguisher.
The sharp pain of the bites shattered the fever fugue that had spun around him like a cocoon the past few days, so much that he knew he could stand on his own. He pulled away from Buck, who made a wide circle around them with the extinguisher. The rats were held at bay, but it wouldn’t last long.
“Where do we go now?” Rey said.
Something thumped above them.
Buck flung his girlfriend over his shoulder. “You good enough to make one more sprint?” he asked Rey.
“Hell, yes.”
“Follow me.”
Charging into the dining room, where there were far fewer rodents, they made a sharp turn up the stairs. One of the bedroom doors was already closed. Rey turned around.
“They’re still coming,” Rey said, astounded by the sheer number of rats. What the hell did they want? Why were they chasing them?
He pointed the extinguisher at the stairs and yanked the trigger. A puff of smoke and foam burped out, then it was empty. He threw the metal canister at the horde, taking out at least a dozen in the process.
“Get in here,” Buck hollered, standing in the doorway of another room.
Rey turned to his left and saw his brother’s face in the narrow opening of the other door. “Stay inside,” he said. “They’re all coming this way.”
Max slammed the door shut as Rey ran toward Buck and Alexiana. Buck and Rey pushed the door closed with their backs. They could feel the vibration of the rats throwing themselves at the door.
Their high-pitched squeals drowned out the pained wheezing of Rey’s lungs as they fought for air. Buck sounded like he was about to pop, his face reddening from the strain of running with Alexiana up the stairs.
“Can they get under the door?” Alexiana said, her eyes wide and staring.
Buck shook his head, gulping air in between ragged exhalations. “Remember, I put those guards on before the winter to keep heat from escaping. Even those jelly-boned fuckers couldn’t squeeze under there.” He turned to Rey. “Thanks, kid.”
Rey patted his arm and closed his eyes. Lack of oxygen made it difficult to talk.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
The rats threw themselves at the door without ceasing, like zombies on the trail of living flesh. Rey flexed his feet, the fire from their bites making him wince.
His heart thudded.
Did they have rabies? How long did it take to die if you had rabies? Was it painful?
Because if they had transmitted the disease to him, he was positive help was not nearby or on its way.
49
Daniel turned to the wall separating the two bedrooms when he heard someone knocking. Buck’s muffled voice said, “You all present and accounted for?”
“All except Rey,” Daniel said. He kept his eyes on the door. He and Max had turned over a dresser, jamming it against the door. If any rats somehow made it through, they had golf clubs they’d found in the closet.
“He’s in here with us,” Buck replied. “Everyone okay? Anyone get bit?”
Elizabeth had torn two pillowcases into strips and was tending to the bite wounds on Dakota and Gabby. Both lay on the bed, Dakota sheened in sweat. The only one who hadn’t been bitten was Miguel. He sat by his sister’s side, holding her hands as she winced when her mother applied antiseptic cream from the first aid kit in her backpack.
“Yeah. Elizabeth is patching us up.”
Several sparks of lightning lit up the room. The ferocity of the rain was growing weaker by the minute as the storm passed, leaving a tremendous light show in its wake.
“Might want to take some of the antibiotics, just in case,” Buck said.
Daniel looked to the bed, the contents of one of the Bugout for the Dugout bags spilled all over the comforter. Elizabeth had already made them each take a pill. She didn’t say out loud what they both feared. Antibiotics wouldn’t do a thing to help them if the rats were rabid—just as they hadn’t been able to stop the sickness that was burning Rey and Dakota from the inside out.
“Hey, Dad, how are Max, Gabby, and Miguel?” Rey called out.
“They’re good. How are you holding up?”
His heart felt lighter just hearing his son’s voice. He was so sick. Running from an army of rats
couldn’t have done him any good.
“Tired, but I’ll be fine. These rats won’t give up.”
The wet thunk of bodies crashing into the doors had become steady white noise. Daniel kept picturing wood rat traps, a truckload of them, thrown atop the ceaseless rats. The hard thwack of thousands of metal bars snapping shut on heads, bodies, and tails of the filthy vermin would be music to his ears.
“Any of them bite you?” Daniel asked.
“A couple. Alexiana fixed me up.”
“Take it easy for a while. We’re safe now.”
Daniel heard some shuffling, but there was no reply. Max eyed the door, ready to pounce.
“Max, let your mother look at that leg.”
“It can wait.”
“Nothing’s coming through. I’ll keep an eye on the door.”
Elizabeth said, “Lift up your pants legs so I can see.”
Max sighed, reluctantly abandoning his post. “I’m fine, Mom.”
Daniel tapped the club’s head in the palm of his hand. A lover of nature shows, he tried recalling any case where a mass of animals as low on the food chain as rats ever pursued larger prey with this kind of single-minded purpose. He kept coming up empty.
When he and Buck had entered the house, they thought they were in the clear. He guessed the door didn’t close all the way behind them, leaving a wide-open invitation for the rats. They never would have let Alexiana open the door if they knew the rats were in the house. One second Daniel was knocking, Buck telling him there was a code, the next Alexiana had cracked it open and Daniel saw the horde undulating down the stairs. Now the creatures had flushed them out of the safest place they could be.
There was just so much in the way of supplies in the backpacks. They would run out sooner rather than later.
Thwack! Thump! Thump!
The rats propelled their bodies against the door, mindless battering rams with seemingly limitless stores of energy.
50
Despite the horrible reason for being locked in Buck’s bedroom, Gabriela felt strangely relieved. Just to be able to see the sky, even one gray with storm clouds, made her feel lighter.
While her father and brother kept their focus on the door and her mother told stories to Miguel about funny things he used to do as a baby, she stared out the window, looking over the neighborhood. It was dark, even more so without the streetlights that normally would have come on during a storm this bad. Cars remained in parking spots and no one was outside, which looked normal for a day filled with rain, thunder, and lightning. It wouldn’t take much to convince herself that it was an ordinary rainy afternoon. When the storm blew away, the block would come to life again, just like it always did.
Don’t be stupid, she thought.
If things were normal, they wouldn’t have been attacked by rats. Lights and TVs and iPods would work. Her father and Buck wouldn’t have gone outside wearing those scary masks to protect them from stuff in the air.
The gas masks!
“Daddy,” she said, her heart starting to pound like the backbeat of a P!nk song.
“Yeah?” He was so busy worrying about the door, she was surprised he even heard her.
“Is it safe to breathe the air?”
He gave her a questioning look. “What do you mean, honey?”
Her finger picked at a chip in the windowsill’s paint. “Buck made you wear those masks before, but we don’t have any now.”
It took him a moment to consider his reply. Her mother stopped her storytelling, looking to him with a face Gabby knew well—concern. It was the look her mother gave her when she fell off her bike and needed four stitches just above her eye, or when she said a science test was harder than she thought it would be.
“We were just being overcautious,” he finally replied. “It looks like it’s rained a lot since we went into the shelter. If anything was ever in the air, it’s gone now.”
Gabriela looked to Dakota, who was mumbling something in her sleep. The skin of her face was pulled tight over her skull. She was looking less and less like a real person, and more like a wax figure, her flesh so pale and always shiny. Something had been in the air. Dakota and Rey both breathed it in. And now they were sick.
The tiny punctures where the rats’ teeth had broken the skin itched and burned at the same time.
A dark, fast-moving shape caught the corner of her eye. She gazed at the backyard.
“They’re leaving!” She excitedly pointed out the window.
Her mother and father stepped beside her.
“I’ll be damned,” her father said. He placed his hand atop her head.
The rats fled from the house as one, a sickening mass that blotted out grass and concrete as they headed back to the sewers.
Her father pounded on the wall. “Buck, look out your window!”
51
Buck opened the door a crack to make sure there were no furry sentinels waiting to get inside the room. “We’re clear,” he whispered, creeping into the hall. A few of the rats lay on their sides in the hall, dead from bashing their skulls while trying to get in the door.
Alexiana helped Rey to his feet. Heat came off his flesh in steady waves. The poor kid looked like a gentle breeze would knock him over. She helped him to the master bedroom and knocked on the door. She heard furniture scrape against the floor and the door opened. A smile broke out on Daniel’s face as he pulled his son to him.
“Where’s Buck?” he asked.
“Making sure they’re really gone. He said to stay here until he gave the all clear.”
He ushered Alexiana into her own room. She felt as if she had stepped into some sort of dream where everything was familiar but yet she was still a stranger. “Better you wait in here with the rest of us,” Daniel said.
Daniel and Max kept watch by the door, gripping Buck’s golf clubs. She couldn’t remember the last time Buck had gone to the Dunwoodie course. He’d taken up golf when he took early retirement, but decided it wasn’t for him. If he wanted fresh air and cocktails, he said he’d prefer to have them with her in their yard.
No one spoke while they waited for Buck. Occasionally, the floor protested as he walked about the house. One time, he knocked something over in the kitchen.
Alexiana sat next to Elizabeth on the bed.
“How many bites?” Elizabeth asked, looking down at the rips in her jeans.
“We each got a few. I disinfected and dressed them up the best I could.”
The house had grown eerily silent.
Where was Buck? He was a big man and the veritable bull in a china shop. Stealth had never been one of his strong points. Alexiana worried at her fingernails, carving bits off with her teeth.
“I can’t just sit here,” she said, storming over to Max and plucking the club from his hands.
Daniel reached out to stop her but she scampered away. “Buck said to wait here.”
“Do you think I do everything Buck tells me?” she spat, heading for the stairs.
“Wait, you shouldn’t go alone,” he said.
She stopped and saw him hand his club to Max. “Keep the door closed until we get back.”
Max did as he was told and Daniel took the stairs in front of her. “Stay behind me and try not to hit me.”
The thought almost made her chuckle.
Everywhere she looked, the floors were smeared with filth and dirty water, the greasy residue of the rat horde. Her carpets were destroyed. The only way to get them clean would be by bonfire.
She kept her fingers on Daniel’s back, afraid to lose contact with him as they crept into the living room.
“Buck,” she called out, softly but loud enough to be heard in another room.
The back door was wide open, the bottom half of the screen door dented from the rush of rat bodies. Daniel looked outside. “Buck!”
A steady patter of rain dripping from the roof onto an aluminum drain echoed in the alley between their two houses.
“Down here.”
They spun around. His voice had come from the basement. Alexiana broke away from her human shield and jogged down the stairs. Buck was in the shelter, kicking a crate across the room. It looked like the place had been ransacked by looters.
“How the hell did a bunch of rats do all this damage?” she said.
He grabbed an enormous nylon bag off the table. “There’s a lot about what just happened that’s going to bother me until the day I die. Those fuckers managed to get into any food that wasn’t in a can. Shit, they even ate through a couple of the water jugs.”
She looked down and saw he was standing in a half inch of water.
Daniel took the bag from Buck. “I guess we should take what’s good and bring it upstairs. If it’s not safe to be out, it’s too late now.”
Alexiana took a box of MREs from the top of a stack. A corner of the box had been chewed but they hadn’t gotten inside. “I’ll take this in the kitchen, then let Elizabeth know they can all come out.”
52
Buck and Daniel spent the night in the living room. The women and children took the upstairs bedrooms, three in all. They’d brought up some of the mattresses from the cots so everyone had a relatively comfortable place to sleep.
The men had agreed to take turns on watch. Even though Daniel said he’d take the first shift, Buck couldn’t sleep a wink. It was impossible to shut his brain down, even for a few minutes.
With the absence of electricity and the moon obscured by clouds, the house was doused in complete darkness. They had flashlights, but agreed to use them only in case of emergency.
“You don’t want the rats to know we’re still here?” Daniel half-joked.
“It’s not the rats I worry about.”
Buck peeled back the lid on a can of sardines, pinching one out and laying it on a cracker. Last year, the doctor had put him on blood pressure meds, advising him to cut out salt, change his diet completely, and exercise. After all the small-portioned meals and cardio from running around, he’d earned a little treat.