by Dirk Patton
A fresh scream snapped his head around. Two more females had come around the hedge and were sprinting directly at him. Pushing his injured body as hard as he could, he flopped against the side of his car and fumbled with the recessed handle. It finally released and he yanked the door open, sparing a glance at the swiftly approaching women as he threw himself behind the wheel. Pulling hard, it slammed into place as they arrived.
Fists immediately began pounding on the side window, then one of them leapt onto the hood and pressed her face to the glass. Danny’s breath quickened as he stared into her eyes. The whites had turned a deep, blood red and no sign of humanity remained. Only unbridled rage and predatory hunger.
Time stretched out as his eyes remained locked on the female’s. Neither moved, both ignoring the frenetic attempts of the other woman to gain entry into the car. Finally, with a shake of his head, Danny looked away. The female instantly began screaming and attacking the windshield.
Pressing the button to activate the car, Danny held the brake as he shifted into reverse. Instead of just going, he once again caught the female’s eyes. She calmed, staring back. Blood stained her face and he could see bits of flesh trapped in her teeth as her lips peeled back into a silent snarl. Emboldened by the protection the Tesla provided, he leaned closer to the glass, a sneer on his mouth. She pressed her face against the windshield, creating a grotesquely distorted death mask.
“Fuck you, bitch,” Danny whispered, then hit the throttle.
With a spinning of tires, the car shot backward out of the parking spot, the female losing her grip and sliding off the hood. She tumbled across the asphalt but was back on her feet in a flash. The second woman had been sent flying when he cut the wheel, the Tesla’s fender knocking her well clear. She, too, was up in a heartbeat, both pursuing as he shifted to forward and screamed away across the lot.
* * *
“Where have you been?” Theresa screamed, rushing forward to throw her arms around him as Danny stepped into the house from the garage.
Surprisingly, he’d made it from the hotel to his home without encountering any problems. He’d seen plenty of the insane men and women, even witnessed multiple murders as they ran down unaffected people. He’d been chased by the frighteningly swift females, and had even hit a few with his car, but they hadn’t been able to stop him.
The roads heading away from the city were hopelessly clogged, but he’d been driving against traffic. Several times he’d questioned the wisdom of going closer to what he believed was the epicenter of the chaos, but that was where his house was. The Tesla was down to less than a third of a charge and there was no way he could make the drive to the lake house. He needed the Jeep. But when he whipped into his driveway, the garage door was up, and it was missing.
“Where the hell’s the Jeep?” he asked, roughly grabbing his wife, pushing her back and holding her at arm’s length.
“Jerry took it,” she said defensively.
“WHY THE HELL DID YOU LET HIM DO THAT?”
For a beat, Theresa stared at him with a look of shock on her face. Then, she lowered her gaze as tears began flowing down her cheeks.
“He had a gun,” she said just above a mumble.
“What?” Danny asked incredulously.
Jerry and his wife Anita had lived next door when they’d bought this house a little less than a year ago. They’d been good neighbors, always friendly and quick to invite them over for cocktails and cookouts. There were even a couple of times when they’d watched the girls so Theresa could attend corporate functions with him.
“He came over looking for you before the sun even came up. When he found out you weren’t here, he asked for the Jeep. I thought he was joking. After I said no, he went away, but came back a few minutes later with a gun! What was I supposed to do?”
She was nearly blubbering as she spoke. Danny stared at her in amazement, his anger over the missing vehicle tempered by the story. As his grip on Theresa’s arms slackened, she moved in and wrapped her arms around his waist, seeking the comfort of physical contact.
“Did you fall down, Daddy?”
They both looked around to see their youngest, Hailey, standing in the middle of the kitchen with a frightened expression on her face. Theresa started to step over to comfort her daughter but paused when she glanced at Danny. It was the first time she’d actually looked at him since he’d walked into the house.
“Oh, my God! What happened? Are you all right?”
She stared in horror at his torn and bloody suit and the bruises on his face from fighting with the males in the stairwell and falling to the ground floor.
“I’m okay,” he said. “But we need to get out of here. You still have a first aid kit?”
Theresa nodded, her eyes cataloging her husband’s injuries.
“My foot is gashed open. Can you get the kit while I change?”
“Change? Where are we going? What’s going on?”
“Just do as I say, Theresa! We’re going to the lake house. We’ll be safe there until the authorities get this all straightened out.”
“How will we get there without the Jeep? That’s why you bought it.”
A note of a whine crept into her voice. One of many things Danny found himself less and less able to tolerate.
“Damn it, Theresa, just get the fucking kit, will you? I’ll worry about how we’re going to get there without a Jeep.”
Without another word or a backward glance, Danny turned and hobbled away. He didn’t see the momentary flicker of anger that passed across Theresa’s face as she watched his back. But as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone and she turned to face her daughter.
“Hailey, honey. Go find your sister. I need each of you to get your backpacks ready to go. Okay, sweetie?”
“Why’s Daddy mad?” Hailey asked. “Did I do something bad?”
“No, baby,” Theresa said softly, wrapping the girl into her arms. “He’s not mad, he’s just had a bad morning and he’s worried about us. Okay? Now, go get your sister and be sure each of you puts a change of clothes and clean underwear in your backpacks. Got it?”
“And our iPads?” Hailey asked, already moving on from the scene between her parents she’d just witnessed.
“Yes, baby. That’s fine. As long as you have clothes and clean panties. That’s what’s important. Now scoot! Mommy has to help Daddy.”
She planted a kiss squarely on Hailey’s forehead then the girl ran off shouting her sister’s name. With a deep breath, Theresa straightened, took a first aid kit off the top shelf of a cabinet and headed for the master bedroom.
When she walked in, Danny was in the bathroom, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. Sitting on the edge of the tub, he was trying to loosen the knot in a blood-soaked rag that was wrapped around his foot. Her eyes traveled over his unclothed body, professionally cataloging all the bruises and scrapes, then paused at the deep slash marks on his torso where Janice’s nails had torn open his flesh.
“What happened to you?”
Danny didn’t bother to look at her.
“I was at the office and was attacked by this crazy woman.” As he spoke, Theresa casually picked up his discarded clothing and moved to a laundry hamper. “She broke the big plate-glass window in the conference room, you know the one, and that’s what cut my foot.”
“Your shoes were off.”
Her tone was matter of fact. Danny looked up, evaluating her expression and deciding how best to respond.
“Yes, Theresa. They were. It was a long night and I was tired of wearing them.”
The knot finally released, and he gently unwrapped the bloody cloth with a hiss as it pulled on the edges of the cut.
“Why was your shirt off?”
“What?” he asked, not looking up from his injured foot.
“Your shirt.”
She held it up with two hands by the shoulder points. Other than blood stained, it was undamaged.
“What?” he asked again, lookin
g at the piece of clothing and frowning.
“Don’t understand how you can get your chest torn up like that without a mark on your shirt. Unless you weren’t wearing it at the time. Why was your shirt off, Danny?”
An awkward silence settled over the room. They stared at each other, neither saying anything. Finally, Theresa shook her head, sighed and stepped forward. Sinking to her knees in front of him, she roughly grabbed his ankle and lifted so she could examine his wound.
“Look, I really don’t—”
“Just stop, Danny!” Theresa barked, cutting him off. “I’m scared. The world seems like it’s falling apart and I just don’t have the energy for your bullshit. You think I don’t know you’re fucking around on me? I’m not stupid!”
“You’re wrong! I swear to you, I’ve not touched… OUCH!”
He jerked his foot away when she probed the edge of the wound. Looking up, she met his eyes.
“God help you if you’ve brought any diseases home,” she said before turning away and busying herself with opening and preparing the first aid kit.
“Honey…”
“Don’t honey me,” Theresa snapped. “There’s things a woman can put up with if it means her children will have a good, stable home. I’ve put up with your cheating, your condescension and all the rest of your bullshit. The least you can do is not lie to me and expect me to believe you. I’m not stupid. Just tell me the truth!”
After a moment of glaring into his eyes, she looked away, pulled on a pair of latex gloves and tore open a small packet of betadine. Lifting his foot, she squeezed the brown liquid directly into the wound, flushing from the top. Satisfied, she none too gently wiped the area dry with a large square of gauze. Danny grimaced in discomfort as she worked.
“You want the truth?” he asked when she set the gauze aside and picked up a small bottle of super glue.
“That would be refreshing,” she said as she pinched the edges of the wound together and began sealing them with the glue.
“Ewwww, that’s gross!”
“Hailey, did you do what I asked?” Theresa asked without turning away from her work.
“Yes, ma’am. I’m all packed.”
“What about Lisa? Did you tell her?”
Lisa was the older sister by three years.
“She just told me to get out of her room. I don’t think she’s doing it.”
“Go tell your sister she’s in big trouble if she doesn’t get ready to go,” Danny interceded, earning a sigh from Theresa.
“Where are we going, Daddy? Are we going to find Uncle Jerry?”
“We’re going to the lake house, sweetie,” Theresa said, adding another spot of glue. “Won’t that be fun? We can swim and make s’mores over the firepit at night. And no school for a couple of days.”
“Really?” Hailey asked, the prospect of going to the lake house instead of school for a few days brightening her mood.
“Really, baby. Now, go tell your sister I expect her to be packed and standing in the kitchen in ten minutes. Can you do that?”
“Yes, ma’am!” Hailey cried, turning and running off, shouting the news about no school to her sister at the top of her lungs.
“She won’t be ready,” Danny said, pointedly not looking at what Theresa was doing to his foot.
“Probably not, but I’ll deal with it. Just like I always do.”
She worked in silence, finishing sealing the cut and giving it a once over to make sure it wasn’t seeping any blood.
“What about infection?” Danny asked, lifting his foot to peer at the results of his wife’s work.
“Here.”
She tossed a single-use packet of antibiotic ointment at him and he fumbled it out of the air. Quickly gathering up the kit, she stuffed the trash into a waste basket beneath one of the sinks. Danny remained seated on the tub edge, watching her studiously avoid him.
“So, what do you want to do?” he asked to stop her when she headed for the door.
“About what?”
Theresa turned and glared down at him, hands on her hips.
“Well, us. You seem unhappy.”
“Do I? Nice of you to finally notice. I’ve been unhappy for so long, I don’t remember what it’s like to be anything else.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I don’t have an answer, Danny,” she said in exasperation. “Right now, it’s more important that we get our children away from the city and somewhere safe. Once things calm down, we can worry about us.”
Without another word, Theresa turned and left. She was calling Lisa’s name before she was out of the master bedroom. After several seconds, Danny sighed and got up, hobbling into his closet. An old elastic bandage from the back of a drawer wrapped his injured ankle, relieving some of the pain of standing on it. He smeared antibiotic ointment on his freshly treated wound before pulling on a thick pair of socks, then dressed quickly in jeans and a polo shirt with his law firm’s logo emblazoned on the left breast.
Grabbing a duffel off the top shelf, he stuffed in several pairs of clean underwear and socks, added another pair of jeans and a couple of shirts. He didn’t expect they’d need to be gone for long, but even if they were, all of them had extra clothing at the lake house. They just needed to get there.
Stepping back out into the bathroom, he paused when Theresa walked in. Ignoring him, she breezed into her closet, returning less than a minute later with a small bag. He moved to step in front of her and she stopped with a sigh, refusing to meet his eyes.
“We have a couple of minutes,” he said gently, reaching for her free hand. She pulled it away, tucking it behind her back. “Can we please talk about this?”
“Kids. Safety first. We’re not important, Danny,” she said, looking up and meeting his gaze.
“Theresa, please…”
Both of their heads snapped around at the sound of gunfire from outside. Before either had even had an opportunity to process what they were hearing, Hailey and Lisa both began crying for them.
Theresa shot forward like a race horse out of the gate, elbowing Danny out of her way. Casting a frightened glance at a window that overlooked the direction the gunfire had sounded, he followed at a slower pace.
Hobbling into the living room, he found Theresa huddled on the floor at the end of the sofa, Hailey and Lisa under each arm. The girls were crying, their mother speaking softly as she tried to comfort them.
“What happened?” Danny asked, then dropped to the floor when more shots sounded from right outside.
Scrambling across the carpet to his family, he tried not to flinch as still more gunfire erupted, punctuated by the screams of several females. Chills running up his spine, it took him a moment to summon the courage to raise his head high enough to see out the window. When he did, the breath caught in his throat.
Four bodies lay on his perfectly manicured front lawn. As he stared at them, trying to tell if he knew any of the people, a man ran past with a gun in his hands. Danny had no idea what kind it was, but it looked like what he’d seen soldiers carrying on the news. The man came back into view, angling across the driveway, then a pair of females flashed past.
Several fast shots that were loud even inside the house and both of them fell to the ground. Apparently, one was only injured as she immediately began dragging herself forward, still in pursuit of her prey. The man cautiously came forward, stopping ten yards from the slow-moving female.
In horror, Danny watched as he raised the rifle, aimed carefully and pulled the trigger. The female’s head ruptured, and she lay still. Fighting the impulse to throw up after witnessing the brutal murder of another person, he panicked when he saw the man look around and take off at a trot.
“Oh, shit!” he said, hurrying toward the kitchen as fast as his injuries would allow.
“What’s wrong? Danny! What?” Theresa called after him.
“Man with a gun heading for the garage!” he shouted back, hearing his wife and daughters cry out in
fear at the news.
He was moving slow despite the medical treatment he’d received and pulled to a dead stop when he stepped into the kitchen. A large, black man, the one who’d just shot the woman on his lawn, stood inside the door from the garage with the evil looking rifle in his hands.
“What the fuck?” Danny blurted, nearly pissing himself at the sight.
“You alone?” the stranger asked intently.
The weapon wasn’t pointed at Danny, but it still drew all of his attention and turned his bowels to water. When he didn’t answer, the man glanced around, then reached behind his back and threw home the deadbolt on the door with a loud click. The implications of what the stranger had done helped Danny find his voice.
“Get out,” he croaked.
“Not gonna hurt you, man. Just can’t be out there. It’s getting worse!”
“Get out of my house!” Danny repeated, his voice stronger.
The stranger squinted and shook his head slowly.
“Sorry to bust in on you uninvited like this but didn’t have much choice. Saw four more of ‘em skulking around on your neighbor’s lawn and I’m runnin’ low on ammo.”
“Four more of what?” Theresa asked from behind Danny.
The stranger leaned to the side, apparently not having seen her and the girls approach.
“Females, ma’am,” he said.
“Excuse me?”
“Nerve gas. Sending people into a rage. You folks didn’t know?”
“TV and Internet are out,” Theresa said, moving a step closer but still keeping Hailey and Lisa sheltered behind Danny.
“Radio, ma’am. AM band. Not much news, but there’s a couple of guys broadcasting and that’s what they’re saying. Makes sense too, what I’ve seen.”
“Nerve gas?” Danny asked incredulously. “Where?”
“Sounds like everywhere. Heard some guy calls himself Max. Says most of the big cities in the country got hit.”
“Oh, my God,” Theresa said. “What do we do?”
“Get out,” the stranger said. “Away from the city. Least that’s what I was trying to do but didn’t make it very far.”