by Gary Chesla
John turned to pick up the lantern off the table. He decided to take the light and walk closer towards the creek to see what was out there.
Cindy ran out and picked up Boots. “Come on Boots. I won’t let that mean old dog bite you.”
John held up the lantern and took two steps towards the creek.
“Don’t go out there too far John.” Barb said nervously. “Maybe we should just go in the house.”
“In a minute.” John replied. “I want to see what has Boots so worked up.”
“It might be a rabid raccoon.” Barb added. “Don’t go and get yourself bit by some crazy raccoon. If we can’t get you to the hospital to get a rabies shot you could get sick.”
“I’ll be careful.” John said.
“Boots stop that!” Cindy said struggling to hold the cat without getting scratched again.
John held up the light and stepped up beside Cindy.
John strained to see as he spotted movement at the far edge of the light shining out from the lantern.
The movement slowly got closer.
John held the lantern higher, trying to make the light reach further into the darkness.
At the very edge of the light, a shape began to take form.
The shape grew larger and moved into the far reaches of the light.
“It’s a guy!” John said quietly.
“Hey buddy, talk to me.” John raised his voice. “What’s going on over there?”
The shape moved closer, but it moved strangely. It staggered and seemed to struggle with each step.
“Hey buddy. Are you OK?” John asked becoming concerned someone was injured and trying to come to him for help. Maybe it was one of his neighbors that had gone out to look around and had fallen and got hurt.
John took a step closer with the light. He didn’t see Cindy move along with him.
The light began to show more of the person in front of them.
The person struggled. It looked like the shape of a man. He was dragging one leg. His right arm hung by his side, swinging freely back and forth. The shape looked like one would expect to see when someone crawled out of an auto accident. But there hadn’t been any cars by here for days.
John began to walk closer. It was obvious whoever this was, he needed help.
John almost stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the blood that covered the front of the man. He cringed when he saw the white bone sticking out of the man’s right leg.
Cindy, still holding the struggling Boots, moved by his side.
John was now ten feet from the grotesquely injured man, the lantern was shedding more light now on the poor guy’s injuries as he moved closer to where the light would soon let John see the man clearly.
Just as the light began to illuminate the figure more clearly, it began to lift its head to face John.
When John saw the man look at him, one eye was gone, his right cheek had been torn away and the teeth on that side of his face glistened as the light reflected off the teeth. A black liquid ran out of his mouth as the jaw opened and closed. The eyes were a milky color, with no sign of any other color. John froze. “How could this guy still be alive and moving?”
Cindy, who was walking next to her dad, didn’t notice that he had stopped and continued on oblivious for another three steps.
Just as John noticed Cindy was out in front of him, the man let out an unholy groan and lunged at Cindy.
Barb screamed as she saw the man grab at Cindy.
Cindy fell backwards onto the ground. The man’s outstretched arm brushed against her as he fell towards her. His hand just missed grabbing her arm, but instead latched onto Boots.
Cindy looked on in horror and screamed as the man fell on top of Boots and began to savagely bite into her. The poor cat screamed in agony as the man rammed his teeth into her body and jerked his head away from the cat, tearing off its right front leg and half of the fur and flesh from her ribs.
The cat let out one more small cry before it fell silent.
Cindy’s mouth was open, but she couldn’t force out another sound as she saw the man rip her cat to pieces in front of her eyes.
John dropped the lantern and quickly ran up to Cindy and jerked her up off the ground and held her tightly against his chest, his hand against the back of her head, making her look away from the scene in front of them.
Over the sound of the man savagely devouring the cat, John began to hear water down at the creek thrashing and splashing violently.
He took a nervous glance in the direction of the other sounds. At the edges of the light, more shapes began to appear. They staggered, some fell but struggled to right themselves. All motion coming in his direction.
Barb’s scream broke John’s trance.
As he began to turn in Barb’s direction, he saw the man that had been eating the cat, was now staring at him and trying to get to his feet.
John moved backwards. The unholy sound he had heard from the man that had attacked Cindy and the cat was now coming from all around him.
He looked back at Barb, who was standing motionless. A silent scream frozen on her face as another guy was only feet away from her. His arms outstretched as he groaned and shuffled closer.
As if the situation wasn’t unbelievable enough, the man almost on Barb was only wearing a hat. The sight of his bloody disfigured body made a vile taste rise in John’s throat.
He tucked Cindy under his arm and ran towards Barb as vomit flew from his mouth and down over the front of his shirt and Cindy.
He made it to Barb with only a second to spare. He raised his leg and jammed his foot in the center of the man’s bare bloody chest. The man flew backwards, thrashing violently as he hit the ground.
John grabbed Barb’s arm and began pulling the stunned and shocked woman towards the house.
He drug her up the steps, her feet barely helping, and to the back door of the house.
He let go of her briefly to use his hand to open the door. He pushed her inside then followed closely behind, still holding Cindy tightly against his side.
John slammed and locked the door.
He quickly ran to the front door to make sure it was locked.
He noticed the low glow of light from the lantern he had dropped in the yard shining in through the windows.
He quickly ran to each window and pulled down the shades and closed the curtains.
He fumbled around in his pockets, looking for the matches he had used to light the charcoal in the grill.
His hands shook and he was barely able to pull the pack of matches out of his pocket.
After a couple of fumbling attempts, he finally got a match to light. He looked around the room nervously, looking for the candle that Barb liked to burn each evening. It had a pleasant rose smell as it burned, but John never gave that a second thought. He needed some light.
The match was burning his fingers as the wick on the candle caught.
Normally John would have let out a few well-chosen swear words at the pain, but tonight the pain didn’t even register.
John turned away from the candle to find his family.
A dull pounding began drumming against the side of the house.
He saw Cindy first. She was curled in a fetal position on the floor. Her eyes were wide as tears ran across her face and dripped on the floor.
Barb was sitting on the floor. Her eyes were also wide. She stared at John. “Who are those people?” She managed to say between sobs.
“People?” John thought. He didn’t know what the hell he had just seen out there, but those things weren’t people. Maybe they were once, but they weren’t anymore. They didn’t resemble anything human.
John ran over and knelt down in front of Barb. He turned her face to look at him. “Barb. Come on Barb. I need your help.”
Barb looked at him. For a moment he thought she was too far out of it and didn’t recognize him anymore. But slowly her eyes cleared. “What do you want me to do?”
“Good!�
� John said. “Just stay with me.”
John listened to the pounding against the house. He jumped when he heard something start to pound on the window by the back door. He knew the window wouldn’t last long.
They would find other windows soon. The windows would break then they would be coming inside the house.
He had to get his family out of here.
But where? The sounds of those things banging against the house were coming from all sides of the house now.
He was surrounded. It was too dark to try to make a run for it. He had no idea how many more of them were out there, making their way towards the house in the darkness.
The doors inside the house were flimsy at best.
None of the rooms would be safe. Besides, all of the rooms had large windows. Between the flimsy doors and the large windows, he couldn’t hope to keep these things out of any of the rooms for very long.
The house didn’t have a basement. If it did, he was leery of getting his family trapped in a dead end place with nowhere else left to run.
The house had been a summer vacation cottage at one time for the big shots at U.S. Steel. During the hot summer months in Pittsburgh, they liked to get away from the city to the cool mountains around Ligonier.
The place was built for a summer getaway. The builders hadn’t planned on the house being used to hold off a full assault by….” John thought for a second. “By whatever these things were.”
The house wouldn’t hold out long against anyone determined to get inside.
John looked around. There wasn’t even any place to hide.
“Except!” John thought as the window near the back door shattered inside the house.
He frantically looked at Barb. He took her hand. “Follow me.”
He left Cindy curled up on the floor. He led Barb to the closet in the corner of the living room. He quickly pulled all the clothes off the hangers and threw them on the floor at the bottom of the closet. He sat the candle on the floor while he jumped up and pulled the rope that was attached to the ceiling of the closet.
He pulled and the door on the ceiling of the closet slowly opened down into the closet. A rope ladder dropped down into the closet. John climbed the ladder and sat the candle on the rafters in the attic. It was barely more than a crawl space, but it was the only place he could think of to hide. If he had more time maybe he could do better, but the crashing sound near the back door told him his time was up.
John scrambled down the rope ladder.
“Barb,” John whispered. “I need you to go up the ladder while I get Cindy.”
Barb stared blankly, but finally took hold of the ladder and started to climb.
John ran back out in the room to find Cindy. The light coming from the closet was barely enough for him to see the shape curled up on the floor. He grabbed Cindy as the sounds started to come through the house.
He went in the closet and pulled the door shut. Barb was just moving from the ladder and into the small space above.
John threw Cindy over his shoulder and climbed.
He climbed to the top and gently laid Cindy on the floor next to Barb.
John pulled the ladder back up into the attic crawl space and as quietly as he could, pulled the attic door shut.
He moved next to the girls and laid down on the dirty floor boards and pulled them close.
He blew out the candle and listened to sound of things smashing all through the house below.
He closed his eyes and prayed they would not find him and his family.
Chapter 8
Mike put the last bite of chicken in his mouth, letting the flavor spread through his mouth as he chewed and swallowed. He smiled a contented smile as he wiped the last remnants of the chicken from his lips.
He looked at the empty plates on the table in front of them. Except for the plate that still held half an apple pie, all the other plates were empty.
Mike had eaten all the chicken except for two pieces. Kelly and Kimmy had each eaten one small piece each.
Kelly had eaten most of the meatloaf along with some potatoes and gravy. Kimmy had eaten the hotdogs and two beans. Mike and Kelly ate the rest of the beans and corn.
They were all stuffed.
If his summer shorts wouldn’t have had an elastic waist band, he would have had to have loosened his belt a couple of notches.
“Who is ready for some apple pie?” Mike asked cheerfully.
Kimmy groaned.
Kelly just looked at Mike. “You’re joking. If I ate another bite I think I would explode.”
“I can’t believe you two are going to walk away from apple pie!” Mike grinned.
“Can we get a doggy bag?” Kimmy asked. “I can eat it when we get home.”
Mike laughed as he looked at Kimmy. “Maybe if you ask Milly real nice she will give you one.”
“But of course if she heard you two saying she was crazy, she might say no.” Kelly smiled.
“Maybe we better eat it now.” Mike winked at Kimmy. “I’ll eat a piece if you will?”
Kimmy smiled. “OK!”
Milly walked back over to the table. “I thought you weren’t hungry?”
“We weren’t, but everything looked so good.” Kelly laughed.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it, but I’m afraid we are closing up early tonight. I guess we are going to be closed until everything gets back to normal and people start coming back to the park.” Milly added.
“It was all very good.” Mike said as he reached in his pocket, pulled out a twenty and handed it to Milly.
“Thank you. This is very generous of you.” Milly blushed.
“Not as generous as you have been to us.” Mike smiled. “We appreciate all the information too. I hope you are able to get a hold of your sister soon and she is OK.”
“You all be careful and have a safe trip home.” Milly said as Mike and his family started to get up from the table.
Milly looked down at the table. “Would you like me to get you a takeout container for the rest of that pie?”
“OK!” Kimmy smiled.
Mike and Kelly laughed. “Thank You.”
Milly let Mike and his family out the side door. She closed and locked the door behind them.
Kimmy turned and waved through the glass back at Milly.
She turned and ran to catch up with her mom and dad, clenching the Styrofoam container with the left over apple pie in her hands.
She ran up next to Mike and took hold of his hand as they walked on the walkway that would take them around the corner of the lodge and to the parking lot where they had parked the RV.
When they reached the RV, Mike reached in his pocket and fished out the keys. He reached for the lock on the back door. He aimed the key at the lock, but stopped as all the lights in the parking lot went out.
Mike looked around and blinked his eyes, trying to adjust to the darkness.
“What happened to the lights?” Kimmy’s little voice said in the darkness.
“I guess the electric went out.” Kelly answered. “You know like it does at home sometime?”
“Uh huh!” Kimmy replied. “Are you going to light a candle for me?”
“We won’t have to light a candle.” Mike said as Kimmy reached up and grabbed his hand. “As soon as I can find this lock, I can turn the lights on in the RV. We don’t have to have electricity to have lights in the RV. We have batteries.”
“We should get batteries at home too.” Kimmy said seriously.
“That’s probably a good idea.” Mike laughed as he used his free hand to feel around to find the lock.
Between feeling around and his eyes adjusting, Mike finally opened the door.
He reached inside the door and flipped the switch and the interior of the RV lit up.
Mike stepped to the side and steadied Kimmy as she hopped up the steps into the RV.
Kelly was next in the standard order of going in the RV. As she pushed by Mike she whispered. “Maybe Milly isn’
t crazy?”
Mike looked around at the darkness. The lodge was quiet and still. He looked around the parking lot, but could only see as far as the light coming through the RV windows reached. The quiet and the darkness gave him the creeps. He hoped Milly was crazy and there wasn’t anything to the things she had told them. Life was tough enough without having to deal with war or riots and who knew what else.
Raising a little girl like Kimmy in today’s society was scary with all the creeps and perverts around. With the entitled attitude of much today’s population, racial unrest and the ‘Me First’ attitude rampant in today’s society, life was going to be hard enough. Even in the best of times, it seemed civilization had barely managed to provide a safe and decent place to raise a family.
After a great week here in the mountains, he almost felt that life was fine and all was good with the world. He hoped he was right.
Tonight all he wanted to do was go back to their campsite and get a good night’s sleep and hope tomorrow would be the start of another great day in paradise.
Mike closed and locked the door. As he entered the RV, Kelly was busy tucking Kimmy into her spot on the couch.
Kimmy had finally run out of gas, thank God. Mike smiled. Kelly pulled the blanket up under Kimmy’s chin and looked at Mike and indicated for him to be quiet.
He smiled at his daughter’s innocent looking face as she drifted off to sleep. Even when she was awake, he thought she always had that soft innocent look. Kelly said she was sweet, except when Kimmy acted like him. But he knew Kelly was just teasing him. She loved Kimmy as much as he did, no matter how much she acted like him.
Mike smiled and walked to the front of the RV and dropped down into the captain’s seat. He started the engine and was soon joined by Kelly after she had finished with Kimmy and turned off the lights.
He started the engine, dropped the RV into gear and started for the parking lot exit.
He pulled out on the park road that would take them back to the campground.