She held up her hand to silence me. “Do you hear that?” she whispered.
My heart stopped as I heard the faint sound of a man moaning for help.
Chapter Ten
The front door slammed shut and we both jumped.
“Sara,” I pointed out the window as our pregnant houseguest bolted away from the safety of the house, her white maternity shirt a beacon in the darkness.
“What is she thinking? It’s not safe!” protested my mother.
I felt a sudden surge of fear and adrenaline. I stood up and raced after Sara; determined to keep Megan’s mom and her unborn child safe.
“Cassie!” my mother shrieked. She bolted down the stairs after me and grabbed my arm before I could make it out the door. “Where in the hell do you think you’re going?!”
I tried pulling away. “Mom, Sara may need help! You have to let me go.”
She shook her head vehemently. “I don’t think so! Give the gun to me, I’ll go after her.”
“You don’t know how to use this thing. You won’t be able to help her!” I hollered.
Her hazel eyes hardened. “Bull crap. You give it to me young lady. Now!”
Frustrated, but unable to defy my mother, I reluctantly handed her the gun.
“Okay, now stay away from the door and windows. I don’t want you to get shot if there are stray bullets.”
I groaned. “Mom…”
“I’m serious,” she said, shaking her index finger at me before she raced out the door.
This is nuts, I thought. I felt like pulling my hair out. I was not only terrified for my mom, but also for the kids sound asleep in the house; which, reminded me.
I ran back upstairs to the guestroom, where Megan was still sleeping peacefully. I checked the window to make sure it was secure, then hesitantly snuck back out.
Next, I scurried back downstairs to find Bobby still sleeping on the couch. He looked so peaceful. I sighed at his innocence and then thought of brother, who should have arrived by now. I pulled out my phone and tried calling Bryce but he didn’t answer. Neither did he respond to a text.
Bryce, where are you? I wondered, trying to stay calm. And where in the heck was my dad?
I went back down to the cellar and grabbed my dad’s new Beretta, which he’d been so proud of. It was a nine millimeter and held seventeen rounds, perfect.
“Cassie!” hollered my mom from the upstairs landing. “Grab the first-aid kit, quickly!”
I sighed with relief, then grabbed the kit from the laundry room and rushed back up the stairs. I skidded to a halt at the hellish nightmare before me; Sara sat on the steps trying to use her phone, tears streaming down her cheeks, while my mother knelt on the floor, pressing a bloodied towel over a young soldier’s shoulder. His face was pale and he was choking on some of his own blood.
“Just breathe slowly,” murmured my mother.
The soldier looked up at me and I recognized him, it was Austin. He tried to say something, but his face contorted in agony and he clamped his eyes shut.
“What…what happened to him?” I whispered in horror.
She shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. He was like this when we found him. Hand me the first-aid kit.”
“Where is everyone?!” sobbed Sara, throwing her phone down. “Nobody is answering the damn phones, all of those soldiers from earlier… just disappeared?!”
“Okay, calm down Sara. Everything’s going to be okay. We’ll get through this, somehow,” said my mom as she opened a bottle of iodine. She poured some on her hands.
“What’s that for?” I asked.
“It kills bacteria,” she replied. She then put on some plastic gloves.
When my mom lifted up the towel from the soldier, I almost threw up. His flesh was mangled with blood oozing out of the wound.
“Oh God,” Sara whispered covering her mouth. The next thing I know she was running up the stairs gagging.
Mom examined the wound and shook her head. “This isn’t working. It’s too deep. We have to get him to the hospital. He’ll never survive if we don’t do it right now.” She poured some iodine on the wound and the solider moaned.
“Sorry,” she said.
“I’ll go,” I stated. “I’ll take him to the hospital.”
“No I’ve already decided. I’m doing it,” argued my mother.
“Well, then I’m coming with,” I said defiantly.
“No. I’m going by myself and that’s final. You stay here with Sara and the kids. Lock the doors, keep the guns loaded, and watch for your father or Bryce.”
It was pointless to argue with her. I sighed. “Okay, fine, I’ll help you get him into the SUV.”
My mom had somehow managed to stop most of the bleeding with gauze and bandages. The weakened soldier had passed out while she was tending to his wound, which made it much more difficult for us to carry him through the garage and into the backseat of the SUV.
“Now,” my mom said, breathing heavily after getting him secured. “I’m going to find help, for all of us. If you’re dad comes back, have him call me immediately.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
She stared at me with a terrified look in her eyes and then pulled me into her arms. “You be careful Cassie. I don’t understand what’s going on. Just stay inside and be...strong.”
I swallowed back my tears and nodded.
Mom pulled away and brushed a strand of hair from my cheek. “And…check on Allie again. Make sure your little sister’s safe too.”
“I promise. I’ll do it right away.”
She grabbed one of the guns and shoved it into her purse. Taking a deep breath she said, “Okay, I’ll be back.”
I tried to remain calm as I watched my mom open the garage and leave in the SUV, but I was terrified. I had no idea what was going on outside or in town, whether it was random violence, terrorism, or something even worse. I felt like I was in a nightmare. I closed the garage door.
“Um, Cassie?”
“What?” I asked turning around. I felt like throwing up.
Sara held up my mother’s cell phone, her face pale. “Isn’t this your mom’s?”
Chapter Eleven
I called my sister’s cell phone, but she wasn’t answering. It was after eleven and I figured she might have fallen asleep, but I didn’t want to take any chances so I called Paige too. When she didn’t respond, my stomach contracted like a tight fist.
Sara squeezed my shoulder; she knew I was on the verge of losing it. “They might all be asleep by now.”
“I hope so,” I replied in a strained voice.
“Or it might be possible that they don’t have their cell phones nearby. Does Paige’s mom have a land-line?”
I wasn’t sure. I ran downstairs to find the phonebook, as I began flipping through the pages, the power went out in the house.
Crap!
“Cassie!” called Sara from upstairs. “Do you have a flashlight?”
I used the lights from my cell phone to find my way back up into the kitchen where I knew my mom kept a flashlight and candles.
“Thank God my mom is a candle fanatic,” I said, placing lit candles of all shapes and sizes throughout the house.
“Did you hear that?” Sara whispered.
I froze. “What?”
She grabbed her gun and hurried over to the balcony door. “I’m going to sneak on the deck, see if someone’s out there. I thought I heard voices.”
I felt a prickling sensation go up my spine. “Be careful.” We didn’t have steps leading from the deck, but that didn’t mean someone couldn’t somehow climb up from below. It was heavily wooded behind the house, a great place for someone to hide.
She crawled out on her hands and knees and peered through the slats.
“Do you hear or see anything?” I whispered loudly as she looked over the side of the wooden railing.
She held up her hand to silence me.
A loud scream ripped through the darkness, startling
both of us. Sara gasped and scurried back inside. Her face was a mask of terror.
“Who was that?!”
“I don’t know,” she said in a strangled voice.
“Did you see anything at all?”
She shook her head. “It’s too dark out there.”
There was another terrifying scream, this time much closer to the house. It sounded female.
Sara took a deep breath. “Okay, I’m going to check it out. Stay here, I’ll be back.” Before I could respond, she rushed down the steps to the front door.
I picked up the Beretta and hustled after her.
“What are you doing? Stay here,” she demanded, slipping on her shoes.
“No, I’m coming with you. You might need my help.”
Sara sighed. “Fine, but you do exactly what I tell you to do and stay close.”
I nodded and she opened the door. As we stepped outside, I could hear faint cries somewhere on the other side of the cul-de-sac, behind one of the houses. Strangely, Charlie wasn’t outside barking his head off.
“This way,” said Sara as she rushed across the street, heading towards the Hendrickson’s dark rambler.
I froze in my tracks; it was starting to feel a lot like Deja vue. My palms grew clammy as I tried to find the courage to keep moving.
Sara turned around and waved her hand frantically. “Come on,” she whispered loudly.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and hurried across as she started moving again. She was really fast for being pregnant, which I contributed to her military training. I thought I was in fairly good shape but I struggled to keep up with her.
We went around the Hendrickson’s fence to the next yard over and paused behind a small wooden shed.
Sara’s eyes widened with alarm. “Over there,” she pointed through the darkness.
I could barely make out the three figures, but it looked like a woman, and two soldiers. The three were less than a hundred feet away. She was crying hysterically and appeared to be running from the men.
I turned to Sara in shock. “This seem wrong to you? They’re supposed to be the good guys.”
“Something’s definitely wrong,” muttered Sara, unconsciously rubbing a hand over swollen belly.
We slipped through the trees towards the men, who were focused fully on the desperate woman. The soldiers were staggering, as if they were wounded and the distance began to widen between the woman and her pursuers. As we inched our way closer to the soldiers, I gawked in disbelief.
“Oh God,” I whispered.
The two soldiers looked like something out of a horror movie. Their clothing was torn, they were filthy, bloody and missing some very important body parts; one man an arm, the other a hand and part of his face. But they were still moving, and fairly quickly for being so injured.
How? I wondered incredulously.
The taller of the two must have somehow sensed something, because he stopped and turned towards us. Then he opened what was left of his pitted face and made a screeching noise, one that chilled me to the bone.
I swallowed. “Um…Sara?”
The other one whipped its head around and growled.
“Get your gun ready,” demanded Sara.
Suddenly the two hideous men charged towards us and I gave a startled gasp.
Sara raised her pistol. “Stop, right there!” she yelled. “Don’t come any closer!”
They ignored her and kept stumbling towards us.
“Cassie, shoot them if you have to,” she said.
As they moved closer, I felt as if I was losing my mind. Blood dripped from open wounds on the soldier’s skin, their eyes were red and unfocused, and their mouths…they seemed to be almost salivating.
Sara’s lips curled in disgust. “God, they stink.”
The taller one lurched towards Sara and her gun went off. Blood and brain matter sprayed everywhere as he dropped to his knees, falling on what was left of his dreadful face.
“Watch out Cassie!” yelled Sara.
The second man was almost upon me. I raised my trembling hand and fired, hitting him in the shoulder. He paused for only a second and then charged at me again. I fired a second bullet, this time taking out his ear.
“Damn it!” I cried. I’d never had to shoot anything but innate objects before.
Sara shot him in the leg. He grunted and then fell to the ground.
“Stay back Cassie,” she demanded, inching slowly towards him.
His face was grayish in color and mottled with weird patches. Something green bubbled out of his nose and I had this sudden urge to find him a tissue.
“What happened to him?” I said, staring with fascinated horror.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
He growled and reached out towards Sara with his one good arm, the other one just a stump of flesh.
The sound of branches snapping made us jump and the woman the soldiers had been chasing stepped out of the darkness. Her eyes were filled with hate. “Kill that bastard! He killed my Paul and he’ll kill you both if you let him live! He’s…he’s not human, he’s a monster!”
Just then the man grabbed Sara’s ankle. She screamed and shot him in the head.
The woman sighed in relief. “We’ve got to leave and go somewhere safe.” Her voice quivered when she spoke and her eyes darted around the trees. She was about my mother’s age, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, which were both ripped and dirty. There was some dried blood on the side of her face and matted into her short brown hair.
“Are you hurt?” asked Sara, pointing to her face.
The lady shook her head and then touched the side of her face. Tears welled up in her eyes. “It’s my husband’s blood,” she replied bitterly. “They attacked us and killed him.”
Sara’s eyes widened. “Okay, let’s get back to the house. We’ve got to make sure the kids are okay, and try getting a hold of the police again.”
I’d forgotten about Megan and Bobby! We’d left them all alone in the house.
I took one last glimpse of the dead men as we started walking back towards the house and felt a pang of shame. They were U.S. soldiers and they looked like they’d lost a war, only they’d been fighting for the wrong side.
“Those couldn’t have been soldiers,” Sara said, brushing a dark strand of hair away from her face. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
“They weren’t soldiers… anymore, they weren’t even human. They were some kind of…demons,” replied the distraught woman.
“They certainly looked like something from hell,” I said.
“Maybe they were criminals; dressed as soldiers,” said Sara.
The woman shook her head. “No. They attacked us, like violent animals. The taller soldier ripped....Oh God!” she cried, covering her face. “He ripped out Paul’s neck, with his teeth!”
Sara put an arm around the woman shoulders. “Don’t worry. You’re safe now. We’ll help you.”
She nodded and wiped the tears from her face. “We’d better hurry. There are more of those things around. It’s not safe.”
There’s more? The thought of there being more insane soldiers wandering around in the dark chilled me to the bone. I tightened my grip on the gun.
As we hurried across the cul-de-sac, it was eerily quiet, no sounds but the echo of our feet across the pavement.
“How can anyone sleep through the commotion back there,” muttered Sara shaking her head in disbelief.
I looked around and noticed the power was still out in the entire neighborhood, finding it odd that not one person had stepped out of their homes to see what was going on. Not even with the gunfire.
We entered the house and checked on the children; thankfully they were both still sleeping soundly.
“Thank God they’re safe,” said Sara.
“I’ll be right back,” I said going to the bathroom to wash my hands, which suddenly felt dirty. I stared in horror at my fingers; one
of my new French tip nails was completely cracked!
Are you kidding me?!
I was so angry. The one and only time I get a professional manicure and I’m caught up in some crazy shit that ruins the beauty of my nails. I glared at the cracked nail and cut off the tip.
Still disgusted, I went down to the cellar where Sara and the stranger were.
“What’s your name?” Sara asked the woman, who was staring off into space.
The woman released a shaky breath. “Hannah,” she replied thickly.
“So, do you mind starting from the beginning and tell us what happened? I think we need to know, especially since I’ve killed the two men who were after you.”
Hannah nodded and then sat down on the steps. She cleared her throat. “Well, we were busy at work, Paul and I. We own a liquor store on Main Street, The Liquor Depot? Anyway, that’s where we first encountered one of those… monsters.”
Sara frowned. “You saw more of them in town?”
“Yes, earlier in the evening. They weren’t soldiers either. Just regular old people,” she shrugged, “Or they used to be people. Anyway, the store is normally busy, no matter what hour it is, but the past couple of days, there haven’t been many customers. The flu you know? It’s hurt our business too, if you can believe it.”
Her voice was getting hoarse, so I offered her a bottle of water.
“Thanks,” she said. “Anyway, I was leaving the backroom of the store when I heard Paul yelling at someone by the register, so I hurried to the front, to see what was going on. Well, it was one of those… freaks and it was making these weird garbled noises, and trying to grab on to Paul’s arm. From the back, I thought it was just some angry fellow, so I hollered at him to leave the store,” she sighed. “But instead of leaving, he turned around and tried attacking me! Thank goodness Paul was there…oh Paul!” she cried bitterly.
Sara handed her a tissue and squeezed her shoulder.
“I’m sorry. It’s just the thought of never seeing him again, you know?” she sniffled.
We both nodded. Sara handed her more tissues.
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