by J. Thorn
The kids groaned.
“He’s right, children,” Papa Midnight said. “We cannot stay here. It isn’t safe.”
Dax studied Papa Midnight’s face. He wondered if the voodoo priest knew more than he was letting on. Could he sense danger nearby?
He shrugged off the thought, not prepared to raise the question in front of the children. “The three of you lock arms, and stay right behind me.”
Monica stood between the two boys, and they did as Dax instructed, moving arm-in-arm behind him.
As they exited the food court, Dax looked at the stores on both sides of the corridor. As expected, each had been ransacked and destroyed—windows lining the fronts of the stores had been shattered, and mannequins had been stripped of their clothing. Entire racks stood empty. But he saw no sign of people or recent activity.
Dax paused and thought about it. The mall seemed like the perfect place for refugees. Unlike shelters or churches where people would have gone first, the mall could potentially hold food and supplies that had been untouched. Yet, nobody was here. He shook his head and continued.
The deeper into the mall they walked, the darker it became. Skylights allowed the sun to come in through the ceiling, but clouds continued to fill the sky.
“I’m scared,” Kevin said.
“It’s all right,” Monica said. “There’s nothing to be scared of. Nothing’s going to happen to us.”
Again, Monica’s mature attitude and willingness to look after the boys impressed Dax. This thirteen-year-old was being forced to grow up fast. And with Chloe gone…
Dax stopped. He closed his eyes and lowered his head, trying to block out the violent images of Isaac murdering Chloe in front of him. Dax took a deep breath.
“Are you all right?”
Looking up, Dax saw all three children staring at him. He raised his head and squared his shoulders.
“I’m fine. Let’s keep—”
The sign of a nearby store caught his eye. The kids turned around to look at it when they realized what had him frozen.
“What?” Monica asked. “It’s a sporting goods store. Big deal.”
“Come on.”
Dax took Monica’s hand and they went to the store. He’d nearly forgotten about Papa Midnight, but when he turned around, the blind voodoo priest was following them.
Like the other stores, the sporting goods store had been looted. But Dax hoped that the thing he most needed was something that others wouldn’t have thought about stealing right after the Blackout.
“What are we looking for?” Darius asked.
“Stay close to me.”
“I will stay here,” Papa Midnight said, standing at the entrance of the store. The old man wouldn’t be able to maneuver around the debris, so that was fine with Dax.
He walked to the middle of the store, stopped, and scanned the room. Almost everything had been torn from the walls—it looked like wild animals had been let loose inside. But when he turned towards the back corner of the store, he saw what he was looking for propped up against a wall.
Dax shoved aside empty racks and went to the display. He grabbed one of the oars off the wall.
“That’s what you were coming in here for?” Kevin asked.
“I hate to tell you this, buddy, but we ain’t gonna find gasoline easily. So, I think we might be taking turns rowing that boat.”
“Look how small I am! How am I supposed to row a boat?”
Dax laughed. “Here, take one of these.” He handed one oar to Kevin and one to Monica. He made Darius, the larger and older of the two boys, carry two of them.
“I can carry more than one,” Monica said.
“One is fine,” Dax told her. “You need to have a hand free in case you need to grab the children and run.”
Dax thought to grab three or four of the oars, but decided to take two because he didn’t think they’d need more. He doubted they’d use even seven oars, but he was starting to seriously question whether or not they would find gasoline. And when would they come across a sporting goods store again? It wasn’t like New Orleans had a Bass Pro Shop on every corner. He figured he might as well grab extras, just in case they got broken or lost.
“All right. Let’s get out of here.”
“Where’s Papa Midnight?” Darius asked.
Dax looked to the front of the store.
The blind man was gone.
Dax sighed. “Come on.”
They moved back through the store, again avoiding displays and useless items, such as baseball gloves. On the way back through, Dax looked out for anything they could use as a weapon—such as baseball bats, golf clubs, knives, or guns—but it had all been stolen. He’d hoped to at least find an aluminum baseball bat, but he didn’t.
Dax exited the store and looked to his right. At the bend in the corridor stood Papa Midnight, blindly staring.
What the fuck is he doing?
“Stay here.”
Monica said, “But we should come—”
“No. Stay here.” Dax’s tone was much sharper this time—probably more than it needed to be. But the three children listened and stayed at the front of the store.
Dax approached the blind voodoo priest.
“What the hell are you doing? I thought you were going to stay—”
The blind man raised his hand, signaling for Dax to be quiet. Dax stopped and furrowed his brow.
“My congregation,” the old man said.
Looking past the old man, Dax saw what he was staring at. His eyes went wide.
A small group of people surrounded a woman. Her arms had been spread out to the sides like they were mounted to a cross. Her head was slightly tilted, and she stared into empty space.
Dax noticed that the entire area was hidden in shadow, with no skylights in this portion of the mall.
Then he saw the eyes.
“Oh, shit.”
“Come to me, children,” Papa Midnight said. He opened his arms and started around the corner.
Dax darted to Papa, wrapping his arms around the old man and pulling him away before the Screamers saw him.
“No!” Papa Midnight cried. “Let me go!”
Dax covered Papa’s mouth. “Shut the fuck up.”
Snarls sounded from down the corridor.
Then the first scream came.
It echoed through the abandoned mall. Dax let go of Papa Midnight to cover his ears. He looked over at the children and saw them doing the same.
He tried to get Monica’s attention, but it was too late. The Screamer’s cry ended, and the only sound left hanging in the air was the harmonized weeping of the three children.
Dax jumped to his feet and ran across the corridor, leaving Papa Midnight behind so that he could join Monica, Darius, and Kevin at the sporting goods store. He was about to pull the kids to their feet when he noticed something.
He didn’t hear footsteps. The creatures apparently hadn’t moved.
“Stay right here.”
“Dax, you can’t leave us,” Monica said.
“I’m not. I’ve got to poke my head around the corner and see what’s going on.”
“Please don’t go,” Darius said.
“Hold onto them, Monica. And if you see Screamers, you run. Do you understand me?”
Monica nodded.
Dax put down one of the oars he’d carried and held the other like a weapon, ready to strike.
As he approached the bend again, he looked to Papa Midnight slumped against the other wall. The man had crumpled into a ball and was whispering gibberish to himself.
Slowly, Dax stuck his head out and peered into the dark corridor.
The woman had disappeared, and so had the Screamers. Dax narrowed his eyes.
Where did they go?
Dax paused as a sensation washed over his body. He could feel the presence of the Screamers without any of his five senses.
Six or seven surrounding the woman. We have to get out of here.
D
ax glanced at Papa Midnight and considered leaving the old man behind. Perhaps he had learned all he could from the voodoo priest. Eventually, Papa Midnight would slow them down, and that would endanger the children.
He started towards the sporting goods store again, but then stopped, the guilt stuck in his throat. He couldn’t leave Papa Midnight there to die. Dax wasn’t about to leave a handicapped man to die at the hands of those monsters. Who was he to decide which life was more valuable?
Dax shook his head as he raced across the corridor, jumping over a discarded bench in the process. He took Papa Midnight by the collar of his trench coat.
“Come on.”
“Where did my congregation go?”
“You have to get on your feet right now and follow me unless you want to die.”
“But my people; where—”
“Fuck your people! They’ve turned, okay?”
“You don’t know that.”
Dax exhaled a deep breath. “This is the last time I’m asking you. If you don’t get on your feet now, I’ll leave you here to find out for yourself what happened to your ‘people.’”
Papa Midnight faced Dax. He stared blankly for a moment before taking hold of Dax’s shoulders and allowing the ex-convict to help him to his feet.
“Good choice.”
With the oar in one hand and his other arm around Papa Midnight, Dax hurried back towards the sporting goods store. The children remained where he had left them. Monica held an oar like a baseball bat, and she was standing in front of Kevin and Darius who cowered behind her.
Dax waved the boys out, then pulling them off of Monica’s legs. “We have to run now—okay, guys? We’re going to go back the way we came.”
A shadow passed over them, and Dax looked up at the skylight. The clouds had completely blocked out the sun. Rain beat against the roof, coming down harder than he’d heard in days. It sounded like a monsoon. He returned his attention to the children.
“I need you to each grab one oar. Leave the others behind.”
Each child nodded, even Kevin. Dax cupped the boy’s face.
“You’ve got this, all right? Get rid of those tears and get ready to run. Everything is going to be fine. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You got me?”
“Yes, sir,” Kevin replied as he wiped his eyes.
“All right then.” Dax stood. “Let’s get out of here.”
Chapter 9
Dax moved as fast as he could without leaving Papa Midnight behind. He kept the children within arm’s reach. Papa Midnight trailed them all, his cane slapping the tile floor. He hobbled along as fast as his old legs would take him. Rain continued to pummel the roof of the building, creating a hazy layer on the skylight above. Thunder clapped in the distance and lightning flashed through the windows. The weather wasn’t ideal for boating, but Dax felt they had a better chance of weathering the storm than trying to fight off a dozen or more Screamers.
They entered the food court, and now Dax was able to gaze through the windows at the back of the massive dining room. The Mississippi River poured over onto the back patio, and angry waves slapped against the glass. The longer the storm went on, the higher the water would rise, putting the mall under water like the rest of the city.
They were approaching Illegal Burrito when Dax heard a scream. But it hadn’t come from behind, where he’d assumed the others would be following them. It had come from ahead.
A department store anchored one end of the food court. From inside of it came a crash. Clothing racks fell over. Then dark figures came into view. Dax stopped, keeping everyone else behind him.
Screamers.
Three of them blocked the group’s exit. The creatures stopped at the edge of the food court and spread out to block their path.
Dax cursed under his breath.
“Dax, I’m scared,” Monica said.
“What are we going to do?” Darius asked.
“We have to go back and run the other way,” Dax said. “I’ll do my best to hold them off.”
They slowly backed up, but only made it a few feet before they heard piercing howls coming from the other end of the mall. More Screamers came into view, exploding from the corridor where Dax and the others had come. And as Dax had predicted, they had alerted others. The horde had grown to over a dozen Screamers now.
“Dax!” Monica said.
He brought the children in close as they walked slowly back the other way, Papa Midnight remaining near them. “Everyone stay close.”
The three Screamers from the department store moved in closer, and the horde arrived from the other direction. Dax identified the Screamer at the front of the pack as the woman who had been surrounded earlier, back near the sporting goods store. They had turned her, and her orange eyes were now focused on Dax, Papa, and the children.
From both directions, the two groups of Screamers approached.
Dax grabbed Kevin and Darius by their hands as he glanced back and forth between the two packs, trying to figure a way out.
He glimpsed a door between two of the restaurants. Having worked at a mall as a teenager, he knew it would lead into the main back hallway, and eventually to an exit.
“This way. Come on.”
Dax pushed the children toward the door and then took Papa Midnight’s hand. Several of the Screamers howled as they lessened the gap between themselves and Dax’s group.
Monica pushed through the door and shoved the children inside. Dax had thought about the possibility of Screamers on the other side of the door, but it was a risk they had to take.
“Dax, hurry!”
He was trying, but Papa Midnight was exhausted. Dax practically had to drag the old man to the door.
And yet, despite the pursuit, the Screamers did not rush at them. It was as if they were being herded by the creatures. When they were only a few feet from the door, Papa Midnight lost his balance and fell. One of the Screamers pounced forward, making its move.
Papa Midnight made it to his feet and Dax shoved him through the door as the Screamer lunged. Dax held up the oar to block the attack.
“Shut the door!”
“We aren’t leaving you!” Monica yelled back.
“Shut the goddamn door!”
The Screamer was in Dax’s face—he’d once been a young male, perhaps in his mid-20s. The man had shaved the sides of his head and left a tuft of black hair on top which he had parted to one side. Dax pushed forward with both hands on the oar, knocking the Screamer down but snapping the oar in the process. He looked down at the two pieces in his hands, one now with a sharp point where it had snapped.
Vampires.
The woman that had apparently been turned a few minutes earlier stepped up to challenge Dax while the Screamer with the shaved head scurried away from the fight. She snarled as she came at him, swinging her arms in wide, wild arcs, her teeth bared.
Dax surprised her by making the first move. He raised the piece of oar above his head and brought it down towards the Screamer’s chest. Thunder shook the building and drowned out his own war cries. Dax felt the makeshift stake penetrate the Screamer’s chest.
She let out the most piercing howl Dax had heard from any of the creatures. Falling onto the ground, she clutched the end of the oar protruding from her chest, convulsing as if in the throws of a seizure. The Screamer then cried out once more before the orange tint faded from her eyes, and finally she transformed back to her human form, now a dead woman lying on the floor.
The others snarled as they looked down at her and then back to Dax.
One of the Screamers reached out and wrapped an arm around Dax, and he was momentarily pulled back toward the horde before breaking away and scampering back through the doorway. Monica and Darius pulled the double doors shut behind him. Another band of Screamers slammed against the doors before the kids could lock them.
“Help!”
Dax jumped to his feet and took Monica’s spot holding the doors closed.
&n
bsp; “Lock it!”
Monica reached up to lock the door, but the latch wouldn’t line up. Dax noticed, and he gritted his teeth. With all of his strength, he pushed against the door.
“Now!”
The doors shut all the way, and Monica was able to slide the bolt into the lock. She fell back then and stared at the door, breathing heavily. Darius dropped, and set his back against the door, gasping for air.
Kevin sat against the wall in silence. He had his knees to his chin, and for once, he wasn’t crying.
“Did you kill that thing?” Monica asked.
Dax nodded. “I think so.”
“How?”
Dax looked at Papa Midnight, who was leaning against a wall. “I shoved a wooden stake into its heart.”
Outside, the horde continued to bang on the door.
“What are we going to do now?” Darius asked.
Dax spotted another door at the end of the long hallway. He grabbed Kevin’s oar and jogged to it. On his way, he checked open doors on both sides of the corridor, making sure no Screamers or aggressive humans had been in hiding.
When he stopped in front of the door, he wiped the grime from a tiny window towards the top and looked out. The rain continued to fall in massive sheets of water, and waves rolled across the parking lot. To his left, he could see their boat, still tied to the railing, although the wind was continuing to yank at it.
Looking down, Dax saw a platform outside with a set of stairs, but it didn’t connect to the walkway where they’d tied their boat.
They were trapped.
Dax cursed under his breath. In another moment, he noticed the feel of water in his shoes, and he looked down. Water had begun to seep under the door.
He backed up.
“Can we get out that way?” Monica shouted down the hall.
Dax shook his head. “We’re gonna have to wait to—”
From one of the doors Dax had quickly passed on his way down the hall, a Screamer leaped out. Dax jumped back as the thing’s high-pitched scream rattled off the walls of the narrow corridor. The creature, which had been an overweight and middle-aged man before being turned, lunged at him. Dax raised the oar to block the attack and they both tumbled to the ground.