“I’ll follow you to your mom’s to make sure you get there safe,” I said. “Then I guess I’ll come back here.”
“You should find some other place to stay. For your own safety.”
I touched her warm hand, but she withdrew it.
I wondered if I’d ever see her again. I wanted Holly more than anything in life. She was all I cared about. I’d do anything to protect her from Missy—or anyone else who tried to harm her. But it was what I’d done that put her in danger in the first place. I lost her that first time I climbed into Missy’s bed, the day I condemned myself to Hell.
What’s that saying—bad things happen to good people? But it’s not true. It’s bad people doing bad things to themselves and others. Or people who are more stupid than bad doing bad things. Me, I was somewhere in the middle. I didn’t think I was bad, just stupid. What scared me was the belief that bad people can become good if they want to, but stupid people can’t become smart. They continue living out their pathetic lives, hurting more people along the way till they either are killed or die off.
“I’ll gas up your car,” I said, and left the room.
It was an hour to Holly’s mom’s house in Mt. Shasta. As I got on the freeway, I saw a military-looking helicopter zooming overhead. All the way up I followed Holly’s blue Prius. She had tried again to go by herself, but I refused to let her. I wanted to keep her safe.
After Holly’s dad died, her mom sold her home in Tres Marias and bought a cabin not far from the lake. They called them cabins, but they were townhomes in a community called Shasta Heights. Thirty had been built when the builder went bankrupt. Holly’s mom got hers at a bank auction and paid cash.
I saw the lake shimmering through the trees. The last time I was here was with Jim. It was warm, and there were a lot of boats pulling people on water skis. It seemed idyllic.
Holly didn’t tell her mother what I’d done. She said there was a wave of violence tearing through the town and I felt she was safer up here. Her mom seemed to buy it. She was a simple woman who’d worked hard all her life and took things at face value. I don’t think she had the capacity to recognize intrigue.
“Nice to see you, Dave,” her mom said when I came through the front door with the bags.
She never liked me all that much because of the drinking, I guess. But I saw she was making an effort. Sometimes it was hard to understand her, because most of her teeth were missing. Holly told me once that, when a tooth fell out, her mother would toss it into a mason jar with the others. She used the jar more or less to keep track of her age.
“Good to see you too, Mrs. Mitchell,” I said.
“Irene.”
“Right.”
I planned to return home, knowing Holly didn’t want me around. But she informed me that, for appearance’s sake, I’d better stay till morning.
“I didn’t bring any other clothes.”
“Just do it, Dave. After Mom goes to bed, you can sleep in the living room.”
There’s no better way for a woman to punish a man than to make him sleep away from her. I tried to look on the bright side. At least we were under the same roof.
“What’s this I hear about gangs and violence?” Irene said at dinner.
“Mom, I never said—”
“It’s not like that,” I said. “It’s these random incidents. No one knows what’s causing them.”
“Well, according to Evie Champagne, things have gotten awfully strange. Tres Marias was always such a nice little town. Seems like nothing is nice anymore.”
“You shouldn’t believe what you hear on TV,” Holly said.
“I like Evie Champagne,” Irene said. “She seems honest.”
We played Scrabble for a while like a normal family, then Holly’s mom went to bed. Holly and I stayed up watching Mrs. Doubtfire on satellite TV. Neither of us wanted to talk about what lay ahead. So we sat at opposite ends of the sofa, pretending to laugh as Robin Williams bounced frantically between two tables in a restaurant.
“Do you hate me?” I said when the movie was over.
“Yes.”
“I love you, Holly. I’m so sorry—”
“Don’t, Dave.”
She opened the French doors leading to the small balcony and went outside. I followed her. I could see a full moon through the trees. A cool breeze blew in from the lake, bringing the smell of pine and lilac. Owls hooted in the nearby trees. In any other circumstance this would’ve been a perfect night.
Seeing the stars in the black-velvet sky, I wanted so much to hold Holly’s hand, but I didn’t dare make a move.
“I wish …” she said. “I wish you’d never told me.” She turned to me, and I saw tears glistening in the moonlight. “I wish you would’ve kept it as your dirty secret. And we’d raise our children and grow old together, and I could die believing that you’d been faithful to me. That’s the life I wanted, you being faithful.”
“Holly.”
“But I can’t have it now because you killed it. I gave up so much for you. I thought if I loved you enough I could change you. I was so stupid. I thought it was the drinking that’s the problem. I didn’t know it was something deeper.”
“I don’t want to lose you,” I said.
“You can go to Hell.”
I saw what was coming and let it happen. She slapped me hard, then went to bed. My face stinging, I heard her crying. I’m pretty sure her mother heard it too.
I stayed outside for a time, thinking about everything I’d done wrong. And I kept trying to figure out a way to fix it. There had to be something I could do. I needed to redeem myself. I needed forgiveness. There had to be a way to get Holly back.
A piercing shriek shredded the blackness of the night like a chain saw. Feeling cold, I came inside and tried to sleep. A voice in my head told me that sleep was for babies and old people.
“And the dead,” I said to the walls.
I left early, having gotten little rest. All night I waited for a call from the police saying I needed to tell them where I was because they had implicated me in Jim’s death. And I waited for a text from Missy. Neither came.
As I got ready to leave, Holly came to the front door and put something I recognized in my hand. It was the gold crucifix she’d received on her First Communion, which she had worn since I met her. As I said, I’m not the religious type—eight years of Catholic school had seen to that—but Holly still believed in the power of prayer.
“Keep it,” I said. “I’m going to Hell, remember?”
“Take it.”
“Why?”
“Protection.”
“In case something bad happens?”
“Yeah. And you might wanna start praying. And go to Confession. Sorry I slapped you.”
I saw in her a friend who was trying to give another friend some good advice. I thought she’d let me kiss her, but she walked away.
“I’ll text you when I get back,” I said, not sure if she heard me.
Her mother was in the kitchen, cleaning up the breakfast dishes. She looked at me in the strangest way, like she knew. I wasn’t surprised. Everything anyone needed to know was on my face.
On the way back, shrill sirens forced me to pull over. Police cars, an ambulance and a fire truck sped past towards the lake. I assumed it was a boating accident.
I decided to get off the 5 and take a scenic route through the forest. I knew I was delaying my arrival in Tres Marias, but I didn’t have to be at work till ten. There was still enough time to shower and change clothes.
Up ahead, an old bridge road spanned across a dry creek bed. The day was already warm, and I had my window rolled down. Partway across, I noticed some guy running on the dry, dusty rocks. Scared, he wore hiking shorts and a straw hat and had a camera slung across his chest. Tourist. I pulled over and climbed out to get a better look. It was hard to tell his age, but he wasn’t in any kind of shape. At one point he tripped and did a face plant, screaming and swearing.
Th
en I saw them.
A group of around eight men and women charged after the man, arms outstretched like he’d stolen their wallets. They moved fast, but their bodies didn’t look right. They screeched like some kind of deranged birds. It was the most awful sound I’d ever heard—the same sound Missy had made. They were getting closer.
“Hey, get up!” I said. “Come on!”
He looked at me, then back at the mob. Adrenaline must’ve helped him, because like a torsion spring he shot to his feet and took off running towards the bridge, blood and sweat streaming down his face.
I got into my truck, drove to the end of the bridge, jumped out and waited with the engine running.
He was at the bottom of the bank. He tried scrambling up the side but kept slipping on the thin, dry grass and loose gravel. The mob was gaining on him.
“Try over there!” I said, pointing to a beaten path through the weeds.
He went down a ways and climbed. One of those crazies was on him now—a woman who looked to be in her fifties, with short grey hair, swollen ankles and JCPenney summer clothes. Talking gibberish, she grabbed his foot and tried dragging him down the side. He screamed. I slid down halfway and reached out to take his wrist. Others came and pulled him like lions bringing down a wildebeest.
They wanted to eat him.
Horrified, I watched as they tore at his eyes, tongue and any other soft, juicy parts. It was incredible how they moved as one. Their fingers were like razors ripping through his clothes to get to his swollen, hairy abdomen. I stood frozen on that dirt path, unable to comprehend what was happening. When his intestines spilled out, I scrambled up the path, got into my truck and shot down the road, narrowly avoiding a boulder.
“God, God!”
Crazy with adrenaline, I made a U-turn and headed back over the bridge towards the freeway. There was little left of the man, and the mob was already dispersing. As I came out of the forest, I heard someone blast their horn. Another car swerved towards me from the driver’s side. Thinking fast, I floored it. The car missed me by inches and hit a tree. I slammed on the brakes.
Shaken but unhurt, I looked to see what had happened. A man lay semiconscious behind the wheel of a black Lexus SUV. The air bag had deployed, reminding me of my own car accident. I got out and went to see if I could help.
Through the window I saw blood streaming from the man’s forehead. He appeared to be in his sixties. It was Isaac Fallow.
“Hey, can you move?” He nodded.
After several tries, I was able to get his door open. I undid his seat belt and helped him into the passenger side of my truck, then got behind the wheel.
“Dave, my medical kit. It’s in the trunk.”
I ran back to the car, popped the trunk and found a large black plastic tub among old newspapers, file folders and crushed soda cans. As I placed it in the back of my truck, I heard the terrifying shrieking again.
“Hurry!” Isaac said from inside the truck.
I saw the mob coming towards us, as hungry as before, and climbed into the truck and took off. Something stepped into the road—a man. I couldn’t swerve. I hit him full on, flattening his body under my truck. A few feet ahead, I slammed on the brakes and looked in amazement in the rearview mirror as the victim sat up. His legs crushed, he tried crawling towards us.
Isaac saw him too. “Just drive,” he said. His voice was calm.
“But he’s hurt.”
“Drive. He’s already dead.”
We jumped onto the freeway and headed towards Tres Marias.
“What about your car?” I said.
“It’s not important.”
“Isaac, what were you doing in the forest?”
“Trying to prove that this isn’t happening.”
“What is happening?”
“I don’t know.” I looked at him and saw that he had the same haunted look as Detective Van Gundy back at the hospital. “But the gates of Hell have opened.”
While I waited in the emergency room, I texted Holly to let her know I was back. I didn’t say anything about the forest. She replied with a single letter—K.
I realized there was no way I was going to make it to work in time, so I called Fred. I told him I wasn’t feeling well and would have to come in later. Other than the accident, I hadn’t taken a sick day since I started there. He knew it and didn’t argue.
A couple of hours later Isaac came out, wearing a large white adhesive bandage on his forehead. Other than some bruised ribs and a sore neck, he was fine.
We drove over to the Tip Top Café to get some coffee. This place had become a refuge of mine since I stopped drinking. It was two doors down from the Beehive. Though this created a temptation the AA people wouldn’t approve of, it gave me a strange comfort—knowing I could be so close to that den of pain, yet never allowing myself to set foot in there again.
The Tip Top was old-school. It had opened in the early sixties, before the British Invasion. The booths were made of red leather. The menus were trifold and laminated. It was a great place to get a burger and shake. A soda fountain featured banana splits and fresh cherry pie. There was a jukebox, and for a quarter you could still hear Bobby Darrin singing “Beyond the Sea.”
For a long time Isaac and I sat staring out at the world through a plate-glass window. Everything here looked normal. Cars drove by. A mother walked past, holding a child by the hand and laughing. A postal worker delivered mail to the local merchants. A teenage boy kissed his girlfriend leaning against a streetlight. There was nothing out of the ordinary.
“That guy in the forest,” I said, “the one I hit. What did you mean, he was already dead?”
“I mean you didn’t kill anyone—not a person anyway.”
“And what about Jim Stanley?”
I already knew the answer. It’s what I suspected. Like everyone else in town, Jim had also been Isaac’s patient. He told me about the autopsy. People were dying, but they weren’t staying dead. He finished his coffee, set the cup on the saucer and wept into his hands. I didn’t know what to do.
A clueless server came over with a glass coffeepot in each hand, one decaf and the other regular. “Anyone need a refill?” she said.
I titled my head towards Isaac. She left and said something to one of the other servers.
“Sorry I almost crashed into you,” he said.
“Don’t worry about it. I was pretty messed up myself. I saw a bunch of those crazies attack a man near the bridge. What do you think is causing people to act this way?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think it has anything to do with all those other people we’ve been seeing?”
“You mean the ones with the jimmies?”
“You said they were dead already.”
“That or their symptoms mimic death,” he said. “If these illnesses are connected, it could be some kind of virus. And it might be mutating. I called the CDC over a week ago. They were supposed to send someone out.”
“Come on, I’ll take you back to your house.”
“I’d appreciate it.”
I left money on the table, and as we walked out I observed a man in a cheap suit staring at us. He looked feverish. To diffuse the tension, I smiled at him, but he kept staring. I noticed he was drooling.
It was a short ride to Isaac’s house. As I pulled into the driveway, I saw the police cars parked in front of a neighbor’s house. A man, a woman and teenage girl sat outside on the curb. They looked helpless, like they didn’t know what to do.
“Kate, what happened?” Isaac said.
The woman looked up at us. “Oh, Dr. Fallow! Patty’s husband was attacked in their backyard. We’re waiting for the ambulance.”
“Sal is still in the yard,” Patty said. “They won’t let me see him.”
“Just give me a second.”
As Isaac got his medical equipment from my truck, the woman named Patty continued on. “It was weird. Some kind of wild group of people. Men and women. They attac
ked him for no reason. He was watering the lawn.”
Isaac touched Patty’s shoulder and went over to a police officer who was making some notes.
“Oh, hey, Dr. Fallow.”
“Did you see anyone?”
“No. Whoever did this is long gone.”
“Okay, come with me. Dave, you might want to stay here.”
“No way—I’m coming.”
We went around the side of the house and entered the backyard through a wooden gate. A policeman patrolled the area with his gun drawn. In the middle of the yard, we saw the victim. He didn’t look that bad. I guessed that something must have scared off the mob.
Isaac put on latex gloves and knelt next to the man. I watched as he examined the man and took his pulse.
“Sal, how are you feeling?”
“Shaken up, I guess.”
“These are some nasty bites.”
“Who are you?” one of the police officers said to me.
“Dave Pulaski. I’m a friend of Isaac’s.”
“Oh?” I didn’t like his expression.
By the time the ambulance arrived, Isaac had wrapped the man’s arms and hands. It looked to me as if he’d tried to deflect the attacks and was bit.
When we got back to the street, another police officer came up to me.
“I need to see some identification,” the cop said.
Isaac and I exchanged a look as I handed over my driver’s license.
“Hey, Norm,” another cop said. “Take a look at this.” He was examining my front bumper.
“In a minute.”
My heart sank as he took my license to his vehicle. I knew he was running it through the computer. A couple of minutes later, he came back.
“There’s a wanted notice on you,” the cop said. “I have to take you in.”
I looked at Isaac. “What for?” he said.
The cop looked irritated. “There’s a detective wants to ask you some questions.”
“You’re allowed to have an attorney present, so don’t say anything,” Isaac advised. “Give me your keys. I need to go over to the hospital. I’ll pick you up at the police station later.”
The Dead Series (Book 1): Tell Me When I'm Dead Page 6