Glory (Book 2)

by Michael McManamon

  "I don't think it'll see us," he said. "We just have to be quiet and move slowly."

  Julie didn't respond. Scooter took that to mean that she was okay with the plan.She'd argue if she wasn't, wouldn't she?

  He walked back a few cars. He didn't want the creature to hear them. He knew that opening a car door might be a problem, so he looked for one that was already open.

  "Here," he said. It was a small car. He had hoped to find something bigger. An SUV or maybe a camper, if they were lucky. But the first one he had come upon was a tiny little thing.

  He supposed that he could keep looking. And maybe he should. But, the more he moved, the more chance there was for thatthing up there to see them. There might be others also. He wasn't sure. And he didn't want to take the chance.

  He led Julie and Emily over to the car. No one was inside it.That was good, at least.

  "You two go in first," he said. "You can take the back seat."

  The back seat wasn't big, but it was bigger than the front ones. They could even lie down on it. Somewhat comfortably.

  Julie nodded her head and went into the car. It wasn't as easy as Scooter had hoped. She had to bend forward, crouch down, slip in behind the driver's side seat. He had to pull the seat forward to help.

  Once she was there, she settled into the back and raised out her arms. Scooter passed Emily into them. That partwas easy.

  Scooter went in last. He pushed the front seat back. It made a soft click. Nothing that the creature could hear. Then he sat down.

  "You guys okay?" he asked.

  "Yeah," Julie said. "We're fine."

  Now, time to shut the door. Scooter was worried about this. If the creature was going to hear them, this would be the time.

  He stuck his head out the door and looked back. The creature was still there, bobbing its head up and down.

  Scooter had to be quiet. He also had to be fast. He didn't like sitting here with the door open. There was just something about it.

  "Okay," he said to himself. "It's time."

  He placed his hand on the door handle. More thoughts ran through his head.He needed to be quiet, so he should pull it slowly. But if he did, the door wouldn't close all of the way and he might not be able to lock it. Then again, if he was too loud...

  "Okay," he said, putting an end to the debate. He turned to look at Julie and Emily in the back seat. "I want you two to lie down. Don't move."

  Julie and Emily did as they were told and laid down. Julie wrapped her arm around the little girl. "It'll be all right," she whispered into Emily's ear.

  "Okay," Scooter said once more. The girls were in place. Out of the way. The creature wouldn't see them.

  He turned back to the door. It was time. He reached out and grabbed the door handle again. Then he brought the door closer to him. Slowly. It creaked a little. Nothing too much. The creature didn't seem to notice anyway.

  The door came closer. Almost shut.

  Scooter stopped. He knew that he'd have to pull on it quickly, forcefully. It wouldn't shut otherwise.

  He took a few deep breaths.

  One, two, three.

  He slammed the door. There was a loud bang as it closed. He reached up and placed his hand against the lock. That too made a noise. But he couldn't do anything about either of them now.

  He sat down further in his seat and looked out of his rear view mirror. He could see the creature. It had stopped doing whatever it had been doing and was looking around. It had heard the noise.

  "Fuck," Scooter said under his breath. He didn't want to alarm the girls, but he was worried. He grabbed the axe and squeezed it tightly. It was lying in between his legs. The head of it rested on his chest.

  Scooter continued to watch. He felt sick. He didn't want to have to go through another fight with one of these things. The old woman had been enough.

  He continued to look. The creature continued to look as well. Though not at him. It was looking around, searching for what made the noise. It knew that it had heard something, Scooter could see. It just didn't know what.

  Scooter waited. And waited. Then the creature moved.

  It didn't come after them like Scooter expected. The creature simply bent down again to take another bite of whatever it was that it was eating.

  *

  Scooter sat up after a while. He thought that it was okay now. The creature had moved off. Or so he thought. It was a little bit difficult to be sure since it was getting dark and harder to see.

  "You two okay?" he asked.

  "Yeah," Julie replied. Emily didn't say anything. He thought that maybe the young girl was asleep.

  "I guess we'll have to wait here until morning."

  "Yeah," Julie said again.

  Her response bothered him. He didn't know what she really could have said differently. He wasn't asking her anything. He was just stating a fact. And she was agreeing with it. But it bothered him anyway. It made him feel as though he had to decide everything. That he needed to get them through this. That she was just going to follow and do what he said. And maybe that would be the case.

  Scooter turned around and looked at her. She was staring out of the window. Obviously thinking about all that they had seen, all that had happened.

  "Try to get some sleep," he said. It was his way of trying to apologize for the things he had thought. Things that she didn't even know about.

  "I will," she replied.

  Scooter saw her turn to look at him. She tried to smile at him. He tried to smile back.

  He turned back in his seat and closed his eyes. Though sleep was a long way off.

  Day 4

  Chapter 1

  Scooter woke up and saw that the sun was starting to rise. He stretched and sat up. After, he looked through the car windows to see if he could see any of the creatures. There didn't appear to be any around.

  He turned his head and looked at Julie and Emily in the backseat. They were still asleep. They looked peaceful.

  He hated to wake them, but the car was getting hot and he needed to get out of it. Besides, he thought that they should get moving soon. They still had a long way to walk. They also had to look for some more food. More than anything though, he had to go to the washroom.

  He grabbed at the car door handle and pulled it open. There was a loud thunk as the door unlocked. Scooter looked back and saw Julie and Emily opening their eyes.

  "I'm just gonna take a leak," he explained.

  He was embarrassed as soon as the words came out of his mouth. This wasn't the type of thing that you said to a woman. It wasn't mature. It wasn't sophisticated. It sounded like an uneducated idiot.Which maybe he was.

  "Okay," Julie replied. "Wanna get up?" She was talking to the little girl. She didn't seem to notice Scooter's choice of words. Or, if she did, she wasn't bothered by it.

  "Where are we?" Emily asked. She rubbed her eyes and yawned.

  "We're in a car," Julie said. "We had to sleep here."

  Emily thought about it for a few seconds, then replied, "Oh…yeah."

  Scooter hoped that she wasn't going to ask about her father. He couldn't her that her dad was dead. Not again. The first time had been hard enough. And he hadn't really even said anything then. Most of it had been Julie. He had just stood there and been quiet.

  Scooter pushed the door open all of the way after a moment. It didn't look like Emily was going to ask anything about her dad. Maybe she had come to accept it.

  "All right," he said, "let's go."

  The two followed him out of the car.

  Scooter continued to look around, making sure that one of thosethings wasn't around.

  There wasn't.

  "How about you two go over there," he said. "I'll go over here." He pointed to two different parts of the highway. They were far enough apart for privacy, but not too far for him to run to them if they needed him.

  "Sure," Julie said. She led Emily off to the car that he had pointed at.

  Scooter watched the two w
alk behind the car, then he turned around to go to his spot. He grabbed his axe as he went.

  Once there, he leaned his axe on the car beside him. He unzipped his jeans, pulled out his cock and pinched it out away from him. He directed it toward the street and let out a deep breath. He waited.

  Nothing came.

  Scooter knew that he had had to go. He had felt it in the car. But, out here, it wasn't co-operating. He took a few more deep breaths, then tried to push it.

  Still nothing happened.

  He tried again.

  Nothing.

  He tried to relax. He told himself that he had to go. That it would come.

  Eventually, it did.

  His piss shot out on the ground. It pattered in front of him.

  Scooter was conscious of the sound and hoped that it wasn't too loud. He didn't want Julie and Emily to hear it.Though, really, what did that matter? They were taking a leak too. It made sound. Water hitting the ground. He tried not to worry about it. He focused on getting it all out of him.

  Scooter's head lolled from one side to the other as he continued to piss. As it did, his eyes came upon something in the car. A man was staring up at him.

  Scooter jumped back and let go of his cock. His piss started to spray wildly until he grabbed hold of it again. He pinched it off and looked back into the car. There was a man in there, dead. Scooter didn't know how. There weren't any signs like he had seen on the other bodies. No blood. No open wounds. But the man definitely wasn't alive. He was resting against the car door, his face pressed against the window.

  Scooter turned from the body.Fuck, it had scared him.He started to laugh. More of a nervous laugh than anything else.

  He looked back at the road. He could see the spot where he had been pissing. He could also see where his piss had gotten out of control.

  Scooter looked down at his pants, hoping that he hadn't pissed all over himself. He hadn't. He let out a sigh of relief. He wouldn't have wanted Julie and Emily see it.That would've sucked.

  He looked back at the puddle on the ground and he aimed his cock at it once more. There wasn't much left in him. Only a trickle. He shook it off and stuck it back into his pants. Then he turned to the car and picked up his axe.

  "All done?" he shouted to the girls. He shouldn't have. He needed to keep quiet. But he didn't want to walk over there if they weren't finished. And he didn't want to wait anymore.

  "Yep," a voice came back. It was Julie. "All done."

  He walked over to them. They were making their way toward him too.

  "Ready?" he asked.

  "Yep," Julie said again. Not Emily. She didn't answer. Instead, she looked around. Julie looked down at her. "What's wrong?"

  "I'm hungry," the little girl said.

  Julie smiled. "Me too."

  "Can we eat?"

  "Sure." Julie looked at Scooter.

  "We'll be able to find something in the cars," he said. "We'll just have to search for it." Then he changed his mind. "I'llsearch for it," he said. He didn't want the little girl looking in the cars. Not if there were going to be a bunch of dead guys in them.He'd look.He'd find them something to eat.

  Julie and Emily nodded.

  Chapter 2

  Marianne was in a new town. She didn't know the name. She didn't know where it was. There were the usual bodies lying about. The blood. The crashed cars. They no longer affected her as much as they once did. At least, not enough to push her over the edge.To kill herself. She was pretty sure that that wasn't going to happen anymore. Suicide was an option that was slipping further and further from her mind.

  Though she still hadn't thrown away the bag of pills.

  It was somewhat of a small town. No buildings over a few storeys. Two-lane streets. Trees. Grass. Parks.

  She kept on walking.

  Sweat beaded on her forehead. She wiped it away with the back of her hand. She took a few deep breaths. She was tired and needed to find a place to rest. She had already been walking for several hours.

  When she came upon a small street lined with beautiful houses, she stopped. She felt a moment of awe as she looked at the white trimming around the windows, the wooden porches that led up to the dark wooden doors. She couldn't help but think about how wonderful it would've been to live here - before everything had changed; and if things had worked out a little differently for her.

  She pictured herself living there with the pharmacist. If she had asked him out all of those years ago, they might have fallen in love, gotten married, and moved here to raise their family. They could have spent their nights reading on the porch, a love seat underneath them. She could have even had her mother move in with them. There would have been more than enough room. She thought about the parties they could have had in what she imagined to be a beautiful backyard. There might have even been a pool out there. Definitely a nice deck.

  Except things hadn't worked out that way. She hadn't asked the pharmacist out. And she wasn't going to be able to now. Her mother wasn't even around. The old woman was dead.

  Marianne turned away from the houses. As much as she wished she could have lived in one before, she'd pass by them today. There were too many thoughts attached to them. Too manywhat-ifs.

  No, she'd keep walking.

  She stepped over a little girl. The body was lying face down on the pavement, her hair matted with blood. On the lawn beside her was a man wearing a pair of plaid pants and white leather shoes. His grey hair had been ripped from his head and scattered along the grass.

  She patted her purse.

  Yes, the pills were still there.

  *

  It wasn't long before Marianne stopped. Up ahead she could see one of thosethings in the middle of the street. It was digging into a body, head bobbing up and down, fingers searching frantically.

  Marianne couldn't move. She knew that she had to, but she couldn't get herself to do it. She kept staring.

  The creature ripped into the body, tore it apart, pulled out its insides. Marianne felt as though she was going to be sick. Yet she couldn't do that, either. She simply couldn't move.

  She watched as it took a bite from the dead body, smearing the blood all over its face. Then it dug its hands back into the corpse, squeezed at an intestine and brought it out to look at. It began swirling it around.

  Finally, Marianne gasped. It had all been too much.

  At that, the creature stopped tearing into the body and looked around. It didn't take long for it to see Marianne. She wasn't hidden. It wasn't dark. Her bright yellow shirt stood out in the afternoon sunlight.

  She wanted to run, knowing that it was going to come at her. She had seen the other creatures around. They screamed, then attacked. But her body still wouldn't move.

  She waited for the scream. It never came.

  Instead, the creature smiled. Marianne could see the white teeth shining through its blood soaked face. Then it talked, "Hello!"

  Marianne didn't know what was happening. She had never seen one smile before. She didn't even know that they could. She definitely didn't think that they could talk.

  The creature raised his hand and waved. The corpse's intestine swung around in the air.

  "Hello," it called out again. "Hellooo!"

  Marianne continued to stare. She didn't know what she was seeing, but she knew that it wasn't good. Her body finally started to obey and she began to back up. Not very fast. Her body hadn't hadthat much control yet. She began inching away.

  The creature stood up. The intestine dangled from its lowered hand. "Hey, where are you going?"

  Marianne kept backing up, still unable to make sense out of what was happening.

  "Don't leave!" It started walking toward her.

  Marianne was afraid that the creature was going to charge at her, but it didn't. Itcouldn't. It was limping and could barely walk.

  "Don't leave me," it said again.

  It was then that the creature looked down and saw the dead body that it had been digging thro
ugh. There was the piece of intestine that it was holding in its hand as well.

  It raised its head and looked back at Marianne. "No, no, it's okay. I'm not one of them. I'm not!"

  Marianne didn't know that that mattered. If it was one of them or not, it had been digging in a dead body. She didn't want to hang around to find out why. She continued to back up.

  "I'm not one of them," the creature -or was it a man? - screamed. "Come back!"

  Marianne turned around and ran. She didn't know why it had taken this long to do so. She didn't know what had been special about that moment. But her legs started to move.

  She hadn't run in years. She could feel her weight shifting from side to side. She was out of shape, overweight. But it didn't seem to slow her down much at the moment. Not when her life depended on it. She ran back around the corner and headed down the street.

  She knew that she couldn't keep up running for long, though. Even with her life in danger, her body just wasn't equipped for it.

  She looked around for a place to hide.

  There were several houses. None as beautiful as the street that she had passed a while ago. Though that didn't matter. She didn't need a beautiful house. She needed asafe house.

  She turned and looked at the one beside her. It would do. She ran to the front porch and up the steps. She stopped at the door.

  Once she did, she realized how out of breath she was. She was panting heavily, her heart racing.

  She grabbed for the door knob. It hadn't occurred to her that it might be locked. If it was, she'd have to try another house. And maybe another.

  Fortunately, the door wasn't locked. It opened up on her first try.

  She rushed into the house, closed the door behind her and locked it. She probably should have looked around to see where the creature/man was, but she hadn't. Nor did she didn't want to look out the window now. If he had seen where she went, she'd deal with it. For now, she felt safe. She leaned her back against the door and tried to catch her breath.