But, as she did, she caught sight of something else: the creature/man. He was standing on the other side of the road, hiding beside a house, looking directly at her.
Marianne pulled away from the window. She hoped that he hadn't seen her, but she knew that he had. He had been staring directly at her. She pressed her back up against the wall and pulled her hands against her chest. Her breathing got out of control again.
He had seen her. He had seen her. Her had seen her.
Marianne pushed herself off of the wall. She couldn't remember if she had locked the front door and needed to get to it to check. She didn't want that creature/man opening it and coming in.
She ran to the front hallway and grabbed for the lock. At that exact moment, the creature/man's face appeared in the door window. Marianne jumped back. Though not before she was able to check if the door was locked. It had been.
"Hey," the creature/man called to her. "Open the door" He smiled at her through his bloodied face.
Marianne didn't respond. She had nothing to say to this man. Nothing at all. She also didn't have any intention of opening the door.
He knocked. "Come on. Let me in. It's not safe out here. I can explain about what you saw before. Ican."
He was obviously frightened, pleading with her, but that didn't matter to Marianne. She wasn't going to open the door.
She heard Buster come up behind her.This would be a good time for him to bark, she thought. Maybe it would scare the man away. But Buster didn't make a sound. She wasn't even sure if the creature/man had seen him.
He continued to look at her. She could tell that he was getting frustrated.
"It's not what you think," he said again. "Open up." He knocked on the door once more. This time, it was a little more aggressively. More of abang.
Marianne started to panic. It wouldn't be hard for him to get into the house, even if the door was locked. All he had to do was break the window and reach in to turn the door knob.
Marianne wished that she had something to fight him with. Like a knife. She had never stabbed any one before, but she was pretty sure that she could do it now.
His eyes grew larger. "Open...the...door!" he said.
Marianne didn't move. He banged it again.
"Come on. They're out here. I can hear them. Let me in."
Marianne listened. She could hear them too.Them. She knew that there was more than one of them out there.
"They're coming. Let me in!"
Marianne felt bad. Even after seeing this man digging into a corpse, she felt sorry for him. She knew that the creatures were going to come. And if they saw him out there, they'd kill him. She didn't want that to happen. But, at the same time, she wasn't going to let him in.It simply wasn't an option.
"Go away," she said. Her voice broke as she spoke, yet she knew that he had heard her.
"Let me in!"
"No. Go away."
"You've got it wrong. I can explain."
"I don't want you to explain. Just go away."
The creature/man didn't move. He wasn't listening to her. He wanted in the house and that's all there was to it. Marianne could see his frustration turn to anger. She could see his eyes begin to bulge. And his lips, which were once smiling, thinned out into an evil grimace.
He banged the door. Once. Twice. He began shaking the door knob.
"Open up," he screamed. "Now!"
Marianne didn't listen. She wasn't going to open up.
The creature/man swore as he raised his hand and smashed it against the window. It didn't break.
He swore again and tried once more. This time, the window shattered.
"Open the fuckin' door," he screamed at her through the broken window.
Marianne didn't move.
The creature/man reached his hand through the opening. She could see the blood-stained arm right in front of her, the freshly cut fist trying to feel for the lock.
Marianne attacked.
She rushed at the door and grabbed at the man's hand. She tried to pull it away. It slipped from her grip. The blood.
"Fuck off," he shouted at her.
But she wasn't going tofuck off. She was going to fight.
Buster started barking behind her. Though that wasn't going to make much of a difference. Not anymore. The creature/man wanted in. It didn't look like there was going to be much to stop him.
He grabbed again for the door lock. Marianne fought him once more.
This time he was ready. He balled his fist and punched out at her. It slammed into her face, just missing her nose. She had never been punched before. The feeling exploded in her skull. She fell back. But she didn't give up.
She charged once more at the creature/man.
Instead of reaching for his hand, she crouched down and bit it. She didn't think of the blood that was on it. She didn't remember how he had been digging in the body. All of that could come later. All she thought about was stopping him from getting in. Her teeth dug into the his hand. He pulled away. Marianne was sure that she had ripped some of his flesh.
"Fuck," the creature/man screamed. He pulled his arm from the window and looked down at his hand. "You fuckin' bitch!"
He reached in again. Once more, Marianne went to bite it. To her surprise, he moved out of the way and grabbed her hair. His grip was strong and there wasn't much she could do to pull back.
Marianne screamed. Buster continued to bark. The creature/man wouldn't let go.
She saw his other hand come through the window and reach for the lock.
At that, she was able to pull away. It was too hard for him to keep holdandgrab at the lock.
With his freed up hand, he tried again.
Marianne was quicker. She ran at the door and slammed her shoulder against his arm. There was a loud crack. She didn't know if it was the door or the man's hand.
The man swore. At least she knew that he was hurt.
"You fuckin' bitch," he said again. "When I get in there, I'm going to..."
Marianne waited to hear what he was going to do. By this time, she was ready to accept whatever challenge he threw at her. She'd fight him to the death. Or at least somewhere close.
The words never came.
Marianne backed away from the door and looked at the creature/man's face. He was looking down the road. He had seen something. He had seenthem. Marianne heard the screaming.
The man turned back to look at her. The pleading was back in his eyes. No more anger. No more threats. He only wanted to be saved.
Except Marianne wasn't going to be the one to do it. Sure, she felt bad about it. Even after being attacked, she couldn't simply accept that this man was going to die. Yet she couldn't let him in.
She knew that he could see the determination on her face. He turned to look back down the street. Then he started to run. His leg limping as he did.She had forgotten about that.
The screaming got louder. The creatures had seen him.
She watched him go.
A few moments later she saw the creatures run by. There was more than one of them. She had never seen that before. It looked as though they were hunting together now.
The creature/man turned the corner. Thethings followed. Marianne didn't know if he was going to get away. It didn't look good.
She really didn't want him to be killed. No matter what she had seen him do.
She turned to look at Buster. He was no longer barking. He was standing there, looking up at her. She reached down and scratched behind his ear.
"I guess we've got to get our things together," she said. "We can't stay here anymore."
They couldn't. Marianne didn't think that the creature/man was going to survive. But if he did, he'd come back for her. She knew that. She couldn't take the risk.
No, they had to go. That's all there was to it.
Chapter 5
Marianne walked into the kitchen. She didn't plan on looking around the house. There wasn't anything that she needed. She was just going to get a few th
ings to eat and drink. She'd look for some things for the dog too. Some dog treats. A leash.
After she found everything she wanted, she tossed them into her purse. Except the leash. She bent over and attached that to Buster's collar.
The dog wagged his tail. He looked like he knew that he was going for a walk.But this wasn't going to be the leisurely stroll that he was used to, Marianne thought. Not that they'd be walking fast. They'd be walking cautiously.
Marianne stood up and looked around once more. She had it all. Or so she had thought. Until another thought came to her. One that she wasn't so fond of.
She walked over to one of the kitchen drawers and pulled it open. There was all of the cutlery. All of the knives.
Did she really want to take one?
She grabbed a knife and placed it in her purse. Just like her pills, she might never even use it. But it was probably better to have in case she needed to.
She closed the drawer and headed out of the kitchen. Buster followed.
As she came upon the front door, she stopped. She could see the broken glass lying on the floor.Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to go out the front. She didn't know what could be out there waiting for her. The problem was that she also didn't know what was out the back.
Besides, she couldn't hear thosethingsanymore. And she didn't think that the creature/man had hung around. He probably wouldn't come back for a while. If he even survived.
The front door would be fine.
She approached it slowly.
It was then that she caught a reflection of herself in the hall mirror. She hadn't seen herself since the attack. And looking at her face now frightened her. It was covered in blood. She could see it smeared along her cheeks. It was coated around her mouth.
She remembered biting into the creature/man's hand.She had actually bitten it! It hadn't occurred to her at the time, but she probably shouldn't have done that. It wasn't the most sanitary thing to do.
She continued to stare at the blood, sure that some of it was the creature/man's. He had cut himself open when he punched through the glass. But some of the blood probably belonged to the corpse that she had seen him digging through. She couldn't remember, but it might have even been the hand that had been holding the intestine.
She shivered, then bent over and searched through her purse for a bottle of water. She opened it and poured the liquid into her hand. Most of it fell onto the ground. Buster licked it up.
She rubbed her face.
At first, the blood just smeared. But, after a while, it started to come off.
She ran to the kitchen to get a towel. That would help more.
She poured water onto the towel and began rubbing it against her face.
Marianne walked back into the hallway. She kept the towel pressed against her. She kept rubbing.
When she got to the mirror, she wiped her face a few more times. She looked at it again. It was better, that was for sure. Most, if not all, of the blood was gone.
She continued to look at the mirror. She focused on her eyes. She looked at them.Into them. She didn't know what she hoped to see. She didn't know what she was thinking. She simply wanted to look.
Then, just like that, she dropped the towel and picked up Buster's leash.
"You ready?" she asked. Buster looked up at her, panting. "Okay, let's go."
She undid the lock, grabbed the door knob and turned it. She pulled the door open and took a step forward. Her foot crackled on the glass. She looked down. It was all broken underneath her.
She thought of the dog and didn't want him cutting his paws. She kicked a few of the bigger pieces away. There wasn't much she could do about the little ones. Not unless she went back and got a broom. She didn't want to do that. The dog would be fine.
"Be careful," she said.
Again, the dog looked at her. She reached down and scratched behind his ear. She knew that she was being silly. The dog couldn't understand her. He wouldn'tbe carefularound broken glass. He didn't know whatbe careful meant.
"Sorry, Buster. Just follow me." Marianne led the dog outside.
Busterwasfine. He didn't cut his paws. Marianne was fine too. Well, until she got a little further outside.
She stopped and looked down. Near the door was the intestine. She couldn't believe it. She hadn't seen the creature/man holding it. She had assumed that he had dropped it somewhere. Or had eaten it. She hadn't known that he had brought it up on to the front porch with him.
Buster looked at the intestine as well. He went over to sniff it. Marianne pulled him away.
"Oh, no, you don't," she said.
Buster continued to pull at the leash. Only for a little while. It didn't take him long to realize that he wasn't allowed to smell the bloodied thing on the porch.
Marianne moved away from it.The bloody intestine.The one that might have been on his hands. The blood from which might have been on her lips.Inher mouth.
"Come on, Buster," she said. She didn't want to think about it. She walked to the first step. Buster followed her. "Let's get out of here."
Buster looked up at her once more. This time, Marianne thought that the dog understood what was happening. He didn't nod his head or bark or anything like that, but she could see it in his eyes. He knew that they were leaving. Not just going for a walk. She bent down and scratched behind his ear again.
"I'm sorry," she said. "But we can't stay here. We'll find a new home soon. I promise."
She stood up. Then she pulled her purse further up over her shoulder.Time to go, she thought. She walked down the rest of the stairs. Buster followed behind her.
She walked out to the street and looked in the direction that the creature/man and thosethingshad run. She wasn't going to go that way.No way. She turned in the other direction and started to walk.
Day 5
Chapter 1
Scooter, Julie and Emily continued along the highway. There were cars smashed up everywhere. And there were a lot of dead bodies. But there weren't any of the creatures - or none that they had seen so far.
Scooter held Emily's hand. She had been tired of being lifted and had wanted to walk for a while. Scooter looked at it as a good thing because he was tired of lifting her. Regardless of how little she weighed, she had started to get heavy for him a little while back.
He looked at Julie. She was doing fine. He could see it on her face. She wasn't tired. Though he could tell that she was hot. They all were. The sun was beating down on them. It had been all day.
It was Julie that noticed the sign first.
She pointed at it. The road they were looking for. The one that would take them to the small airport. To the airplane.
But why? What was the point?Scooter wasn't all too sure anymore.
He stopped and looked at the sign.
"We still have a ways to go," he said. "Are you sure we should do it?"
Julie turned to look at him. She looked about as certain as he did. "I don't know. I thought this was what you wanted to do."
"It was…back there." Scooter pointed in the direction that they had come from. Toward the city. "Now I don't know how it'll help us."
Julie followed his finger "It'll help us get further away from there."
"True." He wasn't completely convinced.
He looked around at all of the cars. They were all there for the taking, but he couldn't really use any of them. Not to drive. There were far too many cars on the road. He wouldn't be able to get past any of them.
"We've come this far," Julie continued. "We might as well keep walking. We can think more about it on the way. If we change our minds, then we change our minds. But it's away from the city. And that's where we want to go."
Scooter looked at Julie and nodded his head. She was right.
*
Emily started crying. She had been great for the past little while, but now she broke down into tears.
Scooter looked at the little girl. He knew that he should put his arm around her and tell he
r that everything was going to be okay. Except he didn't really know that. Everything mightnot be okay.
Plus, it was hot. And he was starting to get irritated.
He glanced over at Julie. She still looked as hot as he did, though not as irritated. She had somewhat of a sad smile on her. One of those ones that said,oh, poor girl.They had walked a long way. Emily was only a kid.
He raised out his hand to put it on Emily's shoulder. But Julie bent down at the same time to take the little into her arms and his hand touched the back of her neck. He let it rest there for a second, then pulled it away. He could feel his face redden once more.
"Sorry," he said. Julie didn't look at him. He wasn't sure if she had heard his apology. She might not have noticed his touch. She was concentrating on the little girl, telling her that everything would be okay. Regardless, Scooter continued to blush.
Julie lifted the little girl up. "She's just tired. It's been a long day. Maybe we should find somewhere to take a nap. We could start walking again after that."
Scooter rubbed his cheeks a few times, hoping to cover the colour. Then he nodded his head and walked over to one of the cars. He knew that it would be hot inside. It had been sitting out in the sun all day. But there weren't many other places they could find shelter.
He looked in the window. There was nothing in there. Noone. The passenger side door was open. Whoever had been in here had gone.
"Wanna rest in here?" he asked. He looked over at Julie. She didn't answer. She was staring out over the distance. "What is it?"
Again, she didn't answer.
He moved closer to her and tried to follow her gaze. He couldn't see anything to worry about. "What is it? Did you see something?"
Julie turned her head slowly to look at him. "I don't know. I thought I did. I'm not sure."
"Where?"
"Over there. By that blue car."
Scooter knew the one that she was talking about. It was the only blue car in the area. "Was it one ofthem?"
"I don't know. I thought that I saw something move. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was nothing."
Glory (Book 2) Page 17