Creatures

by Michelle Khonsari

  “We’re short one,” Cassie told her. “Think you’d like to fill in?”

  Carly shrugged. “Yeah, sure. I used to play on a girls’ team. I like it; I guess I should’ve signed up.”

  “Well, we’ll add you in,” Cassie smiled. “So, I’ve got Travis Boggart and Brandon Michaels for umpire. Daniel Allen and Candace Kreegan on first base. Dakota Foreman and Cody Reynolds at second base. For third base, I’ve got Hannah Boggart and Carly Reynolds. Travis, Cody, Daniel, and Hannah, you’ll have bases first, and Brandon, Candace, Dakota, and Carly, you’ll bat first. So you guys think about team names as well, and we’ll see you all next week!”

  Cassie had fourteen of the sixteen baseball kids show up the next day for soccer. “Okay, I’ve got you split into two teams. You older ones, please keep in mind there are smaller children half your size on both teams. Please be mindful of that. Team A, line up on this side. That’ll be Carly and Cody Reynolds, Jacob Wilcott, Hannah and Drake Boggart, Holly Allen, and Dakota Foreman. Team B is on this side, and I’m going to call out names just to ensure we haven’t missed anyone, or in case someone new came. So we have Brandon Michaels, Travis Boggart, Lucy Owens, Daniel Allen, Candace Kreegan, Duncan Foreman, and Gage Whittle.”

  They got right into kicking the ball back and forth, trying to get the ball into their respective goals. They only had a few times that some got kicked in the shins, and it caused a few tears, but they soon got back into the game. She named Team A the Eagles and Team B the Falcons. The kids also informed her they had picked their baseball team names.

  “My team is the Jaguars,” Jacob told her.

  “Excellent,” Cassie replied, writing it down.

  “We haven’t decided,” Gage informed. “We don’t know any names.”

  “How about the Cardinals?” Cassie suggested after a moment.

  Gage nodded with a smile.

  “Blue Jays,” Travis replied for his team.

  “And we’re the Cubs,” Brandon replied.

  “Excellent names,” Cassie replied. “Good job guys. Okay, so I will see many of you tomorrow for basketball, and the rest of you, I will see Friday. Have a good night everyone!”

  “See you tomorrow, Coach Cassie!” Travis called, waving. This was followed by several shouts of, “Bye, Coach Cassie!”

  She grinned at being called Coach Cassie. She had sixteen kids for basketball the next day, which was Thursday. Six of them were under five years old, and she put them on the smaller toddler goal.

  “For the Jets, I’ve got Carly and Cody Reynolds, Jacob Wilcott, Brandon Michaels, and Gage Whittle,” Cassie announced as they grouped together. “Then for the Cobras, I have Travis and Drake Boggart, Daniel Allen, Candace Kreegan, and Dakota Foreman.” She looked at the little ones. “Okay, come here when I call your name. Caleb Stuart, Justin Price, and Chris Holcomb. You three are called the Monkeys! And come right here. Duncan Foreman, Bryson Elkridge, and Ethan Evans. You three are called the Zebras!”

  The older ones worked together on playing and figuring out what each were good at. Cassie worked with the little ones on shooting the ball first. In the second hour, she worked with them on learning about the game and what each of them were supposed to do. All of the children came on Friday for Fun Friday. Some of the parents, guardians, and older siblings came as well. The kids played on the jungle gym, swung in the swings, played hopscotch, jumped rope, and tried to fly kites, although the wind wasn’t very cooperative this particular day. They still had fun running across the field in an attempt to keep them in the air. Cassie mingled with the children and their guests. Trey had finished the lawn care with his team a tad bit earlier and joined Cassie at the center. He introduced Emily Donovan to her, who had also just turned twelve two weeks after Trey. Matt was still out with the supplies team. They had been gone since the morning.

  “What job do you have, Emily?” Cassie asked.

  “Gardening,” Emily answered. “I joined my mom and a few others. That’s how I met Trey. My team just takes care of the vegetable gardens over on the other side a ways. When they’re ready, we go door to door delivering them.”

  “Well, that’s a very important job,” Cassie commented with a smile. “So, do you have any other family here?”

  “My parents divorced when I was ten, so I haven’t seen my dad since the breakout. He and my stepmom got married right after the divorce, and they had my little brother right after. I don’t know where they are, or if they’re even still alive. My older brother’s name was Luke. He was fourteen when it happened. He died when they killed the creatures.”

  “I’m so sorry, Emily,” Cassie replied empathetically. “Me and Trey lost our parents to the creatures. Anyway, you two enjoy yourselves.”

  “Thanks,” Emily smiled.

  The supplies team came back about five and spent the next hour delivering the goods they found. Matt was pretty tired from the whole thing, and went straight to bed after eating. Cassie stayed up a while longer playing Gin Rummy with Trey. They ended up sleeping until ten the next morning. When they awoke, Matt wrapped his arms around Cassie.

  “Sorry I was so tired,” he apologized.

  Cassie smiled. “It’s okay, I know that was exhausting. I’m just glad you made it back safe.”

  “So how was the first week of coaching?” Matt asked.

  “It was good, I like it,” Cassie replied. “They just get out there and have fun. I think soccer was the most dangerous. That’s the only time we had tears. We had a few kicks in the shins.”

  “Yeah, that happens in soccer,” Matt responded. “On the next run, I’ll see if I can’t find some shin guards, or at least some material to make shin guards.”

  They waited until three to go to the community gathering. Alan was there this time. He came over to talk with them when he saw them.

  “How are you liking it?” he asked.

  “It’s great,” they answered.

  “Listen, I meant to tell you, there is an ordained minister in our group. His name’s Charlie Grant. He doesn’t hold church meetings or anything, but he does do prayers or meetings or whatever upon request if you have an interest in that,” Alan informed. “But, I also wanted to let you know, that if you two ever planned on getting married, I don’t know if that’s something you two thought of or anything, but if so, he does that, too.”

  They were taken a little off guard with the information, but thanked Alan for informing them about it. Cassie asked about age.

  Alan smiled and gave a little shrug. “I mean, life is not what it was. There’s no age requirements on anything anymore. I mean, probably not going to encourage ten-year-olds to get married, but you two are together and the ‘adults’ of the house. We ask that the couples are at least thirteen.”

  Matt and Cassie gave him a surprised look. Alan sighed and dropped his voice to a whisper. “Look, we feel safe here, but no one knows what’s to come. Making it to old age is probably not going to happen for most of us, so we just want to know that we helped in fulfilling everyone’s wishes and dreams the best we could.”

  Cassie smiled. “That’s really sweet.”

  That night, as they lay in bed together, Matt brought up the subject again. “I think it would be nice, Cassie. I love you, and we’ll be together till the end, even if we do make it to old age.”

  “It would be nice to get married and be a family,” Cassie agreed. “You’re it for me.”

  “Well, then, will you marry me, Cassie?” Matt asked.

  Cassie smiled. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

  The next day they went to find the minister. He was an older man of sixty-two years, with gray and white hair and a full beard and moustache that made him resemble Santa Clause.

  “Would you like to have a ceremony?” he asked. “We can set it up for next Sunday if you like.”

  They agreed to that, and Charlie went to notify the events team and Alan. That evening, two women from the events team came to their condo.

  “Hi,
I’m Charlotte Mason, and this is Debra Fleming,” she greeted. “We’re with the events team and came to plan your wedding. It’ll be limited, of course, but we’ll do the best we can with the resources we have.”

  They took measurements so they could try to piece together a dress and suit for them. They went over vow options, ensured they would find them wedding bands, planned for flowers, and asked about a honeymoon.

  “How does a honeymoon work?” Cassie asked. “There’s not really anywhere to go.”

  “Well, there’s nowhere to go, but we can arrange for Trey to stay with a friend for a week, and cover your jobs or excuse you from them,” Debra informed. “Now, Matt we will excuse you since we have others to go on the runs, but Cassie, someone will need to take your spot. We can have one of our event members do it. You just work out the details, like a teacher would do for a substitute.”

  They sent Lisa Boggart, whose three kids participated in the sports, to spend the week with Cassie, learning how to run things with the activities. Time seemed to slow down as she anxiously awaited Sunday. Many of the kids in her group congratulated her and told her they would be at the wedding. Darla Donovan, Emily’s mother, agreed to let Trey come stay at her house for the week, but he had to sleep on the couch.

  The wedding ceremony was held at the center. They really hadn’t known anyone for too long. Matt had Trey be his one and only groomsman, and Cassie asked Emily to be her one and only bridesmaid. Emily helped Cassie get ready. She had her mother come help. Cassie’s dress was a floor-length, sleeveless white silk dress with a layer of lace over it and a white sash. The dress had long been donated by another resident on the events team, and the seamstress team was able to make the alterations so the dress would fit Cassie. It had originally been a three-quarter sleeve with a bell end that continued to the hands, but they removed the sleeves so that it looked more like a tank top would, with a wide strip of material over the shoulders. A large sheet of lace was located on the run, and they worked all day Saturday sewing it and cutting it to fit the dress.

  The garden care team had picked some flowers for the events team to make Cassie’s bouquet and Emily’s bouquet. On the run Friday, Matt had found wedding bands in a pawn shop. He was glad that the pawn shop had only been raided for guns, as most quickly realized how useless money would be. He found a pretty silver set with an engagement ring included. Both bands were solid silver with a tiny rigged edge, and the engagement ring had three small white diamonds, with the center just a little bigger. He gave her the engagement ring when he returned home Friday night. He was glad they had actually fit them.

  “I tried on mine,” he had admitted to her. “It fit perfect. I was pretty sure yours would fit, too. They looked about right. Luckily, there were several, and this set looked like our sizes, so I went with that.”

  “It’s perfect,” she had assured him.

  The events team had done a wonderful job decorating. They must have used every flower they could possibly find. They had decorated the door frame of the entrance with flowers, and placed bouquets of flowers at the front where they would stand. They couldn’t find any high heels for Cassie, but someone had some cute sandals with white straps in her size that they let her borrow. Luckily, between all the residents in the community, they had a battery-operated CD player and music. She walked down the aisle to “God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You,” and then they played “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” after they kissed and were presented as Mr. and Mrs. Matt Jenkins. After that, it was a wide array of music, but it was all mostly upbeat. They didn’t have much in the way of food. Everyone was asked to bring something if they could.

  A lot of people brought canned meats, like corned beef and Vienna sausages. Some brought noodles, and some brought vegetables. A few others brought chips and crackers. Afterwards, Cassie and Matt went back to their condo for a week long honeymoon.

  “It would be really awesome to snuggle up and watch a movie together,” Cassie replied.

  “Yeah, it would,” Matt replied. “I miss electricity. At least we got this.”

  “What is it?” Cassie asked.

  “A bottle of bourbon,” Matt grinned, pulling the bottle from its hiding place. “Can you take straight shots?”

  “I guess we’ll find out,” Cassie laughed.

  They took shots from the bottle. It burned Cassie’s throat just a little, but it was smooth at the same time, and she liked it. After several shots, she was pretty drunk, and the harshness of the alcohol wasn’t noticeable anymore.

  “Oh, on the run, I got you a wedding present,” Matt revealed. “I almost forgot. I snuck it in and Trey hid it in his room.”

  Cassie followed Matt to Trey’s room. He crawled part way under the bed and came back out with a battery-operated CD player and three CDs. He found Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus, and Broken Hope CDs for her. They took it to their own room.

  “Once again, here is your music,” grinned Matt. “I’ll find you more CDs as I can, but that’s all I could grab on this run. Hopefully, we won’t ever have to leave this one behind.”

  Cassie started some music and wrapped her arms around Matt’s neck. “Well, we’re going to enjoy it while we have it.”

  Matt kissed her a little aggressively and laid her on the bed. They took their time, kissing and touching on the bed, taking off a piece of clothing here and piece of clothing there. Being drunk intensified every sensation, and Cassie wanted it to last forever. When they finally had finished, they lay wrapped up together in the covers, Matt almost falling asleep, and Cassie staring at the room around them, a satisfied smile on her face. The CD had long ended and there was only the sound of their breathing. Cassie finally closed her eyes and envisioned them on the beach, lying in the sand, the sun shining down on them, and the water so clear that they could see straight to the bottom.

  The honeymoon week was enjoyable and passed way too fast. Trey came home the next Sunday, and things went back to what had become their “normal” routine. A short time later, Cassie celebrated her seventeenth birthday. There wasn’t much to do in regards to celebrating, but Matt had found her more CDs, and he and Trey presented them to her on her birthday. Matt also cooked the dinner, which was “vegetarian” spaghetti, so it was actually pretty good.

  The days were getting warmer as summer approached, and Cassie wished the place had a pool. However, any water they could get hold of was reserved for bathing and drinking, and surely had the place had a pool, it would be pretty nasty by now. The days passed all the same. Cassie cleaned the condo as needed, and Matt helped when it wasn’t Friday, and she relaxed and listened to her music or played cards with Matt and Trey when he was home, and she spent from 3pm to 5pm Monday through Friday with the kids. Most Saturdays they went to the community get-together, but sometimes they skipped out on it. Sundays were always their relaxation day. Trey had Emily over more often as the days passed by, but Cassie didn’t mind. She was happy Trey had someone, because the chances of finding a partner in the world now were slim to none.

  Matt had his birthday in July. He turned nineteen years old. She had to put in a word to one of his supply team members for a birthday present. She offered a jar of blackberries for the man’s help, and gave Matt an XD(M) 3.8” 9mm pistol for his birthday. Matt had come across a Monopoly board game still intact, and they played it on his birthday. Less than a month later, on August 2, one of the older residents suffered a heart attack and passed away. Cassie and Matt had heard a gunshot and hurried out to see what was going on. They finally learned of the heart attack and death.

  “What was the gunshot for?” Matt asked.

  “To damage the brain,” the neighbor informed, as though they should have known. “You know, so he doesn’t become a creature.”

  Cassie looked confused. “What do you mean? He wasn’t bit.”

  The neighbor, Vince, looked a bit surprised. “You don’t have to be bit to turn. Whatever those chemical plants released in the explosions affected us all. Anyo
ne who dies will become a creature. You didn’t know that?”

  Cassie shook her head no. “No, I thought you had to get bit.”

  “There’s nowhere to bury the dead here,” Vince continued. “They’ll do a little service tomorrow, then the supplies team will have to make a special run to dispose of the body.”

  The three of them attended the service the next day. It was at the center, and caskets weren’t available. There wasn’t really any way to conceal the fact he had been shot in the head, and they had him lying on a sheet on top of a table. After the service, the man was wrapped up in the sheet and carried off to be loaded in the back of a pickup truck. Matt went along with five others to dispose of the body.

  “We just drove to a field and set him on fire,” Matt informed Cassie when he returned. “They’re afraid just tossing him out there will attract creatures, so they burn the dead.”

  “That’s more than I did for my parents. I left them lying on a hotel bed,” Cassie replied quietly.

  “It’s not like you had much choice,” Matt pointed out. “I know that had to be the hardest day ever for you. At least you know. I have no idea about my parents. They traveled a lot. When it happened, I think they had flown over to Europe. They went there quite a lot on vacations.”

  “Maybe Europe’s okay, and your parents are okay,” Cassie replied.

  “They also had a vacation home in the Caribbean,” Matt added. “Maybe they went there. Regardless, I’ll probably never see them again.”

  “I hate that we don’t even have any pictures. Sometimes, it’s hard to remember their faces, you know. Since I haven’t seen them in so long,” Cassie told him.

  He nodded. “I know.”

  The one year anniversary in October was difficult for everyone. They held a candlelight vigil that night to remember all those that were lost as a result of the explosions. There was a lot of remembering and a lot of crying. People reminisced over their fondest memories of their lost loved ones, and the memory of where they were and what they experienced. Cassie thought back to that day in the hotel room, knowing she was going to have to kill her mother in order to protect herself and Trey. She thought of the tears in her mom’s eyes when she told her she loved her.