by Eli Constant
The Natural Bridge hotel was still architecturally beautiful, despite how ill-kept it had become in the past months. The columns spoke of strength and stability. The slightly sun-worn, white paint on the shutters still outlined the windows gracefully. Some of the windows on the first level were darker than others.
The lower level was a series of graceful, arches. The entrails of long, withered vines fell from pots hung in each archway. The plants might be dead, but I knew the brick would survive decades without proper care.
When the decay of time finally touched the hotel, I'd be long dead. I wished the building posterity through the ages... I wished flesh was as hearty as brick and stone.
"Elise, are you coming?" Jason pulled me out of my thoughts.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming." My voice sounds absentminded, even to me. I had to focus. Just in case.
I grabbed Megan's hand and shifted Kara's legs to wrap around my waist. She was getting too damn heavy to carry all the time, but her little legs couldn't keep pace. I walked rapidly. The sun was at about 4 o'clock. We might not be sure that the light protected us anymore, but we knew damn well that the darkness increased the likelihood we'd run into undergrounders. Living beneath the earth had come with some drawbacks, like the sensitivity to sunlight, but the beasties were beginning to overcome their limitations. I thought back to the radio warning: This is all a guide; we can't guarantee this information. There have been daylight sightings.
Better to be back in the van, moving away from this place, before the light fully faded.
Jason was crossing the hotel's threshold when I stepped under the shadows of the porch.
There was something about the building that nagged doggedly at my subconscious. That's the thing about a person's subconscious though--it's not conscious.
We found the kitchen pretty quickly.
The deep freezer was a complete mess--rotted meats and produce. It was a fragrant cesspool; maggots munched on browned, rotting flesh. The smell was so god-awful, I dry heaved. For once, I was thankful to have an empty stomach. Funny how I could see gallons of beastie blood and stay cool, but one whiff of stink-a-la-kitchen, and I was bent over trying to vomit.
The dry pantry was in the far corner of the kitchen. It looked like an elephant had tried to shove its way into the small space. Cans were everywhere- some crushed and some just dented. Most of the boxed goods were opened and ruined. It was a damned, disheartening waste.
"Come on!" I groaned, throwing another can to the floor. It was so dented; I could see the contents had been compromised. "There's got to be something worth salvaging here."
"Don't get discouraged. We won't eat like kings, but we'll eat." He smiled and I found the smile somewhat contagious. I threw him a halfhearted grin in response.
We spent almost an hour digging through the disaster and ended up with more than expected.
Laid at our feet were six commercial sized cans of vegetables, a couple cans of mixed fruit, one sealed case of coarse cut oats, and two partial cases of summer sausage. We were damn lucky. Luck is a flighty lover though.
"We need to get this to the van. Will you grab two of the tablecloths from the banquet hall?" Again, it felt good to have someone to help. Megan and Kara were very close to me, sitting on the floor. Megan's hands toyed with Kara's brown locks, twisting them gently into little braids and then letting them fall loose for lack of hair ties.
"Sure." Jason left and came back shortly. He put the two white sheets on the floor like he was making a bed, shaking them gently so they would float down flat, and began piling the food into them.
When the tablecloths were tied up, we threw them over our shoulders to head back to the van. Megan was holding Kara now and talking softly in her ear. It must have been something funny because Kara began to laugh with abandon. The sound filled my chest like helium. I felt like I could float towards the ceiling and stay there. That was happiness, hearing them being children and innocent. I couldn't help but delay walking out of the hotel; I wanted to stare at my girls and take a mental picture. Megan shifted, moving Kara a bit higher on her hip. I was surprised she could lift and carry her little sister so well. Even I struggled now.
I wished I could freeze time. Stop my children from growing. Keep them here, glowing.
But then I realized what was bothering me about the building.
And time did freeze.
"Jason, we need to leave. We need to leave right now." He looked at me and I could see that my tone alarmed him. Good.
"What is it?" He was already reaching for the sidearm strapped below his left armpit. It was an awkward movement with the food tossed over his shoulder.
Instead of delaying for my answer, he began to move towards the kitchen's main exit. My eyes darted to the girls. Megan didn't look scared, just confused. I placed a reassuring hand on Megan's back and pushed her gently in front of me.
"Megan, you got Kara okay? I know she's heavy." I shifted my own parcel of food, settled it more comfortable across my back, and held onto it with one hand reached up towards my shoulder.
"Yeah, mom I got her. She's not too heavy." Megan kissed Kara on the cheek. Kara smiled. God help me I was going to preserve their childhood innocence as long as I could.
We followed a few steps behind Jason. The hotel rooms were so quiet.
Quiet had never bothered me before, but now too quiet could mean the coming of terrible things.
"Not that I doubt your instincts Elise, but can you let me in on the reason why we are stealthily sneaking out of an abandoned building?" He didn't glance back at me. He kept focused, his eyes darting from corner to corner as we proceeded through door after door.
I liked his focus. His companionship would increase the odds my daughters would have a future. I didn't want him to die or abandon us. Damn feminism to hell. I wanted him to stay and be chauvinistic and protect us.
"Did you notice anything funny about the windows when we were walking up to the hotel?"
"No." He grunted, continuing to scan shadowed corners for hidden danger.
"They were covered up Jason... to keep out the light."
Our pace quickened. I could see Jason's shoulders tense up and a large vein in his neck began to bulge with adrenaline.
He understood.
"Leave the food." Jason began to drop our plunder.
"No. We need it." I gripped the tablecloth material tighter.
Jason shifted the awkward bundle back to his right shoulder. "It's going to slow us down."
"We need it. We are not leaving it." I slam down every word like a hammer against nail. We cannot leave such a bounty. I need to feed my girls, feed them so that their stomachs do not continue to exist in a constant state of too little too late.
We were almost to the foyer. My head turned to the right of its own volition.
A gigantic antique dining table was turned horizontal and lifted across four windows. It leaned, slightly catty-cornered and was perched on the narrow window ledges, blocking the majority of the outdoor light. It looked so heavy--it would have taken several humans to lift it.
The rest of the front room's ornate furniture was tossed about--some blocking windows, some simply overturned or broken. How could I have missed such a blatant sign of undergrounder activity? I had just been so hell-bent on finding food. No, maybe I was wrong.
Maybe humans did do this.
But I knew in my gut, that I was just trying to deceive myself to settle the fear rising up like bile in my throat. Every time I thought I was getting smart, I'd make a rookie mistake and wind up the clueless, science-geek mommy again.
We walked through the main door, out onto the porch. It had to be after five o'clock now and the sun was darting dangerously low towards the horizon. The dense woods further filtered and dimmed the light. The van wasn't far, but it wasn't close either.
"Okay Jason, you win. Drop the food." Our spoils fell in a careless heap.
I took a brief second to grimace at the wastefulness; but if
I couldn't get my girls to safety, food wouldn't matter much. If I was wrong and the building was truly empty, maybe we could come back for the abandoned cans and packages.
Again, I knew I wasn't wrong. My intuition was a harpy, screaming at the top of its lungs, telling me to run.
"Jason, grab Megan." I pulled Kara out of Megan's arms and Jason grabbed Megan without hesitation.
We were running now, full-out, our legs pumping tirelessly.
We were barely ten feet from the porch when I heard the scratching. Kara was burying her face in my shoulder. Megan was screaming in Jason's arms.
I knew I was moving fast, but the turning of my head felt like someone had hit the slow motion button. Too many of them. Oh. My. God. There were too many.
Their pale, malformed faces were pressed against the window glass, the large table removed so they could see out. The dim light bothered their eyes. They squinted at us; but even without clear vision, they knew we were there. They could smell our scents lingering in the hotel. They could smell the musk of my daughters' unwashed, campfire-scented hair.
"Run... Run!"
"I am running!" Jason's voice was strained, bordering on hoarse.
"Run faster, damn it!" But we couldn't go any faster and they were too fast. I made the mistake of glancing behind us again.
Undergrounders were pouring out of the hotel door. One after another on all fours, they came barreling towards us.
Since they weren't feeding on human beings, I could only guess the undergrounder collective had decided on complete human genocide. Why else target two adults and two children minding their own damn business and only taking food that the undergrounders wouldn't eat anyway?
It was freaking unfair.
The humanoids' legs pushed backwards in unison like lions sprinting across the African plain. I could pinpoint the more evolved beasties--their joints were less feline, their appendages slightly more human and bipedal, less humanoid. The change did not affect their speed.
They were a mere hundred yards behind us and closing that distance rapidly. This herd didn't seem to have crude weapons, just claw and teeth and speed.
I focused on running, trying not to keep looking back at the horror. The joint-popping sound was a boon. At least I could measure the coming of my death by the proximity of the pop, pop, pop.
It was a little blessing in a hot hell.
Jason and I were side by side now. Each of us had one hand supporting a child and the other hand wielding a gun.
We sent bullet after bullet flying over our shoulders towards the approaching undergrounders. They came closer with every moment.
The less evolved ones were able to launch in predatory jumps.
I watched two of the smaller beasties push towards the ground and heave upwards. They sailed towards us, surpassing their brethren with ease, but their bodies flew too far. The jumping-jack humanoids whirled in unison to face us.
Beasties from all sides now.
We kept shooting, using our precious ammo. By the time they were upon us, their numbers had significantly dwindled.
The woods were even darker now. The van was so close, but seemed unreachable. The screeching of the undergrounders filled the night air. My girls screamed in terror- adding to the wild soundtrack of the chase. I was pushing as hard as I could, but my attention couldn't be everywhere.
I didn't see the rock flying towards me until it was too late.
It slammed into my right shoulder, so close to Kara's little head, and sent me sprawling to the ground. All I could think was do not let go of Kara; but she flew out of my arms anyway and landed several feet away. She seemed unhurt, her eyes focused on me in shock. I could only spare her a falling glance.
My body turned in mid-fall, my back to the ground and my arms outstretched in position to fire at the first beastie brave enough to approach.
And then it was on top of me. I was too slow... always too slow.
Its elongated fingers were scratching bloody, clawed lines down my chest. I unloaded the rest of my ammo into its body, a scream of pain caught sharply in my throat. The beastie was motionless, pressing against me. Most of the undergrounders I'd seen were smaller- closer to the size of humans in biblical time- but this one was bigger, heavier.
I grunted- my lungs unpleasantly compressed. I couldn't lift him off me and get to Kara.
"Baby, come to momma." My free arm stretched and patted the dry ground. Kara was scared and stunned, but she began to crawl to me. "Come on, baby." I encouraged her to keep coming, to move faster.
"Mo-mma?" Kara said tentatively. She looked at the corpse on top of me and stopped crawling.
"It's okay, baby. The bad thing is dead." I patted the ground again. "Come on."
"Dead?" Kara didn't speak much and when she did, it was usually a child's gibberish. I knew she was a smart kid, just developing a little slower speech-wise. I hated that 'dead' was so familiar she could say it with ease.
"Yes, baby. It can't hurt you."
Kara finished the short crawl to my side. I wondered why another humanoid hadn't attacked us. We were sitting ducks. The dark had nearly settled completely over us, like a blanket too heavy for a July night, and they were at their most comfortable. Not to mention the copious amounts of beastie blood seeping from the body near me, the scent a siren's come-hither call. Others should already be attacking. So why weren't they?
I got my answer in the form of a gun firing... the sound was followed by Megan's very distinct high-pitched scream.
Flash to a Kill
I pushed upwards against the undergrounder’s chest. It was so heavy.
I had to get it off me.
I’d read articles about men and women rising to the occasion, displaying superhuman strength when faced with unfair odds. A man lifted a one ton boulder off of a young child. A woman swam two miles to shore supporting her three children after a boating accident. So many people in the world have been shit-deep in the impossible and conquered with heroic feats. My turn to be a grade-A superhero.
I pushed upwards again.
The muscles in my arms were trying to put out a strength they didn’t normally possess; the tendons in my arm strained and I thought I was going to bust a vein, send red hot blood spewing into the darkness. Yet I continued to push against the lifeless form.
I felt myself weakening, felt my body giving out on me.
Then Megan’s scream rang in the near distance and I gave a final heave.
The weight shifted upwards and sideways off of me. I could breathe again, but it hurt. Pain shot through my body; my eyes watered with the intensity of it, making my breath catch in my throat.
Pushing myself from the ground and standing unsteadily, I couldn’t repress a small whimper as my body protested the new position. I scooped up Kara, holding her tightly against my aching body. It took a moment to balance myself, to fight through the pain and the way it sought to blind me. I raced towards the sound of Megan’s screaming. Trees blurred by in a shadowed, blurry haze. Poor Kara bounced erratically in my arms. She didn't complain though, my brave baby.
Ahead I could see the outline of fitful movement. As I came closer, the images cleared.
Megan was hanging onto Jason’s back for dear life. They were pushed up against a rock face fending off several humanoids. Megan was strong enough to hold on by her own volition, but Kara wouldn’t be able to cling to me during a fight. So I searched. Somewhere, anywhere that would keep her safe. Only for a little while, until both of my children were safely tucked within my embrace again.
About a hundred feet from where Jason was, I found a recessed hole underneath a large fallen tree. If Kara stayed still and stayed quiet, she’d be virtually invisible. Such a big if...
“Baby, I want you to stay here. You have to be quiet, baby, really quiet. Do you understand momma?” I waited. Kara nodded slowly, her green eyes wide with fear. I think she understood. “Do not move.” God, I hope she understood.
I turned away from K
ara and then back again impulsively. I kissed her quickly on the forehead, on the special patch of freckles; freckles she’d inherited from David. I saw her features, put them inside my heart.
And then I moved away once again. God, it hurt to abandon her there. But I had to focus, I had to pray Kara would be fine until I returned. Because without my help, I feared that Megan didn't stand a chance.
I breathed in and out slowly as I moved towards the fight. I had to get to my happy place. Everyone has one. That place of angels and cotton candy clouds we run to when everything has gone to hell. It’s the place you go when you feel like you’ll never be normal again. I knew I’d never be normal again.
That sanctuary abandoned me, now in my time of need, because there was no happiness contained in my racing pulse and erratic heartbeat. All that existed there was a determined fear that reeked of inadequacy.
So walking into the fray, I pushed myself to remember, to recall the feel of the kill, to focus, to push the fear down. If I could not enter my happy place, then I would embrace the danger of reality.
I can still feel the gun in my hand, firing and firing.
My first kill had been violent.
I don't know how I didn't die that night.
-------------
One of them had wandered into our house, our little piece of suburbia.
We were located on the outskirts of a large park in Georgia named Cloudland Canyon. Our house was a beautiful and small Tudor with deep green ivy climbing up the face of its friendly front.
David was out on shift. He worked as a cop. I was proud of him, but nervous each time he left. So goes the life of an officer’s wife.
It was just past sunset and I was reading the girls a bedtime story. At the time, Kara was about nineteen months old and a wiggle-worm. She’d sit still for a good book, but that was about it. Tonight we were reading a classic about a bright, beautiful moon and a slew of good nights. It was monotonous actually, but it quickly sent the girls to slumber land.