After Everything Else (Book 1): Creeper Rise

by Brett D. Houser

  “That’s tough on a kid that age. So it was just you and your dad since then?”

  Sonya nodded. “Big change. It wasn’t just losing my mom. Dad owned his own business. Cabinet shop. He loved doing that, and I think he was doing okay. We had a nice house. But when Mom got sick, insurance didn’t cover everything. We lost Mom, he lost the business, we lost the house. But my dad never quits trying. That’s why he’s in Florida. He’s a truck driver. He’s trying to get together enough money to start over, and that seemed like a good way to make money. Not seeming like such a good thing right now.” Chase turned to look at her, taking his eyes off the road. She studied him in return to see his reaction. She didn’t talk about this much. She hated the pity she saw in people’s eyes when they found out. But she didn’t see pity in his eyes. He just seemed to be evaluating her. She grew uncomfortable and looked away, looked forward to the highway in the dying light of the evening. They were cresting a small hill. She saw something in the road.

  “Chase, look out!” He slammed on the brakes, and she felt the pull of the seat belt straps for the second time that day. The anti-lock brakes stopped them quickly with a vibration that reached up through her seat and shot straight up her spine.

  Chapter 11 – Chase

  At first glance, Chase thought he was looking at just another creeper in the road. He looked around to see if there were any others, but there were none. Then he noticed that this creeper wasn’t doing the usual thousand-yard stare into the distance and mindlessly plodding down the road. It was circling and lunging. And then Chase saw the dog. The creeper was chasing the dog. Chase drove closer and stopped to watch. No, that wasn’t right. The creeper wasn’t chasing the dog. The dog was attacking the creeper. The creeper was trying to go back into the woods at the edge of the road but the dog kept pushing at the creeper’s legs, throwing it off balance.

  “Go around them, Chase,” Sonya said from the passenger seat.

  “Not yet. This is weird. I haven’t seen anything like this.” The contest went on and on. The creeper trying to move forward, the dog pushing at the legs, even biting and pulling the creeper off balance. Finally, the creeper went down. “Give me your pistol.”

  “Why? What are you going to do?” Sonya asked suspiciously.

  “I have to do it again.” Sonya handed him her pistol.

  He opened his door and placed one foot on the pavement. The creeper turned toward him and stepped out completely and closed the door. When the creeper started toward him he stepped forward to meet it. He raised the pistol, and when the creeper was only a few feet away, he fired into the face, aiming between the eyes. The creeper went down. He hadn’t recovered from the shock of putting the first creeper down, so when he looked at the body, he felt nothing this time. Then he located the dog. The dog stood still, looking at him. He was ready to aim quickly and fire if the dog acted like it might attack. Taking a chance, he looked around at the surrounding trees but couldn’t see anything in the darkness. When he looked back, the dog had dropped its tail. “Hey, boy,” he said in a low voice. “What are you doing out here?”

  The dog wagged his tail but didn’t try to approach Chase. Still, he seemed receptive to him now, so Chase stepped forward while lowering the hand holding the pistol and extending the other.

  “Be careful, Chase,” Sonya called, her voice full of tension. Chase ignored her. He had three friends who had owned golden retrievers, and he had never known a mean one. He crouched a little as he approached the dog. The dog retreated to the side of the road but continued looking back at him, tail wagging. He followed. The dog leaped over a small ditch at the side of the road and ran back into the forest a short distance. When Chase stopped, the dog returned, turned a tight circle, barked once, and ran back again. Chase thought, This is the part where I say “What is it boy? Is Timmy trapped in the well?” The thought brought a slight smile to his lips. When he stepped over the ditch, he heard the passenger door of the Suburban open.

  “Chase, I don’t think that’s a good idea!” He looked back, but he couldn’t see Sonya over the glare of the headlights.

  “Just a little further,” he said. “I think it will be okay.” He walked back into the woods, mostly watching the dog, but occasionally glancing at the surroundings. His eyes were adapting, and details grew clearer. The forest floor was carpeted with brown pine needles. A few bits of trash scattered here and there showed up whitely against the darkness. Then the dog started whining. As Chase approached cautiously, he was able to see that the dog had stopped and was standing next to a huddled form at the base of a tree. When he drew nearer, he saw it was, or had been, a person. He circled around, trying to get a better view. Over the evening sounds of the forest, the peepers and bird calls, he realized that he had been hearing a low muttering, barely audible. He couldn’t make out the words.

  He crouched in front of the form. After a moment of peering through the dim light, he realized it was a girl. Her hair was blond and long, done in a single braid which was pulled forward over her shoulder. She was wearing khaki clothes, almost like a uniform of some sort. Her eyes were wide open (and not white, thankfully). But. Lights are on and no one’s home, Chase thought. The girl didn’t acknowledge him at all. Moving closer he could just make out that she was saying the same thing over and over: “They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat…The LORD will protect you from all evil; he will keep your soul… They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat…The LORD will protect you from all evil; he will keep your soul….”

  The dog whined again. Chase had no idea what to do. “Hey. Hey, are you okay?” He felt stupid immediately after saying it. Of course she wasn’t okay. She was a long way from okay. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. She stopped chanting, which was fine with Chase because that had been creeping him out a little. “Hey, what’s your name? You know, this isn’t a good place for you to be hanging out.” She tilted her head like she was hearing him, but her overall manner was unchanged. As far as Chase could tell in the dim light she was staring blankly at a space just over his left shoulder.

  From out on the road the Suburban’s horn sounded, muffled in the darkness of the forest. Chase thought and came to a decision. “Okay, I know you don’t know me. I don’t know you. But I have somebody waiting out there for me, and she’s going to be getting pretty upset by this point. So….” He reached for the girl’s hand, and when he touched it, she grasped his with a slightly frightening desperation although her expression still betrayed nothing. He pulled her to her feet and she cooperated. When she stood he was surprised to see that she was nearly as tall as he. “That’s it. Come on with us. We’re not much, but we’re the ones here.” The dog moved to her other side, and together they walked out of the dark forest to where Sonya stood waiting.

  Sonya had turned the Suburban so that the lights shone into the trees, although she had aimed them twenty feet to the right of where Chase and the girl emerged. She stood with her back to the headlights, so Chase could not read her expression. “Chase, who is that? Is she okay?”

  “Sonya, meet unknown girl in the woods. She seems to be okay. I mean, she’s not sick or a creeper or whatever. But I think she’s had a rough time. Or she might be a little slow or something.” He led her to the driver’s side and opened the rear door. He motioned for her to sit, but she just stood there, staring into the darkness of the trees around them. “C’mon, girl. Get on in. We can’t stay here.”

  “Are you sure she’s safe? And what about the dog? They’re going to slow us down.” Sonya stood behind Chase, looking the girl over.

  “No, she’s definitely not safe. The pistol shot. You honking the horn. There must not be any other creepers close or they would be on top of us by now. We have to get in and get going.”

  “That’s not what I mean and you know it. I mean are we safe from her? What if she creeps out?” Chase looked at Sonya.
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  “I can’t leave her here, and we’ve got to go. Unless you have another option that I don’t know about, she comes with us.” They stared each other down, and then Chase turned back to the girl. He put his arm behind the girl’s shoulders and placed her arm behind his neck. Then he bent at the waist and placed his other arm behind her knees. When he straightened, lifting her, she wrapped both arms around his neck, and buried her face in his chest. He then turned to face Sonya. “I don’t know if I’m causing us more problems or not. I probably am. But we can’t leave her here. You know that.” Sonya looked at him, holding her lower lip between her teeth. He wasn’t sure what he would do if she put her foot down and refused. He would have to make a decision. Abruptly she nodded once, opened the driver’s door, and climbed into the seat. Despite the anger with which she slammed the door, Chase was relieved. He hadn’t been sure what she would do.

  Chase placed the girl in the rear seat of the Suburban. She would not let go of him. He slid her across the bench seat and climbed awkwardly in beside her. The dog stood outside the Suburban, wagging its tail expectantly but not making a move. “C’mon, boy. Come on in.” The dog jumped up into the Suburban, and after an awkward scramble, sat on the seat on the other side of the girl, nose to the glass.

  When the girl muttered something Chase was so surprised that he didn’t catch it. “What did you say?”

  “Girl. The dog is a girl. Her name is Honey.” Then she relaxed her grip on Chase and lay back in the seat, eyes closed.

  Chase looked at Sonya. He could see her looking at him in the rearview mirror. He expected to see anger on her features, but what he saw was a little bit of confusion and maybe some frustration. “Home, James,” he told her. Sonya rolled her eyes and gave a frustrated sigh, but put the Suburban in gear.

  Chapter 12 – Sonya

  Sonya watched the girl, but she watched the dog even more closely. Her past experiences with dogs had not been positive. She had never had a dog when they lived in the nice house before her mother died, and in the neighborhoods they had lived since then, many of the neighbors’ dogs had not been of the type that promoted warm feelings toward animals. She remembered specifically one morning walking to school and having a big mongrel on a chain lunge at her from the front yard of a run-down house while the owner had sat laughing on the porch at her terror.

  Sonya had driven while Chase sat in the back with the girl and the dog. The girl had slept but the dog had been restless, sniffing at Chase and the girl, sitting, standing, climbing down to the floorboard and then back up to the seat. Sonya had taken back-road after back-road at that point, and finally had passed through the middle of Poplar Bluff. The creepers had been everywhere. The dog had cowered down on the floor, and Sonya had dodged them as well as she could. Chase had offered suggestions from the back seat until Sonya told him to shut up unless he wanted to drive. Of course, this wouldn’t have been a possibility. If Sonya had stopped to switch drivers, they would have been mobbed instantly.

  Finally, Sonya had made it through town and out into the countryside. She made it to Highway 60 heading east, which was okay, but not everything about the adventure was okay with Sonya. The idea had been to get supplies, weapons, and any number of other things to help them on their journey. Instead, she thought, they had ended up with baggage to slow them down and still no map. She knew as long as she was going either south or east she was fine. She didn’t allow herself to think about how long it was taking, or whether or not her dad was still alive.

  On a long, flat stretch of highway, she stopped. Night was when Chase drove. She wasn’t sure she could sleep, but she knew she was done driving. Too many bumps in the road going through town, too much excitement in the day. Too much everything. It was his turn. So Sonya sat in the passenger seat, curled up, back against the door, watching the girl sleep and the dog whine. She wanted to sleep so badly, but sleep was not coming.

  “She talked to you?” Sonya asked for the third time.

  “Yes. She said the dog’s name was Honey,” Chase answered. He was distracted. The creepers seemed to be popping up in the headlights with more frequency than they had on 67.

  “You said she might be slow. Did she sound slow?” Sonya hated to be thinking the way she was, but if the girl was mentally disabled, she would slow them even more on the way to Florida.

  “I don’t think she’s slow. She didn’t sound slow. I think she was in shock, or something. Imagine that. Someone in shock in this world.” Sonya studied him. She had begun to realize that her journey would be easier with him along to help, but she was still concerned about the toll it would take on her. She wasn’t accustomed to spending much time with anyone, let alone a sarcastic stranger with what seemed to be his own set of issues. She couldn’t forget the look on his face when he sighted on the creeper girl from the culvert.

  “Are you glad you shot the creeper?”

  “I don’t know.” He frowned. “Yes. I think I am. Listen, the creepers aren’t people. They aren’t animals. They’re not even alive. They are like furniture to me, okay? Really disgusting and offensive furniture. And that’s the level I need to keep it at. You asked me if I’m glad I shot those things? Yeah. I definitely am. I know now that I can put them down and they’ll stay down.” He glanced at her, and she reluctantly found herself nodding. “You know, don’t you? They’re trying to get to us, trying to…I don’t know…touch us, at the very least. Probably worse. But we can’t let them near us. I just know that, even if I don’t know why.” From the back seat came a voice.

  “I think I know why.” Sonya turned, and in the dim light from the dash, she could see the girl was awake and looking at her.

  “Okay…what is your name, anyway?”

  “Marilyn.”

  “Okay, Marilyn. Are you all right?” Sonya looked at the girl in the back seat, and she was not all right in any of the old sense of the word.

  “I’m thirsty, and I don’t have my canteen. Do you have water?” Sonya handed Marilyn a warm bottle of water from the cup holder in the console. She watched as Marilyn drained it.

  “I’m sorry,” Marilyn said sheepishly as she lowered the bottle. “I hope you have more.” Sonya gestured toward the back.

  “We have three cases back there. We hit a convenience store that was having a sale on bottled water. So why were you in the woods? I’m surprised the creepers didn’t get you.”

  “I wasn’t in the woods. I just woke up here. I went to sleep, and….” The girl trailed off. Sonya saw her eyes tear up before Marilyn’s head dropped and all Sonya could see was the top of her head. When Marilyn began to sob, Sonya reached back to pat her shoulder. Marilyn sat up then, her eyes full of tears. “They want to change us to be like them. They can do that. They bite you, and you get sick, and you die and you turn into one of them. I know, because it happened to…someone. I watched it. I saw the soul leave and Satan come in.”

  “You saw it happen?” Chase was still carefully guiding the Suburban down the road, swerving into the median and across to the west bound lanes when necessary, but Sonya could tell by the tone of his voice that the conversation was more important to him right then than keeping them moving toward Florida.

  Marilyn said yes. Chase asked her to explain, but she wouldn’t say more. Instead, she turned on the seat and buried her face in Honey’s coat. Honey looked out the window and whined, and shortly afterward, Sonya saw another creeper appear from the darkness. As it disappeared back into the darkness once the lights of the Suburban passed, Sonya watched the dog until it settled down. Then Sonya watched Marilyn until she relaxed and lay back in the seat, her eyes closed, breathing evenly. She was asleep again.

  “Well, she’s not slow. You had that right. But she’s something. Maybe in shock. Maybe just as messed up as we all should be considering what’s happening.” Sonya reached for her bottle of water and was slightly annoyed when she realized it was gone. Chase handed her a full bottle he’d had stashed in the door.

  “That t
hing she said about Satan. What do you think about that?” he asked.

  Sonya shrugged. “I don’t know. That goes back to the why-this-is-happening thing again, for me. Could be Satan, I guess. Walking dead people would be his thing from what I know. We didn’t go to church much.”

  “Yeah, we were strictly Easter and Christmas on church when I was younger, and then not at all. Do you believe in God?” Chase glanced over at Sonya to get her reaction.

  “I…I think so. I mean, God makes sense to me, I guess. Maybe not in a the-earth’s-four-thousand-years-old, burn-the-witches kind of way, but I think there’s a higher power. Why, don’t you?”

  “No, I don’t. God doesn’t make sense to me. I’m not a raving atheist out to disprove Christianity or anything, but there are a lot of things about the whole situation that don’t make sense to me.” He slowed the Suburban. Sonya looked ahead and saw a pack of about twenty creepers in the road, bunched together and heading east. “I mean, look at them. Anything about that in the Bible?” he asked, gesturing toward the grouped corpses.

  “Actually, I think there might be.” Sonya tried to remember something she had seen or read. “There’s a lot of weird stuff in Revelations. You know, end of the earth stuff. I think this may qualify.”

  Chase laughed humorlessly. “Great. I made it to the apocalypse.” He drove through the median again, switching back to the east bound lanes. In the headlights, the creepers turned toward the sound of the Suburban and began to cross the median as well, but before they could get too close, the Suburban was well past them. Sonya felt ill.

  “She said she saw someone turn. Have you seen anyone turn?”

  Chase shook his head. “Since I left my house, you’re the only person I’ve seen alive. And now her. Do you think we could still turn?”

  The thought horrified Sonya. “I don’t know. I mean, I guess so. I came out of my house and pretty much everyone was gone. I saw a few people, but they were leaving or in cars or whatever. They sure didn’t stop for me. Since I’ve been on the road, I think I might have seen a few places where people were holing up, hiding out, but you are pretty much the first person I talked to. I don’t know what happened, where everybody went, or how the creepers got that way. I don’t think about it.”