by Morgana Wray
I could feel the undead fox's drool lash against my face. The beast was going in for the kill. Then I saw her face. The face of the angel that would be my saving grace. She had something in her hand. She slammed it hard into the side of the fox’s face, sending it rolling away from my chest. I was too shocked to move a muscle.
My saviour chased after the fox before it could scramble back to it’s feet. She smashed the undead fox’s skull again and again with the rock in her hand until the brains in it’s skull leaked out of it’s head. It was only then that the fox stopped thrashing about and collapsed into the dirt. She did not stop her assault on the fox. She hit the collapsed fox’s sunken skull again and again with the rock, screaming in whirl of mad rage.
“Jesus, Diane! You don’t need to have a crack at it anymore! I am pretty sure it is dead already!” I gripped the enraged girl from behind, restraining her from making a bigger mess of the fox’s bashed brains.
Her shirt was a meshwork of black and red stains after she was done. She definitely had a lot of pent up rage for a child her age. I was guessing that her home wasn’t exactly one of those perfect little family setups that made singletons feel like their whole life was lacking in a really massive way. There was that Norman Bates look in her eyes while she was killing the undead fox.
I could tell that she definitely needed help. The kind of help that only a head doctor could give. I didn’t hold any doctorate degrees. I was only good with engines and car parts. I wasn’t too good with people. Especially, when people meant kids.
This particular kid did not have cute puppy eyes. Her eyes were stagnant and hauntingly direct when she looked at you. She was looking at me now. She was cursing at me and ranting profusely. I could barely hear my own voice amidst all the profanity spewed from between her lips.
“Why did you do that? Why did you stop me?”
“I wasn’t done yet! I wasn’t fucking done yet! You stupid, stupid man!” Diane ranted, kicking the air as she desperately fought to escape my tight grip.
“Let it go kid! What you were doing-that wasn’t healthy! You’ve got to see that!” I raised my voice in a bid to speak some sense into her.
I felt like I was pouring gasoline on a raging fire. My words only served to fuel her anger even more. There were shrieks shooting from her gaping mouth. She screamed as loud as her lungs would let her. I pretended not to hear her. I wasn’t about to let her go. I moved her away from the carcass of the fox.
Her hesitation to comply with my pleas only made my resolve to move her even stronger. It was a war of her youth against the resilience of my aging back. I was getting old but I wasn’t that old yet. I persisted and tore through branches and shrubs. I had a few thorns rip into my skin but I took the pain. I took it like a grown man would. I wasn’t about to let the kid become something very ugly on the inside. Someone needed to save her from herself.
“What were you trying to prove by bludgeoning foxy back there? Where you getting some kick out of that? Did you find that funny?” I looked probingly at Diane.
“Maybe you should let me go and I will show you.” She gritted her teeth, growling fiercely in my general direction. “Take your grubby hands off me, why don’t you?”
I could sense some hostility building up in the girl I was trying mostly to protect from herself. That livid look on her sneering face was definitely neither warm nor hospitable. She was keen on doing something I would definitely regret if I chose to let her go. This was definitely not what I needed. I did not sign up to babysit crazy kids with serious issues that needed resolving.
“You bastard! You fucking bastard! I am going to fuck you up if you don’t let me go now!” the intense look on Diane’s face morphed into something more darker and more threatening.
Were I made of flakier stuff I would have ran for the hills. I would definitely have contemplated leaving her to her own faith. After what I had seen, any other sane person would have taken the easy way out and bailed on the rampaging kid.
“Hush!” I lowered my head, and whispered into Diane’s unaccommodating ear. “This is not the time to be like that. You need to put a lid on whatever bug is crawling up your pampered, inconsiderate backside.”
My eyes were stern and unyielding. I made sure that my tone of voice was fierce and calm enough to covey my total displeasure at the blonde girl’s attitude. I knew she was a kid, but the situation we were in was one that required a steady head and not one prone to being rattled by the slightest irritation.
“Okay, I totally agree with you. I promise to be a regular scout.” Diane pushed a smile up on her previously dreary face.
I was sort of unconvinced, but I resolved within myself to give the kid a benefit of a doubt. I couldn’t possibly have kept her restrained for too long before wearing myself out. It was noon by now and neither of us had had any refreshments. Hunger was enough motivation to turn anyone into a raging bag of incoherent actions. Diane was definitely looking not very coherent in her actions. At the pit of what she had done, was a deep rage. The kind that consumes completely.
“You sir are not a gentleman!” Diane blurted out loudly as I slackened my grip on her, allowing her some freedom from the constraints of the bear hug that she was in. “Dum jerk.”
The scorn had not dimmed from her burning gaze. She sized me up with those disconcerting blue eyes of hers. I struggled to keep on a straight face. I felt a bit awkward being observed in that way, especially by some kid. It was tough to keep up a wall of indifference to insulate one’s self from those mean blue eyes behind that adorable scrunched up face. I wasn’t sure whether to giggle or say something outrageously silly.
I didn’t want to come across as a complete ass. How could I stop myself from doing just that? How could I hold back the words that sat boisterously at the tip of my stayed tongue?”
“Your arm! It isn’t bleeding anymore!” I pointed at the perforations in Diane’s arm. “Still doesn’t look very easy on the eyes though. We should work on meeting up with the others.”
“Why?”
“They would have probably left by now! People sort of do that!” A flagrant disdain for others gleamed prominently on her face.
I scratched my head with a swelling unease etched on my face. I couldn’t fight off that sinking feeling of abandonment. The kid did have a point. A couple of hours had swung by and a kid was dragged off by something that looked like it belonged in a horror show. That was enough to spook anyone.
Miss Maple was fond of me, but she wasn’t that fond of me that she would put her coveted position at Barrymore secondary school on the line. She liked being given all that attention by the parents who wanted their kids under the guidance of the best teachers. She was always all to eager to dangle her influence and soak up the forced adulation showered on her. She basked in it like a swanky peacock.
Miss Maple had parents to answer to for the wellbeing of the kids in her charge. She would have found a way to get them back to the care of their parents or to the school. Either way, there wasn’t going to be a good chance of finding them waiting there for us by the roadside. That would be a manner of wishful thinking.
“I get it kid. People can be selfish. They can also be capable of a selflessness that defies logic. You shouldn’t see the world in such a bleak way.” I threw both hands in the air. “Lighten up kid.”
“Keep that up and you won’t be wearing that smug smile for very long.” Diane snarled, curling her fingers up into a ball. “Yeah, you keep on pushing it. See what happens.”
I raised both hands up and acted aloof. She wasn’t messing around. I could see that wild “I don’t give a damn” attitude in her increasingly hostile demeanour. Her attitude stank more than a bowl of rotten eggs. I could do nothing more than put up with it. Someone had to be the adult. I took the brunt of Diane’s childish sniping with a grin and a polite nod of the head.
“Take it easy kid! You don’t want to blow a blood vessel or something!” I snared cheekily.
I co
uld see the anger overtake the girl in front of me. Diane wasn’t keeping calm anymore. Not that she seemed relaxed before. Her feet kicked up clumps of earth as she ran hastily towards me. There was thunder in the countenance of her voice, as she charged towards me. “I will show you what it feels like to blow a blood vessel, you dum Neanderthal!”
Her tiny fists pounded against my chest. They were tiny but I could definitely feel the bones in her knuckles press into my chest. That hurt. But I was a far from doubling over in crippling pain. I seized her hands in mine. “Stop it! Stop it! I hear something!”
“Nice try! I am not falling for that trick! I am not stupid like you!” Diane fought valiantly to pull her arm’s away from my grip.
I couldn’t let us be caught unaware. Diane was being unreasonable. I had to take action quickly. My hands instinctively went over her mouth, muting the grumbling that was seeping through those flapping lips. I shuffled behind a tree, dragging Diane with me. I tried to be as calm as I could be. I could hear the sound of feet treading on grass. The crunching noise was the thing that alerted my trained ears in the first place.
I prayed silently within myself that we would not be found. I was hoping that it would be armed police that had been called in by someone to rescue us or at least a search party. I was never going to be that lucky. I turned my face slowly to see the crazy people I had encountered before at the disused church. They were sniffing the air in a very disturbing way. They looked even more haggard and diseased than they did back at the church.
Those guys were definitely not okay in the head. I knew I had to avoid them at all costs. They might have been a small group in the tens but they certainly were dangerous and not to be underestimated. I knew bullets seemed to be no good with those guys. It went through the woman I had shot like Swiss cheese but yet she picked herself up like the shots were nothing more than a mere tickle.
“Glop! Glop!” a slight clucking noise sprang from the shaking lips of the crazy, sick-looking people that were stalking us.
“God don’t let them look this way.” A fearful thought ran through my head.
Diane knew to still herself. I believe she was aware by now that we were not quite on our own. The fear in her roaming eyes had paralyzed any intentions to be damn petulant. She had stopped fighting me. Her hands almost went limp and her breathing was fast.
“Do you see that?” I whispered softy. “Shake your head if you do.”
Diane didn’t respond. I presumed she had not seen the trail of blood that had caked on some of the leaves ahead of us. Fortune had somehow presented itself. I wasn’t going to squander that opportunity. The bloodied leaves were below knee level. They were most likely made when the undead fox dragged Diane through the bushes.
“Never mind. I am going to take my hands off your lips. When I run, try to keep up with me.” I spoke calmly, pulling my fingers slowly away from her muted lips.
I darted quickly towards the trail of bloodied leafs. I didn’t hear any footsteps behind me. I had a bad feeling stirring inside my belly. I paused in my tracks and threw my head back. “This is a bad time to go to sleep, kid.”
Diane wasn’t on her feet. She had slumped on the floor and was laying on her stomach with her face planted in the dirt. The crazy people had spotted her. They were making their move, scampering slowly but steadily towards her. I was afraid. I was afraid more for her than for me. She had barely lived and was going to be brutalized by that lot. I had to stop that from happening.
I summoned what strength was left inside me and dashed towards her slumped body. I lifted her up, throwing her body over my shoulders. I moved as quickly as humanly possible. I was walking on fumes. I could hear my belly growl. It did not sound very pleased.
The pain in my guts was agonizing. I had to focus on something else if I was to get us both out of there. Hope was looking like something that was remote. I was not really that much of an optimist anyway. Some part of me wanted to stop fighting and give in. Surely, embracing the inevitable would have been a much simpler prospect-an end to all the hurting and my unending night terrors.
“What the hell do they feed kids these days!”
“This one feels like a bloody log on my blooming shoulders!” I squirmed.
I could hear wild, savage noises coming from behind me. My pursuers were near. I didn’t need to see them. The stench that accompanied them could choke the life out of a fully grown cow. If they didn’t bite the life out of me, they surely would stink me to death. They really did smell that horrid.
Burdened with pain and exhaustion, I toppled over and rolled on the grass, still clinging unto Diane. I wasn’t going to stop protecting her. I did not know why I did that. Guess maybe it could have been devotion, or a last act of kindness before I exited this big blue world.
My foes were upon me. I was nothing but dead meat to them. Their eyes were dull and had no humanity behind those darkened orbs. I was weak without much will to resist. All the crazy black-eyed people had to do was to reach out and rip out my throat. All I could do now was suck in air and wait to be slaughtered.
The clanking noise of something that sounded as if it was malfunctioning jolted me from my last moments of deep thought. I noticed something dropping out of the skies. It was falling fast towards us. It took everything I had, but I managed to drag Diane away, crawling quickly on all fours. My knees felt like jelly. I was too spent to walk. But I crawled through the dirt for the both of us, sinking my nails into dung.
The falling mass of metal was an helicopter. The helicopter’s tail was on fire. The people on-board looked as if they were already dead. Someone had taken them out. I could see holes in the glass of the helicopter’s door. The misfortune of the unfortunate souls aboard that ill fated helicopter was to be an extension on the stay of our imminent execution at the hands of those sick black-eyed people. They looked like people. But I wasn’t certain that there was anything human left in them.
The helicopter skidded on the grass and the spinning rotor blades hacked off body parts from the black-eyed people that had been hunting us. I saw heads separated from bodies and legs lopped off in an instant. A beating heart was torn out of a body which was cut in half.
It was really disgusting stuff to see. I had to see it. I needed to know that those savages had been killed or incapacitated. I took in every gory detail of the helicopter massacre. My clothes were stained with some black blood. It smelt more like rotten fish. I couldn’t hold the contents of my stomach in. Not that there was much inside me. I threw up some fluids and coughed uncontrollably.
I was terribly unsettled by the recent chain of events that had unfolded before my eyes. The brutality that the crashed helicopter had unleashed left me tongue-tied. You would think someone who was once a decorated soldier wouldn’t be phased by the sight of mutilated body parts strewn across the crumpled heap of metal that was plunged in the dirt before me.
That would have been a total bullshit analogy of the state of things. My state of mind could not have been any more messed up than it was at that point in time. I was low on sugar and I had been thrust in the centre of what could only be described as human carnage.
The worst part of this horrific ordeal wasn’t the blood or the severed limbs. It was the fear of the memories coming back to shake me from my very foundations. The prospect of another episode of having vivid daydreams of a past that I was extremely reluctant to face was an unpalatable dish that I did not want to partake in.
My body felt frail sand my head felt faint. My hands scrambled desperately for my pockets. A bunch of keys and some other personal items were thrown across the ground ahead of me. Through blurry eyes, I could barely see my pill bottle. It was hard getting at the right one. There were two of them and I knew I only had one pill bottle in my pocket.
“This is not happening again! Not now!” I swiped at the bottle desperately.
I caught nothing but a fist full of muck. My eyes were almost closing. I couldn’t keep them focused at all. Everythi
ng was a blur. I couldn’t trust my eyes. I had to be more clever than that. I had to feel my way through this. I crawled on my belly like a viper. This wasn’t a time to be a vagina. This was the time to man up and do what any man with testosterone coursing through his veins would and not quit. Not yet. Not until the fat lady had sung that glorious Valkyrie song. That was not going to be today.
CHAPTER 5
I wasn’t going down with a whimper. I wasn’t going to be beaten by mundane things like hunger and double vision. I needed those pills to give me lucidity. I needed them to see and think straight. I was okay as long as I had those in my system. I needed a dose of my medicine. I needed the dose now.
My hands searched through the dirt around me in a haphazard, frantic manner. Every narrow miss made my likelihood of getting out of this debacle in good health slimmer. I felt as if I was a drowning swimmer that was crap at swimming and kept struggling against the tide, anyway-even though he knew he would inevitably lose that battle.
I felt something round and bulbous. It felt dripping wet with something viscous. I wasn’t quite sure what it was. My curious hands roamed round the width of the curious round thing that was in my hand. My finger soon poked into something that felt like an eye socket. Some gunky fluid dripped over my finger. I had just dug into an eyeball.
“What the fuck? What the fuck?” terror hit me square in the face.
I dropped the round thing that I was holding. It wasn’t a rock. It was a freaking human head. I heard teeth clatter as the head dropped from my hands. That thing would have fucking bit me if I hadn’t tossed it aside in time. I scrambled away from the clattering sound very quickly and fell over something that felt cylindrical and plastic.
“Its about time! Got you, you bugger!” I screeched cheerfully, unscrewing the cap very quickly and throwing the pills down my neck.