by Lee Wise
“Daddy!” Megan said. “It’s Nick’s birthday. Not yours!”
“Oh, so you just made me a cake?” Nick giggled.
“No!” All the other kids yelled at him.
We all laughed. “Piper and Jenny, can you watch the kids? We’ll be right back. The adults just have to talk for a minute outside.” Ben asked.
“Sure!” They both said.
“Hurry up though, cuz I want to celebrate my birthday!” Nick shouted.
“Nick!” Jill exclaimed.
“We’ll be right back. I promise.” Ben said. The adults went outside.
“Where’s Michelle?” Allison asked when we got outside.
“Let us tell you a story!” Angela sighed.
“Uh oh! Sounds like it’s going to be a good one.” Cathy laughed.
“Oh yeah it is.” Luke said shaking his head.
“So, we went with Michelle to see Sabrina and Caleb’s hangout. Remember they told us that they like hanging out at the picnic tables by the river because it has a canopy area the kids like to carve into?” John began.
“Yes. What did you find out?” I said. John could really drag a story out if you didn’t try to get him to focus more!
“Those two were there and they gave us a strange look.” Ben said. “They said, ‘now you’re hanging out with this crazy bitch?’ Michelle started asking them where Sam was.”
“Did they know?” Allison asked.
“Oh yeah they did. Sam died five years ago after drowning in that river.” John said.
“What? So her story…” I asked.
“I’m not sure whose blood she had on her but Sabrina told us that Michelle, her husband Dan and Sam were camping last year and Michelle took her eyes off Sam for just a short while and he was gone. They found him a couple days later. He drowned in the river. Also, they said that she went a little crazy and often can be found skinny-dipping in the river. “
“Wow!” I exclaimed. Everyone looked surprised.
“I knew her name sounded familiar. That was all over the news last year.” Angela said.
“So, where is she now?” Asked Naomi.
“Michelle started swinging at them saying it wasn’t her fault. She said that Dan was supposed to watch him and then she asked them again where Sam was. After that, she ran off into the woods. Anyways, we left the teens by the water. They requested cigarettes for the information by the way.” Luke said.
“Did you give them some?” Allison asked.
“Of course! Were not the Surgeon General.” Ben replied and a few of us laughed. “We went to the local graveyard that Angela knew about and sure enough, there was Sam Jensen, age 2 beloved son of Dan and Michelle Jensen.”
Sammie sighed and looked down. “I think I’m going to go check on them at the end of the driveway.” She looked like she was about to cry.
“Do you need to talk?” Angela asked.
“I’ll be okay.” Sammie said and went outside.
Angela sighed. “She doesn’t talk about it much. Anyways, that’s the story.”
“So, now there’s another crazy person running through the woods?” Allison asked.
“Yes.” John said. “I’m not sure how dangerous she is, but she’s out there.”
“Great.” Allison said.
“Anyways, that’s her story.” Ben repeated. “I’m going to go relieve Mike so he can celebrate his son’s birthday.” He walked off. Everyone began to go inside.
“John, can I talk to you for a minute?” I asked.
“Okay dokey.” He stayed beside me. We walked away a little bit. “What’s up?”
I told him my suspicions about being pregnant. He sighed, but was still excited. “Not the best timing.” He said. “But I’m excited. We’ll name him Reginald.”
I gave him a look. “Hell no!”
“Watch your language around our son.” I laughed and he smiled at me. “Well, get in there and eat some food. You and Allison can talk about babies I guess.”
“Oh that reminds me.” I said. I told him about what Sammie had said.
“Yeah, I think they’re okay.” He looked around to make sure no one was listening. “I… I think something is off with Sammie.”
“I was thinking the same thing!” I agreed.
“Let’s keep this between us for now. I don’t want these people tostart turning on each other. Maybe she’s just naturally paranoid!” John said.
“I agree!” I said.
Mike walked up to us at that moment. “Meeting of the minds? I heard I missed out on one hell of a walk!”
“You missed something, that’s for sure!” John agreed.
“So, are you guys missing my kid’s birthday party or what?”
“Were heading right in!” I said and we all walked in together.
“Finally!” Nick exclaimed. “Look, Piper taught us how to make a piñata out of papier-mâché!”
Piper’s face was beaming with pride. “I learned how to do that a few years ago. My mom taught me.” She added quietly. Their group was quiet for a little bit and then Piper said, “We stuffed it up full of candy.”
“Where did you get candy?” Ben asked.
“Have I ever told you what my addiction is?” Angela asked. “I love chocolate!”
“Me too.” I agreed.
“No, she really loves chocolate!” Jenny said. “You should see her stash. It’s got every piece of chocolate you can imagine.”
Angela laughed. “Well, a little less now but I don’t mind sharing!”
The birthday was actually quite fun. We also had his favorite, tacos with the last of the hamburger for lunch. The day went on with a change of shifts. Allison went to take a nap and John suggested I take one, but I was not tired and wanted to help clean up a bit.
Around 4 PM, Jacob came running into the house. “There’s a big fire down the road!”
“Sammie, Angela, Bill, can you guys guard the end of the driveway?” Ben asked. They nodded “Cathy and Jill can you guard the front of the house?” They also agreed. “John, Robert and the rest of us guys will go see about putting out the fire. It may just be a distraction, so ladies be ready.” He said looking at Mrs. Ford, Naomi and I. They left the house.
“Piper, can you go wake up your Aunt Allison and come right back down here with her?” I asked. She agreed and went to get her.
“We need to be prepared in case we have to flee here like we did our town.” Rose said.
“I agree. Maybe we should pack some things?” I suggested. We had the kids quickly go grab what few possessions they had and then come right back down. We began to pack a few things. We just ended packing some things when Sammie came into the house.
“I knew it!” She shouted. We looked at her not sure what she was talking about.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“What’s wrong is you are all thieves. I invite you here and you steal from my cousin!” Sammie yelled.
“What? No, we are packing just in case we have to get out of here quickly.” Rose said.
“Yeah! With Angela’s stuff.”
“No, Angela and everyone will all go together.” Naomi explained.
“Yeah, sure!” Sammie said sarcastically.
Angela walked into the house. “Sammie, we need you. You’re not answering your walkie-talkie so Jill had to go down the driveway.” She noticed everyone’s looks. “What’s going on?” Sammie told her side of the story. “They are thieves.”
We explained what was going on. “It’s just a misunderstanding.” Angela said. “Don’t worry Sammie. They are not the enemy.”
Sammie did a ‘hhmph’ sound and stomped out the door. Angela sighed. “I’m not sure what is going on with her. She’s very, I’m not sure the word I’m looking for…”
“Paranoid?” I said
“Exactly.” She agreed. “It’s almost a liability. I’m worried she’s going to do something crazy!” We heard a gunshot.
“Oh my God!” I said.
&n
bsp; “All you kids get upstairs now! Hurry!” Angela demanded. The kids all went upstairs with Piper and Jenny. We heard shouting outside.
The guys came in quickly pulling Sammie into the house. They had her arms pinned behind her back.
“She saw us coming and shot at us. Luckily, Jacob was close enough to tackle her!” Ben said. Suddenly, Sammie began speaking gibberish. We all gasped. She began thrashing around and managed to get her hands free. She started strangling Mike. The other guys pulled her off.
“I have no clue what’s going on! But to me, she’s acting like a maniac.” Ben said. We all agreed.
Angela was crying. “We can’t kill her!” She shouted.
“No, we won’t.” Rose agreed. “Why don’t we tie her up to a chair for now.” We agreed and a couple people began to tie her up.
“What happened with the fire?” I asked.
“It was just brushfire.” Luke said. “It was easy to put out.”
“It’s a good thing we had a truck ready. Someone loves lighting fires!” Robert remarked. Sammie started talking gibberish again.
“That’s really going to scare the kids.” Mrs. Ford announced. It was true. It was kind of scaring the adults themselves.
The front door opened Caleb stood there with Jill. His clothes were torn and his eyes were red. “She just started going crazy!” He cried.
“What’s going on Caleb?” Ben asked.
“It just happened all of a sudden. We were eating some crackers we found and she just started hitting me and talking all crazy.” He was crying.
“You mean Sabrina?” Rose asked. He nodded.
“I… I had to run from her. I pushed her down first and ran.” He looked down, “I didn’t know where else to go.”
“Where did you leave her?” Mike asked.
“At the store down the road. We’ve been staying in there so we can control the groceries.” He sniffled.
“How do we know that this isn’t a trap?” Angela asked.
He looked at us. “It’s not. I swear. I… She just went crazy!” Sammie started speaking gibberish loudly. Caleb’s eyes went wide. “That’s what she was doing!” He pointed at Sammie. “I don’t understand what’s going on!”
“Neither do we.” Ben sighed. “We’re going to go and look for your sister. If this is a trick, you will be sorry.”
Caleb nodded still staring at Sammie. He was crying still. I handed him a tissue. He thanked me and blew his nose. He didn’t take his eyes off of Sammie. He looked terrified.
John, Robert, Mike and Ben left. The others split the watch up. Mrs. Ford, Allison, Naomi and I stayed with the kids including Caleb. We hated to do it, but we explained to the kids what was going on with Sammie. Surprisingly, they didn’t take it really that bad. The only question was from Nick, “Does that mean anyone can turn into a maniac now?”
We looked at each other unsure of what to say. Finally, Mrs. Ford answered. “We aren’t sure what is going on, but you are safe now. We won’t let anyone hurt any of you kids.” She said looking at all the kids including Caleb. An hour passed by with no word from the others. We had the kids play some games to pass the time by, but we had them stay inside for right now.
“Yuck!” Mary said and pointed towards Sammie. There was a big puddle under her. She had peed her pants.
I looked at the other ladies. “What do we do?” I asked. “We can’t untie her to clean her up, can we?” They shrugged their shoulders not knowing what to do either.
“We can’t just leave her in her own pee!” Jenny gasped.
“She’s dangerous.” Allison said.
“So we aren’t going to do anything?” Jenny asked.
“The guys will be home pretty soon.” Piper said. “Until then, we aren’t strong enough to fight her.”
“Definitely not.” Caleb said. “My sister was 100 times stronger when she changed. I thought that she was going to kill me!” Caleb sat down on a chair. I could tell that he was exhausted. I gave him some milk and cookies.
“Mama, can we leave this room? She’s making me scared.” Megan begged.
“I’ll take them.” Mrs. Ford replied. “We’ll go outside, but not too far.” They went outside.
“I’m going to grab you a clean shirt.” I said to Caleb. His shirt was stinky and covered in dirt and holes. I grabbed a shirt out of Nick’s bag. I knew Jill wouldn’t mind. He changed right there out of the old shirt and thanked us. He had bruises and scratches on his arms and stomach.
He noticed that I was looking. “My sister.” He sighed. “Luckily, there was a can nearby that I was able to hit her with.” His eyes filled with tears.
The door opened. Almost everyone walked in. Caleb stood up. “My sister? Did you find her?”
Ben sighed. “Caleb, your sister… well.”
“Is she dead?” Caleb asked.
“She is.” Ben nodded. “She was beating up an old lady and talking, well gibberish. And… well, Michelle was with her. They looked like they were working as a team. We shot them. There was nothing we could do for the old lady. She died soon after we got there. Her husband was there too. They had broken his leg so they could get him next. He should be here soon. Angela, Robert and John were making a splint to get them back here.”
The door opened. The guys were helping an old man into the house.
“Mr. LeClair!” Caleb said and ran to him. He hugged him.
“Caleb! Are you okay. I saw your sister and I thought… I’m so glad you’re okay!”
We looked between the two of them. “I’m the librarian in this town, I’m also Sabrina and Caleb’s neighbor… was their neighbor.”
“Where did you go? Sabrina and I went to check on you to make sure you were okay, but you weren’t there.” Caleb stated.
“We went to stay in the library. We figured that not too many people would go there. We just ran out of groceries and went to the store but your sister and Mrs. Jensen attacked us.” He started crying. “I tried, but I couldn’t protect my Barbara.”
Caleb began crying also. “I’m so sorry Mr. LeClair.”
“You couldn’t do anything Caleb. I’m just happy you could get away from her before she harmed you.” Mr. LeClair said. Sammie began talking gibberish. Mr. LeClair gasped. “You have one here?”
“Yes, she just started acting that way.” Ben said.
“That’s what happened with Sabrina! She just changed today!”
Mr. LeClair looked confused. “They weren’t like that at the beginning?”
“No. They changed today.” Mike said.
Mr. LeClair shook his head. “I don’t know what to do now. Barbara was all I had.”
“You can stay with us.” Ben said. “You can also Caleb, but you can’t act like you were acting before.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much. And I’ll see that Caleb is on his best behavior.” Mr. LeClair said.
“I will be.” Caleb agreed.
“By the way, I’m Jeff LeClair. I don’t know if I told you my first name with all this confusion.”
“Nice to meet you, Jeff.” Rose said. “My name’s Rose. I’d like to take a look at that leg. I’m a nurse.”
“Thank you.” He said. Molly came running in barking. “Oh, look at you beautiful old girl!” He started hugging her and she smothered him with kisses.
“Let’s fix you up in the living room. Jill, can you help?” Rose asked. Jill agreed. John and Robert helped Jeff into the living room.
“Come on girl!” Jeff said and Molly followed.
“More attention for her. She will love that!” I said.
“Meanwhile, the kids are giving Mr. Doggleton a bath right now!” Cathy said.
“Can I help?” Caleb asked.
“Sure. They’re out back with Mrs. Ford.” Cathy said. Caleb’s face broke out into a smile and he ran out the front door. If only it were that easy for us to forget our troubles temporarily!
We had plenty to talk about though. A lot had already happened that da
y. It seemed like every day there was a new challenge for us. If only we could have just one day that was completely uneventful for the children and us adults.
CHAPTER 8
Angela was looking at Sammie. “We need to clean her up, but I’m thinking she’s too strong.”
Ben nodded. “She just can’t stay tied to a chair forever. Maybe…”
The front door swung open. There were military men standing there. Gary (the teacher who had been with us earlier) was there.
“Gary?” Ben said.
“Thank God you guys are okay. I was worried.” He glanced over and saw Sammie tied up. “Did she just change?”
“Yes.” I replied.
Gary nodded. “Yeah, we had a couple soldiers change.” He sighed. “We just weren’t expecting it to happen. Out of six in our group, there are only three of us left.”
“Well, Ray was acting a little paranoid yesterday, but we didn’t think anything of it. All of a sudden today, he snaps one soldier’s neck and strangled another. Luckily, Gary shot him before he could get to us.” One of the soldiers said. Gary nodded.
“This is Ethan and Gavin.” Gary said.
“Were you soldiers before this?” Robert asked.
“No, we were at home playing video games when our sister went nuts and killed our parents.” Ethan said.
“How old are you?” I asked.
“I’m 19 and Gavin is 17.” Ethan said. “Our sister is…was 14. We had to kill her. We didn’t know where else to go, so we went to the military base in Augusta. The reserves. There’s a guy there who broke us into groups and we were put in a group with Gary and the others.” He stopped talking.
“We haven’t heard anything from the base since our guy changed.” Gary said. As if on cue, the radio went off.
“Gary’s group, come in!”
“This is Gary.”
“Our base has been overrun. A lot of people were killed. Stay put and we will contact you in a few days.”
“I’ll do that. Do you want my location?”
“No, maintain radio silence for now.” The radio went quiet.
“That’s strange.” Gary said.