Maniacs

by Lee Wise

  “We can do that.” Gary agreed.

  “All right, so we should be back in a few hours.” They left.

  “Emma, why don’t you get some sleep. You look exhausted.” I said.

  She looked at her brother. “We have to get things ready for their return.”

  “You go ahead and get some sleep.” Chase said. “I’ll help out here.”

  “Are you sure?” Emma asked. Chase nodded. Emma hugged him.

  “I think we’ll go get some sleep too.” Jill sighed.

  “You just don’t want to move bodies.” Mike joked.

  “Damn right!” Jill responded and we all laughed. Cathy, Jill, Emma and I went inside. Jill set up a place for Emma in the room with us and Emma fell asleep immediately.

  “Poor thing.” Cathy whispered. “Good night ladies.” I fell asleep pretty quickly also.

  CHAPTER 14

  I woke up six hours later at 4:00 the next morning. I hadn’t heard any vehicles outside or any commotion which surprised me since the soldiers were only supposed to be gone for a few hours. I sat up and started getting dressed which woke Cathy up.

  “What’s going on?” She whispered.

  “I’m going to see. I didn’t hear anyone come back yet.” I said. Cathy’s eyes widened and she and Jill started getting dressed also.

  “What’s going on?” Jenny asked.

  “Shh!” Cathy replied. “Go back to sleep.”

  “I can’t!” Jenny responded.

  “Lay down quietly then and keep an eye on the others please?” Cathy said.

  “Okay.” Jenny responded. Emma had slept through all of that. Megan looked at me but I held my pointer finger to my mouth to tell her to stay quiet. She curled up with Jenny.

  Cathy, Jill and I went downstairs. No one was in the kitchen, but I put on a pot of coffee and then went outside.

  Some guys were standing in a circle talking. Chase was with them. We walked over. “What’s going on?” Cathy asked.

  Robert sighed. “We haven’t heard anything from the soldiers yet.”

  “Oh no!” I exclaimed.

  “They would have radioed once they picked up the scientist.” Chase worried.

  “Unless they’re maintaining radio silence.” Gary replied. Chase shrugged his shoulders.

  “Well, he said a few hours and it’s been less than six hours. I’m sure everything is fine.” Jill assured everyone.

  Chase shook his head. “I’m not sure. I’m just so worried.” Chase started pacing.

  “Well, let’s get back to work now. Worrying isn’t going to do us any good!” Gary ordered. The bodies had already been cleared and you could hear a few hammers in the shed.

  “Who’s at the end of the driveway?” Cathy asked.

  “John, Angela and Luke.” Gary responded.

  “Ethan, Mike, Rose, Jeremy and Ryan are inside the shed. Jacob and Ben are getting some rest.” Robert updated us. We talked for a little bit about plans. Chase told us some things about his and Emma’s experiences before being rescued, which were scary.

  Finally, I looked at my watch. “It’s 4:30, I’m going to start breakfast.”

  “I’ll help.” Cathy said.

  “And I’ll see what I can do to help in the shed.” Jill said. Cathy and I went inside.

  “What do you think?” Cathy asked me quietly.

  “I think they ended up holing up somewhere because it just turned out to be too dangerous.” I responded.

  “Maybe.” Cathy said. “I hope so.” We made a big breakfast and everyone, except John, Angela and Luke came inside to eat.

  “Smells delicious.” Ben said coming downstairs to eat. “Is everyone up?”

  “Just about. Jacob, Allison, Mrs. Ford, Bill, Naomi and the kids are upstairs still.” I responded.

  “And my sister.” Chase said.

  “Yes, sorry. I included her in with the kids count.” I replied.

  Chase smiled. “It’s nice that she can be her age again and not have to be an adult.” We agreed.

  “Any news from the other soldiers?” Ben asked. Chase shook his head.

  “They are probably holed up for the night somewhere.” Gary repeated my thoughts.

  “This is delicious!” Chase said shoveling food into his mouth.

  Mrs. Ford came into the room. “Sorry I wasn’t up to help you with breakfast.” She noticed how Chase was eating. “Easy young man, you don’t want to choke on your food.”

  Chase laughed. “Sorry. I’m just so hungry!”

  Molly started barking outside and we heard trucks.

  “Here we go!” Gary said and we got up from the table and went outside.

  “We need a medic!” Luis shouted and ran to the second truck. Jeremy and Rose rushed over. I counted everyone as they got out. Two out of the eight who had left were missing. Brandon was being carried in by his father with Jeremy and Rose closely behind. There were three new people. Everyone looked shell-shocked. Luis came walking over to us and gave Chase a hug. “Are you all right?” He asked Chase.

  “Me? What happened?” Chase demanded.

  Luis sighed. “We were on our way back. The lead truck with Melanie and a couple others was hit with a missile. We slammed on our brakes and took cover.” He rubbed his head and sighed. “Some punks ambushed us!”

  “What?” Gary exclaimed.

  “They were in front of some maniacs. When we got out of the vehicle, a mob of maniacs who came from behind the punks attacked. We were able to fight back, but Charlie was killed and Brandon was injured badly.” Luis said.

  “There were people with weapons?” I asked.

  “Yes. We’re calling them punks. Some hang out near or with the maniacs and have weapons, others start fires.” Luis explained.

  “We have to figure out what is going on with the maniacs and also why punks are working with them.” Ben said.

  “I have some theories.” A lady with glasses said.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. This is Dr. Liz Moreau, her brother Christian Moreau and Sergeant Alex Raines.”

  “Hello!” Liz said. “Thank you for letting us come to your place.”

  “Welcome.” Cathy said. “So, tell us some more about punks and maniacs.” Cathy asked Liz.

  “We have identified three different types of people we believe are working together. There are the punks who use weapons and start fires. Next is the leader who seems to be in charge and then there is the bulk of the maniacs who we are calling groupies. They seem to follow orders and can’t speak. So far, that is what we have observed. I’m afraid they may be evolving a little already, but time will tell. We call them all maniacs as a whole.” Liz explained.

  “That makes sense from what we have seen.” John sighed. “Are you guys hungry?”

  “Starving!” Christian said.

  Everyone, except for Jacob (who had just woken up and had breakfast) Ethan, and Ryan went inside. The other three went to the end of the driveway. Molly and Mr. Doggleton barked excitedly when everyone went in.

  “Oh wow!” Liz said kneeling on the floor. “Hello!” She hugged Mr. Doggleton as he kissed her face.

  “You won’t see her for a while!” Christian said. “She loves animals. I like animals too, but I’m just so hungry.” We went into the kitchen.

  Rose hurried into the kitchen. “Mike, we could use your muscle.” Mike followed her out.

  “I’m going to see if I can help at all.” Jill said as she followed them out. I helped set plates out for those who hadn’t eaten yet.

  “Mama?” I heard from the top of the stairs. I walked back out of the kitchen. “Hi honey!” I shouted upstairs.

  “Can we come down? We’re hungry.” Megan asked.

  “Of course honey.” The kids came hurrying down the stairs giggling. Everyone in the kitchen greeted the kids and seemed happy to be distracted. Just then, I noticed Julia wasn’t there.

  “Where’s Julia?” I asked.

  “She went outside for some air.” Maya said. “Mrs
. Ford, I believe her name is… is out there talking to her.”

  “Where’s the girl with the pretty hair?” Megan asked.

  It got quiet. Megan looked at me. “Is she in Heaven now mama?”

  Tears came to my eyes. “Yes honey.” I said hugging Megan. A cat ran into the room chased by Mr. Doggleton. Megan stopped Mr. Doggleton. “No, no Mr. Doggleton.” She was distracted.

  “Mr. Doggleton?” Christian asked.

  Cathy laughed. “My daughter Jenny,” She said pointing at Jenny, “named him.”

  “When I was younger!” Jenny blushed.

  “Can you hold Dylan for a second?” Allison asked her mom. “I need to go grab a diaper.”

  “Sure honey.” Naomi said.

  “Can I hold him?” Maya asked.

  “Sure.” Allison said handing him to Maya. “Be right back. She went upstairs. She came running back downstairs. “Mom!” She screamed. “It’s dad!”

  Mike came out of the den into the kitchen. “What’s going on?” Allison and Naomi were already going upstairs so he followed. The three came back downstairs. Allison was crying and so was Naomi.

  “What’s wrong?” Piper asked. Allison hugged Piper. “No! Is it Pépère?”

  Jeremy came into the room. “Brandon is fine. We got the bullet out. He’s resting now I…” He noticed everyone’s faces.

  Mike motioned for Jeremy to follow him upstairs. All the kids were crying now. The rest of us tried comforting the kids.

  “Hey, have you guys ever seen a bazooka?” Alex asked the kids. They all stopped crying and looked at Alex.

  “Alex!” Luis exclaimed.

  “What? It’s harmless. Anyways, we should teach them not to play with weapons!”

  “Why do you guys have a bazooka anyways?” Angela asked.

  A few of them laughed. “Well, it’s a long story!” Christian said while blushing.

  “It definitely is!” Alex sighed

  “So, Alex how long have you been with Christian and Liz?” Gary asked.

  “I met them two days ago. We had a big group that was protecting them, but someone turned into a maniac, and… well took out half our people.”

  “And you have ideas for a cure?” I asked Liz.

  “I do actually. I believe that this was all started in a lab, so we should be able to fix it in the lab, right?” Liz asked me.

  “So, this is man-made?” Mrs. Ford asked. Liz nodded. “I thought so.”

  Jeremy walked in the room. “Uh…”

  “Kids, let’s go play outside.” Mrs. Ford said.

  “Why?” Mary asked.

  “Or you have to help clean up.” Cathy said.

  “Bye!” Nate ran out of kitchen. All the kids left also except for Piper.

  “Is… Is he dead?” Piper asked. She began to cry. “Where is my dad?” Cathy hugged Piper.

  I looked at Robert. Where was Luke? Robert picked up his walkie-talkie.” “Luke, come in!”

  “What’s up?” Luke asked.

  “Where are you?” Robert asked.

  “Ethan and I are working in the shed. You should see the dead mice we found!” Luke laughed.

  “We need you and Ryan inside. Ryan, I’ll cover the driveway.” Robert said.

  “Is something wrong?” Ryan asked.

  “Just come in please. I’m heading down.” Robert responded.

  “I’m on my way.” Ryan said.

  “Me too.” Luke said. Robert left the house and Luke walked in.

  “Dad!” Piper ran to him and hugged him.

  Luke looked at her and wiped away her tears. “He’s dead. He died!”

  “He’s in a better place now honey. Pépère was very sick.” Luke hugged Piper again and she sighed. Ryan came in the house and ran upstairs. We heard the bedroom door open and close. “I’m going upstairs honey. I’ll be back in a minute.” Piper nodded.

  “I’m going to go pick some flowers.” She went outside. Luke sighed and went upstairs. A couple minutes later, Jeremy and Rose came into the room.

  “We need to dig a grave.” Jeremy said. Mike and Gary volunteered and went outside. He must’ve had some other issues going on, cancer or something.” Jeremy sighed.

  “You did everything you could for him.” Jill said. We all agreed.

  “I hate to say it, but we need to get started on stuff.” Ben said. Everyone looked at him. “I’m sorry. I know it sounds harsh, but…” Just then, we heard a gunshot outside.

  The kids came running in with Mrs. Ford. “Wait! Don’t go upstairs yet. I need to count you!” We counted all of them only Piper was missing.

  Luke came running downstairs. “I heard a gunshot. Where’s Piper?” He didn’t see her so he ran outside. The kids went upstairs as we also ran outside.

  Piper was running for the door with Ethan. “I saw her picking flowers outside and when I heard the gunshot, I came running out to make sure she was safe.” Ethan said.

  “Was that a gunshot?” It was Jacob on the walkie-talkie.

  “I believe it was.” Ben responded. “Who’s down there with you?”

  “John and Robert.” Jacob replied.

  “Your family’s upstairs?” Ben asked Luke. Luke nodded. “All of our people are here.” He looked at Luis. “Are you missing anyone?”

  Luis looked at his group. “Julia!”

  We ran to the area where Ethan said he had heard the gunshot. Her body was on the ground. She had clearly killed herself.

  “Oh no!” Maya said. There were gasps all around.

  “I guess we’re digging two graves.” Gary said quietly.

  “Her and Charlie were so close. She just couldn’t live without him.” Maya cried.

  “Are we sure that she did this?” Connor asked. “Everyone looked at him. “I 'm just saying, maybe it was someone else.”

  “She has a gun in her hand Connor. She was depressed. It was her.” Luis sighed.

  “I’m just saying…”

  “You have been acting too paranoid the past few days. It’s pretty clear what happened.” Luis said.

  “Paranoid?” Ben asked.

  “Maybe it was one of them!” Connor said. “We don’t know any of these people.”

  “They were inside with us.” Luis said.

  “Not all of them. That guy and girl were outside. The old lady, the kids.”

  “So you think kids did this?” Maya asked.

  “I’m just saying! Don’t look at me like that. It may be true!” He stomped off.

  “He’s acting paranoid.” Christian said and looked at Liz.

  “The first sign before changing into a maniac.” Alex said.

  “Exactly.” Christian agreed.

  Luis sighed. “Yeah. I was thinking the same thing. So, we can use the shed and make a… I guess cell to put him in? That way when you find a cure we can… I don’t know fix him?”

  “We can do that. I can also study him and figure out things.” Liz said.

  “Study him? Put him in a cell? Are we serious right now?” Maya asked. “What comes next? Are you going to experiment on him?”

  “Maya, when he turns into a maniac…” Luis began.

  “How do we know he will?” Maya asked.

  “We’ve all seen it before.” Gary said. “I hate that it has to come down to this, but we have to protect ourselves and him. This way he’ll live and he won’t harm any of us.”

  Maya sighed. “I hate this.”

  “We all do.” Jill agreed. “Unfortunately, it’s our lives now.”

  “Let’s get to work and build that cell.” Ben urged. “We’ll keep it quiet from him for now.”

  “You should build more than one.” Jason said. We all looked at him. “If one changes, another might also.”

  “That’s true.” Gary said. “You think two cells is enough?”

  “I think so.” Liz said. “I hope so.” She added.

  Ben, Gary, Jason and Mike headed to the shed to work on the cells. We walked to the front of the house. Rya
n was digging a grave near where Sammie had been buried. “I’m going to help him.” Luke said and walked over to Ryan. Gary came back out and asked us if we knew where another hammer might be.

  “I might have a hammer in the truck. I guess I should start digging a grave for Julia.” Luis said.

  Mrs. Ford came out. “Is everything okay?” We told her what happened. “Oh wow. Okay. Sergeant Johnson was saying something different.”

  Luis had heard her. He walked over to her. “What was he saying?”

  “It didn’t all make sense, but he was mumbling about conspiracies. I thought I might come get you guys.” Mrs. Ford responded.

  “Gary, can you help me?” Luis shouted. Gary came over. “I need you and Chase with me just in case. I think Connor is changing now.” They raced inside.

  “Let’s get the kids out here!” I said as Jill, Mrs. Ford, Cathy and I ran inside after the guys.

  Luis looked at us. “We’re going to get the kids.” I whispered. We could hear Connor mumbling to himself in the den. My eyes widened. “That’s where Brandon is!”

  Luis nodded. “Go upstairs with the kids and lock the door!”

  We quickly but quietly went upstairs. Allison and Naomi were with the kids. “Quickly!” Allison said. “I think that man downstairs is turning into a maniac.” We agreed. The kids were crying.

  “We have to be very quiet.” Emma whispered to the others.

  We heard a gunshot downstairs. “Oh no!” Piper said.

  I glanced at Piper. “Where is Ethan?”

  “He heard the man…” Piper began.

  “Connor.” Emma said.

  “What?” Piper asked.

  “His name is Connor.” Emma explained.

  “Yes. I’m sorry. We heard him and Ethan ran downstairs.”

  Chase came into the room. “Is Emma in here?” He spotted his sister and hugged her.

  “What’s going on?” Emma asked.

  Chase was about to tell us. “In the hall!” Cathy said. Cathy, Jill, Emma, Mrs. Ford, Allison, Naomi, Piper and I followed him out.

  “By the time we got into the room, Connor had changed into a maniac. We didn’t want to kill him, but he was strangling Ethan. Ethan was in front of Brandon protecting him. His gun had jammed and Connor was a lot stronger. Captain Jones had to kill him!” His eyes were filled with tears.” Gary went to get the doctor.” Emma hugged her brother.