Jenna was also crying by the time she was done giving us the details of the note. I didn’t think she realized this though as she was smiling radiantly and didn’t wipe the tears from her face. “Why so many places?” Bret asked softly.
“In case one or all of the others are destroyed,” Lloyd answered. “Or in case they don’t make it near any of the others.”
“They will go to my grandmother’s, no matter what,” Jenna insisted.
“But there is no guarantee your grandmother’s house will still be standing.”
Though the words were harsh and clipped, Jenna didn’t flinch from the truth of them. I felt she was too happy to acknowledge the pain those words would have normally inflicted. “It’s ok, they’re alive,” she breathed. “I will find them, no matter what, and that is all that matters.”
I nodded my agreement. She had come this far, her parents had come this far, I firmly believed they would be reunited again, and I was going to do everything I could to make that happen. “I should have left a note,” Bret mumbled.
I rested my hand on his arm, squeezing it gently. “You couldn’t have known that your mother probably wasn’t affected.”
“I still should have done it; I just assumed that we would be able to get back…”
His voice trailed off, his strong jaw clenched as he turned away from me. I could sense his anguish, his frustration, even though he was trying to keep it buried. “There are plenty of us that wish we could have done things differently, unfortunately there is no changing the past. We have each other, we have our lives, and we need to keep moving forward,” Lloyd said briskly.
I didn’t ask what had happened to his family; he probably didn’t know and none of us liked to be reminded of the loved ones we’d lost. “There’s always hope,” I whispered, briefly recalling my dream of Cade earlier.
Bret’s forest colored, beautiful green eyes came slowly back to me. For one brief, highly alarming moment, I saw only despair in a gaze that had always been so full of wonder and joy. And then, much to my relief, he managed a small smile and squeezed my hand tightly. “Yes, there is.”
I realized too late that he might have taken my words the wrong way. That he may think that I meant hope for him and I again, when that was the last thing in the world I’d meant. I glanced at Jenna, not wanting her to think I had changed my mind about Bret. We’d just become tenuous friends, I didn’t want to ruin that, but she was still staring in wonder at the paper in her hands. I jumped slightly when Bret’s thumb stroked over my hand.
“Your parents may still be out there, there is a chance you will see them again,” I elaborated, gently pulling my hand away from Bret’s. “At least we know there were other survivors that moved through this town.”
“And we had better get moving too,” Lloyd said. “If we want to try and get to the hospital before sunset.”
“Just let me say goodbye to my aunt,” Jenna said, spinning swiftly on her heel.
“Who?” Lloyd asked in surprise.
“Her aunt. She’s frozen,” I explained.
Lloyd’s eyes widened, his mouth dropped as he gaped at me. “What is she!?” he demanded sharply.
I glanced nervously at Bret, thinking that Lloyd had flipped, that perhaps something in his mind had snapped. Lloyd knew about the frozen people, we had done nothing but encounter them for the past month. Hell, they had been nearly impossible to avoid, in the beginning, if we moved further than five feet at a time. How could Lloyd possibly have forgotten about that, and why was he looking at me as if he was about to strangle the life from me?
I took a frightened step back. I had become more competent with weapons, and fighting over the past few weeks, but I sure as hell didn’t want to take on a man that was highly trained by the army for at least a year. “What is she!?” Lloyd demanded again, but this time his voice was low and gravelly.
“She’s frozen, you know one of the frozen people,” Bret said slowly obviously as weary about Lloyd’s strange reaction as I was.
Lloyd let loose with a flurry of curses that would have caused even the most hardened truck driver to blush. They sure as hell made me gape, and even question what a few of the things he said meant. “We need to go!” he declared sharply at the end.
“We’re going in a moment,” Bret told him.
“No! Now! We need to go now!”
Lloyd shoved roughly past me, he stormed down the hall at a rapid pace that left Bret and I staring after him in disbelief. “What the hell was that?” I whispered.
“No idea,” Bret responded, shaking his head slowly. “Let’s hope our trained killer hasn’t flipped his lid though.”
“Bret…”
My words were cut off as Jenna began to protest vehemently from the bedroom. Lloyd ignored her protests as he pulled her forcefully from the room. His hand was wrapped firmly around her upper arm as he began to drag her down the hall toward us. “Move out!” he snapped.
“Lloyd what is going on?” I demanded. I was unwilling to go anywhere with him until I knew where his sudden, and seemingly irrational, fear had come from.
“We can talk as we move. Now move!”
I turned and hurried down the hall, more frightened by the look in his eyes than by his behavior. He was speaking like he was angry, like he was on the verge of snapping completely, but there was pure terror blazing from his eyes. I fled down the stairs, Lloyd’s fear propelling me rapidly forward. Bret followed close behind and Jenna had stopped protesting by the time I reached the bottom floor.
I rushed into the kitchen, realizing only belatedly that I had been too distracted by the note to check inside the fridge. I didn’t think there was much hope for anything in there, but it was worth a peek. I flung the door open and froze. The power hadn’t gone out in this area of town so some of the food had managed to stay good, but there was green ooze seeping from the crisper and an awful smell assaulted me. There were also two boxes of Cheerios, one of Special K, and a Raisin bran sitting on the shelf amongst the mess. In front of them was a post-it that read Jenna.
“Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Howe,” I whispered. I didn’t know why the hell her parents had placed them in the fridge, perhaps they’d hoped to keep them fresher, but I didn’t care. I swung my backpack forward and began to shove the boxes inside as the other three entered the room.
“Bethany,” Lloyd hissed.
“One moment,” I retorted, shoving and pushing the third box into my bag. It wasn’t going to zip all the way closed again, but I didn’t care. The cereal would keep us going for a few more days, maybe even a week or more if we were careful with it.
“Bethany let’s go!”
I tried to pull my arm from Lloyd’s iron tight grasp. Though he was thin, he was far stronger than he appeared as he clung to me. “The cereal!” I snapped.
He shoved his face into mine. “Screw the cereal!” he snarled.
I blinked in surprise as he tugged the zippers on my bag closed and threw it onto my back. The last box of Cheerios fell to the floor. Barney had already been on his feet, but now he surged eagerly forward as the little O’s scattered across the linoleum. “Wait!” I gasped as I was pulled roughly forward. “Barney.”
Lloyd wasn’t listening to me though as he drug me toward where Jenna and Bret waited by the door. Jenna looked fearful; Bret just looked completely baffled by everything. “What the hell is your problem!?” I demanded breathlessly.
“The aunt is frozen,” Lloyd responded, not at all slowing down.
“So are a lot of other people,” I retorted growing more fearful of his erratic behavior.
Lloyd glanced back at me. “She’s frozen and she’s still here. The rest of the town has been cleared out already.”
I gasped in horror, the niggling feeling I had experienced upstairs suddenly came surging to the forefront. Though I hadn’t quite understood what had been bothering me at the time, I understood it now, and I cursed myself for being an idiot. Every other place we had come across i
n this area had been damaged, and completely devoid of human beings. But not here, in this frozen Mayberry of peace and tranquility. No, here everything was still perfect, still intact, still as everyone had left it before the moment that had shattered our lives. Everything was as it had been, including the people unable to flee from the monsters heading their way. The monsters that would seek them out in order to drain them of their life.
Monsters that would be heading our way.
“Crap,” I breathed.
“Yes crap, now let’s go.”
I didn’t protest anymore, didn’t argue with him. I fled out the door, pounding down the steps of the porch. I turned back, wanting to call out to Barney as Bret and Jenna raced across the street toward the woods. My voice froze in my throat though as I realized that everything had gone oddly, deathly quiet once again. My terrified gaze swung to Lloyd, I saw the answering panic in his bulging eyes.
Barney emerged onto the porch, his ears pricked, his nose raised into the wind. The hair on the back of his neck stood up seconds before one of the monstrous things rose up from behind the house. It was not as large as the house, or at least its main bulk wasn’t, but this one had become big enough so that one of the tentacles was able to reach the second story windows. It was only that tentacle I could see at first, as the rest of it was blocked by the home, but it slowly began to emerge from the back.
Its opalescent and red bulge began to squish and push its way in between Jenna’s aunt’s house and her neighbor’s. Boards were ripped free, windows shattered, the front porch caved beneath the weight of the bulging creature pressing upon it. This was what had caused the antique store my mother had died in to collapse. This was what had ripped the roof free, snapped bracings, and ruined the building with seeming ease. Its progress was hindered by its size, but that was not going to stop it as part of the house gave way to its heavy bulk. It seemed that as long as these atrocities continued to suck up blood, they also continued to grow in both width and height.
Barney leapt off the porch as one of the tentacles whipped toward him. He let out a startled yelp, barely managing to avoid the things hungry grasp. “Barney,” I whispered as I slid to a stop.
“It’s a damn dog!” Lloyd barked. “And he’s faster than you!”
I was torn between going back for the dog, and listening to the complete and utter logic that Lloyd spewed. In the end, it was Barney’s speed and cunning ability to avoid the whipping tentacles that made sane reasoning finally return. The dog leapt and bound forward with grace and speed. He nearly beat me into the relative safety of the woods.
I plunged into the forest at the same time that three more of the monsters emerged onto the street. Two of them came straight at us.
CHAPTER 6
“Zigzag,” Lloyd ordered.
He didn’t have to tell me twice as I raced in and out of the trees. I didn’t know what good it was going to do us though, those damn things were fast, and their freaking tentacles were even faster. We had no position to stand and fight, not right now anyway. We needed higher ground, but the last thing I was going to do was climb a freaking tree. I’d never survive then, a tree was no obstacle for these things.
Unfortunately there appeared to be no other high ground around us. My gaze searched wildly around the forest, looking for something, anything that would give us some sort of protection or shelter. I glanced over my shoulder, Jenna was already starting to lag a little, and I could feel the burn in my lungs and legs. We couldn’t keep this up for much longer, and judging by the rapid snapping of trees resonating behind us, we weren’t putting much ground between us, and them.
Lloyd jumped onto a set of boulders; he turned partially around, his eyes narrowed as he surveyed the woods. He leapt off the boulders, disappearing momentarily from sight. I pushed myself to keep going, but the backpack was becoming steadily heavier, and my legs hurt more and more with every step I took.
Barney darted past me for a moment, brushing briefly against my legs before surging ahead. The saying that a person didn’t have to be the fastest in the group when being chased, they just have to be fastest than the slowest member, flashed through my mind. Apparently Barney knew this saying, and lived by it. Then again, Bret was staying behind me and though I couldn’t see her, I knew that Jenna was falling even further behind.
Maybe some people wouldn’t mind just being able to beat someone in order to survive, but I sure as hell did. There was no way I was going to allow Jenna to be lost, not like this anyway. And I certainly wasn’t going to lose Bret. There had to be something that we could do. Even if these things did catch Jenna, they weren’t going to stop with just her anyway. They would take us all down one by one.
Lloyd suddenly reappeared, he was standing on another set of boulders, his rifle raised, his eye pressed to the scope. The boom of the shot was startling in the forest, but no birds took flight. Where the hell did they all go when they felt the approach of these damn things? I suddenly, and uselessly, wished for wings too. Though I didn’t think there was any chance he could hit one of them through the trees, Lloyd fired off another shot. He probably just hoped to make them hesitate; I didn’t think for one minute that it would work.
I leapt onto the boulder beside Lloyd, struggling to catch my breath as I studied the forest. I could see trees bending and hear them snapping, but I could not see the monsters causing it through the thick foliage of the trees. I may not be able to see them yet, but they were noticeably closer. “Keep going,” Lloyd commanded, sounding annoyingly less out of breath than me and my rapid panting.
“We need to make a stand.”
Lloyd barely glanced at me before firing off another round. “Do you honestly think we can beat those things?”
“Do you honestly think we can outrun them?” I managed to choke out, horrified by the notion that Lloyd didn’t think we could beat them.
“Run.”
“Don’t wait too long.”
I jumped off the boulder, fleeing into the woods behind Jenna and Bret now. We needed to hide, we needed to find somewhere to go to ground, or we were going to die. My heart pounded, I could hear the blood rushing through my ears in giant pulsing waves. My vision was beginning to blur, I could barely breathe through the terror hammering at me. Hope, I was trying to cling to hope, but it was completely eluding me at the moment.
All I had was mind numbing fear.
I was so focused on keeping my legs moving, and trying to see through the bright lights exploding before my eyes, that I didn’t realize Bret and Jenna had stopped suddenly until I nearly plowed into them. “Who the hell puts a fence in the middle of the damn forest!?” Bret exploded.
Dismay and horror filled me, my mouth dropped as I stared at the chain link fence before us. My eyes traveled slowly up, I nearly vomited at the sight of the barbwire twisted thickly around the top of it. I looked to the right, and then to the left, but the fence stretched as far as I could see. A strange guttural sound of complete dismay escaped me.
“This way,” Bret said crisply.
He turned to the right and began to run along the length of the fence. I didn’t know what he was looking for, but he kept his hand on the fence as he moved. I glanced over my shoulder, relief filling me as I caught sight of Lloyd closing in on us. Bret stayed close to the fence line, but it was Barney that found the hole first. I didn’t even see the hole, or know that we had gone past it, until I realized Barney was on the other side.
“We missed something!” I gasped.
Barney followed me as I darted back along the fence. “Bethany!” Bret hissed.
Though Barney didn’t bark, he began to run back and forth in the same area. I stumbled, nearly fell as I tried to push myself harder, but my legs were too tired, and I was too fatigued to move any faster than I already was. I skidded to a halt, nearly falling over as I stopped abruptly. Leaves and dirt kicked up around me, Barney’s tail wagged in eager excitement as he made one more trip back and forth. Vines and weeds had sprun
g up along both sides of the fence; it was easy to see how we had missed the hole even though it was a decent size.
“Here!” I gasped. “Here!”
I tore at the bittersweet and grape vine. They cut into my hands, tore at my skin, but clung to the fence with frustrating and frightening tenacity. Lloyd appeared at my side, his eyes narrowed as he pulled and ripped at the vines with me. “Go,” he hissed when we had cleared enough of the hole to fit through. “Go Bethany!”
I slid through the fence, tugging at my shirt as it was momentarily caught up on a piece of broken metal. I heard my shirt tear, felt the bite of metal against my back, but I didn’t care. I pushed Barney back as he eagerly tried to lick my face. “They should have named you freaking Lassie,” I muttered at him.
He licked me one more time before backing away. His tail tucked between his legs, his ass end dropped down as he began to cower. I refused to look behind me, refused to see what had him so frightened all of a sudden, what he could see approaching and I could not. It might be spineless, but I found I could not turn and face my death head on. Jenna, Bret, and Lloyd came through the fence next. “This way.”
Lloyd broke into a brisk run that we all struggled to keep up with. Though the fence had kept us out, there was no doubt that it would do the same for the things hunting us. “Wait!” I gasped suddenly skidding to a halt.