washer fluid. They ignored it. He leaned on the horn. The creatures staggered backwards, one tumbling onto the gravel. The van thudded over it. Rachel whimpered, sickened.
The other one pounded on the windshield, its fist whacking like a rubber mallet on the glass. It bared its teeth and flecks of blood and gore stuck in the gaps. Nauseated, Rachel squeezed her eyes shut when she glimpsed bits of fur plastered with blood to the side of its face. Peter leaned on the horn again.
She opened her eyes. The creature hadn’t flinched. It returned to pounding on the glass. Peter accelerated the van.
“Hold on,” he said, “I’m slamming on the brakes again.”
Rachel gripped her seat. Peter stomped on the brake pedal, and they pitched forward, the seatbelts tightening around them. Jeff cried out, but when Rachel glanced over at him, he seemed unhurt. The creature rolled towards the edge of the hood, but continued to cling to the vehicle.
A frustrated sob escaped Rachel. Behind her, Jeff wailed. Peter cursed again and leaned on the horn. “Get off you son of a bitch.”
The van accelerated again, and Peter jammed on the brakes as the thing tried to regain its position on the windshield. This time, the creature slid down the front of the vehicle, its fingers clawing for purchase on the hood.
Peter pressed the gas, slammed on the brakes once more, and hit the gas again. The creature disappeared from sight and they felt a sickening thud as the van rolled over its body. The sound of retching reached Rachel’s ears, and she turned to find Jeff vomiting onto the floor. The odour of sour milk filled the van.
“Oh, Jeff,” she said. Rachel turned to Peter. “I’m sorry, Peter. Jeff puked in your van.”
“Least of our worries, Rache. We’ll clean it up when we can. I’m not stopping anywhere along this road. We’ll live with the smell. Besides, I don’t own the van—I just drive it.”
She smiled, for a moment letting the horror of it all slip away. They were driving fast, and Peter eased up on the gas as they approached a bend in the road. Around the curve, Rachel spotted a car approaching too fast.
“Watch out,” she shrieked.
“I see it.” Peter swerved when the car roared past. He honked and pulled over to the side of the road. The vehicle didn’t slow.
“Oh, God,” Rachel said. “They’ll drive right into the monsters.”
“Get my cell phone out of the glove box, Rachel. Call 9-1-1. We can’t go back. Those people will have to manage.” Peter sounded unsure.
Rachel nodded her head, avoiding eye contact. He was right—they’d barely escaped and had lost Spike and her mom to those things.
Peter started the van again and continued along the road. Rachel opened the glove box and removed the cell phone, Peter talking her through the steps to unlock it. She dialled, and it rang. When a man answered, she told the dispatcher they were on their way to the Ridley police station, provided their names, and hung up. Next, she dialled her dad. No answer at home or on his cell, just voicemail. She tried his office. Voicemail kicked in. Rachel turned off the phone and set it back in the glove box.
Ten minutes later, they reached the Fergus house, which sat on the northeast corner of Highway 28 and Storm Lake Road. Rachel stared out Peter’s window, trying to glimpse Mr. Fergus or anyone else.
Her eyes took in the gaping holes on the roof. The creatures had torn it apart, as they had the marina store’s roof. If the Ferguses hadn’t escaped in their car, they were likely dead. The car sat in front of the garage. She stared at it, horrified, until Peter turned onto the highway, and she lost sight of the house.
They hadn’t driven far along the highway when they spotted a car upside down in the ditch, one door hanging open, the windows broken. Blood soaked everything.
“Faster, Peter” Rachel said.
Her head slapped back onto the headrest when he stomped on the gas pedal. The van veered over the yellow line, but the road was clear.
Rachel swept hair off her face, her hand shaking. She glanced over at Jeff, who goggled back at her.
More of the things slid out from the forest. They passed another car in the ditch, two creatures crawling over it. Blood smeared the doors of that car as well.
Rachel turned towards Peter, but he kept his gaze locked on the road ahead. He must have sensed her, though, because he said, “Keep your eyes on the side of the road, Rachel. Tell me if they’re heading this way. Jeff, you watch my side.”
The homes they passed were destroyed, as the Fergus house had been. They passed a motel and a few restaurants. All looked abandoned: roofs torn apart, windows smashed in, doors hanging open.
Fifteen minutes later, they approached Ridley, population 3,000. Peter turned off the highway and headed towards the police station.
Rachel’s heart sank the closer they got. Many of the homes were in similar condition to the Fergus home.
“They’re here, Peter. They’re everywhere,” she said.
The van lurched as Peter turned into the police station parking lot. The creatures crawled along the police station’s roof. Rachel squeezed her eyes shut, opened them again, disbelieving.
“No. No.”
Peter turned the van around and headed back to the road. The van raced towards the highway, swaying when Peter took the corners too quickly.
“I swear I saw people in there—but who knows what’ll happen to them if those things break in,” Peter said.
“Surely they can’t break into the police station,” Rachel replied.
“Probably not. The cops would have guns. But while those creatures are out there, we’re stuck out here.”
“Where are we going? We can’t drive around forever.” Rachel checked the gas gauge, which registered half a tank.
Peter pulled the van onto the highway without stopping and increased his speed again, to ninety kilometres per hour. At least the rain had stopped, though grey clouds still blanketed the sky.
“We’ll head to Peterborough. It’s much bigger. They can’t overrun a city like Peterborough. We’ll find the police station. If the military know about this, they’ll help us,” Peter said.
“Okay.” Rachel looked into the forest, where shadows moved between the trees.
She turned back to Peter and shook her head.
“No,” she said, as if to convince them both. “They can’t overrun a city.” Rachel leaned back in her seat, stared out the window, and imagined she was running.
The End
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About the Author
Author Val Tobin worked in the computer industry as a software and Web developer for over ten years, during which time she started to get serious about energy work and the paranormal and occult. She became a Reiki Master/Teacher in 2004, and acquired Angel Therapy Practitioner® certification in March, 2008, in Kona, Hawaii from Doreen Virtue, PHD.
Val received a Bachelor of Science in Parapsychic Science from the American Institute of Holistic Theology September 2010. After obtaining a Master's in Parapsychology at AIHT, Val has set her sights on the PhD, which she'll pursue as time and finances permit.
At the end of October 2008, Val returned to Kona, Hawaii to complete the Advanced ATP® training and in April 2010 to take the Spiritual Writing workshop and the Mediumship Certification class.
Val wrote freelance for online magazine Community MX and for Suite101, and was Topic Editor for Paganism/Wicca and Webmaster Resources at Suite.
A published author, she contributed a story to Doreen Virtue's Hay House book Angel Words. Her novels are available through various retailers.
Other books by this author
Please visit your favourite e-book retailer to discover other books by Val Tobin:
Angel Words by Doreen Virtue and Grant Virtue
Val contributed a story to Doreen and Grant Virtue’s Angel Words: Visual Evidence of How Words Can Be Angels in Your Life
The
Valiant Chronicles Series
Earthbound
A Valiant Chronicles prequel. A spirit becomes earthbound after refusing to cross over in order to solve her murder and prevent more deaths, some of which might be predestined. Available in spring 2017
Book One: The Experiencers
A black-ops assassin atones for his brutal past by trying to help an alien abductee escape her fate.
Book Two: A Ring of Truth
A rogue assassin returns from the dead to rescue alien abductees and triggers Armageddon.
Injury
A young actress at the height of her career has her personal life turned upside down when a horrifying family secret makes front-page news.
Gillian’s Island
A socially anxious divorcée confronts her greatest fears when she's forced to sell her island home and falls for the dashing new owner.
Walk-In
A young psychic woman fights an attraction to a handsome but sceptical novelist while she battles a power-hungry sorcerer determined to make her his next conquest.
About Three Authors Series
Out There
Three wanna-be authors suffering from various mental disorders find love in unexpected places when they interfere in the investigation of a colleague’s murder. Available in fall 2017
Connect with Val Tobin
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