“Here we go, baby. Daddy got the keys this time,” I said as I opened the driver door to see the keys lying in the crease section of the seat, which separated the lower from the upper.
“Are you shitting me?” I asked in an angered tone, feeling like a first class idiot let out on parole for good behavior, if that was even possible. I felt even more like an idiot for putting both our lives at risk for losing the first set of keys, not checking very thoroughly, and then going back inside for a second set. Shaking my head, I was about to get in when something slammed into me from behind. Pain rushed through my mid-section and I fought against the urge to drop the handgun and grab at the source of pain. I thought a vehicle had swerved to miss something and hit me instead. I was scared to look down to see that my legs were either gone or permanently part of the SUV now and that I would die a slow gruesome death with my daughter waking up to watch.
Screaming filled my ears, the same kind I had heard inside when my Step Daughter had attacked me. It wasn’t a vehicle that had nailed me after all. It was one of those things and it had me at a disadvantage and overpowered. I knew that I only had seconds to react or it was going to kill me, yet my mind was blank. I couldn’t think of a single thing except how much pain was shuttering through my body. I needed motivation to perceiver, a reason not to give up and give in. I needed a damn miracle, although I wasn’t going to count on the latter. I might be dumb, but I’m not stupid… that’s what I tell myself anyway.
With my back to the attacker, I would have to spin around to fight back, giving the thing more than enough time to assault me. It was at that moment I was glad I hadn’t gone into the house and turned the kitchen light on. I wanted to remember my wife as she had been in life. Full of love, laughter and always smiling. I didn’t want the gory image I’m certain was lying in there on the floor roaming through my head just seconds before I joined her.
Fight god dammit, fight for Kember… fight to keep her alive!
My brain screeched. And I did. I dropped to the ground and threw my body to the left, falling in that direction. The attacker lost its grip on me and when I hit the ground I rolled out of the way and got to my feet like a nimble alley cat. The attacker turned and caught the grip of the .9mm across its face, pushing it away from the SUV, giving me more than enough time to enter and slam the door. It also meant I didn’t have to shoot and possibly attract any more of those things. There was a part of me, however, that wanted to unload the Beretta into its face at point blank range. By no means am I an angry person, nor do I go around telling people off or even getting bent out of shape over the smallest thing. I take life as it comes and try to see the best in every situation. This situation, no matter how hard I tried, had no silver lining anywhere.
The SUV started with no problem and I threw it in reverse and spun out of the open garage. The attacker grabbed the side of the vehicle and clung on for dear life. In the road I threw it in drive and the tires fought upon the wet pavement for traction, found some a few seconds later and they quickly lunged forward.
It beat against the driver window and for the first time I was able to get a clear look at my attackers face. The eyes that stared hatefully back at me were dilated, which was impossible. That amount of dilation was reserved for only the dead, yet here this thing was hanging on as best they could to the SUV when they should be motionless somewhere in a casket.
“What the hell?” I spoke aloud. “There’s no way… no damn way you’re alive!”
I blew through a stop sign and continued down the road with the attacker still trying to get in. I figured pointing my .9mm at it would cause it to let go, no such luck is what I found. It was completely unphased by the act, as though it was either extremely courageous or insanely stupid. It continued to scream and bash at the window and I was sure that the glass would eventually give way and it would be in on me in seconds. Luckily though, I spotted a parked car a few hundred feet ahead and planned my next move.
“Get off my vehicle, asshole!” I demanded. “Get off or I’ll peel you off!”
I pressed hard on the accelerator, speeding up and at the last moment swerved across the road and collided with the side of the parked car. The impact wasn’t as violent as I thought it would be – forgive me, I guess I’ve seen too many action movies in my life. And there was no shower of sparks to rain upward into the darkened sky, which sucked. I was hoping to see that in real life, but the screaming attacker
was
sheered from the SUV in a brutal side-swipe. That was real.
“Got you, asshole!”
I watched in the side mirror as it rolled down the road and stopped. A smile began across my lips, yet halted half way, as it got up and quickly gave chase. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it. There was no way in the world that the attacker was still alive. It should have been killed, injured badly at the least, but it was completely unharmed.
“There’s no way… there’s no damn way you are still alive.”
Focusing on driving, feeling the ever present fear surround me once more. I wasn’t safe in the SUV like I had first thought. And as far as I could tell and see, there would be no place on earth where we would be safe. I was essentially running from one problem into the dangerous arms of another at lightning speed. There had to be somewhere that I could lay my head safely without having to worry every three seconds what thing had made the noise that had woke me.
An idea floated into my head.
Through another stop sign, I turned left on Fifth Street and head four blocks until Main Street appeared. From there I turned right and drove down the main drag of the small town I had grown up in. It wasn’t a place to brag about unless you were full country at heart and had very little expectations in life. And I was far from a farmer or farm hand. That would be like taking a professional race car driver and giving him a position as a street sweeper. It was ridiculous.
The drizzle blotted the windshield, so I turned the wipers on; they arched upward and flung the stationary droplets off into the night. As the hum of the wipers cried out, I quickly noticed a few cars up on the sidewalk, twenty feet ahead. I slowed to see if they were okay or needed some assistance, but no one was within the vehicles.
“What in the hell is going on?” I asked aloud. At that very moment, someone stirred within and I stopped. Instantly the occupant saw me and darted out of the vehicle, slipping on the wet sidewalk and falling. Their head struck a small foundation block, snapping their neck and I cringed from the blow and in horror of watching someone die. To my surprise though, they stood up and began to wail. I floored it.
A police cruiser shot across from the side street just ahead and continued out of sight. I followed them until the Police Station came into view and hurried toward it, a smile creeping across my face. I savored the moment in all its glory, but realized that several times before I had gotten my hopes up only to be let down swiftly.
I had to be safe before I could believe I was safe and where else would a person be as far from harm’s way than in a police station. I grabbed the door handle and was about to get out when I thought about my sleeping Daughter. Would she be fine by herself, for only a moment, or was I about to make a horrible decision that I would soon regret?
An Officer stepped outside, as the vehicle lights were shinning into the front window. The Officer drew his holstered weapon and approached cautiously. I stepped out, killing the lights, allowing the Officer to see me.
“Get back into your vehicle and leave!” The Officer shouted.
“My wife has been attacked, I need help for her!”
The Officer cocked the hammer of the H&K USP.9mm. “I said leave, now or I’ll shoot you where you stand!”
“I have my two year old daughter with me,” I said in a pleading manner, raising my hands slowly. “We need help. There are crazy people out here running around.”
“There’s nothing I can do to help you,” The Officer said.
His words stuck in my head like a clogged drain and I couldn’t for the life of me believe them. It was their job to serve and protect, so what part of that did he not understand. “You can’t just leave us out here!” I was growing impatient.
“Get into your vehicle and drive away. Get out of the city and head for the interstate.”
I shook my head, subconsciously lowering my hands. “I’m not going anywhere! We need help, not directions!”
“The National Guard has set up a containment area at the interstate. If you’re looking for help, you’ll find it there. Now go before it too late.” He kept the pistol trained on me.
“What is going on?” I asked.
The Officer approached me and stopped with the barrel of his pistol just an inch from my face. His eyes were filled with something I had never seen before and it frightened me. He pushed the gun against my head and spoke slowly but with a deep tone. “Just… go.”
I wasn’t about to argue with an armed man that looked as though he had just seen what lies beyond the gates of hell. I backed away slowly and got into the SUV, eyeing him as I put it in reverse and backed up slowly.
The Officer backed toward the station, his gun never leaving the direction of my face until he ducked back into the red bricked building.
The drizzle turned to rain and I turned the wipers up a few notches, glanced over my shoulder at Kember and smiled. The SUV backed up and I cut the wheel and stopped in the middle of the street. I could not believe that I had just been ordered to leave town with no explanation as to why. Although, given the shit that had taken place since I woke up no more than thirty minutes ago, maybe leaving
was
a good idea after all. I turned the lights on and almost a dozen people stood directly in front of the SUV staring back at me. Their eyes didn’t look at me, but straight through me as though I wasn’t even there. They were all motionless, like statues placed in an odd place. My hand migrated to the steering wheel and I was about to blow the horn when I noticed something very peculiar about them… all of them.
“Get out of the way.” A voice shouted, drawing my attention as well as theirs. I slowly reached over and grabbed the pistol from the passenger seat as one of them slammed their hands upon the hood, daring me to make another move. I remained perfectly still and watched as they continued to stand there looking lost and confused.
“Are you idiot’s deaf?” Another Officer asked as he crossed the parking lot. “I said get the hell out of his way!”
Instantly they lurched forward, sprinting toward the Officer who was suddenly frozen in his tracks. All he could do was stand there and watch them come for him. Half way across the parking lot and closing, the Officer began firing blindly at them, spun and headed back toward the station. His unaimed bullets caused me to duck, hoping that I wasn’t about to catch a hollow point to the face. At the entrance he grabbed the door handle, but the door was locked and he began banging on it violently.
“Let me in! Jesus, let me in!” he shouted. “For the love of God, open the damn door!”
I wasted no time, as they left the front of my vehicle, and floored it. The tires spun on the wet pavement and caught traction a second later. A few of the violent people turned from the Officer and gave chase, only to stop a block later and head back toward the station. I tried to watch in the rear view mirror for as long as I could, hoping that the Officer who had come out and told me to leave would let the man in. The door never opened and as they hit him I rounded the corner.
I sped down Main Street, not worrying the slightest about being pulled over, watching the darkened sky light with the fires from homes, shops, schools, cars, and lightning. They were everywhere and it looked like hell on earth to me, as if the very Gates of Hell had burst open allowing every evil thing to take up residence in the small town. It was sickening to see and I fought to keep what I had for dinner earlier that night in my stomach. A sudden onslaught of the painkillers surged through me and I felt a euphoric state of mind glass over my worried filled eyes.
The rain fell heavier as I neared the center of town, which offered me a brighter glimpse into the ghastly pits of hell. People ran down the sidewalks, frightened for their lives as they were chased. Some were not fast enough and were run down, quickly overwhelmed by small groups of five to seven of those things. Everywhere I looked there was death. I was glad that my Daughter was asleep and unable to see what was happening all around her.
Several times people would run in front of me, hoping that I would stop and help them or run them down so they didn’t have to face the wretched things chasing them any longer. I instead swerved and sped up, to avoid any further mishaps that might render us vulnerable and open to more attacks. I had been lucky so far and if there was anything I knew about luck, it was that eventually it runs out.
The sting of the cowardly man within surfaced. I felt like a traitor to those poor people. People I had known since I was a small boy. Now they were being murdered in front of me and instead of stopping to help, as a normal person would have done, I just sped up and never looked back. I left them.
I left them all to die.
I ran like the coward I had once been called.
You cannot do anything to help any of them, and the moment you try… well, you know what will happen then. Just get to the interstate where the National Guard is. They are better equipped to handle a situation like this than you are.
My mind told him, although I didn’t feel any better in listening to it. The cowardly feeling crawled all over me until I could actually feel it moving like an insect swarming my skin.