Authors: Gary Chesla
A large plate of fried chicken, six slices of meatloaf, a large bowel of mashed potatoes, a gravy boat, a bowel of corn and beans, two hotdogs and half an apple pie.
Kimmy reached out and grabbed a hotdog.
Kelly smiled. “I think I’m hungry after all. This all looks very good.”
“I hope you enjoy it.” Milly said. “Can I get anyone something to drink?”
“I want Mountain Dew!” Kimmy said, her mouth stuffed with hotdog.
“This looks great Milly.” Mike said. “Just some water for me please.”
Milly turned and walked back towards the kitchen.
“She doesn’t look crazy to me!” Kimmy said loudly.
Mike felt another sharp pain in his shin. “What did I do this time?”
Chapter 7
John had a lantern lit and sitting on the end of the picnic table that sat ten feet away from the porch steps in the back yard.
Barb sat on one side of the table. John sat on the opposite side of the table. Cindy sat next to her dad.
Boots, Cindy’s cat, sat on the ground next to Cindy, sniffing the air and watching Cindy with great interest.
Cindy wasn’t allowed to feed the cat from the table, but food always seemed to find a way to fall off her plate and on to the floor. Boots was patient and waited. It was only a matter of time.
Worst case, Boots would always get a big pan full of leftovers. From the look on Boot’s face and the mouthwatering smell of the sizzling fish on the grill, she knew either way she would have a good night.
Barb took a spatula and dished out a large fluffy fish filet on to everyone’s plate. Next she put a scoop of macaroni and cheese next to the fish.
I hope the macaroni is done, its hard boiling water on a charcoal grill.
“It looks great.” John smiled.
“Cindy do you want to pour us all a glass of cool-aid?” Barb asked.
Cindy jumped up and ran to the end of the table and picked up the big pitcher and poured a big glass of grape cool-aid. She sat the pitcher down and carried the glass over and gave it to her dad. The next glass she took over and put it by her plate. The last glass Cindy took over and set it by her mother and then ran back to sit down next to John.
“I guess I know where you and I rank in this family.” Barb grinned at John.
John smiled back as he reached over and put his arm around Cindy and gave her a little hug.
“Enjoy it now.” Barb smiled. “It won’t last long.”
They were all hungry and made fast work of their fish and macaroni. Everyone had seconds, but left just enough to reward Boots for her patience.
Barb watched Cindy pet Boots. Boots purred loudly as she ate and enjoyed all the attention.
“Do you think we have anything to worry about?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I’m starting to think we do.” John said as he glanced out over the creek where Route 711 followed the other side of the creek and passed their place on its way to Ligonier. It was dark and he really couldn’t see the creek or the road from where he sat. The light from the lantern only lit up a radius of ten feet.
“It’s strange not seeing any cars driving by. It’s been almost a week since the last car went by.” John said. “What worries me the most right now is food. When I went into town, all the grocery stores were closed.”
“If nothing opens up for a while, you and Cindy can always fish.” Barb smiled as she continued to watch Cindy play with Boots by the picnic table.
“That will help.” John said still sounding concerned. “But we won’t be the only people that will be running low on food. When I went into town, the people I managed to run into were scared. Some were afraid to talk to me. The one’s that did, I could tell were half afraid to talk to me, like I was going to rob them or something. What is going to happen when everyone is hungry and there is nowhere to get food?”
“I’m sure people will share.” Barb replied.
“Some will.” John said. “But you know people. There are a lot of people that will start going out to take what they need and the hell with everyone else. It can start to get dangerous when people get scared.”
“But we know a lot of the people around here and they know us. Surely.” Barb said.
“At work we have a lot of customers who love us, as long as everything goes their way.” John frowned. “The minute something doesn’t go their way, they change and we are the scum of the earth. They want to sue and threaten to put us out of business.”
“People get funny when they are scared. If things are bad out there? If the country is at war. Hell as far as we know the war is over and we lost, things could get really bad. There may not be any help coming for who knows how long. We could be on our own. If the cities are gone, if the government is gone, it could be years before anyone comes around to fix things.” John shook his head. “I don’t want to let my imagination get out of hand. This could all be back to normal tomorrow. Maybe someone hit a pole down the road and it will be replaced in the morning.”
“But there was all that stuff on the news. Then the emergency broadcasts about the cities?” Barb looked at John.
“Yea, then there is all that.” John sighed. “There is something bad going on, I just don’t know what or how bad it might be. Sometimes a little information is worse than none at all.”
“What do you think we should do?” Barb asked. She definitely looked worried.
“I think we should probably just sit tight for another day or so and see what happens. Hopefully Mike will get back to me. Maybe he can tell us what is going on out there. Maybe it’s just Ligonier. Maybe things are normal down his way.” John said.
“We could take the truck and go for a ride down to Greensburg and see for ourselves.” Barb suggested.
“Maybe. But I think we should wait a few days. If Mike doesn’t call me back in another day or two, I think we need to do that so we have an idea at least about what is going on around here.” John replied.
“What if he calls you back and says it’s really bad everywhere?” Barb asked.
“If that’s the case, we should either go down to his place or have him come up here. It might be easier if we work together. Besides, safety in numbers.” John said and tried to smile. His smile was more of a worried frown than the comforting smile he was trying for.
Barb reached across the table and squeezed his hand. This time more to comfort herself than to comfort John.
Not knowing was scary.
Suddenly their quiet contemplation was interrupted by Boots.
Boots suddenly stopped eating and got tense as she stared off into the darkness by the creek.
She took two steps backward, arched her back and hissed.
John and Barb’s mouths dropped open as they stared at Boots. An eerie feeling crept down John’s spine.
Cindy ran over and scooped Boots up in her arms.
John turned slowly and stared out into the darkness.
They listened as they all stared out into nothingness.
John stood as he looked out towards the creek. “Is there someone out there?” John called out.
There was no response.
They all stood quietly.
Boots hissed again and jumped out of Cindy’s arms. She ran along the side of the picnic table, stopped and hissed again at the darkness.
Cindy yelped as Boots jumped out of her arms. Blood ran down her arms where she had been scratched.
Cindy made a painful looking face as she rubbed her arm where she had been scratched.
John called out again. “Is there someone out there?”
There was no response, but now he could hear a sloshing sound coming from down by the creek.
“Maybe it’s a deer or something.” Barb said. “Or maybe it’s a dog. That big shepherd from the Miller Farm keeps coming around here terrorizing Boots.”
“Maybe.” John said. “That would explain Boots being so worked up.
John turned to pick up the lantern off the table. He decided to take the light and walk closer towards the creek to see what was out there.
Cindy ran out and picked up Boots. “Come on Boots. I won’t let that mean old dog bite you.”
John held up the lantern and took two steps towards the creek.
“Don’t go out there too far John.” Barb said nervously. “Maybe we should just go in the house.”
“In a minute.” John replied. “I want to see what has Boots so worked up.”
“It might be a rabid raccoon.” Barb added. “Don’t go and get yourself bit by some crazy raccoon. If we can’t get you to the hospital to get a rabies shot you could get sick.”
“I’ll be careful.” John said.
“Boots stop that!” Cindy said struggling to hold the cat without getting scratched again.
John held up the light and stepped up beside Cindy.
John strained to see as he spotted movement at the far edge of the light shining out from the lantern.
The movement slowly got closer.
John held the lantern higher, trying to make the light reach further into the darkness.
At the very edge of the light, a shape began to take form.
The shape grew larger and moved into the far reaches of the light.
“It’s a guy!” John said quietly.
“Hey buddy, talk to me.” John raised his voice. “What’s going on over there?”
The shape moved closer, but it moved strangely. It staggered and seemed to struggle with each step.
“Hey buddy. Are you OK?” John asked becoming concerned someone was injured and trying to come to him for help. Maybe it was one of his neighbors that had gone out to look around and had fallen and got hurt.
John took a step closer with the light. He didn’t see Cindy move along with him.
The light began to show more of the person in front of them.
The person struggled. It looked like the shape of a man. He was dragging one leg. His right arm hung by his side, swinging freely back and forth. The shape looked like one would expect to see when someone crawled out of an auto accident. But there hadn’t been any cars by here for days.
John began to walk closer. It was obvious whoever this was, he needed help.
John almost stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the blood that covered the front of the man. He cringed when he saw the white bone sticking out of the man’s right leg.
Cindy, still holding the struggling Boots, moved by his side.
John was now ten feet from the grotesquely injured man, the lantern was shedding more light now on the poor guy’s injuries as he moved closer to where the light would soon let John see the man clearly.
Just as the light began to illuminate the figure more clearly, it began to lift its head to face John.
When John saw the man look at him, one eye was gone, his right cheek had been torn away and the teeth on that side of his face glistened as the light reflected off the teeth. A black liquid ran out of his mouth as the jaw opened and closed. The eyes were a milky color, with no sign of any other color. John froze. “How could this guy still be alive and moving?”
Cindy, who was walking next to her dad, didn’t notice that he had stopped and continued on oblivious for another three steps.
Just as John noticed Cindy was out in front of him, the man let out an unholy groan and lunged at Cindy.
Barb screamed as she saw the man grab at Cindy.
Cindy fell backwards onto the ground. The man’s outstretched arm brushed against her as he fell towards her. His hand just missed grabbing her arm, but instead latched onto Boots.
Cindy looked on in horror and screamed as the man fell on top of Boots and began to savagely bite into her. The poor cat screamed in agony as the man rammed his teeth into her body and jerked his head away from the cat, tearing off its right front leg and half of the fur and flesh from her ribs.
The cat let out one more small cry before it fell silent.
Cindy’s mouth was open, but she couldn’t force out another sound as she saw the man rip her cat to pieces in front of her eyes.
John dropped the lantern and quickly ran up to Cindy and jerked her up off the ground and held her tightly against his chest, his hand against the back of her head, making her look away from the scene in front of them.
Over the sound of the man savagely devouring the cat, John began to hear water down at the creek thrashing and splashing violently.
He took a nervous glance in the direction of the other sounds. At the edges of the light, more shapes began to appear. They staggered, some fell but struggled to right themselves. All motion coming in his direction.
Barb’s scream broke John’s trance.
As he began to turn in Barb’s direction, he saw the man that had been eating the cat, was now staring at him and trying to get to his feet.
John moved backwards. The unholy sound he had heard from the man that had attacked Cindy and the cat was now coming from all around him.
He looked back at Barb, who was standing motionless. A silent scream frozen on her face as another guy was only feet away from her. His arms outstretched as he groaned and shuffled closer.
As if the situation wasn’t unbelievable enough, the man almost on Barb was only wearing a hat. The sight of his bloody disfigured body made a vile taste rise in John’s throat.
He tucked Cindy under his arm and ran towards Barb as vomit flew from his mouth and down over the front of his shirt and Cindy.
He made it to Barb with only a second to spare. He raised his leg and jammed his foot in the center of the man’s bare bloody chest. The man flew backwards, thrashing violently as he hit the ground.