Winter's Salvation (6 page)

As soon as the paramedics got to the bleeding officer, another limped out hopping and holding his leg.  A few seconds after the cops started to spread out, everyone from the window could see the boy lying on the ground with his hands cuffed behind him.  He was laying face down and completely still.  The police officers spread out in complete disbelief.  The boy from what the observers in the window could tell was unconscious.  It looks as if the boy just stopped struggling.  “He musta tuckered himself out.” One of the women said. 

A few of the officers waved the paramedics over and they immediately started checking the boys vitals.  One instantly started doing chest compressions and another put a mask over his face and started forcing air into his lungs.  Another one placed a defibrillator on his bare chest and everyone from behind the shielded glass, of the bank, gasped as the paramedics shook their heads, in a sign that there was nothing more they could do.

“He’s dead,” One of the women said behind them low enough to sound sad, but loud enough to let everyone else know she was sad. 

“Ok it’s quitting time anyway, so why don’t ya’ll count out your drawers and get ready to go.” Their manager said trying to break up the crowd before people started getting real emotional.  “Ok move along,” waving them away as if he were herding cattle. 

**********

Sirens could be heard in every direction and cars raced through the streets.  Normally for Naomi traffic on Thursdays evenings was not too bad.  Getting off most days a little before six just hitting the end of rush hour traffic, but today there were a lot of cars rushing through intersections and running red lights, as if everyone was hurrying to get somewhere important. 

Just then one of her coworkers came up behind her and by her shrill voice Naomi immediately recognized it to be Darlene.  “I just heard there’s this big broadcast all over the stations telling people to stay indoors and not to let anyone in their houses.  Not even family.”

Stories like this were not unusual for Darlene, once she refused to
eat any of her husband’s cooking because, she caught him putting drugs in her food to sedate her, so he could run off with his mistress.  What actually happened was he was dropping beef bouillon cubes into the roast, he was making for dinner.  She failed to take into account that he was going to eat the same roast.  It almost cost them their marriage, so farfetched stories were not unusual for her.  It was not long after that incident and many other ones similar to the poisoned roast episode, he finally had, had enough and got the divorce he desperately deserved.  Since then she has had memberships to every dating website and has yet to find a person she can trust not to rummage through her mail.  So most of the time Naomi nodded her head and said, “yup,” with the occasional, “really,” to whatever crazed fabrication of a helpless victim she played and allowed her to continue rambling, but this time she found herself listening half heartedly, as she tried to figure out what she was witnessing on the streets and the incident that just occurred in the parking lot minutes ago.     

“I just got off the phone with my Aunt and she told me it’s all over the radio and everything.  People are running around randomly attacking people.  The TV was saying people should stay inside and lock their doors, don’t let anyone inside not even your loved ones.  I hope Tommy lets me in.” 

Tommy was a new character in Darlene’s little world that Naomi has never heard of and she already knew that tomorrow she was going to hear about how much of a bastard he is.  “Ok,” she said having nothing to come back with and she just shook her head a little and quickly got into her grey overly clean brand new Dodge Caliber car, to avoid any immediate detail about this Tommy person.  She sat back in her chair wondering how she was going to get out onto the street with all this traffic and turned her key.  She pulled her phone from her purse and checked to see if she missed any calls.  There were none missed.  She expected the radio to play the modern pop music, but was surprised when it was an emergency announcement, that was telling her what Darlene just got finished telling her.  Stay inside, lock all doors, don’t get close to anyone, and stay tuned for further information. 

She immediately called her daughter, Sam, who should be home from school by now.  She pressed talk knowing it would take her directly to Sam because she was the last person Naomi talked to at lunch time today.  The phone showed the message
network busy.
  She pulled her car out in traffic taking no notice to the person that was waiting to pass through the intersection of the bank parking lot. 

Naomi continued to call her daughter, but got the same message every time.  She was caught in heavy traffic and knew it was going to take a while to get home, so she tried to relax and listen to the radio.  As she tried to take in what the radio was saying she looked around and noticed everyone was fighting with their phones.  All the people around her where receiving same
network busy
message.  She took a deep breath and sat up quickly when she felt her phone vibrate on her leg. 

             
The only thing that stopped her from jumping up and hitting her head on the roof was her seat belt.  She picked it up knowing it was Samantha, “What’s going on baby?  Are you alright?”  Naomi recognized she was talking the same time Sam was and neither one heard the other.  “Start over, I didn’t get that.”  Once again she realized Sam was just talking and not listening, so she shut up and just listened.               

             
“There’s someone trying to get into the house!”  Sam hollered into the phone. 

Shocked and not sure exactly what to say, Naomi shouted back, “Did you call the cops?”

“I called them and no one’s picking up.  Mom I don’t know what to do!  He’s breaking through the door!”

             
Naomi felt powerless.  Unable to do anything, but sit and listen to her daughter talk scared to death.  She could hear the pounding on the door.  It sounded as if she were standing in the same room.

             
“Can you go in another room?  Can you go up to your room?”

             
She screamed with a particular thunderous slam and said, “I am in my room.”  Sam began to say something else, but all Naomi heard was a bang and the phone was filled with static, then silence and then the message on her phone again,
network busy.

             
She knew that whoever was outside would soon be inside.  The door would not last long.  Sam’s room was upstairs and on the other side of the house, and for her to be able to hear the person pounding on the front door, the person must have been hitting it so hard the house would soon collapse.  She dialed 911 and she was greeted with
network busy.
 

             
With that her instincts kicked in and she determined that she would not be sitting here in traffic.  She pulled off the street, jumped the curb and rode to the side streets.  Most of them were filled with cars stopped with their hazards on, parked, so no one could get by so she jumped another curb.  Now driving over peoples lawns, nothing was going to stop her from getting to her child. 

             
As she rode not paying too much attention as to what was happening around her, she did notice there were a lot of people trying to get into each other’s houses and she swerved a little to avoid hitting someone who purposely ran out in front of her, but she was determined to get home. 

             
She was on the street again when she pulled up to her house.  She had a long drive way up a steep hill until you got a few hundred feet from her home.  She had a small white cape cod house that could have been the perfect greeting card picture.  A white house with green shutters, freshly cut lawn that looked like it went on forever and behind the house a mountain of black oak trees.  Except now her front screen door was hanging on by the lower hinge and her front door was broken in. 

             
Pulling up to her garage, she did not opening it like she normally would and fear ripped through her entire body. 
What if this person had done something to Sam?  What if he was still in the house?  I have to get Sam. 

             
She got out of her car leaving the door open and walked onto the lawn putting distance between her and her home.  She walked onto her grass until she was looking directly into the open door to her vandalized house.  The inside of the house was dark and random pieces of furniture were thrown haphazardly from the view of the open door.  Pillow cushions from her brown couch were thrown across the room and she could see the entertainment center was knocked over. 

             
The sounds of talking came from inside the house.  There was only one person speaking, but the voice fluctuated up and down.  She crept up the stairs and tried to listen to what was being said.  Stepping over the screen door she leaned over looking into her home.    Naomi looked through the living room and to a long hallway that separated the kitchen from the rest of the house.  The stairs that lead to Sam’s room was in the kitchen.  There was glass shattered across the living room floor from the TV, and multiple different cups and vases that used to rest on the entertainment center.  The coffee and end tables were flipped over and as she studied the damage, a microwave from the kitchen flew through the air and smashed against the dining room wall.  When it crashed against the wall Naomi recognized the talking as being simply mumbling. 

             
The murmuring sounded very much like a baby babbling and as Naomi listened she saw a man turn the corner of the kitchen and stare down the hall way.  He stopped and gazed directly at her. 

             
Naomi’s legs felt heavy and weightless at the same time.  She lost all signals to them and was unable to move.  Fear engulfed her body, but it was not the fear of facing a stranger in her house, but the fear of facing her worst enemy in a dark back roads alley.  This was no man inside of her home, but a creature not of this world and this creature’s white eyes bored into hers. 

             
The creature, at one point in time was in fact a man, but showed no resemblance now.  It’s shirt hung from blood drenched pieces that clung to it’s body.  All the skin from its face was gone exposing white teeth and muscles that flexed as its face showed complete fury filled with hatred.  The skin on the right side of it’s body was ripped from the muscle it once covered.  Instead of showing clean lean muscle, the meat had chunks missing from where other creatures have tore into its flesh. 

             
The mumbling turned into a violent scream that shot blood from it’s mouth.  Naomi felt the energy flow through her body and as the beast lunged forward she lunged back.  Her front foot that straddled the screen door got caught and she fell backwards losing her high heeled shoe and she tumbled down the stairs of her porch.  She rolled over to her stomach and started running to the car.  She looked back to her home when she heard a crash coming from the house and saw the monster tripping over the entertainment center. 

             
She got to her feet and ran across the lawn to her Dodge, losing her other high heel.  The vehicle looked like it was a hundred feet away and only getting further.  She turned toward the house and saw the beast fall through the door and down the steps, but quickly regaining its composure and continued the chase. 

             
She reached the car and dove inside reaching for the door behind her.  She grabbed it and began to pull it shut, but the creature slammed into it forcing it closed.  Naomi’s cries were drowned out by the creatures screams.  She reached over and locked the door.  She fumbled with the keys, but managed to get the right key and started the car. 

             
The driver’s side window smashed, as soon as she dropped it in reverse.  Powerful hands grabbed hold of her braids and pulled her head through the window.  The car flew backwards down the driveway and she felt her head get pulled further out the window followed by a snap in her neck.  At the same time the car ran over one of the creature’s feet.  Naomi screamed in agony as she felt hair get pulled from her head and searing pain ran from the back of her head down her spine and into every appendage. 

             
The creature holding onto a fist full of braids was pulled under the car.  Naomi drove backwards a few yards and saw the creature pushing itself up with his arms over the hood.  It pushed up and propped its right leg under his body.  It looked up at the Dodge, snarled and stood up.  Its lower left leg was completely mangled.  Meat and ripped skin hung through ragged and torn blue jeans.  The creatures black and crimson colored shoe drug behind it by loose strands of muscle and tendon, still connected to the foot in the shoe.  The beast began to run, but it stepped as if its leg was fine.  It didn’t hold up causing him to fall, but he tried to use it anyway.  It stood back up, and looked at the driver in the car.  Hate and anger stretched across its partially skinless face and he let out a scream and tried again, only to fall in the center of the driveway. 

             
Naomi reached down for the gear shift, but quickly pulled her hand back as pain shot through her body starting at her neck.  The creature got to its right knee and used the stump of his left and started to crawl towards the car, growling with each movement.  With her back as stiff as possible she reached down and grabbed the shifter.  She pulled it back into drive and pressed on the gas.