It feels like we have been walking for hours. The road is so dark. Dad thought it best to walk in the dark since the creature seemed to be drawn to the light. We walked in silence.
We finally round the bend into the small little town that is 20 miles from our house. It is chaos. Smoke looms over. Small fires are everywhere. You can hear people screaming. Dogs barking. Car and home alarms ringing through the early morning air. It's been just an hour since the bombs but it feels like a lifetime.
As we get closer to the town's main intersection we see a crowd of people running. Some are screaming. Some look too terrified to do anything but run. A few moments later we see what it is they were running from, a large group of the screaming creatures comes chasing after them.
Dad dropped the bags he was carrying, picked up mom and yelled for me to run. We started running making a beeline for a bar just 10 yards away from us. We make it inside. We are the only ones here. Dad puts mom in a booth.
I look around the room. The lights are dim. Left to the door there is a bar. To the right of the door, there are some booths. There are a few tables with chairs in between and a small dance floor.
On the other side of the room is another door. A sign above it says exit. There is a clock on the wall behind the bar. 5:15. It's been an hour since the crash.
I walk over toward the bar and look around. Checking that we are alone. I walk over the dance floor to the back door. I put my suitcase and backpack down by the door and check if it's shut properly.
"Mary are you ok?"
"I'm fine."
"You have a fever dear."
I look over at them. Dad has a hand on mom's forehead. I walk over to them.
"Let's look at this bite."
Dad unwraps the dressing he put on mom's arm. The bite is purple. The skin around it is purple and fades to a yellowish green. Her veins in her lower arm are a mix of purple and yellow.
"It's infected. That's impossible. It's only been an hour. Dad what is happening?"
"It's ok Zelda. I'm not sure. Ther might have been something in that man's mouth that could have made the bite worse. He had blood around his mouth right Zel?"
"Yeah. Dried blood in and around his mouth and on his hands. There was some on his clothes too I think."
"Maybe this is some kind of illness and the blood in the bite caused your arm to become infected at a rapid rate."
"We need to clean it. Zelda hand me the first aid... Shit. I dropped the bags when we saw that big group of them. It's outside."
"You aren't thinking of going out there are you dad?"
"Toby it's too dangerous."
"Zelda go behind the bar and get me some cool water, a clean cloth and some soap."
I practically jump over the bar. I grab a glass and turn on the water and fill it up. I look in the cabinets under the bar until I find a stack of rags that are used to clean the bar. I grab one and give it a sniff. Good, it smells like laundry. I grab the dish soap off the back sink. I remember the ads they made a while back about washing oil off of birds with this stuff after the oil spill in the gulf so it should be safe.
"I thought you are supposed to put alcohol on wounds to kill the bacteria." I say as I put the stuff on the table.
"That is just movie and TV science. It's best to clean it gently with soap and water then dress it. That's why I only poured water on it on the road."
Thank god dad was an EMT during his 2 year long gap year.
Dad started clean moms arm and I get up to look around some more. See if there is a first aid kit with antiseptic somewhere.
"What do you think is happening?" I ask walking over behind the bar.
"I have no idea. These people look extremely sick. Bloodshot eyes, blood around the mouth."
I look around behind the bar but there is no first aid kit. I walk over to the window on the back wall and look out. They are still out there.
"It's some kind of illness. I've never seen anything like it."
I walk back over and sit down at the booth.
"We should stay here until morning and then head out and find a car. We need to get down to Tacoma. The government will be making will be setting up safe zones in the cities soon. We are gonna make it through this Zel. It's going to be ok hon‒‒‒"
BANG. BANG. Something was hitting the front door.
Dad runs over and put some chairs but against it.
BANG. BANG. BANG BANG!
Dad looks out the window. "They are piling against the door. Get back"
BANG BANG! The creatures knock the door right off its hinges. 5-10 of them start flooding in. Dad grabs the tire iron and starts swinging for their heads.
"ZELDA! TAKE YOUR MOTHER AND HIDE!"
The creatures are screaming as they run at dad. I can hear them hit the floor as dad fights them off.
I grab mom but there is nowhere to go. I take her over to the bar by the back door. I see a baseball bat behind the bar.
I sit mom on the floor and lean her against the front of the bar. I grab the bat and run out to help dad kill the creatures.
He already has three on the ground. Four... Five. He is using the sharp end if the tire iron to stab them in the head.
I swing the bat and feel it connect with the head of one of the screaming creatures. It falls to the ground it's head in two. There is something wrong with these creatures physical makeup. Their bodies are easy to destroy.
Two. My bat connects again and another one falls. Three. Dad gets his 7th. They are so many coming in now. There screams attract more and more.
Then I hear her scream. I spin around and see 3 on top of her. Biting at her. Pulling flesh from bone with their teeth and their hands. Her screams stop almost as soon as they started.
"MOM!!"
I feel my dad's arms around my waist. He is pulling me away.
"Zelda! We have to move!"
He keeps pulling. I feel like I'm drowning. His words sound like he's miles away. Muffled like I'm underwater.
"She would want you to live!"
I snap back. I pull my bat up and swing at the closest creature I can reach. Dad grabs his and mom's backpacks and we fight our way to the back door. I grab my bags and we run.
We run for as long as we can. Back to the road. Headed south just like we were in the car. When we feel it's safe we stop running. We walk for hours. We finally reach a break in the leaf canopy and I can see that it's dawn.
I can't believe what has happened in the last few hours. The sun was rising on a whole new planet than the one it had set on last night. And after what I saw, I know it will never be the same.