by Poe, S. B.
What Remains
Marionette Zombie Series
Book 13
SB Poe
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental
Copyright © 2021 SB Poe
All rights reserved.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you all for coming on this journey with me.
What Remains
Contents
Part 1
The Light Show
Daybreak
For Safekeeping
The Other End of the Road
Red Flag
Where it all Began
Part 2
Keys and Locks
For Now
Moving
The Hour Grows Late
Part 1
What Was
The Light Show
“Roll the window up, it’s chilly.” Theresa said.
“Don’t you think we’ve gone far enough?” Abby asked.
“I want to make sure we get a clear view.” Joel said, as he leaned forward to look through the windshield. The radio was broadcasting the news on the hour.
“In other news, the world welcomed the birth of the seventh great-grandchild of the Queen of England today. The palace announced the birth of Victoria Lennox Winfield this morning. The Queen was said to be extremely pleased and mother and baby are doing very well. Sadly, the same can’t be said for the sudden outbreak of the recently discovered Marionette virus that began plaguing the island of Madagascar a few days ago. Local government officials are continuing to call for international intervention in what is rapidly growing into a humanitarian crisis, as hospitals appear to be overwhelmed and there are now sporadic reports that it has spread to the African continent. Officials at the National Institute of Health said they are aware but not overly concerned but did take the opportunity to remind all Americans to get their annual flu shot. And finally astronomers at the Willis Observatory at UGA say that tonight’s brief meteor shower from the passing of the Morsumbra Comet will be most visible in areas with limited light pollution but will wane over the next few days. Next news at ten.”
“See? It’s going to be much better out here.” Joel said. The car’s headlights lit the field ahead as it eased around the winding country road.
“Look!” Abby leaned forward and pointed. “All those eyes look spooky.”
“Deer.” Joel said. “Lots of them.”
“Abigail Patterson put your seatbelt on.” Theresa snapped.
“Sorry.” She leaned back and buckled the belt.
“Next place I can find to pull off the road, we’ll stop. We’re going to get a great view out here.” Joel eased his foot off the accelerator slightly. The road widened in front of an old country store that the kudzu had mostly reclaimed. The car stopped. They all got out.
“It’s creepy.” Abby said.
“Everything’s creepy to you.” Joel said.
“Yeah, well out in here in the middle of nowhere standing in front of this place is kind of creepy.” Theresa said. “You gotta admit.”
“You know my mother grew up just down the road from here, right?” Joel said.
“And she moved to the city as quick as she could. She told me.” Theresa said.
“Look back that way.” Joel pointed. The glow of Atlanta was distinct. The halo of light against the black outline of the distant trees made where they stood that much darker. An ancient bare oak broke the sky into puzzle pieces ahead of the horizon. “Don’t you ever want to get away from all that?”
“This won’t be another one of those ‘I think we should just move to the country and raise goats’ trips, will it?” Theresa smiled as she came around the side of the car.
“No Dad. Please tell me you’re not going to start that again.” Abby chimed in.
“All I’m saying is that it would be nice to live a little simpler, even if it’s just for a while. Get in touch with nature.”
“Why?” Abby asked.
“Just to see if we can. Proof of concept. You never know if you don’t try.”
“Then I’ll guess I’ll never know because there is no way you’re ever going to talk me into buying a farm and raising goats.” Theresa said.
“What is it with you and goats? I think you secretly want to raise goats. I’ve seen your phone. All those baby goat videos in your favorites.”
“There’s a bunch of recipe videos in my favorites too but that doesn’t mean I plan on cooking them. The Apron Store delivers all we need.” Theresa laughed as she elbowed him in the side.
“One can dream, can’t he?” Joel said.
“It’s starting.” Abby said, as she pointed to the darkened sky.
A few streaks flashed above their heads. At first it was sporadic, one here, another there. The first long streak occurred fifteen minutes after Abby had lifted her hand to the sky. Fifteen minutes after that, the ground around them grew brighter as the darkness above filled with short streaks and long running tails of light across the sky. Joel glanced at his wife and child and could see the reflection of the sky in their eyes. All of them had smiles on their faces as the light show held them entranced for another half hour. The sky slowly returned to a slightly darker shade than before as the night passed by. The glow of the city once again took over the western sky.
“We’d have never seen all that from there.” Joel nodded towards the west.
“That was amazing.” Abby said.
“You do have your moments.” Theresa said.
As they began the long drive home, she reached over and squeezed his hand. An hour later, they pulled into their driveway. The carport light was out. Joel glanced down the street. Two street lamps down the road were out. The next neighbor was half a mile away since the Taylor’s moved from the house across the road. The zoning laws around the creek had left five houses with almost full acre lots, while the rest of the surrounding neighborhoods were slightly under a quarter of that size. The Taylor’s had sold Joel the house he had now when they built the one across the road. That had been a few years ago, but the Taylor’s only child had now moved several states away. They decided it was time to move to the beach, so they did. Even though it had been almost a month since it had sold, the new family was still out in Nevada. The man who bought it, Mr. Long, had knocked on Joel’s door the day they closed. He had introduced himself and told Joel it would probably be another few months before they closed their affairs and moved in. The way he had said ‘close our affairs’ immediately made Joel think he was some kind of mafia stool pigeon in witness protection. He had left his business card, an insurance salesman, definitely Mafioso Joel thought, and asked Joel to call him if there was some issue with the house. Since then, the house had sat empty and undisturbed. And dark.
“I think the power’s out.” Joel said. The carport light flickered on. “Magic.” He smiled.
They walked into the house. It was still warm, so the power had not been out long. Theresa walked to the refrigerator and opened the door. Everything was still cool to the touch.
“Guess it was just a blip.” She said.
“I’m going to bed.” Abby announced as she headed towards the back of the house.
“No phone. No texting.” Theresa called.
“No promises.” Abby called back.
“Abby!” Theresa raised her voice.
“She’s fifteen.” Joel said. “You remember fifteen?”
“I didn’t have a cell phon
e.” She said.
“And if you had?” He asked.
“I’d probably be just like she is.” Theresa conceded.
“Don’t hate the player.” He said.
“You’re a dork.” She smiled.
“Not just any dork, your dork.” He said. “Forevah.”
“Unfortunately.” She smiled as she punched his arm.
They went down the same hallway Abby had just gone down and past her room. The master was the last one on the right. He glanced into the spare bedroom as they made their way down the hall. The three-bedroom ranch had been home for just over a two years and he still hadn’t unpacked everything. They had sold their house in Conley and moved north of downtown, so Theresa, who worked as a guidance counselor at Brenthold Elementary, could be closer to her job. Joel was a staff writer for a hunting and fishing magazine focusing on the positive environmental effects of the hunting community. His work mostly consisted of talking to a lot of biologists and other scientists about species adaptations and how proper management of herd populations can protect entire subordinate species from disease and starvation. The best days were the few he actually spent in the field with hunters who work hard at keeping their game in good shape because they know better than any spreadsheet could ever tell you that if you have a healthy and thriving deer and turkey population most everything else is in balance. It doesn’t happen otherwise. Most of his days are spent in a small office just off Peachtree where he has to commute at least three days a week. Tomorrow isn’t one of those days, so they took the opportunity to take a ride out and see the meteor shower. He was glad they had.
He reached over to the nightstand and grabbed the remote. She came out of the bathroom as he turned the television on.
“Did you check on her?” She asked.
“She’s watching some movie about a dance competition and I think, vampires. Don’t quote me on that though.” He said as he flipped the channel guide, glancing over his reading glasses to the screen to see the words and back behind his reading glasses to see the numbers on the remote.
“Did you tell her to shut it off and go to bed?” She asked.
“Uh, yeah, sure.” He lied.
“Wow, you really look old.” She smirked. He glanced at her over his glasses.
“How long now? Two months until the big day?” She asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said as he glanced back down.
“Sure you do. The big five oh. Fifty. The halfway home day.” She smiled.
“The average lifespan of a man is around seventy-five years so technically the halfway point was a decade or so ago but hey, thanks for the encouragement.” He said without looking up.
“What’s the average lifespan for a woman?” She asked as she pulled the sheet back and slid into the bed.
“A little longer. Seventy-eight or so.” He said. He could see her doing the quick calculation in her head.
“You’ve passed it too, honey. Several years ago.”
“Barely.” She said.
“Of course. How foolish of me. I forgot you were a child bride.” He laughed.
He hit select and the channel changed to the news. What he expected to see was a talking head recapping all the day’s events in the stock market. He didn’t care about the market, but the man’s monotonous British accent always helped him fall asleep. The voice was gone. A somewhat frantic sounding foreign language under a slightly less frantic sounding English translation replaced it.
“The horrible outbreak of this newly discovered Marionette rabies virus that has been ravaging the island nation of Madagascar has now crossed into Europe. Spanish authorities are reporting Marionette outbreaks in the port town of Barbate and in Vigo on the Portuguese border. There are images being broadcast from the Spanish authorities of local security cameras that have captured some of the impact of these outbreaks. We want to warn you that some of these images are quite disturbing and we also want to reiterate that these images have not been independently authenticated.”
The screen flipped over to a traffic camera positioned near an intersection. The fisheye lens distorted some of the edges, but the traffic was stopped and most of the cars had their doors open. Between the vehicles, there were shapes that came into focus as the image began to make sense in their heads. Making sense was probably not the right way to put it. Realizing what they were witnessing, understanding the images were not part of some horror movie and feeling the veneer of safety being ripped away would be some of the ways to put it. Making sense was not what the images did. He felt her sit up in the bed.
“Joel?” She asked. “It that real? Is that really happening?”
“My god.” He said.
His phone vibrated on the nightstand. Hers did too. They both grabbed them. The Emergency Action message that usually alerted them to a nearby tornado or thunderstorm was flashing a civil defense emblem.
“Local emergency, please shelter in place.”
The sound of sirens began erupting in the distance outside the bedroom window as his feet hit the floor. She brushed by him and rushed down the hallway. She returned moments later with Abby in tow.
“Sit here.” She pointed to the bed.
“What did I do? Have you been going through my phone or something? Why am I in trouble?” She asked.
“You’re not in trouble.” He said as he pulled a sweatshirt on.
“Should I go through your phone?” Theresa asked.
“Not now, honey.” He said.
A loud squeal of tires under heavy braking sounded outside the bedroom window, followed by a louder sound of crumpling metal and breaking glass. The sky outside the window flashed violently as the transformer exploded. Everything went dark. They all jumped up. Joel and Theresa made their way down the hallway, with Abby close behind. He threw the front door open. The headlights of the car pointed in two directions and reflected off the trees back onto the road. The power pole swung from the lines. Its tether to the earth shattered when the car plowed into it, breaking it clean in half. The car that hit it was almost destroyed. The front was crumpled up against the driver, who hung lifeless in the seatbelt with the jagged, splintered end of the pole shoved where the head should have been. Blood covered everything. Joel turned and grabbed Abby’s shoulders as she came up behind.
“Stop. Don’t look. Stay right here. Better yet, go back into our room and stay there.” He said.
“But Dad…” Abby started.
“Now. Right now.” He said.
She turned and disappeared down the hall. Theresa held her hand to her mouth as she processed the scene in front of her. She could see the hole in the windshield on the passenger side and her eyes unconsciously followed the arc the thing that made the hole would have taken. Her eyes widened when she saw the small dark shape in the street. She saw the foot twitch and it broke the spell. She started forward. He grabbed her arm.
“Where are you going?” He said.
“Oh my god, Joel, it’s a child.” She pointed at the shape in the street. “Call 911.” She started forward again. Joel reached his hand down and realized his phone was still in the bedroom. He turned.
“I’ll be right back. Be careful.” He called, but she was already halfway across the yard. He went back to his room and grabbed his phone, pausing long enough to grab the flashlight from the nightstand drawer. Abby sat on the edge of the bed.
“What’s going on?” She asked.
“I don’t know yet. Stay here.” He turned and headed back towards the door.
She paused at the edge of the road and looked again. The body was still. Then she saw a small twitch.
“Stay still. Help is coming.” She said as she closed the distance between her and the child. She knelt down. The child slowly lifted one of its hands off the asphalt; she grabbed it and held it.
“It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay. Shh.” She could see the terribly twisted legs folded across one another in jeans that were shredded and soaked with b
lood. The hand felt frighteningly cold. She instinctively rubbed and patted it. “It’s okay. Help is on the way.” She turned her head to see if Joel was coming. She felt a sharp pain in her arm and the weight of the child pulling her hand down. She spun her head around and jerked her arm free. The scream from her lips barely registered, and she was almost ashamed. Surely the child didn’t bite her. Surely that couldn’t have happened.
The child tried to push itself up on its elbows. She felt the blood running down the back of her arm. It made no sense. But it was real. Her mind filled with the images from the television. She heard her own voice ask, ‘is that real?’ in her head. Her eyes grew wide. She scrambled back, scrapping her knee on the asphalt as she tried to gain her feet. Joel crossed the yard at a sprint as she tried to stand. He met her as she stumbled a few more feet from the child. She almost collapsed in his arms, but he braced her and held her up.
