Extinction Cycle (Kindle Worlds): Mother

by Hopf, G. Michael

  Claire approached Mr. Matthews, stopping inches from him.

  “It wasn’t my idea, it was Bobby’s. He said—”

  Giving no warning, Claire swung the cleaver and struck Mr. Matthews in the side of the head, penetrating deep into his skull.

  Mr. Matthews grunted and started to twitch.

  Claire pulled at the cleaver, but it was stuck.

  “Claire, stop. He’s dead,” Kevin said.

  Not listening, Claire growled as she tried to remove the cleaver.

  “That’s enough,” Kevin said, this time grabbing her by the shoulder.

  She turned, smacked his arm and yelled, “Don’t touch me!”

  Kevin raised his arms and replied, “Okay, but I’m not here to hurt you.”

  Terry appeared and ran up to them. “Claire, are you okay?”

  As if in a trance, Claire pulled at the cleaver.

  Chloe soon came up and walked over to Claire, putting her hand on hers. That was enough for Claire to stop. She let go, looked at Chloe and said, “He’s dead.”

  Chloe replied by embracing Claire.

  Kevin and Terry watched the two hold each other for what seemed like minutes.

  Kevin, a man who had seen a lot since the outbreak, had never witnessed anything like what he’d seen Claire do, and doubted he’d see it again.

  “Tell me everything that happened,” Terry said.

  “I can say it another way, but still it’s as simple as she walked up, cleaver in hand, and hit him with it,” Kevin replied.

  Terry put her head in her hands and sighed loudly.

  “I’ve never seen a kid do that, but then again, as of weeks ago I never imagined the world would end in a zombie apocalypse.”

  Chloe walked into the kitchen and held up her chalkboard. SHE’S SLEEPING NOW.

  “Thanks for letting us know. Now it’s time for you to go to bed too,” Terry said, rubbing Chloe’s arm.

  Chloe turned and left.

  “I’m going to take them,” Terry blurted out.

  “Where?” Kevin asked.

  “Back home to Sandpoint. My community, we’re on an island. We’re safe there. We have security, walls. They can live without fear of Variants or scumbags like those guys,” Terry replied.

  “That’s a long drive. It’s dangerous out there. Just stay here. We can build a wall around this place,” Kevin offered.

  “This place can never be truly protected. It’s a nice place, big house, outbuildings, power, food, water—you name it, they have it here—but they can’t keep it safe. Eventually someone will get in.”

  “Not if I’m here,” Kevin said reaching his hand out and touching hers.

  She recoiled from his touch. “I just met you two days ago. I don’t know you and I’ve heard men boast about being there for the tough times. People lie, period.”

  Kevin bit his tongue. There was no way to convince her about his sincerity.

  “I’m going to bed. In the morning I’ll gather the girls and tell them. We leave tomorrow night at the earliest,” Terry said.

  “I’d suggest leaving first thing in the morning the following day, better to drive during the daylight hours,” Kevin advised.

  She nodded. “Good advice.” She turned and headed towards the door.

  “She knew him,” Kevin said.

  Terry stopped, faced Kevin and asked, “Knew who?”

  “That man, she knew him. She called him by his name before planting that cleaver in his head. What do you make of that?”

  “Apparently we have a lot to talk about tomorrow,” Terry said and exited.

  Kevin again silenced himself. He’d process what to say and deliver it tomorrow just before she was going to tell the girls. He turned off the light, walked into the darkened living room and lay on the couch, pistol in hand.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Do you have any threes?” Paul asked, holding a handful of cards.

  Chloe shook her head and raised her chalkboard. GO FISH. She turned it around, wrote something and held it up. SEVENS?

  “Yep,” Paul answered, removing two cards from his hand and handing them to her.

  A smile cracked Chloe’s tender face. She wiped the board quickly with her hand and wrote JACKS?

  “Is there a mirror behind me? Can you see my cards?” Paul joked, handing her the jack of clubs.

  Chloe giggled.

  A look of shock washed across Paul’s face and his brow furrowed. “Did you just laugh out loud?”

  Chloe looked down. Her dark straight hair fell around the cards.

  “It’s okay, your secret is safe with me,” Paul said.

  She slowly lifted her head and peeked at him between the draping strands of hair.

  “I promise I won’t say a word to anyone,” Paul said, motioning with his hand over his heart.

  She gave him a slight smile.

  Wishing to move past the moment, Paul asked, “Is it my turn or yours?”

  Chloe wrote on her board and lifted it up. THANK YOU.

  “Of course, that’s what friends are for,” Paul said, smiling.

  A knock at the door.

  “Come in,” Paul called out.

  The door opened. Terry was standing there. “Chloe, come with me. I need to talk to you and Claire.”

  Kevin hammered the last nail into a small board that covered the broken window on the front door. He stepped back and admired his work. “Not pretty, but it will do the job.”

  “Have you seen Claire?” Terry asked.

  “Last I saw her, she was heading to the barn,” Kevin replied. “What’s up?”

  “I’m having that conversation with them,” Terry answered. Just behind her stood Chloe, her arms dangling by her sides.

  “Is there any way I can get you to reconsider your departure time? I ask because Paul and I can accompany you to Sandpoint.”

  “Paul won’t be ready to travel long distance for a while.”

  “Why?”

  “I told you why,” Terry snarled.

  “The Paul can’t travel story is BS. What’s the real reason?”

  Chloe put her gaze on Kevin.

  He looked into her eyes and felt unsettled. “How about we discuss this later?”

  “Doesn’t matter when we talk, the answer will be no. Look, feel free to set up shop here. This place is yours. This is an opportunity, not a setback.”

  Kevin thought. She was right in many ways. The house, the farm, it was stocked; they had power. This was perfect. Of course, they’d have to beef up security, but this place could work.

  Chloe pulled on Terry’s arm and pointed out the window.

  Terry looked and saw Claire walking the perimeter, pushing a wheelbarrow. “What’s she doing?” Curious, Terry went outside with Kevin right behind her.

  “Claire, what are you doing?” Terry asked, walking up to her.

  Holding a shovel in her small hands, Claire scooped up something from the wheelbarrow and sprinkled it along the fence perimeter. “It keeps the Variants out.”

  The pungent odor hit Terry and Kevin.

  “Smells like shit, literally!” Kevin howled, covering his face with his arm.

  Terry did the same but peeked into the wheelbarrow to inspect the contents. “What is it?”

  “A compost I make using old horse manure and chicken poop. Daddy taught us,” she replied, scooping up another shovel full.

  “That smells God-awful.” Terry gagged.

  “Then leave me alone,” Claire said smugly.

  “I need to talk to you,” Terry said.

  Claire stopped and looked around. “It’s nice here, isn’t it? Mother always used to say that the sky was bluer here than anywhere else.”

  “When will you be done?” Terry asked.

  Taking another shovel full, Claire answered, “A couple of hours.”

  Frustrated, Terry said, “I don’t have a couple of hours.”

  Claire sprinkled the compost and asked, “What’s the hurry?” She
looked over her shoulder at Kevin and said, “Thank you for cleaning everything up.” A reference to the bodies and mess made from the intrusion.

  “Of course,” Kevin replied.

  Claire picked up the wheelbarrow and pushed it a few feet.

  Finally answering Claire’s previous question, Terry replied, “We’re leaving. You, me, and Chloe. We’re going north to Sandpoint. I have a nice house and we’ll be safe there.”

  Claire stopped, turned and snarled, “We’re not going anywhere. This is our home.”

  “No, it’s too dangerous. You need to come with me,” Terry insisted.

  Claire looked at Chloe, who was standing a few feet behind Kevin. “Me and my sister aren’t leaving with you or anyone. This is our home andyou can’t make us leave.” She picked up her shovel and tossed a load of compost on the next spot.

  “This isn’t a debate. I’m your guardian now. You’re coming with me,” Terry snapped.

  Claire threw the shovel on the ground, turned and faced Terry. “You’re not our guardian, you’re nothing. How many times did you come visit us? Never. Mother would ask and you always had something else going on. You were too busy or felt too important to give us the time of day. Suddenly you care? Just because you feel guilty for being a horrible person doesn’t give you the right to come down here and take us away from our home, from Mother.”

  Chloe rushed to Claire’s side and put her arm around her.

  Kevin thought for a second and asked, “What do you mean by taking you away from Mother?”

  “She’s here, like Daddy. I won’t leave them,” Claire replied.

  “Oh, sweetheart, I understand you don’t want to leave the only home you know and the graves of your parents, but they’re dead now. They’d want you to come with us. I know your mother would,” Terry said softly.

  Claire stormed up to Terry, looked up into her eyes and snarled, “We’re not going anywhere.”

  “I’m sorry, but you are,” Terry said. “We leave tomorrow, first thing.”

  “You can go, but we’re not leaving,” Claire said and marched off with Chloe tagging closely behind.

  Kevin shook his head and said, “That didn’t go over well.”

  “No, it didn’t, but she needs to understand they don’t have a choice. It’s not safe here,” Terry said.

  Kevin thought about everything and offered his sincere opinion. “I’d suggest not forcing them. They’ve already been through a lot, and I have to admit, they seem to have a grip on things.”

  “Really? Like if those men broke in and we weren’t here, you honestly think they would have been able to defend themselves? Please spare me your thoughts on how strong and capable you think they are,” Terry snapped before heading off to walk the property.

  “Where are you going?” Kevin asked.

  “I need to think, I’m going to walk for a bit. I don’t think it’s a good idea to go back home just yet,” she replied.

  “By yourself? I don’t think that’s safe,” Kevin said.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  Kevin walked into the house and heard laughter upstairs. No doubt it was Paul being silly with Chloe.

  The sound of pots and pans came from the kitchen.

  He made his way there to find Claire preparing dinner with no real concern for how loud she was being.

  “Chicken?” he asked, pointing to the plucked chicken sitting in a colander.

  Claire didn’t bother to turn around and look, she simply replied, “Yes.”

  “Hey, I don’t know the entire family dynamic, but—”

  “No, you don’t,” Claire interrupted.

  “If you’ll let me finish, I think you should listen to your aunt. At least hear her argument without rushing to a decision. Now, it sounds like she wasn’t the best aunt, but I’ve lived long enough to know there’s always two sides to a story. Just talk to her, ask why she wasn’t around. You just might find something out about her that you never knew,” Kevin said.

  Showing her anger was still front and center, Claire grabbed the chicken and slammed it into the roaster and tossed in freshly cut potatoes. “Mother needed her and she was never available. Something always came up, especially men.”

  “I’m sure she and her husband had good reasons for cancelling trips down here,” Kevin said, leaning against the doorjamb.

  “Husband? Aunt Terry wasn’t married, at least not in the normal sense,” Claire blurted out.

  Finding that statement unusual but not wanting to dive into it, he kept pressing for her to talk to Terry. “No one is perfect, you’ll soon discover that when you get older.”

  “Daddy was perfect,” Claire said just above a whisper.

  Kevin heard her whisper and smiled. The daddy-daughter relationship was special, and hopefully he’d have that one day.

  Claire looked up and saw Terry in the backyard, heading towards the barn. She quickly turned around and said, “You’re right. I’ll go talk to her. Why don’t you go upstairs, get some sleep, you look tired.”

  “What?” Kevin asked, confused by Claire’s sudden shift and urgency for him to leave. “You’re going to talk to her?”

  “Yes. You’re right. I need to hear her side of the story, like you said.”

  “What about dinner?” Kevin said, pointing at the chicken.

  She looked over her shoulder and said, “I’ll take care of that after. I just saw her in the back; I’ll go to her now.”

  Kevin felt a tap on his back. He turned to find Chloe holding her board for him to read.

  PAUL WANTS YOU.

  “I’ll come right up,” Kevin said and walked away.

  The two girls looked at each other intently before Chloe followed Kevin while Claire went outside.

  “Aunt Terry, hold up!” Claire hollered.

  Terry stopped and turned.

  Claire ran up and said, “Let’s talk.”

  Taking a deep breath, Terry hesitated from her normal pushy self and asked, “What would you like to talk about?”

  “Leaving.”

  “I’m pretty firm. While this farm is ideal in so many ways, it’s not safe. My house, Sandpoint, is very safe. We have built a wall. Kids are going to school. We’ve fashioned a safe little town. You’ll like it,” Terry said.

  “Do we have to rush away? I need time to process, but Chloe especially, she doesn’t do well with sudden changes, at least not since…”

  Terry waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. Claire lowered her head and said, “You’re probably scared of me after what I did to that man last night.”

  “Kevin said you knew him.”

  Claire didn’t answer, she just held her head down.

  Terry gently lifted Claire’s head, looked into her eyes and asked, “Who was he?”

  “A bad man.”

  “Who was he?”

  “A neighbor, he lived on a farm over there,” Claire replied, pointing off into the distance.

  Terry looked in the direction she was pointing and asked, “Did they hurt you?”

  Claire lowered her arm and replied, “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

  “He did, didn’t he?” Terry asked.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “That’s exactly why I want to, scratch that, need to take you away. It’s not safe here.”

  Claire’s composure changed. She stared hard at Terry and exclaimed, “We’re not leaving our home, EVER!”

  “Claire, you need to understand that this is what your mother would want,” Terry insisted.

  “No, it’s not!”

  “I knew her better than you think. She wouldn’t want you and Chloe alone out in the middle of nowhere, fending for yourselves.”

  “She would not!” Claire barked.

  “Stop yelling at me. You and Chloe are coming with me. We leave tomorrow. I’m not debating this anymore. I’ll drag you out of here.”

  “I’M NOT LEAVING, I’M NOT LEAVING, I’M NOT LEAVING, I’M
NAAA…” Claire screamed.

  Terry grabbed her arm and shook hard. “Enough!”

  Loud clanging came from inside the barn.

  Terry jumped. “What was that?”

  “It’s nothing, probably an animal,” Claire said calmly, her demeanor making a drastic shift.

  More clanging.

  “Go back to the house and get Kevin,” Terry said, pulling a small knife from her pocket.

  “It’s probably just one of the chickens. Come, let me show you,” Claire said, walking to the barn door.

  “Claire, don’t,” Terry warned.

  Not listening, Claire opened the door and stepped inside, disappearing into the darkness.

  Shocked and scared, Terry nervously approached the door.

  Claire stuck her head out and said, “Come on inside. I know what the sound was.”

  Terry stepped over the threshold and into the pitch black.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Claire spotted Chloe standing in front of the large second-story hall window, gazing down. Claire nodded to her, turned around and said, “Over in the corner, Aunt Terry.”

  “I can’t see anything. Turn on a light,” Terry complained as she fumbled her way through the dark.

  “Keep going, just a bit farther,” Claire said as she closed the door.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Kevin rubbed the sleep from his eyes. From the kitchen, he heard the distinct sounds of chopping, and the smells that filled the room told him the chicken was roasting nicely in the oven.

  He sat up and stretched. He hadn’t planned on taking a nap, but after checking on Paul, he came back down and decided he’d do a little reading. It had only taken minutes for the heavy weight of fatigue to overcome him.

  Chloe whizzed past and ran upstairs.

  Kevin stood, turned and almost walked into Claire, who was standing but feet from him. “Good God, you startled me. How is it you can move around so quietly?”

  She shrugged her shoulders and said, “I walk around normally. Maybe you need to get your hearing checked.”

  The last light of day shot through the window.

  “How long was I asleep?” he asked.

  “A few hours. You needed it,” Claire replied. “Dinner is ready, come.”

  With each step he took, the savory aroma grew in intensity, causing his mouth to water. “Wow, that smells amazing.”