Creatures
Page 5
“Well, you shouldn’t be doing that in front of Trey anyway. You’re setting a bad example for him,” Dawn continued.
“First of all, we do it in private. I’ve never done anything in front of Trey. Second of all, Trey is not a baby. He knows exactly what sex is, and third, I don’t see how it’s setting a bad example for him,” Cassie argued.
“You’re not married for one, and he’s going to think it’s okay to be a sexually active teenager,” Dawn pointed out.
Cassie laughed. “Wow, Dawn, sometimes you make me wonder about your sense of reality. Have you been living on this planet the last few months? You need to wake up, Dawn. Morals and rules and thoughts of society no longer exist. I’ll never be able to get married. There’s no more marriages happening, Dawn. The life expectancy is no longer in the 70-year-range. The only way to make it to being an old fart is to be there already. So, what bad example am I setting for him? Tell me, cause I don’t see anything that I’m doing wrong, other than living my life to the fullest that I can and be the happiest that I can possibly manage to be for whatever short measly time I can last on this fucking shit hole of a planet.”
Cassie stomped off without waiting for Dawn’s response. She found Matt and told him about the confrontation. “I can’t believe she is thinking like that. Has she lost her damn mind?”
Matt didn’t really know what to say at first. “It’s really none of her business,” he finally concluded. “Simple as that. If she wants to start up a bunch of shit, I’m sorry, but she can make her own way. You and Trey are my family now, and she needs to just get over it.”
Cassie and Dawn didn’t speak for two days after that, and it was Dawn who finally came up and apologized. “I’m sorry, Cass. I just…sometimes it’s hard to change what you’ve always thought was right and wrong. And I’m just concerned. It’s hard for us, and I can’t imagine what it would be for a baby, or if it could even survive.”
Cassie sighed. “Like I told you, we’re careful. Even if it did happen, we’ll deal with it. It wouldn’t be your problem.”
“How can you say that?” Dawn asked. “I’m here with you; I live in this house with you. We all do our part to take care of each other and help each other survive. How can you say it wouldn’t be my problem?”
“It wouldn’t be your responsibility to take care of it,” Cassie clarified. “Matt and I would manage. We would take care of it.”
“And who will take care of it if you and Matt die?” Dawn questioned.
“Then Trey would take care of it,” Cassie decided. “He’s blood, he would be its uncle, and he would take care of it.”
“You would risk putting that on an eleven-year-old boy?” Dawn asked.
“Well, chances are, it would be with us, and if we die, then it would probably die, too,” Cassie replied. “And why are we even discussing this, Dawn? Why can’t you just mind your own business about it?”
“Look, I had a child, and I know…” Dawn started.
“You don’t know shit, Dawn!” Cassie interjected. “If your daughter hadn’t been at school, she’d still be alive, right here with us, right now! And if something happened to you, I would take care of her! She’s not dead because of you; she’s dead because of the damn school system! They were responsible for her, and they didn’t protect her!”
Tears were escaping Dawn’s eyes now. “I should’ve known better than to send her to school with everything that was going on. I sent her to her death, trying to do the right thing. School was in session so I let her go.”
“Exactly why it’s their fault,” Cassie said. “When they don’t cancel school, they are saying, ‘it’s safe to send your kids to school. They will be just fine. Entrust them to us.’ So you feel safe sending them. It was their fault. My school got cancelled, and hers should have, too. That’s not your fault. You had no control over that. You didn’t know it would affect your area. You didn’t know the entire elementary school would be turned into those things. Your daughter dying was not your fault.”
“I can’t see any more children die,” Dawn cried. “I lost my daughter, and I can’t go through that again.”
“Like I said, we’re being careful,” Cassie repeated. “Trust me.”
Dawn did her best to let it go, but the situation still bothered her, although she didn’t say anything more to Cassie or Matt about it. Over the next several days, Cassie and Dawn rarely spoke to one another, although they were both friendly to each other. Cassie feared Dawn would start in on her, and she could tell Dawn didn’t approve of Cassie and Matt’s relationship, which angered Cassie. She didn’t need Dawn’s approval, nor was it any of her business whether Cassie and Matt had any kind of relationship.
“Cassie, can I ask you something?” Trey asked while the two were out untangling creatures from the fence. “What’s wrong with you and Dawn?”
“Really, you had to bring that up?” Cassie responded.
He stopped working and watched Cassie stab the creatures in the head with a force of anger and proceed to untangle them with every ounce of frustration she could muster. She finally noticed he had stopped and was just staring at her. She let out a sigh and stopped for a moment to look Trey in the face.
“I slept with Matt,” Cassie told him.
Trey was a little taken aback by the sudden confession. “Oh. Well, what does she care?”
“My point exactly,” Cassie replied. “She keeps going on about what if I get pregnant. It’s not going to happen. We’re careful.”
Trey nodded. “She shouldn’t worry about things until they happen. You should tell her that. It’s a great way to make a person miserable.”
“Exactly,” Cassie agreed. “It’s not like I’m going to listen to her.”
“Yeah, if she thinks she can tell you what to do, she doesn’t know you very well,” Trey replied. “Well, you know, you’re my sister and if you’re happy then I’m happy for you. I think Matt’s cool. I’m glad he’s your boyfriend now.”
“She thinks I’m setting a bad example for you,” Cassie informed.
Trey kind of laughed. “First of all, it doesn’t matter if there’s an example at all. It’s not like there’s anybody here for me. Second of all, that’s just flat out impossible. There is no right and wrong anymore.”
That night, Matt stayed in Cassie’s room. “I like when you stay here with me,” Cassie told him. “I had to tell Trey. He noticed the tension. He knew something was up with me and Dawn. So I had to tell him what happened.”
“Oh,” Matt replied. “Well, I guess he would have figured it out sooner or later. It’s not like we’re keeping it a secret.”
“Exactly,” Cassie agreed. “So I was just thinking, why don’t you just move into my room with me?”
“Sure, why not?” Matt accepted.
Matt moved his things into Cassie’s room the next day. Then he went to have a talk with Dawn alone. He found her reading a book in the library. He sat down on a sofa chair across from her and waited for her to look up at him.
“How’s the book?” Matt asked.
“It’s interesting,” Dawn replied. “What’s up?”
“Look, I know you’re not happy about me and Cassie being together,” Matt began.
“It’s not that I don’t want you two to be together,” Dawn replied, her tone a little aggravated. “I just don’t think you should be intimate. I just don’t think you’re really thinking about the consequences.”
“Dawn, I know what could happen,” Matt replied. “We are as careful as we can be. So, frankly, I would appreciate it if we can all just get along, and stop worrying about it. What comes will come, and we’ll deal with it then. In the meantime, you’re not doing any good for anyone worrying about it and creating tension. She’s not your daughter, nor your kin. She’s just a person in your survival group; a friend. You have to let us have our own choices, and we’ll deal with whatever consequences there might or might not be.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t help ho
w I feel about it,” Dawn said quietly.
“Well, you can keep your opinions to yourself,” Matt told her. “It’s none of your business, and it’s not your place to be telling us what we can and can’t do. You’re not anyone’s boss around here.”
“Fine, I won’t say any more about it,” Dawn promised.
“That includes the facial expressions,” Matt added. “I’ve seen the looks you give us. Your disapproving looks are getting really annoying. There’s not much good left in this world. I suggest you focus on ways to make your life as enjoyable as possible rather than criticize the rest of us for living our own lives.”
Dawn didn’t say anything more, and Matt didn’t give her much of the chance to, either. He stood up and left the room without another word. A few nights later, in the middle of the night, a resonating clatter woke them all. It wasn’t like anything they had heard before, and it was quite alarming to them.
“What is that?” Cassie asked him, startled.
Matt listened intently to the noise, trying to determine what it could be. “I don’t know. We should go check it out.”
They pulled on some clothes, grabbed their pistols, and headed into the hall, meeting Dawn and Trey there. The four headed downstairs together, and peeked out the windows. They shined flashlights to assist with seeing through the darkness. Matt carefully opened the front door and stepped out, shining the flashlight all around the area. He noticed the fence shook violently and he could hear the groans and moans of the creatures. There were hundreds of them, smashed up against the fence, trying desperately to push their way through.
“We’ll have to leave here,” Matt concluded. “We won’t be able to go in and out of the fence with supplies without being swarmed. It should hold for now though. We should pack up. We’ll leave in the morning.”
He closed the door back, utilizing the locks on it, and they headed back to their rooms to pack up. Cassie filled up the giant Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom when she and Matt got back to the room.
“If we have to leave here, I want to enjoy one last hot bath,” she explained.
She filled it to the very top and emerged herself in the hot water, which came up to her shoulders. After a few minutes, Matt entered the bathroom. He climbed into the tub with her, and they soaked in the hot water for a period of time before their hormones got the best of them. The water spilled over the sides of the tub with their movements, and afterwards, they neglected drying it up. They packed up their things, and then snuggled back under the covers for a few more hours of sleep. The next morning, they loaded their belongings into the back of the truck, piled into the extended cab, and barreled through the makeshift gate as fast as they could.
Once they were on a back road, apparently devoid of the hideous creatures, Cassie relaxed a bit and made herself comfortable against the passenger side door. She watched the baring trees pass in a blur, and looked up to the endless blue of the sky, with only a few white fluffy clouds lingering. The sky seemed unchanged, although the world around them had become a stranger. While Cassie had always considered herself a Christian, she couldn’t help but feel some doubt.
‘Where are you, God?’ she thought to herself as she stared at the sky. ‘How could you allow your creation to come to this?’ She felt completely abandoned and lost in her faith. Of course, by now, she questioned everything she used to believe in this world. Her faith was no exception. She had dozed off, although she wasn’t sure for how long, and the truck had come to a stop. Matt was standing outside of the truck, his back to them. She watched him as he appeared to zip his pants and climbed back in the driver seat.
“Might want to pee, too, while we’re stopped,” Matt advised, seeing that she had awoke.
She looked to the back. Trey and Dawn were asleep, and Cassie reached back to wake them up. They all took a bathroom break, and Cassie switched seats with Matt so he could rest. The driving had tired him, and he was soon snoring lightly in the seat beside her as she drove. Trey and Dawn were quiet in the back of the truck, but stayed awake. As they started passing some shops, Cassie decided they should look for some food. She pulled into a mom-and-pop type diner.
“Let’s see if we can find some food here,” Cassie told the others.
She let Matt get a bit woke up before they got out, their pistols loaded in their hands. The diner was an old wood-framed structure with white peeling paint and broken windows. An engraved wooden sign, attached by one end and dangling sideways, read Ginger’s Café. Cassie pushed open the door. At first glance, there was nothing threatening. Dust seemed to cover everything. Some tables and chairs were overturned, dishes were broken upon the floor, and a light fixture hung loosely by its wires overhead.
They made their way to the counter, its once bright red laminate now dingy and faded from the dust and dirt that covered it. Something from the kitchen crashed onto the floor, making them all jump. The sound of dishes shattering on a tile floor continued to echo, and the four prepared to open fire. Matt pushed open the kitchen door, and a dozen creatures came through. Matt jumped backwards, falling to the ground, and the other three began shooting. Matt quickly pulled himself up, also emptying rounds into the creatures.
Cassie’s adrenaline continued to pump after the dozen creatures had been eliminated, and she breathlessly encouraged the others to follow as she moved into the kitchen. There wasn’t much left, but they managed to grab some bags of rice and some mason jars stuffed with vegetables. There wasn’t much more than that. Cassie snatched some of the seasonings as well.
“Should we take some of these pots and pans?” Dawn asked. “We could build a fire to cook on.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Cassie agreed. “Trey, grab all the napkins you can find, or any other thing that might burn.”
Trey and Matt, locating some take-out bags, started stuffing them full with napkins and rolls of receipt paper. There were some dead bodies that had been mostly eaten, but Trey salvaged what clothes remained on the bodies. Matt helped him cut the bloodied and tattered material from the corpses with a knife. When they finished, they crept back out the door, keeping alert to their surroundings, and loaded up their find.
Cassie continued driving, and Matt turned her CD player on to break the silence. Cassie, Matt, and Trey sat silently, bobbing their heads to the beat. Dawn, sitting quietly as well, kept very still and stared out the window. Trey noticed the hardened look on Dawn’s face.
“My mom hated this music,” Trey told her. “Cassie wasn’t allowed to play it where Mom could hear it, so she always had her earbuds in.”
Dawn smiled. “I can’t say I’m a fan of this music, either, but to each his own. At least it’s something to listen to.”
“I really just started listening to it when all this happened, and then it was just me and Cassie. I listened to rock before,” Trey continued. “They didn’t play metal on the radio, and Cassie wasn’t allowed to let me listen to it. What did you listen to?”
Dawn kind of blushed. “I listened to classical music.”
Trey kind of frowned, but shrugged. “Well, I never really liked classical, but maybe most kids don’t. That’s more of adult music, I think. Like you said, to each his own.”
“What did your mom listen to?” she asked.
“Country,” Trey answered. “I don’t much like country, either. Dad listened to the oldies station.”
Trey lit a cigarette, cracking his window, and offered one to Dawn. For a middle-aged woman, Trey thought she was unusually shy and soft-spoken, very different than all the mothers he knew. Dawn looked unsure about the cigarette offer.
“Have you ever tried one?” Trey asked.
Dawn kind of laughed. “No, I never have. I grew up in Catholic school, spent my teen years as a bookworm, on the yearbook staff, did hall monitor. I didn’t really have any friends to influence me. I was really close to my parents and a girl in church with me. Guess I was a bit of a nerd.”
“Well, have one now,” Trey offered.
“Take a really small hit, hold it in your mouth a second, then breathe in kind of quick,” Trey advised.
After several hits, she managed to smoke the rest of the cigarette without coughing. They didn’t taste too bad, but she had no desire to smoke another one.
“Did your sister start you on smoking?” Dawn asked after several minutes of silence.
“No,” Trey replied. “My friend Jason gave me my first cigarette. We snuck them from his dad’s pack. I think Cassie started a couple years ago, but she never tried to get me to. When I saw her smoking with her friends, she told me I better keep my mouth shut. I told her to let me have one then, and she did.”
As it started to get dusk, Cassie started looking for somewhere to camp out for the night. She pulled into the driveway of a small old house, obviously abandoned. It didn’t look very stable, and there was a lot of brush grown up around it.
“It doesn’t look disturbed,” Cassie pointed out. “There’s probably no creatures in there.”
Matt opened the front door. It creaked loudly and dust particles fell over them as they entered. They moved slowly into the darkness. The house was devoid of any furniture or personal belongings. The house appeared to have been built at least a century ago, and had never had any updates. The wood floor creaked and moaned under the weight of their steps, and a few field mice scurried about ahead of them.
“Oh my God!” Dawn shrieked. “I can’t stay here. I can’t, please.”
Cassie looked uncertain about the rodents, too. She looked to Matt, and then to Trey. They looked a little uncertain as well, but then Matt shrugged and cleared his throat.
“They…uh…they shouldn’t bother us,” Matt replied. “It’s a good sign they’re here, actually. It means no creatures…probably. The creatures eat rodents, too. I saw them behind the Wal-Mart eating them.”