Creatures

by Michelle Khonsari

  “We’ve made it from Nebraska to Alabama, and we’re like two states from Florida now,” Cassie snapped. “It’s an accomplishment nonetheless, and we’re that much closer to escaping.”

  “We let Dawn die,” Trey blurted. “Yeah, big accomplishment.”

  “There wasn’t anything we could do,” Cassie returned sternly.

  Matt pulled off the main road, stopping at a parts store. He went in alone, looking for a siphoning kit. Not able to find one, he selected a large hose and several five-gallon gas cans. They went to all the cars parked nearby to siphon out the gas, and then got back on the main highway, stopping to siphon the gas out of all those cars, too. Cassie and Trey kept watch as Matt siphoned the gas from the vehicles. Some had dead bodies that had been gruesomely gnawed on by the creatures, and some of the wrecked cars had dead bodies sealed on the inside, killed in the crash, their mangled bodies decaying within. They moved along the highway among the vehicles until the minivan once again had a full tank.

  They were traveling along Highway 43, entering Alabama just north of Detroit. The night was extremely dark, with only the van’s headlights shining before them. The moon and stars didn’t cast much light for them, and Trey noticed clouds moving over the moon. He wondered if it might rain. He hadn’t seen rain in a few months. They had seen some snow, mostly flurries and a dusting, but no rain. He wondered how close they were getting to spring. It had felt like winter for far too long now.

  “What day is it, Cassie?” Trey asked, breaking the silence.

  “What do you care?” Cassie shot back. “You all thought it was dumb to keep up with the days.”

  “I’m sorry I thought that,” Trey apologized, although sounding very monotone and distant.

  Cassie sighed. “February 4th, I think. My calendar’s in the truck, so I might be a day or two off, but I’m pretty sure it’s the fourth.”

  Trey had finished his cigarette and now laid back down in the seat, closing his eyes for some sleep. Cassie looked back at him before laying her seat back and closing her eyes as well. After another half hour, Matt pulled over, ensured the doors were locked and the windows were up, and also laid back his seat for some rest. His eyes felt tremendously heavy and he feared falling asleep at the wheel. Surely, being pulled over on a deserted highway was pretty safe. As the sun rose, the three started to wake. Trey opened his eyes, first feeling a rocking-like motion. He rolled to sit up, and saw the monstrous faces plastered to the windows, the bony and rotten-fleshed hands tearing at the glass.

  “Aahh!” Trey let out a startled scream, bringing Matt and Cassie to the realization of what was happening.

  “Oh my God, Matt, get us out of here!” Cassie shrieked.

  Matt started the minivan, which for a moment hesitated to crank. He couldn’t see, as creatures desperately banged at the windshield, blocking his view. He revved the engine, put it in drive, and pushed the accelerator to the floor. Cassie and Trey screamed. The creatures around the sides had been knocked away, but they remained on the windshield, and they could hear them on the roof of the van. Matt swerved in an attempt to throw the creatures off. In a panic and swerving wildly, Matt lost control of the van. They screamed as they felt the van tip over to its side, then over, to the other side, back up on the tires, back onto the side, over, and over, and over, everything in a wild blur of color, and then…SMASH! They slammed into an object, sending vibrations through their bodies.

  The van sat with the back of a semi-trailer against the passenger side of the van, glass shattered, both inside and out, and smoke seeping out from the engine. Debris lay around the van, and creatures, knocked away by the crash, started moving toward the van. Matt was awake, dizzy and blurred vision, and grabbed a sharp piece of shattered glass for protection. He pulled himself from the driver seat, prepared to stab the creatures as they attempted to climb through the windows.

  “Cassie,” Matt said, as he placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a little shake. “Cassie, you okay? We gotta get out of here.”

  He fumbled around for a gun, and started firing at the creatures. Cassie, hearing the gunshots, but only faintly, opened her eyes. Her head throbbed, and a pain shot all through her, as though her spine was being ripped from her body. She looked to Matt; she saw the fire of the shots as though in slow motion, looked to the creatures trying to climb in through the open windows. It took her a couple minutes to realize that Matt was yelling her name. Still a bit disoriented, but coming back to reality, Cassie fumbled for another gun and started shooting. She had come to rest in the floorboard at her seat, and couldn’t seem to move from there. One by one, the creatures fell to the ground, and before long the smoke cleared. Matt and Cassie sat back for just a moment.

  “Oh, Trey!” Cassie called. “Trey!”

  She tried to move, but the pain ran unbearably through every part of her body. Matt clenched his teeth and forced himself toward the back. Trey sat in the floor, slumped against the side, his eyes closed. Matt climbed over him, listened close for breathing and a heartbeat.

  “Is he alive?” Cassie cried.

  “Yeah, but he’s hurt pretty bad,” Matt responded.

  He pulled Trey out of the wreckage and laid him on the ground. He felt every part of him for broken bones, but didn’t find any. He looked around to see if any creatures were approaching. He didn’t see any, and went back to the van to help Cassie out. The passenger side doors had been smashed in, and he had to extract them through the driver side door. Cassie screamed out in pain when he tried to lift her.

  “You’ve got to try to not scream,” Matt told her. He went to the back to grab a shirt. “Here, bite on this. Are you ready?”

  Cassie nodded. Matt lifted her again. She couldn’t help but scream, the pain was so intense, completely unbearable. At least the shirt helped to muffle the sound. He brought her out and sat her next to Trey.

  “Your collar bone is broke, and I think both your ankles,” Matt told her. “Try to stay still; I’m going to try to find some pain medicine in one of these cars.”

  “What about Trey?” Cassie asked. “What do we do for him?”

  “I don’t know,” Matt answered.

  Matt hurried as quickly as his injured leg would take him. He dug quickly through about six or seven cars before he came across some Ibuprofen. He headed back to Cassie and Trey.

  “I guess these will have to do,” Matt replied, handing her three of them, and taking three for him.

  “I can’t,” Cassie replied. “I need water or something.”

  Matt went back to their van and found some water. They swallowed their pills, hopeful they might help with the pain, and sooner than later. Just then, they heard a motor running. It sounded like a fairly large vehicle. They looked around, alarmed at the sound. Suddenly a school bus came into view. They sat staring, not believing their luck. The bus stopped when it reached them, and a man stepped out.

  “I heard the crashing sound, and the gunshots, and the screams,” the man informed. “I thought I’d see if anyone might need help.”

  “We do,” Matt replied, almost in tears from the disbelief that someone was around.

  They soon arrived at a motor home secluded in the woods. The man carried Trey inside while Matt carried Cassie. The man’s wife introduced herself as Jamie and told them she was a nurse. They had a few medical supplies that she had snatched from the hospital. She used a stethoscope to listen to Trey. She looked over all of his cuts, noting they were all superficial. The man, introduced to them as Curtis, propped Trey’s feet up on several pillows, as instructed by Jamie.

  “He may just have a severe concussion,” Jamie told them. “He’s breathing on his own, and has a pulse. That’s a good sign. Still, his breathing is extremely shallow, and he might not be getting enough oxygen.”

  Jamie pulled out an oxygen tank from the closet, and dug out a cannula. “Luckily, I grabbed this thing when all went to shit.”

  After several minutes, Trey opened his eyes. He had no i
dea where he was, who was looking over him, or what had happened. He felt numb at first, but the pain soon flooded him, and he winced. He could see Matt and Cassie, but his vision was blurry and the talking was just muffled sound. His head felt foggy and he was very confused.

  “Trey,” Jamie replied. “You were in a car accident. Can you hear me?”

  He gave her a confused look, not sure what she was saying to him. She had Curtis sit with him while she checked out the other two. She wrapped Cassie’s ankles and feet in several ace bandages, and then placed boots on both.

  “You need casts, but given the circumstances, this will have to do,” Jamie told her. “You’ll have to stay on your bottom for a while. Your right collar bone is broken, so I’m going to put your arm in this sling. It’ll prevent movement of the shoulder. Other than that, it’ll have to heal on its own.”

  She went to Matt next. He had a pretty bad cut at his hairline over his forehead, and blood had been running down from it. He had a sprained ankle as well. Jamie wrapped his ankle, and sewed up his cut. She kept a close watch on Trey, checking his blood pressure, listening to him, checking his eyes. It was a pretty severe concussion, and she wasn’t certain of the damage sustained by his brain. As the night approached, Cassie and Matt sat close to Trey, keeping their eyes pinned on him. His hearing had started returning, but he felt as though he had water in them, and the pressure was quite agitating. His vision had returned to normal, however. He felt very tired, and had already dozed off by this time.

  “What if we have to run?” Cassie asked Matt, worry filling her face. “Trey and I are both so vulnerable right now.”

  “We’ll be safe here,” Matt assured. “I won’t let anything happen to either of you.”

  Cassie leaned her head against Matt as she looked back at Trey. She thought back to more happy times, now more desperate than ever to hold on to those memories. She closed her eyes as the memories played.

  “Cassie! Cassie! Look at me! No training wheels!” a five-year-old Trey called.

  “I knew you could do it!” Cassie complimented, then only ten.

  She looked to her mother, exchanging smiles as her mom clapped for Trey. Cassie rode her bike around, watching Trey as he glowed with proudness. The three laughed in the very happy moment. Then, another memory came, and Trey was ten years old. They were still in the apartment in the city. They were getting dressed to go trick-or-treating. Cassie was putting Trey’s make-up on, as well as her own.

  “Thanks for dressing up with me, Cass,” Trey replied. “I know fifteen is a little old to be going trick-or-treating.”

  Cassie gave him a confused look. “What makes you say that?”

  Trey somewhat shrugged. “I heard Lacey say it was a bummer you had to take me trick-or-treating, that it was childish.”

  Cassie squatted down. “I don’t think it’s childish. I think it’s fun, and I’m so lucky to have you. Without you, I wouldn’t have an excuse to go trick-or-treating.”

  Trey smiled. “Well, I’m glad you’re going with me. The two of us together make it fun.”

  It was like a flash of lightning. Cassie was seven. It was Easter, and they were at the park. Her mom and her dad were close by, smiling at her and Trey. They had their little baskets, and Cassie was leading two-year-old Trey by the hand. She was picking up eggs and putting them in Trey’s basket. Then, Trey spotted an egg and picked it up. He held it up to Cassie, and then placed it in Cassie’s basket. Such happy times then.

  “Cassie,” a woman’s voice brought Cassie back to reality.

  She opened her eyes to see Jamie standing there. They were sitting in one booth seat at the built-in table, and Trey was in the other booth seat.

  “Hey, sweetie, I was thinking I’d move Trey to the bed, and you and Matt can have the other bed,” Jamie told her. “Curtis and I will sleep up here. We have some blankets and sleeping bags. This thing doesn’t run anymore, so there’s extra blankets on the beds to stay warm.”

  Cassie nodded. “Thank you.”

  Matt picked Trey up and took him down the narrow hallway into the bedroom, placing him in the bed on the right and tucking him in. Curtis and Jamie carried Cassie back there and placed her in the other bed. They closed the door and Matt crawled in the bed with Cassie. She worried to fall asleep, but the bed was quite comfortable and the painkillers were quite relaxing. Her eyes were so heavy. She soon drifted off, returning to her memories.

  As the days passed, Cassie became more relaxed and confident in their safety. Trey was up moving around now, his hearing completely restored. Cassie still couldn’t walk around, and she was still taking painkillers regularly for the pain that still radiated through her body. She still kept her arm in the sling for the broken collar bone. Curtis was up early every morning, making circular rounds around the motorhome, working his way out. Jamie stayed close by, but went out to find any berries or edible plants. It was a bit scarce, still being February. Matt’s sprained ankle was pretty well healed now, and he went out with Curtis on rounds.

  “So, are we just going to stay here?” Trey asked while the others were out.

  “No,” Cassie replied. “We’ll get moving again as soon as I can walk. I’m sure we’ve been quite an imposition here. I mean, they’re sleeping in the floor in there so we can have their beds.”

  “You know, we don’t have to go through Georgia to get to Florida,” Trey informed. “I found this map, and if we go south, we’ll run straight into Pensacola. Then we can just follow the coast all the way down and come around to Miami.”

  “Hmm, I didn’t think of that,” Cassie admitted. “That would probably be the best route to go. We’ll be safer along the coast. Zombies can’t swim.”

  “Why is everybody calling them creatures?” Trey suddenly asked. “It’s obvious they’re zombies. You’d think nobody’s ever seen a zombie movie.”

  Cassie smiled at him. “I don’t know, Trey. I guess because they were all once human, and now they’ve become some kind of creature, like an animal. Like a rabid flesh-eating animal. Of course, that would be the definition of a zombie to me, but I guess the media or government or whoever decided for some reason or other to coin a new term for them. Maybe zombie just seemed too fictional.”

  “If I get bit, Cassie, just go ahead and shoot me,” Trey ordered. “I don’t want to get sick like that and turn into one of them.”

  “Let’s just hope that won’t happen,” Cassie returned. “I’m really sorry about Dawn. It wasn’t easy, I know, but you did the right thing by her. If there is a Heaven, or some kind of life after death, then she’s with her family again, and she’s happy and healthy.”

  “If?” Trey asked.

  “I don’t know what I believe anymore,” Cassie admitted. “You believe in what you want, but right now, I feel like we’re on our own.”

  “It’s a wonder we didn’t die in the crash,” Trey pointed out.

  “Trey, please,” Cassie interjected. “It’s okay if you believe. I know we were raised as Christians, and if that brings you comfort, then by all means, believe it. I just can’t say if I believe one way or another, and I’d really just like to leave it at that.”

  “I found a deck of cards,” Trey replied after a brief moment. “Want to play some Gin Rummy?”

  Cassie smiled. “Sure.”

  Before they knew it, six weeks had passed. Jamie took the wraps off Cassie’s feet and started doing some therapy with her to help her walk again. The temperatures were growing warmer as spring arrived. It was mid-March now, and Trey’s twelfth birthday. They didn’t have much to celebrate with, but told him happy birthday and played card games with him. They waited two more weeks, and on April 1st, they gave sincere thank yous and good-byes to their host and hostess, and started out once again on their own. Jamie and Curtis packed up three camping packs of supplies for them, including a tent and some pots and pans.

  They kept to the woods, and with the help of a compass that Curtis had given them, they headed south for
Florida. As the sun started to descend, they decided to set up camp. As they set up the tent, they could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. After the tent was in place, Matt made a fire and heated some beans in a pot for dinner. The thunder moved closer as they ate, and they could see a faint flash of lightning.

  “Wonderful,” Cassie sarcastically mumbled. “Our first night out in the open and it’s going to storm.”

  They put the fire out and climbed into the tent just as the sprinkles started. The thunder was loud and fierce, the rain pounded angrily, and the lightning was bright and constant. The tent was large and waterproof, but it shook wildly in the wind. They took turns sleeping, although sleeping was difficult for all of them that night. The storm passed by morning, and after a breakfast of noodles, they packed up and headed on their way.

  “What the hell is that?” Cassie asked as they came upon what appeared to be bloody organic tissue and fur.

  “I think it’s an animal of some kind,” Matt determined after a closer examination of the remains. “We should be on guard. They may still be lingering around. This looks pretty fresh.”

  “We’re always on guard,” Trey reminded.

  They moved cautiously and quietly, keeping south in their direction. It was always a rush to see the creatures. It made their adrenaline flow heavy, even when there was only one or two. The walking, watching, and killing were tiresome. They were in a constant state of war with no indication of it coming to an end. They were hungry and thirsty most of the time, never finding enough to eat, as berries weren’t very filling. After five days walking through the woods, they were all three ready to pass out and die from their stress and exhaustion. They decided to stop midday and set up camp.

  “I’m going to find us some meat,” Matt replied once the tent was in place.

  “We should all go,” Cassie suggested. “It’s not safe going alone.”

  “No, you and Trey stay here, get some rest,” Matt told her.

  She felt a little crushed. She didn’t want to be separated from him. What if he didn’t come back? What if her and Trey were attacked and needed him? However, she shrugged and nodded. Matt grabbed up two guns and a knife, kissed Cassie’s lips quickly, and walked out of sight. Cassie and Trey sat in the tent playing cards. She listened intently for the gun fire…or screams. She and Trey both had a gun loaded and ready to go right next to them, as well as two Big Brother knives with a nine and three-eighths inch blade, which they had found in a home they had rummaged through. Cassie found them very appropriate for the situation, as they were called the Big Brother Zombie Knife. The firearms were both 9mm, one a Sig Sauer P226 and the other a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield. Matt had taken the Timber Rattler Outlaw Bowie knife, which was two inches longer in the blade, an AR-15 rifle, and a .45-caliber Kimber 1911.