“Outside?” Levi asked.
“Yeah, out in front of the cabin,” Jamie said.
“Come here,” Levi instructed as he stood and moved over to the fireplace.
Jamie walked over to Levi.
“When I get over to the front door, I want you to blow out the candle,” Levi whispered.
“You’re not going outside again?” Jamie asked.
“No, I just want to look out the window,” Levi replied, “I just don’t want anyone to see the light when I pull back the curtains.”
“OK,” Jamie replied.
When Levi reached the door, he signaled to Jamie.
She blew out the candle.
Levi let his eyes adjust to the darkness as he watched the glowing wick fade into the blackness of the room.
Levi slowly pulled the curtains back away from the window on the door.
He put his face to the glass window in the door and looked outside.
It was dark, but after a moment the shapes of the branches swaying in the breeze began to become visible in the dim glow of the starlight.
Levi was intently staring into the shadows when a loud crash behind him made him jump.
“What was that?” Levi asked as he turned and let the curtains fall back over the window.
“George decided to attack the lamp,” Jamie replied.
Levi’s eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness that he could see the faint shape of the lamp moving across the living room floor as George growled and tugged on the lamp’s electrical cord.
Levi reached out and grabbed George as the little dog attempted to drag the lamp past him towards the kitchen.
Levi felt his way across the living room and pushed George into Jamie’s arms.
“Hang onto George and keep him out of trouble,” Levi whispered.
“I wonder if they make straight jackets for French Bulldogs?” Jamie asked sarcastically.
“If they don’t, maybe they should,” Levi replied. “Maybe Logan could try selling them on his Amazon page. We might all get rich if all French Bulldogs are like George.”
Levi moved back over to the door and pulled back the curtain.
He looked out the window to finish checking out the area in front of the cabin.
Levi stared into the darkness but didn’t see anything other than the dark outlines of tree branches and what looked like a swarm of fireflies twinkling out under the trees.
He strained as he pushed his face near the window to see if there was any movement below the cabin, but he couldn’t detect any movement in that direction.
Levi was about to close the curtains and go back to his couch, when the fireflies again caught his attention.
The swarm had moved closer to the cabin.
Levi studied the twinkling light from the swarm.
The flight of the fireflies began to look strange.
Normally he thought that fireflies flew in small circles.
These things seemed to be flying in a zig-zag motion, first to the left and back to the right.
Levi watched as the swarm seemed to get closer to the cabin.
It was then he noticed the dark shapes that surrounded the twinkling lights.
Then it hit him, the twinkling lights was the faint starlight reflecting off the milky white eyes of the creatures coming out of the woods.
Levi let the curtains fall back into place.
“Jamie, light the candle,” Levi ordered.
Levi could hear George scamper across the room when Jamie put him down so she could light the candle.
When the candle light lit up the room, the first thing Levi saw was George renewing his attack on the broken lamp.
“What is it with George and that lamp?” Jamie asked, “is it because we hid all the shoes and toilet paper?”
Levi didn’t smile, he just said, “Help me slide the couch against the door, hurry.”
Jamie began to look concerned, “What’s out there?”
“I think all the people that were down at the reception are heading our way,” Levi replied.
“Are there very many out there?” Jamie asked nervously as she helped push the couch against the door.
“I couldn’t tell how many for sure, but I could see the star light reflecting off their eyes as they were coming out of the woods,” Levi answered. “Enough to worry me.”
“Maybe we should blow the candle out again?” Jamie asked.
“Yeah, but first we need some light so we can barricade the door to make sure they can’t get in,” Levi replied.
Levi looked around the room, then he walked over and closed the door to the main bedroom, “This will have to suffice, grab George and sit on the stuffed chair by the kitchen doorway.”
“You take George, I’ll take Buddy,” Jamie replied as she grabbed Buddy’s leash and led him over to the chair.
Levi sighed, and went looking for George.
The snorts and grows led Levi to George, who was now under the coffee table, contently shredding the lamp shade.
Levi pulled George out from under the table, a large chunk of the lamp shade hung from his mouth, he blew out the candle and then worked his was over to Jamie where he sat on the floor next to her.
It was quiet for a few minutes.
“I want to go home,” Jamie finally broke the silence.
“Me too, hopefully tomorrow morning,” Levi replied. But with Lottie as she was and with Logan missing, leaving wasn’t going to be as simple as just getting up in the morning, packing the car and driving home.
“Levi,” Jamie stuttered and grabbed Levi’s arm.
Levi didn’t have to ask what, he had heard it too.
Something was bumping into the wooden railing on the front porch.
A steady thumping sound then started coming from the front porch.
Levi could imagine the staggering bodies, bumping into and knocking other staggering bodies into the porch railing.
George started to squirm in Levi’s hands. Then he started barking.
The sounds coming from out in front began to intensify after George’s outburst.
Sounds that could only be describes as bodies falling on the steps, followed.
“George, be quiet,” Levi whispered as he put his hand over George’s nose.
It stopped George from barking, but the snorting continued.
“Strangle the little devil if he won’t shut up,” Jamie whispered.
A dragging sound moved closer to the door on the porch.
Then the sounds of hands pounding against the wall of the cabin began.
George began barking again, Buddy just snuggled closer to Jamie, his senses telling him now was the time to stay quiet and pretend he was invisible.
Suddenly as the pounding against the side of the cabin grew louder, a loud chorus of groaning started.
If all of that wasn’t scary enough, a long loud groan answered, coming from Lottie’s room.
“Was that Lottie?” Jamie asked.
“Yes,” Levi said softly.
It was one more piece of evidence that if he hadn’t already lost his little girl, it wouldn’t be much longer.
Jamie threw her hands over her mouth to stifle a scream when the large front window in the living room that looked out onto the porch, shattered. Glass fell crashing to the floor below the window.
Even in the darkness, Levi could see the bodies being pushed against the curtains through the empty window frame.
He got up on his knees and pushed George into Jamie’s lap.
“Take George and Buddy and go out into the kitchen,” Levi whispered. “I’m going over and light the candle and I will be there in a minute.”
“Why are you lighting the candle?” Jamie asked nervously, “They’ll see us.”
“They know we’re here already. We need the light so we can see. We have to get out of the cabin,” Levi replied. “I’m hoping to light the candle and make a distraction so we can get out the kitchen door and maybe make it to the
car.”
“We can leave George, he can distract anything,” Jamie said expressing her disgust for the ornery bulldog.
“Just take them and go to the kitchen,” Levi repeated as the sickening sounds of more bodies falling to the floor came from over by the window.
Levi ran towards the fireplace.
He felt for the matches, after feeling the box he fumbled the box, spilling the matches over the mantle.
Finally picking up a match, he pulled the match across the box, blinding himself as the match flared up in front of his eyes.
He lowered the match to light the candle and turned towards the window.
Three bodies were struggling to get to their feet.
Levi recognized one of the bodies, it was his friend Jimmy, who had flown all the way from New York City to attend Logan’s wedding.
Jimmy stood and began to moan. His clothes were torn and bloody. A large jagged piece of the window glass was sticking out through the side of Jimmy’s face, a face that showed no recognition of Levi.
As Jimmy began to stagger towards Levi, Levi grabbed the fireplace poker and with a wide swing, knocked Jimmy back into the other two bodies that had come in through the window.
Levi quickly reached out and grabbed the curtains, yanking them off the curtain rods.
He could now see dozens of grotesque faces at the window.
A sea of bodies began rushing towards the window. Bodies began falling through the window faster than Levi could count.
Levi reached in his pocket to make sure he had the keys to the car, turned and ran for the kitchen.
As Levi ran into the kitchen, Jamie looked at him with tears in her eyes, “What about Lottie?”
Levi’s eyes teared up, “I believe our Lottie left us a few hours ago. You heard her and you saw her, that’s not our little girl.”
“You said she was just sick,” Jamie pleaded.
“I don’t know what she is now,” Levi replied. “She isn’t breathing, she doesn’t have a heartbeat and her body is cold as ice. If I thought staying and fighting would save her, there would be no way I would leave here without her. But I just saw Jimmy out there in our living room. He had a large jagged shard of glass sticking through his face. His body was gray and mangled. No one could still be alive like that, he looked exactly like Lottie. If we stay we will die. If we leave, maybe we can find out what is going on and maybe find a way to come back and help Lottie. This isn’t what I want to do, but it’s what I believe we have to do.”
Jamie nodded and then screamed as a bloody body staggered into the kitchen.
Levi grabbed one of the kitchen table chairs and pushed the grisly figure back into the living room.
“What do you want to do?” Levi asked as he looked in to the living room, “It’s now or never.”
“Let’s go,” Jamie sobbed.
Levi picked up the large skillet off the stove, “Hang onto the dogs and follow me. I’ll clear the way to the car. If we can make it to the car, we are getting away from here.”
Jamie nodded as Levi pushed open the kitchen door.
The door swung open, crashing into the side of the cabin.
The kitchen was in the back of the cabin.
The car was parked ten feet away from the back door.
From the candle light shining out through the open front window, Levi could see the sea of slow staggering bodies moving out of the woods towards the front of the cabin.
There were only a few shuffling creatures in the back of the cabin near the car.
“Run for the car,” Levi said as he ran towards the swaying bodies.
He raised the skillet and swung, knocking the creatures to the ground.
Jamie reached the passenger’s side of the car. Using the hand holding Buddy’s leash, she pulled the door open and threw George over the headrest, into the back seat.
Buddy didn’t need any instructions and jumped inside the car.
Jamie then dropped down into the seat and slammed the door.
Levi had knocked down two of the bodies near the car.
He ignored the other bodies and ran for the car.
He had the car keys out before he reached the car.
He threw the skillet on the console as he slammed the door.
The car started on the first try.
He threw the car in to drive then turned on the lights.
“Shit!” Jamie explained when she saw that there were hundreds of figures on the gravel drive way between them and the road.
“Hold on,” Levi said as he hit the gas.
The small Lexus SUV lunged forward.
They began to pick up speed, but quickly ground to a crawl when the car collided with the wall of bodies.
Bodies and body parts began to bounce off the hood and slide up over the windshield.
Faces rammed into the side windows, then slid away and were quickly replaced by another.
Only the darkness saved Jamie from seeing how truly gruesome the bloody sight was.
Levi pulled the gearshift down in to the car’s lowest gear to keep the car moving against the mass of bodies trying to stop them.
The sounds of bones being crushed under the tires filled the interior of the vehicle. Bones broke as bodies struck the windows.
Levi couldn’t tell if it was the darkness or the blood and flesh smeared across the glass that made it so hard to see out through the windows.
Levi began to feel even more concerned when the sound of glass cracking joined the sound of breaking bones.
Then a large funnel of steam shot up in front of the car, creating a blinding white wall in front of the car as the light from the headlights was reflected back at the windshield.
Then the car broke free and began to pick up speed again as the last of the bodies bounced off the hood and fell to the side of the road.
Levi let his grip on the steering wheel loosen and he could feel the circulation begin to return to his hands.
Inside the car was silent as Levi and Jamie breathed a sigh of relief and tried to let the tension drain from their bodies.
Levi finally laughed when George came tumbling into the front seat. After getting to his feet, George latched on to the volume control knob on the radio.
Jamie grabbed George and tossed him into the back seat.
Then she pulled the knob off the radio and threw it into the back seat.
“Here, take the damn thing,” Jamie growled.
Chapter 23
Logan held Jamie’s hand as they walked through the woods.
“Slow down,” Jamie said, “I’m falling out of your shoes. You have big feet.”
“Sorry,” Logan replied, “I didn’t think I was going that fast. I guess I’m nervous.”
“You are probably cold without a shirt,” Jamie said as they moved along the dark path to the cabins.
“Yeah, maybe we should have planned a beach wedding,” Logan replied.
“I’m beginning to think we should have planned our wedding anywhere but here,” Jamie said, barely holding back her tears.
“Celebrating our anniversary is going to be a real downer,” Logan thought. But he couldn’t bear to say anything like that out loud.
“Let’s just worry about getting to the cabin,” Logan said instead.
“How much further is it?” Jamie asked.
“It’s only a couple hundred yards,” Logan replied, “It shouldn’t take long.”
They walked for a few more minutes.
“Can you see anything?” Jamie asked, “I can’t see a thing and I keep running into tree branches.”
“No, I can’t see a thing either,” Logan replied. “I didn’t think it would be this dark. I think if we go to the left here, we’ll end up on the road. Maybe that will be easier.”
Logan pulled on Jamie’s hand and guided her off the path and into brush.
“Use your free hand to protect your face,” Logan said. “I’m not sure what we are going to run into this way, but it s
hould be easier once we find the road.”
“Why don’t we see any lights?” Jamie asked. “I thought Pine Rose had street lights.”
“I don’t know. When I stopped over to see my Dad the other night, I thought I remembered seeing street lights,” Logan answered.
After another five minutes of fighting off branches, thorns and mosquitoes, Logan felt gravel under his feet.
“I think we are on the road now,” Logan said.
“Which way now?” Jamie asked as she held out her arm and was happy not to feel her hands hit into any more branches.
“I think it is down to our right if I know where we are,” Logan answered.
They moved down the road carefully for a few minutes.
“Logan, do you hear that?” Jamie asked.
Logan stopped and listened, “What did you hear?”
“I’m not sure,” Jamie whispered, “I thought I heard glass breaking and that damn groaning sound those things were making back at the amphitheater.”
Logan strained to listen.
“I still don’t hear anything,” Logan whispered back.
Suddenly bright lights lit up the woods two hundred feet ahead.
Beams of light shot up into the sky and out through the woods, casting huge eerie shadows all around them.
The bright lights were followed by the sounds of a car engine roaring.
“Someone is coming,” Jamie said excitedly. “Maybe we can hitch a ride.”
“Who would stop for two people dressed like us?” Logan asked. “I’d stop for you, but I’d probably keep driving if I saw someone like me.”
They both stopped and listened as the approaching car roared like it was running out of control through the woods.
The car sounded like it was hitting trees and rocks, bouncing off stumps, then bottoming out and scraping the under carriage on the gravel road.
The sounds of a car wreck in progress echoed loudly through the woods.
The headlights flickered and danced against the branches ahead. One second the lights seemed to shine at the tree tops, the next second the lights almost disappeared as if the car was bouncing up and down as it ran through a field at night, being bounced around wildly as it dropped into holes and then bounced over logs and boulders.
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