Hatched

by Jason Davis

  Kalwalski always sent shivers down Daniels’ spine when he gave him that glare. It had been going on since high school when Kalwalski was the star jock and Daniels the average guy. They lived just down the block from each other, but neither families had gotten along. Daniels had always been the butt of some joke or prank, thanks to the larger boy.

  Kalwalski had been born in Hammond. He had been a linebacker on the football team, after the small town had consolidated its schools to have a district large enough to have a football team, and many had thought he would go on to play in the pros. Of course, towns always believed their stars would make it big.

  Daniels didn’t know if Kalwalski felt that way about himself. He knew that when he had gone down to Illinois State University, he had joined the football team…only to be cut his first year. The star wasn’t a star once he was at the college level.

  The man was still big and intimidating, especially next to Daniels' small frame. Daniels wasn’t sure if the reason he wanted to be a cop so badly had anything to do with how much he had been picked on in school. He tried not to think about it since one of the fellow officers he worked with, the man now pointing his gun at the ground, was the asshole who led the charge of much of his juvenile torment.

  It didn’t matter, as long as now, when the little man motioned for the gun to be pointed down, Kalwalski did as he was instructed. There was uncertainty in his face, but the bigger man had done it...slowly.

  Daniels eased himself back, watching the woman stagger toward them. She really did look messed up.

  “Hello, ma’am. We’re not going to hurt you. Tell us what is going on inside? Where is Sheriff Carter?” Daniels asked.

  The woman stopped and slowly looked back and forth between the two officers. They were spaced out...Kalwalski on the outside, Daniels on the inside of the “V”. He couldn’t tell if her eyes were moving. They were just gray, lifeless orbs.

  Was she blind? That could be why she was staggering, but why wasn’t she answering?

  “Hello, ma’am?” he tried again.

  Her eyes moved toward him. He felt an icy chill tingling along the hairs of his arms. It suddenly felt like the air around him had dropped thirty degrees. He looked over at Kalwalski, who returned that same raised eyebrow glare. Daniels didn’t think he was thinking too much about how the woman looked, but he had been known to surprise people. He made it through college, even after not being able to play football. That meant he had done it on his own. However, Daniels could never think of him as anything other than that dumb jock who had always knocked his books out of his hands.

  Motion out of the corner of his eye made him snap back to watch the woman. She was coming toward them again, moving in his direction now.

  “She’s not armed,” he called over to Kalwalski. “Maybe she’s in shock.”

  “Yeah.”

  Daniels eased forward, squeezing through the small gap between the vehicles. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “Hold up,” Kalwalski said.

  Daniels turned back to look at him, seeing him motioning toward the door. Looking back, Daniels saw two more people coming out. One was a skinny teenager not much taller than himself, whom he had seen before. He remembered busting the kid a time or two, but didn’t think that it had been for anything more than curfew. What had been the kid’s name? Brian… Bobby…? Willy…? He wasn’t sure and didn’t think it was going to matter much right now. The kid was a bloody mess.

  The other was a woman. This one a little larger than the first and she was limping. It didn’t take Daniels long to see why. Her left calf and shin were covered in blood. there was a large chunk of flesh taken out and he could see all the way down to the bone.

  They were both covered in blood. It ran down the front of them, seemingly from their mouths.

  “What the hell is happening here?” he mumbled, realizing the blood on the front of their shirts was not their own. Hadn’t the woman on the phone said something about cannibalism? Could this shit really be happening? Cannibalism?

  “I think, somehow, we just walked into the Twilight Zone,” he heard Kalwalski say, disbelief in his voice.

  “You three! Get down on the ground and put your hands over your head!” Daniels said, forcing as much authority as he could muster into his voice. They kept coming toward them.

  Seeing they didn’t have any visible weapons, Daniels put away his sidearm and pulled out his Taser.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Kalwalski asked, stunned.

  “Get down on the ground before you force me to incapacitate you!” Daniels yelled.

  “Fuck that!” he heard Kalwalski mumble under his breath.

  He aimed his Taser at the woman because she was in range. He paused, waiting for them to stop. When neither of them did, he fired.

  Chapter 9

  Kalwalski winced as he saw the little dart fly out from Daniels Taser, thinking about the few times in his life he had been stung by one of them. It had never felt good. When that little needle dug painfully into your skin, you barely had time to think. It would grow suddenly and extremely hot, then all control over your limbs and bowels was lost. You were left a pile of flesh on the ground, stinking from the piss and shit that had escaped, and your muscles were sore, as if you had just done the most intense workout of your life. He had once had it done to him during a bar fight in his younger days when he had been dumb and stupid. He had it done to him again during his training by an overzealous commander, who thought he needed to make an example out of him about how the little weapon could take down the biggest of assailants.

  He never carried one. Even though it was mandatory and Carter had issued him one, the chief never noticed or cared that he never had it on him. He didn’t even know where he had put the thing. He just knew it was far away from him, and he would never go looking for it.

  The woman stumbled forward, then went down to her knees. Maybe Daniels was right. Maybe they would stop now. The woman seemed like she was going down. Daniels was right. They couldn't shoot them. Too much paperwork and an investigation on why they used lethal force on unarmed assailants, even if the assailants did look bat-shit crazy.

  So, Daniels deployed his Taser. Well, that wasn’t Kalwalski’s style. No. Now he would get to play. He didn’t get to play much anymore.

  He put away his sidearm, making sure to buckle it down so none of these whack-jobs would be able to grab it from his holster. Then he pulled out his nightstick...ol' reliable.

  These guys were probably on something. Maybe that bath salts stuff he had heard about from down in Florida and had seen on YouTube. That crap that made people think they were zombies. That would make arresting them harder, but maybe it would also make them slow to react.

  “Get down on the ground!” he heard Daniels yell at them again. The woman he had tased was on the ground and crawling toward them. Her glazed white eyes looking intently at the smaller man, she seemed to be using the line back to his Taser as a guide.

  That was it. It was time for Kalwalski to step in.

  “Okay, you motherfuckers. It’s time you guys got some sense knocked into you!” he said, stepping from around the large pick-up truck.

  ****

  Kalwalski ran to the two still standing, his nightstick raised high above his head. He imagined himself a samurai, running into battle. Not that that he was expecting one. He was going to knock some heads around, put these three down, and let the hospital worry about them when they came down from whatever drug they were on. He was sure Daniels would back his claim that it was in self-defense.

  Kalwalski didn’t get to knock heads too often. Too many of the local boys were afraid of him after the few times they had challenged him. He’d been suspended each time, but the local boys didn’t know that. It helped his reputation. Even Carter knew it was better for people to not know he had been punished.

  He reached the first of them and swung the nightstick down, hard. It smashed into
the side of the first one’s head with a satisfying crunch. Kalwalski didn’t wait to see the kid go down. He continued to the woman. Without knowing what they were on, he didn’t know what they would do. He had to be quick, decisive, and put them down before they could get him. A small pull at his stomach made him worry that he had hit the kid too hard, but he couldn’t doubt himself now.

  He brought the club back like a bat. He didn’t want to hit the woman as hard, and he really didn’t want to hit her over the head. Actually, he didn't want to hit her at all. It wasn’t like beating down a man who was going to attack him. To hit a woman was different.

  He paused. She was only a few feet away, but he knew that by slowing, he had already lost the momentum he had used on the kid.

  He heard a gurgling sound, almost like a growling, coming from the tased one, and turned to look at her. She was on the ground, but she wasn’t convulsing like she should have been. She was crawling toward Daniels.

  “Damn, what the hell are you guys on!” Kalwalski screamed, turning back to the woman he had been running toward. It was too late.

  She had gotten close and now fell forward. It wasn’t like a lunge. It looked more like she just fell. She didn’t hit his upper body like she would have if she had wanted to take him down. Instead, she hit his thighs, clawing at him as she continued to fall. The weight of her threw him off balance and he stumbled.

  He tried to catch himself, but his foot caught on the ground behind him. It was quick and sudden. He didn’t have time to think before the ground came up to meet him. He felt a burning sensation shoot through his ankle, warmth flooding along his leg and thigh. The pain in the rest of his body was a dull compared to it. He’d probably twisted his ankle.

  He tried to open his eyes, but the pain made him want to keep them closed. He wanted to call out, but his mouth was firmly clamped shut against the pain. His mind started shutting down. Damn, it fucking hurt. He’d never had a twisted ankle hurt this much. He tried to push away the pain and get his composure. He started by taking in air and opening his eyes, but he wasn’t ready for what he saw.

  It was the kid… The kid was biting into his ankle.

  “Fuck this!” Kalwalski screamed. He panted heavily, trying to push away the burning. Knowing what it was didn’t make it any easier because now he could feel the kid's teeth as they dug deep into his flesh. He reached for his revolver, working to undo the clasp on his holster. After three attempts, he was able to pull his gun free and aimed it at the kid.

  He kept an eye on the woman, as well. She was still coming for him. He watched her out of the corner of his eye, but the kid was the immediate threat. Kalwalski fired twice, hitting the kid's head. An eye disappeared with the first shot, the second barely grazed the top of his skull, but it didn’t matter. The first one should have been a kill shot. He turned toward the woman and leveled his revolver at her. His finger started to squeeze on the trigger, getting ready for a nice clean shot.

  When more flames shop up his leg, he couldn’t keep hold of his gun. It clattered to the cement. Kalwalski's eyes lost focus because of the pain. His teeth ground together, his jaw aching. His teeth felt like they were splintering in his mouth, but he couldn’t unclench them. He forced his eyes open to look down at his leg.

  The kid had bitten him farther up and tore away the flesh. He was bleeding profusely, and he could feel the cement below him getting wet with his own blood.

  “Wha…” He wanted to scream out, but couldn’t. The kid started crawling up his body, toward his face. The large hole where his left eye had been seemed to be glaring at him.

  The world started getting darker around him. Was night coming already? It seemed like it was way too early. Kalwalski looked back to the missing eye. Were those spiders?? It looked like there were hundreds of them pouring out of the kid's eyes and coming toward him.

  As the darkness started to spread he heard Daniels. The man sounded like he was at the end of a long hallway. He was shouting, then there were more gunshots. He had actually pulled his gun? That wasn’t like him. The man had always been a pussy.

  Then Kalwalski heard the screams. He thought he felt himself smile. Now that was the Daniels he knew. Screaming like a little baby.

  The sound died away and the sun set somewhere behind his eyes. He could only see the shapes of spiders. They were everywhere.

  Chapter 10

  The phone cut off. The momentary silence was replaced with the long buzz of disconnection. She pulled the receiver away and stared at it. Behind her, something metal fell to the ground. It reminded her of the sound a can of spray paint made when you dropped it, but she was in an office supply store. They didn’t sell paint. And what was going on outside? Had all the people at the front of the store gone out? Was she safe now? She didn’t think so, and it didn’t sound like the police were going to help her anytime soon.

  Another of the metal cans fell. She knew it was close, and there was something about that sound. She didn’t think it was paint, but was something similar. Something about it that tugged at her, trying to make her remember. It wasn’t spray paint, but was in a can like that, and it was white.

  Something…she had seen.

  Canned air!

  What direction had the sound come from? She hadn’t been paying too much attention. Plus, it seemed to echo. Had it been in the next aisle? Three aisles over? It was hard to tell. So why did canned air make a difference? Why had that bothered her?

  She vaguely remembered that she had seen the large display of canned air at the end of the aisle. She hadn’t been paying too much attention to it at the time, but she thought she remembered it one aisle over. Someone was only an aisle away from her!

  The hairs on the back of her neck started to rise, and the air seemed to hum with electricity. Her stomach flipped, and she felt that little lump of fear starting to grow inside. A tiny voice in her mind squealed at her not to look. That as long as she never turned around, she would be just fine. That whatever was there, she could just ignore it. The squealing voice was her mother’s voice, the one that had told her not to join the military or date boys. That little voice, which was always afraid for her and never wanted her to grow up, was also the terrified voice that had screamed at her when she was overseas. She was alive many times over because she listened to that little voice. It was often frightened and too judgmental, but it had always warned her of danger. Now, the voice told her she should just stay there and wait. She would wake up and be safe. That it would all be over soon.

  She knew the voice wasn’t right this time. Some kind of chattering sound came from behind her, closer than she would have expected, and she spun to face it. She couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped her. She was not trained for or shown how to handle what stood there. What she saw should not have been possible. It was inhuman. This couldn't be happening. It had to be a nightmare.

  She recognized the man that stood there. Not only had she seen him about twenty minutes earlier, she had also seen him many times when she had come in to the store. He had been one of the men who helped her when she and her husband had bought their computer. He had helped them get a good deal on it and, when it had a virus, helped them get it to a guy who could fix it. He was almost always at the store. He and his large smile, friendly face, and beard always made her think of a large teddy bear.

  She knew he had been attacked not twenty minutes ago. His throat had been torn wide open. That friendly smile, those warm blue eyes… She had seen them as the man had fallen back. It was his face, his eyes, his teddy bear frame, but he wasn't the same. Those eyes now looked at her. It was hard to even imagine them as they had been before.

  He stood there, his large frame taking up most the aisle between her and the fire exit. If not for the barest traces of recognizable features, it would have been impossible to say who he was. There was no kindness there now. There wasn’t any sign of humanity, any kind of emotion. It wasn’t him. He looked…wrong.

  Lo
oking through the gore that was left of his face, Winona couldn’t stop herself from homing in on his eyes. Maybe she just wanted to avoid looking at the rest of him. His neck had a lot of the muscle exposed and, in some places, she could see down to the bone. The double chin that he used to have was gone. Now, there were large holes where flesh had been torn away. The bottom half of his chin was exposed with pieces of flesh still hanging off, strands of skin barely held in place.

  He was covered in blood. The red liquid that had once flowed through his veins had stopped pouring out of him. The once powder blue shirt was nearly black from the pure volume of it. It had soaked into his khaki pants and dripped down onto the tiled linoleum floor. Where he had stopped, she saw little puddles of it.

  She looked back to his eyes and felt a stab of fear at seeing the cold, lifeless gaze looking at her. That glow he had before, the smile was now gone. Those eyes were dead. She did not feel like he was watching her with them…or that he was even still there.

  A gurgling sound escaped from the gap below his jaws. It didn’t sound like a breath, but rather a rush of air escaping the unused lungs. There was no intake of air following it.

  He took another staggering step toward her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a little voice started to pull at her awareness. She needed to stop watching. She was repulsed, but just couldn’t stop staring. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she knew it wasn't human anymore.

  Somewhere in the front of the store, she heard gunfire. Flashes of combat broke through her thoughts, exploding through her head. The speed of the thoughts overwhelmed her as she noticed the thing coming toward her, blocking her path.

  She had to think. She had to come up with a way out of there. No, she had no time to think. It was time to act. She would think about it later.