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  A few hours later the sun was beginning to rise and shown a light on the devastation out front. Dave, Rod and Drew sat on a large bed with messed up black covers and watched the small flat screen TV waiting to hear any news of what was going on in the world. There was a news anchorwoman that tried to cover her fear and sleep deprivation with makeup and fake looks of professionalism. It would be hard to believe she left the news studio at all last night because all they continued to say was the streets were filled with crashed vehicles and sick people wandering them in search of any one stranded or lost.

  Eric sat by himself and rocked back and forth in the rocking recliner, watching his phone waiting and hoping a message would pop up stating service was restored.

  David broke the gloom with direct orders, “Ok look this is what we need to do.” He jumped from the bed, as if he had rehearsed what he was going to say. “Rod and Drew, I need,” He quickly started over, “we need you to plug the bathtub and fill it with water.” With a clap of his hand he pointed to Drew. “Drew we need you to start grabbing some pots and fill them up.”

  Reluctantly they got up, but with nothing better to do, Rod waved to his son. Dave knelt in front of Eric, “What’s up?” He put his hand over the phone covering the screen.

  “I killed a man today.” Eric said quietly, as if it was a secret, “And I think one of the men we burned was my neighbor.”

  Dave patted his chin up making him look at him in the eye. Eric did so, but was not happy with the way he got his point across and made it clear by lowering his eyebrows. “You did no such thing. These people are not your neighbors. They’re not your friends. These people outside are no longer living.”

  Eric’s angry eyebrows turned into the look you give to a crazy person on the street that is walking and talking to their brown bag of groceries.

  Dave continued. “The guy you killed,” two hands made a quotation mark above his head. “the one that was attacking Drew and Rod. Maybe you didn’t notice, but his face was smashed in, and if you were having second thought about it’s head. Oh I don’t know maybe he was pissed off because he had a really bad headache, but maybe you missed the, kind of unmissable lack of anything in his chest or stomach area.” He rubbed his chest and stomach, “yeah he was no longer alive when you smashed his face in for good. As for your neighbor, I have never met this male or female?”

  “Male,”

  “But do they normally just walk into huge blazing walls of fire?” He did not give him the second to respond. “No. I’m pretty sure they don’t, so these individuals were ultimately on the same level as the guy on the stairs.” Dave shrugged his shoulders, “These people are for a lack of better word, or maybe it is the perfect word. Zombies. You saw me, I put so many bullets in that one and for some reason I started thinking of the movies and I shot the fuck in the head and he went down. I thought of those zombie movies and shot it in the head. It worked. He finally went down. Dude don’t feel bad about it, there is nothing you could do.”

  “I’m going north to my family.”

  Dave saw a little light in his eyes. “Cool, lets get into those safes.”

  Rod walked into the room, with the expression on his face of a person who didn’t want to ask for help, but desperately needed some. “Drew and I want to go to North Carolina to see Julie’s family.”

  Dave turned to him. “Isn’t that convenient,” followed by a small smile.

  Chapter 4

  Naomi

  “When do you get off tonight?” The old man asked through the speaker and dropped his deposit slip into the shoot.

  Naomi was going through the motions of this weekly occurrence with Mr. Jenkins, “Mr. J we have already been through this and your wife would not approve of us setting off into the sunset.”

  “No, she’s ok with it. We have a very open relationship.” Said the bald mid-seventies retired police officer.

  Receiving the deposit she did not look at him while she counted his money, “Yes I am very much aware of your open relationship and she told me, I’m too good for you.” she smiled as she put his balance inquiry back into the shuttle and sent it back to his rusted green pickup truck.

  He took the slip, “What if we just set off down the street?”

  Speaking a little louder, “Get out of here, you dirty old man.” She said while she could not contain her laughing.

  “Have a good night, Sweetie.”

  “You too Mr. J,” Naomi worked for South Carolinas Trusted Funds Bank. She was the best employee the bank had. She has the best relations with her employees and never showed up late. The only time she took an unscheduled day off was when she was T boned coming in for work and had to be rushed into the emergency room. She knew just who she could play with and with whom she better watch her manners. Mr. Jenkins comes in every Thursday at the same time, never missing a week and always down to the minute. And as every Thursday goes Mr. Jenkins always starts his transactions with some type of comment, which is always meant to be a complement. Most of the time they are something like, “Every day you are more beautiful than the last. I wake up every day waiting till next Thursday just to come down here and look at you. God must have slept at a Super 8 Motel the night before he made you,” and the list continues only getting cornier and cornier. But this is not uncommon for Naomi.

  Naomi comes from mixed race parents her mother being a strong willed black woman and father being a white businessman, which left her with a very light brown complexion. Her hair was long, down past her shoulders, ending at the middle of her back in hundreds of small braids that fascinated most people as she walked past them. Her hair was a shiny black and as it moved, shimmered a glimpse of dark blue. When they followed her hair, to her clean smooth face they were immediately entranced by her deep emerald green eyes. She is very tall for a woman, standing a little more than six foot and her body was perfectly proportioned to her figure. Naomi wore tight clothing that showed just enough cleavage and body to get attention, but not enough to get her in trouble. Today she wore a tight blue dress that hung low across her chest, with a floral scarf that covered her, but still showed enough that the men wished she was working the window when they pulled up.

  The teller window looked out into a large parking lot that served multiple different stores of the strip mall. As Mr. Jenkins pulled away the site of an ambulance and multiple police vehicles with their blue and red lights caught her attention. In the middle of the parking lot, but on the further end, away from the stores, was a circle of cops surrounding a man.

  The officers looked as if they were trying to calm this man down, but he kept screaming something. Naomi recognized the young man as being one of the kids that worked at the food mart attached to the strip mall. He wore the white garrison hat with the yellow food stores logo on the front of his white apron and the khaki slacks that everyone who worked there wore. He was screaming wildly running in small circles and every once in a while he would charge after one of the police officers and stop inches from him. Just far enough, so the officers would not strike him.

  Naomi could see that the cops weren’t sure what exactly to do and one started shaking a can of pepper spray. By this time a crowd of her coworkers started to huddle up behind her and start asking questions as if she had seen the entire incident.

  “What’s going on out there?” some of her colleagues, asked truly concerned for the boy. One of the women coworkers told them in a strong southern accent and a sign of warning to the cops and the kid, “They better not hit my car. I don’t care what theys do just as long as they do it away from my car.” She declared.

  He scratched at his face, as if he was in pain, but Naomi saw that none of the cops had sprayed him. The boy let out a low growl that turned into an intense scream. He bent over with his head up and fist clenched to his sides as he shook his head screaming at each of the cops. He started running in small circles with his loose apron flailing behind him. The circles started to get bigger until he lunged at one of the female cop
s from across the circle. She was prepared for the tackle and sprawled back as the kid fell under her. There was a fight and all the police closed in on the two in a tight group. The group was shoulder to shoulder and the female that sprawled on the boy originally pushed her way out holding her right forearm. Everyone from the bank window could see blood dripping from her finger tips that protruded from the sleeve of her uniform.

  As soon as the paramedics got to the bleeding officer, another limped out hopping and holding his leg. A few seconds after the cops started to spread out, everyone from the window could see the boy lying on the ground with his hands cuffed behind him. He was laying face down and completely still. The police officers spread out in complete disbelief. The boy from what the observers in the window could tell was unconscious. It looks as if the boy just stopped struggling. “He musta tuckered himself out.” One of the women said.

  A few of the officers waved the paramedics over and they immediately started checking the boys vitals. One instantly started doing chest compressions and another put a mask over his face and started forcing air into his lungs. Another one placed a defibrillator on his bare chest and everyone from behind the shielded glass, of the bank, gasped as the paramedics shook their heads, in a sign that there was nothing more they could do.

  “He’s dead,” One of the women said behind them low enough to sound sad, but loud enough to let everyone else know she was sad.

  “Ok it’s quitting time anyway, so why don’t ya’ll count out your drawers and get ready to go.” Their manager said trying to break up the crowd before people started getting real emotional. “Ok move along,” waving them away as if he were herding cattle.

  **********

  Sirens could be heard in every direction and cars raced through the streets. Normally for Naomi traffic on Thursdays evenings was not too bad. Getting off most days a little before six just hitting the end of rush hour traffic, but today there were a lot of cars rushing through intersections and running red lights, as if everyone was hurrying to get somewhere important.

  Just then one of her coworkers came up behind her and by her shrill voice Naomi immediately recognized it to be Darlene. “I just heard there’s this big broadcast all over the stations telling people to stay indoors and not to let anyone in their houses. Not even family.”

  Stories like this were not unusual for Darlene, once she refused to eat any of her husband’s cooking because, she caught him putting drugs in her food to sedate her, so he could run off with his mistress. What actually happened was he was dropping beef bouillon cubes into the roast, he was making for dinner. She failed to take into account that he was going to eat the same roast. It almost cost them their marriage, so farfetched stories were not unusual for her. It was not long after that incident and many other ones similar to the poisoned roast episode, he finally had, had enough and got the divorce he desperately deserved. Since then she has had memberships to every dating website and has yet to find a person she can trust not to rummage through her mail. So most of the time Naomi nodded her head and said, “yup,” with the occasional, “really,” to whatever crazed fabrication of a helpless victim she played and allowed her to continue rambling, but this time she found herself listening half heartedly, as she tried to figure out what she was witnessing on the streets and the incident that just occurred in the parking lot minutes ago.

  “I just got off the phone with my Aunt and she told me it’s all over the radio and everything. People are running around randomly attacking people. The TV was saying people should stay inside and lock their doors, don’t let anyone inside not even your loved ones. I hope Tommy lets me in.”

  Tommy was a new character in Darlene’s little world that Naomi has never heard of and she already knew that tomorrow she was going to hear about how much of a bastard he is. “Ok,” she said having nothing to come back with and she just shook her head a little and quickly got into her grey overly clean brand new Dodge Caliber car, to avoid any immediate detail about this Tommy person. She sat back in her chair wondering how she was going to get out onto the street with all this traffic and turned her key. She pulled her phone from her purse and checked to see if she missed any calls. There were none missed. She expected the radio to play the modern pop music, but was surprised when it was an emergency announcement, that was telling her what Darlene just got finished telling her. Stay inside, lock all doors, don’t get close to anyone, and stay tuned for further information.

  She immediately called her daughter, Sam, who should be home from school by now. She pressed talk knowing it would take her directly to Sam because she was the last person Naomi talked to at lunch time today. The phone showed the message network busy. She pulled her car out in traffic taking no notice to the person that was waiting to pass through the intersection of the bank parking lot.

  Naomi continued to call her daughter, but got the same message every time. She was caught in heavy traffic and knew it was going to take a while to get home, so she tried to relax and listen to the radio. As she tried to take in what the radio was saying she looked around and noticed everyone was fighting with their phones. All the people around her where receiving same network busy message. She took a deep breath and sat up quickly when she felt her phone vibrate on her leg.

  The only thing that stopped her from jumping up and hitting her head on the roof was her seat belt. She picked it up knowing it was Samantha, “What’s going on baby? Are you alright?” Naomi recognized she was talking the same time Sam was and neither one heard the other. “Start over, I didn’t get that.” Once again she realized Sam was just talking and not listening, so she shut up and just listened.

  “There’s someone trying to get into the house!” Sam hollered into the phone.

  Shocked and not sure exactly what to say, Naomi shouted back, “Did you call the cops?”

  “I called them and no one’s picking up. Mom I don’t know what to do! He’s breaking through the door!”

  Naomi felt powerless. Unable to do anything, but sit and listen to her daughter talk scared to death. She could hear the pounding on the door. It sounded as if she were standing in the same room.

  “Can you go in another room? Can you go up to your room?”

  She screamed with a particular thunderous slam and said, “I am in my room.” Sam began to say something else, but all Naomi heard was a bang and the phone was filled with static, then silence and then the message on her phone again, network busy.

  She knew that whoever was outside would soon be inside. The door would not last long. Sam’s room was upstairs and on the other side of the house, and for her to be able to hear the person pounding on the front door, the person must have been hitting it so hard the house would soon collapse. She dialed 911 and she was greeted with network busy.

  With that her instincts kicked in and she determined that she would not be sitting here in traffic. She pulled off the street, jumped the curb and rode to the side streets. Most of them were filled with cars stopped with their hazards on, parked, so no one could get by so she jumped another curb. Now driving over peoples lawns, nothing was going to stop her from getting to her child.

  As she rode not paying too much attention as to what was happening around her, she did notice there were a lot of people trying to get into each other’s houses and she swerved a little to avoid hitting someone who purposely ran out in front of her, but she was determined to get home.

  She was on the street again when she pulled up to her house. She had a long drive way up a steep hill until you got a few hundred feet from her home. She had a small white cape cod house that could have been the perfect greeting card picture. A white house with green shutters, freshly cut lawn that looked like it went on forever and behind the house a mountain of black oak trees. Except now her front screen door was hanging on by the lower hinge and her front door was broken in.

  Pulling up to her garage, she did not opening it like she normally would and fear ripped through her entire body. What if this person had do
ne something to Sam? What if he was still in the house? I have to get Sam.

  She got out of her car leaving the door open and walked onto the lawn putting distance between her and her home. She walked onto her grass until she was looking directly into the open door to her vandalized house. The inside of the house was dark and random pieces of furniture were thrown haphazardly from the view of the open door. Pillow cushions from her brown couch were thrown across the room and she could see the entertainment center was knocked over.

  The sounds of talking came from inside the house. There was only one person speaking, but the voice fluctuated up and down. She crept up the stairs and tried to listen to what was being said. Stepping over the screen door she leaned over looking into her home. Naomi looked through the living room and to a long hallway that separated the kitchen from the rest of the house. The stairs that lead to Sam’s room was in the kitchen. There was glass shattered across the living room floor from the TV, and multiple different cups and vases that used to rest on the entertainment center. The coffee and end tables were flipped over and as she studied the damage, a microwave from the kitchen flew through the air and smashed against the dining room wall. When it crashed against the wall Naomi recognized the talking as being simply mumbling.

  The murmuring sounded very much like a baby babbling and as Naomi listened she saw a man turn the corner of the kitchen and stare down the hall way. He stopped and gazed directly at her.

  Naomi’s legs felt heavy and weightless at the same time. She lost all signals to them and was unable to move. Fear engulfed her body, but it was not the fear of facing a stranger in her house, but the fear of facing her worst enemy in a dark back roads alley. This was no man inside of her home, but a creature not of this world and this creature’s white eyes bored into hers.

  The creature, at one point in time was in fact a man, but showed no resemblance now. It’s shirt hung from blood drenched pieces that clung to it’s body. All the skin from its face was gone exposing white teeth and muscles that flexed as its face showed complete fury filled with hatred. The skin on the right side of it’s body was ripped from the muscle it once covered. Instead of showing clean lean muscle, the meat had chunks missing from where other creatures have tore into its flesh.