“Yeah, I suppose you’re right… I
There was another round of laughter and I remember studying Carl as he lit his second cigarette. I watched how quickly the smile melted from his face, how the twinkle in his eyes faded into that eons old stare, and noticed, for the first time, how he looked at the others through a mask of sadness. As if he somehow knew that this closeness, this fleeting sense of togetherness and belonging, could never withstand the ravages of the new world we’d been thrust into.
And, as I sat there studying this man, I remember wondering exactly what he had seen through those eyes. Since the day the first corpses began to stir with new life, we’d all lost loved ones. We had all felt the pangs of heartbreak, of loneliness and loss. But there was something more to him, something deeper than all of that… and it was something I thought would probably take a lifetime to understand.
CHAPTER TWELVE: THE CHILD
I’d almost been pulled outta the little cave when I heard my Mommy’s voice screaming.
“Let ’em go, you bastards, let ’em go, let ’em go!”
Then I heard Mr. Carl’s voice, real loud and angry like.
“Monica,
All of a sudden I wasn’t bein’ pulled anymore so I scurried back into the hole. I realized I was cryin’ and I was a little bit embarrassed ’cause it seemed like all I did anymore was cry. But the monsters almost had me and I didn’t know what they woulda done if they coulda pulled me out of that little cave but I knew it wouldn’t have been anything good.
Outside, I could hear my Mommy still yellin’ and Mr. Carl was shoutin’ at her to get outta the way, let him handle this but I don’t think she was listenin’ to him because he just kept on sayin’ it over and over.
I’d crawled far enough into the cave that I found a space where I could kinda wiggle around so that I was facin’ the way out. I could see all the light comin’ through the entrance and every now and then somethin’ would run by. But it was too quick to tell if it was a monster, my Mommy, or Mr. Carl.
“Damn it, Monica,
Carl was really angry and I began wonderin’ what was goin’ on out there. So I started crawlin’ toward the entrance so I could get a better look.
When I was crawlin’, I heard Mr. Carl’s gun shoot a coupla times and then I heard him cuss and start yelling at my Mommy some more. But she was still screamin’ at the monsters to leave us alone and her voice sounded like she was so mad she was about to cry.
I was finally close enough that I could see outside; Mr. Carl was runnin’ along the side of the hill with his gun pulled and held out in front of him like he was a cop or somethin’. Behind him, I saw the little kid monster layin’ on the ground. It wasn’t movin’ at all which made me think that Mr. Carl had prob’ly kilt it when he was shootin’ earlier.
Mommy was just a little bit away from my cave and she had this big old limb that she was swinging in front of her like it was a baseball bat. Her face was all shiny with tears, which made me feel better about me cryin’ so much, and two of those monsters were coming toward her.
The Daddy monster was a little faster than the Mommy monster and it kinda jumped toward her at the same time she was swingin’ the limb. I thought for sure she was gonna hit it, but the piece of wood just barely missed. Then it grabbed my Mommy’s shirt in its hands and was pullin’ her toward it and Mommy was tryin’ to swing her limb but it kinda seemed like the monster’s arms kept getting in the way.
Next thing I know, the monster opened its mouth and Mommy started screamin’ and I suddenly knew what the monsters wanted to do with us. They wanted to eat us, just like monsters in movies, and I think Mommy knew this too ’cause her screams sounded different this time, like she was more afraid than mad.
I screamed for her and this seemed to remind the mommy monster that I was in the cave ’cause it turned and came runnin’ back to where I was hidin’. But I was quicker and I started crawlin’ backward again.
Outside, I heard Mr. Carl’s gun again, three times: B
I was still close enough that I could see there were bits of bone stickin’ out through its burnt up skin and I could also see these little pieces of glass stickin’ out of the corner of one of its eyes.
I kept thinkin’ it would growl at me or something, but it didn’t. It just pushed its hands into the cave like it thought it could actually reach me. And I began wonderin’ if monsters had magic powers. If it could make its arm stretch or make itself small enough that it could crawl into the hole after me.
I picked up a rock and was just getting’ ready to throw it when I heard Mr. Carl’s gun again. At the same time there was this hole that suddenly appeared in the monster’s forehead and it just fell down right where it was. But not before I had time to notice that monster blood looked really dark and thick, kinda like black pancake batter with all these little gray bits mixed in.
Then the monster disappeared and I saw Mr. Carl’s face lookin’ into the cave.
“It’s okay, son.” he said. “They’re all dead. Come on out now, it’s okay.”
All I could think about was havin’ my Mommy’s arms around me and hearin’ her tell me that everything was gonna be fine. So I crawled outta the cave just as fast as I could.
When I got toward the entrance, Mr. Carl kinda pulled me out and lifted me over the body of the monster he’d killed, but as soon as he put me down I was runnin’ to where my Mommy was, hollerin’ her name as I started cryin’ again.
She was sittin’ on the ground but she still gave me a big ’ole hug and held my head against her shoulder. She rocked back and forth and petted my hair and she was cryin’ too which made me squeeze her even more tighter.
After a while, I heard Mr. Carl behind us and his voice was real soft and sad sounding.
“You shoulda just let me get clear shot. You shoulda just let me handle it.”
When I heard him, I got mad all over again for him tellin’ me to shut up when I was lost in the woods. I pulled away from Mommy and was getting’ ready to yell at him when I realized that my chest felt kinda sticky like.
I looked down and saw all this blood where my shirt had been ripped only it wasn’t dark like monster blood but red like people blood. And then I looked at my Mommy and saw that she had blood all over her shirt too and there was a huge tear in the side.
And I realized that Mommy looked kinda sick. Her face was real white and she seemed kinda shaky.
Now that she wasn’t huggin’ me, she wrapped her arms around herself and kinda pressed in where all the blood was comin’ out.
When Mr. Carl spoke again, he was cryin’ too.
“Why didn’t you just let me get a shot?”
I was real scared ’cause I knew the monster had tried to eat my Mommy but I tried to be brave ’cause I knew that’s what she would want.
“It’s okay.” I said. “It didn’t get you too bad, Mommy. We just need to get a buncha Band Aids or somethin’. And Mr. Carl killed it so it won’t try to get you again.”
Mommy put her hand on the side of my cheek and looked me straight in the eyes like she always did when she was really serious about somethin’.
“I love you, baby.” she told me. “I love you more than anything in the world.”
I tried to tell Mommy that I loved her too, but when I opened up my mouth the words kinda felt like they got stuck somewhere down in my throat. And for the first time in my life I got really scared in a way I can’t really explain; I felt like all I wanted to do was crawl back into that cave with my Mommy and stay there forever. I would hold her in my arms like she always held me and keep her safe and make sure nothin’ bad ever happened to her.
But somehow I still couldn’t clear my throat enough to tell her I loved her too.
