“Damn it, Jason,
And that was when I figured it out. He didn’t want me to scream because he really didn’t want them to find me. He wanted me to stay lost in the woods like those two little kids in the fairy tale. If some mean ’ole witch came along and gobbled me up, he wouldn’t even care cause then he would have my Mommy all to himself.
One time Mommy said she was goin’ out with Mr. Patterson from the butcher’s shop. But when she picked me up at Miss Donna’s that night she told me she wouldn’t be goin’ out with him ever again. She said that he wanted just her but we were a package deal and if he didn’t love me then we didn’t have no place in our lives for him. So I knew that there were people out there who wanted to take her away from me. And now I knew that Mr. Carl was one of those people, too.
But the only thing in the world that I wanted was my Mommy… even more than I wanted Pepper and Mr. Boots. So I kept yellin’ no matter how many times Carl yelled back at me not to.
I had just stopped to take a really big breath so I could yell the loudest I possibly could when I heard the bushes behind me rattle. If you’ve never been lost then you don’t really know what it’s like to be found again. How your heart feels kinda fluttery inside and how you can feel happy from the tips of your toes all the way up to your hair.
I spun ’round and was getting’ ready to run to Mommy so I could give her a big hug… but then I saw that it wasn’t her comin’ out of the bushes and it wasn’t Mr. Carl neither.
The monsters looked like marshmallows do when you’ve held them in the fire too long and the outside gets all burnt and bubbly. And all three of ’em were like that, but I could see bits of clothes in places and the little one had tennis shoes on but the bottoms kinda looked like they had started to melt. I’m not sure how I knew, but as I looked at ’em I could tell that it was a whole monster family: a Mommy, a Daddy, and a little kid.
I remembered the monsters from the house and how they had chased us, so I screamed and took off running as fast as I could. I didn’t know if I was running toward Mommy and Mr. Carl or if I was runnin’ away from where they were but I didn’t really care right then.
All I could think about were the monsters behind me as I jumped over fallen logs and ran through the woods. I could hear them back there, crashin’ through the brush and could almost picture those arms reachin’ out to grab me.
My heart was beatin’ in my chest so hard I felt like it was gonna pop and I started getting’ this pain in the side of my belly that made it hurt to run. I was cryin’ and the trees and everything looked blurry and I was still screaming but I can’t really remember what I was sayin’.
At one point, I looked back over my shoulder and saw they were so close that I could see a little Hello Kitty on a piece of the clothes that was stuck to the kid monster.
I just kept thinking that over and over and it seemed like every time I would look back they would be just a little bit closer.
Next thing I know, I was falling cause I had tripped over a root or rock or somethin’. I landed on my knees and fell forward but was only on the ground for just a second. I was racin’ to get to my feet as quick as I could when I felt something on my tee shirt, a kind of tuggin’ or pullin’.
I screamed and started runnin’ again and heard a ripping sound. Next thing I know half my shirt is gone and briars were scratchin’ my chest as I ran by.
I knew what had happened, that one of them had almost had me, and wondered if it was still holding my shirt as it chased me. But I didn’t want to look back again, didn’t want to know how close they were now or take the chance that I would trip again.
I had started scramblin’ up the side of a hill when I saw a little cave up ahead. It was a lot smaller than the one Mommy and me had slept in but I thought it was big enough for me to get into but not enough for them to follow.
As soon as I got to the cave, I kinda dove into the entrance like a baseball player slidin’ in to home base headfirst. It was so small that I had to kinda wiggle ’cause the rocks were scrapin’ my sides and my back but I just kept crawlin’ forward.
If I coulda, I would’ve crawled right down to the very center of the earth. But, instead, I felt this hand grab my ankle and it was colder than any hand I had ever felt before, so cold that I could feel it all the way through my sock.
And then it was pulling me backward, back toward the entrance and I knew the moment my leg was outside it would all be over so I grabbed onto this rock with all my might and tried to pull myself farther back into the cave.
The monster was really strong and my fingertips began feelin’ like they were about to snap right off and I suddenly felt a warmth in my pants and smelled pee. But even that smell wasn’t as strong as the dumpster-like stink of the monster behind me.
My arms began shakin’ real bad and I kept holdin’ on to that rock and tryin’ to pull myself in the other direction.
Then I felt another hand pullin’ at the bottom of my pants leg and I knew that maybe I would be able to keep holding on if just one of them was pullin’ on me. But I didn’t know how long I would be able to stay in the cave once all three of ’em began pulling.
“Leave me alone!” I yelled at ’em. “Go away!”
But my yells only seemed to make ’em tug harder and next thing I know my fingers slipped from the rock and I felt myself being pulled backward, back toward the entrance of the cave and the three monsters waitin’ outside.
CHAPTER TEN: CARL
So there we were, trapped in the car: I looked over at Doc, ready to tell him how it had been a pleasure knowing him and that I wish we woulda met before the whole world turned upside down. But he had that look he sometimes got. His eyes darted from zombies making their way toward us to the road beyond them and I could almost sense excitement starting to rise in him.
“I got an idea, Carl. You still buckled in?”
“Yeah. What’s up? What you got in mind?”
Doc took the little cross that dangled from his neck and lifted the chain to his lips. He closed his eyes for a moment before kissing the pendant.
“It’s the bottom on the ninth, Carl. We’re down by one run and got one man on. No balls, two strikes, two outs. If I don’t hit a homer on this pitch, it’s all over…. ” With his eyes still closed, Doc reached for the ignition one last time. He hesitated for only a fraction of a second. “Please…. ”
The original freshy from the bridge was close enough now that I could see the rage in its eyes, that burning hatred that seemed to fuel its existence.
Leaning out the window, I pulled the pistol from the glove box and took aim. Two squeezes of the trigger and one sulfuric-smelling cloud of smoke later, the zombie’s head dropped with a wet smack to the concrete below.
Doc turned the key and the car rumbled to life; but it was a life sort of like the ones most of those things out there lead: sluggish, nothing more than an shadow of its former existence really, and destined to succumb to the ravages of wear and tear in a relatively short period of time.
“Hot damn! I think we can avoid those rotters.” Doc shouted, “But we gotta do something about the freshies or else this car starting doesn’t mean jack.”
I could tell he wasn’t so much talking to me as working out his thoughts, so I stayed quiet and let his mind work.
“You pick off those freshies quick as you can, Carl. If your aim is good and this works out the way I think it will, we just might stand a chance.”
Before I could respond, Doc threw the transmission into drive and stomped his foot on the gas. The car lurched forward and, for one sickening moment when I felt as though my stomach had just plummeted into some
