In horror, Kaitlyn watched as the thing tore and ate. She backed away from the window, shock and nausea washing over her. She suddenly felt very cold as she stared at the crack between the boards. The only thing that brought her attention away was the sound of Dave gagging.
Pale and wet with sweat, Dave looked up and locked eyes with her. He knew, then, that she had seen what he had and must have felt horrible for allowing it. When he glanced down, Kaitlyn’s heart sank with his.
Hannah stood at her side, her eyes darting from her father’s face to the window.
Did she see that? Kaitlyn wondered. Oh God, I hope not. That would—
“Girls!” Dave suddenly yelled, more flustered and upset than Kaitlyn had seen him yet. “Get away from the windows. No more going near the windows.”
“But, Dad,” started Hannah. “We want to see what’s—”
“No!” He stopped her. “No, you don’t. There’s nothing happening out there anyway. Just more of what was happening at the school.”
“But I want to—”
“Kaitlyn,” Dave eyes darted to her, surprising her with the sudden change, “you don’t want to look outside anymore, right?”
“Oh,” she said, thinking I kinda want to see what’s happening, yeah. But, she quickly caught on to Dave’s plan. Right. Act responsible. Be a role model. “I don’t want to see any more of that,” she said, drawing the younger girl away from the window. “You don’t want to see any of that, do you, Hannah?”
Hannah looked back and forth between Kaitlyn and her father with frustration. “No. I don’t. That was scary.”
“You’re right,” said Kaitlyn. She swallowed back the lump that had been sitting in her throat since she had looked out. She had to act like nothing was happening outside. This was working. She was proving herself to be responsible. “It was really scary. So let’s go sit down for a while and think about good things, okay?”
“Okay,” said Hannah.
Kaitlyn could tell by the girl’s tone that she was doubtful about the request and would probably still rather see out the window. She was mostly glad that Hannah evidently hadn’t gotten a chance to look before they caught her.
Dave continued staring around the room. His eyes wouldn’t focus on anything; he looked lost and pale. “No more windows. No more looking outside. Outside is ...” He paused, trying to find the right words to describe what he had seen.
Kaitlyn led Hannah out of the room.
“Outside is bad,” she heard Dave finally say, though there was no one else left in the room.
DAY 3
ALEX
The next morning, before Alex opened his eyes, he could tell it was still raining. It wasn’t as heavy as it had been throughout the night, but it was still coming down. He had trouble sitting up—his neck and back were very stiff after sleeping curled up in a tub. He looked at his watch: 9:30. He wasn’t sure when he’d fallen asleep, but he felt surprisingly well rested, despite his pains. Shadow had left the tub and curled up on the bathmat.
He stood up, stretching. Shadow looked up at him and yawned, then did some stretching of her own before walking out of the bathroom. For a moment Alex debated looking out the window to see what had happened to the crashed car. He decided against it and stepped out of the tub. A bitter smell stung his eyes. Had one of those things—covered in all sorts of rancid—gotten in after all? When he put his hand to his chest to catch his breath, his shirt felt damp and crusty. He remembered that he had thrown up twice the night before.
“Ugh, gross.” He very carefully peeled the shirt off, making sure the crusty-wet parts didn’t touch his face and threw it in the hamper. His jeans were also filthy, so he took them off too. He’d just borrow some clothes from Mark. They were about the same size, though Mark was pretty scrawny. He was sure no one would mind if his clothes didn’t fit so well.
He found a clean t-shirt in a drawer in Mark’s room. Fortunately, Mark liked to wear his clothes big, so it fit Alex pretty well. All the pants, however, were too small, so he found a pair of jogging pants that stretched to fit him well enough. After putting on clean socks, he was ready to head downstairs to check outside, when something caught his eye.
A box on top of Mark’s dresser. A shoe box, covered in laundry and magazines. The Adidas logo on the side made him look. He remembered Mark telling him about a pair of shoes that he wanted, but they didn’t have his size, so his mom bought him a pair he could grow into. Pulling them out of the box, smelling that new shoe smell, he forgot most of his problems. They were beautiful: white with the black stripes, just like RUN DMC. He put them on and laced them up. Perfect fit.
It was turning out to be a much better day than the previous one.
He grabbed a hoodie from the back of Mark’s door and headed downstairs.
Shadow waited at the bottom of the stairs by the front door to be let out.
“Not today, buddy,” Alex told her. “You got anything to do, you can do that inside, okay?” He knew the dog wouldn’t dare go inside until she got desperate, so it was a futile thing to say, but he was not letting her out. The door would stay closed until he was absolutely certain that everything was clear outside. Even then he was not looking forward to it. They might even stay in another night, just to be safe.
He went into the kitchen and scooped out more food for Shadow. She quickly ate it up. Although he knew his stomach was empty from the previous night, he did not feel even remotely hungry. He had to
