She watched as her broad-shouldered boyfriend took a couple steps forward. The silent screamer moved somewhat drunkenly towards Dean. When it got close enough, Dean raised the table leg above him with both hands, and timing it perfectly, slammed the heavy wood down on the head of the lunging assailant.
Sophie could hear a sharp crack. She knew that it wasn’t the table leg cracking.
The silent screamer went down. Dean followed his first hit with another two-handed blow to the back of the head. Sophie could see the splatter from where she was standing and swallowed hard.
Dean looked around for a second, making sure there were no more threats around, before turning back to Sophie. He gave her a warm smile.
“See? Nobody is going to hurt you while I’m around.”
Sophie nodded. She looked at her boyfriend as he strode back to her with a confident grin. Dean O’Reilly had graduated from college thanks to a free ride baseball scholarship. His business education never came into play, though, as Dean signed a contract with the local baseball team. Being short stop for the Ospreys didn’t provide the six-figure income he was looking for, but Dean was sure that his chance to make it to the big league was right around the corner. That dream was now lost forever. But his skill, stamina and strength were way more useful than any calculator or keyboard would have been.
Dean rested the table leg on his shoulder, holding on to it with one hand, while taking Sophie’s hand with his other.
“Let’s go.” He said as they walked off.
The late-morning sun had taken the chill out of the air, and the sky was mostly clear. There was a serene beauty to it all. But at the same time, it was disturbing.
It was the silence.
The city felt like it had been deserted. There were no cars driving on the roads. There were no planes flying in the sky overhead. There were no people.
No living people, anyway.
Dean and Sophie moved fast, but cautiously. They would take extra care passing through intersections. Those intersections would provide an opportunity to have a good look down the streets. They spotted several moving forms when they got to the next intersection, but thankfully the forms were far away.
So far, their luck was holding. They saw no shambling forms in the direction they were heading.
They got to the next intersection. Dean cautiously snuck around a vehicle and looked in both directions. He motioned Sophie to come forward as the coast was clear. He drew her down to crouch at the hood of the car.
“There’s a group of them about two blocks away. Have a peek.” Dean encouraged Sophie.
The road ran down a gentle slope, providing a decent view in the direction Dean was indicating. Sophie lifted her head over the hood and watched. Sure enough, there was a group of about half a dozen people in the intersection two blocks down.
Not people. Silent screamers.
You could tell these weren’t regular people. They moved strangely, jerking one way and then in another direction without any apparent thought. Sophie found it fascinating the way they moved together. Like it was synchronized somehow.
Like a miniature swarm, or flock of birds.
Dean stood up beside her, and Sophie followed suit. She knew that it would be very unlikely that they would be seen from that distance. Make any noise though, and the silent screamers would be coming around.
Just then a window shattered a few houses behind them. They turned in time to see a pale body fall out of a window and into a yard. Sophie and Dean picked up their pace and quickly moved ahead. They slowed their pace once they got a few more houses down the street. Sophie looked over her shoulder and saw that whatever had fallen out the window had not gotten back up.
They’re stuck inside their own houses.
It made sense. The authorities had instructed people to stay in their houses during these last fear-filled days. Most people did, which meant that many silent screamers were stuck in their houses. Sophie imagined the silent screamers stuck inside their bedrooms. Standing beside their own beds. Heads down and eyes open... She shuddered at the thought, but also realized that it was a small blessing. It kept the streets relatively free of danger.
“It’s just up ahead. We’re almost there.” Dean whispered.
Dumfrey’s Apothecary was a locally owned pharmacy. Not like all those big box stores that people tended to flock to for discount no-name sleeping aids, Christmas cards, and a case of beer. No, Dumfrey’s carried little of that. The store had been around for over a hundred years, and they were forced to specialize as competitors drove Dumphrey’s market share down.
They offered the strangest things there now. From tinctures and tonics, to powders and pills, carrying items from the new age Californian herbalist to the ancient Chinese medicine man.
Dean was hoping that something at Dumfrey’s would succeed where modern medicine failed.
The original building had been demolished, and a two-story brick structure stood in its place since the early 70’s. The owners of the store; Jamie and Sam Wilson, lived upstairs in the second story of the building. Dean knew them well.
He was into supplements, natural or unnatural. Basically, anything that would give him an edge, without getting him busted for doping. On top of that, Dean was fascinated by anything not mainstream, and the dark little store with its hint of the occult and the extraordinary drew him like a fly to sugar. The Wilsons were avid baseball fans, and always excited when Dean came around. Dean visited the store regularly and had often given them free tickets to games.
As they walked up to the main entrance, they saw that the store front shutters were all down. Sophie watched Dean frown and rub his chin a moment. They didn’t want to call out or make any noise, having learned their lesson earlier that day.
Dean remembered
