Yet Q had other things to worry about. The woman with the torn-out eye was stumbling towards him, followed by “Enzo.” The chubby guy had also gotten to his feet and was mere yards away from him.
Q yelped and backed into a front yard. He looked in the direction of his house. The chubby guy had cut him off. Q felt the cold tickle of fear creep up his spine as the other freaks backed him further into the front yard.
Then instinct took over and he ran for it. He ran past chubby guy, who lunged and fell to the ground behind Q. He sprinted towards the low hedge that separated the yard from the neighbor’s and leapt. Catching the top of the hedge with one foot, he crashed onto the grass of the next yard with a scream.
No time to figure out whether he was hurt. He jumped to his feet and ran to the sidewalk. There was nothing between him and Shady Lane, so he sprinted away. Carlos’ screams chased him down the street.
Q ran home as fast as he could. Rushing past his front yard, he lunged onto the porch, nearly slamming into the wall of his house. He spun around and looked in all directions.
Nothing moved. Nobody had chased him to his house. He took a stuttering breath and forced himself to calm down. He opened the screen door and shut it, along with the front door. Q locked the door and put his back against it. It was only after his third deep breath that he realized something was wrong.
There was a banging noise coming from his parents’ room. As if his parents were moving furniture around or something.
“Mom?” Q called out tentatively.
The sound of movement intensified. Q walked to his parents’ bedroom door and reached for the door handle. He frowned for a second as all noise stopped. It was suddenly quiet as death.
Q grabbed the handle, turned it, and pushed the door open. “Mom? Dad?”
Something slammed into the door from the other side, knocking Q backwards into the opposite wall. Luckily, he managed to stay on his feet. The impact stunned him for a moment, and all he could do was watch as fingers reached around the edge of the door and it started to open.
The door was pulled open, revealing his mother’s face glaring at him with a horrific intensity. Her jaw hung wide in a macabre version of a yawn.
“Mom?”
But her only response was to lunge at him.
A lucky thing happened then, as another body slammed into the partially open door. It caught Q’s mom and she lost her balance, crashing to the ground halfway out. She fell awkwardly, and Q clearly heard a pop as her shoulder dislocated. The woman seemed oblivious to any pain and immediately reached for Q with her other arm. Her fingertips scratched at Q’s jeans.
“Get off!” He danced away from her hand.
It all became clear to Q in that moment: People were possessed. So were his parents. He needed to escape.
Unfortunately, he had moved further down the hallway instead of towards the exit. His mom struggled to pull herself into the hallway. Then his dad entered the fray. He opened the bedroom door and promptly tripped over his wife’s squirming body, but not before Q saw the same crazy look in his eyes.
“Dad...”
Q backed up a step, his hand against the wall to steady himself as what was left of his father lifted his head. His face was covered in scratches. He’d been in a fight. A bad one.
His dad put his hands out to pick himself up. Q could see the missing fingers and gasped at the horrific sight. He took another step back. Both his parents were getting to their feet. His hand felt the door frame of his own bedroom door to the right. He didn’t think twice; he pushed through his door and slammed it shut behind him. A second later, he felt the first impact.
“MOM!” Q screamed from his side of the door, putting his back into the wooden portal. “Mom, please!”
The pounding on his door continued, the door rocking slightly at every impact.
Q looked around in a panic, searching for anything he could use to block the door. There was nothing. He cried out in despair while his parents redoubled their efforts to get in. Sliding down, he sat with his back against the door, his legs splayed out in front of him.
“Please! ... MOM!” Q’s voice cracked as he screamed. He was in the grip of pure panic, feeling the door rock at every blow. He knew that the door was not going to hold for long.
Again, he looked around his room desperately.
The closet?
The wooden sliding doors were flimsy, and Q discarded the idea almost immediately. He considered crawling under the bed and even hiding under the covers but abandoned those options as well.
In the end, it wasn’t what he could see but what he could smell that offered him hope. The scent of herbs drifted in through his open window. Q knew instantly that the window would be his only means of escape. As if to spur him on, the combined impact of his parents against the door caused a loud cracking noise.
Q leapt to his feet, hopped onto his bed, and pulled the sliding window open just as the door behind him flew inward on its hinges and his father fell to the ground inside his room. Q fumbled with the bug screen, his fingers slipping off the little lip twice as he tried to dislodge it.
Then his mom fell onto the bed. Q launched himself at the screen. The screen gave way more easily
