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“Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Howe,” I whispered. I didn’t know why the hell her parents had placed them in the fridge, perhaps they’d hoped to keep them fresher, but I didn’t care. I swung my backpack forward and began to shove the boxes inside as the other three entered the room.
“Bethany,” Lloyd hissed.
“One moment,” I retorted, shoving and pushing the third box into my bag. It wasn’t going to zip all the way closed again, but I didn’t care. The cereal would keep us going for a few more days, maybe even a week or more if we were careful with it.
“Bethany let’s go!”
I tried to pull my arm from Lloyd’s iron tight grasp. Though he was thin, he was far stronger than he appeared as he clung to me. “The cereal!” I snapped.
He shoved his face into mine. “Screw the cereal!” he snarled.
I blinked in surprise as he tugged the zippers on my bag closed and threw it onto my back. The last box of Cheerios fell to the floor. Barney had already been on his feet, but now he surged eagerly forward as the little O’s scattered across the linoleum. “Wait!” I gasped as I was pulled roughly forward. “Barney.”
Lloyd wasn’t listening to me though as he drug me toward where Je
“The aunt is frozen,” Lloyd responded, not at all slowing down.
“So are a lotof other people,” I retorted growing more fearful of his erratic behavior.
Lloyd glanced back at me. “She’s frozen and she’s still here. The rest of the town has been cleared out already.”
I gasped in horror, the niggling feeling I had experienced upstairs suddenly came surging to the forefront. Though I hadn’t quite understood what had been bothering me at the time, I understood it now, and I cursed myself for being an idiot. Every other place we had come across in this area had been damaged, and completely devoid of human beings. But not here, in this frozen Mayberry of peace and tranquility. No, here everything was still perfect, still intact, still as everyone had left it before the moment that had shattered our lives. Everything was as it had been, including the people unable to flee from the monsters heading their way. The monsters that would seek them out in order to drain them of their life.
Monsters that would be heading ourway.
“Crap,” I breathed.
“Yes crap, now let’s go.”
I didn’t protest anymore, didn’t argue with him. I fled out the door, pounding down the steps of the porch. I turned back, wanting to call out to Barney as Bret and Je
Barney emerged onto the porch, his ears pricked, his nose raised into the wind. The hair on the back of his neck stood up seconds before one of the monstrous things rose up from behind the house. It was not as large as the house, or at least its main bulk wasn’t, but this one had become big enough so that one of the tentacles was able to reach the second story windows. It was only that tentacle I could see at first, as the rest of it was blocked by the home, but it slowly began to emerge from the back.
Its opalescent and red bulge began to squish and push its way in between Je
Barney leapt off the porch as one of the tentacles whipped toward him. He let out a startled yelp, barely managing to avoid the things hungry grasp. “Barney,” I whispered as I slid to a stop.
“It’s a damn dog!” Lloyd barked. “And he’s faster than you!”
I was torn between going back for the dog, and listening to the complete and utter logic that Lloyd spewed. In the end, it was Barney’s speed and cu
I plunged into the forest at the same time that three more of the monsters emerged onto the street. Two of them came straight at us.
CHAPTER 6
“Zigzag,” Lloyd ordered.
He didn’t have to tell me twice as I raced in and out of the trees. I didn’t know what good it was going to do us though, those damn things were fast, and their freaking tentacles were even faster. We had no position to stand and fight, not right now anyway. We needed higher ground, but the last thing I was going to do was climb a freaking tree. I’d never survive then, a tree was no obstacle for these things.
Unfortunately there appeared to be no other high ground around us. My gaze searched wildly around the forest, looking for something, anythingthat would give us some sort of protection or shelter. I glanced over my shoulder, Je
Lloyd jumped onto a set of boulders; he turned partially around, his eyes narrowed as he surveyed the woods. He leapt off the boulders, disappearing momentarily from sight. I pushed myself to keep going, but the backpack was becoming steadily heavier, and my legs hurt more and more with every step I took.
Barney darted past me for a moment, brushing briefly against my legs before surging ahead. The saying that a person didn’t have to be the fastest in the group when being chased, they just have to be fastest than the slowest member, flashed through my mind. Apparently Barney knew this saying, and lived by it. Then again, Bret was staying behind me and though I couldn’t see her, I knew that Je
Maybe some people wouldn’t mind just being able to beat someone in order to survive, but I sure as hell did. There was no way I was going to allow Je
Lloyd suddenly reappeared, he was standing on another set of boulders, his rifle raised, his eye pressed to the scope. The boom of the shot was startling in the forest, but no birds took flight. Where the hell did they all go when they felt the approach of these damn things? I suddenly, and uselessly, wished for wings too. Though I didn’t think there was any chance he could hit one of them through the trees, Lloyd fired off another shot. He probably just hoped to make them hesitate; I didn’t think for one minute that it would work.
I leapt onto the boulder beside Lloyd, struggling to catch my breath as I studied the forest. I could see trees bending and hear them snapping, but I could not see the monsters causing it through the thick foliage of the trees. I may not be able to see them yet, but they were noticeably closer. “Keep going,” Lloyd commanded, sounding a