Dark Realms (57 page)

She shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. He
was like this when we found him. Hand me the first-aid kit.”

“Where
is
everyone?!” sobbed Sara, throwing
her phone down. “Nobody is answering the damn phones, all of those
soldiers from earlier…just
disappeared?!
”

“Okay, calm down, Sara. Everything’s going
to be okay. We’ll get through this, somehow,” said my mom as she
opened a bottle of iodine. She poured some on her hands.

“What’s that for?” I asked.

“It kills bacteria,” she replied. She then
put on some plastic gloves.

When my mom lifted up the towel from the
soldier, I almost threw up. His flesh was mangled with blood oozing
out of the wound.

“Oh, God,” Sara whispered covering her
mouth. The next thing I know she was running up the stairs
gagging.

Mom examined the wound and
shook her head. “This isn’t working. It’s too deep. We have to get
him to the hospital. He’ll never survive if we don’t do it
right
now.” She poured
some iodine on the wound and the solider moaned.

“Sorry,” she said.

“I’ll go,” I stated. “I’ll take him to the
hospital.”

“No, I’ve already decided. I’m doing it,”
argued my mother.

“Well, then I’m coming with,” I said
defiantly.

“No. I’m going by myself, and that’s final.
You stay here with Sara and the kids. Lock the doors, keep the guns
loaded, and watch for your father or Bryce.”

It was pointless to argue with her. I
sighed. “Okay, fine, I’ll help you get him into the SUV.”

My mom had somehow managed to stop most of
the bleeding with gauze and bandages. The weakened soldier had
passed out while she was tending to his wound, which made it much
more difficult for us to carry him through the garage and into the
backseat of the SUV.

“Now,” my mom said, breathing heavily after
getting him secured. “I’m going to find help for all of us. If
you’re dad comes back, have him call me immediately.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

She stared at me with a terrified look in
her eyes and then pulled me into her arms. “You be careful, Cassie.
I don’t understand what’s going on. Just stay inside and
be...strong.”

I swallowed back my tears and nodded.

Mom pulled away and brushed a strand of hair
from my cheek. “And…check on Allie again. Make sure your little
sister’s safe, too.”

“I promise. I’ll do it right away.”

She grabbed one of the guns and shoved it
into her purse. Taking a deep breath she said, “Okay, I’ll be
back.”

I tried to remain calm as I watched my mom
open the garage and leave in the SUV, but I was terrified. I had no
idea what was going on outside or in town, whether it was random
violence, terrorism, or something even worse. I felt like I was in
a nightmare. I closed the garage door.

“Um, Cassie?”

“What?” I asked, turning around. I felt like
throwing up.

Sara held up my mother’s cell phone, her
face pale. “Isn’t this your mom’s?”

Chapter
Eleven

I called my sister’s cell phone, but she
wasn’t answering. It was after eleven and I figured she might have
fallen asleep, but I didn’t want to take any chances so I called
Paige, too. When she didn’t respond, my stomach contracted like a
tight fist.

Sara squeezed my shoulder; she knew I was on
the verge of losing it. “They might all be asleep by now.”

“I hope so,” I replied in a strained
voice.

“Or it might be possible that they don’t
have their cell phones nearby. Does Paige’s mom have a
landline?”

I wasn’t sure. I ran downstairs to find the
phonebook, as I began flipping through the pages, the power went
out in the house.

Crap!

“Cassie!” called Sara from upstairs. “Do you
have a flashlight?”

I used the lights from my cell phone to find
my way back up into the kitchen where I knew my mom kept a
flashlight and candles.

“Thank God my mom is a
candle
fanatic
,”
I said, placing lit candles of all shapes and sizes throughout the
house.

“Did you hear that?” Sara whispered.

I froze. “What?”

She grabbed her gun and hurried over to the
balcony door. “I’m going to sneak on the deck, see if someone’s out
there. I thought I heard voices.”

I felt a prickling sensation go up my spine.
“Be careful.” We didn’t have steps leading from the deck, but that
didn’t mean someone couldn’t somehow climb up from below. It was
heavily wooded behind the house, a great place for someone to
hide.

She crawled out on her hands and knees and
peered through the slats.

“Do you hear or see anything?” I whispered
loudly as she looked over the side of the wooden railing.

She held up her hand to silence me.

A loud scream ripped through the darkness,
startling both of us. Sara gasped and scurried back inside. Her
face was a mask of terror.

“Who was that?!”

“I don’t know,” she said in a strangled
voice.

“Did you see anything at all?”

She shook her head. “It’s too dark out
there.”

There was another terrifying scream, this
time much closer to the house. It sounded female.

Sara took a deep breath. “Okay, I’m going to
check it out. Stay here, I’ll be back.” Before I could respond, she
rushed down the steps to the front door.

I picked up the Beretta and hustled after
her.

“What are you doing? Stay here,” she
demanded, slipping on her shoes.

“No, I’m coming with you. You might need my
help.”

Sara sighed. “Fine, but you do exactly what
I tell you to do and stay close.”

I nodded and she opened the door. As we
stepped outside, I could hear faint cries somewhere on the other
side of the cul-de-sac, behind one of the houses. Strangely,
Charlie wasn’t outside barking his head off.

“This way,” said Sara as she rushed across
the street, heading towards the Hendrickson’s dark rambler.

I froze in my tracks; it was starting to
feel a lot like déjà vu. My palms grew clammy as I tried to find
the courage to keep moving.

Sara turned around and waved her hand
frantically. “Come on,” she whispered loudly.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and
hurried across as she started moving again. She was really fast for
being pregnant, which I contributed to her military training. I
thought I was in fairly good shape but I struggled to keep up with
her.

We went around the Hendrickson’s fence to
the next yard over and paused behind a small wooden shed.

Sara’s eyes widened with alarm. “Over
there,” she pointed through the darkness.

I could barely make out the three figures,
but it looked like a woman and two soldiers. The three were less
than a hundred feet away. She was crying hysterically and appeared
to be running from the men.

I turned to Sara in shock.
“This seem wrong to you? They’re supposed to be the
good
guys.”

“Something’s definitely wrong,” muttered
Sara, unconsciously rubbing a hand over swollen belly.

We slipped through the trees towards the
men, who were focused fully on the desperate woman. The soldiers
were staggering, as if they were wounded and the distance began to
widen between the woman and her pursuers. As we inched our way
closer to the soldiers, I gawked in disbelief.

“Oh, God,” I whispered.

The two soldiers looked like something out
of a horror movie. Their clothing was torn, they were filthy,
bloody, and missing some very important body parts; one man an arm,
the other a hand and part of his face. But they were still moving,
and fairly quickly for being so injured.

How?
I wondered incredulously
.

The taller of the two must have somehow
sensed something, because he stopped and turned towards us. Then he
opened what was left of his pitted face and made a screeching
noise, one that chilled me to the bone.

I swallowed. “Um…Sara?”

The other one whipped its head around and
growled.

“Get your gun ready,” demanded Sara.

Suddenly the two hideous men charged towards
us and I gave a startled gasp.

Sara raised her pistol. “Stop, right there!”
she yelled. “Don’t come any closer!”

They ignored her and kept stumbling towards
us.

“Cassie, shoot them if you have to,” she
said.

As they moved closer, I felt as if I was
losing my mind. Blood dripped from open wounds on the soldier’s
skin, their eyes were red and unfocused, and their mouths…they
seemed to be almost salivating.

Sara’s lips curled in disgust. “God, they
stink.”

The taller one lurched towards Sara and her
gun went off. Blood and brain matter sprayed everywhere as he
dropped to his knees, falling on what was left of his dreadful
face.

“Watch out, Cassie!” yelled Sara.

The second man was almost upon me. I raised
my trembling hand and fired, hitting him in the shoulder. He paused
for only a second and then charged at me again. I fired a second
bullet, this time taking out his ear.

“Damn it!” I cried. I’d never had to shoot
anything but inanimate objects before.

Sara shot him in the leg. He grunted and
then fell to the ground.

“Stay back, Cassie,” she demanded, inching
slowly towards him.

His face was grayish in color and mottled
with weird patches. Something green bubbled out of his nose and I
had this sudden urge to find him a tissue.

“What happened to him?” I asked, staring
with fascinated horror.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve
never seen anything like it before.”

He growled and reached out towards Sara with
his one good arm, the other one just a stump of flesh.

The sound of branches snapping made us jump
and the woman the soldiers had been chasing stepped out of the
darkness. Her eyes were filled with hate. “Kill that bastard! He
killed my Paul and he’ll kill you both if you let him live!
He’s…he’s not human, he’s a monster!”

Before anyone could react, the man grabbed
Sara’s ankle. She screamed and shot him in the head.

The woman sighed in relief.
“We’ve got to leave and go somewhere safe.” Her voice quivered when
she spoke and her eyes darted around the trees. She was about my
mother’s age, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, which were both
ripped and dirty. There was some dried blood on the side of her
face and matted into her short, brown hair
.

“Are you hurt?” asked Sara, pointing to her
face.

The lady shook her head and then touched the
side of her face. Tears welled up in her eyes. “It’s my husband’s
blood,” she replied bitterly. “They attacked us and killed
him.”

Sara’s eyes widened. “Okay, let’s get back
to the house. We’ve got to make sure the kids are okay, and try
getting ahold of the police again.”

I’d forgotten about Megan and Bobby! We’d
left them all alone in the house.

I took one last glimpse of the dead men as
we started walking back towards the house and felt a pang of shame.
They were U.S. soldiers and they looked like they’d lost a war,
only they’d been fighting for the wrong side.

“Those couldn’t have been soldiers,” Sara
said, brushing a dark strand of hair away from her face. “It just
doesn’t make sense.”

“They weren’t soldiers…anymore, they weren’t
even human. They were some kind of…demons,” replied the distraught
woman.

“They certainly looked like something from
hell,” I said.

“Maybe they were criminals; dressed as
soldiers,” said Sara.

The woman shook her head. “No. They attacked
us, like violent animals. The taller soldier ripped...oh, God!” she
cried, covering her face. “He ripped out Paul’s neck, with his
teeth!”

Sara put an arm around the woman’s
shoulders. “Don’t worry. You’re safe now. We’ll help you.”

She nodded and wiped the tears from her
face. “We’d better hurry. There are more of those things around.
It’s not safe.”

There’s more?
The thought of there being more insane soldiers
wandering around in the dark chilled me to the bone. I tightened my
grip on the gun.

As we hurried across the cul-de-sac, it was
eerily quiet, no sounds but the echo of our feet across the
pavement.

“How can anyone sleep through the commotion
back there?” muttered Sara shaking her head in disbelief.

I looked around and noticed the power was
still out in the entire neighborhood, finding it odd that not one
person had stepped out of their homes to see what was going on. Not
even with the gunfire.

We entered the house and checked on the
children; thankfully they were both still sleeping soundly.

“Thank God they’re safe,” said Sara.

“I’ll be right back,” I said, going to the
bathroom to wash my hands, which suddenly felt dirty. I stared in
horror at my fingers; one of my new French tip nails was completely
cracked!

Are you kidding
me?!

I was so angry. The one and only time I get
a professional manicure and I’m caught up in some crazy shit that
ruins the beauty of my nails. I glared at the cracked nail and cut
off the tip.

Still disgusted, I went down to the cellar
where Sara and the stranger were.

“What’s your name?” Sara asked the woman,
who was staring off into space.

The woman released a shaky breath. “Hannah,”
she replied thickly.

“So, do you mind starting from the beginning
and tell us what happened? I think we need to know, especially
since I’ve killed the two men who were after you.”

Hannah nodded and then sat
down on the steps. She cleared her throat. “Well, we were busy at
work, Paul and I. We own a liquor store on Main Street,
The Liquor Depot?
Anyway, that’s where we first encountered one of
those…monsters.”