Infestation: A Small Town Nightmare

INFESTATION

A Small Town
Nightmare
(Part 1)

Tanya R. Taylor

Evil Lurks in the most
unlikely places.

Copyright© 2015

All Rights
Reserved.

No portion of this work
may be reproduced,

copied or transmitted in
any form without the

expressed, written consent
of the Author.

I

"Honey, wake up!" Dave shook her
gently. The tossing and turning had jolted him from his
sleep.

Marie opened her eyes suddenly. She
was in a state of shock.

"You were having a bad dream," he told
her.

She wiped the pebbles of sweat that
sheathed her forehead and sat up in bed. "What time is
it?"

Dave glanced at the clock. "It's half
past three. Are you okay?"

Marie scanned the dark room as if
distracted by something. "They're here," she said. "We have to do
something."

"Whose here? What are you talking
about, honey?"

She turned to him. "This was no normal
dream, Dave. The people of this town are in serious
danger."

Dave reached over and switched on the
light. "Tell me about this dream."

She tried to assume a more comfortable
position as if it would somehow aid in telling the story. "I saw
these black, hideous-looking creatures hovering in mid-air and the
townspeople below were running in all directions in panic and in
terror. Then I saw you, me and Amy driving in the pick-up and bolts
of lightning were shooting everywhere. Lamp-poles were being set
ablaze as we shot past them and people were scattering like crazy
fleeing in nearby bushes and hiding just to dodge them.
"

"These black creatures… were there a
few… many?" Dave asked.

There were so many of them, Dave," she
replied. "They were hovering over the town in one main area
over-head, then they dispersed in various directions—east, west,
north and south."

"Is that it?"

"No." Marie shook her head quickly.
"People—young and old—were standing at the edge of the bridge
overlooking the sea. They were just standing there as if in a daze
or something, then I saw them walk off one by one."

"What?" Dave's curiosity was
piqued.

"It's terrible!" Marie cried. Dave
could see the terror in her eyes.

"What do you think this all
means?"

"Evil has arrived—an evil that this
town has never, ever seen before," she replied.

"Are you sure about this one?" Dave
stared intensely. "Maybe it means something other than what you
think." He felt a measure of anxiety he didn't remember feeling
before.

"No." Marie shook her head again.
"It's landed and I don't know what to do about it."

After a seemingly long pause and
considering everything that was just shared, Dave said: "Let's try
to get some sleep. Your book signing is in a few, short hours.
We'll talk about this later, okay?"

"Okay," Marie answered.

Dave switched off the light again. His
only prayer right then was that the anxiety would wear off soon
enough for both of them to get back to sleep. After eighteen years
of marriage and witnessing each premonition and dream Marie ever
spoke about materialize one after the other, he knew he had no
choice but to take what she had seen seriously. This one tonight,
however, seemed to be the worst.

Later that
morning…

"How's the coffee?" Dave asked a
minute after he had placed Marie's favorite brown mug on the table
in front of her.

"It's fine," she answered
tiredly.

"Were you able to get back to
sleep?"

"No."

"Me neither."

"Oh, sweetheart…" Marie looked at him
pitifully, feeling terribly guilty for having laid such a burden on
him in the middle of the night. "…I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said
anything last night."

Dave sat across from her. "I wanted to
know, remember?"

"You know what they say about
curiosity." She smiled weakly.

"I can't recall. How does it go
again?"

"Good morning!" Seventeen-year-old Amy
Adams sang as she sailed through the kitchen. She gave her parents
each a peck on the cheek.

"Where are you going already?" Marie
asked.

"School, Mom. Remember, I have a few
more months left at Riverdale." She smirked.

Marie glanced at her watch. "But it's
only…"

"A quarter of seven," Amy noted. "I
wanna get there a little earlier to put in some practice time in
the music room before school starts."

"Your dedication to your guitar
lessons is commendable," "Dave leapt in.

"It is," Marie agreed, taking another
sip of coffee.

Suddenly, a horn honked
outside.

"Oh, that's Sam. Gotta go. Mucho,
mucho love!" Amy grabbed a croissant from the pastry
dish.

"That's all you're having for
breakfast?" Marie asked as Amy hurried off with her gray backpack
against her back.

"It's all I need, Mom. I'm
fine…promise!"

"I love you too, honey!" Marie said,
seconds before she heard the front door close shut.

Dave smiled as he took a bite of his
croissant.

Marie looked over at the ten-inch box
television sitting quietly on the counter. "You wanna switch it
on?"

Dave got up and pressed the small,
round button beneath the screen. The model was an antiquated
version absent of a working remote.

Instantly, the word
Newsflash
lit up the
screen: "
A forty-three-year-old mother of
four was found floating in waters beneath the Trindset Bridge
during the early morning hours. The woman has been identified as
Tracey Winters of Claridgedale Heights. Events surrounding her
death are currently unknown, but relatives we spoke with close to
the woman claimed that she was deeply depressed. This is Aretha
Jackson reporting for AKRH news."

"It's already started," Marie said,
staring at the television screen.

Dave looked at her. "How do you know?
That report didn't reveal anything significant based on what you
dreamed."

"You don’t understand." She leaned
forward slightly, gazing into his sea-blue eyes. "This is the
beginning of a series of events that would shake this town to its
core. That woman was the first victim—many more will
follow."

II

The long line of people at
Aaron's Bookstore had curled outside of the door. Marie was primly
seated behind a beautifully carved oak desk, scribbling her
signature along with some pleasantries on each copy of
Miles of the Stone
handed to her.

"It's really a pleasure meeting you
today, Mrs. Adams," a middle-aged lady smiled as she handed Marie
her book.

"Thank you and your name is?" Marie
asked, flipping the cover to the signature page.

"It's Flora," The woman leaned in.
"Put something real nice there; will you?"

Marie smiled back. "Sure."

"Did you write any more books or is
this your first?"

"It's my first," Marie confirmed,
autographing the copy.

"I really want to say thank you, Mrs.
Adams, from the bottom of my heart."

Marie glanced up.

"After my son, Jeff, died, I didn't
think I could go on any longer." The woman had now captured Maries'
full attention. "Your book gave me the hope that one day, I will
see him again."

"I'm so sorry…" Marie
started.

"No… it's okay," Flora returned
quickly. "The things you are able to see and talk about are more
valuable than you'll ever know. I was on the verge of ending it all
when I came across your book displayed in the window of a
bookstore. I felt compelled to go in and have a look. Picking it up
that day absolutely saved my life. So again, I say thank you for
your great contribution to humanity."

Marie was deeply moved. "I'm so happy
to hear that, ma'am, and I appreciate your kind words." She handed
her the book.

"I'll be praying for you."

Marie smiled with gratitude,
simultaneously observing how much longer the line had stretched
since she had last checked. Dave was sitting proudly at the right
corner of the room. He had winked at her just as the other customer
approached.

"Would you mind autographing my book
for me?" A rather handsome man asked a couple of minutes later. He
had stepped forward after the teenage girl with the purple hair
walked off.

"Steven…" Marie was shocked to see
him.

"How are you?" He slowly handed her
the book.

"I'm fine. How are you?" she
replied.

"Doing well."

"Betty?"

"She's good."

"We haven't seen you for a while," he
said. "I spoke with Amy a couple of days ago—was just checking on
you guys. She said you were out running some errands. Did she tell
you that I called?"

"Yeah. She did." Marie had finished
signing and was handing the book back to him.

"We all heard about your success—your
first book being published and all. I never knew some of these
things about you. I wish you would've shared them with us." Steven
said. Marie was becoming noticeably uptight, glancing back at the
amazingly tolerant people behind him.

Steven cleared his throat. "Mom asked
for you lately."

"Steven, I don’t think this is the
place…"

"I know. I know," he glanced back.
"We'll talk soon?"

"Yes," Marie answered
softly.

"Give Dave my regards."

"I will." She watched as he exited the
bookstore.

"What a great turn-out it was!" Dave
said as they buckled up to leave the parking lot of the store. "The
people of this town absolutely love you."

"I wouldn't call it
love
, Dave. They
appreciate what I was crazy enough to share with them. That's
all."

"You know that's not true." Dave made
a left-turn onto the freeway.

"My publisher accepted my manuscript,
did some really good marketing—that's pretty much it," Marie
delineated. "Sometimes, I wonder what got into me to write a
self-help book that's so unconventional in this Bible-belt town. To
be honest with you… I didn't think anyone would buy it. Everyone's
controlled by tradition around here and mere church attendance that
they never get any deeper; you know? Anything that's outside the
box scares them and they shun you."

"From the massive crowd inside that
bookshop today, I couldn't tell that that was the case," Dave
said.

"I feel that people who faced some
really tough circumstances in life yearned for something more.
That's probably what prompted many of them to take a chance on the
book and to read it with an open mind. By doing so, they were able
to see where it wasn't one to veer them away from any religious
beliefs, but one that would deepen their spiritual experience based
on my own experiences. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure that a lot of
people who showed up today actually came in from nearby
towns."

"Maybe you're right." Dave glanced at
her. "I saw Steven there. He didn't see me seated at the
back."