The Last Days (7 page)

John grabbed Barb’s arm and began pulling the stunned and shocked woman towards the house.

He drug her up the steps, her feet barely helping, and to the back door of the house.

He let go of her briefly to use his hand to open the door. He pushed her inside then followed closely behind, still holding Cindy tightly against his side.

John slammed and locked the door.

He quickly ran to the front door to make sure it was locked.

He noticed the low glow of light from the lantern he had dropped in the yard shining in through the windows.

He quickly ran to each window and pulled down the shades and closed the curtains.

He fumbled around in his pockets, looking for the matches he had used to light the charcoal in the grill.

His hands shook and he was barely able to pull the pack of matches out of his pocket.

After a couple of fumbling attempts, he finally got a match to light. He looked around the room nervously, looking for the candle that Barb liked to burn each evening. It had a pleasant rose smell as it burned, but John never gave that a second thought. He needed some light.

The match was burning his fingers as the wick on the candle caught.

Normally John would have let out a few well-chosen swear words at the pain, but tonight the pain didn’t even register.

John turned away from the candle to find his family.

A dull pounding began drumming against the side of the house.

He saw Cindy first. She was curled in a fetal position on the floor. Her eyes were wide as tears ran across her face and dripped on the floor.

Barb was sitting on the floor. Her eyes were also wide. She stared at John.  “Who are those people?” She managed to say between sobs.

“People?” John thought. He didn’t know what the hell he had just seen out there, but those things weren’t people. Maybe they were once, but they weren’t anymore. They didn’t resemble anything human.

John ran over and knelt down in front of Barb. He turned her face to look at him. “Barb. Come on Barb. I need your help.”

Barb looked at him. For a moment he thought she was too far out of it and didn’t recognize him anymore. But slowly her eyes cleared. “What do you want me to do?”

“Good!” John said. “Just stay with me.”

John listened to the pounding against the house. He jumped when he heard something start to pound on the window by the back door. He knew the window wouldn’t last long.

They would find other windows soon. The windows would break then they would be coming inside the house.

He had to get his family out of here.

But where? The sounds of those things banging against the house were coming from all sides of the house now.

He was surrounded. It was too dark to try to make a run for it. He had no idea how many more of them were out there, making their way towards the house in the darkness.

The doors inside the house were flimsy at best.

None of the rooms would be safe. Besides, all of the rooms had large windows. Between the flimsy doors and the large windows, he couldn’t hope to keep these things out of any of the rooms for very long.

The house didn’t have a basement. If it did, he was leery of getting his family trapped in a dead end place with nowhere else left to run.

The house had been a summer vacation cottage at one time for the big shots at U.S. Steel. During the hot summer months in Pittsburgh, they liked to get away from the city to the cool mountains around Ligonier.

The place was built for a summer getaway. The builders hadn’t planned on the house being used to hold off a full assault by….” John thought for a second. “By whatever these things were.”

The house wouldn’t hold out long against anyone determined to get inside.

John looked around. There wasn’t even any place to hide.

“Except!” John thought as the window near the back door shattered inside the house.

He frantically looked at Barb. He took her hand. “Follow me.”

He left Cindy curled up on the floor. He led Barb to the closet in the corner of the living room. He quickly pulled all the clothes off the hangers and threw them on the floor at the bottom of the closet. He sat the candle on the floor while he jumped up and pulled the rope that was attached to the ceiling of the closet.

He pulled and the door on the ceiling of the closet slowly opened down into the closet. A rope ladder dropped down into the closet. John climbed the ladder and sat the candle on the rafters in the attic. It was barely more than a crawl space, but it was the only place he could think of to hide. If he had more time maybe he could do better, but the crashing sound near the back door told him his time was up.

John scrambled down the rope ladder.

“Barb,” John whispered. “I need you to go up the ladder while I get Cindy.”

Barb stared blankly, but finally took hold of the ladder and started to climb.

John ran back out in the room to find Cindy. The light coming from the closet was barely enough for him to see the shape curled up on the floor. He grabbed Cindy as the sounds started to come through the house.

He went in the closet and pulled the door shut. Barb was just moving from the ladder and into the small space above.

John threw Cindy over his shoulder and climbed.

He climbed to the top and gently laid Cindy on the floor next to Barb.

John pulled the ladder back up into the attic crawl space and as quietly as he could, pulled the attic door shut.

He moved next to the girls and laid down on the dirty floor boards and pulled them close.

He blew out the candle and listened to sound of things smashing all through the house below.

He closed his eyes and prayed they would not find him and his family.

Chapter 8

Mike put the last bite of chicken in his mouth, letting the flavor spread through his mouth as he chewed and swallowed. He smiled a contented smile as he wiped the last remnants of the chicken from his lips.

He looked at the empty plates on the table in front of them.  Except for the plate that still held half an apple pie, all the other plates were empty.

Mike had eaten all the chicken except for two pieces. Kelly and Kimmy had each eaten one small piece each.

Kelly had eaten most of the meatloaf along with some potatoes and gravy. Kimmy had eaten the hotdogs and two beans. Mike and Kelly ate the rest of the beans and corn.

They were all stuffed.

If his summer shorts wouldn’t have had an elastic waist band, he would have had to have loosened his belt a couple of notches.

“Who is ready for some apple pie?” Mike asked cheerfully.

Kimmy groaned.

Kelly just looked at Mike. “You’re joking. If I ate another bite I think I would explode.”

“I can’t believe you two are going to walk away from apple pie!” Mike grinned.

“Can we get a doggy bag?” Kimmy asked. “I can eat it when we get home.”

Mike laughed as he looked at Kimmy. “Maybe if you ask Milly real nice she will give you one.”

“But of course if she heard you two saying she was crazy, she might say no.” Kelly smiled.

“Maybe we better eat it now.” Mike winked at Kimmy. “I’ll eat a piece if you will?”

Kimmy smiled. “OK!”

Milly walked back over to the table. “I thought you weren’t hungry?”

“We weren’t, but everything looked so good.” Kelly laughed.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it, but I’m afraid we are closing up early tonight. I guess we are going to be closed until everything gets back to normal and people start coming back to the park.” Milly added.

“It was all very good.” Mike said as he reached in his pocket, pulled out a twenty and handed it to Milly.

“Thank you. This is very generous of you.” Milly blushed.

“Not as generous as you have been to us.” Mike smiled. “We appreciate all the information too. I hope you are able to get a hold of your sister soon and she is OK.”

“You all be careful and have a safe trip home.” Milly said as Mike and his family started to get up from the table.

Milly looked down at the table. “Would you like me to get you a takeout container for the rest of that pie?”

“OK!” Kimmy smiled.

Mike and Kelly laughed. “Thank You.”

Milly let Mike and his family out the side door. She closed and locked the door behind them.

Kimmy turned and waved through the glass back at Milly.

She turned and ran to catch up with her mom and dad, clenching the Styrofoam container with the left over apple pie in her hands.

She ran up next to Mike and took hold of his hand as they walked on the walkway that would take them around the corner of the lodge and to the parking lot where they had parked the RV.

When they reached the RV, Mike reached in his pocket and fished out the keys. He reached for the lock on the back door. He aimed the key at the lock, but stopped as all the lights in the parking lot went out.

Mike looked around and blinked his eyes, trying to adjust to the darkness.

“What happened to the lights?” Kimmy’s little voice said in the darkness.

“I guess the electric went out.” Kelly answered. “You know like it does at home sometime?”

“Uh huh!” Kimmy replied. “Are you going to light a candle for me?”

“We won’t have to light a candle.” Mike said as Kimmy reached up and grabbed his hand. “As soon as I can find this lock, I can turn the lights on in the RV. We don’t have to have electricity to have lights in the RV. We have batteries.”

“We should get batteries at home too.” Kimmy said seriously.

“That’s probably a good idea.” Mike laughed as he used his free hand to feel around to find the lock.

Between feeling around and his eyes adjusting, Mike finally opened the door.

He reached inside the door and flipped the switch and the interior of the RV lit up.

Mike stepped to the side and steadied Kimmy as she hopped up the steps into the RV.

Kelly was next in the standard order of going in the RV. As she pushed by Mike she whispered. “Maybe Milly isn’t crazy?”

Mike looked around at the darkness. The lodge was quiet and still. He looked around the parking lot, but could only see as far as the light coming through the RV windows reached. The quiet and the darkness gave him the creeps. He hoped Milly was crazy and there wasn’t anything to the things she had told them. Life was tough enough without having to deal with war or riots and who knew what else.

Raising a little girl like Kimmy in today’s society was scary with all the creeps and perverts around. With the entitled attitude of much today’s population, racial unrest and the ‘Me First’ attitude rampant in today’s society, life was going to be hard enough. Even in the best of times, it seemed civilization had barely managed to provide a safe and decent place to raise a family.

After a great week here in the mountains, he almost felt that life was fine and all was good with the world. He hoped he was right.

Tonight all he wanted to do was go back to their campsite and get a good night’s sleep and hope tomorrow would be the start of another great day in paradise.

Mike closed and locked the door. As he entered the RV, Kelly was busy tucking Kimmy into her spot on the couch.

Kimmy had finally run out of gas, thank God. Mike smiled. Kelly pulled the blanket up under Kimmy’s chin and looked at Mike and indicated for him to be quiet.

He smiled at his daughter’s innocent looking face as she drifted off to sleep. Even when she was awake, he thought she always had that soft innocent look. Kelly said she was sweet, except when Kimmy acted like him. But he knew Kelly was just teasing him. She loved Kimmy as much as he did, no matter how much she acted like him.

Mike smiled and walked to the front of the RV and dropped down into the captain’s seat. He started the engine and was soon joined by Kelly after she had finished with Kimmy and turned off the lights.

He started the engine, dropped the RV into gear and started for the parking lot exit.

He pulled out on the park road that would take them back to the campground.

“It was a good day.” Kelly said as she leaned back in her seat. “Good but weird.”

“That sums it up pretty well.” Mike laughed. “This place and these mountain people never cease to amaze me.”

Mike drove to the next juncture and turned left.

“You mean you heard other strange stories at the park before.” Kelly asked.

Mike laughed. “Yes, but never as strange as old Milly’s story.”

“You mean you have never seen teenage zombie chicks at the park before.” Kelly chuckled.

“No this was a first.” Mike laughed. “I hope that sight doesn’t keep me up at night.”

“It better not!” Kelly said in a tone that told Mike that he should probably not repeat any of the other “teenage zombie chick” clichés that were flashing through his mind right about now.

“The weirdest thing that happened here at the Park before today was the summer before we got together.” Mike said. “I have been coming here for fifteen years. That summer all the locals were worked up. The park staff came around every day in the morning and again at night. They seemed to be counting how many campers were in the campground.”

“Why were they doing that? Couldn’t they just look at the campground registry and know how many campers they had?” Kelly asked.

“I asked a couple of times, but they seemed to dodge the question like they didn’t want to answer.” Mike replied. “So one day I pulled this one young park worker to the side and asked out right what was going on.”

“This should be good.” Kelly laughed.

“She didn’t want to talk at first.” Mike said.

“A she!” Kelly said slyly. “So you charmed it out of her?”

A little voice in the back of Mike’s mind whispered. “Don’t go there Mike!”

He laughed. “No, I wore her down with all my questions. Finally she said they didn’t want to panic anyone, but there had been reports of a huge bear in the Park. She said she had even seen some of the bear’s tracks near the campground herself. The Park Rangers were coming around to be sure no one was leaving any food lying around that could attract the bear. She asked me to please not say anything that would scare the campers, but to just keep my eyes open and make sure no one let food out lying around. She said normally a bear wouldn’t bother anyone, but they really liked people food.”

“That sounds scary.” Kelly said.

“It was on the last day of that trip I saw her at the campground office. She called me aside and said they had captured the bear. They had him in a bear cage down behind the welcome center. They were going to take him further up into the mountains the next day and turn him loose where he couldn’t bother anyone.” Mike said. “So after dinner, I decided to take a walk down behind the welcome center and take a look at this monster, since he had all the park workers scared to death.”

“Was he scary?” Kelly asked.

“When I walked around that cage and looked inside….” Mike paused.

Kelly watched Mike’s face as the lights from the instrument panels reflected off him, waiting for him to go on.

“I saw him and I wanted to pick him up and hug him and scratch him behind his ears!” Mike laughed.

“What?” Kelly asked sounding surprised by the unexpected twist in the story.

Mike laughed. “The little guy was smaller than Kimmy’s teddy bear Fred.”

Kelly started to laugh. “So you’re telling me these people down here have a tendency to exaggerate a little?”

“The little guy was so cute.” Mike laughed. “Kimmy would have wanted to take him home and make a pet out of him.”

Kelly laughed but let out a short scream as Mike jerked the wheel sharply to the left as two bodies staggered out onto the road. Their hands raised as they reached for the RV.

Kelly quickly looked back to make sure Kimmy hadn’t been thrown off the couch. Fortunately when Mike jerked the wheel to the left, it had pressed Kimmy into the back of the couch instead of throwing her off onto the floor. She always slept like a log and the sudden movement of the RV hadn’t caused her to wake up.

“God damn kids!” Mike shouted.

“What the hell was that?” Kelly yelled, surprising herself at her use of a profanity. Only Mike and Kimmy used profanity. Kimmy didn’t know what she was saying, she just repeated what Mike said and thought it was funny.

“Two of those damn teenagers dressed like zombies again.” Mike replied sounding agitated. “They are going to get themselves or someone else killed out here in the dark with their pranks. Who the hell are they planning on scaring out here anyways?”

Mike slowed down and watched the shadows at the edges of the head light beams, watching for more of the kids so he didn’t hit any of them.

As they watched the shadows flicker in the light beams and quickly disappear again into the darkness as they drove by, Kelly began smelling the air. “Mike, do you smell something burning?”

Mike sniffed the air. ”I smell it too.”

Then he saw the night sky glowing through the trees up ahead. Up ahead where the campground would be.

They both stared. As they got closer to the campground they could see the flames reaching into the sky. In many areas the flames reached as high as the tree tops.

“What’s going on at the campground?” Kelly asked sounding nervous.

They both looked in disbelief as the road began to circle around the campground. The entrance to the campground was two hundred feet ahead where they would turn in to go to their site.

Many of the camper trailers and RV’s were on fire. More of the zombie characters were staggering through the maze of flames and campers.

“What the hell did they do?” Mike shouted. “It looks like their pranks got out of hand. The fire has spread to a lot of people’s campers. I hope to hell nobody got hurt.”

Mike and Kelly could see people lying on the ground, scattered throughout the campground, but they couldn’t tell if they were injured campers, or those damn kids lying around waiting to scare someone

Kelly looked at the shadowy figures staggering through the flames. “How many kids do they have dressed like zombies for this haunted trail? There has to be hundreds of them running around.”

Mike turned the wheel and guided the RV into the entrance of the campground. Their campsite was down the short road on the left.

Mike hit the brakes and stopped. There was a body on the road. He grabbed a flashlight and opened his door.

“Where are you going?” Kelly asked. The whole scene was making her nervous.