Dead then Alive

Parked cars scattered the front yard to the house. Search got out of the car first and opened my door. His limp was either getting better, or she stopped paying attention to the pain.

“Don’t,” He said, stopping me from looking inside of the closet car.

“We don’t need to make any more friends today.” I nodded my head in agreement, thinking back to Macum, Cara, and her fake baby bump.

“You got your keys right?” I asked Search. He reached into his back pocket and tossed them to me. I caught them mid-air and walked over to the front door.

Jiggling with the keys in the lock, they would not fit. I took another try, this time going slow.

“It’s not fitting Search.” I said to him, my mind raced. Thinking about the notice to quit that we had been served yesterday.

“They can’t change the locks on us can they?” I asked Search, my head hurting from the idea of having to spend another minute on the street with Emmalise.

“No, of course not, not like that. That’s not even legal.” He said meeting me by the front door.

“I’ll go through the window.” He took the chair to the right of me and slid it over to the window.

“Back up Colby,” He said and I moved out of the way. Shoving the chair through the window it shattered easily and Search cleared the glass out of the way with his arm.

“Ladies first.” He said smiling flashing all his dimples at me. I grinned into a thin line and ducked my head covering Emmalises at the same time and climbed inside the window.

“Uh, Search,” I nudged him as he climbed into the window and stood by my side. Our landlord sat in a chair, holding a shotgun in his lap, aiming it at us.

“John, what’s going on?” Search asked, raising his hands up and moving Emmalise and me behind him.

“You didn’t think I’d let you and the wife and kid hole up in here, being that you haven’t paid me in two months now did ya?” He said, his speech slurring, and his eyes low.

An empty bottle of whisky sat on the floor next to his feet. That explained a lot.

“I figured you’d be back, left out early this morning and I changed your locks right behind you before all this happened.” He motioned to the sky.

“Then, I just decided to sit here and wait in case you try and come back, or them alien scum try and come in here, whichever one came first.”

“Alien?” I asked him, poking my head from behind Search. He put his arm up, covering my face.

“Just let us grab some things and we’ll be out of here, no problem.” Search said. I don’t know where he comes off trying to bargain with this guy. If he wanted us to get any of our stuff, he wouldn’t have changed the locks in the first place.

“Let’s just go,” I whispered into Search’s ears. I tugged no the back of his shirt gently and climbed back out the window. Search climbed out behind me moving fast. A shot rang out in the air as we walked off the porch. We looked at each other and ran. This time Search sat in the front seat holding Emmalise.

“Where are we gonna go?” I asked Search, looking around the neighborhood. Most of our neighbors had already boarded up their front doors with the wood front the outside.

“Somewhere safe,” He told me and turned on the radio. The same message played on a loop, not telling us much.

Search’s phone rang again, this time he picked up. I kept my eyes on the road, but my ears were on him.

“I’m fine, you gotta stop calling.” He said into the phone, then he hung up.

“Who is that calling you baby?” I asked him, I couldn’t hold it in any longer

“Noone important.” He said brushing it off.

“Does she know that?” I asked him, taking my eyes off the road for a moment to look at his face. I felt silly for even asking him about this right now, but how could it not be on my mind along with everything else.

The steering wheel met my face with a forceful blow. Blood trickled down my nose and into my mouth. Emmalise cried from the passenger's seat. Looking around, I see what I hit. Another car on the passenger side.

“Colby are you okay?” Searched asked me, lifting up my face from the steering wheel.

“I’m fine,” I took off the seatbelt and put my arms out for Emmalise. She crawled over to me sniffling and wiping her tear-filled eyes.

“Oh honey, mama’s so sorry. Are you okay?” I asked her. She nodded her head and wiped her cheeks clean.

“C’mon, we’re walking from here.” Search said opening the driver's side door. I eyed his leg and felt bad that he had to walk on it. I didn’t even know where we were going.

“We can head to the office,” Seach said reading my thoughts.

Bubbling sounds came from the car that I hit. I passed Emmalise to Search and ran over to check the car. My heart collapsed at the thought of killing someone n a car crash.

“Help me,” The woman in the front seat said. She had a swollen face and a large boil grew on the side of her face. The car crash hadn’t done that to her.

“It hurts, it’s so hot get it off.” She said, her voice crackling asking for mercy. I shook my head and stepped back, bumping into Search.

“Here,” He passed Emmalise back to me and I stepped back squeezing her tight.

“Mommy what’s on her face?” Emmalise asked me, and I realized that iI was standing too close. If she can see it, I was too close. I backed up, closer to the sidewalk, and Search reached inside to check on the lady.

“Help!” She screamed again. Something didn’t feel right.

“Search, let's just go. We can’t help her.” I said. The selfishness in my heart was from a good place. Emmalise could not be put in danger anymore.

Search walked away from the car slowly looking worried. I knew e felt bad for not helping her, but he had to think about Emmalise.

“It’s going to kill me.” The woman screamed from the car.

Steam rose from inside the car and climbed out of the windows up into the air. People walking by stopped for the first time since we crashed.

“Wait,” Search said moving towards the car again peeking his head inside. I moved around to the front to get a better view safely. The woman scratched at her face frantically, her nails tearing into her skin and clawing at he hair. Blood splattered onto the windshield and Search ran from the car to where I stood with Emmalise. I put her face into my chest so she couldn’t see and Search covered her ears.

But, I couldn’t peel my eyes away from the woman as she attacked her self and the boil on her face grew. Her head shook back and forth and then she crashed it repeatedly onto the steering wheel. Finally, the pain for her ended and her head lay still.

“Is she dead?” I guy asked that stood next to us. A small crowd had gathered to watch the woman beat herself to death.

“I hope so,” I whispered into Emmalise’s ears, keeping her face covered.

The woman's body vibrated slowly and speed up more violently until it stopped.

Her head popped up and her eyes shone a bright white light, looking right at me. I swallowed hard and grabbed Search’s hand.

“We need to go,now.” I told him. We backed away slowly.

But the fear that coursed through our bodies was crippling. The woman started contorting her body and crawling towards us, out of her car.

“Dear God please,” I prayed aloud. “Help us.” Search pulled on my hand and we started to run while the crowd of onlookers moved towards the woman in amazement that she was still alive. But I knew better.

“Don’t stop running. We have to get to my office.” Search said over his shoulder. We ran for two blocks and then I had to stop. My heart was pounding and Emmalise was getting heavy. Search’s leg was starting to bleed again.

“We’re almost there.” He told me holding onto my arm so I won’t fall too far behind.

I started to cry and Emmalise followed me, tears falling from her eyes.

“What’s going on? What was that, that lady she died, I know and then her eyes, what happened?” I sniffled as my nose ran and Emmalise dug her little nails into me crying too. I stiffened up, ashamed at myself for falling apart in front of Emmalise.

“Look at me!” Search said, holding my face in between his hands.

“Hold it together, for Emmalise, for me. We are almost there. You can do this, just keep moving. Staying still would be worse than the cramps you get from running.”

I nodded at him slowly and kissed Emmalise on the cheek. Search kissed me on the lips his soft full lips meeting mines covered in tears.

“Now let’s go,” He said to me and I grabbed his hand and we walked at a quick pace until we reached downtown where his office was located.

The idea to come to his office suddenly seemed like a mistake as the traffic poured onto the sidewalk and people ran around screaming. Steam rose from several cars lining the street. Bright white eyes glared at us from behind the steering wheels of two cars. I knew we were going to be running.

Breaking into a run, I tripped and fell. Emmalise tumbled from my arms, hitting her head on the sidewalk. Search ran over to her grabbing her into his arms. She screamed and rubbed her head at small drops of blood trickled down the side of her face. If she was screaming then, that meant she was alive.

I scrambled to my feet and caught up with Search and Emmalise. Screams from behind us stopped us in our footsteps. We turned to see a person with bright white eyes lit up attacking someone.

They tor their nails into the person’s skin and the person screamed out in agony. Search pulled on me and I began to run again, but I couldn’t help but look back. I stopped again and the person fell to the ground shaking just like the woman had in her car.

People rushed into me, pushing me always from Search and Emmalise. Everyone was screaming and trying to get away from the bright white eyes.

I couldn’t see Search or Emmalise anymore. But, I kept going running towards the office building, to stick to the plan and meet him at his office.

The door was locked and needed a passcode to get in. I took a wild guess. The day we met. 12/27/2010. The door opened and I slid inside as people ran rampant around me.

I kept moving until I got to the fourth floor. Opening the door to his office, I see Emmalise and Search sitting at a table with a woman I don’t know.