Chapter 9

"What do you mean?" I asked frantically throwing it into park. "We could help him."

I went to grab the handle when she stopped me with a hand on my arm.

"Kids, close your eyes and do not open them until I tell you too," was her reply.

"What are you doing?" I snapped at her frustrated with her lack of empathy.

"Watch," she demanded.

My eyes were glued to the scene as it unfolded in front of me. In less than a second, the woman had the man pinned down on the street and her mouth opened wide. She was going to bite him, and I really didn't want to watch as this boy got turned. Yet, no matter how much I told my eyes to look away, to close, they refused. Instead of biting him, she began sucking a strange thick fog out of him. The man fought hard and desperately, but she was too strong. Then he went limp and began to have a seizure like Johnny had. In a matter of seconds, he went from being in the peak of health to being emaciated. The change happened so suddenly that I had to blink several times to convince myself that my eyes were not deceiving me.

"See!" she whispered harshly. "That's what I've been telling you. These things are fast, powerful, and crazy. I don't know what's going on but, they are harder than hell to stop once they've gotten onto someone. We either stop them before they attack, or we have two more to stop after they are done."

I watched horrified as this walking corpse now got up and started staggering towards us. Once he finally got the hang of his now almost unresponsive limbs his stumble became an all-out race towards the front of my truck. The kids in the back, who obviously hadn't listened to the warning about covering their eyes, began to scream and I panicked. I threw the truck in reverse and plowed through three cars I could only hope weren't full of people as I set my sights on the street that would take us to our destination.

Parked cars of every sort surrounded the police station. The most disturbing picture by far was the sight of fire trucks, ambulances, and other police cars that looked as if they had been in several accidents.

The woman hopped out as soon as I pulled to a stop behind the rows of cars.

"I'm Julia, by the way," she said suddenly startling me out of my musings.

"Vicki," I replied automatically.

She smiled at my response. "I remember."

I got out and began to move quickly getting Johnathan and Marcus out of the back as Melissa crawled over the seat to get to her aunt. Once the kids and I joined her on the other side we were forced to hide behind a police car as we saw a creature come stumbling by the vehicles. I covered Johnathan's mouth as he whimpered and pressed my fingers to my lips indicating to Marcus that he needed to be as quiet as he could. He nodded and then covered his face as if that would help him. I looked up through the window and caught sight of a motionless, bloody arm peeking around the door frame. I sat back down hard scattering some of the rocks that were around my feet. One of them flew into the rim of a nearby car letting loose a loud pinging sound. We all gasped knowing for sure that this creature had heard it as well. Horror welled up as I knew I had just given away our position behind the rig.

The creature crouched down as if he were about to pounce, and I knew we were all about to die. Suddenly I heard a whimpering coming from the far end of the lot and looked up to see an obese, sweat-drenched man huffing and puffing as he dodged around the cars. His face was scarlet red, and I knew if this creature didn't get him a heart attack surely would.

The creature gave a weird grumbling sound in his chest that I was starting to associate with the first warning sign that they were about to attack. Sure enough, the creature started to lope across cars and the open spaces, heading straight towards the man. I hunkered down lower trying to soothe the mixed feeling I had in my chest. I was relieved that it wasn't coming after us, yet I felt guilty for feeling so relieved. Not to mention helpless and upset because I wanted to go help him.

Darren's face came to mind, and I looked at Johnathan remembering his as he had gotten sicker and sicker. I knew deep down inside that I couldn't let another person end up like that if I could help it. My only problem was how to distract the thing long enough to let that man get away as well as letting Julia and the kids get inside safely.

I leaned down to give a kiss to both of my boys before whispering a quick I love you then started to crawl around them to the front of the car. Julia grabbed my arm to stop me with a weird look.

"Where are you going?" she hissed harshly.

"To help," I snapped, yanking my arm out of her grasp.

"You're freaking crazy!" she spat out.

I ignored her knowing that it was the right thing to do. Once I was around the hood of the car I froze, consumed by the overwhelming fear and anxiety of the situation. I wasn't a hundred percent sure that I would be able to outrun this creature and even if I could, how was I going to get away from it? I shook my head and stood up quickly, not letting the fear keep its grip on me because I knew if I let it get one more foothold, I would hide under the car and never get out. I looked around and saw the creature was a car away from the man huffing and puffing his way to the entrance.

"HEY!" I yelled waving my hand.

The creature didn't even hesitate or look back. He just jumped on top of the nearest car and crouched ready to attack his prey.

"HEY, YOU BASTARD!" I tried again.

Nothing, no response not even a glance in my direction. Its back end wiggled resembling that of a cat about to pounce on its prey and I knew my chance was almost gone. Fear, anger, disappointment and almost a murderous intent bubbled inside until it popped. All of it combined filled me with more emotion than I had ever thought possible, and I began screaming to the sky unable to stop. Suddenly the creature paused and looked back, finally setting its sights onto me. Its eyes seemed to twinkle with the sunlight or maybe it was just hunger; I couldn't tell for sure. Either way, it made me recoil and almost rethink what I was doing until I saw the big man finally make it to the door and I knew I had won the first battle. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement, but I didn't dare glance over; fearful that I would draw attention to the four people behind me that still had to make it to the door.

"Julia, stay down and keep the kids low. I'm going to draw it around back so you can get the kids inside," I said out of the corner of my mouth.

"Vicki, you are freaking crazy," she said one last time. "Stay safe."

My nod was barely even noticeable, however, when she started to move the children around to the back, I knew it had been enough for her to understand I was ready.

The creature had started to slowly crawl back over to me as if it were a ghoul in a horror movie, making the same spooky growl that never failed to send chills down my back. Swallowing back my natural instincts to run and hide, I began to step sideways through the graveyard of abandoned vehicles and felt a shiver go through me as he tracked my every movement. My heart thundered in my ears until it was all I could hear, and the world began to tilt and swirl around me. I stiffened my resolve and continued to move with morbid satisfaction as I watched it come closer and closer to me, completely ignoring the small group heading in the opposite direction.

The satisfaction was short-lived when a shooting pain raced up my calf taking me completely off guard. With a loud cry, I looked down and saw a sharp knife sticking out of my leg.