Death's Little Angels (25 page)

Grace held her arm up
higher for Drew to inspect it. He felt her forehead.
No fever.
He slowly
pulled back the tape and bandage to get a good view of the
bite.

“
Owww!” Grace
howled.

“
I’m sorry. I just want to
make sure your boo boo is okay.”

Drew saw the teeth marks
embedded in Grace’s arm. He noticed the bite seemed unusual. There
was no blood. No redness. No oozing. Nothing. It did not even look
infected Grace just had a set of teeth marks stamped into her skin.
Drew studied his sister’s movements and mannerisms. She did not
have the same characteristics as the other kids that were
bitten.
Strange
….
Drew thought.
I will have to watch
her.

“
Mee-maw fixed my boo
boo,” Grace softly said.

Drew reapplied the bandage
and tussled the hair on his sister’s head. Her thick, silky hair
was neatly pulled back and secured with a pink bow. It was just
like her older sister Maryann’s pink bow, which was now blotted
with crimson. Drew studied how neat and clean the pink bow was
secured in Grace’s hair compared to the bow that was bloody and
dangled from the side of Maryann’s head. He shuddered at the
thought of what pain his sister, Maryann, might have endured. Drew
made a pact that he was going to protect his sister, Grace, at all
cost. He would not lose her to the
Eaters
like Maryann was lost. He
would die first.

“
You need to change into
some pants. We are about to leave,” Drew said. “Get up Grace, we
have to go now. Jessie is here.”

Grace ignored her big
brother’s comments and continued playing with her dolls. Drew went
to pull her up but noticed the camper size backpack in the corner
of the room near the dollhouse. He walked over to retrieve the gear
and observed a yellow sticky note that read;
do not open until you see me.
Drew
recognized the writing and knew it was from his grandmother. He
turned to get Grace but was startled when she was standing right
behind him ready with her two dolls.

“
Geesh, Grace! You got to
stop doing that! You always appear out of nowhere,” he joked half
scared to death. The outbreak of zombie
Eaters
was enough to have Drew
living on edge for the rest of his life.

“
You said let’s go, Drew.
I want to see Jessie.” Grace stood there with big bright eyes that
twinkled.

“
Go on over there and put
something comfortable on. We have a long trip ahead of us, I
suppose. Be sure to put on some boots, just in case we have to walk
through the woods,” Drew said as he dashed off to the hall closet
to put on his hunting boots.

When Drew came back to get Grace, she was
standing near the window dressed in denim overalls and her white
uniform shirt. She stuck out her foot, displaying brown cowgirl
boots that her grandmother had purchased for her birthday.

“
You look great, Grace.
Jessie
is downstairs waiting. Come on,”
Drew smiled as he reached for Grace’s free hand. At the sound of
the name
Jessie
Grace’s tiny body livened up with energy.

“
Yay! Jessie is here! My
Jessie is here!” Grace said as she jumped up and down.

“
Shh, Grace! We can’t be
too loud anymore,” Drew said with his eyes darting
around.

He went over to the window to peep outside.
He studied the wooded area that surrounded his grandmother’s house.
Drew turned to leave the window but noticed a movement in a nearby
bush. He instinctively felt for the knife that was in his pocket
but when a medium sized deer followed by five more deer bounced
out, Drew slowly concealed the knife once more. He thought that it
was very unusual to see that many deer fleeing together at one
time.

I must be dreaming,
he thought
. I can’t be
dreaming. Maryann was not a dream.

The bush rustled once more
and Drew waited for more deer to pass through. He stood on his toes
and leaned further into the window. He looked closer as the thicket
and bush swayed forward again. This time the bush moved more
forcefully. No deer or any animal exited the bush. Time stood still
as an army of olive and dark brown
Eaters
shuffled through the thicket.
They stumbled together in a herd moving in a direction unknown. The
disfigured children ranged in ages from five to sixteen-years-old.
Drew noticed that one of the
Eaters,
the sixteen-year-old boy,
used to help Mater and Marley bring firewood to his grandmother’s
house.

Oh my God…. Mater!

Drew panicked as he
instantly realized that the group of stumbling
Eaters
was Mater’s cousins who lived
in nearby homes. He hastily grabbed up the camper sized backpack
and swooped up Grace. Throughout the process of exiting the room,
Grace dropped one of her baby dolls, the female.

“
I gotta get my baby!”
Grace cried out loudly. “Pleaseee! My
baby
!”

“
Hurry up, Grace! Go get
it!” Drew snapped.

Grace did not hesitate as she ran back
quickly and snatched up her baby doll off the floor. Drew secured
the backpack on his back and took hold of Grace’s hand. They dashed
out of the room and headed towards the staircase. As Drew passed up
the room that he slept in, something in the corner near the window
glistened and caught his eye.

“
Stay here, Grace. I will
be right back,” Drew instructed.

“
Noooo! Maryann might get
me! I want to come with you!” Grace stomped her feet and
pouted.

“
Alright, come on,” Drew
said.

As he rushed to the
window, Drew saw a silver pocketknife that was placed neatly on top
of a handwritten letter. A black pen was on the floor.
Maryann must have been in a hurry to get out of
here,
Drew thought. His heart fell into
the bottom of his stomach as he realized his sister had made every
attempt to apologize to him. He picked up the shiny new knife and
read the letter.

Dear Drew

Please do not be mad at me. I am sorry I
took your bat. If you look down right now, the bat is under the
window. And I borrowed this knife from Mee-maw to give to you.
Friends?

Check yes____ or no____

Your Sister,

Maryann

Drew looked down,
underneath the windowsill and saw his wooden bat with the silver
knob. A wave of nausea hit him as he folded up the letter and
placed it in his pocket.
How could he have
been so harsh with his sister this morning
?

He took the knife that
Maryann had given him and secured it in his back pocket with the
other knife. His fingers went along the rough edges of the
name
Drew Jacks
that Maryann had carved into his wooden baseball bat. His
eyes began to water and flow

over like a broken levee.
Drew picked up the pen that was lying on the floor and went to work
on marking his bat. He inscribed the word
Maryann
in the center on both
sides.

The shatter of glass downstairs caused both
Drew and Grace to jump. Drew threw the pen back down on the floor
and took Grace by the hand. He placed his bat in the corner pocket
of the backpack and bolted down the steps with Grace trailing
behind. Once Drew landed at the bottom of the steps, he saw Jessie
standing at the gun case, holding a 12 gauge shot gun in her hands.
The broken glass from the case lay scattered all over the floor.
Grace shouted for her mother and broke free from Drew’s grip.

“
Jessie!” Grace shouted in
her squeaky voice. She ran up to her mother and embraced her with a
big hug. Grace still had the dolls dangling in her hand.

“
Hey momma’s sugar pie,”
Jessie sweetly said as she landed a huge wet kiss on Grace’s
forehead. She looked assertively at Drew then back at Grace. A look
of surprise was written all over Drew’s face. Jessie had never
referred to herself as a mother before; she sniffled and rubbed her
puffy eyes. Drew did not know if Jessie’s red, swollen eyes were
from crying or drinking.

“
Maryann is sick, Jessie,”
Grace softly said as she batted her eyelashes slowly.

“
I know baby. We need to
leave now or we will be sick too.”

“
Is Maryann coming?” Grace
innocently asked.

“
Not this time honey.
Maryann has to get better first. We will come back for her later,”
Jessie lied.

She bent down to kiss Grace again on the
forehead. Her heavy bosom threatened to fall out of her apple red
shirt.

“
Are you okay bo… Drew?”
Jessie quickly corrected herself. Her arm shook as she held the
black shotgun.

“
I will be, Jessie.
Thanks,” Drew said. He pointed out the window. “There are
Eaters
outside.”

“
I know. It looks like the
Butler family from across the woods,” Jessie said with her voice
shaking. “We need to go and quick!”

Drew knew that the Butler
family meant Mater’s family. A flood of feelings washed through
him.
What if Mater was
dead
? Drew did not see her passing through
the woods with the group of
Eaters.
He hoped that if all else failed that she had
found her mother safely and they evacuated. Drew then thought about
his other friends at the Fairgrounds Center, Sue Ellen and Tarynn.
For sure by now they were all waiting with their families for him
to arrive with his grandmother and sisters.

Jessie’s eyes flew down to Drew’s backpack.
Her eyeball’s twitched at the sight of the baseball bat.

“
What is that for?” Jessie
pointed towards the bat.

“
It’s time to play ball,”
Drew said as he made a swinging motion with his hand.

Jessie winked her eye at Drew. “Looks, like
my boy has some skills,” she said as she loudly racked a round into
the chamber.

A raucous popping sound came from behind the
house. Drew’s neck snapped in the direction of the kitchen. Jessie
looked dumbfounded while Grace whimpered and covered her ears.
Grace ran to Drew and hid behind him

“
What was that?” Jessie
said as she tightened the grip on her shotgun.

“
I’m scared, Drew,” Grace
whined as she held onto her big brother’s waist.

“
Let’s go find out,” Drew
replied as he grabbed Grace’s hand and headed towards the
kitchen.

Once they made it to the
kitchen, Drew winced at the basement door and the continuous growls
that escaped from underneath the crack. Grace covered her ears as
she walked behind her brother. Jessie pointed towards the window as
they saw Mee-maw lazily walk back from the patio. She slowly closed
the door behind her. Drew noticed his grandmother seemed very
tired.
Maybe she was tired from dealing
with Maryann earlier? Perhaps it was just the entire thought of the
world coming to an end?
Drew figured as he
observed his grandmother. He was worn out from escaping the middle
school barely alive. He could only imagine how is grandmother must
have felt.

“
One of those dead yunguns
walking around out there…. Tried…. to get in…. through the back….
door,” Mee-maw breathed.

It looked as if with each word Mee-maw
struggled for air. Her skin dripped with sweat and her coloring was
pale. They all watched as she hobbled in and picked up two bullets
that lay on the counter. As Mee-maw loaded the gun it was visible
that the 357 Magnum had only two rounds in it.

“
Aren’t you going to add
three more rounds, Mee-maw? You only put two in,” Drew gently asked
as he surveyed the three empty slots in the barrels
chamber.

“
We need to leave… and
now,” Mee-maw slowly said with short sentences. “More are coming… I
spec thirty… or more.” She motioned for everyone to head towards
the living room.

“
What about Maryann?”
Grace asked as she swiped a pack of gummy worms off of the kitchen
counter.

“
Remember, baby? We will
come back for Maryann later. After she sees the doctor,” Jessie
said as she led the way out of the kitchen.

Drew glanced back towards
the basement. Deep down, he knew he would never see his sister
again. At least on this side of the earth. As they made it to the
living room, Jessie peeped outside the window and aimed her shotgun
at the door. She slowly opened the door and turned back towards her
mother and nodded her head. Mee-maw smiled tightly and nodded her
head back at Jessie. Jessie pulled the keys out of her bosom to the
monster truck,
Big Thunder.
Jessie ran to Mee-maw and gave her mother a heart
warming hug. She abruptly broke away from the embrace and swiftly
grabbed Grace’s hand. Grace looked up to her mother and obeyed as
she was told to hold on tightly to her dolls.

“
Alright, there are none
of those zombie kids out there. So, I say we make a run for
Big Thunder
while we
can,” Jessie demanded, “Are y’all ready?”

Drew and Grace nodded their heads.