Glory (Book 2) (20 page)

Chapter 5

Marianne walked into the kitchen. She didn't plan on looking around the house. There wasn't anything that she needed. She was just going to get a few things to eat and drink. She'd look for some things for the dog too. Some dog treats. A leash.

After she found everything she wanted, she tossed them into her purse. Except the leash. She bent over and attached that to Buster's collar.

The dog wagged his tail. He looked like he knew that he was going for a walk
.
But this wasn't going to be the leisurely stroll that he was used t
o
, Marianne thought. Not that they'd be walking fast. They'd be walking cautiously.

Marianne stood up and looked around once more. She had it all. Or so she had thought. Until another thought came to her. One that she wasn't so fond of.

She walked over to one of the kitchen drawers and pulled it open. There was all of the cutlery. All of the knives.

Did she really want to take one?

She grabbed a knife and placed it in her purse. Just like her pills, she might never even use it. But it was probably better to have in case she needed to.

She closed the drawer and headed out of the kitchen. Buster followed.

As she came upon the front door, she stopped. She could see the broken glass lying on the floor
.
Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to go out the fron
t
. She didn't know what could be out there waiting for her. The problem was that she also didn't know what was out the back.

Besides, she couldn't hear thos
e
thing
s
anymore. And she didn't think that the creature/man had hung around. He probably wouldn't come back for a while. If he even survived.

The front door would be fine.

She approached it slowly.

It was then that she caught a reflection of herself in the hall mirror. She hadn't seen herself since the attack. And looking at her face now frightened her. It was covered in blood. She could see it smeared along her cheeks. It was coated around her mouth.

She remembered biting into the creature/man's hand
.
She had actually bitten it
!
It hadn't occurred to her at the time, but she probably shouldn't have done that. It wasn't the most sanitary thing to do.

She continued to stare at the blood, sure that some of it was the creature/man's. He had cut himself open when he punched through the glass. But some of the blood probably belonged to the corpse that she had seen him digging through. She couldn't remember, but it might have even been the hand that had been holding the intestine.

She shivered, then bent over and searched through her purse for a bottle of water. She opened it and poured the liquid into her hand. Most of it fell onto the ground. Buster licked it up.

She rubbed her face.

At first, the blood just smeared. But, after a while, it started to come off.

She ran to the kitchen to get a towel. That would help more.

She poured water onto the towel and began rubbing it against her face.

Marianne walked back into the hallway. She kept the towel pressed against her. She kept rubbing.

When she got to the mirror, she wiped her face a few more times. She looked at it again. It was better, that was for sure. Most, if not all, of the blood was gone.

She continued to look at the mirror. She focused on her eyes. She looked at them
.
Int
o
them. She didn't know what she hoped to see. She didn't know what she was thinking. She simply wanted to look.

Then, just like that, she dropped the towel and picked up Buster's leash.

"You ready?" she asked. Buster looked up at her, panting. "Okay, let's go."

She undid the lock, grabbed the door knob and turned it. She pulled the door open and took a step forward. Her foot crackled on the glass. She looked down. It was all broken underneath her.

She thought of the dog and didn't want him cutting his paws. She kicked a few of the bigger pieces away. There wasn't much she could do about the little ones. Not unless she went back and got a broom. She didn't want to do that. The dog would be fine.

"Be careful," she said.

Again, the dog looked at her. She reached down and scratched behind his ear. She knew that she was being silly. The dog couldn't understand her. He wouldn'
t
be carefu
l
around broken glass. He didn't know wha
t
be carefu
l
meant.

"Sorry, Buster. Just follow me." Marianne led the dog outside.

Buste
r
wa
s
fine. He didn't cut his paws. Marianne was fine too. Well, until she got a little further outside.

She stopped and looked down. Near the door was the intestine. She couldn't believe it. She hadn't seen the creature/man holding it. She had assumed that he had dropped it somewhere. Or had eaten it. She hadn't known that he had brought it up on to the front porch with him.

Buster looked at the intestine as well. He went over to sniff it. Marianne pulled him away.

"Oh, no, you don't," she said.

Buster continued to pull at the leash. Only for a little while. It didn't take him long to realize that he wasn't allowed to smell the bloodied thing on the porch.

Marianne moved away from it
.
The bloody intestine
.
The one that might have been on his hands. The blood from which might have been on her lips
.
I
n
her mouth.

"Come on, Buster," she said. She didn't want to think about it. She walked to the first step. Buster followed her. "Let's get out of here."

Buster looked up at her once more. This time, Marianne thought that the dog understood what was happening. He didn't nod his head or bark or anything like that, but she could see it in his eyes. He knew that they were leaving. Not just going for a walk. She bent down and scratched behind his ear again.

"I'm sorry," she said. "But we can't stay here. We'll find a new home soon. I promise."

She stood up. Then she pulled her purse further up over her shoulder
.
Time to g
o
, she thought. She walked down the rest of the stairs. Buster followed behind her.

She walked out to the street and looked in the direction that the creature/man and thos
e
thing
s
had run. She wasn't going to go that way
.
No wa
y
. She turned in the other direction and started to walk.

Day 5

Chapter 1

Scooter, Julie and Emily continued along the highway. There were cars smashed up everywhere. And there were a lot of dead bodies. But there weren't any of the creatures - or none that they had seen so far.

Scooter held Emily's hand. She had been tired of being lifted and had wanted to walk for a while. Scooter looked at it as a good thing because he was tired of lifting her. Regardless of how little she weighed, she had started to get heavy for him a little while back.

He looked at Julie. She was doing fine. He could see it on her face. She wasn't tired. Though he could tell that she was hot. They all were. The sun was beating down on them. It had been all day.

It was Julie that noticed the sign first.

She pointed at it. The road they were looking for. The one that would take them to the small airport. To the airplane.

But why? What was the point
?
Scooter wasn't all too sure anymore.

He stopped and looked at the sign.

"We still have a ways to go," he said. "Are you sure we should do it?"

Julie turned to look at him. She looked about as certain as he did. "I don't know. I thought this was what you wanted to do."

"It was…back there." Scooter pointed in the direction that they had come from. Toward the city. "Now I don't know how it'll help us."

Julie followed his finger "It'll help us get further away from there."

"True." He wasn't completely convinced.

He looked around at all of the cars. They were all there for the taking, but he couldn't really use any of them. Not to drive. There were far too many cars on the road. He wouldn't be able to get past any of them.

"We've come this far," Julie continued. "We might as well keep walking. We can think more about it on the way. If we change our minds, then we change our minds. But it's away from the city. And that's where we want to go."

Scooter looked at Julie and nodded his head. She was right.

*

Emily started crying. She had been great for the past little while, but now she broke down into tears.

Scooter looked at the little girl. He knew that he should put his arm around her and tell her that everything was going to be okay. Except he didn't really know that. Everything migh
t
no
t
be okay.

Plus, it was hot. And he was starting to get irritated.

He glanced over at Julie. She still looked as hot as he did, though not as irritated. She had somewhat of a sad smile on her. One of those ones that said
,
oh, poor girl
.
They had walked a long way. Emily was only a kid.

He raised out his hand to put it on Emily's shoulder. But Julie bent down at the same time to take the little into her arms and his hand touched the back of her neck. He let it rest there for a second, then pulled it away. He could feel his face redden once more.

"Sorry," he said. Julie didn't look at him. He wasn't sure if she had heard his apology. She might not have noticed his touch. She was concentrating on the little girl, telling her that everything would be okay. Regardless, Scooter continued to blush.

Julie lifted the little girl up. "She's just tired. It's been a long day. Maybe we should find somewhere to take a nap. We could start walking again after that."

Scooter rubbed his cheeks a few times, hoping to cover the colour. Then he nodded his head and walked over to one of the cars. He knew that it would be hot inside. It had been sitting out in the sun all day. But there weren't many other places they could find shelter.

He looked in the window. There was nothing in there. N
o
on
e
. The passenger side door was open. Whoever had been in here had gone.

"Wanna rest in here?" he asked. He looked over at Julie. She didn't answer. She was staring out over the distance. "What is it?"

Again, she didn't answer.

He moved closer to her and tried to follow her gaze. He couldn't see anything to worry about. "What is it? Did you see something?"

Julie turned her head slowly to look at him. "I don't know. I thought I did. I'm not sure."

"Where?"

"Over there. By that blue car."

Scooter knew the one that she was talking about. It was the only blue car in the area. "Was it one o
f
the
m
?"

"I don't know. I thought that I saw something move. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was nothing."

Scooter heard the little girl whimper. It wasn't a good idea to be having this conversation in front of her. She was tired and hungry. They didn't need to have her scared as well.

"I'll go check it out," he said.

Julie reached out and grabbed him. "No, it's okay. It was probably just my imagination."

Scooter focused on the hand on his arm. He could feel her fingers pressing into the muscles of his forearm. It felt warm. Actually, no, it was more than warm. It felt hot. And it felt good. He turned back at Julie. His face turned red once more.

"It's okay," he said. "I'll be careful."

He raised up his axe for Julie to see. As he did, her hand fell off of his arm. Part of him wished that it hadn't
.
He should have just looked down at the axe, not brought it u
p
, he though
t.
But he couldn't do anything about that now.

"I'll be fine," he said. "I promise."

He promise
d?
How could he possibly do that? How could he possibl
y
sa
y
that?

Julie smiled. "You promise?"

"Yeah, I..." He didn't want to repeat the word again. It had sounded pointless coming out of his mouth the first time. "I do."

Julie nodded, then motioned toward the car he had found for them. "We'll wait for you in here. Don't be long."

"I won't. I promise.
"
There it was agai
n.
Tha
t
useles
s
word.

Julie took the little girl into the car.

Scooter watched them settle in. They both took the front seats. Julie tilted them so that they could lie back. He could see her talking to Emily, telling her that everything would be okay. He also saw that Julie had found something to eat. He hadn't seen anything when he had looked, but there she was opening a bag of something. Probably chips.

Scooter turned away and looked at the blue car. He squeezed his axe and started to walk toward it.

He didn't kno
w
wh
y
he was doing it. If one of those creatures was around, it wouldn't bother them unless it knew that they were there. And, if they were quiet, then it would never know. But if he went over and the thing saw him, it would attack.

So why was he going to look?

He really didn't know.

That didn't stop him, though.

He came upon the blue car, but couldn't hear anything on the other side of it. He squeezed his axe and felt sweat build up on his palms.

He looked back at the car the Julie and Emily were in. It was hard to see it very well from where he was standing, but he was sure that they were okay. He would have heard them scream if something bad had happened.

He didn't want to hear them scream. He didn't even want to think about it. And he supposed that's why he was checking this out. To make sure that they'd be safe.

It was a strange role for Scooter to play. He'd never really taken th
e
protector'
s
role. At least, not for anyone other than himself. For Scooter, that was pretty much all that he knew how to do. His family life had been horrible and he hadn't live in a good neighbourhood. He was always worried about the bad things that could happen to him.

So, yeah, he had to look out for himself.

But now he was looking after two more people. And that was something he had never done before.

He walked closer to the car. He still couldn't hear anything.

He stopped to get a better listen.

Then he heard it. A scratching sound. Followed by a sucking sound. He didn't know what it was. It could easily be one of thos
e
thing
s
.

But it could also be something els
e
. That was what the positive part of his brain told him. And that was the part that rarely spoke up.

He squeezed the axe again and raised it up over his head. He'd smash it down on the creature if there was one there
.
Just like that
.
He walked slowly around the front of the car.

He took a deep breath. He couldn't hear the noise anymore, but he knew it whatever it was was still there.

He took a few steps more. He could hear the sound of his boots press quietly on the pavement and hoped that they weren't too loud.

Then he came around the front to the car and peeked at what was there.

There was a body. But it wasn't one o
f
the
m
. It was a corpse. Its face had been smashed open. He could see part of an eyeball spilling out of the socket. There was blood everywhere.

And there was a bird.

Scooter didn't know the difference between many birds. He didn't know the names for them. But he was sure that this one was a crow. It was picking at the tongue of the dead man. Eating the bits it tore off.

"Fuck," Scooter said. It came out more as a breath.

The crow looked at him, a fresh piece of tongue in its mouth. It flapped its wings and flew away.

Scooter watched it go. He knew that it wouldn't go far. It wouldn't give up its meal. There was far too much for it to eat.

Food - that's all that these bodies were now.

"Fuck," he said again.

There was nothing more that he could do here. He had come to check it out. It hadn't been one of thos
e
thing
s
. That was good enough. He threw the axe over his shoulder and walked back to the car.