Parental Madness

[Faith Eliza Cord]

What would haunt him later, in the rare moments of quiet and calm he had when his sisters were sleeping and Jared lay awake, watching their faces without really seeing them at all, was how very ordinary everything had seemed on the day that the Event occurred. That was what he called it in his mind, how he referred to it in front of his sisters. Somehow, calling it “The day that all the grown-ups in the world went insane and starting killing their children” seemed to be a more disturbing, if more accurate, reference…not to mention, much longer to say.


People always said that terrible things always began on an ordinary day, and if he had ever really thought about it, Jared couldn’t have been sure why he would have thought any differently. But somehow it just seemed wrong that something so terrible could happen on a day that had been so boring and typical at first.


The morning had been just as it usually was- Jared and his three sisters had all gotten up about six am to get ready for school. Well, “all” of his sisters was a bit of a stretch. His sixteen-year-old sister, Lydia, had gotten up, but 12-year-old Leigh and 6-year-old Angelina had required a bit more persuasion. There had been the usual hassles of homework battles and breakfast- apparently Lydia had discovered that Leigh had lied about her homework being done, and Angie had forgotten to get something signed. Their mother, Vicky, had headed out the door fifteen minutes after they were up, calling a breezy “bye, guys” over her shoulder before Leigh had even been budged from the bed. So Jared had forged her signature, as he had done so often in the past few years, and then tried to hurry Angie through dressing and eating while Lydia fought with Leigh about her choice of clothing, which Lydia deemed unacceptably sexy for a sixth-grader, not to mention containing items stolen from Lydia’s own closet. Then there had been the fiasco of Leigh locking herself into the one bathroom of their home and refusing to hurry up and allow Angie to use the toilet and anyone else to use the sink or mirror, a crisis that had been resolved by Jared opening the door with a butter knife.


Everyone had left for school with Lydia irritable and sloppy-looking, as she hadn’t had time for a shower or makeup, Leigh bitter and scowling, and Angie pouting and refusing to hold anyone’s hand. The little girls had just barely made it onto the school bus that would carry them to the elementary and middle schools, and by the time Lydia slid into Jared’s car, both were sick of the day before it had begun. School, though neither were what one might call overachievers, was actually regarded as a break, a time to be able to talk with friends and relax, to actually feel less pressure and responsibility than they did in their own homes. Some might point out that they could do with a little more anxiety about their schoolwork; it wasn’t for nothing that Jared was a nineteen-year-old senior, having failed his eighth grade year. But this was their lot in life, and though neither was exactly thrilled with the scope of their responsibility, there was nothing much they could do. They had known Vicky Sherwood all their lives, and so far, nothing had changed.


Out of all the Sherwood siblings, only Angelina still referred to their mother as Mom rather than by her name, Vicky. For the others, calling their mother anything to indicate that she was their superior would have seemed strange, almost a lie. For as long as he could remember, Vicky had seemed to Jared more of a very absent-minded and distant aunt or sister than his mother. She was never cruel or abusive to any of her children, but Jared could not remember the last time she had truly sat and talked with them, showed any real interest in their lives or even concern that everything at home was going as it should. Vicky Sherwood worked two jobs and had a busy social life as well, often staying away from home overnight as well. For nearly ten years now she had left the children mostly to themselves, providing them with money and necessities, but rarely interacting with them. It was something he was so used to that Jared never truly felt resentment or a desire to see her, not like he knew his sisters did. He only hoped her social life would stop resulting in pregnancies. He hadn’t yet figured out what he would do when he graduated…could he really leave Lydia alone with the little girls?


He tried to think of his future as little as possible. It was easy to focus on the present when his daily routine consisted of kids, school, his after-school job at Burger King, and then back to kids again. He had little time to really worry about how things might turn out.


As it happened, no matter what worries he could have come up with, they would have been far off the mark from reality.


Jared must have been driving when it happened.


It was the only thing that made sense, the only way he could have missed the Event taking place. Because until the moment he pulled into the driveway of his house, the moment he stepped through the door, he was oblivious. In his eyes, he had nothing more to dread at his arrival home than another argument between his sisters, shrill female voices piercing his eardrums.


Jared had early dismissal on Thursdays, and he had started his shift at Burger King at 12:30, getting off at five. The day had been as boring as usual both at work and school, and after his shift ended he decided to drive around for a while, just to work off some steam- and delay getting home just a little more. Yeah, it wasn’t fair to Lydia to stick her with Leigh and Angelina more than he had to, but then again, he also had a job. He deserved some time to himself to wind down, right?


The feeling that something was wrong was almost instant, as soon as he opened the front door. The house was quiet…way too quiet. Where was the sound of Leigh’s blaring pop music, of Angie’s cartoons, of crying or yelling, or even laughing? He didn’t have a late shift tonight, and even if he had, it wasn’t like Lydia could usually manage to get the girls to actually sleep at anywhere near a decent hour. It was just after six…so…what was going on? Were they not home?


Jared frowned as he stepped inside, trying to think. Was it possible that Lydia had taken them somewhere? Where? On foot? Or had Vicky come home early and taken them somewhere?


It wasn’t exactly uncharacteristic of Vicky to do something impulsive and not leave a note, but he would have thought Lydia would have done it…


“Lydia? Leigh? Angie?” he called, but no one answered his call. It appeared the house was empty…but as he stepped into the hallway, turning towards the door to the girls’ bedroom, Jared froze.


Someone had attacked the door with a sharp weapon of some kind, maybe a knife…there was a hole through the wood, as though someone had reached open the door to unlock it. And the door was open.


For a few moments Jared couldn’t bring himself to move. When he stepped forward into the room, it was the dazed, slow motions of a sleepwalker. And when his eyes came to rest on the figure sprawled across the bedroom floor, his breath caught, and bile rose in his throat. It was all he could do to remain on his feet.


His sister Lydia was lying in the middle of the room, just before the bedroom door, her eyes open but unblinking. Her dark hair was piled in a mass around her head, her features rigid, mouth open. Something about her eyes looked strange, as if they had fundamentally shifted in their appearance so as to no longer look human…and she wasn’t, anymore, when it came down to it.


Lydia was dead. Blood soaked her clothing, torn and disarrayed by the force of the multiple stab wounds covering her torso….his sister was dead. His sister had been killed.


His sister had been murdered.


His joints creaking, muscles taut with his shock, Jared slowly knelt beside her, a trembling hand reaching out to touch first her wrist, then her neck, pushing her hair aside to feel for a pulse. There was none, and her skin was growing cool. Lydia had been dead for some time. All that time that Jared had been just driving around in his car, doing nothing, going nowhere in particular…his little sister had been murdered. All that time he had delayed coming home, his sister had been dying.


Sister. Leigh….Angelina….where were they? Where…


His heart slamming against his rib cage, mouth going so dry Jared nearly choked when he attempted to swallow, Jared stood so quickly he momentarily felt lightheaded, beginning to call his sisters’ names with sharp anxiety in his tone. It did not occur to him to worry about his own safety, that whoever had killed Lydia could still be in the house, waiting for his return. It did not occur to him to call 911, to let the police handle this. All he could think about were his other sisters, his other sisters he did not see, his other sisters who were so damn quiet…


“LEIGH! ANGIE! LEIGH, ANGIE, it’s Jared! Where are you…Angie, Leigh!”


There was no reply. There was no reply, and as Jared tore through the house, calling their names, opening doors, he saw no sign of them. There was no more blood, no signs of an intruder, just…nothing. His sisters were gone.


He passed the telephone in the kitchen three times before its presence registered, but on the third time he snatched it up, dialing 911 with his own pulse roaring in his ears. The phone rang eighteen times with no one coming onto the line. Pulling the receiver away from his ear, Jared stared at it in disbelief, then, hanging up the phone, assuming he had dialed the wrong number, tried it again. This time the phone rang 26 times before he hung up, stunned speechless.


What was going on? How the hell could no one be available on the emergency line?!


He ran through the house one more time, still shouting his sisters’ names with no reply, before stumbling out to the front porch of the house, his eyes darting wildly but taking in very few details around him. Trying to take a deep breath, to slow down his racing thoughts and galloping heartbeat, knotting his hands into fists at his sides, Jared briefly closed his eyes, picturing his sisters’ faces. What if they had been kidnapped…what if…


No…no, just think. Think…if they were hiding…if they had run…where would they go? Where might they be, where no one would see?


And that was when it came to him. Beneath the house…there was a small door, all the way around to the other side of the house, that would allow people to crawl beneath the house. The door was mostly concealed by bushes, and it would take a lot of effort for Jared to get himself through…but the girls, Leigh used to hide beneath the house every time she was pouting over something, and lately Angelina had taken to copying her. This would be where they would go. If they were alive, this might be where he could find them.


Jared wasted no time in nearly sprinting around to the other side of the house, finding the right bush and holding back its branches to fumble with the latch on the door. Holding the bush back with one hand, he squeezed through and then shut the door behind him with the other, squinting in the darkness as he called his sisters’ names a final time.


“Leigh? Angie? It’s Jared…are you in here?”


Even before his eyes adjusted to the darkness he saw a slight movement, then made out the outline of their forms, way off in the furthest corner from the door. The smell of urine and something different, salty and sour, hit his nostrils, and it took Jared a moment to identify it…fear. He was actually smelling his sisters’ fear.


Crawling towards them, he saw that Angie was huddled against the older Leigh, their arms wound around each other so tightly it was difficult to tell where one girl began and the older ended. It was a mark of their terror that they would sit so closely, let alone embrace...Jared could not remember the last time he had seen his youngest sisters remain in the same room without fighting, let alone touch each other willingly.


As he approached, saying their names again in a much softer voice, their heads jerked up, and he could see the whites of their eyes glowing in the darkness. Leigh’s mouth opened, but it was several moments before she could speak, her voice hoarse and tremulous.


“Jared…?”


“Yeah,” Jared whispered, coming to squat right in front of them, his lips pressing together into a thin eye as he swallowed, finding it difficult to look them in the eye. He could feel his body tremble slightly, in relief as much as anything else. They were okay…well, maybe okay was a stretch…but they were alive.


Hearing his confirmation, Angelina burst into tears, then struggled to free herself from Leigh’s grasp, crawling towards him and burrowing into his arms. Jared hugged her tightly, barely noticing her dampness as he looked over her head to Leigh. Slow tears ran down the older girl’s face , and in an uncharacteristic gesture of neediness, she moved in against him too, pressing her face against his upper arm. Jared shifted Angie to include Leigh in his hug, the lump in his throat difficult to speak around as he tried to soothe them.


“Shhh…shhh…it’s okay. It’s okay, we’re going to be okay.”


It was a lie and they all knew it, but what else could he say?


After a few minutes, when Angelina’s tears had been reduced to tired sniffs, Jared tried to talk to them, already dreading their answers before he spoke.


“Did you see…what happened to…”


He stopped, unable to bring himself to say Lydia’s name. To say her name would be to bring her staring eyes into his mind, to again feel her dead flesh against his fingers…


Leigh did not answer. He could feel her shaking, pressing her forehead more firmly against his arm. It was Angie who looked up at him, who spoke around the fist pressed against her lips.


“Mommy got her,” she whispered, and Jared’s stomach dropped. He could not have heard right…it was simply impossible. Angie was young, Angie was scared, traumatized…Angie was mistaken.


Whatever had happened, their mother had not done this to Lydia. Whatever her thoughts, whatever her indifference….Vicky would not kill her own child.


“What? What…no,” he said, uncomprehending, and he shook his head, simply unable to believe. “No, Angie, she…that’s not what happened. She…you’re…”


“Yes she did,” Leigh said with surprising ferocity, lifting her head from Jared’s shoulder and looking up at him with a spark of anger standing plainly along with the grief in her eyes. “She did. She was going to do it. She was going to get her, and us too. Both of us.”


“She did,” Angelina echoed, and she burrowed her face into Jared’s armpit, her voice coming out muffled as she continued in a hurried tone still holding tears. “Mommy came home, she called us, she said come here, I need to talk to you. We were in our room and Lydia went out in the hall and Mommy had a knife. Lydia, she came back in the room and she said, she locked the door and told us go out the window, run…and we ran, and we came here, and Mommy was trying to get her, she was putting the knife in the door and telling us open up…”


She was sobbing again now, her question almost unintelligible as she pleaded for him to tell her, “Did she get her? Did Mommy get Lydia?”


As he stared down at his sisters, barely feeling the weight of six-year-old Angelina in his arms, the warmth of twelve-year-old Leigh pressed against his side, it occurred to Jared slowly that this was it. The one defining moment of his life, the one that everyone always talked about and waited for…this was it.


This was the moment. But it was far from the end.

 

[Legendless]

Summer wasn't sure why it had happened or even what it was. All she knew was that she had a pretty typical day. She woke up and went downstairs. Her brother was talking to Mels who had decided to join them that morning. She didn't live so far away and Summer remembered offering to walk with them to school.


School. That was normal as well. Nothing really exciting. Just it's boring normal, average school self. The teachers showed no sign they were able to go on a psychotic rampage. Well Summer wasn't sure if they did or not, but she had a feeling that if things struck earlier it might have been worse. Or better. She did not know for sure.


But when she got home, things were fine. Her father was talking and laughing with his brother, her own bother and Mels playing some board game. Summer smiled at the scene and went upstairs to do her homework. She was glad that she had chosen not to listen to her ipod that day. If she did she would have heard the crash and scream of Mels. Summer, confused, ran downstairs to see what was going on. She let out her own cry as her father was standing with her hands around Jaden's throat. Mels looked like she was bleeding and she heard another crash from the kitchen.


Not sure what to do, she ran at her father, pushing him away from Jaden. It was a struggle but she managed it. She opened her mouth to scream what was wrong with him, but Mels let out another scream.


There was so much confusion but eventually Summer found herself and Mels alone, having run from their father and uncle. She had lost track of Jaden which made her nervous and angry. But she didn't have time. Things were very wrong.

 

[AlwaysChaos]

“Doll.. Doll I’m scared” Anthros’ eyes fluttered half-awake as she was shaken by two small clammy palms. She rolled over and tried to hide her head deep within her pillow. She prayed to no one that she could just fall back to sleep, but no such luck, the little voice spoke again. “Doll please.. I had that dream again”


A sigh came from the now awake form of Anthros Delilah Jones as she pulled the sheets from around herself and opened them up so that a small child could slip in. “Come here Esh Esh, just this once” a comforting voice would call out to her sister, knowing all the while this wouldn’t be the last time. The chubby toddler, no preschooler now, would reward her sister with a smile before crawling in, of course placing her cold feet against Anthros’ legs. “Oh kiddo, you’re lucky I love you” she murmured, running her fingers through Eshter’s curls in a comforting manor. Soon enough she was rewarded by the even breathing of her sister finally back to sleep so that Anthros herself could get some rest.


Morning came and to Anthros’ delight she felt dampness on her back. But of course the little terror that caused it was gone already, most likely kissing up to their mother and father at breakfast, which once again Anthros wouldn’t have time for now that she needed a last minute shower after sleeping in late as per her usual routine. It only took an hour for her to run to her closet to pick what she would wear to school, jump into the shower to use all of the hot water, yell back and forth with her father about the length she was in the shower, scream and be forced out when said water went ice cold, and to dress and do her hair and makeup. Perhaps it was over an hour after she straightened her hair and glitzed out on makeup that she was forced to tone down before leaving. With a snort she would only throw her makeup into her bag as she jumped into her mother’s delightfully dull SUV, since she missed the bus by half an hour.


Looking back Anthros might have not gotten into the silly argument with her mother on the ride to school that day. She might not have yelled at her little sister and told her how much of a little terror she was. And she just might not have skipped school that day as a way to ‘stick it to the man’ out of bitter anger. Looking back she would have changed a lot of things, but everyone knows a memory is only a memory, and you can do nothing but remember it. Too bad Anthros couldn’t forget the next one.


Anthros barreled through the door and threw her backpack to the side, ready with an excuse about her whereabouts for the past hour, her mind racing ahead to disconnect the voicemail before she went to school the next day so that her school couldn’t leave a message. Her family was in the living room, watching television together. They didn’t even notice she came in at first, the thought that it was almost too quiet didn’t register when her mom spoke of getting popcorn and disappearing from the room. Plopping down in her mom’s absent seat on the couch Anthros turned her attention to the television set, watching the road runner run and the coyote try to kill him. Kinda barbaric for a kids show she thought, sitting back not all that interested in it. There were footsteps and she was quick to show interest in the popcorn that was promised, but instead her mother was walking through the room with a steak knife, her expression unreadable.


“Mom, what are you doing, you’re gonna creep Esh out” Anthros managed with a panicked voice. It was then that she felt her fathers calloused hands reach around her neck. Anthros gasped, as much as one could gasp when in such a predicament. Panicked she clawed at his grip and tried to pull away his fingers, which only made him squeeze tighter. Lost. Confused. Unsure of when this nightmare would end Anthros let go, wanting to sit out on this ride. Her eyes closed and though it was only mere seconds, a voice crying out in terror and pain made her snap to. A memory of a noise registered, and again the noise repeated. A knife cutting through rough meat, but instead of echoing off the cutting board, there was a more hollow sound. A thought came to her: bone. Anthros was no longer lightheaded and her mind vague, some sort of adrenaline kicked in and it said to fight. Her eyes looked up into her fathers. There was nothing there anymore.


Anthros angled her head and bit down as hard as she could. A coppery taste tainted her mouth as he pulled back in shock, or perhaps just basic instinct. Unable to think she grabbed the nearest effect in reach, a lamp sitting idly by on the small end table, and swung. They sound of contact couldn't compare to when he fell back and snapped his neck, a sickening crunch that seemed to echo as he made contact with the center console.


There was blood. Too much blood. But she couldn’t process that now… Eshter. She turned quickly, realizing the screaming had stopped. The moment she turned she wished she could take it back, the image permanently etched in her retinas.


She would rather remember her laughing, kicking the air as the wind blew and chains on the swing set clinked. Instead of as a jigsaw remnant of raw meat and realistic doll parts. She would rather picture her making faces behind her mother whilst Anthros got in trouble in her stead. Instead of the lifeless face before her unmarked if not for the blood. She would rather watch that angelic face sleeping peacefully. Instead of lying there dead, while her mother stood over her with a blood stained knife.


She couldn’t back out of the room fast enough and slammed into the wall, easily bruising her shoulder before bending down only to pick up her bag. Her only thought, run. Run like hell and call the police. Feeling safer with the phone secured in her bag, if safe was anything she could feel anymore, she barreled through the door once more and was gone.

 

[Nivrad00]

"Left! Go left left- sh** RIGHT! No, no no turn right TURN RIGHT!"


"Shut the f*** up I'm trying to drive!"


"GO RIGHT-"


Both the boys were abruptly cut off as a car slammed into the side of the Subaru, making the vehicle wheel to the side. The driver spun the wheel frantically, trying to correct the battered car's direction; it was skidding down the road, leaving rubber burnt into the ground. His seatbelt dug into his body as the car hurtled along, constricting his breath; the passenger's seatbelt was not being used, and he found himself nearly torn out of his seat.


The other attacker, a man in a red van was aimed right for them as well. The second vehicle hit near the back of the Subaru, sending the car into an uncontrollable tailspin. The driver's head smashed into the door, and he gave a yelp, letting go of the wheel. The passenger leaned over and grabbed it, straining to turn it towards him; and before the two attackers could recover from their collisions, the Subaru had levelled out and was skidding backwards, precariously close to the ditch on the side of the road. The first one was aimed back at them, accelerating quickly; they'd be pushed off the road before long.


"Forward! Forward Will push the f***ing accelerator-"


Through the severe throbbing in his head, the driver blindly followed the instructions. His foot jammed down on the pedal and the wheels screeched as the battered car pulled forward, but too slowly-


The car headed for them nicked the back of the Subaru before momentum crashed it into the roadside ditch. The boys' car spun backwards, carrying part of the car over the edge; back wheels spinning, the driver stood on the accelerator as the front axle whirled in the grass by the edge.


He was barely aware of his companion repeating an expletive over and over through the pain in his head.


The wheels suddenly bit into the ground and the car lurched forward, slowly bringing the back wheel onto solid ground. The passenger looked out the windows frantically, searching for the red van; by some stroke of luck, it seemed to be broken down where it had it the Subaru. Mr. Hamilton's car... The man had been planning to bring it to the mechanics earlier. Before all this happened.


And there he was now, out of his vehicle; he had a heavy looking wrench with him. Mr. Hamilton was strong; he didn't like the boys' chances if the Subaru didn't pull through.


The car slipped slightly, then pulled back up again. Just a few more inches...


The driver lurched backwards as the back wheels found contact with the ground and the car sped forward. With the crazed adult almost on them, the battered vehicle roared off down the road.


"Ow...." he groaned, doing his best to hold the car steady.


The passenger slowed his rapid breathing. "God, that was close," he gasped.


The driver found himself unable to respond.


The other looked behind him. "Hamilton's out of sight. Pull over."


With a strained nod, the driver complied. The two staggered out of the car, and the passenger wasted no time relocating to the driver's seat. "Come on," he said impatiently to the other boy, apathetic to his injuries, and shut the door. The wounded one just climbed into the backseat, eyeing the dents in the car halfheartedly.


The Subaru sped back out into the road.

 

[Faith Eliza Cord]

Jared could hardly bring himself to even try to process what his sisters were saying. Vicky had killed Lydia…Vicky? VICKY? Their mother was a lot of things…distant, often absent, prone to disappearing for days on end without notice or explanation…sometimes drunk, occasionally dabbling with pot or pills, whatever she happened to get from whatever boyfriend she had of the moment, but as far as Jared knew, she had never become seriously addicted to anything, or at least not to the extent that she got fired from work or seemed entirely out of her mind whenever he or his sisters saw her. And she had never showed any signs of serious resentment, let alone hatred, towards any of them. Why should she, when she rarely even had to deal with them?


Was it possible that she had taken some sort of drug that would make her intensely violent…was this what had happened? Was this why she had done this?


In the end it didn’t matter. He had to get his sisters away from this place, he had to get them out from under the porch and into the car, he had to get them somewhere where they could tell someone what had happened, have Lydia…have Lydia’s body taken care of. Someone had to find Vicky, someone had to stop her before anything else could…before anyone else was hurt. And they had to go now…it would be dark before long, and Jared knew he and the girls couldn’t come back to their own house, not tonight. He had to figure out where they could go from here, and right now absolutely nothing was coming to mind.


The girls had stopped crying some time ago and were remarkably silent, still huddled against his side. The increasing heaviness of Angelina against him told Jared that she was in fact slipping close to sleep, and he shook her gently, nudging the motionless Leigh as well before speaking softly.


“We have to get out of here now, okay? We need to tell the police what happened…so they can take care of Lydia. And…figure out what to do with Vicky. With Mom,” he said for Angie’s benefit, for she alone referred to their mother by that title. “Come on, it’s-“


Jared paused, knowing he could not tell them it was going to be okay, not now, and amended his words. “I’m not going to let anything hurt you.”


It took some continued urging to get Leigh to shift to her hands and knees and start crawling towards the door beneath the house, and with Angelina, Jared nearly had to drag her along, his arm looped around her torso, Angie’s around his neck. His joints were stiff and popped painfully as he emerged from under the house, the bush before the door scratching at the skin of his arms as he pushed it aside enough to stand, then reached a hand to help Leigh out as well. Picking Angie up and allowing her to sit astride his hip, her legs dangling awkwardly, her arms still clinging to his neck, Jared didn’t comment when Leigh stood close enough to nearly step on his heel with every small motion. Eyes scanning the side yard of their home quickly, he saw no sign of Vicky, but knew this did not mean she was not somewhere in the vicinity.


“Hurry, get in my car,” he told Leigh, and she wasted no time in staying on his heels, literally, as they made their way almost in a run around the house to his car. “Should be unlocked, key’s in my pocket-“


But Jared had barely slid into the driver’s seat, making a reluctant Angie get in the backseat and buckle up as she pleaded to be allowed to sit up front with Leigh, before he noticed it, out the corner of his eye. His neighbor’s house, directly to the left of theirs…there was a body lying in the front yard, only a few feet away from their porch steps. The body was unmoving, the legs sprawled out at a strange and uncomfortable manner…and it looked to Jared as though the bare, freckle-sprinkled legs belonged to Max Norton, the ten year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Norton.


Was he taking a nap, right there in the middle of the grass? Had he tripped, fainted? Or was he…he couldn’t be…


Icy dread closed itself around his heart, and Jared’s heart began to pound so rapidly he could feel his pulse throbbing at his temples. It couldn’t be…there was no way that Max was…


But Leigh had seen it too, and her eyes bulged, her hands flying up to cover her mouth even as she screamed through her splayed fingers.


“He’s dead!!! Max is dead too! Vicky got him, Vicky got him!!!”


Her head swiveling, trying to see what Leigh was pointing out, Angelina sat up on her knees on the seat, craning her neck, and her screams soon joined Leigh’s.


“NO NO, NO NO NO!!! I DON’T WANT HIM TO BE DEAD!!!”


“Angie, sit down!” Jared yelled, deciding that any discussion of Max, Vicky, or the possibility of what she might have done to Vicky was not one to be having at this moment as he started up the car. “We’re going to the police, we’re- Angie, SIT DOWN, we’re going!”


As he ripped out of the driveway, he saw out of his rearview mirror the Nortons’ front door open, and Mrs. Norton step out onto the porch. But though he had expected her to scream, like the girls, to kneel beside her son’s body and break out into hysteria, Mrs. Norton did not acknowledge him at all…except to calmly step over his body. She watched Jared’s car go, and it seemed to him that her eyes were narrowed…her lips curved into a smile.


A shudder rolled up his spine, and Jared pressed his lips together tightly, swallowing, before he could say something in front of the girls that he might regret. Had Mrs. Norton done something to her son? Had she…she couldn’t have killed him, could she have?


Leigh was hugging herself in the passenger seat, her eyes huge, the mascara that Lydia had explicitly warned her not to wear earlier this morning smeared and smudged around her eyes and cheeks, and she was rocking herself slightly without seeming to realize she was doing it, her lips pressed together tightly. Behind him Angelina was chanting out loud, shaking her head.


“No no no, this isn’t RIGHT, no no no, I don’t LIKE this, no no no…”


The police station was only a five minute drive…had he not left his cell phone, and all other possessions, back in the house, Jared could have called the station from his car, but as it was, it appeared that he would be dragging both his sisters in with him to give their account of what had happened. Only there were several wrenches to this plan.


For one, there were the bodies. Within two minutes Jared had already seen the bodies of three more children, ranging between the ages of eight and perhaps sixteen, on the sidewalk, in the front yard of their home, and one was even in the road, requiring him to swerve wildly to avoid hitting it. All appeared dead, judging from the lack of movement…and the blood. All were children…every one of the bodies belonged to a child. It appeared that each of the children had been in the process of fleeing before their death….their murder.


Jared could make no sense of this…it seemed nothing but a terrible nightmare, not reality at all. His sisters were screaming beside him, dead children were strewn about the streets, his oldest sister was dead, and his mother…his mother was what, insane? Drugged? Evil? And if she was…was she not the only one?


“We’re almost there! Leigh, Angie, we’re almost there!” he shouted over them, though his words seemed to make little impact. It was not soon enough for his satisfaction that they pulled in front of the town’s police station, Jared nearly sagging with relief at its familiar sight. They would be safe now. They would be okay. The police would come, the police would protect them. The police would figure out what was going on. They would-


Jared never finished this comforting line of thought, nor did he even step out of the car. For just then, just as his hand reached to pull the key out of the ignition, two cops, a male and a female, walked out the front door to the station. Jared rolled down his window and waved to catch their attention, waving back at the girls with one hand in an attempt to shush them as he called out to the officers.


“Sir- ma’am! Excuse me!” he said, some desperation to his tone, but also relief. “We tried to call earlier, but the line, no one picked up…we have, there’s a problem, our mother-“


The officers started towards them with no change in expression, and Leigh and Angie seemed to be gaining control of themselves, hopeful of their help. But then both, nearly simultaneously, pulled the guns out of their holsters, and took aim.


It was at this point that it hit Jared, the full extent of the problem. It wasn’t just Vicky….it wasn’t just his neighbors, or even just parents. It was everyone…maybe it was every adult in the whole town. Maybe even in the world.


And every single one of them seemed to want them dead.


“GET DOWN!” he screamed to his sisters, and as the girls immediately scrambled to the floorboards, he gunned the engine, backing out of the parking space with a screech of his tires on the pavement. One bullet whizzed through the open window on his side, so close to his face that Jared nearly felt its path ruffle his hair, and exited through Leigh’s window, where her head had been just moments before. The girls were not screaming anymore, and their silence was worse to him than their screams. They had been taken to a place past fear, and with good reason.


As Jared tore down the street, several more shots were fired, some hitting the car’s exterior, some missing…and as he made his getaway, praying they would not follow, praying no one would ram into him from any direction with their car, his hands shook so badly he was faintly startled he could steer.


What was HAPPENING?

 

[AlwaysChaos]

To say Anthros was panicked would be the understatement of the year. She ran until her throat burned and pleaded for salvation, and her tears were no more than a distant stain ran down her face. She would practically collapse against a tree, having made it to the park some two or three miles from her house. Never the runner she chalked it all up on adrenaline. Her breath now ragged she would root through her backpack until she found her cell phone. With trembling fingers after the second attempt she managed to dial 911. She tried to shallow her breathing so that she could speak to whomever picked up, but after the line did nothing but ring she hung up and redialed. She had to sit there for half an hour, calling and calling, waiting and hearing nothing but that unnerving tone before hanging up once more and sliding the phone back into her backpack without a care if it were to scratch or break. Remembering a soda bottle from her earlier endevers she was disappointed to see merely a few mouthfuls, but alas the warmed syrup drink was better than nothing and she gulped it down, finishing it off feeling more thirsty that she had been before she touched the damned thing.


It was then that she started coming back into reality, allowing herself to see what was wrong with the world around her. It was clear as day not ten yards away at the playground. A lifeless baby, no body, and that of most likely an older sibling. Anthros went to cover her mouth but her scream was all but silenced by her hands. Feeling not far enough away she began to crawl back away from the sight, yet unable to look away until she was far enough away the the details were gone, blurred by distance. She hugged her knees to her slight form and began to cry once more. At the hopelessness, at being lost and alone, and at the loss of her baby sister.

 

[Nivrad00]

"Ms. Ritch?"


No response.


"Ms. Ritch?" Will looked up.


Still nothing. The teacher was watching him strangely, the essays she were grading apparently forgotten. The only other person in the classroom, a boy to Will's left, looked up as well.


"What's up, Ms. Ritch?" asked the second boy. His name was Loyd, a good friend of Will's.


"Follow me," she said, and stood from her seat. She strode to the door leading into the hallway, not even checking to see if the boys were coming.


The two boy exchanged looks. Loyd shrugged, slung on his bookbag, and started after the teacher. Will followed suit.


They found her in the biology room across the hall, just pocketing something and closing a cabinet as they walked in. "Well, come on," she said, walking out the other door.


...


Will shruddered in the backseat of the car. Ms. Ritch had not looked right. She had looked strangely... Hollow at that time. He couldn't really explain it.


"I'm heading to the police," said Anthony in a curt voice.


"No... Guns," protested Will weakly.


Anthony didn't respond.


"The police might... want us... dead... too," said Will, faltering in his sentence. "They have... guns." Man, it was hard to talk through this pounding headache.


"Then where else the f*** are we going to go?" asked Anthony, suddenly angry.


"Maybe... It's...." Will couldn't think. The headache made it impossible to focus, and the situation was impossible to understand anyways. They all wanted them dead. Why? The teachers.... The neighbors.... And not just him, but Anthony and Loyd and Gabby- oh God, Gabby-


...


Will saw the lifeless form on the ground, and rushed towards it. "Gabby? S***- Gabby! Get up!" There was blood staining the grass by the body- seeping from holes in her body. "Gabriel- oh, God-"


Will had been interrupted by gunfire, raining down from a window in the apartment building next to his own. He'd dived into the bushes near the front door, leaving little Gabby's broken body behind.





"Who the f***'s there?" someone had yelled. Will had scrambled out the other side of the bushes, the shout not registering until his head was almost bashed in by a guitar case.


"Gah!" Will had ducked in time. "Anthony- there's a gun-"


Both roommates had scuttled backwards at a second barrage of gunfire.


...


"Guns aren't... allowed in the apartment building...." Will muttered


"What?"


"Nothing. Head... Out of town, see if the... Adults went... weird there too..."


With a stony silence, Anthony took a turn that would lead them away from the heart of the town.


...


"Where we goin', Ms. Ritch?"


For once, the English teacher didn't comment on Loyd's slang. Will found it interesting how his friend refused to even use correct grammar in speech, while his writing was of such good quality; it was his little spot of rebellion. Heck, his writing was amazing.


Ms. Ritch didn't respond, having reached the school's main stairwell. "Look over the edge," instructed the teacher. "Do you see anything?"


Loyd sauntered over and leaned over the edge, followed by Will. "I ain't seeing anything."


"What are we looking fot, Ms. Ritch?" asked Will.


"Do you see any blood?"


"What?" Loyd turned around.


The teacher leapt forward, the scalpel in her pocket already out and aimed for Loyd. With a shout, the student jumped back, but there was nothing but a metal railing behind him; Ms. Ritch's scalpel sunk into his throat, and the teacher then heaved the student over the edge.


"What?- S***!" Will stumbled backwards, almost falling down the stairs in his hurry to get away from the teacher. He spun and ran, not understanding, but taking the steps four at a time. He could hear the teacher coming after him, jumping down with the bloody knife in her hands-


He ran past the limp body of his friend, hardly believing it was possible. Oh God, run away, run away!


...


Will really wished he hadn't chosen that day to stay late in school to work on his project.


Loyd....


Will couldn't think about Loyd. He curled up on the backseat and focused solely on the pain in his head.

 

[Legendless]

Jillian wasn't sure how to explain it. The chaos that was occurring. The madness. He thought his life was chaotic before, well...this was was totally on a different level. Jillian didn't know the meaning of the word chaos until now.


Somehow he had made it out of his house alive, clutching the small handgun his mother had tried to use on him. He would not think about shooting her in the leg. He would not think about the murderous look in her eyes as she pointed the gun at his heart, ready to kill her child. Jillian squeezed his eyes shut, willing the image away. It was pointless to think about it. He had to keep going.


From what Jillian had seen so far, his parents were not the only ones who had snapped. He saw people, kids, running, adults chasing them down. It was like some kind of messed up battlefield. Seeing it all made Jillian fell sick but he had yet to throw up. No that was not true. Passing by that little boy's body. He had thrown up then. He could not imagine what kind of sick minds had taken over the adult community. What kind of madness that had made them act this way. It was unreal to the young boy. In all his life of confusion about himself, his was worse.


A part of Jillian wanted to break down and sob. Just sit in the middle of the street crying his eyes out waiting for someone to come and kill him. But no. Jillian kept moving. He thought maybe he should take a car or flag down someone in one, providing they weren't trying to run him over either. He saw a few teens taking cars before, but wasn't able to join them. He had to find a way to get to a safer place.


The young teen moved as he heard noises approaching. The worse thing to do right now was let an adult catch him off-guard. He had no idea what was happening, but Jillian knew that he had to do his best to survive. Holding the gun tightly, he wasn't sure though if he could pull the trigger again or even pull it to kill. It frightened him.

 

[Kagura]

Sometimes, Maxwell liked to think that things happened just like movies; he could pause, stop and rewind. Even a fast forward button would work to get the yelling out of his ear, his father and older brother having a disagreement in the living room. The argument was about Nick not getting his chores down, despite leaving them for about three days. Complaints about the jobs getting bigger were obvious sounding in the younger brothers ears; he had opted to listen instead of simply blasting music.


Maybe even a slow motion button, so he could really identify the sudden sound of metal hitting skull that resounded through his house. Maxwell’s brother’s question of what exactly the older man was doing brought Max to his feet… and then there was that sound. A wounded cry sounded and he heard his name being called, dully, until another swing rang through the air. There was a volume control on his DVD remote…wasn’t there?


As he opened his door and walked out of his room, it certainly felt like he was in a Hollywood thriller. His limbs felt like gelatin as he saw his father raise the iron cast, dirty, frying pan above his brother’s head again. There was some life-like blood on the edge of the pan, and the splatter seemed to be to perfect; maybe it was because his brother had a buzz cut. Max swallowed something bitter, realizing that this was his eyes looking at the scene, not him looking at a screen.


A final blow, that goddamn noise again, and it seemed like something in his body was recording the image of the next splatter in his head. Why was his dad so angry at the pile of unwashed dishes? Heck, if he knew this was going to happen, Max would’ve taken Nick’s bribe. Subtitles? Language? Commentary? He didn’t think anything would help him understand what he was seeing, and as his father’s grey eyes shifted towards him, he hoped for the next chapter.


It seemed his dialogue had finally came up though, “Dad…what are you doing?” his dad looked perfectly calm, as if he hadn’t just killed his oldest son. The problem with his clam demeanor was that he was also making his way towards Max, pan once again at the ready. Wasn’t there a way go back? A menu button! He needed to see what the film was about before continuing any further.


The boy took a jerky step backwards, curse his growth spurt! His bones were hurting enough as it is, and his dad seemed to remember that in whatever disease had overtaken him. The pan swung out and hit his knee, the face of it burning a bruise and almost cracking the cartilage built up to form knee cap. Whatever this movie was, he didn’t think he wanted to be in it anymore, he didn’t want to keep watching it as if his dad wasn’t swinging for his rib cage. Eject.


Just like that, Max was hit in the side by the pan, and was winded from it, but kicked his dad back with the unharmed leg. This twisted the bruised kneecap, though, and he almost fell over but the adrenaline simply made his hands stumble across the ground. Then he was back up and moving towards the door, knocking boxes and ornaments down, he only hoped it would slow his dad down. Was he even his dad anymore? Max only thought of him as the crazy psycho that shared a very keen resemblance to his father, Leon.


Finally as he ran outside, he slammed the door on his father’s face and took a look around at his neighbourhood. The movie was replaying, the DVD was stuck; there were two of the neighbours triplets, bleeding all over their gravel driveway. Then there was Timothy, the 3 year old from next door, whose head hung over the curb, body nowhere to be found. Maxwell had to keep running though, as he had to just get away from his dad…

 

[Faith Eliza Cord]

Jared didn’t know where it was he was going. There was nowhere he could go, really, at least that he could think of. They had no relatives that actually claimed them, no family friends, absolutely nowhere he could think of that they might be taken in.


And that was the least of it. Forget having somewhere to go…what if there was no one to go to? What if there was no longer such a thing as a safe place…a safe person?


It made no sense. It made no sense, Jared could not think of how all this could have happened, what could have suddenly changed…but it had to be true. His mother, with Lydia and the girls…the children in the yard, the way his neighbor had stepped over that boy’s body without changing expression…the cops. If anything was a sign that the world had just changed, it was the cops…they were supposed to be the good guys. They were supposed to be the ones out there after all the people who went crazy, all the people who hurt and killed…how could anyone stop them, how could anything stop if even the cops were doing it too?


Was it just this town, this area, this state? Was it just the United States, just North America? Or had this happened everywhere…had this happened all around the world?


There was no way for Jared to find out, no one he could think to call. He had his cell phone resting in the cup holder of the car, but saw no point now in even owning it. Who would he call if the entire adult world had gone psycho?


The girls had finally gotten up off of the floorboards and were sitting in their seats again, eerily silent. Jared tried not to look over to Leigh or in his rearview mirror to Angelina, dreading seeing the shock and terror etched in their eyes. His hand gripped around the steering wheel, he drove, his mind scrabbling to think of where to go, what to do. Each time he passed another car, another person, he tried to hunch his shoulders and hide his face, praying that his height and frame would go to good use and pass him off as an adult…one of them. He whispered rather than yelled for the girls to duck down, dreading that even with windows up, he would somehow draw attention to them by yelling, that one of the adults would hear.


He had no intention of stopping any time soon. That was until Leigh sat up suddenly, her eyes wide, and began to yell and gesture excitedly.


“Jared!!! Jared, now, stop, stop!!! Go pick him up, pick him up!!!”


Jared’s eyes shifted with some alarm towards the direction she was pointing. There was a teenaged boy stumbling down the road, his face blank with shock, a boy that looked vaguely familiar to Jared but whose name did not come to his mind. The boy seemed just as clueless as to where to go as Jared, only aware that he must keep moving.


Beside him Leigh was still waving and yelling frantically, and now she was calling out a name too.


“Max!!!! Max, Max, here, we’re here! Jared stop, stop, let him in!!!”


“Leigh, we-“ Jared began, but Leigh, sensing his reluctance, only increased the intensity of her screaming.


“WE HAVE TO GET HIM, THEY’LL KILL HIM!!!! JARED GET HIM, GET HIM GET HIM!!!”


Angie was twisting around in her seat, trying to see what Leigh was becoming so hysterical about, and between Leigh’s emotion and Angie’s questions, and his own pricking conscience, Jared pulled his car to a stop, rolling down the window just enough of a crack where the boy, if he was listening, would be able to hear him tell him to get in. Leigh was still calling his name, and it wasn’t until then that Jared wondered how his sister, who had just started middle school this year, knew the name of a high school aged boy that even Jared was only vaguely familiar with.

 

[Kagura]

As Max finally stumbled onto one of the main streets of town, a car was heading towards him at a fast speed. It was a beaten up ford focus, and as it kept approaching him there, he had a feeling that it seemed familiar. The feeling made him pause, although the adrenaline in his body was rushing through his lanky limbs and urging him on. As it came closer, he could identify some major movement in the vehicle, and the car was strangely slowly down.


It couldn’t be an adult, else he would be hit straight off the bat but he now saw through the windows of the definitely-familiar vehicle. He could hardly swallow past his dry throat, his palms now sweating with the rest of him, and he had a sudden urge to check if he smelled bad because of it. The voice that was now calling out to him and the girl sitting in the passenger seat was one in the same. Leigh, his girlfriend for about three months now; she had survived, and she was urging him towards her.


Max would usually listen to his girlfriend’s whims as it certainly made him feel a lot better about himself…but that was her brother, sitting right in the driver’s seat next to her. Obviously this wasn’t regular circumstances though, and Max immediately rushed to the driver’s side passenger’s door. When he opened it, his eyes met with the youngest of the family, but he jumped in rather than examine her.


“Leigh!” he greeted his girl excitedly, reaching for her before he awkwardly pulled away...older brother in the drivers seat…right.

 

[Faith Eliza Cord]

Angelina, who had been sitting in very uncharacteristic silence ever since the encounter with the police some fifteen minutes ago, had continued to remain mute through Leigh’s shrill demands for Jared to stop, though she had loosened her seatbelt to sit up on her knees in the backseat, trying to crane her neck to see the person that Leigh was so intent on picking up. As the boy slides into the seat beside her, out of breath, Angelina stares at him solemnly, her blue eyes so dark in their shade at the moment that they almost appear bruised. The faint lingering smell of urine remains about her, an odor that her brother and sister have long since grown used to and ceased to notice, but which would be readily apparent to Max, were he to be pay attention.


One hand drifts towards her mouth, her fingers not quite entering to suck, but hovering near her lips as she continues to stare at him, finally speaking out loud. “You’re not gonna hurt us?”


As soon as Max stumbled into the backseat, Leigh, smiling widely in incredulity and relief, twisted around in her seat to look at him, a short sob breaking out her lips as she extended one hand for him to take. She seems entirely oblivious to Jared and Angelina’s presence and what they might think about any of this, and though she is not yet crying again, tears stand in her eyes, and her voice is shaking badly.


“Max! Max, you’re okay…Max, the whole world’s gone totally psycho, I don’t know what’s going on, it’s like everyone just went nuts! All the parents are just KILLING people! My mom, she got my sister, not Angie, Lydia, she just came after her and she-“


“Leigh, that’s enough. Turn back around,” Jared tried to cut her off, as he started the car up again, glancing back at Angelina in the rearview mirror, who was still very still and quiet, her eyes shifting to Leigh now as Leigh began to recount the murder. The last thing either of them needed was to start recounting the violence, not now, not when he needed them to be calm…especially not when he was trying to drive, and they were far from out of danger.


But Leigh was neither calm nor seemingly able to stop herself, and she ignored him entirely, still grasping Max’s hand and squeezing hard as she continued to ramble.


“She got Lydia, and I had to take Angie and I didn’t know if I could do it, I didn’t know if she was going to get us both, and we had to hide forever and Angie was crying, and I was so, so scared she’d hear, because she wouldn’t shut up. Angie wouldn’t shut up, and I thought-“


“Leigh, I said stop it,” Jared tried again, his voice sharper now, but it was for himself as much as for Angie now that he spoke. Thinking of his sisters hiding for so long under the house, Leigh struggling for probably one of the first times in her life to take charge, Angelina unable to quiet in her fear…it made his stomach churn, his throat choke so it was difficult to swallow, and his hands tightened on the steering wheel as she fixed his eyes ahead, still entirely clueless as to where it was he was going.


And still Leigh seemed not to hear.


“Then there were bodies everywhere, all over the whole neighborhood, and we went to the police station, but they were SHOOTING at us, Max, they wanted to kill us, even the police! Everyone wants to kill us…Max, they want to kill us! They’re all trying to kill us…they want-“


If Jared heard anything from her about anyone killing them one more time, he didn’t know if he could keep even a pretense of calm for much longer. He couldn’t stand to let her finish the sentence, or even say another word. In the backseat Angelina was frozen, her back pressed against the seat as though she were trying to shrink down inside it, and Jared raised his voice almost in a shout over Leigh’s.


“ Leigh, I said to shut up already! No one’s going to do anything, we’re in the car, we’re driving, we’re getting out of here, okay?! You’re not helping anything by yelling and distracting me and scaring Angie, so stop it! Turn around, let go of the sixteen-year-old guy’s damn hand, and be quiet so you don’t make me crash this thing!”


Normally Jared didn’t yell at Leigh; that had been Lydia’s department, for the most part. Since Lydia had been a girl, Jared had mostly left any discipline or correcting of the younger girls up to her, figuring that as a girl herself, Lydia better than him would know how to deal with them. Jared had concentrated on doing the more materialistic modes of caretaking for his sisters, making sure they had food and clothes and other things they would need, cleaning up vomit if they were sick, attempting to fix broken items and put together furniture or appliances on the rare occasions that they had something new. Correcting manners, interfering in fights that were verbal rather than physical, homework, clothing rules, dating or rather, lack of dating rules…that had all been things he left strictly up to Lydia.


But Lydia was gone. Lydia was gone now, and Jared realized with a grim dullness that everything to do with the girls and their welfare had now fallen entirely onto his shoulders.


He shoved any images of Lydia coming to his mind, any thoughts of what her loss meant, what SHE had meant to him, aside with near panic, knowing that he could not think of Lydia, could not hear Leigh speak about her right now and continue to drive, to even function.


Normally, if anyone yelled at or corrected Leigh in any way, at any time, let alone in front of a young and fairly attractive boy, she would not have stood for it. Normally Leigh would yell back or whine or challenge the correction in some way, refusing to back down until she was made to do so. But today was not a normal day, and today Leigh simply turned around as her brother had asked her to, slumping down in her seat, as some of the tears standing in her eyes spilled over.


Jared gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the guilt twisting in his gut at the glimpse he had viewed of his sister’s miserable expression, and after several moments he spoke to her again in a more gentle tone.


“Look, Leigh, I’m sorry. Just…we all don’t want to talk about it anymore, okay? So…you and Angie, you’ll help out a lot if you can just keep down low and not talk about it right now.”


As an afterthought, he added in a gruffer tone, “You too, Max. Keep low.”


Just addressing Max made Jared think back to the way Leigh had lost it when she saw him on the road, the rather dramatic relief she had shown when he was inside their car and marginally safer. The way she had grabbed his hands and just started blurting out every thought in her head to him…


Okay, that was just Leigh in general. Leigh was thoughtless, Leigh was an immature sixth-grader who was already interested in every guy over the age of 12 who came across her vision. It wasn’t exactly not within Leigh’s characteristics to grab onto the first guy she saw who wasn’t family, especially in a time of crisis.


But the guy…the guy, this Max, had said Leigh’s name. Max knew her. Jared would have sworn there was relief in his eyes and tone as this Max called out his sister’s name…not just relief to be picked up? Was that relief that it was LEIGH who was picking him up?


It was one thing for a sixth grader, a boy-crazy little girl, to know the name of an eleventh grader…that was sort of reasonable and expected, even if it gave Jared the creeps to think of Leigh pouring over Lydia’s yearbook or something and memorizing names. But for an eleventh grader to know the name of a sixth grader, and to remember it, in the middle of a freaking crisis?


That, Jared didn’t like at all.


He drove, trying to think of somewhere to go, anywhere, and addressed his next comment to Max, his tone still far from friendly. “You know of some place it might be okay to take the kids?”


He emphasizes the word kids, making sure Max gets that he’s including Leigh in it.

 

[Legendless]

Jillian stumbled around, not sure which direction he was heading or which way he was going. He wanted to find a car to steal and drive away, but all the ones that weren't crashed had no keys. He knew nothing about hot-wiring a car, so until he found one with keys, he was shit out of luck.


The maybe transgender boy sighed deeply as he shut the door to the sixth car with no keys. He kept his gun in his hands as he searched, always ready to protect himself. A woman had come running at him earlier and he had whacked her with it, not able to shoot her and ran off. He was getting tired from running and just from plain fear. He wanted to find a nice, safe place or at the very least, other non-murdering people.


Jillian looked around, tempted just to sit down and give up. He was alone and tired, but he was able to protect himself. Still some company would be nice.


----


Summer wasn't sure which way she was leading Mels. They moved slowed, making sure not to be seen by anyone, less they be attacked. Summer was not going to lose Mels too. She was all she had left for right now.


The younger girl seemed frightened and barely talked or did anything, always doing as Summer said. Summer wish she could just sit down and wait for her parents to come along and relieve her of this burden she suddenly had, but if she stopped or let herself think that way, she wasn't sure if she would be able to keep going. And she had to. For Mels at the very least.


Summer realize she was headed towards the school and she wondered if it would be better there or not.

 

[Nivrad00]

Will was upright, at least, the pounding in his head beginning to subside. He clung to his seatbelt as if it was a life preserver, staring out the window; there were children, killed, by the roadside. Hardly ten minutes could pass before they saw a boy that had been thrown out of a speeding car, or a little girl killed by a passing hobo. They were taking the smallest roads they could find; far away from concentrated areas of population, as well as other cars.


Will's gaze dipped down to the car door. It had been crushed inwards in their last encounter.


Pasture and woods were their constant surroundings. Both the the teens in the car held their breath when they passed a farmhouse, waiting for a farmer with a shotgun to emerge. When a car did happen to come up in front of them, Anthony spun the wheel and raced back down the road for their lives, taking the most winding and complicated turns as he could.


Will wasn't sure what to think about this. After emerging from the little ball of pain he had curled up into, he had felt... Numb. He looked at the bodies as if they were only passing curiosities. They drew his gaze, but they did not invade his thoughts; he simply looked back away once they were out of eyesight, and stared into the trees to the Subaru's left. He wondered if he ought to be acting differently, more traumatized, or maybe miserable. Was it wrong to look at the devastation so blankly?


He tried to tell himself that all these children had had lives, and family, and names, and had once been happy. He tried to get himself to feel like this was a tragedy. But even seeing the children play and shout in his head, he still couldnt believe they were the same kids. This world... That world... They seemed so distant.


"Will," said Anthony, gaurdedly.


Will was immediately alert. He snapped up and looked out all the windows. "What? What is it?" he asked.


"Can I have your phone?"


The teen in the backseat suddenly felt immensely stupid. He had a phone! Why hadn't he called- why hadn't he checked with his friends? His parents, even! Here he was, thinking just of himself-


"Here," he said, quickly, digging his modest phone out of his jeans pocket. It was a simple device; Will had been mindful of his very limited budget when he bought the second-hand phone. He leaned forward and passed it to Anthony, who immediately flipped it open and began to type numbers in with one thumb. His eyes darted from the road to the screen and back.


The phone began to ring. He guided the car around a curve with his left hand as he pressed the speaker to his ear.


Voicemail.


A worried frown creeped over his stoic expression as he dialed one number after the other. Will watched, tense, from the backseat.


The fifth number- his last call- went through. After six rings, the recipient finally answered.


"Reggie!"


"What-" some loud crashes came from the background. "Oh, man, is that you, Anthony-"


"S***, Reg, no one else is answering- where are you? You okay?" The relief was plain in Anthony's voice.


"I don't know, man, I'm holed up pretty good in here but my folks are-"


More crashes.


"Reggie! Where are you?"


"My pad in Downborough- f***, Anthony, gotta go, they found me-"


"Reg-"


The connection cut.


As Anthony stared at the phone for a moment, Will noticed out of the corner of his eye a boy riddled with stab marks on the roadside. He hoped Anthony hadn't seen.


He had.


"I'm going to go find a friend," said Anthony, not as a question but as a statement, taking a left as he snapped shut the mobile device. He used the blinker out of nothing but habit. After handing the phone back to Will, he took the wheel in both hands and pressed down the accelerator.


Will was struck by the nobility of Anthony's choice. He'd immediately made the decision to find his friend, spending hardly a second in deliberation; he hadn't even asked Will, but the boy agreed with he was doing anyways. It was sort of strange; Anthony had always seemed like a loner, loyal to no one but himself. Will now saw differently.


As the teen was slowly pushed back into his seat by Anthony's acceleration, he made a few calls of his own, calling his mother's cell phone on speed dial. He wasn't sure what expected; he certainly didn't dare get his hopes too high. His nerves were strung, apprehensive at what might hear when the ringing ended. He couldn't imagine his mother wanting him dead.... But at the same time, he couldn't allow himself to believe that she'd be unaffected by the madness. It just couldn't be! Will clenched his jaw tightly as he waited.


He was almost relieved when she didn't answer.


Will let out a held breath as he looked over his other options. Speed dial 2 was his father.


A number caught his eye; 5 was Loyd.


Loyd was dead.


Will clenched his eyes shut for a moment, and then moved on. Had to keep going, no matter what happened....


He looked up and out the window as the phone rang for his father. Civilization was nearing now, old houses appearing ever so often in the woods; Will steadily ignored the blood on many of them. He was feeling anxious again, unsure of how his father might be; but the boy ignored it. He simply kept blankly staring out the window, pointedly thinking about nothing.


"Will?" came a crackling voice from the phone. The boy always had it set on speakerphone.


Will, startled, suddenly had no idea how to respond. "Hey, dad," he said in a monotone.


There was a pause. Then, "Will! Will, are you alright? My God, you're alive!"


Will was stunned beyond speech. He responded, "You're still okay?"


"I'm fine, Will, but i don't know what's happening- no one got you?"


The teen in the backseat was beyond himself with relief. Anthony raised an eyebrow at him through the rear-view mirror.


"Where are you? I'll come get you, I have my car," responded Will's father.


"No, it's alright, I'm in our Subaru with Anthony. We could meet somewhere?"


"I'm near the lake we used to go to- can you get there safely?"


"Sure, dad, I'll be there as soon as I can!"


"Be careful, Will."


"Alright."


Will stared, stunned, at his phone as the call ended.


Then he grinned up at Anthony. "Green Lake?" he asked.


"After I find Reggie," he responded. A battered-looking truck suddenly emerged onto their road a ways in front of them; Anthony slammed down the brakes and twisted the steering wheel all the way to the left, fishtailing in a U-turn that was probably illegal in ten different ways. He hit the gas once more, and they were roaring away from the truck as quickly as possible.


Will held himself steady as Anthony whipped the car around two sharp turns, placing a forest between them and the truck. The vehicle didn't show up behind them, but Will continued to stare worriedly out the back window.


Anthony swallowed and kept driving steadily. He had his own doubts about Will's father, but he kept his judgement to himself.


By the time they reached Downborough, Will had called everybody he could think of. Some had answered him, but no one especially close to him; he hadn't tried any other adults. As Anthony turned into the suburb, Will went over the list of friends he had gotten through to.... Perhaps they ought to find some of them as well? There was strength in numbers.


"I'm going to call Reggie again," said Anthony, and Will hurriedly passed the phone.


There was no answer.


With an ominous cloud hanging over the two of them, both boys looked straight ahead; there was more death evident here than anywhere else they'd been, and even more looming inside the buildings. There were kids thrown into the dumpsters....


Will swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. No burials or funerals for these people....


Anthony slowed the car down to a stop. "7878. Reggie's house."


They sat in the car for a second, staring at the strangely still dwelling. Anthony, eventually, left the engine idling as he pushed open he door and hopped out. All business, he strode down the driveway and straight to the front door.


Will hurried to undo his seatbelt and follow him, running to catch up. The was locked, of course, and Anthony headed to the back door. Will looked around, wary; his dad had kept a shotgun in his house. What if someone around here did too?


Anthony reached over and unbolted the backyard fence door, striding through. Will hung back, not wanting to lose sight of their car. They'd be screwed if someone stole it, especially since the keys were in the ignition... Why had he left the keys in the ignition? For a quick escape? "Hey, Anthony?" he started.


There was a sound of shattering glass and something heavy hitting the floor. Will leaned over the fence, sort of surprised, as Anthony reached through a shattered back window and unlocked the entryway. "What?"


"The car keys...." said Will, giving the Subaru a look.


Anthony hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Can you go get them?"


Will nodded and dashed off. Anthony headed into the building.


Reggie's house was a mess; he knew that it had been so even before the apocalypse began. Anthony took a few steps in, gave the area a quick sweep of an eye, and called loudly, "Reggie?"


He walked slowly as he looked around, drawing out his friend's name; "Reeeggie?"


"Don't!" said Will urgently, coming in behind him and noting the stone that had been sent through the glass. "You don't know who's in here." The car keys had been pocketed.


"Reggie lived alone with his older brother," said Anthony, walking into the living room.


Will, not fully reassured, followed. He quickly circumvented a couch and opened the front door, wanting to be able to see their only means of escape. There was no sign of life either in the house and out. "This place is creepy, said Will, looking up the stairwell.


Anthony started opening doors, as Will pulled up the call history and called Reggie again on his cellphone. The soft ringing of Will's phone was suddenly complemented by Reggie's own phone, emanating faintly from the second floor.


Anthony immediately pulled his head out from the bathroom he was checking and gave Will a look before racing up the stairs. The other boy followed closely behind, a little fearful that an adult might be setting them a trap upstairs. "Anthony, be careful-" he warned- "might be a trap-"


But the teen had already arrived at the top, and frozen solid. Near the wall sprawled the dead body of a middle-aged woman, her head resting in a pool of blood; a nondescript office-like area greeted them as well. The ringing was coming from a small roof access door.


Anthony hurried to the door, leaving Will to stare at the woman. Her eyes were open, staring blankly at the ceiling. Will was appropriately spooked.


A solid-looking desk was at a strange angle near the roof door; perhaps it had once hidden the entryway. Anthony strode by it and flung open the door, revealing a dark room. The only thing the boy could see in the dimness was a pale hand, resting on the floor. He looked about, and flipped on a lamp standing nearby; the newly shed light exposed the rest of the body.


Reggie.


Anthony stared, wide-eyed. Reginald Cleveland's pale blue eyes stared back.


Will spotted the woman's blood-stained knife. And Anthony saw its victim.


Anthony made a kind of choking noise.


A while later, both the boys stepped out of the house. Will hadn't liked it, but his logical side had prevailed and they had gathered supplies from Reggie's house. They did have to eat something, after all. Anthony was equipped with a phone of his own, not Reggie's, but his brother's; they'd found Frank- or his body, rather- in the master bedroom. They also had a GPS, food, and some first aid. Will was feeling much better after a glass of water and a aspirin. Lastly, Anthony had clutched in his hand Reggie's pocketknife. Will hoped fervently that his friend would never have to use it.


They had already been ready to leave, aware that the more time they spent searching the more likely they were to be attacked, when Will's vigilant watch out the windows paid off. There was a pair of adults approaching the house.


Will and Anthony dashed out the door with their supplies. The adults were both older men, both armed with knives that glinted in the sunlight; but instead of heading towards them, they targeted the car. Will was glad for a moment he had gotten his keys. Then he remembered the knives.


"The tires!" Will sprinted off and Anthony, alarmed, raced after.


Neither were very athletic, but both were fit, and entering the prime of their lives. They managed to catch up to the assailants before they could reach the car, their shoes pounding against the slick grass; with set faces, the men turned sharply to face them head on.


Will yelled, and ducked just in time to avoid being hit by an attacker's weapon; Anthony leapt to the side, away from the second attacker, and flipped out the blade of his pocketknife as he staggered back up. Carried by inertia, Will made a snap decision, barreling forward into the man's stomach instead of retreating; with an "Ooph," the assailant fell back. Will ran, moving towards the car but looking over his shoulder to see how Anthony fared. Anthony was bleeding from his arm, but dashing at a fast clip towards the Subaru. His attacker was right behind.


Will slammed into the car, but turned around instead of getting in. He saw the man chasing Anthony draw back the arm with the knife-


"ANTHONY! WATCH OUT!"


Anthony acted almost on reflex; with a shout, he pushed himself to the floor and to the side, the knife flying over his head. The man skidded to a halt, but was unable to stop himself from sliding past his target. He slipped in the slick grass, stumbling; Anthony took the advantage to scramble off the ground, moving to drive the knife into the assailant.


The man's hand shot up and caught Anthony's arm with an iron grip. Their eyes glared.


Will struck the man over the head with the hilt of a knife, having recovered it from where it had landed in the grass. The crazed adult's grip on Anthony's hand disappeared, and he collapsed to the floor.


The first adult was starting towards them. "Well come on!" said Will, grabbing Anthony's arm with one hand and scooping up the bag of supplies he had dropped with the other. Anthony jumped over the man's unconscious body and the two raced to the car.


Sixty seconds later they were a mile away. The two teenagers were still breathing hard.


"Thank you," Anthony finally said from the backseat.


"No problem," breathed Will.


They were out of Downborough and fading back to the countryside. Will cut to the most remote paths that he could find; his newly acquired GPS informed them that they were nearing Harrison Road, and, correspondingly, the P. Harrison Park. Anthony looked for something to wrap his wound in.


"Your arm okay?"


"Yeah."


"Sure?"


"I am sort of bleeding on your car."


Will suddenly pressed the brakes. "Crap," he said.


"It's not that much blood-"


"No- look. There's someone in the park."


Anthony looked out the window.

 

[AlwaysChaos]

Anthros allowed herself a good cry. She needed it after the toll of the day, not even, of the past few hours, hit her. She felt comfort in holding her cell phone, as if all she needed was a name to come into her mind and salvation would be one phone call away. Too bad her go to was her mother and father. At the mere thought alone her mind went back. Her father’s cold hands, and now lifeless body. Her mother standing over sweet innocent Esh, only to call out her name as she ran. Feeling shivers run down her back she would wrap her arms around herself, as if that would protect her any.


The phone started to vibrate, startling Anthros and she would drop the phone. As the small black mobile hit the ground the back and cover would separate, Anthros quite sure who’s picture had been displayed. Her mother. Bending down she would pick up the pieces, her hands still shaky, but nothing like they had been when she tried dialing before. A breath was taken as she tried to piece it together and put it in her pocket, leaving it off for now her so called security far from being so.


Her eyes would glance up as she would stand and brush herself off, only to catch sight of a car. Relief flooded her as she started to run towards it, only to freeze up, realize she had no idea who was behind the wheel and if they were a danger or not. They had to of seen her by now though so she took one last breath and started towards it, taking her chances. After all her legs may be shaking now but she was quite certain if the need rose she could run again.

 

[Kagura]

Something was off in the car, maybe it was the panic of them trying to escape whoever was after the three in the car but something…something was off. It wasn’t the smell, which the stagnant air had intensified, making Max look at the little girl besides him with a kind smile. The young girl had asked him a question, and he shook his head wordlessly, almost reaching out to give her his hand in comfort instead.


It was already in Leigh’s grasp once the girl sobbed though, and he was a little slow on the uptake of the words that spilled out of her mouth. There was too much going on at once… she had said his name a lot, but the real explanation was that her older sister was gone. Gone. Was that was so off about the atmosphere? It seemed that it made both the driver and girl next to him stiffen. At least they were moving again, but words just kept spilling needlessly out of the girl’s mouth despite her brother trying to calm her down.


Max squeezed her hand, the fear soon ebbing into his own mind as she talked about the dead bodies there had been a lot… Jared was yelling next though, and he retracted himself from his girlfriend, looking wide eyed and confused. The girl herself also turned around in her seat, until her brother apologized and just asked her to keep low. Words were directed his way next, and he practically sat up straighter in his seat at the first syllables it was Leigh’s father figure, afterall.


Nothing about a 16 year old dating a 12 year old looked anything good in anybody’s eyes but Max felt what he did. Leigh made him feel better than anyone else he had met, she was encouraging and he felt like she would be the only one that would like him. His hands clenched as he thought it over, but then the man spoke to him again, practically making him jump in his seat.


“Uh, yes Sir!” he called, oh crap…what did he ask again? “Maybe somewhere they wouldn’t usually be?” he wonders, aloud. “Like an adult sto-” he awkwardly cuts himself off, turning complete red, “Uh! The school! Kids hate school…” he trailed.

 

[Faith Eliza Cord]

Angelina has not spoken a word since her first question after Jared picked the kid up- Max, as Leigh had incessantly referred to him as. She remained slumped in her seat, keeping low, as Jared had instructed, her arms wound tightly around her stomach, and when Jared glanced back at her in his rearview mirror, he could barely see her at all. It crossed his mind that they had no clothes for her to change into…but then, what was clean clothes when you were putting all your energy into trying to stay alive?


Beside him Leigh too had fallen quiet, almost curled up on the seat into a ball in her effort to keep her head below the level of the window, where no one would see her. She has turned her back to him so she is facing the passenger door, and Jared hears her sniff occasionally, suspects she is still crying or trying not to. If Jared had the energy or wasn’t currently concentrated on the more important matter of trying to make sure they stayed alive, he would have tried again to comfort her, and Angelina too, for that matter, but he is having trouble thinking clearly himself without having to go to the effort of thinking what to say to his sisters too.


His jaw clinches unconsciously again as his thoughts shift to the boy behind him, the boy who has wisely kept his mouth shut since Jared picked him up. He is not thinking about this Max guy and whatever connection he has to Leigh now. He’s not thinking about it, because crashing into a stop sign or running them off the road in a state of anger isn’t going to help them survive, that’s for sure. And that’s another thing…what is going to happen to them if they total the car, or if it gets stolen or vandalized to the point Jared can’t drive it? Is there anywhere safe to park? He has a parking pass on his rearview mirror, the kind you have to buy to be able to park at schools. They would know he’s a student.


Jared rips it off immediately as this comes to mind, throwing it to the floorboard, but already more thoughts are coming. What if he runs out of gas? It’s adults that run gas stations, how could he get more gas without getting killed first? What about food? Adults own stores that sell food. Clothes, everything…


Adults had all the power. Adults owned all. How long could they really hide…how long could they really survive, with four people, one of them who at six years old would be absolutely no help to them at all?


No. No, he wasn’t thinking about this, not now. Anyway, this might be temporary. This didn’t have to be permanent, god he hoped it wasn’t permanent. Mass hysteria, temporary insanity, temporary brain damage, a strange virus, mass suggestion that would wear off, that was possible, wasn’t it? Wasn’t it? Couldn’t it be that in a day or two, maybe even in an hour or two, all of this would go away?


When Max answers Jared’s question about where they could take the kids, Jared is so disgusted by his almost-suggestion of an adult store, his knuckles whitening around the steering wheel as he glances down at Leigh again, that he almost misses the boy’s next suggestion. A school…taking the kids to a school?


The more he thought about it, the better it sounded. With all the children dead or fleeing for their lives, and Jared could reasonably assume by this point that this was the case, then surely that meant that none of them would be going to school. And if none of the children were in school, then surely none of the adults would show up for work there, right? Why would they show up, what would they be doing, socializing? No…no, they would stay home, they would go out, consider it their own self-imposed holiday. Right?


Jared definitely hoped he was right. Because if no adults were there, and no one thought children should be there, then it sounded like the safest place they could possibly be. Plus there would be bathrooms, multiple classrooms and places to hide, water, showers in the gym, couches and other areas where people could sleep in teacher’s lounge or other classrooms…food in the cafeteria, maybe even clothes in the lost and found. Books and sports equipment if they were bored, art supplies for Angie to play with, if they ever got to the point where they WERE bored and actually needed to invent ways to occupy themselves… yes, a school, for now, was the ideal place.


Maybe this Max kid wasn’t stupid, but that didn’t mean Jared liked him. And definitely he didn’t trust him, especially around his sister. He made up his mind then to force Leigh to stay in his sight, as much for her safety from Max as for her safety from adults.


“School…yeah, that sounds like a good idea. We’ll go to the high school,” Jared said shortly, and he began to make the turns needed to head in that direction, choosing to take the longest and most winding, out of public view path he could think of. “Angie, you okay back there? We’ll be there soon, hang on.”


He was glancing in the rearview mirror to catch his sister’s tiny nod when he saw the person on the side of the road, stumbling along with dazed, unfocused expression. Jared prepared to pass the person by, but the shock on…his? Her? At this distance, Jared was unsure- face and the clear youth of his? Her? Body was enough for him to realize that this person was not an adult…this person was another kid. Another victim.


Jared pulled the car to a stop beside…the person….rolling his window down just a crack, just enough for the person to hear him call out to them.


“Hey, get in, hurry up!” he called, motioning with his hand before calling back to Max and Angie. “Move over, let…let them in.”


Obviously this was one person, not plural, but even up close Jared was not sure what gender this person was. The clothing looked feminine, but…he could swear that the person’s face was more masculine, that the jawline was that of a male. And that had to be an Adam’s apple….wasn’t it?


Rather than move over, Angie just slid to the floorboard and curled up, slipping her thumb into her mouth. Leigh dared to lift her head and look up to see who Jared had stopped for, then turned slightly towards her brother as she asked, “Can this girl sit up here with you and I get in the backseat?”


Jared knew exactly why she would make such a request, and there was no way he was going to say yes to that, no way, nuh-uh.


“Um…she?” he started, almost questioning, before continuing more firmly, “She’s already headed to the back, we don’t need to be playing musical chairs, we need to get out of here and towards the-“


But Leigh was ignoring him entirely, already diving out of the front seat and into the back, almost stepping on Angie as she maneuvered herself into the backseat with her and Max. Jared thought about protesting this, about insisting she come back up front and let this…girl?- into the seat with Max and Angelina, but they really did need to get moving, and as much as he resented this, there were more important things than where Leigh sat at the moment.


“Front seat,” he said to the…girl?...gesturing, his tone holding an obvious edge. “Hurry.”

 

[Legendless]

Jillian was surprised by the approaching car, holding his gun tight in his hands. He was tempted to raise it, but if it was a parent or an adult, he had a feeling they would be driving too fast to run him over to let him think of shooting the car.


When the door opened, Jillian was glad he had not try to shoot up the van. Inside was other kids. Teens. Non-adults. And they seemed to want to help him. For a moment Jillian hesitated. Get in the car with strangers who he had no idea what their motive could be or be on his own still on the streets.


He had been hoping for company and now he had a car full of it. He nodded and got in, slamming the door shut then putting on a seatbet. Safety was still important, especially now. He turned to get a closer look at his saviors. They all seem to be of various ages, a few boys and girls. He turned back to the driver.


"Thank you. I am Jillian by the way."

 

[Faith Eliza Cord]

"Jared," Jared nods before taking off in the car again, barely glancing at the...girl?...beside him as he began again to manuever through the roads. Every so often he could see a dead child in the road or on the sidewalks, and he tried to keep his eyes trained straight ahead, blocking out everything but where he was going.


Leigh has positioned herself beside Max in the backseat, suspiciously close, and for the moment Jared tries to ignore this too. It's not an easy task. She peers over the seat to Jillian, not seeming to notice the odd features that Jared had.


"I'm Leigh...this is Max, and the little girl is Angelina," she said, as if her brother had not referred to her herself as a little girl mere minutes ago. Turning back to Jared, she asks with anxiety to her tone, "Jared, why are we going to school? There will be teachers there...what if they're like the cops, and the neighbors, and-"


"They won't be there," Jared cut her off, not wanting to hear his mother's name on her lips, or for Angelina to either. "The kids won't be there, and so the teachers won't be either. It's the best place, Leigh. Look, you guys stay down, okay?"


The words are barely out of his mouth before he hears the sound of an engine gunning, and realizes with a quick glance in his rearview that a man on a motorcycle is coming up behind him, revving the engine, speeding towards the back of their car fast. He clearly intends to crash into them...though it would probably damage him more than them, it would stop their car, making it that much easier for him to catch and harm one of them if he himself wasn't too badly injured to do so.


Jared didn't want to think about all the possible scenarios. Instead he slammed his foot on the gas pedal, causing the car to lurch forward. He took little regard for sides of the road nor the occasional dead body in his path as he drove as fast as he possibly could while still maintaining control, the car's needle climbing up to nearly 90.


Leigh was screaming, clutching Max beside her, and Angelina, still on the floorboard, was silent, but she held onto her sister's ankles so tightly her nails cut her skin. Jared's teeth gritted, every muscle taut as he prayed without words or coherent thought.


It took perhaps five minutes to lose the motorcycle, and then the car that joined in on the chase and eventually ended up losing control, flipping and crashing onto its back off the side of the road. Jared did not look back to see if the car exploded, or whether anyone was hurt. He did edge off the speed though.


By the time they had pulled into the high school parking lot, Leigh was sobbing, Jared himself was finding it difficult to breathe, and he could not pry his hands from the steering wheel immediately. Angelina had not yet said a word, and as he looked back at the others, breathlessly asking if they were okay, it occurred to him then that he did not even know if the school was unlocked...and where was he supposed to hide the car?


This could not get worse...could it?

 

[Nivrad00]

Anthony stared out the window. Will frowned.


Will had immediately been ready to hop out and make sure the girl was okay; she looked fine, and relieved to see them as well. He hesitated, though, and she stopped- seemed to reconsider- and moved forward at a slower pace.


"Trap?" said Anthony, quietly.


Will was a little astounded at his friend. It- well- it did make sense, but... It was awfully paranoid, considering they'd only been on the run for less than a day. No, not paranoid... Wary. If this had been a zombie simulator, the correct choice would have been to ignore the girl. In real life, though... What were you supposed to do?


"Do you..." Will tried to think of an excuse. "Do you think they're that coordinated?"


"The cars and the knife guys attacked together," Anthony responded.


Will bit his lip. "She looked pretty relieved when she saw us...."


"We can't take any chances." Anthony sounded determined.


He was willing to just leave her there, Will realized. He was struck, once again, about how little he knew about the boy.... But hadn't he considered leaving as well?


"You went to save Reggie," whispered Will. He felt a pang as he realized that the girl was about the same age as the dead body in the house.


Reggie had been the youngest one in the band....


"Well see how well that went!" Anthony suddenly exclaimed, throwing up his arms. "Both of us nearly died! It was stupid!"


Will thought back to what he'd assumed about the other boy's nobility. Perhaps... He was wrong. With a breath, he said, "Well, then I suppose I'm pretty stupid," and then opened his door.


Gunshots didn't immediately ring out. That was good.


"Hey," he addressed the approaching female, uncertainly, turning in his seat to face her. "Uhh, you, uh..." What were you supposed to say in these circumstances? "Are you... Erm-"


The backseat door opened and Anthony stepped out. "We have food and supplies and we're heading towards Green Lake," he said, blandly. "You can come if you want." He slammed the door back shut and walked back around the car, heading to the passenger seat's door.


"Eeer, what he said," added Will, looking over his shoulder to where Anthony was pulling open the door. The dark-haired boy pulled the GPS and first-aid out of a bag of supplies, then threw the rest of he bag onto the backseat floor before sitting down in the vacated seat.


Will gave Anthony a nonplussed look before turning back to the girl.

 

[AlwaysChaos]

Anthros would at first notice the driver, who barely looked old enough to drive, and didn’t even notice there was another in the car until said driver would turn around to fight with the figure. Her heart was racing, unsure still, but if the one was young whilst it seemed that the young were targets, then both had to be safe, right? She would take a deep breath only for the driver to open his door.


When he addressed her, Anthros could tell that the guy was just as freaked out as she was, poor guy couldn’t even manage a complete sentence. She would turn to him, and have trouble finding words to say in response to such incoherent utterances.


She was saved, if you can call it that, by the seemingly more cold of the pair as he got out of the backseat and coldly offered her refuge and a destination. She watched him silently for a few moments, noticing his injury, wondering just how he might have gotten it, and as soon as the thoughts came out of her head she realized she truly didn’t want to know.


Anthros would nod, fearing if she tried to speak she would find herself unable with the burning in her throat, after having run herself raw. She would open the door to the newly vacant seat only to find some blood already inhabiting the backseat, well beggars and choosers, she climbed in and slammed the door shut, surprised that she had used such force unintentionally.


Reaching for the tossed bag Anthros would rummage and come out with a water bottle and take two big gulps to quench her thirst somewhat before starting to sip on it, water having never tasted so good. She would give one last swallow and turn to her supposed saviors. Twisting the cap back on the bottle she would offer a faint smile “Name’s Anthros” turns out, she didn’t know what exactly one should say in this situation either.

 

[Legendless]

Jillian nodded at the introduction. He was unusally quiet. If he had met them under any other circumstances, he was sure he would be talking more. They would also ask the Questions. It didn't matter how they were asked, nicely or rude, right away or after some time, jokingly or serious. Sooner of later those who had met when Jillian would ask him the Questions. Questions he sometimes had to ask his own self. Hw had a feeling they might come up at a later time, maybe once they reached the school, but he didn't think they would now. Maybe.


He wondered how they saw him. Was he a girl to them, in his feminine clothing and hair style? Or could they see the man underneath? His gestures and speech pattern were always more female than male, but it tended to mix. Jillian knew he could be very confusing to those who did not know him well. Hell, sometimes he was confusing to them and himself!


Jillian watched the room, easing his hand off the gun he held. But when Jared went temporarily crazy, he moved to shoot something, but did not. Being in the front seat, he was sure if he had to use the bathroom he would have pissed himself.


"Fu--"


Jillian was glad that he had buckled his seatbelt when he had gotten in the car after all.

 

[Kagura]

Jared dwelled over Max’s suggestion, which only made the boy more fidgety; everything that the older boy did made him fidgety in fact. Adjusting his hands in the steering, looking in the rear view mirror, even when he eventually agreed to Max’s plans, he reflexively stiffened. Maybe it was the fast that Leigh still had yet to speak a word since he yelled at her, instead facing her door and letting out occasional sniffs. Max ground his teeth, how he wished to simply just hold her and soothe the girl’s tears away; the car was slowly down already, had they really been driving for so long?


It wasn’t that they had made it, it was another kid that had found their way to their car, and Jared was rushing them to push over. Maxwell undid his seat belt, managing a quick glance out the window to catch what was in the person’s hand. A gun. He stopped moving, the process halted by the weapon that made it all seem too real. How would a gun-shot compare to that of a pan cracking against the skull of his elder brother. But wasn’t that just a movie now? It wasn’t happening Nick was with his dad, currently fixing everything the younger boy had hit on the way out.


Leigh crashing into his side was what snapped him out of his reverie, immediately his arm had wrapped around her core. His fingers curled slightly into her side, but released upon remembering that this was his Leigh that was beside him. Relaxing slightly, he took hold of his senses; there were more important things for him to be paying attention to than the ramblings inside his head. Nickolas was fine.


Jillan was the new addition in the car, and while it took most of the others, excluding poor Angie on the floor of the vehicle, Maxwell identified him. It didn’t take just a glance, but a long look at the kid and he knew it was an effeminate boy not a thinned girl with a protruding adam’s apple. As he was introduced by the driver, he slightly nodded, and once again tried to duck out of the view of the mirror. He stuck close to Leigh, his only buoy on the drive and right now his only lifeline to what was the real world.


There was an engine gunned from behind them though, and Max poked his curious eyes over the seat to look. It was a motorcycle and it looked as if the car he was currently in seemed to be its target, before he could even say anything, Jared floored the gas. Leigh started screaming, clutching onto him, and he slightly tightened his grip around her as his lips pulled straight. While Leigh was his main concern, her sister was still there on the floor boards, even as Jared slightly eased off the gas.


There was sobbing by the time they pulled into school, and he soothingly rubbed his girlfriend’s back, looking worriedly at the clenched figure on the ground. After planting a kiss on the crown of Leigh’s head, she would be alright soon enough, his voice croaked out. “A-Angelina?” he questioned, but he dare not move closer to the youngest girl of the family, he was probably already on radar enough. There was a question as to whether he even got the girl’s name right; they had been calling her only Angie after all. Then, it was probably the question of what he exactly wanted her…


Things like, ‘Are you okay?’ and ‘You’re going to be fine’ didn’t exactly apply right now, and Max couldn’t really think of much else. So he stuck to comforting Leigh, as he ran his hand down her head and through her hair. “I’m right here Leigh” was all he said to her.

 

[Faith Eliza Cord]

His heart still pounding, Jared took in several deep breaths as he circled the high school parking lot, trying to work out where would be best to park- really, hide- his car. Although he was fairly sure there wasn’t anything about the car in and of itself, now that he had removed the student parking pass, that would scream out it belonged to a person under 21, he did not want anyone to realize that he was parked there at all. Finding a single car in the parking lot would indicate someone being there, and that was not at all what they needed.


He ignored his sisters and the other two for the moment, unable to worry about them and also fixate on the problem of how to make them as safe as possible at the same time. Finally he decides that the best place to attempt to hide the car is to simply park it around the back of the building, by the dumpsters. It is hardly invisible, but if no one walks or drives around the side of the building- and what reason would they have to do so- then they might possibly be okay.


As Jared pulls the car up alongside the dumpsters and pulls it into park, he realizes that his hands are clinched so tightly around the steering wheel they actually ache, and his back is so tensed up pain is beginning to spike through his neck and spine. He makes an effort to release the steering wheel, to slowly straighten, bracing himself before he can turn back to his companions in the car and assess that they’re okay.


He can hear Leigh crying, Angelina not at all, and it is his youngest sister’s reaction that is more worrying to him as he starts to turn back to them, opening his mouth to address them. But then the motionless…Jillian…beside him catches his notice out the corner of his eye. Well, not Jillian, so much as the gun in her hand.


A short gasp escapes Jared’s mouth; this is the first time he has really looked at Jillian, between his not wanting to seem like he’s staring at her, and the small matter of escaping for their lives. Between the two he had managed to totally miss the gun in her hand.


Now as his head whips over to her, staring first at the gun before looking up to meet Jillian’s eyes directly, for the first time since she got in the car. Looking more closely at Jillian now, not even trying not to stare, it is now obvious to Jared that “she” is not a she at all. Normally this would make him deeply uncomfortable, but right now, Jillian’s gender- or real name- is the least of his concerns as she gestures to the gun.


“Okay, that is a gun,” he said somewhat awkwardly, and Leigh, who had apparently not noticed this either, bolted upright beside Max in the backseat, her sobs cutting off with a stunned choking noise as she tried to look around the front seats to see. Ignoring her for the moment, Jared continues to stare from Jillian to the gun in his hand, careful to keep his voice quiet. Last thing he needs is to make the guy- and yes, Jared is positive he is a guy- get nervous and do something stupid with the thing.


“We do kind of need something like that…everyone saw what’s out there. But…Jillian? Do you know how to shoot the thing? And please…PLEASE tell me you have the damn thing on safety right now.”


Slowly he turns his head back towards the three in the backseat, deciding to let the matter of the gun go right now by acting like it doesn’t exist at all as he begins to address them. He can see Angelina still lying on the floorboard, awkwardly half covering Leigh’s feet, her head down, thumb in her mouth, only part of her profile visible. She had not answered when Max spoke to her earlier, and Jared is more worried about her than any of the others in the car. Well, maybe not as much as the guy with the gun, but it’s a close race.


“Angelina…Angie?” he says softly, and strains back with one hand to touch the top of her head, patting it at an awkward, strained angle. “We’re here now, you can get up…Leigh, help her.”


But Leigh isn’t moving to do so, and in fact, Jared realizes as he shifts his gaze to the older of the two, she is burrowed into Max’s side, one hand clinched around his shirt collar, the other around his waist. And, Jared sees, Max is returning the gesture, his arm around Leigh’s torso, his hand on her head.


Jared clinches his jaw, looking not at Leigh, but at Max, with a narrow-eyed stare as he speaks to the car at large, his voice gruffer than it had been before. Just who the hell was this guy anyway?


Maybe now wasn’t the time to be getting all over either of them about…whatever the hell was up with them…but the second he thought they were all in reasonably okay condition, and as safe as they could get for the moment, he was definitely talking, all right. Or maybe just skipping the talk and moving on to kicking the guy’s ass, or maybe some other part of his anatomy.


But for now, hanging outside in the car any longer was a bad idea. If the school was locked, they had to figure out a way to break in, and if it wasn’t, they needed to find a way to search to make sure it was empty, then secure it from outsiders as fast as possible.


“We need to get inside,” was all he said to the others. Turning back to Jillian, he said again, with emphasis, “Put the safety on that thing if you haven’t already, and you keep that right by you at all times. Don’t let my sisters touch it…Leigh, you hear that? Don’t you dare touch that gun.”


He didn’t bother saying as much to Angelina; he knew by now she wouldn’t be listening. As he stepped out of the car, motioning for the others to do the same, Leigh was reluctant to disengage from Max as she too exited the car. She was no longer crying in the loud, near hysterical manner she had been earlier, but she was sniffling, reaching for Max as soon as he was out of the car too, and all Jared could focus on with her was not her obvious misery, but rather the fact that she was still reaching for the older guy.


Dammit, why couldn’t Lydia be here? Why couldn’t…


With a sharp stabbing pain in his chest at the thought, Jared abruptly shoved it to the back of his mind, brushing past Leigh and Max to get to his sister in the back of the car. Angelina was still hunched onto the floorboard, unmoving, and Jared bit the inside of his cheek briefly as he leaned over her, stroking back her hair from her face. The child’s eyes shifted up to meet his, but she did not speak, nor remove her thumb from her mouth as she looked up at him. It was the blankness in her eyes that alarmed him…for the youngest of the Sherwoods to look at him almost as if she didn’t recognize him, Angie, the baby, Angie, who had always been the one to fling herself around the house with My Little Ponies in hand, jabbering on about nothing…


“Come on, Angie,” he said softly, “let’s go now.”


He reached out and pulled her out as carefully as he could, then hoisted her onto his hip, carrying her. He took it as a somewhat good sign that Angelina put her arms around his neck and pressed herself in close against him, though she still didn’t speak. She was at least reacting to his presence.


Holding Angelina, he shut the door behind him, then locked the doors before turning back to the others, again taking note that Leigh was seeking refuge under the circle of Max’s arm.


“Try the gym exit to the side,” was all he said as he started walking. “If everything’s locked up, we’ll have to break a window.”

 

[Legendless]

Jillian did not notice at first all the stares at him. Or more specifically at the weapon he was still holding. But it became quite clear that his gun was finally noticed by the others occupying the van when Jared asked him about it.


Jillian looked down at it as if he just noticed it, clutched in his hands. He licked his dry lips. Oh yes he did know how to use it. After all he had used it before. But just thinking about it made Jillian almost throw up. He couldn't tell the others of what he had done. Sure it was self-defense but he had killed people. He had no idea how the others managed to survive or make it to this point, but he had done what he thought was necessary to survive. But would they see it that way? There were some young ones in the van as well. He didn't want to scare them.


"I...I know how to shoot and the safety is one. No worries," Jillian said with a forced smile and nod. He still felt sick and he looked out the window for the rest of the way there, not able to look at the others. Why didn't he get rid of it before? Now that knew he had a weapon and he could only imagine what they thought.


Once they stopped Jillian nodded once again at Jared, fine with taking orders from him. He was certain not to let it out of his sight, not sure how many bullets remained. He wasn't going to let anyone take it from him either unless it was Jared or one of the older ones. He certainly didn't want to have to shoot anyone again and was more than happy to pass on that responsibility to anyone else here.


He slid out of the car, feeling a bit better. At least no one had called him anything like murderer or said anything really about the gun or what he had used it for, if he did. He walked over to the door, wondering now what life was going to be like. His life had been not easy before with all the gender confusion and him being gay, but now, now that made it all seem like a cakewalk.


"Hopefully we don't have to break a window."


----


Summers didn't want to stop. Stopping would mean giving the adults a chance to find them. But Mels was breathing hard and she didn't want her cousin to pass out. That would be worse.


"Summer, can we please stop," she asked, her voice whiny. Summer would have scowled or made a comment not to be so whiny before, but she was tired too. She nodded, looking for a place for them to rest at. She saw a convience store, a few windows broken and a car slammed up against it and thought maybe it would be safe. Safer than out on the streets at least.


"Come on Mels. Just a little more," she said, taking her cousin's hand. Mels nodded wearily. The two of them made their way across the street, Summer looking all around for a sign of them being attacked, but as luck would have it, they made it safely there.


Lookng inside the place, Summer could see it had been raided already, but no one seemed to be inside and there were still things left over. Carefully, she and Mels made it inside and Mels slumped against the counter, her eyes fluttering shut. Summer was going to say something, that resting now was not a good idea, but she decided against it. Let the poor girl rest a bit.


Summer herself, looking around, grabbing a few things to eat and drink. She wished she had something to carry it all in for when they left to go....somwhere. But for now, they could stay her. For a day.