9. Chapter 9 #2
After pushing through the swinging door, she pauses on the other side, and I stop the momentum with my foot.
It’s dark back here and although I slap my hand against the wall closest to the door, I can't find a light switch. It’s too difficult to make out much but I do see someone’s phone with the flashlight app open on the floor and as Nora steps further into the light, it casts her shadow in macabre lines across the concrete.
Once again, I don’t have a fucking weapon but if I go back, I’m leaving Nora to her own devices.
After looking around, she swipes up the phone and hands it to me. By unspoken agreement, I shine it across the room, moving over shelves of cans, paper products and cases of beer before I stop on the desk and the specter staring back at me from the corner.
“Oh shit,” I mutter, seeing the preternatural hunger signaling one of them despite the tiny child’s lifeless eyes.
She cocks her head, baring tiny white teeth and I shudder. The low hiss coming from her lips creates all kinds of havoc in my chest and I slowly back up while Nora raises the knife, now trembling in her hand.
“This is so fucked up,” she whispers.
Eyeing her sideways, I open my mouth to say something when another figure appears beyond Nora’s head, but I have no time to shout a warning before the thing attacks.
Unfortunately, at the same time the little girl rushes towards me, her tiny claws grasping at my jeans and I’m forced to press my hand to her forehead.
For being so small, she’s surprisingly strong and I stare at her dark pigtails as she swings her chubby arms around, clawing for purchase. What the fuck do I do now?
“Shelby,” Nora grunts, pulling me from my horror. The girl’s hisses and growls punch at my chest as I push my little monster toward the desk, eyeing the wood surface for a possible weapon.
While Nora grapples with her own attacker, I grab the only thing within reach, a paperweight. My stomach sinks though when by the light of the phone, I find a picture within the orb of the very same girl, but that version reveals a missing tooth and adorable smile.
Shit.
I can’t do this, but I have to and my throat swells as I switch hands before pushing the girl back and slamming the paperweight against her forehead.
The dull thud echoes in my heart and thankfully she falls back but she doesn’t go down. Dammit.
The paperweight feels heavy in my hand, and I close my eyes against the image within as I slam it against her forehead again, bile swishing around in my stomach.
Only Nora’s hysterical cry forces me to face my nemesis and when I peek through my lids, I find the once vibrant girl with an amazing smile laying on the ground.
At the sight of the wound where black goo oozes around the edges, I groan but I can’t stop the acidic burn making its way up my esophagus. I manage to swallow that shit back though when Nora cries out again and a loud rumble cascades around the room.
Would the almighty be cruel enough to send an earthquake at a time like this? It turns out no, and I back up when the shelving against the wall tumbles forward.
The loud clang of metal hitting the concrete does not bode well for what awaits us outside but that’s the least of my worries as the man, or what used to be one, lands on top of my tiny fellow survivor and she groans.
Thankfully, he’s not coordinated enough to actually hurt her, which I suspect has to do with the side of his head now smashed into his brain. However, his teeth work just fine which is why she pushes her hand under his chin while blood-tinged saliva falls in strings from his mouth.
She may have adrenaline on her side, but this dude is fucking huge and as her arms shake, I dance around his head, trying to figure out what I can possibly do.
The paperweight is no match for his noggin considering the brain damage he must have already suffered but when Nora sobs, I slam the damn thing down on his head anyway.
Although it’s temporary based on the thing’s grunts and groans, he does collapse, unfortunately onto Nora who gasps out a breath while I wrench on his arm. He’s far bigger than me though and instead, I push my shoulder against his side, until my feet slide across the slick floor.
I don’t have enough traction. Dammit. Still, I manage to create a tiny space between his torso and her body, and she starts to scrabble back before I lose my footing, and he falls again.
Wincing, I whisper, “Sorry.”
“Hurry,” she groans, and I nod, even though she can’t see me before maneuvering between the undead asshole and one of the fallen shelves wedged between the door and the floor.
After moving to my ass, I press my feet to the beam on the shelf and push up and out, heaving for all I’m worth, which isn’t much. Thankfully, the flailing man moves but it’s not enough and with a cry, I close my eyes and exhale forcefully before pushing on the fucker again.
This time, he slides to the side and while I drop to the floor, Nora scrambles back before pulling her knees to her chest and extending her legs. This forces the man to move away with her feet against his chest and his hands claw at the floor but thank fuck, he finally topples.
Unfortunately, I torqued my ribs amidst the melee and black dots dance before my eyes while I clutch my torso and just try to breathe. In. Out. In . . .
Meanwhile, Nora crab walks backward and once she’s closer to the door, I turn to follow before pausing beside the knife she must have dropped during the tussle.
The man or whatever he is now continues to grunt as he scrambles across the floor and I know if I don’t do something, it's possible, we’re both going to die.
Today is not that day and after sucking in a breath, I pick the knife up before mounting the asshole’s back.
Strangely it reminds me of the times I used to give Ben a massage after a hard day at work and maybe that’s why tears fill my eyes as I search for the base of it’s skull with my fingers.
His skin is cool to the touch, and I shiver as I press my palm to the side of his face and slide the blade up and into his brain.
I think this is when I black out and I’m not sure how long I sit there, swaying on his back before I come back to the moment and melt to the floor, clutching my stomach.
I just killed a man or thing, and I know it’s hypocritical because Ben is already dead at my hands but fuck, this thing used to be a human being. Ben was a monster in his own right, and it didn't take whatever this is, the end of the world or some shit to make him lose his humanity.
“Thanks,” Nora wheezes and I shake my head.
Now what? We didn’t find the guys and we’re probably surrounded by those things. This is it. We’re fucking doomed.
“Let’s go,” she says.
“Where?” I mumble and she sighs.
“Who fucking knows. Wherever the road leads us.”