The Cure, page 6
“I heard some scraping noise coming from the room when I first woke up. I know they are still in there but I don’t know if they are any better.”
“We have to check on them,” Kimmy said.
“I know,” Bobby replied, “but I want to eat something first. I feel so damn weak I don’t think I could hold the door closed if they’re not better and they try to come out after us.”
“I’ll open the windows to get more light in here,” Kimmy said as she walked towards one of the small rectangular basement windows, “I know Mom kept her canning jars on a shelf down here.”
“I think we should keep the windows closed until we know what it is like outside,” Bobby said. “There should be a can of fuel for the lantern on the shelf behind the work bench. I think that’s where Dad kept it. I like the quiet and not getting bit and would like to keep it that way a bit longer.”
Kimmy turned and studied the items on the shelf.
“I see a can that says Coleman Fuel,” Kimmy said.
“That’s it,” Bobby said, “bring it over here and I’ll get the lantern.”
Bobby picked up the lantern and took the lid off the tank. He opened the can of fuel and poured in the fuel until it sounded like the tank was full.
“You have a match?” he asked.
“Up in my room,” Kimmy replied. “You mean you don’t have a match on you. You know like the ones you use to light your cigarette when you go out to sneak a smoke.”
“They are in my jeans,” Bobby said.
“Well take them out,” Kimmy smiled, “That’s right, I forgot you don’t like to wear pants.”
“I guess that answers whether or not you are yourself today,” Bobby smirked. “Go look on the work bench, Dad must have some matches over there that he used to light his soldering torch.”
Kimmy returned a few minutes later with the matches.
“Here,” she said holding out the box of matches. “Sorry I picked on you.”
“I’m sure you couldn’t help yourself,” Bobby grinned as he lit the lantern. “Sorry, I guess I couldn’t help it either.”
“It’s OK,” she grinned, “I guess it’s been a couple of days now since we’ve had a fight about anything.”
“It must be a new record,” Bobby said as he turned up the light, “but what do you say we call a truce and find something to eat.”
“After everything that’s happened, I can’t believe I’m picking on you about wearing pants,” Kimmy said quietly.
“It could be worse,” Bobby grinned, “you could be trying to gnaw on my leg or something.”
Kimmy lightly tapped his arm with the back of her hand.
“Shit that hurt,” Bobby said grabbing his arm.
Kimmy looked horrified, “I’m sorry.”
Bobby grinned as he stood and moved over to take a jar of canned beans off the shelf, “That’s OK. That was my good arm, probably the only spot on me that doesn’t hurt.”
He twisted at the lid of the jar until he was able to pry it open.
He stuck his fingers in the jar and pulled out a hand full of long green beans. Water dripped from his hand.
He slid the jar towards Kimmy as he started to eat the beans one at a time.
Kimmy watched him use his fingers.
She waited a few seconds and then stuck her hand in the jar and grabbed a handful of beans.
She practically stuffed the entire handful in her mouth at once.
“I’m glad we are both OK,” Bobby said as they finished the beans. “I honestly thought that we were going to become like Mom and Dad.”
“I thought so too,” Kimmy replied. “That’s why I hid behind the workbench. I thought for sure at least one of us would end up like that.”
Kimmy looked at Bobby, “Do you think that Mom and Dad will get better?”
“You guess is as good as mine,” Bobby replied, “But you saw what they looked like, I don’t see how anyone could recover from that.”
“Do you think we can look in on them and see how they are doing?” Kimmy looked at Bobby. “Maybe they’ve changed.”
Bobby stood and looked down at his sister.
“Let me try something first,” he said, “before we try to open the door.”
Kimmy watched him curiously as Bobby walked over to the store room door.
He stood in front of the door for a minute before raising his right hand, leaning in and placing his ear against the door and then he quietly knocked on the door.
The response was immediate as a chorus of groaning began behind the door.
Shuffling dragging sounds crept closer to the door and a banging noise echoed through the basement as their parents started to pound against the inside of the door.
Bobby shook his head and walked over and sat down next to Kimmy.
“When it gets quite again, we can try to go upstairs.
Maybe we can find someone to help us. Maybe we can get someone to contact an ambulance to take them to the hospital.
Kimmy nodded.
But they both knew the chances of their parents once again becoming their old selves was a very long shot.
With what had happened, what they had seen, they doubted that anything would ever be the same again.
Chapter 7
Bobby shook Kimmy’s shoulder gently.
Kimmy was sitting with her back against the work bench as she napped. She opened her eyes and looked up at him.
Bobby put his finger over his lips to signal her to stay quiet.
It had been at least an hour before their parents had calmed down and stopped groaning and pounding against the store room door.
Bobby and Kimmy could hear them shuffling around on the other side of the door.
They knew their parents were listening, smelling and waiting for any sign that there was someone on this side of the door.
They were too afraid to open the door, but Bobby and Kimmy could tell that there hadn’t been any improvement in their parent’s condition.
“Let’s see if we can get into the upstairs,” Bobby whispered.
Kimmy nodded and held out her arm.
Bobby grabbed her wrist and gently pulled her to her feet.
They both winced at the pain that ran through their bodies.
“You know I used to laugh when Mom told me not to go in the Johnson’s yard when I delivered newspapers because they had that big German Shepard and she was afraid it would bite me,” Bobby grinned, “I would always run through the yard just to tease that dog. I knew it wouldn’t leave the yard, they had the dog well trained. Remind me to apologize to that dog if we ever get out of here.”
Kimmy smiled, “You better hope the dog isn’t holding a grudge.”
“I hope not,” Bobby said, “His mouth and teeth are twice the size of the people that have been biting me lately.”
Bobby smiled, took Kimmy’s hand and led her towards the steps that would take them back upstairs.
“Just stay quiet and listen,” he said.
Bobby took the steps one at a time and listened carefully after each step.
Especially after the third step, the wooden step cracked and groaned as they both tramped on the third step.
They continued until they reached the basement door.
Bobby looked at his sister for a moment to be sure she was ready for him to open the door.
When he was ready, Bobby turned the handle and opened the door about an inch.
The smell hit them both at the same time.
The ordeal they had gone through in the living room rushed back into their minds.
The shadowy vision of staggering bodies in the living room, lit only by the light coming through the windows from the fire at the Johnson’s burning house danced in their minds.
Bobby froze and wasn’t sure if he really wanted to go back up there, but he finally regained his courage and pushed the door open a few more inches.
He slowly pushed his head around the corner of the door and first looked back towards his parent’s bedroom, then looked back towards the living room.
When Kimmy was sure that there was no one outside the door, she moved up next to Bobby and surveyed the hallway.
The first thing she noticed was the light blue carpet on the floor. The carpet was now a slimy looking reddish blue.
The white walls in the hallway were covered with black and dark red streak marks.
Kimmy looked across the hall. The door to Bobby’s room was open, but other than the reddish marks on the carpeting, his room didn’t look much different than it usually looked.
The bathroom was a mess, besides the black and red streaks on the door, shower and bathroom sink, bottles of shampoo, shower gel and perfume were scattered everywhere.
Kimmy looked down both directions in the hall.
“Stay here,” she said to Bobby and walked across the hall and closed the bathroom door.
Bobby just stared at the door and began to shake his head a moment later when he heard the toilet flush.
The bathroom door opened a few inches and Kimmy’s head popped out of the room. She checked the hallway before coming out.
Kimmy looked at the expression o Bobby’s face, “What? It’s been forever. I thought I was going to burst.”
Bobby smiled and started for the bathroom door, “I thought you were going to be in there all day.”
He went into the bathroom and as usual didn’t close the door.
Kimmy stared down the hallway and waited until he came out.
“You didn’t flush,” she said.
“I think we’ve made enough noise,” Bobby whispered back, “I’ll flush later.”
Bobby started down the hall towards the living room.
Kimmy walked closely behind him, nervously looking back over her shoulder as they moved.
They both stood and stared at the living room when they reached the end of the hall.
It was now daylight and they could clearly see the room and all that they couldn’t see the other night in the soft glow from the fire.
The door now lay in the middle of the floor. Both hinges were bent and twisted on the door. Wooden splinters lay on the floor and hung from the door frame where the hinges had been attached.
Every window in the living room had been smashed and only one of the windows still had curtains hanging over the window and they were blowing into the room from the breeze that was blowing into the house.
The couch had been pushed into the middle of the room from where it had originally been pushed up against the door as a barricade.
All the pictures that were hanging on the walls were now lying smashed on the floor.
The chairs and end tables were overturned.
The new thirty-two inch flat screen TV that the family had saved up for over a year to buy, now only two months old, was on the floor. A large splinter of window glass stuck out the middle of the screen right next to a large bloody footprint.
Blood was sprayed everywhere.
Kimmy and Bobby felt their arms and legs ache. They were sure some of the blood was theirs, but with as much blood that covered everything, they were sure their blood would be a very small part of the blood spread around the room.
“My God this place is a mess,” Kimmy said, “I don’t remember seeing all of this happening.”
“It was dark and things were happening so fast I don’t remember any of this,” Bobby added.
They walked carefully around the broken glass and pieces of furniture on the floor and moved over to look out the door.
The yard was also a sickening mess.
“It’s a wonder that any of those people or things have any blood left in them,” Bobby said as he looked across the yard.
They looked across the road. A few charred black planks that reached skyward were all that remained of the Johnson’s house.
The other houses that they could see without going out into the yard appeared to have suffered the same fate as their own.
“Let’s go outside,” Kimmy said.
Bobby nodded but didn’t go outside right away.
He stuck his head out the door and took a quick glance in both directions.
He looked back at Kimmy and nodded then they walked cautiously out onto the porch.
Kimmy looked down the road.
“Those deranged people were everywhere,” she sighed. “I don’t think they missed anyone’s house. I wonder if anyone else escaped?”
Bobby pointed at the body parts lying in a number of the yards, Kimmy just stared.
“Even if we can find anyone, I don’t know if they will want to help us get Mom and Dad to the hospital,” Kimmy said.
“If there is anyone left around here, I doubt they are in any shape to help us,” Bobby added.
“There has to be someone left,” Kimmy said, “Let’s go look in the houses and see if we can find anyone.”
“OK,” Bobby said nervously, “but we better be careful, I don’t want to run into any of those crazies again.”
They slowly walked down the porch steps and began to cross the yard.
“This looks a lot worse than I expected,” Kimmy said. “The people that did all of this had to be more than just sick.”
“Dad was giving some pretty gruesome descriptions the other night,” Bobby added. “But I just thought that he was imagining things or just thought he saw those things. It was dark and we could barely see those people.”
“I don’t understand why all this blood is everywhere,” Kimmy said, “How could they lose this much blood and still be alive.”
“I don’t know,” Bobby said. “I haven’t been able to make sense out of anything since it all started.”
Kimmy looked around, “Let’s go over and look in the Carlson’s house, it doesn’t look too bad.”
“That’s Jessica’s house,” Bobby replied.
“Don’t get excited creep,” Kimmy smiled, “I doubt we’ll find her streaking around in the house.”
“Maybe she was taking a shower when those people started to attack,” Bobby grinned, “Maybe she has been hiding in the shower ever since, afraid to come out.”
“Right,” Kimmy grinned, “dream on.”
They moved around the side of the house and hid behind the car. They studied the area before moving on.
The houses and yards looked like a scene out of a horror movie. The sight made their skin crawl.
They got low and moved across the Carlson’s yard and stood with their back against the side of the house and again studied the houses as they listened.
Bobby moved under a window and slowly stood to peek in through the corner of the window.
“This is Jessica’s room,” he whispered.
“I wonder how he knows that,” Kimmy’s thought then her eyes widened and it hit her that this was probably not the first time her brother stood in this same spot to look through this window.
“You pervert,” she whispered.
Bobby turned to look at her. He had a sheepish grin on his face.
“Well is she in there?” Kimmy asked.
“I didn’t see anyone,” Bobby replied. “The blinds were pulled down the whole way. She usually doesn’t pull her shades down this far.”
“What’s in the next window?” Kimmy asked sounding disgusted with her brother.
“That’s her parent’s room,” Bobby said as he moved along the wall to look in the next window.
He rose up again on his toes and looked inside.
“No one in here, let’s go around to the back,” Bobby said.
Kimmy followed Bobby around the side of the house. She watched him as he moved as if he knew exactly where he was going.
They moved around the back corner of the house and stopped to study the back yard and the house.
The back door was hanging open and most of the windows were broken.
Bobby led her to the back porch.
He signaled for her to stay quiet and they walked up the steps and leaned against the house to the right of the door.
Bobby looked at her for a second before leaning around the door frame to take a quick look inside the house.
Bobby quickly pulled his head back after a quick glance.
“It looks empty,” he said. “Let’s go inside and look around.”
Kimmy thought for a second. It felt weird to be thinking about going into some one’s house to snoop around. It didn’t seem right. It was almost as bad as peeking in someone’s window at night. Of course her brother didn’t have any problem doing that.
She looked around the neighborhood and thought, “There isn’t much of anything that feels right around here.”
She looked back at Bobby and nodded.
She grabbed Bobby’s arm but quickly slid her hand down to grab his hand, she remembered all the wounds on his arms and didn’t want to make him yelp at the pain.
They stepped inside the house and listened.
The Carlson’s house was laid out much the same as her own house. This wasn’t much of a surprise since all the houses looked so much alike from the outside.
What was surprising was the damage inside the house, it was very similar to the damage in their house.
She could imagine that mob breaking into the Carlson’s house like they did at her house.
“Were the Carlson’s awake and looking out their windows like her family or were they sleeping and completely unaware of what was happening?
They listened for a minute before going further into the house.
Just like their house, a hallway started through a doorway off the left side of the living room.
Kimmy began to get nervous as they started down the hallway. Visions of the attack on her home flooded before her eyes.
The first room they came to answered one of Kimmy’s questions.
It was a large bedroom with a big king sized bed. It was the master bedroom, Jessica’s parent’s room.
The bed was covered with dried blood.
