Death's Little Angels (19 page)

**********

“
How do I tell my mom that
her favorite daughter is dead? All laid out in a pool of blood in
her classroom. Killed by….” Mater stopped walking. Sue Ellen ceased
as well. Drew walked to Mater and grasped her hand.

“
That wasn’t Marley,
Mater. Marley died when she turned into one of those things.
Those
Eaters.
That wasn’t her. None of these kids coming back to life are
their old selves. The thing that lives in their bodies aren’t….
human,” Drew slowly said. “Right now we have to stay strong and
keep from getting bit by those
Eaters
until our parents come for
us. Can you stay strong?”

Mater shook her head. “Yea, Drew. For you, I
can stay strong long enough to keep from breaking down. I just wish
you could give me one chance,”

“
What did you say?” Drew
asked like he did not hear what Mater had just said.

Mater began to walk which prompted everyone
else to walk. “I am starving.”

“
Yea, I haven’t eaten
since I left home this morning, “ Sue Ellen hoarsely replied. “Does
anybody have any money?”

“
Nah, I left everything,
except my knife, in the classroom,” Drew said as he neared the gas
pumps. A blue Toyota was at the pump with the gas hose still in the
tank. An old man was sitting on the bench outside the store
drinking coffee.

“
Me too. No money,” Mater
quietly said as they all continued to walk together.

“
Maybe the guy will have
pity on us and let us take something for a store credit,” Sue Ellen
beamed.

“
Yea right. Nothing is for
free,” Drew smirked trying to joke with Sue Ellen.

“
What you yunguns doin
outta school?” The old man asked in a deep southern drawl. He had
on a huge brown trench coat, which was unusual during the month of
September.

“
You haven’t heard what’s
been going on in town?” Drew asked as he stopped to look at the old
man. A bit of coffee had spilled into the old man’s
beard.

“
What? Robbery? Some jerk
beating on his ole lady?” The old man giggled. “I know what y’all
are doing. You yunguns are playing hooky!” He accused.

“
Sir, don’t you see the
bus back there? We just left Stoney Central Middle School where our
own classmates are killing each other!” Sue Ellen shrieked. The old
man seemed oblivious to the blood stained clothes and disheveled
appearance of the three kids.

“
Let it go. He doesn’t
believe us,” Drew said as he walked into the store.

“
When are you yunguns
going to learn that drugs kill? And fry your brain?” The old man
shouted back.

As they went into the store everything
seemed normal. The clerk, a middle aged man, was behind the desk
tidying up. An older teenaged boy who looked to be no more than
eighteen was going back and forth as to whether or not he wanted a
soda or bottled water. Drew and the girls walked up to the desk. He
forced the thick saliva down his already dry throat. The food in
the store had already become tempting.

“
Excuse me sir,” Drew
said.

The guy turned around and squinted his eyes.
“Why aren’t you kids in school?”

“
We have an emergency on
our bus over there,” Drew pointed, “our teacher is on the bus and
we need juice for a student.”

“
Okay, the juice is in the
second cooler to your right,” the clerk went back to cleaning up
the floor.

Sue Ellen smacked her lips
and went to the cooler to retrieve the juice as Drew and Mater
stood there dumbfounded.
Does this man
watch the television? Or have a phone with the Internet?
Drew wondered. He surveyed the store and noticed
there was no television or cell phone in sight. Sue Ellen came back
with grape juice and slammed it down on the counter. The guy
jumped, startled by the noise and frowned at the trio. He slowly
grabbed the juice eyeing the three and proceeded to ring it
up.

“
We don’t have any money,”
Drew quickly said.

“
I am sorry but this store
doesn’t give away food,” the clerk arrogantly said.

“
It’s an emergency! One of
the students on the bus will die if we don’t give him something for
his low blood sugar!” Drew yelled.

“
Look, this isn’t the
first time one of you little rug rats came in here trying to steal
out of my store. If you don’t get out of here right now, I will
call the police!”

“
Go ahead! We have tried
already!” Drew yelled back.

The clerk picked up the cordless phone and
dialed 911. Two veins bulged on the clerk’s right temple. The look
on the clerk’s face grew to that of bewilderment. He pressed the
dial tone button and tried 911 again. Busy. He slowly placed the
phone on the counter and calmly licked his lips.

“
Sir, we just escaped our
school where there are kids who have some crazy disease causing
them to kill each other,” Drew said in one breath.

“
Eat
, each other…” Sue Ellen corrected.

“
Yea, eat each other. I
know we might sound crazy but we are the last bus to leave the
school and we are headed to the Fairgrounds Center now,” Drew
pleaded.

The older teenage boy
walked up to the front counter and interrupted with a sarcastic
laugh. “Zombies? Somebody must have gone to sleep late last night
and left
The Dead Walks
on.” He placed two dollars on the counter top and
slid it up by the grape juice. “That should cover the juice for
these brats, Jerry. Kids these days will tell any story to get
something for free.”

The clerk took the money and pointed towards
the door. An out of control car pulled up quickly underneath the
pavilion and rammed into the back of the Toyota caving the bumper
in. The Toyota pressed forward yanking the gas hose out of the
tank. A woman, in her mid twenties, stumbled out of the car.

“
Did! She! Just! Hit! My!
TRUCK?” The teenaged boy shrieked. He brought his hands to his face
and rapidly rubbed his eyes to see if he was dreaming.

“
Nothing that insurance
won’t take care of,” the clerk nonchalantly replied.

“
I cancelled my insurance
last week!” The boy yelled.

The boy started on his way outside to review
the damage to his truck but the woman greeted him at the door
displaying a miniature bite on her hand. It looked like a snakebite
with two tiny puncture wounds.

“
My baby! Someone please
help my
baby!”
The woman yelled. Her eyes were crazed and wild. Her blond
hair was slick with blood.

“
Goodness gracious a
mercy! What on
earth
happened to you?” The clerk howled as he stepped from behind
the counter to study the woman.

The frightened woman held her wounded hand
close to her chest. The area of the skin where the puncture marks
were inflicted had already turned a ghastly gray.

“
Please…” The woman bit
her lip and slowly pointed towards the back passenger seat. She
whispered and enunciated her words so quietly that Drew could
barely hear her. “There. Is. Something. Wrong. With. My.
Baby.”

The clerk walked past the teenaged boy who
had already followed the woman outside to the car. Drew, Sue Ellen,
and Mater stayed back in the store. They intently watched, from
inside the store, as the clerk peered into the car. The clerk
placed his hand on the door handle but stopped when he noticed the
teenaged boy talking to the dazed woman.

“
Er… we need to call the
police,” the boy directed towards his battered truck.

The woman blinked her eyes rapidly as she
mysteriously shivered. The lady trembled so bad that her teeth
clattered. Her face had darkened in color and had a waxy look
similar to what the middle school teachers looked like before they
died. Her breathing had picked up. She grasped her throat as if she
struggled for air. The hand that had puncture marks had turned
almost completely black and looked like a rotten twig compared to
the rest of her skin.

“
Ah. Ma’am… my dad is
going to
kill
me!”

The shaken woman ignored the boy’s pleas and
turned her attention towards the clerk. The teenager became
agitated and pulled out his cell phone.

“
Fine! I am calling the
police!”

Before the teenager had a chance to dial
911, a miniature body that looked like a raggedy baby doll and limp
blond hair, lurched out at the clerk who had had opened the door to
inspect the inside of the car. It happened so fast that the store
clerk fell back onto the pavement hitting his head. The toddler
appeared to be about one years of age. It had latched on to the
store clerk’s throat like a leech. The clerk’s body started
twitching as the blood erupted from his neck like an under pressure
fire hydrant. The toddler eased its mouth from the clerk’s throat
and disclosed unseeing eyes and a tiny bite mark on its cheek. The
child looked unreal as its gray, dull skin, and blue lips revealed
spider black veins.

Sue Ellen started screaming and took off
towards the back knocking over a display of cookies and chips. A
big brown trench coat flapping in the wind was the only thing seen
of the old man as he hastily ran towards the Fairgrounds Center.
The clerk tried to scream out but could not and attempted to remove
the undead toddler from his throat. The teenager, in shock, dropped
his cell phone and started to run but ran into a post and knocked
himself out. The woman fell down onto the pavement against her car
and started having seizures.

“
We gotta help
him!”

Drew ran to a nearby aisle
and picked up a couple of canned sausages. The clerk had stopped
fighting the undead toddler and finally ceased movement. Drew was
horrified as he watched the tiny
Eater
feast on the clerk’s neck. The
woman sat up against her car frozen in time. Her body was petrified
with her hand stiff against her chest. She was far gone from the
world and unaware of what her toddler had truly become.

Mater slowly opened the
door to the gas station as Drew eased through and hurled one of the
cans at the toddler. The can missed the
Eater
and smashed into the car
window. Mater looked at Drew curiously.

“
I thought you played
baseball?” Mater asked wide-eyed.

“
Yea, I do. Not pitcher
only first base.” Drew reached back his arm, ready to throw again,
“Well, I
used
to
play baseball before I got suspended.”

Drew tried again and the
can met its intended target knocking the little
Eater
in the center of the head. The
can landed with a loud thud. The
Eater
tumbled over slightly but was
not injured by the blow.

“
I didn’t make the team
because of my pitching skills,” Drew added, “It was because of my
slugger home run hits.”

Drew had a grim feeling
that he or anyone else may never have the chance to play baseball
ever again. Before they knew it the small
Eater
ran towards them as fast as a
bolt of lightning. It charged the door like a bull causing a big
crack to run from the bottom of the door up to the top. The
Eater’s
skull split open
in the center exposing dull, grayish matter.

Any human that would have
taken a blow like that to the head would be dead by now,
Drew thought.

The
Eater
charged again hitting the
glass door and this time more cracks occurred. It opened its mouth
gnashing its teeny gums, which was accompanied by its two top
teeth. Drew rapidly reached for Mater. Mater thought this was the
moment she had been waiting for… a confession of true puppy love.
The
Eater
came at
the glass door again full speed.

Fight or Flight. Fight or
Flight,
Drew quickly rationalized as he
reached for his knife.

Flight!

“
Um. I think we need… to
RUN!” Drew yelled.

The next thing the duo
heard was a loud shattering crash as all the glass came flying
everywhere. The
Eater
crawled with amazing speed like a spider on turbo
charge.

“
Ouch!” Mater cried as
tiny pieces of glass entered her arm.

Drew took Mater by the
hand and dashed around the aisle that contained the candy bars and
cookies. They hid behind a display of power energy drinks. Drew
pulled a purple drink down from the display and grasped it firmly
in his hands. He brought his fingers to his pouty lips as they both
watch the
Eater’s
fast speed come to a halt. The
Eater
opened its mouth and let out a
half whine half moan. It quietly tried to sniff Drew and Mater
out.

“
If I die. I just want you
to know….” Mater stopped speaking when Drew looked at her. He knew
her feelings were strong for him but he considered her as friend
only. His heart was with someone else…. Sue Ellen.

“
Never mind,” Mater
whispered. She glanced down at the floor waiting for the pint
sized
Eater
to
rip them apart at any moment.