Glory (Book 2) Page 7

  Then all of that changed.

  The lights went out and Scooter couldn't see anything anymore.

  "Fuck," he said.

  "What happened? Where are the lights?"

  "Fuck, fuck!" he said again. It wasn't much of a reply. And it probably wasn't something that he should have said to a little girl. But the words came out of his mouth without much thought. "This isn't good."

  "It's not good? Why? What's wrong?"

  Scooter shook his head, feeling stupid for worrying the little girl. "No, no," he tried to reassure her. "It's okay. I was just surprised, that's all."

  Scooter hadn't noticed that the lights had been on to begin with. They were something that he took for granted. Now that they were off things seemed a lot more serious. He tried to keep the concern out of his voice.

  "Why'd they go out?" the little girl asked.

  "I don't know," he admitted. "But don't worry. We'll be okay."

  Scooter placed his hand against the wall and started to walk beside it. He continued in the same direction that he had been going. He knew that the hallway came to an end. He'd just have to choose a direction to follow once he got there.

  Of course, he could always go back the way that he had come. No, that idea didn't appeal to him at all. The creature could have come back.

  "It's just like in the elbator," the little girl said.

  "What?"

  "The elbator," she repeated. "Everything went out in the elbator."

  The elbator.

  "Yeah," Scooter said. "It's just like that." But that wasn't true. The elevator had gone out a long timebefore the lights had. He didn't know why. He assumed that they must have been on a different part of the grid, on a separate generator. In the end, he figured that it was one more thing that didn't matter.

  He kept walking until he got to the end of the hallway.

  "Which way?" he asked himself.

  "What?"

  "Which way should we go? Left or right?"

  "Rye," the little girl replied.

  It seemed a good a choice as any.

  Scooter kept his hand on the wall as he walked. He was worried about tripping on something…someone. He didn't want to fall with the girl in his arms. He couldn't risk hurting her. Or himself. He needed to move slowly. Carefully. Take his time.

  His foot hit something that didn't move. He knew that it was a body. That it was dead.

  He pushed down the feeling that it was going to reach up and grab him as he stepped over it. Even though he hadn't seen any of the dead bodies get up and attack anyone, he couldn't be positive that it wouldn't.It happened in the movies all the time.

  He kept walking, his hand on the wall. He felt it run through something warm and sticky. He knew that it was blood, but he kept his hand there just the same. For some reason, he was worried that if he took it off he'd never be able to find the wall again.

  That was ridiculous, he told himself. The wall wasn't going anywhere. But it was better to be safe than sorry.

  Scooter stopped and took a deep breath. He knew that he was letting things get to him. He was always a bit superstitious. Always afraid of horror movies; even if he always watched them.

  He knew that he needed toget a grip, as his buddy Jones used to say.

  Jones...he wondered what happened to him.Had he changed into one of them? Probably. Had he killed some people in his building, on his street...?

  Scooter tried not to think about it. He needed toget a grip.

  He patted the little girl's head again. She was still sobbing, her face buried back into into the crook of his neck.

  "Are you okay?" he asked.

  "I'm scared," she said, her voice still muffled against him.

  "Don't be scared. I'll take care of you."

  "Who are you?"

  The question was such a simple one, but it took him off guard. He had found this girl in an elevator, covered in blood, and had picked her up and run for their lives. No formalities. No pleasantries. Nothing. It never occurred to him that the little girl would be worried about that.

  "I'm Scooter," he said.

  "Scooter?"

  "Really, it's Scott," he explained. "But everyone calls me Scooter."

  "Oh," After a moment she added, "I'm Emily."

  Scooter patted the back of her head once more. "It's nice to meet you, Emily. Now let's try to get out of here."

  Emily rested her head back against Scooter's neck. This time she didn't cry.

  *

  Scooter saw a door a little further down the hallway. Everything was still dark, but he could see a light flashing through its window. It flickered every so often, passing by the opening.

  Scooter knew that it was a flashlight. And that meant that someone was in there. He didn't think that it was one of those creatures.There was no way that they knew how to use flashlights.

  He made his way to the door, keeping his hand against the wall. He walked slowly.

  When he got there, he looked in the window. He could see someone on the other side. He didn't know who it was.

  He thought of knocking. Or maybe just opening the door. But before he had a chance to do anything, the light stopped, pointing at his face. There was a scream from inside. It wasn't like the scream from a creature. It sounded more out of fear than anger. Whoever was inside had seen him.

  He tried to open the door. It was locked and he couldn't get it to budge.

  He knocked.

  "It's okay," he said a little bit louder than he felt comfortable with. He raised his hand and waved to the person inside. "Open up. We're notthem."

  The flashlight didn't leave his face. He had to blink a few times as it shone in his eyes.

  "Come on," he continued. "We're not going to hurt you."

  The flashlight stayed pointed at him, but there was no response.

  "Come on," he said again. "Hurry up!"

  Eventually, the flashlight moved. Scooter thought he saw someone moving toward the door, but he wasn't sure. Stars flashed behind his eyes and it was difficult for him to see much of anything. He blinked a few more times to get them to disappear.

  When he managed to get rid of most of them, he looked back into the window. Standing there was a woman. The flashlight was directly under her face. It shone shadows against it.

  Scooter jumped back, frightened. It looked like a monster of some sort staring back at him. But it only took him a moment to realize that it was all just a trick of the light. Something they used to do as children to scare one another. It wasn't a monster at all.

  He walked back to the window and stuck his face up against it to get a better look of who was inside.

  "Julie?" he asked. "Is that you?"

  Chapter 7

  Marianne continued to walk until she came upon a body. She had been somewhat in a daze since she had left her home. She still couldn't believe that her mother was dead. More than that, she couldn't believe all of the damage that she had seen outside. It was all weighing heavily on her. But this body was more than she could handle.

  "Darren," she whispered to the corpse.

  Darren worked at the pharmacy. She would go in there to get her mother's prescriptions every week. She didn't know much about him. Though, over the years, she had developed a bit of a crush on him. She would never have acted on it.Oh no, she wasn't ready for that. She wasn't brave enough. She liked to talking to him. And once or twice she even tried flirting with him. But she didn't know if he noticed.

  She stared down at his face. Most of it was still intact. It was his chest and arms that had been torn apart. His nice pharmacist's smock was covered in filth. There was a big hole in his chest. It looked to her as though someone had torn everything out of him. Which maybe they had. Regardless, it wasn't what she wanted to see. She wanted to see his face. She wanted to look athim.

  He was a good looking guy. Or had been. He had dark features. A strong build. Now he was dead.

  She bent down beside him to get a better look. Something abo
ut him seemed different than the other people she had come across. He looked…peaceful.

  "You didn't change, did you?" she said to the corpse. "You didn't become one of them." She knew that in her heart. His face didn't have the features of all of the other people she had seen. Nothing like her mother.Those angry black eyes.

  She reached out her hand and ran it down his cheek. It felt soft. She pressed her fingers into his skin.

  If only he had survived.

  She wished that her thoughts stopped at that first one, but they didn't. They started to spiral.

  They could have found each other.She could have told him how she felt. Maybe he would have felt the same way. It was possible. Not likely. But possible. He had laughed at her jokes. He had even said that she looked nice on occasion. It was definitely possible.

  She pulled her hand away. Her fingerprints were left on his face in his blood.

  "This isn't fair," she said.

  She stood up and looked down the street. There were more bodies. More destruction.

  She turned to look at the pharmacy. The door was open.

  Without any hesitation, she knew what she had to do.

  She'd go into the pharmacy and get a bunch of pills. She could die with the rest of them. An overdose. It was the only thing that made sense.

  She looked back down at Darren. He seemed to be smiling at her, telling her that it was okay. She knew that that wasn't the case. He wasn't thinking anything. But still, it was nice for her to think that she had his support.

  She stepped over the body and walked into the store.

  The store was quiet. And it was dark. The curtains had been drawn. They were usually open.Unless Darren had been trying to hide from what was going on outside.

  Then why would he have opened the door?she wondered.Why would he have gone out?

  She didn't know.

  She walked further into the store and glanced around. It wasn't messy. She didn't think that anyone else had been in here.

  So why would he have gone out?

  She shook her head. There was no point in thinking about that. She'd never know the answer.

  Marianne made her way toward the back to where the pills were.In the back, where it was dark. She walked down the aisle. Slowly.

  It wasn't because she was worried about being attacked. Death didn't bother her; especially since she was planning to do it to herself. If one of thosethings came along, it would only make it that much easier for her.

  She was walking slowly because this was how she always walked in this store. She never wanted Darren to know that she was heavy. Sure, he could see it on her. She wasn't the thinnest thing around. But she didn't want him tohear her coming. Like an elephant.

  It was silly, really. She knew that. She wouldn't have made much noise while she walked. At least not enough for Darren to notice. But she had worried about it, anyway. Now, when it didn't even matter, it still played on her mind.

  She came upon the medicines. There were pain medications, allergy medications, cold medications. Everything and anything. Yet what she really wanted were the things in the back. The pills behind the counter. The strong stuff.

  She made her way to the counter. There was a little step she needed to go up to get behind it. She searched for the pills.

  She came across several tiny drawers of them all lined up against the wall. She didn't know the names of the pills that she should take. She figured that it wouldn't matter. Too much of anything would do.

  She grabbed a few and threw them into a little bag. Then she took some more.

  She wasn't sure why she didn't swallow them right away. She supposed that she didn't want to die in the pharmacy. In the back. In the dark. She wanted to go outside, where there was light.

  Marianne took her bag of pills and walked out of the store. Her steps were just as quiet on the way out. This time she wasn't going to worry about it. If that was how she wanted to walk to her death, then that's how she was going to do it.

  She came upon the entrance and could see Darren again, lying out there. She approached him and looked down at his handsome face. She sat on the curb beside him.

  "I don't know if you're married," she said. "And I apologize if you are. But I'm going to do this right here, so we can be together."

  She reached out and grabbed his hand.

  What she felt wasn't love. It was comfort. She knew that it was strange. But everything now was strange. She was too far past that to care.

  With her other hand, she placed the bag of pills on the sidewalk and reached into her purse. She pulled out a bottle of water. She had gotten it from a store on her way here. She had to let go of Darren's hand to twist the cap it open.

  "Cheers," she said, lifting the bottle to the corpse. She took a quick sip, then placed the bottle onto the ground. "Okay. No point waiting."

  She grabbed the bag of pills and poured them into her palm. A few fell onto the sidewalk. It didn't matter. There were more than enough here to do what she wanted.

  She looked down at them. Little blue, pink, white, yellow pills. All different shapes and sizes.

  Just take 'em all at once, she thought.

  She raised her hand up to her mouth, telling herself that this would be for the best. It had to be. There was nothing else for her out here.Nothing.

  She pressed the pills against her lips. She stuck out her tongue. The tip of it licked the edges of a few of them.

  It'll be quick. It'll be for best.

  The pills tasted bitter, but that didn't stop her. She kept her tongue on them, like a kid licking ice cream.

  She looked back down at Darren. She looked down the street in the direction where her dead mother lay.

  It made sense. That was all there was to it.

  Yet she didn't swallow the pills. She couldn't. She didn't know why, but she wasn't ready. Not at the moment.

  She placed them back into the bag.

  "I'm sorry," she said to Darren. She knew that he didn't care what she did. If anything, she was apologizing to herself. But for almost taking them or not, she didn't know.

  Chapter 8

  As soon as Julie opened the door, Scooter rushed into the room. He didn't like being out in the hallway. Not where he couldn't see anything.

  Julie shut the door behind him and locked it.

  At least he knew they were safe for the time being.

  Scooter let out a deep breath, feeling better. He looked around the room.

  It wasn't easy to see much because Julie was the one with the flashlight and she wasn't shining it around. She still had it directed straight at him.

  "What are you doing here?" she asked.

  Scooter turned to face her, the light blinding him again.

  "Can you shoot that somewhere else?"

  Julie looked down. She hadn't noticed that she had been flashing it in his face. "I'm sorry." She lowered the flashlight. Its ray cast a small circle on the floor.

  "How about we sit down first?" Scooter said. He needed a rest.

  "Sure. Come over here. There's a few chairs." Julie pointed the flashlight toward the end of the room.

  "This is one of the staff lounges," he said, knowing immediately where they were. It was like a small cafeteria. One with vending machines. He had often eaten here.

  He walked over to a table and went to place Emily down. She wouldn't let go of her grip on him, so he decided not to bother. He sat onto a chair with the little girl on his lap.

  Julie came up and sat down in front of him. She placed the flashlight on the table and it started to roll around. It lit the room as it did. Scooter took a quick look. There weren't any dead bodies in here, as far as he could see. There wasn't even any blood. Which was strange seeing as how this was the staff lounge.

  Julie reached out and grabbed the flashlight to stop it from spinning. She placed it so that it was shinning in between her and Scooter. They could see each other clearly now.

  "What are you doing here?" she asked again.
<
br />   "We were trying to get out of here when the lights went out. I wasn't really sure where we were."

  "Who iswe?" Julie looked at the little girl.

  "This is Emily," Scooter said. "I found her in one of the elevators."

  "Was she alone?"

  Scooter shook his head rapidly. He didn't want to bring up the little girl's father. He couldn't handle the idea of it.

  Julie understood his meaning and nodded. She looked back at the little girl, compassion in her eyes. She reached out and touched the back of the girl's head. Emily didn't seem to notice anything that was going on around her.

  "Do you know what happened?" Julie asked next.

  "With what?" He thought that maybe Julie was asking again about the little girl's father...and after he had just told her he didn't want to talk about it!

  "Withwhat? With outside. Withthem. What's happening?"

  "Oh," he said. "I'm not sure. All I know is that people started attacking each other. They started kill..." His words trailed off.

  Again, Julie understood that he didn't want to talk about this in front of the little girl.

  "It's okay," she said. "We can talk about it later. Right now we should get...Emily, was it?...something to drink and eat. How about it, Emily? Would you like something?"

  The little girl didn't respond.

  Scooter didn't know much about shock, but he was sure that she must be experiencing it. Surely, she needed something to eat.

  "Let's get something," he whispered in her ear. "Okay?"

  The little girl moved her head a little. He could feel the wetness of her tears brush against his skin. She managed to say 'okay' before she pressed her face back into his neck.

  "What do you have to eat?" Scooter asked.

  Julie grabbed a bag of chips and a can of pop that had been left on the table.

  "Is this it?"

  She nodded her head.

  "That's not going to be enough."

  Julie lowered her eyes. "It was all I had money for."

  "I've got some money," Scooter said.