There was so much commotion that Barbara was confused. She tried to sort out what had just happened; turning it over and over in her mind, but it was all such a jumble that she couldn’t make either heads or tails of it. One minute they were doing routine testing on one of their experiments, the next Barbara was dodging security on the way out.
Roslun Global wanted her to stay at work and receive the medical attention they provided, but Barbara knew all too well what Roslun’s idea of medical attention was. She wanted none of it. She was scratched, and badly. There was only one cure for that in the company’s eye…Death followed by incineration.
I have a family to worry about. I can’t let them kill me.
This thought stayed with Barbara for the rest of her life.
The temperature was cool and a nice breeze was coming in off the Puget Sound as Barbara sped down the road. Even with the mild Seattle weather, she was sweating like a fat man in summertime. Barbara’s normally full and luscious red hair was being held to her face in tight clumps by the sweat pouring down her face.
Just stress. Too soon for symptoms. Not even an hour has passed yet.
Just a few minutes later, the red Camry came to a screeching halt in its driveway. As she got out of the car, Barbara noticed that almost every light in the house was on. This was not unusual for her family. She was always telling them she should have stock in the electric company with all the lights they leave on. A slight smile broke through Barbara’s face as memories of her children and husband flashed through her mind.
Quickly pushing these memories aside, Barbara rushed up the front walk towards the front door. As she burst through, Barbara screamed, “Josh! Alice! Where are you guys?!”
“Yeah?” Josh called from down the hall.
Barbara ran to her son’s room to find the eight-year-old playing his Nintendo Wii. “You need to get dressed. We have to go.” Barbara told the shaggy haired kid on the floor.
“Why? Where are we going?” There was the slightest hint of a whine in the Josh’s voice. He had finally defeated the second-to-last level boss in his game, but he hadn’t saved his progress yet.
“Just get ready. Where’s your sister?”
“I’m right here. What are we getting ready for?” A girl’s voice came from the doorway, startling Barbara.
As Alice walked into the room, her mother reeled on her. “Don’t ask questions. Pack lightly. Now.”
“What’s wrong with your leg?” Alice pointed at Barbara’s thigh, which was now pouring bright red down her leg. “Why’s it bleeding like that?”
Barbara looked down at her leg. She did the best she could when she was driving here, but the bandages aren’t holding very well at all. Even as she stares down at the blood escaping from her body, one thought echoes through Barbara’s mind. The blood is still flowing. That’s a good sign at least.
“An accident at work.” Barbara forced a thin smile, trying to set the kids at ease, even if just slightly.
“Is that why we’re running?”
Alice was only sixteen, but more alike her mother than even she realized; both in physical appearance and personality. Barbara was not a woman to take things at face value, a trait which was passed onto her daughter. When Barbara saw Alice with the same look Barbara herself got when she meant business, the time had come to level with her.
“Something went wrong at work.” Barbara started slowly, trying to remain as calm as she could. With wavering words, she continued, “Roslun deals with some very important, but also very dangerous, science.”
“I’ve seen the net, Mom. I know what people say they do in that office of yours.”
“I haven’t. What goes on at your work, Mommy?” asked an innocent voice from the floor.
Barbara and Alice had both forgotten about Josh, who was packing up the essentials for the impromptu trip: his Pikachu pillow pal, the autographed Griffey Jr. Mariners ball cap he got last summer with his dad, and the three packages of fruit snacks he had been squirreling in his room, in case he ever needed a midnight snack.
“Nothing, Josh. We just test things to make the world better.” Barbara peered into Josh’s Spider-man backpack. “Be sure to pack some t-shirts and underwear. Alice, let’s go to your room and get you ready.”
Barbara turned and had to steady herself on Josh’s dresser. She walked from the room, but began to stagger as she left the room. Barbara had the chills and aches all over, yet her clothes and skin were soaked. Holding onto the wall for support, she tried to make it to Alice’s room.
Alice couldn’t stand to see her mother in this much agony, so she slipped under Barbara’s arm and helped her into the bedroom. Once inside, Barbara collapsed onto the bed. Alice ran from the room and quickly returned carrying clean bandages and gauze.
Barbara was sprawled out on Alice’s bed with her red hair flowing around her. An aura of pink surrounded her entire body as her blood mixed with her sweat. Alice began to remove the old bandages when her arm was slapped away hard.
“Don’t!” Barbara screamed, but quickly subdued her voice and continued, “I’m not sure exactly how this spreads. Coming home was dumb enough, but I had to say good bye.”
“Good bye?!” The voice that Alice emitted was shocked, but somewhere inside her a voice had already told her that Barbara would not be making this trip.
“Yes.” Barbara’s voice was barely over a whisper. “I was scratched at work today.”
“Scratched? By what?”
“An experiment.” Barbara grimaced hard as pain ripped through her body. “I’m going to be dead soon. You have to lis-”
“Dead?!” Alice was in shock. This was her mother, the woman that had raised her since birth. Now she was telling her that she would soon be dead. “This makes no sense. What experiments were you working on?”
“I’m just an assistant, you know that.” Barbara tried to sit up, but sloshed back into her pink aura. “I don’t know exactly what was going on tonight, but the subject we were working with was no ordinary woman.”
“But why are you dying?!”
Barbara struggled with telling her sixteen-year-old daughter the truth. Alice should be going out with her friends, not having to watch her mother slowly die in front of her. The unfortunate truth was that there was not much time left before Roslun Global sent a cleanup crew to grab Barbara and contain any potential outbreak. She was dead either way, and she knew it.
“We have brought the dead back to life.” So blunt. Even as the words left Barbara’s mouth, they sounded outright absurd to her. If only there were time to ease Alice into this. “I know this is a lot to handle, but there is not much time.”
“Bullshit! You mean like zombies or somethin’?!” Alice could not believe what she was hearing. Zombies existed, but they didn’t exist in her life. They were only in news reports and online videos.
“That is exactly what I mean, Alice.” Barbara’s green eyes were more serious than Alice had ever seen them. This look scared Alice. This look scared her more than the sight of her mother dying. “One of them scratched me pretty bad. There is nothing that can be done to save me. You have got to listen to me now.”
Alice didn’t want to listen; she wanted to be held. She wanted her mother to just get up, wrap her leg, and hug her tightly. However, that was the wishful thinking of a scared little girl, something that could never come true anymore, and Alice realized that fact. “OK. I’m listening.”
“Good.” A smile stretched across Barbara’s face, but only for a moment. “You have to get Josh and get out of here.”
“Where do we go?”
“Doesn’t matter. Roslun Global will be looking for me.”
“Shouldn’t you let them help you?” There was a hint of hope in Alice’s question, but her mother quickly quelled that.
“They will not help us! You are to run far away from them, Alice! Do you hear me?! Don’t trust them!”
Her mother’s sudden outburst caused all of Alice’s pent up tension to burst and she started to cry. She couldn’t help it. It wasn’t even the screaming that bothered her most; that was just the final straw. It was the way her mother looked that bit away at her the hardest.
The pink aura that once was almost beautiful had become much redder now, in strong contrast to Barbara’s utterly pale complexion. Her flowing, red hair had become intertwined with itself, causing gnarls and tangles. The scratch her mother claimed to have gotten has almost stopped gushing blood and the surrounding skin had turned the blackness of death.
Even at sixteen, Alice was mature enough to understand what was happening. The world had become a different place, and everybody had to grow up a little faster. Those that didn’t ended up dead or on one of those news reports (or both). “Okay, Mom. I understand.”
“I love you, Alice.”
Alice embraced her mother as she whispered in her ear. “I love you, too, Mom.”
Barbara never got to hear her daughter tell her she loved her for the last time. Death had taken her, relaxing her pain and fever-twisted features into a more peaceful mask of stillness. Alice’s tears spilled even faster. She couldn’t stop crying, even when Josh walked into the room.
“Mom, I’m ready.” Josh saw his mother lying on the bed, her eyes open, so he hopped up on the bed with her. Alice couldn’t stop him before he landed on his mother’s body.
Barbara’s body just lay there, cooling rapidly. Even when Josh started shaking her to wake her up, his mother’s body remained motionless. Alice grabbed her brother and yanked him off the bed.
“What’s wrong with Mom?” Josh glanced back at Barbara’s corpse and Alice turned his face towards her own.
Looking straight into his innocent brown eyes, Alice simply said, “Josh, Mom is dead.” So blunt. She had wanted to ease him into the idea, but the sense of urgency hung heavy in the air. There was no time to waste. Her mom said to run, so they had to run.
After covering Barbara’s body up with a blanket, Alice tore through her room stuffing items into a backpack. Josh sat at the foot of the bed and cried for his mother. “I know you’re sad, Little Man, but you need to be brave. Mom told me you have to be strong and take care of me now, okay? Josh, look at me. We need to get going.”
Josh nodded his understanding through his tears. Alice knew he was in shock, but she also knew there was nothing she could do about it at this moment. She helped him up and they hurried into the kitchen. She searched every drawer and cupboard for a flashlight. Finally she found one in the cupboard above the fridge. Alice grabbed a chair and pulled it over to the fridge, making loud skipping noises the whole way. She climbed on top of it and reached for the flashlight.
“Mom!” Josh yelled.
Alice wheeled around, almost falling off the chair. In the doorway to the kitchen stood Barbara, but something about her was odd. There was no love in her eyes anymore. Those green eyes used to be so full of life, but that was gone; in its place was the milky white void of nothingness.
“Josh! Don’t!” Alice screamed and jumped for Josh but it was too late. Josh had already reached his mother, hugging her legs triumphantly.
“I knew you would be okay.” He grinned from ear to ear as he gazed up at his mother.
Barbara slowly looked down at Josh. For the first time he noticed the drool hanging from her mouth. Josh tried to run but Barbara grabbed his arm, snarling as she pulled him to her. He screamed as his mother lifted him up and took a large bite out of his left arm, spraying blood around the room like a sprinkler.
Alice was on top of them in a flash and shoved her mother hard. Barbara stumbled, dropping Josh as she bounced off the wall. He popped up as only little kids can and ran to Alice.
His arm was bad; Alice could see muscle and what she thought might be bone through all the gore. She grabbed a towel from the counter and attempted to wrap it up. Josh needed medical help, but for now she had to get them out of here. Backpack in hand, she guided Josh through the patio doors and into the backyard. They were halfway across the yard when Alice remembered the flashlight was still in the kitchen. She had dropped it in the scuffle and would have to go back for it.
“You wait here. I’ll be right back.”
Alice gave Josh the backpack and ran back into the kitchen. She stopped short when she saw her mother walking toward her. Barbara’s mouth was in an eternal snarl and still had bits of Josh’s flesh dangling from it. Instead of emptiness, Alice now sensed hunger.
Alice knew the flashlight was a lost cause. She turned back into the backyard, and slammed the glass patio door behind her. Barbara walked into the glass door and stumbled backwards. She walked into the door again and again, her hands constantly reaching out for Alice and Josh.
Alice pulled her cell phone from her back pocket and keys a few buttons. Her father may be gone on business, but there was one person that was still around. “Hello? Gee? Something’s wrong…We need you…Hurry…”
Alice’s plea into her cell phone was cut short as Barbara’s relentless pursuit through the patio doors finally paid off. The glass doors shattered into thousands of glinting shards that went flying in every direction. Barbara’s face and body were badly cut, but she continued on her course without ever missing a beat.
Alice turned and ran toward the garage. She reached the door before she realized Josh was not with her. She looked back to see him standing there, frozen with fear. “Josh! Run!”
Alice ran for Josh, but again she was too late. Before she could ever hope to reach him, Barbara had her young son in her mouth once again. Another bite, this time from his jugular. Blood poured from his throat in a crimson river.
“NO! Josh… No!”