Haven (The Breadwinner Trilogy) (6 page)

Samson’s cries no longer filled the air, only the horrific slurping and chewing of the eaters.  Samson’s arm lay limp, still in the same place it was when she last held it.  She reached out to grab his hand one last time but Ben once more wrapped himself around her.  She cried out for Samson, the tip of her middle finger grazing the tip of his only for a brief moment before she was thrown to the tile of the department store floor, the interior doors slamming shut.

Part II:  And Now
We’re Here

I

Michelle’s eyes fluttered open and she groaned as she felt the warmth of a body lying next to her.
 She cringed and very carefully rolled out of bed.  She wiped the sleep from her eyes as she crouched down on the floor, searching for her clothes.  She pulled her panties up and figured she’d make a mad dash for the bathroom and find a shirt on the floor somewhere in there.  

“Good morning.”
 The man in her bed mumbled as he propped his head up on his hand and looked at her.

She quickly covered her breasts with her arms.
 “Hey.”  She looked down at the ground and noticed her bra peeking out from underneath the bed.  She swooped it up and turned around, pulling it around her body and fastening the clasps.  “So, yeah, I’m gonna let you get dressed.”  She decided she’d use the hall bathroom and let the man in bed use hers.  She ducked into the bathroom and slammed the door shut, hoping she wouldn’t wake her roommate, Lulu.  Lulu’s long purple robe hung on the back of the door, she pulled that around herself and washed her face in the sink, swishing water around in her mouth and spitting, watching the water circle in the drain before disappearing.

A light knock at the door was followed by a high pitched and comical “hello.”
 Michelle yanked the door open and pulled Lulu inside.  Her jet black hair was pulled back in a tight pony tail and her face looked fresh, she’d obviously been up longer than Michelle.

“Ssh!
 I don’t want him to hear us.”  The two women giggled like little girls.

“Oh, ya big slut!”
 Lulu couldn’t help but crack up at her roommate.  

“Jesus,” Michelle’s hands went up to her head as she looked at herself in the mirror, her long curly hair looked wild.
 Lulu opened a drawer and handed her a hair tie.  “I don’t even remember his name.  Holy shit, Lu, what is his name?”  

Lulu shook her head and sighed.
 She opened the bathroom door, the man from the bed had just walked into the hall from Michelle’s room.  “Good morning Zach.”   She gave Michelle a look and winked before leaving the bathroom.  “I’ve got coffee made, why don’t you grab a cup with me?”  The two wandered down the hall toward the kitchen and Michelle put the lid down on the toilet and sat, pulling back her wild mess of hair and shaking her head in disapproval.

“I can’t believe myself sometimes.”
 She said aloud to no one and went back to her room to shower.

Lulu poured Zach a cup of coffee at the breakfast bar.
 “I don’t know how you like it, milk is in the fridge and sugar and stuff is next to the coffee pot.”  She handed the cup to him.

“I’ll take it black, thanks.”
 He raised the cup to her almost as in a cheers and sipped it lightly.  He looked at the television in the living room and noticed it was on mute.  “Do you mind?”  She looked up at him holding the remote in his hands.

“Oh, nah, go ahead, I just got sick of hearing about the same thing over and over again.
 The nut jobs are out in full effect today apparently.”  She moved a strand of hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear as she stirred her coffee.  Zach stood behind the couch facing the TV and listened to the news explain in great detail the dramatic increase in rioting and violence over the last 24 hours.  

“We are urging people to stay in their homes as a state of emergency is being declared in the following counties.”
 The news anchorman went down his list and gave details of what steps government officials were taking to ensure the safety of its citizens.

“I can’t believe they don’t have this shit under control yet.
 It’s pretty unnerving.”  Lulu stared nervously at the screen.  Random acts of violence and rioting had started popping up around the country over the last few days and nothing seemed to be getting better.  The once busy city of Haven had suddenly become a ghost town over the last week as tourists cut their September vacations short and the peaceful upper class community had suddenly turned into a city of mayhem.

Zach stared down at his cell phone, no si
gnal.  “Hey do you have Wi-Fi?”
 

“Yeah, the password is on the back of the modem over there.”
 She pointed to the edge of the counter and walked over to the couch, plopping down on the soft blue cushions.  She grabbed the remote and began flipping through the channels.  “God, it’s the same thing on literally every channel.”

“I think your internet is out.”
 Zach picked up the modem and hit the reset button.  “Did you pay your bill, Lu? I’m not getting any internet connection.”  He gave up on the modem and pulled his phone out again.  He punched in a number and hit send, only getting three short beeps.  He looked down at his phone.  ‘Call Failed, Try Again?’ He frowned and hit send again only to get the same response.  Lulu continued flipping through the channels and finally stopped when she hit HBO and a fuzzy screen with no sound greeted her.

“What the fuck?
 We don’t pay for premium to not work.”  She threw the remote down onto the coffee table and grabbed her phone.
Zach looked at his cousin, “Is your phone working?”

“No.”
 She saw the worry in Zach’s face.  “Did you try restarting yours?”  He nodded in response.

She picked up the remote again and searched the channels for useful information other than the repetitive ‘stay in your house’ speech.
 Michelle entered the room and avoided eye contact with Zach, making a beeline for the coffee pot.  She rolled her eyes at the TV, she was so sick of the news already.

Lulu stopped on a channel with a field reporter downtown discussing that citizens were not happy about the government’s decision to cut all cell phone and internet services
.  “Emergency officials are encouraging those of you with landlines to please only use your phone to notify authorities if you come into contact with anyone showing signs of sickness or violence.  Please do not leave your homes at this time, local hospitals are filled to capacity.  If you or anyone you know are exhibiting signs of dangerous or abnormal behavior, please simply notify emergency personnel and do not leave your place of residence.”
 

Michelle made a face of disgust, “Sickness?
 What the hell?  I thought this was all a bunch of political protesting or some shit.”  She rinsed a coffee mug and began pouring slowly, eyes still on the TV.  Screams suddenly erupted from somewhere off camera and the field reporter yelled “Get this on tape!”  The camera swung in the direction of the screams as a large group of people poured out of a nearby office building and began savagely attacking anything near them.  One of the women in the group looked directly at the camera.  A voice was heard, “We should get out of here.”  The camera came back to the reporter but he was already running in the direction of the news truck.  The cameraman quickly panned back in the direction of the attacks just in time to catch the crazed woman leaping onto him.  The camera went down but did not shut off.  Violent screams and growls filled the air, yelps of pain and prayers to God went unanswered as the woman ripped out the cameraman’s throat.

II

Michelle hadn’t stopped pouring the coffee and couldn’t peel her eyes away from the insanity she was witnessing on the local news station.  Coffee flowed up and over the rim of the mug and onto the counter.  The hot brown liquid spread out and down over the edge, dripping onto her feet.  “Shit!”  She slammed the pot down and jumped back.  Lulu and Zach were startled by her outburst and Zach rushed to the paper towels, spreading them all over the counter in an attempt to sop up the coffee.

Lulu remained on the couch, her eyes filled with tears.
 “What the hell just happened?”  The feed had gone dead on the station and the words ‘Please Stand By’ took its place.  Michelle couldn’t find her voice.  She knew something out of the ordinary had been going on the last few days but she didn’t realize how serious the situation was.  Just last night their big group of coworkers were out drinking and partying since the only thing open were the local dive bars and then suddenly this morning people were murdering each other in the streets only a few miles from their apartment complex.  Zach and Michelle locked eyes but she looked away in Lulu’s direction.  

No one could have guessed that the two women had only known each other just shy of seven months.
 They both worked as stylists at a swanky salon and became fast friends when they met.  They shared all the same interests and liked partying probably a little too much.  When Michelle broke things off with her ex three months ago it just so happened that Lulu was looking for a new roommate and ever since then they were practically inseparable.  Lulu’s cousin Zach joined them and their other coworkers for a night out on the town the previous evening and one thing led to another, the end result a familiar outcome for Michelle, a complete stranger in her bed.
 

“I need a cigarette.”
 Michelle opened up one of the cabinets and reached in behind a stack of spices.  

Lulu wiped tears from her face.
 “I thought you quit?”

“So did
I.”  Michelle bumped into Zach as she walked by, she couldn’t help but give him a dirty look.  
Just what I need, stuck in this goddamn apartment with this guy
, she thought to herself as she unlocked the door to their back porch.

“Are you sure you should go outside right now?”
 Zach pushed his glasses up on his face.

“We’re on the second floor, I’m sure it’s fine.”
 She stepped outside, pulling the door closed behind her quietly.  The wail of sirens greeted her.  She scanned the parking lot below her and it seemed as if everything in their neck of the woods was fine.  She couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary other than the fact that not a single person was outside on such a beautiful day.  No one walking their dogs, no kids riding bikes or playing on the swing set across the lot.  She fished her cell phone from the pocket of her pink cropped sweatpants and lit a cigarette.  No missed calls, no texts, no notifications.  The phone had zero bars and was absolutely useless to her.  She angrily slammed it down on the railing, shattering the screen.  It fell to her feet and she kicked it away, the $200 device meaning nothing to her at that moment.  She ran her fingers through her still damp hair as she smoked, pulling a long lock in front of her face and scowling.  The highlights were fading and she had planned on touching them up at work whenever the salon reopened.  She let the pink strand fall back into place and jumped at the sound of a window shattering in the building next to hers.  She leaned out and looked over to her right, seeing nothing but then jumped back in as she heard screaming and three loud gunshots.  

“Fuck this.”
 Michelle threw the cigarette out over the balcony ledge and hurried back inside.  “Did you hear that?”

Zach was on the couch with his arm around his cousin, consoling her.
 “Hear what?”
“Jesus, are you not paying attention to anything?  The building next door, somebody is shooting.”

“Oh god, I can’t deal with this.”
 Lulu sobbed into her hands.

“Come on Lu, it’s gonna be alright.”
 Zach’s voice was extremely calm and soothing.

“Dude, they’re talking about some kind of infection.”
 Lulu looked up at Michelle through wet eyes.  

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know, it’s all bullshit now on the news.  Scrolling messages, prerecorded emergency warnings from earlier.  I don’t know what’s going on.”

“How safe is this building?”
 Zach wiped his glasses clean with his gray t-shirt.

“Safe from what?”
 Michelle asked him, her hands on her hips.

“I don’t know, like, from the psychopaths we saw on the TV?  Or the people shooting guns next door?”
 

“Well I don’t know.
 If somebody wanted to get in here badly enough they could find a way.  We’re upstairs, so I guess that makes it a little safer.”  She rubbed her temples.  “Look, I don’t like hearing the sound of gunshots in my apartment complex okay?  To me that’s not very fucking comforting.”

“What are we gonna do, Michelle?
 We don’t have a landline, we can’t call the police.”  Lulu’s voice was muffled as she spoke.  She was curled up on the couch with her face resting between her knees, her small stature made her look like a child.

“Should we go check on your neighbors?”
 Zach got up from the couch and walked toward the front door.

“Fuck no!
 What are you stupid?”  Michelle ran to the door and stood in front of it.  “This isn’t really one of those situations I want to be the good guy in.  That kind of shit is gonna get you killed.  Did you not hear me say I heard gunshots?”  She was raising her voice now, with every word she was angrier with him.  She didn’t understand the situation, she had no control over it.

“Well what do we do then?
 Do we just stay here?  Do you even have anything in this place other than coffee and beer?”  Zach folded his arms across his chest.

The trio were startled by a blood curdling scream from outside followed by gunshots that Lulu and Zach heard for themselves this time.
 Lulu jumped up and rushed to the window, pulled a shade to the side.  A low moan escaped her lips followed by more crying.  The other two joined her at the window and looked out into the courtyard.  A woman carrying a child was running toward the parking lot, three psychotic looking people chased after her.  Michelle and Lulu recognized the woman from the building next door.

“It’s Janice!
 We need to do something!”  Lulu cried out.

“No, shut up!”
 Michelle put a hand over Lulu’s mouth and held her still.  The child in Janice’s arms was screaming at the top of his lungs.  Janice kept frantically looking behind her and didn’t notice the two that had come running up in front.  She collided with the first of the attackers and they bounced off one another and fell to the ground.  The child went flying out of her arms.  “Oh my god.”  Michelle whispered and watched with horrified eyes as the first three attackers ripped the child apart.  His screaming ceased as blood shot up into the air and onto the assailants.  Janice wailed and kicked at the two men who were literally biting chunks of flesh from her body.  She tried desperately to get to her son but was soon eaten alive.

Lulu dropped to the floor and vomited between sobs.
 Zach backed away from the window, shaking, his hands on both sides of his head.  Michelle stayed at the window, the shade drawn, her eyes fixated on the scene in the courtyard.