The Dark Trilogy (61 page)

Night would be upon them soon. The summer sun’s harsh rays were subsiding, weakening and dimming as they fell beyond the horizon. The moving shapes progressed ever forward, casting long shadows on the street. These darkened outlines on the ground were distant specters reaching out for the survivors, closing the distance with elongated arms and fingers wriggling in anticipation.

Megan and Jason looked for cracks or breaks in the gathering crowd and saw none. There was nowhere to run. There were ebbs and flows to the oncoming tide of death, but none promising freedom. When a gap opened for an instant, it was immediately filled with more rotting bodies. Megan took a shuddering breath and looked back at the donut shop.

There was no hesitation as she took the only option remaining: they had to backtrack. Several apish shapes, bent over and dragging defective appendages, had passed in front of the curio shop next to Tom’s and were coming for them. There wasn’t much time.

“Behind the building. We can lose them back there and find another place to hide.” The words came out breathlessly, but Jason understood.

Through the tinted windows of the donut shop, Megan could see several booths and a counter that ran half the length of the shop. A register stood to the left in front of the racks of empty donut displays. None of the windows had been shattered.

She looked back at her wards. Jason was holding Joey’s hand, and he was pulling the other two children along behind him like a little train. They were far enough away from Lydia that they could no longer hear her screams over the racket of the crowd. Shouts and cries reverberated off the windows of the donut shop, giving the unsettling impression that the ghouls were right next to them.

Megan turned back toward the donut shop and stopped dead. A keening noise spilled out of her lips as she saw that the narrow passage between the two buildings was now clogged with bodies. Several shadows moved toward them through the gap.

Jason saw them as well, and the rest of the little group skidded to a halt. The moving shadows between Tom’s Donuts and the curio shop were taking shape, and he could see faces staring out at him. He could also see the milky whites of their eyes as they reflected the last of the sun’s rays.

“Megan?”

Megan bit her lip to avoid screaming at Jason to leave her alone. Her head felt as though it was being squeezed by some massive force, and she was trembling with a terror beyond anything she had ever experienced before. They had perhaps a minute, maybe two, before the fiends inching closer tore them to pieces.

Taking a deep breath, Megan fought the faintness that threatened to overcome her and looked around once more. Each filthy and contusion-laced body she saw was worse than the last. They were everywhere. There were still pockets of open space on the street, but they were slowly being filled. She knew instinctively that even if they could manage to weave through those gaps, they wouldn’t make it more than a hundred yards before being slaughtered.

Turning back toward the donut shop, she looked through the plate glass window. That was it. It was the only option left.

Pointing frantically at the building, she looked back at Jason and shouted at him. “Come on!”

Snatching up Nathan’s hand, Megan did not wait for the kid’s response as she ran for the entrance. The splinter of hope remaining in her gut felt like a blowtorch, burning away everything else as her feet pounded on the pavement.

She focused on the door’s handle as they got close. Closing the last few feet, Megan reached out for it, her entire body quivering as she felt the cold metal beneath her fingers. Taking a deep breath, she tugged.

The door didn’t budge.

Rattling it again, Megan slammed her fist against the glass, and still it did not move. She howled in frustration, beating on the door and cursing at it.

Jason reached out to her and touched her shoulder. Megan shook him off as she continued to slam her fist ineffectively against the door.

After a few moments, the boy spoke. “Megan, please. They’re getting close. What do we do?”

Stopping the senseless pounding, Megan leaned her head against the glass and shuddered. She could hear the pleading in Jason’s voice and the sound of the children crying. The sounds felt like drips of acid in her ears.

Turning away from the door, she wiped tears from her eyes, opened her arms, and pulled Sadie and the boys toward her. She felt the little bodies tremble as the three children latched on to her like a lifeline. Putting a hand around Jason’s neck, she pulled him close as well.

Megan could see the question in his eyes and could barely stand the frantic hope remaining there. Jason was still counting on her to save them.

Her heart shattered as she shook her head and watched the boy’s face crumble, the belief that they were somehow going to make it dying inside of him. Megan guided his head to her shoulder and hushed the children.

Taking one last glance out at the parking lot, she shivered. There, out where Lydia had fallen, was a countless mass of ghouls. They surrounded whatever remained of the gentle soul who had been caretaker of the children. That she was dead and no longer in pain gave Megan no relief as she watched the teeming mass of bodies push and pull at one other in an effort to collect a scrap of meat. The rest of the monstrosities had pushed past the bloody feast and were making their way toward the front of the donut shop. Catching her breath, Megan averted her eyes and stared down at the children huddled around her.

Moments later, there was a roar behind them, and they all tensed, squeezing as close to Megan as possible. It was a brief and sudden outburst that faded into the background of gibbering howls and crazed screams.

Bending her head, Megan pressed up against the children, cherishing their warmth and life as she prayed to God that the end would be quick and, if possible, painless … at least for the children.

As she heard the steady beat of slogging feet and ruined bones dragging close, she whispered to the children, “Everyone, close your eyes.”

Chapter 17

“Hey, babe.”

Megan reached out to her husband with both hands, pressing against his shoulders, doing her best to push him back down. As she did, she noticed the silver revolver in her right hand.

God I miss him,
she thought. It was a strange to think that. He was right here in front of her. So why was she missing him?

Megan shook her head, baffled. “No, I think you don’t know what’s going on, and you’re trying to confuse me for God knows what reason.” Megan inched backwards as Dalton moved closer to her. After a heartbeat, she stopped.

Why am I afraid of him?

Dalton looked uncomfortable, his feet shifting underneath him as he stared at the floor. “The ones where I come back to kill you.”

*

They were sitting at the kitchen table. The space was light and airy, with the sliding back door that went down to their little patio behind them. Megan thought it was kind of strange that all the boards that had been put up to make sure the exit was secure were gone, but it was nice to look out on their back yard. The kitchen was nice and tidy, as was the family room. That was how she liked it, and she always did her best to keep up with the cleaning. But something was out of place.

“This is a dream.”

Megan’s head swiveled around toward her husband. The bullet hole was gone and he was in his old ‘work around the yard’ clothes. A ratty t-shirt and his baggy shorts with the paint stains on them. She stared at him, trying to take in the changes that had taken place in him since … since they had been down in the basement.

Megan stood up, nearly knocking her chair over as she rushed to the kitchen. She made for the sink, her hands shaking as she grabbed a cup out of the strainer and held it under the spout. When she lifted it, nothing came out.

“There’s no water, babe.”

Dalton did not try to dodge the cup as it sailed toward his head. It bounced off his shoulder and rattled to the ground. He didn’t even blink.

“What are you trying to do to me?” The words came out in a single blast of confusion and rage as Megan gesticulated frantically with her bird-thin arms. “What the hell is going on around here, Dalton? What’s happening to me?”

Megan felt her legs weakening beneath her, and she slid to the floor.

“What am I doing here?”

Dalton walked over to her. “You are trying to block out what’s happening to you. You don’t want to think about it or feel it. So your mind just shut down, and tada! You were here, in the safest place you know.”

Megan listened to the vague words and tried to understand what they meant. “Is that all you can tell me?” She couldn’t keep the resentment out of her voice.

Dalton knelt down in front of her. She lifted her head and looked into his eyes. “But Megan, you already know all you need to know. You don’t need me to tell you a thing.”

She wanted to get angry, indignant. Throw out a scathing remark or yell at him. Anything to get him to give her a better answer. She didn’t like playing these cutesy games with Dalton. But when she opened her mouth, nothing came out. She knew that he was right.

Dalton was standing, pulling her up with him. The sudden change in his demeanor was more than startling; it frightened her terribly.

“But I don’t want to go back! I don’t even know what I’m going back to, because you won’t tell me!”

“Megan!”

Her husband shook her, rattling her teeth. She looked at him, not even sure who he was. Other faces swam before her eyes. A man who was not her husband, but someone for whom she cared a great deal … a boy … an African American boy with gentle eyes … a little girl with long blond hair.

She broke free of her husband’s grasp. Stepping backwards, she shook her head violently. “No. No, no, no. I DON’T WANT TO GO BACK!”

Dalton didn’t move. “They need you, Megan. You have to go back.”

“But I want to stay here with you!”

He was already starting to fade. His voice was a whisper as she watched his eyes. She could see the rest of the kitchen and the table behind him, but they weren’t much more substantial than he was.

“Remember, my love, this is just a dream. You can only dream for so long, and then you have to wake up.”

Megan closed her eyes, and she could see it all. The children, Jason, the monsters coming for them. They were there, suffering alongside her. Waiting to die. Looking to her for a little comfort while they still lived. Just a few moments of pain, and it would all be over.

She opened her eyes. Dalton stood right in front of her, his face only a few inches away from hers, his eyes wide open. The bullet wound in his forehead had reappeared. Her heart stopped.

She kept her eyes shut, her heart racing as she bit down on the scream. She was huddled with the children crammed between her, Jason, and the glass wall of the donut shop. The noise surrounding her was so loud that it felt like another wall closing in, pressing up against her back. Swimming through that noise were clammy claws, coming to rip her away from those she was trying to protect, claws that would pull her out into the crowd. She wondered if she would manage to keep her eyes closed as rotten teeth sank into on the flesh of her arms, legs, breasts. Perhaps, if she was lucky, the bellows from dead throats saturated with her blood and bits of meat might drown out the last sounds of the children as they were torn apart alongside her.

“Megan!”

She closed her eyes tighter, and she wanted to cover her ears, but could feel Jason twisting away from her. She tried to get a grip on him, but he freed himself. Megan whimpered but still refused to open her eyes as she held onto the other children.

She felt a hand on her shoulder a few seconds later, and she almost screamed as she was pulled around. Opening her eyes was almost an involuntary reflex. It was Jason, standing in front of her and pointing, his eyes filled with excitement.