Road Trip

My son sat silently in the passenger seat of the pick-up truck we’d “borrowed” from our dead neighbor. He stared straight ahead, but was probably seeing nothing. The mileposts increased in value as we headed toward Idaho Falls. We had only been on the road a couple of hours, but I’d already seen at least 400 cars littered along the interstate. There were signs of life in some as we came upon and passed them, but I was not about to stop. It wasn’t worth the risk. It was us or them. I never imagined I would have the capacity to think in such a way, but I believe that changed the moment I had to drive a kitchen knife into my suddenly insane wife’s heart to keep her from murdering our oldest child. Or maybe it had changed prior to that, like when I discovered the bodies of the other four children. Regardless, charity had become a death sentence. I looked back over at my son and caught the glint of tears running down his face. All I could manage from my position in the driver’s seat was to lay my hand on his shoulder. He turned his head toward the passenger window and stayed that way until we stopped.

We pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store at the edge of town. From our vantage point, there didn’t appear to be any activity other than a barn owl perched atop the building, craning its neck in curiosity of its unexpected guests. I turned to my son. “Sam, listen to me very carefully. I’m going inside to get us some food and water. You stay here with the doors locked and lay on the horn if there is any trouble. Understand?”

“Yeah.”

“Sam?” I began emptying the duffel containing the few supplies I was able to grab from home right before we headed North.

“Yeah?”

“I love you. We’re going to be okay.”

“Yeah.”

For a split second, Sam seemed to lose substance. As I looked at him, it was as if I was able to see straight through him, like he was disappearing. I blinked hard and everything went back to normal. I figured I was tired and anxious at the thought of going inside the convenience store alone. “Okay, pal. I will be right back.”

As I exited the vehicle, bloody kitchen knife in one hand, empty duffel in the other, the owl flew away, spooked. I pushed the driver’s side door closed silently and gently rapped on the window, indicating to Sam to lock the door. He slid over and pushed down the lock. I gave him an approving smile and turned toward the storefront. I moved slowly and deliberately, scanning for any movement. My attempts at remaining incognito were all for naught the moment I opened the door. And I knew it was going to happen the moment I pulled on the handle, but my actions moved faster than my brain. In fact, I heard myself swear under my breath a second before the loud doorbell chime sound indicated a customer had entered the premises. I froze and listened and watched. I stayed that way for at least 3 minutes before venturing forward. Once inside, I turned to ensure the door closed quietly but, as I did, the tip of my knife caught a magazine rack and the knife clattered loudly to the floor. I was not meant to be stealthy, I guessed. Grabbing the knife, I scanned my surroundings and felt sure I was alone. I proceeded to the drink coolers. Before filling the duffel with bottles of water of every size, I spun the top off of one and drank it down. The coolers were still running, so it was nice and cold. I hadn’t had anything to drink or eat in what felt like days, though I knew it had really only been less than one. I tossed the empty bottle and zipped the duffel closed. The bag was very heavy and I could feel the nylon strap straining under the weight. The chime went off again as I left the store. Sam was still seated where I left him, but his eyes were closed. I opened the rear driver’s side door and began unloading the water.

“I’m going to need you to keep your eyes open, Sam. We don’t know who is out here and you need to be alert.” He moaned out of irritation and when I looked up at him, he seemed to shimmer again. I blinked and it stopped.

“Dad? Can you bring me back a Slim Jim, please?”

“Of course, no problem. I’ll be back in a jiffy. Remember,” I said, looking directly into his eyes, “keep alert. I need you to warn me if there’s trouble. I’m counting on you.”

“Okay, dad. Sorry.”

“It’s fine, pal. I’m not angry. Be right back.”

Back inside the store, I looted the hell out of the jerky section, filling half the duffel in the process. Jerky was synonymous with road trips, even if the road trip was a necessity of survival. I went back to the drink coolers to grab some energy drinks. I figured I could run hard to get us where we needed to be to feel safe (wherever that was) and rest once we were there. If necessary, I could let Sam drive some. He was almost 15 and I’d been teaching him how to drive for about a year. Nothing crazy, of course. Just some side roads in the industrial area near our house, but he definitely had the ability to keep it on the road. It was more of a bonding project than anything. Who knew it was going to possibly save our lives? After grabbing a dozen caffeine bombs I headed over to the cooler containing prepared foods. As I rounded an aisle, I stopped dead in my tracks. The entire floor was covered in a pool of blood. My eyes darted to the door from under which the blood looked to have originated. It was open just a crack. There was an eye looking at me from below the level of the door knob. It looked just like a cat’s eye only much, much larger. I backed up a step. It blinked. I backed up another step. Again, it blinked. A guttural growl issued from behind the door and I could smell spoiled meat. I swung around and started for the front of the store just as fast as I possibly could. My heart was in my throat and it tasted like terror. I heard a snarl and a crash as the door the eye was behind slammed open. I had only made it a few paces when something wrapped around my leg, causing me to fall forward onto my knife. I rolled over onto my back and pain bloomed in my side where the blade protruded from my belly. When I fell over, my foot came loose of whatever had grabbed me. And then whatever had grabbed me was standing right in front of me. I had never seen anything like it. It was like a human that had been cut off at the knees and skinned alive. It looked slick with blood covering its entire body. It moved toward me on bloody stumps. Its arms were egregiously long, as were its fingers, which came to sharp points, like talons. Its skull-like head bobbed and weaved on its long neck, yellow cat eyes never leaving my face. It screeched at me from what looked to be grasshopper mandibles in place of a mouth. I swallowed hard, mind racing, wondering how in the hell I was going to get away. Just then, the horn on the pickup truck began to blare. The creature swung its head in the direction of the storefront, sending a stream of bloody pus from its wet face onto my now wet face. It screeched again and stumped its way in that direction.

Bracing myself on a shelf, I stood to look over the aisle and see what Sam was honking at. The pain was almost unbearable. To my horror, there were two people, one on each side of the truck, just standing there, staring at Sam. They didn’t seem to be doing anything but standing there, but it was frightening. I glanced left to see the hobblemonster stump-stump-stumping toward the front door and it gave me an idea. Those two idiots outside had no idea what was coming their way and, if the pool of blood on the shop floor was any indication, there wasn’t going to be an exchange of pleasantries and afternoon tea. I needed to be quick.

I rushed over to the liquor aisle and picked up some Bacardi 151. As I broke the seal on the bottle, I ran toward the back office of the store to find a rag to shove into the neck. Success. My last stop was the front counter to grab a lighter. As I did so, I was able to see outside just as hobble-goblin reached out and enveloped Creepy Guy One’s head in it’s left claw and squeeze. I swear I was able to hear the crunch as One’s head popped like a tomato. Creepy Guy Two saw this, scream-laughed, and turned tail to run in a different direction. Stumpy gave chase just as fast as its weird jointless legs could carry it. That was my chance and I took it.

I pushed through the searing hot pain in my side and kicked the front door open at the same moment the awful creature grabbed Two’s head with both claws, pulled him to its wet, quivering mandibles, and began crunching on his face. He screamed, of course, but it was cut short by the awful tearing and ripping sounds. I hesitated due to sheer horror and was further repulsed by a strange cooing sound the creature began to make as it was eating, like it was really, really enjoying that meal. I almost vomited. With thirty feet between me and the abominable stump man, I lit the fuse to my makeshift molotov and hurled it as hard as I could at the ground where the creature stood eating. The glass shattered and liquor splashed and immediately caught fire all over the thing’s legs. It dropped Two’s almost headless corpse and began to squeal louder than any sound I have ever heard an animal make. It began stumping away, seemingly trying to outrun the flames. I hobbled over to the rear driver’s side door, opened it, tossed the duffel in, and shut the door, all while keeping an eye on the disgusting being that was getting farther and farther away. I yanked the driver’s side door open and got in, firing up the engine and taking off all before even having the door shut again. Sam had been yelling something ever since I threw the duffel in back, but it was finally just registering.

“Dad! You’re bleeding! What happened? What was that thing?! Dad!”

“Please, Sam. Just… Just give me a minute to decompress.” He stopped speaking immediately. I felt bad for asking him to stop talking when he was obviously just concerned for my well-being but I needed to be able to concentrate. I needed to plan our next move. “I’m sorry, Sam.” I looked at him and, yet again, he seemed to shimmer out of existence a little. I shook my head and it stopped. “I put some energy drinks in the duffel. Grab me two of them, would you? We’ve got a lot of road ahead of us and I think I must be pretty tired. You good to stay up for a bit and make sure I don’t doze off? That caffeine shouldn’t take too long to hit me.”

Sam did as he was bidden. “Yeah. I’m fine. I can stay up.”

“Thanks, pal.”