...And Hell Followed With

Chapter Four:"Hitting Bottom And Looking Up"

Standing over the vistage of the monster that was once her mother, Maddi takes a deep breath in, the killing of her mother by her own hands, was not something she ever wanted to do, yet strangely knowing she was gonna, felt like some of the weight had been lifted from her shoulders. It wasn't all gone however.

"It's a start." She says aloud voicing her inner thoughts. Wes was pacing back and forth.

"Holy shit what's happening? Sh-she was like a bug or something. She just kept coming, oh god." Wes says, but his brain has finally come out of shock and he heaves in, throws up, then collapses to his knees.

"It needed her brain Wes, I think she was already somewhere close to dead." Maddi responds, then walks over to Wes and strokes his back. "It's ok Wes let it out..."

"Oh god what's happening Maddi?" Wes asks, tears filling his eyes as he continues heaving in and throwing up.

"I really don't know Wes, whatever that, that slug thing was, it turned her into some sort of Mantis zombie creature." Maddi replies looking down at the empty cavity where her mothers brain used to be.

"Ar-are you ok, Maddi?" Wes asks clutching his sides with both arms, he can see her shakin the gun in her hands jiggling. Maddi felt strange. She was happy to see that at least her abuser was gone, but something inside her bones hurt. She couldn't understand what she was supposed to feel. Her mother was a horrible and evil person, but did she deserve this? Maddi stops herself, and thinks, "I won't shed a tear for you, you never did for me anyway."

"Maddi?" Wes asks timidly, but she doesn't answer. They both hear screams coming from outside.

"THE DOOR!" They both yell in unison, and they run down stairs to the door. As they do they can hear sirens blaring outside and people screaming in the distance.

"It's like hell on earth outside." Wes says, as they both stare off into the distance outside, and can see smoke rising from all over the city. A glow of a bright red light fills the clouds above them with a blood red color making it look as if the whole city is a flame. The light is shooting up into the sky, and seems to be coming from the school on the hill.

"We can't stay here Wes." Maddi says, going back into the house. "Here help me put the couch up to block the door." Wes and Maddi quickly ram the couch up against the door making a crude barricade.

"Lets, grab what we can and figure out where to go from here." Wes says. Wes finds a butcher's knife, and fills the chainsaw with gas. Maddi runs out to the back and grabs a sickle. Quickly running back inside she runs upstairs and grabs the 6 clips she has and loads them, then fills a ammo bag filled with 10 rounds of ammo. Wes and her regroup in the kitchen hearing as the sounds outside only grow louder and more terrifying.

"I was just thinking; we have to go to Loco's." Wes says, putting his knife in his belt. "Loco's place is just down the street, and it shouldn't be very hard to get there quickly" They run to the back of the house and to the side gate.

"Shit there is, like, two or three of those things roaming around the street." Maddi says, pulling her head back from looking around the corner of the house.

"Our best bet is probably to try and sneak past them." Wes replies.

"How do you expect to do that?" Maddi asks, with a twinge of exasperation.

"I'm open to suggestions." Wes answers snarkily. Maddi sees her mom's car parked mounted on the curb, it has obviously skidded into its current position down at the end of the driveway.

"She must have been on her way home when she turned." Maddi thinks while looking at the car. She looks at Wes and uses her head to motion him to follow her, they both crouch down and quickly run to the car, in a way that suggests they are emulating something they saw in a movie.