Dead Days

High And Out Shit

The truck ride had been rickety and Kelsey was in shock. Everytime she blinked, she saw her moms dead eyes staring at her hungrily. She remembered Bethany's hand reaching out to her begging for help. That one bump in the road. Kelsey wanted to hand over Colby, lay down on the floor of the truck, close her eyes, and never wake up. This couldn't be real! Just that morning everyone had been laughing and eating breakfast.

She could almost hear her mom giggling at her dad's lame attempt at humor. she could just about see her dad smiling down at her, as he snuck a bite of bacon. She could hear her baby brothers gurgles in the background, as he tried to understand what was going on around him. She could almost imagine seeing her older sister talking on her cell, to their moms utter annoyance. She had been in a good mood. The whole family had been in wonderful spirits for once.

There was no typical sibling rivalry from Amber. No yelling up the stairs to hurry her arsenal up because she was late, by her mom. No dad sneaking into the room with a great burst of "Good morning sunshine." followed by a cold rush of ice water to wake her up. It had been a beautiful morning. And it was gone. She didn't even know if Amber or her dad were okay.

Her sister had called, just before the game, to say she would be late and traffic was a bitch. It had been okay with Kelsey because her sister was COMING! She loved her elder sibling to death, even though they were four years apart and Amber found her utterly annoying. At fifteen, Kelsey was looking forward to it all, including the soccer championship and the trophy she had been set on winning.

It had all, in her dad's words, Gone to high and out shit. She wondered if her dad was okay. Was he alive? He hadn't been able to come, because work called with a new job offer; one he'd been waiting for.

He'd been dressed, and off to the campus at Highland University. He was a history teacher with high hopes for an English teaching position. Was he okay? Did he and Amber find each other? Kelsey looked down into the face of her baby brother. How was she going to tell them what had happened to her mom? She wanted badly to be in her bed, to be back in that morning again.

How was she going to take care of her brother until she found her dad and sister? She gazed back out the window. The lady next to her had her eyes on the road, and knew she was looking for safety, but Kelsey didn't think anywhere was safe anymore. Hardly aware of their surroundings, she knew they were in the parts of town her mom would've rolled her windows up and locked the doors. Which never happened, unless the store close by had been closed for whatever reason. Of course then she would have made sure to set the alarm to go off, turning the sensitivity up to what Kelsey liked to call, Moth-Wings-Alarm.

The alarm was so sensitive, it would go off even if something as small as a bugs wings, brushed by too close. There was plenty of times they'd walked out to the alarm going off, discovering it hadn't been a break in, just a cat getting frisky with the car. Other times it would be a dog finding the car a good, marking-my-territory, spot. Kelsey snuggled Colby close. She kissed his bright head. That's when she felt a bump and blood spattered across the windshield. The lady cursed under her breath and turned the windshield wipers on. The blood wasn't fast to disappear, in fact even when they could see out it, there was still blood on the sides fighting strong to stay on. The women gave up when it wouldn't go away completely and just turned it off. There was flesh stuck in one of the wipers.

Kelsey looked out the window and saw a street overflowing with people. Didn't they know how stupid that idea was? They were trying to pack into a small store. Didn't they know they were pretty much turning themselves into bird feed? Too each his own, she supposed.

"Well at least the apocalypse has one benefit." The lady said, but Kelsey didn't think she realized she'd spoken out loud. Kelsey didn't mind, she just looked back out the window. She thought of her mom back in the park, that time between bite and breakdown had been unreal. Had her mom known what she was doing? Had she even been aware of her body or surroundings? Kelsey knew she had, at least until she'd been smacked. Her mom had figured something was wrong and wanted her to go. Kelsey was glad she'd run, just sad that it had been away.