all god's orphans

Sarah tried to shout, but her voice had abandoned her. It was like it usually happened in nightmares when she tried to scream but couldn’t. Her heart thrummed and she was gasping for air, but her chest had seized and she felt like she would suffocate. She started backing away towards the front entrance and then noticed a third person. A woman, who must have been there the whole time because there was nowhere else she could have come from, was standing in a corner of the store watching her. She swept the place with the trembling sights of her gun trying to remember everything her father had taught her at the range. Sight alignment. Sight picture. Breathe. Relax. Aim. Squeeze. She could recall the words but they meant nothing anymore. She just wanted to get back to her dad.

Keeping her eyes on them, she made her way to the door. She didn’t know what was wrong with them or if they were even human at this point. Reality had changed so much in the past few days that she didn’t think anything was impossible anymore. She could see them plainly now and they seemed almost human. Why won’t they talk? Why are they smiling like they’re in a cult? It was so much creepier.

She finally reached the door and put her back against it, pushing as hard as she could, but it didn’t budge. What the heck? She’d just come through there! Instantly she understood that they had locked her in. They advanced on her, slowly, barely bothering to lift their feet. Limp arms hung at their sides and that same creepy smile spread across all of their faces. They looked insane to her.

“Let me out of here!” She exploded, the entire force of her personality erupted from her throat and produced a fiercer roar than she thought she contained. The simpletons stumbled onward making no sign that they had heard or understood her. She gripped her weapon and squeezed the trigger, but nothing happened. Her right hand coiled like a boa constrictor, but the mechanism would not relent. She realized the safety was still on and cursed herself as her thumb flicked it off with expert ease. This time, two shots fired almost simultaneously from her barrel and sailed over the heads of the slowly advancing phalanx, shattering a frozen stick of fluorescent light and turning it into a shower of glass. Again they seemed to neither know nor care that she had just fired a gun at them.

Sarah spun around to the door and fired again, turning the plate glass into dust. As she burst through the frame, her father ran around the RV just in time to see two more men shuffling towards them from the nearby field. They also looked like they had just woken up. Raymond pointed his rifle at them.

“Stay back.” He warned them, but they continued their slow march towards him.

“Dad!” Shouted Sarah.

“Easy, angel.” He said to her, then to the man as he flipped off the safety. “I’m not gonna say it again, friend. Back off.”

“There’s more of them inside!” He turned his eyes to the interior and saw vague shapes moving towards them. One of the two from the field took a step and in a flash, Raymond whipped his weapon back and fired. The shot hit him right in the head and he collapsed like dirty laundry dropped to the floor as a pink mist hung in the air where his head used to be. His companion simply glanced at the fallen body for just a moment before turning his flaccid gaze back to Raymond.

“Let’s go!” Raymond grabbed Sarah’s hand and dragged her towards the Winnebago. “Get in!” He commanded and went to the other side to stop the pump. Sarah couldn’t make her hands operate the door handle and as she struggled with the simple mechanics, she heard the sound of the gas station door scrape open. Strangely, her brain took that moment to notice the sign on the inside of the door that read “PULL.” The man and woman moved outside and slowly ambled towards them.

Raymond had stopped the pump as Sarah dove through the passenger side door and slammed it behind her, rolling it up the window as fast as she could. Her father stepped to the front of the RV as the two from inside the store got closer. His rifle snapped to his shoulder.

“Stop right there!” he ordered, but they kept moving. “Goddamnit, stop!” It was clear that they were not going to listen. He focused and fired twice, hitting both of them in the chest. They looked surprised for a moment and then fell to the ground. He raced to the driver’s seat, cranked the engine and floored it. The Winnebago lurched forward and then sped onto the highway. Sarah sat in the passenger seat crying hysterically, her gun in her lap pointed at her dad.

“Sarah?” he said but she didn’t respond. “Sarah? Your gun.” She finally heard him and moved her gun down between her knees, switching the safety on as she did so. “You okay?”

“No.” she whimpered. “What were those things?”

“I don’t know.” After a while she seemed to calm down and then she started beating the dashboard with her fists.

“Dang it! Dang it! Dang it!”

“What, honey? What is it?” Raymond was worried for a moment.

“I left my Mountain Dew.” She sobbed.