Collabthology: Kindle of the Dead
Compiled & Edited by Matt Nord
Collabthology: Kindle of the Dead
Copyright © 2011 by Matt Nord
Smashwords Edition
All stories, poems and images contained in this volume have been published with permission from the authors.
All Rights Reserved
Edited by Matt Nord
Images by David Naughton Shires, Kenneth Cain, and the Right Reverend Wayne Austin Goodchild
No portion of the publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronically, photocopied, mechanically, recorded or otherwise) without proper written permission of both the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotations used for reviews or critical articles.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any actual person, living, dead or undead, historical events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Thank You!!!
There are a ton of people that I’d like to thank. I figure that since the average reader will just skip over this section anyway, I’m going to thank as many people as I can think of until my fingers start to get tired.
First off, I’d like to thank my beautiful wife, Karen. Without you, I’d have given up on this whole writing thing by now. You have been my biggest supporter and I thank you for that. Without your patience and encouragement, I’d be nowhere. I love you, sweet-cheeks!
I’d also like to thank my parents for allowing me to watch pretty much any horror movie I wanted to at a fairly young age thus corrupting my mind to the point it is today!
Big thanks go to all of the authors who contributed to this anthology. Your support for the cause of the Collaboration means so much to me. The talent pool in this book blows my mind away!
Thanks to all of the authors who have contributed chapters to Collaboration of the Dead: T.W Brown, GNBraun, Zombie Zak, Stephanie Kincaid, Jessica Brown, Ben Langhinrichs, Tonia Brown, Tony Schaab, Mike Mitchell, Patrick D’Orazio, Jonathan MoOn, Reverend Wayne Austin Goodchild, John McCuaig, Cassie Shaver, Michael S. Gardner and Jeremy Bush.
Thanks also to Rebecca Besser, Jamal K. Luckett and Suzanne Robb for agreeing to step in for the second half of the book.
I’d also like to give special thanks to Patrick D’Orazio, who has really been a great friend to me. I honestly can’t say enough nice things about this guy. He is a fantastic writer and I’m honored to have him as part of this anthology and the novel.
Thanks go to Mike Gardner, another great friend and contributor to both the anthology and the novel. Outbreak A.D. is going to kick every ass on this planet, dude.
And to Rebecca Besser, another fantastic writer and great friend who has consistently offered advice and encouragement and kept Karen company on Facebook!
Thanks also to Jessica A. Weiss, Shells Walter, Crystal Connor and Robin Eduardo for being all around cool people!
To Jeff Angus, thanks for really pushing me to write. NorGus Press was a pipedream at first, but dreams really can come true!
Special thanks to Dr. Pus. The Library of the Living Dead podcast is honestly what got me to try my hand at writing seriously and Letters from the Dead was my first acceptance ever!
Special thanks also go to Anthony Giangregorio, who has given me so many chances to showcase my work. For that, I am forever appreciative.
Thanks to all of the people on the Collaboration of the Dead forum, to everyone who knows me as farmboy, to everyone that follows my blog and to everyone who is a fan of my Facebook pages.
And of course, thanks go to you for purchasing this ebook!
For anyone I didn’t mention, I apologize, but my fingers are getting tired… Thanks again! Matt “farmboy” Nord
Introduction
Collabthology. Is it a real word? Yes. Will you find it in the dictionary? Probably not, unless you get one that I've found and scribbled the word "Collabthology" into.
But that's beside the point. What you hold in your hands is an anthology chock-full of fan-freaking-tastic horror stories from a ton of names you probably know as well as some new writers you may not know. Either way, you are in for a treat!
This anthology is also my attempt to introduce the public to the world of the Collaboration of the Dead. At the end of this anthology are the first 5 chapters from the Collaboration of the Dead, a novel featuring over 20 of the best and brightest writers in the horror/zombie genre. Each writer adds a bit of themselves to the story and makes it their own.
So, for those of you who don't know what Collaboration of the Dead is, this will be your first taste of what we are about! Bon appetit!
Matt Nord
Table of Contents
Hunger……………………………………………….
by Matt Nord
Animal Magnetism…………………………………..
by Parick D’Orazio
Candy………………………………………………..
by Gerald Rice
Fight the Bite………………………………………...
by Mike Mitchell
z0m813 5urv1v0r…………………………………....
by Matt Nord
The Hottest Laptop…………………………………..
by Rebecca Besser
Escape………………………………………………..
by Carey Burns
The Day Danny McAllister Decided to be a Hero….
by Matt Nord
Bold Isolation………………………………………...
by Karime Limon
A Cry for Help………………………………………..
by John McCuaig
Dead Haiku…………………………………………...
by Matt Nord
Breadcrumbs………………………………………….
by Brandon Cracraft
The Red Tide………………………………………….
by Jeremy Bush
Sight………..…………………………………………
by Matt Nord
The God Seeker……………………………………….
by Ken Goldman
Pitter, Patter……………………………………………
by Lorraine Horrell
The Possession………………………………………..
by Marius Dicomites
Karma Kiss…………………………………………….
by Matt Nord
Yesterday’s Hero………………………………………
by Jamal K. Luckett
Bully……………………………………………………
by Douglas Hackle
In the Dark, Moist Soil…………………………………..
by Karime Limon
The Photograph………………………………………..
by Cassie Shaver
Blood is Thicker………………………………………..
by Matt Nord
Thanksgiving Break……………………………………
by C.H. Potter
Simon Kendrick………………………………………..
by T.W. Brown
Hair……………………………………………………..
by Matt Nord
Homeward Bound………………………………………
by Tony Schaab
Dead Haiku……………………………………………..
by Matt Nord
Urban Cleansing………………………………………..
by Suzanne Robb
Strigoi…………………………………………………..
by Mihai Boc
A Friend for Jeffrey……………………………………..
by Ben Langhinrichs
Dead Haiku……………………………………………..
by Matt Nord
Shit House Poet…………………………………………
by Mike Mitchell
No Cause for Alarm…………………………………….
by Michael S. Gardner
Collaboration of the Dead Teaser Chapters
Chapter 1………………………………………………….
by Matt Nord
Chapter 2………………………………………………….
by T.W. Brown
Chapter 3………………………………………………….
by GNBraun
Chapter 4………………………………………………….
by Zombie Zak
Chapter 5………………………………………………….
by Stephanie Kincaid
Hunger
By Matt Nord
You can't even understand
the hunger I feel.
The need to feed
is too great to deny.
The flesh is soft,
the blood flows over my lips.
Satisfaction
for another night.
Animal Magnetism
By Patrick D’Orazio
“The cabin is another ten miles,” Betty said, peering at the map.
Aaron smirked. “That thing isn’t a cabin, it’s an estate.”
Aaron ignored the exasperated look on his wife’s face as they rolled down the road. Her stepdad’s cabin was perfect. It was remote, had all the amenities of home, and no one from his work knew about it.
Aaron glanced in the rearview mirror at the kids. Sarah was staring out the window, listening to her iPod, while Katie and Zack were arguing over whatever Nintendo DS game they were playing.
Shifting his eyes back to the road, Aaron scanned the hills surrounding them. They’d been on the road for the past four hours, and the farther they got from civilization, the better he felt. Even with the certainty that no one was following them, Aaron couldn’t help feeling nervous about their narrow escape.
Betty reached over to grip his hand. He responded with what he hoped was a confident smile.
“Everything’s going to be okay.”
Aaron fought to keep his smile in place. He wasn’t the only one who was nervous. Betty was just doing a better job of hiding it.
“No one will find us at the cabin.”
Aaron nodded and squeezed Betty’s hand. “I know, but you don’t understand how determined those guys are. They put the entire lab on lockdown, and-”
“-and shame on them for letting you sneak out,” she whispered. Aaron was surprised by the bold statement. He looked at the rearview mirror again, but the kids weren’t paying them any attention.
“Look, honey, I’m sure you think you know what’s going on, but I haven’t told you everything.”
“I know enough, Doctor Caldwell. I married a research scientist working for a lab that has contracts with the Department of Defense. And even though you try keeping me in the dark, don’t you think I’ve picked up on a few things over the years?”
Aaron’s mouth remained shut. They’d been married for twenty, years and Betty could read him like a book. Still, how much could she know about his most recent project? He hadn’t let anything slip, he was sure of it.
“It’ll be okay, honey. Arthur Biochemical can’t hold you prisoner, and they won’t chase after you. It’s not like the company has the resources to do something like that anyway.”
Aaron’s face went pale and his hand limp in his wife’s grasp. He kept his eyes on the road as he took a steadying breath.
“Aaron?” Betty asked quietly, but he didn’t look at her for fear of what his eyes might reveal.
***
Aaron shot up in bed as screams ripped through his sleep. Fumbling with the lamp, he blinked through its bright glare as he stared at his wife, who was swatting desperately at her arms and legs.
“Honey, what’s-”
“They’re all over me!” Betty cried out as Aaron’s blurry vision cleared.
Dozens of tiny red bugs swarmed up and down her arms and across her chest. They were scattered across her silk nightgown, and more scurried across the sheets in an effort to get to her exposed skin.
Aaron reacted quickly, swatting at the pests on Betty’s face and arms. She screamed again as they crawled over her soft flesh. An array of tiny red welts bloomed on Betty’s arm and neck.
“They’re biting me!” Betty howled as they smashed and swiped at the bugs, turning them into a mushy pulp.
Aaron could see more of the red marauders climbing the bedposts.
“Get off the bed!”
Betty slid across the sheets, exposing more of the bugs as the covers fell to the ground. There were hundreds, and they looked like tiny cockroaches.
As they stood in the doorway of the bedroom, still swatting at the remaining hitchhikers, Aaron examined one of the insects close up.
“They’re bedbugs,” he said, his voice filled with surprise.
“They’re disgusting is what they are! I can’t believe the cabin is infested with them,” Betty wailed, rubbing at the phantom echo of skittering legs on her now-clear skin. Aaron traced the path of the vermin, which had come into the room through the cracked window next to Betty’s side of the bed.
“I don’t understand this. They usually hide when you turn on the lights.”
Betty glared at Aaron, and his scientific curiosity evaporated. He led her out of the room, slamming the door shut behind them.
“Sorry, honey. It’s just strange to see pests like that acting so bold. Usually you don’t even see them when they bite you, because they disappear before you ever feel it.”
As they turned from the bedroom door and headed for the couch in the spacious living area, they were startled to see a dark shape standing next to one of the kids’ bedroom doors. Aaron was the first to recover from the surprise and realize it was Katie.
“Honey, everything’s okay. Sorry if Mom woke you up, but she had a nightmare. Go back to bed.”
His arms still wrapped around his wife, Aaron led Betty to the couch. She kept looking over at their twelve year old, who hadn’t reacted to Aaron’s command.
“Sweetheart, what’s wrong? Mommy and Daddy are fine. You can go back to sleep … Katie?”
Betty switched on the lamp beside the couch. As light chased away the shadows, Katie’s parents gasped in horror.
“What the hell?” Aaron whispered.
Katie stood perfectly still, as if in shock, a vacant, catatonic look in her eyes. Smears of blood darkened her cotton pajamas.
“Katie!” Betty screamed as both parents launched themselves at their daughter.
“Katie, are you all right?” Aaron yelled as he grasped his daughter by the arms and shook her. When he did, he noticed rivulets of blood running down her hand. The breath went out him as he discovered a ragged bite wound on his daughter’s wrist.
Betty saw the oozing blood a split second after Aaron did.
“Dear God, what happened? What did this to her?!”
Aaron ignored his wife’s frantic wailing as he clamped his hand across the slick wound and felt loose, shredded skin slipping and sliding beneath his grasp.
“We need to get a bandage on this before she loses more blood,” Aaron said, clasping his daughter’s wrist tight with both hands.
Betty gripped Katie’s face between her hands and stared into her eyes, a look of frantic desperation on her face.
“Baby, this is your mommy. Tell me what did this to you,” she pleaded with the stiff-limbed girl.
“Betty, listen carefully,” Aaron interrupted as his heart threatened to pound right out of his chest. “I can’t let go of her wrist. You have to go get the first aid kit. Get some bandages … or even some towels. We need to stop the bleeding now.”
But Betty wasn’t listening. She was focused on Katie’s eyes, which had begun moving sluggishly in their sockets.
“Katie! Oh thank God! Katie, tell mommy that you’re okay, please!”
“Baby? Are you okay?” Aaron chimed in.
Katie’s eyes rolled in Aaron’s direction, and her lips curled upward into a strange smile. Before he could react, Katie twisted out of Aaron’s blood-slickened grasp and tackled Betty, a maniacal laugh escaping her lips as mother and daughter collapsed to the floor. Aaron watched, stunned, as Katie’s head bobbed forward and her jaw snapped closed. There was a sudden intake of breath, then a sharp scream.
Aaron sprang into action, grabbing his daughter as she pummeled her mother with balled fists and howled like a loon.
Grabbing Katie and wrestling her away from Betty was surprisingly easy. She came up fast as her body contorted with laughter.
Katie reached back with one bloody hand and scratched at her father’s face. Aaron avoided the swipes as he wrestled the twelve year old to the couch.
“Mom? Dad? What’s going on? What’s wrong with Katie?”
Aaron heard Sarah’s voice over Katie’s muffled laughter as she bucked and convulsed beneath him. He struggled to gain control of Katie’s hands as her blood saturated the cushions.
“Help your mother!” was all Aaron could spit out as he put a forearm across Katie’s throat and snatched at her flailing arms.
Sarah cried out when she discovered Betty on the floor. Aaron heard crying and panicked voices and looked across the room. As he suspected, Zackary was standing in front of his bedroom door, looking lost and frightened.
“Zack! Get some towels out of the bathroom!” Aaron bellowed.
The commanding voice got the timid boy moving, and he returned with some towels a moment later. Aaron held Katie with one hand and snatched a towel with the other.
He spent the next minute or so working to wrap the towel around his daughter’s bloody wrist as she growled and convulsed on the couch. Aaron had no idea how he managed to complete the task without getting bitten or scratched. When he was done, he looked over at Zack, who was staring, dazed, at his sister.
“Zack … ZACK! Listen to me: go pull the sheet off your bed and bring it to me. Do it, now!”
The boy hesitated as his eyes shifted to his father. After a moment, he recovered and bobbed his head before returning to his room.
“Get off of me, you cocksucker!”
Aaron almost lost control of her as he heard her curse. Katie’s head twisted around beneath him as he stared at her, mouth agape. Obscene laughter poured from her lips as she winked at her father.
“Unless you would rather do nasty things your little baby doll, Daddy. Is that what you want to do?” she asked with an uncharacteristic leer.
Aaron could only stare as he his stomach curdled. He could not comprehend the trash coming out of his baby girl’s mouth.
“Shut up, Katie,” was all he could hiss as her struggles continued. Katie’s only response was to giggle like a mental patient.
A moment later, as Zack offered the bed sheet to his father, Aaron shifted Katie around so her rear end was in the air and her mouth was muffled by the couch cushion. Wrestling her arms behind her back, he grabbed the sheet from his son. Even as she continued to squirm and curse, Aaron managed to mummy wrap the child with it, binding her arms and legs to her sides. Once he had the sheet secure, he hoisted her off the couch, laying her on the floor.
Quivering, Aaron looked away from his younger daughter and wasn’t surprised to see Sarah and Betty gaping at him from a few feet away. Sarah held a blood-spattered washcloth up to Betty’s chin.
“Dad, is Katie okay?” Sarah asked in a trembling voice.
Aaron took a calming breath before he spoke.
“She’s fine. I think she got bitten by some animal. She’ll be-”
“Sarah,” interrupted Katie from where she lay on the floor. “You better stop spreading your legs for Bobby Maxell or everyone is going to know how much of a whore you are.”
Aaron squinted in confusion at the outburst as Sarah’s face turn crimson with embarrassment. Before he could absorb what Katie had said, Sarah dropped the blood-soaked rag she was holding and turned to face Betty, her face tinged with disbelief.
“You promised—you promised you wouldn’t tell anyone if I stopped seeing him!” Sarah screamed.
Aaron stared at the small bite mark on his wife’s face, too stunned to comprehend what had just happened. It doesn’t look that bad was all he could think as Sarah stormed into her bedroom and slammed the door.
“Sarah, I never said anything, I swear!” Betty cried out as Katie cackled like an evil witch.
Aaron could feel the vein in his temple throb as it always did in high-pressure situations. It was beating like a jungle drum at the moment.
He watched Betty stand and stumble to Sarah’s bedroom door. Slamming her hand against it while jiggling the knob, she cried out again, pleading with the sixteen year old.
“Honey! HONEY!” Aaron interrupted after listening to her tearful cries for a few moments. “We have a situation here.”
Betty turned, blood dripping from her chin. There was a wild look in her eyes, filled with desperation and pain. As Aaron tried to maintain control of his squirming daughter, he spied Zack running back to his bedroom, perhaps in an effort to escape the madness that was swiftly claiming the cabin. He couldn’t blame the kid.
“Get me something to gag her with!” Aaron yelled.
As Betty stared, Katie leaned up and spit a wad of blood in Aaron’s face.
“Look at how badly you screwed me up, Dad! I’m going to call children’s services on your ass!” Katie howled with glee.
Katie’s cursing snapped Betty out of her reverie. She rushed to the kitchen sink and retrieved a dishtowel.
“Hold her shoulders,” Aaron commanded when she brought the towel to him. Once Betty had a firm grip, Aaron worked the cloth around Katie’s head. It took a few minutes, but he was able to force the fabric into her mouth and tie it off.
Aaron admired his handiwork. Katie continued to struggle, but the gag held and would prevent more outbursts. As he tried to catch his breath, he watched the devious gleam in his daughter’s eyes.
“This has something to do with the lab, doesn’t it?”
Aaron couldn’t look at Betty. He felt his wife’s eyes burrowing into him, judging him, as he tried to think of something to say. A cold trickle of sweat ran down his back.
Betty waited, and each second that ticked by felt like an eternity to Aaron.
“It’s true, isn’t it? This happened because of whatever you were working on.”
Aaron shook his head and kept his eyes fixed on Katie. “All I know is something bit her … I don’t know anything else at this point.”
There was no passion in the words, no sincerity. Aaron had always found it impossible to lie to Betty. The truth was he suspected the same thing. This must have something to do with that godforsaken XG23 gas they had been cooking up in the lab.
Stumbling backwards, his wife dragged her bruised and battered body over to a kitchen chair and slumped into it.
“Oh my God. We’ve been exposed to whatever it was you were working on. We’ve all been exposed.”
Aaron’s head whipped around, his face pinched with anger.
“Look, whatever’s happening we have to remain calm. Going into hysterics isn’t going to help anyone.”
Realizing that getting angry would only make things worse Aaron took a steadying breath and looked back down at Katie. Her face was pale from blood loss, and her eyes were dilated. She muttered around the gag as she grew weaker by the moment. Blood from her wounded wrist seeped through the towel and sheet.
“We have to get some real bandages for Katie’s wrist before she loses any more blood.”
While Betty sat crying in the kitchen, Aaron’s mind raced. How in the hell did Katie get dosed with XG23? He hadn’t been exposed at work, so how had his daughter? She was showing all the symptoms …
“I think there’s a first aid kit in the bathroom,” Betty said a few moments later. She wouldn’t look at him, but he still felt relieved, as if he had received a stay of execution. He watched as Betty hoisted herself out of the chair and walked toward the bathroom.
“Daddy?”
Aaron turned to see Zack standing in his bedroom doorway, twisting his hands together like he always did when he was frightened.
“Everything will be okay, buddy. Just go back to bed.”
As he spoke, Aaron wondered if Zack could detect lies in his voice as easily as Betty could.
“No, Dad, it’s not that. I heard something outside … weird noises.”
Aaron stared at his son, his eyes narrowing in confusion. There was far too much going on to absorb this new information.
And that was when he heard it too. The chirrup of crickets and other night dwellers mixed with the wind whispering through the branches of the trees, but there was something else … something creeping around out there, pushing through the underbrush, snapping fallen branches underfoot.
The fear Aaron had felt when he first looked into the crazed eyes of his daughter increased exponentially.
They’ve found us.
It made sense. Arthur Biochemical had hired some shady characters once they’d gotten the latest contract with the D.O.D. They’d followed them here and dosed his daughter with XG23.
Glancing at Katie to confirm that she was still immobile, Aaron moved toward his bedroom. Hesitating for only a second, he threw the door open.
Bedbugs were everywhere.
Covering his mouth and nose, Aaron strode across the floor toward the suitcase at the end of the bed, doing his best to ignore the crunching underfoot. The sensation of bugs crawling over his feet and sliding underneath the elastic band of his sweats was impossible to ignore, but he managed to reach the closed bag and unzip it, launching the bugs that had been crawling on it across the room.
As he dug through the clothing in the bag, Aaron ignored the first few bites, but as they came in greater numbers, he began to panic. The bites were burning by the time he found what he was looking for. Aaron snatched up the revolver, sliding it into the waistband of his sweats, and then retrieved the box of bullets.
It took everything Aaron had to not run screaming from the room. The escape took seconds but felt like an eternity as he gritted his teeth to avoid crying out in pain. Once he was outside the door and had swatted away the last of the vermin, he could feel the tackiness of the mashed bugs on the bottom of his feet. It was a gross sensation, but the smell was even worse.
Looking up, he saw Zack staring at him. Betty was nowhere to be seen.
“Get a towel and jam it underneath my bedroom door,” was all Aaron said as he moved to kitchen table. “And find me a flashlight.”
Aaron’s hands shook as he dumped the box of cartridges out on the table. He carefully slid bullets into the cylinder of the .357 Magnum, ignoring his son’s movements and Betty’s shadow as she returned from the bathroom.
When Zack offered Aaron a flashlight, he snatched it out of his son’s hands without looking at him.
“Aaron, what’s going on?”
Ignoring his wife’s inquiry, Aaron walked to the single lit lamp in the room and clicked it off.
“Aaron?” she repeated, sounding frightened and puzzled.
“Go back to your room, Zack, and shut your door,” was all Aaron said as he moved toward the front door of the spacious cabin.
Turning, Aaron saw his wife’s silhouette as moonlight trickled into the room from the windows at the front of the cabin.
Before she could say anything else, he raised a finger to his lips to shush her and continued his trek to the front door.
Squinting out a window, Aaron scanned the dense mass of trees surrounding the cabin. He could see their Explorer parked next to the cabin. Nothing looked out of place.
Aaron blinked and refocused on a spot beyond the tree line, where something flickered in the moonlight. His heart raced as he tried to guess at what he saw.
Sliding the gun back into his waistband, Aaron grabbed the doorknob. The sound of the door creaking open echoed through the cabin as he stepped outside.
Aaron aimed the flashlight for the trees, bracing himself as he flicked it on and scanned the pines that stretched for miles around the property.
For a moment, there was nothing, but as the light glided across the open area around the cabin, something among the trees reflected the light back. Pulling the revolver out, Aaron pointed it and the flashlight in that direction.
It was a deer, its irises glowing in the artificial light.
His nerves fried, Aaron panned the light around again and caught the glint of more eyes. There had to be at least five or six deer sliding through the thick grass.
A jittery laugh broke free of Aaron’s lips as he let the flashlight’s beam dip to the ground. He shook his head at his own paranoia. But then the sound of more snapping underbrush caused Aaron to raise the flashlight again. The herd of deer was moving into the clearing, and it looked like there were more than five or six.
At that moment, another sound, distinct in the crisp night air, raised the hairs on the back of Aaron’s neck. It was a wolf’s howl.
“Damn, that was close.”
But it wasn’t the wolf’s cry that captured his attention. The deer were continuing their journey toward the cabin, and Aaron’s eyes were drawn to the buck out front. He had never been a hunter, but knew enough to know this was a ten-point buck staring him down.
Another howl ripped through the night air, and this time it was closer than before. There were other sounds, more movement in the trees deeper in the forest. The crack of splintering branches sounded like hundreds of firecrackers going off.
Aaron inched backward toward the cabin. Whatever was out there smashing through the underbrush was bigger than a deer or a wolf. He shone the flashlight deeper into the woods and saw several trees bend and sway as something smashed through them.
As he watched the trees, he heard a strange snorting noise. Aaron directed the flashlight back to the big buck, which had moved well past the clearing and was now standing twenty feet from the cabin. Aaron’s eyes widened in disbelief as it pawed at the ground like a bull getting ready to charge.
Stumbling back, Aaron grabbed for the cabin door as the animal launched its massive bulk forward. He managed to slam the door shut just before the four-hundred-pound beast rammed into it.
There was a cracking sound as antlers shattered, then a thunderous boom as the thick oak door rattled in its frame.
Aaron stood in shock, unable to do or say anything as he heard snorts and bleating calls of rage outside. Someone screamed behind him, but he couldn’t react to it as he heard more hoof beats beyond the door.
A shower of glass rained inward as the head of a doe came crashing through one of the windows.
Looking on in stunned amazement as the doe screeched angrily at him, Aaron watched the creature twist its neck around in the jagged hole, gashing its throat over and over as it tried to force its way in.
Aaron blinked as more heavy bodies smashed into the front wall of the cabin. The structure vibrated with the weight of the beasts, but Aaron couldn’t take his eyes off the enraged doe, whose blood gushed down shattered panes of glass as she continued to twist and contort.
The gun erupted in Aaron’s hand, and the doe’s left eye evaporated in a mist of blood and bone. He fired again and the animal slid out the window, leaving a trail of gore behind.
There was a ringing in his ears, but Aaron could still hear cries of panic coming from his family. Louder still was the cacophony of animal grunts and growls as more beasts plowed through the forest in their quest to reach the cabin. As the ringing subsided, Aaron could hear what he thought were wolves, bears, and even the hooting of owls as they approached.
Before he could comprehend the insanity closing in like a noose around his neck, a hand gripped Aaron’s arm and spun him around.
“What’s going on? Aaron, what’s happening?” Betty cried. Sarah and Zack were slumped in a far corner, clutching at one another, screaming in terror as each new animal assault rattled the walls around them.
Sweat poured down Aaron’s forehead as Betty continued screaming, demanding an explanation. The sound of more shattering glass came from the windows at the front of the cabin and from the bedrooms as well.
“It’s jumped species,” was all the research scientist could say as the realization came crashing down on him.
It made no sense. XG23 was only supposed to affect those who breathed it in, but Aaron knew his daughter had been contaminated and somehow transmitted it to the wildlife around the cabin. It still didn’t explain exactly what was happening, but there was no other explanation.
Before Betty could do more than squint in confusion at Aaron’s response, there was loud cracking noise and an animal roar that sounded like it had billowed up from the pits of Hell.
Aaron turned in time to see the wood on the front door splinter as something massive slammed into it. He raised the revolver, ready to pull the trigger on whatever demon was on the other side.
On the second hit, the deadbolt snapped and the door swung in, slamming against the wall. The huge black shape silhouetted in the doorway seemed to fill Aaron’s vision. It was a black bear. With eyes glowing in the moonlight, it dropped to all fours and charged. As Aaron took aim with the Magnum, his bladder let go, and warm liquid saturated his legs.
Aaron pulled the trigger as the bear, white froth dripping from its maw, lumbered at him. The man emptied the gun, pumping four bullets into the monster’s hide.
As the gun clicked dry, Aaron closed his eyes, bracing himself for the brutal assault. All he felt was the floorboards shuddering as the bear collapsed in a pile at his feet.
Before he could recover, Aaron heard the roar of more animals outside.
He rushed past the large, cooling corpse, and slammed the door shut. Just as he did, something heavy slammed into it.
“Get me something to barricade the door!” Aaron screamed.
The sound of still more shattering glass elicited a groan from the beleaguered man. Aaron was exhausted and drenched in sweat, blood, and piss, and all he could do was helplessly watch as Sarah moved into action, heading toward the nearest bookshelf. Aaron spied his son staring at him from across the room, his eyes as wide as silver dollars. Betty was stooped over Katie, apparently tending to her wounds.
“Zack, make sure all the doors to the bedrooms are shut. We can’t let anything into this room!”
The boy jumped to attention as more shards of glass fell into the cabin from windows on both sides of the door. The howls of animal rage outside made Aaron feel like the walls were closing in.
He tensed as the door jolted against him again. It felt like someone was taking a baseball bat to the small of his back, but Aaron doubted the animal on the other side of the door was very big. If it were the size of that buck that had first attacked, he would be flattened already. His best guess was that a wolf was the culprit.
As his children rushed about the room, following his commands, Aaron could hear a strange sound up on the roof, like small missiles exploding on the shingles. It must be birds. A half-crazed laugh escaped Aaron’s lips as tears blurred his vision. Even the birds had gone mad.
“Here, help me!” Sarah grunted as she dragged the old wooden bookshelf toward him. Books lay scattered across the length of the cabin. Aaron grabbed the end of the bookshelf. Pulling as his daughter pushed, he helped her work the monstrosity into place.
Leaning against the makeshift barrier, the two of them panted with exhaustion. The door vibrated again, but whatever was on the other side couldn’t budge the bookshelf.
“The doors are all shut,” Zack called from across the room. The boy looked terrified, but coherent. Aaron tried a feeble smile on for size, but Zack didn’t return it.
Sarah’s sharp scream jolted Aaron as something else smashed into one of the front windows. Snatching at her arm, he dragged her further into the room, away from the immediate danger.
“We have to barricade the windows! Look in the kitchen cabinets for a hammer and some nails and start breaking apart the tables and chairs.”
The words sounded rational and sane in Aaron’s mind, but as Sarah cried next to him, he wondered how they sounded to everyone else.
“Dad, what’s happening? What’s going on?”
Aaron ignored Sarah for a moment as he rushed past Betty, still on the floor with Katie, toward the kitchen table. He swallowed hard as he grabbed at the scattered bullets.
“I don’t …” he hesitated as he loaded new rounds into the gun. “I don’t know honey,” he lied. “All I know is that we need to make it to dawn. If we can hold out until then, everything will be fine.”
Even as he spoke, Aaron knew he was making no sense. Nothing from his experiences at the lab indicated there was any change in behavior with subjects exposed to XG23. All Aaron knew was that he couldn’t tell his daughter the truth.
“Why don’t we call 911?”
Aaron turned to look at Zack. The boy was next to the end table where the only phone in the cabin sat. With no cell coverage out here, the phone was their only connection to the outside world.
Aaron couldn’t think of a good excuse to feed his son. He had no doubt that his employer had the phone line tapped.
“I’ll tell you why.”
Aaron looked over at Betty, who was rising up from next to Katie. When his wife looked at him, Aaron’s blood ran cold.
The blood was still dripping down her chin, but the wound was worse than before, as if Betty had been picking at it. She raised a bloody finger and pointed it at her husband.
“You did this to us, you bastard. You caused this to happen, and now you don’t want the rest of the world to know about the damnation you’ve brought down upon us all.”
Aaron wanted to protest his wife’s condemning words, but as he saw the crazed grin on her face and froth dripping from her lips, he knew the truth.
“God, Betty, not you too …”
“Sorry sweetheart, but I am getting really tired of your bullshit. So I think I’ll just rip your balls off with my teeth to teach you a lesson, okay?”
Betty’s eyes twitched as she crept toward Aaron.
“Betty, please stop,” Aaron whimpered, raising the revolver as his wife growled at him.
“You coward,” Betty snarled. “You don’t have the guts to shoot me!”
The rest of her words were garbled as the children screamed and Betty charged at her husband.
Aaron’s finger twitched on the trigger of the Magnum as Betty flew forward, but she was right. He couldn’t shoot her. They fell into a pile, crashing to the floor.
Aaron howled in pain as Betty’s teeth sank into his arm while her knee slammed into his thigh. He contorted in an effort to protect himself as his children’s confused screams rained down on him. The couple twisted and turned on the floor, rolling around as Aaron desperately tried to get the upper hand against the homicidal woman gnashing and clawing at him. It wasn’t until he raised the gun and bashed it into the side of Betty’s head that her assault stopped.