The First Days (As the World Dies 1)

How had he managed to get downstairs? There was so little left of him.

Lloyd always was a big eater…

She almost threw up and both hands flew up to cover her mouth.

Gagging, she stepped back from the door. Her body was trembling violently.

There was a loud clattering noise now, loud and painful to her hearing.

Covering her ears with her hands, she took another step back.

Why wouldn't it just all stop?

The clattering was louder now and her jaw hurt.

Oh, her teeth were chattering.

She closed her eyes, swaying.

Those tiny fingers…those tiny fingers…

Glass shattered and growls filled the cool morning air. Her eyes snapped open to see Mikey trying to push his way through the broken window.

"No, no, no…" She stumbled backward down the front steps and fell as her bare foot slipped on the slick dew-drenched grass.

Mikey continued to shove his way through the window and the glass ripping away his flesh. But he didn't seem to notice as growling and snarling he pushed his way through the shattered glass.

It was then she screamed. Screamed louder than she ever thought possible. Screamed like she should have when she had found Lloyd hunched over Benjamin, eating away her baby's tender flesh. Screamed like she should have as Lloyd had pursued her and Mikey down the stairs. Screamed like she should have when Mikey had turned back to try to defend her. Screamed like she should have when the front door slammed behind her and she realized she was alone.

She screamed until her voice died in her throat.

And still Mikey grunted and hissed as he slowly dragged his torn body through the window. Lloyd, blood-drenched and crazed, came up behind Mikey and fastened his vicious gaze on her. Determined, he began to crawl over his son, cracking and breaking the remaining glass out of the window frame.

Slowly, she stood. Her gaze strayed to the door.

Tiny fingers still searched for her.

Raising her hands, she pressed them against her face and watched as Lloyd and Mikey wiggled and jerked their way through the narrow window.

"Get in the truck now!"

She blinked.

"Get in the truck now!"

She turned slowly. An old, white battered truck sat on her perfectly manicured lawn just behind her. The engine was hot and grumbling.

Where had it come from?

"In! Now!"

She raised her gaze to see a tall, slim blond woman in a business suit and hunters jacket standing next to the truck with a shot gun in one hand. "Get in now!"

Looking back, she saw Mikey slip from the window, wet, bloody and battered. For a moment she remembered how he had looked when he had just been born. Her shriveled up little monkey boy.

After struggling to his feet, Mikey leaped forward.

It was then that she knew it was time to leave her family. Time to go. The money she had carefully squirreled away to provide her and the kids a new life would have to stay hidden in the closet. The suitcase she had packed for her and the kids for when she finally ran away to the women's shelter would have to remain in its hiding place in the attic.