Days of Love and Blood

wasn’t so abnormal after all. Maybe I only needed to meet the right person.

    I went from spotty dreams to sudden awareness when I heard the familiar guttural voices. My eyes flung wide open and my body went rigid. I was lying in Ronan’s bed, facing the wall of the camper underneath the wide-view window. I could hear them just outside the R.V. They were moving, but in what direction I couldn’t tell. It took a few seconds to get a full grasp on the situation.
    Homicidals were outside; that was for sure. But they didn’t know we were here yet. If they did, the low mumblings would have evolved into tribal shrieks of war. Yet I was confused because the shifting sounds weren’t dying away into the distance. There was a constant shuffling of feet.
    I slowly lifted my head, careful not to make the slightest noise, and peered out the window. It was a herd of homicidals. They were just off the road in the field, right on the edge. Why they didn’t use the road - I had no idea. None of them were looking at the camper. They walked by, oblivious to our hideout.
    I lifted my neck and look ed in both directions. It was a huge herd. I couldn’t see the end of them in either direction. One giant homicidal procession. I wondered where they were going and how long ago the very start of the herd had passed by us.
    The loud flush of the toilet made me whip around and I became aware of his absence. Ronan . He wasn’t in bed with me. He didn’t know they were outside. The bathroom door opened and Ronan looked at me before letting his eyes wander to the movement outside the window. He froze.
    “Mom?” he whispered.
    “I know, baby.”
    “I think they heard me.”
    “Probably.”
    “ I didn’t know they were there,” he whimpered.
    I didn’t bother to look back through the window. Hesitation can kill you. I flung myself out of bed and ran full speed to the driver’s seat. As soon as the R.V. sprung to life, I heard the muffled screams of a dozen homicidals.
    “Hold on!” I screamed and pushed the accelerator to the floor with my foot. As long as we had velocity, we were untouchable. Then again, there were so many. This could cause some serious damage to the camper. My first concern was getting up to a good cruising speed. This old piece of junk took forever to gather momentum, like a tractor-trailer with a full load going up a hill.
    They began to move toward us. Slow at first - and then gaining, leaping out over the stone wall. In the rearview mirror I witnessed several homicidals fall out into the street behind us to take chase. Before I was able to look back toward our path, I felt a smash of someone rolling off the side of the camper. Then another. Within seconds there were at least five homicidals in our direct path, charging us.
    I kept my foot locked all the way down and smashed my way through the wall of disease. The R.V. lifted twice and bounced back down as we rolled over two bodies. We kept going, picking up pace along the way.
    I didn’t want to keep h itting them because it slowed the vehicle down. There was also the chance of losing a tire or cause irreparable damage, which was possible. And if I hit one hard enough, his body could be tossed upwards and break through the windshield. At least, that was the possibility I envisioned in my mind. I didn’t know if it could really happen.
    They were all moving into the street now , trying to thwart our escape. I veered to the left and tried to stay as far away as possible and for as long as possible. I could see the very beginning of the herd in the distance. As long as they all didn’t close in on us simultaneously, we would make it through.
    The camper shook again and again. It felt like they were throw ing rocks at us. Some might have been, but I knew it was from the impact of bodies hitting the side of the camper. I slammed into four more who were in the way. I was almost to the end of the line when the leading homicidals moved into the middle of the road. There were at least a dozen of them, forming a barrier. They held their weapons up high; bloody, open mouths hung low. They were screaming but I heard nothing. In that one moment things slowed to snail’s pace and my ears numbed to the sounds around me.
    I veered right and hit the wall at what I deemed to be its weakest point. The impact lifted me out of my seat and my head slammed into the oversized steering wheel. Before I could right myself, I felt the vehicle lift on the left side. Ronan