Saturday: August 1, 2020
Emma awoke around noon to a terrible pounding in her head. The migraine hadn’t gone away. If anything, it was ten times worse. She groaned as she pulled herself out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. She didn’t remember her dream. She didn’t remember much of anything. When she turned on the light, her head exploded with pain and she thought she might throw up.
She stared into the medicine cabinet’s mirror and was shocked at how bad she looked. Her hair was stringy and her complexion sallow. Gingerly, she opened the cabinet and looked for her migraine medication. There was none left. She sighed heavily and went back to her room. Emma knew she was supposed to stay home but she desperately needed her medicine. Normally, she would have called her mother as they had agreed, but Emma’s mind was foggy and she felt this urgent need to get out of the house.
As she struggled to put on her jeans, Emma wondered if she should ask someone to drive her into town. Never in a million years would she have asked Cody, especially considering how sick she looked, but it seemed like a good idea now. She really shouldn’t go out alone. She grabbed her phone and sent him a text.
“Hey, this is Emma. Would you drive me into town so I can get my medicine?”
Cody immediately replied, “Sure, when do you need to go?”
“Now,” Emma typed.
“I’m on my way.”
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Cody eased the car into Emma’s driveway and smiled at the thought of her calling him so soon. He liked Emma. Sure, she may not have been the prettiest girl at school but she was very intelligent and unfailingly kind – two characteristics that Cody appreciated. He wondered why he had waited so long to talk to her.
His smile faded quickly as he saw Emma stumble down the driveway. She looked terrible. Her hair was damp and tangled, her skin a sickly yellow. When she got into the car, he saw that her eyes were bloodshot.
“Are you ok?” Cody asked with genuine concern.
Emma nodded woodenly and said hoarsely, “Drive.”
Cody said nothing as he pulled into the street and headed toward the store. He wasn’t sure what to say. Emma looked very sick. Perhaps he should take her to a doctor instead.
As if reading his mind, Emma said, “I’m fine. I just have a migraine.”
A few minutes later they pulled into the ShopMart parking lot. Cody parked in a disabled spot, something he would never normally do. He didn’t think Emma would be able to walk very far. He opened her door and helped her get out of the car. Her skin was on fire and growing more yellowish orange by the minute. He knew something was terribly wrong.
“Emma, you’re really sick,” he said with concern. “Let me take you to a doctor.”
Emma shook her head. “I need my...think of this…”
Cody took her gently by the shoulders and looked straight into her eerie eyes. “This isn’t just a migraine. Your skin is yellow. You’re burning up!” He brushed a lock of her damp hair aside and begged, “Please, let’s go the hospital.”
Angrily, Emma pushed him back and growled, “Canceling Christmas!”
He was shocked at her attitude and her gibberish. He didn’t know Emma as well as he would have liked but he did know that she had a reputation for being considerate of other people’s feelings. She must really feel bad to jump all over him like this. He felt as if he were on the edge of a cliff – as if this choice would affect him for the rest of his life. Should he respect Emma’s wishes or rely on his judgment? If he took her to the hospital, she might never forgive him. But if he didn’t, she might die.
“I’m taking you to the hospital,” he insisted.
Emma stared at him blankly, her eyes unfocused and her mouth opened in a wide, stupid grin. “You have to go, you know, to go to the pharmacy, there are a lot of very smart people and you have to do it. Think of it…won’t have a town.”
She exhaled a cloud of orange dust right into his face. Cody choked as the pollen-like particles quickly filled his nose and lungs. He tried to cough up the powdery substance but only succeeded in breathing in more of it. As he stumbled backward, Emma grabbed him with sudden strength, shoved him into the passenger’s seat of the car, and slammed the door. He wouldn’t be bothering her again.
Satisfied, she slowly staggered into the store.
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Tess Lee smiled as she checked out the last customer, more than ready for her one o’clock lunch hour. She was a pharmacy assistant at ShopMart where she worked during the summers. She was about to start her third year at Easthallow. She couldn’t wait to start medical school and become a full-fledged pharmacist. Like her little sister, Jazmine, she had no problem working for what she wanted.
Tess had heard about the incident at the lake so she was alarmed to see Emma shuffling down the aisle toward the pharmacy. She didn’t look well at all. If Tess hadn’t known about the girl’s accident, she would have said it was zombie makeup. The light orange skin and weird gait would have fit in perfectly at a Halloween party.
Emma stepped up to the register and said, “Migraine.”
Tess could feel Emma’s feverish skin from across the counter. She took one look at the girl’s jaundiced, bloodshot eyes and replied softly so no one else would hear. “Emma, are you sick? Let me call your mom.”
“No!” Emma shouted, glaring at Tess. “I need it - almost a cleaning…”
Tess was taken aback by the nonsense. “Huh?”
“Take a look,” Emma frowned. “Nobody has done more…”
Tess said, “Let me call someone to come get you. You need to see a doctor.” Without waiting for a reply, she picked up the phone.
Emma continued, “When did you become…a black person?”
Once again, her mouth opened wide and blew another stream of orange dust into Tess’s face. Tess gasped as the cloud quickly sought out her nose and mouth, too fast for anyone else to see. She dropped the phone and fell to the floor. As two of Tess’s fellow assistants rushed to her side, Emma smiled and walked away.
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A few seconds later, she reached the clearance aisle. A middle-aged couple was sifting through the items. Emma ambled over to them and began to speak.
“It could have been negotiated,” she croaked.
The lady turned to her and, startled by the girl’s odd appearance, took a step back. The man looked at Emma quizzically and said, “What?”
Emma continued, “No more cows.” More orange particles began congealing in her throat, waiting eagerly to infect its next victim.
“I’m sorry,” the man replied sternly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you all right?”
“I’m talking about the clearance...and I could have done it easily but your… he couldn’t get it done.” Emma opened her mouth wide and sprayed the couple with another cloud of orange dust. She didn’t wait for them to inhale it. The particles would find their mark.
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The Electronics department was empty except for Mateo Garcίa, who despised slow days like this one. They seemed to drag on forever. His head was buried in his phone so he didn’t see Emma until she was right in front of him. She placed her hands on the counter and leaned in.
“I know more about…more than even the ….” she rambled.
Mateo’s eyes went wide as he took in the girl’s disgusting form. She looked like a Cheeto with a scraggly mop of wet hair. “What are you supposed to be? Some kind of creepy clown?”
Emma rolled her eyes at him and said, “You can’t say it anymore. It’s not allowed.”
“What’s not allowed?” he frowned.
“Ellen Ripley,” she continued. “Congratulations.”
Mateo grimaced. “What are you even talking about?”
Emma opened her mouth wide. “Whoosh!”
She sprayed yet another orange cloud into Mateo’s face.
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Back at the pharmacy, Tess’s coworkers sprang into action. One called an ambulance while the other went for a bottle of water. Tess didn’t care about them. She didn’t care about anything. Ignoring their pleas, she opened the heavy security door and made her way to the parking lot where she found Cody’s car. He was sitting in the passenger’s seat, blankly staring ahead and waiting for instructions. Tess opened the back door and slid into the seat behind him. They exchanged no words. They didn’t need to. It wasn’t their job to think – only to obey.
Emma moved toward the front of the store with Mateo and the clearance couple in tow. She stopped at one of the aisles and took a large bottle of ketchup. As they reached the door, two EMTs rushed past them toward the back of the store. The group went straight to Cody’s car. Mateo climbed into the middle of the backseat. The man sat next to the door and the lady sat on his lap. Emma slid into the driver’s seat. She cranked the car and drove out of the ShopMart parking lot. While everyone was busy here, she would move on to the next target. She didn’t want anyone in the small town of Wickham to feel safe.
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A few minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot of Amy’s Diner and sat down at a large table. Kayla Miller worked here during the summer to earn extra money and she was in charge of that section of the diner today. She smiled as she approached their table and said, “Morning all. What can I get you today?”
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Her smile faded quickly as she took in Emma’s bizarre appearance. “Emma?” she whispered, her eyes going wide.
Emma nodded at her friend. “Very tough. Very smart.” She took a bottle of ketchup from the table and began squeezing the condiment directly into her mouth.
Kayla looked at the other customers curiously. She knew Cody and Emma, of course, Jazmine’s sister Tess, and the Hispanic guy was familiar – Mateo, she thought. She did not know the man and woman who were with them. They all looked strange - like mannequins. Her sense of self-preservation, the one thing she had honed to perfection during her harsh upbringing, screamed for her to run away.
Emma swallowed the ketchup, “It’s a witch hunt. No more bacon.”
“Why don’t I start you off with some coffee while you look at the menu, ok?” Kayla forced a smile and briskly walked into the kitchen so that Emma could not see. She grabbed her cell phone and dialed Jazmine, who answered on the second ring.
“What’s up, girl?”
Kayla kept her voice low and as steady as possible. “Jazmine, have you talked to your sister today?”
Jazmine replied, “No, she’s at work. Why?”
“How about Emma?” Kayla added, brushing past Jazmine’s question.
“I haven’t talked to either of them today,” Jazmine said. “Kayla, what’s going on?”
Kayla paused. What was going on? Was she getting all worked up about a stupid joke? That didn’t seem right. She could see Cody and Emma getting a bite to eat together but not with Tess, Mateo, and the other two people. And the way they had all behaved – all of them sitting there motionless except for Emma who was eating ketchup and spitting out word salad. Not normal…not normal at all.
“Kayla?” Jazmine repeated, clearly puzzled.
The answer burst out of Kayla, “They’re all here at the diner and they’re acting so weird and I don’t know what to do!”
Jazmine sighed. Kayla had a flair for the dramatic sometimes. “Slow your roll, girl. Start at the beginning.”
“Emma, Cody, Tess, that Hispanic kid in 10th grade, and a couple of strangers…they are all here at Amy’s,” Kayla said.
“Why would Tess be with them?” Jazmine wondered. “What are they doing?”
The cook walked by so Kayla put the phone closer to her lips and whispered, “They aren’t doing anything. Just sitting there. And Emma’s babbling…I can’t make sense of it.”
Her friend thought for a moment then said, “Maybe Emma’s concussion is worse than we thought.”
Kayla nodded, “Definitely, but I still don’t understand what’s going on with the rest of them.”
“Maybe they are just pranking you,” Jazmine suggested.
“Hold on,” Kayla breathed as she heard screams from the seating area. She peeked through the diamond window in the kitchen door.
Emma was standing over a young couple with a small baby. Kayla couldn’t make out any words but she stopped caring when she saw Emma open her mouth impossibly wide and blow orange dust into the air. The girl’s eyes widened as her friend continued to exhale more of the strange substance. Tess and Cody stood at the door so no one could get out. The unknown couple manhandled anyone who tried to escape. Mateo was missing.
Thinking quickly, Kayla opened the door just enough to get her phone outside. She recorded a brief video of the chaos then whispered again into the phone, “Emma’s spraying some kind of orange powder on everyone. Cody and Tess won’t let anybody leave.”
“What?” Jazmine asked unbelievingly.
Her friend gasped, “The orange stuff went into everybody’s noses and mouths! Then they became mannequins too.”
“Kayla,” Jazmine sighed, “this really isn’t funny.”
Kayla snapped, “It’s no joke. I’ve got it on video. Be there in in five!”
She picked up her keys and ran for the back door.
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Mateo positioned himself at the back of Amy’s Diner. He had orders to let no one out so, when Kayla Miller burst through the door, the boy immediately moved to stop her. He roughly took her arms and pushed her back into the kitchen. Kayla had no time to think - no time to consider the consequences of her actions. Above all else, she was a survivor. She seized a pan of hot grease and threw it at the boy. He screamed horribly and clutched his ruined face. Kayla shoved past him and got into her car. She whipped out of the parking lot and floored it on the highway. She couldn’t get to Jazmine soon enough.
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“Oh my god,” Jazmine whispered worriedly as she watched the short video of the attack at the diner. “I don’t believe it!”
Kayla nodded, “I don’t believe it either and I was there.”
Jazmine closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. As fearful as she was for her friend Emma, she was ten times more afraid for her sister. Tess was a no-nonsense kind of person. She would never ditch work and she would certainly never hurt anyone.
“What is that orange stuff?” Kayla wondered.
“I’m not sure,” Jazmine replied, “but look at the effect. Everyone she breathed on became zombie-like, just like Tess.”
“They wouldn’t let anyone escape,” Kayla shuddered. “And Mateo…he was at the back door when I tried to leave. I had to…” She began to cry.
Jazmine was shocked. She had never seen her friend this upset. “You had to what?”
“I threw hot grease in his face!” Kayla wailed. “He wouldn’t let me leave.”
“It’s ok,” Jazmine reassured her as she pulled Kayla into her embrace. “You didn’t have a choice.”
The two friends hugged until Kayla’s sobs became soft whimpers. The girl might have had a tough upbringing but she was no murderer.
Jazmine wondered what she should do. Her first instinct was to rush to the diner and confront Tess but something told her that wasn’t the right move. She also quickly discarded the notion of calling her parents. She didn’t want to involve them unless she had to.
“We’ll call 911,” Jazmine decided. “The police will know what to do.”
Kayla frowned, “Do we have to get them involved?”
Jazmine nodded, “I think we do. This is more than you and I can handle.”
“It’s just…” Kayla whispered, “I know how you feel about cops.”
Her friend sighed. It was true – Jazmine did not like dealing with the police. Too many black people had been killed for no good reason around the country. But she knew that not all cops were bad and that they were trained to deal with situations like this.
“We don’t have a better option,” she said. “I’m calling them now.”
Ten minutes later, Jazmine threw her phone across the room and let out an uncharacteristic yell. “They don’t believe me!”
“What did they say?” Kayla asked.
“That they didn’t appreciate my little prank,” Jazmine mimicked the dispatcher’s smartass tone. “That I should find something better to do with my time. That I could go to jail for tying up emergency lines.”
Kayla sighed, “It’s up to us then.”
Jazmine nodded, clearly worried. “What are we going to do?”
Kayla thought for a moment, “Do you have some those N95 masks?
“Yes, Tess brought home a bunch of them during Covid,” Jazmine nodded.
“Good,” Kayla breathed a sigh of relief. “Get a couple of them and wait for me.”
Jazmine looked at her, alarmed. “Where are you going?”
“To get something,” Kayla replied. For once in her life, she was glad that her big brother had taught her to shoot.
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Emma looked around the diner, satisfied with her progress. Everyone here was now under her control. It was time to start the real work. She turned to Cody and said, “Violent marbs.” The phrase would have meant nothing to anyone except her victims.
Cody walked to the kitchen and took a large cast-iron skillet from a nearby table. Mateo was on the floor howling in pain but Cody took no notice. He returned to the seating area and waited for Emma’s approval. She nodded, her mouth moving but no words coming out. Cody stepped to every zombified patron, including Tess, and hit them in the head with the heavy object, killing a couple of older people instantly and knocking the rest unconscious. They didn’t try to defend themselves. They were, above all else, obedient. If Emma wanted them to die, then they would gladly do it.
She turned to Cody, her head rolling around weirdly as if her neck were broken, and gave him one last instruction.
“Guard the potatoes…”
Cody nodded dumbly and reached for a large steak knife. When Emma walked out the door, he was sawing through an unconscious Tess’s neck.
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Kayla ran into her house and straight to the den where the gun cabinet stood. She quickly rifled through a nearby desk and found the key. Her hands were trembling so badly that she could barely unlock the thing. She chose a Glock 17 for herself and a Smith and Wesson M&P380 for Jazmine. The girl was pretty sure that Jazmine had never fired a gun in her life so she wanted to keep things simple. She grabbed ammo for both guns and whirled around only to bump into her father.
Henry Miller, “Sonny” to his friends, frowned at his daughter. He didn’t like people going through his things, especially his guns and knives. “What ya doin’ with my guns, little girl?” he growled. He took a swig of Johnny Walker Red from the bottle he held in his right hand and pushed Kayla back into the room with his left.
“I was just going to do a little target practice, daddy,” she said unconvincingly.
Henry nodded as if thinking it over, “Target practice, huh?” He took another drink. “Thought ya’s workin’ at the diner today.”
Kayla thought quickly, “I decided to work a half-shift.” It was just her luck that her father was home - and drunk as usual - instead of Andy.
“Half-shift?” Henry laughed. “Half-shift don’t pay no bills around here.” He stepped closer to her, glaring down at his daughter as if he couldn’t decide whether to hit her or kiss her. Either one was possible.
“I’m sorry, daddy,” she said, turning her head away should he try either. The smell of alcohol and stale cigarettes made her feel queasy. “I just needed to blow off some steam today. I’ll work a double tomorrow, I promise!”
Her father walked over to his favorite recliner and sat down, taking another drink from the almost empty bottle. “Better work two doubles. Ya gotta pay fer that ammo yer stealin’.”
The girl sighed with relief. She couldn’t believe she was getting off so lightly. She took a step toward the door.
“Don’t think I don’t know what yer really up to, girl,” her father slurred as he turned the TV on with his remote control.
Kayla froze. “Daddy?”
Henry’s scowl deepened. “You runnin’ around with that black girl again, ain’t ya?”
“Jazmine is my friend,” his daughter insisted. “She’s a good person.”
“She ain’t nothing but a ni…”
Kayla cut him off. “Don’t you say it, daddy! Don’t you dare say that word!”
Henry gulped down the last of the whiskey and slammed the empty bottle onto the coffee table. It was a miracle that the bottle didn’t break. He got up from his chair and staggered back over to the frightened girl.
“I’ll say whatever I want to in my own damn house!” he shouted in her face.
Kayla instinctively took a step back as her father closed in. Why had she picked today to challenge him about her friend?
Henry slurred, “My granddaddy was a Klansman, ya know. Put the fear o’God into tha’ filth.” He smiled as he remembered some of the stories that his grandfather, Charley Miller, had told him. Henry wished he had been born in that era. He would have given them all hell – blacks, Jews, Catholics, it made no difference. They were all scum to him.
“I know, daddy,” Kayla whispered, hoping to mollify him a bit.
“He’d be mighty disappointed that one o’his blood prefers the blacks to her own kind,” her father continued angrily. “Probly would beat yer ass for it.” He raised his fist and swung at his daughter’s face.
Kayla dodged him and ran for the front door. Rage turned to surprise and surprise turned to agony as his fist plowed right through the glass door of his gun cabinet. Blood streamed from the awful cuts on his hand and wrist.
Henry howled in pain, “Get back here, girl! Now I’m gonna beat yer ass!”
Kayla ignored him and got into her car. There would be hell to pay but she’d deal with that later. Right now, she had to give Jazmine a crash course on guns.
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Emma smiled as she heard the sirens from across town. Someone must have found her handiwork. Cody would take the fall for that little massacre. She was free to continue. She pulled the car into a church parking lot and hid behind the building. Her brain was swelling so she knew she only had about a day left. Tomorrow she would step up her game.
The infant in the car seat beside her let out a soft coo.