Chapter 2 – Chap 2

The smell of bacon filled the house while I folded the eggs over on the second omelette. I opened the oven slid the tray of bacon out and onto a cooling rack.

Allie appeared at the entrance to the kitchen rubbing her eyes. “Bacon!” she said.

“And omelettes,” I added giving her a smile and hoping she wasn’t too scared from the events of last night. Of course, I was pretty scared, but I made sure to not let it show. I was anxious to go visit Mark to see what else he knew and to come up with a plan of action.

Allie grabbed the orange juice out of the fridge and filled up two glasses. She brought them over to the table and sat down.

“I think they’re good,” I said sliding the omelettes onto our plates. We ate together in silence, but Allie looked up and smiled at me when she was finished.

“Delicious breakfast, dad. Thanks!’

“No problem,” I said and then finished my last sip of coffee. “Let’s cleanup real quick and then go pay a visit to Mark. We’ll fill him in on our night, find out what he knows, and figure out what to do,” I said in an upbeat voice.

“Then can we help the Kinleys’?” Allie asked.

“I don’t know. Something has changed and I don’t know if it would be safe to try,” I said.

“There has to be something we can do,” Allie said in a shaky voice. She looked like she was about to cry.

“Let’s see what we find out after meeting with Mark and then we’ll decide what to do. I promise we’ll help them if we can.”

Allie slumped her shoulders and said “Okay.”  We cleaned up the kitchen and then got changed and ready for the day.

I grabbed our masks and we went in the garage to get our helmets and bikes.  It was a cool late summer morning with the sun still low in the sky. We went past all of the unkempt lawns and I shuddered at the thought of how many people in our neighborhood were probably just like Mr. kinley.  I wondered if it was like this everywhere and how it started. Hopefully Mark would have some answers.

“Dad watch out!” Allie yelled, pulling me from my thoughts.

“What is that!” I yelled as I slammed on the brakes and steered quickly toward the grass. I lost control and flipped over the handlebars tumbling onto the hard road and coming to rest in the tall grass. Allie came to a stop behind me and we both looked at the road in front of us. “Don’t look at it Allie!”

Her mouth hung open as she stared in horror. My whole body hurt while I slowly stood to block her view. A raccoon was lying in the middle of the road. Its lower half crushed from a car tire. It looked like it should have been dead, but it was trying to crawl away. As I continued watching it, it stopped and turned its head toward us. Then it started frantically trying to move in our direction. It slowly moved toward us dragging its smooshed hind legs behind it.

I limped over to my bike and carefully got back on. “Follow me. Let’s go way around it,” I told Allie. As we got closer it stopped again. It turned its head and started chewing at its ruined body. The crunching and tearing sounds made me want to throw up. I started talking loudly to try to drown out the noise. “We’re almost to Mark’s house. I wonder if he has any kids. We’ll stay outside and talk to him just to be safe.”

The noises died down once we went around it so I turned back to check on it again. The raccoon scurried rapidly forward without its ruined lower half and was starting to catch up with us. “Let’s race Allie,” I said.

“Okay! Ready, set, go!” she said and started pedaling fast.

I maintained the same speed as her and we began putting distance between what remained of the raccoon.  We turned down a couple more streets and then finally made it to Mark’s house.

We parked our bikes and I looked around to make sure the raccoon wasn’t still following us. I grabbed Allie’s hand before walking up to the front door. After knocking a few times we took a few steps back.

I looked over at Allie to make sure her mask was on right. She has adapted so well to all the changes from Covid just like she adapted after her mom died.  I wanted so bad for her to have a normal childhood and enjoy some carefree fun. All kids should have the opportunity to just be kids. To run around with their friends, use their imaginations, and explore and question the world around them.

After a long moment of waiting, Mark answered the door. Standing close by him was a woman holding what looked to be a two or three year old little girl.

“Good morning,” Mark said. “This is my wife Stacy and this is Anna.”  Anna had her face buried into Stacy’s shoulder.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Joe and this is Allie.”

“Hi,” said Allie, “Anna, how old are you?”

Ann lifted her head and gave a shy smile and then turned back towards Stacy.

“She will be three in a couple months,” said Stacy.  She kissed Anna on the top of her head.

“Do you want to come inside or would you feel more comfortable outside?” Mark asked.

“Let’s stay outside,” I said.

“Okay, I’ll meet you in the backyard by the fire pit,” said Mark

Allie and I walked around the side of the house. There was a distinct line between the freshly cut grass in this yard and the overgrown yard next door. As we got to the backyard, my heart dropped when I saw the big play structure in the neighbor’s yard along with a bunch of toys.

“Do you think the kids that live there are okay?” Allie asked me.

“Maybe they went up north,” I said, not wanting to tell her what I really thought. “A lot of families go up north in the summer.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Allie said.

I couldn’t tell if she really believed that or was trying to convince herself like I was. We went to the backyard and there were ten chairs spaced out around the fire pit. We pulled two close together and sat down.

Mark, Stacy, and Anna came outside. Stacy and Anna walked over to a water table and Anna started splashing around with some toys.

“Allie, why don’t you go over and play with Anna. But don’t get too close and keep your mask on,” I said.

“Okay,” she said and ran over to where they were.

Mark sat down a couple chairs away from me. “Do you still want to visit your next door neighbors?” he asked.

“No,” I said, “last night was rough. I screwed up,” I said looking down.

Mark looked concerned. “What happened?”

I told him about falling asleep and all the people trying to get in my house. When I told him about calling the police, he covered his face in his hands.

“Oh no, I should have warned you not to do that, but I didn’t even think of it,” he said. “If it hasn’t spread beyond our area, it is likely to now.”

“I’m sorry,” I said looking down at the ground.

“Hey it isn’t your fault, you’re just trying to protect your family just like the rest of us that haven’t changed,” he said.

“The rest of us? How many are still normal?” I asked.

“Well, we started with 18 chairs out here last week and I added two more for you this morning,” he said. “We’ve been meeting every night at 6:00 for the past ten days. I’m hoping there are a lot more that I’m not aware of, but I’m not getting my hopes up.”

“How did the numbers drop so fast?” I asked.

“Some people didn’t believe it was really happening,” he said, “I mean the rest of us agreed and laid it out there for them. All they had to do was take the right precautions. But some people are just too stubborn and won’t see the truth even when it is right in front of their eyes.” He shook his head and paused for a moment. “We lived next door to them for ten years…they were good neighbors. I wouldn’t think they would have been so bull-headed. And those poor kids never even had a choice…they were stick under their parents’ stupid beliefs. I tried to save them all that night…”

Rustling noises behind us cut him off mid-thought and drew our attention to the trees and bushes in the back of the yard. Two opossums emerged from the bushes and were walking toward us. “Get the girls inside!” Mark yelled over to Stacy.

Allie looked over at me and I nodded my head. She then ran inside with Stacy and Anna.

Mark and I were closer to the opossums than we were to the door to the house. If they started running at us, they were likely to get to us before we got to the door.

“I’ve never seen those during the daytime,” Mark said. “Do you think they can catch whatever that thing is?”

“Judging by the raccoon I saw on the way over here chewing half of its body off, I would say yes…and sorry, I didn’t get to that part of my story yet,” I said.

I looked around for something to use as a weapon. Mark was doing the same. With no good options around we each settled on a chair.  These were the big adirondack chairs so they were a little awkward to hold, but we didn’t have much choice. We backed up towards the deck as the opossums kept moving forward.

“What’s our plan here?” asked Mark.

“I was about to ask you the same thing…” I replied. “Hit it with the chair and run for it?”

They were only about ten feet away when I heard the door to the house slid open. I glanced back and Stacy was running out with a couple baseball bats. “Will these help?” she yelled.

“Yes, just throw them as far as you can!” Mark yelled back.

The opossums stopped and crouched back like they were going to pounce. “Do these things jump?” I asked. My question was quickly answered as one of the opossums leapt at me. I swung the chair and knocked it back to the ground. It landed on its back, but quickly rolled back over. There were a couple thumps behind us from the bats hitting the ground. I hoped they made it somewhat close

Before it could attack again, I swung the back of the chair down on top of it. I quickly jumped on top of the chair so it couldn’t crawl out. I stomped as hard as I could over and over and over. Mark did the same with the other one.

“Let’s go get the bats. Over there,” Mark said pointing by the deck.

We ran over and each picked up a bat.  Hissing noises were emanating from underneath the chairs. Then they slowly began crawling out, pulling their injured bodies through the grass.

After finishing them off with the bats, which took a while to get them to finally stop moving.  While catching my breath, I heard more noises coming from the bushes. “Now what?” I said.

“Let’s just get inside,” Mark yelled and we ran for the house.

I heard growling behind us, but waited until we were safely inside before taking a look. When I turned around to slide the door closed I saw three coyotes walking to the door. They all bared their teeth at us. Then one after the other, they took turns lowering their heads and ramming into the door. Blood spattered across the glass from the force and I wasn’t sure how long the door would hold.

Stacy came over and pulled the curtains shut. “I can’t watch this anymore…let’s move something in front of the door so they can’t get in,” she said.

We ran over to the couch to start moving it, but then noticed the silence from outside. Mark walked over and peered behind the curtain. “They’re walking away,” he said with surprise. “I need to earn the others…we had thought we were safe in the daytime.”

He grabbed his cell phone and sent out a text to his neighbor group and then called them to make sure they got it.

So now the nocturnal animals that were changed appeared to be out in the day and on the attack. I guess the good news was that if they didn’t see us, they would go away.  Mark was going to drive us back home and then we were going to meet up with everyone in the evening. I wanted to understand more about what was going on and if there was a way to reverse this or at least stop it from spreading, and find a way to better protect ourselves.