Zombie Bites: Three Post-Apocalyptic Tales by Hunter Macaulay C

Author:Hunter, Macaulay C. [Hunter, Macaulay C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-11-05T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Three

Janice was dragging through the day, having been up for most of the night. Every time she’d fallen asleep, a thump or groan woke her and she had to get up to see what Holly was getting into now. In the kitchen fumbling at cabinets locked shut, in the bathroom doing the same, bumping into furniture in the living room as she walked mindlessly around, the little girl was a pitiful sight. Yellow slicks of mucus leaked from her nose to crust on her upper lip; more dripped down to her chin. When Janice tried to wipe it all off with a tissue, Holly snapped her teeth. Her stomach rumbled so audibly on one occasion that for a second, Janice thought they had a dog in the house. But it was no dog. Holly was just hungry, having eaten nothing but breakfast on Sunday and a few nibbles at lunch.

The bug going around the elementary school was a mild one, other parents had said. A bit of a sore throat and fever, the usual nasty nose business for two to three days, not much of a cough at the tail end. The episodes triggered by the cold seemed to set in just as the nose exploded with goo, and had totally faded before the cough set in for a brief, light stay. It was so minor of an illness in a few students that it hadn’t triggered an H1Z1 episode to accompany it.

Holly hadn’t complained about a sore throat or a fever, but she rarely spoke even to mention pain. Janice comforted herself in the long night hours that this was going to be short, and soon the girl would be back to herself and running through the house in her purple princess hat and cape, waving her magic wand with the glittery star at the tip. What spells did a mute princess cast? No one knew, but they were performed with gusto. The wand was locked in the girls’ closet, and Janice had been woken up yet again by Holly thumping repeatedly against its door.

At four in the morning, the poor thing finally wore herself out and fell asleep on the floor in her room. Janice was too exhausted by that point to put her in bed, and that was embarrassing. She didn’t want to risk waking her up and left the girl curled into a somewhat cat-like ball on the carpet, her belly turned up to the ceiling. Only in an episode did she sleep in that odd position.

Janice never would have left her own children that way. But they wouldn’t have snapped at her like feral creatures either. Sometimes she just wanted to climb into the minivan and drive away, far from this family and this life, drive until she found her old one waiting for her. The kids eating cereal at the table, Damon pretending the text message coming in was from work and not one of his extracurricular lady friends, an appointment on the fridge’s whiteboard for Janice’s massage at one in the afternoon .

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