Ashton Memorial Read online

  He clicked it into place and Angie slammed down on the gas. The tires squealed and the car shot forward. For a few tense seconds, they sped blindly through thick smoke. Shapes appeared and vanished around them, reaching and grasping at nothing.

  Then the smoke separated and they broke out into morning light. Parked cars sped by, closer than Angie had realized. A few more inches, she thought, and we would have crashed.

  “Yeah!” said Dalton, looking back at the receding smoke and ruined hospital. “Go Mom!”

  Angie frowned. “Maylee, what happened to the car you used to get here?”

  Maylee paused for a little too long, looking out the side window.

  “Maylee?”

  “We crashed,” said Maylee flatly.

  “My god,” said Angie. “You could have died. You could have killed your brother. You're fourteen!”

  “Almost fifteen.”

  “I swear Maylee, if the world wasn't coming to an end...”

  She saw Park look over at her and she let the sentence trail off. She'd been partly joking. The world wasn't really coming to an end.

  Was it?

  Angie brought the car to a halt as they reached the end of the lot. The street was empty.

  “Where are we even going?” asked Maylee from the back seat, still sounding sullen.

  “Ashton,” said Park.

  “I love Ashton!” said Dalton, leaning toward the front. “Can we go to the mall?”

  “Mr. Welch is going to Ashton,” said Angie, casting a sideways glance at Park. “We're going home.”

  “What?” said Maylee, also leaning forward. “Mom, home's wrecked.”

  “We'll fix it up, we can get it back in shape,” Angie started.

  “Mom, no,” said Maylee. “I mean wrecked. And it's full of those things.”

  “We'll get them out,” she repeated, staring to her right, up the road that eventually led to her driveway. “It's our home and we're going to save it.”

  “Mom...”

  “Maylee, please!” Angie snapped. She glared at Maylee in the rear-view mirror, but barely saw her. What she saw were corpses stumbling around her home. The home she had sought out, the home she paid the rent on, the home she raised her kids in. All without him. The thought made her chest hurt. “I'm your mother and I'm in control! We're going to save our house!”

  She blinked, surprised at the moisture in her eyes, and saw Maylee clearly again. Maylee stared but eased back in her seat, silent.

  Angie looked at Park. “Once we're there, you can take the car if you want. Or maybe Maylee can steal you one.”

  Park shrugged and nodded. Angie nodded back and turned onto the road.

  * * *

  They saw the smoke before Angie even turned down her street. Long tendrils, drifting up into the sky, seemed to come from the entire neighborhood.

  “Fuck,” Park said from the passenger seat, staring out the window.

  “Kids,” Angie said as she turned down the street, “was the house on fire when you left it?”

  “No,” said Dalton.

  “You can tell me, I won't be mad.”

  “No, Mom,” said Maylee.

  Angie's stomach clenched as they came to the first house. It was in flames. Who had lived there? Angie tried to remember. An old couple, she thought. She hoped they hadn't been home when it went up.

  The next house burned too. The person who lived there was new to the street. Angie wondered where he was as the car crept by. The four of them stared at the flames.

  The next house burned. And the next. And the next.

  “Fuck,” Park repeated under his breath. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “Oh god,” said Angie, stopping the car in the middle of the street. It didn't matter. They were the only moving vehicle in sight.

  Her house was next up.

  And it burned.

  “Oh no,” said Dalton from the back seat.

  Angie pushed the shifter to park and undid her seat belt. “How did this happen?”

  Park pointed out the windshield. “Look.”

  Angie looked. Farther up the street, the houses were still intact. Corpses stumbled from place to place. Among the corpses, living people ran in and out of houses. The people held televisions, computers, anything that looked valuable. The people did their best to avoid corpses as they loaded the valuables into cars and trucks.

  “Were any of these people our neighbors?” said Maylee.

  “No,” said Dalton. “I don't recognize any of them.”

  “Are you shitting me?” said Angie, tears starting. “Looters? One fucking night of this and we have looters?”

  Park snorted. “So much for the friendly small-town bullshit.”

  Angie slammed the heel of her palm on the steering wheel. “Our things are in there! The kids' things!”

  Park nodded silently.

  Angie opened the door.

  Park grabbed her arm. “Where are you going?”

  Angie wrenched her arm away. “I have to see how bad it is.”

  “You can see how fucking bad it is from here!”

  “Mom!” said Maylee, pointing up the street.

  Angie turned to look. A chubby man with glasses wandered side to side up the street. He carried a gas can in one hand and was laughing.

  Angie looked at her burning house, then at the man. “Son of a bitch.” She slammed the door and stomped up the street. She heard car doors opening behind her but kept her eyes on the chubby, laughing man.

  “Hey!” she yelled as she stomped. The chubby man kept stumbling and laughing.

  “I'm talking to you, fucker!” Angie shouted, drawing near. The man paid her no mind. He laughed and staggered. The gas can sloshed from side to side. Angie saw a lighter in his other hand.

  She reached the man and grabbed his shoulder. He spun and Angie drew back. The man's eyes were wild and staring.

  He screamed.

  Angie stepped back, unsure. “What the hell is your problem? That's my house back there, you son of a bitch!”

  The man blinked at her, then smiled. “You're human!”

  “Of course I'm human! Now why the fuck!”

  The man cast wild eyes up and down the street. “I thought you were one of the demons! They ate my family! Ate them! I was lucky to escape. And I discovered the secret! Do you know the secret?”

  The man stepped toward her. Angie stepped back. Smoke from the burning houses crept in around her.

  “Fire!” the man said. “The Lord is a roaring lion and a consuming fire! Fire purifies! Fire is the only way to destroy the demons!” He shook the gas can at her.

  Angie stepped back again. The man frowned. “You don't understand? Fire will save you. Fire is GOD!”

  Angie heard movement behind her. She whirled, terrified it was a corpse. It was Park, rifle in hand. Maylee and Dalton were coming up behind him.

  “Why didn't you keep them in the car?” she yelled at Park.

  “They aren't my kids!” yelled Park, slinging the rifle over his shoulder. “You need to get your ass back in the car so we can get out of here!”

  “No!” said the chubby man. “You must all stay with me! Stay with the fire! The fire will protect us! The fire is our salvation!”

  Angie spun back on the man. “You destroyed my fucking house!”

  “I saved your house, you foul-mouthed whore!” the man screamed.

  “Watch your mouth!” yelled Park, shoving the man back. He turned to Angie and the kids. “We need to get out of here!”

  Angie stared at the man. Smoke stung her nose. She heard the crackling of flames around her. Flames destroying her street. Her home.

  “Mom,” said Dalton. “Look.”

  Dalton pointed at the man's leg. Angie looked.

  There was a small bloody hole in the man's pants. Beyond that was a small bloody tear in the man's shin.

  The man saw them looking. “Yes! They tried to consume me! The demons tried to eat me as they ate m
y family. But I purged them! I purged them all with fire!”

  Angie, Park and the kids stepped backward.

  The man faltered, his mouth hanging open. “What?”

  “You don't know,” said Angie.

  “What don't I know?” said the man. “The secret of fire has been revealed to me! The fire embraces and purifies!”

  “Shut up about the goddamn fucking fire for a minute,” said Angie.

  “We need to go before he turns,” said Park.

  “The bite,” said Angie. “If you're bitten, you...”

  The man blinked, some of the wildness draining from his eyes. Angie imagined she could see what he looked like yesterday. How he looked before the world descended into madness. “What are you saying?”

  “She's saying you're going to turn into one of those things!” said Park. “I'd shoot you to help, but I've just got the three bullets and you're a crazy-fuck arsonist. Now enjoy setting shit on fire, we're getting out of here!”

  Park started back toward the car, stopping when Angie stayed put.

  The man looked at Park, then back to Angie. The madness was fading from his expression. “No, the demons.”

  “You said they ate your family,” said Angie. “Did any of them get back up?”

  “My wife, the demons took her shape, to try to fool me, but...”

  “It wasn't her shape,” said Angie. “It was her body. She was gone, but it was her body.”

  The man stared at the street. Park sighed, looking around.

  “I'm sorry,” said Angie. “I shouldn't be. But I am.”

  “Mom,” said Dalton, taking Angie's hand. Angie looked down at her son. He looked up at her with pleading eyes. “Can we go?”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  Angie took one last look at the man. He stared dumbly at the ground.

  Angie turned to Park and her kids. “Come on. We have to go.”

  “Really?” said Park. “If only someone had been saying that for the last two fucking hours.”

  Angie started walking for the car. Maylee, Dalton and Park turned with her.

  “You guys should have stayed in the car,” Angie said, desperate to talk about anything but their house. She could smell the smoke of it burning. All their things.

  “I said so, too,” said Dalton. “But Maylee insisted.”

  “I'm sure she did,” said Angie, her throat thick as they passed the house itself. In the corner of her vision, it registered as a shapeless mass of smoke and fire. “But don't be a tattletale.”

  The man started laughing behind them. Angie heard liquid splash. The man gurgled and sputtered but kept laughing. Against her better judgment, Angie stopped and turned.

  The man held the gas can over his head, the spout pointed downward. He shook the can up and down, pouring gasoline over his face, shoulders and body.

  “Shit,” said Park.

  “No!” said Angie, taking a step toward him.

  Park held out a hand to stop her. “What exactly were you going to do?”

  Angie swallowed, looking around. Looters, corpses and fire. Madness. Chaos.

  “Kids,” she said quietly. “Don't watch.”

  Dalton buried his face in her side. Maylee and Park kept looking.

  The man dropped the can, still laughing.

  He looked straight at Angie.

  “Fire purifies.”

  He lit the lighter. Flames engulfed the man and he screamed. He twisted from side to side, then slowed. Finally, he toppled over.

  Angie blinked back tears and looked over at her home. Flames and smoke poured from windows and doors. She caught glimpses of the living room. Their furniture, their TV. Their lives.

  “It's all gone, isn't it?” she said.

  “Yeah,” said Park. “You got any other family?”

  Angie swallowed, her mouth bitter. “I have a brother. In Ashton.”

  “Looks like we're all going to Ashton.”

  Angie nodded, then turned to her kids. Dalton was still averting his eyes. Maylee was staring at the house. “Back to the car.”

  One

  Lori strained against the cords around her wrists and bit at the tape over her mouth. She screamed into the tape. Her throat hurt. She'd screamed more in the last few hours than in all fifteen years of her life.

  Mom was dead. The thought of it weighed on her like something physical. If Mom were alive, maybe she'd have the strength to break free.

  Dad stepped into view. No, not Dad. Gregory. The man who'd married Lori's mother years ago. Lori'd be damned if she ever called him Dad again.

  Gregory looked at her. Lori looked back. His balding head, trimmed beard and round cheeks had smiled out from many a family photo. Now, Lori hated that she even knew what he looked like.

  He knelt in front of her and smiled. She strained against her bonds and screamed at him through the tape.

  “Please, Lori, stop it,” he said. Calm and quiet.

  She screamed, muffled, until her breath ran out. Then she settled for panting and glaring at him.

  Gregory reached out to touch her. She jerked back as best she could. He sighed and let his hand fall.

  “See, Lori,” he said. “This is the part where I'm supposed to say how disappointed I am in you. But I'm not. I understand.”

  She swore at him through the tape.

  “Poor Lori,” he said, nodding. “What you've seen. You were in shock. You're still in shock. Why do you think I restrained you? Why would your own father restrain you?”

  Lori panted and shot her eyes around the room. Where was she? Somewhere in the zoo, she thought. But where? She'd never seen this room before.

  “That's right,” Gregory said, nodding again as though she was somehow responding to him. “You're panicked. You're a danger to yourself. I have to keep you restrained until you calm down. I have to keep you safe.”

  He stood and started pacing. Lori followed him with her eyes, taking in more of the room. It was an office of some kind. But not Gregory's normal office. She'd been in that, back when she called it Dad's office. It was much nicer than this one.

  He walked to a desk and leaned back against it. The desk had a computer monitor, a series of switches and a microphone. “And I can keep you safe. Both you and your sister. I made this zoo what it is, Lori. The most technologically advanced zoo for five states around. Maybe even the country. St. Louis can't say that, Memphis can't say that. Chicago can't say that. Ashton can, thanks to me. Do you know how hard it was to keep a project like that under control? But I did it. I managed that, and I can manage this.”

  Lori stared at him, wishing she could kill with her eyes. He started pacing again, leaving Lori to stare at the switches and microphone. Lori recognized the setup. One of the communication centers he had installed in the zoo. You could talk to most rooms in the zoo, or broadcast your voice over the entire zoo at once. “The most expensive intercoms ever,” her twin sister Ella called them. Ella was always saying smart-ass things like that.

  He stopped with his back to the desk. It was clean and shiny and very out of place in the dingy room. He smiled at her. She wanted to spit at him but knew it wouldn't get past the tape over her mouth.

  “I like you, Lori,” he said. “I really do. You're much more levelheaded than your sister. I'd hoped you could even run the zoo one day. Ella could never do that. I love her, you understand. She's my daughter, but she couldn't run things.”

  His face shifted and he took a step toward her. He wasn't smiling anymore. “So maybe I am disappointed in you after all. You're acting like Ella, Lori. All emotional and flighty. You have to be levelheaded!”

  He took another step forward. He was calm and methodical in his movements, but there was a hardness to his face Lori hadn't seen before. Lori pulled back in her chair, more out of fear than hatred.

  Gregory looked down at her. “Don't disappoint me, Lori.”

  He blinked, looking around the room. The smiling face from the family photos returned. “But wh
at am I saying?” He reached out to stroke her head. Lori couldn't pull away any farther. She hated the feel of his hand on her hair. “I'm sure you won't. You'll calm down eventually. You'll understand.”

  He knelt down, his face a few inches from hers. “You have to understand. I had to do it.”

  He nodded at her.

  “I had to kill your mother.”

  * * *

  “Watch it!” yelled Park from the passenger seat.

  Angie blinked and realized she was nearly off the road. She jerked the steering wheel to the left, almost sending the car into the other lane. She eased the car back as smoothly as she could, her chest pounding. What had happened?

  “You okay over there?” said Park. “You falling asleep?”

  “No,” said Angie, rubbing her eyes and blinking. A thin film started to form over them, obscuring her vision. She blinked again to clear it. The road sped by, trees and farmland on either side. And no shoulders, only ditches. “I'm fine.”

  “Fuck you are,” he said. “You're falling asleep.”

  “I said I'm not and I'm not,” Angie said, casting him a quick glare. She let her voice drop to almost a whisper. “And could you please stop swearing so much around the kids?”

  She glanced in the rear-view mirror, positioning her head so she could see all of the back seat. Both Dalton and Maylee were asleep, leaning against their respective windows. They'd fallen asleep ten minutes out of Lakewood.

  Park shot a quick look back at the kids, then back at Angie. “Look, we aren't even on the freeway yet. And if you pass out there we're ultra-fucked. Ultra-screwed. I can drive if you want.”

  “We've all been up all night,” said Angie. “I'm fine.”

  “Up all night, sure. But I'm not exactly gainfully employed.”

  Angie frowned over at him, confused.

  “What I mean is I sleep in pretty late. Wanna know what time I got up yesterday?”

  Angie shrugged, thankful for the conversation. Thankful for something to focus on other than the monotonous hum of the car. “Eleven?”

  Park chuckled. “Try two. P.M.”

  Angie smiled and shook her head. “Shit, Park. What do you do all day?”