"It's disgusting." I could hear my mom 'whisper' as I bent over the jukebox of the shitty diner we got stuck at, looking for some sort of music I could listen to without my ears bleeding.
"You're right. It is disgusting." I could hear dad agreeing, talking even louder than she had. They were always so discreet. I ignored them, any embarrassment I may have felt knowing everyone in the diner could hear them gone now. I knew wearing things like this; a short, tight, leather skirt and a halter that exposed my midriff and new belly ring, would bother them. It was why I wore them.
"Really, how can she go out in public looking like that?" Mom asked both my father and herself.
"I don't know, why don't we ask her?" Dad's suggestion sparked an idea, as well a small glass-like shard of hope, which I pushed down immediately, readying a smart-ass comment for when he asked.
"Howard don't, you'll embarrass me." Mom nearly whined. Oh how her true colors show. She wasn't at all worried that the question would embarrass me, just herself. I couldn't help the scoff that made it's way past my lips.
"Audrey, honey?" Dad was addressing me. He had the worst habit of calling me honey, no matter who was around. "Your mother was wondering if you got dressed this morning with the specific intention of showing you ass off to the world?" The question shocked me. Not because of the content, but who it was coming from. Dad was always the calm one, the mediator. Perhaps mom was finally rubbing off on him. My planned retort died on my lips and I scrambled to think of a new one.
"It's because I woke up hoping to get double teamed by a couple of meth-head truckers in some bathroom of a desert shithole. It's good that we got stuck here." I finally managed, not waiting for a response before turning back to sort through the rest of the 'music' in the jukebox.
"I feel satisfied with that answer. I really do." I could hear him comment in a lower voice. I was glad he was satisfied with it, because I certainly wasn't. Frustrated at the situation, I gave up my search and sat down at a corner booth, far away from my parents. I ignored the rest of their conversation, pulling out my iPod and trying in vain to squeeze out just a little more battery life from it. I heard the bell over the door ring, and looked over to see the waitress and some black dude come in.
"Who is that?" Mom snapped, watching the new guy come in, as if he was responsible for our delay.
"What do you want me to do?" Dad asked, sounding tired of her behavior. She always overreacted.
"Talk to him! Things should have been ready two hours ago!" She snapped at him. I couldn't see why she didn't just talk to him herself if it mattered so much to her. Dad got up with a sigh, making his way over to where the owner was talking to the new guy, interrupting them both rudely. Yeah, my mother was rubbing off on him.
"Excuse me, is there any news about when out car might be fixed? You said your boy would have us back on the road two hours ago. The rate we're going, we'll be lucky to make it to Scottsdale by Christmas." Dad had at least started out nice, but as always, ended up sounding like mom. The owner left, and a few minutes later I could see him out by the gas pumps with the mechanic, arguing about something. After a few minutes Bob came back inside, the mechanic disappearing again.
"He's about this close to wrapping it up." he said, pinching his fingers close together to indicate how little time we had left to wait. I wasn't convinced, but he just walked away, going to fix the TV.
I let my mind wander as he abused the TV, only snapping out of it when a high pitched ringing began to echo throughout the room. I looked up and the screen read 'THIS IS NOT A TEST'.
"Clear as day." The owner, Bob, announced proudly, getting down from the chair he'd apparently used to reach the TV properly.
"What the hell is that?" someone asked.
"Well, they're testing something." Bob said stupidly as everyone paid more attention to it.
"That doesn't look like a test." The waitress, Charlie her nametag read, sounded skeptical of Bob's assessment.
"Can I just use the phone?" he black dude asked, handing Bob a twenty. He took it and gave him directions, still staring at the TV. The sound was actually starting to get a little unnerving.
"Excuse me but if this were an actual emergency, wouldn't they be giving us instructions on what to do?" Mom actually had a point that time, I think. The cook, Percy, checked his radio. All stations were the same ringing noise. It was even creepier coming from two places, seeming to surround us. They went on about how it could be an earthquake, I suggested terrorists.
"Oh God!" Mom cried out, overreacting as usual. They all began fighting amongst themselves, and as I watched, I saw real fear in their eyes, their words, their actions. I began to feel bad about my terrorist joke, because really, who knew? It could be some terrible disaster that knocked out the signal and killed who knows how many people. I began to feel a shiver of fear go up my spine, like something bad was about to happen. Just then Bob cut through my thoughts, shouting over everyone and getting our attention.
"For crying out loud, there's no use speculating! I'll just call my brother up in needles, he'll probably know something." It sounded logical, and having a plan and a possible source of information calmed me down somewhat. Just then the black guy, Kyle I think Charlie called him, walked back in.
"I don't think so." he stated a bit ominously. Bob asked him what he meant. "I was just on the phone, the shit cut off in the middle of my conversation. I want my money back." he told him. The tension in the air somewhat cleared even while it thickened. I almost laughed. No connection to the outside world, and all he can think about is getting his money back? Then again, I guess I would too. Percy intervened again and we were assured out car would be ready in a few minutes. It was almost believable, but I got another shiver down my spine that said otherwise, that warned me we weren't leaving anytime soon.
I shook my head, trying to dismiss it as my imagination playing tricks on me, but the feeling lingered. Not long after, the bell above the door rang again and I heard a thump on the floor. My head jerked up, a rush of alarm shooting through me, spiking my adrenaline. Then I saw that the noise was made by a little old lady with a walker. She reminded me of my own grandmother, who was always a source of warmth in my life. Who would bake me cookies and kiss my scrapes, and keep my secrets. I relaxed, despite the feeling that still hadn't gone away. Charlie took her order, then she leaned over a bit to talk to my parents.
"Hello." She said, voice soft and merry, cracking just slightly with age. "I'm Gladys, Gladys Foster." she introduced herself. Mom, as always trying to make herself seem like a nice person, introduced herself and dad to Gladys.
"What a nice looking young couple. What brings you up to these parts?" She wanted to know. I was expecting to hear a tirade about how we broke down and the mechanic isn't doing his job, but instead she continued on in her 'nice' voice.
"We're on our way to Scottsdale., but our car broke down and we're stuck here until it's fixed." There was just a hint of sourness in her voice to give away how annoyed she was by the situation.
"What a nuisance." Gladys commented airily, smile still in place. It was an appropriate comment for the situation but something about it seemed off. I shook myself, more firmly this time. There was NOTHING strange or intimidating about this woman, I had no reason to dislike her, I was just being paranoid. Mom just smiled back.
"Gladys, the lines seem to be down around here, the phone and the TV… and I was just wondering if you might have heard something on your way up, about what's going on." Mom changed the subject, which I was glad for. It got my mind off my paranoia, and onto relevant matters. It didn't last long.
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, sweetheart. It'll all be over soon." She seemed suddenly a lot less grandmotherly, making me scoot back in my seat.
"O-kay." Even Mom sounded weirded-out. I did my best to ignore her, even managing to get one last song out of my iPod before it died again. I was just puling out my ear buds when Charlie began to yell.
"What did you just say!?" Gladys was still smiling beatifically.
"I said your fucking baby's gonna burn!" Her voice turned darker, as if tainted by something.
"Go to hell lady!" Charlie growled, throwing her notepad down and almost running off. Mom tried to gain her attention, maybe to ask what was going on. Gladys' head snapped towards her, and in the same voice, she spoke again.
"Shut up you stupid fucking cunt! All you do is complain, complain, complain!" Despite the seriousness of the situation, I had to laugh at that. She had mom pegged perfectly. This, however, upset dad.
"What?" He asked, turning towards her further, as if he couldn't believe someone would actually admit the truth about his wife. "What? What?" he repeated it, working himself up enough to get up and walk over.
"Harold, no…" Mom 'tried' to get him to calm down. He ignored her.
"I don't know who the hell you think you are," he began, finally reaching the table Gladys sat at. "but I'd like you to apologize to my…" She overrode him.
"You're all going to fucking die!" Her eyes bled into a total black, and in an instant she rose, tearing into dad's throat with her teeth. She pulled away with a chunk of bloody flesh in her mouth, spitting it out casually to the side. I couldn't believe what was happening in front of me. I was frozen stiff, to shocked to move, until she began to approach my booth. I found it in myself to slip down to the floor and crawl away. She didn't bother with me, just jumped up on the table and began scaling the wall all the way up to the ceiling.
"What the fuck man!?" Kyle shouted. I just closed my eyes, crawling back under the booth's table, and hoped it would all go away.
"Shoot her jeep!" Bob's shout drew me out enough to pry my eyes open, only to see the mechanic, Jeep, with a shotgun. He looked too shaky by half, and he squeezed his eyes closed even as his finger twitched on the trigger, straining to find the courage to pull it.
"You will never save her!" Gladys shouted, voice unrecognizable now. She seemed to slide at a fast rate towards Jeep, hands outstretched and miming strangulation.
"Shoot that bitch!" Someone yelled,
"Shoot her!" Bob was frantic now, as were the others. She was closing in on him, and he was the one with the gun. If we lost it, we were done for.
"Shoot her!" A single gunshot rang out, but not from Bob's shotgun. Gladys dropped, revealing Kyle, his arm outstretched and a silver plated western arms .45 gripped firmly in his hand.
"Somebody help me!" My mom's voice drew my attention over to her, and to my dad who lay on the floor, slowly bleeding out. Panic rose in me again and I scrambled over, hitting my head on the table in my haste. Kyle got to him just after me, kneeling down and pressing mom's hand into dad's neck. I looked at him incredulously, mom accusingly.
"Don't look at me like that, I'm trying to help. Calm down. Keep pressure on his neck. Easy." he ordered. After a moment he removed his scarf, bunching it up and pressing it to dad's neck. We came to the general conclusion that he needed to get to a hospital. Immediately. Kyle led us to his truck, and everyone but Jeep and Bob piled in. As soon as the door closed behind us he took off, quickly accelerating to 80mph.
"How far is the hospital?" he asked, barely glancing over his shoulder at us.
"I don't know. 70, maybe 80 miles." Percy informed us. Kyle looked doubtful.
"80 miles?" he picked up even more speed. I spotted something dark down the road, getting closer, like a wall of black sand.
"What the hell is that?" I asked no one in particular. Kyle answered, foot still on the gas, speeding right towards it.
"It's clouds, what do you think they are?" As we grew closer I began to hear a strange buzzing.
"Clouds don't buzz!" someone shouted just before flies began streaming in through the vents, filling the car, making it hard to breathe. The car swerved a bit before Kyle slammed on the breaks, and turned us back towards the diner. The trip back seemed twice as long as we attempted to breathe past the flies that seemed to fill every free inch of air in the van. We all ran to get inside the moment the van stopped. Bob waited outside to hear what had happened. None of us stopped to talk, but he grabbed Percy on his way past.
"Gonna get my bible!" Was the only explanation he offered. Bob was clearly confused. "Somebody's got to start praying." he reasoned. From the van I went straight to my corner booth, away from everyone and curled up, hugging my knees to my chest, trying to calm down. The men looked over 'Gladys's' body again before wrapping her up and dragging her outside. Secretly I hoped they were chopping her to bits, and burning them. After a while though, they retuned. I noticed immediately that they didn't smell like smoke, and they weren't covered in blood. So ended my little fantasy.
It seemed that just as my heart rate returned to normal, Charlie seemed to see something and ran outside. I jumped up, pulse skyrocketing once more. What could she have seen that would possibly convince her to go outside with the cloud of flies and people who ripped other peoples' throats out? I peered out the window cautiously, as was everyone else, and saw an LAPD cruiser pulling up. Usually I hated cops, police corruption being what it was, but for once I was glad.
The car skidded to a smooth halt nearly twenty feet from where Kyle, Bob, Jeep and Charlie stood. The door opened and someone stepped out. The sun glinted through the window, making it hard to see, but what I could see was Bob training a shotgun on them. The idiot was about to shoot a cop, potentially our only source of information. I remembered Gladys and rethought my position.
I blinked and the gun was in the new arrival's hands, pressed against Bob's head. Everyone froze, tense, wondering what would happen. I realized the man, which I could clearly see that he was now, was not wearing a uniform. After a moment he handed the gun back to Bob and went around to the police cruiser's trunk. Figuring it was safe for the moment, as no one was shot or bitten, I walked out slowly, mom following close behind.
"What's happening?" I asked as I pushed through the front door of the diner. A face, grim but beautiful, filled my vision for a moment and all but stole my breath away. The stranger passed me with the barest brush of his shoulder, and I could feel the heat emanating from him.
"Better get back inside." he whispered low as he disappeared from my line of vision. I struggled briefly to regain composure as I followed both his suggestion and the man himself.
