Something Dead in the Road

    You know that 'ecking' sound that cats make when they want to fight something? I always assumed it was a fighting thing at least.  I always catch Jonesy doing it out a window at squirrels, chipmunks, the neighborhood stray, our neighbors dog... you get the idea.  He doesn't understand that he probably wouldn't make it out there.  He has lived his entire life indoors, with little moments of leashed and monitored outdoor time.  I imagine he could probably take on a squirrel or a chipmunk, but he would certainly be mauled by the stray and could probably never hope to catch one of the birds he often watches so intently.  The panes of glass that he seems to resent so often are, in fact, what keep him safe.

    My kid wasn't awake when I stepped out of my wife and I's room so I carefully walked down the stares to hopefully keep it that way. I like to wake up early before everyone else.  Make some coffee, watch a show Jamie won't watch with me (and that she doesn't want Cadence to watch). On weekends I sometimes build Gundam models in the quiet of the morning. Jonesy almost always joins me. Through the low light I'll catch him scurrying excitedly past the stairs as I sneak down.  Except there was no scurry this morning. Without turning the lights on I could see his shadowy silhouette beside the front door, staring outside, 'ecking' at something.

    This wasn't too out of the ordinary.  He was easily fixated on small critters that would approach our house.  I snuck to the window to see if I could make out anything.  The sun was only starting to rise so I couldn't make out anything except for a random mass of something in the road.  I gave Jonesy a pat on the head and left him to his watch.  He would probably join me once I sat down to catch up on The Boys.

    But he didn't. He didn't budget when his little brother woke up and I went to get him out of his crib and he showed no interest when his feeder went off.  Was he afraid? If he took his eyes off of whatever was out there did he feel he would come under attack somehow? With the sun out I took another peak.  There were no squirrels or chipmunks.  I didn't see the stray.  There was nothing out there except... some... animal? dead in the road. Though it was not any sort of animal I had ever seen, at least I couldn't tell.  It really only looked like a pile of gore with what I assume were once legs and definitely a head but... no flesh? 

    Earlier this summer I came down stairs to Jonesy 'ecking' out the same window by our door.  When I had taken a look I was shocked to find a huge vulture right outside. Behind him in our small yard were, I assume, his friends.  All huddled around a possum carcass.  By the looks of it they had been picking at it all morning as there was only barely enough to determine that it was (had been) a possum.

    There were no vultures this morning. At least none in my yard. I heard Jamie come downstairs and I had her take a look. She was obviously horrified.  I got a bit of a kick out of it. Jonesy never moved. Our portico blocked my view of the sky so I couldn't tell if there were vultures circling overhead.  There was obviously a pretty good meal out there so it was curious that they hadn't arrived yet.

     I turned the deadbolt to unlock the door. Jonesy hissed. I looked down and he had moved for the first time all morning.  He was staring at me. Squatted on all fours. Tail poofed. Pupils dilated. Being dramatic. I turned the door knob and cracked the door and he was gone.  Likely behind the couch or upstairs at this point. The storm door creaked as I pushed it open, leaving the front door open behind me.  I stepped out in my socks to try and get a good look at the sky. No vultures. Strange. Since I was outside I figured I would try and get a better look at the dead thing in the road. Maybe make a game plan to get it out of the way so cars could pass easily until the proper authorities could come clean it up. 

    It was looking at me. With small eyes. Still. Lifeless. But it was looking at me. A chill went up my back. I hadn't noticed eyes before I walked out.  It still seemed very much... dead. Fuck this. I ran back inside as quick as I could.  I didn't want to look at it again. I shut the front door, called the DOT and tried to forget about it.

    Jamie works in our church office.  Cadence goes to a daycare on the church campus so they usually leave about 7:40am so she can drop him off and get in the office on time. About 7:30 I was struggling to get Cadence to put his shirt on. He just wanted to play with the light stitch in his room.  He could reach it when standing on his changing table. From the hall I heard Jamie.  As she went down stairs she called up to me that she was about ready.  She was making better time than normal.  Just as I got the shirt over Cadence's head she screamed. I didn't think to explain to Cadence that he would be okay.  I just put him on the floor of his room, shirt half on, closed and locked his door and got downstairs as fast as I could.  Jamie had the door open, looking through the storm door.  The first dumb thought that entered my head was that the gross body had gotten up and decided it wasn't dead. It was still there. Still... still. That wasn't what had freaked her out though. I'm certain she still found it disgusting but nothing is quite as horrifying as laying eyes on it the first time.  

    A few months ago a new family moved in across the street.  Jamie and I had been just okay about introducing ourselves to the families that moved in and out of that house every year or so.  It was a rental so we tried not to get too attached.  It also could just be that I am not very social and don't feel particularly compelled to meet my neighbors. Maybe both.  this newest family was the first time that we had made no effort to really get to know at all.  We had seen them out and about. There was a month where we did not see them at all and their cars never left the driveway.  But things had been normal lately. They were a young married couple with two kids; a young boy and a slightly older daughter.

    The body near the thing was the mother. The Mustang was missing from the driveway so the father was likely long gone.  The mother I guess had decided to take a closer look at the carcass and something happened. I panicked.  Jamie was already calling 911 and going back upstairs to console our distressed son. I opened the storm door and started towards the road.  "Hey!" I cried out to the lady whose name I did not know, hoping for some sort of movement or response. Before I got too far from the house I felt that chill again.  

    It's eyes were back on me. Were they even there before? I was startled. I fell on my ass and started crawling backwards toward the house, not taking my eyes off the thing. Jamie was at the door holding Cadence who seemed inconsolable. I had left him, but it was to protect him from unknown danger, but he couldn't comprehend that. I sat on the ground with my back against the store door glass. "What's wrong?" I heard Jamie ask from just inside. "That thing isn't dead" I responded. How could it be alive? It looked as if it had been drug here under a car after being dropped from an airplane. I couldn't stop thinking that if I took my eyes off of it I might die somehow. I was stuck between fight and flight.  Neither seemed like an option. "Come back inside. Please." "I'm not turning my back on that thing." "Move so I can open the door then." "I don't know what that thing can do! What if you open the door and it somehow gets you?" "It won't Jared just please come back inside." Jamie was freaking out. Cadence was scream sobbing. I felt my chest was about to explode.

    "Don't open the door. Go unlock the back door, and close the front door." I heard the front door shut behind me and Cadence's crying became muffled by the brick, wood and drywall of our house.  without taking my eyes off the body, and without moving an inch closer to it, I started crawling to the side of the house.  If I lose eye contact behind a barrier I should be fine was my thinking, so my goal was to get to the side of the house and then quickly make my way to the back door.  As I moved I noticed its beady eyes did not follow. They stared out from lidless sockets still focused on where I had been at the front door. From down the road I heard a car approaching. Shit, they're going to stop and try to help the woman. Without breaking eye contact I scampered to the side of the house, moving towards the back enough to where I could not see the body.  

    An SUV came around the turn only about 40 yards away.  I got to my feet and started waving my hands to get the driver's attention.  They stopped just before my house, maybe 15 or 20 feet away. I recognized the driver. I had seen him around the neighborhood since we moved in a few years ago.  "What's going on?" he shouted at me as he stepped out of the car. "Please get back in your car man. My wife has called the police but I think that thing beside her hurt her somehow. I don't know how dangerous it is." "What is that?" he asked, looking away from me and looking over where the carcass was. "Don't look away from it dude. Is it looking at you? You need to get back in your car!" No response. Shit. Did it get him? I didn't dare look, but my wife screamed from inside, so I figured the worst. I sprinted back inside through the back door, locking it behind me.

    The thing looked up at me as I stared at it from my bedroom window on the second floor.  Jamie was playing with Cadence in his room, keeping them both distracted from the horror that had manifest in the road outside our house. What looked to be blood had began leaking out of the thing and was puddling up around the two bodies. I looked up at the other houses across the street. A tree blocked my view of the door and windows of the house to the left of the rental. If someone else was watching I wouldn't know, but hopefully they were being safe.  There was also no way of knowing what was going on with our neighbors on either side of us. I did not have their phone numbers. We had never made the effort to get to know them that well. I couldn't help but feel that was on me as well. The door of the rental opened. A little girl ran out screaming and crying. She fell to her knees beside her mother's body and begged her to get up. I opened the window and yelled at her to get away but she collapsed. Her body laid still on top of her mother's. The thing's eyes were gone. Did it's head move? The little brother stood in the doorway of their house crying. "Go back inside! Shut the door!" I yelled, but he must have been too scared to move. 

    I felt the chill come back and I slammed the window shut. It's eyes were on me again. I could heard Jamie crying in Cadence's room. "It's okay mommy," I heard him say, "it's okay."

    When Jamie had explained what happened to the driver of the SUV it was the same thing that happened to the girl. They both just collapsed when they got close enough. We hadn't seen it attack anyone, but people were somehow getting hurt if they got too close. I say 'getting hurt' because I didn't want to believe they were dead. I needed to get the little brother back inside. Where are the police? It had been about fifteen minutes since Jamie had called 911 so they should be there any minute right? But the boy  had started slowly stumbling through the yard. Crying for his mother and sister between sobs. 

    I ran down stairs, startling Jonesy who had posted back at the front door. He darted under the couch. I ran out the back door. I could stay a pretty good distance if I went the long way around the house. Steve, the one neighbor whose name I knew, was at his front window as well. Watching the boy with dread on his face. I ran across the street to the house beside the rental and yelled for the boy.  He was getting too close for comfort.  His pace was slow and staggered but he had managed to almost make it to the road. I sprinted toward him as fast as I could. I intercepted him at the edge of the road. When I grabbed him I felt the chill up my back and noticed a subtle, rancid smell in the air. My vision went blurry and I got halfway back up his yard when my legs gave out and I fell with him still in my arms.

    When I came to I was being pulled off of the struggling little boy.  The ringing in my ears started to fade to the voice of a man talking to me. It sounded like he was talking to me through a steel door. A woman was yelling far away. "What is going on here?" I was sat up. My head was spinning. "Ugh, it stinks." "Sir, what is going on?" My vision came to focus on the officer knelt down in front of me. "Don't get near that thing," the words fell clumsily out of my mouth, "are there others? Don't get near it." The woman yelling was my wife. She was at the bedroom window yelling at the officer to not approach the bodies in the road. The officer was pinching his nose and asking her to calm down before he collapsed near the thing. I heard gasps nearby and noticed a few new cars piled up behind the still running SUV. The passengers were all out and watching in horror and disbelief. The officer questioning me turned around. "MIKE!" he shouted, and took off to assist, but within a minute he was also down. I heard a radio blip to my left, "officers down I repeat, officers down. I need back up at Leisure Lane right now." Radio chatter. "No shots fired, I don't know whats going on." He was knelt with the little boy who just sat in the yard staring at his mother and sister, still unmoving, and slowly sinking into a puddle of red.

    I felt the chill again and refused to look. I focused on the boy. I knew my kid was safe. This one had just lost half his family and almost his own life. The chill grew colder. I winced. Hesitantly I turned once again to the horrible thing laying in the road. It had teeth now. As if it's head had turned in a way to reveal a sort of top jaw, almost like a horses, except it was bent in a sort of... smile... I looked away but the coldness I felt did not go away. 

    "How long has that been there?" "I noticed it this morning. My cat had noticed it before so it got there last night somehow." "Any idea what it is?" "No. At first it felt unpredictable but I managed to make it over here from my house on an assumption." "What was that assumption?" "That it couldn't do anything if I was a certain distance away." I was sitting in the back of an ambulance, maybe 40 yards from my house. Jamie was still inside with Cadence. I figured that was the safest option. I had been talking with the officer for about five minutes. The EMT said I was fine, and I really just wanted to get back to my family. "And the boy was getting too close?" "Yes, I watched his sister collapse on his mom and that was when I had the thought. I saw the kid start wondering over and I had to stop him." The boy's father had been called home. For now the boy was being held by an EMT. It couldn't be explained, but by now the mother and the man had both completely sunk into the red puddles. The sister's body was still visible.  Puddles had began forming around the two downed officers.

     Multiple police were there at this point, keeping people away from the thing.  It seemed like the whole neighborhood had come out to see what was going on. A hazmat team was coming out with a flamethrower.  Not sure where they found one, but I'm sure we have all seen The Thing. A flamethrower makes the most sense to deal with this sort of situation. At least in the movies it does. I didn't want to wait for any sort of resolution. I wanted to get back home to my family but the officer with me insisted on asking me the same few questions over and over again as if I may have had something to do with all this. 

    My nose twinged. It was faint, but the rancid smell from earlier came back to me. I grabbed my nose and looked past the officer. Someone from the crowd collapsed. The people around her jumped back in shock. "What's wrong?" the officer asked. "I need to get home, please let me go, everyone here needs to get farther back." I tried to push past the officer when more gasps and screams came from the crown around us. People were collapsing, others were running away. With the officer distracted I broke his grip on me and ran through the panicking crowd to my back door. My vision was starting to go hazy again. I held the breath I had without inhaling anymore and ran into my house. There was no-one downstairs. I fell up the stairs but managed to get to the top only to find still no-one there. My legs were getting weak. My chest burned. I gasped and took a deep breath. the horrible smell was still subtle, hopefully not lethal. My legs gave out going down the stairs. I couldn't see and my arms felt heavy. I pulled myself across the floor, just needing to get to the back door so I could get out and away. But where was Jamie? Where was Cadence? What had happened to them? My thoughts turned to static. My head hit a cold hard surface. My arms decided to no longer work.

 

    I was upstairs with Cadence, still in his room. I had got a thumbs up from Jared about fifteen minutes before but he was still with an officer. Cadence was playing, but every few minutes he would ask where his dad was. "He will be home soon" I assured him. "Where's Jonesy?" he asked. I took pause for a moment, realizing that we hadn't seen him since this morning. "Lets go find him."

    It didn't take long to realize he was downstairs. I heard him batting at the backdoor like he does when the stray is out there waiting for dinner. This was a bit unnerving after the events of this morning. I had never seen him so distressed. With everything going on out there why would he want to go outside. 

    Jonesy was also the first one to sense something off about the body in the road. He knew from the beginning that something was not right. He must want to get away.

    He can sense something we can't.

    I opened the door and he darted out. He took off into the backyard and was out of sight before I could close the door behind me. I didn't even bother putting on shoes. I needed to get away. I needed to get Cadence away. I could only pray that Jared would figure out something was wrong before whatever it was happened. There is a gravel trail at the bottom of our yard. Cadence was concerned about Jonesy. I was concerned about the screaming that erupted from the top of the hill. There was panic. I didn't know if it was safe to look back or if I should keep going so I kept going. 

    

    When the hazmat team arrived there were about two dozen new bodies in the road and surrounding yards. The theory goes that the flamethrower worked long enough to diminish the thing's field of effect. They were able to recover most of the newer bodies but not the first two officers who had died on scene. the first five victims were completely gone. There was no trace. Out of all the recovered bodies none survived except for two, including me. I came to in the hospital miles away. It was like waking up from a nap this time. After only a few minutes I was lucid and felt fine. It was nothing like before where I felt like I had woke up with the worst hangover. Jamie was there. Cadence was apparently with some friends who lived nearby. She explained that the hazmat team had found her at the neighborhood playground with a few others who had fled the scene on our street. 

    She also explained that we couldn't go home. Five more people had been lost trying to research the thing and it was found that the field of effect grew with each death. We had been feeding it. It was decided that the entire neighborhood would be evacuated and condemned. Armed guards were to be stationed to prevent entry and potential continued expansion of whatever was going on there. Our cat was also missing. He knew not to come back home so it was safe to assume we would never be able to find him. With all the human life lost that day I feel bad saying that losing Jonesy is by far the hardest part of all this. I just hope he is putting all those survival instinct he thinks he has to good use.

    I was cleared to leave the next day. My parents drove down from Hudson to pick us up so we could live with them while we got our life sorted back out. In the hospital lobby I ran into our neighbor and his son. I tried to express my condolences but I didn't quite know what to say other than sorry. I couldn't imagine the loss, and not even having bodies to bury. I hope he finds closure one day.

    I squatted down to the boy and smiled the best I could. "I'm Jared. What's your name?"