The Night Has Teeth: Chapter 5

John finds a more detailed map of the city in the garage, but gives away his position.

Chapter 5

I only had three days to get to the baseball stadium before Addy and the others were airlifted out of the city. I might have had more time if I had listened to the message sooner. But I did it to myself, and I would make the best of it.

I walked silently downstairs. Each floor of my house looked like a tropical storm had gotten locked inside and fought its way out. Every photo from the wall was on the floor, its frames shattered, and the pictures covered in glass.

I stopped at the bottom of the first-floor stairs when I saw our wedding photo in the entryway. I stared at it for a long time. The image of Addy was still just as beautiful as the day it had been taken, but my side of the photo had been torn by running claws on the floorboards.

I picked up the picture and gently set it on the stairs, trying to preserve it as best as I could.

The front door was off its hinges, and only the cool breeze from the coming night air filled the space. The wind pushed the shredded photo around on the floor like a small tornado of leaves in autumn.

I crept through the rest of the house towards the kitchen. I kept my movements careful and light in case one of those things was hiding in the house somewhere. If there was carpet or a rug, you could bet your ass I stepped on it like a teenager sneaking into the house after breaking curfew.

In the kitchen, I stopped at the counter and set my bag down. I reached for the knife block by the sink and took the sturdiest knives from the set, which had been a Christmas gift from Addy’s mother a few years ago. I slid the biggest knife into my belt—I might need it—and packed the others in my bug-out bag.

If I was going to cross the city, I needed a better map than anything I had in the house. And the only one I knew of was in the car. I grabbed my keys and slowly unlocked the garage door. I slipped through the opening and stepped down onto the concrete floor.

My 2015 Kia Sportage was sitting there like a monument to the world we used to live in. I used the keys to manually unlock the door, as quietly as a church mouse and opened it. Putting the keys in my pants pocket, I sat on the driver’s side as I reached for the glovebox.

I found a map of Grand Rapids inside. I had grabbed it in a gas station years ago when we moved there. I unfolded it and found where I needed to go–the Blue Waves Baseball Stadium. Then, I traced my finger back to where our house was located.

It was a long time before my finger stopped moving.

I pulled a pen from the center console and traced my route. I would start in the neighborhood and then walk past all the shops and bars to the highway. From there, I’d follow the road through the industrial parks, cut across downtown, and then cross the bridge over the river. Finally, I would loop around the surrounding parking lots and less populated areas to get to the stadium.

I figured I could do it in two days, with a whole extra day to beg Addy for forgiveness.

Then, I did something I hadn’t thought of until that moment. I tried to call her phone.

It didn’t even ring. All I got was a message that all cellular service was down. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was just my Michigan city or if the whole country was already gone.

Frustrated, I slid the phone into my pocket. But I had forgotten that I already had my keys in there, and I was reminded of the fact when my phone made contact.

The car alarm went off like a banshee.

I fumbled with my keys, trying to wrestle them from my pocket and past the phone I’d just shoved in my jeans.

With every repeating alarm beat, the blaring horn and flashing lights were like a death knell.

I found the keys, hit the button, and held my breath.

It was silent for a moment. The only sound I could hear was my heartbeat in my ears as I waited for the sound of clawed feet and gnashing teeth.

I tricked myself into thinking that they hadn’t felt the vibrations. That maybe they were all out of my neighborhood and had moved on.

THUD.

Something landed on the roof of the house.

THUD. THUD. THUD.

I sprang from the seat and grabbed my bags. The car would be no good. It gave off too many vibrations, especially with the transmission, which I hadn’t bothered to fix. It would be shuddering the whole way down the road like a dinner bell.

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

I could hear that some of them were inside now. Their monstrous feet dug into the wood floors as they approached the garage.

The garage door shook as one ran into it, and the wood splintered as its rows of jaws burst through.

TO BE CONTINUED!