This is part two in a mini serial that began 5/18/13

Mitch gave the bloody hands slapping the outside of his car a final glance, squeezed his wife’s hand, and then started the car. Being trapped in a traffic jam limited his options, but he figured he had about three-feet between the car before them as well as the vehicle trapping him in from behind.

“Brace yourself.”

Mitch put the car into reverse and then slammed on the gas. The sounds of snapping bones and bursting flesh assaulted their ears. Without hesitation, he threw the car into drive and slammed on the gas again. He crushed the legs of three more of the horrid things between his car and the car before them.

“Mitch wait! I see waving. There are people in the car before us. Mitch, they’re kids. I think they’re alone. We have to help them.”

“Bon, we’ll be lucky if we can save ourselves.” Looking out the smeared side window, he saw some of the wounded freaks he had damaged crawling like mangled insects along the ground. “Why aren’t they dying or even feeling the pain?”

“I don’t know, but the kids want our help. What are we going to do?”

“Hell if I know.”

Looking out the blood streaked window again, he saw that although he had crippled several of the moaning things, his attack had only drawn more to replace them. They were stuck in the right lane of a four lane east/west road. Currently it would be impossible for him to drive his car out of the traffic jam.

He took in the kids banging on the window in the SUV before them. They were around eight or ten, probably brother and sister. They terrified faces begged at him with their eyes.

“There parents must have thought they’d be safer in there while they went to get help,” Bonnie said.

He wanted to reply, ‘from who?’ but figured being negative wouldn’t serve anyone. Then he spied something. The space to the right of the car that held the children looked empty. Beyond it, a chain link face surrounded a school yard. The other side looked free of those things.

He flinched when a half fleshless face slammed against the windshield only inches from him. “Bonnie do you see what I see?”

The meaty slaps of the gathering madman almost drowned out her words. “That horrid face? What’s happening?”

“No, next to the kid’s car. There’s an open space and beyond that there’s a fence. If we made it to the other side of the fence, we might be able to get away from this road of death.”

“Maybe their car still has the keys in it,” she said as new tears rolled over her flushed cheeks. “If we backed up as much as possible and could get in there, we might just be able to drive away on the sidewalk and not have to worry about climbing that fence. Besides it’s like eight-feet high. How could those kids make it and we can’t carry them on our backs.”

Dozens of fists and mouths pressed against the car reminding them of the impossibility of both plans. Mitch clenched his teeth and grabbed up the blood-slick butcher knife. “Try to see if you can get the kids to let us know if they have the keys to their car. I’m going to crack the window in case they can hear me.”

Before she could say no, Mitch lowered the window an inch. Fingers groped through the space and even teeth scrapped along its edge. Mitch went to work cutting and slicing anything the knife could reach. With a sting of curses, he went berserk on the flesh. Fingers dropped to the floor of the car spraying blood in jagged circles as the fell.

Leaning closer to the opening, he yelled, “Do you kids still have the keys to your car?”

One of the windows in their car lowered and they shouted, “Yes, yes! Dad left the keys.”

“What, oh no,” Bonnie cried. “I think they rolled it down too far.”

Mitch froze when he saw she was right. Hands reached into the children’s car and the children cowered away with shrill screams. The gory figures went crazy and fought to force their way into the car. One of them tugged back on the window and with a loud snap it broke away.

Bonnie screamed when the madman flooded into the car. Seconds later, the children’s screams took on a brighter level of terror and pain. He barely noticed when the fingerless freaks drew away from his window to join in their cannibalistic feast. Mitch mindlessly rolled the window back up and held Bonnie as she cried hysterically.

The Story continues next Saturday!

You can find out more about the Eternal Aftermath here!