10 Minutes From Home: Episode 6 Read online

  They ran to Austin’s room and cautiously looked inside. As they cracked the door open, Charley ran into the room, and started barking ferociously. They opened the door further to see Austin up against the wall on his bed, bright yellow eyes staring at the barking dog in front of him. The young boy barked back loudly and Charley backed off, turning around to leave the room. As soon as the dog turned, Austin jumped off the bed, the mattress springing him out and onto the back of the dog. Austin wrapped his arms around the dog’s neck and bit into the golden coat. Charley yelped and tried to bite at the child, but the boy’s grip was too strong. Stephen and Kelly were mortified and Stephen tried to pull Austin off the dogs back. He couldn’t budge him. Austin continued to bite and tear and the dog gave in, slumping over onto the carpet. Austin raised his head, his face bloody, and howled at his parents. They quickly backed out of the room and slammed the door. They didn’t know what to do at this point. The newscasts were recommending that people try to kill anything infected that attacked, but they couldn’t harm their own children; surely there was some sort of treatment or cure in the near future. Kelly came up with an idea that she was horrified to even suggest, but that she thought would be for the sole good of her children. Stephen was resistant, he seemed physically repulsed by the idea, so much so that he ran to the washroom and threw up. Nevertheless, he knew they didn’t have a choice, the bedroom doors wouldn’t hold securely enough, and their rooms had windows that could be very dangerous. So they devised a plan to keep the children secure until such a cure came to be. Stephen set up the large cage they had for Charley at the bottom of the basement stairs, where Kelly waited, holding the gate open. Stephen then opened the bedroom doors as he ran down the hall, crying loudly as he did, prompting the infected children to chase him down the basement stairs. Once he was down a few steps, he dove off the stairs and over the cage onto an old mattress. The kids ran down, slid on the cooking oil that had been smeared on the steps and tumbled into the cage with a loud crash. Kelly slammed the door shut and slid in the padlock. They had successfully captured their own children.

  When we had heard them arguing in the backyard, they were debating the fact that Stephen wanted to leave to go find help; he thought Kelly would be safe with the kids for the time being if they barricaded the house. Kelly didn’t want Stephen to leave, fearing he would never come back. Stephen didn’t think they had any other options; he didn’t want to just sit and watch his children die in a dog cage. This had been a repeated argument over the past day or so, but Kelly insisted Stephen not leave, that he had no idea what he would have to face out there on his own.

  As we stood in the kitchen listening to their incredible and horrifying story, Stephen brought up the idea that he could accompany us, just until he found a way to contact the military, police, or anyone that could help them. We told him that, from what we had seen, there might not be the kind of help he was looking for out there. He heeded our words but wanted to come anyway. Kelly agreed that he would have a much better chance and be much safer with a group of people, especially armed people. We concurred and agreed to let Stephen come with us. We gave Kelly one of our weapons and a good supply of ammo and helped her secure the house. We headed out the front door, and left Stephen and Kelly alone in the kitchen to say their goodbyes. Once outside, we made sure Kelly had the door bolted and secure, then made our way back into the woods to head for Thom’s house on the other side of the forest. For a good fifteen minutes after leaving, we could still hear the cries of Stephen’s children carrying on the air like distant dogs barking. Stephen’s tears didn’t stop until much later.

  CHAPTER 29: FAMILY TIES

  Over the next while, we tried to put as much space between the zoo and us as we could. Ellie took Max and walked up front with Thom while Clive and I kept behind them about twenty paces. Clive filled me in on how they had managed to get to us at the zoo. Once he had everyone safe in the military zone, Clive insisted he be able to leave to check his church in case any of his parish sought him out there. The military guys didn’t want to take sides against the church, so they agreed to let him go on the condition that he return to the compound before dark. Clive agreed. He said his farewells to the families of the Bramford, packed up some supplies, and headed out. The church was only a half-hour walk from the base, and was much of it was through wide-open areas where he would be able to see anything coming before it became an immediate threat. He had taken a pistol with him, as well an additional one hidden in his pack. No one was supposed to take firearms off the base, but the guard who checked him out at the gate wore a crucifix around his neck and had muttered “bless you father’ as he handed the bag back.

  Once Clive got to the church, he found it to be locked up tight; the heavy church doors sealed from the inside to keep out any would-be intruders. He went around the back of the church to the rectory and descended the few stairs to the basement access door. He knocked a series of knocks as if he was trying to gain entry to a clubhouse--the exact combination of knocks he had previously discussed with Thom at the Bramford. After a few uncertain moments, the latches on the other side of the door started moving. The door opened wide to Thom’s somber face. He welcomed Clive in. Clive checked to that Thom was okay, and he was. He had made it to the church without incident, and used a key that Clive had given him to get in. He had only been there a matter of hours, but had spent that time calmly thinking over the events of the previous day. He said he had not felt sadness like this since he had lost his family, and that in the short time he had known Isabel, he had developed a very strong bond with her. He realized now that everything was not my fault, but he still had a hard time shaking the feeling that if I had decided things differently, Isabel would still be okay. But it was hard to know what might have been. So Clive suggested that they head out to try and find me and get to Thom’s house as originally planned, and Thom agreed. They ate a quick meal, prayed a quick prayer, and packed up. Clive had a few bicycles in the basement of the church, and he figured it would be the best way to make up some time. They headed out in the direction of the route I had communicated to Frank, who, by the way, seemed to arrive fine at the military encampment. Clive didn’t have a chance to get the story from Frank regarding his disappearance and resurfacing, but he assured me that everyone from the Bramford was fine and being looked after by the military. They were being detained there, so under no circumstances was anyone allowed to leave, just as I suspected. Clive had just been lucky and had God on his side.

  Once Thom and Clive went north and headed through the Rouge Valley, they eventually came across signs for the Toronto Zoo. They considered the chances of finding me there and figured that it would at least be worth checking out. Once at the entrance, they ditched the bikes and hopped the fences. They wandered around for a while, checking the food stands and other places that made sense for me to be. They were walking along a concrete bridge that was once used for monorail when a young Orangutan jumped out of the trees and tackled Clive. The thing bit at Clive’s face, but he managed to keep it at bay as Thom repeatedly hit the primate in the back with his gunstock. It didn’t seem to phase the orangutan, which kept attacking Clive, one claw slashing him across the face. Clive managed to get his feet under it and braced against its torso, pushing it up and away from him. As it rose up above Clive, Thom took the shot from a few feet away and hit the orangutan in the shoulder and side of the head. It flew sideways off Clive’s feet and off the bridge into the woods below. Both Clive and Thom felt terrible having to do that to an animal, but they didn’t have much of a choice. Shortly after that, they heard the commotion from our encounter with primates of our own, and fired some shots to try to distract the crazed infected people and the gorilla. Once they saw us flee to the pavilion, they circled around to the opposite side and proceeded to rescue us from our monkey hell. And now we were here.

  I felt better knowing that Thom didn’t blame me anymore, as I had been partially blaming myself for a time as well. I was just uncert
ain as to how to approach him about it. I figured I should just give him time and see if he came to me about it. I couldn’t force it. Maybe by the time we got to Thom’s house on the other side of the Altona Forest in Pickering. Maybe once he got home, gathered some things and felt connected to something again, he would be ready. The next hour and a half was uneventful. I could hear quiet conversation between Ellie and Thom talked every so often, but it was hard to make out what they were discussing.

  Just before we reached Altona Road, we heard a commotion coming from a backyard, yelling and crying. It sounded like a man and a woman. We gathered together and decided to check it out. If someone needed help, we couldn’t just keep walking. We approached the backyard through the woods and came up to a wooden fence surrounding the backyard. We all had our weapons drawn, and as Thom and Ellie covered our backs and kept Max quiet, Clive and I drew close to the fence. It was one of those staggered board fences, so we were able to peer through to see into the backyard. From our vantage point, we could only make out the woman; she had her hands over her face and was crying loudly as the man shouted at her. He was shouting something about her being unreasonable, about how they had to do it. We didn’t know what the ‘it’ was, but it was really upsetting the woman. The man seemed exasperated and looked like he had been crying as well. The woman kept repeating no, over and over again through the sobbing tears. Then she screamed that she was staying and ran back into the house through the patio door. I shifted my position to get the man back in my sight. He looked tired, distressed. He was holding a hunting rifle in one hand. He just stood there, then after a few minutes he went back inside as well. We were about to leave when Ellie raised her hand. We all stopped and froze. She whispered low.

  “Listen.”

  We did. At first I thought maybe she was losing it as I didn’t hear anything, but then there it was. A low, quiet crying, but not from one of the people we just saw. No, this sounded like a child. A very young child. We looked through the fence again, but saw nothing despite the fact that the small voice seemed to be coming from the backyard. We huddled together to decide what to do. The cry didn’t seem like a regular child’s cry. There was pain in it. We were concerned. Then, as we talked, we heard another one. This one seemed deeper, slightly older, but still a child. Same tone, same manner, almost a whimper. We decided we had to make sure they were okay. Clive and I talked Ellie and Thom into staying where they were, to watch the house. We would climb over the fence and see if we could make out anything through the windows. We got over the fence and scrambled across the yard, stepping over kids toys along the way. We passed a sandbox, a plastic pool, and what looked like a mound of freshly dug dirt. We reached the back of the house and stayed low, keeping below the windowsills. The smaller of the cries came again, and we could tell from where we were that it was coming from the basement windows. We looked at each other with concern, then got on our hands and knees in the grass and pressed our faces to the windows. We couldn’t make out much, the basement was dimly lit, but from the faint glow of a naked bulb hanging from the ceiling, we could make out some furniture in a small room, and a doorway leading out. I pushed against the right side of the window, seeing if it would slide over, and it did. I pulled the screen out and nodded to Clive that I was going in first. I got on my stomach and put my feet in first, lowering myself into the room. Once I was in I took a quick look around the room, and then helped Clive down. We both drew our guns and approached the door. With one hand out, Clive pushed it open revealing an unfinished hallway, wooden studs showing on all sides. There was a staircase going up and another door at the opposite end of the hall. We carefully entered the hall and approached the second door, Clive keeping an eye on the staircase and the closed door at the top of it. When I reached the door, I heard whimpering from the other side. I grasped the door handle and turned it slowly, then pushed the door open. The room was pitch black, save for the light from the hallway now spilling in. The room seemed totally unfinished; there was no furniture, just a furnace. However, there was something in the middle of the room, something large. Clive stepped in behind me and felt the wall for a light switch. He found one and flicked it on. Clive glanced past me at the metal cage in the middle of the room and made the sign of the cross over himself.

  “God in heaven.”

  The cage looked to be a dog kennel, a rather large one. Inside it were three children, seeming to be in the three- to five-year-old range. Their clothes were dirty and they were all lying on the floor of the cage. Their heads were either buried in their arms or turned away from us. The whimpering was loud now that we were in the room with them. I took a step towards the cage and stopped. One of them, a little girl it seemed, raised her head from her arms. She turned towards us and looked up, a sad, sullen look on her face. Her hand came up and reached through the metal cage, stretching out as far as she could to us. I took another step just as the girl opened her mouth and screamed, her eyes going wide and revealing shocking yellow irises. The other two children jumped up, both of them--another girl and a boy--started screaming as well. Their yellow eyes seemed to radiate almost as much as their screams and they all started snapping like trapped raccoons. Both Clive and I stumbled backwards into the hallway where we were met by the man from the backyard running down the stairs. He raised his rifle to us and we held up our hands in protest, shouting for him not to shoot. Thankfully he didn’t, but was shaking and panicked nonetheless. His wife stood at the top of the stairs with a large kitchen knife in her hands, looking terrified. We quickly explained that we were just concerned when we heard children crying. After a moment or two of shouting back and forth over the harsh wails of the children, the man motioned for us to drop our guns to the floor and come upstairs. We did as we were told. Once upstairs, we followed the man as he walked backwards into his kitchen. A loud bark from Max startled the man and he turned quickly to see Ellie and Thom on either side of his wife with their guns drawn. He lowered his gun and raised his hands. I spoke up.

  “Okay, let’s all just put the guns away. No one wants to hurt anyone here.”

  Ellie and Thom lowered their guns, and I suggested everyone sit down at the table. Ellie settled Max down and the dog lay on the floor beside her. The couple sat down and introduced themselves as Stephen and Kelly. They were both on the verge of hysteria, faces red and wet with tears. Clive walked back to the basement door and closed it, slightly muffling the continued din from the caged children. We congregated in the kitchen, and got Stephen and Kelly calmed down. After getting them some water and giving them some time, they told us their story.

  When the outbreak happened, Stephen was on his way home from work early, having decided to pick up the kids from an afternoon play date and bring them home to surprise Kelly, who had been home that morning feeling ill. When talking to her on the phone after lunch, she stated she was feeling better, and that she was just going to putter around the house for the rest of the day. Stephen thought an early dinner and a night out for the whole family would be a nice break. He picked up the kids, and was informed by the mother who was looking after them that it was probably a good thing that he stopped by early as a few of her kids were not feeling well. Stephen gathered his kids, Austin who was five, and Katie and Barbara, who were three-year-old twin girls. All three of them looked pale and were listless. Stephen thought maybe a night in was looking better than a night out. He stopped by the video rental store and let the kids pick out a couple movies, then headed home. Around four-thirty that afternoon, after the kids had a short nap, Stephen and Kelly were preparing dinner when they turned on the TV in the kitchen. That was when they heard the news of the outbreak. About ten minutes into the newscast, with their eyes glued to the small screen, Barbara cried out from the bedroom. They both ran to the room where the twins were lying in their beds, Katie still asleep and Barbara sitting up screaming. They took her into the kitchen to calm her down, and after some serious struggling with their seemingly—suddenly--stronger daughter, Barbara la
shed out at Stephen, trying to bite his arm. As they held her down and Kelly picked up the phone to call their doctor, Katie came running into the kitchen and leapt through the air towards her mother, knocking her to the linoleum floor. The family had a large Golden Lab named Charley, who was in the backyard at the time, but was now at the patio door barking and scratching at the glass. They managed to get the kids off of them, and had them in bear-hug grips. They took them back to the bedroom and shut the door, bracing it closed from the outside once they were in. They were both terribly frightened at the behavior of their twins and were not sure what to do next. Kelly tried calling 911 and their doctor but she couldn’t get through to anyone. Stephen let the dog in, who immediately ran to the bedroom door and kept barking. Almost simultaneously, Stephen and Kelly thought of Austin.

  They ran to Austin’s room and cautiously looked inside. As they cracked the door open, Charley ran into the room, and started barking ferociously. They opened the door further to see Austin up against the wall on his bed, bright yellow eyes staring at the barking dog in front of him. The young boy barked back loudly and Charley backed off, turning around to leave the room. As soon as the dog turned, Austin jumped off the bed, the mattress springing him out and onto the back of the dog. Austin wrapped his arms around the dog’s neck and bit into the golden coat. Charley yelped and tried to bite at the child, but the boy’s grip was too strong. Stephen and Kelly were mortified and Stephen tried to pull Austin off the dogs back. He couldn’t budge him. Austin continued to bite and tear and the dog gave in, slumping over onto the carpet. Austin raised his head, his face bloody, and howled at his parents. They quickly backed out of the room and slammed the door. They didn’t know what to do at this point. The newscasts were recommending that people try to kill anything infected that attacked, but they couldn’t harm their own children; surely there was some sort of treatment or cure in the near future. Kelly came up with an idea that she was horrified to even suggest, but that she thought would be for the sole good of her children. Stephen was resistant, he seemed physically repulsed by the idea, so much so that he ran to the washroom and threw up. Nevertheless, he knew they didn’t have a choice, the bedroom doors wouldn’t hold securely enough, and their rooms had windows that could be very dangerous. So they devised a plan to keep the children secure until such a cure came to be. Stephen set up the large cage they had for Charley at the bottom of the basement stairs, where Kelly waited, holding the gate open. Stephen then opened the bedroom doors as he ran down the hall, crying loudly as he did, prompting the infected children to chase him down the basement stairs. Once he was down a few steps, he dove off the stairs and over the cage onto an old mattress. The kids ran down, slid on the cooking oil that had been smeared on the steps and tumbled into the cage with a loud crash. Kelly slammed the door shut and slid in the padlock. They had successfully captured their own children.