Come Morning Light

It was a little past noon when Renee turned down the familiar gravel driveway. Without laws or other cars on the road she’d been able to speed as quickly as she pleased all the way up the interstate. In no time at all she had passed Georgia’s state line and entered a small town just a few minutes outside of the capitol Atlanta. Renee’s heart was pounding nervously as the dirt and gravel crunched beneath her tires, unsure of what she would find. There were no cars sitting outside the small pale blue house that she spent summers running through, slamming the screen door behind her. For all she knew it could be completely overrun by those things and she might be walking into a deathtrap. Renee didn’t turn the engine off at first; weary if she’d have to make a quick getaway. When no sound disturbed the serenity of the reclusive home except the gentle rumble of her car, she turned the key towards herself and shut it off completely. Taking in a deep breath, she held onto the keys and dug in her bag beside her for her knife.

Renee opened the car door slowly, watching her surroundings for any sign of movement. Still nothing was catching her attention in her peripheral vision as she stepped lightly up the concrete steps to the front porch. The door behind the screen was still unlocked; in fact it was definitely not even shut all the way. With a tap it swung open on its hinges, engulfing Renee in the shadows of what appeared to be an empty home.

Not daring to make a sound, Renee held her knife firmly in her hand and wandered through the familiar hallway to the kitchen, then the dining room, and circled back through the living room. She listened intently for any sound but her ears were only met with the familiar creaks and groans of the older house and her steady heartbeat pulsing in her own ears. Sunlight streamed through the lace covered windows, its glow ghostlike in the darkness. An expanding ache began working its way from her stomach up into her heart. It was a feeling of helplessness and wander. Sinking onto the floor to try to piece together her own thoughts, she pulled her knees up to her chest and rested the back of her head against the wall of the foyer.

‘Where could they possibly be?’

Knowing she couldn’t stay there on that hardwood floor for much longer Renee breathed in deeply and tried to stifle her nerves. Her whole family had been completely snatched away from her within the blink of an eye. Before the evacuations they’d tried keeping in contact but towards the end things got really confusing. The internet went down; phones, TV broadcasts stopped, and finally the radio went out. The last Renee and Daniel had heard, Uncle Joe, Aunt Lorraine, and their cousins Natalie and Nicholas, were supposed to be waiting for a bus to take them out of here. Rescue teams were making efforts to zone the Atlanta area and evacuate all the towns as quickly as possible. They’d made it in New Orleans, but they had the water on their side. Renee was unsure if the evacuation here had been successful, even if it was, where were they going? Clearly with the house empty, Renee was sure at least her family had escaped; and there was no trace of the vehicles, no red pickup or gold Cadillac parked in the grass off to the side. Maybe there was something she’d over looked. Finally, Renee pushed herself up and began to scan every surface, desperate for some clue.
Everything seemed in order, nothing broken, missing, or out of place. Frustrated Renee ran up the stairs, wondering if she’d find her family dead in their beds. Had they given up? She opened Nicholas’ room at the end of the hallway, bed unmade but nothing out of the ordinary and she found Natalie’s room the same. At last she was faced with the final closed bedroom door. Renee almost wished she would find her family in there; at least they wouldn’t have had to face the horrors of the world outside. She felt guilty for feeling that way and quickly shoved that thought away in the farthest corners of her mind. Resisting the urge to knock Renee inhaled deeply through her nose and pushed the door wide open. She found the room like the rest of the house: empty, completely and utterly empty. She felt her fingers grip the handle of the knife she’d been carrying in frustration. Still with no sense of direction, she slowly trudged down the stairs. Perhaps they had left behind food that she could take with her. With that thought she entered the kitchen and opened the pantries, all of which were still mostly stocked with canned goods, packaged snacks, and bottled water. At least resources wise, this house was not a disappointment. Unsure of what to put it all in, Renee leaned against the counter to think. And that’s when she noticed the piece of paper stuck to the refrigerator by a magnet. Aunt Lorraine’s eccentric handwriting was scribbled across the sheet with the words: “TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN”. Heart racing, Renee walked forward and snatched the note off the door.

Left with friends. Couldn’t wait for evacuation. Hoping to find shelter in Atlanta. CDC?
Take whatever you need. God bless.

Renee refolded the note and stuffed it in the pocket of her jeans. At least it had given her some answers, somewhere to look. Atlanta was next; maybe they’d made a safe haven, like when they turned the Superdome in New Orleans into a shelter. A cold shiver ran down her spine…the Superdome hadn’t really worked out. It could have…but it didn’t. And this catastrophe was ten times worse than a hurricane, even Katrina. But still, Renee knew negativity would get her nowhere, if she was to give up on her hope, what was the point.

Going back up the stairs into her aunt and uncle’s old bedroom, she retrieved a roll-away suitcase from the back of the closet and decided to pack as many supplies as possible in it. She filled it with food, some clothes her cousin Natalie had left behind, and the first aid kit Aunt Lorraine kept under the downstairs bathroom sink.

Grabbing her keys and the trusty kitchen knife off the counter, Renee wheeled the suitcase down the hall and out onto the screened porch. Her face was turned towards the door behind her and when she looked forward to continue to her car, her heart painfully paused in fear. A small crowd of them, of those dead things, were surrounding the house, all snarling and gnashing their black teeth towards her. Unsure of what to do, Renee dropped the suitcase and gripped her knife tighter, pushing her back against the door. She shut her eyes for a minute in an attempt to conjure up a plan and calm herself, also she was secretly hoping that when she opened them again she’d wake up in her bed back in her apartment and the last few months would be nothing more but a nightmare.
Unfortunately, when she did they were all still there, pressing against the screen of the porch and Renee realized in horror that it was starting to give way.