Before the Storm

Tears streamed down my face uncontrollably. I hurriedly packed a few articles of clothing into my back pack, along with a few essentials from the bathroom such as my tooth brush, tooth paste, and a few other toiletries. My vision was blurry and my eyes were undoubtedly puffy and red, but I had to get ready as fast as possible.

The plan was to pack up enough of our stuff to travel on and head on over to the refugee center in Atlanta. Even though there were literally no dangers around our house, he figured it'd be better to get a head start and go out there now, rather than wait until it was too late. Plus, we figured we'd have a better chance at finding our parents with being out there in the same place as them.

Zack had already cleared out the medicine cabinet and the drawers in the bathroom for all medical supplies we had such as band aids, sanitizing pads and antiseptic. There was a full emergency first aid kit, which he also grabbed and stuffed into a bag of his own. I knew he was getting ready to leave here really soon, and it only added to the stress of the current situation.

How long was it going to be until we were all able to come back home? I had lived in this house almost all my life, and it was quite saddening to be having to leave it so suddenly. But it was what was for the better, and I wasn't about to question my brother's judgement on the matter. I trusted that he knew what he was doing.

"Jay, are ya ready?!" I heard him shout from downstairs. I heard a bit of rustling around and a couple bangs here and there, and I knew that he had grabbed a couple bottles of alcohol out of the liquor cabinet. Weather it was for medical reasons or just his drinking pleasure, I didn't know.

I zipped up my bag and slung it over one of my shoulders, taking a quick look around my room that I had grown up in. I didn't want to leave, and I made that perfectly clear to Zack when he very first told me what he wanted us to do. I just wanted to curl up in my bed and pull the covers up, letting the world fall down around me and not giving it a care in the world. But I knew better. Doing that would have been completely stupid and it wouldn't get us anywhere.

I closed the door behind me and almost ran down the stairs, stumbling in the process and slamming myself into the back of the couch. The tv was still playing on the news channel and I saw that things in Atlanta were just getting worse and worse. But there was a refugee center, and we would be safe there. The whole problem now was just getting there. I would definitely feel a lot better about everything once I was surrounded by the military.

Zack turned the television off before grabbing the keys to our dad's SUV off the key rack. "C'mon, we gotta hurry!" He instructed.

I ran outside and got half way down the porch steps when I stopped dead in my tracks. Zack saw me standing still in front of him and stopped just inches away behind me. I kept my gaze on the person in front of me around ten yards away from the back of the SUV. I didn't know if I should be even more scared than I already was, or if I should try to help this man.

"Excuse me?" I shouted over to him, my voice trembling.

"Jay ..." Zack began, but cut himself off. I knew he just wanted to get the hell out of here, but what if this person needed our help? He wasn't looking too good from the looks of it.

"Sir, do you need something?" I asked politely. I received no response, but the man suddenly began stumbling his way even more out of the trees and heading straight towards the two of us.

I began to feel my stomach doing flips and turns. My breath was coming out heavily from just running around the house gathering supplies for the trip, and it only increased when he began advancing onto us. There was clearly something not entirely right about this guy.

"That's far enough! Don't you take another step!" Zack ordered to him once he reached the back of the SUV. He was now a mere few yards away from us and I was able to get a clear look of him.

He had blood flowing from around his mouth and his skin was a sickly gray color. He was just groaning and gurgling from the amount of blood in his mouth. If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought this guy was dead. He had the same appearance as the girl in the mall the other day. But he couldn't be dead, he was right in front of me and looking right at me!

"I said that's far enough!" Zack yelled, becoming more and more impatient with the man.

I began to feel myself backing up into Zack as the man got closer and closer. At the point where he was right at the bottom of the steps, Zack pushed me behind him out of reach of the man and began walking down the steps. It was then that the unthinkable began to happen.

The man lunged at my brother, mouth wide open and teeth barred, ready to attack. A loud growl came from his mouth, his eyes wild and looking like he was fully ready to take a bite clean out of him! I fell backwards at the sudden movement and screamed at Zack being attacked by this complete stranger.

Zack grabbed hold of the man's shirt collar with both hands and shoved him away, knocking him back against the grill of the SUV. The man stumbled around for a few seconds, before setting his sights back onto Zack and heading straight for him again. Zack dropped the bag that he had been carrying on his back onto the steps, letting it fall with a loud thud onto the wood.

"Watch out!" I yelled when the man lunged at him a second time. I pushed myself backwards on the porch to get even farther away from this person who just decided to attack us for no reason at all. I had never even seen this person a day in my life! What did he have against us?

I was at a loss of what to do to help my brother currently wresting with this person, who's angry jaws were snapping away at him at any given moment. At that moment, Zack gave him another really hard shove, knocking him back farther than he had the first time. He reached around to the back of his jeans and lifted up his shirt to reveal the handgun that our dad normally kept in his bedside drawer in case of protection.

"Stay back or I'll shoot!"

The man didn't listen. He didn't even say anything. It seemed like everything was moving in slow motion, and a loud bang erupted suddenly when Zack fired the gun at him. I jumped about another two feet backwards and I was now pressing myself as far up against the side of the house that I could, covering my ears in the process. I could hardly believe what was happening in front of me!

Zack kept his aim at the man and even though I couldn't see his face, I knew he was just as surprised as I was when the man didn't even double over, or scream out in pain. He just kept on coming as if the bullet that just went through his shoulder didn't do a damn thing.

He shot again, and again, and again. Three times he shot at this man, and not once did he go down. "God damn it!" I heard Zack yell out of frustration. I clicked on the safety and shoved the gun back into the back of his jeans. He grabbed the guy once more by his shirt and dragged him away from the SUV. "Jaycee, hurry up and get in the fucking car!"

I pushed myself up using the side of the house as leverage and grabbed Zack's bag off the steps before running over and getting in on the passenger side of the car. I saw Zack throw the guy down onto the ground and kick him in the abdomen a couple times before turning around and also getting into the car.

He pushed the master lock button on the side of the door and locked all the doors at once so that the man couldn't get inside, as he was beginning to slowly pick himself up from the ground. Why the fuck wouldn't this guy just go down?!

Zack brought the keys out of his jeans pocket with extremely shaking hands, and I noticed that there was a bit of blood on his hands and forearms from when the guy got just a little bit too close to him. It smelled something awful and almost made me want to gag.

"Are you okay?" I asked as he shoved the keys into the ignition and threw the car into reverse just as the man had stumbled up to the side of the car and smeared nasty blood all along the side of the window as we sped away from him.

"What the fuck was that guy's problem?!" He yelled, completely ignoring my question.

He was on a major adrenaline rush right about now, and I couldn't say that I blamed him. Every inch of his body was trembling, and it was surprising that he was even able to drive straight. He put the car in drive and we drove quickly down the dirt road and away from our house. I looked back through the rear view mirror and saw the man stumbling after us, even though it was a wasted effort on his part.

I brought my hand up to my mouth and began to sob all over again. With all of the shit that was currently happening, the last thing we needed was to be attacked by some complete stranger for no reason. He could have killed my brother, and then I would have really been alone. The thought of my brother leaving me was almost too much. Until we found our parents again, he was all that I had.

"Hey," Zack said just barely above a whisper. "Hey, it's gonna be okay. I'm fine." He said, trying to soothe me. "Everything's gonna be fine."

"How do you know?!" I screeched, my voice coming out louder than I had wanted due to my crying. "You were just attacked and you think everything's gonna be fine?!"

"Yes!" He yelled back just as loud. "We got away, didn't we?"

I wiped the tears away from my cheeks with the backs of my hands, making my face even more red than it probably already was. Both of us needed to calm down because this yelling wasn't getting us anywhere. I took a few deep breaths and leaned my head back against the head rest with my eyes shut, trying to calm myself down.

"I'm sorry," I murmured after a minute or two of silence. "I'm just really, really scared right now." I admitted, looking over at him.

He nodded his head a couple times. "I know. Me too." He returned my gaze for a couple seconds before looking back at the road. We turned onto the main street that took us into the town, and it was completely barren. "Look, let's just get to Atlanta and get settled into the refugee center so that we could think about things more clearly."

I nodded my head, deciding not to say anything else more on the subject. I didn't really have anything else to say about it anyway. My mind was so clouded with thoughts that I didn't even know where to begin on sorting them all out. I leaned my forehead against the cool glass and watched the tall grass fly past us on the side of the road. The sooner we got to Atlanta, the better. I just wanted my Mom.