Tales of the Dead Tropics - chapter 42

Desperately, she wrenched her arm away but the corpse immediately threw itself on her, knocking Emma to the ground.  As she hit the ground, Sarah flew off.  Immediately, the creature reared up and sank its teeth into Emma's neck.  "No!" I screamed futilely.  I heard a faint agonised cry behind me.  Lucas. 

Emma turned her head to meet my eyes.  So much sorrow and regret.  "Look after Lucas." She mouthed at me.  God, please.  Sarah sat up a few feet away, crying.  I was almost there.  And so was the horde.  They fell on Emma like a pack of hungry dogs.  As other corpses moved past them to reach out clumsy arms for my Sarah, I swooped her into my arms, their fingers brushing my skin as I burst by.  I kept running, knowing it was our only chance.

My lungs burned as I struggled to stay ahead of the dead mob.  Sarah clung to me, crying with fright, as I ran across the road.  If I could just reach the apartment block, we would be okay.  I grabbed the doorknob.  Locked.  Glancing around, I saw them stumbling eagerly across the road.  I ran down the side of the building to the adjoining garage.  There was an internal door, I remembered.  Please don't be locked, I prayed. 

Inside the darkened garage, I felt for the doorknob.  Sweet mercy, it turned in my hand.  As the sound of moans entered the garage, I stepped into the darkened stairwell of the apartment block.  A few seconds later, I was inside the bottom apartment with Sarah. 

Gasping for breath and trying to control my trembling limbs, I listened carefully for movement in the flat.  Thuds on the garage door and the front door made it difficult to hear anything but, nonetheless, the apartment felt empty. 

Carefully, I balanced Sarah onto my hip and held my parang ready as I investigated the flat.  No signs of blood, no body.  It was mercifully empty.  Breathing a shaky sigh of relief, I placed Sarah on the kitchen table and slowly sat down in an old, rickety chair beside her.

"Wan' to go home, mummy." Sarah wailed, her baby blue eyes welling up.  I stroked her curly hair, unable to say anything.  My heart was just too broken.  Emma had been my partner in crime for so many years.  We had worked together, griped together, even gone on girls' adventure holidays.  She reminded me that I was someone other than a wife and mother, as important as those roles were to me, and kept the spirit of fun alive.  And now she was gone.  Dead because she wouldn't sacrifice my baby to save her own life.  Oh, Emma.

The banging on the front door became heavier.  There were more corpses gathering there, I realised, and if they didn't give up, the flimsy door was likely to give way.  And if not the door, the glass in the windows certainly wouldn't hold up for long. I needed a plan for getting out of here.

A click. The back door, I realised, feeling sick.  Spinning around in my chair, I was dumbfounded to see Mike walking towards me, blood dripping from his machete.    "What are you doing here, Mike?!"

"I couldn't not come."  He said simply, coming to kneel beside me and take my hand comfortingly between his rough ones.  God, I couldn't deny that how happy I was to see him.

"Oh Mike, you idiot." The look of tenderness in his eyes made my heart ache even more.  "The others..."

"Ken's using a buggy to take them to the creek that separates the course from the marina.  They've insisted on waiting there for us.  I made them promise to go on if we don't join them in the next half an hour, though."

"Oh God, Mike." I laughed tearfully, horrified and touched in equal measure.  "Without you there, they won't make it.  You know that!"

He smiled at me.  "Yeah?  Funny, they said the same thing about you.  We'd better get back to them, hadn't we?"

I nodded, blinking back the tears.  The sound of cracking glass brought us quickly to our feet.   As I feared, the glass in the window was cracking under the pressure of all the bodies outside.  From the bedroom, came the sound of glass hitting the floor.  Even as we looked at it, the front door splintered.  A hand pushed through a hole in the door.  Mike swung Sarah in his arms and headed into the stairwell, with me following closely behind.  As exhausted as I was, fear has a way of giving you a second and third wind.   

The garage door had already splintered. I could see a head pushing its way through.  Mike sprinted up the stairs, heading for the second floor.  The second apartment on the left was unlocked.  We slipped into the dark apartment and closed the door behind us.  I guess the body is able to hear or see things that the conscious mind cannot register because I knew immediately that we weren't alone.  Mike handed Sarah to me and pulled out his hatchet.

I swung Sarah onto my hip, parang forward, and slid along the wall while Mike walked slowly beside me.  Nothing in the lounge room.  The kitchen was empty.  He jerked his head at the bedroom.  I nodded and followed him down the corridor.  As he pushed open the door, something shot out.  I only just managed not to scream as my brain registered that it was a cat.  As the large grey tabby disappeared, I breathed a sigh of relief. Not much chance the cat could have survived this long in a room with a flesh-hungry corpse.  That only left the bathroom.  The door was closed.  I hesitated.  Maybe I should just leave it like that.  Anything in there wasn't likely to be able to get out.  As I deliberated, Mike slipped by me and pushed the door open.  A moan sent a shiver down my back.  Glancing at Mike, I glimpsed a fleeting look of sadness on his face as he looked inside.  "Stay here." He ordered me as he walked in.  Yeah right.  Putting Sarah down, I gave her a firm 'stay' signal and then I followed him in.

A little girl of about two with dead eyes and a bloodstained mouth faced us. Long dark ringlets framed an angelic, plump face as she stood naked in the bath.  Her mouth opened and shut as she reached futilely for us.  Dried blood pooled on the floor before her and bloody fingerprints marked the walls of the bathroom.   My mind couldn't help but try to join the dots.  I surmised that the child had been infected first and had turned while her mother was bathing her, maybe in an attempt to bring down her fever.  From the amount of blood on the floor and walls, I guessed the child had torn out a major artery when she'd bitten her mother and the woman had quickly bled out and died.  She'd then wandered off, leaving the child trapped in the bath.

"We can't leave her like that." I said sadly.

"I'll take care of it." Mike responded. "You find a way out of here." Chicken that I was, I left him there with her.  Sarah was waiting obediently outside.  Happy to see me, she held up her arms up in a familiarly demanding gesture.

A look out over the balcony showed at least a hundred corpses pushing their way into the building.  Even if we made a sheet rope, there was no way out that way.  I briefly considered going onto the roof but I had not observed a ladder on the outside of the building.  We would be trapped and, come dawn, the corpses were going to be the least of our problems.  At the end of the building, however, I observed a possible solution...

Thud!  I whirled around as the door splintered.  Mike joined me, a few new blood splatters on his t-shirt.

"Things are going to get mighty cosy in here in a few moments." He observed. 

"Yeah.  Follow me.  I have an idea."  Sarah on my hip, I hurried into the bedroom and pushed open the window.  A tall mango tree loomed out of reach.  "If we could just reach the tree, we could climb down."

Mike was silent as he did some calculations.  I didn't need him to tell me how hairy an attempt it was going to be.  A thin ledge ran to the neighbouring balcony.  The tree stood a good distance away from it but it was still within jumping distance.

He tucked his machete in his belt. "As we're going to have to jump for the tree, I'll carry Sarah."

I nodded silently.  The gap between the building and the tree was at least five feet.  Her extra weight would make it very likely that I'd fall short. 

The sound of breaking wood and loud, hungry moans intensified.  Hurrying to the doorway, I saw arms and heads pushing through the splintered door.  I shut the bedroom door.  "We need to go. Now."

Tales of the Dead Tropics - chapter 26

The battle sounds disappeared as the skies opened.  The rain fell in a heavy sheet that made it impossible to see beyond our verandah.  It drummed upon the roof in a hypnotic beat that soothed the spirit.  It was impossible to see or hear anything so Mike and I alternated between sitting in silence and making small talk.

I had to admit to myself that I enjoyed his company.  His laidback personality, dry humour and quick reactions made him someone that I had come to depend on completely.  I knew that I could trust him with my life and that added an intimacy to our relationship that I had never experienced with any man other than my husband.  And if I was being completely honest with myself, he was very easy on the eyes.

"A penny for your thoughts." Mike interjected.  Fortunately, it was dark so I was pretty sure he couldn't see the blush on my cheeks.

"Just wondering what's going on over the hill." I lied.    I had the uncomfortable feeling that he didn't believe me but he let it go.

"I doubt a bit of rain will stop the zombies," He said dryly. "but I have to admit I feel sorry for the poor bastards trying to fight them in these conditions."

The sliding door quietly opened.  I peered around to see my oldest daughter standing behind me. 

"The rain woke me and I couldn't get back to sleep." She answered my unspoken question.  She looked across me at Mike.  "Hey Mike."  He tipped his head at her before pulling his long body out of the chair.  "If you'll excuse me, ladies."  As he disappeared inside, Michele flopped into his chair.   

"Man, it's cold out here!" She shivered dramatically.   I agreed, waiting to see what she wanted to talk about.  The nervously tapping fingers signalled something on her mind.

"Mum, do you think Dad is alright?" She blurted out.  I sighed. Of course she was worried about her father.

"I think he is fine, honey.  He is probably having the time of his life fishing."

"But what about when he comes back?  What's going to happen then?"  That was the question, wasn't it.  I reached over and place my hand over hers, holding her eyes.  "There are still too many unknown elements for me to answer that question, honey. What if the army regains control and this is all over tomorrow?  What if Daddy hears something on the boat radio and chooses to stay away until it is safe." Yeah, right.  "All I can say is that I will do everything I can to keep your daddy safe.  If I have to go pick him up myself, I will."

Michele nodded slowly, searching my eyes.  I guess she must have felt reassured because I felt the tension fade from her hand.  Attempting a smile, she pulled back her hand.

"Wait till I tell him how you kicked butt at the shops today."

I laughed.  "He'll never believe you."

She grinned, glancing at me.  "Where did you learn those moves?!"

I shrugged nonchalantly, aiming for supercool mum rather than desperate and lucky.  "You watch enough tv, you pick something up, I guess."

Michele sighed and relaxed back against the deckchair.  She closed her eyes and we sat in a companionable silence for a few minutes.

"Hey, Mum?"

"Hmm?"

"You know how I always said I was never going to bring a guy around because you would embarrass me?"

I smiled to myself.  At least one good thing appeared to have come out of this disaster of a day.  I appeared to have developed just a little bit of credit with my daughter at last.  "Yes?"

"That goes double now."

D'oh.

Around midnight, as our watch was coming to an end, the deluge faded to a steady drizzle.  Michele had gone back to bed.  I stood at the balcony, straining to see if I could hear or see anything unusual.  Mike came up to stand beside me, little Lizzie sticking close to his heels.

"I can't hear any gunfire."  Mike murmured.

"Thank heavens." My response was heartfelt.  If it was over, we would be safe tonight.

"Hmm.  The question I keep asking myself is  - was the battle won or lost."  A chill ran through my body as I realised the implications of what he was saying.  Was it possible? Could a battalion or two of soldiers have been overrun?  Could the zombies be on our doorstep this very minute? 

The heavy mist from the mountains lay heavy at the bottom of our street, ever so slowly rolling towards us.  Lizzie started to growl.  Mike clicked his fingers and she stopped, but I could see her body quivering anxiously.  Across the street, Jodie's collie, Molly, started barking.  A light came on in the house and I saw the door open.  Jodie's oldest daughter, Jasmine, poked her head out cautiously and, not seeing anything, let the dog out.  The black and white collie raced out and down the street towards the mist, barking frantically.  My heart started to pound.  I had a really bad feeling about this.

Jasmine walked down her front steps.  "Mollie! Mollie!  Come here, girl!"  The dog disregarded her and disappeared into the mist, barking.  The barking became a panicked squeal and then - silence.  My disquiet turned into full-blown alarm.

"Jasmine!" I called urgently into the night.  "Get back in the house!"  She looked towards us, hesitated for a second, and then hurried back inside, closing the door behind her.

"Stay out of sight," Mike murmured, pressing himself against the thick verandah beam.  I followed his lead and tried to merge myself against the building as I peered into the street.  Between the darkness, drizzle and fog, I could see little more than dark shapes.  Across the street, however, the house light illuminated the area around it.

"Switch off your light, Jasmine." I whispered.  If the zombies were here, I knew that they would be attracted by the only lit house in the street.

"They didn't finish boarding up the windows, like I told them to." Mike noted grimly.  Although there were a couple of pieces of wood reinforcing the side french doors, I could still see into the room through the sheer curtains.  If there was anyone moving around in the house, the zombies were bound to see it.

Something moved on the edge of the lit area.  I strained my eyes to see what it was.  I caught a glimpse of a leg passing through a beam of light.  Gasping, I started to tremble.  And then a figure stepped into the light.  A man.  What was left of him.  Half of his body had been torn away, leaving half a torso and one arm. 

He stared at the lit house for a second before stumbling forward towards the stairs.  Another figure followed him.  And then another.  I watched, aghast, as a crowd of zombies quickly grew around the house.  They gathered at the windows and the french doors, anywhere they could see inside.

Moaning, they banged on the glass  More and more figures pressed heavily against the panes.  Then, the sound I had dreaded.  The sound of breaking glass.  Within seconds, the zombies started pouring into the house through the french windows.

Then the screaming started.  Above the rain and the moaning of the creatures, the cries of the women could be heard.  Desperate, petrified, they pleaded for help, for mercy, for god.  I clenched my hands uselessly, desperate to help and helpless to do so.  Through the glass panes, I caught a brief glimpse of a woman disappearing under a wall of zombies.  It was impossible to say who it was.  The desperate cries for help pierced my heart like arrows. I wanted to clap my hands over my ears like a child as the screams went on and on. 

Yet, when there was finally silence, it was so much worse.  I turned away, unable to speak.  In the midst of that heartbreaking silence, I watched in horror as lights came on in house after house down the street.  Next door, I saw the Brands standing in the doorway, framed by the light of their home as they peered into the darkness.

"What are they doing?" I hissed, dismayed.  "They'll draw the zombies straight to them!"

"They don't really understand what they are up against, Lori."

"But we do.  We've got to do something, Mike."

He met my eyes with a look of compassion.  "Our first priority has to be our own group, Lori.  You know that."

I did know that.  I also knew that there was still time to save these people, too.  In my heart, I believed I could do both.  It is, however, quite possible that I am just the world's biggest idiot.

As I saw zombies stumbling out of Jodie's home, drawn by the lights, I made a decision.  I grabbed the loaded pistol off the table before Mike could react and bolted down the stairs.

"Lori!" I heard Mike hiss.

Tales of the Dead Tropics - chapter 24

The remainder of the trip home was spent in sombre silence.  The reminder that the zombies were nearly on our doorsteps, if they weren't here already, made it suddenly frighteningly real.  The illusion of safety and peace I had felt in the midst of the rainforest was shattered.  It was inevitable that the zombie horde would reach our doorstep; it was just a matter of when, not if.

As we pulled into the driveway, I spied a battered panel van parked at the top and two familiar figures standing beside it. "Jim!"

"Ken!"   Emma exclaimed joyfully.  As Kaye drew her car up beside them, we clambered out and hugged the men with squeals of delight.  After everything we had been through together, they felt like part of the family and my heart swelled with happiness to see them looking so well.  The two men grinned and accepted our attentions graciously.  Roy lifted Ellie and Beth out of the car before clapping his hand around Jim's arm and then Ken's.

Interrupting the reunion, I  started to shoo everyone upstairs.  Ken took off his glasses and started vigorously rubbing them.  "You going to introduce them to Lizzie, Jim?"

Jim looked at him with hooded eyes.  "Reckon so."  Curious, I watched him walk around the back of the van.  My mouth dropped open as he returned with a quivering, short-haired brown chihuahua under his arm.  I don't know why the sight of a big, burly man holding a tiny dog should be so startling but it was like finding myself suddenly in an alternate reality. "This is Lizzie.  She was my parents' dog and I sorta inherited her when they died."  He looked around the group placidly.  "Don't be fooled. For a small dog, she's got a lot of verve." 

I cocked my brow teasingly.  "Verve?"

"Gumption." He corrected himself.

"Gumption?" I raised my eyebrow higher.

Jim narrowed his eyes at me. "Something wrong with your vocabulary all of a sudden, Lori?"

"No, not at all.  I'm sure she's a very plucky little dog.  You must feel very secure in your home at night."  As the others laughed, I grinned and held my hands up in a gesture of peace.  A smile tugged at his lips as he acknowledged the point.

I ushered the group upstairs for some coffee and a pow-wow.  Little Lizzie was promptly whisked out of Jim's arms by the children.  I had no doubt she would be thoroughly spoilt.  Even Lucas and Michele sat nearby with big grins on their faces, trying to tempt the dog over with pieces of cheese.

Jessie giggled as the chihuahua placed her paws on her chest and licked her face enthusiastically.  I felt a twinge of guilt as I watched the thin little girl hugging the dog.  I had barely exchanged two words with her since she'd woken up.  Looking up, she caught me looking at her and grinned happily.  I beamed back at her and promised myself that I would make some time to sit down with her - as soon as our complicated life permitted.

The toddlers were immediately vociferous in their hunger so Kaye and I plonked a packet of biscuits and some chips on the table.  Yeah, sue me; I'm a bad mom. 

Turning back to the adults around the table, I waited for Jim and Ken to bring us up to speed.  He popped a gum in his mouth, and in a few words, summed up the last few hours.  The trip to his home had been uneventful, bar a handful of zombies spotted on the road.  He'd picked up Lizzie and they had moved on to Ken's house.  Eyes cast down, Ken quietly told of finding bloodstains on the kitchen floor but no sign of his parents.  Emma reached out and grabbed his hand tightly.  Looking from her to Ken, I realised sadly that they had both been orphaned today.

"Did you have any trouble getting here?" I asked, thinking of the traffic jam we had battled through.  The two of them snorted at the same time.

"You could say that." Jim said wryly. 

Ken started the story.  "After we picked up some equipment, we decided to take the old back road via Freshwater.  We figured there'd be less traffic. Which there was." Jim inclined his head in agreement. "There's a short cut through the cane fields my family used to take.  Unfortunately, we found the Kuranda tourist train parked across it."

"It looked to be abandoned but we decided it wasn't worth investigating." Jim took a deep slug of the coffee Kaye placed before him. "We decided to cross the train line a little further up and backtrack across the edge of the field to the dirt track.  Figured no one was going to sue us for any damage to the cane."

"Unfortunately," Ken continued. "as soon as we crossed the line into the field,  we discovered where all the passengers had disappeared to."

Emma gasped, her hand going to her mouth.  "They were in the sugar cane?"

Eyes bright with remembered excitement, Ken nodded.  "They just started pouring out of the sugar cane. "

"What did you do?" I had to admit the story had me as sucked in as Emma.  At least I knew this one had a happy ending, as they were both sitting in front of me.

Ken looked at Jim who sat with one arm slung over the back of the chair, clmly chewing his gum.  He shrugged.  "Pulled out one of those pieces of equipment I mentioned earlier.   It's amazing how quickly a chainsaw can separate a head from a body."

"Eww." Kaye made a face across the table to me.  Ken grinned.  "Jim leaned out of the window and cleared a path like he was trimming a hedge!  Didn't get rid of all of them but it gave us enough wiggle room to get the old van across the field to the dirt track.  After that, it was clear sailing."

Jim pushed his chair back.  "Reminds me, we need to get our stuff in." He glanced outside.  "Have to shore up the place before it gets dark, too."

Roy grimaced, as he stood and stretched.  "Yeah well, I need to take a ten minute cat nap before we get started on that stuff.  My head's bloody killing me."

Emma rolled her eyes at me but I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.  We had all been through a lot today.  "I'll get you some panadol."

He looked a little surprised.  "Thanks."

As Roy lay down on the sofa with a groan, I hurried downstairs, knowing that the toddlers were in safe hands with the teens.  As long as they weren't busy making goo-goo eyes at each other, I thought.  Beside the van was a growing pile of stuff.  I spotted the chainsaw, rope, a couple of bags of tinned food, a rifle and extra ammunition, and something that looked like a radio. "It's a CB radio." Jim clarified for me.  "If communication remains down, it may be the only way for us to communicate with the outside world."

He grinned down at me. " And I still have some contacts from my days in the forces who might be able to tell me something useful."

"You're full of surprises, aren't you, Jim?" I smiled at him, feeling sudden affection for a man I had only known by sight for years.  He kinda reminded me of that British action hero, Jason Statham, with his clean shaven head and muscular build.  Not that I was about going to tell him that.  He was cocky enough as it was. 

I left him and Ken to it while Emma, Kaye and I unloaded the four wheel drive again.  I placed anything that could be used as a weapon, like the axe and long handled shovel, next to the sliding doors upstairs where we could reach them quickly.

After transferring our stores to the house, we set to work shoring up the house's defences.  Finding wood wasn't a problem as the shed was full of bits and pieces.  Charlie was quite the handyman and had, in fact, just finished building a treehouse in the forest for the kids.  Jim and Ken put together a rough barrier at the bottom of the stairs to deter any zombies while Emma and I covered the rear windows of the house.  Being on a slope, the back of the house was accessible to any zombie who decided to make the long trek up the driveway and through the rainforest.  Kaye left to prepare dinner and organise baths for the kids.  I grinned as I heard her muttering something about getting the short end of the stick as she went upstairs.

All the hammering and noise soon brought out our neighbours.  The retired couple on the left, Mr and Mrs Brand, stood in their back yard peering at the goings-on over here.  Across the road, I saw Jodie and her teenage daughters, Jasmine and Skye, heading towards us.   Further down the road, I could see a man and his little boy watching us.  I didn't know much about that family, though, apart from the fact that they had a teenage son who annoyed everyone with riding his quad bike on Saturday mornings.

"Hey Jodie." I called out between blows of the hammer as she walked around the house.  "Hey girls."  They waved at me as they wandered over to watch the men at work.  I guessed all those muscles on display were a lot more interesting than our red, sweaty faces.

"Hi Lori."  Jodie looked anxious. "You look like you're preparing for a cyclone." 

"I wish I were."  I put down the hammer and nails and wiped my face. "Do you need help getting your place ready, Jodie?"  I knew her husband had left a few months back and she didn't strike me as being very self-sufficient.

She hugged herself nervously. "Do you really think it's necessary?  It seems a bit like overkill for a bunch of rioters."

I sighed.  Here we go again.  What to tell and what to keep to myself?  "It's more than people rioting, Jodie.  These people have been infected by a virus.  They are extremely violent and irrational.  You need to take every precaution to protect your family."

Jim walked over, his damp shirt clinging to his chest.  "Ma'am, if you need help making your place secure, I could come over after I'm finished here." Jodie looked at him with interest.  I felt a moment of vague irritation.  Time and place, lady, time and place. 

She smiled at him.  "Thank you.  I would really appreciate that."  Beckoning her girls, she waved a coy goodbye and walked back down the driveway.

Jim looked down at me and cocked a brow.  I rolled my eyes and picked up my hammer.  As he walked away, Emma snickered. "Looks like Jim's got himself an admirer."

I snorted derisively.  I couldn't believe that there were women who had time to flirt even in the midst of a crisis.

After finishing the windows, we discussed the back door which looked onto the rainforest.  We decided to leave it unboarded in the event we had to make a sneaky getaway through the forest.

It was getting dark as I went upstairs to arrange the supplies into some sort of order.  Ken and Jim had headed over to Jodie's.  Roy was still asleep on the sofa.  Poor guy, he must have been very tired, I thought, if he could sleep through all the hammering and the kids playing around him.  His ten minute nap had turned into, I checked my watch quickly, over two hours!  Sarah came running out of the bathroom, naked as the day she was born.  Smiling, I opened my arms and she threw herself into them.  I loved the way the babies smelt and the softness of their skin.  Years of tropical sun had left my arms bronzed and freckly, and they didn't look very attractive against the pale, smooth baby arms of my daughter.

"Ooh, where are your clothes, munchkin?" I teased as I tickled her.  She squealed and wiggled.  "Don' haf any!"

"Well, I'm sure your aunty has laid some out for you in your cousins' room.  Go have a look."  I watched with a cheesy grin as she paddled out of the room.  What can I say? I'm a sucker for babies.

Turning back, I gathered all the bags of food and carried them into the kitchen.  If we were lucky, they would stretch out our food to five days, although by the end, everyone would be complaining, I had no doubt.  The tins of food that remain uneaten in people's cupboard tend to be the stuff no one wants to eat, like my impulse purchase of tinned artichokes.  Jim and Ken's contributions included tins of kippers, red cabbage, bamboo shoots and spam, which, in my eyes, just proved my theory.  Heck, I didn't even know spam was still being produced!

A giggle alerted me to the return of my daughter.  As I gathered some bottles of juice and soda in my arms, I heard Roy groan.  Glancing over the pile in my arms, I saw Sarah poking Roy in the cheek.  Grinning inside, I headed for the kitchen.  About time he woke up, I thought, quelling the little voice that said a good mother would teach her daughter that it was rude to poke sleeping people.

And then my world fell apart.  My daughter screamed in pain and fear.   I dropped everything as I spun around, a cold sweat breaking out all over my body. Roy clutched my daughter in his outstretched hands, pulling her towards him.  The cold eyes, the pallid skin...oh god, how could I have missed this?!

I flew into the room and, as he brought his mouth to her neck, I grabbed Sarah around the waist and wrenched her away.  Kaye came running into the room.  "What's happened?"  She cried. 

Ignoring her, I examined my daughter feverishly.  There was blood all over my daughter's hand.  The room spun as I saw she was missing her three middle fingers.  No, no, no.  For a moment, I wanted to die.  I knew what the future held and I didn't want to face it.  She had been bitten and I knew, without a shred of doubt, what that meant for her.