Page 2 of Cora

“She should be frightened,” the stranger replied, standing. “Satan’s—“ he was cut off, doubling over as a cough wracked his body. When he stood and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, he smeared blood across his chin. “Satan’s army has passed through the obsidian gates and is here to erase humanity from the surface of the planet.”

Sue returned with our food and overheard him. “It’s time to leave, buddy,” she told him as she set the plates on the table.When she started to shoo him toward the door, he lunged for me and grabbed my arm.

“Get back to your mountain, little mountain girl, before it’s too late,” he warned as Daddy sprung from the table and ripped him away from me.

“Get your hands off my daughter,” he growled as he shoved him toward the door.

“I’m going, I’m going,” the man replied, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Should we go home, Daddy?” I asked nervously when he returned to the table.

Daddy smiled brightly at me. “There’s no need to rush off before we do what we came to do, Buttercup,” he assured me. “But, perhaps we shouldn’t dawdle in town today. Let’s finish eating, and then you can run down to say hi to your friends quickly, and then we’ll go home. When all of this blows over, I’ll make a special trip back down so that you can spend more time with them and make up for today’s short trip.”

I nodded. I was disappointed that I couldn’t spend the rest of the afternoon with my friends, but the stranger had spooked me more than I cared to admit. “Who was that guy?” I asked Sue, who was still standing by our table.

“No one to concern yourself with, dear one. Just a drifter,” she replied, patting my shoulder. “We’ve had an increase in transient traffic since all of this started,” she told Daddy, gesturing to the news.

Daddy nodded and began to eat. “I imagine we’ll start to see more people up in the mountains as well,” he said around his food. “I’ll also have to pick up some extra ammunition. Can never be too careful.”

“No, you can’t,” Sue agreed. She looked down at me and smiled. “Eat up, sweetheart. I’ll go grab you a slice of pie.”

I pushed my salad around on my plate. Suddenly, I didn’t feel so hungry. I wasn’t a little kid anymore. I was practically an adult, and I could tell Daddy and Sue were much more worried than they were trying to let on. Whatever was going on, it was bad.

“Eat up, kiddo,” Daddy urged gently. “The sooner you finish eating, the more time you’ll have to visit with your friends before we have to leave.”

“I don’t have to go see my friends if it isn’t safe, Daddy,” I replied as I stabbed a tomato with my fork and popped it in my mouth.

“It will be fine, Buttercup. Don’t worry so much, that’s my job. All that stuff happening isn’t happening anywhere near here, Cora. I’ll just feel better when we’re back on our mountain.”

We finished eating and went our separate ways.

“Remember, Cora. We meet back here in twenty minutes,” Daddy said as we parted.

“Ok, Daddy.”

I walked the few blocks to the arcade and pushed the doors open. The sound of arcade games filled the poorly lit room. The attendant wasn’t at the counter like usual, and from what I could tell, I was the first one to arrive. Hopefully, my friends got here before I had to leave.

I exchanged some of the dollars I brought for game tokens and stepped up to the Dance Dance Revolution game, which was always my favorite game when I visited. As I was jumping around, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. When I looked, I saw what looked like Kelly at the end of the row of games before she moved out of sight.

“Kelly?”

I rolled my eyes at my attempt to get her attention. With all the noise in here, it was difficult to understand someone screaming beside you, let alone across the room. I abandoned my game andwalked to the end of the row, expecting to see her at one of the games around the corner. When I rounded it, however, no one was there. Maybe I was seeing things? I wandered further into the arcade and began to hear what sounded faintly like a pack of wolves.

My footsteps faltered as alarm bells started going off in my head. I didn’t understand why, but something about that sound told me to run as fast as I could in the opposite direction. I reached the end of the rows and peeked around the corner. I had to cover my mouth to keep myself from screaming. Halfway down the aisle was Kelly and some of my other friends, kneeling on the floor around... a body. And they were eating it. My friends were making the sounds I had heard.

I needed to get out of there, but like a car accident on the side of the road, I couldn’t make myself look away. That is until Ben’s head slowly rose, and his black eyes met mine. Shit! I turned and ran for the door. I didn’t chance a look behind me to see if I was being followed. I didn’t need to; I could hear them. I bolted from the arcade and ran straight into the man from Granny Sue’s.

“Didn’t I tell you to get back to your mountain, little girl?” he cackled as his hands gripped my arms.

I struggled against him as Kelly and my other friends crashed through the door. “Let me go!” I shrieked.

“The zombie apocalypse is here, girlie! Run home before they get you!”

The crazy old man pushed me toward Sue’s and turned to face the... zombies? This can’t be real. He was still laughing as they tackled him to the ground and dug their fingers into his body to feast. I ran for my life, hoping to see Daddy’s truck pull down the road before I reached Sue’s, but it didn’t. I swung the door open and sighed with relief when I saw Sue.

“Sue! People are attacking each other out there and... and... eating them!” I turned to look outside to make sure I hadn’t beenfollowed and saw Daddy pull up outside. “Daddy!” I yelled as I swung the door open and ran to meet him.

“Cora!” he yelled as he jumped from the truck. The look of relief on his face when he saw me was short-lived when his gaze moved behind me. “Cora!” He lunged for me, grabbing me and pulling me to his chest as he spun us around. “Ahh, fuck!” he yelled. “Get in the driver’s seat, now!” He pushed me toward the truck and then turned around. That’s when I saw Sue holding him, but it wasn’t Sue anymore. She was a monster, too.

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