Chapter 1.1 - Return

“Damn! Why does this guy think he needs to blind me?” Every time I am driving at night it seems like there is always some oversized truck following me with their bright lights on. This time it is a blue truck with a “Ghetto Redneck” decal on his back windshield. I only know that because I see this truck all the time sitting at a house just up the road from my family’s house.

I am actually on my way there now, and the guy behind me is probably going home too. I do not usually come home often, but my mother and stepfather, Melinda and Richard Garrick, need someone to watch over my three younger siblings so they can go see my stepbrother, Rob, graduate from army boot camp. So on this Friday night after I finished all the work for my college classes, I packed for the weekend and started heading home. My parents should already be gone and on their way down to Georgia by the time I get there. It is not too long of a drive from where we live in Tennessee, but for some strange reason Richard prefers to drive at night instead of getting up early in the morning.

By now I am already getting pretty close to home, but it is so difficult to see the road, due to the blinding light coming from behind me, that I cannot even tell if I am on it or not. I would slow down but I do not want to take the chance of the jerk behind me ramming into the back of my car. I start mumbling names like “asshole” and “bastard” under my breath, because I have to keep my head somewhat bent down to avoid the blinding lights. I look up squinting, just enough to see a shape stumble into the road, and ask myself, “is that a person?” I have just enough time to yell, “Oh shit!” before I swerve off the road and skid along the guard rail. I manage to slam on my brakes to stop just before the guard rail turns into a big tree.

I take a second to think about what just happened; everything happened so fast. Then I remember the guy driving right behind me. Time seems to slow down as I turn around just in time to see the truck smash into the person on the road. Without any sign of slowing down the truck suddenly makes an extremely sharp cut to the left, causing it to start flipping right before it gets to my car. Preparing to be hit I crouch down as low as possible and wait for the impact, but everything goes silent. I sit up and stare at the truck horrified. It missed me and my car and slid down the road flipped upside down, but still, I know I just witnessed two people die.

I step out of my car and stumble over to the flipped truck while waving black smoke out of my face. I keep an eye out for any sign of a fire in case the truck might explode. I walk over to the driver’s side of the truck and see the entire top crushed. To make the scene even worse, the driver of the truck is halfway through the windshield with blood pouring from all over his body. There is no doubt he is dead, and with the truck crushed the way it is, there is no way to get him out.

I do not see any sign of the body of the person who was hit around the truck. Then noises come from behind me back up the road. I turn around to see a bloody mass rising up from the road only a few feet away from where the person was standing only a moment ago. There is no way that person can be alive though; it was slammed by the truck full force. Yet there it is, half walking and crawling its way towards my direction. The noises it is making are unhuman, like a growl and moan mixed, and no normal person could live through a wreck like that.

I do not know if it is instincts of just fear, but the look in its eyes tell me to keep my distance. I quickly get on the other side of the truck, hoping it forgets I am here. When the thing makes it to the truck, the noises become louder and angrier. I kneel down on the ground, so I can try to watch it through the passenger side window. It looks like it is about to come around the truck to where I am hiding, but instead it suddenly drops to the ground. The surprise makes me fall back on my ass. It does not appear to catch its attention though, but the alternative is just as horrific.

The thing, monster, whatever it is starts biting chunks out of the dead man’s side. I watch in horror as it digs its hands and teeth into the poor corpse. I cannot stand the sight anymore and try getting up to leave, but as I use the truck to help raise myself, the metal lets out a piercing screech loud enough for anything around to notice. The noise comes from directly next to my ear and is enough to put me in a small daze, while grabbing the attention of the thing feasting on the dead man. By the time I was completely on my feet, the thing is already blocking the path to my car. It looks directly at me and suddenly charges at me, throwing around its whole body.

This should be impossible, it is moving way too fast for something with obvious broken bones all throughout its body. That does not stop it though, and in seconds it is already lounging at me. I hopelessly yell, “Stop!” It does not seem like it could even understand me and forces me to jump back out the way. It dives at me again without hesitation, but this time I am not able to avoid it and instead grab both its wrists. I can tell I am still stronger and faster than it, but it is not giving up. I use all my own body weight to swing the thing into the side of the truck. In the rush of excitement I start stomping every obvious weak point I can see on its body, making sure there is no way it can move. I finally focus all my strength into my right foot, and stomp on its chest causing it to cave in. I pull my foot out of its chest cavity, and try shaking off the dark blood covering up to my ankle.

The thing is dead but still moving, and I do not understand how. Before I can even take a take step away from this thing, noises are coming from its bloody mouth while its limbs twitch from trying to rise. I see an ax laying a little ways down the road along with some scraps of wood I assume must have fell out of the truck when it flipped. I walk over and pick up the ax, examining it. Out of pure rage I run at the quivering corpse, and swing the ax straight into it forehead. I step back, and the corpse instantly stops all movement and noise.

I turn around to go back to my car, unable to believe what just happened. Then I hear the noises again. This time they are not coming from the same corpse though; they are coming from the front of the truck. I walk to the front of the truck again, and see the dead driver squirming around, making the same horrible noises. “What the fuck is this?” As soon as I say this, the dead man looks up at me, and starts going crazy trying to grab at me. I do not know what to do, so I run to my car as fast as I can while trying to block out everything happening around me.

I get in my car, and luckily it starts without a problem. I stomp on the gas and speed away. I pass the truck and the dead man, while refusing to look back. Feeling like I am going crazy, I start muttering to myself, “what is this? What is happening?” The dead are not staying dead, one started to eat the other, and then tried to attack me. I need to hurry and make sure my family is okay; I have a very bad feeling something will be wrong.

I grab my cell phone sitting in the cup holder, and call my family’s house phone. No one answers, but instead I get a busy tone. I try calling two more times, only to end up with the same result. I yell through my phone, “Answer the phone dammit!” I do not yell because of anger, but from worry. I toss my cell phone into my passenger seat. It is not helping anyways, besides I can already see my house just down the road. Unfortunately I can also see my parent’s car, but that is not right, they should have already left. That must mean something did happen. I speed up even more, pushing my car as fast as it can go.