Grace Hampton

Chapter 8 Excerpt from Shadow People: Quickening of the Wicked
~ FAIR POWER ~
Featuring GRACE HAMPTON

Ricky knew she was right, but he couldn’t quite force himself to give in. He was scared, really scared. He feared his parents were dead, or maybe they’d turned into those things, like Grace’s parents. He was afraid to go outside and now, thanks to stupid Norman, he was afraid to stay.
     He was silent, trying to think, and finally spoke as he looked down at the floor, “Fine, let’s go somewhere else for tonight, but then I need to find my parents in the morning.”
     Grace nodded, “Okay Ricky, that’s good. That’s the plan. So now let’s put our heads together and think of the safest place we can get to, somewhere nearby.”
     Ricky raised his head as he had a thought, “The trailer park—the trailer park where Claire lives. The whole place is fenced in. It would be harder for those things to get in. We could try to make it to Claire’s. She and her husband are sure to be home. We’d be safer with more people. The more people the better I think.”
     “Claire?” Grace mused.
     She hadn’t talked to Claire in six years, not since she’d so sweetly offered to let Grace try her lip-gloss. Grace had only seen her a few times at church during the couple of years after and then she didn’t see her anymore. The times she had seen her, Claire had looked straight at Grace with pity in her eyes. Grace had always just hung her head in shame, letting her hair hang over her face. Grace overheard her parents talking once about how Claire had gotten herself pregnant and had to marry that 'good for nothing' Henry and she had to go live in that 'nasty, trashy trailer park'. They knew she’d gotten her due, they knew she was paying for her sins.
     “Yes, that’s the best place I can think of and it’s not far,” Ricky answered.
     “Well that’s it then, let’s get moving!” Norman said, heading towards the front door.
     “Wait, my car’s out back,” Ricky called to him, “We’ll go out the backdoor.”
     “I’m not going back there, that thing is back there,” Norman shook his head.
     “Norman, it’ll be okay, let’s just go out the back, we’ll go fast,” Grace told him.
     “No, I will not listen to you two about this, I’m going…” Norman started to say but a loud banging on the front door interrupted him.
     They all saw two older women. They were sick. One woman had blood covering her entire face like red paint. Her housedress was torn open down the middle and one leg was swollen purple and blue, and looked like it might be broken. Half of the other woman’s face was missing. They could see muscle and bone, and one side of both her lips was gone. The women growled freakishly and beat furiously on the glass doors as the three inside watched, frozen and numb.
     Then Grace cried out, “We have to get out of here!” and she grabbed onto Ricky’s arm.
     Ricky turned and ran towards the backroom. Grace followed and Norman was right behind her.
     In the stockroom, Ricky stopped abruptly and Grace ran into him and Norman into her. Old man Simon loomed before them blocking their way to the hall that led to the backdoor. He had gotten out of the bathroom just as Norman feared. He had gotten free of the ropes and had removed the bathroom door by its hinges.
      “What should we do?” Grace shouted.
     Ricky didn’t answer but he started looking around for something—anything he could use as a weapon. He knew there was a crowbar somewhere back there. Simon took a step towards them.
     “Do something, damn it!” Norman screamed when he heard the sound of breaking glass coming from behind them.
     “Hurry! Do something!” Norman screamed again and pushed his way in front of Grace, changing his position so he was in-between her and Ricky.
     Unable to find a suitable weapon Ricky did the only thing he could think of, in spite of his fear, he hunched down and ran the way he used to do when he played football in school. He hit the old man with his shoulder right in the stomach, knocking them both down to the ground.
     “Hurry! Get outside!” Ricky screamed as he struggled with the zombie.
     Norman ran passed and headed for the door. Grace, on the other hand, ran to help Ricky. She tried to grab Simon’s arms and do her best to free Ricky from them. At first, her attempts seemed feeble, but she used all her strength to pull the man’s arms away from him, just enough to allow Ricky to free himself.
     “Let go of him and get outside!” Ricky cried to her.
     Grace let go, but she didn’t go outside. Instead, she reached her hand out to Ricky.
     “Take it!” she shouted.
     Just as Simon latched onto Ricky’s leg, he reached for Grace's hand. She pulled him upwards while he struggled to free his leg. Ricky felt the pain of the man’s hands as they gripped tighter onto his lower leg. Then, instead of trying to pull his leg away, Ricky caught Simon off guard by smashing his foot downwards onto his face. Simon gurgled, let go, and brought his hands up to his broken nose.
     Grace pulled Ricky along, down the short hall towards the backdoor just as they heard the screeches of the women as they came into the backroom.
     “Hurry! Get to the car!” Ricky yelled as he stepped up to Grace’s side. Still holding her hand, he pushed open the door.
     “Where’s Norman?” Grace called out and then she saw him. Since Ricky’s sonic-blue Mustang SVT Cobra was the only car parked out back, Norman had gotten in and now sat slumped down in the backseat.
      Ricky and Grace ran to the car and Ricky grabbed hold of the driver’s side door handle and pulled. It was locked.
     “OPEN THE DOOR!” Ricky screamed at Norman, but Norman only slumped lower.
     “OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!” Ricky repeated.
     “Where are the keys?” Grace asked, looking towards the backdoor.
     Ricky jammed both hands into his pants pocket but he didn’t find them. A loud bang resounded behind them as all three zombies burst through the backdoor.
     “WHERE ARE THEY?” Ricky screamed at himself and then “They’re in my jacket, Grace!” he told her, remembering now that he had put them there earlier that day.
     Grace reached into both pockets and felt the cold metal of the keys in the left one. She handed them to Ricky and he unlocked the door. Grace quickly climbed over the driver’s seat to reach the passenger side. Ricky got in and locked the doors just as the woman with half a face slammed into Grace’s side door causing Grace to cry out. The other woman, moving slower because of her broken leg came up to Ricky’s side and beat weakly on his window with her fists. Simon had found the crowbar that Ricky had wanted and proceeded to pound it onto the trunk of the Mustang.
     “GET US OUT OF HERE!” Norman screamed from the backseat.
     Ricky took the keys into his right hand but dropped them onto the floor.
     “SHIT!” he cried and bent down to find them.
     Grace forced herself to turn from the woman pounding on her window and reached over and down to help him find them.
As soon as her hand touched the carpet, the glass of her window shattered and she felt two hands grab hold of her jacket. The other woman, not making any headway on Ricky’s side had hobbled over to Grace’s and reached in for Grace too.
     Grace screamed, “HELP ME!” and tried to pull away, moving her head and shoulders downwards towards the floor near Ricky’s feet.
     Ricky stopped searching for the keys and sat upright. He leaned over Grace’s back and started to punch both women in their faces. He broke what was left of the jaw of the one that was already missing half of it. She wailed and let go of Grace and moved back from the window. Ricky continued to punch at the other woman whose face was already covered in blood and saw that her eyes were beginning to swell shut but she just wouldn’t let go of Grace. He took hold of Grace himself now, pulled her almost onto his lap, and then held the woman by her arms.
     He yelled, “Grace! Find the keys!”
     Simon was beginning to wail on the back window. It had cracked, but the laminated safety glass held together but it wouldn’t be long before he bashed the whole thing in.
     Doing as she was told, Grace felt around for the keys again with both hands. Finally, her fingertips found them. She wrapped her hand around the keys and struggled to reach up.
     “Here!” she cried as she pushed them into Ricky’s chest.
     “I can’t!” he shouted. He was still holding onto the woman, if he let go she would grab at Grace again.
     “Start the car, Grace!”

Stacy STEPHENS and Cindy JACKSON

Authors ~ SHADOW PEOPLE: The Trilogy