They were coming.
As her feet scrabbled over the linoleum and she tried her best to keep her balance, she could only run on pure, raw terror, the kind that seems to swim against your bloodstream like some metaphysical salmon. Her voice was raspy from the amount of screaming she had done in the past day, and though she was only seven years old she came to the realization that she might die out here, on this island.
In front of her, the stylized wooden door to her hotel room opened and there was her brother, looking thin and emaciated, but brave. His hair, once meticulously combed, now stood in disarray. The holes in his jeans showed the skin stretched over bone, muscles straining in anticipation.
To her, he looked like an angel. He brandished an axe and snarled at the creatures behind her wordlessly. He raised it over his head, as if to strike. She noticed, suddenly, the spatters of blood on his face and Allman Brothers t-shirt. But there was no time for reflection – there was only panic, reflected in Tobias’s eyes.
She knew she didn’t have much time.
“Kaylee, run!” he shouted, gesturing wildly behind him and hooking a foot around the door. As she scampered behind him, he slammed the door shut. The light from the window blinded her for a moment, and she was reminded of the first few minutes of what would have been their vacation.
********
“Tobias!” Kaylee could hear someone yelling, and though she wasn’t looking, she knew her mother’s back was bent over, her hair was falling in her face, and she was trying her hardest to lug her four suitcases into their hotel. The tropical sun glinted off the plastic on the outside of her garishly colored backpack. She giggled, once, and she felt the calloused hand of her father drop onto her shoulder.
“You havin’ fun, kiddo?” He smiled at her, the collar of his polo shirt quivering slightly in the breeze. She nodded.
“Yeah, Daddy! This is gonna be the best vacation ever!” His smile widened and he chuckled. A question came into her head. “Daddy?”
“Yeah, sweetie?”
“Why aren’t you helping Mommy?”
He smacked his hand against his forehead. “Oh, you’re right. I should be treating Mommy like a princess, shouldn’t I?” She laughed and ran off, feeling the wonder of the breeze in her hair and the texture of the sand under her sneakers. The smell of the sea hit her nostrils, an overwhelming rose, and she stopped in her tracks. Dimly, she could hear her parents behind her.
“There you are, Anthony! God, I can’t get all of these in by myself, they weigh a hundred pounds! I asked Tobias, but he’s too busy playing some game on his phone. That boy will never –“
“Lisa, sweetheart, relax. We’re on vacation. Take a minute to enjoy yourself, for once.”
A pause. Then, “Oh, I guess you’re right. It’s been a while since I had some ‘me’ time, hasn’t it?”
“It sure has. But my queen shouldn’t worry.”
A scream. Kaylee turned away from the infinitude of the sea and saw her father picking up her mother bodily as she laughed and mock-struggled. He slung her over his shoulder and carried her into the hotel as a bellboy ran the opposite direction.
She looked to the car and noticed Tobias getting out, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. He started to check his phone, but he stopped mid-step when Kaylee pointed to their parents. Something that looked alien to her flitted over his face.
It almost seemed to her like he had smiled.
********
She shielded her eyes with one hand and fell to her knees, gasping in exhaustion. Her ears, sharp with adrenaline, pricked at the sound of shuffling footsteps increasing in volume. Tobias braced the door with the axe, pressing his body against it with all his might. She whimpered and turned on her back, crawling away towards the window.
The bathroom door opened and she only had time to gasp.
Her mother stood there, makeup running – though she had long since forgotten to care about how she looked – and burst into tears. “Kaylee…” she stammered.
“Mommy!” Kaylee ran to her and jumped into her arms. Her dad’s hands stroked her hair tenderly, his scent enveloped all three of them at the same time that his arms did, and together they cried from sheer relief. She looked up. “I ran, just like Daddy told me to.” Her dad squeezed harder.
“You were a very brave girl, Kaylee. I’m so proud of you.” He paused. “I’m…I’m just so glad you’re okay.” She nodded, rubbing her head against her mother’s chest. The inviting warmth calmed her, slowed her racing heart, allowed her to breathe. For the first time in thirteen blood-soaked hours, she felt truly safe.
The sound of splintering wood jerked them all back to reality.
“Anthony!” her mother shrieked. Tobias jerked the axe from the door and swung it down on the intruding hand. A feral scream and a spray of blood. Kaylee closed her eyes.
********
“Repoh’tin’ laive from de studio, KBAH, dis is Luisa Brangan. Dere seems to be an epidemic of unknohn saize spreadin’ rapidly ‘round the globe. Doctors don’ really kno’ the caus of dis disease, but dis be sometin’ the world ha’ nevah seen. Some sim-toms arr de brain swellin’ and de loss of speech. Please be advaise, steh inside yo’ place of residence an’ don’ come out for nahting. Dose of you in de hotels, dere will be plans to evacuate cha back t’ wherevah you be comin’ from. In oder news…”
********
Kaylee felt a hand grip her wrist, and she looked up to see her mother frantically looking for somewhere to go besides the window. Kaylee follwed where she was led, looking at the floor and ceiling, trying to find anything to give them an escape route.
“Lisa!” Anthony snapped. “There’s nothing but the window. We’ve gotta jump!”
“NO!” Lisa shrieked, clutching Kaylee to her. “It’s a five-story drop. None of us will survive!”
“The prospects aren’t looking good anyway,” Tobias grunted.
“We have to keep faith – there’s gotta be some…” Anthony paused. “Do you hear that?”
A faint whup whup whup noise could be heard over the groans and sh rieks outside the door. Kaylee ran to the window and squinted against the sun. Briefly she caught the tail end of a helicopter circling around the hotel. Lisa started pounding on the glass frantically.
“Please! Please, we’re in here! Help us!”
“Mom! They can’t hear us!” Tobias said. He handed the axe to his father and wrapped a pillowcase around his hand before punching the window. Lisa shielded Kaylee from the showering shards of glass and started yelling freshly.
“Please! Right here, please!” The noise grew louder. “Oh, thank God, oh yes, yes, yes!”
“We’ve got a problem!” Anthony yelped from the door. More hands were reaching through, grabbing at Anthony’s shirt and hair. He wrested himself away from their grasp and barred the door with the axe.
Tobias bit his lip. “That door won’t last us long enough for the ladder to get down. If we stay like we are now, there’s no chance.”
Kaylee stared up at her brother. “What do you mean?”
Her mother started shaking her head slowly. “No. No, Tobias –“
“It means,” Tobias said, overriding Lisa, “that one of us has to distract them. Give the rest of us some time.”
Kaylee hid behind her mother. “What?” she whispered.
Lisa patted Kaylee’s back, gently. “Not her,” she said, firmly. Tobias nodded once, in agreement.
“That never once crossed my mind.” The door was giving in, slowly. Kaylee glanced at it and saw her dad fighting with the former bellhop, trying to get out of a headlock.
“Tobias!” Kaylee screamed, jabbing a finger in her father’s general direction. Tobias looked, saw everything, ran to help his father. Kaylee looked away again. More screaming, more sounds like watermelon hitting concrete. Lisa ran to the couch by the door and pushed it on its side. She and Kaylee pushed it to the door, blocking it. Tobias and Anthony joined them.
“They’re almost here,” Anthony said. Tobias nodded. “We might all make it.”
“They’re almost here,” Anthony said. Tobias nodded. “We might all make it.”
“No, Dad.” Tobias spoke slowly. “We won’t. They’re too fast and there’s too many of them.” He paused, taking a breath to collect himself. “Which is why I’m going to stay behind.”
There was a silence, one that seemed to pervade every corner of the room. Even the splintering wood and shrieks of carnal desire seemed to fade away.
“What,” said Lisa. This wasn’t a question, nor was it a statement. It was just something to fill the space.
“No,” said Anthony. “No. Not you, not my boy.” He reached for Tobias, who pulled away.
“Face it, Dad! You’re the guy that makes the money. Without you, they’re on the street. Mom, you’ve gotta be there for Kaylee. She needs you. And there’s no way I’m letting a woman do this for me. I couldn’t stand myself.”
“Son…” Lisa was crying. “No, Tobias, no.”
“Mom.” Tobias spoke in resignation. “I don’t really contribute much anyway. I’m always talking with my friends, or playing some dumb game…I don’t remember really living for a while now. You two are everything to Kaylee. And odds are she probably won’t remember me when she’s older.”
“Yes she will! And even if she doesn't, I will! I’m not going to let you –“
“Mom.”
In that one word, there was everything.
Nobody moved. Nobody said anything.
“Kaylee,” Tobias said, taking her face in his hands. “I’m gonna go away now. You promise me you’ll be a good girl for Mom and Dad, okay?” He paused, rubbing at his eye. “Do…” he cleared his throat, but his voice wobbled nonetheless. “Do what you love, don’t apologize to anyone. You’re going to be a beautiful lady someday.”
Kaylee hugged him, innocently. “I love you, Toby.”
He smiled and rubbed her back. “I love you too, Kay.”
It was the first time either of them had said the words to each other.
He stood up. “Mom, Dad.” They looked at him, blinking back tears. “Remember me well.” He started crying soundlessly. “I didn’t say this much, but I always loved you. It might not have seemed like it, but –“ Tobias was interrupted by a thud on the other side of the wall. The helicopter blades were almost deafening now, and the ladder was slowly being spooled into their reach.
“Don’t look back.” Tobias turned away.
Lisa boosted up Kaylee to the ladder, and as she grabbed the first rung, she heard the door open. There were noises, noises that she tried to forget. Noises like a lemon being sliced or meat falling from a countertop. The noises got a lot more muffled as she climbed, and she looked down to see her mother and father below her, climbing for their lives.
She boosted herself up into the cockpit, grasping at the man holding the ladder steady. Dimly, she heard the radio playing.
“Andrew L- This is Andrew Lloyd Wuh –“
Andrew Lloyd Webber it was. If there were more time, she would have talked about how her brother loved his music. About how she would listen to his music and then make a face while he closed his eyes and went to God-knows-where in his mind. About how her mother and father loved that he wouldn’t listen to the drivel that most kids his age listened to.
But there were no words that could bring her brother back, no turns of phrase that could move the clock in reverse. And as her mother and father held her close and the helicopter soared off into the sunset, all she could focus on were the words and what her brother had told them they meant.
“Pie Jesu, (Merciful Jesus)
Qui tollis peccata mundi (Who takes away the sins of the world)
Dona eis requiem.” (Grant them rest.)
