Lotus || April CampNaNoWriMo 2019

ii. leaving

"They say the finish line is in your sights

What they don't say is what's on the other side..."

-*-

Mei Lin was the fastest, being on the track team at school and all. She left He Shui in the car for Violet to scoop up against her protruding belly, his legs slipping down from the roundness of her. Violet felt a surge of adrenaline like she was drowning and needed to break to the surface. She slung her own and He Shui's backpacks over her shoulders and slammed the car doors shut without missing a beat. In the corner of her eye she could see Lien lifting his grandmother out of the back seat. He kicked one of the creatures with his slippered foot -- in all the commotion he hadn't put on any real shoes.

Violet had never realized how difficult it was to run in sand. Her feet barely seemed to be moving. The zombies that had been leaning against the back windshield were now piling back over each other toward the boat, toward the sound of Mei Lin's little feet as she sprinted down the dock toward the Santa Rosa. A few stayed back to follow Violet as she shuffled down the beach, son in tow.

She could feel herself sweating. Her eyes burned with tears. Maybe it was the pregnancy. She'd been crying a lot for the past seven months.

They were so close . . . and she didn't feel like she was getting anywhere.

"Mommy!" shrieked the little boy. "Mommy!"

Violet looked down. One of the rotting people, zombies, creatures, whatever they were. One of them had He Shui by the leg. It held on with raw hands and gray nails. The following zombies latched onto the first one, three, then four then five, all dragging He Shui down with their rotting hands.

Violet tried to kick them away, but the first got its mouth around He Shui's leg before she could stop it.

She screamed, a terrifyingly primal motherly instinct kicking in as the inhuman teeth sank into her baby's calf, drawing a river of thick red blood. Slinging He Shui onto her back, Violet grabbed the head of the zombie and slammed it into the ground so hard that its skull exploded like a pumpkin dropped off a building. Then she ran like she hadn't known she was still able to run.

She ran so fast that her legs could hardly keep up, nearly tripping with every step. When her feet finally hit solid dock instead of sand, she wasn't expecting it and did trip. She fell face first, sending the backpacks and the child sprawling.

He Shui landed on his hands and knees. He didn't move. Violet could hear the grunts and smell the rot of the creatures coming closer. "Run, He Shui," she cried out. "Run to Mei Lin!"

Mei Lin had already gotten into the boat and stood leaning over the railing, screaming at Violet to get up. The panic in her voice made Violet feel ill.

But for some reason, she couldn't seem to get up. She felt anchored to the ground. Her legs and arms wobbled when she tried to push to her feet sending her back down onto her stomach.

She heard Lien's steps behind her and reached out for him in a panicked fervor. But! He avoided her hand, like Violet was "it" in a game of tag. "Come on, Violet!" He shouted over his shoulder. He had his grandmother in a fireman's carry, her legs bouncing up and down as he ran down the dock.

She could see Mei Lin lifting He Shui onto the boat. The girl froze when she saw her father running toward her. "Dad!" she shrieked. "What the fuck are you doing? Get mom!"

Violet thought her heart had stopped. She was going to die. That was the fact, it was happening right now. She felt a hand on the back of her thigh, ready to drag her off and devour her, turn her into one of them. It had been a good life, she thought. She'd done all the things she was supposed to do, right, getting a degree and falling in love and having babies.