The three girls ran down the concrete sidewalk outside the rooms, ducking below the windows when they saw the doors open and the sounds of other bikers inside.
Mary led the pack, checking each open door they passed, making sure it was safe. The only one that kept glancing back to where they’d left their mother was Erin.
All of them were barefoot and once they made it to the parking lot Mary picked up Erin and they sprinted across the cracked pavement, avoiding the line of bikes parked near the front.
They made it onto Main Street and ran inside the first store they came across. The windows were smashed to Murth’s Grocery and inside a body lay across the tile, a trail of blood following it from the street.
Hank Murth was on his back, gasping for breath when the three girls came in. The bell at the top of the glass door jingled when they entered. The girls gasped at the sight of the body.
“Mary, what are we going to do? What about mom?” Nancy said.
Mary whipped around, her face angry, and grabbed Nancy by the shoulder’s and shook her violently.
“Will you shut up?” Mary screamed.
Nancy broke down. She collapsed to the floor, weeping.
“I’m sorry, Nancy. I just…” Mary said.
The crack in Mary’s voice brought on sobs of her own. She had no idea where she was going, what she needed to do to protect her sisters, or how to help her mother. She closed her eyes, trying to the get the picture of her mother lying on the bed out of her mind.
“In the back,” Hank said.
Hank was lifting a bloody, shaking hand, pointing behind him. His breaths were short, and sporadic. His lungs wheezed with effort, trying to stay alive.
“There’s a… room… in the back… stay there,” Hank said.
The back of the store was dimly lit.
“It’s… Safe,” Hank said.
Mary was out of options. She grabbed her sisters and headed to the back of the store. A small sliver of light came from under the crack of a door. Mary turned the doorknob and pushed it open.
It must have been a room where the old man was living. There was a small cot on the far side of the room when they entered. A desk with a kerosene lamp on it, mirror, sink, and closet door filled the rest of the tiny space.
Mary locked the door behind her. Nancy picked Erin up and put her on the bed, while Mary paced back and forth.
“What do we do now?” Nancy asked.
“I don’t know,” Mary said.
“When do we get to see Mom and Dad again?” Erin asked.
Mary froze in the middle of the room. Nancy looked back at Erin, whose legs swung on the edge of the bed.
Erin’s eyes had the uncertainty and naivetés only a four year old could have.
“Erin, did you see what happened?” Mary asked.
“I saw daddy fall down and hold his stomach like he had a tummy ache, and then I saw mom change her clothes when that man was talking to you,” Erin said.
“Daddy did fall down, but it wasn’t because he had a tummy ache. Erin, you won’t see daddy again.”
“Why?”
“Dad’s… Dead. Do you know what that means?”
“ Yes. Kimmy Sears in my class said her dad died of cancer and that she only gets to go and visit his grave. Is that what we have to do now?”
Nancy started crying. She buried her face in her hands, her shoulder’s shaking violently from her sobs.
Mary pulled Nancy to her. She wrapped her arms around her sister, holding her and stroking her hair.
“Yes, that’s what we have to do now,” Mary said.
The crash of glass hitting the floor spun all of them around to the door of the room. Mary dimmed the lamp.
“Shh,” Mary said.
Mary unlocked the door and cracked it open, trying to see what happened.
Two bikers entered, crunching pieces of glass under their boots.
“Well, look here, Pete. This old bastard’s still alive,” Don said.
“Resilient bag of bones isn’t he?” Pete asked.
“Please…” Hank said.
One of the bikers pulled his pistol out. The hammer cocked back and he pointed it right at the old man’s face. Mary covered her mouth, her eyes watering. The biker squeezed the trigger and the gunshot blasted through Hank’s head. His body went limp. Mary gasped.
“Hey, did you here that?” Pete asked.
“Hear what?”
“It came from the back.”
Mary’s heart beat faster. She retreated back into the room and told Erin and Nancy to hide under the cot. Mary ran to the closet and crammed herself inside. The close was to small for her to close all of the way, so she had to leave a sliver of it open.
“It was in here,” Pete said.
The door creaked open. Through the crack she could see the barrel of their guns poking around the room.
“I didn’t hear anything, Pete,” Don said.
Pete let out a whistle.
“The old man didn’t have much did he? Look at this shit hole,” Pete said.
Each step of their boots around the tiny room caused Mary to shudder. She breathed as softly as she could, scared to even move. She clutched the clothes hanging around her with both hands, making sure they stayed motionless.
She could only make out parts of their faces. One of the bikers turned and she noticed a flaming devil on the back of his jacket. The devil had his head thrown back, laughing.
“C’mon, Pete, let’s get out of here. The way this place looks it was probably rats,” Don said.
“All right.”
Mary watched both of them leave through the cracked door of the closet. Once she couldn’t hear the sound of their boots anymore she exhaled. Nancy and Erin crawled out from under the bed.
“C’mon, we need to get out of here,” Mary said.
They rushed out the back door of the grocery. They spilled out onto a small sidewalk next to a massive field of tall grass, five feet high. Mary led them behind the Main Street buildings, sprinting toward the end. Once they reached the edge of the buildings, Mary slowed down.
She peered her head around the brick wall and saw bikers smashing the storefront windows, carrying people to the middle of the street and executing them on their knees. Then two bikers spotted her.
“Hey!”
Mary grabbed Nancy and Erin’s hand. She pulled them along, searching for a place to hide behind the stores. She jiggled the handle of each door she passed. They were all locked.
The shouts from the bikers were getting closer. She didn’t know where to go. She didn’t know where to hide. She took her sisters and ran into the tall grass as far as she could and then dropped to the ground, pulling both of her sisters with her.
The grass was thick. Mary couldn’t see anything around her or between the tall brown and green blades. She kept her hand over Erin’s mouth to silence her sobs.
“Do you see them?”
“They’re not in the buildings.”
“Where’d they run off to?”
“Check the grass.”
Mary brought her finger to her lips. She hushed them both quietly. All three of their bodies were shaking. Mary covered her own mouth with her hand; afraid she might give away their spot. The voices of the bikers taunted them.
“Come out come out wherever you are.”
“We’re not going to hurt you.”
“Yeah, why don’t you come out to play?”
Mary could hear the movement of grass being swept aside and the steps of their boots on the blades, rocks, and dirt. All of a sudden she could see the grass move and then…
“Hey!” a distant voice shouted.
“What?”
The biker’s foot was only twelve inches away from Mary’s face. She looked up, but couldn’t see the man’s face through the blades of grass.
“Jake wants everybody back now. Quit jackin off over there and head to the motel.”
“All right.”