As he pulled up in the driveway Misha was peeking out the back window between the seats and exclaiming, “Sam! Oh God, Sam!”
“What is it, Misha?”
“Oh God, that man is stabbing that lady over on the sidewalk, stabbing her with a tree branch!”
He looked in the rearview mirror and saw the mailman stabbing Judy Miller in the neck with a tree branch. Blood was pumping out of her neck and she was shaking. The mailman was stabbing away like a robot.
He drove over Louise’s flower bed and into the backyard, backing up onto the patio at the foot of the kitchen stairs. He turned to Misha.
“Crawl out and crawl up the stairs.”
He did not wait for her reply but ran around the car and up the stairs, Misha crawling quickly behind him. Louise was already opening the door while he pulled open the screen door. A vision of the old man at the hotel scratching on the door and the old man lurking in the hallway outside of Mrs. Marsden’s room, flashed across his mind’s eye. He dragged Misha in, and locked the screen door.
“Keep this locked too, Louise.”
Misha was hugging Louise, who she did not even know, and babbling, “All the men are killing us—everyone but Sam!”
Louise looked over the smaller girl’s shoulder.
“Jack called, said he was not coming home. It did not even sound like his voice—only slightly. That’s it. That was two hours ago. The phones are all locked up now. Come here.”
They followed Louise into the den where the TV was flickering. The local news was on early, for a special announcement. Misha sat curled up beneath the couch, glancing nervously at the window and then back at Louise.
“Lady, get down. If they see you we’re dead!”
Louise was in denial.
“It is just some kind of anxiety outbreak. That’s what the weather man said. It has to do with the asteroid debris filtering down. Look, here comes Helen Beatrice. She’s the lead anchor. They must have an update.”
Despite her tentative confidence that everything would soon return to normal, Louise squatted down next to Misha as the blonde anchor lady smiled calmly at the camera.
What the hell next? How could anything get worse? What is the government going to do about this?
There is the National Guard armory.
Christ, they’re all guys!
