Arrival: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

49

Maya pushed down harder on the gas pedal as she saw the sign that read Hendersonville City Limits. She had nothing but open road in front of her since most of the abandoned vehicles had been parked on the shoulder. She saw several people walking next to the highway, but she didn’t even look in their direction as she drove faster to her mother’s house.

Coming through Hendersonville, Maya thought the city looked like a set from one of those popular zombie television shows—without the zombies. Nobody walked the streets, and the businesses sat shuttered and empty. She saw a loose dog in an alley, tearing at something with its teeth.

Maya continued down the main road and then turned, her mother’s neighborhood only two miles away now. Her mouth was dry and her palms sweaty. She wanted desperately to see Aiden and Laura, and yet at the same time, she feared what she might find. Hendersonville had been empty so far, deserted.

You’re almost there.

She made the turn into her mother’s subdivision. Maya downshifted, but not fast enough, turning the corner more sharply than she should have. Items in the glovebox shifted, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw several items drop to the floor.

“Damnit,” she said, glancing down to see what fell from the glovebox.

Maya looked back to the road and immediately saw a deer standing on the double-yellow line, a couple of car lengths ahead. Maya turned the wheel, the tires screeching. She missed the deer, but the Jeep was now heading straight for a tree. Maya cut the wheel again and slammed on the brakes, but she was going too fast. The passenger side tires lifted off the ground, sending the Jeep into a roll and slamming Maya’s side of the vehicle down onto the pavement. She screamed, trying to grab onto anything as her body rocked in the seat.

The Jeep stopped, laying on the driver side. Maya breathed heavily as she shook safety glass from her hair—the only other noise a hiss coming from the engine.

She moved her arms and her legs while yet another flow of blood came from her shoulder wound. But she didn’t feel any broken bones. Her arms shook, and she felt aches in her chest and stomach, but otherwise, she appeared to be in one piece.

Maya unbuckled her seat belt and then pulled herself up and out of the Jeep’s seat. Safety glass had scattered across the concrete, and Maya swung her legs around to crabwalk out of the Jeep instead of rolling out into hot motor oil and more safety glass.

She limped away from the wreckage and began walking the last two blocks to her mother’s house. As Maya turned the corner onto October Woods Drive, she sighed, butterflies in her stomach. The house she’d grown up in stood four houses down on the right. It was the place where her mom and dad had lived their entire married life, and where Maya’s children would be waiting for her.

She smiled and moved as fast as she could with all the cuts and bruises that threatened to slow her down. Maya would forget about the pain once she hugged her kids. She nearly tripped on the curb as she shambled up to the front of the house, staring in disbelief that she’d finally made it here.

Her mother’s car sat in the driveway—she was home, the kids were here.

Maya shuffled up the walk leading to the front door.

“Mom! Laura! Aiden! It’s me! Open the door!”

She kept knocking, but no one answered. The blinds covered the windows, so there’d be no peeking through those. Perhaps everyone inside was sleeping?

Maya hurried around the side of the house to the garage. She then heard movement at the fence, and smiled when she saw her first ray of hope since leaving the dome.

“Hey, girl,” Maya said, going over to the fence where her German shepherd, Page, looked through the cracks in the wooden posts. She walked through the gate and kneeled next to the dog. Page wagged her tail and panted as Maya hugged her and scratched her ears.

“How are you doing?”

The dog backed away and barked at Maya.

But Page never barked. It was the only reason they could keep the large dog in their apartment. Page then ran around the corner, barking a couple of more times. Maya stood and followed her.

When Maya came around the corner, Page was standing on the concrete slab patio. She barked again and then darted inside through the open back door. Her heart racing, Maya followed the dog.

Page stood at the edge of the kitchen, in the living room, looking back and forth between Maya and the living room. Maya moved around the island in the middle of the kitchen and saw two feet poking out from behind the bar. Maya hurried over and saw the body lying face down on the ground.

“Mom!”

Page moved out of the way and Maya kneeled next to her mother. She flipped the woman’s frail body over to see a gash in her head. The wound wasn’t bleeding, but blood had pooled on the floor around her. Luckily, her mother was breathing.

Maya rolled her over and the woman’s eyes slowly fluttered open.

“Mom, it’s me, Maya. I’m here.”

Her mother groaned, her eyes opening all the way as she looked around the room. Then she focused on Maya, her chin dropping.

“Maya?”

Maya pulled her mother into a sitting position. She grabbed the back of Maya’s shirt, gripping it tightly. After a long embrace, Maya pulled away.

“What happened? Where’s Laura and Aiden?”

Her mother’s eyes went pale. Tears flowed as she shook her head.

“What is it?” Maya asked. “Where are they?”

Sniffling, Elizabeth said, “I couldn’t stop him. He showed up and broke through the back door. I tried, Maya. But he took them. He took the kids.”

Maya’s jaw fell open as the realization struck her. That familiar crooked smile, the slicked-back hair.

“I said, ‘Gerald, please don’t do this. Let them stay here.’ But when I tried to stop him, he hit me with his gun.”

“He came in here with a gun?”

Elizabeth nodded. “I am so sorry, Maya. I tried to stop him. But I just—”

Maya embraced her mother again.

“It’s okay, Mom. There was nothing more you could have done.”

Maya groaned, tasting the anger rising in the back of her throat.