Free The Bug: Complete Season One by Barry J. Hutchison Page B

him.
    With a crash he hit Immy’s toy box, his forehead slamming against the side of the lid. A sound, like bubbling water rolled from between his lips. He twitched violently, then seemed to deflate into stillness. Abbie hesitated, fighting the instinct to check on him. Instead, she wrapped Immy in her blanket and pulled her in against her chest.
    She was half way to the door when she heard Mark stir. Without looking back, she raced out into the hallway and made for the front door. She had to get outside, flag someone down, get help, get away. Mark was clearly having some sort of breakdown, and much as she loved her husband, she’d kill him before she let him hurt their baby.
    The street outside was empty, and much darker than she’d been expecting. The street lights were out in both directions, but there were more lights on in the other houses than was normal for that time of night.
    Bare-footed, Abbie ran past the first house, which was in darkness. She hammered on the frosted glass door of the next one, where lights blazed in every window. “Please,” she whispered, knocking rapidly. “Please, someone be up. Someone be up.”
    There was a sound from somewhere inside the house. Abbie glanced back at her own front door and held the crying Immy close. There was no sign of Mark yet, but it was only a matter of time.
    A shape appeared through the frosted glass of the door. “Open up, please,” Abbie said. “I need help.”
    The flat of a hand slapped against the inside of the glass. There was a long squeak as the hand slid down, leaving a streak of blood on the door.
    Abbie stepped back as the hand became a fist and began to pound at the glass. The person inside the house squealed and screeched as he kicked and punched and threw himself at the door. Abbie backed away further, past the parked cars and into the road, watching the distorted shape thrash harder and more violently against the glass.
    “Abbeeeeee!”
    Mark staggered from inside their house, blood painting both sides of his face. He was partly hunched over, his fingers curled up like claws. As he spotted his wife and child, he lurched towards them, his mouth gnashing at the air.
    “No, please, Mark, no,” Abbie sobbed, backing all the way to the other side of the road. Mark broke into a run. His movements were jerky, his face now twisted almost beyond all recognition. Abbie clutched Immy tightly against her chest, shielding her. Whatever happened. Whatever Mark did, he wouldn’t let him hurt their baby.
    “No, Mark, please, stay back,” Amy whimpered, then she squinted in a sudden glare as Mark was silhouetted by two powerful beams of light.
    A white delivery van hit him like a battering ram, sending him skidding along the road on his face. For a moment, Abbie could only stare at his unmoving body in shock. But then his foot twitched and his fingers curled, and, to her amazement, he began to sit up.
    With a creak , the van’s passenger door was pushed open. A young man with dark skin and darker eyes leaned over from the driver’s seat and beckoned urgently to her. “Hey, lady,” he called. “You getting in or what?”

SHOP WISE GROCERY STORE, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS  
     
24th May, 8:26 PM
     
     
    “Phone’s not working,” said Col, pushing through the swing doors that led through from the back store.
    “End of the world, dude. What do you expect?” said Jaden. He had moved closer to the window again, and was filming Wayne on his phone. The supervisor was currently punching the glass over and over, but if the last five minutes were anything to go by, he’d go back to mashing his face against it soon enough.
    “Holy shit, he looks like he’s been a car accident,” said Col. “Then got chewed up by dogs.”
    Col glanced at the phone. “You’re not really going to put that on YouTube, are you?”
    “Hello? Haven’t you been listening?” said Jaden, not taking his eyes off the screen. “It’s the end of the world. There is no YouTube.