Free An Apocalypse Family (Book 1): Family Reunion by P. Mark DeBryan

Hope while he looked into the backseat. Diane was obviously gone; her once-beautiful eyes fixed upward, meeting his gaze. It was hard, but he looked over at Lila’s booster seat.
    “Mom, Lila’s not here!”
    “Help me with Hope, then we will find Lila!”
    “Mom! Hope is dead!”
    Barb fell forward onto the car. “Oh God, why would you let this happen?”
    Josh tried to convince his mom to return to the car and wait while he searched for Lila. She refused and began calling out for her great grandchild.
    “Lila! Lilaaaaa!”
    Josh stuck the patrolman’s gun in his belt and looked under both the car and the truck for her. Not finding any sign of her there, he had a hopeful thought— she must still be alive or she would be right here! He began calling for her as well, frantically searching around the other side of the wreckage.
    Back at the car, Grandpa Don sat in the backseat. He’d rolled the window down to listen for any sign of his family. He suffered in silence, waiting for them to return. He heard the plaintive screams of those in pain, the shrieking of… he didn’t know of what. He’d just decided to go after his wife and Josh when something zipped past in his peripheral vision. It was too quick to identify, but he smelled something horrible.
    Several years before, he’d undergone a brain surgery that had affected his sense of smell; however, he was sure this smell was real, not imagined as some were. He opened the door and stood next to the car. He thought that he heard something or someone in the bushes next to the road. He moved toward the bushes.
    What was that sound? It almost sounded like a dog panting, or someone who had just run a mile trying to catch their breath.
    “Josh, is that you?” Whatever it was, it wasn’t Josh. It let out an unbelievable shriek that sent Gramps hustling back to the car.
    He made it to the car, slammed the door, and tried to roll up the window, but he’d turned the ignition off after opening it and now there was no power. The thing from the bushes ran into the side of the car, bounced off, and tried regaining its feet as Grandpa Don lurched forward over the seat to turn the key. Accomplishing this, he was reaching for the window button next to the driver’s seat when he felt the thing grab him from behind. Then he felt a searing heat in his right leg.
    He turned to see Lila, his great-granddaughter, leaning halfway through the window, viciously biting his leg, ripping the flesh off his calf. Then a second one came to likewise reach through the window, grabbing at him. He successfully jerked his leg away from Lila and pushed her back against the thing behind her. He was able to hold her back far enough to roll up the window. Just as it was about to close, it stopped, blocked by the toe of his shoe.
    He wrenched his foot free, but the thing behind Lila managed to get its hand through the crack. Thinking it would try to pull free from the door, Gramps lowered the window a half-inch, but instead of pulling its hand out, the monster pushed it further through, almost managing to get its whole arm inside the vehicle. Grandpa Don quickly closed the window up tight against it.
    His leg was a mess. The wound was bleeding freely, and it took all his effort to crawl into the driver’s seat. He started the car, put it in gear, and swung out onto the southbound lane, gathering speed as he mashed the accelerator all the way to the floorboard. The thing managed to keep on its feet for about twenty yards before tripping.
    Now dragging the thing alongside the car, Grandpa Don yelled, “Take that, you son-of-a-booger!”
    He aimed the car toward a police car sitting on the shoulder of the road, its lights flashing. His right front fender made contact with the left rear quarter panel of the old Crown Vic.
    The screeching of metal drowned out the shrieking thing right before it was sandwiched between the two vehicles. Its bones were shattered instantly by the collision; blood issued from