Page 14 of The End of the World As We Know It

“I’m so sorry, Momma.” Talik swung again and again. Lawanda was swinging her curtain rod now as well, beating their mother in the head until she finally fell to her knees, still gripping the big carving knife, eyes fixed on Talik. Her head began to come apart. Blood rained down her face, forming a mask of gore and turning her blue and white polka-dot robe red and purple. She collapsed onto the floor and began to convulse. Her body bucked and kicked, fighting to hold on to her spirit.

“Just die, Momma. Please, just die!” Talik said, choking on sobs.

Lawanda reached down and retrieved the knife from the floor. She wasn’t crying anymore, wasn’t screaming. She calmly walked over, straddling her dying mother. She reached down and seized a fistful of her mother’s permed hair.

“Lawanda? What are you doing?” Talik asked, watching his eight-year-old baby sister jerk their mother’s head back and slit her throat, unzipping the flesh and opening a yawning pink maw where smooth brown skin had been. More blood cascaded from the wound, raining down like a red waterfall.

Lawanda sat down on top of her mother. Her eyes were blank. She still held the knife in her hands.

“Come on, sis. Let’s get outta here,” Talik said quietly, reaching out for his sibling and taking her hand, helping her to her feet.

Talik guided his little sister out of the room, sparing one last look at his mother’s battered corpse. Lawanda was in shock. Her eyes were still wide and glazed, and she was mumbling quietly to herself. Talikcouldn’t believe Lawanda slit her own mother’s throat. It was as hard to believe as him beating her half to death with a curtain rod, or that she’d tried to kill them—him.

They walked down the stairs and out the front door. Talik stepped over Tonya’s and Diesel’s bullet-riddled carcasses. Moose was gone. Probably crawled into some hole to die. Screams, gunshots, and sirens continued to echo in the distance. Billowing black clouds of smoke and ash choked the air as the neighborhood burned. There was nothing for them here anymore.

Talik looked back at his sister, who had fallen behind, still staring off into space, mumbling and whispering. A trickle of snot dripped from her nose, and she began to cough, not bothering to cover her mouth. She had the Tripps. She began whispering again. Talik stopped in his tracks as he finally made out what she was saying.

Mother Abagail had warned him the Walkin Dude was in their house. He hadn’t understood what she’d been trying to tell him, but now he put it all together. Mr. Flagg and the Walkin Dude were one and the same. He wiped a tear from his eye as he watched his little sister slowly raise the knife, aiming it at the center of his chest.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Flagg,” she whispered. “He’ll never make it to Nebraska.”

BRIGHT LIGHT CITY

Meg Gardiner

Las Vegas,June 1990

“Close the cabin door. Close it.” The gate agent sprinted aboard the United 737. “Close it,close it.”

Startled, Danielle Cooper scrambled alongside another flight attendant to pull the door shut. She swung the handle and locked it as a horde of people charged down the jetway toward the plane.

“Oh my God.” Dani backed into the galley, beside the wild-eyed gate agent. Outside, faces crowded the window and hands pounded on the door.

The captain came over the PA. “Cabin crew, be seated for departure.”

The hell? Back in economy, passengers still packed the aisle, struggling toward their seats. The cockpit door was open, the captain coughing heavily, the first officer shaky and slick with sweat. Dani gaped at the gate agent.

The woman violently shook her head. “I’m not getting off this plane.”

Dani raised her hands. They were already pushing back fromthe gate. On the jetway, the throng undulated forward like a python. Shoved, people at the front plummeted to the tarmac.

Sweet mother. She hurried to close the cockpit door and saw a man in a suit leap from the jetway onto the nose of the plane.

The captain barked, “Judas shitting Priest!”

Suit Guy landed with a metallic thud and salamandered up the windshield to grab the wipers.

The pushback tractor swung the jet around. Suit Guy shouted, lost his grip, and slid off. Dani shut the cockpit door and strapped into a jump seat.

Why did I take this flight assignment?

Yeah. Scheduling had begged.Bonus. Big one. We can’t fill rosters. Everyone’s out sick.Plus, whiny boyfriend in Seattle. Time forbuh-bye.

The engines spooled up. Their howl couldn’t drown out the coughing that filled the cabin, the moans, the feverish craziness. The gate agent strapped into the seat beside Dani. Uniform torn, a slap mark reddening her cheek.

She muttered, “C’mon, let’s go let’s go let’s go.”

Dani was adept at soothing nervous passengers, but the agent’s jitters leached into her. She peered out the window as they taxied to the runway, saw bronzed mountains, heat shimmer, a cobalt sky boiling with thunderheads.