I’m sorry if you find any mistakes. English is not my native language….
But I need to know your opinion on this.
The house had been in the family forever, but nobody really used it.
It was located in an ugly village, somewhere in the country, where nothing interesting happened. It was a cold place, so going there for the summer wasn’t an option either.
My grandmother had been the one who had kept the property for so long, despite everything that was wrong with it. However, when she had sadly perished two months ago, and after a long discussion, my cousins and I had decided it would be best to sell it.
It was up to my boyfriend and me to go to the house and clean, see if we could restore the most damaged parts, and give the place to a realtor.
We left Berlin on the bus that traveled to the small town, already hating our trip. I decided it would be best to sleep, it had been a long day, and the rocking motion made me tired.
My boyfriend shook my arm to wake me as we arrived; the day was gloomy and gelid, so we were lucky that we brought our coats. We threw them over our shoulders, slid our arms in, and zipped tightly as we descended.
We had never been in the house, so the first thing we did was approach a lady and ask her about the street where we were headed. She was a nice old woman, and was kind enough to give us detailed instructions. Before we could part, she warned us not to drink the water; the local river had been contaminated, and there had been some cases of illness in the town. We thanked her and went our way.
The road that led to the cottage was not paved, and it seemed that nobody had taken proper care of it for years. There were small stones on every step, and the ground was uneven. We were panting before we could walk the first two blocks. Both of us worked as office clerks and never really did any exercise. To add to it, the night was falling, and the weather was getting even chillier. Just the thought of sleeping in that dirty old place with no heating system made me depressed.
Finally, we arrived on the riverbank that was next to the house. There was something odd about the place; we couldn’t quite tell what it was. It could be that the wolves were singing, and that the moon made the river seem haunted, and that everything had a rancid, putrid smell. The tree shadows formed ungainly shapes that looked like they were following us.
We hurried our step, and went directly to the generator room. As we were putting gas into the old machine, we saw a strange thing. There was a van parked in the backyard. We could see by the shades in the curtains that covered its windows that there were people inside.
With the intent to call the cops, we ran to the emergency phone next to the generator, but it was dead. We didn’t have many choices, so my boyfriend grabbed a large stick that was in the ground, and we approached slowly, fearing what we would find.
He knocked feebly on the tarnished window. The front door opened wide. A couple with two small children, a girl and a boy, were inside. The woman’s face was covered in tears, her make-up was a complete ruin; the man seemed worried. The children huddled in a corner, too afraid to show themselves. “Please come inside, I beg you” the father was almost crying as he spoke “The night is falling, and things are getting weirder and weirder. The infection has spread faster than we thought. They are changing. Everyone around town is mutating in ways that aren’t human anymore. They are killing everyone. Please, take shelter.”
My partner and I stared at each other in confusion. Needless to say, we didn’t believe him. We blatantly told him to please go out of our premises at once, or we would contact the police. “As you wish” he murmured in a tone that was almost pitiful. Then he started his car and drove down the road.
We unlocked the house and were still startled about our meeting. The phone inside the living room was working, unlike the other one, so we figured it would be best to call 911. That was when we began to seriously worry. Nobody picked up at the station. Instead, we only heard a recording “The state of … is sorry to inform you that a quarantine has been put in place. Please don’t open the doors to anyone. Stay inside your homes. Do not try to help the people contaminated. They might be dangerous. Stay inside.”
Nervously, we shut every door and window, and waited for the worst. We only encountered silence. The night went by in slow hours. We only managed to sleep as the sun was coming out, we needed rest after all that stress.
But as the afternoon came, the doorbell rang, paralyzing us. Slowly, I peeked through the hole: There were two children outside, dressed in dirty rags. Their faces looked swollen, distorted, their teeth sharper than they should be.
We were terrified. We stood there, immobile, almost not breathing. After a long moment, they left. We thought we were safe, until we started hearing noises in the basement. That’s when I remembered: the cellar window was broken, and we were lost if they caught us. We decided to escape.
I have never run so fast in my life, chased by those things that had once been human. Luckily for us, the van that we had seen last night was still on the path. We did come in this time, as quickly as possible, and begged them to drive us somewhere.
We all agreed it was best to try to get out of town.
As we went slowly downtown, curtains closed, we didn’t believe what we saw. People were fighting everywhere, mutating; some were pulling their own flesh out with their bare hands, others were attacking the ones that were still whole. It was not only the children anymore, but everyone.
Soon, as we had predicted, the shapeless mob spotted us, and started attacking the car, so we had no choice but to speed up. We drove to the next edge of town, towards the highway. That’s when we found the impossible: the road wasn’t there anymore. The exit didn’t exist. Instead, there was a deep crack in the earth.
Dismayed, we maneuvered back to the river, with many of those still behind us.
That’s when everything went even crazier. We stopped near the damned house, by the river, and shut the engine. We didn’t have any more gas, so our only chance was to stay quiet and still.
Throughout that terrible afternoon, the deformed children passed once and again by our car. Our nerves were crushed, but we had a little hope. Perhaps, if we managed to enter the house, we could somehow survive. They didn’t see us, but neither of them went far away enough for us to try to get out of our shelter.
The night came. I glanced through the window, peeking behind the drapes. Everything was black. Darkness as deep as anything surrounded us. No moon, no stars. Nothing.
I was the first to pick up the laughter, but everyone heard the deafening, guttural cries. Then a million hands began pushing our van, we couldn’t do anything because we didn’t have anywhere to go. We closed our eyes, and hoped for the worst.
I woke up with my boyfriend shaking my arm as we arrived in the town. I was still shivering as the dream ended. But I wasn’t going to let my imagination rule my life. I had a house to clean, a task to perform. I had maybe seen too many scary movies, or I was too sensitive from the death of my dear grandmother.
I wasn’t really scared until I saw my boyfriend talking to the same woman who had given us directions on my dream. The path to the cottage was just as I had envisioned. I was about to turn back, perplexed. But I had to stay, see if the horrible place I had imagined was real.
As we arrived at the house, the police were there.
There were four people dead in a van, on the road next to the river. Apparently, they had crashed, and been eaten by the wolves afterwards.