A New Death: CJ's Story Read Free Page B

my bike up there and get a snack or something. I inched closer to try and hear what exactly wandered into our neighborhood.
    Maybe some kind of animal, I thought. No, they keep referring to them in the plural.
    “What are we going to do?” Someone asked.
    “I’m getting out of here.”
    “Me too!”
    Everyone started talking about leaving and arming themselves with guns and other handheld weapons. My thoughts on the probability of it being an animal were now very low. Unless of course, it was a pack of rabid bears or something. But I seriously doubted it was a pack of rabid bears.
    I noticed Ms. P standing at the edge of the group. She was dressed in a bathrobe and slippers. Her hair was dry, so maybe she was fixing to get in the shower when all the commotion started. She noticed me staring at her and forced a smile in my direction.
    Ms. P often would look in on us for my parents, whenever they would go out on dates. They still felt I was a little too young to stay home and watch Hailey, so she was kind enough to check on us. A lot of times she’d come over and play games. She was young and pretty, and well, I didn’t really mind her coming over. She smelled nice too.
    The man with gun raised his voice, breaking up my thoughts about Ms. P, and tried to speak over the murmuring of the crowd.
    “Everyone, calm down! It was just one of them for crying out loud! We’re not even near the city!”
    The crowd seemed unsatisfied with the man’s words. It really only seemed to stir them up more. My Dad raised his hands, trying to quiet and calm everyone down.
    “Listen everybody,” he said. “We all need to go back to our homes, secure them and sit tight.”
    Sit tight? I thought. That’s not what we were doing. Why would he tell them that?
    “If you have firearms,” he continued. “I’d suggest you keep them loaded and close by you. If you don’t, I’d recommend you find any type of hand tool, such as a hammer or crowbar. We don’t need to panic; that’ll only cause us more trouble. If everyone keeps a cool head about this, we can all get through this safely. Now everyone go home.”
    The crowd swallowed what my Dad said much better than the other man’s words. He gave my Dad a smug look and walked back towards his house. One by one, everyone went back towards their homes. Our neighbor gave my Dad a head nod and walked back to his house. Once everyone was gone, Dad motioned for the rest of our family to follow him back into the house.
    I darted back into the kitchen and quickly sat at the table next to Hailey. She looked at me strange, wondering why I was sitting so close to her. Her music was still going strong. I gave her a smile, to which she mouthed, “You’re weird,” and went back to her crayons and paper.
    The adults all looked more worried now than they had been all afternoon. Dad was pulling on his goatee again.
    “What do we do Chris?” G-Mom asked, her voice somewhat shaken.
    Without any hesitation at all, Dad answered her.
    “We leave. Now.”
     
    ***
     
    Everyone began to feverishly gather the remaining things to put in our cars. Hailey was prepping our dogs for the trip. She struggled to get Millie, our Siberian Husky, into her kennel. Millie was nearly as tall as Hailey, which isn’t saying much given Hailey’s “vertical handicap.” Opie, a Boston Terrier and Hailey’s dog, eagerly waited at her side. Opie has always been extremely loyal to Hailey, even going as far as allowing himself to be dressed up in pretty pink princess clothes. I didn’t really care for either of the dogs, but I had to feel sorry for Opie sometimes. He was a good and loyal dog.
    Dad broke my attention when he shoved a box in my hands. He pointed his elbow in the direction of the cars, indicating for me to follow him outside. Once our cargo, the last of the boxes, was secure, he turned and looked at me. I could tell he was sizing me up again. I tried my best to hide my confusion and uneasiness.
    “Look