Estranged (3 page)

Kalei looked at the tiles on the floor
and said, “Yeah, but...”

“
No buts about it, Kalei.
Stop beating yourself up over this. So what if you lose your job?
We’ll be fine. I’ve picked up some new clients, we still have the
savings account if it comes to it, but I don’t think it will. I was
watching the news after I called you. The mom has already showed up
on every station, going on about a heroic police officer who came
in and saved her son. The stations are eating it up, using it to
prime their audiences for the E-day specials. There’s no way the
mayor could fire you after that. It would be bad for his
election.”

Kalei sighed. “Maybe you’re
right.”

Fenn said firmly, “I am right. Now
change out of those work clothes and help me child-proof this house
before the little terrors get here, eh?”

Kalei laughed quietly. “Okay.” She
obligingly changed into a pair of shorts and a blue tank top, the
lighter clothes a nice relief from the heat after running around
the city in her uniform. But as she went around the house cleaning
up and moving candles to the top shelves, she couldn’t keep her
thoughts from the Estranged in the store, of the way those eyes
reminded her of her mother’s wide eyes... except her mother’s eyes
never closed that night... it was hard to believe it had been
seventeen years...

They say time heals all wounds, but
Kalei knew better. Her wounds only festered with age. She could
still remember the very first E-day, the day when the Estranged
first showed up in the city. One had shown up on their doorstep in
the form of a young man, and that man had taken her life away from
her with a hug.

He was tall, with lean muscles and a
smooth, strong chin, and brown hair just long enough to fall into
his eyes. Even as her parents’ faces faded from her adult memory,
the young man’s face was burned into her mind’s eye forever. His
strong, angular face with his wide, naïve eyes... He had walked
through the door and hugged Kalei’s mom, then reached out to touch
her dad. It was a simply, almost friendly act. But he was
Estranged, and that touch— the skin of his arms wrapped around the
skin of her mother’s neck, the skin of his hand closed around the
arm of her father... That was all it took to shatter Kalei’s
world.

The young man had fallen to his knees,
his hair falling forward to veil his eyes as he doubled over and
sobbed over the fresh corpses. Not his friend, though. The killer
had a companion, an even taller, bleach-blond man who walked into
the room with a fresh energy in his step, and a wide grin on his
face. And as he walked through the room, the blond man kept
laughing and laughing in a high-pitched shriek that made Kalei want
to scream...

The doorbell rang, and Kalei jumped,
nearly dropping the glass dolphin she held in her hand. She quickly
placed the decoration on the mantel and walked over to the
door.

“
Auntie!” As Kalei opened
the door, Kas immediately ran in and hugged Kalei at the
hip.

Kalei smiled and rubbed the small
girl’s head as she greeted her brother-in-law. “Hey, Qain, how’s it
going? I hear you are taking another trip?”

Qain was half a foot taller than his
younger brother, with an identical nose. But where his brother had
soft brown eyes, Qain had steely grey eyes, which always narrowed
slightly, as though he was repressing a great deal of stress. He
sighed. “Yeah, they’ve got me going to Takaio this time. It could
be a while. Sorry for dumping the girls on you like
this...”

“
No, not at all. It’s
always a pleasure to have them.” Qain smiled politely and handed a
sleeping Teia over to Kalei.

Fenn came up to the door, greeted a
bouncing and babbling Kas, then looked up and said, “Hey, brother.
How’s it going?”

“
You know, the same old.
Well, I’d better get going. I’m sure you four have an exciting
night ahead of you. Bye, girls. Thanks again, Fenn.”

“
No problem. Have a safe
flight.”

Kalei shut the door as Qain made his
way back to the driveway. She looked at Fenn and said, “That’s odd.
He wasn’t even surprised that I’m home early.”

Fenn shrugged. “Last-minute trip. He’s
probably got a lot on his mind.”

Kalei nodded. “True.”

Teia stirred and rubbed her eyes.
“Auntie?”

“
Yes, sweetie?”

Teia’s eyes flew open. “Auntie!” She
flung her arms around Kalei’s neck, and it was all downhill from
there. The girls were absolutely radiating energy, and they didn’t
give Fenn or Kalei a moment’s rest as they tracked down all of
their toys and demanded that their hosts play with them. Kalei and
Fenn happily obliged, with Fenn slipping away a few hours in to
start making dinner.

The girls were already beginning to
crash by the time dinner was served, and Kalei was feeling pretty
worn as well. Teia was practically falling asleep on her plate, and
Kalei began fighting off the ghosts and anxieties that began to
creep back in at the edges of her mind. She could even hear the
blond man laughing as the memory of that night began to replay in
her mind, unwilling to give her a moment’s piece on this
anniversary. The laughter went on and on and Kalei was starting to
wonder if she was losing her mind when Kas said, “Auntie, who’s
laughing?”

Kalei’s head shot up and she looked at
Fenn, who shrugged. Realizing the laughter was real, she ran to the
living room and pulled back the curtains. The blond-haired man was
standing on their lawn, laughing. He stopped when he saw Kalei, his
face growing with a wide grin.

Terror robbed Kalei of her limbs, her
lungs, even her voice. It crushed in across her chest, pouring down
through her veins. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. She
couldn’t think.

Fenn stirred at the table behind her.
“Honey, what is it?”

Power rushed back along with a fresh
wave of horror. “Fenn! Grab the girls! NOW!”

Kalei didn’t have time to
explain. Luckily, a loud BANG at the front door did it for
her.
Shit! He’s not alone.
She pulled the curtains shut and ran to the
office to retrieve her silver 9mm pistol from the safe. When she
returned to the living room, Fenn had Teia sitting on the couch as
he wrestled with her shoe, trying to get it onto her fidgeting
foot.

Kas was sitting on the floor beside
Fenn, crying as the Estranged continued to bang on the door.
Keeping one eye on the source of the banging, Kalei walked over to
her niece and gently rubbed her back. Kalei’s determination
threatened to melt away as she saw the tears in Kas’s small brown
eyes. Kalei took a deep breath. “Kas, remember what Auntie told you
about the Estranged?”

Kas sniffed. “They’re bad people who
want to hurt us.”

“
Yes, and right now,
they’re the ones knocking at the door, so we’ve got to be really
quiet so they don’t get us, okay? Quiet as a mouse.”

After another sniff, Kas seemed to be
holding her breath as she whispered, “Okay.”

Kalei placed her hand on the child’s
shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze. Kalei looked Kas in the eyes
and said, “Now I need you to take care of your sister and follow
Uncle down to the car. Can you do that for me?”

“
Yes, Auntie.”

Kalei smiled in spite of herself and
turned around to tell Fenn, “Don’t worry about the shoe. Just get
the girls to the car and—”

The window shattered as two Estranged
burst into the living room. Without hesitating, Kalei gave them
each a bullet to the brain and told Fenn, “Get the girls to the
car. NOW!”

Fenn scooped up Kas and Teia and ran
for the garage door, the girls screaming in his arms.

A dozen more Estranged were climbing
through the window, surprisingly agile and quick as they jumped
through it. Kalei could feel the adrenaline rushing through her
veins as the Estranged closed the distance between them. She shot
the first four down, then ran after Fenn as the rest stumbled over
their comrades’ bodies. She ran into the garage, slammed the door
shut behind her, then grabbed a nearby stepladder and wedged it
under the handle.

She leaned her forehead against the
white door for a moment, catching her breath and willing her
heartbeat to slow down. Behind her, a small voice asked, “Auntie,
are we going to die?”

Kalei instinctually slid her thumb
along the gun and put the safety on before she turned around to see
Kas staring at her with wide, terrified eyes. Kalei closed her own
eyes against the surge of tears the little girl’s question had
created. Kalei opened her eyes again, kneeled down to Kas’s level,
and said, “Everything is going to be okay, sweetie. Don’t you
worry.” She just wished she could believe what she said.

Kalei looked past Kas to see Fenn
still struggling to get a screaming Teia into her car seat. “Fenn,
do you need help?”

“
Nope, I got it,” he
called back—
BANG!
The garage door shuddered against its rails as something
crashed into it. Kalei wasn’t surprised they would try getting in
that way; she just wished they would have taken longer to think of
it. Fenn pulled himself away from the back seat, shutting the door
as he pulled out the keys and said, “Hurry up and get in. I’m
driving.”

Kalei was loath to give up control of
her car, especially in a dire situation such as this, but she had
to admit it was necessary. “Alright, I need my hands free to shoot
anyway.” She scooped up Kas and rushed her over to the other
side.

“
Auntie, I can walk on my
own—” Kas screamed and Kalei’s gut jumped as the garage door
crashed against the rails again. Kalei glanced at the door and saw
a massive influx of metal where it had been hit. She doubted it
could withstand another strike like that. The thought wasn’t
comforting.

She turned her attention back to Kas
as she opened the car door and set the girl down. “I know, sweetie.
I’m sorry. Climb in and get your seatbelt on. I need you to be a
big girl and keep your sister quiet, okay?”

A third hit slammed into the garage
door, punctuating the end of Kalei’s sentence. The door buckled and
sagged, but, against Kalei’s earlier assessment, the rails
continued to hold. Kas scrambled into her seat, and once her legs
were clear, Kalei shut the door and hurriedly climbed into the car
herself.

Teia was not in agreement with the
situation. As Kalei sat herself in the front seat, all she could
hear was Teia in the back, screaming for her daddy. Kas tried to
get her little sister to calm down, but screaming “Be quiet!” at
Teia just added to the chaos. Another crash coupled with a metal
ripping sound blasted through the garage and the door finally
crashed to the floor. Both girls fell silent.

Kalei looked over her shoulder and saw
the silhouettes of six Estranged pouring through the breach against
a backdrop of the setting sun peeking above the house across the
street. It was almost beautiful, but the circumstances cast the
scene in a menacing light. Fenn put the gearshift in reverse and
hit the gas.

The car bumped as it ran into their
assailants and slowed as the tires tried to find traction on the
remains of the garage door. In any other car, Kalei would have been
nervous, but she had faith in her four-wheel drive. Fenn gave it
some more gas and the vehicle found its way over the obstacles.
Kalei flicked the safety off and turned to watch for the next wave
of attackers. When the tires cleared the bodies of the first few,
another dozen Estranged ran at them from the yard. They charged the
car, punching and pounding and climbing onto the moving
vehicle.

Kalei reflexively checked on the girls
and found them staring at the windows like little statues,
wide-eyed with fear. The Estranged shot into the living room, the
Estranged under the tires, the Estranged pounding at their
windows... Kalei knew this night would haunt these girls for the
rest of their lives. Kalei felt her jaw clench as her hands
tightened into fists. She cocked her gun and opened the
sunroof.

Kalei was already climbing onto her
seat, sticking her torso through the sunroof as they reached the
end of the driveway. As she pulled the gun free of the car, she saw
a middle-aged man push a young girl aside and jump onto the hood.
His hair was long and thick, falling down his back in a thick,
greasy lump. The remnants of a checkered tie hung from his neck,
and his slacks were ripped and shredded to the point that they
could no longer reach his knees. Despite all that, he was the
picture of health: plenty of flesh on his arms and gut, plenty of
strength in his legs, and a desperate hunger in his eyes. On his
chest, he had a few small tattoos hiding behind the erratic
swinging of his tie, but Kalei didn’t have time to figure out what
they were. This man’s bare hands were more dangerous than the
weapon she held, and she wasn’t about to let him near those girls.
She lifted her gun as the man scrambled across the hood, reaching
for Kalei. His black-nailed fingers twitched with anticipation as
they closed in on their target, the deep black of the nails
gleaming from beneath the grime like obsidian.

Seeing those nails brought Kalei’s own
childhood trauma to the forefront and sent a renewed wave of rage
coursing through her body. She squeezed the trigger with a
satisfied smirk.