The Mound Builders
by demented20

"I'm not afraid of the dark", Alex said aloud for the third time, trying in vain to make himself believe it. He was afraid. He wiped sweat from his brow and forced himself to lower his head to his pillow. His eyes closed and he felt sleep coming, but THUMP. He heard it again and this time he couldn't hold back. He started to cry, ashamed all the while, but unable to stop.

A moment later his door opened and Alex's mother came towards him. He couldn't see her face, but Alex already knew the look of concern and caring that was there. Her brow furrowed as she knelt next to the bed and wrapped her arms around her son's shaking shoulders. With her arms around him, Alex felt like he was in a protective cocoon that wouldn't let anything harm him. He could feel her strong arms tightening around him, pulling his head to her bosom. His tears slowed, but didn't stop. They still ran down his cheeks and down to the sleeve of her nightgown. She whispered in his ear assuring him that everything was going to be okay.

The lights in Alex's bedroom clicked on and Mike, the stepfather, stood in the doorway. The look on his face spoke much louder than any words could have. His wife's son was weak in all the ways a young boy shouldn't be. Of course looking at Anna with her arms around him, there was no need for him to be tough. Mike knew that a mother must comfort and protect her son, but at some point enough was enough. Mike kept his mouth shut though as he looked on at the pampering. She'd been overcompensating for the fact that Alex's real father had died when Alex was younger, but Mike hoped that one day she'd let him start to grow up.

"It's okay now", Anna told her son again. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

"I heard it, Momma", Alex said through a final sob. "It wasn't just in my head."

"Heard what?", she asked, making her voice softer as not to make him think that she didn't believe him.

"It was a sound coming from below. I could hear it in the dark. I thought it was just my imagination like you told me, but it wasn't. I… I was scared."

It was almost enough to induce Mike to vomit. He gave his wife a look. This was going too far. She couldn't just run into the room in the middle of the night every time Alex heard something go bump in the night. She sighed and shrugged her shoulders not knowing how to respond to her husband.

"You have to get better control of your emotions, Alex. You can't just let everything you think you hear turn you into a…" THUMP! Mike stopped in midsentence. He'd heard that sound, more than heard it; he'd felt it. Anna had too. They shared another look, this one of puzzlement and alarm. 'What if someone was in the house?', neither of them had to ask aloud.

Mike held a finger to his lips as he crept into the hall to look over the banister towards the floor below. He couldn't make out anything in the darkness. He held his breath and strained his senses for anything out of the ordinary. While he moved closer to the lip of the stairs, only one thought shot through his brain, intruder. Anna left her son's side and moved towards her husband. Her robe billowed behind her until she snatched it closed and cinched it around her waist.

Mike's head turned quickly when he saw his wife moving closer to him. He knew that it was his responsibility to protect his family, but he knew better than trying to talk Anna into staying put. She was her own woman, and she would do what she had to do to protect her family. She slowly rolled up the sleeves of her gown. Without thinking about it, Anna worked her fingers getting the blood flowing. Her adrenaline was already racing, and Anna had never been one to back down from a challenge. The two of them inched towards the lip of the first stair, moving like prowlers would. Mike held his breath as he put his foot down on the step, hoping beyond hope that it wouldn't squeak. It didn't and he continued, Anna at his heels. Usually the shag carpet felt wonderful, but now it felt like hundreds of little needles under soles as Anna hugged the wall and crept inside her own home. They were about two-thirds of the way down when the light above them changed and Anna looked up quickly. Her son stood in a shadow, with the light silhouetted him from behind. Anna exhaled and motioned for her son to go back to the relative safety of his bedroom, but Alex wouldn't hear of it. He wanted to be near his mother. He felt safest around her anyway. He took quick light steps and in a flash was pressed against Anna. She put her hand on his shoulder and kept behind Mike. They had just reached the floor when Mike slowly pulled a nine iron from his golf bag at the foot of the stairs. They were about to start checking rooms when—THUMP--. They heard it again.

"It's coming from the basement", Mike said aloud and turned on more lights as they went to the door that lead to the basement stairs. Alex was shaking still as the three of them came near the plain white door that led to the basement. Alex hated it down there. He knew it was foolish and it made him feel like a weenie to be scared of a room, but Alex dreaded going into the basement. He did though, as his mother followed Mike down the steps into the darkness. The switch was on the wall about halfway down, but the two dim light bulbs did little but scatter shadows around the dank space.

Alex clutched his mother tightly, and she gave him a slight squeeze before rubbing his back. "It's okay, Alex. There's no one down here", she told him confidently as she let her adrenaline wear off. She jumped when for the third time they heard the THUMP sound. This time they all turned towards the source of the noise and their lost sleep.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!", Mike exclaimed and hurried into a darker area of the basement to stand face to face with a big hole in the sound of the foundation of the house. He could see the concrete and blocks cracking along a fault that ran at least six feet. The noise that had been worrying them all, was the sound of the house settling, no burglars or spooky boogiemen. Mike pulled a flashlight off the shelf. Alex had goose bumps as Mike got closer to the hole. It looked like a big wide dark mouth waiting to devour anyone, like the very gate of underworld itself, but when Mike turned on the light the beam of light showed the inside of the hole and there was no gate, just a hollow opening about five feet square and filled with dirt. Mike got even closer and inspected the jagged hole. That wall had been complete not two days earlier when Mike'd been down here. There hadn't even been any warning that the foundation was in trouble. Sure it had rained a lot the week before, but not that much.

Alex inhaled and grabbed his mother tightly when Mike stuck his head in the hole. Anna's dark brown eyes met her son's and she felt her son's fear, but he wasn't scared for himself. He was scared for Mike. "Come on Honey", Anna began. "Don't stick your head in there."

"Why not?", Mike asked without pulling his head out. It gave his voice a funny echo as he spoke. "What are you afraid there's some sort of goblin in here?", he asked with an echoing chuckle.

"No", Anna began. "That's not it at all."

"Oh what is it then? Sometimes you're so irrational Anna. Are you sure you're just half Indian?" Mike laughed loudly, the eerie echo filling the basement and getting on Anna's nerves until in the middle of his whooping, he grunted and coughed. The light started to shake before he dropped it in the hole. He grunted again and coughed before his arms began to shake and he let out a scream.

"Mike!", Anna yelled and rushed across the basement.

Alex turned as pale as death and stood too scared to move as his mother ran, her raven colored hair flying out behind her. Mike yelled and his legs thrashed as Anna came close. She put her hands around her husband's waist and with a yell of her own she pulled him back with all of her might trying to break him free of whatever was hurting him. All the muscles in Anna's body flexed tightly getting far harder than anyone would have thought. She lifted her husband completely off his feet and pulled him back. Mike flew from the wall towards the middle of the room like he'd been thrown by a bull. Anna held on. The momentum generated by her powerful action made her lose her balance and she traveled with Mike towards the middle of the room. She twisted in the air, working hard to break their fall. She hit the concrete butt first. Mike's back and shoulders landed in her lap.

"Mike! Mike, are you alright!?!" She pushed some hair from her face to get a good look at her husband, disregarding her smarting backside.

Mike looked up at Anna's concerned face and burst out laughing again. "I got 'cha!"

Anna puffed her cheeks out in instant anger, but a chuckle escaped her lips. "That's not fair, Mike. You're scaring Alex."

Mike laughed again. "Don't put this off on Alex. You looked pretty scared too!"

"Oh that's it." She lifted her husband off her legs and let him drop to the floor.

"Ouch. You've got no sense of humor."

Anna was amused but upset as she started up the stairs with her hands on Alex's shoulders. She grinned and turned out the light as she went up the stairs and closed the door behind her. It was half an hour before Mike climbed back into the bed next to his wife. He got under the covers and put his arms around her shoulders and rolled her towards him. "You still mad at me?", he asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"No", Anna told him and rolled over to her back. "I'm not mad." She paused and turned towards him again. "What are we going to do about that hole in the wall?"

"It's worse than a hole. Part of the house hasn't got any foundation under it. We'll have to call the insurance company in the morning."

"I hope they don't give us any problems", Anna said, remembering how she'd gotten the runaround on a fire claim years earlier.

"They shouldn't", Mike began then grinned. "If they do, I'm sure you'll set them straight", he said and put his hands on Anna's upper arms. Anna twisted her lips and folded her arms across her chest. "Oh come on, Anna", Mike pleaded. "Just a little one."

"I'm tired", she complained.

"Don't be like that."

"Fine", Anna relented and tightened her arms. Mike felt a wave of pleasure go through him like she couldn't imagine. Mike knew there was something odd about the fact that he liked this, but hell he didn't care. He was 32 years old and he liked what he liked.

"One more time, please!"

Anna uncrossed her arms and looked her husband in the eyes. "It's unseemly for a man to beg."

"PLEEEESEEEE!"

Anna threw off the covers quickly and spun to face Mike. He couldn't see her face in the mostly darkened room, not that he could accurately read her moods most of the time anyway. Her haunting features and warm dark eyes were so wonderfully exotic that Mike was usually admiring her face more than reading it. He could read her body language though.

"So you want one more flex?" Anna put her hands on Mike's chest to steady herself as she threw her leg over and sat down on his stomach. "You want to feel these?" She slowly raised her arms, making Mike have to wait out every agonizing moment. Anna kept her eyes locked on Mike's as she snarled and flexed her arms as hard as she could. Anna's biceps tightened like softballs on her arms, ripped softballs with veins crisscrossing under her olive toned skin. Mike's hands quickly went to her arms, squeezing them and finding no give. Feeling her strength was like a drug going through his body. He lowered his hands and ran them over her body from her hips and her waist. He took his time admiring her abs before working his hands under her night gown. Her breasts weren't large, but her nipples were poking out like tiny spikes. They were hard, but nothing in the world felt quite as hard as Anna's arms and Mike went to work on those again. He leaned up in the bed and raised his neck. He couldn't quite reach her muscles with his lips. He pursed his lips and strained, but Anna wasn't going to give him even an inch. That's all he needed, so he extended his tongue.

Anna giggled and moved just enough for Mike to worship the crown of her iron hard dual headed biceps muscles. While Mike kept his mouth busy, he used his hands to pull Anna's gown over her head. She lowered her arms just long enough to pull the gown over her head then went right back to her monumental flex. Mike was foaming at the mouth looking at his wife's naked body. They heard that thump again from below, both paused and listened for a sound from Alex's room, but he managed to stay asleep through the noise. Anna sighed in relief and pumped her arms twice, swelling her muscles even more. Mike raised Anna a little and slid her closer to his face. Anna's eyes rolled in her head as Mike again went to work with his tongue and lips. He was going to take her places sexually that night that she'd never been before.

The next morning Mike and Alex sat at the breakfast table, Alex eating a bowl of cereal and Mike sipping on a cup of black coffee. He'd drunk it like that in the Army and these days he still drank it that way. Anna joined the two of them after a minute or two with a bowl of sliced grapefruit. They spoke about the night before a little, but mostly they talked about the day coming up. Mike wore what felt to him like a uniform, a clean cut brownish suit with a heavily starched plain white shirt and a dark blue tie. Anna and Alex were both dressed for school. She walked her son out for the bus, where he reluctantly got on. Anna and Mike kissed each other good-bye and went their off to face their days.

Three hours later Anna had her hands full with 20 somewhat ruly teenagers. She had her backed turned writing out the themes in Conrad's Heart of Darkness on the blackboard while several of the young men in her class were busy ogling the teacher. This class had belonged to her colleague Vic Wooten, but unfortunately he'd taken sick and Anna had volunteered to take on the added workload. When she was finished writing she turned quickly, quickly enough to see several sets of male eyes quickly avert. She smiled and continued with her lecture. What she looked like had nothing to do with what she was teaching and Anna worked hard to keep her looks and her work separate. At the end of the period, the students began to pack up their books and hurry to the next class.

Anna was doing the same. Her regular classroom was located on the other side of the building. She only had five minutes to get there, but she took the time to stop a student named Cindy Hooper. "Hey, have you seen Mary McAffee? She's missed school for two days straight."

"No, Mrs. Bernhardt I haven't even seen her at all."

"That's weird, I've been here for two whole years and Mary hasn't missed a day of school once."

Cindy chuckled. "She hasn't missed a day since like fifth grade when she broke her collar bone. Maybe I'll call her tonight."

"Oh that would be great. Let me know how's she doing."

"Sure thing, Mrs. Bernhardt", Cindy said and hurried off to class.

Anna looked at her watch and sighed. She didn't want the students to see her like this, but she clutched her books tightly to her body like a football player and took off running down the halls towards the other side of the building. It wasn't easy to run in the shoes she had on, but she managed pretty well. Anna had always been fast and she'd always liked to run of course this sprint wasn't for pleasure. Anna bounded through the door and gathered herself quickly. A couple of students were there to see their attractive teacher run inside, but none of them said a thing.

The rest of her classes went off without a hitch, but even Anna who rarely got tired was a little beat at the end of this school day. It had been a long one, and of course she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. She and Mike had been slightly busy in the middle of the night. She bit her lip and closed her eyes thinking back to some of the things that he'd done to her that night. She'd have to think of something kinky to do back to him, but Anna had admitted to herself a while ago, that when it came to sex she wasn't overly inventive. With sex, Anna mostly got by on looks. For some reason her body made men go wild. All during her life since her first partner, when her boyfriends or husbands had seen her naked, they all rose to the occasion and made the sex great even if she wasn't really doing anything special. Mike was the same way.

He seemed like a normal dude and Anna didn't think that a normal guy would enjoy a woman like her a much as they did. If a bunch of guys had written down what they thought they wanted in a woman's body, Anna was sure that most of her features wouldn't have been on that list. She wasn't blond or blue eyed. She didn't have big breasts. She did have a nice flowing figure that made her look great in just about anything she decided to wear, but there was hard muscle and sinew under Anna's curves. Even when she was relaxed, every muscle in her slim body looked like coiled springs ready to release all their strength in a split second, and they were. Anna would have thought that most men would have been turned off by that, but that hadn't been her experience. She'd even used her body to help during sex.

In college her boyfriend freshman year got off by having her cradle him in her arms like a baby. He would rub her and feel the hardness of her arms and chest and shoulders and thighs while she carried him around. After about twenty minutes or so, his dick would be standing up like a rocket ready for launch. He'd ask Anna to put him down and then he'd screw her like a man possessed. Anna was pretty sure that she'd gotten her first orgasm from her boyfriend that year.

She'd orgasmed last night too. Mike had been wonderful and they probably would have just slept through the night if they hadn't been awake because of that stupid foundation.

"OH NO!", Anna exclaimed and looked at her watch. She stood up from her desk and shoved papers and books into her bag. She was about to bolt when she stopped and picked up the phone. She put a call in to Alex's school to leave a message that she wasn't going to be able to pick him up. He'd have to ride the bus home. She grabbed her keys and ran to her car. She had to make it home because the insurance adjuster was going to be there soon to assess the damage.

It didn't take too long to get to the subdivision called Hidden Glen. It really was hidden. It was an expansive valley almost completely surrounded by a ring of wooded hills. There was only a gap of about thirty yards in the ring of hills, and that's where the road was and the brightly painted sign that told everybody that they were entering Hidden Glen. It didn't need the sign really because as soon as anyone broke through the trees and rounded a corner, the large valley opened up in front of them like a land from a fairy tale. It was flat like a prairie with grass was as green as a spring painting. The houses were arranged in organic looking loops and swirls with perfect yards and perfectly maintained streets.

Anna was speeding slightly as she drove those streets and nearly skidded to a stop in her driveway. There was a car parked in front of the house already and the man inside was upset. Time was money and he'd been waiting for ten minutes. Waiting put him in a bad mood, and when he was in a bad mood eventually the home owners ended up in a bad mood after he gave them his findings. He had never met Mrs. Anna Bernhardt, but she probably wasn't going to like him very much. She was probably another pretentious suburban mother who lived in a dream world.

Anna got out of her 1973 Volvo station wagon quickly. She'd only taken two steps, pushed back some of her long dark tresses, and put on a smile before all of his previous thoughts left the adjuster's head. He fumbled with the door latch on his Vega as he rushed to get out of the car to get a better look. He even dropped his notebook. "I'm so sorry I'm late", Anna told him and reached out to shake his hand.

He took her hand and pumped it several times, enjoying the feel of her skin and the scent of her perfume. "Say nothing of it, Mrs. Bernhardt. I'd just arrived when you pulled up", he lied and Anna smiled. "So you said you were having problems with the foundation…"

Anna and the adjuster were laughing as they came out of the house. They were talking about things unrelated to the hole in the bottom of the house. He'd only looked at it for about five minutes before making his decision. After that he'd made conversation with Anna. He was just now leaving, but even the insurance adjuster made a reason to get a quick feel of Anna's arm. She wasn't flexing or anything, but the shape of it was wonderfully exotic to him, just like the rest of her. He'd never seen a woman like her, and as he pulled off down the road he wondered if ever would again.

Anna rolled her eyes and shook her head as she went to the mailbox. She'd pulled out the envelopes and was starting towards the house when she heard the growl of a V-8. She turned back around to see a cobalt blue '72 Camaro coming towards her. Anna grinned as the car stopped in front of the house. The passenger door opened quickly and Alex bounded out with his book bag dragging behind him. Anna could hear Clapton singing I Shot the Sheriff coming from the open windows before the engine was switched off. The driver door opened and a tall well built high school senior got out. Anna walked a little closer.

"Thanks for bringing Alex home, Eddie."

"Oh, it's no problem. I saw him waiting on the bus and I knew he didn't really want to ride it. Nobody wants to ride the cheese if they don't have to." Over the last year or so, Eddie had become like a big brother to Alex. He watched over him and kept the other kids from picking on him. Eddie didn't have to mention that he'd driven Alex home because the kids on the bus teased him. Anna knew her son was picked on a bit, but with a guy like Eddie looking after him she didn't worry too much. Eddie also didn't have to add that any excuse to come over here and get a close up look at Anna was a good excuse. She was gorgeous and made all of his hormones rage.

Of course Anna could see what effect she had on him, but he was a nice young man and she really did appreciate what he did for her son. "Thank you again Eddie. I know Alex really appreciates it too."

Something in her tone of voice made Eddie's countenance change. He took his eyes off of Anna and looked at the asphalt before turning to get back in his car. "I like Alex, and I understand what its like. My dad was killed in Vietnam too."

"Oh, Eddie I didn't know that", Anna replied and stepped closer and hugged him around his shoulders.

"Yeah, so anyway, I know exactly what Alex is going through. Well, I'll see you later Mrs. Bernhardt. I have to get back for football practice."

"Okay Eddie, drive safely."

Anna covered her mouth and fought back tears as she walked into the house. All memories of her husband came flooding back to her, filling her mind with a heart wrenching mix of sadness and love. Alex's father, her first husband, and been the love of her life. She'd never thought about another man after she'd married him. That marriage had lasted three fantastic years. One of which was spent apart from him while he trekked through the jungles of Vietnam. He died in that jungle near some nameless rice patty and it had nearly ruined Anna's life. Mike, a former officer in Vietnam himself, had swooped in like an answered prayer and picked up the pieces, at least for Anna he had. A relationship with Alex was still a work in progress. Anna had been married to Mike for nearly three years now, but he and Alex hadn't yet bonded. Anna knew that her feelings and attitude towards her son stood in the way of that bonding, but she couldn't help it. When her husband had been killed Alex was all in the world that she'd had and she'd be damned before letting any harm come to her son. She felt that she was getting better with that, like letting him ride the bus to school. Mike didn't see the inner progress she was making, but she was slowly releasing her son even if he was still clinging to her.

"So Anna", Mike began that night at the dinner table. "How'd it go with the insurance guy?"

"Really well", she replied quickly. "He came in and saw the damage and said that they're sending out some guys who do foundation repair. He said they have some new method for doing something or other." She didn't mention how friendly the adjuster had been. There was no need to get Mike upset. "And we wouldn't have known it if it wasn't for Alex."

Alex beamed, but Mike looked unimpressed. He decided to change the subject. "I had to do a bunch of extra work today because two people called in sick. I don't know there must be something going around."

"Must be. You know I'm teaching three extra classes because of Wooten being sick, and then a girl named Mary who's never missed a day of school has missed two in a row."

"My gym teacher didn't come to school today", Alex joined the conversation while using his knife to slice a piece of the steak his mother had cooked. Anna and Mike shrugged their shoulders not knowing what else to say. All of the people who'd missed work or school lived in Hidden Glen, but most of the work force of this area lived in the sprawling development.

Mercifully Saturday arrived and Anna was home alone. Mike had taken Alex fishing early that morning. That was about the only thing in life that the two of them completely agreed on. They were both pretty good at it too. Anna didn't have to worry about what to cook for dinner. They'd be having fish. She used the time to catch up on some reading, especially Harper's Bazaar. Anna always liked to know what was in style. Then she graded some papers. Vacuumed, washed some clothes, loaded the dishwasher (which was a godsend), and then got dressed in some faded cut-offs and a t-shirt to go work in the flower beds.

A few neighbors were outside on this nice beautiful day getting some yard work done. Anna was just about ready to start planting her winter garden, but she'd wait another couple of weeks. Instead she weeded and pruned and chatted with Evelyn her next door neighbor. Evelyn was a few years older than Anna and had a motherly air about her, but she let her hair down with Anna and they spoke about things that usually they wouldn't have. They were in the middle of a bit of gossip when both of them heard the rattle of a car with an engine that needed a tune-up and a muffler, when the car turned the corner onto their street both ladies saw that the twenty year old Studebaker also needed some bondo. The car didn't speed as it came down the street. Anna and Evelyn followed the car as it passed them. It slowed a little and the driver turned his head and looked directly at Anna before he picked up speed and rounded the corner. Anna felt her stomach turn a quick flip.

"Never seen that car around here before", she commented.

"Oh I have", Evelyn said. "About a week or so ago over on the other side of the valley. I think I heard that he bought a house over there."

"Must not have saved enough money to buy a car after he bought the house. It makes him look like he's up to no good.", Anna said and went back to weeding.

Evelyn chuckled. "He looks kinda creepy, but if he's up to no good he sure picked a conspicuous car." The two women shared a laugh and forgot all about it.

A couple of days later the workers came to start fixing the foundation. A truck pulled up and men started spreading out around the yard getting ready for the job. Anna was home working in her garden again. The men were looking at the house, but in the end they were looking at Anna who wore some old shorts from college and a t-shirt that she'd cut the sleeves off of.

"Bob, would you look at that. She must be the Missus. The husband must be a lucky guy", a worker alerted his friend in a hushed tone.

"Yeah, I guess, Joe. But that chick has muscles", Bob replied with a bit of disgust in his voice. "Look at 'em on her arms and shoulders and stuff."

"I saw them. What you worried that a woman with muscles might give you what you've got comin to you."

"Ah screw that. I don't care how much muscle a woman has, it ain't like real hard earned muscle on a guy. Hell all those little pretty muscles are like bubbles in a bathtub. They'd pop if you put anything to 'em."

Anna grinned, but pretended that she hadn't heard a word that they had said. She was used to reactions like Bob had. Some guys didn't even believe that a woman should have visible muscle definition in the first place. Anna didn't look up until another truck pulled up. This was a bigger truck pulling a really big trailer with a backhoe on it. A couple more men got out, one of them was the foreman, a rather portly ruddy complexioned man with a big voice and smiling face.

"You must be Mrs. Bernhardt. I'm Pete and we're going to get you going here real soon. You know you're the fourth house we've repaired in this neighborhood?"

"Really? I had no idea. Is there some problem with the ground in this area?", Anna asked, hoping that the value of her house wasn't dropping by the word.

"No", Pete began. "All the soil samples come out fine. It's like something's undermining the area, but can't figure out what it might be. We were supposed to do a house about a mile from here, but the owners must be on a trip or something we tried for hours to get someone to come to the door. Bad news for them, we pushed your house up on the list and we'll try to get back with them again."

Anna was so happy for her house to be fixed that she didn't even try to guess why a house had been empty in the middle of October. She also didn't think to ask whose house it had been. If she'd asked, Pete would have told her that it belonged to a family named McAffee.

"Well don't you worry about a thing Mrs. Bernhardt we'll get your place all fixed up like new." Pete got his men organized in short order and started preparing the yard to receive the backhoe. They started up the diesel and drove the backhoe onto the yard, taking good care not to make a mess. Anna stood near the front door looking at the first two workers going to the trailer to retrieve the smaller bucket for the backhoe. Bob was griping from the outset.

When they got to the trailer they found that the bucket had been loaded slightly crooked and was now wedge in. They pushed it and shook it and tried to lift it out. Joe was working to get it out, but Bob had already given up. "Look let's go get a couple more guys to help get this damn thing loose. There's no way me or you can do it by ourselves", Bob said and backed away.

Joe was about to disagree but he didn't. Bob was probably right. They started towards the side of the house to get a couple more men. Anna's eyes narrowed as she looked at the men then over at the steel bucket then back to the men, then back to the bucket. She slipped on her gloves as her eyes locked in on the bucket. She wondered if she could…

Anna took the bucket by the connector holes, got a tight grip. She raised her elbows parallel to the ground, and a soft feminine grunt, Anna pulled up. Muscles flexed across her back in proud fashion. Her delts separated, split, defined and bulged as the effort began. Her lats flexed out quickly widening Anna's back to the point that her taut waist looked cartoonish. Muscles rippled all the way down her back. Her glutes tightened and her legs stood strong as her upper body continued to flex. Sweat gathered on her brow and on the smooth skin covering her jagged muscles as Anna strained upward.

Joe and Bob stopped and spun round when they heard the unmistakable sound of steel scraping against steel. In the instant that they turned, Anna had twisted her body, allowing her ridiculous flat firmness of her abs to show as the backhoe bucket started up from its bracket. Her arms went higher and higher, the muscles flexing with deeper definition. The men didn't even know how to take in the sight of Anna's body, flexing in front of them. Her muscles shined in the autumn sun as she did with her two hands what their four hands couldn't do. With a final burst of strength, Anna pulled the bucket free and held it higher than her head. Every muscle group from her neck to her calves was completely chiseled. The shirt clung to her body like she'd dipped into a pool, sucked tight to every hard muscled curve of Anna's body. She took a step back and quickly shifted her grip lower down the bucket near the digging teeth.

She turned around with the bucket in her hands and Joe damn near lost his load right there. He was already fully tenting his pants and Bob couldn't get his jaw off the grass. Anna's body had been great from behind, but from the front they could see her biceps stretched and pulled tight like cables on a suspension bridge. Her shoulders were rounded caps of quickly flexing sinews as she had to adjust the weight as she carried it towards them. The shirt had ridden up a little and the groves and bricks of her abdominal wall were visible. With each breath it was like a new landscape of startling female muscle created itself. And Anna's exotically beautiful face made her body even more spectacular if possible. Her dark eyes sparkled like struck flint as she stepped up and let the bucket slip to the ground.

"You guys seemed like you were having a little trouble. I figured I'd help you out", she told them as if she'd brought them some lemonade instead of carried a heavy piece of equipment by herself.

The two men were too stunned to talk, and Bob might have had an accident in his pants. He'd never been around so much sexiness in all his life. Anna bent down and lifted the bucket again, causing a fresh wave of flexation. Her muscles stood in sharp relief right before their eyes. One of them let out a helpless whimper of submission.

"You guys need help taking this to the side of the house?", she asked.

"Umm… uhh… no… I think we can handle it", Joe managed to say after nearly ten seconds of silence.

"Okay", Anna said quickly then dropped the bucket. It fell to the ground and she turned towards the front door. She looked back over her shoulder to enjoy the sight of the two men trying to get good grips on the bucket to tandem carry it around the house. The two men looked slightly defeated as they lumbered and labored to move the bucket after seeing Anna move it seemingly with ease. It was seemingly because as soon as the front door closed, she grimaced and put her hands on the small of her back.

"Ohhh, why did I do that?", she moaned but smiled at the same time. She twisted her hips as she walked to workout the kink in her back. "Cause it was fun", she answered her own question and poured herself some water from the pitcher in the fridge. Her back was a little tender for the rest of the day, but no one noticed, including the two construction workers who now treated her like a queen. That night Anna was in a really good mood, maybe it had to do with all the hormones in her body after using her muscles like that. Maybe it was the fact that her house was getting fixed, but whatever it was, she was actually humming a tune as she finished up dinner.

"What song's that?", Mike asked his wife as he walked through the kitchen after work.

"Oh it's a native song about the Spirit of the Southwind", she answered, and went back to cooking and to humming. Her husband had no interest in that sort of stuff so she wouldn't try and bore him with the details. Instead at the dinner table they talked about the usual stuff. Mike noted that there seemed to be a virus or something going around his office because a couple more people had called in sick and a few had come into work who probably should have stayed at home. Other than that, everything seemed to be going great. As night fell in Hidden Glen all was not well. Instead the dam was about to break.

The next morning at work, Anna was preparing for her first class when Mr. Seltzer the principle burst into the office that Anna shared by two other teachers. "Mrs. Bernhardt can I speak with you for a moment?" The urgency of his voice made Anna turn quickly. The usually neat as a pin principle was slightly rumpled. His collar wasn't straight. His tie wasn't straight. His eyes were red with dark circles around them, and to make it worse he was flushed with a cough.

"Sure", she replied immediately. He motioned for her to follow him into the hallway. "What's wrong?"

"It's Wooten. He was supposed to come into work today, but I can't get a hold of him at all. I sent Janice by his house and she said it looked like no one was home. The neighbor said that she saw him a couple of nights ago and that he didn't look so good."

"Oh my! I hope he doesn't need to go to the hospital."

"I sent the paramedics over there and the police to do a welfare check. I hope its good news, but here's the thing. Another teacher called out this morning and damn if we aren't already shorthanded. I don't know what kind of virus is going around, but I've already called up every substitute in the county. The rest are over at Glen Elementary. Anna I know you're already doing heavy lifting, but I need you to cover another class." Seltzer was frustrated and near his wit's end.

Anna frowned despite the urgency. The only hour she wasn't teaching was her lunch break, but she sighed and said, "Whatever you need. If I'm already doing heavy lifting, I might as well be a female Atlas."

She saw some of the tension leave his creased features. He coughed into a handkerchief before he smiled. "I knew I could count on you Anna." He hurried down the hall to talk to the head of the math department about a similar situation there. Anna just watched him go wondering why she was always taking one for the team.

A few hours later, Anna was feeling that she might need a surgical mask. At least three kids in each class were sick. Some of them coughed or had low fevers. Anna would have sent them to the school nurse, but she felt sorry for the woman who was already swamped. During Anna's abbreviated lunch break, Eddie was walking near. "Hey Mrs. Bernhardt, I'm glad you're not sick", he said.

Anna chuckled and finished her glass of water. "I know. It seems like so many kids are out of school or should be. I'm glad you haven't caught was going around either."

"Yeah, it has to be something in the Glen. The only kids sick are from the Glen."

Anna's eyes widened as her brow furrowed. He was right, and all the teachers missing school lived in the Glen too. Was it the water or something in the ground or something in the air? She began to worry about her son and her husband, not ever worrying about herself. Anna had never been really been sick before. She'd gotten a cold or two, but she hadn't even gotten sick after spending four winter days stranded in Idaho with her father.

"Be careful Eddie", Anna said, not knowing what else to say. She looked at her watch and rushed to her next class. Cindy Hooper was in this class and she was looking quite worried. She kept that look of worry for the entire class and only came up to Anna when the other students were gone.

"I can't get in touch with Mary at all", Cindy told her teacher. "I've called the house and everything, but nothing. I asked my dad if he'd seen Mr. McAffee since they work in the same building, but he said he hadn't seen him in good while. I walked by the house and there are like four or five newspapers just sitting in the driveway."

Anna's first reaction was to call the police like Mr. Seltzer had done for Mr. Wooten, but instead she said, "After school this afternoon maybe you and I can go check it out."

Cindy nodded. "I've been friends with Mary for a long time. I hope nothing's happened to her."

"I'm sure there's a logical reason for this. Maybe the family's just caught whatever this is that's going around."

While Anna was busy with her teaching marathon, an ambulance and police cruisers pulled up to Vic Wooten's house. His car was in the driveway, but there was no answer at the door. The cops looked around the house for signs of break-ins and they spoke to the neighbors. It was the middle of the day so many the homes were empty. They saw one man driving an old Studebaker leaving his house, but he didn't stop or even look to see what was happening at his neighbor's. After checking around for more than half and hour the police decided to go in. The police went in first, with their hands on their pistols. The house was dark. The curtains were drawn and no lights were on. They crunched on broken glass that looked like it had come from a light bulb that had been in a fixture near the kitchen. The cops got deeper into the house and a smell assaulted their senses. The men wrinkled their noses and their eyes watered as the scent got worse. It was almost like the rotting of flesh, but it didn't smell like any rot they'd ever experienced. Some of the police were expecting to find a dead body, but instead one cop opened a closet door and shined his flashlight on a man. He was huddled with is back against the wall and his knees drawn to his chest. His arms wrapped around his knees and his head tucked down where it was impossible to see his face. The man's clothes were dirty and the cop could smell them from where he stood, but as bad as this man smelled, he wasn't the source of the awful smell permeating the home.

The cop stepped closer, taking care to make no sudden movements. "Sir, are you okay?", he asked quietly but firmly. "Sir?"

"Stay away", a raspy withered voice warned.

"Sir, we're here to see that you get help. May I approach?"

The man raised his head at the question and the cop nearly fell as he moved away. "Holy SHIT!", the cop yelled and managed to catch himself on the doorway or he would have tumbled to his back.

The man's skin was as gray as a cloudy day and as dry as the desert floor. His eyes were inkwells set deep into his skull. His lips quivered without provocation and his teeth were yellow and stained. The man breathed out and it sounded like the scurrying of a thousand roaches. His tongue looked gangrenous and his breath smelt like death's own.

"Guys up here now!", the cop yelled, but his fellow police officers were already on their way. They came with guns drawn, and it took all of their training not to shoot the man at sight. He didn't move when the cops walked in, spotlighting him with their long flashlights.

"Go get the ambulance guys. This one needs to go right now." The men hoped that he would cooperate, but he didn't. When the medics tried to move him, he began to resist. His anger fueled strength belied his looks. He looked frail to the point of death, but instead it took all the cops and two medics to hold him down while they applied restraints. He bit at them and hit at them, but the cops were used to keeping themselves out of the way. As they got the straight jacket on him, he reached out his left hand and scratched one of the medics so deep that gouges were left in his arm.

"Son of a bitch", the medic yelled and back handed the sickening man across his ashen face.

The man laughed and continued to struggle trying to say words, but instead jabbering. It took them a while to get him in the ambulance, but when they did, they confirmed that the man was indeed Vic Wooten. They had no idea what was wrong with him, but that was someone else's problem. The scratched medic got treatment from his friends for the wounds then took the rest of the day off. It was convenient since he lived in the Glen about a mile or so from Wooten's house. He planed to watch a little of the World Series and throw back a couple of brews. It wasn't to be.

After school Anna promised to pick up Cindy to check on Mary, but before that she had to stop at the grocery store. She was in a hurry, but the house was running low on a few things. Usually the Glen's grocery store was busy, but on this afternoon not so much. There were barely any lines at the checkout. Some of the workers in the store looked like her students had but they needed the paychecks so they hadn't called in sick. Anna hated the idea of touching food that had been handled by people wiping their noses. She decided that she'd drive all the way to the other side of the county and shop there. She was about to leave the store when a man blocked her path. His clothes were dusty, but not with soil. It looked and smelled like rust. She guessed the guy worked with metal. His dark hair was speckled with gray, but his full beard was mostly grey already. He had serious looking eyes that stared at her. He was studying her very closely.

"Can I help you?", Anna asked but didn't step back. She narrowed her onyx colored eyes and stared the man right back.

"Are you Indian?" the man asked and Anna was so surprised that she answered.

"Yes." She frowned as she looked up at him. "Would you please let me by now?"

The man grinned, but it looked forced. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get in your way. I just don't see too many honest to goodness Indians these days. I'm from Oklahoma and there's a lot there."

"Yes there are", Anna replied and started past the man. She wasn't afraid of him, mostly because she didn't scare easily, but he was creeping her out.

"Have you ever been to Oklahoma?"

"I'm from Oklahoma, a little dusty town on the reservation that I haven't seen in a long time." She slowed her gate as she answered him, but she didn't stop.

"It's too bad. So many native people know nothing about their people's past."

Anna did stop this time and she turned to look at him over her shoulder. "Good thing I'm not one of those." She didn't know what to make of that little encounter except that some people are really really socially awkward. She got in her Volvo and drove to the other supermarket.

It was later than they'd planned when Anna pulled up to Cindy Hooper's house. Cindy was at the window waiting. She ran out when Anna pulled up, but Anna wasn't going to just drive off. She got out of her car and went to the door where Cindy's mother was waiting. "Oh its okay, Mrs. Bernhardt. Cindy's already told us that you're taking her to check on a friend. Just try and get her back before dinner's ready."

"Oh, no problem Mrs. Hooper. This shouldn't take long at all."

Mrs. Hooper waved as Anna and Cindy drove off. She closed the door and went back to the kitchen to finish cooking. She had to pass Mr. Hooper was on the couch about to check out game 3 of the World Series, but his wife had other ideas. "Aren't you going to see about that smell coming from the basement? I swear there must be something dead down there."

"Damn it", Mr. Hooper muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing honey. I'm going to check on it." Mr. Hooper stood up from the lounger and stomped to the basement wearing his t-shirt and work pants. He pushed the door open and flipped the lights on as he stomped down the steps. He was cursing and wishing that he'd brought his can of beer with him until he frown and covered his nose with his hand. The smell was awful and it was way worse than a dead mouse. It could be a sewage backup or something, but as he got to the bottom he saw that nothing was wet. He walked towards the middle of the basement and stopped.

"What the hell?", he exclaimed and stood in disbelief. There was a big hole in the middle of his basement floor. The concrete was broken and cracked like it had been pulled in from below. Chunks of concrete were mixed in with dirt and gravel that had until recently been below the cement. Mr. Hooper stepped around the depression and grabbed a flashlight to get a better look. The smell was almost overpowering, but Mr. Hooper was pissed. The real estate guy had said that this house was built to last. Mr. Hooper got on all fours and peeped closer. He reached his hand out over the ruined concrete to grab a piece of concrete still not believing what he was seeing. He didn't see the dirt move beneath him, shifting like sands in an hour glass, moving to the side as something rose from beneath. He just caught the shadow out of the corner of his eye. He pulled back, too late. It took him by the throat and pulled. His scream was stuck behind the powerful grasp. He kicked and fought and did no good. More dirt shifted as Mr. Hooper was pulled at a hundred points on his body. The hole in the cement floor wasn't big enough for Mr. Hooper, but it didn't matter. His body rose up as his head disappeared into the abyss. His feet kicked and his body spasmed as his shoulders were forced against the concrete, yielding to the concrete as they pulled him down down down into their world. The cracking of his body reverberated in the basement and to the rooms above.

"Did you find it?", Mrs. Hooper called from the kitchen, but got no answer. She checked the stove and went to the basement door. The smell was even worse. "Hey, do you hear me!", she yelled and stepped down a couple of stairs. She had to put her hands over her nose as she started down the stairs. The smell was so bad that her husband must have uncovered the source. "If you trying to scare me with a dead animal you'll be sleeping in the car for a month. Do you hear me?" There was no reply.

She looked around the dimly lit basement at the shelves on the wall and the tools in the corner, but she didn't see her husband. She moved more slowly now, peeping around the corner as she came to the last step. Her slippers reached the concrete. She came around the corner and nearly fainted at the sight of the blood. It sat on the floor in heaps and puddles and in tiny droplets all over the wall. Mrs. Hooper rushed forward calling her husband's name and slipped on his blood near the hole in the floor. She tried to roll to her feet, but her arm extended over the hole for an instant, long enough. They grabbed Mrs. Hooper and dragged. She screamed and begged and tried to stay above the floor, but there were so many hands. She screamed until the dirt filled her mouth and the foulness filled her lungs.

Anna stopped in front of Mary's house. The sun was getting very low over the hills around the Glen. She looked out over the scene before shutting off the engine and leading Cindy towards the front door. She noticed the newspapers backing up and the fact that there was several day's worth of mail in the box. They stood on the stoop and rang the doorbell, once, twice, five times before giving up.

"Maybe we should look around the back", Cindy offered, not willing to give up on her friend.

Anna thought better of it, but she started around the side of the house. She opened the gate and entered the backyard. It was quiet and eerily still on a nice night like this one. Anna didn't know the McAffee's that well, but she did know that they were often out on their patio listening to music and enjoying the good weather while it lasted. Now, not even the crickets chirped in cool but pleasant dusk air. The back door to the house was locked just as tightly as the front door. Cindy tried the knob, but it didn't turn at all. The two didn't know what to make of anything until Anna tried to peep in one of the windows and saw that the windows were blocked by furniture and other debris. She rushed to another window and saw that it was similarly blocked.

"Something's not right", Anna said and Cindy more than agreed. The teen backed away and looked at the back of the split level house for anything while Anna tried the door again. This time when she got close she heard a tapping, but not coming from the door. It was coming from above.

"There!", Cindy yelled and pointed at a bedroom window. In the failing light both of them could see Mary in the window. She was waving manically and yelling although they could barely hear her. "No! No! No!", Mary yelled. Tears ran down her face as she tried to convince her teach and good friend to go away. Finally she opened the window. It looked like she was terrified to do so, but she did. "Please run away now! Don't try and come in! Please!!!"

Anna's heart raced at the sound of Mary's voice. "What's wrong? Come down here. Do we need to call the police?", Anna yelled at the window.

"No don't call anybody or they'll get it too. Just go away!!", Mary yelled and closed the window. She disappeared from view.

Cindy looked at her teacher for answers and Anna had already made up her mind. "Whatever it is, Mary, I'm coming in!", Anna yelled and went to the front door. She didn't bother to try the knob, she pulled back and rammed her shoulder into the solid wooden door hard. It didn't budge. It was like hitting stone. Anna's shoulder stung, but she pulled back and hit the door even harder this time flexing her deltoids to absorb some of the blow. It helped with the pain, but the door barely moved. Anna stepped back to regroup. "It's blocked", Mary yelled from the once again open window. Just leave. Get out of here!", she yelled, but this time before she could close the window they heard a crash and Mary yelled pure terror was taking over her mind.

"I'm coming in there no matter what!", Anna yelled and this time she focused on the door and nothing else. She marched towards the door and kicked it really really hard. The booming sound of her foot hitting the door drowned out the sound of splintering wood. The door actually cracked from top to bottom and the doorframe bowed, but it didn't open. Anna's lips curled into a snarl and she quickly took another stride and poured all of her strength into this next kick.

Cindy couldn't belive what happened as she watched. She knew that her teacher had nice muscles. All the guys at school talked about her, but she couldn't take her eyes off of Anna's legs as they flexed to kick the door with untold power. Mary had never seen such definition on anybody let alone a woman. She could see the heads of Anna's quads bulge above her knee creating three dimensions of female muscle as her leg extended to impact the door, but it was her plant leg that might have showed off even more how cut her muscles were when she used them. Anna's inner thighs tightened like steel. Her calves bunched and flexed out like cut diamonds and looked as hard. Cindy never knew that the there were two heads on a hamstring until she saw Mrs. Bernhardt's muscles. And the power unleashed from those legs almost made Cindy faint. The sound was like an explosion. It was like she was trying to kick down the entire wall of the house. Window panes rattled in their frames dozens of feet away. The siding cracked as the wall buckled a bit. The doorframe disintegrated. The hinges and locking mechanism were ruined after Anna's second kick. The door turned into pieces of barely recognizable wood and all the things that had been piled against the door were forced back several feet after Anna was finished. Her chest heaved after her awesome display, but she was still concerned. Anna pointed for Cindy to stay behind her as they entered the house.

The lights were out and nothing was on, no radios or televisions, or even appliances. The steady hum of the refrigerator or furnace was absent. It smelled as if a butchers freezer had gone out and all the meat had spoiled. Anna and Cindy held their noses as they walked into the house. Anna had never been in the house before, but she could tell that everything was in disarray. Aside from all the furniture that had been piled against the back door, other pieces of furniture had been disassembled and nailed to cover the windows. There was broken glass in every room, and it didn't take long to realize that the glass had come from light bulbs. Every switch they tried yielded no light.

Anna's breath caught when she heard a big crash from upstairs. "Sounds like it came from Mary's room", Cindy said and lead Anna towards the stairs. They heard some sounds coming from behind them. Anna almost stopped to investigate, but Cindy kept going up so Anna went with her. All the doors in the upstairs hall were closed and the window at the end was boarded shut so no light at all illuminated their way. The sounds coming from behind them sounded like footsteps, but lumbering unsteady steps. Anna and Cindy were feeling their way along the wall until a door opened and a hand reached out for Cindy's arm.

The teen screamed at the top of her lungs and Anna stepped forward, but stopped short. It was Mary. "Hurry inside!", she said and pulled Cindy while Anna came in last. Mary slammed the door shut so quickly that Anna barely got in unscathed. She quickly put several bars in place across her door. As soon as that was finished she turned to face her teacher and friend. She looked different than either of them remembered. She'd lost weight and her skin was smudged, but it was more than that. The look in her eyes was that of a hunted animal surviving on a thread.

"Did you see them?", she demanded.

"She what? She who?"

"Then they didn't touch you", Mary said and sighed in relief. "Help me move this into place." She walked neck to her chest of drawers and started pushing it, her face turning red from the effort as she made slow progress.

Anna stepped in next to Mary, planted her feet firmly and simply extended her arms to slide the heavy piece of furniture in front of the door. Despite her fear, Mary was impressed. Her teacher didn't care about that. "What's going on here?", Anna asked trying not to yell but wanting an answer quickly.

Mary sat down on her bed. It was strange with the bright colors and flower and ponies all over this room that the mood was so dark. "It started with my Dad. There was some problem in the basement wall. Mom wanted him to call somebody, but Dad said he was going to fix it himself. He'd go down there with concrete and bricks and stuff, but he never finished. He said the hole was just getting bigger. About ten days ago he went down there and he said something scratched his arm like an animal or something. They said it was nothing, but Mom wouldn't let him work on it anymore. Some guys were supposed to come fix the hole, but it was too late. Dad started getting sick. Mom wanted him to take him to doctor, but every time she tried he'd get angry, like angrier than Dad ever got." Mary stopped and looked off in the distance as if to gather her thoughts and try to make sense of what she was about to say.

"He kept getting sicker and sicker but he would go downstairs and dig sometimes, like he was trying to find something. We didn't know what to think because he would just get really angry when you said anything to him. He didn't even look like himself after a while. Then one day he got so angry that he kicked Fluffy to death. Mom had had enough, but when she was about to call the police he attacked her." Mary's tears started to flow then, but they stopped as she continued. "He beat her until I was sure she was dead. I wanted to help her, but he was so vicious that I just ran and hid. He clawed flesh from her arms and legs and stuff. It was awful. Then Terry my brother came home and Dad attacked him too. Before I could even warn him, Terry looked just like Mom. Dad licked the blood from his hands. I thought he didn't know where I was, but he did. He looked right at me but he went back to the basement. I could hear him digging with new energy. I finally got the courage to try and leave the house, but then I saw my mother move."

"She was dead for hours, Mrs. Bernhardt. There was blood, her blood everywhere! I could see the big wounds in her body, but she pushed herself up and then looked at me with dead eyes. My brother was next. He stood up with blood still running from all the wounds my father had given him. Both of them came after me, but stopped short and I watched as they tore Fluffy to pieces and ate him. I locked myself in the room, but they didn't try to get me. They blocked up the windows and doors so no one could come in. My father commanded them for a few days. He told them that no one could come in and disturb his work. When they were finished making it where I couldn't get out and no one could get in, they all went to the basement to dig. Of course Dad doesn't give orders anymore. He's way too messed up for that. Now he's just waiting on the others."

"Others?"

Mary nodded weakly. "There's dozens of them in the basement. That's why they were digging, to free them."

Anna couldn't wrap her mind around what Mary had said. Part of her wanted to slap the teen and tell her stop fantasying, but the truth has a power to it and it rings in the ears when heard. "So you just stay in here?", Anna asked.

"Yeah", Mary answered with a shrug. "While they were down in the basement I gathered all the food I could and I filled up the water drums Dad had in case he turned off the water, which he did. I've been in here for days. People would come by the house and I'd pray that they not come inside. Most tried a little but gave up thinking the house was empty, well everybody but you two that is." She smiled quickly then looked away. Anna could tell that part of Mary was relieved that she was no longer alone, but the bulk of her was scared beyond words.

"I'm going to get you out of here", Anna told Mary. The girl looked up with hope in one eye and doubt in the other.

"How?"

"I don't know yet, but we'll all figure something out."

Before they could brainstorm, there was a crash against the door. Dust shook from the top of the frame and it banged against the bars and the chest of drawers in front of it. Cindy yelped and Mary huddled in her bed like she'd obviously done before. The banging against the door was incessant. At least two and probably four hands banged over and over and over. Anna kept watch on the door hoping that it would hold long enough for them to get out. It might have, but then more sounds came from the hall. The sounds of shuffling feet mixed with the banging of the hands and the booming sound of the door. Their grunts and groans were adding to the din outside, and then their fists banged against the walls of the room. All the walls began to shake so violently that the room itself began to resonate like a big drum. Cindy cried and covered her ears while Mary did the same. This was more than she'd experienced in her days barricaded in her own room.

"MAKE IT STOP!!!", Cindy yelled as the walls began to crack and the door began to break. Anna didn't know what to do. Her mind couldn't come up with ideas as quickly as it pointed out dangers. The dangers were all around them, but there was only one way out. Before Anna could speak, there was a big crash and a shower of dust as a fist broke through the wall. The sheetrock had offered all the resistance it could and now the hands began to reach in. They couldn't count them all and Anna didn't take time to try.

They were pushing their way in between the wall studs, forcing those studs to bend. A bureau was in front of that section of wall. Anna rushed to it and put her hands on the top to offer resistance, but it was too low. They were just coming in over it. She bent down and put her shoulder against the front and with a fear fueled grunt she stood up.

Hard muscles flexed from head to toe as that big piece of furniture left the ground. Anna looked impossible with her arms flexed so hard that pieces the wood of the bureau actually broke off where it came in contact with her biceps. Anna didn't hold the entire thing up for long. She let one end up fall to the floor so now it was standing up right. She pushed it against the wall, and like a woman trying to hold back a flood by herself she pressed her shoulder to the bureau and pushed with all she had. The floor beneath her actually settled two inches from the pressure, but Anna forced the hands back to the other side of the wall.

Her eyes were squeezed closed and her face showed that she was under a tremendous amount of strain. Her muscles bulged harder and flexed over and over like the beating of a heart but both Cindy and Mary knew that their teacher was resisting repeated attempts from those things to break through. They would hit the bureau and press against it and Anna was holding them. Her chest heaved and sweat dripped from her brow. They didn't think that she could do anything other than hold them back, but her mind was working.

"Go out the window", Anna told the girls in a voice made horse from the effort.

"But it's too high. I've already tried!", Mary yelled.

"I know what to do. Go out on the roof and wait for me. Don't try to get down until I get there."

The two girls looked at each other and then rushed to the window. They threw it open and Cindy climbed out first. Mary was on her heels. They looked through the window at their teacher. Anna's legs were like immoveable objects. Veins shot from her ankles running up and around all the contours of her muscles, throbbing and pumping to feed her hungry muscles as they flexed harder and sharper. She repositioned her feet and they saw the fibers of her calf muscles bunch tighter and tighter forcing her skin to stretch over their diamond hardness and growing girth. Despite their teacher's awesome strength, they were pushing her back, and the walls around her were coming down.

Anna could feel herself getting tired. They were pushing her back despite her best efforts, and it was time to make her move. She had a grip on the bureau and she slowly started to relent, allowing them to push her back more and more. The grotesque smell filled her lungs and made her cough as she backed up, but she had to stick to her plan. As she got a few feet into the room they were able to come in and try to swarm her. She could see their hands, curled claw like things that had once been dexterous and useful for more than killing. She could see the ragged gray soil and rot covered arms reaching out to her. Her own skin crawled and fear almost took over her reason, but Anna moved back and back until she was close enough to the window. She let go of the bureau and scrambled out the window onto the roof. The big piece of furniture banged against the window and wall behind her breaking the glass and temporarily blocking the window.

Cindy and Mary looked at their teacher as if to ask, 'Now what?'

Anna went to the lip of the roof and looked down. It was a high drop, but not too high. Anna was taller than both Cindy and Mary, plus her legs were stronger. She turned around and eased her feet off the roof while taking a good grip on her wood of the roof itself. She couldn't see the window anymore, but that piece of furniture wouldn't hold them up long. When Anna was hanging by her fingertips she yelled, "Climb down!"

"Climb down what?", the girls yelled.

"Me!"

Cindy and Mary looked at each other neither knowing who should go first. There was a crash as the hands broke through and started reaching out the window. "Both at the same time!", Anna yelled.

The girls took care as they put their legs over the edge. Neither of them wanted to make her lose her grip, but as soon as they felt the marble hardness of Anna's deltoids and traps they had no fear of Anna losing her group. Now they just tried to avoid hitting her face or pocking her in the eyes. Cindy went down the right leg and Mary the left. Anna felt the weight, but she wasn't in danger of losing her grip. That is until she felt those things coming closer. Her hands itched to let go, but she had to hold on for a few seconds longer. Anna felt the girls inching their way towards the bottom of her legs. Cindy held onto Anna's knees then worked her way down until she was hanging by her ankle then she released. Mary fell safely to the ground and Anna's shoe came off her left foot landing next to Mary.

The hands tore shingles and clawed themselves closer to Anna as she hung from the very edge of the roof. She slid half an inch. Anna wanted to let go, but she had to kick off her right shoe so she wouldn't roll her ankle when she landed. Those things were inches away when Anna let go. She dropped to the grass and finally exhaled.

"Let's get the hell out of here!" They ran towards the front of the house with dark shapes filling the doorway and all the windows, looking like moving shadows. Anna had never been more afraid in all her life. They ran to Anna's Volvo and jumped inside.

"Come on hurry up!", Mary screamed.

"I can't!" Anna threw her hands up. "I think I dropped my car keys in the house somewhere."

"What?!!! How!!!"

"I don't know maybe between breaking down the wall or picking up a dresser full of stuff and keeping an army of things from getting us!!!"

"They're coming!!!!!!", Cindy screamed at the top of her voice. The yard was covered in them. They were coming out of the house in waves, coming towards the car, and it looked like nothing would stop them.

Anna grabbed the bottom of her steering column and pulled off a panel. She ripped all the wires from the ignition and after a moment of trial and error, the starter turned the engine over. When the car started, Anna bound the wires and slammed the car into drive before she'd even looked over the steering wheel. She sped away leaving everything behind her.

The man in the Studebaker sat in front of a house smoking the last cigarette in this pack of Camels. He didn't used to smoke, but he'd taken up the habit five or six years ago. It gave his hands something to do during his many sleepless nights. He stroked his beard with his left hand and wondered if deep down he had to courage to do this. He wasn't a hero, well not a born one anyway. Maybe he'd rise to occasion, or maybe not. At least he'd know that he tried, and he wasn't going to just try a little. He was going to try a lot. He opened the door to his car and marched towards the front door to a house. He kicked in the door and killed an entire family, a father, mother, two sons, and a daughter. He walked out of the house closing the door behind him as if it had been a normal social call. The television was even still on. The man got back in his Studebaker and drove across the Glen. He smelled smoke. The action had to be on that side of the neighborhood and he didn't have any time to waste.

Anna jumped out of her Volvo before it had even stopped moving. She jumped over the hood without touching it and ran at a sprint to her front door. She had her house keys and she nearly broke it off in the lock as she went in. "ALEX! MIKE!", she screamed and ran to the living room. She found them sitting there eating chips and watching pregame for Game 3.

"Mom?", Alex's little voice asked in an even smaller one. His mother didn't look at all normal. If worry was a perfume, Anna had drenched herself with it. It bled away as she nearly passed out from relief.

Mike jumped up from the couch and took her in his arms. He could feel that her body was pumped up. Every muscle from her shoulders to her abs to her lats. "Honey, what's wrong?" His voice dripped with concern. His eyes met his wife's and he'd never seen that look in her eyes before. He wasn't great at reading her, but he could certainly read this. He hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary, just another night in the Glen, but Anna looked like she'd been in a war zone.

"We have to get out of here!"

"What? Why would have to leave?" Mike was confused. Anna opened her mouth to speak, but try as she might to explain to her husband what had happened at Mary's house, she didn't even know where to begin. She uttered a few half words, then there was a crash below the floor. It was much louder than the thump they'd heard before. "Aw hell. There's another problem in the basement." Mike let go and started towards the basement door. Anna held on tightly, so tightly that it hurt a little. "Anna?"

"No, don't go down there. It's them. We have to get out of here now!" Panic was returning to Anna's normally unflappable face. Mike knew his wife well enough to know that not much scared her, whatever this was scared her tremendously.

He looked at the basement door then back at his wife. "Flip off the set, Alex. I guess we're going for a ride."

Anna smiled and Alex rushed to her arms. Anna picked him up, which made Mike grimace but he didn't say anything. They rushed towards the front door when there were more crashes from the basement. It sounded like the basement walls were caving in. The house was shaking now as they neared the exit.

Mike stopped. "I have to get something." He turned and ran back inside.

"No, don't!", Anna yelled but didn't chase him. She clutched her son and ran towards her Volvo. It was gone.

"You shouldn't have done this Cindy", Mary said from the passenger seat. "You stole Mrs. Bernhardt's car."

"I'm not stealing it. I'll bring it back."

"Those things were under the ground. They can be anywhere? What if those things are at her house too?"

"What if they're at my house, Mary? My parents are there." Cindy drove with both hands on the wheel and her eyes locked with purpose. As they got closer they smelled smoke and soot. A house burning has a distinct odor and it filled the girls' noses as soon as they closer. When the Volvo stopped, the Mary got out and sank to her knees on her front lawn. Her house was fully engulfed in flames with big orange plumes shooting well past the roofline.

She wept, mentioning her Mom and Dad. Cindy had no way of knowing that both of her parents were dead. When those things had taken her mother down into their hole there had been a skillet on the stove that had turned into a grease fire. Normally Mrs. Hooper would have put it out, but it burned unchecked until the wall caught fire and now the entire house. Cindy was beyond consoling because she knew no one was coming out of that alive, but Mary had something else on her mind.

"Why are there no people here?", she asked and Cindy barely heard her. She took Cindy by the shoulders. "We have to go?"

"Then leave if you want. I can't just abandon my parents like that." Tear still rolled unchecked down her cheeks.

"Cindy use your brain! There's a house burning and we're the only people out here. Where's the fire department? Where're the people trying to help or at least looking on like idiots. There's nobody out here but US!!! Those things are over here too."

Cindy was about to listen to Mary when the sounds of sirens wafted towards them. A fire truck stopped and the firemen started working quickly to put out the fire. Mary looked at them and at Cindy, but she couldn't stay. She left her friend hoping that everything would be okay, but Anna Bernhardt had saved her life, and Mary was going back to Mrs. Bernhardt's house.

Anna stood in her front yard looking all around her know that her students had taken her car. They could all fit in Mike's car, but it was a tight squeeze. That didn't matter. She put her son down and told him to stay where she could see him while she went in the house to make sure Mike got his car keys. The keys to his car were on the same ring as the keys to her car which were being trampled by monsters. She made it to the front door in time to hear her husband yell. She could see the shadows of those monsters moving around in her home. It made her angry and terrified. She had nowhere to go, and she couldn't understand this. She couldn't understand what these things were or how to stop them. It was as if survival had a new set of rules. Anna had always known how to take care of her self. Her father had made sure of that, but this was something new. This wasn't a threat from Mother Nature because there was nothing natural about those creatures, and it wasn't a threat from Man, because Anna had always been able to handle those. She stood in the doorway afraid to step inside lest those things come after her again. She turned to her son, standing alone in the yard. Every instinct to her to protect him, but then she heard Mike yell. A door slammed upstairs, but a dozen fists banged against it. The door wouldn't last for long.

"Mike!", she yelled and ran into the house. Those things were filling her house now. She pushed one of them out of the way as she ran towards the stairs.

"Don't come up here!", Mike yelled in a voice that made Mary stop. Then she heard gunshots. One, two, three in a row then she heard the breaking of glass and a loud thump.

Anna had no idea what was happening, but she went for the door again. Those creatures were all around her, their faces dead and their eyes staring at her. They moved with a sickening sameness. They reached for her, but Anna ducked and dodged making her way out the front door. Three of them were behind her and they moved quite quickly when they wanted to. She had to run to keep them from catching her. She jumped off the stoop and into the yard. She slipped on the moist grass when she saw a man standing there with a shotgun. It was the creepy man from the market. She looked past him and saw the beat up Studebaker behind him. He'd been by the house at least twice before, and now she knew that it was the same man. Of all the times to be attacked by a psycho, but this one looked past her and yelled, "DUCK!" Anna fell to the ground and the crazy man pulled the trigger of his 12 gauge.

The hollow booming of the shotgun rang in Anna's ears. She rolled to her stomach and looked behind her as the man dropped three of those things with three shots. They fell and didn't move again. She looked to her right when she heard more shots, these from a handgun. It was Mike and his .45. He took aim and fired two shots into another creature that was coming out of a window. It took those slugs and didn't even slow down.

"The head!", the crazy man yelled. "Aim for the fucking head!"

Mike didn't know who the guy was, but he'd take any advice at this point. He aimed at the head and emptied his magazine. The thing stopped moving and other things climbed over its body to get out of the house.

"We must leave here", the crazy man said as he loaded more shells into his gun. They couldn't all fit in the Studebaker although they were game to try. It didn't matter because Mary pulled up in the Volvo. It was an answered prayer. Mike rushed to the driver seat while Anna ran with Alex in her arms and got in the back. Mary slid over.

The man in the Studebaker stuck his head out of the window. "Follow me!" Mike took the time to slam a full magazine into this gun then kept close to the guy in front of him. As they sped through the usually peaceful streets of Hidden Glen, chaos was breaking out. Those monsters were emerging from some houses and attacking the unknowing residents of other house. Some people were running away, but there wasn't much that could be done for them. It seemed that the man in the Studebaker was prepared for that. He stuck a megaphone out of his window and began to repeat, "Do not make physical contact with the creatures. They will infect you with an incurable fatal condition. Retreat to the highest room in your home and barricade yourself there. Do not attempt to escape before dawn. I will return with more instructions."

Anna recognized Vic Wooten's house as they passed it and it looked like a creature convention. They came out of his house like an army. They were in the streets too. They hit against the cars and Mike tried to avoid them, but hitting them with the moving car only slowed them down. It didn't stop them. Their dead faces left smears of dead flesh against the windows and fenders. Alex had his eyes closed and his face buried in her mother's bosom, but Anna's eyes were wide open. She could see creatures illuminated by the streetlamps. On some, the skin hung from their bones like rags, but others looked more discernable, but her brain wouldn't let her believe what her eyes were telling her. The Studebaker finally slowed and he pulled into a driveway. The garage door rattled and began to open. He motioned with his arm for Mike to pull in next to him. There were creatures on the front lawn, but they didn't have time to make it to the open door before it began to shut.

Mike worried that they'd have to defend this man's house, but as soon as the door closed, he saw that there was armor plate welded to the back of specially reinforced garage door and the opener motor looked like it had come from a pickup truck. The rest of the house was similarly armored. The floors were covered with steel plates and so were the windows. The basement had been filled in with rocks gravel and cement from the bottom to the top. The crazy man in the Studebaker had been fortifying this house for a long time.

"I have enough water for all of us for quite a while, and food too. I'm expecting more people to take refuge here, but this thing got started faster than I thought. I did want to make sure that I got you, Mrs. Bernhardt."

"How do you know my name?"

"Because I told him", a voice called from the other room. Cindy came into view. There was a story on her face and an apology in her eyes, but that would wait. Mary went up to hug her friend.

"Will you tell us what's going on here?", Mike demanded and paced unable to sit down.

"Sure I'll explain, the best I can anyway. I guess I should tell who started all of this…"

... To be Continued...

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