Help is on the way?
All published excerpts from Apostate: Life after Death in Exile:
From Episode 2: Help is on the Way?
I ran back down the driveway toward the sedan. The door to the car was open, but I did not see the driver anywhere.
Slowly, I walked over and inspected the front seat, then the back seat. The car appeared completely empty except for the shards of glass on the floor under the driver’s seat. Running down that same seat, I could see the blood stain that was already turning brown. On the back of the driver’s headrest, I noticed another bloodstain shaped like a handprint. Otherwise, there was nothing of interest in the sedan.
I looked back toward the curve in the road, and there was nothing there. When I looked over my shoulder in the direction that the sedan had originally been traveling, I saw the driver walking slowly up the road away from me.
“Hey!” I yelled. “Are you okay? I called 911. Help is on the way.” He did not respond and his pace, which was already slow, did not change, so I started walking toward him and called out again, “Hey! Did you hear me? An ambulance will be here soon.”
I kept walking down the road in his direction. This time, he slowed and turned towards me. I could tell that he was in pain; perhaps he was in shock. He wasn’t really walking; it was more of a shuffle. He seemed to almost fall forward, with each leg and foot barely catching up before he tumbled to the asphalt. His arms hung limply by his side, and his head was tilted at a strange angle – just a little beyond what would seem like a normal tilt.
As he walked/fell closer to me, I took a couple of steps toward the man and reached out to take his arm to help him back to his car seat. Suddenly – and much quicker than I expected given his walking pace – the man’s arm flew up, and his hand clamped onto my forearm. His fingers felt like five tiny vise grips tightening onto my skin. I tried to pull back and found him to be much stronger than I anticipated given his condition.
“It’s okay,” I said, “I just want to help you back to your car. Help will be here soon.” I tried to make eye contact with him and give him a reassuring look, but his eyes were not focused on me. Instead, they seemed to be staring through me, as if I didn’t exist.
He continued to step toward me. Methodically, he began to pull my arm toward his face as his mouth dropped open making a peculiar gurgling sound. At first, I thought he was trying to speak. Perhaps he had injured his mouth in the accident, and he was trying to tell me something. But, slowly, another realization came to me. He was trying to bite me!
Thinking the guy must have hit his head harder than I suspected, I took a step toward him and pushed him away with both hands. I didn’t want to knock him to the ground, since he was obviously injured from the accident. But, I also didn’t want to be bitten. It took more force than I thought, but I eventually freed myself and moved away from him a few steps.
I continued backing up, watching him carefully, until I reached the door of his car. I held it open, both to give him a place to sit and also to keep a barrier between him and me. “Are you okay? Maybe you should sit down until the ambulance gets here,” I said warily.
The man didn’t respond. In fact, I realized that he had not said anything since his initial request to “Help me / Kill me” when I found him after the accident. He continued slowly, methodically stepping toward me, head tilted, mouth agape, and eyes gazing through me.
“Is everything okay?” I was surprised to hear my wife Janice’s voice, and even more surprised to find that she was standing at the end of the driveway.
“He was in an accident, and we’re waiting for the ambulance,” I tried to say calmly, but I realized that my defensive posture belied my words. I kept one eye on the driver and one eye on Janice, but I eventually turned toward her when she started walking across the road.
“No, it’s okay, Janice. Just stay over there.” I raised one hand to motion for her to stop. Immediately, the man grabbed my outstretched arm and started pulling it toward his mouth. He once again started making the gurgling noise. Before I could wrench my arm free, Janice had rushed to my side and grabbed my arm.
I yelled, “Janice, go back up to the house,” and pulled with all my might, breaking free from the man’s grip. The force of my action caused my body to turn to the side, away from the man and away from Janice. So I did not see him grab her arm. I did not see the surprised look on her face. I did not see him raise her arm to his mouth. I did not see when he first clamped his teeth down onto her skin.
All published excerpts from Apostate: Life after Death in Exile:
But, I did hear her scream.
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