Dart blasted into the police station with Sean and Jessica right behind him. He grabbed his flashlight from his belt and turned it on as he raced down the hallway.
“What are we doing?” Jessica cried out.
“Grabbing more ammo,” Dart boldly stated. They passed the old Sheriff’s office, and the flickering lights from the pumpkins caught Sean and Jessica’s attention. They stopped and looked in.
Eddie Wong sat in the chair with a fire axe sticking out of his head, and behind him, Dana sat dead on the floor, propped up against the bloody wall behind her.
Jessica covered her mouth, trying not to gag or scream.
“Holy…” Sean said, startled by the gory sight. He looked down the hall and saw Dart coming out of a room, holding a shotgun and stuffing shells into his pockets.
Sean grabbed the Deputy by the arm as he charged by. Dart stopped and looked at him. “What?”
“What exactly is the plan?”
“The power is out. We can’t call for help, so were heading to Glen Falls – it’s five miles up the road. We need help.”
“What will they be able to do?” Sean asked.
“I don’t know!” Dart snapped, catching Jessica’s attention as well. “There’s never really been a situation like this before. Like, ever!”
Dart tore away from Sean’s grip and marched down the hall and back towards the lobby. “I keep feeling like at any moment, I’m just going to wake up from this nightmare.”
Dart stopped in the lobby and turned around to see Sean and Jessica still standing in the hall. He shone his flashlight on them. “Are you coming or not?”
Sean and Jessica followed Dart back out of the station and into the rainy streets. The three of them looked around in shock as now numerous buildings were engulfed in flames.
Screams in the rainy night caught their attention and they watched as innocent people ran through the streets in a mass panic. Some of them were on fire…
Dart lead the way to his cruiser and hopped in. Sean and Jessica hopped in the back and Dart peeled out, heading east down Main Street.
Dart turned on his CB radio, but it was all static. Frustrated, he turned it completely off. Dart was driving about twenty miles per hour over the speed limit.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Jessica cried into Sean’s arms in the back seat.
“Look, when we get to Glen Falls,” Dart began, “I’m going to leave you two at their police station. You’ll have to find a way to back to Seattle.”
“What? No way,” Sean said. “I have to get my parents out of Stewart Hollow.”
Dart stayed quiet and shook his head.
“What?” Sean asked ferociously.
“No one’s getting out of Stewart Hollow…” Dart said, mostly to himself. Right then, the steering wheel locked up and Dart couldn’t turn it. He started to panic.
“What’s wrong?” Jessica said, sitting up and looking into the front seat.
“The wheels all jammed or something!” Dart yelled. He then felt the gas peddle give out from under his foot and the car’s speed began to escalate fast.
“Slow down!” Sean shouted.
“I can’t! It’s doing this on its own!” Dart yelled back angrily.
“What’s that?” Jessica said, pointing ahead. They all looked out the front windshield and noticed they were driving into a thick and haunting fog.
“Hold on!” Dart shouted. They all gripped onto something as they raced at full speed into the deep fog.
They couldn’t see anything. The car had reached almost ninety miles an hour, and it continued to climb. They all braced themselves for the worst just as the car hit a pothole and bounced off the ground. The three of them screamed as the car, at full speed, flipped onto its side and rolled over and over before settling upside down off the road. Glass shattered all around them, cutting them in various places.
When the crash calmed, Dart shook the glass out of his hair and turned around in his seat to see if Sean and Jessica were okay. Sean hung upside down by his seatbelt – blood was running down his body and dripping from his head onto the roof of the car.
Dart focused on Jessica, who was hung upside down by her seatbelt as well. She coughed a few times and finally opened her eyes. She looked at Dart and then over to Sean, where she started to squirm and scream in her seat.
“Calm down, Jessica.” Dart said, unlatching his seatbelt. He dropped to the roof of the car and leaned into the back and helped Jessica down. He kicked her side door three or four times and finally it creaked open. Dart crawled out first, and then helped Jessica to her feet.
They brushed themselves off and noticed the fog had diminished to a lighter haze. Dart looked around to see where they had ended up. An eerie chill came over him as he noticed they had crashed right through the metal gates, and into Hollows End Cemetery.
“Oh God,” Dart said quietly. He looked at Jessica. “Are you okay? “
Jessica didn’t answer. She just stood there in the drizzle and fog, shivering uncontrollably in terror. Her eyes were wide and she looked around the cemetery. Shadows of the dead oak trees branched out in every direction, and then she noticed the gravestones. They were cracked, and continuing to crack before her eyes. She pointed to them, and Dart looked.
One by one, the gravestones around them crumbled into piles of rubble. There were more sounds that accompanied the shattered headstones – a crunching sound. Dart looked closely near each of the rubbles, and saw the damp soil start to pulsate. He kept his eye on one of the spots in particular. He watched as the ground bumped up, and then retracted, forming a muddy puddle. Then, something started to rise up from the mud – it was a corpse.
Darts eyes widen and his frantically looked around and noticed that corpses were rising from all of the graves, moaning and grunting as they did so.
“Jess…” Dart said, backing up to her. She had already seen them, and was frozen in fear. She didn’t move. It was all too much for her to handle.
Screeching tires on the road caught Darts attention and he watched as a car, an old Mustang, came to a complete stop out on the road. He took a few steps towards it and saw it shaking violently back and forth. The front door opened and a man jumped out, holding his chest.
The man screamed and dropped to his knees before exploding into flames. Dart looked back down the road in the direction of downtown Stewart Hollow. A bright orange hue lit up the sky. Everything, and everyone was burning.
“Jess, come on!” Dart said, grabbing her and dragging her to the man’s car. He helped her into the passenger seat and then he ran around to the drivers’ side, trying to avoid the burning carcass.
He hopped in just as the passenger’s window shattered. Dart looked over and noticed one of the undead corpses reaching in and grabbing Jessica by the neck. She screamed, while kicking and punching at nothing.
“Jess!” Dart shouted as he hit the gas hard. The car spun out and shot up the road towards the town’s boarder. Jessica could still feel the creatures’ muddy hands touching her neck, and she squirmed in her seat, crying hysterically.
The old Mustang raced across the town’s boarder and into Glen Falls. It sped up the winding road, splashing through all the puddles that continued to form in the pouring rain, and into downtown. The car came to a screeching halt outside of Glen Falls Police Station. Dart hopped out from the drivers seat and scurried around to the passenger side. He reached in through the shattered window and unlocked the door, pulling the frantic Jessica Morgan out from the car. She was frazzled, soaked to the bone, and covered in cuts and scrapes.
Dart pulled her up the sets to the Police Station and they barged in, capturing the attention of everyone inside. A man in a suit and tie dropped the stack of folders that were in his hands and rushed to Dart and Jessica.
“What’s going on here?” The man questioned loudly, noticing how distraught the two of them were. He noticed the bloody cuts all over Jessica, as well as the puzzling muddy handprints around her neck.
“Who’s in charge?” Dart shouted.
“I am,” the man said. “I’m Chief Roberts.”
“I’m Deputy Jamie Dart from Stewart Hollow,” Dart said, trying to catch his breath.
“What’s wrong?” Chief Roberts questioned, just as concerned as the rest of the office, who were slowly gathering around.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you…” Dart huffed.