It Happened On the Fourth of July

By: Ryan L. Covey

Chapter 1

It happened on the Fourth of July. It was a normal summer day, hot and balmy. It had rained earlier that morning, but it was strangely not humid. Just dry and hot, it struck me as mildly peculiar but I had more important things to think of.

At the time I was working at a fireworks stand in a little town on the Iowa/Missouri border. You see fireworks are illegal in Iowa so on the fourth there’s always at least ten fireworks tents in the border towns.

The tent I was working in was an independent job, the only one not owned by the warehouse in town. But this is all beside the point because this story isn’t about my job.

I’d taken the job just to make a little extra cash because my Junior year of high school was coming up and I needed money for gas and whatever else.

My boss had sent me to a town roughly twenty miles away to get dinner. No restaurants were open in the area but there was a gas station two towns south that made sandwiches.

I had come to this gas station against my own wishes; I had eaten there before and had come to call their hamburgers “grease grenades”. Nonetheless I went inside and made my order.

The convenience store was amazingly large for something as simple as it was. Out front was what you come to expect from a convenience store, coolers full of Pepsi and Coca Cola products as well as sports and energy drinks. Shelves filled with candy and chips, the usual.

The counter was covered in cheap junk from light up pens to cigarette lighters that looked like shotgun shells. Behind the counter were shelves of liquor and tobacco to be sold only to adults.

In the back next to the fountain machine was a medium sized room filled with VHS tapes, DVDs, and video games dating back to Pong for rental.

There was a little eating area to the left with several tables where old men went in the morning to drink their coffee and shoot the bull.

The walls of this area were adorned with assorted junk and knick nacks, everything from sno globes to old gas station signs and novelty sized pocket knives.

I walked in the door; the bell rang as it swung shut slowly. The place was fairly empty at the moment. There were only three people that I could see.

There were two women behind the counter; one was a large heavyset woman with curly red hair. She had a strong yet gentle look on her face; her shirt was covered with grease spots and ashes from the cigarette hanging from her mouth.

The other woman was probably in her twenties. She was young and thin, very beautiful, she was wearing a grey t-shirt and blue shorts. She had smooth black hair that ended just below her chin. Her eyes were a dark brown almost mahogany color; she had slightly dark colored skin simply a light tan that partially hid the freckles on her face.

The man at the counter I knew, he was what one might call the “village idiot”. His name was Bernard Priest, a man in his thirties.

He was no idiot, I had spoken with him myself and he was very intelligent. But somehow, whether it was the fault of Mother Nature or the reverend Jack Daniels, he had become rather insane.

Bernie smiled and waited by the counter as I walked up to the cash register beside him. The older woman walked up and extinguished her cigarette. “Can I help you honey?” she asked looking at me across the counter.

I pulled the slip of paper from my pocket. “Um… I’d like two double cheeseburgers and two orders of fries… a Super Sub with everything… a regular sub with ham, turkey, pickles, spicy mustard, mayo, American cheese, and uh… I can’t read this.” I said.

The woman pulled the list from my hands and examined it, “Onions and Black Olives.” She said, chuckling softly to herself.

“Oh.” I said like I’d just been told that the sky was blue. She marked that down and rung it up.

I looked over to see the younger woman with food. “C’mon Bernie I got your food here.” She said walking into the dining area, he followed.

“Cyndi you’re too good to me.” He said as he shuffled through the small hallway behind the cute register clerk.

I walked to the place where Bernie had been standing next to the ice cream freezer. I leaned on the counter as the younger woman, apparently “Cyndi”, walked back in and started the cheeseburgers that I had ordered.

I could hear Bernie talking in the back. “What does he want you to go back there and eat the food for him?” the older woman asked sarcastically. Cyndi shrugged and began making the subs.

I suddenly felt thirsty, I couldn’t buy anything else extra with the money I had been given for a dinner but I opened up my wallet and examined the contents.

I pulled open the brown leather wallet and examined the money pocket, three receipts but no money. I checked again to make sure there wasn’t a bill folded up in a receipt. There was none.

I emptied my wallet of my driver’s license, my school I.D., my hunter’s safety card, an expired fish and game license, five pictures of my nephew, two of my niece, a phone card, and a Wal-Mart card with no more money left on it.

As I emptied the last item I found an old two dollar bill folded up in the very back pocket. I had won it at a fund raiser for the school, nothing terribly exciting but I’d saved it anyway.

I walked to the cooler and grabbed a Mountain Dew as I walked back to the counter I snatched a pack of life-savers from the rack and set it down next to the bottle of pop on the counter.

The older woman rang it up and handed me my change. I walked back over by the ice cream freezer and opened up the bottle of pop as the bell above the door rang.

I turned to see a man in khaki shorts and a gray sleeveless muscle shirt; he had a buzz cut and a cigarette hanging from his mouth. He had tattoos up and down his arms and one across his chest that said “Trouble” peaking out over the low collar of the shirt.

He immediately trudged over to the beer cooler and grabbed a six pack. The door bell rang again and I turned to see a woman in a green t-shirt and white jeans with curly blonde hair walk in.

She proceeded to the fountain and got herself one of the 42 ounce cups and poured herself a coke. I could see the guy I had named “Trouble”, for his tattoo, looking at her butt as she leaned over to grab a straw.

An older man who I knew as the preacher of the Baptist church walked in. Martin Lee Thomas was his name. He walked in and nodded to me, I returned the nod as he walked by and into the back room where the movies were.

Once more the bell rang but this time it was important to me. In walked Mary Grace. President of my class, and the object of my affection. She was with her mother as they walked towards the back room.

She seemed to glow which was probably a mix of the glitter on her face as well as eye shadow and lip gloss, the fluorescent lights, and a mild case of heat stroke on my part.

Her blonde highlighted brown hair bounced up and down as she walked by me. She was wearing a sleeveless gray shirt that had an American flag and the words, “American Girl” on the front. She was wearing khaki shorts and white tennis shoes.

I wanted to say hello but I didn’t want to be annoying or creepy like I was stalking her or something. I didn’t want to seem obsessed; this was because I wasn’t sure that I wasn’t at the time.

That’s when it happened. The strangest thing I’ve ever seen, I thought that the lights were going out but a glance at the fluorescents showed that they were still going strong.

It suddenly dawned on me that the dimness was not coming from inside but outside. I looked out the front window and saw pitch black. For some reason the parking lot lights hadn’t come on.

I looked at my watch, it was 6:30 p.m. the sun wouldn’t set for another two and a half hours.

I thought of how happy several people would be because they could shoot off fireworks early but there were no fireworks, nor were there cars driving by. It was abnormally quiet.

I looked out the window, the shaft of light from inside shone a good ten feet out into the parking lot.

A solitary light was on in the large roof over the gas pumps. There was a dog standing in the shaft of light. It seemed nervous about something; the hair on its back was standing straight up.

The dog walked into the darkness and I swore I saw something dark lunge at it and I swear that I heard a yelp.

I felt something ominously bad about the darkness. Something wasn’t right about this abnormal night when it should only be evening.

I turned back around to see Mary and her mother at the counter. Trouble and the blonde woman with curly hair were in line behind them.

I just happened to notice the titles of the movies on the counter. The words “Chasing Liberty” and “Independence Day” shone on the boxes. I rolled my eyes at the lameness.

The older woman rang up the movies and went into the back to get the actual tapes. Mary tapped her foot and twirled her hair on her finger, she looked around and for a moment her eyes caught mine.

I gazed into her blue eyes and I felt as though I melted right there in the store. I didn’t jerk away; I had learned the key to not letting on that you’re looking at someone when they look back is to look past them.

I slowly turned my head as the older woman returned with two clear plastic boxes containing movies. She handed them to Mary and said, “Have a nice night.”

Mary and her mother turned and walked past me. I was just content watching her go when I heard a voice from the other room.

“Don’t go out there! It’s dangerous, they’ll get you!” Bernie said from the other room. The older woman leaned over and whispered something to Cyndi.

Cyndi nodded and walked into the other room. Mary and her mother continued walking and opened the door.

Bernie actually got up and ran in, Cyndi was trying to push him back but he was stronger than her.

“Please! Don’t go out there! They’re out there, waiting for you! They’re hungry and they love the taste of blood, they’ll kill you before you get twenty feet!” he yelled.

“Get back in there and sit down!” Cyndi growled pushing Bernie back into the dining area. “Please.” Bernie said, his eyes begged them.

Mary and her mother exchanged a concerned glance at each other and then they gazed into the darkness outside. Nonetheless they pushed the door open and walked out. The bell clanged as the door shut behind them.

“It’s hell out there! They’ve come! They’ve finally come and they’re hungry! Hungry for human blood!” Bernie screamed from the back room.

Cyndi pushed him into the booth, “Bernie! Shut up!” she said. Bernie’s eyes were full of fear; he grabbed her by the blouse.

“But you don’t understand. They’re here… they want to eat… and they’re hungry for blood.” He replied.

I felt my ominous fear grow and I looked outside expecting to see some giant beast from hell to reach from the ground and devour them whole.

I watched as the two women disappeared into the darkness. I didn’t know what it was that Bernie was talking about. I supposed that people were right about him being stark raving mad.

I turned around letting out a sigh of relief and saw that my food was ready. I went to grab the bags and walk out when suddenly I heard a thumping sound from outside.

I looked up but I couldn’t see anything. I grabbed my Mountain Dew and the bags of food and made for the door.

I was walking out, glad to be leaving the convenience store and going back to work. But I found myself wishing that I could be spending more time with Mary.

Suddenly from just outside I heard the most frightened blood curdling scream I have ever heard in my entire life.

“My god it’s killing her!” I heard Mary’s voice scream. Without thinking I dropped the bags of food and ran outside, someone was hot on my tail but I couldn’t tell who it was.

I ran only a few yards when I found Mary, she was almost in shock. Her eyes were wide and her hands were over her mouth. I looked down and could see a severed arm lying on the ground.

“Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god…” she droned on.

I grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around. “Mary, what happened here?” I asked.

The person behind me finally caught up, it was Martin Lee. He looked down at the arm. “My goodness, what did this?” he asked.

He examined the arm, I continued to try and snap Mary out of it. “Mary, what happened here?” I asked shaking her.

All of the sudden her pupils got big, “We need to get inside!” she screamed.

I turned to see two glowing red eyes standing behind Martin Lee. “Uh… Reverend.” I said. He turned to see the creature.

“Dear lord!” he said and turned to run but it was too late. A large claw or something came out of the darkness and lopped his legs off at the knees; he fell forward onto the ground.

A large cloven hand reached forward and grabbed him; I could only barely make it out in the dark. “We have to get out of here!” Mary screamed.

I looked around to see more red eyes approaching as the reverend was picked up. “Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done…” he went on to recite the entire Lord’s Prayer.

I grabbed Mary by the arm and we ran back to the convenience store, the five or six yards to the door felt like ten or twelve miles. But soon I had my hand on the doorknob; I turned it and pulled Mary inside.

The door clanged shut and the bell rang, it sounded more sinister than before. I fell to the floor; Mary came with me since she was mostly in shock anyway.

“What was that?” I said in one quick breath.

“Where’s the preacher and her mother?” the blonde woman asked.

“Dead, or at least her mom is.” I replied. “The preacher won’t last much longer.”

Suddenly we could hear Martin Lee’s cries from outside. The windows seemed to rattle and I could feel chills run up and down my spine. “Ahh! Dear God help me it hurts so much!” he screamed.

Mary began crying and clung to me, placing her face against my chest. “It… it killed them… those red eyes… those horrible red eyes.” She sobbed.

I walked to the window and saw the red eyes just outside of the shaft of the light from the window. The creatures would not walk into the light so that I could get a good look at them.

“We need to barricade these windows.” I said. “Who knows how long it’ll be before they try to get in.” I gently sat Mary on the floor.

“It’s going to be okay.” I said stroking her hair, her eyes were wide.

“Those horrible red eyes…” she repeated staring blankly into the store.

I turned to the older woman behind the counter. “How many windows are there in this place?” I asked.

The older woman got a thoughtful look on her face and began counting on her fingers. “The three there, the large picture window in the diner area, and one in the office.” She said.

“Have you got anything we could barricade these with?” I asked.

“I got particle board and some nails in the storage room from when we remodeled.” She replied.

“Good, get it.” I said as I appraised the storefront.

I looked at the people around me. There was Me, Bernie, Cyndi, the older woman, Trouble, the blonde woman, and a nearly catatonic Mary. This was going to be very rough night.