"They're not zombies!"
In the novel The Hike, teenager Mackenzie Kincaid is forced to grow up quickly as she reacts to creatures that aren't quite human after a deadly fog has covered the landscape.
After her first encounter with a creature, she's positive that these aren't your average 1960's horror movie zombies. She narrowly escapes the creature's grasp by clawing her way out of an upstairs bathroom window as the thing bursts through the door behind her. After falling from the second floor window, she must spring to her feet to out run the creature as he bounds out of the front door of the old farm house.
She looked up to the small window above the tub, and even though it looked impossibly small and high for her to reach and get through; she knew she had to try. She put her feet on the sides of the wet tub and straddled it enough to reach her finger tips up to the window ledge just as the creature slammed into the door again. This time after it hit, it let out a low groan from the other side of the door that sounded like a man in pain.
She got fingers and palms from both hands over onto the window ledge and pulled herself up high enough to see the window. The window was designed to slide sideways and there was no latch on it luckily. She let herself back down and reached up with one hand to try and open the window.
WHAM! Mackenzie looked over her shoulder and seen that this time, the door had physically moved such that one of the top corners of the door hadn’t closed all the way back into the doorway. One of her nails caught on the edge of the window, and it slid open a few inches. She took a couple of deep breaths and pulled herself up with all her might. She pulled herself high enough for her to put one hand through the window and grab the outside of the house just as the creature hit the door again and let out another loud moan.
She pulled and worked her arm through the window until it was up to her armpit. She pushed again, and with one big heave the window slid open even more. She was pushing against the wall with her feet and edged her head through the opening. The afternoon sun was bright compared to the dimly lit bathroom and it was difficult to see anything, but she was sure that there was no ledge from up here.
She managed to get her other hand and then arm out of the window. She wriggled back and forth through the tiny opening until her waist was balancing in the open window. She wasn’t sure what to do from this position as she couldn’t turn over and there was nothing to grab a hold of on the clapboard siding. Just then, the creature hit the door again and came crashing into the room. Its momentum carried it across the room and into the tub.
Mackenzie heard the commotion and felt something dig at her left leg that was dangling in the open window. Her fear of the creature took over her fear of falling and she tried to push herself free from the window opening. Both of her feet caught in the upstairs window as she tumbled down. She hit her left shoulder into the house on the way down before landing on her right side in the grass just next to the house.
Read about Mackenzie's experience with the creature and how she told her traveling companion Stuart that "They're not zombies!" in the new novel The Hike. Purchase it at Amazon today or sign up for our e-mail list below and like QT Fotography on Facebook to be entered for a drawing to win a free autographed copy!
