Silent Retribution

6. Absquatulate

Absquatulate: "To leave without saying goodbye."

38 years ago 9:45pm.

It was the middle of April, a cold and stormy night. As usual, eight-year-old Simone was fast asleep in her princess bed, snuggling close to her big plush tiger. Made for her fourth birthday by her mother. She couldn't sleep without it ever since. Simone's bedroom was lit up by an intense light, and then the deafening sound of thunder followed after. The rattling from the windowpane woke her up, her eyes slowly opened and she turned her head to look at the window, it was still night time. Simone rubbed her eyes awake and pulled the pink knitted blanket back. After putting on her fuzzy pink slippers, she approached the window. It was downpouring outside.

Her bedroom door suddenly flung open and there stood her mom with a panic look on her face, Simone jumped and turned around to see who it was at her door, she has never seen that look in her mother's eyes. Her eyes widened in fear and confusion when her mom grabbed her arm and started dragging her out of the room.

"Mommy, where are we going?" Her mom didn't answer. It seemed to Simone that she was just running before coming to her room since she was out of breath. Simone looked around, noticing the pack house was eerily quiet, and nobody was to be seen.

"Mommy, I'm scared..." She began to cry, and when her mom opened the pack house door to go outside, the silence abruptly stopped.

Over the rain, piercing screams were able to be heard. You could hear them miles away given that they were so loud. What appeared to be dead bodies and wolves fighting each other were scattered across the woods in front of them. She spotted a woman clinging to what appeared to be a body part and weeping. Her stomach turned, and she averted her gaze out of fear.

"Mama, what's going on? Where's daddy? I want Daddy." Simone then looked down at her feet, noticing her slippers came off from her mom dragging her out there. Her feet were covered in what she hoped was mud and grass,

"Mama, my slippers came off."

"And it's cold." She shivered, pushing her now drenched hair out of her face. Simone looked up at her mom to see the back of her head. She was wondering why she wasn't answering and, most importantly, where they were going. Simone wanted to go back inside and curl up next to her parents in their bed while they read her a bedtime story.

5 minutes passed, but it felt like an hour for Simone.

"Your Dad said we had to go to the bunker..." Her mom spoke under her breath, Simone's head shot up to look at her mom, who finally talked.

"Where's the bunker..." Her mom looked around the woods they were in now.

"Mama?" Simone looked down at her feet again. They were aching and numb feeling from being cold. The rain was pouring still. There wasn't any sign that it was gonna stop.

"My feet feel weird.." Simone cried to her mom, and then she turned and picked her up.

"I'm sorry baby, Mommy needs to find this bunker, so we'll be safe, okay? Your daddy will come get us when it's safe to come out." Tears escaped Simone's eyes, and she buried her face into her mother's chest.

"I'm scared, Mommy." She rubbed Simone's back, giving her some comfort.

"I know, baby, Mama's scared too."

Now, 15 minutes past, her mother burst out crying and quickly rubbed away her tears,

"I can't find this stupid fucking bunker, where the fuck is it! Paul said it was out here!" Simone's mom was getting frustrated and more tears fell from her eyes. She set Simone down under a tree to somewhat shield themselves from the rain and took off her jacket then wrapped it around Simone and also her feet since it was long enough.