Murder Mittens

WARNING- Blood, violence, and death are shown in the story. If these make you uncomfortable stop reading here. :) 

Cora sat on the couch her arm folded in her lap, her mother was in the kitchen preparing dinner. It smelled good as the warm scent drifted into the living room. 

“Hey Cora?” Her mom called from the kitchen, poking her head out of the doorway, “Can you find something to watch please? Dinner will be done soon and your sister is on her way home from track practice.” 

“Okay.” Cora said reaching for the remote, “Want to watch an action movie? Those are my favorite!” 

“Sure whatever you want to watch, now can you let me make dinner please?” Cora’s mom responded with a hint of annoyance in her sharp words. 

Cora clicked the red button that turned on the television, it flicked on with a high buzz. As soon as the television clicked on the ‘breaking news’ sign appeared, interrupting her as she was about to click the button that lead to the streaming services. 

“Breaking news!” the tv buzzed, “Pandemic spread among animals challenges the world,” an image appeared on the screen. Dogs viciously snarling, birds flying after people and cats scratching everything in sight. At first Cora thought this was all a hoax until she looked out her window she saw her cat, Remi, running around with foam flowing from her mouth. 

“M-mom!” Cora called from the living room clutching her palms together as they began to sweat. 

“What? I told you I was making dinner!” She snapped back poking her head back in through the doorway. 

“You need to see this…” Cora said a shiver running down her back. 

Her mom sighed and walked in to sit on the couch, the reporter was still rambling on, “We advise you to either keep your animals away from the outside the best you can or set them free. The only animals seemingly not affected are horses and other equines…” 

“Oh honey, you can’t believe everything you see on tv.” Her mother soothed, stroking her hair with her fingers. 

“No, mom. It's real, look at Remi! He is going nuts,”  Her mother sighed and got up to look out the window. At that moment Remi jumped at the window snarling as he clung to the screening. 

“Ah!” her mother screamed backing away from the window. “We live on a farm! How are we going to get out of this?” A boom came from the door. 

“Don’t open it mom! What if it's a ram?” Cora screeched at her mother as she rushed to the door. Too late, her mother opened the door and instead of a ram running into the house a man walked in holding their other cat, Charlie. He was calm almost completely still, though his mouth was still foaming. 

“Dad?!” Cora yelled and flung herself at him squishing the cat between them. Her sister, Elise, darted in behind him and slammed the door. 

“We heard the report on the radio! We thought it was a lie until we saw Charlie… He’s all foamy and crazy! We had him in the kenal until he just…” Her dad held up the limp cat.

“Until he died,” Cora  finished looking at her cat. 

“I see, we need to get out of here. This farm can’t be safe,” her mom said putting her hands on her sides. 

Almost at once they all went to the linen closet where they kept their suitcases, they all had the same idea. Cora dashed to her room after grabbing her cow print suitcase, as soon as she entered her room she zipped it open and starting adding in her favorite clothing items and necessities before jamming it shut and zipping it back up. 

“Everyone packed?” Her mother called from the living room she was watching the news still, the report was still running as new information came in every second. 

“People are told to move to the seas and large cities, animals are being confiscated from owners and put into confinement with the other animals. Crazed animals seem to want only to harm humans, not each other. There is no further information on what started this or how we can stop it. Equines still seem to be unaffected by this new pandemic,” The news reporter said intriguingly, feer pulsed through Coras veins and her heat beeted ten times faster. 

“Kids, I need you all to grab your bookbags, pack food, water bottles and water purification straws. Hurry, we have no time to lose,” Her dad said as he heard what was going on from the reporter. 

“Mom, t-the sheep! THEY ARE COMING AT THE HOUSE!” Cora yelled as loud bleating and hundreds of hoof beats sounded close by. 

“Okay, no time to start the car. It was torn apart by Charlie, and the keys were as well. It does not affect equines though, everyone grab your horses!” Her mother called to the family as she dashed to grab the bridals from the pegs hanging on the wall. We all gathered our things and grabbed our bridals from our mother as we ran past. Wearily we all went outside, I ran to the barn and skirted the outside until I got to the door. The sheep were arriving at the house just as my sister slipped out. 

“ELISE!” I screamed as the sheep began to run at her. She dropped her backpack and ran, but their mom ran out and started screaming before they could get to her. The sheep flicked their floppy ears and lifted their heads. They recognized the call that mother was making. 

“YO! YO! YO!” she cried out to the sheep, that was what they yelled at feeding time. The sheep all flocked towards her eyes slitted and heads down, they charged ready to butt their heads against her. Cora watched as Elise arrived beside her and her mother crumpled to the ground. 

“Girls, get your horses… We have to go.” her father said as he opened the door to the horse barn, inside the horses were standing still and calm oblivious to what was going on. 

“Get the fastest ones, and leave the others with their stalls open. They will be fine.” Their father said sliding the bridle onto a black mare's face. She was an X-racehorse and very fast, she also had very good endurance. Cora did the same to a Paint stallion, he was two years old and fast. Her sister was still standing outside, she was sitting on the ground crying. Cora put a bridle into another horse's mouth and held the reins mounting her horse.

“Elise, get up.” She said leaving the barn her dad on her trail. “We have to go.” 

“Not without mom!” Elise retorted bitterly. “Leave me here, I’ll wait for mom if you wont.” at this point sheep were starting to notice that they were there, they looked so harmless! 

“Get on the horse now!” Cora said to her older sister, her voice harsh. Taken aback she hopped up onto her horse and started trotting into the fields. Cora followed but her dad did not, he went the other way. Into the forest.

“Dad, no! There are too many animals there, we have to go this way!” Elise called to her dad realizing that he was not following. 

“I know, that's the point.” He laughed, dismounted his horse and walked into the woods. The sisters heard a scream then silence. 

“Run, go!” Cora screamed, kicking her horse so it galloped fast as the wind, her sister trailed behind keeping a steady pace they made it to a small town, it was in chaos. People running, animals rampaging and worse of all carcasses of animals and people laying, dead, on the ground. Blood was pooling everywhere. 

“Elise… What do we do?” Cora asked, her hands clenching her horses mane. 

“We go to the city, you heard what they said it’s safe there. We can make it, it’s only over the rise,” Elise said her voice shaking. She was still in shock from the death of her parents and seeing people lying dead on the streets of the town only made it worse. 

“Okay, that's what we do then…”