by S E Lunsford
Carlisle dropped his pack to the floor then slid down the cement wall until he was sitting on the ground his legs stretched out in front of him. Everyone else did the same except me. I stood in the middle of the space looking towards the closed gate, then at the ramp that led to the second floor. The arrhythmic slapping of creepers hands on the gate was something I could never get used to. Wrinkling my nose, I wasn’t surprised their gruesome smell came into the parking garage.
“They grabbed Chris, Robert and Jasper before we could do anything about it. It was some sort of trap that they set up,” he said.
“They took them to our safe spot, the one Robert was taking us to,” Edward chimed in.
At the mention of Jasper, I looked over at Rosalie. Neither of the guys gave any indication that they knew they would run into us at the tree that looked like a trident. Catching my eye, Rosalie shook her head slightly to tell me not to say anything about what she had told us.
Cassie caught the exchange, her eyebrows coming together making the familiar wrinkle in the middle that I first noticed in preschool when she was confused about why Mrs. Brown would have us make a caterpillar that looked like a worm. That was one thing about Cassie, she thought a caterpillar should look like a caterpillar and worm should look like a worm, no messing around with trying to make something seem like something else. Mrs. Brown wasn’t too thrilled when Cassie had made the caterpillar the way it should look instead of the way she told us.
“So the safe spot isn’t so safe,” I said turning my attention back to Edward.
“That would be correct,” Edward replied, copying his brother’s actions and folding his arms over his chest.
“So you know where it is?” Cassie asked.
They both nodded.
“We snuck over there,” Carlisle said. “It’s very heavily guarded…,”
“And they have creepers in cages,” Cassie finished for him.
They both stared at her.
“I saw,” she said. “You know, from the tree.”
“That’s amazing,” Edward said. “You must have been way up there.”
Their voices faded as I turned to look up the ramp again. All I saw were cement pillars, metal bar dividers and few empty cars, but something about it was setting every spidey sense I had on edge. Slowly, I made my way to the base of the ramp, looking up as far into the second level as I could, before going up the ramp.
My heart began to pick up its pace when a metal door caught my eye. The voices behind me went silent, and the rustling of feet told me the others had stood up. Halfway up the ramp, I stopped and my heart almost did too. The door was slightly open. Usually those stairways either went to the lower level of the parking garage itself, or to the outside. There was still just a faint smell of creeper in the air, but the creepers sense of smell was as good if not better than mine, which meant if I could smell them then they could smell us. The question was would their half-eaten away brains continue to try to come through the closed door they were already banging on on the first floor, or would they try and find another way?
A faint shuffling sound came through the open door answering the question.
“Crap,” exploded from my mouth as I broke into a full out run up the ramp, my legs protesting all the way until I came to the door just as a creeper was reaching through the space trying to push its way in. I skidded to a stop bending and twisting to keep out of the way of its claws as more creepers pushed at it from behind. A gun fired causing blackish ooze to blossom on the first one’s forehead, its dead weight pushing it through the door. Edward hurled himself into the gap next to me stabbing first one creeper, then another in their eyes before pushing the bodies back to hinder the forward movement of the others who were already coming up the stairs.
“Come on,” Carlisle yelled running up the ramp with Cassie and Rosalie close behind.
Pushing the door shut, Edward motioned for me to follow after his brother.
“Aren’t you going to brace it?”
“No,” he said as he ran up the ramp. After a moment of hesitation, I quickly followed.
“I thought you said it was safe, secure,” I said as we caught up with the others.
“It was,” he said. “That door was closed before. You think we didn’t check?”
“I don’t know what you do,” I hurled back at him as we slid to a stop at the top of the ramp that led out to the open expanse of the rooftop parking area.
“Looks like it’s all clear,” Carlisle said.
“How are we going to get off this thing?” Cassie asked, grabbing a hold of Rosalie’s hand.
“We need to get to the corner over there,” Carlisle pointed to the far left corner of the rooftop. “We can take cover at the cars if we need to, and even if we don’t need to we should make sure we keep down, just in case anyone is flying over or something.”
The moans of the creepers were rising up in waves from the ground telling us there were a whole lot of them down there. I knew it wouldn’t be long before they figured out how to get through that door either by accident, or by some chance that one of them still had the ability to think about how it used to do things. Either way, staying in the structure was going to be our death warrant if we didn’t start moving.
“What’s in the corner?” That was Cassie, always wanting the details and to clarify what was going on.
“You’ll see,” Edward responded, taking the lead as he crouched down and began to make his way across the roof.
The rest of us followed. I felt like a mouse on the ground running with no cover, just waiting for an eagle to swoop down and pick it up. Glancing up, I saw there were a few clouds in the sky, but no shapes flying in the distance. A loud crash came from the floor beneath us as the creepers came through the door. Their moans rose up the ramp and their smell was already getting thicker around us as we made our way across the parking lot.
Cassie and I had stopped next to a blue minivan as the others sprinted towards the corner, Carlisle dragging Rosalie behind him as she kept up with him taking two strides to his every one.
“Come on,” Cassie said, as I hesitated looking behind me to see where the creepers were. Always a stupid move on my part, but I just had to know. Those in the lead were just coming up to the top of the ramp, their eyes fixed on us as we sat like sitting ducks just waiting to be picked off. Sliding my knife out of my pack, I changed positions in order to spring up. Cassie did the same beside me.
“There’re too many,” she whispered. “We have to run for it.”
Standing to a half crouch I winced when I saw one of them trip over his leg, which cracked off at the knee and lay on the ground after he dragged himself up trying to hobble towards us in a macabre lopsided way. Another got distracted by the leg in front of it, grabbed it from the ground and began to gnaw on it making my stomach turn. Pulling my shirt up I covered my mouth and my nose, which didn’t do much to block the smell as covered in gore as it was, but it helped a little bit and that was enough.
Cassie grabbed my arm pulling me towards the edge of the roof just as one of them reached us. I kicked back, knocking it in the chest, even as another replaced it. Others pushed forward, and I slashed out with my knife slicing two in the chest and another in the ear where it had crouched ready to spring at me. Blackish blood oozed from the cuts in their skin, but it didn’t seem to faze them as they continued to move forward.
Jumping in front of me, Cassie stabbed one in the eye. I systematically crushed first one skull then another, seeing nothing but the bodies in front of me. My hearing pulled into itself until all I heard was the pounding of my heart pumping in a steady rhythm, the moans of the creepers in front of me and the moist sound my knife made as it plunged into an eye socket, then a brain cavity. One after another I took them down, stepping backwards towards the corner of the roof as I did so. Cassie reached the edge first, jumping down a narrow opening with a ladder that descended into darkness. I slashed and stepped, slashed and stepped until I was ju
st a two steps away from the opening, when everything suddenly stopped.
A cold chill ran down my back. The creepers didn’t move forward. They shuffled uneasily as if deciding between their desire to eat me and something else. Knife held up, I looked for some sort of reason for their hesitation as their agitation grew.
It was then that I felt the air move behind me. My stomach clenched as I fought the urge to turn my back on the creepers to see what was there. Turning my head slightly, I felt the warmth of the sun on my back as it stepped into my peripheral vision. A perfumed ribbon of scented air floated towards me, blocking the smell of the creepers for a moment as I turned my head even more to see an angel standing next to me and watching me intently. Its wings moved back and forth as it seemed to contemplate what to do. Its eyes scraping over me, taking in my face covered with blood, my gore stained clothes, my dark hair kept back in a long braid down my back.
Turning my head until the muscles in my neck felt the pinch of overextension, I stared right back at him hoping Cassie and the others had gotten away.
“Daughter of Eve?” The angel asked, looking me over as if to figure out what exactly I was.
A bubble of silence dropped over as he continued to look me over, even as the creepers keening began to climb higher. He didn’t even seem to notice.
“That is what you are isn’t it? A Daughter of Eve?” He looked at me as if the question needed an answer.
“No,” I said my voice grating as it came out.
“No?” He asked surprised.
“No,” I shook my head. “My mother’s name isn’t Eve.”
Surprise crossed his face followed quickly by amusement as he tipped his head back and began to laugh for so long that I thought he might not stop.
“Are you not a woman?” He asked when he was done laughing, amusement still playing with the even planes of his face.
“Yes,” I answered him slowly, confused by the direction the conversation was going.
“If you are a woman, then you are a Daughter of Eve,” He tipped his head to the side waiting for my answer as if he had all the time in the world. “Don’t you know that’s what you are?”
“I guess not,” I replied, trying to keep my confusion from making itself known on my face. As I looked at him take this in, I realized I might have come across one of the only truly unhinged angels out there. Of course, when I really thought about it, after everything they’d done, I realized that pretty much all of them were pretty well unhinged, but this one didn’t seem quite as malevolent as the others I had seen.
That could mean nothing though. Cassie and I had heard rumors to not only avoid men because of what they may do to unsuspecting women, but to avoid the angels too for the very same reason. Something I had put out of my mind as an impossibility, but now those rumors took on a whole new meaning as the angel stood before me looking at me as if I was something more attractive than what I was. I felt myself recoil from that thought, pushing it down until it was well and truly covered.
“You guess not,” he said slowly.
I shrugged, looking back at the creepers who were clearly getting tired of this conversation. His eyes followed mine.
“Amazing aren’t they?” He asked leaning back and folding his arms as he watched them, his wings moving slightly back and forth.
“Amazing isn’t a word I would use.”
“Yes, I don’t think you would,” he said, turning his focus back to me. “Especially in light of those there.” He gestured to those who lay dead on the parking lot already starting to decay even further in the heat of the sun. “You’ve made quite a dent in them for one lone Daughter of Eve. I’m impressed.”
I kept quiet, narrowing my eyes as I looked at him even as my heart began to beat triple time as he stared at me clearly wrestling with his thoughts. A lazy smile flowed over his face as he seemed to come to a conclusion.
“Because you have impressed me, I have a proposition for you.”
Ice ran through my veins at his words, as I noted the smile that didn’t quiet reach his eyes
“I like you,” he said. “I think you’ll be amusing to me. So I will give you a choice, either you can come with me, or,” he looked over at the creepers who had more than doubled in number since he arrived. “Or, you can take your chances with them.”
I looked over at the growing horde.
“But, I warn you,” he continued. “Your chances don’t look very good.”
Exhaustion clouded my mind as I tried to assess the situation. No matter how I looked at it, me with one knife against the restless creepers was no match I could win. A realization that hit me hard in the stomach because I had faced down creepers in impossible situations before and had always been able to come out alive. But, this time was different. As I looked them over, and cast my eyes over the rooftop looking at every edge and corner it had, I knew there was no way of escape. They would be on me in a second, the only thing that was holding them back was the angel standing next to me.
The creepers seemed to sense my indecision that may end up providing them with a meal. They began to screech as drool overflowed from their mouths in anticipation of eating fresh human. Not that I would provide much of a meal skinny as I was.
“You know it wasn’t as difficult as you might think,” the angel said conversationally.
“What?”
“Creating them,” he gestured at the horde that were starting to turn on each other biting and ripping in their agitation.
Chris’ words came back to me that the angels weren’t creators.
“Really?” I asked, clearly he wanted conversation, while just as clearly I wanted to stay alive. Maybe if I could buy myself a little more time, I’d figure out another way.
“Yes,” nodded. “All we did was flip them.”
I jerked back from surprise at his choice of words. “Flip them?”
“Yes, create something that will show them, expose them, just let them be what they truly are.”
Looking at the horde, smelling them and seeing their eyes darting back and forth as some of them licked their lips as they sensed me, their only driving force the need of hunger, filled my mind so I couldn’t quite absorb what he was saying.
“But, it’s been odd,” he continued, his tone calm and his eyes taking on a faraway look in the face of my anxiety and the creepers. “Some of them, they survive.”
"Survive?" I asked not knowing what he was tlaking about.
“Survive being bit. Survive the virus we created to expose humans for what they really are. It’s almost as if...,” he trailed off shaking his head as if he realized he had said too much. Fixing his eyes on me, his smile deepened. “Time to decide little Daughter of Eve. Me or them?”
Chapter 7
“That’s not much of a decision,” I blurted out, anger overcoming the buzzing anxiety in my body.
Tilting his head at my reaction, he shrugged. “Just because you don’t like your choices doesn’t mean you don’t get to choose.”
I sighed, resisting the urge to look at the corner where the rest of my friends disappeared. He watched me closely as I focused on the horde. The minute stretched until one of them broke rank, lunging straight at me with a shriek of triumph. I jerked back as its hands reached for me. The angel lashed out, hitting the creeper in the head with such force that it was ripped from its body and flew halfway across the parking lot.
“See,” he said turning to me, amusement coloring his voice as his wings fluttered. “I can be of some help to you.”
Shifting my weight from one foot to the other, I was forced to agree. The words stuck in my throat though as I still desperately tried to find another way. He raised his eyebrows at me, and his eyes flashed as if he could see what I was thinking. Before I could even say a word, the decision was made for me as a particularly adept creeper had made its way around the others, crouching down so the angel couldn’t see it before it lunged at me knocking me down and landing on top of me, its teeth just a
fraction of an inch from my face. Blackish drool ran out of its mouth onto my chin, the smell almost causing me to pass out. I pushed up on its chest with all my might when suddenly the creature was gone. The others surged forward to take its place as I was scooped up by the angel.
“Time’s up,” he whispered, as he settled me in his arms and jumped off the roof. His wings caught the air so we were smoothly gliding away, the screech of the creepers who had suddenly lost their prey rending the air behind us.
Through the haze of my exhaustion everything became twisted as we flew first in what seemed to be one direction, then another. Closing my eyes, I took deep breathes to try and gain purchase on reality even as I fought not to lose myself in the tangy, sweet scent that clung to him making my nose wrinkle, but that was preferable to the creeper smell that I was covered in.
We landed gently so it took a moment for me to realize he was actually walking with me in his arms. Voices called out to him and he answered them, his voice vibrating through his chest like a drum as he held me close. He stepped into a building that radiated cold from its walls pulling me even closer so I wouldn’t hit my head or legs on the walls of the narrow hallway until he stopped in front of a large door, kicking it to let whoever was inside know we were there. I opened my eyes just a fraction to see a woman open the door. She looked me over quickly before grimacing.
“Clean her up, and make it quick,” he said, before handing me over to her as everything folded in on me and I settled into grey.
The grey became more white, then blackish as I luxuriated in the feel of a warm, soft surface I curled up letting the comfort sink into my muscles and my bones. This dream was too good, and I didn’t want to wake up to find myself in yet another cold, dark space hiding from creepers or other threats that my dreams had taken me away from, if only for a few minutes. I squeezed my eyes more tightly closed because this dream felt so real, more real than all the others. A rush of memories flooded into my mind, and my eyes flew open taking in the soft blanket that covered me on a large bed, and I knew this was no dream.