by Matthew Fish
Everyone nods. The plan is in place. All we have to do is survive.
“Your girlfriend handy with a gun…?” Tom asks as we ascend the staircase.
“Sometimes,” I answer honestly. “She took one out all by herself while I was in town.”
As we all enter the bedroom. Claire is continuing to rock band and forth in one spot.
“What the hell is wrong with her?” Other Tom asks as he raises his gun.
“No!” I shout as I get in front of his pistol. “She’s my girlfriend. “
“She’s different,” other Tom continues.
“Just let her be,” Eli says.
“She could be one of them…” other Tom says as he tries to push past me. “She’s doing that thing.”
“She’s not like them. She’s different.” I say as push back.
“We can’t waste time fighting amongst each other…” Tom says as he goes and takes a position in one of the other bedrooms.
“Look,” I say in a whisper. “She saw her whole family die, she is not an Unstable though—she just has problems sometimes. I pull my glasses out and hand them to other Tom.
“Are these?”
“Yeah,” I say as I watch as Eli leaves and takes his position in the office.
“How’d you get these,” other Tom asks as he places them over his face.
“Personal protection back in St. Louis…”
“He looks at himself, and then looks at me and says, “…normal.” He then looks past me at Claire.
I begin to feel a little scared. If Noah is wrong this could mean a lot of trouble. It is bad enough that Aggros are coming here and the odds aren’t so great—having to deal with a scared normal seems like it would just be the worst possible situation.
“Normal…” Other Tom says as he tosses the glasses back to me. “I’m sorry man.”
“It is alright,” I say as I nod. “These are difficult times.”
“If you two ladies are done in there we have windows we need covered!” Tom shouts from the other bedroom.
“There is a window in the bathroom, it is the only one that faces west from up here. I say as I point the way. “It is a small one—just break through it.”
“Got it,” other Tom says as he nods.
I enter the bedroom. I pull Claire up from the floor. “I know you’re scared… I know you are having anxiety attacks now. Things are bad though.”
“They’re coming…” Claire whispers.
“Take this,” I say as I hand Claire the handgun. “We’ll stay in this room—but we have to help the others.”
I open up the window, and pull my rifle from my shoulder. I take the two boxes of rifle ammo from the surface of the nightstand, thankful that I hadn’t already packed it away. I place them beside me as I scan the area for any signs of activity.
Claire sits beside me. The handgun pointed down to the floor. “We’re in trouble…”
“We’ll be alright,” I say as I turn to Claire attempt to smile reassuringly. “We have help.”
“I can tell that you’re scared…”
“I am,” I admit.
“That man wanted to hurt me—what did you say to stop him?”
“I just… I told him you were my girlfriend… that you weren’t like them, that you were different.” I say as I think I see some movement in the field, as I steel myself to fire—deer dart out of the high grass.
“Just some deer…!” Eli shouts from the other bedroom.
“That’s good eating!” other Tom jokes from the other room. “…should have taken the shot!”
“You saved me from him though, thank you.”
“Anything for you Claire…” I whisper as I reach down and hold her hand. “Anything…”
I spot more movement in the high grass. A large group of what look like large people begin to spread out and into the yard.
“Plug your ears Claire,” I whisper as I release her hand. “It’s going to get very loud.”
“They’re here!” Eli shouts.
“I see them.” Tom Shouts.
Gunfire erupts from the top floor. I take aim at one and fire a few shots with my rifle. I am not sure if I am actually doing any damage though. I keep firing, for a moment I see one of them stumble—but they get right back up again.
“Keep on them!” Eli shouts.
I hear another round of gunfire as one of the Aggros finally goes down. I take aim and fire off some carefully aimed shots. I manage to at least disable one of them as they fall to the ground. More gunfire comes and the Aggro is put down. The yard is empty, save for the two corpses. They are now beyond our line of sight.
“Other Tom, get downstairs!” Tom shouts as he leaves his position and heads towards the stairs, followed by Eli. Tom stops Eli at the top of the staircase. “You stay up here—stay with Benjamin and his girl. If they get this far you last three are the last line.”
“Stay here,” I say to Claire as I run to the staircase.
I stand beside Eli. Our rifles are pointed down to the first floor. I can hear sounds of chaos below—the sound of both gunfire and the breaking of wooden boards. I hear an explosion that rocks the entire house. It seems that they were trying to get through the basement after all. I hear a few screams—although they are barely audible over the terrible guttural screaming of the Aggros. From our small view above, all I can make out is blood and flashes of gunfire. I hear shouting, but I cannot make anything out.
“God help us,” Eli says as he looks to me and shakes his head.
“Thank you, Eli,” I say as I keep my gun fixed to the first floor. “I would have been dead already if you hadn’t come to warn me.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” Eli says as he has a grim look on his face. “I think you’ll be dead soon enough—me too, I guess we’ll have to buy each other drinks in hell.”
“I suppose so,” I say as I shake my head.
After what seems like an eternity of gunfire, another explosion rocks the house nearly causing me to fall down to the floor. I watch as Eli is thrown forward. He lands a few steps down.
“Are you alright!?” I shout.
Eli shakes his head and gets back up to his feet.
There is an eerie silence in the air.
“Tom!” Eli shouts down the stairs. “William! Anyone still alive down there…?”
There is no response—only an unsettling stillness, like the calm right before a storm. A form starts to climb up from the bottom of the stairs. A bloodied woman, her face is contorted and all of her exposed muscles are contracted and disproportioned. She lets out a terrible scream that nearly drives me to the floor.
“Eli!” I shout as I attempt to aim my rifle.
Eli manages to get a few shots off before the woman picks him up and tosses him against the wall as a sickening cracking noise of his body breaking fills the air. He cries out in agony as he raises his gun and fires a few more shots. The Aggro falls down and collapses down the stairs in a crescendo of terrible screams.
The silence comes once more.
I rush over to Eli. He is bleeding very badly and his legs are all twisted in unnatural ways. “What can I do?”
“Ain’t nothing that can be done, Benjamin… they’ve gone and broken my back and I’m all a mess.”
I begin to cry, because deep down inside—I know that this is partially my fault… all of this.
“You’re young, don’t cry for the old,” Eli says as he picks up his rifle and allows it to slide down to his chin. “Looks like I’ll see you in hell after all.”
I look away as I hear a booming shot, and the sound of disgusting wet splatter. “Eli…”
As I get back up to my feet. I come face to face with a large man riddled with bullet holes. I begin to back way and into the bedroom. I fire a few shots, but they appear to do no damage. The man strikes out and sends me flying into the wall next to Claire. I look over to her—she is rocking back and forth. She stops and stares at me, her eyes are wide.
/> “Claire…”
I look for my rifle, but it is across the room. I attempt to move, but my back pierces in agony. I am not badly injured; at least I don’t feel like it. There is simply no fight left within me—not against such an enemy.
Claire looks to the gun in her hand and gets to her feet. She points it at the man. “Calm down…”
The man approaches, he ignores her and makes his way to me. He grabs me by the foot and hangs me up in the air.
“Put him down…” Claire says as she continues to keep the gun fixed at the man’s head. “Please… leave us be.”
The Aggro screams loudly—Claire, however, does not back down from the sound. She drops her gun, my heart begins to beat loudly—now we have no chance.
“This is… my girlfriend,” Claire shouts at the man as she holds her hand out in front of her. “She is different… she is not like the others. I am… caretaker.”
The Aggro releases me as I collapse to the floor. Claire rushes over and places her arms around me. I watch in awe as the bullet riddled man lumbers away, almost as though he understood, and has decided to leave. There seems to be a strange calmness about him. He is no longer breathing as heavy. He reaches the top of the staircase, and collapses atop of Eli’s remains. After a few heavy, labored breaths, he dies.
“Claire…” I whisper. “How…?”
“I made him see that you were of no harm,” Claire says as she hugs me tightly.
I cry out in pain as she puts pressure on my arm. “I think I’m… damaged.”
She looks at my arm, and pulls off my shirt. I have a lot of cuts, some bright red marks. “Damaged but not broken…”
“We should go,” I say as I get to my feet with Claire’s help.
I get into the dresser—A few shirts that I meant to leave are still there. Not wanting to look like I’ve just been through a battle, which in a way I suppose I have, I use my old shirt to wipe away the blood stains from my body. I put one of the old shirts on and we head down the stairs cautiously. We step over a few dead Aggros. I think I see an arm and a leg. I’m not sure if it was… I don’t want to think about it. The living room in an impassable mess of dead bodies… so we head to the back door. It looks like the front of the house took the brunt of the assault—although a few Aggros seemed to manage their way through the back. We duck our way through and enter into the night. The fireflies greet us in the tall grass.
“Beautiful…” Claire says as I rest a moment against the hood of the car.
I watch for a few moments as she chases after the glowing creatures, as enthralled as a child. I imagine that she has not seen them in a long time. With all the horror that I’ve just witnessed, it is nice to see something so wonderful—so innocent. She catches one in her hands and brings it to me. As she opens her hands it glows a brilliant green three times and then flies away into the night joining the thousands of others.
I stop watching and look down to the earth. Once again I’m left wondering why I have survived when others have not. Those were all good people… they just wanted to help. Eli… I didn’t get a chance to know him well, but he trusted me—him and Tom… I wouldn’t have made it out alive of Lawson if it were not for them.
Claire brings me another firefly. She looks at me and then looks at the glowing green light. “Are you sad because your friends are gone?”
“I am,” I say with a single nod.
“I wish I would have gotten to meet them, before they left.”
“Me too…” I say as I place my arms around her and draw her close to me. “I’m just glad that you are safe.”
“We should be leaving soon… I suppose.”
“We should. I have to get that stupid metal case to someone… we need to get somewhere safe.”
“My home…?”
“Do you remember the way?” I ask as I open the door for Claire.
I get into the driver’s seat and place the keys into the car. “Map…”
“Mo…” Claire pauses as she closes her eyes. She strains for a moment and begins to gently tap her fingers against her forehead. “Mo… Morro Bay… address is not listed—but I’ll… I’ll remember the way I promise.”
“Breaking news,” the female voice speaks as the dashboard comes to life.
For a moment I fear that it will be about us—what happened in Lawson.
“A news reporter I have never seen before is standing far from what appears to be a huge fire—the footage looks strange. It does not appear to be the typical C-Shapes footage. He begins to speak—“Thousands of Aggros have descended upon the C-Shapes headquarters earlier today, the largest activated chain since V-Day. Military forces had to withdraw as the largest Research facility in the world was taken down—the main factory of C-Shapes has been completely destroyed. The mass group of Aggros is currently on their way to converge with another group that is assaulting our nation’s capital. The flames behind me are all that is left of the massive complex—a fire that will likely be allowed to burn as there are no emergency responders left to handle the massive inferno.”
“Looks like they have more important things to worry about than hunt us down…” I say as I watch flames dance high into the air. A small explosion follows; however, the reporter pauses and then continues as though nothing happened.
“Around the world people have gone into hiding, fearing a similar reaction. Distribution centers are still open around the world but it appears that there will be no cure after all—also the amount of pills left will cover the world’s demand for only about two months… leaving government leaders of all nations with some very difficult decisions. However, no such mass Aggro attacks have been reported anywhere else in the world—it seems completely contained to the United States…”
“This is just… coming in now—the Pentagon building has fallen, and so has the White House. The President and First Lady are safe, and are in an undisclosed but secure location. Military forces are trying to do everything they can to secure the nation’s capital, but it appears that the damage has already been done. Riots have broken out all over the country, C-Shapes offices are being targeted everywhere. Hunters are being murdered and their bodies are being strung up on telephone poles in major cities in the U.S. I urge everyone to stay indoors and stay safe. If you are in the area of the C-Shapes Research Facility try and evacuate if possible—if not, stay indoors… I will try and report as much as I can—the entire C-Shapes Network has been taken down completely. We will try and get as many outside news organizations up and running… will get new info in whenever we can.”
The display disappears back to black.
“We definitely have to get out of here…” I say as I shake my head. I still remember the look on Noah’s face when I hypothetically asked if the Aggros could all be activated at once, what was to keep someone from another country discovering the truth and using it as a weapon—I just didn’t figure it would be used against us… I still remember his answer ‘it would be inhumane…’ well apparently someone on the inside that he revealed the truth did not share his view.
“No more C-Shapes?”
“It looks that way…”
“What does that mean? What happens now—can we go home?”
“It is not safe anywhere—at least not anywhere near a major city.”
“Did we live in a major city?” Claire asks as she pouts.
“Yeah,” I say as I rub her shoulder. “We need to get whatever info Noah left for me in that metal case to someone who will listen—otherwise a lot of people who are… different are going to get killed for no reason.
“We can do something from my house,” Claire says as she closes her eyes and attempts to concentrate. “Lot of technology… my father was… important?”
“That’s where we’ll head.”
“That’s where… we’ll head,” Claire repeats.
“GPS, Morro Bay—avoid all major cities. Avoid all cities as best as possible… in the quickest time.”
“C
alculating…”
The entire window fills with the display a huge map; a red route is marked across the United States. It zigzags its way and looks rather intimidating. “Is this route acceptable?”
“Travel time?”
“31 hours of driving time. At a recommended 8 hours a day it should you should arrive at your destination on the fourth day.”
“Is this the fastest route?”
“Avoiding Texas, which is no longer a part of my system—and all Major and minor cities, yes,” the female voice replies.
“Route it,” I say as the map shrinks down to the side of the window. I know taking the interstates will be quite a risk—but right now time makes it worth it.
We head off into the night. As I pass Lawson, from distance, I notice a fire has consumed the small town. I wonder if there is anyone left alive. I know that my being there caused it and I am heartbroken for it. Hopefully I can make things right… somehow.
13. California Bound
It has been six hours since we left the farmhouse and all the terrible things that happened there. So far there has been no traffic on the major interstate. Every now and then I ask the GPS to confirm if there are any cars—she constantly states that there are not. I wonder if people are too busy hiding. I would think more people would vacate their cities and seek refuge in the country—then again, as I said once before, people who live in the major cities never really leave. For some reason, perhaps it has been engrained into their mentality, they believe that they are somehow safer—safety in numbers, I suppose. However, they could not be further from the truth.
I look over to Claire, she is curled up in the seat beside me—the blanket tightly wrapped around her. The clock reads a little past four a.m. I am exhausted; however I am still running off of adrenaline and the need to put as much distance away between myself and everything that happened in back in Lawson. I speed through the entire state of Kansas—taking detours to make sure I steer clear of Wichita, and other few larger cities along the way. The detours are annoying, but I know it is the safest course of action.