by James, Matt
They headed that way and then took a right and entered the Hall of Vertebrate Origins. Jill didn’t take the time to explore the rooms they passed through. Instead, she questioned John’s behavior.
“What’s wrong with you?” He stayed silent, waving her question off. “John.” Finally, he stopped and turned around. His face was full of fear. “What’s wrong?”
Hands on hips, John’s eyes teared up, but he didn’t cry, blinking them away instead. “The woman… The creature…”
“What about her?” Carla asked, adjusting her upward riding dress. Jill’s dress had the same problem and she was sporting a serious hip wedgie. When she moved too quickly or took those long strides, her muscular legs forced the skin-tight fabric up toward her hips.
Like now.
John held up one of his bloodied fists. “They’re dangerous.”
Jill’s eyes opened wide. “She did that?”
John shook his head. “Not that one, but another. I…I tried to fight her off, but she was just too damn strong—tiny little thing too. I’ve never seen something so fierce and bloodthirsty in my life.”
“Even while you served?” Jill asked.
“Nope. The enemy we fought back then were just like you and me, crazy sons-of-bitches, yes, but people through-and-through.”
They stood in silence and gathered themselves. It wasn’t until Carla gasped that anyone had made a noise.
“You hear that?”
Jill and John looked at each other. They both said, “No.”
“Listen.”
They did, and Jill heard it moments later. Somewhere nearby, they heard someone crying softly. There were people up here—actual people.
John put a finger to his lips and started off down the corridor. He led them into the fourth-floor gift shop where they discovered the owner of the murmers.
An elderly couple was curled up behind the register. The woman was the one weeping softly. The man wasn’t doing much of anything. He just quietly stared off into space. Jill didn’t even know if he was alive until he moved his hand, further up his wife’s back.
And yes, they were married, Jill could see the wedding bands shimmering in the overhead emergency lights. They showed immediate relief as they took one look at John and saw that he was in uniform. Jill introduced herself Carla while John told them who he was. Helping the couple up, Jack and Beverly Howard, Jill felt a feeling of dread with what was to come.
They now had a pair of super-seniors to look after. So far, the trio had been able to survive with speed and elusiveness—not to mention John’s knowledge of the museum and Jill and Carla’s firepower, even though Carla had yet to fire a single shot. Now, they’d be forced to move much slower, something Jill wasn’t sure they’d be able to do without someone getting hurt.
Or worse.
Regardless, she knew they weren’t going to leave the Howards behind. John didn’t look comfortable with adding two more people to their group either, but nor did he openly complain. Like Frank, John displayed a natural, moral responsibility toward the safety of other people. It’s what made Frank a great cop, and what probably made John an honorable soldier.
Jill shared some of the same qualities, and it’s what made her a good trial lawyer. It was tricky because sometimes, she had to say things that she didn’t agree with to win a case.
Basically, she lied to herself all the time.
Geez, she thought, scratching her exposed shoulder, no wonder I’ve been such a bitch lately. I’m miserable! She cursed herself. And Frank took the brunt of it… She couldn't magically forgive his since against her, though. Frank still needed to right his own wrongs.
The realization that she was as much to blame for their problems as he was slammed home. How have I been so blind? She needed to make things right, but for that to happen, she needed to see her husband again.
The next room was one of her favorites, the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs. The best part of the exhibit was easily the Tyrannosaurus rex. And with everything going on, she half-expected the carnivore to climb down from his pedestal and go on the hunt.
Jill was creeped out, big time, by the way the red light hit the skeletons. The dinosaurs’ eye sockets were the worst part about being in the room now. They looked exactly like the creatures they were dealing with tonight—minus the fact that they didn’t have skin, blood, and of course, that they weren't alive.
Letting her guard down while gawking at the rex, Jill didn’t notice the living carnivore leaping across the aisle from the back another fossilized dinosaur.
4
Jill was able to avoid being taken down by the airborne hunter thanks to Mrs. Howard's shouted cries. That, and John’s perfectly-timed, linebacker-like tackle.
The night guard met the snarling beast mid-air, driving his shoulder into the thing’s side. Both men went tumbling further down the aisle, with the eyeless one on top. It reared back to slash at John’s face but took a bullet to the side of his head. It slumped on top of John before he shrugged the corpse off of him.
Jill, the shooter, shook. Her reaction was equal parts fright and adrenaline. She had just killed a person. No, she thought, not a person. It was no different from a mountain lion pouncing on John. Regardless, she was thankful that she had a steady hand and good aim.
On his back, and slathered in something else’s blood, John did nothing except lay there and breathe. He did give Jill a thumbs up, however. Mrs. Howard was clutching her chest, but gratefully, was still on her feet. Jill and Carla were both standing over John who eventually sat up and spat a gob of plasma from his mouth.
“You’re bleeding?” Carla asked.
John shook his head. “Not my blood.”
Jill smiled when Carla’s face paled. The thought of another creature’s blood in her mouth must’ve been too much for her to handle because she ducked behind the T. rex and retched. John went to get up, and Jill helped as much as she could.
“Thank you,” she said, patting his muscular shoulder one-too-many times.
Realizing what she was doing, Jill backed away and turned her attention to the Howards. “You guys okay?” She could see that they were, but she needed to get her mind off of the man that just saved her life…again…and back onto what mattered—seeing Frank.
Do I openly flirt like this all the time? She knew she did. God, I’m terrible…
That was the one thing she could count on Frank never doing, cheating on her. He was as dedicated as a man can get. He wasn’t always the best husband regarding support, but if Jill ever got into trouble, she could always count on Frank coming to her rescue.
To my rescue… What am I, some damsel in distress?
Her eyes narrowed. It was her time to take the lead. She wasn’t a cop or some bad-ass ex-Marine, but she was a fighter, someone who never gave up.
She was thirty-five and had never had a reason to take care of herself. First, she was her wealthy parents—who still helped them out when it was needed. Next, Frank came along. Then, she had her bosses at the firm sticking up for her. Now, John. Jill had never stood on her own, and she started to hate the fact that she needed someone else to always be there for her.
Not anymore.
“So,” she said, putting on a mask of confidence, “the rotunda?”
John glanced at Carla and shrugged. “Um,” he replied, “yes?”
Turning, Jill led the group to the edge of the exhibit but didn’t venture any further. Her newfound confidence felt remarkable, but she didn’t know the museum as well as John did. She looked over her shoulder and smiled sheepishly at the man. He understood the signal the way she had hoped he would and resumed his role as their guide. Jill stayed right behind him, though, keeping her gun up and ready.
They silently descended the stairs at the front of the museum, passing by everything associated with the third floor. So far, they had only seen a couple of lumps on the floor. Jill knew they were bodies and since they had yet to explore this end of the building, she figu
red they were humans and not monsters.
People that had tried to run, she decided.
The second floor wasn’t as easy to navigate. Jill and Carla were forced to gun down another of the creatures, lessening Jill’s ammo even more. Carla had only spent two rounds so far. Jill had already used up five.
At this rate, I’ll be out soon.
Unfortunately, every time they ran into one of the creatures, they made a ton of noise and drew more attention to themselves. As they moved down the stairs to the second floor, John held out a hand, telling them to lay back a little. They all did—except Jill. She quietly followed him, but stayed out of sight, wanting to watch the man in action.
At first, all Jill saw was darkness. John was still somewhat visible, but she didn’t see anything else alive.
John must.
Quietly, he picked up one of the chairs along the entrance into the Hall of African Mammals and brought it down atop something she couldn’t see. John must’ve hit it pretty hard because, after the single blow, one of the creatures dropped to the floor by his feet.
Wow.
But the party wasn’t over. Just as John turned around, the man—the monster—sat up. Jill was about to shout a warning, launching to her feet. Her movements must’ve been enough of a signal for him, because he swung blindly behind him, catching the creature in the shoulder, spilling it to the floor. Then, John leaped onto the beast’s back, gripped what was left of its hair, and slammed its head, over and over again into the tile floor.
After six such impacts, John let go and stood, wiping his hands on his pants. Still in her bare feet, Jill made her way to him, head on a swivel. She expected there to be more of the things around.
Maybe they left? Perhaps the creatures liked their meals fresh and moved on when there was nothing left to kill? It was a terrible thought, but it felt right.
“Just the one?” she asked, waiting for John to reply. He eventually responded with a silent nod of his head. Then, he shook it. “Doesn’t make sense, though.”
“There should be more,” Jill finished.
John stood and looked at her. “That’s what I was thinking too.” He continued. “When I went for my look-see earlier, there were dozens of them.”
Jill decided to voice her hypothesis and see what he thought. “There’s nothing left to eat,” she said, eyes as big as dinner plates. “We’re the last people alive in the museum.”
His eyes hardened, then softened. She knew he agreed.
“I’ve learned a lot of things while working here,” he said, heading back to the others. “One of the first lessons I was taught is that most predators like fresh meals. They'll stop consuming their kill if it gets too old.”
“God…” Jill muttered, holding her head. “There were over two-hundred people here tonight. There’s only five of us, John. It’s not possible—it’s not!”
His face was sad. “But it is, and what I saw outside won’t make you feel any better.”
Now she had to know. He had baited her good, intentional or not.
“What did you see?”
“Death,” he said, stopping and looking at her. “Bedlam and death. There were bodies everywhere—young and old, men and women alike.” He took a deep breath. “They were all slaughtered.”
Jill stumbled, due to self-inflicted asphyxia, but John caught her before she collapsed. She didn’t even realize that she had held her breath and had actually stopped breathing while John described what he saw. Manhattan, not just the Museum of Natural History, was under attack.
Maybe more than Manhattan?
“What happened out there?” Jill asked rhetorically.
Stepping up next to them, Carla took it as an invitation to speak. “Shit hit the fan.”
Both Jill and John smirked, but it was John’s turn to voice his opinion.
“Something catastrophic—a contagion perhaps?”
“You think someone nuked New York City with some kind of virus?” Carla asked, snorting in disbelief.
The former Marine shrugged. “I’ve heard of a few things…”
What! Jill thought. That wasn’t what she’d thought he’d say.
“Care to share?” Carla asked, pushing him.
He looked at her. “No, actually, I don’t.”
For the next couple of minutes, they walked in complete silence. The only noises they heard were that of a stray monster here and there. John wanted to go off and investigate the disturbances, but Jill talked him out of it, wanting them to stay together since they were so close to the front door.
“If we have an opportunity to leave, I want you here with us when we do.” She looked him in the eyes. “I can’t promise you that we’ll wait.”
She meant it too. If they did have an opportunity to leave and John was off on one of his recon missions, Jill would walk away holding Frank’s hand.
Hopefully.
Halfway down the stairs to the second floor, Jill was speechless because of what she saw. The Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda was void of all life, but that didn’t mean it was void of the dead. Bodies littered the floor.
She thought back to the revelation that they were the only people left alive inside the museum.
Maybe a few got out.
The bodies before her told her otherwise, however. Yes, people probably made it out of the Milstein Hall alive, but they more than likely didn’t make it out of the museum that way. While descending the stairs, she counted sixteen lumps in the floor.
“Come on,” John said, stepping out onto the second floor, “we need to lock the doors and come up with a plan.”
Jill nodded and followed him, but not before slipping back into her heels. Even though the tiled floor was slick with blood, she couldn’t stomach waltzing through it in her bare feet. Carla did the same. Now, the only noise in the building were the clicks of their designer shoes.
In the middle of the high-ceilinged room were two dinosaurs locked in battle. Jill didn’t know what either of them were, but John did.
“Barosaurus and Allosaurus,” he said, eyeing the mammoth animals. “Beautiful, aren’t they?”
Jill appreciated the retired soldier’s love for this place. He truly did love working here.
As they passed the first dinosaur, the Allosaurus, three creatures burst through the front doors, stopping Jill’s group in their tracks. Not sure what to do, Jill froze and looked to John for guidance. The only thing he could do was point at the new arrivals and yell, “Shoot!”
So, she did. Jill took down the closest of the three with two quick pulls of the trigger. The first round went high, but the second hit home, piercing the creature’s neck. Even in the dim light, she could see the blood squirt into the air like a geyser.
The second and third monsters weren’t so easy to kill. Jill missed with her first try, but Carla didn’t, clipping the drooling, snarling man in the thigh. While not a kill shot, it definitely slowed him down enough for everyone to fall back to a safer distance.
Jill fell in line with Carla. “Keep them safe,” she told her cousin, tipping her chin at the Howards.
Carla nodded and ran after the elderly couple.
Jill spun, just as John drove his fist into the chin of the uninjured monster with a powerful uppercut. Then, he quickly turned his attention on the limping creature. Wanting to save what ammo she had left, Jill sprinted for the front desk and found something of use.
“John!” she shouted, tossing him a pair of scissors. Luckily for them, they weren’t safety scissors.
Flipping them around into a backhanded grip, the “night guard” leaped at the wounded creature and jammed the blades of the scissors into its neck over and over again until it stopped kicking. With the conflict mostly over, Carla rejoined them and immediately surrendered her gun to John when he held out his hand, while keeping his stare on the third creature.
It needed to be taken care of.
Gun in hand, John calmly strode up to the unconscious monster, aimed the gun at it
s head, and pulled the trigger. The gunshot reverberated around the room a few times. Then, nothing. Silence enveloped the Museum of Natural History.
5
Jill couldn’t keep track of the days as they passed. The city was a disaster, populated mostly by monsters of an inhuman kind. Before locking the front doors, she and John had taken a look for themselves. The scenery was precisely how he had described it.
Bedlam and death.
From where they stood, they could see the western boundary of Central Park, as well as the road that traveled alongside it, Central Park West. The road itself was filled with pileups and bodies. The park didn’t seem to be much different either.
Jill tried to picture the route Frank was taking to get to her, having to zig and zag through an entire city to do so. She couldn’t imagine undertaking the trek herself after what she had just endured. At least she and the others were in a somewhat controlled atmosphere.
Be careful Frank.
They hadn't opened the doors to the outside world since they took that initial peek. Since then, they had occasionally heard cries for help, but more often than not, the noises they heard were the creatures trying to find a way in.
“We still have to worry about the subway entrance,” John had said.
He was right too. The subway entrance into the museum wouldn’t be simple to defend against an attack. For one, they couldn’t lock down the exit tight enough to make a real difference. Plus, it was dark as hell down there. Jill wasn’t afraid of the dark, by any means, but the one time she went down there with John for a little reconnaissance, she nearly peed her pants.
Well, dress…
There were all sorts of eerie sounds emanating from the underground tunnels. They figured that if they left that area alone, whatever had taken up residence down there wouldn’t know they were inside the museum. That’s what they hoped would happen, anyway.
Each night, they camped out inside the office behind the Member Services desk. It was the only lockable door they could find near the front doors. Jill begged John to stay close to the entrance, just in case Frank made it to them.