They all went inside and grabbed as many gallons of water as the convenience store had, stocked up on snacks and went out to their cars where the sky had started to change again, but this time it was back to its normal blue hue. Just keep thinking positively, everything is going to be fine. Cyra said to herself as she turned the key in the ignition and the engine purred.
“I know we still have no idea what’s going on but how do we know this isn’t just some sort of trick the government is pulling?” Gypsy asked.
“Are you fucking serious right now?” Cyra snapped.
“I mean I love a good conspiracy theory and this just seems like it would fit with a hidden agenda.”
“Dude this is not a time for one of your fucking conspiracy theories,” Cyra said.
“All right fine, let’s just go to Canada without having any idea what’s waiting for us there and no way to defend ourselves,” Gypsy had a hint of sarcasm in her voice as she rolled her eyes.
“I can’t tell if you’re joking or not,” Cyra said in a confused voice, “but whatever let’s just focus on not dying from whatever the fuck is taking over.”
The radio in the car was off but all of a sudden the volume raised itself to the highest notch and static filled the car speakers. The same alarm that had sounded with the warnings before came on and the robotic voice returned.
“This is another warning. The places that we all call home will not be here anymore. Everyone needs to hurry and flee to the safe haven we have in Canada. If you have doomsday shelters and cannot transport north, we urge you to lock yourselves in them until further notice. This threat is not human, we do not know what is going on but they’re close…very cl…”
The warning was cut short and static returned to the speakers. Sunlight was still shining down onto them, but the sky started to change colors again. This time, to a purple hue. What the fuck bro. Gypsy thought to herself as they continued on the windy road to get onto a main highway. But just as soon as it had turned purple, the sky changed back to its normal blue color and looked as if nothing had happened. Puzzled but still trying not to panic more than they already were, the girls continued on with the others following closely behind.
Something was definitely wrong. The warning announcements were very vague about what was going on. Why is the sky changing colors? That’s got to be against some sort of law of science. Gypsy thought to herself as her and Cyra continued to drive in silence.
The trees blurred into one green blob as they sped past the forests. Finally Gypsy broke the blanket of quietness that had encompassed them for what felt like at least a few hours.
“I can take over driving if you get tired at all.”
“I’m good, but thanks,” Cyra said shortly.
“I didn’t mean to upset you earlier,” Gypsy mumbled, “sometimes when I get freaked out I try to make jokes as like a coping mechanism, I guess would be the best way to put it.”
“I know dude, you’re fine. I’m just really freaked out too and the fact that Cole doesn’t even have a huge grip on what’s going on doesn’t help. Like if any of us would know how to handle this shit it would be him and I can tell he’s as equally freaked out as us, whether he wants to admit it or not.”
“Yeah that makes sense. Honestly the sky changing colors is making me think that this whole thing is real but I have no idea how or if we’re gonna survive whatever is going on,” Gyspy replied.
“I mean, we just have to give it our best shot. I love you mimosas,” Cyra said, cracking a smile.
“I love you mimosas,” Gypsy chuckled back.
She grabbed Cyra’s hand kissed it, trying to provide a little bit of comfort. Looking up at the sky, it started to change to a pink hue, but instead of quickly changing back to normal like it had before, it flickered and another announcement echoed through the car radio. However, instead of the normal robotic voice, it was a woman.
“THEY’RE HERE! IT’S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE WE’RE ALL…” she shrieked before it cut off and static took over.
“Okay, I know we were trying to not freak out but WHAT THE FUCK! WHO’S HERE?” Gypsy exclaimed.
“You think I fucking know?” Cyra shouted back.
The panic was really starting to set in, despite their best efforts to stop it. The unknown was quickly approaching and they had to figure out what was happening and how exactly they were going to deal with it before everything they knew was a distant memory.
CHAPTER FIVE
The sun was starting to set as they approached the Canadian border. Shai, Cole, Jeffrey, and Lollie were still following close behind. As if the day couldn’t get any weirder, the border agents seemed off, like they were possessed.
“Reason for wanting to cross the border,” one said in a monotone voice.
“We were told there was a safe haven for us here?” Cyra said in a slightly confused tone.
“Mmm does not seem to ring a bell,” the agent replied with a dead look in his eyes.
He called over another border agent, which started to worry the girls. Why do they not know about the safe haven? Better yet, is there even a safe haven here or has this all just been a trick? Cyra thought to herself.
The other border agent stood on the passenger side of the car, adjacent to where Gypsy was. He moved like a robot; very stiff and unnatural. I thought Canadians were supposed to be super friendly and nice? Gypsy thought to herself as she observed what was happening. A distant scream broke the silence that had built up with the border agents just staring at them.
The girls looked behind them and Cole had his head out his window, “GO THEY’RE NOT HUMAN! KEEP DRIVING AND DON’T STOP UNTIL WE’RE DEEPER IN THE FOREST!”
Cyra looked at Gypsy and in unison they said, “WELL FUCK!”
Shaking, Cyra hit the gas pedal as hard as she could. The border agents’ heads started to spin around and white light beams started shooting out of their eyes.
“You know how I always said if there was some sort of apocalypse or something I’d be the first to die because I have literally no survival instincts? Well, I feel like that’s probably gonna happen soon so I just want you to know how much I love you and how thankful I am that you played such a big part in my life,” Gypsy said, tearing up and reaching for Cyra’s thigh.
“You can’t just give up like that! We have to fight until we have no fight left in us! We can’t just let these motherfuckers beat us down and win! Like bitch I know you’re not gonna throw in the towel like that…at least not the badass Gypsy I know!”
“I hate when you’re right but you always know what to say,” Gypsy said, rolling her eyes.
In the rearview mirror, they could see the group of about fifteen border agents chasing after them, heads still spinning with light beams intermittently coming out of their eyes. The agents were yelling something at them that they couldn’t understand. It didn’t sounds like any human language they had ever encountered.
“LUX NOK BINNIN WEEBLO WOB FEVAZEM!”
Drive. Just keep driving. Cyra thought to herself. We just need to get as deep into the forest as we can and we’ll figure all this shit out.
“I know we’re trying not to freak out but can I have like a mini panic attack real quick?” Gypsy asked Cyra.
“Bitch, if you have one then I’m gonna have one and then we definitely won’t be in a good predicament, will we?” Cyra said sarcastically trying to cover up how scared she actually was.
Gypsy was normally the one that helped calmed Cyra’s anxiety, but now the roles were starting to reverse. If they both started freaking out then nothing good would come out of it and they’d be royally fucked, especially since all they could hear was the unison shouting of “LUX NOK BINNIN WEEBLO WOB FEVAZEM!”
“I think they’re starting to slow down,” Gypsy said encouragingly, looking behind them.
“That’s good; i
t’ll give us a little bit of time to officially lose them in the forest.”
They kept driving until they couldn’t see the crazed border agents chasing them anymore. Deeper and deeper into the forest until they could only see the tall, plush, green trees all around them. Thankfully, Shai, Cole, Jeffrey, and Lollie had been able to keep as fast of a pace as them so they all made it to the same clearing and could regroup on what kind of game plan they should come up with moving forward.
“Yo that shit was fucking crazy like I’m still shaking!” Lollie exclaimed, holding up her hand to show everyone that she was actually shaking.
“Yeah, so we need to come up with a plan of survival because whatever the warning announcements were talking about, most definitely is not human,” Cole said matter-of-factly.
“Well, it’s starting to get dark so what should we do?” Jeffrey chimed in.
“Yeah, we don’t want them to find us but we also need to keep moving, right?” Shai spoke up.
“Honestly, we’ll be useless if we don’t get at least some sort of rest while we have the cover of night on our side,” Cole replied. “So for right now, let’s take turns keeping watch and then as soon as the sun starts to come up, we’ll keep moving and try to find some sort of civilization.”
Cole volunteered to keep the first watch since he was trained to stay alert through stressful and tiring situations; one of the perks to being in the military. Shai also decided to stay awake and help keep watch since she claimed ‘the more eyes the better’. The two of them started a small fire that wouldn’t draw attention from afar in order to keep warm. Sitting, cuddled up next to each other, they watched as the others slept and knew their turn would be up soon.
The air was cold and there was a slight breeze which didn’t help their heavy eyelids stay open. The wind whistled and the tree leaves rustled as the hours of the night passed. Jeffrey and Lollie woke up and offered to take over watch. The two of them sat and kept the fire going as the wind started to die down. The stars above them twinkled as the full moon created a cool bright light that broke up the darkness of the forest.
“This shit doesn’t seem real,” Lollie whispered.
“I know, I’m honestly waiting for someone to come out and say that this has all been one big practical joke,” Jeffrey said, kissing her forehead.
“Well, whatever happens, if we get out of this or not, I just want you to know how much I love you and I know it’s stupid but I really have never loved anyone like I’ve loved and cared about you,” Lollie said as her vision started to get blurry from the tears forming.
“Baby please don’t cry. We will make it out of this and one day we’ll tell our kids and grandkids about all this crazy shit. They probably won’t believe us but we’ll just laugh and know it was a wild ass adventure,” Jeffrey tried cracking a smile, even though he didn’t really believe anything he was saying; he just wanted to comfort Lollie. “But I have never loved anyone as deeply as I love you Lolls.” Leaning over, he pushed her hair behind her ear and kissed her passionately, like something out of a movie.
Shortly after, Gypsy and Cyra woke up and offered to take watch since it was their turn. The fire started to die but they didn’t bother trying to spark it again since the distant light of the sun starting to rise was peaking through the thick blanket of trees. Time to start moving again. Gypsy thought as she started having flashbacks to what happened with the border agents. She looked over to Cyra and could tell she was starting to have an anxiety attack.
“Hey, I’m with you and you’re with me and that’s all that matters. We’re gonna figure this out,” Gypsy said, putting her arm around Cyra.
“I know, but it’s like I don’t know. So much weird shit has happened in the last few days and it’s just like how do we go from having the best weekend of our lives to this, ya know? It just doesn’t make sense.”
She was right, it didn’t make sense. None of it did. The announcements. The sky changing colors. Those border agents. The fact that something not human was trying to invade and take over their reality.
“You’re right actually,” Gypsy thoughtfully agreed, “this is so random and isn’t adding up.”
CHAPTER SIX
By the time the sun had fully risen, they had already gotten all their belongings together and were ready to start the rest of their journey north. Still not entirely sure what was in store for them or if there was even any human civilization left, but they needed to give it a try. The whole concept of being ‘sitting ducks’ seemed absurd.
“I’m not sure there’ll be another gas station anywhere near here or if they’ll even work so how are we all doing on gas?” Cole asked the group.
“Um, I think we still have like half a tank,” Cyra replied.
“Yeah, I think we have a little less than half,” said Jeffrey.
“Okay then we just keep heading north until we run out and if we all still manage to stay together then whoever runs out can just ride with the others that have room…make sense?”
“Yeah,” everyone else replied in unison, their energy levels were low though and they were fading quickly.
The engines softly revved to life and they pulled back onto the dirt road path. As they were driving, they started to notice the sky changing colors more rapidly now, hitting all spectrums of the color wheel, from blue to red to yellow. It looked like something that would have been incorporated in the visuals at the festival they were just at, which tripped them out even more.
“Dude, I didn’t take anymore acid, did I? Gypsy jokingly asked Cyra.
“I’m fuckin’ dead. If you did then I must have too because the sky is hella trippy,” Cyra laughed.
“I’m just having a hard ass time wrapping my head around how this is even possible!”
“Well, for starters there’s some sort of invasion from creatures that, you know, AREN’T FUCKING HUMAN, so that’s probably a big part of it,” Cyra shouted.
The two of them laughed and tried to keep a positive attitude even though there was a major possibility this could be their last day together. Behind the smiles and laughter were two girls deathly afraid of what their future or lack of it would hold. It was easy for them to put on a tough exterior and act like they were cool with whatever happened, but neither of them were ready to die. Their lives were just getting started and this was a slap in the face from the universe.
They couldn’t give up without a fight. Whatever was trying to attack them had another thing coming. They weren’t sure how they would strike back, especially given that neither of the girls had ever been in a fight before, but it was going to happen. These creatures were going to be sorry they ever tried to fuck with them. Their attitudes started to become more fiery when their fight or flight instincts kicked in.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of this!” Gypsy bursted out.
“Hell yeah we are bitch!” Cyra chanted back.
“We’re gonna fight to the death,” Gypsy laughed as she mocked a medieval voice from an old movie.
“I mean, I guess we don’t really have a choice now, do we?”
“Not really, no,” Gypsy chuckled.
They kept driving, the trees continued to be one big blur of green mushed together with hints of brown. Fueled only by adrenaline, the girls tried to keep their spirits up by talking about their favorite memories from the festival that may have been their last. Sharing laughs, smiles, and trying to keep their positive energy, they noticed smoke in the rearview mirror. This was not what they needed right now. The dark grey cloud of smoke was floating high up into the sky, which would make them super easy to find if there were any of those creatures nearby. They stopped to see if Shai and Cole or Jeffrey and Lollie needed to join them, since they had the largest car out of all of them, in an extended SUV.
Jeffrey and Lollie had pulled over and had the hood of their truck popped, smoke emerging, making it
hard to see anything clearly. Shai and Cole had stopped too, trying to figure out what was wrong and fanning the smoke away so it would hopefully disburse enough as to not draw more attention than it already had.
“What’s going on?” Cyra asked as she stepped out of the car.
“Our car just started smoking out of nowhere and then there was a loud noise that sounded like a gun shooting so we pulled over in case our engine or something was going to explode,” Jeffrey replied nervously.
“Well, we don’t really have the time to sit here and figure out what’s wrong so grab what you need and you can ride in one of our cars,” Cole said.
“We probably have the most room…you’ll just have to move some shit around,” Gypsy chimed in.
“Wait, do you guys see that?” Shai said pointing out a beam of iridescent light in the distance.
“Oh yeah, what is that?” Lollie asked, completely entranced by its beauty.
“Not sure but I don’t really want to stick around to find out,” Jeffrey replied as he grabbed Lollie’s hand and headed toward Cyra and Gypsy’s car.
Another beam of light appeared in the forest adjacent to them, as if it knew they were close. Then another appeared right where Lollie and Jeffrey’s truck was parked. It picked their car up like gravity was nonexistent and took it up into the sky, past the clouds so they couldn’t see where it went. The sky was changing colors more rapidly now and their instincts told them to move as fast as they could.
Thankfully, Cyra hadn’t turned off the engine when they stopped so they quickly sped off. Not knowing where they were headed or if they’d even be safe at this point, but driving as fast as they could eased their anxieties about what had just happened. The random beams of iridescent light, the border agents’ heads spinning with white beams of light coming out of their eyes; they knew these creatures weren’t human, but the lifting of the truck seemed like something out of a sci-fi movie.
“I’ve only ever seen movies about this kind of shit!” Gypsy squealed in horror and excitement.
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