Humanities Contingency_You Will Lose Yourself

by Matthew Birch

  Four others come out from a nearby building-

  One of them is injured, being held up by a tanned man. Two others, rough looking in their appearance, walk on over. “More fresh meat?” One of the men says.

  “Filthy assholes-” Callum hoarsely mutters.

  “Rabbit foot gang-” Joey rustles in hysteria behind me.

  Everything slows down.

  Callum bolts forward, revolver drawn, he takes one look at the long, black-haired man with pale white skin, crispy clean white teeth and a proud personality alongside his well-maintained attire. In a single, swift movement, a bullet is sent directly into his skull. A wave of blood sprays through the air, coating the soldiers who instantly throw themselves to one side. Our whole group disbands, running to any and all cover. Maya, Joey and me are able to hide behind one car, staying low as we perceive the situation get even worse.

  The woman, who was with the man, screams, retrieving her own handgun only to be immediately picked off by Callum in one fatal swoop. In his outrage, Callum has lashed out, killing two people...

  Lastly, Callum turns his gun on the other two men, the tanned one and the injured one. His trigger finger is ready, however, Callum doesn’t attack.

  Joey says to himself beside me, “oh fuck-” before leaping out from cover and running at Callum before the madman murders anyone else. Maya holds me down, pressing her index finger over my lips to shut me up.

  “YOU KILLED MY SON!” Callum clocks the weapon, preparing the rest of his ammunition, peers down the sights and-

  “STOP!” Robert leaps in the way-

  “CALLUM YOU FUCKING IDIOT!” Joey tackles his brother, throwing them both to the floor. Chris comes over, holding his rifle at the two men who squabble on the ground.

  Seconds later, Zack rushes in, placing his own weapon at Chris’s head. “Don’t even try it, buddy!” I hear him bark-

  THIS WHOLE SITUATION HAS JUST GONE TO HELL AND BACK!

  A huge fight breaks out, and what started so peacefully ends so abruptly with bloodshed and violence. Ian keeps Alice and Lola back, allowing Maya and I to run into the fray. Not because we want a piece of the action, but because we see Ed actively assault Robert in moments. Disarming him from his weapon and knocking him to the ground with ease-

  Running into Ed, I tug him away, wrapping my arms around him before he can do anything stupid. He flails around, elbowing me twice in his reaction. “Stop it you dick” I gasp out as I let go of him. Fuck that hurt-

  Doubled over, I feel dizzy for an instant. Against the aberration, I am shoved down. I haven’t got a clue what’s going on. Maya’s voice rings through the air. She’s saying something-

  Two gunshots later, and the whole group freezes. Standing there, high above the crowd on top of the truck is Alice. Callum’s revolver held high above her head. Her poor wrist is going to be screwed after firing that. Evidently, she drops it afterwards, holding her wrist as she winces. Poor girl...

  “CAN YOU ALL STOP!” She screams for mercy, begging us all to stop. Smiling at my girl, I get back up, standing tall despite the aching on my bruised stomach.

  “Good, everyone listens!” Joey suddenly roars, taking the lead. “Those two fuckers my brother killed were part of a gang called the rabbit holder gang. They were a huge, vicious gang of about thirty people. They were led by that man who is dead now-” Joey screams at the top of his lungs, his finger pointed at the dead man on the floor that Callum justly ended. The whole group disperses, creating enough room that Joey can trample over their bodies. “His name was Black Fox; he survived through a tactic of what he called fair fear. His bastardly ways allowed him to get this far. He attacked our group, killed so many of us and took my nephew with him!”

  Everything begins to piece the puzzle together now. The woman that was with him who lays dead at Callum’s feet must’ve been his girlfriend.

  “Yeah, well we’ve all withered away. We are all that’s left; just us and a few others at the mall!” The injured man from earlier shouts right back at Joey. He’s on the floor, having been knocked down in the madness. The man beside him attends to him. His face made of unforgiving stone while he glares at Joey.

  “Who was the woman?” I question Zack as he wanders to my side.

  “Black Fox’s lover, nothing more, she is the bitch beneath his heel, and she loved it until Callum put a bullet in her skull” Zack explains, continuing on with his path to Ian.

  I raise my eyebrow, turning to Ryan now. He’s been so quiet; I honestly forget he’s even here sometimes. “Why is he called Black fox?”

  “Because his cunning and intelligence outmatched us all... We never knew his name. When someone said Black Fox, you would say to run” He whispers, looking down at his feet.

  Joseph and his bunch shift nervously behind us. They steered well clear of the conflict. They are meeting all these new people, and I can only imagine they fear the worst.

  Holly finally steps beside me, speaking to me for the first time before anyone else. “This has happened in the past,” Her slurred, drony voice says. “There’s no one left so everyone seems to know each other. Never through something nice, is it?”

  Taking control of the situation again, Robert steps back in at last. “IF ANYONE TRIES THAT SHIT AGAIN, I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF” Robert raises his hands as he steps between us, and the two members of the rabbit foot holder’s gang. Chris stays away, not helping his ally for some reason?

  “Give it your best shot” Ed challenges him.

  Callum, wiping the dirt and trash off his clothes, takes Ed’s team. “Go on, try it” Callum growls like a lion.

  Robert narrows his eyes, sighs, and then steps back. Clearly out-numbered, and funnily enough, outgunned, Robert backs down. He had our respect, and the man is clearly skilled, but without the rest of his squadron, he is nothing. “I just want to help my people... We all have the chance to leave. This is Alan Bridgeford; he is very well liked by his group. We came all the way out here to save him” Robert explains, showing us the man known as Alan, the injured one the tanned dude lifts off the floor.

  “Hi, I’m Alan-” He winces, his body contorting in pain.

  “I’m Matty, nice to meet you” Gruff, uncaring, the other tanned man with a thick Italian accent greets us all the same. “We just want to get back to the mall. There are few of us left and Alan needs to rest”

  Judging the circumstances, I can’t imagine their group is a group anymore. The rabbit foot gang is no more.

  “How many of you are there?” Callum crosses his arms, his anger still bubbling below the surface. He seems much cooler now since killing the man who took his son’s life.

  “Besides Matty and I, not many, please allow me to peacefully apologise for any wrongdoings in the past-” Alan violently coughs, his chest heaving as a faint amount of blood slips over his lips...? “Black Fox and his sick slut left me for dead, but they would have never said that-” His deathly cough returns before Alan can point a finger at Robert. “You would have never have known what they were up to. They probably would have killed you and took what you had to rebuild the rabbit foot gang-” He coughs again, exceedingly more destructive than before. His legs go limp, and Matty strains himself trying to keep his close friend afloat.

  Robert raises an eyebrow. “Why did no one say anything?”

  “Because they would’ve killed you otherwise, I imagine their entire plan was to get you two and you two alone out here so they could do the dirty deed... Once you were gone, your soldiers would be hopeless... They’re all injured, sick, and infected!” Alan spits his distaste at Robert.

  Infected...

  INFECTED-

  Our whole group turns on Robert who retreats back a few steps. “There are good people living under my leadership! There may be a cure off the island!”

  He made his case and no jumps at him for keeping infected under his roof. If there is a cure off the island then I don’t blame him for keeping them alive.

  With the sit
uation coming to a close, I nod to myself, making a note of everything that has happened. So Black Fox and that woman are dead, the rabbit foot gang are no more. I assume they were called that because of the distinct rabbit foot hanging around Black Fox’s neck like a necklace. They say having a rabbit’s foot brings good luck? Such a huge group that preyed on the weak is defeated. Callum has found justice and can relax. We found the soldiers as well. Which is, fair, no real judgement there. Things were going so well, now everything is backwards.

  “You know, from how it’s been described... I think all those soldiers are deserters...” Maya whispers behind me. I hum in response.

  “Look, let’s just go back to the mall and put this behind us” Robert exclaims, bored of everything. No one has anything else to say, so we follow, finally having had enough of today.

  Now, we travel to the mall to find the deserters, a group of sickly, infected soldiers. Black Fox and his slut are dead. What is next? My hand snakes for the whiskey, it feels like a better time if any.

  Chapter 8 - Pick and choose

  Chloe

  I’ve never known myself to be more insecure in my life than I do right now. In this precious minute, the largest collection of people I have stayed part of in a long time is about to come together like an asteroid collision. The southern group is still warming up to us; I can only hope our relations are secure enough that we can place faith in one another. Craning my neck, I dart my eyes between Ed and Callum who walk on opposing sides. They had each other backs earlier. We need that to sustain itself for as long as possible...

  The scattered group is the slowest, dawdling at the tail like the injured, expired wolves that are greatly past their time of usefulness. The two men from the rabbit foot gang stay off to the side with the cover of Chris. His incredibly massive body and the knight-like armour shield them in every way possible. Finally, is Robert, the man who leads us to the mall where the deserters remain.

  Fortified, well protected, and showing signs of civilization is the debilitated mall. Broken windows, blasted doors, ruinous area, cryptic and veiled by the ominous clouds above, I don’t see a safe haven - I see a prison. Something about it doesn’t feel right, no matter how it’s made out to be. So many types of people are about to mix and the resulting reaction is going to explode...

  Entering past the two cars set out front, followed by squeezing through the busted gate as carefully as we can, it doesn’t take long till we’re past the ageing, battered defences that have seen better days. Once inside, we see the remains of places like a barren armoury, picked clean for all its worth. A gardening area is here too, looking as dead as the creatures who once plagued us. Tents, shelters, and even a make-shift lounge area remind me of the homeless back home. Grabbing any dirty scrap they can to survive, suppose, a better way to look at it is that they are making the best of a bad situation. My heart sinks when I look to the far left of the outside of the mall, where a large car park once was, I see a disturbing graveyard along the surrounding lawns before you reach the outer wall...

  “So, there isn’t much that needs to be said, you can probably figure it out from looking around. You’re all free to do as you please in the sense that it benefits the collective. We are all working together now, I don’t want any killing. Anyone who tries, I kill instead-” Deadpanned, like a grim reaper, Robert guides us through hell. Everywhere I look is another threat, the rest of the rabbit foot group. Not many, but at least several of them come running to Alan and Matty’s aid. Like a king, they hoist Alan up, praising him...

  Not one of them asks about Black Fox...

  Rule by fear, never remembered, forgotten to time for the things people would not rather experience in their memories.

  “Everyone keep-” Robert raises his voice to force us all back to him. Shut off, Robert is surprised when a female member of the rabbit foot group kisses his lips before skipping back to the parading group, an unexpected turn of events, though that doesn’t matter. However, while no one wants to admit it, everyone here has a problem with one another. I see it plastered deep on all their faces, the southern group, they went revenge...

  Killing their leader is not enough...

  Killing the slut is nowhere near satisfying...

  Have we been walking around with killers as bloodthirsty as the rabbit foot gang this entire time?

  Callum didn’t hesitate. He killed them so quickly-

  Our group continues on command, and I am forced to walk next to Callum? “Joey says you’re good to talk too... I need a second perspective...” His drony voice mutters to me through a wall of hostility he can’t totally shake off.

  Heart rate, please slow down! Now is not the time to be scared!

  “Even if they weren’t directly involved with the feat of killing my son, they harmed and killed my past friends and allies. If given the chance, I’d kill every last one...” Callum grabs my wrist. Jumping in my skin, I feel my entire body go itchy in disgust as he intentionally slows us down.

  Ed, wait, please-

  “Do they deserve it?” He whispers in my ears, his grip tight on my wrist. His menacing eyes boring into my own.

  He reminds me of Cody-

  I try to pull away, and when he doesn’t release me, I think he could see the alarm-raising in my face. On demand, he gently lets me go, his eyes averting themselves from mine. “Sorry...” He whispers below his breath. He doesn’t sound apologetic, guiltier more than anything. Watching him in shock, I say nothing, and simply rotate my body to catch up to the group that enters the fortified mall. Getting back just in time, I hear Ed and Robert in the middle of a discussion.

  “So, how long have you all been here?” Ed interrogates, standing right next to Robert. Chris is nearby, still eerily staring without end...

  “Longer than I wanted. So many of us are dying, like Alan said a lot of the soldiers have been sick or injured... Infected...” Avoiding the truth, the hardly respectable man won’t even murmur the word. His voice gradually becoming quieter the closer he got to saying the BIG keyword in everyone’s life at the moment. Infected, strange though, we’ve never faced a problem with infection till now?

  “Wait, how does the infection even work?” Maya calls out, questioning the same thing the rest of us are thinking. Nearby, I turn my attention to Joey who nods his head in agreement near the back where I am. The two youngsters are between us. Not moving my eyes, I watch as Callum says something to Joey when he is close enough, seconds later; Joey looks my way sorrowfully before scourging Callum for what he did. Well, even if Callum was too proud to apologise correctly, then at least Joey will beat it into him like the better brother he is.

  Placing my attention back on Robert, I see him anxiously look around before saying as audibly as he can, which is annoying because the entire group more or less swarms him to hear the juicy details on getting infected. “It’s rare, but solely, infection occurs when a wound is made through a bite, which we have pinned down to bodily fluids. However, everything else goes, you can get ripped and clawed, and no infection will happen. If any of you are thinking this is like a zombie virus, you’re wrong. No, these monsters, the lesser ones, creatures, they spread more like a parasite. Working like a hivemind almost...” Robert stops to take a breath before he continues.

  “Spooky people-” I hear Alice giggle beside me before Lola bursts into a fit of laughs. Smiling, I acknowledge the growing relationship the two girls have going for them.

  “The infected person will not actually exhibit any signs of infection because they hide it. Not because they want to. Like I said, the parasite consumes you bit by bit, attacking important places in the brain in the name of dominance, not death. It doesn’t want to kill you. It does spread fairly fast, coating the body in a grimy, thick wet coating of either crimson red, or pitch black, mostly mixed. That is the transformation taking place-” He stops to take another breath, thus giving me a moment to think.

  So, going back to the parasitic hivemind thing, does this mean
that the entire time infection is taking place, you won’t know, because it is stealing your brain, telling you that it is all going to be okay...

  Shivers race down my spine, the worst part is, other than the incredible amount of goosebumps, Robert hasn’t even finished.

  Sighing, Robert continues, “When someone is infected, the time it takes for the infection to be completed varies. Normally though, after at least a day, the infected individual will have a clouded mind. By that point, they are will fade away. Primal instinct will take over. At first, they will avoid interaction with everyone, becoming anti-social until the transformation has been completed. I have had whole groups of soldiers disappear only to come back and either kill or infect more”

  “May I ask a question?” The still giggling, youthful Alice comes out of nowhere. She’s getting much more confident lately. In a good way, not a, kill people you don’t like way. For some reason, I glare at Callum. Honestly, I now don’t think I like him.