Until Dawn: Last Light

by Simas, Jennifer Nicole

  “Yep,” I mumbled. She was on a roll.

  It wasn’t like it was my favorite sweater; it was just the easiest way to cover my skin. I’d been branded with the mark of the Chosen. The ancient black symbols covered nearly my entire body, trailing up my back and over my shoulders, around my sides and down my arms and legs. I had no idea what any of them mean. Not even William knew. Perhaps it was a language long forgotten, or one that never existed on this Earth to begin with. Either way, I’d always thought they were sort of beautiful. But, it didn’t really matter what I thought, I had to keep them hidden. One look at them and the General’s men would know exactly what I was.

  It was Baldric’s personal mission to hunt down and kill all of the existing warriors, all of them except for me. Roland had made that perfectly clear. What the General wanted with me, I didn’t know, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I already had enough to deal with, what with the end of the world and all. I didn’t have time to think about what sick plans that monster had for me. As for exterminating the others – less competition, I supposed. William said that the General had been around for so long, he could sense who our successors would be. Once the rest of us were out of the way, he’d find our replacements and train them as his own. There’d be no one left powerful enough to stop him and the world would be his.

  “Oh,” she added, “and I expect those jeans to be in my hands by tomorrow. I want to wear them for a hot date I’ve got this weekend.”

  “Why? You know they won’t fit,” I snapped. Cindy, standing four inches shorter than me, was curved in all the places that I wasn’t. I regretted my words the second I saw the pained look in her eyes. She’d always been a little sensitive about her weight.

  “I’m sorry,” I sighed. “I didn’t get much sleep.” I didn’t get any sleep. I never did, not any more. If I wasn’t out pretending to be afraid and “normal” like everyone else, I was fighting a war that no one knew about.

  “Anyway,” she said bitterly. “Have you heard from Josh lately?”

  “Yeah, he called me a couple days ago. He’s trying to find a weekend to drive up from L.A.”

  Some days, hearing from Josh was the only thing that kept me going. He was one of two people I still spoke to that were part of my old life, before the “accident.” He reminded me what it was like to be human, if only for a moment.

  Her devious grin returned. “Think he’ll ask me out this time?”

  “I don’t know,” I mocked. “Has Hell frozen over?”

  “Ha. Ha. Someone thinks she’s funny.” Cindy grumbled.

  I had dried blood under my fingernails and the smell of Roland’s BO permanently burned into my nose, not to mention I was melting in that stupid sweatshirt. I was in no mood to see Cindy drooling over my best friend. I started racking my brain for something to say to change the subject before she could take it any further when I spotted a young soldier standing guard across the street at the entrance of a small military tent. I did a double take; he looked exactly like the soldier I’d killed in the alley – what was his name? After a while, I guess they all looked alike. He was nervous, inexperienced and obviously human, unlike Roland. I counted the beads of sweat dripping from his forehead. His hands fondled the machine gun unsteadily, like he was scared to touch it. His eyes darted back and forth and I wondered if he’d been informed of my whereabouts.

  He was right to be afraid; he’d be an easy kill. He’d stagger forward, fumbling to position his gun in the right direction. There’d be a natural pause before he pulled the trigger where he’d wrestle with his conscience over taking another human life. That’s when I’d strike – straight for the throat, quick and painless. He’d be dead before he even knew what hit him.

  I hated that – being able to see it as if were actually happening. Innocent, guilty – it didn’t matter. My mind discriminated against no one. Sometimes it would play out over and over again in my head, going over each possible scenario, anticipating each move and telling me how to respond. It always ended the same, though. Someone died. It was like some sort of six sense for our kind, one that we couldn’t shut off. It was all about survival. We had to be one step ahead, constantly searching for the kill.

  William assured me that, with time, I’d get used to it, that I’d learn to control it. But, after six years, that wasn’t the case. I knew exactly how to kill half the people walking around me on the street – including Cindy. There was something disturbing about knowing how easy it would be to kill one of your best friends. And William tried to tell me that we weren’t monsters. Right.

  The soldier looked up at Cindy and gave a quick nod. His eyes lingered on me for a moment too long. He knew.

  “Isn’t he, like, totally hot?” Cindy batted her fake eyelashes at the man, flashing a girlish grin. “I gave him the time of his life last night. He looked like he needed to lighten up.”

  “Don’t you have any shame?” I said, disgusted.

  “Don’t you? Gees, Zo, it sounds like you need to lighten up. A little shame would do you good. Don’t act so innocent with m– Hey! Watch where you’re going, lady!” she shouted as a middle-aged woman shoved past us.

  The woman ignored Cindy’s outburst, talking a mile a minute into her cell phone. “What? What are you saying? I can barely hear you, slow down.” She paused for a moment before sinking to the sidewalk. “No! It’s not true! Not my baby!” the woman wailed.

  “What? Are you sure? Everyone? But – well try calling him again,” cried another voice. The street came alive around us, each call bringing more unsettling news.

  “Zoë, what’s going on?” Cindy looked to me, as if I should have all the answers. I did, but that was beside the point.

  “I’m not sure,” I lied.

  Of course, that wasn’t true. I knew exactly what was happening. William had been preparing me for the past six years for just this. First China, then Europe, and now the United States. It was the end of civilization as we once knew it. Soon, nothing would be left.

  “We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news.”

  A series of TVs in an electronic store window caught our attention. Cindy and I, along with anyone else in earshot, inched closer to the smudged glass. The televisions were all tuned in to the same news station. The female reporter was trembling, mascara running down her cheeks. I could hear the camera crew in the background telling her to stay calm. Her voice was unsteady as she read from the teleprompter.

  “It is with great sadness that we bring you the following. Just moments ago, a tsunami struck the east coast. States stretching from Maine to Florida have been reported to be completely under water. The wave was the second largest recorded in history, topping out at just over one thousand feet. A tsunami of this magnitude has not been seen since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and is expected to greatly exceed the number of casualties. U.S. military troops have been deployed for search and rescue. So far, there are no signs of survivors. Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and their families. Please, stay tuned for a message from the President of the United States.”

  Cindy sniffled, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. “All those people. It’s so sad.”

  It would have been nice to cry, to mourn for my own country, but my reaction was quite different. Rage consumed me as I watched aerial shots of the aftermath flicker across the screens. So much death, so much destruction. I clenched my fists until my fingernails broke skin.

  I warned William of the tsunami over a week ago. I saw it happen, just as I’d foreseen many of the other events that had taken place across the globe as of late. He told me there was nothing we could do about it. “Some things are beyond even our control,” he said. I found it hard to believe that there was absolutely nothing we could’ve done to stop it, to save even a fraction of those people. I couldn’t help but feel slightly responsible for their deaths. Their faces would haunt me forever and, as William said, forever was a long time.

  In the blink of an eye, white noise took ov
er the broadcast, the buzz of static scratching at my ears. And then, nothing. An unsettling silence lingered in the air. No one seemed to notice, no one except me.

  “I think we need to get out of here, Cindy”

  No response.

  “Cindy, I’m serious, we need to go. Now.” I grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her away from the crowd.

  “Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing?! Let go of me!”

  I spun around, shocked to find a stranger in my clutches. “Oh, I–”

  “Freak.” She pulled away from me and stormed off down the sidewalk. Fitting coming from a woman with a purple Mohawk.

  I turned to face the electronics store that was no longer there; wide screen televisions replaced by manikins in bikinis and swim trunks. Disoriented, I stepped toward the street, the hot sun beating down on me through a thick layer of endless smog. Tall buildings, crowded streets and busy people. Los Angeles.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said to myself. “Not again. Not here.”

  It was another vision. That was the only explanation for it. I should have been used to them after six years, but I wasn’t. There was nothing normal about seeing into the future, not that I thought I was even remotely “normal.”

  I scanned the many faces as they passed by me, hoping I wouldn’t see Josh’s among them. You didn’t want to be in my visions. Usually the people I saw ended up dead. That seemed to be a pattern in my life.

  Vibrations licked the soles of my feet, pulsating through my calves and up my thighs. I swallowed hard.

  All at once, the Earth shook violently, snapping the street like a twig. Chunks of asphalt sailed through the air, plowing through buildings and cars. The concrete beneath me lifted, knocking me off my feet. Before I could find my footing, a shop window behind me exploded, shards of glass burrowing deep into my skin. I crawled for the nearest car, pressing my back against its dented side. The driver was dead; I could smell his blood. Maybe it was mine.

  It was like watching a scene from a movie, played out in slow motion. There was no running, no escaping. The Earth swallowed anything and everything in its path. It screamed like a freight train in my ears. One by one, buildings toppled over like dominoes. And, within seconds, the once glorious-city was nothing more than a pile of rubble.

  “Look out!” someone screamed, but I was already looking over my shoulder, watching the building as it barreled toward me. That was it. It was over. I braced for impact.

  Chapter Two

  "Zoë? Earth to Zoë.” Cindy’s incessant poking brought me back down to Earth.

  “What?” I blinked, trying to focus on her face.

  “What’s up with you, girl?” she asked. “It’s like you’ve seen a ghost or something.”

  “If only,” I mumbled.

  I pushed her hand away, not wanting to draw attention to myself. It looked like it was too late for subtleties. People standing around the display window whispered among themselves, their eyes burning holes straight through me. They weren’t the only ones. I’d managed to capture the undivided attention of two armed soldiers patrolling the city. One of the men muttered something into a walkie-talkie before they started across the street. It was time to get the hell out of Dodge.

  “Um, I need to go, Cindy.” I didn’t wait for her to put up a fight, waving over my shoulder as I made my way down the sidewalk.

  I weaved in and out of the crowd, trying to keep my pace as normal as possible. The soldiers weren’t far behind me; I could hear the sound of guns slapping against their thighs with each hurried step.

  Without warning, a man stepped in front of me, coiling his long arms around my waist as I tried to swerve out of the way. His head dipped and, before I realized what was happening, his lips were on mine. The contact was brief, but as he pulled away he took the air clean out of my lungs.

  “Hey, babe,” the stranger said, tightening his grip so I couldn’t pull away, “how was work?”

  That voice, it was so familiar. I went stiff in his arms.

  “A-Alec?” I breathed. I started second-guessing whether or not I’d actually come out of the vision at all.

  He leaned in close, the soft skin of his lips grazing the edge of my earlobe. “Play along,” he whispered, his subtle accent wreaking havoc on my body. It was something European; I’d always had trouble placing it. He pulled his sunglasses down the ridge of his nose, staring at me with golden eyes, rich like honey, stealing whatever breath I had left.

  “Um, it was great,” I said before quickly adding “sweetie.”

  The soldiers, lingering ten feet away, mumbled something obscene to one another and continued down the sidewalk, still very aware of our presence.

  “Thanks for your help,” I said after a moment, trying to compose myself, “but I was doing perfectly fine on my own.”

  “Oh, really?” He smirked. I hated that smirk. He knew what it did to me. “So that’s what ‘perfectly fine’ looks like? Because, from where I was standing, it looked more like you’d completely lost control of the situation.”

  “Well, you were wrong,” I snapped, prying his hands off me. “I was in complete control.” I flipped my hair over my shoulder before storming into the street.

  “Watch out!” someone shouted.

  That’s when I heard the breaks squeal.

  Before I could think it through, I was standing on the hood of a Toyota Camry, the driver gaping at me through a dirty windshield. The entire downtown street came to a standstill.

  One of the soldiers shouted as I leapt from the car and darted down the street. Alec was at my side in a heartbeat.

  “Just as stubborn as ever,” he growled, shoving me down a side street.

  We took a sharp right and headed down a small alleyway. Alec surrounded me, pushing my back against the brick wall and cupping a rough hand over my mouth. He turned his head and listened as the soldiers barreled past us.

  “They’re gone,” he said, exhaling. Alec removed his hand from my face but kept me firmly pinned against the wall.

  I struggled against his solid body but it was no use. He had over five hundred years on me. He was older, stronger – better. “Let go of me,” I ordered.

  “Next time, try not to draw so much attention to yourself,” he said, staring down at me as if I was nothing more than a child.

  I ignored his condescending tone, peering up at him through dark lenses. “Where have you been?” I asked, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

  Alec brushed a stray hair from my face. I savored the soft tingling sensation pulsing through his fingertips. I missed his touch. His eyes ran over me, the heat from his skin warming me to the very core. After a long moment, he stepped back.

  “Answer me,” I demanded, a sharp pain shooting through my chest. Was that what heartache felt like? No, impossible. I didn’t have a heart, not any more. Sure, I had a physical, beating, pumping, working heart – but not a heart. “You left out of nowhere, without a single word.”

  He sighed. “Zoë, I can explain.”

  “Then explain,” I snapped. “I had no one, Alec. No one. Do you have any idea what that’s like?”

  “You, of all people, know that I know exactly what that’s like. It wasn’t like I wanted to leave you, Zoë” he said, “William made me.”

  “He made you?” I was less than convinced.

  “It’s a long story. I’ll make it up to you, I promise,” he whispered. He kissed the inside of my palm as he’d done so many years before, as if not a single day had passed. “You have a million questions and I want to answer all of them. Over dinner.” Alec smiled down at me. The permanent five o’clock shadow suited him. I wanted to reach out and touch him, to be sure that he was real. “We need to get out of here. It won’t take those fools long to start back tracking.”

  I nodded, unable to find words.

  “I’ll come for you tonight.” He bent down, his arms on either side of me. He was less than an inch away, his lips hovering over m
ine. “I’ve missed you, Zoë.”

  “I–”

  Alec pulled something from his pocket and placed it in the palm of my hand. My heart stopped. When he pulled away, an orchid remained. He picked up the white flower and tucked it behind my ear.

  “You are still just as beautiful,” he whispered.

  And with that he was gone.

  –

  A hard knock shook the rickety wooden door. My heartbeat quickened. Another knock. Sword in hand, I tiptoed to the window and slipped outside. I snuck around the side of the log cabin, careful not to make any noise. There was a man standing at the front door. He knocked again.

  I was on him in a second. I wrapped my body around his back, pressing my sword firmly against his scruffy throat.

  “Who are you?” I demanded.

  Before I could figure out my next move, I was on my back, pinned beneath the stranger. I gasped for air, trying to push him off me but he didn’t budge.

  “Help!” I screamed.

  He quickly covered my mouth. “It’s okay,” he said in a husky voice. “William sent me.”

  I stopped struggling, losing myself in his warm golden eyes.

  “I’m going to get up now. You’re not going to try to kill me again, are you?”

  I shook my head slowly.

  “Good.” The man released me with caution, standing to his feet. He offered me a hand, which I hesitated to take.

  “I won’t hurt you,” he assured me.

  There was something about him, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I placed my hand in his, feeling the electricity flow through our bodies as he pulled me up from the ground. He flipped my hand over and lifted it to his lips, kissing the inside of my palm.

  “My name is Alec.” He bowed his head. “What is your name?”

  “Z-Zoë,” I stuttered.

  Alec leaned in close, his breath hot against my neck. “I’m sorry I scared you, Zoë.”

  –

  I couldn’t get Alec out of my head. His presence surprised me. Funny, I thought I’d come to a point where nothing surprised me. Obviously, I was wrong.