I ran over to the door, very aware of that constant humming sound from the ship outside. Of course it took forever to get it unlocked, but finally I got it. I turned the handle and just as I pushed it open a crack, we heard the front door open, causing all of us to freeze.
I looked into the terrified faces of my friends and slowly opened the door. I held it open so they could pass into the alley behind the store. Cal stuck his head out first, then looked back and nodded, telling us that the coast was clear. He went out, followed by Nolan, then Colt, who looked like he was afraid to walk out without me. As soon as he was out, I stepped through the door, but not before I heard someone opening up the employee door to the room I was exiting. I jumped out and quickly—and quietly—shut the door behind me. I was praying that the alien hadn’t seen or heard me.
When I turned around, Colt was right there. He grabbed my hand and squeezed, then took the lead down the alley, going in the same direction as the aliens, but hopefully we were ahead of them. I thought it was a good plan to go that way, since there were probably more Taoree coming up behind the two we just saw.
Every time we came to a break in the buildings, Colt would stop, peek around the corner, then sprint across and wait for us. We would each follow, mimicking his actions. That humming spaceship sound seemed to be following us. When we had done this at least five times and came to a sixth break in the buildings, Colt peeked, but didn’t sprint across. Instead he turned to us with large eyes and an even more fearful expression than he’d had a moment before.
I held my palm up trying to ask him what he saw, but he didn’t respond. So I made a face and curled my hands into claws—trying to convey Feral—then I shrugged, and held my hand up high above me—indicating Taoree, since all those bastards were huge.
He swallowed, then nodded. I must’ve made a face since I didn’t understand because he did the claw movement, followed by the alien one. It would’ve been comical in any other situation, but then I got it. He saw both—Ferals and Taoree. Well, isn’t this our lucky day.
I thought for a moment as I looked around, then I pointed at the space between the last two buildings we had crossed, but on the other side of the alley. It was too dangerous to make our way back the way we had come since we already knew what laid that way, but maybe we could run through the buildings to another street. God save us if there’s more of them that way.
Cal was on that end, so he took the lead. Nolan didn’t move at first, so I grabbed his shoulders from behind and steered him up to Cal, who was already checking in between the buildings. Cal looked over his shoulder at us with a single nod, then took off down between the buildings. I pushed Nolan forward and he snapped out of his mini freak-out and ran after Cal. I felt Colt right behind me as I followed them.
When we got to the end of the building, Cal stopped and did another check, then ran to the left, going farther away from the Ferals and Taoree that Colt had seen. Cal paused at the end of that building, checked, then ran across. Once we were all caught up, he ran to the other side of the street, then between another two buildings.
We kept at it, with Cal picking seemingly random directions as we went. As long as he took us farther from the murdering assholes, I didn’t care where the hell we ended up. We did that for probably twenty minutes before finally coming to a small bridge that led to a wooded area. Cal looked for our consent before heading across.
The bridge was probably only a hundred feet across, but we were overly exposed there, so it was a grim jog across. Luckily, it didn’t seem like anyone was following us. We could still hear the humming, but it seemed to be getting quieter—fucking finally.
Once we were in the trees, Cal took off at a run, zigzagging through the woods. The humming was drifting farther and farther away with every step we took, making a little spark of hope flutter in my chest. I hadn’t been sure we’d be able to make it out of there.
We eventually slowed to a walk once the sound was gone completely. We walked for hours, though none of us had watches and all our phones were long past dead. We stuck to the woods, probably feeling more coverage there.
I stopped walking when I heard other peoples’ footsteps coming from the direction we were going. “Do you hear that?” I asked in a whisper.
Everyone stopped and looked around. The sun was starting to set, so the lighting was strange and made it hard to see. The sound of footsteps was getting closer. Colt grabbed my arm and pulled me behind a tree, and I saw Cal and Nolan do the same out of the corner of my eyes. Colt was holding tightly to my hand.
When the first person walked past us, I thought we were okay. I thought it was just some other humans walking by, but then a branch snapped above me, making the guy turn in my direction. As soon as he saw me, he ran at me. Then all hell broke loose. Two more Ferals came through the trees, running toward me and Colt.
He was faster than me, pulling out his bat while I was still trying to get mine out of my backpack. Colt hit the Feral in the chin, making him fall onto his back. I thankfully yanked my bat out of my bag right as a Feral woman jumped at me.
I hit her in the shoulder, but she didn’t go down, she only backed up a step. I lifted the bat and swung for her head, but she ducked and I ended up missing. She swiped at my face and scratched my cheek with her long nails. I ignored the sting and hit her in the hip, knocking her off-balance. As she stumbled back, Nolan hit her right in the head from behind, making her crumble to the ground twitching.
I turned and saw that Colt and Cal were able to get the other two Ferals down too, but they weren’t dead either. They were twitching, almost like a seizure. What the fuck? We stood by watching them because I, for one, was not willing to beat them when they were already taken down. So I turned and started walking away, figuring the Ferals were done for and we could continue on our way.
I only made it twenty steps when Nolan yelled, “Jeremy!”
I turned as the Feral I had attacked started running at me. I was surprised, but Nolan’s warning gave me enough time to prepare. I raised my bat and as she ran, I swung, knocking her ass on the ground. Then I swung again, this time at her head, putting as much force as possible into it. After a third hit to the head, I stepped back and looked at the others.
Nolan was breathing heavily, standing over the top of the Feral that Cal had taken down, and a few feet away Colt was doing the same over the other one. I looked to my left and saw Cal with his bat raised as if he was ready to jump in wherever he was needed.
All three Ferals were twitching again.
“Why the fuck aren’t they dying?” Cal asked what we all were thinking.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Nolan stated, “The one you hit in the head died. Why won’t these?”
Cal looked at him grimly. “There was barely a head left on that one.”
Ew. True, but ew.
“Gross,” Nolan replied. “Do you think…” he swallowed hard. “Do you think we need to remove their heads?”
“That’s fucking gross, dude,” Colt took the words right outta my mouth. I was staring at Colt with big eyes, disgusted and unsure of what to do here. Colt pointed with his bat. “Yours is starting to get up again.”
I looked down and saw that he was right. The stupid bitch was leaning up, trying to sit. “Fuck!” I lifted my bat and swung at her head—again.
“Okay. Can we just leave them here?” I suggested.
Cal looked serious and angry. “Do you really want to let things that are trying to kill us roam free? They might follow us and attack from behind. Or they might, I dunno. Eat. Someone. Else.”
“They’re still people, Cal,” I argued.
“They stopped being people when those alien dickheads started controlling them. They’re not people anymore, Jeremy.”
“What if they can be fixed? What if we kill them and tomorrow someone figures out what’s wrong with ‘em?”
“Listen to me, J. I don’t want to kill them any more than you do.” He pointed at Colt’s, which was si
tting up, and Colt swung at it before Cal continued, “I don’t wanna kill them either. But right now, it’s us versus them, and I pick us. They will kill us if they get the chance. Or kill some other human walking around trying to survive. So right now, I don’t give a shit about tomorrow. I just want to make it through right now. Make it through the next ten minutes.”
I heard Nolan hitting his again, but I didn’t look because mine was starting to move again. “Jesus fuck!” This thing is fucking resilient. I knocked the damn thing out again.
“I’ll do it if you want,” Cal offered. “Move out of the way.” He started walking closer to me with his bat ready.
“No, Cal. I’ll do it,” I resigned myself. He was right. These fuckers weren’t human anymore and they were too dangerous to be left alive.
I raised my bat and hit the thing in the head over and over and over. Each hit made a horrible thud and cracking sound that I was sure I would never forget. Blood was spraying everywhere… all over me, but I didn’t care because the more I hit it, the more pissed I became. These bastards were murdering people left and right. There were fucking aliens running around trying to kill us and now we couldn’t even trust other humans because they wanted to eat us. I kept hitting it. It wasn’t fair that so many people were dead. It wasn’t fair that my family was suffering, that my friends had to fight for their lives.
Strong arms wrapped around my arms and chest from the back and I elbowed my attacker in the ribs, hearing a grunt from behind that made me feel guilty.
“Shh, shh, it’s okay, Jeremy,” Colt said into my ear as he held my arms to my sides. “It’s okay. We’re okay.”
I finally relaxed into him and let my bat fall to the ground. I hadn’t even realized that I had been crying while freaking murdering someone. Colt shifted his arms higher on my chest so I could wrap my bloody hands around his forearms. I felt him rest his chin on my shoulder. He held me until I calmed down.
“Let’s find somewhere to wash up,” I suggested. “A stream or something. We’re all covered in blood.”
I could only guess that Colt and Nolan had both pounded their Ferals because neither were moving and there was blood everywhere. I didn’t even want to know what my face looked like. I was sure it was filthy and disgusting.
We grabbed our weapons and walked a hundred feet away before Colt pulled out the map and started flipping through pages, trying to figure out where we were and if there was any water close by. We figured out that we were past the Susquehanna River, but Ross Pond was very close by if our estimates were correct. It was hard to tell exactly where we were without any road signs around.
It took us a while, but we soon found what we assumed was Ross Pond. It was a lot bigger than I was expecting. We all stayed fairly close to one another, but tried to give each other privacy. The water was fucking freezing and the sun wasn’t out anymore, so we couldn’t even get in, we just had to undress and splash ourselves clean. I was thankful that we had packed some soap in our bags.
Once I was clean, I put on my extra pair of cargo pants and a clean tee, then shrugged on my old sweatshirt and wrapped myself in my unzipped thermal sleeping bag we found at the sporting goods store.
Once the other guys finished up I asked, “Do you wanna stay here tonight? Maybe in the morning we can clean our clothes? I don’t think we should make a fire tonight. It’ll draw too much attention.”
“Let’s stay here,” Cal agreed, “and we can sleep in shifts to keep a lookout. I’ll go first.”
“Wake me in a couple hours,” I volunteered, liking the idea of one of us keeping watch.
“I’ll go after Jeremy,” Colt offered.
“Guess that means I’ll take the last shift,” Nolan added. “We should probably switch it around every night so the same people aren’t interrupting their sleep over and over.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Cal said. “Let’s keep the lake to our backs so it’ll be easier to watch. I’ll settle over here,” he nodded to a random tree. “You guys lay over here,” he pointed to the little area next to the tree.
“Alright.”
All of us were not only exhausted from walking and being in the sun all day, but our faces were completely sunburned, making each of us even more uncomfortable. I felt like someone slapped my face about a thousand times in a row, making my skin burn and feel tight. It fucking sucked, and I knew Cal and Nolan had to be worse off than either me or Colt since we’d each worn the hat for part of the day.
I walked over and laid my sleeping bag flat on the ground, then turned to Colt. “Wanna hook ours together?” I wanted him close. But I didn’t say that.
He smiled at me. “Sure.” Then we sat down on my sleeping bag with his over our legs and tried to get them zipped together without freezing our asses off.
Once they were set, I found my camp pillow, opened it and lay back waiting for Colt to set his up. When he was done, I pulled him onto my chest, hugging him tight. He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed my cheek before settling into my side. I tilted his head up with a finger under his chin and kissed him properly before releasing him.
As much as I wanted to keep making out with him, I knew we were both exhausted and needed to get as much sleep as possible. It didn’t take long for my eyes to drift closed and sleep to take me under.
***
“Jeremy,” the black eye was saying, “You need to come back.”
I just stood there staring at the eye, unmoving.
“You need to come back home,” it said through the fence.
“I’m trying,” I finally told him. “We’re trying to get back.”
“You need to hurry, Jeremy,” the eye was pleading with me, “I don’t know exactly where you are. I can’t p—”
“J, it’s your turn, man,” Cal was shaking my shoulder.
I blinked, looking around at the trees, confused. But then everything came back to me—the Taoree, the Ferals, the blood, the lake, the dream. Yeah, that was a weird dream. I’d never had a dream of the alien eye before like that. Every time I see it, it’s as if I’m reliving that night, but this dream was different. I had never spoken back to the eye.
“J, you awake?” Cal asked.
I blinked at him, “Y-yeah.”
“You’re gonna need your sleeping bag. It’s fucking frigid,” he told me. “You’re going to have to wake Colt up so you can unhook yours or something.” He yawned, making me yawn back. “Anyway, I’m going to sleep. G’night.”
“Night,” I whispered at him as I slid out from under Colt’s body.
“Let’s just move the sleeping bag next to the tree, then you can stay under here with me,” Colt mumbled almost incoherently without opening his eyes. “I’m cold even with your body heat.”
“You want my heat?” I asked cornily.
He snorted. “Yes, I do.”
“You’re gonna have to get up, then,” I informed him.
He sighed, “I know,” then started to sit up, with his eyes still closed.
We hurriedly got out of the bag, pulled it over to the tree and jumped back in. Colt did all of this without opening his eyes, which made me smile at him even though he couldn’t see me.
“You alright there, Babe?” I asked him when he was so far under the blanket that I could no longer see him, the little endearment slipping out without my permission.
He either didn’t notice or didn’t care because he said, “No, I’m fucking freezing.”
I laughed a little and sat back against the tree. We had the sleeping bag up against the tree, so my back was still covered instead of being pushed against the cold trunk. The front part of the sleeping bag was up over my shoulders and Colt was tucked under there with his head on my lap. He wrapped his arms around my hips, making me wish I was naked because his face was in the perfect place right now. I pushed the thought aside so I didn’t end up hurting him with a hard-on poking him in the eye.
I put one arm over one of his and started brushing my fingers through hi
s hair. I lifted the top blanket a little. “Can you breathe in there?”
“Yes, close it. You’ll let all the warm air out,” he mumbled into my thigh.
I chuckled and went back to playing with his hair. It was so soft and the curls snapped back to his scalp when I pulled them. Plus, it was giving me something to concentrate on so I wouldn’t fall asleep while I was supposed to be guarding my friends.
When Colt’s voice mumbled from the sleeping bag, I jumped because I thought he’d fallen back asleep, “So ‘Babe,’ huh?”
I smiled at that. “You got a problem with that?”
“Nope,” he answered, “I just never had a guy call me that before.”
“Would you rather me go with Pumpkin? Or Peach?” I teased.
I could feel him laughing more than I could hear him. “No, Babe is good. But I’ll call you Pumpkin, ‘kay?”
I chuckled, “You can call me whatever you like.”
“You’re gonna regret that statement, Babycakes.” I could hear the smile in his voice.
I couldn’t help the laugh slipped out. “Shh, don’t make me laugh that loudly.” He pinched my hip. “Ow. Go back to sleep.”
“Aye, aye, Captain Boobear.” He grabbed my hand as I laughed softly at that and placed a kiss on my palm. Before I could react, he added, “Don’t even think about opening this sleeping bag, Chief.”
I shook my head at him. “Fine, but I’m giving you a big slobbery kiss in the morning.”
“Does it have to be slobbery?”
“Yes.”
He huffed, “Fine.”
I laughed out, “Go back to sleep or you’ll never wake up tomorrow.”
“Stop talking to me.”
“You started it,” I reminded him.
“No I didn’t, you called me Babe.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Nolan whisper-yelled at us, “Both of you just shut the fuck up. Some of us are trying to sleep here.”
Taoree: Taoree Trilogy #1 Page 9