《Storm of the End》


 Chapter I: The Way Things Are Now

    I remember a time when we didn''t have to fear waking up.


    I remember a time when there was hope for tomorrow.


    A time where we could look forward to the future.


    A time when there was a future.


    That time is gone now. And it is never, ever, going to come back.


    We were too careless, too ignorant. We let peace and luxury lull us into a trance.


    We became complacent, and evil reigned.


    Our planet is in its death throes. Pollution and urbanization are rampant, choking this planet''s life force. The corporations that rule the earth divert the attention of the populace so that they cannot be blamed. Things keep getting worse and worse, the corporations and politicians are preparing to escape and rise from the wreckage while the world dies.


    It is too late for us. We sowed the seeds of our own destruction.


    It is the time to reap what we''ve sown.


    <u>June 2nd 6:30am 20XX</u>


    My eyes snapped open, and I nearly leaped out of my bed. I stared wildly around the room, then sighed with relief as I recognized the peeling paint on the cramped walls of my bedroom. I had just woken up from the most frightening nightmare I had ever had, but the strange thing is I could barely remember what happened in it. All I remembered was a booming voice telling me something, and a heavy rain all around me. But what had it said?


    I layed back down. There was still a little bit of time before I would have to get up for work. I wanted to savor the comfort of my bed one last time before I went away to work on the oil rig.


    As I stared up at the ceilling, I kept trying to remember the dream, but it was way too vague of a memory.


    "Markus, it''s time to get up," a soft voice calls from outside of the bedroom.


    I dragged myself out of bed and dressed into the same clothes I had worn for the past week. I found myself laughing at how in the time before, people had more clothes than they knew what to do with. Now there was no way you would spend money on clothes unless you absolutely had to. We certainly couldn''t afford any more, with us owning a single bedroom apartment with a kitchen and bathroom. The bedroom couldn''t even really be called a bed "room" as it only had enough room for the matress.


    I stepped out into the kitchen, the only other room in the house other than the bathroom, to see my wife, Jessica, making me breakfast. She turns to me and smiles, "Good morning!"


    I couldn''t stop myself from smiling back, "Good morning." I don''t know how she always managed to act so cheerful in these times. No matter how bad things have gotten, she''s always been there for me, even in the mess the world''s in now.


    My eyes scanned the kitchen. My son Aaron''s bed was up against the wall. Whenever he was here, he would sleep in the kitchen but more often then not he would sleep at the school. Of course I wouldn''t get to see him on my last day here for a while. There was a meal waiting for me on the dinner table.


    "I cooked you a big breakfast," Jessica said, "Since you''re going to be away for a while and all."


    I sat down to eat. An actual fried egg was on the plate, instead of a processed one. "Jessica, you didn''t have to..."


    "It''s your last day here, so I wanted to get you something special, don''t worry about it!" she winked as she sat down with me.


    We talked about meaningless things as we sat at the table. Jessica told me that the department store she worked at was actually seeing a rise in business. She was in a pretty good mood about it, thought it was likely that it wouldn''t go out of business like so many of the non-giga-corporation owned stores around. She was always looking for the positives.


    I was startled as an alarm went off on the watch my father had given me before he passed away.


    "Oh my, is it time for you to go already?" Jessica asked.


    "Looks like it..." I kissed her on the lips, "Goodbye Jessica, I''ll miss you. Good luck at work and tell Aaron I love him."


    "Be safe. And if you ever get sad, just remember that I''m cheering for you back at home!" she said and gave me a big smile.


    I laughed, then quickly ran to grab my coat and put on my steel-toe boots. I couldn''t afford to be late for work.


    Jessica tapped me on the shoulder, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. There was a letter here for you this morning, from a name I don''t recognize. Here!" She handed me the letter.


    The sending address said it was from Edward Peaks. That was a name I hadn''t seen in a long time. Edward was a good friend of my dad''s, and though I never really knew what he did for a living, I knew that he was actually pretty wealthy. I had been to his place a few times when my dad had gone to visit him. I remember everytime he would let me look through his massive library, and even take a few books home sometimes. The last time I had seen him was my father''s funeral, but I didn''t really get the chance to speak with him at the time. I wonder what he wanted? That would have to wait though, I''d read it when I went to bed at the oil rig. I tucked it in my coat pocket.


    Right as I put my hand on the door knob, the phone rang.


    Jessica picked up the phone, "Hello? Yeah, he''s still here. Okay. Here he is."


    She handed me the phone, "Hello?"


    "Hey Mark," a rough male voice answered. It was Mike Kelsey, my best friend since high school and one of my co-workers at the oil rig. Despite everything that''s happened, he hasn''t changed one bit. "We got a message from the big guys. You don''t go to work until next week."


    My eyes widened, "Why not?"Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "You mean ya don''t know? The storm, man. It''s cancelled cause of the big storm that''s comin," he replied, shocked.


    "What storm?"


    There was a pause, "Man, the media''s all over it. A storm just whipped up out of nowhere off the coast of Canada a few days ago. One of the worst storms in a while. She''s goin'' fast too, it''ll be here in two days or so."


    "It must be pretty big, I can''t remember them ever cancelling work because of the weather."


    "Mhmm, the thing''s huge. Turn on a radio and listen to the reports why dontch''a. I mean... if you still have a radio."


    "Will do, Mike."


    "Alright buddy, see ya around. Good luck."


    "See you," I hung up the phone.


    "Work''s cancelled, why?" Jessica asked. Her expression was a balance between happiness and worry. No work would mean I could spend time with Aaron and her, but no work also meant no money.


    "There''s a storm. A really huge one apparently. Here, I''ll turn on the radio..."


    The radio buzzed for a moment as I turned it on, then a male announcer''s voice sounded from the speaker, "-and meterologists claim that this is one of the biggest tropical storms in recent history. Areas that are hit will exprience heavy rainfall, high winds, lightning and heavy fog. The storm is expected to hit Maine by tonight and shows no signs of ending. Experts fear that his will have a large impact on our country''s economy. We''ll bring you more information as it comes in, so please stay tuned..."


    I switched the radio off, "I''ll have to find some odd jobs for the next two weeks..." I muttered.


    Jessica was silent for a moment, she looked like she was struggling over something, then it seemed like she made a decision, "Markus... why don''t you spend some time with Aaron this week?"


    "But Jessica, I have to bring in some money. We''ll lose too much if I don''t work for those two weeks," as much as I wanted to spend some time with my son, we needed money.


    "Then just do something with him for a few days. He misses you, you know. You barely ever see him."


    I sighed. Maybe I could, we could hold off for a few days, "Alright. We''ll go camping tonight and tomorrow before the storm hits."


    "Excellent! Alright, I''m off to work." She hugged me, and then she was out the door.


    <u>June 2nd 12:00pm 20XX</u>


    As the day went on, a nagging curiosity took over me and I decided to head to one of the restaurants with a TV to see video coverage of the storm. I navigated my way through the apartment complex and opened the door to step outside. The light momentarily blinded me. It was surprisingly clear out that day, somewhat of a rare occurrence in these times. I was used to seeing constant grey clouds blocking out the blue of the sky, but today you couldn''t even imagine that a violent storm was on its way here. I almost took a deep breath in, but thought better of it. The air in this city wasn''t fresh like it used to be. Whenever I breathed in, it was quick and shallow. Despite that, I couldn''t mask the stench of chemicals, smoke and garbage.


    When I was young, this city lived up to its name of Arborline. It used to be green and full of life, with trees planted all around. Now all that''s left is the withered stumps of dead trees. Gone was the vibrant colors of the past, now all that remained was the dull gray of concrete and asphalt.


    I walked slowly, keeping my eyes fixed on the sky. For some reason, I had a certain feeling that this would be the last clear sky in a long, long time.


    The restaurant wasn''t far from where we lived, so it didn''t take me long to get there. I walked in and greeted the man at the desk, who immediately asked me what I wanted. I wasn''t particularly hungry and I just came for the TV. I just asked for a water, which I still had to pay for. There were about three groups sitting down to eat throughout the restaurant. I sat at a table facing the television.


    A female reporter was talking, with an image of the current location of the storm behind her. Jesus. It had already made it to Maine. She talked about its estimated time of arrival and then images of the destruction left in the storm''s wake came on the screen. As the images appeared one after the other, she talked about the effort by first responders to find survivors. Dear God, I knew it was big but I didn''t think it would be this big. Images flashed of skyscrapers toppled over, huge piles of rubble and strangely, huge holes in the ground. She said that the holes were sink holes, but I had a feeling that wasn''t what they were. Just how strong was the storm? The camera shifted to a male reporter, with a young woman seated across from him for an interview. The young woman looked like she hadn''t slept in days, and her eyes were red from crying. She looked insane.


    "Here we have a survivor of the storm that volunteered to speak with us. What was it like to be in this storm, Cassandra?"


    She paused for a moment, and then spoke up. Her voice quivered and quaked as she spoke, "It was... terrifying. The most scared I''ve ever been in my entire life. If it wasn''t for my father telling us to go in the basement, I don''t think we would have survived. When we woke up the next day, our entire house was gone!"


    The reporter politely nodded as the woman spoke, then when she was finished asked a question I found strange. "Other survivors have stated they''ve heard strange things as the storm passed, did you hear anything strange?"


    The woman paused again, this time she seemed like she didn''t want to answer. She lowered her head.


    "Anything at all?" The reporter asked again.


    The woman shook her head, as if waking herself from a trance, and then spoke again. "W-Well, in the middle of the night, right when the storm was at its worst... I heard something that woke me up." She shuddered.


    "And what was it that you heard?" the reporter pushed.


    "A loud noise. It was... so loud. It was a long rumbling that shook the entire house and the ground around me. At first I thought it was thunder, but it didn''t sound like thunder. It sounded... almost like a... whale, or something... Right after, the ground shook again and I heard a bunch of crashes outside. Somehow, everyone else slept through it. But I was wide awake."


    I heard a few gasps around the room.


    The reporter nodded. "This sounds very similar to what many other survivors report. Was there anything else you may have heard?"


    The color faded from the woman''s face. Though people had been chatting in the restaurant before, now their attention was focused on the television.


    The reporter, who had been pushy the entire interview, finally seemed to show some sympathy, "Are you okay, Cassandra? If you want we can-"


    "The screams. Oh God.... the screams..." her voice faltered for a moment, "I heard screams. But they... They weren''t human! No, they couldn''t be." Her face twisted with terror. She wasn''t looking at the reporter anymore; she was just looking off into empty space.


    "They definitely weren''t human!" She screamed suddenly. "But then... But then what were they...? They were so terrifying. So loud. Not like any person.... Not like any animal.... The screams! And then the laughing.... oh God no..." She kept going on and on until she was almost incomprehensible. The reporter made a hand signal at the camera, and the screen cut to black.


    The restaurant was completely silent. I didn''t feel too good. I felt like vomiting, actually. But despite how I felt, I didn''t want to leave. No I couldn''t leave even if I wanted to. I needed to figure out what was going on. Just what in the hell was that?


    A moment later, the screen lit up again. A different reporter spoke "We''re sorry for the interruption, but now we''re back with more information on the storm" A spectrogram appeared on the screen. "Somebody managed to get an audio recording of the sound that some survivors have been reporting. We will now play it for you"


    The audio quality was poor, but I could hear it well enough. It started off just like the woman had described: a rumbling. It was very deep and low pitched. If I had to compare it to something, it sounded like a mix between a loud motor and a whale. It made me feel very unnerved. Suddenly, the sound rose in volume to the point where I almost covered my ears. The sound cut off and it showed the reporter again.


    "It is usually only reported by those that were in or near the very center of the storm. Extensive research is going in to the cause of the noise and other anomalies reported, but at this moment we have no leads"


    That sick feeling came back again, much stronger this time. I had to get up and go to the restroom to splash some water on my face. I stared in the mirror for a long moment, my skin was as pale as a ghost. What in the literal hell was that sound. What even could have caused that? And then there was the screams that the woman had been raving about, what was going on?


    Still feeling sick, I made my way out of the restaurant. The reporter was talking to another survivor, but I didn''t pay much attention to it. I was still thinking about what that woman said.


    Just what was this storm?

 Chapter II.I: Gnawing Doubt

    <u>June 2nd 1:00pm 20XX</u>


    I sat at home for the rest of the day, listening to the radio for news of the storm. I should have been off looking for work until I went back to the rig, but I just couldn''t stop thinking of the storm.


    Not much more news came on for a while. It was the same thing over and over again. There was talk about a mysterious fog in the storm, how it shouldn''t have been able to persist in the high winds and rains. More and more survivors were interviewed, most of which were from areas around the edge of the storm, so they didn''t have much new information. But every once and a while there would be someone that had been near the center. They''d almost always bring up the big noise, but nobody else brought up anything about screams.


    I decided to let it go, maybe that woman was just crazy.


    But something deep down kept tugging at me, a gnawing doubt.


    I didn''t completely stop thinking about the screams.


    Later on, there was a researcher who came on, talking about how they recorded seismic activity in the areas affected by the storm. He said that by some strange means, an earthquake must be occurring in each of the areas the storm hits. That was the only explanation that they could come up with. It explained a lot, the loud noise, the toppling buildings and the holes in the ground. I almost sighed with relief. Though it didn''t make sense how an earthquake would be following the path of the storm, it was something in the realm of reality, something I could envision. There wasn''t any new information until the radio said the storm was now in Massachusetts. I was about to shut the radio off when the announcer said something that chilled my body all the way down to my bones.


    Five bodies had been found in the basement of a bank in Boston. There was no way a person could have made it into the basement without the proper tools, as it was sealed off entirely by ten feet of debris. The wall of debris had fallen before the people were killed. The bodies, the authorities claimed, were mutilated beyond recognition. Attempts were made to identify the corpses.... They failed. Though they are unsure how exactly they died, all the evidence pointed towards a human culprit. It is unknown what was used to murder the people in the basement, but the markings on them didn''t quite match up with any known weapon. It definitely wasn''t one of the five, because there was no way any of them could have mutilated their own body to such an extreme before succumbing to their wounds. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    Search for a suspect is underway, but not a priority....


    They''re too busy trying to find out how it even could have happened.


    My stomach did somersaults as I heard this. I couldn''t stop myself from exclaiming out loud: "What in the hell is going on?!"


    Just when I had been calmed, just when I had been reassured. "The screams!" the woman''s voice played back in my mind. "So loud! Not like any person.... Not like any animal!"


    I shut the radio off. I realized that I had been sweating. My entire shirt was soaked. My mind tried to wrap around what could have caused the deaths. The screams. There had to be a logical explanation. The screams. There must be some kind of logical explanation. My mind raced for an answer. What could have done that? What? I started to get dizzy, I felt physically ill again. "The screams... and then the laughing!"


    I almost collapsed, but suddenly the phone rang and snapped me back into reality. It rang again, and I tried to clear my head as I went to pick it up. It rang a third time. I still felt dizzy, but I answered it. I didn''t say anything for a moment as I tried to collect myself, but the thoughts lingered.


    "H-hello?" I managed to stutter out.


    "Hi Markus" it was Jessica.


    "Oh, hey... Jessica." My voice sounded like I had been crying.


    There was a moment of silence before Jessica spoke, "Are you.... okay? You don''t sound too good."


    "No, nothing''s wrong... Just a bit of a runny nose I think" I lied.


    "Well alright. Could you meet Aaron outside the apartment? He''s going to be home in two hours and I think it would be a great surprise if he gets to see you first thing when he gets here."


    "Okay, will do. See you tonight"


    "Love you"


    "I love you too, Jessica."


    I hung up.


    I went to the bathroom and had a quick shower, which eased me a little bit. I tried to push the thoughts away, but they persisted, lingering at the back of my mind. I did my best to act like nothing was wrong. Despite my greatest efforts, I just couldn''t push my paranoia away.


    Against my better judgement, I couldn''t resist the temptation to turn the radio on again. "More bodies like the recent incident in Boston have been fou-" I shut it off again. I didn''t want to hear any more.


    ...God damn it.

 Chapter II.II: Gnawing Doubt

    <u>June 2nd 3:00pm 20XX</u>


    I waited outside the apartment for the rest of the two hours. The bright sunshine helped to ease my mind a little bit.


    Before I knew it, a rusted school bus pulled up to the apartment''s parking lot, the doors opened and out stepped Aaron. He almost seemed almost like a stranger to me, like someone else''s child. It looked as if he had grown a foot since the last time I saw him and his dark hair was much longer than it had been before, almost reaching his shoulders.


    As he made his way to the apartment, I felt myself longing for the time before, where I didn''t have to be away working all the time just so we could survive. I could have actually had time to see him grow if we had him in the time before. I counted myself blessed that I was given a chance to spend some time with him now.


    A raindrop hit my foot. No, not rain, the sky was clear. It was a single teardrop.


    "A-Aaron?" I called out, my voice shaking.


    He looked up, and his eyes scanned over me. He seemed confused for a moment, almost as if he didn''t recognize me at first, then he smiled.


    "Dad?" he said as he came rushing over to me, "What are you doing here?"


    "There''s a big storm coming, a really big one. I don''t have to work this week."


    "That''s great!" he said as he reached me, hugging me.


    "And do you know what that means? We get to spend some time together, we''re going camping tonight and maybe tomorrow if the storm isn''t here by then."


    His eyes lit up, "It''s been so long since we got to do something like that! I''m going to go pack my bags right away!"


    We both walked into the apartment building and started climbing the stairs to our apartment, "So, what should we do after camping, dad?" Aaron asked me.


    I paused, I didn''t want to ruin the moment, "Well, I''ll have to find a temporary job after that"


    Aaron''s smile faded, he sighed, "Oh"


    "But hey, we''ll make these two days something that we''ll remember years from now!"


    He smiled again, but I could still see in his eyes that he was sad.


    Once we made it back into our apartment, I helped Aaron prepare his bag for camping. We didn''t pack much, just the necessities. We didn''t really have much to pack anyway. I asked him a lot of questions.


    "So, how was school?"


    "Alright I guess"This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    "Did you learn anything new?"


    "Not really"


    I could tell he was having a bit of trouble talking to me, he barely saw me after all. But I could also tell that he was very excited to finally spend some time with me for the first time in a long while.


    I continued to ask him more questions. Things were going pretty well at school; he had some friends and had good grades. We talked together for a few more hours, asking about what happened in between the time that we had met last. After a while, we were chatting away like we used to. I told him about work, about the trouble we had a little while ago. He talked about his friends, and the things they did together.


    I wish that every day could be like this. I wish that we could talk as if everything was normal.


    I always found it pretty impressive how fervently people try to normalize everything, how hard they try to make it seem like everything is going alright, even in the face of obvious adversity and inequities. "School" had essentially become government mandated propaganda stations, where your children were forced from you and programmed to behave in a way that would benefit the government and nothing else. I honestly think it had always been that way, but now it was more obvious than ever. Even if Aaron finished school, which was required for even the most simple jobs, I really didn''t know if there was even a future waiting for him. Even though I was aware of all this, I still couldn''t help myself from falling into the flow of "normal" life and essentially pretending like nothing was wrong.


    As soon as we finished packing, I prepared us supper. Canned food, as usual. We didn''t even know what exactly the meat actually was, but it was "ham" flavored. After a deadly virus had supposedly rendered most meat dangerous for human consumption a few years ago, we had been forced to use other means for food. Real meat was incredibly scarce. Many people ate bugs, as they were very easy to produce, but most people preferred to eat a familiar tasting food.


    Immediately after supper was prepared, there was a knock at the door. I opened it and smiled. Jessica walked in, and we embraced each other.


    "How did you make out with Aaron?"


    Aaron came at the sound of her voice and the three of us hugged together, for the first time in a long time. Jessica laughed with joy, "It''s been forever since all three of us have been together!"


    We sat together for what felt like forever, in each other''s arms. Moments like these were hard to come by, few and far in between. We savored the moment while it lasted. Then, finally, we let go reluctantly.


    "Let''s have supper together!" Aaron exclaimed.


    We gathered around the dinner table together. Something we almost never had the time for. Canned mystery meat and stale crackers wasn''t the best get together meal, but none of us cared. We were together and that''s all that mattered to us.


    As I was about to eat my last bite, Jessica told me something that sent my mind into a spiral. "Markus..." she seemed downcast as she started, "...did you hear? The storm''s gone."


    A chill ran down my spine. "What do you mean, gone?"


    "It just stopped once it passed into Connecticut. They say that it instantly vanished" she looked down, "That means they might send you to the Oil Rig early..."


    Aaron looked at me, his eyes looked like they were about to start watering.


    Several thoughts rushed through me at once. For one, I was extremely disappointed that I might only have tonight to spend with Aaron. But then there was the storm. That damned storm that had been driving me insane over the course of the entire day. How could it have just disappeared with no warning? I didn''t know whether to feel relieved, or frustrated. Now I didn''t have to worry about it damaging the city and our home, or about those God forsaken screams. But on the other hand, I wanted answers.


    There was something wrong with this storm, I don''t know how to explain it.


    It just felt so unnatural and surreal. The fog that persisted in the wind, the strange sounds, the earthquake that followed it, the bodies... the screams. And now it just vanished?! That only served to further set my paranoia off.


    What the hell was this storm?

 Chapter II.III: Gnawing Doubt

    I woke up from my trance to notice Jessica and Aaron staring at me. I pushed the thoughts of the storm aside. "That''s... weird. Very weird" I mumbled out. I turned to Aaron, "Hey buddy, don''t worry. We''ll definitely have some time together tonight and probably tomorrow too"


    He smiled, but I knew he was let down.


    Jessica got up. "Well, I know this is a special occasion so I went ahead and got a little something for the three of us" She walked over to the counter and brought over a small box. "You can open it up, Aaron"


    Aaron excitedly opened the box. As it opened, a sweet scent filled the room. It was the smell of the past. Of the time before, when my mother used to bake something for us at the end of every month. It was a sugar cookie, ornate with colorful icing. I hadn''t seen something this in a long time. Aaron smiled, "Mom, thank you! Thank you!"


    "There''s one for each of us" Jessica smiled, reached into the box and handed one to me.


    I took in the wonderful scent of the cookie. It was a real, baked cookie. Not a mass produced one. "Jessica, where did you get these...?" I lowered my voice, "How much did it cost you?"


    "At the bakery near the department store. My boss''s wife owns it, and I got a discount because they were too old. I thought it would be a great way to celebrate all of us being together"


    I took another sniff. I felt almost as if I just couldn''t take a bite into it, it looked so delicious.


    "How about we have half tonight, then when you come back we can all have the other half together?" Jessica proposed.


    Aaron and I both nodded.


    The smell brought me back to my childhood, "Let''s all take a bite at the same time!" I said. "Ready? Three. Two. One!"


    My taste buds were overwhelmed by the sweetness and pure flavor of the cookie. I used to have something like this almost every other day in the time before, but I can''t even remember the last time I ate a real sweet like this. After tasting nothing but processed food for so long, it tasted like the nectar of the gods.


    "Mmmmmm...." we simultaneously showed our agreement.


    After finishing half and almost reluctantly putting what remained away, the phone rang. It was Mike. "Hey Markus, how''s it going?"


    "Alright," I paused. "Is this about work?"


    "Yeah man, we''re going out tomorrow night since the storm''s gone. It''s pretty freaky how it just disappeared like that, huh?"


    I started to breathe a bit heavier, I almost forgot the storm ever happened. "Yeah, freaky"


    "Mhmm, they found a huge hole right where the storm stopped. They haven''t investigated it yet, too busy finding survivors and trying to rebuild the government buildings. But they think the hole goes pretty damn deep. They say it has something to do with those earthquakes or whatever"


    I felt goosebumps form on my skin. Now I had even more questions. "This whole thing just doesn''t make any sense, Mike. I mean, how does an earthquake just happen to occur wherever the storm goes?"


    "You''re askin'' the wrong guy, Markus. I''m wondering the same thing. Wouldn''t be surprised if maybe it had somethin'' to do with all the pent up chemicals or whatever in the earth"


    There was silence for a moment.


    "But hey, did you listen to the radio recently? Seems like the whole damn world''s goin'' into chaos!"


    "What do you mean?"


    "Huge natural disasters are everywhere! There''s a big flood in Africa, and boy do I mean big! Entire parts near the shore are completely underwater. There''s also this weird thunderstorm that keeps goin'' back and forth between China and Japan. Not a cloud in the sky but the lightning just keeps coming down! In Brazil, there''s this crazy drought, and forest fires starting everywhere. It''s affecting them pretty badly, probably gonna screw up the economy even more than it already is. And finally, you''re not gonna believe this... There''s a freakin'' blizzard all across England! I know they have bad weather, but damn, a blizzard in the summer!"The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    As Mike was talking, my entire body went numb. A flood in Africa, a cloudless thunderstorm in Asia, a drought in South America, and... a storm in North America. One major natural disaster in almost every continent in the world, and each is beyond normal. "Jesus Christ..." I muttered.


    "You can say that again. Scientists are tryin'' to figure out just what in the hell''s goin'' on, but I think it must have somethin'' to do with all the pollution or maybe that global warmin'' stuff. It''s almost like the Earth''s fightin'' back."


    Silence hung on the line for a long moment. I couldn''t say anything. I was absolutely speechless. In just one day, I found out about this storm, kept hearing strange things surrounding it, worried myself sick and then it just goes and disappears. And now this, now I find out that similar things are happening all across the globe. It''s just too much to take in, too much to handle at once.


    Mike cleared his throat, "Uhm, anyway man, see ya tomorrow."


    "Yeah... see you" I said and hung up.


    "What''s wrong?" Jessica looked worried. I could only imagine what I looked like, probably as pale as a ghost.


    "...I have to go to work tomorrow evening. Aaron... I can only go away for a day" I wasn''t lying, but that''s obviously not what had me troubled the most. But for some reason I couldn''t mention the worldwide disasters to her. I was scared.


    Jessica frowned, Aaron looked down. "Hey, remember what I said, Aaron? We''ll make this trip a day to remember."


    His eyes cleared up a little bit, he smiled and nodded.


    We spent a few more minutes together, and then Aaron and I decided to head out. I managed to bury the thoughts of the storm deep in my mind. I convinced myself that the storm was gone now, I didn''t have to worry anymore.


    It was gone, it wouldn''t come here. Yeah, there was nothing to worry about.


    We both said goodbye to Jessica, and we went into the back lot to our car. It was old and rusty, but it was all we could ever hope to afford. We only ever used the car when we had to travel far distances or at night, and the place we were going camping was too far away to walk. I turned the key, and there was a pause where I thought the car wouldn''t start up, but I was rewarded with the pained sound of the engine roaring back to life. The hood rattled for a few moments, and then the car was ready to drive. After double checking to make sure we didn''t forget anything, we were off on the road.


    Aaron and I played I spy as we drove along, and within an hour we had made it to our destination. By the time we arrived, the sun was just starting to set.


    "Well, here we are!" I exclaimed as I pulled on to the side of the road by a forested area.


    "Where are we?" Aaron asked as he looked around, puzzled. We were in a heavily wooded area, far from any houses, a rare sight these days.


    "Where?" I laughed as I opened the door, "Nowhere!"


    "Nowhere?" Aaron came after me, surprised.


    "We''re in the middle of nowhere. That''s the thrill of camping, Aaron" I opened the trunk. Of course, I''ve been here before. My father used to take me camping in this exact same spot when I was younger. It was one of the few places that remained untouched like this after all these years. Dad and I used to try to make it camping here at least once a month. Oh, how I missed him, but in all honesty I was glad that he didn''t live to see the world turn out like it is now.


    "So, where are we going to set up the tent?" Aaron asked after he took out all of his stuff.


    I closed the trunk and faced the trees, "Follow me!"


    We marched through the woods, I followed the invisible path that my father and I had taken so many years ago. Bird songs filled the air, and I saw Aaron''s eyes light up as a few fluttered by. Living in the choked city, the only wildlife he would see is pigeons, rats and other pests. Every once and a while, we''d stop and point to some new sight; a colorful flower, a big mushroom, a strange and colorful looking bug, a groundhog hole, a rabbit. Things he didn''t have a chance to see every day. We leisurely made our way to the camping spot, taking our time so Aaron could absorb his surroundings. By the time the sun touched the horizon, we made it to the clearing.


    I turned to Aaron, "This is it."


    He looked around. The clearing wasn''t very big, enough to fit the tent, some room to light the fire outside and lay down. The long grass was absent in one space off to the side where dad and I used to have our fires. It was fairly high up, so you could barely see the city in the distance from where we were. Other than that, it was just a simple clearing in the middle of the woods, but it was special to me.


    Aaron and I put our stuff down, set up the tent, and then gathered a few pieces of wood to make a fire. After that, we just sat down and talked until the sun down. We lit our fire, and roasted the two hotdogs I could afford to bring with us. Aaron managed to burn his, so I offered him mine with a laugh.


    After we finished eating, we laid down and looked at the stars. I suddenly had a strange thought that it must have been fate that me and Aaron went out camping today.


    "It looks so beautiful," Aaron said, "I wish you could see this many every night"


    "You used to be able to," I sighed, "The sky used to be this clear every night. In the time before. Let''s enjoy it while it lasts, the sky probably won''t be like this again for a very long time."


    There were a few moments of peaceful silence as we gazed at the stars together, and then a shooting star shot by.


    "Woah, dad what was that?" Aaron exclaimed.


    "A shooting star. When you see one, you''re supposed to make a wish."


    "Well then, I hope that I''m with you and mom when we get to see the stars again. I hope all of us can go stargazing!"


    I took a deep breath. "I hope so too"


    We sat in silence for a while after, listening to the sounds of the crickets and the occasional hoot of an owl. Before long, we both started to yawn, so we decided to head into the tent.


    Right before falling asleep, Aaron said to me "I wish we could be together like this every day"


    "I know buddy, me too"


    And with that, feeling full of longing for the time before where every day could have been like this, I let my head drop down and I fell asleep.


    I forgot that the storm had ever existed.

 Chapter III.I: Rising Storm

    <u>June 3rd 8:00am 20XX</u>


    I was startled awake by the sound of a loud roar that tore through the air. I screamed and jumped up, hitting my head on the ceiling of the tent. Aaron jolted awake beside me.


    "What was that?" he gasped, still half asleep.


    The roar echoed through the entire forest. It sounded like an engine. I quickly unzipped the tent and jumped outside. What I saw sent chills through my entire body.


    Six military jet planes were speeding towards the direction of the city. From down here I could see that each was armed with missiles. What the hell would four armed fighter jets be doing heading towards our city? I felt my heart rise into my throat as I slowly became aware of my surroundings, which my shock had prevented me from noticing before. The sky was black. The clouds were darker than any storm clouds I had ever seen. Wind was violently pushing the trees. And it was pouring down raining.


    I let out a string of curses as I saw the jets disappear into a thick fog in the distance. Another engine roar rang through the air as more jets flew by. The screams. The woman''s voice suddenly echoed again in my head, and everything I had pushed away rose back into my mind. The screams! The storm was back, and my greatest fears were being realized. The jets were heading towards the city, towards the fog... and into the heart of the storm.


    It was all too clear to me now. There was something in that storm. I didn''t know what I meant by that at the time, but all I knew is that there was something in there. Something responsible for killing those people under the bank.


    "Dad..." Aaron stepped out of the tent, noticed the rain, and then looked up at the jets, "Where are they going?"


    I stared into the fog, where it was and suddenly I felt like I was hit by a hammer. Jessica was in there, alone. She was in that storm, with whatever had made the screams. With whatever had killed those people.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    "Aaron, we have to leave, right now! Get your stuff together quickly, I''ll pack up the tent and then we have to go"


    I ran towards the tent and started to take it apart as fast as I could.


    "Dad!" Aaron yelled out, startling me, "Where are they going?"


    I hesitated before responding, "The city, Aaron."


    "Why? What''s going on?"


    I bit down on my lip, "I don''t know, Aaron. I just have no idea what''s going on. But we have to hurry up and get to the city. We need to get to mom"


    He nodded, and quickly started shoving his things back into his bag.


    I finished putting away the tent, and then packed up my own bag in a matter of seconds. I saw a lightning strike flash in the distance, followed by an incredibly loud roll of thunder.


    "Come on, let''s go!" I yelled out as I grabbed Aaron by the hand, and ran all the way back to the car. My heart was racing at a million miles a minute and it felt like I was running even faster. By the time we got there, we were completely soaked. I tossed the stuff in the trunk of the car as fast as I could, then Aaron and I leaped into the car. I turned the key into the ignition. The engine rattled, but didn''t start.


    "Come on, not now!" I turned the key again, one, two, three more times. On the fourth try the engine revved to life. I immediately slammed my foot on the gas, bringing it to the floor. We sped down the road, and in no time we neared the outskirts of the city.


    "Dad look, slow down!" Aaron pointed ahead.


    Through the heavy rain, I only barely made out headlights coming up ahead. I pushed on the brakes, and slowed down as we approached the car. It was stopped in the middle of the road. I brought us to a stop on the right side of the car, and rolled down the window.


    "Hey!" I tried to grab the attention of the man in the car. He must have not heard me over the sound of the rain, so I yelled louder, "Hey!" He didn''t turn towards me, he just kept staring straight ahead. I was about to yell out to him a third time, but I noticed through the window that the left door was completely torn off. Getting a closer look at the man, I realized with a shudder that his face was covered in cuts, and his blood mingled with the rain water. He was dead. I turned to Aaron, he didn''t notice yet. I suppressed the urge to vomit, and sped off before Aaron could see the corpse.


    "What''s wrong?" he asked.


    "There wasn''t anyone in the car." I lied.


    I saw doubt in his eyes, but he didn''t push for an answer.

 Chapter III.I: Rising Storm

    <u>June 3rd 8:00am 20XX</u>


    I was startled awake by the sound of a loud roar that tore through the air. I screamed and jumped up, hitting my head on the ceiling of the tent. Aaron jolted awake beside me.


    "What was that?" he gasped, still half asleep.


    The roar echoed through the entire forest. It sounded like an engine. I quickly unzipped the tent and jumped outside. What I saw sent chills through my entire body.


    Six military jet planes were speeding towards the direction of the city. From down here I could see that each was armed with missiles. What the hell would four armed fighter jets be doing heading towards our city? I felt my heart rise into my throat as I slowly became aware of my surroundings, which my shock had prevented me from noticing before. The sky was black. The clouds were darker than any storm clouds I had ever seen. Wind was violently pushing the trees. And it was pouring down raining.


    I let out a string of curses as I saw the jets disappear into a thick fog in the distance. Another engine roar rang through the air as more jets flew by. The screams. The woman''s voice suddenly echoed again in my head, and everything I had pushed away rose back into my mind. The screams! The storm was back, and my greatest fears were being realized. The jets were heading towards the city, towards the fog... and into the heart of the storm.


    It was all too clear to me now. There was something in that storm. I didn''t know what I meant by that at the time, but all I knew is that there was something in there. Something responsible for killing those people under the bank.


    "Dad..." Aaron stepped out of the tent, noticed the rain, and then looked up at the jets, "Where are they going?"


    I stared into the fog, where it was and suddenly I felt like I was hit by a hammer. Jessica was in there, alone. She was in that storm, with whatever had made the screams. With whatever had killed those people.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    "Aaron, we have to leave, right now! Get your stuff together quickly, I''ll pack up the tent and then we have to go"


    I ran towards the tent and started to take it apart as fast as I could.


    "Dad!" Aaron yelled out, startling me, "Where are they going?"


    I hesitated before responding, "The city, Aaron."


    "Why? What''s going on?"


    I bit down on my lip, "I don''t know, Aaron. I just have no idea what''s going on. But we have to hurry up and get to the city. We need to get to mom"


    He nodded, and quickly started shoving his things back into his bag.


    I finished putting away the tent, and then packed up my own bag in a matter of seconds. I saw a lightning strike flash in the distance, followed by an incredibly loud roll of thunder.


    "Come on, let''s go!" I yelled out as I grabbed Aaron by the hand, and ran all the way back to the car. My heart was racing at a million miles a minute and it felt like I was running even faster. By the time we got there, we were completely soaked. I tossed the stuff in the trunk of the car as fast as I could, then Aaron and I leaped into the car. I turned the key into the ignition. The engine rattled, but didn''t start.


    "Come on, not now!" I turned the key again, one, two, three more times. On the fourth try the engine revved to life. I immediately slammed my foot on the gas, bringing it to the floor. We sped down the road, and in no time we neared the outskirts of the city.


    "Dad look, slow down!" Aaron pointed ahead.


    Through the heavy rain, I only barely made out headlights coming up ahead. I pushed on the brakes, and slowed down as we approached the car. It was stopped in the middle of the road. I brought us to a stop on the right side of the car, and rolled down the window.


    "Hey!" I tried to grab the attention of the man in the car. He must have not heard me over the sound of the rain, so I yelled louder, "Hey!" He didn''t turn towards me, he just kept staring straight ahead. I was about to yell out to him a third time, but I noticed through the window that the left door was completely torn off. Getting a closer look at the man, I realized with a shudder that his face was covered in cuts, and his blood mingled with the rain water. He was dead. I turned to Aaron, he didn''t notice yet. I suppressed the urge to vomit, and sped off before Aaron could see the corpse.


    "What''s wrong?" he asked.


    "There wasn''t anyone in the car." I lied.


    I saw doubt in his eyes, but he didn''t push for an answer.

 Chapter III.II: Rising Storm

    We drove on again as fast I could drive without putting us at risk in the low visibility brought on by the downpour. We passed by more cars that were pulled to the side of the road or crashed, but I didn''t dare stop to see if anybody was alive.


    The woman''s voice played over and over in my mind like a broken record. But even louder was my inner voice urging me to find Jessica: I had to find her before whatever was lurking in the storm found her first. I glanced down at my body, I was soaked and I wasn''t sure if it was mostly from the rain water or my sweat brought on by panic.


    It wasn''t until ten minutes of anxious driving later that we actually started to see some traffic; cars driving away from the city. Most of them sped by us erratically and we never once saw anybody heading towards the city.


    Five minutes later I heard honking and shouting up ahead, and I knew what we were in for.


    As we turned the corner, I cursed at what I saw. A huge truck had fallen over in the middle of the road, blocking both sides from passing. There wasn''t room to go around it because the sides of the road slanted down into a hill. A group of police officers were standing around the scene of the crash, as a tow truck was attempting to get into a position to move it. On the other side of the truck I could hear honking and people screaming for them to hurry up. A few people walked down the hill and around it, wearing backpacks overflowing full of stuff. Crap, this was bad. There was a lot of noise coming from the other side. Who knows how long those people had been waiting or how long it would still take to move the truck.


    I brought the car to a stop. I decided to not waste any time and at least see if anyone in the vicinity knew what was going on.


    "Aaron I''m going to ask one of the police officers some questions, see if he knows anything about what''s happening in the city. I''ll be right back" I turned to face him, he was pale and his eyes were wide.


    He only nodded.


    I opened the door to the car and was greeted by a huge rush of wind to the face. As I stepped out, the wind violently slammed the door shut behind me.


    "I''ll only be a minute or so, just stay there!" I tried to sound reassuring.


    As I walked towards the nearest policeman, the heavy rain drenched me in a matter of seconds. With each step I took water splashed up from the flooded ground and onto my already soaked legs. I had to yell in order for the policeman to hear me. He turned towards me surprised. I could barely make out his features in the torrential rain.


    "What''s wrong?" he said as he approached me.


    I paused for a second, thinking about how exactly to word my question. I simply settled for "What''s going on in there?!" while gesturing towards the city.


    He let out a grunt, "The thing is, we don''t know what''s going on. There was an earthquake just outside the city this morning, and then suddenly it''s pouring down raining. One second the sky was clear, and poof! Instantly it started to rain! We''re not from Arborline branch, we were sent here to keep the peace because they already have their hands full in there... That''s all I can really tell you"


    "Alright, thanks," I was about to walk away.


    "Oh yeah, and another thing... I don''t know if I believe it, but some people think they''re seeing this bi-"


    He was interrupted by a loud rumbling noise that began to fill the air around us. At first I thought it was the sound of more jets flying over us or an exceptionally loud car motor, but as the noise grew louder I realized that I recognized it from somewhere. It rumbled on at a low pitch and then suddenly rose in volume to the point where I could almost feel the air around me vibrating.


    Oh God, oh God, oh God. It was the sound on the news! Now that I was hearing it in person I knew that there was no way in hell that was just an earthquake. The sound abruptly ended and for a moment all I could hear was the falling rain.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    Then, everything plunged into chaos all at once.


    The first thing I heard was a crash on the other side of the truck, followed by another series of three crashes and a few car alarms going off. I could only guess that someone on the other side had panicked when they heard the sound and pushed on the gas. Frantic screams of panic filled the air. I saw a car drive off the road, lose control and roll down the hill. More cars followed, most of them made it though a few joined the pile of wrecked cars. Dozens of people began running down the hill, abandoning their vehicles with no evident goal in mind.


    My eyes widened. As more and more people came scrambling around and even over the truck to run away from the city, I stood there completely shocked. A sense of dread began to well up inside me. These people came from the city. They must have seen what was in there, or at least heard whispers about it from other people. And they were trying so desperately to escape. A few people were trampled by the mob, I didn''t see if they got up or not.


    I was the only person going in to the city. In my daze, I stared past the crowd at the thick fog veiling Arborline from my view. I had to go in there. I had to.


    An ear piercing scream of terror from someone running past me brought me out of my shock. I turned and ran back to the car. As I got in, I saw that Aaron was completely pale.


    "Dad, what was that sound? What''s going on out there?"


    I just shook my head, and sat down. I was going to drive around the truck, but thought better of it. A quick glance at the huge pile-up of cars on either side of the road convinced me otherwise. Some of the police were trying to control the crowd, but a few realized that the faster this truck was out of the way the faster the chaos would come to an end.


    "Hurry up, come on, hurry up..." I muttered. They had just finished hooking it up to the tow trucks, when I saw a burst of flames on the other side. One of the cars had exploded. More screams rang through the air, and the people became even more frantic as they tried to run away. Dozens of people and cars sped past us, in complete and utter panic. Luckily, both sides of the road where we were stopped were separated by concrete, filtering out most people from heading our way. Two cars collided on the other side, prompting people to start climbing over the concrete to get around it. Damn it, please hurry up.


    "Dad! What''s going on?!" Aaron screamed. I turned back, he was crying.


    I responded with exactly what I knew, "I don''t know Aaron... I don''t know. But we''ll make it through this, I promise you."


    I heard tires squealing ahead, and turned to look. The tow trucks were starting to pull the knocked over truck. As soon as there was even a tiny opening, a truck came speeding from the other side and crashed into one of the police cars. I was about to start driving towards the opening, but immediately changed my mind as a bunch of cars from the other side all went through at once, causing many of them to spill off the side of the road and go rolling down the side. Most made it through and sped past. The truck was about half way taken off the road, when its progress suddenly came to a halt. What the hell was the problem? I turned and saw someone open the door to one of the tow trucks, and drag the driver out. Oh God, he was hijacking it. The police rushed towards him but he sped off in a matter of seconds.


    I cursed. I had to get to the other side now, or we''d be here for who know how long. I didn''t want another second to go to waste. We had to get to Jessica. I saw no cars coming from space between the truck and the shoulder of the road, which had enough space to safely fit one car. It was still risky, who knows how many people were waiting to get around... Screw it. This was our only chance.


    Without a moment''s hesitation, I slammed my foot down on the gas, and the car sped forward. Aaron started to scream in the backseat, but I sped on. We had to do this, or we had no chance. I felt my heart stop as we passed between the truck and the drop off. I saw a pair of headlight approach us, but I veered onto the shoulder to the point where we almost tipped over. I heard the oncoming car honk at us, but we had made it across. There was a massive pileup on the other side of the road, preventing anyone else from going through. On our side, the road was clear.


    I turned back to Aaron, "I''m sorry about that, but we would have been stuck there if I didn''t do that"


    "It''s okay dad, just pay attention!" he said, pointing ahead of us.


    I looked ahead, and gasped as I realized the full gravity of the situation. Cars, so many cars lined up for what must have been a mile ahead. That was as far as I could discern before the fog became too thick. None of them were moving anymore, even with the truck gone there were too many blocking the way, too many that had been abandoned or left too damaged to drive by a crash. Dozens of people came scrambling around and across the cars in order to escape the city. Many of them carried more luggage than they could carry, but most of them had nothing on them. It was clear most of them had no goal in mind, they just mindlessly wanted to escape. I gulped, then pushed down on the gas again.


    "Dad, what was that sound? Why did everyone panic like that?" Aaron asked.


    I thought for a moment about what to tell him, and then decided that maybe it would be best to tell him part of the truth, "Nobody knows what it is, but that noise has been happening every time the storm appears. Some people think it''s from the earthquakes..." I should have stopped there, but I couldn''t help myself from saying more under my breath, "...but there''s no way, it can''t just be an earthquake."

 Chapter III.III: Rising Storm

    There was silence for a second, and then Aaron asked, "If it wasn''t an earthquake, then what was it?"


    "I don''t know Aaron. I really don''t. I can''t even begin to guess. All I know is that it''s not an earthquake."


    Aaron looked away. He was so scared, I could tell. How could he possibly not be. We were heading right into the thing we should have been running from, without any solid clues as to what was waiting for us. This whole situation was unreal. It didn''t feel like it was actually happening to me. Yesterday when the storm disappeared it gave me a sense of security, and then we wake up in the damn thing. This had all began so suddenly, and things were unfolding so quickly. It must have only been an hour and a half since we woke up, and already things were looking bad. We drove in silence, and all I could hear was the rackety engine and the steady rhythm of the raindrops colliding with the car.


    Before long, we passed by a sign indicating the exit to Arborline was only a mile away. I was starting to see more and more people walking along the side of the road. I began to wonder how many people had actually stayed in the city, and prayed that we wouldn''t run into any people that were driven mad by this situation.


    I kept turning back to Aaron; he was staring at the fog veiled city up ahead. I was beyond worried for him. I wish I didn''t have to bring him with me into the city, I wish I had somewhere safe to put him. But there was no one that would help us now, nobody that I trusted, at least. That sense of the fear of the unknown was unfathomably overbearing as we drove into the city, as the fog grew thicker, as the amount of people and cars became fewer and fewer. What was waiting for us in there? I kept asking myself the same questions in my head as I looked up at the approaching outlines of the skyscrapers in the fog. What were those damn screams? What was the noise? I needed the answers. I needed to find Jessica.


    Though I was frightened, though I feared for our safety and especially Aaron''s safety, I wanted answers. I needed answers.


    Finally, we reached the exit to Arborline which lead up into an overpass. My heart started to beat faster. We were almost there. As I drove up onto the overpass, I had to slam on the breaks. Part of the road was missing. It must have been caused by the "earthquakes": about half of the overpass had completely collapsed and fallen onto the ground below. I got out of the car to inspect it and Aaron came out right after me. I looked down where the asphalt broke, there was still enough room to get by but it still was going to be a little risky.


    "Uhm, dad!" Aaron called out. I turned to him; he was on the edge of the overpass, looking off the side. I quickly ran over, "What''s wrong, Aaron?"


    He pointed ahead. I followed his gaze and gasped. All around there were massive tears, crevasses and cracks in the road and in the earth for as far as I could see through the fog. Some of the holes were as wide as about 60 feet or more. Buildings and cars had been tossed around or ripped apart everywhere nearby. There was even a fallen jet not far from the overpass, still flaming even in the rain. It was a scene of complete decimation. I followed the trail of destruction with my eyes, and I wasn''t surprised to see it led towards the city.


    "What... What''s happening? What did that?" Aaron muttered.


    I heard a rumbling behind us, and looked up to see more jets fly by overhead. I followed them with my eyes as they flew above the destruction below and into the shrouded city. They faded in the fog, as if they had been swallowed up entirely. Looking at the destruction around us, I knew that I could no longer rationalize what had caused this. It was beyond any normal and logical explanation. Something more than a storm or earthquakes had caused this, that was something I could no longer deny no matter how much I tried to pull the wool over my own eyes.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    I almost decided to turn back right then and there. I knew I was in way over my head. But somehow I mustered up the courage to keep going.


    "We''ll find our answers in there Aaron, come on" I grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently as we walked back towards the car. Before driving again, I took one last scan at the wreckage around us. I took a deep breath, and we were off. I drove across the overpass very carefully, keeping a very close eye on the road ahead for any holes. Before long, we drove off the ramp and on to the main road that lead to the city. We were about a mile away now.


    With each and every inch that we drove closer to the heavy fog veiling the city, my heart would beat. I unconsciously drove pretty slowly, I think my mind was trying buy some time for me to steel myself. But I knew that no matter what it was we were going to find in there, I would never be ready.


    All we encountered was scenes of desolation. We passed hundreds of cars on the sides of the road broken down, crashed or simply abandoned. Occasionally we would pass by a corpse and I always tried to distract Aaron so he wouldn''t see it. As we drove further, I was surprised to see a few armored vehicles and tanks lying around. One of them was completely torn apart, pieces thrown everywhere. We passed by a police barricade that had been broken through. I told Aaron to close his eyes, because I was fully expecting it to be grisly. The windows were completely smashed in every car and a few doors were torn straight off the hinges. I started to get light headed. Blood splatters painted the outside of the cars. I made the mistake of breathing in through my nose, almost causing me to vomit. The air smelled like death, like hundreds of corpses were rotting just nearby. But the strange thing is... I didn''t see any bodies. Curiosity got the better of me for a moment, and I had to stop the car and look carefully. There was not any bodies. I shook my head. Where the hell did they go? What the hell caused all this carnage? It was like a war happened here just an hour or so ago, but not a corpse was in sight.


    I looked back at Aaron. His eyes were shut tight but I could see that he was getting antsy. I didn''t want him to see this. I turned one last time towards the wreckage, my eyes resting on the carnage without any bodies. My head was throbbing. Best not to waste any more time here. I knew that we would see more scenes like this as we went on. We''d probably see much worse. A shiver ran down my spine. I couldn''t begin to imagine what was waiting for us deeper in the city. I drove ahead a bit, and then told Aaron he could open his eyes. I knew he wanted to ask me what I saw, but he didn''t. I guess it really wouldn''t have mattered anyway. He was bound to see something eventually, but I wanted to shield him for as long as possible.


    We continued to drive on, moving into the more urban area of the city. There still wasn''t anybody around, alive or dead. Closer and closer we neared the thick fog. Every building we passed was damaged in some way, some were even completely torn apart. I saw Aaron looking around with wide eyes. I knew the same question had been resonating through both of our minds over and over again since this morning. What had caused this? We both knew that the closer we got to the city, the closer we were to finding the answer.


    My heart began to beat faster in my chest, and my breathing became more ragged as we passed by the rusted sign that had once read "Welcome to Arborline!" Except the sign had been torn clean off, and all that remained were the metal poles that had supported it.


    The thick fog was a mere ten feet ahead of us. The wind pushed hard at it, but it appeared to not be affected at all. I slammed the breaks. I couldn''t go in. Oh God, I couldn''t. The fog was so thick that it looked almost like a solid wall. My head was pounding even harder now and I shut my eyes as I started to develop tunnel vision.


    "Dad?" Aaron called out, "Dad?!"


    I opened my eyes, and I almost broke down then.


    I almost started to sob, but Aaron''s presence convinced me to do otherwise. I had to stay strong, for him.


    I took a few deep breaths, and then straightened myself.


    "I''m fine, Aaron. I''m fine... let''s go."


    I hesitantly pulled my foot off the break pedal, and moved it over to the gas.


    I pressed down; the car moved forward...


    and we were swallowed up by the fog.

 Chapter IV.I: Crushing Paranoia

    As we passed through the fog there was a solid thirty seconds where it was the only thing that we could see. Then, slowly, it began to clear up to the point where we could see about not much more than twenty five feet ahead. At the very edge of my vision I could just barely make out the outlines of buildings and fallen cars. Combined with the pouring rain, it was very hard to see anything clearly. Visibility wasn''t the only problem. The fog was making me uneasy, even more so than I had already been. I kept my ears open, but I couldn''t hear anything except for the rain, my own heartbeat and the occasional bursts of wind that whipped against the car. From what I could see, most of the buildings we passed almost looked like something had broken into them, the doors or windows were smashed in almost all of them. One that we passed was on fire, the flames licking outside of the smashed windows and threatening to light the neighboring buildings on fire. As I stared, I couldn''t help but wonder. Did the winds cause this? Looting? Mindless rioting? Or... something else? The woman''s voice echoed in my mind again, warning me of the screams.


    "How is the fog so thick in this wind?" Aaron asked suddenly.


    He knew the answer I would give him, of course. But I think he was just talking to calm his nerves.


    "I don''t know," I replied. It seemed to be the only thing I had said all day, but it was the only thing I could answer with.


    We drove on undisturbed through the fog; though the destruction around us only got worse and worse. More and more cars on the side of the road, simply abandoned or in some cases completely destroyed. As we passed by what had once been a car, both our mouths dropped in shock. It had been completely crushed, all that was left was a compressed ball about four feet tall and wide.


    With each scene of destruction we passed, it became clearer and clearer that it was not wrought by winds or earthquakes. The winds were strong, sure, but there was no way they could have done this much damage on their own.


    Something had deliberately done this.


    Humans? I couldn''t be sure.


    We passed the restaurant I had been in the other day. Half the building was completely torn apart. Yesterday seemed so far away; like it was from an entirely different world, like it had happened centuries ago. The city I had lived in up until now was absolutely incomparable to this nightmare we were currently living through. My heart began to beat a bit faster; we were almost home.


    As we carefully drove on, I prayed every prayer I could remember. Please let Jessica be home, I begged. Please tell me she''s home. Please, please, please.


    I started to drive a bit faster, despite the dangers of doing so in the limited visibility. I needed to see if Jessica was home.


    "Dad, we passed it!"


    I came out of my trance and with still widened eyes looked around. We had passed the entrance to the apartment building by about twenty feet. As I turned around and pulled in to the parking lot, I was relieved to find that the only visible damage was one of the entrance doors being on the border of falling off. A little concerning, but considering the damage done to the other buildings we had passed it was very tame. I turned off the car, and told Aaron to come out with me.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "If mom isn''t here, then she''s either still at her work or maybe one of her co-workers helped her to get out of the city. So don''t worry too much if we don''t see her here, we''ll find her eventually" I told Aaron to reassure him. Inside, I prayed with all my might that she made it back here.


    He nodded in response, and we both stepped out of the car into the rain, wind and fog. The fog had felt eerie in the car, but outside with the rain beating down on us made it absolutely unnerving.


    "Come on, let''s get inside as quick as possible!" I shouted over the wind.


    I think it was only in my head, but as we ran to the door I found it hard to breathe. It almost felt like the fog was choking me. As the door was almost off its hinges, I didn''t need to waste time unlocking the door. We bolted inside the apartment, immediately taking in a deep breath after escaping from the oppressive atmosphere of the storm outdoors. The lights were out. I glanced around, making sure nothing was lurking around in the darkness.


    "Hello?" I called out.


    Nothing responded. I walked a bit further into the lobby. Things were in disarray, but it didn''t look like anyone had intentionally caused damage. There were just a few things knocked over or thrown about like flower pots or lamps. All of this had only been caused by people trying to escape as fast as possible, I hoped.


    "Hello?" I called out again, louder this time, "Anyone in here?"


    Again, there was no response.


    "Come on, Aaron. Let''s just go to our place..."


    I opened the door to the stairwell and was greeted by pitch blackness. There had been enough light to see decently in the lobby, but I could make out nothing here. There was a very strong smell of something metallic in the air, but just I chalked it up to the iron stairs. Aaron stuck close to me as we carefully felt our way up the stairs, brushing against me occasionally and almost frightening me. At the bottom we couldn''t see anything at all, but as we ascended and drew closer to the emergency light at the top, things slowly became more visible. "Wait, dad, something''s in the way" Aaron stopped just before the final step and bent over to pick something off the ground. It was a backpack that someone must have dropped in their panic to get away. He dropped it, and I was surprised to hear it make a squishy sound as it hit the ground. There must have been some food or something in it...


    I opened the door that led onto our dimly lit floor, and the first thing I noticed was that all the doors to the apartments had been left opened except for two. The storage room and our own apartment. Cautiously, we started down the hallway. "Anyone there?" I yelled.


    No response came, yet again.


    I kept calling out, but I never received a response. With each and every step towards the door, my breathing grew heavier. All the rooms, likely in the entire building, were empty. But we couldn''t be sure until we checked our room that Jessica was here or not. My heart was pounding as I opened our door. Jessica wasn''t in the main room. Nothing had changed since we left yesterday evening, except for a few things missing off the counter.


    "Jessica!" I screamed loud enough that it hurt, "Jessica! Jessica! Are you here?"


    No reply came. I started to get butterflies in my stomach. I kept screaming her name, sprinting into the bathroom. She wasn''t there, either.


    "Mom!" Aaron started to yell too. My heart sank as I found that she wasn''t in the bedroom either. Aaron and I both screamed out her name one last futile time, then both sat down on the floor in dejection.


    Aaron was crying. This was all too much for him. Hell, it was too much for anybody. No child should have to ever experience something like this... nobody should have to experience something like this, period. But we can''t give up hope yet.


    I wrapped my arms around my son, "Aaron, this doesn''t mean she''s gone. We have to keep looking, remember? Chances are, she went to work and got holed up there when the storm hit. We can''t worry just yet. It''s too early to give up!" I did my best to smile.


    He wiped his tears away, and nodded.


    I got up, "Anyways, we may as well get some stuff here before heading out again. Who knows how long it''s going to be like this" I said as I started to collect all of our food into a bag.


    I froze as I noticed the radio on the counter.


    The radio.


    Maybe it could give us some answers.

 Chapter IV.II: Crushing Paranoia

    I rushed towards the radio and grabbed it, hungry for any information I could find. Our ears were assaulted by loud static the moment I turned it on. I cursed, then fumbled with the dials until I found a station that partially worked. A man was speaking in a voice that put me on edge. The panic in his voice was palpable, and he spoke so fast it was almost hard to understand him. It didn''t help that he would occasionally be interrupted by static.


    This is what I managed to hear:


    ...and this is why we urge you to evacuate the area if- in or around Arborline. The recent rumours may be tr- some- in the storm. Survivors that have been questioned say they see- shapes- fog. Damage to the city... unprecedented- strange string of deaths on the east side of the city- much like in Boston. If you live deep in the city it is suggested that you go as close to the ground as possible. Both the military and the police force is- ing action. There''s a search for survivors undergoing around the clock, but there''s something else that they''re doing in there. It may all just be a front for something- It is unknown exactly why the military- but it seems likely it has something to do with- and the sounds- This storm... it''s much more than we were led to believe. Whatever is going on it there... We... We don''t even have a fraction of the real story! If you have something you can use as a weapon, keep it with you! They can''t-


    It cut out into static. I waited for a minute or two but he didn''t speak again. I fiddled with the dial again but I couldn''t find any other working stations. I tried not to let the utter horror I was feeling show on my face, but I don''t think I did that great of a job; Aaron was looking at me with a worried expression. A strange string of deaths, just like the events in Boston. People seeing shapes in the fog. Although it wasn''t much information, it gave me something to think about. A lot of things seemed to be linked together, like the screams and the deaths. Did the shapes have something to do with the deaths too? Where did that loud sound we heard tie in with all this? What about the earthquakes? Where did it all add up? Where did it all intersect?


    I sighed. No point sitting here asking questions to myself. We would only find the answers we were seeking if we moved out of here.


    I took our flashlight and a few batteries that we had for emergencies and put it in my pocket. That way our trek down the stairs would be a lot safer.


    I noticed Aaron was holding the bag that had the half of the cookies we had saved for today. There were tears in his eyes. I hugged him, and stroked his head reassuringly.


    "Come on Aaron," I said, "We''re going to find mom, we''ll finish those together. And then, we''ll drive far, far away from here where we can be safe. It''s all going to be okay"


    "But... But what if we don''t find mom?" Aaron muttered.


    I hugged him, "If we don''t, that just means she left the city. We''ll find her eventually."


    He squeezed me closer, "Alright, dad. Let''s go find her!"


    After packing as much as we could into some bags, I made to leave but stopped when I saw an envelope on the floor. The letter from my dad''s friend! I had completely forgotten about it. I put it in my coat pocket, then we started to make our way down the hall. As we stepped through the door into the stairway, Aaron picked up the backpack he had dropped earlier.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    "Hey, turn on the flashlight so we can see what''s inside," he asked me as he opened it wide and held it out to me.


    I set the bags I was carrying down, took the flashlight out of my pocket and shone it into the backpack. There were a few cereal bars, a bottle of water and...


    Aaron shrieked, and fell back into the hallway. He dropped the backpack as he landed, and its contents came flying out. The cereal bars silently fell to the floor, the bottle landed then rolled down the stairs and a single eyeball rolled towards my foot. What the hell? Despite my shock, I was quick to move. I picked it up, gagged a little in my mouth as I felt it was surprisingly stiff but squishy and slimy. I stared at it for a moment. It was real, it was a real human eye. Before Aaron could get up and see it again, I threw it into the potted plant that was nearby.


    "Dad, what.... What was that?" he stammered as he got up.


    "It was just some weird toy... a, uh, bouncy ball," I lied. I was surprised with how quick I had been to shield him from seeing it.


    "It really looked like... like an eye! Where did it go?" he asked, glancing around.


    "It fell down the stairs. Guess our nerves got the better of us, haha! We just need to calm down a little," I tried to convince Aaron and myself.


    We stood there both feeling uneasy for a moment, then without saying anything we picked our stuff up again, Aaron took the cereal bars and put them in his pocket and we began to go down the stairs. I held the flashlight in one hand so that we could see ahead of us. As we walked down, I tried not to lose the false composure I was putting up for Aaron. What the hell was that?! What the hell! Why was there a human eyeball in that backpack? What in God''s name happened in here? The eyeball had felt fresh. Wording it that way in my head made me shiver. I''m no expert, but when I held that eyeball for that moment it felt like it had been removed fairly recently. What could have done that? Why? Why was it in the backpack? Did some psycho take advantage of the situation and commit murder here or something? Or was it something else? What else could it even have been? I shook my head. I don''t know, but I do know we need to get out of here and find Jessica as quickly as possible. I quickened my pace.


    We were almost at the bottom of the stairs, and I started to notice that the metallic smell was a lot stronger than it had been on our ascension. I heard a clunk as Aaron dropped one of the bags he was carrying on the steps above me, which made me jolt a bit and aim the flashlight to the bottom of the stairs. What I saw there made me gasp.


    I turned the flashlight off.


    Aaron had picked the bag up and turned to me, "Huh? Dad, why did you shut the flashlight off?"


    My response was barely audible.


    "What? I couldn''t hear you..."


    "The battery ran out!" I yelled suddenly.


    There was silence for a moment.


    "Sorry for yelling... the... the battery ran out so we need to be careful now. But let''s hurry, I want to get out of here as soon as possible..."


    He nodded, then we kept descending.


    I made sure to keep to the left side of the stairs. I made sure to prevent Aaron from looking under the stairs. I made sure to push him into the lobby as fast as possible. I couldn''t help stealing a glance back at the stairs. I held back a curse, then we both stormed out of the apartment complex, through the storm and back into the car.


    As I started the car, I couldn''t stop my body from shaking a little bit as I recollected what I had seen in the apartment:


    When the flashlight had shined onto the bottom of the steps, it had revealed a red liquid that was very slowly but surely spreading out from under the stairs. As I looked more closely, I spotted another eyeball floating in that puddle. I was quick to shut the light off. There was no way I wanted Aaron to see something like that. That was the source of the metallic smell. When I looked back as we made our way into the lobby, I had made out the outline of two people slumped up against the wall. The blood came from their bodies.


    They were both eyeless corpses.


    I didn''t know what had done it, but whatever it was... it could still be around here.


    I violently slammed on the gas as I was seized by a sudden wave of panic. What the hell could have even done that? Why?!


    A human...? or...?

 Chapter V.I: Deep Fog

    We drove on towards Jessica''s work. My anxiety was pushing me to drive faster, but because of the fog and rain I had to keep it slow against my own wishes. I had given Aaron the radio, asking him to fiddle with and try to find a working station. There was nothing but static.


    Our drive was uneventful for quite some time. Still nobody in sight. Although it was incredibly eerie, it still wasn''t that crazy that there was nobody around. Yeah, it made sense that we didn''t see anyone since we weren''t too deep into the city yet. Everyone on the outside had already escaped. Yeah.


    My attempt at trying to calm myself by rationalizing things failed, and the eyeless corpse flashed back into my mind. The only person we had seen in the city was dead. Not only dead, but brutalized. I was almost expecting to find everyone in the city dead...


    After about twenty minutes of driving, I was surprised to see a living human walking on the sidewalk. Finally. It was an older man, stumbling along with an uneven gait. I honked to get his attention. He ignored me and continued to stumble by. As we drove by him, I was about to roll down my window and yell out to him, but before I did I saw his eyes. There was no light in them. He looked like a dead man walking. He didn''t even acknowledge his surroundings. I shivered and drove a little faster. A few minutes later, a car almost rammed into us, stopped for a moment and then sped away with its tires squealing. Great, we had only encountered two living people so far and they both didn''t even acknowledge us.


    We went further and further into the city, closer and closer to the core of the storm. It seemed like the fog had gotten a bit thicker where we were, but that might have just been my imagination. The winds seemed a bit less forceful, but the rain persisted at the same rhythm. The destruction around us was toned down a little bit, until the only damage we saw were a few broken windows here and there. I didn''t know exactly what that meant. Were we distancing ourselves from whatever had caused the damage elsewhere? That eased my mind a little bit; maybe Jessica was fine after all. I started to notice some signs of other people; lights coming from the windows of buildings and cards left running outside. Occasionally we''d see someone walk by. Most of them had the same lost look in their eyes. None of them seemed to have a goal in mind, they just walked aimlessly.


    Ten minutes later, and I saw a policeman standing on the sidewalk. I decided to pull the car up to him. As I approached, his head jolted up. He looked startled, but sighed when he focused on us. I rolled down the window, "Hello"


    "...Hello" he replied. His voice was a bit shaky. I almost laughed at the casual way we had greeted each other despite the situation.


    "I''m wondering if... Wait, you can come into the car if you want, it''s better than staying out there in the rain" I offered.


    He hesitated for a moment, noticed Aaron in the backseat then opened the door. "Thank you," he said as he sat down in the passenger side next to me, "But stay here, I''m looking for somebody and I think they''re nearby."


    I could see him much better in the lit car. He was young, he couldn''t have been any older than twenty. He wore a poncho over his police uniform, and he brought his hood down to reveal short dark hair and a clean shaven face.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "I''m looking for someone too," I started, "My wife. Me and Aaron were out of the city before the storm came, and... I''m really worried about her. Oh yeah, my name''s Markus by the way," I pointed to the backseat, "and that''s my son, Aaron. Do you have any idea what''s going on? My wife works at the department store on Jonah Street, is everything... intact there?"


    "What''s going on? Hah! I''d like to know too. The military hasn''t told us a damn thing about what''s happening. We just have orders to calm down the civilians and to keep people away from the center of the city. That''s where the military is. Every now and then I see a tank or jet go by... I haven''t seen any of them come back. I can''t even begin to guess what''s happening... unless... Never mind. And as for the department store, my squad and I were near there a while ago. Everything seemed fine. That''s where... That''s where I lost them. Say, you haven''t seen any other police officers around, have you? We, uh, got separated in that damn fog. My brother''s with us, so I''m really starting to get worried"


    I shook my head.


    He sighed, "Damn. This is my first week on the job, great way to start, huh? My brother''s been a cop for a while, he''s dealt with some crazy stuff but nothing this crazy..."


    There was a pause for a moment. He had hesitated to say something before. In my thirst for answers, I pressed him a little.


    "Hey, you really don''t know anything else? You didn''t see anything weird?"


    "No, er, well... sort of..." he hesitated, and then decided to tell me, "There''s been this rumor going around from the survivors that have been close to the center of the storm. They say that... they saw these huge silhouettes moving around at the very far edges of their vision. Like, they could barely see it because of the damn fog. They didn''t say anything else about it, other than that whatever it was seemed big. I think they''re just seeing things. With fog like this, it''s a wonder that you wouldn''t think you saw some weird stuff. I don''t like it one bit, sometimes even I think I see something... but of course it''s just my mind playing tricks" he paused again, thinking. "Oh yeah, and there''s been some talk about some strange noises. People hearing some sort of screams, apparently."


    A chill coursed down my spine, but I composed myself. "...anything else?"


    "No, nothing. There''s such a huge lack of communication going on, mainly because everybody''s either running away or staying planted where they are. All we have to go off is rumors."


    We sat there for a few moments listening to the rain, and I thought of what I had clarified and what I had learned. Those screams weren''t just that woman''s delusion. They were real. But just what in the hell were they? I thought of bringing up the corpse I had seen in the apartment complex, but the officer suddenly spoke up, "Well, I better get going. I don''t want to just wait around for him, I''ve got to find my brother."


    He opened the door, "Oh yeah, and by the way the name''s Jared. It was nice to talk to another human being for a little while. It can get pretty creepy out here, ya know?"


    "Yeah, thanks for the info."


    "No, I''m glad I could help... good luck on finding your wife, she should be fine."


    "Good luck to you too."


    He closed the door and ran to the sidewalk again. I honked goodbye and started to drive away when I noticed where we were. The department store was only three blocks away.


    I turned excitedly to Aaron, "Don''t worry buddy, we''re almost there, then we can leave with mom."


    He smiled. I turned back to face the road, and started to speed towards Jonah Street. Seeing that there were still sane people in the city was reassuring, and Jared had said that the department store looked fine. Jessica was okay...


    My heart beat quickened as we passed by a car that had its entire hood smashed in. We had to drive around a brick wall that had fallen onto the road. The store was one block away. We passed by a car that had smashed through a storefront. The begging in my head grew louder. Please Jessica, please be okay.

 Chapter VI.II: Deep Fog

    I brought the gas pedal to the floor, and we raced down the road and onto Jonah Street. I had to slow down there, debris littered many parts of the road. I started to curse under my breath as I carefully drove around the fallen concrete. The anticipation was killing me.


    It felt like a hand was squeezing my heart as we pulled up in front of the department store. The spot where Jessica worked was on the bottom floor of the tall building. Three cars were parked in front, one of them was severely damaged. I quickly pulled into a parking spot, and noticed that all of the windows on the bottom floor had been smashed in.


    "Let''s go Aaron, grab the flashlight out of the back. Hurry!"


    We both simultaneously got out of the car, and Aaron grabbed the flashlight.


    In a flash, we ran into the building together. The floor in the entryway was soaking wet; rain had been pouring in unhindered through the broken windows and doorways. We carefully made our way around the broken glass that had been scattered around the room. I called out Jessica''s name. When no response came, I rushed into the lobby room and turned the flashlight on. From what I could see, it was devoid of people. A few display cases here and there had been knocked over, some of the furniture looked like it had been tossed around. Some of the wooden chairs were broken. I could tell that the mess wasn''t just from people panicking when they left or something; some kind of struggle had happened here.


    Aaron and I scurried through every single inch of the first floor (which only consisted of the lobby and a small fast food joint) shouting Jessica''s name all the while. Our search was fruitless.


    "Come on, let''s go to the next floor." I pointed to the doorway that led to the second floor. That was where Jessica worked. As I opened the door to the stairs, I began to notice a smell hanging in the air, one that reminded me of... the police barricade we had passed. It smelled like rot. I felt goosebumps cover my body from head to toe. Jessica...


    I suddenly charge up the stairs and tore open the door to the second floor, paying no heed to anything other than finding the source of that smell. As soon as the door opened, I could smell the rot even clearer, which fuelled my frenzy. I ran to the source as fast as I could, and my body froze when I saw what was lying on the floor. Just in time, right before Aaron opened the door, I managed to will my body to scream, "Aaron, stay right where you are! Do not move!"


    "Why?!" he screamed back.


    "Just... don''t move," I choked back a sob. My eyes wouldn''t move off the scene on the floor.


    Lying with his back against the wall was Jessica''s manager. This was the first time I had met him, but I''d seen photos of him before. From what I had heard from Jessica, he and his family were actually very genuine people and he treated his employees well. That was a rarity these days. I had always wanted to meet him... so... why did we have to meet like this?If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    His legs were gone. They were cut clean off above the knees, and a large pool of blood surrounded him. I felt bile rise up in my throat as my eyes refused to move from the body, as they took in every little detail. His shirt was tattered, and his torso was covered in what appeared to be scratches. Blood slowly seeped out of his wounds. On his shoulder, I could see what must have been a bite mark. His eyes were shut tight, and his head was lying limp.


    I tried to hold it in, but I threw up everywhere.


    "Dad? What''s wrong!?" Aaron screamed out.


    I started to feel dizzy, and tried to recover, "Stay there! Stay there Aaron, I''m fine. Just please go back into the lobby... and stay there until I come get you!" I rolled the flashlight to the door, told him to grab it and go down.


    "...Okay" Aaron muttered. I heard him walk down the stairs.


    The manager... What the hell happened to him? What did this? I knew in my heart that it had something to do with the screams. I jumped back at the sudden motion near his body. Did his arm twitch? What... There was no way he could still be alive.


    But I was proven wrong as his eyes fluttered open, and he tried to lift his arm towards me. I didn''t know what to do, or what to say. I just sat there staring at him as his mouth opened and closed.


    He was struggling to speak. A tiny squeak came out of his mouth, then he coughed up blood. My stomach started to feel weak again. I wanted to do something for him, but there was nothing that I could do. I think he knew that. He didn''t have much time, and he wanted to tell me something.


    "Th- They came out of nowhere..." he started to say. His voice was raspy and quiet; it was almost like a whisper, so I had to lean close to hear him. "Those.... Those things... attacked us all at once. Oh God, their screams... Dragged the others away. Left me here. Af-" he coughed again, much more violently this time. When he spoke again, it sounded like fall leaves brushing together in the wind, "Few people went upstairs. Top floor, I think. Don''t know where things... went..."


    He grabbed my hand, "You''re... Markus. Aren''t you...?"


    I nodded, though it was hardly noticeable because my entire body was shaking.


    "Your wife... She''s up there. Hurry. Those... things... they might still be here."


    He coughed one last time, and then his body immediately went limp.


    I got up, but immediately stumbled back onto the ground. He said things attacked them. He mentioned the screams. Dear God, the things that made the screams were either in this building or nearby. Jessica was in this building. Aaron was alone. I pushed down my nausea, swallowed my fear and tried to calm myself. I pushed everything aside, and focused on two things alone: finding Jessica and protecting Aaron. Let''s just hope we don''t run into any of those "things" on the way up the building.


    I took one last look at the manager, and silently thanked him. Then, I sprinted down the stairs and into the lobby. Aaron was standing by the door, flashlight in hand and looking wildly around.


    "Aaron, mom''s upstairs. But we have to be fast. We have to be careful too. And quiet. Just stay right next to me and everything will be alright."


    "But dad, what was in there?"


    I violently shook my head, "That doesn''t matter right now! We just need to get to mom as fast as possible."


    I grabbed him by the hand and led him to the stairs. On my first step, I heard a loud sound rip apart the air around me. It was very high pitched, and at first I thought it was the scream of a woman, or a dying animal. But then it turned into a complete mangle of noise, almost like dozens of animals screaming all at once, with other high pitched noises rising in between. It was indescribable. The only word that came to mind was... screams.


    Finally, I''d find my answer: what had caused the deaths, what had caused the screams.


    I prayed that they weren''t anywhere near Jessica.

 Chapter VI.I: Screams

    "What was that?" Aaron asked. He knew I didn''t know the answer. I think he had a feeling that we would probably find out soon.


    "Don''t worry about it," I squeezed his hand, "as long as you''re with me, we''ll make it!"


    We ran up the stairs, and passed by the doorway to the second floor. Then, the third floor''s doorway. The door had been knocked over, scratch marks completely covering it. We started to run up as fast as we could.


    As we passed by the fourth floor''s doorway, I heard movement coming from inside. We kept going without even stopping. The screaming sound rang out again, sending chills through my whole body.


    After it stopped, I heard a much more understandable sound: a human scream. It came from the third floor. I don''t think I''ve ever had this much adrenaline pumping through me at once; I was in a state of complete and utter fear, panic and determination. My mind was set on one goal: we needed to reach the top floor.


    The stairs ended on the fifth floor. But this wasn''t the top. Another set of stairs was somewhere on the fifth floor, which lead to the top. There was a bit of a problem though. The door was torn off its hinges, nowhere to be seen, meaning the things had either been in there or were in there right now.


    "Aaron," I whispered, "No matter what, do not make a sound. Stay right next to me."


    He squeezed my arm, and we stepped through the doorway. I decided to shut off the flashlight so that we wouldn''t draw attention. I couldn''t see anything except for the green glowing stairwell sign at the very end of the hallway. In between us and the stairway I could barely make out the outline of five pairs of doors.


    I took a deep breath, and then we started to tiptoe down the hall.


    Though we were moving at what felt like an inch an hour, my heart was beating much, much faster. I felt Aaron''s grip tighten on my arm.


    ...Something could jump out at any moment.


    Something could jump out at any moment, and there would be nothing we could do. We had nothing to defend ourselves. Even if I did have a weapon, I don''t think we could have done anything. I felt completely helpless and vulnerable; as fragile as a glass vase teetering over a precipice.


    When we passed by the second set of doors, I nearly jumped as a shrill sound resounded through the hall. I almost made a run for it with Aaron, but I realized that what I had heard was only the floor squeaking under our feet. I sighed with momentary relief, and we continued our slow sneak through the hallway.


    Step by step, we sluggishly made our way past the third set of doors.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    When we started to near the fourth set of doors my fear was realized; I heard a rustling sound coming from the room to our left.


    My body was paralyzed with terror for what felt like an hour. Aaron''s tugging on my arm slowly brought me back, and I regained control of my muscles one by one. I listened carefully; the rustling seemed to be coming from the back of the room.


    I cursed myself for not trying to take a better look at the rooms we had passed already. Knowing their layout would have made it a little easier to sneak by. My own body and instincts fought against me as I started to step towards the doorway. I quietly brought myself up against the wall, and as discreetly as I could manage, peeked my head inside.


    From the less than ideal angle that I looked into the room at I could see a faint, flickering light on the other side of a table and in the light.... I saw a shadow on the wall. I couldn''t make it out that well, the light was very dim, but from what I could see the shadow almost looked like a person hunched over. But there was something about the way it was positioned.


    It was far too hunched over to be a human. The arms were just a little bit too long to look natural. From the head, I could see something jutting out from where its mouth would be. Were those... its teeth? I shuddered as the rustling grew louder, and the shadow moved in rhythm with it. It looked like whatever was in there was looking for something, but what?


    I decided to not waste anymore time, and to take action while it was preoccupied. It took a lot of effort, but I finally managed to pry my feet off from the ground and start moving again. Although it was quiet, inside my mind was screaming in pure terror. My body warned me that whatever it was that was in there, I had to avoid it at all cost. Some sort of primal instinct was sounding every warning bell it could in my consciousness.


    I felt Aaron shuddering. He hadn''t seen what I saw, but there was no way he didn''t know that there was something we were trying to avoid and that whatever it was, it was inside of that room. I wanted to comfort him, but I knew I couldn''t without risking alerting whatever it was in that room.


    As I took my first step, I cringed when my foot made contact with the floor. But I nearly sighed with relief when it hit the ground soundlessly. Behind me, I felt Aaron take his first step.


    I was startled by what sounded like a high pitched, fast whistling coming from the room. It didn''t follow a specific rhythm or beat, it just droned on at the same note. I thought that the thing had noticed us; I thought we were finished, but when my head snapped in the direction of the noise I saw its shadow still shuffling around behind the table. From the motions of its shadow, however, it almost looked like it was getting ready to move on.


    I gently raised my foot in the air, a bit faster this time, and gently brought it down. The whistling grew a bit louder, I saw the shadow slowly rocking from side to side. My mind screamed to me: It could jump up at any moment and notice us! You have to go faster than that! I had to risk it! If we were too slow and it noticed us, it would all be over!


    I crouched down, and motioned for Aaron to do the same. We started to accelerate as we crept by the open doorway, and in three swift and silent steps we had made it three quarters across the doorway.


    Why did it feel like this was taking longer than eternity? A few more steps and were past the door, leaving whatever lurked in that room behind us.


    We started to tiptoe down the hallway at a faster pace, and didn''t encounter any more troubles. Our eyes had mostly adjusted to the dark. I looked down at Aaron, and gave him a comforting smile.


    Then, I opened the door to the next set of stairs...


    and a loud creak reverberated down the entire hallway.

 Chapter VI.II: Screams

    I brought my finger to my mouth to shush Aaron, and froze my body in place. I didn''t dare to move a muscle or make the slightest noise. I just listened to see if the thing had noticed the creaking sound.


    I heard nothing but the heavy silence that blanketed the hallway.


    I decided I would count to ten and if no sound came from down the hall then we would continue our slow and sneaky trek. If something did make a noise, well, we''d have no choice but to run with all our might.


    One, two, three, four, five, wait... I heard the sharp whistling that the thing had made earlier.


    I couldn''t stand it, I pulled the door violently open and we threw ourselves inside. Aaron let go of my arm then leaned over and exhaled deeply. I would have done the same, but I needed to see if the thing would show itself.


    I brought my face right up to the narrow window on the door, which was only a few inches wide. Staring down the hall, I heard clattering coming from the room, and then... a head peeked out from the door. It was looking in the opposite direction, so that means it didn''t know where we were. "Run!" my mind screamed to me, "Run now, before it does notice you! Run! Run! Run! Run! Run! Run! Run! Run! RUN!"


    But I couldn''t remove my face from the glass; my burning curiosity was even stronger than my animal instinct. I needed to see what had been in the room, what had killed those people... The thing slowly turned its head towards the door, and made me wish I had turned and ran.


    In one word: horrific.


    Although I couldn''t tell very well in the dimly lit hallway, the creature''s skin appeared to be as red as blood. But then, I thought, was that really the real color of its skin? Or was it actually covered in blood? That, of course, wasn''t its most sickening feature. I had been right in guessing that the things jutting out from its face were its teeth. I had never seen anything like them before. Not in nature, and not in fiction either. From where I stood, they appeared to be at the very least half the length of my arm. They jutted almost straight out of its face from where the mouth was, uneven and crooked. They were all curved upwards, and by God did they look sharp. Coming out on the sides of the teeth, the mouth-line went in a curved pattern all the way up to its eyes. Its eyes... At first I mistook them for empty sockets, but as I stared at them longer, I realized they were just very, very small and from what I could see completely black. It had thick, heavy bags under its eyes, which sagged almost down to its mouth. As for a nose, I couldn''t see any.


    It stared at my direction and I stared back for what seemed like forever, and then the whistling abruptly stopped as it peeked its head back inside.


    I wanted to scream. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs and just let out everything that had been building up inside of me. But that would draw it out, and I did not want that.


    I wanted anything but that.


    "Quick, let''s go right now!" I hastily whispered to Aaron, and started up the stairs again. I saw in his face that he wanted to ask me what was in there, but he knew he wouldn''t get an answer.


    I didn''t bother taking my time; I couldn''t with all that was coursing through my mind at that moment. Great, I saw what had killed the people. Just great. But that only brought on more questions than it answered. Just what in the hell was that thing? Where did it come from? How was it connected to this storm? This alone couldn''t have caused all that destruction outside, so what did? Were there more? I shuddered at the thought, and as I did I realized that the manager had said "things". Plural. There were more. Judging by everything we had seen so far, it was likely that there were much, much, much more out there. And without anymore doubts, they were what had made the screams. They were what had killed those people in Boston. But what about the loud noise we had heard when we were coming into the city? Something that small couldn''t make a noise that big, right? Then... what did? And what about the earthquakes? Why were they doing this? I was hit with a sudden realization that there must be more in this very building. We had heard sounds when we passed by the third floor, were the rest in there? I hoped so. I prayed that we wouldn''t encounter any more on our way up... and what about our way down...? How in the hell did everything tie together?Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    Before I even realized it, we had made it to the top floor.


    Jessica. She was here.


    I sluggishly brought my hand to the door knob, but didn''t turn the handle immediately. I was scared of what I would find behind this door, more than anything else in the storm.


    I took a deep, slow breath, paused, and then let it all out as I opened the door and stepped into the room on the other side, with Aaron right behind me.


    The first thing I noticed was that the room was devoid of people, living or dead. In fact, the room was completely empty save for a single potted plant. There were two doors in the room, one on the far end straight ahead and the other on the left. This room just appeared to be an entry way of sorts that led to the other rooms. But which one was Jessica in, straight or left? From the door on the left I could see a red light emanating from the crack under the door. It must have been another emergency light. From what I could tell, the door straight ahead was pitch black on the other side. I walked up to the door on the left, and brought my ear up against it. I couldn''t hear anything on the other side, so I motioned for Aaron to come over and then I opened the door. Excellent, another hallway. Just great. Luckily, this one was much shorter than the last one and the only doors were the one at the end of the hall and a janitor''s closet. We didn''t bother sneaking through this hallway, though we tried to make the least amount of noise we possible.


    I sighed with relief when we made it through completely uninterrupted. When we made it to the door, I noticed that there was a bright light coming from the other side. Was this where they were hiding? I put my head up against the door, but I didn''t hear a sound. But of course, they wouldn''t be making any noise in this situation. I couldn''t help but smile. Jessica was behind this door. Everything would be alright in the end.


    Aaron saw my smile, and he knew what it meant: we were finally here.


    Then, like a fool, I swung the door wide open, all the way.


    There in front of us, clearly illuminated by the light shining from the ceiling, thrown around the room like trash, were about a dozen human bodies.


    The floor was completely covered in blood, some parts of the walls had even been sprayed. Oh God... there was so much blood. Most of the bodies hadn''t been touched much, almost as if the perpetrators had just killed them as a side thought so they could find the others without risking them getting away. Although most had their throats slit cleanly, a few were in particularly bad shape. Some were completely covered in gashes, a few were missing limbs and a few... all that remained was a limb.


    The scene in front of us was absolutely inhumane, the most brutal and offensive thing I have ever seen. I was surprised that my stomach didn''t empty as soon as I opened the door.


    Though there was a dozen corpses in front of me, killed in such a disgusting and unfair way, I only really noticed one of them:


    Jessica.


    Jessica was dead. I heard Aaron scream out to his mother next to me. Oh God, he saw it. He saw everything. It was too late to block his vision.


    Jessica was dead.


    Aaron had seen her dead.


    It was too much for me to take in, too much for my mind to process. I squeezed my eyes tight, clenched my fists tightly and let out a maddening scream into the air.


    As my cry echoed through the building, I heard something else mingle with it...


    The screams.

 Chapter VII.I: No Time To Cry

    Aaron stumbled towards his mother.


    I couldn''t stop him. I couldn''t move at all.


    This... This just wasn''t fair. It wasn''t right.


    Aaron put his hands up to Jessica''s face, and stared into the dead eyes of the woman who had given birth to him and nourished and cared for him for the twelve years of his life on this earth.


    The screams rang out again, tearing through the air around us. He didn''t even notice. I still couldn''t move.


    Then the tears started to flow from Aaron''s face again, and he wailed out to his mother.


    I managed to recover a bit from the shock, and sluggishly moved towards Aaron. I moved so slowly, my body was so defeated, that it felt like time was going backwards. I paid no heed to the other corpses, my gaze rested on Aaron holding the corpse that had been his mother in his arms. Holding Jessica.


    I knelt down next to him, and I knew that there was no way for me to comfort him now. I waited for the tears to come in torrents down my face, but was surprised to feel only two, one in each eye. Why?


    It was then that I finally realized that as soon as I woke up this morning, as soon as I felt the rain and wind, as soon as I saw those jets fly into the city, I already knew that Jessica was dead. I had already wept for her in my heart. I clung to some impossible hope that we would find her, but deep down I knew that it was impossible. I realized that I hadn''t come here to find Jessica; my whole reason for coming into the storm was to find answers... to find out what was going on. I had used Jessica as an excuse.


    You idiot, I told myself. You piece of trash! You put Aaron''s life in danger to find your answers, and even now you know nothing! And now Aaron has to see Jessica like this! I cursed and cursed myself a million times over. How could I have done something like this?! You both might not even make it out of here alive!Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    I heard a crash come from below, and the screams echoed through the building again. We had to go, oh God, we had to leave Jessica here. How was I going to tell that to Aaron?


    How could I have done this to him?!


    I tried to say his name, but my voice came out as an incomprehensible mutter.


    I spoke up, "Aaron!"


    He didn''t hear me; he still stared into Jessica''s eyes. Oh God... he had her eyes. They were that same shade of deep blue. I hadn''t noticed how similar they were... until now. Now the tears came flowing down.


    There was a commotion going on downstairs: they were coming.


    We didn''t have time to cry right now.


    Choking back my tears, I grabbed Aaron by the shoulder and shook him, "Aaron. We have to leave right now. Something''s coming. The same things that did... this. We can''t stay here."


    He looked up at me, but didn''t move. I wrapped my arms around him.


    "I''m sorry Aaron..." my voice was cracking as I spoke, "I''m sorry you had to see this, I shouldn''t have brought you here! I''m so, so sorry..." I sobbed, my voice quivered, "But we have to go. We have to go, or we will both die. I''m sorry... Oh God, Aaron, I''m so sorry..."


    The noises grew louder. They became increasingly more frequent. Aaron turned to his mother one last time, and so did I. I''d never see her again; we''d never be together again. I took in everything that had been done to her, and burnt it into my brain for me to remember forever.


    Her legs had been cut away almost down to the bone, her torso was covered in huge gashes, one of her arms was missing and the other had a chunk torn out of it as if something had bitten it off. Her face had been untouched for the most part, except for a trail of blood that went from the corner of her eye to her neck. It looked like she was crying tears of blood.


    Something caught my eye next to her... it was her wedding ring. I snatched it up and put it in my pocket. This would be my memento of her.


    Jessica... I''m sorry.


    As the screams rang out again, my pain and sorrow was transmogrified into boiling hatred. Hatred towards the creatures that were making their way towards us. I would make them pay.


    I didn''t know how, or when, but I would make them pay! But now, I''d only get myself killed. I''d only cause Aaron more pain.


    Aaron stood up.


    "Let''s go," he whispered.


    His voice sounded completely lost and swallowed up by despair. It was my own fault for letting things turn out this way, I should have been more careful.


    But now was not the time to regret; now was the time to run. I heard the noises reach the stairs. We didn''t have much time.

 Chapter VII.II: No Time To Cry

    Desperately, I glanced around and noticed that on one of the windows in the room there was a fire escape ladder. That was our one way to get out of here.


    I ran over to the window, stepping over the corpses strewn about the room and tried to pull it open. It wouldn''t budge. I swore, then screamed, "Come on, open the hell up! Open up!" It still wouldn''t budge, we''d have to smash it open and risk climbing through the broken glass.


    My eyes urgently darted around the room, looking for something to smash open the window. I saw a chunk of the wall that had been torn off and swiftly scooped it up in my hand. I cringed as I slammed it into the window, shattering it and sending shards flying in the air. With a few more swings, the hole was big enough for us to fit through.


    Without hesitating for a moment, I picked up Aaron and pushed him through the window. I heard him cry out as his legs were cut by the glass, and at the same time I heard the door at the end of the hall tear open. "Go down! Now!" I said urgently. Time was running out. I pulled myself up onto the window sill, took one last look at my wife''s face and then dove through. I wanted to scream but held my cries as I cut my arms on the glass. As I hopped onto the metal platform, the cold air and rain added to the chill of fear. I wasted no time and instantly started climbing down the ladder. I heard the things running down the hall. The screams assaulted my ears so violently that I almost let go of the ladder to cover my ears. When we made it down one floor, I heard what must have been the door fly off its hinges and crash onto the opposite wall.


    Did they know where we went? Would they come after us? I pushed the thoughts aside, I just thought about climbing down the ladder. The ladder soon stopped on another metal platform, which was connected to a series of stairs. Aaron was already another floor below me. Good. As we made our way down the stairs, I kept glancing up to see if anything was following us. As I looked, I noticed that the fog had become much thinner. I didn''t ponder too much on it. Go! That was the one thought taking up all of my mind. Escape!


    I saw Aaron had stopped on the platform below me. I was about to ask him why he stopped, but then I saw why. The next set of stairs had been torn clean off, either by the strong winds or by the creatures. The ground was still too far below to jump.


    We had no choice but to go back inside the building.


    I tried the first window, and was surprised when it opened easily. It was low enough for Aaron to get in on his own, so I decided our best course of action would be for me to go in first, in case those abominations were waiting for us on the other side. I peeked my head in, all I could see was darkness. I took the flashlight out of my pocket and switched it on, revealing an empty storage room. The door was open on the other end of the room. I hesitated for a moment, but then swiftly pulled myself in when I heard the screams ring out overhead. Aaron climbed through an instant after me.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    I looked at his face for a moment before we continued on, it showed despair buried beneath exhaustion. My face must have looked the same. The adrenaline and panic of the moment was burying our sorrow, but only for now. When we made it out of this, if we made it out of this, we''d be free to let it all out. I pushed the thoughts away again and we sprinted out the door and into the hallway. We came out into the main staircase, the first one we had taken, on the third floor. We both paused for a second when we heard a crash from the fourth floor. They were coming back down. We almost threw ourselves down the stairs, we were moving so fast. Our breathing grew ragged. The adrenaline rush was starting to wear off. The exertion, combined with the terror and sadness... it was starting to really weigh on us. I didn''t know how much longer we could go before collapsing. We needed to make it to the car and get the hell out of here or we''d be finished.


    When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Aaron tripped and fell.


    Without missing a beat, I picked him up in my arms. My body ached with pain, but I ignored it.


    We couldn''t give up. We had to survive. For Jessica''s sake.


    The screams echoed down the stairs, and I knew that they were almost there. We had to move, and move I did. I barrelled through the lobby, manoeuvring around the debris all while carrying Aaron. Everything was a blur. In mere seconds I felt the rain on my skin, and knew I was outside. My lungs felt like they were on fire, and I knew I was going to collapse if this went on for a moment longer. I leaped into the car and put Aaron into the passenger seat, all in one motion. I put the key into the ignition, and turned.


    It didn''t start. I tried again, and again and again. It still wouldn''t start. The car had finally crapped out on us, at the worst possible time imaginable. I slammed my hands down on the steering wheel and let out a howl of rage, which made me start to cough. My vision started to get blurry. I really had overexerted myself. We couldn''t die like this... we couldn''t... This was my fault.


    I tried to get up out of my seat, but I only fell back in. Pitifully, I turned my head towards the building and saw three hunched figures step out of the doorway. So there were only three in the building. Three! All it took was three of those things to cause that much damage.


    My vision blurred to the point where it looked like I was in a chlorine pool and blackness started to envelop the corners of my eyesight. My mind slowly started to go blank. I was falling unconscious. The three creatures shambled towards the car.


    The last thing I saw was a set of headlights speeding towards the three beasts, I heard tires screeching and then everything went black.

 Chapter VIII.I: Grief

    <div>


    Oh God. What, what happened? Where am I?


    My consciousness  gradually returned and a few of the events that happened slowly came  back into my mind. The creatures, Aaron and I running, the  headlights.... My eyes fluttered open for a moment and I saw Aaron  sitting next to me, he was starting to wake up too. I could feel that we  were in something that was moving... were we in a car?


    I started to become more  aware of my surroundings. I was sitting down on something cold and  leathery. My clothes were soaked and my shirt stuck to my skin. I heard  radio static ahead of me, and the muffled sound of an engine.


    My eyes snapped wide  open; like I had thought, Aaron and I were buckled into the backseat of a  car. I rubbed my eyes, then unintentionally thought out loud "How did  we get here?"


    The driver slammed on  the breaks, and the car skidded to a stop. He turned around to look back  at me, but I couldn''t make out his face in the dark car.


    "You''re awake," his voice was familiar. I tried to remember where I heard it before, then it came to me.


    "You''re... the police officer. Jared, right?"


    He nodded, "Yeah, Jared." There was a pause for a moment, and he looked away. "Your wife... It didn''t go well, did it?"


    Suddenly I was wide awake. Everything came flooding back into my head all at once. Jessica was dead.


    I wanted to scream, but I contained it. Tears came running down my face, "It didn''t.... she''s... gone." I muttered.


    He turned on the light,  and I saw that his eyes were red. I was surprised to see an expression  of sympathy that was only possible for someone experiencing an identical  sort of pain.


    "I''m so sorry... I know  what it feels like too. To suddenly lose someone so close to you in such  a cruel way... My brother, he''s gone too. My entire squad, they''re all  gone. Those things... they got to them. They were completely  slaughtered. There wasn''t much left of them... So I know what it''s  like... I know how you feel." He tapped a bag on the passenger seat, "I  got all their badges in here, just so I have proof that they were even  alive."


    I felt Jessica''s ring in  my pocket to make sure it was still there. I sighed with relief, and  then gasped as Aaron opened his eyes wide and stared at me.


    "Mom... is... she''s..."  he stuttered as the tears started to flow. I unbuckled, moved next to  him and wrapped my arms around him. Jared turned his head to give us  some privacy. Aaron and I could finally let our grief escape. As we  cried in each other''s arms, I looked back on my life with Jessica. How  we had met in high school, how we had married after I got my first job.  Life was good, we were doing well until everything went downhill in  Arborline, but even then we never stopped supporting each other.  Although life was rough, we were fine because we were facing it  together. Now she was gone. Just like that. I couldn''t have prevented it  even if I had tried, if I was fast enough. I wished I could rewrite the  past.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    But living in the past  won''t get us anywhere. I had to suppress my grief; I had to be strong if  I wanted to get Aaron out of this city. For Jessica.


    Aaron and I wept until the tears could flow no longer.


    "Are you going to be  okay?" I asked Aaron. What a ridiculous question. This would haunt Aaron  until the day he died. It would haunt me too.


    He nodded, "Mom would  want us to be safe... we can''t keep crying," those words surprised me,  "It''s just... I just can''t believe she''s dead. I can''t believe she''s  gone."


    "And neither can I,  Aaron. But you''re right, she wouldn''t want us to stay here crying for  ever. She would have wanted us to move on. You''re a brave boy, Aaron. We  will make it through this."


    I saw the resolve in his  eyes, and decided it was best to tell him everything. No more hiding  things from him. If we were to survive in this broken world, he had to  know what we were facing. I told him about the creature that I had seen,  and that they were what we were running from. They were what made the  noises. He seemed shocked, but he said he saw the shadow when we passed  the room.


    We hugged each other in  silence for a few more minutes, and then a sudden nagging question took  hold of me. I turned to the front seat, "What happened? How did you save  us?"


    Jared turned back to me  and cleared his throat, "I saw one of those things running from the  place where I found my squad, so I followed it and eventually came to  department store. I saw you and Aaron in the car, I heard you having  trouble with the engine and then I saw those things heading towards you.  So, I slammed on the gas and rammed into them." I was surprised that he  had done something so reckless to help us, and it must have shown on my  face. He continued, "The first one I hit collapsed as soon as I hit it,  one of them got its leg stuck under the car and one avoided me. I  didn''t waste any time jumping out of the car, I took my gun and shot at  the one that I missed. I hit it square in the back of the head. It fell  to the ground. I turned around to the one that I had hit, but all I  found was a red splatter where it had been. The one stuck under the car  was screaming like a damn banshee, thrashing around like a madman. I  emptied my gun into it. Its body looked like it was rotting or  something, after I was sure it was dead. When I calmed down, I made sure  there wasn''t any others around. Then I went to see if you two were  alright. You were both unconscious, and your car didn''t work, so I  brought you into my car. Don''t worry, your stuff''s in the trunk," he  paused, and I could see that he was shivering a bit. "The weird thing  is... that first one I shot... After I put you guys in the car, I went  to get a good look at it... But it wasn''t there. No traces were left  behind. The one that was stuck under the car... like the one I hit, all  that was left was a red splatter. I didn''t want to risk the chance that  they had ran away, so I got back in the car and got the hell out of  there. Oh, and in case your wondering I only have one clip left. I''m  saving it for when we really need it."

 Chapter VIII.II: Grief

    I didn''t know what to say. "Thank you so much, Jared. It probably took a lot of guts to face those things." I said as I nudged Aaron.


    "Thank you for saving me and my dad!"


    "No need to thank me. Why wouldn''t I help you? A police officer is supposed to help people... that''s we''re supposed to do, anyway. I couldn''t just leave you there to die."


    I was surprised. Most people in this new world only thought of themselves. The police had never really had the best reputation to begin with, but nowadays the police were basically entirely the self-interested thugs of the government. Jared gave the impression of having a strong sense of justice, something that was not only uncommon for police in this time, but generally uncommon among people in general.


    "Jared, do you remember any specific details about the creatures you saved us from? I mean, did you get a good look at them?" I asked, hoping that the answer would lead to more.


    "The one I killed with the car, I didn''t see all too well. It was kind of human-like, but it had these really long arms that went down past its knees. Its skin looked really weird, almost like rubber... The second one, was human shaped too. It had that same rubbery skin, but it didn''t have any arms at all. There were these weird sharp things jutting out from around its neck, no idea what they were... Both of their faces... they had tiny eyes, no nose and sharp teeth. The sharpest teeth I''ve ever seen, and it didn''t really even look like teeth at all. The third one was really hunched over. It looked like something broke its back, it was so unnatural looking. It had these huge sharp claws, looked like frickin'' machetes! Then its teeth, they jutted straight out of its mouth. That''s as much as I remember about them..."


    I shuddered as I realized that the third one, the one that escaped, was the one that I had stared at in the hallway. It was still out there somewhere. Maybe the others were too.


    Jared gulped, "But hey man, just what in the hell are these things? Where did they come from? I mean, what the hell!" I could tell by the tone of his voice that he didn''t expect an answer.


    "I have absolutely no idea and I can''t even begin to guess..." I sighed, "But they''re definitely connected with this storm somehow. I''m sure of it."


    We thought for a moment in silence. I didn''t learn much more, but now I knew these creatures looked pretty different although they had some similarities. But were they the same species? Were they some sort of weird undiscovered animal? Something made in a lab? I couldn''t even begin to guess their origins. It all seemed impossible. What made that one that ran away so special? The impression I got was that the two that had disappeared must have melted or something after they were killed. Why did the one that escape survive being shot in the head? A thought crossed my mind; what if they each specialized in something specific, similar to social insects like ants and termites? The thought seemed absurd at first, but not entirely impossible. What were they doing? It seemed so far that their only goal was to kill...The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Aaron spoke up, taking us out of our thoughts, "So... what are we going to do now? Where are we going?"


    Good point. "Yeah, where were you taking us, Jared?" I asked.


    His face turned red, "Uh... the thing is... I don''t even know where I was headed... I wasn''t paying any attention to where I was going, I was just driving." he sighed and then shrugged, "I must have still been in shock, I guess."


    "Alright then. We need to figure out where we are. Then we need to decide where we''re going to go," I opened the door, "I''ll check, you two stay in the car."


    When I stepped out, I was immediately bombarded by the heavy drops of rain. I noticed that it was much heavier than it was before, and the streets were starting to get flooded. The wind, on the other hand, was a lot less violent. I remember hearing once that the storm was calmer in the eye, so were the dying winds a sign that we were getting closer to the center? That didn''t make sense though, since the rain was heavier. I decided not to ponder on it too much. I shut the door behind me, and took my surroundings in. My vision was limited to only about five yards ahead of me, all I could see beyond that was thick fog. Was it just me, or had the fog gotten darker?


    I walked along the sidewalk, hoping to reach a street sign so I could find out where we were. It only took a few seconds to make it to an intersection and in turn a street sign. The sign read "Main Street". Jared had driven into the middle of the city. Great.


    I was about to turn back to the car, but before I did I noticed the outline of a dog staring at me from the edge of the fog. I couldn''t make out its features that well, but I could tell that it was staring at me. I whistled to it, causing it to run into the fog. I shrugged, then ran back to the car.


    "We''re on main street," I told them as I sat back in.


    Jared cursed, "I must have been out of it for quite a while to get us this far."


    "So what''s your plan now?" I asked.


    "I don''t know, I had the radio on for a second and they said something about a huge roadblock near the south side of the city, where you came from. A few skyscrapers fell over and it''s nearly impassable. The last order I got was to evacuate any civilians I found. I couldn''t contact anyone else, all that comes from my radio is static now."


    Damn it. A roadblock on the south side would mean we''d have to exit from the North or West. West was the fastest way out, but that''s where the trail of destruction seemed to be heading. North would take quite a long time. I just wanted to get out of here as fast as possible.


    "Take a left at the upcoming intersection, that''s the quickest way out of the city," I told Jared.


    He nodded, and then we were driving again. Aaron rested his head on my shoulder and I turned to look out the window at the falling rain and fog. I saw the outline of the face of the dog I had seen earlier, watching us silently as we drove by. Let''s hope we make it out of here undisturbed.

 Chapter VIV.I: The Heart of the Storm

    For a minute I thought we were going to make it out of the city without any problems. But only for a moment. I didn''t kid myself for very long.


    Things were going good. We made it pretty far through the city, and then it all started to go downhill.


    "Why are you stopping?" I asked Jared, who had just slammed on the breaks.


    He pointed ahead. I adjusted myself forward into my seat so I could see out the windshield of the car and what I saw made my jaw drop. Just a few feet ahead of us, was a hole in the ground that took up the entire width of the road. The two houses on either side of it were halfway sunken in and from my view in the car I couldn''t see how deep or long it was. It extended past the limit of my vision set by the fog, so it must have been pretty huge.


    I sighed, "Alright, let''s just go back onto another street and k-"


    I was interrupted by a loud noise that tore through the air. It was the sound. Like always, it started low, like the noises whales make, but this time it was definitely louder and more clear than it had been before. As it started to escalate in volume, we had to cover our ears as it took on a high, shrieking pitch. I could actually feel the vibrations shaking the air around us when the noise reached its climax, and my ears felt like someone had stabbed a knife into them. Just when the pain became almost unbearable, the sound abruptly stopped.


    The fact that it was louder than it had ever been meant one thing: whatever was making that noise was very close. A thought popped into my mind: the major destruction we had seen almost appeared to go on a specific trajectory. It wasn''t spread out, it had followed a single path. The fact that the sound reminded me a bit of whale-songs made me start to think... No. There was no way.


    That was impossible.


    "So that''s the sound," Jared said, slack jawed, "What in the hell is that?"


    "There''s something living making that sound. It''s a God damn roar!" I blurted my theory out loud, "Jared, get us out of here right now!"


    "You don''t have to tell me that twice!" he said as he backed the car up and drove to another street.


    I heard something in the distance, something like... loud gunshots. Or maybe cannon fire? Is that what it was? Or missiles? Oh God, the army was here. And they were shooting at something. I heard something else too, a low-pitched purring that occasionally leaped into a higher pitch. Like a more subdued version of the noise.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Jared turned again on the next intersection so that we were heading directly West again. The sounds grew louder. We were getting closer. There was no other way to go except forward or back. We couldn''t go back now, we had gone too far.


    "Does anyone else feel that?" Aaron said almost in a whisper.


    "What?" I asked.


    "The shaking..." he said, his own voice shaking as he spoke.


    Now that Aaron brought it up, I did notice it. Every few seconds as we sped down the road, I felt the car vibrate. Something was shaking the ground. As we drove on, the gunfire began to get louder and louder, and the shaking became much more noticeable. The vibrations were getting progressively louder as well.


    "You said that was a roar?" Jared called back.


    "Yeah... at least, that''s what I think it is. All the evidence adds up. It''s coming from a living being, whatever the hell it is..." But then, judging by how loud the roar was, it had to be big. Just how big was it?


    I heard Jared curse up front, "Christ, look at that!"


    I leaned forward in my seat again. What I saw made it feel like my gut tied itself into a knot. On the other side of the road, there were military vehicles broken down, either on fire or torn completely apart. The first few we passed were simple transportation vehicles, but the further we went we started to see things like tanks and even a helicopter that had smashed into a building. The tears in the ground and rubble strewn around began to become much more frequent, as did the insistent cries and gunfire that came from up ahead. We were getting very close to whatever was going on. We''d have to pull into the next side street to avoid it...


    "Uh... oh no." I heard Jared mutter up front.


    That couldn''t mean anything good, "What?" I asked, "What''s wrong?!"


    There was a moment''s hesitation, then he spoke up, panic in his voice, "The gas tank''s almost empty!"


    In all our hurry and panic, we had forgotten to look for a place to gas up the car. Of all the times for this to happen...


    Up ahead, at the edge of the fog, there was a flash of light followed by a ball of flames that rose into the air.


    "Jared, turn into the road to our right! Now!" I screamed in panic.


    He immediately swerved, barely turning in time. We really hadn''t come that close to the explosion, but in the heat of the moment it felt like we had only missed it by a few feet. The firing sounds and groaning of what I was now certain was a living creature were plain and clear now.


    "Come on car, we just need to get away from this! Please!" Jared begged.


    It was no use; we''d have to stop for gas. "Jared, slow down at the next intersection and check the sign, I think there might be a place we can fill up near here." That is, if it''s not destroyed or if it even works anymore. But there''s no use in thinking like that, we had to try.


    "This one! Turn right!" I shouted.


    There were less pauses between the gunfire. It was almost constant now. I heard panicked shouting, but I couldn''t make out what was being said. Most of the houses we passed had been completely flattened. The light from the gas station sign came into view.


    "There it is!" I practically screamed and pointed at the sign that read "Full Service".


    Jared slammed on the gas, the engine roared for a moment, it sputtered... and then went silent. We had run out of gas. The little burst of speed had managed to make us roll ahead a bit, but we were still about thirty feet from the gas station.

 Chapter IX.II: The Heart of the Storm

    Jared and I cursed simultaneously and looked at each other. Neither of us spoke for a long second.


    "I''ll get the gas," I volunteered, though my shaking voice seemed to go against the notion. I almost whispered it, the fear was clear in my voice.


    Jared hesitated for a moment, like he was considering going instead. But then he agreed, "Alright." he handed me his gun. "Take this, just in case. Remember, we don''t have many bullets so only use it when you have no other options."


    Aaron handed me the flashlight. "Be careful, dad." His eyes seemed to beg me to come back safely, not to leave him alone.


    I wouldn''t leave him alone. I would survive. That''s what I tried to convince myself as I walked towards the gas station, but my trembling body seemed to protest. With each step I took, it seemed that the shaking became more frequent. I started to sprint. The pumps and the building came into view. It was still intact, which was good.


    Some of the entryway windows had been smashed, probably by the winds and rain.


    I hoped.


    I flicked on the flashlight when I reached the building, pointing it inside and finding it stripped of food but otherwise not damaged. I scanned around the room with the flashlight. Where were the gas cans? I stepped inside, the floor creaking under my feet. Screw being careful, I just want to get back to the car as soon as possible! I ran frantically around the room, and in the back corner I found two gas cans knocked off the shelf. I knelt to pick one up, but as I did the ground quaked around me, sending me sprawling on the floor head first. I cursed, whatever caused that must be close. I tried to straighten myself out, but the ground shook again, knocking me back down. I did not want to be here when whatever was coming got here. I jumped up, quickly bent down and grabbed the gas can, and then I was sprinting out the door. I listened for the sounds of explosions and gunshots, but they seemed to have stopped.


    I ran as fast as I could to the closest pump, and turned it on as I opened the gas can. It shuddered for a moment, then said it was ready for use. I put the tip of the hose into the can, and began to pump it full of gas.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    As I filled it, I counted the number of seconds in-between each time the ground shook. Ten seconds, though sometimes there would be two shakes in quick succession. One almost knocked me completely off my feet, and that was when I realized I had to go back to the car now or it would be too late. I could feel that the shaking was coming from somewhere fairly close. I tore the hose out of the can, put the cover back on and then started running back to the car. I took one last look back towards the gas station and what I saw almost made me freeze in place. There was something in the fog behind the gas station, at the absolute edge of my vision. I almost didn''t even notice it, but I glanced enough to see that there was in fact something there. I could only make out an outline, but from what I could tell it was huge; much taller than the gas station. Much taller than anything around it.


    I didn''t freeze and stare though, I didn''t dare. If I would have, there''s no way we''d have enough time.


    Out of breath, I stumbled over to the car and knocked on the window, letting Jared and Aaron know that I was back. Right as I opened the gas cap, the ground quaked again, shaking the car and almost making me drop the gas can in the process. I fumbled with it in my hands for a moment, and then managed to insert the nozzle into the gas tank. I heard something collide with the ground this time, getting closer to us.


    But I didn''t dare look; I needed to fill up the gas tank as much as I could. I heard Jared honk the horn of the car, almost sending me jumping into the air. The next vibration made me stumble. It was close, that''s what Jared was telling me. We didn''t have any more time. I pulled the nozzle out of the tank, closed the lid and looked up.


    At first, my eyes saw nothing but the thick fog and the veiled silhouettes of the skyscrapers. But then I saw something else, something almost as large as the skyscrapers, move at the edge of my vision.


    Suddenly, from where I was staring, something came flying in my direction and then made contact with the ground a little over thirty feet ahead of me. This time, the ground shaking actually did send me flying to the ground right onto my back.


    Just what was that? At first, I thought it was a huge rock or something that had fallen, because it had a sort of grey craggy texture to it, but that wouldn''t make any sense. It wasn''t that wide, but it was very tall.


    As I tried to decipher what exactly it could be, the fog slowly started to wisp away, like the curtains being pulled back at the start of a play. I noticed that there was something attached behind the tall thing, something that extended past the reaches of my vision and into the fog. That too was slowly unveiled as the fog pulled away, wisping and contorting around the thing. The fog was disappearing. A low rumbling started to rattle the air and even the ground around me, practically forcing me to clamp my hands over my ears I recognized it as the sound.

 Chapter IX.III: The Heart of the Storm

    As the fog drew back, it slowly revealed much more of what was lurking in front of me. It extended much further back than I had previously imagined, and I was beginning to make out the outline of something much, much, much larger in the distance. I felt the icy clutch of fear grasp onto my stomach and clench tightly as I realized just what was happening; the sound was coming from that thing. My heart felt as if it was doing somersaults, sinking to the depths and then rising again into my throat as I concluded that the shape that I had first seen was a leg. Only a leg. Not a moment after I reached that realization, the rumbling started to rise in volume until it reached a point where it felt like my brain was being boiled.


    Then, all noise in the city abruptly stopped.


    At the same time, the fog, rain and wind completely vanished all at once. One moment it was there, the next second it was gone leaving what lurked within completely unveiled. I could see everything clearly.


    "Huge."


    "Massive."


    "Vast."


    "Immense."


    "Gargantuan."


    "Leviathan."


    "Monumental."


    "Colossal."


    "Prodigious."


    "Immeasurable."


    Not one of these adjectives sufficed to properly describe the absolute size of the thing.


    It was far bigger than anything I could have possibly imagined.


    And to my bewilderment, it moved with the motions of a living creature.


    In height, it went further up than the top of the tallest nearby skyscrapers and in length... Well... I couldn''t even see where it ended. The first thing my eyes locked onto was what I could see of its torso, if that''s indeed what it was. It had the same rocky texture all over its body, along its back there were what almost seemed like small mountains that jutted out unevenly. It was down on all its legs, which were so numerous I could never have counted them all. They reminded me almost of the legs of a tarantula, long and thin in comparison to the rest of its body, though in place of hairs, rock-like protrusions covered them. I had to blink a few times to make sure my vision wasn''t just blurry, but it looked like the outline of the creature wasn''t entirely solid. It seemed to wisp in the wind like smoke... or fog.


    Finally, my eyes made their way to its head, which was attached to a smooth and almost leathery looking neck. Its face was almost reminiscent of a crocodile, no, wait, a whale? A spider, a wolf, a locust, a bull, a scorpion, a lion, no it was almost like a... I couldn''t even tell. It was unlike anything I could even attempt to describe.


    Without any more doubts: this was it. The source of the earthquakes, the shapes that had been seen in the fog and the thing that made the sound.


    It looked down at me. As it did, I could hear its massive body lurching at the motion. I swear it was looking right at me and the car, but that couldn''t be it. There''s no way something like this would have any reason to notice me. There''s no reason why it would even think of me.


    At first, I could barely make out the eyes, but when I focused on them I saw that they radiated pure predatory instinct. But I knew deep inside that they gazed not at any one creature; they gazed at... everything. Instead of pupils, I saw the faces of people I knew, had once known and people I had not yet met. My grandparents, my father, my mother, my wife, my son, my aunts, uncles and cousins, good friends, people I hadn''t seen in years and people I didn''t even remember but knew I had once seen.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    I saw myself.


    Half of the faces were screaming like they were enduring the worst torments imaginable, while the other half were laughing as if they had just been told the funniest joke they had ever heard.


    "What?"


    That seemed to be the only word coursing through my mind at that moment. Over and over again.


    What was I looking at? What kind of twisted abomination, what mockery of nature was I looking at? And where did it come from?


    It was wrong. That was the only way I could describe its presence.


    It just didn''t feel right. It didn''t feel right being here, it shouldn''t exist, and it couldn''t. It felt leagues more bizarre and otherworldly than those monstrosities that had chased after us. My mind could just not wrap around what was standing in front of me, only a mere sixty or so feet away. And yet...


    As otherworldly as it appeared, it also fit somehow. Though it could not and should not exist, it could and it did.


    It was right. It was a raw force of nature. A manifestation of the absolute and total fury of the Earth. Something so alien and beyond human conception and intelligence, and yet so familiar all at once.


    My mind continued to twist and turn through a winding maze of shock and disbelief on the precipice of madness. As I tried to find an answer to what I was looking at, one phrase resounded, again and again:


    What. Was. It?


    "The Storm."


    The thought flashed into my mind like a violent bolt of lightning sent hurtling from the heavens. I felt like I would freeze from the chills that ran from my brain all the way down my spine as I made that final connection.


    This thing; it was the storm. I do not know how it was possible, but someway, somehow, this horror was the storm. I don''t just mean it caused the storm. It was the storm.


    Mingling in with my fear, I felt a presence that was best described as... Power.


    I felt an overwhelming amount of power emanating from the creature and I knew it was beyond anything else in this world. I knew that no matter how hard we tried, no matter what we did, we would never be able to stand against something so powerful, so almighty. Mingling with that raw power, I felt the storm flowing from it, like how blood flows from the heart.


    I did not only fear the creature, I was in total awe.


    It was the absolute pinnacle, the peak. It was more than anything, it was the, it was-


    I was literally dragged out of my trance as I felt someone pull me into the car and I fell in the backseat. It was Aaron that had pulled me in, a look of exertion and determination on his face. Through the windshield, I could see that it was starting to move again, lifting up one of the innumerable legs to its left. Jared was still in a daze, I could hear him muttering something about the creature.


    Somehow, I managed to scream, "Jared! We have to go, now!"


    But he didn''t move. I leaned forward and shook his arm. "Jared! Come on, Jared! We can''t waste any time! Now!"


    He still wouldn''t snap out of it. I turned to the creature again, just in time to see one of its legs crash into the ground, causing the car to shake. We had to get out of here soon or we''d be done for. I had to act, despite the fact that my body was violently shaking in fear, despite the absolute incomprehensibility of the what we were faced with, I had to cast it aside and take action. I pushed all thoughts aside, all thoughts except for survival.


    I climbed up into the front passenger seat, and as I did the ground shaking almost sent me flying back. I managed to haul myself up and tried one last time to shake Jared back to reality, but it was no use. Three quakes, one after the other, shook the car. I pulled Jared from his seat, moving him to the passenger side and seating myself in the driver seat. I turned the key, and the engine roared to life, mingling with the sound of the quaking earth. I surveyed the area, keeping my eyes off the creature because I knew that if they met it, I''d become mesmerized by it again. There was a turn off on the other side of the gas station... right next to one of the legs of the creature. That was the only way we could go without having to go back. We couldn''t go back.


    I took a deep breath, and then I slammed hard on the gas pedal, making the engine roar louder and sending us hurtling down the road. Aaron and Jared were still looking up at the beast, but I didn''t dare look. All I paid attention to was the road, its legs and the rhythm of the quaking earth.


    The leg closest to us, less than ten feet ahead, lifted into the air. We were going to go right under it. We sped under it just in time for it to crash into the ground behind us. The road shook, and the car fishtailed. I slammed the breaks, causing us to drift around the turn. I glanced at the rear view mirror one last time, seeing a fraction of the outline of the monstrosity. With only a moment''s hesitation, I brought the gas pedal to the floor, leaving the heart of the storm behind us. As we drove away, I could hear its moans and roars slowly fade away. Slowly, the rain returned and before long it became torrential again. The fog did not come back.


    I don''t know how, but an overwhelming calmness enveloped me as we drove away from the thing. I felt like I had seen it all now, nothing could shake me into stupor anymore. But I knew that this was not the end, there was a long road ahead of us.


    I was certain that the storm had more surprises in store for us.

 Chapter IX.IV: The Heart of the Storm

    At least ten minutes passed before anybody dared to utter a word.


    "It was so big... What... What was that?" Aaron asked, his voice shaking.


    I took a deep breath, this time I might be able to offer an inkling of an answer, "I''m not entirely sure how... but that thing is causing the storm. I''m sure of it."


    Silence reigned for a moment at this suggestion, but then Aaron spoke again, "What do you mean?"


    "Didn''t you feel it? Somehow, someway, I know that that thing is causing or at least controlling the storm," I replied.


    Jared spoke up, "I think I know what you mean," he shuddered, "I could feel it too; the energy coming from it. I couldn''t even move when I started to feel it, I never felt anything like that in my life, not ever. It makes sense what you say, that it''s what is making the storm."


    I nodded, "Everything makes sense now. It was the shapes and sounds in the storm. The earthquakes that followed the storm; those were its footsteps..."


    "And whenever the storm stopped, remember how there was always a huge hole where it disappeared. That thing must have dug underground and made its way here," Jared said. The sudden reappearance of the storm made sense now. But like all answers we had gotten so far, it brought up even more questions. Why would it dig underground? Why was it moving around like it did?


    "But where did it come from? What is it trying to do?" Aaron asked, voicing the other questions in my head.


    None of us answered, and silence reigned for a moment once more.


    "Markus, why don''t you pull over and let us switch places now, I''ll let you sit with your son."


    "Alright, thanks," I gently pressed on the breaks until we came to a stop and put it in park. I went to the backseat next to Aaron and Jared went into the driver''s seat, put it in drive and we were off again.


    "Anyway, I''m sorry for back then," Jared spoke up, "I''m sorry I couldn''t snap out of it and get us out of there."


    "Hey, you don''t need to apologize. You couldn''t help it. That thing... Like you said, it was unlike anything we''ve ever seen. There was no way anybody wouldn''t have gone into shock having that thing in front of them. The only reason I even moved at all," I turned to Aaron, "Was because Aaron pulled me into the car and snapped me back. It''s all thanks to you that we made it out of there, Aaron."This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    I brought my arms around him and we hugged, "Thank you." Aaron stayed leaning against me, and I could feel him shaking. I silently cursed myself again for bringing him into the city.


    "You should get some sleep Aaron, I can tell you''re exhausted." I suggested.


    He nodded and rested onto me. His breathing became slower and slower. In only a few minutes he was sound asleep.


    "So when we get out of the city, what do you plan to do?" I asked Jared.


    "I lived alone," he sighed, "Both of my parents died in an accident when I was seventeen."


    I didn''t know what to say, "I''m sorry..."


    "Don''t worry, I''m over it now. What I''m saying is, I have nowhere to go. I haven''t really thought of it, but, I guess I''ll stay with you guys for a while. I don''t know what it''s like in other parts of the country, but Arborline and the surrounding area are... finished. With that creature roaming around, I don''t think order will ever be restored around here. So, we may as well stick together. It will make surviving easier. What are you thinking about doing?"


    I blinked. Though I had asked him that question, I realized I hadn''t even thought of what I''d do myself. "I agree we should stick together. I don''t really know where we should go... But we should just keep moving until we make it out of the range of the storm, then we''ll figure out what to do from there. But we should definitely stop for a break somewhere along the way. We all need to get a little rest..."


    Suddenly, Jared stopped and honked the horn. A thousand dreadful hypothetical scenarios flashed through my mind in the instant before I glanced through the windshield. I was relieved to find that it wasn''t some sort of horrific monstrosity, it was only a young girl standing in front of the car, in the middle of the road. She was looking down at something that she was holding in both hands.


    Jared honked the horn again to try to get her attention. She didn''t even flinch. She just kept staring down at the object in her hands. Jared rolled down the window, and yelled out, "Hey! Are you okay?!"


    She still didn''t move.


    "Hey! Are you alone?! I''m a police officer, I can take you out of the city!"


    Still, she made no reaction.


    Jared got out of the car, and I saw him walk up to the girl. He gently tapped her shoulder to try to get her attention, and when that failed, shook her by the shoulders. She was still just looking down. I finally realized what it was she was holding. It was a phone. She was tapping away at it as if it was still working... but it wasn''t. I could tell from here that it wasn''t even on. Who knows how long it hadn''t been working for? With the way things were, these types of people weren''t that uncommon nowadays, but they never failed to unnerve me.


    Jared reached for her phone to try to snap her out of it. Finally, that evoked a response. She actually growled, and slapped his hand away. "Don''t touch it!" she wailed.


    "Wh-What?! Hey, it''s dangerous here, so you should come with-"


    "Leave me alone!" she cried out, and ran off into a nearby alley.


    Jared stood there stunned for a moment, getting soaked in the rain. I saw him shake his head, then he got back into the car.


    "What was her problem..." he sighed.


    As I stared down the alley that she had run into, something else came walking out, standing at the edge. It was a dog, which I recognized as the same dog I had seen earlier. Did it follow us all the way here? Before I could think any more about it, it spun around and ran off into the alley again.

 Chapter X.I: Humans

    About twenty minutes of surprisingly calm driving later, I asked Jared to try the radio.


    He flicked it on, immediately sending static through the speakers. He quickly scrolled through the channels until to both of our surprise, he found one that actually worked. What we heard was occasionally interrupted by bursts of static and high pitched squeaks.


    A raspy, fast talking male voice echoed through the speakers. He sounded like he was injured, and his words came out panicked, like he was expecting to be cut off at any second:


    "This is a w...ning to all citizens of Arb...ine. Evacuate the city im...tely. The military... The military has abandoned Arborline city. I repeat. Leave the city immediately, for your own safety..." He stopped speaking for a moment, and I could vaguely make out something that sounded like banging in the background. It sounded like someone was slamming on a door or something. "This is a... recorded mes.... Just please get away, there''s so many... Not safe... The military is going to send in a..." There was a high pitched muffled squeal, and then the slamming started to get much louder, this blocked out most of what he had just said. I heard something cracking, and all I managed to make out was:


    "...omb. Just..." I heard a loud crack, followed by a series of squeals and fast footsteps; "Hurry." There was a sick cracking sound, static for a moment, and then the message restarted.


    The engine roared as Jared pushed down on the gas.


    Another twenty minutes passed. We were getting close to the bridge that led over Arborline Bay and out of the city. I prayed that it was still intact.


    There was one thing that kept crossing my mind: how many of those creatures were there? Judging by the number of attacks when the storm was in other places, there was definitely a fair amount. But did they always stick close to the storm, or did they spread out? I just hoped that we could find refuge somewhere, at least for a little while. If we could just find somewhere secure to stay for a few days, or weeks, if we could just find out how things were going elsewhere, we could decide our next course of action. Neither Jared or I had a device that could connect to the internet, let alone a place to get an internet connection. Maybe if we found a computer or smartphone, we could get a clue as to what was going on. But right now, we were completely in the dark. I wondered how far the storm had spread out. All we had to go off of was the radio, and that wasn''t much help. Jared fiddled with it some more, but the only station that ever worked was the recorded message. We listened to it again and again, trying to decipher exactly what it was trying to warn us about. The news of the creatures and the giant must have reached the radio station as he was so urgently saying that everyone should evacuate, but that couldn''t be the only thing. He had said the military had given up on the city, but the message was too interrupted for us to make out exactly what it was they were going to do. He said they were sending something into the city, but what? If they were abandoning it, why would they send something in? The sound of the door breaking at the end of the recording gave me chills every time. The man had obviously sacrificed himself to send the message, something had gotten to him. Either the creatures we had run into earlier, or something else. But what was so urgent that he would risk his life like that? What was the military going to do?The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Finally, we reached the bridge that would take us across Arborline Bay. The oil rig I worked on was in the bay, so you could see the lights coming from it whenever you crossed the bridge at night or in a storm. That is, usually that was the case. But as I gazed across the bay, I didn''t see those lights I was so accustomed to seeing every time I crossed the bridge. Well, that wasn''t too much of a surprise, chances are they had abandoned the rig and shut everything down as soon as the storm hit, right? I strained my eyes. Now that the fog was gone, it actually wasn''t that hard to see through the rain. Surprisingly, I could see all the way to the horizon. So then... why didn''t I see the oil rig?


    "It''s gone..." I muttered.


    Jared looked back, "Huh? What did you say Markus?"


    "The oil rig I work at... It''s gone."


    I didn''t notice it at first, but the bay that was usually always full of ships... was completely empty. There was not a single trace that there had ever been ships or oil rigs in the bay.


    "What do you mean it''s gone?" Jared asked.


    "All the ships are gone. Everything. Where did they all go? They couldn''t have left, not in this weather? Something must have... destroyed them? Could it have been the massive creature, or...? Something else maybe...?" I was shaking and muttering under my breath.


    For the place I had worked at for years to completely vanish like that... for the scenery that had been so familiar to me to vanish without a trace... to say that it was jarring was an understatement. I was laser focused on Jessica the entire time, so it didn''t really hit me until that moment but... seeing the place you had lived most of your life become utterly desolate and destroyed like that... was unbelievable.


    We were finally out of the City. Just as we made it across, Aaron woke up next to me. He yawned and stretched out his arms, bringing me out of my daze.


    "Hey bud, how was your sleep?" I asked.


    His voice was quiet in reply; I could tell he was still tired, "Good," his stomach growled, "But I guess I''m a little hungry."


    I suddenly realized that I was famished. The panic, unease and intrigue had been so much that I hadn''t even noticed.


    "I''ll stop the car. You had some food with your bags right?" Jared said as he brought the car to a stop and looked back at me.


    I nodded. "Alright, I''ll go get it." he said as he stepped out of the car and went to the trunk.


    Just then, I happened to notice something moving in the reflection of the rear-view mirror. A humanoid figure was right behind Jared. Before I could warn him, its arms wrapped around his neck.

 Chapter X.II: Humans

    For a dangerous moment, I couldn''t move. From where I sitting, it was hard to tell exactly what it was. Was it one of the humanoid creatures from before? Something else? Hundreds of possibilities fueled my instinctual flight or fight response. I chose to fight, reaching for Jared''s gun that was sitting on the passenger seat and leaping out of the car, not wasting any time to aim it at the figure.


    I couldn''t believe my eyes. Though I had expected to see some sort of horrific monster attacking Jared, what I saw instead was... a man. A rough looking man with torn clothes held Jared at knife point with a crazed look in his eyes.


    "Don''t move! If you try to shoot me, I''ll make sure he dies with me!" the man screamed wildly. Jared struggled, looking at me pleadingly.


    The gun shook in my hands. I had never shot one in my life, I''m sure if our roles were reversed Jared could have succeeded in taking out the man without hurting me... but I wasn''t confident in my ability to not hit Jared. And besides, I didn''t think I could shoot another person. I just couldn''t, not when he was looking at me like that. Though his eyes were crazed, I could also see a deep sadness in his eyes. As if he was sorry that he had to do what he was about to do, as if he already regretted it but survival necessitated it.


    "Why are you doing this?!" I shouted semi-incoherently, "Just back off! Don''t make me shoot you!"


    The man must have sensed that I was an amateur with a gun, or that I didn''t have the guts to shoot, because he yelled back, "Just give me the car and I''ll let you go alive! If not, well..."


    I didn''t even know what it felt like to shoot a gun or how it even operated except for that I had to pull the trigger! Would I have to reload or something? Could I avoid hitting Jared? Crap....This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    "Now! Drop the gun, give me the car, now!" the man shouted again. I could tell that he didn''t want to kill anyone, he just wanted to get out of the city. I thought of trying to calm him down by offering to bring him with us... anything that could have prevented the loss of a life... but the words died in my throat. He had already resolved himself, there would be no calming him down.


    I looked Jared in the eyes. His eyes seemed to be practically shouting at me: "Shoot him! Take the shot!"


    Alright Jared, I''ll do it...


    I aimed, and fired.


    I had missed the man''s head...


    and hit his shoulder instead. He let out a cry of pain, and dropped the knife. I blinked, and within that time frame Jared had grabbed the knife before it hit the ground and stabbed the man in the throat.


    Just like that, it was over.


    I had... assisted in ending the life of another human being. I felt bile rise into my throat, and barely pushed back the urge to vomit. Never had I imagined that I would ever take another human''s life, not ever. Especially not after this storm had started, especially after we had run into those otherworldly monsters! You''d think that now that we had a common enemy, we''d be able to fight and survive together.


    "Come on, Markus," Jared said as he put an arm on my shoulder and lead me back into the car, "Don''t worry too much about it. He would have killed us if we didn''t kill him first. He would have killed your son... or worse. We had to do it."


    I nodded, though my body wouldn''t stop shaking.


    "I didn''t see! What happened?!" Aaron asked, "Dad went out... and then I heard a loud noise. What was that?"


    I couldn''t answer.


    Jared spoke up, "This guy tried to steal our stuff, but me and your dad scared him off. It''s alright now, don''t worry."


    "Oh..." Aaron muttered.


    We had to do it... I tried to convince myself. The man''s frantic eyes flashed back into my mind. More than anything, he had just looked scared and confused... What if he had been trying to find someone in this storm, too? What if he had someone he needed to protect, just like me? I shook my head. We had to do it, or else...

 Chapter X.III: Humans

    A loud rumbling noise echoed through the air. My immediate thought was that it was the roar of The Storm, but I realized that it was more akin to the sound the jets had made when they flew overhead.


    I glanced out of the windshield, confirming my suspicions. A lone black jet was flying towards the city. Why would it be alone? All the others had come in groups, and after the continual failure of the military to fight against The Storm... why would they only send one? It hurtled through the air over the car, speeding on towards the city. Wait, according to the radio transmission we had heard, the military had abandoned the city and there was an urgent evacuation warning, so why would... My stomach started to feel sick as I realized just what that jet was bringing into the city.


    I got out of the car, and stood by the door. The rain had lessened a bit, so although it pattered onto my face, I could see the jet as it started to fly over the city. I needed to see this. I heard movement in the car, and then moments later Jared came out and stood on the other side.


    "What''s wrong, Markus? Why did you get out?" Jared asked.


    I didn''t reply. My finger slowly pointed towards the solitary jet as it flew through the blackened sky, like a fallen angel heralding the end of the world.


    Jared just stared for a moment, probably wondering what was so special about that particular jet, but then recognition flashed into his eyes.


    "Oh. Oh God, no. They wouldn''t dare..." he uttered.


    "But they would. And they are," I said with a shaking voice as my eyes started to tear up. Words could not describe the revulsion and despair I felt. How could... How could humans do something like this?


    The jet flew further above the city until it was only a tiny dot in my vision and once it reached the centre I could just barely make out something dropping from it onto the streets below.


    "No!" I muttered feebly.


    A magnificent flash of light momentarily blanketed the sky as a distant rumbling sound resonated all the way to where we stood. A blast of wind nearly knocked me off my feet as the blinding light slowly started to fade, revealing... a mushroom cloud ascending past the height of the skyscrapers that had once been there in its place, painting spots of the black sky with a bright fiery orange. From what I could see, everything close to the blast had been completely obliterated in the instant that it had hit, and even at the very edge of the city I could see a few buildings toppled over. Dust and debris were thrown into the air, partly obscuring my view.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    I almost broke down crying then. The city I had grown up in had just been completely obliterated in front of my own eyes. I had watched it slowly degrade over the years, the older I grew the worse the city became. It was a shell of its former self, an absolute shithole. But it was still home. It was the only place I really knew other than the oil rig. I heard the door to the car close as Jared went back in without uttering a word. I didn''t turn away though; I kept my eyes locked on the absolute destruction mere miles in front of me. I burned the image of my destroyed home into my mind, so that I''d remember it for eternity. The orange mushroom cloud was slowly tugged at and torn apart by the wind, helping me see a bit more.


    The entire city was now cloaked in flames that rose like pillars towards the sky.


    Before this storm started, I thought the human race was going to destroy itself. Whether it was with pollution, our absolute apathy towards anything outside of our own little bubble, our tendency to follow the herd no matter the consequences to our lives and freedom, or whether we''d tear ourselves apart with our weapons.


    Then when the storm came, I thought that it would bring about the end. I had naively thought that, if anything, we would at least stand together as one race to try and stop these monsters until the very end. But as I looked off at the nearly flattened city that had once been my home, I came to the conclusion that my first conjecture had been correct.


    Nothing had changed.


    Nothing.


    We were still going to tear ourselves apart.


    Though humanity faced an outside threat, one that we should all face together... it would self-cannibalize its already lifeless corpse until not a drop of blood remained.


    I opened the door to the car. Jared was in the passenger seat. He half muttered, "Hey, could you drive for a little bit?"


    I grunted, and sat in the driver seat. Aaron was looking down at his hands. Jared was just staring off into empty space.


    I pressed on the gas, but I was hardly paying any attention to the road. All I could see was the bomb going off in my head, replaying again and again. How many thousands of people had died in that blast? I wondered if the nuclear bomb had even managed to scratch that monstrosity that was the storm.


    I didn''t believe it for a second, and as we drove on the constant stream of rain showed no signs of letting off.


    It just kept coming down, at the exact same rhythm.

 Chapter XI: Night

    ¡°This place is it,¡± I said as we drove up to a decrepit gas station. There was a two story house behind it, no doubt belonging to the people who owned the gas station. It looked like it would be the ideal place to camp out for a while if it was abandoned; there were probably plenty of supplies in the store and the house looked like it was a safe place to stay. It was also in a rural area, so there wasn¡¯t as big of a risk of getting attacked (either by more of those creatures or by other people) than there would be if we were in a city. At least, I hoped so. Of course, we could only stay there if it was unoccupied. Which was something we would obviously have to check.


    I pulled into the driveway of the house, ¡°Stay here with Aaron, I¡¯m going to check the house for people... or other things.¡±


    He protested, ¡°No, I should be the one to go in there. You risked your life back in the city. If you get hurt, what about your son?¡±


    I glanced at Aaron, who was sleeping soundly next to me.


    ¡°Alright, you can go in,¡± I handed him the flashlight, ¡°You should check all of the rooms, just to be sure. If it¡¯s clear, then we¡¯ll sleep in there tonight and then we can check out the store in the morning.¡±


    Jared grabbed his gun, I wished him well and then he was out of the carand walking towards the door of the house. I saw him knock, wait ten seconds, turn around and wave, then walk into the house.


    I glanced at my watch. It was 9:00pm, about two hours since we had left the city. I kept alternating from eyeing the hands of my watch, and the house.


    I hoped that there was nothing in there. From what I could tell, the only damage done to the house was caused by the heavy rain and winds. None of the windows were shattered and the doors were all in place. The white siding of the house had been slightly torn in some places, but it seemed like that damage had been caused in the past. Behind the house was a small patch of trees, which I found my eyes drifting to often. Something about it made me a little uneasy; it seemed like the ideal place for something to hide. But that was just me being paranoid.


    By now, Jared had been gone for seven minutes. Just when I started to worry that something may have happened to him, the door to the house opened. He was alright. I sighed with relief as he came up to the car and opened the door, ¡°It¡¯s all clear. The power¡¯s out but there¡¯s a wood stove in the basement, a bit of wood too but not much. We can definitely stay here for a little while.¡±


    ¡°Great, we can start taking the stuff from the trunk into the house. I¡¯ll carry Aaron in.¡±


    Gently, so that I wouldn¡¯t wake him up, I lifted Aaron into my arms. I had carried him before, when we were running away from those monsters, but I was in a complete panic at the time. Now that things were calm I realized just how much bigger he had gotten since the last time we saw each other; I was having a bit of trouble carrying him.


    Jared opened the door for me, and we stepped inside.


    The first thing that I noticed was the smell; it smelled like bread had been baking in the house. The room was lit by a lone candle sitting on a table in the middle of the room that had been almost completely burnt down. I guess that meant the people living here hadn¡¯t immediately left when the storm came; they had probably lit the candle when the storm took out their power. Judging by the state of the candle, something must have prompted them to leave a while ago.


    By the relatively dim light of the candle, I could see that my suspicion about baking bread had been correct. The oven was left partially open, and although I couldn¡¯t see inside, I could tell that the smell was coming from around there. They must have left in quite a panic if they had left a luxury such as perfectly good homemade bread behind, but I didn¡¯t think too much about it. Around the table, there were four chairs, one of which was knocked over. The cupboard had been left opened and was nearly emptied, but I could see a few cans of food inside. There were doorways straight ahead and to my right.


    Jared walked over to the candle that was burning out, used it to light a candle resting next to it, and then blew it out. ¡°The living room¡¯s to the right, you can put Aaron down on one of the couches there for now.¡±


    I stepped into the room to the right. There was a sofa, a coffee table and a rocking chair. You didn¡¯t usually see a ¡°living room¡± in the few houses that people could actually afford that much nowadays. The owners must have been old and decently well off if they owned a house like this. I put Aaron down on the sofa, and I noticed that there was a few tears in the fabric. I breathed in; the room smelled like mothballs. The furniture and by extension the house were definitely from before the economic crash.


    I walked back into the kitchen, ¡°So, are there beds or anything in here?¡± I asked Jared.


    He thought for a second, ¡°Uh, there¡¯s a big bed upstairs and a smaller one in a spare room. You and Aaron can share the big one; I¡¯ll take the small one.¡±


    ¡°Alright, but does this place have a basement?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yeah, why?¡±


    ¡°I just think it would be better to sleep down there, it just feels a little safer. What¡¯s down there?¡±


    ¡°Oh okay. There¡¯s nothing much down there, there¡¯s a wood stove, a small pile of wood, a few boxes and a bathroom. Oh, and it has a window. There¡¯s plenty of room for the mattresses down there, do you want to move them right away?¡±


    ¡°Sure, then let¡¯s get some sleep,¡± I glanced at my watch. ¡°It¡¯s only nine twenty three, but damn it feels like I¡¯ve been awake all week.¡±


    ¡°Tell me about it...¡± Jared said as he turned to go up the stairs. I locked the door before going to follow him. On the wall to the right of the stairs there were three picture frames; one held a photo of what must have been the owners of the house on their wedding day, another was a picture of a young girl, their daughter I supposed and the third looked like a more recent photo of the couple. They were old, anywhere between sixty or eighty. I stopped and stared at the wedding photo for a moment, feeling in my pocket for Jessica¡¯s ring. I glanced to the photo of the couple when they had grown old, but stopped myself from staring. I couldn¡¯t break down again.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    I continued my way up the stairs, my finger feeling the ring.


    Finally, after bringing both of the mattresses downstairs, barricading the doors and windows, using the washroom and bringing Aaron down the stairs, I got to lie down.


    Jared had brought the candle downstairs and set in the middle of the room. I stared around the basement, taking in what would be our home for the next little while. The basement had no drywall, and the floor was all concrete. The room had a sort of damp musky smell, but at least the floor was dry. There was a small cubby hole in the corner, and next to it were a few stacks of boxes. We had put the stuff we brought in next to the boxes in the corner of the room, which we were going to search through the next day. Jared and I put our wet clothes in front of the fireplace after starting a fire.


    It felt good to lie down. Jared and I didn¡¯t talk much, even though there was a lot to talk about. We just didn¡¯t want to think about it.


    In a few minutes, I heard him snoring. It wasn¡¯t long before I fell asleep to the sound of the rain battering down on the house and the wind whistling ominously through the air.


    My eyes snapped open.


    I was in our apartment, with something in my hands. My vision blurred around the edges, it almost felt like I was looking through a fishbowl.


    ¡°Alright Markus, he¡¯s here!¡± I heard a female voice. Was that Jessica?


    I tried to move, to call out her name or to turn to face her, but my body wouldn¡¯t budge.


    Involuntarily, my head glanced down and I saw that I was holding a cake with bright vibrant icing that read ¡°Happy 9thBirthday Aaron!¡± There were eight tiny candles scattered around the cake, all lit.


    I heard someone open the door to the apartment and step in.


    ¡°Hi Aaron, how was your day?¡± that same female voice asked.


    ¡°Great! At recess me and Daniel made this huge pile of leaves that we kept jumping in, it was really fun!¡± Aaron¡¯s voice called from where I couldn¡¯t see. His voice sounded much younger.


    ¡°There¡¯s a surprise for you here!¡± the female voice echoed through my head. There was no doubt, it was Jessica.


    Suddenly, my head turned and Jessica and I started to sing happy birthday. When Aaron saw me, his face lit up into a wide smile; an expression that I hadn¡¯t seen in a long time and one that I would probably never see again.


    ¡°Go blow out your candles and make a wish!¡± Jessica said.


    ¡°Alright, I know exactly what I¡¯m going to wish for!¡± Aaron said as he sat down at the end of the table and took a deep breath.


    When he blew out the candles, the room went pitch black.


    I felt a cold chill run through the room, and realized that the window was shattered open. A storm was raging outside. Nobody was in the room except for me. What had just happened?


    Suddenly, the screams rang out from down below, and I heard rapid footsteps smashing their way up the stairs. I wanted to run, I wanted to get the hell out of there but I couldn¡¯t move a muscle. All I could do was keep staring at the direction of the doorway. The footsteps made it to the door, and then something started smashing on it.


    I would have jumped if I could have moved, because a bright light flashed in front of me, revealing a feminine figure. It was Jessica, but she looked just like I had seen her last; missing her arm, covered in cuts, mangled legs. And her eyes... there was not an inch of life in them.


    The banging on the door stopped, and all I heard was the howling of the wind and the steady sound of blood dripping from Jessica onto the floor.


    Then she spoke, and the banging started again as she did, ¡°You never should have come into the storm, Markus. You shouldn¡¯t have come,¡± although it was Jessica¡¯s voice, there was no way that was Jessica talking. There was a hidden malice underneath it, like she was ready to start screaming at any second. Never had I ever heard her speak with venom in her voice. The banging grew louder.


    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have come,¡± she repeated, this time nearly shouting it, ¡°Why would you bring Aaron? Because of you, he¡¯s suffering!¡± The banging was almost constant now, and in the dim light I could see that the door was starting to crack. The wind blowing in through the window violently knocked things over and threw them around the room.


    ¡°Jessica¡± started to scream, ¡°All your fault! It¡¯s all your fault Markus!¡± She screamed over and over. A face peeked in through the window. It was the man I had shot. The door finally burst open, and as it did, Jessica disappeared and the thing I had seen in the building stood in her place. A violent blast of wind threw me down onto the ground.


    The last thing I saw was the creature¡¯s face pressing against my own, its smile widening.


    I woke up screaming. I threw the blankets off of myself and immediately turned to check on Aaron. He was fine, still sleeping soundly.


    I glanced out the window; it was still dark outside so at first I thought it must still be night time but with the dark clouds blanketing the sky, I couldn¡¯t be sure until I checked the time. The rain hadn¡¯t let up at all.


    Everything was where we had left it. After the events of yesterday, I almost expected to not wake up at all. This calm situation was the exact opposite of that nightmare we had lived through not even a few hours ago.


    I sat there for what must have been an hour, thinking about nothing, trying to keep the nightmarish thoughts aside, until Jared woke up.


    We both muttered a good morning to each other. Both of us were still fazed from the day before.


    We immediately started looking through the boxes in the room, which were full of canned food preserves. There was actually enough to last a few weeks, maybe even a month or two if we were careful with it.


    As we were sorting through them, I decided to ask Jared a question, ¡°So, uh, why did you decide to become a police officer?¡±


    He froze for a second, took a deep breath, then responded, ¡°Well, it¡¯s mostly cause of my dad. He was always telling my brother and I how messed up this country was, how nobody was on the side of justice anymore. He said that this world needed the new generation to take charge and to fight for what was right, or it wouldn¡¯t be long before things would get so bad that there wouldn¡¯t be any chance of recovery... he always said that a good job for us would be to join the police force or the army. So when he passed away, me and my brother decided to become cops in order to honour him. My brother didn¡¯t really want to, I told him he didn¡¯t have to do it, that dad would have been proud of him no matter what he did, but... Our parents death hit him a lot harder than me. He really didn¡¯t want to let the old man down. I wish he would have listened to me...¡± he lowered his head, tears started to well up in his eyes, ¡°...then, maybe now he¡¯d still be alive...¡±


    If only I had not come back into the city after the storm started, then I wouldn¡¯t have put Aaron in danger. If only I had stayed in the city, maybe I could have saved Jessica... I shook my head.


    ¡°There¡¯s no point in worrying about what ifs,¡± I put my hand on his shoulder, ¡°We can¡¯t change the past. Your brother would have wanted you to stay strong now. I know that Jessica would want me to stay strong, too. You saved us in the city, and for that I¡¯m eternally grateful. I¡¯m sure your father would be proud, your brother too.¡±


    The tears cleared from his eyes, he nodded, ¡°You¡¯re right. I can¡¯t let them down! I¡¯m going to do what I can, I¡¯ll save you two, and anyone else who¡¯s innocent that we come across,¡± he extended his hand to me, ¡°Let¡¯s survive, and live on. For the sake of those we¡¯ve lost.¡±


    We firmly shook hands.

 Chapter XII: Dawn

    When Aaron woke up, we looked through the rest of the house together. We decided to stay close to each other, who knew if or when one of the things would appear around here. If there was more than the three we had seen, I didn''t want any of us to be alone if one of them showed up.


    Our search of the house gave us a decent amount of things that we could make use of, a few packs of batteries, more canned food, clothes and blankets. We couldn''t use anything that was in their fridge, everything in it was either spoiled or rotten.


    There was quite a few nonsensical things around the house, which would have surprised me if the house and the owners hadn''t been so old. I found a birthday card lying around that read "Happy 75th Birthday Dad! Love Sarah." which confirmed my suspicions that the owners were an old couple that had their house from the time before. No way anyone nowadays would be able to afford something like this.


    We passed the rest of the day shuffling around the house for anything that we could use, or just something to keep yesterday off of our minds. Aaron found a yo-yo, something I hadn''t seen in forever. I tried showing him how to play with it, but to say I was a little rusty was an understatement. Jared took a box of knickknacks and started to shuffle through them.


    With nothing else to do, I stared at what must have been the most recent photograph of the old couple. The man was rather heavyset, wearing coveralls with a grey shirt underneath. His head was almost entirely devoid of hair, with only a few patches left and he wore large round glasses. His posture and expression seemed to give off the impression that he was always serious and hardworking. His wife wore a simple dress, and her hair was covered over by a bonnet. She seemed to be tired, like the past years had put a vast amount of weight on her shoulders.


    I turned to the photo of the young girl. She had light blonde hair that almost bordered on being white, and bright blue eyes. She appeared to be in her teens, but there was no telling how long ago the photo was taken. It could have been from a long time ago or a few weeks ago. I assumed that she had been the Sarah from the birthday card. Was she still that age, living here before the storm? Did she already grow up and move away? Did she live here, taking care of her parents, or maybe they were her grandparents? I had absolutely no way of knowing, I could only guess. But that begged the question. Where had the couple gone? The most logical and simple conclusion was that they had run away when the storm hit, but for some reason my mind wouldn''t let it rest at that. I had a sinking feeling that something had happened to them, recently. That perhaps something else had done something to them.


    Was it one of those abominations? Was there one lurking around here right now, waiting for the right moment to slaughter us all at once? Maybe I was overthinking things, but I suddenly felt like I didn''t want to be here anymore.


    "So, are we going to go explore the gas station today?" Jared suddenly asked, almost causing me to jump in surprise.


    "Yeah, sure," to be perfectly honest, I didn''t feel up to going there at the time. Not with the feeling of paranoia swelling up inside of me, but if we didn''t do it now, who knows what we would miss out on?


    All three of us got up, removed the barricade from the door, and then ran through the torrential rain to the gas station.


    Almost reluctantly, I opened the door.


    It was absolute chaos inside, all of the aisles were knocked over with all of their contents scattered everywhere. A few of the ceiling tiles had fallen down as well, and even a few of the metal support beams. In the centre of the building, there was a hole torn right through the ceiling. This, along with the fact that most of the windows had been shattered, allowed the unyielding rain to come crawling in.


    I gazed around the room, uneasiness starting to creep inside me. Just how much of this mess was caused by the storm? How much of it was caused by... something else? I took a gulp, and then turned towards Jared, "Alright, let''s look around." He nodded, and took a step forward. From his expression, I could tell that he was in the same state of mind as me.


    No use standing around, I told myself. You''re going to have to get used to this feeling of uncertainty and paranoia, because from now on it''s not going to go away.


    After our hunt around the store, we came together with what undamaged or unexpired goods we could find.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    In total, we found: a box of cereal bars, a bag of candy, three packs of twelve bottles of water and four individual ones, a box full of canned food, a shovel, a flashlight and a single box of matches. Everything else was either smashed beyond use or rotting and mouldy.


    "Well, this isn''t as much food as I was hoping for, but it will last us a while at least," Jared said after staring at what we had gathered.


    "Yeah, with this and the stuff in the house, we have enough for at least a month," I replied. My voice, just like my thoughts, felt like it was somewhere else.


    "But what about when we run out of food?" Aaron asked.


    Jared and I stared at him for a second. We really hadn''t given much thought to it, because we didn''t want to think about it. As much as I dread the solution, it was the only option available to us in this storm.


    "Well, once we''re low on food... We''re going to have to leave this house," I paused for a moment, "Then, we''re going to have to go back out into the storm, and hope we can find another safe place to stay."


    That''s right, this house, this place where we could feel at ease, was only a temporary solution. In no time at all, we would have to head back out into that nightmare. Who could tell what would happen in a month? Maybe there wouldn''t be anymore safe places by then. What if this place wasn''t as safe as we had thought it to be? What if any of my suspicions had truth to them? What if we were forced to leave much sooner than we had originally planned?


    "Dad," Aaron spoke, "If that''s what we have to do... then I''m not worried. Because you''re with me. I''m sure we''ll be alright."


    I smiled and opened my mouth to reply to him, but a crashing sound from underneath us rudely tore away my chance to respond.


    Jared was on his feet in an instant. He grabbed the shovel and held it ready as a weapon, then stared at me and Aaron, holding one of his fingers up to his lips. I looked around for something that I could use as a weapon too, but the best I could find was a piece of fallen wood. I took up my makeshift weapon, and then motioned for Aaron to stand next to me.


    The crashing sound echoed through the air again, causing my body to shake along with the sound. Jared''s eyes darted around the room; I didn''t know what he was looking for until I saw his eyes lock onto something near the cashier''s counter. There was a trapdoor. The sound must have been coming from in there.


    Damn it.


    I didn''t want to go down there. I absolutely did not want to go down there. But Jared was already moving towards it, and I knew that we couldn''t just leave it unexplored. We couldn''t just leave whatever was down there alone. Because I knew that if it was something more than just an animal, it would come for us if we didn''t come for it first.Jared opened the trap door, and peered down. I turned to Aaron, I didn''t want to bring him with me, but I couldn''t leave him here alone. I couldn''t let Jared go down there alone either, so I couldn''t stay with Aaron.


    We all had to go down there. I expected Aaron to protest, but surprisingly he nodded his head. He really had meant what he said earlier, he trusted me to protect him. Well then, I guess I''ll have to live up to my son''s expectations, no matter how much my body shivers in fear.


    Jared motioned for me to come over, and then he took a step into the open trapdoor, his foot connecting with a ladder. Another crash rang out, but this time I didn''t let it startle me. I let Aaron go down before me, so that he''d be between me and Jared and then I followed right after.


    As I stepped down the ladder, I brought out the flashlight and turned it on. "It was a good thing we found this flashlight," I thought as my feet connected with the damp dirt floor, "I can''t imagine having to maneuver through here without it."


    The place where we had entered was dug into the dirt, with wooden support beams on the sides and a wooden door at the end, about ten feet away. Broken wood littered the muddy ground and a few boxes that were completely smashed were lying around here and there. There was a crowbar lying on the ground, which I chose as my weapon over the piece of wood.Another crash rang out; this time it was easy to definitely pinpoint the source. It was coming from behind the door. I handed Aaron the flashlight as Jared and I both readied our makeshift weapons.


    Another sound came from behind the door, it sounded almost like someone yelling out something. I couldn''t make out what they were saying. Jared turned towards me, and nodded. I nodded in return.


    We charged towards the door, quickly swung it open and peered inside. It appeared to be what looked like a wine cellar, but there were no bottles lined along the walls. Only the richest people could afford such things, after all. Perhaps it had once been lined with many different drinks before, but undoubtedly nothing had sat there for a very long. A few barrels sat around the room, one of which had been completely torn apart. A table rested in the center, and on that rested a lamp, illuminating the room. And last but not least... two people stood in the doorway, a man and a woman, who seemed oddly familiar.


    I instantly recognized them as the couple from the picture.


    The man''s eyes were wild, rapidly darting between me and Jared. The woman''s eyes were completely vacant; I would have thought she was dead if she wasn''t breathing so fast that she was hyperventilating. Both of their bodies were covered in cuts and blood, the man had a particularly large gash on his right leg.I was about to say something. Maybe sorry for startling them, maybe sorry for barging into their house, maybe asking them if they were alright, if they needed help...But my eyes drifted towards the man''s hands.


    In them, he held a shotgun, pointed directly at Jared''s chest.

 Chapter XIII.I: The Sadist

    The man screamed something completely incomprehensible, then without thought or mercy, fired his gun. I couldn''t help myself from closing my eyes. I waited for Jared''s death cry; I waited to hear the sound of his body falling onto the ground. I waited for the man to fire his gun at me. I waited for the man and woman to charge at me and Aaron and kill us both.


    For a moment, all I could hear was absolute silence.


    ...None of my dreads came to pass. The exact opposite happened.


    I heard Jared''s voice scream: "Ah! You son of a bitch!"


    Then, my eyes opened as I heard the sound of blunt metal hitting flesh. The man fell over, firing his gun wildly into the air as he hit the ground. Like the first shot, it had completely missed.


    It took me a moment to start moving myself; Jared''s counterattack had been so sudden. I thought we would be able to talk our way out of this, but after seeing the woman''s eyes lock onto mine, I came to the conclusion that both of these people were completely and utterly beyond any and all reason. Although it pained me to do so, if we didn''t fight back they would show us no mercy.


    The woman suddenly pounced on me like a wild animal. Just in time, I swung the crowbar up in front of me. She grabbed for it and shoved me down onto the ground with surprising force. Spit and blood dripped from her face onto mine as she grappled for the crowbar, but I held on with all my strength. I was momentarily too shocked to think straight. How the hell was she so strong? Not only was she incredibly old, but she was also covered in wounds that would cause anybody else to be rolling around on the ground in pain. It couldn''t have just been adrenaline and mania; there had to be something else influencing her behavior.


    Another gunshot rang out in the air, and a scream of pain soon followed. From my point of view on the ground, I couldn''t see what was going on between Jared and the old man. The woman let out a primal growl right up against my face as she struggled to rip the crowbar from my hands, sending more blood and spit dripping down onto my face. I didn''t have time to think about Jared right now; I had to worry about what was happening to me right now. And Aaron was right behind me! I couldn''t let her get by me! I had to protect my son!This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    I shoved upwards with everything I had, succeeding in pushing the woman up a bit, but her grip on the crowbar remained just as strong as it had been before.


    "Dad!" I heard Aaron yell out to me.


    Crunch! The sickening sound of flesh being ruptured filled the air for a moment, and the woman howled out in pain. Her grip lessened on the crowbar. From my position I could see Aaron holding a bloodstained rock above the woman''s head. He hit her! He didn''t bring the rock back down; he must have been in shock over what he had just done. Thanks for being brave Aaron, I won''t let this chance go to waste!


    With all of the strength I could muster, I shoved violently against the crowbar, succeeding in sending the woman flying onto her back a few feet in front of me. In barely an instant, she was back on her feet, posing to strike again. I stole a glance towards Jared and the old man behind me, only catching a brief glimpse. Jared had succeeded in prying the gun from the old man''s hands, but it must not have had any more bullets in it because he was holding it like a club. His shovel was lying on the ground with its handle broken in half. The old man had a gunshot wound on his shoulder, but his movements hadn''t slowed at all. He tried to grab at Jared, but he slapped him back with the gun. He stood facing Jared, prepared to pounce.


    My eyes locked back onto the old woman. She was staring at me with such an intense hatred I didn''t think was possible. Any moment, I knew she would pounce again. What was wrong with them? The question flashed into my mind, but I didn''t let the thought linger. I had to focus on defending myself, and Aaron. I glanced towards him; tears were streaming down his face. I wanted to comfort him, but that would have to wait. I could at least get him to get out of here.


    I faced the old woman again. I could see her muscles tensing, like she was getting ready to charge.


    "Aaron, you have to go back upstairs," I told him. I didn''t like the thought of him being alone, but the chance of danger was much better than him being in danger.


    Aaron didn''t budge; I continued to speak, "Don''t worry about your dad. I can deal with it."


    "Will you really be alright?" he muttered.


    "I will. Now, go!" I raised my voice.


    He nodded, and then ran back to the ladder. I heard the sound of his feet connecting with the metal bars of the ladder, and sighed with relief. Not one moment after the sigh had left my mouth, the man charged at Jared and the woman charged towards me.

 Chapter XIII.II: The Sadist

    This time though, I was ready.


    Time seemed to slow down as I swung with all of my might towards the woman''s head. With inhumane reflexes she managed to pull her head away enough that it just grazed her. She balled her hands into fists and then wildly, without any regard for her own safety, she began to swing at me. I tried to defend myself, but three of her swings managed to connect directly onto my cheek, stomach and shoulder. Pain reeled through my body and for a moment I was stunned, not only because of the pain, but because of the shock of such a weak looking person throwing such a strong punch.


    However, I ignored the pain. I ignored the complete absurdity of the situation. I had to pull through, I had to survive. For Aaron.


    The woman ran at me again, swinging her fists even more wildly. I was ready this time though and managed to block her flurry of punches with the crowbar. I heard bones in her fingers crack and snap as they bashed against the hard metal. For a moment, pain seemed to seize her body and she faltered. I used that one slip in her attack to bring the crowbar as far above my head as I could reach... then I slammed it down with every bit of my remaining strength. It connected directly with her face, sending her hurtling to the ground along with the crowbar, which slipped from my hands.


    She had died the instant she was hit.


    I dropped to the floor and gasped for breath. As my chest heaved, I stared in shock at what I had just done. The crowbar was impaled directly into her forehead, blood seeping from the hole I had made. I felt disgust at myself, but only for a moment. More than anything, I felt relieved that I had defended Aaron. If I hadn''t done anything, if I had refused to fight, I would have been lying there dead instead of her and soon Aaron would have been dead as well. There was no need to feel any remorse and yet, I couldn''t help but still have a tinge of regret.


    The couple had looked so happy in those photos, what could have driven them to behave like wild animals? Was it the madness that lurked in the storm, or was there some other cause? At the time, there were no answers to my questions.


    I came back to reality and realized that the sounds of Jared''s struggle had come to an end as well. I turned towards him to find him standing above the body of the old man, gasping for breath, his body splattered with blood. At that moment I realized that I was covered in blood too and I tried to wipe some of it off of my clothes but only succeeded in staining them even more. I curled my nose in disgust, but then my thoughts turned towards Aaron.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    "Aaron, you can come down now! It''s safe!" I screamed out.


    It took a few moments before he came down the ladder, and he ran into my arms. "Dad, I was so worried, I thought that you wouldn''t make it! I thought that we wouldn''t make it!"


    "Me too Aaron, but we''re safe now. We''ll probably be safe for a while..."


    "Those people," I heard Jared start, "What the hell was wrong with them? I''ve seen quite a few crazies in my life, but none that ever acted like that..." he shook his head, "not ever..."


    I slowly stepped towards him and instinctively put my hand on his shoulder. I tried to articulate my thoughts, tried to give a reason for their insanity, "They probably lived in a better time. I''m sure watching your world slowly decay around you as you grow older would have been hard enough on them, but then this storm came along. I think anybody could have been driven mad by something like that."


    He nodded, but then shook his head again, "No. This is different. They seemed beyond insane! They tried to kill us above all else, even at the cost of their own lives and for no discernible reason!" he looked at me with conviction, "There has to be something else at work here. Something else..."


    Jared''s words ignited the paranoia in me again, "Let''s not worry about it too much... We won''t get any answers, so let''s not think too hard about it..." Everything that''s happened in the past days was too much for us to take in; we had no choice but to bury it all away, lock it where couldn''t see it. Otherwise, we could risk being consumed by paranoia.


    He nodded, "You''re right. Let''s go back, bring the supplies with us, clean ourselves up and get some rest."


    Wait. "But what about the bodies?" I asked.


    "This basement can be their tomb. It''ll be too hard to dig holes in the storm and I doubt we''ll be returning here anyway." Jared replied.


    We moved the bodies into the wine cellar and rested them down next to each other. Jared found a box of ammunition in the room, which he took with him along with the gun. All three of us went back up the ladder, grabbed the supplies we had gathered and walked towards the house.


    I prayed. I prayed for the souls, if there was such a thing, of the couple to find rest. I prayed that I wouldn''t be driven mad by the storm too.


    I was restless that night. No matter how hard I tried to sleep, I just couldn''t. My thoughts wouldn''t leave the old couple and the young girl in the photo. Had she been separated from her parents when the storm hit? Was she with someone right now, trying to come back here? Or did those things get her? Or was she in Arborline when the bomb had hit? Would she come back to find strangers in her home and her parents missing?


    As per usual, the only response to my questions was the howl of the wind and the pattering rain.


    I took one last look at Aaron and then shut my eyes. It had to have been at least two hours before I finally managed to fall asleep.

 Chapter XIII.III: The Sadist

    I woke up to see Jared staring out of the window. "Morning," I said after I managed to fully wake myself up.


    He responded without looking away from the window, "Morning."


    I got up, "Do you see anything out there?"


    "Nothing, it''s just..." he started to respond, then stopped himself. He seemed hesitant to talk.


    "What is it, Jared? You can tell me," I asked, then I realized what must have been bothering him, "Did you have a nightmare?"


    He nodded, "It was about my brother. There were dozens of those things tearing him apart outside this window here. I tried to move my body to save him, but I couldn''t move my legs. I could only slam my hands against the glass and scream. Then one of them, the one that ran away, it walked over to the window, pressed its face up against the glass and spread its mouth wide. Then I woke up in a cold sweat."


    "Jared, if you feel guilty about your brother..."


    "I don''t. I know there was nothing I could have done to save him back in Arborline. I just miss him, that''s all."


    "I know exactly how you feel," my voice was choked up, "An hour hasn''t gone by where I don''t think about what happened to my wife, and about how Aaron must feel."


    Then a crash came from upstairs, one that sent a shiver through every cell in my body. For a second, there was silence, and then a low gurgling noise that sounded almost like someone was trying to talk while their throat was full of blood echoed from down the stairs.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Jared wasted no time, he instantly ran to the guns (the shotgun we had got from the old man and his own pistol). He tossed the pistol to me, we both started towards the stairs but stopped dead in our tracks when I heard a sound I hadn''t heard since Arborline. The screams echoed down the stairs. I knew immediately what it was, but I couldn''t believe it; it was that one that had run away after Jared shot it. Did it follow us all the way here? Was it lurking in the shadows the entire time, just outside of our range of vision? Waiting for the right moment to strike?


    Another scream scrambled my thoughts, threatening to tear at my sanity. I heard the creature fumbling around on the top floor, trying to find its way through the house. Jared ran up to the stairs, and I followed after him.


    "I''ll get that bastard, if it''s the last thing I do. I''ll make him pay." I heard Jared mumbling. I found myself nodding in agreement. That thing also killed Jessica.


    I hesitated for a moment, I didn''t want to leave Aaron alone but he would be in even more danger if we brought him up with us. I quickly rushed to wake him up, rushed him into a little cubbyhole in the corner of the room, told him not to leave unless I came back and told him it was safe to come out.


    "Will you really... be..." he started, his voice trembling.


    I grabbed him by the hand, "Don''t worry," I tried to say firmly, but my voice was trembling too.


    He squeezed my hand, reluctantly let go, then I closed the door to the cubby and ran back to the stairs.


    It took all of my willpower just to get up the stairs. Part of me screamed for me to turn around and run away, but if we ran now, it would find us again. There was only one solution; if we killed that thing, we wouldn''t have to worry about it anymore. We''d be safe. Jessica would be avenged.


    Full of fighting spirit, Jared and I ran ran through the living room to the stairs that led to the top floor, but stopped and stared at what we saw was waiting for us at the top.

 Chapter XIII.IV: The Sadist

    The monstrosity from before stood at the top of the stairs, with its incredibly disfigured face staring right into my eyes. It held something in its imposing claws, something that I could not discern. It let out a sharp whistling noise in quick succession, a noise that I could only guess at its meaning, and tossed what it held in its claw. I recoiled in disgust as it landed with a splat on the floor in front of us. It took me a minute to realize exactly what it was... I only managed to recognize it by the small tufts of facial hair that jutted out of the deep red.


    It was the decapitated head of the old man from the basement, but his face and skin were distorted and wrinkly, almost as if he had been entirely drained of blood. It didn''t register at first, but I realized that for some reason, the skin itself was as red as blood, not because it was coated in it, but because it was actually colored red.


    I heard a clang as Jared''s gun hit the floor, and he scrambled to pick it back up. I tried to let out a wail, but all that escaped my mouth was a low moan. In an instant, our vigor and courage had been completely drained from us. The creature''s mouth spread into an unnaturally wide smile, so wide that the skin in the corner of its mouth began to tear. Blood spurted out of the tear, and the creature''s tongue lapped up its own blood. Then, slowly, it walked around the corner out of our vision, and extended an arm out into our view, beckoning us to come follow it.


    There was no way I wanted to go up there. No sane human would willingly go up those stairs and follow that mockery of nature. But we had to. I tried to move my legs, but they moved at such an incredibly slow pace that it felt like they weren''t moving at all.


    Then, I was hit with a sudden realization, and I think Jared was as well. That thing wasn''t invincible. As terrifying as it was, as much as it made us want to run until we couldn''t run anymore... it could die. It must not have been all that strong either, because Jared had managed to kill two of them by only running them over! The only reason Jessica and the others were killed so easily is because they were taken off guard and they didn''t have anything to defend themselves with! So with two guns, there was no way it''d stand a chance! It only looked imposing, but in reality, it wasn''t all that much stronger than a human!


    "Let''s go, there''s no way it will survive if we shoot it enough times, right? I must have just missed it in the city, yeah, it must have just been playing dead. Those other two died just as easily as any other living thing, so this one has to be the same, right?" Jared said, almost a bit too enthusiastically. I nodded in response; there was only one way to test our theory.


    Averting our eyes from the old man''s head, we both cautiously walked up the stairs, listening for any signs of the creature. Other than my heart pounding in my chest and the sound of our footsteps, I heard nothing. When we reached the top, we quickly turned to face the hallway. Naturally, it was empty.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    All the doors were closed except for the master bedroom, which was wide open as if saying "Come on, I''m in here!"


    "Do you smell that?" Jared asked me. I took a sniff, and nearly vomited. The smell of rotting flesh drifted from the master bedroom. Great, just great. More than likely there would be a gruesome surprise waiting for us. Steeling my nerves, I started walking towards the bedroom, following after Jared. We didn''t bother to try and be quiet, it was obvious that the creature knew we were coming. But that didn''t stop us from being any less cautious.


    Jared jumped into the room, immediately firing the shotgun. I heard the sound of glass shattering, and then I charged in the room as well. Jared had shot the window, completely missing the creature. It stood in the far corner of the room, grinning at us as if the sickening scene in the room was hilarious.


    The room was coated with blood, as if someone had taken some buckets of red paint and emptied all of them over the walls, ceiling and floor. On the bed frame where the mattress had been, there were dozens of chunks of flesh scattered around. None of it was distinguishable as human; it just looked like pieces of meat. A torn up blood soaked dress in the center of the carnage told me that this had once been the body of the old woman. Then, to my absolute shock and horror, the meat began to move. At first, I thought it was just my body shaking in fear, or the bed frame moving, or anything sane and reasonable. But that wasn''t right at all. The meat was actually moving, crawling towards me and Jared almost like a slug.


    How was something like this even possible? Just what kind of insanity was this, right in front of my very eyes? I heard Jared vomit next to me, but my eyes remained locked on the disgusting, pulsing meat as it slowly moved towards us. I heard the creature make an attempt at a chuckle, and somehow everything clicked in my head. It now made sense why the old couple attacked us in a frenzy before, it made sense why the other creatures had died so easily while this thing was unharmed. Whatever it killed, or maybe even just whatever it injured, it could control to some extent, or drive into a frenzy at least. I wasn''t sure if that was exact, but it must be pretty close to the truth. The old man''s head had been unnaturally red, right? Just like the skin of the creature. Now that I looked a bit closer, I could see that some of the chunks of meat that were the old woman had a few places where the skin was still intact, though it was wrinkled and red just like the skin of the creature. So those other creatures Jared had run over... they must have been humans at some point, too. Humans that had been transformed into monsters by the red humanoid. It only made sense that running them over was enough to kill them.


    Did the same thing happen to Jessica, when this thing attacked her and the others? Did one of her co-workers get transformed into one of these horrific masses of flesh as they were cut apart by the creature? I imagined the scene as clear as day in my head. I imagined the human screams of Jessica and her co-workers transforming into the horrendous screams of the creature.

 Chapter XIII.V: The Sadist

    Bang! Jared''s gun went off, hitting the creature directly in the stomach, tearing a bloody hole right through it so we could see the wall behind it. But it didn''t even flinch. Its eyes seemed to flash for a moment, and the wound was instantly sealed back up.


    I fired the last shot in the pistol, hitting the creature directly through its right eye. Instantly, the wound sealed up again.


    I heard Jared let out a pathetic wail of despair, and I would have done the same...


    Had I not noticed something incredibly vital.


    As the creature''s wounds were sealing up, the chunks of flesh nearest to it dried up and disintegrated. It could have been a coincidence... but there was no way it was a coincidence. It all made perfect sense in my head. I actually managed to connect some dots for once. For once, something actually made sense. For the first time since this storm had started... No, for the first time in years, even in the face of despair, I felt a minuscule, dim light of hope.


    "Jared! Somehow, it can control whatever it kills! When it''s hurt, someway, somehow, it can draw energy or something from whatever its controlling to make it regenerate itself like that! When its wounds were sealing up, I saw one of those moving pieces of meat shrivel up and disappear!"


    Jared looked a little doubtful, but then his eyes seemed to clear up and he nodded. So, it was obvious what we had to do to; we had to destroy its source of life and then kill it for good. But that was easier said than done.


    The creature let loose one of its trademark screams, and tore a hole right through the wall behind it, running off into the next room over. As for the chunks of meat, they made wet sloshing sounds as they crawled towards our feet. I tossed the gun aside and grabbed a nearby wooden plank, lifting it high in the air and bringing it down hard on the nearest "living" chunk of flesh. It made a loud splat as it was crushed under the force of my swing, and stopped moving at once.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "We can''t let that thing get away!" Jared yelled as he rushed into the hole made by the creature and I heard another gunshot go off. I heard the creature scream from the other room as five pieces of flesh withered away into nothingness. I swung and swung again at the chunks of gore, reducing three more of them into a stain of blood. But it was too slow. My eyes darted around the room, desperately looking for something that could take out the creature''s source of sustaining its life. I heard a loud crash, running footsteps, two successive shots and a scream from the creature. More of the meat faded away.


    "Perfect!" I exclaimed as my eyes locked onto the oil lamp on the nightstand. I had matches in my pocket, if I covered the meat in the oil and lit it, it would be gone in an instant. I motioned to rush towards it, but I felt a sharp pain in my ankle. I looked down to see one of the chunks of flesh crawling on me. Even though it was squishy and soft, it pushed with enough pressure to pierce a tiny hole in my ankle. I let out a wail of pain and dropped the plank of wood as I fell to the floor. I heard another gunshot and the sound of glass breaking. The other blobs of flesh squirmed towards me, surrounding me. I cried out in pain again as the chunk of flesh continued to bore into my skin. Three of them actually leaped into the air at me. I swung at them with the board of wood, crushing two of them but the third latched onto my hand. I slammed my hand down hard onto the floor, and it disintegrated like the others. I started desperately slamming my ankle against the floor, trying to do the same to the one digging into my skin, but it didn''t relent.


    I couldn''t kill it.


    I shuddered in disgust as I felt the other globs of flesh start to crawl up my body, making their way to my neck. I kept pounding at them with my fists, trying to crush them but to no avail. One made its way up my neck, over my chin and prepared to enter my mouth.

 Chapter XIII.VI: The Sadist

    I almost puked, the smell of rot was so strong, but a loud crash and a gunshot rang out in the room Jared was in, and all the remaining pieces vanished at once. I was just barely saved. I grit my teeth as I lifted myself up and ran towards the source of the noise.


    Jared was standing near the door, and in the corner of the room right next to the window stood the creature. Its grin widened as it saw me enter the room.


    "Four shots left," Jared said without taking his eyes off of the monster. I stared at it, and readied myself for a fight.


    A deafening silence filled the room. One of the creature''s eyes turned to look at me, while the other pointed towards Jared, both looking in different directions. All three of us were completely immobile, Jared with the gun aimed, me with the plank of wood raised, ready to swing and the creature stared at us, ready to pounce and use its entire body as a weapon. But now it was just as vulnerable as any other living thing.


    Now we could kill it.


    A jolt of strong wind surged towards the house, shattering the window and sending a torrent of rain onto the space between us and the creature. That was the signal flare! Jared was the first to move, pulling the trigger of the shotgun, sending a burst of bullets flying towards the monster. It moved faster than I had ever seen it move before, ducking fast enough that it actually dodged half of the blast. Part of its shoulder was hit, ripping through its skin and exposing the bone beneath. It barely faltered, and posed its claws in a position to strike at Jared as he tried to aim again.


    Before it could even take a swipe at him, I swung the plank of wood down with all of my might, hitting it directly on top of the head and momentarily stunning it. The creature glared at me in a daze as it wobbled and tried to regain its balance, and for a moment I was paralyzed with hesitation. This time I swung the plank up, connecting it with the creature''s jaw. I heard both bones and the plank crack, splinters flying up into the air around us. Jared aimed his gun at the creature''s head, ready to fire. It faltered, almost fell, then brought its foot down hard and regained its balance. It swung its claw towards Jared. Jared pulled the trigger.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    I instinctively recoiled from the shot being discharged so close to me and the shards of wood that jutted up into the air upon the bullets connecting with the wooden floor. I felt and heard blood splatter around me. I turned, expecting to see the creature''s head no longer attached to its body, but what I saw instead made me scream. I couldn''t help it. I screamed at the top of my lungs and dropped what remained of the wooden plank onto the floor.


    The creature had only a single bullet lodged into its body, right on its forehead. The spray of blood had not come from the creature, but from Jared. I looked down and saw the shotgun laying on the floor, with Jared''s arm still grasping onto it, his fingers still posed on the trigger as if they were trying to fire the gun in one last desperate attempt of defiance.


    Jared''s left arm had been cut completely clean off at the elbow by the creature''s claws. A loud noise pierced the air, drowning out my own scream.


    It was Jared, screaming and crying with all his breath.


    No.


    No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!


    We were so sure, so ready and confident that we could have beaten this thing, sure that it was even remotely on the same level as a human being or a natural beast. But it was unnatural, it was monstrous, it was even more cruel than nature itself, or maybe it was the very cruelty of nature?


    It turned towards me, looked me directly in the eyes and did one of its mouth tearing grins at me, like it had just told some hilarious joke. I visualized a crowd of the bastards in my head, guffawing and cheering like madmen. Then, it let loose one of its screams, a scream of triumph, all while keeping direct eye contact with me. I covered my ears and collapsed onto my knees. I looked down at Jared''s face and saw the look of someone pleading, struggling for life and survival. But his pleading was ignored. When the creature''s scream died out, so did Jared. His eyes closed shut, and he stopped moving.

 Chapter XIII.VII: The Sadist

    I stared straight ahead into empty space. The world around me became nothing but a blur, a dream, a nightmare. I was vaguely aware of something moving around me, vaguely aware of the sound of footsteps nearby. The footsteps came closer and closer until their source stood directly behind me.


    Then, I did something that I am ashamed to admit.


    I gave up.


    I gave up all hope to fight and struggle. I stopped moving, I stopped living at that moment. I waited for the reaper''s blade to slice my neck and take me away from this cursed world. I waited and waited for death, but instead I felt its hand gently clamp down on my shoulder. Its grasp reminded me of the time I broke a picture frame when I was carelessly playing around the house as a kid and my father had grabbed me by the shoulder, just like this, before gently admonishing me. I felt its head move next to my own, heard its breathing right next to my ear, like a chain smoker who had just swallowed a bowl of razor blades.


    Then, gently, not forcefully, it lifted me up onto my feet and nudged me onward. I didn''t dare look back at its face. I couldn''t look back. I didn''t dare to reject its directions as I was slowly walked into the hallway. I could visualize those sharp and uneven teeth behind me, ready to sink into my neck at any moment, ready to tear my head off of my shoulders and swallow it whole.


    At any moment it could kill me and there was nothing I could do about it. I was completely, utterly, hopeless. Nobody would come to save me, I couldn''t even save myself. At any moment, that creature could squeeze with its clawed hand and tear into my flesh and kill me. Or maybe it would do what it did to Jessica and her co-workers, tear me apart while I was still alive and toy with me. Maybe it would do to me what it had done to the old couple. I shuddered, I didn''t want that. I would rather die than become nothing but a meat shield for this unholy abomination. Surprisingly, I felt a spark of defiance rise up in my chest...


    I would die before I let this creature transform me into one of those things! I wouldn''t accept a fate like that! I started to turn towards it, ready to strike it and escape!


    But before I could even fully glance back at it, my eyes locked with its own. I saw its grin widen. All of my defiance, all of my strength drained from me in that one small instant. My shoulders drooped and I lowered my head to look down at the floor. I let out a barely audible squeak. The creature inhaled sharply in quick succession, and it took me a moment to realize that it was laughing. Laughing at me, and mocking me.


    Jared was going to die, its laughter seemed to convey, you are going to die and your son... Aaron! My God, I had completely forgotten about my own son! I was hit with a new wave of dread. I thought I had reached the absolute depths of despair, but as it turns out there was a trench at the bottom of the seas of hopelessness that went on even deeper down into the abyss, into depths farther than anything I could have thought possible. The creature slowly started leading me down the stairs and I tried to protest, tried to shake my head, but I was a puppet being pulled by the strings of the grinning and mocking puppet master behind me.


    I now realized why it hadn''t killed me yet. It was leading me to the basement, then it would make me show it where Aaron was. This monstrosity was more than a creature, more than a cruel beast. It was an intelligence. An intelligence that knew only how to kill, torture and mock, to cause pain of the flesh and of the soul. It was the absolute antithesis of life and all that is good, it was a sadist, through and through. It led me on a funeral march down the stairs, into the hall on the first floor, all the way to the stairs leading to the basement. I heard the bells that had chimed at my father''s funeral ringing in my head.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I always had a feeling that Aaron, Jessica and I wouldn''t live very long, even before this storm. But I never would have guessed it would have been this soon, especially for poor Aaron. I never would have guessed that everyone''s lives would have been snatched away so suddenly. I started to cry, and the sadist "laughed" rapidly again, trying to mimic human laughter but sounding more like choking than anything. Its claws sunk into my shoulder slightly as it brought me down the first step of the staircase to the basement. I let out a squeak of pain that died halfway and the sadist''s laughter increased in pace until it was one monotonous hum.


    I took a second step, a third, a fourth.


    If I sacrificed myself, if I screamed out to Aaron and tried to throw the creature down the stairs with me, if I tried to struggle with it for a moment, would that give Aaron enough time to run and escape?


    Maybe.


    Would he be able to survive on his own?


    No. He wouldn''t be able to go on if both his mother and his father were gone.


    I was being forcefully marched towards a tragic dead end, barrelling towards a wall at full speed without any brakes. Whether I fought or accepted death, both Aaron and I would end up dead. Jared and I thought that without the meat shields, the sadist would be significantly weaker, but it was just as strong without them. I think the only reason we had survived as long as we did was because we were so arrogant. But arrogance eventually leads to ruin. It was beyond anything an individual human could defeat. The creature feigned pushing me down the rest of the stairs, and caught me with its other hand. I soiled my pants. I pissed and shit in my own pants right then and there.


    I let out another sob, the creature pushed me onward, its laughter growing in my ears. Four more steps were left. Four, three, two, one.


    My foot touched the basement floor. Then, I was pushed into the basement, and both of the creature''s hands squeezed like a vice on my shoulders. I felt blood trickle down from where it held me, covering both of my arms in it. I cried and sobbed and coughed and spat. Then, the sadist stopped in the middle of the room. It brought its horrific face in front of mine, looking at me expectantly with its sunken eyes. I knew what it wanted, it wanted me to show it where Aaron was, so it could torture both of us side by side. I vomited onto the floor. A long dry tongue extended from the sadist''s mouth, and to my disgust, it lapped the vomit up, laughing as it did so. My entire body started convulsing, my legs nearly collapsed.


    What... What do I do? Oh God, what do I do? Could I show him the wrong spot, try and turn the tables on him? What could I do? Could I lock his attention on the wrong spot, then scream out to Aaron and tell him to run? He wouldn''t escape. What was even possible? What could I do? Maybe I could kill Aaron myself, strangle him to death before the sadist could stop me, save him from the torture that waited for us. What, oh what, what, what could I even do?


    Before I even realized it, I was standing in front of the little cubby where I had hidden Aaron. I could feel the sadist''s grin widen behind me. It slowly scraped its claws gently down from my shoulder to my right hand, digging shallow cuts into my skin on its way down. It brought its hand right over my own, and guided it towards the knob of the door to the cubby. I tried to say no, but nothing even came out of my throat. The sadist moved my hand closer. "No," I managed to whisper. My hand touched the knob. "No." I said. My hand was forced to turn the knob, "No!" I yelled out. The sadist inhaled repeatedly, laughing at me. "No! Aaron, I''m sorry! Aaron!" The creature used my hand to violently swing open the door. I saw Aaron staring at me, then the sadist, his eyes widening. I saw two tears stream down from his eyes, saw his mouth open to scream but not a noise came out. I heard my heart ready to hammer out of my chest, I felt the sadist''s hands pull off of me. Then I saw it move, ready to lunge at my son.


    I shut my eyes so hard that it hurt. I prepared for the end of everything I had ever known, and to enter into a new world of pure pain and suffering.

 Chapter XIII.VIII: The Sadist

    A loud crack of thunder made the air around me shake. Then, there was silence.


    I slowly opened my eyes, ready to see my son torn apart, ready to see myself torn apart.


    Instead, I saw the sadist, with nothing but torn flesh where its head had once been a moment before.


    "Jared!" Aaron yelled out while looking behind me.


    I couldn''t believe it.


    Standing directly behind me, was Jared. He held the gun in his remaining arm, while he bled profusely from the stump where his other arm had been. I was speechless. I thought we were done for, I thought that there was no way we would ever survive, but he had wrested victory from despair.


    He looked at the sadist¡¯s wound where its head had been, then at me.


    He smiled, pushed the gun into my arms, then collapsed.


    The sadist... was still standing.


    Although its head was reduced to nothing, it still stood there and... twitched its arms.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Jared had said there were four shots left... he fired three times so...


    The sadist''s legs twitched, it turned to Aaron, ready to spring at him in one last spiteful strike.


    ...You aren''t touching my son.


    The sadist leaped... and I pulled the trigger.


    Before it could even get into the air, its chest exploded in a burst of blood and gore.


    I set the gun aside and quickly moved to Jared so I could check his pulse.


    He was still alive, for now. I had to think fast and treat his arm before it turned into a fatal wound. Damn it, I didn''t know too much about first aid, let alone how to treat a severed limb. Shit, shit, shit... I started to scatter around the room to look for a cloth or something to stop the bleeding.


    "Uh, dad..." Aaron muttered in a frightened tone behind me.


    I turned towards him, to see him staring at the sadist''s body. A shiver ran through my entire body. Its left arm was twitching. Instantly, I was on my feet, picked up the gun, lifted it above my head and slammed the butt of the gun onto the sadist''s arm. Again and again and again, I clubbed it as it continued to twitch. It wouldn''t stop moving.


    You''re kidding me... there''s no way it''s still alive! After all that, after all of that... It can''t be alive! Stop moving... stop moving... stop moving!


    At some point, I realized that I was screaming. "Don''t get back up! Stay down! Stay dead! Die! Die! Die! DIE!"


    The arm suddenly snapped off, prompting me to stop swinging, and for a moment all was still.


    "Is it... dead?" Aaron asked, his voice shaking.


    My entire body was shaking. I looked around wildly, my vision blurring. As everything went black, I thought I could see the severed arm of the creature slowly crawling on the floor.


    "Dad!" Aaron screamed, and I lost consciousness.

 Chapter XIV.I: Passing Time

    I was in a large cathedral.


    I could barely make out my surroundings, everything was dark and the only light was a dim red glow that seemed to emanate from everywhere. The stained glass windows glowed with an orange hue, but for some reason I could not discern what was depicted on them. I glanced at the pews around me, but it was too dim to make out anything but their edges.


    I felt, rather than heard, a booming force echoing in my mind, commanding me to move forward.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    I tried to control my own body, but I couldn''t. I couldn''t stop myself from moving forward. Against my own will, my feet moved me down the middle of the cathedral. Everything ahead was obscured by pitch black shadows.


    The closer I got to the end of the cathedral, the darker the shadows shrouding it seemed to become.


    I finally realized that there was a low mumbling noise around me. I glanced to my side, looking into the pews to find that they were all filled with vaguely humanoid shapes. No matter how hard I squinted and strained my eyes, I couldn''t make out their features. They almost appeared be made of smoke, or shadows.


    Then, I was swallowed up by the darkness.

 Chapter XIV.II: Passing Time

    "Dad!" a shout woke me up with a start.


    I opened my eyes. Huh?


    Aaron was next to me, looking like he had been crying.


    "I''m so glad you''re all right!" he said as he leaned down to hug me.


    Slowly, I became aware of my surroundings. I was lying on a mattress in a new set of clothes and I could feel cloth wrapped around my leg.


    My eyes drifted behind Aaron, to the young man standing behind him.


    Jared. He was all right. But then, my eyes made their way down from his left shoulder to his arm. There was nothing there from the elbow down, the part where it had been severed was wrapped in cloth.


    Everything came back to me. The sadist, the fight we had with it, Jared''s arm being cut off, getting lead down the stairs, Jared saving us at the last minute, me attacking the corpse and then I didn''t remember what happened after that... I was wide awake again.


    "What happened?!" I stammered out jumping into a sitting position.


    Jared spoke up, "After you went out cold, I managed to get up again. Thanks to Aaron''s help, I managed to treat my wound," he looked grimly down at the stub where his arm had been, "Thank God I had first aid training... the bleeding''s finally stopped... Anyway, after I thought I treated the wound as best as I could, Aaron went to check on you. Put you in a new pair of clothes, cause you know, the old ones were no good..."


    "Thank goodness..." I said as I held Aaron and stroked his hair. I thought I''d never see him again.


    "Jessica''s ring!" I started. It was in my pocket, did it get lost...


    "Don''t worry," Aaron said as he handed me the ring.


    I sighed with relief and slipped it into my pocket, "I''m glad you''re alive... I''m so glad... I didn''t think any of us were going to survive that... Wait! What about the sadist?"


    "The sadist?" Jared gave me a puzzled look, "Oh, the creature, you mean. While Aaron was checking up on you, I took the body and burnt it in the wood stove. It stunk like you wouldn''t believe. Now all that''s left of that thing is ash."Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    All three of us sighed with relief.


    It was dead.


    It wouldn''t bother us anymore.


    And more than anything else... Jessica and Jared''s brother had been avenged, along with the countless others that had been toyed with and killed by that monster.


    The source of the screams had been silenced.


    Were we... safe... now?


    I didn''t delude myself for one second.


    I knew in my heart that this was only the beginning.


    Only God knows what the hell is lurking in the storm. If He''s even watching us anymore, that is.


    I glanced at my watch. It was eleven in the morning. I had been sleeping all the way into the next day.


    I brought my arm around Aaron to comfort him, and we sat there in silence for a long while, not quite knowing what to say to each other. Words could not express the emotions of confusion, disbelief and terror we were experiencing when we remembered what had happened only yesterday in this very room. It seemed impossible... everything about this storm seemed impossible. If you thought too much about it, if you let it get to you, it would probably drive you insane... All we could do was bury the thoughts and try to move on...


    Aaron was the one that broke the silence, "So, what do we do now?"


    Jared scratched his head, "After what happened yesterday, I don''t want to take any more chances. We have plenty of food, enough to last us a month at least. Now that we''ve searched the house and the store, we don''t really have any reason to leave the basement until we get low on food," he paused to consider if what he was saying was the right decision, "So, I think we should barricade ourselves up in the basement," he glanced to his missing arm, "I really don''t want a repeat of yesterday. If we make the barricade nice and secure, and block the window, there should be no way that any of those things will get at us."


    "I had actually been thinking the same thing," I said, "It''s a good plan. Of course, we need to think about what we''re going to do when we run out of food..."


    "I guess we''ll just keep trying the radio. See if there''s anywhere that''s safe. Wait and see if this storm will ever end."


    I nodded.


    I didn''t say it out loud... but I really didn''t think the storm would ever end.


    The Storm... I think that it would never leave this earth until it leveled everything under its malignant gaze.


    "Let''s do one last sweep of the house," I said as I got up, "bring anything we can down here."


    We searched the house, bringing everything that we found down into the basement. We didn''t find anything new, and most of the stuff we brought down probably wouldn''t be of much use anyway. But it was better to be safe than sorry. Most of it was just stuff like clothes, blankets and other things we most likely wouldn''t really need. But if we were going to be isolating ourselves for a month, we didn''t want to forget anything.


    I asked Jared what he had done with what was left of the old folks. He told me he gathered up what he could of their remains (which wasn''t very much) and laid them side by side in the cellar, locking them in there. He said it was the best burial he could give them, and that it was the least he could do for them considering we were using their house.


    I told him that he did the right thing, and in my head I prayed that they had finally found peace now that they were free from the sadist''s foul control.

 Chapter XIV.III: Passing Time

    "What about the car?" I wondered out loud.


    Jared clicked his tongue, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. We don''t want anyone taking that, do we?" he instinctively brought his left arm up to scratch his head, staring at the stump with a hollowed expression once he realized, "Hmm... I guess our best bet is to just park it behind the house. Maybe we can cover it up with some of the blankets."


    I nodded, "Sounds like a good idea. I''ll go do it right away."


    I took the keys and went outside into the storm. The rain was still coming down at the same rate, the sky was still black, the wind was still howling.


    Nothing had changed. Three constant days of rain. Already it was flooded in a few spots on the road and grass. How long would it last? Would the storm move away from us?


    I got into the car. The storm had moved across Canada and the states fairly quickly, but now it was lingering here for some reason. There was something deep inside of me telling me that it would never go away... That this was our reality now.


    I pulled the car up behind the house, next to the basement window, got out and draped the blankets over it, weighing them down with rocks. I took one last look at it, and as I did, I saw something between the bushes and the trees about twenty feet away.


    It was a dog. The dog I had seen in the city. I could barely make out its feature from where I stood, all I could really make out was its eyes, snout and shape. Did it follow us all the way here? Weird.


    Maybe I could get it to come in with us, I thought. Aaron always wanted a dog and it would make for a nice way to spend the time. It would make for a good guard, too.


    I tried to lure it over to me by clapping my hands together and on my knees, "Come here buddy!"


    It just kept staring.


    "Come on over here, I won''t hurt you!"


    The dog stepped away from the bushes and came closer to me, letting me see it a bit more clearly.


    There was something... off... about it that I couldn''t quite put my finger on. It appeared to be missing hair in quite a few spots, and there was something about the way its body was shaped that almost unnerved me. I just assumed it was an emaciated stray, most dogs that you see nowadays are in rough shape like that anyway.


    However, it did something that made me quickly discard that theory.


    The dog... stood up.


    I thought that I had just finally completely lost it. I had to have been dreaming. I pinched myself, but the pain was real. I was awake.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    The dog stood up, and there was something about the way it stood that seemed almost human. As I stared in disbelief, I could finally make out more of its features in detail. In the place of paws, it had human feet and human hands. No... that wasn''t quite right. They still had the vague shape of paws, but... they also extended into almost finger-like shapes or... I...


    It felt like my brain was malfunctioning.


    Its form seemed to be both humanoid and beast-like at the same time. Its body shape was that of a dog, and yet the way it held itself looked like a human trapped in a dog''s body, like someone had been shoved inside of a dog. Like it was trying to stand like a human, but couldn''t.


    The more I stared, the less I seemed to understand what was standing just a few feet in front of me.


    I then noticed that it was staring right into my eyes.


    Its eyes undoubtedly had a human intelligence to them, and yet, there was a sense of bestial ferocity barely contained beneath the surface.


    Its face... it actually physically hurt to look at its face. I couldn''t tell if it was the face of a human or a dog. Every time I blinked, I swear it looked different. It looked deformed, not quite like a dog''s face; more like a dog wearing a human mask that was grafted to its face, covered in dog fur. But then if you looked at in a different way, it looked more like the other way around.


    We locked eyes for what must have at least been a full minute. Staring, both of us unmoving.


    Then, the beast let out a wild howl, gave me one last stare, then slowly and deliberately turned around and walked away, still on two legs.


    I ran so fast I nearly tripped with every step, back into the house, locked the door behind me and wildly started tossing as many things as I could find up against the door to barricade it. I sprinted into the basement and grabbed the hammer, nails and some planks of wood.


    "Markus, what''s wrong?" Jared called to me as I ran back up the stairs.


    I climbed over the barricade, put one of the planks against the door and wildly hammered the nails in.


    "Markus!" Jared was coming up the stairs. By the time he was behind me, I had already finished barricading the door.


    "Markus, what''s wrong? What happened?" he asked me, a worried expression on his face. But I didn''t hear him. I just kept tossing as much as I could in front of the door.


    "Markus!" he grabbed me by the shoulder and shook me.


    "J-Jared I, I, I, saw..." I stammered. My teeth were clacking, I could barely speak, "S-Saw... dog... standing... had human hands... howled... walked away..."


    His eyes widened. I don''t think he fully understood what I had said, but my panicked state told him enough. Without pressing me further, he started to help barricade the house.


    By the end of the day we had succeeded in barricading every door and window, and completely sealed off the basement. We put so much stuff in front of the door on both ends that something would have to really try to get in. At the very least, nothing would be able to sneak in without making a ton of noise.


    "So, what did you see?" Jared asked.


    Though I had calmed down by then, I was still very taken aback by what I had seen. I told him about what had happened; his eyes were wide the entire time.


    "Well... what the hell? It''s just one crazy thing after another, isn''t it?"


    "I think it''s safe to say now that there''s more things lurking out there in the storm, things we can''t even imagine..."


    Jared shook his head, "What the hell man. What are these things? How are they all connected to each other? That sadistic fucker we killed, the huge thing and now a human dog or something..." he laughed sarcastically, "It feels like I''m dreaming. None of this seems real... everything is..." he went to put his hands up to his face, shaking for a second when he saw his severed arm, then covered half of his face with his remaining hand, "Hey, Markus... I''m not dreaming am I? This is real life, right? I''m awake, aren''t I?"


    I sighed, staring out the window at the torrential rain, "Unfortunately... we''re all awake."


    He laughed again and shook his head, "...God damn it."

 Chapter XIV.IV: Passing Time

    And so, our life went on. Though it wasn''t much of a life. We just sat around all day, moping and waiting. Carefully eating our rations, saving as much as we could. After the past few days of excitement and terror on the brink of death, it was indescribably strange to be calmly lounging around. Occasionally, I''d stare at the window, expecting to see that dog or another horror to be peering in at us. A few times, I swear I''d see some nightmarish face glaring at us, but it would turn out to just be me seeing things. I hoped I was just seeing things, at least.


    All the while, the rain continued to fall unceasingly from the heavens.


    A week passed. To pass the time, I started to try sculpting things out of some of the scrap wood in the basement. Aaron started to draw with the pen and paper we had found upstairs. Jared was always on the alert, listening off into the distance for something, always on guard and ready to spring into action at any moment. He spent most of his time fiddling with the radio, trying to get a message. There was nothing but noise.


    When he wasn''t doing that, Jared took the time to teach me and Aaron how to properly use a gun, because obviously it would be a better idea if all of us knew how to use it instead of just one of us. The shotgun was one of the newer models, and was capable of holding four shells. Jared showed both of us how to reload.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    "Guns are pretty unbelievable..." Jared told Aaron, "With this thing, even a little guy like you can take down a full grown man, or maybe even one of those things."


    "...really?" Aaron asked, almost like he couldn''t believe it.


    "Yep, but a little guy like you also needs to be twice as careful. And... if we can, we''re going to want to avoid these things instead of trying to fight with them. Don''t ever get too cocky or..." he pointed to his stump, "That could happen. Or worse. So promise me, and your dad, that you won''t ever bite off more than you can chew... and if things ever come to a fight, leave it to us."


    He nodded.


    "Good," Jared smiled.


    When he wasn''t teaching us, he''d also spend a lot of his time practicing how to reload and aim now that he only had one hand. Apparently, it wasn''t that powerful compared to other models or something, so he''d be able to use it with one hand without too much trouble. Obviously it wouldn''t be as effective as when he had both hands, but he said he''d get used to it. He''d reload it by resting the end on his stump, and he could use it that way to aim too.

 Chapter XIV.V: Passing Time

    The second week passed. I had made a checker-board so that we could have something to play together. Aaron and I would play with it for most of the day, or play other games like tic tac toe. We were starting to get used to the place and our new way of living. Jared would sometimes join in with us and play with Aaron, and his tension would alleviate just a little bit. I could tell it brought him back to playing with his brother as a kid. Despite everything... I was enjoying this relative tranquility.


    But at night, when all was still... my mind would be wracked by everything we had seen. No matter how hard I tried to suppress the terror and the memories, they would breech to the surface. I''d wake up before dawn in a cold sweat, the horrible eyes of The Storm flashing in my mind or the screams of the sadist echoing through my head as I recalled all the dead bodies I had seen. Sometimes, it was hard to tell if I was dreaming or awake.


    Sometimes too, Aaron would suddenly break down crying, or I''d find him with tears in his eyes. I''d wrap my arms around him, and we''d spend minutes or up to hours holding each other tightly, trying to comfort each other.


    "I still... miss mom..." Aaron sobbed.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "I know buddy... I know..."


    A few days passed with this relative peace.


    The whole day, Jared had seemed disturbed by something. He kept looking like he wanted to say something, but didn''t. When we were lying down to sleep, he suddenly asked, "Hey Markus, you still awake?"


    "Yeah, what?"


    I heard him gulp, "I''ve been thinking... It''s been raining for over two weeks, right?"


    "Yeah?"


    "It seems so obvious in hindsight, but we should have been worried about the flooding since we''re in the basement and all, but... It''s been two weeks. Two weeks of non-stop, torrential rain. Why hasn''t it flooded yet? Why is the basement still fine?"


    A strange, indescribable feeling twisted in the pits of my mind. I stuttered, "H-huh...? Y-yeah, that''s... that is... Weird."


    "Right? Honestly, now that I really think about it, this whole basement should probably be underwater, right? So then... why? Even looking outside the window, the ground''s only flooded a little bit. At most, there''s some big puddles. The water has to go somewhere when it hits the ground, right? Right?! So what the hell is going on? Where''s the flooding?!"


    I shook my head, again and again, "I don''t know... I have no idea. God! What the hell is this storm?! None of this even seems real!"


    We didn''t speak for the rest of the night. I could tell that both of our minds were reeling, trying to find an explanation or an answer.


    I''m pretty sure neither of us fell asleep that night.

 Chapter XIV.VI: Passing Time

    Three nights later, just as I was about to drift off into sleep, a loud crack reverberated through the entire house. I leaped up, Jared grabbed the shotgun instantly. We waited, and listened.


    Another series of loud cracks and smashing noises came from upstairs, from what must have been the front door. Or, from where the front door had once been. Something had obviously smashed it down, and was breaking and moving the things that had been blocking it. Aaron woke up next to me. I motioned for him to be quiet, hugged him tight and listened carefully. Jared kept the shotgun aimed at the stairs.


    The smashing and crashing suddenly stopped, and for a moment all was still. Then, the sound of slow, steady and deliberate footsteps echoed through the house. Something had walked inside.


    Step, step, step, step, it made its way through the house until it reached the door to the basement. My heart beat about a million times for every step it took. I almost sighed with relief when it kept walking past the door.


    Then, it suddenly stopped. Judging from what I heard, I think it must have stopped in the living room.


    For a solid five minutes, all was still, the tension in the air so thick that it felt like I was being crushed from all directions.


    I jumped as suddenly a racket of footsteps echoed from the doorway. It sounded like at least six or seven other things had come wildly barrelling into the house, tripping over each other and knocking into things. It almost sounded like they were literally throwing themselves forward without any regard for their surroundings or their own safety. I heard a few objects get knocked over and break as the invisible intruders made their way to the living room.


    Again, all was still.


    Jared''s grip on the gun tightened. I could see that he was absolutely drenched with sweat. I was as well. Aaron was shaking, his arms wrapped around me.


    "Please," I begged in my mind, "Whatever you are... please, please, please, please, please... just go away. Leave us alone. Don''t come into the basement. Please. Please. Please. If there''s a God... please don''t let them come down here."Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    I silently repeated my please in my head, over and over again, when...


    A slow, gentle... humming came from above us. It rose in pitch, to the point where it very clearly began to sound like... a wind instrument?


    Like a flute.


    Soon, more and more sounds joined in with the others. They all sounded similar to instruments. A piano, cymbals, drumming, a harp?


    And yet... though they were similar, there was something about them that was unnatural. Like no instrument I had ever heard. I shuddered as I thought for an instant that they almost sounded like they were being produced by something fleshy and organic.


    I glanced to Jared. His mouth had dropped open, his expression conveyed complete and utter confusion. I imagined I looked almost the same. Aaron looked at me with an expression mingling between terror and confusion.


    I had to stop myself from laughing hysterically. What the hell is this? What the fuck is going on upstairs?!


    The symphony being played upstairs began to take on a rapid and almost angry tone.


    Jared, Aaron and I continued to listen in utter disbelief. Then, mingling with the music of the orchestra, I began to hear a voice. An incomprehensible sobbing that slowly rose in volume, that slowly rose in tempo.


    I shuddered as it grew louder, and eventually overcame the noise of the orchestra. Aaron gulped next to me. Jared''s remaining arm was shaking, his grip on the gun loosening.


    Then, the sobbing suddenly transformed into an earsplitting shriek, a lamentation that ruptured the air around it. This screech served a signal to the orchestra, and it too transformed into an incomprehensible cacophony that made the entire house vibrate.


    We all covered our ears, trying to drown out the noise. But it shook us to our very cores. It felt like the noise reached all the way to the very depths of my soul, shaking it violently and sending it into disarray. Right when the symphony from hell reached the point where I thought my eardrums and my mind would snap, all noise suddenly stopped.


    Aaron collapsed into my arms.


    Silence reigned for what felt like an eternity.


    A quiet, melancholy piano tune gently echoed for about thirty seconds, and when it reached the final note an uproarious applause echoed everywhere. Jared and I wildly spun around, looking for the source. It felt like it was coming from all around us. The clapping stopped suddenly, and as soon as it did we heard the loud stomping footsteps rapidly make their way out of the house, again almost tripping over each other as they did so.


    Everything returned to calm.


    None of us moved an inch until morning.


    Even then, we tried not to make any noise.


    I don''t think any of us knew what to say about that. We didn''t even end up addressing it, that''s how shocked we were by it.


    For the next week, our nights were restless. Jared and I started to sleep in shifts.


    Luckily, nothing like that happened again for a while.

 Chapter XIV.VII: Passing Time

    The third week passed.


    We had actually managed to be very sparing with our food. We probably had enough for another month if we kept at our current pace, but we were starting to get antsy. Holing up in the basement like this... it wasn''t living. We were going to need to leave this place eventually.


    On Monday, I shared my thoughts with Jared. He agreed, said that it would be best to start moving and look for more food while we still had plenty left. If only we knew what was going on out there. We ended up deciding to leave on the next Monday.


    Tuesday night, while Jared was fiddling with the radio, he actually managed to pick something up that wasn''t just static. However, it wasn''t human speech either.


    "Is that... a sheep?" Jared asked, puzzled.


    I strained my ears. The very distinct sound of a bleating sheep (or maybe it was a goat?) came from the speakers of the radio.


    "What the hell?" I thought out loud, "It is."


    We listened for about another minute.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    Every couple of seconds, the bleating of a sheep would echo through the speakers. Occasionally we''d hear another muffled bleating from what sounded like a bit off in the distance of wherever it was being recorded from.


    "Someone leave recording equipment in a farm or something?" Jared said as he shrugged.


    Farms were really only owned by rich people, millionaires and billionaires who wanted to eat actual meat instead of bugs and the processed stuff, which made the entire situation even stranger.


    I couldn''t help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation.


    The first time in nearly a month that we managed to hear anything on the radio, and it was something as strange and utterly unhelpful as this.


    I shook my head and looked out the window at the rain. Jared stayed near the radio, listening carefully for anything else. All he heard was the sheep. Ten at night, the bleating stopped. He still kept it on that station, but nothing came up again.


    That night, I had the dream about the cathedral again.


    This time, however, it didn''t end where it always had before.


    When I reached the wall of darkness, it slowly faded away. The hooded figures around me started to chant loudly.


    Steadily, the shape of a throne revealed itself at the end of the cathedral. My body kept walking forward against my own will.


    There was a figure sitting on the throne, but it was veiled in shadows.


    I stopped in front of it, and bowed.


    A booming voice echoed through the entire cathedral. I couldn''t understand a word it said.


    The cloaked figures screamed with what sounded like ecstasy.


    I felt a cold hand grab my heart...


    And I woke up screaming.

 Chapter XIV.VIII: Passing Time

    Thursday night, right as we finished eating supper, I heard something that sent shivers down my spine. Something was howling somewhere in the distance, and my immediate thought was that it was that dog-thing I had seen before we locked ourselves up down in the basement. But maybe it was just a normal dog or a wolf, right? I mean, with all that''s happened, it wouldn''t be unlikely for a dog''s owner to leave it somewhere and for it to become a stray, right? We were far from any urban areas too, so it just being a wolf or something wouldn''t be unnatural, even with wolves being as uncommon as they are nowadays. The thing is though, I only now realized that this howling was the only noise from an animal I had heard since the storm had reached Arborline. I hadn''t noticed it until now, but I hadn''t even seen a single animal since the start of the storm. Not even a bird or a rodent.


    I waited for the howling to stop.


    I waited and waited.


    But it didn''t stop.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Jared and I slept in shifts again.


    The howling went on all through the night, all the way into the next day. It still didn''t stop.


    Jared''s eyes were wide, "...I think that whatever that is, it''s not a normal dog or wolf. It might be that dog thing you saw."


    "I think you''re right... It still sounds pretty far away, but it followed us all the way from the city. What if it tries to get in here?"


    Jared motioned to the shotgun, "Well, I guess we''ll have to fight it. We managed to take out one of these monsters," he glanced at the stump where his arm had been, "albeit just barely. Maybe we''ll get lucky again."


    I glanced at Aaron, who was looking cautiously out the window.


    I didn''t want to take any chances. Not with Aaron around.


    I shuddered as another beast joined in with the constant howling. And then, another. There were at least three of them somewhere out there.


    Though we tried to sleep in shifts that night, I don''t think either of us slept much. Aaron was restless too.


    The howling just never ended.


    Even worse, it started to sound like it was... closer?


    Were they slowly closing in on us?


    More and more new beasts joined in with the howling, occasionally letting out what sounded like off-tune barking.

 Chapter XIV.IX: Passing Time

    By sundown of Saturday evening, there was definitely at least more than ten of the things crying out and they sounded like they were much, much closer.


    As we were all huddled near each other, alternating between staring at the windows and the stairs, I suddenly blurted out, "We need to leave!"


    Jared stared at me. I could tell he was thinking the exact same thing.


    "We need to leave, now! They''re obviously getting closer, they must know we''re here somehow, whether they can smell us or who knows what. God... it sounds like there''s so many of them! I don''t want to bet on the off chance that they won''t try to hurt us like whatever made that damned symphony before. We need to get out of here while we still can."Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Jared nodded, "I was thinking the same thing. Let''s pack everything up, get in the car and move!"


    Without letting another second pass, we immediately moved to pack things up. It felt unreal to actually be preparing to leave the house. It had been our makeshift home for nearly a month, locked up in the basement with no news from the outside world. It would be strange to be outside again. Who could even guess how much the outside world would have changed while we were holed up in here?


    The storm hadn''t stopped yet. And I still felt in my heart that it would never end.


    Not the storm, nor the madness that lurked inside of it.


    Even if we managed to escape from these dogs or whatever they were, just what else was waiting for us out there?


    How far did the storm reach? Was there even anywhere for us to go? Shit. We don''t even have a plan of where to go... I guess our best shot is to just keep moving away from Arborline and to avoid any highly populated areas.


    As I went to get my coat, something fell out of my pocket.


    Huh? A letter? What''s that doing there...

 Chapter XIV.X: Passing Time

    It all came back to me.


    The letter was from Edward Peaks, my dad''s friend. I got the letter right before I was going to go to the oil rig, put it in my coat, but forgot all about it because of the call I got from Mike and the ensuing chaos.


    Shit, I had completely forgotten about it.


    God, that all seemed so immeasurably far away now...


    As I read Edward Peaks'' name on the back of the envelope, something compelled me to open it and read it right away, despite the situation. You sent this to me a month ago, what did you want then? It couldn''t have been anything too important... But something within me forced me to tear the envelope open and I began to read:


    Dear Markus,


    Perhaps you do not remember me, but I was once a very good friend of your father''s. I remember you, how you used to run through the gardens of my mansion and pore through my library when you were but a wee lad. I always took great joy when you would come with your father to visit, as my wife and I never had children of our own, though I had always wanted a son.


    I regret not having a chance to speak with you at your father''s funeral.


    And that is where I come to the purpose of this letter:


    I owe your father the world. I don''t know if he ever told you, but he was responsible for saving my life when we were both much younger. If it hadn''t been for him, my wealth would have accounted for nothing and I would no longer be on this earth.


    Though I had always wanted to repay him, he never would accept money or any such gifts from me, saying that my friendship was more valuable to him than all the money I could give him.


    But hearing that you, the son of my saviour, is suffering in the pit of poverty while I live in luxury has done a number on my conscious.


    In order to repay your father, I would ask that you bring you and your family to see me at my manor in Ertonburg.


    According to my sources, the future looks rather bleak.


    Bleaker than you could ever imagine.


    You could be safe with me. I have ample supplies, and my manor is sufficiently equipped to survive even the worst of scenarios. If I so desired, I could house an entire village for years. You could safely live here for the rest of your life, <u>no matter what happens.</u> I absolutely guarantee it. Absolutely. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    It''s the least I could do to repay your late father.


    My contact information and address are on the other side of this page.


    Come quickly,


    Edward Peaks


    After I finished reading, I dropped the letter in shock.


    I couldn''t believe it. It seemed like something out of the fairy tales I used to read at his house.


    But the part that shocked me the most was that almost by pure coincidence, I had been robbed of this opportunity. I shook with sorrow as I realized that if I hadn''t forgotten about the letter, if I had opened it after my call with Mike...


    We would have been at the manor by now.


    We would have been safe.


    And... Jessica would have been alive.


    Are you kidding me?!


    Something as small and seemingly insignificant as that?!


    If only I had opened a piece of paper sooner, Jessica would be alive right now?!


    "God damn it!" I shouted in rage and screamed, my cry mingling with the howls of the approaching beasts.


    Jared and Aaron turned to me, worried.


    "What''s wrong dad?" Aaron asked.


    Though I was still choked with sorrow by the possibility that Jessica could have been alive right now, I remembered the talk I had with Jared.


    "There''s no point in worrying about what ifs, we can''t change the past." That''s what I had told him.


    I was right. I couldn''t do anything about it, so right now I had to grab onto any options I had. And, right now there was a way for Aaron to be safe. Though I had failed to save Jessica, I wouldn''t fail to save Aaron.


    I spoke up, talking quickly as the frantic howling came closer, "This letter... I got it before the storm. It''s from one of my dad''s friends. Apparently he''s pretty rich. Before the storm, he had invited us to go to his manor... said we''d be safe there. So, we have a place to go to now! If we can reach the manor, I''m sure we''ll be alright."


    I handed Jared the letter to read, his eyes widened as he quickly scanned it over, "Wow... we might be lucky... it''s in Ertonburg, I think that''s just under two hours away- Oh, but we''ll have to go around Crestland City. That will take longer, maybe a few more hours... We don''t want to go through any more heavily populated areas than we have to. At least, that''s what I think."


    Some of the howling had transformed into furious barking, and by now it sounded like it wouldn''t be long before they reached us.


    As we finished packing up, I realized something, "I don''t know exactly where the manor is. If we could just find a way to connect to the internet, we could use a map..."


    Jared nodded, "I guess that''s our first priority. Alright, I think we''ve got everything packed that we can find a use for."


    The howling grew louder.


    "Well, let''s run to the car while we still can," I said as we stepped towards the stairway, preparing to move the stuff blocking the door so that we could leave the basement.


    A loud crashing noise from upstairs made all three of us freeze.


    One of them, whatever they were, had made it inside.


    Jared and I glanced at each other. "What do we do?" our eyes seemed to ask each other.


    The howling and barking suddenly stopped and I heard the sound of the thing''s nails clacking on the floor of the house as it slowly made its way towards the basement door.


    Jared aimed the shotgun. I brought Aaron away from the stairs.


    All was quiet.

 Chapter XV.I: Hounded

    I glanced at the window. That''s it! The car was right there, so we could go out that way. I moved to get Jared''s attention so that we could quietly escape... When I heard a scratching at the basement door.


    "Jared..." I whispered and he glanced back, "The window!"


    He nodded, backing up from the stairs while still aiming the shotgun at the door.


    The scratching grew faster, and I was surprised to hear whatever was behind the door whining like a dog.


    What did it want? Why was it doing this?


    I didn''t want to risk finding an answer. We had to leave, and leave now before the others made it here.


    I opened the window, and started to climb out. The scratching grew even faster, I could hear the wooden door cracking. I shuddered as the rain pattered onto my head and back as I climbed out, my hands digging into the muddy ground.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    When I had pulled myself out, I took a quick look around. The blankets were still over the car. There was only about an inch of water covering the ground. Luckily, nothing was lurking nearby. Nothing that I could see, anyway... I heard the noise of wood splitting coming from the door as the scratching grew more and more violent with each passing second.


    I quickly pulled Aaron through the window and outside, then instantly sprang to the car, tearing the blankets off, put Aaron in the backseat and jumped into the driver''s seat in time to see Jared finish climbing through the window.


    As he stepped onto the ground, I heard a loud crash come from the house as the thing tore through the door and came rushing down the stairs.


    I turned the key, and to my relief the car started without any problems. As Jared ran to the car, I saw two eyes staring out the window at us.


    It was the "dog", standing up near the window. Its gaze simultaneously gave off a calculating sapient intelligence as well as a curious bestial instinct.


    It didn''t make any attempt to climb out the window, it just kept staring. As soon as Jared sat in the passenger seat, I put it in drive and pressed on the gas pedal.


    The tires spun, but the car didn''t move.


    Shit, shit, shit, shit! It was stuck in the mud.


    "Oh God, not now!" I screamed as I kept slamming on the gas, but the car still wouldn''t move, it just kept spinning out.


    An earsplitting howl echoed from the basement, mingling with the squealing of the tires.

 Chapter XV.II: Hounded

    Just as I was thinking one of us would have to get out and push the car free, the car moved forward with a sudden jolt.


    I let out a quick exclamation of joy, but my feeling of victory was cut short when I saw a group of things standing around us, their eyes glowing in the growing darkness.


    All around us, there was about a dozen of the "dogs" and all of them were staring directly at us, eyeing us like they were ready to pounce at any moment. With but a moment''s hesitation due to the shock, I didn''t relent on the gas, driving forward in between two of them and onto the road. They just watched us as we drove between them; they were all just staring, none of them had even moved from the position they were in.


    As we drove off into the rain, all three of us breathed a sigh of relief.


    "Damn, they were creepy bastards," Jared said with a chuckle, "But I guess we don''t have to worry about them, huh?"


    I was glad they weren''t following us, but I wondered how long it would last, "Yeah... I hope. I have to wonder what they were doing. They didn''t seem to be in any particular hurry to come after us... and that one I first saw had plenty of opportunities to attack me if that was its goal..."


    The sound of the engine and the rain pattering on the car filled the silence. It felt weird to be driving and hearing those noises again after all this time.


    The fact that it was nightfall was worrying, especially since we had absolutely no idea what we were getting ourselves into after being shut in that basement for a month.


    Just how much had the world changed in that span of time? Was The Storm stationary now? Is that why it was still raining here? Or was the storm growing and spreading across the continent, or maybe even the world? How many people were even left alive? Was there even a semblance of a society left?


    I remembered how Mike had told me that there was strange and unnatural weather all around the world before the storm hit.


    How was that connected to The Storm? Did it all come from the same source, or was there others? Was there some central piece to all of this?


    Why was any of this even happening at all?The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    A million questions and apprehensions flooded my mind, swirling around like a tempest. Would I ever find any answers?


    Thinking about Mike made me wonder if he was still alive. If he was, I wondered how he was holding up or if I''d ever see him again. I sighed. Chances are, he was still in Arborline when they dropped the bomb...


    "Uhhhhhhhm...." Aaron uttered from the backseat.


    "What? What''s wrong Aaron?" I asked.


    "Did either of you see that?" he asked.


    "See what?" Jared looked back at him.


    "...I don''t know." Aaron responded, shuddering. "I saw something run across the road in the rear-view mirror."


    "Something?" I asked, "What do you mean, something?"


    He didn''t respond.


    Jared clutched the gun. I pushed hard on the gas, keeping a watchful eye on the rear-view mirror.


    A loud thump almost sent the car spinning out as I panicked and nearly lost control.


    "What the-", I started as my eyes widened at the source of the noise, on the windshield and I unconsciously took my foot off the gas in shock as I fully became aware of what lay on the other side of the glass.


    The windshield had been smashed. Though it didn''t shatter there were cracks all through it... and a pair of predatory eyes were staring directly into my own. The car slowed to the point where it nearly stopped as we locked eyes, both of us unmoving; for me it was out of shock, while I could only imagine what reason the creature had to only stare at me in this situation.


    It was one of the "dogs", sprawled across the windshield with its arms wrapped around the front of the car as if it were a man.


    Aaron screamed in the backseat, rousing me out of my stupor. I slammed on the gas pedal again, bringing it all the way down to the floor and we sped forward.


    "Shoot it!" I screamed to Jared as the car bolted forward.


    "No, it''s too risky this close with the windshield! Shake it off!" he screamed back, but kept the gun aimed on the creature.


    A tongue in the shape of a human''s but with the length of a dog''s came out of the creature''s mouth and it started to lick the window.


    What the fuck is this thing''s problem?


    Not knowing what else I could do, I swerved a bit with the car, trying to knock it off. Its claws made scraping noises on the metal as it tried to keep its hold, but it was soon thrown off the car and sent flying into the nearby bushes, its eyes still locked with mine until it disappeared.


    "What the hell! What is it trying to do?!" Jared shouted.


    I shook my head. The cracks on the windshield had made it much harder to see now, we''d have to get a new car; if we could even find one, let alone one that works.


    But for now we''d have to keep speeding ahead, unless we wanted those things catching up with us... which we definitely didn''t want to happen...


    A glance in the rear-view mirror caused me to shudder. Oh God... they were behind us. At least a dozen of the things were about forty feet behind us on the road, running towards us with all of their might. Some of them ran after us like hounds, while the others ran on two feet in an unnatural way that made it seem like there was some glitch going on with reality.

 Chapter XV.III: Hounded

    "What... what do we do?!" I shouted.


    Jared looked back, his eyes frantically glancing from creature to creature, "There''s not much we can do except put the pedal to the metal and hope we don''t get away from them... If one of them gets too close I''ll try to shoot... but I wouldn''t count on me being able to hit them, not with one arm, this rain and us moving like we are..."


    I kept us moving forward as fast as we could go, but had to let off on the gas whenever it felt like we would lose control.


    There was nothing else we could do. The road was straight, the place we had stayed at was probably the only house around for miles, all that was around us was flat empty plains and the occasional patch of bushes or trees. There were no side roads or anything to turn in. There was no way to shake them off. We just had to keep moving forward until they ran out of breath or something. But driving like this, barely being able to see with the smashed windshield, moving at a speed where a slip up would mean death... in a world that we had been isolated from for months, with who knows what else lurking around...


    To say it was dangerous was an incredible understatement.


    I glanced back in the rear-view mirror. They were still after us, keeping the same pace; they had neither gained on us nor fallen behind.


    I wondered... were they capable of anything beyond what a natural beast was capable of? The sadist had been able to create meat puppets from the people it had killed. The Storm... well, it was causing this entire mess (though to what extent I couldn''t be sure). What could these dogs do, if anything? Their entire behavior was incredibly off-putting and bizarre, obviously, but there was something particular about the way they acted that was unlike any wild beast. They had had so many chances to cause us harm, and yet, other than jumping onto the windshield, none of them had done anything else other than stare at us.


    Their glowing eyes gazed back at me from the darkness behind us. Just what were they trying to do?


    I felt my body shaking as the car started to hydroplane. Shit! I let off the gas, and just barely managed to haul us back into a straight line right before we swerved off the road.


    "They''re gaining on us!" Jared shouted next to me.


    I pushed on the gas again, this time not going as fast as I was before. The roads were slippery out here, with all of the constant rain. Combine that with the low visibility and we couldn''t afford to go very fast for long periods of time. I just felt grateful for the fact that the road wasn''t completely flooded like it logically should be. That was the one thing I was grateful for in this nightmare reality.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    My eyes kept rapidly darting between the road ahead of me, the rear-view mirror and now the digital clock in the car.


    We kept driving through the night, but the dogs were relentless.


    "Why are they still chasing us?" Aaron yelled out.


    Fifteen minutes had passed since we had first driven away from the house. Fifteen minutes, but the dogs showed no signs of slowing down.


    Twenty five minutes. Many of the things that had been after us on all fours had suddenly leaped up onto two legs and were sprinting after us like madmen.


    There was nothing we could do to slow them down or stop them. We had to wear them out.


    ...If they could even get tired.


    None of us spoke. The anticipation of only being able to wait and hope weighed heavily on us.


    Thirty minutes had passed. Not one of the dogs had slowed even a little. A buried trauma resurfaced and I was reminded of nightmares I would have as a child. Being chased by a monster, running with all your might, when suddenly it felt like you were walking through molasses. Sometimes, the chase would never end... but most of the time it would end with the monster effortlessly overtaking me and I would wake up in a cold sweat screaming. As my eyes darted to the gas meter, I hoped that this living nightmare wouldn''t end the same way.


    Forty minutes.


    We had driven forty minutes.


    The turn-less road that only went straight ahead, combined with the identical scenery of bushes and empty fields that had once been farmland gave the impression that we weren''t even moving at all. As I glanced at the unchanging sky, black as pitch, then back to the unceasing horde of hounds that chased after us without missing a beat, it almost felt like time had stopped. If it wasn''t for the fact that I had been looking at the clock every few seconds, I''d think that that was actually the case.


    The thing that unnerved me the most was their whole attitude while chasing us. You would expect them to be snarling and barking as they chased us like prey... but they kept completely calm and neutral expressions.


    "Maybe I should try shooting one of them from here..." Jared mumbled,


    "Yeah! Even if I don''t hit one, maybe it''ll scare them off or something..." He didn''t sound very sure.


    I didn''t know what to think. The things showed no signs of slowing down. This couldn''t go on for much longer, or we''d soon run out of gas. But what if trying to shoot them would only piss them off... shit!


    "Do it..." I muttered, "By now, we have to be really close to the city... We can''t afford to have them still after us once the road starts to twist and turn."


    Jared nodded, his body trembling with anticipation. He took a deep breath, then leaned out the window, aimed the gun back at the advancing pack of creatures and pulled the trigger.


    "Shit! I missed!" he cursed.


    The things had not even reacted to the gunshot. They kept moving forward at the same pace.


    "God damn it!" I shouted in rage, "What the hell do we do?!"

 Chapter XV.IV: Hounded

    We had been trying to outrun them for fifty whole minutes. No normal animal could have possibly chased us for that long at the rate they were moving. Of course, these were not normal by any means, and God knows what the hell they even were or where they came from. I was at the point where I was considering risking everything and just driving as fast as the car could take us in order to outrun them, but just as I was about to slam on the gas... the leading member of the pack suddenly stopped dead in its tracks. There was no motion or transition... one second it had been sprinting after us, the next it was just standing there. The others, however, hastily scrambled on their feet, skidding forward a bit as they too tried to stop. As confused as I was, I didn''t let the opportunity go to waste, I just kept my foot down on the gas.


    As the shapes of the things faded in the distance behind us, I heard the leader let out a bloodcurdling howl that nearly sounded like a human scream, then all of them turned tail and ran off.


    We couldn''t feel even a fraction of relief until a full ten minutes had passed. Only then were we able to feel like they had actually gone. The three of us sighed all at once.


    "What the hell was their deal?" Jared started, "Hounding after us like that and then just taking off..."


    "I didn''t think we were going to make it..." Aaron said, shuddering in the backseat.


    "Well..." I swallowed, "Luckily we did. I don''t know why they stopped chasing us, or why they were even chasing us to begin with... but we''re all right now."


    By now our surroundings were thick patches of trees, we had left the abandoned farmland behind us.


    We had to find another vehicle, there was no way we could make it around the city with the broken windshield. But we hadn''t seen any cars or even houses so far, which was a little weird...If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    It was a pretty long time since I had been to Crestland... but I swear it never took that long to get past the farmland. I remembered there being a bit more houses, too.


    We had to be close by now... but there was no way we were going to risk going through the city itself, we had to go around it. A gut feeling told me that if there was any more horrors lurking around, which by then I didn''t doubt for one second, they would probably be congregating around the more heavily populated areas.


    But then again... it had been a month. Who knows what it was like now?...or whether or not anybody else was even left?


    I tried to stay optimistic though. Maybe we''d even leave the reach of the storm? Who knows...


    A low rumbling noise echoed from the blackened heavens above. My first thought was that it was a jet flying over us, like I had been accustomed to hearing on our trek a month ago, but there was something about it... It wasn''t a jet.


    I strained my eyes, looking at the source of the sound. It was no good, I couldn''t see anything far away through the broken windshield, the rain and the darkness of the night.


    Jared had evidently heard the noise too, because he peeked his head out of the window, looking towards the sky. I saw him nearly jump with shock.


    "What''s wrong?" I asked.


    "There''s something flying up in the air there... I thought it was a plane, but... it''s not shaped like any plane I''ve ever seen. It almost looks like... a bird, or something... The wings..." his worried mumbling transformed into a panicked shout as he stuck his head back into the car, "They''re flapping! Markus, it''s definitely a living thing! Whatever it is, it''s huge!"


    "Please don''t notice us..." I couldn''t help but beg out loud, "Please, please just leave us alone..."


    There was nothing we could do. There was nowhere to hide.


    No... if I thought about it logically... there was no way it hadn''t already noticed us.


    "Do you hear that?!" Aaron shouted.


    I did. A high pitched whistling noise tore through the air, and at the same time I finally made out the shadow of the flying thing. I couldn''t make out any of its features through the darkness and the rain, all I could see was its movement... and it was diving down, flying directly towards us!

 Chapter XV.V: Hounded

    I slammed hard on the gas, and as I did a loud popping noise ruptured through the sky. I had remembered hearing once about how some of the world''s fastest planes could break the sound barrier when they flew fast enough, and they would make a loud popping noise when they did. I had never actually heard it in my life before... but that noise that I heard then had to be it.


    A bright blue shock-wave lit the air surrounding the thing, reminding me of a flash of lightning. For the brief moment that it was illuminated by the blue flash, I could just barely make out parts of its features; it had a long neck, leathery wings and what appeared to be a massive beak on its face. It tore through the air above us and as it did... the car lights, radio and clock flickered on and off rapidly.


    "What was that?!!!" Aaron screamed from the back seat.


    The rumbling noise it made as it flew echoed from behind us, and then the whistling noise started again. I saw the flash of light and the blue shock-wave in the rear-view mirror, and heard the loud popping noise again as it tore through the air and broke the sound barrier. The moment it did, all the lights in the car flickered yet again.


    As it sped over us, much closer than the last time, I felt my heart momentarily stop as the engine stalled for a brief moment.


    Jared aimed the gun at the flying creature, though there was no way he would ever be able to hit it.


    As the creature swooped around in the air in front of us, preparing to dive again, I voiced my thoughts, "What''s that blue flash of light? What does it mean?!"


    Jared shook his head, "Every time that thing''s flown over us, the car''s gone haywire. Could it be some sort of EMP or something?"


    I had almost reached the same conclusion myself.


    If that was the case... then what''s it doing?


    Is it going to keep flying by until it stops the car... then swoop in for the kill when we have nothing to escape with?


    As it dove by us again, this time creating a flash of light so brilliant it momentarily blinded me, I realized that we were utterly powerless.


    All of the lights in the car flickered, then shut off. The engine made noises that sounded like it was in its death throes.


    We were like a wounded animal, bleeding out and trying to limp away in a dry desert with a vulture circling overhead. There was nothing we could do, no way out.


    Only a miracle could save us.


    I felt my last sliver of hope crumble away as the sound barrier broke yet again and the blue burst of light filled the sky for as far as I could see.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Instantly, the car completely shut down and we slid forward until we stopped pathetically in the middle of the road.


    I tried to scream with rage and terror, but nothing came out.


    To have struggled all this time, only to be preyed on by something we couldn''t even fight against...


    The three of us frantically looked out the windows for the flying thing.


    "Where did it go?" Aaron asked, his voice shaking so much he was barely legible.


    I listened intently... all I heard was the rain.


    There were thick trees all around us, maybe if we ran now we could hide in there. We''d have to abandon our stuff... but it was the only way.


    Maybe it wouldn''t be able to reach us through the trees... it was pretty big, right? Yeah, maybe that would work.


    I was about to tell Jared and Aaron what we should do, when a loud repetitive noise filled the air above us.


    It was unmistakably the sound of massive wings flapping. Huge gusts of wind rocked the car as the thing above us slowly lowered itself... Two glowing orbs that gave off white beams of light entered my vision in front of the car.


    Were those... its eyes?


    With a sudden motion that made all three of us jump off our seats in fear, the thing dropped to the ground about twenty feet ahead of us, revealing the entirety of its house-sized form.


    The first thing I thought of when I saw it was the time my father had taken me to the natural history museum in Crestland to see the dinosaur fossils. Its body''s general shape bore a very close resemblance to the drawings of the pterodactyls I had seen then. Its general shape was the only feature it shared though, the rest of it had to have been spawned from the dark skies of hell. It stood on its two short stubby hind legs, supporting the rest of its body with its wings, which reminded me of those of a bat''s except... the "fingers" extended much, much longer than they do on any bat I had ever seen, making me think of the wriggling worms I had once seen in the rotting corpse of a stray dog I had seen as my dad had driven me home from the museum. Its neck... it almost seemed like the majority of its body was made up of its long, pole-like neck. Its torso really was barely there. Its neck ended by connecting to its pterodactyl-esque head.


    That head... the placement was all wrong. It was upside down. The beak had saw-like teeth lining the entirety of it, jutting out at random spots, and it nearly reached the car it was so long. The lights from its eyes slowly dimmed, revealing maybe its strangest feature:


    In place of normal eyes, all I could see was... static. Like what would show on a television set when it couldn''t connect to a station.


    As the three of us were frozen in place, staring at the grotesque being in utter awe and terror, it stared back at us with its eyes full of white-noise, tilting its head as if it was unsure what to do with us.


    A dim blue light throbbed from where the two wings connected to its neck-body. Was that the source of the shock-waves...?


    I heard Jared''s breathing grow ragged next to me.


    He was the first to break the staring contest with the thing, aiming the gun directly at the pulsing blue light and firing. Though I heard the gunshot... it was as if nothing had come out of the gun. Jared screamed with a fusion of panic and rage, "firing" the gun again.


    The flying thing tilted its head as yet again nothing happened.


    Then, it lifted its long wriggling worm-like fingers off the ground and spread its wings wide. Its eyes flickered and flashed, then glowed bright like spotlights and a long spiky tongue rolled out of its mouth.


    It turned its upside down head up to the heavens, and let out a monstrous shriek that shattered the windows in the car and made it feel like my eardrums would shatter as well. Just as I thought my mind itself would shatter, it stopped, violently flapped its wings, and took off into the air.

 Chapter XV.VI: Hounded

    We watched its shadow fly off into the distance in complete stupor. Its two eyes glowed like searchlights that swept the ground below it as it flew.


    The rain pattered through the glass-less windows, starting to soak us. Jared broke the silence, "What the fuck was that thing?"


    I tried to speak, but I couldn''t. I was still gripped with shock.


    If... if that thing had wanted to, it easily could have just killed all three of us in a matter of seconds, plucking us up and swallowing us whole with its huge beak. I don''t know why it had left... but I really wasn''t complaining in the slightest.


    "I don''t know..." I managed to mutter, "I don''t know... I can''t even begin to guess."


    I turned back to Aaron to see him shaking with fear. Maybe I''d better get in the backseat with him from now on.


    I turned the key in the car.


    It wouldn''t start. The key wouldn''t even turn. None of the lights or anything worked anymore, either. I had expected that... the strange shock-wave let off by the creature must have done this, but expecting it still didn''t lessen the frustration.


    Careful not to cut myself on any of the fallen glass, I got out of the car and took Aaron out of the backseat, hugging him close to me. I kept my eyes on the sky, half expecting the flying thing or some other horror to drop down on us at any moment.


    He sobbed a little as I hugged him, but it didn''t take long for him to get back his senses.


    "Are you going to be okay?" I asked as I let go of him.


    He nodded.


    Jared got out of the car, with a bag of supplies around his shoulder and the shotgun in his hand.


    "Well," he said after sighing, "Now that the car''s bricked, what should we do? I guess we don''t have any options other than going on foot, but the question is... do we stay on the road or..." he glanced to the trees behind us, "do we try our luck going through the forest?"The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    I stared at the tightly knit thick line of pine trees swaying in the wind. If there was more than one of that flying thing or if it came back... we''d be sitting ducks if we stayed on the open road. The trees provided good cover, there was no way anything would be able to see us from up above. Staying near the edge of the woods might be our best bet... that is, assuming there''s nothing lurking in there.


    I sighed.


    No matter where we went, it was probably all the same.


    I had a sinking feeling that there was no longer anywhere on this earth that was free from this nightmare.


    Our only hope of survival would be to get to the manor, no matter how slim our chances were. The way Edward''s letter was worded gave me confidence. It almost seemed like he knew something like this would happen.


    Even then, we couldn''t be sure... what if the manor was destroyed or something? What if there was no escape?


    If that were the case, I guess it really wouldn''t matter what we did then.


    ...So why not at least bet on a miracle?


    "Let''s walk through the edge of the woods," I decided, "If we go too deep in we''ll probably just get lost. Let''s take what we can carry out of the car, prioritize food. If we see a car or house on our way, we can stop there. We shouldn''t be too far away from some houses, now that I think about it... There''s a few smaller neighborhoods outside of Crestland, we should be near them now."


    Jared nodded, and the three of us packed bags full of as much food and such as we could carry. I took the crowbar I had brought and strapped it to the back of the pack. As we were packing, Jared shuddered and shared his thoughts, "I have this sinking feeling that if we get in a car again, that flying thing will be back. Call me crazy... but I almost got the impression that the only thing it was interested in was shutting down our car. Why else would it have flown off after it shut down? It''s not like it couldn''t have easily killed us..."


    He let the idea linger for a moment, and then continued, "But the question is... why? Why would it do that? Does the thing need to eat? Shit, why are any of these things doing what they''re doing?" his voice turned a little frantic, "None of this makes any sense! What the fuck is even happening? What are these things?! Where did they come from?! What do they want?!"


    I put my hand on his shoulder and shook my head, "Right now, we have no way of knowing. I don''t know if we''ll ever find any answers. If we think too hard about it, it will only give us headaches... We just need to focus on surviving, and avoiding these things... whatever they are."


    He nodded, "You''re right... thanks. The only thing we should worry about is whether we need to kill them or not... and whether we can kill them or not..."


    We had finished packing up what we thought we could make do with. We took one last look around us, climbed down the ditch and stepped into the thick trees.

 Chapter XVI.I: The Woods

    As we made our way through the closely knit trees, the three of us kept glancing around warily. With every gust of wind that would send the trees swaying, we''d furtively cast a quick glance towards the movement, expecting some fresh horror to pounce out at any second. Each time a twig would snap under one of our feet, or a branch would brush up against as we walked by, we''d either freeze up or quicken our pace.


    Our eyes had started to adjust to the dark by then, and being in the dimly lit basement for almost a month had made us used to the dark.


    But even so, with the combination of it being night, the black clouds blanketing the sky and the thick branches above our heads, it was too dark to make out much else besides the shapes of the trees around us and each other.


    Aaron stayed directly next to me, while Jared was ahead of us, with the shotgun in his remaining hand. I held the flashlight, sparing it for when we would need it. We didn''t want to risk drawing attention to ourselves with the light, so I kept it off most of the time. Though the rain masked most of the noise we made, we tried our best to move as quietly as possible.


    If only it wasn''t night.


    ...Why did it have to be night time?


    Then again, I didn''t think the time of day made any difference. It probably didn''t This whole world was probably a nightmare 24/7. But still, night time brought out irrational fears that now seemed rational. As my eyes tried to pierce through the darkness, they would conjure up brief illusions of faces peering at me through the leaves. In the current world, I couldn''t be sure if they were only illusions.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Jared suddenly stopped ahead of us.


    "What''s up Jared? Why did you stop?" I asked, dreading the answer. A thousand different horrific scenarios played out in my head in the span of the time it took him to answer.


    "...nothing really, I think... There''s a shirt and some pants hanging from this branch here. I just thought it was something else at first..."


    Clothes on the tree? Weird, but not really indicative of anything.


    He kept moving forward, and Aaron and I were about to follow him when he stopped again.


    "There''s more... a... a decent amount more... in the trees," he muttered.


    Aaron and I stepped next to him and I flicked on the flashlight.


    Something smacked me lightly in the face, and I scrambled around until I swung the flashlight to the thing which revealed that I had just bumped into a tiny pair of sneakers, swaying from the branch in front of me.


    "There''s a lot more, actually," Jared said.


    I shined the light ahead of us, revealing a small clearing with a few moss covered stones here and there... and dozens of sets of clothing, scattered around the ground and hanging from the trees. T-shirts, coats, pants, shoes... everywhere.


    "What the..." I uttered.


    They could have just been blown here by the wind or something, right? That was my first impression, but as I looked on I found that there was something strange about the way they were arranged. They weren''t randomly strewn about. It... looked like someone had been wearing them one second, and then the person vanished, leaving nothing but their clothes behind, so that they were still in the positions they were in when they had been worn.


    "...Weird," was all I could say.


    "I don''t like this at all... Something obviously happened here," Jared said, "and who knows how long ago... Let''s keep moving and try to go a bit faster. Try not to get too deep into these woods..."

 Chapter XVI.II: The Woods

    We marched on. I held Aaron''s hand, and he squeezed it from time to time, whenever the wind would howl and send the trees rustling.


    I was reminded of that camping trip we took before all of this happened.


    If only we could go back-


    "Did you hear that?" Aaron suddenly asked, squeezing my hand tightly.


    The three of us stopped, listening.


    "Hear what?" I asked.


    The wind howled sharply.


    "...Nothing. I guess it must have just been the wind," Aaron said.


    We moved about fifty feet before he squeezed my hand again.


    "There it is again!" he whispered.


    "There what is? What are you hearing, Aaron?" I asked, concerned.


    "...It almost sounds like... giggling," as he finished his sentence, there were three quick bursts of wind in succession.


    We listened again for the sound, but heard nothing but more gusts of wind and the rain.


    "Are you sure it isn''t just the wind, buddy?" I asked.


    He put his head down, then looked up with a puzzled and doubtful expression, "Maybe you''re right..."


    We hadn''t walked another twenty feet before Aaron tugged on my arm this time, "I definitely heard it this time!" he almost shouted, "There''s definitely something giggling!"Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    We listened, looking around cautiously, ready to either fight or flight.


    Aaron squeezed my hand and looked up at me, worried and expectantly.


    "How do you not hear it?!" he asked, baffled, "I just heard it again!"


    "Aaron I..." I started, "I don''t hear anything except the wind and the trees..."


    Jared shook his head, "Same here..."


    Aaron looked back and forth between us like we had just spoken another language, "But they''re laughing so much... and so loudly too! I know I''m not just imagining it! I know it!"


    Though I listened incredibly carefully, I heard nothing. Had Aaron finally gone insane?


    I put my hand on his shoulder, reassuringly, "Listen, Aaron... I think you''re just tired and scared... let''s keep moving."


    He almost looked offended at the suggestion, "There''s no way you can''t hear it! It''s... It''s coming from all around us! There must be so many of them! They-" he stopped mid sentence, his eyes had caught something and he was staring behind me, his eyes wide with fear.


    I glanced back quickly in panic, but saw nothing.


    "Aaron, what''s wrong?" I asked.


    His jaw dropped, he tried to speak but no words came out of his mouth until he shook his head, "Dad... you really don''t see them?"


    I turned around to look where he was looking, and so did Jared. All I saw was the shadows of the trees, rocking back and forth in the heavy wind and rain.


    I turned back to Aaron, "What are you talking about?"


    Aaron put his hands over his head in panic, shook his head, screamed in pure terror and then suddenly ran off, bumping into Jared as he ran past him.


    When he was out of my vision, my senses suddenly came back to me...


    It felt like I had just sobered up after being drugged or I had just snapped out of hypnosis or something. What the hell had happened?! What... What had gotten into me?!


    "Aaron! Come back!" I yelled out and was about to go running after him... when I saw a glowing orb of light being pattered by the rain, where Aaron had been pointing, where I had seen nothing before.


    "What is..." I heard Jared mutter behind me.


    I felt an invisible force hold me in place. What was I looking at? I squinted... I could almost make out a vague outline in the ball of light. The ball bobbed up and down, twisted and twirled, like it was dancing in between the raindrops.


    I heard it "giggle". I shuddered. So this is what Aaron had heard?


    It had the same cadence of a child giggling, but it sounded all wrong, almost like the disgusting sound of an insect squirming...


    My will overcame the force holding me in place, I turned away from the thing and grabbed Jared by the arm, snapping him out of his stupor.


    "Aaron!" the two of us yelled as we ran the way he had gone, "Aaron! Where are you?!"


    As we ran, my eyes went wild, rapidly scanning all around us as the "giggling" started to echo in all directions.

 Chapter XVI.III: The Woods

    I tore through the trees, bashing the branches aside as I scrambled wildly. In the corner of my eyes, I started to catch glimpses of more of the orbs of light shining through the trees.


    "Aaron!" my cry drowned out the "giggling", rain and wind.


    I heard what sounded like a muffled voice coming from my right, like someone was trying to talk but couldn''t... Aaron! Jared and I nodded at each other, then dashed as fast as our legs could carry us to the source of the voice.


    "Aar-" his name died partway in my mouth.


    We came to another clearing, this one larger than the last. In the middle of the tall overgrown patch of grass was... one of the balls of light.


    A humming noise was coming from it, similar to the tone of Aaron''s voice, but it was wordless, just a nonsensical noise. The light flashed, and as it did it "giggled" with the slight cadence of Aaron''s laugh, though distorted and warped to the point where it wasn''t recognizable.


    A loud bang shook the air as Jared fired the shotgun at the light, but it blinked out and vanished, reappearing a few feet away, cackling harshly as it did so.


    ...Where was Aaron?! And what the hell were these things?


    I shuddered as a soft glow began to emanate from between the trees behind the individual orb, growing brighter and brighter. I heard what sounded like a struggle going on from where the light was.


    "This way!" I shouted to Jared, and the two of us sprinted past the ball, which let out its horrific distorted giggling as we went by.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Like a charging rhino, I plowed through the branches to the source of the glow. The light around me was so dazzling, I had to blink and squint rapidly before I could properly see.


    Aaron was there... suspended in the air by a large ball of light, bigger than him. All around me, there were dozens of lights, dancing and spinning like it was some fairy tale out of hell.


    "Aar-" again my scream died in my throat as I noticed that the balls of light cast shadows of things... like a shadow puppet show, the misshapen shadows of the things danced around gleefully.


    Their shadows appeared to be humanoid in shape, though of course they were much smaller than a human could possibly be. Their bodies seemed shaped more like small mannequins rather than humans, with long and incredibly thin limbs akin to spindly dead tree branches or the squirming legs of an insect. Their forms all looked distorted and bent at impossible and wrong angles as they danced, like all of their bones were broken. It looked like they didn''t have any hands or feet. Attached to their backs were a pair of tiny wings, like those of a butterfly. Their forms faded and flickered as the light rose and fell in intensity.


    My body shook with dread as I noticed that all along the ground and in the trees were dozens more of the sets of clothes. Had these things spirited away the people who had worn them? With another shudder, I realized that all of the clothing seemed like it would fit children... would they make Aaron vanish, too?


    As my eyes darted to the large orb of light surrounding Aaron, I saw in the shadow that a larger one of the things was holding onto him. Though I couldn''t clearly see it through the light around it, I could make out its shape through its shadow. It looked about the size of an adult man, its torso was less thin than the smaller ones. At first I thought it wore a cape, but no, its flesh was stretched so that flaps of loose flesh came down its back like a cape. Behind Aaron, in the light, I could barely make out a pale mask-like face, whose only features were two deep, boring holes in place of eyes. Though the sockets were empty, it felt like it was staring at me with some deep-seated malice and cruel mockery. Atop its head, its skin twisted and contorted into the shape of a crown, making it seem like some demented king.

 Chapter XVI.IV: The Woods

    As I nearly collapsed with dread, the things let out their terrible giggle all at once. The unholy sound made it feel like my skin and surroundings were crawling all over with a million squirming worms and insects.


    "P-Put him down!" I shouted, my words slurring with fear.


    The big crowned thing let out a dry chuckle that sounded like metal scraping against concrete as I saw through its shadow that it stroked Aaron''s cheek. Aaron had fallen unconscious. The smaller ones guffawed as their shadows clapped their tiny stick arms together.


    Jared aimed the gun at the "king". Its shadow feigned fear, then let out a howl of laughter that sounded like a squeal from an animal being led to the slaughterhouse more than anything.


    The lights started to move closer to us as they danced and giggled. Now that I really thought about it, they reminded me of some of the books I used to read in Edward''s library, the ones about the fairies that would kidnap bad children so that they''d never be seen again. Would they... take Aaron away?


    My body shook with fear, but also with a rising rage. They wouldn''t take him...


    "Jared..." I managed to spit out as the king''s shadow went to stroke Aaron''s hair, "...let''s kill it!!!"


    He nodded with resolve.


    I dropped the pack I was carrying on my back, quickly grabbing the crowbar I had strapped to it. I didn''t know if we could even hurt these things... the one Jared had shot just faded away and reappeared like nothing had happened... who knows what else they could do...The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    We had no choice but to try! If we did nothing, Aaron would die! If we did nothing, we''d die anyway! So... we had to fight!


    Jared and I looked at each other, and we both understood what we needed to do.


    I charged forward at the big ball of light with the crowbar raised high above my head, not knowing if I''d even be able to anything, while Jared started to run around him, swinging the butt of the gun at the smaller lights as he ran by them. Right before he''d hit them, they disappeared and re-materialized with a chuckle a few feet away.


    There was something especially unnerving about their behavior, as if they had the innocence of a child along with an unrestrained cruelty that knew no consequences or discipline. They didn''t even entirely seem intelligent, it was almost like their intelligence was limited to their playfulness and cruelty.


    The king locked his empty sockets onto my eyes as I charged. An indecipherable noise that sounded like a bird chirping or a cricket resounded from the king, and the smaller "fairies" let out what sounded like snarling as they rapidly moved in on us. I swung the crowbar wildly, though I didn''t make contact with any of them, they just popped into existence in another spot before I could hit them. I heard Jared struggling as I tried to swat them away.


    I felt an icy touch on my shoulder and turned to see the shadow of one of the things poking me with its thin, squirming arm. Though it didn''t hurt, for some reason it sent an irrational feeling of pure terror through my entire body. I screamed like a madman, and the fairy cackled as it let off an absolutely blinding flash of light.


    I couldn''t see anything... it felt like the whole world was spinning like a merry-go-round, like my entire mind was being put through a blender. I swung the crowbar wildly around, I heard the fairies demented giggling echo all around me...

 Chapter XVI.V: The Woods

    They all simultaneously gasped. For once, I felt the crowbar connect with something...


    I had definitely hit something.


    My eyes finally opened, and I just barely managed to glimpse the crowbar buried into not one of the balls of light... but its shadow. A wild scream erupted from the glowing orb, and it blinked out, bursting into a small shower of crimson.


    "Their shadows!" I yelled out to Jared as I slowly regained the orientation of my surroundings, "Hit their shadows!"


    As I looked more closely at the now backing up fairies... I noticed that the shadows appeared almost tangible compared to the illusory appearance of the lights. Were the shadows their true bodies? Did they operate on a completely different principle from reality, where their shadows were light and their bodies were darkness? I don''t know... I don''t know how any of this works and I don''t think anyone could figure it out no matter how hard they thought about it... None of this even feels like reality anymore... but what I did know... is that we needed to strike at their shadows and not get touched by them!


    The king seemed apprehensive for a second, but then giggled again and went back to staring at Aaron''s closed eyes. The smaller things seemed reluctant to attack again, but at the urging of the king they slowly began to advance towards Jared and I.


    A gunshot rang out, and I heard a squeal as one of the fairies exploded.


    "Guns work!" Jared shouted.


    I swung hard through the raindrops at the nearest fairies'' shadows, causing the glowing lights to be torn to shreds. Without bothering to go after the others, I charged with everything I had towards the king, lifting the crowbar as high as I could manage.


    Just as I was about to swing down onto his head, he lifted Aaron to the spot I was about to hit. I jumped back and stopped my swing, the thing sneered.


    But little did it know, that''s exactly what I was hoping for.


    I couldn''t help but laugh with relief when I saw Jared behind it, with the gun poised to fire at its shadow. It turned back just in time to see Jared pull the trigger. The sound of the gunshot echoed through the whole forest and a massive hole appeared in the king''s ball of light, just under its mask-like face, blood spewing out of it.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    The thing dropped Aaron, and I rushed to pick him up in my arms.


    The mask of the king turned to face Jared, the light around it flickering, and it let out a sad chuckle, like it was disappointed that its playtime was over. Jared fired again at its shadow, and the king''s face exploded in a shower of blood. Its entire body vanished with a huge flash of light.


    The other orbs were motionless in the air for a long moment, and we expected them to turn on us. Jared and I shivered, moving closer to each other, expecting the things to come at us all at once and tear us apart. We beat the big one, sure... but there was still dozens of the things around us... However, to our surprise, they all started to giggle hysterically.  Their shadows flashed and danced violently, the grating noise of their giggles filling the air as they started to float upwards, going against the rain. Gradually, the giggling faded as the orbs disappeared through the black clouds and the only noise was the falling rain and howling wind.


    My eyes widened with disbelief as I saw the empty clothes begin to fill up again with their owners. With a strange flicker, the bodies that the clothes belonged to slowly materialized around us. Dozens of skeletons, many of them crumbling and withering away like they were ancient.


    Killing the "king" must have "broken the spell" or something of the sort, freeing those who had been abducted... but it was too late. They were all dead. How long had they been vanished? Where had they been taken to begin with?


    I heard Jared vomit next to me, and I felt the urge to as well. But more than anything, I was relieved that Aaron had escaped that fate. I looked down at him with tears in my eyes. I was so worried... I thought I would lose someone else...


    We had managed to save him.


    "Let''s get away from here before Aaron wakes up. Or before anything gets drawn to us by the all the ruckus we made..." I said, stepping forward with Aaron still in my arms. Jared followed behind me as we left the clearing, passing into the thick trees again. A twig snapped behind us.


    I violently turned around to the source of the sound and saw nothing but the trees swaying in the wind. Aaron stirred in my arms, and his eyes fluttered open.


    "...Dad...?" he muttered as he rubbed his eyes, "What happened?"


    I gently put him on his feet, "Don''t worry about it, everything''s okay now... I''m sorry about what happened Aaron, but those things... they messed with my mind, or something, somehow. They made it so I couldn''t see them until you ran away. But me and Jared took care of them... everything''s okay now... everything''s okay."


    His eyes watered, but sparkled, "It''s okay... I was so scared... but now... now I''m fine. I''m glad we''re all together again!"


    "We were really worried..." Jared started, "Aaron, no matter how scary things get, no matter how hopeless it may seem... We need to stick together, okay?"


    He nodded, "Right!"


    I''ll be more vigilant... I won''t let anything else twist my mind like that again... I will stand firm.

 Chapter XVI.VI: The Woods

    I took Aaron''s hand and I gazed ahead at the swaying trees, remembering there was dozens of skeletons not even thirty feet behind us, "Come on, the faster we find shelter, the better."


    We started to move, "How far away are we from the city?" Aaron asked.


    I shook my head, "I don''t know... By now, we should be by some houses but..."


    After what had just happened, I didn''t know if avoiding the city would make any difference...


    We started walking again. As the howling wind swayed the trees, they made a scratching noise as they scraped against each other. A soft crunch came from a few meters behind us.


    Reflexively, I glanced to the source of the noise and saw... a deer standing in between the trees.


    Huh? That''s weird, this was the first animal I had seen since the beginning of the storm. It was a pretty big buck, with the largest antlers I had ever seen on a deer. Then again, I''d only seen a male deer in photos or illustrations, not in person, so I really couldn''t be sure. It stared at us, eyes wide in surprise.


    "Look at that Aaron," I said, pointing at the buck, "That''s a deer."


    Aaron turned around, and so did Jared, to see what I was pointing at. Hmm, maybe we could shoot the thing and use it for food... but it would be annoying lugging it around while we looked for a relatively safe shelter. Aaron looked at it in wonder, but then I was surprised to see his expression change into one of terror.


    "What''s that in its horns?" he asked.


    I looked more closely, I couldn''t see that well when I had first looked, but now I could make out the outline of something in its right antler.


    It was a skeleton. One of the skeletons that had appeared after we killed the fairies.


    And just when I made that realization, I made another that brought on a new wave of terror. There was something weird about the shape of its antlers... they didn''t look like the pictures I had seen. They actually looked more like... hands. Huge human-like hands extending from its skull.


    That is what they were. The damn thing had human hands coming from its head, and it was tightly gripping the skeleton in its right "hand" to the point where it was starting to crack. I noticed that the deer was also incredibly emaciated. It looked like it was beyond the point of starvation.


    Aaron and I both screamed, the deer''s eyes widened further and it threw the skeleton to the ground with violent force. I heard the bones crack and snap as they made impact with the ground.


    The deer lowered its head and opened its mouth, revealing a set of sharpened teeth that looked completely out of place. Its mouth kept stretching... wider and wider... wider and wider. A sickening sloppy cracking noise filled the air as its mouth continued to grow to comical proportions. But there was nothing funny about it. It didn''t stop stretching until it extended all the way to the ground. A slimy slithering thing, its tongue, emerged from the cavernous gap that was its mouth... and it swallowed all the bones whole. Its mouth slowly closed as the bones'' outline made its way down its neck.


    Jared no longer hesitated: he fired the gun and as he did a flash of light came from the deer''s forehead. With an expression of absolute shock, I noticed that the pellets from the shotgun were suspended in the air in front of the deer, as if they had been frozen in place. A glow came from a third eye that had opened on its forehead, which glared at Jared with a menacing intelligence that its other passive eyes lacked. Then, so quickly that I barely even saw it happen, the deer''s mouth snapped wide open and it ate all of the pellets whole.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Its two normal eyes turned to look at Aaron, a strange expression of sheer panic in them, like a deer caught in headlights. I heard it stomp its feet behind us as I grabbed Aaron by the arm and started to sprint so fast I was practically dragging him behind me. Jared was right at my side.


    A scream nearly escaped my throat, but I held it in. Screaming would only make me lose my breath. And I needed it. I needed everything I had to run.


    It was coming. I heard it shuffling through the trees behind us. Would we be able to outrun it?


    We had to... we had to! Run! That word became my being as we dashed through the forest: RUN! The branches smacked into my body, a few times scraping and cutting my skin, but I ignore the pain. That was nothing compared to what would happen if that thing caught up with us. We couldn''t fight it. It had opened its gaping mouth so quickly, if we even got close to it... it would instantly swallow us whole. RUN! I was practically tripping with every step I took and with every rustling noise I heard I would increase my pace even further in a fit of panic. I was so focused on running, that I didn''t even notice immediately that we had ran out of the forest and onto the street. Confused, I wildly spun around, expecting to see that deer somewhere. I just saw Jared, completely out of breath coming out of the trees onto the street.


    Aaron''s labored breathing fully snapped me back to reality, and I realized just how much I had exerted myself. By now, it must have been pretty late too. Add that on top of all the running we did and it was a wonder we hadn''t collapsed by now. My breathing was so haggard and my throat so dry that it felt like there was a razor blade stuck inside of it.


    Exactly how far had we ran?


    I nearly collapsed as I reached in my bag for the water we had packed. Shit! The crowbar wasn''t attached to the bag anymore... it must have fallen somewhere when we were running... shit!


    Aaron slumped onto the ground and I handed him a bottle as I emptied mine.


    "I... I think..." Jared started between ragged breaths, "I think we outran it!" I tossed him a bottle too as I took in our surroundings; we were standing on a paved street. There was a sidewalk and street lamps (none of which were on), driveways and parking lots all around and fences around the properties, but...


    Goosebumps covered my body. The foundations of the houses and apartments were there... but there were no actual buildings.


    It looked like they had been torn off the ground and taken somewhere else, or something...


    "What the hell was that thing..." Jared said as he finished drinking, "And what the hell happened here?"


    I looked down at Aaron heaving with heavy breaths on the ground, beyond tired.


    "Who knows..." I had finally regained my normal breathing rhythm, but the exhaustion was getting to the point of being overwhelming, we had barely slept the past few days and after all that... I think I really would collapse if we went on for much longer, "But we better find a place where we can rest soon. If we run into another thing like that," I shuddered again at the recollection of the deer-thing''s gaping maw, "...I don''t know if we''ll be able to outrun it or fight back anymore."


    Aaron muttered, "Dad... I''m really tired..."


    Jared nodded, "Yeah, we need to look around here. There''s got to be some place we can rest, just for what remains of the night..."


    But where? The only thing I could see were the tightly squeezed together fenced-in lots where buildings had once been, and empty parking lots.


    Aaron spoke up, "The buildings might be gone... but what if they still have basements?"


    I almost smiled, "Well, there''s no reason not to check I guess. Let''s go."


    The three of us walked onto the nearest driveway, and I flicked on the flashlight, illuminating what was left of the concrete foundation and wooden floor. What the hell... it looked like the house had been removed cleanly and neatly, there was no debris or anything left behind.


    "There!" Aaron pointed to a hole that led to a set of stairs. We moved across the foundation and I pointed the flashlight into the hole. There was a basement!


    "I''ll go ahead with the gun," Jared said, taking the first step down the stairs. I followed right after him with Aaron, shining the flashlight to guide our way.


    The basement wasn''t that big, it was more like a tiny cellar and it was completely devoid of any furniture or anything else, just an empty room with a concrete floor.


    Jared yawned, "This''ll do... we can tear apart the fence and use it to barricade ourselves in."


    "Good idea." I said.


    After we had finished making the barricade, we used our bags as pillows and laid down. Jared decided to be the first one to stay up on watch. He sat facing the barricaded stairs, while Aaron and I slept in the corner of the basement.


    There was so much to talk about, so many things we had seen and experienced that day that brought on innumerable questions and apprehensions. But we were so tired, that the only thing on our mind was sleep. Aaron snuggled up close to me. And it was a close call today too. So many close calls. The concrete floor was not comfortable by any means, but we had exerted ourselves so much and had such little sleep in the past few days that it didn''t take very long to fall asleep.

 Chapter XVII.I: Welcome

    My dreams that night were an absolute tempest of nightmarish horror. When I woke up screaming, I didn''t remember anything other than a robed figure speaking to me as it sat on a throne.


    Aaron jolted awake beside me and Jared''s head snapped up.


    "What''s wrong?! What happened?!" Jared shouted as he aimed the gun all around.


    I let out a huge sigh, "Nothing, just nightmares..."


    Jared looked relieved for a second, but then his eyes widened, he set the gun down and slapped himself in the face, "God damn it! I dozed off!"


    I shined the flashlight on my watch; it was just past eleven o''clock in the morning.


    Jared cursed himself.


    I got up and stretched, my body still aching from yesterday.


    "Don''t worry, Jared, I don''t blame you at all... yesterday was quite the day..." I said as the events from the day before all came flooding back.


    "Still... what if something happened?!" he said as he shook his head.


    "Well, it already happened and we''re fine, so there''s no sense beating yourself up over it. Just be more careful next time I guess."


    We had something to eat in silence, our minds still reeling over everything. As we ate, Jared fiddled with the radio, trying to find a working station. To no surprise, all he found was static.


    After we finished, Aaron spoke up, "I guess we''re going to have some more food somewhere..."


    He was right, we only had enough food to last for a few days. It could maybe last us a week if we really stretched it out, but that was wishful thinking. We didn''t have a safe source of water either. We could always try collecting the rain water, but... something told me that wasn''t a good idea. God knows what would happen if you drank from this accursed rain, and I didn''t really want to test it.


    But where would we get food? All the houses were gone.


    ...I guess we had no choice but to keep moving. Every house can''t be missing, right?


    "Our first priority should be to find another working car," Jared said, "We don''t have enough food to risk staying here, and after what happened yesterday, I don''t think it''s a good idea to go on foot anymore. It''s way too dangerous. Then again... I guess there was that flying thing... but it didn''t try to kill us, right? As far as we know, being in a car is still safer than walking around."


    I nodded, "Yeah, if we didn''t have a car when those dogs were chasing us... we wouldn''t have made it."


    After moving the barricade aside, I stared up at the dark clouds as the rain pattered on my face. Please, let us make it to the manor. I can''t imagine there being any other safe place for us on this earth that we could actually reach. So... we had to get there.


    "Right or left?" Jared asked as we stared down the empty streets lined with empty lots.


    "Left leads to the city, right goes around it. So we should go right."


    We marched on through what had once probably been a relatively normal neighborhood. I had only been around Crestland a few times before, so I was kind of familiar with the area. Compared to most other towns, this suburban area near the city had actually remained relatively well off. There had actually been some houses here before instead of endless apartment complexes.


    So that''s why it was especially eerie to see all the houses completely missing.


    What the hell had done this, and why? A slight chill shook me as I stared at the cleanly emptied foundation of what must have once been a pretty big house. Why was any of this happening? What was the end goal of the creatures? Were they even working towards an individual goal?This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    In my head, I went over the many monstrosities we had encountered so far, comparing their appearances and actions, trying to find some connection between them, some sort of link chaining them together.


    There was the sadist. It had been the very living shape of malevolence and cruelty. It toyed with its victims for seemingly no reason at all other than for what must have been some twisted form of pleasure.


    There was the dogs. I was still utterly baffled by them. That one dog had followed us all the way from the city, and the pack had chased after us so fervently. As far as I could tell, they may as well never get tired. But why had they chased us with such force only to just turn around and bail? I couldn''t understand. There was something incredibly unnerving about them I couldn''t put my finger on, something beyond their obviously terrifying appearance and behavior. What were they? What had they be trying to do? I hoped we wouldn''t encounter them again, because as much as those questions were nagging me, I would be satisfied with them going unanswered if it meant I didn''t have to see them again.


    We hadn''t actually seen them, but the band or orchestra had barged violently into the house and played that hellish tune above us... I couldn''t even begin to imagine what they looked like, or why they did it. I still shuddered every time I remembered that... Ha, what am I saying? I shuddered every time I remembered any of these bastards.


    There was that flying thing that looked like some twisted pterodactyl. It had shut off our car and then flown away, probably searching for some other car to shut down. Did it go after all machines? Why? Why wouldn''t it try to kill us or eat us or something? Why would a living thing behave like that? None of these things really acted like animals, or any other living thing for that matter...


    There were the balls of light, the "fairies" and their "king". Much like the sadist, they seemed to revel in torture. Well, that''s what it seemed like anyway. We never actually saw them kill anyone, and any of the harm they caused us was psychological. Judging by the skeletons though... there was no way they were friendly. But there was something different about the way they behaved. They seemed to just be doing it as some sort of playful game and they didn''t really have the cunning intelligence of the sadist, aside from mimicking Aaron''s voice. Also, they had only tried to abduct Aaron. All of the skeletons that reappeared were children. What was up with that? And when it came to their bizarre anatomy, I don''t know how that could even function. The other creatures, as insane as they were, were at least relatively biologically possible. But the fairies? It was pure and utter fantasy. How could their shadows be their true bodies? None of it made any sense, it defied all laws of physics. It made me question whether the encounter had even happened at all or if it had just been some delusion or dream. They had manipulated my mind to make me unable to see and hear them at first, so it wasn''t an impossibility. Then again, everything in this storm makes me question whether I''m awake or not. And the way the king had died... it didn''t even really seem to care. And where did the other ones go? Would they... come back?


    Then there was the emaciated deer with hands for antlers, a third eye and stretching mouth. I was so panicked by that thing, that looking back now I don''t even know if it was actually following after us or not. Either way, it had eaten a human. Well, human remains, at least.


    Last but not least was... The Storm.


    Was it the cause of everything in this nightmare? I couldn''t tell, but with what I knew at the time, that was my best guess.


    Maybe all of these things were coming from The Storm? Did it birth them, somehow? That made the most sense. The sadist had followed it as it traveled around the country, so I guessed the other monsters had done the same. If the storm was stretching out to cover a larger area like I was guessing, maybe the things started to disperse and spread out?


    The sadist, the fairies, probably the deer... the three of them were definitely trying to kill us, or in the fairies case they were at least after Aaron. The dogs... I couldn''t be sure, but if I were to take an educated guess, they must have had some malicious reason to be chasing after us.


    The flying thing went after our machine. It basically ignored us.


    I glanced around at the empty lots. If I were to make an assumption, I think that some kind of creature or group of creatures did all of this.


    I had no idea what was up with the orchestra, so I forgot about them for now.


    And of course, there was The Storm at the center of everything, probably the cause.


    Three (maybe four) of the seven things we had encountered had been out to kill humans.


    Two of them (the flying thing and the presumed thing we had yet to encounter, the thing that removed the houses) had gone after man-made things.


    The Storm... it was a force that preyed on everything around it indiscriminately and unthinkingly.


    From what I could gather... the one connection I could make between all of them is that they were trying to kill or destroy anything related to humans. But why? And if they did all come from The Storm... where did The Storm come from?


    A sudden thought rose up from the depths of my mind. That recurring dream I had been having about the cathedral, with the throne and the figure on the throne... was that just a dream, or...?


    Damn it, we needed to find a working radio station, or better yet, another living human being. Otherwise, we would be in the dark forever.


    Almost as if on cue, a scream echoed from up ahead. It was without a doubt a human woman''s scream. The three of us froze, not quite sure what course of action we should take.

 Chapter XVII.II: Welcome

    Another scream echoed through the air.


    "Let''s go see what''s going on!" Jared said as he started running to the source with his gun at the ready.


    As we ran, I saw a shape slowly appear through the rain ahead. There was what appeared to be an actually intact building! As we got closer, I saw even more houses and some other shapes on the road... were those cars? Were we going to see living people?


    The screaming continued, then died out. Come on, come on, please be okay...


    We reached the street in front of the first house and as we did I noticed that there were a few cars scattered around on the road, all of which appeared to be intact. We scanned the area as we approached. The screams had come from around here...


    Jared stopped and brought his arm in front of us, signalling for us to stop too. He pointed to a car about twenty feet ahead of us, and at first I didn''t realize what was up, but then I noticed that the car was rocking back and forth... and just barely, I could make out the shape of something on the other side, with part of its body in the car.


    For an awful moment, we couldn''t move. What should we do? What if it''s another one of those things?


    From what I could see through the underside of the car, it looked like the shape sloped down like it was a blanket or something, or maybe a long coat hanging off the door of the car. Through the window facing me, all I could see was the outline of the thing.


    The screaming we heard stopped before we got here. All things considered, it was probably a worst case scenario...


    I looked around for an escape route. I thought our best bet would be to sneak into the nearby house... It was fairly small, one story and surrounded by a picket fence like the other houses. We should dive behind the fence and get inside the house before that thing notices us... We could watch it from the window inside. Let''s hope the door is unlocked, so we don''t have to make any noise...


    I motioned towards the house, took Aaron by the hand and took my first step. Every cell in my body froze when I heard a wet sloshing sound coming from inside the car, reminding me of the noise wet canned food would make when you quickly dumped it out of the can. I practically leaped all the way from the street to behind the fence when I regained control of my body. The car squeaked and creaked as whatever was inside of it caused it to rock more violently.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Fear paralyzed me as soon as I put my back up against the fence. Jared was right next to us, his arm trembling while he held his finger ready to place on the trigger.


    The rocking grew louder, and a sickening tearing sound came from the car. Something was being torn apart over there. I cast a quick glance through the gaps between the fence, instantly regretting that action.


    From where we were, I could see the shape relatively more clearly now. Through the driver''s side window of the car, which was facing us, I saw... an eye nearly pressed up against the glass.


    I recoiled, nearly falling backwards and making Jared and Aaron jump in surprise. The entire window... it had been filled up by one massive eye.


    The car stopped rocking. I tried to get up and run to the door with Aaron, but I couldn''t. I couldn''t move a single muscle.


    Had it seen me? It must have. With an eye that huge... there''s no way it didn''t see me. Hell, it must have seen us when we were first walking this way. So why didn''t it react to us at first? I tried to get up but stumbled back down. Come on, move!


    Maybe it didn''t notice us because it was preoccupied doing... whatever it was doing. The screams and noises we heard made me think that, well... it must have been doing something to someone. Killing them, eating them or who knows what.


    A cracking noise came from the car, and I heard something flop onto the wet pavement.


    I instantly leaped up, dragging Aaron with me to the door, clutched desperately at the doorknob, threw the door wide open and literally dove inside, causing both me and Aaron to crash to the floor. Sheer panic rather than willpower had given me the sudden burst of energy. I still hadn''t fully regained control of my muscles from the terror that had held me in place, I was just moving on pure instinct. Jared was inside not an instant behind us and slammed the door shut, locking it with the deadbolt that it luckily had. I didn''t know if that would even make a difference, but it was more reassuring than nothing.


    "Are you guys alright?" I heard Jared whisper above us.


    "Yeah," I muttered as I slowly got back on my feet, glancing around the house. We were in the main room which was part kitchen part living room, there was a door straight ahead that looked like it led to a bedroom and two closed doors on the far wall to my right on the living room side. The house looked stripped bare of anything that could have been useful, all that remained was the furniture and some dishes in the sink.


    I helped Aaron up, and then moved to look through the blinds in the nearest window, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever had been in the car. I could see the car from over the fence, but I couldn''t see anything between it and the fence from where I was.


    Where did that thing go?


    My eyes scanned back and forth, and I nearly fell over again when I saw eyes staring directly at me from in between the fence posts. Eyes, dozens and dozens of eyes lined the entirety of the length of three fence posts.


    Hastily, I jumped away from the window and ducked down, whispering for Jared and Aaron to do the same.


    Whatever the hell that thing was, it had seen me. I''m sure of it. With so many eyes, there''s no way it couldn''t have.


    ...We needed to find a place to hide in the house.

 Chapter XVII.III: Welcome

    I motioned towards the door that lead to the bedroom and the three of us started to carefully crawl that way when a loud banging noise came from above us, momentarily stopping us in our tracks.


    There was a trapdoor on the ceiling directly above us... was there an attic? Was there one of those things up there? Shit, should we run or hide? Maybe we could jump out of one of the windows in the back and make a run for it?


    The sound of splintering wood came from the front lawn. Shit, did the eye thing break through the fence? Was it coming for us?


    I heard footfalls come from above us. There was definitely something up there.


    Just as I was about to make a mad dash for the bedroom with Aaron, the trapdoor suddenly flung open and a rope ladder dropped down next to us. Aaron let out a little squeak in surprise, I jumped back and Jared aimed the gun.


    "Come up!" a female voice called down to us.


    Another human? Or a trick?


    Something banged against the door, violently. It sounded like a huge chunk of meat had been thrown against it.


    "Hurry!" the voice called again, urgently. The three of us looked at each other, not sure what to do, but another bang at the front door sprung us into action. Jared leaped onto the ladder first, keeping the gun at the ready in case it was a trick or a monster or something was up there. As soon as he disappeared into the attic, he called down to us, "Come on up!"


    The banging on the door grew more violent, I saw the deadbolt start to strain against the force being applied to it.


    I let Aaron go next, keeping an eye on the door. It was cracking, the deadbolt was on the point of being torn off. Before Aaron had made it all the way up, I jumped onto the ladder and threw myself up, landing on the floor of the attic with a bang.


    It was dark around me, the only light coming from a candle on the other end of the room, which had boxes lined up next to it. I could just barely make out the shapes of Jared, Aaron and a female figure that hauled the ladder back up. As soon as she closed the trapdoor, I heard the front door shatter, and something landed with a wet noise in the entrance.


    We were all absolutely quiet as we heard the thing make its way through the room, making gross sloshing noises as it did so, making me think of bloody meat being dragged across the floor.


    "We''re safe as long as we stay up here," the girl said, making no attempt to muffle her voice.


    The sloshing sound was directly below us.


    "Shouldn''t we be quiet?!" Jared half whispered, half hissed.


    "No, trust me, it''s alright. As long as it doesn''t see us, we''re fine. It can''t hear anything. I''ve... encountered it a few times before, so I know."


    My eyes adjusted a bit more, and I was able to partially make out her features. She appeared to be in her early twenties at most. In the dim light it was kind of hard to tell, but her hair almost looked completely white. Something about her gave me a sense of deja-vu, like I had seen her somewhere before. But where? I couldn''t imagine how I''d know her... Something was knocked over downstairs.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    "I''m glad I won''t be alone again..." she continued, which was jarring considering how nonchalant she was being in the situation, "I was alone for so long... until I met Emma, but then she..." she stopped, her expression darkened, "Well, maybe you saw what happened to her... she went outside when that thing came along..."


    I heard a window shatter downstairs, the sloshing noises began to sound almost frantic.


    I cleared my throat, still wary to speak, "...Yeah, it''s a relief to finally see someone else. I was almost starting to think we were the only people left alive..." it was a little hard to talk when there was some deadly thing just a few feet below us, searching for us.


    "I''m Sarah," the girl introduced herself, "What''s your names?"


    Sarah? Her appearance had been vaguely familiar, and her name was too... but from where?


    It was suddenly uncomfortably quiet downstairs.


    "Erhm, my name is Markus..." I put my hand on Aaron''s shoulder, he was shaking and intently looking at the floor, no doubt fearing the thing below, "And this is my son, Aaron."


    "...I''m Jared."


    "Where did you co-" Sarah started but was interrupted as the sloshing noise picked up again, and the thing rapidly dragged itself out of the house, bumping into the table as it did so.


    Jared, Aaron and I sighed with relief.


    The girl spoke again, "It probably won''t come back for a little while..."


    For a little while? Did it always come by here?


    "What was that thing?" I asked.


    She shrugged and shook her head, "I only got to see it once, but it was only a quick glance. It looked kind of like a big slug or something, except it had one big eye and a bunch of small ones poked out of it. I first saw it about two weeks ago... it''s been sweeping by this street every now and then. It usually only comes out during the day... it''s definitely the creepiest of the creatures I''ve seen, but luckily, as I said before it can''t hear you or anything. So as long as it doesn''t see you with one of its eyes then you''re good. As weird as it seems, I''ve gotten almost used to it coming by now... I guess you aren''t, sorry about that, I''m sure I came across as a little weird... I''m not exactly well adjusted anymore, you know, being locked up in here in the dark for weeks, without any human interaction, not knowing if anyone else is alive, not knowing if you''re going to wake up or if some thing is going to come bursting in..." she shuddered, then looked up at us, "Emma... I met her just two days ago. Saw her wandering around on the sidewalk aimlessly, like she was sleepwalking. She''s the only person I saw besides you guys. I tried to help her out... She didn''t speak much at all though, I don''t know if she was just freaked out or completely crazy... she ran down there and... she''s gone isn''t she? I tried to stop her..." she teared up a little, "I didn''t know her that well, but still... What are these things? Do you guys have any idea? Where do they come from? Is there anyone else out there?"


    Jared spoke up, "Sorry to hear that... and your guesses are as good as ours... We have no idea what the hell these things are, either."


    So she didn''t know anything about the creatures. But maybe she did know something we didn''t?


    "Is this your house?" I asked her.


    Embarrassed, she shook her head, "No, I holed up in here with as much food as I could find the day after the storm hit us. You see, I''m not from around here, but I was staying in Crestland because of work..." her voice trailed off and she shuddered, "God... I''m so glad I don''t have to be alone again... just remembering about those things makes me shiver..."


    "We''re from Arborline," I started, "We escaped and holed up in a house we found in the countryside. Then, we were forced out of it by these things and ran into one monster after another until we made it here."


    Her eyes widened, "Arborline! But that''s where the storm reappeared, right? God, you''re soooo lucky you made it out of there!"


    Jared, Aaron and I exchanged knowing glances.


    We sure as hell were lucky, but luck wasn''t the only thing that let us survive. Without each other, there''s no way we would have lived.

 Chapter XVII.IV: Welcome

    I told her a quick rundown of our story. When I got to the part about The Storm, she couldn''t quite believe it at first, but then realization filled her eyes and she said that it made perfect sense.


    When I told her about Jessica, tears actually welled up in her eyes and she went over to Aaron, "You poor thing, I can''t even imagine what you''re going through on top of all this..."


    Her body seemed to tense up when we talked about the house we found and our encounter with the sadist. I didn''t go into the gritty details.


    When I told her that this was the first house we had seen since the one we had been holed up in, and how the rest of the houses up until this one were only a foundation, her eyes widened and she began to shake a little.


    "...So, that''s what we heard..." she muttered.


    "What do you mean?" Jared asked.


    "Well, this week... up until yesterday, I heard a bunch of loud noises, almost like construction or something, coming from the distance. It always started around eight or nine in the morning, and went on until five... and it got closer and closer every day. I didn''t hear it yesterday, or today. Not even thirty minutes ago, Emma wanted to go outside and see what was happening since the noises stopped," she put her hands over her face, "I told her it was stupid... I told her she shouldn''t do it... I tried to stop her, but she got mad and she went anyway. She was in a mindless daze... I almost think she just wanted to die... and... that thing got her..." she put her hands down again and sighed with sorrow, "I just can''t bear to see people like that, I wanted to help her... and I failed. I won''t let it happen again. You guys aren''t dying while I''m still around, you hear?"


    Jared smirked slightly, "I don''t plan on it any time soon."


    "As long as I''ve got my dad, I''ll make it through anything," Aaron said proudly.


    I nodded and smiled, "Sounds like a plan, I figure the more people we have grouped together, the better. We''ve got to gather as many people as we can and band together. It''s the only way the country will have any hope of making it through this mess."


    It really did feel good to meet another living person.


    "So... did you see anything else?" Jared asked curiously.


    She nodded, "I guess I should tell you guys about how I ended up here, and what I''ve seen..."


    She got up and opened one of the boxes, taking out a can of meat for each of us, "Here, have something to eat while I talk."The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    She had been working in Crestland when she heard the news of the storm suddenly appearing in Arborline. She listened to the radio as she was working, hearing strange rumours similar to what I had heard, and whispers of the involvement of the military.


    After her work, rumours had spread about the nuclear bomb going off, and she decided to leave Crestland and head to her parent''s house near Arborline to make sure they were okay. She tried to call them with her cellphone, but she didn''t have any service. As soon as she went outside, she saw pitch black clouds rolling in from the direction of Arborline. Right as she started to drive, the rain started falling.


    "Then..." she said, trembling, "All hell broke loose. I heard an incredibly loud rumbling noise that shook the entire city. It sounded like a massive thunderclap, or something, but it was coming from everywhere. The ground was shaking for like a whole minute, and the car was shaking so much that it couldn''t even move. All the people outside on the sidewalks were thrown to the ground, and every time they tried to get up they''d just fall down again. When the shaking stopped, I regained my bearings but..." she shuddered as she remembered, "I saw... hundreds of things climbing down the skyscrapers. I can''t even begin to describe them, they were all so terrifying... worse than anything I''ve ever seen. They... They dropped down onto the streets below and... they went after the people and they..." she gulped, "Everything after that is a blur. I just kept driving and driving until I ran out of gas near this house. The entire time I was driving out of the city, there were these noises that sounded like something was tearing through the earth, and my God.. I can only barely remember seeing these horrifying shapes and things reaching out to me, trying to grab onto me, as I was driving out of Crestland... I don''t even know how I got out of there alive to be honest."


    She took a deep breath, "There is another thing though that I remember... just a single moment of clarity in all that terror... I remember catching something in the rear-view mirror once. It looked like... a human shape, cloaked in something, coming down from this hole in the clouds. I don''t know if it even happened or if I just imagined it..."


    She blinked hard, "Anyway, when I ran out of gas, I ran from house to house trying to find another living human being. Almost all of the houses were empty, and the ones that weren''t... just had corpses in them. After I gathered as much food as I could, I holed myself up here in the attic, and I''ve been here ever since with nothing but the radio to keep me company."


    From the way she described it, it almost seemed like Crestland had been even worse off than Arborline. Then again, Aaron and I had only gone through the city after the storm had already started. Who knows how crazy it had been when the storm first hit... and considering the carnage we had seen on our way in... yeah, it was probably just as bad.


    Jared scratched his head, "Wow... that''s pretty crazy... this whole thing is fucking insane, isn''t it? I''d just think I was dreaming if I was all alone... Did you ever end up hearing anything on the radio?" Jared asked, "We haven''t had any luck."


    She shook her head, "The only thing I ever managed to hear was... goats... on the radio the other day."


    "We heard the same thing..."


    "God..." Sarah sighed, "What is even going on? Don''t tell me it''s like this everywhere..."


    "I don''t know," I said, "I''m sure there has to be a safe place, somewhere," I took in a breath, "Well... we actually know of one, there''s..." I started but was interrupted by a sudden click from the radio and to our surprise we actually heard a man speaking.

 Chapter XVII.V: Welcome

    We all gathered around the radio to hear it better, and although there were a few interruptions, we were able to hear most of the transmission clearly:


    Yes! Finally! I''ve... been trying to get here... for who knows how long. But they never let me get close. They were always watching... Always watching until they managed to catch someone. Then they don''t come out at least for another day. Hah... they usually all leave if they don''t find someone...


    They couldn''t find anyone this time.


    Something tells me they knew I was nearby, they must have been able to sense my presence somehow. Luckily, I''m good at hiding. Guess that military training paid off somehow.


    I don''t know why they chose to hole up in the radio tower, of all the damn places... but that doesn''t matter anymore. Shit... I''m rambling. Why I got here doesn''t really matter. The point is, I was trying to get here to relay a message.


    My name''s Tanner... not that that matters... I''m part of the military. Nobody that important really, but I know some things. Well, I guess more aptly put: I WAS part of the military. The stuff we''re doing... it just didn''t sit right with me. I don''t see how it could sit right with anybody who''s sane. Others felt the same way. We... defected. We fought tooth and nail to get somewhere to spread this message, to find anywhere where there was some semblance of society remaining. I''m the only one left. The others were all killed by all manners of whatever these things are, or by the military. A few of them got lost... Damn it, I''m rambling again...


    The point is: the military has holed up in Washington DC and Texas. They aren''t letting anybody, or anything, get in. Anybody who even comes within firing distance is taken out without a second thought. I think they''ve got the president and the other ratbag politicians and their families protected in Washington. That''s where they''re making their final stand. How nice of them to leave all the people that built their country to die, huh? The bastards...


    I''m in New Jersey now. We wanted to send out a transmission to warn everyone. Stay away from Washington DC, stay away from Texas.


    We also wanted to contact other survivors, try to form a place where we can all work together, live and fight against these things. Our plan was to set up a camp and tell people to come to us for safety, but... that fell through. If there''s anybody out there hearing this: the only way we''re all going to survive is if we band together. I''m starting to doubt if we can ever fight these things. Almost every fight against them is a steep uphill battle, and you never know what the fuck they''re capable of. From what I know, this is happening all over the world. Last I heard, the... big one... was heading towards the capitol. They''ve got a lot of tricks up their sleeves there, things you wouldn''t even believe, but something tells me it isn''t really going to do them much good. That thing is... unlike anything else. It''s definitely an even better reason to stay clear of Washington than the military.


    He paused for a moment.


    But even so, we''re human beings, God damn it! We''ve got to struggle and fight on! We''ve got to live! I know there''s people in hiding everywhere. There has to be! So find each other! And work together! Think about everybody that came before you! Over four million years of humanity can''t be wiped out just like this! We need to-


    A loud crash and rumbling interrupted him. I heard him curse, and start to breath heavily.


    I think... they came back. Shit. They never come back this early.


    I heard... a goat bleating loudly. Heavy footsteps echoed through the speakers and then a whole chorus of bleating goats followed.


    The man chuckled. Guess this is where it ends for me, huh? To anyone listening to this: You can NEVER give up! Keep fighting! Don''t let the human spirit be extinguished!


    I heard the sound of a door being smashed open, and what must have been things stomping into the room he was in.


    So there you are you... his voice trembled.


    He was answered by another chorus of loud bleating.


    Damn... you really are more ugly up close, huh?Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    His voice was trembling despite his bravado.


    Gunfire, the sounds of stomping and crashing, yelling and angry bleating filled the speakers for about thirty seconds.


    Then, a cry of pain and the noise of flesh being torn brought an end to the struggle. The bleating started again.


    I''m not gonna let... you have your fun with me... I need to send a message, and what better way than this...


    I heard the sound of bones cracking, and the man screamed in pain.


    I''ve got a little surprise for you...


    The bleating grew frenzied.


    No matter what... don''t let the human spirit... be extinguished. That is the message... I wanted... to pass... on...


    The noise of an explosion erupted through the speakers.


    Silence followed for about two minutes before the transmission repeated again.


    Sarah shut the radio off. Everybody''s eyes were wide with shock, but underneath that shock was a sense of a reignited flame within us.


    Sarah was the first to comment, "Well... I... Wow."


    Jared smirked, "Yeah, wow is right. What a crazy, glorious bastard. If there''s still people out there alive and fighting... it makes me feel a lot more confident," he eyed his missing limb.


    But then... there was also something absolutely chilling in his message, "About Texas and Washington though... that''s insane," I said, "That is absolutely insane. I don''t know what I expected, but to think they''d just toss everyone under the bus like that! What exactly do they know, anyway?"


    Jared shook his head, "I don''t know, but I expect that this guy''s message will inspire others to send out messages of their own, find each other and group together. We should keep fiddling with the radio, we might catch another transmission soon."


    "Yeah, it would be nice if we could get a radio that actually lets us communicate with other people instead of just relying on transmissions like this. I wonder if there''s anything we missed out on."


    In part, this transmission had brought both good news and bad news. The world wasn''t completely done for yet. But... just how many normal people were out there, fighting and surviving? We still had no way of knowing. For all we knew, that guy that sent the message out might have been the only other person left other than the bastards holed up in the capitol and Texas. I tried to stay hopeful though...


    "If we make it to the manor, maybe we can give other people shelter there too," Aaron said.


    "That''s right, Aaron. We''ll make it there for sure."


    Sarah perked up, "Manor? What do you mean?"


    "Oh yeah, guess we didn''t tell you." Jared said.


    I cleared my throat, "Right," then told her about the letter and the manor in Ertonburg.


    She clapped her hands together, "You mean... there''s actually a place we can be safe?"


    I nodded.


    "Oh... thank God... I''m so glad you came here... Alright! I''ll stick with you guys, if that''s alright!" but then she stopped and looked downcast, "No, wait... My parents. I can''t forget about my parents... It''s been a month, but they might still be alive. I told you they lived near Arborline, right? I''ve been holed up here all this time, afraid to leave... but I''m worried about them. I''m sure they''re worried about me too. They''re pretty old though, and although dad''s resourceful... chances are they aren''t alive." she thought hard for a long moment, "Alright, I''ll think about it tonight, and decide in the morning whether I want to come with you guys or try to find my parents."


    "Going alone isn''t a good idea," I said.


    "It''s your decision," Jared spoke up, "Once we''ve got a secure place of operations, I plan to help more people get there. So first and foremost, I want to get to the manor."


    "Yeah, I really don''t want to wait around any longer than we have to anymore," I started, "We''ll leave in the morning. I really think you should come with us Sarah. I don''t want you to go all the way to find your parents only for it to end up... like it did with my wife."


    She looked solemnly at her hand.


    "Hey, you said that eye thing comes around here a lot right? Does it usually come around the same time?" Jared asked.


    She nodded, "Yeah, it shouldn''t be around here anymore. I''ve never heard or seen it come around again during the day once it leaves..."


    "Well," I said, "I guess we should leave after that thing leaves."


    Jared and Sarah nodded, "Sounds good."


    "I''ll let you know my decision tomorrow morning," she said as she stared at the candle.


    Sarah gave us all some blankets, she had horded a lot up in the attic. For the remainder of the day, she played some games like tic-tac-toe with Aaron using a journal while Jared and I toyed with the radio. It didn''t take long for the two of them to warm up with each other. Aaron could finally feel a little at ease.


    "Say, Sarah, what was your job in the city anyway?" I asked.


    "Oh, I was a tutor for young children, though I guess I was really more of a babysitter than anything."


    "A tutor?!" I was surprised, that was actually a pretty well off job. The only people who could afford to not send their children to mandatory education were pretty rich.


    Her face reddened a little bit, "Oh it wasn''t that big of a deal. Like I said, I was only "tutoring" really young children. Basically a glorified babysitter."


    Maybe that was part of why she was getting along so well with Aaron.


    The day passed in leisure and before long it was night. We had some canned food to eat, and not long after we were lying down on bundles of blankets.


    "We better get a good rest tonight!" Sarah said as she went to lay down, "We''ll need a lot of energy to be ready for tomorrow."


    I admired her enthusiasm. I hoped for all of our sake that we wouldn''t run into many problems.


    Still though, as I was laying down staring at the ceiling of the attic, I couldn''t shake that feeling that I had seen Sarah somewhere before. But I still couldn''t put my finger on where.


    Maybe sleep would bring me answers.


    The sound of the rain pattering on the roof lulled us to sleep.

 Chapter XVIII.I: Eyes

    I was in the cathedral again.


    Every other night I had had the dream, it would always start from the same spot. Usually, more would happen than what had happened in the last dream, but this time it continued from where I had woken up last time.


    I was facing downwards, bowing to the figure that sat on the throne. My vision was incredibly clouded and my eyes were so watery that having my eyes opened offered just as much sight as keeping them closed. My ears were ringing. I heard the booming voice speaking to me through the ringing, but it was incredibly muffled.


    I dropped onto my knees, and bowed my head down so that it touched the floor.


    "Stand" I finally made out the voice. It sent a rush of shivers through my whole body.


    "Stand! Your time has come!" it shouted, enveloping my entirety in darkness.


    I woke up with a start, just barely managing to hold back a scream of terror. Aaron stirred next to me and as I looked around frantically, still feeling like I was in the dream, I noticed that Sarah was already awake, staring at something she was holding in her hand. She was absorbed in it, and jumped a little when she heard me stirring, "You''re awake," she smiled, "Good morning."


    I stretched, then got onto my feet.


    "What''s that?" I asked Sarah as I walked over to her.


    She turned it towards me, "A picture of my parents."


    As my eyes fell onto the photo, a sick feeling filled my body.


    I had... definitely seen those two before.


    By now, Jared was awake.


    "I really want to know if they''re alright... I''ve been thinking about them this entire time, but with the way you described things out there, and with what I''ve seen myself... Chances are, they aren''t around anymore... But still, I don''t know what to do."


    I felt sick... I really didn''t want to tell her but I had to, "Sarah... did your parents own a gas station?"


    She looked puzzled, "Uh, yeah, why?"


    I could barely make the words come out of my mouth, I was worried I would throw up instead of speaking, and a bit of bile rose to my throat, "Well... the house we holed up in..." I braced myself, "It had a gas station. The people the sadist was manipulating... Sarah... I think..."You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Her eyes widened and she shivered. She had already realized what I was saying before I finished my sentence, "...I think they were your parents."


    Slowly, her hands raised above her head in shock. She looked like she was about to scream, and tears started to freely fall from her eyes. Jared and I turned away to give her some privacy and time to grieve.


    Her sobs filled the attic. Tears welled up in my own eyes.


    When the sobs slowed, I heard her slump down and mutter almost incoherently under breath, "Why should I even bother... then... staying here or going with them, what difference will it make?!"


    Aaron suddenly got up and walked towards Sarah.


    "Aaron, what are you..." I started.


    "All of us know what it''s like to lose someone important!" Aaron spoke up while looking at Sarah, "I lost my mom, Jared lost his brother..."


    Sarah looked up at him, unsure of what to think.


    "So, what I''m saying is... We know what it''s like! I know how you feel right now... and we know how the people we''ve lost would feel!" he had tears in his eyes too, but they were glowing with life, "They would want us to keep going! We need to survive, for their sake! I''m honestly scared all the time, but even so... mom''s memory makes me want to keep fighting! There''s a place where we can be safe. If we can make it there, I''m sure we can live! So we need to move on... we can''t give up! For the sake of our loved ones!"


    Sarah''s eyes were wide now, not with shock, but with a sort of blissful realization.


    I was absolutely shocked at Aaron''s words; I was proud of him.


    Aaron stretched his hand out to her, "Here, get up!"


    Hesitantly, she reached out her shaking hand, and took his.


    He helped her to her feet, and shook her hand.


    Jared stood up, "Yeah, Aaron''s right! I''m gonna save as many people as I can find in this mess," he looked down at his stump, but this time his eyes didn''t look as melancholy as they had when he looked at it before, "I may have lost an arm, but I''m still kickin''!"


    I nodded, resolutely, "Stick with us and I''m sure we''ll all make it to the manor. We at least have to try!"


    The memories of those we had lost pushed us forward into the future, towards a promised land we may not reach.


    But even if we didn''t reach it... even if this whole world was a nightmare... we still had a duty to do as those that were still on this earth.


    We couldn''t let their deaths mean nothing.


    Their lives had meaning! Our lives have meaning!


    I would ensure it!


    That was my defiant revolution against this cruel and terrible world!


    Tears flowed from Sarah''s eyes again, but now she was smiling, "Thank you... thank you, guys... You''re right. If what you told me about the manor is true, then we just need to keep fighting! Mom and dad always used to tell me to never give up, even if everybody else does... and look at what I''ve gone and done..." she clapped her hands on her face as if to snap herself out of a trance, "I''m sure we''ll make it! Don''t worry, I won''t just leave everything to you, I''ll pull my weight!"


    "We''re glad to have you," Jared said.


    I vowed then that I''d get Sarah through this. After what had happened to her parents... we used their house as a shelter, we probably wouldn''t be alive now if it wasn''t for that place... so as thanks for that, and so her parents could rest in peace... I had to get her to the manor.


    The entire house shook as a loud crash reverberated from the street in front of the house, sending all four of us stumbling onto the floor of the attic.

 Chapter XVIII.II: Eyes

    "What the hell was that?" Jared shouted.


    Cautiously, we slowly managed to get back on our feet again, just in time to hear a series of heavy clanking footsteps coming from the street. We cast furtive glances at each other, unsure what to do. Should we stay up here or try to escape? Could we even escape?


    Two sets of footsteps stopped in front of the house, while the other footsteps sounded like they were walking down the street, heading to the next house over.


    I heard what sounded like something wooden being picked up off the ground, then the footsteps left the doorway. Did they pick up the broken door?


    "Uhh..." I heard Aaron mutter as he pointed to something directly behind Sarah.


    Oh God... when that crash had happened and shook the house, the lit candle was knocked over onto Sarah''s blanket. The attic was on fire.


    Jared was about to move and try to put the fire out, but the footsteps returned, this time coming into the house. They sounded like something made of heavy metal clanking onto the floor. I kept worryingly eyeing the spreading fire that we couldn''t do anything about.


    Shit! Go away! It''s spreading... fuck, go away!


    What are they doing?!


    Again, I heard the things lift something up and take it out of the house.


    As soon as the footsteps reached the street, Jared ran to the fire and tried to snuff it out by smothering it with another blanket.


    But it was too late, the flames had spread too much.


    We would burn alive if we stayed in the attic... but what was waiting for us down below?


    "Fuck, we have no choice..." Jared cursed.


    "Those footsteps..." Sarah muttered, "I swore I heard them Friday when the construction sounds came around..."This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Sarah and Jared started to gather food from the boxes, putting some in a bag Sarah had. I moved to open the trapdoor but stopped before my hand touched it when I heard the footsteps come into the house again. By now, the flames were covering most of the wall of the attic where the candle had been. This time, I heard what sounded like a saw tearing something apart directly below me. So was this the "construction noises" Sarah had heard? What the fuck were they doing and why?


    After tearing and breaking something made of wood, the footsteps again left the house. The flames were licking the side walls. If we were going to leave, it was then or never.


    "There''s a big window in the bedroom," Sarah whispered, "If we go down quickly and head through there, we might be able to leave without being seen."


    But that loud crash... it sounded like something big had landed on the street. Would we escape its notice? Oh well... we had no other choice.


    Jared, Aaron and I nodded.


    Quickly, I pulled open the trap door and dropped the ladder down. Sarah went down first, practically leaping down but landing softly and carefully on the floor, then quickly sneaked into the bedroom.


    Aaron and I basically went down at the same time and Jared was directly after us.


    Just as all four of us made it into the bedroom I heard the footsteps make their way back into the house. We didn''t want to risk moving while they were in the house... we had to wait for them to leave again.


    I was the one closest to the door, trying to keep my breathing controlled. Jared clutched the gun. Sarah was eyeing the window, ready to pounce for it if whatever was coming into the house showed any signs of coming near the bedroom.


    All of my muscles tensed up as the two sets of footsteps made their way to the middle of the kitchen then suddenly stopped.


    All we could hear was our subdued breaths.


    I kept counting the seconds in my head.


    29... 30... 31... 32... 33...


    Still nothing.


    What the hell were they doing? Why did they just stop this time? I don''t know why they were taking stuff out of the house to begin with, but why did they suddenly behave differently now? Did they see us? Could they sense us somehow? Do something, anything, dammit! Should we just smash open the window and gun it? We had no idea what the hell we were dealing with though... If we could escape without alerting them, that would be ideal.


    I nearly jumped as a sudden loud mechanical whirring sound came from where they had stopped. It sounded like a... power drill? The four of us stared at each other in shock for a moment, but with the loud noise covering up any sounds we could make we decided that now was the time for action. Sarah jumped onto the bed and threw open the window, leaped outside and landed on the grass. The whirring noise sounded like it was starting to get closer. Next was Jared, then Aaron. As I was climbing onto the window sill, the house suddenly shook as something crashed onto the other side of the bedroom wall, near the door, making me fall back onto the bed.


    I was only down for an instant, but in that one second I had caught a glimpse of a grey humanoid figure standing just outside the doorway of the bedroom, facing away from the door.

 Chapter XVIII.III: Eyes

    I landed softly on the soaked grass in the backyard, facing the fence with Jared, Aaron and Sarah. The backyard of another house lay over the fence, and beyond that house was another street. Were there any cars there? Could we make it to one and drive away without being spotted? Even if we made it to one, would it work? We had to try. I took one last glance back at the house, spotting what looked like smoke rising up from the other side, then I turned to the fence and pointed over it, still wary of making noise.


    Everyone understood the message, and I''m sure they had the same thing in mind as I did. Jared went first, then I helped Aaron over the fence and then Sarah. Just as I was about to start my climb, something walked around the corner of the house and stopped directly next to me. It happened so suddenly, I almost didn''t even realize it was there. I froze in place, unable to move. I couldn''t help myself from letting out a small cry. I couldn''t stop my neck from slowly and stiffly turning to face the thing.


    It stood about seven feet tall, its body was grey, with a metallic look to it that glistened with the soaking rain. But although its body looked like metal... it was still fleshy. Its torso was very human-like, with smooth looking skin that was featureless. Its legs looked unnaturally short compared to the rest of its body, while its arms extended almost down to its feet, which looked like overturned bowls. In place of hands, it just had cube-like protrusions that started on its forearm. Its head was egg shaped. A storm of confusion and terror blanketed my mind as I realized that its human-like face was actually concave. It gave the impression that it wasn''t its actual face, it looked more like something had smashed in its face with a human face mould or something.


    It stared at me, blinked, and then walked past me as if I wasn''t even there. I couldn''t move my paralyzed arms and legs, but my head followed it as it stood next to me and faced the fence, completely ignoring me.


    I recoiled as one of its cube-like "hands" moved like molten metal, and changed into the shape of a saw.


    What? What the hell?


    In one swift motion, it sawed off the link between the fence posts it was facing. The saw rippled like it was liquid, and then changed shape again, turning into a vice-like form. It closed around the now free fence post, picked it up, and then turned and walked by me again, going round the house and out of sight.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "Dad!" Aaron''s shout on the other side of the fence brought me back to my senses. I frantically scrambled over the fence in a panic, grabbing Aaron by the hand and running to hide behind the left side of the nearest house, shouting out to Jared and Sarah, "Come on, over here!"


    "What... what was that?" Jared said as they ran up beside me.


    "I only saw the top of its head." Aaron said.


    I shuddered as I recalled the caved in face the thing had and the saw that I thought would cut me down. "I... some sort of..." I struggled to find words to describe it, "I don''t know. It just ignored me... why did it just ignore me... what the hell... what the hell?!"


    "Well, if it isn''t going to come after us, I''m not complaining..." Jared said as he kept an eye around us for anything else that might be lurking around.


    Sarah spoke up, "I think... that''s what was making those construction noises I heard. That drilling noise, it''s a lot like what I heard before. Are those things... taking the house apart?"


    That''s what it seemed like.


    But if so... then why? Why bother? What the hell?!


    "There''s a car over there!" Aaron pointed to a car in the middle of the street about ten feet away. It looked intact, but whether we could actually get it going might be a different story.


    "Hurry, before something more dangerous comes around!" Jared started to run towards the car, gun at the ready.


    As the four of us made it to the car and Jared opened the door, the sound of a man screaming in absolute terror came from the house in front of us. The door was slightly ajar, but I couldn''t see inside. Other people were around here? Shit, were they in danger or did they just see on of those weird humanoid things? We couldn''t just leave someone to die... I didn''t want a repeat of the last time we heard someone screaming. I remembered the message we had heard on the radio the other day... the only way we could survive is if we helped other people and banded together!


    Jared must have seen me frantically looking towards the house the scream came from. He handed me the gun, "I''ll try to get this thing started, I know how to hot-wire it. But it could take time, time that we might not have if there''s some kind of thing that made that guy scream... If you want to go, then go, but you better not die!"


    I nodded, "I won''t do anything stupid, if I can''t save them, I''ll come running back! Aaron, get in the car, I''ll be right back!"


    I couldn''t just leave someone to die. I just couldn''t.


    Any other normal living human was a relief to have around. I didn''t like this sinking feeling I was having that we could be the only people for miles that were left alive.

 Chapter XVIII.IV: Eyes

    I ran to the door, swung it wide open and nearly dropped my gun as the man''s death cry echoed through the house and my mind struggled to take in the scene before me.


    About a dozen corpses lay strewn about the room. Aside from a few scraps and bruises, most of them appeared to be uninjured... other than the fact that all of them were missing their eyes.


    The eyeball in the bag and the two eyeless corpses I had seen in our apartment came back to my mind, and my legs started to buckle beneath me. I always assumed the sadist or one of its puppets had killed the people in our apartment... but if there were so many corpses here killed in the same grisly way, did that mean that something else did it? Or was there more than one sadist? Dear God... I hoped not.


    Wait. The shock of the corpses had actually made me forget my current situation. The scream came from here. Whatever had done this... was definitely in this room right now. My eyes darted frantically around every inch of the house, and rested on a slight movement I caught behind an island in the middle of the kitchen.


    I could see... half of a corpse poking out from behind the island.


    Undoubtedly, this was the man who had screamed in terror not even a minute ago. One of his eye sockets was empty, blood slowly seeping out of it, while the other eye... was in the process of being removed.


    A long, spindly, bug-like appendage that ended on a claw, a claw that reminded me of the claw from one of those machines with the stuffed animals, dug into the corpse''s eye socket and grabbed around the eye. With a disgusting plopping noise, the eye popped out of the socket. But... the eye was still attached to the socket by the optic nerve. The appendage tugged at it greedily, like it was frustrated that it was having difficulty getting the eye out. The wet tearing sound of the nerve snapping sent shivers through my body, and made me imagine the pain as if it were happening to my own eyes. Slowly, I managed to start backing out of the house, but before I even took three steps back, the thing behind the island lifted itself up enough so that I could see the top of it. One massive singular eye, around four feet across in total, stared down at the eye it had just removed. It was completely bloodshot, with hundreds of blood red veins covering most of its surface, reminding me of the thick branches of a dead, rotting tree. The eye was attached to a huge optic nerve that pulsed and throbbed, possibly connecting to its body that was hidden behind the island. So it was the eye-thing we had caught a glimpse of before we met Sarah... It had done this. But wait, what about the dozens of smaller eyes I had seen? I took one more step back, nearly falling over. Luckily, it hadn''t noticed me yet. It twirled the eye around in its claw, like it was inspecting it and rating its quality or something.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    I tried not to make any noise as I inched backwards, when Sarah''s words finally came back to me through my rattled mind. The thing was deaf. It couldn''t hear anything, it could only see.


    So I didn''t have to worry about making any noise, I had to get the fuck out of here right now!


    But I had remembered too late. The thing seemed to nod its eye, then it lurched forward over the corpse it had just deprived of eyes, coming out from behind the island and revealing its entire horrific form.


    Under its eye head, where the huge optic nerve connected, was a slug-like body which looked like it was made of festering pus and blood. Pierced through that body were what appeared to be long metal spikes. I couldn''t tell if they were jutting out of its body or if they were actually impaled through it. There were dozens of them, maybe even up to a couple hundred, riddling its entire body and making it look like a pincushion. At the end of most of those spikes were... eyes.


    At first, I thought they were attached to the spikes, like some weird sort of eye-stalk. That wasn''t it, though.


    As the thing stopped twirling around the eye it was holding, and impaled it onto one of the spikes, I realized that all of them had originally belonged to another living being. Despite the fact that all of the eyes were probably taken from dead humans, and that there was no possible way they should have been able to move... they all turned to stare directly at me.


    My body trembled uncontrollably and as it did the creature shuddered with realization as all of the eyes noticed me, realizing that I was a living human. Realizing that I too, had eyes it could take.

 Chapter XVIII.V: Eyes

    Slowly, deliberately, the big eye that was its head turned to face me. The patterns in its deep red iris actually swirled and twisted, like the rolling of storm clouds. Its pitch black pupil was at first a small dot, but dilated to the point where it nearly blotted out its entire iris as it locked onto me.


    I couldn''t move.


    Try as I might, all I could do was stare into the absolute abyss that was its darker than black pupil.


    A loud wailing noise drifted into my hearing, and it took me a moment to realize that it was me, screaming my lungs out. The thing''s pupil shrunk again, and although its entire face only consisted of an eyeball, I got the impression that it was sneering at me.


    My body felt like rust was cracking off of it as I slowly regained control of my joints. The thing turned its entire body in my direction, and I managed to stumble a little backwards. Just as it started to lunge forward towards me, my fight or flight response finally won over my terror. I threw myself outside, my arms flailing as I stumbled to the car. Sarah was outside the car, looking she was ready to come running after me, and Aaron had opened the door to the car. They must have heard my scream.


    "Dad?! What hap-" Aaron''s voice choked mid sentence as he noticed that the thing was coming through the doorway of the house behind me. My heart sunk as I realized the car still hadn''t started, "We don''t have time! We need to run! Everybody run!" I screamed out as soon as I made it to the car, practically hauling Jared out from where he was trying to hot-wire it.


    Sarah and Aaron were already running down the street, in the direction that still had intact houses. Jared took one terrified glance at the thing, which moved with surprising swiftness towards us, then the two of us were scrambling right behind Sarah and Aaron.


    I had expected it to move like a slug, but its movements were more like those of a snake''s. The hundreds of eyes attached to its spikes glanced wildly in every direction, taking in everything around it, while its massive eye remained locked directly on me.


    In no time at all, we had ran an entire block. The thing was still a good distance away from us, but if we let up for even one second it would gain ground.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    Jared suddenly seemed to realize something and turned to me as we ran, "Sh- Shoot the damn thing!"


    I stared down in shock at the gun in my hands. Right! I was so terrified of the thing I had completely forgotten I had a weapon! I stopped myself by spinning to face the creature and stomped down hard, aiming the gun at its big eye. The eyes attached to the spikes all instantly locked onto the barrel of the gun in surprise.


    I pulled the trigger, and the gun fired. The thing''s big eye widened a moment before a huge hole tore through its pupil, all the way out the other end.


    "Yes!" I couldn''t help myself from shouting. I was half expecting another incident like the deer or the flying thing, but the fact that it could be harmed and possibly killed by weapons was a welcome surprise.


    A strange clear liquid shot out of the hole and the thing seemed to falter. The four of us stopped and stared at it in anticipation.


    It slowly started to crumple down, and I was about to sigh with relief when something whizzed by my head and crashed into the ground a few feet behind me.


    The four of us turned towards where it had landed: it was one of the spikes from the creature, stuck directly into the concrete.


    Had it... shot that out at me?


    Three eyes were impaled on the spike, all of them glaring at me with pure rage. Was it still alive?! I dreaded turning back to face it... The hole I had made with the gunshot was sealing back up. One of the spikes on the thing''s body was trembling, the eyes attached to it glaring at me with absolute hatred.


    "Run over the fence! Just run!" I screamed as I grabbed Aaron''s arm again and ran. I kept Aaron in front of me. If it shot out another one of those spikes... I would rather it hit me than him. In the corner of my eye, I caught that one of the eyes on the spike that almost hit me had disappeared. No... don''t tell me...


    Aaron and I scrambled to the fence. Going over the fence should make it hard for it to get us, right? It should at least slow it down a little.


    I hoped.


    Just as the thing started moving again, the four of us had made it over the fence and were running to the street on the other side of the house.


    "There''s a van there!" Jared shouted, "and I think those are keys on the ground next to it!"


    My God, I hoped we were actually that lucky! Jared dove for the keys and grabbed them, and as he did I heard the fence cracking behind the house. It was coming. That eye had disappeared... Don''t tell me... Don''t tell it was like the sadist! Was one eye really enough for it to regain its main one? But... it had hundreds of eyes on it! There was no way we could kill it! Not unless we destroyed each and every one of those eyes! While they were still attached to it, while it could fire off those spikes at us! Shit... we just needed to get the hell away from it...

 Chapter XVIII.VI: Eyes

    Jared practically tore open the driver''s side door, sat in the driver''s seat and put the key in. It wouldn''t turn. I guess it was too good to be true. A loud cracking noise came from behind the house... the thing had broken the fence. We would have to keep running, maybe hide in a house once we got out of its vision. Hopefully it couldn''t shoot those spikes very far...


    "Wait!" Sarah said, opening the back door and picking something up off the backseat. It was a key! She handed it to Jared and we all almost smiled when the key turned and the engine roared to life. The four of us scrambled into the car and Jared prepared to back up. Both of us looked into the rear view mirror and cursed as we saw the massive eyeball filling up the view of the mirror. Jared slammed on the gas, sending us back the way we came, back towards the house we were hiding in... back to whatever had crashed in front of the house.


    As the eye creature slithered after us, a large shape gradually came into view through the rain, just over a dozen feet ahead of us, in front of the burning house we had been in. I didn''t get to stare at it for too long, because Jared quickly did a u-turn before we came too close to it. But what I saw... it was enough.


    A cube shaped structure as big as the house was smashed into the street, a small crater around it. Here and there around the shape I could see about six or seven of the caved-in faced humanoid things. Each of them were carrying something, and they brought it on the side of the cube facing us... Attached to that side, was the upper body of what looked like a much larger version of the humanoids. For the moment I saw it, it was facing us. It had a similar concave face like the rest of them, except it had no face. Just a gaping hole that was glowing with a bright red, like a furnace. Unlike the others, it actually had huge hands with incredibly long and thick fingers. I saw one of the smaller humanoids come crawling out of the hole where its face should have been. I saw it come crawling out, and plop onto the street. Moments later, one of the humanoids carrying what I recognized as the mattress from the house we had been in walked up to the larger humanoid and lifted the mattress up. The big one reached one of its massive hands out, pinched the mattress between its fingers, then tossed it into the hole in its face. As we swerved and drove away, I saw another one carrying a chunk of fence towards the big one.


    My mind did not even have enough time to process the insane sight I had just seen, or enough time to ask myself any questions, because as soon as we had turned the other way the eye thing was waiting for us on the right side of the street.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Jared swerved hard, went to spin the wheel with his missing hand... if I didn''t reach out and grab the wheel, we wouldn''t have made it. Sarah screamed as we just barely missed the thing and almost went crashing into the nearest fence. Jared regained control and I heard an impact as something hit the back of the van.


    It was one of the spikes from the creature, lodged into the back, with four eyes impaled on it, each of them staring at one of us. I shuddered as I noticed that one of them still had its optic nerve attached, flapping around behind it in the wind.


    Was it just shooting that at us in an attempt to impale one of us, or did it serve some other purpose? The fact that the eyes still had life in them made me think that maybe the creature could see us remotely through them. Either way, there''s no way I wanted to drive around with those things staring at us. But right at that moment, we had to get as far away as possible from the thing.


    Our ragged breathing eventually returned to its normal pace as the eye thing faded into the distance. Luckily, it couldn''t keep up with the van.


    As my nerves calmed, I glanced at the gas.


    It was only missing about a quarter.


    I took a deep breath, "Jared, stop. We should take out that spike... God knows what the hell it will do if we leave it there."


    "Yeah, both of us should go out, just in case." he said as he brought the van to a stop, and the two of us got out and went around to the back of the van.


    Jared shivered, "What the hell... I just don''t even know what to say anymore..." he muttered as the four eye balls stared back at us, leering.


    The spike was halfway lodged through the metal on the trunk of the van. I reached my hand out to grab it, but as I did the optic vein of one of the eyes suddenly jolted up and wrapped around my wrist!


    "What the- agh, ah!" I shouted as I tried to recoil away, but it wouldn''t let go. All four eyes stared up at me.


    It tugged hard, trying to drag my hand onto the tip of the spike and impale it, but Jared took out a knife from his pocket and cut the vein, freeing me. Maybe it was just the rain, but it looked like the eye actually started to water, despite no longer having tear ducts. Did it feel pain? Was it a part of the large eyed creature? Or was it a separate consciousness entirely?


    While the eyes were locked onto Jared with a look of apprehension, I grabbed the base of the spike and pulled with all my might. I succeeded in pulling it out, but the force when I freed it sent me falling onto my bottom while the spike flew up into the air and landed a few feet away. Jared stomped hard on the eyes and the four of them popped under his foot.


    They were definitely lifeless now.


    This time, I drove.


    Jared agreed that driving with one hand wasn''t a good idea.


    As we drove away, I glanced back at the spike.


    Three of the eyes had been completely squished, while the fourth was just barely intact, though lifeless. The rain pattering on it made it look like it was crying, and...


    I swore that the look in the eye was an expression of relief.

 Chapter XIX.I: Dance With Death

    Just as the four of us were finally about to feel secure again, something caught my eye in the air ahead of us. It was as black as the sky; I couldn''t quite make out what it was from the distance we were from it. All I could see was its movement through the air, right below the clouds.


    As my body tensed up, I voicelessly pointed to the motion and everyone stared at in in anticipation.


    As it glided closer, I noticed that there were two red lights glowing from the thing, piercing through the rain and the shadows. Were those its eyes? Oh no, was this going to be a repeat of the other winged thing we had encountered?


    All four of our bodies tensed up as we drove under it.


    I don''t think any of us could even breathe.


    We all expected it to come diving down towards us at any moment. As it escaped our vision, we started to glance furtively around, trying to find out where it went. But we couldn''t see it anymore.


    Nobody said anything for a while, so heavy was the anticipation of it re-materializing somewhere in the black clouds.


    We drove on expecting it to attack us at any moment.


    Unable to stand the silence any longer, Sarah fidgeted then spoke up, "So... what... what were those things?"


    Jared stared out the window, still searching for the flying-thing, "I don''t know... that thing with the eyes was definitely fucking creepy but there was something about those metally things... what the hell..."


    I cleared my throat, "Yeah, why did they just ignore us?"


    The question hung in the air for a moment.


    Sarah spoke up, "I... I''m certain that those things were what was making the construction noises I heard before... and from the other things we heard and saw, I think they were actually dismantling the houses and... feeding it to that big thing or something?"


    "...But why?" the four of us all said at once.


    We actually all laughed at that, maybe a tad bit hysterically. I think it was the first time I had really laughed since this storm began.


    When the slight tinge of lightheartedness faded, I sighed and brought one of my hands to my head, "I don''t know... I just can''t make any sense of any this... everything we''ve encountered has behaved differently so far. Some are out to get us... some seem to have their own goals... some... who knows... I just don''t know."Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Maybe... they''re trying to get rid of us," Aaron spoke up, "Humans, I mean."


    The thought hung heavy in the air. I glanced out the side windows, seeing nothing but the rain spilling off of the empty apartments and pattering to the ground below.


    But why? Where did all of these things come from, and why?


    After another ten minutes, we passed out of the neighbourhood into a more rural area that was completely devoid of trees. It was nothing but a barren wasteland, I remember it was deforested years ago. Usually they''d replant the trees in these kinds of situations, but once things really started to go down the shitter, nobody really cared anymore. The bland repetitive surroundings brought back a terrible recollection of the endless chase we had with the dogs...


    Jared started to fiddle with the radio, and I was completely expecting nothing to come up but he actually did pick up on a working station. It was Crestland''s major news station, and a panicked female voice was practically shouting through the speakers:


    Crestland is... I don''t know if anyone will even hear this... but no matter what, don''t come into Crestland. You... you can''t come here. I don''t care what kind of reason you think you have... it''s not worth it.


    She rambled on and stuttered constantly.


    I wish... I wish I never would have come here. I, I... I can see them... watching... waiting for me.


    There''s too many of them. There''s... way too many of them.


    Just don''t come here. No matter what.


    ...I think I''m safe in here... but I don''t have much food and... I''ll probably starve and... but that''s fine by me. I''d rather starve... I''d rather starve than go out there again! I WILL STARVE! I don''t care... I don''t want to go out there and you can''t make me...


    Her stuttering transformed into a hysteric laugh that shook the speakers for a whole thirty seconds. Shivering, I turned the volume down until she started speaking more or less coherently again.


    Crestland is lost. Stay as far away as you can.


    Again, I don''t know if anyone will even hear this... I don''t know if there''s anyone even left alive anywhere... But I can''t sleep when my conscious is telling me to warn people. I''ll probably get dragged down to hell with these things anyway... And it''s not like I could get any sleep anyway. Not when... not when their faces are... pressed against the glass... watching me... so many of them...


    They could break in at any second. They''re definitely strong enough. I saw them grab someone, they were screaming for a whole day and they couldn''t do anything as they...


    But they won''t break in for some reason. They just keep watching.


    So I know... I just need to stay in here. I can''t go out...


    I don''t even remember the last time I slept... or whether it''s even night or day... or... those things were bad enough, but now that.... THAT''S happening, well...


    She laughed again, this time for an entire minute.


    Stay away.


    The message stopped with a burst of static, then started to repeat again. Jared shut the radio off.


    As chilling as that was, we didn''t have to worry. We didn''t plan on actually going through Crestland proper, after all. Yeah, my judgment had been correct. We had been travelling all along the communities on the outside of Crestland, and eventually we would reach a part where there was basically no houses. It was a lot longer than moving through Crestland, but definitely a lot safer. If things went smoothly, we''d be on an old remote highway in an hour or two. Then it would probably be smooth sailing all the way to Ertonburg. All the facts now pointed towards these things only staying near where there was actually people... well, most of them.

 Chapter XIX.II: Dance With Death

    Before long, we made it back into a more urban neighbourhood. By now, we had to be nearing the farthest edge of the west side of Crestland City. Hopefully, we''d make it safely around without having to get too close. I glanced at my watch; it was four thirty. We should probably start looking for a place to stay the night soon...


    "Hey..." Jared started, "What is that?"


    He was pointing ahead.


    Lined up along both sides of the road, growing directly out of the concrete sidewalks, was a row of huge flowers.


    "What are those?" Aaron asked.


    I shrugged. Flowers were a complete rarity, in these times you''d only ever see a few in a government building or a rich person''s place. And out of the very few flowers that I had seen before, they were never this big. I didn''t know about any that could grow through concrete either...


    "Oh! I know what those are!" Sarah said almost excitedly from the back, "Those are sunflowers!"


    "Sunflowers?" Jared said, puzzled, "I''ve never heard of them... do they really just grow like that?"


    Sarah shrugged, "Maybe, but I heard that they can actually move and follow the sun."


    The rain pattered down hard on the sunflowers, making them vibrate with each drop. I stared at where they grew from the concrete. It was like they had punctured right through the concrete when they sprouted. Yeah... there was no way these things were normal.


    "Kind of a weird spot for them to be... I don''t trust this even the slightest bit," Jared said.


    "Well, they can''t be too dangerous on the sides like that. I''ll just drive quickly past them through the middle of the road. If we get by them quickly I''m sure we''ll be fine," I said as I drove the car to the middle of the road.


    "Yeah... everyone get a knife ready, in case they try something..."


    The idea almost made me laugh; I don''t think anyone in any point of history ever thought they might have to fight a flower.


    "Ugh, hey... do you guys smell that?" Sarah suddenly asked, pinching her nose. Aaron was pinching his nose too.


    "Smell wh-" I asked, breathing in. I instantly regretted it. I just barely managed to choke back the gag reflex that I had upon smelling that absolutely pungent odour. It smelled like a skunk, feces, rotting corpses and sweat all blended together.


    "Shit" Jared cursed as he coughed at the smell.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Did something or some things die around here? In any case, I was sure the smell was coming from behind us, so it didn''t really matter. The sooner we got away from it, whatever it was, the better.


    I had us lined up exactly in the middle. The sunflowers went on in a perfect row for as far as we could see.


    "Everybody ready?" I asked, putting my foot on the gas pedal. They all nodded in response. I looked straight ahead, trying not to let the flowers freak me out too much, "Here we go."


    I brought the pedal directly to the floor, and we went hurtling between the sunflowers down the middle of the road. I felt an uneasy knot form in my stomach as they turned to face us as we drove by them, and I winced, expecting an attack at any moment. But to my surprise, we drove between them undisturbed.


    "Wait, stop! Look out!" Sarah shouted and I slammed on the brakes, causing us to hydroplane, twist and turn until we stopped just in front of a tree that was blocking the road.


    "Oh hey, come on... you have got to be kidding..." Jared muttered, then cursed.


    I felt a slight tinge of self depreciating humour mingling with my apprehension and surprise. I really don''t think someone could make a more obvious trap if they tried.


    No doubt, this was put here by some new monster, or maybe even humans trying to loot us. The second possibility was so mundane, that after everything we had seen it almost felt like that would be more unlikely than some flying humanoid elephant or some shit coming at us.


    The tree really didn''t look that heavy, but it was definitely too heavy to drive over, and it covered the entire road... we''d have no choice but to get out and move it, or turn back. But if we decided to turn back, the only way to turn was at least twenty minutes away and... it could have just been me, but I thought the smell was getting stronger.


    "Should we... move it?" Sarah asked, the uncertainty palpable in her voice.


    I stared hard at the log, then back at the flowers that were turned towards us like they were watching us. Shit, what do we do...


    "Let''s go back." I decided, "If we''re not already screwed, whatever put that there is definitely coming for us the second we get out to move it..." I choked a little as a burst of wind brought the rotten smell our way.


    "Let''s get the hell out of here..." I heard Jared mutter as I started backing the van up, but I stopped when a sudden bellowing noise echoed from behind us. At first I thought it was a man shouting with excitement, but there was this gargling primal undertone to it that was definitely non-human. There wasn''t much cause for doubt that it was coming from some fresh monstrosity. Maybe the source of that rotting smell...


    Jared was out of the van instantly, rushing towards the tree and I was out right after him.


    We both grabbed underneath the tree, just as another excited shout came from behind us, closer this time. Shit, the smell was really a lot worse outside... I glanced at the sunflowers ahead; they were already pointed directly at us. Though they had no eyes or anything of the sort, it really felt like they were watching us.


    I shook my head, and took most of the weight of the tree, with Jared having one arm and all, but it actually wasn''t that heavy. With a quick heave, we managed to move it enough for us to get by.


    We coughed and gagged as the smell became absolutely overbearing, and tried not to breathe as we turned back to the van. I almost didn''t notice the slight discrepancy ahead of us. Unnatural as it was, it was easy to miss in the dim grey lighting and constant rain.


    Just a few feet ahead of us... there was an empty space in the downpour. The rain was pouring down hard all around us... except for that one spot. And it was just enough space to fit a particularly large, broad-shouldered man. But... there was nothing there. Just an empty space.


    My body unconsciously moved forward as all my brain power was focused on trying to understand what the hell was in front of me, when... the blank space moved. I froze in place.

 Chapter XIX.III: Dance With Death

    It came closer, and I could see that rain was dripping down the empty void, I could see that... there was a shape outlined by the rain. Bile rose up in my throat as I started to rapidly breathe in the tainted air. The smell was coming from that space, without a doubt. Just as my mind started to function on a level that would allow me to take action, I remembered there was a knife in my pocket. The gun was in the car. The invisible thing lumbered forward, ready to pounce...


    A gunshot rang out, and the thing started to flicker in and out of visibility, like a flashlight with a dying battery. It let out one of the excited whooping shouts it had let out earlier, and it grabbed at its wound as it thrashed around.


    Sarah was poking the gun out of the middle driver''s side window, and was ready to fire again when the thing''s thrashing body bumped into the van, knocking the gun from her hands. I dove for it, but I saw the thing glare at me in the last brief moment that its flickering form was clearly visible. It was covered in a shaggy mess of hair, coated with what looked like dirt, or maybe it was blood, with chunks of meat, organs and bones hung tied up in its matted and tangled hair. It had a face that bordered between simian and a sort of primitive caveman-esque look, with a deep-set brow and eye sockets that dug into its skull but... though it "glared" at me, its eyes were evidently non-functional. Or, at least, that''s what it looked like. They were nothing but glazed over mush. There''s no way it could have been able to see me, but its actions suggested otherwise. It opened its mouth into an exaggerated frown, displaying a row of toothpick thin teeth and a set of tusk-like fangs, a strange combination, then let out a pathetic sounding bellow. I took in all of that within that one moment before its form faded away again, and I just barely managed to snap out of it enough to leap for the gun that had been knocked from Sarah''s hands. I felt something come down hard on the back of my head, knocking me through the open driver''s side door so that my head smacked onto the floor of the van while my legs hung out onto the pavement.


    I tried to get up, but fell back down onto my face. My head was still pounding, it still felt like I was being hammered on the head. My mind was swamped, my ears were ringing. It felt like my brain was slowly sinking into muddy swamp water. I felt my heart clench as the gun clattered on the pavement and bumped into my foot. The invisible thing stood just next to me, between the gun and Jared.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Come on, if I could just move enough to kick the gun towards Jared...


    The creature let out a howling wail that shook the air around me, and I vaguely heard everyone shouting and panicking as my consciousness started to swamp over again.


    With a shudder, my eyesight cleared just enough for me to see Jared ready with the knife, both him and the outline in the rain about to clash. There''s... no way he''d stand a chance. Under all that fur, that thing was probably built like a great ape. I still... still couldn''t move from the slight tap it had given me... Stars swirled around the edges of my vision, and I saw doubles of the sunflowers tilting their flowers to observe the confrontation. The beast wailed again, sounding strangely pitiable. Come on... move!


    I had just enough strength to kick the gun with all my might, which sent it directly in front of Jared''s feet. The beast seemed to whimper, Jared picked up the gun, a sharp throb of pain in my temples made me shut my eyes tightly, and I heard another gunshot as both Jared and the creature bellowed.


    "Wh- Wha happened??!!" I blurted out, staring wildly around.


    Sarah was driving and focused on the road ahead, Jared was in the backseat and Aaron was next to me, holding on to me. I realized that he and Sarah must have hauled me into the van. I saw the flickering shape of the ape-thing lifting itself off the ground behind us, a low weeping coming from it.


    "Good, you''re okay!" Aaron said as he climbed back into his seat, and then I noticed the gun propped up next to Jared. My eyes widened... a huge hand print was embedded in the barrel of the gun. The metal was completely crushed... the gun would be unusable.


    I muttered, "Did that thing... do..."


    Jared nodded solemnly, "Yeah. After I shot it, it grabbed the gun, I shot the bastard again, but then it crumpled the gun like a piece of paper right before it stumbled and fell to the ground. The bastard''s still alive," he squinted his eyes, searching through the rain for an empty space, "And I think he''s chasing after us..."


    "I shot that thing right in the shoulder!" Sarah said in disbelief, "And Jared shot it right in its chest and stomach! And still it... still it didn''t die..."


    We didn''t have a gun anymore.

 Chapter XIX.IV: Dance With Death

    The only things we had to defend ourselves with were a few knives. Judging by what we had encountered so far, I didn''t think knives would do us much good. We were going to have to find a place to stay now, for sure. If that thing caught up to us, or if we encountered something else... Well, these things were hard enough to take out with a gun, so without one... I doubt we''d last very long at all.


    "Oh!" Sarah shouted and slowed the van, "Oh... oh no..."


    We were coming up to an intersection, and right in the middle of it there was a huge mass of vines and leaves all coiled together.


    Emerging from that mass, was a single, absolute massive sunflower that almost covered the entire center of the intersection. The stalk of the flower was short from what I could see, buried under the vines so that the flower was only about a foot or two off the ground. There was just barely enough room for us to drive by, but only if we turned to the right.


    The flower was facing away from us, but as we stopped about ten feet from the intersection, it seemed to perk up. Then, its stalk lifted and extended itself about twenty fee into the air. It "looked" straight up into the sky, letting the rain pour over its petals and drip onto the road below, then twisted itself to look down at us.


    It smiled.


    I don''t know how a flower could smile, I don''t know how to explain it... but I know that it was smiling as it looked down on us, despite not having a mouth.


    There was this strange sense of warmth fighting through my unease. Something drawing me towards it.... I shook my head. The stench of the invisible thing started to waft towards us again.


    "We have to go by the flower," Sarah said, trying to convince herself. It probably wasn''t a good idea... but we didn''t have the liberty of making a decision. It was our only choice. We either had to try and make it by the flower, who knew whether it was hostile or not, or what the hell it was even capable of... or we could go back and get crushed by the invisible thing. If it had crushed the gun that easily, no doubt it would smash the van just as effortlessly.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    I caught a glance of slight aberration in the pattern of the rainfall behind us, which could only mean that the thing was here. Sarah saw it too, and immediately put her foot on the gas, sending us hurtling towards either escape or imminent death.


    The flower twitched as we neared it, and I winced as we drove through the small gap between the sidewalk and the vines. The sunflower followed our movements, and just as we went by it, the vines coiled around it all instantaneously uncoiled and shot straight up into the air. I heard a loud crack as one of them came crashing down onto the roof of the van. Sarah screamed as more vines came speeding down towards us, but instead cracked against the asphalt. Sarah had succeeded in bringing us out of their reach and we sped further away.


    There wasn''t anymore of the flowers lined along the road, luckily.


    In the rear-view mirror, I saw the massive sunflower tilt downwards, giving the impression that it was lowering its "head" dejectedly. The invisible thing let out what would have been an almost heart-tugging wail if it wasn''t for the fact that it had been trying to kill us.


    We had escaped.


    "Man, it''s just one crazy nightmare after another..." Jared muttered, shaking his head, "Just... one batshit insane thing, one... after... another..."


    Aaron looked down, "But we made it!"


    The five of us laughed, "Yeah," I said, "We made it... all thanks to your quick thinking, Sarah." I rubbed my head, "That hurt like hell, and the thing only grazed me. There''s no way Jared and I would have stood a chance if you didn''t shoot it when you did."


    "Yeah!" Jared said, laughing a little from the elation brought on by our escape, "And if she and Aaron didn''t haul you in the van, you''d still be back there. I guess we really were lucky we happened to run into her."


    "Thanks..." she said, blushing a little. I noticed she was trembling.


    "Did you want me to drive now, Sarah?" I asked her.


    "Yeah... I''m a little shaken up, despite everything."


    I nodded, and Jared, Sarah and I returned to our original seating.

 Chapter XIX.V: Dance With Death

    Jared shuffled in his seat, "Hmm... I guess we should start looking for a place to stay soon, huh?"


    "Yeah," Sarah said, "Though maybe we could just sleep in the van."


    Aaron shook his head quickly, "But the one of those things could see us really easily..."


    Sarah sighed, "Yeah, I guess you''re right. It would be like sitting out in the open, huh?"


    Jared glanced back, "What do you think, Richard?"


    Richard perked up in the backseat. I found it a little weird that he hadn''t spoken in a while. He didn''t say anything, just shrugged and kept looking at us.


    I felt a slight twinge in my stomach, but I didn''t really know why.


    "You okay back there, Richard?" I asked him, slightly worried.


    His eyes flickered, but his smile didn''t fade. He nodded.


    There was something about his smile that always made me feel a little weird. It was like he was faking it. He always managed to keep a light mood, but I felt like he was hiding something beneath the surface. He was probably just worried like the rest of us. Yeah, he was definitely just putting up an act of bravado. But still, I appreciated it even if it was just an act. It kept the morale up.


    "Oh, don''t be like that Markus!" Sarah pouted at me, "Richard''s always been a little quiet, you know?"


    This time there was a slight twinge on my temples.


    Jared chuckled, "But when he does talk, it''s always something hilarious, right? He always keeps the mood light."The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    My head started throbbing. What was wrong with me?


    "Anyway, we should keep driving for a little while. Maybe until five or six, then we''ll find a place to stay," Jared said, and we went back to our own inner contemplation as I continued to drive on.


    I kept glancing into the rear view mirror at Richard.


    Was he just... staring at me?


    He almost seemed suspicious of me or something.


    Did something I said upset him?


    Shit... My head was really starting to hurt. I brought my hand up to my temple.


    Aaron kept glancing back at Richard too. His expression seemed to tilt back and forth between one of realization, bordering on worry, and one of calm.


    Around ten minutes had passed, and my headache just wouldn''t go away. I was tempted to ask Richard if I said anything that upset him, because he wasn''t even trying to hide it anymore: he was glaring right at me through the rear view mirror.


    I felt a sharp pain, like a knife being driven into my head.


    "Richard!" I suddenly almost shouted, "Is everything okay, man?! You''re not angry at me for some reason, are you? If I upset you, well, I apologize."


    His eyes fluttered, and the glaring look vanished. His smile widened as if to reassure me. Aaron was staring at him.


    "Jeeze, what''s got you so worked up, Markus?" Sarah turned to me, "Richard''s fine. Don''t worry about it."


    I muttered something apologetic and nodded.


    A sudden thought entered my mind and with it a chill coursed down my spine:


    When did we first meet Richard?


    I remembered his personality, things he had said... but...


    Where did he come from...?


    It felt like a jackhammer was pounding on my head as I peered at him through the mirror.


    What the hell was wrong with me? Richard had been with us since...


    Since... Since when? Was it just this headache that was messing with my head? Fuck, it was seriously really starting to hurt.


    My vision started to get blurry. All I could see was the reflection of Richard''s wide eyes and toothy grin.


    I thought I would collapse. I started to swerve a bit on the road.


    Jared spoke, but to me his words sounded like they were coming from underwater, "I think now''s a good time to eat, Markus you should pull over and then we''ll get the food out of the bags we managed to bring with us."


    I had already started to slow the car before Jared had even said that, unconsciously. I was really losing my grip. Was I just falling asleep? Yeah... huh, I must be tired. It would be nice to just get a little rest...

 Chapter XIX.VI: Dance With Death

    "Dad! Jared! Sarah!" Aaron shouted as soon as the van stopped.


    A sudden gust of wind sent a huge splat of rain onto the windshield.


    "What... Aaron?" Sarah asked.


    I heard Aaron gulp, "Who..." another gust of wind rocked the car, "Who..." Aaron kept glancing towards the backseat, but he stopped before his eyes went all the way, "Who...


    Who is Richard?!"


    Suddenly, my headache cleared.


    Everything came back to me and my body seized up in the paralysis of absolute and total terror.


    Jared and Sarah both gasped, their eyes widened in shock and their bodies shook with realization and horror.


    Slowly, they turned back to look at "Richard".


    I heard a low chuckle come from the back.


    In the backseat, sat a human-like shape. Its entire body was darker than black, pure absolute shadow with zero features. It gave the impression of a hole torn through reality that led into the abyss. Its only features were the two unnaturally wide eyes that it stared into my soul with, and its unbelievably wide smile that consisted of only teeth, no mouth.


    Sarah screamed violently, recoiling away from the thing but was held in place by her seat-belt that she was too panicked to unbuckle and get away. Jared just stared with his jaw dropped. Aaron looked at me worryingly, pleading for help. I couldn''t move.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    "Richard" chuckled again and Sarah finally managed to pry herself out of her seat-belt, tumbling to the floor of the van. Desperately, she reached and grabbed for the door, pulling it open and practically throwing herself outside.


    "Richard" threw its arms into the air, stood up, its feet phasing through the floor, gave each of us one last grin, then walked directly through the back of the van as if nothing was there.


    Jared finally freed himself from his stupor, jumped out of the car and brought Sarah back in, trying to calm and reassure her all the while. Aaron was shaking in his seat, I didn''t know what else to do... I got out and hugged him, trying to calm him down. But I was shaking just as much as he was.


    That thing... what... what the hell... what the hell was that?


    Did it just leave? Was it still lurking around? Where did it go? Why was it with us to begin with?


    I shivered uncontrollably as I reached a horrific realization:


    Could we even trust our own eyes and ears anymore?


    Our own thoughts?


    What was real?


    What was just an illusion?


    I thought back to the fairies. They had been similar to this thing, in a way. When we first encountered them, Aaron was the only one that could see them. Whatever that thing was, it operated in a way similar to them. My body was covered in goosebumps.


    How much of what we experienced... was reality?


    How much of it was just an illusion?


    How many layers were there to it?


    I cursed as I thought... How many times had something like this happened before? Had we danced with death dozens of times, without even knowing it? What about right now?


    Maybe even this was a delusion, and the four of us were actually marching straight into the clutches of some horrific monstrosity. The four of us... Was there even actually four of us?


    I stared at Sarah and Jared, stared so hard that I started to get dizzy. What if this whole time... one of them was a monster too, working in tandem with the thing that had just revealed itself. What if both of them were monsters? What if they were waiting for the right moment for our guard to be down, and they would prey on Aaron and I?


    I looked down at Aaron, who was sobbing in shock and fear.


    What if Aaron was just an illusion, too?


    Was... Was I even real?

 Chapter XIX.VII: Dance With Death

    "Dad..." Aaron muttered, "Thank you." he raised his head, looking at me with tear coated eyes, "Thank you for always protecting me."


    When I looked into the eyes of my son, filled with appreciation, those eyes that bore a striking resemblance to Jessica''s, my doubts all vanished.


    My son was real, there was no doubt about it. I glanced over to Jared and Sarah. Jared had done so much for us. Because of his strong sense of justice, his need to protect people, he had risked his life countless times, even lost a limb. There was no way everything he had done was just an act.


    We had just met Sarah yesterday, but already she had shown that she was ready to fight and survive together with us. And I remembered my vow... I needed to repay her parents. I was certain that she was not an illusion either.


    Both encounters we had with the mind altering beings had a definite dream-like feeling to them while we were under their spell, and while our new life under the storm had been a constant nightmare, it was undoubtedly reality, twisted though it may be. We all had no memories of when we had met "Richard" either, while my memories of meeting Jared and Sarah were as vivid as when we had first met.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    They were real people, we had real experiences with each other.


    That was one truth I knew to be real.


    Eventually, the four of us returned to our original seats in the van. I think we had all gone through a similar process of thinking and reached the same conclusions. We had regained our calm, as much as was possible, but none of us even knew what we could say after that.


    Jared slapped himself in the face, probably to see if he was really awake, "Shit... shit! What could we even have done in that situation?"


    "We need... to really be careful in the future," Sarah said after clearing her throat, "I don''t know if we can even do anything against something like that if it happens again... I don''t even know what to say... Just, we need to stay alert, I guess... damn, that sounds like useless advice but... I really don''t know what the hell we can do, guys..."


    Despite everything, there really wasn''t anything to say.


    We had pitiable weapons, and our potential adversaries were all nearly unkillable monsters capable of even messing with the reality around us and our perceptions of reality. The sadist and the fairies were the only ones we had managed to kill, and both encounters had been close dances with death.


    To say we were sitting ducks was still an understatement. We were ripe for the taking, at any moment something could come and kills us, or give us a fate worst than death. There was nothing we could do to prevent it. We might not even know it''s happening.


    ...


    Still.


    We had to try to survive.


    Even if none of it made sense...


    Even if it was futile, we had to at least try.


    We had to.

 Chapter XX.I: Cracks

    We had driven until six at night, reaching the absolute outskirts of Crestland, and by now the apartments and houses were much further apart. We spoke to each other as we drove, but most of it was just nonsense. After what had happened, we were just trying to assure each other that we weren''t dreaming, and that we weren''t under some kind of hallucination at any given moment. I told myself and the others that I would notice if it happened again, because it had happened twice to me, Jared and Aaron so far, so we knew what it was like... but of course, I was just saying that to comfort myself and the others. Did I really have any way of telling? Often, I would think something along those lines, and start to lose a grip on reality... I just had to bury it. I just had to focus on getting to the manor. Illusions or not, these things were deadly. We just had to survive.


    Soon, we decided on a place to stay, when we saw a strange orange glow close to the horizon, covering as far as we could see, actually lighting up the sky as we drove closer to it.


    "Is that a fire?" Sarah asked, peeking through the windshield from her seat.


    "It kind of looks like a sunset," I said, "But the sun should have already set by now."


    I felt the tension rising in the air as we came closer to it. What was it? Were we going to regret coming this way? But... that was the only way, because... the light was all around us. There was no other road.


    By then, we were almost to the source. The light shone as far as I could see.


    I slowed the van, and Jared opened his door and stepped outside. The rest of us followed him with our knives in hand. I stared at mine as we walked towards the light. Yeah... it didn''t even work as a placebo. What the hell was a kitchen knife going to do against the kind of things we''ve seen? If only it had just a little bit more of a reach to it, then I could have deluded myself into feeling almost comfortable. I lifted my head up again; we were about twenty feet from the source of the glow. It wasn''t all that bright, despite covering a wide area it was dim.


    I squinted... did I see a ledge at the source?


    Yes. It was definitely a ledge. We made it close enough that I could see the light was coming from a huge crack in the ground. It must have been about thirty feet or so to the other side.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Our pace slowed as we dreaded what we would see in that crevasse. I glanced to the West. The glow, and by extension the huge crevasse... it went on pretty far that way. I felt a slight squeeze in my stomach.


    It actually looked like it went on for... a very long distance.


    We had made it to the edge of the crevasse.


    "Hey..." Jared muttered, staring down at the mind boggling sight before us, "Hey, hey, hey, hey... what the hell does this mean?"


    The crevasse was around forty feet across to the other side, there was no way in hell we''d be able to cross it. The glow... it was coming from over a hundred feet below us.


    The bottom of the crevasse was filled with magma, the rain sizzling away before it reached the bottom, and...


    I heard Sarah stumble and fall back behind us. Aaron grabbed tightly onto my arm.


    "What...?" was all I could mutter.


    Halfway submerged in the magma, crawling and writhing forward, was a massive worm-like shape that jiggled like rotted jelly as it moved. It covered almost the entirety of the crevasse. From what I could see under the... things... that covered its body, the texture of its skin was more like a jellyfish than any worm I had ever seen, and was slightly transparent so that the glow of the magma came through its body. Whenever it moved or magma splashed up against it, its whole length would wriggle and dance. It inched forward, its two heads, both of which hardened into a cone shaped face made of a more opaque and fleshy substance, felt around it as it moved.


    It took a moment for my brain to process what was piled all along its body, slowly sinking in and melding with its jelly skin. Mountains of earth, mud, metal, scraps, pieces of cars, buildings and other things, pipes, and... human corpses. Hundreds of rotting human corpses and skeletons blanketed its body, seeping and melting into its flesh, like ice-cream left out on a hot day.


    The four of us wordlessly followed it with our eyes as it inched along out of our sight, showing us that the glow and by extension the crevasse... went on as far as I could see. My stomach tied itself into a knot as I realized it went on much farther than my vision could even reach. And even worse... the glow curved to the south. Meaning... the crevasse barred our passage to the West.


    "Look..." Sarah managed to choke out, pointing down at our right in the crevasse.


    A pair of fleshy cone-shaped heads twirled and squirmed forward, dragging its massive jiggling body behind it. This one too was carrying a morbid load on its back. We watched its corpse filled form until it passed us by... and another one entered our sight. The corpses melding into it looked like they were screaming and writhing in agony as its body jiggled. My God...

 Chapter XX.II: Cracks

    "Come on, let''s go back to the van," I said, my voice hollow.


    I turned around and saw two glowing red eyes above, piercing through the rain. Something was perched on the nearest telephone pole.


    Its body was total darkness, as if it was made out of wisping shadows that were tugged and pulled at by the wind and rain. It looked like a huge owl, its wings spread out wide at its sides, though from what I could see it didn''t have a beak or any other features save for its huge glowing eyes.


    Was this the thing we had seen flying above us earlier? The red eyes, shadow-like form and wings seemed to suggest so.


    The four of us stared at it, and it stared back.


    We couldn''t move, and neither did it.


    The red glow from its huge saucer-like eyes dimmed a bit, it folded up its wings, spread them out again and took off into the air. We watched the red glow fade into the distance as it leisurely glided away. I took a glance back to everyone; they were all staring off into empty space.


    "...Come on..." I muttered.


    We all ran back to the van. I put my hands up to my head, "What are we going to do... Those things, they have to be digging all around the city, right? Maybe even through the city. That light goes on beyond the horizon. At the speed they''re going... it can''t be taking them too long to dig. And who the hell knows how many of them there are... by now I wouldn''t be surprised if they had this whole area surrounded... What should we do? What... what can we do?"


    Doubt and uncertainty filled the air. We all knew the only answer. If we wanted to make it to the bunker, if we wanted a chance of certain survival...


    "We''ll have to go through Crestland." Jared said, though you could tell in his voice that he really did not want to say it. The hysteric woman on the radio''s warning played back in my mind. Crestland is lost. "If we want to get to the manor, that is. We must be about almost halfway past the city by now. Assuming those worms didn''t dig all through the city and around it, we can just go along until we reach their starting point. I''m just going off on a limb, but they were coming from the city, so maybe they''re only going West? If they surrounded everything..." he brought his hand up to his head and let out a sad laugh, "Well, I guess it won''t really matter where we go then, will it? It will probably only be a matter of time before we''re done in, unless we can find more people and group up. That''s seeming less likely with every passing minute though."The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    I was covered in goosebumps.


    I always had a bad feeling about Crestland since we started heading this way. Something deep inside me was warning me to stay as far away from it as possible, some sort of instinct maybe. The woman''s radio message had only added fuel to the fire, had transformed it into an absolute inferno of paranoia and dread.


    I stared at the glowing light from the crevasse, imagining the dozens of corpse filled worms squirming and writhing through the earth.


    Would we even be able to make it into the city?


    "Well..." Sarah said, "It''s night now. How about we find a place to rest, like we were going to before... that incident. Then we can think about what to do." She took a deep breath, "Those worms... that must have been what was making the earthquake when I was leaving the city..."


    I brought my shaking hands to the wheel and took a long breath.


    Was there another way? I couldn''t think of any... we could go all the way back but that would take us twice the time, and if the worms had dug all the way around then we would have gone all that way for nothing... shit...


    For now, just worry about finding a place to rest for the night. Then we can think more tomorrow. Yeah...


    I drove us back from the crevasse for about five minutes until we came across an intact house with a basement.


    We parked the van, took our bags with us and walked inside.


    The ground floor looked like it had been looted. The houses around here weren''t very spacious, everything including the beds were all in one room. The cupboards and everything had been flung open and emptied. After inspecting the ground floor, we went into the basement. It wasn''t very big, but there was enough room for the two mattresses and couch. There were a few boxes in the basement, which we searched through. The only useful thing was an electric torch, which we placed in the centre of the room to light it. We brought the mattresses and couch downstairs and barricaded the basement door with the three wooden chairs we found. It just felt much more secure to be in the basement.


    We unpacked the bags that still remained with us to keep stock of our supplies:


    We had enough food for... not very long. If we each ate once a day, we had enough for about two days after today. But I didn''t know if we could survive on that much food, everything that was happening really wore on us. We needed nutrients. We ended up deciding it was best to go looking for food the next day.


    We had a flashlight, with a few spare batteries.


    Jared, Aaron and I each had a blanket.


    We all had raincoats, which we wore most of the time anyway.


    We had a portable radio, which I turned on and had Aaron look through the stations.


    For weapons, all we had now was a knife for each of us.


    We had to find a gun. But nobody had guns, nobody other than police officers or the military, so finding one would be pure luck.

 Chapter XX.III: Cracks

    Finally, we all ate and managed to settle ourselves down as much as we could. Aaron and I shared the larger mattress, Sarah had the other mattress and Jared had the couch.


    "I got something!" Aaron said excitedly as he was messing with the radio. A male voice spoke, and the message replayed.


    The whole message was as follows:


    After hearing that message from the man in New Jersey earlier, I knew I had to make one too.


    First of all, I''m from Arborline. I got out of the city right before they dropped the nuke, and kept moving around. I saw... so many things... things that I can''t even begin to describe. If you''re hearing this... I''m sure you know what I mean.


    During my travels, I met others. And then we met more people in turn. We have guns, and food. We''ve been surviving all this time, moving around, unsure of where to go, finding desolate towns and only a few survivors here and there. Many of us died, but... there''s still thirteen of us left.


    We tried to go around the city... Tough luck.


    The whole city is surrounded by this massive crevasse, way too big to get across. Maybe there''s a way... but we don''t know. We met up with some people from the East side. They said... they followed the whole crevasse until they reached Arborline. It goes all around the city in a half circle, but stops at the city itself. We followed the whole damn other side. There is not another way around.


    Those things are digging beyond the half circle now too... God knows what the hell they''re doing.


    We started to go through the city but... he gulped, its way too bad in there. We had to come back. That''s where we lost most of them...


    If there''s anyone around here, come meet us.


    We''re staying in the West side of Crestland now, in the radio station on Arthur Street, a few miles away from the city itself, preparing ourselves to go in... Strangely enough, there were these things all around the radio station, like they were guarding it or something. Lucky for us they were the type that bullets could kill...


    We have plenty of guns, plenty of food and we''ll accept just about anyone.


    With what''s in that city, I don''t even know if an army coul- No, we''ll make it through. But we''ll need help. We''ll wait here for a week at most. Then, we''re going through. I can''t stand being blocked in by these crevasses... I can''t shake this feeling that something really bad is going to happen if we stay here.


    For the first time, I felt a true glimmer of hope.


    There were people out there, fighting to survive, banding together and ready to help others. For the first time... I felt like there might truly be some hope of humanity surviving this. It was a small glimmer of hope, but a glimmer of hope nonetheless.


    "Well, I guess we know our plan, then," Jared said from the couch, examining his stump arm as he stretched it out in the air in front of him.


    "This is great!" Sarah said, clapping her hands together, "Honestly, I was kind of worried we were going to be screwed, but well, if there''s a bunch of people, we gotta be able to make it! I''m sure it''s not that bad!"


    I smiled, "Yeah, we''ll definitely make it. There was a convenience store nearby, right? Tomorrow morning, we''ll got there, find a map, and then we''ll go to the radio station."This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    We sat idly for a while, digging through our gear, trying to calm ourselves down and bring our uncertainty at ease. I always found it incredible how normalcy bias even extended to situations like this.


    No doubt, the horrific creatures we had encountered, and our mind shattering encounter with "Richard", was at the forefront of each of our thoughts. But still, we tried to push it away, though it would not leave. We subconsciously tried to maintain as "normal" of a life as we could.


    Jared was digging through his bag, and accidentally dropped a pouch, its contents spilling out.


    "What''s that...?" Sarah asked, stretching her neck to see it over Jared who immediately bent over to scoop them back into the pouch.


    Around ten police badges were lying on the floor. Jared froze a bit when Sarah asked him what they were.


    When he had finished putting them back in the bag, he picked up one and showed it to her, "They''re... the badges... of my fallen comrades," he said solemnly, "This one''s my brother''s."


    Her expression softened, "Your... fallen comrades? Right, you said your brother was killed by one of those things. So that means... all of them were killed, huh? I''m so sorry..."


    He brought his brother''s badge closer, "Don''t be. They died in the line of duty. They gave their lives so that others could live... they protected and served. That''s more than any other cop nowadays could have claimed to have done."


    He looked up, then continued, "The whole reason I became a police officer was because of my dad''s dying wish... but when I joined I was... so disappointed. I was naive, and I soon found out that there was so much corruption... all the cops were just looking to fill their wallets, they didn''t give a shit about any of the citizens they were supposed to protect. Well, not all of them... there were some good ones. But as a whole, the thing was rotten to the core. So I decided that I''d work my way up the ranks, and change it from within. Make it an organization that could protect and serve, instead of a mafia that only looked out for its own interests and the interests of those ruling over us. My brother felt the same way. So I''m sure... I''m sure he''s glad that got to die in a way that upheld that ideal. That''s why I can''t let him down, either. I gotta keep fighting, keep trying to help as many people as I can in this fucked up world, and maybe..." he took a breath, "Just maybe..." I could see a flame blazing in his eyes, "If we can rebuild society, I want to make sure things are done right this time," he sighed, "And I don''t know if society was ever "right" at any point in time... but now we''ve got a chance at a clean slate. We can make some order from this insanity! I don''t want it to go to waste... I don''t want us to make the same mistakes."


    Sarah closed her eyes and smiled, "Mhmm... that''s a very righteous goal, Jared. I absolutely agree. If humanity makes it through this, if there''s any way to rebuild.... even if there isn''t a way to rebuild.. I want the society that rises out of the ashes of this nightmare to be one that we can be proud of. It will be our duty as the survivors... We will survive, after all, right?"


    The four of us smiled, the glimmer of hope lighting our hearts.


    Tomorrow we would meet up with more survivors, we would make it through the city, helping anyone we came across, we''d find more and more and more people until we could all work together to build a stronghold near the manor.


    I''m sure there were hundreds of those creatures all around the world, capable of things we couldn''t even imagine.


    But even so... even so! We would band together! We would form an army! We would create a stronghold! We would survive!


    "Now you''ve got me kind of curious..." Jared started, addressing Sarah, "Why did you decide to become a tutor?"


    She blinked, then scratched her head, blushing a little, "Well... now that I need to put it into words, I''m afraid it will come out all corny... I became a tutor, because, children are the future!" she blushed more, embarrassed to say anything more.


    Jared nodded, "Go on."


    She smiled, "I mean... all those kids that I tutored, one day they were going to grow up to be the new people running this world. Not all of them, but most of them... they came from wealthy, selfish families... but I thought that if I could show them just a little kindness and charity, that maybe, just maybe... that would influence them to be better people in the future. Children are the future, and because of that, we need to be careful about the way we interact with them, we need to make them ready to take the reins from us once we''re gone. That''s why I became a tutor."


    Jared smiled, "That''s a very noble way of thinking. I like it." he glanced to Aaron, "We need to do everything we can to pave the way for tomorrow. To secure a future for those that will follow after us. Even now... I believe that''s possible."


    Before long, we decided it was time to get some rest.


    Exhausted from the physical exertion, the terror and the uncertainty, but comforted by the bright horizon that was tomorrow... the four of us went to lay down and drifted off to sleep in no time.

 Chapter XX.IV: Cracks

    Yet again I was in the cathedral, right where I had woken up last time.


    "Did you not hear me?" the voice boomed with a tone that just barely concealed total fury, "Stand."


    I tried to stand, but felt an invisible force weighing on my shoulders, pushing me down.


    "Stand!" the voice shouted, vibrating right through me, causing my limbs to convulse in terror. An icy hand clutched the top of my head. Forcefully and yet gently, I was lifted off of the ground. My vision cleared and I stared directly into two pitch black holes, two paths into the ever expanding depths of the bottomless abyss.


    I jumped up out of the bed, the sound of loud screaming echoing around me. I thought it was my own scream that I was hearing, but as I was wildly looking around, catching sight of Jared staring up the stairs, I realized that it actually wasn''t coming from me.


    A man was violently screaming outside, screaming so loudly that it hurt my own throat imagining how hard he was screaming.


    Jared noticed I was awake, "I was keeping watch... I''m going to go see what the hell that is. You coming?"


    I nodded, sheepishly. If someone was screaming like that, they obviously had to be in danger. I thought back to the man that had been killed by the eye-thing; I wouldn''t let this end the same way.


    If someone was in danger, we had to try to help them.


    I grabbed my knife. Though without a gun...


    The screaming increased in volume and violence, it sounded like the man was literally breaking his vocal cords he was screaming so wildly. Sarah and Aaron stirred awake, "Stay down here!" I said, "Me and Jared are going to see what''s going on. If it''s too dangerous, we''ll come back."


    Jared and I moved the chairs blocking the door, then flung it open and stepped upstairs. We quickly crept towards the window closest to the noise.


    "...Do you see anything?" Jared asked.


    The screaming somehow became even more exaggerated.


    "No..." There was nothing outside the window, at least from what I could see.


    "It sounds like it''s coming from... above us?" Jared rushed out of the house, and I scrambled after him with my knife at the ready, the rain wetting the handle.


    Wait... now that I really heard it clearly, the screaming was more like shouting. Like the man was shouting in anger, except... there wasn''t a hint of rage in the tone of his voice.


    Jared was staring up at the sky above the house.


    "What''s wrong? What is it?" I said as I came up next to him.


    He pointed with his knife. My eyes widened.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    There in the sky... was a trail of footprints. They were footprints from human feet, and yet they were branded directly into the air, about thirty feet above us. Each footprint blazed with a burst of flame before slowly smouldering away and disappearing in the rain as it put it out. More footprints appeared at the end of the trail, as if something was walking on thin air in the sky.


    And yet... there was nothing there. Something invisible was creating those footprints and... that''s where the shouting was coming from. It took on an entirely new level of violence that I didn''t think was possible, filling me with sickening feeling of dread as it changed into an almost maliciously mocking tone with its wordless shouting. The footprints increased in speed as the thing sprinted into the distance across the air.


    Jared and I stood there speechless for a moment, the rain coming down on our shocked faces, then we turned back to face the house.


    "I just don''t even know anymore man... I just don''t even know..." Jared muttered as he was about to open the door again.


    "Hey!" I said, pointing to my right, "Who''s there?!"


    Jared turned to face what I was pointing at, and instinctually readied his knife when he saw what I had seen, "What are you doing?! Come out from there!"


    There was someone behind the fence on the right side. I shined the flashlight on them. All I could see was their arm, which was holding... a video camera?


    "What the hell are you doing?" Jared shouted to them, "Come out!"


    There was no response.


    They didn''t even move.


    "We don''t want to hurt you... we''re just wondering why you''re..." the lens zoomed, "Why you''re... filming us...? What were you doing outside the house, anyway?"


    Maybe they were trying to record what they were experiencing in this storm, so they could have some actual evidence that everything they saw wasn''t just some crazy nightmare. That would make sense. They must have heard the shouting, came to see what it was and then hid when they saw us. We had knives out, so I didn''t blame them for being scared...


    No response came.


    Jared stomped his foot, "Listen, I don''t know what the hell you''re doing... but you better say something or come the fuck out from there or I''m going to come over there!"


    "Jared!"


    The hand disappeared behind the fence, but the camera stayed focused on us.


    "Alright, that''s the last straw..." Jared started walking towards the fence, but the person suddenly stood up. His torso poked from behind the fence, clothed in a trench-coat. Both of his arms rested at his sides, leaving the camera to.... My mind couldn''t process what I was seeing at first, but with a course of shivers I realized what I was looking at... The camera was the man''s head.


    With a shout Jared charged at the thing with his knife poised, diving over the fence and stabbing it directly in the chest. I ran after him, peering over the fence to find him on top of the thing.


    As I climbed over the fence, he let out another shout as he brought the knife down again, and again. I heard Jared curse, the thing let out a low static hum, then pushed Jared off and scrambled away, keeping its camera head locked onto us.


    "You alright?!" I said as I helped Jared back onto his feet.


    "...yeah. Shit! Its body... it''s all these wires linked tightly together." he said as he showed me the knife, which was broken in half.


    The thing was now just standing there on the other side of the street, watching us through the rain. We had a staring contest with it for about minute, Jared and I were so utterly bewildered by the thing that we couldn''t keep our eyes off of it.


    "What do we do about it?" I asked.


    "Shit... I don''t know. It''s not doing anything, just watching us, which is fucking creepy but... I guess we just leave the freak alone."


    "Let''s go back in the house, make sure everything''s really secure." I said, climbing back over the fence. We stared at the thing for another long moment before we turned the corner of the house; now it was trying to hide behind a street pole.


    "Hey Markus..." Jared started.


    "Yeah?"


    "What the fuck does this mean? I mean... what the fuck!?"


    "I don''t know," I turned away from the thing and went to the door, "I really... really do not know."


    Without another word we sealed up the basement and went back to our beds. Sarah and Aaron fell asleep after we reassured them. But Jared and I... I think both of us kept our eyes locked on the stairs the entire time, expecting that camera-headed thing to be staring at us.

 Chapter XX.V: Cracks

    When morning came, we packed up everything we had and prepared ourselves mentally to head out again.


    "The convenience store is really close," Jared said as he put his hand on the front door, "Just stick near each other and be sure to speak up if you feel something''s off. Better to be safe than sorry..."


    He opened the door, revealing two massive glowing red eyes. A shadowy owl-like shape blocked the entirety of the doorway.


    On an impulse, Jared screamed wildly and leapt forward with the knife poised, swinging it down on the thing. The thing moved back as if it were jumping backwards but... it didn''t look like it had physically moved, it looked more like the thing''s shadowy form wisped and faded away to its new location. An afterimage of its form remained behind for an instant when it moved, like when you shut off a light and you can still see the outline for a second in the dark.


    Again and again, Jared swung wildly at the thing, and I joined him. Again and again, it calmly faded away. Aaron and Sarah stood back, stupefied. Jared stopped to catch his breath, while I slipped and nearly fell on the wet asphalt. The thing flew a few feet off the ground, looking at us with its saucer-like red lights that were its eyes, turned midair, flapped its wings and flew away again.


    As we watched its shadow-like form glide through the rain and into the darkness above, I felt a sense of unease at the pit of my stomach.


    That last look it gave us...


    I could have just been imagining things, but it almost looked like it was pitying us.


    "Bastard... what the hell..." Jared muttered.


    "Hey, what''s this...?" Sarah pointed to the street to the right of the house.


    There was an imprint in the asphalt, and I came closer to inspect it.


    "Shit..." Jared said over my shoulder as he looked down on it.


    It looked like animal tracks, maybe belonging to a canine or something, but... it was dug deep into the road, and whatever had made the trail was huge with equally huge claws.


    Uneasily, we all looked around, expecting whatever had made the trail to be right behind us. Luckily, the trail looked like it went the opposite direction that we were going to be heading, leading straight to an apartment building and climbing directly up the wall.


    If that thing found us... I looked down at my pitiful knife... we would be ripe for the taking...


    Without another word, we got in the van.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    The convenience store was only about a two minute drive away. After our encounter with the owl-thing, not to mention what had happened the day before, we were all on edge. Each of us kept watch on a different direction of the van.


    There was no sign of that camera-headed thing anywhere. I still didn''t even want to think about that.


    In the end, we made it to the store undisturbed.


    Unfortunately, the store had been ransacked, probably a long time ago. Most of the windows in the front had been smashed, one of the doors was missing completely. When we went in, most of the shelves were completely empty. There was a few cans of food lying around, and a few bags of "Bug Bites!", but only a few. I wasn''t thrilled about those, but food was food and I wasn''t used to complaining. We scrounged up enough food total to last us probably another day or two. There was a decent amount of non-essential things lying around though, like cleaning supplies and stuff. Nothing we could really use. Luckily, there were still some maps. We took one, looked for Arthur Street and found that it was less than twenty minutes away assuming we didn''t run into any issues.


    "Do you think we should look in the houses near here for food?" Sarah asked.


    "It wouldn''t hurt to try," Jared said, grabbing a can of oil and gas, "May as well take these, just in case."


    I saw Sarah staring at a broom that was lying on the floor.


    "What''s up, Sarah?" I asked her.


    "I was thinking... what if we attach the knives to the end of brooms or something long?"


    "Hey, that''s an awesome idea!" Jared said, "I saw some duct tape in the janitor''s closet, if we attach the knives tightly enough we can use them as spears."


    "Yeah," I said, "still not the best weapon but it''s way better having something that will actually be able to reach a good distance."


    We got to work, finding the sturdiest brooms we could find, removing the end from them and taping the knives securely to the end.


    As soon as the first one was ready, I took it and stood guard near the entrance of the store, staring out through the endless rain at the apartments on the other side. Most of the buildings around there had been pretty badly damaged. The one just across from us was basically torn in half, and as far as I could see every other building at least had a few smashed windows or chunks torn out of it.


    Aaron was the next one over, and I couldn''t help but stare a little wide eyed as I saw him holding that makeshift spear, his clothes torn and splattered with dirt. He looked like a savage. I turned to Sarah and Jared, who appeared equally as rough, and I knew I looked the same.


    With a slight shiver, I unconsciously reached my hand out and patted Aaron on the head. Sure, times were really rough before... but I never imagined my son would have to go through something like this.


    "How you holding up buddy?" I asked Aaron, my voice quivering a little.


    His eyes lit up a bit, though I could tell he was scared, "I''m alright... I''m just glad we''re finally going to find more people. We''re going to beat these things, right?"


    "I hope so buddy... I hope so."


    The two of us stood side by side, staring out into the rain for a moment.


    "Okay, that should do it!" I heard Jared say, and the three of them picked up what they had gathered and walked over to me. We took one last glance inside the store, then went to go out but stopped before the door when we heard and felt a light rumbling coming from outside, to our right.


    We froze, listening for it and heard it again, louder this time. Then, it repeatedly increased in rhythm as it came closer and closer... something big was running towards the street in front of us.


    "Shit! Hide!" Jared tried to whisper but ended up shouting.


    We all went behind the nearest aisles, Jared and Sarah on the left and Aaron and I on the right. We peered from behind them, trying to see whatever was coming.

 Chapter XX.VI: Cracks

    The rumbling slowed in pace, and then a huge hairy human-looking leg poked out into the edge of my line of sight through the window. Then, another leg stepped forward, and the entire lower body of the thing came into view.


    What I could see must have been at least ten feet high, which was only up to its stomach. I could make out its arms, which went all the way down to its knees. They were covered in hair as well. It looked like a large naked human, but it didn''t have anything down there, just a blank spot like a doll.


    It looked like it was holding something in the hand furthest from us, but I couldn''t quite make out what it was. The thing was pacing back and forth, like it was looking for something. I saw Sarah cover her mouth in shock as screaming and shouting came from the direction of the thing. It sounded like there was a bunch of people screaming... at least six or seven. But then... where were they? I didn''t see anybody.


    The thing suddenly sprinted back to the apartment across from us, bringing its full form into view.


    In all, it stood close to twenty feet. It looked almost human, but not quite. Its features were twisted; its arms were far too long, and its face... was too long as well.


    It looked like a jovial old man, it was even smiling what it may have thought was a warm smile, and its cheeks were rosy. Its eyes were always half closed, giving it an expression that made it look like it was perpetually laughing. But... the thing''s face was way too long, the mouth extended down far further than any human face could have. It was almost bordering on looking like a horse''s facial structure. The thing''s cheeks bulged out of its head.


    I felt my skin crawl as the thing bent over... and dragged a screaming woman out of the window of the apartment it had stopped in front of.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    "Not again!" I made out in the woman''s screams, "Not when I just escaped!"


    I heard other voices screaming, shouting and crying. The thing stared at the woman, and its smile widened, squishing its features together with the wrinkles that covered its face. Then, it turned so that it faced near our direction and I could make out what it held in its right hand.


    It was a bowl, or I guess a sort of basket. A huge basket that was close to ten feet large, and judging by the texture and colour of the basket... it was made out of flesh. Out of the thing''s flesh. It was actually attached to its waist by means of some strange fleshy cord and inside of that basket of flesh... were six people. Two women and four men. They all screamed and shouted, and I saw some of them trying to crawl out. But they couldn''t. The giant thing''s expression softened, and it placed the flailing and wailing woman gently into the basket.


    Then, it brought up its finger to its mouth, as if to shush them all. They kept screaming.


    The thing shrugged, then started to walk calmly on its way again.


    The four of us glanced at each other, sheer terror and disgust visible on each of our faces, but our attention was snapped back to the scene outside when we heard the sound of something crumbling and a lion-like roar.


    "Wh- what the?!" I head Jared shout.


    On top of the apartment, behind the giant, was something else.


    This newcomer was massive as well, probably around half the size of the giant. Its body shape was similar to a tiger or a lion, though in place of fur it had sharp scales that extended like spikes along its spine. It glared at the giant with its six yellow glowing cat-like eyes, that were lined up vertically instead of horizontally. I saw a blade like a scorpion''s stinger at the end of its swaying tail. Again, it let out another roar as its powerful muscles throbbed and its claws clenched on the roof of the apartment, crushing the bricks under it to dust. Was this what had made the tracks we saw earlier?


    The giant completely ignored it, and just started to walk away. With another roar, the reptile-feline leaped off the roof and pounced onto the back of the giant, its claws sinking into the giant''s shoulders and sending blood spraying to mingle with the rain. The giant didn''t even flinch, though the people in the basket screamed with renewed terror.


    My jaw dropped.


    Why was... one of the creatures attacking another one of the creatures...?

 Chapter XX.VII: Cracks

    The feline beast roared and I saw its rows of razor sharp teeth begin to move and rotate in its mouth like a chainsaw. It bit down hard on the giant''s neck, and I heard its skin tear as chunks of flesh and blood splattered around and onto the two creatures.


    Without even looking back at the feline-thing, the giant lifted its left hand and grabbed onto the beast''s neck. With a sudden burst of strength, it tore the thing off its neck and threw it into the air. The beast flipped and landed hard on its feet, making the earth crack and creating a small crater on the road.


    I don''t think any of us could even blink, so focused were we on the incredible scene before us.


    The giant was just staring ahead into the rain like it was pondering something, while the beast was eyeing the basket. I saw it lick its lips with a metallic tongue. So... that''s what it was after.


    It snarled, then let out another roar as it pounced again, this time aiming for the basket. The giant''s eyes suddenly widened and became bloodshot, its happy but creepy expression took on an instantaneous shift into one of pure and utter fury. With a slobbering snarl, the giant swung its arm and sent it crashing down like a sledgehammer onto the beast''s head. A violent cracking noise echoed through the streets as the beast was sent crashing into the apartment, the raindrops momentarily parting with the quick rush of wind caused by the impact. The beast didn''t budge. Its neck had been twisted all the way around and its face was completely smashed in, its own teeth piercing through its brain and lower jaw; the giant had killed it instantaneously.


    The victor took a deep breath, and as it did its flesh regrew where it had been torn by the beast. Its smile returned. I heard the people in the basket whimpering and groaning as the giant walked over to the dead beast and began to tear it apart with its bare hands. It took some of the small chunks it had torn up, and tossed it into the basket.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Was it... using that to feed the people inside? It took one last scan of the area, and as it did we all cowered away so that we were completely out of sight.


    "We... we need to save them..." Sarah whispered, her voice shaking.


    I looked down at the stick I held in my hand and shook my head, "We can''t... I''m sorry... I know... but... we can''t..."


    Jared looked away.


    "But..." her eyes watered, but she didn''t press it.


    She knew.


    We didn''t stand a chance against that monster.


    None of us moved again until we heard its footsteps fade away into the distance and the pouring rain was the only sound that remained.


    Jared stood up, "Shit... never thought I''d see the things in-fighting..."


    "But why though?" I asked, "And why was it carrying those people around like that?"


    Aaron spoke up, "It was almost like... it was protecting them, or something," he seemed unsure himself, so strange was the idea.


    But what else would explain what we had just witnessed?


    "Yeah, not only did it fight that other thing, but it even... fed... them too..."


    Jared agreed, "Yeah... it even only fought back when the other one went for the people."


    Their screams replayed in my mind and I brought my hand to my face, "But I wonder why that other one attacked it in the first place? I guess it was just to get at the people, but we''ve never seen two of the things fight each other before..."


    Jared peered out the window, "Who knows... I don''t know if there''s even any point trying to make sense of things anymore," he said then stepped out the door.


    "You okay?" I asked Aaron.


    "Yeah... I''ll be okay. I can''t wait for us to get to Arthur Street..."


    The four of us went back to the van, I got in the driver''s seat and handed the map to Jared. Luckily, we had to go away from the direction the giant had gone.


    I glanced at what little remained of the feline-thing: not much.


    I pushed on the gas, and were on our way to security.


    If we could just make it to Arthur Street and band up with those people, I''m sure we''d be able to make it through Crestland and reach the bunker.


    I''m sure of it.

 Chapter XX.I: Glimmer of Hope

    I felt a strange feeling, one on the border of unease and annoyance as I watched the two glowing red spots circling in the sky through the rear-view mirror.


    It was the owl-thing again, but it seemed to be just flying off in the distance. It wasn''t paying attention to us as far as I could tell, and it didn''t seem to have any particular goal in mind, it just kept gliding in circles.


    "Alright!" Jared exclaimed, "We''re on Arthur Street, the radio station is less than two minutes away."


    I nodded and smiled, and I saw that everyone else was smiling. A fire of hope warmed our hearts. People, food and security was only two minutes away.


    I glanced back at the owl-thing and my smile slightly faded. What was that thing doing? Why had it been waiting for us outside the door this morning?


    For some reason, the creatures with seemingly nonsensical motives freaked me out the most. As terrifying as the sadist, the fairies, the eye-thing, the invisible thing and the feline beast had been, at least what they had done made sense.


    They wanted to kill, either because of some twisted pleasure they derived from it, because they needed to eat or some other unknown motive.


    But the dogs, the orchestra, the pterodactyl, the weird metallic humanoids, the sunflowers, the giant and this owl-thing... I couldn''t even start to imagine why they behaved the way they did. Trying to find a link between them all only made my head hurt. The giant especially.


    "Wh- What''s going on?" I heard Aaron mutter.


    Sarah gasped, "Oh my God..."


    "What?" I asked as I took my foot off the gas and turned to see them staring out the back window. There was a purple glow of light coming from around where we had stayed the night before. As the van slowed, I saw the light grow in intensity.


    "Do you... hear that?" Jared asked, uncertainty in his voice.


    I listened, and heard a low whistling noise coming from the distance. At first it sounded like the wind, but as it rose in volume along with the growing light, I knew it was definitely not just wind. I could still make out the two red dots of the owl-thing''s eyes, but as the sound reached its limit, the owl-thing faded away into the darkness.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Then, the entire world behind us became a flash of brilliant purple light, the whistling noise transformed into the sound of an explosion and the ground beneath us shook, making the van and our bodies tremble.


    I shut my eyes at the sudden blinding burst of luminescence and blinked rapidly as I tried to regain my sight.


    Our mouths gaped as we saw a massive pillar of that same purple glow go from the ground to the sky and tear through the clouds. Chunks of asphalt, houses and other debris was thrown into the air and came crashing down in the surrounding area. A piece from the roof of a house even came smashing into the apartment right next to us.


    Then, slowly, the purple glow began to fade away and... I saw something in the gap that had been made in the dark clouds. An icy tingling shiver crawled its way down my back. It was vague enough that it could have just been my imagination, it could have just been a coincidence, it could have just been me seeing things in the fading light... but it looked like... it looked like there were hundreds of arms, all formed of vein-like light reaching out as the glow faded. Before I could even begin to process it, the clouds quickly filled the gap that had been made by the explosion, making me doubt what I thought I saw, making it seem like there had never been a hole in the sky to begin with. Slowly, purple embers began to fall from the sky, dancing together with the precipitation.


    "What... I..." Sarah mumbled.


    "And that was... just where we were sleeping... just last night..." Aaron said.


    "Can you imagine if we had been delayed there for whatever reason? Or if we didn''t decide to leave this morning? With even a few minutes difference... we probably would have been caught in that blast! Whatever that blast even was..." Jared said.


    "Well," I said, putting my foot on the gas, the vision of the hands tugging at the back of my mind, "Let''s just be glad we managed to get away from there in time."


    I started to drive forward, but let off on the gas when I saw the owl-thing standing in the middle of the road, its wings wrapped close to its body. Its glowing eyes stared directly into mine and, again I may have just been imagining it, but I am almost certain that I saw an expression of relief in them. It spread out its wings and took off, flying towards the East.


    "Is that thing going to keep following us?" Aaron asked, slight worry in his voice.


    For some reason, I didn''t think so. "Who knows, in any case we must be pretty close to the radio station right? They must have heard that explosion, I wonder if we''ll see them outside."


    "Yeah, I think I can see the radio tower from here," Jared answered as he pointed ahead.


    My heart was beating faster... there wasn''t even a minute left before we''d be safe.

 Chapter XXI.II: Glimmer of Hope

    I could feel goosebumps covering my entire body, I felt myself shifting and squirming a little in anticipation as we pulled up to the radio station. It was completely intact, six cars were parked in its parking lot. A light came from behind the window, but our view of the inside was blocked by the curtains.


    "So what do we do, just knock or something?" Sarah asked.


    "Knock, and let them know we''re human," Jared said as he opened the door. I got out, and grabbed my makeshift spear. I won''t be needing this anymore, not when we''re going to be getting guns. Still, I''ll take it with me anyway, because you never know. I opened the door for Aaron, "It''s okay now Aaron, we''re going to make it." He nodded and smiled.


    Almost shyly, we walked up to the door of the radio station.


    Jared reached out his hand, and knocked on the door, "Hello! We''re survivors! We heard your message!"


    It felt almost silly to be knocking on a door in this situation. Jared waited, then knocked again, harder this time, "Hello?!"


    I heard people talking inside, but it sounded like they were far from the door.


    "Should we just... go in?" Sarah asked, unsure.


    Without responding, Jared opened the door. I leaned the makeshift spear up against the outside wall and the four of us stepped inside of a reception room. A few wet clothes were hung up on the desk, while a few wet shoes were on the floor. There had to be people in here! But the reception room was empty. A slight light shone from the door in the far right corner.


    "Hello!?" Jared called out again.


    I heard a female voice come from through the door.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    I walked over to the door and peered inside; it was a mostly empty room, with a few chairs and tables here and there. A rifle was propped up against the wall to our right, which was next to some boxes that looked like they had food in them. There was another door, closed, on the right side wall. At the far left end, I saw the recording studio through a big glass window. Hey, and there was someone standing in there too, facing away from us. A girl with long dark hair.


    "Hello!" I was the one that shouted this time, "We heard your message! We''re here to help!"


    The girl must not have heard us, because she didn''t move. I heard muffled laughter coming from the recording room, followed by a mumbling noise. Well, recording studios are made to muffle out background noise, so no wonder she couldn''t hear us I guess.


    The four of us walked into the room and made ourselves visible to the window.


    "Hello!" Sarah shouted.


    "Let''s just knock on the window, I''m sure they''ll hear us then," Jared said.


    Sarah gave him a look, "Well, yeah, but that''ll definitely scare them!"


    Jared shrugged.


    I ran over to the window and tapped on it. The girl did not react, she just kept staring away from us. Oh, she was looking at another doorway, one that looked like it led into the basement. The muffled mumbling noise seemed like it was coming from through that door. She must have been talking to someone there.


    Was it seriously that hard to hear us though?


    I pulled open the studio door and stepped inside. The others stayed just outside the door.


    "Hey! Sorry to barge in... I guess. We heard your message!" I said as I walked up to the girl.


    She laughed.


    I didn''t know what to say, she definitely heard me.


    "Uh, hello?"


    It was then that I realized she was actually sobbing, not laughing. I walked over and put my hand on her shoulder, "Hey, are you okay...? What happened here?"


    "Markus!" I heard Jared shout frantically.


    The girl turned around to face me with her misplaced swollen eyes that bulged out of the bottom corners of her face. Not entirely solid, they were almost like liquid and appeared to be on the verge of spilling out of her unnaturally placed sockets.


    I choked as her lips parted, revealing a toothy mouth that took up the majority of the space on her face. Her pointy nose, which rested at the top of her forehead, sniffed at me.


    "Wha- huh?" was all I could utter as she screamed with an excited frenzy and grabbed me by the shoulders with her unnaturally muscular arms.


    "Dad!" I heard Aaron scream as she snorted, snot oozing from her nose and onto my face, then cackled as she threw me forcefully through the door she had been facing.

 Chapter XXI.III: Glimmer of Hope

    As I went flying into the air, I was thrown with enough force that I flipped over, and somehow managed to make my foot connect with the stairs, sending a jolt of pain up my leg, which threw me back up into the air. I braced myself as I anticipated a rough landing on a hard floor, fully expecting to break a few bones or even be fatally injured, but was surprised to land on something soft and squishy.


    Damn, what a relief...


    Dizzy from my tumble, I slowly regained my senses. I heard shouting and inhuman screaming coming from upstairs. Shit! Aaron, Jared, Sarah! I had to get up... I had to...


    My hand touched something wet and gooey.


    I recoiled away, falling onto something else with the same texture.


    Come to think of it... what exactly had I landed on?


    As my head stopped throbbing, my eyesight cleared: I was sitting on top of a human body that was covered in bruises, and bloated with boils and pus. All around me, there was about a dozen corpses in a similar state, some worse for wear than others. My eyes widened as I trembled, staring at my blood soaked hand then looking to where I had touched a moment ago: a pile of guts that were spilling out of one of the corpses with a huge gash in its stomach.


    So... this is what happened to the people that sent the radio message?


    God, no... was every last one of them dead?


    No way... there was no way!


    My heart sank as the fire of hope that had been inside of me turned into a tiny insignificant glimmer. I tried to scream but I could only choke when I noticed that something else was in the room with me.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I was facing towards the right wall, and whatever else was down here with me was shifting around behind me. I couldn''t turn around. My eyes dropped to the ground, spotting a gun laying about three feet in front of me... I think it was some sort of machine gun. There were tons of other guns laying around the room too. What had managed to kill all these people, when they were armed to the teeth like this?


    I heard something that sounded like the intonations of speech, but there wasn''t any words to it. It was basically just white noise. That must have been the mumbling noise we heard from upstairs. And logically, it must be coming from whatever was behind me... from whatever had killed all those people.


    I heard a gunshot upstairs, and the thing behind me sounded like it hesitated for a second before inching closer to me, the corpses squishing beneath it as it moved.


    I took a deep breath.


    I could move again, but my mind still wouldn''t let me turn around. My gaze rested on the machine gun. I heard something squish behind me, not even four feet away.


    Another gunshot, followed by a scream echoed from upstairs and on that cue I dove for the machine gun and turned around to face the monstrosity that had killed everyone. I prayed that the gun would fire.


    When I locked eyes with the thing, my body froze up again for an instant.


    For a split second, I thought it was a survivor of the massacre, that is, until I noticed that its emaciated body was crawling along with four long spider-like legs. It looked just like a woman lying down on her back, looking at me with panic... but... that was only its torso. The bony legs snapped upwards, lifting the thing''s body and face so that it was level with mine, its skin seeming to stretch and pull taut across its bones in a way that made my skin crawl. In place of feet, the legs all ended on a sharp looking spike that dug into the corpses it stood on.


    It looked down at me, and its panicked eyes suddenly were drenched in pure black as if they had been filled with ink, its sideways mouth turned into a toothy grin as it let out a mocking sob, and its barbed tongue rolled out of its mouth, dripping saliva onto my forehead. Like the tall grass in a rotting swamp, its long dark hair brushed against my face.

 Chapter XXI.IV: Glimmer of Hope

    I let out a wild shout to snap myself out of my trance, aimed the machine gun and pulled the trigger. I had never fired an automatic weapon yet, so I only pressed on the trigger like I had for the other guns, sending a quick burst of bullets at the monster.


    It squealed and sprang backwards, only getting grazed on the cheek. Tears welled in its eyes as it bared its teeth at me and wailed.


    A third gunshot resounded from upstairs. I pulled the trigger again, this time holding it down so that a proper burst shot out at the thing. It ducked and dove along the wall as I fired, somehow avoiding the majority of the shots. One hit it in the joint of its right leg, causing it to stumble and limp.


    With a triumphant cry, I used that momentary opportunity to line the gun up perfectly with the creature''s head, but when I pulled the trigger all I heard was a click.


    Did I... run out of bullets?


    With but a second''s hesitation, the creature lunged at me, launching itself off of the wall behind it, its left front leg shot in front of it, aiming the spike on the end at my face. I was just barely fast enough to bring the machine gun up to guard myself, the thing''s spike broke right through it and grazed my left shoulder, tearing a layer of skin off and sending a shock-wave of agony through my body that put me onto my knees. The shattered pieces of the gun clacked as they landed beside me, one of them ricocheting off of my arm. I winced in pain, but before the thing could cut me up with those spikes, I grabbed the shotgun next to where I had landed, bringing it right up to the thing''s abdomen as it swung its left leg at me. Just as it was about to connect with my ribs, the thunderous sound of the shotgun going off filled the air and a burst of blood splattered from the thing as it was sent flying back.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    I cursed and grit my teeth together... it had hit me on my side, though not as hard as it had intended. It didn''t break anything or puncture my skin, but it still throbbed with pain.


    It howled, squirming and flailing around in pain. Its underside had a huge hole in it that almost went all the way through right where I had fired, organs visible and blood spilling out freely.


    I raised the gun again and pulled the trigger... nothing.


    So this one was no good, huh?


    With a splat, a liquid splashed onto my scraped shoulder. I didn''t realize what had even happened at first as the cut seethed with a burning sensation. I shouted with pain and dropped the useless shotgun as I felt... my pierced skin boiling. What the fuck was happening?


    When I opened my wincing eyes, I saw that there was a dark green liquid sizzling as it boiled on my shoulder. I couldn''t stop myself from screaming again as the pain mounted one last time before the liquid fizzled away.


    I heard the thing gulp and gag, turned to see its broken body heaving as blood and gore leaked from the hole I had made. Some sort of dark green liquid was spilling out of its mouth, bubbling and frothing. Some of it dripped onto the corpse below it, forming a boil on the corpse''s skin. I took a glance back at my shoulder, the scrape had almost been cauterized while boils had formed on the skin around it. Fuck...


    So that''s what did that to those people... was it going to spit that shit at me again? It kept gulping and hacking... it sounded like it was getting ready to cough up a bunch of the shit. It''s inky black eyes spun wildly in its head as it stared in my direction.


    Time seemed to slow as my eyes frantically darted around the room, searching for another weapon. There were plenty in the room but... they were all behind where the creature was squirming. Its flailing slowed, and its legs crouched as it howled.


    There was no way I''d be able to reach any of the guns in time...

 Chapter XXI.V: Glimmer of Hope

    ...I had no options.


    There was nothing I could do.


    If I dove for one of the guns, it would cut or stab me before I could even reach the gun, let alone aim it or pull the trigger. The liquid looked like it was ready to burst of its mouth. If I turned and ran up the stairs, it would spit that shit at me before I could make it.


    I had no choice.


    Even with no options, I had to...


    With a wild yell, I leaped for the closest gun as the thing lifted its leg, its throat gargling as the liquid was bursting through its lips.


    A loud blasting noise echoed in the room, and the thing''s head suddenly opened up in a burst of blood. It stumbled backwards, blood and the green liquid gargling and bubbling in what little remained of its throat, which was about all that was left of its head. Then, it collapsed as another shot tore right through its chest, splattering the walls around it with gore.


    I landed flat on my stomach, my hand grasping the gun I had dove for far too late.


    "Oh my God! Markus!" a female voice called from behind me.


    I struggled to my feet as the pain in my shoulder and side throbbed, and turned to see Sarah standing at the bottom of the stairs, the rifle in her hands. She had shot the creature.


    Her eyes widened and she brought one of her hands to her mouth, gagging a little, as she fully took on the scene in the room, "Wh- What happened here?"


    She bent over and vomited, while I turned towards the body of the creature. It wasn''t moving. The green liquid was bubbling up and seeping out of its throat and chest, making the nearby corpses get covered in more boils.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Please... be dead...


    "Dad! Are you okay!" I heard Aaron shout and his footsteps echo from down the stairs. I looked frantically at Sarah, who was still in shock, and she understood what my look meant.


    "Aaron! Your dad''s fine! Don''t come down here... it''s a mess..." she said as she went up the stairs to prevent him from seeing the gruesome scene, her body still trembling.


    "I''m alright Aaron! I''m coming up, so you don''t need to worry." I said as I pocketed the gun, took one last look at the creature to make sure it wasn''t moving, then walked up the stairs. As we were going up, I noticed that there was some sort of hardened white goop that was in the process of disintegrating on a few of the stairs, and I saw some of it on the ceiling as well. Did that have something to do with what these two creatures did to those people? The one in the basement could spit out that green liquid, had the one upstairs been capable of something similar?


    Aaron immediately rushed up to hug me when I made it to the top, "I''m so glad you''re alright!"


    I was about to pat him on the head, but stopped when I remembered the blood on me, "Yeah, I''m glad you''re alright too."


    My eyes drifted to Jared, standing next to the body of the thing that had thrown me down the stairs. There was a hole torn through its huge teeth, that went all the way through the back of its head and one of its swollen eyes had burst, the liquid freely flowing out of it. Now that I had a better look at it, I noticed that other than its unnaturally muscular arms and disgusting face, the rest of its body was that of a normal woman''s. The weirdest thing is that it was wearing clothes. Although the thing downstairs had the shape of a female torso, its body was featureless. I wondered if this one was the same. Needless to say, I didn''t really feel like checking.


    When Aaron let go, Jared put out his hand and we shook hands, "Glad to see you''re alright, Markus. I was expecting the worst when I saw you get thrown down the stairs."


    "So I take it that... the people..." he said, letting go of my hand and looking dejected.


    "Yeah," I said sighing with sadness, "They''re all dead. At least, as far as I know. Some of them may have gotten away, who knows. But I don''t know how likely that is."


    Aaron looked down and Jared closed his eyes sadly.

 Chapter XXI.VI: Glimmer of Hope

    After we used one of the first aid kits we found to treat my wounds, I walked over to Sarah, "Oh yeah, Sarah. I really have to thank you for back there. You''re a good shot."


    She scratched her neck, "Hey, don''t mention it... We have to stick out for each other like that, or we won''t make it."


    Jared piped up, "When that thing came at us after you got thrown down the stairs, I went right for the rifle. I tried to shoot at it, but... With only one arm, it was hard to aim the damn thing and the recoil made me drop the gun. It''s an older model than that shotgun I was using. I was shocked to see Sarah come running and take the gun from me. Two shots took that thing out... Where''d you learn to shoot like that anyway, Sarah?"


    She blushed, "Well, my dad taught me how to shoot... he had a gun, even though you''re not allowed to... Kept it really well hidden."


    I thought back to her father in the crazed state he had been in when we found him, aiming the shotgun at us. In the end... that gun had ended up saving our lives countless times until it was crushed by the invisible thing. Sarah''s face darkened for a moment at the memory of her dead father.


    Sarah and I went downstairs to salvage what we could while Jared stayed upstairs with Aaron, trying to get the radio working so we could send out a transmission of our own.


    As we picked up the last of the guns we found downstairs, I saw a tear fall down from Sarah''s eye. I didn''t know what to say, or why she was crying. I guessed it was the corpses. Anyone who hadn''t seen something like that before wouldn''t be able to keep calm. Hell, even with what I''ve seen already, I can''t bear to look at the corpses for too long.


    "So cruel..." she said, staring down at the corpse of a young woman covered in boils, "It doesn''t feel right to leave them here like this."


    "Jared said it''s best if we burn the place down. We don''t know if those two creatures are even dead for real... though they haven''t shown any signs that they''re alive. You can never tell," I said as I glanced back at the corpse of the creature. "It worked with the sadist, so I don''t see why it wouldn''t work with them. Anyway, you can think of it as us cremating the people... yeah. With the state they''re in... I wouldn''t want my corpse to be left like that if it were me."


    Sarah nodded, "That''s a good idea..." she hugged her arms up to herself, "Hey... speaking of..." she seemed hesitant to ask, "What did you do... to my parent''s bodies?"


    She looked at me expectantly. When we told her our story, we said the sadist used them as puppets, but we didn''t go into full detail about what happened to them. I decided it was best not to tell her just how much their bodies had been desecrated, "We put the bodies in the cellar, next to each other. We thought it would be the best tomb we could give them. I... I said a prayer for your parents too."If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I don''t know if that was the right thing to say, but to me... I don''t think she needed to hear the whole story. It would have been too hard on her, and her knowing it wouldn''t have helped any.


    She put her hand to her heart and smiled, "Thank you... I''m glad."


    She looked back at the pile of corpses, "I guess we should do the same for these people too. Pray for their souls to find rest..."


    I nodded, and we went upstairs with the last of what we could salvage in hand.


    There was so many supplies... that we ended up leaving a good portion of it across the street outside, for other survivors to find.


    I looked at all we had decided to keep:


    Three shotguns, two machine guns, five handguns, two rifles. Three boxes full of different types of ammunition. Seven grenades. Two axes. Two first aid kits. Six boxes full to the brim with food. Four cans of gasoline. Matches. A HAM radio.


    We were absolutely loaded with supplies now. We had more weapons than we knew what to do with and enough food to last us for at least a month. We were as ready as we''d ever be to try to make it through the city, and yet... it felt hollow, knowing that all those people who could have been our comrades were wiped out probably not even hours before we arrived.


    "I sent a message out, telling people what we found here, telling them to forget about coming here," Jared said, "It''s on loop, though I don''t know if it will keep looping or not once we burn this place down. Probably not. Let''s hope that if there was anyone else coming this way, they get the message. Oh... and I picked up a few other messages from the city..." he shook his head, "All of them... were saying to stay away."


    The four of us gulped, "But we don''t have a choice."


    We moved all the stuff we had gathered into the van, then went back into the radio station to perform the "funeral".


    Jared threw the corpse of the creature down the stairs, used two of the cans of gasoline to coat the basement, and we all went a safe distance away. Then, he tossed a lit match down the stairs.


    The basement erupted into flames. Sarah brought her hands together, I imagined she was praying for those who had died. I did the same. I didn''t really know what I was doing or why, it just felt like the right thing to do.


    It wasn''t the best grave for them, but it would have to make do. My wife... she didn''t even get a grave. Her body probably doesn''t even exist anymore, it was most likely reduced to nothing when that nuclear bomb erased Arborline.


    If there''s such thing as an afterlife, I hoped that their souls would find a resting place their bodies were robbed of. I hoped that Jessica, Jared''s brother and Sarah''s parents were at peace, too. If we don''t make it to the bunker... I guess we''d see them again soon, huh?


    But we''d make it there for sure. We''d make it there, and we''d live and survive for as long as we could. Our time had not yet come. We had to fight for the future.


    Because if there was no hope after death... we had to create a hope in this world.


    But maybe... that was just a pipe dream.

 Chapter XXI.VII: Glimmer of Hope

    As the orange glow of the flames flashed up the stairs, we moved past the door on our left and went for the door to the reception room.


    "Oh yeah, we never did look in that room, did we?" Sarah asked.


    Jared shrugged, "It''s too late now, the flames will start spreading. Let''s just hope there wasn''t anything too valuable in there."


    Still... I wonder... were those two things really enough to take out that many people, armed as they were? Most of the corpses were laying on mattresses down there, so I guess the creatures must have attacked them in their sleep. Or going off their appearance and the way they behaved with us, they probably lowered their guards by pretending to be crying women... They were expecting survivors after all, so a creature that mimicked humans was a deadly mix in that situation. If they attacked them at night, it was no wonder they all got slaughtered. Even so... I heard a fifth pair of footsteps behind us. Before I could even react, I heard a crunching sound and Sarah fell to the ground in front of me. I spun around just in time to see a bloated shape come swinging towards me. Just as it was about to smack into my face, something slammed into my side... Jared had tackled me out of the way on instinct, making us both land next to the reception room door. I heard Aaron scream and I instantly leaped back onto my feet in time to see him dragging Sarah''s limp body towards us and... a massive, obese figure standing behind him.


    It had the same long dark hair as those two other things. Its face... was nothing but fat folds. Its mouth started on its neck and went down to where its belly button would be if it had one.


    So... there was a third ugly stepsister.


    Was it in that other room? ...the entire time?If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Its bloated fat body lurched as it took another step towards Aaron and raised one of its arms, which was nothing but a digit-less pile of fat, over his head, ready to slam it down and crush his tiny skull. I grabbed Aaron''s shirt, and tugged with all of my might to pull him out of danger. As I did, I heard a gun go off, which I assumed must have been from Jared. The thing''s arm missed Aaron by a hair as it came crashing to floor, shattering through the wood like it was glass. I practically threw Aaron to get him to safety, and he landed with a thud next to Jared. Something whizzed by my head faster than I could see and buried into the wall next to me, but I payed no attention as I dragged Sarah into the reception room and shouted for Aaron to follow.


    All of that... had happened within the time frame of under ten seconds.


    "Aaron! Go with Sarah in the reception room, make sure she''s alright!" I shouted as I stared at the thing''s huge mouth open and close, its body pulsing as it started to lumber towards us. The moment Aaron got inside, the creature suddenly made a coughing noise and spat something out of its throat. I ducked just in time to dodge, but the liquid it spat out didn''t go anywhere near me. It landed on the ceiling above the door to the reception room, and dripped downwards. Before I could even realize what was going on, the liquid completely covered the doorway and hardened, blocking our exit.


    I cursed.


    Why the hell could it do something like that?


    The flames had reached the recording studio by now.


    Jared was holding a pistol in his hand, aiming at the creature but not firing with his shaking hand.


    "You''ve got to be kidding me..." he said, shaking his head, "You''ve got... to be fucking... kidding me..."


    "What? What''s wrong?! Why aren''t you shooting it?!" I accidentally shouted a bit too forcefully.


    He pointed at the wall near where I had been a moment ago; there was a fresh bullet hole there, "When I shot the thing... the bullet just caught in its fat for a second, then it bounced back out and went right by your head."


    So that''s what had whizzed by my head.


    "Shit!"


    The thing was getting closer, though it moved slowly.


    Jared let out a hysteric chuckle, "Bullets aren''t going to work on it!"

 Chapter XXI.VIII: Glimmer of Hope

    I knew just those two things alone weren''t enough to kill everyone here. The three must have worked in tandem, and I had seen some of the white liquid on the stairs so it must have used it to trap those people in the basement.


    But what if it spat that shit at us? When was it going to spit again?


    Shit, shit, shit...


    The creature raised its arms as it was almost close enough to reach us. Jared and I both leaped away towards the direction of the studio and circled around the thing so that our backs were to the back wall.


    If we had only managed to get out of here in time, there would be no problem just driving away, there''s no way this thing would have caught up with us. But in this confined space that grew ever smaller as the building burnt down, with no known way to escape... yeah, we were definitely in a pinch.


    "What do we do?" I asked, though I didn''t expect an answer.


    "The fire," Jared said, staring at the blaze that was going on behind the window of the recording studio, "This thing has to burn, at least I hope. That''s the only way I can imagine us killing it in this situation. I''m not even going to bother messing with that white ooze, because I''m sure nothing good will come from touching it..."


    We both cautiously circled around the creature, it kept trying to close the distance and cut us off, faking us out by motioning towards one direction and bringing its foot down towards another.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I glanced at the door that it had come from. The creature was standing within two feet of the doorway. If we could slip by it and get into that room, maybe there would be a window or door we could escape out of.


    That door led to a part of the building we hadn''t seen from the outside, so we had no real way of knowing what was in there. If there wasn''t a way out, we might end up putting ourselves in a worse situation than we were in now. The white ooze blocking the door to the reception room looked like it had completely hardened... definitely don''t want to get hit by that stuff. We could try breaking through it, but there''s no way we''d be able to do that with this thing still alive. Our backs were to the recording studio, while the creature stood in front of the door.


    "Should we try shooting it in the mouth? Maybe it''ll actually hurt it there?" I offered.


    Jared aimed the gun at its mouth, "It might be worth a shot... or it might not. Fuck, you never know, what if it just spits the bullet back out?"


    Before we could make a decision, a sudden loud suction noise came from behind the thing. It braced its arms on the ground.


    "Shit, it''s up to something!" Jared shouted.


    The sucking sound ceased, and then a loud noise like air blowing out of a balloon shook the air as the creature suddenly shot forward, quickly sliding along the ground towards us. Jared and I just barely managed to dive in opposite directions as the creature sped by us and went slamming into the wall near where we had been, cracking the glass of the recording studio window and sending the flames within licking outside.


    I felt a pain in my arm and was thrown into the wall back-first before tumbling to the floor with a yelp. Shit... it just barely brushed against me...


    If it had hit me dead on...


    My arm throbbed with pain.


    ...My bones would have been crushed.

 Chapter XXI.IX: Glimmer of Hope

    I grit my teeth and stumbled back onto my feet.


    The thing also stumbled as it regained its balance, turning itself around to face us again. Before it fully turned, I managed to notice that there was a weird hole on its back, with round lips surrounding it. Was that where it sucked in the air?


    "Did you see that hole on its back?" I shouted to Jared.


    "Yeah."


    "If there''s anywhere I''d shoot on it, I think that would be the best place to try."


    "Yeah, I think you''re right, but... it''s not blocking the door anymore!"


    I blinked. Right. We didn''t actually have to fight the damn thing, we could just get the hell out of here. Assuming there was a way out. Its charge had actually made the situation more favourable for us.


    As we turned to run towards the door, I heard the sucking noise again. Shit, it was going to charge at us again, and this time it was obviously going to go for the door. Should we dive for it now?


    Just as we were a foot away from the doorway, the loud burst of air echoed through the room again, this time followed by an explosive sound of flame as the oxygen expelled by the hole on its back fed the fire. Jared dove through the door but I couldn''t make it in time. The creature just barely missed me as it crashed right into the doorway, completely blocking the way with its girth. I heard it heave and make a spitting noise, followed by a shout from Jared, "Shit! It got my hand... it''s stuck to the gun. Shit... Markus!"The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    The flames were spreading so that they covered about half of the room now. The creature pulled itself out from the doorway and faced me, its lardy body jiggling and squirming. I tried to circle around it but felt the intense heat from the flames pushing against my back. The floor at the recording room all the way to about a quarter through the room I was in had completely collapsed into the basement and the rest of the floor was in the process of following it.


    Shit... there really wasn''t a way out of this situation, was there?


    I didn''t have a weapon. If a bullet couldn''t do anything to its skin, I doubt my bare hands would be any use at all.


    The thing "looked" down at me with its fat-fold face, its mouth watered as it snapped open and close.


    The flames were unbearable... it probably wouldn''t even be a few seconds before the floor underneath me collapsed too.


    Jessica... I''ll probably be with you soon.


    With you and the others who died.


    "Markus!" Jared''s desperate scream echoed from the other room.


    Suddenly, Aaron''s face flashed into my mind. My son... I can''t leave my son alone! I heard the creature intake air again, it prepared itself to charge at me, which would send both of us into the flames.


    I guess it was planning on a suicide attack.


    Well then.... I suppose I''d have to risk everything too.

 Chapter XXI.X: Glimmer of Hope

    I screamed as I tried to jump around the creature, the sucking sound from the creature stopped and it started to lurch forward, preparing to shoot out the air and come crashing into me... instead of the usual noise of the air being shot out, I heard a pitiful squeak come from behind the creature and I heard...


    "Aaron?!" I shouted.


    "Dad!" his voice came from behind the creature. The squeak turned into a small bursting noise, I shook myself out of my shock just in time to jump out of the way as the creature was pushed forward slightly, stumbled a few feet, then fell headfirst into the inferno that was the basement.


    As it fell, I saw the makeshift spear lodged into the hole in its back. Aaron was standing where the creature had been, breathing heavily. He gave me a relieved look, then collapsed into my arms as I was there to grab him in an instant. I barrelled through the door to find Jared with the white ooze all around his hand and the gun he was holding.


    "Quick!" he shouted, "Through this window!"


    I put Aaron through the open window first, then jumped out after him with Jared right behind me. Aaron had managed to recover enough to stand on his feet again, and the three of us sprinted all the way to the van and collapsed onto our knees when the adrenaline finally faded.


    For the first time, the rain was a relief as it cooled my burning hot skin.


    Wait... my heart froze, "Where''s Sarah?"


    A loud explosive noise filled the air as the flames suddenly burst through the roof and engulfed the entire building.


    "I helped her get into the van, she''s okay. She just had trouble walking," Aaron said, "Then I took that spear and came in to help you!"


    Phew, I was really worried there for a second.


    I hugged Aaron tightly, "You shouldn''t have come in there. You''re just a kid, and there''s never any way of telling what those monsters can do. What if you died?" I squeezed him tighter, "I don''t know if I''d be able to go on without you, too..."


    "What if I died?!" he pouted, "What if you died?! I couldn''t leave you in there, dad." he moved out of my hug and pointed at me, "And if I do die... You better not give up, okay? Because then I''ll be rooting for you up in the sky with mom!"


    I wiped my tears away and laughed, "Yeah, I guess you''re right... Sorry. Thank you for coming to save us, Aaron. But you need to be careful, okay? You need to know your limits."


    He nodded and smiled.


    "I tried to stop him..." Jared said, "But he wouldn''t listen to me. I at least told him about the hole on the back of the thing, and it looked like it payed off. I''ve known it all along... but you''ve really got quite the spirit, Aaron!"


    We watched the building burn for a moment, then started towards the van. The white ooze had turned liquid again and dripped off of Jared''s hand, either because of the rain or because the thing had died, who knows. We better get out of here now in case the flames get too wild.


    I stopped in place as I heard a strange humming noise coming from the burning building.


    Dreading what I''d see, I managed to twist my neck around.


    My jaw dropped.


    In the middle of that conflagration, standing atop the burning ruins of the house... were the three monstrous sisters.


    Their bodies were still covered in wounds and burning to a crisp.


    "No..." I muttered out loud, "Don''t tell me this isn''t over."


    The three of them glanced towards us... and bowed.


    What?


    What... the hell... were... they doing...?


    They then turned to face each other solemnly, and linked their arms together.


    "Hey..." Jared uttered, "What... is this? Hey... hey, hey..."


    Their bodies all flickered as they were engulfed with flames... and a pure white glow.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Their radiant white bodies slowly transformed into ash, from head to toe, and then that ash began to crumble away, all of it drifting into a spot above where their heads had been.


    None of us could move.


    We were held in place by the utterly inexplicable and yet strangely beautiful scene before us.


    The ashes swirled together, dancing and winding in the flames, until it gradually began to form into the shape of... a feminine figure, with a body constructed of ash and a dress formed out of flames. It had no eyes, mouth or nose. There was something about it that absolutely mesmerized me, in some bizarre way it was both uncanny and graceful all at once.


    The flames that formed its "dress" burned brighter, and as they did new flames blazed to life on its hands. I noticed the ash that made up its body was slowly crumbling away into nothing. Though its visage was featureless, it turned to face me.


    It stood there momentarily motionless, the rain pattering onto its frail and graceful body, the flames roaring against the deluge.


    It gestured its head at us in a way as if to say, "Prepare yourself."


    Then, it performed a curtsy with the fire of its "dress".


    What the hell... was going on anymore? Was this thing... challenging us? Like a knight would before a duel? How intelligent was it? And why would it... what in the name of...


    I took a shotgun from the trunk.


    Alright.


    I''ll play with you.


    "Aaron... get back."


    As the inferno danced around it, reducing its body to nothing, the amalgamation of the ashes of the three creatures danced as well, spinning in a pirouette. I aimed the shotgun at its chest, it hopped and skipped in place, I put my finger on the trigger, it leaped gracefully into the air, the barrel of the shotgun followed it as it was about to come crashing down towards me, feet first.


    I fired.


    A chunk of its right side was blown away by the blast, trailing and fading away behind the thing as it dove with force towards where I had been not a second before, landing gently on the tips of its toes. I aimed at the thing again, but before I could pull the trigger it kicked at me with a burning leg, the hot air making me recoil as it burnt the hair off my arms. I landed on my bottom as I tried to steady myself, but fired the shotgun at the thing again. I missed completely as it leaped back onto the burning building, I reloaded the shotgun, the thing spun in a majestic dance, leaped to a burning pillar, then prepared for another strike.


    This time its body was cloaked entirely in flames, blazing behind it as it came soaring towards me like a comet. I pulled the trigger.


    ...But hit nothing.


    I blinked. The flaming thing had suddenly been sucked back by something. Something behind it. A noise that I didn''t hear over the burning building suddenly became clear in my ears. I felt some force gently tugging me forward. The flaming thing tried to pull itself away, but it was no use. It was sucked directly into what was behind it. Its ashes and flames mingled together in the vortex for a moment before they were absorbed and faded away into the mass of... things that made up the new arrival.


    The ash-thing had been sucked into a tornado-like vortex that stood about twenty feet tall. It was starting to tear through the burning building, and I could feel the air around me tugging towards it... no, there was something else too. It felt like there was something within me being pulled at by some force in that twister. I shivered as I saw that inside of that swirling vortex there were dozens of screaming phantasmal shapes. They looked like humans... like ghosts. They reached out of the vortex as they scrambled and crawled all over each other, spinning around endlessly, desperately trying to claw their way out. But it was no use. The instant one of them managed to just poke a finger out of the vortex, they were violently tugged back in. They screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed, their cries mingling together to form an absolutely hellish chorus. I blinked again as I saw the flaming ash-thing in that vortex as well, and I noticed that there were other non-human shapes caught in that hell as well.


    I could have stayed in place staring in a daze at the tempest of tormented beings until I would be swallowed up by them as well, but Jared grabbed me by the shoulder and pushed me into the passenger seat of the van. Aaron was already in the backseat with Sarah, who was fully conscious now.


    "What the hell is going on with that thing?" Sarah shouted, her eyes wide as she stared at the vortex in wonder and dread.


    Jared put the van in drive, but the vortex was tugging at the vehicle, preventing it from moving. I gazed in terror as the vortex made its way across the fire, the flames joining with the tumbling bodies, scorching them and heightening their wails.


    Jared cursed and pushed hard on the gas, and we managed to break free of the tugging force of the nightmarish tornado.


    We could still hear the tormented screams echoing through the air for a full minute as we drove away and left the burning radio station behind us. What in the hell was that?


    "Were those... souls?" Sarah asked nobody in particular, her voice trembling.


    The suggestion shook me to my very core. The screaming ghost-like figures in the vortex sure looked like tormented spirits. But there had even been the shapes of indescribable creatures in it as well, and the ash-thing had joined with them in a weird phantasmal state.


    So... what did it all mean?


    And the way it had acted before it got sucked into the vortex... why? I couldn''t make any sense of it, no matter how hard I tried.


    Jared sighed, shaking his head, "Whatever the hell any of that was, let''s just be glad we made it away from it mostly unscathed."


    Jared and I got out to swap seats and as I was walking to the driver''s seat I caught sight of a sign that was knocked over on the side of the road. It read: "Crestland City: 4 Miles".


    I looked towards the direction of the city, seeing the vague outlines of skyscrapers in the distance, through the heavy rain. A single red light flashed on and off gradually. It must have been from the aircraft warning light at the Crestland airport. Did that part of the city actually still have power?


    I took a deep breath.


    We were going to find out soon.


    I sat myself in the driver''s seat, buckled up, looked at Jared, Sarah and Aaron... then drove towards the city that we had heard so many dark whispers and rumours about.


    Crestland City.


    Ready or not, here we come.


    <u>END OF BOOK 1</u>

 Book two on amazon

    This is the end of book one. I hope you enjoyed.


    Book two of Storm of the End can be bought on amazon here (there isn''t a kindle version yet, but I''m working on it and it will be available for purchase soon):If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B09ZCX7J2R


    Book one of Storm of the End will still be remaining on royalroad until the end of May, then only the first few chapters will be offered for free as a preview. You can also buy a physical or kindle version of book one on amazon here:


    https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B09LWP5C7Z