There must’ve been hundreds of those black insects in the center of the alley, between us and the nearest stretch of street we needed to reach. Seeing them from this distance moving in unison, they looked like a living piece of gravel with thoughts I couldn’t – or didn’t want – to understand. We could go back but we would have to traverse through the most exposed parts of the city where we would be hunted and chased down easily. And who knew how much longer it would take us to reach the portal then. I shook my head. No, we had to get past them. I peeked my head out to see what my options were. The alley was too narrow to skirt around them, and looking up I saw there was no way to get to the roof and then over to the next building. I had only one choice.
I took a deep breath which I released without a sound. I saw two large metal trash containers near the end of the alley; it took me a couple seconds to formulate my plan. Using hand gestures I signaled Fiona and Kari not to move until I said otherwise. They nodded. Looking back at the alley I made sure the insects hadn’t noticed us. They were still in the same spot. I crouched down onto my haunches and then eased myself from behind the wall. Taking a tentative step to my left and I stopped; no change of movement from the creatures. I took another step and stopped. Still no change. I took two more until I was in the middle of the alley.
I bent low until one knee touched the ground and I planted it; I was going to need as much leverage as I could for this bit of telekinesis. I breathed in and then exhaled as I placed my hands onto the floor, palms up. In weak bursts I released telekinetic energies towards the large containers. My body was still; I didn’t want to startle the black insects. Even my breathing was shallow. My powers sneaked past the creatures as they stayed in their mass formation.
As the telekinetic strings began working their way along and around the metal containers I noticed the insect formation’s movement change and then stop. I tensed and halted what I was doing. A cluster of them on the far side of me climbed onto one another and built up until they resembled a monster protruding its head from beneath calm waters. I held my breath. I couldn’t tell but they must’ve sensed my power manifesting. However they still didn’t make an aggressive move. After a couple of very long seconds the creatures returned to their original formation and continued their passive behavior.
I exhaled as I let my powers continue their journey. It didn’t take long for the kinetic threads to wrap themselves around the large containers. I lifted both my hands, palms still facing up. With my heightened sense of hearing I heard the sound of metal scraping as both containers lifted off the ground. I glanced at the bed of creatures in the center of the alley and when I saw their demeanor didn’t change I pulled my hands towards my body beckoning the containers to come closer. The heavy metal objects obeyed and floated in the air towards me. Their flight was slow to the point of agony but I couldn’t risk alarming the tiny monsters below.
Once they were over the creatures I stopped them. The containers hovered above them and I thought to myself, this will be loud and anything near will hear it. I hoped nothing out there besides the three of us could hear it. I raised my hands higher, as if beseeching God for a miracle – and maybe I was – and dropped my hands, at the same time releasing my mental grip of the trash containers. I timed it just right so one would fall on top of the other to increase the force of the impact. As I feared the impact was loud, the weight of the rusted steel buckling and deforming the ground below it as it crushed the insects below and loosing dirt and gravel.
I tensed as I increased my telepathy to about a mile out hoping I hadn’t committed a grave mistake. I let my mind wander as I stood there; the only minds I sensed belonged to Fiona and Kari. Breathing a sigh of relief I let my powers subside. I looked behind me and signaled for them to come out of hiding and they scurried over.
Fiona noted the big metal boxes in the middle of alley and said, “What did you do?”
I gestured with my head. “There was a group of those black insects in the middle of the alley. I assume you’re familiar with them?” Fiona nodded. “I used the trash containers to crush them.” I saw the look of awe on her face and let out a muffled chuckle.
“What happened, mommy?” asked Kari.
“Nothing, honey.”
Kari looked at her mother, and then at me.
I nodded. “Your mom is right. It’s nothing you need to worry about. Okay?”
She looked at me for so long it occurred to me she might be reading my mind but I felt no presence in my psyche that didn’t belong to me alone. At last Kari nodded and began looking at her surroundings with a cutely curious eye. I smiled. Looking at Fiona I told her we should continue on our journey and she agreed. With Kari walking between us we skirted around the shattered containers and continued on our way.
I made to turn left until I heard something in the distance. I stopped, as did Fiona and Kari. It was muffled to the point I wasn’t have been completely sure I’d heard it.
Looking around with tense eyes Fiona asked me in a whisper, “What’s wrong?”
“I thought I heard something, in the direction we came from.” I increased my sense of hearing but there was nothing.
“I didn’t hear anything,” said Fiona. It had the ring of a question to it.
I nodded and gestured for them to follow me as I lead them onwards. We were able to make it a couple of blocks before we had to stop. From somewhere in the direction behind us was the sound a second time, now Fiona and Kari heard it as well and they whipped their heads around. It was unmistakable - it was the same noise that humanoid creature had made before attacking me.
“We have to move quickly.” I was breathing hard.
“How much farther do we have to go?” asked Fiona. I looked east and cursed under my breath. By myself I could make it in a short amount of time, but that would mean leaving them behind and that was never going to happen. I lied to her.
“Not that far,” I said. “We have to move now.” She nodded and made to pick up Kari, but I stepped in and volunteered to do it. Kari didn’t resist and she wrapped her arms around my neck to steady herself.
“But you have to lead…”
“I can do both. Just follow closely and don’t trail behind.” I almost didn’t get the last word out as we all jerked our heads to the sound of another horrid scream. This one was closer. With Kari in my arms I led Fiona in and out as many alleys as I could, making sure to ping our surroundings with my mind. The strange thing was I felt a number of presences just beyond the boundaries of my telepathy; they were stalking us but were careful enough to not encroach within my mental reach. But the further we went the slower we got. While I was able to keep up a quick pace Fiona was struggling, and the more we kept going the more obvious it became she wouldn’t last long at the rate we were going. We had to stop.
We were able to pick up the pace enough to lose them as I lead us into a back alley where we entered an abandoned store through a rear door. As soon as we stepped in I locked the door behind us. I almost laughed; it was doubtful a simple wooden door could stop one of those things from breaking through. Nonetheless, we had to rest here for as long as possible so Fiona could recover. But we couldn’t stay here for long.
We hunkered down behind the counter with our backs to the bare shelves. Fiona sat down first and hard laboring to breathe. I let Kari down and she knelt down beside her mother and buried her face in her mother’s chest for comfort. Fiona hugged her back and kissed her forehead. I took a knee and faced the main entrance and made sure my senses were at their peak, ready to make a stand should the creatures find us. I felt a gentle hand touch my side and I turned to find Fiona looking at me. She mouthed something to me and I furrowed my eyebrows, thinking I misread her. She noticed my confusion and she mouthed it again and this time there was no mistaking it: Read my thoughts. I nodded and focused my telepathy on her.
I felt the familiar rush of senses and disorganized thoughts typical of people untrained in the skills of a psychic. With my trainin
g however I was able to block out all unnecessary thoughts and focus on having a mental conversation with her.
In my mind I said, “Hi.”
I felt Fiona’s mind start at my greeting; this was a common reaction of those who’ve never had a telepathic exchange before. She said, “This is amazing.”
I smiled and made a mental shrug. “It’s a gift.”
Fiona smiled back.
“What did you want to speak to me about?” I said.
Her smile disappeared in an instant as the humor went with it, replaced by stubborn resolve and seriousness. I didn’t like the feel of it.
“I want you to promise me something,” said Fiona.
I knew what she was going to say next. I didn’t have to dive deeper into her mind to know it. All the same I heard her out. “What is it?”
“No matter what, I want you to promise me you’ll keep Kari safe. Promise me you’ll do whatever you have to, to bring her back safely with you.”
“I promise.”
What else was there to say?
“Thank you.” Her request granted, Fiona turned to her daughter and hugged her tighter as she buried her face into Kari’s hair. I shut off the psychic connection and thought of home. Not Central but my Earth, where the sun still shines. There wasn’t much time to reminisce as I sensed two presences nearby - the human-shaped creatures were here. And they knew where we were.
What happened next happened within a breath of seconds as the two creatures crashed through the glass and wood façade. The split second before they advanced I sensed what they were going to do so I was prepared. My recent battle with one of their kind had made me better prepared to deal with them but still, having to face two of them would tax me.
I heard both Fiona and Kari scream as the creatures crashed through the front of the building, but only as a distant sound as if they were a long distance away, even though they were close. The moment the creatures were within a few feet of me I held out my arms, one for each of them, with my palms facing forward. The creatures stopped in mid-charge and were suspended in the air for but a brief moment until, in a quick and smooth gesture I raised my arms up towards the ceiling. The creatures slammed hard into concrete roofing, causing it to buckle upwards. Pieces of the roof fell to the floor and I heard the creatures let out a guttural sound - I’m not ashamed to say I took some satisfaction from that. While still holding them in place I gave each an inspecting eye: they looked almost the same as the one I had killed, and like the one before they both had that same hellish maw with teeth created by the devil’s handiwork.
Before I could finish them off the black creatures began to scream. It was so loud, and the amount of pressure it created was so great I felt my brain rattle against my skull. I was forced to increase my physical resistances but even then that only slightly dulled the pain. I struggled to look over at Fiona and Kari who were putting their hands over their ears in a vain attempt to block the sound. They were in agony. I jerked my head to look over at the creatures and acted at once. I brought my hands down to the floor, slamming the creatures into the ground creating two craters. A lot of damage had been done but the creatures had stopped their loud protests. There was no time to waste; I glanced up and seeing a part of the ceiling was shattered and exposing the floor above I used one hand to grab a large piece of flooring and smashed it into one of the creatures. I did the same thing to the other one.
With the creatures dead I went over to Fiona and Kari and asked if they were all right. They were both shaken and complained their ears were ringing but they said they were fine.
“We have to go now,” I said. The urgency in my voice was all it took for Fiona to nod without saying a word. I picked up Kari a second time and exited the building. We were running again. I didn’t know if they were chasing us but I knew they were out there hunting us. They must’ve heard the call of their fallen kin; there was just no telling how many of them the two summoned before I killed them.
The three of us would soon find out.
********
We were halfway there . Sheltering beneath an overpass Fiona asked me if she could catch her breath for a minute and I agreed - we were so close I felt we could afford the short stop.
I was wrong. I was so wrong.
Fiona was leaning on the structure anchoring the remaining overpass, her long hair covering her face as she inhaled and exhaled long breaths. I was still holding Kari when I felt a dreadful emotion enter my mind from outside. It was hunger, the voracious hunger of a predator that hasn’t seen a meal in ages. There was another emotion lying underneath it: rage. I turned sharply and found one of the human-shaped things standing in the middle of the street blocking the most direct route to our exit off this world. I heard the cracking of tiny rocks and I looked to my left - a second creature had appeared. There was another sound and when I looked right there were two more. We were surrounded.
Fiona placed her back to mine and pulled out her pistol. The worlds knew if it would do us any good. Kari turned to face one of them but Fiona admonished her not to; she obeyed and buried her face into my chest as she clung tighter. There were four of them against Fiona, her pistol, and myself. I dared not risk putting down Kari for fear one of the creatures would attack her. I could eliminate one of them right now but that might give the other three a chance to attack. And there were likely more coming. What do I do?
“…me,” I heard I whisper so low I wasn’t sure I had heard it in the first place. I glanced at Fiona.
“Leave me,” she said.
I felt time stop in the same way as a scene from a movie when paused. Everything jerked to a halt as I stood there and stared at her.
“I can’t.”
“You have to…you have to.” I heard not desperation nor hopelessness nor fear in her voice, but determination. More than that, there was peace.
“What will you do?” I asked.
“Take care of the one blocking your way and I will distract the others.”
I glanced at the one in front of us; it hadn’t moved. None of them had since they appeared. I looked back at Fiona and I shook my head. I didn’t want to leave her behind, I couldn’t. Without saying a word she walked around to face me and kissed Kari. In that kiss was the fierce affection of a mother who would do everything she could to protect what was most important to her.
Kari looked up at her mother. “Mommy?”
“I love you, baby.” Fiona then looked up at me and said, “You have to keep your promise.”
I nodded. “I swear I will.”
She nodded, lifted the gun, and shot the lone creature standing on the left in the head. Its head exploded in a mass of black liquid that spattered its surroundings as the rest of the body fell. Kari screamed and I turned to shield her from the sight. I didn’t waste any time. With my free hand I went to work on the creature in front of us. Lifting my arm high a large steel slab lifted with it and hung in the air. With one swift move I flung it at the creature, which moved to one side to dodge my attack - I saw this coming so as I let the initial projectile fly I held my palm out to a large piece of concrete that lay in the direction the creature was dodging to and grabbed it with my mind. I lifted it into the air and swept my arm in a wide arc in the opposite direction. The slab hit the creature hard and both flew into the side of a nearby building.
The remaining two began screaming their awful screams, and less than a few seconds passed before similar reports began to sound throughout distant parts of the city. We heard so many their terrible cries overlapped one another. Another shot rang out and one of the creatures recoiled as part of its shoulder was obliterated by the weapon Fiona was holding. She held the gun in steady hands and I looked into her eyes. In my own was a plea, a plea for her not to do this. She stared back, looked at Kari, and smiled.
“Go,” she said.
One day, I hope to be forgiven for making the choice I made.
Concentrating hard I felt psionic energies course throughout my body. I t
urned to Fiona one last time and said, “Goodbye, Fiona Greene.”
Turning towards the direction of the portal, I put all my weight on my feet and felt the muscles in my legs tense. My lungs filled with oxygen and my body prepared itself. An instant later I propelled myself forward as fast as any bullet could ever leave a gun. The last thing I heard before leaving that place was the sounds of gunfire and those horrific screams that punctuated my time on this planet. I didn’t look back, I couldn’t look back. A small part of me believes looking back would’ve been pointless; Fiona had chosen to sacrifice herself to buy us some time to escape. But another part of me, the one that still speaks to me whenever I think or dream about that day, believes it was cowardice that prevented me from turning to see Fiona’s final brave act.
I didn’t have a choice.
But we all say that: it’s the answer we always give when the choices left remaining are ones we’re either too unwilling to make, or are too terrible to consider.
As I was running Kari removed her face from chest and tried looking around. She saw everything whipping past her in a blur and called out for her mother. She began to cry, realizing her mother was nowhere near to be found. I felt her little hands beat against my chest as she begged me to go back for her. She then tried to claw my arms and push herself away from me but my hold on her was unbreakable. I stared straight ahead. I was too ashamed to look at her. What could I have said to comfort her? I had promised her mother I’d do everything I could to protect Kari and I would do it. I just didn’t have the words to explain.
Reaching the remnants of a once mighty skyscraper I jolted to a halt as a part of it exploded outwards, pieces of metal and glass flying in our direction. I turned my body to shield Kari from the blast. The inhuman scream came again. Not from one, but from many. I wheeled to face the sound and found a dozen of those things standing before me. Focusing on them my heart started pounding, and when I heard yet another familiar sound besides it, I felt beads of sweat trickle down my back. It was the sound of billions of insect feet skittering across the land. It didn’t take long for me to see what was making that dreadful sound: from behind the bipedal monsters came a living tidal wave of black, insects writhing and clicking their voracious mouths and tiny legs making minute but unmistakable gouges on the ground below them.
A Life in Darkness Page 7
