by Jack Lynch
Most of the items had been thrown to the floor yet several remained on the shelves, at least I knew I would have access to some form of liquid should I be unable to find my water. Not much had been taken, despite the mess, there seemed to be an assortment of every kind of item, every kind of brand, every kind of size. Both my feet and the light reached the end of the seemingly endless rows as I felt a frown forming on my face, where the hell was the section for the water? Waving the light around my position, hoping to get a better understanding of the store I noticed, however, a stack of bottles standing in the middle, between the aisle I was about to leave and the one I’d yet to venture down yet. I could a mild, light sense of relief as I sat the light down and clawed my way into the plastic holding them together…surprised by their abundance. Ripping the tough, apathetic material apart I grabbed the first one to become loose, burning the corner of my hand on the aggressive turning of the lid in the process; I was meant to survive. The lid fell to the floor carelessly as I threw the bottle to my lips, my head throwing itself back in response. I could feel the liquid swimming its way through my beard, down the back of my throat as I continued to swallow, swallow everything I could. It wasn’t long before my stomach began to feel fat, bloated and I discarded the bottle down to my side as my head stayed, cocked back in the same position, eyes closed, embracing my luck. I needed to find food, something for the hunger that was becoming more and more apparent.
The light continued its glow, unwavering in his intensity; it was my guide…my only friend in this unwelcoming town. As I commenced my shuffling down to the back of the store, illuminating the beginning of every aisle, trying to find some source of food, I felt my ears pricked up in response to something. A movement, something had moved, as I threw the light back to its feet in shock I ducked into the darkness as I realised…my ears realised I wasn’t the only thing in here. Rats? Insects? I could feel my heart leaping beats. Some kind of scavenger had probably found its way in, yes, a rodent, perhaps a dog. It took several long seconds to get over my initial reaction as I quickly attempted to switch the light off in order to hide my presence. But the luck that I just embraced had now closed its arms; in my attempt to push the stand it to the ground, the bulb had surely burst upon impact. Upon realisation, I could now feel myself registering the sound of shattering glass that had occurred a few seconds earlier, that I hadn’t obviously processed.
Okay…
As I sat, crouching against the frozen doors behind me however I began to hear further movement, movement getting louder with every passing second. Whatever it was, it wasn’t an insect, a rat, or any other small pest, it was heavy, so much so that its weight reverberated with every footstep; it had to be at least half the size of myself.
My mind began running through a thousand scenarios, a thousand explanations, anything to shoot down the fear but I knew, I knew this town was void of animals, nothing but dogs, but cats; and I knew the weight was too heavy to be either. A survivor perhaps, someone who had stayed in the town for whatever reason; whatever explanation I could offer myself, my gut was telling me to avoid it; it knew something. I eyed the direction of the entrance I’d come in as I began to visualise the creature’s position – it was to the right, a few aisles down, away from the entrance. I knew I should run, crawl, move back to where I came in, but I couldn’t. At least the moon illuminated the streets, giving me a sense of my surroundings, but just like the food in the glass behind me that once been, I was frozen. I closed my eyes to focus in on the sound, to enhance the other four, already weakened senses. It appeared to be footsteps, two legs, a man of some kind, perhaps a demon, some kind of demon…had I died? Was this hell? I didn’t want to be taken; I had find a way back to the surface, back up to the earth. Ignoring the claws that had returned to rip their way into my back, into my spine, I began to move the muscles in my leg once again. The rain was still thundering, still making it difficult to pick up exactly what kind of demonic creature was in here with me but perhaps it didn’t matter, no, it didn’t, I was about to leave. I knew what I had to do, I had to run, run back to the entrance, back to street, to the motorcycle where the moon would give a better view, where the bike would take me as far away from his terrible town as possible.
What felt like several minutes passed as I remained crouched, poised, ready to leap. The noise had faded somewhat, whatever it was seemed to have walked, crawled, slithered away from my position…which also meant it could be closer to the entrance than it had been earlier. Perhaps it was seduced by the lights of the motorcycle, the one that sat outside the store, the one waiting for me. I had to go.
Move.
Ensuring I was in the kneeling position I believed myself to be in, I lowered my ears and began to move as quietly as possible through the last aisle that I’d previously gone down. Despite the moon illuminating the front of the store, guiding me somewhat towards the entrance, I shuffled through in almost complete blackness, ignoring the urge to hear wherever exactly the footsteps had travelled to. I could already feel the dampness of my forehead – was it the rain or sweat? I knew my heart was keeping itself busy either way. I couldn’t take the water with me, I could come back in the morning, perhaps take the motorcycle somewhere, somewhere where I could shelter for the night. With all my deliberation it only just begun to occur to me, as I attempted to quieten a violent cough, that I had no idea whether this epidemic, this plague was still around, whether it hung in the air around me. But I was meant to survive, fate wouldn’t let harm come to me, it wanted me to find my family. As I continued to make my way down, I found myself at the end of the aisle, the first phase of my plan had come to end, now it was time to begin considering the best way to reach the entrance without being noticed. The broken-glass doorway was only several metres away, I could make it, I could run, run to the motorcycle before anything had a chance to stop me. My thoughts raced their way back an elven year old boy coming second in annual school race, surely I hadn’t lost all my speed in the couple of decades since. Despite wanting them, asking them to stay down, my ears pricked themselves up in attempt to hear for the footsteps, any shuffling of feet that weren’t mine…there was nothing. I was ready, ready to launch, motorcycle in sight; I began to prepare my muscles for the final leap back into the streets, I could feel the fear, the trepidation like an engine, pumping away inside, it was time. Lowering my body down for the sprint, like a spring winding itself down, I threw myself up and began to run…run until I felt myself reach closer and closer towards the ground; I’d slipped. As if time had decided to pause itself in awe, I watched as I slowly hit the cold, dark surface of the building’s floor. My body must have bounced in response as I felt myself travel slightly upon impact, pain jabbing the length of my leg. Doing everything I could not let out a cry, I quickly realised I was slightly illuminated by the light outside, I could easily be seen by whatever was shuffling around inside the store. I knew I could hear what I could hear, the footsteps had started again. They were there, there attempting to pin me to the ground, keep me frozen in position but I’d come too far, I wasn’t ready to give up. Struggling to my feet, commanding the muscles in my leg to get back to work at least for one last time, I found myself limping towards the entrance, not daring to look behind me. It was only a few seconds before I realised I was outside, away from the store, heading towards the motorcycle but there was a noise, a shuffling behind me. Resisting the urge to scream, now in the clear moonlight, motorcycle almost in reach, I turned to see what had clearly just seen me. As my eyes gazed into the store’s stinging blackness, mounting the bike in the process, I noticed a figure, a human like figure emerging from its mouth.
Another survivor.
I knew the tension should’ve now begun loosen, dissipate but the truth was there was a message being sent throughout my body, sent right from my gut. It didn’t make any sense but I could feel the dread becoming more and more potent with every step the man, the woman took. Despite knowing that I should walk over in attempt to communica
te, perhaps help the figure, I could feel the rubber of the motorcycle’s handles begin to dig into the insides of my palms…and then I saw it. What emerged in front of me was a man, someone I didn’t recognise, someone fixated on my presence. The elderly man of around seventy years of age, stood naked, veins snaking their way clearly through the skin, skin that due to it, almost appeared translucent. I could feel my throat begin to collapse as I struggled to understand what I was seeing. He was still standing, standing with darkened lips, open in awe at the sight of me. The rubber of the handlebars was imprinting its pattern deep into my skin as I struggled to make myself look away and ride.
Drive.
But I couldn’t, I couldn’t force my hand to twist the key to the engine. It was then that I began to notice the abnormal dilation of his pupils; in fact his entire eyes gave off the appearance of holes, pits in the centre of his skull. We continued to look at each other as I struggled to consider my next action, I couldn’t begin my engine with my hands in the position they were in, I would have to bring my right hand down to turn the ignition but I was too terrified to move, too terrified to do anything other than just sit, sit and stare. As our mutual gazing continued I started to notice a sniffing, a sniffing sound emanating from his nose as his head began to tilt and move in search of something. Almost immediately following, he lifted his right hand to his mouth, extending his lower lip and began to brush his fingers over the inside. His abnormal expression, one of a trance was guiding the claws into my back right to the nerves, the nerves they’d been looking for all evening. I couldn’t help but swallow the nothing in my throat, over and over, every few seconds. As he continued his behaviour, I realised his attention was no longer on me, I would be able to quickly turn the key in the ignition…but the breaks, I’d forgotten about them, my feet would need to move as well. Taking a quiet, deep terrible breath, I cocked the gears out as quickly as I could before my hand reached for the ignition. But before I could reach over I noticed his face fixated back on me, staring right into me, he was walking, walking slowly, dragging himself towards my position.
Drive.
My hand continued its reach for the ignition before I saw a flash in the corner of my eye and felt the tarmac punch me in the side of the head. Unable to feel the sensation, adrenaline now, unquestionably pulsing throughout, I turned to realise the impact had thrown my body to the road, the man, the creature began to rip parts from the vehicle, items flying in all directions, some landing right next to me. Staring in a state of shock, horror, even loss, I watched the creature destroy my only means of travel. It wasn’t long before he began feeling what remained before raising himself back up, placing one foot on the fallen bike and cocking his head back, sniffing the air once again in the process.
Then it hit me, the appearance of his black eyes made some semblance of sense, this creature, this thing…was blind. I could feel a deep swelling, what felt like hope, working its way inside of me. If I was to escape, I would have to somehow divert its attention, my questions, the impossibility of the situation could wait, I needed to the get the hell out of here. Without a plan in mind but a new sense of confidence I reached over to the closest piece from the bike with the intention of throwing it to the ground behind him, anything to allow me a chance to escape. However as my hand clasped the closest item, rain still stubborn in its intensity, I saw the creature turn back to me, looking in my very direction, it was then I realised how good its sense of hearing was. I couldn’t do anything, once again I was paralysed by its gaze, the lion inside of me was beginning to retreat, I could feel its fur brushing past my chest as it disappeared into my stomach. As I began to rush through the possibilities, how I was going to get out of the situation, I felt the object drop from my hands.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the creature lunged towards me, desperation on its face, I was too slow to react, too slow to move out of the way, as I felt my body graze the tarmac, about to be pinned to the floor. I hadn’t a chance to think out what I was doing as I let out a scream, body rolling to the side, wrestling against the floor. I felt its hands grab hold of my jacket as I managed to get to my feet, muscles responding to every split second, unconscious instruction. As the creature began to place the corner of the jacket its mouth, I ran, ran as fast as I’d ever run in my life towards the street that I’d previously come down. I couldn’t breathe but it didn’t matter, my eyes locked onto the houses, the turnings in front, my ears refused to acknowledge whether the creature was chasing me. There was a house that was getting closer and closer with every second, should I look back? I knew I’d have to, I’d have to see how close it was, whether there were more of them, I had to know, but the driveway, I had to make it to the driveway. My feet hurt, I knew they hurt but, again, it didn’t matter, I was almost there…almost there until the house began to float up out of my view and the tarmac hit me, once in the centre of my face.
My lungs threw out a scream as I felt the hands of the creature pressing down upon my back. I struggled, desperately struggled to get my footing, I could feel my head spinning, unable to get grasp of the reality of the situation. As I span my body round, seemingly throwing the creature to the side, I finally began to feel the effects of the adrenaline on my balance as I struggled to regain my footing. I had to act, I had to survive, I was meant to survive…I was meant to survive. As I braced myself to fight for my life I noticed the creature holding its hand, it appeared to be in pain, something had injured it, something on my back. With my jacket now off I began to feel the ache in my shoulder much clearer, the metallic texture residing there, something was there, but it didn’t matter, I needed to escape. The creature was still aggressive as it appeared to sneer, as it sniffed its way across the floor. It was then that I felt it, a vicious, hateful feeling in the pit of my stomach as I saw my foot launch full force at its head. Without understanding how I was doing what I was doing, I soon found myself treading my foot into the side of its head, stomping, stomping out of extreme desperation, unable to understand where my bravery was coming from. As the kicking continued, the creature not moving, its head beginning to crack under the force, I tried to stop myself but I couldn’t. I had to keep doing what I was doing; I had to know it was over. My foot, my tired foot continued, over and over as I began to realise the creature was no longer moving. It must have taken around a minute before I managed to stop my assault and collapse into a sitting position on the wet tarmac below. I could feel the blood crawling from my nose, a swelling above my left eye as my whole body vibrated, shook, in terror. My lungs choked on the air as I felt the adrenaline veining its way throughout my body, fuelling me, supporting me. I was paralysed once again, paralysed aside from the subtle shake; I couldn’t bring myself to move; only my eyes. My eyes were only things I could move as they threw themselves around in attempt to find anything, some kind of injury. As they scanned up and down my body I noticed something severely wrong, it took several seconds to register what exactly it was, but it was unavoidable. I could no longer see the skin on my arms, there was nothing…nothing but ink…a seemingly endless anagram of words…everywhere. The shock further augmented, I jolted myself out of my static posture as I attempted to sit up, up against the bike and read whatever I could, I quickly noticed the large arrow on my right arm and the bluntly etched ‘begin here’ stated next to it.
‘Good morning…this you’ it began. No it wasn’t.
‘You know this is you because the last song you remember hearing, driving along the highway was Dreamstreet’…it was me. I sat perplexed, mind unable to think of even one scenario to explain the evidence.
‘The world has ended and you slept through it. I know it’s difficult to believe what that strange man, Jeff, has been telling you but listen to him, he is your guide’. For whatever reason, without making a modicum of sense, my mind flashed to the man, the body in the shack, was…that the man?
‘All three of them are safe, as safe as everyone who made it to north ark’. Ark? None of it made any sense, I
could barely comprehend what I was reading, but I knew, somehow I knew what I was reading was the truth. But how the hell didn’t I remember any of it, why the hell was the last thing I remembered, me driving to a routine meeting with the routine rainfall?
‘You’re suspicion is correct, you did crash’, it continued, ‘the car you were driving in yesterday, wasn’t yesterday, I obviously don’t know how long it’s been since that day gets further away every month, but I can assure you it wasn’t yesterday’. Nothing made sense, what was so special upon the crash, so important it had to written first? I may have crashed but I was awake to write this message for myself; this string of writing that was probably tattooed into my skin instead of simply penned.
‘Upon passing yukon street you experienced a head on collision with a larger vehicle, you were taken to the hospital where you spent the next several weeks. The result of the collision was an injury – listen, you have what is called anterograde amnesia’. I could feel my stomach tie itself into knots once again, I felt sick, faint as I attempted to continue.
‘Since that day you’ve been unable to from new memories, it wasn’t known if you’ll ever recover. Hopefully you’re reading this, sometime in the future, with Emma, Amy and Jess, somehow cured’. I was reading but not really comprehending what the words were saying, not really able to believe what was obviously the truth.
‘I wish to keep this brief, I don’t need to write the details on the event and I hope you, I agree. You are heading away from Plainview towards the northern Ark, do not go back for any reason’. I had been going the wrong way, treading back over my path, the last few hours, the house, the creature had led to nothing. ‘Continue with Jeff and do not under any circumstances go out into the Rain. You will find more information on this and your other arm. In summary – you will forget the current day when you sleep. When you sleep, you will reset.’
