by L. D. King
“So what are we going to do in the morning?” asked Mary.
“I don’t know. What I do know right now is that there’s food over there. I also know that those creatures like the dark. The sun’s going down. I don’t want to be out here when it is dark to find out if those killing machines are still after us. In the morning, we’ll have a full day of sunlight to figure something out. I don’t know what it’ll be right now, but we need to get off the street right now.”
The four of them crossed the street to the hot dog cart. They found hot dogs, snacks, sodas and bottles of water. The boys took their tee shirts off and made makeshift bags to carry everything. They loaded up everything. There wasn’t anything left on the cart.
After the great hot dog raid, they were back up in their rooms. Because of the events of the day, the girls wanted to sleep in the same room as the boys, though not in the same beds.
As they ate, Mike said, “We need to look for something we can make into weapons to fight back against the creatures. If nothing else, something to beat them back away from us.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” said Jerry. “Grab anything you think we can use to fight. Take it, even if we have to break something to make a weapon.”
“Wow,” said Jen. “First we steal food. Now you want us to bust up the place to make weapons. We’re on a roll. What’s next? Bank robbery? You know the hotel will charge us for any damages. The guy with the hotdog cart could have us arrested.”
“Hey, you know what?” said Jerry. “If we have to break the law to stay alive, then I guess that’s what we’re gonna do. I’m willing to go to jail for this rather than to be dead.”
Jen was silent for a bit. “Okay. I guess if you say this is what we have to do to live, then I suppose we need to start busting stuff up to make weapons. God… I’ve never stolen anything before in my life!”
“Jennifer, I’d be happy to go to jail too, rather than wake up dead,” said Mary. She was sitting on the bed, hugging her knees.
“Yeah, you’re right, Jen replied. “Mary, are you all right? You’ve been sitting on the bed like that since we got back to the room. What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong? We just watched Stan and Rosie get killed! All we’re doing now is arguing about stealing stuff or breaking things. Don’t you realize that they’re dead? We all stood there, doing nothing to help. We should have done something... anything… to help. I can’t quit thinking about them, even though it seems like you guys can.”
The room got quiet for a minute. Then Jerry got up and crossed the room to sit next to Mary. As he sat on her bed, he put his arm around her shoulders, drawing her to him. He laid his head next to hers and whispered to her, “Mary, we haven’t forgotten… not in the least. What is happening is real. We need to do what we can to get something to eat, and we need to do whatever we can to be able to fight off those creatures if we run into them again.”
“In the tunnel, we didn’t have anything to fight with. You saw how easily those monsters killed them. There was nothing that we could have done with our bare hands to stop them from killing our friends. If we’d tried, we’d be lying next to them dead,” said Mike.
“We took what we needed to eat. We need to have some sort of weapons to keep the creatures away from us. If they get hold of us, there’s no way to get away from them. Is what we’re doing wrong? Maybe so, but we have to realize that we’re on our own. If we’re gonna get back home, we’ll have to do whatever it takes to make that happen. We’ll use the time that we have to make a few weapons before we go to sleep. I don’t think this is a one-time thing. I think it’ll be going on for a long time, if I’m right. Tomorrow it will start all over again. We need to get to work on our weapons now. Then we’ll get to sleep.”
He paused. “We’ve been in Harlem for less than 24 hours, “In that short time, we watched two of our friends get killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.” He turned to Mary and hugged her. “Does that make you feel any better?”
“Yeah, it does,” Mary said. “I’m ready to help. What do you want me to do?’
“Why don’t you keep a lookout at the window to see if any of those creatures are coming into the building. Will you do that?” asked Jerry.
“Yeah. I’ll watch for them. I will let you know what I see. And Mike, thank you for the hug. I’m glad that you’re my boyfriend.”
“Once we get this done we can go to sleep,” said Jerry. “In the morning when we get up, we can look for a cab to take us back to the train. From there we can go back home.”
“That sounds good,” said Mike. “Let’s get to work so we can get this done. I’m tired.”
After she finished eating, Mary positioned herself by the window, watching the street. Jennifer stood next to her. The two guys started looking for something from which to make weapons. They broke a couple of table legs off one of the tables. They took the long, wooden hanging rods from both of their rooms. With those items, they figured they could push the creatures away from them.
It was beginning to get dark outside. Mary and Jen hadn’t seen any of the creatures on the street while they had been watching. They all lay down on their beds and tried to get some sleep.
That night they didn’t sleep much. As they lay there listening, they could hear the screams of people being attacked. When the screams stopped, they knew that whoever had been screaming was now dead. It brought back the memory of their friends having been killed right before their eyes only the day before.
Mike was standing next to the window, watching the street as the sun began to come up. He wanted to see how the day looked. As daylight came, what he saw down on the street was startling. He called softly to the others, waking them up.
Mike saw that Jerry was awake, leaning against the wall. Mike gave him a thumbs up, and Jerry returned it.
Mary’s head was in Jerry’s lap. Her dirty, auburn hair was draped across her face. It was matted with sweat and dirt. She was still asleep.
Jerry placed his hand on Mary’s shoulder and gently shook her awake. He was ready to go, other than his boots, which were on the floor. He was wearing a sleeveless tee shirt. He had been into working out since he was thirteen, and he loved showing off his muscles.
Mary sat up, leaning against Jerry’s shoulder. She brushed her hair out of her face and looked at Jerry.
“Morning, babe. Did you sleep all right?”
“Not so good,” said Mary. “Every time someone screamed outside, I woke up. You made it easier for me to sleep when you came over to my bed, though. But Jerry, I’m still so scared. When I did sleep, all I dreamed about was Stan and Rosie getting killed. I don’t want to stay here any more.”
“I know, babe. We’ll be leaving after we eat something. We can go downstairs and grab a cab to take us back to the train station, and go home.”
“Okay. I need to be home when my parents get back from the beach.”
Mike had run hot water run in the bathroom sink to warm up the leftover hot dogs. Not the ideal breakfast, but it was better than nothing.
“Awwwright, guys,” said Mike. “Your hot dogs are ready. Grab a couple for breakfast and chow down, and get everything packed up and let’s get out of here. I want to be able to grab the first cab that we find.”
“Thanks, man,” said Jerry. “And when we go, let’s only take one backpack each. Just take what we need to stay alive. Everything else can be left here. It’s important that we’re not loaded down so we can move or fight if we need to. I don’t think this is over yet, after listening to the screams last night.”
After they had eaten, Mike had everyone go to the window to see what he had been looking at when the sun was coming up.
“Look at all the dead, bloody bodies down there on the street,” he said. “It looks like a slaughterhouse had a record night. There’s so much blood and torn flesh lying around. Those things — whatever they are — owned the night. There are thirty or forty bodies laying out there. All
night long we heard them, killing one person after another. The night is not a time to be outside. We all know the creatures came up the steps from the subway tunnel as the sun was going down. What we didn’t know is that they kill all night. I know when I was awake I could hear people screaming. It was that way all night long, as far as I know.”
He pointed down the street, where the rising sun was casting giant shadows. “Look at the parts of the street that are still in shadow. See the creatures standing there? They’re just standing there, weaving back and forth. They’re all staring at the sky. I’ve looked, but I can’t tell what they’re looking at. Their mouths are hanging open and they’re drooling. I tried to count them, but I keep losing count because they keep moving around, just in this one area it looks like there’s something like 60 to 75 of them down there.”
Mary squeezed in beside Mike. She stood, staring down at the creatures, holding Jerry’s arm tightly. Then she let out a small yelp. “Oh, my god, Jerry! Look at the bodies. The street is covered with blood, guts, and body parts… Do we have to go down there? Is it safe for us? Look at the creatures standing in the shadows across the street? They’re waiting for us to come out, I know they are. If we go down there, we’ll all be killed. Jerry, I don’t want to die. I’m scared!”
“Look at them, Mary,” said Jerry. “See the other people walking up and down the street? The creatures don’t seem interested in them. Whatever is going on around here, I don’t want to be a part of it. We need to get the hell out of New York before this gets any worse, or spreads. I know that the only way to do that is to go down there. Mike, you’ve been watching the street for a while. Did you see any taxis?”
“I haven’t seen anything moving except those people walking. Nothing else is moving. I haven’t seen any vehicles at all. Not a delivery truck, a bus or a cab. Nothing, dude. I think we’ll be walking to Grand Central Station. I think it’s about four or five miles from here. It’s not that far to walk if the creatures stay in the shadows, but we’d better take our weapons just in case. We can’t take anything that we don’t need right now. Girls, that means whatever’s in your suitcases has to stay behind.”
Jennifer said, “So what do you want us to do, Mike? Do you expect us to trash our nice dresses, along with everything else we brought? Going down there is all it’ll take for us to get killed. I’d rather stay here until help comes.”
“Hang on, Jen,” said Mike. “Take a close look at the creatures. They aren’t trying to attack anyone. See the other people down there, walking around? They’re on the sunny side of the street. The creatures are staying in the shadows on the other side. As the sun rises, the shadows are getting shorter. If we are going to do anything, we need to do it now. If we don’t go now, we might as well plan on staying here another night.”
“So let’s get our weapons ready,” said Jerry. “We need to dump all of the crap out of our backpacks, and pack them with all the food and water that we can carry. Only take things we can eat or use as a weapon. Nothing else. And yes, ladies, you’re gonna have to leave all your ‘essential’ stuff here. If we try to drag all your stuff along with us, it’s only gonna slow us down, and today, slow people are gonna be dead people. Any questions?” He paused a moment. There was silence. “Great. Let’s get started. I want to be out of here in five minutes.”
Jennifer frowned a moment and said, “Jerry, when can we come back to get our luggage? We can’t just leave it here for anyone to steal, you know. We paid a lot of money for some of it.”
“Jen, it’s like this,” Jerry replied. “Do you want to live, wearing dirty clothes, or do you want to be dead, dressed nice, with your makeup done just right? It’s that simple. If we try to haul your stuff all over town trying to avoid the creatures, we’re gonna get killed. If it were up to me, I’d choose my life over a hundred Louis Vuitton bags full of designer stuff, any day of the week. If I had to, I’d walk out of here buck naked. How about the both of you? What are you gonna decide?”
“Oh, man… I really don’t want to lose my dresses or my shoes or any of the other stuff I have,” said Jen. “If the police get rid of all of those creatures, can we come back for our luggage?”
“Jen, if it turns out it’s safe, Mike and I will come back for everything,” said Jerry. “But right now we need to get out of Harlem and get to the train station, then get out of Manhattan and back home to East Norwich. For all we know, this might only be happening in New York City. I promise, if it turns out everything is all right, Mike or I will come back for all of your stuff. We promise. Remember, these rooms are paid for through Sunday morning, so our bags will be safe here at least until then.”
“Okay… if you promise to come back when this is over, then I’m good with that,” said Jen. “Is that cool with you, Mary?”
“Yeah,” said Mary. “I just want to get out of here. I don’t want to think about any of it right now. Come on, Jennifer, let’s dump out our backpacks.”
A few minutes later, their backpacks packed with food and water and makeshift weapons in hand, the four of them slowly walked down the stairs to the street. They noticed right away that the creatures were not moving. They stood slowly swaying, staring at the sky.
They wanted to find a cab to take them to the train, but there were none to be found. For that matter, the only thing that was moving were pedestrians on the sidewalk. No vehicles were on the street, which seemed very strange. The four stood on the sidewalk looking for a cab to hail, but after twenty minutes they hadn’t seen a one, nor did they see any other vehicles.
Jerry looked at the others. “I don’t think anything is running. We’re going to have to walk to the train station. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to how the cab got here. If Stan was still alive, he could tell us where to go to get out of here; he lived here for a year. From what I recall, I think Grand Central Station was three or four blocks from the Hudson River. If we follow the river, we should see signs for the terminal. I see a sign over there pointing the way to the Hudson. I think we need to walk to the river then we can go south to the terminal. What do you think?”
“I’m good with that,” said Mary.
“Me too,” said Jen. “So let’s walk that way. I don’t like standing here with those creepy things right across the street.”
“Yeah,” said Mike. “We need to be doing something other than just standing here looking at the creatures.”
They started walking south towards where they believed Grand Central Station was located in lower Manhattan. From there they planned to take the train back home. They didn’t know that they were badly mistaken. They thought that Grand Central was two or three city blocks from the Hudson River. What threw them off was that Grand Central Station was nowhere near the Hudson.
The island of Manhattan had two rivers flowing around it, one on each side. On the west was the Hudson. On the east was the East River. The nearest river to Grand Central Station was the East River, 3/4 of a mile from the terminal. The Hudson River was on the other side of Manhattan, a full mile and a half from the terminal. No matter which river they followed, they were bound to miss the train station.
What they could not have known was that the trains had stopped running altogether. Due to the number of missing or dead employees, there was no way to staff the trains or cabs. Without electrical power, all of the public services had been shut down. The train they had taken into the city was one of the last ones that ran before the rail system was shut down.
As they walked, they watched the creatures as they passed by them. The creatures didn’t attempt to attack them; they stayed in the shadows, swaying back and forth. The sun was making the creatures smell worse; the hotter it became the more they smelled. It was like walking in an open sewer. Continuing south, they walked in the sun as much as they could. This appeared to work for now. As long as the creatures had shadows to stand in, they ignored the people on the street.
The four of them believed their plan was working. If they were following the H
udson River, the Grand Central terminal couldn’t be too far away, and from there, it would only be a matter of a single train ride home.
However, they were lost, and they didn’t even know it. By the time they realized it, they would be miles away from Grand Central. Even if their luck changed, the trains had stopped running, just like the cabs.
There were a lot of people on the street, everyone walking in different directions. As they walked farther south, the sun rose higher. The shadows they counted on to keep the creatures away were slowly disappearing. The closer it got to noon, the shorter the shadows became.
This forced the creatures into the streets. At noon, with the sun high in the sky, the shadows were gone except for under the occasional overhang or awning. This forced the creatures into the street and into the sunlight. Now fully aware of the people around them, the creatures began to hunt. The four of them noticed the change.
Mike pointed to the side of the street where the creatures stood, saying, “Guys, are you watching this? The shadows that the creatures are standing in are nearly gone. It must be near noon. There is something about the creatures being in the shadows makes them more docile. We need to have another plan to handle this. I don’t want to die out here. Jerry, what do you think we should do?”
“With all the people out on the street now, I don’t think we need to change anything just yet. All we have to do is keep other people between the creatures and us. This is a life or death situation. We don’t want to have anyone die, but if somebody has to die, I’d rather it be someone besides any of the four of us. Keep watching where the creatures are and where the other people are. Pick out a safe place to go when a creature is getting too close. We need to do this at all times to stay safe. If we need to get off the street quickly, we need to have a hiding place picked out before we need it.”
Gradually the creatures, one by one or in small groups, moved into the street. Some of the other people who saw them started to run. As they ran, they began to attract the creatures’ attention. They began moving towards the runners as quickly as a slow moving creature could. The four of them worked to keep as many people between themselves and the creatures. The first creature grabbed the first person it could, dragging them down to the ground to kill them. When that person was dead, the creatures moved on to the next person.
