Seeking Daylight

by Becky Poirier

  “Move,” I yelled to Molly. She twisted herself as much as possible to give me a view of the demon. As she did I saw its glowing red eyes. I aimed and fired. It was fast and the first bullet only grazed the side of its head. Still it let out a piercing scream. I nearly dropped my gun as my ears drums felt like they had burst.

  It was hard to focus with the horrible ringing, but I pushed past it for Molly. I took aim again still fighting to hold onto my sister with everything I had. I shot again, this time hitting its arm. That was enough to get it to release its claws from her leg. I dropped my gun grabbed onto Molly with both hands and pulled as hard as I could. She was almost out all the way. I started to breathe a sigh of relief and that was when it brought its fangs out. It barely got a hold of her with its teeth. Molly and I both screamed as I gave one last tug. I yanked so hard that I felt my shoulder pull out of my socket. That was when the demon just let Molly go. We both toppled off the ladder to the floor. My ankle twisted and a horrible cracking sound filled the room. Molly landed on top of me as my head smashed into the hard concrete floor.

  Molly whimpered as she slowly pulled herself off of me. The room was spinning as I fought to gain control of my body. When I did, I looked up at the small grated door. The demon was staring at me with a sickening bloody grin on its face. It couldn’t fit its whole body through the grate or I was sure it would have come in after me. Instead it just licked the blood off its lips. Molly’s blood. I looked over at my sister. She was covering her ankle with her hand. There was barely any blood coming off the wound, but we both knew that didn’t matter.

  I looked back up at the demon. It made a sound I’d never heard them make before. It almost sounded like it was laughing. A rage I never knew I was capable of feeling burned inside me. I stumbled painfully towards my gun. With all the strength I could muster, I pulled myself up off the floor, pointed my gun with its one last bullet at the demon. It only had enough time to stop laughing and have a moment of what looked like fear cross its face before my bullet struck it right between the eyes. The demon collapsed lifeless in the tunnel above us.

  Chapter Nine

  When I finally snapped back into the present, I found myself crouched against the wall as far as I could get from the telescope. I was clinging to the gun that had been propped up against the wall. I had no recollection of grabbing the gun, but that didn’t mean I was willing to let it go. I held onto it so tightly my hands were actually beginning to hurt.

  Although I was no longer reliving that day; I was still having trouble focusing on the present. Dr. Lee and Seth were staring at me crouched in front of me trying to talk to me, but their voices were muted. All I could hear was my sister whimpering in that awful room. It sounded so loud like she was right next to my ear.

  Seth gently reached for the gun and after a couple of subtle tugs I reluctantly let it go. I was desperate to block the awful sound of my sister’s last moments. Of course covering my ears wasn’t going to do much. She wasn’t here. The sound was only an echo of the memory. Even though I knew that I held my hands over my ears willing myself to come out of the memory.

  It took a few minutes but finally her cries became quieter until they faded out altogether. I’d never experienced a flashback during the day, at least not one that intense. The memories always came when I was sleeping. I felt like I was losing my mind.

  Seth and Doc were still trying to get my attention. Even though I wasn’t in the memory anymore, it didn’t mean I was ready to talk to anyone. The shock of it all caused my body to tremble all over. The shaking hadn’t stopped. “I warned you this might happen,” Dr. Lee said as he shot Seth a dirty look. “You’re the one who said she could handle it.”

  “She can. She just needs to understand why. Telling her to just look was your idea and a stupid one,” Seth responded defensively. “We should have actually explained things to her.”

  “She’s suffering from P.T.S.D. I don’t think explaining what we’re doing could have prevented this. We don’t even know what she’s been through. This was a mistake. She’s not ready to hear what we’re doing.”

  “Could you two stop talking about me like I’m not here,” I finally spoke. I was still shaking but not nearly as much as before. And now that I was coming back to my senses, I wanted an explanation. “What the hell were you two trying to prove?” They both looked at each other with a look of confusion on their faces. “Is this just some kind of game to you? You guys watch the demons for kicks to see how long you can push your luck.”

  “Demons?” Doc questioned.

  “Yeah the infected…the demons,” I replied angrily.

  “Why do you call them demons?” Seth asked.

  I looked at him like that was the dumbest question he could possibly ask, because to me it was. “They’re soulless. The person that they were before the infection dies and something else takes their place…what else could it be but a demon?”

  Dr. Lee sat back against the wall relaxing a little now that the situation had calmed. “That’s an interesting perspective, I haven’t heard before. I’ve heard them called monsters, and beasts but never demons.” Beast was the word their people liked to use most often, though I’d heard a couple of them simply refer to the demons as infected. When they were first bitten they were infected, but after that the person you loved was gone they were replaced by what I’d been raised to call a demon. For me calling them beast of monster just wasn’t an accurate enough description of what they were. “I don’t suppose you grew up in a religious household?” he asked.

  “Probably not the best time to discuss upbringings?” Seth interjected.

  “I think it’s relevant to her theory of what they are. After all, what we’re doing up here is all about learning more about them.”

  “You’re studying them?” I asked completely baffled by the idea. It was one thing for scientists and doctors to study the newly infected under controlled conditions. That was in the beginning. When they had government and military back up. This was anything but under their control. It was insane.

  “Yes, that’s why we asked you up here,” Seth replied before Doc could. “You’re one of the few who we’re sure has had an up close encounter with the infected. The others have been close but never face to face. I was pretty sure that you had, but I wasn’t positive until you reacted to seeing one. I’m sorry for not telling you earlier. I didn’t think seeing one of them would cause that kind of reaction in you. I hope you can forgive us enough to try to help us.”

  “Help you study them? I’m not a scientist, or a doctor. My education was basic at best. I don’t see how I can help or why you’re even bothering to study them at all. What could you possibly gain from this?”

  “We study them because we want to find a cure of course,” Seth replied. I laughed. It wasn’t a funny ha-ha kind of laugh. It was more a hysterical ‘you guys are totally out of your minds’ kind of laugh.

  “That’s never going to happen and you watching those things out there won’t bring you any closer to understanding them. I’m pretty sure you two aren’t virologists so I don’t know what you could possibly do to end the plague.”

  “You’re right,” Doc replied. “I was simply an E.R doctor. But I did study genetics and did have some colleagues that I worked with near the beginning of the outbreak, who gave me some insights that I believe could lead me in the right direction. Someone has to try.”

  “Studying their behavior from a far will never bring you anywhere near to finding a cure. Even if I thought you could pull it off, the fact is you’d need to have a live subject to study in order to have any hope.”

  “I told you she was smart,” Seth said as he smiled at Doc. “You’re right we need a live subject and we want you to help us figure out how to catch one…safely. So what do you think?”

  Stupid, that’s what I thought. They were both completely stupid and their plan was absurd. I told them just as much and not only did I not want anything to do with their ridiculous plan, I
also didn’t have any intention in participating in their little research study. Doc was right. I never should have been invited up here. It was taking all my self-control not to threaten to tell the others. Just one more week, I told myself and I could be away from these idiots.

  Both Seth and Doc tried to get me to see their side of what they were doing. They wanted me to understand. I understood well enough. They wanted to do what the military couldn’t do and capture a live demon, contain it, and try to study it. Even if it was possible to capture one, and I was sure it wasn’t, keeping one contained would be even trickier. They were at least twice as strong as the strongest human and I didn’t even know how much faster. No one had time to clock the speed before being attacked.

  I huddled under my sleeping bag trying to ignore them. They’d given up on me and gone about with their observations. Like that was going to make any difference. I’d observed them up close and personal. There was absolutely no way those two could figure out how to study a live one. Now if they wanted to drag a dead one back to a lab to study, I’d be all for that. What they were proposing was suicide and not the smart suicide I was planning. This was just stupid and wasteful. I couldn’t stop fuming over the whole thing. Here I was thinking poor Matthew might have a chance with this group and then these two go and blow all that hope to hell. I should have learned by now that trusting in hope and especially people was absolute lunacy, but apparently my lesson still hadn’t been learned.

  I tried to close my eyes and drown out their nonsense but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t stop thinking about what they were planning. There was no blocking out their conversation either. They certainly weren’t being loud, but the room was small with nowhere for the sound to travel but towards me.

  “That’s strange,” I heard Doc say.

  “What?” Seth asked. I looked over at the two of them each peeking out of their own telescope. A clap of thunder sounded overhead. “Huh, that is weird.”

  That was it. Apparently I wasn’t going to be sleeping tonight. “What’s weird?” I snapped as I sat up staring at them with my teeth clenched.

  “You don’t have to worry about it,” Seth replied waving me off back to sleep. “You don’t want anything to do with our…what was it you called it?”

  “I believe she called it a stupid plan?” Doc replied.

  “No I don’t. But if you two aren’t going to shut up long enough for a girl to fall asleep, then at least you could tell me what’s so damn interesting.” Seth smiled at Doc in a way that made me think he thought he was winning me over. That wasn’t the case at all. I just wanted to shut them up already.

  Seth beckoned me over to his telescope. I scooted over awkwardly and then braced myself before I peered through the telescope. It was hard to see clearly. The clear night’s sky had been replaced with rain clouds that were clapping together loudly producing glorious bolts of lightning. It was the kind of storm Molly and I used to love back when we lived with our parents. We’d stay up way past our bedtime just listening to the thunder and imaging the angels were bowling or something like that.

  The rain was just starting to come down, so I could see just past it to the roof top where the demons had been running and climbing earlier. Only there weren’t very many left. And the few that I could see looked like they were running away from the rain. I spotted one that appeared to be ducking away from the drops of rain and avoiding what I could only assume were puddles that had sprung up quickly from the rain pouring down the gutters. Any time thunder boomed they would shrink down as tight to the ground as they could get. They were pushing past one another trying to get inside the building. And then they were all gone.

  I pulled away from the telescope. “Have you ever seen them act like that before?” Doc asked.

  I shook my head. The only time I’d gotten an up close and personal view of them, they didn’t show any signs of fearing anything and I’d never desired to view them from afar. This was the first time I’d actually seen them in their environment away from humans. I always thought that in their waking hours they sought us out, that they lived for the bite of human flesh. But these demons didn’t appear to be looking for humans at all. The first time I saw them through the telescope it almost looked like they were playing. Something else struck me as odd. Any other time I was near a hive I always heard their loud screeching and cackling howls but this time there hadn’t been any of that. If they were communicating at all, it was in a much quieter way.

  “How long have you been watching them up here?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

  “A couple of months now,” Doc replied. “We realized a smaller hive had moved in within our view and decided to take the rare opportunity to study them.”

  “So a hive moves in down the street and your first instinct is to study, not to protect your people, but to study them? And you wonder why I think your plan is crazy.”

  “What would you have done?” Seth asked me curiously.

  I didn’t hesitate to respond. “Blow them all up. I certainly wouldn’t decide to sit pretty and do nothing while people in my care were at risk. You’re jeopardizing everyone’s safety by doing nothing. Jane thinks I’m the one who’s a threat to Matthew but if she knew…”

  “You promised,” Seth said showing worry on his face. He may have thought what he was doing was right, but he knew well enough that the others weren’t likely to believe the same thing.

  “That was before I knew what I was agreeing to. My people are all gone because a hive that was miles away from us attacked and you’re just letting a hive set up shop a few blocks away. You are playing with fire and with everyone’s lives. They have the right to know, to decide for themselves whether to stay or to leave.”

  “And you think you’re the one to tell them?” Doc replied looking irate. “You’ve been here a little over a month and have made no real attempts to belong with us.”

  “Doc stop,” Seth tried to calm his friend down.

  “No Seth, you’re the one who said we could trust her. I warned you. She acts like she’s a part of us, but she’s never made the slightest effort to really get to know us or to let us into her life. And now she thinks she has the right to tell us how to run this group.” The doctor stood up hunched over to keep his head from banging into the roof. “This was your idea. You fix it. Make her see reason. I’ve come too far and worked too hard to allow one silly girl to screw this up for me. I won’t lose this opportunity. I can’t.” He was ranting near the end and then even though it was dangerous he left the blind and stormed off back in the direction of the roof top door.”

  “Is he insane? He could lead them right to us.” The memory of the night when my group was attacked threatened to take me over again. It took all my strength to remain focused on the present.

  “We’re okay,” Seth tried to calm me. He handed me my bottle of water. With shaking hands, I took a long gulp. “We’re safe. I’m sure of it. So long as the storm continues, I don’t think we need to worry about them.”

  “You don’t think. But you don’t know do you?”

  He shook his head. “How can we know? There haven’t been any real studies done on the infected. Not in a long time. That’s why we’re doing this. Amber…” It took me a moment to remember he was addressing me. “Please don’t tell the others. Some of them would understand, but most wouldn’t. They fear what they don’t understand.”

  “And with good reason. Have you ever lost someone to one of those things?” He didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. It was clear by the moisture in his eyes that the answer was yes. I doubted it was recent. He was too well adjusted. But he clearly still lived with the loss. It only confirmed my resolve to end my life. If he couldn’t move on, after so much time, then I never could. What was the point of living and fighting when you had no one to live and fight for?

  “I don’t think there’s a person alive who hasn’t lost someone to the infection,” he finally answered after minutes of si
lence. “That’s why I need to understand them. Why Doc is so determined to find a cure.”

  “If I thought it was possible I’d help you.”

  “Would you?” he asked.

  Sometimes I forgot that he didn’t really know me. He reminded me so much of Alex that it was easy to forget that we hadn’t known each other for years and that he didn’t know my true character. “Yes I would. I wish this could be cured. I wish we could have a happily ever after. But if the government couldn’t solve this than what makes you think you and an E.R doctor can?”

  “The government was already in shambles from the war when the outbreak occurred. There was little to no communication. What research did happen was isolated and never shared. I have faith in Doc. He saw this thing up close. He worked with other doctors who studied the disease. Maybe he can’t find a cure, but what if he could? Don’t you think it’s worth the risk?”

  I thought about it for a long time. What he said made sense. The third world war had caused a complete break-up of the governments of the world. Communication was limited. In fact, my knowledge of what was going on in the world all came from pirate radio, that I used to listen to with my parents. By the time the outbreak hit, my family had been living in isolation for years. The fact was I knew very little about how the world worked when the infection spread.

  Maybe because of all that had happened, no one had really been given the proper opportunity to study the disease. But still I didn’t believe those already infected could be saved. But what if those who were newly bitten could be? I thought about Molly. If she’d still been alive I’d do anything to find a way to keep her that way. And then I thought about Matthew. He deserved a chance to grow-up and even more than that. He deserved to grow-up without fear.

  Seth sat patiently watching me as I muddled through everything in my head. “It can’t happen here or anywhere near here,” I finally replied looking up into Seth’s eyes. He was smiling from ear to ear. “Don’t get too excited,” I cautioned. “If I help you. We do it my way. First we destroy the hive you’ve been watching.”