Human Nature

by Finlay Borthwick

  … “Annabelle? Aren’t you gonna reel it back up?” Cora noticed she appeared to be daydreaming. “Huh? Oh,” She had snapped back to reality, “OH! Yes!” Keith and Cora had noticed her rod jangling about, indicating something was on it. Annabelle desperately reeled it back in. When the hook resurfaced, it was empty. The bag of bait had been opened, the contents stolen. “Come on teacher, even I’m doing better than you!” Cora joked, “Three fish in my bucket already, and you’ve just got one?” She laid her net down, “You know what you’re doing then. Keep doing it. I’ll be back in a minute,” She acted as though she was fine, but then walked off to be alone.

  She went back into the shop, trying to convince not just Keith and Cora, but herself as well, that she was going to find some more bait. She sat down on the floor, slouching against the shop counter, reverting back into a daydream…

  … “Can we stop now? I can’t walk any further! My feet are killing me big time!” Annabelle complained like a young child. “You can stop when we get there. And before you ask, we’re still not there yet,” Erica coincidentally responded like a fed-up parent. “Wait,” Andy put his hand up, prompting the two women to stop. “Get down!” They all crouched, “Get against this wall!” They obeyed and shifted over, “What did you see?” Erica whispered to him. “I think I saw someone! A living, breathing, someone!” Erica pulled up her knife, “If he or she is a menace, I’ll deal with it. Wait here,” Erica snuck off in front of the wall. Andy looked back to Annabelle, “She’s mad isn’t she?!” The confused look on Andy’s face would stick in her mind forever…

  …Annabelle’s memories of Andy were jumbled up, and in no chronological order. She looked around the cold, empty and dark shop which she was in. “How did it ever come to this?” She quietly asked herself. “You let it come to this…” A familiar voice said. Turning to her right, a hallucination of Andy was slouched next to her. “Mummy’s little princess,” he echoed her final words to him. “I wish you were real. So direly.” Annabelle looked at him sorrowfully. “You feel guilt… But not for murdering me,” the hallucination voiced Annabelle’s darkest thoughts. “You feel guilt for regretting that you did what you did. That in turn makes you feel even more guilt for being such a bad person.” She looked away from ‘him’. “There are many levels of guilt. All of them correlate to something I did”.

  “Something you did?” A second familiar voice said. She looked up, noticing Elliot standing in front of her, looking down. ‘He’ moved next to her, sliding down to slouch against the counter with her – the vision of Andy had gone. “We’ve all done things Annabelle. Some we’re proud of, some we’re not. It doesn’t matter which category it falls under, you just have to accept it and move on.” She looked over at him, “I have. I refuse to guilt-trip myself in the form of you.” She knew they were her own hallucinations, but that made no difference. “You have moved on, have you? In that case, why do you still have flashbacks to the time you spent with Andy? Why do you have dreams every single night about him?” She remembered that lying to her own thoughts was impossible, “I can’t move on. Everyone’s gone now. The people I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with, you’re all gone. All of you.”

  “And whose fault is that?” Now, the most recognisable voice of all appeared to scold her: It was her mother. “It’s mine. I know it is…” The hallucination of Gwen didn’t sit next to her however, instead she stood in front of her daughter, looking down. “You failed me, Annabelle. You failed your father, Annabelle. You failed Andy, Annabelle.” Annabelle scrunched her face up, “Annabelle is my name! It is my name! There’s no laws preventing me from randomly changing it now. I refuse to even acknowledge you named me something different.” She stood up, making challenging eye contact with her ‘mum’.

  Concerned for their friend, Keith and Cora entered the store. “Annabelle?” He walked over to her, noticing her unusual expression, “What’s wrong dear?” She was completely frozen, still looking where the hallucination of Gwen had stood. “Hello?” He waved his hand in front of her, but she non-responsive. He turned back to Cora, “Looks like she’s in shock from something. We need to try and lay her down. Give me a hand,” Cora went over, “Lay her down on the counter.” Although Annabelle wasn’t responding to them, she had processed those words, throwing her back to the time when Olivia was shot…

  … In the pharmacy, Annabelle looked down at Olivia helplessly, hoping she would wake up. “Reed,” she looked up at him, sitting on the other side of the counter. “What do we do if… you know; she stops?” He shrugged, “Just keep checking her pulse and don’t worry about that.” But Annabelle couldn’t help her fears, “How do we break that kind of news to Elliot? Will he ever be able to forgive us?” Reed didn’t care too much for her predicament. “This is the apocalypse, Annabelle. People are going to die, even if we detest such a thought. The quicker we can accept, the quicker we can be prepared to lose someone. Elliot needs to realise that, if he doesn’t, then it’s not our fault. We did the best we could.” She looked back down at Olivia, “The best we could… By which you mean, just sitting here taking her pulse every minute?” He nodded, “Yes. You’re not Erica, I’m not Erica. You’re not Tina, I’m not Tina. What else are we meant to do?” She smiled slightly, “I guess you’re right…”

  …She jumped up, rolling off the counter unknowingly. “Annabelle! Keith, help me!” Cora asked for his help with getting Annabelle back up, “You alright?” They placed her down on the counter, assisting her with sitting upright. Annabelle looked between them with blank expressions, “Yes…” She was still slightly unresponsive. Cora and Keith looked to each other, concerned.

  Outside the store, Keith had given Cora his verdict. “She’s suffering from PTSD. Her unresponsiveness, her blank expressions and answers, I’d imagine that she’s seeing things in her mind. Think about it, we don’t know what she’s been through since I last saw her in London. That was a long time ago, remember.” Cora looked down shamefully, “She told me my mum was ok… I never asked her about hers’.” Cora jumped to a conclusion, “I reckon she’s dead.” But Keith wasn’t so certain, “She told me that Andy and Vincent had died. She didn’t mention her mother, or anyone else. I know that she was fond of Andy and Andy was fond of her. I remember he told me that one night when we were playing card games. If they were really that close, I suppose it’s possible his death is what’s shaken her up a bit.” Cora nodded understandingly, “Should we get her back to the tent?” He looked at her sitting upright on the counter, staring blankly into nothing, “Yes, good idea. Give me a hand with her…”

  “You sure you can carry her?” Cora could see Keith slightly struggling with Annabelle in his arms, “Positive,” he had to strain to get that answer out, leading Cora to laughing internally. “What the heck is that?” Keith stopped abruptly, noticing a large grey mass up ahead. “That wasn’t there before, was it?” They quickly ducked into the tent, placing Annabelle down, “Cora, wait with her,” She obeyed, crouching next to Annabelle.

  Keith picked up a stick, and slowly approached the grey mass. He lent in and poked it several times. When it did not react, he moved around it, noticing the two ends of whatever the mass was. With his stick, he nudged one end, revealing a curled up tail underneath, ‘What kind of animal has a tail that big? He thought to himself. He then nudged the other end of the mass with the stick, revealing a set of whiskers, ‘Oh this cannot be what I think it is!’ He noticed a small opening, prising it open with the stick. When it opened all the way, his face was overcome with shock and horror – there were four teeth incisors, two on the bottom and two on the top. ‘Rat teeth? No, surely not! As he poked the middle section of the creature, it rolled over lifelessly. It was indeed what Keith suspected it to be: A large perhaps nine-foot big rat, now lying on its’ back, brandishing its’ two incisors.

  “Cora…” He was slightly terrified by the giant dead rat in front of him. “Cora!” He called to her, as she jumped out of the tent. When
she too noticed it was a giant right, she covered her mouth in fright. “How is that even possible!” Her words were muffled by her hands.

  Inside the tent, Keith and Cora had two major problems: Annabelle’s health, and giant rats. “Keith, did I really just see that?” Cora was still horrified by the sight, “I’m afraid so. What’s even more terrifying is that there’s only one way this could’ve happened…” She looked at him, prompting an answer. “You remember that bright flash you saw yesterday evening? I told you it was nothing, but I think I know what it was now – a bomb.” She looked sceptically at him. “Here me out. When the atomic bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, survivors reported seeing bright flashes followed by immense pain and itching. You said needed to scratch your leg, right?” She nodded, beginning to see where he was going, “The tent only slightly protected us from the fallout. Some of it still seeped in. I mean, what else could cause a tiny rat to suddenly size up into some enormous being twice the size of us, other than Radiation…”

  Chapter 16

  Fabien’s body had been taken outside for examination, away from the view of everyone else. “What’s the first thing you notice about it?” Erica asked Tina and Elliot, “The blotchy patches on his face,” Elliot answered, While Tina responded with, “His swollen arm.” Erica nodded at both of them, “Correct. Now tell me, what do you first notice about this?” Erica pulled out a syringe, the liquid inside was a light rose-violet colour, with a hint of red. “Well it’s… Pink? Sort of? Maybe a light shade of magenta?” Elliot scratched his head, unable to work out what colour it primarily was. “To me it looks more like a rosé wine colour,” Tina thought out loud. “It’s Fabien’s blood,” Erica blurted out, astonishing both of her comrades. “You see, there are high traces of an outside source in his blood, so high in fact it literally turned the deep-red colour it should be into this sort of rose-like colour.” Tina was impressed with Erica’s deduction.

  “An outside source?” Elliot had fixated on that part, “Wait… Don’t tell me. Radiation, right?” He had used what Fabien had told him to work out how Fabien had died conveniently. Erica nodded reluctantly, “The missile didn’t need to impact us directly, the radiation bomb inside took care of the surrounding area. That includes us. Inside each of our bodies right now, radiation is building up. The strong wind which hit us, the radiation particles would’ve been carried over by that.” Tina and Elliot shivered, “How many syringes have you got?” He asked her, to which she shrugged, “Not sure, why?” Elliot thought gravely, “We need to test everyone’s blood right now…”

  After the situation had been explained to the rest of the group, they anxiously lined up waiting to have their blood sampled. “Alright, who’s up first?” Erica turned around brandishing the syringe; no one stepped forward. “Well aren’t we all just over excited today?” She joked. Elliot stepped forward, rolling his sleeve up, “I can’t take the stress anymore. Do it.” She obeyed, “This won’t hurt a bit.” While this caused him to relax, he winced when the syringe entered his vein, “I lied, sorry.” While it made him feel slightly light-headed, it was over relatively quickly. “Impossible,” Erica was astounded by Elliot’s blood, “That’s the perfect shade of red! Elliot, I’m not sure how or why, but your blood is clean for some reason. The radiation hasn’t affected you at all!” Everyone turned to him. “What? How? I should’ve soaked up a whole dose of that, I stood right in the blast radius, along with all of you!” Erica and Tina were both lost for answer, “It’s possible your blood filtered it right out. Perhaps you just have a really tough immune system.” She only said that to stop him worrying, but Elliot knew she was lying, “The immune system can filter out radiation? You really expect me to fall for that?” Erica ignored him, and turned back to the others, “So who’s next?!”

  Everyone’s blood was relatively the same, a light shade of red slowly turning to pink. Elliot however was unique in that his blood was perfectly normal. “Well, there are a lot of questions I have,” Erica reported. “You should all be fine for now. Think of it like this: As long as there’s some red in your blood, you’ll be ok. That happens to be the case with all but one of you.” Everyone glared at Elliot, jealous of his perfect blood, “Wait, Erica…” He had an idea, “Why can’t we do blood transfusions? If my blood is perfect, can’t it be used to help the others too?” She shook her head, “I’m afraid not. There’s eight of us, it would take a lot of your blood to cover even half of that. If you donated to all eight of us, you’d die.” He thought momentarily, “Then do it.”

  Olivia was the first to protest against him, “Don’t you dare, Elliot. I won’t let you do this.” He held her hand, “I have to. I can’t let anyone else die.” Still, she disagreed, “No, Elliot. This isn’t open for discussion; you’re not allowed to sacrifice yourself so the rest of us can live! You’re like a leader to us. Your word, and your plans, they’re what got us this far. Without you, I’m not sure what the rest of us will do!” He continued to stare at her, “You will lead them. These people trust you, ‘Liv. I believe in you. One life, to save eight, it’s a fair trade.” She gripped his hand tightly, “A fair trade for you perhaps, but you don’t understand…” She whispered to him, “You are worth more to me than all of these people combined. Therefore, the trade’s unfair on their behalf.” She leant away from his ear, “Don’t do this…”

  “What the hell is that!” Tina screamed, sounding frightened. Elliot and Olivia’s moment was broken, as everyone turned to look outside. “Bloody hell!” Elliot was shocked, to say the least, by the sight of an overgrown spider walking past the mansion. Everyone rushed over to the next window to watch it go past.

  “That can’t be a spider, surely?” Zach remarked. “It is though! It’s got eight legs, and that’s the body of one of those menacing things!” Pierre added. Elliot turned to Erica, “You know what this is, right?” She nodded regretfully, “It’s the radiation, isn’t it?” Elliot looked severe, but also confused, “Fabien was right. There really was a lot of radiation in that bomb. Enough in fact that it’s caused mutations within a matter of hours. Given the amount of insects and animals on this planet… Christ, this could be the apocalypse of the apocalypse…”

  Everyone continued to watch the spider walk past, as though it hadn’t noticed them. “We need to send that thing back into hell!” Pierre brought his pistol out, and opened the window, “Never return here!” He wildly shot at it, missing it completely. The spider ran off scarily fast, hiding in a crevice between the two buildings opposite. Reed pulled him back, “Idiot! You just antagonised a giant freaking spider! And you couldn’t even kill it!” Pierre was quick to defend himself, “That thing was like three or four foot big though! It’s nearly the size of Zach!” Reed stared at him intently, “Exactly, and you just declared war on it…”

  Everyone was on high alert. At least two people were at each window, watching beadily for the spider to return. At the dining room window, Elliot had not said a word to Olivia, and she knew why. “You’re a saviour Elliot, sure; but you’re not some mythological hero. There will be no one to remember you by if you sacrifice yourself. All you will do is prolong our own eventual deaths for no reason.” He preferred not to think about such an inevitability, therefore did not respond. “Elliot, say something. Come on, please.” But he didn’t, instead he turned to her, and gave her an affectionate kiss. He pulled away, cutting the moment short, “I love you, I do… But please, stop talking.” He smiled humorously, although she didn’t find his ignorance of her amusing at all; instead she only acknowledged the “I love you” part as having been said.

  “Where is that wretched thing?” Pierre was more anxious than the others. “It’ll come back. Then you can blast it to hell,” Reed informed him, pumping his shotgun, “Or I’ll kill it first.” As Pierre continued to watch outside the window, he froze momentarily and slowly turned around, noticing the door to the cellar was not only unguarded, but open as well. “Reed,” He sounded scared, pointing towards the
open cellar door, “That cellar leads into the tunnels, right?” He was progressively becoming more afraid, “And those tunnels lead into the streets, correct?” His voice was fading away, as he shivered incredibly. “It’s alright! Calm down,” Reed tried to prevent Pierre from having a panic attack. “Stop it man! Or the radiation will get to you!” He instantly regretted reminding him of the other threat which was present. “Elliot! Celeste! Help us!” He called out for assistance.

  “Hang on! I’m coming!” Elliot called back from the dining room, “Wait here, if you see anything, scream as loudly as you can,” Elliot reassured Olivia, before heading off to assist Reed. As he ran past, he stopped when he was in front of the cellar door. He slowly turned his head, looking down at the bottom of the stairs. There, the large mutated spider stood, with completely dark red eyes staring up at him, “Oh boy…”

  As the spider leapt up the stairs, Elliot hauled himself towards Reed and Pierre with haste, “It’s inside!” He yelled out. Reed turned away from the panicking Pierre, readying his shotgun. The spider had leapt rather far; it had collided with the front door. It leapt again into the living room where Reed and Pierre were, trying to chase Elliot. He dashed into the next room.

  As the spider prepared to leap again, Reed blasted it with his shotgun from the windowsill. The spider winced out painfully, struggling to turn itself around. Reed was completely horrified by the fact that it survived the pellets – it was definitely hit, as he could see the bullet holes on the spider’s body. The red eyes unnerved him massively. Rather than finishing off the spider there and then, he pushed the window open, and fell back.