by A. M Martin
"A virus, are you blind? It's a Lykan. Is it real?" Cora asks, bouncing on her toes.
I look back at the screen; Lykan, that's those wolf people from the Underworld movie. This thing looks sort of like them.
"Mmmmm," is all that escapes my lips as the Lykan looks right at the camera. Its eyes are weird. Where we have a black pupil, it has a white one surrounded by a muddy brown color that fills up the rest of the eye.
"It's looking at us!" Cora screeches, jumping back away from the screens.
"Don't be silly," Mum says, moving to stand at my back.
I glance over my shoulder at her. "Thank you," I whisper.
She nods her head, and we both go looking back at the screen.
I didn't know if she was going to come back to us, but I'm so glad she did. I'm not so sure what we should do next.
A growl blares through the speakers, and four different screams fill the basement.
"Turn it off!" Amy wails, and I flip the switch, turning the speakers off.
The grey Lykan taps the lens with a long black claw, thankfully the sound is off. It then smiles, or at least I think it does. The dang screen goes out.
"What the hell?" I breathe.
"Don't cuss Nikki," Mum says, poking me on the back of my shoulder.
I look at the other screen where the camera is on the left side of the house pointing down the road.
"Is that a person?" Cora whispers.
Maybe. I don't know. My head twists looking for a better angle. All I see is a blood blob?
"Animal." I nod my head trying to convince myself.
"What is happening?" I ask as this camera goes out too.
That just leaves the one at the back of the house and the one on the right side.
"It's the Lykan," Cora says as the back camera goes out following the last one.
"How do you know?"
"I saw a flash of grey." Cora answers, smiling proud.
"Don't smile," I snap, “This isn't a movie, it’s real. There's a virus out there turning people into beasts and said creatures eat people."
"Nik!" Mum says harshly holding onto a now crying Cora.
"She’s right dear. That's what the news said." I can sense Mum doesn't even believe it herself.
"Sorry," I mumble as I walk towards my locker on the back wall.
A whine I can't hold in bursts from my lips as I see Dallas written in big block letters on the locker next to mine. He can't be gone.
"Daddy. Daddy. Where are you!?" Cora yells into the handheld.
Dad is a doctor at the local Army base two hours away from us. He gave us the radio in case of an emergency if we couldn't get him on the phone.
Tears stream down my face. I’m crying again! This is a god-awful nightmare. What are we going to do? I wipe my face with my arm, sucking in a breath of musky air.
The locker door squeaks as I open it and I start to pull out the hiking pack that's as heavy as a small person, followed by a drawstring bag and black boots. We camp a lot. Mum was tired of our camping gear tossed around everywhere, so she had dad put in the metal lockers for each of us.
"What are you doing dear?" Mum asks me.
"Getting dressed." I pull off my tank and shorts, replacing them with one of those body armor tank tops and cargo pants, both in black. Next, comes a long sleeve tight black shirt.
"You should too," I say after looking at everyone's sleep clothes.
Plopping down on the cold concrete floor, I pull off my milk-soaked socks and put new ones on. Next I pull on my knee-high leather boots, lacing them up.
"We'll wait for your father." Mum's voice shakes.
"Mum! He's not answering." I grab the titanium water bottle from the side of my black bag and fill it up with one of the many water bottles up against the main wall.
Mums never been a take action kind of person when a crisis comes up. It's always dad. I know she's afraid. I am too, but sitting here like sitting ducks is not helping. I may only be fourteen years old, but I'm not stupid. People who sit still when the monsters are around usually die.
"But--"
"No buts mum. That thing out there was smart enough to tear down the cameras. What's to say it isn't smart enough to get in here?"
"She's right." At least Cora has some common sense and starts getting dressed too.
Flipping the lid open to one of the bins, I start to sort through the MRE - meals ready to eat - looking for the most appealing ones and stashing them in my already full pack. I stuff until there's no more room. Dad liked to keep some on hand when we went camping. It was our dinner if we couldn't catch anything.
I smile as Cora comes to stand beside me, decked out in the same clothes as me, just pale pink. We look like some kind of fashion strike team.
"Do you want me to braid your hair?"
"Yeah." I turn around letting Cora reach my frizzy black hair. I feel a tug letting me know she's done and turn around to braid hers. I pause with my hands in her hair.
Life is never going to be the same again.
"Nikki?"
"Sorry." I quickly do her hair and pat her on the shoulder.
"Mum." I try one last time. "Please come with us. We'll go to dad's base."
She just shakes her head no, clutching Amy to her.
I pull my pack on and buckle it up. My back is going to kill me before long.
I bend down on my knees in front of the cot where Amy and mum are sitting.
"Be strong for mum. Okay." I say with a tear clogged voice as I pull Amy into my arms and hug her tightly. I kiss the top of her head as frightened eyes stare back at me.
"Mum please," I whisper one last time looking into her face that looks like it aged ten years since yesterday.
"We will wait for your father."
“I’m not waiting mum.” I plead at her with my teary eyes.
When she looks away from me, I nod my head. So be it. Maybe it's better for them to stay here. Cora and I can bring my dad back. It'll be safer. I keep telling myself that. Over and over while I strap on a hunting knife around my thigh and grab my bow and quiver of arrows.
I look at Cora. Her tanned skin has gone pale. I nod my head again. We can do this. Just a normal hike.
We both make our way to the door behind the staircase. It's a tunnel that leads to a barn and a chunk of land two miles out from us. Mum had the tunnel redone. History, she said, needs to be preserved. I'm thankful for her history hobby now. It helps us get out of here. Helps us get to dad.
With a heavy heart and body full of dread, I leave the hidden basement behind with Cora on my heels down the brick inlaid tunnel.
"Do you think they will be okay?" Cora mumbles out.
I nod. But that's all I can really give her. Because if I'm honest with myself, then the answer is no. I don't think they will be okay. I clench my eyes shut for just a minute, not letting the tears out. I don’t think we will either.
4
ONE MONTH IN
“Do you think it’s safe?” Cora whispers out from beside me.
Do I think it’s safe, hell no! But what else can we do? We need to eat, and the snares we’ve had set up in the woods aren’t catching anything.
The world went to shit one month ago. We’re dirty and hungry and plain tired of this. I crawl closer to the edge of the road, through the bushes me and Cora are hunkered down in. I have no clue where we are. We just keep moving. Avoiding people and towns and everything really. But we’re tired and hungry and the little gas station Cora spotted an hour ago looks so good. Too right if I'm honest with myself.
It’s a ma and pop store, seriously. The red sign hanging on the building reads Ma and Pops’. The little store is sitting by itself. Nothing’s around, and the store seems not to have been looted yet. All the windows are intact. But that doesn’t mean anything. The front door could be unlocked or a backdoor, we can’t spot from our hiding place in the bushes and tree line.
Cora’s stomach growls. I bite my lip. It never seemed thi
s hard for people on TV to survive the world when it goes to hell. Why is it so hard for us?
“We have no choice,” I mumble and stand up. Cora grabs hold of my hand, and we dash across the road to the right side of the gas station.
I’m breathing so hard I can’t hear anything else which is bad. I try to calm myself but can’t. The fear of running into other people or worse, the creatures has me a wreck.
My eyes dart around the trees looking for movement. We’ve been lucky so far not running into anything in the last week but I don’t except our luck to keep going like this. Sooner or later something bad is going to happen.
“Cora!” I hiss as she slowly moves to the front of the building.
I growl under my breath and follow on her heels.
“It looks untouched,” Cora whispers with her hands cupped around her face peering into the gas station.
I gulp. That’s not good. Everything has been affected these days.
“Get your bow out and stay behind me,” I whisper and pull open the glass door.
The little bell rings making me freeze. A minute passes and I move into the store.
The bell rings again as Cora lets the door shut behind us.
My mouth waters looking at all the chips and candy still on the shelves.
Cora rushes forwards, and I laugh.
Something hard pushes on the side of my head and my heart jackhammers in my chest. My eyes close.
“Over here.” The boy's voice says.
My eyes open looking at my sister. Her eyes are wet with tears. The bag of chips she had in her hands fall to the floor as she walks slowly towards me.
The gun leaves my head, and I turn to face the boy as Cora reaches my side.
My eyes widen. He’s young, maybe nine or ten years old with shaggy brown hair and a dirty pair of overalls on.
“We just want some food,” I say, softly moving slightly in front of Cora.
“Get out!” The boy screams, lifting the shotgun higher.
I bite my lip, looking at the way his thin arms shake from the gun and the way he holds it.
“Please,” Cora whispers from behind me.
The boy's eyes move to her, and I run forward. The boy yelps as I jerk the gun from his hands.
I cock the gun and take aim. His arms go up in the air. “Please don’t.” He whispers.
“We just want some food, that’s it.”
I nod at Cora and twenty minutes went by as she goes through the store taking anything we might need.
“Were you really going to shoot us kid?” I ask.
He nods, and I grunt. Well then.
“I’m done,” Cora says walking back to my side.
“Then let's go.” I mumble still keeping the kid in my sight.
Cora goes first, and I walk out backwards. The bell rings twice, and I look at the kid on the other side of the glass door. The look in his eyes breaks a little piece of me. I toss the gun to the side and take off at a run, following Cora back into the woods. This world is going to change me.
5
SIX MONTHS AFTER
My legs pulse with fatigue and my feet are a constant soreness that won’t go away. I stink too. Gag worthy stink. Beyond words, like rotten potatoes left out in the sun. If there are any of those beasts out here, we are toast. They could smell me and Cora from miles away. Hell, even my teeth are furry.
I grunt falling backwards, sending Cora falling to the side. My legs gave out on me. We’ve been walking for so long.
I lay there at an intersection staring at the light blue sky. My breathing is labored and I hurt so damn much. Not only physically but mentally too.
They’re dead. Mum, Amy, Dallas and maybe even dad. All that’s left is me and Cora and who knows how long we will survive in this godforsaken place that used to be home.
Hell has officially came to planet earth and we are just the meat.
“Sorry.” I mumble to Cora. “Are you alright?”
I’ve been dazing at my feet for the last five miles. Cora must have stopped and I walked right into her. Me slamming into her having caused my legs to fail. I’m just so damn tired. Tears of frustration start to leak from my eyes.
“Cora?”
I roll over on my side and look at Cora. She’s sitting in the middle of the road, her hands in her hair.
I lay back down on my back, looking up at the sky again. Of course, we’re not okay. How could we be? We’ll never be okay ever again.
“Nik?”
I lick my dry, cracked, bleeding lips, “Yeah?”
“Do you think we’re close to Gran’s?”
“I don’t know.” I mutter and hear Cora start to cry.
I squeeze my eyes tight.
“Cora, please stop.” I whisper into the air.
“Why don’t you know anything!” She wails and I jerk up to a sitting position.
God no! She needs to be quiet. I roll over onto my hands and knees, crawling quickly over to Cora.
I wrap my too thin arms around her boney body. “Shh, someone might hear you. Shh.” I whisper, rocking us back and forth.
“Why don’t you know?” She mumbles between sobs.
“I’m just a kid Cora and so are you.” I pause, taking an unsteady breath.
The air grows still as her weeping comes to a halt.
“There’s a Love’s.”
I let go of her, looking into her red and puffy eyes.
We gaze at each other and she sways her head, pointing behind me. I twist my neck and sure enough there’s a Love’s Truck Stop right behind me. I look at her with alarming eyes.
“No Cora.”
She gulps, “We’ve done it before and maybe the water is working. Showers Nikki. Showers.”
I look behind me once more, chewing on my dirty thumb nail.
“We could die.” I whisper hoarsely, squinting at the tremendous concrete building.
There’re gas pumps on both sides and the back-parking lot is full of big trucks. But it’s a truck stop meant for truckers. There could be a lot of things in there we need, if it hasn’t already been ransacked. It’s right off of the interstate, there could be a very real possibility that there’s nothing in there.
“We could die right here.” Cora argues.
I look back at her and gradually climb to my feet.
“Our risk of dying increases ten folds by going into that dark building.”
“I know.” She whispers.
I stare at the huge building. They like the dark. The wolf creatures. You scarcely see them out in the daylight. We think it has something to do with their unearthly eyes.
“Showers Nik. A map. Showers.” She moans.
I look at her pleading eyes and back to the building.
I groan, resigned. “Okay.”
She squeals girlish, jumping up and down.
“Cora.” I hiss at her.
“Sorry.” She says meekly, but she's still grinning.
“If we do this, we have to do it right.” I demand.
She nods quickly, her hands folded in front of her chest.
“We have to scout around it first and go in like we’ve practiced. Okay?”
“Yes. Let’s do this.” Excitement shines in her eyes.
There is nothing to be excited about. We could very well be walking to our death.
I stare at the building again, my heart battering wildly in my chest.
“Let’s do this.” Dread fills me up from my toes to my head.
6
ONE YEAR AFTER SHIT HIT THE FAN
The heavy silence has my eyes popping open and my heart thudding painfully. I look out into the thick darkness.
I slowly turn my head to the left, looking for Cora. She’s asleep leaning on the driver's side door.
I reach over and gently shake her. My eyes strain to see past the window and into the night. The small gold car ran out of gas half way through the night and we just decided to camp in it for the night. But something has my spidey sens
e going on high alert.
“Don’t say a word.” I whisper, my mouth barely open.
My eyes flick around. To the front, to the side and out the back window as I slowly reach down to the floor board for the ax.
I see Cora moving just as slowly reaching for her machete on the dashboard. “What is it?" She whispers.
“I don’t know. Something.” I mutter back as I keep looking out into the night. There’s something out there. I’ve learned to trust myself and this feeling I get.
Seconds tick by then minutes and I start to relax as something slams into my door. Cora screams and I’m halfway over the console when what my eyes are seeing registers with my brain.
“It’s a girl.” Cora says quivering
People are just as bad. Maybe worse.
My eyes take in her frightened face. Her bloody hands pressed up against the window. The slice on her cheek, showing muscles. “Help me!” She screams, banging on the window, smearing blood across it.
My eyes flick to the lock and back up. “Don’t Cora.” I snap out harshly, staring at this lady, who brings nothing but death with her.
Cora has a caring heart. Which I love. Don’t get me wrong, but her soft side could get us killed.
“She’s running from something. Don’t unlock the damn door!”
I grip the axe, looking over the woman's bloody shoulder. The moon is not out tonight and I can’t see a damn thing or hear for that matter.
“Shut up.” I say. She doesn’t hear me. Her own screams are drowning me out.
“Shut the fuck up!” I scream and that does it. Tears and snot fall down her face but she’s not yelling anymore.
Her head turns to the side and she whimpers. I look too and see glowing blue eyes in the darkness.
“Cora.”
“I see.”
I slid back into my seat and fought to get my backpack on my back, watching the creature prowl on all fours to the woman. She presses herself into the car with her head turned away and her eyes closed.
