We're the Last

by G Sasaki

  Hailey breathed heavily. She looked at the terror written on Grace’s face. Mike looked exasperated, knowing this couldn’t last. And of course, Jeremy cowered in fear. The shield of the Washington High bats held up. But for how long? Bats had resumed fighting in the sky. The others fought for the opportunity to tear off their skin.

  It was time.

  “Lift me up.” Hailey looked at Mike. Then at Jeremy. “You’re both strong. Grab a leg and lift me up.”

  Mike shook his head. “What are you…”

  Hailey cut him off. “Just do it, Mike! This is Plan A!”

  Mike didn’t ask any more questions. He grabbed one leg and Jeremy gripped the other. They lifted her above their shoulders and she stood high, like a cheerleader. She towered over the shield that surrounded them. She cuffed her hands to her mouth and created a funnel to scream into. I hope this works. She couldn’t pierce through the battle cries, but with their heightened senses, they would hear. Hailey filled herself with air and yelled as loud as she could. “Stop! My name is Hailey Hill! I’m the Chosen One!”

  The Washington High bats knew it. Laura knew it. Jeremy knew it. If the Unstables knew it too, they just might listen. Standing high above Mike and Jeremy’s shoulders, Hailey turned and looked. As soon as she finished yelling, everything fell silent. All the shrieks and all the yells just vanished. All that remained were the pained howls of Victor’s tortured men and the light whistling of the wind. The bats stopped fighting. Now, they focused their attention to Hailey as she stood tall above Dave’s shield.

  Grace marveled at what had happened. Apparently everyone believed that Hailey was the Chosen One. Grace looked at Hailey’s face. Her teeth gnarled and with the healing cuts across her cheeks, an aggressive confidence emanated. It was hard to believe this was the same shy girl from school. Hailey declared, “If you want me to save you, then leave here until we’re gone!” Hailey’s eyes panned across the flying field of bats and made eye contact with each one as she went. The bats broke their eye contact before she did. It was almost as if… they were afraid of her.

  Mike looked up at Hailey, who stood what felt like miles above him. Hailey pointed toward the sky and shouted, “Leave!”

  One at a time, the Unstables flew away. The fire in their eyes dissipated and the relentless energy that coursed their veins settled. They simply gave up and left. The ones on the ground leapt and abandoned the scene. Their wings flapped them up, high into the sky and they methodically re-formed the circling cloud above the hospital.

  The Washington High bats gathered and crowded behind Hailey. The field of gore remained. Dead and dismembered bats surrounded them. Mike and Jeremy lowered Hailey and her feet gladly settled on the cement. Mike whispered in her ear, “Whether you’re the Chosen One or not doesn’t matter anymore… you’re the Chosen One now.” Hailey nodded. She didn’t fully take in what he said. The Chosen One thing was weird. She couldn’t explain it. But right now she didn’t care. Her eyes peered toward the sky and the circling cloud of bats. Shadows danced on the ground below them. Hailey squinted. How could she ever spot the one she was looking for?

  Mike’s voice broke her concentration. “You’re looking for your dad?”

  Hailey nodded and kept her eyes locked.

  “You’re looking in the wrong spot.”

  Hailey lowered her eyes and looked at Mike, curious about the meaning of his words. His eyes steadily pointed at a direction straight ahead. She followed his line of sight until she found a lone bat staring at them. Bats around him left their feet and found solace in the sky. All the while, this muscular bat stood his ground, looking at Hailey.

  Hailey whispered, “Dad.”

  She took her first step at closing the distance between them. Another step. Then another. As she made her way across the bloody field of cement, the image of her dad became clearer. Although his face had been radically altered, she could still see him. This was her dad. Nothing had changed but his appearance.

  She stood face to face with him. Her mind scrambled and all she could manage was, “Hi Dad.” She unashamedly approached his furry body and wrapped her arms around him. Although she felt overjoyed to see him, tears stressed at her eyes. “You saved me.” Hailey dug her face into his chest and closed her eyes. At this moment, happy memories bounced in her mind. The time Dad tricked her into thinking he was Santa. The time he surprised her with a trip to Disney World. All those times they played catch with the football. She knew there existed newer, more horrifying memories. But she just wanted to keep them away. The two embraced, basking in one another’s arms.

  Mike, Grace, and Jeremy joined them. Grace watched the reunion with tears shrouding her eyes. A genuine moment of happiness in this new world was a rare occurrence. She hadn’t seen or experienced one since she’d entered it.

  Dad opened his mouth and talked in his high-pitched bat voice. Dutifully, Mike translated, “I’m sorry, Hailey.”

  Hailey stepped out of his grip and looked into his human eyes that bolted onto hers. “For what?” Hailey knew the answer.

  Dad peered down and avoided looking at her. His eyes trembled with doubt. His hands moved to cover them as he hung his head; a distinctly human reaction. His breaths deepened and he sniffled. Seeing him react like that caused Hailey’s own emotions to unhinge. She swallowed heavily and her eyes grew sore with a throbbing pain. Expectedly, she cried. Through her tears she asked him again, more forcefully, “For what?” Dad smeared his hand across his face. He spoke. And waited.

  Hailey asked Mike, “What did he say?”

  Mike hesitated. “He said… ‘For that night. For killing your mother.’”

  It was what Hailey expected… but she didn’t know how to respond. She turned around and buried her eyes in her hands. The image from the bedroom that night was burned in her mind. Mom’s carved up torso. Mom’s head in Sammy’s hand. Hailey wanted to forget that graphic truth of what happened.

  Suddenly, some part of her mind recalled what Mike told her when he was in his cell. You can’t remember people for what they did that night. With her back still to her dad, she forced herself to say the words that left her mouth. “It’s not your fault.” He was a victim, just like everyone else. What horror it must have been for him to discover what he’d done.

  Hailey denied it as long as she could. But her mother’s death was no one’s fault.

  She turned, faced her dad and said it again. “It’s not your fault.” Dad offered a blank reaction. He simply stared. She continued, “You don’t have to be sorry. I forgive you.”

  Dad hesitated but stepped forward and again hugged his daughter. As Hailey hugged back, she felt relieved, finally able to confront that terrifying night two weeks ago. She smiled, knowing Dad felt probably just as comforted. Hailey said, “Come with us.” She stepped back and pleaded into his eyes. “We’re going to Pirate’s Cove. Come with us.” Before he spoke, she knew his answer. His uncertain eyes gave it away. He responded.

  Mike translated, “I can’t.”

  Hailey begged. “Please! We’ll play football. Like we used to. We can play in the sky. We’ll invent a new version of football. Flying Football.” Amusement glistened in his eyes. He responded, with Mike translating, “When I’m human, I’ll come find you. All of us wait here. For the cure.”

  Hailey stepped away from him and glanced at the hospital. It all made sense now- the reason the bats didn’t go inside was for the hope the doctors would find a cure. But she knew the only thing inside the hospital was horrific. There was as little hope inside that building as there was everywhere else. And it was that false hope that kept the swarming cloud of bats above the hospital. Hailey looked back at Dad with heavy eyes and vowed, “If the cure never comes, I’ll find you.”

  Dad stared at Hailey, taking in the sight of his daughter as long as he could. He slowly paced backwards, knowing their reunion was about to end.

  Hailey smiled and gave him all the reassurance she silently could. Dad turned around and
slightly bent his knees, preparing to fly away. Then, he stopped. His head turned and he spoke once more. Upon finishing his thought, he darted from the ground and jumped high into the air. His wings erupted from his shoulders and he flew away, joining the other bats who endlessly waited for a cure.

  Hailey looked to Mike for the meaning of his words.

  “He said… ‘You were right. I never should’ve doubted you.’”

  Hailey’s eyes flushed with tears as she watched her father fly away. As visions of the past washed through her memory, Dad’s words caused her to smile. Lately, he had become strict. Overprotective. Controlling. But here, at the end of the world, he finally had faith in her.

  Hailey could feel hundreds of eyes dawning, waiting for further instruction. Grace, Mike, Jeremy, Dave, and the countless Washington High bats stood silently, eager to obey her commands. Hailey straightened her back, puffed up her chest, and declared, “Pirate’s Cove is our destination. First, we make a quick detour.”

  The Chosen One’s army was ready to finish her mission.

  32

  Later, outside the hospital, the sun strobed down, flashing past the shadows of the Unstables that flew above. The gory remnants of the battle sprinkled along the parking lot. Victor walked through it, each step slowly dragging along the cement. With his gun stowed safely in his back pocket, each of his hands gripped a foot that dragged two heavy bodies behind him. In his left hand, he dragged a woman who barely clung to life. In his wrecked right hand, he hauled the body of a young boy, already far in decomposition.

  To his left, he saw his dying friends from the grocery store. Seven of them, lined up on their backs, clinged to life. They moved, ever slightly, with their moans covering the whistling silence. For the most part, their skin had been ripped from their bodies, covered with a sticky red layer of blood and puss. Four of them had their stomachs shredded open, with entrails sprawled about and carelessly left on the cement. It looked like some of them were even missing limbs. Victor could only wonder what happened to the few men who weren’t there. Perhaps they escaped. Or perhaps, they faced an even worse fate. Despite their mauled appearance, Victor could distinguish their identities. However, one unlucky man’s face was gone and replaced with a jelly-like mask of blood. It was hard to discern the basic features of his face; his eyes appeared to be missing and his nose torn off.

  Truthfully, these men weren’t holding on to life, they were begging for death. They figuratively crawled and nailed their way to an end that wouldn’t come.

  The faceless man coughed and blood sprouted high above him, like a burst from a fountain. “Help me,” he gurgled to anyone who might’ve been listening. The remnants of his ears must have absorbed the sound of Victor’s steps. A chorus of pained pleas rang out. With two heavy bodies dragging behind him, Victor didn’t bother to stop. Instead, he remarked, “Quit whining. You’ll waste my bullets. I can’t use anymore of them. You’ll die eventually.”

  Victor left his friends and approached the decimated body of Hailey’s car, crumpled like a red Coke can. He glanced up at the funnel cloud of bats flying around. The sight of them made his heart heavy with dread. But it wasn’t death that worried him...

  A bat gently landed next to him and watched as Victor made his way to the car. Then another landed on its feet. And another. Victor confidently made eye contact with them as they rained around him. In an instant, dozens of them stood around him.

  When Victor reached the car, he propped the woman against the hood and forced her up despite her obvious weariness. The woman, piano-playing Laura, hung her head and resisted Victor’s efforts to make her stand. Her legs wouldn’t straighten; she just kept falling.

  Victor’s irritation flared and he turned to the gazing bats. “Can someone help me? Hold her up!” Two of the Unstables stepped forward and gripped Laura’s arms, keeping her limp body from falling. Her only remaining eyeball dangled from its eye socket by thread-like nerves.

  One of the Unstables holding her up spoke with its screeching voice and asked Victor a question. Victor casually responded, “You’ll see in a minute. I just need your help.” The crowd around them rapidly grew as bats landed around them in a curious circle. Victor stood in front of Laura and asked, “Where did the girl go?”

  She didn’t move. “You want to ignore me?” Victor lifted his healthy hand, gripped her shriveled eyeball, which felt like an old soft grape, and pulled downwards. The nerves stretched like a rubber band until the eye snapped off. To his surprise, Laura offered only a slight whimper. He tossed the eyeball aside.

  “Your son. I’ll take him from you.” Victor lifted the rotting carcass from the ground and brought its hair to Laura’s hand. She curled her fingers and caressed her son’s scalp. Laura’s lips moved with slight puffs of air exiting her mouth.

  Victor growled. “What are you trying to say!?”

  The words barely escaped. “Hailey is the Chosen One. She will save us.”

  Victor sighed. “She isn’t the Chosen One. There is no Chosen One.” Victor turned to all the bats who watched and yelled, “Are you all so desperate and delusional that you would believe this!? This girl is no chosen one! Do any of you know what she actually wants? She wants everyone to stay like this! She’s trying to destroy the cure!”

  Laura shook her head. “No.”

  A large-bodied bat landed behind Victor. The cement crumpled under his feet and the Unstables could swear they felt a minor earthquake. This bat’s stature was bigger than the others; he stood broad shouldered and bulky with muscle.

  This bat was Hailey’s dad.

  Dad spoke to Victor with high-pitched shrieks, which Victor clearly understood. Dad said, “You lie to all of us.”

  “Really?” Victor asked. “And how are you so certain?” Victor again turned to the masses and declared, “This girl, Hailey, will destroy us if we don’t stop her.”

  Dad knew the importance of stopping the Unstables from being swayed. Most of their minds were warped and it wouldn’t take much for them to believe anything. Dad stood tall and threatened Victor. “You’re not even one of us yet. We can take your human skin for ourselves. If you don’t stop this, you’ll end up like the men you brought here.”

  Victor wondered why it mattered so much to this bat. Then, he realized. A smirk sneaked across his face. “You know this girl.” But no. It went even further than that. Laughter overtook him and he taunted Dad. “You’re related to her, aren’t you?”

  Dad stayed silent. The tension in the air built. The confused eyes of the Unstables shot around at each other, each looking for answers from the other. Dad simply stared at Victor and threatened him with his eyes. Victor didn’t need to be reminded what Dad’s immense strength was capable of.

  Victor sensed momentum shifting to his side and giddily asked, “How are you related? I must know...”

  Dad spoke loudly enough for every bat to hear, “She is my daughter! And she is not trying to destroy a cure for us! She is our ally, unlike this madman who will do anything to stop from becoming one of us!”

  Victor squinted and anger seethed through his teeth. With each point and counterpoint made, the Unstables seemed to switch their allegiances. Victor felt the Unstables shift their eyes on him to wait for a response. Instead, Dad added one more jab. “You can only hide for so long. Eventually, you will look just like us.”

  Victor’s patience escaped and he shouted, “I still have time! All I want is to save us! All of us!”

  “And my daughter has nothing to do with that. Leave her alone.”

  Just when it seemed the argument was won and Dad had made it clear that Hailey was to be left alone, Victor screamed like a maniac with each word laced with insanity. “She has everything to do with it!” In a flash, he pulled out his gun and fired a single shot at Dad.

  The bats shrieked in surprise as Dad stumbled from the impact. The bullet hit him in the chest and traveled through the back of his bulky body. Dad sighed as he fell to his knees. It wasn’
t the first time he’d been shot. Hailey shot him two weeks ago on that night and this fresh wound brought him right back. That night, his wife, the love of his life, the woman he spent the best years of his life with, was killed by his hands. Although Hailey said she had forgiven him, his heart would never do the same.

  Victor turned his attention back to Laura, still being held up. “Now tell me where she went or I’ll kill your son.”

  Laura’s face grimaced as she uttered, “Please. Just let him sleep. He’s tired. He’s a good boy. Please don’t hurt him.”

  “This is your last chance,” Victor said. “And if you don’t answer, I’m going to kill him right now.”

  Laura dropped her head on her chest. She didn’t want to betray Hailey. But she had to save her son. She mumbled, “Pirate’s Cove.”

  Victor beamed. “Your son will be spared.” Using the butt of his gun, he pounded Laura in the face. Her fragile bones collapsed and crushed her skull. The bats holding her up let her body crumble to the ground.

  Victor spoke to the group of Unstables watching. “We’re going to Pirate’s Cove to end this. This girl is not the Chosen One. She is the one person who will destroy our chance at a cure. If you desire to be human again, you can continue to fly around this hospital until you die. Or you can come with me and make the cure happen. She’ll be well protected so I’ll need your help. All I ask is that when we get there, you don’t kill her. It is something I must do!” And with that, the Unstables were now under Victor’s command. But Victor had a secret plan of his own… one the Unstables could never know.

  Dad grew dizzy as he listened to Victor’s crazy rants about his daughter. He wanted to stand up and kill him. His hands pushed on the ground. But his shaky arms couldn’t lift his body. As he clunked back to the cement, the sight of the Unstables became fuzzy. In his vision, all he could see was his family. His wife, alive. With soft human skin and a smile that warmed him. His son, Sammy, with so much promise and a bright future. And the only one still alive, Hailey. He couldn’t die here. While his family waited for him, Hailey was still out there, in danger of losing her life too. Exhaustion weighed him down. As much as he wanted to get up and tear Victor’s limbs from his body, he couldn’t do it.