Night had fallen hours ago. An unnatural darkness now crowding the city streets where once there were streetlights and store fronts there was now only that eerie darkness. Like death casting its shroud over the streets. It was just one more reminder for the survivors that their days were numbered. At least during the daylight they could pretend, at least then they could see what was coming for them.
Jack threw himself down against a nearby piece of crumbing building; something that might have once been part of a convenience store but was now only a lone wall standing amidst the rubble. He was breathing heavily, sweat dripping down his brow. He wiped it away carefully checking all around him. He reached into his pocket and counted his last few remaining shells. Only 6 left. He cracked open his shotgun and loaded it silently and carefully.
As he snapped it back into place he froze. A dull humming sound was approaching him. Or was it moving away? He couldn’t tell, you could never tell, all you could do was listen and wait. The humming grew softer and more distant and he breathed a sigh of relief. It had been days since he had seen another living soul in the streets. He huddled against the wall laying the shotgun against his lap. He was exhausted.
He had gone almost a day and a half without sleeping. Not since the last raid. They came through the city in force that day, cutting down everything and anything that was walking on two legs, never the animals, only the people. Even now he could hear the dull sound of their marching echoing off the buildings around him. He closed his eyes tightly for a moment, rocking back and forth gently, trying to stay warm.
The nights were growing colder, longer and colder. At least it seemed to stop them. They rarely moved at night, and the cold air seemed to be keeping them away even during the daylight hours now. They had seemed persistent until now. Maybe they had moved on, maybe there wasn’t a threat to them here anymore. He desperately racked his weary mind for some kind of answer to the question of “why”.
Why what? Why everything. Ever since that first day when the sky suddenly opened up and the world as he knew it came crashing down around him.
Suddenly he heard a loud noise from a nearby alleyway. He sprang onto one knee quickly aiming in the direction of the noise. He held his breath and gently placed his finger over the trigger squeezing it gently. He closed one eye gently, desperate to not make a sound, desperate to remain steady and calm. He breathed in slowly and held it, just as he was taught.
“This is it then.” His mind was racing with confusion and doubt “they’ve finally caught you, finally brought you down to this, one last stand, one last chance to go down in glory.”
Just as he was ready to die he heard it, the gentle rasping bark of a dog. His heart leapt into his throat and he answered the call back as best he could with his dry throat. He listened carefully, frozen in that moment as if his whole world had stopped. Then he heard it, the same noise repeated again. He rushed out from behind the crumbled building and toward the sound running blindly.
He came crashing into the dark alleyway landing with a loud crashing noise against the wall and tripping over an old garbage can. He flailed helplessly until a pair of hands helped him to his feet. He almost broke into tears when he saw who they belonged too.
“Ben! Ben, oh my god… I thought they killed you!” He gave his old friend a long hard hug.
“Hey! Hey!” a whispered voice called out to him “Keep it down you two, they will hear you!”
Jack’s eyes slowly scanned the darkness and he could barley make out several other shapes in the darkness. Three or four other people crouched in the alley glancing around nervously.
“I thought you were dead too” Ben whispered carefully in his ear. “But right now, we have to keep it down, we’ve been tracking two of them through here, some of the smaller ones.”
Jack nodded slowly and drew his makeshift cloak around him. He was pretty sure that it had once been a very handsome trench coat as he had dug it out of the rubble of what he was sure was an exclusively men’s clothing store a month ago. He was careful not to say a word as another man approached him carefully.
“Get down you two!” He rasped at them.
Jack fell to his knee obediently leaning back against the alley’s wall looking out into the rubble that lay before them, scanning it carefully. Ben crouched beside him whispering to the other man quietly.
“Sir, its Jack! We thought we lost him in the big push but, it looks like he’s managed to pull another miracle out of his ass!” He patted Jack on the shoulder heavily
“Jack? My god boy are you really still alive?” The man lowered his face and placed it close to Jack’s. He could make it out now, Sergeant Winters was standing over him.
“Sir! Are you a sight for sore eyes! How many of you made it out? Is it just the group of you?” Jack was relived, and for the first time in days he relaxed a moment.
“A good number of us made it kid, don’t worry about that now though. They’ve mobbed out from here mostly since then. We hardly see them at night, and not even as much during the day anymore.” Winters was speaking a little louder now with a firm confidence in his voice that calmed Jack.
“I’ve noticed the same. It’s been two days since I’ve seen the last of them, though I’ve heard them recently around here.” Jack slowly lowered his shotgun and turned a little to face the man.
Winter’s had been in the army when it all happened. Now he managed to keep his title of Sergeant more as a nickname then anything else seeing as it was written on the uniform he was wearing even now. It had seen better days, and was patched together with whatever cloth would fit the holes in it but, he wasn’t one to complain about it.
“We’ve got two of the little fuckers round here somewhere. They’ve been trying to root us out of hiding for a while. Thought they’d given up on us entirely but you can never fucking tell what the hell they are thinking anyways.” Winter’s had a far off look in his eye, at least, Jack figured that’s what was going on from what he could see.
Ben cut in looking Jack in the face. “You got a gun?” Jack nodded “Ammo?”
“I’ve got six of the 12-gauge and a handful of 9mm in my pocket, but the nines aren’t doing me any good.” Jack rummaged through his pockets counting again.
“Johnson!” Winter’s rasped into the alley “today’s your lucky day.”
Johnson hustled up to the front of the alley his face covered in a black ski mask. He put out his hand and Jack happily handed over the pistol rounds he had been hauling around all this time.
“Thanks bud, been running low since a couple weeks back” He winked at Jack before pulling a black pistol out of his belt and loading it slowly and methodically.
“Anybody got some twelve gauge to spare?” Winter’s called into the darkness before hesitantly producing a small box from his bag. “Been carrying these since we hit a camping store two days back, better keep an eye on them its probably all we are gonna be able to get for a while.” Jack took the box and secured it in a small green pouch on his belt.
“Thanks” was all he could say before they heard the humming.
Everyone hit the walls hard, crouching carefully, letting the dark alleyway swallow them up, and letting themselves dissolve into nothingness. The humming was definitely getting louder. From their vantage point they could barley make two sets of cold blue lights lurching awkwardly in the darkness.
“That’s them boys.” Was all Winter’s had to say. The others slowly disappeared into the darkness, some climbing a nearby fire escape, others moving into the blackened store front in whose alley Jack and Ben remained crouched.
“What’s the plan?” whispered Jack, almost inaudibly.
“Just fishing” was all he could make out of Ben’s response.
Jack hunkered down staring into the darkness carefully; never taking his eyes off the bobbing blue lights, desperately trying not to blink. They were quick when they wanted to be, too fast to follow sometimes. Not if you managed to get the drop on them though. They still moved sluggishly and awkwardly, almost as if they were underwater. That didn’t keep stop their dead straight ahead speed though.
He could make them out clearer now. The blue lights illuminating their shiny metal exteriors. Polished like the silver dining sets his mother had been paying out for dinner at his last real meal. They weren’t tall, about five foot or so from what he could gather, though he had never seen one standing, and they clamored along awkwardly on two legs supported by their long gangly arms that served to support them.
The little ones weren’t so bad. It’s the big ones you had to watch out for.
Before Jack could make out anymore of their frames the first signal went out. He could hear Ben’s gentle meow, a perfect imitation of any cat he could remember hearing. It fooled them well enough as well; the bobbing lights didn’t even break rhythm for a heartbeat. He slowly lowered his shotgun and aiming it carefully at the set of lights closest to him. He took a deep breath, just as Winters had taught him, and steadied his arms as well as he could.
Then came the second meow and all hell broke loose. The lights were only twenty of so feet from then when the first flashes of gunfire lit up the night. The two sets of blue eyes froze for a moment, and Jack squeezed off both barrels. The lights lurched for a moment, as if they were lost in confusion, unsure of which way to move. They were torn to pieces in an instant. Even before Jack had jammed another two shells into his gun they fell to the ground their guttural animal cries filling the streets.
Ben grabbed him and hauled him to his feet pulling him down the alley and hurling him at an opened manhole cover.
“You first” he said as he stared out into the night intensely.
Jack threw himself down the slick ladder desperately trying not to lose his grip in a half limb half fall. As he hit the bottom of the ladder Ben followed after him hauling the manhole cover into place with a loud clanging noise before joining Jack at the bottom of the sewers.
“Goddamn it’s good to see you again Ben…” Jack was almost on the verge of tears.
“Just like old times eh?” Ben slapped him on the back hard before leading him off into the maze of tunnels.
Post a Comment