Six months later …
They were surrounded by a concrete jungle; the green in the area was sparse with an occasional bit of grass or a single tree. A line of abandoned cars stretched across the main road as far as the eye could see. It was a depressing sight if there ever was one. While a strong gust of wind blew through the area, creating eerier howl. Neither of the two men was frightened by the sound. They knew the sound of the enemy, having fought them, and killed them. The fires had extinguished long ago. The smell of acrid smoke had long since parted. This was once the business district; the building next to them had its entire bottom floor, its’ lobby, made of glass windows. Outside were massive concrete pillars several stories high. They were leaning against these pillars lamenting the hell they were stuck in.
“You ever wonder why we were chosen?” Michael asked, staring up into the sky.
“Never,” Robert said, flicking the cigarette in his hand away, “Between surviving and running for my life, I don’t have the time.”
“Seriously, millions of other people have died but we’re still alive. More to the point, those people never got a chance. It’s like we were chosen. Those other people turned instantly without a chance to object or fight. They just went crazy like someone flipped the switch that turns off their humanity. This apocalypse didn't just bring about the fall of mankind but brought the end to humanity. All that made people decent has been stripped away leaving the bitter nasty parts behind, the parts we would lock away in prison to be forgotten before the fall. The human population has seemingly been reduced on purpose to a mere handful. Hundreds are starving to death and all of them are ready to kill for a single slice of bread. There are no laws and any crime is punishable by murder. Execution without a trial or a jury of their peers. We’re forced to do the unthinkable to survive. To forsake all we hold dear to see another day in hell.”
Robert replied pondering, “Do we sacrifice the human race to save our morality? Do we fight without pause, the children becoming just another causality of war? What if the next generation is never born because we’re too weak. Will we become the final generation?”
“I shudder to think about it, Michael. If we die here, I'd rather die with a clear conscious than knowing that I committed crimes against not only nature, but against humanity itself. The very thing we’re fighting to save.”
“At least there will be someone to mark our sins. Enough of these 'what ifs', a story for another time perhaps? We’re here to figure out why the slow ones haven’t infested the area. The area is unremarkable, devoid of any likely clues.”
“I say that building...” he pointed to the adjacent building, “...is the only cavernous building. It’s like a foreboding totem to the old world’s decadence.”
“Risky, you can’t see what’s inside.”
“Exactly, it’s mysterious, what horrors live inside?” Robert asked, cocking his M16. The hefty weight made him feel protected, like a warm blanket, “Shall we?”
“We shall indeed,” Michael said cocking his own M16.
Each footstep inside the cavernous structure echoed, the place reeked of human shit or something worse. This wasn't from mould or from the building rotting, but both were prevalent. It smelled both familiar and unnatural, “Michael, one thing bothers me, why are you so pale?”
“I have no idea why. It started when I was hearing voices and had those feelings. The sun made me feel tired and weak. It just got worse until the fall. What is really weird is that I still feel weak in direct sunlight. Yet as the sun drifts beyond the horizon, I feel invigorated. It’s like I can run forever, climb the highest mountain, and fuck all night long. I've grown use to it by now.”
The second floor smelled even stranger, and there was a long trail of blood from the top of stairs leading deeper inside, “Tell me, dear brother,” Robert said in a mocking Russian accent, “what is wrong with this picture?”
Michael replied in equally appalling Russian accident, “Clearly, there are too few humans alive to die in such a random and remote location. I haven’t seen any wildlife, but that doesn't mean they don’t exist, but in the only dark secluded building? I think this is a trap.”
“Luckily, we specialize in traps. Are your balls screwed on?”
Michael nodded with chuckle, “There right where they need to be.”
“Shit,” Robert said pointing at the dead deer that lay ahead. It was bloody, battered, and tattered, “There is wildlife. Your right though, something chased it in here,” his light reflected off of something, “Dear god in heaven,” he muttered under his breath. It was a woman with jet black hair, with pale, almost translucent, skin. Her face had sunken in as if her facial muscles had deteriorated causing her skin to stick to her cheekbones. She had two disturbing apparent things about her. Her emaciated naked body was showing strange muscle growths arranging in seemingly random places that rippled throughout her body. Second was that her iris' had expanded, taking up her entire eye, the pupil permanently expanded. She tore at them with such unbelievable an speed that it would make Olympic sprinter jealous. Bounding off of the wall, she tackled Robert to the ground. Michael came in from behind, hitting her with butt of his rifle. She backed off in surprise, looking at him cock-eyed before letting out a deafening roar. She took off running, but not before Michael got off a single shot. She was struck in the upper back, which once again surprised her. It was apparent she was more confused than injured. After a brief pause to indulge her sense of curiosity, she skittered off into the darkness, “What the fuck was that!?” Robert screamed.
“We have the crazies, the living dead, and what the fuck that was.”
“I tell you what that bitch is, Michael,” Robert said, barely being funny, “a fucking creeper. I fucking hate this apocalypse. I feel like once I get a grasp on things, it throws me for another curve ball,” he made a gesture like he swatting something away.
“Should we leave?” Michael asked in concerned.
“Fuck no, I want her for study, get a net.”
A short time later they had brought a net and were back inside tracking their mysterious woman. Michael wasn't very supportive of the plan, “This is stupid; I want to express explicitly how stupid this plan is. This is mind numbingly stupid. You want to capture the psycho bitch? She tore that deer apart with her fucking teeth, her teeth. Who fucking does that? God, she is making Darwin crap himself. Your trying to score a date?”
“Aww shut up. You’re the biggest baby I know.”
“Dude her tits were nice, but not that nice. I'm not trying to be mauled by Elvira mistress of fucking darkness.”
“Not funny bro, not in the least. I'm sure she is harmless,” Robert said jokingly.
“No, fuck you, I insist,” their antics both caused them to burst out laughing. It sounded unusual to them with how dark things had been recently, “We need humour. I think that's what I miss most about humanity, humour,” he focused back on their task at hand, but never lost his humour, “Here chicka chicka, Michael won’t hurt you. Not sure I could hurt you even if I wanted too. Listen,” he calls out, “I'm sorry I shot you. Can we be friends?” As if to answer they heard something charging towards them, “Oh, shit!”
She was like a fucking freight train barrelling towards him going at least forty miles per hour. Robert wasn't sure if crashing into Michael was on purpose, but she injured herself, “Thank Michael, your mange incapacitated her. Good job buddy.”
Michael held his thumb up, “That was intentional. I’m all right.”
Robert pulled out a Walkie-talkie, “Imperial green calling HQ. We have found unidentified creatures in red zone requesting extraction of the specimen, over?”
He heard a male voice back over the Walkie-talkie, “Clear copy. You said you found a new specimen? What the hell is it?”
“Clearly was human at one point. Female, translucent skin with no sign of decay, non-hostile, and clearly intelligent. We also found signs of wildlife, how does venison sound?”
“Doctor Kaufman will be pleased. The extraction team is under-way. ETA five minutes.”
Doctor Kaufman was a tall man with broad shoulders, his face was long and slender, with a small brow with eyes far up in his face. Above his droopy half-moon eyes, that made him look always tired, were bushy eye brows. The blond hair on his head had been cropped hastily. He looked at the specimen, before looking down at the clipboard in his hands, “I thought you said you injured her?”
Michael looked worried, “It wasn't fatal, but I shot her between the shoulder blades.”
Robert interrupted them, “Guys, she has got a name. It’s Elvira.”
Michael burst out laughing saying, “You have got to be kidding me. You’re giving her a name?”
Kaufman continued, “There are no apparent signs of trauma or hydrostatic shock. Which means you were either incorrect or her healing ability is beyond anything I have ever seen."
“Great,” Michael says, “you should have named her wolverine.”
Kaufman was becoming annoyed now, tapping his foot in impatience, “The good news is Elvira’s reproductive organs are intact.”
Robert chuckled under his breath, “If you want mutant children.”
“Well obviously,” the doctor says becoming flustered, “Elvira's intelligence is also intact. That being said, something had twisted and warped her body causing her to develop several bizarre things. She is an aberration, an abomination of both of god and nature. Her metabolism is three times as fast as a human, her bones have been strengthened by muscles, of all things. She has bizarre muscle growths both in the normal places you would expect and completely arbitrary places. Best guess is that she went through a state not too dissimilar to puberty where newly developed organs produced large quantities of testosterone for short duration. This suppresses oestrogen, and stimulated the creation of the new muscles. There are an increased amount of tendons throughout the muscles with a higher tensile strength. I would estimate her strength, with malnutrition, to be 1.5 times the normal human strength.”
“If she is that strong in her current state, how strong would she be if she was fully fed?”
“As strong as a gorilla, could easily crush your skull. You’re lucky she is frightened by us. Now her eyes and skin have been completely developed for surviving in the dark. Her skin has lost all pigmentation. She wouldn't be able to survive any length in daylight.”
“Isn't that an evolutionary step backwards? Asinine evolutionary step to develop a creature for the dark environments when there is none? Besides living underground in the old subways and sewers, there are not many places to escape the sun.”
“My guess is that she is a precursor to an environmental change. Nothing that has happened has been by accident. Our survival was no accident, we have no natural immunity to the fall. What made people go insane or what brought the dead back to life to hunt the living? We were chosen to live on. She was chosen to evolve for the new world that is coming. A new world that is void of light and bathed in perpetual night. Where these creature will become the top predators. They will hunt the dead and the living with equal ferocity. God help us all.”
“I want your weapon ready, but doc release Elvira from her restraints.”
“Beg your pardon?” the doctor asked in alarm. Had Robert lost his mind?
“I have a theory,” Robert says calmly. The doctor undid the restraints, but made sure he got the hell away from her. By god, he wasn't going to be the only one in the room without a weapon with a loose specimen. She leaped from the table showing off her impressive acrobatics, ushering a roar of defiance. As expected by one man and one man alone, she didn't attack, but merely retreated into a corner.
“Doctor you said Elvira is a precursor, right? Well she is one of the first, if not the only one of these creatures to evolve. For now she is isolated, scared, and alone with very few places to hide. Humans are nearly extinct which makes us a rarity; to her we’re a myth. We’re something to scoff at, nothing more than superstition to scare children. What she is afraid of are those walking cadavers that stalk the red zones or the fucking crazies that broke into my house when this shit started.”
Michael took a step closer towards her, “She has been running all this time, hiding like we were. Afraid to move, afraid they would find and kill her.”
“Worse,” Robert said, “hunted by the night and trapped by day. All the while trapped inside her mutated skin waiting for the day when she would rule the world,” he took the final step forward coming face to face with the woman. She roared a challenge to him, causing him to smile, looking her right in the eye. In those blue eyes he could see her desperation. She was terrified the monsters had finally caught up to kill her, “A new born cub, having not earned her claws yet, to become queen of the jungle,” When he didn't react she realized it was hopeless, submitting to him.
“This isn't incredible. No matter how powerful you are, if your spirit is broken the person is broken,” he patted her on the head; it was slimy and wet, “I'm guessing the slime keeps her skin from drying out so she needs to be near a water source or a damp environment,” she huddled by his leg, weeping softly to herself.
Robert continued, “Humans weep not monsters. Our enemies feel no pain or remorse. They attack without question or provocation. Elvira is displaying pack tendencies, submitting dominance if she can’t win instead triggering a violent response. Bring me a steak.” Tossing it to her, she scurried off into the corner, tearing into it, “She evolved into a predator that is cunning, fast, and vicious; not entirely running off of instinct, but unquestionably alone. A desperate animal can and will bond, but their first instinct is to bite when cornered. We cornered her back in the building. Now let's see if she will bond,” he turned to leave the room, but she followed him. When he turned to look at her, she scurried off back to the same corner. He said in a soothing and calm baby voice, “Come on. She not responding to the words, least I don’t think so. I think she can sense emotions or smell the chemicals we give off. It’s like how dogs smell fear. I'm not sounding threatening, in fact I sound happy and pleased. She picks up on that,” he allowed her to follow him all the way to the ground level, luckily by then it was night time, and to his quarters.
“We have a guest dear?” his wife asked. He founded it amusing that she wasn't surprised in the slightest, but in an era when the dead walk and human race is facing extinction nothing surprised you.
“I'm not sure what to make of it,” he says.
“It’s friendly, that's something. Keep it off of the furniture,” his wife saw her doing something odd and chuckled saying, “She seems to be climbing the walls. Does she have a name?”
“Elvira and yes, she is designed for endurance and power. I figure during the night she is active and by day becomes lethargic and seeks shelter, “Lay down,” he says pointing to the floor. She scrawled up in a foetal position covering her face with long strands of straight black hair, “Obedient isn’t she?”
“She’s cute,” his wife says laughing, “Always wanted a dog. Just think it’s like having a large smurf.”
“I'm going back out tomorrow, I want to know if their more of her kind around.”
Sometime later they were back inside and Michael wondered, “Another one of your hunches?”
“I wanted to see if there were more of them in here,” he said, giving a shrug. The second floor was clear, but third floor was anything but, “We're not alone,” Robert said, cold and far away. The sounds around him seemed to have come to a crawl, while the world around him was spinning faster and faster. He broke out in uncontrollable laughter on the verge of hysteria,” The shadows are dancing,” he screams at the top of his lungs, “The minions of hell, the puppets dance, dances for their masters. Their dances are beautiful, magnificent! I’ve seen them before.”
“What the fuck are you babbling about, Robert?”
One of the shadows leaped, and Robert swatted it away with ease, as one would swat a fly. The shadow was revealed to be a humanoid creature with slimy putrid jet-black leather skin, with tattered pieces hanging off, smelling of brimstone. They were lighting quick on all fours, their skin blending in with the shadows. Robert came crashing back down to earth completely confused and dizzy, “Sorry, I was absent what did I miss?”
“Not fucking now,” Michael growled, “we’re entertaining guest!”
“Fuck are those things?” Robert asked raising his M16? He fires wide, missing one of the quick moving creatures, but the bullet ricocheted striking the creature from behind, “No use run for it,” they took off running in the dark labyrinth getting ever more lost.
Suddenly, Robert was in a quaint looking cottage. The floor was decorated with a scarlet coloured carpet that was extremely fluffy and soft to the touch. Across from him was a beige coloured kitchen table and a china closet next to it. Sitting at the table was a little old grandma wearing a grey sweater, smiling cheerfully, “Cookie?” she ask him, “You’re a very hard man to find.”
“I was just in a building being attacked by these things. We were running.”
“Oh, you’re still there dearie,” she says cryptically, “I bet you’re wondering if you’re dreaming. Let me tell you the answer is no. You define your situation as hell. Goodness me, that's exactly what is happening. Now there is this little old book no one can see but you. They placed it in the library for, guess what, you to find! Doesn’t that sound delightful? It’s like scavenger hunt only with a soulless abomination.”
“Wait, what is going on here?” Robert asked, suddenly having an aching headache.
“That is a good question, but one I can’t answer, but the book can. Will you be a dear and go fetch it for me?”
“Who, the hell are you?”
“Well sunny, I'm grandma Otessa, and this is my quaint little home. I'm guardian of before, you call it history. I'm here to make sure someone rights their wrongs, dot their i’s and cross their t’s.”
Reaching out to grab a cookie, he took a bite, realizing that it’s the best thing he has ever tasted. She smiled, seeing how much he loved it, “I had ten Trillion years to perfect the recipe.”
“I'm sorry, but none of this is possible. I was just there; the world was torched and had become a wasteland. The world was abandoned, millions dead. I look out your window and everything is normal. I've died and went to heaven.”
“Shuck,” she says embarrassed, “this isn’t heaven; this is grandma Otessa’s house. Heaven gone been destroyed long ago.”
“Then how is any of this possible?”
“Like this…” her voice was changing along with the woman. She went from an elderly woman to the hottest young woman he ever laid eyes on. She had eyes that sparkled like the ocean, skin like porcelain, voluptuous lips, a cute little nose that perfectly fitted her face, and the undeniable legs of a goddess, “This is what I looked like ten trillion years ago. Man I would love a roll in the hay. I haven’t had sex in wow, your time it would be 150 years, but since I'm out of your time stream, it must have been eleven-million years. You can have the cookies.”
Picking up the tray of cookies in confusion, he was suddenly standing outside the building where they found the girl, and were being attack by the monsters, “What in the bloody world?”
“I know man,” Michael said, “I didn't think we were ever going to get out of there.”
“Cookie?” Robert asked him, holding out a cookie.
“Okay, where did you find cookies? More to the point, when did you find the time while running from monsters to find cookies?”342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf06cQuZWV4
