I’ve spoken to one person since that day. He told me he was certain the creatures had come from Hell itself, spoke at me about it for hours. This brimstone preacher, who had been an insurance broker in his previous life, was a little over zealous but for the most part I was happy just to be near another human being. He had decided that Hell really exists and that it is the place of scourging flames the Bible told of. There would have been all the light they ever needed down there. All logical.504Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV1ZQr88s33
I asked him why, if Hell was their paradise, they had chosen to leave it? He was not phased; those with the truth never are. I rolled eyes he couldn’t see in the dark. If they were from Hell it made true everything. A Hell, then a Devil. A Devil, then a God. I resisted the urge to ask him for a Halleluiah and again pressed him as to why they would vacate their rightful place to come here.
He responded to me as a parent to a naïve child. They had been set upon us, of course. There were no horsemen, no final moments of blinding, terrible truth. The Armageddon our Lord gave us was the death of us all and the absence of light.
Did I believe that? Shit, I think Oswald did kill Kennedy. I believe in steel, stone and wood. My parents were devout Catholics and I stopped attending services when I was thirteen. I’m sure there are other people holed up out there who believe in a meaning behind this. That’s giving the creatures too much credit and us as well. This isn’t Judgement Day; this is the dinosaurs all over again with a different cast of characters. One species gets wiped out, another rises. The world keeps turning and the rats and cockroaches go about their business.
The preacher hid out with me for a couple of days until he pulled back a corner of the blanket I had used to cover the front window. It was still light, just, and I didn’t know enough then to stop him. I saw his face for the first time, bathed in evening twilight, and then he was gone. I remember the glass shattering, the blanket ruffling, a glimpse of six or seven of their cracked-leather claws and then the blanket settled and I was back in darkness. Alone. Safe.
My little wind-up radio gives me nothing, not even an emergency broadcast signal. Before my phone cut out I tried calling everyone I know and got no answers. I took to dialling random phone numbers but still no answers. Even before the power went I was too afraid to turn on the TV in case they smelt or saw or however-the fuck sensed its light.
I ran outside three nights ago. I had no food and so, I had no choice.
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