Chapter 4: Hooverville
Drip...
Drip...
Drip...
I tried to synchronize my blinks with each little drip in the dark, doing anything to pass the impossibly soul crushing monotony. How long had I been here, entombed in this dark and dusty place? Had it been days, weeks, or what drove me mad with indecision, had it only been mere hours? It was almost impossible to tell what day it was, or what time of the day it was. There was only one tiny shaft of light that managed to pierce through the dark, the hole that my impromptu prybar had made. But I did not dare to get close to it, to look out into the world to try and glean even the slightest clue. If I looked out there, would there be an eye looking back, one that would shout that there was a human in their midst?
I only knew that it had been long enough to where my eyes adjusted to the dark, and the sounds of the animal camp that was only a few dozen yards away trickled in through the tiny hole in the wall of debris. I knew that it had been at least five days since the crashing helicopter had sealed me in here. Or, I had fallen asleep at least five times since I became trapped. Each time I lost the battle against fatigue, there was no way of telling how long I slept. And each time I nodded off in this strange world, I found myself in an even stranger one.
Each time I entered the dreams, I was subjected to some new dreamscape that shook my core. But it was not just the nightmares that chilled me, it was the dreams as well. Sometimes I would see things that escaped even the farthest reaches of my imagination; scenes of wonder, moments of triumph, and even moments of the purest ecstasy. But they were always shown in contrast. In a single vision, I would be shown all the beauty of life in all its glory, and in the next vision, I would once again be standing in the middle of the blood stained field of battle, or seeing some terrible vision of anguish in the darkest chapters of human history.
Yet, I always felt the eyes of an unseen watcher peering at me from just out of sight. A mysterious presence that I could only see out of the corner of my eye, yet vanished whenever I turned.
Even if I did not want to sleep, I still needed to eat and drink. I crawled over to the sound of the dripping water, reaching the damp puddle that had formed in a depression on the floor. I cupped my hands, bringing a mouthful of the questionable water to my cracked lips. And with my source of water drained for the time being, I dragged my aching body back to the most comfortable place in my debris-cave. My supplies of cornerstore junk food had lasted as long I could stretch them, and I shoved the last of my supply of Doritos into my mouth, choking them down.
And as I lay there, in that dark and horrible place, hovering between consciousness and the horrible realities of my dreams, I wondered how much longer I could stand this. How much longer I could survive on the meager supplies of food and water, and more importantly, how much longer my mind could survive the loneliness?
:[-]:
I woke with a start, my eyes darting left and right. Why was everything dark!? My heart raced did I bleed out in my sleep!? I began to panic, to reassure myself I shifted my body pain flared. Crying out in pain I quickly clasped my hand over my mouth, remembering where I’m at. I let out a sigh of relief that no one heard me.
Slowly bringing myself to my knees I peered out the small hole in the wall, the world was dark and lifeless the moon shined high in the sky, but that wasn’t what caught my attention instantly my heart was caught in my throat, the camp outside was deserted! What, that’s impossible! Did they get chased out while I was asleep? No I doubt that I would’ve heard some gunfire or something if they did, or would I?
Thinking back to earlier it dawned on me,
“We attack the Demon encampment at dawn.”
How long was I asleep for!? I began to panic again, what if the evacuation has finished and I’m stuck here! Oh God, oh God! Pissed off I picked up the nearest object next to me I closed my eyes and bashed the wall.
Despite the pain in my side, I heard something break. Opening my eyes I looked down and saw that the hole was larger. It grew large enough to fit my fist through it, for a few seconds I glared at the hole with awe.
Shaking myself out of my stupor, I began looking around my now dimly lit tomb. Finding the metal pipe I tossed to the side earlier, I flipped it so the flat tip faced the hole. Bringing my arm back I rammed the flat tip into the wall chiseling my way out...
:[-]:
I slumped back up against the wall, wincing when a snapped piece of wood jabbed me in my back. Shifting over to the right I sighed, three hours have passed and I’d only managed to knock away at least a few centimeters. More light managed to seep through the hole and into my tomb as the sun began to rise and peak over the skyscrapers. Distant gunfire could be heard followed by the sounds of what seemed to me as helicopters. Slowly my eyes began to droop, shaking myself awake I reached into my pocket. Pulling out my phone I went to check the time, pushing the power button the phone wouldn’t comply except for a flashing battery on the screen with a slash through it. Right away I knew all too well I’ve must have been trapped down here for a while. Because last I remember my phone had at least three bars and it would-
A loud explosion knocked me onto the ground followed by a wall of fire, which engulfed the debris that encased me. Right away I began to sweat as the intense heat from the fire began to bake me alive. I need to get out of here! The cave of debris was now lit by a bright orange glow coming from the outside. The sounds of helicopter blades swooped overhead which then came another round of explosions.
Retrieving the pipe once again I began to wailing at the hole in the wall, large chunks with each slam of the pipe flew off as I slammed the wall. Smoke from the fire outside began to fill my lungs burning my insides. I choked and gagged but kept on going.
With the smoke and the fire starting to become unbearable I finally said, “Fuck it!” and dropped to my knees. Forcing my body through the tight space, my vision began to grow blurry my hands burned at the touch of the scorched concrete. I groaned in pain but kept on pulling, through the process I cried out in pain as my right leg was caught by a piece of broken glass slicing it open.
With one final push I felt myself crumple to the ground, coughing as more smoke began to choke my body. The final thing I remember before passing out though was the voice of this unknown man.
“Sergeant! We got a live one over here!”
Then the world went black...
:[-]:
Following the typical nightmare pattern, I was in a rush, speeding down the road in my station wagon. In the far distance a brightly lit cabin sat welcomingly at the top of a hill about a mile or two away. In this eternally dark and dreadful world that had become the home of all my fears and anguish, it stood as a single pinprick of light piercing through the midnight veil. I don’t know why I was heading there. But in the nightmare I felt as if I needed to get there, as if my life depended on it.
My old station wagon creaked and groaned with street that it and I plowed down, searching for a way to that all-hopeful cabin on the hill. While rounding a corner that’s when I saw her standing there in the middle of the rode. I gasped and slammed my foot on the brake, but I was too late. The hood of the bumper smacked into the mare, hurling her back like a rag doll a few yards.
Quickly I got out of the car to check on her, I don’t know why though I got out. It was as if I had no control of my body whatsoever. It felt as if my mental self was sitting back and watching my physical body through a T.V.
But despite seeing it through disembodied eyes, I could still feel the mare’s soft fur under my fingers. I could smell the metallic scent of her blood as it pooled on the concrete beneath her. And I could see her eyes as they lost the spark of life, and the warmth of her body as it escaped into this realm of nightmares.
I let out a guilty breath and sat back, running my hands through my hair. Looking back at the mare I realized something. It was the same mare from the hospital and the streets, why did I keep seeing this one particular?
And more importantly, why did I feel guilty about killing her? She was the enemy, a creature that had probably taken human lives, yet it tore wounds in my heart to watch her eyes be overcast by the grey veil of death.
“IsAAC!"
I jolted at the sound of the invasive voice, this was nothing like the other voice I heard in my previous dreams. Its very presence seemed to rattle the dreamscape, and I cringed as it threatened to destroy everything around me. It started off normal but quickly changed and distorted like a broken record player. I couldn’t make out if it was a man or a woman, but my experience in my dreams quickly told me that it definitely possessed a human quality. I quickly climbed to my feet, looking around and trying to find the bearer of the demonic voice.
Not being able to find the person or thing that spoke to me . I turned my attention back to the dead pony, looking back I yelped in fear and fell back on my behind using my legs to push myself away.
Where there had been a slowly bleeding corpse of a pony only moments before, there was now just an empty stretch of concrete.
“Isaac,WAKE UP!”
I scrambled back onto my feet, my heart racing, this didn’t feel like an ordinary nightmare. It felt real too real, I looked around the area once more. The sea of towering skyscrapers twisted and rotted away into a forest of tall, looming trees. Their sharp and twisted branches grasped at my clothes like skeletal fingers, and a lonely breeze moaned through like the groan of a living corpse. A shadowy black fog began to blow in, swirling around my feet and leaving an icy chill wherever it touched. “Wh-what the fuck is going on!” my voice trembled.
“Isaac,WAKE UP!!”
The demonic voice screeched once more, again threatening to rend and rift this already unstable reality. Looking up I saw a mysterious dark mass flying towards me from between the trees. Covering my head I screamed...
:[-]:
“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty!” chided a familiar voice, as whoever it was shook me, my eyes snapped open. Darting left and right looking to see if that mysterious dark figure was still out there, I felt the need to run, and to hide again in the safety of the debris-cave. But a steady hand found my shoulder, and held me still. “Isaac, jeez, are you okay? You look like you’ve been through one hell of a trip.” Calming down, I smiled when I saw the friendliest face that I would ever know.
“Speak... for yourself,” I croaked with a dry, raspy voice, looking up at Kyle. It hurt to speak, my voice felt as if someone took a large sheet of sandpaper and rubbed the inside of my throat raw. Bringing a hand up to my throat I raised an eyebrow and looked at Kyle, not much had changed since the last time I saw my brother. Except for the new clothes and the bandage they had wrapped around his shoulder, he was still the mischievous guy who had plagued my younger years with wet-willies and taught me how to hit on girls.
And it was at that moment that all the damage that had been done to me seemed irrelevant, and I launched myself up from the sterile cot, wrapping my weak arms as strongly as I could around his shoulders.
Kyle smiled, giving me a pat on the back with his good arm. “Wondering what’s wrong with your voice?” he asked. I nodded and slowly sank back down into the comfort of the cot. “Well the Doctor said the soldiers found you down by St. Catherine's Park. Just a stone’s throw from where the military was performing some bombing runs on those bastards out there. They say you’ve got throat burns like a Viet Cong insurgent on the wrong end of a barrel of napalm. Well anyways,” He said handing me a glass of water, which I took rather greedily and began chugging it. “Whoa! Slow down there, Flash! Don’t want to drink it too fast,” he said, tipping the cup back, I frowned and glanced over at Kyle. “Sorry, but anyways what I was saying was Second Lieutenant Rodriguez found you lying just outside the hotel.” I nodded my head making a mental note to thank this Rodriguez fellow if I ever see him.
Taking my gaze off Kyle I glanced around the room taking in my new found surroundings. I appeared to be in a tent surrounded by cots and medical cabinets, to my right was a row of wounded soldiers. Most with bite marks and gashes, I even saw a soldier in the back getting an arrow surgically removed from his right shoulder.
“Where... Am I?” I wheezed, looking back over at Kyle, my brother smiled and stood up from my bedside.
“I’ll show you,” he said as he leaned down to help me up. Kyle gently grasped my side, slowly lifting me out of the bed. I awaited the imminent flash of pain from my wound, but surprisingly, my body didn’t ache or flare in pain, it probably had to do though with the amount of morphine they probably pumped into me.
“Hey! What are you doing, all patients must stay in bed until cleared by the doctor,” said a woman from behind us. Kyle wrapped my arm around the back of his neck. Turning towards the nurse who was just in military attire, she also wore a bandage around her forehead. Kyle raised his right hand.
“Don’t worry miss, it’ll only be for a few minutes. Besides, he’s taking up room that someone with a real problem could be using,” he said jokingly, giving me the kind of tough time that made me look like a whiner and a hypochondriac, despite my poor condition. The nurse shook her head in protest.
“I’m sorry sir, but you need to let him down now. I just don’t want to cause any problems, now please put him down.” Kyle shook his head,
“I’m sorry Ms Cares, but please this is the first time in a week since I saw my brother.” My eyes grew wide, I’ve been out for a week!? Impossible, that’s just... Impossible. I rested my head in the palm of my right hand.
“Isaac are you okay?” Kyle asked looking down at me,
“Yes... Just in... Shock.” I said.
“See, Kyle he isn’t stable enough to even speak yet. Now please just set him back down.” Kyle rolled his eyes, carefully shifting my body to ease me back into the cot.
“Fine, just give me a sec-” The flaps of the tent flew open as four soldiers followed by three medics stormed in, carrying three stretchers which held a few wounded soldiers.
“Make some room, we got injured here!” shouted a large built African American man who held a large light machine gun. Instantly Nurse Cares snapped back into her “Zone” and got right to work.
“What’s the cause of injury?” she asked, walking along side the soldiers.
“Same damn thing as always, bite wounds,” said one of the medics, “We were down in the subway tunnels about an hour ago during the cleanup operation. We were unable to see what attacked us, all the lights were out and the entire area down there is pitch black. Whatever it was though it was extremely fast...” Kyle tugged me to the side, pulling me away from the conversation.
“Come on Ike, let’s go for a walk while Commandant Cares isn’t looking.” I looked up at Kyle, raising an eyebrow. Kyle tilted his head towards the flaps on the tent, and I nodded in understanding. To be honest, I didn’t want to be cooped up in a bed all day, I’d rather take a walk around outside and get the breath of fresh air that I had been craving for a long time. But honestly, even if I didn’t look like it I was actually the happiest man on the Earth right now. My brother Kyle was actually alive and well enough to be giving me that older-brother-routine, Nurse Cares was okay and she seemed to have gotten a role in being a nurse for the military right now.
“Alright Isaac, welcome,” Kyle reached out and grabbed a hold of the flap pulling it out wide I was blinded by a white light, “to Hooverville.” My brother held out his hand as if showing off a great marvel, seconds later my vision cleared to see a bright lit world of large green military tents. Men and women of all ages roamed freely amongst the sea of military tents, some standing around blazing barrels like the proverbial hobos that had once filled New York. Hardly any of them though looked happy, and it was a heart-wrenching sight despite the clear skies and bright sun.
It felt as if all the spirit and the fight in these people had been sucked clean, and save for the quiet murmurs and whispers I heard, everything was silent. I looked over at Kyle, confused. “You never paid attention in history class,” he said in response, giving me a nudge to my sore ribs. “We’re in Central Park.” I raised an eyebrow, even more confused.
“I... I thought Central Park was evacuated? Like the rest of the city,” I forced out, my throat was starting to lay off me and every minute it was becoming easier for me to speak.
“Well...” Kyle began but was cut off by the large African man we seen earlier come out of the tent.
“We put an end to the evacuation two days ago,” the Marine said. “Ever since we found a way to sniff out the sons of bitches with a spectrum scanner that we used to use to snoop for dirty bombs, now we find those fuckers wherever they hide and blow them sky high without puttin’ a boot on the ground.” He took a moment to gaze out over the camp, seeming to be somehow satisfied with the way things were turning out. He turned back to my brother and I. “Name’s Lieutenant Ronald Bell,” he said, sticking his right hand out to me, which I firmly took.
“So I take it we’re winning the battle then?” I asked, and Ronald laughed in response to my question.“Winning? Shit, did the Texas Rangers just ‘win’ against the Orioles? Wiped the floor with ‘em is more like it. Those bitches never saw us coming. Just a week ago they thought they could attack Hooverville head on, all we did is place a few omega detectors along the streets, and the main artillery would make it rain whenever a detector started chirpin’. They ran with their tails tucked between their legs.”
“So you’re saying you guys actually developed a scanner that can detect where each and every one of these animals are?” Kyle asked. “What, is it like thermal censoring or something?” Ronald shrugged and began walking,
“I don’t know the real specs of the detectors, I’ll tell you what I know while we walk.” Kyle nodded and we began walking with Ronald. “The detectors have a technical name that’s twenty words long or something like that. Honestly, I have no Idea how the damn things work, like I said before, soldiers on deployment in the Middle East used to use those suckers to sniff for yellow-cake uranium that terrorists were trying to use to make dirty bombs. The corporation that made ‘em tried to pitch ‘em as a Geiger counter, a FLIR system, and a spectrum analyzer all rolled into one. Couple of scientists far out west found out that these bastards have a special type of energy that just tickles the omega detectors pink. Ever since they spread the word on how to fight them, we’ve been kicking ass.” He said as we walked out of the town of tents and into clearing that was filled with helicopters, tanks, cannons, and other weapons of destruction.
The dream about the war between the creatures and man flooded back into my mind, the face of the marine at the end of the battle flashed before my eyes every time I blinked. In the back of my head I felt a migraine begin to form, clutching my forehead, I requested that we should take a break.
Kyle sat me down right beside one of the transport helicopters. “Is everything alright with him?” Ronald asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine... Just got a real bad headache that’s all.” I said, running a hand through my hair.
Kyle smiled and reached back into his back pocket. “I got something to take the edge off for you.” And he grinned madly as he pulled out a bottle of vicodin.
“Where the Hell did you get those?” Ronald snapped.
“Okay, I’ll admit, I smuggled them from the pharmacy down the street. On the last scavenging trip.” Kyle said while unscrewing the cap, he took out two tablets and handed them over to me. Ronald sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose,
“My God man do you know how pissed my superiors are going to be when they find out, that someone has been smuggling supplies.” Kyle sighed and looked up at him,
“Don’t worry man I only took this one, the nurse told me that Isaac might wake up soon. So just to be prepared I went and got him these. Besides, it’s not like they were doing anyone any good just sitting behind some counter.” I popped the two pills in my mouth, sighing I tilted my head back and rested it on the back of the chopper.
Looking around at my surroundings, it wasn’t much besides the vehicles and trees. But there was one thing though that caught my attention, soldiers, dozens of them. They surrounded the distant helicopters, working in teams as they removed some black object with a large dish on the end out of a padded crate. I yawned as the powerful opiates began to work through my system, and I looked up at Ronald.
“What are they doing to those choppers?” I asked pointing over at them. Each engineer struggled to lift the heavy looking device as they bolted them to the underside of each helicopter.
“Oh, them? They’re mounting the omega detectors. We just got a new shipment this morning,” he said. “By the way things are going, I’ll bet you all of this will be over within the next week.”