Chapter 5: Visions
It had been three days since I’d arrived at Central Park, (Or Hooverville as the soldiers like to call it.) Well, a week actually, but I had laid comatose in that cot for days, recuperating my strength and healing my wounds under the strict and watchful eye of Nurse Cares. I’ve found a journal just recently at the supermarket down the street. It’s nothing much, just a black, five-subject notebook. But due to the lack of nothingness going on I decided that it might be a good way to clear my mind and write about what’s been going on recently. Just this morning I was able to fill in at least twelve pages of information about the day this all started. Honestly now that I look back on it I actually have a talent for writing. Probably because of all those years of working at the office I was actually able to increase my writing talent.
And I must say, this writing shit has actually put me in a better mood. But something else has been bothering me recently. My dreams... they seem to be getting worse. More vivid, more violent, and far more real. Just last night I had a dream that I was looking through the eyes of a girl, one who had lived years and years ago, during a darker time in this world. A young girl to be exact... She... She wasn’t even around thirteen years old... She... God I don’t really even want to talk about it... She... she was just a schoolgirl from Poland, with good grades, and so much promise and potential. But then they came, thundering from the west, raining bullets and shells like a hurricane of hellfire, trampling everything under the treads of their tanks and the stomp of their boots. They came to her door, and broke it down. And the next scene, it became too evil for me to ever comprehend in the hearts of men. They raped her, over and over again. Three Nazi soldiers, standing over a broken and abused girl, smiling in a wicked way as they each took turns. A young girl! God, it was probably one of the worst things I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Even though I couldn’t understand her pleas I knew... I knew she was crying out for them to stop... I knew she was crying to God, begging for it to end... And that’s what happened... It ended. It ended with a bullet going through her head.
I watched as that bullet erupted from the barrel of that pistol, and buried itself between my eyes. Her pain, her humiliation, the death of her innocence...
I don’t know why I was dreaming this... I don’t know why, I don’t know why I’m being tormented with this, with these images and dreams. But that wasn’t the end of it, after that I was back in that same field! The one overlooked by the dying oak, standing vigil over the same field caked in blood and bodies, the same faces of the same soldiers.
Those soldiers were not human! Those soldiers beared the faces of a monster! A demon that was forced out of the pits of Hell, a demon driven by the thirst for blood. One that would do anything to kill and kill again. And time and time again, I felt her watching me... She speaks to me in my sleep. Tells me that I am the bringer of light, equality, happiness. And I don’t even know what she is talking about, I don’t even know who she is!
Every time I ask all she tells me is, In time, child of man, you shall know your destiny. and that doesn’t even relate to the question I fucking asked! I’ll then proceed to ask her what she is talking about. But’s already it’s too late, because she already left. I then would sit there in that blood drenched field, waiting for myself to wake up.
Going over repeatedly in my mind what she just said. After what felt like a lifetime I would finally wake up. Covered in sweat and panting like a dog that just finished running a mile... And still in my mind, I hear her voice. I can hear the voices calling to me, telling me that it’s almost time.
Time for what? She tells me it’s going to happen soon, that on the tenth day on the first day of spring at noon, they’ll take to the skies... What the fuck does that even mean? Resting my head in the palm of my hands I sighed.
“Am I going mad?” I murmured to myself. Nightmares of people and places I could never have seen before, whisperings of dead voices, the feeling of a presence in my dreams. I have heard of people that were called crazy for less.
I placed my pen back in the coffee mug, closed my journal and placed it back in my new backpack. Pushing my chair back away from my desk I switched off the lamp. Lately Hooverville had been having some issues with power outages. So we had been told to cut back on power and resort to these very shitty battery powered lamps. I stood up and slung the bag over my shoulders and made my way outside.
It was around six o’clock in the afternoon, about three hours away from curfew. I began making my way towards the medical tent to get to work and assist Sarah. After that I have night watch for a few hours. I would then go to bed, suffer from possibly another nightmare, wake up go get some breakfast. Work on the perimeter, have a two hour break, then back at the medical tent.
Lather, rinse, fucking repeat.
I haven’t even been here for a week and this shit is fucking boring as Hell, God I can’t wait to return to my apartment. Yeah I’ll admit this is better than being stuck in a office being bitched at by your fucking British boss. Oh yeah did I mention that, that cocksuckers here too, oh fun for me!
After a brisk walk from my tent, I reach the medical bay in about a good two minutes. I fling open the flaps on the tent and I see Sarah treating to a few wounded soldiers. Ever since the scanner thing been brought into the battle, in over one day we’ve been receiving less and less wounded soldiers. Every now and again I would hear the sound of an exploding Valkyrie missile, and already I can tell they found another group of those surgelings. (That’s what the soldiers been calling the creatures for fun.)
“Oh good, you’re here! Quickly, go over to the medical cabinet and get me the rabies shot!” Sarah said, with a bit of panic in her voice. A soldier in the back hollered in pain.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Oh nothing serious, this man might be suffering from a nearly incurable infection, but other than that, everything’s peachy!” she growled sarcastically. “Quickly will you!” she snapped, without any further questions I turned and made my way toward the cabinet. Taking the key I opened the cabinet and began rifling through the medicines and other drugs,
“Morphine no, vicodin no, penicillin no-”
“Would you hurry up he’s starting to go into cardiac arrest!” Sarah ran over to the soldier in the back who appeared to be having a seizure.
“I’m trying to but I can’t seem to find it!” I said looking back over at Sarah.
“Bottom shelf on the right, just below the chlordiazepoxide. Two over from the amoxicillin!” I bent down onto my knees and grabbed the syringe and the rabies vaccine. Sarah jogged over to me and took both items, running back over to the soldier she quickly took the needle and filled it with the drug. Grabbing the soldier by the arm she injected him with the needle and jammed her thumb on the plunger. After that she cleaned off the needle and filled it with sedative and did the same thing, this time though causing the man to calm down and slowly fall unconscious.
All I did that entire time was stand back and watch, like I usually do, watching Sarah save life after life. Sarah sighed and sat back in the stool right beside the soldier’s cot, gently dabbing his forehead with a cool rag. She looked up at me and smiled.
“So, how’s your throat holding up?” she asked, checking over another soldier in the cot to her left. He was another who also seemed to be suffering from the same problem as the previous one, bite wounds. But not no ordinary bite wounds though, these ones seem to be infecting dozens of soldiers who come here. Rabies, but again, this was no ordinary case of rabies, men come in with foam spewing out of the corners of their mouths like a rabid dog. They would thrash around violently, just a day ago I saw Dr. Reynolds get bashed over the head by a delirious soldier who was screaming hysterically. Took three other Marines to contain the poor bastard so Sarah could give him a sedative. Dr. Reynolds also needed to get stitches.
After we were able to calm the poor lad down after he awoke, we began questioning him on what happened down in the subways. The man began shaking like a leaf on a tree, his voice trembling with every word, all he told us was, “I-I-I d-d-don’t know... P-p-pitch B-b-black!”
I smiled and looked down at Sarah, walking over to the water dispenser I answered while pouring myself a cup, “Still a little scratchy, but it’s holding up, how about that head of yours?” I gestured my cup towards the bandages on her head.
She grinned and gently rubbed it. “A headache or two, but with a few tablets of aspirin I’m usually fine.” I pulled up a chair and sat down.
“You know, I don’t think I ever thanked you for helping my brother and I back at the hospital.” I said, crossing my arms. Sarah smiled, and I could swear I saw a hint of a blush rise on her cheeks.
“You’re welcome Isaac, it’s been a pleasure helping you,” she said. Grabbing a hold of a clipboard Sarah began jotting down words.
“What are you writing down?” I asked out of a healthy sense of curiosity.
“Nothing important really, just the daily reports,” she said with a few taps of pen on paper. I nodded, knowing that these military boys wanted everything recorded, from stitches sewn to bullets fired.
“I take it not much happened before I got here?”
Sarah nodded, never looking up from her latest patient report. “It’s been quiet lately, don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I want for there to be more action,” she said, glancing at the cots full of wounded soldiers out of the corner of her eye. “I like this job, but I feel like I could be doing more for more people if they’ll re-assign me somewhere else, somewhere like Trenton or even farther out west. But they just say I’m the best they got.” Sarah finished jotting down her reports and looked up at me.
“So Isaac, what’s your outlook on what’s been going on?” she asked, I recoiled back at the question. All at once, the night of the Surge leapt to the forefront of my thoughts, and of the simple life that had been torn from my hands when the lights went out and when the animals learned to speak.
“Eh... Well I-I don’t know... I want to say that I’m taking it all in stride. But I... I don’t like it. I hate it.” The nurse seemed honestly intrigued, and she continued to press down this path.
“What do you mean by ‘you don’t like it’?” she asked me gently. I began to grow confused; first she asks me on what I think of this whole prison break, and now she’s asking me to clarify? What is this, some type of therapy session?
“Well it’s just that, these creatures are attacking us. They hurt and almost killed my brother, and you! Even myself! Every day since the goddamned Surge, we’ve been hunted and attacked from every side! If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t have been trapped in that godforsaken hotel! If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have almost lost my brother!” I began to grow angry, “If it wasn’t for them I would still be in fucking work right now, getting bitched at by my boss and being annoyed by my co-workers! I would’ve been able to visit my parents last weekend in Bluffton! I would been able to see my dog again, my Mom, my Dad. We could’ve had a cookout!” I got up from my chair and ran a hand through my hair. “I would’ve been able to say, ‘I love you’ to them...” I whispered, the thoughts of my parents coming into play, “I don’t know if they’re alive or dead... I don’t know if they’re safe or in danger... I don’t even know if I’ll be able to see them again...” I sat down and rested my head in the palm of my hands. Taking a deep breath I ran my hands down my face and looked up at Sarah who seemed to be shocked by my outburst.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, looking away. “Just... just a little stressed out, that’s all.” Sarah shook herself out of her stupor and gently laid a hand on my shoulder, trying to console me.
“It’s alright, it’s okay, you’re among friends here. You’re in a safe place here. It’s good to let out your emotions. It’s good to let them out. It’s a terrible thing to just bottle them up and let them fester, because if you did at some point you’d snap. It’s not good to keep your emotions bundled up.” I stared at Sarah, bewildered and distraught. My emotions threatened to boil over, and I wanted nothing more than to just go out, grab a gun from the military’s armory and hunt down the monsters that had ruined my life and threatened everyone I cared for.
But the sight of Sarah’s caring and concerned eyes tamed the rage, and I slowly sank back into my seat.
“Why are you asking me this?” I asked. Sarah shifted her chair closer to mine, and slowly explained it to me.
“Well, before I became a nurse, back in college I was minoring in psychology. It was my contingency plan, to be a psychotherapist if things didn’t pan out in medicine. I knew I wanted to help people, that it was my life’s work to make other people’s lives better and happier,” she said.
“But doesn’t a therapist get paid more than a nurse? I mean, any other person would have just gone for the higher salary,” I said with a small chuckle. I didn’t know what it was, but something in her voice just seemed to drive away my anger against the Surgelings. Maybe it was the calming feeling of having another person who could understand my troubles and make them seem small, maybe it was just the way she said it. But whatever it was, I thought for a moment that maybe Sarah should really have being being a psychiatrist another thought or two. But the nurse just shrugged.
“I don’t know, but what I do know is I prefer being a nurse,” she said with a laugh, I nodded and leaned closer, waiting to hear her story. “Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a doctor, to make my mom and dad proud by saving lives and making sure that no family would be separated by tragedy and be hurt.”
And what I said next had to be said, I had to ask. “What about you? How are you holding up in a world that’s trying to kill us?”
The nurse’s eyes drifted to the floor, and I could tell that she felt as much pain by looking out at the city that had been her home, being bombed by her own government to destroy the swarms of creatures that had been thoughtless animals days before.
“I... I try not to think about it like that. I hear so much from those soldiers about how they think this is the first sign of the apocalypse, that what we’ve seen is only the first taste of things to come. To be honest, I think they’re right. I worked the night shift at a hospital, and all the crazy stuff happens after the sun goes down. I know that things can only get worse right as they seem to get better. How a patient on the recovery from a major surgery will always throw a clot, or when a man with fading chest pain suddenly gets a myocardial infarction. When a newborn baby suddenly turns bright orange because of kidney failure.”
“Wow,” I murmured in disbelief. At this point, I didn’t know what job would have been more merciful to the poor woman. As a nurse, she had to see the physical pains of the world, and as a psychiatrist, she would be charged with stitching the mental scars that the darker parts of society had rent.
“But,” she continued, her voice gaining in strength. “I know that this isn’t all bad. If this is anything, it’s a wake up call. All through my career I’ve seen men and women hit the absolute bottom. Drug addicts who OD, obese people who’ve just had a heart attack, people with a strange lump that turns out to be cancer, I’ve seen them all crash. And when they’re lying there in that bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering where it all went wrong, they all have the same look on their faces. It’s a mix of resignation, a little confusion, maybe just a bit of fear. And when I walk through Hooverville on the way to my tent, I see that look on every downcast face of every refugee. And whenever the person who hit rock bottom looks up, they see the light. Every time, they look up, and see that their future can be brighter. They realize the error of what led them down so far, and they get a new lease on life. Maybe after this is all over, maybe everyone out there in Hooverville will look back and realize how lucky and precious their life really is.”
“Wow,” I murmured again. “That was... deep. Almost kind of beautiful.”
Sarah smiled meekly at my comment. “My grandmother was a nurse too, and when I was a little girl she would tell me all the stories of the ER that she had lived through. She was a very devout woman, and she told me that God looks down on humanity with regret, because He made humanity with a wound in their souls that could only be overcome through trial. And I look out there, and I see impossible things like a horse that talks like you or me and a gorilla wielding a parking meter like a club, I’m starting to think that my grandma was on to something. Something like that could never come about naturally; something bigger, smarter, and a hell of a lot stronger than us has to be at the reigns of it all. Maybe God really is testing us, pushing us down to rock bottom so that we can look up to see hope again.”
Maybe God just got tired of all our shit, I thought to myself.
A silence came over the medical tent, one that was only broken by the moans of deliriously fevered soldiers in their cots. And as I considered that statement, that perhaps it was all some kind of divine test, it chilled me with how much it made sense. “If you don’t mind I’m going to go use the restroom.” The nurse gently chuckled under her breath.
“You go do that, I need to check up on Jacob anyways. Again, thanks for the help,” she said, standing up and walking over to another marine in the back. I nodded and began heading towards the out house.
:[-]:
Fumbling with the lock on the outhouse door, I cursed to myself. “You gotta be fucking kidding me,” I muttered while ramming it with my shoulder. The door didn’t budge an inch. “Oh come on!” I growled, after giving it one more slam the door flew open and I stumbled out falling into a mud puddle. “Fuck!” I shouted, hastily climbing to my feet.
I heard a distinctive familiar laugh coming from behind me, and instantly my face grew red in humiliation. “Oh the look on your face!” I got up and turned towards Kyle who was holding a video camera.
“Real mature Kyle, real mature. How old are you? Five?” I asked almost slipping in the mud again.
“Twenty-eight,” he chuckled sarcastically. “Come on, the camera loves you! Give us a smile, baby!” I scowled at his shenanigans. “Oh! Bingo, that’s the look! You’re a star! Once the internet comes back, you’ll be the biggest thing since lolcats!”
“Smart ass.” I said trying to swat the mud off my pant legs. After a few smacks I gave up, looking up at the camera Kyle was carrying I raised an eyebrow. “What’s with the camera?” I asked, straightening out my back.
“You mean this old thing? You don’t remember this?” he asked, closing the the flip out screen he unslung his bag and gently stuffed the camera inside. “It’s my old camera I got back when I first started doing journalism, just think about how much money I’m going to earn for covering all of this.” A smug grin crossed his lips as he walked towards me and planted a hand on my shoulder. “I’m going to be rich, Ike.”
I smacked his hand off my shoulder and scowled. “We’re going through a crisis situation, and all you can think about is money?” I shook my head and turned away from Kyle. “People are dying out there! New York is a goddamned war zone!” I said gesturing my arm out towards the city, Kyle sighed and looked out towards the city. “These people are scared and confused, and all you can think about is how to exploit that?!”
“I know Isaac,” He said growing quiet. “But you heard Lieutenant Bell, we’re winning this battle. He even said it himself that all of this is going to be over in a week.” Images from my nightmares instantly began flooding back into my mind. The face of the Polish girl, the Nazis,the dying oak over the field of battle, and finally that mare...
On the tenth day on the first day of Spring, they shall take to the skies.
I grasped my head, a migraine raging in the back of my head. “Shit Isaac are you okay!?” Kyle shouted, dropping his camera bag to come to my aid. I stumbled back, my back hitting the outhouse. Images of war, destruction, fires, rape, all the horrors humanity has ever committed began flooding my mind like strobe light at a nightclub.
“NO! Get out of my head!” I screamed, voices of all languages began shouting out my name. “NO! Shut up! Leave me alone!” I slammed my elbow into the outhouse, flailing about as the visions of the dark past assaulted me. Kyle raised his hands while he approached me.
“Isaac you’re scaring me man, what the fuck is going on?” I dropped to my knees, cradling my head. My skull felt as though a hundred hammers pounded a hundred nails into my very bones. My temples throbbed, as if every vein in my head was pulsed with liquid fire. I writhed on the ground, screaming at the pain. But the pain was only momentary, it was the images of horror that came with them that forced the tears from my eyes, and would haunt me to the end of my days.
“Why are you doing this! Why do you torment me with these images!” I screamed to the force that plagued my mind with such visions of monstrosity and terror.
“What are you talking about Isaac? What images?” Kyle got to his knees right next to me.
I am only doing this to show you the truth, son of man. I do not wish to harm you in anyway.
I stopped, it was that voice... The one in my nightmares, the one I heard at the hospital. “What do you want to show me?” I asked out loud, Kyle stared at me confused.
“Ike, you’re scaring me. Please man, just tell me what’s wrong!” he pleaded.
I wish to show you the horrible deeds your race has committed.
“Why?” I asked. “Why are you doing this to me then?”
The only way you can complete your task, you must know the truth first. Know that you are not alone in this task, that there are others across this world charged with the same mission.
“What task? What do I need to do to end these horrible images?” I asked.
Light, Equality, and Happiness...
With that the voice faded away, “Ike w-who the f-f-fuck were you t-t-talking to?”
:[-]:
Kyle sat the tripod on the ground and mounted his camera to it. He stepped behind the camera, fiddling around with the focus, debating whether to use an auxiliary light source or not. He opted to just use the light on the camera to avoid aggravating my migraine. “I’m telling you Kyle, I’m all right. It was just another episode.”
“Another episode? Jesus Christ Isaac, are you telling me this is an ongoing thing?” he asked punching in the settings on the camera. I sat back in my chair, looking around our tent and searching for the right way on how to explain this.
“Not like that, that was the first time it happened like that. It happens usually in my dreams,” I explained, Kyle raised an eyebrow and looked over at me.
“Ike, I need you to explain to me from the beginning. I need you to be clear, and I need you to give me all the details that you can. Now, what happened on the night of the Surge?” Kyle clicked the record button on the camera and a red light began flashing on the corner of it above the lens.
I sighed, nervously running a hand through my hair. “Kyle, you were there. Why do I need to-”
My brother rolled his eyes in exasperation. “I was practically dying, remember? I was unconscious half of the time. The only thing I remember is locking myself in the bathroom. Now start talking.” I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. I felt like I was in an episode of CSI, and the good-cop-bad-cop routine was going to start at any moment.
“Fine, I’ll talk. But do you really need to record everything?” I waved my hand towards the camera. Kyle nodded once.
“Yeah. The world is going to want to know what happened here. This is for future generations, for posterity. Now, what happened on the night of the Surge?” Again images of the wars and battles flooded back into my mind, my migraine slowly began to return. I clutched my head and quickly began to stomp the thoughts away.
“Please... Kyle... if the world is going to see this... I don’t want them to see me as a goddamned schizophrenic maniac,” I begged through the splitting headache and the torrent of evil visions. Kyle shook his head again.
“I’m not turning off the camera, Ike.”
“Turn off the fucking camera, Kyle!” I shouted, a random burst of anger lashing out of my body.
“No! Isaac, please stop trying to stall for time! I need you to work with me here, now please start talking.” Anger began surging throughout my body, though I didn’t know why I was so angry. It was as if my emotions were being toyed with, I don’t know what but I know one thing for sure. I did not want that camera trained on me. “Isaac, I need you to just calm down, I know things are not going good. Shit, nothing’s going good for any of us. But when my brother starts yelling hysterically and then stops suddenly, and starts speaking to absolutely nothing... I know something is wrong. Now please just calm down, I’m worried about you. You’re scared because of what’s happening, that’s all this is. And I’m scared because my little brother is in pain and he won’t talk to me about it. Ike, it’s me, it’s your big brother Kyle. Now I need you to cooperate with me here. Now tell me when it all started, when did this voice start speaking to you?”
I wanted to say it. I wanted to tell him that it all started that night in the hospital, but somehow I knew that he would not believe me. He would think that I had some kind of post traumatic stress or a psychotic breakdown. And I was in no condition to tell him otherwise. “I’m sorry Kyle, but I can’t talk right now.” Kyle looked at me wide eyed.
“What the fuck, you just said you’d speak!” But I ignored him, standing from my seat I made my way towards the flaps on the tent, before opening them I looked back at him.
“I’m sorry Kyle, but... I just can’t,” I said stepping out, I heard Kyle curse in anger while walking away.
I wasn’t trying to be dick or anything to him, but I was scared, scared beyond anything. What was that flash of anger back there? I had never lashed out at Kyle like that before, yes we had our little disputes, we’d roughhoused as kids. But this... this was something else, that wasn’t me back there... That... That was something else.
:[-]:
I stumbled over a large stick in the dark, cursing under my breath I kept on moving. Heading farther and farther away from Hooverville, I needed to clear my thoughts away to calm down this unknown anger. I was walking aimlessly through the darkened streets, not paying attention to where I was going.
Seconds later I felt my foot scrape across concrete, and I stopped. I finally looked up at my surroundings. My vision adjusted to the dark, and I saw a large fountain with a statue of an angle in the center. I must be in the Mall, I approached Bethesda fountain slowly, my shoes clicking every time I made contact with the concrete.
Despite these dark times, the sight of the fountain seemed quite comforting. Reaching the fountain I placed my hands along the cement walls outlining the fountain that formed the fountain’s pool. Looking at the fountain I noticed the water had stopped pouring out of it, probably after the Surge had knocked out power. I sighed and stared down at the water.
The reflection of the moon bouncing off its surface, the stars twinkling high above the world. Looking at myself I noticed how much of a wreck I looked, and how much work it would take me to look decent enough to go to work again. A scruffy beard outlined my considerably narrower jaw. My hair had grown out a bit, I was originally going to get it cut, the night that this all started. It hung low, just long enough to rest on my eyebrows. I sighed and brushed it back. I hated it when my hair grew out, I just flat out didn’t like looking dirty honestly.
Looking in the water I saw my blue eyes reflecting back the light from the stars, reaching my hand out I dipped it in the water and splashed it back in my face. The water that fell from my skin was not the pure, crystalline water that I splashed on there. Bringing my hand back I noticed it was caked in dirt and dried blood. Taking more water I began splashing the muck off my face.
I washed myself in the cold water of that fountain, scrubbing away the blood, scouring away my anger and my pain. I baptized myself in the water of that fountain, there under the witness of the moon and the stars. I washed away my anger at Kyle, and then lost myself in the dazzling dance of the stars in the ripples of the glistening pool.
“What the Hell do you think you’re doing?” I jolted at the sound of the mysterious man behind me. I turned quickly not knowing if the person or thing was human or not, behind me stood three soldiers fully outfitted for combat. But with a bit of closer scrutiny, I noticed that only two of the fireteam were outfitted to kill, the one in the back bore a red cross on his shoulder as well as a larger pack for his medical supplies.
The two in front bore long assault rifles, while the medic in the back bore a shorter carbine rifle, all of which were trained on me. “Uh... I thought I needed to go for a midnight walk, that’s all.” I grinned, one of the soldiers pulled out a flashlight and shined it on me.
“Identify yourself!” barked a heavily built hispanic man, his voice deep, gruff, and very commanding. I guarded my eyes with my arm, shielding myself from the bright light coming from the small flashlight.
“I-Isaac Ridgewood,” I said. “Could you please not shine that in my face?” I asked.
“What are you doing out past curfew, Isaac Ridgewood? And why aren’t you in within the safe perimeter?” asked the large marine, completely ignoring my request and continuing his assault on my retinas.
“I told you, I’m just taking a midnight stroll.”
“Do you know how dangerous it is out here after curfew?” asked the young marine on the right. I could only assume that he was the rookie of the three or something. The marines began approaching me.
“Come on we’re taking you back to base, Rooker! Radio back to HQ and tell them we found a civilian out here.” The medic to my right nodded and pulled out a personal radio and began speaking into it.
I stood there for a second thinking... Rooker... I had heard that name before... Rooker, oh shit! That’s the medic who saved me! “I know you!” I blurted out pointing a finger at Nigel, he looked over at me while putting away his walkie talkie. “You’re Nigel Rooker! The medic who saved me and Nurse Cares from the hospital.”
Nigel squinted through the blinding light of his comrade’s flashlight. And after he sorted through my mildly changed features for a moment, he smiled. “Isaac? God damn, it is you! I knew that name sounded familiar! I thought you were dogmeat after that bomb hit the hospital! I’m surprised you made it out!” Nigel stuck out his right hand towards me, which I kindly took. “We gotta catch up sometime man, but not right now we gotta get back and-”
Frantic beeping came from the rookie’s right leg, pulling out a small device out of his pocket which looked like something from a science fiction movie, the rookie looked at us face stricken with fear. Ruffling noises from the bushes came to our right.
“Omega signature! CONTACT!” The larger marine hoisted his rifle and began firing off shots towards the bushes.
“Come on Isaac we gotta get out of here right now!” Nigel said running back towards Hooverville, instinctively I reached for my M9, I cursed myself for forgetting it back at my tent. I ran trying to keep up with Private Rooker, despite how much gear he had on his the man could run fast. Fast enough to possibly challenge Usain Bolt in a hundred meter dash, behind me I heard the sounds of more machine gun fire.
“Shit, I can’t see a fucking thing!” Nigel said stopping in a opening between a few trees. A scream of soldier caught our ears, and Rooker raised his flashlight to try and identify whatever was behind us.
“Fuck they got Alan!” The large hispanic marine came up behind us, he was panting heavily, and his face was paler than a ghost’s. His sleeve was torn, and a thick stream of blood trickled down from a large gash on his right arm. “They came out and tackled him! I couldn’t see what they looked like but... Shit we gotta go now!”
The three of us slowly turned towards the sounds of demonic creatures, “Those aren’t the surgelings I’m use to hearing.” Nigel said a bit of fear etched in his voice.
“Those aren’t surgelings,” I said taking a few steps back. “Those are monsters!” Out from the trees came three dark masses, landing on the ground they began moving with immense speed. Large marine to my right raised his carbine and fired a few bullets at the on coming creatures, the muzzle flash lighting the area only for a split second. I only saw minor details of the dark monsters, but they looked to me like four foot tall rodent like creatures charging us.
“Don’t waste your ammo just fucking run!” Nigel grabbed the larger marine by his shoulder and tugged him away. “I said run!” The marine turned away from the rodents and began running as fast as he could, Nigel and I followed behind.
Slowly I began to lag behind the two marines my right leg aching with every step, ever since I got wounded back at the hospital I never been able to move that fast. Large needle like objects jabbed their way into the back of my foot lucky though they didn’t puncture my shoes. I let out yelp and tumbled to the ground, spinning around I saw the dark figure above quickly trying to bite it’s way into my leg. Lifting my foot I slammed my size eleven into it’s face, the creature yelped in pain and stumbled back. climbing to my feet the two others jumped out and latched onto my legs knocking me back to the ground they began dragging me away.
“Shit! Let me go!” I shouted thrashing around wildly, even with my acts of protest the creatures would not let me go. Instead they only seemed to squeeze tighter and began dragging me even faster “Nigel!” I shouted, not knowing if he could even hear me anymore. The creatures dragged me through the bushes, branches scraping my back. My jacket caught onto nearby branch ripping a large hole in it’s side.
I fought with all my strength trying to get the creatures to let go, in the distance I heard more gunfire and screams.
The creatures dragged me out into an opening heading towards Sleep Meadow, out of the corner of my eye I saw more distant creatures dragging more humans away, What the fuck is going on!? I thought. In the distance the sounds of gunfire and screams began to pick up and grow louder and more consistent. Right away I feared the worst,
Hooverville was under siege....