The room was dark.
No not just dark, but the blackest of black, the only illumination
was from the flashes of lightning and the glow from the computer
screens lining the far wall of the room. I experienced this not first
hand but as if I was there, I felt the action, the reaction, the
final conclusion. Neither Third person, nor first.
With a bang and a flash it was over.
My
best friend dead. On the floor. Dead, by my hand, my weapon, my gun,
my bullet.
And as quickly as the scene
started, it ended.
In darkness.
And as opposites
attract, the next scene starts in sterile
light.
"where are you guys?" I asked, trying to hear
through the bad reception of my cell. Wal-Mart never has good
reception.
"We're over--crackle"
my best friend said as he cut in and out.
"Well
if you can hear me, I parked at the far end of the plaza, by the
Chinese curio store." I was mad at Sarah for some reason or
another so she wasn't texting me, but it was agreed that we would
all meet up over there by my car if we got separated.
"Okay, meet you there," he said as the call was dropped by
the relentless Wal-Mart dead zone. I chuckled as I thought of those
hotel commercials about dead zones.
I glanced around,
trying in vain a last ditch attempt to search out Sarah and him. No
such luck acquiesced to my request so I moved on to a self check out
lane. as I stepped towards the entrance between the inside and
outer doors, it seemed as if I stepped towards the divider of heaven,
on one side dark, treacherous flashes of lightning. On the other,
light warmth, and protective. I shrugged off the thoughts and moved
to the outside world, and headed to my vehicle.
I had finally trekked across the wasteland of vehicles that covered
the parking lot and placed my whatever I had bought inside my
vehicle. As I opened my trunk, I thought I saw, within a flash of
lightning, a creature but without the continuous light, I strained my
eyes for naught. Paranoia set in, as I continued to unload my
cart.
"A U! Over here!" I heard
Sarah call out to me.
I turned and sure enough there they were. I
could kill them, but there they were, crossing through the lawn at
the end of the parking lot by the woods.
"Let's get out of here, I have a bad feeling." he
said.
"Don't tell me you
believe in the news story this morning? About the mutant cougars
roaming the area?" I said, as I remembered the illusion of
seeing something earlier.
"Maybe."
"Well let's
just go," Sarah pleaded. She was getting the onset of paranoia.
And as quickly as a the lightning flashed, we
were surrounded by feline animals, cougars.
"Well, I guess you were right." I told him.
"Let's save the I told you so's for if we live through this,"
he said as he pulled out a pocket knife.
"Sarah hides." I told her. She ducked away behind a
few vehicles.
Instantly the animals
started in, and we evaded them just enough, but it's only a matter of
time before we would be done in fore we were outnumbered, and out
armed, with only him having a pocket knife and me my fists. A cougar
launched itself at his face and he stabbed his pocket knife through
its neck.
"Distract them, I have an idea!"
I launched into a run towards the Chinese curio shop. I had the idea
that the Shoppe would have some form of sword to use. I used my elbow
and broke open the window of the door and unlocked the door from the
inside.
"There's got to be something I can
use." I scanned the front, "Ah ha!" There on top of
the glass case by the entrance was a beautiful black samurai sword.
Without further ado I grabbed the sword and flew back down the hill.
AS I approached the scene, he was attacked from behind, knocked flat
on his face. Sarah broke from the cars and tried to make a run
for my vehicle. The cougar that toppled him leapt up and
grabbed Sarah with its claws. In pain and agony she screamed
out for help, though there was no one to hear her. He didn't get
up.
I unsheathed the
sword and ran up to her, and in one quick concise motion I flipped
the sword and cut the cougars head in two, thus having freed Sarah
from death's grasp.
"Sarah, they seem to have run off, I'll get the car." I
hoofed it to the car at a brisk run, wary for any hidden dangers. As
I got to the car, I noticed I had left it wide open, but didn't
give it another thought. I entered to vehicle and turned on the
ignition, which turned on the interior lights for 3 seconds.
An
animal face in the rearview
mirror.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Flashback with the lightning*
I am
at a doorstep. A house near the center of town. I've been here
before.
My friend's mom opens the door. This is the town of our
childhood, which was bankrupted and closed down by our age of 15.
"How are you?" she
asks.
"Um, good, is he
around?" I inquire.
"Oh
yes, I'll go get him. Where are you guys going?" she asks
like a good parental unit does.
"Just down to the park in town"
"Ok, just a second and he'll be right out." she disappears
inside, hopefully to go get him. After a few moments, the door opens
and he exits.
"Hey,
what's up?" he asks.
"Let's go."
We walk down the
road to the center of
town.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After I snapped back to reality, the light was still on. In the
first second, I saw that I had involuntarily picked up a feline
hitchhiker. And in the next second, the cougar lunged at me, but I
had him in the final marker. At the last second I impaled my sword
through the driver's seat and skewered the creature like a shish ka
bob.
For
the next 20 seconds, I just sat there, incredulous at the near loss
of my life, how close the final frontier nearly was. Then I noticed
that the cats were moving in again. My engine roared to life,
giving the cougars pause. I got out and pulled the lifeless
carcass out of the backseat of my car.
"Hmm, red," I muttered to myself. With the close
examination, I found that the animals were red. I got back in my
vehicle and went to pick up my friends. By the time that action
had transpired, he was back up and Sarah looked ok, just
shaken.
"Get in."
I told them.
"Boy
am I glad to see you, I thought they had gotten you," he
replied.
"Thanks
for the vote of confidence, now let's depart before we become the
departed." and with that we flew like
I
drove like a bat out of hell...bat out of hell? Cat out of
hell? Hell Cats. Red Cougars or Hell Cats now. Interesting. Anyways,
I drove like a bat out of hell to Sarah's apartment. As we're going
cross country, unbeknownst to us we are being followed by the Hell
Cats. The lightning evolved into rain and thunder, now officially a
full blown storm.
"Damn
it." I cursed. My windshield wiper blades were sticking,
making it nearly impossible to see out. I was forced to pull over on
an uphill slope in the road. When I exited, I quickly leapt to the
front of my car to fix the blades. As I endeavored to fix the
problem, a howl cut loose across the area. I froze stock still like a
deer in the headlights. Almost instantly I regained my wits and
jumped back into the car and gunned it up the hill.
As soon as I crossed the hill top, there was a Hell Cat standing
right in the road. The animal startled me, as if I wasn't already
on the verge of crazy already. I slammed the brakes, and the car went
into a hopefully death defying spin towards the
ditch....
"what did you want to talk about?" he asks me as we sit on
the swings.
"Nothing, I
just wanted to hangout." I lie. I didn't really want to ask
what was on my mind.
"You can't lie to me; we've been friends for our entire lives.
We're what? Turning 15 in three months? That's ten years we've
known each other, played together as little kids." he
counterattacks.
"Fine. We'll always be friends right? Best friends
forever?" I ask him.
"Of course, forever." he
says.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As we slide out of control into the ditch, everything seemed to go
slow motion.
And a song that I find strangely evil plays as we
spin to our imminent doom.
All around me are familiar
faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for
their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
And their tears
are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide
my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
And
I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in
which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to
tell you
'Cos I find it hard to take
When people run in
circles
It's a very, very
Mad World
Children waiting for
the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Made to
feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and
listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no
one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right
through me, look right through me
And then the ride stopped and only darkness.
As I awakened, I realized that I was no longer in the vehicle.
I had been thrown from the car and was lying on the grass. I stood up
and glanced about my surroundings, scanning for Sarah and him. They
were both lying face down a few meters from where I had landed.
"Hey get up," whispered to them
as I shook them awake, "We've got to get on the run. The Hell
Cats are probably looking for us."
"I'm up," he said.
Sarah sits
up, "I'm alive?"
"Not
for long if we don't get going. We could end up cat toys." I
said. I helped them to their feet.
A howl ripped the air again.
"Run,
run now." I pulled the sword from the car. "I'll try to buy
time."
"Okay. May the
Force be With You." he said. And then they took off,
disappeared into the black night.
I took a
stance, as the cats surrounded me. They closed in, closer, closer,
and still closer...then they took off. I stood there for a second,
and then I realized that they were after the unarmed prey. I ran
after him and Sarah.
As I'm
running, I realized that the ground that I was traveling across was
actually a beaten path. Perhaps it was once a road. The further I ran
the more I felt like I had been here before. The path I traveled on
started passing in between buildings, a center road maybe? I moved
further in town. I noticed a bright light from the center of town.
I picked up the pace and when I got to the center, there was a
building in the middle. Wait this town. This center. This was my old
town. Over run and forgotten, except by whom? As I got closer, there
was a ring of cougars out front, feasting. When I saw what it was
they were feasting upon, I ran into them, sword drawn with a rage
that would make the gods look in fear. I hacked them apart, killed
several before they even realized I was upon them.
When I cleared the ring, it was Sarah in the center.
"Oh Sarah, I'm soo sorry." driven with grief I ran inside
before the cats could recover and form a proper attack.
The inside was nearly as dark as the outside. Meager running lights
on the floor gave a clear path. I crept slowly deeper and
deeper into the interior of the dark building. As I passed by
doors, I peered inside. Mostly was what looked like labs.
Formulas and equations on boards looked like genetic double helix
coding an unknown structure. I continued into the bowels of the
building, down several flights of stairs into the abyss. As I
continued on for what seemed like an eternity, I saw a door way. A
door at the very end of the hall. No other twists and turns, just a
final door.
Sword at the ready, I crept closer.
"Come in, friend," a familiar voice called.
I entered.
"You." I stated. I pointed my sword at him.
"Yes, Me." he nodded.
"Is this your lab?"
"Yes, it's where I engineered the Hell Cats"
"They are your production?"
"Yes, my engineering an genius gave forth to an ultimate attack
animal"
"Seems that they've gotten out of hand," I stated. I
started to circle around him.
"Stop," he pulled out a gun, "Or I'll have to shoot
you."
"Shoot
me? I thought we were friends forever?"
"We are, nothing personal, but this is business."
"Then
I'm sorry." I lunged. He dodged the sword and wrestled it out of
my grip.
I kicked the gun out of his hand and it skittered across
the room to stop on the far wall from the computer screens.
The room
was dark. No not just dark, but the blackest of black, the only
illumination was from the flashes of lightning and the glow from the
computer screens lining the far wall of the room.
I experienced
this first hand.
I felt the action, the reaction, the final
conclusion.
First person viewpoint.
With a bang and a flash it was over.
My best
friend dead. On the floor. Dead, by my hand, my weapon, my gun, my
bullet.
And as quickly as the scene started,
it ended.
In darkness.