"Mom! Have you seen my sketch pad?" I yell for my room. Mom, Luke and I are getting ready to leave for california. We've been planning this trip for about three months; and the day we leave, of course the day we leave! I can't find my sketch pad. At this point I am tearing my room apart looking for my god damn sketchpad. You're a mess Clarissa Fairchild!
"Quite yelling Clary you'll wake the dead!" I hear Luke shout from his room. I call him Dad, because my biological father doesn't deserve me. He was like a sperm donor. When my mom was married to that ass, he was using meth and trying to develop new drugs. My mom left him when my older brother Jonathan accidentally ingested some of it. It almost killed him. It took a year in the hospital for him to recover. My mother found out she was pregnant with me when she left my father and when a police officer came to arrest him from our house, that officer happened to be Luke. He always made sure that my family was safe. Then he started sleeping over when my mom felt scared. After a few years, he had a different reason to sleep over. Then they got married and the rest is history. Now my mom is currently pregnant with my baby sister.
I can hear the occasional snore from looks room. Unlike me, he was prepared yesterday, so he got to sleep in while I furiously packed for California.
"It's in the kitchen!" I hear my mom shout from the first floor. A breath of relief is released from my lungs. For a few moments I thought I had lost it. Sketching is like my way of relieving stress. I have my suitcase in hand and before I look back at my room. I can't feel homesick now! I feel scared at leaving the sense of familiarity. The sense of comfort in my room.
A devious grin spreads to my face when I get an idea.I start running into my parent's bedroom and I pounce on the bed, scaring the shit out of Luke.
"Clarissa Fairchild! I swear on the Angel that I will leave you here and make this family vacation a romantic vacation!" He shouts from under the covers. I would have taking him seriously except for the fact that when he gets out of the covers, he is smiling with that familiar cheesy grin of his. I climb off the bed and dash to the kitchen, almost falling down the stairs in the mean time. Excitement is running through my veins as I quickly eat the breakfast Mom has made. I think she was trying to make eggs, but what she has on my plate is far from it.
"Mom, this looks like brains, not that I don't love you! It's just, how do you mess up eggs?" I tease at her. Jonathan isn't really chewing his food, just holding it in his mouth and trying to act like he is loving the taste. She must have put something in the eggs. Cravings. Mom sticks her tongue out at me. Sometimes she acts like an older sister. She actually looks like my older sister. We have the same dark red hair, emerald green eyes, and both love to draw. More like doubles of the same person.
"So is Simon and Rebecca going to be ready when we pick him up?" My mom asks me, getting off subject. Simon is my life long best friend. Rebecca is essentially like Simon, but I can tell her things that a boy would be a little embarrassed to hear. They are like my brother and sister, except people don't tell siblings that one has a crush on the other. Or if their dating..
"Yeah, are we going to pick them up now?" I ask Mom. Simon and Rebecca have been so excited to see California with me. I can't believe that their mother is okay with this. She usually is really stern with them. Maybe she just sees this as a way of not seeing the two of them around for a while. Their relationship with each other has been a little strained after Simon and Rebecca's father died.
Mom and Luke are holding hands as we walk to the car. Her stomach looks absolutely huge. Right now she's eight months pregnant and Luke has been treating her like royalty. I'm surprised he even let her make breakfast. Probably because he was asleep. Luke says that one day I'll be in the same position him and mom are in right now. That one day I'll have someone I would give anything for. I don't get what people mean when they say love of their life. I read it in books all the time, yet I've never felt that way for someone, except maybe my mom and Luke, but that's different. The supposed need for the other seems like a liability; and I just can't have one in my life.
"So how many times are we going to play this song, guys?" I ask my parents with an annoyed tone.
"Until the radio breaks Clary!" Luke shouts from in front.
"Think of the children!" I dramatically say to him. I hear Mom and Luke laugh and mutter something like teenagers. I roll my eyes in agitation. We've been on the road for an hour already. Simon has dozed off and Rebecca is listening to her music with her earbuds. Jonathan is seated in the very back of the SUV. He must be playing some game because I can hear the occasional grunt mixed with exhaustion and anger.
"Dad why is there so much traffic? It's not usually like this." I call out to Luke.
"I don't know, maybe a lot of people are leaving the city at this time." Luke says. I nod in agreement. Yet another helicopter passes over us.
"What's going on back there?" I whisper to Luke. I can hear screams and yelling. I think it's because we have not been moving for over ten minutes.
"I'm going to go check, stay in the car." Luke says. I can see him looking around and his eyes widen. He throws open the car door and he looks like he's seen something awful.
"What is it Dad?" I ask warily.
"We have to leave now." He says shakily. Luke starts the car and we speed off into the other lane, passing all the cars that are leaving and trying to avoid the few cars that are coming at us.
"Dad! What are you doing?!" I scream at him. Simon stirs awake and checks behind him when he hears the noise that is in the traffic.
"Clary, Look behind us." He whispers. I don't really see what this will accomplish because we're moving. I turn my head and see what can only be described as total chaos. There are people running out of their cars screaming as people attack the ones trapped in vehicles. I see some man being attacked on the road. After a few moments of trying to escape the man on top of him leans down by his face and don't know what he's doing, only that it's causing the other man pain. Oh god, he's...eating him! What the hell is going on!? Shots are being fired as people desperately try to defend themselves. I don't know how, but when those people are shot, they aren't even slowed down. There is only one explanation to what is happening, but it is the worst possible explanation. If what I think is happening is happening, than we have a slim chance of survival. We have guns, but not that much amo. Our bags are filled with clothes, but not survival gear. We are doomed if this does not change. Mom is panicking in her seat. I turn around again to see Jonathan covering his ears and mumbling something to himself. He doesn't like it when people are yelling. It reminds him of when our father Valentine lived with him and Mom.
"Lucian! What is happening!? What are those people doing?" Mom says in a panicked voice.
"I don't know Jocelyn! Maybe a disease! All I know is that I have to get away from this! We need to go somewhere remote." Luke says in a voice that he only used when he was in the military.
"Dad do you have the guns with you?" I ask with fear. If we don't have those, we are going to die. Rebecca is now panicking with her earbuds tossed over her shoulder. Maybe she's worried about what's going on right now; or the fact that if she didn't tag along, she would be dead right now, or worse, one of those things.
Simon has officially lost his shit and is trying to call his mom. I feel bad because I know his mom wouldn't even do that for him right now.
"Shit, we need more stuff. Okay this is what we're gonna do! We are going to run into the hardware store and grab whatever we can grab! Got that?!" He says in his commander voice. We are all yelling in disagreement. I don't want to be anywhere near those things! I want to be safe in my car.
"Lucian, if you haven't noticed, I am eight months pregnant with your child!" Mom shouts at him.
"Right. Simon, Clary and Rebecca will stay with you. Jonathan, you're coming with me! We should reach the store in twenty minutes. You have to stick with me when we get in their. Don't get separated. If something happens to me, just grab what you can and leave. We need anything that can be used as a weapon. Grab things that are light in weight, but could kill something without breaking. Hammers, and crowbars. Got that?" Luke shouts to Jonathan. Jonathan is just nodding his head. Jonathan used to be in the military but came back for a little while to go with us to California. Guess that came in handy. Jonathan knows how to watch his ass now, and is a skilled man when it comes to weapons.
"Clary, when I leave, I want you to get in the front seat just in case something happens!" Luke orders me.
"I can't leave you guys!" I yell at Luke.
"Jonathan and I know how to protect ourselves, you guys can't." He states; and with that, the subject is dropped and we drive in silence, listening to the screams of others.
When we reach the store, I get out of the SUV and get in the front. I hug Jonathan tightly, fearing it will be the last time I hug him.
"You are not allowed to die, you hear me?" I whisper to my brother. I can feel him nod his head and I let go and sit down in the SUV. My hands are shaking as I hold onto the steering wheel. Every second feels like an eternity as I wait for the two of them. The time on my phone says it's been about twenty minutes. What are they doing? I can hear shots being fired from the store. I am glad it's a big store, or else I am sure that Dad and Jonathan would have been killed.
I am about to get out of the car when I see them. They have a large bag with them and are holding machetes in their hands. The machetes are soaked in blood. I can only hope it is the blood of those monsters and not people. I would like to think that I only have one enemy out their. I run out of the car and hug Jonathan tightly while sobbing. He eventually tells me that we have to leave. I almost forgot we were facing death. Whoops.
Jonathan and I climb in the back seat, wanting to get out of the reach of both people and monsters. Not much is said while Luke starts the SUV and speeds out of the parking lot of the store. Simon and Rebecca are holding hands, scared that they will lose the last of their family that they have left.
"Where are we going Dad?" I ask.
"We're going to your grandparents' farm in Kansas." Luke says without thought.
"We have to go somewhere where we can be separated from people. The less people, the less of those things we see." Mom says.
So that's it. In a matter of hours, we already have lost the world we live in.