Title: Enter the Distant Sky
Author: cloudsongs
Genre: Twilight. Thriller/Romance/Horror.
Pairings: Bella/Jacob, Leah/Sam/Emily
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A nuclear bomb drops on Seattle, Washington after the discovery of vampires leading the Swans to escape with many Quiletue people to Neah Bay.
Enter the Distant Sky
Prologue
The group had been trekking for two days now and every mile behind them felt like a weight melting off their shoulders. Harry tried to stay positive by exclaiming each mile marker as they made their way to Neah Bay. The excitement exuded because Emily had guaranteed that her family there was still alive and that the monsters hadn't affected the area. But despite their steady progress, it was going to be another three days before they arrived to their hopefully safe destination.
Charlie had been wary of the whole situation. He urged them to take their vehicles, especially Bella, and get there in less than an hour but as soon as he saw the hordes of people waiting at the gas pumps, he shut his mouth and laced his hiking boots tight. Besides, Bella knew that Charlie was thinking irrationally due to fear -her engine would have attracted the monsters faster than if she had slit her wrists and screamed into the open air.
Bella looked at her dad walking near the front of the group. He had always seemed meek and unassuming her whole life that the sudden initiative he took to lead the forty-eight people the fifty-mile trek to Neah Bay opened her eyes to the type of man Charlie really was. Several times she had to swallow the guilt rising up in her throat when she remembered how she treated him the past year.
They were on a particularly long stretch of road with very few abandoned cars. It seemed the further they walked out of La Push and Forks, the fewer signs of civilization left over. Jacob had seen a fairly new car with the drivers-side window cracked open and Bella could see his mouth practically water at the thought of taking it apart.
She smiled. It felt genuinely good to be near Jacob again, but she wished it was under better circumstances.
But it didn't mean their relationship had improved. In fact, Jacob and his new group of "friends" made a point to disappear every night into the woods with no word to the rest of the group about what exactly they were up to. Charlie often protested against the boys leaving in blind darkness, but he was mostly ignored. Sam was the only one who made a point to try to calm him down to very little success.
Speaking of Sam, Bella noticed the intense relationship he had with his girlfriend Emily. It felt embarrassing every time she saw the two together. She had never seen a couple so in love before to the discomfort of all except the tight-knit inner circle of the La Push council. More than anyone, Bella guessed Leah Clearwater was the most uncomfortable. It was Quil Ateara, who still talked to her to her relief, that told her Sam and Leah had dated long enough that an engagement was discussed until Sam ditched her for Emily.
Bella knew what it felt like to have others pity her when Edward first left her, but she couldn't help but feel the same for Leah. At least Edward wasn't flaunting his new lover in front of her.
A commotion near the back brought her out of her reverie. There was some scuffling and raised voices. Too much noise. She swiveled, panicked, to face Charlie who was already starting to run to the back.
The Bella saw what was happening.
A Quileute man, about the same age as Charlie, lifted a baby up into the air by the collar of his onesie and slammed him into the asphalt with a thick crack.
Bella's hands clasped over her mouth to stifle the scream. Tears ran over her fingers and her eyes stung from being open too long but she couldn't stop looking. The baby's mother couldn't hold her horror in as well as Bella because within seconds, a blood-curdling scream erupted from her throat. "What did you do?! David, what did you do?" she screamed.
People surrounded the woman to shut her mouth, their eyes wide with fear. Her whimpers and wails slipped through the huddle of people. Charlie had the man on his stomach on the ground, arms stretched back to handcuff them. Sue knelt down next to the baby who was too quiet and whose head didn't look quite right anymore.
"What're you going to fucking do, pig?" The Quileute man screamed under Charlie's knee. He grunted as Charlie tightened the handcuffs and ripped part of the man's shirt. "Mary, she was going to give us away anyway! What's the point? We were going to die anyway!" Charlie bunched up the fabric and shoved it into the man's mouth as other men came down on him to press his mouth shut.
There was a period of hushed whispers and then silence. People began to run in every direction -some people letting out panicked sobs that others tried to shush.
Charlie got up and scanned the group until his eyes met Bella's. He waved at her to move and pointed to one of the cars. Bella ran as fast as she could to the car that Jacob had looked at before and slid underneath.
Everyone waited.
It wasn't until a few minutes into the silence that Bella noticed the La Push boys had a tight circle around the periphery of the group. One of the boys -Paul, Bella remembered -was shaking furiously to the point where she couldn't even make out his form.
A loud screech echoed through the woods around them before a grey, long-limbed creature flung itself out into the light, mouth open to reveal two long and sharp fangs, ready to descend on its first victim.
The monsters came out one by one.
And then the La Push boys became monsters too.