A/N: This was loosely inspired by the Teslen rain theme, simply because it was raining in 'Pavor Nocturnus' =P It asks the question of what if Will wasn't the only one Helen found? I've obviously changed things around. Anyway, this'll only be two or three chapters, so please enjoy, tell me whatcha think, and thanks for reading! =)
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A Moment of Lucidity
Was she really going to do this? Helen stared at the jar in her hand, mesmerized by the green carvings and more importantly, what it could do.
This would be the beginning of her end.
Peace.
Rest.
Oblivion.
Helen blinked.
Now she was cold. It was dark. And she was lying on the floor.
The ground underneath felt different, even and tiled. Helen blinked again. The picture remained the same. Rolling onto her back (how had she gotten onto the floor?), Helen stared up at the high ceiling. Propping herself up, Helen saw the familiar corridors of her Sanctuary, dark, ransacked, and littered with debris. Leaves strewn across the floor mingled with inches of dust and the lush paintings she meticulously picked and bought with their colors now dull and lifeless. The rich tones in the wood paneling, now dry and faded. Spiderwebs wafted across everything. The physical culmination of her dream lay in abandoned disarray around her.
What had happened? How had she gotten here? What was going on?
A sudden, innocuous mist weaved into existence and Helen watched it with disquiet. She shuffled away as it approached her and then faded just as quickly as it had come.
Was this a hallucination? Helen checked her pulse and stood. Was it a dream? The rising suspicion that it wasn't caused Helen's heart to race. What had she stumbled into?
Wrapping her arms around herself, Helen quelled a tiny frisson of fear and began to walk. Seeking out the answers to those questions silently asked and the myriad of others assaulting her mind; the most important being: where was everyone else?
Utter devastation. The city had been completely decimated. Helen shivered in the howling rain and torrid gusts of wind, soaking her clothes as she walked along the roof. Her alarmed confusion mounted as she beheld the destruction. Whole buildings gone, stripped down to their foundations and beyond. The sky was dark, covered with thick, unforgiving clouds, concealing the sky and sun, adding to the somber, frightening blight.
It was Armageddon.
Goosebumps rose on her chilled skin. Frigid rain dripped down her skin and plastered her hair against prickled flesh.
To get her answers, Helen would have to venture out there. Into this sinister, macabre scene of death on Earth.
Her logical mind demanded calm and rationale, while Helen's baser instincts wanted to shudder away from such a prospect.
"Will! Henry!" Helen scrounged around her home and found a coat, but not another single living soul. She didn't know which one she would have preferred at the moment.
Helen wrapped herself tightly in the coat, but it did nothing to stop the cold. It came from inside, underneath her skin. That cold fear, anxiety, and panic at being completely at a loss. It caused her to shiver.
Thick vines scaled the Sanctuary walls, growing and making quick work of entombing the remains of her life.
Everything had been abandoned and wrecked. Water leaked in from the ceilings, creating ugly, yellowed water-spots, gaping holes, and destroying her books, the work of over a hundred years and more. Some of them had been penned by cherished friends, her father, and now, their and his words, the familiar scrawls, were forever blotched and smudged into obscurity by the simple act of rain.
The fear gained a more solid foothold within as Helen shambled through her Sanctuary, still no closer to understanding anything. Will, Henry, Kate, Bigfoot...Their rooms still held some of their most treasured possessions. A old photograph of baby Will with his family; mother, father, and sister all before the tragedy and subsequent estrangement. Kate's impressive music collection she often boasted about and then lamented over at their blank faces. Henry's customized computer gaming system that took up half a wall in his room and that he had proudly built at the age of nineteen, two years after he arrived in her Sanctuary.
Still here; destroyed, ransacked, decayed, and weathered by time. But no sign of their owners. Where had they gone?
The abnormals were all gone, and Helen couldn't imagine what it took to move them. For she refused to believe that they had been destroyed, killed; just as Helen refused to acknowledge that the same could have happened to the ones she was starting to form a family with. Because doing so would allow the fear steadily building up in her to turninto despair. If they were all dead, then Helen would truly be alone - Ashley had already left her and Helen would have nothing to cling to in the dark loneliness.
Shuffling.
Distinct shuffling caught Helen's ear and she gripped the gun she had found, amazingly with a loaded clip still intact; the only workable weapon Helen found in the entire building.
Something dragged on the floor, heavy and large. The shuffling grew louder and Helen peered out of the weapons locker to her right.
The shuffling stopped.
Helen frowned.
A huffing grunt. Helen froze as a gust of air permeated her soaked hair. Monstrous fingers wrapped around her shoulder and yanked her to the left, pinning her against an unyielding wall.
It was Bigfoot. And it wasn't Bigfoot. His grip was painful, nearly dislocating Helen's shoulder, and he crushed her against the wall. The shaggy fur was familiar; the mad-hungry, psychotic eyes were not. He growled and Helen struggled. Something was decidedly wrong here.
Helen aimed the gun at his leg.
It jammed. Her eyes widened.
Bigfoot opened his mouth and amidst the viscous saliva dripping, an alien tube slowly emerged, sharpening into a thick needle-like point. Aimed directly at her face and Helen struggled harder. Pain from her shoulder lanced through her body. Her hands worked to work the trigger loose, staring fearfully at the piercing appendage inching closer. Drool dripped from it. Bigfoot stared rabidly back at her, unrecognizable as he moved to kill her.
A shot rang out the instant Helen felt the trigger give and the pain was just enough for her to wriggle loose and sprint down the corridor, uncaring of the burning in her shoulder nor the huffing howl behind her, receding into the fathomless corridors of her home.
It was no longer safe for Helen to stay here. Though, to say it was any safer outside would be a misconception as Helen savagely ripped the massive vines off the front door, scratching her hands against the rough bark. Finally wrenching open the door enough for her to stumble through, Helen was greeted by the whipping pelt of rain. Droplets of water stung her face while the icy wind blasted her.
Supplies. And answers. Helen steadfastly tempered those two words in her mind as she moved, as she entered the desolate ruins of Old City. She needed them both, and fast, if she ever hoped to survive in this nightmarish new world.
The city was just as bad as it looked from atop the Sanctuary. Helen walked along its streets, amongst the gutted buildings. Abandoned cars, stripped stores, loose plastic from building insulation fluttering violently with the wind, and everywhere Helen turned, everything had been razed and ravaged.
Everywhere Helen turned, there was no one to be found.
That frightened Helen more so. To feel hollow and alone on the inside was unbearable, but to have it physically manifested into being the last person alive was splintering. Her gift of longevity was a curse.
Helen gathered what meager supplies she could find and the weather worsened. She traveled until night fell and the world around her grew more sinister. Where was everyone? At this point, Helen would welcome anyone.
The rain intensified; the droplets became stones striking her face. She was being followed. That uneasy feeling of being watched immediately caused her breathing to speed up and her muscles to tense.
Gasping in pain as her hand sliced against the sharp metal of a car she was taking wires from. Now she was hurt, and Helen had no idea where she was going to get medical supplies from. Despair rose.
Squinting against the rain, Helen suddenly saw that mist again. It swirled a few meters away, untouched by the rain. What did it want? What was it supposed to mean?
A man rushed at her from the shadows.
Helen raised her gun, but he was too quick. Slipping against the rain-slicked cement, Helen winced as the man knocked her against a brick wall. She took back that welcoming anyone thought. This was not what she meant. His arm crushed against her throat, choking her. Was this how she was going to die?
No. Helen changed her mind a second later as the man, the abnormal, pulled down his dirty mask and opened his mouth. It was just like before. That alien appendage shot out of his mouth, revealing its grotesque needle point. Was this how she was going to die? She struggled, but her strength, and her air, waned.
The abnormal suddenly jerked as it was shot with a red light and it fell away. Coughing hard, Helen turned and saw two men wearing hazmat suits, wielding guns. "What the hell is going on?"
Wordlessly, one man raised his gun.
"Stop!" A voice rang out.
He fired at her and Helen fell to the ground. She was vaguely aware of being caught and held against a body.
"You idiot!" Blue-gray eyes peered worriedly at her through her darkening vision. "Helen? It's okay, Helen. I've got you." His voice, concerned and angry at the same time, became an indistinguishable buzz.
Heavy eyelids slid shut and Helen knew no more.