CHAPTER TEN
Kyle, Cassandra, and Stephanie sat in the apartment all morning, watching the television. Whatever station they turned to offered news reports covering the sketchy details from the events that had taken place all throughout the week.
Many cities all over the country were being evacuated, or large areas of those cities anyway. It seemed odd to Cassandra that suddenly the media was being informed of the massive events that had taken place all week long, and were just now informing the population at large.
Kyle suspected that the media was ordered to keep quiet about it, so as not cause a panic in the population. However, as the news reports droned on, a panic is exactly what was on hand.
Every city that had broadcasted, both local and national, reported frightened hordes of people frantically running through supermarkets, department stores, and even sporting good stores as they loaded up with food, supplies, and most of all weapons.
Reports of vandalism, fires, and mass thefts seemed to fill the airways, and New York was no longer apparently immune to the problems, either. By the midday, reports had come out of entire neighborhoods, bustling with thousands of people just a few days before, suddenly turned ghost town while churches, civic centers, schools began to overflow with frightened people looking for safety.
Police, firemen, paramedics and civilian volunteers alike all had their hands full trying to deal with the mobs. Many reports offered information about fights and killings that had broken out over simple things like bottled water or a pump at the gas station.
Many people were filling their tanks, loading their belongings and fleeing town on their own accord, not waiting for official government evacuation, or even confirmation that evacuation was necessary.
The massive amounts of traffic that hit the streets and highways continued and worsened as the hours ticked on. Frightened people rushing to leave their homes did not stop for others, and every type of collision from small fender benders to massive pile ups were being reported on many highways.
As they watched in wonder and amazement, the three friends could not help but to feel that their lives were on the verge of a massive, undefinable change. Cassandra wondered how bad it was going to get.
She idly thought that this was the calm before the storm, which only made her realize she was completely incapable of envisioning the actual storm, for the calm was bad enough. Cassandra wondered what would be left of the city that they called home? She lowered her eyes to the ground for a moment and Kyle whispered a sad but apparently all too true comment.
"Those things don't need to kill us, we're gonna do it ourselves acting like that."
Suddenly a knock on the door caught their attention. Stephanie popped up, offering a surprised glance to the other two and opened the door. David stood there and she happily threw her arms around him and they kissed quickly and lightly. The three teens standing on the stairwell behind him gave out some cat calls and laughed and joked.
He walked in and nodded to Kyle, who nodded back with a simple, "hey man."
David looked at Stephanie and then back to the TV, which he quickly strode over to and turned off.
"Hey!" Cassandra groaned and flicked it back on.
David laughed casually. "What are you all watching that crap for? Let's go get some pizza or something. I'm starving."
Stephanie glared at them. "How can you think about pizza at a time like this? Where have you been?"
"It isn't that bad out there, this is just all blown out of proportion." David maintained.
"Not from what I saw," Cassandra muttered disapprovingly.
"Oh come on. Don't tell me you're not leaving the apartment of this?" He said with certain smugness.
"They're over exaggerating, you know that, right? This is why they're doing it, just cause they can. You haven't been outside at all since yesterday have you?"
Stephanie said dismissively, "We haven't been anywhere, not since what Cassandra saw."
David rolled his eyes. "Look, no one's out there running around in panic! It's all good. This isn't happening here."
"Yes it is! I saw it! I was there!" Cassandra said lividly, as she jumped to her feet.
"Alright, I know what you saw, but have you seen anything else?"
Cassandra shot him a sort of 'of course not' look.
David gestured to the rest of the group and smiled reassuringly and casually at Stephanie. "We've been out there. We went looking for all these "areas" that are supposedly affected around here…."
Cassandra jumped to her feet, eyeing David and the rest of the group like they were wild and dangerous animals.
"You went looking? Are you crazy! You guys could have been killed… or worse"
"Relax, Cassy, OK." He snapped at her and then coaxed his way over to Stephanie.
"I swear to you," he added with a sleek smile and a roll of eyes. "There is nothing going on out there. Pizza place is like two blocks away. Trust me, it's all good."
Stephanie shot a glance to Cassandra; a glance that had a 'come on it'll be fine' tone to it. Cassandra slowly shook her head. Her mouth opened, but she said nothing. Kyle reached for her elbow and touched her skin softly, a little too close once again. She yanked her arm loose from him.
"Come on Cassy. It's fine. We're going out. You coming?" He said with annoyed overtones.
"Maybe he's right," Stephanie pleaded again as she sidled over towards Cassandra.
"Maybe...maybe we should go out or something and try forget about all this."
"Come on, Cassy. Let's go," Kyle urged again. She glanced to David and the rest of the guys. They all seemed content and quite sure of themselves and slowly they turned to leave.
She nodded. "Yeah, I mean...we don't have much food here anyway. Fine!"
For the first time in as long as Cassandra could even remember, she left the house in simple jeans and a tank top and no-make up. She turned to lock the apartment door as Stephani latched on to David's arm just behind her.
"Man, I'm starving," David groaned again.
"Yea, me too. Feel like I haven't eaten in days," Patrick added from the landing below.
"What did you do to your head, David?" Cassandra asked suddenly, noticing a little bit of blood in his blonde hair as she turned behind him to walk down the stairs.
"Uhh.. I tripped, it's fine."
Stephanie immediately reached for David's hair and brushed it softly. "Aw, you sure you're OK, babe?"
He pulled his head free of her caress and whisked her hand away. "Yea, I'm fine."
Cassandra walked down the stairs and out the door slowly, suddenly feeling more nervous about being outside than when she was talking about it. She felt herself unable to stop from staring up and down the street in each direction before she touched her foot down to the sidewalk below the last stair.
Cassandra pulled her foot off the last stair and stepped onto the white concrete of sidewalk with as much pause and apprehension as if she were taking the first step onto some alien planet.
She sighed in relief when the world did not collapse from under her foot and she quickly caught up to her friends, feeling her apprehension dissipate. The group walked on, slowly at first, but as Cassandra's confidence built, their pace increased slightly until they came to halt at an entrance down to the subways that ran under the city.
"Where are we going?" Cassandra asked suddenly as her friends started down the stairs without hesitation.
"Umm.. yea, it's this way..." Stephanie said once they reached the street corner, yanking David's arm the opposite direction he was turning.
"Oh come on, I know a better place." David insisted.
They walked another two blocks and descended into the black depths of the subway entrance. Suddenly, Cassandra felt uneasy again.
She nearly leapt ten feet when her phone rang suddenly. The brief conversation with her mother as she walked towards the subway was enough of a distraction to make her forget about her reluctance of following her friends.
"Mom…? You there?" She smirked and slid the phone back into her purse.
Stephanie looked at her quizzically and Cassandra shrugged. "Signal's gone."
The train ride was brief. Cassandra ascended the stairs behind her friends and left the stale darkness of the underground. A gentle warm breeze touched her face delicately and the sun was shining brightly between the tall buildings that surrounded her as she made her way topside.
New York was bustling, but as David had assured, it was no more than usual. They turned south at the next corner, chatted to one another as they made their way to their destination, and the unease slowly slipped away completely.
Cassandra's eyes would wander and she would find herself lost in what she eyed. They were subtle things, but something seemed different to her now about the city.
Perhaps it was not actually the people walking the streets, mingling in cafes, or shopping the storefronts, it could simply have been the difference from within herself that she felt staring at all the people, as flashes of the chest-bursting creature played back into her mind as the group sat down in a booth.
The look on a child's face as he tugged innocently on his mother's shorts cuff to get her attention to the wrinkled brow of an old woman that sat alone in a corner booth, to the barren look of a thin, homeless man that sat slumped against the side of a building, hat pulled down over his eyes, caught Cassandra's attention completely.
These were typical sights in Manhattan, sights that Cassandra had long since become accustomed to, but somehow it all seemed different, and suddenly she could not help but to look at them like something she might never see again.
"You alright?" Stephanie asked.
"Yea," Cassandra said, jumping back to attention.
Soon two trays of piping hot New York style were getting served up.
"Oh man, that smells so good."
Midmeal, Cassandra found her eyes wandering again. The words of her friends sounded distant and fuzzy over the echoing memories of the people screaming and the gun fire from the back of the mall, and most intensely of all, the hissing of that horrible snake monster that had erupted like a bloody volcano from the man's chest.
"So what do you think, Cassy?" Stephanie asked.
"What? What about?"
"Um...going to hang out tonight."
"Uh, oh." Cassandra fumbled with the napkin in front of her, staring intently at the tablecloth. "Wh...where at?"
"You know what, never mind." Stephanie snapped, obviously unhappy with her lack of interest.
"What? Sorry, okay," Cassandra said through wide eyes.
"It's okay Cassy, don't worry about it." Kyle said. "If you're not ready, it's fine."
Cassandra glared at Kyle, quite certain he was not talking about her readiness to hang out.
She stopped eating, suddenly losing her appetite.
"Cassandra, hey. What's up, really?" Stephanie tried again.
"I...sorry," she slid the plate away from her slightly and stared out the window onto the bustling street outside.
"You know everything is going to be ok. I know what you saw was awful and all, but it's over." David assured her.
"Really?" Cassandra snapped angrily. "I don't think it is over. I think it's going to get worse."
"Why?" Kyle interjected.
Cassandra glanced at him wide eyed as if surprised that he could not see it. How is it possible that he saw the very same news reports while huddled in the apartment and now it was all so clear to her, but he dared to ask "why"?
"I think the news stories are wrong - or they're keeping something from us that they know."
"Well," Kyle said with a deep sigh, "I don't think so. It's getting under control. Dave said so. You know people just panic. Look at how they act where there's a call for a couple of inches of snow, they all run to the stores, old ladies stockin' up on milk and eggs or whatever like they're gonna be trapped in their houses for days and days. It'll be alright, Cassy, seriously."
Cassandra dropped her eyes and turned her head back to the window. Cassandra watched Stephanie walk away with David. She shook her head.
Just a few hours before, she was almost too scared to leave the apartment as well, but now she rolled her eyes and flashed her palm to Cassandra before strutting away and disappearing down a subway entrance.
As she watched her friend's back disappear below ground, Cassandra could not help to feel that this was the start of a downhill slide. She looked warily at Kyle who sighed and slapped his thighs with his hands.
"Well, you coming?" He asked. "Want to go back to my place, or your place, or something?"
Cassandra rolled her eyes and turned to head.
"I don't know Kyle. You know, I think I just want to go home for now."
"Okay, well, I walk with you." He smoothly tried to grope her shoulders again.
"God this is all just so crazy, you know." She finally started after a few blocks.
She wanted to believe that it was all going to go away, but as her thoughts rattled through her mind and her mouth vocalized them, she saw the bitter end of it all.
"I mean, these things... you know... they just show up one night like, poof! Here we are. And all these people start dying so quickly afterward, and all these other people have gone missing too, they're dead, I just know it. And that...that horrible video from last week that got out. You know everybody started to swear it was fake, but I don't think it was, it was just a cover, you know. There's ..there's something more to it."
She rattled on so quickly, rationalizing the myriad of thoughts in her head.
"These animals, they're not like anything we've ever seen before, you know... I mean where did they really come from do you think?"
"I have no idea," Kyle answered slowly.
"Well, I just think they were put here for a reason. I don't know who put them here, maybe they are terrorists or something, but someone put those things all over the place for a reason. And they're going to kill us all."
"Cassy," Kyle said in a pleading tone. "Just chill, OK."
"No, I saw a man die the most unimaginable death you ever saw. The thing just...it...came out of his chest like...it was horrible...he was in so much pain...and he died, but the thing popped out of him, I heard his...ribs crunch... I got his blood all over me."
Her hands started to shake as she lifted them to her face and chest. Her reddening eyes welled up as the images she could not control continued to flash before her eyes. Kyle wrapped his arms around her and she cried softly into his shoulder. After a long while she pulled herself together, wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at Kyle.
"Look, it's gonna be OK. I'll protect you." Kyle assured her.
She smiled. She had let what happened at the party slip out of mind. He was there for her and it felt good. They stood to walk home and Kyle did not hesitate to take hold of her hand and they walked together another block. Kyle guided her around a corner and, whether he had just forgotten her new found fear, or deliberately planned the attack, he led her directly to the stairs leading to a subway entrance. She slammed on the brakes.
"Kyle..." she started warily.
"Come on Cassy, it's OK. You always take the train everywhere. If you want to walk that's fine, but there's nothing down here 'except people and trains."
She gripped his hand tightly and descended the stairs the underground lobby. Her heart began to beat faster and harder with every slow step. She sighed deeply when she reached the bottom of the stairwell, as though a major hurdle had just been overcome.
Looking around, she decided that the evening train station was normal enough for a Sunday afternoon and not filled with frantic people. While most people waiting did seem to be reading a newspaper, they seemed unconcerned about any immediate danger.
Several people chatted calmly on their phones and Cassandra walked with Kyle through the token lane and out onto the train platform.
A train came to a squealing halt on the opposite track. The high pitched whine of the brakes drilled into Cassandra's head like nails on a chalkboard. It reminded of her of the baby monster's shriek before it leapt from the dead man's chest and bolted off, leaving a trail of blood for others to follow down a corridor. Cassandra gritted her teeth and shook her head at herself.
"Why are you being so stupid?" She thought to herself. "Its fine, it's fine."
She breathed deeply trying to convince herself of that fact. She released herself from Kyle's hand and paced the subway platform trying to control her heartbeat and the growing fear in her mind. She just wanted the subway train to arrive. She checked the schedule map and glanced at the time display on her cell phone.
"Five more minutes. Fine, alright Cassandra, now stop it." She argued with her own mind while she contemplated going back to the apartment with Kyle alone.
She paced back to Kyle, who watched her quizzically.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, yeah I am... just waiting for the train," she said, forcing a smile and trying to act casual.
The other train had deposited its passengers, filled with a new load and zoomed off, leaving only Cassandra's side of the terminal waiting for their ride. Another shrieking squeal from a braking train filled the dead air in the tunnel.
The people on the terminal platform did not look interested or concerned, they merely waited for the train to pull up. Cassandra glanced at her phone again, noting that the train was arriving early.
The terrible shrill sound grew louder and closer, and seemed to ring out with more enthusiasm from within the dark tunnels off the platform. Cassandra felt her nerves hit high level and she grabbed Kyle's hand, squeezing it so hard he flinched.
"I don't want to be here," she said suddenly, breathing deeply, eyes locked on the tunnel to the left, towards the approaching shrieking noise that was constantly growing in intensity inside Cassandra's head.
Kyle smiled and smirked, "God, Cassy relax it's just the tr..."
Panicked screams rang out from the people in the platform as the waiting passengers bolted chaotically backwards. Cassandra and Kyle whipped around and barely had time to perceive what they were seeing before Cassandra screamed at the top of her lungs and the pair jumped back, spun on their heels and bolted for the token gate.
Three startled police officers on patrol in the large platform jumped into action, diving forward through the rotating bars, their guns ready as screaming people cleared the area. Shots rang out from shouting men before Cassandra and Kyle had even jumped the ticket gate.
The monstrous black things just poured out of the tunnels, shrieking and hissing, lunging at the people in their path.
A countless number of gigantic black creatures; a sea of talons and teeth and deadly tails; sailed from the tunnel, some running upside down on the ceiling, all moving on four legs with more speed than any animal ever recorded. They poured from the tunnel like agitated cockroaches from an infested garbage dumpster.
Cassandra caught a quick glimpse of one as she launched herself over the ticket gate with Kyle's help. The monstrous thing was no animal as had been described on the television. The living nightmare was far more intense than the twisted, bullet riddled black corpse that had been displayed on television.
She only saw it for a second, but it was far more than enough. The horrible black demon, one of hundreds that poured out of the darkness, leapt up onto the subway platform and sunk its jaw into a police officer desperately shooting at the thing as it approached. The man dropped to the group and the long head of the monstrosity pulled back and hissed a satanic call into the air.
"Come on!" Kyle screamed at the top of his lungs.
The two darted up the stairs as quickly as they could. Neither realized they were being pursued by no less than a hundred of the giant monsters. They reached the top of the stairs and ran away from the entrance with dozens of other panicked people, nearly getting hit by a car as they tore across the street.
"RUN!" Kyle screamed. Cassandra just concentrated on keeping her shaking body as close to Kyle as she could.
They never looked back, but both could hear the sounds of cars slamming into each other, panicked pedestrians screaming for their lives, and in the distance, sirens of oncoming emergency response teams. The blocks seemed to grow very long as the two bolted through the panicked crowds that were running frantically from the direction of the attacking swarm.
Some of the people ran from the buildings they were in, seeing the crowds on the street running forth, and joined them, unsure themselves of exactly what was going on, but joining the masses just the same. Others from the massive crowd ran into the very same buildings that people were abandoning, seeking shelter from the black storm of death that pursed them.
The sea of monsters flowed over the streets in all directions from the entrance of the subway, subduing or killing all that cross their paths. They leapt over cars, clung to buildings, jumped from one person to another, striking them down.
Hundreds and hundreds of glossy black bodies flowed from the terminal like locusts and covered the streets, shattered glass display windows and ran into buildings, scaled the buildings themselves, and ran across the scaffolding that lined every building.
The horde of alien monsters never stopped, and Cassandra ran with Kyle without looking back.
Frightened people ran for their lives, but their attempt to flee was comparable to a herd of aroused horses. The stampede that ensued assured the only the strongest and fastest would survive the quest for freedom. Someone slammed into Cassandra from behind, knocking her to the ground. She fell so hard she yanked Kyle backwards before her hand slipped free from his grasp.
As he pulled her up and howled at her to run, Cassandra glanced back. Frantic people ran up the sidewalks, through the streets, abandoning cars and knocking over anyone and anything in their path as the black monsters of death leapt into the crowd, shattering skulls and ripping flesh with their dual jaws.
"RUN!" Kyle screamed again even louder.
Cassandra pulled her eyes away from the large attacking swarm of monsters. She pulled herself to her feet and took off once again with Kyle. They ran past three police vehicles in the street, and several officers trying hard to fight against the crowd.
The officers in the street leapt from their vehicles and immediately began to fire at the onslaught. As the shots rang out, already frightened people screamed even more loudly and the stampede seemed to intensify.
Cassandra and Kyle bolted another three blocks. Though their hearts were beating loudly and their breath was ragged and heavy, they could still hear the echoes of the gunfire and the terrible shrieks of dying people over the wild hisses of the brutal monsters.
They continued to run as fast as they could, ignoring their own exhaustion. Cassandra took a deep breath and pulled out another burst of speed at Kyle prompting.
As she darted across another intersection, she glanced up and noted the street sign above her head. They were at Forty-Second and Ninth, just near times square. They still had another ten blocks to go.
"Oh God, I'm out of breath," Cassandra finally said after two more blocks and dropped to the ground in the middle of the Heart of Manhattan, just near the Army recruitment station.
Panting, Kyle stopped with her. He grabbed her and pulled her off to the side, allowing the still running crowds of people to stampede down the sidewalk without trampling either of them. They leaned against a wall and breathed hard as they stared down the street.
The massive black animals could still be clearly seen in the dimming light of the early evening, leaping from car top to building side, person to person. More police frantically filed in through the crowds of frightened people, firing wildly at the swarm of monsters.
Sirens blared and between the screams of the people, the honking of car horns blaring, and wild gun fire that rang out, the hisses of the alien animals could still be heard.
Cassandra and Kyle watched for a moment as a war developed right before their eyes. Dozens of police vehicles, and dozen more foot, bike, and horseback units arrived from fighting through the crowds.
The screaming people ran through the streets with no control or consideration for who or what they ran into or pushed out of the way.
Frightened horses reared up in defense, dumping their uniformed riders to the ground and the endless sea of panicked people stomped right over a fallen officer not far from where Cassandra and Kyle watched. The horses bolted through the streets, out running the people.
"Oh God, they stepped right on him!" Cassandra howled, horrified.
As gunfire continued to ring out and the hiss of the monstrous creatures filled the falling night air, Kyle, who had caught his breath grabbed her arm and tugged.
"Come on, we have to keep moving."
They took off down the street and turned with the crowd at breakneck speeds to keep pace with them and avoid being trampled or shot. With eight blocks to go, Cassandra pulled herself together and focused entirely on reaching the sanctity of her new home.
She bolted forth, dragging on Kyle's arm for a moment before he was able to push harder off his feet and make pace.
"Seven," she said.
"Six," Cassandra shouted as they bolted across the next intersection.
"Five," Kyle yelled at the next intersection.
"Four"
"Three"
"Two"
They turned around the corner onto their home stretch and leapt up the front stairs two and three at a time. Cassandra had pulled her front door key out at 'two' and wasted no time shoving it into the lock.
"HEY!" Someone shouted from the street.
Kyle turned as Cassandra pushed the front entrance door open and glared down at the man that had run up to Kyle and grabbed his arm.
"Let us in, man!" he howled, pushing Kyle aside and trying to get past him.
Kyle fought with him, grabbing his shoulder and spinning the man back around. As Cassandra screamed frantically for Kyle to get in so she could shut and lock the door, the sounds of screaming people and shrieking animals filled the streets all around them.
Shaking, terrified and filled with adrenaline, Kyle slammed his fist into the face of the man and took off over the top of him as he dropped to the ground. Cassandra forced the door shut and turned the latch quickly and they bolted up to the fifth floor of the building.
"Hurry!" Kyle prompted as Cassandra pushed the key into the lock and opened the door to the apartment.
They slammed the door shut and pulled back, desperately trying to catch their breath. Cassandra propped against the door and shut her eyes for a moment.
She opened them a few shaky seconds later and her focus fell onto the windows across the room. Kyle slid down the wall, thumping to the ground, chest rising and falling hard as he fought to catch his breath.
In the flickering of the street lights outside, Cassandra could see the bouncing shadows on the buildings down the street of hundreds, thousands, of people that fled for their lives. Cassandra crept slowly to the window, but as the sound of the animals that pursued the people in the streets below rang up through the air, Kyle called to her.
"No! Get down! Get away from the windows."
Cassandra immediately dropped to the ground and crawled over to Kyle. She tucked herself into his side and sobbed hysterically as she, too, tried to catch her breath.
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to block out the terrible sounds that continued to ring out from the streets below.
As the storm began to pass, as the fleeing pedestrians that were able enough to continue to run fled by, as the wicked black animals continued to pursue those that ran, the sounds began to fade from her ears. Cassandra kept her eyes shut tight.
She sobbed softly for several long hours, only occasionally opening her eyes throughout the restless night, to see if anything was moving outside her window. Sometime around midnight, she glanced towards the blinds and halfway wondered if the things could fly or see through walls.
She glanced at Kyle who was sleeping softly and she tried to block away the horrible thoughts that were filling her mind. She shut her eyes again, hoping this was one enormous nightmare and it would all go away come the morning light.
When she opened them again, the streets were silent and daylight was shining happily through the blinds and curtains that covered the only windows in the apartment.
Cassandra took a deep breath as she pulled herself upright. She glanced at the wall that she and Kyle were propped up against, as if trying to verify that the wall was really real and so were the events her mind recalled as it woke in the morning light.
Kyle shifted and opened his eyes. He sat up and stared wide eyed at Cassandra who glanced back at him with the same shaken look. The two looked simultaneously in the direction of the windows, then glanced back at one another.
They listened for a moment but there was nothing to hear. Neither the sounds of morning traffic, nor engines rumbling, nor horns honking, nor any other noise created by bustling people heading to their work places on a Monday morning filled the air.
There was a certain dead silence. Cassandra glanced at the clock on the wall near the little kitchen.
"It's eight a.m.," she whispered.
Without a word, they both crept up, standing halfway erect, and slowly tracked across the apartment floor. They both hesitated at the window, neither wanting to be the first to have a peek at the world outside, both fearing something awful might leap through the window at them if they revealed themselves to the day light.
Kyle swallowed, reached his hand out, pulled it back slightly, then reached forward again. He kept his head low, deep to his shoulders and slowly and cautiously pulled the curtain aside and split the blinds to have a peek outside.
"Oh God," Kyle whispered.
Cassandra could feel herself shaking at those words, but she was compelled to see outside as well. She pulled the other curtain back and peered through the blinds, her eyes dropping down to the street below.
Empty cars littered the street, some slammed into each other, others stopped right up on the sidewalks. Cassandra could not see a living soul on the street.
The cars and sidewalks were stained red with blood, but there were no bodies that she could see. It looked like a ghost town outside, nothing stirred as far as she could strain her eyes to see.
Kyle pulled away from the window and flicked the television on. The screen was fuzzy for a moment, then a morbid image filled the air, a solemn reporter stood there, face pale and sickly as she turned to the camera.
Behind her, a scene similar to the one outside their window. Abandoned vehicles, many imbedded into the one in front and behind it, filled the street, but no people were out. T
he reporter stood directly next to two cars. One, a white and blue patrol car, was so red with blood the large NYPD lettering on the side was nearly completely splotched out.
"I'm..." the reporter started to say, but paused as she pressed her earpiece further into her eardrum.
"My apologies," she started again. Her voice was shaken, her words were slow and filled with shock, and the microphone she clung to crackled and fizzed as it trembled in her hands.
"I am reporting live from... Three blocks behind me you may be able to see Times Square here in what's...left... of midtown Manhattan. The same scenario has taken place in too many cities to list, all over the country. All over the world. These... these animals... as many of you watching this report well know already, took this and many other cities, both large and small, by surprise. No one could have possibly anticipated or expected the sheer numbers of these creatures that came up from somewhere below ground."
The reporter stopped and gathered her thoughts as a tear dripped down her pale face, which she whisked away with a shaking hand. "There's uh... a...countless number of...fatalities. In fact, the streets here are rather vacant of human life... From the events I witnessed in the early hours, which I will replay here for you now, the animals took the bodies of anyone still alive… they just…. dragged them off..."
A clip came on from a very bouncy camera. It was obvious that the camera was high up in a building, the reporter off screen was commenting.
"They're taking the people. My God, that one there," the camera zoomed down and to the left, the reporter's pointing finger just to the side. "Is that man still alive?"
It certainly appeared so, to Cassandra as she watched in mortified wonder of the early morning sight.
"They need you alive to breed," Cassandra whispered. "The man that I saw die, he was alive, carrying that thing inside him...like a baby." She turned to Kyle. "If you're dead you're no good to them."
Kyle felt his heart skip several beats and sink low into his chest.
"Oh, shit, this is unreal. I... I've gotta call my folks."
"Me too," Cassandra said and both teens pulled out their cell phones.
They glanced to each other as they looked at their phone displays.
"Signal still works," Kyle said with raised eyebrows.
Somehow, Cassandra had half expected the phones not to work. She dialed her aunt and uncle first. There was no answer. She next tried her parents'.
"Hello?!" A frantic voice answered the phone there.
"Mom!"
"Oh GOD CASSY! THANK GOD! OH GOD!" She screamed hysterically with relief.
After a long conversation convincing her parents that she was alright for now, they all agreed it was safer for her to stay where she was.
They figured that Michele and Jeremy were not answering the phone because many people, per the news which Cassandra was now ignoring, were being evacuated from their homes into one or two areas where the overwhelmed military support that were being deployed could attempt to defend the human race.
Once Cassandra finally clicked the phone off, she glanced to Kyle, whose long face was filled with fear and concern.
"They didn't answer."
"Oh God. Where do you think they could be?"
"I don't know," Kyle said, running his hands through his hair. "I tried their cells too. I don't know. Oh shit, oh shit," he started pacing back and forth.
Cassandra wanted to help him but she did not know what to say. Perhaps they had gotten out, perhaps they had just lost their phones, there was no telling.
She, too, wondered where her local family was, for they did not answer at home or on their cell phones either. But in all the chaos, a myriad of answers were possible.
"You know, maybe...maybe everybody's trying to call everyone and the phones are bogged down. We need to give it some time, maybe," was all she could come up with to say.
So wait they did. The two sat in near silence for over two hours. They flicked from channel to channel watching news reports, interviews with the military personnel charged with defending the jam packed people that had been torn from their homes in the middle of the night and hustled off to any buildings large enough to house mass populations.
The President came back on, looking as terrified and morbid as any of the dozen reporters Cassandra had watched on the news for the last several hours.
He took a deep, long sigh and announced his thoughts to an empty room. There was no press in the small room this time. The President's regretful eyes stared deeply into the camera and he started to address those that were still able to watch.
"American citizens, in light of recent events, military personnel, well-armed, and highly trained are personally escorting everyone within a fifty mile radius of any affected area to secure locations. All modalities of transportation other than military transport has been cancelled. Trains and subways will not run, and all air traffic has been closed. I have been advised by foreign ministers that several countries have initiated quarantine – no one in or out, and for the time being…." He paused.
"We are facing the beginning of a new world war. This is not a war from country to country, but a war of all human kind against the things that now threaten our very existence." He cleared his throat. "For those of you wishing to vacate your homes and head to less affected areas, I beg you to please do so calmly and as quickly as you can by way of military troop transport only. Do not panic!
To those of you in affected areas of our great nation that can see or hear this report, please hear me now. Military troops have been deployed to your area, they are going to secure the affected cities, but will need time. It is best to remain indoors, stay away from windows and most importantly, stay calm. There will be updates as frequently as possible using the emergency broadcast system, and those of you in affected areas will be able to stay apprised of the most current situations in that manner.
Once again, please remain indoors, stay where you are, out military is handling the situation, and we hope to have you all back in your homes very soon."
"Oh my God," Cassandra whispered quietly.
"Wow, did we just go on shutdown or something?" Kyle said quietly. "What the hell is the military going to be able to do unless they start bombing us?
Cassandra sobbed softly. "There's so many of those things."
"They'll have to bomb the cities," Kyle repeated, more sure. "There's no choice."
"Well, if they do that with people still here..." Cassandra whispered with wide eyes.
Kyle looked at her, but stayed silent.
Suddenly, a terrible, slow thumping sound echoed outside the door. Both heads turned to face the door. Cassandra gasped and held her breath. The dull thudding grew louder, closer. Cassandra could feel her body shaking, Kyle stayed motionless.
The noise seemed to stop right outside the door. They strained to listen for any more sounds. A scratching filled the room, and then a soft clicking noise. Cassandra realized that someone had a key and was opening the door. She leapt forward.
"Stephanie!" She whispered as her hand reached for the door to help it open. "Oh, God."
David stood in the doorway, covered head to toe in blood, Stephanie was propped up on the door and fell backward into the apartment when the door was pulled open.
Cassandra could not control her urge to scream when she looked down at her friend. Stephanie's face was gone. It had been replaced by a sickly looking creature that encompassed her entire head, the thing's tail wrapped firmly around her throat.
"Get it off!" Cassandra yelled to David and Kyle.
"It won't come off," David said as he dragged his own weary body over to the white sofa and plopped down, leaving Stephanie on the ground in the open doorway, half in and half out of the apartment. The still wet blood all over his clothes turned the sofa a ghastly shade of pink.
"Oh Jesus, what happened?" Kyle asked, pulling Stephanie into the room as Cassandra shut the door, crying hysterically.
"What the hell do you think happened!" David snapped harshly. "Jesus! This is unreal!"
"Dude, is that a gun?" Kyle asked eyeing the waistline of David's jeans.
"Yeah," he said, slumping back on the sofa.
"Wh...where'd you get it?"
"What? I took it of some body, he didn't need it anymore. It took me all night to get here. I'm glad I had it."
"What do you mean? Did you kill one? What's it like out there?" Kyle asked. "Where is everyone else?"
David shook his head.
"Gone. Dead. I don't know. People are either hiding out or they got the hell out of the city last night. Those things...they take you away. I watched them drag people, still alive, screaming... they just carried them off like ragdolls."
"Stop it!" Cassandra bellowed from her kneeling spot next to her friend. She was crying and shaking hysterically.
Kyle paced the apartment and David glared with anger at the frightened girl sobbing non stop over the limp carcass of her friend.
"Well, where were you?" Kyle asked him.
David ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He glanced at Cassandra quickly, then back to Kyle, leaning closer to him to whisper.
"We were out near the Battery when those things came up from underneath. We...there were like ten of us... we hid out as best we could. I don't really know what happened, but everyone was just gone."
"What! Oh Shit!" Kyle exclaimed.
"Yeah, I couldn't find anyone. I looked, but I couldn't find them. I found her, though, on my way the hell out. Got this guy's gun too, good thing, cause I got attacked."
"By one of those things?" Kyle whispered with shock.
"No, just this guy. He started screaming at me, jumped on me from out of nowhere. He was crazy or something."
"What did you do?" Kyle asked slowly, realizing he already knew the answer.
"I shot him, man," David replied with such a tone as if to suggest that there was no other possible course of action and he did not regret his actions.
Cassandra turned and eyed David with worry and suspicion. There was a brief pause as Kyle glanced to her and back to David.
"Do you...remember everything that happened last night?" Kyle asked suspiciously.
"What? Yeah... I mean, what the hell are you talking about?"
"Did you black out? Did one of those things attach to you? Maybe you have one inside you, just like Stephanie." Kyle questioned with nervous suspicion as Cassandra eyed them both warily.
"No," David said with a smirk, "no way, I would know, right? I know I don't. I went to get her when they grabbed her."
"You're bleeding," Kyle said suddenly, staring down at the once white couch. It was turning a darker and darker shade of red under David's left leg.
David glanced down and huffed. He rolled his pant leg up and revealed a large, deep triple tract of gashes through his thigh.
"How did that happen?" Kyle asked.
"I dunno. I don't re..." David stopped in his tracks and started at Kyle with the wide-eyed realization.
Suddenly Cassandra leapt with catlike reflexes shrieking with surprise as she jumped away from Stephanie. Both boys turned their heads quickly, jumping themselves.
The creature that had been attached to Stephanie's face slithered off her head, rolled onto its back as it thumped to the floor and folded its spidery legs up over its belly. It did not offer to move as the three stunned people stared quietly at it for a long while.
Kyle walked over to the animal, slowly, carefully. He eyed the thing warily and held his breath. After a moment he began to reach the toe of his boot out.
He thumped the thing quickly and halfway leapt back in anticipation that he might wake the thing up. When it did not move, Kyle thumped it again, harder. It did not move again. He drew his leg back and kicked the thing clean across the room. It slapped into the bathroom door and fell to the floor.
Kyle nodded, "It's dead."
Stephanie groaned from the floor at Kyle's feet. Cassandra stalked over to her friend cautiously, Kyle knelt down and helped her sit up. David sat on the sofa, hands clamped around his bleeding leg, watching the situation quietly, trying hard to recall exactly what had happened that night.
He could not remember being attacked by one of the crab things; he could not remember much at all. His mind seemed to skip from the early evening hours, just near dark when the animals stormed the streets to finding Stephanie on his way out of the tunnels below the city.
He vividly recalled the mad man jumping on him attacking and beating him, he remembered pulling the gun he had just found out from his waistline and shooting it, but the moments in between he could not recall. His eyes focused on Stephanie.
"Are you okay?" Cassandra asked through her tears.
"Yeah," Stephanie said weakly with a slight questioning tone as though she was not exactly sure. "I just...what happened? How did I? Wha...?"
"Just take it easy, alright. Dave brought you home," Kyle started.
Cassandra tried to pull herself together and dry her eyes. "It's okay, don't worry."
Stephanie glanced around at the wide eyed people watching her as though they did not believe their own words to her. She focused on David who looked torn and terrified from deep within.
"What...what happened Dave?"
He stared at her with tears in his reddening eyes, his body ached and his chest felt heavy as the truth about what was over swept him. He clenched his jaws and kept eye contact with Stephanie as he simply shook his head slowly from side to side.
Stephanie started to sob. Weeping herself, Cassandra tried to console her friend as she helped her over to a seat on the daybed.
Kyle glanced around and let his eyes settle on the television for a moment. More images from cities around the country filled the screen. People were being dropped off out of transport vehicles into what the media were calling 'safety zones'.
Intermingled into and around the masses of evacuated populations, armed officers paced back and forth slowly, keeping careful watch on the people all around them.
"I think we should get to a safety zone," Kyle said.
The people in the room eyed him, but said nothing. He turned to face Cassandra.
"It'll be safer."
"Safer than what?" David said through a hoarse voice. "It isn't safe outside. We should just stay put.
"I don't want to leave," Cassandra said shakily. "I think David's right. It's not safe outside. Who knows if we could even get there alright?"
"There's military patrols, they'll be out looking for people alive, they'll take us. Look, if they decide to drop a bomb or something, I don't think we should be here."
"Bomb?!" Stephanie gasped. "We're getting bombed?"
"No, I just…" Kyle started but his voice drained off as David began to cough furiously.
Cassandra stared at her toes and tried hard to hold back tears.
"I..." David coughed as he took to his feet. "I could go find one and send them here to get you."
"What?" Kyle started. "No, we stay as a group for safety, if one goes we all, but maybe... maybe we should all stay."
"No," David said, pulling the gun out from his belt and handing it to Kyle, who gave him a questioning look.
"I don't need this, you will." David said slowly, his voice raspy, as though one might sound who has had a long lasting severe throat ache.
He suddenly jolted into a furious coughing spell until blood began to seep from his mouth and nose.
"Oh, man, Dude…" Kyle said warily.
Cassandra began to shake and cry, knowing exactly what David's behavior was indicative of. She upset Stephanie who likewise began to cry with confusion as she looked from Cassandra to the two men in the middle of the room.
"I just need to go... don't worry about me man, I'll be fine." David said between gasps for air.
He walked past Kyle, who said nothing and simply stared at the gun in his hand. David popped the door open and slid out, slamming the door behind him without a word. Stephanie cried harder as David left.
She shot up and stormed over to the door, sobbing and calling to David. Cassandra could hear the echoes of David's coughing as he quickly descended the floors of the apartment building. She said nothing to stop her friend as Stephanie ran out the door after him.
Cassandra simply broke down in tears, put her head in her hands and shook violently. Kyle started towards her, but stopped and stared blankly as Stephanie's high shrieks and terrified screams filled the air from the streets outside.
Sounds of gunfire rang out and Stephanie screamed once again. Cassandra picked her head up as Kyle launched over to the window. Several men were standing in the street, shooting what looked like automatic weapons, chaotically spreading gunfire through the streets.
They shattered windshields and ricocheted bullets between cars and off buildings, but it did not seem from Kyle's perspective that they had even come close to hitting their target. Stephanie quickly came thundering back into the apartment, hysterical with fear, sobbing incoherently.
Cassandra knew what Stephanie had witnessed, and she knew David was dead. She knew there was nothing that could be done.
"Are those military outside?" She asked.
Kyle shook his head. "They're not military."
Cassandra and Kyle sat in silence as an exhausted Stephanie lay on the bed and passed out. They merely watched the news reports, and it all began to come together.
The reporter they watched sitting in a comfortable chair from a studio in a most likely unaffected area of the country interviewed a self-proclaimed expert on the outbreak. If any of the information the man offered was accurate, the interview was useful, albeit disturbing.
The pair on television began by discussing the tired old statements that viewers need only remain calm and indoors until the military can clean up the affected areas. Cassandra found herself believing the notion of a clean-up effort or rescue less and less. Still, she listened on as they discussed the possible origins of the animals.
"One thing is for certain, Dana," the man being interviewed began at one point, "and that is that these animals, and yes they are animals, must be exterminated quickly and efficiently. They are capable breeders, and their act of reproduction involves the death of the living host. Now, I don't want to add fear to an already difficult situation, but these creatures,"
"'Difficult situation'", Kyle snapped. "Where the hell has this guy been living?"
"Shh…" Cassandra urged.
The interview continued, "… the ability to outnumberhumans as the dominant species on this planet."
"What do you suggest as our course of retaliation?" The reporter asked.
"I believe we should identify the animals' breeding grounds, assuming that there are multiple sites throughout the country, and destroy them," he paused emphatically. "Through any means possible, whether that be manual extermination or aerial bombardement."
"Wouldn't that put thousands of people at risk?" The reporter shot back, with a dismissive tone in her voice
The man shrugged and flared his fingers. "Many areas have been evacuated already, so evacuate what you need, find the breeding grounds, there should be no loss of human life at all, really. Clean, quick annihilation."
The reporter faced the camera, "We will keep you, the viewers, updated to the latest events and how they affect your location. For now, back to Steve Mindly in the field, reporting from the Civic Center in downtown Atlanta."
The next reporter popped up on the screen amidst a sea of sleeping bags and personal belongings packed into a crowded amphitheater. He discussed how the citizens were handling their evictions from their homes, and interviewed many unhappily inconvenienced people.
"You know, it's funny how they're not showing you what's happening outside. It's all about what's going on inside." Kyle said after a while.
"What do you mean?" Cassandra asked, not really noticing until now that the last reports that showed anything from the outdoors was from hours ago.
"It's like they were told not to show the outside... look," he flipped through the entire channel line up. "None of them are outdoors."
"Well, it's easy enough to see what's going on, but I don't want to do. I just want to stay right here. Right here where it's safe."
Stephanie suddenly woke with a great groan and harsh cough as if she was choking. Cassandra and Kyle turned to her just as she sat up and leaned forward, a thick stream of blood pouring from her mouth trailing down to the wood floor below her bare feet.
"Oh God," Cassandra whispered, tears welling up in her eyes again. She was not prepared to watch her friend die. She stood up and paced, hands on her eyes wiping tears away as she bit her tongue and tried hard to imagine this was not happening.
Kyle quickly headed to Stephanie's side as she dropped limply off the sofa and whimpered, clawing the floor with her nails and pulling herself forward. Blood filled her mouth, poured from her ears and her eyes tuned red.
Cassandra howled hysterically and dropped to the ground, unable to move, unable to take her eyes away. Kyle jumped back but then tried to turn Stephanie onto her back.
She did it herself. As though seizuring, Stephanie clambered over onto her back and shook intensely. She hardly made any noise, just strained gurgling whimpers and groans before she stopped moving and fell still as her red sequined crop top turned black with fresh blood.
Cassandra shut her eyes and cried loudly, but not enough to drown out the terrible sounds of cracking bone, which she had become all to familiar with already. Kyle shouted and leapt backwards, fumbling for the gun he had put awkwardly into his back belt loop.
It clanked to the floor as the hatchling emerged from Stephanie's dead chest. Kyle's eyes grew wide as he focused on it and realized at the same moment that with the only door to the little apartment shut, and the windows unopenable, they were trapped inside with the devilish monster.
He dropped to his knees and grabbed the fallen gun as the thing jumped clear out of Stephanie's body and darted directly towards Cassandra, who still was hiding her face.
"Look out!" Kyle called quickly, pointing the gun in his shaking hands almost directly at Cassandra.
She tore her hands away from her eyes and barely had time to register the sickly hatchling speeding towards her before she bolted for Kyle, trying hard to ignore the body on the floor only a few feet away. Kyle shot the gun three times until it clicked on the fourth trigger pull.
"Shit!"
Each bullet had sunk into the walls of the apartment and the new born monster was scanning the far wall quickly for an escape route, hissing.
"Let's go!" Kyle shouted and grabbed Cassandra's hand.
Together they bolted to the door and flung it open. They thundered down the stairs, but as they came to pass the third floor apartment's door, it swung open so hard it slammed the wall on the inside and audibly cracked the thin sheet rock wall.
The furious old man that opened the door shouted at the top of his musty lungs and cocked and raised a shotgun towards both Cassandra and Kyle, who screamed loudly as they slammed to a stop on the stairwell.
"What the hell is going on?! Stay away from me you kids!" The man shouted.
Stunned and frightened, neither Kyle nor Cassandra made a sound as they eyed the shotgun wielding man, but a hissing sound drew all three's attention toward the stairwell above.
As the hatchling monster bolted down the stairwell, the old man raised his shotgun. Kyle grabbed Cassandra and they ducked out of the way, for the old man seemed to offer no discrimination between either of them or the blood covered animal that was darting down the staircase.
With a furious howl the man pulled the trigger. The stairwell echoed with the loud bang of the gun and Cassandra covered her ears as she cried out, deafened by the blast.
The monster disappeared and the old man stomped forward and glared through the hole he had just blown into the stairwell. He cursed loudly and fired the gun again. People in the building on the second and first floors shouted and bolted from their apartments, out the front door and ran into the streets.
The old man seemed content with his shooting and without another word he trudged back into his apartment, slammed the door shut again as Cassandra and Kyle scaled the steps two or three at a time and ran out behind the lower level neighbors. They stood in shocked silence for a moment just outside the entry door.
"Do you think he got it?" Kyle asked.
Cassandra just stared at him with wide eyes as she caught her breath.
They both glanced around the streets, watching the backs of a few scared people disappear around the corner at the end of the block. The road was vacant of cars, and the ones that were parked had been riddled with bullet holes.
In a moment, silence fell, and Cassandra only just noticed that the sun was shining, the temperature was warm, a gentle breeze was blowing. Despite the beautiful day, the city, for as much as she could see or hear, was bloody and dead.
Suddenly a car alarm, perhaps from a block away, maybe two, it was hard to tell, filled the air followed quickly by gun shots and echoing voices of screaming people.
As they looked around, they saw David's body slumped against the short wrought iron fencing in front of the next building.
"Maybe….maybe we should go back up." Kyle said softly, his voice cracking the silence between them as they looked at David's corpse.
"I don't think…" Cassandra started to protest, but she fell silent as she looked around the street. There did not seem to be any good options, and Kyle was already starting back inside the building, slowly and quietly.
They crept up the stairs, ducking under the peep hole of the third floor apartment, holding their breath and tiptoeing along, warily careful not to make a sound as they headed up the stairs, jumping the broken stairs from the shot gun blast.
The stairs almost looked like they were dissolving away in a large section. They opened the door to the apartment and both peered in cautiously. Cassandra's eyes fell instantly onto the body of Stephanie sprawled on the floor and she broke down once again.
Kyle took a deep breath and held it as he walked in and looked around. Once he was reasonably certain there was no imminent danger, he covered the body with several sheets from the bed and turned Cassandra away. They sat down on the ground near the television. Cassandra caught a glimpse of her cell phone from the corner of her eye and she quickly grabbed it and tried to dial out. The display simply read 'network busy' and did not dial out.
The television still stuck to reports about the evacuated people, no longer offering any glimpses into the outside world. As the sun began to set over the city, Cassandra could feel her tiredness slip away, giving rise to a new rush of adrenaline. Every so often she held her breath, listening to the world outside for any whisper of a sound from one of the monstrous black animals.
"Do you think those animals will attack again tonight?" She whispered as she eyed the broken city street below.
"I don't know," Kyle fidgeted uneasily.
Both fell quiet, and soon, crouched against the wall farthest away from the windows as possible, they found sleep. The shrieking sounds of a horde of monsters rose through the room once again, almost immediately after the final glimpse of dusk light slipped behind the night time sky.
The shrieking and hissing that woke them both was not coming from out in the streets beyond the room's window. As Cassandra and Kyle looked warily around the apartment, they realized that the people they were watching live on television had all fallen silent, the camera panning the walls of the stadium shelter.
The crowded gymnasium was silent and still. Frightened people were visibly shaking and as the military troops the camera now scanned organized themselves and marched forth, Cassandra thought they too looked fearful and uncertain.
They watched the television with more attention and suspense than any movie ever created could possibly produce. The pan of the camera followed a group of officers as they walked carefully behind their guns towards the doors until the only thing left to be seen of the officers was their flashlights bouncing down the dark corridor beyond.
Several armed men still waited near the cameraman, weapons ready, but their backs turned to the double doors as they watched the people inside the room instead. A silent, tense moment grew as all watched, waiting for something, anything to happen.
The creature's evil hissing that had filled the night air so profoundly a moment ago had ceased. For what seemed like an eternity, there was nothing; not a sound, not a breath. No one seemed to move.
Suddenly shots rang out and the people in the gym screamed and huddled together, the military officers on camera were trying to keep those in their charge calm and quiet while one other got on the radio immediately to find out what was happening. The persistent gunfire never gave up and the officer yelling into his radio received no answer.
More howling rang out. Cassandra and Kyle exchanged wide eyed glances and Cassandra darted for the television, clicking it off. The sounds of the animals' hissing and shrieking calls to one another still rang out loudly after the television fell silent.
Cassandra and Kyle both looked towards the windows, realizing the sound was from the street below. They grabbed hands and darted behind the kitchen counter, huddling quietly in the darkness, listening to the sounds of the animals outside.
Trying hard not to make a noise, Cassandra put her hands up to her face and shook in Kyle's arms. Kyle swallowed and bit his lip, but said nothing until the sounds had long passed.
"They're coming out at night. We can't stay here anymore." He whispered into her ear.
After a long while Cassandra found the ability to speak in a whisper and responded. "We can't leave now, we'll get killed."
Kyle nodded in agreement. "In the morning we go."
Cassandra nodded.
The two spent the remainder of the night huddled behind the small kitchen counter, away from the window of the apartment.