My Apocalypse (Book 1): The Fall (3 page)

6.

              I stepped out once more into a wet, cold hell.

              I walked back to the far part of our yard, near the tracks that ran back there figuring the fucking mutt must have went after the drunk I had seen earlier. As I crested the small hill, I looked left and right, but in the dim light, and the heavy rain, I saw nothing. I should have figured it wasn't going to be that easy, I was never that lucky. Then, there amidst the rumble from the sky, a couple of short shrill barks. He had run off East, towards town.

              Shaking my head and lowering it against the rain, I made to follow him.

              I had made it a little ways past the metal factory near our home when I made the decision to turn back. I had seen nothing of the dog, or heard anything, and frankly the rain and the cold were pissing me off royally. I figured that he'd probably show back up later, I mean he usually did. Mutt went off and got him a piece of ass then came home, wagging his tail and acting all proud of himself. I threw my hands up in exasperated defeat, and turned my happy ass back around. It was only then that I heard rustling in the brush off the tracks.

              I figured, at first, that it was just some kind of small woodland creature. Maybe a squirrel or rabbit, braving the storm to get some food, or possibly seeking shelter from the horrid elements. More probably a raccoon or opossum though. I had taken a few steps back towards home though when I heard a whimper that I recognized. Fudgie must have gotten himself caught up in something, or maybe was just scared and hiding under some bush. I swore under my breath. The last thing I wanted to do was traipse through the woods in this rain.

              I called, hoping the dog would come to me, but of course, for the first time, he didn't come when I called his name. I could still hear the brush rustling slightly a little into the wood line though, and rolled my eyes. There I went, off the tracks and into the pitch that was the woods.

              I had gotten about ten feet in, my eyes finally adjusting to the darker conditions, when I saw him. Once more I fell onto my ass, my hands and feet sliding in the mud. A small squeal escaped my mouth.

              What was left of my dog lay before me, torn to shreds yet still twitching in the mud and muck. Some animal must have gotten a hold of him, for it was the only sane reasoning for what I was looking at. Both of his back legs were gone, only bloody stumps left where they should have been. I saw part of his innards lying now outside him, their juices and his blood mixing with the rain in the mud beneath him. Fur and flesh were both gone in spots, revealing the muscle and bone beneath. I noticed all of this with a quick glance, but what truly drew my attention was his head.

              There was no skin covering his face, as if something had neatly skinned it. I saw every muscle, tendon and sinew connecting it all together. His fangs glowed eerily in the gray light, and small particles of blood and white spittle flew out with each breath. His eye rolled crazily in its socket, never seeming to focus on one location for more than a split second. I wanted to cry, to mourn and help my dog by easing his suffering.

              Instead I ran, or at least tried to.

              Feet slipping in the mud, it took a second to get traction. When I was finally able to, the first thing my dumb ass did was barrel head first into a tree. Again I found myself on the ground, but this time not for long. I quickly made my way out of the woods, although I lost my glasses along the way. I cared not too much, for I had a spare set at home. Blinded by loss of glasses and partly by tears, I stumbled my way up the small hill and back onto the tracks. It was then my world went crazy.

              First, the rain stopped. Now let me explain this, because it wasn't like it slowed to a stop, or went from rain to a mist. Rather it was as if some omnipotent being had flipped a switch somewhere, turning off some heavenly sprinkler system. As if it had said in its godly voice, "NO MORE! THE WORLD HAS HAD ENOUGH!" What was only a second ago a body and soul drenching deluge was just gone. Not a drop fell from the sky.

              Second, a mere few seconds after the rain stopped, the world was shattered by the incessant wail of our local air raid sirens. The sound was so abrupt, so total in the quiet that at first I was disoriented by it. I knelt down for a second, clapping my hands over my ears to muffle the noise till I got more used to it. My only thought was to find out what was going on. I reached into my pocket for my cell only to find that I had left it at home. Why wouldn't I have? I didn't figure on being gone long. Shaking my head to clear it from the sound of the sirens, I stood back up and turned towards home.

              There was someone else on the tracks with me.

              I could see it was a man, even though the form was blurry and distorted. He was about my size if not a little taller. He stood at the center of the tracks, leaning slightly over. I couldn't hear due to the sirens, but it appeared to me that he was vomiting, stopping every few stumbling steps to do his business. I could see his head snapping up and down and his shoulders heaving. He had his back towards me, and hadn't noticed I was there. It was when he passed through a patch of light that I noticed a reddish tint about his head and upper back. He was injured. Fucker probably fell down and smacked his head of the rail.  Not really wanting to startle some drunken, hurt, idiot at that moment, I did the only thing that I could think of.

              "OI," I called out to him. "You okay mate?"

7.

              The guy’s response was immediate. He went completely rigid, as if he had just been told to stand at attention, and his head snapped towards me. I took a couple of steps back when his eyes met mine, for even with my failing eyesight I could see something was not right with this man. His eyes glowed in the rising light, like a cats. He lowered his body, keeping his eyes locked on me at all times. The dude looked like a wrestler getting ready for a match. I almost chuckled, but didn't with what come next. The man opened his mouth, and what issued forth I can only describe as a sound from the lowest reaches of Hell. Part roar and part hiss, it sounded like some sort of rabid, feral beast.

              "You have got to be shitting..." I began, but was never able to finish.

              The man rushed me then. Fast. I mean much too fast for a normal person, defiantly to fast for some drunk. In my small moment of disbelief and hesitation, he had spanned the thirty or so feet between us and was upon me.

              The force of the man hitting me knocked me off my feet, and I hit hard onto my back. He was on top of me, and I could smell a mixture of death and decay that made my stomach roll. He had me held tight by my shoulders, and kept shooting his head forwards, trying to bite me. I saw him clearly now, and my subconscious self knew him before I even did. My body reacted to the assault of the man, some primitive part of my brain taking over and keeping his flashing teeth at bay. His eyes were red, the color of blood, the same color he had covering his face and clothing. I saw my hand flashing out, slamming into the things face again and again. I was vaguely aware of the sound of bone breaking as it slammed into the face of the man, but he never stopped coming. He never even flinched.

              My brain finally caught up with the rest of me, and I knew I needed to put some distance between us. I was able to easily get a foot between us, and with all my strength, pushed as hard as I could.

              I felt my jacket rip as he tried to hold on, but in the end, the rain that had made my leather slick helped me. He went flying up and away from me, and I was satisfied when I heard his body thump a few feet away.

              I was up onto my feet as fast as I could manage, but even so, he was that much faster. I caught the briefest image of movement out of the corner of my eye, then felt him hit from my right side. I heard roaring as we both went airborne, a scream from the most vile of demons. For what seemed like an eternity we hung there in mid-air, me barely holding off his assault. Then we were together no more as our bodies collided into the ground.

              I was rolling down a hill. I could hear another a few feet away, but my mind focused on trying to stop myself. I reached out for anything that may slow my descent down this hill. I succeeded in doing naught but disorienting myself, every tree or bush I tried to grab was slick and wet, and I twisted and turned as I crashed through the brush. My heart leapt into my chest when, after a few more flips and rolls, I felt my body leave ground once more and start falling.

              It felt like a lifetime that I fell. The only sensation I had was of cool air rushing past me. Then, in an abrupt instant, I hit the ground hard. White hot, blinding pain erupted in my head, and I heard what sounded like bells ringing. Multi colored motes of light encompassed my vision, but quickly began to fade into inky blackness. All pain vanished as I slipped into blessed shadow, and I began to wonder if this is what death felt like.

              If so it really wasn't so bad.

              Right before I succumbed to the darkness, I heard gunshots from somewhere off in the distance.

              I thought of my family.

              I thought of Crystal.

              I died.

8.

              There, in the distance, a point of light in the darkness.

              I started towards it, or at least guessed I was. The light was getting closer, of that much I was sure, but I could not feel my feet hitting ground at all. I looked down at them, and was baffled at what I saw.

              I was walking on what appeared to be grass, but it was black. Well, black wasn't the proper term. It was nothing. My feet disappeared into it as if they were just gone, lost into an inky nothingness that was total and all encompassing. I stopped and reached down into it, and felt not grass nor ground. I could see my hand vanish, but felt nothing. I was reminded of the book "The Neverending Story", of the points at which The Nothing ate away at the lands of Fantasia. I got scared.

              I started again towards the light, quickening my pace to a slow jog.

              Figures in the shadow next to me reached out, their menacing arms stretched towards me. I instinctively recoiled from their touch, some part of me realizing they were some malicious entity. Yet still, some of the figures looked familiar, their shape recognized by a deep part of my subconscious. I wanted to go to them, to help them in their obvious pain. I did not. My goal was the light, the only path I could see out of this black hell.

              More and more could be seen as I neared the glow. I now understood why I recognized the figures in the shadow. I saw my children, twisted and torn, each of them reaching out to me, begging me to end their pain. I tried to run to them, wanting to hold them in my arms, but no matter how hard I tried, my feet would not carry me from the path ahead. I moved forward with certainty, and could not bring myself to go to them.

              I started to weep.

              There, in the soft light, was a figure. I could feel my feet moving me closer, though even though the figure was familiar, there was an air of menace.
Don’t go! Run away!
My brain screamed at me. But try as I might, I was on autopilot. I couldn’t turn back now even if I wanted to; I now knew that as certainty.

              I was but maybe a dozen feet away when the hazy light faded some and I was finally able to see the person standing in the light.

              It was my baby, Crystal. Her back was to me, but I would know her anywhere. Something was not right though, for she stood in a pool of blood, probably caused by the large amount of the red liquid running off her. She had her hands up to her mouth, and I heard the light sound of liquid lapping and what sounded like crunching. Nearer and nearer I inched towards her. I had lost all control of my body at this point, and began to wonder if I had ever had control to begin with. I watched as my hand reached out towards her once I was within range. Every fiber of my being screamed at me to make my hand stop, that what I was about to see was something I would never be able to forget and come back from.

              “Baby, you okay?” I said as my hand alighted onto her shoulder. The response was immediate, her head snapped upwards and all sound stopped. She spun on me, and I released a small squeal as I fell backwards into the inky blackness.

              Her face was covered in blood, but none more than around her mouth. Teeth, looking larger than ever due to her lips being gone, bore at me in a feral grin. Her eyes were alight with a strange glow. Patches of skin and hair were gone. Her hands, which must have been where I was hearing the sound emanating from, were bare to bone and sinew.

              “What the fuck!” I screamed.
She must have been eating herself!

             
A guttural sound issued forth from her mouth, and her teeth clacked together once, twice, three times. The glow in her eyes brightened, and her mouth opened wide, much wider than any humans ought to have. With a roar she leapt at me, bony fingers raised. I tried to protect myself, to curl into a ball, bring my arms up, anything. Nothing happened though; my body would not heed my commands.

              I felt her grab me, fingers digging into my flesh. Her face was so close to mine I could smell her. Her breath smelled of copper, the smell of fresh blood. There was a layer of decay and death on her also, and I wanted to pull away. I couldn’t. Once more her mouth opened, and I could see chunks of flesh caught between her teeth. Her head shot towards mine, and I felt pain, bright and searing, erupt in my face. I heard the vague sound of bones crunching, and felt hot liquid stream down my cheek. She was eating me. Then all pain and sound vanished, and I felt the warmth of death slip over me.

              Some part of me realized that this was not right all of the sudden. I could hear my brain screaming at me, calling for me to awaken. Was this some sort of dream? Or was I truly dying? I neither cared nor knew.

              I let blackness overtake me, glad for its blessed nothingness.