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Read as I write:
Chapter 6
Miles and fences and alone in the dark. I climbed. I stumbled. I fell more than once. I’m now down to one barefoot and one socked, though I can’t tell you how I lost the last one but the last time I checked behind me, there were no undulating masses, only distant orange glows. I’ve made a gap between the others and me. Yet, I continue and when I see their shadows running in the distance, I widen the gap even more. I know it’s an awful thing to do. And with an ache in my heart like never before, when I see more than one person in a group, they soon become prey. And yet, I still ignore them. It’s as if there’s a heat sensor on those things or something. They’re going for the most kills with one efficient aim.
Because of that hideousness alone I’m grateful for the pounding in my ears because their screams are hard to bear. I’m headed in generally the right westerly direction, I think, and keep bargaining with myself to keep up the steady cadence until I’m sure I’m clear of the onslaught. With the depleting bar on the phone in my pocket, I know I only have a little time to both check the news and to reach out to Em before she finds out the danger we’re in. I can only pray my family too isn’t running for their lives as I run for mine. I can’t go there yet…
Will a signal cause one of those things to follow me? Are they tracking heat and cell reception? I have no way of knowing but I’ll have to test this theory soon, which means not inside a shelter. I must find a place to hide with a million exits. Out in the open, in a field, alone. That’s the only way to go, I reason. It’s the only way to make sure of the assumptions. To test the theories rambling around in my panicked mind. I need to find a car, something I can drive, but wait, will that attract them too I wonder. I’m paranoid now and it’s not even an hour since the nightmare began. And finally, I stumble again over a dry clump of dead grass as I check my six and fall to one knee. “Get aw-ay,” I yell when I spot a slim figure fall to the ground below where the enemy might be. I only hear a wail. It’s coming from my shadow, that lack of air I detected before. I’m glancing above and then down again. The figure sinks to the earth.
“It’s sensing heat signals. Go on your own. We’re safer that way,” I reason with the shadow.
“Help me,” it says.
The heels of my hands are braced hard against my knees. I’m exhausted. I look down and shake the sweat from my face. Only my eyes look up again. Above the shadow. I draw in a deep breath as I scan the sky. Suck in a breath I pick up my bag again and start walking slowly toward my sunken silhouette.
The voice. Its bearer is no older than twelve I imagine.
“Where are your parents?” I say when I reach her.
No answer.
I scan the skies again.
Then, “Not here,” she says.
I take that as it’s too much to explain.
She’s a tiny lithe thing. I decide I can’t leave her. She’s small enough. Maybe if we stick close together the things won’t detect us as more than one. Who am I kidding? I know better. But I’m bargaining with myself. Justifying this exception. I’m not sure why.
“Come on,” I say and silently berate myself that this is a bad idea as I grab her by the scruff and haul her along with me as I see more of those things on the horizon. They are headed northwest, but I don’t want them getting any ideas.
“Keep up,” I say as I let her go and slowly let her match my pace. She won’t be able to keep this going for long, but we have no choice, and I can’t carry her.
“They’re… going… after groups,” the shadow pants out in hollowed breaths.
I’m nodding, though she can’t see that in the darkness.
“Don’t talk,” I say. “Conserve your energy and stay close.”
I hope that’s enough to give her hope because that is all I give. I tell myself, if those things start heading our way, I will peel off from her. I will abandon her. I will have to leave her to them, no matter what. A rule I’m trying to establish in my mind for this adjustment.
But for now, the observant girl is keeping pace because I can feel her right fingertips brush the back of my forearm on occasion. Ahead I see a cluster of hanger type buildings. Warehouses perhaps. I’m heading that way. Not for them, but the void between might suffice. Enough for me to light the phone up and do a little research. I’m scanning right and left and then suddenly the girl shifts her position to my right side. I’m not sure why she does this. But it throws me off and I’m suddenly scanning the left horizon and there it is.
“Call out right or left next time.”
A few beats later she says, “They hear us too.”
I smirk. Of course, they do. I feel like I’m suddenly in a comic book, Batman and his Robin. And we are running. Running in the dark. And I realize she is slowing. I’m going to wear her out too fast before we get there. I decide we can take the time and slow the pace. I’m not going to carry her. I’m not.
And we’re almost there.
…and then she stumbles and falls. I even hear the breath huff from her lungs.
And when I turn and scan the sky above, of course, there’s not one but three.
I should leave her.
That was my new rule…
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