29:16:04:59 (16 page)

Chapter 21: The Start of Understanding

              The cash register was still tied into some cable or plug-in, and it light up as I kicked it a few feet away. It
beeped
, flashing ‘ERROR’ on the electronic screen. The attention of the creature on the countertop flashed to the cash register, now hearing the new sound. It leaped upon the device, claws crushing into the exterior, shredding the metal.

              I stayed absolutely still for a moment and watched as more creatures moved closer to the one attacking the register. Coins continued to spill out and come to rest on the floor. More and more creatures hopped onto the counter, watching on in vivid hisses and low throttled screams.

              I spotted a few cans scattered about, some napkins and canisters on the countertop. I reached for a can, moving slowly and deliberately, making no noise at all. Drawing back, I tossed the can up and over the counter. It landed on the far end of the room, bouncing a few times until coming to a rest in the corner.

              The creatures turned to the new sound. The one attacking the register halted its assault, leapt over the counter and searched.  I too stood up slowly, looking ahead and behind. The creatures settled in the corner, screeching and wondering where the sound had come from.

              I slid across the surface of the counter, landing on the other side without a sound. Moving towards the door, I looked back to make sure nothing was following. Slowly, I pulled the door open.

             
Ding
the bell above the door rang softly, but it was enough.

              The creatures turned their attention to the door, screaming in response. Dragging the sphere out of my pocket, I burst through the door and tried to slam the door shut, but the hinges refused to close as quickly. Even if they couldn’t see, my thundering heartbeat would be enough to follow. They screamed louder, in unison and with more force. I ran out into the street, no directions, or leads.

              Screams reverberated from all around, closing the distance. I wouldn’t be able to make it into another building. Picking the closest car, I yanked the rusted door open and gently closed it behind. I lay down on the ill-smelling fabric interior and put the sphere underneath me. Closing my eyes, I prayed they hadn’t seen me enter the car. Shrieks exploded into reality as even more creatures than the ones in the diner surrounded the area. The screams were so loud they rattled the windshield of the car.

              The diner’s light was still on, showing a multitude of figures bouncing between me and the structure. They scuttled back and forth, howling and crying, trying to discover where the sound disappeared to.

              The car shook as one of them crashed onto the hood, yanking the car forward while its claws dug in deep and twisted the metal. A screech alerted more to the automobile. I slipped to the floor of the backseat. It was so rusted I crashed right on through to the pavement below, the fall muffled by the inhuman screams.

              I wiggled free from the metal that snagged my pants. Several pairs of legs had surrounded the rusted car. Some jumped on top, others were clawing at the glass. Were they tracking me?

              A scream shook the world louder than the rest. One of the creatures had bent down and was gawking at me through blind eyes. The mangled face bellowed another shriek. Dagger-like claws swiped in all directions as it struggled to snag something made of flesh. One claw cut my leg, gashing a few inches of skin near the knee. Blood splashed outwards, and I unwillingly yelped in pain.

A thousand more screams haunted to life, hearing the cry. All I could do was draw in my knee close to my body and wish those creatures away. More and more were crouching down, following the lead of the others.

              Tearing at my pants, they managed to rip a few shreds of my sweatshirt. Talons came dangerously close to arties. All the while they screamed in their horrible language, which seemed to keep bringing more and more. At least there was much clearance between the car and the pavement. Though it didn’t halt the onslaught.

              One claw caught on my pants and caught the seam just right, dragging me backwards a few inches. I held onto the frame above, even though the hole in the vehicle hugged me snuggly in place.

              A scream shouted from above. Looking up, I noticed a large hole in the roof of the sedan. A blackened face glared at me through the hole. Another scream reverberated through the car’s insides, echoing so loudly it shook everything. The hole was only six inches across in the roof, and the creature tore it, trying to widen it.

              Another yanked on my denim pants, but I was wedged sorely stuck and failed to budge. I pulled on the opening in the floor, trying to wiggle free of the grip that one of them had. It was safer inside the car at the moment, and with one final pull I freed myself and slipped through, back into the opening.

              Sighing a breath of reprieve for a second, I looked through the grim of the windows and saw hordes surrounding the car.
How did I get myself here?
I thought.

Claws scraped the side of the car. I leaned back, hoping to avoid the grasp above.

              A strange feeling came over me. It started in my feet, slowly traveling upwards, and a heat formed in my stomach.

             
No, not now. Not right now!
I thought. This was the worst possible moment for this to happen. But before I knew it, the world died from existence, and I was somewhere else completely.

             
It wasn’t quite a vision. Nor was it a dream. As I slowly discovered what I was looking at, I began to understand everything I was and this history. I snapped awaked. I was no longer in that car, and no longer in the city’s center. I was far away from everything that I had known for the last two years.

              I was standing atop a very tall building, one that could touch clouds if there were any that day. I was somewhere in a very alive town, and I drew in fresh air for what felt like the first time. The city sparkled like a jewel in the shimmering sunlight. Light reflected off the glass of the skyscrapers, bounced off the river that ran just to the north, and even though it was hot, it was comfortable.

              To the left was the Bear’s stadium, Soldier Field. A game would have been played this afternoon, if they weren’t out of town this weekend. I didn’t care much for the sport. A shimmering Lake Michigan lapped against the shore. But the beauty was fading because what was happening, what had happened, was going to take over this city quickly, and most likely the rest of the United States. It might even spread and become a pandemic. There wasn’t a way to stop it or cure it. That’s why I was going to jump, to end it right here and right now.

              My right foot flung out into the air, but I kept my eyesight straight up, watching the clear sky above. I let my foot hang there, allowing gravity to do its work, pulling me down. For some reason I feared the fall. Just human instinct I guess. Not wanting to die, and being afraid of what’s to come.

              It wasn’t even the fall that would kill me. It was the ground coming up. Yet the fall, it kept me grounded. Shaking with tension, I tried to keep my breaths shallow. My heartbeat thundered in my chest, and I was truly scared of all of this. Stumbling backwards, I fell on my ass.

              “Damn you,” I said out loud. “God damn you…”

              I looked back at the sky and wondered just how many would survive the initial attack. It had started weeks ago. The percentage of patients who survived the virus was nearly point zero-one percent in trials. Though that was in controlled areas, with the best medicine and tools, the best people watching over them. Now, hell, the ones surviving were doing so on their own terms. Any type of medicine wasn’t helping in the least.

              “It wasn’t my fault. It’s not my fault, it can’t be. I tried… God knows I tried!” I shouted at the sky.

              But then again, the blame rested completely, squarely, on my shoulders. This would affect everyone here, and it would spread, quickly and silently outward. The spread might only take a few weeks for Chicago to be fully covered, less than a few months to expand to the borders of the region. In six months it could cover all of this continent. Knowing how the virus could manifest, it might touch the borders of Europe, Asia, and Africa by year’s end.

              “Your father told me you were up here. Come on, the last of us are going to the bunker in South Carolina,” a voice appeared behind me. I looked back and saw a man, really just a boy, staring back at me.

              “You should go, Phillips. The gestation period suggests that it isn’t safe here anymore,” I said, lingering back out into the world.

              “I’m immune,” Phillips replied.

              “I know that. But given the news reports it’s total chaos down there. There’s panic. Riots. And lots and lots of dead people.”

              “Oh,” Phillips sighed.

              I looked back at him. He was the first tested patient to survive the trial. Also, my lead researcher on the case. He’d volunteered and somehow lived with the virus, the disease dormant but not causing the same effects as it did to everyone else.

              “Well, let’s go!” Phillips was slightly on edge. Though he’d survived the virus, I knew he wasn’t too keen to the idea of it floating around in his veins, sleeping. We had never seen anything like it before.

              “Can’t do that,” I said with a sigh. Even though I yearned to jump, it wasn’t quite what I had in mind.

              “Yeah you can. The chopper is waiting. The whole science team is waiting for us at the lab.”

              “The five thousand effect,” the words echoed inside my head. It was a term I’d adopted. The idea was complex enough but it tested well. There was a station in South Carolina, Florida, Texas, and California, and the one that Phillips wanted me to travel to had been finished first. It was just about to be launched.

              “Exactly,” Phillips replied.

              “It’s right here too,” I whispered. The installation was being built below ground.

              “It’s taking too long. It won’t be ready. But the one in South Carolina is all set!” Phillips cried.

              “It started here. I’ll finish it here…”

              “But we don’t even know if you’re immune.” Phillips moved forward, coming to face me nose to nose. He was only eighteen, but a complete genius. I trusted his logic, more than most. His strangely blue eyes radiated against the sunlight.

              “Wouldn’t that just be an honest to goodness slap in the face, being immune?” I laughed, then frowned. “Look, it will be done soon enough. I need to coordinate the effort. I can only do that from here.” I pointed at the ground. The idea of jumping didn’t escape me, though I doubted I ever had the ability to do so much. After all, I had so much left to do.

              “But Jackson…” Phillips said.

              “Get yourself to that helicopter, now,” I ordered.

              The blades against the wind signaled that the helicopter was coming closer. The copter swirled in, landing against the helipad just above us on the roof.

              “Look, I’ll walk you up. But you get into that damn helicopter, get to South Carolina, and you lock yourself up in that damn vault,” I said.

              Phillips sighed but nodded. There was no point in arguing with me. I was, after all, the boss. Together we set out to the stairs and traveled them quickly. Coming to the helipad, he looked back at me.

              “You’ll figure it out! I know you will! Just have faith!” Phillips shouted over the roar of the copter. I simply nodded, not wishing to let him continue. I pointed, directing him. He stuck out his hand, and we shook. This was most likely the last time I would see Roger L. Phillips again, and prayed he would survive this.

              The helicopter had my father’s business logo etched on the side Bennis Industries. Looking back to Phillips, I held out my hand, waving, praying for his safety. The chopper took off, aiming east, carrying so much precious cargo.

              It wasn’t meant to kill us. It was meant to save us. I tried to blame everything. The materials, the facts, the lab conditions, and even my assistants. Yet the real blame was on me for creating the damn virus.

Chapter 22: A New World.

              My eyes snapped open. I didn’t understanding where I was. Then it hit me. The creatures should still outside the car, trying to claw their way inside.

But they weren’t. In fact, they were completely gone. It was as if they had never existed at all. I lay back down on the seat of the car and lifted the sphere above my head, watching it pulsate with its slow tick. I checked my pant leg. There was no tear in the fabric, and I wasn’t bleeding. Maybe it was all an illusion after all? One hell of a strange one that would convince me my inner self was slipping further into madness.

             
What the hell?
I thought. What was this? Where were they? A dizziness overcame my senses and I twisted in the seat. Maybe it was one of my hallucinations. An incredibly real and terrifying one.

              I ran over the dream, vision or whatever it was in my mind and watched on. Pieces were falling together, but there were still holes. But there was one fact I could rest my thoughts on: there was a virus. One that I had created. How, when, or why was beyond me at this point. It was a virus that had killed many, though I couldn’t really be for sure.

There was a toll on my shoulders, and it felt like a million hands were pushing me down. A virus could explain why the city was broken. The chaos that would arise during such a time, it could tear a city apart. The dream may have even explained why there were so few of us left. Maybe we were the point zero one percent who were immune? Yet that felt wrong. It failed to explain this five thousand effect, the barrier, or the importance of turning twenty-six. It was all a jumble.

              “The Corruptor,” a voice lingered between my ears. It sounded faintly of Susan, her voice calling from beyond the grave.

              “Liar!” Olivia shouted.

              “The Sinner!” Kyle moaned in agony.

              A multitude of voices ran through my head. Yet, I didn’t try to push them off. I had to accept them. Because they were right. I had done something to this city, its people, and maybe even the world. So I just let them in and rush over my thoughts.

              “Not Yet,” Glasses’ voice cut out all of the others and settled on a defiant silence. “Only you,” he pleaded.

             
I know,
I thought back.

              “Get to it then,” Joey called with all his grit and faith.

              I pushed myself up, found the flashlight and clicked it on. Climbing to the front seat and out the door, I glared at the diner from where I’d just come. The insides were still lit somehow, and the jukebox flashed with its yellow and orange colors, but no music filled the empty air. I was thankful no creatures lingered, but had they really failed to exist in the first place? No… they’d been in the jail. Joey had shot one. They had to exist, just not apparently right here, and right now.

              I turned to the left and looked into the black. It wasn’t completely dark. We, in the living part of this city couldn’t see this from beyond the barrier, but there were buildings still alight even in this night, even after all these years. Tiny dots sparkled everywhere.

I jogged into the center of the road with the sphere held in front of me and the flashlight’s beam cutting a path. I was completely amazed at the surroundings. One entire skyscraper had nearly all its lights on. Electricity was coming from some source. A couple of light posts that lined the avenue still illuminated the streets with their orange glow.

              A glass tower loomed to my right. Most of it was unlit, and it disappeared in the thundering clouds up above. The blue glare from the orb reflected off the lower panels.

A sign dangled near the center of the buildings, now toppled and hanging vertically. Tilting my head and aiming the flashlight, though it wasn’t much help, the words spelled out ‘Dylan and Dylan, Attorneys at Law.’ The sign waved in the wind, as if greeting the unfamiliar presence. Broken fountains lay in disrepair, and the years hadn’t been kind. Concrete foundations were cracked and falling apart.

              Down the street from the attorney’s office was a big brick building. I moved closer, angling the flashlight up, and spotted a big cross at the top of a chapel. Floodlights aimed at the cross were still somehow functioning, though they flickered from time to time. Arches and pillars decorated the front of the chapel, while statues adorned a balcony and separate spaces near the roof.

I could faintly remember the idea of religion. Never more than a few pieces, really. I recalled Sundays, early mornings, some guy with a beard, wine, and that was about it. I examined the brick building. It appeared the west wall was falling apart, as a giant hole had formed near the base. The crack traveled all the way to the cross. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought a bolt of lightning struck the cross and caused the crack. Maybe the bearded man was angry no one came here anymore?

              Switching my attention back to the matter at hand, I let my eyes rest on the distant skyline. My answers were that way, if any answers existed here at all. My feet carried on without me, as if traveling the world required so little effort.

              I came to a halt and refocused. I had come upon a bridge with lampposts still shining down on the street. Traversing the bridge was too easy. No wrecks lined the highway, no holes so big I had to glide over them with only ropes for my hands and feet. Nothing slowed me down at all, like the world wanted me to move quicker to find what hadn’t been found.

              A lifeless forest of trees and bushes awaited on the other side of the bridge. It was a park in the middle of nowhere. Plants, long dead from the lack of sunlight, bristled with waiting arms. Trees roots twisted out of the ground, begging for a drink. Most just remained standing, twisted, angry arms swaying in the wind, while others rotted on the ground. The ground itself should have been a thick, grassy knoll, but now only a patch of dirt remained. A warped iron fence wrapped itself around the park, and an entrance with a gate was locked from a heavy twist lock and chains.

              I had to find a way up and over. Flashing the light from side to side, I discovered a section down the row was ripped to pieces. Metal shards jutted out in all directions, like a bomb had exploded.

I passed through the fence. The park was deader than I’d initially thought. A pathway that would loop and twist along the parkway was cracked and parts of the concrete were unearthed. As I walked along the path, I discovered it cut off suddenly and dropped down into a wide lakebed.

Water that would have splashed the edges of the concrete had dried up long ago. The soil was a mixture of soft dirt and sand. It felt strange to be walking where the water used to be. I walked a good ten feet down into the lakebed before it leveled off. Pushing forward, I followed my instincts, and turned slightly left, as if I knew where I was going. Soon the bank rose and I was right out of the lakebed once more.

              I stood still and held the orb out, the flashlight ahead. A vast network of buildings loomed in front of me. Striding a few dozen feet forward, I walked straight into the fence that surrounded the park, finding the exit just a few more feet to the right.

Five or six very tall sky scrapers surrounded the little park, and all of them had a few windows glowing with lights, patches of bright spots amidst the darkness. Thunder reverberated overhead, while lightning flashed between clouds.

              A pain suddenly appeared in my chest, a burning sensation so hot it made me think my sternum was melting. I lost my grip on the flashlight and it tumbled to the ground. The notion that I still gripped the sphere made it reasonable that something else was happening. I doubled over, my stomach twisted, and my airways began to tighten.

             
What the fuck
! I screamed inside.

              This pain, this was new pain. I hadn’t felt like this before, and didn’t know why it was coming now. I wondered if somehow this was the turning. But it was too soon, far too soon. My arm began to shake, threatening to drop the sphere still clutched in my now claw-like hand. If I dropped the device I wondered if it would double my pain? My shoulder started to burn where I’d fallen on it back in the tower with the timer, but that pain was amplified.

              I staggered into the road. For some reason I needed to be away from the dead park. It was throwing off my equilibrium, that or being in a place far more lifeless than the rest was unkind to my body.

              Choking down the vomit that boiled up inside me, I crashed against the glass exterior of one of the buildings. Finally, after a few seconds, whatever the pain was seem to filter out, leaving only a sense that something dreadfully worse was coming. I’d heard some of the people felt the turning coming before it happened. Though I didn’t exactly remember anyone feeling like this. Or at least, feeling like their skin was melting off.

              A scream lingered in the vastness. A good distance off.

              “Not Again…” I said out loud. It sounded just like
them.
My previous scene didn’t exactly grant me the notion that any of them were real. But living in this darkness, and being beyond the barrier, left me with the thought that nothing should be taken for granted. Whether it was a hallucination or not.

              I leaned against the tower and raised the sphere, trying to peer inside. The lobby was partially lit and looked like another office structure, desks lining the front entrance and sofas and comfy chairs around the lobby.

              Another scream emitted from far away. I tried to see what was yelling but nothing appeared. I knew I should get moving soon. Dream-like or not, I didn’t want these creatures to surround me again.

              A creature flung itself against the glass inside, sending me flying backwards and landing on my ass. A screamed erupted from the lobby, and the creature continued to fling itself against the glass. The glass spider webbed with the impacts, growing slowly. The glass was breaking.

              I got to my feet and flashed the orb around, trying to find an escape route. It was too damn dark to see a great distance, though the lamppost lit the way down the road. Sprinting in that direction, I followed the lampposts, trying to find something, anything.

              Something lingered far behind me. It sounded like claws on top of pavement. A thousand pounding, disfigured feet came from behind, though I wouldn’t dare look back. Instead I remained focused forward, and hoped they were still far away. The creature that had smashed itself against the glass sounded like it was still trying to break through. It must have been alerting the others. If I moved far enough away, they might not know where I was.

              The road dipped and twisted around, running straight into the center of what must have been a busy marketplace. Little stations and storefronts dotted the landscape. Goods still hung on hooks, watches and trinkets lying on the surface. Pushing past, something caught my attention up ahead. It flashed.

Thinking that maybe it was just a light blinking inside one of the buildings, I pressed on, until it blinked again. It was red.

              Another scream erupted from somewhere down the highway, but it remained far enough way. Now, that red blinking drove me forward. It was colored like the timer. I pushed back into the road, trying to get a better view. It was probably a few blocks down, and up in the air.

             
What is it?
I asked myself.

              Then it blinked again.

              And Again.

              And Again.

              Softly, off and on, as if matching the sphere pulsating in my hands.

              It called out in the deepest darkness.

Something deep inside me clicked into place. I had seen this before. Back in my dream. Back when I was in the darkness, when I flew to the tower with the strange, blinking red light. This was it. This was my destiny. It was calling me, and it was so close. And the screams were getting closer too.