Against The Darkness (Cimmerian Moon) (18 page)

April 22
^nd
, 2012: Day 31

“Shh…don’t say
a word,” a harsh voice whispers into my ear. A hand is placed roughly over my
mouth as he says it. A million things come to my foggy mind all at once

The Tanners
have me.

Where is
everyone?

Should I
scream?

Should I
try to get away?

Should I
keep my mouth shut?

My eyes fly
open. My vision is all blurriness and darkness. I can’t make out anything
except for the ceiling, with its lines of pipes and electrical wires. I try
blinking away the last effects of my sleep. As my vision clears I turn to my
right to where a body is pressed against mine. My face is just inches from the
back of a head.

No
,
I want to scream. I have to get out of here. I reach out for my samurai sword.
I can get to it quicker than I can get to the guns that are in my backpack. I
try to keep myself calm as I wrap my hand around the handle. The person lifts
their head and turns to look at me.

It’s Jason.
His eyes are wide and round. “The aliens are here,” he whispers in a rush.

If at all
possible, my heart beats even faster. I can’t catch my breath. I’m grateful for
the hand he has over my mouth, for it holds back the gasp I let out.

Aliens?
Here?

I let go of
the sword. And grab his wrists, pulling his hand away from my mouth. Free, I
turn and adjust my eyes to the darkness. Everyone else is still in their
sleeping bags. The whites of their eyes are like flashlights in the dark.

I have so many
questions for Jason, but I don’t dare to open my mouth to ask him. I don’t want
the lizards to take me to wherever they are taking other people. I don’t want
to be killed or eaten or have anything else done to me that they’re doing.

I just want
to go home.

And then I
hear it. The heavy steps of someone walking above us. The steps sound like they
could be anyone. How do we even know what aliens sound like?

Stomp,
stomp, slide.

Stomp,
stomp, slide.

Stomp,
stomp, slide.

Like that.

A tail is
sliding on the floor behind them. That’s what the difference is.

I need to
get out of here.

Unrelenting
and unforgiving, I can’t think of anything else. Doom hovers above my head like
a dark cloud, dripping dread on me like rain.

I fumble for
my zipper and pull at it. I need to get it down.

Jason places a
hand over mine, stopping me.

I don’t want
him to stop me. I feel trapped, unable to move. I can’t breathe.

“I have to get
out of here.” I don’t even recognize my voice. It sounds panicky, scared and
crazy.

“Shut her up,”
Ken says from a few feet away from me.

The walking
above us stops.

“Please,” I
plead in a low tone. “I have to get out of this bag. I can’t breathe.”

“Hold on,”
Jason says. “When they leave.”

No. Now.

I want to
scream but I squeeze my eyes shut. I keep quiet and hold my breath. Tears make
a slow tickling path down the sides of my face. I let them fall, resisting the
urge to wipe them away. I have to stay still.

I have to.

I can’t tell
how much time has passed so I listen to Jason’s breathing, counting each one.

One, two,
three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen,
fourteen…

Stomp,
stomp, slide.

Stomp,
stomp, slide.

Stomp,
stomp, slide.

That’s good
,
I say to myself. It’s leaving.

Each step it
takes is closer to the outside. Away, I pray.
Go away.

Fifty-two,
fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight…

Silence.

Jason’s
breathing stops. My breaths stops.

It’s gone.

I hold my
breath until my lungs burn. Only after I hear Jason breathing again do I dare
to. I don’t bother counting anymore. There’s no need.

I don’t move.
No one moves. We all lay there as if in a catatonic state, wondering how long
it will take them to leave the area. After what seems like hours, there’s
finally movement.

Ian rises and
stretches quietly. “So what’s the plan? Stay here until we’re sure they’re
gone?”

That sounds
like a good plan to me but I don’t say anything. I want to stay here, lying
next to Jason. Although I’m not counting his breaths anymore I’m still
listening to him breathe. I want to snuggle closer to him. I want him to put
his arm around me and tell me everything is okay. I know that I shouldn’t be
feeling or thinking this way, but I can’t help it.

“That would be
the smart thing to do,” Ken says.

“What about
using the toilet?” Shayla asks. “I have to pee.”

I didn’t have
to before, but now I do too. “Me too.”

After I
unfasten my zipper I roll to my feet. Shayla does the same thing.

“Hold on,” MJ
says. “Shouldn’t we sweep the building first? Make sure they left?”

Jason grabs
his gun. “I’ll go.”

Wade reaches
for his. “Me too.”

After they
leave I slip on my new boots. “Are you coming?” I ask Mia as she starts to get
up.

“No,” Ken
says. “Two at a time. We don’t want to draw attention to this building. Two
will go unnoticed. Anymore and someone is bound to do something stupid to get
noticed.”

“Mia and I are
next,” Ms. Burgess says.

We’re all in
agreement as we wait for Jason and Wade to come back. Finally, Wade and Jason
drop down through the hole in the ceiling. “All clear,” Jason says.

I reach from
my backpack.

Before I can
even get my hand in it all the way, Ken says, “Leave the gun here. I don’t want
you to shoot Shayla by accident.”

“But shouldn’t
I take a weapon?”

“Take your
sword. I don’t want you guys using the guns until after we can properly train
you on them.”

“Sure.” I put
my bag down and grab my samurai sword. “Are you bringing your knife?” I ask
Shayla.

“Naw. I’ll let
you protect me while I pee.”

I climb up the
makeshift stairs behind Shayla.

“Keep your
eyes and ears open and don’t make any noise,” Ken warns, as we make our way
through the opening.

I nod.

Once we’re up
the stairs, we make our way to the bathroom we’ve used the night before. It’s
not really a bathroom. It’s what used to be the bathroom. The toilet is gone.
It’s somewhere near the front door, but the hole is still in the ground and two
of the walls are still up.

“Oh, my God,”
Shayla exclaims as we approach. “It smells like holy hell.”

She isn’t
lying. My eyes begin to burn as the raw sewage seem to assault them. I squeeze
them shut and use my free hand to rub them. “Jesus, this place stinks.”

“You want to
go first?”

“Naw, you
first. I’ll stand watch.” I open my eyes. They still burn like crazy, but until
we pee and go back to the basement there’s nothing I can do about it.

“You won’t let
the aliens sneak up on me with my pants down, will you?” she teases.

I rotate my
wrist, making my sword swish through the air in front of us. “They don’t stand
a chance.”

She giggles.
“You know, two months ago I would have never believed anyone if they told me
that you have a bad-ass streak in you.”

I cut the
sword through the air, this time using some fancy footwork. “In my head I see
myself as a super hero, crime fighter, sex-bot, and karate master.”

Shayla bursts
out in a chuckle that she tries to cover up with her hand. “You’re a hot mess.”

I kick out at
an imaginary target. “
Wha-cha
.”

We make it to
the door and, despite our free spirits, I kinda want to throw-up from the smell
of raw sewage.

“Wait here,”
Shayla says as she passes over the threshold.

Nodding I take
my stance with my back to her.

“Sin,” she
calls out in a whisper.

I turn to glance
at her over my shoulder. She’s staring at me with wide-eyes and fear written
all over her face. “Don’t leave me. Promise me that you won’t leave me.”

“It’s cool.
They checked. We’re safe. Otherwise Ken wouldn’t have let us come up here by
ourselves.”

“I don’t care
what Ken would and wouldn’t do. Promise me.”

“I won’t. I
promise.”

“Thanks. I
needed to hear that. I don’t think I could have peed otherwise.”

I give her a
smirk and turn my head as she starts to pull down her pants. I hear the steady
stream of her relieving herself and then…

Stomp,
stomp, slide.

Oh no…

My breathing
picks up. So fast and hard that the air doesn’t seep into my lungs before I
exhale. I swipe my gaze from left to right. I can’t see anything besides a
torn-up church. Office furniture is thrown about, some of the walls are caved
in, everything is out of place, but I still can’t see what’s coming my way.

Stomp,
stomp, slide.

They’re
here…

My heart is
beating so fast that I think it will explode. Between that and not being able
to catch my breath, my head begins to spin. Sweat seems to pore off my palms,
making the sword slippery in my grasp.

Stomp,
stomp, slide.

Shayla’s
stream of urine stops.

Shayla.

I hear her
pulling up her pants.

“Shayla,” I
say with my voice in a mixture of a whisper and whine. I’m scared to say
anything louder.

Stomp,
stomp, slide.

My left
.

I peer in that
direction, lifting my sword, pointing it to whatever will come at me. It shakes
in the air, my hands almost too unsteady to hold it.

Stomp,
stomp, slide.

Shayla
approaches my back. “Your turn.”

Stomp,
stomp, slide.

“Something is
here,” I choke out.

She inhales
sharply and steps back, away from me. Only after I feel the tug on the back of
my shirt do I realize that she has me, pulling me with her. I take a slow
deliberate step back and then another, letting her guide me as I keep my eyes
peeled for them. We move to the far corner of the room. All the while the
stomp,
stomp, slide
comes closer and closer, louder and louder.

Briefly I
wonder if they can hear it in the basement. They have to. Will they come up and
save us? Could they even risk it? I don’t think so. We’re on our own until the
aliens leave.

I know we’re
at the wall when Shayla stops abruptly and she leads me to rest my back on the
wall. We’re standing side-by-side, but I get the feeling that I should stand in
front of her. I’m the only one with a weapon. So I do.

“No,” she
whispers. “What are you doing?”

“I have a
sword.”

“Yeah, one
that you’ve been having for all but five minutes.”

“Shhh,” I
hiss.

After a blink,
it’s there, blocking the entrance. A lizard, green and scaly. Eight feet tall, rippling
muscles, staring at me with yellow eyes with black, diamond-shaped iris.

How can a
lizard be muscular?
My mind screams.

I whimper as it
stares down at me, its breathing heavy.

A warm rush of
urine travels down my legs.

Shayla’s scream
seems to pierce through me.

“You will
submit to us.”

Oh, God,
No!

In two strides
it’s at us. It reaches out for me and all I can focus on are the claws, three
black claws, almost like talons, coming closer to me. Instinctively I cringe
away from it. But those claws keep coming toward me.

With a “swish”
of my sword I swing as hard as I can. It glides through his skin like through butter.
A gush of warm liquid sprays me in the face and torso.

I’m not the
only one who is surprised by what I’ve done. The lizard stares at his arm with
pure shock. I’m in pure shock too. Not that I’ve done it, but that I’ve taken
his hand clear off.

Before I can
over think about what I’ve done, I take another swipe, this time at its leg. It’s
not wearing any clothes, besides some kind of utility belt, so aiming for its
knee is easy. The lizard roars as the sword passes through it, making him
buckle and fall to his left.