The Darkness

Jarren Andras
A toll from the clock seemed to only add to the darkness directly in front of him. His hand made the subtle sliding
noise as he guided himself down the hall. This all would have been an only slightly uncommon event had there been no
guttural sound emitting from the other side of the hall. He opened a door with a free hand in order to allow a small amount
of moonlight to shine through a window and out into the ever darker hallway. The small fraction of lighting was all that was
needed to depict a horrifying scene. A woman that seemed so familiar, yet currently so strange and a man that was both
despised and loved together, covered in the red sticky substance. As more steps were taken towards the couple, the fussing
stopped along with the raucous noises. The female of the two managed to stumble in an upwards fashion. Her face was so
kind, yet smothered with a liquid red. o loving, yet filled with hate. o sane, yet maniacal.
A couple of half!seconds was all it took for the monstrous caretaker to rush the boy, slamming him against the wall
and into a small cabinet that allowed it to flip over and contents scattering onto the floor. The horrible woman proceeded to
slam him into the ground and pin the boy. he began beating him. "ed courage spewed out with each #ab. he paused for a
second to close in on the boy with her mouth as she tried to bite him. He put up a hand in defense, which managed to clutch
her neck . $old. He pushed her further until she was off of him completely. %sing the other hand now, he squee&ed her neck.
He then started to pin her as she did him. 'ow squee&ing her neck harder he began to get angry. (hy did she attack me)
he is supposed to love me. He gripped her neck as much as his strength would allow and then even harder as adrenaline
flowed through him. A loud snap rang through the air, her head went top!heavy and limped crookedly. He pushed her away
before standing and moving into the open room.
He gripped the pull string for the closet, the light flickered to life to reveal clothes. He tore the main bar that held
the hangers up completely down. *ehind all of it was a rectangular bo+. He opened it and pulled out a never used pump
shotgun and a bo+ of new shells. He loaded it and shoved the rest of the bo+ into his pants pocket. He left and didn,t bother
to pull the lights off. -n the kitchen counter, he picked up the keys without pausing and walked out of the front door right
into the mouth of hell itself.
The car was opened, started, and backed up as fast as possibly allowed. He floored it as soon as he got a straight
path. The sky was a bright orange and the air smelt of death, smoke, and terror. .riendly people that he had known for years
were now changing into violent monsters. /t was almost everyone. The sane people left in this world were either in the car
or had a self!imposed bullet hole through their temple. This familiar world of blind happiness and terror were gone now and
all that was left was complete and udder madness. / am not sure when the world had gone through this harsh
metamorphosis. 'one of that mattered now, the only thing that did matter was himself. The ever!present selfishness of the
world had already engulfed everyone before any sort of virus, disease, or plague broke out unto the 0arth.
(hile the self!loathing was going on inside the speeding bullet of death, he had not noticed the over e+cited
#umping about 12 meters directly in front of him. As a force of habit, the brakes were slammed and the smell of cooking
rubber overtook the air in seconds. A messy assortment of blood and hair stood in front of the halted car. He did not e+pect
to find another living so soon. he was already in the passenger seat and they were driving away without any spoken words
or noises e+cept for the click of a seat!belt being entered into its rightful place. 'one of these things had ever been
anticipated, not the action of self!#ustified murder, not speeding in a car, and definitely not border control to go from state
to state.
They both unclicked their seat!belt and opened their doors. *oth the boy and the girl left their metal safe
haven to return into a hellish nightmare. The plentiful concrete barricades and steel road spikes could stop the heftiest
automobile in it,s tracks and trying to drive through them wasn,t the smartest idea. -n the opposite side into the ne+t state
was a lone soldier mostly covered by sandbags and uniform. His fully automatic, ready to blow up some heads, machine
gun was pointed at both of them. The soldier,s obvious trembles made the gun,s rattling noise unendurable. He shouted
orders that didn,t belong to him and threats that he could not hold up to. oldier barked at them to turn back, but the girl
refused, instead she took a full step up while talking in a calm slow voice. The soldier screamed at her to stop directly
before she became quiet. taring into this cowardly beast,s eyes, she took another full step, she challenged him and oldier
was the one with the gun. 3aroon darkness flew into the air, that seemed to free&e, her head slammed into the ground with
so much vigor, that more blood poured out of her mouth, ears, and even her eyes. tunned by the preceding event, he still
managed to raise up his gun towards the sandbag hidden uniform.
4*oom.5
.ierce tremors of impact ran up his arm and into his mid!section with each e+plosion. The gunpowder driven shots
created a huge smokescreen when the bullets penetrated the sandbags. He lowered his gun, proud of his recent valor effort
to avenge a fallen comrade. At that e+act moment of self praise, lines of yellow death shot from the smoke and into his
arms, chest, and legs. He fell to his knees and dropped the gun. The smoky figure emerged from the powered fog, planted
the automatic rifle,s tip in the e+tra space between his eyes. A slight twitch of the finger was all that was needed to
needlessly end a life. 6ife, which used to be important, is now nothing more than a thought. /f you wanted to survive, you
had to end a life. /t was your debt that needed to be paid. And this soldier had #ust paid his.