“Put that fucking gun down, now!” I sneered. The instance my demeanor changed his aura also changed. I didn’t know if it was these new eyes of mine, but it was like he glowed yellow. His trigger finger retracted to the outside of the gun. The shock of my comment made him misstep.
Within that instant, I was upon him, not even knowing I could be so fast, so precise. I grabbed him by the wrist and stretched his hand with the gun outwards. With my other hand I lifted him up by the throat and shoved him against the monitors.
“Now is not the time!” I screamed. “I need your fucking help!”
Vincent dropped the gun as I tightened my grip on his wrist. His eyes were wide enough for me to know my message got through.
“Okay. Okay. Just let me down,” he wheezed.
“I need to get to them as quickly as possible. What’s the quickest way?” I set Vincent gently down.
“I don’t know. I haven’t left this room in years.” He coughed and rubbed his throat. He remained timid, and flinched as if I would strike him. “But I have something that might help. It’s outside.” He pushed himself away from the monitors and walked through the door. I followed as Vincent kept close the building, still afraid the creatures would leap out of the darkness.
I found myself wondering why I could still stand on both sides of the barrier. There were no effects from either side as I crossed the threshold. Somehow I had adapted to the five thousand effect. When I turned the effect must have canceled out somehow. Maybe that is why there were a couple of walkers down in the installation.
Vincent stopped near the corner of the building and pointed at a garage that sat a few dozen yards away.
“Inside there. She should run. Gas is in the tanks sealed up behind her. That’s all I got for you,” Vincent said, breathing heavily as he walked passed. “Keys in the ignition.” He continued without a goodbye, returning to the station. Not long after, I heard the door slam shut. I wondered if this would be the last time I saw Vincent.
Running across the darkness felt different now, as if the thousands of voices of this city reassured me that darkness was home, even though they wanted to break away from it. It had become second-nature, this strange, unnatural twilight. Even though they resented the night they’d still lived within it for years.
Thunder rang overhead. The antenna above blinked red. There wasn’t much time left. I had to get to the horde before the barrier fell.
I hadn’t driven a vehicle in so long, though driving wasn’t something you forgot. The truck was nimble for its size as it rumbled down the streets. The headlights cut a clear path through the damaged city. Crossing over the center lane to avoid the overturned wreckage of an eighteen wheeler, it was hard to imagine how this city had survived, or at least grown into something so different.
Some creatures started running alongside the truck. Their screams roared over the engine, but they also ricocheted through my mind. They couldn’t understand how one of theirs was controlling such a thing. Some scraped at the truck’s sides, claws dragging across the metal, though they made no real attempt to attack. I kept hearing them shout that the truck was too loud in their quiet atmosphere, and in fact terrorized them. They all felt the same fear. The millions who were connected shuddered in the same horror, and soon it massed into a riot.
I took a right turn and zoomed past the dark, dead park where I’d been earlier. Onward I roared passed the glass lawyer’s office, Dylan and Dylan, and crossed the long bridge. I retraced my steps by following the voices like a guide. They were pointing me exactly where they were.
None of the voices had a recognizable idea. They all screamed in an illogical mess. Their fear was constant in my thoughts, even though I wasn’t the one afraid. But their emotions were becoming my own. It was hard to displace them from my own feelings. They were more human than I’d anticipated, but they weren’t capable of maintaining humanity for long. They screamed in pain that ascended to madness, turning to anger and rage.
“Kill. Run. Free,” the words rattled through my head, overshadowing the more non-coherent statements. They all howled in questions and millions more responded. I had only been linked for less than an hour and I was already starting to lose it. They had been linked for years.
It was no wonder they were crazed, or attacked anything that wasn’t the horde. Their actions may not even be their own, not really. Thinking about it, these other creatures could be directing them from afar, even overseas. Though directing was the wrong term. It was more like losing oneself to the madness of hearing so many voices scream in the darkness.
I crashed headlong to an SUV and banged my head against the steering wheel. Dazed, but maintaining a bit of composure, I tried the key in the ignition and heard only a click. Smoke started to billow from beneath the hood.
I jumped out of the door and hit the ground running, sensing the way I needed to go. I knew there wasn’t much time left. That power source was going to fail soon enough and, in turn, that barrier would fall. Even though I didn’t have any idea what I would do when I caught up with the crowd, I could at least get in the middle of them. Maybe I could say something.
Several other creatures ran beside me, screaming and gasping with each breath. It was strange to be so connected as I looked over one of them. Yet the worst feeling was that I had brought this horror on them. They used to be human, used to have families, dreams, ambitions, and a future, until I ripped it away. The creature closest to me still had hair on her head. She must have turned recently.
A frightening realization overtook me.
“Eve?” I thought.
She’d been shot. I watched her die. Or did she? Could these creatures be killed, or had she simply been stunned? Either way, it was definitely her. She suddenly stopped running and looked around blindly, as if not understanding the name.
“Who?” Eve answered. Thousands of voices rang in response, spilling, falling over the others. In that moment I saw her lose part of her humanity.
“Just listen to me! No one else!” I screamed. I could hear my own voice echo in my thoughts, shutting out the others that still screamed. “Come on Eve, hang on!”
“I’m trying!” she said. The response was so loud. It was decidedly human, decidedly Eve’s. As if on cue, the others stopped completely.
“Okay, just hold steady on my voice. Do you understand me?” My voice continued to echo even if the creatures tried to rant over it.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Good. Now Eve, do you remember who I am?”
“Noooooooooo…. Who is Evvveeeee….” Her voice began to stretch like the others. She would have been in the darkness for about a week now. It was beginning to transform her thoughts as well as her speech. Some of the voices started to rise from below as she lost a bit of her grip.
“Eve!” I shouted. The echo sounded between the hordes, killing their rise. “That is your name!”
“It is? I mean, it is! I’m Eve!” she cried back. “Where am I?”
I wondered if this was a split personality of sorts, or if she was just losing herself altogether.
“You’re here. With me. Just follow my voice. We have to go,” I said, out loud this time.
She didn’t disregard the statement, but simply followed the order. We both started running, allowing myself to reconnect to the horde while somehow keeping Eve removed completely. Never had a voice remained disconnected in this manner, and it was like death. She was wholly gone and the void was unable to be filled. I myself felt the same disconnection every time I had to tear myself away from the strange link as I switched between the horde and Eve.