I look away as I hear a booming shot, and the sound of disgusting wet splatter. “Eli…”
As I get back up to my feet. I come face to face with a large man riddled with bullet holes. I begin to back way and into the bedroom. I fire a few shots, but they appear to do no damage. The man strikes out and sends me flying into the wall next to Claire. I look over to her—she is rocking back and forth. She stops and stares at me, her eyes are wide.
“Claire…”
I look for my rifle, but it is across the room. I attempt to move, but my back pierces in agony. I am not badly injured; at least I don’t feel like it. There is simply no fight left within me—not against such an enemy.
Claire looks to the gun in her hand and gets to her feet. She points it at the man. “Calm down…”
The man approaches, he ignores her and makes his way to me. He grabs me by the foot and hangs me up in the air.
“Put him down…” Claire says as she continues to keep the gun fixed at the man’s head. “Please… leave us be.”
The Aggro screams loudly—Claire, however, does not back down from the sound. She drops her gun, my heart begins to beat loudly—now we have no chance.
“This is… my girlfriend,” Claire shouts at the man as she holds her hand out in front of her. “She is different… she is not like the others. I am… caretaker.”
The Aggro releases me as I collapse to the floor. Claire rushes over and places her arms around me. I watch in awe as the bullet riddled man lumbers away, almost as though he understood, and has decided to leave. There seems to be a strange calmness about him. He is no longer breathing as heavy. He reaches the top of the staircase, and collapses atop of Eli’s remains. After a few heavy, labored breaths, he dies.
“Claire…” I whisper. “How…?”
“I made him see that you were of no harm,” Claire says as she hugs me tightly.
I cry out in pain as she puts pressure on my arm. “I think I’m… damaged.”
She looks at my arm, and pulls off my shirt. I have a lot of cuts, some bright red marks. “Damaged but not broken…”
“We should go,” I say as I get to my feet with Claire’s help.
I get into the dresser—A few shirts that I meant to leave are still there. Not wanting to look like I’ve just been through a battle, which in a way I suppose I have, I use my old shirt to wipe away the blood stains from my body. I put one of the old shirts on and we head down the stairs cautiously. We step over a few dead Aggros. I think I see an arm and a leg. I’m not sure if it was… I don’t want to think about it. The living room in an impassable mess of dead bodies… so we head to the back door. It looks like the front of the house took the brunt of the assault—although a few Aggros seemed to manage their way through the back. We duck our way through and enter into the night. The fireflies greet us in the tall grass.
“Beautiful…” Claire says as I rest a moment against the hood of the car.
I watch for a few moments as she chases after the glowing creatures, as enthralled as a child. I imagine that she has not seen them in a long time. With all the horror that I’ve just witnessed, it is nice to see something so wonderful—so innocent. She catches one in her hands and brings it to me. As she opens her hands it glows a brilliant green three times and then flies away into the night joining the thousands of others.
I stop watching and look down to the earth. Once again I’m left wondering why I have survived when others have not. Those were all good people… they just wanted to help. Eli… I didn’t get a chance to know him well, but he trusted me—him and Tom… I wouldn’t have made it out alive of Lawson if it were not for them.
Claire brings me another firefly. She looks at me and then looks at the glowing green light. “Are you sad because your friends are gone?”
“I am,” I say with a single nod.
“I wish I would have gotten to meet them, before they left.”
“Me too…” I say as I place my arms around her and draw her close to me. “I’m just glad that you are safe.”
“We should be leaving soon… I suppose.”
“We should. I have to get that stupid metal case to someone… we need to get somewhere safe.”
“My home…?”
“Do you remember the way?” I ask as I open the door for Claire.
I get into the driver’s seat and place the keys into the car. “Map…”
“Mo…” Claire pauses as she closes her eyes. She strains for a moment and begins to gently tap her fingers against her forehead. “Mo… Morro Bay… address is not listed—but I’ll… I’ll remember the way I promise.”
“Breaking news,” the female voice speaks as the dashboard comes to life.
For a moment I fear that it will be about us—what happened in Lawson.
“A news reporter I have never seen before is standing far from what appears to be a huge fire—the footage looks strange. It does not appear to be the typical C-Shapes footage. He begins to speak—“Thousands of Aggros have descended upon the C-Shapes headquarters earlier today, the largest activated chain since V-Day. Military forces had to withdraw as the largest Research facility in the world was taken down—the main factory of C-Shapes has been completely destroyed. The mass group of Aggros is currently on their way to converge with another group that is assaulting our nation’s capital. The flames behind me are all that is left of the massive complex—a fire that will likely be allowed to burn as there are no emergency responders left to handle the massive inferno.”
“Looks like they have more important things to worry about than hunt us down…” I say as I watch flames dance high into the air. A small explosion follows; however, the reporter pauses and then continues as though nothing happened.
“Around the world people have gone into hiding, fearing a similar reaction. Distribution centers are still open around the world but it appears that there will be no cure after all—also the amount of pills left will cover the world’s demand for only about two months… leaving government leaders of all nations with some very difficult decisions. However, no such mass Aggro attacks have been reported anywhere else in the world—it seems completely contained to the United States…”
“This is just… coming in now—the Pentagon building has fallen, and so has the White House. The President and First Lady are safe, and are in an undisclosed but secure location. Military forces are trying to do everything they can to secure the nation’s capital, but it appears that the damage has already been done. Riots have broken out all over the country, C-Shapes offices are being targeted everywhere. Hunters are being murdered and their bodies are being strung up on telephone poles in major cities in the U.S. I urge everyone to stay indoors and stay safe. If you are in the area of the C-Shapes Research Facility try and evacuate if possible—if not, stay indoors… I will try and report as much as I can—the entire C-Shapes Network has been taken down completely. We will try and get as many outside news organizations up and running… will get new info in whenever we can.”
The display disappears back to black.
“We definitely have to get out of here…” I say as I shake my head. I still remember the look on Noah’s face when I hypothetically asked if the Aggros could all be activated at once, what was to keep someone from another country discovering the truth and using it as a weapon—I just didn’t figure it would be used against us… I still remember his answer ‘it would be inhumane…’ well apparently someone on the inside that he revealed the truth did not share his view.
“No more C-Shapes?”
“It looks that way…”
“What does that mean? What happens now—can we go home?”