The Garden of Heathen

The Worst Thing Imaginable

The atmosphere of the room changed immediately after Aussie's announcement that the doors weren't closing. The air went stale with the mingling feelings of anxiety and fatigue, the tiredness and fatigue settling down into their bones as they faced  yet another new threat so soon. It was always something. Always something new when you'd thought you'd had it figured out.

"Let's get everyone to the basement again, just like before," Aussie said calmly as she slowly stood up from the table. Only Gally noticed the slight tremble in her hand. "Keep it calm and orderly but get everyone down there as quickly as you can."

The seriousness of the situation had frozen everyone at first, but the urgency finally called them to action and soon everyone was getting up, the sound of chairs scuffing on the floor and feet hurrying to the door. Gally planned to stay with Aussie and Gertie, he wouldn't let either one of them go off on their own, and he didn't really care what they thought of that. He still hadn't told Gertie he believed she was his sister, and he hadn't told Aussie how he felt about her. It seemed like this shucking place wouldn't give him a moment of peace to have a heartfelt conversation with either of them.

Most everyone had gone out of the building ahead of them and were scurrying to various groups around the Garden, starting to collect everyone into the house. Aussie paused with Gally and Gertie in the door way, an apprehensive feeling taking over her, something dark and twisting in her guts. She knew Gally was speaking to her, but she couldn't focus on what he was saying, her world was still and quiet. Her eyes flickered with a soft shimmer of light, one that was oddly familiar, one that made her look down at her chest, seeing a pin point of green light. She watched as it moved slowly across her and landed on Gally next. It turned red.

She knew that light, she'd seen it in the maze when she'd spotted the creature on the wall. It had been a green light on her then too, and her group wasn't attacked, but the others were. Even with erased memories, she knew that green was good and red was bad. The green light on her had to mean she wouldn't be attacked, but Gally...

She couldn't let that thing near Gally or Gertie, she would never recover if she saw them attacked and killed by something that wouldn't have the decency to put her out of her misery too. She prayed she was right about the green light and then, as quickly as she could, she pushed Gally and Gertie back inside. The building had thick walls and a solid door, the Griever might not be able to break into it, her friends would be safer there than anywhere else in the garden at least. They stumbled backward, not expecting her to do anything like that. Their confusion turned to gut dropping terror as she started pulling the door shut between them, a glimpse of a Griever appearing before it shut entirely. Gally heard the door lock even over the sound of the creature's roar just on the other side. He felt his heart clawing its way up his throat but all that came out was a cry that drained him of all the energy he had left, the worst thing he could imagine happening just then coming true on the other side of a locked door.

Aussie couldn't hear the sound of Gally's heart breaking over the hot, wet roar of the creature behind her. She clung to the wheel of the door with her eyes tightly shut, waiting to see if she was right about the meaning of the red and green lights. She waited for the pain of a sting or a strike of some kind, but it didn't come. She could tell the creature was still there, impatiently tiptoeing around as if waiting for her to get out of the way so it could get at her loved ones inside the building. Slowly she turned her head, chancing a glance behind her, seeing the creature pacing directly in front of her, drool falling freely from its metallic teeth. She caught a glimpse of that laser light again, glowing green on her shoulder. It wasn't going to attack her, for some reason she was untouchable.

She saw motion behind it, girls racing into the house. Maybe if she could keep it busy she could buy them time to get to safety, maybe it wouldn't see where they'd all gotten to. It seemed to grow tired of waiting for its prey inside and started to turn away.