Please Stand By

Chapter 4

Mr. Anderson had approached the door cautiously. He snapped his fingers and Cain fell into position on his rightt. It looked like routine to Jade, almost as if they had done this a hundred times. Mr. Anderson opened the door, peeking from behind the deadbolt.
He asked who was there.
A muffled voice replied back with a short response, "groceries".
"We didn't order any." Mr. Anderson said.

DeShawn and Trevor had fallen into position on Mr. Anderson's left side. Mr. Anderson unlocked the deadbolt and swung the door open, the girls standing at the end of the little hallway.

Mr. Anderson stepped outside the house, the twins following. Mrs. Anderson and Harmony stood behind the twins. Jade and Cain stood in the doorframe, his arm around Jade's waist protectively. There, in front of the family, was a man in a white hazmat suit with his arms full of bags.

"I know you didn't order them. However, a national emergency is taking place and we are asking all citizens to stay in their homes until we can get them under control. You will have food delivered to your house once a week, if you need more, you can always call up-"
"Hold on now." Mr. Anderson interrupted. "I have a job to go to! If I can't work, I can't get money. If I can't get money, I can't keep the lights on or provide for my family while they're here."
"Besides," Trevor chimed in. "I have to get back home to my boyfriend and our dog. I also have to finish up this semester of school"
"I understand you all have your lives to get back to," The worker said. "But do you understand that there's a national threat going on right now and that it is necessary to stay in doors?"
"What type of threat?" Harmony asked, politely.
"I can't disclose that information." The man said.
"Why?" Mr. Anderson snapped.
"I'm not allowed to. The necessary information will be released with due time."
"This is bullshit!" Mr. Anderson said. Mr. Anderson looked at his family in frustration. He held a scornful face that told the man to piss off without the need to open his mouth. The man offered the brown paper bags to Mr. Anderson. He snatched them and squeezed by Jade and Cain to put them in the house. The rest of the family went to go inside but Jade and Cain stood there. The man in the hazmat suit was standing there, glaring at Jade. She shuffled behind Cain. After what felt like an eternity, Cain closed the door and locked it.
"Perve." Cain said, walking towards the kitchen.

As Jade and Cain walked into the kitchen, Mr. Anderson walked into another room, dialing a number on his phone. Harmony and Mrs. Anderson were putting the groceries away. DeShawn was looking up something on his laptop, Trevor standing over him.
"I think I read something about this before I came downstairs." Cain said. All eyes in the kitchen turned to him. "It started in Japan." Cain stated. " They found some ancient looking creatures underground and brought them into labs."
"Maybe that awakened them or something and their roaming the world." Trevor said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood.
"That adds up to what I'm reading." The attention was now turned to DeShawn. "It says that they were some people went spelunking and found some weird shit. Our government is trying to hide it but someone leaked that these things started roaming wild in Japan about a week ago and have made their way to America." he scrolled for a moment, his eyes seeming to search for a crucial detail. "This is some freaky shit. I'm getting creeped out looking at some of these."
"What do some of them look like?" Mr. Anderson asked, startling everyone as he walked back into the room.
DeShawn looked like he was about to vomit. He didn't respond.
"Trust me dad," Trevor said. "You don't wanna see that." Trevor closed the laptop and patted his brothers back. "These... monsters... are really creepy and hard to explain."
"It's like Jekyll and Hyde." DeShawn finally said.
"Jekyll and Hyde?" Cain asked.
DeShawn looked at his brother, still pale from what he had seen. "Apparently these... things can infect humans. They'll either make humans sick or turn them into monsters. the results are horrendous."
"This can't be real. Maybe it's just propaganda?" Harmony said. "There's no way this is actually happening."

"This is an important broadcast from W.N.N." The family gathered around the tv. A man was sitting in a broadcasting room with a piece of paper in his hands. He was shaking as he read off of the paper, his voice cracking. "We air this message to tell you that something horrible has come from within the depths of Japan. Ancient creatures were found lurking within the caves of Japan. They are believed to be ancient creatures that have been there for centuries. These creatures emit a sort of... radiation that is contagious to humans. We urge all citizens to stay inside their homes until-"

The man had been cut off by a sudden loud banging sound at the door. His eyes widened in horror as he screamed. There was a flash of a monster. It was a blue mass shaped like a possibly almost 7 feet tall, bulky demon-human hybrid. It's eyes looked sad with tears seeming to run down its face. It's mouth was pointed in a frown as it towered over to the man. The horns sticking out from its head did not help its image. The monster was completely shirtless with only a pair of ripped up trousers for clothing. The camera had dropped, assuming that the camera man had run away or some other scenario. There was an uncomfortable breaking sound, screams, then a squishing sound. The camera was lifted, the only thing shown was a pair of legs, cut off at the waist. Surrounding the legs was a mass of red, mushy intestines and pieces of what seemed to be bones.

The family looked on in horror as the monster was televised doing the same thing to the other people in the news room. Mr. Anderson stared in shock. Mrs. Anderson had walked back into the kitchen, too stunned to say anything. DeShawn had sat on the couch with his head in his hands, his breathing very unsteady. Trevor ran to the bathroom. He could be heard vomiting. Cain had pulled Jade into his chest, shielding her eyes from the horrors on the screen. After a moment more the screen cut to the black screen that it had been before with the same white text:

Please Stand By