Anarchy, Burning(ONC2022 Entry)

Part 4- Fryga

Fryga tightens her grip on the little girl's shoulder as her father slowly approaches. She applies pressure to the girl's back, eliciting a terrified Yelp.

"Don't hurt her!" the father yells, quickening his pace.

"Then don't make me." Fryga spares a glance at the girl's mother, holding the handles to a raggedy shopping cart with a white knuckled death grip. "Look. I need a boat, and you have keys. I don't want to hurt you people, but I will if I have to."

"You don't— you don't have to hurt anyone." He draws closer, close enough to try and lunge for her, close enough to get his little girl killed. "Please, just let her go."

"Elijah!" the mother says, panic finally breaking through the shock.

The woman was already distracted when Fryga made her move, but grabbing her daughter seemed to make something snap. Hearing the pain in the woman's voice is... uncomfortable. It makes Fryga feel emotions other than anger, other than indifference. The ice block that is her heart twitches and for a moment she thinks of parents long gone.

Fryga isn't ready to unpack that. Not yet.

"Look. I just want the keys," she says. "Hand them over."

The father, Elijah, looks from his child to the boat and back.

"We have to get out of the city." His eyes are earnest, the kind of eyes you trust when they tuck you in and promise everything is going to be alright. "We need this boat."

"The keys. Now."

He looks out over the water, the setting sun making the river look like liquid fire. The lights of New York City shine on the other side.

"Don't hurt my girl."

"Elijah, it's your choice," Fryga says, leaning into the words willing him to hear only her voice. Persuasion on a preternatural level.

His shoulders sag, but his jaw becomes set. He's resistant to her gift, an innate ability more rare than the gift itself. It's enough to make her hesitate. The little girl senses it and starts to pull away.

"Stay cool, kid," Fryga hisses.

"Fine." He tosses the keys onto the boat. "You have what you want. Leave us alone."

Fuck.

Fryga shoves the girl and runs past the mother to the gangplank. He's right. She just needs the boat. No reason to give them a second thought. As she looks around for the bright yellow foam keychain on the boat keys, the night is suddenly filled with the screeching of tires and the sound of metal on metal. Fryga looks up towards the highway overpass where a dozen cars crash into one another in a succession of violent impacts. Even from her distance, it looks horrific.

Not my fucking problem. I need to get out before it's too late.

"Daddy!"

Get the keys, moron.

Fryga looks over the side of the boat where the man holds his wife and child in arms too shaken to let them go. The girl is pointing towards the accident. There is a sudden jarring sound like a discordant horn battling nails on a chalkboard. It goes from faint to ear splittingly loud. Fryga can feel it in her bones, painful vibrations that threaten to shake her apart. The child screams then she and Fryga fall to their knees.

"Amelia!"

Amelia.

A great explosion tears through the overpass as a monolithic growth, like talons made of glowing red stone, rips through the concrete and asphalt. Debris and cars fly high into the air to rain down on the surrounding buildings and streets. More explosions echo across the river. Fryga holds her ears as she turns towards lower Manhattan. More monoliths, more red talons tear through the skyline like the claws of a titan awakened after a millennia of slumber. One of the bridges goes too, another talon erupting out of the water of the East River.

Parts of the power grid go out and the sudden darkness is filled with demonic howls.

Hellhounds. Already?

Fryga uses a rail to pull herself up and looks down. Elijah has the girl over his shoulder and is pulling the woman and the cart as best he can. They won't get far...

"Wait!" What the fuck am I doing? "There's nothing for you that way. Get in, we have to get out of here."

Figures leap off of the monoliths, their growls mingling with the sirens of emergency vehicles. It will be chaos sooner than anyone thinks. Screams begin to fill the night.

"Elijah, let's go!"

He changes direction, hurrying towards the gangplank. Fryga meets him there. She offers to take the girl and he pulls back violently.

"Don't blame you. We've had a real shitty introduction, but I didn't leave you stranded and I definitely could have."

"Em, take Amy," Elijah says, not taking his eyes off of her. "Emily!" he shouts, getting his wife's attention. "Take Amelia and go sit down."

The look on his face says he's not the kind of man to shout. Fryga's stepfather used to shout all the time.

Elijah pulls the old shopping cart, but the wheels aren't cooperating. He gives it a fierce tug and a rusted strut comes loose. Fryga rushes forward and catches the unconscious woman as parts of the shopping cart fall into the water. By some miracle, Elijah manages to save the bags. Fryga carries the woman onboard and places her down by the little girl. The jacket slips and Fryga gets a good look at the woman's unconscious face.

Her breath catches in her chest. She can't believe her eyes.

When she looks up, the father is a few feet away, staring, contemplating.

"I know what you're thinking, Daddy. Don't do it. I could have left you to the wolves, but I brought you onboard."

"This is our boat," he bites off each word as if he's battling the urge to take my head off.

"This was your boat. Now it's mine." Fryga shakes her head, wondering if she's made the wrong choice. It wouldn't be the first time. "Get everyone a life jacket and then fasten yourself in. We're heading out to sea."

"No."

"Elijah, don't be a hero now. Do you hear those screams, do you see those hellspurs? We are in the shit now, Elijah, and we have to act fast."

"We're going upstate. We have to go upstate."

"Are you crazy? This is the end of the world, buddy, and we want to get as far away from population centers as possible. Those are demons out there. To them, humans are good for meat and entertainment... You don't want to be either."

Fryga expects the man to argue, call her crazy, or laugh in her face. Instead he looks to his family and out to the water.

"Don't ask me how, but I know we need to get upstate."

"Daddy gets visions," Amelia blurts out.

She cringes when both adults look her way. Her mother just stares at the floor, lost.

"Are these just dreams or are they images of things that happen exactly as you see them?"

"It changes. Sometimes they're just images of things that I'm reminded of later when something similar happens. Other times they are entire moments that I see and when they happen later it's exactly as I saw it."

"Are you sure," Fryga asks, her tone cold and serious. Their lives depend on this moment.

"Yes. I am."

"Fuck. Looks like we're heading upriver."