The woods used to be loud, full of life, screaming with the innocence of nature. Now it's all too silent, it's almost consuming. There is sadly no wildlife left, nothing to move or scurry, nothing to fly above cawing at its prey. The thing has taken all of that away, it has stripped our world of most everything. A few humans strewn across the planet with their few livestock or companions are all that's left. That I know of anyway. Most of them have gone crazy and are what I like to call trappers. They lure survivors finally brave enough to go out and hunt for supplies or a new shelter down into a dark and dirty trap, usually enticing them with livestock or a child who "needs help". They truly have no morals anymore, claiming becoming one with the thing is glorious and that thing is truly just trying to help us. I'm not sure if it's fried their brains or the lack of basic amenities has driven them to want to be one with such a thing, to have purpose once again?
None the less they would entrap them, surround them and then the thing would come for them. I've never stayed around to see how it consumes them. But I've seen the piles of flesh strewn around my travels. The half digested human bodies climbing together like some sort of Sick kudzu infestation, slowly infecting the area around it.
I'm making my way down from Tennessee to Florida, it's the last place this thing has some sort of weakness in, something out the heat in some area makes it easier to kill? That's what I'm hearing on the radios I tap into when I hit new towns. Nevada and a few others places around the world have good things going for them too, but Florida is the only place close that's not completely consumed. I've been on this road for 26 days, it's been a rough trip, but uneventful this far, I couldn't stand sitting in that house anymore. I couldn't stand walking down the driveway everyday and seeing chases truck in the field. I couldn't bring myself go back and do anything with it. That night was and is too much for me to think about.
I left the truck and hit the woods, dodging trees and sticker bushes left and right. I stopped for a moment when I heard what sounded like a man's voice behind me.
"TABITHAAAAAAAA" it screamed.
Wrong choice.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, the thing was a hundred feet behind me, I could only see its tentacles slipping from tree to tree and it's horrible head ( or what I thought was it's head, I'm still not sure now ) bobbing up and down.
I kept running as fast as I could, I could hear it catching up to me, I could feel the slime coming off of it and hitting the back of my neck and legs. That's when it stopped.
I stopped.
I couldn't move.
Nothing around me was moving, it was silent. Completely silent.
That's when I heard him, heard..... it again.
"Tabitha, please come to me, I won't hurt you, you'll be happy with me like we have been"
It was chases voice, but mumbled and slightly guttural.
I slowly turned around and saw what was calling for me, about 100 feet away stood the thing... the creature, the abomination. Every bit of 16 feet tall, moving unnaturally, like it was breathing from its head to its feet, almost as if a lava lamp grew tentacles. Every empty space that wasn't a tentacle, was filled with the moaning faces of its victims all consumed, doomed to be one with the thing.
Chases head was halfway morphed into its chest, his eyes were red and terrified.
"Please, help me" chase screamed, it was chase though, I could see it in his eyes. It was him, mentally, part physically..
And just like that his tone changed and he was guttural again.
"Tabithaaaa, come with me, we need you, you're so very very special" it said using chases voice. It moved closer to me, one small pine tree after the next crushed under its weight, branches snapping under the weight of its tentacles. I couldn't move. I was frozen, completely and utterly frozen in terror. Finally I smelt it, it was putrid, like sulfer mixed with ammonia and rotting animals. I lunged back two steps.
It moves up a bit, now closing in 75 feet. My legs felt like jello but as soon as it said my name once more I booked it. Turning only to say
"I love you chase, please forgive me" under my breath.
I know he isn't there anymore, I felt the last bit of chase leave after he screamed help me... I knew he was gone after that.
I ran until my feet hit the gravel drive again, this time I could see the lights to my front porch ahead. I ran until I finally hit the porch of our 2 story farm house that my great grandma built.
Before I could reach for the handle my mother was opening the porch door to pull me inside.
"Get in here, where the hell is your brother, where I chase"? She screamed, grasping my face with her small hands, her red hair falling down across her furrowed brow.
"It's been an hour since your uncle radioed over that the towns been taken over, some sort of invasion of the Chinese or something" she said half insane looking.
I stood and stood myself against the wall.
"I'm not sure it's Chinese, but I am sure it isn't human, it got chase and that's all I know" I said very much exhausted and terrified, waiting on the thing to burst through the door.
She stood back and asked again
"Where is your brother" tears started rolling down her cheeks.
The look on her face told me everything, she knew he wasn't coming home.
He was always home right before me, he always text my mother and he hadn't, his phone was off and he last post on anything was a garble of letters.
__________________________
Valentine Hickle
Rockwood Tn - "I didn't be kejrbvwgs outside.
Yet sndoebsjsbndkhdbs kebabs"
Posted 35 minutes ago.
_________________________
We both knew inside he wasn't coming home. But she kept crying and inside I could tell she was begging for god to bring him home, She was waiting by the window for his car to roll in when my sister drew came down the stairs with her long black hair covering her shoulders. Her cropped misfits tee paired with some flared black denim and creepers to put it all together, she came down screaming about her friend Toby getting in a wreck and that people are posting about some creatures killing everyone. She was shaking. I knew her and Toby were a thing, a secret thing. She was freaking out. But trying to stay calm. She ran up to the door and went to open it. My mother slammed it shut before it opened too far.
"You are not going anywhere" screamed mom.
"I have to go see Toby, he wrecked, I have to mom" screamed drew. Black tears rolling down her face.
"Mom please" she sobbed
My mom put her hand on Drew's cheek, she looked deep into her eyes, drew met her gaze and they nodded. It was a weird thing they have always done. Like they can read each others mind.
"Okay, I'm going to my room" Drew said as she stood up and walked up the stairs, almost as if all emotion had fled her body.
That's when everything went black.
We all screamed, my sister pulled out her phone, it was black, my moms radio was black, the one street light was out. The entire world was dark.
A deep, dark void.
CHAPTER 3 - COMING SOON
YOU ARE READING
TOMORROW
Science FictionTabitha is 23, her family is dead and she is alone. She doesn't know it yet but tomorrow She will wake up and everything will change. The alike invasion is the last of her worries.
