Evolutionary

Ch. 10 - Fatties

Carlson rubbed his eyes, as they adjusted to the suns now unfamiliar warmth he found himself standing at the edge of a meadow. The grass was soft, and smelled sweet. In the distance he could see massive monsters. They were amber in color with four long skinny legs that were about four stories tall. Extending from their oval shaped body, right between two sets for eight eyes there was a singular tentacle-like trunk. It used it to reach into the buildings, looking for food. These creatures were scattered across the city, at least one to a few buildings. Some even stood atop shorter buildings in attempts to reach the higher buildings.

"What the hell are those?" Liz asked.

"I don't know. Bionetics is on Main Street. We should be better off not going near those, there's a subway station across from it so we could always go underground."

Liz looked into her backpack and saw that there was plenty of ammunition left. "Sounds good."

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They had a nice walk for the first time in what seemed like eons. They weren't fearful for their lives or even concerned for that matter. They didn't know where to find the nearest station but they didn't mind, there was no real hurry.

"You know, this is nice." Liz remarked.

"Yeah." Carlson agreed. There was a long awkward silence that lingered in the air. Only the sound of the breeze flowing across the meadow and the moans of distant harvesters echoed to break the quiet.

"Listen, I'm really sorry about your brother."

"Don't be there was nothing anyone could do." Carlson replied emotionlessly. He hoped this would imply that he had no desire to talk about it any further, allowing the silence to creep back in.

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They had been walking around the city for a while now, with no luck at finding a station. From the distance they started to hear a feint beat. It got louder making it obvious that someone was blasting music from their car.

Soon a jeep came skidding around the corner, heading towards Carlson and Liz. Liz started waving her hands in the air to grab the driver's attention. The driver saw her and the jeep stopped harshly beside them.

"Damn! Been a while since we've seen anyone in here." The driver said. He was skinny and wore a leather jacket with aviator sunglasses. "I'm Nick." He pointed to the passenger, a lanky fellow wearing a beanie hat and a red flannel shirt. "That's Mike, and the two dip-shits in the back are Jesse and Allen."

"You forgot who has the gun bro." Allen said.

Allen was short but built; he wore a sweater and a baseball cap and he held a sizeable M16. Jesse was taller than Allen and wore a long-sleeve shirt and glasses.

"What are 'yall up to?" Nick asked.

"We're looking for a subway station but maybe you could give us a lift to Bionetics?" Carlson replied.

"That's on the corner of Glendale and Main right?"

"Yeah."

"Well," Nick grunted. "Then that's going to be a bit of a problem."

"Why?"

"We kind of killed a few of those big guys around there and their bodies blocked the roads so you're right to be looking for a subway. Fatties blocked the road. I know where a station is by the way, I can take you if you want."

"Thanks, I'd appreciate that."

"Right on man, get in the back."

Liz and Carlson climbed into the back, Allen and Jesse stood on the back end of the car, holding the roll cage for support. Nick cranked the tuned back up and sped off taking a sharp turn in the direction of Bionetics.

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The jeep squealed to a stop just in front of the stairway leading to the dark underbelly of the abandoned city. Liz and Carlson hopped out of the back seat thanking Nick for the ride.

"Don't mention it." Nick replied.

Liz flicked on her flashlight, and then proceeded to reloading her gun as Carlson took out his machete. As they began to make their decent they heard one of the boys calling after them.

"Hey, wait up!"

Surprised, they stopped and turned around. The boys were hopping out of the car and they caught up to them.

"What are you doing?" Carlson asked, confused.

"Not going to let you have all the fun, buddy." Jesse chuckled. "Besides there's not a whole lot to do on the surface anyways.

Carlson shrugged seeing no problem with the extra firepower. "Alright, just stay close and don't dick around."