Shadow Town

Chapter 6

Astor's POV

She shoved open the door and was surprised to find stairs. She ran up them and tripped on the last step, falling through the doorway and onto the first floor. She looked back down the stairs, but she didn't see Dakota coming after her. She wanted to feel relieved but this just made her more nervous. She picked herself up and assessed the hallway. To her right the hallway was longer and there were more rooms, to her left was a single door. She chose the single door, which looked like the front door of any normal house. She ripped the door open and was almost disappointed to find the sky glowing the same neon lights, bright green, a pinky purple and a spiky orange, all interchanging like there was a rave in the heavens. She ran down the steps of the front porch, this time taking extra care not to trip. Her sprained ankle was on fire.

As she ran down the street, she searched her surroundings. It looked like a normal neighborhood, with normal houses and cars. Everything looked normal, besides the glowing sky. But something weird was definitely going on, and she stopped. Complete silence. There was no wind, no utterance from any sort of animal or human. Nothing. Where the hell is everyone?! Where the hell am I? Oh my God, i dont know what to do. C'mon Astor think straight. My instincts are telling me to go the opposite direction of that freaky black pyramid thingy. Ok, thats a start. Now run. You can do this, your ankle is not sprained. Just Run. Then she bolted towards the town.

She reached the main town after about 5 minutes of running. She stopped and hid in between an alleyway between an empty barbershop and a salon. As she was trying to quietly breathe heavily she rapidly searched the alley and then the street. That was when she saw it. The first subhuman. It came out of an antique shop and was walking towards a parked car. Its facial expression looked exactly like the ones on the 3 bodies she found in one of Dakota's rooms. It also reminded her of Dakotas face.

She waited for it to get into it's car and then she ran down the street the opposite direction. She weaved her way through the streets, trying to look for some sort of exit out of the town.

    The third time she stopped for a breath, a car that was moving fast turned onto the street she was on. She was on the sidewalk, but there weren't any alleyways or hiding spots that she could see. She watched the car and stood completely still. It looked as it was going to parallel park between two cars on the opposite side from where she was standing. But then the driver noticed her and sped towards her. She stood her ground, ready to fight. Out came a subhuman, it snarled and licked its lips in giddy happiness. She didn't even want to try and make herself look like one. She was sick of this place already, and wanted to go down in a fight.

    It came at her, bearing a perfect white set of teeth. It tried to grab her but instead she sidestepped it and then kicked it in it's side. It stumbled to the ground and she kicked it some more. Then she had an idea.

    She turned around and jumped in the car, which was still running. She shifted the car into drive and sped down the road. She felt completely safe now and confident in herself. She went down a couple more streets, until she spotted a road that led into the forest. She took it, and disappeared into the shroud of trees.

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    After about 15 minutes of driving through the forest she noticed the sky clearing up. She no longer saw the glowing colors, only a pure and beautiful cloudless blue. Her spirits lifted and Shadow Town only felt like a dream now. And like a dream, they faded piece by piece from memory.

After about an hour of driving under the darkness of trees she finally came to an open field and eventually an intersection. She could tell was in the countryside, the road became dirt and the signs were rusted. She went straight through the intersection and after about 30 minutes of driving through more trees she came to a gas station.

She walked inside and found the store clerk standing behind the counter, and she walked up to her. The store was empty, the only noise was "Interstate Love Song" by Stone Temple Pilots on the overhead speakers.

"You okay honey? You look like you've just seen a ghost," the store clerk asked her.

"I'm fine," Astor said, doubt in her voice,"Do you have a map of the area?"

"Yes" the store clerk still looked concerned but she reached under the desk and pulled out a small map of Northern Washington and handed it to Astor.

"Where am I?" she scanned the map.

"This is Rockport, south of North Cascades National Park" the clerk said, with her eyebrow raised.

"Oh, ummmm I don't have money for this map," she said sheepishly.

"That's fine, if you need this map just take it, sweetheart."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"You're sure you're okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine" she turned to walk away,"thanks again."

"Careful out there"

Astor walked out the gas station and pulled the map out. She was only about 30 miles from home. She jumped in the stolen car and sped down the road, trying to evade her lingering thoughts.