Evolution

Chapter 19

 Chapter 19

They swarmed like flies to hot garbage on a scorching July day. I could smell their putrid breath and feel the searing pain as their needle teeth tore my flesh. Small rivers of blood trickled from the puncture holes and my muscles screamed. I swung. I swung over and over, knocking them to the dirt and watching them bounce back. No effect.

I fought with myself. The primal instinct to fight or flee was having a long conversation over a steaming cup of orange pekoe tea. The fighting side was currently at the podium discussing the benefits of death. Reminding me that death, theirs or mine, will save the lives of Alex and Boomer. 

Another screech, more nerve endings registering pain. The instinct to flee now gives voice to reason. It states, plainly as day, that the pain shall end if I will only consider turning around and running away. How can I? 

I close my eyes for a brief moment. I take a breath. I can see a smile, a pretty smile. Alex’s smile. I can see large beefy hands running through my hair and Boomer snoring away at the controls back at the earth ship. More pain. Fear. The weight of the onslaught is too much for me now, I can feel my legs wobble and my knees attempt to buckle underneath me. I can see the nasty red fireworks being lit up behind the dark blank screen of my eyelids.

Back at the podium, the fight or flight mechanism’s give their final thoughts. I want so badly to be brave. To be the man that died fighting for humanity, but the argument was too compelling to ignore.  I can almost hear a tiny voice booming through a microphone filling the ears of a silent audience. That voice moved me.

“If you die, you will never see them again. Remember her smile.”

Such a simple thought that tipped the scales in favor of fleeing. Simple but effective. A warm resolve washed over me, filling me with the adrenaline needed. A few hearty thuds and a frozen moment of confusion passed before my legs understood the decision my brain has made. The thin ropes of muscles in my legs ached and my lungs struggled. One foot in front of the other I tried to buzz saw a path through the creatures and free myself from my self inflicted fate.

They were too fast. I felt them on my back climbing like a tree as I ran. I could hear the creatures in the background catching up to me. It was only a matter of time. I could feel the dampness of sweat and blood running down my body and my shirt was nothing more than tattered cotton shop towels. 

The fireworks attacked again, this time filling the blank canvas completely. I felt the tender flesh of my neck being impaled and could almost hear the sound of soft tissue being damaged. A lifetime of monster movies flashed before me. 

Draculas cold embrace. Needle fangs and draining blood. Zombies eating the flesh of the living. My uncle Earl ripping the meat from the bone of a deep fried chicken wing. That was the image that turned me whiter than correction fluid. The weight of the world came crashing down on me in an instant. I felt the hard ground intimately. I kissed it, I hugged it with my kneecaps first then fell asleep holding it.  I embraced my destiny, I am mulch.

I could count the seconds of darkness. I alluded it with the help of an accomplice that came in the form of noise and fluids. A random booming pop and a cold spray of fluid on my face. A horrific way to awake, but a gift. I was mulch no more.