Genesis

Glass House

     The call ended.

     "Cindy?!" I shouted into the phone, although I knew it was pointless. She was most likely dying if she wasn't already dead, and there was no way I could reach her in time to help. My shaking hands lost hold of the phone as a consuming energy formed in my chest, restricting my lungs. I needed to calm down and think.

     The energy rose to my throat, and I grabbed the nearest item, a glass candle holder, and released a piercing cry as I threw it, watching it fly through the air, glinting in the sunlight beaming from the thin glass windows that surrounded me before it shattered into a million pieces.

     Okay... I needed to calm down and think rationally.

     Start with the facts, Quinn. Say them out loud.

     "I can't reach Evelyn," I started, my voice wavering, "My only neighbors within a safe distance are gone... I can't guard a glass house, I don't have a closed vehicle, I can't contact Dawid or his family... and... those things are everywhere."

     I felt a pang in my chest as I froze, remembering that the animals had already reached Cindy's house, which was only a half-mile away from my own. Cindy's family hadn't even left their woods-surrounded home, and they had found it. And if they could find Cindy's house... they could find mine.

     They were coming for me. I needed to get out of there, and I needed to get out of there fast.

     I jumped to my feet and started to think. Where would I go? My eyes darted to the treeline. The forest. I bet if I ran far and fast enough, they wouldn't be able to find me.

     Without having any better ideas, I sprung into action. I sprinted across the house and bolted up the stairs, running into my room and grabbing my backpack as I emptied its contents, my schoolbooks, onto the floor. I pulled a number of rolled shirts, tank tops, jeans, and other clothing items out from my closet and stuffed them hastily in my bag, before proceeding to speed around the house, grabbing everything I could afford to take. Toiletries, a first aid kit, a warm blanket, a flashlight, and more, before dashing to the kitchen's pantry, taking a large bottle of water and the lightest non-perishables I could find; energy bars, crackers, and--,

     SMASH!

     The sound of broken glass echoed in my skull, as I realized that someone had broken the window. 

     I tiptoed to the pantry's entrance, inching my head slowly around the door frame, catching a glimpse of a dark figure leering behind the kitchen counter. I jumped, pulling myself away and pressing my back to the wall. My heart raced and my lungs ached, desperately heaving cold air in and out of my body as I realized it was too late. They were already there.

     I knew they would find me, it was only a matter of seconds. I couldn't run, I couldn't hide. My hairs stood on end as I realized my only option; I had to fight. 

     The very next second, I found myself screaming as I charged out of the pantry, only to stop dead in my tracks. I recognized the figure that stood on the opposite side of the kitchen as the closest thing I had to a friend. 

     Cindy.

     A wave of relief washed over me and my tensed muscles loosened. I wasn't alone anymore.

     "Cindy!" I shouted, beginning to walk towards her, "You're alive!"

     She jerked her head in my direction, and by the time I noticed her furious red eyes locked onto mine, she had already knocked me flat on the ground, trying to tear my eyes out as I held her away from me with every inch of strength I had. A rush of adrenaline coursed through my veins as I threw her off of me, pushing myself off of the ground and running towards the broken window. A hand grabbed my shoulder. 

     I swung my open bag behind me, whacking it into the ravenous girl, watching the contents of my backpack fly into the air as she fell to the floor. Without another thought, I drew a knife from its wooden block on the counter and turned to face the figure regaining their balance behind me. Before I realized what I was doing, I was plowing the blade into her torso, over and over and over again, until she dropped to the floor, dead.

     The best friend I had ever had was gone, the red liquid rapidly engulfing the cold white marble at my feet, but all I could see was the fragment of a distant memory; my mother. And suddenly I was there, five years old again, watching the red spreading through my mother's white button-up blouse and onto the white tiles of our own kitchen so long ago. The air around me thickened as I found myself gasping for air, eyes darting all over.

     Focus.

     I stumbled to my bag and stuffed everything back into it again, zipping it up and staggering out past the broken glass. My unfocused gaze was caught by two other crazed stares, who then sprinted towards me. That's when I started running. I bolted across the garden and into the forest, leaping over stones and pushing through plants, ignoring the pain of the branches whipping my skin. I heard the heavy footsteps behind me, snapping sticks, squashing plants, and crushing the leaves on the forest floor. I heard their wheezing breaths, desperate for air, or were those my own breaths? 

     I wasn't sure how much time had passed by as I realized that I could no longer hear them behind me, yet I kept running, adrenaline coursing through my veins as I pushed harder and went faster. I was moving so fast that I couldn't think. I almost stumbled over a stone, hidden by the darkness of night, as I found myself wondering when the sun had set. The cold air bit into my lungs until I was barely able to see a few feet ahead of me, yet I couldn't bring myself to stop.

     Blackness engulfed the forest as a fire burned through my calves, my breath coming in short gasps and forming small clouds in the air, almost invisible if not for the moonlight. With each pound into the earth, knives jumbled around in my stomach as muscles I didn't even know I had began to cramp and stiffen. All it took was another misplaced step when I tumbled, my feet desperately trying to create some form of traction before I crashed into the freezing ground. I couldn't hear my rapid breathing anymore, I couldn't even feel my lungs rising and falling. All I could feel was cold, until I didn't feel that anymore either. The little light left in my sights was stolen when my lead-heavy eyelids came crashing down, and I fell deeper into the bottomless abyss of sleep.