After Earth

Chapter 4: Crash Landing

          I couldn't talk to anyone about what happened. There was this divide between me and everyone else that was here, and I knew that I would sound crazy if I mentioned that the silent giant came and was talking to me and took something out of my chest. Whatever that was. I kept pressing my hand over my heart just to feel my heartbeat. Yeah, I did that all night like it was going to kill me if I didn't.
           But things like that didn't matter. Not really, anyway. In the thick of it all, I still had to be injected with medicine by Agitit, and we had to run with compressed oxygen masks. We ran in the cold, people chatting in light jogs together, but I was all alone. Last night was a trip. Last night was all I could think about. I started running ahead of everyone as the scene continued to play in my head.
           Kaiglanr. I tried studying the staff around today to see if I could find any people with such an alien-like name, but I kept getting dragged away. As I tried looking at the nurses outside recording our progress, an arm bumped into me. It wasn't hostile or anything, just a strange tap from a weird, sweaty arm. His last name and crooked nose gave me all I needed to know that this was Nasekin Ashtell. He was quite popular in his time of service, I hear, but my ex-wife and I weren't heavily into military. I just knew he was Nasekin, the man who sanctioned a while diseased city with the Fire Plan.
             "Hey, Votipae," he greeted through breaths. "What are you doing tonight?"
              A strange question. "Nothing special."
             "My wife's throwing a part for all of us tonight, and everyone and their families will be there. You can come."
               Me? For a second, I seemed to lose my breath even quicker as he mentioned it. "I'm not sure we're allowed to be drinking or anything. These... shots and stuff can hinder our ability."
                "It's a dinner party. Everyone else is going."
                 I rolled my eyes. "Fine, fine. I'll go."
               With a satisfied smile, Nasekin started falling behind into his own group of friends that I hadn't been introduced to yet. My mind was racing as fast as my body. When Rentie and I were young and going to college, we met at a "dinner party" that turned sour real quick. I remembered taking her to one of the ice cream shops that were cheap and on campus. This party would not parallel that night, but I'm not certain anything can mock or repeat my life.
We were motioned to stop running, though I barely felt tired. I started walking back and I noticed that everyone else was crying for breath in their oxygen masks. Without any real trouble, I took mine off.
                 "You're not tired?" Nashi asked me, placing a hand on my shoulder as she tried breathing in.
                  I shook my head. "No. How long were we running?"
                 "Almost two hours non-stop."
                 I turned to the large digital clock on the wall, and the bright sectioned numbers read eleven o'clock. My eyes widened.
                "Why would we run for that long?" I exclaimed.
                Nashi nearly laughed, but she was catching her breath. "They told us before that we were to test our endurance and that we could tap out at any time."
                 I scanned the room and noticed that there were some already changed out of gear and cheering us on. When did I... Orgeti's ordeal must've made me really zone out this morning.  There was a shout to hit the showers, and Nashi and I broke away from each other as we both wen to get clean of sweat and grime. Except I had none. I didn't break a sweat while running at all, like I never even attempted it. At this point, it would be even more awkward not to shower, so I stripped away my clothes and let the water cascade over me.
                 "Whenever this weird shit starts happening, I'd like to be the first to know," I heard someone grumble. It was definitely Olman.
                  With a sigh, I turned the water off and began to wipe off with a towel. Out of the corner of my eye, Olman was pointing to a patch on his skin where it began peeling to reveal some white under-layer. It made me panic, and maybe I was overreacting because we were all told strange things were going to happen to us, but I swiftly put on my clothes and exited out into the chamber where everyone else was gathering. Nashi had her arms crossed as she was talking to Basha and Orgeti.
                   I wasn't certain I could deal with that.
                   "Tayas!"
                  The shout came from the distance, and I turned to find Nolam. There wasn't going to be many times that I was going to be relieved to see him, but right now I was so glad to walk over to him. He and I started walking away from everyone else, though I knew I could feel their eyes burning through the back of my head.
                  Nolam invited me into his office, which was dark with stains of... blood everywhere. Black, oozing blood. I held my chest as my heart began leaping in all directions, and I refrained from screaming so that everyone wouldn't come running. Nolam turned on the lights to his office, and I saw the infected thing pinned by large spikes in his writes and ankles. Its tongue was ripped out of its mouth so it couldn't scream. But I was just up here a few hours ago.
                   "How did one of these get into... the DC District?" I asked, eyes narrowed. For once, Nolam looked innocent, so I knew he had no intentions of pinning one of the screaming monsters to his wall.
                 "The thing isn't dead, just silent," he told me, ignoring my question. "I... I trust you enough to show you that we're running out of time."
                "No way are they coming through here. This thing was planted."
The monster groaned as its black blood oozed from its mouth, and I walked towards it. From the way its mouth moved, I could see it was trying to scream at us. With one of my hands, I touched its black chest.
                "This..." I whispered. "I've never seen one so close."
                Nolam grimaced. "Neither have I. The media can't get close enough without getting hurt or infected themselves." He turned to me. "You're touching it, but you don't... feel like you're?"
                 I forgot, honestly. About the touching thing. I pulled my hand away, and all of the black ooze from his body began to disappear into my skin. Under the layer of skin was black and brooding, and I knew it wouldn't go away.
                 "This place is infected," I sighed. "Get out now."
                  Nolam backed to the door. "I'll get someone to block the room off."
                 "I'll kill it." I looked around the room and found a pocket knife covered in its blood. "After this, I'm going home."
                   Everything today just fucking sucked.

                   I opened the door to our house with the black on my hands still prominent like a splotchy tattoo. Yeah, I killed the thing, though its eyes were full of so much sympathy like Rentie's before I pushed that knife into her chest. Luckily, I had some time before Nasekin's dinner party, so I walked upstairs and lied my head on one of the plush pillows to think.
                    Some of Agitit's best were going to quarantine that room and get rid of the evidence of the screaming. Better for it. It reminded me too much of Rentie, which really made no sense. Maybe it was because I stabbed them both. Maybe it was the innocence in their eyes that was taken after the first pierce of skin.
                  There was a knock on my door and a squeak of the hinges as Nashi came in with her face fallen.
                 "Nashi?" I asked.
                  Her smile beamed, but it was fake. "You okay? You came in all upset after Nolam came and took you away."
                  I pushed my head into my pillow. "These past few days have sucked, is all. I'm adjusting."
                I heard some shuffling, and I turned to see Nashi lying next to me with this goofy smile on her face. "I agree. I hate being here sometimes, and I got this feeling our experiences will get worse as we go."
                    I laughed a little, and my nerves calmed. With her, I was certain they would always be calm, and I was glad to have her. Maybe I couldn't tell her what's been happening, but there were things she wasn't telling me either. The both of us, unknowing but understanding.
I kind of liked that.
                 "Dinner starts at three, so we should be getting ready," she said.
                 I looked at the clock that said two-ten. "Hopefully, this will be normal."
​​​​​​​                 She laughed. "I agree."