Alone

Chapter 4

I was startled awake some time in the middle of the night by Stacy violently shaking me. She was saying something, but I was still in the "just woke up" confused state of mind. I closed my eyes hoping that she'd stop annoying me and just walk away. No such luck.

"Get up! Your watch!" She sounded irritated at the fact I had just rolled over to ignore her.

I mumbled something that even I didn't understand and sat up. It was still pitch black in the house, if not darker, than before.

"Fine, fine. I'm up," I stopped and looked at her slumping shape. She looked exhausted, and I knew she wouldn't be awake much longer.

Stacy didn't say anything else so we simply sat there in silence staring into the darkness. The atmosphere in the house had shifted since when I had fallen asleep. There was a little less tension in the air. Stacy must have felt it too because before too long, her breathing slowed down dramatically and she was asleep. I suddenly had a realization...I had no idea who these people were. I knew not a single thing about them, and here I was, keeping watch over their sleeping bodies. I looked over to the couch where Jack was sleeping and watched the gentle rise and fall of his chest in the dark.

My peace was disturbed when the noise began again. This time it was more eerie--it sounded as if something was being dragged across the floor above me. I froze my entire body and stopped breathing. Panic arose inside me. I wanted to run straight out of that house and not look back, flight or fight...I was leaning toward flight when the horrific noise stopped directly above me. There were a few seconds of peace, then it was that dreadful scraping noise again, as if someone or something was trying to dig through the floorboards. It was as if this thing knew where I was sitting and was trying to claw its way through the floor to me.

I thought about waking the others, but then that would create a commotion that I was sure would disturb the creature even more. I closed my eyes and the noise stopped. I sat there for what seemed hours, my eyelids feeling heavier and heavier...

* * *

Something smelled, bad. It was a mix of rotten vegetables, a landfill, and sewage. My eyes flew open at the moment I recognized the scent. What I saw when I opened my eyes was something I had never seen before...and it was crawling towards me! No, to be more accurate, it was dragging itself towards me. Its shriveled up legs limply dangling behind it. Its breathing was labored like it was breathing through a small straw. I didn't know how it had made it down the stairs so quietly without falling all the way down.

It had me cornered--I seemed to have a tendency of getting cornered--I searched frantically around the room for my weapon. There it was--all the way on the other side of the room. I started inching my way along the wall. The creature heard me and stopped moving and breathing to try and listen to where I was at. It cocked its head to the side so it could hear better. It was then that I realized I was holding my breath, and I couldn't do it for much longer. I let out a long exasperated breath and, almost simultaneously, the creature let out the most gut-wrenching shriek and began dragging itself towards me twice as fast as before. It was like something out of an exorcist movie.

The other three stirred and saw what was happening. Jack hurriedly groped for his weapon and started towards the creature, Luke did the same when he had a handle on his sword. The battle was short-lived and over in a few seconds, Jack had run the creature through its skull. I had nearly been eaten alive in my sleep. This would have never happened if I hadn't gone with these people. I had to leave, they made poor decisions that would ultimately lead to their demise.

My legs collapsed from under me and I slumped to the ground, Jack dropped his weapon and put his head down, exhausted. I was out of breath. I tear ran down my cheek at the realization I had almost died, or worse, became one of the infected. I was glad it was dark in the room so they didn't see how scared I really was.

No one said a word the rest of the night, there wasn't really anything to say I guess. I lay there awake replaying that scene over and over again, I couldn't sleep, and before long, the sky began to brighten. I looked down at the shape on the ground--the remains of the creature--it looked nothing like a human being. Its body was gray in color, contorted, and shriveled up. I didn't want to look at it anymore in fear that I might see it come back to life and finish what it intended to start by attempting its long and tedious venture downstairs. I rolled onto my back to look at the ceiling and closed my eyes, taking my mind to a better place until the others woke up.