Twelve Days Living

Chapter Three

Brianna climbed into my truck, two of her friends following behind. I turned on the car as fast as possible, peeling out of the parking lot, and speeding down the road to hell knows where.

On the way down the road, Rain in the back seat rolled down the window, and threw up what I assumed to be what she ate for lunch that day only a couple hours before. I opened my window a little, but I couldn't really blame the girl after what we had just seen at our school. Our school was pretty small, everybody knows everybody. So I wouldn't be surprised if she saw a friend or family member back there on the ground. I shivered just thinking about that, and instantly felt horrible. As we continued down the road, I think the shock wore off, as all of us began to realize what we had just witnessed. I slammed on the breaks, and turned the car into reverse. Just as soon as I had, I switched it to forward, and turned a corner.

"Where are we going?" Bree asked, placing her hand on mine, making me relax and loosen my death grip on the wheel. I watched the blood rush back into my knuckles, avoiding eye contact. Afraid that if I looked at her I would start to cry. "Iris." Was all I was able to force out, before turning my head to look out my car window before she was able to see my face. "Oh no." She responded, grabbing my hand and pulling it off the steering wheel so she could hold it.

I made a turn, then abruptly stopped the car in front of my house. I pushed the door open, and hopped out without a word, then started toward the house. While walking up the driveway, I dug out my house keys, and let myself in. "Iris!?" I called when I opened the back door. All I heard was someone shifting on a bed upstairs. My mother was at work, and my little sister just happened to be sick today. I bolted through the kitchen doorway, rounding the corner, and up the stairs. When I was upstairs, I walked quickly down the hallway to her bedroom, pushing open the door, I called her name again but quietly this time.

"What?" She responded, flipping over to face me standing in the doorway. "Get up." I said quickly, walking over to help her out of bed. "What are you doing? Why do I have to get up?" She said, working against me as I tried to get her moving. I didn't respond, all I did was stop for a second and looked at her. I wasn't sure what my expression gave away, but she sighed, and followed me downstairs. When we got outside she hopped in the back with the other two girls, and I started the car, without a word to my little sister of what was going on.

I continued to drive in silence for what felt like hours, on the way to my mother's workplace. When we reached the factory, the facility's doors were blown off its hinges. I pushed open my car door as if in slow motion in movies, as I walked toward the building, leaving my car door agape. The place looked destroyed, pieces of equipment scattered across the parking lot like confetti. I stopped in front of the doors, piercing inside, to get a glimpse of what had happened. I didn't think twice before stepping inside of the now abandoned work area. "Mom?" I called, as I continued to walk cautiously around broken glass, and other debris I couldn't make out in the darkness.

"Ari!" Bree yelled from the car. She was standing now, with the door wide open, and looking over it with concern. I glanced over at the other side of the car, to catch a glimpse of my little sister in the back seat. She looked terrified at the sight of the factory, and she had her legs up on the seat, resting her head on her knees. She gave me a look of hope, telling me to go find our mother, but Brianna's face said something different. She wanted me to go back to the car, in my heart I knew nothing good could come out of going inside. But I had to go see if my mother was still there.

I turned back around, and glanced around one more time before continuing to walk forward in search of anyone that might still be around the area. It looks as if a tornado came through here, leaving only the walls and ceiling intact. Desks thrown around, chairs broken or on their sides, broken glass everywhere. There was even some ceiling lights that were hanging down on one side, and clinging for dear life to the ceiling on the other. The ones that where still working, flickered off and on, as most of the other ones hung from the ceiling doing nothing to help lighten the dark Omanis halls. I wonder if what happened at the school, happened here as well, and if anyone else was still here after words.

I heard the sound of something being pushed across the floor, right around the corner from where I was standing. I almost jumped out of my skin to say the least, considering I have been on edge, and scared for my life sense I left the school building. After recollecting myself as best I could, I grew curious, and inched closer to glance around the corner. Before I got the chance to, something came flying out around the corner door, right passed me, hitting against the wall on the other side of the hallway. I was taken by surprise that I didn't notice what had happened until I turned around to see the swivel hair now slowly rolling back away from the wall after colliding with it.

What the hell? How did that move without someone being there to push it? I turned back around and stared suspiciously down the hallway, trying to see around the dimly lit area for any movement. I caught a glimpse of something moving behind a flipped office desk, and instantly grew afraid, like I should have long before I even walked into this place. But for some reason, despite my mind screaming for me to turn and run back to the car, my legs went the opposite direction. As I approached the desk, I began walking slower and slower before stopping in front of it, and trying to look around it without getting any closer.

A second later the desk was shoved out of the way, to the right of where I was standing, right into a wall. Upon hearing the impact, I saw the thick drywall that was behind all the paint had been obliterated when the desk hit it. I looked down at where the desk had been just in time to see something moving- like a tentacle. My eyes grew wide as I followed with my gaze up to where it connected to someone's-somethings neck. I saw the extra limb rise, as the body of the thing that used to be human, lifted itself off the ground. All I could do was stare as it took recognition as to why it had been woken up.