Inhuman

Chapter 3

    We eventually stop I wake up with my head on Axel’s shoulder, Keanu was asleep to his head on the window of the car, I shake Keanu awake and he looks around with sleepy eyes until his eyes fall on me and he smiles wiping a piece of hair out of my eyes. Axel gets out of the truck first then I follow him. Keanu gets out of the car and opens the door for Catalya who was sitting silent in the car after she fell asleep. She gets out of the car, her face is filled with nothing and her blue eyes look even more frozen than they naturally do. Sallow leads us into a store that looks like it was an old pharmacy. We walk around and Keanu grabs a few bottles of liquor looking at the label and the date and smiling at it before putting it in a bag. Axel looks around the store with a gun in hand checking every corner of the store looking for Crimson Heads. Sallow looks at the canned food and puts it in a bag. I look at the counter and get some mint gum, Catalya goes over to the hair products and takes a box with hair coloring in it, then she goes over to the bathroom. Sallow lays out blankets for everyone on the floor. Keanu leaves the store and goes to the store next door. He comes back with chains and a lock and key "The nights are going to get cold, they have a firepit in the store next door". He says and I look at him and walk over and out of the store to help him get the fire pit. 
I take a deep breath "Keanu I'm sorry" I say to him and he just stops in the middle of the big store. 
He smiles and walks up to me. "For what?" He says laughing. " For choosing him over me" I nod my head, and he just laughs at me. "Yana I love you I always have and always will" he says a tear falls from my eye. "But I don't care if You're dating him. i just care that you are alive" He says and I can see his heart break because he is letting me go. "You don't have to be sorry" he says and I hug him, his arms already open for him to hug me in return. "You know I would never put you in a position of you choosing between me or Axel". He says in my ear even though we are the only two people here. We walked to get to the fire pit. We get the largest fire pit as to not make as much smoke. We walk back to the other store, Keanu walking backwards and I walking forward. Catayla was sitting in a little spin chair with legs on the counter, Sallow was sitting on the counter next to Catalya. He hopes off of the counter and hurries to help us set the fire pit down. 
I look around “Where’s Axel?” I ask and Sallow gestures over to the storage room. I walk in and see Axel looking through boxes. “What are you looking for?” I say and Axel looks at me happy. 
His smile spreads from ear to ear and he holds up a comic book. “I haven’t seen these since I was little” I roll my eyes at him and sit down next to the box. “I already found the X-men” He says and I’ve never seen him this happy. 
I shake my head at him. “You’re such a dork” I say and he looks up from the boxes. 
He starts laughing. “But I’m your dork” He states and I laugh at him and nod my head. “I like that name” He says happily as if he’s discovered something.
I laughed at him. It was a fake laugh and he knew it “What, Dork?” I ask him and he just looks. 
“Ha, Ha very funny” He says opening the comic book and you showing me the name. “No this name” he says pointing to the name that someone was saying. 
I look at him and smile at him. “The X-men really” I say getting up to get back with everyone else, Axel follows me outside with the comic book. Keanu notices the book in Axel’s hand and so does Sallow. 
Sallow and Keanu both say at the same time. “Where did you find that” all three of them just look at the comic book, Catalya was back in the bathroom and I can hear the bathroom sink running, when Catalya comes back out of the bathroom her hair is a metallic silver that makes her deep blue eyes show. I hit Axels shoulder and he looks up, then he hits Keanu’s shoulder and he looks up and when he sees he hits Sallow’s shoulder and when he looks at Catalya he hits my shoulder. “I was just trying to keep the circle going” He says and we all laugh at him except for Keanu.
Keanu is still in shock from what Catalya did. “You know who you look like” Keanu says walking up to his sister and picking up a strand of silver hair. 
Catayla just raises a hand at Keanu. “I know who I look like and I like it” she says and Keanu laughs at what she says. She sits down next to everyone and starts loading her gun. She starts sharpening knives and I realize like me playing with my hair and making me feel secure, her having weapons makes her feel safe. She stares at the wall, her silver hair shining in the moonlight. Sallow picks up a walkie talkie and starts playing with it. “Would you stop that?” Catayla says, snatching the walkie talkie out of his hand. 
Sallow puts his hands up in surrender. “What?” He says laughing and Catayla just turns her head looking at him. He bows his head and looks up at the three of us and smiles. Just then a loud bang comes from the storage room. I jump up and grab a gun. “What was that?” Sallow asks, suddenly looking serious. 
Axel stands up and Catalya puts her knives away. Keanu sets the comic book down and we all walk quietly to the storage room door, Sallow opens the door Catalya goes to walk in, but Sallow stops her. “We don’t know what’s in there,” He says as Catalya just shrugs him off and walks into the storage room where we follow her. As she walks further in the room gets darker and the noise gets louder until something jumps out at us. It was a Crimson Head. Only this was a young child, he jumps on Catalya almost biting her and she screams unable to kill the young child. Axel hurries over to her and hits the person’s face with the bottom of the gun. The child jumps off of Catayla and looks at Axel and hisses. I shone a flashlight on him and the child was scarier than most of the adults I see and it is sad as well. The child had red blood around the whole rim of his mouth and his nails are covered in dirt and flesh. His eyes are black like a shark’s. The child jumps again, but this time Axel shoots him and when he does, he has to look away. I high pitch scream escapes the child’s mouth and he dies. Axel drops his gun to the ground and walks away. I follow him, but he doesn’t look like he wants to talk. Keanu looks over at the child and I notice him covering his mouth and nose. Catalya and Sallow both look in a corner of the room and they jump back. “You two science geeks might want to come over here” I knew Sallow was talking to Axel and I so I walked over to him and Axel followed his eyes and didn't leave the kid until he reached the corner. “Is that normal?” Axel and I both looked at each other, the pile of small animals lay dead in the corner. The smell of death was too much and Keanu gags from the smell,“Well is it?” Sallow asks again. 
Axel and I both shake our heads. “No they don’t store their food, they eat it, as to not attract any unwanted visitors” Axel says and when I hear Keanu run out of the room, he does not have the stomach for this. Nobody really does, Catalya turns up her nose at the smell and I notice that Sallow has a bandana over his mouth and nose.
Catalya looks over the boxes and sees the dead animals. “Something tells me they aren’t storing their food either” She says and at this I feel the fear in me and the realization of what they are really doing. “I think they are killing for fun” She says and Axel and I both look at each other because we know that, that is probably true. “Maybe we should go back out of the storage room” Catalya says and we all walk out of the storage room. Keanu came out of the bathroom fear in his eyes. The last time he saw a Crimson head in the dark was when he was little and it scared him for life. Axel walks over to the fire pit not talking to anyone he sits down by the fire. 
Sallow I notice stays a little ways away from the fire and says. “We need to clean up the animals” He walks back into the storage room and Catalya follows him. 
I follow him to but not to clean up the animals, but to get a closer look at the boy. “I’m going to go over here” I say and Sallow and Catalya nod their heads as they begin taking a shovel and scraping the animals off the concrete. The scratching of metal on the cemente makes my ears hurt as I get closer to the boy. The room goes almost dark, only my flashlight is giving me any light. I begin looking over the boy’s body. The shot in his chest gives me an idea of what his blood is like.His blood is no longer red, but is black like ink. I look at his teeth which are sharp like razors and his hands are long and bony and if that wasn’t enough instead of normal nails, his nails are pointed. I’m astounded, but also fascinated. I look for any mosquito bites, but there are none he is just like a normal boy, and no bite marks from any other Crimson Heads either. Just then I hear a scream that sounds as if a person lost someone they love, only louder and way more high pitch. I’m reminded of the shovel on the cement, but when I look over Catalya and Sallow are gone, they are done cleaning up. What I see next I can never prepare myself for, a woman with chunks of hair missing from her head and the same finger nails and bony fingers, and as I look more at her you can see every bone in her body. She pounces her teeth showing, like a dog protecting their young, her eyes completely black and her claws ready to cut into flesh. I go to run, but I realize I’m frozen by the boy, and this boy is her son. She doesn’t know he’s dead, if she did she wouldn’t be acting like this, and in the instant that the woman jumps something happens and her black eyes become brown and she falls to the ground I turn around and see Sallow holding a gun behind me aimed up at the woman. “Come on let’s get them out of here” Sallow says with pity in his voice. He picks up the woman and starts walking to the exit. He sets the woman down and I lay the little boy next to her. He was light like I was holding nothing at all. For a split second I see a little boy in his black eyes, who would have been playing in a yard or riding a bike. I grow sad hating that I thought of that, Sallow puts his hands in his pockets and walks back in the storage room. I look at the little boy one last time and I walk back into the storage room the door closes behind us and Sallow puts a chain around the door locking it. We walk back and sit down next to Axel who put his arm on my shoulder and pulls me in close. He still looks at the fire. I don’t tell him why I went back so we just sit in silence and his company was good enough. Keanu starts writing a letter, even though he has no one to write the letter to, I smell the scent of cigarette smoke and realise that Keanu was smoking. He never smokes he always said the smell made his nose burn. Sallow is sitting at a table playing a game of cards at a table, I go and sit next to him. “Look I know what you are thinking” He says laying a king on top of an ace. “And it is a possibility” Sallow never looks up from his deck of cards and he never looks at the fire. 
I look at him and he raises his head. “Do you think they are mating?” I ask him and he looks at me and stands up and walks away from the table. He goes over to Catayla and I look at them Confused. I walk over to them and ask again. “Do you think the Crimson Heads are mating?” Catayla and Sallow both look at each other in fear in both their eyes, something tells me they’ve known each other longer than they are telling us, and they have seen something with the Crimson Heads that they are not telling us.
They look away from each other and Catayla says “Look your the science geek you figure out” She says walking away from the fire pit. Sallow stays by the fire pit though only he doesn’t look at the fire when I sit next to him I notice a swirling burn mark going from the bottom of his wrist to the top of his shoulder.
I look at the scar and he turns away, both Catayla and Sallow have a story together and I intended to find out, because I know the closer I get to knowing their history I can find out more about the Crimson Heads and maybe find a way to stop them. Before I say anything Sallow says. “Oxitec gave an order to smoke out the Rebels” he says twisting the butt of his gun into the ground. “So they did, and many people burnt up in the attack” He says, still looking at the gun and not at me. Fear is filled in his eyes ashis head rises to the fire. “I escaped with my arm burnt”. he looks angrily at the fire. “Then they came, Oxitec sent them and treated them like dogs” He says and he stops talking for a moment then says. “They used the Crimson Heads” He then looked at me. I could see a tear run down his eye, he looked away and wiped the tear from his eye. “Then since Oxitec didn’t get everyone they decided to flush us out” He looked at Catalya who was listening, but wasn’t looking at us. “Then the second wave of Crimson Heads hit” he shakes his head, “They can’t die Yana” He says then he looks down at his hand and arm. “I used to write, I was pretty good at it too” He says again shaking his head. “Now I can’t even close my hand enough to hold a pencil” He then looks over at Catalya and she nods her head before throwing a knife at a wall hitting the target that she drew. “Cat here used to swim” He says smiling this makes Catalya smile to “She was really good too” He says and they both smile “She would go under the water for awhile, then when she couldn’t hold her breath any longer she would come up to the surface only for a moment” He says he tells this story with such detail that I can see why he was good at writing. 
Catayla laughs at the memory of swimming. “I used to read Sallow’s stories too,and they were amazing,” Catalya says, standing up and walking over to use. “His stories would take you to a whole different world” She says and Sallow tries to hide his smile. He waves his hand at her. “They are, and don’t let him tell you otherwise” she stands by the two of us before Sallow moves over and she sits down next to us.
 I walk over to Axel, but before I sit down I take the cigarette from Keanu and make it go out. “Don’t start” I say to him and he just takes the box out and attempts to light another, but I throw the box and unlit cigarette into fire. “It’s not good for you,” I say to him and he smiles. I sit down next to Axel. 
Keanu stands up and looks around. “So what are we supposed to do, we can’t just sit here” He says and in all honesty  was sort of antsy too. “We could look around this city” and we look around for any objections, Axel and Sallow stand up too, I do the same. 
Catalya looks around the room. “Oh what the hell let’s be young” She says and we all laugh. Keanu unlocks the door and Axel looks at a gun for just a second and he takes it just in case. We walk around until we find a big building. We go inside and find that it is a mall. I look around and see lights all around the place, Keanu plugs in the lights and he looks around as each individual light turns on. My eyes follow the lights until my eyes reach a small store I walk in and grab Catalya’s hand to follow me, she looks at Sallow for a second until going with me. I watch as Axel watches us then his eyes light up as he sees a comic book store, Keanu looks and sees a car store. Sallow look around and see a store that is filled with computers. “Where are you taking me? '' Catalya asks, looking around.
We walk into a store filled with clothes and Catalya tries to back away, but I pull her back in, “Come on Cat” I say and she reluctantly walks in, but I know she wants to stay when she walks in. I turn on the lights and at the same time music starts playing. I look at a shirt that looks nice, but when I look down at the ground I see Sallow in different clothes. I look at Catalya and I take her to the jackets, I give her a black leather jacket and a white shirt, and some black pants. I thought this outfit fits with the music. She looks at the outfit and arches her eyebrow. then walks into the fitting room. when she comes back out, she looks at the leather jacket in the mirror. I put my finger on my lips as if I was thinking. “You need some shoes” I say and run to get a pair of black heeled boots and as I pass the aisle I see a red bandana. I hand them to her and she again looks at me. 
She just shakes her head. “Are you trying to make me look like a woman from Grease” I look confused, but then a memory comes back of a movie I watched and I nod my head. “Then I’m going to need some lipstick” She says I can tell she hated saying that however.
I shake my head again. “You don’t need any” I say and she smiles at me. She puts the shoes on and the bandana and she looks at herself in the mirror and smiles. We took some other clothes too and I put on a pink jacket and a pair of blue jeans and a white shirt with a butterfly on it. I also put on a pair of tennis shoes. 
Just then a song starts playing that wasn’t from the store or any store at all and the memory of the movie comes back. I realize that Axel had seen the two of us acting like the girls from GreaseI laugh at this and he just smiles. “Sandra Dee” Keanu says and Catayla holds up her middle finger, but she was smiling. “I miss this side of you”. 
She walks over to Sallow and he starts laughing. “You know we never had prom,” He says .“So Yana will you bee my Honey to prom?” I giggle a little and nod my head. Keanu puts different music on, it is slower. “You know I really don’t know how to dance” He says. 
We walk to the dance floor and I say . “I’ll teach you” I say and Axel smiles. “You just made a reference from a Marvel movie didn’t” I ask him and he smiles and nods his head. Catayla and Sallow dance on the stage to and just when Axel and I almost kiss, Keanu comes up by us with a mask on his face. I smack him very lightly, and yet he still falls over, Axel and both laugh. 
Sallow looks over and says “I think he spiked the punch” That makes everyone laugh, and even though Catalya and Sallow say they are just friends I know they both like each other. When we walk back out of the mall it was a far walk and Catalya takes off her heels and puts on the white tennis shoes that we also have and we walk back to the other store, Keanu holds two bags full of booze and we laugh at him. The other store was dark, but when we turn on the lights we see Keanu sit down on the ground and fall asleep. I fall asleep to and the lyrics from the song stay in my mind as I drift off to sleep. Something about the way you look tonight.