Species

Chapter 37

Bodies. I see bodies. So many bodies and so much blood.

Chloe stopped and gasped at the horrible sight of it all. She could barely hear Drew calling after her. All she could hear was her heart pounding like a loud alarm. Tyson.
She swallowed her fear and thought of her son.
Run! Run! Run! She mentally screamed at herself. In the distance she could hear people shrieking in pain or fear or possibly both.
"Chloe!" She could hear Drew and Joshua running after her but she didn't stop. She continued to tell herself to keep her eyes straight ahead. She couldn't bare to look down at the bodies.
The fill of the blood covering her bare feet made her want to barf, but there wasn't time. What if her baby was in some monster's grasp. She choked back tears and sped up.
"Chloe!" Drew continued to holler after her. After what felt like too long of a time she finally made it to the nursery. She stood frozen in horror in the doorway.

Tyson's nursery. It was destroyed. Smeared bloody hand prints covered everything. All the furniture and toys had been broken and thrown all around. Blood puddles stained the floor.
What do I do? She asked herself. Her eyes filled up with tears and she began to shake. Her lip quivered as she she'd a few tears.
"Tyson?" She whispered weakly. "Mommy's here." She took a slow step in the room. She wished to hear his cry, his breathing, anything. But she was met with silence.
She heard Drew and Josh catch up to her. They came to a halt at the door.
"I'm too late." Chloe told them and herself, her eyes still glued on the wreck in front of her.

"Chloe?" Drew whispered. All anger was gone. He sounded scared like she was about to lose her mind. She felt broken. Like her heart was no longer beating and she was just an empty shell of a person. Nothing mattered anymore. Who cares if she died? Who cares if she's stuck on this ship? What mattered? All she wanted was to hold her baby and that was the one thing she couldn't do.
Chloe didn't answer him right away. She picked up Tyson's baby blanket. It was soft and blue with blood stained on it. She held it in her arms hugging it to her chest as a sob escaped her.
"Do it, Drew. You said you were aiming for me. Go ahead. I won't move. I don't care." She demanded.
"Chloe. No. We are supposed to be together. Don't you know I love you?" He pleaded with her. He felt like he was trying to talk her back from a ledge.
He couldn't see but she rolled her eyes. Shaking her head she gritted her teeth.
"Baby, we can make another." That was not what he should've said. Those words did it for her. The triggered her rage.

"You Son of a B—" she turned with a snarl on her face and then froze. "Oh my God!" She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.
"What? What?" Drew panicked running to her and looking at the spot on the wall next to the door where Sophie's body had been stuck by what looked like a giant horn through her mid section. Her eyes were wide open. Her body had been mutilated.
Drew wrapped his left arm around her holding her close to him and pulled out his gun with his right holding it up in defense as he looked around the room checking that something wasn't still in there.
As much as she hated Drew right now she hid her face in his chest as she whimpered in fear.
"Drew, what do we do? I'm so scared." She cried. He squeezed her a little tighter.
"It's going to be okay." He said but his tone wasn't comforting enough. She could hear the uncertainty in his voice.
She looked up at him watching him as he scanned his surroundings. His Adam's apple moved as he swallowed nervously.
"Joshua," Drew barked, "Go search the area and see what the damage is."
Josh nodded before turning on his heels and running. Chloe studied Drew a bit longer as he began to mumble to himself trying to think of a plan of what to do next.
"You can't control them, can you?" She whispered to him.
Sighing loudly in defeat he answered. "No."
She sighed. She weirdly felt calm for just a moment. She shouldn't she should've been scared beyond reason, but somehow just knowing helped.
"So this is it." She said accepting this horrible situation.
"No. No. This isn't it. This can't be it. I had plans." Drew argued. Chloe ignored his words stepping out of his hold.
"We have plans." He insists. "I was going to win your heart and we were going to make many babies together. You were going to fall head over heels. I was going to create the most amazing things." He argued with his inevitable fate. "This can't be happening. This can't be happening to me. Not me. I figured out how to turn back the clock. How do you think Claire looks so good? No. No." denial consumed him.
"What about your son?" Chloe asked arms crossed.
"I'm not a magician, Chloe. I can't bring back the dead."
Tears stung her eyes and she had to swallow the pain back down to not completely lose it.
"I meant Josh. He's you're son, too. Don't you wish to spend you're last minutes with him? I know that I'd want to be with . . ." She choked again unable to say his name.
If I were to die I'd wanna spend my last minutes with Tyson. She imagined Tyson smiling at her causing her to smile. And Bergita. She imagined Bergita holding Tyson on a beautiful beach at sunset smiling at her. And then she imagined Patrick walking up behind them smiling at her too.

Patrick!!

"Oh my gosh!" She jumped up alert. "Patrick!?"
Drew groaned and kicked a broken toy near him. Chloe didn't wait to talk to Drew or try to convince him to come with her. She just ran out of the room. The blood once again covering her toes driving her insane but she just reminded herself to ignore the bodies, ignore the feeling, try not to slip on the blood slip and slide that were the halls.
A few turns and she made it to his door. She turned the knob and tried to push the door open but she couldn't.
Huh? Her heart frowned. She wanted to see him, hear his voice, know that his heart was still beating and he was still here with her.
Lightly knocking on the door she waited for a response looking all around afraid that if she knock louder one of the species will hear her and come get her.
No response.
She tried again. No response.
"Patrick?" She tried to whisper through the door. No response. "Patrick, open the door! Please! Please, be there!" A tear ran down her cheek.
Desperate for his sarcasm, for his warm touch and smile, she began to pound in the door.
So what if they came to get her? Then at least she could be on the beach with Bergita, Tyson, and Patrick. They'd be together.

BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Patrick!" She yelled between her tears. And then to her amazement the door opened revealing Patrick with a deep gash across his chest that had been wrapped and bandaged. He was alive! And in his arms was Tyson.