Episode 10: Dust

Episode 10

"Dust"

I woke up the next morning, and saw everyone was already awake. I always woke up last, I guess I like to sleep in. Everyone was sitting around and eating breakfast. I got up to look for Barry, I was kind of concerned for him, he looked really down that Patrick was gone. I didn't see him anywhere, I went to ask someone.

"Do you know where Barry went?" I asked a random person.

"I think I saw him go outside." they replied.

I headed out of the building and ran outside, I saw Barry sitting outside on the back of his pickup truck. He had a book in his hands. I walked over to him, and sat beside him.

"What's up?" I asked him.

"Just looking at this old book, it was a picture book Patrick and I made. We were big travellers back in the day, we had a whole book of places we visited."

I took a look at the book, he was right. I saw pictures of them in the Bahamas, Himalayas, Australia, Europe, almost anywhere you could think of.

"Wow, I never really travelled that much before all of this. Kind of wish I did." I said.

"Well, it's an experience you will always have with you." Barry started to tear up.

"It's ok, Patrick is a survivor, I'm sure he's doing just fine."

"I just wish I could see him one more time."

"You're acting like he's dead, I'm sure he's fine." I said.

"You don't understand! Knowing someone is out there, but you don't know where!"

"I actually do," I said, "My wife was kidnapped a while ago, never found her."

Barry was quiet for a few seconds, he looked sorry.

"Oh man I'm really sorry." he said.

"It's fine." I replied.

Barry and I headed into the community centre and had breakfast, they had a lot of soup. That is pretty much all we ate. I guess this was how we were going to live from now on, I don't want to admit it, but Derrick has won. I sat beside Kayla, she was talking with Mark.

"Hey guys." I said, placing my soup bowl down beside them.

"Kayla was just telling me about school, before all of this end of the world stuff happened." Mark said.

"Oh yes, she was just about to finish kindergarten." I said.

"I was so excited to go into first grade, I wanted to become a big kid." she said.

"That's ok, grade one was never that great anyways." Mark said.

"I'd also say you're more than a big kid now." I added.

"Yeah," Mark joked, "You're one badass little girl, I heard you saved your dad from a strangler."

Kayla giggled, it kind of scared me that she did that though. She giggled after stabbing a strangler through the head. That would usually scar someone, imagine if this apocalypse goes on for a year, will she be the same little girl? Or will she be a crazy killer? I hope she knows how to stay herself, but I think growing up in a world like this will really change someone. I've tried to stay human as possible during this, but I don't think it's going to last much longer.

After breakfast I was about to talk with Barry more, learn more about him. That's when something very bad happened though. I walked outside to get some fresh air, when I saw something in the distance. It was at least one hundred stranglers walking around, getting closer to the community centre.

"Oh shit." I said.

In a few minutes they would have reached here, we need to be prepared. If we stay quiet, they might just pass straight through the town with no problem at all. I ran inside to warn everybody.

"Everyone! I need your attention right now!" I cried.

Everyone looked my way, I stood on a table so everyone could hear me.

"Stranglers are headed this way, at least a hundred of them! This is serious! I need everyone to hide, and stay quiet as possible! They might just pass through here!"

"Really?" Barry exclaimed, he peeked outside, then ran back in.

"They're coming, fast. Everyone hide! Don't make a sound!"

We all hid in different spots, I hid under the table with Barry. I wasn't sure where Kayla was, but I was sure she was somewhere safe. She knows how to survive, especially against stranglers. I heard them now, they were grunting as they passed. We just had to hold off for a few more minutes, then they would be gone. We waited for a few minutes, I was pretty sure they were gone. I slowly crawled out from under the table, that's when hands crashed through the windows. It grabbed some poor people leaning against the walls. I saw some hands grab a man and rip his neck apart with their bare hands.

"Oh my god." I said, I was shocked in place.

Then more started happening, everybody went in panic mode, and stranglers started crashing through the windows, grabbing people and ripping them apart with their bare hands. The door was locked, but I could hear thumping. They were trying to break it down. It was complete madness with people running around screaming for their lives.

"Kayla?" I yelled.

I was panicked, I ran around the building looking for her. I got too close to the windows while looking. Hands grabbed me from the windows, I struggled to get away. They were going to win though, stranglers are really tough. I don't know what makes them so strong. They were about to rip me apart when something went right through their hands, and cut them off. I was freed. I looked to see Mark, he was carrying an axe. I was surprised to see him swing with only one hand, that must have been hard. Kayla was beside him.

"Thank god," I said, "Let's get out of here."

I grabbed Kayla's hand and Mark ran behind us. I kicked open to back door, since the stranglers were trying to get through the front, and we ran. The whole place was infested with stranglers, but none were around the back of the building. Thank god. We ran down the streets of the nameless town, I didn't look back. The road we followed headed out of the town and into the country again, middle of nowhere. After a few minutes of running down the road, we took a breath. I finally looked back to see the town in the distance. I could still hear the faint sounds of screams.

"Thanks for saving my life back there." I said to Mark.

"No problem, you saved me. I repaid you."

I hugged Kayla,

"I'm glad you're safe." I said.

"Mark grabbed me and hid with me as soon as the stranglers showed up." she said.

I smiled and pat Mark on the back.

We walked down the road for the rest of the day, I was kind of sad. I thought Barry's centre really had potential. He really believed we could build a community. I did as well.

We set up a campfire on the side of the road for the night. It got cold at night, and we needed to keep warm. After all of this, we can't just freeze to death. We all sat around the fire and just stared into the flames. After losing Patrick's house, everything has gone downhill. I don't know how much longer we are going to make it for.

"I used to be a therapist." said Mark.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, people would always come to me with their problems, and most of the time I could help them. But there was this one guy I just didn't know how to help. He was all into that doomsday crap. He would always tell me the end is near, and he needs my help in how to prepare himself correctly. I didn't know what to say. I've been thinking about him a lot lately though, did he actually see this coming?"

"Who knows," I said, "There are a lot of weird people out there."

"Hello?" asked a familiar voice.

I turned to see Barry, he was alone.

"Barry?" I asked, "You survived."

"Yeah, barely. I saw you guys leaving the town, I decided to follow."

"Good thing you did, you can't make it far on your own out there." I said.

"Well, come join our campfire." Mark welcomed.

Barry sat down beside me and looked into the campfire, I saw some tears swell up under his eyes.

"I just wanted to build a community." he sniffled.

"You still can, we just need to get back up on our feet first. We'll find another place, and build an even stronger one." I pat him on the back.

"Easier said than done."

I put out the fire, it was getting late and we were all getting tired. I volunteered to keep watch though, I can't risk us being found by stranglers. Almost all night, I just sat on the road, watching. I looked over at Kayla, she was fast asleep, as well as Mark and Barry.

"Give me strength." I said, looking up into the sky.

I saw something in the distance, I thought it was a strangler. I got up and reached for my pistol Barry gave me earlier.

"Hello?" I asked.

There was no answer, it couldn't have been a strangler though, if it were, they would have screamed and ran at me. The figure kept walking closer to me, until it was face to face with me. Since the campfire was out, I couldn't see who it was.

"Who are you?" I asked.

I could tell it was a woman, I saw the long hair. She touched my cheek with her hand, I felt warm inside. I could then tell who it was. It was Samantha, I knew it was.

"Sam-Samantha?" I stuttered.

She walked backwards, and kept going, until she disappeared. I couldn't believe what just happened, did I just hallucinate Samantha? I rubbed my eyes, there was nothing there anymore.

"I need to get some sleep." I said to myself.

I woke up the next morning, everyone looking over me. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, then yawned.

"Whoa, did I fall asleep?" I asked.

"Yeah, good thing no stranglers showed." Barry said.

"Good thing."

I kept thinking about Samantha, I was still trying to process it. I wished it were real, I wanted it to be real. Part of me wants to believe that was really her, but I know I was just too tired and I hallucinated.

"You ok Jeff?" Mark asked, "You looked concerned."

"Nah I'm fine, I guess I am always concerned now, with dead people running around."

"Remember I'm a therapist Jeff, you can talk to me whenever you want to."

"I'm fine, honestly. Thanks for the offer."

"No problem." Mark replied.

As soon as everyone woke up, we headed off down the road some more. Mark led the way, since I was still feeling jittery about last night. I just wanted to hang out in the back today and think about stuff. We didn't get far though, we were stopped. I heard some motors behind us, it sounded like a bunch of motorcycles. We turned to see about five motorcycles heading our way.

"Shit! Everyone hide!" Mark cried, we ran into the ditch to lie down.

We stayed there for a while, the motorcycles slowly came by, they were looking for something. Us. They must have seen us back there, they're looking for us. They finally stopped, I could get a good look at them. They were mainly the average looking motorcycle drivers, leather jackets, long hair, long beard, just scary looking overall. There were about six of them. They all had shotguns on their backs. They could really do some damage. One of them pulled a shotgun out and fired it into the sky.

"Come out! We know you're there! We don't want to hurt anyone."

We didn't answer, we kept quiet.

"Don't make us look for you, because then stuff will get bad." he taunted some more.

I reached for my pistol, to get it prepared. This might end very badly.