Reading the emergency alert on my phone, my heart sunk. I had just 2 and a half hours to make it to the nearest bomb shelter. With those creatures relentlessly pounding on the attic access panel and only the small attic window as an escape option, my chances of making a safe escape stood at almost zero percent. But I wasn’t about to give up.
The nearest bomb shelter I knew of was nowhere near where I lived. With no way of knowing how many of those creatures were roaming around outside, I wouldn’t stand a chance of making it there on foot. I’d need a car, but my car is in the garage and my keys are, or were, in a bowl where I always leave them by the front door. It would be far too risky to go back into the house if I managed to escape as I’m sure I would need time to find them considering the state of just my bedroom and time is something I don’t have a lot of.
Thinking through the different scenarios in my head, immediately I remembered one of my neighbours, Craig, stopping me on a morning run a while back and telling me about how he preps for the end of the world, something I definitely thought he was crazy for at the time and forgot about almost completely not long after he told me. I never thought anything like this would ever happen. He told me he had a bunker installed under his house about a year ago with enough food to last a family of four for a year, despite him living alone. His house is a couple down from mine, but I never actually saw anything being installed. At this point though, this was the only chance I had at making it somewhere survivable before the bombs hit. I needed to get to his place ASAP, and I had only one option of getting out of the attic.
Immediately I made my way over to the attic window, it was small but slid open in its entirety from the bottom so I guessed I could manage to squeeze out, luckily I never had security bars installed on it. I needed to do this without alerting any of those creatures if there were still any outside the house. Whether they could climb/scale the house or not, I prayed for the latter. I popped the window open slightly and peeked out, the window faced towards the neighbour’s house and in the same direction I needed to go. The way the house was designed meant I could lower myself onto the roof of the lower level of the house once I got outside and not have to drop all the way to the ground and probably seriously injure myself in the process. From the window, I couldn’t immediately see any of the creatures in the vicinity, I forced the window open as far as it could go and propped my leg up and out. Once one of my legs were out I hunched down and moved the rest of my body through the opening followed by my other leg. Holding onto the window sill, I faced the wall and lowered myself slowly till my feet met the roof of the lower floor. The roof tiling was solid, but I didn’t trust myself enough to not slip and fall off, so I lowered my body onto all fours and crouched down. From here I could definitely be seen from the street whether I was crouching or not, so I immediately moved further towards the back of the house. I guessed it would be a lot more likely that there would be more of those creatures on the street rather than in my backyard.
I was right, I scanned the backyard from my vantage point and didn’t see any of the creatures, however, I could still hear the creatures pounding on the attic panel which would likely attract more of those things if they were attracted to sound. This also meant those ones were still preoccupied and I still had time before they figured out I wasn’t up there anymore. I carefully made my way towards the gutter pipe which traversed the length of the house from top to bottom and made one final scan before lowering myself onto it.
Sliding down the pipe, I tried my best to stay quiet. However, the worst thing that could possibly happen at that point occurred. The fixtures that secured the pipe onto the wall came loose. As the screws tore from the wall, the pipe along with me, came crashing down onto the concrete pavement. Slamming into the ground, the air immediately left my lungs. I tried breathing in again, but I couldn’t. I knew I had no time to mess around and those creatures would have likely heard the commotion. I managed my way to my feet and forced myself towards the side of the house, away from the backdoor. At this point, my breath came back to me, but the pain in my back ached immensely and I collapsed against the house. That fall definitely left a mark and if this were any other time I would probably have laid down and called for help, but help wasn’t coming. I realised the pounding sound from the attic I had been hearing had stopped and my heart sunk once more. They were coming.
I picked myself up again and started moving again. I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins and knew a wasted second could be the difference between surviving this ordeal and being torn apart in a few moments. I needed to stay out of sight, so my first instinct was to scale the fence in front of me. The pain in my back throbbed but my will to live grew stronger, I jumped up and grabbed the top of the fence holding on tightly. Pulling myself up, I thanked myself for working out regularly which granted me increased upper body strength. I propped a leg up onto the fence and worked to pull the rest of my body up and over. My way down on the other side, however, was far from graceful. As I pulled my body over the fence, my descent was halted as my shoe got caught on a loose screw protruding from the top of the fence. Tugging on my shoe, it came loose from the nail and I fell into a bush directly below me on the other side of the fence.
While my descent wasn’t graceful, it also wasn’t too loud. However, this was no time to be hopeful and I immediately brought myself to my feet and moved towards my next door neighbours house. It was probably safer to move between backyards scaling fences than it was to expose myself on the street where other creatures likely lay waiting. Craig’s house was just the next one over, so I wasn’t far now. I could hear the creatures scurrying around in my backyard, behind the fence I had climbed. They weren’t smashing through the fence or jumping over it yet, so I thanked my lucky stars.
I didn’t know the family who lived directly next to me, but the state of the house left little to the imagination about their fate. The house had the same security features as mine from what I could see, but most of the back windows were broken and the screen door looked like it had been completely torn open like mine. But the house stood silent right now. I moved towards the fence on the opposite side of the yard, the one they shared with Craig and quickly peaked over after scanning down the side of the house for any of the creatures. The coast was still clear, but a wave of despair rushed over me when I saw that Craig’s house too had taken a beating. It seemed like no house on my street had been left untouched at this point, and I was just one of the lucky ones who was targeted last. Without knowing the full behaviour of these creatures, there could very well be one of them still lurking inside his house. It also dawned on me that it was likely Craig had already entered and sealed the bunker he had built for exactly this type of scenario. Whether or not this was the case, it was still my last hope, and I’d rather die trying than die doing nothing at all.
Whilst his house was beaten like the others on the street, Craig’s yard was clear. I made my way over the fence like I had the other but this time being more careful not to get snagged on anything. I stayed low to the fence, not wanting the creatures in my yard or anywhere else to catch a glimpse of me and landed safely on the other side with a quiet thud on the bare dirt. The house was about the same size as mine, but I’d never actually been inside so the location of Craig’s bunker was still to be determined. The upside of his house already being invaded meant that I wouldn’t have to do any breaking and entering myself. Just entering. The back door had been torn completely off its hinges and lay on the ground outside the entrance. I moved towards the house and listened carefully for any sounds inside. The only sound I could hear was a banging from the direction of my house, that’s when I realised it sounded like the creatures were pounding on the fence I had first scaled. I don’t know what caused them to come in this direction, maybe just dumb luck, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before they made their way towards me.
I removed the handgun from my belt and raised it in front of me before moving swiftly into the open doorway with light footsteps, avoiding making unnecessary sounds that would likely be heard from anyone or anything that remained here. My plan was to look for a basement. I guessed this was the most likely place a hidden bunker would be situated inside a house. The backdoor entryway lead directly into a laundry area, where shattered glass was strewn across the floor. Directly connected to this was the kitchen which I scoped out carefully before entering. The glass on the floor made me very cautious of where I placed my foot, the large pieces of glass would likely not be quiet if shattered further. A loud sound bellowed from outside, making my heart skip a beat. It sounded as if the fence had been bowled over and hit the ground. I had no time to waste if they were getting closer already. I quickly moved through the kitchen and made my way into an open living room. The furniture had been completely torn apart, and the floor was littered with bits and pieces of wood, glass, and other miscellaneous materials. A number of doors lead out of this room, any of which could be hiding a way down. However, a door in the corner had clearly been torn through, leaving a large creature sized gap in its wake. I made the assumption that this was likely where Craig had fled to, which hopefully meant this was the way down to a basement of some sort.
More cautiously than ever, I walked towards the battered door. As I entered the room, the lack of light caused my eyes to readjust. A staircase leading down was the first sign that I had been right. I stood silently for a while, while my eyes slowly adjusted themselves to the darkness. There was no use going down into a basement that I couldn’t see a thing in. When I could make out the bottom of the staircase, I carefully moved down the staircase. When I was half way down the staircase, I saw it. Human remains covered the floor. Blood splatters covered the walls and the ceiling. A large pool of blood was situated in the corner of the room where Craig’s mangled body laid, huge pieces of flesh had been torn out.
My stomach turned as I doubled over, dropping my gun and forcefully expelling the small amount of food I had consumed earlier. The sight was horrific. I could not believe that I had actually seen something so graphic. The world around me went mute for a moment as I processed the situation, but a deafening bang came from above me and snapped me out of the daze. The site of Craig’s body had narrowed my vision, but what appeared to be a solid metal door that was slightly ajar came into view near where his body remained. He was just a little too late. I sprinted towards the door and slammed my body into it, opening it wide enough to fit through. Something clattered down the stairs behind me. I glanced back and once again saw a gross creature and its large eyes staring deep into my soul. It was coming towards me faster than I had imagined, and my gun remained at the bottom of the staircase where I had so foolishly dropped it. Without thinking, I heaved the door closed with all the strength I could muster and spun the handle, the sound of the creature slamming into the door could be heard as the metal bolts locked the door in place.
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Credits
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