Countd0wn

Chapter 9: Voices in My Head

After she uttered the words that seemed to scare her to death, Sparrow didn't seem to want to talk any more about it. When I asked her what she meant by the Devil, she simply just shook her head and hugged her shoulders, closing her eyes. I could see that whatever it was was distressing to her. I dropped the subject, and began to lay out a sleeping bag for her. I could see the light from the fire glinting off the tears in her eyes.

It was late at night by this point, and I was sure that we all needed the sleep. I moved my bag into the tent next to Ivy, who was already fast asleep. There wasn't enough room for all three of us in the small tent, so Sparrow volunteered to stay outside, as well as keeping watch. Throughout the night, we took shifts, looking out into the forest, watching for shapes in the dark.

In the morning, what woke me out of my deep sleep was Ivy screaming. When I jerked out of my bag, I thought back to a few days ago when this had happened before, and I thought crazily that everything had been some sort of vivid dream. But when the pain started in my head, I knew that I was dead wrong.

As soon as I opened my eyes, I had time to process Ivy sitting up in her bed, holding her bear with one hand as she screamed like she had been shot, before a sharp, large pain coursed through my head, making me clutch at my head like it was a grenade about to explode. I had read about how people could have extreme migraines, but I somehow knew that this was far worse than that.

I fell on my side, my muscles clenching and unclenching as I looked through the half-open flap of our tent outside, and could see Sparrow holding her head as well, writhing on the ground in agony. As she rolled around, our eyes met, and her sky-blue eyes now showed pain and torture.

As I gripped my hair tightly, I began to hear something. Or rather, I began to hear nothing. The sound of Ivy's screams slowly faded away, as well as the rustling of Sparrow's body outside. My entire hearing was replaced with just dead silence, like someone was slowly lowering the volume on a TV. Then, very clearly, I heard a voice echo through my head, like someone else was thinking for me. Seek Sanctuary. Come home. Light in the darkness. Come hooooooome....

Then, everything just went away. All of the silence, the pain, everything just turned off, like someone or something had flipped a switch. I stopped moving around on the floor of the tent, and lay back, breathing heavily, my body covered in sweat. Then, I realized another thing. Ivy had stopped screaming.

I turned and looked to see Ivy lying back in her sleeping bag, her eyes rolled up into the back of her head, unmoving. "IVY!" I yelled, and grabbed her limp form. Her head lolled back as I picked her up and moved her close to me. I lowered my head to her mouth, and felt the faintest breath tickle my ear. I thanked God that she was still alive.

I heard rustling, then saw Sparrow stumble in, still holding her head. She looked down at me holding Ivy, and her eyes widened. "Oh God...is she...?" Sparrow stared at me with pleading eyes, and I nodded my head. She breathed out, but then froze in place and cocked her head, as if she was listening for something. Then, I began to hear it too. It was the rustling of leaves and snapping of branches. But there were several of them, and they were getting closer. It was the same sound I heard when I had seen the swarm on the road.

My eyes widened, and I knew what I had to do. I stood up and ran out of the tent, carrying Ivy's unconscious body in my arms. I then handed her to Sparrow, and stared into her eyes. "Listen to me. You say you can run fast? Then run. Go all the way to the highway that's near the forest. I'll meet you there. If I'm not there in 30 minutes, leave without me, no matter what you think. Got it?" I said it with intensity, and Sparrow nodded slowly.

She took Ivy and braced her in her arms, then stared at me, a bit worried. "But you don't know how many there are...and what if you don't come back? What am I supposed to tell her?" I stared down at Ivy, her eyes closed, and her head resting on Sparrow's shoulder.

I walked over to her and kissed her forehead, and brushed some of her hair aside, then looked at Sparrow. "Just get her out of here, ok? Don't worry about me." Sparrow walked to the brim of the clearing, then looked at me one last time. Then, she was gone, a bunch of rustling leaves the only sign that she had left.

I quickly grabbed my rifle from the tree where Sparrow had propped it up, and pointed it at the spot where I heard the noises coming from. There were 8 rounds in the clip. I scanned the treeline, hoping to spot any creatures that were dumb enough to pop their heads out. A few minutes later, I got my first customer. It was one that had half of a pair of glasses on one side of his face, and a mass of bones and hair on the other. I killed him with a clean headshot. 7 rounds left.

Then, I hear movement in the trees above me, and looked up to see two of the things crawling across and trying to get the jump on me. I raised the rifle and shot into the air, missing the creature by a few inches. 6 rounds left. One of the things jumped down and landed near the campsite. I quickly chambered another round and shot again, this time hitting it's chest, killing it. 5 rounds left.

The other creature crawled down the tree, and I shot the trunk next to it. 4 rounds left. Then, it lunged forwards before I could fire my next shot, and knocked me back, crawling on my chest and making me pull the trigger. 3 rounds left. As it clawed at me, it pierced my shirt and drew blood, making me scream. Then, my stomach clenched, and a green light blasted the thing off me, blowing it against the tree, half of it's body disintegrated.

I stand up, and see that both my hands are glowing with the green light, and my body reverberating with heat and energy. I smell burning plastic, and see the rifle in my hands start to melt, so I throw it away. Then, the rest of the creatures come out of the bushes, and stare at me. I look around and hold up my hands, ready for an attack, but they all stand there, unmoving.

Then, one of them steps forwards. I recognize this one. It's the one in the polka-dot dress, the one that infected the corpse on the road. It looks at me with it's grey eyes, and raises a hand, then points at me with one of it's long fingers. Then, incredibly, it speaks to me.

"Wren...Sawyer...you...have...something...that...he...wants..." I stand motionless, my mind completely shell-shocked. I'd never seen a creature talk before, or act this intelligent. There was something about this particular one that was different...but like the man in the church, it knew my name too...

It stared at me, then spread in it's lips in a grotesque fallacy of what was a smile. "He...knows...you...the...Dark...Man...knows...all..." It began to utter small shrieks repeatedly, in what was supposed to be laughter, and the other creatures joined him, the hellish sound filling the clearing.

My mind was racing, as I looked around for a way out. Then, I thought about Ivy. And what the creature had just said. Something he wants...it suddenly clicked. I looked at the creatures with anger in my eyes, the heat from my body increasing. "No. You won't take her. You understand? You. Won't. Take. HER!" I screamed the last word as the energy reached a crescendo, and a shockwave of green light burst across the clearing, setting almost everything on fire for a few seconds, like a match that was touched to gasoline.

I was kneeling down, and when I looked up, I saw scorched earth. The creatures had been almost burned to a crisp, and all of the trees and materials around me were completely charred. It was like someone had been through here with a flamethrower. I looked down at my hands and saw that they were back to normal. As my breathing slowed down, I remembered Sparrow and Ivy. I grabbed whatever was salvageable, and ran towards the road.