Emilia
Wednesday, April 20th, 2022 (29 days after the Shutdown)
Rolling over in her sleep, the sound of waves breaking roused her from her bliss. Emilia had spent so long on the cargo ship that she’d forgotten what it felt like to sleep without the rocking of a ship beneath her.
Still battling her morning fatigue, she warily cracked open an eye.
Half her body hanging off the edge, and beneath her the yawning ocean was battering the cliff face, sending salt spraying meters in the air. Her blood turned to ice in her veins and she scrambled away from the edge, screaming bloody murder. Behind her, people broke out into laughter.
Jefferson was clutching his sides as he hooted with laughter at her near-death experience.
“Oh, you should have seen your face!” he guffawed, doing a poor impersonation of her. “It was priceless!”
“What the hell, pendejos! I almost died!” Emilia huffed angrily, trying to calm her nerves.
“Stop overacting, Emilia, we tied a rope around your waist in case,” her father said, sharing a wry smile with Jefferson.
Sputtering in protest, she felt two comforting hands on her shoulders.
“Well, now that you’re awake, we have a big day ahead of us! We’re going home!” Katherine beamed.
Raising his hands to quell the fever pitch that had risen amongst the crew members, standing in front of them Captain Oliver grinned.
“All I have to say is… it took us long enough!”
The crew broke into raucous laughter at the jest. One whole month with nothing but them and the sea undoubtedly made many of the sailors reevaluate their careers. After eating through everything onboard the ship but the hard jerky, once they got on the island Emilia had seen people chewing tree bark just to get rid of the taste of fish in their mouths.
“I thought I’d lose my mind seeing the ocean every day! Enough of that though! Based on the last readings by First Officer Daniels, we’re somewhere off the coast of North America,” Captain Oliver said, scratching his bushy beard.
Having disregarded his appearance while they were castaways, the years piled on for the 30-year-old captain as his clean-shaven face adopted a wiry, brown beard.
“Get into groups and start exploring this place. If you find someone, ask them to report the situation to the local authorities and then come back here. One more thing guys and we’ll finally get some rest! Let’s get to it!”
***
The four of them – Katherine, Jefferson, her father, and her – were following a trail in the woods. It was still the early hours of the morning and the forest was waking up around them.
Birds fluttered between trees, finding food for their young. Gray squirrels sat on branches as they ate their pine seeds, skittering away when their group got close. In the undergrowth, dead leaves had collected in dried-up stream beds. It hadn’t rained here in quite some time as well.
“This place is beautiful. Why aren’t there people living here?” Emilia’s father said, slowing down as they started going down a slope.
“I mean we’re currently following a trail. I’m sure if we continue to follow it, we’ll eventually meet someone,” Katherine reasoned as she unfastened her shirt from an outstretched branch.
She was the only one who wasn’t enjoying the walk, having grown increasingly irritated by the winding roots cutting across the trail and the low-hanging branches her forehead kept smacking against. “Guys… just one quick question. Why couldn’t we have taken the coastline where there was a clear path?”
“No asked you to be big-boned,” Emilia joked, peeling off the burrs that had stuck to her shorts.
“And no asked you to be 2 feet either,” Katherine retorted.
“And no one—”
“OKAY!” Raising his voice before his daughter’s hot-headed nature got the best of her, Emilia’s father pointed to a clearing in front of them.“ Is that a road I see? Crazy! Let’s go check that out.”
Sighing as her father scampered off, Emilia and the rest of them followed behind.
The so-called “road” was a dirt track that ran across them, leading in two opposite directions.
“So which way?” Jefferson queried. “Should we vote on it?”
Busy studying a set of faded tire tracks, Emilia didn’t hear the question. From the roadside, branches of a bush had ventured out and covered nearly half of the tracks. The pattern continued down the length of the road, where inch by inch, the wild was reclaiming its territory. Nobody has driven a car through here for a while.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
“We have all the time in the world. Let's just go to the right and we can circle back if it was a waste,” her father suggested.
Carefully stepping over the plants covering the road, they hadn’t even made it 100 meters down the road when the forest exploded with shouts. Bursting out of the trees beside them, Jean Bain and his group didn’t even spare them a glance as they tripped over one another in their haste. Perplexed, Emilia watched them trampling the brush covering the road as they ran away.
“What’s got their panties in a bunch?”
“Who knows? Maybe the threat of an honest day’s work?” Jefferson mused.
Grinning, Emilia’s smile faded as the dust disappeared from the road. Jean was a monster of a man and the men who followed him and Marcus Noren weren’t the type to be easily intimidated.
Turning to look at the others, Jefferson and Katherine were still leisurely chatting amongst themselves. Her father had grown oddly reserved.
“Maybe we should run too?” Emilia asked.
Breaking from their conversation, Katherine gave her a pitying look.
“Emilia, the only thing we have to worry about in a temperate forest like this one, is maybe a brown or black bear. Considering we haven’t been mauled already, I would say that it isn’t the case,” Katherine explained in a motherly tone. “They probably saw something else.”
A low howl rustled the surrounding foliage.
“Oh, look at that! It might finally rain today,” Katherine said half-heartedly.
There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. Yet the woods were shuddering as if a beast were passing through. Peering into the thicket, the shadows wavered as far in the gloom as a small storm approached them. It wove in and out of the grove of trees, a few times passing through them unbothered. What the hell? Is that what they were —
“ — running from?” her father finished. “I think we found that ‘something else’.”
“Now we run?” Emilia proposed as it came within 30 meters of them.
“Run,” her father agreed.
The moment they started running an enraged howl reminiscent of a beast who’d lost their prey rolled through the forest. Looking over her shoulder, in the overgrown patch of brush they’d stood in a warped figure like a swarm of gray clouds rushed towards them.
Plagued by overgrown vegetation, they were slowed down by stray creepers catching their feet. Just when Emilia thought the road would never end, the ground beneath her dropped off into a hillside.
Skidding to a stop, Katherine who’d lagged behind couldn’t decelerate in time and sent them tumbling down the hill. Rolling head over heels, Emilia fumbled around her to clasp onto anything that would stop her.
Grunting as she finally landed on her stomach, the others settled to a stop around her. Above them, the monster was slowly descending from the crest of the hill.
“To the house! Get up, Emilia!” her father yelled, struggling to support the weight of Katherine.
The older woman’s body had taken the worst of the damage during the fall. Her eyes were swollen shut and every inch of her freckled skin was discolored from the plethora of bruises that had cropped up.
“FOCUS!” he screamed as he kicked Jefferson. His father’s best friend had a gash on the side of his head. “Emilia, open the door!”
Door? House? They were level with a mound of rocks that had been constructed to support the seaside cottage in front of them. Beyond it, the ocean was waiting, waves of gem blue lapping the shore. Getting to her feet, Emilia glanced back at the monster who was a third of the way down the hill.
Running to the wraparound porch, Emilia thought she saw a nervous pair of eyes monitoring them.
“Hey! HEY! Open the door! Help!” she hollered, pounding the front door.
“SCREW OFF! You’re attracting the fucker to the house you idiot!” a deep voice replied.
Jean Bain.
All the hassle they’d gone through was worthless if that social reject was on the other side. They would need a battering ram to get in and with the Grim Reaper on their heels, wasted time like that would seal their fate.
“Jefferson, get up! Emilia, see that cave! Go! Don’t argue!” her father pleaded, as Jefferson finally got a bearing of his surroundings and grabbed Katherine’s other arm.
Stones that had been weathered smooth by the water decorated the beach, sliding out from under the feet as they hobbled toward the small opening in a distant escarpment. Why? Emilia deliberated as she stumbled across the shingle beach.
We’ll be trapped in there. He has to know that.
Nerves were pulsing on her father’s forehead as he ran beside Jefferson, Katherine's unconscious body dragging them down.
They were almost there.
An inlet 2 meters across was the only thing left that divided them from the cave. Blocked from the sun by the high cliffs, the waters were the same melange of murky grays the cloud monster was, now only a couple dozen feet away. Holding her breath, she jumped. Water sloshed up to drench her clothes, stealing the heat from her body. Breaking the water's surface she began to violently shiver.
Jefferson hopped in the water carrying Katherine’s upper half.
“DAD! LOOK OUT!” she hollered.
Abandoning gallantry, her father dumped the rest of Katherine into the inlet and dove under the water.
“AWAY! SWIM TO THE CAVE! GET AWAY FROM THE EDGE!” he screamed, already on the other side, dragging Katherine out of the water.
The monster was upon them. Towering above her, fog extended from within it, clawing at the air in front of her head. Overwhelmed by the presence of the eldritch horror, Emilia stood paralyzed in the water, tears glistening in her eyes as it repeatedly tried to touch her. Failing to do so, it let out a last piercing cry like metal screaming against stone.
Memories she’d long forgotten, resurfaced as the monster’s cry dragged on.
Her mother abandoning her and her father when she was only three. Nights in Colombia spent cowering in the closet as her father protected her while gangs went door to door. Sputtering blood as it clogged up her throat, her father’s shouts grew distant. Her vision wavered and her body went limp, the water closing over her head.