Liam Hall

Sunday, April 24th, 2022 (33 days after the Shutdown)

Thaddeus hadn't let him out of his sight even once during the past 4 days.

Was it awkward and uncomfortable being near an ominous and obscure stranger?

Yes.

Was there a reason why Liam couldn't just leave?

Also, yes.

A few seconds after they entered Frank’s Deli, Liam heard the wailing of the monsters approaching them. Thaddeus had attracted a mob of the monsters and was being chased when he caught sight of Liam spying on his hideout… allegedly.

Their conversations were punctuated by long pauses where Thaddeus kept breaking off into thought.

Maybe it was a habitual thing but it made it harder to trust the guy. For all Liam knew, Thaddeus planned to lure a bunch of monsters and trap someone while he waited for others.

But what unnerved Liam the most, was how apathetic he was about their situation.

Monsters were wailing and they were stuck, and yet the man in question was contentedly grilling strips of bacon on the deli’s gas stove. Without his leather coat, his physique was thin and lithe, different from what Liam imagined a biker would be.

Noticing his gaze, Thaddeus raised an eyebrow.

“Relax, pal, I’m cooking some for you as well. How do you want your eggs? Scrambled?” he asked, plating the bacon.

“You… have eggs,” Liam repeated in disbelief.

“Yeah? It's the powdered stuff though, so it tastes like cardboard but still filling. But is it a ‘yes’ to the scrambled?”

“Uhhh… sure?”

Pouring the batter, it sizzled, frying in the leftover bacon grease.

Four days and he still has food… I mean it's mostly meat and eggs but its never ending. How has no one else robbed this place? Poor Frank. He’s going to be confused as hell when he comes back.

“Aaannnddd… breakfast is served!”

A plate with a towering stack of bacon and eggs clattered onto the table in front of him. Taking in the nostalgic aroma of the food, a smile crept unbidden to his lips.

“Damn, was your life that bad?”

“Have you been eating like this the whole time?” Liam asked, thinking about how pitiful his own stash of chocolate bars was in comparison. “Like ever since the Blackout?”

Sliding into the seat across from him, Thaddeus picked at a burnt piece of his bacon thoughtfully. “Not really… I was somewhere before this and I didn’t really have much to eat. Maybe like a couple of sandwiches everyday? Mmm… no, a bit more than that. Yeah, I was practically starving.”

“A couple sandwiches…” Liam repeated, picturing the slop he and the rest of Half-Moon Bay had to scrounge on.

Raising an eye, Thaddeus eyed his left hand. “Are you gonna punch me?”

Bewildered at the sudden change of topic, Liam looked down at his clenched. Huh. Deliberately opening it, he forced himself to take a breath before he did anything stupid.

Thaddeus was studying him again like he’d been doing these past few days when his muddled expression suddenly cleared up.

“What?” Liam demanded, picking out a piece of wood in his eggs.

Not bad, actually, he mentally remarked, shoveling piles of the pale yellow dough into his mouth.

“No… no nothing. I just…” There it was, that annoying pause. “... I… just figured something out.”

Liam waited for him to say something but he kept his secrets.

“I think we should try and escape today.”

Liam choked on the eggs. “Sorry? You want to go out there with the monsters? How are you planning on surviving?”

“How are we planning on surviving, you mean, right? Because you’re coming out there with me.”

Searching his face for any signs of humor, Thaddeus returned a deadpan look.

“I’m not going out there.”

“Like hell you aren’t. My roof, my rules, pal.”

“I thought you said this was Frank’s place,” Liam retorted, cautiously lowering the fork from his mouth.

“Well… while Frank isn’t here, it's mine. Now before you go haywire at least let me explain my plan.”

Liam brought another forkful of food to his mouth and waited to hear this “ingenious plan”.

“As far as I can see, the monsters are only in the front, not the back. Meaning if one of us slips out, they can draw the monsters away.”

“Let me guess. I’m going to be the one slipping out?”

“No, actually. That lucky someone is going to be me,” Thaddeus replied, watching the glass front where the monsters were trying to get in.

Their unceasing howls mirrored their relentless movement, waiting for a chance to devour the two humans sheltered within.

… What’s he playing at?

“Alright,” Liam said cautiously. “Then what’s my role?”

“Sit still and look pretty.”

“... Seriously?”

Stolen story; please report.

“I mean, yeah. Unless you want to be the one risking your life. We’ll do it right away after we’re finished eating. The quicker we go, the less time for things to go wrong. Plus… we don’t know all of their abilities yet.”

If he draws them away… couldn’t I just run away? Heck if I really wanted to, I could stick around and live here. There’s gas for heat and cooking, food and water in the back, and there’s no one around. It’s like a post-apocalyptic paradise.

Brooding over that, that still left one last question.

Why would he show Liam this place?

Maybe Thaddeus realized Liam would try to break in either way and so he tried to minimize the damage. Or, maybe he was genuinely a good person… who coincidentally wore the biker gang’s vest and had a “stolen” bike.

Nope, that’s not it.

Liam still wasn’t at 100% strength since his house fire and it showed. Maybe Thaddeus didn’t see him as a threat because of it.

As great as it would be to get rescued by Thaddeus, his newfound paranoia coaxed him into reconsidering. Nothing was free; there was always a trade.

When he got shot, the universe had shown him the Value Mart as compensation. And now, the price of having eaten a somewhat proper breakfast after months of starving was the price of being chased by monsters.

What was the price going to be this time?

Setting down his plate, Thaddeus slipped on his vest and grabbed a bag of food.

“Ready?” he asked, scratching his beard. “I need you to stay here and keep them occupied. I don’t know… maybe wave your arms around for effect? Good luck.”

And with that he slipped out the back door.

Waiting at the front of the store, Liam watched the surge of monsters impassively, their formless bodies creating a curtain of dark gray smoke. Glancing through the gaps for any trace of Thaddeus, minutes passed without any change in the number of monsters.

So he ran off… Liam scoffed to himself. Liam Hall, you fucking idiot. You actually believed a stranger would help you, just like that? What did you expect from—

Just as he was about to curse Thaddeus out with a few choice words, a miracle happened. A few of the monsters in front of him peeled away. And then a few more. And then a few more until the storefront was empty. Hearing the sound of an exhaust burst alive, Liam gaped, watching in time as the monsters started to follow Thaddeus on his motorcycle like the Pied Piper.

“You owe me one!” he yelled, turning to give the watching Liam a maniacal grin.

… He’s out of his mind.

At the sound of a howl, he remembered where he was and grabbed his bag. It was only later that he remembered he’d forgotten to fill it.

A few of the monsters following Thaddeus on his motorbike stopped and began following him, slowly at first but once they entered a certain range, their forms started to grow more chaotic.

Liam kept running.

There were times when he turned a street corner only to run into a couple more. Soon, his posse had grown till he could hear a hundred of their howls at his back.

And he wasn’t getting any faster.

His heart was in his throat as his eyes desperately sought out places he could ditch them.

A burnt-out restaurant stood out like a shining beacon. Tripping on the glass scattered in front of where its windows used to be, he launched himself through the window. He turned to see them hesitate at the window sill before flowing over the edge like it wasn’t there.

It wasn’t tall enough?

Grabbing a nearby chair, Liam launched it at them and watched it… harmlessly pass through.

Ah… aha… fuck.

He toppled over tables, chairs, and stands, but the monsters moved through them, their smokey forms showing no indication of being hinder by the physical objects.

Vaulting over the counter, Liam pushed through the kitchen door.

Frantically pulling on a nearby table, he dragged it over and barricaded the door. Knowing it wouldn’t hold forever, he ran for it.

Flying over the back porch, his head was ablaze from the tension and the constant nerves on edge had him feeling feverish but he couldn’t hold back the grin on his face.

The unrestrained freedom.

After weeks of being hampered by injuries, this feeling was something he never thought he could feel again. No guns, no people, no responsibilities or people to fight for. Just the road ahead.

It was like he was back in elementary school running the 1500 meter. No one could stop him as he lapped them, winning every track and field day.

Maybe it was because of Thaddeus. The man’s disregard for his own safety as he sought the next thrill was intoxicating.

Climbing over a dumpster to escape the back alleys, he jumped over the stone wall and landed in a new street.

This labyrinth of a sideways city never ends, does it? Holy shit, he gasped, taking in the dead silent street.

Peeking over the stone wall just to check on the monsters, a spiral of smoke nearly brushed him. Kicking away from the wall in time, he stared up in surprise as the swirl of living shadows retreated behind the wall.

What the hell? I couldn’t hear them?!

All at once, like a storm picking up, a chorus of eldritch screams grew from beyond the wall. Plugging his ears didn’t help keep the sounds out. He squirmed on the road, pelted in a 100 different directions by their high-pitched screeches like nails on a chalkboard.

A warm liquid leaked out from his orifices.

Howling in pain, his cries went on forever.

***

Sweat tickled his brow as he propped himself on his elbows. Their screams drained the strength out of him and during that time, he was paralyzed.

A-Anyone of them could’ve frickin’ medusa-fied me in that time.

Their howls had receded into their perpetual quiet wail.

Given how they managed to get to him even when he thought he lost them in the restaurant, it was like they had a homing device on him.

I have to get back to the market or at least off the streets.

Stopping in the middle of the road, he scoffed.

“This is soo fucking ridiculous,” he smiled to himself, walking down the middle of the road, past all of the defunct vehicles of a time long past gone.

***

Unable to shake the feeling that something was following him, he’d taken a longer route. Which ended up being an unwanted crash course on the city of Oakville as he tried to throw them off his trail.

Finally ending up on some random street, his abdomen itched like it remembered its old wound. He was back in the square where he first got shot.

He looked around for his pursuers. There was no one, at least no one he could see. His gut was telling him to get out of this place.

The excitement of running free started to wear off as night set in. Studying the surrounding skyscrapers, he caught sight of a familiar entrance. Running over to it, garbage and old newspapers crinkled under his feet.

“Wow…”

The day he’d been left behind in the city, two members of their scouting team died from a shotgun ripping through them. Liam, who’d been standing at a distance, was hit in the stomach but by then most of the power had left the slug so he survived with just his internals messed up.

Back then the door of the restaurant they’d tried to scavenge was torn to shreds.

Staring at it now, the door had been replaced without a trace of a fight. The soldier whose head had blown up was missing as well. All that was left was Stella’s rotting body, the blood that had spread around her having dried in the sun.

Walking up to the woman, her pudgy face has sunken in death, flies crawling in and out of her mouth.

You didn’t deserve this.

He turned away and went inside the lobby of the building they’d fled to that night. It had been so chaotic back then with strangers hidden in the shadows trying to kill them.

Now, it was as deserted as he expected. A million people lived in this city and he hadn’t seen more than a handful of them. He should’ve been happy to not run into more trouble when trouble kept finding him.

Opening the nearest door, he softly smiled at how quickly he jinxed himself.

A gun was pressed to his head.

Fuck.

The gun went off.