CHAPTER 3: DESTINATION

  Another person? Here in the middle of nowhere? Wait, Drake stiffened, suspecting the worst-case scenario, He can’t be the owner of the farm, can he? Good thing I didn’t light that fire, though the trail of trampled crops behind me looks pretty bad.

  “I’m Drake,” he tried to explain, “I ran here from Beil, the nearby town. I’m not sure if you know about what's happening there, but…”

  “You traveled all the way here on foot?!” The person interrupted. He had a slight British accent. Under the dim light of the moon, Drake could see that he had brown hair, brown eyes, a faint moustache, and was of average height. “Oh, right, I should introduce myself. I’m, uh… Steve,” he said awkwardly.

  “Umm… hello, Steve. Like I was saying… ” Drake wasn’t sure how to explain the situation without sounding crazy. Adding to the awkwardness of the situation was that he was here in the middle of the night, he came here by foot, destroyed some crops, and just threw up. “Umm… Have you seen those…things? The large animals” He tried to phrase it such that if Steve didn’t know about the situation, Drake would retain the impression of a somewhat sane person, and if Steve did know what was going on, he would understand what Drake was talking about immediately, and then Drake could proceed to make him understand what had led him to this awkward situation.

  “Yes!” Steve replied immediately. “Those black things attacked me while I was on the road to the city.”

  “So you don’t own this farm?”

  Steve looked at him questionably. When he was sure Drake was serious, he shook his head no.

  “Thank goodness.” Drake was somewhat relieved for two reasons: Steve knew what he was talking about (unless there was some terrible misinterpretation of his sentence) and also Steve wasn’t the owner of the farm. This didn’t stop Drake from creating a bad impression of himself just now, though. Thinking about it, Drake was bad at socializing at school also, primarily because he never cared about what others thought.

  “Anyways, when I was on the road…the traffic suddenly increased, and everyone seemed to be driving away from something. When the traffic jammed, people started getting out of their cars and running. Then, a giant lizard came and started eating people! I managed to escape into these cornfields”.

  Ah, so you were escaping those things too. It might be a bad thing that Drake was glad someone else had gone through the terrifying scenes he had been through himself.

  “I’m actually from the place those monsters came from. A meteorite crashed in the woods nearby there, and these monsters started coming from around the crash site. Although I saw it happen, even I do not know what’s going on.”

  Steve nodded in understanding. “We should stick together, and go somewhere safe.”

  “I was actually headed to the city, Cyll, myself. I think there are army forces there that can help”. Drake was now glad that he didn’t take nor find the road, it being full of monsters and all.

  Steve thought for a moment, and then agreed to go to Cyll with Drake. “I remember the general direction there. Let’s go.”

  Steve remembering their position allowed them to continue their journey and Drake’s mission. The two navigated through the endless fields of corn, talking along the way. Once again, it was just two people moving inconspicuously under the night sky. The only sounds were that of corn stalks snapping and rubbing against each other, quiet footsteps on dirt, and the occasional sounds of nocturnal life. The most annoying part of the journey was being just too short to peer over the stalks and see where they were. They just had to have trust in Steve’s sense of direction.

  Drake explained to Steve precisely what had happened over the past few hours from the crash to Billie dying. Steve listened through all of it, understandingly. At many times, it pained Drake’s heart to think of what had happened to his mother, Billie, and all the other victims, but he suppressed his sadness and rage. He would deal with them after he reached his goal.

  Steve kept some distance between them in terms of friendliness, but it was for the best. Neither knew if or when the other could die. The mutants were fast and could surround them at any moment. They were ever-ready to run at the sound of crops snapping nearby, but he doubted they could both escape a mutant, realistically thinking. They couldn’t get too attached to each other.

  An hour later, they reached the end of the farm. Beyond the dangerous fence before them was another deciduous, or leaf shedding, forest. Cyll would be an hour’s distance from here, by Drake’s estimate.

  Sheesh, Drake thought, who the heck would travel all the way here to steal some corn? Why’s there such an expensive-looking fence? They crossed it into the woods and continued their journey, this time having more space around them to move and look around, and fewer stalks slapping at their face in reaction to being pushed back. Drake was thankful for this change, but still wished he could lay down on a bed, or even the ground, just for an hour. He was tired and sleepy, but he couldn’t risk the mutants catching up to them, and causing more unnecessary deaths at Beil before the military arrived. His wounds had crusted by now.

  An hour more passed, and now, Drake could notice some light in the sky. It was either dawn approaching, or the lights of Cyll nearby; hopefully, the latter, as it would signal that he and Steve were on the right path. The light gave them some renewed hope. They were desperate to reach there, and so quickened their pace.

  From the corner of his eye, Drake saw movement, a result of his heightened senses. He immediately turned to look. A giant ant was crawling quickly towards them.

  “All the way here?! Seriously?!” The two started running away from it. We need to think of a way to escape or kill it. We can’t think while running. Both of us running is inefficient.

  “Hey, Steve!” Drake called. Steve was screaming gibberish loudly and running with his eyes closed. Drake hit Steve’s arm. He turned to Drake. “We should split up. It can then only chase one of us”.

  “Good idea,” Steve agreed, “I’ll go right”.

  “Eh? But I’m already on the right side…”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Steve cut him off, and then went right. Drake shrugged and went left. The ant chose to chase after Steve. “Dang it! I should have gone left!” He immediately regretted his decision. Drake stopped and caught his breath. “Hey! Why’d you stop? Don’t leave me behind!” Steve exclaimed.

  “Don’t worry,” Drake shouted back, “I’m not going to abandon you. I’m just going to think of a plan”. But before Drake could think, a mutant grasshopper jumped out of a dark thicket of trees. It started chasing Drake. “Oh, come on! Not me too!”. He had no choice but to think under pressure while simultaneously watching the ground before him for obstructions. The monsters didn’t have the same problem. One had six legs, useful for navigating terrain, and the other could hop from place to place, and really high, Drake could add. Up close and of magnified size, he could see that they were ugly and creepy creatures, those insects.

  Drake couldn’t see any hiding places for him and Steve, not that they would leave them if they hid for any amount of time. They were the type of monsters to camp their prey until they came out or died of starvation. Drake also couldn’t see any immediate weapons he could grab or ways to overpower their opponents.

  Drake ran towards Steve and eventually caught up. They were side by side now, with the two mutants side-by-side behind them.

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  “Hey! What are you doing!” Steve exclaimed, “Don’t bring that thing near me also!”

  “I have a plan,” Drake said.

  “It better not involve having both of them chase after me,” he warned.

  Drake bent low while maintaining his pace, and picked up a rock.

  “It better not involve feeding me to them either.”

  Drake smiled and shook his head no.

  The final idea Drake had thought up was one that had been used in war since the beginning of human civilization: Get your enemies to fight each other. Drake wasn’t sure if his plan would work, but he had to try it, seeing as it was his only choice. He threw the rock at the ant that was chasing Steve. Upon getting hit by the projectile, it turned its attention toward Drake, irritated. Steve ran away from Drake and noticed that neither creature was following him. Both were aiming for Drake.

  The ant caught up to Drake. Drake, noticing that it was almost on him, turned behind him to see for a moment. In that split second, he tripped on a rock and fell down. The ant stopped on top of him. This is the end, Drake thought I’m really going to get killed by an ant! But just as he was about to get eaten, the Grasshopper landed on the ant. It pushed the ant aside as Drake crawled backward frantically on his back. The grasshopper then turned to eat Drake. The ant came back and pushed back at the grasshopper. Pushes led to stabs. Stabs led to bites. They began fighting over Drake. His plan was working, although not as he had imagined.

  While the two ugly monsters were brawling, Drake quietly made his way away from the scene. By the time the two monsters noticed, he was gone. Drake ran a mile and met up with Steve. The two continued running until they were sure the monsters couldn’t even pick up their scent from that far away. Finally, they stopped to catch their breath.

  “Thank goodness. I can’t count how many times I escaped death by now,” Drake said, relieved. He was afraid his luck would run out. He had to hold on to it until they reached safety.

  “Yeah, me too” Steve agreed, “How did you know they would fight and not eat you together?”

  “I didn’t. It was a feeling based on some observations. They don’t communicate with each other, and I’ve never seen them work together before. Also, they don’t seem to have any intelligence. They’re just focused on eating humans for some reason, and nothing else. To take their precious food… they wouldn’t just settle for a small portion or scraps.”

  “Then we could have really died. That’s crazy!”

  “I couldn’t think of anything else, so we would have died anyway.”

  Steve paused. “You could have just left me there to die when the ant was chasing me, but you didn’t. You came and saved me, taking the ant and risking your life. Thank you.”

  “It was nothing,” Drake said modestly. “The grasshopper would have chased me anyways, so at worst, I would have died rather than both of us.” One person dying was better than two in Drake’s mind. Not many people would think in such a rational way, though. Drake wanted to at least save Steve as a resolution for not protecting Billie.

  There was some light in the sky, signaling dawn had arrived. The two could make out the warm glow of the sun in the distance, at the horizon. It comforted them from the unusually chilly morning air. Knowing the direction of sunrise meant they knew the direction of Cyll; they were both East. But they didn’t need it anymore. They could hear noise from that direction, signaling a large population. They were at Cyll at last.

  The two walked towards the source of the commotion. Something was wrong. Eventually, the trees made way for roads and buildings. They had reached an opening surrounded by buildings. The horrific sight before them made them stop dead in their tracks. Their hope instantly plummeted.

  Terrorizing the city were giant black animals, the same ones that Drake had seen countless times the night before. These monsters were destroying the city and eating humans. They were scooping up people by the handfuls. They shoved these handfuls into their mouths and swallowed them whole so that they could get another one in. The humans tried to run away, but they couldn’t go anywhere; there was nowhere safe. The mutants were everywhere.

  There were some differences in the terrifying scenes Drake had seen at Beil and those here: Most of the creatures here seemed to have once been rodents, before they morphed into these abominations. Further, these ones were much larger, presumably due to the sheer quantity of humans they were eating. There were literal Godzillas: Lizards reaching 5 to 10 storeys tall! The mutants were hurriedly eating their meals, as if they didn’t get as much as possible, others would take the precious food. On the other hand, quite literally, were the humans, who were like ants scattering away in panic when they are attacked or disturbed. The roles of humans and animals were ironically reversed.

  In the middle of all the panic and chaos were Drake and Steve. Drake stood there for a full minute, trying to understand what was going on. A chill went sown his spine. His one hope, Cyll, was taken over. How did this happen? How did the creatures reach here? Why were there so many?

  “Come on,” Steve seemed to understand quickly. He urged Drake to move. “Let’s look at the situation.”

  A stunned Drake moved to follow Steve. Was there any possibility for safety here? The woods seemed like a safer place to be. Maybe they should turn back and hide in the corn farm and await rescue.

  The two followed groups of people who were headed somewhere. They reached a plaza, where around a hundred people were gathered around a helicopter. Soldiers were fighting off mutants from getting there, but not very successfully. They had no knowledge of the enemy they were fighting against, and their weapons weren’t effective for use against the enemy. They would do better to distract and lead the creatures elsewhere, but that place would have to have a decent number of humans as well. There was no way to trap the things. Killing them was almost impossible as bullets wouldn’t get deep enough into their bodies, and they prioritized eating over even surviving fatal wounds. Drake noticed that the creatures seemed to be regenerating slowly every time they ate, on top of growing. The only way it seemed possible to defeat them was to use more powerful weapons, which would be dangerous to use in an area full of civilians. Then again, they would probably die anyway. The higher-ups should have thought of this by now, meaning the soldiers didn’t have large weapons at their Cyll base.

  Around the helicopter, everyone was fighting for a seat on it. The soldiers didn’t know how to choose people to get on it. Who were they to measure the value of each human life?

  “Looks like there’s no way to escape the city besides on foot. We should leave,” Steve accepted defeat.

  Drake followed him out of the plaza to where there seemed to be fewer people, his mind slowly catching up. This whole time, Drake thought that the creatures had come from the meteorite. He had wondered how they had gotten so far from the crash site, back when he encountered the toad, the spider, and the ant and the grasshopper. It hadn’t come to him that they could be unrelated. That these creatures were all once normal Earth animals which had somehow all mutated into monsters at once. How and why did this happen? Where did this happen? Is the whole country in this state? The whole world?! No, none of those questions mattered to Drake right now. His mind was focused on survival. The important question was: What could he do now? Steve was wondering the same. Everyone in the city was.

  Drake stopped moving. He had spent the whole night trying to reach here. It had all his hopes riding on it. But to throw him and his hard work away—it was unacceptable to him. He had worked hard to survive till now, but the circumstances had changed. The “safety” he was hoping for did not exist. What was the point of surviving now? Just to live a little longer in this apocalyptic world? It seemed pointless and weak to live a miserable life hiding and scavenging. So then why not fight till his dying breath? He would rather take down some mutants and fight than resign to his death.

  “Steve, I don’t know what you plan to do, but I can’t just give up. I want to fight. I’ll do whatever I can to give some payback to those things before dying. I made a promise to myself earlier, that I would kill all of them,” Drake looked at Steve, “I want to try to keep it.”

  “Huh? Wait, are you leaving me?” Steve asked. Drake nodded. “We can find somewhere safe and survive together…”

  Drake shook his head “In the woods? And live in fear, eating corn for who knows how long?” It was clear that no one would rescue them. The monsters were probably not just in Cyll and Beil. “Look at the soldiers fighting. We can help them with our knowledge of these things. Now is the best time to fight. I don’t want to regret it later.”

  Steve was surprised by Drake’s fighting spirit, but was unsure about practically running to his death.

  “You don’t have to come with me. Thanks for sticking with me during the journey.” Drake turned and headed back towards the plaza.

  On his way, he heard a sound above him. He looked up just in time to see that a mutant had climbed onto the tall building beside him, and was peering down at him. As it did so, a part of the building crumbled under stress due to its weight. A few cement chunks were now falling towards Drake. In the time it took for him to realize that, they were right above him. He knew he couldn't move in time to evade them all. Even so, his body instinctively pushed the ground and tried to move his head away from the projectiles, and let the body take the brunt of the attack. The maneuver failed. Drake instinctively closed his eyes, not that it would help, as a hard chunk of cement fell on his head. That was the last thing he saw before he fell onto the ground, unconscious…