CHAPTER 6: NEW REALITY
"This door is open!"
Running into the second floor, the two policemen went into the first unlocked door they come by.
Ramie followed with haste.
"Help me barricade the door!"
The moment they got in, one of the policeman locked the door, spoke urgently, and then ran toward the living room.
Ramie and the other policeman followed.
They started lifting the furniture and placed it behind the door. The couch, chairs, tables, they used anything that had a considerable weight in it, placing it behind the door.
Finishing barricading the door, ramie and the two policemen went silent; listening nervously for any sound coming from behind the door, that might indicates a creature had managed to get into the building.
Luckily, after few slow passing, agonizing moments, nothing happened.
They finally got to breath in relief.
Ramie and the two policemen looked at each other, only to see fear reflected in each other's face.
The brutal onslaught was ongoing outside. Cries of horror and despair were clamoring nonstop.
At once, the three of them hurried to the window.
"Don't move the curtain too much! If these things spot us, they might come through the window!" one of the policemen spoke, in distress.
Ramie pushed the corner of the curtain slightly, creating a small opening, then, he started looking outside.
The scene was chaotic beyond description, frightening beyond words.
screeech!
Screeeeeeech!!
SCREEEECH!!!
Now, there were more creatures outside. Descending and hunting wantonly, and feeding on the spot with great excitement, almost not believing the softness and abundance of these weak preys.
Ramie's heart was grabbed with witless fear, as he witnessed these creatures running amok between people, like wolves among helpless sheeps.
Aside from running around in frenzies, looking for an open door to jump into, the people couldn't do anything, except for waiting to be picked by the claws of death.
It was as if these creatures were the natural predators of humans!
Ramie let the curtain slide back, covering the opening.
He leaned with his back against the wall, and slide down to the ground slowly. His mind utterly dazed.
He closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands, his thought and emotions were in utter chaos.
Breathing heavily, he tried to recover his focus, and adjust his emotional and mental state!
This was not something he expected to live through, not even in his darkest nightmares.
He knew this was happening, and his eyes were the witness for it, his heart however, couldn't accept it!
Just few hours ago, he was worried about a protests going violent, and the inconvenience it might cause to him. Now however... he wasn't sure that he could live to see the sun of tomorrow!
This turn of event was simply too radical! Occurring too fast!
The drastic change was beyond what he could cope up with!
His mind was in turmoil.
These scenes were tenths of times more intense than his entire lifetime worth of tough days, hardships and sufferings, combined!
It was on a completely different league!
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Even though he had gone through the experience himself... but he still found it too overwhelming to accept!
When did he ever see so much blood in his life!
So much death, gruesome and brutal deaths, he who didn't even kill a chicken!
It was beyond his most extreme definition of hell!
But this was not dream! It was reality!
His reality!!
…
As the night descended, it swallowed the light of the day.
A strong wind bellowed madly through the dark, gloomy and desolates city streets, sounding as if it was howling and weeping for the tragic fate that awaited humanity.
Unlike before, there was no sign of human activity, no moving cars, nothing…
The atmosphere was exceedingly heavy, oppressive and suffocating.
The thick smell of blood filled the place!
The remaining of corpses were littered everywhere.
Inside a dim apartment, sat three men in a heavy and bleak atmosphere.
They were precisely ramie and the two policemen.
Howl!
Howl!
screech!
The occasional sounds of the creatures were coming from different places outside!
The hellish massacre noises outside had ceased to sound hours ago.
As for now, other types of creatures had come for the abundant meat lying in the streets, and started feasting in greed.
The military forces at the front line had retreated shortly after the descended of the flaying creatures.
But by that time, there wasn't much left to save.
They had retreated through the wide street that the people were being evacuated through, which was few streets away from this building.
Despite their unwillingness, ramie and the two policemen were not impulsive enough to leave the apartment to the monster infested streets. Thus, they missed the chance to join the retreating forces.
Although initially, they had tried to leave the building… but the sight of the few anxious people attempting to sprint their way to the retreating force, only to end up as meals to the large number of creatures that were constantly assaulting the convoy, was of great deterrence to them.
Thus, they returned back to the apartment, and barricaded themselves again.
Now it was past midnight, and the only sound coming from outside other than the howling wind, was the occasional inhuman cries every once awhile.
Neither Ramie nor the two policemen said a thing during the night. Each one of them was lost in his own thoughts.
The apartment was dark and gloomy as the power went off days ago. The only source of light was coming from a lighter's led flashlight that one of the policemen had found in one of the counters drawer in the kitchen.
The light however was very dim, almost negligible.
But the three of them were staring at it as if it was a lifeline, just like the security blanket children have. None of them dared to divert his eyes from it, for the fear that dark might devour them!
As the terrifying, soul-shaking howls kept coming from outside in this abnormally bleak night, as the desolate, gray wind blew, and as the gloomy darkness swallowed the entire room, all of these factors created a dreadful, suffocating atmosphere of fear that caused Ramie's old childish fears to creep back to his distressed heart, threatening to peel off his waning composer and throwing him into a state witless fear.
Ramie had never felt this horrible in his life before this day.
Howl!!!
A sudden cry of a creature that sounded very close to the building blared.
Ramie flinched hard, jumping up anxiously, his heart almost leaping off his chest. The other two policemen reacted in the same manner.
Howl!!!!
Howl!!!
Howl!
The howling sound went further and further away, until it completely disappeared, fading within the weeping wind.
Ramie finally breathed.
The creature didn't break into the building, but went away…
Today... might not be the day he dies...
Time went on slowly…
The dim flashlight went off…
Fear, anxiousness, distress… all of these negative thoughts were magnified...
It was now pitch black inside the apartment.
The three of them sat closer to each other.
This night felt especially long...
As the dawn approached, the monster roars became less and less frequent.
Time passed on…
Finally… the first ray of light shone through the edges of the curtains, illuminating the apartment a bit, along with their hearts, and chasing away the dreadful dark atmosphere that had reigned throughout the night…
Ramie's heart finally loosened a bit, making him fall asleep almost immediately on the ground, or losing consciousness, he could not tell...
He was exhausted both mentally and physically beyond his limits. And if it wasn't for the intense fear in his heart, he might have lost his conscious long ago.
...
Opening his eyes, ramie got up in daze.
Instead of his warm, soft bed; he woke up on a hard, cold and somewhat dusty floor.
Even though he had just waked up, his body was still tired, and the muscles all over his body ached. He was still feeling a bit weary.
Slowly, the events of yesterday surfaced back in his mind, in a heartbeat, reminding him of the precarious, dire situation he was in the middle of.
"So…. It wasn't a dream…"
He felt bitter.
But what could he do!
Ramie didn't get up immediately.
A while went by…
The middle-aged policeman woke up first. And seeing that ramie was awake, he sat up, saying: "are you... OK?"
Ramie nodded his head, then said; "... and you?"
The policeman gave an empty smile in response. Then said; "you can call me lance!"
"Ramie!" Ramie replied in a tired voice.
The policeman wiped his face with his hand, saying; "you live in this city?"
"Yes."
"Oh! Good!" the policeman was surprised, for as far as he was concerned; all the inhabitants of the city had been relocated to the east side early on.
"So you know your way around?"
Ramie nodded in acknowledgment.
They fell in silence for few minutes.
Ramie felt gloomy at the moment.
He knew that the only way to live through this was to go to the camp! Where the military forces had retreat to.
But this also meant that they had to go 'out' of the building and 'into' the streets, where the creatures were!
And judging by the terrifying howls and roars he had heard throughout the night, he didn't need anyone to tell him how grave the situation outside was! He didn't wish to see what kind of monstrosities could unleash these kinds of terrorizing sounds.
And now, to reach the camp he had to get through these streets!
And that's wasn't even the worst thing…
Because it was known by now that these creatures seem to always go after places with the highest population concentration.
And by now, almost a million of souls were stationed in the evacuation camp in the east side of the city.
Meaning that he had to move on foot through these streets not knowing when and from where something might jump up on him! And go the place most likely to be surrounded by areas infested by the creatures that even the army couldn't handle!
Ramie felt heavy in his heart.
Without turning his gaze to him, he asked the policeman: "are you thinking of going to the camp?"
"...no!" the policeman answered after some hesitation.
Ramie was taken by the unexpected answer: "why?"
"As you have probably heard by the rumors, these things always go after the areas with the largest population. And when overrun the place, they moved to the next area, then the next, up until the next city!"
The policeman paused for a while, then spoke in a weary tone: "so, by now, most of these things must have already gone to the east side where the people are." he looked directly at ramie. "So, tell me. Who in the right mind would go there? And even if you want to! Is it even possible...?"
Ramie fell silent at these words, he had already figured this much!
Going to the camp in this timing...? It wasn't short of suicide.
But now he was trapped in this apartment! And these creatures were roaming the outside unhindered!
He couldn't go to the camp at the moment! But also couldn't just wait here as the threat of a creature barging in on them was more than possible.
So, what was he supposed to do?
More ever there was something else more urgent than going to the camp… which was food and water!
Growl!!
Thinking of food, his stomach immediately voiced its protest, loudly.
Right now, he was hungry, very hungry! The events of yesterday had taken its toll on his energy.
He also felt dehydrated, and was in an urgent need of water!
The last time he ate or drank was yesterday in the boat. Other than that, he was in no condition to pay attention to this matter, as he was occupied being shocked nonstop by the sequence of events yesterday.
But now that he had gotten some sleep, and wasn't in immediate danger, the need for food and water moved up his list of priorities.
Besides, he had realized that the lack of food was the most likable reason for the weariness and headache that he was currently feeling, maybe. As such, he needed to get his hands on something to eat as soon as possible, to regain some of his energy.
Ramie got up with some difficulty, and started walking to the kitchen.
Right now, he wished for nothing but to get some food and water.
...