She trembled as she led the way, what few strips left of her clothing doing little against the cold, but Noah knew she must be as terrified as he was as they dared to enter the cabin. Neither of them had slept. As the hours of darkness crawled by, Aunty Melisa had mumbled to herself, her breaths tiny clouds of fog in the cold. Her words haunted him. Over and over, she asked herself what she was doing, what had come over her.
Aunty Melisa put her hand against the cabin door, nodded to Noah, and, with both their guns drawn, slowly pushed it open. The hinges squeaked as the heavy door swung inwards. As the door creaked open, a toxic wave of hot air heavy with the stench of rot assaulted their senses.
His aunt flinched, coughing as the rush of foulness washed over her, but brought her gun to her shoulder and pressed on. Noah tucked his face into his shirt, enduring the smell of his dried vomit over the alternative, and followed on her heels. Inside, the cabin was quiet and still. Noah and his aunt walked slowly so as not to make the floorboards creak.
Aunty Melisa winced with every step. Noah traced the claw marks running along her back, legs, and arms. Half-congealed blood ran down her legs and seeped between her toes, and she left bloody footprints with each step.
They rounded the dreaded corner to the basement door. Only the jagged outer edges of the door clung to the doorframe. Darkness shrouded the opening down the stairs, hiding whatever lurked below where the sun could not reach. Satisfied there were no sounds, they stepped into the hole in the door.
The light switched on as they crossed the threshold. There was no sign of Darrel. The bloodstains spread across the cement floor had to be his aunt’s since Darrel’s blood evaporated as soon as it broke the skin. In the center of the basement where they’d left Darrel’s body, piles of what looked like dust lingered in a vaguely human shape. Noah gulped as they made their way down the stairs, eyeing the basement's dark corners.
He stood behind his aunt, watching her back as she knelt and prodded the dust with the barrel of her gun.
“What the hell?” Aunty Melisa said. Noah glanced over his shoulder as she shifted the dust around to reveal flakes. They were ashes, like the ones Noah saw when he swept out of the woodstove. As his aunt shifted them around, the foul stench grew so strong their eyes watered.
How was any of this possible? Noah couldn’t fathom an answer, and neither could his aunt. Whatever Darrel was, it could not be called human. Darrel had died as something unnatural, something evil that was not of the world Noah knew. Despite that, his aunt trembled in silence. She had been the one to pull the trigger on Darrel, and the weight of his life still settled on her shoulders.
They left and threw their dirty clothes into the woodstove. After they changed, Noah fetched her a clean rag for his aunt to bite down on and helped tend to her wounds. The veins in her face bulged as Noah cleaned the spots on her back with peroxide. The liquid bubbled as it touched the bloody crevices. When they were done, Aunty Melisa nearly fell out of the chair as she stood up. She looked him over for any wounds, but thanks to some miracle and her shielding him from Darrel, Noah only had some minor cuts from the wood splinters.
“Are you hungry?” Aunty Melisa asked. Hands quivering, she placed a cigarette in her mouth but couldn’t work the lighter. Noah flinched as she gave up and threw it and the lighter against the wall.
“No,” he replied meekly. Neither of them were hungry. They were attached at the hip from then on. Noah panicked when he wasn’t in sight of his aunt, and she took care to keep him within a few feet of her.
Noah’s eyes were heavy, and his body felt like lead, but they spent the rest of the day enduring the basement as they moved the boxes of supplies upstairs. Aunty Melisa forced him to sit late in the evening, but she didn’t go so far as to tell him to sleep. She sat with him and stroked his hair, whispering stories of her and his mother in their youth. Her attempt at comforting words, like fragile glass, shattered against her trembling.
The days slowly settled into a new normalcy. They went nowhere alone, always keeping each other in sight. The woods held dangers behind every shadow, even on the sunniest days. At night, his aunt struggled to sleep, but exhaustion eventually forced her to give in. When they did sleep, they slept in shifts, one constantly vigilant with a gun in hand. Noah couldn’t stand to look at her for too long when she slept. A cold sweat ran down her face, and she would cry as she tossed and turned.
One night, as they sat and ate dinner, Noah jumped as his aunt broke down in tears. She put her hands against her head and pulled at her hair. Noah ran to her and hugged her.
“Aunty, it's okay,” he insisted. She sobbed, shaking her head from side to side.
“I’m sorry, Noah,” she finally choked out. “I – I don’t know what happened to me.”
“What?”
“With Darrel. Something was inside me, Noah. I felt like I was burning, and it hurt so much. My body, my feet… they moved on their own.” She looked at him, a deep, burning shame in her eyes. Her hand shot to her mouth as if she were going to vomit. “The burning… only went away when I listened to that feeling. When I listened to him. When he touched me.”
Noah handed her a glass of water. Water spilled down her chin as she gulped it at once. She breathed heavily for a moment before she continued. “Noah, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry you saw all that. Now look at me,” she said. She buried her face in her hands. “I’m dumping all this on you. God, I’m pathetic.”
Noah squeezed her arm, making her look at him. Whatever unseen force came over her in the basement had burned to ash with Darrel. Noah threw himself into her arms, nearly tipping them both over. She clung to him as fiercely as he did to her, and they shared a long cry.
“Thank you, kiddo,” she whispered.
Winter left their mountain basin, and peace returned to them slowly as the baby buds of leaves and flowers spread over the land. Aunty Melisa tried to fix the tire, but Darrel had shattered the center of the hub, rendering it a useless disk. Still, she turned the engine on every so often to keep the battery charged. They spent a week in the mountains, fishing, hunting, and sleeping under the stars as summer arrived. Over time, the woods became their dwelling more than the cabin.
A new development came during a summer afternoon. As they sat on the bank of a lake, Noah noticed something when he glanced upward. Noah wouldn’t have spotted them without the white contrails they left behind. He and his aunt hurried to the radio, thinking that maybe their presence meant they could find a signal, but they had no such luck. The jets disappeared over the southern horizon. The forest was still again until they heard a loud boom far, far off in the distance, and the glass surface of the water rippled. Leaves fluttered from the trees and settled on the tumultuous water. The sun was starting to set in the west, but the sky to the east glowed red.
As the quartet of jets flew back, barely visible against the darkening sky, another pair of planes rose from behind to chase them. Noah and his aunt dropped their fishing poles when two of the jets in the squad exploded in brilliant balls of fire. The remaining two broke away and turned on the newcomers to their rear. Another of the lead jets vanished in a fiery inferno as it banked. The remaining jet from the formation flew right at the two attackers, only breaking away at the last second. They tried to evade, but an instant later, the two attackers went down in flames. The lone jet lingered nearby as if mourning its three downed brothers before it turned and continued its way until it disappeared into the setting sun.
Noah turned to his aunt. She looked up at the clouds of smoke, jaw hanging open. Noah’s thoughts raced to his parents. A wave of shame rushed over him. He hadn't spared them a thought in the blur of events from the last weeks. The images of them in their gear climbing onto that plane rushed back.
Were they okay? Were they…alive?
Then, it dawned on him that they hadn’t heard from them in months.
“Aunty, what about my mom and dad?” he asked. Panic spread through him. His breathing turned frantic, and his heart thundered in his ears. “It’s been months.”
“Shit,” she said. “The letters. My PO box is in town.”
In town. Those words shook Noah to his core. Whatever had turned Darrel into that beast could still be in that town.
Noah steeled himself, collected his breathing, and planted his feet. “I’m going with you,” he said before Aunty Melisa could suggest anything else. He knew what she was thinking.
“Yeah, I have to keep an eye on you anyway, kiddo,” she said. Noah noticed the slight hesitation as she spoke. She didn’t want to go alone either. More than once in her dreams, she mumbled about not wanting Noah to leave in whatever terrifying scene consumed her nightmares.
Summer in the basin was sweltering, so they had to set out early one scorching summer day to cover as much ground as possible before the day's peak. On foot, the town was about twelve hours away down the winding mountain roads. Although they hadn’t seen a car in months, they walked along the inner edge of the tree line in case anyone passed by.
It was close to night when they decided to camp for the night. The town was still another four hours away. As Noah turned to walk deeper into the woods and find a clearing, his aunt suddenly froze and held a hand out, signaling to stand still. She brought her AR-style rifle to her shoulder, and Noah did the same with his .22 rifle.
Coming around a bend farther down the road was a lone person. They wore plain clothes and ambled, clutching a bundle to their chest. The person saw Noah and his aunt and stood still as a statue. Noah tensed, his finger hovering over the trigger.
Aunty Melisa stood between him and the person. The stranger slowly raised one hand but kept the other on their bundle. Cautiously, the stranger moved toward them. The woman was young, and a single white feather stuck out from the end of her ponytail. Her skin carried the warm undertones of rich earth, a deep, sun-kissed hue.
She cupped her hand next to her mouth. “Please, I’m alone. I just want to pass through.”
When they didn’t fire at her, she moved closer again, still careful not to walk too fast or lower her free arm. Noah slowly lowered his gun, but his aunt stayed locked in place.
“Who are you?” Aunty Melisa yelled as the woman closed to about fifty feet. Her aim stayed centered on the woman’s head. The woman paused, cringing at his aunt’s harsh tone.
“I’m not a fed or rebel, and I’m not sick. Please, I have my son with me,” the woman said. She hugged what Noah realized was a baby close to her chest. Sensing the tension, the baby stirred and started to squirm in its cloth carrier.
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Aunty Melisa relaxed and lowered her gun toward the floor, and Noah did the same, dropping his aim toward the asphalt. The mother, relieved that she wasn’t staring down the barrels of two guns, let her shoulders slump and dropped her arm.
Aunty Melisa waved for her to come closer quickly and get off the road. The woman jogged toward them, and they retreated into the trees.
The woman gasped for air. “Thank you,” she said. “My name is Lily. This is Cole.”
The baby was barely larger than a loaf of bread. Like his mother, he was tan and had the same black hair. Cole stared at Noah, kicking and squirming the way babies like to for no reason as he sucked on a pacifier.
Lily panted and wiped the sweat from her face. “You’re the first people I’ve seen in days, " she said.
Aunty Melisa helped her sit down on a fallen log. “I’m Melisa. This is my nephew, Noah. Set up the tents,” she said to Noah. He nodded at Lily, finding the tents in their packs and setting to work.
“Thank you, Melisa. Last people I ran into were rebels. Tried to shoot me when they thought I was a sympathizer.”
“Rebels? This far north?”
Noah paused with a tent pole in his hand, glancing at Lily. She looked at Aunty Melisa, confused, then at Noah.
“Do you not know?” she asked. She furrowed her brows. Aunty Melisa explained how they lived in the mountains and hadn’t communicated with the outside in months. Lily almost looked jealous of them.
“The feds are on their last leg. A few holdout cities in the north are pretty much all that’s left,” Lily said. “It’s not just the rebels either. Everyone’s dealing with the sickos out here.”
As Noah finished setting up the tents, Cole started to whine and paw at his mother. Noah tried sneaking a peek at the young mother as she fed the boy, but his aunt stared daggers at him when he looked over. Once Lily was settled with the boy, he grabbed food and water and offered them to her.
“Thank you, young man,” she said. She smiled and nodded her head to him as he took a seat.
“Why are you out here, alone?”
Aunty choked on her water and kicked him. “Shut up, kiddo.”
The question took Lily by surprise. Pain flashed across her face, and she hung her head. “No, no. It’s okay. I lost my husband. Feds and rebels tore my town apart. I had a brother in the town here, but he’s gone too.”
Noah’s face felt hot, and his guts tied in a knot. He wanted to apologize, but Cole started to squirm and kick before he could speak. Maybe it was his mother’s sudden change in mood, or perhaps he needed changing, but whatever it was, he started to cry.
Lily’s eyes went wide, and she frantically dug through her pockets. “No, no crying baby. Please, no crying,” she said. Cole’s shrill crying cut through the night. Branches rustled as animals and birds fled from the racket.
When she couldn’t find whatever she was looking for, Lily’s trembling hand pressed gently against the baby's mouth.
Aunty Melisa jumped to her feet and reached for Lily’s arm. “What the hell are you doing?” Her outburst had Noah reaching for his gun, but he froze.
Lily turned to avoid his aunt’s reach. Cole’s crying was muffled under her hand. “That woman with the glowing eyes will hear him.”
Glowing eyes.
Noah and his aunt scanned the trees with their gunsights. Darrel’s face flashed in Noah’s mind. Lily begged her baby to stop crying, rocking and cooing at him, but Cole would not stop. Lily moved her hand for a second out of desperation, letting Cole cry out in full force so he could breathe.
“His pacifier. I dropped it,” Lily said. She looked at Aunty Melisa, pleading for help. Aunty Melisa grabbed a flashlight and rushed to retrace their steps to the road, leaving him with Lily. Noah tried to find something in their gear to soothe a baby, but they had nothing. Lily had to move her hand to let the baby breathe, but now the baby was even more riled up. Lily looked torn as her hand lingered on her baby’s mouth longer and longer between breaks.
They were exposed, Noah realized. He kicked dirt over the fire, plunging them into a soft darkness broken by the moonlight. He pulled Lily down to the ground and crouched beside her. Lily pulled Cole into her chest, silencing him with her body.
“Where? Where did you see the woman?”
She clutched Cole tightly, eyes pressed shut.
He shook her, trying to snap her out of her panic. “Ms. Lily, where did you see her?”
Lily shook her head furiously and clenched her jaw. Noah repeated the question, but she refused to relive whatever she’d seen.
Then, the woods shook with a deafening screech. Noah pressed his hands on his ears and he crumpled, dropping his rifle. Lily nearly dropped her baby, covering one ear and hunching over in pain. Cole’s crying faded to nothing, his pitiful noises nothing but raindrops in an ocean now.
Noah writhed as the shrieking grew closer. Under this relentless wave, every cell in his body felt twisted. He couldn’t think or move, and even opening his eyes seemed like a daunting task. He forced them to open a sliver. The earth was fuzzy and washed out, and the woods were a mix of black and green streaks in the moonlight. Listening close, the screeching had a hint of structure. He grit his teeth, forcing himself to focus on the words.
“My baby,” said a woman’s voice. Noah buckled again as another shockwave hit him harder this time.
The banshee took a breath, and Lily seized the moment’s pause. She shouted so loud her voice cracked “He’s not yours.”
Noah braced for another soundwave, but none came.
Something scurried in the woods. Noah's heart raced as he peered through the foliage, spying a flicker of movement in the shadows of the woods. The moonlight revealed a figure as it stepped into their camp, and his eyes widened in fear and fascination. As the creature emerged, its presence cast an eerie spell on the clearing. The creature was a nightmarish parody of what had once been a human woman. Long, tangled locks of hair hung like spectral tendrils down past her waist, partially obscuring a face lost in the darkness.
Her skin was a sickly smooth shade of gray, but what caught Noah's breath were the glowing green eyes piercing through the night like emerald beacons. As she stepped further into the clearing, Noah’s eyes drifted to the long, sinewy limbs, especially the arms that were easily twice the length they should be and glowed with the same green light in her eyes. The limbs moved with otherworldly flexibility, almost serpentine, defying the limits of the human body. Elongated shadows that danced with her movements in the moonlight.
Noah froze, transfixed as her movements bewitched him. The creature moved with an unsettling grace, each step accompanied by the soft rustle of leaves. The tattered remnants of a medical gown clung to her form and a dark stain covered the area between her legs.
Noah couldn't tear his gaze away, the luminescent eyes locking onto his own. The creature's movements were both ethereal and predatory, an unearthly potion that stirred a primal fear and a powerful desire within him. Despite the ringing her shouts left in his ears, whispers filled his head like ants swarming over a carcass. Noah’s body burned as his head filled with the woman’s voice.
Now, the soft tone of Noah’s mother pleading for her child, begging to be allowed to fulfill that human urge to love and be loved, hypnotized him. “Give me the baby. He’s my baby. Let me take care of him. My baby. My baby.”
Forgetting his rifle, Noah crawled toward her, drawn like a fish on a hook. He wanted to be hers. Lily’s hand brushed his leg as she tried to reach for him, but Noah moved faster, wanting to be at his mother’s side.
“Mom,” he said. Her spindly, lanky arms reached for him. The fingertips of her long fingers kissed his cheeks as they drifted down onto his neck. Her touch was so intoxicating. Noah wanted to be enveloped by her love, but her eyes flared with anger, and her body stiffened.
“Give me my baby,” the woman said. He felt her desire wash over him as her fingernails left his skin tingling. Her face turned into his mother’s as he peered into her eyes. The sinewy hands turned to those that had tucked him into bed.
“My baby,” his mother said. Tears welled in Noah’s eyes. All he wanted was to make his mother happy.
He would give her what she wanted.
Noah nodded and turned to Lily and the baby. His mother’s hand pet him slowly, pleased with his obedience.
Moving like a puppet on a string, he aimed the pistol he’d kept on his waist at Lily’s head. Lily curled into a tight ball on her knees, covering Cole with her body. As Noah’s finger touched the cold metal trigger, a distant pop cut through the ringing in his ears. His mother’s hand snapped back off his head. Another pop and something hit her in the chest. Noah spun and reached for her as she stumbled, two bullet wounds smoking in her chest as they started searing themselves shut.
The woman contorted as she fell, twisting so she landed on all fours and skittered into the woods. The veil she cast on Noah lifted and reality washed over him like cold water. Groggy, Noah stood there for a moment until a pair of hands grabbed him from behind.
“Noah, Noah, look at me.”
It was like waking up from sleep. Everything came into focus gradually. When his vision cleared, Aunty Melisa was kneeling next to him, rifle tracking the green glow of the woman's movements through the trees. Lily cowered behind her with Cole still shrieking.
“Noah.” Aunty Melisa let go of her rifle for an instant, just long enough to shake him. “You good?”
Noah nodded and stood with his aunt’s help. The creature circled to get a better bead on Lily and the baby. It stopped at the far edge of the clearing and stood upright, taking a deep breath. Noah noticed the grass and trees lean slightly toward the creature's direction, and his aunt saw it too.
A loud boom deafened Noah. Before the beast could cry out, its body shuttered. The woman went on all fours again and bolted through the trees around the clearing. Aunty Melisa sprinted past Noah, rifle still smoking. She turned and mouthed something to Noah as she ran. He couldn’t hear her but knew what her two words were.
The light.
Noah ran behind her, still a little shaky. Breaking her sprint for a second, Aunty Melisa took aim and fired again. Her shots hit true, sending the creature sprawling into the dirt as it ran out of the trees. Noah went wider to the left, firing towards the creature’s side. His aim was unsteady from the adrenaline, but he caught one of the creature's arms before reloading. The arm flashed and went dim like a dying light bulb. Noah cursed when he fumbled his extra magazine, but his aunt was nearly on the creature.
Moving closer to get a better shot, she fired into the creature’s other arm, her automatic gunfire peppering it along its length. Legs glowing as they repaired, the creature shrieked, stunning his aunt before she could reload. The creature’s legs healed and it leaped to its feet, swiping at his aunt with gangly fingers. Aunty Melisa dove to the side, just barely avoiding the strike.
Noah managed to reload his gun and shoot the creature in the legs again, slowing it for just a moment. He shifted his sight to the creature’s head while his aunt rushed to her feet, but before he could fire, the creature’s head and body jerked violently. Two bursts of light erupted like mist, and the creature collapsed in a heap. It let off a death spasm before a humanoid shape of green light floated up and blew away in the wind. Behind Noah, Lily stood tall with Cole tucked in his carrier. Faint whispers of smoke rose from Noah’s rifle, now in Lily’s hands.
“Don’t fucking move,” Lily said. Her voice trembled, but she spoke with enough anger to be heard despite the ringing in everyone’s ears. She looked at Noah like he was a cockroach. “You were going to kill me. Give my baby to that. . . thing.”
He held his breath. Noah had never looked down the business end of a gun. This was a different breed of fear from anything else. To know that all between him and death was a few pounds of pressure on a trigger made his body turn to ice.
Aunty Melisa did not hesitate. She leveled her gun at Lily and stalked toward her like a lion. “You don’t want to do this.”
“The hell I don’t. He was about to shoot me.”
“He couldn’t control it. It was that woman. Come on, Lily. He’s just a boy. Think for a second.”
Lily pointed the gun at his aunt for a moment, then back at Noah. “Stay there. Don’t move.”
Aunty Melisa slowed but did not stop. “I’m a good shot, but it's dark out here. Lily, if you do something dumb right now, think about what’ll happen.”
Noah’s blood ran cold at what his aunt was implying. He looked at Lily, pleading with his eyes for her to put the gun down for her son’s sake.
Lily’s eyes darted between him and his aunt, then settled on her baby. She threw the gun to the ground like it was burning her hands. Noah took the chance and ran to pick the gun up while his aunt ran to Lily and put her arm around the sobbing woman.
“I’m sorry,” Lily said. Aunty Melisa shushed her and told her everything was okay now. Noah reached out to comfort her but pulled his hand back. He couldn’t look at Lily the same way anymore. Had he been in her shoes, he knew he would do anything to protect his aunt. For those few moments, she was his enemy.
The smell of burning flesh stung his nostrils. Noah turned to the woman’s body. It had burst into flames somehow. The fire consumed her body like paper soaked in gas, ravenous and bright. In less than a minute, the flames vanished and left a pile of ashes.
Gradually, the ringing in Noah’s ears quieted. The three sat silently for the rest of the night, waiting for dawn to break and wash away the dangers hidden in every shadow. Unfortunately, the night was not done with them yet. Noah jumped to his feet when distant gunfire cut the uneasy silence.