Midnight Disaster ~FINALIST Watty Awards 2012~

Chapter 36 (Revised 4/20/2020)

I didn't move. I couldn't move. I wasn't even sure what it was I was supposed to be looking at. I was aware of Miles, aware of the giant hole he had left into the wall that exposed the darkness of outside, but all I could see was Cameron. He didn't get up from the pool of blood that surrounded him.

Kelly flitted away from the place she had been behind him and hurried to my side. The feeling of her fingers grasping the top of my arm brought me back to my senses. It was then that Miles decided he'd given the crowd long enough. He hissed and lunged for anyone he could reach.

Aliens started to climb through the devastated window, two at first with more waiting just behind. I was the only one who hadn't run. Well, me and Cameron. The aliens' gazes turned to us, and that was when I realized Kelly was still beside me.

"Go!" I told her, pushing her sharply toward the kitchen.

I had no idea what I was going to do, but I had an idea. I couldn't fight this many aliens and make it out alive. The only thing I could do at this point would to be a distraction while the others got away. Lip trembling, I tried not to think that that was what Cameron had already done.

Screams erupted from the kitchen as aliens poured inside, running this way and that. A few of the men tried to band together, using whatever they could grab to protect a few women who had huddled behind them. A few tried to escape through the hole and out into the night.

Their screams a second later told me how successful their voyage was.

I didn't know where Clarissa had gone, but I counted my blessings that I didn't see her body littered anywhere on the floor. That meant there was a chance she had gotten away, and I would channel that hope into strength. If even one of us could survive, then all wouldn't be lost.

All through this chaos, Miles stood in place staring at me with a crooked smile on his face. He didn't attack me, and neither did his aliens. It was as if he had told them beforehand not to.

Looking into his eyes, I knew why. He wanted me to see all of this. Wanted me to see exactly what was happening. Because of you, I could almost imagine him saying.

The tearing sound of flesh came from the band of men. The aliens were winning, ripping the men to pieces. I didn't look that way, didn't want to see what I knew I would. The noises were enough, the squelching flesh and screams of agony. I didn't take my eyes off Miles. Tried not to show the hurt I was feeling inside.

I was responsible for these people, and I had let them all down. Especially Cameron.

"You said you wouldn't hurt me or Cameron," I said at last, my soft whisper almost drowned out in the chaos all around us.

Miles took two steps forward, nails extended into claws. "You didn't want to make the deal, Maya. I made my position very clear."

He didn't attack, his steps smooth and casual as he closed the distance between us. The chaos around us didn't even seem to matter. In that moment, it was just me and Miles alone in the place that had once been the home of a refuge but was now a massacre.

The clothes that he wore in tatters were Daniel's. The same ones I had given him. The sight of them in disarray with blood splattered across the front made me think of him and Lilliana. My lost family. Cameron.

Miles had stepped over him a minute prior, but even still, I could see Cameron's body lying facedown on the floor in the exact place Cameron had fallen. It was Miles fault. All of this was Miles' fault.

The hope and fear turned to something else, blinding anger. My vision went red like it had when Miles offered his initial truce. I didn't mind dying anymore so long as he died with me.

Without taking my eyes off Miles, I bent my knees to duck subtly, scooping up one of the sharp broken boards lying on the floor beside me. As soon as I made contact, I stood straight up, feeling the grooves in the wood to try and get the best grip on it that I could. I didn't know how well it would hurt him, or if it would even do any damage at all, but that certainly wouldn't stop me from trying.

"Come and get me, you bastard, so I can send you back to Hell," I yowled, lifting the board up like a spear.

Miles' tiny smile evolved into a wide shit-eating grin, and then he lunged, mouth open and teeth bared. My shoulder throbbed with the memory of the pain they could cause. I didn't duck out of the way, instead angling the board to strike. His mouth was all I could see as he got closer and closer.

Just before he reached me, I shoved the board forward with all my might, jamming it down his exposed throat with a squish sound that made my stomach lurch. It caught in his skin, and Miles stopped moving, eyes on me. I put force into it, forcing it to go all the way through the back of his neck until it came out bright red on the other side.

Miles' eyes were wide and glassy. He stared up at me, disbelief and panic clear. I held him up like that, for everyone to see the shish kabob he had become, before I dropped it. Miles gave me one last glance before he fell face first to the ground, board shoving more through his neck from the impact.

I didn't have to check him to know he was dead. No one could survive a blow like that, not when their brain stem was severed. Something strange went through me as I stared down at his dead body, just waiting to see if he would dare try to move again.

He didn't of course, and eventually, I managed to move my eyes off him. The rest of the aliens were gone. I didn't know where they had gone or how long they had been gone, but I guessed that the sight of their leader dead had been what had caused them to flee.

The inside of the community center was a bloodbath, the same one I had seen in my nightmare. The red was splattered everywhere like a Jackson Pollock piece. There were bodies littered across the room, but I didn't bother to look too closely at any of them to see if any were Clarissa or Kelly.

In all honesty, I didn't want to know.

Satisfied with the results of the scan, my gaze returned to Cameron. The blood around him had doubled though I had no idea if all of it was his alone. Emotionless, I crossed the room to where the shirts were that we had used as a makeshift bed. I took one and made my way back over to Cameron.

Crouching beside him, I peered into his face. There was a smear of blood on his cheek, and his eyes were closed. I couldn't stop myself from reaching out to stroke the blood with my thumb.

"Cameron?" I whispered.

He didn't respond.

Not that I expected him too.

Licking my lips, I slowly rolled him over onto his back, studying the board through his stomach. I didn't want to accept he was dead. The wound was still bleeding, and for as macabre of a thought as it was, it gave me hope. As long as he was bleeding, his heart was still beating.

I tried to use the shirts I had gathered to stanch the bleeding. They soaked through in seconds, and after the third one came away red, I dropped it to the floor with a wet splat. The first tear caressed my cheek and dropped down onto his shirt, getting lost in the blood.

There was no way to get around the fact that he was just another of Miles' victims.