You, the apocalypse and me! [YiZhan FF] Fantasy

Chapter 13 - Creatures everywhere

So I went to the closet in the corridor and took it out. I handed the radio to Yibo and he immediately tried to contact our agency, but only reached the military squadron we had involuntarily served and which had apparently spread to every radio channel. And while Yibo was talking to someone in charge, I was looking for a very specific key.

The key we had gotten from the realtor at that time, and of which he claimed: "You'll probably never need it anyway. But having it anyway can't be wrong either." God, even today I shudder when I think of that big-bellied guy, how he laughed so stupidly after almost every sentence.

I was looking in a box for the key. My ex-wife and I had keys over the years that we had forgotten what they were for, that we found but where no owner ever came forward or from various other locks we once owned. And tada! There it was! The key to one of the two large shelters in this building!

Yibo frowned at me as I waved the key in front of his face. He was talking to General "Asshole" who told him that there had been a series of unexplainable overloads in the Electric Power Plant, which had caused a fire to break out and several serious explosions to occur.

I had no idea if this was true, but had no other explanation, except that the soldiers might have "reacted" to something with bombs or grenades. But I kept this to myself, because I was afraid that General Asshole might hear me and would then personally tear my ass open. I really trusted this son of a bitch to do it.

When the General explained that they were already working on an emergency solution so that the power would be back soon, Yibo ended the radio contact and asked me what the key was. I explained to him, "Well, when I bought the apartment, the fat realtor said, in the unlikely event of an attack or something, there are two big shelters in this house that you can only get into with this key."

"Aha nice. So what are we supposed to do with it now? You heard the explosions came from the electric company. So it seems that the danger we thought before doesn't exist after all." Yibo replied tiredly. Wow, he had slept for so many hours, was wide awake and panicked until just now, and now he was tired again? Well, that almost left me speechless.

"Um, well, I just wanted to tell you that we had the possibility to get into a safe shelter. Just in case it should be necessary." Somehow I had the feeling that if I had said something else, Yibo would have gotten mad. Or was it just my imagination? I wasn't so sure about that, since I still often had a hard time guessing Yibo.

"Okay Zhan. For now though, we seem to be safe and should go back to sleep." He said and yawned, as if to prove he was tired.

I nodded and said, "Yeah good. You go ahead and I'll be right behind you." And he left. However, I had no intention of following him. I was still way too agitated and nervous. I had this strange feeling in my stomach that we didn't know the whole truth. However, since Yibo seemed to be really tired, I didn't want to bother him with it or maybe even annoy him.

Then after Yibo went into the bedroom, I waited 15 minutes, then I snuck in there and listened and when I was sure Yibo was asleep, I quietly closed the door and went into my kitchen. I looked through my supplies and made a list of the things we would need in an emergency.

I then went through the apartment with my list and gathered everything together. Always double everything, for Yibo and me. I packed everything into the two backpacks and wondered again about the second backpack, had Yibo perhaps brought it with him? I looked at that thing, it looked old and like the backpack had been through a lot.

It wasn't mine and my ex-wife would never have gone outside with a backpack, she was much too fancy for that. So it could only be Yibo's backpack. But, when had he brought it here? Then I remembered that he came here first from his mission. So had he brought this backpack in the morning?

I don't know why this backpack had kept me so busy. Anyway, as soon as I finished packing the two backpacks and put them away neatly next to the corridor wardrobe, the power came back on and it got bright in the apartment. I put my flashlight aside and hurried into the living room to the TV.

I turned on the news channel as usual and what they were saying didn't sound at all like what General "Asshole" had told. And at least they proved their story with pictures and video footage! The general simply demanded that we believe him.

I was staring at the screen of my TV set as if spellbound and full of disbelief. They were showing some video clips of surveillance cameras that were running on batteries and therefore still working when the power went out. The video clips showed some strange creatures.

These creatures, they were very different from the creature Yibo and I had seen, much smaller, paler, hairless, yet muscular, were being recorded as they were munching on something. I moved closer to the TV and tried to make out what they were nibbling on, although nibbling was truly not the right word, because they were literally tearing it apart. And then I recognized the animal victim. It was a big dog! More precisely, a German shepherd!

I had to pull myself together not to cry out loud when I realized that it was one of those German shepherds with which the soldiers and some colleagues of Yibo and me, were on night patrol through the streets of the city. Then a bitter liquid made its way from my stomach to my throat. I already tasted it in my mouth, but then just managed to avoid throwing up.

On another video recording, a man was shown sitting slumped against a house wall on the sidewalk. The uniform made it clear that this man was a soldier, probably the guy who was leading the dog on a leash before. And then three of these hairless creatures came crawling out of a corner. They also attacked the soldier. I guess he was already dead, because he didn't seem to fight back one bit.

There was one last video recording. The anchors of the news program warned that this recording was particularly cruel. They hadn't had time to edit it yet, so it was still everything. I wondered what they meant by "everything" and then just a moment later I could see it for myself.

There were two soldiers shown with their dog. They were walking down the street, shining their flashlight, when from all around them these creatures appeared and immediately pounced on men and the dog. I was glad that there was no sound, I could not have bear it. I guessed the suffering the soldiers and also the poor dog had to endure.

One of the two soldiers somehow managed to free himself and ran away, but he did not get far. Because there was HE! He, this creature, this thing which Yibo and I had seen. At least it looked the same. And it grabbed the soldier by the throat, the soldier tried desperately to resist and to free himself. But this thing just grinned at that, which made it not look elf-like at all, but rather like a horrible thing that probably came straight from hell.

Then the creature pushed the soldier's head to the side and slammed its teeth into the soldier's neck. The recording showed how the soldier's resistance continued to weaken until he went limp. Then the creature threw the lifeless soldier to a handful of these other creatures, who immediately pounced on him and dragged him away.

And while I just sat there in shock, not knowing what to think, I heard behind me, "Holy shit! What the fuck was that?" I was so startled that my heart almost stopped. I hastily spun around and stared into the pale face of the man. My boyfriend's. Yibo's gaze did not leave the television. And mine wandered back there.

Probably such a shelter is not such a bad idea now, is it? Well, I will suggest it to Yibo as soon as we have recovered a little from this shock and I know how it went again, with the talking and thinking.