Artificial Earth

13

"Will ya excuse us for a moment, son?" Danver said, standing and walking towards Garth and Jenny.
"Guy musta've hit his head pretty hard." Danver whispered, scratching his head. "Said forest came ta life and took his friends." he added, not really believing.
"But what about the kid? His body got ripped to pieces man..." Garth whispered back.
"What do ya think?" Danver asked, turning to Jenny.
"This is crazy." she said.
"That's what I figured." Danver replied.
"Maybe we should go ask him again." Garth suggested.
All of a sudden, they heard screams coming from the parking lot outside, the sound of a car crashing, followed by gunfire. They all rushed to the window. Below them, across the parking lot, Ray was on the ground crawling towards the bar. A huge tentacle that looked more like hundreds of vines interlaced together held a car up in the air then rammed it on top of Ray. The car exploded, fire scattered in every direction and gray smoke went up only to be diffuse by the wind and rain.
"Oh my God..." Jenny moaned.
"What the Hell is that..?" Garth murmured.
Danver was left speechless while Joe was frozen in place.

Downstairs, Rob, Tommy and Jake locked the door and stacked tables and chairs that they got from the bar against the door while Cathy stood at the corner, both hands interwined just below her chin.
"What do we do?" Tommy asked, breathless from carrying and pushing tables and chairs.
No one answered. All four of them stood there in silence like stone effigies, staring at each other. Danver and the others finally got down and were looking at the four of them.
"Any of you hurt?" Garth asked, breaking the silence.
"We're okay..." Jake finally managed to say.
"Where's Gina and Buddy?" Jenny asked, her eyes searching the room.
All were quiet, heads bowed down avoiding her stare. Jenny was past her breaking point and fainted, dropping to the floor. Joe clicked into action, he swooped down and carried her to a sofa at the corner of the bar.
Danver was lost. All his years, everything he experienced,...the brawls, shoot outs and riots were nothing compared to this. He began to feel useless and old, hope was fleeing him.
  In the face of a formidable adversary like this, one would question himself and look deeply. The only thing constant in this world is change, and those capable of adapting  are the one's that survive. In this case however, change is irrelevant, for one's will to survive is one's only defense against the impossible. "Strength alone is not enough to overcome an opponent like this, it would also take spirit." Danver thought, trying to draw back hope.
"Is she okay?" Cathy asked.
"She's fine. Her mind just need some time to heal itself, that's all." Danver said, moving back to the counter.
"Now what do we do?" Rob asked.
Joe was pacing back and forth, thinking. "Is there another way out this place?" he asked, stopping.
"Only way out is through that door or you could use the windows...
..up.....stairs.." Tommy was saying. "No!!!" Tommy exclaimed, heading for the stairs.
"No Tommy!!! Wait!!!" Garth cried out. "Listen, Sssh...."
Silence filled the room.
"Where is it?" Cathy asked, barely above a whisper.
The board upstairs creaked and everyone looked up.
"It's upstairs...." Garth whispered, pointing his index finger towards the ceiling.
"Do you have any more guns?" Joe asked, turning to Danver.
Danver nodded. "In the basement.
"Get them." Joe ordered.
"I'll go." Tommy volunteered.
"I'll go with you." Jake said, joining Tommy.
"There are two more riffles there in the corner, I ordered Tommy to bring them up just in case." Danver said.
"What else do you got?" Joe asked.
"A few grenades and a rocket launcher." Danver said.
"That'll help." Joe said.
Jake and Tommy  got back from the basement carrying two more riffles, ammo, three grenades and the rocket launcher.
" You there....What's your name kid?" Joe asked.
"Tommy."
"Go give that girl over there a riffle and teach her the basics."
"We all stay here until we figure out what to do next."
"You two, I want you to stay there and watch the stairs, if you see anything, shoot it." Joe said to Rob and Jake.       

A feeling of Dejavu washed over Joe. It was an odd sensation, the sense of familiarity at the same time detachment, surreal.

  "We need to make a diversion. " Joe said, a flicker of inspiration crossed his mind. "If we could distract that thing long enough for us to get out of here, we may have a chance."
     "How?" Danver asked.
      "Fire." Joe said.

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    THE NEWS VAN WAS CRUISING SMOOTHLY along the highway. Because of the storm, there were hardly any vehicles on the road.
    Andy was at the back of the van checking the equipment, Sarah was sitting up front while Bob was at the drivers seat.
    "How long before we reach First Lake?" Sarah asked Bob.
     "Two more hours." Bob said, looking at the speedometer. The van was moving a hundred and twenty kilometers an hour.
       Sarah stared out the window. It was still dark outside, trees flew past them and the darkness ahead was splited by the vans headlights. She was excited. This is the first time that she's been out on the field again ever since she became Marble City's News Anchor. She thought about her very first assignment on the field as a reporter, how innocent and inexperienced she was back then. The assignment was about a domestic disturbance that ended up in a bloodbath, guy snapped and murdered his wife and kids. She was reporting live, on the scene when she puked all over the camera, ended up "being" the news instead of reporting it. Landed herself on the front page of Artificial Earth's Tribune News Paper...."Reporter Puked While Reporting." It read.
    "Damn it!" Bob cried out, startling her. The van skidded and turned. Bob steered the van hard to the right, stepping on the brakes. It slid then abruptly stopped.
    "What happened?" Sarah asked.
     "Blowout." Bob guessed.
     Andy sat up from behind. "Great." he said. "Just Great."

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Authors Note

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