My fingers trip over themselves as they dive viciously at the glass screen. My head is still spinning, and the phone light seems far too bright even though it's fully dimmed, but I have to send the text to Val before it's too late. There's still signal in the area, which means I can reach her if she hasn't left the town yet.
im okaymeet at smae place we stoppped before if i don't make it in anhour afetr you arrive leave without me
It's a safe place to plan for since even if Val doesn't get the message, she's smart enough to know it's where I'd expect her. It was the last place we stopped. Waiting in the open would be suicide, especially with all the noise, and she has the survivors, so she has more incentive to move.
I slide my phone back into my pocket, pull off my pack, and start rummaging through it. Eventually, my hand wraps around what I'm looking for; a spare knife. It's not nearly as long or lethal, and I don't feel as confident in my capabilities with it, but my main one is left in a stranger's back, miles behind me.
I zip up my bag and start moving again at a slower pace. I'm almost certain with everything going on, especially those last few moments, I've gained enough distance to relax. Well, at least slow down. My boots step lazily one foot over the next as I follow the muddy ditch toward Carver. Eventually, my thoughts become less of a soup and more like a stew, and I can feel my functionality slowly returning. My brain still thunders like a drum, pulsing pain through me with my heartbeat, but now that adrenaline isn't also part of the equation, I feel much better. As I walk, I still make sure to take care, however. As I said, there was a lot of noise.
'Do you think they made it? Val never texted back.'
'I hope so. Maybe they were just off the grid again already.'
'If they didn't, then all of this is your fault. You know that, right?'
I keep shuffling along.
'What was all that back there?'
'Whoever those people are, they're insane.'
'How long do you think they've been out here? There's no way they've been surviving alone from the beginning, right?'
'They had guns. A lot of them.'
'Maybe they were military?'
'Whatever they were, once they ate that flower, that part of them died. Let's just hope whatever those beasts back there were, they'll finish off what's left.'
'What do you think that Mason guy meant? He said they hadn't seen one like us in a while. That we had a strong aura.'
'Like I said, they were crazy. It was probably just some insane nonsense."
The path is quiet and calm as I shuffle on. Ten minutes. Twenty.
'Val is going to be mad at us.'
'There were more people to protect this time. We made the right call.'
'That doesn't matter. She'll still be upset. Did you forget why she was hesitant to come out here?'
'Our goal was to save the survivors at all costs. We both knew that'd mean risking our lives.'
'It's one thing to do it once or twice. You jump at every chance to put yourself in harm's way.'
'Only when Val is in danger.'
'Yeah, but she hates that. 'it follows who it follows,' remember?'
'Look, maybe she hates it, but ultimately, Val's opinion on if we live or die doesn't hold much sway to me. Remember after the accident? We got back to school, and she didn't even notice we had been gone. I think Val likes to pretend that people matter to her, and maybe she convinces herself she does, but deep down, there's always more people to turn to if we bite the dust.'
'I don't think you believe that. Not really.'
'Over a month. We were gone for over a month, and she didn't even notice that her childhood friend was missing. She had mountains of other people to fill that tiny little gap that we left with.'
'I think you're just trying to convince yourself of that so you feel less guilty when something inevitably happens to us cause' of our rashness. You'd have to be stupid to think Val doesn't love us.'
'I'm not upset about it. I mean, of course, she cares, but all I'm saying is that we don't matter to her like she does to us. She may be sad for a bit if we die, but I think she'd move on pretty quickly. She did it with Leigh.'
'You don't even know that. You shut down for MONTHS after Leigh. You weren't even around her at that time. She was probably just as torn up as you were.'
'Oh yeah, and how quickly did she go back to being her positive self? Visiting everyone again and acting like nothing even happened?'
'You mean living her life? Moving on from the grief? What is wrong with you? She did it at a normal rate. But I forgot that we wouldn't know anything about that because our solution is to shut down and recluse for all eternity. Of course, Val needs other people because we. are never. There.'
The thought lingers in my head for a while as memories and moments sift through my brain. Thirty minutes. An hour. Eventually, some buildings from Carver come into view, and I hang close to them as I shuffle through the streets. The dentist's office comes into view, and I crouch low as I approach the window. Soft echos pulse into the room as my knuckle taps rhythmically against the surface. I wait a while, but there's no response. Knocking again, my heartbeat begins to pick up. Forfeiting subtlety, I open the portal and vault inside before sliding the glass back into place behind me. A quick search around shows that nobody is here. I check my watch and find that I'm not late either. Dread fills my chest as the worst outcomes jump to the forefront of my thoughts, but I steal myself.
'Try and calm down. Knowing Val, she probably waited behind after we split, looking for you. You might have just pulled ahead of her.'
'Are you crazy? Something is definitely wrong. We need to go find her.'
'No. I trust that Val knows what she's doing, and we're in no shape to be trekking out there trying to find them. Just wait here for a few minutes. If you go back out, you might pass them and get more separated.'
That offers a little bit of comfort, but I'm still not entirely confident that I'm right. Still, thirty minutes should be enough time to know for sure, and my body could use a rest from all the concussed walking I've been doing. Against my better wishes, I head into the back examination room and lock the door behind me. I turn to the chair in the middle of the area and slide my bag to the ground before climbing onto it with a grunt. The strap of my helmet comes loose, and I yank the shell from my head to set it on a metal cart beside me. The pressure of my pounding skull releases into relief, the weight now gone.
After that, I wait. I sit in the chair for what feels like an eternity before I finally can't take it anymore. She's been gone for too long. I stand and open the door, stepping out into the locker-lined hallways. The lights are still on in this part of the school, but further down the corridor, I can see the hallway overheads have been shut off. We only have enough kids to fill a couple of classrooms anyways. We don't need them all on. I turn back to my classroom to find it empty, with vacant desks consumed by the brush of the shadowy forest they sit in. I step into the hallway and start looking for her, heading for the bathrooms down the hall. It's the only place she could've gone. When I reach the doorway of the women's, I lean against the door and call out.
"Leigh?" I ask.
A voice answers, but it's not Leigh's. It's a man's, "Hello? Is someone there?" I look down to the bottom crack of the door, and in the dim light of the hall, I can tell that none shines from inside. "Could you help me?" they continue. "The door is stuck, and I can't get out."
I can tell something is off, but I need to find Leigh, so I open the barrier. As soon as it's cracked, pale hands covered in snag grab and yank me through. Inside a bathroom that consists of only tiled floors, walls, and nothing else, the elk stands, its collection of victims ever-present as always. Two new faces join him, however. Dillon and Isaac. Dillon is strapped to the other side of the torso while Isaac is strapped to the top in the mess of arms. The two can only make strange pained grunts and whimpers as the snag yanks me up next to the original man. I feel the web tighten, and my bones start to pop and break, but I feel no pain, rather, strangely calm being cradled by the mesh. The man next to me suddenly speaks.
"Thanks a lot. You're a lifesaver."
"Of course."
"You called a name before; were you looking for somebody?"
"My sister, Leigh. She left class a bit ago and hasn't come back. I was getting worried."
"Well, she passed by a little while ago, calling out another name. Lyle, I think? Maybe she was looking for him like you're looking for her."
"Do you know where she went?"
"I may have an idea." The man slides his broken arm to the elk's deceased head and pats the neck, "Hey friend, do you mind?"
The dead elk snorts air through its nostrils before turning to a corridor I hadn't noticed before. It starts along the path, taking lots of nonsensical twists and turns through the narrow tunnel until we eventually emerge back into the school hallway, this time a dark part.
I hear a familiar voice faintly down one of the intersections calling out, "Lyle? Lyle, where'd you go?"
"Leigh?" I yell, "What are you doing? Where are you?"
Leigh doesn't answer. She just continues calling for Lyle. My ride follows in her direction but slows down when we reach a set of open double doors that lead into the darkness of the old choir room. Before the opening stands the man in the coat and hat. He turns to me as I approach.
"I think you're too late. The crows were already cawing a minute ago. They've stopped now, though. I think that means the danger is here."
Leigh's haunting but all too familiar wails begin to cry out from the dark maw. I urge the elk to continue inside, but it no longer moves. Just holds me at an angle where I can see.
"Wes?" I hear my mother call out from inside the room in a voice that somehow overlaps Leigh's screams. "Wes, honey, come here... Let me hold you."
The floor has turned to a field of sundance whose light refuses to bless the room, and inside, the distorted face of my mother snaps from the dark.
"Wes?" She calls again. Her head stretches forward, pulling her neck outward like putty. When it's too long to support her, it flumps to the floor like a serpent and slithers into the flowers; all the while, Leigh screams out in pure terror. I see the flowers rustle toward me and barely see my mom's smiling face break their surface before-
"Wes? Wes, please tell me you're in there..."
I sit up in the chair so fast that my already dizzy head nearly forces me back down. I check my watch to see that I had passed out for the last twenty minutes. At hearing Val's voice calling from the door, I hastily stand and start for it. However, gripping the handle, I pause for a moment, the fever dream lingering in my head.
"Wes? Is that you?" Val calls again.
I ponder for a long moment before asking, "What... What were the last three things I said I missed?"
There's no sound on the other side until she cautiously speaks, "It was the diamond commercial, Slurpee's, and... I think you said swimming?"
I unlock the door and turn the handle to see Val in the hall with the two survivors. As soon as she sees me, she slams hard into my torso and holds me tightly. It rattles my skull, but her embrace makes it easier to bear. My self-doubts from earlier melt away in her affectionate arms.
"How'd you know that test worked?" she asks, muffled into my jacket.
"Because I didn't even remember I had said swimming. The mocker probably can't read something that's not there."
"Oh." She simply says.
"I was worried something had happened when I got here before you...." I tell her.
"Oh, you were worried?" She jeers, before letting me go and slamming her palms against my chest, "How do you think I felt? What the hell, Wes?"
I rest my palm on my forehead and lean against the cart next to me, trying to recover from the blow, "We weren't going to make it... I thought we'd have better odds if we split up."
Val sees my pain and steps forward, "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. I think I might have a concussion, is all."
"Is all? How'd you get a concussion?" She exclaims. When I don't answer, her eyes glide to the cart I'm leaning against, where my helmet still rests. It's not hard to notice the significant dent with a bullet still embedded inside.
"Hey... sit down." She says, turning from her frustrated tone to a more gentle one. She grabs my arm and guides me back to the chair.
"Are you guys okay?" I ask, trying to take the attention off myself.
"Yeah, we're fine." Val tells me, turning to the two boys we just rescued, "Oh, gosh, I'm sorry, you two! Wes, this is Tyler and his older brother Morgan. Tyler and Morgan, this is Wes."
"It's nice to officially meet you." Morgan smiles.
"Thank you." Tyler nervously speaks, "Thank you for helping us."
"Don't mention it." I tell them, "You both did great back there. Thanks for your help against those people, too." I address to Morgan.
His eyes dart to the ground, and he jams his hands in his pockets, "Oh, um, yeah, of course."
Having just stabbed my first human being a few days ago, I understand what he's feeling. I want to offer some sort of reassurance, but I don't know how. Instead, I just change the subject, "You two must be hungry. You said you hadn't eaten in a while?"
"Actually, we stopped for a bit, and Val gave us some food, but thank you."
"That's why we were so late." She tells me. "They had to get something in their systems. Speaking of..." She returns her gaze to them. "You didn't eat much. If you two are still hungry, we have more to spare."
Tyler shuffles his feet nervously, "A-Are you sure? We don't want to take all of your food."
"Oh please," Val chuckles warmly, "We brought it all for when we found you two. We were expecting more as well, so we even have extra." She quickly realizes what she just said, and her tone drops to a more solemn one, "I'm very sorry about your friends, by the way."
Morgan nods, "Thank you."
"What would you two like? Corn, pineapple, spam? Actually, I'll do all three. That sound good?"
The brother's faces light up, "Y-Yeah, that's perfect." Morgan says. It suddenly dawns on me how for granted we've been taking our luxury of food. We return to the waiting area and sit in the more comfortable chairs as Val cracks the food open. I pull over a computer chair from behind the front desk and slide over to the group before sitting in it. As I look at the two boys, curiosity starts to burn into me over the last few hours. So many new variables were introduced, but we failed to learn anything about them from Mason and his people.
"Speaking of your friends," I start. The two look at me, and I clear my throat before continuing, "I'm sorry; I know you two haven't had a moment to relax, but... Those men we encountered today; that was our first time seeing something like that. When we come out here, our main thing is to try and gather info for the guards at our compound. Do you two know anything else about those people that you can tell us?"
Val has handed Tyler the can of corn, and he's begun shoveling the niblets into his mouth, so it falls to Morgan to answer. He squeezes his wrist and shrugs, "Not really; I'm sorry. Like I said, they showed up not long after we got to the bus garage and then they took our friends."
Tyler swallows and glances at his brother before offering more, "Our neighbors, the ones we escaped our compound with; they were the ones they took. We heard those people enter from below, and they told us to hide in case it was dangerous. As we were hiding, we could hear them start talking from below, and things sounded normal at first until one of our friends started yelling."
"Then we heard them leave," Morgan picks up again, taking the can of Spam from Val, "We waited for a long time after that for them to come back up, but when they never did, we...."
Val offers a look of sympathy, "Again, I'm so sorry."
Morgan manages a smile, "It's alright. We weren't super close with them, but they were still our neighbors, y'know? They're all we really had around us in our community. They also got us through the weeks following the attack. It was just... jarring, I guess."
"Well, based on what they told us, it doesn't sound like they intended to kill them," I offer. "I mean, those people didn't seem like they had good intentions, but there's a good chance that your friends might still be alive. There might be a way to rescue them."Morgan simply nods, but Tyler seems to perk up a bit at the offer of hope.
I turn to Val, hoping she'll take the wheel from me, but she has a look of deep thought occupying her face.
"What is it?" I ask.
She doesn't answer me and instead asks another question to the boys, "How long after you guys got to the building would you say they came to you? Do you remember?"
"Um, not long at all, I think," Tyler tells us.
"Maybe like an hour?" Morgan adds.
Val turns to me, "How do they know?"
"What? Like what time they came to get them?" I answer, worried that Val just caught a detail that outs yet more strangers as liars.
"No, Mason and his people. How do they know when people show up there? They took less time than that come for us too, when we showed up."
I sit up and furrow my brow. She's right. There had to be some sort of trap they set, but if the survivors were the ones that made the transmission, then it had to be there before they arrived. Thinking for a moment, I turn to the brothers.
"Was the power already on when you got to the garage?" Tyler and Morgan nod. "The camera." I tell Val, "That, or there was some sort of alarm system set up. Whatever it was, there has to be a reason the power was still on in the area."
Val bites her cheek, "You might be right, but wouldn't they have to monitor that stuff from the same building? We swept that whole place top to bottom and didn't find anywhere they could have been monitoring other than the radio room."
"Maybe they had it tapped from somewhere else?" Morgan jumps in. We turn to him, "A lot of cameras can be accessed remotely. They might have been watching it from somewhere else in town. If you said the power was on in the area, I mean."
"Their whole operation must be set up somewhere around there," I nod.
"What a weird spot to choose..." Val notes. "I mean, if you guys hadn't run all the way down from Gresham and we hadn't come up to find you, then who else would be passing through way out there? If their goal is to kidnap people, then why not be closer to where everyone is living?"
"Maybe they want to stay away from the guards?" Tyler offers, "They're probably the biggest threat to them."
"Well, whatever the reason, hopefully, we don't have to find out." Morgan says, "It sounded pretty bad as we were running. Maybe they... You know."
"I know at least two of them are dead." I tell Val, "Isaac and another guy. I watched them walk into some snag."
Val nods and looks at the floor. Despite her trying to hide it, I can tell that offers her at least some relief. She tries to move on, however, "How are you two feeling? You have enough?"
"More than enough, thank you." Morgan smiles, "I really don't know how to thank you guys. We thought we were going to die out there... We would have."
"Don't mention it. And we'll do our best to get you home as well. Speaking of, do you feel okay to move again?"
"Yeah, I think so. Tyler?"
"Mhmm, I'm all good."
"Are you sure? We have a lot of distance to travel. If you two need more time to prepare, then we can take it. It's dangerous out there..."
Tyler and Morgan look at each other before Morgan speaks, "Well, it actually has been a while since we slept... After all that running, I think I'm kind of low on gas. Could we rest at all? Just for a little bit?"
Val checks me, and I nod, "Of course she says. We'll take a few hours. Wes, you have a concussion anyways, so you need some as well."
"I'm fine, Val."
"You're not fine. You got shot in the head."
"Whoa, what?" Tyler gasps.
Not wanting to cause a scene, I don't push further, "Alright."
We start to spread out among the room, allowing Tyler and Morgan to take the two waiting room couches. Val and I slide down to the floor next to the reception desk after making sure they're settled in, and Val pulls out her phone to check our position. In the dim light still stinging my head, I notice her squinting too, and a big dark spot on her cheek that spreads near her eye. That's when I remember how hard she had gotten clocked in the fight earlier. It looks like it wasn't as close to the jaw as I had thought.
"You got something you want to tell me?" I say. She turns to me with a confused look. I gently reach up and caress her cheek, guiding her to look at me so I can see the bruise closer.
She snickers, "It's nothing, Wes; I'm alright."
"How does your head feel?"
"I'm okay."
"You're concussed too, aren't you?"
"Maybe a little...."
I clench my jaw, "They better hope whatever was out there killed them 'cause if we run into them again...."
Val rolls her eyes and giggles, "Okay, Dad, simmer down." She mocks.
I purse my lips and drop my hand, "Why don't you get some rest too? I'll take watch."
"When are you going to rest then?"
"I got some while I was waiting for you. I'm not tired now."
"That couldn't have been very long."
"Well, regardless, I probably won't get back to sleep if I try now."
She stares at me before giving in, "Alright, sure. Three hours and then we move?"
I nod.
Suddenly Tyler approaches, carrying the two back cushions of the couch and one of the throw pillows, "Um, sorry to interrupt. I don't really need these on the couch, though. I thought it might be more comfortable to sit on than the floor."
"Oh, are you sure?" Val says, "You guys were sleeping on the floor that whole time at the garage; I want you to sleep well."
"Yeah, they're just for the back of the couch. Not much use." He smiles.
Val returns one of her own, "Thank you, Tyler."
The boy nods and then heads back to the couch. Meanwhile, Val adjusts the cushions beneath herself. I tell her she can have all of them since she's going to be sleeping, so she spreads them out next to me and places the pillow on my lap before laying across them all. I start to gently run my fingers through her hair, and it isn't long before slow, rhythmic breathing fills the room from all sides. I sit in the dark for about an hour with my eyes closed, just listening to the world outside while the pain in my head gradually fades. I wasn't lying to Val, though; I'm not tired anymore, especially not after the dream I just had. With my eyes closed, it's just easier to hear outside, my pupil's not trying to focus on what they might make out in the blackness. The thin walls of drywall and wood creak and pop from breezes beyond, showing just how little protection they offer. Other than that though, there isn't much of anything. At least not for a while.
Eventually, I hear heavy shifting from the couch Tyler is on before it groans as he sits up entirely. Footsteps cross over, and I open my eyes to see him standing before me. From his silhouette, he hunches over like he's about to say something but then turns away again.
I force myself to speak, "Everything alright?"
He quickly snaps back toward me, "Oh, sorry, I was gonna' come talk, but then I thought you were sleeping, so I... I didn't wake you, did I?"
"No, I wasn't sleeping. Val is, but she's a heavy sleeper." I've stayed the night with her in enough safehouses to know that the girl doesn't wake up for even howling beasts outside. "Is everything alright? Did you need something?"
"O-Oh, no, I guess not. I just couldn't sleep, so... Never mind, don't worry, I'm good."
"Oh, okay," I say back plainly.
'Wes...'
I force words to the surface, "You can sit if you want." Tyler halts in his journey back to the couch. "Um... like I said, Val's a heavy sleeper."
He ponders it for a moment before stepping back near us and leaning against the desk on the floor, "Thanks." I hear him say.
"Yeah," I answer. I instantly regret the decision, however, as the painful silence of my own awkwardness fills the space. I try improvising, "Guess the couch wasn't so comfy without the cushions after all, huh?"
"Oh, no, it wasn't that I just... I have really bad nightmares." he quickly defends.
"Oh, sorry, I was just joking; I didn't mean to-"
'Moron.'
I sigh quietly to steady myself, "I get that. I have them sometimes too."
"I never did before all of this. I mean, I guess it makes sense that's when it started, but... Since we've been stuck out here, I can hardly close my eyes." I don't really know how to respond, and when I fail to, he continues with a nervous laugh, "Sorry, that's probably dumb to someone like you. You're running around out here in the actual nightmare."
"N-no, that's not dumb." I quickly say, "With the things that exist nowadays it's hard not to have bad dreams."
Tyler laughs more confidently this time, "Yeah, for sure." After a moment, he hesitantly asks, "Earlier, you said that some of the men we were running walked into some 'snag'; is that a monster or something?"
"Oh, um, yeah."
"I didn't know the things out here had names. I thought they were just 'the horrific creatures from hell.'"
I chuckle, "Technically, they don't have names. We just gave them some."
"Oh... So, you guys must come out here often, then?"
"It's uh... long story. We mainly come out to get info on creatures, then give that information to the guards of our compound to help out."
"Wait, so you are guards?"
"No, we're just civilians."
"Wow..." Tyler says in genuine amazement, "That's amazing that you come out here like that. Just the two of you?"
I nod before realizing he can't see me, "Yeah."
"So... what's out here then?" He asks slowly. I immediately understand the tone. Fear, but morbid curiosity.
Before Val and I joined Leigh in the search for intel, I remember not knowing what was out there. It was almost scarier that way. However, the more I learned when we joined the hunt, the more it helped quantify the threat we were up against. Not knowing lets your imagination fuel your anxiety and keeps you locked in a constant state of wondering what might kill you. At least learning the truth gives you a list of all your terrible options. The only terrifying part was that sometimes things were worse than you could imagine... Still, the fact that we were about to guide Tyler and his brother through the land outside makes me hesitate on if I should fill his head with fears.
"Oh, um, there's a lot." I stammer, "All kinds of things. Animalistic beasts, parasites, things that look like humans. There are some things I don't even know what to classify them under."
"Whoa, I didn't realize there was that much out here..."
"Yeah," I say, sitting up slightly. "None of them make sense, though. They're all close to things we know but never quite in a way that follows logic."
"What does that mean?"
"Well, like... There's one that, if it sees you, it just always knows where you are from then on. It'll hunt you down till it kills you."
"What? How does it know?"
"That's what I mean. We have no clue."
"That's wild..."
"Yeah. And there's this one kind that just attacked our compound yesterday that's just a pile of sheets. Like man-made, cloth sheets, patterns and all. But there's something inside or underneath that's always thrashing and squirming around. We can see its limbs poking into the sides of the blankets, but we've never seen what it is. We don't know what happens when it drags you underneath either." Tyler doesn't respond, and I feel my heartbeat fast. I'd gotten so carried away in his interest that I might have pushed it too far.
"Sorry, I should stop. There's just a lot out there." I whisper.
"N-no, it's fine; I'm just blown away, is all. I would have never imagined. I mean, we heard it all through our windows at the beginning, obviously, and there were the few that they showed on the news, but I... I don't know, that's just amazing. In a disturbing way, I mean."
"I'd be lying if I said there wasn't something fascinating about them. It's hard to watch them and even harder to come out here with them, but I always want to know more every time we do."
It's like a mystery that my logical side is desperate to figure out. I always believe that I might be able to solve some part of this massive puzzle with research, but no matter how much I learn, I just feel more confused.
"How do you study things without dying?" Tyler asks.
"We have cameras set up at different buildings around the area. We sit and watch them on those and take down notes in a journal."
"Man, that'll be one insane book when you publish it." Tyler jokes.
I chuckle, "The Vanishing for dummies."
"Do... you have it with you?"
"...You're really interested in this, huh?"
Tyler seems sheepish as he speaks again, "Being out here just really made me realize how little I knew. All this time, the guards were protecting us from all these things while I just got to sit in the safety of my home and do nothing. Now that they're gone, I guess I just want to know so I can take care of myself for once. They died protecting us. I feel like I need to grow up now, I suppose? I don't know if that makes any sense..."
I stare at his silhouette in the dark without a word for a moment as I think. I can't help but be empathetic toward what he's saying. Slowly, I unzip my bag and feel around for the journal. I pull it out, along with a small book light, and lean forward. He jumps in surprise as I slide the book into his leg.
"There's a light clipped to the top," I inform him. A few moments later, a dim glow appears before him, shocking my eyes.
Right. Concussion.
He opens the journal, and in the aura of white radiance, I see his eyes slightly widen at the sights before him. He slowly flips through page by page, stopping to read notes along the way. Eventually, he speaks again as he continues flipping.
"Wow, these drawings are... Disturbingly good."
I swallow, "Yeah. My sister did them."
"Well, she's a great artist. Are they accurate?"
"Yeah, very," I tell him. "She used to come out researching with us."
He keeps sifting through before he stops and furrows his brow, "This one doesn't have a drawing." I already know what he's referring to before he holds up the page.
"Oh, yeah, we um... We never got to that one."
"It says it can impersonate people you know or, um, knew... I guess they probably look different every time, huh? Is that why?"
"It." I correct, "We're pretty sure there's just one... But, um, not quite." My hand makes its way from Val's hair to the edge of my coat, where it begins to fidget, "It has a sort of... limb for impersonating. It keeps its body hidden till you get close, then... yeah."
"Like an angler fish?"
"Yeah. Like an angler fish."
"Freaky. Especially if there's no way to kill it." He says, looking back to the page, "What does this part about its tears mean?"
"I'm not sure." I say, a little abruptly, "I've only ever gotten close one time. That was the only time I ever saw it."
"Did you not see enough that time to draw it out?"
My breath comes out in shallow, choppy bursts, "I did, but my sister, um... she never got the chance to draw it."
Tyler quickly picks up on the cue, and in the light, I can see him staring at me, trying to figure out what to say. When he realizes how long he's been holding the glare, he looks back to the journal, folds it back up, and clicks the light off.
"Thank you for letting me read that."
"Y-yeah, don't mention it."
"And... I'm really sorry, Wes."
"Don't mention it..."
Neither of us talk for a while before Tyler begins to stand, "Well, I won't waste the time we've been given. I'll try and get some more rest. Thanks for entertaining me for a bit." I can hear warmth in his voice.
"Yeah, no problem," I whisper back. He's about to make his way over to the couch when I feel compelled to call out one last thing, "Hey, Tyler?"
"Yeah?"
"What happened to your compound? You um... Don't feel bad about that. I mean- it's not on you, I mean. The guards were there to protect you, and I know they were happy knowing you got to live comfortably for a while. Trust me."
It takes a while for him to respond, "Thanks, Wes."
Slowly and silently, he shuffles back to the sofa and lays down. Not long after, I feel Val stir on my lap, and I'm surprised when I feel her reach up and run her fingers down my arm till she finds my hand. She laces them into it and pulls both into her chest as she curls her body around. Her breath is no longer slow and rhythmic as it dances across my knuckles, and I wonder how long it's been that way.
I count down the remaining time while checking my watch every few minutes. Val's hand goes limp in mine at some point, and while everyone is out, I allow an extra thirty minutes to pass once we hit our limit. We don't have anyone we're super worried about knowing we're gone, and It'll hopefully give Tyler back some of the rest he lost. Maybe pay back Val a bit too. When It's time, I gently shake my friend awake.
"Time to move."
"Okay." She mumbles.
When Morgan and Tyler are up, we make sure they're ready, giving them a quick crash course on dead-zone survival. We explain to them how to move, what to listen for, what our signals mean, and everything else that might be helpful. When Leigh was still with us, we had to travel with three people, and after our party dropped to two, I realized the sad truth that fewer people really is better out here. Less potential mistakes. Less targets for things to find. Less backs to watch. A whole lot less stressful. This is why we needed to be absolutely ready for anything that might happen. We had two more hours of walking to do, and a lot could go wrong in that time.
We give the brothers a quick quiz, and when we feel confident that they've got it all down, Val nods confidently. "Alright. Are you ready then?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Tyler says with a slight tremble.
"I think we are," Morgan says, trying to mirror Val's vigor. I can tell it's hard for him to pull it off, though.
"Okay then. Let's move."
Val and I pull our helmets back on and tie a tether around our waists. We each pass the other end of the rope to a respective brother, Morgan to her and Tyler to me, and once we're set, we open the front door and step outside. The cold dark silence latches onto us again and gently carries us along as we find the road and start down it once more. Tyler stays close to me, keeping the tether tight in his hands, and I can see that Morgan is doing the same with Val. Step by step and minute by minute, we crawl our way back toward safety, only stopping to second-guess the occasional sound or shriek in the distance. None of it is too much cause for alarm, so we hustle on, my focus at an all-time high as the stakes rise every second we get closer.
Eventually, we crest a hill that peers a decent bit above the tree line. Far on the horizon, the dark cloudy sky is gently brushed gold by the spatter of lights from the grid below. Only about an hour left now. Slight hope begins to blossom in my chest, but after a few more minutes of walking, I check the maps, and it's quickly snuffed out. We've reached the part of the road with the pass-through of the forest. The one where the sundance patch was. I grip my pitiful blade tightly and slide my phone away before looking at Val. We have a decision to make. We can try and pass through the area again and hope that if the mocker is still there, it plays the same game as last time, staying hidden and trying to bait us to it. I know the creature isn't very fast, and even if it does chase us, we would have decent odds of outrunning it. Still, it was risky, deliberately putting ourselves next to a creature like that. The other option was continuing to follow the bend of the road around the forest. It would take another rough thirty or forty minutes that way, but we would be avoiding a potential threat that we already knew of. The gamble was if we would avoid anything else that might be out that way. The longer you run the clock outside the wall, the lower your chances of being unnoticed.
I communicate all of this to Val the best I can without words, although she already has weighed the options herself. I look back at Morgan and Tyler to see them nervously pivoting their heads in the dark, unsure why we've stopped. When I see how scared they already are, I can't bring myself to deliberately walk them past danger. Especially having seen what that danger can do...
I signal to the road. Val ponders for a moment longer before nodding and signing Affirmative.
I tug on the tether again, and we continue around the curve.
The sights and sounds aren't much different than the patch of woods, save for the road and houses still being present. It's still dark, it's still quiet, and it's still unknown. About fifteen minutes around the bend, we pass a small turnoff that you could easily miss if you weren't looking for it, a small dirt road overgrown from the foliage around it. Staring down the middle of it creates a long dark tunnel that I know the church rests on the other side of. I don't slow down one bit as we pass.
We continue along the bend, and the longer it pulls on, the more I realize that it was a lot more distance than we expected. I keep hoping that the next batch of trees that we pass will give way to the original spot that we cut through on the way over, but each one just yields more and more unfamiliar territory. I try not to let it panic me, as that's a dangerous mindset to be in, but I'm forced to dip into it when I feel a tug on the harness.
I turn around to see Tyler desperately looking at me before he points off back to the woods behind us. I look between the trees, and through my visor, it takes a second to see what he's talking about. There's a distant light glowing on the trunks, fluorescent and white, and it's getting closer.
I quickly smack Val's arm and signal.
Banshee.
She grabs hold of Morgan and pulls him further down into the ditch. I do the same with Tyler, and then we start to pick up the pace. With a silent sprint, we shuffle forward, trying to get ahead of the thing.
"Don't look back at it, whatever you do," I command loud enough that everyone can hear. Disobeying my own orders, I check our position as we round the next grove of trees just in time to see the being come gently floating out onto the road, its sinister crooked figure angelically gliding above the concrete. Its arms and legs dangle limply as it pivots around, trying to decide which direction to take. However, the maddening light of its body proves too much for my eyes and throbbing head, and I quickly focus back on the path ahead.
We're coming up on an intersection now, With one part of the road leading off to the right into a cluster of apartments built among the woods. The other turns into the parking lot of an old local daycare center. A mess of ravaged cars clogs the middle of the road, as it appears a massive attempt to flee was made at one point to no avail. We push toward it all as I check back again, and to my dismay, I see that the light is following us.
'Please, God, tell me it didn't see us....'
We're about to cross the driveway to the daycare when Val juts a hand out to stop me. She frantically points forward to one of the cars ahead and makes a wave motion with her hand.
Slither.
My heart crawls into my throat as I make out the slimy, scaley thick rope woven between the cars before us. I can barely see it beneath the bellies of the vehicles, and I say another prayer that another set of eyes hasn't spotted us. Like a cornered animal, I frantically look around for a way out. Trying to lose a Banshee is one thing, but we were never going to outrun a slither.
I see Val start for the daycare and follow her lead without hesitation. Getting behind the building is our best option right now to get out of sight. The best-case scenario is there's even a door inside. The worse case is that the mocker is waiting in the woods beyond, but that's a risk we're going to have to take.
We rush across the parking lot, making absolutely sure to not drag Tyler or Morgan in the process. A single shoe scuff across the concrete could mean the death of us all. The small forty-foot lot feels like a football field as we crouch across it; all the while, the silent white light grows brighter and brighter around the bend. We reach the edge of the building, and Val and I risk the noise as we stand up onto the soil and begin fast walking the length of the wall. When we break the corner, we quickly grab the brother's hands and yank them out of sight before I peek my head back around the colorfully painted wall.
Back on the street, the banshee floats gracefully around the corner, its bright aura causing me to squint in the dark. It slows to a hover as the head on its snapped neck pivots to take in the more interesting scene around it. I duck back behind the wall before I risk it seeing me and coral everyone further along the side of the daycare. We pass through an old playground that sits ominously opposed by its sinister environment, never to be played on again. Eventually, we reach a set of back doors, and I try the handle only to feel it stay idle in my hand. There's a small security system sticker on the window, but with no power out here, it isn't going to hold us back. I waste no time ripping my pack from my shoulder and grabbing my picks.
The hum starts low as I start to pick. It's almost a hiss, like air leaking from a hose. It fades in and out rhythmically, droning on in an electric and maddening way.
A few of the first pins stick, and I move to the back ones, trying not to let my shaking hands muddle my progress.
It begins to grow louder, though, turning from a hiss to a low whine. A consistent gentle whine of what I could only describe as agony. It still fluctuates in pitch, though. It always does. Endlessly and infinitely, causing my head to spin and my spine to tingle uncontrollably with dread.
I've gotten most of the pins stuck now, and I pull my hook back to the front to finish them all off.
The noise finally evolves into a full shriek, like the rake of a violin bow across untuned strings or the scream of a whistling tea kettle amplified by ten. Loud and shrill, tearing through my ears and rattling every bone in my body. My stomach feels sick as it drones in and out, and I can see Val lean against the wall next to me as she tries to not let it bring her to the ground. It grows louder and louder, and even with my helmet on the door, I can no longer hear the click of the pins in the lock. It's all on faith now. Morgan and Tyler press their hands to their ears to try and drown out the maddening wail, and aside from the dread that it brings alone, a new fear begins to form in me of what might be hearing it. I recklessly jiggle the pick in the lock now, trying to figure out what's still stuck, and I'm about to give up when I hear-
"Grrreeeek!"
Another shrill squeal cries out, followed soon after by the banshee's wail suddenly ending. Muffled pops and cracks scold the air for only a moment on the other side of the building before everything is quiet again.
I don't dare to take that as a sign to slow down. I reset my hook and try the lock again, this time finally clicking the pins into place one by one until my wrench twists and the door swings open. I yank on the handle and swing the door open for everyone to shuffle inside, and I toss one last look to the dark woods ahead before joining them myself.
I catch the door as it starts to shut behind us and let it down quietly into its latch. We all four stand in the dark daycare, panting and recuperating for a moment before anyone moves. Eventually, we have to, though. The building is more akin to a preschool than a daycare, which means much bigger and far too many windows. We don't have time to sweep the building, and frankly, doing so would involve us stepping in front of a lot of aforementioned windows, so instead, we rush through the structure, just looking for a room to hide. The problem is that every room has a nearly entire translucent wall. That is until we reach the middle of the building, where there's a small activity gym of sorts. It's large, and there are several entrances to different halls, but that might work in our favor if something goes wrong. The only spot there are windows is on the ceiling above, and that's the best we're going to get for now.
A small plastic playhouse sits in a far corner of the room, and we all rush over to it and slouch down between the wall and its backside. Silence follows for several minutes as we listen with shallow breaths. After around ten minutes, though, Morgan speaks.
"What... was that?"
"One of the less bad ones." Val sighs. "So long as it doesn't catch you."
"Is it still out there?"
"No." I answer, "There was something else in front of us that ate it."
"Wait, there was more?!" Tyler exclaims.
"Shhh." Val holds up her hands, winding him down, "We're going to have to hold out here for a while. That scream is gonna probably bring a lot of things in the area closer. Plus, that other beast outside probably isn't going anywhere anytime soon."
Morgan nods, "What was that thing?"
"We call it a banshee."
"Wes, can I see your journal again?" Tyler asks me.
I pull my bag off my shoulder and start to withdraw the book, "So long as you keep the light shielded. Those windows are high up, but that doesn't matter with some things out here."
He nods and clicks on the light before starting to flip through.
"Wait, what is this?" Morgan asks. I explain the concept of the journal to him quickly, and soon he's reading through the entry to the banshee with his brother. Their eyes are wide and eyebrows furrowed with sheer disbelief.
"It can do all that, and something else managed to kill it?"
"Some monsters don't really affect each other too much. Some seem to solely hunt humans, really." Val tells them.
Morgan tilts his head at that, "Well... that's odd...."
Val chuckles darkly, "Yeah, odd is most things out here, unfortunately."
"Well, I mean from like a scientific standpoint." Now it's mine and Val's turn to look confused. I had never thought of anything out here as scientifically sound. Morgan elaborates, "Like wherever all these things came from, I feel like there couldn't possibly be humans there. So why would some things not be fit to survive in their own environment? Why would they only know how to hunt people?"
It's a pretty interesting thing to say that I don't think Val and I have ever thought about. We don't really care about the motives or behaviors of the creatures. What matters to us is what they can do and how they do it. That's all the soldiers ever really needed, at least. It's odd that Morgan, who has never really been outside the walls or interacted with beasts, would instantly be thinking of them like that, but I don't have time to talk to him about it before Tyler asks another question.
"So... What was the thing that killed it."
I hear nerves plaguing Val's voice, "Um, it's called a slither."
Tyler flips through the pages until he comes across the title at the top. There's no disbelief or bewilderment this time. Just sheer fear and a muttered, 'screw that' from Morgan. And that's just for the sketch alone. As they begin to read its bio, their eyes grow desperate, and I see Tyler swallow hard. I understand why. They're one of my personal least favorites.
"It... it didn't see us come in here, right?" Tyler asks.
"No, don't worry," Val tells them gently.
"If it had, we wouldn't have made it far," I add. She slaps my leg, and I bite my tongue.
Morgan clears his throat slightly and sits up, and Val and I turn to look at him, "In this book, do you happen to know...." He stares down at the page of the serpentine beast with eyes entranced before finally breaking the spell and glaring at us, "Our compound. It was attacked by something- or, um... somethings. I don't know what exactly, but..."
Val nods, "Yeah, we, um, know a bit about that."
"Yeah..." Morgan says, rubbing his mouth, "Do you know what could have done that? Is there anything that can wipe out a whole neighborhood?"
"Well..." Val starts, glancing at me, "The account we got from the attack might not have been the most... reliable. We aren't sure we really have the whole picture of what happened."
"Oh, okay," Morgan says with disappointment and grief in his voice.
Val wraps her arms around herself, "But... if it's not too much for you to talk about, and if you don't mind telling us what you know about the event, we might be able to help figure out something."
The boy sits back up, "Oh, um, sure." He glances at Tyler, who darts his eyes away before starting, "There's not much that we know. We were inside our house when it happened, playing a game together on the TV. All of the sudden, the power just cut out. I thought a fuse had just blown or something until I looked outside and saw it was dark out there too. That's when I knew something was wrong. Our Dad called for us from the other room, so we went in there with him, and as we were trying to figure out what was going on, we heard a scream in the distance from near the front gate. That's when my dad began to panic. We were about to lock ourselves in our safe room but then we started hearing pounding and glass shattering from the houses down the way. We thought something might break in if we stayed put, so my dad took us to the back door, and we went outside. From there, we just... ran. Hopped our neighbor's fence and started for the back gate. We crashed into a couple of other people from the community that had the same idea as us, but then they told us that things were coming in from that side of the compound too."
Tyler quietly pipes in, "A person in the group said they had caught a glimpse of one of them. They said they were shadowy figures with no face and horns."
Val tilts her face to the ground, trying to match our database with the description, "What kind of horns?"
"They never got the chance to say."
Morgan waits a respectful moment before carrying on, "In our panic, we decided our only option was to try and jump the wall. We started climbing it with a ladder behind a shed, but our dad, he..." I can hear Morgan's voice catch in his throat, "Our mom had gone to a neighbor's house to visit them, and she- our dad said he'd go and find her. He left us with our neighbors, then ran back toward the houses. I tried to follow, but our friend, one of the ones who was taken, she caught me. I kind of shut down after that and went on autopilot. I threw Tyler up the ladder and forced myself up after him. We hit the ground with everyone else and just took off again. We didn't know where to go; we just followed whoever was in front. We could barely see, and nobody could hear over all the noise of the footsteps and panting and crying. When we finally made it to a building we could hide, all that was left was me, Tyler, and three other people. Whether something got the others or if they got separated in the chaos, I have no idea, but... We lost one more after that the next time we traveled out. If it wasn't for our friend leading us, we would probably have all died... they eventually got us all the way to the bus garage you found us in, and well... Yeah. You know the rest from there."
Val and I can't muster anything to say for a moment. We've obviously dealt with frantic moments in our time since the Vanishing. Everyone has. But watching your whole home, along with people you love, get torn apart right in front of you- that's a lot for anyone.
"That's awful." Val mutters, "You guys are very strong for making it all this way." She adds with pure, empathetic warmth. "I know sorry gets thrown around a lot with no weight, but... I really am sorry, you two."
Morgan shrugs and throws up a pitiful smile, clearly not believing the statement, "I don't feel strong. All we did was run. But thank you. I really do appreciate that, Val. This is really the first time we've gotten to talk about it."
"There's no shame in running." I tell him, "Not with how things are. There's rarely a fight you'll win. That's all we can do."
Morgan nods and darts his eyes to the floor. In the break I have of silence, I begin to ponder his story. It's not far from the one we heard from Dillon; creatures breaking in and tearing through the compound before anyone could fight back. But if Dillon was telling the truth, then did that mean...
"Do you mind one more question, Morgan?" I ask.
"What is it?"
"I don't know how big your compound was, but did you have a person who lived there named Dillon?"
Tyler perks up a bit, and Morgan turns to him with a curious glance, "Um, y-yeah, I think so. Wasn't that one guy named Dillon?"
"I think, yeah." Tyler nods.
"What's the matter?" Val asks
Morgan turns back to us, "We had a pretty big community, and we didn't know many people, but he was a special case."
"What do you mean?"
"He was a survivor that showed up about a week or two before the attack. Said he had been squatting out in an old abandoned grocery store since the beginning of things."
Val turns to me, almost reading my thoughts. Survivors showing up at the gate wasn't unheard of. Even we had a couple of people in our neighborhood who had shown up soon after the walls went up. But to turn up alone this far into the Vanishing unharmed? Something was very off about that. Morgan, seemingly reading our expressions, continues.
"That's not all, though. A few days before everything went down, he went missing. People noticed pretty quickly that the new stranger was nowhere to be found, and when they started panicking and telling the guards, the captain finally caved and told the community that they basically had to toss him back out. Apparently, something was hunting him, and it wasn't going to stop till he was dead. They said it would be a threat to everyone if it came."
"The garrote," Val mutters to me. Tyler hears her say that and starts reading the journal to find the passage.
Something about that still doesn't sit right with me, "If there was a garrote on him, there's no way he would have been able to stay there for more than a week before it caught up to him. Not unless he had a car or something and had driven away from it."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying it would have had to have seen him while he was living there...."
"And it couldn't have done that from inside the wall." Val finishes the thought. "He was coming and going."
"What's going on?" Morgan asks, "Do you think he had something to do with the attack? Did you guys know him?"
Val and I give the two a quick rundown of our encounter with Dillon, and when we finish, they stare at us with surprise.
"Dang, the guy was a monster...." Tyler speaks.
"We don't know if he had something to do with it, but it seems there's a connection," Val tells them. However, she quickly changes the topic as the brothers look to be only getting more stressed by everything going on, "Let's not worry about this right now. When we get to our compound, we can talk with our captain. She's got more information that we can compare with."
Morgan nods, and Tyler gives a soft, "Sounds good." Before clicking the book, light off. Without our talking now, we can definitely hear movement from outside, still in the front. It seems the slither hasn't moved yet. I debate whether or not we can slip out the back, but ultimately decide it's not worth the risk. The area is undoubtedly still hot, and like I said, there's no outrunning a slither if it hears us. We'll just have to wait.
"Hey guys," Morgan starts, "Sorry, but I, um... kind of have to use the bathroom."
"That's alright." Val chuckles, "I do too."
"I think there's one on the wall over there. Unless that's a closet." I point out.
"Where?" Morgan says, trying to gaze through the dark.
"Here," Val says, standing, "We'll go together. It's better to move in pairs anyways."
"Be careful," Tyler says, worry in his voice.
"And quiet," I add.
"Always," Val reassures. "C'mon, Morgan." The two stand and start to cross the gym, and as soon as they're out of earshot, Tyler turns to me.
"Hey, Wes?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I... ask a favor?"
That immediately makes me nervous. Especially with how cautious he asks, "What is it?"
He looks over to the bathroom where I see Morgan enter and Val start to wait by the door, "I um... I was thinking about what you said last night when we were resting. About the guards?"
"That really wasn't your fault, Tyler. I meant it."
"No, I know, it's not that, I um...." He takes a deep breath, "But they are all gone now. And what you said about them working to keep us safe? You were right about that too."
"What are you getting at?"
"When our compound was getting destroyed... I had never been that scared in my life, even at the beginning. When this all started, we were held out in our house until the military moved in and got the walls up. After that, we were pretty much safe. It took me this long into this mess to really be sacred, and all the while, those guards faced that every day."
"Tyler-"
"I know; there's nothing I could have done. But you said you and Val come out here to get information. To help the guards know more about what's going on. To help everyone. I want to help too."
"Tyler." I say again, this time more serious, "I don't think you-"
"I know you can't just say yes; that's not what I'm asking. But you can train me. Show me how to survive; I- I can be an extra set of eyes when you go out or-"
"Tyler." I sternly say. He looks at me with desperate eyes, and I get a sudden pang of hurt in my chest. I feel like I'm staring at Leigh again. She had looked at me the same way when I found out about her excursions. I soften a little, "I really, really respect that you want to help. That you're willing to come back into all of this after seeing it firsthand, but- We've gotten lucky so far. When you come out here, there is a very real chance that you will die at any moment. And that's if you're lucky. Some things out here don't kill you. They'll mutilate, or mutate, or torture you until you wish you were dead." I hope my words will scare him into backing down, but he just looks me dead on with an unwavering expression.
I continue, "Val and I don't just come out here to help. We have ulterior motives. Her mom needs medicine, and I do it cause...." I look over to the bathrooms, where Val steps inside and Morgan steps out to take her spot.
Tyler takes the reigns again, "I don't care about that. The dying, I mean. I-I mean, I was when my compound got attacked but then... My dad rushed back toward those monsters to save my mom, Wes." His whispering voice starts to break a bit, "I need to be that brave too. And I don't think I can go on living anymore knowing what I know now if I'm not doing at least something to help."
"And what about Morgan?" I ask. "How do you think he's going to take this? If you left him and went out into danger? If you did get killed? You're all he has left, Tyler. Take it from me; you don't want to do that to someone." He looks down to the floor, defeatedly. Guilt starts to take hold of me, "Listen, I'm sure when we get back to the compound, we can find something for you to help with. We have a doctor there. Maybe she can use a helper?"
Tyler still doesn't look up. Slowly and cautiously, I reach out and grab his shoulder, "You have, nothing, to prove, Tyler. I can see you're strong. I can see you want to help, and I know what it's like to want to make up for something that you feel you failed at. But sometimes the best thing we can do is just be there for the people who need us."
'Hypocrite.'
He looks up, "O-Okay."
"Okay?"
"Yeah."
"Good," I say, leaning back against the wall again. "Besides, this was sort of a special trip. Val and I aren't coming out any-"
Like a magnet in the darkness, my eyes lock on to a sudden flicker of light. Dim and hardly even glowing, but there nonetheless, a green exit sign above a door next to Morgan clicks on. Time seems to hold still as the implications attempt to calculate in my head, and all the while, I hear the low hum of electricity build in the background as power returns to the building. It slowly accumulates until the sound climaxes into its final symphony, along with a dreadful realization.
The security alarm.
The loud wail of the speakers burst to life, screaming a pulsing song into both the rooms and the world outside. Before it's even rung a single second, I'm to my feet and yanking Tyler up along with me. That's not our only problem, though. The lights in the room around us begin to click on, and I look up to see small sensors with red LEDs flickering to green. Motion lights. Bright, shining beams showing right where we are. Why the alarm is running isn't a mystery; we may have picked the lock to get in, but modern alarms can tell when a key wasn't used. The real question is why the power is back on at all.
I launch across the gym to Morgan, my hand gripping Tyler's wrist tightly. "Tether up!" I command over the thundering noise. Before I can reach his brother, however, I hear something comes from the hallway with the exit sign directly behind him.
"Grrrreeeeek!"
The slither. It must have looped around the building at some point and busted through one of the windows upon hearing the noise. At least that's my only explanation until I hear glass shatter from the front hall, the one behind the door we came in.
"Greee-eeek!" another shriek answers the first.
It's not the same creature in a different spot, I realize. There are just two slithers, and we're right in the middle of them, alarm and lights beckoning them to us.