Was I supposed to forget about Leanna? I felt like I should. She and the men, everyone who went outside to search for a little boy who probably didn't exist. I couldn't find a toddler in this storm without a working flashlight. And Liza urged us to leave before I could see the bodies of my coworkers and friend.
"Come on," Liza said. I struggled to get on my feet, slipping in the mud and smacking my face against the tree. Blood rushed from my nose, which I clutched with my hand, my eyes tearfully squeezed shut. She looked at me with her beautiful dark eyes and frowned, stretching a hand toward me. "You need help?"
I took her hand and limped up the slippery ground, getting over the slight hill so we could walk through the trees, away from the slaughter.
My leg kept giving out as we maneuvered between the trees and dodged bodies torn to shreds. "That woman you killed," I choked out, trying my hardest not to think about Leanna. "What was she? She turned into a monster. I don't remember that being a symptom of Selene-Corpus."
"It's not." Liza didn't face me when she spoke over the rain. Instead, she led me forward until we found ourselves in a grassy field surrounding the three acres. "That woman wasn't sick. She wasn't a woman at all."
"What do you mean?"
Possible answers came to my adrenaline-fogged mind, from the woman is a demon, like those I encounter in my sleep, or I imagined the sharp teeth, and she's a human serial killer. But these ideas didn't make sense to me.
I would take the Cloud, sure. But there was a point when I couldn't make the mental jump to accept the unrealistic.
"I mean," Liza said, "I was taking a nap after working all day when that evil man appeared to me." Her voice took on a rigid quality as if she was trying to steer me away from asking for more details than what she would readily give me. "He said, 'the leg needs you,' so I knew he meant you." She held the shotgun up slightly, seeming ready to shoot and kill anything that got in our way. I struggled to keep up with her when her pace quickened. We were headed back toward the barn, where the remaining coworkers from tonight's shift should have been waiting out the storm.
"Did he say anything else?" I asked, nearly out of breath. My vision blurred with rain and fresh tears. Pain pierced my heart the closer we got to the barn. I was thinking about how I would explain the events of the last half an hour to my coworkers.
She sealed her lips shut and tugged the silver hood more snugly over her wet head. Lightning struck a mile away, bringing a crash of thunder and a tremor in my bones.
"Let's get inside first!" she shouted over a strong gust.
I tripped, this time landing on something hard in the tall brown grass.
When I looked down, I made out a fleshless skull. The face protruded a few inches from the mud.
"Shit!" I shrieked, racing back onto my feet before brushing at my chest, which the skull's front teeth had torn a hole through. Looking up, I saw Liza's soft face white with terror. Heart pumping fast, I traced her gaze somewhere behind me. Spinning around, barely managing not to fall over thanks to my weak leg, I almost puked at the approaching figures.
"The monster that tried to kill you wasn't alone," Liza stated without any doubt or hesitation.
Six beings with human female bodies yet all bearing the same sharp teeth and disabling red eyes of the "woman" from before made their way through the field. I nearly puked.
"Run!" Liza commanded fearfully.
I turned my back on the monsters and ran.
Gunshots blasted through the rain, which only now chose to lighten up. I must have gotten to the end of the field. Breathing hard and trembling, I glanced back toward where Liza was with those abominations. My jaw dropped.
I could no longer see the shotgun, but I could see my childhood friend still standing. I could see her golden hair, the torn silver raincoat. Four of the monsters had disappeared, perhaps falling dead in the grass. The other two leaped toward her.
A scream began to sound from deep within my throat, but I cut it short when my horror for her transformed into bewilderment. Before the beings could tear into her, she raised her left arm marked with the constellation of purplish-red eyeballs. Each marking began to glow brightly, tiny suns appearing on her skin. With a wave of that arm, a golden light launched the monsters toward the forest.
Those two smacked against the trees, their white skin blistering until it resembled red hot burning coals. They burst into white flames, only for the rain to turn them into piles of gray ash.
Liza spun around and began to stroll toward me, no longer in a rush. I could make out what may have been steam rising from her left arm; her coat and shirt had burned clean through. I averted my eyes, trying to respect her privacy.
"I wasn't expecting you to look away," came her teasing voice.
Gulping nervously, I lifted my eyes to meet hers. Liza stood before me, half bare and dripping wet. Yet she smiled, at ease. I couldn't believe the casual way she tilted her head and fluttered her eyelashes.
"Aren't you going to offer me your shirt, Kev?"
Baffled, I peeled my shirt off my body and handed it to her. I tried to get the image of her breasts out of my mind. "Sorry. It's dirty."
"No kidding." Still, she tugged it on.
The rain lightened, and the clouds drifted off over the more distant rolling hills.
So surreal.
My shoulders relaxed, and my gaping mouth shut. Liza took my hand in hers and again led me toward the barn. "We have a lot of catching up to do," she said, voice no longer strained. "These things that attacked you ... The evil man called them the 'Apex.'" She gave my hand a warm squeeze. "And this time, I don't think we can afford to avoid each other afterward. It's do or die now, Kev, and I don't think we want to die."