BEGINNING OF THE END

CHAPTER 7

A small breeze come in through the slightly opened window in his room, caressing his face. The smell of fresh hay filling his nostrils. He got out of bed and shut the window the rest of the way, closing the drapes after. He took a gander over at his alarm clock, the time was now 3:23 a.m. Next to his clock was a framed picture of him and his dad. The picture was taken after they caught their biggest catch of the year. His father looked proud in the picture. Harry took a long deep breath.

‘I’m sorry I wasn’t there Pa.’ A quiver in his voice as he spoke the words aloud.

Harry got up of bed and went to his closet. His suit was hanging just inside the door. He slid his hand down the front of it, the light from his closet made the salt glisten. He thought about yesterday morning, his mother crying in her sister’s arms, other family members hugging her and himself. Shaking his hand, giving them their condolences, and letting him and his mother know if they needed anything, they were there to help. Harry never looked up to meet their eyes as they shook his hand or patted him on the back. Instead, he stared at the ivory casket, lowering it into the ground.

White and red roses were being tossed onto it as it went deeper and deeper into the ground. Tears were streaming down Harry’s face, falling onto the front of his suit. Harry squeezed his eyes shut, shaking the image of his dad’s casket out of his mind. He grabbed his jeans and white T-shirt and shut the closet door behind him. He threw his jeans on and slipped the T- shirt over his head, sliding his arms through and out the sleeves. Harry then walked over to his dresser and grabbed a pair of long white socks, sat on his bed, and slipped one over each of his feet.

After getting dressed he then headed downstairs, down the hall and through the first door on the left, as he entered the kitchen, he stopped at the counter. Looking at the kitchen, his heart ached. Harry’s father was usually already in the kitchen at this hour, sipping on a cup of coffee while his mother continued to sleep. Harry looked over at the coffee pot, it was empty. Harry walked over to the cupboard above it, grabbed the can of coffee grounds and a filter, placing them next to the coffee maker. He then filled the pot with water, poured it in the back, put some coffee grounds in the filter, put the pot back on the machine and flipped the switch on. Harry sat at the kitchen table, staring at the pot, and waited.

The smell of coffee filled the air as it brewed, spitting and sputtering as it filled up the pot. The sound and smell comforted Harry, he never actually drank coffee, but this morning seemed like a good time to start. As the pot finished brewing, he grabbed a coffee mug from the shelf above it and poured himself a cup. Never really drinking it before, he tried it black. It left a bitter taste in his mouth. He then decided to make it how his father used to, with a little cream and sugar. The smell of the cream and sugar mixed with the coffee left a sweet aroma in the air, comforting him. He slowly sipped his coffee, listening to the quiet of the house, till he heard something outside. He straightened up in his chair, listening intently...

‘HONNNNNKKKK!’

Someone was outside in the barn, hitting the horn on what sounded to be one of their tractors. Harry grabbed his father’s Remington 870 express. Making sure it was loaded, he slipped his work boots on while shoving extra rounds in his pocket and then headed out the back door. He stood in the doorway for a moment, staring in the direction of the barn. He could hear someone in the barn, but it was too faint to make out. Cautiously Harry walked towards the barn, pointing his gun towards the barn as he called out.

‘Who’s out there?!’ He waited for a response, but there was none.

As he went to speak again, there was a woman, screaming. Harry recognized the voice of the scream, his mother. Harry took off in a sprint towards the barn, his gun still pointing in the same direction. As he got closer, he could hear the screams coming from one of the tractors. Just as he came around the corner, she screamed for him.

‘HARRY!’

Just as he seen her face, a creature with a banshee - like scream, broke through the window and clawed his mother’s face. Harry pulled the trigger and started shooting the creature, shot after shot. Missing a few times as the creatures ducked and backed away. Harry continued to shoot until the gun emptied and the creature was still. Before checking on his mother, he reloaded his gun, still aiming in the direction of the creature. Slowly, he made his way to the other side of the tractor climbing up to open the right side. He opened the door as quietly as he could in case the creature wasn’t dead. His mother’s face was gushing blood to the point she was choking on it.

Harry ripped a piece of his shirt off and tried to wipe the blood from her eyes the blood from her eyes and her mouth. Still choking on her own blood. she tried to speak to him.

‘Haarrr…ry,’ She coughs, chokes and gags a little bit.

‘I lo…oove …’

Her body went limp as more blood streamed out of her mouth. Tears falling down her face and rage washing over him.

He slammed the door, leaving the tractor and locking his mother’s body in. He jumped down, hitting the ground with a thud. He then walked over to where the creature was lying, but not breathing. Harry looked the creature over, never seeing anything like it before. It had no eyes, no actual nose, just two slits in the middle of its face to breathe and smell. He took the nose of his gun and pressed it against the creature’s head, moving it to the side, it had no ears either.

Looking over the rest of the creature’s body, he noticed its arms. They had two, but they were two times longer than a human’s arms. The length of the creature’s arms reminded Harry of an Orangutans arms and long and lanky they looked. The creature’s arms were slightly longer, with matching claws. There were four fingers with each hand, long, knife - like, sharp and pointy. The creature’s skin was white, ivory almost, like it had never seen a ray of sunlight.

Harry turned his father’s UV light attachment on that was connected to his gun. His father always used it to track rodent urine over the sacks of feed in their barn. He always clipped it to his gun when finished. With the gun still pointing at the creature, Harry flicked the light on. Immediately the flesh of the creature started burn, first pink and then red splotches the longer the light stayed on the skin. Smoke started to come off the creature as the red and pink splotches started to darken to black as it burned.

Harry flicked the light off and the burning of its flesh stopped, smoke still coming off it. Curiosity peaked, so he flicked the light on again. The creature’s skin started burning once again, smoking coming off the now blackened skin he flicked the light back off and the sizzling of its skin stopped. As Harry reached his hand toward the creatures to touch it, he heard a noise to the right. He crouched down low to the ground, scanning his gun across the right side of the barn. Some movement caught his attention, there was someone or something at the edge of his family’s corn field.

As whatever it was stepped into the light that was casting from the barn, Harry realized it was a woman. With a pistol in her hand, she made her way closer to the barn. Harry stood up, pointing his gun at her.

‘Just hold it right there.’

The woman pointed her gun at Harry, her finger grazing the trigger. Harry spoke again.

‘Ma’am, I’m going to need you to state your business of why you are trespassing or at least tell me if you know what the hell is going on around here.’

The woman didn’t say anything for a moment, she just stood there, staring at him. Finally, she lowered her gun, holstering it, then spoke.

‘I don’t know what’s going on, but I do know people are dying and there is something… these creatures out there, they are ripping people apart and eating…them.’

Harry put his gun down and waved her over into the light.

‘You mean creatures like this?’

The woman slowly moved towards Harry. Her eyes were going from him to the tractor, to what was lying dead next to it. Her eyes widened as they scanned over its body. Not saying a word at first, then as her eyes fixed on the burns, she spoke with curiosity in her voice.

‘Did you set it on fire?’

Harry explained what happened right before she showed up on his farm. After he finished, they both stood there, staring at the creature, studying it.

‘My name is Harry by the way,’ he turned to her, sticking his hand out.

The woman stuck her hand out and shook his.

‘Astrid.’

‘So how many of these things you think are out there?’ Harry asked as he let go of her hand and looked back at the creature. Astrid shook her head at the thought.

‘Not sure, I only just ran here from a small bar in town. Lucky’s, I think, was the name. There were more than just a few outside. My van broke down, I was going to head inside the bar, but there were creatures feeding on people, so I ran out of town as fast as I could. That’s when I ended up here, on your farm.

Harry’s stomach clenched when she said they were ‘feeding’.

‘Well then.’ Harry didn’t say another word as he turned around and started walking back towards the house.

‘Where are you going?’ Astrid shouted behind him.

‘I’m going to need more ammo!’ he shouted back as he opened the screen door and walked into the house. Astrid took off running towards the house, not wanting to get left behind. Harry was in a room that led off from the kitchen.

Standing at his father’s gun cabinet reloading the shotgun and sticking a few boxes of ammo in a bag. He threw a few more guns at Astrid, who had made her way into the room as she walked through the kitchen.

‘Here, we are going to need all the fire power we can get.’

He then threw her some boxes of ammo at her. Checking the scope on a few of his guns, he then went into another room and started grabbing some canned goods and a few MRE’s out of the cupboard. Astrid looked at Harry strangely.

‘Doomsday preppers or something?’ she asked as he tossed some canned goods at her. Harry laughed.

‘Or something.’ He continued to load up the bag he had with supplies and ammo. Then when he was finished, he zipped up the bag and placed it on the counter in the kitchen. Astrid stood there waiting, looking around the kitchen. The air smelt of fresh coffee with a slight sweetness to the air.

After about fifteen minutes, Harry came back into the kitchen. He was now wearing a pair of cargo pants, tightly laced hiking boots and an all-black T-shirt. He threw the bag over his shoulder and immediately back through the door towards the barn, Astrid following behind.

‘Harry, what are you doing exactly?’ Quickening her pace to keep up. Harry didn’t answer. Instead, he was casually looking around the property for any disturbances. As he got to his van, he opened the door and threw the bag he was carrying in the van. Harry looked at his watch before speaking.

‘It’s 5:30 in the morning, based on tonight I’m guessing those things don’t do very well in sunlight. So in about an hour, when the sun rises, I’m getting in my van and taking off to find a place to hold up. Are you coming?’

Without hesitation Astrid answered.

‘Hell yea, I’m not staying here alone.’

She then put a bag of guns into the van and followed Harry back to the house to wait for the sun to rise.