Inhuman [Book 1]

  By

  C.J. Crowley

  Day 145

  His bloodshot eyes slowly widened with rabid desperation. His hot, nauseating breath engulfed me as we struggled for the knife – forcing me to squint as he spit, grunted, snarled and pushed against me with everything he had. When I succeeded in getting my free hand firmly wrapped around his throat he began clawing at my face, feverishly trying to work his overgrown fingernails into my eyes.

  From the moment we started fighting I felt an evident physical advantage. I also had a damn good hold on the knife, and was continuing to gradually tighten my grip on his neck.

  Digging into the soft veins made him struggle even harder, but his panicked state only worked in my favor. I could feel him growing weaker by the second. His arms were already shaking, whereas I wasn’t even remotely tired yet. My exhausted, starved body was being given an immense energy by raging sorrow and self-loathing.

  Just a little longer – I assured myself.

  I could tell that he’d had it easy. He was relatively clean, only had a few days of stubble, his hair wasn’t a mess, and he even looked rather well fed. But what made it really obvious was the total lack of blood on any of his lightly colored clothing.

  We almost bumped into each other while scavenging through a grocery store. He probably attacked me for the same reason I would have attacked him if I’d had the chance – because we couldn’t take the risk of stopping to ask questions. The only thing that mattered was being the one to react first. So, most likely, one of us was going to die for absolutely no reason.

  The complete abandonment of trust was simply part of surviving the new world. Being anything other than vicious and unflinching would get a person killed, or at the very least robbed, which could easily mean the same thing if they couldn’t find more food or water in time. And being left without any weapons was nothing short of an imminent death sentence.

  I’m just lucky he didn’t have a gun. I’d probably be on the floor dying right now.

  As I felt him lean backward and start to lose his balance, I put my right leg behind his and pushed. When he fell and I came crashing down on top of him, the force of my weight partnered with his fatigue made him loosen his grip on the knife – just long enough for me to capitalize.

  Once he felt it slip away his eyes immediately changed. It was the look that animals get when they know they’re about to die. A look only avid hunters and murderers would recognize.

  During my youth, my father took me hunting at least once a year, so I was no stranger to wounding something and having to finish it off up close. Therefore, whenever I saw that look in a person’s eyes it reminded me of something infinitely important – when death is near, we aren’t any different than animals, and animals can’t be trusted.

  And like many times before, I watched as a face I didn’t recognize suddenly became familiar – taking on that of the man who betrayed me. Not only was I in a different time, but a different place…

  I quickly turned the knife around and pressed it into his chest. My jaw clenched when I heard the dull crack from the blade forcing its way between two ribs. Judging by the position and slight angle, I guessed that I’d managed to hit his heart.

  That resulted in him screaming, so I covered his mouth and began attempting to pin his arms down with my knees. He concentrated on trying to gouge my eyes, and even resorted to biting at the palm of my hand. But it was of no use and, if anything, probably made him bleed out faster.

  Almost done.

  As soon as the last shallow breath left his body, I ripped out the knife, hung my head and dropped both hands to my sides. The tip of the blade clinked when it hit the hard tile floor and shot a small streak of blood across it.

  The inside of the store was almost entirely dark, but we somehow managed to fall where a stream of light was coming through some broken blinds. It lay perfectly across his face, giving me a clear view of what I had just done.

  His eyes were fixed to the ceiling – lifeless, though still holding onto the terror and agony he experienced during his last moments. Blood had run down the sides of his face and his teeth were red from coughing up so much of it. It was also all over the hand I’d used to cover his mouth as he’d tried to cry out.

  I shouldn’t have come in here.

  There’s probably nothing to find anyway, so all I’ve done is bring myself even closer to passing out.

  Shithead.

  It was still difficult to believe everything that had happened over the months was real, and that I was actually finding comfort in killing other human beings. At first I didn’t understand how that could be, mainly because the pain I felt let me know just how real it all was. Although, it didn’t take long for me to figure out that it was fear. Specifically, the fear of judgment after death – something I’d never really believed in.

  I kept it buried most of the time, using the disgusting nature of man and my want for answers and vengeance as my justifications. Because once a person has been betrayed by the people closest to them, everything changes. I had to learn in the most tragic of ways that friendship, compassion and morality cease to exist when someone’s starving...

  As I went to stand, the soup of blood and trash beneath my feet caused me to slip. To my relief, instead of falling face first into it I was able to grab a nearby shelf and stop myself just before going down.

  While taking a minute to catch my breath, I studied his knife. It was old and clearly dull, but there was no such thing as having too many weapons so I cleaned it off on his jacket and tucked it away. Up until my recent capture, I had a 9mm Walther PPQ my father left me, a K98 rifle my grandfather brought home from World War II and various other weapons I’d acquired along the way. Fortunately, when I escaped from the men holding me I was able to rearm myself. My only real losses were the mementos of the people I cared about.

  Even her necklace…

  I had no idea where I was, I hadn’t eaten in days and the guns I did have were almost empty, which was why I’d become desperate enough to risk checking a grocery store. And I was going to pay for it. I was being hunted and would have no choice but to take the time to clean up the mess.

  They still don’t know which way I went.

  A fresh body could ruin that.

  Checking stores or gun shops was nothing more than a dangerous waste of time in most cases. They were all emptied out within the first few weeks, so I’d usually only find bodies. The reality was that the only safe way to get food was by hunting and fishing. Getting more weapons or ammunition pretty much required killing someone for them.

  It was still so odd being able to walk for hours and not see a soul or hear anything other than the sounds of nature. I’d never considered what a silent world would be like – that our lives were spent constantly surrounded by the blaring noises of civilization. Sometimes I found it to be peaceful. Then I would remember why there was nothing but silence.

  The bullet-riddled cars and mangled bodies scattered everywhere left a chilling indication as to what went on when the world just stopped. It was nearly impossible to find a place that wasn’t tainted by signs of fighting and the tragically familiar smell of rotting corpses. Even children weren’t valued or spared anymore.

  Although, the most frightening aspect was how quickly the new world transformed almost everyone I came across into soulless monsters, lacking even the smallest traces of empathy or compassion. People who would laugh at the idea of valuing human life, and actually enjoyed what the world had become.

  My only chance at getting answers and finding those responsible for all this rests on me being even more of a monster.

  Day 1

  It was Friday, January 8th.

  I contently watched my wife Jessica and four year old
daughter Sophia running around the yard playing a game. Jessica was a roaring monster chasing the princess back to the castle, or as I knew it – the playhouse. I was preparing to make my (self-proclaimed) “world famous” seafood Alfredo for dinner.

  As I poured a drink and looked out at them through the undersized window over the kitchen sink, everything felt so perfect. I couldn’t have asked for anything more out of life than to see my family so happy.

  Maybe Jessica’s right.

  Why not have another one?

  If we have a boy he can help me wrench on the car… Tiny hands could be very useful.

  I walked over by the doorway to grab a large glass bowl out of the cabinet and the television in the next room caught my attention. When I went to set the bowl down on the counter, I was so distracted that I fumbled it off the edge and shattered it, sending broken glass in every direction. But I was almost certain that I’d heard something about “severe earthquakes”, so I left it and rushed over to the television, doing my best not to crush and spread out the glass farther across the kitchen.

  “Breaking News! Less than five minutes ago, multiple states on the West Coast simultaneously began experiencing earthquakes. The lowest registered was a 3.5 and the highest was a devastating 8.5. The impacted areas include Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Idaho. We are still waiting for more information on the situation… Widespread severe damage and loss of life is expected.”

  Since we resided in Trinity County, California, I immediately became alarmed, ran through the kitchen to the back door and practically kicked it open. “Jessica, come inside now – bring Sophia!”

  Jessica easily picked up on the concern in my voice, so she grabbed Sophia and held her tightly to her chest as she rushed inside. “Chris, what’s going?” She glanced down and saw the broken glass everywhere. “What happened?”

  “Forget about that right now.” I motioned for her to follow. “Come on, there’s something on the news about massive earthquakes hitting the West Coast. I haven’t heard anything about California yet but they mentioned almost every state around us.”

  Jessica’s expression leaned more toward skepticism. “Wouldn’t we have fel-”

  Before Jessica finished her sentence, the entire house started to violently shake. She reacted by falling to her knees and covering Sophia with her body. Then I leaned over so I could wrap my arms around both of them.

  Next came the thunderous sounds of multiple items falling and breaking in the bedrooms upstairs. All the drawers in the kitchen were loudly rattling around the silverware. Pots, pans, and plates were falling from the cabinets and crashing down all around us. Even the clock hanging over the sink fell, bounced off the counter and flew past us.

  All the noises combined were nothing short of deafening and I could see that Sophia was beyond terrified. All I could think to do was squeeze them tighter and say, “Everything’s going to be okay. It’ll pass.” And it did – surprisingly quickly.

  Jessica and I, both wide eyed, looked at each other for a few moments before I said, “I think it’s over” with very little confidence.

  We slowly got to our feet. Sophia was shaking and on the verge of tears, so I stroked her hair. “It’s okay honey, it’s all over. It was just an earthquake. You don’t have anything to worry about” I feigned a comforting smile “except trying to finish all your ice cream later.”

  She looked up at me, smiled back and wiped away the tears from her delicate green eyes. Then Jessica took her hand and nervously suggested, “We should really go listen to the news.”

  Just as we got within earshot of the television, everything went dead. All the lights in the house turned off and there was nothing left but the barely audible buzz of fading electronics.

  Jessica scoffed, “Great, this is all we need. Now we can’t even find out what’s going on.”

  I reached out and touched her shoulder. “Just stay here with Sophia and don’t go near anything that could fall and hurt you. I’m going next door to see if Jim has power. We need to find out what’s happening. Last thing I heard was something about a devastating 8.5, and they made it sound like it was happening all over the West Coast.”

  Jessica jerked her head back. “8.5? Isn’t that really bad?”

  “Yeah, I think ones that strong can cause buildings to collapse” I said softly in the attempt to hide Sophia from the possible severity of the situation.

  I took a knee, looked down at Sophia and smiled. “I’ll be right back little one, and then we’ll have that ice cream, alright?”

  She buried herself deeper in Jessica’s arms, though I could feel her eyes on me as I headed for the front door.

  …

  My next-door neighbor, Jim, lived alone and rarely ever went out, so I already knew he’d be home. That’s why we immediately became friends when I moved my family to Trinity six months ago. I shared his enthusiasm for staying home, and he was all about helping me wrench on my car. Jessica liked him too, but always found him to be on the crude side.

  I just thought he was funny and entertaining.

  As I made my way across the yards, I looked around the neighborhood. I could even see through the houses across our street to the next one over and, for whatever reason, no one else had come outside yet.

  I reached out and pushed the doorbell. Nothing happened.

  Dumbass, the power is out.

  I pounded on the door to make sure he’d actually hear me. And it took more than a few tries before I finally heard his heavy, cumbersome footsteps heading toward the front of the house. The time spent waiting only made my worry for Jessica and Sophia flare.

  Another earthquake could hit at any moment.

  As soon as Jim opened the door and saw it was me, he said, “Holy shit. I’ve been livin’ here most of my life and I’ve never felt one that bad! You all alright?”

  “Oh yeah, we’re fine. There’s just a lot of broken shit in the house.”

  He rolled his eyes and leaned his head back in frustration. “Tell me about it. I was sweeping up broken glass and dishes when you knocked. Man, this is fucked!”

  I shook my head and lightly laughed. “Yeah.” I was in a hurry so I got right to the point. “So I only got a chance to hear a few seconds of the news before the power went out. I only picked up something about earthquakes all over the West Coast.”

  He jumped back in shock and threw his hands up. “You don’t know?”

  I looked at Jim and raised my brow. “No. Like I said, I only got to hear a few seconds.”

  “No, no. That was just the first report. Like a minute later they said almost every state was having earthquakes! They were practically flingin’ their own shit all over the place, man! The lady on the news looked fucking terrified – said this has never happened in recorded history or somethin’ like that.”

  “Every state?”

  His eyes widened as he moved closer to me. “Every state. And last thing I saw before the power went off was them reporting some crazy ass death tolls.”

  At that moment, I had an uneasy feeling come over me. My mind went right to all the warnings from scientists about California being on the brink of “breaking off and sinking into the sea” from earthquakes.

  No way. That’s just worst case scenario end of the world bullshit. Don’t get yourself all worked up.

  “I take it you have no power either?”

  Obviously.

  “No, and that’s not all, man. Right after the power cut off I tried to get some news on my cellphone and there’s no service. And I don’t mean our usual shit service is cutting in and out. I mean there just isn’t any. The time isn’t even coming up.”

  My whole body flinched with worry before I checked my pockets for my phone – Must be in the living room.

  “How can that be? Doesn’t all that work off satellites?”

  He shrugged and answered in the form of a question. “I think so?” Then his gaze drifted past me. He raised his hand, pointed behind me and said, “Looks like
the whole area is down.”

  When I turned around, I could see a handful of our neighbors standing outside. They were starting to meet up and talk to each other in the middle of the road, and more were coming from every direction.

  Trinity was a mainly empty county in Northeastern California, and last I checked the population was under 14,000. We lived about sixty miles southwest of Hayfork, on the edge of a small collection of homes. There weren’t many people living in our neighborhood - If you could even really call it that - It was the type of place where it took about an hour to make the drive to a real grocery store in Hayfork – even to get gas.

  Jessica and I grew up in New York City, and once Sophia was born we both began to feel like a nice rural setting offered a better environment for raising a child. As we got older we learned to appreciate nature over the “concrete jungle” and the meaningless financial race that consumed all of its inhabitants.

  We wanted a simpler life, consisting of peace, quiet and true beauty. We were really looking forward to taking Sophia on nature walks in a few years because the scenery in the area was supposed to be absolutely breathtaking…

  I turned around and faced Jim. “I’ll be right back. I want to check on Jessica and Sophia – let her know what’s going on. You should go see what everyone’s saying.”

  He nodded. “Yep.”

  I ran next door and rushed in the house. Jessica was sitting on the couch in the living room reading a book to Sophia. I calmed myself with a purposely elongated breath and motioned for her to come away so we could talk privately.

  She asked, “Why do you look so upset? It’s over.”

  I bleakly shook my head and locked eyes with her. “Have you checked your phone?”

  “I was too worried about Sophia to think of that.” She quickly pulled it out of her pocket and swiped across the screen to unlock it. “What the hell?”

  “Yeah. Jim’s isn’t working either.”

  I rubbed my hand across the rough, almost sharp stubble coming in on my face. I was the type to only shave every three or four days. “Jim told me the news said almost every state has been hit with earthquakes. He said the newscasters were panicking and saying nothing like this has ever happened before. It sounds like we’re in a state of emergency and we just haven’t heard about it.”