As the Earth Dies

Christina screamed as her and her dad were bombed by deadlings. I ran up and kicked one of them off them, thrifty threw the other one offs them. He struggled to get to his feet, shoving Christina at me he yelled “GET HER OUT OF- AAAAHHHHH” deadling grabbed him and threw him sideways into the building.

“POPPA!!!” Christina cried out. She tried to twist out of my grip as I turned around and darted back down the alley. “We have to go back, we have to help poppa! Tio, please!”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, your poppa knows I’m in no shape for a fight, but I can still get you out of this hell hole.” I couldn’t stand leaving thrifty behind, but I knew my friend wanted nothing else but for his daughter to live. So, I kept running even though everything told me to go back for him.

“I wont leave poppa!” She said, then she raised her arm and forced it backwards, elbow catching me right above my ear.

Blinding pain shot through my head. At first, I thought someone had shot me, maybe Scarlett made it out and had a grudge for leaving her with the major. I stumbled and lost my hold on Christina. She landed on her back, but she didn’t waste any time scrambling to her feet, turning back in the direction her father was in.

“NO!” I reached out and grabbed her as six deadlings came out of a nearby loading dock. I shoved her behind me and grabbed thrift’s rifle. Struggling to take aim, I let a few rounds fly towards them, two hitting the dock and one winging one of the deadlings shoulders. I started easing backwards, pushing Christina back with me until she finally listened and started backing up faster. I let a few more rounds go, “damn these things!” i said to myself.

I could hear Christina crying behind me. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I just wanted to help poppa. I want poppAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” I whipped around, just in time to watch a deadling grab Christina by the back of her head, pick her up like a ragdoll, and took a bite out of her face. I felt my legs get weak and fall out from under me. my knees hit the ground and tears blinded my sight. I failed. Christina was gone, the one good and pure thing left in this fucked up world and I let them get it.

Anguish turned to rage, before I even knew what had happened, I jumped to my feet and almost teleported to where the deadling was. I grabbed my knife off my belt and buried it in its forehead, not caring whether or not I got its acid on me. this thing died now! It dropped Christina’s body, what remained of her head a mixture of blood, brain, and acid eating through in some places.

“YOU FUCKING MONSTER!!!! WHAT DID YOU DO!!!” I wrenched my knife out, yellow blood squirting out right behind it. “WE WERE ALMOST OUT!!” I drove the knife back into its eye. As I did, it started to smoke. At first, I just assumed it was the acid coming out, and I prepared for the hell I was about to endure.

There was a strange “Nyarlsk” sound from behind me, and I turned back around just as the deadlings I had been firing at retreated like they were afraid. Deadlings never retreated they were to stupid to be afraid.

I kneeled beside Christina, grabbing her hand. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. You didn’t deserve this.” I carefully picked her up and carried her towards the south gate. “I’m not going to leave you here. not with them.”

All the way to the gate, out to the trucks, and down the road, not one more deadling came after us. We had almost made it. I drove for a couple hours before coming up to a abandoned house. I opened the door and stepped out. I didn’t even bother checking for deadlings, it was hard to care if you died when you just watched the nightmare I just watched.

I walked around to the back and dropped the tailgate. I grabbed a shovel out of the toolbox and found the prettiest spot I possibly could. Sadly, with the world dying, beauty doesn’t exist anymore. The next best place to beauty ended up being a charred tree out back of the house. When I had dug a hole much bigger than I meant to, I zoned out for a while not realizing I had dug plenty before I had a hole big enough for two adults. I went back to the truck and pulled Christina’s body out and threw her over my shoulder. I walked around to the hole and laid her down next to it. I grabbed her hand one more time and said a prayer. I didn’t know who to pray to, so I just did a broad sweep to make sure wherever she was going she ended up with her father at least. Her ribbon had halfway come out, I untied it and held it tightly in my hand.

“I’m so sorry Christina. Not only did I let your father down, I let you down. The only thing I can do for you now is make sure you at least have somewhere to rest away from all this, someplace that at least tries to still have beauty. I hope wherever you are, your poppa already found you so you’re not wondering around alone. This world… this world could’ve used more of you. Its truly empty of goodness now. Goodbye, sweetheart…. Ill see you and your poppa again soon.”

I stuffed the ribbon in my pocket, wiped my eyes with my sleeve, and pulled her into her resting place. I filled the hole back in with dirt and put thrift’s rifle in the ground to mark the grave. I took the old heart-shaped locket off it and wrapped the ribbon around it.

Thrifty closed my journal slowly, tears falling endlessly down his face.

“I’m sorry hermano, you did everything…. Everything you….” His hands covered his face. for once I didn’t make any jokes, I just sat there with my friend. I could make jokes about anything, but there’s nothing funny about a man losing his child. Thrifty loved his daughter more than anyone loved anything that I’ve ever seen.

“Not enough….” I whispered, remembering every detail about the event.

“I’d be lying if I said you did but… it wasn’t you that elbowed yourself.” He stood up and said one word while looking out the door. “Where?” he asked never turning to look at me.

“Outback. Under the tree.” I answered staring at the ground.

“Gracias…” and he walked out. I didn’t follow him. I never checked on him. I just left a father alone to be with his daughter one last time.

Thrifty stayed all night outside under the tree. I tried to bring him some food, but he didn’t even acknowledge my presence. Not because he was mad at me, at least I don’t think so. He just couldn’t eat, he wasn’t worried about food. He just wanted to sit with his daughter.

In the morning, I loaded up the truck by myself. I asked thrifty if he wanted me to load up his stuff, still no response. It wasn’t until I climbed in the truck that he walked back in front of the house.

“I want my daughters’ ribbon and my locket.” He demanded.

“I already put them in your pack.” I replied.

“You know I’ve thought all night whether I should finish what that claymore started” he said dryly.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did thrift- “

“Shut up.”

I stopped talking

‘The only reason you’re alive right now is because she adored you…. You let my daughter die and for that ill never forgive you…” he said, “but you also risked your life to still get her out and lay her to rest and for that… thank you.”

He climbed in the truck and shut the door.

“I’ve got one question, thrift,” I said, “how did you even make it out of there? I saw them chunk you into a wall, HARD. Getting away from one is impressive enough, but two? How?”

“If I acted like I knew, id be lying. I don’t know what happened. I mean they had me, I was done I wasn’t even fighting back anymore. And then they just were gone.” He was talking as if he were trying to make sense of it himself.

“They just quit?”

“I know it sounds crazy, I mean, who’s ever heard of deadlings not finishing the job?” he turned towards me. “There was nothing stopping them from ending me, so why did I get to…. And not…” he started tearing up again.

“I don’t…” I stopped, remembering what happened right after stabbing that deadlings eye. “Wait a minute, about how long do you think it was after we left?” I asked.

“don’t know,” he sniffed and got ahold of himself again. “Why?”

“Because… well… right after…. I ran up and stabbed it in the forehead and then the eye,” I started to get excited. “When my knife went into its eye the others behind me made this weird sound id never heard before, but then they abandoned ship too! Thrift, what if there’s something in their eyes that they don’t like or something? I mean think about it! That’s the only time anyone’s ever seen or heard of them backing off, and it happened to both of us about the same time? What are the chances?”

“Not very good, ill admit. But why now? Surely at some point someone shot one in the eye, right?” he asked skeptically.

“I don’t know, maybe something with the blade? Chemical reaction?” I replied.

“Well, if you want to go around testing the ole “stab em in the eye and see what happens” theory, I’m going to need an even stronger drink. There’s an old bar not far from here that usually has a few unfound treasures.”

“I hear you. Alright let’s get to it.” I said eagerly, though in truth not sure whether it was because of the drink or possibly finding a way to beat these damn things. At the very least, keep them at bay.

We headed out, both hearts getting heavier and heavier the farther we got from the house, from Christina. At least she might not have died for nothing, at least hers could be a death that started a comeback. we had to test whether I was right, but how do you test something like that? No one ever gets that close to deadlings and walks away from it. We had to be smart, we were going to have to find a way to not only trap one of those things but how to get away from the others if it didn’t work.

No, it had to work, moms and Christina’s deaths had to mean something. As we drove down the road, neither of us said anything but I could feel thrift’s thoughts whirling as well. He was trying to figure out the same question I was. we didn’t know how we were going to do it, but we both knew it was the only hope we had to take our planet back and make sure no one else died from these fuckers.