Berserkers

I watched the heart-shaped locket sway in front of my face. As though it was trying to put me in a trance. I remember when he gave it to me, a way to profess his love and yearning for me. That was 3 years ago, and I miss his smile. I quickly shoved the locket back in my pocket.

“Enough” I whispered to myself. Cannot focus on the past, I must focus on surviving. Not just for myself but for him. It is what he wanted.

I looked out the passenger window of the van we were driving to our destination. Looking at the ruins from what used to be our world. It would never recover, but the real question was, would we?

After about an hour into our journey we arrived at our destination. The cars were lined up as the soldiers were taking the passengers of each vehicle’s temperatures. It looked like we were going to be waiting for a bit, so I looked toward our driver. There were five other people in the vehicle with us. A mother with her two children. A boy and a girl, who I would guess they were between the ages of 8 and 10. And a young couple, no older than I was. Our driver was a middle-aged man named Daniel.

“How long do you reckon it will be before we get inside?” I asked him calmly.

“Maybe about 30 minutes if we’re lucky, I suppose.” Daniel replied to me.

“I don’t know how I feel about being bunched up with a large group of people.”

“It’ll be alright dear. Just have a bit of faith we can all make it through this.”

I sighed and turned back towards the window, fumbling with the locket in my pocket. Imagining his face once more. The eyes blue as the clearest ocean and hair the color of the golden sand. The brilliant smile he always gave me when he thought I was not looking. I leaned back into the seat and closed my eyes and slowly feel asleep thinking about him.

I was not out for very long before I was awakened by a soldier knocking on my window. I opened my door to get out. Another soldier was opening the back doors and having the folks in the back get out. As I did, I was startled by screaming coming from right behind me. The soldier had taken the boys temperature and it had been low. He had moved the guns position to where it was pointed on the mother. Another soldier had come in to grab the child, but the mother was screaming and trying to fight them from taking her child.

The soldier began to shout commands to stop, or he would be forced to shoot her. She shouted loud enough for the cars at the very beginning of the line to hear. “HE’S HUMAN I SWEAR!” This caused the car in the front of the line to start and crash through the gate. Causing the soldiers to start firing upon the vehicle. Other cars started to try to maneuver through the gun fire to reach the inside of the base safely only to succumb to the gunfire.

I then saw the thing that terrified me the most. The mother’s face and her children began to distort horrifically. Their faces twisted in a way that was not humanly possible. The smile on the young girl’s face grew to wear it stretched and covered the bottom half of her face. She looked at the soldier and opened her mouth to reveal hundreds of tiny razor-sharp teeth lined up in rows. The soldier fumbling with his gun tried to raise it but she clamped down on his arm before he was able to let off a single shot.

The soldier screamed as his arm was taken off and all but a bloody stump below his elbow was left. The girl then lunged for his throat ripping it out as the blood dripped down her chin. The girl’s mother was attacking the soldier that had taken ahold of the young boy. He was on the ground now struggling to fight but it was too late. She had his lower intestines in her hand pulling them out as her son was piling them into his mouth.

I turned to Daniel; his face had warped into something that was unrecognizable. Where his eyes were tentacles had protruded. They were reaching for the soldier in front of him. Before he could reach him, he started fire bullets into him. They struck him, a few going right through his torso. I knew I had to run. Get into the base before the monsters got to me. I took off as fast as I possibly could with tears streaming down my face. Jumping over bodies trying to avoid gunfire.

A bullet grazed my right side causing me to fall in pain. I felt my hand land on something mushy and looked down. It was grey matter from a woman who had shielded a baby no older than 8 months. The child had suffocated from the weight of the woman. I took in a deep breath trying to pull myself back up. I started to limp and do a half-run to make my way to the gate. How badly I wanted to look behind me, but I forced myself to focus on getting to the gate.

There were a group of soldiers at the gate firing on anyone who moved close to them. A man was on his knees begging to be let through. I watched as they executed him. I turned back to see the young couple behind me consoling each other trying to move through the bodies like me.

I turned to them, and the young man nodded his head in agreeance. In that moment, my own face started to shift. It was now that we needed to break through. We needed this new home, and we would take it by any means necessary. This is what I promised him as I touched the locket for the strength I needed to continue.