Ghost Town

The sounds of a small cry echoed through the empty city streets. The sounds ping and bounce endlessly off the abandoned city streets until they hit the ears of a bypasser. She stops short on her long board and looks off into the direction of the sound. She looks around as if there were someone else around to hear the cries too. She then looks forward in the direction she was going, then turns her head to the direction of the cries. She hikes her 47 on to her shoulder and turns her board and rides towards the cries. She dips and swerves past the rusting cars on the street as the wheels seemingly roar on the concrete. She looks around cautiously; checking every building, looking in every car, down every street corner she passes, until finally she arrives at the source of the cries. She steps off her board and places it against the wall. She looks up at the tall apartment building before taking a breath and walking in.

Taking the gun ready. She walks around a bit to confirm that nothing is in the room and as she is preparing to make a swift exit, she hears glass shatter nearby. She turns around, gun drawn only for her to be aimed at a kitten. The kitten hisses at her, causing the girl to lower her weapon with a face of relief. She walks over to the kitten, letting it sniff her hand before petting it. She poured some water from her canteen that was on her side into the bowl she found from the counter and placed it on the floor by the kitten. The kitten walks over to the bowl and meows at the girl. The girl watches on when she feels the presence of another. She turns around to find the mother cat in a pouncing position. The cat looks at her with suspicious eyes. The girl got out of the cat’s path, allowing the mother to step forth toward her baby. She sniffs the water, taking a taste for herself before letting the kitten drink from the bowl. The mother looks back at the girl. The two meet eyes. They have a mutual understanding. Just like that, the cries begin again. The girl looks up towards the noise then back down at the cats but they’re gone, all that remains is an empty bowl. The girl prepared herself once more and proceeded up the stairs to the next floor.

She climbed up and up till she eventually reached the room from which the cries were emitting. She enters the room slowly once more, looking for any signs of life. But it felt more barren than the apartment she had just left. Looking around something catches her eye, a small heart-shaped locket on the ground. She bends down to examine it, taking the locket between her fingers and feeling the roughness of its corroding chain. She could feel a strong force urging her to take the locket. As she crouched there thumbing the locket’s smooth surface, out of the corner of her eye she sees something, she turns quickly, partially raising her weapon. The figure she was expecting to face though, was surprisingly a child, a little boy in fact. The girl lowers her rifle once again, remembering the incident with the kitten a few moments earlier and kneels down to the small boy. The two look each other in the eyes. The already chilly room began to drop more in temperature as the two gazes met each other. The girl saw a faint glow in the child's eyes. A familiar glow that's soon snuffed out by a look of fear. The child points behind her and with her own eyes widened, she quickly looks back to find a sinister hulking phantom phasing through the wall, reaching out to get her. The Phantom swipes at her. She lunges forward out of it’s range. She turns and looks for the child but he's not there. She stuffs the locket into her bag as the Phantom gets ready for another swipe. She dives out of the way of it's attack but it goes for a follow up with it's other hand. She barely manages to throw herself out of the way. The Phantom goes to slam her against the wall behind her but she quickly rolls out of the way readying her gun in the process. The Phantom howls at her before it begins to claw its way towards her. The girl opens fire on it and the bullets even start to repel the ghoul. The Phantom grabs the ceiling and pulls it down. The girl hops up and dashes toward the window. She shoots at the window before hurtling herself through on to the fire escape. The Phantom not allowing the girl to catch her breath crashes through the wall as the girl zips to the stairs, the Phantom swings at her but just misses. I's claws cleave through the metal frame of the fire escape. The girl blindly fires back at the Phantom, while using her momentum to propel herself around the corner to the next staircase. She jumps down the next flight of stairs with the Phantom literally nipping at her heels. She quickly throws herself into the back of the building. She digs into her bag and pulls out a glass flask filled with water. She turns to the window with the flask in hand but the Phantom is no longer behind her. The place is silent. All that can be heard is the girl’s own exhausted breathing. She tries to calm herself as she looks around. She begins to back away from the window she came in through. Her back hits something. She turns her head and through the corner of her eye, she sees the red and black skin of the Phantom. She jolts forward, spinning around and smashing the flask into the Phantom’s face. Steam rises from the Phantom’s face as it reels back in pain. The blessed water seemingly burns away at it’s very existence. The girl dives underneath the Phantom and continues her sprint away from the beast. She slides across the floor crashing into a wall as she makes a tight turn towards the stairwell. At that moment, the Phantom recovers. It charges after her and begins thrashing it’s way down through the in-betweens of the stairwell. The girl sprays back at the Phantom to slow it down. She leaps down each flight of stairs but it doesn't matter as the Phantom gets closer and closer. She looks at the floor numbers, seeing that she has 4 floors to go until she reaches the ground floor. She leaps. She can see it’s hand to her left. She grabs the railing, using her momentum to fling herself around to the next set of stairs. She leaps again.

3 till ground. She leaps.

She can see more of it now, the Phantom takes a swing at her. She ducks under it, dashing towards the stairs. She leaps again.

2 till ground. She leaps.

The Phantom reaches for her again, she starts firing at it again. The Phantom flinches but it doesn't slow down. She leaps again.

1 till ground. She leaps.

She can feel the chill of the Phantom’s breath on the back of her neck. She leaps again and the beast snips a piece of her hair.

Ground floor.

The girl bashes through the door into the lobby. She makes a run for the front door. As her hand touches the door handle the Phantom grabs her. It pulls her way from the door, hurtles her at a wall, during the flight she is separated from her rifle. She hits the wall with a loud crash before falling to the ground with a thud. The girl reels back in pain and spits up blood. She looks over the counter in front of her. The Phantom charges her position. She bolts out of the way as the Phantom crushes the counter table. Enraged, the Phantom tosses the counter single handedly at the girl. She dives behind a sofa and braces for its impact. She looks to her left and sees her AK, she dives for her gun and dips towards another counter on the other side of the room. She looks to her right and out of the corner of her eye she can see the front door. She gets ready to run when a claw phases through the counter and pulls her through it’s thin, wooden paneling. The Phantom holds her up by her leg. It's mouth salivates as it goes to bite her. The girl opens fire into it's gaping mouth. The Phantom drops her, she lands on her feet and dashes to the door. She crashes through the doorway snatching her long board and hopping on. She looks back and in the distance she sees the Phantom. It lets out a furious roar before she loses sight of it. The girl rides her board until she exits the city. She rides up to a grassy hill with a tree at its peak just outside the city. She walks up to the tree and sits down, leaning against it. She reaches into her bag and pulls out some medical supplies and begins to patch herself up. She coughs up some blood again. She looks back at the city as the sunset glistens through the skyline. She looks back in her bag and pulls out the locket. She examines it one last time. Fiddling with it until it pops open. She inspects it finding two pictures inside. On one side is a picture of a mother and her daughter, on the other a father and his son. She then gets up and places the locket at the basin of the tree. She reaches into her shirt and pulls out a little cross on a chain around her neck. She takes the cross and motions cross of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The little boy appears before her once more. The boy softly smiles at her and gives her a hug. The boy then begins to glow brighter and brighter before dissolving away. His essence shattered to the wind. A tear goes down her face. The girl takes a moment to collect herself. The existence of another phantom has been prevented but what is a raindrop to an ocean? She packs up her stuff, slings her back pack over her shoulder, and picks up her gun and Longboard. walking away from the city she never looked back. The silence is broken by the cry of another coming from the woods ahead of her. She looks off in the direction of the sound and then at the road ahead of her.