Invasion

He takes his eyes off of me--a brief glance to the shadows cast by our lantern--and that’s when I lunge at him; My knife slides into his neck easily. His shock quickly morphs into a feral anger as black tar erupts from the wound, and in this moment, I know I made the right decision.

Black blood always gives them away. You just need to find a good reason to cut them first. The goosebumps are never wrong.

I quickly step back just as he swipes for me, his eyes are bulging out of his skull. He’s trying to breathe while choking on blood. I know it’s not dead yet.

“Jesus Christ,” Kate jumps to her feet, clutching a combat knife with a white fist. “Where is it? Where’s the--”

Her question is quickly answered as thin appendages, nearly invisible due to the darkness surrounding us, burst through the host’s skull. It’s as if it erupted from a glass vase. Shattered, bloody pieces of bone and brain matter fly through the air and into the fallen leaves.

“There it is!” I’m charging for him once more. He’s stumbling through the brush, blindly swinging his outstretched, clawed hands. The tendrils from his skull dance around each other in the air, reaching for whatever they can get--a desperate search for a new body to inhabit before the host dies.

I push him to the ground from behind. I pause to catch my breath as he flails on the ground. I hear a loud, wet, gurgling sound as more tar spills from his throat--maybe he’s trying to scream.

He kicks his foot out, and my knee buckles. My back hits the ground and he’s on top of me before I realize what’s happening. My mouth opens and my thoughts still in terror. The top half of his head has vanished entirely; his skull had paved the way for the parasite’s last effort to escape. His lower jaw hangs onto nothing as it snaps off and nearly hits me. Another tendril comes from his throat, dripping wet. It creeps steadily closer to my face as the host convulses, hanging onto life by a thread. Whatever the limb is covered with drips onto my face and into my mouth and it tastes tangy and it's coming closer and I don’t want it to get closer please stop please stop--

Kate’s hand plunges deep within the half-skull of the former man. She’s elbow-deep before I see her arm tense. She’s found it. More of the tar leaks onto my face and I have to shut my eyes. Close my mouth. The weight is lifted off of me as squelching and wet cracks fill the air. I wipe my eyes quickly enough to watch as Kate harvests the source of the tendrils as easily as pulling a carrot from the ground, roots and all. The back of my neck goes haywire at the raw presence of the creature.

Using both hands, she crushes it. The slimy body breaks apart in her grip and oozes through her fingers, and we both watch in silence as the pieces fall to the ground, and the host along with it.

I rub the nape of my neck, grateful that the goosebumps have gone down, and look around wearily. We wait in silence for a bit, listening for any snaps of branches or crushed leaves, but we only hear the calls of nocturnal frogs echo through the forest. At least they’re having a peaceful night.

“I almost had him,” Kate seethes through a tight jaw. She’s ripping apart the weakly-writhing organism with her nails now, probably wishing it was my face. Even in the dark, her eyes shine like emeralds. “If you hadn’t fucked it up, he would have told me where… I was so close, Eve. What the fuck!?”

I got to my feet, kicking away the bloodied jaw into the foliage. “We don’t know if he was even telling the truth. Why are you suddenly taking their word as gospel? Another minute, and he would have had us,” I’m fiddling with the soaked sleeves of my jacket. My arms are shaking. “They’ll do anything they can to survive, and that includes lying to our faces right before eating them off. Did you just forget that?”

“Fuck you,” she picks her knife from the ground and grimaces at what covers it. Quickly wiping the blade on the jacket of the corpse, she grabs for the lantern from the center of the makeshift campsite and turns towards the darkness. With a clean hand, she wraps her fingers around the heart of the golden necklace that clings to her neck with thin tendrils. The vibrant glow of the chain matches her hair.

Kate steps a few feet forward before stopping. Her ponytail swings as she turns to glare at me. “Sometime tonight, thanks.”

I hurriedly grab my fallen knife and clutch my backpack. Gritting my teeth, I stumble after her, leaving the evidence of our survival to be shrouded in darkness.

. . .

The apocalypse wasn’t kind to modern architecture, and Shoreview Apartments definitely wasn’t an exception. The building is slowly becoming visible as the sun rises from its slumber, and I can almost make out the cracks in the bricks.

Kate and I tread across the parking lot, weaving through the giant heaps of scrap metal that used to be cars, careful not to touch any of them to avoid tripping an alarm should they still be intact. We don’t want to alert anything nearby if they’re listening, waiting.

Shoreview’s tattered appearance is both an eyesore and a blessing. With the place in such shambles, anyone or anything would just walk right by it without suspecting it shelters a small community. That’s what we all hope, anyway.

We silently approach the iron gate. Without its silhouette against the light of dawn and Kate’s dying lantern, I would have walked head-first into the thing.

I can see Louis through the gothic bars sitting on the shredded leather couch. He’s flipping through a magazine with one hand while he points a large flashlight at the pages with the other. Kate loudly clears her throat. In a flurry of flashing lights, limbs, and the sound of flapping paper, Louis tumbles off of the couch and onto the pavement. Panicked, he scrambles for the flickering flashlight and aims it towards us like he’s about to fire a bullet. I have to shield my eyes so they don’t burn.

Kate does the same. “Apple pie,” she grunts.

Our password. We make a new one every day. No one can get in unless they say it first.

“Jesus Christ, what happened to the two of you?” He casts the beam over our bodies, making the dried tar twinkle. He hurriedly steps closer, flicking the light off. “Are you okay?”

“You’re on guard duty. That means you have to guard.” Kate replies icily, gripping her dead lantern tighter than necessary. “You’re lucky we weren’t followed. Just hurry and open the fucking gate.”

I cringe at her tone. A tension settles in the air between the three of us. Even Louis pauses for a moment before wordlessly unlocking the hatch with a large black key. I watch him push the gate open, noticing him wince as he switches from pushing with his hand to his forearm, and step aside. Kate brushes past us, keeping her gaze fixed forward as she pushes her way through the front doors.

I turn my attention back to Louis, who’s closing the gate behind us and locking it. With the rising sun, his eyes look much darker as he locks his gaze with mine. “What happened out there? Are you hurt?”

I shook my head. “No, none of this is ours.”

His shoulders lower a bit. It feels like forever since I’ve seen his boyish grin. “That hoodie suits you. At least, when it’s not covered in guts and…whatever else you decided to roll in.”

“Right,” I say, removing my backpack and crusty hoodie. I toss them onto the couch. My uncovered arms prickle in the cold in seconds. “I forgot corpses were the new pile of leaves.”

“You don’t roll in piles of leaves, you jump in them. I showed you, remember?”

“That wasn’t jumping, you belly flopped into an inch of wet foliage and hit your head. How’s the brain damage?” Laughter bubbles up my chest, taking flight with the cold gust of wind that sweeps through the courtyard. Our quiet laughter is all we can hear for a short while, until it eventually dies down and I’m left shivering.

He lifts the right side of his coat, allowing me to huddle right against him. “At least it’s laundry day.” He says, gesturing to my stained pants.

Everyone left the concept of personal space behind once the temperature started dropping outside. At least, I did. Heat is much more important.

The breeze has long passed, but I still clung to his warm frame. I find Louis to be quite the human heater. He nudges me to move with him so we can rest on the ripped couch together. The cold surface freezes me when I sit on it.

“Shouldn’t you be keeping guard?” My voice is muffled as I bury my face in his sleeve.

He shrugs. “Nothing ever comes through here anyways. Worms need their beauty sleep too, I’m sure.”

I have to chuckle at that. Now that I’m bundled away from the cold, I’m starting to feel a bit sleepy myself. I’ll pass out once I get to my room.

“So what really happened out there?” He asks me softly.

“One of them...knew Marlynn,” It’s difficult to get these words out. Increasingly so as I feel him stiffen underneath my touch. “He told us she was safe, and warm, and everything else. But I knew he was a liar. He had to have been. We took care of him.”

“Sounds like more of their cultish bullshit,” he mutters but tries to smile. “Maybe next time, don’t bring up old friends to brain worms?”

I shake my head. “That’s the thing--Kate and I never mentioned her. He asked if we were looking for her, and that she was where she needed to be,” I look up at him, almost bumping my forehead against his chin. “How can someone die, and a worm uses them for recruitment months later? To random people in the woods, no less. Does that make any sense unless he knew we lost her?”

He turns his head to sigh heavily, furrowing his eyebrows. For a moment, we just sit there, listening to the songs of birds and waves crashing against the nearby shore.

“You know what I think?” He gets to his feet, and the morning air chills my skin once more. “I think that this is a conversation you should have with The Hawk.”

“I’m sorry, I--”

He raises a dark, bandaged hand, and I feel silenced by it. “Just… can’t get my hopes up, y’know? It’s too early to be thinking about weird parasite settlements that kidnap people.”

He laughs, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. I stand next to him and give a nod. “Well… I’ll go see her now,” I grab my rattling backpack and reach for the hoodie.

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll clean it and get it back to you, okay?”

I nod. “Thank you. I’ll see you later.”

“Seeya, Eve,” he stretches and turns to the gate, not wanting to be scolded by Lawrence when he shows up.

Feeling the conversation reach its end, I head to the inside of the building. When you first get inside, you’re greeted by a desk and the entrance to a long hallway that leads to the dining area. Louis told me this building used to be something called a “hotel” before the brain worms crashed to Earth. The owner then converted it to an apartment building, since no one really travels anymore. Those that do don’t last for long. Too vulnerable.

I arrive just in time to see Kate emerge from Langwood’s office, slamming the door shut with so much force that I jolt at the sound. She’s panting and red in the face, and her jaw is clenched so hard I’m scared she might break her teeth.

“My God, do you have any idea what time it is?” Haisley is standing behind the desk with a pale hand on her wide hip. Her dishevelled dark hair tells me she just woke up. “It was just a bad run-in. You haven’t gotten any sleep. I think you should go to your room and--”

“Don’t you fucking start,” Kate heaves forcefully, pointing an accusing finger at the short girl. “Don’t you, of all people, fucking start with me.”

“I’m not trying to start anything! Kate, listen--”

Kate rounds on her, squaring her shoulders and looking more ferocious than I’ve ever seen her. “No, you listen! I’ve had enough of everybody trying to tell me that I’m crazy for holding out any fucking hope--”

“I saw her body, Kate! You can’t just deny the fact that what happened didn’t happen!”

“I don’t believe a word you or that walking corpse has to say to me.”

“Then I can’t help you,” Haisley spats, turning away from the blonde and fiddling with the clipboard on the desk. “I think it’d be best if you went to your room--”

“Don’t you turn your back on me,” Kate closes in on Haisley, and I begin making my way over to the two. Haisley whips around and holds her arms up defensively, but Kate remains inches away. “You think that just because you’re Langwood’s footstool you can just act like you’re better than me? Better than anyone here? Marlynn was my best friend, you heartless bitch--” she spits the word out with such force, I see spit fly onto Haisley’s glasses. “--and you want me to go to my room? To lay down and go to sleep like nothing’s wrong?”

“You’re not the only one who lost someone, Kate!” Haisley’s broken cry echoes off of the halls and into my chest. We’re left silent as Haisley chokes on sobs. There’s a hollowness in my chest; it’s always there when Haisley cries. Her face is buried in the sleeves of her oversized sweater, and Kate visibly deflates with every tear she sheds.

“Just leave,” Haisley pleads, turning away from her. “Please.”

Kate and I lock gazes, and I’m just now realizing how this world has taken its toll on her. Her eyes are surrounded by dark rings, and her shoulders are slacked, like she’s being pulled to the ground. Her body is telling her to give up. It’s been telling her to give up for months.

Even the necklace she always wears--which, in the artificial light, I now see is heart shaped--sags with its owner, low and dim under her collarbone. It doesn’t take a detective to know who gave it to her. Is there a picture of Marlynn inside?

“...I’m sorry,” is all she can muster before dragging herself away. Her hair is like straw, dangling lifelessly as she disappears down the hall.

That leaves me and a tearful Haisley, and I’m unsure of what to say. I place my hand on her shoulder, feeling the tips of her dark hair brush my fingers. They’re soft.

She lifts her head to look at me with large, wet eyes. Her lip is still trembling. “I’m sorry you had to see that, Eve.”

“Everything will be fine,” I try to sound reassuring, but I feel overconfident and awkward. “She’ll be taking swings at Louis for his dumb jokes by lunch.”

Still, she laughs. She lifts her eye windows--glasses--to dab at her eyes with her already-wet sleeve. “Did you get the pain meds?”

“They sound like maracas,” I say. She giggles as I remove the backpack and hand it to her. It rattles in response.

“Thank you,” she mumbles, gingerly placing the bag onto the desk. “Langwood wants to talk to you too. Just about what happened out there.”

I tilted my head. “Didn’t Kate tell her what happened already?”

“I think she also wants to talk about… Kate,” she clears her throat. “I’d go in there now.”

“Okay. Thank you, Haisley.”

She hums and counts the bottles. I walk around the desk and through the door.

Mrs. Langwood’s office is the tidiest of the rooms in the building. There’s a large mahogany desk with a comfortable-looking chair. Large bookcases against the dark red walls that are filled with books I’ve never heard of before. Folders are stacked neatly on top, and the height casts a shadow over the room as the lit fireplace roars with life. The gold and red theme of the room makes my shoulders relax. The overall toastiness makes me want to curl up under the desk and sleep.

The door on the far left side of the room opens, and in comes a tall gray woman. “A good morning to you, young lady,” the voice lifts over the crackling firewood. She settles into the red velvet chair and pierces me with her chocolate gaze. “You seem cold.”

“A little. My hoodie got dirty.”

“Yes, Kathryn... informed me that two had quite the run-in,” she taps her long fingers against the desk. “Do tell me what transpired.”

“Just..a worm who was trying to trick us,” Every order she gives feels like a test, so I find myself speaking slowly, knowing she’s picking apart every word I say. I feel like I’ve been caught doing something wrong. “He said that he knew where Marlynn was.”

Langwood proved there was such a thing as smiling impassively. The only lightsource is close to the floor, so there’s one side of her face that is shrouded in darkness. “Marlynn is dead, dear. I feel as though everyone is choosing to ignore that fact,” she sighs deeply. Her silver hair shines wonderfully from the warm glow of the fire. “Hearing is believing, I suppose. I’m afraid there’s not much I can do to quell the speculation amongst your peers, is there?”

I think of Kate’s turned back from moments before and my chest concaves. I’ve never seen her look like that. The spiteful flame that kept her going snuffed itself out in the blink of a tearful eye.

“The worm said her name first,” I say finally, feeling sweat beginning to form underneath my thin clothes. It’s becoming too hot. “He asked if we were looking for a missing friend, and that he knew where she was.”

I regret opening my mouth as soon as it closes. Langwood returns to stabbing me without even lifting a finger. She’s searching my face for something, but I’m not sure what. I hope the beads of sweat aren’t visible.

Her nickname comes from times like this. She’ll sit there, unmoving, watching you like a predator watches its prey when you’ve said something you shouldn’t have. Her eyes are unblinking as they freeze you in place. Her hair starts to wriggle like snakes if you engage in her staring contest long enough.

“And you’re sure of this?”

I nod, breaking myself from her spell to look anywhere else.

More silence. Our shadows dance on the walls, celebrating my discomfort.

“A trick, that’s all it was, like you said,” she tilts her head, folding her wrinkled hands over each other. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it heard her rantings and ravings from the forest. The girl can’t mention her name without screaming it.”

“But, Mrs. La--”

“Eve, be a doll and keep an eye on her,” she rubs her temples. Her nails are red. “Just make sure she keeps herself out of any more trouble.”

There’s a framed, painted man hung on the wall above her who I make eye contact with. The resemblance between him and the woman sitting in front of me is striking. Same haunting, piercing, dark gaze. He looks disappointed, like he knows I accomplished nothing, and probably never will.

“Oh, and before you go,” her voice breaks me from my second staring contest. “Finn and Carol are due to be back from their grocery trip sometime soon. Help them carry the food in. Don’t worry about sorting and putting it away, just see that it’s inside and you’re free for the rest of the day.”

I hate going on grocery trips with a passion. You walk for two hours to get to an abandoned food mart where supplies steadily dwindles each week, and walk two hours back carrying as much as you can handle, leaving your dominant hand free to arm yourself. Soon enough we’ll have to find somewhere else to gut, and I won’t be ready for that journey.

I give a quick farewell before stepping out of the room and closing the door behind me, thankful for the absence of sweltering heat. There’s an uneasy feeling that I can’t shake, and I sense that The Hawk won’t forget that conversation anytime soon.

The pain meds are gone from the desk, meaning Haisley’s finished sorting through them and stashing them away in the safe. Only she and Langwood know the code.

I quickly step outside and breathe the cool air deeply, letting it sap away any sweat and discomfort I had before.

The uneasiness slowly creeped back the more I thought of that room. The dark shadows that clung onto every surface and dripped from every word Langwood spoke. I’ll find Kate after I carry food in; she needs someone to tell her that she’s right.

The sound of hoarse cries break me from my spell. I see Louis and Lawrence crowding around the gate with Finn on the other side, clenching the bars with red fists. He’s pressing his red-splattered body against the gate, as if he’s trying to squeeze his way in. I notice the lack of cargo and Carol.

As I step closer, I feel a ripple trail down my spine, and I hurry my way over. I stand between Louis and Lawrence. “What’s going on?”

“Take a breath, Finn,” Lawrence has a crowbar in his hand, always keeping it ready. “Just tell us what happened.”

The dirty blond is dripping blood on the pavement, wheezing, his face is scrunched in panic. “They got Carol! They’re coming, you need to let me in. I’m hurt!”

I step closer to them, searching behind Finn for any signs of movement between the heaps of cars and beyond the parking lot. Nothing.

“Just take it easy, man,” Lawrence raises his hand. “Calm down. Who has Carol?”

“Them! Worms! They gutted her right in front of me,” His voice cracked with desperation. He reaches his hand through the gate at Louis, blue eyes pooling with tears. “Why are you guys just standing there?! Help me!”

Louis fishes the key out of his pockets.

“Wait!” I shout, feeling dread seep through my skin.

“Let him in, Louis,” Lawrence urges, lowering the crowbar.

Louis holds the key in his hands, eyes fixed on Finn’s desperation through his thick dreadlocks.

Finn cries out again. “Louis! Hurry up! They’re--”

“Password, Finn.”

The blond’s eyes widen, tears stream down his cheeks.

Louis exhales harshly through his nose. “Password. Then I’ll let you in.”

“We… We don’t have time for this! We don’t…” Finn’s voice dies in his throat as he chokes on his own spit.

“Two words, Finny,” I hear Louis say, clicking his tongue.

Finn doesn’t have any cuts on him.

“C’mon. They’re coming, right?” Louis holds out his key just out of reach of the outstretched, clawed hand. “A dessert as American as they come, and our dear patriot can’t even remember.”

The theatrics would be funnier if Carol and Finn weren’t dead.

The blond’s face darkens and he lets his bloodied hands fall to his sides. The air stills alongside us; everything seems frozen.

My cold hand cradles the back of my neck. Goosebumps. They’ve been acting up since I left the building, and now I know why.

“Where’s Carol?” I ask, even though I know the answer.

The thing wearing human skin laughs hollowly, as if doing it for the first time. “I’m going to get in there eventually, key or not. Guess I’m gonna just break through these bars,” he grins wildly. “Just like I broke through his breathing rib cage.”

A balloon of flesh and blood pops and splatters bits of carcass onto the bars and the pavement. An eyeless, flesh-colored being sits perched between the spread, splintered pink bars in Finn’s chest. The rapidly-beating heart is clenched between the limbs on its face. Its talons are pierced into the organ, draining it of the fluid it pumped for twenty years.

The worm nestles within a throne of gore. And it’s the biggest worm I’ve ever seen.

“Eve! Go and get help, we’ll--” Louis doubles over, bile spilling from his mouth before he can finish.

The talons unlatches from the heart, now dead and still, and blooms open like a flower. Where the limbs meet, there’s a mouth lined with sharp teeth. It lets out a soul-piercing scream. A noticeable effort, judging by the spasms rippling throughout its slimy body. Finn’s corpse tips over and the worm detaches itself from the host using its many legs.

It leaps through the iron bars.