The Sovereign

I do not know how l have been here. My troop and I became trapped in this cave when “The Sovereign” forces invaded our site. We managed to grab enough food and supplies to last us two months, and I’m not sure if it has been two months or close to two months, but the supplies are dwindling fast. Montgomery has claimed most of the rations. He says he has to be the one to distribute them because he is the only one who understands what the human body needs to survive, given his background in human biology. The rest of us called horseshit, but no one else has a medical background, so no one could truly pose a debate.

We lost a couple of good men when the post was invaded. David. Norman. “The Sovereign” dragged them away by their throats. I can still see David kicking and screaming as blood poured from his chest, begging us to help him. None of us helped him. We let those creatures drag him away, still alive, while the rest of us ran.

“What are you writing?”

My makeshift pencil slipped and made an ugly line across my paper. I looked up. Terrance was hovering above me, rubbing his hands together, attempting to bring the blood flow back to his already black, dead, frost-bitten fingers. I turned my head back down to my paper and sighed.

“Honestly, Terry, I don’t even know. No one will probably see it, anyways.” Terrance moved a broken box of supplies out of the way and sat down next to me. “You know,” he said, still rubbing his hands, “When we get out of here, we’ll find them.” I stared at him, stunned. “Who, Terry? David? Mary-Anne? They’re dead. Hopefully.” Terrance lowered his eyes. “They can’t be dead. Mary-Anne can’t be dead. I can’t continue on if they’re dead.” Now, I lowered my eyes. I had forgotten that Mary-Anne and Terrance had been married. “The Sovereign” had taken her and the kids when they first appeared. I took a deep breath. “Tell me about your family, Terrance.”

Terrance’s eyes lit up. “Mary-Anne and I met in college at Berkley. She was studying neuroscience and I was studying to become a teacher. We met at a seminar for child development. She was wearing a stunning black dress and black heels. I couldn’t stop staring at her. I asked her to join me for dinner after the seminar, and she said yes, and the rest is history. We got married a year later, and then two years after that little Annalise came along. She was adorable. She never cried and was always a happy, giggling, bubbly baby. Two years after that Zachariah came. My family was so beautiful. Annalise would have started the fifth grade, and Zach would have started the third grade.” Terrance’s smile faded.

“Then those…those things came. I’ll never forget that day. I had picked Annalise up from school. Mary-Anne and I had hired a babysitter because we were going to go out for our eleven-year anniversary. I only ten minutes away from home when the sky turned black. It was so dark, Anastasia. Annaliese started crying. I tried calling Mary-Anne but all of lines had been cut. No one had service. People started swerving on the road. It was a miracle I got back to the house.”

“When I got home, Mary-Anne had thrown a bunch of the family’s stuff in some duffle bags. We let Annalise grab her favorite stuffed animal and we ran. We didn’t know where we were going. We packed up the car and just…drove. Mary-Anne and I took turns driving. We must have driven for days. The kids were hungry and tired. We tried stopping at different rest stops and grocery stores, but everything had already been looted. We resorted to eating canned dog food and pretty much anything we could get our hands on.”

There was a rustling sound in the back. We both whipped our necks to see where the noise came from. Rusty was rifling through the weapons box. We turned back to look at each other.

After a moment, Terrance continued.

“We drove until we ran out of gas, which happened to be in a little town in what I believe to have been Nebraska. It was abandoned all except for the bodies that lined the streets. They were…horribly mutilated. Limbs were thrown all over the road. Women, children…everyone in that town had been killed by whatever those things are. The car stopped and we all got out of the car. Mary-Anne led the kids into a house, checking to make sure none of those things were near. The house was abandoned, but there was some canned food left-over from whoever was there previously. I cleared the bodies out of the house. We stayed there for what felt like weeks, though I’m not sure how long we were actually there.”

“One morning I woke up and Mary-Anne and the kids were just…gone. They were gone. I searched frantically. I broke into every single house and building in that town, but they were gone. We had heard stories from people we passed or helped that their loved ones just disappeared…that “The Sovereign” had this-this device where they can just take people out of thin air. I searched for hours. I called for them, screamed their names. Nothing.”

I watched as Terrance reached for his backpack. He opened it and rummaged through. After a few seconds he pulled out a torn, burnt stuffed animal rabbit. It only had one ear and was missing both of its eyes. It was torn at the seam of one leg and had burn marks all over it. It was a dark, dirty brown.

“I walked for miles down the highway, passing dead bodies and broken-down cars. I was totally alone. I could not think where they would have gone or why. I just know that they are out there somewhere. I need to give Annalise her rabbit. I have to. I-“

Terrance started to sob. He clutched the rabbit with such force I could see the whites of his knuckles underneath the layer of dirt and blood that caked his hands.

“Hey,” I said, laying my hand on his heaving shoulder. “Hey, we’ll find them. They’re out there somewhere. I know they are.” Terrance continued to sob. The room had fallen silent accept for the sound of his cries.

“Guys! Code Red!” Someone called. I shot up from the ground and looked around. Everyone was standing perfectly still. We all turned our eyes towards the entrance of the cave. All that could be seen was the shadow of a creature with a pointed skull. It let out a blood curdling scream.