The Uncovered

A sour stench lingered day and night anywhere you went and there was no breeze to grant relief from it. Only scorching sun and a vengeful heat existed now. All the doors and windows of my house were wide open and there were six fans buzzing in the living room where Grandma and I sat. Whatever room we were in, the fans came with us. I liked to place them in a circle and sit right in the middle on the floor. Grandma needed to sit in her chair though, her aching back and hips couldn’t handle the bare concrete anymore. I had four fans surrounding her, blowing right in her face. Her long white hair streamed behind her, eyes closed, breathing raspy and dry. She slept peacefully for someone who had been through what she had. She lost both her children, my mom and uncle. They had gotten sick during the first heat surge and there hadn’t been enough hospitals or doctors to keep up.

I had to leave the house that day. Our bread was gone and our collection of canned vegetables was dwindling. I hated leaving Grandma at home to boil by herself, but if we wanted to eat, I had to go. I touched her frail shoulder gently and crouched beside the weary armchair. Sunken and red, her eyes opened half way. A smile broke her lips as she looked at me, squeezing my hand in hers like she always did.

“Be careful, sweet. Bring my Jax back to me.” I chuckled and nodded reassuringly. Jax is the name my Grandma gave me. After my mother died, her absence echoed my real name and Grandma needed no more reminders of her dead daughter.

The street was empty as no one left home unless they had to. Wavy lines rose from the melting tarmac. It was suffocating to say the least. Before I stepped out of the house, I fitted my walking tent over my head and made sure no bare skin was exposed. Four pieces of wood nailed together in a square, rested on my shoulders. Fabric draped over the bike helmet on my head and cascaded to the ground around me. Inside my cover, I had fashioned carrying poles which extended straight out from my shoulders in the front and back. This is where I would hang sacks for carrying supplies home from the marketplace.

I walked the dirt path which travelled through the dead lawns of the houses lining the street. We lived on a steep hill overlooking the city - what was left of it, that is. The looming market tent was fashioned out of thousands of old materials, stitched together to make one massive covering. As I approached I could hear laughter and conversation. Once inside, I pulled my walking tent over my head. Soaked to the bone, the patrons clustered around the vendor tables, swiping their hands across their dripping, flushed faces. My bare shoulders slid through the tunnel of glistening arms.

I had only walked a few yards when a deafening silence fell, and everyone turned to face the eastern side of the tent. Acid filled my mouth as the wild, putrid cry drifted through the fabric walls. A dark skinned woman standing by the east entrance slid back the fabric just enough to peer through. Squealing with terror, she clasped a trembling hand over her mouth.

“It’s a man! He’s uncovered!” She screamed, and horrified shrieking filled the tent. Three broad-backed men pushed through the crowd, wrapping their heads with dingy white cloth, looking like mummies from the neck up. Single file they stepped out into the sun and disappeared. The room held its breath until the rescuers shuffled back inside the tent, carrying the traveler. The stranger's arms and legs dangled by his sides and his weak neck hung, head upside down to the room.

“Is there anyone here who can help?” The rescuers' faces were still covered, but no mask could hide their horror. They kneeled together and laid the stranger on the ground. The crowd staggered back. If this was once a man, it wasn’t anymore.

“Where did he come from?”

“He came from the east, from the edge of the city.” The first rescuer said, unwrapping his face and looking as if he was going to be sick.

“That can’t be true,” someone in the crowd hollered. “Everywhere east of here was searched years ago. There is nothing there, no one living and all the homes were stripped for supplies.”

“Yeah, that’s right!” Someone else piped up. “Everyone by the coast is either dead or living here on the west side.” The stranger's jaw contorted as he tried to speak. Cracks in his lips oozed and a single word rasped from his mouth like scraping chalk.

“Kill.” Yellowing eyes rolled back in his head as consciousness came and went from his body.

S-h-h-h!” A rescuer spat towards the disturbed crowd.

“Wat-ter, the-y.” Dark, thick liquid drained from his mouth. “They’re co-m-ing f-fr-o-m t-h-e wat” The room pulsed as one gigantic organ, beating in unison. No one moved, statues of slick stone crammed shoulder to shoulder. “T-h-e-y-re eat-i-n-g us.” His head rolled onto his shoulder, eyes open and motionless.

I was thrown to my knees as the hoard began shoving. Steel toed boots hammered my sides, forcing my jaw and mouth into the solid dirt. I felt a pop and a warm fluid spewed from my bottom lip. Another thrust plunged me headfirst to my stomach and more shoes boxed my left ear. I wrenched my face up, covering my head with my arms. The lifeless man twisted unnaturally as the herd trampled his body. I was close enough to reach out and touch it. The reek of raw sinew hanging like a pendant from his neck filled my nostrils and vomit spilled over my ruptured lip.

The market spun as I staggered to my feet and instantly fell back to my knees. I spat in the dirt and my chest burned, begging for air. Crawling like an infant, I inched towards a table. Agony lodged in my throat. Silent screams formed in my mouth as another anonymous pilgrim advanced on the marketplace. Tortured wailing; moldered, haunted unrecognizable words reproducing, rupturing, echoing. The cries of something inhuman. Impenitent leviathan, hunting and hungry. The devil himself became waned by the sound of it.

Gripping the edge of the table I wrenched myself up. My walking tent had snapped in two. I ripped the sheet from the wooden frame and tossed the fabric over my head. Holding the sheet up off the ground, I climbed the dirt path to my house. Grandma was asleep in her chair when I burst in. She woke up with a start.

“What happened to you?” Her voice trembled.

“A man,” I had to lean against the sofa and breathe hard. “Outside the market, uncovered.” Grandma's eyes grew dark, I had never seen her looking so serious. “He was bleeding and blistered and covered in sharp rocks sticking out of his hands and knees. He had scabs peeling off his face!” Grandma clasped her hands over her mouth as I contined.

“He came from the coast. There’s something killing, hunting humans. He was running from it!” Grandma stared at me; I could see her mind racing “The others he was with, it killed them all.” Her eyes widened. She stood up and shuffled towards her bedroom, calling for me to follow.

“Get that box for me.” She pointed inside her closet. I crouched down and pulled the box into the room. Grandma sat on her bed and bent over to sift through the papers inside.

“What are those?” I asked.

“People used to get these papers delivered to their houses. Some good news, some bad, some pictures too.” Grandma found the one she had been searching for and pulled it out. “When this place was still called the United States, we had these people to sort of protect us.” She handed the paper to me. Large black letters at the top of the page read, WARNING. Directly below was a photo of a man with slicked back hair and glasses.

“Dr. Sullivan Drake has been able to identify the unknown creatures surfacing all across the Bay Area. He feels that even though there is little evidence of mutation at this stage, he fears that their ever growing exoskeletons are indicative of rapid evolution. Dr. Sullivan and his team at the research center for Climate and Aquatics believe that even though these creatures appear harmless now, ten years from now they could evolve beyond our expectations. At this time there is little evidence of such changes, and studies show that we have not witnessed any species, still evolving, for millions of years.

I looked up at Grandma, her eyes shimmered in the evening light.

“C’mon we have to get out of here!” Jumping to my feet I raced to the doorway. The whole neighborhood was in panic. Standing on their porches, our neighbors wrapped frantically in bed sheets and strips of cloth. Toddlers in makeshift tents bounced in the back of wagons as they were towed behind bicycles. Their silhouettes darkened as they ran up the hill to the west, ahead a vibrant pink and orange sunset. I ran back to Grandma and grabbed her hands. “Let’s go! I will get the cloth.” I whipped my head towards the door as more screams resounded in the street.

I felt numb. My hands stopped shaking and the ringing in my ears was louder than any thoughts. Adrenaline pumped inside me as I spun around to face Grandma. I would carry her, I would get us out of here. She gazed up into my eyes. Time and all its cruelty had no effect on her, the limitless divine, the light in our bleak existence. Hallowed soul, my breath and strength. She squeezed my hands in hers like she always did. She knew she would not make it.

“This was your mother’s, she wanted you to have it.” She pulled the gold, heart-shaped locket from her neck and wrapped it in my hands. The house rattled around us and glass windows shattered as the same demonic, double-pitched voice vibrated through the street. She reached up and wiped the tears from my cheeks. A smile broke her lips as she looked deep into my eyes.

“Be careful, sweet. Keep my Jax safe for me.”

⍜