Bullet in the Night

It was midnight and the ocean waves around a speeding object were crashing against the moss-covered rocks as the moon reflected off the beautiful waters. There was a stillness in the air, but that would soon change.

Hours passed, and a woman lay alone in a room fast asleep. Wearing a beige blouse with a silk tie at the collar, she had golden-brown hair tied up in a ponytail and looked to be in her late twenties.

Gleams of speckled dots wandered endlessly in the darkness of her inner eyelids. She felt a phantom twitch overtake her body that seemed to rattle her. Amidst this strange feeling, a last jolt of energy permeated through her body that caused her to open her eyes and see that she was laying down in what appeared to be a train car. The room in which this woman awoke from was embellished with an oak finish with a dark brown hue and clear glass windows with a slight frost to them which indicated its use for privacy purposes. She looked down and noticed that she was sitting atop a bed comprised of olive-colored silk sheets that appeared to have a thread count of at least a thousand.

She turned to her left to see that a giant window took up the entire space of the wall to the left of her. All she could see were flashes, since the window had a frosted finish which made any object akin to a Picasso painting. The sounds she heard were the sound of something moving in a fast pace—almost like a rushed motion. It was loud enough for the young woman to hear it through the window. And judging by the flashes and the hues protruding through the window, it was evening or early morning.

Continuing to look around, she realized that wherever she was, it was of grandeur and it was moving.

Confused thoughts ran through her mind. Where am I? How did I end up here? And my God, what is my name?!

A spell of amnesia was apparent to the young woman. She had no earthly idea as to who she was. She remembered one thing, though: a little boy of at least 6 years of age. Who was this little boy that she couldn’t get out of her mind? And why was it that every time thoughts of him took over her psyche that she had an intense emotional reaction to it—one that sent her on the verge of tears? Whomever this young boy was, he was important to her. She knew that for certain.

Hopefully the memories would begin to come back so that she would be better adjusted to her situation.

The woman got up from her bed and walked toward the double doors and began to get tense as she had no idea what lay beyond those two rectangular oak and glass doors. Taking a deep breath, she opened them slowly, which revealed a long hallway that contained many other doors similar to hers which implied that there were in fact other rooms like hers.

Maybe she could open these newfound doors in this hallway to see if any semblance of life inhabited them? She just needed to make sure that she wasn’t alone in this place. She was afraid and she was hearing a roar from outside that was intensifying as time went on.

She went through every door in the hallway and every room was similar to hers, but looked untouched as even the beds were still nicely made. No one in sight. Her greatest fears were becoming realized: she might actually be alone.

She tried to control her breaths as she began to steadily hyperventilate. This unreal situation seemed to be getting worse and worse.

Matters were only exacerbated when she got to the end of the hall where she spotted what appeared to be an exit. The exit door looked like a beacon of hope to the young woman. She hurriedly went up to the door and pulled the rectangular knob downward and pushed against it in hopes that it would give and she would enter somewhere that wasn’t where she was currently. She was mistaken. It was locked. She tried to look through the frosted window on the door and used her fingernails to try to scratch the frost to give her a clearer vision of what was on the other side. After a couple of minutes, already emotionally-drained and frustrated, the young woman impulsively pulled one of the icepicks from a beverage cart and began trying to pick the lock. She was a natural at it and she appeared to be getting spectacular progress as she could tell that she was almost able to unlock it. It only needed a few more adjustments, and alas! She unlocked it!

The young woman put the icepick in her front pant pocket not sure if she may need it later if she encounters something or someone ominous.

She opened the door and eagerly yet cautiously awaited what was beyond it. To her surprise, it was full of people. As lively as ever. It was the equivalent to a busy airport. It was bustling so much that if you were to speak, your voice would get lost in the crowd.

Relief poured over the young woman’s body as she made her way through the crowd.

The roaring was getting louder at this point and people genuinely seemed frightened at this sound.

“What’s going on?” the young woman asked out loud, hoping that someone—anyone--would answer her back.

“We’re on our way to Safe Haven,” answered a voice in the crowd.

“Where is that?” the young woman innocently asked.

Another voice chimed in: “At the far end of the city. It’s safer there.”

The young woman was absolutely confused as to what they meant by Safe Haven being a safer place. Safe from what?

The roar sounded again and seemed to echo this time.

“I thought they hadn’t reached here yet!” screamed a worried mother holding her child.

The young woman looked around to see if she could find anyone in charge and saw what looked like an official of some sort. They were dressed in uniform, so the young woman assumed that this would be the person to talk to to get more information as to what is happening.

She approached the gentleman. “Hello, I just woke up in the area before this one. I’m not sure where I’m at.” “Train” he abruptly answered. “What?” the young woman asked. “You’re on a train. It’s going to Safe Haven.” “Okay, but I also don’t have any idea of who I am,” said the young woman. “You don’t know who you are?” the gentleman earnestly asked.

The young woman nodded her head in agreement.

“Let me see your hand. Lift up your arms. I need to see them,” demanded the gentleman. “Were you scratched at all? Bitten?”

“No, I don’t think so,” stated the young woman.

“Are you a hundred percent sure? Because if you were in THAT train car, you were under isolation. That train car is reserved for isolation. It’s where we put all of the terminal ones or ones that pose a threat to the general public,” claimed the gentleman.

“Did something happen out there? On the outside?” asked the young woman.

“Wow, you really don’t know what’s going on, do you?” questioned the gentleman.

Suddenly, the train came to a halt. The announcer came on the train intercom: “Attention train goers, please remain calm. We have arrived to Safe Haven. You will be guided by our liaison Mr. Danielson to the center of you.”

The young woman realized that the man she had been talking to was the guide the train announcer was talking about. Mr. Danielson walked to the front of the train car toward the exit door. Mr. Danielson yelled as he exclaimed, “I need you all to proceed to this exit in an orderly fashion. We cannot have anyone break into hysterics once these doors open. It causes unnecessary accidents and we cannot afford to have those, so remain calm. I cannot re-iterate, please remain calm. No sudden movements that will cause excessive noise and no—”

A loud roar rang out and suddenly, something tore through the entire half of the train, causing many people to be crushed to death, including Mr. Danielson. Everyone screamed in addition to the young woman and the train goers began rushing out of the open slit in the train car. The young woman stayed behind as to not make any impulsive decisions as she did not know what awaited her beyond the train walls. Looking through the opening made by something out there, she saw the train goers running outside and away from the train platform. The roar occurred again and winged creatures began flying by and picking up several of the train goers. One of the creatures was holding a man by the neck with its sharp blade-like teeth and bit hard enough that his head separated from his body and his decapitated corpse fell hundreds of feet down to the ground as blood oozed from the mangled body.

“Oh my God!” screamed the young woman. “I wish I hadn’t ever woke up.”

“Lady, you need to get out of here. Now! There’s more coming!” yelled a random train passenger about to leave the train car. Just as she finished yelling this to the young woman, a winged creature grabbed her and pulled her into the sky as she screamed in agony.

The young woman gathered herself and knew that she had to fight to stay alive. Even if it meant having to leave the train car. She cautiously looked around side to side and above her to make sure there was nothing aiming to attack her from all directions. The coast seemed clear, so she proceeded to go through the opening made by the creatures. She looked around and saw that wherever the train ended up, it was in the middle of nowhere, but seemed to be in the countryside as she saw farms of corn and wheat, while at the same time, seeing a coastline to the right of all of that.

She looked at the train platform and saw that there was a sign next to the check-in station that read: SAFE HAVEN.

The creatures seemed to be gone by now, so the young woman took the time to try to see if there was anything to eat in the check-in station since she was incredibly hungry and didn’t know when the last time she ate was.

She ran toward the front door of the check-in station and attempted to open it and thankfully, it was open. She walked inside and realized that the interior was much bigger than she thought. It was emblazoned with what appeared to be 3 check-in stations where customer service representatives appeared to have been previously. She even saw coffee cups still left in place as well as documents all over the floor. The lights were still on, and she could still smell the fresh aroma of coffee, so she inferred that the train station was abandoned quite recently as if people just left everything behind with no regard.

She continued investigating and followed the smell of the coffee and figured that wherever the coffee was is most likely where she’d find food. Luckily, she found a vending machine on her way and decided to grab one of the queue line bars and bash the vending machine open. She did so, and grabbed a couple of items and began eating them. She ate them like she had never eaten anything before in her life. She felt almost like a savage. Despite this feeling, she didn’t care since she was both hungry and apparently in danger from outside forces.

Just as she was eating, she heard a loud bang coming from one of the entry doors at the other side of the train station. She quickly dropped everything she had in her hand and followed the noise. She approached the door she thought the noise had come from and looked and saw a large crack in the glass door. It wasn’t completely busted, but it was close. One tap may have made it give way. As the young woman approached the door, she stared hard at it, but saw nothing. Just as fast as the loud bang had occurred, so did the arrival of a winged creature who immediately busted through the glass door. The creature roared and as the young woman rushed the other way to run from the being, it grabbed her legs with it’s sharp claws and pulled her down causing her to fall face first and break her nose. As her nose bled profusely, she screamed in terror as it dragged her across the floor and toward the open door. She suddenly remembered that she still had the icepick in her front pant pocket. She hurriedly grabbed it and began stabbing at the creature’s feet. It screamed a painful scream as it involuntarily let go of the young woman’s legs. As she was on the ground, she removed the icepick from the creatures feet. As she began to climb up to get her bearings, another creature swooped in from above and crashed into the above roof of the train station and landed on the ground in front of the young woman. It looked at the injured creature and back at the young woman and made a loud roar at the young woman. The young woman limped her way to the creature and got in its face and yelled back at it. After a momentary pause, the creature opened its wide mouth and was going to eat the young woman. Instead, the young woman grabbed the icepick in her hand and stabbed the creature in the face repeatedly until it got weak enough for the woman to remove the sharp object. The creature lay dead while the other one was still struggling with its wounded feet. It limped out toward the exit and flew away.

The young woman walked to one of the waiting area seats and sat down. A bright angelic light shone through the now-exposed roof. She looked up at it and sighed. After minutes of just resting, the young woman got up and started to make her way out of the train station. She exited through the entry the creature had made and looked out and noticed that this particular exit opened to the beautiful coastline that she had seen prior. She walked down the wood planked-walkway and toward the coastline. She needed this serenity after all that she had experienced.

As she got closer to the coastline, she looked around and saw objects flying high above. Worried these were the creatures, she readied her icepick in case they tried to attack. After careful observation, and after she heard a particular sound, she knew that these weren’t creatures, but seagulls. Relief veiled the young woman.

The waves crashed in front of her as she stood and eventually sat on the ocean sand. As the tide came and went, she couldn’t help but feel at peace. The water of the ocean suddenly began to pull back further as if something was swallowing up the sea. The water became a large tidal wave that kept pulling farther and farther back. The seagulls were now flying in the opposite direction away from the ocean. The roar of the raised waves was terrifying.

What was happening?

All the young woman could do was stare at this horrifying sight to behold.

Then…the roaring began.

***THE END***