Glow Like Stars

I remember it like it was yesterday. The Explore Mars Initiative Team (E.M.I.T.) returned from their eighteen month explorative journey. Reports about their mission were kept quiet after the third month into their return trip; no one knew why. It wasn’t until they landed, that even the International Council for Extra Terrestrial Exploration and Adaptation (I.C.E.T.E.A.) knew what happened. By then it was too late. I could expand on the should’of, could’of, would’of scenarios, but I won’t. That won’t change anything now. I could tell you how panicked everyone was, how angry the world became about the decisions that were made, but that does nothing to help anyone right now. Right now I’m telling you our story, to preserve history I suppose, to tell you how we did it; how we survived.

I sat in an underground bunker with my brother Tommy and Best friend Joey waiting. We had been down there for a month eating military Meal-Ready-to-Eat’s (MRE’s) and cans of soup, veggies, fruits; whatever I could find when I prepared. It had been three weeks since any noise came across the radio. We didn’t know who, if anyone, wass still out there. We didn’t know what, if anything, was still alive, but we were growing restless and running low on supplies and so an exit plan had to be discussed.

“Man! I’m so tired of eating this crap! How long has it been? Can we leave yet!?” Tommy exclaimed

“Leave? What you wanna go back to playing your video games in the basement again! Pretending like the world doesn’t exist? You know none of that crap is gonna work now right”

Tommy shot darts at me with his eyes. It was a jerk comment, I knew that, but it helped relieve some stress. We were all stressed. Being cooped up in a twenty square meter bunker for a month was not something any of us asked for. I wanted us to wait until we heard news on the radio, or at minimum, another week. They wanted to leave now.

“But for real Adam we’ve been down here for a month with no sounds outside and nothing on the radio for three weeks, don’t you think it’s safe at least to check out?” Joey said.

I realized that if Joey was saying it, then it was worth considering. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t truly WANT to stay in this small hole in the ground that smelled like must and mildew, felt like a walk-in refrigerator most days, and a freezer at night. I exhaled a deep sigh and walked to the radio. I turned it on to hear nothing but static. That static now incited a hopelessness in me I had never felt before in my life. I wound the dial to the emergency station playing the same message since we had entered the bunker for safety.

“Look guys, we don’t know what is happening out there, we don’t know if it's safe. And I don’t want us to leave only to die because of something stupid that we should have expected.”

“We get that bro, but we can’t stay in here forever, as it is we are running out of water and food. We have to do something.” Joey replied.

“Then we need to make a plan. How are we going to go about this? Let’s consider every possibility that the three of us can come up with and have a plan for it.”

“A plan? Like what?” Tommy asked.

“Like where are we going to go first? What are the most important things we need right now and how do we get them?”

“Well, more food and water would be the top two things.” Joey added.

“And I’d put defense weapons as the third, just in case.”

“Yeah I can agree with that.” Joey said.

“Me too.” added Tommy.

“Okay, so tomorrow we go up and head straight for my house, agreed?”

Everyone nodded in agreement so I put the candles out and we fell asleep. That was when everything changed for us. That was when our journey started.

We woke early the next morning. I could feel the anxiety buzzing in the air; no words were spoken as we prepared to leave the bunker. At the bottom of the stairs was the hermetically sealed entrance to the room. We all paused, took a deep breath in and exhaled when I opened it and nothing immediately happened. We began to climb. The stairwell was much narrower than I remembered it being, even with my backpack empty it felt claustrophobic.

We emerged from the underground bunker suddenly blinded by the daylight. Sunglasses, I had forgotten to bring sunglasses. That was another thing added to my supplies ist. It took a few minutes for our eyes to adjust; we stayed next to the bunker entrance for safety. Then we quietly began our walk through the woods back to civilization. It took fifteen minutes for us to reach the dead-end street the bunker was built near. When we did we were surprised. The front doors of almost all of the houses were open and cars were still in driveways or parked in the street with their doors open. The view was like this for miles it seemed. Everything was deserted. Anxiety rested in the pit of my stomach as I directed the others to quietly follow me to the hidden side of the first house on the right.

“Ok we need to stay quiet so that we don’t draw attention to ourselves. I’ll go first, then Tommy, Joey you bring up the rear got it?”

“Just like the old days huh?” Joey said with a smirk.

I moved from behind the house to the back of a parked car with it’s doors open. Through the rear window I could see a dust pile across the back seat. It almost looked like the outline of a person. I stayed hunched down as I scanned the street for anyone; anything. Nothing. I motioned for Joey and Tommy to follow me.

“Dude I don’t think anyone is here, man I think we’re safe.” Joey said in a normal volume.

“Where is everyone? And what happened here?” Tommy asked.

“I don’t know, maybe they were all infected?”

“But didn’t the last report say that some had immunity?” Joey asked

“Yeah they did. That doesn’t mean anyone here was.”

“Or the virus could have mutated...you know like in the old movie "Outbreak" where they start off fighting one version of the virus but then another one pops up and then the government tries to…” Tommy’s speech started to speed up.

“Tommy! chill out breathe bro, breathe, we are going to be just fine.”

Joey and I exchanged a look. Tommy had used the last of his anxiety meds and his inhaler a week ago. I had more at the house, but we needed to get there without Tommy having an episode. Joey nodded in the direction of my house, signaling me to head that direction.

The silence was eerie. We heard no birds, no crickets, nothing. Walking down the center of the side street nothing stirred in the neighborhood. It was a twenty minute walk to the nearest main street. All along the way were empty houses with opened doors and cars with people shaped piles of dust. It was clear that the virus had spread quickly, but how? I hoped it wasn’t airborne, otherwise we were now all exposed.

We reached the main street with no encounters of any kind of life. This is where we saw the remnants of a battle. Army Electric Shock Pulse Emitters (ESPEs) were laying all around in the street.

“Looks like the army was here, and tried to fight back.” Joey said.

“And it looks like they lost .”

As I walked further down the street I saw the bodies of soldiers ripped open at the neck and stomach; ESPEs still in hand. I made the mistake of looking closer at one of the bodies only to discover what appeared to be bites taken out of their internal organs and parts of their skin. Quickly I ran back to Tommy and Joey; this was something Tommy could not handle seeing.

“Don’t look closely at the bodies unless you want to lose it guys.”

“What? Why?” asked Joey.

“Oh bro I’m good, I’ll take your word for it.” Tommy said

I gave Joey the look. It’s the look we gave each other while in the service, the one that said this guy was injured badly, and he wasn’t going to make it. Joey nodded in acknowledgement as Tommy changed the subject.

“Do they work? Could we use them for ourselves?” he asked

“No something seems to be broken on all of them so far. Can you tell what it is?” Joey asked me

“An EMP. They fired an EMP in this area, probably to prevent something from using the transporter and escaping from here.”

“Can you fix it though?” Joey asked

“I might be able to, let’s grab four or five and head for my place, my tools are there.”

“Why four or five we only need three? One for each of us.” Tommy asked

“Because I might not be successful the first time and I want us to have as many working as we can.”

“Ah gotcha.”

We reached my house before noon, the door was still locked and no windows appeared to be broken. The living room looked as it had when Joey and I had left, except there was mold growing on the dirty dishes that sat on the coffee table. The kitchen looked like it had been scoured through, yet the back door was closed.

“Hey Joey, wanna come with me to the garage? Tommy you stay here.”

“What by myself? What if something comes after me?!” Tommy cried.

“Come on Tommy really? No one has been in here, this mess is from when we both left and found you at your parent’s house.” Joey assured him.

“Oh, well, fine but if I scream you come running right?” Tommy begged.

“Yes Tommy if you scream we will run back, but if it’s because you saw a spider I’m kicking your ass!”

“That’s fair.” Tommy replied.

With that assurance given, Joey and I headed to my garage. I have to admit, Joey saw it before I did. I rushed over to my tool bag without checking the room; like an idiot. Until Joey got my attention.

“Adam wait, shhh! Did you hear that?” he said

“What?”

“I think I heard something move, and I know I saw a shadow in that corner.”

Joey and I approached the corner from opposite sides. When Joey was about a foot away a woman leapt up, knife in hand, to attack him! Thinking quickly I grabbed her knife wielding wrist with one hand, and wrapped my other arm around her waist lifting her off the ground.

“Claire!? Claire is that you?” Joey yelled

I turned her toward me to see her blood soaked face. She crumpled into a heap as she let out a wail that sounded more relieving than agonizing.

“Joey can you go grab the bag of tools I left over there.”

“Did you need anything else?” he asked.

“Not for now, let’s just take that and her back to the house.”