Night Scenery

Chapter 1

Night Scenery

By Emery C. Walters

And that’s when the s**t hit the fan. Was it my fault for hoping to get out of my final nursing exam? Probably not, but you never know. They say prayer works, and God works in mysterious ways, but still…

So there I was in the bathroom, reading my upper arm where I’d written notes I’d need for cheating on the test. I had to hurry and get back there so they didn’t get suspicious; I didn’t want to be late. But then there was this—smell—really weird, I mean, I was in a school building on the university campus, no windows near me, but I could still smell it. I was suddenly dizzy and starting to fall, so I grabbed onto the toilet as if I were going to puke.

Next thing I knew, there was darkness and my head hurt. It was deathly quiet, deathly still, and the smell was still there, but either I was getting used to it or it was going away. I stood up, still in the stall, looked at my watch but it was too dark to see it. I pulled my phone out of my back pants pocket—we weren’t supposed to bring them or use them—but after pushing the buttons it wouldn’t turn on. It wouldn’t even light up.

I’d been in a room before when all the lights went out—it was at a movie theater and I’d just seen a remake of an old horror movie. This was scarier, though it shouldn’t have been. There was just something so off about this. What time was it? Why were the lights off? Why didn’t my phone work? Why was I suddenly so hungry, and man did I need to pee! At least I could take care of that part, dark or not.

After that, I went to wash my hands, stumbled over something on the floor, something that hadn’t reached a toilet in time or was—dead. People did that when they died, peed themselves, I mean.

Suddenly I had to get out of there. f**k the handwashing; I was shut in an inside room with no lights and a dead body on the floor. Well, I was almost a nurse, right, so I made myself lean down and find an arm or neck and check for vitals. There were none. Duty done, I stood up, groped my way along the wall, found the door—to the f*****g closet, of course.

Eventually, I found the door out to the hall, and calmed myself down just in case everything out here was fine. I didn’t want to look like a complete fool.

Ah, no worries mate, it was pitch dark, and, even though I knew there were windows and doorways and people…well, I was wrong about everything. I mean, the windows and doors were still there, I stumbled across the hallway and felt them, felt my way back toward the stairs, felt my way down them too, and there was nothing. No more bodies, not that I’d see them unless I fell over them. I was so spooked.

Here I was, age twenty-one, young, handsome, smart, and scared to the point of breaking. My heart was pounding. The smell was drifting away. I had a moment of panic when I saw a bright set of lights, red, blue, then yellow, and they blinked out of existence before I was even sure I saw them. Then I found the door to the outside and opened it and slipped out, expecting to see bright sunshine, or even twilight, but what I saw were a light sprinkle of stars overhead and nothing. I had a flashlight in my car, wherever that was, I had no idea where I’d parked, but I’d say I’d been inside long enough to have outlasted my parking limit. It may have been towed. How would I know; everything was black. And here I was, two years out of my Goth stage.

There’s an explanation for this, I thought, and took a calming, deep breath. And I shouldn’t have, as just then the sky burst into a thousand little green lights and they all took off at 90-degree angles for who the hell knows where, but I felt each jolt of electricity, or whatever, as they moved. The cars in the parking lot in front of me seemed to jump and I almost thought they would fly away too, but they didn’t—their horns bleated sickly, and they just seemed to slump, somehow. About four rows back I could see mine, still the same size, not sinking, not bleating. It was also the oldest car there.

I can’t sugar coat this—I ran. I ran like a little girl with a snake after her. A girly kind of girl, not the modern kind. I’m surprised I wasn’t screaming. It was just so wrong, and I wanted to get to where it was right, wherever that was. It had to be somewhere, right? I had no idea.

I drove like a maniac, but did not see any other traffic. Finally, after maybe ten miles of just stupid, nowhere, driving, I pulled over into the parking lot of an abandoned church. No one was there, and I was grateful for that. I had to calm down. I had to figure out what to do. Was this some glitch in the matrix? Was I hallucinating? A bad dream? I pinched myself, but all that happened was, I said, “Ow!” I started to hyperventilate (again) and cry at the same time. I knew in my heart something terrible had happened. It didn’t really matter what, did it? Was I the only person left alive? For what distance? Everywhere, or just here? How could I find out? I sat in the car like an i***t, and finally turned on the radio. Nothing but static. f**k.

I got out to throw up. I didn’t want to leave the car, but I needed to—uh—take a dump, too, so I walked behind the car. It made me laugh, thinking; if I squat right here all kinds of people will show up. Ha ha, boy, wasn’t that funny? I went behind a tree and took care of business. Then I came out and wandered into what was left of the church, but there were no answers there, either, just rubbish and an overturned pew. I went back out to my car and suddenly was terrified that it wouldn’t start, or would melt, or fly away in a field of green sparks. I got in, turned the key, and decided to go home.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.