In Heart and Mind

Chapter 2: "Lockdown"

Chapter 2: "Lockdown"

Fear was never a construct of evil. No morality existed within the base instinct of caution over danger and the unknown. It was humanity's reactions to the basic instincts of their survival which spoke of their character. The core reactions of fight, flight, or freeze all pulsed through John's subconscious. Under the piercing crimson gaze of whatever existed within the wall of rain that seemed to only intensify as the monster's growl drew closer to his car, he had less than a fraction of a second to decide how to react in the face of death.

His head pulsed in continued pain. The ringing within his own ears intensified to the point that it drowned out the screams from the woman beside him. He could feel his insides burn as they bunched together in nonsensical horror. Images of his young daughter facing such a creature after surviving an unexpected explosion rapidly overcame the agony within his skull.

John's foot moved without conscious thought. He slammed onto the gas pedal with as much force as he could muster. The wheels of his convertible spun uselessly against the slick road for a few moments before getting enough traction to begin pushing the car in front them so they could be free from the fate of being trapped between the crashed vehicles. Despite being in park, the car in front of them steadily began to slide forward with their push. Whatever strange creature which was hunting them seemed to be triggered by the movement. It threw itself at the windshield of their car. The glass immediately broke into a web of cracks upon impact but did not shatter completely under the intense force of the blob of black muscles slamming against it.

Ignoring the droplets of water seeping through the broken glass, John immediately shifted into reverse. The convertible wrenched backwards violently, causing the demon on top of the hood to slide off in between them and the car that was just moved. Upon crashing onto the wet pavement, the creature spasmed wildly while releasing a heart piercing cry. After nearly slamming into the truck behind them, John altered the vehicle back to drive. Turning the wheel as sharply as he could, the driver directed the car forward at top speed. He scrapped against the monster and the car in front of him but didn't care about the c*****e he left behind while fleeing for their lives.

Upon turning onto the wrong side of the road, he desperately swerved to avoid crashing into any coming traffic. Once back on the proper section of the street, he found that he was forced to slow down for other cars that had stopped or crashed from the abysmal weather. Hissing, John decided to do something crazy to escape the even greater insanity behind him. Ignoring Karen's desperate pulls on his arm, he steered onto the sidewalk and rushed forward at full speed. Luckily, the pedestrian walking area appeared abandoned either from the downpour or from the threat of more monsters running through the rain. He didn't want to think about which option was likelier.

"John! For the love of God! Stop!" Karen shouted into his ear.

The driver refused to look away from the course in front of him. He could no longer see more than a few meters in front of him with all the rain pouring down onto the cracked windshield. Fortunately, he managed to avoid crashing into anything unmovable. His convertible repeated scraped against the different metals objects spread over the sidewalk, but their momentum did not slow, "Are you f*****g kidding me?! Did you not see that thing!?"

"I did, but getting away won't matter if we crash!" Karen hissed.

Growling, he slammed onto his breaks. They rapidly began to slow. Their tires skid across the pavement with a long, loud screech. The slick ground caused them to shift around wildly during their rapid halt. After a few seconds, they finally slowed to a stop. When they were finally stationary once more, the duo released the breaths that they had been holding in during the entire fiasco. John's eyes slowly fell from the broken glass in front of him to stare at his hands. He had been gripping the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles had turned white. Forcing himself to release the wheel, he dropped his shaking arms onto his lap after wiping the blood from his forehead.

Karen began to lightly sob into her hands, "This is insane! What's going on?!"

"I don't know," John looked back to see if anything was following them. He couldn't hear the monster anymore. What was that thing? Were aliens invading? Did mutants climb out of the sewers? Could it be a creation of a mad scientist running amuck? "And I really don't want to find out. We can't stay in this car, though. Let's go into one of the buildings and try to figure out what's happening. We got pretty far, so we should be close to the school area. Maybe we can find a safe route cutting through buildings to get there."

"J-John," Karen's voice cracked as her crying intensified.

He turned his gaze to her face. Her eyes had grown as wide as physically possible. The skin of her cheeks was deathly pale. Untamed tears continued to roll down her face to get to her trembling lips. She tried to say something but could only manage to release a croak from her throat. Following her eyes, John turned back to the front windshield to have his own composure sucked out of him. Instead of one pair of crimson eyes, they were now being watched by four separate monsters. The growling from before burst back to life with quadrupled the intensity. Just as soon as the animalistic snarling began, it transformed into terrifying screams as the monsters lunged at the broken down convertible.

The windshield immediately disintegrated upon impact. Their screams of horror were immediately drowned out by the monsters wild screeches and the sound of claws digging across the metal of the hood. All four of the beasts tried to get to them at once. Black, clawed hands grasped at them. Sharp nails dug into the vehicle occupants' skin. The creatures tried to yank them out of the convertible, but their seatbelts kept them firmly attached to their spots. Before the cloth of their safety strands could tear, the monsters began to fight amongst themselves to get to the prey. John was blinded by the constantly moving inky flesh of four monsters fighting over their targets.

Just as the humans were about to give up hope, the recognizable sound of gunfire boomed over the noises radiating from the creatures fighting through the windshield. One of the devils released a deathly screech. Crimson blood flew onto John's face. Alerted by the noise, the remaining three demons stopped their fighting in order to face their attackers. Before they could identify the threat, another monster was slain by a spray of bullets. The remaining masses of bubbling flesh spotted two soldiers dressed in camouflage armor approaching the vehicle. They lunged at the armed men but were immediately shot dozens of times before they could get to the troopers.

John's senses were spinning out of control by the time that the monsters were slain. His ears were still ringing. Blood covered his eyes. He felt completely drained as the adrenaline flooded out from his system. Everything appeared to happen so quickly around him that he couldn't keep up. Before he could realize what was happening, their saviors had dragged the devils off of the car and pulled Karen free from the now totaled vehicle.

"Sir!" one of the soldiers shouted over the pouring rain. His voice was muffled behind the mask which covered his face. "I know that this must be hard for you, but I need you to concentrate so we can get you to safety!"

Numbly nodding, John unbuckled his seatbelt so that they could drag him free from the convertible. He was immediately soaked by the rain but already felt numb enough to not care. The freezing raindrops washed the warm blood from the monsters off of his body. Before he could begin to process everything that happened, Karen lunged at him. Holding onto him like a lifeline, she smashed her face into her chest so that she could sob uncontrollably onto him. The soldiers began to direct them away from the car. As they moved, John turned to get one last look at the unmoving bodies of the creatures. Their crimson lifeblood flowing out of their shot wounds were immediately dissipated into nothingness as the rain spread out across the ground.

Eventually, they were led into a large, black van covered in bulletproof armor. Once they were seated in the back of the transport vehicle, they were given dry towels to soak off the freezing rain water. The heat of the military van gently rubbed against their cold skin. Karen continued to hold onto him like he would disappear if she let go. Still processing what had happened, he absentmindedly held her close while looking at the soldiers.

"You did good surviving for that long!" one of the guards pulled the doors closed to protect them from the outside. "Lost Ones can be a pain to deal with while unarmed."

"Lost Ones?" John questioned.

The other soldier spoke, "You're safe now. We're going to transport you to the quarantine zone. None of the monsters are allowed in or out."

"Wait," John shook his head. "My daughter. That explosion was at her school. We have to get to it. She might be in dangers."

The two soldiers shared looks that John could not discern beneath their masks and goggles. Eventually, the first one spoke again, "Don't worry. The school areas have already been evacuated. If your daughter is alive, she'll be at the quarantine zone."

Karen released a loud sob, "Oh thank God."

John gently rubbed her back to comfort her, "How much can you tell us? How did the explosion happen? Were those monsters responsible?"

"A lot of the info is classified, sir," the second soldier commented. "I can say that the explosion and monsters are connected. Currently, the entire city is on lockdown. No one goes in or our without our boss's permission. When you reunite with your child, we'll escort you out of the city for safety. You and your wife will be fine."

"Err, she's not my wife. Or my girlfriend," John fidgeted uncomfortable. "Her little sister got caught up in this too. We were heading there together to try to find out what was happening."

"Sister, huh?" the first soldier nodded. "Understood. Once you reunite with your individual family members, we'll escort you out of the city."

John nodded, "Thank you."

The long journey to the quarantine zone began. Unfortunately for the two civilians, their desire to quickly get to their lost family members was crushed when the soldiers stopped multiple times to save other pedestrians that had gotten caught up in the chaos. Dozens of people were piled into the military vehicle until it was packed full. Surprisingly, a few other rescued citizens spoke of a similar story to John and Karen. While over half that were rescued were caught out in the anarchy after the explosion happened, some commented on how they rushed out of safety to get their children out of what they now assumed to be a destroyed school.

After what seemed like hours, the van finally arrived at the quarantine zone. The vehicle doors opened to allow the civilians to pile out below hastily set up tarps and umbrellas. They were met by hundreds of different soldiers that were busy reuniting family members and passing out rations to the people. The atmosphere was friendly enough for John to feel safe, but they were set up right next to ground zero. Instead of the large school building that he remembered, a wide crater quickly filling with rainwater now existed. In the distance, he could also hear the sounds of monster growls and gunfire over the noise of the heavy storm.

Karen continued to desperately hang onto him. While a bit uncomfortable, he did his best to try to comfort her. Fortunately, the soldiers did help by passing out warm blankets and hot chocolate. Upon receiving her comforts, Karen did relax slightly but seemed determined to hold onto John until they found her sister. All the children that had been rescued from the school had been moved over to a large tent. A long line had been made to keep everything organized. If the children were in the tent, their caretakers were swiftly reunited with them. The soldiers even kept tabs on the names of who was checked out in case more family members arrived to find the rescued youth.

A few of the people who made it to the front of the line but couldn't find their child had been directed into a separate large tent. Unlike the children's area which was open for the public to see, the space for the dejected adults appeared closed off from the rest of the people to see. John didn't want to think about what it would be like to be herded towards what seemed to be the mourning zone. He would much prefer to be escorted with his daughter by the soldiers out of the city like the families which were reunited. With a shake of his head, he tried not to think about the worst possible outcome while waiting patiently in line.

"What do you mean she isn't here! My granddaughter has to be here!" the man at the front of the line screamed. He was an elderly fellow with white hair and countless wrinkles. His blue suspenders covered his torn black shirt. Each step that the grandfather took appeared to take extreme amounts of effort. John felt deep pity for the obviously weak, thin man.

"I'm sorry, sir, but there's no record of her," one of the guards calmly explained. "You're going to have to step out of line."

"I can't!" the old man shouted. "She has to be alive! She has to! Let me go in to find her!"

"I'm sorry," two of the guards gently grabbed the man by the arms. "But we can't help you. If you go in, then you'll disturb the children even more. They've been through a lot."

"Please!" the old man continued to beg even as they guided him away. Everyone turned away in a mixture of pity and shame. They knew that there was literally nothing anyone could do for the grandfather. Besides hating the situation, all they could do is silently try to ignore the stranger's pathetic crying.

Right before the old man arrived at the massive mourning tent, the sobbing shifted in a gurgle. He began to spasm around wildly. One of the helpers tried to hold the crazed elder still but got shoved high into the air for his troubles. To everyone's shock, the seemingly weak old guy then picked up the remaining guard up over his skinny frame with ease. Screaming incoherently, the grandfather tossed the soldier through the front of the tent. The fabric of the enclosure tore with a loud rip as the sturdy wall set up behind the canvas crumbled to expose the contents of the hidden area to the remaining civilians currently in the quarantine zone.

Disgusted gasps spread throughout the entire populace. A few people even vomited upon seeing the grotesque sight. They had all expected to see chairs filled with people crying their eyes out. Instead, the masses saw every person that had been lead into the mourning area stacked on top of each other in a pile of corpses. Each dead body had a large hole in the front of their skulls. Blood oozed down the decaying flesh to seep into the concreted below the stack of murder victims. Panic swiftly spread through the safe spot as people began to scream and flee at the realization that the soldiers were killing everyone that couldn't find their missing children.