The Unknown

Getting Hunted

Jordan suddenly awoke to her phone buzzing like crazy. Matthew’s phone began to sound as well, and the two of them frantically tried to silence their phones. What could have caused the phones to go so crazy? Jordan quickly looked at the notification she’d just gotten. 

A terrorist attack had just taken place near the Dallas area. Her heart stopped. The exact place was where her uncle lived. She didn’t have time to explain but she ordered Matthew to take her back as quickly as possible. Without a second thought the two were speeding down the highway to make it there. 

There were blockades and policemen crawling everywhere and it was almost impossible to get within a mile of her uncle’s house. If you made it past the police, it was difficult to get past the stubble and debris everywhere. At last there was no way they could get there in the car so Jordan jumped out of the car and began to sprint towards the place she was supposed to be temporarily calling home. 

Realizing what she was doing, the police tried to restrain her from going into the attack zone but she slipped from their grip and ran her heart out. They followed behind for a ways but couldn’t keep up. Any other time and they could have easily out run her but at this moment, she was only thinking about getting to her uncle. She had so much adrenaline pumping through her veins that there was no way she was about to let them stop her. 

She needed to make sure her uncle was alright. Her uncle was the one uncle she actually felt a connection with. No one else could understand him, but she could and she knew what he meant by most things that he would say. All her mind could think was, “Please let him be ok? Please don’t let me lose him too.” 

The attack had obviously been a series of bombs and the rubble kept getting thicker and thicker as she went in. Trees were collapsed and burning. The remains of houses lay in unrecognizable debris heaps where they had once stood. The smell of death and burning flesh was everywhere. By the look of the surrounding area, there was not much of a chance that her uncle would be alive. 

Her heart was racing yet it began to sink as she began realizing there was not much hope in even finding him, much less finding him alive. That would leave her even more alone than she already was. Her mind began going back to those thoughts about what she was supposed to do and they swirled around her head even stronger now making her mind cloudy for the few moments that she was running down the road. 

As Jordan approached the house at last, she was shocked to find the house standing with what looked like nothing more than a fine vandalism job. The windows had been busted out and the wooden siding on the house had been ripped off. Rugs, and blankets, and clothes, and furniture had been dragged out of the house and torn or demolished. The cars had been severely dented and the car windows lay in small splinters all over the ground and seats. 

The front door was wide open and Jordan could see that the inside was even worse. The walls had been punched through and were crumbling. The carpet had gashes and rips in it. Things were thrown everywhere and drawers had been dumped out. 

How was it that this was the only house left standing? Why did they vandalize it so badly yet leave it standing? Why was this? What was their motive? 

She slowly walked up the steps onto the porch and made her way into the house. She made her way into the living room where she had last seen her uncle seated. The couches were shredded and desks and china cabinets had been flipped and broken. He was still there with his back toward her facing the remains of the TV. The TV had been shattered into a million pieces of glass. The tequila bottle that had been in his hand was lying on the floor in a puddle of blood. 

There was the smell of blood everywhere and she saw streaks of it lining the walls of the living room. Jordan called to her uncle but got no response from him. As she walked around to stand in front of him, she was shocked at what she saw. Despite her stomach having been empty, she vomited uncontrollably until it turned to dry-heaves. The sight was gruesome and messy. 

He had bruises and gashes across his face and arms as if he’d been beaten severely. There was a gash across his eye making his eye unidentifiable. Jordan could see his skull being exposed right on his cheekbone. On his wrist, the gash was so deep that his bone was showing through the flesh. 

But these were not the worst things on her uncle. His throat had been slit and there was bright red blood that was running down his shirt. The blood then trickled down onto the chair and then down onto the floor where his tequila bottle had been dropped. 

He had obviously been dead for a while because some of the blood was already dry and the stench of the rest rotting was sure to test anyone’s gag reflexes. The wooden floors and the rug were drenched in blood and had become stained. 

She cringed and that lump of tears threatened to return but she swallowed it and turned to make her way out of the house. She walked silently out of the house, holding her stomach in her best attempts not to vomit again. Jordan made her way back down the road she’d come on. Thoughts began to buzz around her head once more. 

Why did they single out her uncle? What or who were they looking for? Who exactly were these people? What did all of this mean? She had to find something. It had to all be connected somehow, but how? Jordan was determined to figure out the reason for such a strange attack. 

Her phone began to buzz again with an alert. In horror she saw it was another attack in the small town where Matthew lived. She had just been there but had missed the attack by an hour. This whole thing began to scare her. 

Jordan rushed back so she and Matthew could rush to his home. She didn’t want to tell him what she’d seen at her uncle’s house because she didn’t want to make him more worried than he already was. The whole car ride they sat in silence, both minds traveling deep into the land of “what if?” 

They found a similar setup as they approached Matthew’s house, only this time they were able to get closer before having to get out and continue on by foot. Jordan accompanied him on his sprint to his house. She saw that all the houses surrounding the area were all leveled and entire fields were on fire from the bombs. 

She wasn’t half surprised to see that Matthew’s house was still standing but had been severely vandalized just the same as her uncle’s had been. Before Jordan could warn him, he ran full speed into the house to find his family. She followed behind him but at a slower pace. That familiar scent of blood filled the air as she walked in. The walls and floors everywhere were streaked with blood. 

She made her way into the kitchen where she found Matthew frozen in sheer horror, and staring at the sight. He was in such a state of shock that he couldn’t yell, or cry, or move. His family all lay scattered across the kitchen floor in puddles of their own blood. Each person had died from multiple bullet wounds. 

There were similar marks of abuse on them as had been on her uncle. They all had bruises and gashes across their faces, arms and legs. Matthew’s dad, though, had worse wounds than the others. His body wasn’t as cold which showed he had been killed a significant amount of time after the others. 

This sent a shiver down Jordan’s spine. Seeing Matthew’s brothers and sisters with gashes so deep, one could easily see their bone beneath, made her stomach turn again. The bullet wounds were obviously from a big gun and you could see straight through the wounds. 

Something was definitely going on and she needed to find out. It couldn’t be by random chance that they singled out two houses where she was supposed to be. It couldn’t be by random chance that they killed these people like this. 

Could they be tracking her? But what reason would they have to track her down? She had never bothered anyone who was anything more than a small town bully. Her mind raced over every person she had ever crossed paths with but could think of no one. 

She thought about telling someone, but whom? No one would believe her and they would all say she was being overly dramatic. Jordan decided that she was going to find some more and serious evidence before she would present it to any one, not even Matthew.

Jordan took Matthews hand and pulled him away. He was still incapable of moving on his own so she had to guide him.

The two slowly walked back out of the house. Jordan wanted to say something to help Matthew but she wasn’t sure what to say. So many thoughts swirled in her mind. Her mind was racing and her heart was pounding. 

Matthew was obviously having a really hard time. The loss of a family is great enough to bear, but to see them dead in such a way is beyond what anyone should have to bear. Jordan thought that she should tell him about her uncle but decided it would only make Matthew’s grief worse. 

She asked Matthew what they were going to do and where they were going to go. He shook his head slowly and shrugged with his mind obviously still in a state of shock. She suggested going back to her home town but he was reluctant. She reminded him that she did at least have her parent’s house because not enough time had passed for it to be taken over by anyone. It would be a bit of a difficulty once her other family found out because it would turn into a war over the house. But with a little bit of convincing, Matthew agreed to go. 

They made their way out to the car and sat in silence for a few minutes before Matthew turned the car on. Neither of them knew what the future would hold. Jordan just prayed that no one else she knew would get hurt by whoever was tracking her. Maybe her family's deaths were intentional also.

With just the clothes on their backs, the two headed out west. The drive would be long but at least it would give them time to sort through their thoughts. This new adventure and the mysterious future would take them into the unknown.