Countd0wn

Chapter 2: The First Day

We had been in the forest for almost a month now. We had to hike across miles of suburbs and farmland to reach it, but Dad said that it would be the safest place to hide if we ever needed to. 

I keep seeing his face, the one that he made they day that everything fell apart. It started off as an ordinary day, about 1 year ago. It was a Thursday, and I was getting up early as usual to get ready for school. I showered, brushed my teeth, combed my tangled black hair, and threw on whatever clothes I could find, and went downstairs.

When I walked into the kitchen, I saw Mom already at the table, sitting next to Ivy, and the both of them were eating eggs and toast, the tired look still in each of their eyes. I went over to the cupboard and pulled out a bowl, and poured myself some cereal. "Morning honey." I heard my mom say from over at the table.

I mumbled my usual sleepy response at her. "Morning..." I wish I had talked to her more. The only thing I wished I could have done differently that day was actually sit down at the table and talk to the woman who raised me. But how could I have known that it would be the last time I would ever see her? At least, in the way I knew her.

I heard Ivy give a little giggle as I talked over at her. "Wren's being a big monster again." Ivy always thought that I sounded like Frankenstein whenever I woke up in the mornings. Whenever I walked out of my room, she would start to walk around all stiff with her arms stretched out in front of her, moaning and growling. It was cute, but looking back, it was foreboding.

I was about to say something smart back to Ivy, when I heard Dad walk in. "Oh, don't worry Ivy. In a couple of years, you'll be just like him." I turned around and I saw Dad smile over at Ivy, and give me a little confidential wink. I pretended to roll my eyes, and poured my milk into the bowl, sitting down next to my mom. 

Dad pulled out his newspaper and grabbed a piece of toast from the centre of the table, and munched on it. "So, is my little Vee excited for her big talent show performance?" Ivy's school was having a talent show after school, and we were all expected to attend. 

Ivy smiled her usual big smile and nodded, shaking her light brown, almost ginger hair that she got from my mother, which was currently pulled up in to a ponytail. "Yup! I've been practicing all night!" Ivy was going to be singing. I don't remember which song it was, no matter how much I try. It was probably just one of the latest pop songs or something like that. She had a good voice, and I could honestly see her becoming a singer one day. Or, at least before everything else had happened. 

Dad gave her a smile, a big one with friendly eyes, and it was the look he gave whenever he was proud of one of us, and I remember it always making us feel warm inside whenever he did it. I'm glad he did it for Ivy. It was something she could hang onto in the coming moments. 

Then, Mom spoke up, and was about to say something. Whatever it was, I never found out, because at that moment, the early morning sky that was still relatively dark lit up with a bright blue light. Everyone turned to the window to see it, and Ivy's eyes lit up. "Wow! It's beautiful!"

Ivy was impressed by it, but me and my parents were confused, and judging by their facial expressions when they turned to each other, a little frightened. "Dad, what is it?" I asked him, in a relatively calm tone, as to not upset Ivy.

Dad shook his head and looked out the window as the blue wave passed by us. "I'm not sure...maybe some freak northern lights or something?" Mom looked at him, and I'll never forget what her face looked like when she did. Her eyes appeared to be on the verge of fear, like she was seconds away from going insane. Then, Dad met her eyes with his, and his seemed to counteract what she was feeling. It seemed to counteract her, for the time being.

We all stood there in silence for a short bit, as the sky returned to normal again, then we heard something that made us all jump. A loud crash happened from outside, and me and Dad ran down the hall to see what it was. "Ivy, stay with Mommy, ok?" Dad yelled behind him, and I followed close behind. We opened the front door, and saw a green car had collided with a brown minivan that was on the road. The green car was in the ditch, it's back wheels in the air, and the minivan was diagonal and badly damaged. There was a woman in the front of the van, and Dad ran over to her.

"Hey, are you ok?" He said, and the woman had blood all over her face, and was dazed, looking at Dad like he was a dream. I ran down into the ditch to see about the other driver. As soon as I did, I immediately regretted it, as I saw that the driver had been flung out of the windshield, and was lying facedown and unmoving on the grass, a streak of blood behind him. He must have been looking at the light and...

I suppressed the urge to vomit, and then heard a sound that chilled me to the bone. Inside the house, from the open door, I heard Ivy screaming. I quickly ran back up the ditch and into the house, seeing that Dad had already gone to see what was happening. When I reached the kitchen, I saw that Mom was on the ground and was having some kind of seizure, her legs and arms twitching everywhere.

Dad was holding Ivy against him in the corner of the room, and was looking at me. "Wren! Call 911!" I pulled out my phone and dialled the number with my shaking hands, but when I held it up to my ear, I could only hear a dull tone. Not even a robotic operator, just a single, dull tone, like the flatline on a heartbeat monitor. 

"It's...it's not going through!" I managed to say to Dad, and almost dropped my phone since I was shaking so hard. Dad walked over to me, and gave me Ivy, who instinctively wrapped her arms around my waist. Then he kneeled over Mom, and tried to keep her still by holding her down. The, the nightmare really began.

Mom began to scream, like someone was pulling out her fingernails, and then the scream suddenly turned into some sort of garbled roar, that sounded more animal than human. Her entire body began to convulse, and her skin began to physically tear and break, as bones splintered out of her body poked out like spikes.

Ivy screamed and started crying, and I hid her face into my body, trying to hide her from the hell that didn't seem real, yet was, unfolding before me. Dad was still holding the thing that used to be Mom down, and then looked over at me with desperate and pleading eyes. "Wren! Take Ivy and run! Go to the woods! Run!" 

I grabbed Ivy's hand and ran towards the front door, out into the world, but I looked back one last time. I saw the thing that used to be Mom grab Dad and roll over on top of him, and appeared to unhinge it's jaw to reveal sharpened teeth, and knelt it's head down onto his body. I quickly turned away, and pulled Ivy close to me, hearing her call out my mother's name through her tear-filled voice.

As we ran outside, I looked and saw several houses stained with blood, people running and screaming in the streets, cars crashed or abandoned, windows broken, smoke rising from different places. I was scared, and my heart was pounding. I grabbed Ivy and picked her up in my arms. "Hold onto me ok? Close your eyes! Don't look!" Ivy buried her head into my shoulder, and I took off down the street, knowing that I could never go back.