Countd0wn

Chapter 6: The Swarm

That had been the first time I had ever used my powers. The blue wave that encompassed the Earth seemed to not just turn people into monsters, but also give others strange new abilities. Mine was the ability to fire some sort of plasma out of my hands and body. The man in the church was the only other person that I'd ever met that exhibited abilities that were similar to mine. But he seemed different. Almost...otherworldly.

Ivy and I left the church, and subsequently the town, shortly after the encounter with the man in the black suit. Ivy kept asking me who he was and how he knew who we were, but I couldn't answer those questions without lying to her. Eventually I did. I told her that he was gone, and we wouldn't have to worry about him anymore. Even though she believed me, I knew deep down that I was wrong.

We were walking down the road from the town, heading back to our camp inside the forest, when I heard something in the distance. It was a small rumbling noise, almost like a stampede, except much slower. It sounded like several people were walking towards us. I knew from experience that they weren't people.

I quickly grabbed Ivy, and we ducked down into a ditch by the road, my rifle raised at the rows of cars, while Ivy hid next to me in fear. We stayed there for a few minutes as the sound grew louder, until finally whatever was making it crested over the hill, and we finally got to see what exactly it was.

It looked like a swarm of the creatures, which from the looks of things looked to be about 20 to 30 strong. Most of them were deformed and bloodied, with random bits of bone and flesh sticking out all over their bodies. Some had teeth that were sharpened into fangs, others had large, clawed fingers that reached out from their hands. But the most curious thing about every single one of them, was the fact that they were walking slowly.

I had seen these creatures in action several times before, and they were usually seen running on all fours and jumping great distances, almost pouncing on their prey. They were like tigers, or some sort of ancient beast from hell. This group of beings seemed to be shuffling along the stretch of road casually, like they were on an afternoon walk, on two legs.

Then, one of them at the front stopped in the middle of the road. It was wearing what looked to be the tattered remains of a purple and white polka-dotted dress, and it's balding head seemed to have what could have once been blonde hair lying messily around it. It slowly raised one arm up into the air, and the other creatures stopped behind it. 

I blinked twice, not quite believing what I was seeing. I had previously thought that these things were just lifeless, predatory animals, with no other mentality other than killing. Now, they were presenting some form of intelligence, and what appeared to be a pack mentality. The thing that was wearing the dress at the front appeared to be the leader. 

I knew that I should be getting out of here quietly, with Ivy close behind, but I wanted to stay and watch this. I had never seen any of these things do something this organized before...and that intrigued me. The lead creature then let out a small shriek from it's mouth, and jerked it's mutilated hand right, then left. Like a choreographed dance, half of the group that was behind the leader split up to the right, and the other half went to the left.

The creatures began to break the windows of the cars, and started to root through anything that was left inside. I furrowed my brow and looked at the cars that were right next to the ditch. If any of them came close to them, they would find us. I grabbed Ivy's hand, and pulled it slightly, signalling for her to follow me. 

We started to shuffle slowly down through the ditch away from the road, then, we both jumped as we heard a shrill shriek from a few feet above us. We froze and slowly looked up. One of the creatures was looking through a car that was right above us, and appeared to be communicating to the leader about something. If it turned it's head a few more degrees, it would see us.

I lied flat down on the ground, and Ivy did the same next to me. I instructed her to put her hood up and cover her body with my jacket, so she would be better camouflaged. One thing that I learned about the creatures was that they didn't have great eyesight, and if you were well hidden, unless they were really close to you, they couldn't see you. While Ivy hid, I aimed my rifle straight at the creature's head, ready for anything. 

I looked to my right and saw that the leader was walking slowly towards the car that was above us. The creature that was inside the car pulled something out and put it at the leaders feet. I saw from my position that it was a dead body that had slightly decomposed, most likely from being in there for too long. 

The leader kneeled down, in a scarily humanlike stance, then held out it's long claws, and jabbed them straight into the body. The leader's lifeless eyes then began to roll back in it's head, and it let out a small moan, one that was loud enough to hear from the ditch. Then, the body began to twitch and jump up and down. The entire corpse seemed to decompose at a rapid rate, the skin seemingly disintegrating. Bones and blood began to explode from the sides of the body.

Ivy was holding her hands over her ears and still cowering under my jacket, while I watched the gruesome scene unfold above me. After a few minutes, the leader pulled it's claws out of the body's chest. Then, slowly the corpse began to stand up, now looking more like one of the creatures then the human it was not long ago.

After staring at the leader, it slowly walked over to where the rest of the group was standing, and took position along the back with the others. The leader then moved to the front of the pack, then let out another shriek. All of the creatures began to move again, slowly down the road. As soon as they were out of sight, I pulled the jacket off of Ivy and grabbed her hand, and ran the opposite way.