(Victor POV)

I threw the gear shift into reverse to try and back away from the building, but before I could get anywhere one of the creatures was on top of the car in the blink of an eye. It grabbed hold of the hood and started to peel the metal back like it was tissue. I stopped the car with a sudden jerk that sent it flying behind us.

The creature landed on its feet, its huge claws digging into the ground, and started charging for the car again.

“Look out!!” Drake screamed.

I turned around to see the other two monsters were closing in on us from the front.

“We’re boxed in!” I screamed. “Everyone out of the car!!” I opened the door and jumped out of the car just as the creatures rammed into it with unbelievable force. I looked around to see if everyone made it out and spotted Drake and Alessia lying a few feet away from where I was. I ran over to them.

“You guys ok? Where’s Emma?” I asked.

Drake got up and helped Alessia to her feet.

“I saw her jump out on the other side of the car.” He replied. I turned to search for her when I saw two of the monsters charging for us. Drake threw Alessia behind him and rushed forward as I followed behind him.

At that moment I started to wonder, what if the strength we had gotten was only temporary?

We met the creatures halfway but they leaped over our heads and came up behind us. I threw out a blind punch, hoping to hit one with no luck. My punch died in the air as one grabbed my leg and tossed me across the field toward the blood-stained school. I got to my feet and started to head back when I spotted Emma.

She was trying her best to back away from one of the monsters that were now circling her, with no luck. I moved closer to see what was wrong when I saw that her leg was caught under a huge piece of metal that looked like it once belonged to my car.

She was searching around; probably trying to find a weapon to fight the monster off, when her eyes fell on me. I could see the look of pure fear on her face and tried to tell her to stay calm but to no avail. I moved closer trying to creep behind the monster and take it by surprise, but it must have sensed me because as I drew closer, it pounced on Emma with its claws aimed for her throat. “No!!!” I moved as fast as I could but was too late. The creature was already on top of her.

~~~~

A faint purple glow started to radiate from Emma’s body and the creature was thrown back, hitting the school’s wall with a spin crushing SMACK. I ran over to see if Emma was ok and saw that she had her eyes closed and her arms were raised in a defensive position. I moved closer to her but was hit with an invisible force that sent me stumbling back.

“Emma… you’re ok now. It’s just me.”

Her bright green eyes peeked through her closed lids and saw me now sitting in front of her.

“What happened? Where’d that monster go?” she asked.

As she put her arms down the purple glow started to fade until it was completely gone.

“I don’t know how, but you sent it flying into that wall.” I pointed to where the creature now lied unconscious, its black blood streaming from its skull.

“I…I did that? How?” She asked.

“I don’t know, but we can try to figure that out later. Right now we need to get that thing off your leg.”

I got to my feet and walked over to where she laid. I was a bit cautious, not wanting to run into that invisible wall again, but I made it through to help her. I grabbed hold of the big hunk of metal and started to lift it with all my strength when it flew up and hit me straight in the chin.

“Are you ok!!” Emma asked.

“Ahh… yeah I’m fine. Just got to get used to this whole ‘super strength’ thing.” I grabbed her arm and wrapped it around my shoulders as I lifted her to her feet.

“You know this is the second time you were there to save my ass,” Emma said.

“Yeah, just try not to make a habit of it,” I said and a small smirk came to her face.

“Asshole.” She mumbled.

I sat her down near the far side of the school where she would be hidden from the monsters.

“I’m going to help Drake fight those things so we can find my sister and get out of this hellhole. Stay here until we get back.” I got up to leave when Emma grabbed my wrist.

“Victor…thanks…for everything.” She said then let go of me.

“You’re welcome,” I said as I made my way over to Drake.

~~~~

Drake was holding Alessia behind him as both of the monsters cornered them against a wall.

“Vic, a little help over here?” Drake called out.

I rushed at one of the monsters and tackled its head into the school wall, with a loud crack sounding from its skull. Drake tackled the other one to the ground and started hitting it with all his strength. Black blood started to ooze from its face as he finished hitting it.

He got up off the monster and held his hands up. There was black junk all over his knuckles and he looked like he was going to be sick.

“Well…that was…Disgusting.” He said looking like he was going to throw up at any minute.

“You ok, man?” I asked.

He wiped his knuckles on his jeans and tried to calm himself down.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Let’s find your sister and get out here.” He said.

Alessia walked over to us and put her hand on Drake’s back.

“Where’s Emma?” She asked.

“I left her in the corner over there. Her legs messed up but other than that she’s fine.”

We went over and I helped Emma to her feet and we made our way over to the front of the school again.

“You know where your sister might be?” Drake asked.

“She was on her way to practice when I dropped her off this morning, so she might still be in the gym,” I said.

We all looked towards the dark bloodied school that stood before us.

“So our options are to either walk down the hallways of a dark bloody hellhole that might be hiding more of those Things or walk around ALL of that and go straight towards the gym. So…who’s up option number for option number two?” Drake asked raising his hand.

We made our way around the school passing blood-stained windows and broken down walls. All the while all I could think about was what if Beth wasn’t here. What if she went back or got attacked by one of those Things. We got to the door of the gym and drake turned the door handle but it was locked.

“Now what?” Alessia asked.

“Now I and Victor break this thing down.” He said. I handed Emma over to Alessia and took a place beside the door.

“Ready?” Drake asked.

I nodded. “Ok, three, two, one.” We ran into the door with all our strength and sent it flying into the other side of the gym.

“I could get used to doing that,” Drake said.

We walked into the gym and were greeted by a bat swing straight towards our faces. “Whoa!” I and Drake said as we both caught the bat at the same time. We took the bat away from a guy that was standing beside the now broken-down door. He was kind of short with dark black hair, light blue eyes, and a somewhat pale complexion.

“What the hell are you doing?” Drake asked.

He grabbed the guy by his shirt and lifted him off the ground with ease.

“Sorry man, ok, I didn’t mean to swing at you and your buddy. I thought you were one of those ‘Mutts’ that were attacking the school.” He said.

“What?” Drake said.

“Mutts, you know those big mutant dog things.” The guy explained.

“I thought you were one them by the way you guys were banging on that door, but you’re not so ah… could you put me down?” Drake lowered him to his feet and let go of his shirt.

“Who are you?” I asked

“My names are Nathan Kashevsky, but people just call me Nate.” He stated.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Drake, this is Victor, and those two girls back there are Alessia and Emma,” Drake said.

“You here by yourself?” I asked.

He glanced back at a stack of mats that stood beside the bleachers then looked back at us.

“Ah…no I’m not.” He said as he looks back again and yells “It’s ok, it wasn’t those monsters. You can come out.” As he yelled that a small head popped up from behind the mats. It was too dark to see their face but as they moved up I could tell it was Beth.

Once she realized it was me she ran towards me and gave me a giant hug.

“Victor!!! oh my god, I didn’t know if you were still alive or not. I tried to get a ride up to your school to look for you but… but those monsters showed up and…and…” She trailed off.

“It’s ok, I’m here now, it’s ok.” Her eyes started to water as she buried her face deeper into my shoulder.

“Do you think mom’s ok?” She asked.

“I think so. She’s way downtown so she should have been far away from here when the Meteors hit.” She popped her head up as I said that.

“Meteors? You mean…they came?” She asked.

“Yeah,” I said guilt flooding my voice.

She studied my face and as if she were reading my mind said “It’s ok, you couldn’t have known. We all thought it was fake too.” She gave me one more squeeze before she let me go.

She looked around at the people behind me when spotted Drake.

“Hey, Drake.” She said as she went to hug him.

“Hey, Lady-bug,” Drake said.

Beth hit him in the arm when she heard the nickname. “Stop calling me that.” She said as Drake laughed.

“My bad, I forgot you’re all grown up now.” He stated mockingly.

“But in my mind, you’ll always be that little girl who always had spots all over her clothes.” I notice Beth's cheeks turning bright red as she glanced over at Nate.

“Whatever.” She said as she looked over at Alessia. “Hey, Alessia.” Beth greeted as Alessia waved at her. Beth glanced over at Emma, who was still hanging on to Alessia for support.

“Oh yeah, Beth this is Emma. She’s my ah…We helped her get out of the school” I explained.

“Hey.” Emma greeted.

Beth gave her a small wave when looked down at Emma’s bruised leg.

“Oh my gosh, are you ok?” She asked.

Emma glanced down at her leg then back up at us.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s not as bad as it seems.” She said.

“You’re bleeding.” I pointed out as blood dripped down from the bottom of her jeans. I moved to her and laid her down against the wall. I ripped her pants leg open and saw the long deep cut that was now dripping blood.

“Oh my gosh.” Beth gasped.

“We should get her to a hospital or… or find a doctor or something,” Alessia said.

Beth moved beside me. She looked at the deep wound then glanced up at Nate. He gave her a small nod then she put her hands on the cut.

“Don’t freak out, ok?” She said to me as Emma’s leg started to glow faintly white. I was confused but as Beth moved her hand away I saw that the wound was gone and Emma’s leg looked as good as new.

“Cool!” Drake yelled.

Beth looked at him then around at all of us as if she were expecting us to scream and run out of the room.

“You’re not freaked out?” She asked.

We looked at her as if she were crazy.

“That’s not the weirdest thing we’ve seen today,” Alessia stated.

“Yeah, plus you’re not the only one here that’s… ‘Special’,” Drake stated.

“What? You mean you guys can heal people too?” Beth asked.

“Ah… not exactly.” He said.

“You feel ok?” I asked Emma, ignoring the conversion that was going on around us.

“Yeah, actually I feel great.” She said.

“I’ll have to thank your sister for the help.” I helped her to her feet and she tested out her newly healed leg.

“Guys, I think it’s time to get out of here,” I stated.

“We don’t know if any more of those things-”

“Mutts,” Nate added.

“Any more of those ‘Mutts’ is hiding here.”

“But where do we go?” Drake asked.

“Don’t you guys have any family you want to look for?” I asked.

Drake shook his head. “My dad’s out of town this week and Ramon’s probably at some random girl’s house, so there’s no way to find him.”

He looked at Alessia. “My parents are in Ohio, College scouting with my sister so they won’t be back for a while.” She said.

“What about you Emma?” Emma looked up as if she were just joining the conversation.

“Ah… my dad’s in the military and right now he’s based out of the country so… it’s just me.”

Beth and I glanced at each other as she said that.

“Ah…our dad was in the Army too, but um….” I trailed off.

“Wow…ah…”Emma looked around like she wanted to ask something, but saw the sad looks on everyone’s faces, and knew the answer.

“I’m so sorry.” She said.

She looked over at Beth and saw she was holding back tears. Emma motioned as she was going to hug her but decided against it.

“Let’s just get out of here,” Beth stated.

We walked outside of the gym just as the sun was setting.

“Where are we supposed to go?” Nate asked.

I looked around at everyone. “I would say my house, but there’s not enough room for everyone,” I explained.

“We could go to my house,” Emma said.

“We just moved in four days ago so there’s not a lot there, but it’s big enough and not that far away.”

“That sounds perfect,” I said.

“Am I the only one that remembers our ride was destroyed by the big flesh-hungry puppies?” Drake said.

Beth looked up, “Who’s the car?” She asked as everyone looked over at me and a small smirk came to her face.

“I guess today wasn’t completely bad.” She said, laughing at my pain.

“You know, I was thinking about giving it to you when you got your license right?” I stated as her laughter died down.

We walked over to the parking lot to look for a car.

“So…anyone knows who to steal a car?” Alessia asked as Drake pointed over to me.

“Why do you assume I know how to steal a car?” I asked.

“Do you?”

“Well…kinda but I don’t like you assuming a do.” We looked around to find the car with less damage and found a huge black SUV.

“Ok, what now?” Alessia asked as I brought my elbow straight into the car window.

“Oh, that.” I opened the hoping the alarm was not on. I climbed into the driver’s seat, reached down, and pulled out a mess of wires.

“How do you know how to do this?” Emma asked.

“My cousin taught me back when we lived in Chicago.” As I connected the wires the car roared to life and everyone filed in. Emma climbed into the passenger’s seat.

“Alright, let’s go.” Emma fed me direction as we passed more destroyed buildings and cars, and almost ran into a small pack of Mutts.

“Make a right. It’s the first house on the left.” We pulled into the driveway and I stared at the huge home. It was a huge black and gray house with a big oak door and two of the biggest palm trees I’ve ever seen standing in the front yard.

“Wow, if it’s just you and your Dad how did you afford something so… big?” Beth asked.

“My aunt rented for us just before my dad was shipped off.” Emma drew a key from her pocket and unlocked the doors. The inside of them didn’t match the outside, mainly because there was no furniture.

“There are six rooms, three upstairs and three down here. If you need to use the bath there’s one in each room.” Emma stated.

~~~~

I, Beth, and Emma decided to take the rooms upstairs while Drake, Alessia, and Nate took the Downstairs. We decided we would all talk in the morning about this crazy stuff later, but right now I think everyone needed some rest. There wasn’t a lot in my room but a bed and a small nightstand. I walked into the huge crystal white bathroom, took off my clothes, and had one of the best showers I ever had in my life. After I got out I saw dirt, ash, and a bit of blood circulation around the drain. I noticed I didn’t have any other clothes so I put back on the ones Drake gave me then hopped into the bed.

As I laid in bed, unable to go to sleep, I thought about all the horrible stuff that happened today and how it all started so normal. I turned to my side, trying to forget all the bad things when I heard a small whimper coming from outside my room. I got up and walked towards the door and opened it.

The hallway was pitch black and the house was so quiet that a could hear everyone else sleeping in the other rooms. Another whimper echoed through the house. It was coming from the room across from mine, Emma’s room. I walked up and gently knocked on her door, but there was no answer. I knocked again but still no answer.

I cracked the door open, Emma room resembled mine but a glass that a guessing lead to a terrace stood by the bed. I walked over to the glass door and slide it open. Emma was sitting in one chair, her arms warped around her legs and her head leaning on her knees. I could see she was crying. I walked over to her as she look up as she was surprised and I was pushed to the ground again by an invisible force.

“Oh, sorry. But you scared me.” She said.

“It’s ok,” I stated as I got off the ground and took up a chair next to her. Her eyes were puffy and red, and her long black hair was pulled back.

“You ok? I heard you crying from my room.” She looked away as if embarrassed and whipped her eyes.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“It’s cool, I couldn’t sleep anyway,” I said.

“Why were you crying?”

“It's um…it’s just all…this.” She gestured to the city that stood below the terrace.

“It’s all the death and the blood and the crazy man-eating monster that now roam around the city. I mean if it’s this bad here, I’m worried what it’s like where my dad is.” Tears rolled down her face. I moved to whip their way as her hand caught my hand and she held it tightly.

“Listen, I know you’re scared and worried about your dad. And I’m sure he feels the same way about you. But what you need to do now is what he would want you to do, survive. You fight and you survive so you and he can be together again, ok?” She shook her head and whipped the remaining tears from her eyes.

“When did you become the hope-inspiring leader?” She said, a tiny smirk on her face.

“Well, I was captain of the football team,” I said jokingly.

“I heard you were only Co-captain.” She said laughing.

“Titles,” I said, a smile on my face.

We sat there for a couple more minutes as Emma said, “I’m just happy today is over with.” But I had a feeling something big was about to happen. Something we all should have been preparing for. I could tell that this was only just the beginning.

The world was changing rapidly and I knew that we would either have to change with it...or die.