Chapter 57.

Memories.

Hiru Knight.

Time/Area: August 4th, 2013. Brooklyn, NYC.

10:00 AM

It didn’t take long for the quiet to once again settle, the only noise being the hum of the truck’s most likely failing engine and the shuffling sound of Henry’s rifle in the backseat.

I stared blankly out of the front window, feeling my right hand twitch and squeeze without any explicit order from my brain to do so.

“You really saved us back there.” Henry spoke, his voice slightly hoarse from all his screaming ten minutes ago. He sat up in the driver’s seat, eyes constantly scanning the road in case one of the corpses sprawled against the asphalt decided to wake up.

I couldn’t reply instantly, partly because I didn’t want to think about it.

“What if I missed?” I wondered, clenching my right hand yet again.

The same hand I used to pull the trigger.

“Hiru, we just survived a-”

“Okay, I get it Henry.” I interrupted him, leaning back into my seat.

I could feel the gun still strapped to my back as the base scraped against my scalp, “We survived…yay.”

“Don’t be like that,” Henry gripped the wheel tight as we passed by a burning department store, “Just…don’t.”

I sighed, reminding myself I wasn’t the only one processing this whole thing.

It wasn’t fair to be selfish with grief… no matter how badly I wanted to be,

“Sorry.” I muttered, glancing at Henry while he kept his eyes fixed ahead.

After a few more minutes of driving down the same road, I spoke again,

“S-so where did you say you were going…?”

I watched as Henry grimaced, but then tried a grin,

“I-I’m gonna go check on my parents…” He said, “You know how they are…” Henry laughed a little- a nervous laugh- before clearing his throat, “Prolly figuring out how to get back to work after all this.”

I laughed with him, feeling as if I was obliged to,

“Yeah,” I agreed, discarding where I really thought his parents were, “Probably.”

Henry took one hand off the wheel for a second to wipe his face, returning back to his focused state as he kept to the road.

Two more seconds passed before Henry suddenly cursed.

I raised my eyebrow, “What is it-?”

Henry was looking at the gas meter, frowning at the near empty tank gauge,

“We don’t have a lot of gas left,” he said, “B-but I can probably get you to Synth before we really run out…”

I glanced out the window; we were going to be out of Brooklyn soon.

“There should be a gas station coming up,” I realized, recognizing the route we were driving on,

“There’s a station up ahead,” I notified Henry, watching him nod.

“Yeah,” he said, “I remember- I just don’t know if it’s a good idea, you know?”

I shrugged as we rolled by a turned over minivan, bits and pieces of a fire hydrant tossed about the road like toys,

“Well,” I said, “It seems like most of the...erm… ‘monster wave’ that hit here has moved on, so…”

“I could’ve said that twenty minutes ago.” Henry muttered, “But a couple of fireworks went off, and in less than a second, a thing the size of a building was trying to kill us.”

“So we’ll be quiet.” I pressed, “No one’s setting off any fireworks.”

We were passing by the gas station now, the site still somewhat intact as it stood alone between two open roads and a small plaza. A small convenience store was attached to the station, a huge neon sign that no longer worked advertising “Redy-Fuel” in jumbo letters.

Our position was on a third road, parallel to the whole scene as Henry brought the truck to a slow stop.

Henry looked across the roads, analyzing the gas station as if the building itself could be a monster,

“I don’t know, Hiru-”

“Nothing is there right now,” I urged, “And you’re gonna need more gas than this to get you to Staten Island.”

I didn’t know why I was advocating so hard for him to check on two people that were probably dead, but I guessed…I guessed I didn’t want to rule out the possibility.

Henry definitely didn’t, and plus, it gave me something else to think about. Something other than Tim and John and…

And there was no reason to consider us both orphans.

Not yet anyways.

Henry glanced at me, then at the gas meter, then back at me again,

“Ughhh.” he groaned, looking behind his shoulder at the back seat.

The rifle I barely had time to grab was still laying there,

“You got ammo for it?” he asked, looking back at me with a small smile.

—--------

“That’s all you have?!”

I rolled my eyes, getting out of the truck as I watched Henry load the AR-15,

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said, “I should’ve remembered to grab more while running for my life.”

Henry didn’t seem to catch my sarcastic tone,

“You think?” he said, “You didn’t even get me a shoulder strap- something you remembered for yourself.”

We were both at the front of the convenience store, the actual truck pulled up beside a fuel dispenser behind us as we awkwardly stood at the doors of the building.

Smoke had risen so high and with such magnitude that it almost didn’t feel like morning anymore, short bursts of wind bringing the scent of blood as a plague of silence washed over us.

“So.” I coughed, “testing my newly wrapped ankle as I took a step back, “We just need to grab some cans in the store, get out, refuel-”

“And then get the heck out of here, yeah.” Henry finished my list, “How’s the foot?”

I looked down, witnessing the tan of the bandage Henry had gotten from the sports store within my sneaker,

“Great, actually,” I said, “But I think it just hurts so bad that it went numb.”

Henry shrugged, “Whatever works…I’ll carry the cans.”

He reached for the bar handle of the store, cringing slightly as a mechanical ding sounded upon opening the door.

“Whoops,” Henry mouthed, carefully holding the door open as we both stepped inside.

I shook my head, just hoping that nothing supernatural, tall, or glowing had heard the noise before following Henry inside.

Henry took the lead, a tight grip on his rifle while I limped behind with mine still strapped to my back.

Every two seconds I would turn around to make sure there wasn’t anyone…anything behind us, knowing that they could be anywhere at any time without us knowing.

We had to be quiet if we wanted this to work-

“Heyyyy!” Henry clapped his hands together, almost accidentally pulling the trigger of his rifle in the process as he called out,

“Any crazy powerful zombies lying around?!”

I hissed at Henry menacingly,

“What the heck Henry?!” I shot, pointing around the shop, “Shut up!”

Henry mimicked my actions, “Nothing’s here, dude.” He said, “Chill, I can see the end of the store from here.”

I looked around.

The place was incredibly small, only two shelves of ‘grab and go’ type supplies boarding the far left wall while a cash register and bathroom was on the far right.

Against the back wall was an isolated shelf, rows of empty gas cans lining the rack.

“Oh, this was easy.” Henry muttered, walking towards the back.

I rolled my eyes again, following until we reached the shelf.

Henry held the rifle with one hand, using his free one to carry two cans,

“Let’s go fill these up.” He said, “And then we’ll split.”

I grabbed an extra just in case, and also because I felt kind of useless, before turning to head back.

Overall we-

Ding!

…

We both froze, looking up at the front door of the station as the welcome bell was rung.

“DiIIIID yOu ARRAPAY FOR THAT?!”

Both Henry and I let out a string of profanity as a six foot tall walking abomination dropped in the store.

Its skin was entirely pale, stretched to the point where one could see exposed muscle tissue and black-ish colored blood protruding from tears in equally visible flesh.

Its entire body emitted a sort of static hum, like the roar of an electric engine, both of its eyes giving off a golden glow while the same color ran along its joints in flashes of yellow light.

My eyes slowly trailed downwards at the monster’s right arm, heart accelerating as I took in the familiar shape of inverted and broken bone shaped into a sharp and deadly blade.

It huffed and somewhat wheezed as its voice carried in electric waves, literally making my hair stand up as it took another step into the building.

“How do they keep doing this?!” I thought, nearly angry with myself for not catching the creature’s presence. Things that were this massive shouldn’t have been able to just…appear.

It didn’t make any sense…and yet here we were.

It repeated its question, each chilling and disfigured word sending shivers down my spine as I hesitantly produced my Winchester from my shoulder strap.

“oOh?” Its head bent at an inhuman angle, causing both me and Henry to jump as it darted two steps forwards before I could blink.

The action was immediately followed by the creature’s swift return back to the door, like it couldn’t decide whether to kill us or leave.

“H-hiru.” Henry basically whispered, both of us watching the monster intently as it near-playfully dashed towards the cash register,

“REEEECEIPT?!” it cried, its arm-spike materializing into the metal of the cash register within half a second before torn up dollar bills and splintered metal rained across the tile floor.

Henry gupled, “When I say go…we run.”

I just nodded, feeling my right hand twitch.

We could make it to the door…as long as it kept doing…whatever the heck it was doing.

“Ready?” Henry took a deep breath.

“Set…” He whispered, priming his legs to sprint.

I was fully ignoring my ankle, preparing to give everything I had as adrenaline caused my vision to tighten.

“G-”

“WWEEEELCOME TO REDY-FUELL ARRAAGH!”

BANG!

Just as I was about to take my first step, the door…disappeared?!

I skidded to a stop, Henry doing the same as we struggled to process what was in front of us.

No, the door hadn’t disappeared…it was just being blocked.

I swiveled my head back to our left at the cash registry, witnessing the non-spiked arm of the monster as it had somehow elongated itself to reach the opposite wall.

I took a step back, analyzing with both fear and horrid disgust at the wall of torn, ripped, and glowing flesh blocking the doors.

“Is that its arm!?” Henry hissed, “What-”

“DiiIDDDD YOU PAY FOR THATARRRRRGH?!”

It repeated the same question yet again.

There was no more natural light in the room, the monster’s inflated, wall-sized arm doing a proficient job of blocking the sun while it lit up the room with its own golden glow.

I gulped, glancing at Henry for an idea.

He was looking behind us, very carefully, at a fire escape.

My mind flashed back to earlier today. I was in the same situation, but with mom…and John. We were all pressed against the fire escape…trying to escape whatever Tim had turned into…a-and,

“They all died…” I couldn’t stop the memories no matter how badly I wanted to, “All of them.”

I shook my head, “It won’t work…” I muttered, giving up as I pondered the cruelty of the situation’s resemblance.

This was how she died…this was how I would die.

Henry squinted at me, “What, did you want to stay here?”

“Th-this was how-” My voice broke, nearly dropping my gun as I heard the sound of my mother’s neck breaking.

Snap

Snap

Snap

“Hey,” Henry grabbed my shoulder, “I-I’m sorry I wasn’t there, okay?”

He gulped, “B-but I don’t think we…I don’t think Mrs.Knight would’ve wanted you to just give up. We’re not dead yet, dude.”

The monster was seeming to grow tired of us ‘customers’, yelling out its famous question again before inching forwards.

Henry cursed, “W-we have to try, Hiru!”

I slowly tightened my grip on my rifle, lifting my eyes to meet that of the monster’s.

Life does go on, Hiru…

My mother’s voice rang into my head,

Never forget that.

“Y-yeah, yeah.” I looked at Henry, “Let’s go.”

I questioned where Henry found the courage to grin, nodding at the fire escape before mouthing the words,

Ready..

“RAAAAGH!”

Screw it, just run!

And so we did.

“WAIIIT, DON’T LEAAAAVE ARRRGH!”

A tear rolled down my face as I ignored the pain ripping into my leg,

Ignored the fact that Timmy had said the same thing..

Ignored the sound of my mother’s neck snapping.

Just…keep running.

Henry rammed the door open with his arm, holding it open for me before continuing to dash into the street,

“C'mon Hiru, almost there!” Henry shouted, doubling back to pull me along.

BANG!

The fire escape had just broken from behind us,

“YOU DIDN’T PAAAYYYARRRGH!”

The tears in my eyes were no longer just from pain.

Was this how things were going to be from now on?

Just constantly running….people constantly dying….and for what?

Life goes on…

I let loose a roar of exhaustion as we neared the truck, hearing Henry screaming words but not quite registering them as I charged forwards.

Just go go go go go.

I barely remembered opening the car door and getting inside, but yet there I was…sitting in the passenger seat, panting for breath as my ankle went limp.

My vision was going sideways when I felt Henry enter..

Were we already driving?

“We’ll outrun this thing…!” Henry was saying,

“Then fill up when we’re clear…..cans in the back!”

My eyes were starting to close

“Hiru?”

“Hiru!!”

-