"The Center Pointe" Chapter 3

Chapter 3

          In the first days of Nibiru’s arrival Karen Rich and Brian stayed in the house unsure of what to do.  The emergency system never responded to the catastrophe outside and it was useless to attempt to go anywhere since the car stopped working.  Touching anything metal resulted in a static shock so all three took to wearing gloves around the house.  Karen’s meds were running out  and the food had just run out, it was only a matter of time before the three knew they would have to venture out into this new world to try and find help and meds.  Rich and Brian had begun scavenging local debris for food and weapons, it had become obvious after the failure of emergency crews to respond that no help was coming and the three were on their own.

          On the fifth day hunger began to set in and the decision was made to vacate the house and go out in search of supplies and a safe haven where Karen could be treated by doctors for her condition.  If she were to have a flare up of her crohn’s disease now there was a good chance without treatment it could kill her. 

          They wandered for days not knowing where they were going.  They found only death wherever they went.  Travel was agonizingly slow because they could only walk.  They had decided to head to the closest hospital in hopes to find doctors but navigating the destruction that had spread across the planet made progress difficult.  With each passing day Karen’s meds dwindled and their hunger grew.

          “How much further do we have to go?” Karen said who now was having a difficult time keeping pace with the two stronger men.  “It’s been like three days, I don’t know how much further I can go.”

          Rich waited for her to catch up.  “It will be okay we’re almost there, we’re about three miles from the hospital.”

          “How do you even know anyone will be there, we haven’t seen another person since we left the house, for all we know we’re the last people on the planet.”  Karen said now regressing to a childlike wine to pull at the heartstrings of her husband.

          Rich could not help but smile to himself; he knew that her whining would only fuel her stubborn nature and push her onward to their destination.  When he had Karen under control he stepped up beside Brian who had stopped behind a tree and was peering at something in the distance.  “What is it?”

          “Don’t know.  I think there is movement about a mile down the road but I can’t tell from here if it’s human or animal.”  Brian then reached in his jacket pocket and produced a hunting knife he owned.  It would usually have been used for cleaning deer or fish but now was the trio’s only line of defense.  In this new world everyone was suspect and no one could be trusted.

          “Let’s try and sneak closer and see if we can get a better view so we’re not running headlong into an ambush.”  Rich said drawing Karen close to him.

          “All right but let’s take it slow no sense in being stupid and getting ourselves killed.  We can sneak along the trees there is a grouping of burned out vehicles we can hide behind about a hundred yards from them, we can get a better look at the situation from there.”  Said Brian as he began to depart from the road into the trees and brush that lined the streets.  Karen and Rich followed close behind.

          It took about an hour to sneak the mile to the moving forms but at last they had taken up position behind the burned out cars without being noticed.  About ten minutes before Brian had gotten a good enough look to tell that the figures were indeed people so they should be very careful about revealing themselves before they were able to determine if it was safe.

          With great care Rich and Brian took up position at the front most car with Karen staying a few cars back or safety.  The two took their time before standing just enough to peer at the people that now were only a few feet from them.  Karen watched the pair for a while before they finally squatted  back down looking at each other quizzically then slowly and quietly making their way back to Karen who had become very impatient from the waiting at this point.

“What did you two see?  Is it safe?”  She said her impatience very evident in her speech.

          Rich was the first to reply.  “I’m not sure what we saw, they are people but they’re nude and running around like animals.”  He said just kind of sitting up against an old forest green Ford Taurus they had taken refuge behind.  “I’m not sure what to think but it's obvious that if they were to notice us they would not be friendly.”

          “I don’t know if we can sneak around them.”  Said Brian drawing his knife from his pocket.

          Karen just looked at him as if seeing him for the first time.  “You can’t mean what your suggesting Brian.”  she said with fear in her eyes for the realization had now just crept over her at the things the three of them might have to do just to survive in this new world.  In her life it had never occurred to her that she might have to cause anyone injury or even death just to survive, and now that she was faced with this new reality she was sure she was not ready to have to take that plunge.

          Instead of Brian responding to her inquiry it was Rich who made the first comment.  “Karen.”  He said putting his hand on her shoulder attempting to comfort her.  “We must do whatever we can to survive, there will be many people and animals that we may come across that would require us to kill them in order to survive, up until now we weren’t sure if there was even anyone left alive but now that we can see that there is, we have to be ready to fight or run or even kill depending on the situation.  We have to be ready for this if we want to survive.”  He then took his wife in his arms and hugged her as her eyes began to tear up.

“I don’t want this world Richard, I just want to wake up in our bed with you beside me, and I want this all to be a bad dream.”

          Just then Brian turned and hushed the pair.  “Shh, there’s one snooping around here.” his blade was at the ready.  The three could see in a cracked rear view mirror the person sniffing around where they were hiding.  It was a woman if you could call it that.  She was nude with cuts and scrapes over her entire body.  Her skin was a very pale grey color and although it was cold out she looked as though she were sweating.  Her movements were less human and more animal.  She moved around in quick jerking motions and looked to be easily excitable.  It was like her humanity had been stripped and just the animal side was left.

          The trio sat in hushed awe as this creature moved in and out of the cars right near where they were hiding  Brian had the knife at the ready should they be discovered and she proved hostile.  Closer and closer the creature inched toward them as if smelling them.  Every time the creature touched something metal you could see small exchanges of electricity.  The trio noticed that it extended beyond the mere static electricity that they would experience when touching metal. The current was almost fluid or plasma like and seemed to emanate from the creature instead of coming from the metal.

          As the woman got closer Karen tightly shut her eyes and covered her ears as the two men braced themselves for what they surely thought was going to be a fight.  They looked at each other with knowing eyes; they wanted to take her down quickly so as not to alert the two bigger male creatures she had been with.  Rich separated himself slightly from Brian to corner her and prevent an escape then the two waited for the inevitable.

          Just as she was about to round the corner the silence was broken by a blood curdling scream that brought the female to frenzy and she rushed off back to the other two males.  Rich and Brian quickly rose a bit above the car in order to see what was happening.  The sight that caught them was one of pure horror.  The two males had cornered a small group of people.  They looked to be a family.  There was a male a female and a small boy and girl.  Rich and Brian looked on as the father was trying to ward off the two males with a baseball bat while the mother hugged the two children in close to her body.  He was swinging in long and powerful hits trying to fend off the attackers.  The female creature came rushing in tackling the man and causing him to stiffen as if shocked by a jolt of electricity, he lost his grip on the bat sending it rolling out of reach.  Now disarmed, the man fell to the ground as the three creatures swarmed him and began tearing at his flesh like animals, the wife and children began screaming for help but by the time Rich and Brian were able to make it close enough to them they stopped short.  The creatures made quick work of the family, all four were dead before Rich and Brian had a chance to move even fifty yards.  To their horror the creatures began feeding on the flesh of the poor family, a sight that made Rich turn his head and vomit as they again dropped out of sight behind the line of vehicles.

          The two quickly made their way back to Karen who was hunched over shielding herself from the dark reality they had just encountered.  Rich and Brian came and sat beside her staring at each other not being able to say a word about what they just saw.  All the trio could hear was the cracking of bones and the tearing of flesh as the creatures fed on the family.  All Brian and Rich could feel was remorse that they had not been able to help them. 

          After about an hour of the feeding frenzy the air became still and the grunts of the creatures faded off in the distance.  The trio slowly made their way to the scene of the attack, they had wanted to avoid it but there was no other way to get to the hospital other than through the carnage.  Rich tried to shield Karen from the scene but when they came upon it she tore he eyes from his hand in order to catch a glimpse of what had occurred.  Before Rich could again shield her it was too late and she had taken it all in.  Her first response was to vomit her second was to fall to the ground sobbing.  You could not tell there had even been people there.  The scene looked like nothing but chunks of flesh and blood, like a deer battered by a semi-truck on the highway, there was no way to even make out where one body began and the other ended

          “I don’t understand what’s happening!” said Karen sobbing on the ground trying not to look at the grotesque scene.

“I don’t know.”  Rich responded solemnly.  “One thing is for sure, if we run into those things again its kill first before they kill us.”

          “Did you see what happened when she touched the guy?” said Brian who after all this time still had a death grip on the hunting knife he had brought for defense.  “It was like when she touched him she had discharged electricity to incapacitate him.  Man! If they even touch us were as good as dead.”

          Rich looked at the scene then back to his companions.  “We need guns.  We need to be able to fight these things from a distance.  For the time being just grab something long to keep them at bay.  If we run into them again, Brian you keep them distracted and I’ll use the knife to go in for the kill.”

“No fucking way you’re having all the fun you bastard.  You keep them at bay while I go for the kill; I’m not letting you outscore me Legolas.”  Brian said with a short chuckle.

          Although he was trying to be funny Rich knew that Brian wanted to try and keep him safe for Karen’s sake and wanted to assume the larger risk.  Rich would let Brian have his way for now but was damned if he would let his best friend put himself in such danger.  They would look high and low for better protection and safety.  Rich thought to himself he would rather they all die together than any die alone.  He would make it his personal mission that they all get to the hospital in one piece.  There had to be a safe haven out there somewhere.  This wasn’t a zombie movie, this was reality.  Although be it a reality that never could have dawned on him, he knew the human race would survive.  We were like a virus and there was no cure that could stop our spread.  They would find safety, Rich was confident of this fact.

Two Sister's and an Evil Man

Two girls walk along the side of the dirt road their hands extended from their bodies brushing along the tall grass, the crickets can be heard in the grass.  The laughter of the girls echoes in woods adjacent to them.  They are beautiful sisters, they walk and skip happily in frilly white dresses.  Having just come from church they are happy and feel the love of God wash over them.  They are alone.  As they skip and laugh down the deserted road they are not aware they are being stalked.  Stalked by an evil force that has taken countless children across the world.

These girls, they dance and play the love of God sweet in the warm afternoon breeze.  Evil takes no heed of the beauty, evil takes no notice of the joy in anothers heart.  Evil only wants to take, to destroy, to ravage.  The beauty of the day becomes marred by dark clouds moving across the sky casting its shadow across the fields and the forests.  The sweet warmth of the afternoon breeze becomes bitter cold, the breath of the girls comes from their lips a mist in the now crisp air.  The heat of the sun is gone, the man moves toward them, unseen.  The change in air the only indication of his presence.

Happiness is a torture, laughter like razors across his skin.  He must stop the pain, he must silence the joy.  Countless before them have fallen, countless joy silenced.  The girls stray from the path and into the wood, a shortcut to their home.  The wind picks up and the man can smell the slight burning of wood in the distance, an indication of a smoke rising above the trees.  A warm fire in its hearth awaits this girl.  Loving parents waiting to wrap their arms around their daughters.  A loving family.

Closer now he moves, their laughter and giggles are closer now, a small hand moves just beyond a tree, the frilly white dress of the girls stand out against the dark greens and browns of the forest.  He will be upon them soon.  He breath is short and the hairs on his neck rise at the expectations of the screams he imagines he will soon hear.  The pleasure washes over him.  The anticipation of the terror that will soon come.  Their pain is his pleasure and he soon will have it.

The laughter dies, the crickets die.  There is silence in the woods and the evil man is left standing there alone in the silence.  Nothing.  He stains his ears. Nothing.  The giggles are gone, the sweet aroma of burning logs in a hearth have receded and has been replaced by what?  That smell. Familiar.  What is it? ROT! Decay.  It is stronger now as if moving toward him.  The waves of pleasure and anticipation leave the evil man only to be replaced by something else. Fear? No, not fear. Panic. Yes, panic.  It washes over him cascading down his spine and turning his legs to water.  He cannot move.

Then he sees it.  It moves slowly through the trees barely visible. So quick, the eyes cant quite catch it. The smell of death is now heavy in the air.  He cannot move.  He looks down to his feet expecting them to move. Ivy? It begins to slowly wind itself around the man feet.  The long vines are brown covered in thorns and they wrap themselves around him.  Slowly they grow wrap around his feet, then his leg.  The thorns lightly scraping through his trousers and cutting into the soft flesh beneath.  It winds ever higher above his thigh across his belly and beneath his arms.  The vines grow and grow, wrapping themselves across the entire expanse of the evil man's body.  Then it starts to tighten.  The thorns, a thousand needles digging, tearing into the flesh.  He tries to scream but sound cannot escape.  And then they appear.

The sisters, their white frilly dresses blowing in the cold air, the wind picks up.  Their giggles begin again.  But it is a sound of pure terror to his ears.  There is an echo to the laughter.  Something otherworldly.  Their golden blond hair that so beautifully cascaded down their backs filling the evil man with desire now takes on a red tinge.  It becomes wet, blood begins to trickle down from their brow and the laughter becomes ever more demonic.  He cannot run, he cannot hide.  And they advance.  Moving easily across the rugged forest floor.  With each step the scent of earth is kicked up, It's so powerful it nearly overpowers the smell of decay that had permeated the forest.  They move with purpose, their childish hands raised into the air reaching toward him.  Their nails grow longer and sharper with each step.

Something else now emerges from the forest behind the children.  Their advance on the evil man stops and they move to each side to allow the thing to pass.  It is horror incarnate.  The disheveled and torn black robes conceal the things body, it easily reaches seven feet. A sash of twigs and thorns draw the cloak loosely around its body.  Rotted skin clings to broken bones, he can see through the tears in the robe.  Torn flesh bleeding. Blood as black as night pools around feet blackened with decay on the forest floor below. Its hands rest on a tree branch fashioned as a cane.  The hands are gnarled and misshapen, the skin is wrapped around the bones like leather.  Long sharp nail protrude from the end of each boney finger.  Green mold and moss have begun to wrap themselves around the palms growing up the length of the forearm.  Its ribcage is pronounced and easily visible through the loose robe.  But the face.  The face.  So twisted and contorted into an eternal scream, tongue hanging at the side of the loose jaw eyes sunken and dead.  The flesh of the face is falling of, the bones clearly visible,

No scream can be manifested from the evil man.  Fate has come full circle and his just dues have come up for collection.  There is no escape, no where to hide. No where to run.  A fog rolls in and more bodies begin to emerge from the thick mist.  The wetness clinging to them as the become corporeal.  Victims. His. Dozens emerge, moving toward the evil man.  At long last his throat is freed.  He can scream.  A loud screech emanates from the evil man's throat.  A noise unheard in the realm of the living.  His Hell has come and his victims have waited long enough.

A man lays dead in a road hit by a fallen tree.  Two sisters in frilly white dresses giggle and dance down the road.

"The Center Pointe" Chapter 2

Chapter 2

          Rich Carson closed and locked the front door of his home, his roommate Brain had stormed off to his room after the argument and Karen was lying in bed still crying under the sheets because of the stress of the heated exchange between Rich and Brian.  Rich knew that she hated the anger that keep rearing its ugly head in the house.  All the anger weather they wanted to admit it or not was due to the money problems they now faced since she was diagnosed with a severe case of crohn’s disease.  They could not get any help from the assistance office and her medication was over $700 a bottle.  Rich knew she blamed herself for their financial woes, but Rich could never and would never blame her for something that was so far out of their control.

          He loved Karen and felt her frustration and fear over her health problems.  As rich entered the kitchen he instinctively reached for the kitchen light then realized they had no electricity.  It had been shut off last week due to nonpayment.  Rich could also not be mad at Brian.  Brian had been there many times when Rich and Karen had really needed him and he planned to make things right between him and his best friend in the morning, but for right now all he wanted to do was lock up and slip beneath the cool sheets and hold Karen.  She had been so unhappy since the diagnosis.  She had almost died do to malnutrition and anemia because of the ferocity of the disease that had almost destroyed her intestines before it had finally been diagnosed by a specialist in the field.  Even with the medication that was putting the two of them in the poorhouse Karen still had many problems with the disease.  She could barely eat and spent a lot of time in the bathroom evacuating her diseased bowels.

          Rich just wanted things to get better, for Karen to get better, but he knew deep down that could never happen.  He had to quit his job so he could take care of her which had become a full time effort to keep her out of the hospital; they were living on savings in hopes that they could get Karen SSI to help pay for her large medical bills.  There were so many foods that she could not eat just keeping her fed had become a war between him and the grocery mart pricing.  Rich felt as though the world had him against a wall and there was no escape, what was worse Karen felt the entire thing was her fault and it filled Rich with grief that he could not find something to bring her out of that depression.

          He opened the fridge which now had a melting bag of ice as its only cooling system and pulled out an off brand soda.  As he opened it the generic taste was only good to remind him of their present financial situation.  He took a few sips and poured the rest down the sink.  Rich looked through the window over the sink at the bright full moon.  For a moment he took notice of the object directly below the moon but mistook it for a low flying plane as he was too tired from the argument to really look at it.

          As Rich finally lay down beside his wife he felt safe from the world and as he drifted off to sleep he was spared the thoughts that plagued him during the day.  In this bed he was safe.  With his wife he was happy.

          A great loud noise brought all the occupants of the small house at the end of the block out of their slumber and to full attention in time for another successive round of loud bangs and rumblings that shook the house to the very foundation.  The first thought through their heads was an earthquake and they all almost ran into each other groping in the dark for the bathroom.  Then all the sudden the house lurched again and they all thought it would come down before they realized they could all now see each other.   It was as if the sky had lit up all the sudden and daylight now spilled in through the windows.  But this light was orange and red. It flickered with the all too recognizable familiarity of fire.  When things finally quieted down for a moment the three occupants of the small house at the end of the block looked at each other and the fear was evident in all their eyes.  Without a word to one another they rushed to the window thinking there had been a huge car or plane crash outside their home.

          They were all unprepared for the sight they would see as they slowly drew back the curtains and revealed the scene before them.  It took them a moment to take it all in.  Even as it was displayed before them the horror of what they saw took a few more minutes to sink in.

Rich was already turning the knob to the door with Brian in close pursuit before Karen could even say anything to stop the pair they had disappeared.  Karen turned back to the window horrified as the two men rushed to the front lawn trying to see if there were any survivors to the horror that had been introduced to the tranquil little suburban neighborhood.  Karen was in shock, there were no longer any houses outside, the homes were just smoldering piles of rubble and burning wood.  Grotesquely burned bodies littered the scene splayed out in different degrees of undress. Plumes of smoke rippled through the devastated neighborhood hanging close to the ground.  It was as if the hand of god had come and smite the quiet with fire.

           Karen knew Rich and Brian all too well and no matter the danger to themselves they would rush to the aid of anyone they could, but the two men just stood on the front lawn amidst the smoke and ash permeating the air staring at the sky.  It was a few minutes before Karen gained the courage to finally move from the window to the door.  She looked bewildered at the two men on the front lawn staring at the sky. Then she looked up and what she saw knocked her to her knees.  There in the sky now three times the size of the moon there looked to be a huge planet and it was getting bigger.

          Karen rushed to her husband’s side terrified to be even a few feet from him.  They all joined their gaze staring at the new decoration to the night sky.  The smoke was low enough to the ground for a clear view of the moon or planet that had now wandered into the interstellar path of our own planet. It was almost ten minutes in the choking smoke before any of them could speak.  Karen broke the silence first.

“What is that?”  She said tightly gripping Rich’s hand.

“I don’t know but it’s getting bigger.” Rich said

          “Will it hit us?”  Karen said pressing her body against Rich for comfort.

          “I don’t know.”  He said putting his arms around his wife to comfort her.

          Brain had remained silent through the brief conversation and after a few minutes of silence he spoke. “I’ve heard about this but it was all just conspiracy theories.  That is the planet Nibiru or better known as Planet X.  With something like that in the sky this whole planet is going to go to hell very quickly, that is probably what did all this.”

“Why weren’t we blown up to?”  Rich said staring at the heavenly body.

“It must have messed with the power in houses and caused a buildup, it would be like a chain reaction through the whole neighborhood but since our power was out and were are decently separated from the rest of the other houses we didn’t get hit.”

“Lucky break I guess.”  Said Rich and Karen in unison to Brian’s theory.

          Karen looked at the two men who could easily pass for brothers, normally so strong they looked like lost children searching for their mom in the mall.  “What do we do now?”  She said renewing her hold on her husband’s hand.

          Brain turned to Karen and looked at her for a moment.  Karen could see a quick sign of sorrow cross his face before he answered. “Survive.”

          Oh dear reader the irony is so sweet, like a finely aged wine.  I myself find it incredible that there is some truth to the old bible saying “The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth.”

All across the globe the proximity of the arrival of the dwarf planet Nibiru had triggered massive electromagnetic feedback in power grids and homes instantly turning millions of houses into bombs.  The entire globe rocked with the gravitational pull between the two planets and power was cut instantly worldwide. The temperature would then drop worldwide.  The tectonic plates began to shift and the oceans swelled with the new satellite that would eventually catch itself in orbit around planet earth.  We could say the planet was very lucky that Nibiru had not collided with the moon hastening the demise of earth, but as a devil’s advocate would state.  “It would have been better for the planet to die quickly for now it is doomed to deteriorate slowly causing unknown suffering among the surviving masses.

          In the following days scientists would surmise that the planet would only be caught in orbit around the earth for a period of seven years then Nibiru would slingshot out of orbit and continue out of the solar system, but during the period in the center of this event the earth would undergo traumatic and devastating changes that would most likely bring the human civilization to the brink of extinction.  The gravitational forces would continue to increase and the clashing of the two electromagnetic shields of the planets would make the use or creation of electronic devices impossible.

          Many conspiracy theorists began to circulate newsletters that this was the end days and they would turn from bloggers with the loss of their electronic devices to old world doom Sayers spreading yet more fear and chaos to the crippled Earth.  Many religious leaders would gain mass numbers of followers preaching that this event was the tribulation and would be followed by the return of Christ while alien enthusiasts were convinced that the fabled Annunaki of the Sumerians would return to re-enslave mankind.

          My dear reader it is a continuing irony to state that 90% of the survivors of this upheaval were the poor and downtrodden that we as a society have ignored.  At the crucial hour all our technology had turned on us killing us without mercy.  Lucky were those without power and without modern technology.  The unlucky were consigned to being burned, electrocuted and blown apart by the very technology they created to protect them and make their lives easier.

          The survivors of the apocalypse were then divided overnight into two categories.  The Clean and the Static.  The static were masses of people and animals that were adversely affected by the clashing electromagnetic fields.  They had become like feral beasts attacking anything on sight.  In the first days of the apocalypse hundreds of thousands were attacked and killed by these creatures.  The new world was bleak and mankind was slowly dying in a new hell.