Jason Morrow - Anywhere but Here

Ethan shakes his head. I know he thinks I’m crazy, but what else can I do? Hank won’t heed my warning so I have to do what I can to stop the future I saw. I know if I would have done something to stop it for Lucas, he would be walking next to us.

The man that had given Hank the report about the greyskins meets us at the first doors of the gymnasium.

“How did they get in there?” Hank asks.

The man shrugs as sweat drips down the side of his face. His arms seem to be shaking from nervousness. “I have no idea. They must have gotten one of the doors open.”

“How did we not see this coming?” Hank speaks with a harshness that I have yet to see until now.

The man shrugs again and Hank walks past him and cracks open the door. He lets out a sigh. “It’s manageable,” he whispers, “but we’ve got to get in there and stop it now before their numbers grow.”

He instructs part of the group to go around to the other side of the gym and the rest of us to follow him. We slip into the gymnasium without notice and I can see that we are at the top of the bleachers in front of stairs descending all the way down to the basketball court. I nearly gasp at the sight of the greyskins congregated at the bottom, some of them climbing the stairs.

“Spread out,” Hank says to us.

The others move around the bleachers with steady holds on their weapons. Ethan stays close to me and I stay within feet of Hank, watching for any greyskins that might approach. Thinking back, I remember that Hank had been standing on the court in my vision. If I can just keep him from going onto the court, then perhaps he can avoid the bite altogether.

But what consequences would there be for altering the future I saw? What if, for some reason, removing Hank from the situation would cause me to get bitten instead? Or Ethan? I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if my actions caused his death. I look at him as he creeps down the stairs a few feet behind me. I should have reached out and touched him to see what his future holds.

I look at Hank. For all I know, the greyskins could have us all in a minute, but that’s not what I saw. It was Hank I saw.

“Hank,” I whisper.

He turns to me slowly.

“Don’t go onto the court,” I say.

“That’s where the greyskins are, sweetheart,” he says with a smile. “It’s my job to clear them out.”

“Just listen to me!”

But Hank just continues to smile and he turns away, descending the stairs toward his doom.

I don’t know who makes the first kill, but it isn’t silent and it sets all of the greyskins on us. Three come toward Hank on the stairs but Ethan and I jump next to him and we take out one each. My broom handle proves to be sharp enough as it stabs through the top of the greyskin’s head.

Hank clambers ahead as if he is fueled to move forward because I told him not to, and now he is on the court. It is more difficult than I thought to defend myself from the onslaught of the greyskins and try to keep an eye on Hank at the same time. They come in from all directions. Having only a sharp spear’s end means I’ve got to have good aim and I have to be quick. The handle is next to useless against greyskins using a sweeping motion. It’s stab or nothing.

A thought suddenly hits me that I wasn’t in my vision like I had been in my others. Before, I was able to see myself next to Lucas or Ethan before the event took place, but this time I didn’t. Did that mean that I was going to die too? Was I already dead by the time Hank got bitten? I did have the vision before I had planned to go with them. Perhaps changing my mind and telling Hank that I had seen his future had somehow altered it. Perhaps my actions made him more cautious, therefore the greyskin that would have killed him would already be dead.

Black blood drips off the sharp end of the broom handle and streams snake toward my fingers as I stab over and over. There are more bodies lying on the ground now than there are standing, but it isn’t over. I look at Hank and he seems to be fine. He shouts for some of the others to get to the unlocked door and secure it. Then I hear Ethan yell for help. When I look to my right, there are at least five greyskins almost on top of him and he is pushed into a corner. I look back at Hank and see that there is nothing around him, so I run to help Ethan.

I stab two of them through the back of the head before the others turn on me. Ethan wrestles with one, but is able to shake it off and stab it through the skull. All five are dead in just a few seconds.

“Thanks,” Ethan says breathless. “You just saved my life.”

I can’t help but blush, but I don’t think he notices. But the blood leaves my face when I hear a scream behind me. I turn sharply and see a greyskin on top of Hank, teeth sunken into his wrist. Ethan and I run toward him, but it is too late. Others have already taken out the greyskin by the time I reach Hank. He sits up, blood flowing from his mangled wrist, dripping off the tips of his fingers. His eyes search through the group, seeking me out.

He has only one question: “How did you know?”

There isn’t much time before the virus sets in and it’s too late. All of us decide to keep Hank in the gymnasium since his screams would likely carry through to the halls when they cut off his arm. One of the men returns with a clean hatchet and Hank’s eyes go wide. Others come in at the top of the gym, no doubt hearing about Hank’s injury. Gilbert is one of the spectators.

A shirt is tied securely around Hank’s arm at his elbow. The man with the hatchet apologizes to his friend, but Hank just shakes his head. “It’s the only way to save my life.”

“It might not work,” the man says.

“Well, try it!” Hank says, lying flat on his back and extending his bitten arm.

The man swallows hard and kneels next to Hank. “I don’t know if I can do it.”

“Would you rather I die then?” Hank says. His face goes from a grimace to a smile as he looks at his friend. “You’re doing me a favor. It’s my left hand anyway. I don’t need it.”

The man attempts to laugh at Hank’s joke, but his face turns very serious as he looks away from Hank’s face and at his arm.

I don’t want to watch as the man grips the hatchet tightly and raises it into the air, but I can’t look away. He brings the hatchet down as hard as he can and the snapping bone is almost as loud as Hank’s screams. It isn’t a clean cut.

I feel sick. I want to turn away.

Hack! Another scream, but the tendons and muscles are so thick.

Hack! This time there is no scream, and I’m only slightly relieved to know that Hank doesn’t feel the pain of the fourth and final Hack! that cuts off the infected part of his arm.

Blood pools out onto the gym floor all around Hank. Someone wraps a shirt around his stump to try and stop the bleeding. It takes four men to carry him up the stairs and out of the gymnasium. Gilbert meets us in the hallway.

“Okay,” Gilbert says, “what was that all about?”

“Leave her alone,” Ethan says. “I’m sure she doesn’t want to talk about it.”

“Back off, Ethan. I think we deserve an explanation as to why someone so close to us can predict the future. That’s a pretty convenient gift. Wouldn’t you say?”

“Lucky guess,” I say.

“Sounds pretty unlucky to me,” Gilbert says. “That’s pretty specific. The wrist? The fact that you said it would happen.” He looks at Ethan who wasn’t stopping his questions.

I’m cornered.

“It started just the other day. When Lucas died. I grabbed his hand and I saw what was about to happen before it actually did. I don’t know why, but it just happened.” I look at Ethan. “And you remember when you killed that greyskin last night? Remember that I touched your hand? I was able to see that you would be okay. So, then I just saw that Hank would be bitten by a greyskin on the wrist. This time I tried to stop it, but I wasn’t able to.”