Jayme Miller - The Demise of Humanity

After I was dressed I grabbed my dad’s truck keys and climbed into the driver’s seat. I decided in the shower I would go into town and see if I could find my parents. My cell phone said it was 2 pm. My dad should have been at the police station. He was usually working this time of day. It was odd he hadn’t taken his truck to work. I started the twenty mile ride into town. The truck trudged along over the dirt road. I avoided the numerous potholes left from a recent rain storms. I passed the old farm house down the road from us and noticed the cows weren’t out to pasture today. The horses were also missing. Mr. Martin was always out on his tractor or tending to the animals. I drove by slowly and noticed the house seemed to be empty.

My rational side was telling me to stay calm but my irrational side was starting to freak out. I made it into town and an uneasy feeling spread over me. I felt on high alert and my senses were on overload. The town felt ghostly and was eerily quiet. There was no one on the sidewalks or in the parked cars.The roads were clear as the signal light turned from yellow to red when I approached. The shops and restaurants lights were on but no one appeared to be inside.

There should have been people hustling about and enjoying the beautiful summer day. The town was holding its annual summer celebration this weekend.

“Where was everyone?” I thought out loud.

I parked the truck in front of the only grocery store in town. A vintage sign stated in bold lit up letters, “The Central Market.” I got out of the truck and cautiously walked into the store. The doors were unlocked and opened automatically. I knew better then to call out for help. I’d seen an abundance of horror movies. I wasn’t going to attract the wrong kind of attention by yelling my head off. The lights were on and the registers were lit up ready to be used but not a single person was in the store. I noticed some of the produce items had flies buzzing around them. There was a strange unpleasant odor in the store. I searched the store looking for any signs of life but no one was there. I decided to go see if my dad was at the police station. I walked outside and headed down the street. I turned down an ally that was a short cut to the station. I noticed the strange odor from the store was lingering in the alley too. I kept moving forward but increased my step to a light jog. Something felt wrong here, but I didn’t know what it was.

I approached the station and entered the building. After a quick search I knew no one was there. I searched most of the station but there were some areas I couldn’t enter without a key. The town was empty and I was alone. I hadn’t even seen any dogs or cats roaming around. Come to think of it I hadn’t seen any animals. I had heard birds and maybe a dog barking, but now I wasn’t so sure.

My mind started to race and every possible scenario flooded my brain. “Maybe the state was evacuated? Maybe I am dead? Maybe the apocalypse?” I was thinking about all the horrible things that could have happened when another thought came centerfold; I knew I would need to get supplies. My parents had a great stockpile of food and supplies at home. My dad was one of those crazy end of the world preppers!

I left the station and reentered, “The Central Market.” I filled three carts with dried goods, batteries, matches, first aid supplies and lots of other girly essentials like, chocolate and tampons. I left all the cash I had in my pants pocket on the counter, loaded everything into the back of the truck and decided to drive into the nearest city. The closest city was Keene and it was a thirty minute ride from Sullivan. The roads were clear and I didn’t pass a single car along the way. I found this to be very unsettling. The ride was uneventful. I tried messing with the radio dials but found only static crackled through the speakers. I didn’t want to freak out but I felt a tear or two betray my brave face. There wasn’t a soul on the road or in the cars I passed. I approached the city and the air was thick with an unbearable putrid odor. Here in the city the odor was one hundred times worse than in Sullivan. I tried not to breath in the putrid odor in the air but my efforts failed. The putridness was too intense and foul. I gagged and felt bile raise in my stomach and up into my throat. I fought back the bile and eased it down by glancing at the city. The sun was disappearing behind the building and shadows starting moving around the city incredibly fast. Too Fast! I slowed the truck to a complete stop on the highway. Narrowing my eyes, I could see the shadows moving.

A short distance away I could make out a man standing in the road. He was staring right at me. He had dried blood that had run out of his eyes, ears and mouth. His nose was hooked at an odd angle and blood had dried under it. He was terrifying and sickly looking. He tilted his head to the side and let out a terrifying scream. I jumped in my seat and my body tensed. I had never heard anyone scream like that. It was incredibly loud and high pitched. I covered my ears but it only dulled the scream. He went on and on, screaming like a mad man. I couldn’t imagine anything sounding worse than his scream but then there was another scream. Somewhere out in the city more screams echoed. My ears began to ring and my head beat to the sound of screams surrounding me. I knew immediately I had to get out of there but the screams were paralyzing me. I thought things couldn’t possible get any worse than the torture of the screams but I was wrong because the man with the hooked nose darted with incredible speed in my direction. I pulled my hands away from my ears and saw there was blood on them. I wiped my hands on my pants and put the truck in reverse. I turned the truck around and quickly started driving away from the wild man. I kept driving but saw the man was approaching the truck at an unreal speed. Even more terrifying I could see he wasn’t alone. More people had joined him, first two, then ten and then too many to count. I pushed the gas pedal to the floor. The people were still running towards me. The truck sped up and I could see I was starting to make progress in losing them. The full moon was ascending in the sky and the city was moving shadows. It was a terrifying sight to see shadows dance and race across building walls.

I wanted nothing more then to leave this place and never return. The further away from the city I went the more I realized my world wasn’t going to be the same. Something horrific had happened to everyone. I drove down the highway and saw dark shadows run into the road. They stood in front of the moving truck, I was driving seventy miles per hour. I slowed down but didn’t stop. I approached and the headlights from the truck revealed the shadows were people. They were people but they, weren’t people . They looked mostly human but when they came into view I could see their eyes were a pale gray and their skin was a sickly shade of white.The light from the truck made them scream that horrid scream. They jumped away from the light and I sped up again.

I made my way back into the town of Sullivan but I didn’t stop the truck.There were people wandering around the streets and in the stores. There were far less people here in the town but I could clearly see these people were sick too. They moved wildly about when I passed in the truck. They were destructive, breaking windows and throwing objects; they appeared to be searching for something. They screamed out and tore through the stores and down the streets. The light from the truck seemed to affect them. They screamed out loudly, my ears buzzed and rung. I kept peaking in my rearview mirror to make sure no one was following me. It was hard to tell if I was being followed because it was dark this far out in the woods. I pulled onto the dirt road home and approached the farm. I drove too fast along the dirt road home but wasn’t going to slow down. I hit every pothole in the road. All was still and I breathed a sigh of relief. There didn’t appear to be anyone this far out of town. I finally made my way up my driveway. I pushed the automatic garage door opener and pulled into the garage. I sat and waited for the door to close behind me. I started to shake uncontrollably and tears fell down my face like a faucet turned on full. I had never felt so terrified in all my life. I sat in the truck for some time before I had my bearings again.