02.04.202X - I Hear Thunder

I Hear Thunder 

 

Sayori had never been a morning person, and 6 AM felt far too early to even consider anything that didn't entail going back to sleep. However, Katie had been adamant, as always, and the young student found herself northbound, riding shotgun in that familiar old Corolla. The shower she'd taken in the morning, while nice and hot, had done little to perk her up – quite the opposite, in fact, and the residual heat had left her sweating a little afterwards.

As far as breakfast went, a tall glass of water was the only thing on the menu. Along with some hopes and dreams.

Still, she wasn't really a breakfast-y person anymore, and the post-shower warmth didn't annoy her much – the moment she stepped out of the door in her borrowed parka and boots she felt the chill of the wind, cutting into her bones through her jeans. The April morning was as chilly as ever, with tell-tale clouds on the horizon, dark and foreboding.

So, the Ekron plan was in effect.

Truth be told, Sayori had a hard time remembering that the little village so much as existed – whether due to the Prozac or just a spot of old-fashioned forgetfulness, she didn't know. Luckily, Katie had given the impression of being quite familiar with the place, regaling her with short anecdotes about the town that went in through one ear and out through the other. Despite her best efforts, Sayori hadn't managed to muster up more than a token appreciation for the stories, and they'd soon fallen into silence again.

Still, Katie seemed surprisingly cheerful, a battered USB stick plugged into the radio, humming along to the music as they went from dirt road to asphalt again and turned left, towards Ekron, the early morning sun peeking out from behind the clouds.

As far as preparations went, they'd brought the bat along, as well as the first aid kit they'd grabbed from the clinic. While it felt like more of a token effort, Sayori had stowed a couple bandages into her pockets as well, along with her medications, and her crutches were laying on the back seat, next to a pair of backpacks. She'd had half a mind to ask if they should have brought the axe along, but their departure had been too hectic, Katie had seemed almost feverish in intensity at times, and... well, she'd forgotten.

Like always.

And as for the shotgun in the barn – she hadn't brought it up, and didn't know how to. The entire business with the weapon felt more and more like a breach of privacy the longer she thought about it – there had to be reason for it to be disassembled the way it was, for it to be hidden away.

Besides, Katie would surely put it back together if she felt a need to. Maybe they wouldn't need it at all. Maybe Ekron was different, maybe the disease hadn't spread there yet, maybe all they needed to get their food was the cash in the glove box, maybe...

Maybe Katie had a reason for packing the bat. Maybe the thing that happened in the gas station would happen again. Maybe it was just as bad as Rosewood, maybe the streets were full of...

“...I want to cut the brakes on every SUV in the world...”

No. It wasn't anything worth thinking about. It would be fine, whichever way it went – she'd burn that bridge when she got to it.

“...It.”

Disgustingly euphemistic. Blind, willfully so, like cattle led to the killing floor, choosing to ignore everything around her. Clinging to delusional hopes and wishful dreams because she couldn't wrap her head around the alternative – because reality was – and would always be – far too painful and terrifying to fully immerse herself in. Because reality would drown her and pull her under until she was numb from the cold, the sky above and the feeling of air in her lungs barely a memory of a memory.

And it was all or nothing.

Sitting on the beach, dipping her toes in the water while idly musing over this and that, never progressing, never learning.

Getting sucked in by the tide until she was hopelessly treading water, waves crashing around her, pulling her deeper and deeper every second.

No middle ground.

Still, it was sink or swim, as they said. Third options didn't exist..

No middle way, no golden mean, no other choices.

---

Sayori shifted her attention to the landscape outside. It felt like a far better option than looking inwards.

Squinting her eyes as the sun popped out again, she noticed that the road was surprisingly empty – there was little more to catch her attention than the same old corn fields and hills on the right side, and the fields to the left were as empty as they were vast. No cars, not even abandoned ones – had anyone tried to escape? Maybe there hadn't been any reasons to? Maybe Ekron was...

Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. When the fuck are you going to stop repeating that mantra? Maybe's don't help, could-have-been's don't help. Be certain, for once. Show some fucking spine. Remember what you told Katie yesterday? No matter if there's a thousand cannibals on the streets, you'd fight? Remember that? Don't cash checks you can't cover.

...And she'd promised. With her big stupid mouth. But... fighting. Hurting people.

Violence.

How would she even go about that? She wasn't trained, she wasn't ready, she was small and weak and useless and...

...and she always kept telling herself that. What if it wasn't true? She'd never tried to test the statement, not in this context, instead just taking it for granted like so many other things about herself.

She'd never been... you know.

Violent.

She had her reasons – not that you should need reasons to not be violent – but the world had changed more than she could ever have imagined, all in the span of a week. For one, Katie was counting on her. For two, it was more than likely that Ekron would be as bad as – or maybe even worse off than – Rosewood, especially considering where it laid.

And she had to eat, morality be damned.

Eat, or be eaten.

For what might have been the first time in her life, she depended on herself, as fully and absolutely as one could.

She, and her survival.

While the realization was simple – especially in hindsight – it was no less profound.

And no less terrifying.

So, as the final piece of the puzzle snapped into place, the young woman blinked twice, let out a shaky breath, and steeled herself.

“Hey, uh...” Her gaze tripped over Katie's sharp cheekbones, fell down her chin, and tumbled onto the grimy floor mats. “...I was w-wondering.”

“Don't have any pennies handy, but fire away.”

The nurse seemed strangely calm, exceedingly so. Jaw set and eyes forward, steering the vehicle along with purposeful motions, her body language gave no indication of anything superfluous or unintended, and even the wry little smile playing across her lips seemed controlled.

“W-well, you...” Inhale. Relax. “...do you remember the gas station?”

Suddenly there was a chink in her armor. Katie's smile turned into a tense frown.

“...Yeah. I remember.” Her tone wasn't quite as alien anymore, although the accusatory edge to it did feel unpleasant. “Why?”

“How did it feel?” Sayori blurted out her question, and was promptly met with silence.

Maybe that was a stupid thing to ask. Maybe it's embarrassing or something. Maybe she doesn't wanna think about it. Maybe-

“It... it didn't...” Katie broke the silence, yet seemingly ran out of steam the moment she started, sighing softly as her gaze flitted along the road ahead. “...I try not to think about it too much.”

“...Oh.”

“...Yeah.”

They drove along for a moment, passing what must have been the fiftieth corn field on their right.

"...day by day, I feel less human..."

Whatever the radio was blaring on about didn't seem to appeal to Katie anymore, and after a soft click they were alone with the rumbling of the engine and the howling of the wind. The sun was finally out of her eyes, and Sayori turned her attention towards the landscape once again.

“Um... I g-guess I was happy that you were unhurt, and... yeah.” Her attention was back. The shrug was far from nonchalant, but something told Sayori that her friend knew as much. “It's too bad I got gouged, but... yeah. Could have been a lot worse.”

“...Right.”

That's not what I meant.

“...If you d-don't wanna talk about it, I... I understand. Sorry.”

What does it feel like to break someone's skull?

She gave her best attempt at a sheepish, apologetic smile. Katie had looked far too nervous just now, and the nurse had been equally considerate the day before. There wasn't any reason to pry.

No reason whatsoever.

If Katie didn't want to talk about it, then that was fine – the least she could do was respect her friend's wishes. Let a girl keep her secrets. Leave something unsaid. Curiosity killed the cat.

Something along those lines.

So why did it feel so fucking hard to stay quiet? Why did it feel like the question was burning a hole in her head? Why couldn't she just wait and see, for once?

She didn't know.

A raindrop fell onto the windshield, quiet and forlorn. Then, another. After the third, the pattering turned into a cascade, as one drop joined another, painting shimmering trails down the grimy windows. Somewhere past the forests and the fields, a mighty rumble shook the earth, and the skies finally turned inside out.

The car slid to a halt on the glistening asphalt, raindrops drumming on steel, heavy and sharp. For a moment, Sayori wondered if they'd had an engine failure, or something – apart from a couple road signs, they seemed to be as far away from civilization as ever. But no, the engine rumbled along, as happy as ever, as Katie turned the car around while humming a nervous melody.

Stepping outside felt like a mistake – the rain was heavy and cold, and Sayori couldn't help flinching a little as the first drops fell on her head. At least the parka seemed to keep out the worst of it, although she didn't want to imagine how the fabric would fare after five minutes in this weather, let alone an hour. She pulled her hood up, strapped the bag onto her back, and finally let her fingers close around the familiar weight of her crutch.

It didn't feel like much of a weapon.

It didn't really feel like much of anything.

She thought back to the axe, it's well-worn edge, the grip that felt so natural to hold, and deflated ever-so-slightly. The entire trip felt like more and more of a rushed mistake. What if Ekron was full of cannibals, what then? Were they supposed to fight their way through? A single baseball bat against a town of hundreds?

A snowball's chance in Hell, at best.

---

“Get down.” It was little more than a whisper, and had she been just a few steps further away she might not have heard the warning over the wind and rain. “In the ambulance. Trouble.”

As it stood, however, she found herself in a low crouch, one hand holding her crutch for stability, her back pressed against an abandoned orange sedan. Meanwhile, Katie scurried across the road, faster and quieter than Sayori would ever have expected, apparently aiming to flank around the crashed ambulance.

She wasn't lying – the cheerful red-and-white of the vehicle was marred by the diseased-looking figure belted to the front seat, the... man flailing his arms in desperation. It was too far away to be sure, but there seemed to be a dark stain on his chest, a splotch of dried arterial blood blooming across his sweater.

Sayori tore her eyes away from the flailing paramedic for a moment, just in time to see Kate poking her head out from the other side of the ambulance, the nurse waving her in with frantic, nervous gestures. The car on the other side of the road – the one Katie hid behind – was a worn navy SUV, enough to hide the two of them several times over. Even then, it felt just a little too far away to run to – her leg, while better, was by no means at a hundred percent, and even if it was, the creature in the ambulance seemed to be a little too close, and...

She heard a low groan, coming from somewhere down the road.

The path they'd already taken.

The side she'd be completely visible from.

Past the rain and the wrecks, she saw the top of a sheriff's hat wobbling to and fro, far too close, and suddenly she found herself running.

It was strange, being a passenger in your own body. The navy blue steel somehow came closer and closer, far faster than she ever expected it to, and suddenly she was catching her breath, staying low despite the pain in her lower back, moving around the wrecked ambulance and the oak it had acquainted itself with.

As she stalked past the ambulance and drew closer to Katie, she found herself fighting the urge to either throw up or to run away – the meaty, sick stench of old blood wafting from the ambulance was already too much, and the demented noises emanating from the creature inside the driver's cabin made it a question of when, not if.

Still, that thing wouldn't be following them, that much was for sure.

“Fuck, there's a lot of cars here.” Kate shook her head in disbelief. “It just keeps going.”

Finally coming to a halt, Sayori took deep breaths, briefly contemplating letting her hair go free again – the day had already been far more sweaty than she'd expected. Katie was right – as she often was – the road was practically clogged, with vehicle after vehicle after vehicle lining the tarmac. While it did feel like there was more to hide behind, thinking about the man in the ambulance still sent a flash of unease down her spine. Countless worn sedans and family station wagons, now standing lifeless and silent – the road littered with sarcophagi of steel and carbon fiber.

“Why... why'd they all stop here?” Katie had started moving again, slow and steady, and Sayori tried her best to stick close, casting nervous glances towards the forest to their left. “The southern road seems completely empty, you'd t-think...”

“Traffic jam, maybe?” Katie said, her tone as grim as the scene they were walking through. “...or they got boxed in, or something. Trapped. Maybe those military fuckers came here as well.”

“You... think they got quarantined?”

“Got quarantined, yeah. They sure as hell didn't volunteer, or the Blue Road wouldn't look like an elongated junkyard.”

Sayori fell quiet, eyes flitting from tree to silhouette-like tree, slowly growing used to the pace Katie was setting. Her back stung, as did her thighs, and even her parka had started letting water through, the cold rainwater mixing with fresh sweat. Still, while a break would have been more than welcome, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something on their trail. Whether Katie felt the same thing or not, it was hard to tell – neither of them said anything more than the bare minimum, instead drawing ragged, cold breaths with protesting lungs, occasionally stopping to slap cramped muscles awake.

 

It might just have been paranoia.

Not entirely unfounded, considering the situation.

 

---

The issue with staying low, Sayori thought while massaging her nose, was that whatever you gained in concealment, you lost in vision.

She'd taken her job seriously, for once, and really kept her eyes peeled towards the sides and rear – which didn't stop her from walking nose first into a wooden fence. Still, it wasn't all bad – even though she could feel her cartilage shifting every time she wiggled her nose.

The fence Sayori had her altercation with happened to be situated right next to the local bar, a dive known as 'The Horseshoe' – a bar whose owner seemed to have studied and internalized every single facet of turning the establishment into something more appealing, just so they could break every single rule and guideline as flagrantly as possible.

At least that was the impression it gave. Not the nicest place, and Katie had mentioned it being the kind of place where you were guaranteed to see at least one old grudge turn into a fistfight, per evening.

Sayori had never given much thought to bars, clubs, or anything of the sort, and after visiting the place for the first time, she decided to keep it that way.

Leaving her boots and her parka draped over the counter to dry, the girl slowly walked around the darkened building, trailing her fingers along still-sticky tabletops and frayed posters, seemingly lost in thought. Katie had disappeared behind the bar and into the storage, the faint clink of glass on glass occasionally reverberating in the dusty air.

It didn't take long for her to grow bored and find a seat instead, resting her legs on one of the bar stools. She'd found a half-empty bowl of peanuts on one of the tables, and while they mostly tasted like cigarette smoke and excess sodium, she still didn't quite feel like complaining.

Instead, she just sat and stretched her legs, occasionally reaching into the peanut bowl for yet another treat of dubious origin, age, and taste. After Katie returned from her excursion into the storage, prize-winning smile on her face, bottle of soda in each hand, it almost felt comfortable.

Nice enough to kick up your boots for a moment and drink weird American regional soda and just take it easy.

“Ever try this? It's a Kentucky special.” Katie asked, proffering an unfamiliar green glass bottle with an expectant smile on her face. “It's, uh... kinda like ginger ale, but less bitey and more... lemony.”

She hadn't. Not until now, anyway.

“Welcome to Ekron, sister.”