4 New Creatures

Randall

"-between North Korea and Russia. Will America get involved? Citizens, although we are not affected in America, are asked to stay at home during the next three days. We are on stand-by as we wait for The President's response as we speak. Citizens are making queries as to if this could be the start of World War three. Russia, India, America, North Korea, among others are in talks of a nuclear conspiracy. All parties involved have since denied any claims-"

Randall woke up sweating, covering his face with his hands in the dimly lit room. The memory of the last normal news he had seen, replayed over and over like an echo inside his mind. He kept hearing the alert in the somewhat scared-looking woman as she read the news out to them. He remembered how frightened she looked. Like she knew what was happening but was told to say something else. Or maybe she was just scared like the rest of them.

That cute reporter died on the very same day, which was also the day the riots broke out. That week was the last week, the world had of normalcy before it became a massive cloud of nuclear smoke. These thick black clouds blocked out all but a fraction of the sunlight for several weeks. Surface temperatures plunged for a few weeks as a consequence- to freezing. But they were cautioned about what to expect and what to do in the preparedness for the nukes.

A 'nuclear winter' the reporters had said, on every televised station and radio he remembered. Randall wasn't really all that smart but he had a good enough memory that suited his purpose for survival in this sh*tty world.

A world that was cautioned about the widespread radiation sickness from 'fallout' and the temporary loss of much modern technology due to electromagnetic pulses. Fallout, was what the government officials called the residual radioactive material that propelled into the upper atmosphere. Because it looks as if it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion.

But it was not temporary. It remained that way. Then they experienced what they were previously warned about. That was the aftermath. Millions of lives burnt to ash and shadow. Finally, as nuclear firestorms incinerate cities and fo­rests, torrents of smoke ascend into the atmosphere to entomb the planet in billowing, black clouds of, radioactive ashes.

For the survivors of a nuclear war, this lingering radiation hazard represented a grave threat- it could last for as long as five years they were told.

In short – they were screwed

People killed each other. Basic things that people once took for granted- gone. Food, water, shelter, AND air. And the changes in people and animals were not expected by anyone.

Randall didn't recall exactly when it happened but people in his hometown started getting rabid within the second week. Biting and eating each other. His family was also dead. Part of the zombie-like phase. He figured it must have been within the ending of the first year, in the aftermath. Since then, he had been roaming from place to place but only when he found the crazies too near for comfort or when he ran out of food. They usually killed themselves out but something was different now he had noticed.

There was either a new kind of creature or a new stage of the zombie faze. He didn't exactly agree with- well the whole zombie part but what else could they be? Aliens?

The week before he had met the other two again, he had noticed them. They were super-fast and rarely could be seen. And they stuck to the shadows. This was the part that scared Randall. The night. They were never out in the sun's rays. And while the earth was covered in mostly darkness since the nukes went off, the sun was able to shine through now. He was grateful.

Randall had noticed they seem to have rational thoughts too, for they conversed among themselves. He had seen four groups, of maybe five of them the first time. And whilst they split up, they went in pairs; two inside the houses, each on opposite sides of the road and two remained outside waiting until the rest of the group re-joined. It was as if they were making sure they were all there, after each house visit. Then they all went in, inside a building while two stayed outside. But what were they were searching for?

He happened to be on a treetop picking fruits when he had first noticed them, in the distance. Not able to make out their faces, he had just watched their movements. He had almost fallen out of the branch he was perched on when he had seen the speed they ran off with. They had either found what they were looking for, or the search was just over. He knew they were not government officials when he saw the way they ran off. No vehicles and no guns. He had climbed down the tree and walked in the opposite direction not even bothering with the food rations that he had just gathered.

Then two nights ago, he saw them again. Still at a far distance and there were more. Many, many more. Once again, he was on a tree. This time he saw them killing the others. The zombies. They did not use flame throwers but their hands. Now Randall never figured he was super intelligent like Matt or Liz were but he figured the government would use incinerators. Then he saw them bending down and it looked to him like they were eating the humans, they had found. Now he was definitely certain that they were some other sort of creature.

"Hey man. We found some coffee, would you-"

He was up and out of the chair, he had slept away in the living room, of the house, the three of them had decided to crash in, for the night, "-like some?" Matt finished.

Randall wanted to board the windows and doors but he didn't want to risk the New Creatures hearing and finding them. Plus, he wanted to see if they were in the area. A newly boarded house would alert them to humans inside. And although most houses were boarded by now, this new bunch looked smart. See, unlike before, this new breed was not like the regular zombies, biting at anything that contained blood and life. Nope. These stopped and listened. It's as if they were actually hunting- predator strategy and prey.

Sipping on the hot brew was heaven to them all as he noticed the other two wearing the expression he felt. This was a golden moment as the food was now so scarce, that it was almost non-existent. Let alone coffee. He normally had his with milk but the sugar alone was appreciated. And fruits were hard as most plants and animals died from the chemicals and radiation. Just as humans.

"So, what brings you guys over. I mean, it's pretty weird to run into both of you," he started the conversation jokingly.

It was a bit awkward them meeting up like this. Coincident or not, Randall was glad. He was so lonely. Having met Matt hours earlier on the road, he had cautioned him about the new threat but Matt had already known and was in hiding trying to move far away. When they had met up, they'd both been seeking shelter and had spotted the huge building miles away. They'd been heading to the houses behind the gigantic building when they 'ran' into Liz.

Then they sought refuge in this house as it was at the far back plot, behind most of the houses in a private lot. This was the only one that looked as if the creatures had not bothered to ramshackle.

They both looked at him and then at each other. Back in the day, Liz had liked Matt and Matt was a douche. And Liz was stuck up. For a split second, he was happy to see her alive, alone and dirty. He was glad she did not die, knowing she would suffer in this 'new world'.

"Well, I came to look for my aunt. But she must have-" she broke off.

Matt cleared his throat and looked at her, "I'm sorry."

She was scarred. He didn't even want to think about what she must have survived through, as he watched the thin-lined marks on her neck. Claw marks it seems to him. Her hands which were visible now as she had taken off the jacket, were also scarred. Not badly but small visibly healed injures.

"She tried to kill me. So, I had to leave her," her tiny voice got out.

Both men understood, that she probably had to kill her own relative to survive. It was either kill or be killed. The effects of the new nuclear bombs had affected the world in a way like never anticipated. This destroyed the planet and affected the remaining humans as they were mutated, changing their genetic material to being zombie-like.

But they did not feed on human flesh or brains like seen in movies or moved slowly either. They acted rabidly. Like wild dogs. They were like humans with a bad side effect of induced drugs. They bit and were violent, even to themselves while their victims bled out. And nobody became zombies from being affected by one. It was only the first affected ones that were most likely outside when the virus or whatever was spread.

Maybe it was in the water for all he knew. His father had believed in that theory and had only had him and his family consume bottled water but water is safe now…maybe it always had been. Maybe the effects were only alive for a period of time, in the water.

Who really knows?

See, Randall wasn't one of the stupid ones who believed what the government had said. Nuclear what? He did not believe that it was what infected people. He believed it was something else that maybe the government did or maybe did not know about. But it definitely was hidden either way. Maybe that conspiracy was the real one behind the war-and then again maybe not. Perhaps the war happened and exposed the virus thus making it airborne when it couldn't be contained- an aftereffect of the war.

Maybe it was NATO.

Randall's father was the first in his house to be affected. His body began to smell awful a few months after the explosions and the green foul pus started to ooze from his skin. Sores appeared on his body and he had said his blood was itching him. His father scratched his own bloodied flesh till it started to peel and fall off. When he bit his mother, Randall had locked him in the basement. His father had broken the door and bitten his mother to death. His brother who was thirteen also died by his father's hand as he tried to save their mother.

"I was in the shed, outside when it had happened," he informed his companions now as he told his horror story.

"My father tried to kill me too, when I tried to come back into the house, completely unaware of what had happened. See I had locked him in a room and went to get a chicken from the shed-" he broke off swallowing back the bile that threatened to come up his throat.

He still felt sick as he remembered the high fresh, strong scent of the blood that greeted him as he walked in. Fresh- like the chickens would smell when he would slaughter them but metallic too. The sight of his mother and brother, on the floorboards, covered in their own blood- dead, had him gagging, retching then bending over to vomit. His father had screamed, running to him in his mad rage. Randall had straightened up and shot him dead between the forehead knowing he was next. The look of confusion on his father's face as he slumped to the floor in a heap of rotting flesh, still haunted him.

"My entire family dead, in less than five minutes," he choked out. Maybe he should have just killed himself then. It would have been better than having the memory of his dead slaughtered family on his mind. Or the fact that he actually killed his own father.

It was the same with everybody that survived. The survivors were people that killed their loved ones. They were all murderers.

Now he was one of the few that survived as a human. He was with his two other friends. Funny how the world worked; Liz had cussed him out in high school just before she left and Matt was no longer in his circle of friends, in the following two years of high school with him dropping out, to follow in his father's shoes and becoming a mechanic, in his father's shop. Matty was off to a prestige college and Randall was the dropout, grease monkey. Now look at them back together in this broken down but comfortable house, years later.

What a trio.