Rat Food

Simon's POV

I heard the sounds outside not long after Hugo and I went upstairs to look for something in our room. There were rumors going around, rumors that the rats have taken over the streets. In short, we were barricaded in the orphanage and there would be no way out.

While Hugo and I were upstairs, I felt the ground shaking so hard that I just had to stop and feel the rhythm of the vibration.

"We're so fucked..." I said as I sat on my bed.

Hugo seemed to not pay too much attention to what I just said. Instead, his mind had probably just wondered to the rats that were taking over the streets and avenues outside.

Dear God, and the people. What would happen to the people? Would they be eaten too? Presumably, but compared to them, how much time did Hugo, I, and all the other orphans have before the rats finally made their way inside and consumed us all?

"Do the phones still work?" I asked as I got up from my bed. Hugo made a small glance at me.

"Sure they do, but do you really think anyone is going to answer us at this time? Look outside, the rats are everywhere. We're...we're practically food for the rats at this point..." Hugo said.

I paused for a moment to think about what he had just said, then, it had all come to me in one simple phrase.

"Rat food." I said.

Hugo nodded.

"Rat food. All of Brooklyn will be like that soon...unless..." Hugo started.

I watched as he looked underneath his bed for something. It could've been anything, maybe a knife or something that he had stolen from his time outside when we usually snuck out of the orphanage—it was an aerosol spray can and a lighter. So that's what he had stolen during our time out.

"Unless you plan on going outside, you better throw that away before you burn down the whole orphanage." I said as I got up and approached Hugo.

Hugo leaned back. He probably felt threatened, threatened in a way that even I couldn't understand. After all, he was Hugo: the craziest out of all of us.

"I know what I'm fucking doing, hey, let me just keep these things for now." Hugo said.

I relaxed a little and sat back on my bed.

"Sure." I replied.

A second later, the room door bursts open and more orphans come inside. In the midst of those orphans was Elodie. She quickly walked up to Hugo and I with a face of resentment.

"What's that in your pocket?" She asked, leaning forward.

"None of your business." Hugo replied.

As the other orphans settled down, Hugo and Elodie eventually did the same.

...

All of us—orphans, had already done the work in making sure that the orphanage on our side was barricaded. The building that we were in had two sections, and our section was on the right side. Sadly, the adults didn't want to risk attracting the rats on our side of the orphanage in an effort to help the other side.

So, we did what we simply could. In the large room scattered with aisles of beds where all of the orphans were occupying, I watched as Hugo anxiously played with the aerosol spray can while looking to make sure the other orphans or adults in the room didn't see him do it.

I leaned in a little.

"Last chance, you're really balls deep?"

"Shut up." Hugo replied casually.

I glanced at Elodie who was talking to someone else, then, the ground began shaking again. It felt like a mini-earthquake was about to occur. The adult in the room, which had a metal pipe as his weapon, walked over to the windows and looked outside. The rest of the orphans were now more curious than before.

The moment I took my eyes off the adult to look at Hugo, the sound of glass shattering caught me off guard, and I tripped and fell on the ground. I felt the beat of hundreds of rats that swarmed through the room to get to us.

Hugo immediately took out his lighter, put it in front of his aerosol spray can, and sprayed for his life. Somehow, I managed to have only gotten one rat on me that I quickly grabbed with my hand and threw away.

Oh, and the screaming. God, was there screaming. Screams of immense pain mixed with the sounds of meat being bitten and blood squirting in all directions made me panic.

My first thought was the door—that's where all of the surviving orphans were going, but then my mind had wandered to Elodie.

Where was she?

I felt someone grab my arm and yank me towards the door. The last sound I heard before I escaped the room was the screams of Hugo after he was overwhelmed by the sheer number of rats that had engulfed him and the orphans who couldn't escape the room.

As I tried to catch my breath, I realized that the adult didn't manage to make it either, and now, there were only eight of us left in total.

"L-LOCK THE...!" I screamed, but to my surprise someone had already locked it: Elodie.

I stepped aside as I watched some of the rats coming on the other side from underneath the door. Two of the orphans were already getting a bookcase to fully barricade the door. Once that was done, we had to quickly deal with the rats that were running around the hallway.

"GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!" One of the orphans said as they had tripped.

I sprinted towards the orphan as four rats tried to bring him down. The orphan was screaming and rolling on the ground as if they were on fire.

I had grabbed a sharp broken wooden object from the door, grabbed one of the rats that were on the orphan, and stabbed it in the head. The orphan had managed to get the other three rats off of him. The rats crawled so fast that I couldn't catch any of them as they made their way past me going down the stairs.

Elodie helped the orphan and I get up as we caught our breath.

"Hugo..." I started, but she didn't say anything back.

I could tell that she wanted to weep. Hugo was practically a brother to her. As she was walking away from me, she quickly turned around and slapped my face. I was so surprised by her actions that I nearly tripped over again.

"HEY! WHAT THE HELL?!" I started. Elodie was on the verge of tears.

"You put that stupid idea in his head!"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes you did! He saw you do it first back then. He followed you and decided to take it too far!"

"Don't blame it on me. I tried to tell him no!"

"Then you should've tried HARDER!" She finished, pushing me to the ground.

The other orphans held her back. I wasn't necessarily afraid of her, I was just merely taken aback by what she had just done.

Since Elodie seemed to know what she was doing, the rest of the orphans and I were about to follow her downstairs until we heard:

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

We all knew what was coming next, and the fact that there had been no adults who came upstairs told us another thing: the rats could've been on the verge of breaking into the orphanage on their side on the first floor.

...

All of us waited in anticipation to see what Elodie was going to do next. I had already had an idea of what I needed to do. While Elodie was standing still, I rushed past her and the other orphans followed. I reached the first floor and the first thing I noticed was the water. The first floor was actually flooded, not flooded to the point where we couldn't maneuver well around the area, but enough that it felt like an inconvenience.

"HEY ELODIE! WATER! COME DOWN!" I screamed. The rest of the orphans seemed a bit relieved. If the first floor was partially flooded, that meant that the rats would have an even harder time overwhelming us on the first floor.

We were now approaching the lobby. On both sides of the hallway, the pictures on the walls were torn up, which meant that some of the rats could've come from the...

"VENTS! CHECK THE VENTS!" I screamed, checking my surroundings. Elodie and the other orphans had some sort of weapon that they picked up as they had descended down to the first level with me. They formed a sort of circle and checked near the vents to make sure that there were no rats approaching.

"We...we don't hear anything..." One of the orphans said, shaking in fear.

While they finished checking the entrance of the vents, I arrived at the lobby and was rather surprised to see that there was no one here. The main entrance was barricaded, and even though this place was flooded, it felt at least the most safe compared to the other areas in the orphanage.

I quickly turned around and said: "Guys! No one is here! They might have gone on the other side of the building!"

I met up with them, including Elodie, just a moment later, but we were afraid to go to the other side of the orphanage. It felt too risky.

"Ms. Sheron would've never left us. Maybe she was forced to go to the other side. Then, moments later, the rats came to them faster than they did to us. They could be dead." Elodie stated.

It was hard for all of us, but the thought of dying was even harder, so we pushed our initial reactions aside and tried to come up with some sort of plan.

As I walked past Elodie, she grabbed my arm to stop me. I gave her my attention.

"Sorry for...y'know..." Elodie started.

"No worries." I replied.

The rest of the group arrived at the lobby. Of course, the lights were off, and there was barely any light due to the barricades. Then, I started hearing more noise. We all did. The barricades wouldn't hold for long, especially the one that they had upstairs.

The group clenched their weapons tight as the barricades began to break slowly as the rats managed to bite their way through.

...

Elodie's POV

The rats came through like a sworn. Once again, I found myself at odds with the situation—either back down immediately or fight back—of course, I chose to fight back, mainly because Simon was by my side.

It was only when the rats had targeted Simon, out of all of us specifically, and started dragging him across the room.

After I smashed some rats that tried to overwhelm me, I focused more on my attention to the rats that were trying to overwhelm Simon.

"DON'T FALL BACK!" I screamed, sprinting to Simon, but he did just that. The other orphans couldn't help him either because he was now being dragged by the rats through the big hole that led outside.

"SIMON!" I screamed, reaching out. The orphans did the same, but it was too late. Simon was taken away, and the only question that was up for debate was whether he would be alive if we found him the next time.

"The rats. They're gone...why did all the rats go for Simon?" One of the orphans asked in speculation. That was a good question that even I couldn't answer. Why did all the rats suddenly stop overwhelming us once they've gotten Simon? Did he have anything to do with this disaster?

My arms felt tense and sore. All that swinging I've been doing...was it all for nothing?

"Hey! Look outside! The rats are gone! The streets are empty!" An orphan exclaimed.

I couldn't believe it. The rats, gone? Really? After what felt like an eternity, even though it lasted only hours, was finally over?

I drop my weapon, stroll over to the orphan looking outside, and take a look for myself. I see no rats. None on the streets, none on the sidewalks, and none inside of any store that I can spot. Nothing.

I sigh, stretch my arms, and start removing the barricades that were placed to keep us from the snares of the rats. It didn't take us long to get outside and have some fresh air. After walking down the street for a little bit, I started to notice more people coming outside of their apartments or small business stores.

Trash was everywhere. It was inevitable because the rats brought down everything in their path and seemingly didn't stop—of course, until they caught Simon.

"He's gone isn't he?" I ask openly, almost shedding a tear.

Not one of the orphans replied.

I started to lose hope, that was, until I saw a manhole on the side of the road, and what was left was the opening that would probably lead into the sewers.

...

FLASHBACK, Simon's POV, Two Years Earlier

My butt hurts so bad from the spanking. Constantly, I try to find something comfortable that I can sit on, hoping that would ease my comfort. It didn't. Right now, I'm in the basement, and the light isn't working either.

I've been locked down here after my dad found out that I've been causing too much trouble at school. I'm scared, so scared that I shake a bit every time I hear something in the farther depths of the basement. In my mind, it was most certainly the boogeyman.

So, I wait. Wait for the boogeyman to leave me alone to make my punishment more endurable, but I was still met with the same sounds. I couldn't take it anymore. I grab a dirty broken broom leaning against the wall and start approaching the sound.

It's getting louder. Wet snot comes from my nose as I remove the dirty cloth on the floor that was covering the moving object, only to find out that the moving object was a rat that had gotten its tail trapped on a mouse trap.

I move back in fear, then, I come to a realization that all of the anger which I had built up from the teacher, principal, and my father could now be put on a powerless creature. I slowly move towards the rat and once I've gotten a good idea on how far it can move with its tail stuck, I start smashing it with the broken broom.

I smash it so many times until I hear a splatter sound. I must've smashed it like forty times without stopping because I was out of breath and had to lean against the dirty wall. I stared at the splattered rat body for about two minutes. After, I shed a small tear which only led to me crying in the end. I didn't cry for the rat, however, I cried for myself. I felt like such a failure.

...

Simon's POV

I woke up smelling horrible. Not only did I smell horrible, but there was a load of stench all around me. My arms and legs were cold. What was I lying on? I slowly opened my eyes and saw filth all around me. I was basically sleeping on top of a pile of trash, if one were to call it that.

I decided to not say anything but put my focus on escaping. I couldn't differentiate the small objects on the ground from the rats that had attacked me earlier and dragged me into their hell hole. I knew one thing for certain: the chances of me getting out of here without a light would be minimal.

I hear more noises to my left, on the other side of the pile of trash that I was lying on. I stop making moves, but even that's not enough to calm me down. My heart's beating faster. Where are the other orphans? Were they alright? What about Elodie?

"Don't go anywhere." Something said.

My heart skips a beat. What was that? It must've been a spirit. Unless...a shadow...

A giant vermin was looming over me. A rat—its breath so hot that I felt like I was going to burn alive.

"What...do...you...want...from...me...?" I said, leaning back.

The giant rat grinned.

"The death of more. You killed me, remember? Bad luck to you, I still remember your scent. I came back from the dead and developed a higher intelligence that none of you humans could ever dream of. I'm the only one of my kind." The giant rat said.

I stare at it, more or less confused. I don't remember torturing any rat or animal. Only a psychopath would try to do something like that. What did I know what psychopaths did anyway?

The giant rat moved closer to me.

"It's sad that you don't remember..." It said.

It opened its mouth and everything turned black.

...

Elodie's POV

We, the orphans and I, reunited with Ms. Sheron. However, we still couldn't figure out what happened to Simon. No one was looking for him at this moment, mainly due to the city having bigger issues than one missing kid.

I don't want to say much more. I have a headache just from thinking about Hugo's body back at the orphanage.

"What are we going to do now, Ms. Sheron?" I ask.

Brooklyn's units are now on every block, trying to clean up the mess that the horde of rats had made.

"Prepare. Prepare for something like this to happen again..." She said slowly.

I nodded. After all, I didn't have too much of a say. I had no home anymore, and I would probably be sent to another location out of Ms. Sheron's hands, now that the orphanage was basically totaled.