Chapter Two
“I’m exhausted!”
I looked over and saw Harry drop his backpack next to mine. His was bigger and heavier, making me feel guilty for letting him carry more of our stuff.
“You don’t need to carry all the supplies, Harry,” I told him with a smile.
At my words, he looked over and gave me the same wide-eyed expression that he used to give my mom when she’d catch him texting on his phone instead of doing his schoolwork. My smile fell when I thought of my mother. I missed her and my dad so much.
I squeezed my eyes shut trying to tune out the screams that I still heard inside my head whenever I thought about them. I could hear my dad shouting for my mom to get to safety, and my mom insisting on staying with him. Then, I heard them both screaming as the lycans ripped them to shreds.
“Hey.”
My eyes popped open. Harry was standing in front of me.
“You okay, Cali?”
I smiled my best smile, so he didn’t worry about me. “I’m fine, Harry. Just a bit tired myself. I overheard Liam tell Kevin that he figured we’d be at the human settlement in two days.” I could see the worry lines leave Harry’s face when he lifted his mouth in a smile.
“It’ll be nice to be in a little safer environment.”
He lifted his hand to set it gently on my shoulder. When he didn’t look away, I felt the same uncomfortable sensation in my stomach that I felt every time when we were physically close. I knew that Harry thought of me not as his adoptive sister, but on a more intimate level. I wished that I returned his feelings, but I didn’t. I couldn’t think of him in any other way then as my little brother.
Three years ago, my parents had opened their house to Harry as an exchange student from India. Harry’s real name was Hridaan, but that had been too difficult for the other people in his college classes to pronounce, so my dad gave him the nickname, Harry. It helped him fit in better. I’d helped Harry acclimate to life in America. Being an only child, I’d often wished for a sibling, but my parents had been proactive in their belief that we needed to minimize our strain on the planet’s resources. So instead of procreating to provide me a little brother, they’d offered Harry a place to live while he was in America learning to become a doctor.
My dad had been a doctor, and my mom had been his nurse. They’d opened a clinic that had offered medical services to anyone who needed it, whether they could afford to pay for the services or not. My dad had inherited a small fortune when his parents had died, and so we’d been able to live quite comfortably, even though the clinic didn’t make much money.
“Do you want to come with me and look around to see if anyone is preparing food?”
When I looked away from his gentle brown eyes, Harry dropped his hand. I think deep-down he knew that I didn’t have romantic feelings for him, but he was always so optimistic that my feelings would change. There were so few people alive anymore, he’d said, that we needed to find happiness wherever we could. I just wished that I felt the same.
This world didn’t have any happiness left. It was miserable. Everything that I’d known was gone. There were no schools anymore. There were no kids on the playground. There were no cars moving along the roads. There were no people going about their day. The lycans and vampires had destroyed it all. They’d killed all the animals and most of the people. They’d rounded up almost all of the remaining people and kept them in farms. They were breeding them for food. It was similar to how we’d kept cows, pigs, and chickens before the war. If I had any sense of humor, I’d find it ironic and say that maybe we were getting our comeuppance for the way we’d treated the animals, the planet, and each other. But I couldn’t think about karma when every day was a struggle just to survive.
“Cali?”
I blinked and focused on Harry. “I’m not hungry right now, Harry. You go and let me know what you find.”
I could see his shoulders sink in disappointment, but he smiled. “I’ll bring you back something if I find anything.”
“Thanks.”
Harry walked away, and I was alone. I was conflicted in that I enjoyed Harry’s company, but his constant attention was becoming so stressful. I knew that he’d never force his affections on me, but I just didn’t want to hurt him. Maybe he was right in that we needed to take what happiness there was. Not that there was much hope for a future, let alone a happy one.
The group Harry and I were traveling with had been started by the ones who’d survived the lycans attack on my hometown of Fairfax, which had been a small town near San Francisco. Fairfax had attracted mostly tourists who’d loved to ride their bikes. The town had been near Mount Tamalpais, which had been heralded as the birthplace of mountain biking. When the lycans had attacked, both locals and tourists alike had been either killed or taken. The only ones of us left alive were the ones who’d hidden when the lycans had attacked.
Harry had been at the library studying for his mid-terms and had smartly hidden in the library basement with a few other people. I’d been at my parents’ clinic when we’d first heard the attacks coming. My mom and dad had kept up with the news about what was happening in the world the best they could. They’d watched the news up until the channel went off the air. They’d listened on their satellite radio until there were no people at the radio station left to broadcast information. We all knew that the war would reach us, but no one expected the level of violence that virtually swept through the town and had completely decimated it in a matter of hours.
I squeezed my eyes shut as I heard my mother’s screams when the lycans killed my dad, then basically ripped her apart and began eating her.
My eyes popped open when I realized that the screams I was hearing weren’t inside my head. I was hearing them with my ears. Looking around, I saw people running.
“What’s going on?” I called out to a woman who was hurrying by me. I knew her name was Melanie. She was about my age with black hair and blue eyes.
“Lycans! Hide!” She was breathless as she ran by without stopping.
I scanned the area to see if I could spot Harry, but I didn’t see him. Reaching down, I shouldered my backpack and then lifted his before going off in search of him. There were people running everywhere. I could hear the sounds of fighting and the terrifying howls of the lycans.
“Harry!” I looked around for what felt like ages.
“Cali!”
I sighed in relief as Harry came running toward me. “We need to hide,” I said as I handed him over his backpack.
Harry took the pack and urged me into motion. “I’m going to get you settled and then I’m going to fight with Liam. He’s been showing me how to use a knife.”
My heart leapt into my throat. “No! You’ll get killed.”
“I have to do something, Cali. I can’t keep hiding.”
“Then I’ll stay and fight, too.”
“You can’t fight.” He tugged on my arm to get me moving faster. I had no idea where we were going, but the best choice was to follow where everyone else was going, which was away from the sounds of fighting.
“If you can fight, then so can I.” I resisted when he tugged on my arm.
“Cali, come on,” he shouted as the sounds of fighting got closer.
I turned to see one of the lycans charging at us. I screamed and tripped over a tree root as I backpedaled quickly. I fell flat on my butt and watched with wide eyes as the monster looked right at me. It got down on all fours and galloped our way. Its mouth gaped open, and I could see sharp teeth that I knew could rip me to pieces.
Before it could get to us, however, two people stepped into its path. There was a woman and a man. They were carrying weapons and looked as if they were a superhero duo right out a Marvel movie.
The woman had short brown hair and held some kind of glowing blue dagger. She wore typical jeans and a T-shirt. She looked fairly muscular and fit. She stood with her back to a larger man with platinum blond hair. The man was huge with bulging muscles. He was wearing something like I’d seen Samauri warriors wear, some kind of studded leather bottom piece, yet he was wearing only a T-shirt on his top half. He held in his hands two glowing blue swords.
Together, they kept the approaching lycans away from me and the other retreating humans. I felt Harry tugging on my arm to get me up, but I just stared at the two of them as they swung their weapons. Two more lycans approached. The lycans were terrifying, but these two people looked as if they weren’t afraid of them.
“Holy shit,” Harry gasped as the man whirled his glowing swords and took the head of the lycan in front of him clean off its shoulders. “Cali, get up,” he urged, and I managed to get to my feet.
“Who are those two?” I asked Harry.
“I have no ideas, but … Wow! Did you see the way he decapitated that lycan?”
“I couldn’t help but see. The head is on the ground right in front of me.” I looked down at the head. Its face was still contorted in a snarl and its lifeless eyes looked at me. I began to shake and thought that I might throw up.
The man and woman continued to fight. There was a lycan attacking the woman. She didn’t have the height to cut off the creature’s head, but she did swing her dagger and took its arm clean off. The smell of singed flesh filled the air, and I did gag at that. I leaned over and dry heaved onto the ground next to me. I didn’t have anything in my stomach since food was scarce. All the stores that had food on the shelves were protected by minions.
The minions were lesser beings of lycans and vamps but were still deadly if encountered. I had no idea where the minions came from or why they looked human. Maybe they’d once been human but had been corrupted by the lycans or vamps. All I knew was that they guarded the stores during the day when the vamps and lycans were asleep. That was why we traveled during the day, despite the heat. Some of the men were able to fight off the minions but were no match for a vamp or lycan.
I watched as the large man cut off the head of the lycan in front of him and then turned, swung his glowing sword, and cut off the head of the lycan in front of the woman. The smell of blood and burnt flesh filled the air making me wretch a second time.
This was what my world had become. It had become a place where the strong people — like that man and woman in front of us — survived, and the weak people —like me — died.
I looked over and saw Harry drop his backpack next to mine. His was bigger and heavier, making me feel guilty for letting him carry more of our stuff.
“You don’t need to carry all the supplies, Harry,” I told him with a smile.
At my words, he looked over and gave me the same wide-eyed expression that he used to give my mom when she’d catch him texting on his phone instead of doing his schoolwork. My smile fell when I thought of my mother. I missed her and my dad so much.
I squeezed my eyes shut trying to tune out the screams that I still heard inside my head whenever I thought about them. I could hear my dad shouting for my mom to get to safety, and my mom insisting on staying with him. Then, I heard them both screaming as the lycans ripped them to shreds.
“Hey.”
My eyes popped open. Harry was standing in front of me.
“You okay, Cali?”
I smiled my best smile, so he didn’t worry about me. “I’m fine, Harry. Just a bit tired myself. I overheard Liam tell Kevin that he figured we’d be at the human settlement in two days.” I could see the worry lines leave Harry’s face when he lifted his mouth in a smile.
“It’ll be nice to be in a little safer environment.”
He lifted his hand to set it gently on my shoulder. When he didn’t look away, I felt the same uncomfortable sensation in my stomach that I felt every time when we were physically close. I knew that Harry thought of me not as his adoptive sister, but on a more intimate level. I wished that I returned his feelings, but I didn’t. I couldn’t think of him in any other way then as my little brother.
Three years ago, my parents had opened their house to Harry as an exchange student from India. Harry’s real name was Hridaan, but that had been too difficult for the other people in his college classes to pronounce, so my dad gave him the nickname, Harry. It helped him fit in better. I’d helped Harry acclimate to life in America. Being an only child, I’d often wished for a sibling, but my parents had been proactive in their belief that we needed to minimize our strain on the planet’s resources. So instead of procreating to provide me a little brother, they’d offered Harry a place to live while he was in America learning to become a doctor.
My dad had been a doctor, and my mom had been his nurse. They’d opened a clinic that had offered medical services to anyone who needed it, whether they could afford to pay for the services or not. My dad had inherited a small fortune when his parents had died, and so we’d been able to live quite comfortably, even though the clinic didn’t make much money.
“Do you want to come with me and look around to see if anyone is preparing food?”
When I looked away from his gentle brown eyes, Harry dropped his hand. I think deep-down he knew that I didn’t have romantic feelings for him, but he was always so optimistic that my feelings would change. There were so few people alive anymore, he’d said, that we needed to find happiness wherever we could. I just wished that I felt the same.
This world didn’t have any happiness left. It was miserable. Everything that I’d known was gone. There were no schools anymore. There were no kids on the playground. There were no cars moving along the roads. There were no people going about their day. The lycans and vampires had destroyed it all. They’d killed all the animals and most of the people. They’d rounded up almost all of the remaining people and kept them in farms. They were breeding them for food. It was similar to how we’d kept cows, pigs, and chickens before the war. If I had any sense of humor, I’d find it ironic and say that maybe we were getting our comeuppance for the way we’d treated the animals, the planet, and each other. But I couldn’t think about karma when every day was a struggle just to survive.
“Cali?”
I blinked and focused on Harry. “I’m not hungry right now, Harry. You go and let me know what you find.”
I could see his shoulders sink in disappointment, but he smiled. “I’ll bring you back something if I find anything.”
“Thanks.”
Harry walked away, and I was alone. I was conflicted in that I enjoyed Harry’s company, but his constant attention was becoming so stressful. I knew that he’d never force his affections on me, but I just didn’t want to hurt him. Maybe he was right in that we needed to take what happiness there was. Not that there was much hope for a future, let alone a happy one.
The group Harry and I were traveling with had been started by the ones who’d survived the lycans attack on my hometown of Fairfax, which had been a small town near San Francisco. Fairfax had attracted mostly tourists who’d loved to ride their bikes. The town had been near Mount Tamalpais, which had been heralded as the birthplace of mountain biking. When the lycans had attacked, both locals and tourists alike had been either killed or taken. The only ones of us left alive were the ones who’d hidden when the lycans had attacked.
Harry had been at the library studying for his mid-terms and had smartly hidden in the library basement with a few other people. I’d been at my parents’ clinic when we’d first heard the attacks coming. My mom and dad had kept up with the news about what was happening in the world the best they could. They’d watched the news up until the channel went off the air. They’d listened on their satellite radio until there were no people at the radio station left to broadcast information. We all knew that the war would reach us, but no one expected the level of violence that virtually swept through the town and had completely decimated it in a matter of hours.
I squeezed my eyes shut as I heard my mother’s screams when the lycans killed my dad, then basically ripped her apart and began eating her.
My eyes popped open when I realized that the screams I was hearing weren’t inside my head. I was hearing them with my ears. Looking around, I saw people running.
“What’s going on?” I called out to a woman who was hurrying by me. I knew her name was Melanie. She was about my age with black hair and blue eyes.
“Lycans! Hide!” She was breathless as she ran by without stopping.
I scanned the area to see if I could spot Harry, but I didn’t see him. Reaching down, I shouldered my backpack and then lifted his before going off in search of him. There were people running everywhere. I could hear the sounds of fighting and the terrifying howls of the lycans.
“Harry!” I looked around for what felt like ages.
“Cali!”
I sighed in relief as Harry came running toward me. “We need to hide,” I said as I handed him over his backpack.
Harry took the pack and urged me into motion. “I’m going to get you settled and then I’m going to fight with Liam. He’s been showing me how to use a knife.”
My heart leapt into my throat. “No! You’ll get killed.”
“I have to do something, Cali. I can’t keep hiding.”
“Then I’ll stay and fight, too.”
“You can’t fight.” He tugged on my arm to get me moving faster. I had no idea where we were going, but the best choice was to follow where everyone else was going, which was away from the sounds of fighting.
“If you can fight, then so can I.” I resisted when he tugged on my arm.
“Cali, come on,” he shouted as the sounds of fighting got closer.
I turned to see one of the lycans charging at us. I screamed and tripped over a tree root as I backpedaled quickly. I fell flat on my butt and watched with wide eyes as the monster looked right at me. It got down on all fours and galloped our way. Its mouth gaped open, and I could see sharp teeth that I knew could rip me to pieces.
Before it could get to us, however, two people stepped into its path. There was a woman and a man. They were carrying weapons and looked as if they were a superhero duo right out a Marvel movie.
The woman had short brown hair and held some kind of glowing blue dagger. She wore typical jeans and a T-shirt. She looked fairly muscular and fit. She stood with her back to a larger man with platinum blond hair. The man was huge with bulging muscles. He was wearing something like I’d seen Samauri warriors wear, some kind of studded leather bottom piece, yet he was wearing only a T-shirt on his top half. He held in his hands two glowing blue swords.
Together, they kept the approaching lycans away from me and the other retreating humans. I felt Harry tugging on my arm to get me up, but I just stared at the two of them as they swung their weapons. Two more lycans approached. The lycans were terrifying, but these two people looked as if they weren’t afraid of them.
“Holy shit,” Harry gasped as the man whirled his glowing swords and took the head of the lycan in front of him clean off its shoulders. “Cali, get up,” he urged, and I managed to get to my feet.
“Who are those two?” I asked Harry.
“I have no ideas, but … Wow! Did you see the way he decapitated that lycan?”
“I couldn’t help but see. The head is on the ground right in front of me.” I looked down at the head. Its face was still contorted in a snarl and its lifeless eyes looked at me. I began to shake and thought that I might throw up.
The man and woman continued to fight. There was a lycan attacking the woman. She didn’t have the height to cut off the creature’s head, but she did swing her dagger and took its arm clean off. The smell of singed flesh filled the air, and I did gag at that. I leaned over and dry heaved onto the ground next to me. I didn’t have anything in my stomach since food was scarce. All the stores that had food on the shelves were protected by minions.
The minions were lesser beings of lycans and vamps but were still deadly if encountered. I had no idea where the minions came from or why they looked human. Maybe they’d once been human but had been corrupted by the lycans or vamps. All I knew was that they guarded the stores during the day when the vamps and lycans were asleep. That was why we traveled during the day, despite the heat. Some of the men were able to fight off the minions but were no match for a vamp or lycan.
I watched as the large man cut off the head of the lycan in front of him and then turned, swung his glowing sword, and cut off the head of the lycan in front of the woman. The smell of blood and burnt flesh filled the air making me wretch a second time.
This was what my world had become. It had become a place where the strong people — like that man and woman in front of us — survived, and the weak people —like me — died.
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