Copyright 2014 by Samuel H. Morris

ISBN: 9781483524757

For Christina, Samiyah, Samuel, Kimberly, Matthew, Jayrue, Andrew, Sean & Erica Ellis.

Thanks for the all of the support and being my biggest fans.

Chapter 1

“What is that thing?” Trevor thought as he and Lexis watched Milo get eaten alive down the street from Lexis’ Pittsburgh house on a frigid December night. Trevor’s phone vibrated but he let it go to voicemail. He knew that he should not take his eyes off of what was happening. He had to fight to keep from vomiting. This creature had its hands inside of Milo. A dark crimson pool of blood stained the pure snow that surrounded the body as it oozed from the spot where the creature kneeled, feasting on human flesh. Trevor’s phone vibrated again; once again, he let it go to voicemail. Trevor’s instincts were telling him to run, but instead he stood there taking in the monstrosity that was in front of him.

The creature’s skin glowed a rich royal blue that reminded Trevor of the hue in a neon sign. The creature’s back was raised at the spine and had little fins going from its shoulders to its lower back. It was more muscular than any human man and its head was the size of a watermelon. It had claws on its hands that were the length of rulers and as sharp as well-kept swords. Its feet were twice the length and width of Trevor’s size-twelve feet, and its toes had short triangular nails that looked as if they could easily slice through flesh. Trevor could sense Lexis standing beside him but was too afraid to take his eyes off of the creature. Out of nowhere, Trevor heard a question he was not prepared to answer. Her phone started playing “Who Let the Dogs Out?” by Baha Men.

Trevor scrambled to shut off Lexis’ phone while she stood there in place, frozen and grief-stricken by the sight of Milo being devoured by this creature. Suddenly, the creature stopped feasting on Milo and stood straight up. It was like watching a one-story building turn into a skyscraper. At five foot nine, Trevor wasn’t short, but the creature had to be over seven feet tall. It turned its head towards the source of the noise, fixed its eyes on Trevor and Lexis, and began to slowly move towards them. Trevor looked into the vacant abyss of the creature’s black eyes and at its long, razor-sharp teeth, which dripped of crimson. The creature stared at them and sniffed the air. He was now clearly more interested in their fresh meat than the meat on Milo’s carcass. Trevor knew they had to run. Trevor screamed as loud as he could to get Lexis out of her daze. “Run, Lexis, RUN!” As if standing knee-deep in a frozen lake, Lexis did not budge. Even as the monster came nearer to her, it was as if she were spellbound, her limbs rooted to the spot. Trevor stared, horrified, as Lexis stood still, unable to move a single muscle in her body. Trevor pulled Lexis up the street by the hand, yelling frantically, “What’s wrong with you? Did you see what happened to Milo? Why didn’t you move?” She seemed unable to respond, but turned her terror-stricken, unseeing eyes towards Trevor. Her breath moved past her lips in shuddering gasps as she whimpered like a beaten child. It took all the strength Trevor had to pull Lexis along until her flight reflexes kicked in.

Trevor looked back to see if the jagged-toothed monster was still behind them, and his heart dropped into the pit of his stomach. When they had first turned the corner, there had been only one creature. Now there were five. Trevor forced his body into a higher gear, desperate to get away from almost certain death. “These things must multiply like rabbits! Where are they coming from?” he thought as he ran, dragging Lexis along by the hand. Trevor’s thoughts raced. He didn’t know what was happening or what to do. He didn’t understand how he had ended up in this hell. He needed to stop thinking for now and just run. He ran as fast as he could, pulling Lexis’ one hundred and twenty five pounds along with him. “These aren’t like any creatures I’ve ever seen!” he thought.

After putting some distance between them and their pursuers, Trevor and Lexis turned right around a corner and then stopped abruptly. Lexis started to scream, but Trevor slapped his hand over her mouth to silence her. She started to cry silently. In front of them, ten of the blue monsters lumbered along the street like the homeless looking for a meal. A door swung open and an auburn-haired lady in her fifties walked out of her house and locked her door behind her while singing to herself. The sound of her voice got the attention of every creature on the block. She turned to see the carnivorous creatures coming closer to her. She dropped her purse and let out a shriek of terror. She picked up her purse and frantically searched for her keys. The closest creature slowly approached her, as if it were studying her. She found her keys, unlocked the door, and ran into her house, slamming the door behind her. The creature pushed on her door until it snapped in half like a Popsicle stick, granting the persistent beast access to the meal of human flesh that awaited.

All of a sudden, the rest of the creatures went up to the apartment doors on both sides of the street and forced their way through. They were no longer waiting to stumble across food as it came to them; they were on the hunt, seeking out their prey, adapting to their environment. Once the street was clear from the wanderers turned hunters, Trevor turned to see that the original group of monsters they had run away from were still pursuing them. Moving with more urgency, Trevor and Lexis started to run away from the creatures. He could see the group of five monsters one block away from their current location. “They seem to only run as fast as we jog. As long as we run top speed, we can outpace them,” he said to Lexis.

She looked at him. “What happens when we get tired?” she asked in a Colombian accent. Trevor had not thought of that. He knew that survival of the fittest actually meant something right now, and he sorely regretted the mountain of devil’s food donuts he had consumed over the past six months. He gasped for air as he started to fatigue.

“Let’s not find out,” he responded. They continued to run as fast as they could in the direction of potential salvation, the police station. Trevor’s phone started blaring “Going Home” by Drake. In that moment, he wished he could go home to his cozy two-bedroom apartment in Monroeville. But after witnessing those things bust down doors like the Gestapo, he knew he and Lexis’ only chance of safety was to be surrounded by lots of people with guns. He answered the phone and shouted, “HEY!” with the first bit of relief he had felt all night. On the other end of the phone, a deep and sarcastic voice responded.

“Oh. Is this a bad time for you? I called you multiple times, and I called Lexis. I can call back if you two are having relations or something.” To Trevor’s elation, the person on the line was the one person he would want to see at the world’s end. He was the guy you wanted to be with when monsters were chasing you around, trying to put your insides on your outside.

“Barney! Where the hell are you?”

Trevor could here Barney’s smirk through the phone. Barney replied, “Looking for you, dumbass. I just left the station. Where the hell are you?” Lexis started to fatigue, and Trevor pulled her around another corner, trying to get to the one place he thought would be safe. They were getting closer to the police station Barney was stationed at, and he could see that his plan of getting there might have been a delusion. There were twenty beasts on this block, blocking their path to safety. Trevor could see more monsters in the windows of the buildings on either side of the street. The top window of the apartment on his right hand side displayed a twisted shadow puppet show, and then suddenly blood spattered onto the white drapes where the shadows had once cast themselves. Some of the creatures had stayed outside. The monsters eating out in the open gave the place the feel of an open-air restaurant gone horribly wrong. Trying to stay focused, Trevor searched for a street sign like a lost child.

“We’re on East Carson Street! Where are you?” There was no answer. This was not a good time to lose communication with the person who might be one’s savior. “Barney, where are you?” Suddenly, gunshots rang out through the phone. “Barney!” After a second, the sweet sound of hope answered his worried cries.

“Keep your thong on, I’m here. I was just doing a little bit of experimenting.” Looking around, Trevor realized that these things that saw them as a free buffet surrounded them. Calling Barney’s name seemed to have attracted the attention of the monsters in the vicinity. Trevor looked around him to see that there were about twenty-five creatures inching closer to him and Lexis.

“Well, can you please experiment your way over here? We have nowhere to go!” Surrounded and frantically searching for safety, Trevor pulled Lexis into an alley. “We just ran into an alley!” he informed Barney. He had hoped to find a ladder to climb or a door to go into, but they found themselves trapped in a three-walled asylum padded with dirty red bricks. In this crazy world, the doctors had pointy teeth instead of needles. “Hurry! We have nowhere to go!” Trevor shouted again through the phone. The mob of monsters were slowly stalking them, growling and showing their razor teeth as they came ever closer. Trevor looked at Lexis. Lexis stared right back at him, her eyes begging him to save her from these creatures of the underworld, which encroached upon their precious space. But Trevor couldn’t. He couldn’t save either of them. Trevor owned a gun but had not brought it with him. He had not been expecting to go on the journey that he was having to endure tonight. Trevor pulled Lexis closer and gently whispered, “I’m sorry, for everything.” He knew those words might be the last thing he ever said to her.

Trevor turned, preparing to fight for both of their lives, when the long blare of a car horn grabbed the attention of all of the creatures in the alley. At the entrance to the alley, Trevor and Lexis could see creatures flying fifteen feet into the air. Distracted for a second by the lack of aerial skills these things possessed, Trevor realized this circus act was coming towards them at about forty miles per hour. He grabbed Lexis and ducked behind the dumpster in the back of the alley, hoping not to get hit by any of the creatures raining from the sky like blue tornado debris. Barney pulled up beside them in his Jeep.

“Get in!” he shouted. Trevor and Lexis sprinted towards the car. Lexis got in the back while Trevor jumped in the front. Passing Trevor a pistol from his lap, Barney instructed, “Aim for the head or the chest! Either seems to work!”

Perplexed, Trevor looked at Barney. “How do you know that?”

With a very drawn out and heavy sigh, Barney stated, “I told you I was experimenting. What did you think I was talking about? Drugs? Do you think I would experiment with drugs at a time like this? Really, Trevor? You should be ashamed of yourself. What would your mother think? I should bust you right now!”

Lexis leaned between Trevor and Barney to grab the other pistol. “SHUT THE HELL UP AND DRIVE!”

Shocked, Barney simply replied, “Yes ma’am.”

Trevor turned around in his seat to look at her. “Oh, now you want to talk?”