Chapter 6: Nikki

 

It was so dark I couldn’t see my own hand in front of my face. Up until the moment Franklin lost connection to the grid last summer, I’d never experienced the true darkness of a moonless night before. I’d always had the light pollution of the city to fall back on. Even with the stars above me, it was too dark to make out any details.

I latched onto Koriv’n as if he were my lifeline, and for all intents and purposes, he was. There was no way I could make my way across the town on my own. I couldn’t see in the dark, and in the light of day, I’d be bug chow in an instant.

I was tripping over everything, including my own two feet. It didn’t help that my shoes were two sizes too big. I felt like a klutz. Forget the giant alien bugs; I was liable to wipe out from bad footwear.

I kept the complaint to myself. No one liked bellyachers in the world after bugs. They were the ones that got left behind first.

When Koriv’n had shown me the map, I’d been surprised to see the familiar-looking website on the screen. It was almost surreal, and I had to pinch myself to check if I was dreaming.

Life as I’d known it had ended. I’d been cooking over a dung fire and using a chamber pot for almost a year. But there on the screen was the map, looking the same as it ever was. The familiar logo glowed at the top left-hand corner, ready to show me the way to the nearest coffee shop as if nothing had changed.

For a moment, it felt like the past year was all a joke, and someone was going to yell “surprise,” and everything would go back to the way it was. But nothing happened, and a purple Xarc’n warrior with horns and fangs had still sat in front of me on a strange bed, showing me the way to his compound.

Despite having advanced technology and the ability to travel through space, the alien hunters had kept our internet and maps. I guessed it made sense. Why reinvent the wheel?

The path he outlined on the screen passed right by my old house, and I couldn’t help but ask if we could stop by there. Shoes that fit would be a great thing to have. Bad shoes could quite literally kill you during the bugpocalypse.

If there was anything I’d learned about surviving a bug attack, it was that I didn’t have to be the fastest runner. I just couldn’t be the slowest. Tripping once could mean the end of my life.

Plus, there was some unfinished business I wanted to take care of.

I fumbled with the ring on my finger; the one I’d worn for so many years. It was too tight, and I couldn’t get it off. I wanted it off now. I was ready for the next chapter of my life, and I wanted to get rid of the old.

Jason and I would never have a ’till-death-do-us-part unless I murdered him in his sleep. Which, believe you me, I’d come close to doing several times. I was free of him now, and I wanted to be free of this ring too. I would have to wait until I had some soap and water.

Koriv’n stopped abruptly, and I walked right into him. Then I heard it, the sound of many scurrying feet. I stiffened, and panic started in the pit of my stomach. I knew that sound. Everyone knew that sound. What had Koriv’n called these bugs? Scuttlers. There were scuttlers scuttling here somewhere, and I was blind and helpless.

Koriv’n released my hand, and for a moment, I was alone. I reached for him in a panic, feeling around in the dark. I held onto his forearm tightly, silently begging him not to leave me. An arm wrapped around me and rubbed my back, letting me know everything was alright. I felt his breath on the side of my head, and I tilted my face up to his.

I ended up brushing my lips across his cheek. He rubbed his face against mine in the dark, his skin like warm, pliant leather. It calmed me. There were killer bugs here, but I had a bug killer, a hunter who slayed these bugs for a living.

“Calm. You are safe,” he whispered into my ear. “I need to fight them so we may pass. Something must have confused them on their way back to the nest.”

According to the stories circulating social media before the internet went down, the hunters were state-of-the-art weapons genetically engineered by some super-advanced ancient race to fight the bugs. The huge, curved blade on Koriv’n’s back looked deadly enough, and he was every bit the predator. But to fight the bugs at night in the dark? Wasn’t that super risky? Maybe they had insane night vision as well.

The sound of Koriv’n opening a car door next to us broke the silence. I almost expected the lights to the car to turn on, but nothing happened. The battery was probably long dead.

The scratching of little feet changed, sounding like they were coming toward us and fast.

“Stay inside the vehicle. Even with the decoy scent, they are attracted to you.” Koriv’n shoved me inside the car and slammed the door shut behind me.

I was sure the bugs could break the windows to get into the car if they wanted, but they’d have to deal with a hunter first.

My own heartbeat was loud in the car as I felt around in the dark to get my bearings. The vehicle was empty.

I was glad I didn’t fall onto the skeletal remains of whoever had owned the vehicle. The car smelled stale but not of old decay. Most likely, the owners had run from the car, leaving the doors unlocked. Trying to get out of the town by car had been an exercise in futility. Franklin’s roads were now either completely barren or jammed with abandoned cars.

I’d been driving when the bugs arrived. A flyer had crashed into a car in front of us, causing a pile-up. The entire street had been blocked. A few people had tried to charge through, especially those with SUVs, but most people ended up stuck. Realizing we’d be stuck in the car as the bugs filed in, Jason and I got out and ran for it.

Others had run for it as well, but not everyone made it. A woman with a baby had been picked off right behind me. I’d been lucky. That was when I’d learned that being slow was a death sentence.

Light flashed outside the window, a curved neon white-blue glow. It moved quickly in large arcs, and I realized it was the edge of Koriv’n’s sword. I’d seen the energy weapons in videos before, but it was much more impressive in real life, even in the dark. The plasma glow was just enough for me to make out his body as he danced between the attacking bugs.

He was fast, faster than I could possibly keep track of. I squinted and made out the outline of the front of his body as he fought the terrible things, slashing his way through the half-dozen monsters. Occasionally a beady bug eye, a set of chittering mandibles, or a deadly toxin-edged claw showed in the artificial plasma radiance.

It was the first time I’d ever seen one of these warriors in action, and I was suddenly extremely grateful Koriv’n was on my side. These guys were no joke.

We’d learned last year that normal firearm rounds did not penetrate a bug’s tough exoskeleton. Their carapace was made of tough stuff. Only armor-piercing ammunition did the job unless the shooter was an ace shot and managed to hit the ugly buggers in the eyes or the head.

Shooting at a gun range was nothing like shooting at a live target, especially when the target was trying to disembowel you or bite off your head. I doubted one got a second shot if they missed.

Koriv’n, with his melee weapon, slashed through our buggy foes like butter. He made it look like child’s play. The blade passed in front of his face, lighting up his foreign but strangely handsome features. Wait, was he…smiling?

I couldn’t tell for sure in the dark, but I swore he looked like he was having fun. Maybe killing these bugs was fun for the Xarc’n hunters, like some sort of morbid live-action video game. Maybe hunting was like an alien game of airsoft or paintball.

The half-dozen wayward bugs dispatched, he returned to the vehicle, his sword still aglow. Yep, he was most definitely smiling.

He helped me out of the driver’s seat before wiping his blade on the fabric seat of the car. The edge stopped glowing, and I was once again plunged into darkness.

I hated not being able to see. I’d known a lady once at the start of the crisis who was stuck without her glasses. She’d been wearing contacts when the bugs came, and by the next day, she was practically blind.

People with bad vision were never represented in zombie or other post-apocalyptic movies; I now understood why. Many never made it. Surviving was partially skill and a whole lot of luck. Any impairment messed up your odds big time.

Man, I shouldn’t even be alive right now. I remembered watching, in another life, my zombie movies and screaming at the screen at the characters' stupidity. But when all this bug shit started, I’d realized I was no better than the dumbest character I’d yelled at.

The only thing I had on my side was that I was fast. I used to do track and field back in high school, and it had paid off. That was rule number one in a zombie apocalypse: cardio. I didn’t have much, but I had that.

As much as I hated the group of men I’d just left, they were probably the only reason I was still alive, and only because I was something useful for them. It could’ve been a lot worse. I could be dead.

“Ready to go?” he asked, the words coming out as growls.

His communicator screen lit up as it translated, giving me just enough light to step over the dead bugs. The last thing I needed now was to slip and faceplant on bug guts. Koriv’n had looked relatively clean in the glow of his sword. How he managed to send so many buggy souls to meet their maker without getting splattered was a mystery of its own.

“Yeah. Let’s get out of here.” I latched onto Koriv’n’s arm again. He still smelled clean—not covered in bug juice at all—and we continued our journey toward my house.

I was eager to get there. First, because I needed shoes that fit. Good cardio wouldn’t do me any favors if my shoes tripped me up. Second, I had a weapon there. The gun and ammo belonged to rat bastard degenerate number one, but I’d hidden the key to the cabinet from him when we’d gone back to the house during the winter.

I’d made the decision after realizing they were using their firepower not for protection but to steal food and supplies from other survivors. That group didn’t need any more firepower.

I also wanted to see the place one last time and say goodbye to the life I once knew. That was the past. It was time to forge my own future.