Beginnings of Strange Things
By: Keisha Lapsley
Copyright 2011
All Rights Reserved
Year 2040 and the world is nothing like everyone thought the future would be, hot, sweltering, heat drying up the water and full of danger. Earth became as one of the dusty planets that we were taught as children in school, like Jupiter. It’s being said that there is water somewhere but no one knows where it is. Earth did go robotic for a while but humans found that it was just as much money and dangerous to keep the robots around than what they expected.
Hi, my name is Susan Chatham and I am a survivor of the early 2000’s. I’ve seen from where we were to the hell that we are in now. Yes, we still have freedom but what good is it when there are no restrictions? We’re free to kill, to steal, to commit all sorts of heinous crimes without any conscience or judgment. We are free to live in fear, to live in captivity, free to go insane. I’ve come to the point where I no longer want freedom.
A few of us (about five hundred) have built a small little city underground and only go out when we have to. It’s important that we keep the city a secret because something is happening out there…something elusive, can’t be explained. I thought it was a lie until I saw one with my own eyes. I couldn’t believe it! There stood in front of me, a seven-foot, natural colored-wrinkled, dog-eared, innocent-human looking creature with long skinny fingers and feet to match, big blue eyes and fangs for teeth. Everything in me said to run but I couldn’t. I was stuck as if cement glue was on my feet. I was so scared that any water left in my body leaked out. It didn’t growl or attack. It was like it was seeing me for the first time too. The thing looked harmless but I don’t know where it came from. It’s still a mystery.
We have been underground for quite some time so we aren’t sure what is going on out there. At night it is so quiet, not a sound, peaceful but at the first break of morning is when we began to hear cries from beyond, stomping upon the ground, growling, human screams…then sudden silence. One didn’t have to figure out long what had happened. The best time to move is at night but it’s hard being that the moon doesn’t shine as bright.
We’re expanding the underground city because we found that working underground is the best way to find this water. We can’t go out in the day time because those things are out there and we’re limited at night because of the lack of light.
Conroy is the head security officer of the city, like a sheriff. He protects us. He knows more about those things out there than anyone else but doesn’t talk about it much. Conroy stays to himself and won’t give us any information about the outside. He protects and nothing more. Then there is Vincent, his sidekick. He is like a loose cannon and drunk with power. The trust factor is questionable when it comes to him. Personally, I wouldn’t trust him to protect my pinky toe but Conroy tries to convince us that he’s an alright guy and to trust him. We are trying but he is pushing it. I have to admit though, he gets the job done and that’s the only reason why he is still in charge. Tracey is the spiritual person. I was raised by her. I love Tracey. She’s like a mother to me. She prays for our safety and for God to help lead us in building the city and finding this water. She honestly and sincerely leads us well. She has people to help her and doesn’t try to do it all on her own. Tracey is humble that way. Then there’s Buck who fixes the pluming and electrical problems. You would think with the scarcity of food that he would be skinny right? Wrong! He’s just as big as he was when we first started out. In my opinion, he’s hoarding food while all of us are starving because there is no way someone who is starving walks around all jolly and happy. Buck is a sweetheart though. He makes us all laugh and smile, even in the worst of times. Lastly, I am the reporter. I give an account of everything that happens. Right now, this is my video and letter to let those left behind to know what is going on, what we did to build this city and our quest for water, in the case we don’t make it. Those are the main people of the city. We all work together to build, cook and manage the city the best way we can.
Today, I’m recording some of the citizens to get what their thoughts are on what is going on in our world.
“I told them that aliens were real! I-TOLD-THEM!!!” said the town’s crazy citizen Henrietta.
“Don’t listen to that old hag. It has nothing to do with aliens. It’s God. People didn’t believe it but He said it would happen,” old man Wally said.
“It’s none of that. I bet the government had something to do with this,” said David.
“I guess that is enough interviews for today,” I said into the video camera.
I chose the wrong ones to talk to, guess I will have to examine folks to speak with so I can get some intelligent views. Tonight I’m going to go outside the city to record what it’s like. Conroy is sending Vincent with me. Getting ready to leave, Vincent is hyped up on adrenaline, walks up behind me and says, “Hey suga, are you ready for wild night?”
“Get off of me! You make me sick!” I said.
“How do you stay looking as good as you do after all these years…sexxxy,” he said.
“By staying away from people like you,” I replied.
“You know you like it,” he said.
“I loathe you. May we go? Can you do that?” I said.
“It’s already done sweetheart. Why do you treat me so bad?” he asked.
“Treat you like what?” I retorted.
“Like you don’t want me when it’s obvious that you do,” he said.
“What is obvious…is that you don’t have a clue. If I wanted you, you would know it,” I said as I mockingly rubbed my body up against his.
As he breathed heavily in my face he said, “Is that what that passionate kiss meant a few days ago?”
“THAT was a mistake! Don’t bring it up again. This conversation is over. Let’s go,” I said as I snatched everything I was carrying with me.
On our way out, we saw Conroy. “Are you guys ready?” he asked.
“Yeap,” I said.
“Oh, yeah,” Vincent replied.
“Ya’ll be careful out there. Don’t do anything stupid,” Conroy directed.
“I got it boss,” Vincent said.
“Susan, I’m sending my best man with you. Stay close to him and follow his directions. DO NOT DEVIATE…understood,” Conroy said.
“Understood,” I answered.
Vincent and I were on our way. It takes a few minutes to get to the outside because we have three levels in the event of a security breach. There is a secret place that no one knows about just in case someone or thing penetrates our barriers on the first two levels. The secret place is our last resort. Right before we reached the door, Tracey walked up to me and said, “Child, be careful who you trust. The journey that you are about to go on is a path of truth. Your destiny will be revealed.”
“A path? My destiny? What are you talking about Tracey?” I asked.
“Hear what I say. When you are in trouble put this on your belly and pray to God and He will protect you,” she said as she firmly pressed this blue-crystal like jewel in my hand.
“Ok,” I said as we said goodbye.
Once we reached the doors to the outside, my heart began to pound, my breathing was as heavy as a hurricane sweeping through a town, weakness was taking control of my body and my mind was racing with a thousand thoughts. Vincent looked as confident as ever. There wasn’t a scared bone in his body; maybe because he’s gone out plenty of times before. Truth be told, I kind of admire that but he is altogether arrogant and that turns me off completely.
He opened the door softly and carefully. I was on him like a fly on trash as we crept out of the door. I hadn’t been out in so long the sudden heat almost took my breath away. It felt as if we were on another planet. The air wasn’t conducive to the air humans usually breathe. If I never stepped foot on planet earth again it would be too soon.
Apparently there is a certain path that Vincent knows of, the in’s and out’s of the town. I feel like a fish out of water and that’s strange being the fact that this use to be home to me. As I looked out among the trees, I could see those things laying everywhere asleep, dead bodies ripped to shreds, heads over here, legs over there, eyeballs on the left and earlobes on the right, dried blood on the withered tree stumps. I vomited right by Vincent’s foot. He looked back at me and said, “Keep that quiet,” he whispered, “Man up,” he finished. If I had anymore vomit left in me I would have finished on him. Something tells me this is going to be a long night.
“Vincent, it’s hard to videotape between these trees. Do you have a flashlight?” I asked.
“We can’t use a flashlight because light wakes them up,” he answered.
“Well how am I supposed to film this if I can’t see?” I asked becoming annoyed at why Conroy wanted me to do this in the first place.
“Look, I don’t know and don’t care. We are not using a light,” he said.
Vincent continued to take me down a path but little does he know I have a light on my camcorder and turned it on. I don’t care what he says. It makes no sense to have me out here filming if I can’t see anything. While we’re walking, I’m filming the grossness of what earth has become; I stepped on a twig, making a wrestling noise. Vincent quickly looked back with a pissed off look on his face. Suddenly, we heard a big rumbling. Vincent snatched the camera out of the grasp of my hands and turned off the light. I looked at him and sneered, “What are you doing!” Next thing I know, Vincent pulled out his gun and shot it right over my head. “Oh, you shootin’ at me now!” I said. He didn’t respond. All Vincent did was grab my arm and pull me to him. There was one of those things right behind me. Vincent kept shooting this gun that spewed out a blue-light ray and it was quiet but it lit up the sky whenever you shoot it. We started running through all the trees. We would have to duck so the dried branches wouldn’t hit us in the face. We ran for what seemed forever. I decided to look back…and what did I do that for? Instead of one now there was what seemed like a tribe pursuing us.
“I’ve got to get this on tape!” I said running behind Vincent.
“Are you crazy? That’s what got us into this trouble in the first place,” Vincent said.
“This is what I’m out here for, right?” I said.
“Shut up and run. This way,” he said as we made a sharp left turn and hid behind some rocks.
Both of us were tired and out of breath but we couldn’t breath hard or else those things would hear us. I figured since we were taking a breather, I could film them running pass us. It was great! I was getting some awesome footage. Then Vincent whispered in my ear some directions, “From here, we are going to have to crawl to the cave that’s over there. Do you see it?” I shook my head yes and he gestured for me to come. It was very dark where we were going. There is no way that those things could see us. We moved matrix slow towards the cave. After going about six feet, hidden by bushes and the darkness of night, we finally made it to the cave. We could hear the things moving throughout the town with their colossal feet and loud noises they were making being irritated that they couldn’t find us.
In the cave, Vincent said, “Have you lost your mind! Do you know what you could have done?”
“I’m sorry. I was just trying to get what I was coming out here for,” I said.
“Look if you want to keep going then there are some rules you are going to have to follow. One, no lights, not even the one on the camera. You are just going to have to find another way. Two, if we are in danger, the videotape goes up. I’m not going to lose my life for your stupidity and three, if you are going to send me through all of this, then you might as well make it worth my time,” he said.
It was then I gave Vincent a deep long kiss. It had to be from all the adrenaline that was running through me. We screwed right there in the cave.
After a couple of hours, Vincent and I noticed that it was quiet once again. We put back on our clothes and began to head out of the cave until we heard a piercing sound. It was a creature of some sort…never seen it before howbeit, whatever the creature is, it was not happy to see us. It was hard to see but we knew it was four times bigger than we were because we could feel its nostrils breathing on us. I screamed. Then Vincent went on a shooting rampage. We had to go deeper in the cave. The noise woke up those other things too. Instantly, we started to hear the footsteps of the things again. The four-legged creature is chasing us throughout the cave. We are having to bob and weave our way from one end of the cave to the next. As the creature is moving briskly throughout, his tail is swinging from side to side destroying the rocks within its path causing part of the cave to collapse. On top of that, it sounds like those things have made it into the cave. As Vincent is shooting and me running, one of the rocks that were falling, knocked me down paralyzing me. The creature is getting closer and the monsters are too. Vincent is trying to get me up but I have lost all feeling from my waist down. “Take this gun and shoot!” he yelled. The tension is growing higher and higher. The creatures are vastly approaching while rocks are continuing to fall. Vincent gave me his gun and I shot at them but didn’t touch not a one. “You need to aim and shoot or we’re dead!” Vincent yelled.
“I know! I’m trying!” I yelled back scared. I aimed and shot the creature five times right between the eyes. It gave Vincent plenty enough time to get that rock off of me, pick me up and moved throughout the cave. He had to be smart about where he ran because he was carrying me and couldn’t run as fast as usual.
Out of the blue, we heard extra shots. We didn’t know where it was coming from. Whoever it was, shot their way through and obviously with a bigger weapon that what we had. Vincent and I stopped in our tracks to see who it was. As we impatiently paused, the shooter was revealed. It was Buck, the plummer.
After he blasted his way through, Vincent said, “Man, are we glad to see you.”
“We don’t have much time,” Buck said, “There are more coming,” he finished.
“We have one problem,” Vincent said.
“What’s that?” Buck asked.
“A rock fell on Susan and now she can’t feel her legs,” Vincent said.
“Well, we are going to have to figure out something because we don’t have a lot of time,” Buck insisted.
“Susan, what about that crystal that Tracey gave you?” Vincent asked.
“Crystal?” Buck asked.
I looked at the crystal that hung from my neck, took it off, put it on my stomach and said a small prayer. The crystal, from the inside moved like water flowing from a river. It didn’t help me to walk but it did imprint a place within my mind that I will remember. I knew instantly what I’m supposed to do and how to help Buck and Vincent. However, there was one more question that I had to ask, “Buck, how did you know where we were?”
“All of the guns have tracking devices so when one of them are used a red light goes off in the office and Vincent was shooting a lot so I knew there was trouble,” Buck said.
“Where is Conroy?” Vincent asked.
“Nobody knows. I went to look for him when I saw the button go off but he was no where to be found,” Buck said.
“That’s weird. He’s supposed to be protecting the city,” I said.
Time was drawing nigh, so we got on the good-foot. The crystal lit up to lead us in the right direction. It led us to a beautiful river but it also led to someone else. While we were excited about the water and playing in it, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was one of those things which quickly snatched up Buck and ripped him in two. It was then that I found strength in my legs to back up but I backed up into Conroy.
“Conroy! What are you doing here?” I asked in a panic.
“Surprised?” he asked as he gladly watched the thing feast on Buck.
“Kind of,” I responded.
Vincent came over to where we were and said, “Man! What is going on?”
Conroy snatched any protection that Vincent had on him and left him defenseless. The thing came for me next, grabbed me with his long hands but would not harm me.
“Vincent! Help me!” I cried.
“Don’t worry Susan, I will,” he bravely answered.
“He won’t be doing anything of the sort,” Conroy said as another thing came from behind him and snatched up Vincent, killing him instantly.
“Vincent! Noooo!” I cried some more.
“Don’t worry about him darling. You will be joining him soon,” Conroy said.
“I don’t understand Conroy. Why are you doing this?” I asked hysterically.
He directed for the thing to put me down and it did then walked towards me saying, “I used to work for the government. They created a disease to interject into people to decrease population because the economy had gotten so bad but the disease had an adverse effect on some humans. Instead of killing them, it turned them into these creatures. They tried to combat it with an airborne disease which killed our atmosphere. They injected your mom while she was pregnant with you. It was supposed to kill both of you but it didn’t. Your father was a doctor and he cut open your mother and took you and put you in a metrobolic freezer that caused you to continue to grow as a normal baby would but kept you safe at the same time. That blue crystal was part of that freezer. Over time, you and the crystal became one. Only one person knew where you were and she raised you. Either way it goes, when it was time, you were born. What you so stupidly call a birth mark on your stomach is the imprint of the crystal. The crystal is the only thing separating us from the old way of life. I am tired of living underground and the way of savages. I was a general in the United States army and I’m not supposed to be living like this…anyway, have you wondered why you haven’t aged like everyone else, how come you stayed so young?” he asked.
“Of course I have. I mean everyone else is getting older but I seem to be staying twenty. I had questions but there wasn’t anyone to give me an answer,” I said trying to find a way out.
“The imprint, kept you young and the crystal would lead me to a new life…the life I knew before. I figured someone had to have the crystal. It had to be near because it couldn’t be far from you in order to keep you young. The person had to be brought out so I sent you out on a bogus journey. I knew they wouldn’t allow you to leave without speaking with you.”
“What did you do to Tracey?” I said.
“Oh, don’t worry. She’s okay. If I were you, I would be worried about myself right now,” he said. I was so mad, I stood to my feet. “I’d suggest you sit down. I don’t have nothing to lose! I lost everything…my wife, both of my sons and I can never bring them back. I’m going to try my hardest to salvage something of this mess,” he said shaking his gun as tears streamed down his eyes.
This is my chance to break free. I grabbed my crystal and yelled, “God! Help me please! I need you!” Then suddenly, the ground began to shake, rocks started to fall and I ran towards Conroy and began wrestling him for the gun. We rolled back and forth then a shot went off. I clinched as we stared each other in the face. Then a burning started to shoot through my body. Immediately, I coughed up blood. Conroy stared me right in the face, smiled and whispered, “I win.”
My eyes closed, then I heard a voice say, “It’s not done. Roll towards the water.”
I followed the instructions. The pain was so excruciating that I didn’t want to hardly move. Just as I was at the tip of the river, I stopped. I couldn’t move anymore. Then Conroy was trying to get rid of my body threw me into the river. I started to sink and as went down, the water healed my wound. Unbeknown to him, I came out the water grabbed the gun and shot him in the back of the head and neck. I sat in the cave and cried. Tracey showed up at the river bleeding profusely. I took her to the water and she told me that I was the guardian of this water and it is to heal the people and the land. The reason that the thing didn’t attack me when I first saw one was because it knew I was connected to the source but couldn’t speak to tell me, at least that’s what Tracey told me. I collected the water in a few jars and gave it to those things. I could go out in the day time because they wouldn’t harm me. After drinking the water, they turned back into the humans they were before. Some died before they could get cured. The world began to bloom again as I watered the earth with the healing waters…but there is something more going on out here. I hear the eerie noises in the night time but that’s another journey.
