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                “Oh wow! A real geo-front!”

                                Shinji Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion

                It’s hard for me to think as I slide down against the glass wall. As I’m able now to rationalize what it is that I’m leaning against, I can almost perceive the slight curve. It’s as if the veil of darkness has been pushed away and now that I can register what I’m seeing, I can see much better.

                I prop my arms up on my knees as I sit, staring off into the endless darkness back through the trees. I try to sigh, but the exhale just comes out as a ragged series of almost-gasps. I close my eyes and try to think.

                “I went to bed in Williamsburg, Virginia.” I hear myself say. I don’t bother to open my eyes to make sure. “I fell asleep on my couch. In my apartment. Less than a mile from William and Mary College.” Thoughts of home run through my mind. “I had my bike. I was on a demo team. We were going to a competition next weekend.”

                I look up.

                “This is just a dream.” I say, laughing with the end of my words. “This is just a dream. Just a really bad dream. I’m gonna wake up and I’m going to be still asleep on my couch, with a half-eaten pizza and a bunch of flat beer right in front of me.”

                I look around.

                I feel the slight breeze, as well as the warm air that surrounds me.

                “It’s an awfully real dream.” I say, already knowing I don’t believe it.

                For some reason, he pops into my mind.

                That giant from inside the facility.

                My head raises. My heart slows as my skin goes cold. Even out here, in the warmth, it seems like my breath freezes and my skin gets clammy.

                “He was huge.” I whisper, staring off in the distance. “And he killed those three monsters. And he looked right at me. RIGHT at me. And then turned away. He walked down that corridor, but when I went back, it wasn’t there. It was another room.”

                Slowly, the puzzle starts to lay itself out before me.

                “So I’ve got a mysterious big guy in black walking around.” I say, starting to think more vividly now. “And I’ve got a bunch of monsters wondering around. And these monsters are, in essence, the results of a blood-born virus. A virus that affects B and AB blood. Now AB is pretty rare. B’s not too rare.” I shift in my position, still thinking.

                “If this is some type of ship in a bottle,” I say, looking around. “Then someone’s got to know about all of this. Which means help’s coming.” The singular word changes the world for me.

                Help

                An image of the old-time cavalry riding in across the desert behind me makes me smile. “Now all I need is a six-shooter and a five-gallon hat and I’ll be set.” I laugh. It’s strange to hear myself laugh. It’s strange to hear myself at all. Silence has become everything.

                I stand up from the glass and look around the surface of the semi-reflective barrier. I look up at the joining of the roof and the glass. “It seems to me that I could find someway out of here.” Almost unwillingly, my head turns around in the distance of where the light had once been.

                I push my way back through the darkness of the trees and drive myself into the forest. There’s got to be a way to get out of here, or at least let someone know that I’m in here.

                I ignore the whipping branches that lash at my face as I move through the darkness. I feel a strange determination now, like there’s actually hope. As I walk, I button up my lab jacket and continue to ignore the pain of my feet, all while my thoughts race around me. I start trying to remember my hematology class that I took at that junior college.

                I stop.

                I’m at the road.

                I see a dear lying in the center of the gravel path. Its two remaining legs are incomplete.

                I freeze and listen.

                I can hear them.

                The first one rushes at me from behind, barreling at me from the darkness. I step to the side as it goes stumbling past me, flailing its arms to keep from falling over. I can see in the darkness that it’s not the freshest monster I’ve seen, but it’s still lively.

                The thing rushes back at me as another one bursts out from the tree line on the other side of the path, near the brick wall.

                The thing swings with all its weight at my head, but I duck underneath. I plant my forearm into its side and shove it over. It falls as the other one throws itself at me. I let it disrupt its own balance, then I step to the side, kicking at its shins with my leg. Pain resonates through me as our shins collide. I grit my teeth on the pain as the monster doesn’t even seem to notice.

                It turns around as I slip off my backpack and hold it by the top strap, ready to wield it like a chain. The two stand near each other, then both rush at me. I lunge to the side as I swing at both their heads. The first one goes barreling past, but the second one turns and swings back at me. The blow catches me across the face and nearly takes my jaw off. The pain doesn’t distract so much as the realization of how strong the hit was. I feel like my neck’s broken.

                He jumps at me again and I don’t have time to move. He slams into me and barrels me to the ground, already biting at my skin. I plant my forearm against the bottom of his jaw and push him away, but he flails madly with his free hands, trying to get at me.

I can hear the other one coming close.

                I catch the one on top of me across the face with my free elbow and slow him down for a minute. With my arm across his face, I wrap my arm around his head and yank him face-first down to the ground. In trying to bite at me, he rolls us over which puts me on top. The slower one comes lunging at me.

                I try to count the steps, then dive to the left as the slower one drops down onto the one I had sat upon. Up with them down, I rush over to the tree line. I grab two smallish branches and yank them. One comes free without much trouble, but the other effuses to let go. I hear them getting up as I grab another branch and tear it free. I whirl around at the two as they run. Armed with two torn tree branches, I move at them.

                The first one swings at me like the all do and I catch him in the knee with my left branch. I immediately swing my right branch around to hit him in the back of the knee, buckling his leg and knocking him to the ground.

Connecting with the right, I spin around and catch the other monster across the face with the left stick. The blow knocks him off balance and shatters my stick like a twig. I look at the small piece of wood in my hand, then I toss it up and grab the opposite side, holding the sharper of the two broken ends like an ice pick.

The second one comes at me and I step in before he can swing. I stab him in the leg just above the knee, hit that wound with my stick, then come up with my fist right to the center of his jaw. Striking the boney surface makes me yelp in pain, but the monster falls over, his leg useless.

                The other one’s up and he swings at me. I step back under the swing and catch him in the side of the leg, dropping him to one knee. Standing by the kneeling monster, I jam my stick into his ear, driving it as far as it will go. I draw back with my stick and break it over the top of his head.

                I then lose my stomach over the sight that follows from the strike.

                I start to walk before I even finish throwing up. They’re both moving, but neither one can really follow me. The slower of the two can’t walk. And the other one, well, he can’t see or smell. Or bite now. But just the same as soon as I’ve got enough orientation, I grab up my backpack and start to jog, then run, in the distance of where the light had once been. I don’t bother trying to orientate myself to the road I’m on. Just run.

                The starless night around me doesn’t affect me as I run. I just simply try to drive out the thoughts of what’s happen. But as my mind wonders, I see myself coming back to the act I just saw, committed as if it was someone else doing it. The blow with the stick. And the almost explosion that followed.

                I keep running.

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