Through Their Eyes.

I heard the faint trace of her voice, as I showered in the uncomfortably cold water. It was either drench myself in iced water, or scorch my skin off. I chose the one that would cause me less agony. At first, I merely passed the voice by; my mind had tricked me many times in my life into believing I’d heard my name called. I became more aware of the possible repetition, just in case. I was completely confident that it was indeed her, when I heard the knock on the bathroom door. It was soft and timid, fearful in its nature. I frantically stepped out, wrapping her towel around me, as I hurriedly walked to open the door. She was shaking badly as she weakly stood there, before her tears started to trace randomly patterned lines down her face. Her arms flew around me, holding me tightly to her. Mine instinctively went up around her, and half of me was just worried about the towel staying up, I hadn’t had time to secure it around my waist. We stood there in each other’s arms, as I comforted her. Although I knew nothing about why she was crying, I knew that she needed me, and I wouldn’t ever deny her my soothing effects.

I slowly stroked her hair as we stood there; enveloping her mind in thoughts of me, instead of whatever was causing her such grief. Slowly she collected herself and whimpered to me one request. “Please don’t ever leave me.” How could I ever argue with that? In the past, whenever she said these words to me, she meant for me to never break her heart. This time she meant to never break contact, to never stray out of sight, out of earshot. I held to the promise I made to her at that moment for the rest of our lives.

I never did finish that shower. Instead I redressed, as she courteously looked away, partially out of awkwardness. We both sat on the edge of the bed, as I asked her what was wrong. As she explained to me what she’d just witnessed on the news, I realized that starting then; we wouldn’t be able to avoid the subject any more. That fact didn’t stop us from trying to as hard as we could, for each other’s sake. “We should… Go… Somewhere…” I spoke to her aloud my plan as it formed in my mind, loosely and ill thought out. “We could go to Indiana. That’s away from here, where they said the attacks were. I doubt they’ll make it all the way to Indiana.” In my mind I was slowly trying to piece together things, as if the horrid events were locking pieces to a jigsaw puzzle, and slowly I was trying to fit all of my differently shaped thoughts to them, to try to figure something out. Thoughts to the CDC, and their screenings for infections crossed my mind. I just couldn’t find out how it linked though, if it did at all. It had to though; I thought to myself, coincidences never come this grimly.

She made no protest to my plan. She was clearly very shaken up, where as I was busily avoiding letting it sink in with my preoccupying thoughts. As she put on another shirt over her tank top, we started to pack. That was when the hunger hit both of us again. “Ugh, can we please eat?” She seemed a bit back to her normal self as she asked that.

“Of course, because if I don’t, I think I might have to join those monsters,” I replied. This gave her another wave of horror; and I even appalled myself with that remark. “I’m sorry,” I said, solemnly. I always had a knack for hitting the wrong spot with a joke. It wasn’t something I was very proud of at all. As we finished gathering our things, I outstretched my hand to her, but she grabbed onto my arm instead, pulling herself close to me. I leaned close to her, as if to say, “It’s alright Natasha, I’m here.” As we walked out of the room and down those stairs, I suddenly realized that we were living in a reality unlike any I’d ever experienced before, with the universe sickly laughing at its practical joke.

As I drove in search of a restaurant, Natasha placed her hand on my leg. I slightly smiled at my ridiculous wish that I had a third arm to rest around her. Driving seemed like a punishment when I wasn’t able to pay her much attention, especially at a time where losing me in any way would surely start to kill her. We settled for a pancake house we’d happened to come across, and I parked. As we got out, we quickly rejoined each other, clinging to one another, as we walked in. It wasn’t very busy at all, which was good because there weren’t many employees there at all either. We were to be seated at a table with two chairs, each across from one another, but I kindly asked for a booth. After I sat down, she slid in next to me, pressing closely against my side. I put my arm around her, pulling her close to me. “I love you so much, Natasha.”

“I love you too, my Andrew.” Her voice seemed a bit weak. I decided that it was only because it was the first time she had spoken in a while, partially because it was a viable reason, and partially because I didn’t want to ever think of her being upset. I decided to pull her even closer to me, squeezing her to me momentarily. The surplus of empty tables gave me a sense of unease. It was as if in the few days the incidents had started happening, everything was changing. Fortunately, I thought, Indiana would be different. It would be normal. When our waitress returned, we both ordered omelets. As she walked away, I quietly murmured, “One Dutch baby, please.” Natasha smiled at the joke which had spawned at a breakfast the year before, where we humorously poked fun at a name of one of the items, imagining the cook frying up some Dutch infants. “Reminds me of the first time we went out for breakfast together.”

“Yeah,” she replied, “but without your mom.” I laughed, but it was quickly choked by the feeling of unease. We both lost ourselves in thoughts of that day. What we wouldn’t give to be back in that time, away from the fear that seemed to be building to something sinister.

We were interrupted from our mutual daydream as our orders arrived. We ate slowly. I was unsure why I even ate; the hunger was there, but my mind was so occupied with everything else, that eating felt like a chore. I put my hand on Natasha’s. One thing I loved was that since she was left handed, my left could go onto her right at any time we needed only our dominant one. Sometimes I only further thought we were simply made for each other, this only adding to my proof. Time dragged as we finished our breakfast, both of us anxious to simply leave what was becoming hell. I paid the bill, and tipped generously. I thought that since that waitress had the dedication to show up for the job, when clearly most of the other staff simply stayed away, that she deserved a bit of appreciation. As we exited, I looked up at the sky, noticing for the first time, that it was a pure light blue. Irony never failed to spice up my life. “Oh crap,” I said, suddenly realizing something, “I should probably tell my mom that we’re coming.” I dug through the pocket of my khaki cargo pants until I pulled out my phone. The screen failed to light up, as it usually did, and I realized that my phone was off. I hadn’t really used it at all since I had been reunited with Natasha. I turned it on, and as I scrolled through my address book, I was bombarded with notifications.

I had missed eight calls, and had twenty unread texts. I didn’t even have to guess who they were from, and I frowned at my stupidity for not expecting it. I scrolled down to my house phone, and dialed. After two rings, my mother picked up. After a few minutes of reassuring her that I was fine, and although she didn’t ask, that Natasha was also fine, I told her about my plans to return to Indiana with Natasha. I looked over to her just in time to see her take her phone from her ear, with an expression conveying her crushed hope. I wondered if she had the same fear as I did. I didn’t think her family would just walk out without even telling her. Maybe they weren’t that fortunate. After arguing with my mom for a few minutes about where Natasha was supposed to sleep in our house, the plans for our return were set.

I suddenly realized where we were, standing in the middle of a near-empty parking lot. Obviously nobody else had taken notice. Cars were not abundant on any street that we had seen. I took hold of her hand once more as I put my phone back away. “Maybe you should try calling Michelle?” I asked this with an alterior motive.

“I can’t, because it would crush me if I found out that she was okay.” It seemed she’d picked up on it.

We both climbed back into the car, and I decided it was probably a good time to buy gas. I was right.

As we made our way onto the freeway, we suddenly started seeing more cars. Neither of us had a good feeling about the number of people heading away from Illinois. It only gave me a feeling of unease. Was there something more to this that I didn’t know? If there was, it obviously only made it worse. I sighed and tried to mentally prepare myself for the three hour drive. Part of me was especially excited, because this would be the first time she would be visiting Indiana. As I fantasized of introducing her to everyone, a silver SUV pulled up next to me, matching my speed.

Through the passenger’s window, I saw a small boy, eyes closed, his face looked flushed, but perhaps I was just imagining things. I saw his mom driving, her hands fidgeting against the wheel. Her fingers seemed to randomly tap and twitch, with her hands shifting position often. I wondered why. Was it the boy, or the horrid entity that was possessing people, turning them into soul-less beasts? I returned my gaze to the road; to the seemingly endless rows of cars. I shifted my gaze to Natasha, who was looking almost downward, her head slightly turned in my direction. I took my right hand off of the steering wheel, and reached over to place it on top of one of her, gently stroking my thumb in an arc across her smooth, pure hand. “My sweet Natasha,” I said, in an effort to raise her spirits. My mind completely blanked, as I raced to find the right thing to say. Silence was all that filled the car. “At least we have each other.” I slapped myself mentally for using such a cliché, yet it truly was something we both clung to.

I turned my attention back to the road. Having each other wouldn’t do us much use if we were dead. I then shifted my gaze back to the SUV, which had gained a little distance on us. The little boy was waking up. His head seemed to roll, like his muscles were nonexistent. Suddenly, his arms and shoulders seemed to jerk, his body seizing. Moments later, it died down. I glanced back at the road to make sure I was okay, and then looked back to my left. The boy’s face was pressed against the window; his mom’s gaze had been directed toward him now. Momentarily, our eyes met, and I quickly shifted my gaze back to the road out of embarrassment. I soon looked back to the SUV, where hell was breaking loose. The boy’s eyes were open now, completely rolled back into his head. Seconds later they rolled back into normalcy, locking with mine. Something evil then flashed in his expression, even though his face was completely expression. Realizing that there was a barrier between him and I, he slammed his hands into the window, as if trying to shatter the transparent wall keeping me from him. This mouth was open, his teeth scraping against the window as he tried to bite the image of me formed in his eyes.

I instinctively looked back to the road to make sure it was safe, and then to Natasha. She seemed unaware of what was happening. For a moment I contemplated whether or not I should tell her. I decided against it, I desired to spare her from this horror. I turned to my left again, to see the boy’s mother try to grasp his shoulder, try to shake him out of it. His body jolted, as he quickly tensed, and turned around to face his own mother, the one who had given him life. What happened next I could only assume actually happened, although I wished it hadn’t. What I saw before I closed my eyes was this: The boy pounced at his mother, instantly being restrained by the seat belt which locked in place at the sudden pulling. He grabbed at his mother, pulling on her head, his head moving for her neck. After that, I saw only the blackness of my eyelids, protecting me from the horror. When I opened my eyes, I saw the empty road beside me, and as I looked further ahead, I saw the SUV speeding until it suddenly swerved to the right, luckily avoiding hitting any cars as it completely cut across the highway, and then fell off of the road completely; its right tires slipping over the change in elevation from the road to what surrounded it, causing the car to start tumbling, compressing the metal frame and shattering the windows and windshield with each strike on the ground.

“Andrew!” As I heard her shout my name, I snapped my focus back to the road, and slammed on the brake with all of my might as we lurched forward violently, the locked seat belt digging into our rib cages. There had seemed to have been quite a few inertial incidents happening ever since I had come here. Ahead of us was the longest traffic jam I had ever seen.