Chapter 1
Decamp
"In a universe of endless probabilities, is anything static? Does no truth upon which we can fundamentally depend exist? Were we to remain on Earth until a lack of resources killed us? Are we just one of incalculable failed attempts to become galactic travelers? There're so many questions that I could ask - an incalculable amount, in fact! But I'd rather spend my final day on better things. I'm going to have tea.
Y'see, I'm not going to be here tomorrow. This house isn't going to be here. This street won't be here either, nor will this city, this state, this country, this hemisphere, or even this planet. The moon is still up for debate, but I don't think scientists will have much of a reason to care once the comet hits. It's odd how an unavoidable demise brings out the craziness in people. This is the last hoorah. The bang. The only time we've had an excuse to be ourselves.
The comet, affectionately referred to by the majority as 'Judgment,' 'God,' 'Satan,' or 'that fucking comet' - even by news anchors on live television, is terribly huge. They say it might be moving at such velocity that it won't be destroyed when it hits us. It's just gonna plow through and go about its merry way? Fucking comet. They also used their math wizardry to conclude that this will be where it hits. Lucky me, right? No, really. I get a front row seat without having to travel the globe.
I haven't seen another human being in what feels like months and my family joined in the lunacy of trying to flee. Why bother? Even the dog ran away. I can honestly say that I'm content with how my life turned out. I never dreamed of becoming something great. I had no goals, ideals, or a real connection to anybody. I was just waiting to die. I don't think I've ever been this happy before. I don't fear death itself, but I did fear that it would come to me at an inconvenient time. That factor of unpredictability has been removed; well, unless I die of a heart attack or something.
It's been a long wait, but I think it's time to hit the road. I'll be going to a nearby mountain. The very top offers a view of the horizon all the way around. The perfect spot for one last journey."
Denton was busy behind the kitchen stove, stirring a large pot of diced mushrooms in warm water. He'd been at it for awhile, ensuring that most of the chemicals were wrung from the stems and caps. Content with his work, he filtered the potent liquid through a fine screen and into a plastic pitcher before discarding the spent remains. He sealed it shut and slid the tea into his backpack after taking a few hearty swigs. The backpack's only other contents were a small pillow and a thin blanket to lay on.
The mountain's base was only a few miles away and Denton didn't even bother to close the door behind him when he left. It was late afternoon and the sky radiated an orange flush that cast a similar tint over everything. The comet's approach was evidenced by strange cloud formations that would have never occurred under Earth's normal conditions. An hour or so had already passed, but he wasn't in much of a hurry to reach his destination. The air seemed stagnant and everything was mute, as if the surrounding wildlife had also been made aware of looming disaster. Tree limbs bobbed up and down like they were waving goodbye to him.
A resounding hiss filled his ears and the road's texture appeared molten. Denton was lost in his own imagination, allowing dull feelings of regret to emerge before a car flew by and ripped him out of a trance-like state. A car. A car? He couldn't believe it; there was actually somebody else in this town! He wheeled around for a better look at the passing vehicle but saw nothing, heard nothing. The stretch of road was long enough that it couldn't possibly have left his field of vision so quickly. He contemplated this for what felt like hours before continuing.
Focus. A road sign appeared in his path and towered over him, jarring Denton enough to make him stumble back. The blood in his veins ran cold and a beating heart was all that he could hear through a pulsating veil of hisses and static. Focus! It was almost night and many stars were visible. Some slid back and forth with an unsettling rhythm, others vanished and reappeared at different spots in random intervals. Spidery veins of lightning sometimes flickered amidst a medley of clouds that refused to dim as the surrounding sky darkened.
A single drop of water struck his cheek, snapping Denton back to reality a second time and prompting him to start jogging. It seemed like the reality of being on a dying planet was beginning to sink in. The minutes rolled by as more and more droplets fell, heralding a steady downpour. Without realizing, he'd entered a full sprint while his mind raced even faster. Roadside trees clawed desperately at him from across the ditch as he passed, and a shallow current of water flowed against him. The taste of blood entered his mouth as he felt warm trails of it making their way down his neck and face despite the rain. Blood?
Denton steered left onto a gravel walkway that transitioned into a wooded uphill path at the mountain's base. Exhaustion took its toll, bringing him face-first to the ground before he could comprehend what happened. With a low groan, he sat up to get a better look at how filthy and wet he'd gotten. All clothing was dry, and with the exception of a few smudges of dirt, his face was devoid of blood but drenched in sweat. He fell to his back after taking off the pack and setting it aside, giving himself some time to gather wits before the last leg of his trip. The stars and clear sky taunted him as a reminder.
"Welcome to the rest of your life I s'pose."
Denton spoke to nobody in particular - nobody at all, as he sat down at its peak and took in a view that overlooked entire cities. Perfect. Most lights in the surrounding homes and scrapers were no longer on, offering an even better look at the starscape. He couldn't help noticing the glowing newcomer; its size rivaled the moon and it became larger still. Reflected sunlight gave rising luminance to the area. Plants and trees appeared ghostly and pale, casting shadows that snaked over the terrain and consumed others. Temperatures dropped, ushering in a perpetual boom of thunder loud enough to blot out all other sounds.
"Come and get it Frosty!"
Denton screamed at the top of his lungs to the advancing catastrophe, his rattling vocal cords the only indication of him actually yelling at all. Textures of the comet surface rapidly increased in size and clarity. A thin layer of ice formed over every surface in short order including Denton himself until movement in all but one of his feet, which twitched sporatically, was no longer possible. Discernable shapes were nulled by an all-encompassing white shroud. Existing only as thought, Denton pondered the last bit of brain activity he would experience. What would it be? What is everybody else doing right now? Did I just really call that comet Frosty? Those were some shitty last words. Who shot Kennedy? Damn.
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Chapter 2
Stride
"You okay there good buddy?" A woman kicked at Denton's foot repeatedly, shining a flashlight down on his face. He could barely make out a picture of her through the darkness once what was thought to be the comet's light had been moved away. Glasses, dark hair, a simple red hoodie, jeans, hiking boots, and a huge backpack of her own. "You looked like you were havin' a stroke or something. Who's Frosty?" Denton rose, using a skinny tree within reach to right himself.
"Yeah, I'm good. I think I'm good." The vividity of his dream made tuning back into the real world a chore.
"Hey, you're the dude I drove past earlier. Sorry I didn't stop and offer a ride or something. I had a ton of crap in my car." Denton ran a palm down his face and sniffled.
"It's cool, I like walking anyway. How long was I out of it?" The question earned a strange look from his new friend for obvious reasons.
"Couldn't tell ya. I just got here, bro." Denton grinned and waved a hand dismissively.
"My bad. I'm a little... well, out of it. Still."
"I don't blame you. So, headin' to the top?" Denton picked up his backpack and carefully slung it over one shoulder.
"Yep. Oh, I'm Denton by the way. Denton Howell if last names matter anymore."
"Sweet name. Chloe Gardner. I don't do handshakes." The two started making their way along the mountain path. Things didn't seem so daunting anymore, meaning he'd probably slept for a couple of hours before Chloe woke him.
"Sooo, hm. What made you decide to stick around? I thought I really was the only person in this area who didn't make a break for Aussieville." Denton asked after several minutes of awkward silence between the two.
"Not really sure. To be honest I'm fuckin' terrified, but too much of a wimp to kill myself and make it go away. I'm not a whack-o who thinks I'll go to Hell for doing it or anything, but I mean, why risk it? If taking a chunk of ice to the face keeps me away from eternal damnation, sign me up. Either way I'm dead."
"I never got the whole religious thing myself. It's like no matter how much evidence there is against it, there's always doubt. 'What if I'm wrong?' I wonder if Jesus freaks think the same about science. 'What if I'm wrong?' It all just seems so pointless. Having beliefs, I mean. Realistically, every belief ever conceived is probably wrong." Chloe stopped and shined the flashlight in Denton's face again.
"What if you're wrong?"
"Exactly! It's like, we don't know if anything we 'know' is really right. Everything's been made up 'til now. Words, gestures, concepts, names, whatever. We'll never know because we've built society on top of a fabricated foundation." Chloe shrugged and moved the light back down so the two could resume walking.
"You're a weird guy you know?"
"I guess it's the pot."
"What if you're wrong?" She murmured with an unseen grin as the two made sprawling steps over some fallen trees. "We're almost there. I know I'm not wrong about that."
"Yeah, my ears popped a minute ago."
"Mine too." Taller flora grew scarce as the amount of life able to subsist at a higher elevation declined. The landscape segued from timber to thick shrubs, and jagged rocks outlining their path displayed patches of moss. They broke into a clearing littered with trash from others who made visits. Chloe picked up an unfinished bottle of Sprite, tightened the cap and hurled it down the face of the mountain after taking a small sip. She listened intently until the sounds faded away in the distance. Behind her, Denton pulled the blanket from his backpack and laid it over a flat area.
The scene was even more impressive than what he saw in the dream. Clusters of galaxies were visible, with subtle tones of navy and the occasional glowing cloud adding to its awe. Most noticable was the comet itself, suspended in front of a seemingly endless trail that cut off at the opposing horizon. It looked as if the comet was actually making a detour to strike Earth instead of moving in a straight trajectory.
"You got the time?" He asked, setting the pillow down and making himself comfortable.
"Ummm... 1:16 AM." Chloe took her place next to him and stretched out.
"We'll haf'ta share a pillow if you didn't bring one."
"I'll manage." She responded passively over sounds of her fidgeting around in her bag.
"They estimated it would hit some time in the early morning, I guess around daybreak. Hard to believe. It looks so far away." Denton seemed to be speaking to himself, until Chloe broke the silence with a single word.
"Here." She nudged his hand with something cold and solid. A glass bottle? He couldn't make out its contents by the label without the flashlight, so he blindly took a sip after unscrewing the aluminum cap.
"Wine? Awesome. I didn't bring anything to drink besides this tea."
"Me likes me some tea. What kind?"
"Mushroom tea." His reply was met with a few seconds of pause.
"Oh, I get it. Neat." She took the pitcher from his hand and brought the opening to her mouth. "This is some straight up... man, are you sure you made it right?" She remarked with disgust and received a small, unseen shrug. They took turns drinking from it between sips of wine. "This makes you hallucinate, right?"
"Pretty much. It messed me up on the way here and I only had a little bit."
"Good way to kick off the end of days." Chloe added as Denton threw the empty pitcher to give the Sprite bottle some company. She placed her head on his chest and the two listened as the pitcher made its long descent. "Told you I'd manage." She spoke lowly. A long and quiet contemplation from both followed.
"Now for the fun part. Denton. Tell me about you." He stared straight up, trying to conjure the right words to start. His head was spinning a little and it wouldn't be long before the tea followed in suit.
"Painfully average. I was born here and I've never lived anywhere else. Only child. Didn't have any real issues growing up, and I got along with my parents just fine. I didn't excel in school but I knew enough to get by. Hm. I worked odd jobs after graduation until I got bored of them and spent whatever money that didn't help with bills on food, clothes, video games sometimes, going to the movies or mall with a couple of friends, drugs, whatever. I'm twenty, but I feel older because I didn't get caught up in other peoples' drama or pity myself. My averageness is the only about me that isn't really average. I feel like an outsider looking in and not somebody who's gotten carried away with life, if that makes any sense?"
"Pretty bland, not gonna lie. I don't think I could've dated someone like you. I like my men to have crippling social issues or something. You seem too well put-together for someone like me, who thrives on trying to fix people at the cost of my own sanity and wellbeing. It's so stupid. I can't believe I'm admitting that. It's always been who I am, just, I've never put it into words like that before. Even in my own head. Funny, that."
"What's your story?"
"I'm twenty-four and I keep to myself. Uh, I like getting drunk alone and watching corny chick flicks. My mom died giving birth to me and I was raised alone by my dad because he never remarried. I work, well, worked at the front desk of a nearby dental office. Boring job, but the pay was pretty okay. I was gonna go to medical school next year to be a doctor like he was."
"Was?"
"He died of a heart attack while trying to save a patient who was having, get this, a heart attack. Ain't that a bitch? He was always a loner, so I didn't have any family around. Just me and the pops. I wasn't that close to him though. I mean, yeah, he raised me and took care of me, but we just played our roles as father and daughter. We didn't keep in touch after I moved out, and I didn't even know he was dead until someone showed up at my door with a box of ashes."
"So. I'm boring, and you sound like something out of a depressing movie or an anime pilot. All you need now is to develop some cool power and receive assignments from an unseen force. Like saving the world from a comet."
"Asshole, I'd need something dramatic to happen for this power to awaken, don'cha know. And I don't see any muggings or near-death experiences in my immediate future unless you count that big drink chiller up there."
"Getting mugged by a comet would pretty much fuck your day up. Say, what if I pulled a knife and tried to cut your throat?"
"That'd piss me off a little. And I'm very good at aiming for the crotch."
"Just as well, I left my knife at home. Speaking of, that reminds me of something I saw one time."
"Saw what?"
"Well, my mom's really into vintage stuff. She has a projector in the basement, and shelf upon shelf of these old-ass film rolls. Some are just black and white home videos that my grandparents recorded and most of them are movies that never made it to the VHS era, but there was this one in particular..."
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Chapter 3
Sprint
The two ran aimlessly through near-total blackness with wrists locked firmly together, kicking up or crushing leaves and sticks loudly with each terrified bound. Every breath an agonizing ordeal and blood flowed freely from a growing number of cuts and bruises from tripping or running into things. How could it turn out like this? A peaceful outing in the woods and a happenstance meeting becoming an awful trial to extend their lives just a little bit more. Something captured her attention. The silhouette of what looked like an old shack through rows of shadowy trees.
"There!" She hissed, deathly afraid to raise her voice. Until now she was the one getting pulled around. Stumbling through the open entrance, the woman flung him inside and the two hunkered down into one of the corners. She lifted the material of her shirt to her mouth with the other hand to muffle her own panting. "I don't understand." She whispered upon being able to breathe somewhat normally again, vision blurred from the tears and sweat. "We were supposed to be the only two out here. Why couldn't we be?"
"I don't know. I don't know. I..." He muttered defeatedly, attempting to console by holding her close to him. He was cut off by the sound of twigs breaking on the other side of the wall directly behind. He knew she'd heard it too by the way her body tensed against his.
"I love you. I love you. I..." She mouthed repeatedly without exhaling. Were these words genuine or were they the frightened cries of a girl who had nobody else to say them to? He had little time to think on it before another noise petrified both. Something struck the wall loudly above their heads and slid to the ground.
Huddled for what seemed an eternity, certain their lives would be stolen any moment, hours passed and neither spoke a word. Traces of morning could be seen as dark blue lines through cracks in the old roof. It wasn't until thin beams of sunlight poured into the dusty room that he mustered the courage to stand up. Their hands hadn't separated since the whole ordeal started, and once on their feet, they creeped over to the doorway and peeked outside to see what the source of that noise was. From the glimpses they caught during the pursuit, the body before them was no doubt the man trying to hunt them down, who'd succeeded in all but making the kill.
"So, do you still love me?" He turned and asked, looking over the blemishes on their skin from the same disease that had sucked the life out of their attacker. It was an airborn bacteria that deteriorated the skin and let toxins into the bloodstream easily, overwhelming the immune system and killing within days. Most of Earth's population had already fallen to it, and because of its frequent mutation, no effective cure could be developed. Jeremy and Sharon were mutual friends of someone who'd arranged a camping trip in spite of everything going on, but the two hadn't actually met until yesterday. They hit it off immediately and separated from the group to get better acquainted.
The camping trip was a welcomed break from the daily panic of wondering when the disease would sweep their community. Little did they know an infected man whose inhabitions gave way to impulse would gun down everyone in sight. The screen faded to white and Sharon's answer was left a mystery. Is love proclaimed in the face of certain undoing genuine? Is it the only remaining way to obtain some semblance of closure? It's a pretty interesting movie. I mean, yeah, it's different from what's actually happening right now and wouldn't apply to everyone. But like us, they were left alone and faced with nobody else to spend their last day alive with.
"I still love you." Chloe startled herself awake by speaking on Sharon's behalf. She sat up, unaware of herself answering the question or that she'd been crying. She was immersed in Denton's description of the movie, so much so that she perceived being in Denton's basement and watching the film with him. His words permeated her subconcious at some point, making Chloe see and feel exactly what Sharon was going through. Even after knowing that it was imaginary, she could see a blank square of light imposed over part of the sky like a movie projector with no more film to roll, complete with flickering gray lines and sound. "So, what do you think Sharon said in the end?" Chloe asked, wiping away tears.
"Say what?" Denton asked, oblivious that the two were holding hands. "Who the hell's Sharon?"
"You know, the character in that movie."
"That was like an hour ago, doofus. There was no Sharon, or even any talking. It was a silent comedy about a mugger chasing after a guy and a girl through the whole thing and falling on his own knife at the end. It popped into my head when we joked about it earlier."
"Comedy? But, but there was a disease killing everyone, and she said she loved him because there was nobody else around and they were gonna die soon." Chloe leaned over him, with an utterly dumbfounded look. "Right?" Denton shook his head, looking no less dumbfounded himself.
She directed her stare outward and was met with visual hallucinations that couldn't be rationalized or blinked away. Shooting stars whirled around in circles before dispersing. Trees that were bigger than the tallest buildings rocked back and forth in the distance, not allowing themselves to be focused upon. Tendrils of light scrambled along the peripheral of her vision. The comet's tail drifted back and forth like a galactic serpent of sorts, and the sky quivered as if submerged beneath a thin veil of water. It appeared much closer, and at other times, much farther away.
The entire mountain was plummeting into an abyss. Chloe latched onto Denton for fear of being torn away by the imaginary force. "Hey, hey. Easy. It's okay. Nothing's happening. You with me? Chloe, hey, it's gonna be okay." The sensory overload was too much, and she started sobbing into him. Burning red eyes nearby and fixated themselves on the two. Denton hadn't the time to consider if it was a hallucination before the creature scampered away. Tiny streams of unknown matter crept over everything like a colony of ants, and unexplainable sounds echoed from every direction without decay.
"We gotta go, this is too much." Chloe was quick to agree, keeping a vice on Denton's hand and pulling him along, using her other to hold the flashlight. Overwhelming hysteria manifested itself as loud gasping and indistinct pleas that only gave Denton further motivation to maintain a cool head. They could no longer distinguish if what they were seeing and hearing was real or not. "Just focus on the path. Nothing else. Nothing else, Chloe." He could only imagine what the she was witnessing that he could not. Blades of grass twisted in agony once the Earth itself became self-aware, grabbing at them with stalks of dead plants and vines. Leaves rattled overhead as unseen creatures of the night gave chase by moving through the treetops.
Breaking away from Denton with a shriek of bloody murder, the flashlight was slung aside. A split-second decision of recovering their only light source at the risk of being separated, and so Denton's running pace remained unbroken. Worse still, is that Chloe wasn't the only one hearing it.
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Chapter 4
Falter
Absence of eyesight gave way to the inevitable, with Chloe taking a hard plunge over an exposed root and giving Denton time to crouch beside his stunned friend. Everything receeded in a moment of clarity. No longer was the landscape out to get them; only footsteps and metallic jingles of the one stalking them remained. Fear was mounting and Denton trembled with a melting pot of emotion, yet something kept him from crossing the boundary of total distress. Whatever it was could have dashed in and ripped his larynx out three times over. Instead it lingered outside his visual range and started to approach about the time Chloe pulled herself together enough to speak.
"I don't..." He shushed Chloe and set a hand on her shoulder. Denton wanted to believe something felt familiar and hoped more than anything that it was.
"Boozer? That you?" The shuffling hastened and a ferocious creature was in Denton's face before he knew what hit him - a barrage of licks and friendly snorts. "It's you! Chloe, it's my dog Boozer!" He laughed and ruffled the dog's fur playfully. "You scared the shit out of us you big fuzzy son of a bitch."
"Denton, I don't feel so..." Chloe doubled over and threw up several times, Denton holding Boozer by his chain collar to keep him from lapping it up. "Well, okay, I feel kinda better now. So that's your dog? I'll b'damned." She wiped her mouth and blew her nose off to the side. Hallucinations were still rampant, but not so scary anymore. They were actually becoming kind of pleasant to look at.
The reprieve crumbled away once Boozer growled at what were definitely human footsteps this time, accompanied by a spotlight. Against his better judgment, Denton kept the now barking dog at his side until whoever it was made their way out of the woods and shined on them. Chloe froze after seeing a shotgun raise and point its barrel right at Denton's head. A Browning BT-99? Denton's dad has one of those. Funny thing to think about while a stranger has one fixed on you.
"I heard screamin' a minute ago." A gruff looking man with white hair and matching beard spoke flatly with an unlit cigarette hanging from his lips.
"That was me, and we're fine, just high out of our minds and could you please put the gun down before it goes off?"
There was no sign of remorse or an empty apology, just compliance. "You kids wanna come back to the house? Get something to eat 'n watch TV?" He asked nonchalantly, striking a match and setting the cigarette's tip aglow.
"That's okay, we've got somewhere else we're trying to be at right now." Denton politely declined, helping Chloe up and keeping Boozer close. The visitor turned and walked away without further interaction, vanishing into the sea of trees. Odd. He released Boozer's collar and slid an arm around Chloe to help her balance once the three were alone.
"'Somewhere else we're trying to be at'? Lamest blow-off ever."
"TV stations quit broadcasting a few days ago so people would get out of their house and do shit. Remember?" Chloe shook her head a few times and tried pushing the bad scearios out.
"Let's just go to your house okay? Mine sucks and I so can't drive right now."
Making it down the gravel path entrance and onto the roadside, relief swept over the two. It was a straight shot to Denton's house now. Boozer seemed content to sniff around nearby, only occasionally wandering out of sight. Maybe he would return home this time. Neither of them spoke as they hobbled along, reflecting on everything that just happened. Morning was approaching and the pitch veil over everything weakened. Denton cleared his throat.
"I'm glad we met and stuff. Wish it didn't happen so late in the game though."
"Mhm."
He guided her up the cement steps of his home. Boozer laying near the front door, patiently waiting for his return. Denton twisted the knob and pushed it forward, but something kept him from entering as the door groaned and slid all the way open. He stood in place, hand raised and fingers positioned as if holding it. Something wasn't right. Boozer didn't share the same sentiment and let himself inside right away, with Chloe shifting her weight impatiently and giving him a curious look.
"Well? Are we gonna go in?"
"I left the door open. Why was it closed just now?"
"Dude, it was probably the wind or something. I'm chilly, let's just go."
"That can't be it. This door's hinges are loose and it would take a really hard gust of wind to make it close, because it would need to hit the wall inside and bounce back."
Chloe wasn't so easily pursuaded and nudged herself past him to get inside. Hesitantly, Denton stepped in and closed the door silently. It was the lack of a strong morning breeze making the trees hiss that allowed him to hear strange repetitive sounds coming from a room down the hall, making him take Chloe's hand again to get her attention. He looked her in the eye and placed a finger over his lips, then inched his way down the short hallway which now felt miles long. The noise was more distinct, and he then realized that it was Boozer drinking something. But that wasn't all of it, not anymore. Voices and laughter from what sounded like hundreds of people faded in and out - and Denton knew exactly what it was.
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Chapter 5
Repose
He pushed the door leading into the room where everything was coming from all the way open. What they saw didn't seem to register all the way. Boozer jerked his head away from what he was drinking to look at them. The white and gray fur around his face was now crimson, and bloody paw prints showed that the dog had walked a few circles around two corpses on the floor before he started to drink from a massive pool of the victims' blood. Denton's parents had a change of mind and came back home so they could spend their last moments as a whole family.
"What am I looking at?"
His voice was much more calm than it should have been, but the question earned no reply. Denton and Chloe stood side by side, frozen in time, while in the background, a stand-up comedy DVD recited a few jokes on loop. Clusters of bullet holes everywhere and a missing Browning that normally hung above the TV told him the story of what was unfolding. Something else got Boozer's attention and he trotted out of the room, huffing and grunting threateningly.
"Chloe."
Denton knelt down to pick up a blood-soaked cigarette butt that adhered loosely to the floor with Chloe still standing motionless behind him like a giant doll, eyes fixated on the screen. It wasn't the same brand of cigarettes that his dad smoked.
"Let's find out what Sharon's answer was. I think mom would like to know too."
He fished his dad's lighter out of the breast pocket of his shirt and walked over to the liquor cabinet next to the TV, grabbing the strongest one available. Chloe tuned back into what was going on after seeing Denton carefully pour it all over the room, doing so in a way that produced as little noise as possible. She brought her hands to her mouth and breathed heavily while Denton ushered her over to the window, being careful not to give themselves away if there was somebody right outside. Boozer's barking from the living room made both of them jump noticably, but it was an explosive gunshot and the horrifying squeals of a fatally wounded animal that made them spring into action.
"Don't you dare fucking run away from me now, okay? We got this. Wait for me right outside, Chloe."
Denton all but pushed her out of the window, which thankfully was only about four feet above the ground outside. As he moved to set the alcohol on fire, events leading up to now were beginning to make more sense. A second gunshot tore through the TV and almost knocked it off of the small table it perched on. His body jolted and made him drop the lighter, which he fumbled desperately to pick up as running footsteps closed in on him. It was too late.
He jumped to his feet and threw the empty glass bottle at one of the hallway's walls with all of the strength he could muster, then leaned his upper body forward to make himself lower to the ground as he charged at the doorway to meet his attacker head-on. He saw that was to be expected; the bearded man they met in the woods earlier had been tailing them for quite some time, apparently. Why he chose not to shoot them in the woods is a mystery that circumstances wouldn't allow to be explained.
The two made eye contact. In that instant, everything shifted into a feeling of a moving in slow motion. The diversion worked, as the shotgun was aimed away from the room Denton was in and towards where the bottle hit. Less than three yards from each other, the gap closed rapidly. Denton watched the barrel turn towards him at an agonizingly slow rate. Two more steps, that's all that's left. Rage and peril were things he'd never experienced, only seen portrayed over many books films. This was the real deal. Not even a shot to the heart would stop Denton from killing the son of a bitch.
With his final step, Denton leapt into the air with both arms extended, praying to any existing deity that he could get just one of his hands on that barrel. It was only when he was able to partially see down into it that the two made contact. A third boom rocked both of their ears at that exact moment. The force of Denton crashing into him sent the two airborn as a spray of blood instantly misted the bearded man's face. He knew he'd been hit, but the adrenaline didn't permit him to feel where just yet.
Staring down at him, Denton beared all of his weight forward and allowed his legs to flail upward in a partial somersault just before they struck the floor with a hard crash, with the back of the man's head taking the brunt of the impact. The momentum wasn't enough to flip Denton forward completely, making his legs instead slam into the floor behind him immediately afterward. There were no words. No thoughts. Not even a realization of when he'd started punching him in the face with everything he had. It wasn't a struggle anymore. Blood, teeth and fragments of skin started collecting on the floor and walls around them.
Punches were no longer enough. Denton's hands found their way around the man's neck, but strangulation wasn't an option either. Instead his fingers dug into flesh until most of his throat had simply been torn out. The taste of blood gave Denton pause, and his violent urge bowed out to the satisfaction knowing that his parents' killer was dead beyond a shadow of any doubt. It was like learning to breathe again as he struggled with sitting up, which triggered the sound of something scraping against the floor.
He fell onto his side, having been shot in the stomach and impaled through the right side of his chest because of the fall. The exit wounds on his back and the two inches of dull steel poking out in the middle of them couldn't be seen. Denton couldn't help but laugh. Looked like it was a tie. With some effort, he craned his head up to see if Boozer's corpse was anywhere in sight. All he saw were mistings of blood on the wall of the room that the dog was in, and his own breath in the increasingly frigid air.
"I'm pretty sure she still loved him after all of that."
Chloe's voice broke the lull that was pulling Denton away. He couldn't move his head to look up at her, but he could feel the occasional warm tear drop hit the side of his neck and her hand stroking his hair.
"I wish I would have talked to you sooner, Denton. I remember you now. I didn't notice because it was dark, but now I can see you clearly in this light. I used to see you around sometimes when you would hang outside the movie theatre with your friends because I went there a lot. I was going to wait until I saw you alone and strike up a conversation because the other people around made my nervous."
In his delirium, he failed to notice that things were getting brighter inside. His eyes snapped open after not realizing he'd even closed them, and Chloe was laying face to face in front of him. Her foggy breath mixed itself in with smoke that creeped out of the TV room. She pressed her forehead to his and rubbed their lips together with a sad affection.
"I promise I'm not gonna run away again, okay? Do you think you can stay with me just a little bit longer?"
She showed Denton the lighter and dropped it at about the same time that smoke started filling the hallway. His mouth opened very slowly to speak, freeing a small collection of blood that dribbled out at the same time. That was all he could do. Denton couldn't see or feel it at all, but he knew that Chloe was clutching both of his hands in hers and squeezing for dear life. She buried her face in his neck and breathed laborously, only turning away to cough.
"I love you now Denton. You don't have to say it back."
His only response was a very long sigh and a tired smile that wouldn't be going away.
"It's really cold in here."
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