"See-Thru"
**Warning: Graphic Violence and Foul Language**
READ AT YOUR OWN RISK
“There are so many, Tess,” Lidda gulped, reaching for my
hand.
“It’s ok, Lidda. They may not want to hurt us. They might
just be checking us out.”
“I don’t want to wait and find out.”
“Come on,” I grabbed her by the hand and led her down the
other side of the hill and into the woods.
We set off in a run through the forest, scratching our arms
all to hell and only stopping to untangle our clothes from the thick brambles.
I knew we would hit a road sooner or later if we kept going in the same
direction, so we pushed forward without speaking.
Pop. A See-Thru appeared in front of me like a wall, and I burrowed
through it with the horrible sliding sensation of passing through something
thicker than water.
Pop. Pop. Two more waited for me on the other side. I tried
going between them instead of passing through, but traded slime for thorns and
scratches. Lidda met me with an outstretched hand to grab ahold of. I took it,
and she yanked me from the patch of thorns, leaving my skin behind.
Pop… Pop… Pop… the sounds continued all around us. Everywhere
we turned in the forest, more See-thrus awaited. They were faster than we were,
with their ability to appear wherever their faded consciousness desired. We
hopped over a fallen tree, and darted through an opening, only to be cut off by
another “Pop” sound and the appearance of a red-eyed shadow. We fell through
the See-thru before we could avoid it. Cold, tingly, wet, and sick all
described how I felt, but I couldn’t dwell on it. All I really knew of
See-thrus was what I had heard, which wasn’t much. This was my first real
interaction with one, other than the times I’d seen them from afar, and now I
was getting a first-hand look at a cluster-fuck of them. I wasn’t exactly
excited about it. I imagined Lidda felt the same. This was one big day of shit
for us, and we needed to catch a break. We fell over the next fallen tree. This
time, it wasn’t as easy to get up.
Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.
“What do you want?” I shouted into the air in complete
frustration. I couldn’t count all of the red eyes now. They floated in a
semi-organized circle around us; their bodiless forms shifting with each lift
in the breeze.
There was no answer, but I hadn’t expected one. See-thrus
can’t speak, but they can definitely express themselves in other ways. Usually,
they were sort of malevolent, but sometimes they were really fucking mad that
they were still stuck here. I had a feeling that these were the second kind,
based on the creepy coordinated surround tactics. This sort of thing was
unheard of. Usually they stayed to themselves or haunted a living relative or
friend, but I hadn’t seen a lot of graveyards since the world changed. Maybe
this was a regular kind of thing, for the late bloomers or the ones that had no
family to cling to. My mind was whirling.
Lidda backed up to me, pulling out her kitchen knife in a
defensive gesture. Back-to-back we faced the surrounding spirits, slowly stepping
in a circle in unison. It was a subconscious gesture in an attempt to confront
all of the see-thrus at the same time. It didn’t work. There were too many for
us to see them all at once, and they kept popping in and out of our view at
random.
After a few minutes of the same, my legs began to tire from
the tension in my stance. I knew Lidda was going to be feeling it soon if not
already. We wouldn’t be able to keep this defensive stance up for much longer. The
popping in and out of existence had seemed to slow from a regular sound, to one
that came only every few seconds. I was twisting my mind around and over the fact
that these see-thrus were working together and wondering what it all could
mean. As my mind wandered in circles, a collective sigh rose from the surrounding
spirits, breaking me from my thoughts with a snap like a cracked bone. All
outside sounds seemed to fade away as the loud breathy cry rang out from the
see-thrus. They weren’t supposed to be able to make any noise, not even a
breath. I held my own without realizing I was doing it.
“Fuck this,” Lidda shouted in her most annoyed voice, which
I knew meant that she was truly afraid. I could feel her body shaking slightly
through her spine as she pressed her back more closely to mine. She grabbed a
tight hold onto my wrist, and the next bit happened in flurry of motion. I heard
a pop, then I felt a hard tug on my wrist as I was yanked violently around. There
was an opening in the circle of see-thrus and Lidda was dragging me at full
speed through the short break in their ranks.
We fucking ran like our lives depended on it, and they
probably did. Speed was our only friend tonight, and we used the shit out of it
until it didn’t like us anymore. My leg muscles burned and my feet felt like
they were sinking further into the soil with each step, but we didn’t dare slow
down. We fell out onto the blacktop with the last stores of our energy running
out. I scraped my elbows badly when I hit the pavement, and tore a hole in the
front of my jeans. The night wasn’t looking up.
I rolled over onto my butt, trying not to whimper at my
burning elbows. As if to remind me of its existence, the bite on my neck began
stinging from my own sweat. Whoever said that you could only hurt in one place at
a time was a fucking liar. I hurt everywhere. Three feet from where I sat, Lidda
wasn’t faring any better than me. Her right forearm was skinned from palm to
elbow, and she was actively bleeding onto the asphalt.
After we spent a few moments silently crying and cursing the
night, I pulled a bottle of alcohol from my pack and poured it over Lidda’s arm
before she had a chance to realize what I was up to. She actually tried to bite
me.
I gave her a minute to recover, and I handed her the bottle,
gesturing to my own wounds. She grinned viciously as she snatched the bottle
from me.
“Burn, bitch,” she giggled, pouring alcohol on my open
flesh. I gritted my teeth together in pain.
We each whimpered a little more, and I wrapped some gauze
around her arm. She put a Band-Aid on my elbow and we bumped fists.
“Two badass bitches,” I smirked.
She grinned, and pretended like she was shooting a gun while
holding her hand sideways.
“Boom, boom, boom,” she said.
I shook my head at her, and we started walking again.
“What a crazy fucking day, right?” she said, walking
backwards to face me while she talked.
“Yep,” I said, “sure as hell was.”
“Those see-thru bastards, man. Seriously, what the fuck just
happened?”
“I have no clue.”
“I didn’t think they could talk to anybody, not even each
other. I mean, what the hell?”
“My mind is just as blown as yours is, Lids. It was like
they wanted something from us.”
“Well, whatever. That was totes creepy.”
“Fo sho,” I said as light-heartedly as I could manage,
forcing a smile.
Lidda grinned brightly, “You gonna teach me how to shoot
that Glock sometime?”
“Really?” I said sarcastically, “You’re so gangsta, Lids.
You sure that kind of thing doesn’t come natural for you?”
“It prolly does, gurl. I’d just be letting you pretend to
teach me so you can feel good about yourself.”
“Smartass,” I grumbled, but I wasn’t actually mad at her. I
was glad she was in a good mood.
“So, Tess,” Lidda said, kicking a rock across the pavement.
“Yes…” I raised an eyebrow at her, waiting for some stupid
comment to be vomited from her mouth.
“Which would you rather be, a clinger, or a see-thru?”
I had to think about it. Then I said, “I guess a see-thru,
because it seems more likely that I’d still get to act like myself that way.
Like I wouldn’t be completely lost to the need to feed, you know. Plus,
clingers are super fucking gross.”
She nodded her head, “Good answer. Solid.”
“What about you?” I asked.
“Neither,” she replied.
“I didn’t know that was an option.”
“Well you just told me it was.”
“Look, Lidda, we don’t even know if that stuff works, or how
it works. There might be side effects. Even if it does what Coyote said it
does, it may take years for the kinks to get worked out. We may not live to see
it ever work.”
“Then what’s the point?”
“If it can help people, even a hundred years from now, then
we have to make that happen.”
“Why don’t we just take it for ourselves? There’s gotta be
enough for the both of us. Then we could move on and it wouldn’t fucking matter
anymore.”
“I’ve thought about it, trust me, but that wouldn’t be fair
to the rest of the survivors. What about all the little kids that have nothing
to grow up for, just to die and turn into a clinger, or a see-thru. It’s
bullshit. I don’t want that for any kids I might have.”
“You want kids? I didn’t know that about you.”
“Well not right now. Jesus. I just mean, you know, like a
billion years from now or something. When I really do lose my mind.”
“Fine, I’ll help you do this for your
future-maybe-someday-kids,” she grinned.
“Thanks, Lidda,” I said, putting my arm across her shoulder,
“you’re a good starter kid.”
She tried to shove me off, smiling, but I squeezed her
tighter. We walked on in the moonlight with my arm over her shoulder. She was
the closest thing to a little sister I had ever had, and I loved her like one.
She even kind of looked like me. That was why I stepped in front of her when
the armed men marched out of the woods onto the street in front of us.
“We can’t catch a break today, Lids,” I groaned.
“You want me to get your Glock out?”
“Not unless you want them to shoot us right now.”
“K, I’ll wait then,” she whispered as one of the men
approached us.
“Hands up!” he barked.
We raised our hands like good girls. The man kept the gun
pointed at us as two other men took our backpacks and pointed guns into our
backs.
“Here we go,” I said to Lidda.
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