30 Year Explosion (12.3.06)

30 Year Explosion
By Justin Laird

In the past 30 years I have fought a war that no man should ever have to fight alone. I have watched friends become enemies and had to spill their blood for my own sake. As I sit here typing this I can’t even be sure it will ever be complete. They are here now. And they will be even nearer soon. They have to. I am all that’s left.
There are moments in history where when they happen you remember exactly where you were at that instant. I remember where I was. I was sitting in my car on the highway. My co-workers were in the car. There was four of us in that sedan. As we always were at 5:27 pm in the evening.
The sun had just gone down as we sat in traffic on the highway. We had decided to take the scenic route and so had everyone else. There was nothing for miles around us except trees. Thank God for those trees.
I can remember when the first explosion hit. Like a comet I watched it come screeching out of the sky and then collide with the earth just up ahead. Cars flew up into the air. Pavement too went flying. A large block of concrete came down in through the window of the car sitting next to us. Carol in the back screamed. I think we all screamed.
Then the second explosion came and it was followed by yet another. They were falling out of the sky and colliding with the Earth around us. We sat in that car petrified as all this happened. The dashboard shook violently with every blow. Rick had been holding coffee and didn’t notice that he had spilled it onto his lap. Both the vibrations and the blinding light of the erupting flames was entrancing. All until a fourth explosion whizzed into the highway ahead of us and flipped our car off the road.
As we were tossed through the air I remember losing my sense of location. I felt weightless in a void. But as the car came crashing down atop a tall foliage of trees all of this changed. With such a dense hedge of branches the tree was able to support the vehicle high up on the canopy of the forest neighboring the highway. A branch that had punched its way through the windshield was lodged into my headrest missing my face by mere centimeters. Rick in the back had not been so lucky. One of the branches had crashed through his window as well and the spray of glass has scarred and blinded his eyes. But I did not know that then.
All that I saw as the vehicle rested upside down atop the tree line was the highway below and the crater where our car had rested. The explosions had stopped and the smoke was beginning to clear. Unbuckling my seatbelt I came crashing down onto the roof. Spinning myself around I watched the scene below as people crawled out of their vehicles each as puzzled as I was.
I then heard a thud as Tom who was sitting in the passenger’s seat too unbuckled his seatbelt. But unlike me Tom was attending to the others in the car. Although my attention was diverted elsewhere I could here him reassure Rick as the poor man held his injured eyes. Carol had luckily not been injured save a bruise under her chin. Tom as he talked with the two in the backseat held his own arm which had been gashed by his own shattered window. My ear was bleeding and I ignored the throbbing pain of a welt on my cheek from where my head had crashed into the steering wheel. But like I said, I didn’t care for any of this.
Below was where the real action was. A mass of people had gathered around and were looking at something in the craters that had fallen. It was then that the smoke arose. It was very thin at first and I hardly noticed it due to the debris. But it had a green hue to it which is what truly gave it away as it started to accumulate. The people on the street too started to notice and it didn’t take long for the panic to then insure. Breathing in the toxin that had come from the skies people started suffocating and dropping down instantly dead. It was a truly horrible sight and all I could do was stare from my car. All I could do was stare as the vapor rose out of the craters and then drifted upward.
It was now that everyone else in the car had grown silent and they too were watching in horror. But no one watched for long because just as soon as the screams had began they too were silenced.
I can remember I jumped as Tom put his hand on my shoulder. He asked if I was alright and I told him I was. Pulling my gaze away from the sight below I turned my attention to those in the car. Carol, Rick, Tom, and myself then sat there in silence for a while before one of us spoke and we decided upon our course of action. We decided to stay in that tree until help arrived.
So for hours we sat and waited. The night grew darker and we each grew more impatient. We discussed all the possibilities of what had happened. I said aliens but Tom was sure that it was a terrorist plot. Carol said it was an act of war and Rick said nothing. Rick had not seen the lives of those on the street taken as they fell suffocating. He had only heard the brief screams and then nothing.
I tried turning on the radio but the car had been turned off during the explosion and we all feared turning it on in case the vehicle rattled during the process and we were dislodged from our perch. We had been lucky once and none of us wanted to risk that again. I had had my watch and that is why I know that at about 7:35 pm all of us became a little bit more adventurous.
Down on the street Tom was the first to spot movement. As he called our attention to it we all turned back to the highway and once again sat in silence. Sure enough the more that we watched and listened the more activity was beginning to stir below. Though we could only see shadows on the majority of the road, one car which had been overturned still had its lights on. In this spotlight I saw the first of the them.
The activity that we had seen we soon found was something that we all may have wished we had never seen. Luckily Rick only heard the gasp escape Carol’s lips. In the spotlight below we watched as the dead bodies of those that had suffocated slowly rose up from the concrete. It was something like a miracle to me a first. It then become a nightmare.
Dead only two hours before all the people on the street now were standing fully erect and firmly planted to the ground. As we watched Carol described the scene to Rick, who was speechless and clinging to every word. The impossible had happen. The dead had arisen.
But the night’s surprises were not over. Upon hearing seeing the sight before us Tom cursed under his breath. Trying to make sense of the situation he muttered to himself lowly. Rick thoroughly irritated by now by his inability to see was complaining for someone to make up their mind as to what to do.
Carol suggested that they go and aid those on the street. Tom agreed, but I think that he just wanted answers as quickly as possible. Rick concurred wanting to do anything but sit where he was in darkness. But the truth was we were all in darkness. It was night and something so bizarre had happened that none of us could see light. So I said nothing and just sat watched.
Tom then touched my shoulder again. I jumped so much from the freight that my elbow flew up and hit the horn. Like a screech the horn blared. All of us froze for a moment and then I turned and looked toward the street. What I saw was over one hundred eyes which had turned and now were looking my direction. I had doomed us all with my fear.
Turning simultaneously on a pivot from which ever direction they were facing the walking dead then marched toward our vehicle. Like an army in shadow they walked in-step with one another creating a thunderous sound with every foot fall. Hundreds of deceased drivers left their stations and now were making their way into the forest.
My heart froze at the sight and I felt Rick’s fist hit the back of my head. He was cursing and flailing in the backseat. Tom, like me, just sat and stared. Shaking her head Carol became like a broken record and just repeated the phrase, this isn’t happening, over and over again.
I watched as the black mass of hundreds of commuters based beneath the tree line and then listened as the stomping approached growing louder and louder. I felt Rick punch me again, this time in my back. I turned my head then as Tom opened his door and began to climb out. The car shook and I reached out to grab Tom in an attempt to stabilize the vehicle. Luckily the braches we strong because I missed Tom too late and he had already climbed up onto the upward belly of the car.
Called to action by Tom, Carol then instructed Rick in what he should do and then proceeded to climb out of the vehicle herself. Opening my own door I too made an attempt to escape the car. After helping Rick up by guiding him with my arm I then found myself resting on the belly of the sedan.
It was only now that we all were atop that we noticed that the marching sound had stopped. Looking out I saw that the horde of people had all frozen haven completely encircled our vehicle. But then a new sound arose. Like a low scratching I heard it and peered over the edge of the vehicle to see a few select of the undead had begun climbing the tree we were in. I told the others of my discovery and they too peered at the sight as well.
In a defensive action Tom tried to convince us to leap to another nearby tree, but none of us were willing to leave Rick behind who wouldn’t of been able to make the jump. Tom agreed and apologized to Rick. So once again we all sat and waited. We waited as the scratching grew louder.
Carol was the first to contact one of them as its arm came up over the edge of the car and grabbed her leg. It was then that I saw their eyes and their faces. The fog from the craters had turned their eyes green and their faces had become distorted. Their teeth had been enlarged and deformed. They had become animals.
Saving Carol, Tom kicked this first invader off via a swift boot to the face. The action shook the car and we all tensioned. Regaining our balance another one of the undead then arose over the edge of the overtuned car followed by another. With more grace this time, Tom kicked both of these parasites off as well and then watched as they fell to the ground. Rick who could not see was the first to be taken by them.
Opposite of where Tom was one of the climbers grabbed Rick by his wrist. I attempted to grab at Rick’s lapel but the clothing was fragile and tore. Tom seeing the sight then haphazardly dove across the car trying to save him. This rocked the car and despite both mine and Carol’s efforts to balance the vehicle with a loud snap the branch that had been supporting us broke.
Falling down to the ground I managed to leap off and grab hold of one of the branches. From there I watched as the car fell to the ground crashing its way through the tree’s limbs the whole way down. Carol too had managed to leap off and grab hold of a branch. Tom I saw was not so lucky. With a loud crash the car collided with the ground crushing a mass of the undead which had gathered at the base of the tree.
Danger was no where close to being overcome. The undead who had begun climbing the trees were now among me and Carol as we dangling onto our respectable branches. From my branch I then had to watch as Carol was attacked by these predators of the tree. She fended them off as best she could but in the end had to succumb. Exhausted and ravaged she let her grip slip and fell into the sea of faces below her. It was then that I learned the true nature of these beasts.
They were more animals then I could of ever known. I had to watch as these newly born creatures took the body of my dear friend Carol and fed upon her flesh. They were consuming her body and I was disgusted.
Having had their fill of her, and having had killed both Rick and Tom the demons of the vapor then turned their attention towards me. They scaled the tree and made their way toward my position. Many of them surrounded me and clawed at me. I felt the wind of their blows as their talon-like fingers reached out for me. But I was not to be had.
A bright light from the sky then rained down just as one of the creature’s palm was inches from my nose. In a spray of machine gun fire this creature then fell to the floor punctured full of holes. A helicopter of well-armed men had arrived and were leveling the forest with gun fire. Throwing down a rope I was then pulled up into this machine of destiny. This was the first time that I started to understand that a war had in fact begun.
That first night that I saw the explosions was 30 years ago. We have learned a lot since then. The explosions had in fact come from the outer reaches of space. Why, that question was never answered. But it had carried a gas with it that infected ¾ of Earth’s population turning them into ravenous animals. As I have called them: the undead. But what we also learned was that these creatures can not be killed.
Even those that have been torn to shreds or exploded always come back. That is why no matter how hard we have tried they have finally won. Today I write this because I am it. Despite all our efforts I sit alone in a bunker without another soul alive save me. They as of now are banging on the door trying to get at me. Attempting to convert me into what it is they are. But I still have one weapon.
Beside me now is a button. This button will launch 45 nuclear weapons across the Earth and strike highly strategic locations in order to disrupt the planet’s stability. Simply, with the push of this button the planet will explode. Its particles will fly millions of miles until they collide with another body. Pushing this button with end the infestation and be the end of humanity. So why do I write this. What else is there to do when you have 6.5 billion invincible undead beings banging at your door and the one button that can destroy the whole Earth is in your hands alone? Perhaps out of all else in the world this one piece of paper will survive. Perhaps maybe even I too will live to see this Earth survive. Perhaps not. Good bye and good luck.