I wasn't quite sure which category to submit this under. I was guessing sci-fi though it could also fall under interracial or maybe even romance. Anyway, I hope those who have enjoyed and read my previous material will continue their kind support and suggestions.
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"No! No! For God's sake somebody help me!!!!"
"Oh God!" Kumiko screamed.
"Don't look back!" Tyler yelled at her as he pulled the terrified woman along behind him, "Run! Don't listen! Just RUN!"
The scream spiked through the air and echoed through the empty city streets. It was a scream beyond agony and fear, enough to freeze the heart and bleach the soul. Not so much a scream of physical pain. It was the sound of a life knowing it was coming to an end. Worse, it was a life that was not prepared to end.
But there wasn't a damn thing anybody could do about it.
"AAAAHHHHG!!!"
Another one gone.
"Run, Kumiko!" Tyler gasped, his own lungs bursting, his own throat raw, "RUN!!!"
The screams happened less frequently these days. Maybe half a dozen or so every hour --- 24 hours a day. It's simple logic as a species nears extinction: Less of those to hunt, less of those to scream.
Ironically, when the minute the genocide of the human species had started just a scant 3 weeks ago, the elimination of millions, billions, of people at the same time was much more silent and serene. The mesmerized multitudes had stumbled outside, crowding the streets and looked up into the sky. Whether it was daytime or night, whether they were in the frozen arctic or standing on the warm soils of the human birthplace in Africa, everyone saw the same thing: The Light. It quashed the light of the sun, blocked out the moon, so bright and beautiful yet it could be looked upon with uncovered eyes. At one point solid white then the next an ebb and flow of millions of colours, it was like a living entity singing its siren song to the masses. The people looked at it with reverence rather than fear. You could understand those who thought God had finally come again.
But if it was the Creator, God had not only come again, he was calling --- everyone. Now.
The Light came down from the sky and descended on the masses, enveloping them like a glowing blanket around a child. Then it started to absorb the people. Each person felt cold fingers claw at their soul. The people shuddered. God or not, suddenly people realized they weren't ready to go. A singular cry from the people across the planet, like the start of a prayer chant, barely registered as a hum as it was cut off instantly.
Then they were gone.
The world was a quiet place. Those who had evaded the initial surge, staying indoors or covered and away from the clutches of the Light, soon filled the silence with their cries of terror.
In the first few hours, many of the remnants of humanity unwittingly stumbled out onto the desolate streets and open fields, a chilling sense of curiosity drawing them out. Within moments, sharp beams of the Light shot down and picked off the individuals like ripe, juicy peaches from a tree.
It had cast its net wide at first to catch most of the fish. Then hundreds of focused beams stabbed down to pick off thousands more. Eventually it settled as a single sporadic beam, appearing then disappearing with a sick, casual deliberateness as it snatched away its dwindling prey. Like the devil boy with a magnifying glass zapping the ants that scurry at his feet, it was having some sport.
Those inside who saw the Light take away friends, family, strangers in the distance and two feet away screamed in horror and confusion. A state of panic is a poor classroom when it comes to learning a vital lesson. For days, the lost and disoriented continued to go outside, easy targets. You could go outside, but you had to run, always be on the move.
So people learned to stay inside when they could.
But the Light was learning as well.
*************
Kumiko and Tyler rounded a corner in the department store. They threw themselves behind a row of refrigerators and sat down for a moment to regain their breaths. Only for a moment. Their gasping and coughing for breath replaced their panic for the time being. Kumiko was trembling and numb but as her breathing eased she winced at the pain in her wrist and hand. It was purplish-red just above where the younger man was squeezing it tight with his hand. Tyler looked at her and finally managed to pry his own stiff fingers off.
"Sorry," he said, his voice hushed.
Kumiko shook her head slightly, offering something that could maybe pass for a smile these days. She rubbed her wrist, felt the blood flow back.
The two stared at each other in silence for a minute. Then, the woman's dark eyes shifted to the left sending a silent signal to the man.
"Is it...?" she began to say.
"Shh," he raised his finger to his lips.
Slowly Tyler rolled to his knees and slipped towards the edge of the row of refrigerators. Holding his breath, he peered slowly around the corner, his grey-blue eyes wide open and alert.
The lights were off in the store, only some late day sunlight illuminating the interior. Tyler had a clear view for about 30 feet down the aisle. He swallowed softly but deeply when he saw it creep in from a connecting aisle.
The Light pulled itself along the floor, slowly, deliberately like a corpse dragging itself from the grave. It was bright like fire, but Tyler could feel its icy cloak from where he was hiding. It was more than just silent. It was sucking the sound from the air.
As Tyler continued to watch it move along down the aisle, Kumiko leaned over him and took a peek for herself. She had never known anything so relentless, so unforgiving in its quest. Though she knew what it did, staring at its slithering determination, her breath continued to steady. The Light, was impossibly mesmerizing.
It continued to move inch by inch along the tiled floor as the two watched. Then it did something they were praying it wouldn't do, though they had seen it do it so many times already. It stopped moving. Kumiko and Tyler's hearts fluttered to a stop and they held their breaths.
The Light began to bend. Like a snake, it slinked and spilled to it's left, angling around the aisle corner towards the two terrified figures behind the refrigerators.
"No," Kumiko gasped, her heart suddenly beginning to race.
Instantly, as the man had done so often since circumstances had linked them together, Tyler went into protect mode and swept Kumiko into his arms and pulled her down. His large frame covered her as the two tried to meld themselves against the refrigerators. His strong arms held her tight against his chest, her face buried against his forearm. They matched heartbeats, a rapid fire rhythm.
He had done this so many times in the little while they had known one another. He was holding her more closely than any man had done so in such a long time. Kumiko knew that this gesture from the young man would mean little against the predator they were facing. Yet somehow, it comforted her. In the hell that she was living in, his arms were like an angel's wings.
Tyler's free hand brushed at her dark hair. He hoped it helped steady her. It definitely eased his own anxieties. He didn't know how long he would have lasted if he had been alone all this time.
They didn't have to look, they knew it was coming. He felt the woman start to tremble in his arms, her face sniffling in fright into his sweater sleeve. He squeezed his eyes tight, trying to will some courage into her, praying that he could muster up some for himself. It was no use.
Kimiko felt him pull back then she felt his large, warm hands wrap against the side of her face. With an impossible gentleness, he lifted her face to look up at his. Her eyes were red but she managed to gaze steadily into his. That's what he wanted .
"Just focus on me," his eyes said to hers in silence.
She looked at him. God he was so young. The thought of such a promising life being snuffed out in this way twisted her gut. But still, like they had done so often in the last few weeks, they somehow found solace in each other.
Their faces came close to one another, eyes never parting. Their foreheads touched. Kumiko's heart was still racing but for a moment, she realized it wasn't because of the terror that filled her.
"Tyler --" she gasped.
"Get away! No! Oh Jesus!" a voice shouted from the distant end of the department store.
Tyler and Kumiko looked up. Still holding her back, he again stole a peek around the refrigerators. The Light had resumed its original course, stretching straight ahead across the aisle.
"God! Please! NO!" the anxious cries of an unseen horrified soul echoed through the building. The sound of boxes and falling merchandise and scrambling footsteps mingled with the desperate screams.
As the Light bared down on its new prey, the man and woman cowering behind the refrigerators stood up and made a break for the emergency stairs.
They ran, hand in hand, eyes stabbing straight ahead. They didn't look back.
"NO! WHY? WHY?! NOOOOOOOO!!!"
They told themselves that they never heard the screams as the stairwell doors closed behind them.
***********
Tyler and Kumiko had been running in fear for 3 weeks. Sneaking through the deserted buildings and empty streets of an empty city, they were rarely ever more than a few feet apart. They had long ago stopped asking questions and seeking answers. The Light appeared. People disappeared, maybe stolen away, maybe killed. Who knew? Running inside or outside made no difference as the Light learned to bleed into even the most airtight of confinements. Those simple realities that had confronted them were enough to keep them moving, aimlessly, without direction, always away from the Light.
They only stopped when they were near delirium with hunger or thirst. Running through the rain or stopping to run a tap over their heads was the closest thing to bathing. When one slept, the other stayed awake, holding close their fugitive partner. Always in step with one another, hand-in-hand, alternating the lead, they seemed bound by an invisible length of rope.
Feet pounding the sidewalk floor they skittered around a corner. Kumiko slipped and would have likely tumbled onto the concrete if Tyler hadn't had such a grip on her. Swiftly, the young man effortlessly propped her up even before her knee skimmed the ground. Still, just as he stopped to lean her up against the wall, the demure woman collapsed to the ground, exhausted.
"No, no, Kumiko," Tyler gasped, "Come on. Please, you gotta get up!"
The woman was trembling, her head hanging low and shaking side to side. "No more," she pleaded softly.
Tyler looked around him. About half a kilometre away, the next block over, a metre-wide beam of the Light punctured through the gray of the evening sky and scanned the ground below.
"We can't stop here," he urged her on, his hands on her shoulders, "We've got to keep moving."
She remained slumped over, her head hanging low. He couldn't see her eyes. He needed to see them.
"K-Kumiko?" he said then swallowed. It was all he could say, his voice already quivering.
