Storm of the End: Book One

Chapter XIX.II: Dance With Death

Before long, we made it back into a more urban neighbourhood. By now, we had to be nearing the farthest edge of the west side of Crestland City. Hopefully, we'd make it safely around without having to get too close. I glanced at my watch; it was four thirty. We should probably start looking for a place to stay the night soon...

"Hey..." Jared started, "What is that?"

He was pointing ahead.

Lined up along both sides of the road, growing directly out of the concrete sidewalks, was a row of huge flowers.

"What are those?" Aaron asked.

I shrugged. Flowers were a complete rarity, in these times you'd only ever see a few in a government building or a rich person's place. And out of the very few flowers that I had seen before, they were never this big. I didn't know about any that could grow through concrete either...

"Oh! I know what those are!" Sarah said almost excitedly from the back, "Those are sunflowers!"

"Sunflowers?" Jared said, puzzled, "I've never heard of them... do they really just grow like that?"

Sarah shrugged, "Maybe, but I heard that they can actually move and follow the sun."

The rain pattered down hard on the sunflowers, making them vibrate with each drop. I stared at where they grew from the concrete. It was like they had punctured right through the concrete when they sprouted. Yeah... there was no way these things were normal.

"Kind of a weird spot for them to be... I don't trust this even the slightest bit," Jared said.

"Well, they can't be too dangerous on the sides like that. I'll just drive quickly past them through the middle of the road. If we get by them quickly I'm sure we'll be fine," I said as I drove the car to the middle of the road.

"Yeah... everyone get a knife ready, in case they try something..."

The idea almost made me laugh; I don't think anyone in any point of history ever thought they might have to fight a flower.

"Ugh, hey... do you guys smell that?" Sarah suddenly asked, pinching her nose. Aaron was pinching his nose too.

"Smell wh-" I asked, breathing in. I instantly regretted it. I just barely managed to choke back the gag reflex that I had upon smelling that absolutely pungent odour. It smelled like a skunk, feces, rotting corpses and sweat all blended together.

"Shit" Jared cursed as he coughed at the smell.

Did something or some things die around here? In any case, I was sure the smell was coming from behind us, so it didn't really matter. The sooner we got away from it, whatever it was, the better.

I had us lined up exactly in the middle. The sunflowers went on in a perfect row for as far as we could see.

"Everybody ready?" I asked, putting my foot on the gas pedal. They all nodded in response. I looked straight ahead, trying not to let the flowers freak me out too much, "Here we go."

I brought the pedal directly to the floor, and we went hurtling between the sunflowers down the middle of the road. I felt an uneasy knot form in my stomach as they turned to face us as we drove by them, and I winced, expecting an attack at any moment. But to my surprise, we drove between them undisturbed.

"Wait, stop! Look out!" Sarah shouted and I slammed on the brakes, causing us to hydroplane, twist and turn until we stopped just in front of a tree that was blocking the road.

"Oh hey, come on... you have got to be kidding..." Jared muttered, then cursed.

I felt a slight tinge of self depreciating humour mingling with my apprehension and surprise. I really don't think someone could make a more obvious trap if they tried.

No doubt, this was put here by some new monster, or maybe even humans trying to loot us. The second possibility was so mundane, that after everything we had seen it almost felt like that would be more unlikely than some flying humanoid elephant or some shit coming at us.

The tree really didn't look that heavy, but it was definitely too heavy to drive over, and it covered the entire road... we'd have no choice but to get out and move it, or turn back. But if we decided to turn back, the only way to turn was at least twenty minutes away and... it could have just been me, but I thought the smell was getting stronger.

"Should we... move it?" Sarah asked, the uncertainty palpable in her voice.

I stared hard at the log, then back at the flowers that were turned towards us like they were watching us. Shit, what do we do...

"Let's go back." I decided, "If we're not already screwed, whatever put that there is definitely coming for us the second we get out to move it..." I choked a little as a burst of wind brought the rotten smell our way.

"Let's get the hell out of here..." I heard Jared mutter as I started backing the van up, but I stopped when a sudden bellowing noise echoed from behind us. At first I thought it was a man shouting with excitement, but there was this gargling primal undertone to it that was definitely non-human. There wasn't much cause for doubt that it was coming from some fresh monstrosity. Maybe the source of that rotting smell...

Jared was out of the van instantly, rushing towards the tree and I was out right after him.

We both grabbed underneath the tree, just as another excited shout came from behind us, closer this time. Shit, the smell was really a lot worse outside... I glanced at the sunflowers ahead; they were already pointed directly at us. Though they had no eyes or anything of the sort, it really felt like they were watching us.

I shook my head, and took most of the weight of the tree, with Jared having one arm and all, but it actually wasn't that heavy. With a quick heave, we managed to move it enough for us to get by.

We coughed and gagged as the smell became absolutely overbearing, and tried not to breathe as we turned back to the van. I almost didn't notice the slight discrepancy ahead of us. Unnatural as it was, it was easy to miss in the dim grey lighting and constant rain.

Just a few feet ahead of us... there was an empty space in the downpour. The rain was pouring down hard all around us... except for that one spot. And it was just enough space to fit a particularly large, broad-shouldered man. But... there was nothing there. Just an empty space.

My body unconsciously moved forward as all my brain power was focused on trying to understand what the hell was in front of me, when... the blank space moved. I froze in place.