Falling Darkness

Bat Blood

Falling Darkness: Bat Blood

            The blood dropped into the container and I watched the bat die. You can call me hardcore or whatever you want, but I didn’t shed no tears for this bat. Dumb bat reminded me of Rufus, sitting there dumb, seeing me there under it. But, I can’t say that I enjoyed watching it die. Watching its eyes lose their light. No, that’s not me. Despite what people may think now, that’s not me. I’m not a bomb, I’m not a monster. Or at least, not yet…

Chapter 1: Wildfires

            I couldn’t tell Tank. I just couldn’t. I told Doc to keep it a secret and surprisingly, he agreed. I haven’t heard a peep out of him.

            I quit my job. Well actually I kinda had to. I mean Darrel, my boss at The Broken Mug, wasn’t going to keep me much longer after hearing about the news anyway. I swear there was no sympathy in this town and news spread like a wildfire in California. Tank never went out so he’d never know unless Doc whispered it to him late one night while I was tucked into my bed. It became hard to trust anyone because people stopped trusting me, eyeing me with hands on weapons. I had never noticed that before, that the whole town carried weapons. Even the toddlers had some sort of weaponry.

            That’s how we knew they’d encountered crazies before, but my question was; where the fuck did they all go? I mean, my hometown is overrun by them and I’m sure lots of people still there carried weapons (if there were any normal people left). This thought pushed my mind to Mr. Hamburger, Tank’s dad, then back to Tank. And of course, with Tank came the memory of how close we had been to kissing that night and I could almost hear some eternal clock ticking inside of me, ebony and foreboding.

            Doc never said it but I could see it in his eyes. He felt the tension between Tank and I. He knew something had happened, that something was still happening. He knew it was major. I was grateful that he had enough sense and respect to not force it into the light. But he knew that Tank and I were on the verge of something: either a happy ending or a big breakup. And the thing was, I didn’t know which one I wanted more, or which one I dreaded more. They were both about equal.

            One day though, Doc sat down with me, his critical scientific eyes a stormy gray, but sharp. “Do you know how it feels?” he began, voice low. “I’ve lost everyone I’ve ever known and loved back in that godforsaken town. Bill, Tank’s father…” His voice caught and tears came to his eyes, making them smear with water. He shook his head, I knew that meant he couldn’t finish. Even more surprisingly, I squeezed his hand in a sign of comfort; I knew how it felt.

            He wiped at his eyes and continued, “My wife divorced me. She said she was tired of the science, said there was no ‘chemistry’ between us anymore. Said she’d break it down into words I’d understand, put it into legal papers I could read. Said ‘how’s that for science’. Dumb broad. She took my son with her. She won full custody. I couldn’t even see my son. I’d buried all my sorrows into science and medicine. Then Bill came along. I’d never loved a man before. But he…” He stopped again and surprisingly, I didn’t feel uncomfortable as I sat nearer to him, threw my arms around his shoulders and placed his head onto my chest. He was like a fragile child.

            “I knew he didn’t feel that. He didn’t feel the electricity, but I did, that’s all that matters. He came up with this plan, this plan to kill the crazies, to wipe them out because he thought they would grow stronger, smarter. He knew this was going to happen.”

            I felt a tear roll down my cheek. This was all filling my mind with Tank. “Never told me he had a son. Never told me it’d be his fucking suicide mission. So, I went along with it, I was star-struck, old, yes, but star-struck. He had planned all along to find his wife and kill her, specifically. I found his plans one day and we fought it out. But he was adamant. I didn’t think it’d come so soon… I didn’t think…” Now he sobbed and I gripped him tighter, stroking his gray hair. “No one’s ever loved me, no one ever will.”