Everything was suddenly quiet. There were no more sounds of the cool wind brushing past him. The sounds of the streets were no longer heard in the distance. All were replaced by a hollow quietness reverberating through Josh’s ears. The rats, the dancing papers, and the grime, had disappeared. A bright light shined from somewhere far above him illuminating at least eight feet around where he stood. He thought it might be a powerful street lamp but the light was so bright he couldn’t stare directly at it. Beyond where the light encircled him was nothing but pitch black.
He looked at his hands. The gun was gone. He looked around his feet, supposing he dropped it, but it was nowhere to be found. This was odd. The last thing he remembered was being in the alley. He felt his body as though he wondered if he were real, trying to comprehend what just happened. He slowly moved his hand to the back of his head where he thought the bullet should have come out. There was no hole, no wound. He looked around, peering into the pitch black confused about how he got here. Josh closed his eyes, rubbed his forehead, and sighed. He told himself to stay calm and think about this logically. He remembered pulling that trigger. He peered up at the light hoping its source would answer some questions but he couldn’t see a thing. It was a dumb idea, he was almost blinded. He looked away and blinked a few times trying to suppress the remnant spots he saw. When his eyes readjusted he looked around, it was still useless he couldn’t make out anything beyond what the light showed.
The quietness was unnerving and started to get to him. Again Josh tried to look at his situation logically. He looked down at his right hand remembering the gun that was once there. He remembered how it felt and the weight of it. He remembered feeling the barrel in his mouth, the tip knocked against his front tooth. He had pulled the trigger, he remembered doing that. But how did he make it in here? Someone could have heard the shot, come running, saw his body lying in the alley, and noticed he was still breathing. Being that the light was poor where he was, the person may have dragged Josh’s body into an empty nearby warehouse and patched him up. He had, on more than one occasion snuck, into a warehouse when the mission was full. He recalled the sounds the place made when all was quiet inside, similar to what he heard here. It would explain the large room and light overhead. Josh ran it through his hair again. It was the only explanation he could think of. He certainly didn’t feel dead. He was still breathing. He could feel his hair in his hand when he touched his head. The light hurt his eyes so that was normal. He looked down at himself. He was still wearing the clothes he had on that night, all the way down to his torn up leather shoes. What about the hole in his head that should’ve been there? Again he felt the back of his head, making sure not to mindlessly run his hand over it but inspect everything. He couldn’t feel any scar. Maybe the hole in his head wasn’t as large as he thought it should have been. Or, the gun could have jerked when he pulled the trigger causing the gun to angle crooked making him miss his head entirely. Of course, there always was the possibility the bullet never came out and would be forever lodged in his head.
Josh heard a very faint sound from somewhere far out in the darkness. He tried listening more intently. It almost sounded like someone screaming, but in the city there were all different types of screams. Drunken college students coming out of a bar and hollering at the tops of their lungs was one example. But it also meant there was someone else around and at least then he’d be able to get his bearings. Also, Josh might be able to convince a college student to buy him some booze, he sure needed it right now, his mouth was dry and he was starting to get fidgety. There was also the possibility the scream came from someone in distress. His short time on the streets had quickly taught him to stay out of other people’s business or else he might be the one doing the screaming. Josh weighed which scenario was more likely. He listened for the sound again. If he could pinpoint the direction it came from he’d know which way not to go. He thought he heard the sounds of someone crying. It was slight but it was there. He stretched his neck in the direction he thought it came. He heard nothing. Then it came again, the sound of someone sniveling. It was somewhere deep within the darkness to his left only he wasn’t sure how far away. Depending on the size of this warehouse the sounds could be coming from a few hundred feet away. If the conditions were right it could be coming from outside the warehouse. Josh wasn’t sure what to do now. It sounded further than three hundred feet to him.
“Hello!?” His voice echoed out into the darkness. It sounded like it went on forever. He hoped for a response.
Wherever he was, it was extremely large. Josh couldn’t recall any warehouse in the city this big. He looked around, his eyes sifting through the darkness trying to, by chance, see something, anything. Then he heard what sounded like claws scratching across a concrete floor behind him. He whipped his head in that direction. His heart beat a little faster. He thought he might have seen something. Josh thought it sounded like a rat, but it was far too large to be a normal city rat. Truth be known, Josh wasn’t sure. He didn’t want to find out either. He turned back around slowly ready to bolt out of there, if he caught a glimpse of whatever that was.
“Hello?” he was a little quieter this time, not sure what was going on, but even as modest as he tried to be, his voice sounded like it boomed in such a place.
Josh swallowed hard. He hoped he didn’t wake anything in there. His mind raced to the possibility of some kind of fouled up genetic monster that feeds off of humans like he’d seen in so many movies. As far-fetched as it sounded, right now Josh thought anything was possible. He looked around, listening intently to catch any kind of sound. He tried to force himself to calm down. He could hear his heartbeat thumping inside his chest. He held his breath a little hoping by doing so he could hear something. It was then, in one of the lulls, when Josh heard the sound of someone sobbing. He let out a breath then held it in again so he could get a better bearing on the sound. He heard it again. It was coming from in front of him. It was still distant but close enough that he might be able to walk to it. At least it was in the opposite direction from where the large rat was.
Josh gathered all his courage and began walking forward. Every sound he made was magnified, from the rubbing of his pant legs to the sound of his shoes striking the hard floor. Both made it difficult for him to hear the direction of the crying. He stopped periodically to be sure he was going in the right direction, and then continued on. This stop and go technique made for a very slow progress. Anticipating getting some answers he stepped up his pace a little, almost jogging now but still trying to step quietly. If it was in fact someone crying, Josh didn’t want to disturb the person who made them cry. That other person could still be out there somewhere. Josh had to stop a few more times to get his bearings but eventually the sobbing became more distinct. He no longer had to hold his breath in order to hear the direction it was coming from. The closer he got the less he had to stop, but the distance he’d gone so far was further than he’d expected to go. He wondered if this was really a warehouse, he was having his doubts. A low cry brought Josh back to what he was doing. He was close enough it sounded like it came from a woman. Curious and concerned, he kept moving forward.
Several more feet and out of the darkness Josh could see a grayish-white outline of what looked like another person. They looked like they might be in some kind of pain, crouched low to the ground with their hands covering their face. For a moment Josh was glad, not that the person was crying, but that the sounds were coming from another human being. Someone he could ask questions. Maybe the same person who brought him here brought them here as well. He moved closer, stopping briefly when he noticed the figure was entirely naked. Then he was sure the person was a woman. She was pale, sickly pale, and glistening with sweat. Her feet were black from the dust of the floor. Her long brunette hair was matted to her back and arms. It looked as though she hadn’t bathed for months. Josh suspected she was homeless like he was. He was embarrassed to continue. He wasn’t sure how she came to be naked but assumed the worst. Althou
gh he knew this was the worst time to ask, he had to know if she could tell him where they were and who brought them here.
“Hello?” his pitch and tone was calm, filled with concern, not wanting to stir up anything he shouldn’t.
She didn’t answer. The woman kept crying softly in her hands, either she didn’t hear him or didn’t want to hear him. Josh imagined someone grabbing her off the street, bringing her here, and forcing her to do awful things. She may have been the one screaming earlier. He moved closer, hoping whoever did this to her wasn’t waiting somewhere in the darkness to attack him too. She looked so frail and utterly broken. Josh was near enough he knew he could at least reach her with his hand. He stretched his arm out to gently touch her shoulder with his hand. His fingertips barely felt the dampness of her pasty skin when she backed away screaming at him as she did.
“NOOO!!”
Immensely frightened she quickly moved away from him. Whether or not she thought he’d attack her was unclear to Josh, she barely even looked at him. Crouching low to the ground as if in submission she crawled away on all fours, still screaming as loud as she could. “NOOO!!” The echo of it reverberated in his ears.
“Wait!” Josh tried to reason, “I won’t hurt you! I just wanna talk.”
The woman was far too frightened to hear anything he had to say. She disappeared into the darkness leaving Josh standing there dumbfounded, listening as her screams trailed off the further she got from him. But then they too faded away and everything was quiet again. Josh stared in the direction she went wondering what could have happened to make her that way and whether or not he should follow. He couldn’t see a thing and now he was alone again. He stood there in the light wondering what to do now. The quietness bothered him more than it had the first time. He hated to think he was alone, with no one to interact with and nothing to do. And then, when he really tried, he could hear the woman sobbing again, somewhere far off in the distance.
“What is this place?” he thought to himself.
To his right he heard what sounded like that giant rat scurrying across concrete. He looked quickly but saw nothing in the dark. He looked at the ground. It was hard but it didn’t look like a concrete floor, it looked more like solid rock. He scooted the bottom of his foot across the floor. There was a charred black dust covering it, some of which managed to cling to his brown shoes. Must have been what was all over that woman. He heard wings flapping to his left. He looked and thought he saw a large bat, really large. His heart beat faster. He couldn’t see anything. There could be a number of things out there in the darkness watching him and he’d never know. He was breathing heavily now. He swallowed hard. What would he do if something attacked him? He had no weapon and he wasn’t sure how to fight large rats and bats. He looked around trying to find something that would give him a way out. He looked up and started hating the light. It was like a large spotlight putting him on display, letting everything know he was here. He wish it was out, he wish he could leave.
Then he heard what sounded like a flame on an old gas furnace igniting. Josh wasn’t sure the direction of the sound. It seemed to be coming from all around him. An orange glow shimmered from behind him, reflecting off the back of his neck and red hair. The light quickly grew brighter. He could feel the heat on his skin even before he turned around. He whipped his head around to see the darkness being engulfed by a massive flame rolling towards him like a large scroll. It was so immense it appeared to reach at least three stories high and stretched so far to the left and right that he couldn’t see either end. Josh turned in the opposite direction and ran as fast as he could, hoping by some miracle he could outrun this monstrous thing moving at far greater speeds than he could. He hoped somewhere ahead of him he could find something to shield him from the blast of heat and fire. A boulder, a crevice, just a simple depression in the ground would suffice to somehow ease the force coming at him. He took long strides with each step, his legs ached and burned, his side developed a sharp pain jabbing at his gut, and he gasped for each breath. He was definitely out of shape, but wasn’t going to let that be the cause of his burning to death. He tried not to think what it would feel like. He didn’t want to think about how he might not die right away but suffer while his skin and insides boiled. Just the thought of it made him run even harder, far past the point where he would have normally collapsed from exhaustion.
He could feel the flame closing in. The heat penetrated his coat and shirt, going straight to his skin. He threw off the coat, worried it would just weigh him down. Josh gritted his teeth and forced his body to endure more. There had to be something at the end of this place, but it just kept going without a thing to hide or shelter him. Even with the fire lighting far ahead of him he saw no end, nor was there still anything to his right or left. Josh knew this wasn’t any warehouse. There were no buildings this large. As far as he had run any real warehouse would have ended by now. There was nothing ahead of him but darkness, and nothing behind but certain pain. So, he ran. But it wasn’t fast enough. The massive flame easily rolled over him smothering him with an inescapable and indescribable heat. His clothes burned to his skin even before the fire reached them, they disintegrated the moment they came in contact with the flames. Josh ground his teeth one moment and screamed from the unbearable pain in another, but the noise from the flames drowned his voice so that even he could barely hear himself. He could smell burnt hair and sulfur. He could feel the skin on his back and head bubbling. The skin on his arms too began to boil but weren’t being consumed the way his clothes had. He had hoped it would. At least then he’d know he’d be dead soon and the pain would be over. But this…was something different. Josh fell hard to his knees, gnashing his teeth so hard his gums, charred and dried by the intense heat, split open. The flames were unrelenting. He felt like it would never end. And then, all at once, the fire disappeared into the air leaving Josh kneeling on the ground, naked, clasping his bald head in his hands.
Chapter 3