Hollow city

            The city was dark, mist lingered over everything and the light from the street lamps bounced off the fog and gave the whole city an eerie feel. Jake held still, he heard the distant sound of footsteps, then a scream and gunfire. The city had gone to hell and it was everyone for themselves. It started on Halloween night. There was the usual trick or treaters, loud parties and everyone was wearing a costume.

 Jake was on his way to his friends how to attend a small party of friends of friends. He wasn’t too excited because he only knew the one, Bill. He didn’t know Bill’s friends so he hoped it wouldn’t be awkward. Jake was dressed as a private eye from the old detective movies. Someone thought he was dressed as a pimp, this comment made Jake’s soul hurt.

            Once he arrived at the party he tried to mingle and not be the awkward stranger in the corner. The small one bedroom apartment was packed with people. The hardwood floor creaked as the group of strangers shuffled back and forth from the kitchen to the living room. “please tell me you have beer” Jake whispered to Bill. Bill just smiled, nodded then pointed to the kitchen. Jake did the awkward “Sorry for pushing past you but I need to get to the other room” Shuffle. Jake didn’t usually drink, but in situations like this, he usually had to have at least one bear before he could go out of his way to start talking to people.

            The night moved along and everything was fine. Then an explosion went off somewhere in the city. “Someone lighting fireworks?” asked one of the party members. Then the building rocked and shook. Everyone had to grab onto something so they wouldn’t get knocked over. Jake looked outside and saw thick fog roll in. the streets were empty and besides that one explosion, everything was silent. Then another explosion could be heard. It was certainly not fireworks. Jake moved past the crowd of people and walked down the stairs and outside into the cool night air. He needed to see what was happening, he didn’t know why but he just felt the urge to investigate. “Just because your dressed like a detective doesn’t mean you ARE a detective” He told himself. Still he was curious and if someone was hurt after an explosion it is important that someone be around to help out, in case the police or an ambulance hasn’t shown up.

            Jake walked toward the sound of the two explosions. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw it. Before he could get anywhere near the explosion area, a tall slender man confronted him. Using the word ‘man’ loosely because this thing was man shaped but its skin was sickly pale with a green tint. It didn’t have eyes or a nose, just a large mouth full of rows of teeth. The slender man seemed to be wearing a suit, which was a weird choice for a monster. The creature lift his arm up and reached his hand out to Jake. The hand was slender, but bent weirdly and had long fingers with sharp claw like tips. Jake felt paralyzed with fear and the slender creature slowly walked toward Jake. It’s hideous mouth curved upward like a smile as he got closer and closer. Soon the slender man was just within reaching distance, it’s fingertips just barely touching Jake’s face. A shot rang out and the slender being stopped moving. It reached up to its chest and felt a hole. Someone shot the slender man. Jake turned and saw a cop. “Get out of here son, this is no place for civilians” the policeman said. Jake nodded at the cop and then turned back to get one last look at the slender man. But the slender man was gone. When Jake looked back at the cop he saw that the creature had moved in an instant and was now wrapping its long horrible fingers around the cops neck. The evil aura of the horrible slender monster now paralyzed the police officer. Jake picked up a large chunk of concrete, which was debris from one of the buildings, and struck the beast with the heavy chunk. The slender man recoiled and let out a hissing shriek. As soon as the policeman regained his senses he opened fire on the creature, shooting it in the head. The slender man shrieked and melted into the darkness.

            “I guess we’re even” Jake said. The cop was holding his throat and nodded slowly, the events of the last few minutes slowly sinking in as reality. “My names Bob” The cop said. “Jake” Jake replied. “Well Jake, I was going to investigate the explosion, maybe we should stick together” Said Bob. “I think so too” Jake agreed. So the two men continued toward the explosion area. They both were shaken by the encounter with the slender man, but they both knew they had to stay and help out anyone they could. Along the way, Jake found a crowbar. Since the cop didn’t have an extra gun, Jake decided to keep the crowbar as a weapon.

            The fog became denser the closer they got to their destination. The sound of fire crackling and smaller explosions could be heard in the distance, then sounds of screaming and gunfire. The two rushed ahead, as they were running a fireball flew straight at them. The two jumped off in different directions and the ball of fire exploded against the street. The two looked out from behind the cover of over turned cars and saw a enormous pumpkin headed creature in the center of town. The pumpkin head had a carved face like a Jack-o-lantern, the inside of the head was lit up by some kind of constant burning flame. The head slowly spun around searching for survivors. The body of the creature was just a long twist of vines. The head was attached to a center stalk and vines stretched out from both sides of the ‘body’ like arms. The twisted stalk went down through the road and deep into the earth where it grew roots. It looked like this horrible thing just sprouted up over night. The pumpkin head spun around and could shoot fire out of its carved mouth hole and it could make vines spring out of the ground and grab people. The whole thing was as large as the downtown office buildings. The worst part of this was at the bottom of the pumpkin monster was a little opening. This weird door into the vine stalk had monsters coming out and captured humans going in. Zombies, shadow creatures, more of those slender things, tall goblins and human sized pumpkin head monsters. The mobile pumpkin heads looked like a fiery pumpkin head had replaced a normal persons head, then the person was dressed in rags. It didn’t take too long before Jake figured out what was probably happening to the captured humans.

            “This is a nightmare. I need to check on my family and call for help. We need the army or something” Bob said as he got noticeably more nervous. “Check on your family first. Someone must have called in the army by now” Jake said. Bob nodded and turned to leave. Then quickly turned back around “Hey, you should head home too. Nothing we can do here. But in case you run into trouble. Take this” Bob gave Jake his gun. Bob was carrying more than one gun. As soon as he heard explosions in the city, he figured it was a good time to grab a second or third pistol.

            Jake was thinking about returning home, but he couldn’t remember where home was. He also couldn’t think of who he would even meet once he got home. Bob left Jake alone holding a gun. Jake just stared blankly at his gun then up at the monsters. Just one of these creatures almost killed Bob and Jake and now they are splitting up. Jake shook his head. “This can’t be real” Jake muttered. He looked up and watched the scene for a second more. Monsters were being created and pumped out of that giant plant, the city had fallen into chaos, buildings were slowly crumbling and fires were breaking out everywhere. On top of all that, Jake was so scared he couldn’t remember how to get home or even the names of his family. His memories seemed to get fuzzy the more he tried to focus on them.

            He stared off into space, feeling in a daze. Sharp pain throbbed in his head and went down his spine. Jake’s vision grew blurry and he collapsed. Every few minutes he was able to open his eyes and saw that a strange shadowy creature was dragging him off. The shadow monster had glowing purple eyes and its form would twist and change constantly. He looked up at the darkened sky and felt his body slide across the ruined concrete. Jake couldn’t even comprehend what was going on at this point. He was dragged into the large plant creature. the vines and stalk had grown around a patch of road, the round patch of road had circles and symbols painted on it. Jake was dragged into the center and the circle began to glow. Jake lay on the patch of road with half wide eyes and blissful ignorance. Red light filled the area and vines descended down from the ceiling. Shadows surrounded Jake and then the next moment, all went dark.