First Scene - Speculative Fiction
The night was completely silent, save the wolves howling in the distance, and the frogs croaking in the small pond close to the porch of the house. That was all they could hear for miles. Rachel and Elena inspected the perimeter and saw no sign of the creature, so they ran towards the front of the house and carefully opened the door. Once inside, they carefully made their way to the kitchen to look for canned foods they could take back to the shelter. Suddenly, they heard the floorboards squeak and footsteps coming towards them. Rachel’s eyes opened wide and at the same time, she started breathing faster and faster. Elena signaled her to stay, quiet and steady, but she knew Rachel was far too scared to remain still.
Rapidly, Elena grabbed a small plastic jar with “Cinnamon” written on a piece of tape stuck on the side and threw it in the next room. The steps stopped for a second, and then started walking towards where the jar had seemed to land: the opposite side of where they were standing. They quickly ran up the stairs and into the closest room they could see. Very carefully, Rachel closed the door behind her. They sat there for a while until their hearts stopped racing and they could breathe slowly again. Rachel had her back against the door and Elena was a meter away, leaning on a small shelf. After some time went by, and as they started to feel calm again, Elena whispered “Try to open the door to check if he is in the hallway.” Rachel responded with a hard swallow and a worried look on her face. She nodded as she turned around to be ready to open the door.
As Rachel opened the door to see if he was still outside, the wind blew in the apartment and the temperature dropped. It was as if something entered the room the moment she opened the door. She closed the door again and looked back at Elena. Sweat dripped down Rachel's forehead as she started to tremble. As fear took over her body, she froze. The wind blew through her dirty blonde hair and the moon shined in her dark brown eyes as she looked out the window. Elena moved towards Rachel and held her hand. “Your hands are as cold as ice,” said Elena. “Did you at least get to see if he was outside?” she added, after Rachel stopped shaking.
The wind kept blowing, and the room got colder and colder as time went by. They had no other alternative besides leaving the room and trying to go back to the shelter. Elena was fully aware that they had to leave that house as soon as possible. “Rachel did you hear me?” she exclaimed, as her tone changed to an angrier tone. Rachel couldn’t speak; she was petrified.
Elena could see the fear in her eyes which led her to think that she caught a glimpse of the horrifying creature that was following them. Elena tried to open the door a little to see if he was there when suddenly, a loud noise came from what seemed to be a huge animal. Elena hugged Rachel and held her tight in her arms as she closed her eyes, “Don’t worry, everything is going to be fine,” she said as she felt Rachel’s heart racing.
After the noise stopped, the night went back to being completely silent and the only thing Rachel and Elena could hear was the wind blowing softly on the tree branches. Elena opened her eyes and without letting go of Rachel she took a deep breath and asked her if she was ok. Rachel nodded and got behind Elena as she attempted to open the door again. “Please be careful Elena,” Rachel whispered as Elena grabbed the door knob and slowly started to turn it.
As slow as she could, Elena started opening the door until there was a small gap where she had some visibility of the hallway. She started breathing heavily and tried to scan the
portion of the house she could see to check if the creature was anywhere around. “I don’t see him,” she whispered back to Rachel, “Maybe he left,” she added after two minutes went by and she didn’t see anything.
She opened the door a little bit more until she could poke her whole head out and very slowly, she looked in all directions and still saw nothing. She knew that was their chance to leave, however in Rachel’s mind, leaving the house tonight wasn’t an option. Elena closed the door again and leaned back against it. She took a deep breath and asked Rachel to come closer. “We have to leave now Rachel,” she said. Immediately Rachel answered back “Are you crazy? We can’t leave tonight, it’s far too dangerous.”
Rachel knew that whatever was outside wasn’t going to leave anytime soon, so leaving the house in the middle of the night was as dumb as going in, in the first place. As they discussed a plan to leave, Elena thought she heard something. She placed her index finger on her lips signaling Rachel to be quiet as she placed her ear on the door so she could listen better. She could hear footsteps again. They seemed to be coming up the stairs and this time it seemed to be more than one creature. Rachel started to freak out again and Elena knew that if she couldn’t calm her down, they would be in trouble. They both quickly crawled towards the other side of the room where the bed was. In Front of the bed, there was a big closet. “Get inside the closet and be quiet Rachel,” Elena whispered as she crawled under the bed.
The creature kept getting closer and Rachel’s eyes remained closed. In
her mind all of this was just a dream. She kept thinking that when she opened her eyes, everything was going to be gone and the summer would start over. She kept imagining the beginning of the summer with Toby and Elliot before everything started. That crazy summer of 2002, when it all began…
Rachel, Elena, Toby and Elliot were there to witness the beginning of it all. Before any of this happened, they were normal junior students about to finish their school year. Rachel and Toby, begging Elena and Elliot to help with the shelter but they kept refusing. They’d been building it since the beginning of the year but four hands weren’t enough so they asked for Elena and Elliot’s help a million times and everytime the answer was the same: “No”. Toby kept saying that it would be a great space to hang out and Rachel joked about living in the shelter if a zombie apocalypse occurred, but little did she know they were actually going to use it one day…
Elena was far too delicate to even lift up a hammer. The raven hair princess was 17. She came from a wealthy family so she never had to work to get what she wanted. Her parents both worked for the government but her mom had to retire after her little brother was born. Josh was 8 and he was Elena’s “ray of sunlight”. Her parents fought all the time and Josh was always there to help her forget about everything. She met Rachel when she was 10 and ever since, they became best friends. Elliot, on the other hand, was a very shy kid. He moved from Rosewood when his parents got divorced and his mom gave up her custody of him and his little brother. He was 12 when he moved to Greendale and met Rachel, who later introduced him to Elena and they all became best friends. Rachel was the blonde genius. 17 years old and she knew it all. She was a straight A student who loved to learn. She loved to camp, hike and explore her surroundings. Her mom passed away when she was little and her dad remarried and had 3 more kids. Her little brothers were “too much for her” she said, so she tried to leave the house as much as she could, which introduced her to the outdoor world. She loved
exploring when she had the time, and she had a very outgoing personality which helped her build great friendships with Elena, Elliot and Toby. Elliot and Toby met in their sophomore year in AP History class and they immediately got along since they were both huge fans of the “Spider-Man'' saga. Lastly, Toby was the most outgoing kid they had ever met. He was 17 like all of them, but he claimed he’s lived more than they had. His family was rich and he was an only child so his wish of traveling around the world came true at a young age and he had been traveling every summer ever since his tenth birthday when they visited Portugal, but this summer would be an exception...
One afternoon, Rachel and Toby finally convinced them to help. “We’ll swing by and pick you guys up,” Rachel said while they were having lunch in the cafeteria.
After school, Rachel and Toby picked up Elena and Elliot and they parted to the place where the shelter was located. They drove for about 15 minutes and then hiked another 15 minutes into a small clearing in the middle of the woods. It had a spectacular view of the whole city so they said that the hike was also worth the while in case building the shelter wasn’t their favorite thing to do that afternoon. Elena was tired, sweaty and moody which wasn’t a good scenario considering she was about to try and help build a shelter, a thing she had never ever even imagined herself doing. The shelter was kind of small but it could fit the four of them perfectly. The roof was the only fully completed part of the shelter. There were only two walls up and they were built to hold the roof. The floor was dirt but they had planned to put some cement on it to make it easier to clean. A small table was the only thing that they were going to add so they got the materials out of the backpacks and started building. Elliot helped Toby put the remaining walls up and Elena helped Rachel build the small table which turned out to look like a wooden square. They worked for 3 hours straight and they finally finished the shelter. “Great work guys,” Toby said in his broken tired voice.
They had some snacks and rested for a while as the sun started to set and painted the
sky with beautiful red, orange and yellow tones. As they started to get up and put everything away, they heard a huge explosion and they all rushed down the hill and to Toby’s car. Toby drove as fast as he could and when they all got home, he texted the group chat and asked if everyone was ok. After they all answered and said they were fine, night came but little did they know that the next morning, chaos was about to knock on their door.
The sun rised, and with it came trouble and fear. It was 8 am and the city was already a ghost town. The explosion they heard came from the Genetics Lab and apparently, one of their “creatures” was on the loose. People panicked fast and even though the rumors had not yet been confirmed, everyone pretty much fled the city as soon as they could. Some families stayed, of course they wouldn’t leave their houses. Two weeks went by and food started to run out in people’s homes. Elena and Toby were sent to pick up some food at the closest grocery store but, they knew that the good things were going to be in the big supermarket all across town, which also happened to be close to the lab. They both drove there and when Elena was pulling up in the parking lot, she saw a car she recognized. As Elena got closer to the entrance, she saw Toby pull up and waved. She waited for him at the entrance and when he got closer, she ran up to him and hugged him tight.
“Hello to you too!” he said as he laughed a little and hugged her back.
“I’ve missed you so so much, Tobs,” she said as she finally let go of him after a 1 minute long hug. As the words came out of her mouth and he smiled back, her eyes teared a little. He then replied “Me too Lena”.
As they caught up, they entered the store, grabbed a shopping cart and started looking for what they needed. The store was almost empty. All they could see were 2 people and one of them was already leaving. There were no cashiers and yet no one was raiding the store.
Supermarket was almost completely stocked. Their carts started to get full and heavy so they slowed down their pace and took some more time to talk and catch up.
They finally finished “shopping” and as they approached the exit of the store they saw Elena. She didn’t look good. Her hair was a mess, her eyes seemed swollen from crying and the bags under her eyes certainly showed she hadn’t been sleeping for days. She was never good with situations like this, where she didn’t know what would happen tomorrow and that scared her alot, especially when she couldn’t see her friends. They got closer and said hi. She looked at them and her eyes teared up. She walked towards them and hugged them. Even though her eyes teared up, she didn’t cry. She hugged them tight and then they all talked for a while until the sun started to set.
“Do you guys know anything about Elliot?” Elena said in a worried shaky voice.
“Not really, I haven’t heard anything from him or his family and neither have my parents,” Elena replied.
“I haven’t heard anything either,” added Toby.
They worried about their friend and questioned if he would be ok since he wasn’t the adventurous or survival type of guy. Their phones still worked so they decided that any update of Elliot, they would call the others immediately and they all agreed. They all went back home and 2 hours later, Toby left to find Elliot without telling anyone where he was going. He drove to Elliot’s house and saw that their car was missing. He knocked on the door but no one answered. He knocked harder and still no one answered. He yelled “Elliot” at the top of his lungs and the silence after his scream was almost scarier than the ghost town that Greendale had turned into.
There were no signs of Elliot whatsoever, so Toby worried even more. He went back home and as he opened his door, he remembered that Elliot’s dad had a little house in the woods close to the lake, which they visited in the winter. He drove there and saw their car and immediately felt relieved. He talked to Elliot for a while and when he saw that the three of them were fine, he left and drove back. Toby got home and called Elena and Rachel to let them know Elliot was alright and they both felt relieved.
The next morning they all met in the park, close to the school and decided to tell their families to go to a safer place, like a close town. After they went back home and pitched in the idea, their parents all agreed and everyone started packing that same night. The four of them decided to drive in Toby’s car (an army green Jeep Wrangler that he got for his 16th birthday).
They left Greendale at about 10 am and when they were half way there, Toby realized that he left something really important behind. He called his parents, who were driving with Elliot’s family in the car in front of them and told them to stop at the next gas station and have some lunch. He said they were going back for something he forgot and they would meet them there shortly. Toby’s dad said it was ok but he told Toby to be fast and very careful. They turned around and drove back to Toby’s house. When they got there, Toby didn’t have the keys so they
had to break a window to get in. The pieces of glass flew everywhere and a few pieces cut Elena’s shin. She was wearing ripped skinny jeans and a dark purple tank top with a denim long sleeve shirt on top. The little drops of blood started to filter through her pants but she said they were just a few scratches and that she was going to be fine. She was brave but she didn’t say she would be fine because they didn’t hurt, but because she had a bad feeling about them going back.
“Hurry up Toby, I have a bad feeling about this,” she said in a shaky voice. Her tone was enough for everyone to sense she was scared. Rachel walked closer to her and whispered in her ear: “Don't worry Lena, everythings fine”.
As they waited outside the house for Toby, night came and it felt like it was turning darker and darker every minute. Elenas was still nervous. Her hands were sweaty and she felt like her whole body was burning up. They looked into the hole that the broken window left and saw that Toby was coming down the stairs. Elena was relieved that they were leaving soon when, from a distance, they heard a loud growling noise behind them. Somehow, Elena stopped sweating and she froze. Elliot immediately turned around and he saw it. It was a huge creature. Hairy, and it looked like a werewolf by its posture and its ears, but it was different. It was about a mile away but he was moving fast. They couldn’t really see it’s face, but his eyes shined in the darkness of the night like two stars. The moon shined bright and the silhouette of the creature got bigger and bigger. Rachel started trembling and sweating. She turned around as her eyes opened wide and fear struck her like lighting. Immediately, somehow, Elena calmed down and slowly walked towards Rachel and grabbed her shoulders. She looked right into Rachel’s eyes and said: “Rachel, breathe”.
“I, I can’t…. brea...breath Lena,” she whispered in a shaky voice as she stuttered. “Just calm down Rachel, we're going to be fine,” Elliot said as he swallowed hard and
moved his hand signaling Toby to be quiet and to hurry up.
“What’s up guys? What happened?,” Toby asked as he got closer and caught a glimpse of the thing that kept getting closer and closer. He rushed out the window and got in the car as fast as he could. Elliot and Elena carried Rachel into the car and when the creature was 10 ft away from them, Toby turned on the car and drove away. Elliot looked back and saw that the creature was moving fast behind them.
“He’s following us guys,” exclaimed Elliot as he turned around and moved his head closer from the back seat to the driver's seat and yelled “Hurry” to Toby’s ear.
“We can’t meet up with our families, he’ll follow us there,” Elena said. “I can’t let JOsh be in danger, I just won’t let that happen,” she added as she leaned against the seat.
Rachel was still in shock. She hadn’t said a word since they got in the car. “Where do we go then?” Toby asked in a nervous voice.
Suddenly in a broken voice, Rachel spoke up and said: “Let’s go to the shelter”.
Toby sped up and hit the road towards the shelter. Elliot grabbed Toby’s phone and dialed his dad’s number. He called three times and no one picked up. “Does anyone else have a phone?”.
Rachel nodded and looked down at the pocket in her jacket. Elliot reached for the phone and grabbed it but when he tried to turn it on, he found out the battery was dead.
“Do you have yours Lena?,” he asked in a desperate voice
Elena shaked her head and said “No, I left it inside my bag in the other car,” she added.
Elliot kept dialing but no one picked up the phone. She started to get nervous and started to tremble. Rachel still remained silent. Her hands were cold as ice and her eyes seemed like they were about to close. She had a tired look, like she was worn out and she kept thinking they would soon be safe. Elena looked back and she saw they’d lost the creature so they knew they were clear, or at least for a while. They were almost there and they were all a sack of nerves. They knew the others were scared but the priority was to take care of Rachel and get to the shelter as soon as possible. The hike worried Toby, he knew that carrying Rachel would slow them down and he thought the creature might catch up with them if they were too slow.
They started the hike and like Toby imagined, it took them more than the normal 15 minutes. They each took turns to carry Rachel and finally, after 35 minutes, they reached the clearing. Elliot and Toby got closer to the edge to watch over the road and the closest paths to the shelter and they couldn’t see a sign of the creature. It was still pretty early and they were hungry. Toby and Rachel had explored the area and they had seen a couple small houses about a mile away from the shelter.
“I think we lost him guys, but we have to find food soon so we can stay healthy in case we have to stay here for longer,” said Toby. “Rachel and I found a couple houses about a mile away in that direction, we can separate and go look for food,” he added as they all started to calm down. After a lot of thinking and discussing, they agreed on the plan. Rachel only seemed to be comfortable with Elena so the girls formed one group and the boys formed another one.
“We all have watches so let’s meet here in two hours, it’ll be 10 by then,” Toby said and they all nodded and parted. The boys headed more towards the northeast sound of the shelter and the girls towards the northwest side. Rachel was calm. She was breathing normally and she started talking to Elena. She told her how much she missed the three little heathens that were her little brothers and how much she missed sleep. Elena was listening but she wasn’t paying attention. She wondered how her family was and how Josh was doing. She thought about her family, about all their families and if they were safe.
Her mind kept wandering and as it filled with millions of possibilities and thoughts, she looked up and saw a small house in the distance. It was a two floored house with a small pond close to it. No lights were on so she assumed the house was empty. They walked closer to the house just to make sure it was empty. They hid behind some trees and looked into the windows. The house was completely dark and silent so they decided to go in.
Suddenly she heard: “Rachel! Rachel!, open your eyes!”.
Rachel was back in reality. She opened her eyes and Elena had crawled under the bed and into the closet next to her.
“We have to go now, he just left the house, I saw him leave through the window,” Elena said. “What were you thinking about?” she then proceeded to ask Rachel.
“I was thinking of how we got here,” she answered.
“Wll stop thinking about how we got here and let's start thinking how we can get out of here ok?” she said in a different tone, a more angry tone.
Rachel nodded and they both stood up and headed towards the door, opened it and walked towards the kitchen. Then, very carefully, they walked down the stairs and into the
kitchen to take the food they found and leave. They left the house and started to hike back. They’d hiked for 15 minutes now and it was almost 11. Back at the shelter, the boys were worried. They’d found a house and lots of food. The girls were making their way back home. They saw the shelter from a distance when a loud noise came back to hunt them. To their left, there he was. The enormous creature was staring at them and the moon shined bright in his silver fur. The boys looked up and they saw both the girls and the creature. None of them could move. They didn’t want to move. The creature started moving very slowly towards Elena and Rachel. Elena only thought about her family in the moment and Rachel’s mind was blocked.
She couldn’t think. Suddenly, from behind them came another loud growl and they looked back only to find that the footsteps they heard were real and that there were not one but two creatures. All Elena’s mind thought about was: “RUN” and after a second, she grabbed Rachel’s hand and they did. They ran like they had never ran before and the plan of their scape remained unknown.
