Boot Two Chapter Twenty One: Guilty Conscience

Feeling as guilty as ever about killing Irene, Nick opens up to Kaleen. Finding that the Kerulen horde is back on their tails, Nick and his friends find a car and the chase begins.

Chapter Twenty One Guilty Conscience:

 

Unknown Location In The Countryside, Earth. Nick’s Point Of View.

 

It has been a while since we heard the noise behind me on the road, but ever since then I had the feeling I was being watched. Maybe I was just paranoid, after all, my mind had suffered a lot in the past few days, and maybe it was just playing tricks on me. Right now, I was at a total loss of what to do. The only two relics that could save the world were destroyed, the fate of the world lies at the mercy of a crazed, violet eyed vampire empress. Things didn't look good. I thought of ways to regain control of our world, but none came to mind, I was in total brain lock.

I decided to ask the one person who understood the larger picture.

"Kaleen, what should we do now? I mean, with the Essence of Life and the Blade of Faith destroyed, now what?" I asked.

She looked like she was thinking hard, trying to find an acceptable answer. She found none.

"I don't know, there is nothing really to do now, I see no way to right the world again. I think our only hope is to survive this apocalypse and find a way to make this right one day. It’s all we can really do." Kaleen finished.

I knew that her words were true. She wanted to lie low for the time being, until we had a plan. That was a smart thing to do.

Something was bothering me, something I wondered about for some time.

"Kaleen, did Saja doom the world to eternal night?" I asked.

Kaleen nodded.

"Yes." She said.

"The sun has not rose in that sky for over a year." Kaleen added.

"Just as I had thought." I remarked.

We walked onwards. We came onto the outskirts of the city, buildings became scarcer by the hour.

“Nick, is something else on your mind? I’m your best friend. I have been for years. You can talk to me. You know that, right?” Kaleen asked.

I nodded.

“There are many things on my mind; my failure in the battle for humanity, how I domed the world through that failure, how I shot Irene, it’s all a little too much.” I said.

Kaleen showed a sympathetic smile.

“Hey, you did the best you could. For what it’s worth, I don’t think I could have done much better of a job than you did. That’s all you can ever do. Try your best.” Kaleen said.

“But what happens when your best isn’t enough?” I asked.

Kaleen thought for a moment, looking into the night sky.

“You know, I really don’t know. I guess you just… I don’t know.” Kaleen said.

My head sagged.

“I feel really bad about shooting Irene.” I said.

“Nick, you have to understand that Irene was evil. You did the right thing by shooting her. She helped Saja take over the world. She doomed the world, not you. She did it with Saja’s help. You may not have fixed anything by killing her, but it was definitely the right thing to do. That, I’m sure of.” Kaleen said with sincerity.

I smiled. I knew Kaleen could help me sort through that mess.

“Kaleen, thanks so much.” I said with a smile.

Kaleen returned her own fanged smile.

“Hey, it’s what I’m here for.” She said.

That’s when two things happened, one devilishly bad, and the other heavenly good.

When I had looked back, I saw something that scared me so much, I was speechless. Standing on the horizon behind us, were the Kerulen, and there were easily five times as many as before. They obscured everything behind us, like a looming shadow.

The good thing was that in front of us, with the keys still in the ignition, was a black pickup truck! The car was at an old country cabin, in the driveway. We didn't care to check the interior for survivors, the Kerulen were running extremely fast, and faster by the minute.

I did not know how to drive. I admit it. My panic was rising, we had to make this quick.

"Does anyone here know how to drive?" I asked.

Lisa raised her hand.

"Yes, but I just got my licence last year, and I haven't been doing much driving since the apocalypse." Lisa joked.

It will need to do. I motioned to the driver's seat, she took the hint. She climbed into the cab and started the ignition, but the cab only had two seats. Lisa and Tim climbed into the cab, and me, Eric, Kaleen and Anara got into the back. It was uncovered.

Eric and I took the rear most seat, given the fact that we had the only two guns in the group. We figured that they would not do much against the Kerulen, but we had to try. We heard Lisa rev the engine.

"Ready!" I shouted.

With that, she screeched out of the driveway, barley staying on the road. The nearest Kerulen was a few feet from the truck. I aimed down the sight, saw the markings in the scope, positioned the Kerulen's head/upper chest area in the center, and fired.

My shoulder ached from the kick of the rifle, and the bullet seemed to have no effect on the target Kerulen. I saw Eric aiming at the same Kerulen.

"Don't waste your bullets!" I called over the hydraulic whine of the engine.

We were going fast, maybe eighty kilometers per hour, but that didn't matter, the only thing that mattered was getting away from the monsters that chased us. I looked over at Kaleen, not wanting to look back at our impending doom behind us. I noticed how she was crouched, not sitting. I then saw that that was a problem. Past her, through the windshield, I saw a pothole, and we hit it.

The impact launched Kaleen out of the back of the truck. I managed to grab the back of her belt before she fell out of the truck. Her forward motion was strong, which almost dragged me out of the truck. Kaleen screamed. I didn't blame her, if she fell, she would be killed in a spilt second.

“Nick! Pull her up!” Anara screamed.

“Yeah, pull me up!” Kaleen screamed back.

I looked back to the Kerulen. They were quickly gaining. Lisa made a hard right turn and sent me flying to the opposite end of the truck, dragging Kaleen with me, although she was still hanging out of the car, this time she was hanging out the side, not the back.

She glanced back.

“Pull me in! Pull me in!" She shouted in a panic.

"I need help!" I shouted to Eric and Anara.

Eric gave his pistol to Anara (which I thought was a terrible idea) and came to help.

“Don’t give the gun to her!” I shouted.

“Just pull Kaleen back in!” Eric shouted.

With some difficulty, we managed to pull Kaleen into the back of the truck, but the oncoming Kerulen did not yield. Seeing Kaleen hanging out of the truck made them go faster. A male Kerulen leaped and grabbed hold of the tailgate, wrenching it open.

"You're mine!" He seethed.

The man was running behind the truck while holding the now open tailgate! He was going to pull himself in! I crawled forward and kicked him right it the face, he tumbled off and got trampled by the thousand other Kerulen out there. Wait, a gunshot won’t phase them, but a kick in the face will? That was a little confusing. I was scared out of my mind but knew I had to be brave.

I reached forward and pulled the tailgate up until it clicked. A few more Kerulen were running up and were going to grab it and yank it open. Lisa hit a bump in the road that almost threw me into the Kerulen.

"Keep it steady!" I yelled, though I knew she couldn't help it.

The road took a sudden turn, which forced me to crouch and lean into the side of the truck. Another male through himself at the truck, but this one got up and over the tailgate, landing him right in the back with me, Eric, Kaleen and Anara.

Kaleen knew I couldn't wrestle a Kerulen out of the truck, so she took over. She had him in a headlock, and she smiled at me, her fangs glistened in the passing streetlights. She nodded to the Kerulen, she wanted me to punch it. I get it. I clenched my fist as hard as I could, reeled back, and propelled my fist forward and hit the Kerulen right on the nose. I pulled my hand back in surprise, it was like punching a brick wall! Kaleen laughed. I think she knew what would happen. A little humor did my shredded mental wellness some good.

Kaleen then threw the Kerulen off of the side of the truck. Then something terrible happened, something I knew would happen eventually, but that thought was subconscious, now it was at the front of my mind.

"We're running low on gas!" yelled Lisa from the cab.

If we didn't pull away from these monsters, we'd be history. Then something else happened, and it was bad. Very bad. A Kerulen had somehow grabbed hold of one of the back tires, and popped it, or rather, ripped it clean off. We spun out, Lisa noticed this, and turned and we went into a deadly barrel roll. I was almost tossed out the back, but I braced myself against the sides of the truck.

We rolled for a few more turns, then the truck fell onto its side. The Kerulen were a few hundred meters away, our barrel roll had gotten us some speed. I got out of the car, there wasn't time to check for casualties. Those who got out of the car were as follows: Kaleen (obviously) Anara, Lisa and Eric. I peered into the cab, Tim's airbag didn’t come up, and his neck had broken against the glove compartment. Sorrow came over me. I knew I couldn’t be blamed for his death, but it was still sad to see another friend die. We were doomed, the Kerulen would be on us in seconds. I looked around. Left and right, just as I was ready to give up, I caught a glimpse of something, something glinted in the light.

It was just a shimmer, then I found out what it was: gasoline. It was all over the road. It must have spilled from the truck’s gas tank when we did the barrel roll. The thousand or so Kerulen were upon us.

"Not one step closer!" I yelled as loud as I could.

Surprisingly, the Kerulen pack stopped, chuckling. A few were brave enough to take another step.

"Come any closer, and I'll burn you all!" I yelled.

None of them believed me, they slowly advanced, watching me. They seemed to think I was bluffing, when the first few advanced to a deadly distance, I pulled up my rifle, took aim at the gasoline, and fired.

The gunshot echoed everywhere, and the fire that sprang up on the ground was impressive, the few litres we had had in the tank when we crashed were spewing out of the tank. That would come in handy. A few of them walked through it, and they instantly caught fire. They dropped to the ground, burning. My friends and I backed away as the Kerulen screamed.

"Stop, drop and roll boys!" I shouted after them as I ran away.

“Burn, baby burn! Disco inferno!” Kaleen sang.

Eric laughed in spite of the situation. Maybe he just needed stress relief? After all, he just watched Tim die. I gave Kaleen what had to be the strangest look I had ever given someone.

“What?” She asked with a little grin and a shrug of her shoulders.

We began to run away from the fire behind us.

"Tim's dead! He's really dead!" Lisa yelled in anguish.

I didn't know what to say. I remembered seeing him in the cab with a broken neck, and I imagined him being attacked by Kerulen. It was a horrible fate, even after death.

Now we were faced with a challenge. We were in the middle of the countryside with a seemingly endless road in front of us -leading to god knows where- and a thousand Kerulen behind us. Our options did not look good. I looked back and saw that the Kerulen were having troubles breaching the fire, were they not smart enough to go around? The fire had spread to the side of the road, and from their perspective I imagine that it seemed like it went on for a while.

 

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think!