The family had run back into their house while I fought the squirrel. Now they were back with camping backpacks stuffed full. Oh, that was good thinking. I needed a backpack too.
"Thank you, thank you so much," the mother said when she saw me. "What is that thing? What's happening?"
With an internal shrug, I decided to just be straight with her. "Ma’am, things are… Gosh, this is going to sound ridiculous, but given what you just saw, and how we both experienced the same ‘choice’ thing, maybe you’ll hear me out?”
She stared, glassy eyed, over at the body of the dead monster where it lay, head slightly crushed, blood everywhere. Slowly, she nodded for me to continue.
I swallowed and pushed forward. “I think… I think this is the start of the apocalypse.”
“Like, the end times? The Rapture?” she asked, looking up, horrified. If it were the Rapture, whatever the fuck that even meant, then we were the ones left behind.
Shaking my head, I gave her a wincing, apologetic smile. “I think this apocalypse is a lot less kind. Something has arrived, something changed the rules — the rules of reality. Regular squirrels are mutating, you and I have gotten… well, I can only describe it as a video game class, with the stats and everything.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she said, shaking her head. I could see in her eyes that she — well, maybe not believed it, but she definitely didn’t think it wasn’t real either.
Trying to be gentle, I said, “Look, whatever is happening, we need to get everyone gathered in a safe place. I’m planning to run around, send people to… oh, the high school! That's got tons of space and it's made of brick. Hopefully the earthquake dampers they installed worked."
The mother nodded, but she still didn’t seem to be processing it very well.
Her kid, on the other hand, blurted, "It's like all those comics! Why didn't we get any class, though? That’s bullshit. What's it like? Is it really cool? I want one!"
Comics? Oh, right. Also, it was a little strange that he and his sister didn’t get a class.
"Maybe you're too young?" I mused tentatively.
"Yes, they are," the mum said with a stern look at her two children. "It's far too dangerous for the both of you."
"But mom!" The girl whined. "She's only like, a few years older than me! Did you see how cool she was fighting that monster? I want to do that!"
"I'm eighteen," I said, a little defensively. Also, I definitely didn’t feel cool when I let it eat my damned weapon!
With the added stats from my transformation, I was just barely able to hear the boy mutter, "Legal and hot as fuck…"
Ew! A literal child was making sexual comments about me! It’d been barely an hour since I was forced into the body of a girl and I was already getting harrassed! I could only imagine what he would think if he found out I wasn't a girl.
Apparently, the mother heard him, because she frowned and cleared her throat. "Let's go, kids. I don't know what's going on, but I think this young lady has the right idea. Let's go to the high school and find other people along the way. Good luck… what was your name?"
Panic. Oh no! What do I call myself? I couldn't say my name was Kai! That would make it way easier to figure out who I really was. Damn it… but I liked my name! Um, um, um, think…
"Silver!" I blurted. My hair was silver-ish… and a piece had just been blown in front of my face by the wind…
The girl gave me the kind of sassy look that only a young teenage girl could achieve. "That's a bit on the nose, don't you think?"
"I um… I fell down some stairs when I was young and the stress turned it white so that's what my parents called me…" I said, scrambling to come up with a backstory. My grandpa fell off a ladder when he was twenty and his hair went prematurely grey so it made sense to me.
Apparently, it was less than believable to this bullshit-detector of the girl. If her expression was anything to go by, anyway, but she kept her mouth shut.
"I'm going to go break into a house and find another weapon! Good luck!" I said, and quickly turned to leave.
"Wait!" The mum exclaimed, reaching out to grab my hand. "My husband has a shed in our backyard, you're welcome to his tools. Think of it as a thankyou for saving us."
I blinked. "Oh, that's very kind of you…"
"He has a hatchet," the boy told me helpfully, while doing his best not to stare at my thighs. They were… testing the limits of the stitching on my borrowed jeans, that's for sure.
“Okay, uh…” I said, taking a step in the direction of their house. “Gosh, this is weird. I’ll go ransack your shed now, I guess?”
“Good luck,” the mother smiled, putting a hand on each of her children. “God speed.”
Their house was similar to my own, which was in turn similar to all the other houses around here — weatherboard outer construction, maybe a brick foundation, big windows, and well kept front and back yards. Houses with kids usually also had some form of mess around the place. Out the back, I found a two-terrace yard, plus a small deck that overlooked it all.
Keeping my eyes peeled for more squirrels, I jumped down the three foot drop to the lower terrace and made for the cheap corrugated iron shed. The door had a simple padlock on it, but these things were notoriously flimsy, so I twisted it until it was locked in place, then used one of the squirrel teeth as a lever against it. With my newfound strength, it broke quickly, and I allowed it to fall into the dirt.
Inside, I found a pretty normal selection of backyard tools and appliances. There was the usual disorganised toolbox full of cheap, tarnished tools, a rack with a few nicer ones, including the axe the boy mentioned, and a plastic-handled garden hoe.
Up above, I spotted a wide shelf where the conspicuous strap of a hiking backpack was hanging over the edge. Jumping up, I pulled it down and took a look inside. There was an old musty bottle of water in the main pocket, a small utility knife in a side pocket, and a foam mat for sleeping on the ground strapped to the underside.
Taking careful inventory of the shed, the space available in the backpack, and my increased strength, I picked what I wanted to take with me. I had a much better hammer at home, but there was a screwdriver on the wall that looked hella sturdy. The axe went into a loop on the side of the hiking pack, and the few tools I decided to take went into the main pocket. Into the side pockets, I filled a random jar with assorted nails, screws, metal ties, and bolts.
My plan was to take everything back to my place and make a proper weapon. As good as the axe would be initially at killing things, it had a fibreglass handle that wasn't designed for combat and would quickly break. I was better off keeping it to chop wood and making something expendable or very sturdy as a weapon.
The best find from the shed was definitely the hiking pack. It had so much room and so many pockets.
When I figured I had everything worth taking, I left the shed. I was two houses over from home. It might be better to jump the fences than head to the street again, especially with squirrel monsters running around. I needed a real weapon before I ran into one of those again.
The first fence, into my direct neighbour’s yard, wasn't very high, and with my legs being pretty damn long, I stepped over it easily.
Crossing the yard, I took inventory. How would I use what I had to make a weapon? The squirrel teeth would probably be great. My best candidates were the two larger bottom front teeth. Each was about a foot long, and had flat bladed tips. Two thirds down from the tips there was the root — a thick, blunt metal spike. Huh. You know, if I kept running into monsters with armour, a spike might not be such a bad idea. I could use it to crack and smash.
Wow. What a wild thought! I was gearing up to kill monsters — in real life! Freaky stuff. I should've probably been more scared, or even just alarmed or whatever. Instead, my mind was thrumming like a motorbike running at its optimal RPM.
When I got back home, I hunted around in my basement for some wood to use as a handle. I knew we used to have tons, but I also remembered using up a lot of it. Dad got really upset with me when he finally got time to do some woodworking and found the wood pile ransacked.
Good, aged hardwood was actually really flipping expensive. Especially furniture quality stuff.
Eventually, I found a nice square piece of hickory about four feet long and rushed over to the bench with my prize. Shit, what I would give for a lathe right now.
Time was still something I didn't want to waste though, so I got to work with a chisel. Shaping the wood was a rushed, quick job that left me with a vaguely circular piece of wood for a handle. At the top, I sawed out a slot for one of the teeth and hammered it in snug and tight. Next, I grabbed some of the steel ties and wrapped them as best I could around the tooth to fix it in place. I used a couple ties to add extra strength to the haft itself too. To make it actually comfortable to hold, I wrapped the handle in duct tape. Oh boy, what a hack job testament to tinkerers and hobbyists everywhere.
Hmm, with the way the tooth was curved, it was going to turn in my hand sometimes. Better throw some files and sandpaper into my backpack, along with my favourite hammer. Oh, and…
When I was done packing all the tools I thought I'd need, I hurried back up into the house. There, I grabbed my sleeping bag from the storage cupboard and strapped it to the top of the pack. Oh, I also needed to replace the yuck water bottle.
Unfortunately, given the state of the roads, I doubted the water mains would be functional and clean. The hot water cylinder though…
I tested the hot water in the bathroom and I whooped, pumping a fist when it worked. "Thank you dad! Thank you for being a stingy old bastard!"
For almost ten years — since Dad had moved our whole family back to the US so he could work and be around grandma as she got older — mum had been pestering him to replace the gravity-fed hot water cylinder. She wanted one of those fancy ones that heated water directly from the mains or whatever. Well today, his frugality was paying off.
I filled two empty 2 litre coke bottles with warm water, which I hoped would cool down by the time I wanted to drink it, then stuffed them into my pack along with everything else and headed for the door. My steps slowed as I approached the door. Would I see this place again? Was this a full apocalypse? How were Mum and Dad doing? What about… what about Marc?
My heart ached for my big brother. He’d better live through all of this, or I was going to be so upset with him. I shouldn't just leave, though. If he came looking, somehow making it over the Appalachians, then he’d need to know where I was.
Taking the utility knife out of its accessible side pocket on the pack, I carved into the wall; Gone to help people. Probably going to post up in Edgewood high school if it's clear. Kai.
“Please be okay, dude,” I said, staring at the words. What was he doing right now, hundreds of miles away? Was he fighting for his life, desperate and scared? Maybe he got an incredible class like I did? He was always into throwing knives, for some reason. Maybe he was throwing knives at monsters? He better be winning.