Chapter 7 - Through the peeping hole

10 minutes before SHTF

Wei Bing is the floor manager of the local “Foods Organic” store. He had worked there for about 25 years and only recently got his promotion as floor manager. As a manager his pay raise was a significant 3% with almost twice the workload. He had to take care of everything the store needed from opening the shutters early morning 4 AM to closing them again by 1 AM. The company chain saved costs in shutting the store for 3 hours due to lot of government restrictions and tax purposes. They essentially operated close to a 24 hour store. Wei Bing has a son and a daughter both twins.

Wei Bing was happier today, since his son-daughter both score above average scores in their SAT and could easily get into their choice of college. He wife made him dimsum and the entire family planned to celebrate this occasion in the store lounge. He was waiting for his usual group of troublemaker-trio to leave so he and his family could have some special time.

Today was no different that every other day. The three came in, did their work, joked around a little but Wei put them in their place. He vigilantly watched their actions trying to figure out what made them the talk of the town. Allen was the quiet type. He could do registers with his eyes closed. He could easily calculate exact amount of cash including the change in any counter he worked that day. He even helped Wei rearrange the aisles saying something about ‘most purchased products together’ or ‘easily sellable goods’ or something of that sort. Little did Allen know, Wei’s son Wong and daughter Lin both scored excellent SAT scores and both on their way for university education. One that Allen probably could not get into.

Alvin did not fit well in this town. As an asian himself, Wei still found it hard to integrate among the town people with their fake smiles and false faces. No wonder Alvin had trouble following authority here. Except the occasional drink spilling, flirting with a customer and loudly chatting away his work hours he seemed normal. At least none of his actions were detrimental to the store or to Wei.

Camille was the sweet child he never had. She reminded him of his own daughter, Lin. Camille was courteous to the customers, took well with authority and also got into everyone’s good graces. She sometimes brought cakes from her mom’s bakery and shared it among everyone in the store. He has also caught her blatantly staring at Allen. The poor kid must be sweet on him. That inconsiderate fool didn’t even notice her longing gaze. Such fools she hang around with.

6:55 - 5 mins before SHTF

“Finally those three left. Come closer children, Dad is so proud of u both. Wong, Lin, you are both my precious gems. You have done well .. “, tears welled up on his happy face. He toiled too long on this deadbeat job and now he has something to show for his efforts. Although he didn’t achieve anything on his own, they were his children and that gave him immense pride.

“Pei, let them be. They are exhausted from cram-school. They still have to take college level courses before university begins. Otherwise, they will be left behind. Its no time to celebrate.” [Mei]

“Mei my sweet wife. Let the children have this one day. Who knows what will happen tomorrow?, huh” [Wei]. Mei had run away with him here when they were young and persecuted by their country. She had been obedient and took care of the family without expecting anything in return. She hadn’t voiced out even once when times were hard and both of them had to work long hours sometimes going on without much food.

“Yes mom. We both know this is just the beginning. In fact, we are just celebrating this for the both of you. You and dad have never done anything for just the two of you, always doting on us to be our better selves” [Lin]

“Enjoy this time as a family, for who knows where we might go for college. I am definitely leaving this beat up backwater town” [Wong]

Wei pulled his loving wife into his embrace and whispered words of gratitude and how much she deserved this long sought break. Mei snugly hid herself into her husband’s chest and reflected on the arduous journey her family took to reach this point. Good things were coming for them soon.

7:00 - SHTF

Store fire alarm went almost instantly as the clock struck 7. Wei instinctively shoved his family aside and put himself between them and the direction the sound came from. As the seconds slowly passed, people started screaming and run towards the back of the store as if trying to escape from something. Wei instructed his family to stay behind while he went ahead to check the chaos. His current goal was to reach for the pistol hidden under the cash register in customer service and if the situation warrants, the shotgun from his room. Customer service was just closer and he also needed to verify the situation.

7:01 - SHTF

Wei was in terror he saw something brown and ugly looking, completely inhuman, brutally dismembering the corpse of Mrs. Linda, the poor old woman who sometimes worked in the cash registers. His overwhelming fear paralyzed him for moments freezing his mind from making quick decisions. He felt himself staring at the bottomless void when the creature tilted its head and caught his attention. The creature’s eyes were devoid of any semblance of humanity. He knew if he didn’t act, he would end up just like Mrs.Linda. May her soul rest in peace.

He steeled his resolve to fight this creature and give it hell before it took him down. His resolve was completely shaken when he saw the creature’s jaw opened and a bright red organ, presumably from its previous victim, dropped to the ground with a thump. God, what am I going to do?

The creature moved slowly towards him evaluating him as a threat or just a prey waiting for it to feast upon. Wei prayed for a miracle to get him out of this bind. His prayers fell upon deaf ears as nothing happened and the creature kept steadily moving towards him. It was his decision now to either run for it or fight like hell. Fight ‘that’? With what? The shotgun was in his office and at least 30 feet away from his position. The best choice was the pistol which was at least 10 feet behind that thing. Either options looked like certain death.

While he was racking his brain, he heard the shotgun go off from his office. It squarely hit the creature and the creature was thrown back a few feet from the impact. Wei saw his son, Wong had fired the shotgun. How did he get there? Was it over? Is he finally safe? Before he could voice any of his questions, the creature got up on its feet and darted in the direction of his son.

“Wong-er Careful ..”, his voice was masked by another shot from the shotgun and immediately followed up by sounds of bullets reloading.

“Got it dad. Thanks for buying me time. I wouldn’t have made it here if you had not kept it distracted. You were brave dad” [Wong]

Brave? He was not brave, he was just paralyzed similar to a mouse when a rattlesnake sneaked upon it and the mouse had nowhere to run but to wait for death to put it out of its sweet misery. Wong came through. He saved him and by extension saved his family.

“Ohh.. Those things, what do you call them.. Hmm, Guns. They are very handy huh. Nice shot from way over there … I am Trevor, the friendly ne….“

Shotgun rebounded with a loud shot scattering its shells upon a liquid shape shifting thingy was talking. It tore a hole and poked more smaller holes, which the liquid covered up instantly.

Wong stood there in shock with his mouth open. He quickly gathered himself and asked, “Who are you? What do you want?”

“No patience for the young here. Before you rudely interrupted, I was saying, I am Trevor, the friendly neighbor guy. I am the warden of the **@@@@***@@ quadrant. Your world has entered the *****@@@@@** phase. You either fight or you die. Now claim your reward for your kill and I’ll be on my way”

Wei wondered if his hearing was impaired from the shock or the shotgun shots, because he couldn’t make out few words however much he tried to.

“I don’t understand what you said. Are you an alien?” [Wong]

How true, the young know no fear. Wong was asking the thing that just ate a shot close range from a shotgun shell like a piece of juicy bacon, who it was. Oh dear god, is the child right on his head? Why can’t he just leave the talking ball alone? It brought him no good to antagonize a being like that.

“You are a curious one aren’t you. Yes. I am an alien. I cannot however tell you more about what is happening. It is up to the natives to figure that out. I have wasted too much time already. Here is your reward”, a gift box materialised out of nowhere. Was that magic?

“It contains a gift for your bravery. Use it however you wish. Now, cya” and with a bright light, the ball disappeared. Did it appear here the same way?

“What was that? Dad, do you know anything?”[ Wong]

Wei’s vision blurred as he saw himself falling towards the floor. His legs had finally given up and his body shuddered violently before hitting the floor. He had passed out.

7:10

Wei came about after disgracefully passing out in front of his son. His son however had risen to the occasion and valiantly taken down some alien thing and even received some gift for his bravery. Wei had brought shame upon his family by being a coward.

“Thank god, dad are you alright?” [Lin]

“Honey, you passed out after fighting that thing. Wong said he will go man the door with other people. Rest here. Don’t try to strain” [Mei]

Wei’s family had taken care of him while he passed out. His felt a slight pain in his lower jaw, presumably from his fall.

“I am alright. Was it over? What’s happening? How long was I out?” [Wei]

“You were out for about 10 minutes. Wong brought us out. He took your keys and said something about a gun under the cash register. He is at the entrance helping other people barricade the doors” [Lin]

Mei held his hands holding back her tears. Poor woman, never had a good day for herself and when things finally started to look good, thrown out of her dream. Wei held her hands tightly, reassuring everything would be fine.

“I have to go”, his body refused to do as his mind said. “I have to help Wong” [Wei]

“No dad, he is fine. You are still sore from your fall. Stay here with us. Wong has other people helping him. They have guns “ [Lin]

Before I could refuse, my exhaustion hits me and my vision fades. I am a poor excuse of a father. I swear I won’t let you down all, Lin.

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“Everyone listen up. Our first priority is to secure this place. Assume our families are safer in other locations. Some probably died, better not tell them that. As far as I can tell, the school gymnasium and the church are the two other places that have supplies and enough protection for survivors. We cannot venture outside without properly arming ourselves and understanding the situation better. And I need you fuckers to keep us safe till I figure out what to do next. Whoever killed a monster and met with the Trevor guy, please step forward and share what you know. Wish someone has better insight” [Allen]

“I’ll go first. I am Wong. I killed the monster you all saw inside the store. Two shot gun shells and it died. After I killed that thing, a liquid ball calling itself Trevor appeared and said something about fight or die. It gave me this gift box. Said it was a reward for killing that thing. I haven’t opened it yet. After that, I met with allen and his team. You all know the rest” [Wong]

Looking at the crowd, no one else stepped forward, which could mean either none of them killed the monster or they never met trevor. They could also be hiding the fact, which was highly unlikely, since any information would only be beneficial. All scared little fuckers.

Riding on the momentum, I continued, “Good. It is very similar to what I did. I killed a thing, which looked completely different from this one inside the library. It died from a falling shelf and the books. It must have been a weaker one, oh thank god. After that, Trevor appeared and gave me a gift box too, a treasure chest, but let’s keep that part out. He also mentioned that our dimension is being filled with energy leaked from a different dimension and we would have to assimilate together, get that bitches. This process of assimilation might be long and arduous, so all we can do for now is to survive the merge. No one? Not even a single science fiction fan?” [Allen]

Guess not. Not everyone understood that. “In simple terms, the world we know is overrun with monsters and alien things from another world. We have to fight for our place in the new world. Our team, me, alvin and camille encountered a monster which was unfazed by bullets. Guns may work against weak monsters, but that might not be true always. R.I.P. Officer Bran. Your valiance will be forgotten momentarily”

Still uninterrupted, I continued, “We are safer here, as much as can be expected. The store has steel shutters which might buy us some time to gather our bearings. We will survive if you all do as I say. Scare people about end of world and they even follow a highschool virgin. Assholes. First, break down the aisles and create a huge common area where we can set up sleeping areas for the people here. And we can use those broken parts for barricade. Accommodate the children first. Can’t have them crying and terrorising others. Drug them if you have to. We have about 100 people here, 104 but who’s counting. We’ll take shifts of 20 in manning the door. Elders should form groups of 5 or 6 and patrol the store to maintain order. We don’t have enough information or manpower to spare the elderly from labor. They are dead weight anyway. Wong, is Mr.Wei alright? He better be, he is essential in maintaining some decorum” [Allen]

“Yes, he is fine. He passed out after his stare down with the monster. He should be coming up soon” [Wong]

“He knows the store better than all of us. He’s been at this dump for 25 fucking years. Can you ask him to gather some people and take note of inventory? Essential supplies include water, toiletries, food and medical supplies. Did I miss anything else? Also take a note of whatever things we can use as weapons, like kitchen knives, gardening tools etc. Ask him if he has a radio or something for long distance communication. No way this place has something like that. Not a bad idea to ask though. I am pretty sure the army would be broadcasting in some emergency frequency about shelters and what not.” [Allen]

Wong nodded and left to find his dad.

“That’s all people. If you think you have a better plan, share it with us. We are after all just high school kids and are very inexperienced in managing situations like this. If any of you have previous experience managing storm shelters or disaster reliefs, advice us on this” [Allen]

No volunteers. That’s what you get in this ghetto of a town. Full of backbiters and parasites. Fucking hell. “If that is all, let’s move people”. Our fight for survival has begun and these asswipes are …..

I walked aimlessly before reaching the employee restroom. I stared at the image of myself in the mirror tired, exhausted and looking older that I pictured.

Now, what do I do with this gift box.

…………..

I have to meet this Trevor guy again. He gave me more information than to Wong. May be wong froze and didn’t ask the right questions.

……………………

I feel like I am only glimpsing at this entire thing through a keyhole.

If we were pushed to our brink in under 10 minutes, that too from things that die to guns, what else was in store for us. Dread and anxiety overwhelms my calm demeanor and I ended throwing up what little was in my stomach. This looks like the prelude for something ominous.