Oh God. What, what happened? Where am I?

My consciousness gradually returned and a few of the events that happened slowly came back into my mind. The creatures, Aaron and I running, the headlights.... My eyes fluttered open for a moment and I saw Aaron sitting next to me, he was starting to wake up too. I could feel that we were in something that was moving... were we in a car?

I started to become more aware of my surroundings. I was sitting down on something cold and leathery. My clothes were soaked and my shirt stuck to my skin. I heard radio static ahead of me, and the muffled sound of an engine.

My eyes snapped wide open; like I had thought, Aaron and I were buckled into the backseat of a car. I rubbed my eyes, then unintentionally thought out loud "How did we get here?"

The driver slammed on the breaks, and the car skidded to a stop. He turned around to look back at me, but I couldn't make out his face in the dark car.

"You're awake," his voice was familiar. I tried to remember where I heard it before, then it came to me.

"You're... the police officer. Jared, right?"

He nodded, "Yeah, Jared." There was a pause for a moment, and he looked away. "Your wife... It didn't go well, did it?"

Suddenly I was wide awake. Everything came flooding back into my head all at once. Jessica was dead.

I wanted to scream, but I contained it. Tears came running down my face, "It didn't.... she's... gone." I muttered.

He turned on the light, and I saw that his eyes were red. I was surprised to see an expression of sympathy that was only possible for someone experiencing an identical sort of pain.

"I'm so sorry... I know what it feels like too. To suddenly lose someone so close to you in such a cruel way... My brother, he's gone too. My entire squad, they're all gone. Those things... they got to them. They were completely slaughtered. There wasn't much left of them... So I know what it's like... I know how you feel." He tapped a bag on the passenger seat, "I got all their badges in here, just so I have proof that they were even alive."

I felt Jessica's ring in my pocket to make sure it was still there. I sighed with relief, and then gasped as Aaron opened his eyes wide and stared at me.

"Mom... is... she's..." he stuttered as the tears started to flow. I unbuckled, moved next to him and wrapped my arms around him. Jared turned his head to give us some privacy. Aaron and I could finally let our grief escape. As we cried in each other's arms, I looked back on my life with Jessica. How we had met in high school, how we had married after I got my first job. Life was good, we were doing well until everything went downhill in Arborline, but even then we never stopped supporting each other. Although life was rough, we were fine because we were facing it together. Now she was gone. Just like that. I couldn't have prevented it even if I had tried, if I was fast enough. I wished I could rewrite the past.

But living in the past won't get us anywhere. I had to suppress my grief; I had to be strong if I wanted to get Aaron out of this city. For Jessica.

Aaron and I wept until the tears could flow no longer.

"Are you going to be okay?" I asked Aaron. What a ridiculous question. This would haunt Aaron until the day he died. It would haunt me too.

He nodded, "Mom would want us to be safe... we can't keep crying," those words surprised me, "It's just... I just can't believe she's dead. I can't believe she's gone."

"And neither can I, Aaron. But you're right, she wouldn't want us to stay here crying for ever. She would have wanted us to move on. You're a brave boy, Aaron. We will make it through this."

I saw the resolve in his eyes, and decided it was best to tell him everything. No more hiding things from him. If we were to survive in this broken world, he had to know what we were facing. I told him about the creature that I had seen, and that they were what we were running from. They were what made the noises. He seemed shocked, but he said he saw the shadow when we passed the room.

We hugged each other in silence for a few more minutes, and then a sudden nagging question took hold of me. I turned to the front seat, "What happened? How did you save us?"

Jared turned back to me and cleared his throat, "I saw one of those things running from the place where I found my squad, so I followed it and eventually came to department store. I saw you and Aaron in the car, I heard you having trouble with the engine and then I saw those things heading towards you. So, I slammed on the gas and rammed into them." I was surprised that he had done something so reckless to help us, and it must have shown on my face. He continued, "The first one I hit collapsed as soon as I hit it, one of them got its leg stuck under the car and one avoided me. I didn't waste any time jumping out of the car, I took my gun and shot at the one that I missed. I hit it square in the back of the head. It fell to the ground. I turned around to the one that I had hit, but all I found was a red splatter where it had been. The one stuck under the car was screaming like a damn banshee, thrashing around like a madman. I emptied my gun into it. Its body looked like it was rotting or something, after I was sure it was dead. When I calmed down, I made sure there wasn't any others around. Then I went to see if you two were alright. You were both unconscious, and your car didn't work, so I brought you into my car. Don't worry, your stuff's in the trunk," he paused, and I could see that he was shivering a bit. "The weird thing is... that first one I shot... After I put you guys in the car, I went to get a good look at it... But it wasn't there. No traces were left behind. The one that was stuck under the car... like the one I hit, all that was left was a red splatter. I didn't want to risk the chance that they had ran away, so I got back in the car and got the hell out of there. Oh, and in case your wondering I only have one clip left. I'm saving it for when we really need it."