The Guardian | Chapter 23

Lilly stumbled through the forest.  Following the trail through the forest brought her to a small town located five miles from the transcontinental highway.

She was saddened with what she saw.  The town resembled a scene from an apocalypse movie.  Most of the houses were reduced to rubbles with nothing left of them except broken pieces of concrete and smoke rising from the ruin.  In addition, the entire village was covered with thick layer of ash.

She saw a man down lying on the ground and rushed over.  She approached him and turned him over.  She gasped.  What she saw shocked her.  The man's head separated from the body and rolled off.  His dark blue shirt was drenched with blood and one of his arms was hacked clean off.  The bones and muscles were showing.

She looked around and could see carnage.  Bodies lay everywhere.  A young man, somewhere in his mid 20s, was lying sideways near a car with a deep gash on his head.  A halo of red blood formed around the head.  There was a body of a young girl lying next to him.  The girl had a deep wound to his side and the blood from the wound stained the ground red.

Some of the people tried fighting back as evident by the bloody knife in one of the man's hand.  Another had a long metal pole in her hand.

"Hello," Lilly cried out at the top of her lung.

She listened closely for any signs of movement.  However, there was none except the cawing of the birds.

Suddenly she heard a whining noise to her left.  She turned towards the sound.  The noise seems to be coming from the rubble of a collapsed building.  She ran to it and heard frantic scratching coming from below a concrete block.

"Don't worry, you'll be OK.  I'm here to save you," Lilly called out as she strained to lift a block of concrete.  As soon as the block was lifted, a large black dog jumped out.  It turned toward her, took a long look at her before bolting off away, scampering through the rubble.

She continued her search for survivors.  She combed the entire village but all she found were stray animals.  There were no signs of any human life.  Tears leaked out from her eyes and she felt a large lump in her throat.  Lilly felt angry at the demon army that rampaged through this town.

Eventually she calmed herself down and soon turned her attention to salvaging any supplies.  Stumbling through the ruined city brought her to a white double story house.  The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes.  This was the one of the few houses left standing.  She wiped the ash-covered window with her sleeves and peered inside; nobody was home.  Looking around, she found a large rock.  She threw the rock through the living room window.  Crash!  The glass smashed inward and shattered into a million pieces.

Lilly crawled in through the window.  The sharp glass pierced her skin causing her to gasp.

In the middle of the room stood a round dining table.  To the left was a bookshelf full of book and toys.  At the top of the bookshelf lay a large camping rucksack.

The family who had been here left in a hurry.  There was still food on the table.  She scoffed the spaghetti, which was delicious.

She then went to the kitchen for any food supplies she could use.  She found some dried fruits, three packages of readymade noodles, two bars of white chocolate, and plenty of canned food.

She set those on the dining table while she looked for a bag to put them in.  She spotted the rucksack on the bookshelf.  She went over and reached towards it but she was too short.  The bag was just beyond her grasp, taunting at her.  Exasperated, she refused to give up.  She grabbed a dining chair and put it in front of the shelf.  She climbed it and reached again but couldn't reach it.  She stood on her tippy toes and swiped the bag.  She put the food into a rucksack.  Later she decided that the cans were too heavy to carry around so she removed it.  She went through the drawers and found a first aid kit, which she also put in the bag.

Then she went upstairs.  At the top of the stairs was large bathroom and to the right were two bedrooms.

Lilly relieved herself in the toilet and then continued her search.

One of the bedrooms had a picture of a flower hung on the door.  She slowly opened the bedroom door and entered it.

There were pictures hanging on the wall and dolls on the bookshelf.  The room reminded her of her of her own home.  In the corner of the room was a large wardrobe.  Her clothes were torn and muddy so she changed into a pink T-shirt and pair of blue jeans.

She heard a rustling nose coming from the other bedroom.

"Hello," Lilly cried out timidly approaching the room, "anybody there?"

Her hands were trembling as she reached toward the door.  She turned the doorknob and the door creaked open.  There was nobody inside.  In the center of the room was a large king side mattress.  At the foot of the bed was a computer table with a monitor sitting on it.

The window was open and the curtains bellowed in and out with the breeze.

Phew, she thought.  Must be the wind.

She saw the desktop and a thought came into her mind, What is my friends up to?  Let me check my email.

She sat down on the seat in front of the table, reached for the power button, and depressed it.  The computer whirled into life.  The boot screen displayed and the familiar ding came out of the speaker as the desktop displayed.  She double clicked on the blue e icon and browsed to her email.  She logged in.  There were 109 unread emails.  She scrolled through the list.  Spam, spam, spam.  Nothing but spam, she groaned.  This looks interesting. It was a message from her best friend Richard, which read:

"Dear Lilly,
I heard on the news that your village was attacked.  I bet you were scared.  Hope you and your parents are OK.
Richard"

Lilly hit reply and started composing her message.  She wrote:

"Dear Richard,
I am all right but my parents — well my mom anyway — died during the attack.  I hope you are OK too."


She wanted to type "And oh yeah turns out my father is a demon and I am half demon."

Just then, she spotted something moving in the hallway.  Lilly quickly typed in

Take care,
Lilly

before hitting send.  She quickly logout out of the email, went to the start menu and click turn off.  Then she went to the hall to investigate.

"Is there anybody there?" she cried, her voice cracking slightly as she felt a lump in her throat start to form.  "It's not funny anymore."

Just as she turned back to return to the room, she met face to face with a large ugly demon.

She shrieked loudly and ran.  The demon spotted her and ran after.  She scampered down the stairs and almost trip and fall.  The demon scurried after her.

She grabbed the backpack of supplies that she had left in the hallway and dashed to the front door.  She jiggled the knob but it refused to open since she did not have a key.  She groaned in frustration.  The monster leaped down the stairways and cornered her.  It swiped at her face.  She ducked and slid between its legs.

She ran to the kitchen.  She saw a knife holder full of sharp knives.  She grabbed one of the sharp kitchen knives and tossed it at the monster.  The knife glanced off the side of the monster.  Although it didn't kill it, it bought her time.  She ran to the back door, which luckily was a glass sliding door.  She held her hand in front of her face and rushed towards it.  The glass shattered.

She spotted a bow and arrow lying next to the shed.  She grabbed that.  After that, she scaled the fence and ran into the woods.

She glanced back.  The monster was still on her tail and it was drawing closer—twelve feet, ten feet.  She breathed in deeply and dug her feet into the ground.  Her muscles was cramping up.  She closed her eyes and forced herself to run faster.  Panting, she zigzag through the forest hoping to lose the monster, but the monster was right on her tail.

She turned and fired an arrow at the monster flying her head.  The arrow pierced the monster's skin causing the monster to stumble.  Then it shook its head, snorted, and fell from the sky with a thud.

She kept running, and in her fright, she didn't notice running straight across busy highway.  A car was heading straight for her.  She heard a loud honk and a bright glare as a car headlight shone in her eyes.  She threw her arm across her face and prepared for the worst.