Colour Kill

Chapter 11

"It's going to get really cold half of us don't have jackets we have to stop in a city" Royce says as he grips onto the steering wheel. It has been one day since we have left New Orleans and since we nearly lost Kerry. Slowly she is recovering, she gets the odd headache but overall she is okay.

The days are getting colder and colder, the leaves have turned into shades of orange and fiery reds, the cool air settles it's self around the trees gently swaying them. Royce is right we really need new clothes.

We continue driving through America in our jeep all bored out of our wits. The images of Kerry in the grips of the Wendigo still haunt me like a horrific nightmare. I know how to look after my self. Dad was the chief of police and was extremely protective. He enrolled me in boxing, self-defence classes, fitness training and many other classes to make sure I knew how to look after my self. What worries me is that none of my friends seem to know self-defence, when Kerry was getting attacked they didn't know what to do. However, I have no doubt that I could teach them "Guys I have an idea" I announce to them.
"let's hear it then" Mel mutters
"Why don't I teach you guys self-defence, I can teach you how to use weapons and how to defend your self with just your hands" Mel raises her eyebrows at me with a smirk on her lip. "What do know about any of that stuff, G?" Mel questions
"Lucky for you Mel and your sorry ass, my dad was chief of police so I know quite a bit about weapons and kicking your butt" I say comedic-ally so Mel knows me calling her a "sorry ass" was a joke. Everyone including Mel laughs at my remark. Mel gives me a wide grin. "Fair enough" Jevi who's hands have steadily griped on the wheel clears his throat. "There's a Mall outside Kansas city G you can teach us there and we can find supply's before we drive over the American Canadian border.
"Good idea" I chirp. As funny as it sounds I'm actually a little bit excited about teaching them self-defence.

All the talking about my dad sends thorns to grow around my heart and prick me with each heartbeat. I look outside the passing scenery as a tear rolls down my cheek. I Miss my mother's long blonde hair and her blue eyes. I miss my dad's raven black hair and large hands which would hold me protectively when I was upset. I Miss my older brother and when he used to scare away all my boyfriend or threaten anyone who was ever mean to me. Overall. I Miss my family. I never got to say goodbye to them they were just taken away from me.

We drive past the Texas State line. "Everything is better in Texas" Royce states. I raise my eyebrows at him "Like, seriously Roy" I laugh.
"Oh sorry, I meant to say everything thing is more racist in Texas" We burst out laughing.
"Yeah that sounds about right" Jevi grins.
"I bet that is who they killed first" I laugh
"Huh ?" Mel asks
"Racists, I bet the wendigos somehow knew they were racist and killed them first"
Kerry laughs "Don't forget about the homophobes too" She adds in.
"Crazy southern people" Jevi states
"Hey! Me and Mel take offense to that" Royce laughs and we all join him.

I wake up abruptly as the car bounces up and down. I try to stretch my self as much as possible in the crapped car then sink back into the passenger seat. "Are we still in Texas ?" I ask Jevi who is driving. "Nope we are in Oklahoma and have been for a while"
"Thank god, how much longer?"

"About five hours"

Jevi stops the car just outside Kansas city "Gaia you have to drive there will be loads of Wendigos, the car won't stop them from getting to us" I nod and switch places with him. Once I'm in the driver's seat I begin to drive. The city looms in front of me, but that's not what grabs my attention.
Hundreds of Wendigos crawl along the highway on all fours like apes. My friends have all ducked down and hidden themselves from the Wendigos.
This amount of Wendigos is not normal. I have never seen them on this scale. They are hissing as he crawls up the highway sometimes attacking each other like some sort of wild animals.
"Guys this is unreal I have never seen this many Wendigos" I mutter not taking my eyes off the monsters. "Why are they all on the highway there's not going to be much prey here" Jevi asks his voice a little muffled as his head is in his lap. My heart jerks as I realise the answer to Jevi's question. "There's no more food left, everyone in the city must be dead, they are leaving to find food" None of them say a word.

The earth was once filled with 7 billion people, now there must be less than a ten thousand maybe more maybe less, not including the super-naturals, however many that may be. And all this death was caused by the Alpharei, the people whose arms I'm running straight into. They put me in that horrific slaughterhouse with other teenagers and probably countless others. What are we risking going up to their compound?

I park in the mall parking lot. I quickly jump out the car to check for Wendigos as soon as I'm certain the coast is clear I tell them all to come out of the car. The mall is a massive modern building with massive glass doors. With Royce's help, I pull one of the doors open.
"Okay guys our priority are any weapons clothes and food, me and Jevi will go look in the top floor and you guys look at the rest" I announce as I securely tighten my backpack traps, we give each other quick nods then part.

Jevi and I snake our way in and out of shops looking for supplies. For the most part, the shops are completely empty. We walk into an old Mexican restaurant, the chairs have Wendigo claw marks and anything that doesn't have, has been ripped apart creating rubble all over the floor. Fighting our way through the mess we fling chairs out of the way. "Are you happy you are super-natural or would you rather be um... human seeing as you are safe from the Wendigos " Jevi enquires as he opens a metal door to the kitchen. Would I rather be human? I have no idea, however if I was human would my friends still be alive? Maybe not.
"Honestly I'm not sure, but it defiantly comes with its benefits though not knowing what kind of supernatural I am is not fun" Jevi chuckles and begins to open draws. At the end of the room, I see knives pointed up I the air as they take up residence in a knife holder. Grabbing Jevi's arm I direct him to the knives "These will be perfect" I mutter as I start to carefully place knives in my rucksack.

We make our way out of the restaurant in silence. I follow him down to where we agreed to meet the others They are all sitting on the floor relaxed. "Did you guys manage to find anything?" I ask bowing my head to look at them. Mel pushes herself off the floor "Yeah we got some soup, baked beans, other canned shit and some clothes"
"Great we got the knives, they are only cooking knives but they will do, everyone get up so we can start training" Slowly they all stand up. I look at their clothing which consists of mainly jeans and tops. Wondering around I let my eyes search for things which might be helpful. There s a pile of wood and I grab the longest piece I can find. I drag the piece of wood then plop it on some chairs, Kerry asks if I need help but I just ignore her and keep going. Once the piece is stable I step away from it to make sure everything is in place. Satisfied I empty all the knives out of the bag.

"All right that piece of wood is the target". With the medium-sized knife in my hand, I walk over to them. "You cant just throw a knife and hope for the best, your technique is very important" I stop talking to position myself. I stand with my side facing the plank, I bend the arm with a knife in my hand, till my elbow is by my ear. "You have to make sure you are standing far enough for a full rotation. I take a few collected breathes readying myself because I haven't done this in years.
I flick my wrist and the knife spirals in the air then pierces the middle of the board. Behind me I hear them gasp, smile forms on my lips as I turn around to face them "Right your turn"
They huddle around the knives, Fighting over who gets the biggest blade. "Who wants to go first," I ask.
"Me me me!" Royce says excitedly walking up to me with the biggest knife in his hand. Of course, he picked that one. "Okay, then Roy follow me" He follows me and I stop him when we are at the right distance. I prod his shoulder, to turn him on his side. "Hold the knife in your dominant hand" He places the knife in his right hand.
"Now bend your arm till it is in line with your ear" Royce Follows my instructions perfectly, "Okay good now flick your wrist and throw the knife." He does exactly that, But much to his disappointment it just bashes the plank of wood and falls to the floor. "Oh man !" He exclaims throwing his head back. The others all erupt into laughter. "Don't worry that was super close just keep practising. He rolls his eyes and runs to collect his knife. "I will go next" Mel suggests. Oh, this should be good.
She walks up to me and positions her self perfectly just like I told them too. She flicks the knife and It lands stabbed right in the centre. She turns around and smirks smugly "Show off" Roy huffs as he nudges past her. She gives him the finger when his back is turned.

We spend the rest of the afternoon in the mall, I taught them about defending themselves, how to use the knife and the gun. The self-defence took the longest for them to grasp but with their basic understanding now if a Wendigo comes they have a better chance of defending themselves. We could not sleep in the mall cause I was worried about the Wendigos so we decided to take turns driving. We walk back into the car, and I sit in the driver's seat at wait for them to jump in so I can start the car. Kansas city fades away as we continue to drive up north. Everyone falls asleep as I drive into the night, creating an unsettling silence that allows dreaded thoughts into my head.
How could I have lived to the aged of eighteen and have no idea I was supernatural? But that's not even what makes my brain itch It's the fact that I have no idea what I am, I don't even know the classified super-naturals to research or think about. Are there more people. Things. Like me? Of course, there must be! If they don't get hunted like me there should be some. There is so much missing information that I need to know. I just hope going all the way up to Canada will help me get answers.

It has been one day since Kansas city and ever since the self-defence lesson I have made sure they all carry knives on them all the time, with their inexperience and the fact the only weapons they have are kitchen knives I don't think they would be able to kill wendigos, only slow them down but there will be enough time for me to come and kill the monsters by hand...
"Okay we should be driving into Idaho soon" Mel mutters.
"Slowly but surely we are making our way up there" Kerry says yawning soon after.

"Madame Argen said that the Alpharei Headquarters are in the Rockies" Jevi says as he keeps his focus off the road. I scrunch my eyebrows in anger. "How the hell are we meant to fucking find it? The Rockies are bloody huge !" I shoot immediately feeling sorry for losing my temper.
"Its in the forest by the lake under Mount Colombia, the actual base is underground and getting in it will be easy because we have you who they seem to really want, however, getting out will be hard but that's all we can really expect" I know the main problem would be getting out but how are we meant to escape all we know is that the base is underground. We are taking so many chances here. We could get lost, run out of food or get killed by Wendigos.
Jevi lets out a loud huff and I turn my head to him "The cold is most probably going to gets us, we're going to die up there" I mutter coldly.
Jevi clears his throat. "At least it's something worth dying for"
But they would be dying for me, and it is definitely not something worth dying for.