Johnny Wagner, 3/17/09 1:52 PM

Grabbing my phone from my pocket I start to dial as I slam the door behind me and drop my skateboard on the hard wood with a crash. I hold the phone to my ear and listen to the familiar tune of Alltel wireless’ ring back tone, It’s the lone ranger theme.

“Come on, pick up,” I grumble into the phone as I hasten my way into my bedroom. I hold my cell between my shoulder and ear as I reach up into my closet for a large blue duffel bag. I grasp one of the black nylon straps and pull the empty container down onto my head as the tune reaches it’s crescendo and restarts. She’s not going to pick up.

I tumble the sack onto the floor and drag it towards my dresser where I throw open the top flap and begin to throw clothes in it from the top drawer. The lone ranger tone gets about halfway through its encore performance when it suddenly stops with a click, soon the speaker if filled with the words of a young woman’s voice, with just the hint of a southern accent on her words.

“Hey this is Stephanie, leave me a message and I’ll call you back,” I almost mouth the words along with the familiar voice on the other end having heard this recording a million times before. The phone clicks again and the automated Alltel voice instructs me to push 3 to leave a message and I do so before the statement is even finished.

I place the phone back between my ear and shoulder and await the beep as I start to frantically grab more clothes. I slam shut the first drawer and pull open the second in what is almost the same movement as the phone beeps in my ear. I start stuffing new articles in the blue sack as the tone finishes.

“Stephanie. I wish you’d have picked up because it’s bad,” I huff and puff a bit between words my heart racing as I stuff more objects in the bag, “we found a bug at the shop and I think… no I know there is one here too, It’s probably not safe for me to be calling you like this but I don’t know who else to call. I’m leaving town.”

I grab the phone with one hand as it starts to slip and kneel down having stuffed enough clothes in to last me a while and start to zipper shut the bulging bag, a feat easier said than done with one hand.

“I don’t know where exactly I’m going, but I’ll try and call you as soon as I can,” I curse under my breath and pause to finish shutting the bag. “If you don’t hear from me call my parents. Don’t believe anything you might see on the news someone’s after me and I’m certain it’s the government. They’ll probably say I’m a terrorist or some shit like that DON’T BELIVE IT!”

Suddenly a loud crack of what sounds like thunder hits near my front door. I stand letting go of the duffel and the phone slides from my ear and clacks lightly against the floor.

“Shit!” I jump back as and other loud crash resounds this time followed by the splintering of wood I step out of my room and stare down the hall towards the door and watch as the already cracked wood flies into pieces as spilling into the room as a large black metal ram slams through it a third time. A man steps through the hole in the door, dressed in all black from head to toe, his face completely covered and a pair of goggles over his eyes. He looks like someone out of socom or some shit. Panic Floods my mind as I take a step back away from the black-clad man; my head seeking an exit even though I know the only way out of my shitty apartment is the front door.

He levels a large rifle in my direction and time seems to slow as I hear two thumps. A part of me can almost feel the darts before they hit me and I’m almost convince I could have stopped them if my reaction time had been quicker, but instead all I feel is a stinging pain followed by a quick numbness as the darts embed themselves in my chest. I look down at the darts and watch as the clear liquid in the vials drain into my bloodstream.

“Fuckin’ hell!” is all I can say as I throw one of my hands outwards towards the dark man who shot me, the air ripples and as a wave of force radiates from my hand there is a crack of hair as the force suddenly hits the dark figure in front of me lifts him from the ground and slams him hard against the wall.

I stagger forward for a moment unable to fully comprehend what just happened, I look towards the agent as his head lulls to the side the lenses of his goggles cracked and his mask suddenly looking slick with and wet around his nose and mouth.

The room starts to spin a little and I grab fruitlessly at the darts in my chest, which seem to dodge and weave away from my hands. I barely notice the other two shadowy figures stepping through my broken door, each one firing another dart, which sticks me in the chest beside the first two. I don’t feel the sting this time, just more of that blinding numbness.

I hear something ringing behind me, and I turn to face the wall, the two agents shout something I can’t quite make out as another crash splinters my the hall way wall that separates my apartment from Max’s. My legs wobble as the tranqs start to numb the feeling in my feet and knees. I wonder if what I’m seeing is even real as a large monstrous claw punches through the wall and proceeds to tear a large hunk of sheet rock away revealing a hulking blur of blackness. Its features are vaguely bird like through my fading vision and I begin to wonder if some sort of demon has come to drag me away to hell. A monstrous cry emanates from it’s beak and a large clawed and bird like foot steps through the rubble is the last thing I see before my eyes grow too heavy to hold open and my body slumps to the ground my world fading to black.