Vultures

by Kemal Onor

We were at the usual spot when we got the news to stay inside. The terror that had already swept through the greater cities of the world was now approaching. There was no preventing its course. The only offered solution was to stay indoors. We listened a while after the warning was played over the car radio. Even though we had watched the destruction to foreign countries, staring in awe, at the devastating power it had to turn once lively cities to nothing more than archeological finds. With only a guess to how people once lived. It was sad how unprepared we were. We never thought that things would get so bad. We expected any day a better solution would come about. We all thought things would return to normal sooner rather than later. We faced a new way of life.

I turned off the radio, and reached for my shirt.

“Clay, can we stay out here a little longer." said Shannon. She pulled innocently at her hair, letting it rest against her breasts. She looked frail. In the way stone might appear after its crumbled to dust. I moved forward and kissed her.

“Sure," I said. I put my shirt back on. Shannon put herself next to me and we slept in the car. The next morning, we woke to find a light drizzle against the windows. I turned the engine on. I made a move for the radio, but Shannon looked at me and took my hand.

“I don’t want to." I give her a nod, and soon we are making our way through the rainy, gray morning. The dirt road turns to pavement as we leave the usual spot. The pine trees receded, and through the branches we started to see open spaces. I can see Shannon peering upward. She is scanning the sky. I can feel her nervousness. Pressing down on the accelerator, we make good time. I hit the brakes hard, nearly crashing into the back of an eighteen-wheeler. We sit waiting for the truck to make a move. The tractor trailer is still for several minutes. Traffic is at a standstill. I make an attempt to pass the truck. Again, I jam the brakes as we are almost taken out by a pickup. For a brief instance, I catch the frightened look on the driver’s face. He is fleeing like a bat, with that horrible face plastered on. Ugly I think. Eventually, we manage to make it around the eighteen-wheeler and are moving once more. Shannon is practically shaking in her passenger seat.

“Will we be safe" she asked.

“I hope so." I said.

“We shouldn’t be here."

We both see it at the same time. A green and brown sedan with all its doors open by the side of the road. The engine is still running. Its headlights look out into the bleak morning without purpose. We do not see any bodies. There never are. That’s the joy of this thing. It leaves behind a clean slate. Shannon practically screams when she spots a distant kettle of vultures. They look to still be holding their prey. Several people flailing like wriggling worms at the bottom of their talons. I pressed hard on the accelerator. Shannon was absolutely right; we should not be here. The rain increased and we were blinded. The engine roared louder. My knuckles went white as I peered ahead trying to make out vague shapes in the gray wash.

By some miracle, we managed to make it back into the city. Shannon was breathing a little easier now that most of the sky was blotted out by sky scrapers and office buildings. Most of these were already empty. The city had turned eerie. The streets were empty. It was beginning to look like the ancient ruins of what once was.

"Look," said Shannon. She pointed with a hand on the window. I followed her instruction and saw a block up a young man and woman walking sided by side with a child. I moved the car after them. Maybe they didn’t know. They looked to be leisurely making their way along the side walk. They did not appear to be checking and scanning the sky for danger.

“Hey, you shouldn’t be here," I called. The couple with the child stopped and turned to look at me as though I had just called them a bad name. “Don’t you know what’s going on?” All the warnings were there. Avoid groups, stay indoors, travel alone, wear dark colors to blend in. My stomach dropped when I caught the shadow. The young man was looking at Shannon and me as if he might say something. Before he had a chance, I watched his face twist into a scream. I watched his eyes shut then grow wide. He fought and twisted his body, but it was no good. A vulture had set its talons squarely into his shoulders and he was being lifted from the ground. His legs kicked freely in the air as he struggled to swing his body. He was screaming something that sounded like shoot, but the heavy beating of wings pressed down again and again as he was lifted from the ground. The woman he was traveling with had her head turned to the sight of a gun.

In a fluid motion she raised it. There was a blast and a trail of smoke. The little girl covered her ears and sat down. I watched the bird swing about in midair. We watched both fall. The man hit the ground first. He groaned, rolling when he struck the pavement. There were three more blasts from the gun. The vulture’s feathers kicked up like leaves. The child trembled, but did not cry. I was unable to move. Was this the final thing that was going to wipe out the human race? Were we going to one by one succumb to this disease? I felt Shannon at my side. I felt her like a ghost in a room where someone has only recently died. I closed my eyes. I was trying to get the image out of my head. The idea that this dead bird was once a human being. That it had been one of the unlucky to catch this, and now he or she was dead. It was the hard line of survival. Now it was either we survive or they survive. I felt something hard forming in my gut. I opened my eyes.

There was no denying the traces of humanity that lingered even after the transformation. The shoulders were too broad, and there was still a thin layer of hair growing out of what should have been a bald head. The man was upright now, cradling his arm. He looked fortunate to be alive.

“We shouldn’t be here," I said at length. “We have to get indoors." Distance, keeping separation. The more barriers between you and those things out there the less likely the chance you have of catching it. I moved the car slowly forward. We made for my place. It was the safest, being its seclusion from other buildings. A small studio apartment that offered a quiet distance from the major bustle of city living. We sat a moment in the parking lot, scanning the sky. It looked clear. We ran to the door.

We were inside, straight to the second floor and into my apartment. I locked the door behind us. I found Shannon at the window. She was looking through the plastic slat curtain, watching the sky, looking over the city. I found a radio and set it in the middle of the living room.

“It won’t help," I said.

“I know," she said.

“We’re indoors now."

“Yea." Shannon took her eyes from the sky and moved towards the living room and sat down by me. I wondered if this whole event was going to bring us closer together or drive a wedge between us. Now we were set up to play the newlywed game. But we were not honey mooning, we were trying to survive. We sat in my small living room.

“How’s your friend doing in this?"

“He’s on the front lines."

“I don’t think the world will ever be the same after this."

“It will take time to recover."

I look about the room. My younger self could have only dreamed of being trapped at home with a girl as beautiful as Shannon. We had met in college. She was studying classic literature, with a minor in photography. I was studying journalism and drinking. Back then it didn’t faze me. I could drink all night, and wake up as though I had been slugging water. I felt more creative when my head started to swim. The words came easier. I could only guess Shannon’s attraction to me was subconscious in that I reminded her of her literary idols. The men who drank themselves to death. I moved across the couch and kissed her.

“I kind of wish I had my books with me." She smiled at me, and I felt the heat on my lips and face.

That night we slept together. Her body curled under me and my chest against her back. For the moment we were safe, and we could make it through this. I slept with this truth. I woke the next morning. Shannon was out and moving around the apartment when I opened my eyes. At first, I looked out into the morning light with one eye. My left eye felt as though someone had sealed it with super glue. It was just a layer of morning crust, I thought. Shannon was standing by the window when I left the bedroom. I also felt a throbbing sensation in my right shin. It felt like the bone was being stretched.

“Any news?" I said. Shannon shook her head. She looked down at her feet and folded in on herself. I went to the window. I pulled the curtain back and peered out into a bright, clear day. I then saw what Shannon must have seen. A massive kettle of vultures filled the sky. Their wings moved tirelessly. They were circling, rising, drifting about in that morning air. This disease was looking for survivors. I let my gaze linger on their grotesque forms. I turned from the window and went to the radio.

I caught the pleading look that Shannon gave me. It would not stop me. I turned on the receiver and began scanning for a station. The radio only put out a constant hum of static. I felt my gut turn to water. Shannon and I sat in the static hum of the radio. Neither could look each other in the face. I think we both knew at that moment things would never return to normal, even if we did manage to survive. This was too big. It was on too grand a scale. I flicked the radio off, and let the silence endure.

The next morning, I woke to a persistent tapping. It was like someone was trying to chop in through the walls. A dry thud hit of the out most lumber. I wondered if these things could be evolving, if they were slowly keeping more of the human mind in order to hunt more of us down. One by one we would starve in our homes. I hated these things. I hated what we had been reduced to. We were nothing more than ants cowering in the dark of our homes. Again, my bones felt like they had been pulled to taffy during the night. It sent a shot of pain through my legs as I stood from the bed. There was a cluster of a short patch of feathers. It flared up like a rash on my forearm. I went to the bathroom. I pulled the new growth from my arm. It was painful, but I would not succumb so easily to this virus. I would do everything I could to fight it. My arm was raw and red, and the sink was filled with blood. I could hear Shannon in the living room. I knew she would be standing by the window. I knew she would watch me from a distance as I spread my wings and took to the sky.