Chapter 4: Kill or be killed

Asher and his mother were sitting under the kitchen table frozen in fear. Hours had passed and yet the screams still continued. They had not even stopped for a single moment, never relenting at all. Asher and Sarah had not spoken a word to each other since they had gotten under the table, too afraid to make even the slightest sound. A cold sweat had come over Asher and his pale skin was covered in Goosebumps. He had never experienced fear like this before, not even close. Sarah was also looking worse for wear but seemed to be holding it together better than he was, managing to stay somewhat calm and composed. She had been grasping his hand for hours now, not letting go for even a moment. 

Asher's thoughts were scrambled, unable to form a coherent one at all. All of his thoughts were overwhelmed by a feeling of pure and utter dread. He gave up trying to think and started to control his breathing to try to calm himself down. Just as he began to compose himself an inhuman shriek pierced through the never ending screams. As soon as Asher heard the shriek he felt like his mind was being assaulted by a thousand needles, causing him to yelp and crumple onto the ground. He was clutching his head with his hand and his entire body was uncontrollably shaking. All he could hear was that shriek tearing through his mind, causing him indescribable pain. And then just as suddenly as the shriek started it stopped allowing the screams of humans to take centre stage once again. Asher lay on the ground unable to move his body at all, he was paralyzed from fear. Whatever that shriek was it had reached into the very core of his being, instilling him with pure primal fear. 

Minutes passed until finally Asher willed his body to overcome the terror that permeated his whole body and pushed himself up. He had to check on Sarah, her hand was still holding his hand this entire time . With great effort he turned to look at where Sarah was and his face sunk. Sarah had passed out and looked as white as a ghost. 

"Mom… Mom, can you hear me? Mom wake up please, please wake up!" Asher said in a panic. He gently shook and her eyes began to open slowly. Asher sighed in relief . He did not even pass any heed to the screams all around them, just happy that his mother was okay.

"What? Ash, are you okay, what happened?" She asked meekly

"I should be asking you that question, you gave me a fright there." Asher smiled at her and helped her to sit up. 

They both sat there embracing each other for what seemed like an eternity until eventually the screams began to die down until eventually they stopped altogether. Not wanting to take any chances they did not get out from under the table until several more minutes passed. 

As Asher stood up he realised how weak his body felt. It was like that screech had sucked all the life out of him, all of his energy was gone. Not allowing this to hinder him he moved towards the door. He had to know what exactly had happened outside, he just had to. 

Seeing this Sarah gave him a troubled look. "Ash what are you doing? You can't go out there yet." She said worriedly. 

"We have been sitting here for hours mam, we have to know what's happened outside." Asher replied. As he got to the door he steeled himself, preparing for whatever it was he would see outside. He opened the door but surprisingly everything looked normal. Scratching his head he walked outside but all the houses and shacks in front of him seemed to be fine for the most part. Perplexed, he thought for a moment that maybe he had just fallen asleep in his room earlier and it was all a dream, but deep down he knew that wasn't true. Grimacing, he turned around to look back at his home where Sarah was standing at the door. His face paled as he looked beyond his home out across the Boundary, but all he could see was darkness only slightly illuminated by the red hue coming from the numbers in the sky. All the dimly lit street lights just beyond his home were extinguished and no sounds of human life could be heard. Then he noticed it only thanks to the red hue of the numbers illuminating the streets just past where he lived. For as far as he could see there were bodies, all littering the streets. Asher felt his stomach turn to turn as he looked upon the bodies closest to him. A young boy and his mother were lying there, the woman had red marks all around her neck as if she had been choked, but the buy was what was really disturbing Asher. The boy's eyes were gone, it looked as if they had been clawed out but looking down at the boy's hands Asher saw that they were covered in blood. It had been the boy who had clawed out his own eyes. 

Unable to look at the harrowing scene in front of him any longer Asher turned around and looked up to the sky. There was something else he had to check but as did he could hardly believe what he saw. His heart sank as the numbers had dropped from over ten million people to just over two. "How is that possible, I mean there is just no way that can be possible. Millions of people can't just die like that in twelve hours there's no way." He thought to himself, as a mix of disbelief and terror consumed him. 

Looking back up at the numbers he glanced over to the other set which were 1,0250,754. Asher could hardly breath, as he saw the timer had started again this time for twenty four hours. He knew what this meant, the population would have to drop in half from two million to one million people or whatever had killed all those people would come back. This left only one option to the remaining people in the Boundary which Asher shuddered to think about. The Boundary was about to descend into utter chaos, a free for all between the remaining people… kill or be killed.