Lucy glanced nervously around the streets, eyeing the headlights of the military motorcycles driving down the road weaving in and around the old and ruined cars that obstructed the roadways. She and her brother, John, crouched behind a slab of concrete that had likely fallen off one of the dilapidated buildings of the dead city.

The chopping of a helicopter kept up a strange, synchronized rhythm with her rapid heartbeat. The two motorcycles came ever closer, the uniformed riders sweeping the area through dark helmets. Red flags marked their shoulders and bikes, screaming their allegiance for the world to see. John gripped his handgun. They moved on, speeding past on their ill-conducted patrol.

Lucy nodded her head towards their first marked objective. Staying in their crouch, the siblings moved quickly, avoiding the helicopter’s spotlight as they did so and began to rapidly descend the escalator down to the old city metro system.

“They’re getting sloppier,” said Lucy, breaking the silence.

John chuckled. “They must have been on the latest ships. Those guys seem to be less and less trained with each new platoon.”

“I’m not about to complain. Makes our job easier.” Her flashlight flickered.

“Hard enough as it is to find batteries, much less weapons and ammo,” grumbled John.

“That’s why we’re headed to the old DW Building. That place has to have something useful. They were the greatest private military corporation back in the day. Think they might have owned almost half of NATO’s military…”

“Lot of good it did us,” said John almost in a yell. “Where’s the map?”

Sighing deeply, Lucy brought the map to her brother. He jerked it out of her hands and tried to study it with his failing flashlight for a few seconds before angrily throwing the device at the ground.

“Come on, John…” growled Lucy as she bent to retrieve the device. Her own light briefly illuminated something white. A faceless skull grinned at her, right at the foot of the escalator. She instinctively screamed, just for a second. John turned to yell at her, but was silenced by the sight of an almost complete skeleton sprawled out in front of him. Sweeping the area with his light, he saw that there were bits and pieces of bone everywhere. Lucy yelped again as a skull rolled away from her feet, clattering down onto the tracks.

John bent down to examine the skeletal remains at his feet. “Relax,” he commanded. “These ones have been dead for a while.”

Lucy looked down at the tracks and found that those were also cluttered. “What happened?”

“Well, from what I remember, when the sirens went off telling people to evacuate, information was a bit spotty. People thought they were being bombed and came down here for shelter. They didn’t know it was a radiation leak.”

Just as he finished speaking, a particular skeleton caught his eye. It was separated into two halves, each a few feet from each other. What was unusual is that it looked like the body had been separated in a clean, horizontal cut. “Odd…” Suddenly, a jolt of fear took hold of him. “Let’s just travel by street level.”

Lucy nodded vigorously and they turned to retrace their steps. They’d rather risk running into a patrol than spend another minute in that tomb.

Suddenly, John’s sister let out an abrupt scream. From the shadows in front of the escalators, two glowing, white eyes stared at them. A likewise glowing crescent mouth grinned underneath it, with things that looked like teeth protruding from the jaws. “Leaving so soon?” it asked in a voice that seemed to bore deep into the sibling’s hearts and minds.

John and Lucy instinctively leapt back from that face in the shadows. With panic closing over their hearts, they turned to sprint away down the subway tunnel, their only way out. Instead, they saw only a wall of darkness in their way, their flashlight beams hitting it and simply ceasing to exist. More of those faces appeared in the dark, grinning forth with sadistic glee. The siblings began to spin around, searching for a way out with the desperation of trapped animals. There was none. The darkness surrounded them. The faces began to laugh in unison, a nightmarish choir filling the air.

The first face to appear, the one that had spoken to them, began to move forward, breaking from the shadow surrounding the area. A massive body began to form from the blackness. It was hard for the siblings to distinguish its exact appearance from its similarly colored background, but they could make out what appeared to be twisting, moving skulls pushing out of its “skin.”

“Oh, why do you want to leave?” it said. “I get so few visitors down here. It’s been so long. Please stay, let’s have a chat.”

That was the last thing the siblings wanted to do, but this thing wasn’t leaving them a lot of options.

“Now tell me…” the thing continued. “You’re far, far from home. Is there any reason for you little whelps to be in this mass grave of a city? It must be good…” It reached down and picked up a skull from the floor. With one deft motion, it drew a clawed finger across the top and sheered it right in half. “And don’t lie to me.”

John glanced at over at Lucy. She was pale and sweating with fear, a feeling he could currently relate to. Her eyes gave an answer to his unspoken question: Don’t tell it.

“We… we’re looking for scraps…” John managed to stutter.

It chuckled. “In an ‘irradiated’ city? Not to mention you’re both too well dressed to be that desperate…” It began to edge ever closer, its voice taking on a warning tone. “Now what did I say not fifteen seconds ago?”

Despite her own warnings, Lucy broke. “Weapons!” she yelled. “We’re looking for weapons!”

The thing laughed, a great, booming yet grating noise that forced the siblings to cover their ears. “Oh, now I understand. It’s for your… unwelcome visitors from out of town, correct?”

They both nodded vigorously.

“Is it to evict them? You want peace, correct?” Chuckling again, it began to circle them. “Oh, I don’t even need to ask. Of course you do. It’s what all in this world desire.” Suddenly, it turned and leaned its freakish face towards them, separated only by a few feet that seemed more like a few inches. “I happen to be able to grant that, you know…”

John thought of the skulls littering the ground. Yeah right… he thought to himself.

Without warning, the thing arched its head back. “Oh, you don’t believe me, do you?” it asked incredulously. “I know you of all people desire peace, John.” Its face twisted into several expressions before settling on concern. “Most of all, you’re tired of people pushing you into conflict.

“You, John, are so tired of being a pawn on everyone else’s board. Your… resistance group… they sent you into this empty city! You and your sister. They sent you  here to die.”

Lucy thought she could see some kind of black mist seeping from the thing’s maw. It was floating forward in a faint cloud towards John, collecting around his head. He didn’t seem to notice.

“Let’s be honest, John, what is this if it isn’t solid betrayal?” It continued.

“But why would they betray me?” asked John in disbelief. He was breathing it in.

“They fear you and your success, John. You’ve been carrying them to victory time and time again. They know that they cannot control you, therefore, they just…” (it clenched its fist tightly) “Need to remove you.”

John shook his head, disturbing the increasingly thick cloud of mist around his head. “You’re lying,” he said to Lucy’s immense relief. “How could you even know any of that? Besides, I hate the invaders too much to not help the resistance.”

The thing chuckled. “And that’s what you hate. You hate that you hate. No happiness or joy in your life. It’s all just so much fighting.”

It leaned closer. Its grin widened and more mist poured out to envelop John’s head.

“I do believe it was your sister who convinced you to join the conflict, remember?”

Lucy’s heart leapt into her throat. “What, no!” she yelled. John’s response was similar, also aimed at her. Her brother looked at her through the mist surrounding his head. He was breathing in deeply, sucking in the fumes, glazed eyes locked onto her. “Lucy… you wouldn’t have…?”

“No!” Panic began to close around her throat. She could imagine that they were the creature’s claws. Maybe they were… “John, you know me, I wouldn’t do something like that to you!”

“Wait…” said John. He looked like he was struggling to recall something. He suddenly locked eyes with her again. They seemed to have a glow to them. “You did!” His face contorted in anger. “I remember now! What was it you said? Something about ‘giving our lives for a worthy cause, for something bigger than us?’ You did drag me into this whole war!”

“It was our war to begin with!” countered Lucy before she could stop herself.

“So you did do it!” yelled John with triumph.

The thing shook its head. “It’s just not fair, is it John? Such betrayal from someone so close. It seems everyone wants to control you these days.”

“No…” said John though clenched teeth. The black mist shot violently from his nostrils in his anger. “No one’s going to control me! Not the stupid, commie invaders, not the resistance…” He began to walk towards Lucy, jamming his finger at her. “And most certainly not you!”

“John, no, I’m not trying to control you!” insisted Lucy. She began to back away from her brother, noticing the tar-like substance leaking from the corner of his mouth. His body looked like it was producing that mist on his own. The thing stood to the side, admiring its handiwork, that smile never leaving its face.

Lucy continued to try to talk to her brother. “Think about it, John. We’ve always helped each other, from the day the invaders came, to the day we joined up. I’ve always had your back, and you mine! You weren’t even this angry until that… Thing… started talking to you!”

The thing chuckled. As if another thought got planted, John began to yell at her again, black mist and drops of tar spewing from his mouth. “Oh, and what about that time not five minutes ago when you told me not to tell It what we were doing? Only for you to tell it! Oh yeah, I really appreciate you having my back there!” He began pacing, then reached for his gun. He aimed it at her. “It ends here, girl! I’m in charge!”

Tears of pain and fear clouded Lucy’s eyes. “John…”

He started to laugh. His eyes glowed with a faint redness, black tar stained his pointed teeth as he aimed the gun barrel at his sister. “Not taking any more of it! No one’s in control of me!” He began to squeeze the trigger. “Here, watch!”

Lucy turned and began to run. The many faces in the darkness parted before her, revealing the escalators leading up the way they came. A lancing pain tore through her leg, followed by the roar of the gun that had shot her. She didn’t feel herself go down, only knew that she was desperately crawling up the stairs.

A gun fired again. It wasn’t her brother’s gun, however. This was a quick, three-round burst from an assault rifle. Lucy heard her brother scream behind her as two pairs of hands jerked her roughly to her feet, ignoring her leg injury. Uniformed men, the Invaders, ran around the station, lights sweeping for more targets.

The shadow thing was nowhere to be seen.

With little care, the men dragged the injured siblings up the escalator to a waiting armored transport vehicle, which they tossed them in without much ceremony.

As they drove off to interrogation, torture, and likely death, Lucy could think only of her brother. John had survived the shots. The vest under his jacket had seen to that. Now that they were sitting across from each other, she felt that they needed each other more than ever. The mist was gone from him, as was the glow from his eyes. They stared into her own, pleading for her forgiveness, shame and regret welling up from within them along with the tears.

She didn’t know how to respond. She could barely even look at him. She couldn’t forget that look of glee in her brother’s eyes as he’d taken aim at her with the intent to kill. Or did he? He would have needed to aim down in order to hit her leg. Had he actually been fighting that Thing’s influence?

It scarcely matter. The echoing laugh of the Thing and it’s many skulls sounded through her mind, a ghostly chorus of death in honor of the lies that grinning mouth spun played to the night.