Underneath the Playground

The sunset stained the sky a deep red, vibrant orange bleeding through into the clouds. Our walk under the painted sky was silent other than the soft sound of breathing and the grass crunching under our feet. 

The winter snow had almost melted. It was still hanging on in places, but it was dirty and the grass peeked through the top. That didn’t take away from the temperature, though, as it was still bitterly cold. 

Taylor’s breath puffed out in wispy clouds from his parted mouth. He stared forwards, lost in thought, a hand curled around his rifle.

I had my own pistols at my waist, ready to be fired at a moment’s notice. Still, even with our protection, we both couldn’t help our nervous eyes from darting around and taking note of everything that we saw. Shadows that were out of place, potential hiding spots, blood, human or not. It was all second nature by now. 

“Gosh, I hope that this cold weather lets up soon,” I said. 

Taylor gave no sign that he had even heard me, casting the comment into the void of silence between us.

   “Taylor?” I asked. 

   He blinked. “Sorry, Jamie, I was just…just thinking. What were you sayin’?” 

“Nothing really important, just-,” My words stopped dead along with my forward march as I saw the structure in the distance. Only a dark silhouette against the tainted sky, there was no telling what it was. It could be a nest that served as a home for some of the creatures that now plagued this Earth - that was most likely. Or, possibly, it housed human life. 

“That thing in the distance- what is it?” Taylor squinted at the horizon. 

“Only one way to find out,” I replied, breaking into a run. 

The soft sound of boots hitting the ground whispered that Taylor was following me. We both sped forwards, his hands clutching his gun like it was a child’s teddy bear, mine swinging freely at my sides. 

The structure got closer and closer, the shadows melting away from it as the distance between us closed. What once might have been eye-achingly bright colors had faded to muted reds, yellows, and blues. Metals bars littered the ground like limp limbs, melting into the sea of wood chips. My feet skidded against the muddy ground as I screeched to a halt. 

It was a children’s playground. 

Part of the monkey bars were still standing confidently, surveying the damage to the rest of the playground. In one corner sand spilled over from its beaten containment, although it had seemed to freeze in the middle of its attempt at devouring the place. The swingset had been completely taken apart and scattered around like confetti. 

Upon seeing the playground a single thought in my mind was alienated. It was like the playground; the only structure somewhat still standing in that sea of destruction. 

How was this not destroyed? 

I mean, it was possible that whatever was roaming around here had given up on their quest to completely take it apart if there wasn’t any human life there. Still, the day that the creatures had first started their bloodthirsty rampage on our population, they had destroyed an entire library in a matter of seconds. Before we had even received the news that some experiments had broken out of a lab not even twenty minutes away, sirens were crying out across our town. 

The creatures were made to kill. Originally designed to be war machines, they had the strength of every animal that would make you piss your pants should you come face-to-face with it: lions, wolves, sharks, that kind of stuff. They were murder machines, heartless and cold. 

I glanced over my shoulder at Taylor, watching his haunted eyes take in the playground. I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could force any words to be formed, gunshots rang out. 

“Get down!” I screamed over the sharp BANGBANGBANG that echoed through the barren wasteland that the playground was standing in. Taylor was already diving towards the sea of wood chips below us before my words even reached him.

I followed suit, scrambling towards a chunk of what used to be a slide to hide behind. 

Taylor’s chest rose and fell like a wave, his forehead glistening with sweat. “What the hell is shooting at us?” he hissed. “For the love of fuck, please tell me that the creatures don’t have guns now.” 

“Who’s there?” A voice called. I risked a glance over the hunk of slide that served as our hiding place. 

She stood like some sort of guardian angel, the rays of light cast from the vanishing sun forming a halo around her wild red mop of hair. Her eyes were two-toned, one a bright green and the other a piercing blue. 

She scanned the area with her machine gun, stopping when it was pointed at the center of my forehead. 

“You!” She yelled. “Come out with your hands up!” 

“You don’t look like a police officer to me,” I shot back, my voice dripping with malice. I thought that she might be happy to see another human being. Seems like I was wrong.

“Jamie, she’s got a machine gun,” Taylor said before standing up, holding his palms out to the woman. “We come in peace! My name is Taylor, and the idiot with me is Jamie. We were the only survivors when those creatures attacked our town.” 

I stood up beside him, giving him the friendly gift of a jab to the ribs.

The woman lowered her machine gun. “So you are survivors of the apocalypse, too?” We nodded. “If you would like to be safe, I have a base set up here. I live with three other people, but we don’t mind recruits. Anything to help out fellow survivors, yes?” She turned and started off.

We followed her without any questions. She could’ve easily killed us, but the promise of more human life was too great to ignore. Just knowing that we weren’t the only ones on our own for months made the whole apocalyptic situation just a little brighter.

The woman introduced herself as Wisteria. Their base, she revealed, was located below the playground. It had taken a month to dig out, and two of their comrades had died in the process, but since they established the base they hadn’t been attacked by any creatures. 

“The creatures might be big and strong, but they’re also dumb,” Wisteria said as she led us through the tiny tunnel that served as the entrance. “They can smell us down here, but they have no idea how to get to us. Eventually, they just gave up.” 

The tunnel led into a spacious room. There was a long table in one corner, and in the opposite the floor was lined with sleeping bags. One wall was filled with little square indents that served as shelves, housing many weapons and other survival tools. 

The tunnel went on through the opposite end of the room, part of it breaking off into another room. 

“Up ahead is the kitchen. There’s no need to go in there, I do all of the cooking here.” Wisteria smiled. 

“Wisteria?” A voice sounded from behind us, making me jump in my shoes. I turned around, greeted by three figures. 

“Who are these guys?” The woman in front had her arms crossed. Her round face was framed by a black frizz of hair.

“Calm down, Peyton,” Wisteria replied. “They’re just new recruits.” 

The men behind Peyton stepped forwards, lugging a giant carcass between them. 

Holy shit.

It was the dead body of one of the creatures. The two men moved around Wisteria, disappearing off into the kitchen. 

Formal introductions were cued then, filled with a lot of hand shaking and repetition of stories you’d already told twice because a new person wanted to hear it. The guys that had brought in the creature’s corpse were Ollie and Cameron, who served as the hunters of the group. Peyton and Wisteria were defenders, although Wisteria also doubled as the cook. 

“Speaking of,” Wisteria said, “Why don’t we have dinner? I have extra meat left over from last night which I’m sure will taste just divine with the creature that Ollie and Cameron killed.”

Cameron’s eyes darted to the ground, and the color in Ollie’s cheeks quickly faded. Peyton swallowed before saying, “That does sound like it would be just…delicious.” 

The dinner wasn’t terrible. It was quite simple: two cuts of each kind of meat, grilled and seasoned lightly. The creature meat was good. It was difficult to discern from grilled steak. 

The other meat, though- something was off. It wasn’t bad, it was just…I don’t know. It tasted like something I’d been eating my entire life, and at the same time, an experience that I had never encountered before. 

For the two days after that, me and Taylor learned our places in the group. We shared the supplies that we had accumulated over our time trying to survive this apocalypse. Taylor became a hunter, going out with Ollie and Cameron while Peyton protected them, and I learned how to be a defender. Wisteria acquainted me with the weapons that I hadn’t used before and walked me through what would happen if there was a security breach. 

Meals were mostly the same meat, prepared in the same way: simply grilled with seasonings on top. Mostly it was creature, but sometimes Wisteria served us “special meat”, the different meat that we had eaten for dinner on our first day of arriving. 

Three days after we had arrived, me and Taylor sat down at the table for dinner. Cameron and Peyton both slid into their seats, eyes darting around the room. 

“Where’s Ollie?” I asked. The empty seat at the table stuck out like a missing tooth. 

Wisteria smiled, but it looked wrong. It was too wide, and her mismatched eyes gleamed with a cold certainty. “Oh, he was helping with dinner.” 

Across from me and Taylor, Peyton’s eyes widened and Cameron’s face drained of all of its color. 

“What do you mean?” I continued as Wisteria set down the plate piled with meat in front of me. 

“Ollie wasn’t helpful to our group anymore, so I found a new job for him. I think that he’ll be very tasty. Now, eat up!”

Nausea rushed over me like a violent storm, and I doubled over and vomited on the floor. 

“What? Is human not to your taste? Well, I hate to break it to you, but that’s what you’ve been having the past three nights.” 

I staggered to my feet, trying to keep down the urge to vomit again. “Me and Taylor…we- we have to go.” 

“I’m sorry, but that just won’t do,” Wisteria smiled. Peyton and Cameron’s eyes were glued to the table as she stood up and grabbed the rifle leaning in the corner. “It’s quite rude to leave after someone has cooked something just for you.”

“Run!” Taylor’s voice exploded next to my ear, and then it was gone. 

We ran like the wind. Wisteria’s shrill voice echoed through the tunnel that we shot down, past the kitchen. 

It dimly occured to me that we were running in the opposite direction of the exit, but that was snatched away when Wisteria shot me. 

Pain screamed from my arm, blazing up to my shoulder. I staggered, but Taylor shoved me forwards. “Keep going!” 

My feet slipped against the loose dirt below me as I turned down the tunnel. “There’s light! Taylor, there’s light!” I screamed, pointing towards the soft glow in front of us. 

“Keep going!” he shouted in reply. 

My veins pumped full of adrenaline and the searing pain in my arm fading to the background, I pressed on. The light only got brighter. 

The tunnel suddenly veered right, leading into a huge room. The light shone from hundreds of candles all spiraling out from the middle. 

Me and Taylor stopped in our tracks. 

“What…?” Taylor whispered. “What is this?” 

Footsteps sounded behind us, thumping against the ground. Wisteria stood with her rifle, blocking the doorway. 

She pulled out a butcher knife three times the size of her hand. “I think that you guys are going to be just delicious.”