Music:
“THE LAST ILLUSIONâ€
By Matt Marshall
It wasn’t always dark when he left his hideouts he had scattered across the face of the earth. And it was ironic to the creature that this, of all days was turning out to be a very bright and beautiful one.
………………………………8:30Am. the leaves on the ground crunched loudly under the Mothman as he walked. His entrancing eyes stared left and right as he went along his way. Through his eyes, objects along the countryside bent anyway he wanted them too. And living things were transparent to the creature, at least when he wanted them to be. At the moment however the creature stopped, and simply stood motionless, thinking of the past. Realizing fully that he was being watched, but didn’t care.
In the sky above, not to far from there, another helicopter seemed to be searching for something again. There were two of them now. It was March third, the year was 2009. Spring was just around the corner in the TNT area. The town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia stood not far off in the distance. There wasn’t any way for most people to realize it then. But an old visitor, from years long ago had returned. Come back again perhaps for the last time of his life!
In town, all the televisions were on, and on every hour of every day. No talk shows, movies or Mtv played. Only the news aired, and on all channels. Some channels repeated warnings, others showed specialists speaking. Then suddenly without warning, a newswoman came on the television with a warning of a nuclear explosion! The people of Point Pleasant were completely shocked by what they saw. Later, they sat with each other, and held the ones they loved. Finally they came to the horrific realization that things would never, ever be the same for them again.
In TNT, the wind was whistling through the trees. Even though it was nearly springtime, it had become a place where the birds didn’t sing anymore. The creature known as the Mothman, was now perched in a large Oak tree overlooking a road. He watched curiously as three speeding cars and a pickup truck drove down the dusty little gray road. As the first car approached, its engine suddenly began to sputter and then turn off. The second car swerved to miss it and coasted off into the woods. The third car and the truck slowed as they approached. But then both crashed into a rusty chain link fence that ran along the little road. The people, some with blood on there clothes, walked up the road, and out of the woods. Then they headed towards the creature for which they came there to meet! It had become late afternoon and the sound of helicopters circling was getting closer. The tail of the creature moved slowly back and forth above him as he balanced himself. Then the Mothman began to think back about his complicated plans, as he quietly stared at the people. Suddenly with one smooth leap, he quietly glided down to the ground, and greeted his guests in a most unusual way!
In Point Pleasant, the people stared with speechless expressions on their faces as they watched breaking news of another nuclear bomb going off! This time it was within the borders of the United States. Other reports were also airing of one of Canada’s major cities being destroyed, sadly, its people were mostly dead! Little hope seemed left for any of the survivors.
Back in TNT, the Mothman walked in a circle around the group of 9 people. His large webbed hands seemed to float in slow motion on each side of him. The creature’s huge webbed feet, with 4 inch claws on them jabbed holes in the ground beneath him. Yet within seconds the tracks disappeared. As he stared into the eyes of the people, he began thinking back about a different time in TNT. And maybe he felt a little sad. For of all the things he had seen, and all the planets where he had been. “Maybe†the creature thought, this was where he called... home!
Off in the distance, thunder like sounds, seemed to be coming from far off lands. They thudded and boomed every so often in the night sky. They also rattled the windows, but were barley noticeable to the people of the little town. Police and military vehicles were visible on the streets of Point Pleasant now. The citizens had no time to think about looming fears as they scurried to get their belongings, and to leave.
The night had fallen in the TNT area. A rusty old water tower sat off in the distance. Its rounded features eerily glistened like a beacon in the moonlit sky. The people had moved closer to it now, and many more from town had come as well. In the sky above, a helicopter descended to where the group of people was standing. Down by the people, the creature suddenly began to rise up in the night sky. Effortlessly, he slowly weaved his way towards the men in the helicopter. Then as the Mothman’s mesmerizing red eyes began to glow, his stare put the men in a hypnotic trance. They closed there eyes by the time the creature had gotten to them. Reaching out, he put one of his large hands through the machines metal frame, and into the two men! Then an almost echoing high pitched screech came from somewhere within the creature. Suddenly the creature began twitching his long leather like fingers. And while the blades of the helicopter spun in slow motion. The Mothman reformatted there minds! As the creature hovered in the air, the helicopter flew off with the other one right behind it. Both flew with their search lights on. The helicopters searched for the people that were now wandering through the woods of TNT, their only care, to guide them back to the creature. The night was mostly silent as the Mothman landed. And the people around him stood silent as well. There were hundreds of them now. Sharing the darkness…sharing the same illusion!
“Point pleasant†was a perfect name for the little town by the Ohio River. The people were good there. Their lives were peaceful. Their hearts were kind. But the people were mostly gone now. Only a few vehicles parked here and there, were left on the streets. Front doors of houses stood open, and the lights in them were left on. Emergency sirens also were left blaring by the last person in charge. In the sky, birds were falling, and an occasional thump or crack of a window breaking, could be heard by the animals that remained behind.
High in the air above Point Pleasant a strange choking smell filled the clouds. The wind slowly moved in the clouds as if it knew what it carried. Passenger planes flooded the night sky overlooking the little town. Then one planes direction started to change. In seconds it was spiraling down to the Earth. Another plane turned end over end before hitting a lower one. Creating a terrifying explosion that lit up the moon in the background of the sky!
At the edge of town the bridge leaving Point Pleasant was packed with vehicles of all kinds. The people in them were strangely calm even with planes crashing into the countryside around them. Then as fate would have it. A plane roaring hopelessly out of control, impacted the bank of the Ohio River at the end of the bridge! The explosion would send a portion of the bridge up in the air, the rest into the river below!
When the bridge fell, the sound was heard for miles. But the Mothman knew it happened in other ways. He also knew there were no survivors, not this time. Up high, smoke from the crashed planes was making the moon look like it was slowly leaving this world, going somewhere else to brighten up another sky. The Mothman knew that time was short now. He sensed that it was about to rain, and when that happened, it would bring the deadly radiation from the clouds, down with it!
The Mothman hovered only a few feet in the air, as he stared at the ground. About a thousand emotionless people stood encircled around him. Without touching anything the Mothman urgently began pealing away a 20ft. Square chunk of earth below him. When he finished, the hole was about six feet deep. At one end he created steps in the earth leading down in the hole. At the other end of the steps, two massive metal doors were exposed in the opening! By himself, the creature hovered close to the doors and a tiny beam slowly scanned from the top, to the bottom of the Mothman. A loud clank could be heard from somewhere inside the doors as they slowly opened into the night. As one of the creatures glowing red eyes began to flicker rapidly, the people formed a line. And following him, they descended deep down into the hole until they heard a clank again, behind them.
On the surface, drops of black stained rain formed puddles of death for anything that was left stranded in them. No more planes flew in the sky above America, or anywhere else. The entire population of the North American Continent was gone now. Except perhaps seemingly important people from various government agencies, with their underground shelters in place for a nuclear war. And the families or individuals that had enough funds to build their own. Of course, China, Russia, nor any other country with nuclear capabilities, would take credit for the largest attack mankind had ever seen! The newspapers and news channels of those nations were stumped by the mystery of who could have started it, or how they remained undetected. Eventually, an uneasiness and distrust came over the leaders of those countries. They began to suspect each other of having an ability to secretly annihilate the countries they opposed around them! Horrifyingly, the countries turned on each other then, striking first they thought, but more so at the same time. Until there was nothing left. And the innocent people of their nations were no more!
In the hole, a pulsating blue glow flooded over the thousand or so people the Mothman had saved the lives of. Their footsteps echoed in an eerie unison as they slowly progressed down the long tunnel. The sound of air rushing could be heard from vents along the sides of the walls. A quiet hum from the massive air filtration system was also audible from somewhere down the tunnel. More sets of heavy steel doors opened and closed, in front of, and behind them as they walked. Soon, the creature led them to a gigantic underground room that had many other tunnels connected to it from other points of the room. The entire underground facility was nearly the size of a shopping mall and had everything needed to maintain the needs of the people. After all the people finished filtering into the center of the large space, the creature rose above them. With a wave of the Mothman’s hand, that almost seemed like he did it for amusement. A red glowing light came on and the people began talking, some to each other, some to no one at all. Then the people started going about there everyday lives again with no memory of what they had been through. Completely emerged now in the Mothman’s illusion!
The creature’s body twitched here and there as he levitated over the contented crowd of people. And he was very pleased with himself as well, for what he had accomplished. But he was also very hungry and tired. And while floating above them, the Mothman drifted in and out of sleep, as his mind… once again, began to think. At first the Mothman thought back of a different world, with a race of creatures that didn’t exist any more. Didn’t exist that is except for him. They were a race more vampire than human, more insect than alien! Again, a sense of pleasure filled him as he took pride in the fact of what he had done. But the act of saving the people wasn't what he took pleasure in exactly, except perhaps for maybe just one. No, the people to him were a way to stay alive, his precious life force, his food! In fact, what the creature was most insanely pleased by was that his careful plans to end civilization, had now come to be. And that the remains of this apocalyptic world it left behind was now his! Finally a shrill sound, not unlike that of a Locus came from the creature while he contemplated creating a new race, part his kind, and part humankind! And in time when they became many, he thought. He would teach them to hunt the remaining humans that were scattered here and there across the Earth, and to feed on the blood of them until they were entirely gone! For only when there weren’t any humans left at all, would he be free of the uncontrollable thirst for blood within him!
The eyes of the creature flickered again as he consciously realized he was back in the red glowing room, and back from his psychopathic dreams. A sense of immeasurable hunger gripped the creature in a way no living thing could ever begin to understand. But the creature had to resist it somehow, pace itself; he knew he would die if he had more than one human per day. It would be a few years until anything could walk the surface of the world again, and by then the creature knew he would be out of the blood he needed to survive! And the human survivors that were left wouldn’t give it up easily. Dark plans entered his mind again as he plotted their demise. Slowly he circled the group of one thousand people in the massive red glowing room, and with his eyes glowing like bicycle reflectors now, he searched for the one human female that would become his mate! The End
Epilogue
Its May fifth, the year is 2012. The town of Point Pleasant has tall grass growing in the middle of its desolate streets. Nothing their has been touched by man for many years now. At the moment, two hungry coyotes snap and growl, more at each other than they do the staggering deer they've cornered by the steps of the courthouse. Before they can finish off the large doe however, a figure swoops down from the sky and takes the deer with it! The creature known as the Mothman lands only a block away atop a partially standing building. In a blinding frenzy, he rips open the chest of the still living animal, and then sucks until its entire insides are gone! Then the creature rises quickly, and streaks again across the sky. Racing precious time to bring back nourishment to his starving young!
Simultaneously, small groups of people, scattered across the planet stand together now, still not knowing what happened to the world, or why. But the last people on Earth sense in a way they can’t even understand. That they will either have to fight for their lives and win, or it will be the end of the human race, forever!
www.mothmanillusion.com
