The boys peered out from the crawl space underneath the boardwalk in Arrow Springs, watching for any movement.

Isaac was frustrated and wanted to cry, but he noticed the smell. It was sickly sweet and putrid, like how Mr. Joe had smelled—a combination of rotten fruit and spoiled fish. In the far corner of the crawlspace was a creature staring at them with its dead, glassy eyes.

This one was tall, thin, and barefoot, with a tattered T-shirt and jeans. Chunks of flesh were missing from the side of its face, revealing rows of teeth, and behind it was a pile of bones that it seemed to be hoarding.

Before the boys could react, the thing hissed and lunged towards them with surprising speed.

Isaac and Simon screamed and frantically crawled toward the opening.

Simon was the first to emerge from the crawlspace. Isaac was almost free as well, but the creature caught his leg.

“Simon! Help me!”

Simon gripped the meat cleaver in both hands and rushed to help his brother. Without hesitation, he swung the meat cleaver onto the arm holding his brother’s ankle, but the thing did not let go. Simon pulled the cleaver out, raised it high above his head, and swung it down as hard as he could on the creature’s wrist, chopping again and again until the hand separated from the arm.

Isaac kicked the hand loose from his ankle, and the boys ran down the street, closely followed by the creature that had crawled out of the space beneath the boardwalk. Other creatures appeared from their hiding places. Some merely watched the boys run by while others gave chase like a pack of wolves running down deer.

Simon and Isaac made it to the edge of town, where the road continued before curving around the trees. The road sloped downhill, and it felt to Isaac that he was on the verge of losing control and toppling to the asphalt.

He sensed his brother next to him, but he couldn't turn to see how he was doing. He just kept going. Soon, they were in the woods, and they broke through the thick foliage and kept running, aware of nothing but their pounding hearts and the darkness ahead.

***

In the following days, the boys hiked down the mountain, staying off the road when possible, for they felt too exposed. Instead, they climbed down into the gullies and followed the dry riverbed. On one occasion, they came upon a steep rockslide made of sharp pieces of bedrock that sloped for a hundred yards.

With each step, they slipped several feet, cutting their palms and bleeding as they tried to find purchase. At one point, Simon lost his footing and began to slide. As he slowed his descent, a piece of granite from above struck his forehead, opening a gash.

“Simon!”

Isaac hurried to his brother, moving off to the side to prevent more rocks from sliding on top of him. Simon’s face was covered with blood. Isaac wiped it off and placed the last two bandages on the cut that was already beginning to swell. Working quickly, he took a strip of the flower print bedsheet and tied it around his brother’s head.

“Are you okay?”

“I think so.”

After a moment of rest, the two continued their journey. They climbed down the exposed roots of cuts in the mountain, bouldered along ridges, and slept under fallen trees–startling at every sound from the darkness.

Six days after leaving the cabin, they found themselves at the bottom of the mountain, hiding behind a large rock, and surveying a desert town that was indistinguishable from all the others they had seen.

Stucco buildings, none more than three stories high, lined the main avenue. Wooden signs with chipped paint atrophied in the dry air, and palm trees swayed gently in the breeze. On the outskirts, dilapidated wooden homes long stripped of their quaintness wilted in the desert sun.

“I don’t remember this place,” Simon said with consternation.

“I don’t either. It’s not the town we drive through to get to the cabin. We must’ve come down a different side of the mountain.”

“It’s… creepy.”

“Yeah. Come on. Let’s go.”

The boys stayed on the outskirts while foraging for food and water. They checked store after store—Bria’s Beauty Salon, Ace Television Repair, and Foothill Meadows Realty.

They found useful items like scissors and a first aid kit, but nothing they could eat. In the back of a gas station, they discovered a refrigerator. They ran to it excitedly and opened it, only to be met with a rancid smell and unrecognizable food covered in mold. They gagged and slammed the door shut.

The boys stood tiredly in the gas station’s backroom.

“My head is starting to hurt again, Isaac.”

Simon was still wearing the strip of cloth around his head.

“Okay, you sit over there. I’m gonna go look in the garage.”

Simon nodded and sat down on the couch, sinking deeply into the fake leather. Isaac entered the service area but could not find anything useful. When he returned, Simon was sitting on the edge of the coffee table, staring at the blank screen of an old TV in the corner.

“I thought it might work,” Simon said listlessly. “It doesn’t.”

Isaac sat beside his brother and handed him their last mini donut. Simon tore it in half and offered one side to Isaac.

“No,” Isaac said. “You have the whole thing.”

Simon eyed him suspiciously.

“I mean it this time,” Isaac said.

Simon nodded appreciatively and took small bites until the donut was gone. Then, the boys resumed their search for food.

As the afternoon wore on, they managed to find a few bottles of water and some nutritional bars. At one point, they rounded a corner and ran into a lanky creature that stood on the sidewalk and stared down at them. It wore a cowboy hat and had a fluffy white mustache, wrinkled gray jowls resembling wattles, and moist, milky eyes that reflected the sunlight.

Before Simon and Isaac could react, the thing casually tipped its hat to them before walking past. They watched it round the corner and go into a nearby barber shop. Peeking in, they saw it take off its hat, sit down on a barber chair, cross its legs, and start reading a newspaper. The boys exchanged confused glances before sneaking away.

They saw other creatures that day. One was dragging a leash behind it as if it were walking its dog. Another was sitting on a park bench with a crow pecking at its eye. A jogger came down a side street, wearing a headband and missing both arms, stumbling side to side as if it were trying to balance something on its head.

The sight elicited a few giggles from the boys, but this was before another creature came sprinting out of a shed. It knocked down the jogger and tore into its face and throat. With strips of flesh dangling from its teeth, it grabbed the jogger by one of its twitching legs and dragged it into the shed, leaving behind a trail of black blood on the asphalt.

At dusk, the boys, still unnerved by what they had seen, found themselves in an old house. Isaac crept into the kitchen and was relieved to find enough packaged and canned foods that seemed like they would last them for the next few days. He turned around to say something to Simon, but he was no longer there.

“Simon? Simon!” he said in a subdued voice.

Heedless of the noise he was making, he frantically searched the first floor before bounding up the stairs, where he found Simon in one of the bedrooms. He was sleeping deeply on a bed. Isaac sank into a chair, feeling suddenly so unimaginably exhausted. He wanted so badly to lie next to his brother and sleep too, but he knew he couldn’t.

His eyes roamed over the dresser, where he found pens, paper, envelopes, and stamps, and an idea came to him.

Hi, Mom and Dad,

I just wanted to let you know that we’re fine. It’s been over thirty days since you dropped us off, Dad. We’re in a house in a town called Foothill Meadows. We found phones here, but none of them worked, so I’m writing this letter to you.

Maybe all of this will be over soon, and maybe this letter will get back to you somehow. I know it’s not likely, though.

Simon is sleeping in one of the beds here. It’s the first time he’s been in a bed since we left home. I really wish we could sleep here tonight because I’m so tired too, but there’s no way to escape if something comes through the door.

I think the safest place for us is back in the woods. It’s starting to get dark, so we’d better head out soon. But I’ll just let Simon sleep a little bit longer. I guess it won’t hurt too much.

A little while ago, he asked me where we were going from here, and I didn’t know what to say. We can’t go back to the cabin, and we can’t keep wandering from town to town. But I think I know now.

Dad, you said you were going back home to take care of Mom because she got sick too, so that’s where we’re headed. We’re going to go back home and look for you guys.

I know it’s far, and I know that we will have to go back into the city to get to our house, but if we go anywhere else, you’ll never find us. I don’t know if I’m making the right choice, but I don’t know what else to do.

I saw a mailbox near here, so I’ll drop this off before we head into the woods. I hope this reaches you somehow.

Love you guys. See you soon.

—Isaac