52 Seconds

My sister and I are the only ones left in our family. My father died before it all started. My mother collapsed one day from exhaustion and we couldn’t carry her, so we had to run. That was probably the hardest day of my entire life. I didn’t look back when it happened, but I remember hearing her screams. I remember hearing those blood-curdling, eardrum-shattering screams as they took her. I still hear those screams in my dreams at night. It’s been six months since The Swarm began terrorizing this country. It's hard to know how many are dead because there is never any time to stop and read the news. The Swarm only attacks those who are standing still, so as long as we keep moving, we’ll be safe. As long as we keep moving, we’ll survive. “Hey Daniel," my sister whispers, derailing my train of thought. "I’m getting tired, do you think it’d be ok if I used the cart for a while?” As you can imagine, finding time to rest in this world is difficult. So we found a shopping cart at an abandoned mall, and take turns pushing each other around in it while the other sleeps. We trade 8-hour consecutive shifts nonstop: sleep, push, sleep, push, sleep, push. It's also a convenient way to carry all of our extra clothes. “Sure, Lucy, get in.”

52 seconds: that’s how long you can be standing still before The Swarm takes you. It’s hardly enough time to catch your breath. There’s no significance to the number as far as I’m aware, that’s just how long it takes. Someone programmed them that way. They’re not insects; they’re more like machines, and they exist everywhere at all times. Tiny nano-bots that materialize seemingly out of thin air and devour your flesh in merely a few seconds. I’ve only seen it happen a handful of times, but I’ve seen it enough to know it's a rather grotesque way to die. How does one escape this nightmare? Cars seem like a good idea at first, but after a while you’ll run out of fuel and then what? You can’t stop to get gas. I’ve heard rumors that some people have invented a rolling gas station that can supply fuel to vehicles while both are still in motion, but I’ve never seen such a vehicle, and it sounds rather impractical to me. Bikes are another idea, but biking can make it hard to move up hills and rocky terrain. Besides, there’s no reason to go that fast, you just have to keep moving. My sister and I agree that walking is definitely the best option.

“Hey, Daniel…” Her voice is raspy and weak. “I’m getting kinda hungry.”

“Hey getting kinda hungry, I’m Daniel.”

She rolls her eyes and laughs. I laugh too, but then it’s interrupted by my stomach growling. “Come on, let’s go find some food.” Lucy nods in agreement.

It’s been six months since it all started. At least that’s how long I think it’s been. Six months of constant movement. My legs pretty much move on their own at this point. Walking has become an instinct. My mother had a disability which made walking extremely painful for her. She died within the first thirty minutes of The Swarm invading our homeland. I clutch the heart shaped locket hanging around my neck tightly whenever I think about her. It used to be her’s. She gave it to me when I was only a child and back then I never wore it because I thought it was silly. Now it's the one thing I have to remember her by, so naturally I make sure it never leaves my sight. When she gave it to me she told me that it contained a special note for my eyes only. I’ve never read it, partly because I’m terrified to know the last words my mother will ever say to me. Maybe it doesn’t make any sense, but I feel like if I leave those words unread, she’s still with me. Like if at any moment she could speak those final words to me then she isn’t quite dead yet, but once I read them she’ll never say anything again. Then she’ll be gone forever. I swear it makes sense in my head.

“Thinking about mom again?” Lucy inquires.

“Yeah…”

“I don’t understand why you don’t open that stupid thing. I wanna know what it says!”

“Oh I will eventually, I’m just saving it for the right moment.” I wink at her.

“Ugh.” She smiles and rolls her eyes. “Ya know you’re really weird sometimes.” My sister likes to tease me. I’m not a very positive-thinking person so her sarcastic, snarky attitude is what keeps me alive.

We search for several hours around town for food but can't find anything. There’s nothing in any of the houses and nothing in any of the grocery stores. Even the back stock rooms of old restaurants have been completely stripped of food and supplies. The whole town seems completely desolate. No signs of life anywhere. The roads are cracked and crumbled. The buildings have all but collapsed into rubble. It feels less like a town and more like a scar on the surrounding forest. “Come on bro, there’s nothing here either. let’s get out of here.”

“Ok, sis, but can I sit in the cart for a while?”

“Nah, you’re kinda heavy, how about we both walk for a bit?”

“Fine…”

We’re about to leave town when suddenly I hear the loud roar of motors coming closer. “What's that sound? Is it the swarm?” My sister asks nervously. “No…. It’s a gang of marauders!” Somehow they snuck up on us. There must be at least 8 or 9 of them, and they don’t look friendly. They came up behind us, and before we could even react to their presence they started riding around us in circles. Once they have us trapped they slowly move in closer and closer to make the circle smaller. When we try to move in any direction one of them crosses in front of us, making it impossible to escape. So this is it huh? They probably saw the nice warm jackets in our shopping cart and wanted it for themselves. Or maybe they simply don’t like us.

“Daniel… we have to think of something” Lucy grabs my shoulder and shakes me. But it doesn’t matter. Several seconds have already passed, and the swarm will be here soon. This is it. This is the end. This is how we die. Those pathetic cowards… “Daniel, please. Why aren’t you saying anything?” I hear her beg, but it's already too late. By now at least 20 seconds have passed, and I can barely think straight let alone come up with a plan. If we’re really going to die, then there’s one thing left that I want to do. I take the locket out from underneath my shirt. “Daniel, I think I figured a way out of this, but we have to act now!” I can barely hear her at this point. I start to think that maybe I want to die. Maybe I’m tired of it all and want to see my mom again. I open the locket and begin unfolding the note. My hands are trembling so it takes a while, maybe about ten seconds. I start to hear the low hum of The Swarm approaching. The message is short. Reading it takes maybe another three. “Daniel, we have to go now! There’s no time to explain the plan, just follow my lead, ok?” No… how is this possible? How could she have known? We must have been in middle school when she wrote this. That was almost a decade ago! “Daniel, please!!” I look up at my sister and see the panic in her eyes. There’s tears in mine. By now at least 47 seconds have passed. 48… 49… “Lucy… I’m so sorry.”

———

The plan was simple. Make a bunch of movements as if we were trying to escape and then quickly change direction several times. Each time we change direction it forces them to cross in front us, and when they do it one too many times it creates an opening, allowing us to escape. Lucy based this plan on the assumption that the bikers wouldn’t come after us, because all they wanted was our supplies. Lucy was right. The moment we escaped they didn’t follow. It makes sense why they wouldn’t come after us; they probably had no weapons, which is why they were relying on The Swarm to kill us.

“Well Dan, we lost everything. The cart, our extra clothes, the locket.”

“At least we didn’t lose our lives.”

“Did you even hold onto the note?”

“No…”

“Oh well that’s just great! What are we gonna do now? I mean where the hell are we even gonna find another shopping cart? That grocery store in the town back there didn’t even have one!” “Oh I’m sure we will figure something out… as long as we have each other.” “Whatever. Hey, what exactly did that note say anyway?”

I can't help but smile “it said exactly what I needed to hear!” She seems annoyed by this answer.

“...Fine, keep your secrets, it doesn’t matter anyway. Now let’s get going, we’ve been standing still for too long.” Lucy quickly storms off ahead of me. I laugh and run to catch up with her. Maybe one day I will tell her what that little note said, but not today. My mother said the note was for my eyes only after all. It was something only I needed to hear.

———

“….so what's the spoils?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing but trash. We can’t even sell this stuff.”

“Damn, that's a shame… hey, what’s this?”

“Oh that? That looks like the note that kid was holding before they bolted. It's not worth anything either, just get rid of it. This whole operation was a complete waste of time.”

“Huh…. That’s interesting…”

“What? What’s it say, Bob? Come on, spit it out!”

“It says… Keep moving forward.”