Bam… Bam… The bullets echo as they bang on the Driver’s side door of my Chevy Malibu. Perfect strikes against the reinforced steel recently installed. God must be with me, but I’m not a believer. My only hope… GET TO STORYVILLE!
I should’ve kept to the protocol–stay in Storyville where it is safe. But my addiction called me. Every day getting louder and louder. Damn Pancakes! No… Damn IHOP with their beautiful booth seats and incandescent light bulbs.
THE VARIETY OF PANCAKES, Double-Blueberry, Peach Rooty Tooty, Chocolate chocolate-chip, And my favorite Strawberry banana protein… Why doesn’t Storyville have an IHOP?!
Speeding the winding forest roads, I scan the rearview mirror, dodging the predator’s bullets by anticipating the flash of his muzzle in the darkness.
Muzzle flash… the glass shatters the back window, bullet whizzing past my ear, making me duck my head.
Eyes jutting through the windshield, I scan the Night sky looking for hope. ‘Where are you!’
I hear a pop in the middle of my seat. A sharp burning pain sets in my back just before a spatter of blood hits the dash. Blood overflows inside my mouth and I uncontrollably spit it onto the windshield. In shock, my hands slip off the steering wheel.
The car jerks onto its side, wheels screeching the pavement, and then the tumbling starts, my head pounds the steering wheel on the first tumble, I couldn’t count the rest of the tumbles, but at its end, my car and I were both battered on the side of the road, in front of the STORYVILLE WELCOME sign.
Headlights beam on the dashboard encompassing my slumped body, my head is slung over the steering wheel, viewing the blood on the dashboard–It looks like syrup. I forgot about the syrups… hazelnut… Blueberry… I think to myself getting weaker with each thought.
Footsteps crush gravel behind the car. I couldn’t turn to see who had finally caught me. I’m paralyzed. My wounds are fatal.
‘Butter pecan… Strawberry syrup…’ I struggle to say when the Predator arrives.
I feel my consciousness eject from my body, this isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve died twice before. I’m going back home. I see the predator. His face wasn’t noticeable, but I could feel the energy, his frequency. He’s from home. When he touches his ear, I know the link has been set.
A grid forms behind him–Its translucent lines and spaces blend in with the forest. He doesn’t see it, but I do. It’s the Pantium. All watchers have one.
He finally came.
The laser will be next. The laser proves me right when it enters the Predator’s skull in a perfect stream, his body bows, then dives to the ground. He will be going home too.
Unfortunately, the nearest IHOP from our home is 3 billion light-years away.
