Summer started off with a kick this year. It was blazing hot out and everyone in my city was outside, enjoying the sunshine and suffering from the humidity. Quarantine must have done a number on us, making the blistering heat more bearable than locking up indoors again for even a second more than we have to.
I’m a recent college grad and I’ve been working odd jobs like DoorDash and TaskRabbit, supplementing my income until I can finally land the job I actually studied for. Because of this I found myself outside that day, suffering alongside everyone else in the heat until I eventually found myself nearly dying from thirst.
I entered a small convenience store and made a B-line for the refrigerated beverages, ogling the various options and being a bit indecisive about what I wanted to get. Immediately after I entered, I was followed by a small group of drunk young men, all of them around my age or younger. They must have stopped by after a visit to a neighboring bar, feeling on top of the world and unwilling to let the party die down.
With my back turned to them, I heard a brief commotion, a bit of drunken laughter and then some angry yelling from the cashier.
“Are you fucking serious?!” The man screamed from behind the counter as the laughing men ripped some snacks from a shelf and stumbled out of the shop, running as fast they could. I froze in place, shocked by the childish behavior of these seemingly grown men, and caught off guard as a police officer suddenly entered the store, demanding that I put my hands in the air.
“On your knees, right now!”
“I–I’m not with them!”
“I didn’t ask you to speak, I asked you to get on the ground, understood?”
The officer was in his forties, his black hair buzzed with a touch of gray to it, a hint of exhaustion across his face.
“I’ve got a 2-11 at Marcos on main. Five suspects fleeing on foot, one apprehended on site.” He said into his radio. He moved around behind me and placed a pair of cuffs on my wrists.
“Officer, I promise I’m not with them–”
“Did I stutter? I told you, quiet.” He barked, his tone bitter and annoyed.
He lifted me to my feet, escorting me out of the store and toward his car that was parked just outside, the lights on top flashing and drawing the attention of everyone passing by.
“Sit. I’ll be back when I sort this out.” He explained as he opened the back door of his cruiser. I ducked my head as he lowered me into the seat.
“The clerk, ask him, please,” I begged. Without a response, he shut the door and returned to the shop.
I watched their exchange through the car window, trying desperately to make sense of their mannerisms and lip movement, confident that the clerk would clear up any confusion and back up my side of the story. And a moment later, the officer returned. He opened the driver side door and took a seat.
“Fortunate that I drove by when I did. Saw you and your friends walk in, cause a ruckus, and run out. Guess you drew the short straw, getting left behind like that.”
“I told you, they aren’t my friends! I don’t know who any of those guys were!”
The officer let out a wheezy, tired laugh.
“It’s a dumb thing you did, but it isn’t the end of the world. I’m sure you’ll just get a slap on the wrist.”
“Are you deaf? I’m just a customer! Didn’t you ask the clerk?”
“He says he saw the same thing I did, which is good enough for me.”
“You have to be fucking joking.”
“I’m not. Let’s get you to PD.” He said dismissively, letting out a sigh as he shifted his car into drive.
I was annoyed. The store clerk must have been confused and the officer didn’t give a shit about anything that contradicted his version of events. He could have watched back the security footage and it still wouldn’t have helped my case. Even worse, he seemed to be gloating. He was proud that he had caught an innocent bystander, and only watched as the actual criminals got away.
He whistled to the radio as we approached a red light, resting his arm out his window, drumming his fingers joyfully along the steering wheel.
“So, what happens to me now? Jail? A fine?”
“They’ll hold you overnight and you can try to post bail. There’ll definitely be a fine and it’ll be on your record for a bit, but it’s only a misdemeanor.”
I shook my head in frustration.
“This your first time being arrested?” He asked.
“For something I didn’t do? Yes.”
He eyed me through the rear view mirror with an annoyed expression until his radio interrupted the moment.
“91, we have an emergency on Jeffries and Industrial, requesting that you intercept.”
The officer rubbed at his eyes and took a deep, frustrated breath before picking up his radio receiver to respond.
“This is 91, on route to Jeffries and Industrial now.” He flipped on his lights and siren, slowly accelerating through an intersection as traffic came to a stop for him.
“10-4” The radio caller acknowledged.
“You’re taking me with you?”
“Yes, I am. I have no choice.”
“What if there’s shooting?”
“Just sit quietly in the car and everything will be fine. If there’s any shooting, unbuckle yourself and lay on the ground.”
He accelerated through the city and toward the edge of town with haste. Jeffries and Industrial was a crossroads that met along a forest side; A poor part of town where foot traffic of any kind was scarce.
He pulled to a stop outside of a building that looked vacant but had all of its lights flashing on and off rapidly. As he put the vehicle into park, he remained seated for a moment, staring at the eerie structure as if he were making a decision at that moment.
“Stay quiet,” he instructed me, “I’ll be back.”
The officer stepped out of the car and onto the pebble driveway. After shutting the cruiser door, he retrieved his pistol from his belt, holding it low as he made for a door, pulling it open and peeking inside. He hesitated again as he looked back toward the cruiser for a moment, swallowed, and then stepped into the building.
I watched the clock as time ticked by. Five minutes, then ten minutes, then fifteen. The lights continued to flicker from within the building, blinking in succession as if the entire structure were haunted by some sort of poltergeist.
“He’s dead,” I thought darkly to myself as the sun beat down on the car, still eyeing my surroundings as I prayed that some sort of backup would arrive and spare me the slow death of starving in the back of a police cruiser.
And then he suddenly emerged. He took a few paces out onto the pebble driveway and froze in place, his arms rested stiffly at his sides, his head facing ominously toward the sky. And that’s when I realized that something was off. Although it appeared to be the same man, he looked different in subtle ways. His stomach was more flat, his hair no longer graying, his skin flawless and devoid of any signs of aging.
The driver door opened again and he took his seat, his neck and spine erect with almost perfect posture as he sat in silence for a moment.
“Everything alright?” I asked him, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up on end already.
“Yes.” He replied with an eerily calm and pleasant tone.
“Good…”
He remained still as he stared blankly out the windshield.
“Are we… gonna leave?”
“Yes.”
I narrowed my eyes as I watched him place his hands on the wheel and attempt to press on the gas with his foot.
“It’s in park still,” I pointed out.
He turned his head sharply to look down at the gear shifter.
“Of course.”
He shifted the vehicle into drive and began to slowly pull away from the building, turning out onto the nearby street and accelerating us deeper into the surrounding wilderness.
I was conflicted. Part of me was simply glad to be leaving, but the other was extremely uncomfortable with the officers abnormal behavior and inexplicable physical appearance. And irrespective of how I felt, I was now trapped in the car with him, driving deeper and deeper into the forest – a long way from the police department or any potential witnesses.
“Where are we going?” I asked him as a nervous sweat began to gather around my hairline. There was no response. “Hello?”
“Hello.” He finally replied.
“Aren’t we supposed to head back into town?”
“Negative.”
I eyed the back of his head suspiciously.
“What’s our destination?”
“Identify the phylactery.” He said sternly, ignoring my question.
“I’m – I’m sorry?”
“The core. A gateway. Navigate.”
“I… don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The officer went silent.
“You aren’t human, are you?”
“The Phylactery must be located.”
I shook my head and adjusted my wrists behind my back, a bit irritated by the handcuffs at that point.
“What for?”
“Relinquish the earth’s control.”
“I’m not in charge of… that kinda thing. I’m just a random guy. I can’t help you.”
He began accelerating faster.
“Reveal the defender.”
“The what? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Reveal the defender!” He nearly yelled.
We were cruising through an endless tunnel of forest enshrouded road, the vehicles engine revving as we neared anywhere from 60 to 70 miles per hour.
“Defender? I don’t know what that is!”
The officer started spasming erratically, his hand flicking off the wheel and then back on, his neck twitching to one side and then the other.
“Destroy the phylactery. Eliminate the defender. Destro– De– Des–”
The road ahead of us was narrow and we were still gaining in speed.
“You need to slow down! You’re gonna kill us!”
The officer snapped around in his seat and stared at me face to face, the sclera of his eyes a bloody mess.
“A void approaches. A contradiction of matter. It is us. I. Ceaseless. Inevitable. Impending. Chaos. Chaos. Chaos!”
A sharp turn had appeared before us. The car bounced and jerked as we careened off road and through a series of bushes, launching up into the air and crashing down into a large body of water.
I was unconscious but I remember the feeling of water pooling up around my feet, filling up to my knees, and eventually, my chest.
And the next thing I knew, I was lying down on the lakes shoreline. I choked and coughed, spewing up some bitter lake water as I sat up in a patch of muddy grass, my hands still cuffed behind my back.
“You okay kid?” A black man in a soaking wet jacket asked me.
“–I’m okay, I’m fine. What happened to… what about the officer?”
The man furrowed his bushy brow, his gaze steering away for a moment, looking unsure of how to proceed suddenly.
“I checked for the driver but… he wasn’t there.”
“He wasn’t there?”
“He must have fled. Escaped the wreck somehow.”
I froze in place, terrified that the animalistic officer was loose and somewhere nearby, but preoccupied with the understanding that at some point I would have to explain what had happened to me. The man gave a knowing look, as if he somehow understood that something bizarre had occurred to me.
“You’re gonna be alright. I’ll get you home. I have bolt cutters in my truck, let’s get those off of you.” He said, gesturing to the cuffs.
He removed them with ease only a moment later, and I hopped in the passenger seat of his white ford ranger. I had my head on a swivel the entire time, horrified that I would catch another glimpse of the inhuman police officer, but the moment never came.
“Gonna be hard to let this one go, aint it?” he stated insightfully as he pulled away from the lake and out onto the nearby road.
I nodded and let out a breath.
“Give it time. It’ll get easier.” He followed up.
He pulled out a cigarette, rolled down his window and lit it from his lips.
“My names Garrett,” He said in between puffs.
“I’m Ryan.”
“Nice to meet you.” He dangled his hand out and I shook it.
“Are you a hunter?” I asked him.
“What makes you think that?”
“There’s an open bag in your truck bed.” I told him. “I can see your rifles.”
Garrett smiled.
“Well, you’re correct. Normally, I am a hunter.”
A look of confusion twisted my face.
“Normally?”
Garrett’s smile faded and he let out a breath of thick smoke.
“I’m sorry kid. You shouldn’t have had to see what you did tonight.”
“What exactly did I see?”
“If you want answers, I don’t have ‘em. Not real ones, at least.” He took another drag and then dropped his cigarette out the window, rubbing his eyes with his fingers as if stemming back a pain from behind them. “I’m tired. It’s been almost three month now and it was only supposed to be a few days. It was a huntin trip. Me and my boy. We shot ourselves a deer in the woods, and on our way back to the truck, found somethin… abnormal.”
“Abnormal?”
“It looked like a cave, but it was in the base of a tree. It was hummin, or… somethin inside of it was. It looked like a stone but had no curves, only sharp edges. I’m not much for geometry but it had about ten sides to it? And it was just floatin there. Hoverin, about seven or eight feet up in the air. And then I got this feelin.”
He paused and looked a bit distant for a moment.
“It told me to keep watch. It was like I knew somethin was comin. A threat. And I still feel it now. It told me to be here tonight, and so, here I am. That officer, the one who crashed into that lake with you. He’s just one of many. Whatever is responsible only recruits armed men to do its dirty work. And I’ve killed them all so far. Including your officer.”
He gave me an apologetic stare.
“Didn’t wanna scare you, is all. I jumped in and shot him under water. Saw you in the back seat.”
“What about your s–” I stopped myself instinctively, confident I knew the answer before I could even finish the question.
Garrett was silent as his eyes glazed over and he bit at the insides of his cheeks.
“It turned him. Tried to use him against me. It failed.”
I felt a pit in my stomach and I turned away from him in shame.
“I’m so sorry,” was all I could get out.
We arrived at my apartment and I hopped out of his truck. We exchanged an awkward smile for a moment and, without any parting words, he left.
I owe him my life. A stranger caught up in a bizarre mess. A father and a hunter. A guardian and a protector. I don’t know a way that I can ever truly thank him for what he did, but at least I can share his story.
And I hope he’s still out there. I hope that the fighting is over and that he can finally rest, bury his son and move on with his life. Because I can’t imagine what it would mean if he had somehow failed. If he’s been killed and whatever it was finally got its way.
But for as long as our planet is still here, I’ll assume that he’s been successful. We all can likely thank him for that.