For the Love of One

Steve tread upon the cracked, weed-filled sidewalk. The curbs long ago deteriorated into crumbling rocks matched the crumbling buildings that groaned and whistled with each gale that battered them. The broken window panes made the structures seem like broken prize fighters on their last legs. Dust devils whipped at his clothing.

He peered over his kerchief tied around his face and looked at the old hospital. The emergency entrance doors caved in and the lock smashed from the mad rush ten years prior. Steve remembered. Katie died in his arms there. He paused and scanned the devastation – remembering. Every year he made the trek, just to remind himself – to feel human.

A loud whine filled the air and instinctively Steve leaped behind a nearby overturned dumpster. The blast ripped a nine inch hole into the solid steel container. The Terillian in full battle gear sauntered into the open street, and approached the dumpster. Their weapons usually only took one shot to kill everything in a five foot radius. Steve calculated his options. He pulled out his .45 and a handheld mirror.

Pinned down he had to play it cool to get any element of surprise. Another shot rang out and punched another nine-incher through the thick metal. Six inches to the left and he’d have surely been killed. He measured the sun’s angle and jumped from his hiding place, bouncing the bright sunlight directly into the eyes of his enemy.

Blinded, the monster fired but missed. Keeping the burning beam on its eyes, it fell backward onto the fissured asphalt. It clawed at its sockets, and Steve raised the gun and fired point blank.

“That one’s for Katie.”

He retrieved a perfect red rose from his coat and placed it upon a faded blood stain near the broken doors.


299 Words
Flash Story Must contain: Bright, Lock, Emergency