Zombie camel and the were-wallabies
“You didn’t see it, so don’t tell me I don’t know what I saw or what I saw wasn’t real,” Greg exclaimed as he tossed his jacket into the locker. “You’re treating me like a child that just had a nightmare, or maybe you think I’ve lost my mind.”
“I didn’t say I think you’ve lost your mind. G, you have been under a lot of pressure lately. I just think you saw something and your mind ran away with it.”
“You said I was hallucinating or seeing things. It was real, Nicky.”
“Greg, it was dark and you’re tired. You haven’t been getting much sleep and… “
“And what?” Greg growled.
Nick laid his hand on the younger man’s shoulder, trying to ease him. “You’ve been muttering in your sleep from nightmares.”
“Okay it was dark, but I saw it and it saw me.” Greg’s eyes widened, showing his fear.
“Okay, how about after we get the evidence logged in and our shift is over, we take a ride back out there.”
Greg thought for a moment. “You still don’t believe what I saw, do you?”
“I believe you saw something strange, but this is Vegas and I’ve seen some pretty weird shit over the years. Come on, we’ll get a better look in the daylight.”
Greg agreed to go back out to the area where he’d seen the strangest thing he’d ever seen in his life. Something that he knew deep down couldn’t be real, but he had seen it with his own eyes. There was a huge part of him that hoped what he’d seen wasn’t real, seeing that it couldn’t be real. It was something straight out of a horror fiction movie and he knew it. But he knew what he’d seen and he needed proof he wasn’t insane. He wanted there to be some kind of logical explanation for it. He needed his lover to believe in him.
The rest of the day, Greg was on edge and Nick saw it. He wanted to believe Greg had seen what he claimed, but he knew Greg had an extremely vivid imagination that ran wild on him sometimes. Plus, he knew he was dead tired from lack of sleep and the stress he’d been under lately. Also, this wasn’t the first time Greg had claimed to see something extraordinary. Nick thought back to the story his young lover had told him about his college days, when he was walking home from a party and saw a creature running amuck through a field. He had described it as a cross between a tiger and a rabbit, which glowed. Later, he had found out that it had been some college guys playing pranks. Nick thought back to other times Greg had told him about strange creatures he had seen when he was a child. Nick really didn’t know how Greg ever made it through his childhood with his imagination full of mutated creatures and rotting zombies crawling out from the ground.
Nick was worried about him. He feared Greg was losing it. He’d make sure he kept his eye on him for the rest of the day, which he could tell was pissing Greg off. They were in the office, finishing up paperwork, and Nick couldn’t quit watching him. Greg was very fidgety, more so than normal, and Nick could tell he couldn’t concentrate on his paperwork. Finally, Greg let out a growling hiss and told Nick to stop staring at him.
When the shift was over, Nick met Greg back in the locker room. Greg had dark circles under his blood-shot eyes and his skin was pale. Exhaustion was getting the better of him. Nick tried to talk his boyfriend into going home and getting some much needed sleep, but Greg had his mind set on returning to the scene where he had seen that strange creature earlier.
In the truck on the way to the area, Greg drifted off to sleep. Nick watched him from the corner of his eye and saw his lover’s eyes flinching, and his body twitching from dreams. That’s when it hit him. Greg must have fallen asleep on the way back from the scene, and it was a dream, he didn’t see anything, it was a dream, everything was a dream.
Nick gently put his hand on Greg’s leg and rubbed it. “It’s okay, G just a dream.”
Greg let out a hum when he heard Nick’s voice. It soothed him and chased his nightmare away. Nick was now convinced that what Greg had seen earlier was just something from his dream. It wasn’t real, Nick decided that Greg needed some rest, so he turned down a dirt road and continued to drive to let him sleep. He had been driving for about two hours when Greg abruptly woke up.
Greg popped his head up and looked around the unfamiliar area. “Where are we?”
Nick glanced over at his young lover. “I’m not sure, somewhere in the desert. I took a wrong turn somewhere. I think I’m back on the right track now.”
Greg looked at his watch. “We’ve been lost for over two hours?”
Nick held onto the steering wheel with a firm grip, preparing himself to tell Greg what he thought. “G, listen to me, I think it was a dream. You know you are always dreaming up weird shit. I think you fell asleep earlier and you dreamt what you saw.”
“It wasn’t a dream, Nick. I was awake, you know it.”
The truth was, Nick wasn’t sure. He had been listening to the radio and deep in his own thoughts for most of the ride. He hadn’t even paid any attention to Greg. Last time Nick had looked, the younger man was staring out the side window, lost in his own thoughts. He could have easily drifted off to sleep and dreamt what he thought he saw. “I don’t want you mad at me, but I think you fell asleep earlier. It makes sense, G. Think about it. I’ve had some pretty fucked up dreams that seemed real to me too, but they weren’t.”
“Damn it, Nick, I was awake, I saw it. I can’t believe you don’t believe me.”
“I want to believe you but… it just can’t be real. Think about it, Greg. They don’t exist.” Nick reached over and patted his leg. “You are so stressed out over the damn upcoming hearing. It’s going to be fine. You did nothing wrong. You were protecting an innocent life and your own. You had a reason for hitting him, it was his fault. He came at you. Don’t let this eat you up and destroy you. I think these nightmares you are having are your brain’s way of keeping you from having nightmares of that night. It will get better, trust me.”
Greg leaned his head back against the cushion of the seat. “It seemed real.”
“I know. Some dreams are like that. You know how bad my nightmares were after… I was kidnapped. It’s better now. They aren’t completely gone, but I can live with an occasional one now and then. I’m sure once all this bullshit with the hearing is over, you won’t have them as much.”
“Nicky, I feel so drained, completely exhausted and… empty. Now I feel like I’m losing my mind.”
“You’re not losing your mind. Between what we deal with, with our jobs and the extra stress of what happened… you just need a break. Maybe once the hearing is over, you should take a few days off and visit your folks.”
“Will you go with me?” Greg turned his head and batted his eyelashes at him.
Nick looked over at him and saw the pleading look in his eyes. He knew his lover needed him. “We’ll see if I can get time off for…” Nick slammed on the brakes of the vehicle, bringing it to a screeching halt. He couldn’t see the road in front of him for the thick dust that was suddenly surrounding the car out of nowhere.
“What the hell is this?” Nick yelled out. He turned on the wipers, hoping to clear the windshield, but it didn’t help.
Greg braced himself. “Maybe it’s a dust tornado.”
“Yeah maybe, I wasn’t paying attention.”
All of a sudden, the vehicle engine died and the Denali started to shake violently. There was a deafening noise like a train running right above them.
“What the fuck is this?” Nick screamed out as he covered his ears, protecting them from the thunderous commotion.
Greg’s eyes popped open as a bright light beamed over the area. “Nick, aren’t we in the same spot where I…I saw that?”
Nick looked out the side window, but between the dust and light he couldn’t tell for sure. He faced his boyfriend. “I don’t know. We could be. We were close to it.”
As quickly as the dust and noise started, it stopped. The dust began to clear around the vehicle.
Greg turned his head, looking out through the windshield. “Nick… Nicky, what is… that?”
Nick turned his head and his mouth fell open. “This can’t be real. This is not happening.”
“Nick, start the car, start the car now. Let’s get the hell out of here,” Greg cried out as he locked the door on his side.
Nick turned the key, but the vehicle was dead, not even a light coming on. “It’s dead, G. What the hell is that?”
Both men’s eyes were fixed on the figures standing in front of them, only a few feet away from the vehicle.
“I… I… I’m not saying. What do you think?” Greg was almost hyperventilating at this point.
Nick gripped the steering wheel as he stared into the eyes of one of the creatures before him. “This can’t be real, it’s not real, can’t be real.”
The creatures started moving towards them. Both men were frozen, watching the monstrous mutated-looking beasts getting closer to them. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing. They were hideous creatures, their bodies covered with straggly fur, long snouts, fangs dangling from their foaming mouths and sinister milk-white eyes staring back at them.
“This isn’t real,” Nick softly muttered over and over again.
Greg looked over at his lover, with a look of terror in his eyes. “I bet you wish this was just one of my fucked-up dreams, huh?”
Nick nodded. “This isn’t real.”
The creatures made there way to the doors. They pulled on the door handles. Luckily they couldn’t open them, they were locked. Greg had never been so terrified in his life. A monster on his side raised its paw, long claws protruded from it. It ran the sharp claw down the window, making a loud screeching noise, like fingernails down a chalkboard. It raised it up again and slammed down against the window. Glass shattered. Greg’s screams filled the air.
Greg’s head bashed against the passenger-side window, he let out a yelp and sat bolt upright. “What the…fuck?” He looked over at Nick, who was bopping his head to the music on the radio.
“Hey there, Greggo. How was your nap?” Nick smiled as he glanced over at him. “Sorry about the rude awakening, this road is really bumpy.”
Greg looked through the windows, all around the car. “I… I was… asleep?”
“Yeah, you’ve been out for almost an hour.” Nick could see the frightened look on Greg’s face. “Did you have a bad dream?”
Greg placed his hands over his eyes and rubbed them roughly, trying to wake himself up more, trying to clear his vision. “You could say that.” The young CSI stared out the window, thinking about his dream. It was all just a dream. He hadn’t seen anything. Then his eyes spied an object off in the distance. He blinked. Was that a tree shrub or something else?
The End!
“I didn’t say I think you’ve lost your mind. G, you have been under a lot of pressure lately. I just think you saw something and your mind ran away with it.”
“You said I was hallucinating or seeing things. It was real, Nicky.”
“Greg, it was dark and you’re tired. You haven’t been getting much sleep and… “
“And what?” Greg growled.
Nick laid his hand on the younger man’s shoulder, trying to ease him. “You’ve been muttering in your sleep from nightmares.”
“Okay it was dark, but I saw it and it saw me.” Greg’s eyes widened, showing his fear.
“Okay, how about after we get the evidence logged in and our shift is over, we take a ride back out there.”
Greg thought for a moment. “You still don’t believe what I saw, do you?”
“I believe you saw something strange, but this is Vegas and I’ve seen some pretty weird shit over the years. Come on, we’ll get a better look in the daylight.”
Greg agreed to go back out to the area where he’d seen the strangest thing he’d ever seen in his life. Something that he knew deep down couldn’t be real, but he had seen it with his own eyes. There was a huge part of him that hoped what he’d seen wasn’t real, seeing that it couldn’t be real. It was something straight out of a horror fiction movie and he knew it. But he knew what he’d seen and he needed proof he wasn’t insane. He wanted there to be some kind of logical explanation for it. He needed his lover to believe in him.
The rest of the day, Greg was on edge and Nick saw it. He wanted to believe Greg had seen what he claimed, but he knew Greg had an extremely vivid imagination that ran wild on him sometimes. Plus, he knew he was dead tired from lack of sleep and the stress he’d been under lately. Also, this wasn’t the first time Greg had claimed to see something extraordinary. Nick thought back to the story his young lover had told him about his college days, when he was walking home from a party and saw a creature running amuck through a field. He had described it as a cross between a tiger and a rabbit, which glowed. Later, he had found out that it had been some college guys playing pranks. Nick thought back to other times Greg had told him about strange creatures he had seen when he was a child. Nick really didn’t know how Greg ever made it through his childhood with his imagination full of mutated creatures and rotting zombies crawling out from the ground.
Nick was worried about him. He feared Greg was losing it. He’d make sure he kept his eye on him for the rest of the day, which he could tell was pissing Greg off. They were in the office, finishing up paperwork, and Nick couldn’t quit watching him. Greg was very fidgety, more so than normal, and Nick could tell he couldn’t concentrate on his paperwork. Finally, Greg let out a growling hiss and told Nick to stop staring at him.
When the shift was over, Nick met Greg back in the locker room. Greg had dark circles under his blood-shot eyes and his skin was pale. Exhaustion was getting the better of him. Nick tried to talk his boyfriend into going home and getting some much needed sleep, but Greg had his mind set on returning to the scene where he had seen that strange creature earlier.
In the truck on the way to the area, Greg drifted off to sleep. Nick watched him from the corner of his eye and saw his lover’s eyes flinching, and his body twitching from dreams. That’s when it hit him. Greg must have fallen asleep on the way back from the scene, and it was a dream, he didn’t see anything, it was a dream, everything was a dream.
Nick gently put his hand on Greg’s leg and rubbed it. “It’s okay, G just a dream.”
Greg let out a hum when he heard Nick’s voice. It soothed him and chased his nightmare away. Nick was now convinced that what Greg had seen earlier was just something from his dream. It wasn’t real, Nick decided that Greg needed some rest, so he turned down a dirt road and continued to drive to let him sleep. He had been driving for about two hours when Greg abruptly woke up.
Greg popped his head up and looked around the unfamiliar area. “Where are we?”
Nick glanced over at his young lover. “I’m not sure, somewhere in the desert. I took a wrong turn somewhere. I think I’m back on the right track now.”
Greg looked at his watch. “We’ve been lost for over two hours?”
Nick held onto the steering wheel with a firm grip, preparing himself to tell Greg what he thought. “G, listen to me, I think it was a dream. You know you are always dreaming up weird shit. I think you fell asleep earlier and you dreamt what you saw.”
“It wasn’t a dream, Nick. I was awake, you know it.”
The truth was, Nick wasn’t sure. He had been listening to the radio and deep in his own thoughts for most of the ride. He hadn’t even paid any attention to Greg. Last time Nick had looked, the younger man was staring out the side window, lost in his own thoughts. He could have easily drifted off to sleep and dreamt what he thought he saw. “I don’t want you mad at me, but I think you fell asleep earlier. It makes sense, G. Think about it. I’ve had some pretty fucked up dreams that seemed real to me too, but they weren’t.”
“Damn it, Nick, I was awake, I saw it. I can’t believe you don’t believe me.”
“I want to believe you but… it just can’t be real. Think about it, Greg. They don’t exist.” Nick reached over and patted his leg. “You are so stressed out over the damn upcoming hearing. It’s going to be fine. You did nothing wrong. You were protecting an innocent life and your own. You had a reason for hitting him, it was his fault. He came at you. Don’t let this eat you up and destroy you. I think these nightmares you are having are your brain’s way of keeping you from having nightmares of that night. It will get better, trust me.”
Greg leaned his head back against the cushion of the seat. “It seemed real.”
“I know. Some dreams are like that. You know how bad my nightmares were after… I was kidnapped. It’s better now. They aren’t completely gone, but I can live with an occasional one now and then. I’m sure once all this bullshit with the hearing is over, you won’t have them as much.”
“Nicky, I feel so drained, completely exhausted and… empty. Now I feel like I’m losing my mind.”
“You’re not losing your mind. Between what we deal with, with our jobs and the extra stress of what happened… you just need a break. Maybe once the hearing is over, you should take a few days off and visit your folks.”
“Will you go with me?” Greg turned his head and batted his eyelashes at him.
Nick looked over at him and saw the pleading look in his eyes. He knew his lover needed him. “We’ll see if I can get time off for…” Nick slammed on the brakes of the vehicle, bringing it to a screeching halt. He couldn’t see the road in front of him for the thick dust that was suddenly surrounding the car out of nowhere.
“What the hell is this?” Nick yelled out. He turned on the wipers, hoping to clear the windshield, but it didn’t help.
Greg braced himself. “Maybe it’s a dust tornado.”
“Yeah maybe, I wasn’t paying attention.”
All of a sudden, the vehicle engine died and the Denali started to shake violently. There was a deafening noise like a train running right above them.
“What the fuck is this?” Nick screamed out as he covered his ears, protecting them from the thunderous commotion.
Greg’s eyes popped open as a bright light beamed over the area. “Nick, aren’t we in the same spot where I…I saw that?”
Nick looked out the side window, but between the dust and light he couldn’t tell for sure. He faced his boyfriend. “I don’t know. We could be. We were close to it.”
As quickly as the dust and noise started, it stopped. The dust began to clear around the vehicle.
Greg turned his head, looking out through the windshield. “Nick… Nicky, what is… that?”
Nick turned his head and his mouth fell open. “This can’t be real. This is not happening.”
“Nick, start the car, start the car now. Let’s get the hell out of here,” Greg cried out as he locked the door on his side.
Nick turned the key, but the vehicle was dead, not even a light coming on. “It’s dead, G. What the hell is that?”
Both men’s eyes were fixed on the figures standing in front of them, only a few feet away from the vehicle.
“I… I… I’m not saying. What do you think?” Greg was almost hyperventilating at this point.
Nick gripped the steering wheel as he stared into the eyes of one of the creatures before him. “This can’t be real, it’s not real, can’t be real.”
The creatures started moving towards them. Both men were frozen, watching the monstrous mutated-looking beasts getting closer to them. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing. They were hideous creatures, their bodies covered with straggly fur, long snouts, fangs dangling from their foaming mouths and sinister milk-white eyes staring back at them.
“This isn’t real,” Nick softly muttered over and over again.
Greg looked over at his lover, with a look of terror in his eyes. “I bet you wish this was just one of my fucked-up dreams, huh?”
Nick nodded. “This isn’t real.”
The creatures made there way to the doors. They pulled on the door handles. Luckily they couldn’t open them, they were locked. Greg had never been so terrified in his life. A monster on his side raised its paw, long claws protruded from it. It ran the sharp claw down the window, making a loud screeching noise, like fingernails down a chalkboard. It raised it up again and slammed down against the window. Glass shattered. Greg’s screams filled the air.
Greg’s head bashed against the passenger-side window, he let out a yelp and sat bolt upright. “What the…fuck?” He looked over at Nick, who was bopping his head to the music on the radio.
“Hey there, Greggo. How was your nap?” Nick smiled as he glanced over at him. “Sorry about the rude awakening, this road is really bumpy.”
Greg looked through the windows, all around the car. “I… I was… asleep?”
“Yeah, you’ve been out for almost an hour.” Nick could see the frightened look on Greg’s face. “Did you have a bad dream?”
Greg placed his hands over his eyes and rubbed them roughly, trying to wake himself up more, trying to clear his vision. “You could say that.” The young CSI stared out the window, thinking about his dream. It was all just a dream. He hadn’t seen anything. Then his eyes spied an object off in the distance. He blinked. Was that a tree shrub or something else?
The End!