worms #1

worms #1“escape”

story & words:Brian John Mitchellartwork:Kimberlee Traub

It’s storming violently &I’m surprised when thedoorbell rings.

I go downstairs & openthe door & it’s somebig guy in a black suit.

Hold on a second.

Is your father here?

I close the door in hisface, not letting him in.

I go up to my father’sstudy & knock & openthe door.

Nothing is what I’mused to it being in theroom.

The only light is from adesk lamp & a light onan aquarium.

The aquarium has abunch of pink eels in it.

They look like intestineswith teeth.

My father is in somekind of military uniform(I thought he workedfor a corporation?).

He’s just staring at acomputer screen.

He’s loosening his tie& unbuttoning the topbutton of his shirt.

I know all about it.

There’s a....

He’s typing away & Ihear gunshots.

Let’s see whathappens now.

A metal tube shoots outof the floor & my dad’sgrabbing the eels &dropping them down it.

I back out of the room& a guy in a suit knocksme down back into thestudy.

He shoots my fatheras he’s dropping thelast eel in the pipe.

He shoots my fathertwice more in the head.

I can see quarter inchholes going all the waythrough him, but thereisn’t any blood.

My father falls onto thepipe & it slides upthrough him as he goesto the floor & there stillisn’t any blood.

The worms are gone. Probably shotdown to the basement.

He’s down.

He leaves & I’m scared.

It takes me a moment,but I get up & go acrossthe hall to my bedroom.

I look out the window &half the yard is filled byfast moving water &arcing blue electricalbolts.

I knock out the window.

I jump out to a tree &jump & climb my wayfrom tree to tree acrossto the neighbor’s yard.

The blue bolts aresplitting some of thetrees.

Some of the trees fall tothe ground, but most ofthem stay up leaningagainst each other.

I look to the house &my mom’s on thedeck.

How’d you get overthere?!

I go back the way Icame, only it’s easierbecause the partiallyfallen trees lessensthe number of jumps.

I climb into my room &I go downstairs.

One of the men is inthe dining room talkingon his headset.

After we get the worms,total clean up. Burn thehouse down.

The basement door isopen & the basementis full of water…

…& there are three menwith one of the worms.

The worm’s now eightinches in diameter & atleast ten feet long…

…& they’re putting itinto some long glasscontainer.

They’re too busy tonotice me.

& I go to the livingroom & to the deck &take my mother’s lefthand with my right.

On the way back to myroom I grab a gunsitting on the floor nextto one of the glasscontainers.

We make it back to myroom & she’s scaredto jump.

I can’t... I can’t do it....

I’m literally pushingher out the windowwhen she jumps.

It’s only a few feet & youdon’t have a choice.

Where do youthink you’re going?

I don’t bother to think. Ijust turn & start pullingthe trigger & the gunblams four times.

He takes a bullet inthe left shoulder & hedoesn’t even lose hisbalance.

He’s bleeding; I can’tsee it, but I can smell it.

I turn & jump out thewindow.

I spread my arms like Ireally think it will makeme fly.

I end up landing onone of the fallen trees& I’m moving as fastas I can.

I see one of the wormsin the river that wasour yard. It’s at leasteighteen inches wide& it’s writhing.

The broken trees arefalling completely &going along in the rushof water, including theone I’m on.

There’s one of the bluelightning bolts hittingthe worm.

The bolt’s coming fromthe eyes of the man Ishot who’s hangingout the window.

I keep floating on thetree & I can’t see thehouse anymore & Ican’t let go of the gun.

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