Left One Alive

Boom! Crack! I went outside and that damn oak tree split my my damn roof like a damn

butcher knife at a fucking birthday cake. Big old branch right through the bedroom. Shit, if

I had left five minutes later...

Damn.

See, the roof's a total write-off. I figured it was, you know,

cheaper to break my lease, eat the fee and move down the street. So I get settled it in, right, and

I'm thinking I had a one in a million... a one in a million... encounter with a 100-year-old

oak falling at exactly the right angle at exactly the wrong time. I think to myself, well

shit, that's unlucky, but then I think, shit man, you survived it by the skin of your teeth.

Lucky. Now here's the kicker... and you ain't going to believe this shit. I'm sitting in my new kitchen

unpacking the last box from my move and it's pouring rain outside... the wind is just howling.

And I hear this sound a sound I know pretty damn well at this point: The sound of a very

big tree taking a very, very short trip.

No way.

Yes way. Boom! Crack! The second tree through my

second roof in the span of like-like-like two weeks. Now now, if this shit would have happened a week

earlier, I could say God was looking out for me. But now I know for a fact God he hates my black...

Look out!

What you want to do?

Help her, I guess.

What the Fuck. Take out your phone.

It's out.

Record everything... and I mean everything.

Yeah.

Ma'am. Uh, are you hurt?

Look, uh, we just want to help you out, but you got to... you got to talk

to us now, okay? What's going on? How about we put the spear down, and the head.

Come on, lady, help me help you, okay? I really want to...

She's in shock.

What?

She's in shock. She's not going to hurt you.

Not going to hurt me? That's easy for

you to say. She's a white woman, I'm a black man in the middle of bum fuck, USA. Look,

if you want to help her, you approach her... I'm not...

Christ, Till.

Fucking doing it.

My name's Hannah. I'm going to help you, okay?

There. There.

Call the cops.

No fucking way. They're just as liable to shoot us as to help us, and

besides, whoever's blood that is still might be out here.

You hear that?

Mhm.

We need to go. Come on.

Sweetheart, what's your name?

S-S-Sara.

Sara, Sara, honey, we got to go.

Google! Directions to Memorial Hospital. Fastest fucking route!

Miss Bite! Miss Bite! Sam!

Which room is hers?

Wait.

They said she's stable, but...

Sam, wait, listen to me.

It's Sara. Our Sara.

I know. She's okay, she's safe. But this is a police matter now. Barreling in like

some pissed-off mama bear is only going to make things worse.

What... what happened to her?

We don't know. She can't remember.

Did someone hurt her?

She can't remember.

What about her friends? She went camping with her fucking dodge ball team of all people.

We know. We're looking. Do you want to go see her now?

Yes.

All right. Hold her hand. Tell her that

you love her and just be there for her. Leave the who, what, why to us, okay? We'll find those dodgeballers.

Sarah.

Sam.

It's me. I'm here. And everything's going to be alright.

What is that?

Fuck if I know. Raccoon? Maybe some kind of marmot?

What the Hell is a marmot?

Look, these woods go on for miles and there's about a thousand dead and decaying animals

out here distracting the dogs. We have got to narrow the zone.

Cancel dogs.

You need me?

They said they'd handle it, let them handle it.

My friends are out there.

Someone get this brave woman her clothes.

Wait. You've got guns.

Of course.

Bigger guns.

You packing?

What happened out in those woods, sis?

Something attacked us.

Something? Not someone?

You okay to do?

My friends are out there. We can't leave them out there all alone.

Are they... dead?

Yeah. Am I in trouble?

Not if I can help it.

Drift right.

A little more.

Sara...

Is this it? This is it. On me!

Dear Jesus.

Call them. Call them all. States, feds... everyone. Call them now and tell them to hurry.

Sara?

Fuck me, what's that?

I don't know.

What happened to it?

I happened.

They're calling you a person of interest.

She didn't do anything.

It was monsters.

Be that as it may...

It was monsters.

Legally, monsters don't exist.

Legally, I killed one.

As I understand it, the police are still analyzing the, um, animal's remains.

Monster.

What does this all mean?

Forgive me, I'm sorry for your loss, Miss Bite, I truly

am, but if the state charges you, it will be because right right now only kids and

crazies believe in monsters. You, the insane dodgeballer, it's a much easier sell. You got

allies in the sheriff's department? Cooperate, and do whatever it takes to convince a bunch

of people who are barely paying attention that monsters are real... and that they ate your friends.

Shot of whiskey?

Please?

Double shot?

Drinking alcohol with anxiety medication can worsen side effects such as extreme sleepiness, slow breathing and trouble concentrating.

Bottoms up.

Get undressed, brush your teeth, go to bed.

So what's on the to-do list tonight?

Bills.

I'm sorry, Sam.

Fuck you.

I am. I'm sorry and I owe you.

When I'm the sole survivor of a monster massacre, you can repay me. Now go to bed.

Scared to.

The nightmares are just your brain working things out. Let it work. In the real world, you're safe.

In the real world, you're safe.

Safe.

What?

I'm, uh, a Carlos Silva with 'Free Times.' I was hoping to speak with...

This is all off the record.

Yeah, okay.

Do you know who I am?

Yes.

Do you know the law in this state?

I uh yes.

If I ask you to leave my property, and you don't. I can shoot you. It's called stand your ground.

I know. You telling me to leave?

Do you believe in monsters?

I don't know. What do you mean by monsters?

We're not being clever, 'Free Times.'

No?

It doesn't matter, you know. I've interviewed plenty of people I

was 100-percent convinced were full of shit. I still quoted them accurately. I found

out the truth and I wrote it, even when it fucked my priors.

Did you believe in monsters before yesterday, Sam? Hell, do you believe in them now? Talk to me. Convince me.

I don't understand.

Which part?

You're saying that five-foot-tall man-eaters murdered your friends.

Yes.

What were they?

I don't know.

Why did they attack you?

I don't know.

Were they intelligent?

Could you draw one?

Sara...

It's fine.

Can you prove this?

Is my word not enough?

No, it's not.

There's a head... and a body.

Fuck, Lane.

We've sent the animal remains away for analysis.

Where to?

She walked out of those woods covered in blood, Carlos.

Yeah, but whose?

Everyone's. All of our friends, herself, at least one animal.

'Monster.' That's the word she used.

She's a person of interest.

Have you met Sara Bite?

We've known each other for a long time, Lane, seen the same horrible shit,

made sense of most of it, right?

Most of it.

So when a girl covered in blood limps from

the woods with a weird head in her hand and says it was monsters, why don't we believe her?

We've both met monsters.

Looked them right in their beady eyes. We should know him when we see them.

Hey, so, the address you put in is like in the middle of nowhere.

I know. I can pay extra.

That's not necessary. Have we met?

Doubt it.

Got a music preference?

No. Actually, yeah. Something loud... angry.

Fucking A.

What the...

What is it?

Primate of some sort.

Like a monkey?

Like a human.

That is not human.

No, I said like a human.

The girl, the survivor, I need to talk to her.

She's a person of interest.

No. She is the person

that discovered a brand new living human relative.