The only thing you got to fear is the monsters in the closet( an the skeleton in your head)

I can feel the bones of the dead upon my feet, as they try to claw an climb their way through the layers of dirt . An the sounds of ghostly apparitions breeze by my back making the hair stand tall, as they howl and screech through the silence (like father wind). So its dark outside, and the only lights I can see are of the houses in the background, barely visible. An the leaves below my feet echo and distort, making it sound as if someone (or something) is walking up right behind me. As the path, ahead, is only getting darker, and the trees lean over as if the branches are reaching out, in desperation. So I say to myself, continuously." Its all in the head. Its all in the head..... its all, in the head".

There are no more birds no more.

   I was in love once, a long time ago, in a time that does not no more exist, but.. that was before the war. As now the surface has been ravaged and worntorn. It all started some years ago, with the mutant population. It all started out innocent enough. They were basically an offshoot of evolution, at least that is what we thought. We went through all the basic prerequisites, hatred, racism, revolution and the sudden boom and apparent overpopulation. An humans, as we normally do, get scared for no apparent reason. They were taking over, we said, pushing us out, when really it was just mostly in our heads.
   That is when I lost her. Everything happened just so seemingly fast. I was in the military, and was called for overseas. We were in the middle of it all when the real war began, stuck in the middle of the atlantic ocean when the bombs decided to drop.
   We can still go up there, to a certain extent anyhow. The air is toxic, but it is only certain areas that are off limits. But as you know these things have a desire to spread. Now its just people in masks and big bulky suits looking, scavaging for whatever they can to preserve for the future. Or anything we can use in the present.
   Down here is like any other town you have been to before, people live in apartment buildings that are only about two or three stories high. More like those cheap motels you used to see in all those shitty towns across the country. There are many more towns like our own peppered throughout this area, though how many is left to be said. The one I am living in is Newport, and I'm here working in the outskirts around town as security. People down here do what they can to help, mostly its whatever they were good at in the old world. Kind of sad if you think about it, that the best I got to offer is being a basic lookout.
   After work I usually hit the bar by my house, I go in fairly often so the bartender knows me quite well." Hey John, another bad day around town I see huh?" The place is fairly empty, people are scattered about as if everyone thinks everyone else is carrying some kind of sickness." Another busy day at the bar huh Paul, maybe its time to shut this place down?". He laughs, as he normally does and sets a beer on the counter for me". As I sit there Paul helps the few others that have wandered in, and as I, now in silence, fail to see the man come by and sit next to me." Hey! John is it?". I look over, slightly, and see a man sitting beside with dirt covering his face as if he wears it as a fashion statement. The rest of him is in the same state of disarray, which for around these parts, comes off as a little out of sorts.
" The names Dean, Charles Dean. I work down in the mines, I heard about ya 'round town". The mines are located a couple miles below us, its were they get all the metal and what not to build this great place we all find us in. From what I hear its not bad actually, as nowadays they use huge machines that do all the work, as the workers sit in their comfy rooms staring incessantly at some television screen basically playing real life videogames.
   "Whats with all the dirt, I didn't think anyone actually went down there?". He smiles and says." Yeah, nobody really does, unfortunately I have the misfortune of being the mechanic. And those machines don't always have the good manners of breaking down in the most opportune of places". He says, and continues." How about yourself, I hear your security around here?".
  "Yeah, not the most interesting of jobs...". I pause for a second, as some people do when they change there mind mid sentence. "Well...every now an than I guess". At this his eyes perk up a little, like a child's when your just getting to the good part in a bedtime story." How do you mean exactly, every now an than". I sigh, and begin to pull up my sleeve.
"You see this scar, I was on the south wall a few years back. Heard a noise out in the back by one of the caves. Went to investigate you know. Found nothing, but as I turned back... there it was. Like a bear without fur towerin over me. I grabbed for my gun but it swiped it way and jumped up upon me. It happened so fast its hard to tell what exactly happened". Before I could finish he chimes in, an says." So, what happened. How did you get out?".
   "In all the commotion, I failed to realize my gun was a couple feet away from me. Lucky enough, 'cause if I wasn't able to grab it at that point. I wouldnt be here right now". We order a couple more beers, and off in the near distance I can see Paul sorta listening in to our conversation. The story in which he heard before, and in greater detail." Wow, that's crazy". He says still enthralled." I wish my work was that interesting". He seems bored, in general I mean. Like a man that wants more than to be stuck in a menial job buried under the earth like the dead." I am really making it more than it actually is". I tell him.
   We don't actually know too much about these creatures, all we know is that they appeared a few years back. It's believed that they are a kind of offshoot of the mutant population. that or a more mutated version.  The bar is starting to get rather busy now, comparitively." Well it seems fairly fascinating". He says with a partial smile he looks as if he means to hide. He puts his beer down with a sudden thud, and drops a few bills on the counter." Well John, it was nice talking to ya. Hopefully I will see ya around".  Its at that I say my goodbyes as he disappears out the door. After a few more beers in silence I start to think its the same for me. So after the obvious formalities, I leave the bar and find my way home. I end up falling asleep on the couch, as I sometimes do, after a long day.
   The next morning I awake to coffee and breakfast, which normally consists of toast, an bad coffee. Its really the only thing you can get down here anyway,(coffee wise) so you can't complain to much. I don't work till late in the day, so I have some time to spare.  We have these farms up above town, just below the surface. They're kind of like those hot houses or whatever we used to have. Their is this glass dome covering most of it, its nice actually, makes you almost think your outside as the sun spreads out over the land as it passes through the glass that acts as a type of filter. After they were built we decided to expand on it and make a park for the people to relax. A way for everyone to get away from the dull doldrums and have some good ol' vitamin D. A lot of the towns outside of our own thought it was a fabulous idea so they made one all their own. So I made up my mind this morning to get some sunshine into these bones and soak up some relaxation.
  Its not hard to get to, and doesn't take too long. Just outside of town to the east we made this elevator that takes us right there. There lies a few houses up there for the farmers,  almost a small town you might say. But it only consist of a few small houses.A good gig though, if you ask me.
   The park is nice, trees and grass cover the land with a few picnic tables and such peppered throughout for groups to get togethor in parties. I take a seat at my usual spot, under this big umbrella like tree just off of the farmland. The farms and houses behind make a nice backdrop. Almost as if I am in some field back home. Up above the glass hovers over like the ceiling from some old school shopping mall. You can see the sun through the glass peaking through getting fairly distorted because of the curvature of the windows, making it a almost oval shape.
   In all of this I don't barely notice the woman now sitting next to me. An when I finally awake from this mental dream state I look over to see that its one of my next door neighbors from the same building. "John! Fancy meeting you here. Its been awhile hasn't it!. She says with the slightest of smirks." Yeah, sorry. I have been in a haze lately". I say." I know how it is John. It happens to the best of us". She is right, being down here will do that to a man(an woman alike). We are not built to be hidden away in caves. Its been years now and still people struggle to get used to this new ordeal. There are certain groups we have appointed to check up on the world, to see how an when we might find ourselves once more kings. Afterwards, us an the mutants (if you can call them that) came into a agreement. Seeing how this war was affecting the planet we decided to put our differences aside for the better of mankind, and all the notable factions. Not that we had too much choice in the matter. "So how's the job treating you Joanne, still taking orders from Jake?". Jake is the boss down in the city centre, its basically the heart. All jobs report to them.
   She smiles, one of those smiles people give when their trying to hide their contempt." Yeah, sure am". She says as if she is cutting through the air with a knife." I thought by now you would ha

The Goddess of highway divine

I am the goddess of highway divine
write myself down,
wait in line.

watch me sleep,
drink my wine,

burn my field,
watch me hide..

"Sal?". I say, with a curious mind.

    The walls are crumbling, and the floorboards are about to give way. The house shakes violently throwing me from the bed, and onto the floor. I get up and make my way to the window outside in the hall. It looks over the backyard, and the backyards of the endless houses that surround us, like an army of men that has taken over and we are but the final survivors of the resistance. The lines of fences that zigzag throughout stand like trenches, that eventually fall under the pressures of warfare. The streets start to crack and swallow up the sidewalks, cars and whatever else it can get its proverbial hands on.
  Out in the distance I can see the waters rise up over the horizon, people run off away from it like a school of fish. Cars attack other cars as they try to get away, and the people claw there way in like rats trying to get to food. I can see the house give way to gravity behind me, so I climb out the window to the lattice work covered in the dead remnants of the once so pristine roses.
   On the ground there is a swirling vortex of destruction, the trees surround like fallen soldiers, and the bodies of the few unfortunate lay about. I run through the backyards jumping over crevasses and broken objects. Up ahead a few blocks the heads of a few people pop out of the ground from what must be some kind of bomb shelter. "Hey john, over here! We haven't much time". I look over a bit confused as to who it might be, but as I get a bit closer I find its my neighbor from a few doors down.  I run over and get inside, closing the door just as the water make its way just a few houses over.
  He has always had a creepy look to him, reminds me of the guy Tom cruise meets in the basement of the war of the worlds. Seems a little off his rocker. But there is no worries, he is a really nice person. His wife is actually really beautiful, one of those woman that seems as if she could do better. If I remember correctly I do believe her name is Jane, his is Sal(in case you were wondering).
   Always been somewhat jealous of him, I have never had a life like his, a wife, people that love him. I have always been basically solo. "Man, thanks, I thought I was done for Sal, I owe you my life". He puts his arm around me, patting me on the shoulder." No worries my friend, no worries". The place is nice, kinda reminds me of the shelter from that Brendan Fraser movie. We go to the living room, the kitchen is too the left and behind us(from which we came) is the family room and the stairs to the outside world. We must be fairly deep down, as there is a ladder that takes some time to get here, than it abruptly turns to a staircase. The floors are cement with eastern style rugs throughout. The walls are mostly papered with the kitchen painted a Retro blue.
   "Do you know what the hell is going on up there, its crazy, everything is going to shit. Its like a scene from a movie". Everyone looks exhausted, tired and out of sorts. Well... can you blame 'em." I don't know, I don't know. Everything we have ever known, loved, is gone".  We can still feel the shaking from the outside, the walls move back and forth and the sound is as if bombs are being dropped, albeit muffled. The day goes by in slow motion, trying to forget what is happening just above our heads. At about six o'clock me an Sal find ourselves at this small makeshift bar with enough alcohol to last at least a month or so. They have really done there preparations, Sal has always been like that. A old war man from back in the day. "So john, what are ya thinking?". He asks as we sip our Brandy's. "Well Sal, I can't help but think that I really didn't lose anything up there, yeah maybe I had some friends, mainly you though. But nothing really to blink an eye at". He looks at me for a second or two, that continues on with a bout of silence." You always have us John,you'll always have us".
  The day goes by much the same way. Doing whatever we must to forget the perils of the outside world, at least for a little while.  We all end up falling asleep in varying spots an positions throughout the place. There are a couple beds in the back but our nerves had other plans, so we stayed up most the night talking about all the small talk people normally talk about.
  In the morning I get up to the smell of coffee and cereal. I go sit at the kitchen table(as small as it is) with the few others in silence. At about 9:30 the phone rings, which gives me a bit of confusion. Apparently Sal has some satellite phone from the military or something, I could never understand these things. Sal stands leaning up against the counter, never talking, just listening intently. As the conversation progresses he gets more and more tense, almost agitated. Eventually putting down the phone he walks over to the living room and sits on the couch, without very much a peep.
   "Sal? Is everything okay?". I ask sitting across from him. Jane sits beside him, consoling him with her arm around his shoulders." Honey? What's wrong? What did they say?". Sal sits there rubbing his head, like you would see in the movies when the hero is at his wits end(and possibly doesn't want to go on)." Well you know that project I was working on?".
"Yeah, with those other fellas, your friends from the base". She asks noticeably concerned." Sal? I thought you were done with all that, retired". He looks over with a forced smile, his eyes are as if they're about to permanently shut." I was John, I was. They called me in quite some time ago, to look over this classified project. Project Rosen it was called. They said this could be the greatest thing since the evolution of man". Jane now covers her mouth, seeming as she is hearing something she doesn't want to hear. I guess she didn't know the full story." What does this have to do with anything now?".
   He tries to console her with a warming hand against the thigh, and a kiss to the cheek." Well.... it worked, at least at first anyways"." What worked honey, what?". Jane says in a apparent hurry." Have you ever heard of a Einstein-Rosen bridge?".
"You mean a wormhole Sal? Seriously". He smiles, a kind of smirk really." I am nothing but Sal, nothing but...". 
  "You gotta realize, this is very top secret, but seeing what is happening, I guess there's no problem". We all sit there sipping our coffees, listening keenly like children gathered around their teacher in kindergarten." There was this scientist that worked there, came up with this idea on how it might work. Even made a kind of prototype that could transfer stuff, through thin air in a sense, from one place to another. But only in short distances. It was wild, like we were folding up space itself to make a shortcut. Between space, really. Wild! Just wild". While saying this Sal grabs a small piece of paper rolling it up showing us how it might work, visual guidance is always better he says.
   "Sal?". I say, with a curious mind." What exactly do you mean by, used to work their". Well, when the higher ups found out exactly what he was up to, they tried to take it over. Obviously he wanted nothing to do with what they had in mind, even fought it for awhile. But seeing it was the militaries to begin with, there was nothing he could do". At this point all our eyes are tied to him, ears perked up waiting for the end of this story. But there is one thing that I now don't understand." So". I say with a sigh." If you know what happened to this man, why did you end up working on the project?". He sits back on the couch, with Jane still clutching his leg in suspense. He lights a cigarette and says." Well my dear, sometimes you don't have much choice. Not to say I didn't want to do it, I mean, just think of the possibilities. The possibilities are endless, who knows where this might take us. So as you see, you now know why I didn't have much choice". As he says this he swings his cigarette around like he is conducting a orchestra. All the while Jane sits their, almost in tears, barely holding them back.
   "Dear, how.. Do you mean.  I mean, are you saying, that you, you!.... Did this?". He looks down, mournfully, as the smoke rises up against his face, disappearing in the air up above his head." Obviously, as you can hopefully see, I didn't want this to happen. Didn't see that it could". 
"But it could happen, it did. Right above our heads, in our backyards. Who knows how far this thing goes. Our city, this town, the country.... the world. Everything, destroyed, and you helped destroy it". As Jane says this her eyes light up, as if flames might rise up and burn her face. She eventually walks out, in a fit of rage.
  "I am sorry Sal, I know you didn't mean this to happen.. but is she going to be okay?". He looks over, messing up his already messy hair, finally managing a smile." Yeah, she will be fine. She just needs some time".