Succinct (Extinct Book 5)

by Ike Hamill

  Merle warmed to idea immediately and then concern crossed his brow.

  “You guys can’t go outside though. Your father would kill me if you do.”

  “We won’t,” Jim and Janelle said at the same time.

  “But you can’t even go near the exit. My mom will see and she’ll tell for sure.”

  “She won’t,” Janelle said. “I told her to focus on the hatch, and the screen doesn’t flip for her, just like Jim.”

  Jim nodded, understanding immediately. Merle looked confused.

  “Take us to the elevators and I’ll explain.”

  Chapter 86: Brad

  Even in the basement room, they could tell when the sun came up. Light filtered through a tiny hole near one of the pipes that came through the top of the wall. Kneeling down, they could see that at the top of the stairs there was a vague glow under the door to locker room above.

  The power flickered once more and then seemed solid again.

  “I’m going up,” Brad said. He had thought about it a lot as they waited, huddling near the furnace. It would have been easy enough to stay down in the storage room, allowing other people to take the risk. He was older than a lot of them, and he had already gone up twice.

  “No,” Trish said. “You’ve done your part. I’ll go.”

  Brad shook his head. “I have already been exposed to whatever is up there. It might not make me immune to the effects, but with that last wave, I think that I was able to stay rational longer than the rest of you.”

  “You said it was cumulative before,” Dave said.

  “Yes, and I was wrong,” Brad said.

  “Then I’m going too,” Wesley said. “It nearly tipped me over the edge before. If a person builds an immunity to it, then I’m a logical choice.”

  Brad understood his motivation. Wesley prided himself on keeping control. The fact that he had lost his cool demeanor, even for a moment, was probably driving him crazy.

  “You have kids,” Romie said. “Stay here. Come on, Brad.”

  She handed him his cane and the two of them moved toward the stairs. They went slowly, pausing to see if their emotions would be agitated as they ventured away from the furnace.

  Romie looked closely at Brad.

  “Feel anything?” she asked.

  He shook his head.

  Romie glanced back and saw that Wesley was right behind them. After rolling her eyes, she said, “Fine. Move that stuff out of the way, would you?”

  Wesley went around them and pushed some of the boxes to the side. Romie didn’t say anything, but Brad knew that she was doing the same thing that he was—they were studying Wesley for any sign that his anger was returning. All Brad could think about was the murder that he had seen in Pam’s eyes. He wondered what that would look like on Wesley.

  “Okay?” Wesley asked when he had a way cleared.

  Brad went first.

  With each stair that he climbed, Brad’s mood lifted. The door at the top of the stairs didn’t fill him with the same premonition of doom as it had before. Turning the handle and swinging it open, he knew that everything would be okay.

  He stopped.

  “What is that?” Romie asked.

  “I don’t know,” Brad said. There wasn’t enough light to see what color the dark stains were on the floor, but Brad thought he knew. They would be blood. Even that wasn’t enough to quell his rising spirits.

  “It’s probably dried. Is it dried?” Wesley asked.

  “Listen,” Brad said, holding his position. “I know what you’re feeling. I’m feeling it too. There’s some kind of good feeling up here. We have to ignore it, just like we would ignore the anger, or hate, or whatever else. Let’s keep logical and not give in to the optimism in the air.”

  “Yeah,” Romie said. The word was barely a whisper. Brad hoped that she meant it.

  When they reached the short flight of stairs up from the locker room, they were able to verify the color of the stains. It was indeed blood and it wasn’t all dried.

  “Where are the dogs?” Brad asked.

  There was something about the way that blood was streaked on the corner of the wall. It seemed like a smear that a dog would have made.

  “Different places,” Wesley said. “We left Tank at home. He comes and goes as he wants, and he hates the car. A couple of people put food in the gym.”

  “I’m sure they’re fine,” Romie said. She was answering some negative thought in her own head, Brad assumed.

  To their right, the morning light was streaming through the windows at the end of the hall. The glare on the polished floor was blinding. Brad turned his attention the other direction. Down at that end of the hall, there were deep shadows. He couldn’t tell if there was something moving around down there.

  He spun at the sound of a click. Wesley had flipped on the light switch, chasing most of the shadows away. There were footprints smeared in the blood on the floor.

  “That way,” Wesley said, pointing.

  Brad had to squint to see what he was tracking. Wesley led the way. When he reached the intersection of the halls, he knelt down to study the floor more closely.

  “She actually veered away from the exit, assuming that Pam made all these prints.”

  He jerked upright, looking down the hall.

  “What?” Romie asked.

  “I thought I heard something,” Wesley said.

  “Come on,” Brad said. The school was starting to feel cramped around him. He wanted to be outside—the sooner the better. They pushed through the doors at the same time. The cool morning air was so sweet that Brad could have stood there for an hour, just enjoying the purity of it.

  Romie pushed past him and he followed her out into the sunlight.

  “Okay,” she said, exhaling. “It’s okay.”

  Wesley tented his hand over his eyes and looked up. “The sky looks good now. There’s nothing up there.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Brad said. He squinted up. The bright colors of the sunrise were starting to fade. High clouds were moving out to the east. He didn’t see the strange tear in the sky, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t there.

  A wave of paranoia washed through him. Glancing at Romie, he wondered if she had felt it too.

  “We’re being held hostage by something that we can’t even put our hands on,” she said. “It’s infuriating.”

  “It’s clear what we should do,” Wesley said. “We’re not safe here, so we might as well pack up and head north.”

  “What makes you think it’s any safer up there?” Brad asked.

  “Nothing,” he said, shrugging. “More people, more resources, and more ideas can’t hurt though.”

  With another shrug, Wesley began to walk back toward the doors.

  “Watch out for Pam,” Romie called after him.

  Wesley went back inside.

  “We should make sure he’s okay,” Brad said.

  “Then what?” Romie asked. “Are you going with them? They’re all going to go.”

  Brad looked at her. “I’ll stick with you. Whatever you want to do is fine.”

  She nodded and then looked back up to the sky.

  It didn’t take long for the families to start streaming through the door after Wesley reached them. Romie and Brad stayed in the hall, watching their neighbors make a mad dash for the outside. Brad kept an eye one direction and Romie the other. They were watching for Pam and hoping that she would stay hidden.

  He felt terrible every time it crossed his mind, but Brad hoped that she had found the same fate as Kevin, Mandy, and George. If somehow she lived and came back to reality, she would never be able to cope with the knowledge of what she had done. Even if she didn’t remember, she would see it reflected in the eyes of everyone else for as long as she lived.

  Wesley held back after getting his kids outside. He saw the last of the people through the doors. They had a loose plan to form a convoy and head up north. Brad knew how that would go. They would stay t
ogether for the first hour or so, and then some vehicles would pull ahead and others would lag behind. Their tight community would separate into its component pieces before it came back together in Donnelly.

  “You guys coming?” Wesley asked.

  “Not yet,” Romie said.

  Brad had an idea of what they would be doing before they left. Since Romie didn’t mention it, he didn’t either. He had something else to say to Wesley though.

  “Listen, you’re going to find Donnelly empty. They will have found somewhere to hole up while they try to figure out what’s going on. Check in the post office and the police station. They will have left word of where they were headed. And don’t forget about the radio. They might be broadcasting a signal, but it will probably be fairly local.”

  “Got it,” Wesley said. “You two stay safe, okay?”

  Brad nodded.

  They were still standing in the school hallway as the door swung shut and latched. In the distance, they heard someone calling over the sound of a car engine. Brad shut his eyes and wished them well. A warm rush of nostalgia moved through him. His eyes flew open as he realized that his emotions still weren’t completely his own.

  “I hope this shit is only happening here,” Romie said.

  “You having strange feelings?”

  She nodded.

  “Let’s find her and see what state she’s in.”

  Brad exhaled and felt a little nauseous. Somewhere, up on the roof, was a bloody reminder of what Pam was capable of.

  Romie was studying the footprints on the floor, trying to decide which were most recent.

  “With any luck, the loss of blood will have weakened her,” Romie said.

  “I wouldn’t assume that the blood is hers.”

  Brad pointed with his cane. Apparently, Romie had failed to see the tuft of fur that was poking from one of the lockers near the classroom door. When he pointed it out, she moved slowly toward it and then bent over to look.

  “You don’t think…”

  She didn’t finish the question.

  A little blood had dripped from the bottom of the locker and pooled at the corner where the wall met the floor. Romie jerked up the latch and swung the metal door open. The body of the dog was crammed into the space.

  “At least they’re all gone,” Romie said. “The kids won’t have to see her like this.”

  Brad nodded. “Yeah. Assuming they don’t hang around looking for her.”

  Romie shut the door again. The sound echoed in the hall. He wasn’t certain, but Brad thought he heard a sound in response.

  “That way,” Romie said, pointing. She had heard it too.

  “Yeah.”

  It wasn’t difficult to find her. The trail of blood led to the door of the algebra classroom. It was still open a crack. Romie nudged the door inwards with her foot and it swung until it hit one of the desks. Brad angled his head to see down the inside wall before he reached in and flicked on the lights.

  He jerked his hand back when he heard something move inside.

  Pam’s hand came around the door first, and then her wide eyes. Her lips were pulled back to reveal stained teeth.

  Romie snatched the cane from Brad’s hand and he leaned against the wall to catch his balance.

  Before Pam’s groping hand could get anywhere near them. Romie brought Brad’s cane down on the woman’s head. The first few blows didn’t dissuade her at all. She didn’t even register them as she kept coming. Then, Brad heard something crunch and Pam’s right eye began to sag, slipping from a fractured socket.

  “Get something and help me,” Romie said.

  “Are you sure we should…” Brad started to ask.

  “This isn’t Pam. She wouldn’t want…” Romie’s statement was interrupted as she swung the cane again. Brad cringed as the cane cracked into Pam’s collarbone. One of her groping arms sagged.

  Romie swung again.

  “She wouldn’t want to live this way.”

  The next blow to her head sent Pam down to her knees. Romie kept hitting her until Pam was prone on the floor in front of them. Fresh blood was seeping out from her wounds.

  Brad opened his mouth to express doubt again, but he shut it before he could say anything that he would regret. There was nothing to do about it now—Romie had acted based on the information she had, and it was mostly information that Brad had supplied. There was no sense in second-guessing.

  “Let’s go check on the others,” Romie said.

  “Why? I told you—they’re dead.”

  Romie studied him for a moment.

  “Let’s go check.”

  Brad wasn’t prepared for the fear that overtook him as they climbed the stairs. He wasn’t frightened by the idea of seeing the dead. He was afraid of the opposite. A cold certainty settled into his heart—they were going to climb the stairs and find no evidence of Pam’s crimes. It would turn out that Romie had killed an innocent woman, all because Brad had been mistaken.

  Romie paused before they reached the top.

  “What?” Brad asked.

  “You don’t smell that?”

  Now that she mentioned it, he did pick up an odor. Then, when she opened the door, he caught the full strength of the smell. It was fresh death they were smelling—perforated intestines, blood, and evacuated bowels.

  “Let’s go,” Brad said, turning to descend the stairs. “We don’t have to look at them.”

  “You’re certain, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that there’s nothing we could do to help them?”

  He sighed and had to admit that he wasn’t certain.

  “Then we go look. We’re staying together and we’re going to look.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed with another sigh.

  In the daylight, the horror on the roof was much worse than he remembered. The bodies weren’t just murdered—they had been violated and torn apart. Entrails had been dragged from Kevin, almost all the way back to the stairs.

  Brad couldn’t look. He turned his eyes up until he saw the blood that had seeped through the boards of the lookout tower above. It was all too much. Waves of fear, sympathy, and anger rolled through him as tears began to leak from the corners of his closed eyes.

  “Brad?” Romie asked, “was it like this last night?”

  He shook his head. “Not when I was here. He hadn’t been… ravaged like that.”

  “You didn’t touch him, did you?”

  Brad’s eyes flew open. “No. Of course not. I mean, I may have turned him… What are you asking?”

  “Nothing. Where are the others?”

  “Mandy should be behind here and George is upstairs. I’m pretty sure.”

  “Come on.”

  She was waiting for him to go with her. Brad couldn’t stand the idea of seeing more of the misery. Romie wasn’t going to have her mind changed though. She never backed down once she had her mind set.

  Brad looked down as he followed Romie around the staircase enclosure. Even that didn’t help. He was still looking at the streaks of Pam’s blood on his cane.

  Romie gasped when she saw Mandy. Brad stole a glance and wished that he hadn’t. All the clothes had been torn off and the body was covered in bite marks and ripped skin.

  “This is why, Brad,” Romie said. “This is why we had to take care of Pam. Not Pam, I mean—whatever Pam had become.”

  “Yeah,” Brad said quietly. He wanted to shout at her that she hadn’t known about the bodies when she had been attacking Pam. Romie couldn’t use that as a justification when she hadn’t even experienced it yet. To be honest, he didn’t know how much of his rising anger was legitimate. It was possible that outside emotions were still affecting him. It was also possible that they had contributed to Romie’s earlier bloodlust.

  “Let’s go, Romie. There’s no sense in…”

  “No. Where’s George?”

  Brad motioned with his eyes and Romie didn’t wait for him until she was halfway up the stairs.

  “We have to stick tog
ether.”

  She sounded so angry that he didn’t dare disobey. More and more, he was starting to think that Romie was barely in control of herself, and she was faster than he was. His body was sore all over and he wouldn’t be able to defend himself.

  When he reached the halfway point on the stairs, Romie was above, witnessing what was left of George. Her reaction said it all. Brad turned they both descended in silence.

  “This was another unforgivable day,” she said.

  By the time they were down in the hallway of the school, Brad felt the tension start to abate. It was like a storm cloud moving away and letting the sun reveal itself. He didn’t feel artificially angry or happy, he was just himself.

  Romie sighed and stopped to lean against the lockers. She dropped her head.

  “I didn’t think…” she said and then she stopped. Romie hated to show her emotions. Brad was surprised to see tears on her cheeks when she looked to him.

  “Romie, let’s get out of here.”

  “What are we doing?” Romie asked.

  “Nothing. Let’s get out of here. Shoot, we don’t have a car. We’re going to have to ride bikes or walk back to the house.”

  She turned and slumped against the wall. A moment later, she was sliding down toward the floor in a slow motion collapse.

  “Romie,” Brad said. He went to her and reached out to pull on her arm. When he touched her, she jerked back and then fell into him, hugging his leg.

  “This isn’t you,” Brad said. “You’re feeling the effects of whatever is in the air, Romie.”

  She looked up at him. Her eyes were filled with sadness and fear.

  “That’s the problem,” she said. “I killed Pam because she was stricken with whatever is in the air. I killed her because she killed the others. Who will kill me?”

  “Nobody,” Brad said. “It was self defense.”

  It didn’t matter if he believed what he was saying. They needed to get out of there. For one thing, there was no guarantee that Romie had actually killed Pam. The woman had stopped moving, but that didn’t mean much. But the most compelling reason to leave was because of the negative energy that Brad was beginning to feel. Romie was currently wallowing in sadness—that could change. He didn’t know if she would recover outdoors. He only knew that he didn’t want to be around all this death and blood if her emotions began to sour.