Distinct

by Hamill, Ike

  “No,” Jackson said. “I don’t think so.”

  “Which is it?” Ty asked.

  “Settle down, Ty,” Tim said. “He’s just trying to help. Jackson, who are The Origins? What do you know about them?”

  Jackson sighed. Tim heard him turn away.

  “Amy Lynne wants to join. She said it’s the only way to get rid of all the weird stuff once and for all.”

  “Start at the beginning,” Ty said. “And tell it quick. I don’t want to be out here.”

  ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪

  “Did you ever know about the lizard people?” Jackson asked.

  “No,” Ty said.

  “They were these people who supposedly ran everything before the world blew up. They were part of the Illuminati or something. I never believed in them, but one of my friends did. The Origins are kinda like my old friend. They found this guy who came down from the mountains. He had all these burns on him and someone said they were radiation burns.”

  “I remember,” Ty said. “We cleaned him up and he went up to live with Tanya.”

  “Exactly,” Jackson said.

  “They weren’t radiation burns,” Tim said. “He got better.”

  “Well,” Ty said, “he got better for a few weeks. That can happen with radiation poisoning. The immediate injuries heal but the damage to a person’s DNA means that they’re not going to be able to make any new cells. It’s a death sentence.”

  “I don’t know what was wrong with him, but he died,” Jackson said. “Tanya and them buried him in the hills. But before he died, he told them where he had left his pack. They went to go find it because they wanted to bury him with his picture of his kids. Apparently, it’s all he talked about in the end.”

  “I never heard that he died,” Tim said.

  “Yeah, they didn’t talk about it because of what they found. They got the picture and a whole bunch more. I’m just taking their word for it because I didn’t see any of it, but multiple people all told me the same thing.”

  “What, Jackson? Spit it out.”

  “That guy wasn’t from Earth.”

  CHAPTER 6: NORTHAM

  “LUKE?” MIKE ASKED.

  ROMIE nodded.

  “Can I get a copy of that image? I need to show it to someone.”

  “Sure,” Terry said. She found a memory card and captured the image from the video.

  “Wait, who is this Luke character?” Mike asked. He took the card from Terry before she could hand it to Romie.

  “Did you guys hear about the group that started in Portland and then migrated down to upstate New York? They were led by some military guys who all wore beards?”

  “Sure,” Terry said. “I’ve heard about all that.”

  Mike nodded too.

  “Luke was the one who organized that trip. Supposedly, he was a secret military guy all along. Nobody knows what happened to him, but he disappeared before the second-coming of the ball of light. Some people say that Judy killed him, but I never thought she was capable of that kind of thing.”

  “So now we know that he’s still alive,” Mike said.

  “Maybe,” Terry said.

  Romie held out her hand until Mike gave her the card. His attention was on Terry.

  “What do you mean by that?” he asked her.

  “Take a look at what happens next,” Terry said.

  She started the video again. In the next frame, Luke’s translucent hand was on the door to the stairs of the water tower. At the following frame, Terry paused it again. The door was clearly still shut. From every angle, they saw that the stout door was closed. But Luke was only half there. He was moving through the door and they could only see one leg, his arm, and part of his torso. The rest was gone.

  Terry advanced one frame and Luke disappeared completely.

  “That’s simply confusing,” Mike said. “Back it up again.”

  Terry obliged.

  “I’ve seen it a dozen times,” she said.

  “I’m just trying to understand what I’m seeing,” Mike said.

  “Can we do this on the road?” Romie asked. “I need to get back.”

  “You think that this guy somehow walked through a solid door and then went inside to sabotage the water tank?” Mike asked. His voice was low, like he was talking to himself. Terry didn’t answer. “How is it he was able to damage the tank but have no physical interaction with the door?”

  Mike exhaled with a whistle and pushed away from the laptop. He put his hands on his hips and tilted his head back, looking up while he paced.

  “That’s some strange shit. Are you sure these cameras are working right? Are you certain it’s not some trick of the lens or something? Maybe the door just looks shut.”

  “It looks the same on every camera,” Terry said. “Don’t forget—if I’m right, then this sabotage took place at the bottom of a water tank that was full. That would be a hard trick to pull off. And, he doesn’t ever come out. I have video right up until the time that I showed up to look for the issue. The man never exits, and I certainly never found him inside. One other strange thing—you see that it’s raining, right? He doesn’t look wet even in the clearest shots.”

  Terry and Mike moved back to the laptop and studied one of the frames again. They looked at how Luke disappeared through the door.

  Romie couldn’t contain herself.

  “What’s wrong with you two? Granted, this is strange, but deal with it. It’s not the weirdest thing that has happened in recent memory. Just accept it and move on. Fix the tank if you’re going to fix it. Put a guard on the door. Whatever you’re going to do, you’re not going to figure this out just by looking at that video over and over,” Romie said.

  Mike studied Romie for a second. He looked like he was trying to decide if he should be angry or not. In the end, he simply shrugged.

  “I guess she’s right. Let’s dry it out the rest of the way and figure out if it should be welded, sealed with rubber, or both. My guess is both. I’m a half-decent welder, but I can ask around and see if I can’t dig up a fully decent one.”

  Terry nodded.

  Mike looked to Romie. “Okay. Let’s get you back.”

  ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪

  Romie fidgeted the whole ride down the hill. She had the memory card in her pocket. Her fingers kept tracing the outline of it through the fabric. At the water tower, she had yelled at Mike and Terry that there was no point in staring at the images. There was nothing they could deduce from that shadowy, ghostly figure. As far as she knew, there was only person who could look at the image and use it to inform a solid theory on what was happening. She happened to have a lunch date with him and she didn’t want to be late.

  “Looks like the fire has gone out,” Mike said. He snapped his fingers. “They were talking about the same thing. I heard people talking about a ghost wandering around the storage house before it went up. You don’t think… I wonder if the same guy who broke the tank was the one who burned up the storage house.”

  Terry nodded.

  “I should take your laptop around and see if anyone recognizes the guy,” Mike said.

  “That’s a good idea,” Terry said.

  Romie looked through her window and held her tongue. Plenty of people would recognize Luke, and it would likely cause a panic. She hadn’t witnessed what happened to Hampton, the leader who took over after Luke disappeared. Romie had still been recovering when the community had delivered justice to Hampton.

  “Pull around here,” Mike said.

  The truck slowed to a stop.

  “Here’s your bike. We can throw it in back and give you a ride home if you want,” Mike said.

  “No. Thank you though,” Romie said. She wanted to disentangle herself from this community.

  “Well, good to meet you,” he said.

  Romie shook each of their hands quickly over the seat and rushed over to her bike. Terry was still parking the truck when Romie got her feet situated and began pedaling. She checked
over her shoulder so often that she nearly spilled over a curb.

  Romie caught her breath and focused on steering.

  As her muscles worked, she tried to put the day in perspective. She had come over to keep contact with the group and put them at ease. Instead, she was completely freaked out and leaving in a hurry. Situations like this were exactly why her foursome didn’t feel comfortable in a community. In their world, groups were flighty and panicky. They latched onto some unexplainable thing and then used it as an excuse to do terrible things to each other.

  Now, there was a new mystery, and it was anyone’s guess how the settlement at Northam would react.

  Romie dug in as she worked her way up the hill.

  If she was completely honest with herself, there was a chance that this wasn’t a new mystery. For weeks, Lisa had been talking about Pete. She still missed Pete—they all did—but Lisa had moved beyond missing him. She talked about seeing him down in the yard, in the fog, at night. Lisa said it looked like Pete’s image was being projected on a piece of silk and had even run out a few times to look for footprints in the dark. Maybe Lisa was looking for Pete’s prints, and maybe she was looking for the prints of whomever was pulling the prank—Romie wasn’t sure.

  If it was a prank, it was really crafty.

  Romie had dismissed Lisa’s claims as wishful thinking. In a half-awake state, the mind could make up all kinds of strange fantasies. Ever pragmatic, Romie had told Lisa to keep her mouth shut and not make everyone sad by reminding them of Pete’s death.

  But now another apparition had been spotted, and Romie had physical proof.

  Romie put her hand on the memory card in her pocket.

  She heard the sound of a car behind her. Someone was about to come around the corner.

  Romie steered into a driveway and stood on the pedals so she could get out of sight before the person spotted her.

  ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪

  The car kept moving. If they were looking for her, they weren’t doing a very thorough job. Romie leaned against the house and tilted her head back, panting. She was getting paranoid.

  Lots of people in Northam knew exactly where she lived. There was no sense in trying to hide. If they wanted to find her, they would simply go to Romie’s house and wait for her to return. Still, the image of Luke had spooked her and she wanted to be alone.

  Romie turned her bike around and started to wheel it back towards the driveway. The tire rolled into a puddle. Nothing happened. She remembered Robby’s story. In New Hampshire, Robby had tried to roll his bike through a puddle and had nearly given his life for the mistake. Nobody had seen one of the sentient puddles in a long, long time. As far as any of them knew, that was all in the past.

  It was and it wasn’t.

  Lisa had seen something strange in a puddle. The water hadn’t come to life and tried to absorb her or anything, but it was strange. Lisa had gone outside the morning after one of her Pete sightings and called for Romie to join her. She had pointed down at a puddle in the mud at the edge of her garden.

  At the bottom of the clear water, there was a footprint in the mud. The foot had been bare and bigger than Romie’s or Lisa’s. In fact, the footprint had easily been bigger than Brad’s. If Romie had to guess, it was the size of footprint that Pete would have made, had he still been alive.

  “So what?” Romie had asked. “I guess we have a peeping Tom. Let them look. Nobody else is trying to get a peek at the goods.”

  “This isn’t real,” Lisa had said.

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  Lisa had pointed carefully at something that Romie hadn’t spotted the first time. It was half of another imprint, right at the edge of the puddle. The dirt outside the ring of water was completely undisturbed. They only saw the footprint beneath the surface of the water.

  “What’s the problem?” Romie had asked.

  “That doesn’t strike you as a little weird? Shouldn’t there be some mark outside the puddle?”

  “Maybe the dirt below the surface is just softer.”

  Instead of replying, Lisa had stepped next to the print. Her own shoe sank equally, inside and outside of the extent of the water. When she had lifted her foot, water from the puddle had flowed, filling her whole shoe print.

  “That’s how reality is supposed to work,” Lisa had said.

  “Either way—keep it to yourself,” Romie had said. “Everything is going okay for once. Just keep your weird theories to yourself so you don’t cause a big panic over a damn footprint.”

  That’s when she had walked away.

  As far as Romie knew, Lisa had kept it to herself. She didn’t remember anymore conversations about Ghost Pete after that.

  Now, staring at a different puddle, with a picture of Ghost Luke in her pocket, Romie wondered if she had done the right thing. Maybe if she had opened the conversation with Robby and Brad, they would have been able to figure out together if there was a real threat.

  Romie swung a leg over her bike and got back on the road. There was still time to fix that mistake.

  She didn’t get far before her feet left the pedals again and she was coasting to a stop.

  Something had caught her eye.

  In one of the houses, a curtain was still moving. Someone had been pushing it aside to watch her pass—she was sure of it.

  Romie’s eyes moved down to the front door of the house. It was ajar.

  CHAPTER 7: NEW YORK CITY

  “HANG ON,” ROBBY SAID.

  Gordie stopped panting and waited for the jolt.

  He lined up the tires the best he could and bumped the Polaris up and over the curb. He dragged the wheel left and accelerated down the sidewalk. The roads were clear in some places. It seemed like the closer they got to the city, the more roadblocks they found. People had simply opened their car doors and stepped out into oblivion. The only way to navigate around was to stick to sidewalks and bike paths. Fortunately, Robby and Gordie found plenty of both.

  The dog stared off to the east.

  Robby followed his gaze and then shook his head.

  “I know. I just have to see.”

  The dog didn’t care. He liked any kind of trip. When Robby started working on a vehicle, trying to get it running, Gordie would run in circles, biting at his own tail. The sound of an engine starting would always make him come running.

  On either side, the buildings grew taller and taller, boxing Robby in. Heights frightened him—this he already knew—but he was starting to figure out something else. It turned out that depths also frightened him. Being surrounded by enormous buildings was beginning to feel a little overwhelming.

  He spotted a gap in the abandoned cars and steered back over the curb. They cut between a cab and an electric car so Robby could maneuver into the center lane where it was clear. As soon as they got out from under the shadow of the building, Robby felt a little better.

  “You smell anyone, let me know,” Robby said to Gordie.

  He couldn’t imagine any person staying in the empty city. It was too spooky there.

  Too many windows looked out with their black eyes. Any sane person would have fled after everyone else disappeared. There were signs, here and there. Robby saw a broken window where someone had smashed their way into a deli. He saw a car that was angled between two others. An effort had been made to clear the center lane that Robby was driving down.

  He brought the Polaris to a stop.

  Gordie looked at him.

  “I’m thinking about the kind of person who would choose to live in this ghost town,” Robby said to Gordie. “They might also be the same kind of person who would lay traps. Let’s not take the easy way.”

  Robby backed up and turned down a side street. It was slower. He had to weave around cars and debris. They stopped and looked at a straight line that had been carved through one of the blocks. One half of a skyscraper had been torn away, revealing a ragged view of the interior like a dollhouse that had been split with an axe.r />
  “Tornadoes,” Robby whispered to Gordie. He seemed to understand.

  Robby steered around a crater in the pavement. The tornado had been surgical—slicing away the offensive creation and then lifting off to take care of something else. Robby had theories about why they had acted that way. With any luck, his theories would never be confirmed. Robby hoped to never see one of those tornadoes again.

  Glancing at his map, he got them back on track again.

  His view of the reflective building was blocked. He could just see the top of its spire reaching towards the clouds.

  The street was blocked with concrete barriers. It wasn’t much farther.

  “Let’s walk,” Robby said.

  Gordie was thrilled by the idea.

  ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪

  Robby saw the plaque and what was spray painted onto the bronze surface. He stopped several paces away. What was scrawled there looked infectious and Robby didn’t want to get any closer.

  He took out his camera and snapped a picture from where he stood.

  Under the paint, the words were clear.

  “IN LOVING MEMORY OF ALL THOSE WHO PERISHED ON 9/11/03 AS A RESULT OF THE ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES, AND IN MEMORY OF THE FIRE, POLICE, RESCUE PERSONNEL, AND OTHER HEROES WHO DIED HELPING OTHERS. LET US NEVER FORGET THE FOUNDING PRINCIPLES OF OUR HOMELAND, ‘ONE NATION, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL’.”

  The message painted overtop the plaque was much more succinct.

  It read, “LIES.”

  Robby tilted back and took a picture of the tower.

  “Come on, Gordie,” Robby said. “This is all I needed to see.”

  Gordie wasn’t done. He lifted his leg to pee on a fence and then put his nose back to the ground.

  “Come on, Gordo.”

  Robby led the way back towards the Polaris. He looked over his shoulder.

  “Gordie!”