Distinct

by Hamill, Ike

  Brad’s door slammed shut.

  One man jumped on the hood. Another swung a hand at Brad’s window.

  Brad barely got his arm up as the glass imploded inwards.

  The tires squealed. Romie pointed the car across the lot, towards the road as the man on the hood fell off to the side. They skidded across a strip of grass and the car banged over the curb. The frame came down on concrete. Romie’s head bounced off the interior but she kept her hands on the wheel. When the tires caught again the car darted down the street.

  Brad turned in his seat.

  “They’re following.”

  ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪

  “This way is faster, it just gets a little hairy,” Romie yelled.

  The wind coming in through Brad’s shattered window made it difficult to hear.

  “As soon as we clear the hill, the radio will work,” she yelled.

  “I know,” Brad yelled back.

  He was busy looking back for their pursuers. The men in the truck had chosen the other route instead of following Romie. They seemed to know what they were doing. Brad wondered if the same was true for Romie. Their little car was fast, but the suspension wasn’t built for banging over bumps and through potholes.

  Romie steered around a corner and Brad held his breath while the back end lost traction and drifted towards the curb.

  “Romie!” Brad yelled, pointing ahead. More than half of the road was washed out. The other part—a thin margin of asphalt next to the curb—couldn’t possibly be safe. Brad imagined that the whole roadbed had been eroded away, leaving only a thin skin of pavement.

  “I ride my bike down this road,” Romie said.

  She swerved at the next driveway and got two of the wheels up onto the curb.

  Brad pushed a hand up against the ceiling to stop himself from bouncing so much.

  When they hit the bad part of pavement, the car tipped as the road gave out. On the other side, Romie bounced the wheels off the curb and all four tires were on asphalt once more.

  “The radio,” Romie yelled.

  Brad had forgotten about it.

  He pressed the button.

  “Lisa, they’re chasing us. Get everything ready to go. We’ll meet you there.”

  Brad released the button and put the radio to his ear. He heard something, but he couldn’t make out a definitive answer. Brad repeated his message several times and then gave up.

  “I hope she has enough time,” Romie said.

  They turned onto a low road that hugged the coast. Brad stuck his head through the broken window and looked up at the hill above them. Between the houses he thought he saw a flash of the blue truck up in the hills. He couldn’t be sure, but it looked like Romie’s crazy route might have put a couple of minutes between them and the truck.

  “If they got the message, they’ll have plenty of time,” Brad said.

  Romie took the last turn too fast.

  The rear wheel on Brad’s side slammed into the curb. Romie fought the wheel to straighten the car back out, but she couldn’t regain control before they sideswiped a tree. Metal groaned and the car shuddered as Romie gassed it up to full speed.

  “Cut across,” Brad said, pointing at the lawn.

  She did.

  The car slipped and slid on the grass and they slammed to a stop in a bush.

  Romie rolled out of the driver’s seat. Brad put his shoulder to his door, but it wouldn’t budge. The impact with the tree had bent something. Instead, he pulled himself through Romie’s door.

  They burst through the gate and ran as fast as they could across the deck and down the stairs. The boarded up house was one of the few with a deepwater dock off the deck. That’s where the boat was tied.

  Brad was relieved to see Lisa, Tim, and Ty already aboard.

  Romie stumbled on the stairs. Brad caught her elbow and kept her upright until she found her feet again. Behind them, they heard a shout from the other side of the house.

  Ty flipped the rope from the post as Romie climbed into the boat. Brad jumped after and fell to the deck as Lisa gunned the engine.

  Ty caught Brad’s hand in his and hauled him from the edge before Brad could fall backwards off the boat.

  “Thanks,” Brad said.

  Ty didn’t respond. He was watching the shore. They all turned to see the men run down the stairs and out to the end of the dock.

  “Watch the channel, Lisa,” Brad yelled. The boat was the one that Brad took fishing. It had a deeper draw than the one she was used to. At low tide, it was easy to get the thing in trouble on the sand bar that built up near the inlet.

  “Where are the dogs?” Romie asked.

  “Tim put them below,” Ty said.

  Romie collapsed onto one of the deck chairs. Ty found a pair of field glasses and surveyed the shore.

  “So it didn’t go well?” Ty asked.

  “No,” Brad said. “You guys were right.”

  “I was right,” Romie said.

  “Okay, you all were,” Brad said.

  “We don’t know for sure that the people in Northam are the same kind of crazy as the ones upstate,” Romie said.

  Ty nodded.

  “There was something just off about them,” Brad said. “I could tell as soon as that guy came through the door.”

  “Hold on,” Ty said. “I want Tim to hear this too.”

  Brad nodded.

  ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪

  Lisa dropped the engine to an idle and then cut it off. The boat swayed gently in the morning wind. They were much closer to New York than Connecticut. Long Island was to their south and, across the water, Northam looked like a toy village cut into the side of a green landscape.

  Ty set the field glasses down. They were too far away to make out much detail.

  “Hey,” Romie said. She shielded her eyes with her hand.

  She didn’t have to say anything else. They all saw what she was looking at.

  West of Northam, in the little community of Gladstone, a line of black smoke was starting to trail upwards into the sky.

  “Back in Portland,” Lisa said, “they burned down Robby’s house before they left for New York. I guess they did the same thing again.”

  “How do you know that’s Robby’s house?” Brad asked. All their houses were in a pretty tight cluster.

  “It is,” Romie said. “History repeats.”

  Tim was sitting in one of the swiveling chairs. He had Cedric on a leash. Murphy sat in the corner, near the cabin. She stayed put but kept a close eye on Ty as he paced back and forth.

  “At least we got away in one piece. Paranoia saves the day,” Brad said.

  “Tell us what happened,” Lisa said.

  Brad pointed to Romie. She gave the story from her perspective.

  Ty listened closely and then ran one of his big hands down his face. He shook his head.

  “I’m still a little baffled,” Lisa said. “What happened? I saw a ghost down here. You saw a ghost upstate. The people of Northam saw ghosts. And, apparently, everyone was acting strange. How does that get us from peaceful neighbors to now they’re trying to abduct Brad and Romie?”

  “I don’t know how to explain it,” Romie said. “You would know it if you talked to them.”

  “Which you haven’t let anyone else do,” Lisa said.

  “We discussed this already,” Romie yelled. “That’s why I took Brad with me today.”

  Brad stood up and put his hands up to calm them. “Stop. Please stop. You’re going to have to trust us, Lisa. Or don’t. Trust the fact that we were chased out to the boat. Trust the fact that they’re burning down Gladstone right now.”

  “There’s some shady shit going on,” Romie said. “Let’s just be thankful that we recognized it and bolted before it sucked us in.”

  Tim nodded.

  “Personally, I wasn’t convinced that there was imminent danger. Ty is the one who got me moving and I’m glad he did. Jackson verified that there was a real problem brewing up
in Donnelly,” Tim said.

  “So, now what? What are we supposed to do? Move someplace new? Start over?” Lisa asked.

  Nobody spoke.

  “That’s a good question,” Ty said. “Like Romie said, there’s some shady shit going on. But we don’t know the depth or the nature of that shady shit.”

  “You want to go back and find out?” Romie asked.

  “I didn’t say that,” Ty said. “I’m just saying that if we choose to move away, it would be good to know how fast and how far we need to move.”

  “And what about all the people we left behind that we care about?” Tim asked. He looked out across the water. “We came down here to warn Robby, but I never thought that we were leaving forever. What about Jackson? What about Dr. Matthew? Are they going to be safe?”

  Tim’s hand found Cedric’s head. He stroked the dog’s fur as he looked at the column of smoke at the shore.

  “And what about Robby?” Brad said. “He might come back in a couple of weeks and walk right into this angry wasp’s nest.”

  “He’s smarter than that,” Romie said.

  Brad nodded.

  “No,” Lisa said. “No more doom and gloom.” She pointed north. “These people are our friends and neighbors. As far as we know, this is all based on a misunderstanding. We have line of sight with Northam right now, don’t we? Can’t we use the boat’s radio to get in touch with them and figure out the problem?”

  Brad looked at Romie.

  “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt,” Romie said. “If they launch a boat and try to come after us, we can get to shore on Long Island in short order.”

  Brad nodded. “I have vehicles parked at the country club and at that event center.” He pointed south. “From there, we can hide any number of places before they even get to shore.”

  “Everyone agree? We make contact and see what they have to say for themselves?” Romie asked.

  She pointed to each person individually until they nodded agreement.

  CHAPTER 16: NORTHAM

  THE ROOM AT THE back of the greenhouse was stifling hot. Carrie didn’t want to imagine how bad it would be in the middle of the day, with the sun beating down through the glass overhead.

  Every time she thought that she had grown accustomed to the earthy smell, she would shift positions and it would rush back to her, making her want to gag. She held her nausea in check, barely, through one, overpowering thought—they couldn’t know that she was pregnant. She wouldn’t let them know. These people were crazy, and if they knew she was pregnant, they might do something to hurt the baby.

  Carrie pressed her back up against the wall and took another tiny sip of water. Her head swam as the liquid carved a deep path down her throat.

  The door squeaked as it opened.

  She looked up and tried to hide her surprise. With all her other visitors, she had heard the crunch of their footsteps approaching. This man entered with no warning.

  He squatted down in front of her and then said, “Ooof!” as he dropped to the floor. He looked up and smiled.

  The door was still open a crack. The cool air from the main part of the greenhouse rolled in like a smooth river of relief.

  “I’m so sorry to keep you waiting,” he said with an amused smile.

  His eyes were remarkable. As the man looked around the little room, his focus didn’t jitter or jolt. Those green eyes slid like liquid. The lids covered the top half of each iris and blinked so slowly that she imagined he must spend half of his life in darkness.

  “Who are you?” Carrie asked.

  The man laughed, looked down at his own hands, and then finally returned his gaze to her.

  “Sometimes I wish I knew. Most of the time, I just accept that I may never know. But people call me The Origin, for lack of a better term.”

  “The origin of what?”

  He turned his hands up and then looked through the glass ceiling towards the sky. His smile was back. His joy seemed barely contained behind his lips.

  “You mind telling me why I’ve been roasting in this box?”

  “That was never my plan. People get so excited to introduce me to their friends. Sometimes they get overzealous about forcing that introduction.”

  She studied his face as she frowned.

  “Allow me to apologize for them. Take it as a compliment. They care for you so much that they overstepped in their efforts to help you.”

  “Help me what?” Carrie asked.

  Once more, he turned his hands up towards the sky.

  “Evolve, I suppose.”

  He laughed.

  ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪

  “Okay, fuck this,” Carrie said. She pushed her hands into the dirt and tried to stand up with confidence and ease. Although she was barely showing, and could still hide her belly under loose clothes, her center of gravity had changed. Standing up easily was still something she was mastering, and she suspected that it would get much worse before it started to get better.

  The man made no move to help or hinder Carrie. For some reason, this made her even more angry. She had been roasting in the back of the greenhouse for hours on end for no reason at all.

  “Whatever slow eye bullshit you’ve used on everyone else isn’t going to work on me.”

  “I can see that,” he said.

  Carrie threw open the door.

  There was nobody in the greenhouse now. Before, every time she had tried to leave the little room, a crowd had stopped her. People who she considered to be her closest friends in the world had laid rough hands on her and forced her to stay. Ever since the world had ended, the rules had change. Nobody understood that better than Carrie. One of the new rules was obvious—treat every threat as if it’s serious. Just because those people had sweated, ate, and laughed alongside her didn’t mean that they wouldn’t hurt her. But now they were gone. She had a clear shot to the door.

  “Jannie doesn’t hate you anymore. She forgave you when you went away, but she didn’t know how to apologize without thinking less of herself,” the man said.

  Carrie didn’t let his words slow her down. He was trying to slow play her. The man was playing weak because he thought he had a strong position. Or was it the opposite? Was he coming on strong because he didn’t have anything? That was way more likely, the more she thought about it.

  Carrie strode fast between the rows of tables. Most were empty—the seedlings had already been moved outside so they could flourish. The plants still inside were the ones that wanted deep heat and high humidity. As nice as it was outside, these plants wanted more. It was unrealistic to grow them at all. If they needed better conditions than the Connecticut summer could provide, then what was the point in starting the seeds in the first place. Carrie didn’t understand why this revelation was just now dawning on her. The whole system needed oversight.

  She stopped at the glass door. There was nobody outside. They could make a run for it—she and her baby.

  Janice didn’t mean a thing to her anymore. Those memories had been resolved and folded under long before the world had even ended. It was a ridiculous thing for the man, they called him The Origin, to have brought up.

  When she glanced back, he was still there in the little room off the back of the greenhouse. He was still sitting in the dirt, with his back to the far wall. There was no longer any attempt to confine her.

  What was the point of abducting her in the first place?

  Carrie waited. As soon as he said one more thing, she was going to bolt.

  Janice—the idea was absurd. The woman had surely died when the world ended, but even before that, the relationship had died more than a decade ago.

  Carrie called back over the length of the greenhouse. “What do you mean, without thinking less of herself?”

  Even across all that distance, Carrie could see him blink his reptile-slow eyes. Before he could open his mouth, Carrie remembered the baby. Jannie was in the past. The baby was her future. She turned and went through the door.


  ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪

  The morning air restored some of her sanity. Carrie understood everything a little more clearly. There was a truck parked nearby. It wasn’t the one that Terry and Mike had driven, but it had keys and a full tank of gas. Carrie climbed in and started it up. She tore out of the gravel driveway and steered north, away from the little community that she had helped foster.

  The CB radio was on. It crackled as the road dipped into a little valley. In their town, the radios were dependable for one or two miles. In the flat areas, they reached much farther. People didn’t use them much, except for emergencies. Nobody wanted to be blabbing away about dinner plans if someone else needed help.

  Carrie reached for the volume and turned it up. If Terry and Mike were coordinating any kind of search for her, she wanted to know. But there was no CB traffic. Either she had misread the situation, or they were so confident in the persuasive powers of The Origin that they hadn’t imagined that she would run.

  They certainly didn’t seem to be following her.

  The radio sputtered again when the road curved to the right. She passed by an open field with a view that looked down on the community. Beyond the buildings and roads, she saw the open water.

  “…to talk with us, then this is your chance,” a voice said.

  Carrie slowed as her mind put a face to the voice. She picked up the microphone.

  Before she said anything, the voice was back.

  “This is Romie. We don’t know what’s happening over there, but if you want to talk with us, then this is your chance.”

  Carrie keyed her microphone.

  “Romie? Romie, this is Carrie. Are you there?”

  There was a pause. Carrie wasn’t sure that she had been heard. She almost triggered the microphone again to repeat her message, but Romie’s voice came through.