by Maxey, Phil
“Hell,” said Campbell from the doorway, then immediately turned and headed back to the shop floor.
Gregg appeared, not flinching despite the stench. He ignored the body. “Can’t stay here. Need to explore the rest of the town. Find the source of the noise. If there’s a lot of those things here, we ain’t staying.”
Landon nodded as the older guy moved back into the corridor, then waited a few seconds before bending down and picking up a revolver, quickly checking the five remaining bullets and placed it in his pack.
CHAPTER THREE
3: 51 a.m. Highway 54.
“I got some hot tea here, if you would like some for the young’uns, eh?”
Jess had heard the footsteps approach and hoped they would fade, but instead they came to a stop and were followed by the voice of the woman. Jess placed a smile on her face and turned to the puffy winter jacket a foot below the side of the wagon. Kind eyes were almost lost within a fur hood, looking up at her, and a flask was being offered.
She wasn’t cold at all, but she could feel the intermittent shaking from Josh and Tye and nodded to the woman, leaning down to take the black plastic container. “Thank you. I’m Jess. These are my children, Josh and Sam and our friend, Tye.” She noticed the flash of a smile on Tye’s face. She handed the bottle to Sam, who quickly took the plastic cup from the top and started pouring the brown steaming liquid out. “Your accent? You’re Canadian?”
“I am. Was down with my husband. Doing a road trip. We’re from Toronto. Where are you from?”
The two youngest kids eagerly sipped on the hot drink, but Jess noticed Sam was more reserved. “Denver…”
“Oh…” The woman looked down, before looking back up with a smile and her gloved hand being held out. “I’m Iris, Iris Russ.” Jess briefly shook her hand as the woman’s eyes scanned the others in the wagon.
Meg and Tracey spoke their names.
“How long you been with Isiah?”said Meg.
“Ah, from the start, on the farm.”
“Farm?” said Jess.
“Yeah, that’s where all these wagons came from. It was a historical recreation, a living museum the brochure called it. We were staying there with some other families when… Anyway. Some of us managed to get away and take the wagons and horses. The others were picked up on the way.” She looked along the convoy parked on the highway. “Think there’s about fifty of us now.”
“Isiah was on the farm?” said Meg.
“Yeah, he was the head manager for the livestock. The owners…” She briefly looked down again. “Were such nice—”
Donnie, not visible from inside gave a slight bark and the woman jumped, then took a step back.
“You have a dog?” Jess started to reply but Iris was already walking away.
“Iris?”
The woman turned around. “Yes?”
“Have you heard from your home in Toronto? What’s it like up there?”
Iris’s face turned even more glum. “Not good.” She turned and continued back to her wagon.
*****
4: 04 a.m. Town of Collier.
“There’s always more than one,” growled Gregg. The group were crouched behind a fence of a small property. A layer of frost on its surface glistened in the glow from his flashlight. They all looked across a forecourt which sat to the right of a collection of buildings, the biggest the town had to offer. Further was a junction, with stores and a church on the opposite corner. A few cars were parked in front of them, and a van, abandoned in the road, its rear door open, swaying in the wind.
“Almost didn’t make it out of Kansas City,” he glanced at Landon to his side. “Reckon you must have run into them.” Landon started to reply but the older guy continued. “Saw them do some seriously strange shit. Like they were acting together or something. These critters still got brains.”
They hadn’t spotted any of the creatures, but Landon could feel them. A hidden threat which lurked and was waiting for them to make it easy. At least that’s what the silence was telling him. But he wasn’t going to do that, instead an idea came to him. “They are drawn to heat… Maybe we start a fire. Draw them out?” He looked at the older man, who for the first time actually had an expression other than a frown.
Gregg nodded then looked back to the street. “That van. We throw some wood in the back, set it alight.” He then looked to the two-story buildings to the left. “We can set up, up there, on that roof. Get the big guns ready to go when the things show up.”
Landon nodded. “Sounds like a plan…” He slid his view across the junction then church and the single-story homes which bordered it. “Should be furniture we can break up in those houses.”
“Good, let’s move,” said Gregg, getting to his feet and jogging across the road before the others had a chance to react, but then quickly followed.
The small group moved past the van then sidewalk, then over the lawn to the wide white wooden walls of a house. Landon noticed the garage door was up and detoured towards it then slowed on the stench hitting him from the void which existed within. He looked towards Gregg who was already trying the front door with success, and watched the only source of light disappear into the house.
“What’s in there?” said Arlo, behind him.
“Death,” said Landon. “Come on.” He quickly moved around some garden furniture and up a few steps and into the small hallway. “Stay away from the garage, at least until it’s daylight.” He said to the others who were beyond his line of sight, already moving through the other rooms. He closed the front door then looked to the end of a corridor catching Gregg’s light sweep across a kitchen cabinet. Static came from the older man’s radio, as he explained the plan to whoever was on the other end of the communication.
Cracks and creaks came from the room to Landon’s left. He peered inside to Beau and Campbell pulling chairs and a bookshelf apart, while Arlo claimed a small paperback book which had fallen, and placed it in his backpack.
Even though he was fairly sure the people the home belonged to were decaying somewhere in the garage, he couldn’t help but feel he and the others were trespassing. Worse than breaking and entering, they were now tearing the place apart. Vandalizing these people’s memories… everything about the new world was wrong.
He turned away from the destruction, his eyes avoiding the few framed photos on the wall and pulled the drape back near the door, trying to make sense of the dark forms… outside… Did one of them move?
He pulled the front door open. Cool brisk air washed across him with a hint at what was in the space just ten feet to his left. He took a step out onto the narrow porch and tried to focus better on what was across the street. Something near a bush, across the way, moved, but then returned to its initial position. The wind picked up and it shifted again.
“You see anything?” grumbled Gregg, behind him.
“Not sure… don’t think so… just the wind.”
“I sent the plan up the chain. Now we wait to see if Isiah, agrees.”
CHAPTER FOUR
4: 27 a.m. Highway 54.
Josh clasped the flask between his hands, and Jess clasped him between hers. Sam sat to her left and Tye her right. She could feel the two boys shivering but Sam remained resolutely still.
She’s like me… not human…
The idea kept dragging her mind to depression, that she and now her daughter were tainted. That the virus that she had a part in creating had left its marks on them, as it had the world. Nothing would be the same again…
She stood, making those around her jump slightly, then looked at Meg. “Can you keep an eye on things. I need to stretch my legs.” Meg had an expression that held more than just the nod she responded with.
“But, what if the monsters come?” said Josh.
“The people in these wagons have guns, and will know before they get here.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “We’re going to be okay. Meg will stay with you.” She wondered if the young woman behind her, next to Meg w
ould feel slighted at not being mentioned, but she had no idea who this young woman was, other than she felt some guilt at being involved with whatever Isiah did before he saved them. Josh looked down, nodding. She looked at Sam but the young girl was looking away, no doubt lost in her own battle of human identity.
Jess turned and nodded to Meg, then walked between the boots and carefully climbed down the back, landing on a surface that crunched slightly beneath her. She looked up at Josh one last time. “I won’t be long.” He nodded again and she walked onto the road taking in the full panoramic of the traditional vehicles, which stretched a hundred feet behind her, and twice as much ahead. Most had lit bonnets across their backs, which shadows moved within. She wondered which was Iris’s and started walking forward while glancing at the town at the bottom of the exit, to her left.
What’s happening down there?
Hushed voices came from the wagon close by as it rocked on its wheels. A young face appeared through the gap in the fabric at the back.
“Who are you?” said the young girl in an English accent.
“Um… Jess. What’s your—”
The girl was gone. Replaced with more whispers and shifting silhouettes beyond the canvas. Jess started to move on when the red face and blonde straggly hair appeared once more. “You’re immune? Like us?”
“I am… who is ‘us’?”
Another young head appeared, then another. A boy and another girl. “I’m Agatha,” said the first, “and this is Toby and Hellen.” The two others looked at Jess in silent expectation.
“Where are your parents?”
“They died,” said Helen, the youngest of the trio, whose dark hair was in a loose plat.
“You’re alone?”
They all nodded.
“I was on holiday with my parents,” said Agatha. “I found, Toby and Helen in the city, then Isiah found all of us. You have children? I thought I heard them…”
Jess smiled. “I do, a son and daughter. Around your age, and we have a friend called Tye. His parents died as well.”
“Do you think we can stay in this town?” said Toby, his spikey, scruffy hair reflecting his enthusiasm for a new home.
“I—”
Shouts came from the wagons at the back of the convoy and two of them broke ranks and started to move across the bank and then down the slope, onto the exit. Some people on horses joined them from the front of the column.
“What’s happening?” said Helen.
Jess recorded the urgency that the drivers on the wagons, had. “I don’t know. Stay inside. I’ll find out.” She ran forward, across the frost covered mud then back onto the concrete just catching a horse trotting past. “Hey, what’s happening? My husband’s down there!”
The man in the stetson had a scarf across his face, his words fading into the wind as he moved away. “Setting a trap for the creatures.”
*****
Landon placed the last piece, a chair leg, carefully onto the other combustible items. A mound, a few feet high, took up the space in the back of the van which ironically already consisted of a sofa, a few kitchen cabinets and containers full of books. The latter they had emptied from their labeled plastic boxes, Arlo keeping some. Evidently the van had been used for house removal, but then the end of the world happened. Not the best timing.
Gregg held his radio to his lips. “We’re ready. You in place? Over.” His eyes shifted across the darkness which resided beyond the glow of his light, then up to the roofs, fifty-feet away to the west. Landon had watched and heard the wagons move into town and take up a position around the back of the double story building which acted as the town’s city hall.
The voice on the other end of the radio indicated they were, and the old man looked at Landon, then Beau who held a metal canister. “Go on then. Try not to set yourself on fire.”
The young man sneered then unscrewed the top and started dowsing the inside of the van with the strong smelling liquid.
Gregg shook his head. “Strange, how they ain’t already attacked. Like they’re—”
“Waiting,” said Landon.
“Yup.”
Beau threw the metal tin in the van. “Get back,” he said then flicked open the lid from a lighter, the flame immediately jumping from it. He moved away then threw it in. Before he and the other two had taken more than a few steps an explosion of flame burst from the back of the van, singing the hair on the back of his head, and making him dive to the hard ground. Landon offered him a hand to get back up, but he refused. All three then ran across the lot, not waiting to see if the fuss had already caused some of the creatures to show up, and continued through an open door which was quickly closed behind.
They hurried along the narrow corridor, finding the stairs and made their way to the second floor.
“You seeing anything? Over,” said Gregg, out of breath.
Footsteps could be heard from above, but a negative came from the voice on his radio. Finding a tiny room which doubled as a storage closet, they also located the ladder to the roof.
Even before reaching the top, Landon could hear the crackling of flames as they got to work on the wood inside the van, and as he stepped onto the roof, the smoke hanging in the air confirmed it. He looked at the three men and one woman already looking down the scopes of rifles, and another who was holding onto the grip of the M2 that had been used to help them escape from the church.
He followed Gregg who kneeled next to one of the men. “Anything?” said Gregg. The man shook his head.
Landon looked at the surrounding small town stores and the fire reflecting off the windows, then to the darkness which existed deeper within the streets and backyards. Nothing stirred.
“You sure they like the heat?” said Gregg to him.
It was just a theory. Why else were the creatures around the burning motorhome, two nights prior? “I don’t know. Looked like that before.”
The old man frowned. “Then I guess we gotta get comfortable. See what shows up.”
CHAPTER FIVE
4: 55 a.m. City Hall, rooftop.
Most of the group waiting to ambush the town’s only other living beings, were huddled together, their backs against the small wall, trying to keep warm, but Landon and the old man were both looking down to the van that was still burning. Its flames were beginning to subdue, now only lighting a few car lengths in each direction and the stores and surrounding homes were once again being swallowed by the night.
“Why ain’t they coming,” said Beau, to their side. His arms wrapped around his chest, which his knees were against. “I thought you said they liked the heat?”
The burning van idea seemed like a good one, but for the past hour Landon had been at a loss as to why the creatures hadn’t taken the bait.
“I’m not freezing to death up here!” said Campbell.
“Quit ya whining,” grumbled Gregg.
“It’s okay for you! You’re old! The old don’t feel the cold like us young people!”
Gregg let out a sigh. He looked at Landon. “I reckon they ain’t coming.”
Landon started to reply in agreement, when a disturbing idea slipped into his mind, one he wasn’t sure about vocalizing. “They know…”
“Know what?” said Tracey, despite the comment not being aimed at her.
“There’s more of us, than them… They’re waiting for others to come…”
“Ha! You’re crazy.” She looked at Beau then Gregg. “He’s crazy, right? They ain’t that smart…”
Gregg’s gaze shifted from her to Landon. “If you’re right, then we gotta problem.”
Landon knew what he meant. The wagons were parked on the highway, flat land in most directions, apart from the town in the valley. If his ‘crazy’ idea was right, and more things were on their way. Maybe the only remaining humans in the state were easy pickings. But worse than that was the creeping realization that whatever was in the town, was not only planning, but knew others would come. Almost as if they cou
ld communicate…
Campbell uneasily stood. “I’m going downstairs. Finding me a room I can get—”
A roar bellowed out into the night, making her hit the deck a lot faster than when she stood. Everyone else grabbed their weapons and looked over the wall.
“Where… where was that?” said Beau, looking at the van, then the connecting streets and finally to the opposite side of the roof, and the absolute darkness that resided there.
A chill ran through Landon, for he finally knew the meaning of the sound, and the one they had heard an hour previously. The thing was calling out, calling for others to come.
*****
5: 03 a.m. Highway 54.
“Snap!” shouted Agatha at the four other children, while slamming her open palm down on the cards before they could. Josh wasn’t the only one to frown. They, along with Meg, Sam, Jess and Donnie were inside the covered wagon, the bonnet providing some barrier to the freezing temperature just inches beyond the hessian covering.
Meg was near the back, and occasionally pulled the flaps back to see outside. Jess sat opposite with her radio, a single message from her husband being the only use of it for a while. Sam was to her side but Tracey had left when they changed wagons, evidently being summoned to a meeting with the man in charge.
“What do you think of these people? And Isiah?” said Jess to Meg. A few of the children looked at Jess on asking the question, then back at the cards, slowly being dealt.
Meg noticed the glance from the youngsters but kept her eyes on Jess. “They want to live.” She looked back through the tiny gap her fingers were producing in the fabric. “That’s a start.”
Jess knew the woman opposite hadn’t answered the last part of her question and knew the reason why. The four kids that had kindly given them refuge were four tiny sets of ears and minds, ready to spread Meg’s words beyond the flimsy walls to someone else.
