If they were aware of his following them, Karrier and Tammy didn’t show it. He thought for a moment of revving up behind and bashing into them, running them off the road, but he didn’t want to do any damage to his car so decided against it.
The other cars came to mind as he saw them up in the distance. The sheriff - he was going to be a problem if Karrier stopped where Anderson did. It was then looking at the lead cars that Scarrow first understood what was happening. They were going up to find out where those cloudy things had come from. And now it seemed, so was he.
This seemed like an off move for Anderson, but Scarrow supposed it was what had come of the town meeting earlier. These other cars must be do-gooder volunteers coming up to help. His mind was whirring into gear: if there were this many cars going up into the mountains, it could only mean they intended to break off soon to cover more ground. That would mean he could get Karrier and Tammy alone and show her what a real man was made of. He would just have to bide his time a little and wait for the right moment.
They had gone on for another ten minutes, each one making Scarrow seethe more and more, before Karrier’s car was the first to turn off onto one of the side roads. This had been the plan it seemed, and Scarrow turned his car onto the same road. He was sure they would notice him now. It would have been possible someone had been coming along the main mountain road behind them, but this was a narrow road that Scarrow wasn’t even sure where it went. He thought he saw Karrier glance in the rear-view and hoped he was feeling nervous.
Then something new caught Scarrow’s eye. Was it starting to snow? At this time of year? He looked closer and of course it was not snow. It was like tiny dandelion pods billowing in the wind, but something told him it was something more sinister than that. It was smaller versions of those same clouds that had come to town and killed that guy up at Shaker’s. Perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to come up after those two lovebirds after all.
The small flurry ended almost as quickly as it had started, and the long grass along the side of the road was dotted with the stuff. Shaking his head to clear it of the last of his fear, Scarrow focused on the car ahead once more.
Karrier suddenly jammed on the brakes and his car skidded to a halt. Scarrow stopped too at a small distance, watching to see what the trouble was. Then he saw it. A larger cloud, not too big - about the size of a basketball - drifted over the top of Karrier’s car. It touched the roof but didn’t settle there. Karrier set off once more, but though he was aware of this fact, Scarrow continued to watch the cloud as though mesmerized by it.
A slight change in the wind sent it off into the trees where it came lower and lower until he could no longer see it. He was sure it must have landed on the ground, and he got out of the car to go in and check it out. At this moment, it seemed this was the most important thing in the world.
On entering the trees, he could see the cloud at once. It had settled on a low piece of brush, and as he stood over it looking down, it had already started to harden into that crystalline look. Watching his footing to be sure he wouldn’t fall on top of it, Scarrow leaned over and looked closer. He wondered if there was any way he could use this stuff to his advantage, but as the only person he’d ever seen touch the stuff had died horribly almost right after, he didn’t think it likely.
The outside of the cloud had fully hardened now, and it took on the icy look, and Scarrow was aware that something was moving around inside. He leaned in closer, and it looked like there was a liquid flowing around inside each tube at great speed. Was there some central atrium in there where these things met and started again? Was this a living thing and this liquid he was seeing its blood? It looked white, but blood didn’t have to be red, did it?
His face was as close as he was willing to let it now, but he still couldn’t be sure what he was seeing. He glanced up wishing the tree canopy was not above him causing a shadow. The old phrase ‘Wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first’ came to mind.
There came a sudden and loud violent crack, and something sprayed from the cloud into the shocked face of Clinton Scarrow as he instinctively looked back to the cloud. He reeled back his hands to his face, but the stuff moved to avoid his hands. He didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t hurting him yet. He screamed as he felt it spread over his face, and then he had to close his eyes against it. He pulled with his hands, but it was to no avail. It only spread there too and started running up his sleeves. He felt it go into his nose and he shut his mouth as he dropped to the ground and started to thrash about, no longer caring where the cloud was or how dangerous its outer shell might still be.
After a struggle, he finally had to open his mouth to breathe, but it was instantly filled with the horrible sensation of millions of tiny legs encased in a fluid rushing into the cavity. He could no longer breathe, and he could no longer scream. Clinton Scarrow prepared to die.
Chapter 12
Lawrence was glad to see the car behind was no longer following. He wasn’t fully sure, but he was pretty confident it had been Clinton Scarrow’s car. With any luck, he might have run out of gas. What had started out in Lawrence’s mind as a good opportunity to spend some alone time with Tammy had been turning worse by the minute. True Scarrow was off his tail for now, but up here in the mountains the clouds were still floating about. They were much smaller, granted, but that didn’t mean they were not lethal like the larger ones. He could see that Tammy was uneasy too, and each moment it felt like one or the other of them was going to suggest just going back to town and it would be seconded immediately.
“Maybe we should close up the vents in the car too?” Tammy suggested when the decision had been made that the windows remain shut. Lawrence looked at the vents and nodded. It was possible some tiny cloud could make it through the vent system and into the car - extremely unlikely but possible.
“I guess so,” he answered, hoping that it wasn’t going to get stiflingly hot in there now. He flicked them shut and smiled at her. “We only have a short loop up towards the old Mercy road and we’ll be on our way back to the meeting point before you know it.” Tammy nodded and seemed reassured by this idea. She didn’t seem to have noticed the car when it was behind them, and he didn’t think there was any point in mentioning it to her now.
The road they were on came into a valley, and the mountains to their right seemed suddenly to rise up for miles above them. It was a beautiful drive and on another day, this would perhaps have been the perfect thing for a new couple to do.
“I see some of the clouds in the trees way up there,” Tammy said, pointing. Lawrence slowed the car and had to crane his head forward to see though the top part of the windscreen. He saw them too, and it confirmed his own suspicions. They were coming from the higher mountains, up where Mercy used to be.
“It’s coming from Mercy,” Tammy said, and the timing was such that for a moment he thought he’d heard this in his head but then realised Tammy had said it.
“Yeah,” he agreed hastily.
They came to a split in the road. One fork used to go up to that town but now only went up as far as where the fire had spread. Fallen trees and mountains of solidified ash blocked access up there now. Lawrence stopped the car at the fork and looked up, following the winding road until they could see it no more. It was over the crest of the first hill, perhaps two miles, before it ended.
“Should we go up there and have a look?” Tammy asked. Anderson had told them not to, but there was little point in passing here and not finding out, Lawrence felt.
“Maybe,” he said, “We need to know, don’t we?” Tammy nodded agreement with him, though it wasn’t emphatic. Turning the wheel, they took the grassy road no one had been on for close to two years.
They had been driving for a few minutes before either realised they hadn’t said anything since leaving the main road.
“How many people were killed up here?” Tammy asked.
“I don’t know,” Lawrence answered, “
I’ve heard from as low as five to as many as twenty, and I also heard of people who were never found.”
“Yeah, I hear people went missing too. I guess it was so crazy the whole thing kinda spawned a legend before anyone ever knew a single true fact about it.”
“People love a mystery,” Lawrence nodded, tapping the wheel with his thumbs. He’d like the way she’d said ‘spawned a legend’ and he smiled at this.
“It’s so dark in here under the trees,” Tammy said after a moment. She was looking out her side window trying to penetrate the darkness of the treeline. She shivered, and Lawrence knew she’d just given herself the willies thinking about it.
“Looks like we're coming to the end of the line,” he said, nodding to the road ahead. They came suddenly out into the sunlight, and all around them lay the scorched remains of trees that had gone up in the fire. Lawrence stopped the car and switched off the engine. The landscape rose up like this far above them, and they could not see the top of the mountain from here. Though the scarring from the fire could be seen from Gossamer Falls, the scale of even this little bit they could see up close was staggering.
“My God,” Tammy said as the car came to a stop. “It’s so eerie up here, like nothing is alive at all!” That idea creeped Lawrence out. Though he’d felt the weight of silence there as almost oppressive, he hadn’t combined it with the idea of nothing being able to live up here. He looked around for birds in the sky, but there was nothing. Even if there was nowhere for them to roost, shouldn’t they be hovering overhead looking for food in the wasteland before them?
“The clouds must be coming from up higher past where we can see,” Lawrence said trying not to let his jitters show in his voice. Tammy looked up to the curving away ridges and nodded.
“Must be,” she said.
“I suppose the others will just find the same on the roads they have to check out,” Lawrence said, turning the key in the ignition and starting the car up. Tammy leaned against his arm as he pulled off and changed gears. It was a nice feeling to have, and in it he felt her want to get away from this place was as strong as his. If he was being honest with himself, Lawrence Karrier was so unnerved right now that he would have been happy to drive right out of these mountains with Tammy and leave Gossamer Falls behind forever.
Not long after, they rounded a bend and the road was now taking them back towards town. It was a relief to both and almost instantly the mood in the car lightened. Since leaving the edge of the fire wilderness, the devastation had all Lawrence had been able to think of. The image of it wouldn’t leave his mind. Now heading away from it, he snapped out of it,
“So,” he said jovially to get Tammy’s attention, “How do you think our first date is going?”
“It’s not one I’m going to forget in a hurry,” Tammy said, smiling at him.
“What do you say when we get home you come over to my place and I’ll make us dinner?” he said.
“You cook?” she asked, the surprised tone in her voice unmistakable. He laughed.
“There’s only one way to find out!” Tammy laughed at this too, and their eyes met tenderly a moment before Lawrence had to turn his attention back to the road.
“You’re on,” she said and then after a moment’s silence said, “Hopefully eating your cooking will be a little less dangerous than these clouds!”
“I can’t make any promises!”
They laughed and then started talking about a night from a few weeks back when Jake Higgins had gotten his leg stuck climbing in a tree outside of Shaker’s and they couldn’t get him down. They laughed and laughed all the way back to the meeting point with the other cars of the search team, and for those few minutes it was like all was right with the world and Lawrence loved every second of it.
Chapter 13
Anderson was thankful on the drive back to Gossamer Falls, that every member of the search party convoy had come back in one piece. As the lead car in the run, Anderson had passed by already by the time the small clouds began to fall on those behind him, scaring them into keeping windows and vents closed. Had he seen this, Anderson would have turned them all around and sent them back home at once. As it turned out though, it wasn’t until Anderson was alone on the stretch of road he’d assigned himself that he saw the first of the tiny clouds settle on his rear window.
The drive served its purpose, and on everyone meeting for the drive back, each of them had reported the same thing. As far as anyone could make out, the clouds were coming from Mercy or somewhere else beyond in that direction. That would mean someone else, mountain rangers perhaps, would be the ones to find out. Anderson believed that was the kind of people who should have been looking into this in the first place, not local factory workers and shop keepers. Each one of them on the trip, himself included, had been exposed to new dangers, and he meant to let Allgood know about it.
Dusk was settling into night as the convoy rolled back into town. Each car had some small cloudy formations on them that had solidified by now. Anderson just hoped they were harmless now and they hadn’t just brought more danger back in to Gossamer Falls unwittingly. To this end, he drove straight to Doc Hanrahan’s surgery after thanking everyone who was part of the search.
Hanrahan opened the door to the noise of caged animals behind him getting excited.
“I hope one of those is the dog I’m here to see?” Anderson said, stepping inside.
“They all are!” the Doc said in seeming annoyance. Anderson looked at him, puzzled.
“More licked the stuff?” he asked.
“No,” Hanrahan said, his exasperation growing now, “That asshole, Allgood, had some of his council idiots toss a few more small dogs at the stuff and then caged them up and brought them to me to look after. I’m not a bloody vet!”
“What?” Anderson couldn't believe this. “Purposefully throwing helpless animals at something that could have killed them?”
“Apparently he thinks it’s more ‘scientific’ to have more than one test subject,” Hanrahan shook his head in anger. “The first one wasn’t a test subject!” he shouted at the end.
“I know, I know,” Anderson said softly, trying to calm the old doctor down a bit. He walked through the waiting room and looked at the dogs. “Any of them showing any signs of distress or illness?” he asked.
“Nothing so far. Some of them don’t like being caged up, but I can sympathise with that.”
“Did you let them outside to pee?” Anderson asked.
“If they look like they need to,” Hanrahan answered. “I only have one leash, and I’m reluctant to touch them too much in case they are dangerous in themselves from that stuff.” Anderson looked at Hanrahan again, worried by this statement.
“What do you mean?”
“We don’t know anything about this substance,” Hanrahan said, “It killed people on contact the other night, but it didn’t have the same effect on these dogs the next day. They could be immune to whatever it is, or perhaps their fur protects them and it needs to touch the actual skin to kill. Either way, the dogs could have residue on their fur that could be fatal to me or someone else touching them.”
“Did you mention that to the men who brought them here?”
“I did, and they looked like they were about to shit their pants,” Hanrahan laughed. “It almost made it worth it.” Anderson smirked and then hunkered down to come face to face with the dogs. Most of them were eagerly facing him, their tongues lolling out and their tails wagging furiously. A couple sat back towards the back just looking on like in boredom.
“Those ones alright?” he asked, pointing at the ones who didn’t react to him. The doctor had gone over to his receptionist desk and was looking at some papers but looked over and nodded.
“They’re just old,” he said, smiling. “Like me.”
After visually assessing the dogs, Anderson stood up once more and turned back to Hanrahan.
“These guys look they are doing okay, but I think I agree that it doesn’t
necessarily mean it’s safe for humans to touch the stuff.”
“Well, you won't find me raising my hand to volunteer,” Hanrahan said, smiling. He stepped inside his own office, and Anderson looked back to the dogs. He certainly wasn’t going to volunteer either. Doing that today had been a mistake, and he wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.
“You want one?” Hanrahan’s voice came from the doorway. Anderson turned and saw the doctor held a bottle of whiskey and two glasses.
“Why not,” Anderson shrugged after a moment's thought.
“Pull up a seat there,” Hanrahan said, sitting down at his receptionist’s desk as he unscrewed the bottle cap. By the time Anderson was seated, a half-filled glass was being pushed towards hum. He lifted it, and Hanrahan held his up and said,
“To our continuing good health,” with a grin on his face.
“Fingers crossed,” Anderson replied with his own grin and lifted his glass too. They drank the warm liquid and it was good.
After a long period of silence punctuated only by one or other of the dogs looking for attention, Anderson asked Hanrahan,
“Do you have any ideas as to getting rid of the substance from the places it landed?”
“I’ve thought about it a bit, and though I think trying high pressure water first and brute force if that doesn’t work, I feel the real concern is what the hell to do to store the stuff. I mean we can’t put it in the garbage can on the side of the road and expect it to be hauled away.”
Anderson looked through his glass to the floor, the tiles warped in the thick bottom. He’d given this a little thought over the last few hours, and he was hoping a heavy rain might come and just wash it all away. It sounded like wishful thinking and he supposed it was, but it would be a best-case scenario until they could find the source of the clouds.
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