The Imminent Scourge

by J. D. Anderson

  “How long do you think we should wait for him?” Danny said at last.

  “I don’t know,” said Nikki, choking back the beginnings of tears and sniffing her nose. “He said to wait for him. He said that it wasn’t about the time, that he would be back no matter what… that it would seem like a long time to us, but that he would be back. Don’t you remember him saying that?”

  “Yeah, I do. I do, but…” Danny shook his head.

  “Maybe one more day?” Nikki said hopefully.

  Danny nodded. “Okay.”

  “And then what?” asked Nikki.

  “I want to try the military base.”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “It might be dangerous trying to go over there. I don’t know what Dad would think of that.”

  “I think it’s probably our best chance,” Danny replied.

  “But we don’t know what kind of people they are. Maybe there are bad people there. We might get killed on the way.”

  “Well, we’re out of food here. It’s not doing us any good just sitting around. I think it will be safe. It’s an Army base—they probably had it all locked down right from the start. I don’t know why we didn’t go there before. Dad was just afraid for no reason.”

  “Don’t say that.”

  “Okay, okay, but if he had a reason, I don’t know what it was. Because they’re ‘demonic’ or whatever. Doesn’t make a difference, really. To be honest, I don’t really remember much of what he said. Anyway, I’m sure it’s stocked full of food, and they’re Army guys; they know how to defend themselves. They will be able to keep us safe. Safer than we’ll be here when they find us. Those things will smash right through those glass windows. I don’t know why they haven’t found us here already. We must have just been really lucky so far. It’s only a matter of time.”

  Nikki looked around the store at the empty shelves, the dark refrigerators. “I don’t know about the Army base. I just don’t know.”

  “They’re trained to keep people safe. It’s probably the safest place there is as long as we can make it there.”

  “How can they keep us safe? How do you know they can keep us safe?”

  “I’m sure they know a lot more than we do. I’m sure they’ve figured out a lot more than Dad figured out… raving about them being demonic and shit. Look, I love Dad, but after Mom—after he had to kill Mom—I think he kind of lost it a little. That’s also partially why I think he’s not coming back.”

  “How can you say that?”

  “He said that they were demonic! What more do you need? It will be nice to be in the hands of the U.S. Government. It will be nice to be in the hands of somebody else, people who are neutral, who don’t tell you how to think. They won’t turn us away, at least.”

  Nikki gave in. “Okay,” she said. “After we give him one more day, we’ll go. We’ll go and try to get in that military base.”

  “Tomorrow morning,” Danny said. “If he doesn’t show up by tomorrow morning, we go.”

  Nikki nodded.

  Danny picked up his guitar and started strumming again, more loudly now that they were no longer trying to carry on a conversation. They spent the remainder of the day like that—Nikki sitting against the wall, and Danny strumming the guitar. At the slightest movement outside—the flicker of a bird flying past, the shadow of a cloud passing over the sun—they would look up with alert eyes, hoping for the return of their father. At other times, they would hear a noise—the scuttle of a creature clambering along the vacant shelves, or the rattle of a bird living in the ceiling—and their hearts would race, their hands would go numb, and they would brace for their total inability to fight whatever impending doom might befall them. But in the case of both the great hope and the great fear, they were met with indifferent nothingness. It always ended where it had started: with just the two of them, waiting.

  Before long, Danny was stricken with a pang of hunger, and he knew that in an hour or two it would pass, and that then it would be time to sleep. Nikki got up and walked to the front of the store and lay behind the counter where she slept.

  “Do you mind if I keep playing?” Danny asked.

  “No, not really,” said Nikki from behind the counter.

  “‘Not really’? You mean, you sort of do mind?”

  “Well—”

  “You mean, you mostly mind, don’t you?”

  “I don’t want you to stop on my account. I know that you enjoy it.”

  “Shut up. I’ll stop. Go to sleep. I know you’re tired.”

  “Okay. Thank you. Good night.”

  “Good night,” said Danny, hunger jabbing at him from within. He laid the guitar down beside him and tipped his head back and closed his eyes. He was tired, but the hunger would keep him awake for some time yet. He moved his fingers in the air, practicing on a silent, invisible guitar.

  #

  They awoke in the early morning, restless from hunger and waiting for their father. He had not returned.

  “Give him another couple of hours,” Nikki said.

  “Okay,” said Danny.

  He could tell that she was on the verge of tears. It seemed that she was too exhausted to cry. If she had had food enough for the energy, she would have been weeping.

  They waited. He did not come.

  So in the mid-morning, they set out. The only thing they took with them was Danny’s guitar which he carried on his back by a strap wrapped around one shoulder. The morning was cool—a layer of clouds covered the sky, partially diffusing and muting the sunlight.

  They walked along a main road, scattered sparsely with empty, dead cars. Stoplights hung dark on their wires. The windows of shops were empty and dark. Most of the houses were boarded up. Those that were not were dark and appeared to be empty. All was quiet and motionless. They felt all alone.

  “Where do you think they all are?” Nikki whispered as they walked.

  “Who—people or… or the others?”

  Nikki didn’t answer his question, but looked around as though the only way to account for the desolation of their surroundings was that invisible strangers were all about her, who might appear at any instant. She kept a hopeful eye out for her father, but Danny was not as optimistic. He was watchful for other things.

  Once, she stopped and pointed at an empty storefront, saying, “Is that him? I think it’s him!”

  Danny looked. The storefront was dark and looked as empty as all the others.

  “I don’t see anything,” he said.

  “But don’t you see—” she said, “the windows are covered with newspaper, just like Dad does. There are doors on both sides of the building, and on the front, just like the last place, just like how Dad says is the safest—more exits, more ways to get away. And it’s a convenience store, not a market, so it will have more non-perishables.”

  Danny studied the building. “You’re right about all those things. But it doesn’t mean he’s inside. Those aren’t signs of him, those are just external things about the building. They don’t mean anything.”

  “But it’s exactly the sort of place he would be.”

  “Still doesn’t mean anything.”

  “But what if it is?”

  “If it is Dad, what is he doing—why would he be hiding out instead of trying to make his way back to us? Did he abandon us? If he’s actually in there, that means he’s abandoned us and he doesn’t care about us, so I wouldn’t want to go there even if he were there.”

  “Maybe he’s just waiting for the right moment. Maybe he’s trying to figure out—” Nikki floundered for words, and then gave up. She felt despair. She did not see a way that she could convince Danny. It seemed as though his mind had already been made up about their father, and that any evidence she provided he could always justifiably dismiss.

  “Well,” she said, “even if it’s not Dad in there, there are probably helpful people.”

  “You said we shouldn’t trust anyone except Dad. Besides, we have to try to make it to the ba
se before dark.”

  “I know, but…maybe they could help us. Maybe they have some food they could spare.”

  “Give it up, Nikki,” said Danny, turning on her. “They might be helpful, but they might not. They might not even be people in there anymore. Maybe they’re locked inside and we should keep it that way. We have to play it safe. We need to act as though we’re on our own, because, for all practical concern, we are. We’re on our own, Nikki. We’re all alone, until we get to that base, or unless Dad miraculously shows up, which he won’t.”

  They continued walking. Nikki still kept her eye out. She saw other places and other signs that indicated the presence of their father, that he was still alive. But she kept these to herself, knowing that it was useless to talk to Danny.

  Danny saw none of these signs. All he saw was the desolation that surrounded them, and this to him was proof enough that their father was dead.

  They took breaks more frequently as the day wore on, the hunger getting to them. They thought more than once to stop at a vacant convenience store or an empty restaurant along the way, but they feared that these were either inhabited by others who might be hostile, or that they were infested, so they kept moving in hopes of reaching the gates to the base before dark.

  They succeeded, and they arrived not long before sunset at one of the gates on the road. The booth at the checkpoint was vacant and the board guarding the entrance from the road had been broken. The car that had apparently broken through it lay not far from the gate, turned on its side like a dead insect near the edge of the pavement against a grassy ditch. They walked down the road beyond the overturned car and passed another convenience store—also dark, vacant. The base looked as desolate as everything else they had seen.

  Then as they rounded the curve in the road, they came to the large, flat expanse of the main campus of the base. Several old-fashioned buildings lay squat in a formation amid overgrown landscaping plants. There were few windows in the buildings and it was impossible to tell if they were occupied.

  They continued walking farther down the road toward a large, mall-like building that they saw in the distance, standing at the center of a large, flat, empty parking lot expanse. As they drew closer to the building, they saw tall, thin structures in front, like flagpoles without flags, that became thicker toward the top. Something about the building seemed to beckon them—perhaps its size, and its apparent centrality to the base—so they walked toward it.

  The sun had set behind the building, and in the early period of its absence, the sky and clouds had discolored in blotches of red and purple, like bruises. As they drew closer to the building, they saw that the structures in front were not flagpoles at all, but tall wooden poles that stood at slight angles, not exactly parallel to each other or perpendicular to the ground. They were topped with short, horizontal boards that made each into the shape of a T, and hung on each by the board at the top were human forms.

  At the sight of it, they slowed their pace next to each other. Nikki’s heart leapt into her throat and she pulled at Danny’s hand. Although Danny was also fear-stricken, he tightened his grip on her and led her forward with him. They continued their approach, stepping from the road onto the sidewalk, crossing through a shaggy hedge, and walking out onto the paved expanse of the empty parking lot. Except for clumps of fallen leaves and other debris, the parking lot was in surprisingly good shape. There were no cracks in the pavement, and the paint was still clearly visible.

  As they drew closer to the poles, they saw that the forms hung to the tops of the T’s were not humans, but emaciated figures of the undead. Their skin had tightened around their forms so that they appeared vaguely skeletal, and the skin, dried out and withered, had turned dark. They were motionless, and appeared ‘dead.’ Neither Danny nor Nikki had ever witnessed the creatures dying except through severe injury, and this sight, although it showed them to have been essentially subdued and no longer presenting a threat, still terrified and sickened them. They were not sure if these things could ‘suffer,’ but the image created a spontaneous feeling of empathy in them both. Danny dismissed this quickly with the thought that this must have been done by someone. They demonstrated a great power possessed by some person or force—presumably, whoever was inside the building. They would be very safe, indeed.

  “Let’s go,” said Danny, pulling Nikki’s hand, and now beginning to feel a giddy excitement and relief.

  Nikki was still transfixed in unthinking horror at the figures, but Danny’s pull at her wrist awakened her somewhat, and she followed him. They walked underneath the poles, and approached what appeared to be the main doors of the building. They were large, gray metal doors, windowless. Danny pulled at the handle on one of the doors. The door was locked. He rapped his fist on it.

  When nothing happened, Danny doubted that there was anyone on the base at all, and feared that their entire journey was for nothing, that whoever had bound the creatures to the poles out front had long since died or moved on.

  Just then, there was a rattling as of chains or other metal binding on the other side of the door. Instinctively, Danny and Nikki both drew back. The latch clicked heavily and the door opened a crack. The interior appeared dimly lit from the slit in the doorway, and a dark face looked out from within and brandished a large assault rifle. Upon looking at them, the figure, a woman, leveled the rifle at them.

  “Get lost,” she said.

  Nikki’s throat caught and she was prepared to turn and leave, but Danny spoke up.

  “Please,” he said. “We need help. We ran out of food, and we walked all day to get here…”

  “Fuck off. I’ll give you one last warning.”

  “Please—” he said again. “We don’t know where else to go… We thought that, since you were the Army…”

  The woman held the rifle steady but did not fire. She looked back and forth at the two of them.

  “Take the bag off and put it on the ground and open it—slow.”

  Danny had nearly forgotten that he had been wearing the guitar on his back. Trembling, but knowing that he did not have anything to fear, he took it off and set it on the ground. Slowly, as he had been instructed, he unzipped the case revealing the guitar inside.

  “Were you followed?”

  Danny looked about himself as though she had asked him if anything were stuck to his clothing.

  “I don’t think so,” he said. “At least, we didn’t see—”

  “Bullshit, you got followed. I ought to leave you out here.”

  Nikki felt on the verge of tears, but the woman lifted her gun and motioned for them to get inside. Danny picked up his guitar and went in first, and Nikki followed. The woman ushered her in, grabbing her arm and practically throwing her inside with such a force that Nikki nearly fell. They were in a small chamber, like an anteroom, with a hallway that led around a corner. The woman closed the heavy outer door. Laying her gun to the side, she wrapped a long chain around the handles of the door, looping it several times, and then replaced a heavy iron bar across the doors. She retrieved her rifle and turned to face them, her posture aggressive.

  “Walk,” she said.

  Danny started walking down the hallway, looking back at her before he rounded the corner as if for confirmation. She did nothing, so he continued.

  The hallway was long and narrow with cream-colored walls. As they walked, they passed a space in the wall that led to bathrooms labeled MEN’S and WOMEN’S. They continued down the hall until its end, where they emerged in a large open space.

  It was like a small shopping mall, with high ceilings and long walkways lined with shops, lit dimly with the dusk only by skylights far above. Their steps echoed through it as though it were a church. The woman directed them to turn left and continue down a long row of shops. All of the windows and signs were still intact, and except that they were unlit, they looked nothing out of the ordinary.

  She stopped them in front of a furniture store.

  “Here,” she s
aid.

  They entered; it was a large store that resembled more of a warehouse than a retail space. Faux walls built for display created half rooms connected by maze-like turns. The lights were on—harsh fluorescent lights that hummed far above them. Somewhere deep within among the faux rooms, a voice murmured in low conversation.

  “Lieutenant,” the woman barked.

  The conversation stopped, and after a moment a stooped, pale man emerged from around a corner.

  “Couple a kids,” she said.

  The man looked them up and down and said, “Reepus know?”

  “No.”

  “You give ’em the test?”

  “No. They just got here.”

  “Well, let’s give ’em the test.”

  “Yes, sir.” Then, turning to the children, she ordered, “Sit.”

  Looking about them, Danny and Nikki each chose a chair out of the furniture that was nearby, while the lieutenant disappeared around the corner again. Danny dropped the guitar case off of his shoulder onto the floor next to his chair.

  They were tired from walking. Almost as soon as he had sat, Danny’s stomach clenched painfully. He was lightheaded and weak, and the room seemed to recede from him for an instant. He looked over at Nikki and saw that she had her hands over her face, not in sadness, but in exhaustion. It seemed that she could no longer hold her own head up without the support of her hands.

  Danny could not tell how long the lieutenant was gone, but after what seemed a very long time, he returned with two pieces of paper bearing dense, dark handwriting.