I sat down gingerly on the edge of a nearby bench, taking a deep breath. I scratched Simon’s ears, attempting to calm him. Naomi popped her head out of her tent, her hair wild and her eyes wide.
“As prom-ised, we have found some of your fam-i-ly. They will be del-i-vered here a-long with oth-er cit-i-zens.”
“Wait, what?” Naomi asked, confusion covering the sleepiness in her voice. “How many other citizens? It’s damn crowded here already!”
“On-ly three oth-ers and your fam-i-lies. We had no oth-er place for them. Please acc-omm-o-date eve-ry-one.”
“About time!” David whooped, racing past me to share the good news with Julie. A grin filled his entire face.
The voice clicked off again, and Naomi shared an annoyed glance with me. I sat down on the ground near her tent, munching on my cereal along the way. Simon followed me and made himself at home on a pile of towels Naomi kept next to her tent. “What the hell are they thinking?” she grumbled. “We get into enough squabbles as it is! This place is too damn small!”
“It is,” I agreed, “but at least you’ll have your grandson and daughter.”
She smiled despite herself. “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get ready for them, guys!” She called the last part out to the entire room, and any remaining sliver of annoyance on her face vanished with the thought of seeing her grandson, Charles.
Marge started flittering about, straightening up. Bruce watched her every move. Julie bounced across the entire gym’s length, happy about being able to see her mother and sister again. The little Chinese boy, Han, bounced along with her.
We all froze in place when an ominous banging sound thundered outside the double doors. Simon dived into my lap, spraying towels and Froot Loops everywhere. We turned and watched as the doors were forced open from the outside. They sounded like they were breaking in half.
As soon as the two doors cracked open, the nose of one of the hovercrafts entered our room, its spotlight glaring yellow. The pale blue lights of the hover discs bounced off the silver beast and onto the smooth gym floor. I shivered at the memory of being trapped in its steel belly. The jaws opened, and a pile of screaming and moaning people tumbled out. The machine snapped its metal jaws together and retreated back out the door.
I tried to steal a glimpse of the world outside before the doors were resealed but couldn’t see anything except darkness. The fog must have not rolled onto the streets yet. The doors slammed shut with a resonating slam, and the sound of a whirring machine was audible from the other side. The noise was subtle, reminding me of a dull electronic sander. That must be what they use to seal everything.
I turned my attention to the newcomers. Marge, Naomi, David, Julie, and most everyone else except my father and I were crowded around them. I stayed on the ground by Naomi’s tent and held Simon against my chest with my free arm. There wasn’t much of a point in me getting up. I didn’t know anyone.
Naomi embraced her grandson, Charles, who looked to be around five. The boy sobbed into his grandmother’s arms. His mother, Donna, stood nearby, looking exhausted yet relieved. She looked to be in her mid-thirties, and shared many of Naomi’s strong features. Her hair was kept tight in an attractive bun. How the heck did she manage to keep that bun in place?
Two other families were caught in embraces. Kisana’s family embraced a young man. It was nice that some of our quieter residents now had their families with them. Two of the newcomers looked to be a middle-aged man and wife who both looked frightened, but glad to find fellow human beings greeting them instead of aliens.
“What the hell is this, a fucking Oprah marathon?” A young man stormed from the throng of people and into my direct line of sight. Matt. A very pissed off Matt. His shirt looked like it was torn, and dried blood caked it from every angle. It looked like I wasn’t the only one who had struggled against the machine.
Naomi flipped around at the sound of his voice, still clutching Charles. Her eyes narrowed. “Who the hell are you, boy? Don’t you see we’re visiting with family we haven’t seen in more than two weeks? Where the hell’s your family?”
Donna dropped her head in embarrassment. “Please, Mom, you’re sixty-four, do you really have to use such foul language around Charles?”
Matt stared at Naomi. She was taller than he was, and broader. He’d better watch what he says to her. I allowed myself a tiny grin.
“I uh, don’t know,” Matt said. “They’re all in Denver still. I came to California with friends but ended up moving out of their place. It’s just me.” He shuffled a foot nervously on the floor, then looked directly at me, blinking. “Wow, Sam,” he said. “Nice to see a friendly face…kinda. I was wondering if you got caught.”
“Yep, sadly,” I muttered.
Something was missing. Realization dawned when David stormed past me, fists clenched at his sides. “Where’s my wife and younger daughter?” he shouted. “You said they’d be here!” He stared up at the intercom box, challenging it.
Everyone around us quieted and averted their gazes toward David. Charles stopped sobbing and starting hiccupping instead. Naomi tried to shush him as David’s face grew redder every minute the box stared back stubbornly.
Finally, it clicked on. “Some of the group be-came sep-er-a-ted,” the voice announced. “We will bring them to you in due time.”
David’s mouth dropped open. “Due time? You promised them today, not in due time!”
The voice hesitated before answering. “Due time,” it repeated.
“Can I at least know they’re safe?” David dropped to his knees in desperation.
“Yes. They are safe.”
“Can you show me a monitor where they’re being held? Whatever you use to keep an eye on them? I need to see for my own eyes that they haven’t been harmed.”
“No. You must trust us.”
“I…” David’s voice broke apart as the intercom box clicked off again, and he hung his head low to the ground.
I softly nudged Simon from my lap and placed him back in the disheveled pile of towels. Julie and I approached David, the little girl reaching up to hug his slender, shuddering frame. A silence hung in the air that was only disturbed by the sound of David’s sobs and Charles’s hiccups.
“I need to see them,” David choked.
I laid a hand on his shoulder. “The voice said they’re safe. We have no reason to believe the aliens would lie to us. All we can do is trust them.”
“I hope so,” he whispered, holding Julie tight.
Naomi stepped into the center of the room with Charles still in her arms. “Everyone, listen,” she said. “I know this is an emotional experience for all of us, and I’m sure you new folks have questions. First off, some basics.” She walked to the pantry station. “This here’s our kitchen. Please help yourselves to whatever you want. Clean up after yourselves. If you want special foods write them down on that cardboard by the wall. Chances are we’ll be stuck here a while.”
“A while? What the hell does that mean?” Matt asked, grumbling.
Naomi sighed, and took a seat near the front of the gym. “I’m no good at explaining this stuff, but I’ll try. Take a seat, folks. David, join us, please.” She placed Charles on her lap.
David obliged, wiping his face and Julie’s with his sweater sleeve. He took a seat next to me, and I squeezed his shoulder. Everyone around us followed suit, shuffling forward and sighing as they seated themselves.
“The aliens are saying some sh—stuff about keeping us here. They’re observing us or something,” Naomi said.
“They haven’t told us much,” I added. “We were hoping you guys might know more.”
“We were trapped in that goddamn hunk of junk for a whole day,” Matt said. “Then they threw us in some goddamn storage shed somewhere. We couldn’t tell where we were. It had a bunch of gardening tools and shit in it. Some guy came to talk to us through the window, told us we just needed to hold out for a few more days and we’d see—”
“Wait,” I i
nterrupted him. “Some guy? You mean you actually saw one of them?” David’s body shifted forward next to mine.
“Yeah. Well, sorta. He was an old guy in a dirty wife-beater shirt. He looked like a drunk or something, like he hadn’t shaved or bathed for a month. He was half-bald, and he spoke in a weird, automated voice. He sup-er prou-nounced eve-ry syll-a-ble like this.” He demonstrated. “It was really annoying. We asked if that was his real appearance, and he said it wasn’t.” Matt helped himself to a glass of water.
“Was his appearance generated from some sort of device or hologram?” David asked.
Matt shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t really understand that stuff. He would suddenly become kind of transparent and shine blue. Kinda like Star Trek.”
“Did they bring you food and stuff in that shed?” I asked.
“Yeah, somewhat. Water. Bread, dried meat, and canned shit. Blankets for the old people. A bucket to piss in. It was pretty miserable. Then they picked us up in the goddamn terror-tractor again and dumped us here. They ignored us when we asked what the hell they were doing with us.”
“Did they only bring us here as a request from you guys?” Donna asked.
“Seems like it,” Naomi said. “But why keep us so separated? Wouldn’t it be easier to watch over us if we were together?”
David thumbed his mustache, a gesture he often made when deep in thought. He was mostly back to his curious self. “They’re probably afraid of us retaliating,” he said. “If we had the numbers, it would be easier to fight back. Keep us separate, and we stay afraid.”
“Get enough idiots together, and they can get a lot of shit accomplished,” Matt grumbled as he gulped down his water and refilled the cup. “So why did they listen to your requests and not ours? Did you women pitch a fit or something?” He looked directly at me.
“No!” I raised my voice at him. “We just asked what the hell they were gonna do to us and gave them a list of crap we needed!”
“Well, it was actually a list of demands,” Naomi added. “I wonder if that’s why they thought they had to listen to us. We said we needed our families. So they said they’d bring them.”
“I sure as hell don’t know anybody here, except stupid ol’ Sam,” Matt said.
I glared at him. “What? What the hell did I do to deserve that?”
He chuckled. “I love it when you do that. You get all pissy for no reason. One of these days, you’re gonna start burning bras in front of me. And why the hell are you stuffing your face at a time like this anyway?”
I chose to ignore his commentary, and then realized I was still clutching my damn cereal bowl. The cereal left in it had long since gone soggy. I set it down on the ground for Simon to drink the milk. “Where the hell’s your girlfriend?” I muttered.
He shrugged. “We broke up right before I came in for my shift the night of the attack. That’s why I was drunk.”
“Oh.” My tone softened somewhat. “Wait, attack? How’d you get picked up, anyway? Did they attack anyone with force? For us it was more like…we were swept off our feet, like part of an assembly line.”
“Hell yeah, we were attacked. I was walking home from work when the machine came stomping after us. It went right through Main Street, slamming through cars, killing whoever was in them, to get to those of us who were unlucky enough to be out on the streets.”
I shared a surprised glance with David. “You’re…sure they killed people?” I asked.
“Yes. Why the hell would I lie about that?”
“We figured they were just holding everyone captive,” I said, my voice low. “They just said they wished to observe our civilization.”
“Well, they musta lied.” He crossed his arms in front of him. “Why the hell did you bring your cat?” he added, watching Simon cuddle up to me in appreciation for the fruity-flavored milk.
“Why wouldn’t I bring my cat?”
“You’re so gonna die a fucking lesbo spinster.”
“Guys!” Naomi interjected, growing tired of our bantering. “And watch your language. We got kids here!” She snuck a tiny bar of chocolate out of her bag and handed it to Charles, whose eyes lit up like a Christmas tree as he unwrapped it.
My eyes narrowed in Matt’s direction, and it was quiet for a minute as everyone around us waited for Matt and I to apologize to each other. Wasn’t going to happen.
“Well…” David said finally, “this kind of changes things. You see, we were hoping we could start trusting them. They healed my arm after I hurt it trying to…inspect their machine.” He hesitated as he said the last part. “They’ve been giving us practically everything we’ve wanted, even books, games, and medication. Everything except my loved ones who are still out there.”
Julie hugged him tightly. Feet shuffled around us.
“So what makes us special?” my dad asked. “Why let us live?” He’d been so quiet, I hadn’t realized he was sitting up close with us.
“Fuc—” Matt started, then stopped, sighing. “Fudgesticks? Fudgesticks if I know.” He ran a hand through his spiked blond hair and started pacing.
“I guess we have to ask them, see if we get any answers,” David said.
“In the meantime, let’s introduce ourselves.” Naomi put on a smile for everyone. I guessed it was mostly for Charles, though. He realized something was wrong, as did the other children. We couldn’t exactly hide much from them.
We went around the room, everyone saying a few things about themselves. Naomi introduced herself as the old mother hen figure of sorts. We laughed. Bruce talked about his cancer a little bit, which surprised me. He hadn’t opened up about it to strangers for a while.
David introduced Julie proudly and told us about what he did for a living. “Julie’s mommy,” he said, “is the most patient woman in the world. She puts up with my comic book collection, my G.I. Joe figures, and my movie props. She let me turn our den into my cave of sorts, where I can hide out, paint my props, and listen to bad garage bands.”
I smiled as David finished his introduction. He was definitely back to his normal, geeky self.
When it came to Matt’s turn, he stuffed his hands in his jeans and shuffled around on both feet before speaking. “I guess you all know who I am. I’m Matt. Nineteen. I’m mainly just trying to get by in life. I work at a stupid chicken joint in the downtown area. I cuss a lot. Sorry. I say what I think, even if it’s pretty stupid. I guess you can kinda call me the village idiot.”
“That I can definitely agree with,” I said, grumbling. Of all people, why the hell am I stuck with him?
It was my turn. “I’m Sam,” I said, finding myself embarrassed, which was silly, given that I knew most everyone around me already. “I have a college degree in creative writing which I’ll probably never make use of. I work at the same stupid chicken joint as stupid Matt. I take care of Bruce, my father. I like to read.” David’s talk of movie props and action figures inspired me a bit, and I tacked on an extra detail. “In high school, I was a marching band geek. David’s in good company.”
He gave me a wide grin.
It was Kisana’s father’s turn. He looked around hesitantly. He was a proud man, I could already tell. “My name is Pablo. This is my wife, Marie, and our daughter, Kisana. Our son, Joel, joined us today as well. Thank you, Jesus. Marie and I are from Spain originally. We came here as teenagers. I work at the local community college as a professor.” He smiled at Marie, nodding for her to continue.
“I am Marie,” his wife said. She was soft-spoken, and had long black hair in braids. “I am a housewife. I enjoy making homemade crafts.” Her English was a bit rough around the edges, but still good.
Kisana looked around sheepishly, wearing the same red hoodie that had caught my eye in the candlelight weeks ago. I hadn’t seen much of her these past weeks, mostly due to the fact that I liked to sleep in until after noon and hide away from the rest of our residents. “My name is Kisana. I’m twenty-six. I’m studying to become a chef, even though I think m
y daddy would rather have me teach.” She glanced up at him warmly, a smile appearing on the edges of her face. “I love him regardless. I enjoy painting and swimming.” She gestured for the next person, Marge, to speak.
I found myself tossing Kisana a warm smile from across the room. Our eyes met for a split second, and she looked down, embarrassed. She must be really shy. Then again, I was embarrassed too. These kinds of introductions were always lame, no matter how young or old you were.
Marge told us about her late husband. She spoke of him fondly. I liked her a little more when she wasn’t flittering about, madly cleaning.
The overhead lights clicked off just as Marge began to tell us about her Friday night bridge parties. We all glanced around the room at the darkness.
“What time is it? Isn’t it still early?” Naomi asked.
“It’s after eight,” David answered, peering at his watch.
“Well, then…” Naomi stood up and started handing out lanterns. One by one we clicked them on. There weren’t enough for every family to have one now. She handed me a couple votive candles and a match, keeping some for herself. “We’ll have to ask for more lanterns tomorrow.” She shared a glance with me. The aliens kept very early hours. Once they turned off our lights, there was no way they’d talk to us. We would have to wait until morning to question them.
Marge started shuffling through boxes of dried food in the pantry. “Anyone hungry?” she asked. “Come help yourselves. Newcomers, families with young children first.”
I guessed our introduction pow-wow was over. Everyone drifted off to their corners or toward the food station, chatting amongst themselves. Bruce joined Marge, David realized he needed to spend some quality time with Julie, and Naomi had her family now. Matt disappeared into a tent after he ate, not that I wanted anything to do with him anyway. Our lanterns flickered around the dark gym like desperate fireflies. Eventually I started feeling sorry for myself and the situation we were in, got tired of that feeling, fed my dad while Marge scurried about, and curled up with Simon and a book.
Chapter 8
Captive by the Fog Page 7
