by Mike Kraus
Nancy stepped toward Samuel, rage flashing in her eyes as Leonard pulled at her arm to keep her from physically lashing out. “Sorry? Sorry! Is that what you say after you shoot a missile at our car and then tie us down for the night like animals?”
“Well, to be clear, it was a rocket-propelled grenade, not a missile. And I am sorry, yes. Driving a military vehicle like that, we thought you two to be from a government agency. I can see now that’s not the case, and both myself and the rest of my family are dreadfully sorry for our mistake. We can only thank the lord in heaven that you both came through it unharmed.”
“Samuel,” Leonard’s voice was still unnaturally calm, “now that you’ve let us up, are we free to go? I can assure you that we won’t be bothering you or your village again.”
Samuel crossed his arms. “As much as I’d like to give you both your vehicle back and send you on your way, I’m afraid I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t, Samuel?” Nancy could swear she detected a hint of sarcasm in Leonard’s voice, but his face remained neutral.
“Both, I’m afraid. Come with me, please, and I’ll explain.” Samuel turned his back on Leonard and Nancy, leading them out through the door out of the top of the building. Following cautiously behind him, Leonard and Nancy both quickly noticed that they were being tailed by the two men who had freed them earlier. Carrying weapons similar to Samuel’s, they hung back several paces, walking down the stairs after Nancy and Leonard and going out the front door of the building into the street. In the light of the early morning, the small town was fully revealed, showing that it was not just a town, but an actual thriving village, full of people milling about, walking from building to building and carrying on a normal daily life.
Each of the individuals that Nancy and Leonard saw were all carrying two guns and a blade of some sort, and were wearing rough outdoor clothing that put them at odds with the more civilized looking surroundings. Samuel greeted each of the individuals they saw with a smile and a nod, alternating between saying “Good morning” and “Bless you” to those along their path. Besides the adults, Nancy and Leonard noticed children among the people in the village, playing in back alleys and whispering as they pointed at the intruders.
“How is this possible?” Nancy leaned in close to Leonard and whispered to him. “How are all of these people still alive? Either the bombs or the creatures should have finished them off days ago.”
“Be careful what you whisper in secret, ma’am, lest it be brought into the light in an undesirable manner.” Samuel stopped in front of a large building that had once been an elementary school but had since been converted into a meeting hall. “We are all here by the grace of God, who saw to spare us from the Day of Judgment for a higher purpose.” Seeing the look on Nancy’s face, Samuel smiled as he gestured for her and Leonard to proceed inside the building.
“All will be explained in due time.”
Inside the school’s main entrance, rows of rough wooden chairs were set up in a semicircle, arranged around a podium set up in the back of the room. As Nancy and Leonard were escorted to seats in the back by their armed guards, Samuel made his way to the front. Along the way he greeted the people in the room by name, hugging each of the men and kissing each of the women on the forehead or cheek. As the group of people each took their seats, filling up all of the chairs in the room, Samuel took his place behind the podium. Each of the individuals in the room, from the youngest to the eldest, watched Samuel intently, waiting for him to speak.
“My family, it has been fourteen days since the beginning of the end. Our preparations have not been in vain, and we have not only survived, but thrived!” A chorus of “amens” went up around the room. Samuel smiled, continuing. “We have seen countless attacks on our village by the demons, but have driven off each one.” Another chorus of “amens” went up, more boisterous than the last. Samuel’s next statement brought an even louder shout, as he looked directly at Leonard and Nancy.
“Finally, let us all welcome our new brother and sister into our village. Brought to us under the guise of the old government, they have turned out to be a blessing in disguise, providing us with the months of food we so desperately prayed for. Thanks to their assistance, we all shall now be able to survive until our crops have finished growing. Let us give praise to him from above, and to those he sent unto us! Welcome them into your hearts and into our community!”
Nancy looked around nervously as she reeled with what Samuel had just announced. “Leonard,” she whispered, as the throngs of people stood and clapped, all of them smiling and staring at the pair of them. “What the hell’s going on here?”
Leonard’s voice was still calm, but strained, as he forced a smile through clenched teeth. “Smile, Nancy. I think we might be here for a little while longer than we expected.”
Rachel Walsh | Marcus Warden
1:05 AM, April 9, 2038
With no weapon to stand against the swarm, Rachel let her rifle hang loose from its strap as she moved out from behind the door of the APC. Bullets would be of no use against the tiny robots, and she didn’t have any explosives nearby to try and blow them apart. Knowing now who was behind this particular swarm of nanobots, Rachel stepped forward and spoke loudly and angrily, demanding information.
“Doe!” she screamed, staring at the blue ball. “What do you want with us?”
Seconds passed before a response came from the mass. “Ah, Ms. Rachel. I can’t say that I’ve missed your attitude.” Mr. Doe’s deliberate attempt to incite Rachel to recklessness by referring to her as “Ms.” failed to work. She continued to advance as she spoke, hoping that Marcus would have the good sense to make a run for it while he could.
“Screw you, Doe! Quit hiding behind your swarm and come out to face me!”
“I’m afraid I can’t quite do that just yet. Though rest assured, I will come out again. You shall not be among those who witness it, though, thanks to your friend below ground.”
Rachel whispered David’s name as she realized what had happened. Doe’s been monitoring us this whole time. He knew we were coming… he knew we were coming and he set a trap.
In front of Rachel, beyond the blue ball, Marcus was just barely visible, having slowly made his way out of the stairwell without attracting the attention of the swarm. Based on the fact that it didn’t pick him up automatically, Rachel figured that it must be operating on full manual, with only the most basic instructions working off of a program. Of course Doe would want to operate it himself.
Marcus began to advance toward the swarm, slowly picking his way through the rubble. Rachel’s eyes widened as she watched, then the blue ball abruptly shifted, and Mr. Doe’s voice sounded again. “Mr. Marcus. While your attempt at sneaking up on me is valiant, I assure you there’s nothing either of you can do to harm this swarm.”
The blue ball rose several meters into the air and spread out into a thin layer that dangled over Marcus and Rachel like a blanket caught in a breeze. “Please do try and hold still for this next part, if you would.”
A low buzzing filled the air, recognizable to Rachel and Marcus both as the telltale sign of a swarm. Upon hearing the noise, Marcus realized that the swarm had previously been making only the faintest of hums, barely noticeable even in the stillness of the night. Looking up, he saw the swarm begin to descend toward them, breaking up into two separate cyclones that raced toward his and Rachel’s heads. Marcus ran toward Rachel, grabbing her arm to try and pull her away, but the swarm’s movements were far too fast for evasion, and the pair quickly found themselves engulfed by the tiny devices.
Rachel gagged and coughed as she desperately tried to clear her throat of the nanobots that were pouring in. Marcus felt millions of pinpricks down the full length of his body as he tried to keep his eyes shut and his nose and ears blocked. The tiny robots were undeterred by the frantic movements of Rachel and Marcus and continued their assault, cutting their way into flesh and muscle and burrowing toward bone.
Through the loud din, Marcus could hear the yelp of Sam as he felt the effects of the nanobots as well, having become the victim of the few that were waiting inside the APC, keeping its electrical system shut down. Marcus imagined Sam performing the same actions as he and Rachel, clawing at the swarm, trying desperately to get rid of it without the benefit of even knowing what was hurting him. Reaching out, Marcus felt for Rachel, grabbing her hand as he felt it in the midst of the rough rubble of the pit.
Rachel felt Marcus grip her hand tightly and she returned the grasp, finding a small measure of comfort in knowing that, while they had failed, she would at least not have to die alone. Since the passing of her husband and daughter, death haunted her at every turn with the certainty that she would perish in some abandoned forest or alongside a lonely road. Feeling largely responsible for the end of the world weighed on her even in her death throes, as she heard the whine of the nanobots in her ear canals as they worked their way toward her brain.
“Goodbye… Marcus.” She choked the words through the cloud of nanobots, feeling a squeeze on her hand as his way of telling her goodbye as well.
Leonard McComb | Nancy Sims
11:33 AM, April 9, 2038
After their few whispered words to each other, Leonard and Nancy were swarmed by the individuals in the meeting hall, each of them warmly welcoming the pair to the village. They quickly departed, leaving only Leonard, Nancy, Samuel and the ever-present pair of guards in the hall. Samuel gestured for the guards to leave, then approached Nancy and Leonard, holding up his hand to stop them from asking any questions.
“Before you ask, allow me to explain. We have struggled for months here as we prepared for the day of reckoning to come. Alas, we were not as prepared as we should have been, and our family has been slowly dying of starvation, forced to send out our own children in search of food to sustain us. Mercifully, though, he allowed one of our children to guide the both of you back to us, and with you came the means of our reprieve!”
Leonard spoke before Nancy could. “Samuel, while we don’t appreciate what you did to us, we understand that it was a misunderstanding. In fact, we’re more than happy to share our supplies with other survivors. But we really can’t stay here with you. It’s not that we don’t want to; you have a thriving community, but we simply can’t stay.”
Samuel’s soft face showed a hint of coldness as he responded to Leonard, mimicking his words from before. “You can’t, Leonard? Or you won’t? And what, pray tell, is so important that you would want to leave so quickly after you’ve arrived?”
Leonard looked at Nancy as he spoke, hoping she would be able to keep up with his deception. “We’re on a trip to the west coast, to try and find my wife’s family. We think they may still be alive. My family didn’t make it, but we were hoping hers did.”
Samuel stared into Leonard’s and Nancy’s eyes and shook his head sadly. “I am sorry for your loss, but I cannot allow you to leave right now. It’s far too dangerous, with the gathering hordes of demons.”
“Gathering hordes?” Nancy gulped nervously. “What do you mean?”
Samuel stood and spread his hands to the sky, his deep voice echoing ominously through the room. “The gathering hordes for the final battle, of course! We settled close by to this village and began to prepare for this day many decades ago, and now that the day of the final battle draws close, we need the help of every single person in the family to bring strength to the fight.”
Leonard put his hand on Nancy’s leg and squeezed gently, shaking his head slightly as Samuel spoke. Nancy closed her half-open mouth, biting her tongue from saying what was on her mind about the man standing before them. When Samuel finally finished speaking, Leonard’s calm voice came through again. “Samuel, while we disagree with what you’re doing, I suppose we have no choice but to obey.”
A warm smile spread across Samuel’s face as he took Leonard and Nancy’s hands in his, squeezing them. “Please explore our village, get to know the faces of your new brothers and sisters. You were truly brought here for a purpose, and you need to become acquainted with your new surroundings.”
“Of course, Samuel. Nancy and I will explore and try to find ways to help.”
Samuel’s smile broke into a huge grin as he pulled Nancy and Leonard to their feet and hugged each of them in turn as they stood awkwardly in the empty room. “Welcome, welcome to both of you! Here, our brothers will escort you through the village. I hope you understand their presence and don’t take offense.”
The two guards who had been following Nancy and Leonard suddenly re-entered the hall, standing near the back. Leonard nodded and took Nancy’s hand, nearly pulling her off balance as he walked out of the school with her into the street. After they had gotten a good twenty feet from the school entrance, the two guards also exited and began to follow them. Hands on their weapons and eyes on Nancy and Leonard, the guards were relaxed but watchful, ensuring that the pair couldn’t escape.
“Leonard, what are you doing?” Nancy hissed at him as they walked down the street, meandering along the route they had taken when they first drove through the town the previous night.
“Saving our asses! What do you think I’m doing?” Leonard’s calm voice was gone, and he hissed back at Nancy, surprising her with the combination of anger, frustration and fear she heard from him. “Don’t you see what this is? Don’t you see how every single person in there looked at Samuel? These people are completely devoted to that man. If we try to do anything other than what he says, we’re screwed!”
Nancy was quiet for several minutes as she digested Leonard’s assessment of their situation. As the two of them walked through the small town, they found the majority of the people were milling around the edges of the town, erecting wooden barricades to encircle the buildings. The barricades extended beyond the main road, through, out into fields where rows of hastily built greenhouses had been erected and people were tending to the various plants inside of them.
A small lake was also within the confines of the barricades, fed by a stream that crossed through the town. With very few residential buildings in the town, most of the commercial spaces had been turned into living quarters, with the glass doors covered in wood and cots arranged into any available space. Overall, Leonard guessed that there were around sixty to seventy people in the town, though their garb was practically identical, making it difficult to pick out and remember individuals in the crowd.
Leonard could see that the town had once been a small outpost of sorts, a place for the people who lived in the surrounding farms to visit for supplies, bring their children to school and connect with each other. Aside from that, though, the town boasted nothing of any importance. Why a fanatical religious leader would choose this place to make a ‘last stand’ was difficult to tell.
Walking down to the small lake, Leonard and Nancy tried to distance themselves from the people as much as they could so they could have a chance to talk. A small bench was erected on a dock on the lake, and the guards – thankfully – hung back far enough that Leonard and Nancy were able to move alone to the end of the dock. Putting his arm around Nancy and pulling her in close, Leonard continued to foster the image that they were married, betting on the fact that Samuel would treat them better if they appeared to be more in line with what he expected. Trying to explain that they had met only a few days prior and were on a cross-country journey together would not, he figured, go over very well.
“Sorry we have to do this,” Leonard whispered, “But it was the best thing I could think of to keep us alive without telling them what we’re doing.”
“No, it’s fine, I’m glad you thought of it. Something tells me that a man who’s building a fortress in the middle of nowhere wouldn’t react very well to what we’re trying to do.” Nancy looked around them, watching groups of people erecting the tall poles of the barricade with surprising efficiency. Sharpened on one end, the blunt end of each pole was lowered into a hole in the ground and held in p
lace by two men. A third pushed a wheelbarrow along the row of poles, filling around them with quick-drying concrete. After waiting a few minutes for the mix to start binding, the men moved along to the next pole.
“They sure are working quickly, aren’t they?”
Leonard watched the men closely, trying to figure out what their chances of escape were. “Not only that, but they’re obviously all incredibly athletic, so our chances of outrunning them are nil. I saw some horses near their greenhouses but I, for one, don’t know a thing about riding horses.”
Nancy shook her head. “I rode one a few times when I was little, but not since then.”
“We need to get the APC back. Hell, screw the food and the guns. If we can get the APC back, we can break out of here.”
“Do you really think it’ll work after what they hit us with?”
Leonard smiled. “The main problem we had last night was that we weren’t expecting an ambush. That APC can shrug off their RPGs without chipping the paint. If we can get inside of it, I can get access to the engine and electrical system from the front compartment and fix it while they stand there firing bullets at us all day long.
