Finding another can of vegetable soup, she opened it with the loathsome can opener, and emptied the contents into a big bowl. She didn’t bother to heat it, figuring the dog would be hungry enough not to care. She’d barely had time to remove her hand. The poor dog pushed his head deep into the bowl and slurped up the food in a few gulps.
“Okay, boy. I hope that’ll tide you over until I can get back to your house for some real dog food. I promise I’ll go as soon—” She looked out the kitchen window at the engulfing darkness. “As soon as I can.”
Not having much of an appetite herself—the chili still sitting in a congealed lump in her stomach—Andrea went back into the living room and sat cross-legged in front of the fireplace. It was growing colder, but she wasn’t sure she should light another fire. She had to conserve wood. Uncle Mike had a nice stack behind the garage, which should’ve lasted them the winter. However, with no electricity to warm the house, she’d go through it in a week if she weren’t careful.
Thor trotted in and lay beside her. He licked her hand, and she petted the top of his head. She didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t tired enough to sleep and yet…what else was there to do except worry? She looked at the dog, his long, pink tongue hanging out as he breathed in short little pants. She scratched behind his big ears. “Oh, Thor, what are we—”
A sound outside grabbed her attention. She froze, every hair on her head alert. She strained to hear the sound again. There it was, a faint scratching at the front door. A scratching, and a whimpering. She was arching her back so severely she thought her spine would snap. Someone or something was on their porch. A low, guttural rumble came from deep in Thor’s throat. His ruff went up and his eyes fixed on the front door.
“Okay,” Andrea whispered. “I-I’ll crawl over and look out the peephole.” Getting on all fours, she scooted across the living room carpet, then rising to her feet, peered out the little peephole three quarters of the way up the door. It was so dark, she couldn’t make out anything at first, and then, two shadowy forms—just inches from her—moved.
“Who’s out there?” Her voice cracked on the last word.
A man’s voice answered. “Help! Please, help us!”
Andrea unlocked the door and opened it a fraction. The pulsating darkness swirled around the hunched bodies of two human beings. Even in the thick mist, Andrea could see that the woman—a girl, hardly older than herself—was most definitely pregnant. The young man had a protective arm around her, more to hold her upright than as a means of comfort. He looked at Andrea, relief spreading across his chiseled features.
“Th-thank God,” he choked. “We couldn’t have gone another step.”
Andrea hesitated only for a second. Under normal circumstances, she never would’ve let strangers into the house when she was alone. But these weren’t normal circumstances. She opened the door wider and beckoned the couple in.
“Hurry. I don’t want to keep the door open any longer than I have to.”
The man stumbled in, half-dragging the woman behind him. He led her to a recliner and gently pushed her down, then looked at Andrea. “Is there a blanket I can cover her with? She’s chilled to the bone.”
“Poor thing.” Andrea scooped up the afghan lying in a heap beside the couch. “Here. Put this over her. I can make some tea. That should help.”
“You have a gas stove? That’s great! We only have electric appliances and none of them would work. I can’t believe we found you. We’ve gone to every house along the road. Nobody home. Nobody! Everybody has disappeared.”
“Yeah, I know. I woke up this morning—no, yesterday morning. Oh, I don’t know when. Anyway, my folks were gone. I checked our neighbors and they’re gone, too.”
“Do you know what’s happened?” he asked in a strained voice.
“No.”
“I tried the radio and all I could get was static.”
“Do you think someone dropped a bomb on us? You know, a nuclear missile attack, or something? Terrorists?”
The young man shook his head. “I don’t think so. It wouldn’t explain why all the people are gone. I mean, wouldn’t your folks take you with them, wherever they went?”
Andrea nodded. “Yeah, they would. They’d never leave without telling me. Never. And their cars are here.” She made a face. “But they won’t start.”
“I know.”
Just then the woman moaned. “Keith? Keith?”
Immediately he was down on his knees in front of her. “I’m here, Carrie. It’s all right. This nice girl is going to let us stay here.” He glanced up and Andrea nodded. “You just lie back and—” Again he looked up at Andrea, his eyebrows a furry line over his eyes. “Your name?”
“Andrea. Andrea Gardner. And you are?”
“I’m Keith Reynolds and this is Carrie Vanderpelt. She and her husband, Rob, are my next door neighbors.”
“You said something about living near here?”
“Yes. We live in that new subdivision going in about two miles from here—on Split Oak Road. You know, Castle Construction’s new site?”
“Yeah. I’ve heard their ads. ‘Why live in a house when you can live in a Castle,’ or something like that.”
“Yeah, that’s the one. Called The Meadows. I just moved in five weeks ago. What a deal. I haven’t even unpacked everything. And then this.”
“Yeah, well! I’m going to make that tea, and we’ll see if that will warm Carrie up a bit. She really looks ill. And if you, uh, need some clean clothes, my uncle and aunt’s room is upstairs, second door on the right. Help yourself. I know they wouldn’t mind.”
“Thanks.” He looked at the shivering woman. “I haven’t a clue what to do for a pregnant woman. I think she’s having rather a bad time of it. Says it’s her third trimester—and what with waking up to this, finding her husband gone, and, well, as you can imagine, she’s really upset.”
“Aren’t we all.”
Andrea grabbed a flashlight from the coffee table and led the way into the kitchen. There was enough water still in the kettle for maybe two more cups of tea—three, if she stretched it. She looked at Keith, trying to size him up. “We need more water. Since we’re on a well and the pump won’t work, we can’t get it from the faucet.”
“Of course. Jeez, what a mess.”
“Well, we have a good-sized creek running through the back yard. We can get a bucketful of water there and boil it a really long time so it’s safe to drink. At least, I think it’ll be safe.”
“It’d be better than nothing. I don’t think we’re in a position to be choosy.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. So, would you mind taking that bucket over there and going down to the creek for water? I mean, since you were able to walk all the way here. The-the darkness and stuff didn’t hurt you and…”
“No, it didn’t hurt us. At first, I was afraid to try, but when Carrie started getting hysterical, and I couldn’t find Rob anywhere, I went out to test it. Really strange. I felt, at first, like I couldn’t breathe, thought the stuff was poisonous, but the sensation went away. Or I was able to overcome it, I don’t know. Anyway, we were able to walk the two miles without too much trouble. The main problem being that we couldn’t see very well. And Carrie’s lack of stamina and her stressing over not finding Rob. Damn. Like I said. A mess.” He exhaled. “Yeah, I can get the water. Just point me in the right direction.”
Andrea opened the back door and told Keith to walk in a straight a line and he couldn’t miss the creek. Hopefully, he’d be able to hear it gurgling as it purled over rocks and fallen branches. She gave him the flashlight. Thor went out into the blackness with him, probably more in a desperate need to relieve himself than out of any protective duty.
The kettle had come to a full boil and Andrea was dipping a tea bag into the three cups when Keith returned with a brimming bucket, Thor at his heels. Keith placed the bucket on the counter and closed the door and double-locked it. They carried the steaming mugs into the liv
ing room; Keith held the flashlight in one hand so they could see the way.
Andrea handed the still-cowering young woman a mug and warned her it was very hot, then watched as she took a couple tentative sips and sniffed, rubbing one hand across her nose. Andrea got a box of tissues, brought it over and set it down on the round table beside Carrie’s chair. The girl looked up at Andrea and tried to smile. It came out a grimace, but Andrea understood.
“Drink the tea. You’ll warm up soon. I’ll make a fire, and we’ll make this room more cheerful.”
Keith jumped up. “Let me make the fire. You just sit and drink your tea.”
“Fine with me. Wood’s in the wood box, and you can see where the kindling and pine cones and stuff are. That’s another thing we’ll need to get more of—wood. Uncle Mike has a huge stack behind the garage. Later on, we’ll need to replenish our supply.”
“Okay. I can do that.”
In minutes, Keith had a good fire going and the room took on a friendlier mien. Carrie had stopped trembling and was sitting up in her chair. The afghan, however, was a cocoon around her, more for security than warmth, Andrea suspected. She waited until Keith was sitting before she plied them with her thousand-and-one questions.
“Okay. Tell me what you think is going on. I’m so confused I don’t know what to think anymore. What’s happening to us? Do you think there are any other people holed up like we are? I can’t understand what happened to my aunt and uncle and my cousin. I mean, why wasn’t I taken, too? Is this what they call the Rapture? Do you think we—”
“Whoa!” Keith put up a hand. “Andrea, I don’t know what’s happened. I haven’t a clue. As I said, I woke up yesterday morning—like you, I’m not sure if it was yesterday or still today—but my watch says it’s 4:17 right now. I don’t know whether that means a.m. or p.m. Sorry. I’m just as confused as you are. Anyway, I woke up and it was pitch black outside. I thought we were in for a tornado, so I hopped out of bed to look out the window. I don’t remember ever seeing a sky so black. I turned on the radio, and, well, you know, it didn’t work so I hunted around for the one that runs on batteries but couldn’t find it. And then…”
“And then what?”
Keith cleared his throat. “I threw on some clothes, went next door to see whether Rob knew what was going on.” He coughed. “I found Carrie in a heap on the floor in the middle of her living room, bawling her eyes out. She’d awakened, couldn’t find Rob, tried the phone, found it dead, and lost it. I got her up, had her curl up on the couch with a blanket, then went looking for Rob. Couldn’t find him anywhere so decided to get Carrie in the car and see if we could find some help or some answers. Anyway, the car wouldn’t start. That’s when Carrie started to feel sick and vomited.”
“I understand,” Andrea said. “How awful to go through all that while pregnant.”
“I-I was scared,” Carrie spoke up in a little-girl voice. “I’ve never been so scared in my life. I still am. So scared. Where’s Rob? Why’d he leave me?”
Keith left his chair and walked over to her. Stooping, he took both her hands in his. “Rob didn’t leave you, honey. You heard Andrea. Her people just disappeared, too. Whatever happened, Rob didn’t leave you willingly. We’ll find him. Or he’ll find us. We’re going to be fine, Carrie. I promise. Look how safe and warm we are right now. Andrea has kindly shared her home with us; we have hot tea to drink, and a roaring fire. We’re going to be all right.”
“No, we’re not,” Carrie whimpered. Her face contorted and great welling sobs rose up from deep inside her. “We’re not. Look outside. It’s the end of the world. It’s the end of the world. And my husband is gone. He’s gone. Dead. Everybody I know and love is dead!”
SIX
The wind—or something—howled and wailed all night. They’d decided to call Keith’s stated time as being in the p.m. and take it from there. So, whether the wailing came at night or during the day was irrelevant. To them, it happened at night. And it kept them awake.
Huddled in their sleeping bags in front of the fireplace, the three humans and the dog lay still, listening to what sounded like a thousand voices wailing in abject misery, lost souls who couldn’t find their way. It made Andrea’s blood run icy cold.
After what seemed like hours of silently enduring what no human being should have to endure, Andrea sat up and unzipped her sleeping bag. Keith, two feet away, sat up also.
“What’re you doing?” he hissed.
“I can’t lie here another second just listening to that noise. I’m going outside to see if I can find the source.”
“You’re what? You can’t do that!”
“Why not? You said, yourself, that nothing harmed you as you walked on the road.”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t making that awful racket when we came here. I don’t know what that is out there, and I don’t think you should go out.”
“Well, we have to make a trip to our neighbor’s house to get some dog food for Thor and to scavenge any canned goods they have. We may as well go now. The darkness hasn’t changed. We don’t know whether it’s day or night. I’d just as soon get the job over with.”
“We?”
“Yeah, we. I need you to come with me. I expect to find a lot of useful stuff, and I won’t be able to carry it all by myself. You have to come. We’re in this together, aren’t we?”
“Yes. Of course. But Carrie can’t make it. I can’t take her out there in her condition.”
“So? She stays here, then.”
“I can’t leave her alone. She’d go ballistic.”
“Thor can stay with her. He’ll take good care of her.”
At the mention of his name, the German shepherd sat up and came over to Andrea. She hugged him. “Thor, you’ll stay with Carrie, won’t you, big boy?”
Thor barked twice.
Carried struggled to sit up and rubbed her eyes with both fists like a small child. “Keith? You aren’t going with her, are you? Please, Keith. Don’t leave me here alone.” She looked about to break into yet another sobbing fit. With an exasperated sigh, Keith scrambled from his sleeping bag and wrapped his arms around her. For several minutes she cried on his shoulder, leaving a large wet stain on his blue, cotton shirt. He repeated soothing murmurs until she quieted down.
“Carrie, listen to me. We need to get some supplies. We don’t know how long we’ll be holed up here. We want you to be as comfortable as can be, don’t we? We don’t want little Rob Junior to be uncomfortable, right?”
Carried smiled lopsidedly through her matted hair and flushed cheeks. “It-it might be a girl,” she murmured. “Robbie said he’d like a girl.”
Relieved, Keith forced a laugh. “Why, it sure could. That makes it even more important that we make things cozy and comfortable. Rob’s daughter needs the best. Right? So Andrea and I’ll run over next door—it’s just next door, remember—and we’ll get the things and hurry back as fast as we can. Okay?”
“And Thor,” Andrea interjected. “Thor will stay with you the whole time. He’s a very good watchdog, and he’ll make sure you’re safe. Okay, Carrie?”
The young woman massaged her stomach and nodded dumbly. Her neighbor took that as a yes and leaped to his feet. “Good! Then let’s hurry. Come on.”
Since his coat was still damp from his arduous walk, Andrea tossed him a jacket belonging to her uncle. He put it on, grabbed a flashlight and followed Andrea out the front door. She only had to tell Thor once to stay. He seemed to understand that he had a job to do. Obediently, he sat down at Carrie’s feet, but he didn’t look like he’d be doing any sleeping.
Outside, the wailing hurt her ears. Andrea had taken only a few steps when she wondered whether they were doing the right thing. Nothing leapt out at them in the oily blackness. Nothing tried to block their way. But, nevertheless, the pitiful sobbing and howling sent icy shivers down her back. She stepped closer to Keith.
“The Martins live a quarter of a mile down that way. Bill Martin has a wheelbar
row we can put stuff in so we better make this trip count and get as much as we can.”
“Fine. Let’s move it.”
They half-ran, half-jogged down the asphalt road, keeping their eyes glued in front of them. The swirling, writhing blackness curled and teased, but it didn’t hurt them. At first, Andrea thought it was smoke. It moved like smoke, but it didn’t affect their breathing. It didn’t smell like smoke either. Nevertheless, it acted like thick, oily, black smoke. As though the world burned.
They kept the pace up, and Andrea was winded by the time they turned down the Martins’ driveway. The house looked just like she’d left it. The back door was closed but still unlocked. Andrea pushed her way in.
“The wheelbarrow is next to the carport. I saw it when I was here, uh, yesterday. Go get it while I gather up the food and anything else I think we’ll need.”
Keith nodded, and ran back outside. In seconds he was swallowed by the cloying darkness.
“And hurry!” Andrea yelled after him. Without him, her courage was paper-thin.
Andrea flung open cupboards. She grabbed can after can of food without so much as a glance at the labels. They could all be cans of oysters and lima beans and she wouldn’t bat an eyelash. Food was food.
By the time Keith appeared with the big wheelbarrow, Andrea had collected quite a stack of canned goods, boxes of rice and cereal, packages of macaroni and dry beans, several candles and two boxes of matches. She even added a bucket to her pile. Keith tossed the stuff into the wheelbarrow, saying very little. She could tell he was worried. Scared. She wondered if something had happened by the carport because he seemed more agitated than before. And his hands trembled.
“Keith? Was there something out there? Did you see something?”
He stopped, frozen in the act of throwing in a sack of beans, and looked straight at her. “Yes,” was all he said.
The Fourth Trumpet Page 3
