Autumn in the City of Angels

by Kirby Howell

  My eyes found his hand, dangling just behind mine. I looked at his fingers and the back of his hand, his knuckles and fingertips, and considered for the briefest moment if what he said was true. My mind immediately rebelled again. He looked too human, too perfect to be from outer space.

  Todd whistled to get everyone’s attention again. “I wanna give some credit where credit is due while I’m up here. I was able to fly up to the Hoover Settlement to meet these folks because of the bravery of one man.” He paused for dramatic effect, and the crowd hushed. “While we were staking out Whiteman Field, the newest addition to our group, Ben Harmond, noticed a bird perched on the barrel of the sniper’s rifle up in the airport tower. None of us believed him when he said the sniper was a fake, so to prove a point, he stood up. When we weren’t shot at, we knew he was right.” Todd laughed again, shaking his head.

  I looked up at Ben, who was proudly standing tall, listening with rapt attention to Todd. Rissi tugged on his arm, and he looked down at her, then caught my eye. I raised my eyebrows in question, and he winked at me, smiling broadly. Then I saw his eyes refocus somewhere behind me for a moment, and his smile became hard and forced. I looked back and found Grey, staring straight ahead, his face carefully blank.

  “The Front’s still a threat, so we’ll need to be careful, but the good news is they’re not as big as we thought they were. The Front’s... well, they’re putting on a front, ironically. They want us to think they’ve got control over the entire city and all the airports... but we’re pretty sure they just don’t have the manpower anymore. Not after tangling with the Hoover Settlement. So they’re using mannequins to pose as snipers and guards all over the place and hanging more white flags to make it appear they’re stronger than they are. I want everyone to get some rest, because tomorrow night, we’re heading out as soon as the sun sets. It’ll take a little while to get to the airport, but when we get there, we can start flying immediately. They’ll be expecting us. Let The Front have Los Angeles. We’re leaving.”

  Todd finished his speech and stepped down from the creaky metal chair. No one said anything for a moment as the information sank in. I worried briefly about others left in the city still hiding from The Front. If only we could take them with us. What if Todd and the scouts made this discovery two weeks ago? Ben, Rissi and I would still be tucked away at the top of The Water Tower. Grey would have left, and The Front would have eventually found us. That’s where I forced my thoughts to stop. There was no reason to keep going down that path.

  “Good call on the sniper, Ben. I wonder how long the others would have sat around waiting for the mannequin to move?” Grey smiled and held out his hand. He was observant enough to notice Ben’s attitude toward him, and I realized he was attempting to smooth things over.

  Ben hesitated before taking Grey’s hand, pumping his arm a bit harder than necessary. “No kidding. They’d probably still be there if I weren’t so impatient.” Ben let go of Grey’s hand and picked up Rissi, slinging her upside down over his shoulder. She squealed and cried, “Nooooo! I want to go play in the tent Grey built for me!”

  Ben’s expression soured slightly, and he said over his shoulder, “You haven’t seen me for days – don’t you want to hang out with me?”

  From behind his back, she said, “You can come in the tent, too! It’s bigger than the one you made me at home.”

  Ben gritted his teeth. “Later, Rissi.”

  Seeing this wasn’t the best course of conversation, I pulled the subject back to matters at hand. “So how did you guys get to and from Whiteman Field so quickly? That’s gotta be twenty miles or so from here.”

  Ben shrugged. “Almost. It’s about sixteen miles straight north. Turns out, the scouts have a stash of mountain bikes nearby that we used. And once I figured out the sniper was a fake, Todd and Daniel got a plane up and were only gone a few hours. We didn’t have to wait long for them to get back with the news about the settlement.” Rissi started kicking, so Ben reached around and grabbed her arm. He let go of her leg and, at the same time, pulled her by the arm around his torso, flipping her around and setting her on her feet. Their acrobatics always made me nervous, but Rissi loved it.

  “Rissi, did you hear the part about how the kids at our new home have a school to go to? You can go with them once we get up there. Isn’t that cool?” I tried to sound excited.

  “But I’ve been there already. There’s no school at the Hoover Dam.” Rissi covered her mouth and giggled.

  Grey chipped in, “Well, there’s one now. And there’ll be more kids for you to be friends with. And you can play outside again.”

  She continued to giggle as she said, “At the dam?”

  I rolled my eyes when I realized she was enjoying that she could say a bad word without getting into trouble.

  “Has it started raining yet?” Grey asked Ben.

  Ben looked at him, confused, and asked, “No, should it be?” His tone was slightly confrontational.

  Grey ignored the rude tone in Ben’s voice. “The barometric pressure is falling, which usually means rain. And rain means difficult travel for us. Especially after all the fires.”

  Mudslides, I thought, remembering a picture from a few years ago of a boulder the size of a couple of Suburbans that had slid onto the Pacific Coast Highway along with several tons of mud that was slick as oil.

  Rissi began tugging at Ben’s arm, pulling him toward the door. “Come on, Ben, I want you to play in my tent with me!”

  Ben took a few steps toward the door and looked back at me. “Coming?” he asked.

  “Actually, I need to talk to you for a few minutes if you don’t mind.” Grey touched the inside of my wrist with his fingertips, and tingles shot out across my arm and spread over my back. I nodded, unable to speak.

  Ben mumbled, “Of course you do,” as Rissi dragged him from the room.

  I followed Grey to his room, where he shut the door behind us and stood motionless for a few moments in front of me.

  “So this is it then?” I asked. “The next step toward re-civilization?”

  Grey nodded and said, “Looks like it.”

  “Do you think we can do it? Get everyone there safely?”

  “I believe so. At least we know which areas between here and the airport to avoid. There are always a few Frontmen occupying the radio station in the Hills where they broadcast from. Other than that, we should have a clear shot if all of the other watchtowers are guarded with mannequins.”

  “You’ve seen where they broadcast from?”

  Grey continued, “Todd had a brush with a group of them protecting the station a while back. It’s up on Mulholland Drive.”

  Another thought worried me. “How are we all going to go sixteen miles on foot? Especially over the Hollywood Hills and in the dark. Ben can’t carry Rissi that far, and I doubt you have enough mountain bikes for everyone, not that everyone can even ride a bike – what about Shad? How’s he going to make it? What if it starts raining?”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll think of something.” I wanted to believe him, but my trust in him wasn’t as strong as it had been before. I suddenly felt alone again, despite Grey’s strong presence in the small room. My heart sank; I had no one to depend on but myself. I needed to figure out a way to get Ben and Rissi to the airport. I wished we could jump into cars and go, like before The Plague, and transport everyone quickly and safely. We’d be able to get there in less than thirty minutes, depending on the roads.

  “What about all the cars sitting on the roads right now? They should still have gas in them. Couldn’t we use those to get everyone to the airport?”

  Grey shook his head. “After a year of sitting, it would take a lot of maintenance to make them run again. Even if they did, the streets are too congested to be able to get very far. It’s faster to go on foot or by bike.”

  He took a deep breath and said, “We should finish our conversation from this morning.” His crystal blue gaze pinned me to the wall, and my st
omach dropped.

  He crossed the small room and pulled out the folding chair with the blanket folded on the seat. He motioned for me to sit down. I didn’t move. He pursed his lips, crossed his arms over his chest, then uncrossed them.

  “I’ve thought of a million different ways of trying to explain this to you, but I can’t remember any of them now.” Grey chuckled quietly and rubbed his eyes.

  “I can’t do this,” I said. “I just... can’t believe what you’re telling me.” I felt like I should apologize, but didn’t say so.

  “I want to be honest with you about this. I want you to know. It feels wrong not having you know everything.” He stepped closer to me, and I stepped back.

  “No, I can’t—” I begged.

  But he barreled on, “I’d never felt these things before I met you, Autumn. You’ve changed so much about me, and I’m not sure how it happened. But sometime after I met you, I started feeling. And I knew it was dangerous. That it would get me in trouble, but I didn’t care. I had to keep seeking you out. I liked the way you made me feel.”

  I shook my head, wanting to laugh. “What?! Are you saying I broke you?” I started talking again before he could respond, “Look, I appreciate that you’re sharing all this with me, but do you really expect me to believe what you’re saying about being a...” I hesitated, unwilling to say the word. “...being from another planet?” I finished. “How gullible do you think I am? Do you think I’m stupid?”

  Grey’s gaze became tortured, and he quickly said, “No, of course I don’t think you’re stupid. But you can’t limit yourself to believing that out of the entire universe, this planet and only this planet sustains life. Have you ever seen the Hubble Deep Field image?”

  “What?” I asked, irritated.

  Grey immediately began digging through a stack of books. “On this planet, it’s the most detailed photo ever taken of the universe. Edwin Hubble—you’ve heard of the Hubble Telescope? Well, he discovered that the light emitted from a galaxy increases in proportion to the distance of that galaxy from the Milky Way. It’s called Hubble’s Law. He proved that the universe is expanding based on his observance of redshift...” his voice trailed off as he flipped the pages of a large book until he found what he was looking for and crossed the room to show me.

  I hadn’t understood the majority of what he’d said and stared blankly at the glossy page he held out for me. It looked like a picture of a starry night sky, but some of the pinpoints of light were different colors and larger and fuzzier than the others.

  “That’s about ten thousand galaxies Hubble got a picture of. And each of these galaxies possibly holds a trillion stars. Who knows how many of those stars have solar systems like this one, with planets circling around it.” His voice was gentle as he explained, but I pushed the book away and looked up at him.

  “Grey, please stop. I can’t...” I shook my head and pushed the book away. The words and numbers swam in my head, making no sense. He closed the book and took my hand.

  “I can see in the dark. That’s how I recognized you.”

  I didn’t move for a moment. Uncomfortable, I pulled my hand from his and took a step back toward the door. “I should really go now...”

  He stepped toward me, reaching for my hand again. “And that injection you saw me taking yesterday is like a vitamin for us. It keeps our bodies—”

  “What, from turning back into little green men with giant heads?” My voice was raised. I felt a panic attack coming on. “I really like you, Grey, but you’re starting to freaking creep me out with this alien crap!”

  “I really like you, too, and I’m not trying to scare you. I’m trying to be honest with you.” Grey looked stung, but his voice remained quiet. It made me angrier.

  “You know, I’ve never even kissed anyone before you! ...Well, I never kissed back anyway...” I amended, remembering Ben suddenly. Man, he was going to gloat over this if he ever found out. Upset, I blurted, “And you’re smart and brave and practically perfect and when you’re near me, it makes me feel like I’m not alone anymore. I think I’m falling in love with you, and then you have to go and act like you’re insane because you think you’re E.T.!” I was yelling now and tears wobbled in my eyes, threatening to overflow.

  Grey just stood there, the book forgotten in his hands, his bright eyes wide and his mouth open. The door opened quietly, and the last person in the world that I wanted to see entered the room and shut the door behind her.

  Lydia cleared her throat and folded her arms across her chest. “I could hear your argument from my room. You might consider lowering your voice.” She looked at me for a moment, and then turned to Grey. “I assume you told her?”

  I looked at Grey, tears threatening to spill over. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but he was still staring at me, almost as if surprised. I would have been out the door, but Lydia was standing in front of it like a pit bull.

  “Grey,” Lydia said, trying to get his attention. “You’re aware of the consequences of what you’ve just done.”

  His blue gaze didn’t leave my face when he said, “It was my decision, Lydia. I mean no disrespect by it.”

  Lydia’s voice shook slightly. “You can still undo this.”

  Grey finally tore his eyes from me and looked at her. “It’s happening to you, too. I’ve noticed.” Lydia’s face lost a shade of color.

  His ocean blue eyes found mine again. I was struck again by their brightness. Like the snow illuminated by the moon. He looked at me with an intensity I had never seen before on his face. Then the corners of his mouth slowly turned up ever so slightly, and he said, “You said you were falling in love with me?”

  Embarrassed, I glanced at Lydia, who was staring at me like I was something she just stepped in. I looked back at Grey and shrugged. “Um... well, yeah, but...”

  The book fell to the floor as he started toward me. I heard Lydia call his name in a panicked voice. But he didn’t look back. His arms closed around me, crushing me to him, his face filling my field of vision, his eyes sparkling like the sea after a storm. I could have sworn I heard waves crashing on the shore as he kissed me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  My tears overflowed, and I felt the cold wetness of them on my cheeks. I could smell the ocean. The air smelled sweeter. It was colder. But I was warm against Grey’s chest. I felt more drops on my cheeks and now my forehead.

  Grey untangled one of his hands from my hair and laid his warm palm against my cheek. He broke our kiss and softly brushed across my lips with his thumb. The cold confused me, but with him so close to me, still holding me against his broad chest, with his fingers brushing the fine hair behind my ear, I couldn’t think straight. All I felt capable of was breathing him in.

  A sudden cold wind and barrage of cold droplets of water snapped me awake. I ripped my eyes away from his. We were standing on my terrace at The Water Tower. It was raining. I saw the gray ocean heaving under the heavy surf. Dark clouds hung low in the sky.

  I looked around at the familiar terrace, unsure of what I was seeing. Was this a trick? Had he drugged me? My breath started coming in gasps, and I pushed away from him. Where was the door to his room? The walls were gone. The books were gone. Lydia was gone. The cold rain splattered against my face and hair as I walked a few steps, then turned and walked another few steps in a different direction, but the terrace surrounded me. Why couldn’t I breathe? Where was I?

  This wasn’t real. It was a dream, I told myself. I tried to take a deep breath but felt like I’d forgotten how. I clutched the neck of my rain-soaked t-shirt in panic. I felt warm hands close around my upper arms. Grey spun me around to face him again.

  “It’s okay, Autumn. Everything’s okay. Look at me and take a deep breath.” His voice was calm and low. Little black spots appeared in my vision. I was going to pass out. I stared into his eyes and dragged a ragged breath into my burning lungs. The black spots faded.

  “Good. Do it again,” he said.

 
; The next breath was easier. My knees suddenly felt weak, and I wobbled in his arms.

  “I should get you inside.” He rubbed my arms to warm me. “Can you walk?”

  Definitely not, I thought. “Just let me sit for a second.” I motioned to one of the nearby chairs, the soaked cushion dripping onto the wooden floor. With one motion, he scooped me up, one arm around my back and the other under my knees and carried me across the terrace to the covered staircase. As he descended down the stairs, I noticed Rissi’s yellow rain boots sitting by the top step. They were full of water. For some reason, the sight made it real for me. We were really here. But how on Earth? That phrase suddenly held new meaning for me.

  I stared at Grey as he opened the door, and we entered the living room. He sat me down and pulled the giant afghan off the back of the couch, then wrapped me in it like a burrito. His blonde hair dripped rainwater down his face, and his wet navy sweater clung to his chest.

  I took a shaky breath. “What happened? How did we get here? How did you do that?” I demanded.

  “We call it astral projection. It’s something else we’ve learned to do. Moving atoms around... I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, but I had to prove it somehow. I didn’t think you’d believe me otherwise.”

  I stared at him. Well, I was starting to believe him now. “So we’re really here? This isn’t, like virtual reality or something?”

  “Yes,” he murmured, “We’re really here.” He touched his palm to my cheek, then my forehead. “You’re cold,” he said, then stood up and looked around. I watched as he crossed the room to the thermostat and turned on the heat. Then he studied the electric fireplace for a moment until he found the switch. Once the fire was lit, he moved a chair in front of the fireplace, scooped me off the couch and placed me in it. He sat down in front of me on the brick hearth.