The Long Way To Reno

by Mix, Michelle

  “Look, I just figured, out of theory, out of – imagination the things that could have happened, and I guess we were just –somehow right,” Darrell continued on, red-faced and sweating as he struggled to keep up with us.

  “But how would you have known of this? Was this something you both knew awhile back?” Tavis demanded, glaring at him, then at me. “What are they?”

  "I don’t even know what you're talking about – " I started.

  "Those things, the huge robots," Harley supplied helpfully. "Tell them about those things."

  "Are they manned?" Tavis asked me, and I stared at him. How could I even answer that? "Miss Fitzgerald, are they manned?"

  How did he even know my name? I sputtered, "Well, yeah, in anime, they are. They're operated from the inside by pilots, or even by remote. I don't know if these ones are – I haven't even been that close to one. They could possibly be beings themselves, like Transformers."

  "We've discovered these recently, and I'll need your thoughts," Tavis then said, nodding at us. One of the soldiers shoved printouts into my hands. I was stunned into seeing two corpses lying side by side, riddled with bullets. The gore made me sick, and I felt blood rushing from my face, again.

  "What are these?" Tavis asked, pointing at a pulpy substance embedded within the peoples' chests. It took me a few moments to see that there were faces there. Sleeping baby faces, with limbs stretched deep into human tissue – like a spider with a human face. I almost thought this was Photoshop of some kind, taking in the picture with bewilderment.

  "I don't even know," I said. I tried to look past the disgusting display of death, focusing on the fantastic creature hiding inside. Then I shoved them back at the guy that had given them to me. "How did you find them?"

  "I need answers on how to defeat them," Tavis said firmly.

  "I don't know what they even are. How can I tell you that?"

  Wiping his sweaty hands on his pants and leaving behind moist streaks, Darrell interrupted with, “If these things, well, if these things are things that we’re familiar with, and they regenerated parts of the body they were incubating – "

  It hit me what he was trying to explain, and I threw in my two cents. "Using a human body to help them mature? The legs were spread eagled, like a human's – maybe they were waiting for the chance to operate them, like a mecha!"

  "Yes! Yes, exactly!" Darrell practically beamed, clapping his hands.

  “So you’re saying they’re using the dead to grow? To mature?” Tavis interrupted. I grew excited because Darrell had come to the same conclusions that I had. I couldn’t help but look at him as a fellow comrade-in-arms, and he recognized that same thing in me, too. It was too bad things happened too late for us to connect before shit happened.

  “ – well, yes! I think. I don’t know! I’ve never engaged into alien situations outside of – y’know, gaming consoles! I can’t even begin to tell you what these things are capable of, but they might be the second wave into the aliens’ agenda of eliminating the human race from existence!” Darrell’s voice rose, and people shuffled anxiously as the front offices were reached. "They're on the ground, man, it might just be a second wave! They're fucking adapting to our situation by creating ground soldiers entirely different from the first wave!"

  "Almost like sorting through their creations and finding which one works best," I said. "Destroy most with a mass shot, see how the humans react and send in another based on the adaptations they've learned from watching us."

  "They're watching us," Darrell stressed on a half gasp, half choke. It was an unsettling thought. "They saw us figure out how to stop the Ushers, thereby stopping the zombies, and - !"

  Tavis said tersely, “Assuming that they might be a second wave, what other knowledge do you two hold about their capabilities?”

  “Do you mean, like, powers and stuff?” Darrell asked as the door shut behind them, closing out the chaos in panic within the halls. “Well, see, the Flood regenerated corpses of both human and alien into super-powered monstrosities, with strength and a level of invincibility, but they’re killed. Not easily, but they can be killed.”

  “How?”

  “Guns, energy swords? I don’t know, man, I don’t know. Don’t consider me an expert on things, I used to play these games and I know how game villains are handled.”

  Tavis turned, scanned the crowd, and spotted the man that had killed the things inside the house. “How many shells did it take you, Manuel?”

  “Two each, sir. Torso shots.”

  “Harley?”

  Harley answered, “I was aiming for vital areas. But those things were found in the stomach cavity.”

  I stared at him, wondering when he'd come into contact with these things without telling me. There was no time for a backstory, though.

  “What if they’re using the bodies as more than an incubation unit?” I spoke up, looking at Darrell. “Maybe they’ll use them like suits of some kind. Sort of like, infiltrating the human race, taking control of dead bodies to penetrate our hideouts and flush us out into the open.”

  “So, they’ll take control of these dead bodies they’re incubating in, and use these bodies to…?” Tavis trailed off, gesturing at them to finish his theory.

  I shrugged. Darrell said, “Maybe while they’re growing in them – well, all the bodies are pretty fucked up, right? None of them really look human. After all this time, has any of you seen a long-time dead corpse look, y’know, different?”

  Most of them had to admit that they hadn’t. All bodies had been in stages of decomposition, lacking the features that made them vital. Bloated, ugly, torn to shreds by animals – a corpse was a corpse. But with this threat, all of us had to wonder if these new aliens were growing inside of them. I felt that panic start to rebuild in my gut. That same one that had been bubbling since the pulsing started.

  Darrell slapped his knees with dropping hands. “There. See? No worries. Maybe these things are just taking advantage of the body cavities, growing inside, and then they’ll release themselves upon maturation? Not using the bodies at all, unless they’re the ones regenerating limbs, workable organs. WHICH – “

  Tavis held a hand up. The tension within the office was mounting, and I shuffled uncomfortably as most of it was focused on us. I was starting to feel suffocated, swallowing tightly as I wished I’d been able to escape hours earlier. I felt like running out of the building without looking back. Anxiety made me desperate and scared, and it felt like I was going to hyperventilate. I looked at Harley for a sense of direction, and he was facing away from me, looking terse at something Tavis was saying.

  I admit I'm a manipulative cow that was in it only for herself. I do things shamelessly. But it felt like once I realized what would make me feel better, I couldn't even stop myself. I watched my fingers shake as I reached for his hand, squeezing his fingers anxiously once I felt him react to my touch. I couldn’t explain how much better I felt for the contact, even as I looked down at the floor to escape his bewildered look.

  I don't even know what prompted him to return the squeeze. Maybe he was too sleep deprived to realize what he was doing.

  “I wonder if those guys over there discovered this already, and perhaps that’s the reason behind the rising mutiny?” Darrell then said thoughtfully. I looked up because I didn’t know what he was talking about. “Maybe the people they’re shooting are – nah, not that.”

  “The deserters we’ve been shooting were obviously uninfected, and their vaccination probably provides resistance to infestation of this sort,” Tavis said, a skeptical look on his face.

  “You’ve been shooting deserters from the camps?” I spoke up, starting to panic. Despite not having yet confirmed whether or not my parents were actually in those camps, I felt that I should be concerned anyway. “There’s mutiny? What’s going on?”

  Darrell flailed his hands. “And enough about those things, I think this is an indication that things were around to lay these things inside o
f those things!”

  Everyone went still, the thoughts running through their mind. They looked at each other, as if they could see any signs of any possible contamination in each other. Darrell cleared his throat loudly.

  “Does anybody feel weird? I mean…weirder than normal?” he asked tentatively. “Or, even, perhaps, once the aliens saw that we had a cure against the original vaccination, maybe they didn’t bother with us living. Maybe all they intended to do was infect the dead with their, uh, their babies. Soldiers. Whatever they are.”

  “It’s…it’s a lot to think about,” Tavis said slowly. He was tense, worried as he looked at the group. “For now, we’re going to keep this quiet, but we’ll remain fully alert. Please, do not let this leave this room. We’ll need to get out of the city. We’ll need to find safe routes out of here. Immediately. We need all capable persons familiar with the area to find a way out by tonight.”

  As Tavis left with the members of his security team, Chuck advanced towards us, looking only at Harley. “The teams are stretched out as it is. This is not working out, Harley. To be honest, there are always supplies of some kind in any of these buildings, but what’s worse is that when summer comes along, the heat will be just as deadly. What water is left will not keep, and fuel should be gone.”

  “You’re thinking about escaping to the mountains?” Harley asked. I noticed that his fingers had tightened around mine. I wanted to wince, but I didn’t want Chuck addressing me in any way. He seemed like he was forcing himself to focus entirely on his son.

  “I was already antsy about staying behind before, but this is different. This is shit I didn’t expect,” Chuck admitted. He spoke like I wasn’t there, and, considering every possibility, he had probably rendered me invisible the moment he started talking. “I thought those things were gone. I thought all we had to deal with were these people.“

  “It was never really confirmed.”

  “What happened before was only a preamble. What this is now, is extinction. What hadn’t died before by the Rabid and those other things, these things are going to finish. We’d have more of an advantage, a better chance of survival if we weren’t in the city. Humans we could deal with, but more alien creatures?”

  “I agree with you,” Harley said.

  Chuck stared at him for a few moments. “But…?”

  “I…I can’t...leave these people behind.”

  He had the chance to leave a long time ago. I felt myself look at Harley with silent regard, noticing his faintly embarrassed expression. But I noticed that his hand didn’t release mine. I felt the gravity of the moment in my chest. I felt it change something in me.

  Chuck was pissed once his eyes dropped down to our linked hands, and the realization on his face was almost comical. I felt awkward and uncomfortable being the source of this tension. His hand finally dropped mine, and I couldn’t help but watch as Harley gave his father an ugly expression.

  “Goddamn it, Harley! Think about it, son! There’s a better chance of living out there! They aren’t attacking the animals, they haven’t even bothered with the water, or the elements -! Mankind has survived just off the land itself, without all these modern amenities for centuries before civilization was established! That means we can do it, easily! I’ve prepared you for this - !”

  “I’m well aware of that, but – but I guess my priorities are different, now.”

  “There’s Chloe - !”

  “Chloe’s a dyke, Dad!”

  Chuck then looked bewildered. I suddenly had the urge to go meet her while they proceeded to forget that I was there. “Since when?”

  “You didn’t know that? Don’t you people have, like, sensors or something?”

  “It doesn’t matter - !”

  “I made my choice,” Harley interrupted him. “I’m not going without – them. You’re just going to have to accept that.”

  Chuck jabbed him, and I thought they were going to start swinging at each other as Harley shoved that hand away from him. I’d never been around a family that had so much tension running through them. This situation actually scared me. I’d been around man fights – but this was so different. I wasn’t even sure how to deal with it, trying to stand as small as possible as to avoid anything that might come my way.

  “I won’t. Even if it means taking matters into my own hands, and making you see what sort of stupid decision you’re making chasing after puss –“

  Harley shoved him, and Chuck had to catch himself. I almost choked on a startled gasp and remembered to be as quiet as possible.

  Chuck stared at him for a few moments, then said low, “I’m not leaving without you. Not again.”

  He then turned and walked away. I wanted to disappear. I had no idea how to handle the situation at all. I’d had no idea how just how significant I’d been to Harley, with all our words and fights. Yeah, I knew in the beginning that he had it for me. But to have so much adversity with his father over me? To fight for me? No one had done that before.

  I couldn’t recall any man other than my own father fighting for me, but dad always did for fatherly things, things that he had to do. None of my boyfriends had made me such a big deal – I was a materialistic thing to them, and this was a role I’d cultivated because I believed in it. Now that things were different…now that this world was different…I was stunned because it was obvious that I was more than that to this dork that I’d barely even noticed in the beginning.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “What are we going to do?” I finally managed to ask. He looked over his shoulder at me, almost like he’d forgotten that I was there. Rearranged his moody expression for something else. He then busied himself with snatching my hand, examining the blisters there and giving me an impatient look.

  Without even saying anything, he threw off his backpack and withdrew a red medical pouch. I don't know, it was something suddenly romantic as he doctored my hand without me whining about it. Truthfully, I was so occupied with other things that it didn't even bother me.

  “Let’s go to the mountains. Out of the city, away from all these things. We’d be safe from all of this down here,” he said slowly, carefully spreading a cool gel over the burns on my palms and fingers.

  I gave him a startled look. “I couldn’t do that – “

  “Why not?” he demanded, ripping open packets to unravel ointment covered cotton pads. He was extremely gentle in his handling – I felt embarrassed by the feelings caused by it. “It's safe up there, Ed! They’d have to work to find us!”

  “I haven’t found my parents yet, Harley.”

  As he hastily wrapped my hand with gauze, he was freaking lecturing me. There was something significant happening between us, and he was lecturing me. “It’s not safe down here, there’s people out there trying to kill us, and these things, and we’re running out of supplies and clean water - !”

  “Like there’s more supplies up there?” I asked incredulously, unable to imagine survival in the mountains the way that he could. To me, it was impossible. I couldn’t see anything but rocks, trees and a severe lack of flushing water.

  “We can live off the land, Ed. It’s not that hard. There are ways to convert that water into safe drinking water, and there’s plenty of animals, and - !”

  “I’m not leaving this city to go live in the dirt somewhere!” I exclaimed, pulling my hand back once he was finished with taping the ends of the gauze. I then pulled away because I was dazed over my sudden horror of romanticizing him bandaging me up. Out in the hall, he continued to spew his reasons why we should be living in the mountains.

  “You’re living in the dirt here! All the food we’ve been able to get is running out!”

  “There are millions of homes that has non-perishables, and besides, what about other things, girl things that a guy can’t understand - ?” It was horrifying to imagine that time of the month in the wilderness. What if I attracted bears?

  “You’ll be safer up there than you ever would down here!” he
ended up shouting at me. “You can’t stay down here, there’s nothing here for you to stay for! Your parents are dead, you don’t have anybody else - ! I want you to be safe - ! That’s the only way I can think of to try to keep you safe!”

  I fell silent for a few moments, his desperate voice ringing down the hall. Both of us were embarrassed by the emotion in his words. I felt like running away, horror cascading through my limbs. His words were way too intimate. I was scared of those words. I was scared of his feelings. I was scared that something had happened that I hadn't even been aware of.