by Jason Keizer
“You aren’t getting sick are you?”
Henry quickly covers his mouth. “I don’t think so Grammy, but I should probably leave. I don’t want you catching anything from me, just in case.”
“I’m a bit old to worry about a stupid cold. Just try not to cough on me ok.”
The corners of Henry's lips rise. “Sure thing, but I’ll get going anyways. I will be back tomorrow if I am feeling fine. If not, I will give you a call.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Every day you visit or call. Just like James or Ollie with their weekly calls or those video call thingys, like I don’t have a damn life. Maybe if you stopped worrying about me so much, you would find that girl, but I’m not getting into that again.’
Henry stands up and heads for the door. “Yeah, I don’t think that dead horse needs to be kicked again. I love you and will see you tomorrow.”
“I love you too Henry.”
By the time Henry gets home, his cough picks up a little bit. Sweat drips down his face as he stumbles through his front door and falls onto his couch. Instantly, he falls back to sleep.
The next morning Henry gets woken up by a call from the nursing home about his grandmother. She has suddenly fallen ill and has hypothermia. Henry races to the nursing home, where a doctor stands just outside of his grandmother's room when he gets there.
“Is she ok,” Henry asks.
The doctor puts his head down a little bit and says, “I don't know. Her temperature keeps falling. I have tried a hot bath, heat pads, everything. I don't know what I can do to get her temp back up. If it continues to drop, I'm not sure if she will make it. I’m sorry, but I have done all I can, and I have to go see other patients that seem to be having the same symptoms as her. Things like these tend to spread fast in nursing homes like this.”
Henry stands out of the door for a couple seconds, as he tries to gather himself. He opens the door to see his grandmother lying there, pale and sleeping. Henry shuffles to the bed and sits next to her. Even though it feels like the heat is on full blast, there seems to be a chill in the air. He puts her hand in his. It is freezing cold.
“Grammy, can you hear me?” he asks. She doesn't make even the slightest movement. He yells this time, “GRAMMY, can you hear me?”
No response. Henry tightens his grip on her hand and puts his other hand on her head. A chunk of hair falls apart into pieces from the root as he touches her freezing cold head. He shakes his hand, and as the bed shakes, more of the frozen hair breaks off of her scalp and falls on the bed.
“Please, Grammy… Please answer me.”
He places his other hand on hers, tightly embracing it in his warmth. “This can’t be happening. You can’t be sick.”
He rubs his hands against hers trying to warm them up even just a little. “I’m so sorry Grammy. I’m so sorry,” he frantically says.
Henry lifts her hand up and kisses it, feeling ice against his lips. Tears start to fall from his eyes. A thin mist forms in front of his lips as he exhales a long deep breath. He lets her hand go, and stands from his chair. Her arm bounces off the bed and falls off to the side.
He paces across the floor and pleads with her to keep fighting, to stay alive. Through his teary eyes, he sees her skin start to turn purple and gray. He wipes his eyes, hoping it was just the light from his tears, but it wasn’t. He runs back over to her and clenches her icy hand, repeating, “No. no. no.”
As her hand starts to become too cold for him to hold, he lets it go. He takes a couple of steps back from her as terror rolls over his face. He looks at his hand that held hers, the sweat on his palm has turned into small shiny speckles of ice. “No no no,” he repeats to himself as he takes a couple of more steps back towards the door.
Suddenly, her eyes open wide. Instead of the beautiful brown eyes that Henry had loved so much, only a frosted white shines from her sockets. Slowly, she sits up, bringing down a flurry of broken hair. Her shirt cracks a little, and a few small frozen bits from the sleeve fall off. The rest of the shirt sticks to the skin as it develops a layer of frost on it.
She turns her head over to Henry. He takes a couple more steps back until he feels the door handle hit him in the side. He grabs it and slowly starts to open the door.
“AAAHHHHH!” She lets out an ear-piercing screech and jumps from the bed.
Henry swings the door open, dashes into the hallway and slams the door behind him. The door pushes back as his grandmother rams into it. He pulls on the handle with all his might to keep it from opening and yells for help.
The young man from before starts to run down the hallway towards Henry. As the man gets close to the door, the sound of glass breaking comes from in the room. “What was that?” the young man shakily asks. Henry just puts a finger to his lips and slowly opens the door to an empty room. He steps in, and while looking around, a scream comes from outside.
EIGHT
James walks out of the hotel with his ruck in one hand and his hatchet in the other. The blood that covered him has now washed away into his shower drain. Henry and Oliver stand by the trucks as James walks out into the street. Towards the gate, people are dragging the bodies of what used to be Skullniks.
“You ok?” asks Henry as James walks up to the trucks.
“Yeah, never been better. That shower was just what I needed,” replies James. Henry and Oliver give each other a confused look.
Oliver turns back to James and says, “Just glad to see you back to normal. The doctor wants to talk to you when you get the chance. She sounded pretty worried.”
James opens the door of the truck and slides his hatchet back under his seat. He then hops in the cab of the truck, closes the door, and grabs the radio headset.
“This is James Matheson, ID number 591936, patch me through to Dr. Stone.”
The male voice on the other line: “Sure thing. She is expecting your call. One second please.”
“Hello. James, are you ok?”
“I am fine, sweetheart. Just a little excitement to start the day off. Nothing to worry about.”
A light sigh comes through the radio. “Oliver told me what happened. You need to be more careful. What if something happened to you?”
“I am fine, not even a bruise on me.” James rotates his injured shoulder a little bit.
“James, you know that isn't what I mean. I just need to make sure that you come home. Just be careful and try not to lose control ok.”
“Inara, when it comes to coming back to you, no power in the ‘Verse can stop me.”
“I know. I just worry about you.” James pauses for a second as he looks at his reflection in the rearview mirror.
“So do I, But I need to get going if we want to make our timeline. I promise that I have everything under control. I will talk to you later.”
“You better. Just be careful out there and stay safe. Bye.”
Click
As James exits the cab, he says, “What's the status of the town?”
Oliver looks over to a woman sitting on the curb crying. “31 Skullniks dead. 3 men and 2 women residents dead. There is damage to the gate and one of the west towers, but that can be repaired.” He pauses for a second before adding, “Any ideas on why they would attack? A small group like that should have known the chances would be slim to none.”
Henry replies, “How should we know? I don't think I will ever understand the shit they do.”
James looks around for a second and says, “You guys all packed up? Once we talk to Peter, we need to get going.”
Henry and Oliver both reply, “Yeah.”
James looks around at the few people cleaning up the mess from the attack. He sees Peter at the broken down gate and calls for him.
Peter walks over to the group and says, “Thank Y'all for ya help. I can't believe we was attacked. It been months since the last one. Typically, they just steal sum our crops 'n leave us alone. We ain't have nothin they want or need from what I can tell.” He extends out an arm and shakes
the hands of the team, adding, “I wish Y'all could stay, but I know Y'all got stuff to do. Swing by on Y'all way back, and we'll give you a room again.”
The team gives their thanks for the rooms and prepare to leave. As they start to get into their trucks, Peter grabs James' arm and says, “Hey, I know you got things goin on 'n shit, seeing as what you did to those skullniks 'n all. Jest make sure you don't let that get the best of you. That much hate and anger can take over a man. Jest know, there better things than that in dis world, no matter how messed it all is.”
James gives a slight smile, puts his hand on the one Peter used to grab him and says, “I know that there are better things in this world. I never lose sight of that. Not anymore. Not long ago, it probably would have been a lot different. But thank you for the advice.”
James closes his door and turns the truck on. He looks ahead and sees someone walking in through the broken gate with a tall, black top hat.
James quickly jumps back out of the truck and grabs Peter's shoulder before he can walk away. “You need to get everyone out of this town now. Grab what you can and head for Serra. Do not stop for any reason,” he says to Peter.
Peter looks at him confused and asks, “Why? We been attacked before. We jest fix things up and...” His eyes and jaw open wide as he sees the lady walking with the top hat.
James gives him a small shake and says, “You know who is coming. I don't know what you call him here, but...”
Peter cuts him off and in a soft, shaky voice says, “Death.” His eyes stay fixed on the top hat in the lady's hands.
James nods his head and says, “Well, I know him by the Baron. If he is here, that means one thing. All of you will die by night's end if you don't leave. So run far and run fast. Fill those vehicles up and go. Now!”
Peter looks up at James. “He never come round here before this.” His face turns back to the hat. “Maybe he isn't here for the town. Maybe he here for you. If that the case, you and yer people need to leave my town an don’t come back.”
He turns back to James, shaking his head. “That has to be it. You brought him. Now you need to leave 'n take him wit you.” He pushes past James and runs to the lady holding the top hat.
James gets in the truck and puts on his headset. He looks to Oliver, who is doing the same. James asks, “Henry, can you hear me?”
“Yup. I’m up. What was that all about?”
James turns his truck on. “We need to get out of here with a quickness. I'll explain later, once this shit hole is in our dust.” He steps on the gas and the team quickly heads out of the town.
There is still a little bit of smoke coming from the boards that made up parts of the gate as they pass through it. Corpses of the Skullniks have been pulled to the sides of the tracks by two men, who are stacking up wood in a pile, creating a pyre to burn the bodies.
Oliver looks over to James and asks, “What was that about? A top hat? Are you telling me you are afraid of a story people on this side tell their kids? A boogieman?”
James stares onward at the tracks. “It's no story or boogieman. He is a man, though. If we make it out of here, I will tell you about him, but for now, we need to worry about being gone from this place.”
Oliver gives him a small nod of his head. He looks in the side mirror back at the bodies next to the tracks and says, “So much death. I want to say I wish the world could be how it used to be. You know, before the Arctics. But the more time I spend looking at how everything is now, I see it almost the exact same as before. It's just people killing people. That's all the world ever was. All it will ever be.”
James puts his hand on Oliver's shoulder and gives it a small shake, “And just like before, we just need to stay on the right side of the gun when push comes to shove. Yet hope it never does.”
Over the headset, Henry says, “Them assholes didn't even have any guns. They should’ve known they were gonna get jacked up, coming in at us like that. Or anyone for that matter. What I want to know though is, why you never told us about this guy James.”
“There are a lot of things I haven’t told you about my time with the Skullniks. I just didn't want to bring it up. I still don't. Besides, you guys never asked.”
“Yeah James, cause asking about someone or something we know nothing about is first on our list. Plus, we never ask about your time with them. Figured it wasn't something you would tell us about when you felt comfortable.”
James sighs and shakes his head. “I still don't, but I guess we can talk about it later when we are in the clear of everything. Now, no more questions about this for now. I'm going on mute.”
James slaps his headset, muting it. He turns on the radio and presses the button for the CD player. Music fills his truck's cab as the team continues their journey.
The team travels on the rails for a few hours until they come up to a lone rail car on the tracks. The lone car is a refrigerator car, also called a reefer car. They are used to send chilled goods throughout the cities. This car is about thirty feet in length and stands about nine feet tall.
While approaching the car, James turns his headset mic back on and says, “Hey, we have a reefer blocking us. Gonna bring out the flip-set, you swing around and take point ok.”
Henry gives a quick, “Sure thing.”
When they approach the car, Henry lifts his truck’s rail wheels. He drives to the side of the first vehicle and rolls down his window. “Hey, you think they still have food in it?” asks Henry.
Oliver replies, “I'm pretty sure anything that was in there has definitely spoiled by now. Seeing how it's been years since it would have had power.”
As Henry starts driving off, he says, “Dammit Dexter's lab. Always gotta ruin everything with your damn science and reasoning.”
Henry drives past the reefer car and gets back on the rails in front of it. He lowers his rail wheels back on the track and moves into the gunner seat to man the turret. “In position,” Henry says into the headset.
James, giving the reefer car a few up and downs with his eyes, says, “Ok. I'm about to get out and flip.” He looks over to Oliver. “You get to be the bird in the nest.” Oliver nods his head.
James steps out of the truck, grabs his rifle, and walks out to the back as Oliver slips into the gunner seat. He drops the tailgate and opens the two compartment doors and pulls out the flip-set.
The flip-set consists of two hydraulic jacks that connect to one pumping handle. This allows for one man to lift two jacks at the same time to evenly lift a large object. Holding the flip-set by the hydraulic hoses, James walks towards the reefer car.
He moves to the left of the car and sets the flip-set down. Giving the car another once over, he sees that the door to it seems to be locked. He steps forward and places an ear on the door, but hears nothing.
He takes the jacks of the set and places them halfway between the middle and ends of the car. As he steps on the pump, the car slowly raises on its side until it eventually flips over, off of the tracks.
As soon as it hits the ground, the door slides open. A long dark hand reaches out from inside the car. James swings his rifle from his back and takes aim.
James stares at the reefer car until a bald, dark head appears from the car. Once he can see the pure white eyes of the Arctic, he takes a shot. BAM! The bullet rips through its left eye. A spray of blood follows the bullet out the back of its head. It drops back down, into the car.
A screech comes from inside the car, then another one joins it. More and more join in, until even Oliver and Henry have to cover their ears. Hands fly up from the car's doorway. Once the screams stop, like an overflowing toilet, Arctics quickly shoot up and out of the reefer door.
NINE
Meanwhile in Serra City:
“Stay safe, bye,” Inara says and then hangs up the phone. She leans back in her office chair and lets out a sigh.
Mercy, sitting in one of the chairs across from her desk with a folder on her lap asks, “Is everything good Ina
ra?” Inara just nods her head as she leans forward.
Mercy continues, “Ok, good. The General has requested to have a meeting with the council in a couple of minutes.” She lifts the folder in her hand and adds, “Probably because of this.”
Inara stands up and says, “Well then, you can brief me on the way down. I got the email for it probably but haven’t been able to check it yet.”
Mercy gets up and promptly follows Inara out of the office. As they walk down the hallway to the elevator, Mercy hands Inara the folder, and says, “The Skullniks have turned on another power plant in Arizona and have set up what looks like a communications center. We aren't sure how long it has been up and running, but they surely had to have been using it for some time now.”
Inara opens the folder and looks through it. In the folder, there are pictures of what used to be a football stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The stands are almost full, and there are people on a field that has been converted into some type of ring. In the ring there is a red circle around someone, but the picture is somewhat blurry. Under the circle, there is just one word, “Fatman?”
A smile curves up on Inara’s lips as she asks, “Is that really the name we have to keep using for him?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure James is the only one to meet him, to be honest. That’s the only name he gave us for the guy. Kinda refuses to call him anything else.”
“Sometimes I wonder if I fell for a giant man-child.” Inara lifts her hand to her eyebrows as she rubs her forehead. “Then I think about it for a second and realize, yeah, I did.”
Inara and Mercy get off on the fifth floor, turn right, and walk down a straight hallway. They pass four doors on their left and right as they open the door in front of them at the end. A sign on the door reads “WAR ROOM.”
They walk in and see three open seats, one of them is at the head of the table across from the television sets, the two to its right, also empty. General Thompson stands behind the chair across from it at the other end of the table. To his left sits, Major Morris.
