by J. Thorn
“And after it freaked out, it died. Right?”
“Si, senora. And hey, you never did tell me why you could stare at that thing without letting go of your lunch like your friend here.”
“I’m an EMT. Was an EMT. And even if I hadn’t been able to handle it, I didn’t have much of a lunch earlier.”
“Well, follow me. I can fix that.”
Luke went to the door, picking up his light and shotgun on the way. Maya took his place next to Cameron and put her arm around the woman.
“You all right?”
Cameron wiped her mouth using her forearm. “I’m trying to be. I just want to get away from all this shit.”
Luke opened the door to a small storage closet. Steel rungs on the wall formed a ladder, heading up.
“Are we going to the roof?” Maya asked.
“Yeah, come on.”
“What about the aliens?” Cameron asked.
“Trust me. Come on.”
Already up the ladder, Luke opened a hatch on the ceiling and climbed through.
Cameron shook her head at Maya. “Are you sure we can trust him? We need to get back on the road.”
“He knows a lot about the aliens. More than anyone else I’ve encountered since leaving Nashville. We should stick with him for at least a little while and see what he knows.”
Luke poked his head through the hatch. “You guys coming or what?”
Maya nodded at Cameron, then climbed the ladder.
When she emerged from the hatch, Maya scanned the rooftop. An office chair sat near a generator which the boy had rigged to two large spotlights. The flat roof looked like any office building roof, complete with access doors, hulking air conditioners, and pigeon poop galore. The boy had a tent in one corner and a plastic cooler next to it. Luke leaned his shotgun against an HVAC unit and set his portable light down. Then he stuck his arms out.
“Whatcha think?”
Maya laughed, placing her hands on her hips and looking around. “How long have you been here?”
“Couple of days. I headed up this way from Memphis after everything went down. Lucky, too. Though it didn’t get domed like other cities, that place is totally gone. How about you two? What’s your story?”
“I was in Nashville,” Maya said.
“Ah, man. That city was domed early on. I passed by there before I ended up here. How did you get out?”
“That’s another story, but the dome is gone now.”
“Gone? How?”
Maya shook her head. “I don’t know. Either way, we’re headed to Fort Campbell. That’s where my kids are.”
“It’s not far from here if you want to come along,” Cameron said.
“You’re not thinking about leaving tonight, are you?”
Maya and Cameron shared a glance, and then Maya nodded.
“You don’t want to do that. The ships come out in full force at night. They do flyovers and then drop aliens where they detect humans. You’re much better off taking a chance with the highway gangs during the day.”
“Yeah, we saw a gang earlier,” Maya said.
“Why do you stay on the roof at night if the aliens are out?” Cameron asked.
“I’ve got my lights up here. I can scare them away if I need to. And a gang of raiders are less likely to find me up here if they break into the building.”
“You’re a pretty smart kid.”
Luke blushed at Maya’s comment. “Look, if you won’t mind having me along, I’d like to come to Fort Campbell with you.”
“I’d say we owe you for what you did for us.” Maya glanced at Cameron, who was already smiling. “So, yeah, of course you can.”
Luke grinned. “Well, I promised you food.” Luke walked to his cooler and opened it, pulling out two beers and some salami. He handed one of each to the women. “How about a meal before you ladies get some rest? I can take first watch.”
Maya took a deep breath, and had already cracked the can of beer. “Sounds good.”
They ate in silence as the boy stood at the roof’s edge cradling his shotgun. As she stared up at the moon, Maya couldn’t help but think that maybe she’d get her kids back. Just maybe.
25
Maya’s eyes shot open, and she couldn’t breathe. Luke stood over her, his hand covering her mouth. She started to struggle to cry out, but he put his finger to his lips, signaling for her to be quiet. She knocked his arms away with two hard slaps.
“Stop it.” Luke’s words came out in a gritty whisper. “There’s someone here.”
She looked to Cameron, who had groaned and sat up.
“What’s going on?” Cameron asked.
“There’s something in the building,” Maya said.
“Not a something, a someone,” Luke said. “Well, someones probably.”
“Not aliens, I assume. A gang?” Maya asked.
“Yeah. About half-a-dozen men. I saw them approach and then walk toward the main entrance. They had guns.”
“Did they see you?”
Cameron had sat up on her knees as Maya asked the question, and Luke shook his head.
“What are we going to do?” Cameron asked. “Do you have any other guns?”
Luke held up his shotgun.
“Then we’ve got to get off this roof and leave,” Maya said.
“Not yet. I haven’t had time to stash my gear. I don’t want them to get it if I ever come back here.”
“You really think that’ll happen?” Maya shook her head. “You’ll come back to live in a tent on the rooftop of an office building?”
Cameron snickered as Luke smiled.
“Okay.” The sound of breaking glass came from a floor somewhere below them. “Grab your stuff and follow me.”
Luke grabbed his shotgun and a flashlight, and headed for the other side of the roof. Coming up behind him, Maya looked over the edge and saw the fire escape ladder, the last rung of it about fifteen feet up in the air; it would leaving them dangling ten feet from the pavement.
Cameron stood next to Maya and leaned over. “That’s a long drop.”
“Would you rather walk downstairs through the building? Maybe we can ask those guys if they wanna have a picnic.”
“He’s right,” Maya said. “This is the only way for us to get out of here.” She looked at Luke. “Do you have a car?”
“It’s out of gas.”
“Then we’ll have to get to ours.”
Luke held up a hand to stop them. “If they have six people in their group, they probably left at least one person keeping watch outside.”
“Well, then, we’ll have to hope your gun is bigger than his.”
“Jesus Christ,” Cameron said, lowering her head.
Luke tossed the strap of his shotgun over a shoulder and his leg over the roof’s edge, his right foot landing on the top rung of the ladder. He climbed down first so that he could make a stand in case someone heard them. He reached the bottom of the ladder and looked up at Maya and Cameron. Then he let go, dropping to the ground and landing in a squat. The soles of his Chuck Taylor’s had smacked off the asphalt loudly and Maya hoped the sound hadn’t been enough to draw attention.
Maya descended next. She reached the bottom of the escape, took one look down, drew a deep breath, and let go. She had a split second of panic in freefall, kicking one leg out too far. When she hit the ground, her momentum pulled her to one side and she rolled over, feeling the asphalt scraping away skin from her elbow.
“You okay?” Luke offered a hand to help her up.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Maya took Luke’s hand and brushed at the front of her clothes before wiping the blood from her elbow. She then looked up at Cameron, waving her down.
Cameron hesitated, and Maya saw her disappear as Cameron took a step back from the edge. But, a moment later, the young woman swung one leg onto the ladder and then the other, climbing down while keeping her chin up. Maya understood why Cameron wasn’t looking down, but she held her b
reath hoping she wouldn’t miss a rung. When she made it to the bottom of the ladder, Maya walked beneath it.
Come on, Cameron.
Cameron looked down several times, refusing to let go.
“Don’t look down,” Maya said. “Just let go.”
“I can’t.”
“It’ll be okay.”
“We don’t have a lot of time.” Luke looked around, the shotgun now back in his hands.
“It’ll be fine. Just give her a minute.”
Luke sighed.
“Come on, girl. You’ve got it.”
Cameron nodded at Maya before finally letting go. She hit the ground harder than Maya and Luke, but unlike Maya, Cameron stuck the landing. She grinned and pushed her shoulders back, looking at the blood dripping down Maya’s arm.
“I did it.”
Luke interrupted the minor celebration. “We have to move.”
They shuffled along the pavement and over to the corner of the building. Luke stopped there and held up his hand. He was about to peer around the corner when a man stepped out. He had a pistol and a greasy smile on his face, his glassy eyes looking in the other direction. The guy wore black leather and jeans, and had a shaved head and tattoos on his face. Maya could have smelled weed from ten feet away. She thought he was probably one of the gang members who had orchestrated the assassination back on the highway. The man’s eyes went wide when he turned his head and saw them. Luke raised his shotgun and cracked the man’s nose with the butt of it. Blood spewed from the man’s face as he hit the ground with a thud.
“Everything all right out there, Leon?” came a voice from a walkie-talkie clipped to the man’s belt.
“Shit,” Luke said.
Maya grabbed the pistol from the unconscious man on the ground and then the three of them hurried along the side of the building toward the front. Maya leading the group now, she stopped when they reached the corner. She held her hand up to the others, looking around the corner and seeing no other people outside.
“He must have been the only one guarding the front door. It’s clear.”
They ran across the parking lot. The Civic sat in the same spot where Maya and Cameron had left it the previous night. The passenger side door was open, the gang likely having searched it before entering the building. Maya and Cameron hadn’t left the key inside. Maya reached into her pocket and pulled it out.
“Hop in and buckle up. We’ve got to run for it before the others come outside to see why Leon isn’t answering his radio.”
Maya jumped into the driver’s seat, placing the gun on top of the dashboard while she turned the key. The engine started up as Cameron and Luke shut their doors, and Maya looked up.
On the roof, a man looked over the side of the building. He then turned and waved. A moment later, four more men were looking down.
“Get us out of here now!” Luke said.
Maya threw the car into reverse, the tires skidding. She glanced up at the roof again to see two of the men raising rifles.
“Get down!” Maya said.
She put the car into drive and slammed on the gas as she ducked down. The men fired, punching holes in the trunk of the Honda as she pulled away. Maya lifted her head just above the steering wheel, pulling the car onto the road.
The rear window shattered and Cameron screamed, brushing away the safety glass like they were angry hornets.
Maya sat all the way up in the seat, looking in the side mirror to see that the men had lowered their guns, their car too far away now for them to get a clean shot and already moving at a high rate of speed.
With the wind howling through the rear of the car, Maya pounded the steering wheel and hollered. She hit the highway at full speed and then looked over at Luke, whose face had gone white with his hands clutching the dashboard.
“I told you to buckle up, kid.”
26
Maya couldn’t help but look in the rearview mirror every few seconds. She assumed those men would stay for at least a few nights, using Luke’s set-up and eating the beer and food he’d stashed in the cooler. But then again, they’d left one of the men unconscious and on the ground. Once the beer ran out, the gang might come for revenge.
Cameron sobbed in the backseat, her hands over her face and her hair sparkling like diamonds from all the glass she’d yet to shake out. Luke looked from her to Maya.
“We could all use a few minutes to get out, walk around.”
“I’ll stop when I can, but for now we’ve gotta keep moving.”
“There’s no way they’ll follow us. Not with everything I left behind.”
“Not at first,” Maya said. “But you might have killed that guy.”
Luke hesitated, and Maya saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.
“You think he’s dead?”
“I don’t know. My ex-husband was in the military, and he talked about blows to the head that can kill a person. If you hit someone hard enough...”
“Holy shit. I’m not a killer.”
Maya glanced at him once more, deciding to drop it. Luke was just a kid and she had the feeling that he hadn’t been in many fights, if any at all. But he’d have to get used to it. Violent death was becoming the norm in this new life.
The sun broke the horizon and Maya sighed, happy to have evaded the aliens again. She’d take armed stoners on motorcycles over practically indestructible aliens any day of the week.
A bell chimed, forcing Maya to look down at the dashboard and notice they were almost on Empty. They’d driven for at least half an hour and had seen no sign of the gang members following them, and now the car’s lack of gas was forcing their hand. Maya pulled into the parking lot of a gas station, realizing that, without power, they’d have to come up with a clever way of getting fuel into the Civic.
“Shouldn’t we keep going?” Cameron asked.
“We need gas, and I think all of us could use a stretch.” Maya unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped out of the vehicle as Luke headed into the open door of the mechanics garage next to the station’s office. Papers fluttered across the asphalt, showing the office had been ransacked. The kid disappeared into the garage and beneath the lift.
Maya popped the gas tank door and removed the cap. She grabbed the nozzle from the pump and squeezed the handle, but nothing came out.
“Shit.”
Luke came running out of the shop, holding a big red gas can in one hand with a grin splitting his face.
“Five-gallon jug, and this is pretty full. Found it in the back by the used oil drum. I hope it’s still good.”
“Probably.” Maya winked at Luke. “Tow truck drivers keep ’em in the garage in case they answer a call from someone who ran out of gas.”
“Sounds like you know a thing or two about garages.”
Maya took the can from Luke and shoved the nozzle into the tank. “They got a 65 Mustang in there by any chance?”
Luke shook his head, his eyebrows furrowed.
“Never mind..” Maya used her head to point at Cameron. “I should check on her.”
She had climbed out of the backseat and sat on the curb, her back to Luke and Maya.
“Is she all right?” Luke asked.
Maya nodded. “You mind finishing up here?”
“Not a problem.”
Luke took hold of the can from Maya. She walked toward Cameron, putting her hair into a ponytail on the way. She sat down next to the woman.
“How are you feeling?” Maya finally asked.
“Fine.”
After several moments of silence, Maya wasn’t sure what to say. She sighed and stood up, deciding that maybe Cameron did just need some time alone. As she started to move over to check on the car and Luke, Cameron spoke.
“I don’t know how he could do it.”
Maya eyed the other woman, looking for a clue as to what she was talking about. “How who could do what?”
“Gerald left me there, all alone. It’s like he didn’t care about me. He could�
�ve gotten me to safety with the kids. But instead, he just abandoned me.”
Maya put her hand on Cameron’s shoulder. “You’re going to get to ask him why. I promise.”
Cameron looked up at Maya, smiling. Then she scoffed and shook her head. “You know, the dumbest shit of all is that I still love that bastard, and I don’t know why.”
“Yeah, well, you’ll get over that eventually. You’re a pretty girl, and you can do better than him. You’ll be fine.”
Cameron nodded before asking another question. “Do you still love him?”
Maya only glanced at Cameron before looking out at the highway.
“I’m sorry. That’s none of my business.”
“No, it’s fine. For a long time, I did. You have to understand that he is the father of my children, and he was the first man I ever loved. It took me a long time to get over him.”
“So, you don’t love him then?”
Maya looked back at Cameron and shook her head. “No, I don’t. But I can see in your eyes that you do. You should think long and hard about what you’re going to say to him when you see him again, and try to put yourself in his shoes.”
“Well, he went to your mom’s house and took your children. How much mercy are you going to show him?”
She turned from the highway and looked down into Cameron’s eyes, searching her brain for the right words to say, but nothing seemed to fit.
“I guess I have some thinking to do. Like you.”
Cameron smiled again, standing up next to Maya.
Maya noticed Luke pointing at the highway in the direction from where they had come.
About a half-mile down the highway, a van had appeared—the same white panel van they’d seen outside of the office building.
