Now, you might be reading this and thinking my outlook on life is a little grim. You might think I’m overreacting to the possibility of tragedy. Well…let me tell you…if you’ve been through what I’ve been through, you’d be saying the same thing.
But you haven’t and so you’re going to blow my warning off.
You’re not going to take this seriously.
You’re not going to be ready.
And that’s because you haven’t seen a Chrome Sunset.
* * *
I wiped sweat from my forehead and scanned my brother’s farmland. The golden sun crawled down the sky, leaving streaks of twilight color that oozed across the land like melting rainbows. Purples and pinks splashed into each other amid brilliant orange, and the cloudless sky sighed with a warm breeze.
I looked across the fields, stabbing my pitchfork into the soft earth toward the house. I could see Pete and Ashley scampering up to the porch where they were met by their father, my brother Charlie. I smiled, content and happy with the day’s work. I found myself unexpectedly pleased with my decision to come to help my brother after my divorce. His own wife had died three years back and mine had just left me. We were lonely men with few things in common, most of which were bad luck and heartbreak. He was a gentle man, my brother, and it had taken him a long time to recover from his wife’s death. The kids had adapted as well as could be expected, Pete doing his best to comfort his younger sister through those hard times.
They were good people. Charlie was a year younger than me, always the quiet one. My heart broke along with his when his wife died. He didn’t deserve such sadness. He had always done the right thing his whole life. He was my constant voice of reason, my moral compass at life’s crossroads. When my wife left me, he opened up his home to me until I recovered from the anger and despair that had rocked my state of mind.
His two kids, Pete and Ashley, mirrored their father’s moral integrity. Pete was ten now, a strong young farm boy with an ever-present spark in his blue eyes. He took care of his little sister, who was six, and I knew their bond would last for years to come. It was good to see them all bond together, supporting one another through the hard times they had undergone.
Sighing, I checked my watch and saw that it was a little after seven. My stomach grumbled and I started walking back toward the house. The barn to my right reflected the sun’s brilliance off its new coat of red paint. Last week I had helped Charlie redo the whole thing and I was pleased to see how well our efforts had turned out.
To my left were the cornfields, stretching out for acres in rows of rolling green. They caught the sun in their swaying stalks and reached out for more, gently cracking in the warm wind. I walked between the barn and corn, along the strip of crispy grass that rolled to the front door like a red carpet. My feet crunched over it and I breathed in the silent country air. I never knew I liked isolation until I moved out here, away from the city, away from everything.
I finally made it to the porch and climbed the stairs, the dying sun hot on my back. I went inside and saw Charlie pouring lemonade. He looked up at me and smiled, holding out a glass that clinked with ice and sweet lemon. I accepted it gratefully and took a sip, the cold liquid washing down the dryness in my mouth.
With a satisfied sigh, I asked him if he wanted me to make dinner tonight, but he waved my offer away. He said he was going to grill some steaks out back for us while Ashley prepared some vegetables. She might have been only six, but that little girl had a knack for cooking. She got it from her mother, rest her soul.
The kids ran into the kitchen and Charlie poured them lemonade. He asked Ashley if she would get the broccoli out of the fridge and then asked Peter if he would feed the horses in the barn before dinner. Groaning, Peter complied and as he walked toward the door, I ruffled his hair and told him not to tell the horses we were having steak.
I asked Charlie if he needed help with anything, but he pointed to the front door and told me to sit out on the porch and take it easy. I raised my glass to him as a sign of thanks and took my tired body outside.
Exhaling heavily, I plopped myself down in a rocking chair and kicked my feet out in front of me. I took another sip of lemonade as I watched Pete walk to the barn. I smiled. All this hard work and sunshine was going to do him good in his later years; he just didn’t know it yet. It’s one of those things you don’t realize as a kid—the benefits of chores your parents make you do. They slowly turn into good habits that get stuck in your mind, forming you into a better person. But when you’re a kid, it’s just annoying work.
I watched as the sun dipped under the horizon, a half-circle of burning light that watched me from beyond the distant hills. The breeze picked up and rustled through the cornfields to my right, stirring them from the earth. It was a pleasant sound and I let it wash over me in waves of contentment.
I heard Ashley in the kitchen preparing the side dishes, quietly singing to herself. I grinned, her little voice carrying through the screen door toward me. What a character she was.
I drained my lemonade and set the glass down. Everything just felt so…right.
And that’s when I noticed something in the sky.
I blinked in the fading light, bringing a hand up to shade my eyes so I could see better. It was distant, scraping the roof of the sky almost like a cloud.
But it wasn’t a cloud.
It looked like a small circle of paint being gently swirled, its chrome color shining in the evening air, almost like the sky had opened up to reveal something behind it. From this distance, it was the size of a dime, but as I continued to watch, it gradually grew bigger and began extending down like a funnel.
I felt unease tickle my stomach. It was climbing down the sky, its eerie liquid texture reaching for the earth like a long wet finger. Immediately, I thought it was a tornado, except it was brilliant silver and I didn’t notice a change in the wind. In fact, the weather didn’t change at all. The sun fell behind the horizon, its beautiful color lighting the sky like colored ink.
The chrome funnel continued its descent, widening and expanding. My heart began to race as I watched the odd surface of the liquid funnel drip closer to the earth. It didn’t bend in the middle like a twister might, but instead it remained perfectly straight like a pillar.
I felt the need to call Charlie, but I was held captive by the bizarre spectacle. I heard him inside, gathering the steaks to grill out back and giving instructions to Ashley, but I didn’t move. The funnel had almost reached the ground.
I held my breath, waiting.
The tip of the chrome pillar dipped to the earth, and as it made contact, I felt a soft rumble beneath my feet.
I gripped the arms of the rocking chair, the shining tower of liquid two hundred yards directly in front of me, two hundred yards of grass separating us. I waited for another tremor, but none came. I looked up toward the top and realized that I couldn’t see it, the stretch of silver extending beyond my eyesight.
“What the hell?” I muttered.
I was about to call Charlie when the air rippled with a deafening sound.
I covered my ears as a deep bellow echoed from the pillar. The air seemed to shimmer around me and my head howled in pain. It sounded like a boat horn, like a freighter coming into harbor, its low cry chilling me to the bone. My vision swam and I blinked away dancing color.
I heard Ashley drop something in the kitchen and Charlie burst through the back door to see what was going on.
My mouth went dry, a feeling of dread creeping up my throat.
Something began to emerge from the chrome tower.
I stood up, heart hammering against my ribs as I watched.
It was human in shape and size, made from the same shimmering silver liquid. It looked like a person, but it had no hands or feet, just rounded nubs. Its head widened up from the chin to reveal an open top with smoke pouring from it like a smokestack.
It didn’t move as it morphed out of the liquid, but instead glided i
nto the open air like it was on an invisible conveyor belt. It was hundreds of feet up, but I could see its strange, funnel-shaped head billowing silver smoke.
Suddenly, Charlie burst through the screen door, mouth open in confusion as to what was happening. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the soaring tower of chrome liquid. He turned to look at me, eyes wide, and I could offer him no explanation. The human-shaped creature that had emerged from the column was slowly floating toward the ground, still immobile.
From behind the screen door, I heard Ashley gasp. Questions flowed from her mouth, but Charlie and I remained silent, the scene before us robbing our minds of reason.
The strange chrome figure had almost reached the ground. I felt Charlie tense up next to me and I couldn’t help but feel a sickening anxiety. What was happening? What was this eerie phenomenon? I calmed my racing heart, licking my lips and flexing my fingers.
The silver figure’s rounded nubs touched earth.
And it came to life.
I gasped as it moved, taking a slow step in our direction, its body leaning forward as if it was fighting against a strong wind. Smoke poured from its open head, thick silver cotton that swirled up in the gentle wind. It was a couple hundred yards away, but the distance didn’t make me feel any safer. This thing was coming for us. I didn’t know what it was or what its intentions were, and that filled me with uneasy fear.
I heard Charlie speaking urgently to Ashley, but I barely heard him. Something was happening again with the chrome cylindrical tower. The air seemed to hum and move around it, distorting like it was emitting intense heat. The smooth surface rippled slightly and I felt my breath die in my lungs.
More of the strange figures were morphing out of the column, all frozen in the air like they were products on a moving belt. That strange smoke poured from their heads, a wispy heartbeat of unknown meaning.
They began to descend, all gently gliding toward the earth like wet statues. I swallowed hard as I counted twelve of them in total, including the one slowly making its way toward us. They looked like mannequins, but with thicker appendages and no visible joints or features. Their fingerless rounded arms and legs ended in smooth nubs that reminded me of giant pinballs.
Blinking back shock, I realized that Ashley was yelling at Charlie and me. I hadn’t even realized Charlie was still next to me. I snapped out of my trance and turned to Ashley, gripping Charlie’s arm and shaking him slightly. He looked at me with complete disbelief and I saw panic pooling in his eyes.
I turned to Ashley, asking her what she was trying to tell us. She pushed the screen door open and told us to follow her quickly. Charlie and I did, the two of us moving like shell-shocked zombies. We clambered through the house, following Ashley through the kitchen and out the back door.
As we pushed through the door, I froze and felt a cold fist of fear slam into my stomach.
Another chrome funnel was extending from the sky behind the house.
Suddenly, Charlie was shaking me, his eyes wide and his breath stinking with panic.
“Oh my God, Peter’s in the barn! We need to get him now!”
I felt my guts sink, kicking myself for not realizing it sooner. The spectacle had held me captive, erasing all sense from my mind. I ran into the house, not waiting for Charlie. I crashed through the front door but skidded to a stop. The shimmering creatures had all landed and were now slowly walking toward the house, their bodies bend forward like they were walking uphill.
And then I saw Pete step out of the barn, not fifty yards from the leading figure. From where I stood, I could hear his cry of shocked fear. Immediately, the forms turned to look at him, alerted by his outburst.
Oh, no.
They turned and started walking toward the barn. I cupped my hands to my mouth and shouted for Peter to get back inside, to hide and stay put until I could get to him. They were going to get there before I could, and then…and then who knows what they’d do?
Charlie almost knocked me over as he charged onto the porch and I grabbed him before he reached the steps. I spun him around and pointed to Ashley, who was behind us. Big tears rolled down her cheeks and she reached up for her father, fear engulfing her. I told Charlie I’d go get Peter, that he needed to keep his daughter safe and to lock up the back door. I could see he was torn, indecision cementing him where he stood, and so I pushed him toward Ashley. He scooped her up in his arms and she cried into his shoulder.
“Where’s the shotgun?” I asked, knowing he had one.
He jerked his head. “Follow me and hurry!”
We rushed back inside and he placed Ashley on the kitchen counter. He took a quick glance out the back door before slamming it shut and locking it. Before he did, I could see figures gliding to the earth. Charlie rushed to the pantry and tore the door open. He reached up behind the door frame and pulled down his shotgun. He tossed it to me and I checked the feed.
“It’s loaded,” he said, going to Ashley and picking her up again. “Now go, hurry, please!”
Wordlessly, I charged out the front door, the barrel of the gun cold in my hands. The light had almost faded from the sky, the last remnants of dark purple bleeding into black. But I could see the shining figures, the rising moon illuminating their silver bodies.
They were almost to the barn and I saw that Peter had gone back inside and closed the big door. The figures were gathering before it, their odd arms prodding the wood, examining the strange red barrier.
I quickly took stock of my options, the barn before me, and then ran down the steps and off to the left, planning to circle around to the far end of the barn. I kept my distance, praying to make it before the figures got inside. I kept them in constant eyesight, watching as they ran their smooth arms across the door. I was about twenty yards behind them, their smoking heads creating a thick smog as they all clustered together. My feet quietly swung me around toward the side of the barn, holding my breath as I passed parallel to the creatures on my right. They didn’t seem to notice me and I breathed a sigh of relief as they became obscured from view by the side of the barn.
I raced to the small door at the far end, going at full sprint now that I was out of their line of vision. The full moon glowed overhead, its light reflected by the strange towering column. I felt relieved that more figures weren’t morphing out of its liquid walls.
Breathless, I reached the door and pulled it open. The familiar smell of straw and animals filled my nose as I quickly stepped inside, closed the door, and let my eyes adjust to the darkness.
“Pete!” I hissed urgently. I heard movement to my left and I swung the shotgun up and found myself staring at Peter’s terrified face. I lowered the gun and embraced him in a hug, telling him I was glad he was OK. He asked what was going on, what was happening, and I admitted I had no clue. He was scared, but not hysterical. I admired him for that.
I took his hand and pulled him toward the door. I opened it and let out a scream, stumbling backward.
One of the creatures stood before me, its shining chrome body a solid foot taller than myself. It must have seen me and followed me back here!
I pushed Peter behind me and brought the shotgun up. Without pause, I pulled the trigger and the gun bucked in my hands, the report deafening in the enclosed space. The buckshot rocketed into the figure, tearing half of its spout-like head in half. Thick smoke bled from the open wound as a silver substance splattered onto the ground in wet chunks. The creature let out a loud cry from its gaping hole and sunk to its knees, that familiar boat-horn sound slamming into my ears.
I took a step back as its body crashed to the earth, where it remained motionless. Slowly, its body began to seep into the dirt and hay, evaporating where it lay.
“The rest must have heard that,” I said, breathless. “Come on, Pete, we need to move, now!”
We exited the barn, the night humming with the echo of night bugs. I peeked around the corner of the barn and my throat tightened with fear. The creatures were walking toward us
, following the noise of the gunshot.
I grabbed Pete’s arm and pulled him after me, racing around the opposite side of the barn, back toward the house. I looked over my shoulder at the looming chrome tower and slowed my pace, unable to help myself.
It was pulsing with white color like a lighthouse. Its glow illuminated the night in brief flashes of blinding brilliance and I suddenly felt the ground tremble beneath my feet. About a hundred feet up, I saw the surface of the liquid tower begin to shimmer.
“Oh no…” I muttered, a trickle of sweat running down my spine. Pete was frozen next to me, his breath hoarse in the wind.
Another of the figures emerged, gliding out from the surface as if breaking the calm of a still pond.
“It’s regenerating,” I said, shaking my head.
Suddenly, I heard Ashley scream from inside the house and I snapped out of my trance. I grabbed Peter again and dragged him along behind me. As we raced toward the house, I could see the second tower glaring over the roof at us.
God, what is happening? I thought, my mind ragged.
We ran up the porch steps and charged through the front door. I had the shotgun raised, ready to blast away anything that wasn’t my family. Charlie was dragging the kitchen table over to the back door, sweat standing out on his forehead. Something on the other side was pounding against it, the wood groaning from the force. Ashley let out another scream as we entered the house, but relief calmed her features and she ran into her brother’s arms.
I closed and locked the front door and ran to help Charlie, placing the shotgun on the kitchen counter.
“There has to be another twelve of them out there!” he cried as we barricaded the back door. “What are we supposed to do?!”
I winced as the figures pounded on the blocked door. “I don’t think we can kill them. I shot one of them and it melted. But a couple seconds later it morphed back out of that weird tower!”
The Worst Kind of Monsters Page 24
