by Jason Brant
“Please, you thought you were chasing your mom around the apartment. You’re either high or going blind.”
Christy tried not to freak out on her roommate. She really couldn’t stand her, never had been able to, and her constant derision only made it worse. Annie was an abrasive bitch.
The only reason they lived together was because Christy’s last place had flooded, leaving her without somewhere to live. She’d answered an ad on Craigslist for a roommate and met Annie. At first she thought it would be fun to live with someone so outgoing. She couldn’t have been more wrong.
Still, Christy was frightened and she didn’t want to be alone just then.
“First, can you at least put a shirt on? It’s hard to talk to you when you’re naked.”
“I told you before that you don’t need to be jealous – I can refer you to Doctor Ran—”
“Just put a damn shirt on!”
Annie opened her mouth to retort, but she seemed to think better of it when she noticed the look on Christy’s face. “Fine.”
Christy peered out the window again, trying to see if the other apartment buildings nearby had any lights on. She didn’t notice a single point of illumination anywhere. There was a large parking lot back there as well that she couldn’t make it out. Nothing but a void appeared outside the window.
“Take a look at this.”
Annie grumbled something under her breath as she stepped beside Christy, pulling a t-shirt over her head. “What?”
They stood shoulder-to-shoulder, regarding the nothingness before them.
“I... what the shit am I looking at? Where are the lights?”
“Exactly. It’s the same thing outside my window as well. Well, except for some burning cars.”
“Burning cars?”
“Yeah. Burning right in the middle of the street. I couldn’t see anyone out there either.”
“What do you mean?”
Christy pictured the strange scene outside her window, trying to wrap her mind around it. “I mean that cars are on fire, the power is out, but there isn’t anyone around. Molly’s growling woke me up. Then my mom tried to get me to turn off my Kindle so I would join her in the dark. You came into the hall, John screamed, and now he’s gone.”
Annie glared at her. “Bullshit.”
Molly nuzzled Christy’s hand, trying to coax her into a good ear-scratching session. Christy obliged. She didn’t particularly care to argue with her moronic roommate, but she needed to figure out what was going on.
“What were you doing before you came into the hall?”
“John.”
“What?”
“I was doing John.” Annie gave her a Cheshire cat grin.
Christy wanted to kick herself for lobbing a softball up for Annie like that.
Annie went on. “We had just finished. Two of the candles burned out so I took the last one with me to get some water, just like I told you in the hall.”
Christy frowned. Some kind of connection sat on the edge of her mind, but she couldn’t quite lock on to it.
“Do you have a flashlight?”
“No. I have more candles though. Why?”
“The dark is kind of freaking me out.” Christy pointed out the window at the sky. “Not even the stars are out tonight.”
Annie peered outside again. “It is crazy dark, that’s for damn sure. I hope John trips and cracks his stupid goddamn head.”
“Light as many candles as you can find. I’m going to get the flashlight under the sink.”
Watching as Annie pulled more candles out of her top dresser drawer, Christy kept the Kindle aimed toward the door, wondering if she had seen her mother after all. It made no sense that she could have disappeared in the kitchen. Then again, John seemingly vanished out of a bedroom, so it was at least consistent.
When Annie lit a few more light sources, bitching the entire time, Christy walked back to the kitchen. Molly stayed at her heels. She glanced around the apartment as she went, making sure that she hadn’t overlooked her mother.
Nothing.
“Mom? You aren’t hiding are you?”
“Stop being a freak, Christy. She’s not here.”
Christy tried not to scream back at her annoying roommate. She didn’t want to fight with her just then, feeling that she had to keep her cool.
“Go look out my window,” Christy said over her shoulder as she stood in the doorway to the kitchen.
“Why?”
“I want you to see what I mean. Route 22 is dead out there. And a handful of cars are on fire.”
“It’s the middle of the night, Christy – of course the road is empty.”
Christy felt her patience erode. “For fuck’s sake! Just go look out my window! And put a couple of candles in my room too.”
Without waiting for another snarky reply, Christy went to the sink and opened the cabinet underneath it. She moved cleaning supplies out of the way as she searched for the large Maglite that she kept under there. It hadn’t been used in years and she couldn’t be sure that it would even work.
“Jesus!” Annie’s voice cracked.
“Told you,” Christy muttered under her breath.
She found the flashlight knocked over, lying behind several bottles of Windex. She put her Kindle on the floor, screen facing up, and pulled the heavy black cylinder out. It had a button near the top that she depressed, aiming the end away from her. No light came out.
“Damn.”
Christy twisted the cap off and turned the tube over, dumping the D-sized batteries in her hand. They were covered in acid. She knew that there weren’t any other compatible batteries in the apartment.
She tossed the Maglite back under the sink and closed the doors. A long-necked lighter for grills sat on top of the refrigerator. Christy grabbed it on her way back to her room.
Annie stood at the window, holding a candle, and gaping at the insanity outside. She didn’t turn around when Christy came in behind her.
“You weren’t lying.” The edge in her voice had softened.
Christy tossed her Kindle onto her bed and pulled some jeans from her dresser. Molly jumped onto the queen-sized mattress and curled up by the oak headboard, placing her snout on the pillow. Her eyes darted from Christy to the door.
“Something is really wrong here, Annie.” She slipped out of her skirt and pulled the jeans on. She shoved the long lighter into her back pocket, wanting to hoard as many light sources as she could find.
She put on socks, shoes, and an old, but extremely comfortable, GAP sweatshirt. It had a large hood on it that kept her warm when the weather turned cold.
“Where are the pigs?”
“The what?” Christy grabbed a candle encased in a jar and lit it, putting it back on her dresser.
“The cops.”
“I don’t know. It’s like there w—”
“Holy shit!” Annie leaned against the window, her cheek flattened by the glass, looking as far to the left as she could. “There is a huge fire at the base!”
Christy pushed beside her, trying to follow her line of sight. A soft glow was visible in the far distance, behind the Home Depot that sat off to the left of their apartment building. The tips of tall flames flickered above the forest that surrounded much of the military facility.
“Maybe that’s where all of the cops are,” Christy said.
“You know, John and I heard something a little while ago, but we figured it was just the usual shit they’re doing over there.”
Explosions coming from the post were typical in Aberdeen. Christy had grown so accustomed to them that they no longer woke her up or startled her during the day. Whenever a friend from out of town visited, she got a kick out of watching them jump every time the military tested something explosive.
“I bet that’s why the power is out too.”
“See?” Annie turned to Christy. “It all makes sense now.”
Christy watched the flaming cars in the road, not quite buying t
hat an explosion on the base meant that EMT’s and firefighters would allow people to burn to death in the adjacent city.
“It doesn’t explain John disappearing, or my mother showing up in the middle of the night.”
Moving to her nightstand, Christy grabbed her cell phone, pulling the charging plug out of the bottom. She tried to call the police, but nothing happened. Her mother was the first number on speed dial and she tried that. The call didn’t go through.
“Of course, our phones aren’t working either.”
“Don’t you remember what happened on 9-11?” Annie asked.
Christy did remember. When planes started crashing into buildings, the cell towers jammed from everyone trying to call their loved ones. It had been over thirty-six hours before Christy could get through to her cousin who lived in Pittsburgh. Focusing on the large fire at the post, she thought that could be the situation here.
She inspected the nothingness outside, beyond the flaming cars, trying to find a rational explanation for the darkest night she had ever seen. Most of Christy’s life had been spent in the city, so she’d never actually seen how dark the night could get without street lights and bustling traffic. Could this be what it was like in the country?
“What about the cars that are on fire down there? We should go see if we can help those people.”
“What the shit do you think we’re going to do? You expect me to piss the flames out?”
“Annie, look at those accidents. There has to be a lot of injured people. We should at least check on them.”
Annie dismissed her with a wave of her hand. “The pigs will come and handle it eventually.”
Christy loathed her at that moment. People might be dying outside their building, and her self-centered roommate couldn’t care less.
The Kindle beeped from its place on the bed. Christy knew that sound well—she heard it every two or three days—the battery was nearly dead. She turned the screen off, hoping to extend its use for awhile longer, just in case. The room dimmed significantly without the bright LCD screen casting light at the white ceiling.
Molly raised her snout from the pillow, her ears flattening along her head. She didn’t seem to like the darkness anymore than Christy did.
“Fine. If you won’t go down there with me, then I’ll get Frank to go.”
Annie brightened when she heard the name.
Frank lived in the apartment across the hall from them. Christy was fairly certain that he was gay, though she’d never asked him. His grooming and dressing habits were immaculate. Seeing a man so meticulous with his appearance usually meant that he was arrogant and pompous, or gay. At least in Christy’s experience.
Annie, of course, wanted to have sex with him. She took his possible homosexuality as some kind of perverse challenge. Multiple times she had explained to Christy that she wanted to see if she could convert him to ‘the dark side’. Christy didn’t really understand what that meant, beyond Annie just wanting to manipulate him, and she hadn’t asked.
As best Christy could tell, Frank thought Annie was sleazy. The revolted looks he gave her as she touched his arm and batted her eyes always made Christy laugh. Annie would puff her chest out, making her giant fake breasts protrude to a ludicrous degree, but Frank never really paid any attention to it. That, of course, drove Annie crazy.
“I guess I’ll go with you.” Annie’s manipulative smile returned. “In case you need any help.”
Christy rolled her eyes.
“Molly, stay here,” Christy said as she grabbed the candle off the dresser. She stuffed her Kindle under her left arm, squeezing it to her body. Even though it was almost dead, she wanted to have it as a backup in case the candle blew out.
The German shepherd didn’t listen and jumped off the bed.
“Molly, no.”
Though she wanted her long-time companion with her, Christy was afraid that Molly would run off in the darkness outside. She thought about leashing the dog, but she didn’t want to fumble with it if she had to help someone that had been injured. Leaving Molly here seemed like the easiest, if least comforting, option that she had.
The old dog sat down in the middle of the room and looked up at her owner, defiant. This maneuver had become commonplace over the years. Anytime Christy gave Molly a command that she didn’t want to follow, she sat down and a staring match ensued. The big softie that she was, Christy usually caved in. Half the time Molly ended up getting a treat too.
The Dog Whisperer would be pissed.
“Stay.”
Christy left the room and hadn’t made it three steps when she heard Molly padding along behind her. She thought about locking the door to her bedroom—she couldn’t just close it because the dog knew how to use the handle—but she didn’t like the idea of leaving her friend shut off from everything during such a weird time.
“Fine, but if you run away I’m not coming after you.”
Yeah, right.
Annie came out of the room next, primping her hair with her free hand, the candle in the other.
“And you – don’t hit on the poor guy, please. It’s the middle of the night and we’re going to ask him to follow us down to some burning cars. The last thing he needs is you making him uncomfortable.”
Her slut of a roommate didn’t say anything, just looked at her like she was feeble.
Knowing that Annie, who had just finished having sex with her boyfriend, now wanted to get it on with their gay neighbor made Christy shake her head. Ew.
Christy walked to the front door and opened it, looking both ways down the hall. Nothing but darkness in either direction. She lifted her candle above her head, hoping the light would spread a bit further – it didn’t.
For the first time she noticed that her candle didn’t put off as much light as she’d expected.
The darkness surrounding them felt closer, thicker, than it should have.
It had a palpable quality that she couldn’t quite understand.
Everything felt off.
Different.
She considered staying in the apartment. Someone else would come along and see if the people in the street needed help. Curling up in her blankets with Molly enticed her.
Annie bumped into her back.
“What did you stop for? I don’t have all night.” Annie still had nothing but the t-shirt and thong on – no pants, socks, or shoes.
“Shouldn’t you get dressed? We’re going outside.”
“Oh no. Not yet.”
“We’re going to get him so he can help – not so you can do him. You just had sex with John. You know, your boyfriend.”
Annie winked at her.
Gross.
Christy turned right and headed toward Frank’s door. She tried her best not to stomp. Anytime she showed Annie how much she’d gotten under her skin it only got worse. Annie would keep poking and prodding until she finally snapped. Then the tables would get flipped somehow and Christy would end up apologizing later that night.
The door to Frank’s apartment sat on the left side of the hall, twenty yards down from their own. Christy stopped in front of it, waiting for Annie to fall in line beside her. She gave it three quick raps. The utter silence in the building made the knocks sound odd. She expected them to be loud as nothing else around made any kind of noise at all. Instead they were muffled, quiet.
Christy’s unease increased as they waited at the door, hearing nothing on the other side of it.
Chapter 5
Walter stepped onto the dock, shocked at its emptiness.
Even though it was the middle of the night, he usually would have spotted a couple of cabin lights on. Often times there would be a large boat with a huge deck full of people whooping and hollering their intoxicated asses off.
Tonight he didn’t see any of that.
He quickly tied his boat to a cleat, but left the lights on, needing them to see what he was doing. The power outage had killed the lights above the dock and he couldn’t make out an
ything that wasn’t within close range of his boat. With the weirdness of the situation, he didn’t care if the generator died or not, he just wanted some kind of light. He could put more gas in it in the morning.
“Hello?”
No reply.
Walter picked up the bag he’d brought and reached inside, pulling out his flashlight. He’d thrown his flare gun and some extra flares for it inside the bag, figuring that he might need something that would give off a more multi-directional glow than his flashlight. He also had an LED lantern that his daughter had given him when he’d moved onto the boat. At the time he’d thought it a waste of money, but now he was glad to have it.
Supposedly, it would last about forty hours on the low setting, but he knew that companies liked to overestimate things so he figured he might get twenty out of it. A handful of beers and a bottle of water filled out the rest of the bag.
If he found that his child was fine then he planned on polishing off the rest of the beer. He figured that would be the case, but he brought the water as a precaution. Thirst from drinking alcohol all night had already begun to set in. He pulled the water bottle out and took a quick swig from it, swishing the liquid around his mouth.
“Is anyone here?” He yelled as loud as he could and then listened, waiting.
Nothing. Again.
Walter started up the dock, shining the beam of his flashlight into the windows of cabins as he walked by. He didn’t see another soul. The only thing he could hear was the lapping of the tiny waves against the wood pillars underneath him. Even that sounded a bit off to him, as if they’d been muted somehow.
The last boat before land had a light on.
An immense relief washed over him at the sight of it. He didn’t care who it was, he just wanted to make sure that he hadn’t lost his mind and imagined everything.
As he walked closer, he heard music coming from inside. He angled his light at the boat and read ‘The Dude’ on the side. Who named their boat after The Big Lebowski?
He recognized the song when he was two dozen feet away – Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix.
The pungent smell of marijuana hit him then, wafting through the air.
Of all the people he could find, it had to be someone like this.
