by James Sperl
Janet tensed as she stared through the glass. “Okay, there’s the signal.” She turned and faced the group. “It’s our turn ladies and gents. We ready?” The group gave a collective nod as Janet reached out a hand toward Cynthia who had been silently presiding over the evacuation.
“Cynthia,” Janet began, “I wish to hell you and the rest of your people were coming with us. But I respect your decision to stay. You know where we’ll be if anything should happen.”
Cynthia smiled as she nodded, a lone tear streaking her cheek. She took Janet’s hand and kissed it. Janet gave her hand a final squeeze before turning to Catherine.
“You know where you’re going?” she said.
“Far side of the lot to the garage. Fuel’s in the barrels along the back wall.” Catherine answered.
Janet nodded agreeably. “You got plenty of cars to choose from out there. We left batteries in the ones marked with an “X” on the windshield just in case. Keys should be in them. Get to the highway as fast as you can and do your damndest to stay off side streets and roads through potentially populated areas.”
“Okay.”
Janet held out her hand. “Good luck with whatever it is you’re doing.”
Catherine grasped it firmly. “Thank you. For everything.”
She clung to Janet’s hand, wondering in that moment if she had the courage to divulge the truth about the key and all that it meant. She desperately wanted to share its secret, but the words of her husband continually floated in her subconscious: Trust no one.
Catherine released Janet’s hand with a final dip of her head. “Good luck to you.”
“Thanks,” Janet said simply as she pulled the hood of her sweatshirt over her head. She placed her sweaty hands on the aluminum crossbar of the exit. “All right,” she said to the nine people gathered behind her. “Let’s go.”
Group eleven charged into the night. The cool evening air was brisk and assaulted the lungs with each breath. Sneakers and boots thumped on the asphalt in muted, discordant clomps as the final evacuees of Bayview stormed off toward their new home.
Janet scoured the horizon relentlessly. She was pleased that all had gone so smoothly thus far, and with the last group away held out hope for a successful transition to stadium life. It wasn’t what she wanted, but it was the best decision. Of that, she was sure.
Catherine clamped on to Tamara’s wrist as she ran, vowing literally and figuratively to never let go of her youngest daughter again. She knew this was her overprotective, maternal drive coming into play, but she really didn’t care. The events over the past few days had taught her a thing or two about life and its ability to change direction on a dime.
Josh and Shelby ran side by side just behind Abby who struggled to keep pace. Madeline became aware of Abby’s deficiency and slung a supportive arm around the young girl’s elbow, helping her along and receiving a nod of gratitude from Catherine.
Josh felt a peculiar sensation in his loins. An odd time, he thought, given the circumstances. This stirring he had known from time to time when viewing his friend, Don McKellar’s dirty magazines. He had often wondered what it would be like to be with a girl in that way, but had abandoned any such notions long ago. Now, as a painful throbbing surged in his crotch, Josh became acutely aware of the fact that Shelby had seized his hand as they ran. Her hand felt small and soft under his calloused fingers. And with each passing step, Josh mourned the eventual separation from her.
Derrik took up the rear, running and backpedaling in equal measure to assure a safe retreat. He hated that word. Retreat. He wished there could be a way to take the fight directly to whatever it was that had changed everyone’s lives so dramatically. But how do you fight an enemy when you don’t know who or where the enemy is?
Alvin and Oliver jogged just ahead of Derrik. Oliver panted profusely, sucking wind as if there would soon be a shortage. Alvin regarded him peripherally and wondered if the man would make the journey to their final destination.
Janet caught a quick, double-pulse of light near what appeared to be the corner of Madison and Chesney Avenue. Group ten had proceeded as directed and Dusty had done an admirable job in leading his squad, even providing unnecessary signals of their progress. Janet hoped these flashes wouldn’t serve as alerts to unsavory characters, but it had been twenty-two minutes since the first group departed and nary a gunshot was heard or a rogue light spotted. All things being equal, she felt fairly positive about their chances.
Then the unthinkable happened.
It was in the vicinity of Madison and Trident. Group two and group five would both pass near the intersection if strict adherence to the map had been observed. Janet prayed with every ounce of spirituality she had that they had gotten lost long before reaching it.
The wash of light had been stunning. A veritable sphere of whitish-yellow that shimmered incandescently. And when it suddenly materialized somewhere on the other side of the business district its appearance was powerful enough to physically draw gasps. Light bounced off the remaining window glass in the mid-size skyscrapers and a swath of luminescence struck skyward evaporating into the heavens.
Janet and her group stopped in their tracks.
“What the hell is that?” Oliver asked ignorantly.
“What the hell do you think it is?” snapped Janet.
Tamara burrowed into her mother’s belly, burying her head into the flap of Catherine’s jacket. “Mommy, I’m scared.”
“I know, baby. I am, too.” Catherine encircled Tamara then put an arm around Abby, pulling her near.
Alvin stepped up beside Janet wearing the look of a man who had seen this before. “It’s them.”
Then the screams began.
The distant cries echoed throughout the empty city in deadened pleas for mercy. And as quickly as they had begun, they ceased, leaving a stifling silence in their wake.
Janet stared into the darkness at nothing in particular with wide, bulging eyes. Madeline started to cry. Shelby let go of Josh’s hand to comfort her mother.
“We’ll...we’ll reroute,” Janet said finally through shaky breath. “Let’s just keep moving. We don’t want to be stuck out in the open.” She started into a trot. The group hesitantly followed her, their heads turning and searching in all directions as they resumed a steady pace.
Catherine grabbed Abby’s hand, holding it in her left while she maintained a grip on Tamara’s in her right. The fear rising in her was overwhelming. More than anything, all she wanted to do was cry. Cry away the unbelievable reality in which she found herself. Cry for the childhood that had been robbed from her children. Cry for the other groups of the evacuation and the fates that had befallen them. But mostly she just wanted to cry at the unfairness of it all. Could the juxtaposition of her two lives really be this stark—the dutiful, vacation-happy mom in a troubled marriage one day, smash-cut up against a terrified single parent running for her life in a desolate parking lot? It seemed too surreal to even consider.
Then, as if an affirmation had been issued by the Fates, a second column of light suddenly snapped on—this one much closer. Janet screeched to a stop as did the entire group.
“Shit,” she uttered, real fear seeping into her voice.
“That’s only two blocks away,” Alvin said. “At best.”
The second cloud of light cast sharp silhouettes of the nearest buildings, the radiance emanating outward in an arc and dissipating into the black night. The edges of the buildings appeared as if tinged with neon, their defining surfaces reflecting the intensity of the luminous source and reducing the imposing structures to mere two-dimensional cutouts.
Again, screams of fear and pain echoed throughout the city. Tamara covered her ears. Oliver made the Sign of the Cross.
Janet stared in horror at the two masses of bulbous light and, for the first time, realized they were moving. She turned quickly and faced the group.
“Look,” she began with quivering lips, “we’re gonna have to abort. We
’ll have to double back and find another way around.”
“But people will be expecting us,” Madeline said, tears welling in her eyes. “We can’t just abandon them.”
“I don’t like it anymore than you do,” Janet said, fighting the temptation to cry. “But do you hear those screams? We can’t help them. And we’d be doing ourselves no favors if we tried.”
“We should just head back to the mall,” Alvin said excitedly. “Get back inside and regroup.”
A loud, piercing scream sounded from the direction of the second light source. The group spun in unison, their gazes fixated on the shimmering mist of light. Then all fell silent.
Oliver turned to his fellow evacuees. “I think that’s a bad idea, Alvin. I think Janet is right. We need to double-back and take a different route even if it means it’ll take us twice as long. We’ve committed to this. We should just finish it.”
“That’s pretty ballsy coming from someone who can barely make it across the parking lot,” Alvin said.
“Hey, fuck you, Alvin.”
Alvin turned pleadingly to the group. “Look, everyone. We tried, okay? We tried and it didn’t work. We’ll figure something out. But now’s not the time to do it, standing out here in the middle of this parking lot. Remember, I’ve seen what they can do. Let’s just get back inside and come up with another plan.”
“And what if they’ve found a way to get inside,” Janet asked. “Have you thought of that?”
“That’s highly unlikely, Janet, and you know it.”
“Take a look, Alvin.” Janet twisted around throwing out an arm toward the two foggy auroras drifting through the city. “Two nights ago I would’ve thought that to be highly unlikely and yet here we fucking are. Now, I’m not the boss of any of you. You all want to go back inside, be my guest. I won’t try to stop you. But I’m heading on. The last place in the world I’d want to be right now is back in that mall.”
“For what it’s worth,” Catherine jumped in, “I think Janet’s right. These things have proven they can take it to us now. They’re inventive and seem to possess incredible ingenuity. I really do think it would be a mistake to go back inside. Continuing on seems to be the best option.”
“Damn straight,” Oliver belted.
“But having said all that, we need to say goodbye to you all now.” Heads snapped uniformly in Catherine’s direction.
“What’re you talking about, ‘need to say goodbye’?” Alvin said. “Where are you going?”
“I know it seems sudden to some of you, but we have to find out if my husband’s still—”
“Oh, please,” Janet interjected sarcastically. “Don’t tell me you’re still clinging to the ‘husband’ story. Just say it, Catherine. You’re going to get a key. It’s not that hard. I can help you if you want.”
Catherine glared at Janet with searing intensity. “Fine,” she said. “I’m going to get a key. Best of luck to all of you. Now if you’ll excuse us.” She put an arm around Abby and led her and Tamara away from the group. “Come on, Josh. We’ve gotta move.” Josh stared at Shelby for one final moment then pried himself away.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Alvin said in a loud whisper, stepping forward. “A key to what?”
“Oh, now that we don’t know,” Janet continued, her acerbic tone dripping with cynicism. “But it must be a real big secret otherwise Catherine wouldn’t have had to lie about it to all of us.”
Every fiber of Catherine’s being wanted to turn and respond, to defend herself against Janet’s accusation and salvage her reputation. But this would only serve to feed her vanity and she knew it. She would never see any of these people again and engaging in any debate over her intentions would only chew up precious time she couldn’t afford to lose. Wrapping her arms around her girls, she continued forward.
“No, no,” Janet spat, “You go on. Don’t let us keep you. Heaven forbid anything should interfere with Catherine’s grand fucking plan. But I guess that’s how life flows these days, isn’t it, Catherine?”
Catherine wiped a tear from her face. Josh peered back over his shoulder in anticipation of a bum rush.
“One minute you’re getting your ass saved,” Janet railed, “the next you’re shitting on your saviors. Think of only yourself. That’s a great philosophy, Catherine. Maybe I should employ a philosophy like that. Hell, maybe I should’ve employed that philosophy the night your daughters were getting raped.”
Catherine stopped dead in her tracks. The borderline irritation with Janet had now boiled over into full-blown hatred. Disparaging remarks regarding her and her decisions she could handle. But when the focus of the acrimony had been directed at her children, well, that was something she just would not tolerate.
Catherine pivoted one hundred eighty degrees, leaving her children and charging directly for Janet. “Listen to me, you bitch, and listen good,” she said loudly. “I don’t care if you flew down from Heaven on wings lent by God himself to help us. You say one more fucking word about my children, any of them, and so help me God—”
“You’ll what,” Janet said, walking forward to meet Catherine as she approached. “I really want to know—”
“Look!” Alvin shouted from a few paces back. He pointed into the city and the general location of the light sources with a trembling finger.
But both lights were gone.
Catherine and Janet set aside their squabble, both turning to see.
“What does that mean?” Madeline said shakily.
“Are they done?” Shelby added. “Did they go home?”
“They’re never done,” Janet said as she turned her gaze from the blackened skyline to Catherine. “And neither are we.”
Catherine desperately wanted to reply. Wanted to get in Janet’s face and let her know, once and for all, that she was no pushover PTA-attending, minivan-driving, soccer mom. And perhaps she would have had she not been distracted by something more pressing.
She felt it in her feet first. A dull, trembling sensation that was barely discernable. Then came the sound—a low rumble, virtually inaudible even in the vacuum of a dead and soundless city. Catherine lifted her head and stared in the direction of the mall.
Janet rotated slowly away from Catherine and followed her gaze, her grave expression a validation that she, too, had heard the faint noise.
The balance of the group spun in place. Large, watery eyes peered into the darkness. Boots and sneakers back stepped uneasily. Fingers found the triggers of their corresponding weapons.
“What’s that noise?” Josh said nervously, saying aloud what everyone else was thinking.
“It’s coming from the other side of the mall,” Oliver said. “It sounds like it’s moving.”
Catherine instinctively moved Tamara behind her. “Ever heard that before?” she said to Janet.
“No,” Janet replied simply, frozen in place.
The low grumble increased both in volume and pitch then abruptly shifted in frequency, falling to a lower register on the tonic scale. But the volume continued to intensify.
Alvin’s face suddenly dropped. “I know what that is,” he said, walking forward. “That sound. I know it. That drop in tone was a gear shift.” He swallowed dryly. “It’s a motor.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Catherine knew he was right. Something was coming. And it was motorized.
Janet took a step backwards. “I think we should get moving. Now.”
“I think you may be right,” Oliver chimed.
The motor sound suddenly jumped in amplification, reverberating off the mall complex walls and vibrating throughout the parking lot.
“Jesus Christ,” Oliver said, “It’s on the other side of the goddamned mall. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Madeline broke into sobs. “What are we doing still standing here? Let’s go. Let’s go!” Shelby grabbed her mother’s hands and began leading her away from the sound. Others followed, breaking into a jog as they peeked back over the
ir shoulders.
“Come on,” Janet said, rediscovering her leadership. She grabbed Derrik by the shoulder and pulled him from his fighting stance. “There’s a federal building two blocks away. It’s got a basement. If we can just make it there we should be—”
“Oh, God!” Oliver cried out.
The group shuffled instinctively to a stop, turning on Oliver’s exclamation to witness the ghostly machine barreling towards Bayview Mall.
The whine of the motor revved higher, the semi-truck it powered accelerating in a direct line toward the mall. Behind the wheel of the rig was a lone figure. Bathed in the same whitish-yellow light, the cab of the truck glowed like a beacon in the still, black night.
“It’s heading for the main entrance,” Oliver said. He glanced back at Janet. “It’s gonna ram it.”
The truck whined menacingly as it approached, gaining speed and closing fast. It veered slightly, angling for the main northeast entrance when its shift in trajectory revealed an even more horrific sight directly behind it.
Another truck.
But this one was different. Something about its shape, Catherine thought. It didn’t look like any big rig she had ever seen. She couldn’t make out a clear outline of the vehicle, but could see enough to know that it was enormous.
“Okay, let’s move! Go. Go!” Janet yelled as she snagged Oliver and Alvin by their shirtsleeves and flung them away from the mall. Madeline and Shelby, along with Josh, were already running as Janet closed in on Catherine who staggered forward clumsily as she directed Abby and Tamara.
Suddenly, a deafening crash pierced the night. Janet and Catherine stopped momentarily, wrenching around to see, curiosity getting the better of them like so many rubberneckers alongside a car accident.
Grey-black smoke billowed from somewhere near the front of the mall. Faint orange light flickered sporadically. The second truck, much to Janet and Catherine’s surprise, actually began to slow. And as it neared, the massive shape slowly revealed itself, the glow of dancing fire reflecting off the metal framework encasing the rig.
