by James Sperl
“Of course, we can talk. We can do a great number of things. You seem surprised.”
“I must admit that I am. Nothing in the way you’ve presented yourselves so far has suggested anything other than a malevolent plague on humanity. If you can talk, as you’ve clearly shown, why not try and speak to us? Explain to us what’s happening. You must’ve known that your aggressive tactics would form a negative opinion of you.”
The Lawyer almost smiled as he rounded the far pole. “If we did try to talk, do you really believe you would’ve listened?”
Catherine thought about this a moment and realized he had a point. It was the nature of man. When a threat or intimidation strikes, shoot first and ask questions later. It was as old as time itself.
The Lawyer sauntered forward. “But you’ve said something interesting. A plague, I think it was you called us. But I ask you, what do you think the human race is?”
Catherine glanced at her watch—eleven twenty-six. While a large part of her was interested to learn more about these things, she just didn’t have the time. And every minute the Lawyer spoke with her was another minute lost from trying to solve their plight. Warren, where the hell are you?
“The human race?” Catherine said simply. “Sentient, but imperfect creatures trying to do our best.”
“Wrong,” the Lawyer said flatly. “You’re as much a plague as the various bacteria that have wiped out so many over time. In fact, I’d say you’re worse. Humans infest the world knowingly, taking what they want, depleting resources, acting out in their own best interests. And they do this while trying to convince themselves it’s all for the greater good. At least a bacterium has the self-defense of instinct. And, as you say, humans are sentient. So what is your excuse?”
“We don’t just go around killing people because we want to,” Josh threw out. “We’re not killers like you.”
The Lawyer, for the first time, offered a toothy smile. “But that’s exactly what you are. Don’t you see? Every war, every conflict has been predicated upon one group’s belief that they are in the right. That mass murder is acceptable as long as it’s in the name of their righteous cause. All the human race has ever done is embrace their instinct to kill.”
“So why do you think you’re so different?” Catherine asked.
“We don’t. The only difference is that we don’t deny what we are.”
“And what are you?”
“Enlightened,” the Lawyer said, completing his circle and stepping back in front of Catherine and Josh. “We are more aware of ourselves than we ever were as mere humans. Emotions have been reduced only to base necessity and for the first time we actually exist as a single, collective species, working together to further our own survival. Not like you, with your individualistic approach to life. Your fenced yards and solitary actions. The more you progress the more you separate yourselves from one another.” The Lawyer moved to the edge of the shadow, his toes within an inch of the boundary. “I know. I used to be just like you.”
Catherine took a step forward and met the Lawyer’s gaze. “You may be right,” she said. “We are problematic at times and do tend to withdraw into our own lives somewhat selfishly. But by and large, we are good and decent. We try to help. We do the right thing. We’re not all perfect and we fail quite a bit. But we continue to try to improve. Not to just help ourselves, but the world. You’re wrong about us. As for your argument, I hear you. But you’ve shown me nothing to convince me of your enlightened status.”
“I see,” said the Lawyer. “Then perhaps this will help.”
The Lawyer did not move. Didn’t say a word or offer any signal. Yet when the twenty or so New Humans simultaneously took a step back from the tent without a second of hesitation, the perfect unison in which they moved was enough to send shivers along the spines of all who witnessed it.
Catherine’s mouth fell open and she could hardly keep her eyes from welling with tears. It wasn’t the dirt this time, but the glaring realization that she had just seen something remarkable.
“Consider this an olive branch,” the Lawyer said calmly, holding out his hand.
Josh stared out at the New Humans encircling the canopy. They remained motionless, eyeing him and the others. It was an impressive statement. One, quite frankly, that sealed the deal for what he was about to do. There was no escaping these things. He knew that. But there was a larger more unassailable truth— no one was coming to help them. They would have to make it happen. And he knew just how.
“You don’t really expect me to take your hand, do you?” Catherine asked the Lawyer, stepping back subconsciously.
“I’d hoped that maybe we could come to an agreement,” the Lawyer replied. “That we could all stand together and reach an understanding.”
Josh felt fire in his stomach as his adrenaline kicked into overdrive. Those things were still static, having moved nary an inch. He just hoped they remained that way, their current positions actually of benefit to him.
Glancing over at Shelby, he caught her eye. She managed to force a smile and he thought it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He winked back reassuringly and pushed his fingertips into his sternum.
Catherine smirked at the Lawyer. “I think we’re fine, but you’re welcome to join us in here if—”
Josh was already to the Lawyer before anyone grasped that he’d fled the safety of the tent. Running at full bore, Josh charged the Lawyer, driving his open palm into the man’s nose. The Lawyer recoiled violently, crumpling to the ground, blood spewing from his face as Josh slipped through the gap created by his fall.
“Josh!” Catherine screamed, every heartache a mother could feel embedded in the call of his name.
Josh sprinted with all of his might for the gate, arms swinging, legs pumping. The exhaustion he felt had vanished, replaced now by a renewed sense of urgency that fueled him.
The New Humans were jolted from their trance-like state, immediately giving chase to Josh as he ran.
Catherine, Leanne and Shelby crowded the nearest corner of the tent, watched as the mob descended on him.
“What’s he doing?” Shelby cried, tears spilling down her cheeks. “Where’s he going?”
Josh reached the gate and leapt onto the metal frame. He pulled himself up using every bit of his remaining strength. The New Humans would be right behind him. He didn’t need to look back to verify it. He clamped his hands around the steel braces and climbed, his feet working to push him higher.
The New Humans reached the gate below him and threw themselves at it, several clinging to it and beginning their ascent after him.
Catherine stared in horror. The New Humans were swarming like locusts below her son, teeming along the massive gate as they crawled up toward him. She knew in an instant what he intended to do and knew that he would never make it. Not unless he got some help.
She quick-checked the circumference of the canopy, confirming the absence of all New Humans with the exception of the wounded and bleeding Lawyer.
“Keep on eye on him!” Catherine commanded to Shelby and Leanne, her finger pointed at the writhing man-thing on the ground. And with that, she charged out from under the tent toward Josh.
“Catherine!” Leanne screamed.
But Catherine didn’t hear her. Her mind was elsewhere, her focus and drive concentrated into a singular goal: help my son.
She ran over to a patch of sand saturated with oblong and pointed rocks. She deftly snatched up two fist-sized stones and hurled them at the New Humans, one after another. The first caught a woman in the back, the other, the bearded man, in the head. The woman arched her back in pain, the man collapsing to the ground.
Several New Humans turned and looked at Catherine. She’d already procured two more rocks and launched them viciously. One clanged off the gate with a metallic echo. But the other found its mark, striking a climbing New Human on the back of his hand, causing him to drop like the stone Catherine had just hurled.
Josh
continued on, unaware of the aid his mother was providing. He reached the uppermost portion of the gate then pulled himself so he could stand on top of the concrete barricade.
A slender man-thing scaled the gate, his hands within reach of Josh’s foot. Josh lashed out with a furious kick to the man’s face, the force knocking the man loose and sending him crashing into two more New Humans just below.
The gate suddenly rang with a loud clank. Josh twisted and found his mother, her arm in windup as she let loose of a baseball-sized stone. He watched it graze the neck of a pudgy woman then strike the face of a shorter man in front of her.
Many New Humans turned. Several started after her.
Catherine spun and charged for the canopy. Josh, seizing on the distraction, whirled back around and located the object of his intent. There, mounted to the top of the first pole supporting the barbed wire was the camera. If the people inside didn’t see them, they surely would in a second.
Josh checked below him and, finding a generous distance between himself and the nearest New Human, sprang onto the barbed wire.
The razors cut into him instantly. Blood began to ooze down his arms and he could feel his legs slice open with each movement. His bare forearms bore the brunt and he thanked himself between breaths for the potentially incriminating decision to wear gloves.
The camera was atop the pole, an easy ten feet above the concrete, eight of it entwined in that laboriously set wire. Josh grappled with the wobbly cable, climbing until he was able to grasp a section of the pole above the highest fixed point. Using his legs, Josh kicked at the wire. He ignored the pain that rocketed through his body as the blades cut him with each step.
Almost there.
Reaching hand over hand, he pulled himself higher. The camera was just out of reach. One more thrust and he would be face to face with it. Blood trickled down his hands and arms. The pole became slick with it, each grasp becoming more difficult to maintain. But managing a final upwards yank, Josh secured a hand around one side of the camera. He raised his bloody legs and wrapped them around the pole, placing his other hand along the opposite side of the camera so he was staring into the lens.
Then Josh screamed at the top of his lungs.
Senior Airman Brophy plopped down in his chair. He bent forward, his head between his knees.
“This is stupid,” he said sloppily. “I don’t have anything else to throw up. You have a cracker or—”
The popping sound of fingers snapping forced Brophy to turn and look over at Peattry. She had a phone plastered to her ear and a pen in her hand. The other hand was thrust toward him, the index finger extended in an agitated manner. He peered around her hunched form and saw she was scrolling through pages of scanned reports.
“I’m checking now, sir,” Peattry said into the phone.
Brophy shook his head. Probably Aikers. The man was just as scared as everyone else. But rather than embrace his fear with intermittent trips to the head and engage with one-on-one’s with the can, he chose to occupy his remaining pre-devastation minutes by creating non-issues that he could easily resolve. It was merely a way to pass the time and take his mind off the horror that was soon to come. Everybody handled it differently. Aikers just chose to be an asshole about it.
Brophy exhaled and sat upright. His eyes trailed lazily to the monitors before him. He wondered if Peattry had even scanned his grid. Not like it mattered too much. Operation Houseclean would be underway in less than twenty minutes and he seriously doubted there would be any—
Brophy bolted upright in his chair, his stomach doing a somersault at the sudden movement.
“Holy shit!” he cried out.
Peattry twisted in her chair at the sudden exclamation as Brophy fumbled for his phone. He jammed the receiver to his ear and punched a two-digit speed dial. He drummed his fingers impatiently for the three seconds it took for someone on the other end to pickup.
“Sir, I’ve got activity!” Brophy blurted. “Area Delta, quadrant three!” Brophy listened, his free hand poised over his control console. “Yes, sir. Right away.”
Brophy slammed the phone down and flipped a switch on his panel. Flashing red lights and a loud siren filled the shelter. Brophy reached for a microphone, toggled on the “talk” button.
“Scramble REC Team Bravo Niner to Area Delta. Repeat, REC Team Bravo Niner to Area Delta.” Brophy said, his words echoing throughout the shelter. “This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill.”
Peattry rolled up behind him, her conversation finally over. “You got something?” she said, astounded.
“You could say that,” Brophy responded, perspiration breaking on his forehead. His eyes fixated on the monitor in front of him, Peattry staring over his shoulder, both awash in the red of warning lights.
In the lower corner of Monitor Delta, Josh’s face filled the camera frame. His mouth was agape in a silent holler, his eyes filled with desperation.
“Hang in there, kid,” SrA. Brophy muttered. “Help’s on its way.”
29
Catherine & Josh
The siren was barely audible. But when the camouflaged door at the base of the mountain suddenly opened between the concrete barricades, Josh knew he wasn’t hearing things. An ungodly wail emanated from the breach, seeming to push forward the two columns of armed soldiers that double-timed it out then up identical stairwells adjacent to each barricade.
The lead soldier on Josh’s side stormed up to him, thrusting the end of his M-16 just feet from Josh’s face.
“You have five seconds to release that camera and climb down,” the soldier commanded, his voice firm, his aim steady.
Catherine shrieked at the sight of the soldiers. “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot him! He’s with us! Please, God, don’t shoot!”
A young soldier—Catherine thought he might be a First Sergeant in the Army—appeared atop the barricade opposite Josh. “Stand down!” he shouted to the other soldiers.
The New Humans had retreated from the fence at the sound of the siren. They rejoined the Lawyer, now back on his feet, at the canopy having formed a wall between Catherine, Leanne and Shelby and salvation.
The First Sergeant surveyed the crowd of people below him. His demeanor was all business, like someone who’d been here before.
“Please!” Catherine yelled. “Help us! My name is Catherine Hayesly. That’s my son by the camera. My husband’s name is Lt. Colonel Warren Hayesly. He’s inside this facility. Please don’t shoot us!”
The First Sergeant narrowed his eyes and found Catherine through the sea of New Humans in the shadow of the canopy. “Mrs. Hayesly?”
“Yes! Yes, I’m here!” she said waving her arms.
“Who do you have with you?”
“My son and these two young women. All the rest are...”
The First Sergeant nodded. He turned to the soldier behind him who immediately produced a walkie and spoke into it.
“Help him down,” the First Sergeant called over to the other barricade where Josh still clung to the camera pole. The lead soldier there lowered his weapon. He called over his shoulder. “Get a ladder!” The soldier directly behind him spun and sprinted along the gangway. “Hold on, son.”
“Hurry,” Josh mumbled weakly.
“Mrs. Hayesly?” the First Sergeant called.
“Yes?”
“Just hang tight. We’ll have you inside in a matter of minutes.”
“Okay,” Catherine said, her eyes welling. “Okay.” She wrapped her arms around Shelby and Leanne who seeped tears of joy.
The First Sergeant addressed the New Humans. “I know some of you can understand me so listen close. You will leave this area immediately or you will be shot right where you stand. Do you understand?”
The New Humans only stared, their cold eyes looking up at the First Sergeant who returned the gaze in equal measure.
“I repeat,” he began again, “leave this area at once or you will be shot. Make no mistake, we will fire on you. I
f I had my way you’d all be dead already. But by the good graces of my command you have been given the opportunity to flee. I advise you take that opportunity.”
Again, silence from the crowd.
The First Sergeant nodded in a way that indicated only a minor nuisance. As if this bit of duty might be keeping him from a poker game somewhere. “Very well.” He leaned forward, leering at the New Humans. “Arms!” he screamed.
Soldiers filed along the tops of the barricades, others rushing to the gate. In a simultaneous movement all drew their rifles and pointed them into the crowd.
“Last warning,” the First Sergeant declared. “Disperse. Now.”
But the words fell on deaf ears as the New Humans defied the command, remaining motionless in front of the canopy.
“So be it,” said the First Sergeant. “Mrs. Hayesly, ma’am?”
“Y-yes?” Catherine forced out, the gravity of the situation finding a way to unnerve her despite all she’d been through.
“I apologize for what’s about to happen. Please, reach above you and withdraw the plastic cover that’s been affixed to the roof of the tent.”
Catherine looked up and discovered a fold of thick plastic sheeting Velcroed in place above her. She ripped it from its place and began to unfold it.
“Please move to the center of the tent and cover you and the others with it as best you can. Get as low to the ground as possible and do not come out from under it until you hear my voice. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” Catherine stammered, her heart beating in her chest like a timpani drum.
Leanne grabbed a corner of the sheet from Catherine with shaky hands and helped unfurl it. The three shuffled to the center of the tent and began to climb under the plastic.
Catherine thrust Shelby in between her and Leanne and hugged the trembling girl close. She glanced up to where her son was hanging and saw a soldier arrive with an aluminum ladder and climb up after him. My God, he was so bloody.
