The Days Alive - Time of Doors Season 1 Episode 3 (Book 3): Post Apocalypse EMP Survival - Dark Scifi Horror (Time of Doors Serial EMP Dark Fantasy Apocalyptic Book Series)

by Eddie Patin

  Megan never touched the monolith.

  Ramon did. He was one of the first ones, and his eyes were all gold now. And as time went by, more and more of the gold-flecked eyes were having their natural color totally choked out by the strange transformation.

  There was something wrong happening here, and she knew she had to get out before it was too late...

  It was forty miles—maybe forty-five—to get home.

  And who knew what was going on outside the park?

  Was St. George’s power dead too?

  She certainly hadn’t seen any more cars coming into the park. You’d think that if the power surge or whatever that killed all of the electronics was localized in Zion National Park, then people would still be driving into the park—at least the next day, right??

  Megan realized that she hadn’t heard the sound of a passing plane or helicopter for a while either—she would have noticed that, wouldn’t she?

  Tucking the flashlight back into a pocket, Megan opened the bathroom door.

  Derek and Chuck were standing on the other side, grim and straight. Their eyes glared at her, their faces reddened, their lips pressed together without emotion.

  She gasped.

  “Oh—hi, Derek! Um ... Chuck?”

  Ramon sat on their bed, his legs crossed, his golden eyes gleaming in the daylight from the windows.

  The light outside was pink.

  The sun was going down...

  “Hi, Megan,” Derek replied, deadpan.

  “What were you doing, Megan?” Chuck asked, unblinking.

  She felt her heartbeat quicken. Her neck became hot.

  “Um ...” She tried to laugh, and produced an awkward scoff instead. “Using the bathroom, of course! Excuse me...”

  Megan pushed through the two men and headed straight to her backpack on the bed. With all the time on her hands, she made the bed earlier as if it was her own. There was no housekeeping.

  Looking back over her shoulder, Megan saw the two men staring at her still. Their reflective, metallic golden eyes unnerved her...

  “Come on, honey,” she said to Ramon, strapping her backpack to her shoulders. She clicked the waist-belt closed and cinched it tight.

  Ramon startled, and looked up at her with a blank expression.

  “Where—?”

  “Going to the Emerald Pools for the sunset, remember??”

  He slowly unfolded his long, spindly legs and stood, reaching out for his own backpack with confused eyes.

  “Um ... okay.”

  Megan flashed a smile at Derek and Chuck. “We’ll be back in a little while. See you guys later, okay?”

  They stood like angry flesh statues with gold eyes, unresponsive and staring hard at her gaze. Chuck’s eyes broke away and drifted down to her breasts, ogling them completely open and unashamed.

  “Come on, Ramon,” she said, grabbing her boyfriend by the sleeve and pulling him along.

  As the two of them made their way down the hall back to the lobby, gold eyes locked on her from all around, following her like machines. Megan was terrified, but she tried to act normal, even though her heart was pounding in her ears.

  When they passed the lady ranger’s table, the young officer spoke up.

  “Hey, are you guys leaving??”

  Megan looked back at the fair-faced woman. Her mousy-brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail now, and her big ranger hat was sitting next to her paperwork.

  Her eyes were like gold coins with pupils.

  “Oh, no...” Megan replied, struggling to breathe evenly. “We’re just going for a walk to see the sunset from the pools. We’ll be back in an hour.”

  “Okay,” the ranger beamed. “Be careful. It’s getting dark, and all of the flashlights are dead.”

  “Will do.”

  Megan stalked across the parking lot, her backpack hissing against her shoulders. She saw a crowd of people in the field, all standing and murmuring around the obelisk. Candlelight made their faces glow in the colorful, dimming light of the oncoming twilight. She tried to hide her surprise when she saw the tourists standing in lines around the monolith, ushering people through the grass to touch the thing, one by one...

  It made her think of a cult.

  “Where are we going?” Ramon finally said.

  “Be quiet,” Megan replied. “Let’s get farther away.”

  Once they were across the main road, Megan led Ramon down the dirt path toward the Emerald Pool trailhead until they reached the foot-bridge that crossed the Virgin River.

  But instead of crossing the bridge, she turned sharply left and started following the river’s shore to the south.

  Megan stumbled on a rock in the low light, caught her balance, then continued marching a little more slowly.

  “What are you doing??” Ramon whined.

  “Ramon,” she said, moving as briskly as she could through the trees, “We’ve gotta get out of here. There’s some weird shit going down—don’t you feel it?”

  He hurried after her.

  Megan felt utterly alone, and was afraid that whatever strange stuff was happening, Ramon was in on it, too...

  “No, not really. Other than there being no power ... and us being stuck here, of course.”

  “What’s wrong with your eyes, Ramon?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Come on!” she replied, stepping around a cluster of river rock. “Haven’t you noticed??

  “Uhh...”

  “Well, it’s forty miles to home. We’re going to walk...”

  “We’re walking home??” he replied with a pained face.

  “Hell yeah we are,” she said, striding across an open space between trees. The river trickled and rushed beside them. It was the only sound she heard. “Something bad is happening. We’ve got to get out of here before it’s too late...”

  Megan turned to look behind them and peered through the darkness, worried that they might be followed by crazy tourists with gold eyes.

  She only saw Ramon, pouting as he followed.

  Taking a sip from her Camel-bak, Megan looked ahead.

  They’d stop at the ranger station first, to see if that male ranger with the gun was still there. Megan was sure that the guy had enough sense to avoid touching the mysterious monolith that was probably transforming everyone into...

  Into what? she thought.

  Shaking her head, Megan quickened her pace and continued into the whispering darkness ahead...

  10 - Officer Harvey Swanson

  Las Vegas, NV

  In the red haze of Las Vegas turned upside down, under the incomprehensibly huge swirling whirlpool of dread and darkness that took up the sky, Harvey watched the muzzle flash of the M60 booming again and again as he fired round after round at the giant demon in the intersection up ahead...

  7.62mm shell casings and little, tinkling pieces of metal linkage flung from the machine gun’s rapidly cycling bolt into the air to the right, and Harvey kept his sights on the huge distant monster’s pelvis, waiting for effect...

  He was holding his breath.

  The giant, gangly creature with the bizarre ribcage maw bucked as the first volley of rounds connected, and it dropped the woman, who fell out of sight.

  Yes!!

  Harvey adjusted his aim and walked the M60’s fire up to the giant’s chest.

  The monster roared in pain, a deep sound that shook the car Harvey was laying on, and turned to face him, raising its huge arms into the air in front of it, as if to shield it from his attack.

  Harvey was intensely focused on the giant demon, but suddenly became aware of the battle growing behind him! His team—four cops on the street in between the cars—started firing on what Mendez said was a group of goat demons and zombies approaching from the north. The fiends were sneaking up behind them from the direction of the police station, where they came from.

  The giant started sprinting toward the group, its great, heavy feet thumping against the pavement. It kic
ked a sports car out of its way with ease, sending the vehicle careening off into the other dead cars around it!

  A car alarm went off, beeping and whooping its siren into the otherwise dead air.

  The heat from the M60’s barrel was making the air around the gun’s sights shimmer, and Harvey broke his sight picture to check how much ammo he had left.

  Shaking and whipping about as the rifle fired, the belt of ammo was now half-gone...

  Harvey let off the trigger. The rapidly cycling bolt stopped suddenly, and the pops of rifles and shotguns behind him seemed very quiet in comparison.

  Did the larger rounds have any effect on the creature?

  The giant was still running at him, its feet thumping on the road. That car alarm was still blaring. Harvey became aware that the monster was letting out a constant, low wail!

  Then, it tripped, and fell onto the disabled vehicles in its path with a huge crash that shook the car Harvey was laying on!

  Fifty yards, give or take.

  Harvey lined up the machine gun’s sights with the monster’s head as it tried to push itself back up with arms as long as the cars around it. The giant looked up just before Harvey squeezed the trigger, and the grizzled policeman could see that its eyes were large and glowed with an intense red light. Its mouth was wide and full of pointy teeth, all drawn into a huge smile...

  Like the Cheshire Cat, Harvey thought. In the cartoon.

  He fired. The M60 boomed again and again.

  Harvey saw the thing’s head implode, and each subsequent round continued to pulverize the same hole, spraying gore and black blood, until he released the trigger.

  The huge demon’s leg muscles quivered.

  But it was dead.

  “Got it!” Harvey exclaimed, standing with the M60 and turning to face the battle that the rest of his team was in.

  He saw Becker, White, Mendez, and Price all standing together, fighting off a handful of goat demons and zombies with rude, wide mouths and whipping tongues...

  Becker looked up from his sights.

  “Well la-dee-fucking-da!” the sergeant said. “Can we go now, killer??” He looked back and fired twice, popping the head of a nearby zombie.

  The undead creatures were running now, and every once and a while, one of them sprinted in at the team whenever they had a straight away between the cars!

  Something round flew through the air at the team from a goat demon. It hit a car hood with a metallic thump and bounced down by their feet.

  “Holy shit! Grenade!!” White cried.

  Without hesitation, Price swept down, picked it up, and flung it back.

  An explosion cut several zombies to pieces and made a goat demon cry out in a bleating roar of pain...

  “They have grenades?” Mendez shouted. “Fuck!”

  “Withdraw to the liquor store on the corner!” Becker yelled. “Let’s go, now!”

  “What are we gonna do there?” Harvey asked. “Set up defenses? Stay there??”

  “Let’s get out of the shit, get ourselves situated, then move on!” Becker shouted back.

  “It’s just temporary!” Harvey replied. “They’re just going to follow us and keep attacking!”

  “Well what do you suggest, killer?!” Becker snapped back, taking a moment to shoot at another zombie. “We don’t have the ammo to kill ‘em all!”

  Harvey, still standing on the trunk of the car, shouldered the M60 and let loose on the tightest cluster of goat demons and zombies. The machine gun boomed several times, throwing empty brass down onto the team below him, and five or six creatures dropped.

  “Fine!” Harvey said. “Maybe we can defend better from there until they ease up, then move on!”

  “That’s what I’m sayin!” Becker shouted. “Let’s go!”

  Harvey jumped down to the street, and the team continued down the median, eventually drifting toward the half-full parking lot of the corner strip mall. They headed straight to the stand-alone liquor store directly up against the intersection.

  One Stop Liquor, Harvey read on the big pylon sign on the corner. There was also a dollar store, a Mexican market, a laundromat, a smoke shop, and several other places. The palm trees waving in the light wind between the stucco liquor store and the sidewalk looked strange in the red light of Las Vegas Hell...

  Harvey looked back and saw another goat demon with another rifle of some kind, so took a moment to carefully place a few rounds into its chest. The M60 boomed, and the fiend bleated, mats of fur and demon flesh spraying around it onto a nearby truck. It dropped the rifle.

  He wanted to go back for the new gun, but there wouldn’t be time.

  Besides—there were other goat demons and zombies all around that area...

  When the team reached the entrance to the liquor store, they saw that the sliding glass door had already been shattered.

  The interior was dark, and broken bottles littered the aisles. A display case of colorful little shooters was overturned near the registers, and tiny plastic bottles of various flavored booze were scattered everywhere...

  “It’s dark,” Mendez said.

  “No shit,” Price replied. “It’s probably the same black out everywhere...”

  “Price, White,” Becker said. “Get behind that counter to cover the door. Swanson—”

  “I’ll cover in a second,” Harvey said. “I’m thirsty as fuck.”

  “Take the other side with the 60, Swanson!” Becker shouted. “We’ll rally up some Gatorades and shit in a little while!”

  “Fuck,” Harvey said to himself, moving to a position to flank the doorway. “What are you going to do??”

  “Mendez, you’re with me,” Becker said. “Harvey, we’ve got to clear the inside, genius!”

  Harvey looked back over his shoulder at the dark aisles. Wine aisle. Rum aisle. Whiskey aisle.

  With a click, the single weapon light the group had that still worked turned on at the end of Becker’s rifle. The bright, white spotlight penetrated the store aisles to the back of the building.

  “White,” Harvey said. “Throw me one of those little whiskeys behind you.”

  White glared at him, training his pump shotgun on the entrance. “Are you fuckin kidding, Harvey? What’s wrong with you?!”

  God damn it, he needed a drink.

  With all of this booze around, Harvey realized that his throat was burning. He hadn’t drunk anything since sipping handfuls of water from the shitty little sink back in his cell under the precinct.

  Some sort of electrolyte drink would be better, he knew—this place surely had them. But right now, he wanted nothing more than a strong blast of whiskey in his throat...

  “Throw it to me, damn it!” he shouted.

  With a hiss, a couple of zombies appeared in the doorway. From the inner darkness of the store, Harvey could see the spots of light in their eye sockets glow with blue fire. Outside the red light, the vicious creatures had bright, blue points like lasers in the middle of pitch black, burned-out eyes. Their faces were twisted; partly melted, mouths and lips warped to be impossibly wide, their too-many teeth long and jagged at the tips—a little metallic-looking. One of the creatures had a long tongue like the tentacle of a squid, writhing around outside of its mouth...

  Price’s AR boomed twice in rapid succession. The ghouls’ heads popped, and they fell to the ground.

  “What was the point of saving that lady?” Price shouted over at Harvey from behind the counter.

  “That giant was going to eat her or something,” Harvey replied.

  “Yeah, but now that its dead, whaddaya suppose she’s doing right now? Did you even see where she ended up??”

  “No,” Harvey said. “She’s probably hiding again.”

  “And she’ll just get killed by the next monster that comes along!”

  Harvey glared. “Maybe,” he replied. “But I had the chance to stop it—to let her live for a little while longer. So I took it.”

  “Pointless,” Price respond
ed quietly.

  “Shut up,” Harvey said. “Now throw me a fucking whiskey!”

  White did. He picked a pint of Evan Williams off of the shelf and tossed it Harvey’s way. With his left hand, taking it off of the M60 for a moment, he caught it. Crouching, Harvey lowered the gun to the ground, resting it on its bipod and stock, popped the seal on the plastic bottle, and took a deep swig...

  Fuck yeah, he thought.

  The cheap whiskey filled his mouth and burned like hell, but it scratched the itch. He took another mouthful for good measure, then capped it and jammed the bottle into his back pocket.

  “Fucking alcoholic,” Price said. “Fucking murderer.”

  Harvey wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, then picked up the M60 again.

  “Whatever, Price,” he said. “Let’s get through this shit, and if you still have a problem with me, we can get it sorted out. What do you say?”

  They stood in silence for a while, watching the entrance, as Harvey noticed Becker’s gun light flickering around the inside of the store. Eventually, the sergeant and Mendez returned to the front.

  “All clear,” Becker said. “Harvey, keep that 60 trained on the door, since you don’t have any mags. You others, do an ammo count. We should divvy up what’s left.”

  “I could use some more nine,” Harvey replied. “I’ve got under a mag...”

  “We’ll see what we can spare, killer,” Becker replied with poison in his voice. “After, let’s get a bunch of drinks together and continue on to Flamingo.”

  Harvey stayed in position while Price and White came out from behind the counter, and the four pulled out all of their mags, shells, and loose ammo, and figured out what was left. Harvey felt like he was on the outside of the group—and why shouldn’t he?? For the last several months, he became more and more disenchanted with the department, eventually to the point where he started working outside of the law...

  Even his old partner couldn’t stand him anymore.

  While the four officers talked and spread ammo around in the beam of Becker’s gun light, Harvey put the machine gun down and took another swig of whiskey from his pocket.

  “What the fuck, Swanson?!” Becker called out at him. “Get back on that 60!”