by Vaughn Ashby
On the way home that night Nicole asked me all kinds of questions about the man, who was he? Was he the same man? How did he get better so quickly? Was he mad at Daddy?
The sleep that night wasn’t as pleasant as the one before. My thoughts ran circles, Nicole’s questions mixed with my own and I hardly slept. When did that little girl of mine get so smart? The next morning Earla read on my face that I’d gotten next to no sleep and she tried to send me back to bed. I turned it down, knowing I wouldn’t sleep anyways, I actually ended up going to work early. But before I left I was sure to check in with Nicole. I wanted to make sure she was ok. It seemed in talking with her that kids minds more easily except the weird. She seemed to take everything as if it was normal. I hugged her tight and went off to work.
I was the first one to work that day, a good hour before anyone else. You see, I wanted to run through the paperwork for both, this is when I figured out he came in at the same time both days. I checked the license plate numbers and they were the same, back then we had to track license plates for the government. To be honest I’m not really sure why. But each month I had to mail off a list of all the plate numbers we’d serviced. I scratched off Smith's plate from the list.
The kids stayed home that day because Earla’s sister was coming for a visit with her new boyfriend. I’d never met him, but I couldn’t care less about anything other than the clock. I watched it tick, every minute, every second. I waited for 3:37 pm. I waited and waited, I’m sure most of the customers and staff thought I was medicated that day. By the time it got to 3:30 I’d worked myself up into a mess, I was border line in tears.
Then his car pulled up. And the next day too. And every day for the next week.
CHAPTER SEVEN
2014 Shane: Someone Was About To Attack the Galactica
Shane finally pulled into his driveway. His drive home was normally a half hour and would go by like nothing. He’d listen to local sports radio or maybe a podcast, something to allow him to transition from his work environment to his home environment. Today’s felt like it was an eternity. For most of the day he just wanted to be home, and finally he was. He turned the car off and let out a breath of air, it felt like he’d been carrying it around all day. He was home and relieved for this day to end, it really couldn’t come fast enough. He sat there, enjoying the feeling when someone knocked on his window.
The sun was setting behind whoever was knocking. At first Shane couldn’t see the face, you know sun brightness and all. Inside he panicked, he didn’t have the energy left to deal with anything else today. If this shithead wanted to steal his car, fine take it. If it was a cop, then arrest him already. If it was a hooker, fine then blow him and just get it over with, he wanted to be home. The man knocked again and Shane got out.
It was Jason, Shane smiled and hugged him.
“I know you had a shitty day Rumpleforeskin, but was it that shitty of a day?” Jason asked, trying his best to not really hug back.
Shane released him and grabbed his bag from the car, “Yes it really was, Captain Skinny Dick. I spent the first couple hours thinking Pratt was dead, then when he turned out to be ok, I spent the next couple hours thinking we were all going to jail. I had to help my boss get stitches and new underpants.”
Jason couldn’t help but let a little laugh out. “Yeah, sorry I couldn’t help more with that and that’s Detective Skinny Dick. I tried calling but those city cops don’t really like listening to us smaller adjacent city cops.” He paused, feeling like he really should have done more. “So, Pratt is ok?”
“Yes your brother is fine, jackass,” Shane said a little more passive aggressive than he really meant to. “Sorry, yes he’s fine, where were you anyways?”
“Long story, long call.”
“Yeah, I really don’t care right now. You ever see Lost?”
“No, I’m not a nerd.”
“Liar.”
“Shut up.”
Shane turned to walk to his front door, Jason followed. “The short of it is, spoilers, by the way, there are these two characters who get buried alive because everyone thinks they are dead. But they’ve actually just been bitten by a spider whose venom makes them appear dead. Basically, the same thing happened to Pratt.”
“He was bitten by a spider? Your message said something about some kind of creature.”
“No spider, he was stabbed in the shoulder with a penis.”
“A penis?” Jason stopped walking. “Yeah, I really don’t want to know this story.”
Shane shaded his eyes; the setting sun was always really bright behind them at this time of day. “He saved a woman actually. Even if he thought she was dead and was going to dispose of her.”
“What?” Jason covered his ears. “I’m a cop, man. I can’t know things like that…"
Shane opened the door and could smell the air inside his house, God it was amazing. It was like a nasal orgasm. He was home.
“…So, Pratt’s ok?”
“Yes he’s fine, maybe give him a call.”
“No that’s not going to happen” Jason looked uncomfortable and Shane just wanted him to leave so he could let the day end. They stood there, both wanting to leave and not knowing how to do it.
“Unit 37…” a female voice said over Jason’s radio.
He grabbed it and held it to his mouth, “Control, this is Unit 37.”
“Unit 37, there appears to be an issue with your case from this morning.”
“Control, what seems to be the issue? I’ve got to go pick up Anna and don’t have time to come back right now, call whoever is on call.”
“Unit 37, the issue is actually missing…”
“What, fuck, I’m on my way.” He put his radio back on his hip. “Can you pick up Anna?” he asked Shane.
“Yes, sure, scrotum breath,” he said, even though it was the last thing he wanted to do. He waved and disappeared into his house.
Jason stood there. He pulled his phone from his pocket and scrolled through the contacts list. He landed on Pratt and paused, a venomous penis to the shoulder isn’t going to change or fix things. He slid his phone back into his pocket.
Shane closed his front door and pressed his back against it. He so badly wanted to go upstairs, get naked, hop in the bath and watch some sex in the city, or x-files as he would tell his friends. He really didn’t want to talk to anyone ever again, ok that may be a little extreme. But maybe he just didn’t want to talk to anyone for a decade or two.
He dropped his bag on the bench by the door and checked his watch. He had thirty minutes till he had to pick up Anna for Jason, factor in a 15-minute drive, plus he should be there 5 minutes early, that left him with ten minutes. He rubbed his eyes.
From the living room, he could hear Commander Adama ordering people to action stations. This could only mean one thing, his wife was home, she was in PJs, and someone was about to attack the Galactica.
Shane made his way to the living room. He was right she was curled up on the couch with some popcorn, PJs on and the Cylons were attacking.
"Hey, honey," he said.
She jumped in her seat, "you scared me."
"Sorry I thought you heard me..."
"We have to talk."
Shane was getting mighty tired of being interrupted. Was he always interrupted this much?
"About what?" He didn't let her answer before he jumped back into talking. This is probably why people feel they need to interrupt him. "Shit, our dinner," he grabbed his phone and checked the calendar app. "Oh fuck, I'm sorry hon, I forgot, did you go without me?”
She looked confused, "wow I forgot too, and no I would not have stayed to eat by myself who does that?"
They both looked down at the floor. Damn that carpet was ugly.
"Hobos maybe?"
"No even they eat in the bushes together." They both giggled. "Listen Shane I..." “
“You ok?” Shane said.
"Yeah, despite the day I’ve had, yes I’m fine.”
“Ok just wanted to make sure," Shane just failed the test.
"Yep," Kristen replied quickly. “Fine."
"Oh good," He placed a hand on her leg.
"Oh, I'm not good. This sucks, but I've come to expect it."
Shane pulled his hand from her leg, "ok, what?"
“Do you think it doesn’t hurt to have your husband forget he had a supper date with you, that after all this time it wouldn't wear on me.” She could feel a floodgate break inside. "You know I just want to be with you. I feel like I hardly know you anymore. Everything you do is related to that website. I don't even hate the site, I love it actually. I just hate being second to it."
Shane rubbed his eyes, he knew she was right. Not that she’d placed him first, but couldn’t pinpoint what she’d actually placed there.
"I want us back; I want to know the man I sleep next to at night. Do you know how many guys throw themselves at me every day?"
Shane shook his head.
"More then you want to know about. I don't even bother telling you because I don't think you'd care."
Shane grabbed her hand. "I do care."
"Do you? About me? I think you like me because it's comfortable."
"That's not it, I love you."
"I'm not sure I believe you. I so badly want to but I don't know."
They sat there quietly for what felt like forever but was only maybe a minute. At some point, Kristen had started to cry. Not a full on sob, but tears ran down her face.
"Do you know how much I think about you."
She looked up at him. This time it was her turn to shake her head.
“I am absolutely terrible at getting out my emotions. I have nightly sex dreams about you. There now you know.”
"But you never want to do anything like that. It’s been so long and when we do fool around it’s…"
“What?”
She waved her hand, “doesn’t matter. I just want to feel wanted and if you can’t do that for me, then I can’t see us being us much longer. We’ve put up with this fading marriage for too long.”
“I want you,” he wiped his cheek to catch a tear. When had he started crying too? "I'm terrible at showing it I guess. I'd hang out with you all day, and night. I'd fool around with you every day…”
"You can't just say things like this," she broke in before he was done. "You can't just say what you think I want to hear."
"I'm not, I'm saying what I mean." Shane checked his watch, shit he had to go. He leaned in and kissed her head. She placed a hand on the back of his neck and pulled him towards her lips. They kissed more openly then they had in years. Both feeling something that was long gone and was sparking back to life.
Kristen wiped her eyes.
Shane’s phone buzzed, it was a message from Jason with the address to pick Anna up.
He looked at his watch. Fuck he had to leave to pick Anna up.
"Sorry hold that thought, I've got to pick Anna up for Jason."
"Ok, we can talk later.”
He slowly made his way back to the door and grabbed his bag, the book from work fell out. He picked it up and flipped it open. He’d forgotten all about the book, today had gotten in the way.
He read the first line on the page.
“Do you know how many guys throw themselves at me every day?”
What the fuck? He read the next line.
“More then you want to know about.”
He quickly read along, everything they’d just said and thought was here in the book. Right down to the book falling from the bag and him reading this.
His mind was taking a mental explosive diarrhea.
And that was also in the book.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Website aka AuroraWasteland.com
Hold on, let’s talk about the website Shane keeps referring too. A couple years ago he’d stumbled across it while trying to find a good map of the region for a road trip. Instead, he found a map detailing all the strange, weird, unbelievable, paranormal and basically fucked up things that will give you nightmares and chronic bed wetting issues. The website seemed to be focused in on his area of the world, for the most part. It doesn’t follow any borders, state or province lines. (It jumps from country to county, province to state, and country to country, wait did I say country already?) The largest focal point in centered around Alberta. For those of you who don’t know where that is, well where ever you are your education has failed you. If you don’t know where it is, just go search engine the crap out of it.
The website is called Aurora Wasteland, and surprisingly the URL is AuroraWasteland.com
The owner of the site, as the site itself points out is writer Vaughn Ashby. But from what is known, there actually is no Vaughn Ashby or at least not anymore. Everything that is posted on the site is posted anonymously. For people like Shane, it’s kind of like a way to protect themselves. There are kind of a lot of crazies out there. So there’s a lot of IP masking or routing or whatever the kids call it these days.
Somewhere there is someone who approves all the posts, no one has any idea who that is. Some believe it’s this so-called writer, others believe there is essentially a secret government group that runs it. Maybe it’s people from the past or future sending us messages to help. Maybe it’s aliens, maybe it’s Bigfoot. That last one would explain why there are so many Bigfoot articles submitted, good thing they get filtered out. That’s another thing when I said this person approves things, he’s filtering the crazy from the stupid crazy. And no one knows why some things get approved and others don’t.
Over the past few months, posts have been increasing. The site has been getting more and more hits. Horror fans, sci-fi fans, people who just dig weird shit, they are all checking it out. Unlike so many other sites, this one is actually real. You find a point on the map that interests you, read about it, then go there. And everything will line up. Granted most don’t see monsters or whatever, you’ve got to kind of catch them at the right moment. Like that old kids card game.
Fan’s of the site have sent in paintings, drawings, audio clips, all kinds of inspired art and lots and lots of topless pictures. The whole thing is bordering on some kind of movement for the truth. But it’s best to keep in mind, it’s still just a website. While there haven’t been any actual crimes linked back to it, some are hinted at. People will do almost anything to be there first or claiming to have seen something that goes against their beliefs.
Then there are people like Bill, you remember Bill right? Shane’s boss. Go back and read Chapter 2 if you don’t remember him. Wait, was that chapter 2? Maybe 3 or 4? Anyways, he’s what we like to call a Mulder. That’s someone who reads the site so deeply, so many times that he can tell who posts what. These people are even said to have nicknames for each poster. Bill’s probably got a nickname for Shane when he posts things, or maybe he just calls him Shane. These Mulders actually have fan site set up to help each other out.
On the other end, you have people like the bear spray lady who use the information on the site, how to say this nicely, in the dumbest fucking way possible. They use it to try to make money or exploit something. Basically, scum of the site, leaches on the knowledge. There is a name for those people too, Pecks, or you can just call them fucking morons, either works.
Finally, that leaves us with people like Shane and Travers, even Pratt. People who actually post things. People who go out and explore the Aurora Wasteland. The Bishops, named after the famous scientist. They are the Hollywood celebrities of the site. If people knew who they were they’d be receiving things from thank you letter to the afore mentioned topless photos, probabl
y with phone numbers and propositions.
That’s about everything you need to know for now. Probably something has been left out, but you’ll figure it out I’m sure.
CHAPTER NINE
2014 Jason: Little Poop Encounter
"Listen here," Jessica said struggling to not get angry. "You promised me you could get it."
The man behind the counter shrugged, that pissed Jessica off more. She hated when people blew off promises with such ease.
"You took my money and looked me in the eye. I asked you," she swallowed back the anger. "I asked you to have it here by today. I asked you if that was possible. You," she held back again, it was getting harder to do that. "You told me no problem."
The man shrugged, Jessica’s anger boiled over. The man who police would later refer to as The Butt smashed his face against the counter that separated him from Jessica. He broke his own nose in the process, he stood up, blood running down his face like a waterfall, then again he connected his face to the counter. The people around them screamed, some stared, others started running out of the fast food restaurant, also known as McSomething.
Jason was one of the last officers to pull up to the scene. He'd been on the phone trying to help his brother and friends out. He'd never admit to putting so much effort into it and after a considerable length of time, he was finally about to get them off. Their charges dropped that is, not sexually off, although he was sure they’d eventually be in a cell with some sketchy looking dudes. Anyways, he'd asked that they not find out about helping them, and his brothers in blue had agreed as long as he would agree to run photo radar for them for a couple of days. He wasn't sure that sitting in a van all day taking pictures of passing speeders equaled his brother not getting butt pirated in prison, but he took the deal anyways.
