by Jill Cooper
****
“I didn’t do anything wrong!” Liz screamed. Her arms were pinned behind her back as several farm hands, those she knew since she was young, grabbed her and shoved her off of the pick-up truck.
She fell onto the muddy grass and her face smeared against the cold, wet dirt. Her hair was grabbed roughly and yanked backwards. Liz yelped, and her head was thrown up into the sky. Charles’s face peered over into hers and the stench of alcohol was strong. “Why are you doing this to me?” Liz sobbed, her chin quivering.
“Tell us what we want to know.” He said and opened the switch blade in his hand. “Tell us what we want to know and I won’t cut you. Think if I cut you the glistenings would come? Think they would feast on your flesh?”
Liz’s eyes fluttered closed and anything she ever felt was replaced by fear. “Someone help me, please. Please.”
“Did you or did you not kiss the glistening? Did you or did you not choose him over me?”
“Yes.” Liz whispered. “Yes, I kissed him, but I didn’t know. I didn’t know!” Her eyes swept over the crowd and she implored them to believe her. To listen. “If I knew he was a glistening…”
“You woulda chose me?” Charles snarled and leaned over to kiss her.
Liz turned her head, revolted she sneered.
“Bitch.” Charles muttered and slapped her across the face.
“Tell us you would have told us, Liz. Tell us that you wouldn’t have kissed him.”
Liz hurriedly nodded. “Of course. Of course.” Her heart was racing so fast, she could barely breathe. Her chest heaved for breath.
Charles grabbed her face, squeezing her lips together. His thumb pressed hard against her flesh and it pinched against her teeth “Say it.”
But she couldn’t. She couldn’t because Liz didn’t know if it was the truth. She liked Nick and despite her fear of her dad—the ones who had her, Liz just didn’t know. Nick was nice and he never would have done what they were doing to her now.
Her eyes were a drift, glancing everywhere but in their faces. “I wouldn’t have kissed him. I wouldn’t have…gotten involved.”
Charles shoved her to the ground and she splayed on her back, her arms twisting behind her. He stood, his silhouette blocking everything from her vision but him. “Who here believes her?”
No one spoke. They only stood and stared over her. Couldn’t one of them believe her? Just one?
Charles huffed, his hands on his hips. “She’s a traitor to her family but worst of all, to us. The Saskatchewan people. Glistenings are blood drinking monsters. Maybe it’s time to teach her a lesson, eh? Time for you to bleed.”
“On your feet.” A voice came, but Liz couldn’t put it to a face. Suddenly she was being pulled up by many and dragged over to the grain elevator in the distance. It was the same one her family used.
Dropped in the dirt the bounds of her wrists were shackled to the vertical conveyor. “Stop it!” Liz wailed. Her torso flapped on the ground like a dying fish and her legs kicked out, striking Charles once in the leg and another in the chest.
He grunted, grabbed her leg with one arm and with his other he plunged his knife into her abdomen.
Searing hot pain. Liz groaned, her eyes closed and she called out in pain when he removed the knife from her side. “Stop.” She moaned and when he did it again, Liz wanted to die. God, she was going to die. But she didn’t want to be eaten by a glistening. There was so much she hadn’t done with her life yet.
She wanted to fall in love. Travel. Maybe see the United States, even Europe.
Tears stung her eyes and in her mind she saw flowers. Blooming trees. The sun was bright and there was a picnic among the blades of wheat. Her hair was tied up with a pretty bow and Nick smiled at her.
Liz’s body was hoisted up. Her arms went overhead and slowly her feet levitated off the ground. Her arms popped as they were strained and her body felt like a heavy weight that was going to tear itself limb from limb. Tears stung her eyes and a great light blinded her even though her lids were closed.
This was it. This must have been the bright light everyone was always talking about. She was on her way to the hereafter, but at least she hadn’t been food. At least she didn’t have to feel the jaws of some monster all over her body, tearing her apart like she was nothing but a chew toy.
Her eyes opened and she saw the light wasn’t death at all. It was fire. Burning fire in the night so it turned the sky searing orange with red streaks blowing against the wind.
People screamed, running from the wheat. The glistenings chased them down, flying low like bomber jets, bursts of fireballs erupting from their mouths. They chased after the blades of wheat grass like an oil slick across the ocean. Multiplying and growing. The flames were hot against Liz’s cheeks and when she turned her head to avoid the pain, she saw the grain elevators were crackling with heat.
Slowly it started from the bottom, growing up in the center and rushed to the top. Liz was attached to the metal conveyor and it singed her skin. She wasn’t going to be eaten alive, but she might be burning.
Her teeth bared and she screamed for help. But the silhouettes on the ground were running for the pickup truck. No one thought to free her. She was left twisting in the wind as ash wafted from the falling grain elevator.
The glistenings struck, charging the pickup truck with their deft wings. The headlights came on as it was started and it rolled in reverse. A glistening landed with his head down low, opened his mouth and hurled a fireball. The truck may as well have been trying to outrun the wind. When the ball of fire collided in the metal, it went up in a fiery explosion resulting in twisted, melting rubble.
The screaming caused Liz to shiver. She yelped as her restrains began to burn, giving away under the pressure and the erosion of fabric. One hand came free and with desperation, Liz kicked her legs and grabbed hold of the metal conveyor hook.
Burning hot, Liz’s breath was sharp. Her hand jerked away and she fell.
In a heap, she crashed into a bed of mud. It softened her fall and was cool against her skin as fires raged, charging on her location. Liz moaned, pushed herself up on shaking arms and was overcome with smoke. Her eyes stung with tears and her lungs quickly filled so she could barely draw breath.
Steps approached her from all sides. Liz glanced around, but she didn’t see men. She saw giant claws squishing the mud. Their heads down low, their steps were slow, methodical. Liz slithered backward, but any further and she’d be part of the twisted wreckage of the grain elevator.
One of the glistenings, the larger one with a twisted neck like a giraffe approached her. His snout was against her nose. His glowing eyes lit up her face.
She quivered as his breath fogged up her vision. “Please,” So fatigued, Liz could barely fight for her right to live.
What the glistenings wanted with her was anyone’s guess, but he picked her up in his big, strong talon like claws and took off in the night sky. All Liz could do was hold onto its legs for dear life, hoping she wouldn’t end up dropped. Or dinner.
And pray.
****
Jeff rattled the door handle leading out of the basement for what felt like the hundredth time. The basement was dank and dark. With enough dust to cover the floors of his old home in New Haven 56 a few inches deep.
It didn’t matter how my times he banged or called out. No one responded. Everyone acted like they couldn’t hear him. Jeff coughed into his fist and resumed his banging. He didn’t care if no one responded. Someone had to hear him. Someone had to be out there.
He slammed his palm against the twisted grain of the door. “Hello! Someone let me out! You can’t keep me in here forever.” He banged his fist onto the door repeatedly and rested his head against the loose handrail.
Beneath the door there was a stream of light. He saw footsteps interrupt it. So, someone was out there after all. The door knob turned as someone unlocked it. Jeff picked up a loose brick he found at the base of the stairs and
he raised his hand overhead, ready to charge.
The door pulled open.
Jeff screamed and lunged for his captors, but his arm was caught and his would-be victim, fought him back until the brick dropped from his open hand. Jeff panted as a face came into view thanks to the light illuminating the hallway behind her. It was Meghan.
“Meghan?” His chest heaved and Jeff closed his eyes.
“Don’t do this.” She whispered and bent over. “I know you lost Marie and no one is sadder for you than me, Jeff. But think, would you? When Jake gets back here, he’s going to need allies. I need an ally.”
Jeff thought it over. It was like a fog lifted over his mind. “You…don’t really support Victor in this?”
“Of course I don’t.” Meghan glanced over her shoulder. “You do know who I am, don’t you? Susan would kill me if I went against you or Jake. Kill me.” Meghan sighed. “When Jake gets here, he’s going to need you on the outside. Do you get what I’m saying?”
Jeff did. “Where’s Victor? Can you bring me to him?”
Meghan swallowed hard and her eyes glazed over. “He’s…still out.”
“Out?” Jeff was almost afraid to ask.
“The fields are burning.”
****
All through New Haven 49 through 55 it was the same. The security officers inside of Outpost were a twitter when the news hit about what was happening in Saskatchewan. The news was turned on as all the Outpost workers waited confirmation on what was happening, on what the country was going to do in answer to what the glistenings were going to do.
Officer Murray Reinholtz had worked for New Haven since he was eighteen, over twenty years ago. And what he witnessed on television was unlike anything he had ever seen. He shook his head with a sigh. “Damn,” he turned his head toward his newest partner, the young Frank, “looks like we’re going to be out of a job.”
“Pardon?” Frank asked, his eyes studying the screen.
Murray threw his head toward the screen. “After this? After what that glistening bitch did in DC? There’s no way Congress is going to let glistenings live after this. I bet they gas all the New Havens, just kill them where they sleep. Bastards.” Murray sighed. “But damn, I don’t know anything else but this job. What a shit storm. Hey, I’m gonna go out for a smoke. Do you mind if…”
His words were cut off as Frank shoved a serrated blade through his throat. He gurgled, his eyes wide with fear as Frank grabbed him by the shoulder and held him down in his chair pulling the blade free.
Blood bubbled out of his neck and a noise that sounded not human at all escaped his own lips. His eyes blinked and stared into the deep, unadulterated hatred he saw in Frank. How was it he missed it all these months?
He gurgled, slowly dying as Frank pushed him onto the floor with no regard for him. Like he was a piece of trash in the way. Straining, Murray tried to peer backwards. He saw Frank leaning on the console and doing the unthinkable. The unthinkable.
Frank broke the case in the center console. The button flashed red and then Frank pushed it. The sonofabitch pushed the light that lowered the dome. The dome that kept all glistening prisoners.
New Haven 49 was going to empty. That was thousands of glistenings free. Thousands of glistenings freed and ready to join the rebellion.
Chapter Nineteen Jake
Jake stood by the window. Outside a looming darkness swirled together with the blue haze from the night sky above the cloud line. The curtains wafted in the gentle breeze which was cool against Jake’s cheek.
The night sky changed to morning quickly like in a time lapsed photo. The sun rose and the birds chirped. Behind Jake, something clanged, like a metal fork striking the floor and the smell of maple overcame him.
When he turned from the window he was no longer in a bedroom, but instead was standing in his old kitchen from New Haven 56. The curtains were no longer green but were a pale yellow. The linoleum floors gleamed under the sunlight and the counters were sparkling fresh.
Someone was humming, it was deep and harmonious and calmed a piece of Jake that hadn’t been touched in a year. Then he saw her over by the stove in a blue dress with white polka dots. It was Susan Monroe, his mom.
Her hair was spiraled up in a French twist and decorated with a blue headband. She grabbed the oven mitts from the counter and slipped them on. The oven door squeaked like it always did when she opened it. Susan sighed as she removed a piping hot muffin tin.
“Jake, why don’t you set the table for me.” Susan said without turning to him.
He blinked and stared at her. Jake couldn’t find the words to address her so she spun on her heel. Susan smiled, her lips were red with lipstick and her face was bemused. “Were you up late again? You know I’ve told you too much television will rot your brain.”
Jake didn’t understand it. He couldn’t breathe. How could he be in New Haven? How could his mother be alive?
But everything about the place smelled the same and when Susan walked over to him, her heels clicked against the floor. Her hand was warm against his chest as she played with the zipper of his jacket.
It startled him to see he was wearing his old football jacket. His name was even embroidered on the chest; Jake Monroe, star quarterback.
“Mom?”
“Don’t question it. Just come have a muffin and some organ juice.” Susan winked at him like it was a private joke. She pulled the fridge door open and peered inside. “Come on now. If you kids put things back where you found it, things would be easier for me to find.” Her voice was distracted as she searched for the jug.
Upstairs was a clank of footsteps. Jake stepped out into the hall and saw Marie breeze past him, her long brown hair flapping behind her.
“Marie?” He called with hope, pain in his voice.
She picked up her book bag and gave him a snarl. “What? Do I have snot coming out of my nose or something?”
Jake shook his head, tears in his eyes. He had no idea why he was seeing the things he was. Was he hallucinating? Or just losing his mind. “I didn’t think I’d see you again.”
Marie rolled her eyes. “I don’t spend that much time in the bathroom. Catch you later, dork. Try not to be late for school again.”
She left, the screen door slamming behind her. Jake went back into the kitchen and saw two muffins were sitting on the family china at the kitchen island. Susan was perched on a bar stool with a dainty napkin spread over her lap. “I can’t wait to eat forever. I’m starving.”
Jake didn’t trust his legs to work, but they did after a slight warble. The bar stool squeaked across the floor as he slid it out. “Mom, is this real?”
Susan picked a sugar crumb from the top of her muffin and slid it into her mouth. “As real as you need it to be.”
“So…I’m asleep? Dreaming? Or just nuts?”
She smiled, but her eyes were sad when she patted his cheek. “Dreaming. There’s things you need to figure out. And I guess I’m the best one to help you. None of this is what it appears, which I guess is ironic since that’s exactly what New Haven is. An illusion. And one the world desperately needs to hold on to.” Susan sighed and picked up her coffee with both hands, taking a delicate sip.
“But it’s time for them to wake up. It’s time for you to help them, Jake.”
Jake scowled. “How? War? Death?” He shook his head. “None of those are options.”
“Neither is living here. Not anymore. Things are changing. The world isn’t as stable as the humans pretend . You’ve seen pieces of that on the outside. People live in fear of famine and the government. While the US is doing its best, some countries aren’t going to hold for that much longer. They’ll revolt and when they do, their eyes will fall to the Americans. They will want to conquer it.”
“I don’t see how I can change that.” Jake deflated, folding into himself.
Susan put her coffee mug down and eyed her son. “Show them glistenings aren’t the problem as a whole. Help people when you
can. Show them your true colors and those that follow you. If they see your kindness, they will believe in others. They will begin to believe in integration.”
She took a deep breath. “But that doesn’t mean war is unavoidable. Sometimes you need to fight for what you believe in even if you don’t want to.”
Jake leaned forward. “So you think I should? You think I should attack the humans?” He shook his head. “I’ll lose.”
“Sometimes standing up for what you believe in is winning, even if you do lose. Sometimes you fight to die on your own terms. And sometimes your actions will inspire others who will carry on the torch for you when you’re gone.” Susan wrapped her fingers around his hand and squeezed.
Did his mom really believe that? Did he? In the end her actions didn’t save Jake or free him, but it started a rebellion in New Haven 56 that led them to where they were today. Jake couldn’t say they were better off or not, but maybe being out of the cage was all that mattered.
“You need to get back to them. I know how hard it was to lose baby Travis and now…Marie,” Susan’s face was marred with pain, “but those on the outside need you. They’ll follow Victor on a dangerous path. They need a leader. Strong. Someone who won’t falter. Someone who will make the tough choices. They’ve followed you this far. And now it’s time for you to stand your ground. Stop running and make your stand.”
Susan smiled and stroked the back of his neck like she always did when he was upset. “But I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.”
“I’m scared.” Jake admitted. He never said it out loud before. It was crushing.
“As we all are. Even in New Haven. But if you want a better life, a future for Travis and those like him, we must stare down our fear. Swallow it back. I did it for you and I know you’ll make the right decision.”
