by Vaughn Ashby
Then a voice politely asked him to put his mask back on. Jeffrey looked around the room. He hoped to see The Woman who’d helped him so many times before. Instead, it was another man in a bed similar to the one he was sitting in. The man repeated the request. Jeffrey asked why. The man told him about The Virus, and how it passed through the air. The mask was to keep both of them safe.
Safe, Jeffrey had to laugh at the thought. He wasn’t like the man in the bed who… Jeffrey noticed that the man in the bed was sitting next to another man who looked just like him in a similar bed, only that man had a tube coming out of his throat. Jeffrey sighed, they weren’t the same, and he wasn’t going to catch The Virus that was affecting them.
Days in the hospital turned into weeks. Jeffrey learned that the man in the bed next to him was named Clay. They’d both been born in the same small town and went to the same school, but Clay was older than Jeffrey by a few years. The two laughed and spent hours comparing notes about teachers, the town, and well, life. At times, Jeffrey forgot that Clay wasn’t like him, that Clay wasn’t even from this world. He was just using the body that was provided to him. Jeffrey wondered if the memories the two shared were real. Maybe the New Hosts were just using Clay to extract information from him. Still, talking to Clay passed the time, but the duplicate version of Clay, in the bed, with the tube down his throat, was becoming more and more unsettling the closer the two men became.
At night as he fell asleep, Jeffrey thought about the TV show. He thought about asking if he could watch it, but he never brought it up. It was too special to him. What if he was remembering it wrong? To him, it was perfect the way it was in his head. As sleep took him, he mumbled the numbers, just like he always did. 1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21. This place was starting to feel more at home than his house ever did.
One morning Clay was gone. Because of The Virus, there was reduced movement of staff into patient rooms. No one came to tell Jeffrey what had happened to him, but Jeffrey knew. Just like he knew with anyone else who got close to him. The same reason he stopped getting close to people. Seeing how someone dies while they are standing so close to you can rattle your soul. Do it enough times and your soul will look for alternate ways to view reality.
The morning after Clay died, he was startled awake by a woman sitting next to his bed. She had a mask on like everyone else, but Jeffrey knew who she was. She was The Woman who’d helped him before. She was back, maybe she’d help him escape before he could be implanted with a New Host.
The Woman said nothing but stared at him. Jeffrey said nothing either. Except, he could see how she was going to die. The Woman wasn’t in his head. She was real. Had she been real the whole time?
Eventually, The Woman spoke. She told him that she thought he was dead. He’d been gone for so long that she was sure of it. But that she was so happy that he was back. She missed playing games with him, and that she wanted to have him move back home with her. That living out in that deserted town wasn’t good for him. She loved him and missed having her Dad around.
Dad? Was this woman his daughter? Then he remembered the TV show, except it wasn’t a TV show, it was his memories. He was the Dad, she was the daughter. He had a wife. They played games together, all of them. Tears ran down his face, which triggered the same for her. They both smiled at each other under their masks.
He told her that he was ready to go. She smiled again but told him that his roommate had just died from The Virus. They wouldn’t let him leave until he had a negative virus test. Jeffrey laughed. He told her that he couldn’t get The Virus because… wait… if she was real, and he’d been wrong about her, maybe he’d been wrong about the other stuff too.
He asked her how she found him, to which she replied that the staff called her. Jeffrey had been mumbling her phone number to himself every night as he fell asleep.
She told him that he’d be back in two weeks to pick him up. But that wasn’t to be. Days later, Jeffrey was told he did in fact have The Virus. He’d likely got it from Clay. Which sent Jeffrey’s brain into overdrive. Was he already a New Host? Was The Virus able to cross from New Host to human? Were they lying to him? Or was none of the New Host stuff real? Maybe he’d been wrong.
Jeffrey spent the last week of his life in the hospital. He died of The Virus. His daughter later gathered the board games from his home as reminders of their time together. The town of Mountain Edge, where Jeffrey’s house still resides, remains deserted to this day.
Newspaper Headlines
“Alberta town of Mountain Edge’s final resident taken by The Virus” - Edmonton Epoch
“Mental health cases and Aurora Wasteland cases increase at the same rate” - Brightness Falls Gateway
“Scientists discover that time is uniquely experienced by everyone” - E-Calgary Science Digest
“Town of Mountain Edge discovered to hold a unique collection of Wasteland artifacts” - Wasteland Explorer Newsletter
“Explosives safely removed from Mountain Edge by Canadian military” - Lethbridge Dark Times
Conclusion from the Narrator
That’s it, who knew that being afraid of being near others could be both a blessing and a curse. Jeffrey’s mind was forced to deal with seeing how those around him were going to pass on. It did what humans do, it adapted to survive. Which led him to be alone and afraid of being near others. It forced him into a reality of willing the world around him to change. Like Jeffrey, people’s view of the world can easily be altered by what their mind allows them to see. Everyone was forced to spend time alone and apart from others during The Virus. While Jeffrey was an extreme, life for some people wasn’t that far off.
THERE IS SOMETHING BURIED UNDER GRANDMA’S HOUSE
INTRO FROM THE NARRATOR
The longer The Virus was part of our lives, the more people started to look for alternate forms of information on it. We all have family members who fell for the social media spreading of false information. It’s likely they were older, and at some point, back when you first started surfing the web, they told you to not believe everything you read on the internet. Oh the irony, wait... is that irony? I’m going to need Alanis to fact check me. Anyway, the data shows that older family members were spreading all kinds of misinformation around the web. It’s likely their brains were just trying everything possible to understand what was happening to them and the world around them. The Virus was taxing, some people broke.
Working together would have been the best way out of this, but that wasn’t the case. As always, large scale events like this are the perfect time for shithead, wanna be evil people, to try and take control. Their weapons of choice this time around were gaslighting, whataboutisms, and misinformation. Their lies convinced people that The Virus wasn’t real, their lies killed people.
Even now, after so much of the incorrect information has been proven wrong, it’s still passed around. For some reason, people stopped believing experts, people that had spent their lives dedicated to studying a field, and instead, opted to believe what they read on some fart particles website.
It’s ironic, that in the days that we finally understood The Virus, people were choosing to believe ideas that, looking back now, seem as sane as believing in lizard people or giant government conspiracies. Which we'll circle back to eventually don’t worry.
The world was starting to feel normal, well… as normal as it can for a pandemic. Then, as if by design, the abnormals started to leak out of people, and the strangest thing was. At the time, the misinformation, the gaslighting, and whataboutisms made all the weird and strange of the Aurora Wasteland seem almost as if it wasn’t there at all. Real life took over the strange and weird, which was for lack of a better term… weird.
Welcome to the Aurora Wasteland Quarantine.
Police report
Strange lights sighted above rural community
Alberta, Strange Sighting, RCMP
Drayton Valley, Alberta – RCMP are looking for anyone with images or video taken of the nigh
t skies around the Drayton Valley Alberta area. Reports of strange lights moving around the night sky need verification. RCMP are hoping that members of the community with video surveillance systems or YouTube channels of late-night cow-tipping or erotica could provide video.
Ok, I may have added that last part. But I mean, come on! Who doesn’t love a good late-night cow erotica video? Don’t lie to yourself, you know you’re interested.
The Story
I took the police report, connected it to other sources, cross referenced it with the Aurora Wasteland website, and well…ran with it. Below is the story I was able to piece together…
The clouds looked more and more like sheep as they lazily made their way across Tom’s window. They’d been driving for almost an hour, and he’d hit the end of his CD a few minutes ago. At times like this, he wished he wasn’t such a music snob. If he could have, he’d have brought his record player to listen to music while they drove, but that wasn’t feasible, his dad had said. So, Tom had dug out his mom’s old CD player and found a couple of her CDs he had vinyl copies of. He’d started with one called 'Mountain Sky Monster’ by ‘Rainbow Cat Farts’ because he liked the art on the cover. A giant mountain with a monster reaching down from the sky. He loved the classic metal album covers that looked like they should be art hanging on your wall.
Tom reached down and grabbed another CD from his backpack he had at his feet. He wished the drive would stretch out longer. It had been so long since he’d been out of the house. The drive was nice, the clouds were relaxing, the music was… well actually it was pretty good. He opened the CD player and swapped out the CDs. The music of ‘The Burning Cheerios’ flooded his ears. Tom leaned back to get comfortable. They’d be there soon. He knew the drive well.
The further they got from the city the more things got, for lack of a better term, hick-ish. It was a gradual process. At first, the houses are nice and yards well kept. Then you start to see property with rusty vehicles that haven’t moved since before Tom was born. Eventually, there are hand painted signs claiming the government is being run by lizard people and farms so littered with junk you’d have a hard time finding the house. They were in that part of their journey.
As much as Tom loved living in the city, there was something about being out here that he’d always liked. He didn’t mind the hick-ish-ness, well except for the lizard people signs. No, he liked repairing and learning how mechanical things worked. There was always a lot out here to fix, which was the point of their little drive today.
Tom’s dad’s mother, his grandma, lived out here. She had moved from the city, and for some reason, none of them could ever figure out, she moved out to the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately for her, getting a repairman out here was challenging, to say the least. So Stu, Tom’s dad, Tom, and Tom’s older brother, Henry, were on their way out to fix it. Normally, Henry didn’t tag along, but it had been weeks since they’d left the house. Also, Stu had been temporarily furloughed at work and wanted to get as much time in with his boys as possible while he was at home.
As they rounded the last corner, Tom could see his grandmother’s house amongst the trees that surrounded her property. Then he saw the multitude of rusted-out vehicles that littered the property, the tall grass that covered most of it, and the brand new sign blaming the government for putting microchips in the drinking water. At which point he questioned his father if it was possible that he was adopted. Stu only laughed at the question. Henry then asked why their grandmother had moved out there? She’d seemed so happy in the city. Again, Stu laughed. He told them that his mom had always been a little paranoid.
As they drove down the gravel driveway and parked in front of the house, Lena, Stu’s mother, and Tom and Henry’s grandmother, came running out of the house. Her bathrobe wrapped tight around her and her hair was up in a tight bun. Almost as if on cue, and somehow related to seeing Lena, Tom’s teeth started to hurt. It felt like the fillings in his mouth were being pulled in different directions all at the same time. It lasted only for a few seconds, but it was enough to fill Tom’s eyes with tears. Tom looked over to see Henry’s eyes were watery too. The two of them looked at each other and shrugged. Things were always a little strange out here at grandma’s place, they didn’t really question it.
Stu handed both boys a fabric face mask and told them to put it on. Tom hadn’t really had to wear one very much since The Virus hit. He’d been home for most of it. Stu said he had been quarantining himself with music and girls. Tom had laughed at the joke, but his dad hadn’t been wrong. He spent his days calling and video chatting in to school, listening to music, on vinyl of course, and chatting with all the girls in his classes that missed him. Turns out there were a lot of them, and Tom enjoyed chatting with each of them. Though to be fair, it ate up a lot of his day now. Coming out here was actually a nice break.
As the three boys stepped out of the car, Lena let slip a chuckle. She told them they looked like sheep, that they didn’t need to have their liberal masks on out here, and that the fictional virus wasn’t out here. Stu told her that the masks were just as much for her as it was for them and that they’d be keeping them on. Lena made a 'baa’ sound, then motioned for them to follow her. She had cookies all ready for them.
The inside of the house smelled and felt exactly as Tom remembered it, a mixture of dust and old lady. It was hard to put his finger on what exactly old lady smell was, but it was present. Lena had always been endowed with extra strength old lady smell.
She offered the boys cookies, which they took, and removed their masks to eat. She told them that they looked much more handsome that way. Stu interrupted the awkwardness by asking where his Dad was. Lena replied by informing them he went to town, whatever that meant.
After another awkward pause, Stu asked if Tom was ready to fix the water system. Lena protested and asked if both boys could stay with her. Stu said he really needed their help, but Henry volunteered to stay behind. He mouthed to Tom that “he owed him”.
As Tom was clearing the cookies from the table, at Lena’s request, he noticed a sticky note next to the phone. It looked like a phone number except it was only six numbers. Tom laughed, then heard Stu call for him and rushed to catch up.
The house door slammed behind Tom as he joined Stu outside the house. The two walked across the tall grass towards a small wooden building that stood in the middle of the yard. Tom asked his dad if he knew what the problem was with the water system. Stu laughed and replied with, "a lot of things.” He then went on to ask if Tom noticed that the water out here tasted off. Tom only laughed at the question but Stu went on to tell him that Lena’s house, like many around here, dumped some of its gray or brown water down into the ground. No real problem there, except the house also pulled water from the ground, from below the level the gray and brown water emptied to. It took Tom almost no time to figure out the problem. The garage water was pouring out on top of the drinking water. He laughed and said, "well that would make it taste off." Which caused both of them to burst out laughing.
It didn’t take long for the two of them to figure out what the problem was. The intake from the water pump was clogged and gummed up. Neither of them were sure what the substance was, but it smelled bad. Tom simply called it “brown stuff”.
Once they got the pump running, Stu left Tom to tidy up so that he could check on Henry. It looked like, best they could tell from looking through the window from where they were, that Henry and Lena were playing a game at the kitchen table.
With Stu gone to rescue Henry, Tom put the tools they used away, and was about to lock the wooden building back up, when he noticed another sticky note next to the handle on the inside of the building. It had another number written on it, 196418. It looked to be written in the same handwriting as the other. Tom wondered why there would be one here and one in the house. He’d have to ask Lena.
As he locked the door and finished, Tom checked his watch. He wondered how long they were going to stay. It felt l
ike they’d been there for over an hour now, between the chatting, cookies, and fixing the water. But, as Tom stared at the hands on his watch and did the mental math, he was surprised at how much time had actually passed. It had been only ten minutes. That seemed impossible. That was like two or three songs, no way it had only been that long.
As Tom returned to the house, Henry rushed out to greet him with multiple cookies for each of them in his hands. Henry joked that he was pretty sure that their grandma had forced so many cookies on him so that they wouldn’t put their masks back on. He told Tom how she was going on and on about The Virus being a hoax by the ‘gay liberal media’ to turn them all into socialists. Which caused both of the boys to burst out laughing, and Henry commented how nice that sounded. To which Tom asked if Henry was ok. Henry had come out to Tom a few years earlier. Grandma Lena was last on the list of people he wanted to tell. Henry told Tom he was fine, which led to Tom giving him a hug.
As the boys hugged, Tom thought about the sticky notes, and the numbers on them. Then as if he was reading Tom’s mind, Henry asked if he noticed any strange number written down anywhere. Cookies in hand the two boys started a slow walk around the property. Tom told him that he’d found two sticky notes with numbers on them. Henry told him that he found a room full of printed off conspiracy theory papers taped to the walls, and there were numbers on sticky notes everywhere. Neither boy could remember any of the numbers, to them they seemed random. Both boys, as if they were running on the same brain waves, tried to bring up what their dad had told them a few months ago. He’d mentioned the conspiracy theory stuff to the boys after a particularly challenging phone call with Lena. He’d recounted to them how he found it ironic that his parents had told him to not believe everything they read online when he was younger, and that now Lena seemed to be reciting hurtful, hateful conspiracy theories as if they were gospel.
