“Now that’s something I can get behind. Okay, now let’s get trashy, where we knew this conversation was going to go. I want to see Kerry Washington’s house. What music does she listen to? How can I trick her into a date?” Ray laughed and then got a little quiet; I assumed he thought of his late Kate.
“Okay, me sneaking around the Queen’s room is purely historical, you creeping in Kerry’s house, that’s just stalker material. But if I were going to become a stalker on an empty earth, I’d find this guy named Ray Jones’ house in Pittsburgh. I bet that guy has posters of Mario Lemieux on his wall, and Steelers figurines showcased beside the bar in the man cave.”
Ray laughed so hard tears trickled down his face. “You are just so funny. Who would have thought an accountant could have a sense of humor? I guess you have to, to keep yourself from jumping every time you balance a ledger. And for the record, I was never much of a hockey fan. The posters were always of Joe Montana. He never played there, but he was from Pittsburgh and my dad was on a team one year with him back when they were kids, not football but basketball. He was quite the player, if you listen to my dad’s stories.
“I met him once at a Steelers game. My dad had taken me to a game when I was little, and somehow had connected with Joe. He tousled my hair and signed a 49ers football for me. I still have it...next to my Steelers figurines in the man cave.” This brought on a fresh round of laughing that had me leaking from the eyes. It felt so good to have a laugh in the midst of the insane position we found ourselves in.
It was almost fully dark, but we were nearing the intersection the woman on the CB had mentioned. We turned the radio up, but no signal was coming through. It was as if they had turned their end off. The truck lights were off and we struggled to see where we were going, while trying to avoid the sporadic cars, trucks, and semi-trailers sitting on the freeway.
“What do you think? We’re here. I would think they might be lodged up at a motel or something nearby. Can you check your phone GPS to see if anything pops up close?” I asked Ray.
“Sure,” he said, zooming in on his map, “looks like a Holiday Inn half a mile east of here. We better make this exit and take that overpass. That’s the only hotel nearby. Unless they kept moving or are camping out in a vehicle.”
I really wished I could have tossed my day lights on for a moment, to make the trip easier, but that dream disappeared as quickly as it came. A bright beam of green light shone down from the sky in a perfect cylinder shape. My necklace burned again, and I slammed on the brakes and turned the engine off. Carey whined in the back, and I reached back to pet the shaking dog. He could probably hear something we couldn’t emanating from the beam. Ray’s ring glowed bright, and he covered it with a jacket sitting on the console beside him. We didn’t speak; the only noise in the truck was our quick, panicked breaths and Carey’s near silent moan. The ship above moved the green beam like a searchlight over the area, and it felt like they were there for hours. As if the whole experience wasn’t already stressful enough, we now had to play dead with one of the ships scouring above us.
“Ray, do you think they know we’re here? Maybe the radio drew them in.” Before I finished asking, Ray’s hand darted out and turned the CB off. His eyes were wide, and I realized he hadn’t told me where he was when the people were taken off the Earth.
Carey was trying to hide his head under his paws in the back, making for one of the cutest scenes I’d ever seen in one of the most frightening moments of my life. The world was full of juxtapositions.
“I don’t know what those bastards can sense. We know nothing about them. They might even have heat sensors, or maybe they’re scanning for lifeforms like on Star Trek. Hell, maybe they’re trying to beam us up right now.”
He was right. We knew nothing about them. Just like I’d apparently known nothing about my wife.
The ship was still close by, but the beam was focusing further down the road. I felt my neck loosen up, as if the immediate danger was gone for a moment. I didn’t think the danger would ever be gone, though, not until we solved this and brought the world back.
“I think the ship is leaving,” Ray whispered, and we watched the light move down the road. Soon the pendant cooled, and eventually, the green light on it dimmed to nothing.
All was silent for a moment. Then something knocked on our window.
NINE
Six Years Earlier
There was a knock on the door, and I answered it in my bathrobe. Who could be coming over this early on a Sunday morning? And right after we got back from our honeymoon? I opened the door to a handsome man around the same age as me, and it took a moment to recognize who he was.
“Hello, Dean,” he said as he stepped inside. “How was Aruba?”
“Aruba was great. It rained the whole time, but that just meant we got to stay in...” I stopped when I realized I was oversharing with Janine’s – what – cousin?
“Good. I’m glad to hear it. Is Janine in?” He looked uncomfortable as he shifted from foot to foot lightly.
“Yeah, come on in, Bob. I have coffee in the kitchen – help yourself. Cream’s in the fridge. I’ll go tell Janny that you’re here.”
Bob seemed like a nice enough fellow, but I really hadn’t heard how they were actually related. None of it was clear, but Bob and his wife had come to the wedding a couple weeks ago, and Mary had seemed an absolute delight. If his wife was that cool, then there must be something about Bob that was endearing too. She was a member of the US Air Force, and to me, that was one of the coolest things you could be. That and maybe an astronaut, which Mary could very well end up doing. Apparently, she was an astrophysicist too. I had five bucks on it that she’d grown up with high-pressure parenting.
I walked upstairs to find Janine brushing her hair in the en-suite. “Who’s at the door, sweetie?” she asked with a voice like honey. The pressure of our wedding, and a week in seclusion from the rest of the world, had just brought us closer than I could have imagined.
“It’s your cousin Bob. He seems a little off. Not that I know what’s on for the guy.”
She fidgeted with her necklace a moment and told me she’d be right down. I went and shared a cup of coffee with him and when Janine came, I excused myself to let them have a moment. The room had felt tense as I left it, and I made my way to my office; I had some work to do anyway. Without trying to hear what they were saying, I thought I caught him mention I was the wrong man for her, or something along those lines. Then I heard Mary’s name from my wife’s mouth. I never knew exactly what their exchange was that day, but I never saw Bob again.
______________
Carey rushed to the window and barked incessantly at the dark shape outside the truck. My heart pounded in my chest as I tried to see who was knocking on the truck window. With the ship just having left, Ray and I were already at wits’ end. I turned the key and pressed the window button, lowering it slightly.
“Who are you?” I tensely asked.
A woman replied, “We’re here to help. The ship is gone for now.”
Ray and I got out of the car and let Carey out to investigate the new person. He hesitantly sniffed her hand as she crouched down to greet him.
“I love dogs. What’s your name?” she asked.
“His name is Carey. He’s my neighbor’s dog, but he’s been a great companion on our trip so far. I’m Dean, and this is Ray.”
She shook our hands and I caught sight of her face. I knew her. “I’m Mary. Mary Lafontaine. Vanessa is back at the hotel. We were thinking you might make for a hotel near here, but decided one of us should come find you if you didn’t. Then the ship came and I had to hide.”
Mary. It was Bob’s wife Mary. We’d only met on my wedding weekend, which was six years ago now. I had no idea if she would recognize me or not. Things were starting to become a little clearer, but they were still so convoluted and fuzzy. Janine’s cousin Bob was the husband of the woman in front of me. This was no coincidence.
&nb
sp; “Hotel, you say. Let’s get going, and move out of the open,” Ray said.
“Yes, my Jeep is just up a little way. I’ll leave my lights off, so just drive up a hundred meters and you’ll see me. We’ll be at the hotel in five minutes.” Mary smiled and took off into the night. She spoke into a walkie-talkie. I couldn’t believe we hadn’t even thought of using those to communicate if we got split up.
“Dean, you okay?” Ray asked.
Carey finished his business and came and sat down at my feet, his body resting against my shin.
“Ray, I know her. Her husband claimed to be my wife’s cousin. She was at my wedding.”
“That’s some seriously heavy stuff. Let’s move. Maybe we’ll figure this all out when we get to the hotel and talk to them. She seemed sure of herself, out here all alone.”
“She was US Air Force. I think she can handle herself.”
We got in the truck and followed behind Mary in the darkness. The night sky was clear, and the moonlight and stars lit our way as best they could. In a few minutes, we were pulling up to the Holiday Inn.
“Welcome to our private hotel, gentlemen. Here are a couple keys to rooms beside ours.” She passed us keys. “Luckily, they still have regular keys. I’m not sure we could get into the rooms with those key cards.” She led us down a hallway and we toted our backpacks down the flashlight-lit corridor.
“We’re just down the hall in 105 and 106. We’ll be in Vanessa’s room, 106.” She squinted at me slightly before turning around and walking away.
“Come on, Dean. Let’s freshen up and find out what’s going on here,” Ray said.
In a few minutes, we were standing at the entrance to the room, a little fresher now that the day’s trip was washed off, me with a newly applied layer of deodorant. The door was propped open by the bolt, but Ray still knocked before entering. A voice called for us to come inside.
Mary sat at a desk in the far corner of the room, going over some maps. Her dark hair was pulled into a tight ponytail. They had a generator whirring quietly in the closet, it seemed, with the door closed to muffle the sound. It was funny that just a couple of days with no simple things like lights, and it seemed like magic when you did see it. I saw a ventilation hose jutting through the window, preventing us from being gassed out.
The other woman, whom I assumed to be Vanessa, smiled at us as we walked in. She was older than us, maybe pushing fifty, and she wore it well. “So, you’re the other two,” she said, looking us up and down.
“Other two what?” I asked.
“There are four of us, Dean. Four people left behind to save the world. My husband passed this locket on to me before he died, and I wore it, watching my children float away. Do you have any idea what that feels like? To know you’re staying and that you could save one of them, but not?” She was on the verge of crying, and Ray stepped over and put his arm around her shoulders.
“No, I don’t, but I watched my whole workplace get taken. We were working late trying to get a new product’s software done so the manufacturing would be on schedule for a big government contract. I saw twenty of my co-workers get sucked out of the building, and they all looked at me like I was the monster because I wasn’t leaving with them. I’ll never forget Tina’s face as she disappeared through the ceiling; face contorted in agony, looking at me like I was the devil,” Ray said, his hands visibly shaking.
I hadn’t heard Ray’s story yet, and listening to these tales made everything seem so much more real.
Mary came and sat at the end of the bed. “I was in a hangar bay in DC here. We were waiting to be called out in case we needed to try to immobilize the ships. The reports from around the world were saying that all weapons were non-effective against the ships, but we still had to sit there waiting. Like our missiles would have any more power than the Russians’, or the Middle East’s. It was terrifying seeing the news feeds of the missiles and bullets having zero effect on the bastards. They didn’t even have to swat us away like flies; they just hovered there like we were nothing more than a minor nuisance, if they even saw what the humans were doing at all. Those massive black behemoths fell from the sky and I just got a sinking feeling in my stomach, like the end was near. And I suppose it was.” She paused, and we were hanging on her every word. “The sun started to go down, and then things were almost a blur. Everyone was shouting, and I didn’t know why, then I saw them floating, all surrounded by green light. This started to burn up” – she showed a large men’s ring on a chain hanging around her neck – “and I finally understood what Bob had been telling me back then. Bob was my husband. He died two years ago.”
The room went silent, and then all eyes fell on me. My story was so boring compared to theirs, but I had to tell it anyway. “I spent the day getting across town to grab my amulet from a storage unit. My wife had made me promise to wear it, but stupid me couldn’t stand the sight of her stuff. It was all a painful reminder of how much I missed her. Janine died three years ago. Just like Ray’s girlfriend died and your husband Bob died, Mary.”
I watched Mary, and I saw the light click on in her mind. She knew me, and now she recalled where she knew me from. I nodded to her to let her know I knew and would get to it. She cracked a small smile, and I realized how attractive she really was. It had been a long time since I’d thought like that; the thought of dating after my wife passed had left me with a sick feeling of guilt. Why did I choose this moment to feel a spark? All the memories from the past few days rushed into my mind, but I almost felt better for it, like my heartache was being cleansed.
“I had run into my buddy James, and we were just hanging out at my house, trying to see what was going to happen. Janine had told me to wear this necklace when the ships came, and I put it on just soon enough to see James get sucked out of my house and into the sky with the rest of my city. I’ve never felt so alone as that night, and I’d been alone there for the past three years.”
Mary walked over to me, reached out, and grabbed my hands. “I can’t believe it’s you, Dean. What odd set of circumstances could have made it so we were both left after the ships? How is this possible?”
I glanced over at Vanessa, who was sitting there looking surprised. “Ray, did Kate go by Katherine sometimes?” I had a hunch and was ninety-nine percent sure it was right.
“Yeah, to most people. I hated calling her that, and Kate stuck. Why do you ask?” Ray asked.
“Because she was at my wedding too. It was the strangest thing; Janine sprang a couple guests on me for the wedding. She always said she was adopted and then she met some of her real cousins online and invited them. Kate came, as did Bob and Mary.”
“So you’re saying that Kate was at your wedding and so was Mary here? Whoa, fella...” He paused as if he’d just remembered something. “You know what? She did try getting me to go to a wedding when we first started dating years ago. I hated weddings, and we were so new that I thought it might give off the wrong impression, so I lied and said I couldn’t because I had to work. I’ll be damned. This just keeps getting stranger and stranger.”
Now how did Vanessa play into all of this? “Vanessa, you say your husband died? Was he sick?” I asked, knowing this wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation.
“Pretty much the same thing as your wife, Dean. He was my second husband. The kids weren’t his, but they loved him as if he were their father. Now they’re all gone.” She wiped away tears, and we all softened at the words.
“Every one of us was given our green alien rock thing by our significant loved one who’s now dead. Kate and my wife seem to have died the very same way, and I can only assume Mary’s husband shared a similar fate? I’m sorry to bring it up, but this feels really central to everything going on,” I said.
Mary took a deep breath. “I loved my husband a lot. He was a kind man, with a heart of gold, but he felt distant for the last while of his life. He got sick; some sort of lung infection where he would cough up blood, and within a few months, he had
wasted away to nothing, and he died with me by his side. Being in the Air Force, I spent a lot of time away from home over the years and often wondered if he strayed from our marriage, or if he even loved me. As he lay in his hospital bed, he told me a crazy tale of people from another world, where a civil war ravaged part of their planet. Two sides came to peace eventually, but there was always a small amount of resentment still felt between them. They needed a new home, as theirs wasn’t going to last, and Earth was found to be suitable.
“One side claimed to have found a home for them that wouldn’t involve the genocide of a race, but the decision was already made. So a safety net was put into place: a device that could be used to bring the humans back once taken. It was said that the device has been here on Earth for hundreds of years, and that the rebels used a highly dangerous wormhole to make it here way ahead of the fleet we saw grace our atmosphere. Then we were selected to carry out the plan to save the world. It’s all been set up by the opposing faction from this planet. Though Bob didn’t say so outright, I now believe him to have been a member of that race. At the time, I thought he was delusional and insane. Now I know better.”
My stomach sank at the implications of her story. If Bob had been one of them, then surely Janine had too. But she was very human. I knew this for a fact. How could she have been anything but? The room swayed, and I reached my arms out to keep myself from falling down. I felt the soft cushion of the mattress and Ray’s hand lowering me down. “I know. If what Mary says is true, then we’re all in the same boat. Feeling deceived and hurt, but maybe it was the only way to save the people. We have to push past this and do what we need to do for the sake of the world. I just don’t quite understand how this is all going to work. We bring them back, then what? Get blasted to smithereens by them? Do we not expect some serious retaliation?”
The Survivors: Books 1-6 Page 6
