by Maxey, Phil
“How’s it look?” said Arlene behind him. They were in a front office, one which was close to the entrance to the single-story set of offices.
He scoured the dark windows opposite of a few stores, and the alleys dividing them, but couldn’t see even the hint of something there that shouldn’t be. “Looks… clear.”
“See! The cop didn’t know what he was talking about. The monsters are sleeping or something. That’s how it was in Rocky Pine. They don’t come out much in the day. We go out, find some food, water and somewhere to be warm. Maybe an apartment, few stories up, where the monsters won’t go.”
It was a good plan. Maybe she was right, he thought. “Looks like there’s a neighborhood to the left. I can see some hedges, fences and houses behind some trees. That’s the direction we need to head towards.” He looked back at her. Defiance mixed with fear in her eyes. “You ready?” he said.
“Hell yeah, I’m ready! I’m starving!”
“Stay close to me. If we see a thing, we run to the closest building. Got it?”
“I can run pretty fast. Don’t worry about me.”
He smiled, turning back to the street which looked clear of any danger. They moved out of the office, into the narrow hallway. After a little tug to free the ice around the frame, Daryl pulled open the glass door and listened for any movement, but there was just a light breeze. He stepped out onto the snow, his boot sinking a few inches into it and quickly whipped his head across the buildings opposite. To his right, the street moved deeper into the small town’s retail area. Larger buildings with glass fronts. But to his left were pleasant looking homes hidden behind white lawns, some of which contained half-buried Christmas decorations. “Looks good. Come on,” he said over his shoulder.
He started to move towards the residences when he realized Arlene wasn’t behind him. He turned. She was still standing outside the entrance, looking at the stores, twenty yards away. “What are you doing? Come on!” he half-shouted, half whispered, his frustration becoming a white cloud.
“We could get what we need from the stores!”
He shook his head, nervously looking at the other streets. “Are you crazy? There’s going to be food in people’s houses!”
“Nah. We should go into the town. I’m going this way.” She started walking away from him.
“That’s not the plan!”
“New plan,” she said without turning, breaking into a run.
He sighed and quickly caught up with her just as she got to an intersection. A car wash sat on one corner, its shutters open as if they never had a chance to close. But ahead lay the heart of the small town. Stencil covered glass fronted stores lined both sides of a wide road, with offices above them. A few vehicles sat parked outside some of the establishments and everything was covered in a foot of snow. Just another winter day.
He looked back to the way they had come. Nothing looked different, but an odor hung in the air. The smell of burned timber mixed with a more toxic, chemical smell. The motorhome was only a block away.
“Lets find some food!” Arlene ran forward across the road, sounding almost excited. He quickly followed and they moved past a hair salon, clothes shop, appliances store and finally arrived at what she had been looking for. A cafe. She cupped her hands to see through the glass as Daryl looked the other way at the darkness that resided behind all the other stores’ windows, and then higher to the—
The sound of shattering glass broke the silence. He flicked his head back to Arlene holding a metal advertising boarding, and the broken entrance in front of her. She burst out laughing at the look of shock on his face and dropped the implement of his anger.
“The monsters are sleeping! We’re fine!” Before he could respond she bent down and crawled through the new hole she had just created.
“Arlene! Wait! You don’t know what’s in there!” But she was already through the jagged gap and moving behind the counter inside. His eyes darted from street corner to street corner, waiting for the slightest of movement.
The door opened. “You hungry or not?” she said through the gap.
He frowned, pulling it open and went to step over the threshold, but stopped. An inclination or perhaps something else made him turn around, and as he did, his expression became one of horror.
“Hey they got pies,” she said, her face pressed up against a clear case of baked goods. “Should still be good…” She turned to him. “What is it?”
He almost wanted to keep what was a few hundred yards away to himself. Ignore the nightmare that stood, motionless in the center of the street. It was the biggest of the things he had seen. Standing at least twice as tall as his five-foot ten inches, but worse was it appeared to be standing on four spindly insect legs, the front two much larger than the rear and within them was a seething mass of movement. Eyes? Jagged orifices opened and closed.
“Oh god…” Arlene had peered outside, then fell back in the store. She started shaking the glass food case, trying to get it open, but it resisted her efforts.
Something moved to Daryl’s left, causing him to flick his head in that direction. Now it was his turn to waver. He backed up against the frame of the door instinctively, even though the two other things were further away than the first. These were small, but more hideous, being assembled from obvious human parts. One in particular almost froze Daryl with fright. Its bottom half was human legs, even clothed in pants, but its top was just a snapping serpent-like mouth, without even limbs or appendages. Somehow seeing these things in an otherwise bright and beautiful day was worse when they were mostly hidden by the night.
The incessant rattling of metal and glass finally shook him back to his senses, and he turned angrily at the girl. “We have to go!” He moved the few feet into the store, grabbing her by the top of the arm and dragged her back to the entrance. Her eyes widened on seeing the other creatures. He pointed at a three story brick built building on the far opposite corner to them. It looked the more secure of the buildings, he thought, and he didn’t reckon on the things being able to climb or jump to the roof if that’s where he and her ended up. “We’re running for that place!”
This time she didn’t protest and both set off across the icy sidewalk, then road, their hearts beating in time with their arms, their boots trying to gain grip on the slippery surface.
Daryl glanced left and right, catching glimpses of the things.
Moving towards us!
His brain had already entered panic mode, and he jumped over a heap of snow and ran up the small set of steps to the secure looking entrance, crashing into it, frantically trying the handle which did not give way. “It’s locked!” He whirled around, instantly seeing certain death, no, worse, absorption.
“Down there!” shouted Arlene at the bottom of the steps, looking along the side of the building. “There’s a fire escape!”
He scrambled down the steps, grabbing hold of the pillar as he pivoted around the corner, and sprinted after her. She was already jumping up trying to pull the bottom of the metal rung down but it was above her head and he leaped and grabbed it in one movement. As the ladder slammed into the ground and she started climbing, he looked to the end of the alley. The first creature, the big one, lumbered into it, its awkward limbs being unsuitable for quick movement. It scraped along the wall bringing masonry with it.
“Come on!” shouted Arlene from above.
Daryl quickly climbed to the first floor and pulled the ladder up. The other creatures, smaller, faster, more agile were now also in the ally, bounding towards them. He clambered up a set of metal stairs to the third floor just as the whole fire escape shuddered. The thing, twenty feet below screeched, but he ignored it and climbed the final ladder, stepping out to the roof and looked back down. “Shit, it’s climbing up! I didn’t think it could do that!” He spun around, looking for another way off, but there wasn’t one.
“What are we going to do!” screamed Arlene.
He turned to her in rage and fear. “You d
id this! You should have listened to me!”
The clanging from the fire escape was now joined by roars and more screeches. He ran across the small roof to the side facing the main street and almost felt sick. “There are… too… many…” Countless things filled the ice covered space in front of the building. Even in the middle of his terror and acceptance of his fate, he realized something even more fear inducing. The creatures weren’t attacking each other, in fact it looked like they were—
A screech pierced the chilled air and he and Arlene swung around and fell back in one movement. The thing with multiple clawed limbs climbed over the top of the ladder and landed on the ice covered surface with a thud. Its mouth opened revealing row after row of shark-like teeth, then it slowly stepped towards them, seemingly savoring their fright.
Daryl and Arlene backed up, bumping into each other and the final furthest corner of the roof. He quickly looked down to the street and the other alley, it equally filled with things and grabbed hold of the young woman, pulling her close. No words were needed. They both closed their eyes…
He heard the whoosh before he heard the guttural scream, but it wasn’t human in origin, and he opened his eyes feeling a surge of wind across him. The creature was on the ground, crawling towards them, blood oozing from a gaping wound. Another whoosh, this time Daryl seeing the impact hit the thing and it collapsed completely.
“Look!” shouted Arlene, pointing up.
A black helicopter, almost completely silent sat above them, its large blades just a blur and on both sides sat black uniformed soldiers, with strange looking helmets.
Joy and relief rushed into him and he joined Arlene jumping in excitement. “Yeah, kill’em!” He spun around to the street as it erupted in a furore. Another helicopter was hovering over it, and even though he could hardly hear the automatic weapons he could see the flesh being torn by the projectiles slamming into the fleeing creatures. He punched the air. “Yeah!”
“It’s landing!”
He turned back to Arlene, looking up as the gust from the rotor blades became so strong he had to lean forward. He held her hand, walking forward to the soldiers jumping down to the roof. He couldn’t see beyond their blackened visors, but as he propelled himself towards salvation, he missed an almost silent snip of a projectile which sliced the air. Even before his hand went to the back of his neck to investigate the sudden irritation, he was starting to lose the feeling in his legs.
The snow softened the blow of his head against the floor, but not enough to stop a laceration from opening up on his left temple.
As he lay, his entire body feeling as if it had been removed, he watched two others jump down from the helicopter as the soldiers fanned out. They walked towards him but were just blurs in his hazy vision. He tried to speak, to cry out questions as to what was happening, but the words became mere grunts when they reached his almost completely paralyzed throat. He looked up at the two human shapes in dark uniforms that were giving him close attention.
“He… traces… vaccine. Almost gone from… though. What should… do with him?” said one of the forms to the other.
“Leave.” said the taller individual. Then looked to Daryl’s side, to where his eyes could not go. “The girl… another… Bring…”
CHAPTER TWELVE
9: 20 a.m. Dover.
The watch on Jess’s hand felt heavy. She hadn’t looked at it for a few hours and she wasn’t going to. Seeing the hands would just confirm which she already knew, but would not fully believe. Their time was up. It had been at least twenty-four hours since they had eaten the chocolates that Amos had given her. She had failed to get her family what they needed. Whether they continued to exist as humans or as something else was in the hands of fate.
She looked out to the completely flat beige landscape, only broken up by the occasional group of bushes or outbuilding of some kind. There weren’t even any abandoned vehicles on this stretch of the highway. She was glad to be out of storms though, and there was just the hint of blue amongst the blanket of gray above them.
“We’re coming up to a town, larger than the last one. Should I go around?” asked Meg.
Jess hesitated. Was it time to give up? Accept that whatever had been released from the probe had defeated her?
Landon’s angry face appeared in her mind. “You keep going, Jess. You run, hide and survive.”
“We don’t have time,” she said. “Go through.”
Meg nodded. “At least the ground is only a bit damp, no ice out here. We can keep up a good speed.” She glanced at Jess again. “What about Kansas City?”
Jess nodded, avoiding the older woman’s gaze and continued to look outside. “Same. Stay on the…” She squinted to better see the smudge of dust in a field, maybe a mile off to their right.
Meg noticed it too then looked in the rear mirror. “Sam. In my pack, there are some binoculars. Can you get them out and see what the hell that is over there?”
The young girl rummaged until she found them and held them to her eyes. A whimper came from her lips, confirming what the two adults feared.
Meg instinctively eased down on the gas.
“Let me see,” said Jess. Sam handed her mother the eyepieces, and Jess changed the focus a little until she saw what was almost lost in a haze of brown mud particles. “It’s… running… towards the highway. We need to go quicker.”
Meg glanced at the speedometer. The dial bounced around at the top, hovering around ninety. “We’re already pushing it.” She applied even more pressure to the gas pedal, the engine producing a high pitch hum, almost being eclipsed by the wind noise.
The dust cloud had now taken on the shape of the thing it contained. An angry concoction of brown limbs, with claws that flashed and flailed at the air.
“It’s going to crash into us!” said Sam.
“No, it’s not!” said Meg, then whispered something under her breath.
Jess studied the vision of fury that looked as if it had been literally imported from another world and dropped in the middle of Missouri farmland. Was that its blueprint? Did the virus simply allow life from another world to start again here?
Josh and Landon are d—
She coughed as the sedan bumped, making Meg grapple with the steering wheel to keep the car firmly fixed in the right direction.
Meg glanced at the beast just a few hundred yards off to their right. It was as large as a bus. Huge. If it slammed into them, it would be game over. No getting to Jess’s friend’s house. No vaccine. No surviving this insane plague. She wasn’t prepared to let that happen. She pushed the pedal harder into the—
Jess coughed again, this time though blood and yellow matter ejected from her throat and sprayed her side of the windshield. The splatter was accompanied with a scream of anguish from her daughter.
“Mom! Mom!”
Jess had felt the tingling in her stomach before the warmth spread throughout her limbs, and knew what was happening. Her mind was evenly split between blind panic and complete acceptance of what was about to happen, but somewhere lost between both was a voice which pleaded for her to get out.
Save the others…
She doubled over. Throbbing pain was now parading through her arms and legs, a pressure which was stretching her muscles to breaking point. Her hand flicked out and grabbed the door handle and she realized her fingers and palm were different. The skin had become rougher, her nails longer.
Meg’s eyes darted between what was happening to the woman just two feet away and the marauding creature that was moving towards the highway, its huge powerful legs propelling it on a crash course with the speeding car. She also saw Jess fumbling with the door handle and for a moment she agreed with her course of action, but instead her right hand flicked out and grabbed Jess’s arm as the passenger’s door flew open.
“No!” screamed Sam, then scrambled to retrieve something from her pocket.
Jess’s coughing was now constant and as she fought with Meg to be all
owed to jump out, the sedan sped past the creature which leaped at it, but missed, sliding all the way to the other side of the highway.
Sam didn’t ask her mother what she wanted, she just pulled Jess’s head back, and with her other hand, slammed the last chocolate into Jess’s mouth, forcing it between her lips. “Eat! Chew on it!”
Jess coughed again, the pain now all-encompassing, but something told her to chew on the sweet tasting thing in her mouth. A distant voice she trusted. Forcing her teeth and tongue to act as if they were still hers, she quickly swallowed the pieces of candy, not fully understanding why.
Relief was instant.
She sat up, her clothes covered in sweat, pulled the door closed and looked, blinking at Meg and then her daughter leaning between the two seats. “You… had more vaccine?”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
9: 43 a.m. Highway 70, western outskirts of Topeka, Kansas.
Seemingly innocent outbuildings passed by. Landon didn’t want to pass through a city, but he had no choice. He was sure his wife and daughter were not far ahead. Just another twenty minutes. He would turn a bend and see them. He was sure. But at the back of his mind a clock that had been ticking since they left Rocky Pine, had stopped.
Maybe they changed…
The thought that he would soon find an overturned car on the side of the road was too terrifying to fully grasp, so each time the idea tried to slide into his consciousness, he immediately thought about something else. Anything. It wasn’t easy, as Grace, Ben or Ray would fill the space but eventually he settled on what they were going to do, once they found Amos’s home and had more vaccine. Where to hide from the things? And what about after the six days were up? What would the country be like? How many had died?
It was obvious things weren’t going back to how they used to be. He wondered what place a detective would have in this new version of reality.
The highway was empty, which surprised him. He would have thought it would be jammed with vehicles. People desperate to escape the winds carrying the virus, but instead he had a clear view in both directions.
