by Ike Hamill
“No power?” he whispered.
“No. Went out a little while ago,” the person said. Now, he was sure that it was Mandy who was speaking in his ear.
“Where’s Pam?” Brad asked.
The response came after a long pause. “She’s down at the end. Past me. Near the furnace.”
Brad began to scoot himself away from the wall despite the whispered objections of Mandy. Once he was beyond her legs, he got to his knees so he could crawl down the line of people. Some jumped when he accidentally brushed against their feet. Most seemed to sense that he was moving by them and a few reached out to guide him by.
“Pam?” He whispered after he had brushed by a few of the huddled people.
He heard her response from down the line. When he reached her, he felt her hand touch his.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“The glow sticks? Did you get them from the post office?”
“They’re by the furnace,” she said. “Come with me.”
She pushed away from the wall and he felt her move by, crawling ahead. When they reached the box, they both stood. Brad lifted it and felt the contents shift. She took it from his hands and leaned in close to whisper.
“I wanted to try them earlier, but I was vetoed. A couple of people were burned by the fire and they didn’t want to take the chance.”
“I’ll go upstairs,” he said.
“Okay,” she replied. He was surprised to hear her moving toward the stairs. Brad hurried to shuffle ahead of her so he could stop her from hitting the wall. Somehow, crawling around in the black, he had gotten turned around. The wall and stairs were nowhere near where he thought they were. Pam whispered to him until he got back on track. When his foot hit the bottom of the first stair, Brad realized that there were several people there.
“We’re going up to the locker room to try the glow sticks,” he said.
“Yeah, no shit,” Romie whispered. “We can all hear everything.”
“I’ll go too,” Kevin whispered.
Brad led the way.
At the sound of the crinkling plastic, they all held their breath. Brad felt for the ends of the stick and then snapped it. For a moment, he didn’t think anything would happen. Then, when the chemicals mixed, the yellow-green glow met his eyes. Brad shook it to accelerate the process and he saw the faces of Kevin, Romie, and Pam. They had formed a circle in the dark.
“What was that?” Kevin asked, turning.
“Nothing,” Pam said. “Maybe a mouse if anything. We’ve tried traps and poison but there are too many down here.”
“True,” Kevin agreed.
Romie had already bent down to get a handful of the packages. While Brad’s stick lit up their little circle, Romie handed them around and they all opened the packages and cracked the sticks. Kevin’s stick was purple and didn’t seem as bright.
“Nothing yet, but how long until we know if they’re safe?” Kevin asked.
“Tell me exactly what happened with the furnace,” Brad said.
Kevin looked to Pam.
“When I lit it, everything seemed perfectly normal. The power was out and the fire gave us enough light to pretty much move around without issue. I think that Mandy was getting together some candles for the other side of the room where it was darkest. Once we closed the inlets, there was a decent draft of fresh air coming down the stairs and most of the heat was going up the chimney. It seemed like total success.”
“Then?” Romie asked.
“Well,” Pam said with a sigh. “Steve was closest, so he might be able to give a better description, but it seemed like fire raced down the stairs. A lot of people described it like the flames that used to chase cars around. You know, way back? It didn’t really look like that to me. This wasn’t a discrete entity, but almost like some line of flammable gas happened to get a spark.”
“That’s what I thought,” Brad said.
“I said lighter fluid,” Romie said.
“But it wasn’t really,” Pam said. “Because if it were a line of flammable gas, then it would have started from the furnace and moved out, you know? This started somewhere else and ran to our fire. It doesn’t make any sense for it to move that direction. Then, when it hit, the fire exploded.”
Brad nodded.
“Yup,” Romie said. “Same thing happened at our house.”
“Jesus,” Pam said. “Pilot lights. There’s a pilot light on the big stove in the cafeteria. This building could be on fire right now.”
“We didn’t see anything like that when we came up,” Brad said.
“No fires anywhere,” Romie said. “At least that we saw.”
“There are fire alarms,” Kevin said. “They’re mounted all over the place up there.”
“Battery operated,” Brad said. “And nothing electrical, even battery powered, is working.”
“I’ll go check,” Kevin said. “Just to be sure.”
“I’ll go with you,” Brad said.
“No,” Romie said. “Don’t be stupid. You’ll slow him down. You’re moving as fast as a three-legged turtle right now.”
“Thanks,” Brad said with a frown.
“I’ll go with you. We can go up to the tower as well and check if there are any fires in town,” Pam said.
“Wait,” Brad said, putting out his hand to stop them. “Before you go, what’s with the whispering? Why is everyone afraid to make noise?”
Pam and Kevin looked at each other, both with raised eyebrows.
“Honestly? I have no idea,” Kevin said.
“After the explosion, everyone just started whispering. I’m not sure why,” Pam said.
“They’re panicked,” Romie said. “I can fix that.”
Kevin and Pam took her at her word. With their glow sticks extended for illumination, they headed for the stairs to go inspect the rest of the building.
“What do you need from me?” Brad asked.
“Get two more handfuls of the sticks. Crack them and get them glowing,” Romie said. “Did you ever visit a haunted house?”
Brad shook his head. Romie smiled.
While Romie went back down the stairs, Brad followed instructions. He peeled the wrappers from about a dozen of the glow sticks and cracked them as he went. With his hands full of sticks that were coming to life in pink, green, yellow, and purple, Brad slowly followed after Romie.
He heard her addressing the group as he descended.
“Everyone? Can I get your attention?” Romie asked.
One person had the temerity to try to shush her. She ignored the hiss.
“I heard about the little explosion here before. We had a version of that back at our house, too. It’s going to take a week to clean up the kitchen. I’m glad you were all here instead of at home. I would hate to think of how many people might have been injured or how many houses might have caught fire.”
He heard a rumble of low comments as people reacted to what Romie had said. Brad could see the glow from her stick as he kept moving down the stairs.
“It’s okay, Kevin and Pam went up to the watchtower to check to see if any part of Gladstone is burning. I know they can’t see everyone’s home from up there, but trust me, those are just things. The important part of our community is right here.”
It was remarkable how rational Romie sounded now compared to when she had been steadfast about staying in her own house through the crisis. She put on a much better face to people who she didn’t care for as much. It was something that Brad had come to take for granted—the way that they were so honest with each other. Even more than other families, their little unit had been forced to drop all pretense with each other. Their survival had depended on truth and trust.
“I hope everyone is seeing things for what they are. Obviously, the power going out is unusual. Exploding fires are unusual too, of course. Let’s think about what they’re not—they’re not a clear sign that we’re under attack from anything. All these things could have simple explanations t
hat we haven’t arrived at. Yes, it’s important for us to stick together and watch out for each other. Yes, it’s important to rely on water and food that we know is good. It’s also a good idea, I’m sure, to camp out down here in the safety of this building. We know that communication is lousy in this basement, so that suggests that if there is a magnetic storm or whatever going on out there, we might be protected.”
Brad didn’t know where she had gotten any of that. At the very least, it was an uninformed exaggeration. At most, Romie was lying simply to calm people down. Brad wasn’t sure that it was the right thing to say. But considering the fear that had infused the group, maybe it was right to exaggerate in the other direction.
“There’s no reason to believe that we have to be quiet. There’s no reason to believe that we have to sit down here in the dark. Brad has a bunch of light sticks. If there aren’t enough for everyone, we can get more up from the box up in the locker room. I’m sure some of you could use a bathroom break by now anyway.”
She motioned with her stick. Brad moved around her, toward the wall where people were still huddled. They didn’t move to take the glow sticks until Brad held them out and began to limp forward. Then, maybe because he was so unstable on his feet, they moved to meet him in the middle. People handed them around, taking them from Brad’s hands. Most parents kept the glow sticks for themselves. Some handed them to the kids.
“Looks like we need a few more,” Romie said. “Follow me, I’ll show you the box.”
Brad returned to the wall so he could lean against it and stretch his hamstring. While he bent over, he used the glow of the stick to look at the burn mark on the floor. It led toward the closed door of the furnace. He saw splinters of wood in front of the iron beast. It was a miracle that nobody had been seriously injured. He could picture the people huddled instinctively near the fire when it had blown up.
At the stairs, Romie was leading a small contingent upstairs to get the box of glow sticks and maybe use the bathroom. Mandy approached Brad.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’m doing fine. I’ve had a bit too much excitement today, but I’m doing fine.”
Mandy shook her glow stick. “These are a good idea. It looks like they’ve already given people something to hold onto—figuratively and literally, you know? With their own light source, I think we all feel a bit more empowered.”
“Good,” Brad said. “So much of this is going to be guesswork, but it’s going to go a lot smoother if everyone keeps their cool.”
“What do you mean, guesswork?”
When he waved his hands, the soft light of the glow stick threw indistinct shadows.
“None of us know the source of the power outage or the explosion. We’re down here because it’s our best guess that it will be safer.”
They heard a shout from the stairs. The sound divided the group into factions. Some people moved toward the noise. Others grabbed their kids and shrank back against the wall. One or two cast away their glow sticks, as if the light source might be the problem.
“I better go see,” Brad said.
“Let me help you,” Mandy said, taking his arm.
“Get these kids downstairs,” Romie said.
Mandy took over the duty. Romie had other plans for Brad.
“They said that he saw something in the light,” Romie whispered to Brad as soon as the kids were moving downstairs. “You don’t think that it’s Robby’s light?”
“No, of course not,” Brad said.
The idea was absurd. Robby had told the story a couple of times. He had walked into the light, trying to convince Nate and Brynn to return to the world, and he had seen everyone. Robby had been sure that everyone who had ever lived and died had been in that crowd. He had even seen his own family, waiting in that light. But that had been a completely different thing. They had traveled to the giant ball of light. It hadn’t come after them. It certainly hadn’t chased anyone inside the locker room of a high school.
“Well, then we better figure out exactly what pulled George away from his kids then.”
“Shit, it was George?” Brad asked. He should have known—he should have recognized the kids. Brad wasn’t the best at recognizing people’s kids. They changed too much for Brad to keep track of them.
Romie was already moving. Brad rushed to catch up.
“What in the hell would George chase after, leaving his kids to fend for themselves? It wouldn’t be something that he was afraid of. If he was afraid of it, he would have made sure that his kids were okay. Then again, maybe he thought that Debbie would take care of them.”
Romie pushed through the door.
“Where did he see this light?” Brad asked. There was nothing lit up on the other side of the door, as far as Brad could see.
“How the hell should I know? The kids weren’t exactly forthcoming on the topic. They just said their dad went off after something he saw in the light and he said they should come back to me.”
She climbed the short flight up to the main hall of the school and looked one way and the other. Brad caught up and understood the conundrum. There was no glow in either direction. The only lights in the hallway were coming from the sticks in Brad’s and Romie’s hands.
“I know he had one,” she said. “Where did he go?”
“There!” Brad said. Something dark moved at the end of the long corridor. It was in the direction that Kevin and Pam would have gone. As Brad started in that direction, he began to think that it was more likely to be one of them. “Kevin? Pam?”
“Shush, Brad,” Romie said behind him.
“I thought you were advocating that we should speak freely,” Brad said over his shoulder.
“That was down there. This is different,” Romie said in a low voice.
“The doors are all closed, Romie. There aren’t going to be any wild animals in here or anything.”
“You don’t know,” Romie said.
Brad opened his mouth to call again. He ended up staying quiet—not because Romie had thought it was a bad idea, but only because there was nowhere to go at the end of the hall. The figure had gone to the left, toward the administrative offices. There were no exits on that wing.
Romie was right behind him, practically climbing his back. Brad was self-conscious about his speed. When his hip or leg hurt, it was possible for him to push through the pain. When the muscles started to go numb, like they were right then, it didn’t matter how hard he pushed. There was a cap to his speed that he couldn’t force.
“Go around me,” Brad said. “Go around and see who that was.”
“Shut up and walk,” Romie said.
She wasn’t one to be timid or hide behind him. He thought about her earlier question—could the light be Robby’s light? The idea had shaken her. It seemed like Romie saw herself through his eyes after a moment. She moved alongside Brad, holding out her glow stick.
“What I was saying earlier, about the haunted houses,” she said.
“Yeah?”
“We went to them a few times. They had these enormous ones over in New Hampshire. My family loved them. In a bunch of them, they would give everyone glow sticks and then the lights would be completely out in those places. The walls were all strung with fake cobwebs and they had all kinds of props around that would have looked ridiculous in daylight. But in the middle of the night, walking around with just a glow stick, some of those fake corpses and bloody scenes looked pretty damn convincing.”
“But you had your own light?” Brad asked. “And that made you more brave?”
“No,” she said. “You clung onto that light because you knew that it was the only way that you could see your way out. But it was fake security, and I think everyone knew that as well. If you just put the stick in your pocket and let your eyes adjust, you would realize that there was plenty enough light to see your way around. After all, the actors in those places had to have a way to move around from scene to scene. They had to be able to jump out and
scare you.”
Brad wondered if that would ever come back into vogue. People didn’t have scary places for Halloween. The houses that were decorated always looked friendly and inviting. The kids dressed up as frogs, or horses, or princesses. Nobody tried to scare anyone at Halloween in Gladstone. Maybe the world was already scary enough.
“What those lights were really doing was letting the actors see you,” she said. “It was just a convenient way for them to light up the victims. Maybe we’re going about this wrong.”
She seemed to believe what she was saying, but she didn’t lower the hand that held out the glow stick. Brad didn’t either. He let the light lead the way as they reached the corner where they had seen the dark figure take a left.
Romie fumbled in her pocket and pulled out another plastic envelope with an un-cracked glow stick. After she had torn it open between her teeth and snapped the thing against her hip, she tossed it into the administrator’s office. The stick bounced off the counter and fell in the doorway to the principal’s office.
The blue glow intensified.
“Where did he go?” Romie asked.
Brad was about to say that he didn’t know, when he spotted a shape in the corner. It was too dark to be a shadow.
Brad’s voice cracked when he tried to call out a challenge.
“Who’s there?”
He cleared his throat and asked again.
As the blue glow stick brightened, the outline of the shape twisted and shifted. It wouldn’t stay still long enough for Brad’s eyes to recognize the thing’s form. From the middle of the black mass, an appendage began to move toward the light in the doorway. Brad felt Romie’s hand on his arm. She squeezed gently and he understood. They both took a slow step backwards.
The shape moved as fast as lightning, striking down at the glow stick. The glowing chemicals splashed up onto the doorframe, beginning to dim as it dripped down.