by Ike Hamill
“If I’m right, then we should be coming to a major sweep. To our west, we’ll find that the shore almost doubles back and the river will go south and then bend north. We still have a long way to go, but it’s the final stretch.”
“What about the flood idea?” Tim asked.
They were eating grilled fish. Eventually, Tim had been able to pull some from the river, and they cooked them over the fire along with some roots that Ashley had dug up.
“Either way,” Ashley said. “A lower river may make these turns more sharp, but we’ll still be able to track them.”
She looked up at the moon and then down to the black surface of the water.
“It’s calm here. There aren’t any snags to speak of,” Ashley said.
“No,” Lisa said. “I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is no.”
“Lisa, what’s the harm in letting the raft take us downstream? We’ll save time.”
“How long have we been out here?” Lisa asked. “What’s another day?”
“I’m with Ashley,” Tim said. “I think it’s safe.”
“We don’t know that,” Lisa said.
Ashley heard it in her voice—Lisa was giving in.
“Should we vote?” Ashley asked.
Lisa sighed.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
They packed up quickly, since they hadn’t set up the tents yet. As Ashley poured water over the fire and kicked dirt over the coals, her confidence dwindled with the light. They hadn’t traveled on the river after dark.
“You coming? This was your idea,” Lisa called from the raft.
Ashley took one more look up at the stars and called back. “Yes. Be right there.”
She gathered her pack and walked to the raft. Once she tossed her belongings to Lisa, Ashley untied the rope and pushed the raft off from shore before she jumped on. The water was a black mirror, littered with stars. They wavered on the ripples from the raft. They all stood—even Penny—as they tried to find the riverbed with their poles so they could move into the current. The tree line on the horizon was cut from the tapestry of stars.
“It’s beautiful,” Lisa said. “It’s like we’re floating in space.”
Ashley couldn’t enjoy the view. She was too focused on the shape of the river. The moon was moving into position overhead. Ashley used the stars as her compass, trying to verify that the current was taking them to the south.
“Yeah,” Tim said. “You were right. See?”
She opened her eyes wide, trying to make out the shoreline.
“What planet is that?” Lisa asked.
“Where?” Ashley asked. She couldn’t see where Lisa was looking. Ashley tried to orient herself based on the sound of Lisa’s voice.
“There. If the direction we’re headed is twelve, then what is that at two o’clock?”
Ashley spun until she saw the light on the horizon. Too bright to be a star—it did look like a planet. The only problem was that there was no planet in that direction.
“Is it a reflection?” Tim asked.
“Of what?” Lisa asked.
“I think we’re going to know soon enough,” Ashley said. “The current is taking us in that direction.”
Chapter 61: Jackson
Jackson gripped the door handle with one hand and the side of the seat with his other. He didn’t dare tell Merle to slow down—that would only make him drive faster. The kid had grown up on the backs of motorcycles and the beds of trucks. Nothing scared him. It was no comfort to remind himself that Merle’s reckless behavior was probably his own fault.
The radio on the dashboard lit up as the speakers squawked.
“Jackson? Merle? We’re going to close the big doors. Liam says you have another way in?”
Jackson reached for the microphone and bounced untethered as he answered Mike.
“Yeah, Mike, we’re good. We’ll be back ASAP.”
“Stay safe,” Mike said.
The radio went dark again a few seconds later.
“Turn up here,” Jackson said.
“I know how to get to Mom’s,” Merle snapped.
“I know you know, but the road around the bend up near the…”
“Yeah, I know. And, not that you’d believe me, but this rig can make it just fine through stuff like that.”
“I believe you,” Jackson mumbled.
They bounced along the terrible road in silence. Jackson hoped that his son could see more than he could. To him, the trees and rocks appeared like magic out of the dark. If he were driving, he would have been jerking the wheel left and right, constantly surprised by the terrain.
“How is your mom?” Jackson asked.
Merle shot a quick glance at him.
“Fine.”
“She’s going to hate the idea of being underground. I remember when we were young, she never even wanted to sleep inside. We had this little place on a point of land on the lake. Even when it was freezing cold, she would sleep out in the yard.”
“She sleeps inside now.”
“I know,” Jackson said. It was like this more and more with him and Merle. It was like they were fighting over the memory of Amy Lynne, and she was still alive.
“Your house is nice. The inside, I mean.”
“You only saw the garage,” Merle said.
“I didn’t even hear a generator. You running a solar rig and batteries?”
“No. Hydro. You know that dam down on Redden Pond?”
Jackson laughed. “You ran cable all the way down to there? How did you do it?”
Merle glanced at him again, maybe to see if Jackson was laughing at him. Eventually, he smiled too.
“It wasn’t hard. They had spools of the stuff down at the coal plant. I just put one in the bed, lashed the end to a tree, and drove.”
Jackson laughed again.
“You should be working with Mike. He’s smart, but he’s not nearly as ingenious as you, you know?”
Merle shrugged off the compliment.
“No, I’m serious. There’s a big difference between those guys that always talk about shit and people who just go out and do it. You’re the kind who goes out and gets shit done.”
Jackson was still smiling and shaking his head when the enormous figure appeared in the headlights. By that point, he was so accustomed to his son casually drifting around obstacles that Jackson didn’t even react to the sight. Jackson assumed that they would veer slightly and Merle would avoid the thing by inches, just like he did all the rocks and trees. There was a big difference with this thing—when Merle went to swerve, the animal bolted, running right into their new path.
Jackson had less than a second to realize that the moose still had velvet on its antlers. Just before the hood of the truck impacted with the bull moose’s body, Jackson wondered if those antlers would be any softer because of the velvet when they came through the windshield.
The moose’s head flopped down onto the hood before its body slid up, rolling over the bars mounted to the grill of Merle’s giant truck. Jackson started to raise his arms, to protect his face from the impact. When the airbag went off, his right arm was pushed to the side. His left forearm was driven straight back into Jackson’s face.
The lights went out.
Jackson blinked and heard himself moan. He was trying to call for his son, but all that would come out of his mouth was a strange groaning sound. His throat ached with the effort. There was a weight on his chest. It hurt to inhale. Jackson was limited to short, unsatisfying breaths.
When he blinked again and felt the warm breath on his neck, Jackson realized that the moaning wasn’t coming from his own mouth. The nose of the giant moose was pressed against his neck. Jackson’s right arm was pinned. He lifted his left arm to push the moose away and a jolt of lightning ran up his arm. Bones ground together. This time, the moan did come from his own lips. The pain escaped through his mouth, only to fire off another round from the tips of his fingers.
Jackson’s lips
formed around his son’s name, but there was no more air left to make the sound. Trying to inhale again, the world swam and faded.
Jackson was curled up with the puppies. They were licking his face and neck. It would have been perfect, except the mother dog was parked on his chest, suffocating him with her weight.
“How are you so heavy?” Jackson thought. She was pressing so hard on his chest that he couldn’t even ask the question aloud.
He wet his pants.
The smell of his own urine made him blink and open his eyes. From the glow of the headlights in the trees, he saw the giant eye of the moose. It was pointed right at him, but the moose didn’t seem to see. Maybe it was having its own dream of puppies. Jackson tried to pull back from the moose’s tongue as it licked his neck and chin. His head was constrained by the headrest.
He managed to turn to his left and saw his left arm. One of the bones of his forearm had broken. Pain shot through again when he tried to turn it. Jackson saw the tip of the broken bone pressing against his skin. Enduring the pain, he pressed his elbow into the steering wheel and managed to shift his body. The pressure against his chest lessened and he was able to take a deep breath.
Cracked ribs delivered new pain. Jackson could take it. Anything was better than the feeling that he couldn’t breathe. With a fresh lungful of air, Jackson managed to squeeze out a single word.
“Merle?”
The moose moaned in response. The animal’s breath tickled Jackson’s chin. When it snorted and chuffed out air, it stung Jackson’s eyes. There was a mist of blood on the moose’s breath.
“Merle?”
He heard no response.
Jackson pressed his elbow down again and wriggled another inch to his left. He could feel his right arm loosening against the weight that pinned it down. With another inch or two, he might be able to move it. Then, he might get free.
The moose blinked and its great eye seemed to clear. It focused on Jackson. He saw panic brewing there.
“No,” Jackson managed to say just before the moose freaked out.
The animal tried to pull back, but it was ensnared in twisted metal. It managed to thrash its giant neck, sending its skull into Jackson’s ribs and a velveted antler into Jackson’s thigh.
He had a moment to consider that it could have been worse. Later in the season, the velvet would be shed and the antlers would be hard and sharp. The thought had just crossed his mind when the antler rammed down again—this time into Jackson’s crotch. His groan seemed to panic the animal even more.
Chapter 62: Liam
“That’s the last of them,” Mike said. He waved the last couple through the door and clicked his radio. “Jackson? Merle? We’re going to close the big doors. Liam says you have another way in?”
The voice that came back was just audible over a rumbling engine.
“Yeah, Mike, we’re good. We’ll be back ASAP.”
“Stay safe,” Mike said.
Mike turned to Liam.
“Okay, you know how to shut these doors?” Mike asked.
“I think you just let go of the button and they automatically shut themselves,” Liam said. Liam and Mike both stepped back together. They were in the soft glow of the bunker’s chemical lights. Outside, darkness had eaten the world. Liam could just see the glow of the moon coming up. They had moved all the trucks away from the doorway after they had unloaded them.
After a few seconds, the wall began to silently descend and another panel came up to meet it from the floor. Mike stuffed his hands in his pockets and backed up. He was growing more and more uncomfortable as the gap of the hatch diminished. Liam felt more safe.
When the doors finally shut them in, Liam let out a contended sigh.
“How does this place work?” Mike asked.
“You’re going to have to ask Merle,” Liam said. “He knows a lot more about it than I do. He said that a lot of it is chemical, hydraulic, or operated by gravity. I don’t know what he meant by that though.”
Mike was glancing around, like he was seeing the hallway for the first time. When they had showed up, everyone had been so focused on getting the supplies inside, that Mike hadn’t even ventured past the entrance of the place.
“Tell me what you know?” Mike asked.
“Sure. Let me show you the stairs.”
In the big room, Mike was captivated by the machines. He studied them, moving around each with reverence as he tried to discern their capabilities. Sariah walked with him. Her arms were folded and she stayed back, making her comments with an even tone to Mike’s whispered questions.
“Do you think this air purifier has a turbine or anything?” he asked.
“Not unless it’s located elsewhere. My impression is that it works like a reverse osmosis filter. I would bet that the only moving parts are the gates that direct the flow,” she said.
Mike stood back and shook his head.
“I don’t… I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I would bet that there were few people in the world who had. This technology was probably deemed secret due to national security,” she said.
“And feel this intake versus the output of this water purifier,” Mike said, moving on to the next machine. “Somehow this unit is both cleaning and heating the water that moves through it. How is that possible?”
Sariah shrugged. “There must be maintenance manuals around here somewhere. I bet you could learn more from those than inspecting the machines.”
“Yeah,” Mike said. “Yeah.”
He stepped back into the aisle and had to move out of the way of someone transporting supplies. They were like an assembly line, moving in all of the produce and gear on the flat carts. Liam looked over to the people stepping off the elevator and wondered if any of them had seen or heard anything strange on their trip. He wanted to ask, but decided that it would be best to wait until they had finished. There was no need to cause a stir. Maybe he was the only one who had heard anything.
Except that wasn’t true—Merle had been terrified of the elevators too.
“Mike?” someone asked. “People are wrapping up their last trips. What should we be doing now?”
“Where’s Carrie?” Mike asked.
The man pointed at the store room.
“Let’s go talk to Carrie and see how she wants to proceed.”
Liam fell in behind Mike and Sariah as they walked. They folded themselves into the line of carts marching toward the storeroom. The other direction, the line had ended. There were no more carts needed above.
Carrie was working with a group in the storeroom, cataloguing and organizing all the supplies. Mike waited for her to finish. At her suggestion, people went off to move things around. Carrie had a way of leading without ordering.
“Hey, Carrie, what do you think about the move-in? From what Liam tells me, there are different barracks. There might be some officer’s quarters and some bigger rooms for the grunts.”
“And we should start moving the food toward the kitchens, assuming there is appropriate dry and cool storage,” Sariah said.
Carrie nodded.
“We’re separating out the food now. If there is going to be a clear quality disparity between the living quarters, I want to know that before anyone puts dibs on a room. Can you make an inventory with the amenities broken out in a grid?”
Mike nodded.
“Liam, you’ll come with us? You’ve already seen the layout.”
Liam blinked and glanced around. Ideally, he would position himself out the outskirts of the biggest group of people and stay there.
“I really didn’t learn much,” he said.
“Anything would help, really,” Mike said. “I’m not asking for a guided tour or anything.”
They were all looking at him.
“Yeah. Okay,” he said.
Liam froze when he saw the mark on the floor. The ghosts had been busy in the short time that he had been away. They had made arrows on the floor—arrows and
letters.
“Smart,” Mike said. “They’ve left a trail and started a map.”
“These point back to the storeroom,” Sariah said, pointing, “and these show us which way they went.”
She pulled out a notepad and began to sketch out the corridors.
“Who?” Liam asked.
“Robby and his kids,” Mike said.
“Oh.”
“Let’s catch up with them and see what they’ve learned,” Sariah said. She strode forward down the passage.
Liam looked back at the doors to the machine room.
“If you guys have those, then you don’t need me.”
“Nonsense,” Mike said. “Every bit helps. Don’t worry—we’re going to be fine, I promise.”
They caught up to Sariah at the corner. The arrows on the floor pointed which way to go, but she was waiting there.
“I saw something,” she said. “I don’t think it was Robby, and it was too big to be one of the kids.”
“Someone else in here?” Mike asked. “Maybe someone is living here?”
She was shaking her head. “Not unless they know how to vanish. The thing didn’t really walk away as much as it vanished.”
Mike and Sariah stared at each other. They seemed to be having a conversation without actually saying anything. It made Liam uncomfortable, like he was eavesdropping on something private. That was stupid though—he had no idea what they were communicating to each other.
“I think, maybe, it’s some kind of security system?” Liam said. “I mean, I was thinking that earlier. Maybe they made some kind of illusions around in order to frighten people away? There were a few things that Merle and I saw.”
Mike nodded. “The technology here is pretty advanced. I wouldn’t put it out of the question.”
He and Sariah exchanged a nod. She kept going. Liam had to rush to keep up with the two of them. They walked at a pace that made him breathe hard just to stay with them. She tracked the arrows and rounded corners without hesitation. Mike swiveled his head constantly, taking in all the details. She was in charge of navigation and Mike made the observations. Liam was just tagging along.