Bird Box

by Josh Malerman

  They are.

  Then Tom is speaking, quietly.

  ‘Don, did you search by the back door?’

  ‘How the fuck should I know if I did it right, man?’

  ‘I’m just asking if you searched.’

  ‘I did. Yes. I did.’

  Tom says, ‘Felix, what happened?’

  Felix tells them. Every detail he remembers. Tom asks him to go over what happened at the end again. He wants to know more about what occurred at the back door. Before he was let in. As he was let in. Felix tells him again.

  ‘All right,’ Tom says again. ‘I’m opening my eyes.’

  Malorie tenses.

  ‘I’m fine,’ Tom says. ‘It’s okay.’

  Malorie opens her eyes. On the kitchen counter there are two buckets of well water. Felix is standing blindfolded by the back door. Jules is removing his blindfold.

  ‘Lock that door,’ Tom says.

  ‘It is,’ Cheryl says.

  ‘Jules,’ Tom says, ‘stack the chairs from the dining room in front of this door. Then block the window in the dining room with the table.’

  ‘Tom,’ Olympia says, ‘you’re scaring me.’

  ‘Don, come with me. We’re going to block the front door with the credenza. Felix, Cheryl, turn the couch in the living room on its side. Block one of the windows. I’ll find something to block the other one with.’

  The housemates are staring at Tom.

  ‘Come on,’ he says impatiently. ‘Let’s go!’

  As they begin to scatter, Malorie touches Tom’s arm.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Olympia and I can help. We’re pregnant, not crippled. We’ll put the mattresses upstairs over the windows.’

  ‘Okay. But do it blindfolded. And be as careful as you’ve ever been in your entire life.’

  Then Tom leaves the kitchen. When Malorie and Olympia pass the living room, Don is already in there, moving the couch. Upstairs, the two women delicately place Malorie’s mattress on its side against the blanket covering the window. They do the same in Olympia and Cheryl’s rooms.

  Downstairs again, the doors and windows are blockaded.

  The housemates are in the living room. They are standing very close together.

  ‘Tom,’ Olympia says, ‘is something out there?’

  Tom pauses before answering. Malorie sees something deeper than fear in Olympia’s eyes. She feels it herself, too.

  ‘Maybe.’

  Tom is staring at the windows.

  ‘But it could have been … a deer, right? Couldn’t it have been a deer?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  One by one the housemates sit upon the living room’s carpeted floor. They are shoulder to shoulder, back to back. In the centre of the room, the couch against one window, the kitchen chairs stacked against the other, they sit in silence.

  They listen.

  Cold river water splashes across Malorie’s pants as she rows. Each time it does she pictures one of the creatures in the river, cupping its hands, tossing it upon her, mocking her attempt at escape. She shivers.

  Olympia’s baby book, Malorie recalls, taught her many things. But there was one sentence in A Baby … at Last! that really struck a chord:

  Your baby is smarter than you think.

  At first, Malorie struggled to accept this. In the new world, babies had to be trained to wake up with their eyes closed. They had to be raised scared. There wasn’t room for unknowns. Yet, there were times when the Boy and the Girl surprised her.

  Once, having cleaned the upstairs hallway of the children’s makeshift toys, Malorie stepped into the living room. There, she heard something move in the room at the end of the first-floor hall.

  ‘Boy?’ she called. ‘Girl?’

  But she knew the children were in their bedroom. She’d locked them in their cribs less than an hour before.

  Malorie closed her eyes and stepped into the hall.

  She knew what the sound was. She knew exactly where every object in the house was located. It was a book falling from the table in the room Don and Jules once shared.

  At the children’s bedroom doorway, Malorie paused. Within, she heard soft snoring.

  A second crash from the unused room and Malorie gasped. The bathroom was only a few feet from her. The children were sleeping. If she could just get into the bathroom, she could defend herself.

  Blindly, her arms raised in front of her face, she moved quickly, smashing into the wall before finding the bathroom doorway. Inside, she hit her hip hard against the sink. Frantically feeling along the wall, she felt the cloth of a towel hanging. She wrapped it tightly around her eyes. Knotted it twice. Then, behind the open door, she found what she was looking for.

  The garden axe.

  Armed, blindfolded, she exited the bathroom. Gripping the axe handle with both hands, she inched towards the door she knew was always closed. A door that was now open.

  She stepped inside.

  She swung the axe, blindly, at eye level. It struck the wood wall and Malorie screamed as splinters exploded. She turned and swung again, this time connecting with the opposite wall.

  ‘Get out! Leave my children alone!’

  Heaving, she waited.

  For a response. For movement. For whatever it was that knocked the books over in there.

  Then she heard the Boy, at her feet, whimpering.

  ‘Boy?’

  Stunned, kneeling, Malorie found him fast. She removed the towel and opened her eyes.

  In his tiny hands she saw he held a ruler. Beside him were the books.

  She picked him up and carried him into his bedroom. There, she saw the wire lid of the crib open. She set him next to it on the floor. Then she closed it again and asked him to open it. The Boy just stared at her. She toyed with the little lock, asking him to show her if he could open it. Then he did.

  Malorie slapped him.

  At Last … a Baby!

  She recalled Olympia’s baby book. Now her own.

  And the one sentence from it she tried hard to ignore came back to her.

  Your baby is smarter than you think.

  It used to worry her. But today, in the boat, using the children’s ears as guides, she clings to it, hoping the children are as prepared as anybody can be for what may come, farther along the river.

  Yes, she hopes they are smarter than what may lay ahead.

  ‘I’m not drinking that water,’ Malorie says.

  The housemates are exhausted. They slept packed together on the living room floor, though nobody slept for very long.

  ‘We can’t go days without water, Malorie,’ Tom says. ‘Think about the baby.’

  ‘That’s who I’m thinking about.’

  In the kitchen, on the counter, the two buckets Felix filled are still untouched. One by one the housemates lick their dry lips. It has been twenty-four hours and the likelihood of its being much longer weighs on all their minds.

  They are thirsty.

  ‘Can we drink the river water?’ Felix asks.

  ‘Bacteria,’ Don says.

  ‘That depends,’ Tom says. ‘How cold the water is. How deep. How fast it flows.’

  ‘And anyway,’ Jules says, ‘if something got into the well, I’m sure it’s gotten into the river.’

  Contamination, Malorie thinks. It’s the word of the hour.

  In the cellar are three buckets of urine and faeces. Nobody wants to take them outside. Nobody wants to go out there at all today. The smell is strong in the kitchen and hangs faintly in the living room.

  ‘I would drink the river water,’ Cheryl says. ‘I’d chance it.’

  ‘You’d go out there?’ Olympia asks. ‘There could be something standing right on the other side of the door!’

  ‘I don’t know what I heard,’ Felix says. He’s repeated this many times. He’s said he feels guilty for scaring everybody.

  ‘It was probably a person,’ Don says. ‘Probably somebody looking to rob us.’

 
‘Do we have to figure this out right now?’ Jules asks. ‘It’s been one day. We haven’t heard anything. Let’s wait. One more day. See if we feel better.’

  ‘I’d even drink from the buckets,’ Cheryl says. ‘It’s a well, for fuck’s sake. Animals fall into wells all the time. They die down there. We’ve probably been drinking dead animal water this whole time.’

  ‘The water in this neighbourhood has always been good,’ Olympia says.

  Malorie gets up. She walks to the kitchen’s entrance. The water glistens at the rim of the wood bucket, shines in the one of metal.

  What would it do to us? she thinks.

  ‘Can you imagine drinking a little part of one?’ Tom asks.

  Malorie turns. He is standing beside her. His shoulder rubs against hers in the doorway.

  ‘I can’t do it, Tom.’

  ‘I wouldn’t ask you to. But I can ask myself.’

  When Malorie looks him in the eye she knows he is serious.

  ‘Tom.’

  Tom turns to face the others in the dining room.

  ‘I’ll drink it,’ he says.

  ‘We don’t need a champion,’ Don says.

  ‘I’m not looking to be one, Don. I’m thirsty.’

  The housemates are quiet. Malorie sees the same thing in their faces that she’s feeling herself. For as scared as she is, she wants someone to drink it.

  ‘This is insane,’ Felix says. ‘Come on, Tom. We can figure something else out.’

  Tom steps into the dining room. At the table, he looks Felix in the eye.

  ‘Lock me in the cellar. I’ll drink it down there.’

  ‘You’ll go mad from the smell,’ Cheryl says.

  Tom smiles sadly.

  ‘We have a well, right in our backyard,’ he says. ‘If we can’t use it, we can’t use anything. Let me do this.’

  ‘You know who you sound like?’ Don asks.

  Tom waits.

  ‘You sound like George. Except he had a theory.’

  Tom looks to the dining room table, set against the window.

  ‘We’ve been here for months,’ he says. ‘If something got in the well yesterday, it probably got in there before.’

  ‘You’re rationalizing,’ Malorie says.

  Tom answers without turning to face her.

  ‘Is there any option? Sure, the river. But we could get sick. Real sick. We don’t have any medicine. All we’ve had so far is the water from the well. It’s the only medicine we’ve got. What else can we do? Walk to the next well? And then what? Hope nothing got into that one?’

  Malorie watches as, one by one, the housemates acquiesce. The natural rebellion in Don’s face gives way to concern. The fear in Olympia’s eyes turns to guilt. As for herself, Malorie doesn’t want him to do it. For the first time since arriving at the house, Tom’s role, how integral he is to everything that happens here, is blinding.

  But instead of stopping him, he inspires her. And she helps.

  ‘Not the cellar,’ she says. ‘What if you went mad down there and destroyed our food stock?’

  Tom faces her.

  ‘All right,’ he says. ‘Then the attic.’

  ‘A leap from that window is a lot higher than one from down here.’

  Tom stares into Malorie’s eyes.

  ‘I’ll make a compromise,’ he says. ‘The second floor. You gotta lock me somewhere. And there’s no place down here.’

  ‘You can use my room.’

  ‘That room,’ Don says, ‘is the very one George used to watch the video.’

  Malorie looks back to Tom.

  ‘I didn’t know that.’

  ‘Let’s do it,’ Tom says.

  He pauses, just a moment, before passing Malorie and entering the kitchen. Malorie follows. The housemates file in behind them. When he pulls a glass from the cupboard, Malorie gently grabs his arm.

  ‘Drink it through this,’ she says. She hands him a coffee filter. ‘I don’t know. A filter. Who knows?’

  Tom takes it. He looks her in the eye. Then he dunks the glass in the wooden well bucket.

  When he pulls it out, he holds it up. The housemates stand in a semicircle around it. They stare at the contents of the glass.

  The details of Felix’s story chill Malorie all over again.

  Carrying the glass, Tom leaves the kitchen. Jules gathers some rope from the kitchen pantry and follows him.

  The other housemates do not speak. Malorie places one hand on her belly and the other on the counter. Then she lifts it quickly, as if she’s just put her hand in a deadly substance.

  Contamination.

  But there was no water where she put her hand.

  Upstairs, the door to her bedroom closes. She listens as Jules ties the rope around the doorknob and fastens it to the railing of the staircase.

  Now Tom is locked in.

  Like George.

  Felix paces. Don leans against the wall, arms crossed, staring at the floor. When Jules returns, Victor goes to him.

  A sound comes from upstairs. Malorie gasps. The housemates look to the ceiling.

  They wait. They listen. Felix moves as if he’s going to go up there. Then he stops.

  ‘He must have drank it already,’ Don says quietly.

  Malorie steps to the entrance of the living room. There, ten feet away, is the foot of the stairs.

  There is only silence.

  Then there is a knock.

  And Tom yells.

  Tom yells Tom yells Tom yells Tom

  Malorie is already moving to the stairs, but Jules passes her.

  ‘Stay here!’ he commands.

  She watches him climb the stairs.

  ‘Tom!’

  ‘Jules, I’m okay.’

  At the sound of Tom’s voice, Malorie exhales. She reaches for the railing to steady herself.

  ‘Did you drink it?’ Jules says through the door.

  ‘I did. I drank it. I’m fine.’

  The other housemates are gathered behind her now. They begin talking. Quietly at first. Then excitedly. Upstairs, Jules unties the rope. Tom emerges from the bedroom holding the empty glass before him.

  ‘What was it like?’ Olympia asks.

  Malorie smiles. So do the others. It’s funny, in a dark way, right now, asking what drinking a glass of water was like.

  ‘Well,’ Tom says, descending, ‘it was probably the best glass of water I’ve ever had.’

  When he reaches the bottom he looks Malorie in the eye.

  ‘I liked the filter idea,’ he says. When he passes her, he sets the glass on the end table with the telephone. Then he turns to the others. ‘Let’s put the furniture back in order. Let’s put this place back together again.’

  On the river, Malorie feels the heat of the midday sun. Instead of bringing her peace, it reminds her how visible they must be.

  ‘Mommy,’ the Boy whispers.

  Malorie leans forward. Her palm is pierced by a splinter from the oar. This makes three.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Shhh,’ the Boy says.

  Malorie stops rowing. She is listening.

  The Boy is right. Something moves on land to their left. Sticks break. More than one.

  The man in the boat, Malorie’s mind screams, saw something on this river.

  Could it be him? Could he be out in the woods? Could he be after her, waiting for her to get stuck, ready to rip off her blindfold? The children’s?

  More sticks break. It moves slowly. Malorie thinks of the house they’ve left behind. They were safe there. Why did they leave? Is the place they are heading going to be any safer? How could it be? In a world where you can’t open your eyes, isn’t a blindfold all you could ever hope for?

  We left because some people choose to wait for news and others make their own.

  Like Tom used to say. Malorie, she knows, will never stop being inspired by him. The very thought of him, here, on the river, brings her hope.

  Tom, she wants to tell him, your ideas
were good.

  ‘Boy,’ she whispers, paddling again, fearful that they are too close to the left bank, ‘what do you hear?’

  ‘It’s close, Mommy.’ Then, ‘I’m scared.’

  There is a moment of silence. In it, Malorie imagines a danger only inches away.

  She stops paddling again, to listen better. She cranes her neck to the left.

  The front of the rowboat connects with something hard. Malorie shrieks. The children scream.

  We’ve run into the bank!

  Malorie jabs a paddle at where she thinks the mud is but she does not connect.

  ‘Leave us alone!’ she yells, her face contorted. Suddenly, she longs for the walls of the house. There are no walls on this river. No cellar beneath them. No attic above.

  ‘Mommy!’

  As the Girl screams for her, something breaks through the branches. Something big.

  Malorie jabs the paddle again but it only breaks the water. She grabs the Boy and Girl and pulls them close.

  She hears a growl.

  ‘Mommy!’

  ‘Quiet!’ she yells, pulling the Girl even closer.

  Is it the man? Deranged? Do the creatures growl? Do they make any noise at all?

  A second growl now and suddenly Malorie understands what it is. It’s doglike. Canine.

  Wolves.

  She doesn’t have time to coil before a wolf’s claw slashes her shoulder.

  She screams. Immediately she feels the warm blood cascading the length of her arm. Cold water sloshes in the rowboat’s bottom.

  Urine, too.

  They smell it on us, Malorie thinks, frantic, turning her head in every direction and aimlessly wielding the paddle. They know we can’t defend ourselves.

  She hears another low growling. It’s a pack. The rowboat’s tip is snagged on something. Malorie can’t find it with her paddle. But the boat swivels, as if the wolves have a hold of the bow.

  They could jump in! THEY COULD JUMP IN! Crawl to the front of the boat. You have to set it free.

  Swinging the paddle above the heads of the children, screaming, Malorie rises. The boat leans to the right. She thinks they’re going to tip. She steadies herself. The wolves snarl. Her shoulder is hot with a kind of pain she has never experienced before. Holding it, blindly, wildly, she waves a paddle at the boat’s tip. But she cannot reach it. So she steps forward.