Bird Box

by Josh Malerman

  ‘How far away are they?’ Malorie asks.

  But the Boy is crying.

  ‘I can’t do it!’

  ‘Keep your voice down!’ she hisses.

  Something grunts from the left bank. It sounds like a pig. Then another one. And another.

  The river feels too thin. The banks too close.

  Does something follow them?

  Malorie rows.

  For the first time since arriving at the house, Malorie knows something the others don’t.

  Tom and Jules have just returned. As the housemates prepared dinner, Tom brought the new stock of canned goods to the cellar. Malorie met him down there. Maybe Gary kept the notebook because he wanted to study Frank’s writing. Or maybe he wrote it himself. But Tom needed to know. Now.

  In the cellar light, he looked tired but triumphant. His fair hair was dirty. His features looked more aged than the first time she was down here with him. He was losing weight. Methodically, he removed cans from his and Jules’s duffel bags and set them on the shelves. He began talking about what it was like inside the grocery store, the stench of so much rotten food, when Malorie found her opportunity.

  But just when she did, the cellar door opened.

  It was Gary.

  ‘I’d like to help you if I can,’ he said to Tom from the top of the stairs.

  ‘All right,’ Tom said. ‘Come on down then.’

  Malorie exited as Gary reached the dirt floor.

  Now everybody is seated at the dining room table. And Malorie is still looking for her opportunity.

  Tom and Jules describe their week slowly. The facts are incredible, but Malorie’s mind is fixed on Gary. She tries to act normal. She listens to what they say. Each minute that passes is another in which Tom doesn’t know that Gary may be a threat to the rest of them.

  It almost feels like she and the others are intruding on Gary’s space. Like Gary and Don had the decency to invite them into their dining room, their favourite place for exchanging whispered words. The two have spent so much time in here that it smells of them. Would they have joined the group if dinner was served in the living room? Malorie doesn’t think so.

  As Tom describes walking three miles blindfolded, Gary is affable, talkative, and inquisitive. And every time he opens his mouth Malorie wants to yell at him to stop. Come clean first, she wants to say.

  But she waits.

  ‘Would you say then,’ Gary says, his mouth full of crab, ‘that you are now convinced animals are not affected?’

  ‘No, I wouldn’t say that,’ Tom says. ‘Not yet. Maybe we just didn’t pass anything for them to see.’

  ‘That’s unlikely,’ Gary says.

  Malorie almost screams it.

  Tom then announces he has another surprise for everyone.

  ‘Your duffel bag is a veritable clown car,’ Gary says, smiling.

  When Tom returns, he’s carrying a small brown box. From it, he pulls forth eight bicycle horns.

  ‘We got these at the grocery store,’ he says. ‘In the toy aisle.’

  He hands them out.

  ‘Mine has my name on it,’ Olympia says.

  ‘They all do,’ Tom says. ‘I wrote them, blindfolded, with a Sharpie.’

  ‘What are they for?’ Felix asks.

  ‘We’re inching toward a life of spending more time outside,’ Tom answers, sitting down. ‘We can signal one another with these.’

  Suddenly, Gary honks his horn. It sounds like a goose. Then it sounds like geese, as everyone honks their horns chaotically.

  The circles under Felix’s eyes stretch as he smiles.

  ‘And this,’ Tom says, ‘is the grand finale.’ He reaches into his duffel bag and pulls forth a bottle. It’s rum.

  ‘Tom!’ Olympia says.

  ‘It’s the real reason I wanted to go back to my house,’ he jokes.

  Malorie, listening to the housemates laugh, seeing their smiling faces, can stand it no longer.

  She stands up and slams her palms on the table.

  ‘I looked through Gary’s briefcase,’ she says. ‘I found the notebook he told us about. The one about tearing the blankets down. The one he said Frank took with him.’

  The room goes silent. Every housemate is looking at her. Her cheeks are red with heat. Sweat prickles her hairline.

  Tom, still holding the bottle of rum, studies Malorie’s face. Then he slowly turns to Gary.

  ‘Gary?’

  Gary looks to the tabletop.

  He’s buying time, Malorie thinks. The fucker is buying time to think.

  ‘Well,’ he says, ‘I hardly know what to say.’

  ‘You looked through someone else’s things?’ Cheryl says, rising.

  ‘I did. Yes. I know that violates the rules of the house. But we need to talk about what I found.’

  The room is silent again. Malorie is still standing. She feels electric.

  ‘Gary?’ Jules pushes.

  Gary leans back in his chair. He breathes deep. He crosses his arms over his chest. Then he uncrosses them. He looks serious. Annoyed. Then he grins. He stands up and goes to the briefcase. He brings it back and sets it on the table.

  The others are staring at the briefcase, but Malorie is watching Gary’s face.

  He snaps the case open, then pulls forth the notebook.

  ‘Yes,’ Gary says. ‘I do have it on me. I do have Frank’s notebook.’

  ‘Frank’s?’ Malorie repeats.

  ‘Yes,’ Gary says, turning towards her. Then, maintaining his theatrical, gentlemanly way of speaking, he adds, ‘You little snoop.’

  Suddenly, everybody is talking at once. Felix is asking for the notebook. Cheryl wants to know when Malorie found it. Don is pointing his finger at Malorie and yelling.

  In the chaos, Gary, still looking at Malorie, says, ‘You paranoid pregnant whore.’

  Jules is upon him. The dogs are barking. Tom gets between them. He is yelling at everyone to stop. Stop it. Malorie does not move. She stares at Gary.

  Jules relents.

  ‘She needs to explain this right now,’ Don explodes. He has leapt to his feet and is pointing angrily at Malorie.

  Tom looks to her.

  ‘Malorie?’ he says.

  ‘I don’t trust him.’

  The housemates wait for more.

  Olympia says, ‘What does the notebook say?’

  ‘Olympia!’ Malorie says. ‘The notebook is right there. Fucking read it for yourself.’

  But Felix already has it in his hands.

  ‘Why do you have a souvenir from a man who put your life in danger?’ he demands.

  ‘That’s exactly why I have it,’ Gary says insistently. ‘I wanted to know what Frank was thinking. I lived with him for weeks and never suspected he was capable of trying to kill us. Maybe I held on to it as a warning. To make sure I didn’t start thinking like him. To make sure none of you did either.’

  Malorie shakes her head vehemently.

  ‘You told us Frank took the notebook with him,’ she says.

  Gary starts to respond. Then he stops.

  ‘I don’t have a satisfactory response for that,’ Gary says. ‘Possibly I thought you would be frightened if you knew I had it on me. You can think what you will, but I’d rather you trusted me. I don’t fault you for looking through a stranger’s luggage, given the circumstances under which we’re all living. But at least allow me to defend myself.’

  Tom is looking at the notebook now. The words crawl beneath his eyes.

  Don takes it next. His angry expression slowly turns to confusion.

  Then, as if Malorie’s aware of something greater than what any vote might solve, she points a finger at Gary and says, ‘You can’t stay here anymore. You have to leave.’

  ‘Malorie,’ Don says with little conviction, ‘come on. The man is explaining himself.’

  ‘Don,’ Felix says, ‘are you fucking nuts?’

  The notebook still in his hands, Don turns to Gary.

 
‘Gary,’ he says, ‘you must realize how bad this looks.’

  ‘I do. Of course I do.’

  ‘This isn’t your writing? Can you prove that?’

  Gary removes a pen from the briefcase and writes his name on a page in the notebook.

  Tom looks at it for a second.

  ‘Gary,’ Tom says, ‘the rest of us need to talk. Sit here if you want to. You’d hear us in the other room anyway.’

  ‘I understand,’ Gary says. ‘You’re the captain of this ship. Whatever you say.’

  Malorie wants to hit him.

  ‘All right,’ Tom says calmly to the others, ‘what do we do?’

  ‘He has to go,’ Cheryl says without hesitation.

  Then Tom begins the vote.

  ‘Jules?’

  ‘He can’t stay here, Tom.’

  ‘Felix?’

  ‘I want to say no. I want to say we can’t vote to send someone outside. But there’s just no reason to have that book.’

  ‘Tom,’ Don says, ‘we’re not voting to send someone out who wants to go this time. We’re voting on forcing someone to do it. Do you want that on your conscience?’

  Tom turns to Olympia.

  ‘Olympia?’

  ‘Tom,’ Don says.

  ‘You voted, Don.’

  ‘We can’t force someone outside, Tom.’

  The notebook is resting on the table. It’s open. The words are immaculately presented.

  ‘I’m sorry, Don,’ Tom says.

  Don turns to Olympia, hoping.

  But she does not answer. And it doesn’t matter. The house has spoken.

  Gary rises. He picks up the notebook and places it back in the case. He stands behind his chair and raises his chin. He breathes deeply. He nods.

  ‘Tom,’ Gary says, ‘do you think I might have one of your helmets? One neighbour to another.’

  ‘Of course,’ Tom says quietly.

  Then Tom leaves the room. He returns with a helmet and some food. He hands it all to Gary.

  ‘It just works like this then?’ Gary says, adjusting the strap on the helmet.

  ‘This is terrible,’ Olympia laments.

  Tom helps Gary put the helmet on. Then he walks him to the front door. The housemates follow in a group.

  ‘I think every house on this block is empty,’ Tom says. ‘From what Jules and I discovered. You have your pick of them.’

  ‘Yes,’ Gary says, nervously smiling beneath the blindfold. ‘That’s encouraging I suppose.’

  Malorie, burning inside, watches Gary carefully.

  When she closes her eyes, when they all do, she hears the front door open and close. And in between she thinks she hears his feet upon the lawn. When she opens them, Don is no longer standing in the foyer with the others. She thinks he has left with Gary. Then she hears something move in the kitchen.

  ‘Don?’

  He grunts. She knows it is him.

  He mutters something before opening and slamming the cellar door.

  Another profanity. Aimed at Malorie.

  As the others silently scatter, she understands the severity of what they’ve done.

  It feels like Gary is everywhere outside.

  He’s been banished. Ostracized.

  Cast out.

  Which is worse? she asks herself. Having him here, where we could keep an eye on him, or having him out there, where we can’t?

  Does Gary follow you?

  The sounds of someone behind them, distant yet in earshot, continues.

  He’s trying to scare you. He could overtake you at any time.

  Gary.

  That was four years ago!

  Could he have been waiting four years for revenge?

  ‘Mommy,’ the Boy whispers.

  ‘What is it?’

  She fears what he is about to say.

  ‘The sound, it’s getting closer.’

  Where has Gary been for four years? He’s been watching you. Waiting outside the house. He watched the kids grow. Watched the world grow colder, darker, until a fog came, one you foolishly thought would mask you. He saw through it. Through the fog. He’s seen everything you’ve done. He’s SEEN you, Malorie. Everything you’ve done.

  ‘Damn it!’ she yells. ‘It’s impossible!’ Then, turning her neck, the muscles resisting, she yells, ‘Leave us alone!’

  A row isn’t what it used to be. Not like it was when they started today. Then, she had two strong shoulders. A full heart of energy. Four years to propel her.

  For all she’s endured, she refuses to believe it’s possible that Gary is behind her. It’d be such a cruel twist. A man out there all these years. Not a creature, but a man.

  MAN IS THE CREATURE HE FEARS

  The sentence, Gary’s sentence, only six words, has been with her since the night she read it in the cellar. And isn’t it true? When she heard a stick break through the amplifiers she retrieved with Victor, when she heard footsteps on the lawn outside, what did she fear most? An animal? A creature?

  Or man?

  Gary. Always Gary.

  He could’ve got in at any time. Could’ve broken a window. Could’ve attacked her when she got water from the well. Why would he wait? Always following, always lurking, not quite ready to pounce.

  He’s mad. The old way.

  MAN IS THE CREATURE HE FEARS

  ‘Is it a man, Boy?’

  ‘I can’t tell, Mommy.’

  ‘Is it someone rowing?’

  ‘Yes. But with hands instead of paddles.’

  ‘Are they rushing? Are they waiting? Tell me more. Tell me everything you hear.’

  Who follows you?

  Gary.

  Who follows you?

  Gary.

  Who follows you?

  Gary Gary Gary Gary

  ‘I don’t think they’re in a boat,’ the Boy suddenly says. He sounds proud for having finally been able to make a distinction.

  ‘What do you mean? Are they swimming?’

  ‘No, Mommy. They’re not swimming. They’re walking.’

  Far behind, she hears something she’s never heard. It’s like lightning. A new kind. Or like birds, all of them, in every tree, no longer singing, no longer cooing, but screaming.

  It echoes, once, harsh, across the river, and Malorie feels a chill colder than any October air could deliver.

  She rows.

  Don is in the cellar. Don is always in the cellar. He sleeps down there now. Does he dig a tunnel where the dirt shows? Does he dig a tunnel deeper, lower, farther into the earth? Farther away from the others? Does he write? Does he write a notebook like the one Malorie found in Gary’s briefcase?

  Gary.

  He’s been gone five weeks. What has it done to Don?

  Did he need someone like Gary? Did he need another ear?

  Don sinks farther into himself like he sinks farther into the house, and now he is in the cellar.

  He is always in the cellar.

  It is what Malorie will later consider to be the last night in the house, though she will spend the next four years here. Her belly looks so big in the mirror that it scares her, looks like it could fall right off her body. She speaks to the baby.

  ‘You’re going to come out any day now. There are so many things I want to tell you and so many that I don’t.’

  Her black hair is the longest it’s been since she was a little girl. Shannon used to be jealous of it.

  You look like a princess. I look like the princess’s sister, she’d say.

  Living off canned goods and well water, she can see some of her ribs, despite the bulge of her belly. Her arms are twig-thin. The features of her face are sharp and hard. Her eyes, deeper set in her skull, are striking, even to herself, in the mirror.

  The housemates are gathered in the living room downstairs. Earlier today, the last names in the phone book were called. There are no more. Felix said they made close to five thousand calls. They left seventeen messages. That’s it. But Tom is encouraged.


  Now, as Malorie examines her body in the mirror, she hears one of the dogs growl downstairs.

  It sounds like Victor. Stepping into the hall, she listens.

  ‘What is it, Victor?’ she hears Jules say.

  ‘He doesn’t like it,’ Cheryl says.

  ‘Doesn’t like what?’

  ‘Doesn’t like the cellar door.’

  The cellar. It’s no secret Don wants nothing to do with the rest of the house. When Tom instigated his plan for calling the phone book, assigning each housemate a group of letters, Don declined, citing his ‘lack of faith’ in the process as a whole. In the seven weeks since they shut the front door on Gary, Don hasn’t joined the others for meals. He hardly speaks at all.

  Malorie hears a kitchen chair slide on the floor.

  ‘You okay, Victor?’ Jules says.

  Malorie hears the cellar door open, then Jules calls out.

  ‘Don? You down there?’

  ‘Don?’ Cheryl echoes.

  There is a muffled response. The door closes again.

  Curious and anxious, Malorie pulls her shirt over her belly and heads downstairs.

  When she enters the kitchen, she sees Jules is kneeling, consoling Victor, who now whines and paces. Malorie looks in the living room. There she sees Tom is looking at the blanketed windows.

  He’s listening for the birds, she thinks. Victor is scaring him.

  As if sensing she is watching him, Tom turns towards Malorie. Victor is whining behind her.

  ‘Jules,’ Tom says, entering the kitchen, ‘what do you think it is? What’s scaring him?’

  ‘I don’t know. Obviously something’s got him rattled. He was scratching at the cellar door earlier. Don is down there. But it’s like pulling teeth to get him to talk. Even worse to get him upstairs.’

  ‘All right,’ Tom says. ‘Let’s go down there then.’

  When Jules looks up at Tom, Malorie sees fear on his face.

  What has Gary done to them?

  He’s introduced distrust, Malorie thinks. Jules is afraid of confronting Don at all.

  ‘Come on,’ Tom says. ‘It’s time we talk to him.’

  Jules stands up and puts his hand on the cellar doorknob. Victor begins growling again.

  ‘You stay here, boy,’ Jules says.

  ‘No,’ Tom says. ‘Let’s bring him with us.’

  Jules pauses, and then opens the cellar door.