The Fall

by J. L. Wood

  Inside the classroom, she surveyed the area, trying to understand what Chris was hinting at. Setting Moose on the desk, she looked through the cubbies affixed to the wall, but there was nothing of importance there, just a few notebooks and forgotten lunchboxes. She checked the window next, thinking maybe they left something outside. But that venture turned up empty as well. After a few laps around the room, checking the desk, bookcases, and even under tables, she gave up.

  Discouraged at the thought that more looters had come in before her, Mary picked up Moose and headed for the door. On the doorframe, her eyes caught a small arrow pointing to the right with the name Missy written under it. Mary followed the arrow to a corner of the room that contained a single lamp with an upside-down clear shade. She could make out a light shadow inside of it.

  Standing on her tiptoes, she patted her hand inside, feeling the cool metal of the master keyring. “Bingo,” she whispered as she pulled it out, realizing that Chris must have left her supplies for Lois. As Mary put her hand through the large keyring to keep it safe, Moose began to whimper again.

  “What is it, boy?” she asked. The whimpering continued, and Mary could finally hear what his concern was about—there was movement in the hall outside of the door.

  Mary leapt toward the desk and ducked behind it, peering out under the small gap between the back of the desk and the floor. As she held her breath, she tried to think of ways to escape or what would happen if one of the intruders were still there and found her. Mary slid one of the keys between her fingers, the end poking out as she had been taught in self-defense class, and waited for the intruder to enter the classroom. Moose’s whining increased, and two small feet in shiny white slippers reached the classroom doorway.

  Mary jumped up and ran to the door. “Ariel!” she whispered, hugging her tightly. “Where did everyone go? Why didn’t they take you?” Seeing Ariel not only alive but also walking around gave her hope for the kids who had not fared as well as Lois. Dr. Dressner had found a way to get children through the sickness. It was a miracle.

  Ariel fell into Mary’s arms and held her tight. “I don’t know,” she said.

  “Okay, well, I need you to be brave. You’re coming with me.” Mary put the strap of the dog crate over her arm and scooped Ariel up. “I just need to get a few things, okay? Then we’ll leave.”

  Ariel rested her head on Mary’s shoulder, the tube still protruding from the small hole in her skull. “Will my mom be there?” she asked, but Mary ignored the question.

  “We have ice cream where we’re going. How’s that sound?”

  *

  The school was still silent as Mary and Ariel made their way to the classroom with the crates. Once inside, Mary’s eyes immediately focused on a single suitcase in the middle of the room. The handle and wheels were caked with dried blood. She laid the suitcase down and pulled back the zipper. When she flipped the cover open, her eyes lit up.

  “Are you happy, Miss Carolly?” Ariel asked.

  Mary pulled out a bottle of Sim-Six and showed it to the girl. “Our friends were looking out for us. Yes, I’m very happy.” Mary began to zip up the suitcase and then paused. “Ariel, how do you feel?”

  “Good.”

  “Do you have any of the yuckiness you felt yesterday?”

  Ariel shook her head.

  “Let’s just take what we need, then. Maybe someone else will come by who needs it more.”

  Mary wasn’t sure what she needed, or if she would need anything at all. She remembered the well kids were on diuretics. She pulled out three bottles and stuffed them in Missy’s backpack. To be on the safe side, she pulled one bottle each of glucagon, Insidia, and Sim-Six. She then admired the remaining supplies. There were at least thirty MREs and enough medicine to help half a dozen children. At least if she saw someone who needed it, she could tell them where to go. “That’s good,” she said. “Maybe this can help someone.”

  She left the flap on the suitcase open and put Missy’s backpack on. She then called for Ariel to come close. “Now, remember what I said about being brave?” The little girl nodded but looked confused. “When we leave the school, I am going to carry you on my back, and I need you to hold on tight. Do not let go, no matter what. Can you do that for me?”

  The little girl nodded again, and Mary turned the backpack around so that it was over her chest. She knelt down and let the girl wrap her arms around her neck and then her legs around her hips.

  “Not so tight. I still need to breathe,” Mary instructed, causing the girl to loosen her grip a little. Mary secured Moose’s strap over her shoulder and headed toward the entrance of the building. She could already feel her muscles aching, but she couldn’t stop until she reached the house.

  Although Mary figured she could not have been at the school for more than a couple hours, the disruption outside had intensified. The stores were now barren, and the park had turned into one large block party with people drinking and dancing. All sorts of music blared in the background. It was the party of the century—the alien sympathizers had won the area.

  “Peace offering for the girl?” the crazy pedestrian asked when Mary reached the edge of the field. The ask caught her by surprise, and she gripped Ariel’s arm around her neck tight to keep her close.

  “We don’t want one,” Mary responded, making her way back toward Missy’s house.

  “You need to make peace!” the man shouted. “I have hundreds of balloons. I can make more!”

  Ariel leaned her head back, excited. “I want a balloon. Please, Miss Carolly. Please.”

  Mary hesitated. “Fine,” she said, heading back to the man. “We will take one.”

  The man pulled one of the balloons tied to his helium cart and handed it to Mary. As it bobbed in the air, she realized it had a poor drawing in black marker of one of the aliens on it. “Wonderful,” she muttered. “We will release it at home. Make a ceremony of it.”

  The man’s smile widened and his eyes twitched. “They will spare you! You and your girl!”

  Mary placed the string into Ariel’s hand. “Thank you for that. We should be going now.”

  The man stepped back, waving and jumping in excitement. “Spare them, galaxy brethren,” he yelled toward the sky. “Spare this wretched woman and her deformed child.”

  “Wretched? What the fuck?” Mary whispered under her breath, continuing down the path toward the corner store.

  When she reached the corner by the store, she felt relief knowing she was nearly at Missy’s house. Curious, she peered across the street. The front of the store was empty save for a few abandoned cars. Mary thought she saw a dead body by one of them, but she refused to look closer. Although Missy’s neighborhood had not yet been ransacked, it would only be a matter of time before looters started entering occupied houses. She needed to hurry and get Ariel safe.

  “Close your eyes until we reach the neighborhood gate,” she instructed. She could not tell whether Ariel obeyed or not, but the girl’s forearm pushed tighter against her neck. Mary’s back and legs ached from the weight, and she worried they would give out at any moment. She pushed forward, forcing her legs to move. With each step, she felt like there could not be another, but she continued to push uphill along the sidewalk until she was at the gate. “Oh…poop,” she muttered, remembering that she had forgotten the code to the gate. “Can you squeeze through?” she asked the girl while taking her balloon.

  Effortlessly, Ariel squeezed through the thin bars of the gate. “Okay, good,” Mary said while pushing the backpack through the bars toward her. Mary then tied the balloon to Moose’s crate. “I need you to catch this one. I’m going to slowly lower it.”

  She climbed to the top of the fence, her sneakers sliding on the smooth rails, and grasped her arms around the thin metal pokers. She could feel pressure in her stomach as she clenched herself to the bars and pulled the strap off. Stinging pain shot through her abdomen as she pulled the crate over the fence and dangled it for Ariel to catc
h. “Get it!” she shouted.

  Ariel grasped the small pink crate, and Mary fell to the ground, exhausted.

  “Miss Carolly! Are you okay?” she cried.

  Mary pulled herself up, her shirt drenched in sweat and jeans now constricted on her body. “I’m okay. I’m okay,” she replied, out of breath. “I’m coming over now.” Mary tried to lift herself up, but her hands, now drenched in sweat, slipped on the metal. “Fucking shit!” she yelled, falling over.

  “Miss Carolly,” the girl whimpered, but Mary ignored her. “Miss Carolly!”

  Mary turned over on the concrete sidewalk and snapped, “What? What is it?”

  The girl pointed forward, a look of concern on her face. “The balloon man.”

  Mary pushed herself up, terrified that the man had followed her. “You didn’t release your balloon,” the crazy man said. “You didn’t make your offering.”

  Mary backed up toward the fence. “We are going to. Just not right now.”

  The man eyed the bag. “What’s in there?”

  “What do you want?” Mary replied, her voice shaking.

  The man laughed. “I…I don’t want to hurt you. Don’t be scared. I want you to make your peace offering. Make it, and I will help you. I want to save you.”

  Mary wiped her hands on her jeans and jumped for the fence, pulling herself up to the metal spikes, but the man moved forward and pulled on her leg. She tried to kick at him with her free leg, but he was able to dodge the kicks. “Go away!” she yelled. “Get the fuck off me!”

  Ariel began to scream, a high-pitched cry that rang in Mary’s ears. “Ariel, run!” she yelled, but the girl stood still, bewildered. Mary stayed clenched to the top of the fence, unable to pull herself up. “Go!” she said, but the girl still did not move. Her eyes turned a full shade of brown, and her body froze. “Ariel!” Mary screamed. “Ariel!” Mary’s arms could hold her no longer, and she fell on her back, hitting her head on the hard ground.

  “Our brethren don’t want people like you,” the man said. “They despise you. That’s why there’s a cleansing.” He jumped on Mary, shoving his knee into her stomach and grabbing her by the throat. “Believe me, girl, I am doing you a kindness.”

  Mary tried to yell but couldn’t from the pressure on her throat. She felt her life escaping. Her face burned, and the image of the man was etched in her mind as she closed her eyes. Wild green eyes and frizzy gray hair. She forced her eyes open again and saw Ariel standing motionless, her jaw wide open, a small cloud of brown smoke forcefully escaping her. Was she seeing things just before dying? Mary felt so far away, like she was looking down on herself. Watching herself die a sad, pathetic death at the hands of a crazy man.

  The brown cloud grew in size, forming twelve large creatures similar to what Mary had seen on TV. This is it, she thought as she watched the creatures tear into the crazy pedestrian. Then she was going to sleep, a nice, deep sleep. She was watering the tomatoes on her porch garden. The fresh plants were so calming. So real. She was exactly where she wanted to be.

  *

  “Miss Carolly. Miss Carolly!” Ariel screamed, shaking Mary’s head. “Wake up!”

  Mary sat up, her head throbbing. “What happened? Did I fall?”

  Ariel nodded.

  As Mary pulled herself up, she saw a mound of blood, flesh, and torn clothes. “Oh, gross!” she recoiled, remembering the sight of the creatures. “Ariel…Ariel, I saw…”

  The girl squeezed through the fence again. “We should go.”

  Mary hesitated for a moment. She held up her index finger and started to say something but then stopped.

  “Miss Carolly?” the girl asked.

  Mary wiped her hands on her jeans again and jumped at the fence, barely pulling herself over, and collapsed on the ground. She then stared at Ariel with suspicion. The news had never mentioned the L8 leaving a child, or growing in size, let alone killing an adult in such a horrific manner. Nothing made sense, but she knew to keep this to herself. Missy wouldn’t be able to handle it. She picked up her belongings and looked down at Ariel, who was happily looking up at her. “I’ll need you to walk the rest of the way,” she said.

  The girl nodded and grabbed her hand. “Yes, Miss Carolly. And don’t worry. We’re safe now.”

  – 23 –

  Plus-One

  Jessica admired the view of Houston from one of the helicopter’s small square windows. The tiny homes reminded her of a Monopoly board, with the small plastic hotels lined up on a block of space. She felt like she could lean out and pick one up and hide it, similar to how she used to cheat when playing with her family as a child. Everything seemed so simple to her from the sky; it created the illusion of complete control. Although she was at the mercy of the dice roll, her choices were her own. She could play fair or she could cheat the system—it was all in her power.

  The sight of Delilah brought her back to the present reality. She was at the mercy of the system, specifically David. He held the boarding pass to the Malick, and if she never made it to the safe zone, few questions would be asked in such a time of chaos. So she basked in the view while it lasted, letting it fill her with optimism and hope before the world slowly chipped away at it.

  As the helicopter flew lower into the city, she could see crowds in the streets, smoke rising from burning buildings, large posters in many people’s hands that she couldn’t make out. “What’s going on down there?” she yelled over the noise from the helicopter to her fellow travelers.

  Justin leaned over and looked down at the crowds. “Looks like the city’s falling apart. I can’t say I’m shocked. I mean, what better way to cope with L8 than to destroy the place you live in, right?”

  Jessica rolled her eyes and looked on as another building was engulfed in flames and a mob scattered away from it and reformed a little farther down the road. If they behaved this way from the lack of a cure for L8, she wondered how they would act if they knew what she knew. Would they spend their last days on Earth destroying the city, or would they choose to be with their loved ones? She thought of her plus-one, her little brother, hoping he’d made it to his designated shuttle. She had no way of knowing until she reached the safe zone, and that bothered her deeply.

  The helicopter slowly descended onto the driveway of Donald Wolf’s home. His neighbors rushed out to see what the commotion was about. A few began recording the scene on their phones, and Jessica couldn’t understand for what purpose other than easy entertainment.

  “You have ten minutes to round up Don’s plus-one, then we need to leave,” Delilah instructed. “Ten minutes. David and I still need to get our people.”

  Jessica hesitated near the edge of the cabin door. “We will take the time we need. Tread lightly. You seem to have forgotten that you are not in charge of anything.”

  “Yeah, Delilah,” Justin chimed in. “If that is your real name.”

  Delilah looked to David, and he shifted in his seat. “The Malick is my ship,” he said from his seat. “This is a courtesy, Jessica. Ten minutes.”

  Jessica scoffed, then jumped down from the helicopter, Justin close behind her. As they walked to the porch, she decided to not mention anything about Don in order to save time. She resolved to fill Missy in once they were in the safe zone. Before Jessica reached the front door, she could hear Don’s dog barking wildly inside.

  “Where’s Don?” Missy yelled through the door.

  Jessica looked at Justin, but he only shrugged. “He’s not here,” she replied. “Let us in, we need to talk to you.”

  “Is Justin a terrorist?”

  Justin’s eyed widened. “What the fuck?”

  “Is…Justin…a terrorist? Answer the question and give me your word.”

  Jessica looked at Justin, whose forehead creased. He shook his head. “I swear on my life I am not a terrorist.”

  “I have a gun,” Missy said as she unlocked the door. “I’ll shoot you if I have to.”

  Jessica barged through the door.
“Listen, we have less than ten minutes. I need you to pack a bag and come with us. We’re evacuating.”

  Missy scowled. “Evacuating to where? Is this because of the space creatures? Are they here? Where’s Don?”

  “Wait, I want to know why you asked if I was a terrorist,” Justin said. “And what do you know of space creatures?”

  “Not now, Justin,” Jessica hissed. “Missy, go pack a bag now. There’s a helicopter waiting for us, and there’s a real bitch on it. She will leave us after ten minutes. Go now!”

  Missy stood shocked. “Um…no. Where is Don? Why isn’t he with you? He came back, right?”

  Jessica grabbed Missy’s shoulder. “Get your fucking bag. This is an emergency!”

  Missy stared at Jessica wild-eyed, then took off running up the stairs, her long pants leg catching under her foot, tripping her.

  “Hey, Jess? You better check this out,” Justin called from the living room.

  Jessica entered the living room and followed Justin’s pointed finger to the television. Her jaw dropped when she saw a photo of Justin with the words “alleged terrorist” beside it. She leaned against the armchair in an effort to steady herself as she watched the news report.

  “Our confidential source has identified suspected terrorist Justin Sage as bringing the alien species to Earth. There is a $1,000,000 reward for any information leading to his capture. The CDC has placed a halt on all travel, as L8 has now crossed the Texas state line into Louisiana and Oklahoma. Outside of the United States, the illness has spread significantly. The World Health Organization has declared a global crisis.”

  Jessica held her right palm to her face. “You can’t go to the safe zone. You’ll be arrested on the spot.”

  Justin gazed toward the floor. He began to twitch then composed himself. “Well, I’ve always wanted to be on TV. I just wish they didn’t use my Cadence badge photo. I hate that one.” He let out a bitter laugh then frowned, defeated.