The Fall

by J. L. Wood

  Jessica’s eyes shot toward him. “Delilah,” she whispered, her voice full of hatred. “She must have used one of the phones at the Horizon station.”

  “David played a part too. He’s her puppet, but he’s still the owner.” Justin looked at his watch. “It’s almost time. Let’s just go. We’ll figure it out at the port.”

  Jessica nodded. She briefly looked at Justin. He looked broken. But she couldn’t deal with that now. They had to get to the Malick. They had to pretend that they didn’t know. She headed up the stairs and found Missy stuffing men’s items into a second suitcase.

  “Just one bag,” Jessica said.

  Missy ran around the room grabbing more items. “But Don needs his stuff too. I’m almost done.”

  Jessica shook her head. “He has what he needs. It’s time to go.”

  “Oh, okay. Well, I need a few more things. One of my students is in the room down the hall. Lois.” Missy grabbed a few pieces of jewelry from the dresser. “Can you get her? And my friend will be back in a few. We need to take her too.”

  Jessica checked her watch—only three minutes remained. They needed to hurry. She ran down the hallway, opening doors until she found a locked one. “Are you in there?” she asked.

  “Are you here to hurt me?” a soft voice whispered behind the door.

  That question made Jessica wonder what the little girl had been through. “No, sweetie, I’m here to help. Please open the door.”

  Lois slowly unlocked the door and opened it. “Not safe,” she whispered.

  Jessica knelt by Lois. “Yes, I promise you, we will be very safe, but not here. I need you to come with us.” The little girl held out her hand, but Jessica picked her up and held her on her hip.

  “My friend should be back any minute!” Missy yelled from the stairs while dragging the large overstuffed suitcase behind her, the wheels making a large thump with each step.

  Justin pried himself away from the television when he heard the women descending the stairs. Gently, he pulled Jessica aside when she reached the foyer, the little girl still affixed to her hip. “Don only got a plus-one,” he whispered. “We can’t take two more. And no children are allowed from the infected zones. You know that.”

  Jessica looked at the little girl resting her head on her shoulder. “Well, Don isn’t coming, obviously, so maybe her friend can take his place, and she’s just a kid. She shouldn’t count as a full person. They could fit us, so why not just half of one more? Also, she doesn’t look sick to me. We can say she was isolated the entire time.”

  Justin stared at the little girl and sighed before pulling the door open, letting the women out of the house and onto the driveway.

  As the group approached the helicopter, Delilah stood at the entrance. “Missy, get in. We’re leaving them behind. They’re terrorists.”

  Missy stood in the driveway, confused. The wind from the helicopter blades whipped at her hair. “That’s not true. They’re Don’s friends.”

  “She’s lying!” Jessica yelled to Missy over the helicopter blades as they spun up. “She leaked that false info to the news because she needed to discredit us because she didn’t want to save Don! She needs you, Missy! You’re her ticket to the safe zone we’re going to!”

  David stood near Delilah. He let out a loud sigh, then tilted his head in annoyance. “This can go one of two ways,” he said, holding up his index and middle fingers. “You can get on this helicopter willingly, or I can drag you on. Either way, we are going to the safe zone. Decide.”

  “They want Don’s share of the company!” Jessica yelled. “With him gone, Delilah will get a piece of Cadence. It was always the plan! Even before all of this!”

  Missy looked at Jessica. “Seriously? Where’s Don?” She raised her voice. “What happened to my boyfriend?”

  “Get on this helicopter now,” David demanded.

  Missy looked back toward the house and shook her head. “I don’t…I don’t…I want to wait for my friend. And my dog…he…”

  “Okay, then,” David said. He disappeared into the helicopter, then reappeared with the pilot, who held a handgun firmly in his right hand. The pilot jumped out of the helicopter and grabbed Missy by her hair. Missy swatted at him and dug her heels into the concrete, but she was no match for the pilot’s strength. He pulled her toward the lip of the cabin and released her, causing her to tumble forward.

  Justin ran toward Missy to grab her but abruptly stopped when he was met with the barrel of the handgun. He held up his hands in surrender.

  “I warned you not to swim upstream, Jessica!” Delilah shouted. “Now you get to suffer the consequences!”

  The pilot pointed his gun at Missy then waved it to her side. She threw her luggage into the helicopter then clumsily pulled herself in. “I’m sorry,” she mouthed to Jessica, her eyes teary and mouth drooped.

  Jessica shook her head and smiled reassuringly at Missy. The helicopter blades began to spin faster. Jessica sat Lois down and ran to the edge of the helicopter. “Everyone will know you’re the leak, Delilah! The truth will come out! Karma is ruthless!”

  Delilah laughed. “Your story is about to be buried with this city. Prepare yourself. If the police don’t get you first, the mob down the block will. And I do hope it’s the police. I’m not a savage.”

  Delilah scrambled to her seat, and the helicopter slowly began to lift off. All of the neighbors remained intrigued by the show, some cursing obscenities at the helicopter as it rose higher and higher until they were just ants in a soon-to-be-empty neighborhood. Some waved at Jessica and Justin, while others felt justice was served to those who were trying to escape but were now left behind like the rest of them.

  “I can’t believe they left us,” Jessica said, picking Lois up again.

  “What else did you expect from them?” Justin replied, watching the helicopter until it was just a speck in the sky.

  The neighbors returned to their homes, the scene over as quickly as it started. No more excitement, no reason to stay and converse when there was wine to be had and prayers to be made.

  “Home sweet home,” Justin said sarcastically as he opened the front door to Don’s house. The little girl pushed away from Jessica, indicating she wanted to be let down. Jessica obliged, and the girl ran to the living room and jumped in the large leather chair, her legs flying up in front of her and Skiddy rushing forward to cuddle.

  “Not so fast, speed racer. What’s your name?” Justin asked from the entrance of the living room.

  “Lois!” the girl exclaimed excitedly. “Oh! And it’s good we got to stay! Don’t be sad.”

  “Why’s that?” he asked, his voice broken.

  Lois grabbed the remote and started flipping through the channels in search of cartoons. “It’s safe here. The Ambassador told me so.”

  Justin scrunched his eyebrows and looked up at Jessica, confused. She tilted her head and shrugged. “Well, if the Ambassador said it, it has to be true.”

  – 24 –

  Left-Behinds

  Don’s house was quiet, save for the television blasting old Rocko’s Modern Life reruns Jessica had found in his extensive video collection. The events of the past few days haunted her—losing Don, witnessing the death of Keener, becoming one of the saved then one of the left-behinds. Waiting to die or not die. Being a survivor of a city in chaos, a world in chaos, perhaps.

  She wished she had never opened that binder from Bryan Kenson, never went into that conference room, never left with Justin. It was a waking nightmare to her, and she was a child again, underneath the covers, sacrificing her teddy bear Rachel to the curious aliens. The large grandfather clock in the dining room rang for the hour, and she clenched her teeth, a subtle reminder that she was one hour closer to whatever would become of her world.

  “So, who do you think the Ambassador is?” Justin whispered, breaking the silence.

  Jessica scooted her bar stool closer to Justin so that she could hear him better. She noted his ca
lm demeanor, the inner him that briefly surfaced at the Cadence station. She almost found him attractive but pulled back, realizing she was starting to think that this was her last night alive. She hated that she was having those feelings already—she needed hope. She needed a vision of a future to keep her going. She stared at Justin, who was fidgeting with a wooden candy machine at the kitchen bar, gently pulling out a small lever that dispensed one chocolate candy at a time. Jessica reached over and pulled one out. She took a small bite of the candy, chipping off the colored outer layer, savoring the flavor so that it would last.

  “Probably some game, I don’t know. I’m not very good with children. But she seems to think we’re safe, so that’s really all that matters—that she’s comfortable.”

  Justin unscrewed the glass canister on the candy machine and scooped out a handful of candies before passing the machine to Jessica. “I hear ya,” he said between chews. “But what about you? Do you think we’re safe here, now that we’re left-behinds? That craziness in the city is too close to this neighborhood.”

  Jessica’s stomach growled, and she reached for the jar, then decided against it. “I honestly can’t say anything anymore, especially after that talk with Michael. I mean, can you believe how much we just don’t know?” She tapped the bar with her fist at the thought of Don. The feed of him on the surface was etched into her memory; there was no erasing it. “Let’s settle in, then worry about the mob. They seemed to be focused on businesses, so we should be fine for now.” She paused. “We’re one of the left-behinds now, and this is apparently our forever home. Are you hungry?”

  Justin perked up. “I’m starving. Is there anything in there to make a burger, Chef Jess?”

  Jessica rummaged through the fridge and freezer. “Looks like this is as close as we’re going to get,” she said while pulling out a bag of vegetarian chicken patties and frozen hamburger buns. “As fate would have it, we landed in a vegetarian house.”

  Justin shrugged. “Better than nothing, I guess. So…doomsday buddy, what do you think Amity is like?”

  Jessica laid three imitation chicken patties on a baking sheet, then, remembering Missy’s friend, added an extra one. “Well, I don’t know. I’m going to say a giant parking lot. They’ll have to come back eventually. They can’t live out there forever. I just hope my brother is okay. Who did you send, by the way?”

  “I sent my dad. But let’s not talk about that,” he said, scavenging through the cabinets. He pulled out an unopened box of chocolate cookies. “I’m going to go check on the fortune teller.”

  Lois was sitting on the couch, happily watching the television, when Justin walked in. “Lunch will be ready soon,” he said, handing her a chocolate chip cookie. Skiddy looked up and tried to sniff the treat, but Lois pulled it away and finished it in three bites, Skiddy licking the crumbs on the front of her shirt.

  “One more?” she asked, looking up and batting her long eyelashes.

  “Why not?” Justin replied, handing her another cookie, which the girl greedily accepted. She almost dropped it as Skiddy jumped from the couch and ran to the door, barking, his small tail wagging back and forth, excited. A heavy knock at the front door followed.

  “That must be her!” Jessica said, running to the door. She looked through the peephole and saw a woman anxiously waiting to be let in. “Who are you?” Jessica called through the door, looking for some sort of confirmation that it wasn’t one of the nosy neighbors from earlier.

  The woman pushed a little girl behind her. “Who are you? Where is Missy?” she demanded.

  “We are friends of Don,” Jessica said, opening the door. “Sorry about that. Come in. You can never be too cautious.”

  The woman pulled her backpack off and sat it down in the foyer, along with a dog crate, the girl standing idly by. “I’m Mary, and this is Ariel. Where is Missy?”

  “Yeah…about that.” Justin laughed uncomfortably. “Guess we need to fill you in. Nothing bad. She’s safe. Let’s go talk in Don’s office.”

  Mary looked into the living room at Lois sitting on the couch with Skiddy. “Why don’t you go hang out with Lois for now?” she said to Ariel, who ran excitedly to the living room. Mary unzipped the dog crate and let Moose run out. He darted for the living room, peeing along the way, and jumped on the chair with Lois, excited to finally be free. Mary frowned at the urine trail. “I’ll get that later. Let’s talk first.”

  *

  Mary stared at Jessica and Justin in disbelief while they gave her a quick rundown of the past hour. Her hopes of coming home to a safe place slowly fizzled away. When they finished the rundown, they looked to her for a response.

  “I need to sit,” Mary said, pulling the office chair out. Her entire body was sore and her muscles tense. She understood her place as a left-behind, but it still angered her. Amity was much more than the news was letting on. It was a second chance for some. But the reality was, she’d been left here to die.

  Hatred began to fester in her, and she tried to contain it, but it began to boil over, and she let out a long, slow exhale to control it. She imagined her garden and the little red hummingbird feeder. The early mornings sipping tea, watching it, waiting for the small birds to show up. They were beauty and awe defined, and they always came. She could count on that. After self-control set in, Mary finally decided to ask about Missy. “So, you’re saying Missy is not entirely safe. Delilah could stop her from boarding the Malick if she says anything?”

  “That pretty much sums it up,” Justin said, looking at the knickknacks on Don’s bookshelf. He pulled out a small deck of tarot cards and began to sort through them as if he were sorting through his own thoughts. “Delilah and David had to get Missy after she got called out for not wanting to save Don in the first place. It was easy to get rid of us; we’re nobodies. Well…” Justin chuckled. “Guess I’m somebody now. A terrorist.”

  Jessica rolled her eyes. “Delilah will probably force Missy to keep her mouth shut and go along with the story. Then she’ll only have Michael to deal with. Saving Missy shows that she and David care about Don. I mean, it’s a theory, but a pretty damn good one.”

  “I get it,” Mary said, but then she smirked. “But she doesn’t know Missy. Missy never keeps her mouth shut.”

  “She just has to play along until she gets to Amity, then,” Jessica replied. “She’s smart enough to understand that, right?”

  Mary nodded as she thought of Missy’s stubbornness. “Trust me. She’ll get there.”

  “Now, on to other topics,” Justin said. “We need to prepare for the mob. They might be headed our way.”

  Mary picked at her pink fingernail polish, flicking small specks into the beige carpet. “Missy showed me the system here. There’re cameras all around the house, a room stocked full of supplies, including guns. But I don’t think we really need to worry about that now. The crowds outside are looting businesses and vacant homes. Plus, they’re shifting to an alien fan party.”

  “Well, then, we’ve chosen the right home to be in,” Jessica said. “I have to ask. What is the condition of the children? Lois seems fine. But what about Ariel?”

  “Yeah,” Justin said, still sorting through the cards. “What’s the deal with that girl’s head?”

  “She had a surgery for L8. We need to get her to the hospital, that’s where the rest of our group is.”

  Justin stopped shuffling the cards, confused by Mary’s comment. “L8 can be cured? Is that why Lois is okay?”

  Mary shook her head. “A handful of the kids at the school got better, but they didn’t receive any different treatment. Lois is an anomaly. I don’t know much about the surgery, but it’s supposed to slow down the effects. Ariel is doing so much better than she was before. Like, she’s her normal self again. But I don’t know how to tend to her tube, so we really need to get going. They will be expecting us at the hospital.”

  “Should we tell her?” Justin whispered to Jessica.

  “Tell me what?” Mar
y demanded. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Justin sat on the edge of the desk. “So, there’s a long history behind LMS. We had first contact with an alien species in the 1970s. They warned us that there would be a devastating event on Earth. That’s what spun up Project LMS. It’s believed that this is the start to that event.”

  Interested, Mary leaned on the desk. “Go on.”

  “So, yeah, basically everything as we know it will be, I dunno, dust maybe, either today or tomorrow or sometime soon. It sounds really weird saying that, and to be quite honest, I don’t even know if I believe that.”

  “We tracked fast radio bursts from Messier 83,” Jessica said. “They originated from a towerlike structure in Lerner 4. They will be trackable on Earth tomorrow. I don’t know what your knowledge of—”

  “I know what an FRB is,” Mary said. “The astronauts went to Messier 83 to check it out.” She closed her eyes and thought for a moment. “We need to get to the hospital.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Jessica said. “You just came from outside, you know what it’s like out there. The helicopter dropped us off here, and the view from above is even wilder than what you probably saw on your way back from the school. It’s best to stay here and comfortable than to risk traveling to the medical center. Like you said, we have everything we need here.”

  Mary nodded, relieved to be persuaded to stay, although her body had already decided that it did not want to move any more. “Sorry, this is a lot to take in. What happened with Don?”

  “Yeah, Don,” Justin said quickly. “The aliens took him.”

  Mary slapped her thighs and slowly stood up. “Okay, sounds about right for how this shitstorm is going. Justin, was it? I want to hear more about this mission and this end-of-days theory, but we need drinks.”

  Justin stood up excitedly. “Now we’re talking. Follow me to the wine cellar, ladies.”