Nightfall

by E.L. Middleton

  “I don’t see how we could be the only place being…” he stopped, searching for the right words. “Attacked.”

  “The surrounding radio stations are miles from here, sir. I think the closest one to us is WKVR and that’s in Welton City—more than twenty miles away. Even if it’s more widespread it doesn’t appear to have reached those stations yet.”

  One of the students in the group, a dark haired young man with glasses, spoke up.

  “So no one even knows what’s going on here?” he asked, almost rhetorically.

  “The police should know and be on their way,” Gregory said.

  “Yeah, while the rest of the world goes about their business.” the student said, turning away in disgust.

  “We don’t know that. We’re making a crude judgment based on the fact that radio stations are still going on about their routine. We have no solid evidence or proof,” Gregory said.

  Robert suddenly got an idea, chiming in.

  “What about our campus station? Are we still on the air?”

  Gregory shook his head.

  “Nothing live, at least. We’re running off of the satellite feed at the moment.”

  “Can someone call the station and tell them to get the word out over the air?” Robert asked.

  Gregory shifted his stance and leaned in to Robert, practically whispering.

  “Look around you, son. This place is packed tonight. Every student on campus is supposed to be in here. They even threatened some of them with demerit slips if they didn’t show up.”

  Gregory turned back to the radio and began to flip through the FM band again. Robert turned and walked toward the auditorium seats, sitting down next to his book bag. There has to be some way to get the word out, he thought. And then it hit him. If he could somehow make his way to the campus radio station and could figure out how to go live he could broadcast the message to the entire city and anywhere else the signal would go.

  He knew the chances of him making it out there and then finding a way to get in were pretty slim. The doors to the station would probably be locked and he knew relatively little about the equipment they used there. But he also knew that if he didn’t at least try to do something he would be sitting around stir crazy, waiting for those Things to pound their way inside. In some twisted way, facing them head on was better than waiting for them to come for him.

  He stood up, grabbing his book bag and slinging it over his shoulder. He walked casually past the group, who were still listening intently as Gregory flipped the dial, and made his way out through the basketball team’s entrance. He disappeared into the corridor underneath the auditorium seating without anyone even noticing.

  As Robert made his way through the winding, back hallways of the Romero Center he could hear the hum of the fluorescent lights above him. They cast an eerie, purple-tinted glow to the speckled, white tiles. He could hear the confusion still going on inside the auditorium as it filtered out into the hallway. It sounded more terrifying now that he was away from it all.

  He walked down the left corridor, his shoes squeaking just slightly and his footsteps echoing. He searched the cinderblock walls to his right for some way out. He knew there had to be an exit. He had seen it at some point when walking to class, making his way down those steep stairs and behind the Romero Center before heading up another set of them that led toward the academic buildings.

  Suddenly, he heard something heavy drop to the floor behind him. He stopped, immediately swinging around to see what it was. His heartbeat instantly accelerated and he could feel his hands beginning to shake as he saw one of the creatures standing over what was left of one of the students. Apparently someone had tried to make it out the other direction and had failed.

  The creature growled at him with a wispy, more human tone. It was a woman—or at least it had been—about thirty. She was wearing a nightgown, covered in mud, and had long blonde hair that had been matted down by the smothering heat from her previous place of residency. Her eyes stared at Robert, lifelessly. He made the first move, carefully. He began to back up, attempting to continue down the corridor. As he did, the creature stirred, taking a step toward him.

  The creature was just beyond the entrance to the auditorium and suddenly a horrifying thought occurred to him. If that thing sees all of the people inside it will go after them. He stopped again, but the creature kept moving. One step after the other It made Its way closer to Robert, and closer to the entrance to the auditorium.

  Robert noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He turned and saw a fire extinguisher hanging on a hook in the wall. He moved fast, grabbing it and searching for the locking mechanism. The creature walked to the entrance to the auditorium and stopped, listening to the sounds of the crowd. It turned, looking out at all of the activity and started to move into the auditorium. Robert looked up from the extinguisher and saw the creature heading inside.

  “Come on! Let’s Go!” Robert yelled, his voice echoing down the hallway.

  The creature instantly turned to him and then, after a moment of hesitation, It charged after him. He began to back away, still looking for the trigger release. The creature let out a terrible, guttural scream as It reached out for him. His fingers finally slid across the trigger release and he pulled the locking mechanism out just as the creature grabbed his shoulders.

  He squeezed the trigger of the fire extinguisher, sending a powerful blast of white foam against the front of the creature’s nightgown. It stumbled backward, threatening to lose Its balance. Robert stood there, looking at the white foam that now covered the front of the creature. The creature stood Its ground and then, after a second of realization, looked back at Robert and snarled at him. It moved forward again and Robert started to move. He turned around and began to run down the hallway, he could hear the creature’s bare feet slapping harshly against the floor. It was moving fast and although he couldn’t tell, It was nearly upon him.

  He was still carrying the fire extinguisher in his hands. Some of the foam had leaked from the release valve and down onto his fingers. Don’t look back. Whatever you do, don’t look back, he thought, panicky. And then, as if abandoning all of his own intuition he stopped sharply and turned around. The creature was five feet behind him, foam still dripping from It. Robert raised the fire extinguisher just as the creature approached and then brought it down as hard as he could. The metal tube of the extinguisher connected with the creature’s skull, sending It to the floor.

  Robert stared at the massacre he had just created as he gasped for air. His heart was thumping wildly in his chest and he had a strange metallic taste in his mouth. The creature was no longer moving and a large pool of blood was beginning to form behind It’s head. Robert suddenly remembered that early morning memory of watching Night of the Living Dead at his friend’s house. You’ve got to get em’ in the head, he thought. That’s what they did. He was suddenly so happy that he had stayed up late and finished the movie while his buddy lay asleep on the couch beside him.

  Robert snapped out of it, dropping the fire extinguisher to the floor and running down the corridor. A few minutes later he found the exit door and threw it open, heading outside and disappearing into the darkness.

  CHAPTER 10

  After dinner Ewen and Jennifer rode around the city, the streetlights trying desperately to combat the shadows. Ewen drove an old brown station wagon and while there was plenty of room inside for the two of them—and a family of five as well—he had felt a little self-conscious about it when he had picked her up outside of her dorm. Of course, she hadn’t said anything about his car but anybody would rather be riding in something newer and nicer than in a beat up station wagon. He knew her well enough now to know that she wasn’t the kind of girl who was caught up in things though. It was about who you were to Jennifer. That, in and of itself, was a huge turn around from the other girls he had seen on campus.

  He wanted a better car, but he was a college student with relatively little money. What
money he did have was only there because he hadn’t been on a single date since he had been at college. That was two semesters of savings just waiting to be spent.

  He had received the station wagon from his grandfather, who had asked for only one dollar for it. Ewen hadn’t cared too much what kind of car it was if it cost him only a dollar. He was sixteen when his grandfather gave him that offer and he had been desperately in need of some wheels. Borrowing his Dad’s car was a pain, not because his Dad gave him a hard time but because his Dad was always driving somewhere. His father, David Wilson, was a minister and was always driving to and from the church as well as going out to visit the sick at the local hospitals. And as far as his Mom’s car, she didn’t really have one. Basically her vehicle, an old Ford, had been parked in the driveway collecting cobwebs for quite some time. It needed some major engine work after blowing a head gaskets. Needless to say, it wasn’t going anywhere.

  So he gave his grandfather the dollar and took the keys. The car purred like a kitten, even though it wasn’t in the best shape. His Dad had made sure it was inspected by a mechanic—not wanting his son driving on the road with a car that would fall apart or leave him stranded—and Ewen had been on his way to enjoy freedom. Right now though, Ewen was on his way to nowhere. He had no idea where to go next and because of the size of the town, wasn’t so sure there was anything to do next.

  “It looks dead out here tonight,” Jennifer said, watching the streetlights as they passed.

  “Must’ve been a pretty good turn out at the revival meeting,” Ewen said.

  “Do you think we’ll get in trouble for skipping again?” she asked, looking over at him.

  Ewen nodded. He was certain that if there was a way for them to get more pink slips and demerits they would.

  “I don’t see how they can get by with making someone go to a revival meeting. They try and force things to happen too much,” Ewen said, upset just thinking about it.

  “It reminds me of when I was a little girl and my Dad would always make me go to church. ‘When you’re out of the house you can do whatever you like. But until then…’ he would say,” she said with a smile.

  “I had no choice,” Ewen said. “My house, at one point, was actually attached to the church.”

  Jennifer started to laugh.

  “You’re joking, right?” she asked him.

  “Nope. When I was little we lived in a parsonage that was built beside the church. You could literally go next door and be at church.”

  “You really did have to go to church, didn’t you?”

  “Go? I was already there.”

  The two of them began to laugh and Ewen suddenly realized that this was the most fun he had had not knowing where he was going in all of his life. It was so easy to talk to Jennifer, even though every time he went to speak he was afraid it wouldn’t be. She listened to him and took him seriously, but most of all she made him laugh. That was rare. Usually it was the other way around. As their laughter quieted he sighed and then continued the conversation.

  “I never minded though. It was fun,” he said.

  “Fun? Living next to church? I would think most people would find that a little boring,” she said, looking interested.

  “It didn’t bother me. I played in the church with my toys. You have no idea how cool a church is when no one is inside.”

  “It sounds kind of spooky if you ask me. My parents stayed after church late one day when everyone had gone home so that they could clean up a little. It freaked me out being there with just the three of us. I couldn’t imagine playing in empty church rooms,” she said, shivering.

  “It was great. You learn quickly when you’re six or seven that pews have way more uses than just for sitting and praying. They make great action figure playgrounds.”

  They both laughed again.

  “Of course, only now does it occur to me that that might’ve been slightly sacrilegious.”

  Jennifer laughs even harder.

  “I take it you were older when you were in that church by yourself?” he asked, looking over at her for a second.

  The moonlight was coming in through the windshield and illuminating her in pale, white light.

  “Yeah. I was about twelve or thirteen, I think,” she said.

  “That’s probably the reason why you were scared. Knowledge kills imagination.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked him.

  “The older we get the more realistic our fears get. I wasn’t afraid of being in an empty church because I was too busy thinking about what my G.I. Joe’s were going to do next,” he said, looking over at her. “You were scared of being there by yourself because you knew that if you were alone in a dark place you could be in danger. Some of that innocence was gone.”

  “Maybe if I’d had some G.I. Joe’s to play with I wouldn’t have thought about it,” she said, looking out the window at the passing streetlights.

  “Maybe. You have no idea what power Cobra Commander can wield to make you forget your troubles.”

  They began to laugh at each other and then they realized they were getting close to campus again. The city lights had disappeared during their conversation and given way to the mountains and valleys once more. Jennifer looked over at Ewen, something heavy on her mind.

  “Ewen?” she asked him, sincerely.

  He took his eyes off of the road again and looked over at her.

  “Do we have to go back just yet?” she asked.

  Ewen smiled at her, sweetly, returning his eyes back to the road.

  “No. We can go somewhere else if you’d like?” he said.

  Jennifer reached up and grabbed Ewen’s hand, placing it in hers. She smiled, turning her gaze back toward the road as Ewen took another exit, heading back toward the city lights.

  CHAPTER 11

  Dorm thirteen, “the unlucky place to live” as those who believe in luck around campus called it, sat high atop a hill overlooking one of the main parking lots. Two stories tall, this brick building housed the women’s dorms on the second floor and underneath them it held the onsite Laundromat.

  The sun, well below the horizon by now, set behind dorm thirteen usually giving it an orange glow in the early evening and an angelic brightness in the morning. Tonight though, it simply stood reaching toward the sky in a blanket of darkness. A blanket of darkness, that is, except for a single window lit up at the far corner of the second floor.

  Inside of dorm thirteen a long hallway stretched toward double doors on each end. From one or the other your perspective would alter, making it seem as though the other set of doors were slightly smaller somehow. The last numbered room in the dorm, room twelve, was sending a small, perpendicular shaft of light out from under its door. The sound of girls laughing, muffled but still discernible, was emitting from behind the door along with the sound of music playing from a radio.

  Room twelve was decorated with posters of Christian rock bands and picture collages of friends and family members. Susan and Tracy, two sophomores, shared a room just big enough for one person to live in with two twin beds on either wall.

  Susan was nineteen and as rebellious as she could get by with all the way down to her clothing. She wore mostly black skirts and gray or maroon tops along with her black military boots. She was “Goth” without breaking the campus rules—something she had tried very hard to do. Her parents had sent her to MVU, wanting her to go somewhere that could give her a good education and encourage her spiritually. At least, that’s what they had told her and the dean of students. Susan felt the same way she had always felt since hitting her teens: they wanted to change who she was. But Susan wasn’t just some naive teenager who refused to abide by a societal rule. She would take the time to think and plot out her rebuttals and acts of defiance. If you told her she couldn’t do something, she would try even harder until she could.

  Her roommate, Tracy, was the exact opposite. Tracy had beautiful blonde hair but was perhaps the most homely of anyone on campus
. Tracy’s folks didn’t believe in make-up or much of anything else that was what they called “modern.” Tracy grew up with a large family of three brothers and two sisters. Her parents worked on a farm and she had been teased as the girl from The Waltons most of her life. She had a tremendous tolerance for people and a great deal of patience—which had always been a true virtue in a house that had that many kids and only one bathroom. She was a sweetheart and extremely accepting of others, even if they looked like they hadn’t seen sunlight in decades. That made her an ideal roommate for Susan.

  Tracy had never understood why someone would want to look the way that Susan did, but she cared about Susan none-the-less. In fact, she wanted to understand her better. This was Tracy’s first real life experience. She was away from home and out to explore the world a bit—or at least Mountain Valley, which seemed different and foreign from her rural upbringing.

  The main difference between the two of them, the thing that was causing the commotion in the room, was that Tracy wasn’t rebellious at all. She believed that rules were always for her own protection and completely abided by them. Her parents had been rather strict disciplinarians and now that she was here and allowed to make decisions on her own she felt tremendously free, even with the MVU campus handbook by her night table.