by Barry Napier
Getting in was easy enough, as the front door had been jimmied open sometime in the past. We found the stock room where I broke down several cardboard boxes. I laid them on the floor of the garage bay and that’s how we slept. Kendra cried a bit before falling asleep. I managed to hold my own tears back. I felt like a failure as I lay the baby on the cardboard mattress, angry that I couldn’t provide more for them. The baby didn’t seem to mind. He stretched, cooed at me, smiled weakly, and then fell asleep on his blanket.
I watched them sleep, holding the rifle and looking out into the garage. I kept my eye on the retractable doors, one of which was partially open. The night beyond it seemed impossibly dark and a paranoid and slightly unbalanced part of me expected a tentacle to come inching into the garage from under it. I glanced from that rectangle of darkness to the lifts and ramps that countless cars had been inspected and maintained on, trying to imagine a time when such tasks had been normal. It caused an ache in my heart that had devastated me in those first few months but now only thrummed slightly, like the lurching in your stomach when you hit that first vertical drop on a roller coaster.
I thought of my father, showing me how to change the oil in a car for the first time. I thought of him and how his hands had always been dirty and scarred, even on the weekend. I could recall a time I saw him clasp his hands together in prayer at the dinner table and finding ti both beautiful and strange that such dirty, scarred hands would offer themselves up in prayer.
My eyes traveled back to the dark rectangle beneath the garage door and a very sick and tired part of me yearned for one of those things to come creeping through—to give me a reason to finally submit.
Of course, that did not happen. I fell asleep sometime later with the rifle still clutched in my hand.
25
The baby woke us up before dawn. He nursed and when he was done, Kendra and I were unable to go back to sleep. We scavenged the garage and were fortunate to find a package of unsalted peanuts and half a gallon of water in the break room. I took only a sip of the water, as I knew Kendra needed as much fluid as possible to keep her milk supply at a healthy level.
After eating our breakfast, we set back out onto the road. Dawn began to raise its head but the road was still dark. The shapes of buildings to each side of the road reminded me far too much of what I had seen in the nest, the hulking yet fragile outlines of things that once were but were now just the ghosts of architecture. Thinking of that experience again created a terror in me like I had not experienced since childhood, huddled under the covers due to the howling winds and thunder of a summer storm.
We passed a grocery store that looked in bad shape, but we went inside anyway. We looked for any supplies and found very little. There was a single can of Mountain Dew in the far corner of the deli, dented and dusty. I picked it up and opened it. The popping noise was musical. I took a few swallows and let Kendra take the rest. It tasted fine and the carbonation, although having lost some of its pop, was pleasant on my tongue. And the sweetness was like something from another world. I had forgotten how sweet certain foods could be. It nearly shocked my tongue.
We continued on and I noticed that the businesses were now more closely spaced as we neared the city limits. We checked a few more businesses—a home decor store, a convenience store that had been completely raided, and even a travel agency where an empty water cooler had teased us—but found nothing. I checked about a dozen cars in all and found that they were either all out of gas or simply refused to crank.
We heard footsteps behind us as we were about to walk into a Walgreens.
The front display window had been tagged with graffiti that stated: THIS IS THE BLACK LODGE.
I was reading this when I heard the first footfall.
I wheeled around, instantly raising the rifle as if I had been trained to do so from birth.
Riley was looking at us apathetically.
He wasn’t afraid of the rifle I was pointing at him and there was no clear expression on his face. I could not tell if he had friendly or ill intent.
I did notice that he held a pistol in his hand, though he did not aim it at us. There was also a rifle very similar to mine slung over his shoulder. He apparently meant us no harm.
Still, I was reluctant to lower my weapon.
“Riley,” Kendra said.
“Been watching you guys for about an hour now,” he said, as if it were totally normal. “I couldn’t decide if I should make myself known. I can still help you, you know.”
I couldn’t put my finger on it right away, but there was something very different about Riley now. He spoke in a detached way and his face seemed slackened, his eyes distant.
“Did you kill Vance?” I asked.
“Yeah. I had to. He was crazy. I saw it go right out of him when those things cameout of the nest. Sorry about what he tried to make you do. I didn’t have any way of stopping him. Between him and Greenbriar, they were like their own little crazy militia.”
“So why wouldn’t you kill us, too?” I asked. “How can we trust you?”
He looked genuinely hurt and then smiled at us. “Because you’re not a threat. Despite what you might think of me from keeping close to Vance, I’d like to help you. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t care one way or the other if it weren’t for the baby. I had a two year old boy when all this hell came down on us.”
His face pinched for a moment and I thought he might weep over his son. He looked to the baby and then away rather quickly. “I’m so sorry,” he said through clenched teeth.
“How can you help us?” Kendra asked. I was glad to hear the skepticism in her voice. But there was also compassion there, simply from having heard about Riley’s son.
“I know where you can get a set of wheels with a full tank of gas,” Riley said. “It might not get you all the way to the Blue Ridge Mountains, but it would be close.”
I slowly lowered my gun. “What about the supplies in Athens? Do you know where there are more?”
“Sorry to say I don’t. But we can head back there together and split them between us. No offense, but I’m not taking a chance with those Safe Zones. If any of what Vance told us is true, those things are run and maintained by the military. He said most branches of the military got really hectic and crazy there near the end. But you do what you want...and take whatever supplies you need from our place in Athens.”
“Why’d you veer off course when you ran away from the nest anyway?” I asked.
“It was Vance. I’m not even exaggerating when I say he lost his mind over what we saw. He was convinced the things would follow us back to the hideout and destroy it. I tried to go my own way but he threatened to kill me. So I tagged along. Figured I’d kill him when I could, leaving everything back there for just me.”
I could tell that Kendra wanted desperately to believe him. I did, too. Even after what had happened with Vance and his lies, I felt that Riley was being honest.
“There’s one more thing,” Riley said. “Something else I can give you.”
“What’s that?”
“Answers.”
“To what?” I asked.
“Anything.” He slowly slid a backpack from his shoulders, a pack I had not seen because I had been so focused on the rifle slung over his shoulder. He reached into the pack and pulled out a dull gray square that I recognized at once: Vance’s rugged laptop.
“What’s on it?” Kendra asked.
“Footage from inside the nests,” Riley replied. “He’s got everything on here. There’s footage of those creatures from when it all started. He even has military footage of one of the nukes being dropped somewhere near Boston. There’s military reports and video footage on here that explains everything. Not that it will help, really. But...I don’t know. Just knowing more about what went down sort of helped me cope. Does that make sense?”
I thought about Ma and how she died. I wondered if the information on Vance’s computer would help deflate that hurt in any way. I
wondered if it might help explain why a God that I had always thought was good and great had sent monsters from beyond Hell to destroy His masterpiece.
But more than that, I thought about driving in relative comfort to the Safe Zone. I thought about having a good portion of supplies with us. I thought about getting Kendra and the baby to safety. It was enough for me.
Besides, if Riley turned out to be like Vance, I’d kill him. It was as simple as that.
“How far away are we from your little hideout?” I asked.
“I’d guess three hours by foot.”
Kendra and I shared a glance. Between us, the baby spoke a few syllables of gibberish.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”
26
The walk back to the parking garage took three hours and fifteen minutes. We made it without incident, or much conversation passing between the three of us. Riley actually led us beyond the parking garage and into a small group of storage sheds behind an old textile warehouse four blocks further down the road. With a set of keys he had taken from Vance after killing him, Riley unlocked two of the sheds.
One of them held a Yamaha motorcycle and a beat up Cadillac. The other held a newer model Nissan pick-up truck of the off-roading variety.
“You can have any of them,” Riley said. “But I’d suggest the truck. The gas tank is nearly full and it will be a lot better when it comes to getting around roadblocks.”
“Sold,” I said. Riley opened the Nissan’s driver side door, reached beneath the seat, and retrieved the keys. He handed them to me with what looked like pride.
“Why are you doing this?” Kendra asked.
“It’s the least I can do,” he said. “And I’m not doing it just to make up for what I took part in when we tried sending you into the nest.” He said this last bit while looking directly at me. I could clearly see the regret and yearning for forgiveness in his eyes.
“This is my way of repenting for also helping send those other people in,” he added. “And I want the absolute best future possible for your son.”
“Other people?” I asked. “How many others were there?”
“Four before you. And we never had those same results. When we sent you in, that was the first time anything came out. This time, it...it was almost like whatever is inside the nest was waiting for us.”
“What is inside it?” I asked.
Riley only shrugged. “It would do no good for me to explain it. The best thing you can do is watch some of the videos on the computer.”
“Maybe at your hideout,” I said, and climbed behind the wheel of the truck.
Kendra got in with the baby, sliding next to me to allow room for Riley. We drove back to the parking garage that Vance had taken us to three grueling days ago. I parked in the rear of the garage at Riley’s suggestion. He claimed there had been a few random looters that had come along in the past few months, looking for cars and supplies. Vance had lost two vehicles this way and that was why the Nissan, the Caddy, and the motorcycle had been moved to the storage sheds.
I parked beside a beat up GMC truck that Riley told us had been his even before the creatures had showed up. He spoke about the truck as if he were incredibly proud of it. Just by the way he looked longingly at it, it was clear that the truck represented his old life, perhaps the only remaining piece of it he still had.
When we walked back down the stairwell towards the area Vance had used to conduct his warped kidnappings, I felt a sense of relief flush over me. I knew that there was food and water below, waiting for us. I was no longer entering this place as a stranger, but as someone that had been here and survived Vance’s schemes. I almost felt like I belonged in this place—that the spoils awaiting us had been earned.
Back in the small complex of rooms, Riley went into a small storage closet and pulled out four large, empty bags. Two looked to be large duffels of the sort that was used in the military. The others were basic backpacks any hiker would use.
“I’d like at least two of these,” he said as he doled them out. He said this in a way that made me pity him. He knew that we outnumbered him and that if we chose to do so, we would take anything we wanted. I no longer felt like Kendra and I were the ones taking the chance here. Really, it was the other way around. It made me fully trust him and believe his motives were real.
As we looked at the bags, it occurred to me that in the end, Kendra and I had lost nothing. Despite Vance’s plans for us, we were going to get back all of our belongings: the baby sling, our weapons, and our meager bags. Even the pacifiers.
The three of us made our way into the supply room where Kendra and I packed as much as we could into the two bags Riley had just given us. We took three boxes of crackers, a box of Cheerios, six cans of pinto beans, six cans of Chef Boyardee Ravioli, and a few sticks of beef jerky. As we went through the supplies, not a single argument broke out until we came to the box that contained the remaining Gatorade.
There were only five bottles left. We all shared an awkward look when three different hands reached towards the box at the same time.
“I hate to pull this card on you,” Kendra told Riley, “but I need fluids to keep my milk production up. If it wasn’t for feeding the baby, it would be different.”
“I get that,” Riley said. “But as you know, fresh water is hard as hell to come by. I need fluids as much as you do.”
“Yeah,” she said, “but I’m keeping hydrated for two.”
Riley looked away, clearly conflicted. I pitied him again. Had he chosen to do so, he could have come directly back here after the encounter outside of the nest. He could have come back and taken everything he wanted. But instead, he had hung back and waited for us. He had wanted to help us and now here we were, trying to take what we wanted and taking severe advantage of his generosity.
“Wait,” I said, knowing that if Kendra kept going, the discussion was going to get heated. “How about we take three and you take two? I think that’s fair, right?”
Riley thought about it for a minute and then nodded, although the look on his face indicated that his idea of fair was never having invited us back here in the first place.
“Eric,” Kendra said, “those two bottles could be a huge difference. We have a long way to go and—”
“And Riley is trying to help us,” I said, interrupting her. I had never interrupted her out of annoyance before. I hated the way it made me feel. “I’m not going to walk all over a man that is trying to help us. He only has few supplies, too. You drink the Gatorade and I’ll have the water from the Dunn’s house.”
“And there’s a lot more water here, too,” Riley added.
She shrugged, defeated, and walked over to the door. She nestled the baby to her and kissed his head.
With our supplies packed up (I left enough room for at least twelve bottles of watter) and an immediate sense of anxiousness among us, we headed back into the central room where we had shared a paltry dinner with Riley and his now-dead companions just two nights ago. The electricity was out again and it felt like walking through some sort of modernized crypt.
“One more thing,” Riley said as he lugged his packs into the room. He took a familiar bag off of his shoulder and set it on the table in the center of the room. It was Vance’s laptop bag.
“I have no need for this,” he said, “but I figure if you two are heading to one of those Safe Zones, it could maybe come in handy. You never know. Plus, there’s a ton of crap on here about what all went down. You know...if you want answers or whatever. There’s a sheet in the laptop bag with all the passwords. Vance wrote them down for me in case he ever died. I thought it was stupid at the time but...well...not so much anymore, huh?”
He chuckled at this, but it was a humorless sound. He then walked to the outskirts of the room, rummaged around for a bit, and came back with a pack of twenty ounce water bottles. He helped me shove all twelve bottles into my bag.
“You sure about the laptop?” I asked. Something about takin
g it seemed like a bad omen to me.
“Yeah, I don’t want it. Don’t want anything to do with what’s on it, either. But like I said...it might be useful to the Safe Zone people.
I looked at the bag for a while and eventually took it. I slung it over my right shoulder where the weight of all of our other belongings hung loosely. Kendra carried a single bag on her back and had the baby cradled to her chest.
“Riley, what did happen?” I asked him. “Did they ever find out what those things were?”
“According to Vance, not really. That might be the one area where he was actually telling you the truth. Some kind of inter-dimensional thing seems to be the agreed-upon theory. There’s stuff on his computer that explains it, although I don’t know that it would help you sleep any better at night.”
We headed back through the darkened halls and to the parking garage above. I had somehow lost track of the progress of the day. As we approached the Nissan that Riley had helped us with, I checked my watch and saw that it was 4:30 in the afternoon. It had been an impossibly long day.
“Where are you headed?” I asked Riley as I started putting our bags in the back of the truck.
“At first, I thought I’d stay here,” he said. “You know, where there’s at least some electricity. I thought it might do some good to stay with the supplies and help any others that end up coming through this way. But the more I think about it, the lonelier that seems. So I’m gonna head out, too. Before this all happened, I was living in Abilene, Texas. I think I might head back out there, just to see if there’s anything standing.”
“And if there isn’t?” Kendra asked.
Riley shrugged in a way that let us know that he honestly didn’t care. “Vance said there were whole portions of Mexico that were barely touched by the monsters. And from what I remember, there wasn’t much unrest down there when it all happened. Maybe I’ll head down there and see what I can find. Take a boat out to an island or something.”