by Maxey, Phil
CHAPTER TEN
2: 33 p.m. Highway 63.
Landon hugged his son’s shoulder while trying to ignore the pain that movement brought him. Several tables had been brought together in the center of the spacious dining room and everyone was enjoying the contents of the bowl in front of them, including the two dogs on the floor.
Rufus who was at the head of the table looked past a few others to him. “So you were in Denver at the start of all of this?”
He nodded. “Unfortunately, yes, but I guess it meant we were able to get out in front of it.”
“It really is something that out of all of the people that succumbed to the… plague, you and your family managed to survive?”
Sam, seated to Landon’s left, looked at the former pastor. “We were lucky. We saw… there were people with us that didn’t make it.”
“Of course, of course. But still, it’s quite the miracle.”
Landon smiled. “We’ll take whatever help we can to get through this.”
“Less than three days,” said Arlo, more to himself than anyone around him, then sipped on more of the strew.
Rufus sighed. “But the old world has gone… we now are living in its ruins…”
“And the monsters are still here…” said Helen, seated next to Agatha and Toby and barely seeing above the table.
“I don’t know about that,” said Landon with a smile to the young child opposite, then looked at the others. “We didn’t see many on our way down here. Maybe we’re just used to seeing how many there are in the big cities, or maybe—”
“They are dying off,” said Brad. “Like the president’s message said they would.”
“We should be so lucky,” said Tracey, sitting next to him.
“He said the virus would be gone,” said Meg. “Didn’t say anything about the—” She glanced at Rufus. “— things…”
He looked at the figure at the opposite end of the collection of tables. “And you, young man. What is your story?”
Lachlan’s hood was still covering the upper part of his face, the spoon disappearing into the shadows. Everyone waited for it to reappear to hear the stranger’s accounting. “Just got lucky. Like others.”
Rufus’s brow tightened then he turned back to Landon. “And you believe your wife is in Denver? Her company has kidnapped her? Why would they do such a thing?”
He nodded. “I think so… and that’s a long story, perhaps for another time.”
Rufus nodded.
“You’re really going back there?” said Tracey.
Landon hesitated in answering, knowing his children were hanging on his every word. “I don’t know. Probably.”
Sam looked at him, shocked. “You have to go back…”
He looked at her with a smile, understanding in his eyes. “We’ll get your mom back, don’t worry. But I have to make sure you and your brother are—”
“I’ll go with you!”
He appreciated the gesture, but knew he couldn’t grant her wish. The girl in front of him looked different to when he left just a day before. Older, more confident but there was no way he was taking her on a trip back into the hell that was Denver.
“Well, your father has only just got here,” said Rufus to her. “I’m sure he could do with a little rest before jumping back into the fire.”
She frowned, placing her spoon in her bowl, then pushed her chair back and left the room. Landon noticed the head movement from Lachlan. An awkward silence fell upon those still finishing their meals.
“This is really good,” said Josh.
Rufus smiled. “My wife did most of the cooking, but I learned a thing or two over the…”
Lachlan got up and left as well.
*****
Sam looked down at the small wooden cross. It somehow was a good representation of the boy below it. Unassuming, reserved. A tear ran down her cheek and she sat on the cold ground in front of the mound of dirt. The space beyond was a small lake, replete with two plastic boats on the bank, and scattered around were groups of trees, most devoid of leaves, their branches covered in a smattering of snow.
Worse places to spend eternity, she thought.
Seeing her father was bitter sweet. By the end of the trek north from the small town that was being overrun, she was convinced she would never see her parents again, that from here on out it would just be her and Josh. She knew Meg meant well, but she was an older person, and the new world would be harsh on those above a certain age. She also was changed. Stronger, her senses more attuned. She could look after her little brother. No need for anyone else.
But then they got the message from Landon, and suddenly she was someone’s child again. Someone to be protected. Despite the joy of seeing him, she hated that she was being told what to do. She wasn’t Josh. She was a few years older and she had survived the end of the world. That must mean something, right?
She heard the footsteps across the mud path of the strange, lanky young man. His heart rate was unlike the others. Faster, stronger. She was hoping he would turn back or at least take a different route, but instead he walked all the way to only a few feet from her. “Can I help you?” she said, still looking at the lake.
“I’m… like you. Or you’re like me or something.”
She turned and scrambled backwards in one movement. His hood was down, but she wished it wasn’t. Everyone had seen the bottom of his face, but no one had seen what hid beneath the hood until now, and she could see why he kept it hidden, for the area above his brow was distorted and covered in bony protrusions. She had seen similar features on the…
A noise came from across the field. Lachlan fumbled then quickly pulled his hood back up as Joan appeared on the path, walking towards them. He bent over towards Sam, making her lean back. “You can’t—”
“Hey!” shouted Joan.
Lachlan stood up then continued walking towards the lake. Joan soon arrived behind him, a little out of breath.
She frowned, looking at the young man walking away. “I… don’t think he likes me.”
Sam quickly got to her feet.
“You okay?” Before Sam answered, the older woman looked at the grave. “Oh… I’m sorry. This is where the boy is buried? Your friend?”
“I’m… I’m fine.” She glanced at Lachlan, who was being eclipsed by the small wood he was walking into.
Joan frowned again. “Did Lachlan do something? He’s a real strange—”
Sam shook her head. “No. I told you, I’m fine. We… were just talking.”
“Okay…”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
3:12 p.m. Southern Rockston.
Voices echoed at the edges of Jess’s mind. Some came with images of decaying teeth and saliva dripping from misshapen mouths, until one grew louder than the others.
“I think she’s waking up.”
It was a voice she recognized. She forced open her heavy eyes to a blurry face.
“Don’t try to move, Jess. Here, have some water.”
“Daryl?” Something plastic pressed into her hand. A bottle. She placed it against her mouth then stopped, caught in a moment of pain, pounding across the back of her skull.
“You took a whack to the back of your head,” said Sheryl, somewhere behind the younger man who was leaning over her.
Jess tried again, this time being more successful and cool water splashed down her throat and into her empty stomach. The surrounding space suddenly grew in focus. It was dark, the room only being lit by a few lanterns and candles. The ceiling was low and there was heavy machinery joined by large pipes and electrical cabling. “Where…” She realized that Daryl and the others she had just recently met, were together. “How?”
Sheryl stepped closer. “Read the note this young man left. You almost died trying to get it, so we figured we’d better take a—”
Memories flooded back into Jess’s consciousness. She grabbed Daryl’s arm, making him wince. “Do you have the—” he smiled, while nodding. “—
bottles?”
“Yeah, I got them. They’re safe. I noticed you didn’t have yours…”
She let go, letting out a breath of relief. “Good. That’s… good. Mine… I don’t have them anymore.”
“What happened?”
She glanced past him to the older woman, and the other two who were watching her, while pretending not to. She looked away. “Ran into some of the things.” She tried to stand but the room began to move independently of her, so she remained on the floor, pushing her back up against the wall. “Thank you for saving me,” she said to Sheryl.
The older woman smiled. “You kinda didn’t leave us any choice. Running off like… you did…”
Jess knew the three of them had questions as to how she made the jump to the other roof and she survived whatever that creature did to her. But she was too exhausted to answer them. Anyway, she had questions of her own. “Where is this place?”
“Southern outskirts of the city,” said Sheryl.
“It’s a school,” said Karl. “Basement.”
“When we fled the city. When things were bad, we—” She glanced at the two others. “— found ourselves on the road outside, and ran into the building above for shelter. Luckily most of the creatures carried on by, didn’t pay us much attention down here. So we thought we might as well stay…”
“We go back into the city when we need supplies,” said Joyce.
“We were heading back from a supply run when we heard all the creatures heading in the same direction. Which, is not something they usually do,” Karl looked at Joyce then back to Jess. “That building you found me on the roof of is a base we created in the city. A place we can go to if we get stuck there for the night.”
“It’s near where I used to work,” said Sheryl.
“What did you used to do?”
Sheryl snorted. “Well, unless I’m told otherwise, I’m still the police chief of Rockston. Have been for twelve years.” She looked at the man of similar age to her right. “Karl here owned a furniture store in town, and Royce worked at the radio station. And you’re a scientist? From Denver?”
Jess frowned at Daryl, who looked guilty then to Sheryl. “Yeah, that’s right.”
“So you know why all this happened?” said Royce.
“I know as much as anyone else.” She avoided looking at the older woman a few feet away, but tried to stand again, this time with success. She looked at Daryl, who reached out to offer her a hand, but she refused. “We need to go.” She looked for a way out through the maze of pipes.
“Hey, hold on a moment,” said Sheryl. “I still got questions. What you did wasn’t normal. We all saw how hard that thing hit you. You should be dead.”
Jess looked back at the woman. “I am thankful you saved me, and found Daryl. You don’t know how much that means. But I can’t stay, I have to find my family.”
“Your family are in Rockston?”
Jess let out a breath as a new wave of pain cascaded through her head. “I… I don’t know. Probably not in the city, but maybe to the south and east. Maybe holed up on a farm. Somewhere away from where people would have been.”
“And you have no way of communicating with them?” said Karl.
“No, but—”
“There must be a hundred farmsteads just within ten miles of where we are now,” said Sheryl. “And the things are still out there, roaming around, looking for… well, there’s danger everywhere.”
“I know… but my family are in this vicinity. I just have to find them.”
“Umm…” said Daryl. She looked at him. “Well I was thinking about that. What if we could send out a radio message? A really powerful one. Meg’s a wise woman, she might have found a radio. And I was talking to Royce about where he worked…”
Jess looked at the young man who looked unsure, as did the other two. “Is that possible? Can we broadcast from there?”
Sheryl shook her head. “No can do. It’s full of the things. Attracted to the place or something…” She could see the scientist was deep in thought, or pain, she wasn’t sure which.
Jess placed her hand on her temple, lightly nodding. “It’s the power being generated there. The creatures are attracted to the generators.” She looked back at the others. “But that means everything’s still working.” She looked at Joyce. “Do you know how to use the radio equipment there?”
Sheryl frowned. “You ain’t getting it. The place is infested with the things. It would take an army to get them out. Which, if you hadn’t already guessed, we don’t have.”
Jess’s eyes hadn’t left the young man. “Well?”
He looked away from the police chief and back to Jess then nodded. “I think so.”
*****
3: 34 p.m. Highway 63.
Landon looked up at the flickers of snow falling to the already frozen ground, then across the beige and green fields surrounding Rufus’s property which were already succumbing to shadow by the setting sun. He could understand how the old man had stayed out of harm’s way, being a few miles from the nearest small town and almost ten from anything bigger. The monsters focused on where the humans were and just off highway sixty-three was not a hotspot of activity.
He took in a lungful of chilling air and for a moment appreciated being alive. More than that, he had found his children, which despite his absolute determination to do so, he knew was a long shot, but somehow, he had.
He leaned forward on a waist high wooden fence.
You found them… Do I leave them again, to find Jess? When I don’t even know for sure where she is? Can I even do it? Physically?
As his throat became tight he blinked away the moisture building up in his eyes. He opened his mouth and his grief became apparent from the white mist. He couldn’t accept giving up on his wife, but yet he knew what she would want, no, not want, demand that he do. Which would be to put Sam and Josh first, before her and himself. He knew that, and yet he still couldn’t quiet bring himself to completely accept it.
A door opened somewhere behind and he heard the footsteps approaching. He glanced back at Meg walking to him.
“Thought I’d find you out here.”
“It’s peaceful.”
“Sure is.” She leaned on the fence as well. “How’s the arm?”
“I can just about move a finger. Not sure if that’s progress.”
“So no need to chop it off then!” It was meant as a joke, but Landon awkwardly smiled.
“I hope not… that was some journey you had getting here.”
“Ours?” She shook her head. “They’re going to be making a film about your adventures getting here! Biochron… then those assholes taking the vaccine… that reminds me. How much should we be telling our host?”
“Tell him what you like. It makes no difference.”
“Yeah…”
“You don’t trust him? He seems a good guy.”
“He is… don’t get me wrong. I don’t know what we’d have done if we needed to find somewhere else, but… he just has some interesting ideas about the creatures and how all of this came about.”
“Like what?”
“He comes at it from a religious point of view… Calls them demons… thinks we’re living through the end times…”
Landon looked back out at the pinks and mauves of the clouds on the horizon. “Well, we still don’t know what’s the cause of all of this, do we?”
Meg looked surprised. “You’re buying into the whole supernatural angle?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m not saying that. I’m just saying, we don’t know, what we don’t know. Biochron created the virus, but what was there motivation? Why destroy the world? What do they get out of it? So… who knows.” He sighed.
“What are you going to do about finding Jess?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m happy to keep on looking after your kids, although Sam’s been more, looking after me.”
He smiled. “Does she seem different to you?”
>
“You mean because of the change?” He nodded and she looked away. “That’s something you need to talk to her about.”
“So that’s a yes.”
“I’ve only known your daughter for a few days, but she’s still the same person I met back then, if that’s what you mean…”
Landon looked away. “She seems different. Hiding even more secrets than before.”
“She’s not going to let you just give up on Jess, you know that right?”
Anger flashed through his mind. “I’m not giving up on her. But I have two kids to think about. I’ll always be thankful for you getting them here, but they’re my responsibility. And… well.”
Meg nodded. “I know. It’s an impossible decision.”
He sighed. “Yup.”
A hundred yards away, Sam pulled back behind a tree. The wind masked some of her father’s words, but she got the gist of it. He was going to leave her mother out there. Leave her to the mass murderers, so he could look after his daughter and son.
Sam shook her head.
Not giving up on you, mom.
CHAPTER TWELVE
4:12 p.m. Southern Rockston.
Jess looked across the parking lot to the shadowy figures waiting near the side entrance to the school gym. They were in a huddle, grabbing sidewards glances at her and even her enhanced sight couldn’t make out their faces in the gloom of the coming night.
“Yeah, they think you’re some kinda wizard or something, or maybe a superhero, not sure which,” said Daryl.
“Hmm.”
“Said they saw you jump twenty-feet to another roof and take a hit that would have felled a tree, crazy right? I mean… they obviously saw it wrong… right?”