She wonders if the shower she took this morning was the last shower she’ll ever take.
Stop it, Allie.
“So, your friends. . . . Tell me about them.” Beverly is sitting on a cushioned bench in the foyer of the church.
Allison sighs and sits down next to her. “We’re all college buddies. My best friend, Skylar, married a guy named Dan. They’re so sweet together, so perfect.”
It stings a bit saying their names. Allison knows they might be like some of the people she has seen, suddenly dropping dead for no reason.
“I was the maid of honor,” Allison continues.
“And you escaped to a church. I’m assuming during the reception?”
She nods. “My boyfriend—Jack—he doesn’t quite have the same romantic view of marriage that people like Skylar and Dan do. We’ve been dating for—for a long time.”
“My husband was the same way. He didn’t have a particularly fond view of marriage. Of course, I didn’t know it until it was too late.”
“Did he . . . Did you lose him?”
Beverly notices her serious tone. “Oh, yes, but not today. Not now. He left me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. Me too. He went to bed my husband and then woke up someone else. Like a light switch was turned off. It took me years to realize there was no light switch there to begin with.”
“That’s awful.”
“That’s life,” the woman tells her. “Maybe it’s better that you know about your boyfriend’s reluctance now before it’s too late.”
They hear something crash outside. Allison keeps breathing steadily but feels like she’s at a higher altitude, like she can’t quite catch her breath. “It sorta seems like we’ve gotten to the too-late stage already, you know?”
“We need to keep saying our prayers,” Beverly says. “That’s all we can do.”
All we can do.
Maybe I can finally start to do it.
Maybe.
Suddenly another trumpet sound interrupts any thought she might have, either in her head or spoken out loud.
The sound is accompanied by more rumbling. It’s not just the hail hitting the ground. It’s everything around them. The ground and the church and the walls and everything.
Once again, the earthquake almost seems to be coming from the sound itself.
A piercing, deafening, haunting trumpet sound from heaven.
17
THE STRANGER IN THE DARK
The figures huddled together in the shadows could be alive or dead. Tommy’s not exactly sure until he hears some muffled voices. Then whimpers, very low, as if noise will hurt and cause more pain. It’s a bit scary and he leaves the strangers alone.
It takes him a few minutes to realize where they are. Once the skies started raining icy death balls, he and the others scampered like dogs with their tails tucked between their legs. The nearest opening—broken glass doors that they dashed through—led into a large, open space with tables shuffled around and books scattered on the floor. When Tommy sees a cabinet of index cards, he finally understands.
Their shelter is the Wilmington Public Library.
Guess it takes the end of the world to get me to step foot in a library.
The humor in his head is good because if he loses it, he might lose his sanity, too.
Tommy is near the front when the trumpet blast rocks the building. Not a let’s-rock-out-with-the-band sound but another explosion of noise that literally rocks and shakes the whole building. He grabs a bookshelf and feels the rattling while the sound seems to be piercing the center of his brain.
“What the—?”
He can’t even hear his own words.
The lights inside the library go off and on, giving the room the feel of a futuristic disco. Tommy feels cold and heavy and really not so good. The way he used to feel when he did something bad and was about to have to face his parents. Or the way he feels at funerals. Awful with all this unexplained stuff deep inside him.
When the blaring finally stops, the people in the library are talking louder. More people are crying. More voices cursing and talking with question marks.
“Where’s Skylar?”
Tommy looks and finds Dan at the entrance to the library. His new wife is nowhere in sight.
“Skylar!” Jack calls out.
They head into the dark pit of the library with Dan leading the way. The books tossed about look as disheveled as the bodies they’ve seen in the hotel and on the streets. Chairs are turned over. A decorative art piece is now dangling upside down. The farther they walk, the darker it gets.
She didn’t just disappear.
But calling out for her doesn’t get them anywhere. A whole bookshelf lies facedown on the floor. The lights still twitch on and off.
“Skylar? Where are you?”
Dan’s voice sounds hoarse and weak. Silence reigns as the hallway opens up into more tall shelves of books. Dan heads down one aisle while Tommy takes another.
For some reason, Tommy expects someone to jump out of the shadows.
Maybe it’s the dead bodies that are making me think this way.
He hears Dan’s footsteps nearby, then can hear Jack calling out her name.
“Sky—”
The rest of the name is lost when the earth suddenly bounces back and forth like a yo-yo. Whoever’s holding the string is yanking hard.
Tommy goes headfirst into a shelf of books as a dozen volumes topple over onto him. He feels the building swaying and the shelves moving and everything is black and violent.
Just as he begins to try to move forward Tommy feels something jam against his heel and he goes flying just like all the lifeless books around him that are never going to be read. He lands on his side and feels something thick and unmovable.
That better not be what I think—
But his eyes tell him the truth.
It’s a body.
He jerks back and gets to his feet just as he hears someone to his side.
“He’s dead,” a female’s monotone voice says. “He won’t bite.”
Whoever’s talking isn’t Skylar.
Tommy stands up and tries to compose himself in front of whoever is there. The lights are still flickering, so Tommy can barely make out the girl in front of him. He spots black eyes. For a second, he thinks he’s seeing things, then figures out she’s wearing heavy eyeliner. It contrasts well with her short, spiky white-blonde hair.
“Name’s Sam,” the teenager says.
The world’s ending and I’m being rescued by a Goth girl.
“Uh, hi. I was kinda—”
Once again he’s interrupted, this time by Skylar herself. He spots her racing through an aisle and then heading down another without even noticing them. She clearly is looking for someone or something.
“Skylar, stop,” he yells as he starts to follow her.
He can hear shuffling behind him and realizes that Sam is following him.
“Is she wiggin’ out?” the Goth girl asks.
Tommy wants to tell her that nobody is “wiggin’ out” and please stop following him. But he’s too focused on following Skylar. She’s scanning the bookshelves—the ones that still have books on them—and obviously searching for something in particular.
This is crazy the world’s ending and she’s wanting to check out a book.
“What’s going on?” he asks. He glances behind him, and the girl is still there, looking like a lost puppy with black eyes. “Skylar?”
“There’s got to be a Bible in here,” she says to Tommy as she glances at him for a second. “I’ll prove to you what’s going on.”
He waits to see if she’s joking, but Skylar is very serious. She’s doing what she does best: taking control, trying to handle the situation.
No amount of anything’s going to prove anything about what’s happening.
“Two rows over,” Sam says in that same unemotional tone. “Religion.”
Skylar does
n’t stop to ask who the girl giving the answer is or how she happens to know where to look. Tommy stares at her for a moment, thinking about asking himself, when he hears a triumphant cry coming from Skylar.
Tommy and Sam both walk over to find her standing next to a pile of overturned books, thumbing through a Bible.
No longer triumphant, now she looks confused. “It’s not here. Where is it?”
Skylar is still in her wedding dress, still this vision of white in a shadowy place. Her makeup has started to run and her hair is flat but she seems to have forgotten about any of that. She’s looking for answers and thinks a Bible is going to provide some.
Dan appears by her side and asks her what she’s talking about.
“The Rapture. It’s not in here.”
A few hours ago Skylar and Dan were talking about their future and their honeymoon and all their wedding presents and all the love around them and now this. Now the world is shaking and Skylar’s thumbing through a Bible and talking about the Rapture.
She finds something. “Here.”
Dan doesn’t say anything and looks nothing like the confident, happy guy Tommy saw earlier in the day.
“Hail.” She looks at all of them to make sure they’re paying attention. “Listen—‘And there came hail and fire mixed with blood.’”
“That’s not helping, Skylar,” Tommy says.
She ignores Tommy and keeps reading silently. Then she closes the Bible and shakes her head.
“I don’t get this. I shouldn’t be here. I went to church. I did everything right.”
Tommy wants to tell her that church has nothing to do with this, that the earth shaking has absolutely nothing to do with Sunday morning and singing some happy hymns. This is global warming maybe. Or perhaps some kind of terrorist attack, though that doesn’t quite explain the earthquakes or the sky or really anything.
Aliens or God or Lysol spray cans so what? It doesn’t matter who’s responsible for the skies falling. That doesn’t change anything.
“Let’s not worry about trying to figure it all out right this very instant,” Tommy tells her.
“The people—all those who just dropped in an instant—I always heard—the story always went that they would just vanish. Disappear. I never thought they’d be here. Or not they, I mean. Just their bodies.”
Tommy stares at Skylar and doesn’t know what to say.
She’s gone crazy. Pure and simple.
“I know this is the Rapture. The end of days. Judgment Day. Armageddon.”
“Those sound like a series of bad movies,” Tommy says, trying to keep things light even though he’s feeling absolutely opposite of that.
Dan urges Skylar to go back to the front of the library, where they’re not so trapped in the shadows. He puts his arm around his bride to comfort her. “It’s okay,” he tells her. “We’re going to be okay.”
Tommy hears this but doesn’t believe him. He peeks back and sees the Goth girl trailing him. There’s nothing he can do. He can’t exactly tell her to get lost. How can he turn anybody away in a world like this?
But he’s not going to tell her or anybody that they’re gonna be okay.
Nothing’s going to be okay. Not today, and not tomorrow.
Maybe not ever again.
18
SNAPSHOTS
There must be something I can do.
This is all Skylar can think because this is all Skylar knows. But the comfort from Dan and the sanctuary of the library can’t keep the fear from filling her. Reminding her of what’s happening and what happened to her parents and what might happen to them any second now. . . .
I need to stay strong for her.
Dan keeps close to Skylar as they walk to the front of the library hoping to find someone with some answers. He tries to keep his body from shivering and tries to shake the awful terror filling his mind and his soul. . . .
We gotta get out of here and find Allison.
Jack is a caged beast, restless and furious at himself and everything else for letting Allison slip away. She left at maybe the worst time ever and all he can do now is try to find her and see if she’s still alive. Try . . .
Keep moving keep breathing keep telling yourself you’re alive and that’s what matters.
And it does matter to Tommy that he’s still alive. That his friends are alive. Except for Lauren, who seemed to somehow know this might happen. Lauren, who told him she was experiencing strange visions and nightmares a year ago. Lauren, who now is dead and whose words now haunt him. . . .
Stay with these people.
Sam doesn’t want them to know how terrified she is and how desperately she needs to stay with other people. But she knows she can’t be left here on her own. She saw the guy named Tommy with the kind eyes. She knows she should stay with him. She believes he can help her stay alive. . . .
Where are you?
Allison looks out the window and watches and wonders if she’ll ever see Jack again. If she’ll see any of them—Tommy, Skylar, Lauren, Dan. She thinks of her family and her friends and then back to Jack. There are words that still need to be said and may never get uttered. . . .
19
DROPPED OUT OF THE SKY
The sliding doors of the library are gone and glass covers the entryway floor. Tommy stands looking out on the street. The sky is dark and rain is falling to the ground. It feels colder outside even as he wipes the sweat off the back of his neck. He checks his iPhone for the hundredth time.
No connection and low battery. Soon I’m not even going to be able to turn it on.
Jack is pacing, needing to stay on the move, desperate to find Allison. “We gotta get to 45 North,” he yells out.
The rain seems to hear him and responds by falling harder and louder.
“We’re not going out there,” Skylar shrieks.
She’s becoming unraveled. Actually, they all are.
Tommy watches his friends, then sees Skylar is still holding the Bible in her hands.
This gives Tommy an idea. “Allison might be at the church on Camp Street.”
Jack stops for a second and just glares at him. “She texted you 45 North.”
“Yeah, but she goes to that church when she’s upset. I bet she’s pretty upset right now.”
Jack stares in disbelief. “Since when does Allie go to church?”
“Tommy’s right. Every time you guys get into a fight she ends up over there,” Skylar answers without even looking at Jack.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jack says.
“I’m her best friend.”
“I think it’s a new thing for her,” Tommy adds, trying to dissolve any sort of impending argument. The last thing they need to be doing is yelling and screaming at each other.
“We’re going to 45 North,” Jack says again as if he’s the designated leader.
Tommy glances at Goth Girl, who’s just standing there at attention, watching them with a slight look of uncertainty. He doesn’t blame her.
“Look, the church is on the way, and closer,” he says. “We can check it—”
“What are you talking about?” Skylar shouts. “We need to stay here, where it’s safe.”
The wind blows in the cool moisture from the pouring rain. It sounds like a tropical thunderstorm outside.
Jack nods and ignores Skylar’s comment. “Fine. We’ll hit the church on the way, but she’s not going to be there.”
Without waiting, Jack heads out of the building onto the drenched sidewalk. The blurry motion of rain swallows him.
Tommy’s about to leave too when yet another loud noise stops him cold.
The zombie death trumpet sounds again.
Hearing it gives him goosebumps. It’s not just loud; it sounds like it’s coming from everywhere. The skies and the library sound system and the ground and even his own skin.
“We’re not going. Absolutely not.” Skylar looks like she’s about ready to cry or pass out. She clutches th
e Bible like a toddler holding a stuffed animal.
Tommy looks at Dan, who’s standing right next to her, unsure what to say or do. This isn’t like Dan, who’s usually in control of the situation and the leader of the pack.
He looks like a kid in a new school on his first day of classes.
“Dan, Tommy,” Skylar says to them, “let’s just stay.”
“She’s right, Tommy. It’s safer here.”
The bride always gets what she wants. Even if her dress is a little dirty and torn.
Tommy doesn’t buy it. Allison is alone. Now Jack is alone too. He needs to go after them.
“Come on,” he calls as he ventures into the rain.
Tommy can see Jack half a block ahead walking or half running. He follows as the rain soaks him down. Soon he is wiping water from his eyes, nose, and mouth. It’s getting darker out here, and he’s having to squint because of the drops of rain. For a second he turns but doesn’t see the bride and the groom following him. He keeps going.
He gets to the intersection and sees Jack stopped on the street looking at something.
Is that a dead body?
But even in the dim light, Tommy knows it can’t be human. It’s much too large. As he steps closer, he can see the smooth, brown hair and realizes that it’s a horse—one of those animals that would pull a carriage to give people tours of the city.
A very dead horse, unless it’s decided to just go ahead and take a nap in the road.
“Jack?”
His friend looks over and wipes his wet hair back, then lets out a loud curse. “I think this thing was thrown over here. Look at its back, the way it’s all disfigured like the bones all broke in two.”
Tommy looks the other way. A dead horse is a dead horse. No need to get so close and start imagining all sorts of things.
“Are they coming?” Jack asks.
“I don’t know.”
Which probably means no. But then again who really knows.
Jack stands and curses again in frustration. “We have to find her.”
“I know. I’m going with you.”
“We have to get out of this place.”
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