Humanity's Edge- The Complete Trilogy

by Paul B. Kohler

  He grabbed a last piece of bread and cheese, envisioning the soon-to-be-abandoned grocery store. Flies would flood the dairy section; all bread would mold. He shivered.

  He dashed through town, his eyes tracing the horizon. The road that led toward the highway held a single line of cars, like ants, that stretched back toward the town square. The rising sun glinted against his wife’s SUV, which was now toward the front, headfirst toward safety.

  He parked the car on the deserted Main Street and walked with a bit of swagger toward the church, where he found Alayna leaning on the doorway, gazing out at the empty scene. The moment she saw him, all tension released in her face. “Damn it. You’re finally here,” she whispered, tossing her arms around him. She was quivering.

  “What happened?” Clay asked, breaking their hug and searching her face. “Did more people turn into those crazed—”

  Alayna shook her head. “Just the families. The mothers. They were crying so much, demanding answers from me. They told me that if it was up to me to save the town, they were sure they could never come back. It was horrible. These people, they’re running out of hope.”

  “Don’t let them get to you, Alayna,” Clay said, his voice gruff. “When people are afraid, they say foolish, terrible things. You know this from the arrests you’ve made. How many times has Trudy told you you’re going to die alone?”

  Alayna shrugged, her gaze looking somber and faraway. “She’s probably right.”

  “Don’t be foolish. Megan will be waiting for you,” Clay said, despite having been a soft shoulder to cry on far too many times through her and Megan’s wildly intermittent relationship. “You’ll see. Now, let’s get this evacuation wrapped up and be on our way. I don’t want to stick around here any longer than we have to.”

  As if on cue, Colonel Wallace barreled around the side of the church, assessing them with his mechanical eyes. “Sheriff,” he boomed. “It seems we’re nearly finished with the evacuation. I have to admit, I had my doubts allowing your method to proceed. But we’re ahead of my anticipated schedule. However, as you know, we have to complete this sweep with the utmost urgency. I’d like to introduce you to Lieutenant Adam Daniels. He’ll be the leader of the final steps of the evacuation.”

  Clay took a step forward, trying to make eye contact with the lieutenant. His glassy eyes were bright blue and glared out across Main Street with a fierceness that caused Clay to think, beyond anything, that this man was crazy.

  “Welcome to the team,” Clay said. He kept his hands on his hips, unwilling to shake the man’s hand.

  Dr. Willis Miller appeared beside Clay then, becoming a welcome distraction from the cold, dead eyes of Lieutenant Daniels. “Sheriff, I’ve volunteered to stay behind to help with the evacuation. You never know when medical help might be needed,” Willis said. The man was in his midthirties, a newcomer to the town. He’d moved his wife and two young sons there to take over the past pediatrician’s position. Maia had seen him for her strep throat just a few months before.

  “Thank you, Doctor,” Clay offered, grateful to speak normally, without putting on any show for the colonel’s sake. “Your wife and kids make it out okay?”

  “Sent them to Alabama to be with their grandmother,” Willis affirmed, his face looking grey. “I was around during the attack downtown earlier. I haven’t seen humans act like that in all my years. Some kind of plague, possibly.”

  Clay cinched his lips together for a moment, fear rushing through him. If a doctor hadn’t recognized that mania, then did they really have a chance? But he answered with confidence. “It’s good we got the people out when we did.”

  A black town car began to rush down Main Street then. Clay brought his hand to his gun unconsciously and tried to peer into the dark glass, his heart pumping.

  Chapter 25

  Suddenly, the unfamiliar vehicle screeched to a halt and the back door swung open. Mayor Washington stepped out wearing a prim business suit, her hair swept back without a strand out of place. She sniffed, eyeing the empty town.

  “Sheriff. Wonderful to see the process has been moving along smoothly,” she said.

  Except for the multiple bodies, Clay wanted to shout. The nightmare was rattling him. “We should be getting out soon, as well, Mayor,” he said, still peering at Lois’s unexpected transport.

  Lois brought her hands together. “Yes. I think the plan will do well. Colonel Wallace and I will leave the four of you—our trusted doctor, the lieutenant, and of course our town sheriff and deputy—to it. You’ll become responsible for the task of making a final sweep of the town.” She snuck a peek at her slim watch, her face looking rodent-like. “After this moment, I believe, you’ll have a little more than forty-eight hours to evacuate yourselves. After that, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be safe. Is that correct, Colonel?” Her eyes swept toward the colonel, who was standing on the other side of Lieutenant Daniels.

  “Absolutely, ma’am,” he affirmed. “We’ve established an energy field around the perimeter of the town. This ‘containment zone’ was put in place for safety reasons. We don’t want whatever is circulating through the town to make it out. The fumigation, which will wipe out this virus, could be quite deadly to humans as well. It’s set to go off at high noon in two days. Know that you’ll all live a whole lot longer if you don’t stick around for it to go off. Don’t go getting curious on us.” He flashed a daring smile toward Clay. “After you pass through the perimeter, you’ll be placed in quarantine for safety reasons as well, but it should only be a temporary stay.”

  Clay stared sternly into the colonel’s eyes. He felt the pangs of his ever-present gut-feeling rattle deep within. He knew something was off, but he wasn’t exactly qualified to question all the specifics. He had to trust Lois’s words earlier that she would explain everything at some point. She had been their faithful leader for far too long to begin questioning her now.

  With an all too familiar motion, the colonel guided the mayor toward her waiting driver. “I hope I wasn’t too pretentious ordering you the chauffeured car, Mayor,” he said as he turned his back to the four remaining guardians. An unheard exchange passed between the two before he retreated to his revving military vehicle on the other side of the church.

  “We’ll see you all when this blows over,” he called, as if he were speaking about a winter storm or a spat.

  As the military transport zoomed down Main Street to join the line of cars that still chugged toward the highway, the four remaining members of Carterville joined in a small circle, eyeing each other ominously. Clay still sensed that Alayna was quivering, but her eyes looked sharp; her mind was clear. When the ship began to sink, he wanted to be in her lifeboat.

  “I’d like to thank all of you for staying,” Clay said, searching the glassy-eyed face of Lieutenant Daniels and the bearded, soft, folding face of Doctor Miller. A wind kicked up, whooshing against the doctor’s flannel, causing him to wrap it tighter around his thin frame. “We’re going to figure this out,” Clay continued, his own voice doubtful. “And if we don’t, at least we’ll ensure no more people die today. Is that clear?”

  No one responded. Silence seemed to creep around them, filling the air with tension. The town was turning grey and blank.

  Chapter 26

  The four stood near the church, the wind continuing to whip around them, as Clay and Alayna began to cook up a plan to organize their next two days. They peered at a map stretched out between them, orchestrating sections for each of them to search.

  “Willis, you think you could head to the neighborhood near the high school?” Alayna asked. “I know we had a few stragglers there a few hours ago.”

  “Not a problem,” Willis affirmed.

  Clay handed him a walkie-talkie. “As you recall, there’s no cell service, thanks to the military,” Clay said with a quick glance at Daniels. “And we’ll need these to keep in touch when we’re separated.” Clay continued to hand radios to the Alayna and Daniels.

 
; Willis grasped the radio with thick fingers, his eyes toward the ground. “I hope they make it to Alabama,” he whispered, lost in the emotions of saying good-bye. Beside him, Daniels snorted, rolling his eyes. All sense of compassion was lost. But, to be fair, Clay knew they didn’t have time for it.

  Alayna blinked rapidly, eyeing the few downtown streets. She rubbed at her temple. A single blue vein stuck out from her skin, giving her a ghoulish look. “It’s so goddamn quiet,” she said. “I’ve never seen it like this.”

  Clay felt his gut churning again. Everything about the world seemed to tilt; the air tasted wrong. He knew that Alayna was saying the obvious, sure. But there was something more to this feeling—something that assured him that everything wasn’t precisely as it seemed. Colonel Wallace and the mayor had seemed so chummy, too familiar together. Almost as if—

  His mind couldn’t articulate just how wrong this feeling was. He shook his head and muttered under his breath, allowing only Alayna to hear. “Something’s not right. It’s . . . it’s just a feeling.”

  Alayna turned toward him, placing a firm hand upon his shoulder. “You have to stop with the ‘gut feeling’ bullshit, Clay. I know you’re my boss and all, but it’s creeping me out. You’ve told me before. We have to look at the facts of a given situation. And we have to focus on those facts. And the fact is, we need to get moving.”

  “But doesn’t it seem odd to you that less than forty-eight hours ago, the town was running along just fine? Then, out of nowhere, a meteorite blasts through the night and interrupts life as we know it. Don’t you think a complete town evacuation seems a bit overkill, and in such haste? And how did the military know about everything so soon?” Clay paused to study the blank stares from everyone around him. Everyone except Lieutenant Daniels. His stare reeked of boredom. “They were already on their way before news of the catastrophe even made it out of town, almost as if they were on their way here for some other reason altogether.”

  The foursome remained silent for several moments, each of their minds turning over the words Clay had just uttered.

  Suddenly, a gale-force wind nearly knocked them over before it ripped the town map from their grasp. They tried to recapture the map, but the abrupt blast of cool air had blown everyone’s hair into their eyes, causing a momentary loss of clarity.

  Chapter 27

  Clay surprised everyone with his sudden catlike reflexes as he snatched the map out of the whirling gust. “I think we need to find a base of operations. The church is too barren and too strange. We’ll need to find protection from the elements until we’re ready to leave town.”

  “The station?” Willis asked.

  “No. It’s too far from the center of the containment zone, unfortunately,” Clay said. He blinked several times and then pointed, slowly, toward the historic hotel on the corner. The Masonic Hotel on Main Street was painted a bright canary yellow, with large bay windows, giving it the appearance of a house on a Northeastern bay where he and his wife had stayed once. They’d left Maia at home with a babysitter and scouted out a brief night for themselves. Unfortunately, they’d both been so exhausted, they’d just fallen asleep in each other’s arms, with a Lifetime movie blaring on the television. Such was marriage. Such was life.

  “The hotel?” Alayna asked, biting her lip. “I suppose it’s our best option right now.”

  “Damn right it is,” Clay said, allowing certainty to fuel his words. “Plus, it gives us enough room to take turns getting some rest over the next three days. And I’m sure it’s well stocked with food.”

  The four of them bounded toward the hotel, Alayna folding the map quickly and tucking it back in her pocket. They climbed up the porch, where four antique rocking chairs swayed in the wind, and then entered the empty foyer, looking around wide-eyed at the wonder that was a completely naked front desk, a clock that continued to tick without anyone to notice, and a phone that would sit unattended for at least thirty days.

  “It hasn’t been closed in over a hundred years,” Alayna whispered, sliding her finger along the gleaming wood of the front desk. “And now, who knows when it’ll open again.”

  As she spoke, Daniels swept past her quickly, nearly knocking her over. He quickly grabbed the map from her back pocket, his eyes flashing.

  “Hey!” Alayna cried. The violation caused her to step back, reeling.

  But Daniels had already splayed the map on the desk, stabbing his finger across the different areas. “Don’t worry about it, little lady.” He held her gaze for a moment before eyeing the rest of her taut body. “We need to get cracking. I’ve never seen such nostalgia in a group of rescuers. Out here, it’s either fight for survival or be killed.”

  Willis’s eyebrows rose high with immediate fear. Clay tapped his hand over his gun, sensing this man was a loose cannon. Why on earth had the colonel left him? And on top of that, it was clear he didn’t mind being forceful and pushy with their only female attendant. His stomach tighten with anger.

  But Daniels continued without pause. “We need to start from the outside and move inward, toward home base. We need to round up as many of the remaining locals as possible. We’ll meet here after dark, maybe around nine, and put together a nourishing meal.” He sniffed for a moment, turning his eyes toward Clay. “It’s clear that some of us aren’t ready to take charge of such a serious situation. Which is why I’m here.”

  Clay clenched his fists, anger throttling through him. But he swallowed, forcing himself to focus. They had to find the stragglers. They couldn’t linger on small spats. And, despite finding a deep, impenetrable hatred for this man growing within him, he needed to look beyond it.

  Chapter 28

  Lieutenant Daniels traced out the blocks on the map methodically as the three others watched him, shifting their weight from foot to foot and feeling panic after each tick of the clock. Time was passing quickly, and the sun would dip beneath the horizon all too soon.

  Finally, Daniels began to bark orders. “I think for safety reasons, we work in pairs,” he said, daring anyone to interrupt him. “I’ll work with the woman.” His eyes crept back toward Alayna’s body, easing over her curves.

  To Clay, it was apparent that the attraction was purely one-sided. Although Alayna had dated both men and women, she’d been dating primarily the latter throughout her late twenties, due to her sheer distaste for men just like Daniels.

  Alayna crossed her arms over her chest, almost physically hiding herself. Her eyes made momentary contact with Clay’s, but she didn’t show her annoyance or her fear. She knew the circumstances were far greater than that.

  “I’ll go with Willis, then,” Clay said, eyeing the doorway. “But we need to get going.”

  “Follow the map I’ve drawn you,” Daniels said, pointing. “You’ll take the west side of town, near the high school. And the girl and I will take the east.”

  “The girl has a name,” Clay said harshly, before abruptly turning from Daniels toward Willis, noting that he still held his walkie-talkie like a plaything. “You good, Doctor?”

  “You should know that I don’t know how to operate a weapon,” Willis said, looking slightly defeated. “I can mend wounds and heal broken bones and give you penicillin, but I’ve never even held a gun.”

  “It’s okay,” Clay said, even as his heart palpitated. “That’s not why you’re here. You’re here in case we come across anyone wounded or hurt. We’ll take care of the rest.”

  Alayna nodded beside him, bringing her hand to the gun at her side. “Clay’s got your back,” she said. “We have enough guns and know-how between the rest of us to keep everyone safe until we get out of Dodge ourselves. I’m not worried. And you shouldn’t be either.”

  Willis nodded, drumming his fingers over his sweating temple. “Sure. Okay. I’ll have my medical pack, then. And if the two of you have any problems, you’ll call me on this walkie-talkie, yeah?”

  “Of course,” Alayna said, her voice almost chipper. “This town isn’t big en
ough for us to lose track of each other. We have vehicles. We can come together in ten or fifteen minutes if need be.”

  “Let’s go,” Daniels said then, bursting toward the door, his keys jangling at his side. “We need to move. Come on, Alayna.”

  Alayna tossed Clay a sober glare before following after, leaving Clay and Dr. Miller alone in the shadowed hotel foyer, the ancient floorboards creaking beneath them. Clay searched his pocket for his keys, thinking they’d drive out to the farthest point on their designated side of town, and was grateful they’d have a few hours away from that wretched man.

  “Who does he think he is?” Willis asked as they walked toward Clay’s patrol vehicle. “Such an asshole.”

  “Think of it like this: as soon as we evacuate ourselves, he won’t be a part of our lives anymore,” Clay said. “I guess when you’re thrust into such an unpredictable situation, you can’t always choose who you’ll be surrounded by. Imagine if you were on the Titanic, sinking next to the most annoying guy in the world. It’s completely out of your control.”

  Willis laughed appreciatively, clutching his medical pack firmly. He spat on the ground. “It’s so creepy around here,” he whispered. “Although I didn’t grow up in Carterville, I wanted to raise my sons here. And now—”

  “We’re going to get it back,” Clay affirmed, slipping into the driver’s seat. Willis climbed in beside him without agreeing. “We’re going to get it back,” he said again, almost trying to convince himself in the midst of such desolation.

  As they drove, Clay began to consider his symptoms: the hair falling out, the scabs and lesions on his arms and now his legs, and the vomiting. They seemed all too similar to the ones exhibited by Cliff what seemed like years ago. But perhaps, with the doctor’s help, he could know for certain. Perhaps he’d diagnose him with a stress disorder. He’d tell him it was common that people exhibited these symptoms when they were frightened or fighting a battle they weren’t sure they’d win. Hadn’t he heard that people lost their hair from sadness or divorce or just moving across the country?