Humanity's Edge- The Complete Trilogy

by Paul B. Kohler

  Finally, he hung up and then dialed another lab. And then another. As he dialed each one, his shoulders slumped forward more and more, making him look like a crooked question mark. He was defeated.

  As the tension stretched between them, Clay clapped his hands together, getting their attention once more. “Listen, everyone,” he said, his mind teetering on insanity. As he spoke, he structured some semblance of a plan, recognizing that his troops needed something to keep morale up. As it was, he saw suicide plots in each of their eyes.

  “The voice mails from my wife were more than twenty-four hours old, which means there’s no possible way to know what’s going on.” His voice was firm and confident. “Which means we have to make moves without knowing. I say we should move on to Helen—maybe get all the way to Earlton, where the military base is.”

  “All the way to Earlton?” Brandon asked, raising his eyebrows. “We can’t even get out of Carterville. You saw what happened to Connie.”

  It seemed that after constant devastation, people had allowed themselves to forget about Connie. But people ticked their eyes toward Ralph now, who looked stumped with sorrow.

  “That’s right,” Daniels spouted then. “The energy field is controlled from the outside.”

  “And there’s absolutely nothing we can do?” Alayna asked.

  Daniels shook his head, unable to look at her. “Unfortunately, no. We’re relegated to our fate within the containment zone.” His voice was matter-of-fact, even as it delivered such devastating news. “I’m sorry.”

  Norah began to shake, then. She cowered to the ground, peppering the concrete with her tears. “It was fine to die,” she murmured. “It was fine to die alone. But the entire world is falling now. It’s the end times. The devil. He walks among us.”

  The survivors stood without speaking, the dial tone wailing from the phone that remained off the hook. Clay closed his eyes, feeling a howl of despair try to clamber from his chest. But he kept his lips tightly sealed.

  Chapter 68

  That night, the survivors slept fitfully in their barracks in the basement lab. Clay found himself lying alone, despite Alayna’s pleas of wanting to be with him after such a tragic afternoon. But now that he’d survived the day, Clay couldn’t stop beating himself up about being unfaithful to Valerie. Would she understand and forgive him if she truly knew the reasoning behind the infidelity? He hoped that he would be able to find out.

  Clay entered the lab kitchen early in the morning to find both Daniels and Brandon standing, steaming coffee mugs in hand. They didn’t speak for a few moments as Clay poured himself a cup. He wondered what people had said on the Titanic, right before it had dipped into the ocean. He supposed nothing would have sounded appropriate.

  “There’s been some power fluctuations,” Daniels said then. “The town’s been flickering on and off all night and this morning.”

  “I see,” Clay said. “Any consequences to the lab?”

  Daniels shook his head. “The lab seems to be battery powered. It should last for years, if we want it to.”

  “Great. So we can just lie around here while the rest of the world burns,” Brandon said.

  “Don’t,” Clay said, slicing his hand through the air. “We don’t need your pissy attitude right now. Think about Norah. She’s on the edge and you’re not helping.”

  Brandon bowed his head. The cut had been deep, given Brandon and Norah’s budding friendship.

  “Did you go outside this morning, then?” Clay asked Daniels. “Anything else suspicious? Any sign of the crazed?”

  “Only a few stragglers,” Daniels said, smacking at his gun holster. “Their brains are all over the pavement now. Disgusting creatures.”

  Clay’s thought—that these creatures used to be their neighbors and friends—had no meaning for him any longer. He sighed wearily before resting his coffee mug on the counter and heading toward the exit. He bounded up the steps toward the store entrance. Outside, he stared at the desolate waste of his once-beloved town. The corner stop sign was spattered with dried monster blood. Clay didn’t peer around the corner, certain he’d discover the ruined bodies.

  As he stood, he watched as the stoplight began to flicker before turning black for a full minute. He imagined the next several years of their life in the barracks—that is, if the supplies lasted that long—all the while not knowing what had occurred on the outside. For all they knew, the world outside was humming along fine.

  He had to get out. He had to discover the truth.

  He marched back into the lab, discovering Daniels in thinker mode, his chin rested on his fist. The sterile lights from the lab made his black stubble look all the more stark.

  “When the power goes out, wouldn’t that make the energy field flicker as well?” Clay asked.

  Daniels’s eyes slid toward him. “I assume so,” he said. “Absolutely.”

  “If we could figure out the pattern of the fluctuations, we could free ourselves,” Clay said. “Just walk directly out of the containment zone without bursting all over the pavement.” His words were harsh. He was grateful the others were still tucked in their beds.

  Daniels stood. He shook his head vehemently. “I think that’s a foolish idea,” he declared. “The energy field has been set up for a reason.”

  “But those reasons don’t exist any longer,” Clay said.

  “But imagine what would happen if it flickered for just a moment. In the flash of an eye, the green orb would come down over you, and you’d be dust. Just like Connie. And then what would these people do?”

  Clay tilted his head. “I thought you were of the ‘kill or be killed’ mentality?”

  “Sure. For me,” Daniels continued. “But you’re a man of the people. You’re supposed to stay. To keep them safe. They look to you, Clay. You’re the Carterville Sheriff, for god’s sake.”

  “But there isn’t a Carterville anymore,” Clay said, smashing his fist against the countertop. “And if we don’t move now and get some kind of help, maybe we won’t die today. Or tomorrow. And we might still be scrapping away like rats in a few years. But that’s no kind of life, Adam.”

  Daniels shrugged. “It’s your lot in life, now, Clay. The moment you were elected—”

  “The moment I was elected, I didn’t know I’d lose my wife and daughter. And they were all I had in the world,” Clay hissed.

  As he spoke, he sensed a presence behind him. Daniels’s eyes turned upward, gazing at the doorway. Clay turned to find the entire troop of survivors glaring at him, their arms crossed and plastered against their chests. Their anger and fear were palpable.

  ***

  Far from the laboratory basement, near Crawford Farm, the translucent energy field flashed off, making Carterville just more flat land on which to roam.

  A few feet away, a large swarm of the crazed monsters, blood dripping down their cheeks to their chests, bucked forward and into the town containment zone. The world was theirs for the taking. And they were hungry.

  Moments later, the energy field flickered to life once again, sealing in Carterville’s latest guests.

  Chapter 69

  Alarmed, Alayna raised her hand, her voice cutting through the tense air of the lab kitchen. “Clay. Daniels is right. You can’t go out there and just try to ‘get lucky’ with the energy barrier. We have no way to know when the power outages come and go. They’re brand new for us. We need to assess them first—for days or weeks maybe—before making any such decision.”

  Clay understood, then, as he gazed into Alayna’s eyes, that she wasn’t with him. Perhaps she couldn’t be any longer. The world they’d cultivated had imploded. And now every person was alone. There were no more companions. There were no more truces.

  “I have to do this,” Clay said. “I have to get out there. I need to find them.”

  He offered no other explanation.

  He began to pack a large backpack, filling it with enough supplies for at least a week of being on the other sid
e. As he packed, he felt strangely centered. He could no longer feel the angry stares from the other survivors, who almost assuredly knew that they would soon have to fend for themselves, without him. Norah, the weakest of the group, sat in the corner as he packed, praying for him. Her words weren’t a comfort.

  Clay’s backpack, stocked with water bottles and matches and granola bars and nuts, felt strangely light on his back as he lifted it. He nodded toward his fellow survivors with finality, and then he turned toward the exit door, already anxious to feel the ground beneath his feet.

  But the survivors followed him, scampering after him like abandoned animals. He could feel Daniels hot on his heels.

  “Adam, nothing you say can change my mind,” Clay said. “This is the only way I can see to find resolution. I can’t live like this, not knowing what has become of them.”

  Daniels didn’t respond. Neither did the others. They followed Clay up the steps, Norah’s knees creaking as she walked. A gumball was squashed beneath Clay’s boot, and the fresh air tasted good on his tongue. He needed these last sensations before the grimness of the outside world was revealed to him.

  On Main Street, he turned back to find his group of survivors in a single line near the storefront, their eyes upon their feet. They looked skittish. Alayna wrapped her arm around Norah’s shoulder, whispering to her. Clay felt his stomach drop.

  But during this moment of brief nostalgia, he heard something. He turned his head toward the street corner, noting the shadow that began to form across the pavement. And before he could say anything, an entire horde of the crazed came rushing toward them, their arms flailing and their lesions bleeding languidly.

  Norah shrieked. One of the crazed slouched toward her, his teeth barely missing her shoulder blade before Brandon shoved him, full force, to the pavement. Daniels blasted a bullet through the monster’s brain, and the splattering blood painted the approaching horde. One of the crazed licked his lips, as if he liked the taste of his friend.

  As if on autopilot, Clay burst forward and ripped his gun from his holster, aiming at the mutants’ brains and pummeling them to the ground. “GET NORAH INSIDE!” he cried to Brandon before blasting the crazed flailing toward the teenager and the old woman. “HIDE. GET OUT OF THE WAY.” He continued to blast, one after another, his eyes filling with panic and rage. “COME ON.”

  Daniels, Alayna, and Clay rampaged, then, destroying one crazed monster after another, lining their boots with the blood of the dead. Ralph was in the center of them, flailing a large stick he’d picked up from the ground, bucking their bodies sideways. Clay focused upon the miscreation beside Ralph, blasting it seconds before it attacked. But he knew they were losing time, and it seemed that the crazed kept rushing from beyond the corner.

  “RALPH. GET DOWNSTAIRS!” he cried, blasting two more crazed, then grasping Ralph’s collar and flinging him toward the door of the candy shop. He felt menacing, like an animal or a warrior. But they were running out of ammunition, and it seemed they would be eaten at any moment.

  Daniels reached toward his back, then, and revealed a menacing automatic weapon. He screamed, “CLAY! ALAYNA! GET BACK!” And then he began to spit bullets at the mutants. Each line fell back upon the ground, slamming against the pavement. And then, when another line came roaming toward them, he blasted them to the ground as well. Clay watched the carnage, trying not to recognize any of the monsters’ faces or think about their names. He was breathless, his eyes bulging as the minutes continued and the bodies built a mountain in front of the candy store. The rest of the survivors were huddled at the entrance, watching, Brandon’s arms wrapped around Norah to hold her standing.

  Finally, after what seemed like forever, Daniels stood huffing, tilting his gun skyward, without another crazed to destroy. His eyes were manic and almost yellow, and he breathed heavily, spitting.

  “Jesus,” Alayna gasped. “Where the hell did they all come from?”

  Jacobs stepped out of the storefront. “My guess is with all these power fluctuations we’ve been experiencing, the perimeter energy field is also wavering.”

  Clay turned to the other survivors, who eyed him with fear and confusion. He gestured toward the bodies, knowing he looked crazed. “You see? Just as I thought,” he told them. “We are no safer here, in the center of Carterville, than we would be on the road. I think we can make it through the energy field during a down phase, which seems to be happening more and more often.”

  “But we’ll be killed on the road, too,” Ralph spat. “And military man here doesn’t have an endless supply of bullets.” His ears dripped with blood. A scratch had formed down his cheek, from the monsters, but he appeared unbitten.

  “We just need to make it to Earlton,” Clay said. “That’s all.”

  “But we tried to call them,” Norah reminded him.

  “As far as we know, just the physical phone lines are down. We’ll only know for sure if we can make it to the military base. And we also know that the military base is safe and stocked with supplies, if things get too bad out there.” Clay swallowed.

  Ralph muttered something to Brandon that Clay couldn’t hear. And Brandon nodded succinctly, squeezing Norah’s upper arm. Behind her stood Jacobs, always in the background, leering. Clay’s adrenaline was so high he wanted to punch him in the face for all the devastation that he’d caused.

  “We don’t really see another way, now,” Brandon finally said. “We’ll come with you. And we’ll die with you, if that’s what it comes to.”

  Ralph nodded, and Norah’s eyes burned with a sudden passion. “We’ll not go down without a fight,” she said.

  Chapter 70

  Clay and the survivors gathered back in the basement to reassess their plans. Clay felt Alayna’s hand at the small of his back as he stood at the coffeemaker. She shook slightly, and Clay turned to her, placing his hands on her shoulders.

  “You doing okay?” he asked her, tilting his head. “Really, I mean.”

  “I’m fine,” she murmured, her eyes far away. She bit her lip, her words coming soft and intimate. “I’m just . . . better knowing you’re not going alone, is all.”

  Clay nodded. He felt the same but remained silent about it.

  “And I’m so sorry about your wife and Maia,” Alayna whispered. “I know you must be feeling a strange range of emotions right now. And I know I must be far from your mind, in so many respects. But know that I’m here for you.”

  Before Clay could respond, Brandon and Norah entered the kitchen from the side, both holding on to backpacks filled with various supplies, including fruit and bottles of water. Brandon zipped his heartily, explaining that the others were packing up and would be ready to leave within the hour.

  “How do you think we should go out that way, anyway?” Brandon asked, his eyebrow high. “There’s seven of us now, which is too many to go in a single vehicle.”

  Clay tilted his head, realizing he hadn’t thought this through. “Shit. You’re right,” he said. “Not even Adam can take all of us.”

  “Could we go in separate cars?” Alayna asked. “A few of us in your cruiser, and then the rest of us with Daniels? We were doing that before. It seemed to work all right.”

  A feeling of dread passed over Clay. He imagined being helpless in his vehicle while another, containing his newfound family, burst into flames before being overtaken by the crazed. There would be nothing he could do.

  “I don’t want to split up,” he declared.

  Jacobs, Ralph, and Daniels entered from the warehouse, their lips thin. Daniels looked like he’d just returned from war. “What is it?” he asked, sensing that the conversation had turned.

  “I think we need to locate a vehicle that can haul all of us, including our supplies,” Clay said. “Do you know anyone with a big van that might have been left behind?”

  “I don’t know anyone in this town,” Jacobs said. “This is your territory.”

  In the silence that followed, no one stepped forward w
ith knowledge. Norah said something about her old pickup truck but remembered that she’d given it to her daughter nearly ten years before. Brandon shrugged sharply. The future seemed bleak.

  Then Daniels turned toward Ralph, assessing him. “You look like you’re in deep thought. Anyone you know keeping something around? Something big?”

  Ralph kicked his heels as he walked, pouring himself a cup of coffee. It was clear that he sensed he had an audience, and he held their attention. “Well, well. Let’s see. Old Mike, he was working on something at that mechanic station across town. That old one off Jefferson Avenue. He told me about it. An old Humvee, actually.”

  “That would be perfect,” Clay said, suddenly thrilled. “You know for a fact it’s there?”

  “That’s what he said. Don’t think he would have taken it out of town. The old bastard, Mike, I’m certain he didn’t leave his place, even. Probably one of those monsters now.”

  Everyone was silent for a while, allowing Ralph’s words to register.

  “You should know, though, I don’t know what its condition is. Mike was an asshole and a drunk, and I’d say that he wasn’t all there in the head, especially in the past few months. So the car might work. Or it might not.” Ralph shrugged.

  “Well it sounds like the best chance we have,” Clay said.

  In the silence that followed, they heard a clattering in the store above: an alert that more of the crazed were coming.

  Daniels gripped his automatic weapon and set his jaw. “I’ll go get more bullets from my bag,” he said, then disappeared through the side door.

  “We can’t rely on Adam for every attack. I think if we’re all going to be out on the streets, we should be armed,” Alayna said, glancing from person to person, resting her gaze upon Jacobs a few seconds longer than the rest. “Every one of us.”