The Loki Variation

by James Riley, Sabrina

  As he approached the door, he passed the hallway, and his eyes betrayed him again. That’s when he saw the shadows on the floor. He couldn’t be sure, but to him, they looked like fallen bodies. Some much smaller than normal. He cringed and stepped back out the door and into the parking lot, Ripley right on his heels.

  The keychain had several keys and an alarm remote control. He pressed the lock button on it, hearing the responding beep from a nearby car. He drove it back to the batteries, loaded them in the backseat and drove back to the substation.

  Before long, he had unloaded the batteries again, after parking the small car outside the fence into the substation. He used a kitchen knife and his own teeth to separate the wiring inside the large cable coming from the headlight. After he pulled the protective rubber covering off of them, he twisted two of them, which he was sure were the power for the regular headlight and the one for the high beam headlight, into each other, then set them aside on the ground, weighing them down with his shoe. He then did the same thing to the last wire, the negative ground wire. He twisted that one, then wrapped it around the negative terminal on the battery. Once it was secure, he tested it by touching the combined wire he had under his shoe to the positive terminal. Both bulbs inside the headlight beamed and Derek quickly separated them. He didn’t want to drain the battery by testing it. He covered the empty exposed terminal with the plastic cap attached to it. Now all they had to do if they needed the light was to make contact between the positive wire and the terminal.

  After he carried it and the extra batteries into the shelter, he sat on the ground and ate. He shared with Ripley, and soon after, she fell asleep. Derek was lost in thought when his attention turned to a low rumbling in the distance. Ripley didn’t move. He waited until it got nearer, then went outside to see if he could see anything that would have made that noise.

  What he saw surprised him. A large military vehicle, heavily armored, was loping slowly towards the shelter. For a moment he was thrilled; it was the Navy, they had finally gotten organized and were coming to rescue them. He watched excitedly as the vehicle got closer. When it was close enough to smell diesel, he saw Sasha and Derek through the thick glass windshield. His disappointment was quickly washed away by the realization that they had access to a vehicle like that, and he stood, with his arms crossed, as Hud slowly pulled it as close to the gate as he could without blocking it.

  He walked slowly towards the gate as they got out. Sasha looked exhausted and exhilarated at the same time as she helped the always somber Nora out of the truck. Nora headed straight into the shelter, glancing up at Derek as she passed, face expressionless.

  “You like?” She called, unwinding the chain around the gate.

  “Yeah, I like. What is this thing?” Derek asked.

  “It’s a Mauler,” Hud said, coming out from behind it, “it’s a military personnel carrier. Lots of room, and lots of metal.” He was slinging a large duffel bag over her shoulder.

  As Hud got closer, Derek realized the bag contained guns, several of them. It looked heavy, and he put his arms up to offer help to Hud. Hud dropped the strap onto Derek’s hands, and followed him to the shelter, where Sasha was already opening a can of mixed fruit for her and Nora to share.

  Once inside, Derek demonstrated the headlight. Hud raised an eyebrow, and Derek honestly couldn’t tell if it was in shock that Derek had managed to do something helpful, or if it was because he was impressed. Sasha was impressed for sure, she tested the headlight wire to the battery herself a few times, and was obviously thankful to Derek.

  Hud pulled out several guns; a few shotguns and handguns, and one rifle. He dumped out cases of ammunition, and began sorting them, stocking the guns and bullets against one of the walls of the shelter. Derek used a bottle of water to rinse his face and hands, Nora sat and watched Sasha’s every move. Sasha was busy repacking her pink bag with any medical equipment that had been salvaged from the houses yesterday. Once she was done, she turned to the others.

  “You guys ready?” She asked.

  Derek had not realized she had meant to search for survivors immediately, but he had no objection to it. They all loaded into the Mauler, Nora and Derek sitting on the second row bench while Sasha and Hud sat up front. Sasha was directing Hud, surprisingly, and she led them back towards the neighborhood of base housing they had been in yesterday. They creeped down the streets, every few houses or so, Sasha would get out of the truck and stand close by, yelling and then listening for any replies.

  In several hours, they had found no one. Derek and Hud went into a house and emerged with more canned food and bottles of water and soda. Derek also had grabbed more blankets to pad their pallets with, and a family sized bottle of hand sanitizer. Nora stayed silent in the back, not looking out of the windows except for when Sasha was outside the Mauler.

  As the sun began to near the horizon, they silently agreed that it was time to head back to the shelter.

  That began another long night of sleeplessness. They took turns resting, each person assigned a time frame to stand guard. They had set up the headlight outside, running the cables to the battery inside. The fence was breached again, but the battery headlight worked as intended, before Hud even opened the door, Sasha had the wire touching the battery terminal and the bright white light completely immobilized the monster who had been trying to get to them. Hud shot it, and the several others that were attempting to climb the fence, leaving another load of bodies to carry down the hill in the morning.

  Chapter 19.

  It was Sasha’s turn to stay up and guard the rest of the sleepers. She had 3 hours to go, and she was trying to stay awake by reading a few chapters of a fantasy novel she had picked up in someone’s house during a scouting mission. The candle she was using as a reading light was flickering softly, and the steady breathing of Nora nearby was lulling her closer to sleep.

  It had been six days since she had saved Nora. Six days since her world had ended and this new, unfamiliar, hostile world had begun. The first day would be etched in her memory until the day she died, every moment of it. She still wondered if she had done the right thing in rescuing Nora, as counterintuitive as she felt that to be. Nora was suffering immensely from losing her mother, and although she remained stoic about it, Sasha saw the pain and confusion in the little girl’s gentle brown eyes every time they met her own. Nora had not spoken since the first day, but Sasha was not going to press the issue. If that was how Nora had to deal with the trauma she had already been through, Sasha felt that it was wrong to try and change it. She could communicate with her fine without her speaking, and she would wait until Nora was ready to speak, if she ever was.

  Derek had become increasingly more quiet the last couple of days, which bothered her. Derek had turned out to be extremely valuable and extremely likeable. He was helpful and compassionate, and seemed to be almost as concerned about the wellbeing of Nora as Sasha was. Derek tried to keep his emotions in check, but was only partly successful. He was frustrated easily by Hud, and Sasha did her best to stay out of those situations, because she knew she would just make it worse. Whenever the tension became palpable because of it, she busied herself with Nora or some other work to take herself out of the equation. She always had the distinct feeling that their issues had to do with her, but her name was never brought up.

  Hud was almost a machine. He didn’t seem to possess the normal range of emotions that most people do. She had not heard him mourn for anyone who was lost, she had not seen him react in any way to the horrific scenes they had come across scouting the last few days, and she had not seen him show any type of compassion for any of the three other human beings he was stuck with. He carried himself with pride, almost to narcissism, and made everyone around him feel like they were in his way. He had saved Sasha’s life on more than one occasion, but it seemed to be more out of a sense of duty than actual concern. Sasha didn’t mind, though, she didn’t need him to be emotionally attached to any of them. As long as h
e believed having her around was more of a benefit than a hindrance, she was grateful to have him on her side.

  Their days had become routine, although not boring. They had driven around in the Mauler, Nora sitting in the back with Ripley. Ripley loved keeping the little girl company, in exchange, Nora would lavish her with constant petting. When Hud and Derek would scout a house, Sasha would wait in the vehicle with Nora until she got the hand signal that the house was safe. She would then lock Nora in the Mauler with Ripley. Sasha had instructed Nora not to open the door for anyone, which Nora understood.

  They would gather whatever items and supplies they needed and were available, until they had built quite a comfortable collection in the shelter. Sasha had felt guilt when she stole markers and paper from a child’s room in one home, but Nora had been appreciative and had drawn several surprisingly good pictures of happier times.

  As if on cue, Nora sighed contentedly in her sleep, and Sasha’s eyes snapped open. She had not even been aware that she had been falling asleep, but she realized now that the book she was holding was laying on the ground, dropped from her hand, and her head was resting on her shoulder as she leaned up against the concrete wall behind her.

  She straightened herself up and found her page in the book again. She wanted so desperately to let the real world dissolve around her while she became completely absorbed in the fictional world being described in the book, something she had never had a problem doing. Now, however, she had trouble reading a sentence without having to go back and reread it. She felt that her reality was more fantastical than a book, albeit not as romantic.

  She read a few lines, trying to visualize the author’s intention as he weaved his story, but she couldn’t hold back the exhaustion. Her eyes slowly closed, her hand dropping the book again. This time there was no sigh from Nora to wake her up. It probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because she almost instantly fell into a deep sleep that would have been hard to wake her up from anyhow.

  The panicked bark is what jolted her back into reality, harshly. She jumped to her feet before her eyes were fully opened, and realized that something was completely different from the last time she had looked around the shelter. The door was open, and Hud and Derek were both yelling, she could not understand anything they were saying for a moment.

  “Sasha! The light!” Their words started to make sense to her. She fumbled, tripping over the blanket, and stepping on Nora who was backed up as far as she could get into the far corner. Sasha couldn’t quite make her brain work the way she wanted it to, she couldn’t remember where the headlight and battery were. She found them by smashing her toes into the unforgiving car battery, and struggled to locate the wire in which she needed to make a connection between the headlight and battery, and when the gunshot rang out, she jumped violently, dropping the wire. She turned to see that the door had been blasted, a large piece of it missing, leaving jagged, splintered edges. Hud was holding the shotgun, still yelling for Sasha. She grabbed for the wire again, and this time contact was made. The bright white light temporarily blinded her, but as soon as she could focus again, she saw Derek, standing on the outside of the shelter’s door bent down awkwardly, his arm caught in a vice like grip by a very large man who had fallen backwards out of the door. Hud stepped forward and shot the man point blank in the face with the shotgun, obscenities streaming from his mouth, obliterating any trace of the dilated pupils and animalistic features on the monster.

  Derek was released, and he fell awkwardly backwards, halfway back into the doorway, breathing heavily. Sasha ran to him as Hud stepped out the door, shooting several other intruders that were trying to make it over the security fence. Derek was rubbing his wrist with his other hand.

  “Did it get you?” She asked, already reaching for his arm.

  “It didn’t bite me, but it broke skin.” He was removing his watch. The man’s grip had dug the watchband into Derek’s skin so hard it had torn like paper. His skin was raw and red all the way around his wrist, and the imprint of the man’s fingers was still visible in a ghostly white pattern. Sasha stepped over Ripley, who was doing her own investigation of Derek, and grabbed her pink bag. She pulled out a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and as a second thought, also grabbed a bottle of isopropyl alcohol she had recently picked up while scouting.

  She was overly apologetic to Derek as she poured obscenely liberal amounts of the hydrogen peroxide all over his arm. Hud was watching for a moment, seemingly confused at her concern for Derek’s injury. Derek was pretty confident that there had been no exchange of any blood or other fluid between him and the monster, but was not about to protest when Sasha began disinfecting it. He flinched and hissed when she poured the alcohol on it, and she looked in his eyes with sympathy and guilt.

  “I’m sorry, Derek, I fell asleep. I don’t know how that happened.” She was on the verge of tears.

  “It’s okay, I’m okay, no worries.” He really didn’t hold her to any fault, but he was not going to be able to convince her of that. She apologized a few more times, until Hud interrupted.

  “We can’t stay here anymore.” He said flatly. Derek and Sasha moved their eyes to him, perplexed, and he pointed to the destroyed wooden door. There was no way to repair it, and it was hardly going to serve its intended purpose of keeping any intruders out. Hud was already packing things into the bins, stepping over Nora as she tried to scramble out of his way.

  “Where can we go? It’s dark now!” Sasha said, trying to remember any houses they had investigated that stood out as particularly secure.

  “The Mauler. That’s where we should have been sleeping this whole time.” He grumbled. She wasn’t sure if the edge in his voice was because he was angry that he hadn’t thought of it sooner or because she was asking too many questions. She looked at Derek and he gave her a look that told her he was just as unsure as she was.

  They both got up after Sasha finished wrapping a strip of gauze around Derek’s wrist, and silently started gathering their belongings and stuffing them in bins and bags. Even Nora was working, rolling up blankets and piling them together.

  Several minutes later, they were walking in a line towards the gate. There were no sounds, but they all knew that the monsters could hunt silently, and that by the time you heard them, it was almost too late. Hud led, then Derek, then Nora, holding onto Derek’s shirt from the back, and then Sasha and Ripley. Hud was holding a shotgun he had taken from a storage room the day they got the Mauler, and Sasha was holding her father’s tactical shotgun. Derek was holding the high powered flashlight, and they reached the Mauler without any problems. Everyone but Hud waited just inside the gate until he pulled the Mauler right up to the opening, making the loading of supplies as safe as possible.

  Once Hud got out, they very quickly loaded as much as they could, leaving behind some food and extra clothing, and just as Sasha was closing the passenger door, an unnatural shriek tore through the still night, sending shivers up her spine.

  Derek was immediately looking for the source, it was too close to tell from which direction it had come. Sasha slammed the door shut, and then they saw the shadows. They were climbing onto the Mauler. Hud started the engine, and began moving forward. Sasha was leaned forward in the front seat, trying to see the monsters on the roof, but all she could see where faint indistinct movements.

  Derek was in the back row, standing near Nora with one hand on Ripley’s back. She was tense, the hair down her spine rising, a low growl waiting to be released from her throat.

  Suddenly, a maniacal face appeared, almost larger than life, a few inches away from Sasha on the other side of the glass. She screamed and jerked backwards, slamming her head on the headrest.

  The Mauler was not a quick vehicle, and had barely gotten up any speed in the short time since the engine had started. There was no way possible for Hud to remove the woman on the hood, who was now punching the windshield. Luckily, the glass was very thick, and could withstand the impact, but Sasha was tremen
dously disturbed at the sight of the woman’s knuckles, clearly broken and becoming pulpier with every bash. The woman didn’t seem to notice that, though, and was looking directly into Sasha’s eyes, those cold black circles staring hungrily.

  Suddenly a circle of light landed on the woman’s demonic face, and she collapsed, unable to see. Hud took the opportunity and turned the steering wheel, the woman fell off the hood. Even though Sasha had not been in real danger of the woman, she was enormously relieved for her to be gone, and she turned her head to locate the source of the light. Nora was standing in front of the bench seat behind Sasha. Derek was standing in the cargo area in the back, one arm reaching to the ceiling to help him balance as the Mauler bumped over the sandy ground. Nora was holding the high powered flashlight, which had been carelessly thrown into the floorboard in the back row. She had her eyes closed, both thin arms holding up the heavy flashlight, and Sasha felt like crying with gratitude.

  “Nora! Thank you!” She cried, and Nora lowered her arms and opened her eyes. She didn’t smile, but the look of alarm faded from her face, and she turned off the flashlight and collapsed on the bench seat. Sasha nodded to Derek, and he came towards the front to switch places with her. As he climbed into the passenger seat, Sasha sat next to Nora and wrapped her arms around the girl.

  “You’re so cold. Do you feel okay?” Sasha asked. The air outside was cool, a huge difference from the last few nights in the usually balmy Florida, but she had still been comfortable enough in her short sleeved shirt. Nora nodded, never taking her eyes off the floorboard, and Sasha reached over the bench seat and pulled up a blanket to wrap her in. Once Nora looked more at ease, Sasha turned her attention towards the driver.