by Russ Watts
James’ mouth fell open. He looked back at Vic in shock, and then back to Akecheta. “You’re crazy. Who do you—?”
“I don’t have time for this, kid. If you’re not going to help, be my guest and see how close to Vegas you get. Get walking now while you still have the energy. You can handle the heat, of course, so I assume you can navigate by the sun as well? Naturally, you know how to avoid the scorpions, rattlesnakes, and tarantulas, yes? I’ll be sure to send out the search party just as soon as you give me a call.”
Akecheta marched past James to the front door so he could tell Mr. Stepper how to access the roof, leaving James dumbfounded. James scurried back to Vic and sat down, his cheeks still red except now flushed with embarrassment instead of anger. He had been put in his place, and worst of all, it had been done in front of the whole group.
Laurel glanced at Maria and suppressed a smile. Both of them knew Akecheta had handled it well.
“What a dick,” muttered James as he slumped down in a chair.
“Just leave it,” said Vic as he rubbed his hand across James’ back. This was supposed to be a fresh start, a way for James to forget the past and his troubles. “We’re on vacation, just try to cool down, okay? I’ll go get us some water.”
Vic went to find a bottle of water, leaving James on his own. He felt like a child who had been scolded in front of class. Couldn’t they see what was happening? They were going to get stuck here, all because of some arrogant prick. James stared with hatred at Akecheta. Who did he think he was, telling James what to do? That was something he could not allow to happen. It was something he never allowed to happen back home and being overseas was no different. James picked up the cutlery that had been set out on the table and ran a finger along the serrated edge of the knife. It was a little blunt, but it would do the job. “I’m going to teach him a lesson,” whispered James. He knew he would have to bide his time, but there was no way he was going to let him get away with it. James tucked the knife into his jacket pocket and sat back as Vic returned with two bottles of water. James said nothing to Vic, but stared at Akecheta. He would wait, and when he got his chance, James was going to let Akecheta know exactly what he thought of him.
CHAPTER 5
“Beers, can it!” Myles tried to soothe the puppy but was having no success. The dog was ignoring the bowl of water, and still yapping in the direction of the parked bus as Mackenzie and Chris reached the store.
“Something’s got her spooked,” said Mr. Stepper from the doorway.
“Yeah, beats me. She’s normally so placid. I guess it’s the quake. Must’ve shaken her up.” Myles gave Mackenzie a hand as Chris sat down on an old wooden bench under the shade of the overhanging roof. Two rectangular freezers chugged away quietly beside him as he rested.
“Head on inside as soon as you like,” said Mr. Stepper letting the door shut. “Maria will sort you out, Chris. Hopefully your ankle’s not too bad, but she knows what she’s doing, so let her take a look at it. Everyone else is inside. There’s plenty to drink and I suggest you get some water on board. Mr. Brown, your wife is being taken care of. I’ve known Maria for a while now and she’s a good sort. You can rely on her. I’m just going around back. I need to find a way up to the roof, see if I can’t get a signal there and found out what the hell is going on.”
Mackenzie thanked Mr. Stepper who disappeared back into the store leaving the three men alone with Beers. Mackenzie took a seat beside Chris. “Think there’s any beer in those freezers?”
“Only one way to find out,” said Myles, lifting one of the freezer lids. As he did so, he heard a low thudding sound. The sound slowly increased and the beats thumped regularly, the pauses between the thumps lessening as the volume increased. He pulled out a can of Bud Light. It was then that he noticed Beers had stopped barking, finally, and became aware of the silence apart from the thudding noise.
“Mac, Chris, you want one?”
Before either of the men could answer, the bench started shaking, followed by the whole store. It happened quickly, as if someone had flicked a switch.
“Shit, another quake?” Myles dropped the freezer lid with a bang. The can in his hand fell to the ground and rolled out into the road, the condensation instantly coating the cold metal with gritty sand.
Suddenly, the ground began shaking more violently, and Myles was thrown to the ground. He saw Mackenzie and Chris holding onto the wooden seat as it tossed them around, and the store swayed from side to side behind them. Through the large windows, Myles saw things falling from shelves and heard screams coming from inside. Shelves were being wrenched from the walls and anything not anchored down was tossed around like a feather in a hurricane. He trusted Michele to take care of Alyce, but still wished he was inside with them instead of outside rolling around in the dirt. He had to admit he was scared. There was no way of knowing when it was going to end, and the ground just kept rolling and rolling as if it had turned to water. The noise, too, was terrifying. It wasn’t just the sound of the store being torn from its foundations, or the endless screams of the terrified people inside, but the other sound. The moaning sound that accompanied the quake; the bellowing that sounded organic, as if made by an animal rather than the churning ground. Myles knew it was madness, that is was just panic making him think like that, yet he couldn’t help but imagine some kind of monster beneath the crust of the planet causing the earthquakes.
Mackenzie’s knuckles turned white as he gripped the wooden seat. It was like riding a rollercoaster, but there was nothing fun about it. The quake felt as big as the one earlier, if not bigger. He desperately wanted to get inside to Laurel, but there was no way. Walking was impossible. Myles wasn’t even able to stand, and as Mackenzie watched him, the dirt beneath Myles began to twist and turn, the surface rippling and bending as if it were the surface of a bowl of milk. Small stones bounced up and down, and then they turned back on themselves, rolling toward the center of the disturbance. The dirt was slowly sucked backwards, and then the ground behind Myles began to collapse in on itself like a black hole, draining all the life around it away into a dark recess. At first, the concentric hole was small, no larger than a fifty-cent piece, but soon it was spiralling out of control, becoming as large as a manhole, then a truck, and then…it stopped.
The quake stopped so abruptly that Mackenzie thought he was imagining it. He looked at Chris next to him, and his expression returned the same thought: what was going on?
“Laurel. I have to get to Laurel,” said Mackenzie plainly. He stood up and watched as Myles did the same, brushing the dirt off him, wiping the sweat from his face.
“I’m not sure we should be inside,” said Chris. “It might be safer out here, in case the structure of the store has been compromised. We need to—”
The ground behind Myles erupted violently, the road’s broken asphalt thrown up into the air as what appeared to be a sinkhole emerged right underneath the road. Tons of dirt filled the sky, and Mackenzie looked up in wonder as concrete and rocks began to fly through the air. There was no shaking of the ground to accompany it, just a faint vibration, followed by that noise; the bellowing sound was back. Mackenzie’s mouth fell open when he saw a shape in the dirt. A shadowy figure was emerging from the hole in the ground, climbing out of it like some sort of underground behemoth. Huge slices of earth, boulders of all shapes and sizes obscured his vision, but there was definitely something there.
“Myles!” Mackenzie beckoned the man over, and Myles began running away from the cascading rocks that threatened to shower over him as they rained down.
Grabbing Myles and pulling him under the shade of the store, Mackenzie felt a hand grab his shoulder.
“I was wrong,” said Chris quietly. “We should go inside. Definitely go inside now.”
Mackenzie’s eyes were open now, and as the dirt fell down revealing the blue sky once again, he saw what the shadowy shape was. Something had crawled out of that hole, something unnatural, inhuman, and horrible; a
sort of goliath that was now towering over them with a snarl on its face, and a glint in its eyes that told Mackenzie he should listen to Chris and get inside. Yet he couldn’t quite believe it. There was the tour bus, there was the Kelso Depot building across the street, the desert behind and the railway track; so what was this monster doing here? Was he awake? Had he fallen asleep on the tour bus and dreamt this? Why wasn’t Laurel waking him up from this nightmare?
The monster took a step forward, and the ground shook. Its head was huge, almost as big as the bus, and it had a row of teeth that glistened with saliva. The thing’s leathery skin shone in the sunlight, and as it moved, the color of it seemed to change, from a brown to a green to a silvery copper. There were talons on its feet and Mackenzie could only imagine what they were used for. Its bulky body suggested it didn’t go short of food and its two muscular arms, though short, had enough power in them for Mackenzie to know this would be a very one-sided fight. As he looked slowly up, taking the creature in and trying to comprehend what he was looking at, he reached its head. Those eyes that looked back at him were like fiery orbs that burned into his very soul. This was an animal, no doubt about it. He wasn’t hallucinating or dreaming. This thing was real. He had seen eyes like that before on the National Geographic Channel, when lions and tigers stalking their prey were about to pounce. He had seen enough documentaries about the hunters in Africa to recognize the signs. This thing was about to strike.
“Inside, now!” hissed Mackenzie as he pushed Myles toward the door.
“Inside…yeah, right,” replied Myles in disbelief. His feet shuffled slowly, scraping across the sand as he approached the doorway. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and his body was resisting Mackenzie’s efforts at getting him to go inside.
“Myles, hurry your ass up. We need to get inside,” whispered Chris. “I don’t want to be out here any longer than we have to be.”
A noise seemed to come from the creature’s throat, a bubbling sound like a kettle boiling. A low hiss escaped the creature’s jaws, and Chris noticed its rear legs tensing up. It was getting ready to strike.
“Myles, fucking move it!” shouted Chris, and he began pushing both Myles and Mackenzie forward.
Falling through the doorway into the store, Mackenzie immediately saw Laurel and ran for her. Myles tripped, but was picked up swiftly by Akecheta. Chris heard the monster behind him and felt the ground trembling as it came at him. He practically flung himself through the doorway but was not quite fast enough.
The monster’s outstretched claw caught hold of Chris’ leg, and instead of tumbling into Maria’s store, he found himself flung against the doorway. His body slammed into the wooden frame, and three ribs cracked instantly, such was the force of the monster’s attack. The claw scraped across the back of his leg, gouging out a deep line that immediately filled with blood. Chris plummeted to the ground and was knocked unconscious as his head struck the frame of the door.
Ignoring the screaming, Mackenzie pushed Laurel back into the arms of Michele.
“Wait here,” he told her, and rushed to Chris’ aid. The man was lying in the open doorway, unable to move, half of his body across the threshold and the other half out in the open where the monster could grab him at any second. Mackenzie could see its powerful legs standing close by, but strangely the monster wasn’t making any movement. It was just standing there. Was it waiting to pounce? Why hadn’t it dragged Chris off already? Mackenzie didn’t doubt that if he left Chris like that, inevitably it would strike again, and he just couldn’t wait around for that to happen. He had to get Chris inside. There was a small part of him, a selfish part that realized he had an ulterior motive for getting Chris inside. The door was still open and wouldn’t shut with him lying there. If the door stayed open, then they were all in trouble.
Mackenzie put his hands underneath Chris’ shoulders and began to pull him into the store. He dare not look up in case the monster was watching. He didn’t want to see it coming, didn’t want to look at it in case he had to admit that it was real. He was terrified enough, and he thought if he looked into those red eyes right now, he might not keep it together. He kept pulling Chris into the store, and Akecheta closed the door behind him. The monster didn’t attack, and Mackenzie slumped onto the floor, relieved when Chris was finally inside.
“Are you insane?” Laurel rushed to Mackenzie and held him to her. “What the hell were you thinking?”
Mackenzie shrugged. Laurel didn’t need an answer, and frankly, Mackenzie wasn’t sure that if he opened his mouth to speak that he might not just vomit up all his horror and terror over her. He let her hold him and looked around the store. Everywhere he looked he saw shock, fear and destruction. The store’s windows were shattered, large cracks running through all of them, but they still held together. The rest of the place looked as if someone had ransacked it. It had been trashed, and all over the floor Mackenzie saw the result of the quake: sunglasses, hats, cans of Raid, boxes of candy bars, tables and chairs turned upside down, and photographs on the wall now lying in their broken frames on the floor. A postcard stand had fallen over, and the cards were strewn everywhere like bizarrely colored tiled flooring, smiling faces beaming from the lurid pictures of a time when the Kelso Depot was more than just an out-of-the-way tourist attraction. A fizzy drinks machine had been ripped from the wall, releasing some of the cans inside before crushing them and causing them to explode. Sticky, brown liquid oozed out from its crevices and was mixing with some spilt milk cartons to make a dirty brown sludge that covered one half of the room.
A woman that Mackenzie assumed to be Maria came over to see Chris. With the help of Mr. Stepper and Akecheta, they picked him up carefully and took him into the back room where Maria could attend to him. Mackenzie noticed that Myles was with his family now, talking to Michele, trying to placate her whilst dabbing at her tears. Alyce was cowering behind her father’s leg, and he had one protective hand resting on her head. Mackenzie looked around for the others, finally spotting James and Vic behind the counter rummaging through the boxes that had fallen. He hoped they were looking for something useful like a radio, matches, or water, and not just plundering Maria’s store for a freebie whilst nobody was watching them. Each and every one of them looked terrified.
They all spoke in hushed whispers as if afraid their voices might lure the monster outside in, and when Mackenzie finally summoned up the courage to speak, he too spoke quietly.
“Laurel, we should check on Chris.”
“Jesus, Mac, what is it, what is that thing? This is…this just can’t be real. It can’t be.”
Laurel was staring past him and didn’t register Mackenzie’s statement. Her eyes were fixated on the thing outside, drawn to its magnificence, transfixed by its fantastic size.
“Laurel, look at me,” said Mackenzie. He stared at her intently, forcing her eyes to focus on his. “Laurel, I don’t know what it is, but I know we’re not safe here. They took Chris into a back room, a store room of some kind, right?”
Laurel nodded. Her eyes were glazed over, but finally she settled them on Mackenzie. “Mr. Stepper was going to try to find a signal and…I guess…” Laurel shook her head. “Oh, Jesus, I feel sick, I—”
“It’s all right, honey, I’ve got you,” said Mackenzie, feeling Laurel lean into him. “Just let it pass. It’s the shock. Just ride it out, honey, I’ve got you.”
They stayed like that with Mackenzie holding his wife as the others began to move out into the back room. James and Vic, Myles, Michele and Alyce, all eventually finding their way back there, to where it felt safer, away from the windows; away from the thing outside. Mackenzie felt uncomfortable with it being so close and wondered if it was watching them. It hadn’t moved since narrowly missing out on taking Chris. When Laurel raised her head, he was relieved to see she was back with him again.
“Sorry, I just thought I was going to pass out there for a minute.”
“Forget it,” said Mackenzie as they g
ot up. “Let’s just head on back and see what’s what.”
Mackenzie cast only the briefest of glances back as they left the front of the store. The building was shaking slightly and Mackenzie was pleased to see that it looked like the monster was backing off. The monster was still out there, but it was retreating toward the bus, back to the hole in the ground from where it had emerged. Perhaps it was leaving, he hoped, going back to hell.
* * *
“We can’t stay here, that thing is right outside! We don’t know what the hell it’s doing. For all we know, it could come crashing in here at any second.”
Mackenzie heard James’ voice before he saw him. The back room was crowded now that everyone had settled in. The little room had no windows and nothing but a yellow fluorescent light overhead, which only served to highlight the tiredness and worry on everyone’s faces. Chris was laid out to one side of the room, with Maria and Michele tending to him. Maria was wrapping his leg in bandages, and Mackenzie noticed a first-aid kit by his side.
“You want to go outside? It’s safer in here.” Vic rubbed his chin nervously. “James, we need to stay with the others. Safety in numbers and all that.”
“Piss off, Vic, you might be a good fuck, but you’re a pussy. You just want to—”
Mackenzie watched as Myles calmly left Alyce opening a packet of chips and strode over to James. Myles grabbed the Englishman by the arm and thrust him backward until he was pinned against the wall.
“I warned you. I told you not to talk like that around my daughter.” Myles was ready to explode, his anger all too obvious.
“Get off me,” demanded James. Their eyes locked together in battle, neither of them willing to back down. “Vic, make yourself useful for once and knock this bitch out.”
“James, I’m not going to do that,” said Vic, clearly afraid. “Just apologize and we can discuss this calmly, yeah?”
James fought to free himself from Myles’ grip, but the man had him pressed up against the wall and there was no way out. Mackenzie watched them, knowing that his wish for the argument to dissolve was only going to remain that way if he didn’t intervene. He looked at Alyce who was nibbling on some chips, her head down, too scared to look at what was going on around her.