by J. D. Laird
“The Washington Monument.” Private Cassie says. She tears out one of the pages in the notebook irreverently and waves it in front of Debra’s nose. “This image, he keeps drawing it. Is that where he’s going?”
Debra hesitates. There is still the uneasy feeling that something isn’t right. She pushes it down, she has to be confident in her faith. She is confident that her son will be fine and that what he is doing is right. She reminds herself that her son has been blessed and that her will return to her in the end. Debra has to believe that all of this, everything that has happened, is a part of a larger plan. Debra also believes that her son is playing a major role in the happenings of the world now. Debra reminds herself that she knows this, that to her it is a certainty.
“Yes.” Debra finally says.
The Private crumbles up the paper and shoves it into her pocket. “Good. Then we’ll still be able to catch them.”
Debra is confused but conceals her bewilderment under a veil of sarcasm. “And how do you suppose we catch them? Walk? They took the truck.”
“You said your son knew how to prevent the truck from being hit during the attack. You said that he took the engine apart,” Pvt. Hillman is talking quickly. She is trying to no doubt rush the process along. “But who put the engine back together again?”
“I did.” Debra says flatly, still not understanding the Private’s plan.
“Good. Cause there’s a dirt bike by the side of the house, I need you to make sure it is working.” Pvt. Hillman says this with such conviction, Debra feels certain she is up to the task.
“I’ll try.” Debra says, adding, “But just to make one thing clear, I’m doing this for my son.”
32 Tobias
A satellite had fallen out of the sky. It had left a long line of debris ending in a crater in the cornfield where it had landed. Bits of charred metal created a path that crossed the highway leading to where the bulk of the satellite had made its impact. The road is unusable so Tobias has no choice but to take a detour.
It is odd how Tobias knows where he is headed. He had never driven across country before, hadn’t even driven out of the state. Now, however, Tobias’ mind has a map of all the side-streets and major highways that are helping to get him where he is headed. In fact, Tobias is amazed he knows how to drive at all. He had never learned how, never gotten his license. Yet somehow his body knows how to do it. It is information passed onto him from a foreign source. It is something that feels stuck in his muscles and mind.
Tobias also doesn’t feel the need to sleep or eat. He has been driving for twelve hours and hasn’t once needed to stop, except for gas. Getting gas is the hardest part about Tobias’ journey. All of the gas pumps are off, a result of the massive blackout that has affected everything with an electronic pulse. Well, almost everything. Those devices not affected had been those shielded or those things that had been disconnected when trillions of tiny robotic engineers had attacked. They had worked like tiny demolition crews. The microscopic robots that had swarmed the Earth sought out everything powered by electricity and destroyed it. The ultimate irony being that the small electricity-powered robots would eventually turn on themselves as well. They left no trace of their destructive presence.
Tobias knows about these things just like he knows how to drive. Tobias had never formally learned these things, not like someone learned something from a book; instead it was just knowledge within his brain. Information that had been placed there by beings he could never hope to fully understand.
In addition to these mysteries, Tobias also knows how to get gasoline even when a pump is shut off. This, however, Tobias has seen in movies. Using a rubber hose, he inserts one end into a vehicle’s gas tank. He then sucks on the end of the tube outside of the vehicle. By creating pressure in the tube, Tobias is able to suck gasoline out of the other vehicle’s gas tank. The oil tastes awful when it hits Tobias’ mouth. The first time Tobias does this he follows the act by taking some mouthwash from one of the gas stations he has stopped at. Tobias carried it with him and uses it to swish and gargle. The burning sensation of the alcoholic taste is particularly bitter after Tobias has filled his mouth with gasoline. In truth, the mouthwash doesn’t really help the way Tobias hopes it would. Once he has the gasoline, Tobias then then transfer it into the tank of his mother’s pickup truck. It is the only vehicle he dares to drive.
There are other vehicles available. There are faster cars with sturdier builds strewn all across the road, but the truck is Tobias’ mother’s and he wanted to return it to her when he is done. He doesn’t want her getting angry with him. He knows she won’t understand why he has to do what he is doing, but he hopes that by returning the truck in one piece at least his mother might learn to trust him on his own. Maybe, after a time, she would even allow Tobias to go into town with her. He could even drive himself now that he knew how. That is, if his mother let him.
Ever since Tobias had returned to his home on the mesa his mother had been watching over him like a hawk. She was certain that Tobias had been blessed by some higher powers. She was so sure of it that even if Tobias could have told her the truth he doubted she would have listened. Every day she would remind Tobias of how special he was and would tell him about how the angels had brought him back to her. Tobias felt that nothing was farther than the truth, but he dared not to think these thoughts too much.
Tobias knows, just like he knows many other things, that just like he can receive messages from the ‘star-beings’, as his mother liked to call them, so too could these beings hear his own thoughts. They are connected. It is for this reason that Tobias tries not to think too much at all. He tries to just sit and listen, to leave his mind blank. He doesn’t want to upset his distant observers any more than he wants to upset his mother. He fears what either may do to him.
With his attention fixed on the road, the only other obstacle that Tobias often faces is having to drive in the shoulder on the highway because the roads are too congested. The cabin of the truck rattles when Tobias does this. A steady quake rocks the seats and it is during these times that Tobias fears that his passenger will wake up. So far she hasn’t. Tobias doesn’t know what makes him more nervous, that the woman might wake up and be angry with him, or that she might not ever wake up at all.
Tobias fears he had hit the woman too hard or squeezed on her windpipe for too long. He didn’t want her to be dead. Tobias had tied the woman’s hands a the handle on the dashboard of the truck’s cabin using a rope he had found in the flatbed. It was something from a discarded project Tobias’ mother had been working on.
He is glad though that the pretty woman had slept through Kansas City. It had been weird to see a city abandoned. Its whole population gone. The only signs of foul play that remained were the strange circular cut-outs that dotted the buildings and the vehicles. They were the markings left behind by the beams of light that the saucers produced. Tobias knows this. He knows this just like he knows firsthand what happens to those people who enter the light. The thought is dark and Tobias doesn’t like it, though he knows sometimes people have to face the darkness. That is, after all, what he is planning to do.
Tobias must have been thinking too loudly because at that moment his passenger, the woman who called herself Madison, starts to stir. She mumbles something softly and then groaned. There is a large bruise on her jaw where Tobias has struck her. Tobias curses himself for not getting pain relievers at their last stop. He doesn’t want her to hurt.
As she comes to, she must have been confused because she starts pulling on the rope that binds her hands to the dashboard. She startles awake and looks around the cabin of the vehicle. She sees the backcountry of Missouri whizzing by the window and turns to Tobias with an expression of what is at first bewilderment. Her face soon turns sour, however, and Tobias sees the anger take over. Tobias knows when people are angry and he knows what usually follows, screaming and then hitting. He tries not to look at her and just stares at the road ahead. His c
hin is tucked into his breast bone.
“What the hell have you done?” Madison’s voice is shrill. Tobias is glad he has tied her up. He doesn’t want her to beat him.
She tugs on the robes and grimaces when they won’t budge. She looks out the window again, presumably trying to get her bearings.
“Tobias.” She says his name firmly. “Stop this truck, right now.”
It is a command that Tobias wishes he can obey. Instead he pushes down harder on the accelerator. They have to get to their destination. If he can just show her where they are going then she will understand. That is all he wants, is for her to understand.
“Tobias.” Madison says his name again, firmer this time. “I am ordering you to stop this truck.”
It is an order from a military officer, Tobias can’t remember which branch she was from. Was Madison a Colonel, a Lieutenant, or a General even? Tobias can’t remember. He wants to talk to her. Tobias wants to reassure her that everything is going to be all right. He wants her to know that he hadn’t meant to hurt her. Tobias wants her to know that this is the only way.
Madison brings her barefeet up off the floor and crouches up in her seat. She pulls knees to her chest and sits in a ball next to him. Tobias tries not to notice, he stays focused on their destination. In a few moments, however, Tobias wishes he had been paying more attention.
Madison’s body explodes like a spring. She brings the heels of her barefoot feet into Tobias’ face with a powerful kick. The force of the blow causes Tobias to the jerk the steering wheel of the truck to the side. The truck veers sharply and skids as Tobias tries to maintain control of it. There is another kick from two feet to Tobias’ face and he is forced to shut his eyes as they fill up with tears. His nose erupts with pain.
Tobias lets go of the wheel and the truck flips. Tobias loses control as shattered glass sprays through the air. Tobias can only think of how angry his mother is going to be.
33 Gabriel
He had wanted to do it from the rooftop but his legs are too weak. His gait is too unsteady from the alcohol. He has climbed out his window onto the fire escape in an attempt to get to the top of his apartment building. Instead he has collapsed after only two flights of rattling metallic stairs. His whole body caves in on itself and he curls into a ball on the landing. The metallic grating of the fire escape dig into his flesh but he doesn’t care. Gabriel falls asleep with his neighbor’s forty-five caliber pistol in his hand.
As Gabriel sleeps night descends on the city. As the stars rise above him, Gabriel dreams of Jules and his daughter, Tayna. He dreams of them waiting for him on the stoop of their house. He sees them with backpacks on their shoulders. They are waiting for him before making the long trek up to the mountains. They are good people. Gabriel had only known them a night but he knows that much. He knows that Jules is a good father and that Tayna will grow up to be someone important. Even in this new world she has a place and a future. The two of them are lucky to have each other. It is only by some miracle that none of them understand that both of them have survived.
Gabriel and his daughters had not been so lucky. Gabriel recognizes that now. He feels it in his heart as much as he knows it in his head. All hope of having his daughters waiting for him in some secret corner of the city is gone. His daughters are gone, just like their mother is gone, and now Gabriel is truly alone.
When Gabriel finally wakes up, the pain from sleeping on the grating radiates through his body. Indentations from the metallic ridges pressed against his skin have left imprints on his face. When Gabriel tries to rub the markings away he notices the gun still clutched in his grasp. Gabriel hardly remembers getting it.
Gabriel’s neighbor, Tyler’s apartment, had been locked but the one next to it had been left open. It had either been a sloppy mistake, or perhaps someone who had just stepped away for a moment to do their laundry in the basement. Either way Gabriel felt lucky in that moment. He walked into the open apartment into someone else’s world. There were wedding pictures on the wall. The pictures were of a young couple in their early twenties. Gabriel swallowed the feelings that came from looking at the pictures by drinking more from his bottle. Tequila had become Gabriel’s tranquilizer for the ravenous beast that was his emotions.
Along the outside wall of the apartment was one of those holes. Light from the day shined in through the circular cut out. Gabriel crossed through the living room of the abandoned sanctuary of some young couple and found part of the couch carved away. He peered out of the hole in the wall and out into the street. Poking his head out, Gabriel could see the window to Tyler’s apartment within arm’s reach.
Gabriel dropped his bottle then, letting some of the remaining fluid spill onto the floor. He promised himself to come back for the remaining drops after his task was done.
Gabriel stuck his leg out through the hole and straddled the building. One leg was exposed to the open air while the other remained inside. Gabriel’s head was dizzy and it made keeping his balance difficult. Gabriel maintained his concentration by reminding himself that he was on a mission and that he was determined to reach his destination.
From there, Gabriel anchored himself to the building by keeping his one hand gripping tightly to the rim of the huge hole that his body was now protruding out of. He leaned over towards the neighboring window, focusing on the window sill and ignoring the four-story drop below. By the time Gabriel’s fingertips grazed the base of the window, Gabriel knew that he might have to end it all right there. He might only have two choices, to either give up his quest and retreat back inside, or just let himself fall. Instead Gabriel chose to release his grip on the building and extend his whole torso towards the neighboring window. His hand wrapped around the window’s cuff and he pushed up on it. The window gave little by little until it was open.
The transition between apartments was filled with even more difficulty, but Gabriel managed it. Only once did he lose his equilibrium and nearly explode on the pavement below.
Once inside his neighbor’s apartment, the gun was right where he had remembered it would be.
Now holding the gun and crouching on the fire escape, Gabriel truly acknowledges the weapon’s existence. With the effects of intoxication waning and his head clearing, Gabriel truly debates the consequences of his actions. The feelings of grieving are intense, and where the tequila from before had dulled these sensations, Gabriel’s newest means of self-mutilation would surely end that feeling of grief forever. Not only would his grief disappear but all of his feelings. He would lose all the bad, and all the good. Laughter, surprise, excitement, joy and even love, would be lost to him for eternity.
Gabriel breathed heavily but the gun is even heavier. It seems heavier now than it had been when he had picked it up and carried it onto the fire escape. The bullets are thick. They are designed to stop whatever they come in contact with. Gabriel wants them to stop him from thinking, to stop the pain. But in the clarity of the evening, Gabriel sees the gun for what it truly is. Gabriel’s father had taught him that, ‘a gun is a tool just like any other. The pistol is like a hammer and the bullets are like its nails’. It is tool and tools fixed things, not destroy them.
People destroyed things, nature destroyed things, and time destroyed things. However, Gabriel had always used tools to fix things. That was who he is. Using tools is how Gabriel had made a living for himself and his girls. His gift is to fix what is broken. Now, he didn’t do it perfectly and couldn’t fix everything, but Gabriel could also mend things. He always found a way to keep something together so that it would run just a little while longer. That’s usually all things needed after all, not to run forever, but to keep going for just a little while longer.
Perhaps Gabriel needs to fix his own broken self now, just a little mending to give himself a little more time.
A strange light passes over the barrel of the gun as Gabriel examines it. The metal sheen of the weapon glows in what seems to be an impossible light. The city streets are black, only
the moon and stars provide the slightest illuminance, and yet a light now dances across the barrel. Gabriel wonders if he was imagining it. He wonders if his brain has not snapped and if psychosis is setting in. The pistol in his hand seems to be coming to life.
Gabriel patiently stares at the light, watching it, and soon realizes it is merely a reflection. The reflection of something behind him. The fire escape begins rattling, as vibrations build up around him.
The shaking gets more intense and the fire escape rocks side to side. The rusted bolts that hold the structure to the side of building creak with each movement. Gabriel knows what these vibrations mean. He has seen what had come with them the last time. He had heard Jules’ story about the vehicles that had filled the sky. The light from behind him is growing more intense and soon it fills the scene.
Gabriel turns to look at it but has to shield his eyes. A white light being projected by several electrified orbs that are mounted on the rim of a circular object drifts towards Gabriel’s position. The object is much different than the triangular black object Gabriel had seen before. This one is circular and appears to be spinning. Gabriel has no other word for it except ‘saucer’.
It is coming towards him, this marvel of technology, spins at its center and casts off streams of light. Gabriel freezes as the light continues to shine down on him. Before long it is hovering overhead. Gabriel is staring up at its belly, a round metallic dome stares back. The object then continues on its course, seemingly oblivious to Gabriel’s presence. It disappears over the edge of the rooftop ledge.