“Is there anything to drink in this place? Mini-bar?” I asked.
Ray popped open a cupboard that unveiled a mini-fridge with single-serve alcohol bottles in it. “No ice here. What do you say to a glass of wine or a whiskey?”
Soon we had moved to the small table by the window and I was feeling slightly better about things, but that could have just been the effects of the cheap whiskey I’d downed. I was swirling a second one in a plastic glass and noticed Mary watching her red wine more than drinking it.
“It just doesn’t add up. Did any of you have kids? Bob and I tried for a while, but it never took. How about you guys?” Mary asked.
Ray shook his head, as did I.
“We can sit here all night and speculate, or we can figure it out moving forward. Now let’s stop worrying about the past and try to figure out the fastest way to get everyone back.” Her voice had progressively risen in pitch, and she emphasized the speech by taking my whiskey and shooting it back.
We settled in and started to form a plan for getting to Peru. We were four strangers and a dog sitting in a hotel room.
TEN
Carey and I walked away from the hotel, into a small field behind it. The morning sun was just about to rise, and the fall air felt cooler than it had in previous days. I was glad we were heading south; it would be warmer. I really was enjoying having a dog around. He reminded me of a regular life and was helping me stay grounded through all of this. He’d already had breakfast and now he was chasing a bird that had landed too close.
We headed back to the building, and Mary was leaning against the front lobby doorway, foot pressed against the brick wall. My heart skipped a beat seeing her there.
“Dean. How messed up is all of this? Can you imagine that we met six years ago and now here we are?” She let the comment stop, like she had more to say but didn’t want to go on.
I couldn’t help but look at her in a different light all of a sudden. I was no psychology major, but it was almost as if my last three years alone were bubbling up, and the sight of someone I’d met before, combined with the fact that we shared the same spousal story, was making me see her for all the woman she was.
I cleared my throat and hoped I didn’t look lovestruck. Thank goodness Carey interrupted my moment of shame, as he sauntered over to her, doing the patented cocker spaniel full-body tail wag. She crouched down and rubbed his ears while he kept wiggling.
“Bob wasn’t a dog person. Actually, I can’t even recall him ever interacting with one,” she said.
“Come to think of it, neither did Janine. I know she felt bad because I wanted one, but she said she was allergic. I looked into hypoallergenic ones, but she refused even then.”
Ray came and knocked on the door, waving us inside.
“Vanessa and Ray were making breakfast. Once we eat and get everything loaded, we’ll be on our way,” Mary said as I held the door open for her. She paused as we walked inside, her hand sitting lightly on my forearm. “Dean, do you think we can do this?”
“I honestly don’t know, but at least we have a plan for now. Too bad you didn’t have a jet to take us there with.” I laughed.
“I thought of that. Just heading down there myself and doing it. Vanessa was for it. But then we saw the ships, and I was too worried they would just shoot me down, and the whole mission would be screwed. Or at least my involvement in it. Plus, I would be dead,” Mary said solemnly. “I had no idea there was anyone else coming. I just figured if Vanessa and I had been chosen that there must be more.”
“Were you in New York then? Was it your safety deposit box we found open?”
She fidgeted with the ring on her necklace. “That was me. I was close in Washington and took a boat there. Lots of those available where I was. It was only a matter of hours and I was there. I knew I would have to go there and had gone to that bank more than once. Bob gave me the letter to not open until the day they came. Of course I was angry at him for dying, and for telling me that insane story about aliens. I didn’t know what to think when I read it, telling me about a security box. Why wouldn’t I go and look at it? I stood there two years ago in that very bank and stared at that box for an hour. But for some reason, I didn’t open it.”
“How about Vanessa?” I asked.
“I guess she never got one there. Hers was in a local bank. Interesting how her story is always different than ours.” She looked at me, and I estimated she was trying to gauge my reaction.
I really had no idea if that made a lick of difference to our situation, but I was going to watch Vanessa a little more closely than the other two.
“Let’s go get some food and get out of here. We have a long trip ahead of us.” My stomach growled when I smelled the bacon and eggs wafting from down the hall. Carey had already forgotten about me as he ran out of sight.
It wasn’t long before we were packed up and full from the wonderful meal. It felt great to have something like breakfast to share with other people; another seemingly small event that gave me motivation to keep going. Vanessa and Mary were in a four-door Jeep, and Ray and I kept our truck. The drive to Florida was over a thousand miles, so we had some ground to make up, especially since light was at a premium. We had no idea if the ships would find us at night, but we turned the CB off and they gave us a walkie-talkie so we could communicate with them as we drove.
“We’ll take the lead for the start. If you see anything, let us know and we’ll stop and pretend to be just another abandoned vehicle,” Mary said as she bent over to pet Carey. “See you in a bit, pup.”
Mary was used to taking charge, it appeared. I always figured a soldier was better at taking directions, but she seemed to be good at it. I knew I was in no position to take charge here. Her training was ideal for what we had to do.
“Sounds good. We’ll be in touch.” I smiled at them as Ray said the words.
In minutes, we were heading down the road, Washington just a blip in the rear-view mirror.
______________
We started the drive around seven thirty that morning, and after stopping for a bathroom break at around nine thirty, we had made some decent distance. A thousand miles on roads with non-moving traffic could take a long time. We decided to just try side roads for most of the trip, and so far, it was working really well. We cruised along some paved and some gravel roads on the way towards Richmond, Virginia. We stopped for a quick break as we neared the city, and by noon, we were fifty miles south of it, heading towards North Carolina.
Everything seemed to be going well, but we were really far from our goal; Peru seemed like an impossible distance. Ray was quiet this morning, and I drove while he manned the walkie-talkie.
“You okay, Ray?” I asked, worried about him.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Just letting it all sink in. Trying to wrap my head around what it all means.”
I felt like he was going to ask the question I was scared to know the answer to.
“If any of this is true, were Kate and Janine some sort of...” He paused and looked at me. “Aliens? I know it sounds crazy, but maybe it’s true.”
After everything I’d gone through with my wife – the secrets, and Janine’s cousin Bob being Mary’s dead husband too, Kate being at my wedding...it was all too much to not be something strangely unbelievable.
“I don’t know. I really don’t. How could they be aliens? How would aliens look like us? Is that why they died? Maybe they couldn’t survive here. There are so many questions I’m not sure we’ll get answers to. Will it change how I feel about my wife, or you about Kate? I think it will, but I honestly do feel like what I had was real in every way. It had to be.” Just remember that I’m sorry. Never forget this moment. Words from three years ago that I’d blocked out flowed into my head that moment, and tears formed in my eyes as I recalled the desperate look she’d given me. “She knew I was going to find out about her, and she apologized on her deathbed. I forgot the words until now.” Warm tears now flowed down my face, but I
didn’t sob about it. I let them fall, and from here I would harden myself. She had to do what she did, for some reason, but I knew without a doubt that she had loved me.
“I think you’re right. But how messed up is it that we had alien women? Not even Kirk married one of them,” Ray joked.
I stayed silent for a moment, then burst out laughing. “We’re going to be friends forever. I love making jokes at the wrong time! That’s straight out of my playbook.”
The talkie cracked. “Hey, boys. There’s a gas station just ahead. Let’s take a breather. Over.”
“Roger that. We’re right behind you,” Ray replied.
We followed them down the gravel road and turned left toward the highway. The Jeep slammed on its brakes and pulled up beside a car sitting there. We did the same and cut the engine when they did.
“There’s a bogey in the sky coming this way from the west.”
The ship was coming in fast. Just when I thought it might pass over us, I saw the beam coming from it. The beam was red, not green, this time. My heart was racing as it came closer; its red light was cutting the ground up in chunks. Huge pieces of earth flew in its wake, cars exploded, and when it passed over the gas station, I had to cover my ears when the tanks blew. A mushroom cloud shot into the sky; the gray ship kept moving, red beam shredding the ground as it moved. Carey was barking as Ray and I sat watching the devastation with our mouths open.
“How are we ever going to stop them?” Ray whispered.
“I have no idea.” My heart was hammering in my chest, and I could feel the drip of sweat run down my back as I stared into the sky. As if to accent the danger we just missed out on, a large piece of metal fell right beside the truck, sticking into the road, fire burning around it.
“We better wait a moment longer in case there’s any more airborne flaming death waiting to fall on us,” I said. In a few moments, we got out of the truck, and Carey ran over to the Jeep and barked at Vanessa in the driver’s seat. I was sure he just wanted to see if they were okay, but she seemed hesitant to get out of the vehicle. He moved over and forgot what he was doing when Mary walked over to us, because she was obviously more interesting than the car door. We watched the line of fire spreading across the horizon for miles.
“Do you think they know we’re here? Why else would they have done this?” Ray asked.
“It could be they were demonstrating their power in case we saw what they’d done. They probably think we’re somewhere around this distance. Maybe they’re cutting a line down this side of the country to stop us from passing?” Mary answered. “I heard the generals arguing about whether these ships had weapons or not. They thought not, that the reason they didn’t retaliate against Russia when they threw missiles at them was because they couldn’t. Boy, were they wrong. They just cut open the ground like a can opener, with a beam of frickin’ red light.”
“I say we head up there, check how big this gash is, and see whether we can get through it or not,” I said, everyone nodding in agreement. We moved back to the cars, but Mary reached out and grabbed my arm while Ray and Vanessa headed back to their respective vehicles.
“Something feels off here to me, Dean. Why bother with this tactic? With this power, couldn’t they just fly down there and blow the device up?” Her military mind was probably whirling at their strategy.
“Maybe they don’t know what it is. Maybe they don’t know where it is. I just know that I can’t see how they’ve transported all of Earth’s population and are carrying them safely in space right now. Why would they not just destroy humanity? Maybe we’re already too late.” I said the words and felt horrible, thinking of my mother, and my sister in California, whom I rarely saw.
“You could be right, but we still have to try. That’s all we have left. Let’s head over there and see what we’re up against. One thing at a time, I suppose.” She smiled and walked back to the Jeep, where Vanessa was sitting and watching our exchange.
“What was that all about?” Ray asked as I got into the truck.
“Nothing. She just has some concerns about the aliens’ motivation on Earth. Things we have no answers for.”
I drove down the street and up a quarter mile to the remains of an exploded gas station. Sections of the building were scattered so far I would have thought it impossible for them to fly that distance. A sign sat on the ground, half on fire. It read “Eat Here, Get Gas,” which under normal circumstances would have made me laugh. With my breath gone, I had a hard time. The earth split open in front of us for what looked like a hundred yards or so. Whatever that laser thing was, it was built for destruction.
The four of us got out and surveyed the damage, all of us too afraid to talk. I looked east and west, and it went as far as the eye could see.
“What if they’ve done this every few miles down? We’ll never be able to get there.” Vanessa broke the silence as she stood there, shoulders visibly slumped forward.
“What about heading around it? We may eventually be able to get past the starting point. Or we head for the coast now and get a boat there,” Ray suggested.
“I have a feeling it’ll be a long way to the end, and for all we know, they blew up the coastline’s boats. I don’t know what the answer is.” Mary crouched and rested her arms on her knees. “Dean, what do you think?”
I wasn’t sure what to think, but if they wanted my opinion… “I say we have four options. One, we go west and see if the ship maybe started shooting the ground close by so we can get around. Option two, we head east and try to get a boat now. It’ll add a lot of time, especially since we were looking to get a sailboat; because as Mary pointed out, there will be a lot of sailboats between Miami and Cuba, so we won’t look out of place. Option three, we cross this chasm, come up the other side, and get into a new vehicle and keep driving south, sticking to the original plan.”
Ray was nodding along and he asked, “What’s option four, then?”
I licked my lips, unsure if I wanted to say it aloud. “Option four, we turn around and give up.”
ELEVEN
I waited for someone to speak, not sure if I wanted to hear what they thought of that option. I wanted to keep on, to keep going and try to turn the damned device off. I just hoped they did too.
Mary was the one to say something. “I say we cross over here. There are plenty of cars on the street. It’s the most known route, and I think that gives us our best odds under the circumstances. Are you with me?”
We all chorused our agreement and grabbed things we’d need. “Only things we need from here on out. If we need something else, we can pick it up on the way. Food, water, flashlights, radios, maps,” Mary called out in her take-charge way.
We set to it, and eventually we had stripped the cars of anything we would need for the next leg of the journey. It was about one thirty as we started our descent into the pit. The first few feet were concrete, but it turned to dirt very quickly. Lucky for us, the beam seemed to have wreaked havoc on the ground and it was an uneven cut, especially by the gas station, where the tanks added to the destruction. It gave us some steps on the way down.
Carey was able to make the run down easily, and he sniffed around the rift’s floor. Vanessa had the hardest time, claiming chronic lung problems, and by the time we were near the bottom, she was coughing hard. I was sweating in the cool air, more of a result of hauling three full bags with me than anything else. My rifle hung across my shoulders and I figured we would have made quite the sight. If me from four days ago had seen me now, I would hardly have recognized myself. A more-than-five o’clock shadow, dirt on my face, and a gun strapped to my body. Desperate times and all that other stuff, I guessed.
I looked down the hole in the ground, and it was an odd feeling to be so deep into the Earth. I quickly got a sense of claustrophobia and felt like the walls were coming closer, even though they were a hundred paces or so apart.
“I hope we find another generator. I miss coffee,” Ray said, patting my back as he
headed toward the other side.
“I hear you. I honestly don’t know how we’re functioning right now. I mean, no caffeine for at least five hours! That’s unheard of,” Mary said with only a hint of sarcasm. Vanessa appeared to be recovering, and Carey ran up to me and jumped his front paws onto my thighs. I scratched him on the head and picked up the two packs I’d let down. We moved through the terrain to the looming far side, where we found out the surface was much less carved out for us to walk up.
“What do you think? Should we head down a bit to see if there’s a better spot for footholds?” I asked.
“We can make it halfway up this way, and then there’s a steep section where I think I can climb. Then I can tie a rope to a car’s axle up there and toss it down,” Vanessa said.
“Uhm, are you sure you can do that?” We all looked at her a little incredulously. It wasn’t that she was old at fifty, and she looked like she was in decent shape, but that cough-fest was enough to make me doubt her climbing skills at that moment.
“I was a rock climber for a few years, recreationally anyway. Nothing big, but definitely stuff harder than this. I can still do it. You have your skills, I have mine.” And that was that. She headed up by herself, the flat spot almost halfway up the fifty-yard wall, and from there, she startled us all by reaching up and grabbing a small rock. Slowly, she ascended the fairly flat surface. In ten anxious minutes, she was up top and we could hear her coughing when she was done.
“You’re amazing, ‘Nessa! Are you okay?” Mary called up to her.
“I’m okay. Give me a moment and I’ll get the rope down to you guys,” she called back.
Five minutes later, we were at the halfway mark and grabbing hold of the rope.
“Can we all make this?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. Maybe ten years ago,” Ray said, and ran his hand over his slightly overweight stomach.
The Survivors Box Set Page 7