Whoever took his subwoofers had gotten away with it, and he knew it. At that point there was nothing else he could do. Unless he got lucky.
Awful lucky.
* * * * *
Jessica looked down at her boyfriend and realized how pathetic her future with him was going to be. He was face down in bed and breathed into the pillow. It was only a twin size bed, and it looked like joke for him to even be resting on it. The walls were covered with a wooden paneling, and the window above the bed was open and rays of the sunlight lit up his muscular back. However attractive that back was, she still wasn’t comfortable.
She sighed. “Rick we need to talk. This is getting out of control.”
He answered her with a grunt. There was still too much alcohol in his system.
Jessica flinched when she saw the set of subwoofers sitting on the floor they had stolen from Russ Allen’s car. It almost seemed like a fictional event –a dream, maybe. Alcohol had that kind of effect on you sometimes, and now she felt bad about it. She felt tempted to return them, but that would mean paying for the glass damage and possibly the reinstallation of the speakers. She didn’t have money to spend on that. Hell, she didn’t have money to get any food for the day.
“I’m going to take those speakers back to Russ,” she said. It was an empty threat. “No! Why?” He shot up and turned around. Almost all her fears went away when she saw his solid chest.
“I feel kind of bad about taking them.” She played along, trying to get a descent discussion with him. They hadn’t really talked seriously in forever, and it was killing her. The last time they had a serious argument she ended up with a nasty bruise on the front of her neck where Rick had tried to choke her –it was still there. She was willing to risk that again.
“Listen. Russ Allen is a douche bag. You know it, I know it, and this whole goddamn town knows it. No one likes him, and he doesn’t matter.” He walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders.
Jessica smiled. She didn’t know what it was, but she loved it when he talked like that. “You’re right.”
“Now listen up. I’m a little horny right now, so if you don’t mind…” He unzipped his blue jeans and motioned to his crotch. Jessica smiled and dropped to her knees.
5
When Lisa saw her mother from over the balcony, she froze. Mrs. Kelly was sitting on the brown couch in the downstairs living room, legs crossed, but still a lot of skin free for sight. And Justin Maddox sat next to her, smiling and staring. Her mother was doing the same; Justin was wearing a tight muscle shirt, showing off the chiseled arms that had thrown an average of six interceptions a game.
“ –I don’t know,” he said. “I saw smoke, but that was it. It didn’t really seem like much.”
“I saw them heading that way, after your car. Thought you might have been naughty. Just thought I’d ask.” She smiled and then gazed up to her daughter, who peered over the balcony looking like she might kill someone. “Would you like a beer, Justin?”
“Mom, Jesus Christ!” Lisa shouted.
“Oh shut up, you!”
“How you doing, Lisa?” Justin waved at her and then looked back to Mrs. Kelly. “Yeah, a beer sounds pretty good.”
“I’ll be right back then.” She got up from the couch, making sure to stick her ass right in front of the boy’s face before she left.
“How long have you guys been down here?” Lisa asked him.
“An hour and a half, maybe two hours. Why?”
Lisa crept down the stairs as her mother handed Justin a bottle of Budweiser. They both had a look on their face, and Lisa cringed when she saw it. They were like two teenagers about to make out, only one of them was fifty. Lisa pushed her mother aside, making it look unintentional, and had a seat between them.
“So my mom told me you were single, Justin.”
“Very single, and looking.”
Lisa looked over at her mother. Mrs. Kelly’s mouth dropped all the way down to her perky breasts. No jail bait for you, Momma.
“Drop the beer and take me out.” Lisa smiled and scooted closer to him.
A cheesy grin crawled up his cheeks. It would have made any girl take back that request, but she wasn’t going to let her mother screw someone less than half her age.
“Where do you want to go?” he asked.
“Just take me to grab a bite to eat. I’m a little bit hungry.” Lisa could feel his heart thudding as her back leaned against him.
Her mother’s face had gone pale. It was her familiar angry face. No one had one quite like it. Each and every time something happened that enraged her to the point of insanity, her skin became so white that it seemed to brighten the area around her. There was even a time at a McDonald’s when a custodian walked by and asked if she was choking. ‘No,’ Lisa had answered. ‘She’s just menstrual.’ She looked like the blood had been drained from her face.
“Take me in the Corvette.” Lisa stood up and led him to the door, dragging him by his arm.
“Lisa? What is going on?” Sandy asked –her face was as white as it ever had been. If she stood next to a sheet of paper she could disappear.
Justin paused briefly and then shuffled on as Lisa pulled him. “I just know a cute guy when I see one.”
They walked out to the Corvette, holding hands. Justin opened the door in an overly romantic fashion and allowed her in. Lisa never stopped smiling at him. It was a fake smile, but only she knew that. Boy Toy started the car and revved the engine. The seat vibrated under her. It was uncomfortable, but she would play along for a while. She had to; her mother had come to the door and was watching them.
“Oh, rev it again. That was hot.”
He did so, this time flooring it. Lisa smiled at him again, making sure that her mother was watching. “Big cars turn me on.”
Justin leaned over the middle and tried to kiss her, but she pulled away.
“Slow down hotlips. First food, then poon.”
“Ok. Where we eating?”
“Just drive towards town, sexy. We’ll decide.”
He revved the engine again and ripped out in the middle of the road. Lisa gave him a playful laugh and put her hand in his pocket. His leg muscles tensed up.
Pathetic.
They drove north. And before they left the neighborhood she saw Russ Allen turn into his driveway, which was littered with broken glass. She had never really talked with him before. Only four homes separated them and they both had lived in the same place their entire lives. There was a sudden unexplained feeling she had for him. Unlike Doofus sitting next to her, he actually was kind of cute. Some kind of aura surrounded him. It resonated inside of him and she could sense it. This felt like a ridiculous thought, but she knew something was wrong and that he could fix it. It was the feeling of safety. When she looked into his face (his expression was quite bitter) she felt protected. From what, she didn’t know. There was something wrong, and she needed him.
It didn’t make sense at all, but she went for it.
“Stop the car.”
“What? I thought we were going to eat.”
“Stop the car!” With the hand in his pocket she forcefully grabbed his testicles.
“Jesus!” He slammed the breaks and after stopping, he rested his head on the steering wheel. All of the color drained from his skin –he looked much like her mother.
* * * * *
Russ looked up when he heard the sound of screeching tires. It was Justin Maddox, a complete douche bag, and what looked like Lisa Kelly in the passenger seat. Justin dropped his head on the steering wheel and began screaming profanity. Lisa laughed and stepped out of the Corvette.
“Uh, hi?” Russ said. He backed up to his car as she approached him.
“Fuck!” Justin screamed from behind them. He ripped out in the middle of the road, making sure to leave thick black stripes, smoking on the pavement.
“God, what a douche bag,” Lisa muttered.
“Yep.”
“Somethin
g happen with your car?”
Russ looked at her suspiciously. She had kind of a smirk on her face, but it was probably because she was squinting at the sun.
“You know where my speakers are?”
“No, I just stopped because–” her voice trailed off. She didn’t know what to give as an explanation. I just stopped to hit on you and get away from the douche bag. It was an aura that drew me in. Something bad is going to happen. If I’m with you I’ll be safe. She felt it –standing close to him, she felt it.
Russ eyed her from her black shoes, to her baggy jeans and Rolling Stones shirt, then to her face. Russ had never noticed how beautiful she was. Hell, he had never even seen her face before in his life. She was cute, though. That was enough. But she didn’t just stop there without a reason. She knew something about the speakers.
“Why did you come over here then?”
“I-I don’t know.” She hugged him. Russ fell back against his car and went along with it. Women are strange creatures.
“Ok, this is nice,” he said awkwardly.
He wasn’t an idiot. She could have been using him to make that other guy jealous. Why else would she have jumped out of the car like that? Russ wasn’t going to end up getting played again. Prom may have sucked, but he learned enough from it. Women were goddamn monsters. But Justin was gone, and she was still hugging him. If she wanted him jealous she’d be doing it in his view, right? He could feel her heart beat strengthening.
She was safe from something.
6
“Sir the search party covered the entire farm ground,” Lopez said. “The only other place he or it could have taken her would be the woods.” He motioned to the tree covered area to the south.
“I don’t know how they could have gotten all the way down there that fast. It’s at least a mile away,” Alan said.
Lopez nodded. They both stared off into the distance, watching the grass flutter from the breeze.
Alan didn’t know what else to do other than ask the search party to go after her. He had put together a group of around fifteen volunteers from the neighboring residence. Most of them were from the Grossman and Archer families, who lived on the north and south sides of the Van Lou home. But if he sent them down there it could put them in danger. He didn’t know what the hell had made that horrific scream from inside the house, and he didn’t know what had come out of that goddamn shiny sphere sitting in the field, mocking him. It was a risk, but they had guns; that was at least some defense.
“Should we go search the woods, sir?”
After a short pause and a sigh he answered: “Yeah, go ahead. There’s nothing else we can do.”
Lopez agreed and walked over to the search group. Andrew Van Lou himself had joined the party. He probably wouldn’t do very well if he encountered whoever took his wife. He was out of shape, bald, and although he was only 41, he appeared to look in his mid fifties. Either way he was an extra set of eyes. The only real goal was to find Libby, or what was left of her.
“You doing ok, Andy?” Donahue walked over to him and put an arm on his shoulder.
He nodded, but he hadn’t said a word since he arrived on the scene. Donahue couldn’t blame him. After finding out your four kids were dead and your wife was missing talk would come difficult.
“We’re gonna search the woods,” Donahue said. “We’ll find her. I promise you that. We’ll stay out here all goddamn night if we have to.”
It was an empty promise, and both men knew it. Donahue just wanted to get Andy’s head up. He had been staring at the ground for a long time.
“Sheriff!” Anderson jogged up behind him. “There are some men here to see you.”
He nodded and followed Anderson back up to the house, walking by the sphere, which was still lodged in the ground like a rock in the mud. Anderson stopped and started gawking at the damn thing while Alan moved on. When he reached the driveway, there were two men leaning on a black Cadillac. Both had on black suits and sun glasses. One was a tall, stern looking man with a long nose that hooked over his upper lip. The other was a short, plump guy with a smile on his face. He was the one that greeted Donahue first.
“Sheriff!” he said, extending his hand. “Great to meet you. Unfortunate circumstances, but great to meet you nonetheless.”
Donahue shook his hand. The little fat guy had put on way too much cologne.
“I’m Agent Johnson. This is Agent Hawking. We’re from the FBI.”
Donahue took a step back. He didn’t know exactly how to react to this. The help of the FBI would be nice, but was he really in this deep? He looked over at the big silver ball in the charred ground and decided that he probably was. Maybe it was out of his hands now and he didn’t have to worry about it. It would be nice just to go home to his wife and let the FBI do their work.
“What exactly is the situation here?” Johnson asked.
“Four dead kids, a missing mother, and whatever the hell that is.” He pointed to the thing, whatever it was. Anderson looked up at them stupidly, and then went back to staring at his reflection.
“I’m afraid that the mother is probably dead, Sheriff,” Hawking finally spoke.
“What am I dealing with?”
“E.T.’s,” Hawking said.
“What?”
“Extraterrestrials,” Johnson explained. “Aliens.”
Donahue smiled to himself. It wasn’t a funny smile or even close to a laugh, but an angry one. The town had been a peaceful place until that day, and as fast as someone could say pie it changed into a mystery. Here was an alien spacecraft sitting in the middle of a field, and there were four dead kids with a missing mother who was probably dead too.
“What am I supposed to do?” he trembled.
Hawking looked over at him, “We’re putting the town under quarantine until the situation is resolved. I need you to keep all of your citizens indoors. Perhaps a curfew or whatever it is you have to do.”
A bad feeling crept up at the back of his throat. “I can’t let anyone outside at all?”
“Right.”
“How long?”
“It depends on how long it takes us to resolve the situation,” Johnson said. “Probably one or two days. Just long enough for us to catch the little bastard.”
“Are you going to keep people from getting in and out of the town?” Donahue asked.
Hawking smiled, “Yes, we’ve set up an electrified fencing unit around Brownsville. Even around the wooded area below. Trust me; no one will get in or out. We just need you to get all of the citizens indoors. We’ll do the rest.”
Donahue remained silent for a moment, staring into the ground. He wondered why he wasn’t notified about the fence before then, but he didn’t ask.
“Sheriff, I’m sorry, but time is precious,” Hawking said.
He spoke into the hand radio, “Lopez, Anderson, I need you guys to bring everyone in the search party and come back to the house. There’s been a change of plans.”
The two FBI agents walked back to their car and moved it up closer to the house. A Chevy Suburban pulling a blue trailer parked behind them.
This was no longer Donahue's problem. All he had to do was keep the citizens inside. He didn’t know why it was necessary. The little alien bastard had run off into the woods, a mile or two away from the housing development. Why not just quarantine the woods? He decided not to worry about it.
“What’s up?” Anderson said it with such casualness that you would have thought nothing happened. He had been standing by the spacecraft the entire time not paying attention to anything around him.
“I need to break up the search party. Everyone needs to be indoors. Now.”
“Why?”
“Those guys are from the FBI. It’s no longer in our hands.”
Lopez, along with the search group, walked up in a single file line. Donahue noticed that Andy Van Lou was missing.
“Where’s Mr. Van Lou?”
Lopez spun around and muttered an obscenit
y when he didn’t see him.
“Listen. I need everyone to go home and stay inside.” They looked at their sheriff dumbly. “Right now. There’s been a change of plans.”
A fat man armed with a shotgun walked up to Donahue. He thought it was Mr. Grossman, but wasn’t quite sure. His wife called in at least three times a week to report stray animals, bee hives, dead rats, and just about anything she could possibly think of that was a minor inconvenience to her life.
“They makin’ us stay inside?” he growled.
Donahue followed his eyes and noticed that he was looking at the FBI agents sitting in the car. “Yeah.”
“That’s un-American!”
The old man had a white beard and a John Deere hat covering a bald head. He was dressed in overalls and under it was a flannel shirt. Mr. Grossman was the perfect epitome of a Brownsville citizen: fat, nosy, and short tempered. He had dealt with these types too many times. You had to be polite but firm to win them over.
“I’m afraid a lot of un-American things are about to happen, Mr. Grossman, but it’s all for the better,” Donahue said. The man nodded, but he probably didn’t understand any of it. “It’s only until the situation is taken care of.”
“How long’ll that be?”
“One or two days.”
The old fart grunted. Donahue was afraid he was about to use that shotgun of his, so he kept a hand near his holster. After staring at the ground for at least a minute, apparently thinking the situation over, he turned to his family and told them to follow him back inside.
7
Russ and Lisa sat across from each other at Roy's Diner. Russ ordered coffee and water to drink while Lisa sipped a Diet Coke. He had shot her quizzical stares for the past several minutes.
"So you're sure you don't know anything about my car being broken into?" Russ asked.
Lisa shook her head. She couldn't blame him for being skeptical of her. If someone had jumped out of a Corvette and latched onto her just after her car had been broken into she would be skeptical too. She decided to be patient with his questioning.
Super Zombies from Outer-Space Page 3