Earthweeds

by Rod Little

  Sam didn't stop. He leaped to the next roof, and then the next. He knew if he kept going, the others would follow him. Shane would follow to protect his little brother, and the others would follow Shane. The elder brother had the innate quality of a leader, and people naturally took to him.

  Landing on the last roof, Sam scuffed his elbow. It hurt, and a jolt of electricity shot from his arm to the roof shingles – a reflex action. Part of the roof singed black, but none of the others had seen it happen. They were busy jumping for their lives.

  He watched them jump and roll, roof to roof. Behind them, the lizards were stranded. One tried to jump after its prey, but fell to the street below, badly wounded. Four other creatures pounced on it and tore into its flesh. Apparently, they ate their own wounded.

  Ken landed on the last roof, out of breath and the last to arrive. The fire escape stretched before them; it spiraled to a garbage bin just twenty feet from the jeep.

  “Well, at least they can't jump,” Shane said, gasping for air. “Or fly!”

  Jason raised his rifle and aimed for the roof far behind them, but Sam stopped him. Winded, he put a hand on Jason's shoulder and shook his head. He pointed to the fire escape.

  “Save the ammo. And don't make any noise.”

  “Those things on the street don't know we're over here,” said Shane. “Let's keep it that way. Stay quiet. Move slowly down the fire escape, and be careful. I'll cover you with a bow, and come down last.”

  The metal fire escape was old and rusted. Bolted to the side of the building, it wound down to a point just two feet from the bottom, which was hidden by a garbage bin.

  Sam thought of something.

  “Tina, do you have any more perfume?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “We need to mask our scent. Give us some. Spray it on all of us.”

  She had half a bottle of it left, and sprayed it generously on all the boys. They choked on its pungent sweet aroma. It was too much – like a 70s disco – but at least now they didn't smell like human meat.

  They negotiated the fire escape as fast as possible without slipping, one rung at a time. Sam went first, followed by Tina and Ken. Then Jason slid down, skipping a few rungs, while Shane kept his bow poised and ready. They kept an eye on the mob of creatures just a block away, continuing to pile into the sporting goods store.

  Sam landed on the ground. It made more noise than he'd liked, so he waited a moment before standing. When nothing moved around him, he helped Tina land, cupping his hands around her slim waist. She fell back into him, and he supported her. Sam blushed with guilt, but no one noticed. Ken and Jason reached the ground, and Shane crept down to join them. The five of them crouched behind the dumpster.

  The jeep lay in plain view. The plan was to tiptoe along the wall to get to it, climb inside and start it up. The sound of the engine would surely attract unwanted attention; so after start-up, they would need to speed out of town as fast as possible. Sam wondered: how fast can those lizards run?

  They crouched down and made their way to the open vehicle. Ken helped Tina into the back. Sam and Shane took their seats in the front, and Jason stood outside. He opened his backpack and fished out something red and long. It was a pair of bottle rockets: fireworks.

  “We'll need a distraction after you turn the ignition.”

  “Good thinking,” Shane whispered. “Point them in that direction.”

  Jason aimed a rocket over the creatures' heads, in a flight path that would take it in the opposite direction from the jeep. He had a lighter in one hand, the rocket in the other, and stood ready.

  Shane turned the ignition. The jeep started, but the noise was low compared to the melee of creatures growling and scuffling with each other down the street. Jason hopped in the back, but stayed ready.

  Shane gently applied the gas. The jeep backed up, then rolled ahead toward Fifth Avenue. They would head for the Parkway, exit to the interstate, then off to the mountains.

  As the jeep sped up, the noise attracted a band of lizards who broke off from the pack. They scurried after the jeep at a frighting pace. Jason fired the rocket. It sailed upward and whooshed into the distance, past the throng of creatures, and exploded at the other end of the street. The noise engaged the reptile swarm, including most of those chasing them – all except three. Three of the lizards stopped and considered the pack running after the explosion. Then these three unique animals turned back to the jeep. They jolted again, like prehistoric crocodiles with the speed of a gazelle.

  The jeep turned a corner on two wheels and sped up Fifth Avenue toward the exit to the turnpike.

  The three lizards scurried after them, and it was clear they would overtake the jeep in a matter of seconds. Sam drew an arrow and tried to steady his bow. He released the string and let the arrow fly free, but it missed, deflecting off the pavement. He wasn't as sharp at this as Shane, and the vehicle was bouncing too much.

  Jason raised his gun, but knew he couldn't fire. They couldn't risk the noise.

  Sam drew another arrow and pulled it back taut in the bow. It made a sharp whisk sound as it flew, and sunk directly into the skull of the lead creature. The beast fell dead, and its mates stumbled over its body. This bought them a few precious seconds, but the beasts recovered quickly, remarkably, and pursued the jeep with even more vigor.

  Shane drove faster, regretting his decision to drive. He needed to be the one shooting arrows. Sam drew another arrow and fired, but it just grazed a lizard's leg. This didn't slow it down at all. A useless effort.

  There was no more time for arrows. Both creatures were at the jeep. Tina screamed, and Jason yelled for Shane to “stop driving like a grandma! Move it!”

  A lizard jumped up. Its front claw found traction on the jeep's bumper, where it raised its body onto the jeep, its jaws wide open. In seconds it would sink its teeth into Ken. This outcome seemed inevitable.

  Then Sam reacted without thinking. He raised his hand and shot a wide arc of electricity forward and outward, fueled by the adrenaline coursing through his body. He opened his fist and the arc widened, intensified. For a split second, the air sizzled with iridescent blue fire. It scattered the darkness like a camera flashbulb for an explosive blink an eye, then went out.

  Both lizards flew back a hundred feet, stunned by the electric charge. They did not get up.

  The jeep sped on, and put distance between them and the university campus. Everyone looked at Sam, surprised and scared, but also relieved. They watched the stunned creatures get smaller and smaller, left behind, as the jeep entered the highway and departed the infested city. The group also watched Sam.

  But no one said a word.

  Chapter 5

  When Sam was ten years old, he experienced his first real problem with his spark at school – the kind of problem that stays with a child forever. Billy Morski had enjoyed teasing Sam and all his smaller classmates throughout several years of grade school. By now, it was old habit, but the kid had been growing more sadistic every year. On this particular day, Billy had managed to shove little Timothy Taylor in his locker and shut the door. Tim was one of Sam's good friends, and Sam knew that the small frail boy was claustrophobic. Tim cried a bit and pleaded for Billy to let him out. After ten minutes, the locker became silent.

  Sam was a bony kid, afraid of the overgrown bully, but he couldn't stand to watch this. He stepped up.

  “That's enough,” he said. “Let him out. He can't breathe so good in there.”

  “You do it,” Billy said. “If you like him so much, why don't you marry him?” A few kids snickered.

  “I don't know your locker combination, Billy. You need to open it. Please, he might not be okay in there.”

  “Yeah, come on,” someone said in the crowd of kids in the hall. “It's not funny anymore.”

  “Come on,” Sam echoed. “Let him out.”

  “I'm busy,” Billy gloated. “Class starts soon.”

  Sam knocked on the locker door. “Tim? Yo
u okay?” There was no reply.

  Mr. Jackson came along about that time, and asked what was going on. Billy claimed it was an accident, and that he was trying to get the door open. He fumbled with the lock and giggled to himself. Finally, it made the familiar chikt sound and swung open. Tim's small body fell out onto the floor. He looked dead.

  “Get the nurse! Now!” Mr. Jackson shouted, and some kids ran screaming down the hall. As it turned out, Tim was fine. He had passed out from a panic attack. His parents took him to the hospital, but he recovered, at least physically.

  When Mr. Jackson asked why the kid was in the locker, Billy lied. “He bet me he could fit in the locker, and when he got in, the door shut by accident. Honest, Mr. J. It was just an accident.”

  “Is that true?” Mr. Jackson asked a group of five kids, including Sam, still in the hallway.

  The other kids were silent, but a few nodded. They were all afraid of Billy, afraid of a painful reprisal at the hands of the sadistic bully. But Sam spoke up:

  “It's a lie, Mr. Jackson. Morski put him in there, and made him stay. Then he closed the door.”

  Billy glared at Sam as he was hauled off to the principal's office. Billy wasn't the smartest guy on the block, he was just the meanest. He didn't think his lies through – or his actions, for that matter.

  After school, Billy waited at the top of Sam's street. It was a new subdivision with as yet only a few houses built, and few witnesses to a beating. On this day, Billy set out to beat the crap out of Sam. He wailed on him like “the devil beating the sins out of hell” as his mom used to say. He bloodied Sam's nose, blackened his eye, and broke one of his ribs. About the time it looked like Billy might kill the smaller boy, Sam's older brother showed up.

  Shane had a temper, too, and he was highly protective of his brother. Shane was bigger and knew how to fight. He pushed Billy off Sam, and then punched him in the gut. It was when he turned to help Sam up, that Billy took a gun from his book bag. He pointed it straight at Shane's head, and fired.

  That was the first time Sam used his “spark” in public. He sent a small dart of electricity at Billy's head. It was enough to knock Billy off balance and send the bullet off target, far over Shane's head and into the trunk of a tree. Shane knocked the gun out of Billy's hand, and punched him in the face until he stopped fighting back. Billy just lay there, moaning.

  From that day on, Billy's life took a tailspin. The gun was eventually discovered in his locker, and he was kicked out of school. Later, he spent a year in a juvenile prison facility. Other than spreading rumors about Sam's freaky abilities, he kept his distance from Sam and his brother. At least until years later, when opportunity for revenge came. Sam remembered that day forever.

  ✽✽✽

  The five of them rode silently out of town: Sam and Shane, Jason, Tina and Ken. They had less life experience between them than a single adult, but they were full of survival instinct and the will to try. Sam and his brother had hunting skills, at least, and that was going to prove helpful in the coming days.

  Their plan was to reach the Peak Castle Lodge by noon the next day. It was still 120 miles away, even with the night putting miles of road behind them. If the roads remained free of abandoned cars and other obstacles, it might be possible to arrive in late morning.

  Thick clouds covered the moon. Thunder rolled in the distance, and small drops of rain started to fall. The jeep was uncovered, which meant this night was about to get uncomfortable really fast. Heavy rain would dampen an already bad day. Sam suggested they try to find shelter before the storm broke, but in the middle of nowhere their choices were slim. The woods beside the road would offer a small amount of cover, but not much, so they continued driving northward.

  The rain intensified, and lightning cracked the sky. They were drenched within minutes. The wind stirred up, and this was beginning to look like a full-blown storm, worse than they had expected. Any shelter would do.

  Not far ahead they spotted a broken down car, a '98 sedan with its hood open. They drove onto the grass, pulled up next to it, and the five of them piled inside the car. It might not run, but it had a roof. Sam and Shane got in front, and the others jumped into the back seat. When the doors were closed, they instinctively locked them.

  Rain spattered the roof. It made a helluva racket, but it didn't leak in. Their clothes and gear were soaking wet, but at least now they had cover. They took comfort in this small bit of luck the world had thrown them.

  But still no one talked about Sam's bizarre electrical stunt.

  Tina found a towel in the back seat and started to dry her hair with it.

  “That's probably not clean,” Ken warned her. But she didn't care.

  They all relaxed and took a breath. That's hard to do when you're wet, scared and miserable. Jason broke out some snack cakes and passed them around. At least they could eat. It wouldn't lessen their fear, or discomfort from damp underwear, but their stomachs thanked them. Nutritious or not, the spongy yellow cakes tasted great in that moment.

  Shane was first to say what was on their minds. “This day is one for the books. If 'the books' are volumes of the damned, that is. What do you suppose is happening?”

  “Government conspiracy,” Jason told them flatly. It was obvious he believed this. “Some virus got out. I bet you it was meant as some kind of germ warfare weapon. And it got out.”

  “Our government?” Ken asked. “Or some other? Or terrorists?”

  “Take your pick. Or all three.”

  Sam disagreed. “That's ridiculous. Maybe the Earth just gave up on us. We treated it so badly, maybe it's forcing a new evolution. Earth is changing up.”

  “You think all this happened naturally?” Jason raised his voice and was becoming animated, waving his hands about. “People turning into monsters? Nature doesn't usually change course in eight days, you know. Can't trust any government, it's gotta be commies!”

  “Aliens,” Shane said. He paused, then added: “From Mars.”

  Sam rolled his eyes. “Come on, we need real answers”

  “I'm with your brother.” Jason patted Shane's shoulder. “You might be right. But not Mars. Further out.”

  “Planet of the Vampires. Remember that movie. Very cool flick.” Shane loved fifties sci-fi movies.

  “Was that the one that got the chick and the skin-tight leather outfits?” Jason asked.

  “Yeah. It is. But Demon Girl from Mars also wore something like that – .”

  “Can we talk about something else?” Tina interrupted.

  “Something else?” Jason asked. “Sweetheart, this is the topic of the day. We're at the end of the world. What else do you want to talk about? Your SAT scores? I got news for you, they don't friggin matter no more. This... all this crap about monsters and Martians, this is what matters now.”

  They sat without speaking for ten minutes and ate yellow cake.

  “I keep wanting to check my phone messages,” Tina said. “I still miss that. I hope the phones and wi-fi get back up soon.”

  Sam didn't think that was likely, but he gave her a supportive smile.

  “Well... we don't know it's Martians... yet.” Shane said, to defuse the tension. “It might just be Republicans.” He was rewarded with a snicker from Sam and Jason.

  “We'll find out what this means... at some point,” Sam said. “Everything has its day. Every mystery has a solution. Isn't that what Sherlock Holmes said?”

  “The mystery is only your eye,” Jason said. “Is that right?”

  No one knew, but they were surprised Jason, of all people, had read Sherlock Holmes – or read anything at all.

  “Do you read a lot?” Tina asked.

  “I do,” said Jason quite simply. “I do.”

  Books and their covers, don't judge, Sam thought.

  And that brought them to silence again. Listening to the rain had a peculiar calming effect.

  The rain lasted the better part of an hour, then trickled to a drizzle. When it h
ad completely stopped, they got back in the jeep and headed north once more. The seats were still wet, which made the ride uncomfortable, but at least they were moving again. Tired and damp, they listened to the noise of the jeep's engine, and said nothing.

  Before dawn, something caught their eye on the road ahead. They observed a large shape blocking the road about a mile further north. It was a barricade made of stalled cars and trucks. The first rays of morning sunlight glinted off the car mirrors, but it was difficult to see more. A few of the vehicles were badly damaged, with dented sides and cracked windshields. The road appeared to be totally impassible, and the barricade looked man-made.

  They stopped the jeep about a half mile from it.

  “This looks on purpose,” Shane said in a hushed tone. He didn't want to break the eerie quiet that had settled in this morning. “That's no accident.”

  Sam agreed. “It's a roadblock. Someone wants to stop cars from passing here. Or stop something else.”

  Shane looked through the binoculars. Jason peered through the scope of his rifle. A single man sat on the pile of cars. He had a shotgun in one hand, and a beer in the other.

  “Well this looks inviting,” Shane whispered. “Two of us go talk to him. The rest of you, stay here.”

  “You sure?” Jason asked. “He doesn't look friendly.”

  “I'll go with you,” Sam offered.

  “No. I'm taking Tina,” Shane said. “She is the least threatening. We'll look like a harmless couple of kids. And no weapons. We won't carry any, so you guys need to keep yours trained on us.”

  “No, I don't want Tina going,” Ken objected.

  “It's okay. I'll go. He's right, I'm not threatening.”

  “I'll go with her,” Sam insisted. “Shane, you need to stay here with bow drawn. If anything goes down, I need you to rescue us.”

  That did seem to make sense. The group agreed to send Sam and Tina out to meet the stranger. After all, Sam had clearly demonstrated his ability to protect them in a jam, and Shane was by-far the better bowman.