by Nate Johnson
“Nolan, we can’t pretend like nothing has happened. You’ve discovered an alien for Christ sake, think about it. You’ll be a hero.”
Nolan laughed at her naivety, then slammed on the brakes and stopped.
Turning, he started pulling her back to the parking lot.
“Where are we going?” she asked
“We need to get a car. It’s too far back to the main road.”
“How are we going to get a car?”
He laughed. “At least Juvie was good for something.”
The parking lot was still quiet. It looked as if no one knew they had escaped. He wondered if the two guards were still out cold. Or, were they still locked in the room and no one could hear them scream?
Searching for the oldest vehicle in the lot. He found an ancient mini-bus. Unlocked and waiting to be abused. It looked like a hippy’s wet dream. With a couch and small kitchen in the back.
Popping the steering cover, he reached under and pulled the wires free.
“You really know how to hotwire a car?” she asked. He looked at her and smiled. After all, that had happened over the last few days, she was most impressed with his criminal capability. Girls. He would never figure them out.
The van’s engine rumbled to life. He pumped his fist with joy and sent up a silent thank you to his former cell mate, Johnny Bigs, the kid had been right, it wasn’t that hard.
They raced down the dirt road as if the devil himself were on their tail. When they reached the chain link fence, he plowed through the gate without stopping. If they didn’t know before, he thought of the bunker, they knew now, they were missing a couple of visitors. But he had a good head start. They weren’t going to catch him.
Within a few miles, they came to the turn-off. One way led back to town, the other towards the lake.
He slammed on the breaks and brought the van to a shuddering halt. Looking over at Marla he raised an eyebrow. It was her call.
She hesitated for a moment then set her jaw and pointed towards town. His shoulders slumped, but he pulled the van to the right and followed her instructions.
.o0o.
What happened from here on out was her doing. Marla pushed the hair from her eyes and tried to concentrate on the road. She was unaware she was double checking to make sure he was going the right way and hadn’t changed his mind.
Was he correct? Did she have the right to risk his future? She wrung her hands together as she realized that everything that happened from this point onward was her fault. They had literally taken a different fork in the road at her insistence. If it didn’t work, it would be her fault. She brought her hand to her mouth.
As they entered the town, she furrowed her brow in confusion. Then it struck her, nothing had changed. The world had moved forward while theirs was in complete upheaval. People were shopping, getting gas, driving through McDonalds. All of it, as if nothing had happened. Everything about her world had been turned upside down, and these people acted like it was just another day. She felt angry at them she knew she was being ridiculous, but it didn’t make the feeling go away.
Within moments, they passed the school. Marla wondered what it would be like when her schoolmates found out what had happened. They’d freak. So much for obscurity. What would Cindy and Jess think? She was pretty sure she was in for a lot of ‘I told you so’s’.
The van turned into her neighborhood. The quiet and normalcy was off-putting, to say the least. They hadn’t even stopped before she had the door open and was halfway out when she turned. Nolan sat there. Both hands on the wheel were white from his tight grip as he stared out of the windshield.
“Aren’t you coming,” she said, a sick feeling starting in her stomach.
He shook his head then looked at her like a kicked puppy. “You go ahead, I’ve got to go after him.”
“Nolan,” she said, hating the whine in her voice. “We talked about this, we have to get help. You can’t do this on your own.”
“Marla….” He shook his head again and gave a small smile. “Go on, I’ve got to hurry.”
Her insides dropped to the ground as she watched him drive off. It was like he didn’t care. How could he not care? Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders she walked across the front yard and into the house.
“Mom,” she yelled as soon as she had the door open. “Are you here?”
Her mother came around the corner from the kitchen holding a dish rag in her hands. Her red-rimmed eyes were as big as soccer balls, and her mouth was as open as a landed fish.
“Marla” her mother whispered to herself as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She looked over her shoulder into the kitchen then back at her daughter as if trying to confirm what she was seeing.
“Marla,” she screamed as she threw her arms around the younger woman. Tears of joy fell like rain, “Where, how ... are you ok?” she asked, stepping back, whipping the tears from her eyes as they looked her over. She counted every finger like she had when she was a baby.
Marla said, “I’m okay, we’re both okay, I ...”
A man stepped out from the kitchen, Detective Washington. Marla sucked in a deep breath, the happiness of being held by her mom was already replaced with the concern of exposing Nolan’s secret.
The man smiled, genuine relief obvious across his face. It made her feel good to know that he had really been concerned for her wellbeing. She nodded her head at him then returned to focus on her mom.
“I swear, we’re all right. At least, now we are.” She wanted to tell her everything, but the detective’s presence held her back for some reason.
“It’s good to see you are all right,” Detective Washington said as he reached out and patted her shoulder. Then he stepped back and let her mom continue the mother of all hugs. Marla looked at him over her mom’s shoulder and swallowed hard. This was not going to be easy.
“Where were you honey, what happened?” her mom asked. The detective raised an eyebrow obviously very interested in the answer.
“Where’s Nolan?” her mom asked with a quiet nervousness.
“He’s fine, he has gone after the man who kidnapped us.”
“Where’s that,” Detective Washington asked as he took his phone from his suit pocket. Looking at her for the answer before he told the world where to descend.
“I don’t know, by the lake somewhere,” she said.
“How does Nolan know where to find him?” The detective asked.
Marla saw that he was obviously concerned, this was more than a policeman doing his job. He was really worried about Nolan. It was enough to help her over the hump.
Taking a deep breath, she looked the detective directly in the eye. “Nolan thinks he can find him because he can read his mind. He can read everybody’s mind,” she said then internally hunched her shoulders waiting for the explosion.
Her mom gasped, but the detective continued to look at her, waiting for more. So she told them their story. She started with leaving the movie theater and took them all the way up to the van leaving from in front of the bunker. She left out the part about her sexy thoughts, but otherwise, she told them everything.
When she was done, she sat back on the couch and waited for the grilling. She looked from her mom to the detective.
Neither of them spoke for a moment. Her mom looked at the detective and Marla was surprised at the nature of that look. This wasn’t a mom look. This was a woman looking at a friend for help.
Detective Washington caught the look and shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve been doing this for seventeen years. I know when someone’s lying, especially with a complex story like this.”
Marla blanched at the mention of lying, maybe Nolan had been right if they didn’t believe her then how could she get him help?
“But,” the detective continued, “I believe her, or at least I believe that she believes.”
Her mom stared back and forth between the two of them trying to get a purchase of the weird information being
presented. “But … how?”
“I don’t know, but it would explain a lot,” the detective said, shaking his head.
Marla felt her heart skip a beat, they were going to believe her. A wash of pure joy passed through her as she realized how important it had been to her. Did this mean they would help Nolan? But what then? What would happen when everything was over? She looked at the detective.
“We have to help Nolan.”
.o0o.
Nolan gripped the wheel and mumbled to himself about idiot girls and lost opportunities. He turned onto the highway, consciously fighting to slow down and stop from speeding, the last thing he needed was the police pulling him over.
Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself down and stayed focused. Find the Victorian house, find Cheevers. Then what? He didn’t know. But nothing could be fixed until he found the house.
Turning onto the lake front road he passed the area of their picnic and then the place where the body had been found.
He pulled the van over and opened his mind, but nothing, he could hear nothing. He still didn’t know for sure why he could pick up Cheevers from such a long distance sometimes, yet never when he wanted. Maybe it was the beast, maybe not. It didn’t really matter. He wasn’t getting any help.
Starting the engine up again, he continued around the lake. It was surrounded by parklands and forests. There didn’t appear to be any structures sitting up on a hill, let alone an old Victorian house.
Coming around another bend, he saw a house to his right, up on a hill. The dark night was barely lit by a weak quarter moon down low on the horizon. The darkness hid the details of the house, only a big black block against the night sky.
He slammed the van to a stop and threw it into the park before jumping out and walking around the van to get a better look. He quickly shifted and looked back towards the lake. The silver moonlight danced off the glimmering surface. Yes, this was the view from his vision.
His heart raced as he left the van and started to race up the hill. Scanning as he went, he couldn’t pick up a signal. Maybe the gray man had left already. Nolan’s stomach dropped to his feet. This was his only chance. The man had to be there. They would never believe him otherwise.
Deep down, he knew the only long term chance he had with Marla was to come clean with the authorities. Otherwise, they would be on the run for the rest of their lives. He didn’t really want to admit it. But it was going to be the only way. And, finding Cheevers was key to making that work.
Suddenly he saw it, the inside of a room. All gray with a faint light flowing under an old wooden door. The room moved back and forth as the observer paced back and forth in the dark.
But the view was horizontal not the vertical that Cheevers normally projected. He stopped in place and kneeled down behind a bush to observe the building.
A faint light shone through one of the upstairs windows. But otherwise. There was nothing, no movement.
He returned to the vision in his head. The feeling wasn’t right. The picture was more vibrant than normal and way more detailed than it should have been in the available light. A sense of a faint smell joined the visual input. It smelt like burnt rope, the old Manila kind of rope used on ships. The observer stopped moving and looked to the door then stuck his head down by the crack underneath and sniffed twice trying to identify the smell.
It was the creature’s thoughts he had been seeing. Nolan took a deep breath and gasped. It was different, the inside of the beast's mind. Everything was raw, open, thoughts flashed at blinding speed but didn’t seem to go very far.
Reaching out he grabbed a tree to steady himself as he continued to observe. He felt a deep hunger for raw red meat, the kind that bled down the side of your face when you bit into it. He knew it was the creature feeling this, but a part of the thought talked to a deep primeval part of him. Matched up with some part of his ancient soul, like the Ying/Yang symbol.
He knew what it felt like to be all powerful. To fear nothing or no one. To walk through the forest and know that everything backed away in fear. To feel your muscles move with perfect symmetry. To follow your command, your every desire. To achieve any task you could devise.
He had to fight hard to pull himself out of the creatures mind. It was such a tempting place. Full of self-confidence, and arrogant disdain for everything else. Everything except for Cheevers. He had caught a hint of concern, a foreign element in the animals mind. It considered Cheevers an equal, another Zork, almost.
Nolan shook his head back and forth, his hair whipping him in the face as he tried to clear it of the image.
He desperately needed to get rid of that feel of animal power, it was addictive and beguiling. As the image faded, it was replaced by an animal awareness. A sense that something was going to happen before any information was received that indicated exactly what that strange new thing was.
The animal backed away from the door and raised his head to the ceiling and let loose a long deep howl. Nolan could feel the vibrations deep down in the throat and felt the sorrow that flowed through the creature’s body. It was sad, it was confined, it wanted out.
Out behind the bushes, Nolan shivered when his ears heard the mournful howl. His senses echoing what his mind was hearing, creating a loopback that sent electrical pulses up and down his spine.
The sound was like the depths of Hades coming to life. His heart almost stopped, every fear any man had throughout the history of the world all started with that howl. It was the other, the outsider, the evil competition for life.
Nolan took a deep breath and slowly stood up to face the evil in the house. He knew now what was going on. It had not been Cheever who had broadcast all that distance, it had been the creature who had been reading the aliens mind and then unknowingly broadcasting it.
That was what the alien, Mr. Gray, Cheevers meant be finding a new source. He hoped to use Nolan to replace the Zorks.
Running the last few feet he silently jumped up onto the porch and slithered next to the front door. He listened with both his ears and mind but couldn’t pick any up any signals.
Reaching over he tried the door knob. The damn thing was locked, you would think that a man who kept a Zork for a pet didn’t need to lock his front door.
Sighing in resignation, Nolan moved to the first window. It was one of those old fashioned sashed windows with wooden muttons dividing it up into nine squares. He grabbed the bottom of the sash and jerked, but the damn thing was either locked or painted shut.
Stopping himself from pulling a second time he backed off and looked at the window. He didn’t want to pull so hard that it shattered in his hands. He needed to get inside without anyone knowing. Giving up he moved to the next window and gently tugged. He felt a slight movement, enough to get his hopes up. He gave another jerk and the window slowly slid up, coming to rest at the top.
He looked around to make sure no one was observing, then stepped over the sill and into the room.
The place was a museum. Frail, overstuffed chairs, balanced on spindly legs were strategically placed around the room. Side tables with fancy lace doilies overlapping the edges had been placed next to each chair. A giant rag braided rug softened his steps as he crept across the floor towards the inner door.
Taking a deep breath and holding it, he gently opened the door and peeked outside. Nothing. A long hallway with a runner carpet and the typical Victorian sideboard with a flower vase.
Nolan wondered if the man had servants. If so, where were they, and what did they think of the Zork?
Stepping through the door, he silently made his way down the hallway, stopping after every step to listen and scan. It was easy now to pick up the Zork, he was on the third floor, in the attic.
Coming to the stairs, Nolan put a hand on the newel post and took the first step, his ears tuned for a tell-tale creak. He was surprised when nothing happened. Taking another step, he continued, up on his tip toes, ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble.
H
is heart beat against his chest and was threatening to push its way through his rib cage. He wondered how Marla was making out. Did they have her locked up in a rubber room? A guilty pang of regret washed through his body and settled in his gut. He shouldn’t have left her alone to face her mom and the police.
As his mind began to wander, he picked up a faint hint of strangeness. It was Cheevers. The man was dreaming, he was walking through a field of wheat under a night sky with two moons when he tripped over a half-eaten body.
The man’s dreams flashed to a boyhood nightmare of being trapped in a room with an old Zork lying on a mat by a roaring fireplace. The animal was dying, and Cheevers could read its mind, felt the terror of approaching death. The fear swamped the animal as it lay there trying to catch its breath. Cheevers saw the impending nothingness and screamed for his mother, but no one came. He stood there and watched the animal die, the sudden loss of consciousness tore at the young boy’s soul.
Taking the stairs two at a time, Nolan hurried towards his goal. If the man was asleep, now was the time to attack. Slowly rotating his head from side to side, he zeroed in on his target. Gently he turned the nob. This was the right room, the Alien presence seeped through the door like a pea soup fog. Engulfing him in its evil, cloying grip, like a mustard gas on the battlefield.
Pushing through the sickness, he opened the door and stepped inside. The chair was empty. The room was empty.
It couldn’t be right, he’d known with all his heart that Cheevers was on the other side. But there was nothing.
The room had been like the visions in his mind, a Lazy boy chair, a desk with papers and a computer. A bed next to the window. But no Cheevers. A faint odor of burnt rope permeated the room. Nolan cocked an eyebrow in confusion.
A faint sound behind him made Nolan jump and turn around, adrenalin rushing to all his muscles ready to attack. In the doorway was the Zork. Standing there like a stone gargoyle, it consumed the doorway.
The animal was bigger, much bigger than from the visions. It looked like a cross between a timber wolf and the Jolly Green Giant, only in gray. Spotty tufts of fur dotted his mottled skin, and golden saliva dripped from a mouth filled with glistening yellow teeth.