Dominion

by Doug Goodman

  Then Peter showed up with more knives, and suddenly everyone was armed and chasing after the bat. The bat leapt to the high ceiling.

  Alyssa yelled to everyone, “We gotta go!”

  This time, they listened and followed her out of the restaurant in time for flames to burst out like a red and orange tongue from the kitchen’s agape maw.

  In the alley, they escaped to cool, dark corners while a volcano of heat and fire gushed out of the restaurant.

  “We’ve got to keep moving,” Aidan said. “This building’s on fire.”

  Wearily, they climbed back into the fire truck. Alyssa crawled into Aidan’s lap, and he held her tight. Jax was too cut up to drive, so Peter took the wheel.

  Colt pointed to Jax’s cuts and said sarcastically, “I think that’s going to need stitches.”

  “Everything’s going to be alright now,” Peter said.

  “No, it isn’t,” said Aidan. “We lost the Winchester 70. It isn’t your fault.”

  “That was granddad’s rifle,” Colt said.

  Peter was a teenager with the strength to hold his body suspended in the air in a perfect cross on the rings. Years of gymnastics conditioning had prepared him for that amazing feat, and others. But for a young man as strong as he was, he did not have the strength to hold himself up against his guilt.

  They drove away from the inferno and the dead town and headed north. For a while, they lost track of time and distance. Every place was just one more challenge to survive in a world they clearly did not own anymore.

  The ground shook. Small shards of rock bounced on the hard compact sediment. The lost boys clenched their cheeks and crawled tighter underneath the destroyed home. They were trapped like rabbits, like scared little rabbits with nowhere to go. If these monstrous beasts – which looked like giant elephants with tentacles instead of trunks and four horns each – found them out, they were doomed. They were not fast enough or strong enough to repel their attack.

  They were at the mercy of God or Buddha or Karma or fate.

  The elephants moved on, heading northeast. When the ground stopped shaking and they could no longer see the monstrous beasts, the lost boys crawled out of their temporary hiding place, found a place to drop trou, then continued north.

  Nobody saw the mountain lion coming. They had stopped for lunch and were sitting in random cars on the highway, eating out of cans while the withered remains of humanity dried up in the front seats of the cars. That was when they head the large animal’s foot padding somewhere out in the field.

  Quietly, they all waited for the animal to appear. Minutes passed, and they say and heard nothing. Then a large creature pushed itself through the high grass on the far side of the highway. They still didn’t see it. A car was crushed as the mountain lion climbed up on a sedan. Then came the most awful sound from the invisible creature. Aidan remembered hearing that the sounds of a mountain lion yelling had been mistaken for women wailing. This was the most terrible, horrible wail he had ever heard. If this was supposed to be a woman wailing, Aidan hoped to God he never met the woman on the other side of that wail.

  Then the hood of the car dipped, then popped back up, its shocks bearing the weight of the mountain lion they still could not see, even though it was right in front of them.

  They waited an hour before anyone was brave enough to go back to the fire truck.

  In Abilene, they had to stop and take refuge when three giant turkey buzzards suddenly swooped over the fire truck. Fortunately for the lost boys, the buzzards had no interest in them. The giant buzzards, which had wings as long as parasails, glided over them and came to rest in the middle of the road, where they were eating a dead cow.

  The buzzards had sick, fat bellies and a beak like a plow. The most villainous eyes turned to the lost boys half-way through its lunch, seemingly daring one of them to step outside. For effect, maybe, the buzzard hopped over to a car, ripped the door off as easily as if it were shredding paper with those thick talons, and grabbed a corpse out of the car. The turkey buzzard gulped the corpse down like an appetizer, all the while staring at the fire truck and the lost boys. Then it returned to the cow.

  When they were done, the vultures pulled themselves up into the air. The force generated by the beating of their wings was enough to make the cars and the fire truck rock back and forth. Then they flew into the sky and left the lost boys alone.

  In Lubbock, they stopped for gas. They could not find any at the gas stations outside of town, which they took as a positive sign. It must mean that people were flourishing somewhere. And Lubbock did not have an upside down population sign, so they drove into town. Aidan, who was driving, stopped the fire truck.

  “What’s the matter?” Riley asked.

  “Do you hear that?” Aidan asked her and turned his ear. Riley also listened. Suddenly, it seemed a lot quieter than it had a minute before, but she couldn’t tell why.

  “Cut the engine,” Jax suggested, and Aidan did. They were all listening now. The wide road was empty and quiet.

  Nothing.

  Aidan opened the door. “I’ve got an idea. Peter, can you drive?”

  While Peter climbed into the driver’s seat, Aidan climbed up on top of the cab, and then thumped the roof when he was ready.

  The fire truck’s engine started, and the truck began moving slowly down the street while Aidan listened.

  Alyssa and Colt and Riley and Jax had rolled down the windows and were trying to listen, too, but the engine was so loud, it was hard to hear anything with the sirens going.

  “Hello. Any monsters out there?” Peter squawked over the fire truck’s call box.

  While Peter talked to the monsters, Aidan listened. Then he heard it from a few blocks down: a buzzing sound, like droning. Then as quickly as the sound appeared, it disappeared. Another buzzing sound came from much closer, maybe from the block over. It stopped, and the further one started again.

  He pounded the roof and quickly climbed into the cab behind Peter. “Get the hell outta here,” he said, “and roll up those windows.”

  “Why? What is it?”

  “Cicadas. That’s what I was hearing. Must be thousands of them hiding in the trees. Somehow they seem to be talking to each other. I don’t know what they are saying, and I sure as hell don’t want to find out. Let’s get out of here.”

  They were out on the plains driving at night and pushing cars off the road when they saw an unnatural, orange glow on the horizon. It was the glow of civilization, of 24-hour gas stations and road lights. They hadn’t seen this kind of light after dark since the first nights after Black Friday. Nothing natural generated light in the middle of the night, at least as far as they knew. Only humans did that. They drove to the light.

  It was a large supermarket. They came upon it slowly and cautiously.

  A few people were milling around on the far side of the empty parking lot.

  “What do you think?” Peter asked as they studied the parking lot from the top of a nearby convenience store.

  “They have no weapons,” Jax said.

  Aidan shook his head. “Have you ever seen a parking lot this empty? Ever? Even before the apocalypse, there would always be at least one car in the lot.”

  “Something doesn’t feel right,” Riley said. Colt and Alyssa nodded their agreement. They got back in the fire truck and left. Curiosity got the best of them though, and they circled around the supermarket. That’s when they saw that the people weren’t people, but appendages of some house-sized spiders that were waiting in ambush just out of reach of the parking lot lights. How they got them on and off, they could only conjecture, but the truth was there: lights meant a trap.

  They were resting in the derailed intestines of a southbound train. This was a good spot to camp for the night. They were out on the plains, so they could see an enemy coming from miles away, as long as it wasn’t a mountain lion. While Aidan scribbled in his journal, Alyssa rubbed her fingers over the open space where his little finger s
hould be.

  “I like it. It’s so soft. I never knew you had a soft spot,” she teased him.

  He reached over and kissed her, and she accepted his warm lips. He put his hand on the wrapped arm, then moved his hand lower on her arm.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  “The only thing you should be sorry about is that you stopped kissing me.”

  Del Monte, Ranch Style, and Bush’s were the choices. After the beans were cooked on the grill they had found among a campsite of dead people, Peter took the cans around to the other lost boys so they could select their can. Val thanked him for the beans and began to shovel them in his mouth using nothing more than his fingers. Aidan and Alyssa sat side-by-side on one end of the fire pit, with the fire truck and most of the derailed train in front of them.

  “Stop staring,” Alyssa told Aidan.

  “It still shocks me.”

  “He.”

  “Of course. But the more I look at him, he does look like a her.”

  “Yes, because he was going through hormone replacement therapy before he could have his operation. Once the lights went out all over the world and companies stopped manufacturing drugs, he started becoming more like a her.”

  “But he doesn’t want to be a her.”

  “No. He wants to be a him.”

  “But why not a her?”

  “Because that’s his choice.”

  “But it isn’t his choice now.”

  “Now he is more of a him and a her, so he should have a choice.”

  “What do we call him?”

  “I call him Val. You should, too.”

  “So wait. Is he a boy or a girl, you know…down there.”

  “I’m both, actually,” Val said. “I have a regular-sized vaginal canal and a small phallus.”

  Aidan blushed and looked down. “Sorry, man, I didn’t mean to be rude.”

  Something splatted against Aidan’s fuzzy head. It was beans from Val’s can.

  “Dude, it’s the apocalypse,” Val said. “Do I need to buy you a bridge so you can get over it?”

  “Yeah,” Jax said. “I’m going to make you a t-shirt, Aidan, that says ‘Thank God For The Apocalypse – It Killed My Homophobia.’”

  Aidan chortled. So did the others. Aidan couldn’t stop staring though.

  Peter came to Aidan and Alyssa last. Aidan slowly put down the journal (his back was rarely not stiff anymore since Bridgetown). He took the can of baked beans; Alyssa, too. “You should stop staring, Aidan,” Peter said. “It’s been like at least two or three weeks now.”

  “More like five days, doofus.”

  Peter shrugged like Aidan’s approval was the last thing on his mind, even though everybody knew it wasn’t. To Alyssa, he said, “Again, sorry about the arm.”

  She flicked her index finger at him and said, “You should stop worrying about it. It’s been like at least two or three weeks now. It’s almost completely healed. Want to look?”

  As she lifted the bandage, Peter ducked away. “God, no!” He took his beans and sat down by the fire, making sure not to face Alyssa.

  “This from the man who was making a flash mob of dead people…”

  “It’s different. They’re dead. You’re still bleeding.”

  “I’m tired of beans,” Colt said, and he tossed his open can of baked beans into the fire. “I want meat. I want bread. I don’t want to eat things we’re only eating because they haven’t expired yet.”

  “There’s corn and spam, man,” Val offered.

  Colt moaned.

  “It’s whatever we can find to get us through another day,” Alyssa added. “Be thankful you have it.”

  “I’m tired of living through another day. I’m tired of ‘surviving.’ I’m tired of running and fighting and foraging.”

  “Well, what do you want to do?” Peter said as he came around the campfire.

  “I want to do something fun.”

  “What would be fun to you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Want to play a game?”

  “I hate RPGs. It’s all you ever want to do for fun. I don’t want to pretend I’m fighting monsters. Every day, we’re fighting monsters. I want something fun.”

  Aidan put down his journal. “I think I know something you will like.”

  “What’s that?” Alyssa asked, as she cocked her half-smile at him. Aidan paused. He fell in love with her all over again every time she showed him that smile. Aidan leaned over and whispered into her ear. All Colt could see was the steam coming from his mouth.

  “Are you insane?” Alyssa shot back.

  “Why not? It’s not like there’s a law against it.”

  Five minutes later, Colt was driving the ladder truck down over the state line to New Mexico, swerving from one lane to another while everyone else was either screaming or laughing.

  “Wo!” Aidan yelled while shoving his foot on the brake and the engine skidded to a stop, sliding only a little.

  “You almost got us killed,” Alyssa yelled at Aidan. She was no longer smiling. Aidan ignored her.

  “This time, go slower,” he cautioned Colt.

  Colt took his foot off the brake and gently applied the gas. The giant truck lurched forward and partly into the shoulder as Colt slammed the brakes back down. “Sorry!”

  “Don’t worry. You’re doing great,” Val shouted from the back of the cab.

  “Yeah, you’re doing fine,” Aidan agreed.

  “Can I turn the siren on?”

  “We’re on the plains. There’s nobody around for probably fifty miles,” Alyssa said.

  “You’re the driver, Colt. It’s your decision.”

  Grinning impishly, Colt turned the siren on and stomped on the gas. This time, the truck went off the shoulder and crashed through the fence. It bounced up and down in the fields as Colt, barely big enough to get his arms around the steering wheel, tried to control. The whole time, he grinned like a 13-year old given the keys to a monster truck.

  “Are you having fun now?” Aidan asked. Colt didn’t need to say anything. He just kept grinning.

  They came over a small rise in the field as they circled back towards the road. Unfortunately, the other side was much steeper, and suddenly they were looking down at a five-foot drop. Everybody in the cab screamed. Aidan grabbed the wheel. He wanted to make damn sure Colt didn’t turn the wheel sideways and roll them. That would be too much fun. As it was, he was certain they would only lose the truck once it slammed into the rocks in front of them.

  At the last second, Colt jerked the wheel free of Aidan, who was having to reach from his side. The ladder truck turned to the left, skirting the rocks. At the same time, the same side of the truck lifted off the ground.

  “We’re gonna die!” Alyssa shrieked.

  Then all four wheels touched the ground, and they were safe.

  “You bastard!” Alyssa screamed as she punched Aidan on the back of the shoulder, but they weren’t finished yet. The fire truck had entered a wide arroyo, and as Colt turned towards the road, the arroyo tapered and came to a rocky end.

  Colt wanted to hit the brakes, but Aidan shouted, “Punch it!”

  “But we’re going to hit the rocks!”

  “Just punch it!”

  Colt slammed the gas pedal, and the fire truck, sirens blazing, launched over the rocks and caught air. It flew like a ton of bricks, slamming back down on the ground, first one tire, then another. Aidan was pretty sure that if the first crash didn’t destroy the axle, the second one did.

  As the fire truck landed, a giant stag appeared in front of them. It was almost as tall as the fire truck, and it had blazing white eyes. The stag barely had time to jump before the fire truck collided with it. Fur and glass and horn exploded everywhere, and the fire truck thumped over the stag and onto the highway.

  Colt braked the truck, which was being pulled along its momentum, and once the fire truck slowed down enough, all the lost boys jumped out, including Colt.

>   “Put it in Park!” Peter shouted as he jumped back to the cab to help Colt.

  When Peter and Colt walked back around the fire truck, they saw a trail of blood curling onto the road and to the rear bumper of the fire truck. The dead stag was partly wrapped around the rear axle.

  “Oh, my God! You hit a deer!” Alyssa accused Aidan. “You take him for his first driving lesson, and you kill a deer!”

  “So?”

  “So? That is so redneck cliché. I can’t believe you!”

  Jax put his hand on Alyssa’s shoulder. “Alyssa, you don’t get it. We hit a deer.”

  She looked at all the smiles, and she rolled her eyes.

  “Sometimes, y’all are such hicks.”

  “I don’t care,” Peter said. “That’s venison.”

  Jax used his parang to chop off the leg, which was really the only part that was wrapped around the axle. They used small knives to remove the rest that was attached to the fire truck. Then Riley took a snapshot of everyone with the fire truck and the giant deer, its head almost as big as Colt. Peter and Aidan checked the axle, and amazingly, it was not cracked. The truck was drivable. After the photo, the part of the deer that had not been wrapped around the axle was tied down to the top of the truck using fire hoses.

  Aidan drove them back to the camp across the state line and back into the high plains of West Texas. While Val and Riley got the flames going again, Aidan and Jax skinned the stag.

  “You know, we should save the head,” Jax said.

  “Why’s that?”

  “Well, when we need to hide again, we could use it.”

  “I think they’d notice a disembodied deer head.”

  Jax shrugged. “I guess.”