by Mel Corbett
“We brought our whole pantry and everything we thought might help,” Seth said, as Connie led them into the living room where they set the boxes on anything they could.
“Wendy, you and Seth will have to sleep out here on the fold-out. Will the kids will be okay on the floor?” Connie asked.
“Don’t be silly,” Connie’s mother said. “Your father and I will take the hide-a-bed, and your sister and her family can have Calvin’s room to themselves.”
“Mom, I couldn’t possibly—not with Dad’s back,” Wendy said.
“Don’t be silly, your father and I will be fine,” Connie’s mother said. Her father just shrugged.
Connie noticed George’s parents didn’t offer to take the couch so that the Wendy’s family could have space to themselves. Typical.
“I know this many people might be a drain, dear,” Connie’s mother said, “but we can definitely help with your garden and keeping the plants and everything growing. I’ll help you make up a chore-chart if you want.”
EIGHT
MARY
WHEN WILL AND THE boys came back from their long ride, Mary told them about the nut-job. They all had a good laugh about it. And it wasn’t until later, when she was getting the ice cream out of the fridge, that there was another knock at the door. This time, it was the ranger.
“Howdy, folks,” the ranger said with a fake professional smile. “Our threat level has been moved up to red, and we seem to be under attack. We’ve got evacuation center set up in Reno. You don’t have to leave yet, but you should load up the bikes and be ready to move come morning.”
“If there’s a terrorist threat, doesn’t it make more sense to stay out here? Far away from anything big,” Jordan, her sixteen-year-old know-it-all said.
“I didn’t say anything about terrorists. I said to pack up and get ready to evacuate.”
“If it’s not terrorists, then who is it? The Koreans?” Will asked.
The ranger shook his head. “Look, pack up and be ready to go to the evacuation center.”
“Just tell us what’s going on,” Mary said, trying to be friendly. “It’s late. We’ll load up the bikes in the morning and go wherever you want us to go.”
“With all due respect, ma’am,” he said, meaning he didn’t respect her at all. “You’ll load up your bikes now and be ready to go at the drop of a hat.” He hurried back to his jeep and quickly drove off to the next occupied camp. The next one over was empty. That nut-job’s beaten up motorhome was gone.
“Honey,” Mary said, “Let’s get the phones out of the glove box and turn them on. I want to see what’s happening.”
Jordan pulled up YouTube and the first video trending came from New York. It felt like watching part of a bad movie because the camera jumped around so much. The little screen in Jordan’s hand was so dark, Mary thought it was night at first. Then the camera jerked up.
“Their ship is massive. It—it blocks out all the sun.” The kid’s voice cracked when he talked. He couldn’t have been any older than Mikey.
The screen showed this giant thing without any edges. Weird shapes bubbled through the smoke surrounding it and what looked like lightning crackled around it.
The camera swung back to show the ground. The kid must have been on the upper level of an apartment or something tall. Tiny people ran from these floating metal boxes with arms. Their long arms would snag someone. The person would struggle for a moment then— zap! The person would go rigid. Then, it looked like the metal boxes were eating them. They must have been storing them inside before catching someone else.
There was a grinding noise, and the screen swung up at the sky for a second and showed the bubbling, crackling space ship. Some of the drones returned to it, others went back towards the Earth.
“Shit!” the kid shouted. “They’re here.”
His footsteps pounded through Jor’s phone’s speakers as the kid ran to get off the roof.
The screen swung around. Mary’s stomach turned, and she had to look away as the camera flashed on his clothes, then not, then a strip of denim, then grey roof. A door slammed open and shut. The camera turned to the ground, then he must have pushed that selfie button.
This dorky kid’s face full of pimples filled the screen. Younger than Mikey.
My boys are better looking, Mary thought stupidly.
“I’m going to post this now. Maybe… Maybe you’ll see it and someone will figure out how to stop them.” Then the clip ended, and YouTube popped up a handful of similar videos. They all showed the same crackling space ship or the drones in the preview image.
A ball of ice formed in Mary’s stomach.
She couldn’t catch her breath. She needed to catch her breath. She was the mom, damn it! She had to be in charge for her kids. If she wasn’t, if Will wasn’t… Mary stared down at the table and swallowed hard, fighting the urge to vomit. Then she looked up at her family.
Will stood, pacing the narrow aisle. He looked green. Jordan, her sixteen-year-old, didn’t move, his face blank. Mikey, the baby, was crying. Mary grabbed his hand. He looked up at her, his green eyes extra bright from the tears.
“The ranger’s right,” Mary said, taking control of herself. “We’re going to pack up tonight, but we’re not going to Reno.”
“Mom?” Jordan asked.
“Don’t you see?” Mary shook my head. “The worst thing we can do is go where there are people. We need to be isolated. They’re going for the big cities. The most bang for their buck. If we’re hidden—hell, even if we’re in plain sight, but far away from anyone else, they’re not going to come for us.” Mary scooted out of the bench and stood in the narrow aisle next to Will. “We’re going to pack up, get gas, and go deeper into the desert.”
“Couldn’t we stay here?” Jordan asked.
“You heard the ranger. They won’t let us.”
With all four of them working, it didn’t take long to get the bikes loaded. Gas was another matter. They weren’t the only ones running. The guy that afternoon had been right. They should have bailed as soon as Will and the boys made it back to camp. Everyone was filling up the car, all of the bikes, and the extra tanks. No one was being stupid; everyone was trying to do the same damn thing.
“At least we don’t need any groceries. Your grandparents always did keep their motorhome stocked for the nuclear apocalypse,” Mary joked while they waited in line for the gas.
It took hours for them to get their gas and leave, but, finally, Mary’s family parked along an old country road about an hour away from Sand Mountain or anything else.
NINE
RACHEL
RACHEL FILLED HER FRONT and rear bike baskets with dry food and hung full bags of groceries from either side of her handlebars while Nate finished strapping the tent to the back of his bike. Bags with blankets hung from his handlebars. Her backpack of clothes was already plastered to her back thanks to sweat and the late May heat.
“Wish we could get one of those bike trailers,” Nate said.
“Wish we had a car and AC. It’s gonna be triple digits for sure today.” Once everything was as secure as it was going to be, she strapped on her helmet and pushed her bike off the curb. When they got to Jenna’s there was a small convention of their friends. Jenna’s boyfriend Alan was there of course, but so were about six more of their friends.
Jenna laughed at Rachel’s startled expression. “Think you were the only one who thought it was a good idea to run for the hills?” she asked. After a few minutes of greetings and hugging, they took off on the bike path, heading west down Russell towards Winters.
Hours into the ride, sweat dripped into Rachel’s eyes, and she regretted not changing into her gym clothes. The supplies piled on their bikes made the going slow. Rachel’s stomach rumbled, but she didn’t dare stop to snack. Her back cramped under the weight of her stuffed backpack.
Finally, when Rachel thought she couldn’t bike any more, and her legs were aching, Jenna turned down a long driveway
in the middle of an orchard. Small green fruits—maybe unripe cherries—dotted the trees. They were there. The driveway circled back through the orchard, revealing an ancient Victorian style house that couldn’t possibly fit all of Jenna’s friends.
Jenna dropped her bike and ran up the steps. She pounded on the door. After a moment a big woman, with wild blonde hair answered. She yanked Jenna into her arms, squeezing her in a bear hug. She shouted for her husband.
He rushed out the door, shotgun in hand, but when he saw his wife hugging his daughter, he leaned it against the house and joined the happy reunion.
“Thank God you’re okay, baby,” Jenna’s mom said. After what seemed like forever to Rachel’s jealous mind, Jenna’s parents stopped hugging her.
“Who are they?” her dad grunted.
“Mom, Dad, these are my friends,” Jenna said and introduced them. “I was hoping they could stay with us for awhile.”
Her parents exchanged a look. Rachel’s parents had the same one. They didn’t like the idea, but couldn’t say no.
Rachel whispered in Nate’s ear that maybe they should just leave with their camping gear.
After a long awkward pause, the dad nodded. “Just for a few days. I don’t think it’s safe to have too many people all together.”
Behind his back, Jenna mouthed, “It’s okay. I’ll work on them.”
Rachel and Nate followed them into the tiny farmhouse. The house was barely cooler than outside thanks to a handful of fans scattered around the small living room. An even tinier kitchen was opposite the front door. Rachel had thought Jenna’s family was well off when she’d said they had a big farm, but this house was anything but. It was ancient. It must have been built at least hundred years ago.
Jenna waved for everyone to sit on the spare furniture. Rachel eased herself onto the plastic covered couch and clutched Nate’s hand while Jenna’s parents paced in front of them.
“I’m not sure how we’ll feed you all, but we’ll make it work.” Jenna’s mom frowned as she stared at all of Jenna’s friends. “Ladies, you’ll just have to bunk on the floor of Jenna’s room. Boys, you can cram into my sewing room.”
“Sewing room?” Jenna asked.
“Jared’s room, honey.” Jenna’s mom’s voice shook as she spoke. “I finally did it up now that he’s got a house of his own.”
“Nate and I have a tent we can sleep in if you need the space,” Rachel said. Her tongue felt thick around the guilt she felt about imposing on Jenna’s family.
“Mama,” Jenna said. “What about the old guest quarters? Can’t we put some of them out there? And my friends are hard workers. I’m sure they can help earn their keep.”
TEN
!ESTRAITH
!ESTRAITH KNELT ON THE floor of the small metal room. Her daughter, Nith, had pulled herself up on the low table and toddled along its edge towards !Estraith. !Estraith waited a few feet away, arms outstretched for her daughter to let go of the table and try to toddle a couple steps to her. Nith reached the edge of the table, looked at her hands and let go.
She stayed upright for a moment, two moments, then took an unsteady step forwards.
The gravity shut off.
“Mama!” Nith shrieked as she floated away from the table. Nith flailed wildly. The little girl had almost gotten used to the grav-drive’s strange rhythms and breakdowns, but the other failures had happened while she scooted along the floor or slept secure in her crib, not while she was working on her standing.
!Estraith pushed off the ground towards her daughter and caught her in her arms, spiraling through the fruit floating up out of the bowl. !Estraith pulled Nith close. Her curly blue hair drifted into her face, blocking her vision. At least Nith’s hair was still too short to do much.
!Estraith stretched a leg down, trying to hook onto the table so she’d be close to the ground when the grav-drive came back online. She banged her shin, and started spinning off in another direction altogether. Finally, she crashed into the far wall. !Estraith caught hold of one of the handles and clutched Nith tight to her with her other arm.
“Nith, baby,” !Estraith said. “Can you push the hair out of Mama’s face?”
To Nith’s credit, she did try. Nith poked !Estraith right in the eye as she tried to push the hair out of her face.
!Estraith bit her tongue and waited for the gravity to come back on. The mechanics usually got it going fairly quickly, and then they’d all float back to the ground. At least the Queen was wise enough to make sure that the grav-drive didn’t jump straight to full gravity and yank them back to the ground all at once.
“Thanks, baby,” !Estraith said. “That’s good enough.”
Even though the hair still completely blocked her view, she didn’t need her daughter poking her eyes anymore.
“Get back to work and help out the Queen by testing the new ship in space,” !Estraith mumbled to herself.
“Mama?” Nith asked.
“Nothing sweetie, don’t worry about it.” !Estraith kissed the top of Nith’s head. “The Queen loves us. She honors us by letting us help her with this ship.”
ELEVEN
CONNIE
“JAMES, THANK YOU AGAIN for bringing the radio. Without you, we wouldn’t know what’s going on,” Connie said as she carried the big plate of instant potatoes to the dinner table. Why her sister had had so many instant potatoes in her pantry store was beyond her, but it definitely kept the small army fed.
“Don’t be silly, the radio is good for all of us,” Connie’s father-in-law reassured her.
“Yeah, but you didn’t need to go out and buy one as soon as all this stuff—”
“Don’t be silly. You guys buying a farm and quitting your jobs is the best thing that ever happened to this family.”
Connie’s father-in-law had never praised her so much in his life. She hurried out of the room before he could see her blushing.
The radio blared to life.
“The aliens are here!” a man shouted on the radio. “We’re outside of Boulder and there’s only about fifty of us here. Spread out! Don’t bunch up together!”
Connie gripped the kitchen counter. Her whole body shook. She turned off the stove and grabbed Calvin out of his swing in the living room.
“Mama?” he asked, fear in his voice.
“It’s okay baby, Mama’s just getting you for dinner.” Connie carried the toddler back to the dining room.
“God! It’s tearing the roof off the house,” the man on the radio said.
Connie squeezed Calvin until he squirmed. She loosened her grip and turned towards the high chair.
“Grandpa James, could we turn that off so the baby doesn’t get scared?” Connie asked as she strapped Calvin into his high chair. Her hands shook so bad that she could barely buckle the strap across his lap. Calvin wasn’t scared unless she or George were.
James nodded and turned off the radio. Connie breathed a sigh of relief and returned to the kitchen to plate the rest of dinner.
TWELVE
MARY
“BOYS, GO EASY ON the water,” Mary said, despite the dryness of her own throat. There were only a couple bottles left. Guess she’d bet wrong on the grocery store after all. They’d packed enough water for a long weekend, not for a week holed up in the desert.
The water ran out on day four. It was the Nevada desert in June.
“Don’t worry, Hun,” her husband, Will, said. “We’ll just turn the phones back on and find water somewhere—a lake or a stream or something.”
“And then what? We boil it on the stove?”
“Exactly, Mom,” Jordan said. “Like Survivorman.”
Mary sighed, and pulled out her phone. It powered up just fine, but wouldn’t catch a signal. The boys all tried on their phones as well, but none of them could get a signal.
“Maybe it’s because we’re so far out,” Will said after a few minutes of frustration. No one wanted to say what they were all really thinking. Maybe the aliens had t
aken out all of the cell towers.
“We’ve got to find out something about what’s going on,” Mikey said his voice cracked as he spoke, either from not quite done changing yet or fear; Mary couldn’t say which.
“There’s always the radio,” Mary said. They turned on the radio and flipped through. Of course none of their normal stations worked, they were hours from home, but the seek function only found one good signal.
It was just a guy broadcasting. Not a regular station at all. The message just repeated itself every five minutes. First, the guy said he was part of a CB network, but was sharing his news with those of us who didn’t have access to that sort of radio.
“Truck drivers carrying refrigerated loads of food are the best off. If you’re that lucky, get yourself far off the main roads, set up camp with a few five-gallon jugs of water, and drink sparingly.”
Mary’s family wasn’t that lucky. They had a fair amount of pantry food, but the water was gone.
“Don’t go into town if you can avoid it,” he said next.
Jordan snorted, and Mary resisted her own smart-ass remark. No way they’d survive the dry heat without water for another couple days, let alone until the aliens decided to leave Earth.
“If you can’t avoid it,” the guy continued, “my prayers are with you. Seriously folks, if you can’t avoid it, go into as small of a town as you can find and try to stay on the outskirts.”
“Great advice if you know where you are,” Mary said before she could help herself. She didn’t know where anything was except Fallon and Sand Mountain itself. She bit her tongue to keep from saying any more because she had no clue how they were going to get through this. Her eyes watered, but the boys couldn’t see their momma cry. They could do this.
“Will, honey, your parents still use paper maps, right?” Mary asked.
He shrugged.
“Boys, Dad and I need to talk for a little bit before we decide which way we’re gonna drive.”