by Ike Hamill
A foot kicked him in the head.
It was too dark to see anything.
An instant later, the second form slid down his body. He heard the girl whimper in the dark.
“Lori?” George whispered.
The voices below them stopped whispering, laughing, and moaning. George knew that they had heard him. He wondered how long it would be before they found him. Lori seemed to know better than to answer. George reached out and pulled her to him. They hugged each other in the hot darkness.
Their black world shook with terrible earthquakes. George waited for the stinging in his eyes or the burning on his skin that would indicate they were being digested by the monster. When it didn’t come, he started to wonder if maybe it had eaten them in a different way. Maybe it had simply sent them to hell.
Below, the whispering commenced again.
Most of the voices were saying gibberish, but now and again George caught a word he understood. They were little portals into conversations that he didn’t understand. Each time a new voice joined the whispers, Lori hugged him even tighter. George didn’t mind. He hugged her back just as hard. In that horrible place, they only had each other.
He wanted to comfort the girl—to tell her that his dad would surely find a way to free them. But George didn’t dare open his mouth. He didn’t want to guide those voices any closer.
It didn’t matter.
A hand found his ankle.
It was the same place that the thing disguised as his mother had grabbed him. George’s ankle was still sore from all the abuse. His foot felt like it would burst with any more pressure.
He kicked with all his strength and dislodged the hand. It was replaced quickly by new hands, grabbing at his arms and legs. They were trying to pull him away from Lori. The whispering grew louder, as did the moaning. George realized that one of the moans was coming from himself.
A child laughed.
Desperate to hold onto something, George pulled Lori even tighter. She didn’t say a word. He had a terrible thought—what if it wasn’t Lori in his arms? What if it was one of them?
They plunged deeper into the darkness with another jolting shift.
“George?” Lori asked.
“Shhh!” George hissed, but he was relieved by her voice. More hands came. Instead of pulling at them, the new hands were pinching and grabbing, like they were trying to tear his flesh away from his bones. One probing finger hooked its way into George’s mouth. He bit down and tasted sour blood.
Biting was another mistake. Maybe the two things weren’t connected, but as soon as he bit down on the finger, he felt teeth biting at his shoe. The first was just a nibble. The next one meant business.
The world flipped and George felt weightless.
More teeth clamped down. It felt like the ones on his calf broke the skin.
Lori screamed. George screamed as well.
The darkness exploded into blazing red.
George took a mouthful of lake water and felt it rush up his nose. He lost his grip on Lori as he rolled and flipped in the lake. He was tangled in bones. He spat out water as soon as his head breached the surface. George looked up to the sky and plunged himself back under the water. The black drones rained down from above. As he descended, he was pummeled by bones and debris.
George dragged himself down farther. His ears popped. He saw something familiar in the depths. George forced himself deeper even though he sensed he was approaching the point of no return.
It was his brother. Ricky’s blurry face was down there. His hand was extended, but dropping. George kicked frantically and grabbed his brother’s hair. It was the only thing he could reach.
Turning back for the surface, they were pelted by more sharp parts from the broken helicopters.
[ Shore ]
George broke the surface and took in a welcome breath. He pulled his brother’s head up over the surface and smiled at Ricky.
His smile vanished rapidly. Ricky’s face was all white—even his lips were white—and he wasn’t moving. George jostled his brother and water and spit oozed from Ricky’s mouth.
“Thanks a lot, George,” Lori said behind him. “You could have helped me. I almost drowned.”
George didn’t acknowledge her. “Ricky!” he yelled. “Wake up, Ricky.”
Lori swam to George’s side. She reached under the water and grabbed Ricky’s hand.
“Come on, George,” she said. She started swimming. George grabbed his brother’s other hand and rolled to his side so he could kick freely and tug at the water. He saw where Lori was headed. It was a good idea. There was a diving float not too far away.
George looked back at Ricky. His lifeless head rolled around. There was nothing George could do about it.
Before long, Lori was leading the way. She was a stronger swimmer than George. When they were still a few feet from the float, she dropped Ricky’s hand and swam off.
“Hey!” George yelled. He figured out what she was up to. Lori didn’t bother with the ladder. She put her hands up on the planks of the float and wriggled up, kicking like a dolphin. She turned and put her hand down. George gave her Ricky’s arm and she pulled as George pushed.
It was impossible, but they did it. He was twice as old and twice as big as they, but the two managed to roll Ricky’s waterlogged body up onto the float. George swam around for the ladder and climbed up as Lori flipped Ricky onto his side.
The water ran from George’s clothes, hit the planks of the float, and then made a chorus of drips as it returned to the lake below.
Lori was working hard. George didn’t know what she was doing. Water gushed from Ricky’s mouth and nose as Lori manipulated his arm and pressed on his back.
“I don’t think that’s what you’re supposed to do,” George said.
“Shut up!” Lori said. “Get over here and help.”
He moved to Ricky’s other side and knelt down. He followed instructions. Lori rolled his brother onto his back and started to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. George recognized that. She showed him how to help.
While they worked, George looked around. There had to be an adult somewhere. There had to be someone more qualified who could fix this situation better than two kids.
“George! Faster than that,” Lori said. She counted out a rhythm for him.
After a minute, Lori pushed him away and put her head to Ricky’s chest. George knew what she was going to say, but he didn’t want to hear it. He put his hands over his ears and closed his eyes as he sat back on his heels. His brother was dead and he should have been able to save him. He would never forget this moment.
When he opened his eyes, he saw Lori shaking his brother.
George’s hands went to her shoulders.
“Stop!” he yelled. “Leave him alone.”
She looked up at him like he was crazy. George looked down and saw little bubbles on Ricky’s lips.
George shoved her aside and started shaking Ricky himself.
“Ricky!” he yelled in his brother’s face. “Ricky!”
His brother’s eyes opened.
[ Boat ]
Lori wanted to swim for the boat, but George made her stay. Ricky was sitting upright, but if he passed out again, George knew that Lori was better qualified to take care of him. George stole a little dinghy and rowed out to get them.
It took a lot of delicate coordination to maneuver Ricky onto the boat. He was weak and his balance was totally shot. When Ricky spoke, he sounded like a goose honking. He had so much water in his skull that he could barely form words.
Also, Ricky kept looking out at the lake. They all did. There was no sign on the surface of the bones and machines that had sunk, but they knew they were there. All three of them wanted to get to shore as fast as possible.
Ricky slumped on the seat as George rowed back. George kept his eyes locked on Ricky’s chest, verifying that he was still breathing.
“George, steer to port,” Lori whispered.
He looked over his shoulder and saw what had frightened her. There were people moving between the camps on the shore. They looked like skeletons wrapped in skin. By heading to port, she was steering them towards where the road came closest to the shore. George agreed with the idea—it would get them farthest away from the lumbering skeleton-people.
When the bow of the boat finally touched grass, Lori jumped out and wrapped the painter rope around a sign. George helped Ricky stand and let his brother lean on him as he got out. Even on dry land, Ricky rocked and swayed.
They moved up to the road.
Lori put her hand up against the sun and looked north and south on the road. There were skeleton-people to the north and limping, lumbering shapes coming from the south. They had nowhere to run.
“Back on the boat?” Lori asked.
George shook his head. The idea of floating above all those bones was horrible. There might still be something evil down in those depths.
“Let’s run for it,” George said.
Lori looked at Ricky and then back to him. George understood what she was thinking. It was like with his mom in the woods. The two of them might be able to outrun whatever it was, but Ricky never would. They were back in the same situation.
“We can try,” George said.
“You guys run,” Ricky said. “I’ll be okay.”
There was no way that George was going along with that idea. Especially the way that Ricky was looking off to the water. He didn’t look scared. He looked like he almost wanted to go back there.
“No way,” George said. “I’m staying with you.”
Lori nodded. “Me too.”
George and Lori got on either side of Ricky. He was strong enough to walk, but he had no balance whatsoever. He leaned heavily to one side and then the other. They headed south. There were less people that way, and it was the direction of their houses.
[ Parents ]
“They’re slow, but they’re coming right for us,” George said, looking off into the distance. “We should maybe hide and let them pass.”
“George, you dummy,” Lori said.
He looked at her. She was smiling.
“That’s your parents,” Lori said.
George didn’t know what to think about that. Was it really his parents, or just things disguised as them? Now that Lori said it, he recognized the shape of his father and the shirt that his mother was wearing. But she hadn’t been herself the last time he had seen her. He still had the sore ankle to prove it.
“I don’t know,” George said.
“Yeah,” Ricky said. “It’s them.”
“But Mom…” George began.
“She’s fine now,” Ricky said. “Look at me. I’m fine, right?”
George nodded. Ricky was always right about important stuff. They picked up their pace. As they drew closer, George recognized the other two people as well. One was a local. The other was the weird guy who had been around lately.
His mom finally figured out who they were. She broke away from his dad and began to limp towards them. George rushed to close the distance. His father sprinted past her and scooped George up in his arms. He raised him high, like he weighed nothing.
“I thought you were eaten!” his father said.
George laughed. He looked down and saw his mother kneeling in front of Lori with her hands out like she was praying to the girl. As his father set him down, George heard his mother apologizing to her.
“It wasn’t me, and I’m sorry for that. I hope you won’t hold it against me,” George heard her say.
“It’s okay,” Lori said.
George’s father was inspecting Ricky. The boy lifted his wet shorts and showed his father the wound on his thigh. George moved towards his mother and Lori. His mom pulled him into a big hug and kissed him while apologizing.
“It’s okay, Mom,” he said. “I knew it wasn’t you.”
“Yeah,” Lori said. “You were trying.”
“Your father said there was a giant monster. What happened?” his mother asked.
George shrugged. “He ate us. I think he exploded.”
She hugged him again. His mother turned back to the woman and the weird guy. “Katrina, we’re headed to the house in a minute. If the car is working now that everything is over, we can give you a ride.”
The woman nodded.
When Vernon shouted, they all turned towards him and Ricky.
“Absolutely not,” Vernon’s voice boomed. “You get that out of your head right now.”
Ricky leaned in and said something quietly to his father.
“I don’t care whose fault you think it is,” Vernon said. “Our part is done.”
Ricky was shaking his head. He had to steady himself on his father’s arm as he turned to look back towards the lake.
“What’s the crisis?” his mother asked.
Vernon turned. “Says he has to die so that the blood monster won’t come back. Says it’s linked to him because he’s the one who pulled it in.”
“Regardless, you’re not going to do it,” Mary said. “Your father is right.”
A silence spread through the group. In George’s estimation, Ricky seemed pretty serious.
“He did already,” Lori said.
Mary turned and blinked at her. George waited for his mother to tell the girl to hush. She didn’t. Maybe she still felt guilty about feeding the little girl to the monster.
“What was that, honey?” Mary asked.
“He already did die,” Lori said. “When me and George pulled him from the water, he was dead. He had no pulse and he wasn’t breathing. That’s dead.”
“It’s true, Mom,” George said. He pointed at Lori. “She knows how to do CPR. She brought him back.”
They turned to Ricky. He seemed to be seriously considering this new information.
“What happened to the thing?” a voice asked. They turned to see the weird guy, Gerard, had joined the conversation.
“I’m not sure,” Ricky said. “Ms. Yettin said I could send it back, but I think she was wrong. I did the next best thing. I called on the air to smash both of us. It tried to smash me before, so I thought it would. I don’t know what happened when it hit the water.”
“It exploded,” George said. “That’s how I got out. It exploded into bones and robots.”
“No,” Ricky said. “Maybe bones, but the robots were those flying things that the demon called its minions.”
Vernon looked up to the sky.
“You were dead though,” Lori said.
“Maybe,” Ricky said.
Chapter 58 : Yettin
[ Home ]
WHEN RICKY AND THE demon flew up into the sky, April Yettin took a quick look around at the people. They stood with their mouths hanging open as they tracked the shape of Ricky up into the sky.
April decided it might be time for her to get going. There was no telling where her house had been moved to, and it might be a long afternoon of searching.
“Ms. Yettin!” a voice called as April moved down the driveway. She turned and saw Lily and Sarah trying to help Wendy Hazard get away from the fountain. April always liked Lily. She moved in the girl’s direction.
“Can you help us?” Lily asked. “I don’t know where my father is. He might still be in the woods. I want to go find him.”
“Don’t go alone,” April said. “You two girls stick together and I’ll look for him.”
“No. I know where I saw him last,” Lily said.
“I’m okay,” Wendy said. “You go ahead.”
“We’ll all go together,” April said. Wendy gave her a sharp look. April started to remember that there had been bad blood between them at one point. It didn’t matter. That was all in the past.
April moved to take Lily’s place supporting Wendy.
“Lead the way,” April said.
The girls ventured ahead.
April propped up Wendy and helped her down the winding path of the golf course. The girls debated
and then agreed on where they had come out of the woods. It didn’t take long. Lily’s father was nearly to the fairway. Once they found him, they all decided it would be best to leave through the woods and avoid further adventures on the golf course. Out on the road, they didn’t know if they were headed in different directions.
Wendy and Bruce debated if they should continue to try to get out of town.
Sarah had a different opinion. “I’m going home. I think that Ricky and that monster went away. I want to find my family.”
“Come with us,” Lily said. “I don’t know where we’re going yet, but you can come.”
“Honey,” Wendy said, “don’t promise anything until we decide.”
“Mom,” Lily said, looking her mother in the eye. “She can come with us.” Her eyes darted briefly down to her own wrist, as if that bruise was leverage. Perhaps it was. Wendy seemed less certain of herself.
“I have to find my house,” April said. She began to walk down the road towards town. Nobody stopped her.
Less than a minute later, April heard slapping feet behind her. She turned and saw Sarah catching up.
“They’re going out of town. I’m going home. I’ll walk with you for now.”
April nodded.
They continued in silence for a bit. April noticed that Sarah was constantly scanning the bushes and the skies. She had said that the monster went away, but she was clearly uneasy about the accuracy of her statement.
April was shocked at how consistent the world looked. She couldn’t remember a time when everything had seemed so solid and unchanging. She would look to her right, see a mailbox and a little house set back from the road, and then when she looked at it again, it was still there. It was unsettling how concrete the world had become since that morning.
April didn’t care for it.
“What am I going to do if those machines are still at my house?” Sarah asked. She slowed down as she considered.
“Stand on black,” April said.
Sarah looked at her skeptically.
“It has to be a deep, dark black. They don’t like anything that’s really black. It was in the book.”