“Besides,” Mona said, “if I am wrong, we have all that money from Uncle Grady stored up.”
Her smile made it pointless to even ask.
-
The clouds became blinding white as the sun rose somewhere in the distance. Even this high up, the sun was restrained by the thick ashy cloud hanging and slowly falling over Salt Lake City in small dusty flakes. Mickey was the first awake and took the opportunity to pee off the roof. The view was like it belonged in a Jackson Pollack painting with the thin lines of a city were coated with grey and white ash; it was beautiful and macabre. Macabre sounded right.
Last night was a mistake added to a losing streak. Mickey couldn’t win lately, and it was worse than failing, he was blowing it. Somehow Greg and Harry pulled it together enough to protect them while Mickey stood like a statue. No need to pretend to be anything other than a chicken. Freezing up in the face of fear should have been the reason he and his friends died. Well, they weren’t really his friends, but it was all the same.
Those things, people, monsters, or whatever the heck they were came up the stairs so fast and were going crazy at the door. It was too much. If it had been up to Mickey, he would have believed their cries and let them through the door. Not that he was in a position to argue, but Greg and Harry didn’t even bother listening. Greg said earlier about how they were tricky. What kind of predator begs the prey to be let in? Did the big bad wolf really dress up like grandma?
There was too much on Mickey’s plate: his best friend was dead, his city was taken over by crazy people while he laid passed out after a drunk driving car accident, and then, when the monster came running, he was wearing cement blocks on his feet. He was a prisoner of his thoughts, a captive of his fear.
As the sun continued rising, Mickey cried over his fallen city and missing best friend. Issues like adulthood and making wise financial decisions used to be what scared Mickey. This new fear was real. This fear was all about the crazy people and what they could do. Mickey cried, wishing he could go back to the way it used to be.
“Morning, Mouse. You ready for work today?” Harry said.
He rushed the tears from his eyes and replied, “Sure, what do you need?”
Harry looked like he had a hilarious secret being held over Mickey’s head. “Welp, Mouse. I think we need someone to find us a pawn shop and scope out the goods. Do you think you can handle that? Me and Greg can give you a list of things we need.”
“Sure, I can definitely do that. I want to say I’m sorry for last night. I don’t know what happened but…”
Harry interrupted, “Good. Do your job, and we won’t ask for more. You’re going to be out there alone, scared, but Greg and me think they only come out at night. We will meet back in the lobby at noon. Does your watch work?”
“No,” Mickey replied.
Harry had ignored his apology with a wave of a hand, and Mickey wanted to say something about it. Why did he need to be a jerk? How was a guy who was planning on killing himself going to act like Mickey was a coward?
Mickey didn’t want to start a fight, so he answered Harry’s question and left it there.
Harry went over the plan acting like he the perfect agenda for the day. It all came from Greg, but Mickey nodded and acted like a good boy. You couldn’t get through to people like Harry unless you were willing to play along. Eventually this would win him over.
Greg was shifting around searching for the sweet spot on the floor to steal another fifteen minutes of sleep. His face looked worse today; the swelling made it look like his lips were eating his chin.
The plan made sense though, and Mickey really loved the idea of going to the pawn shop. There wouldn’t be many guns, but there would be plenty of makeshift weapons and survival items. Mickey had video game experience backing him up and knew he could use just about anything with proper planning.
Greg finally sat up. He must have terrible morning breath.
Greg shook off the cobwebs and all of a sudden became alert. He said, “Mickey, today is all about scouting. We do not need to clean out the pawn shop, but find enough for tonight. Grab three knives. Make sure they’re light in weight. Today we set up for tonight. That’s all. We need to take this one day at a time, our goal for today is to find a safer, more practical shelter and load up on protection. By the afternoon, we will find something to eat and prepare for the night.”
This brought another fear to Mickey’s attention, “Wait, so why don’t we leave Salt Lake? I mean, I want to help, and I will go to the pawn shop and do whatever we need. But like, let’s just get out of the city. We could start walking now and make it to Ogden before lunch. Shoot, we could get bikes from the pawn shop and be, like, in Idaho before dawn.”
Greg looked at Harry like Mickey was a little kid trying to talk at the adult table. “I appreciate your input and understand. If the radio broadcast was true and the government built an elaborate story to keep this a secret, what do you think they will do to people who expose the truth?”
“I guess you’re right. I hadn’t thought of that,” Mickey said.
Harry chimed in, “Well Mouse, that’s because you’re not the thinker in this group. Why don’t you go ahead to the pawn shop? Me and Greg need to discuss other plans.”
“Hey, but Mickey, let me know if there are bikes,” Greg said. “A means of transportation would be a significant asset.”
Mickey opened the door to the stairwell. Covering the walls and painted on the inside of the door in the darkest tone of red were hand prints. A deep pool of blood covered half of the landing between the door and the stairs while skid marks were swiped leading down into the darkness.
“If you don’t mind, I think I will wait for you guys.”
-
The woman, whose name was Shelly, was a forty-six year old divorcee from Las Vegas visiting her dad. They were at a family barbecue when the attack began. She told Asher the story during the night about four of the wolves murdering the rest of her family and how she survived because of a series of oddly-timed events.
Asher listened to her story with hopes to find another advantage over his enemy. While they were no match for him, this woman needed to be able to protect herself once Asher moved on. She was detailed, which helped.
She said her dad lived in Cottonwood Heights, and the craze began as soon as the streetlights came on. Cottonwood was only a few minute drive southeast, knowing the others were fast enough to span over twelve miles as the sun fell was worth noting. Their spread was bigger than Salt Lake City. Their numbers were more than regulated to downtown.
She told her story last night, “I made it out because my brother left the keys in his car and my dad and I went inside the house. I needed distance from everyone after my sister-in-law’s mini-meltdown. I saw four strangers run into the yard and attack my brother and his wife. I found my dad and the car and drove off before they could catch us. Sadly, I’m a terrible driver even when people aren’t driving like maniacs and we ended up crashing less than a mile from my brother’s house. People were driving on sidewalks, through yards, and didn’t care if they hit people walking along the road. I was almost run over before Javy pulled me out of the way. I was inches before getting smooshed by a bus. Javy’s mother, her name was Auriela, let us join them. I don’t really know why, but those two saved our lives.” Her eyes teared up as she continued, “We ended up hiding in an auto-shop. There was a car left high up in one of those elevator things where mechanics can work under a car. We ended up sleeping in there.
We should have gone south first thing in the morning, but Auriela had family she wanted to find and bring with her. Her sister worked the night shift at the Grand American in housekeeping. I didn’t argue with her, she did enough for me where I would have followed her wherever she needed to go. We walked the whole way to downtown before night came. It didn’t take long until those monsters found us and chased us. Auriela ran into the Grand American with Javy and we came here. When I was a little girl, my fav
orite band was The Commodores. Silly, I know, but we had to separate eventually and this seemed like a good time and a good place. Hopefully, Auriela and Javy found her sister.”
Asher and Shelly watched the wolves carry five bodies out from the Grand American in the final minutes before sunrise. Shelly recognized two of them by their outfits and Javy’s red hat. It was difficult to see, but Shelly again survived due to perfect timing. The wolves decided to continue chasing the family instead of her. Even though she was the isolated prey.
Asher remained watching out the window for Ben or more wolves while Shelly slept in the bedroom. He couldn’t shake the feeling of something being off in the room. As if someone else was there in the shadows. Maybe it was because the perfect timing felt orchestrated. As if someone wanted her alive, or she wasn’t being completely honest. Every decision she made worked to perfection despite the insurmountable odds against her.
Shelly was awake early in the morning and came out to fix coffee. She was surprised Asher was awake and jumped back when she saw him still staring out the window. “Oh, hi. Good morning. I was going to make some breakfast, are you hungry?”
Asher was not hungry. He did not get hungry anymore. “No ma’am. I’m okay, but thank you. We should get going soon. I need to find my brother and talk to him about helping you find other survivors. Whatever you make, please make it to go.”
She smiled and said, “Of course. That makes sense. Thank you for last night, I’m grateful to get it off my chest and tell someone what happened. I was going to die if you wouldn’t have come. Thank you.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He replied.
“There is one thing I didn’t tell you last night, and I’m really sorry,” she said opening the bedroom door. As Asher suspected, something was off. Shelly left part of her story out, or upon reflection, did not emphasize one part of her story despite the importance of details.
A very old man walked out from the bedroom.
“Dad, this is Asher. He’s going to help us get out of here.”
He had a matching smile to his daughter and held his hand out nowhere near where Asher was standing.
“Asher, this is my dad, Lynn, and um… he’s blind.” She said and guided her father’s hand in Asher’s direction.
-
“This sucks,” Jenna said. Finally able to speak out loud. It used to be that when life didn’t go her way, she pouted until Robert fixed it. If he couldn’t, he would pout to his dad until Ned North fixed it. Now she didn’t have Robert or Ned, so she stood in the kitchen pouting to herself. Edie was there too, but pouting didn’t work with her, obviously after making her sleep in an oven all night.
The oven wasn’t even the worst part about last night. She dreamt all night of Robert, and the little black girl never came this time. In the dream, Robert was chasing her through the hall outside their room. He blamed her for leaving him, blamed her for being attacked, and kept saying she was the reason the darkness was coming. He chased her to the stairs, but the door was locked. Blackness dripped from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Just as he was going to spit on her and give her his curse, the sun shined in from the edge of the hallway and set him on fire.
All of her guilt brought these bad dreams. Thankfully, a dream ends when the morning begins, and now Edie was “doing inventory” on all food supplies and “coming up with a plan.” Jenna hoped the plan didn’t involve an oven, bloody vegetables, or going up to see Robert. She hoped the plan was getting out of Salt Lake City. She hoped the plan involved the black girl from her dreams.
She’s not coming because she’s not real.
Jenna tuned her inner voice out and listened to Edie. She was intrigued but not quite sure what to make of the situation. Finally, Edie said, “Hey, Jen,” she was calling her Jen now. “We need to find somewhere safer than the kitchen. We are going to check out the empty rooms up on the third floor. We can share a split, and those doors are made with the same reinforced hinges they use in the White House.”
“A split?”
“Yes, a split.”
“No, explain to me what a split is. I’ve never heard of a split. I don’t work in a hotel, so your hotel terms won’t make any sense to me. You might as well be speaking Chinese.”
“I’m Vietnamese not Chinese, which is a pretty common mistake by white people. Not that I hold it against you.”
“Edie, what is a split?”
“Oh, yeah, so a split is when there are two adjacent rooms with a door in between. Most of the time it stays locked and gets underused. The management talked about removing them in the next renovations. They said it made people feel less safe. But it would be perfect for us and nice to have a roommate without having to share a room. I remember my last roommate, Chantal. Gosh, what a slob. Are you messy or a neat freak?”
In the last forty-eight hours, Jenna had slept in an oven, been punched in the face, abandoned her boyfriend, and almost been murdered over a dozen times. She was exhausted, and it wasn’t going to get better right away.
“Can we both go upstairs? I’m sorry, I’m just really scared.”
“Silly girl, we have to stick together on this one. I wanted to make sure you’re comfortable going up there. Ya know, because it’s really creepy.”
“Will…they be in there?” Jenna asked.
“Eh, probably not. It seems like they return back to wherever they came from before sunrise. It’ll be scarier than it will be dangerous.” She said the last sentence as casually as if she were back behind the concierge desk. “There is an emergency kit in the lobby. It should have flares.”
Only to draw them out.
“Jen. Look at me. No, I mean seriously look at me. I am good at this. Okay? I know you’re scared, but I need you to trust me. I saved you last night, more than once. So...” She slapped her hand on the table. “Jenna! Are you listening?”
“I’m sorry, yes. I’m sorry. I’m scared, okay? I don’t want to go in the dark. I don’t want to go back in the oven.”
“I’m sorry too, Jen, but you have to choose between those two. If you don’t go in the dark up those stairs, you’re going to end up sleeping in the oven again.”
Edie left the conversation before Jenna could respond. Jenna followed her to the lobby.
-
When Tink was eighteen, his best friend Michael was killed when a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and ran into Michael’s car head on. It took the police almost a month before they found one of Mike’s teeth lodged inside the truck’s fender. Growing up in one of the crime capitals of the country, close casket funerals were normal, but this was different. Being at a funeral when the body wasn’t in the casket felt like torture. Crying over an empty grave was enough to haunt you for the rest of your life; Tink didn’t sleep for weeks. It didn’t get better when the trucker was able to keep his license and stay out of jail after his lawyer convinced the jury it wasn’t his fault. Tink hated how smug the man acted and how happy he was for winning the case. It’s a shame the trucker went missing shortly after the hearing too. Uncle Grady denied involvement.
Now, after working sixteen hours and driving four hours, the desire to fall asleep was strong. His body wanted to sleep, at least for a little while, but the memory of Michael was enough fuel to run this tired body just a little while longer. If he would need any more energy, Mona had stored a couple of energy drinks for when things got too hard. They were the lemonade flavored kind, the only ones Tink liked.
He was making this drive because he was a push over for his baby sister. He didn’t even argue, just took her word and left everything he had worked for behind. Mona’s story, her dream, put Tink on a whole different planet than where he was living before. He didn’t argue because he believed. He believed because everything she said Tink knew to be true. He believed her because Mona never cried, but she shed a whole lot of tears as she told her story. It broke her up, tore her to pieces, and Tink noticed. When he thought about it, it wasn’t crazy to make this big of
a jump based off of Mona’s emotions. Seeing how Mona was only emotional this one time.
In that moment it made him feel whole, but that moment had passed. Now Tink was driving across the country with nothing more than his sister’s dream to inspire him. MLK had a dream too, and he was shot for it. What would this cost the Morris family?
The rumble strips on the road broke Tink’s loss of focus and brought him back to reality.
“You good?” Mona asked. “Have a drink or something.”
“I’m fine. I’m fine. Got a little distracted, that’s all. I can’t stop thinking about how crazy this is.”
“Don’t think about that. It’s…,” she paused and stared out onto the highway, “it’s not important until we get there. We need to just get there in one piece.”
“Why don’t you trust your big brother and take a nap. You’re going to need all the rest you can get before we get there.”
“I’m not tired.”
“Then have a drink and relax,” Tink said as he handed her an energy drink. She opened it and handed it back to him.
“I’m not thirsty.”
“Well then be quiet and let me drive, punk.”
“You’re the punk, punk.”
-
Asher escorted Shelly and her father, Lynn, down the block to the barbecue restaurant. Hopefully Ben would still be there and would listen to Asher’s proposal. The old man and his daughter could not be left alone. The brothers needed to do right by them.
The outside air was clammy and hot, like it had been suffering from a fever. A dusty film covered the ground and cars. Asher didn’t start any small talk with Shelly or Lynn. It was better to not get too close until he spoke with Ben.
The restaurant was a glorified bar. It had more bar stools than tables and more beer signs than a frat house. Upon entrance, the bar stretched along the entire north side of the building with a small door leading to the kitchen at the end. It was a narrow building with a small stage to the right of the entrance. Asher came here once for a show. It was too small and too loud to enjoy a meal. There was still food on the floors and filled drinks sitting at the tables. The rotten food and spilled drinks made it smell like burnt rubber and whiskey.
Dark Genesis (Shadow and Shine Book 1) Page 13