Enter the Apocalypse

by Gondolfi, Thomas

  “Vogt-1 will have started transmitting its first photos back by now,” Cochran said.

  Henderson nodded. “And all we have to do is wait twenty-four years to see if the planet is habitable. I hope I live long enough to see that day.”

  They sat and watched the evening sky, celebrating his birthday with thirty-year-old Glenmorangie and comfortable silence stirred by a warm ocean breeze. Stars began to appear, and then more stars, and more stars. The sky became dense with tiny lights, and then they all began to move.

  “Now that’s odd,” Cochran said.

  Henderson stared in disbelief at the sky. Memories from forty years before poured unbidden into his mind, and it only took moments for him to guess what had happened. Momentarily, he thought about what faster-than-light flight could mean for humanity. If any of them were still alive by tomorrow. He bent his head down and closed his eyes, a tear trying to escape from one corner, but he rubbed it away before it could morph into an actual emotion. What use was that now? Sighing, he stood up, picked up the bottle of Scotch and topped off both their glasses, then sat back down to watch the show.

  The Fluffpocalypse

  Madison Keller

  Editor: We are not the only tool user on earth. We are not the only ones to communicate. We are not the only ones to build structures for our purposes. It is only our blind arrogance to believe humans are something special on this planet.

  "A summer job as a fire lookout? Really, Mother?" Katie didn't even glance up from her laptop, instead opting to roll her eyes at the screen. "I'm studying to be a wildlife biologist, not a firefighter."

  "I know, dear, but you'd have lots of time to study the animals in their native habitats."

  "Don't forget free room and board," her father piped up from the other side of the table. "Plus, you'll be saving every dime you make. Not much opportunity to spend money in the middle of the woods."

  Katie grimaced and acknowledged the point. "All right, I'll look into it."

  Two weeks later Katie pulled her Ford Ranger to a stop in front of a cutesy log-cabin with a tin roof. A green and gold US Forest Service shield decorated the front. Moments after Katie slammed her door shut the cabin's door opened and a blond, well the only word to describe him was hunk, strode out.

  "Ah, you must be Katie!" The muscled hunk had a big smile on his face as he held out a hand toward her.

  Katie reached out and shook it. "Yes, and you must be Broderick."

  "Call me Brody, please."

  Katie grinned at her new boss. Summer already looked better. Brody motioned her into the cabin and pointed to an elevation map pinned to one wall. He stabbed a finger down close to one of the highest points. "Now, we've got you assigned to Yaak Mountain. Due to the location you'll have to hike the last few miles up. The tower is equipped with a two-way radio that lets you communicate directly with me here at the station." Brody pointed to a mess of wires and electronics stacked on a rickety-looking table in the corner. "Any questions?"

  Are you single? popped into Katie's head but she squashed the voice down. Katie suspected flirting with the boss on the first day wouldn't be appropriate. Instead, she walked over to the radio. "Yeah, how do I use it?"

  "No worries, I'll go up to the tower with you and give you a quick rundown. Each tower is also equipped with an instruction manual and emergency procedures."

  ***

  Katie stared up, and up, and up at the tiny building perched on stilts high above their head. "I have to live there for the entire summer! Are you kidding me?"

  Brody cracked a smile and shrugged. "It's not as bad as all that. And the views are spectacular."

  "Wanna swap?" Katie said, only half joking.

  "Sorry," Brody chuckled. "I gotta keep the ranger station manned so I can keep in contact with all the towers. The radio here isn't set up for that. But I'm not kidding when I say it's not that bad. This was my post before I got promoted. The heights bothered me, too, at first. You'll get used to it. Even come to enjoy it."

  Katie eyed the cardboard box that Brody held and hefted her own heavy pack higher. "How do I get all these supplies up there?"

  "There's a trick to it. Here, you follow me up. I'll help you get settled in before I head back to the station."

  Brody lifted the box to one shoulder and climbed up the side of the tower one-handed, only stopping to adjust his grip on the box. Katie watched him in awe, her mouth hanging open as he swiftly ascended. About halfway up he stopped and yelled down at her. "Coming?"

  Katie groaned as she put her foot on the bottom rung. How had she let her parents talk her into this again? The pack pulled at her shoulders as she climbed, and her hands and calves were sore and trembling by the time she pulled herself through the door. She found Brody meditating in the center of the room. He let out a deep breath and opened his eyes when Katie dumped her backpack on the floor. He suppressed a smile as she rolled her arms and massaged her collarbone where the straps had dug in.

  "Yeah, I know. I'll get used to it," Katie grumbled as Brody stood up.

  "Trust me, you will. I saw your resume, you're a future wildlife biologist. You want to be a park ranger?"

  Katie nodded, brightening at the approval she heard in Brody's voice.

  "Well, when you get your first job as a ranger, you'll be thanking me for putting you up here." Brody winked at her. "You'll be fit as a fiddle and have no fear of heights by the end of the summer."

  Katie giggled as Brody moved over to the radio set up in front of one of the room's four picture windows. "Now, here's how you use this bad boy."

  For the next thirty minutes Brody ran her through the radios basics and then waited while Katie demonstrated each operation.

  "Perfect." He pulled a tattered book out from between the tangle of wires. "If you forget anything you can look it up in here. Don't forget to check in with me several times a day."

  "Great."

  He set the book down and checked the sky, which had darkened into twilight while they talked. "I need to be getting back to the station. I'll be back in two days with more supplies, unless I hear from you sooner."

  A concussive boom drowned out Katie's reply and sucked the air from her lungs. Bright light flooded the room as she staggered for balance. She and Brody rushed over to the window and looked up just as a second boom shook the tower. A light streaked across the sky high above them, a miniature sun moving across the heavens leaving a trail of fire in its wake. Smaller lights branched out off of it at each of several successive explosions. The light disappeared beyond the horizon in the north, the ringing in Katie's ears the only evidence of its passing.

  After Brody left, still gushing over the fireball, Katie tried to share the news with her friends. That was when she discovered that her phone didn't get a signal up here. At all. Not even a single measly bar, like she'd had back at Brody's ranger station.

  No matter. She still had all her games and apps, and she'd just send out all her texts during her supply runs. That held her over for about a day until her phone got down to less than 10 percent battery life and she discovered that the tower didn't get electricity. Her cries of anguish had sent the crows flying away.

  She could get through this, Katie told herself as she paced. The walls of the tower seemed to be closer together on each circuit of the room. A future wildlife biologist would most likely work in conditions like these. After the third time she caught herself pulling out her dead phone, Katie decided she needed a walk to clear her head.

  The climb down was easier than the previous day. As she straightened her shirt and checked her shoelaces, she noticed a chipmunk climb out onto a branch next to her. Katie smiled at it and offered it a peanut from her bag of trail mix.

  "Here you go, little guy." Katie set the peanut down on a rock and left. While she fed the squirrels and pigeons from the park at home by hand, these were wild animals.

  When she returned from her hike an hour later the chipmunk still sat on the branch nibbling on the nut clut
ched in its little paws. Its eyes tracked her as she walked by. Chipmunks in the park never did that, but perhaps wild animals had different behavior patterns.

  Back up in the lookout tower Katie pulled out her textbooks. This, at least, was paper and didn't rely on a charger like her phone or kindle. She'd brought them along to get a jump on the school year. Now she flipped open to the section on order Rodentia.

  Chipmunks, she read, always stuffed food in their cheeks and consumed them later in a safe place, like their dens. Katie pulled out a notebook, jotted down the date, time, and a note on the aberrant behavior, and then went to bed.

  Over the next few weeks she added field notes to her little notebook, places where she observed species acting in ways that contradicted her textbook. At first she thought she would use these notes to grill her teacher when class started in the fall, but the more she saw the more she wondered. How could everything in the book be wrong?

  By the end of the first month her single chipmunk watcher had morphed into a considerable gathering. And it wasn't just chipmunks anymore. Squirrels, rabbits, mice, minks, and even a skunk on several memorable mornings joined the audience. Lonely as she was, Katie came to consider them her friends, prattling on to them in one-sided monologues each time she entered or left the tower. She couldn't explain why, but the talks made her feel better, and it almost felt like they were listening and absorbing her words.

  ***

  After months of observations, Katie decided that the animals of Kootenai Forest deserved to be the subject of her graduate paper. She continued recording her notes and even picked up a disposable camera on one of her rare trips down to Bonner's Ferry.

  Her lookout tower job would be over at the end of August, just two short weeks away. A light sprinkle of rain muddied the trail while Katie enjoyed her morning walk. As she listened to the birds chirp and enjoyed the way the sunlight sparkled on the wet leaves, she came across a fluffle of bunnies. Not a rare sight, but this group was taking turns sliding down a mud-slicked hill on a large piece of bark.

  Katie grinned and pulled out her camera. Now Brody would have to believe her tales about the strange animals around the forest. No one, on seeing these pictures, would say this was natural bunny behavior.

  The camera made loud clicks as she cranked the dial between pictures, but the rabbits either didn't care about her presence or were having too much fun on their improvised slide to want to leave. Katie moved in closer; her cheap camera lacked a zoom and the rabbits at play were just too cute.

  She stepped off the trail and crouched when something screamed underneath her foot. Katie jumped backwards, revealing a tiny rabbit, no bigger than her thigh. Its mud-caked fur blended in with the ground and she took a moment to see why it screamed. The rabbit's back leg was embedded in Katie's boot print, its leg broken by Katie's boot. The rabbit continued to scream and lifted a front paw, pointing at Katie. Since when did rabbits have fingers on their paws?

  A shuffling in front of her drew Katie's attention, and she lifted her eyes. The entire fluffle stopped their play and were hopping her way, every single black eye fixed unblinkingly on Katie.

  "I'm sorry, it was an accident!" Katie stuffed her camera in the pocket of her jeans and backed up, but then she wondered what she was doing running from rabbits, for Christ's sake.

  The biggest member of the fluffle lifted a paw. It held a long stick, taller than the big rabbit's tall ears, with a sharpened piece of rock tied to the end, looking for all the world like a cartoon caveman spear.

  Katie's mouth dropped open, and she stuttered something unintelligible, unable to pull words from the maelstrom of her thoughts. Had she lost her mind? She turned and ran, her boots sliding as she clawed her way back up to the path.

  Gotta tell Brody! gotta tell Brody! kept racing through her mind as she sprinted down the trail. Her ever-present fan club wasn't in its usual place in front for which Katie thanked the gods. She wasn't sure if she could handle seeing any more small forest critters right now. She didn't even slow down as she approached the base of the tower; instead she jumped as she got close, saving herself a few feet of climbing. Katie climbed as fast as she dared, eyes fixed on the hole above her that led to her balcony.

  A furry squirrel head popped into view, staring down at her through the hole for a moment before disappearing again. Katie's heart beat faster, a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. A piece of electronic equipment dropped through the hole and Katie stopped climbing to cover her head. The box hit her arm, leaving a nasty gash before bouncing away.

  Chittering and crashing sounds came from the hole above her. More debris tumbled down on her, but nothing else as big as the heavy electronic container. Katie climbed inside just in time to see hundreds of fluffy brown tails disappearing over the balcony.

  Inside, shards of glass littered the tower from the remains of the windows. Only a few torn wires and a smashed microphone remained of her radio.

  Blood dripped from her arm and she grabbed a torn tee-shirt off the mess on the floor, shaking broken glass out before pressing it against her wound. Almost all her clothing seemed to be missing, along with her textbooks, the first aid kit, her dead cell phone, her Kindle, and even her backpack with her car keys. The bed lay disassembled, the metal frame in pieces and the screws strewn about. Her mattress was shredded beyond use—as well as, if the smell was any indication, urinated on.

  Her climb back down the tower was uneventful. A few crows circled her before flying off, but their eyes didn't show the malevolent intelligence that marked the fluffle as something other, probably just drawn by the blood on her arm. Probably. But Katie descended faster after seeing them.

  Katie sprinted down the trail toward her car and freedom, done with this forest, done with this job. Through the trees twice she spotted a flash of brown fur and once a pair of glowing eyes, but made it down to her car without further incidence.

  She was just having a nervous breakdown and her mind playing tricks on her. Her heart rate slowed and as she calmed down the whole thing seemed more and more far-fetched. She'd just been out here alone in the woods too long that was all.

  Her Ford Ranger pickup was where she'd left it, untouched, and looking incongruous amongst the ferns and trees. More evidence that the attack was all in her head. Still, her hands shook as she felt around in the wheel-well for her spare key. The magnetic box was right where her father had put it after the third time Katie locked her keys in the car in high school. Moments later Katie slid into the driver's seat, starting the car as she fastened her seatbelt.

  As she reached over to put the car into drive a shadow approached from behind. She glanced up into the rear-view mirror and her heart froze. A group of white-tailed deer and pronghorns poured out of the woods behind her. Katie threw the truck into gear and stomped on the gas; the rear tires fishtailed on the leaves before she roared away. A bull-moose jumped out of the trees, joining the deer and pronghorns in the chase.

  The moose, hooves pounding on the blacktop as it galloped alongside her speeding car, glared at Katie through the driver's side window. Its mouth moved, and Katie was glad the roar of her engine drowned out whatever sounds came out of it. Katie gripped the steering wheel tighter, her knuckles turning white as she floored it. A standard student beater truck, the engine screamed as the needle passed fifty on the speedometer.

  Trees flashed past, and she pulled away from the moose. The bull lunged to the side; antlers scored the camper-top with a screech, shattering the back window and jerking the car to the side. Katie struggled to keep the car pointing forward as they hurtled down the narrow road.

  The moose slowed to a trot and disappeared in the distance. Katie didn't dare slow down; the pronghorns and deer were coordinating for an attack, lining up to again ram the side of her car.

  On her speedometer the needle edged over fifty-five. The white-tails fell back barely able to stay even with the truck bed, and even the pronghorns were struggling. A burning smell wafted to Katie fr
om the dash, but she ignored it. The truck whipped around another tight corner—Katie would have sworn that two of her wheels left the ground—and then she was alone on the blacktop.

  The rear-view showed the animals trotting to a stop gathered in the middle of the road. One stood up on its two rear legs and shook a front hoof at her as she flew around another corner. Katie shuddered and willed the car to go faster.

  ***

  The turnoff to Brody's ranger station was somewhere back behind her, missed during her wild flight from the deer, yet she didn't dare turn around. Not with the herd back there waiting for her. Forward was the only option, even though she had no idea where this road led. The paper map in her glove box wouldn't do much good until she spotted a landmark that would tell her where she was.

  Her car dinged helpfully and Katie glanced at the dash. Low on gas. Perfect. Katie grimaced. Lost, chased by deranged wildlife, and now almost out of gas in the middle of nowhere.

  Ten minutes later Katie despaired of ever escaping these woods. So far she hadn't passed a single sign to indicate where she might be, not a single turn off, nor any sign of a house. A house at least would have a phone, a way for her to call Brody and warn him about the animals.

  The road curved and as she came around it the ever-present trees fell away, revealing a grassy meadow. At the far end, just within view, she spotted a tall chain-link fence. Behind that, almost hidden in the shadow of the trees, a house. A dirt road wound its way through the grass parallel to the fence.

  Katie chewed her lip. If she stayed on the blacktop, there was the chance of her missing the turnoff, but her only other option was driving through the meadow. Her Ranger wasn't meant for off-road driving, but the field looked flat enough.

  The wind howling through her broken window and the dent in her camper-top decided for her. Her truck was already a total loss, and she'd have to abandon it anyway when she ran out of gas. Katie lifted her foot from the pedal and turned off the road, bouncing the truck down a small incline and into the meadow.