by David Beers
The creature stepped outside of the house from across the street. It opened the door and stepped out onto the porch, but didn’t bother closing the door behind it. Morena quickly glanced to other houses in the neighborhood, seeing that many of the front doors stood open as well. Her eyes flashed back to the creature as it remained on the porch, staring directly across the street to Morena’s house.
She stepped back away from the window, not taking Thera’s eyes off the creature.
It was a shadow, a shade. Arms and legs like her own, but somehow longer. They seemed to stretch grotesquely long, yet at the same time, the creature wasn’t tall. Its eyes were stark white, and while Morena could see through the rest of its body, like looking through a tube of dark gas, its eyes were bright and without pupils. She couldn’t tell what it saw, only that it was staring at the house she stood in.
From Bryan’s vantage point, she watched as two of those same creatures walked down the street, about four feet apart from each other. They too stared at his house, seeming to have heard and recognized the screams. Seeming to have pinpointed where they came from.
No one’s come back from here, Morena thought, staring at the things outside her windows.
You’re a Var. They will bow to you as everything else.
Morena took another step away from the windows.
* * *
The spawn knew nothing of its mother’s travels and tribulations, and if it had known, it wouldn’t have cared. If its mother died, there would be serious ramifications, but what use could that information be to it? Its objective wouldn’t change.
Which was to reach this planet’s core.
It felt warmth now, a mile deep into the Earth’s crust. There was most definitely warmth here, though the spawn couldn’t quite detect if it would be enough yet. The spawn wouldn’t know whether the heat would suffice until it actually reached the inner ring of this place. The tiny seeds that made up the spawn continued their digging downward, slow, but steady, no amount of iron-ore they ran into able to alter their pace. On and on they dug, content in the chase. Knowing that when they reached the end goal, their lives would end and a whole host of new life would begin.
28
Present Day
“I don’t understand why they’re asking us to meet them out here. Why wouldn’t they just ask us to meet them at a police station? Why here?” Julie asked. Scared didn’t begin to describe her emotional state. Scared was something children felt at night; Julie had reached a state bordering on hysteria, and now, sitting out here in her car on the same field where this whole mess started was almost too much.
“I guess because this is where we saw it,” Michael said, his voice low, not quite a whisper but close.
She knew that made sense, but she didn’t like it. She didn’t like being out here in the dark, her car lights shining down across the field that they all drank beer at just a week or so ago. She didn’t ever want to come to this fucking spot again. She hated it. She hated that Bryan had come out here with Michael, that he probably had come out here again by himself, and that whatever they saw…
But she couldn’t finish that sentence. Because to finish it would open a world that she didn’t want to go into, a world she didn’t believe was possible, a world that would wreck everything she knew. She didn’t know why Bryan was missing, didn’t know why he had acted so different, but there had to be another reason besides this field. There had to be. Only, those thoughts didn’t change her hate for this place, or her fear of it.
“When did they say they would be here?” she asked as she leaned forward and turned up the heat.
“Twenty minutes.”
“How long has it been?”
“Fifteen.”
She folded her arms together at her chest, trying to ward off the cold that wanted to sneak inside the car. She had called her parents twenty times on the way over, but each time the phone wasn’t able to make a connection; it didn’t even ring, just said to please try your call again later. Michael didn’t try to call his dad and she didn’t mention it to him, though she was getting closer to it. Somehow she felt that if at least one of their parents knew, things would be okay, even more so than if the police knew. Their parents wouldn’t let anything bad happen to them; that was their entire job, protecting their kids, and yet none of them had told a single one of their parents.
Julie didn’t look over at Michael, though she wanted to. She had spent the past year trying to distance herself from him, trying to distance Bryan from him, and yet he sat in this car as if none of that ever happened. She understood the stress he felt, the fear—obviously—but she wasn’t sure she could have done the same if the situations were reversed. It wasn’t that she completely regretted what she’d done over the past year, only that…she appreciated him putting it aside, at least for right now. She needed someone to be around right now, someone that was just as worried.
She didn’t have anything else to say to him, though she wanted to speak. The silence wasn’t awkward, necessarily, just that she wanted some kind of connection with the person sitting next to her…but they had spoken of everything. She knew the last time he heard from Thera and he knew the last time she heard from Bryan. The only thing left was something she didn’t want to delve into, but it was probably important that they talked about it before the cops showed up. Julie didn’t consider herself a criminal mastermind by any stretch, but she wanted to at least understand what Michael might tell them when they arrived.
“What do you think happened?” she said quietly, scared of his answer the same way she was scared to finish her earlier thought.
Michael didn’t say anything for a few seconds. “I think whatever was out there got inside him.”
“That’s impossible, Michael,” Julie whispered.
“Maybe it used to be, but I didn’t think it was possible to see what I did. That orb out there, Julie, it shouldn’t have existed. But it did. And he shouldn’t have walked down to it like it was a magnet, but he did.”
Julie didn’t turn to look at him; she was too frightened. She heard the seriousness in his voice, heard how much he believed what he was saying, and she didn’t want to see that belief. Hearing it was one thing, but if she saw it, then she might be convinced.
Lights flashed through the back of the car and both turned around to see three black SUVs pulling up. One pulled to the left of her car, one to the right, and one parked right behind it.
They were surrounded.
* * *
Michael sat next to Julie in the back of the SUV. He wasn’t handcuffed but the moment he stepped into the vehicle, he understood these weren’t police. Perhaps he knew it as soon as he saw the SUV pull up instead of a police cruiser.
Julie wasn’t saying anything, and Michael thought she would cry soon. She had to know that the two people sitting in the front seat of the SUV weren’t with any local government. Cops weren’t always fat, but there was normally a certain softness to them. These men possessed none of that. Even the older one’s jaw line looked like he might have never drank a soda in his entire life.
“Michael Hems and Julie Lean?” The man in the driver’s seat, the older one, said. Michael didn’t answer because who the hell else would be sitting out here at this time of night? “I could make up a bunch of bullshit about being with the GBI, like I’ve told the rest of this town, but I think things have gone too far for that.” The man looked over to the person in the passenger’s seat, the look meaning something though Michael didn’t know what.
“They’re clean,” Passenger Seat said, not looking over at Driver.
“We’re not the police,” Driver said. “When you called nine-one-one, you spoke to one of my people. They routed you to me. I’m here because of what happened to your friends, or at least one of them. Thera?”
“What happened to her?” Michael blurted out. He knew she was MIA, but that didn’t mean anything had happened. It didn’t mean anything at all, and he’d been telling himself that
since he first tried to contact her without success. She was okay; she had to be.
“She’s infected.”
“Not Thera. She wasn’t there with us. She didn’t go to the site until after whatever landed was already gone.” Michael vaguely understood he was rambling, but he couldn’t help it. He knew something happened to Bryan, but Thera…she hadn’t gone there. She hadn’t wanted to. She was responsible. Too smart. She was okay; Bryan was the one in trouble.
“Maybe she didn’t go, but she’s still been infected.”
Silence fell across the car for a few seconds and then Michael heard Julie begin crying. He didn’t reach over to her, didn’t try to comfort her, because his own mind was frozen. Not the cold that he felt against his father when they argued, but locking him up so that he couldn’t process what he was hearing.
“I’m going to ask you two this once, and after that, there are going to be consequences if you’re not up front with me. What did you see out there?”
Michael heard the words, was looking at the man in the rearview mirror, but couldn’t speak. He wanted to, truly, but his mouth refused to open and his vocal chords refused to vibrate. Julie may have been crying, but Michael’s body refused to do anything but breathe.
Driver looked over to Passenger. Michael watched as Passenger, almost leisurely, turned around and propped himself up on the seat, then reared back and slapped Michael’s face.
His head snapped backwards. He felt the sting on his left cheek, bright like the morning sun. The pain brought him back from his paralysis and he heard Julie scream, beginning to cry harder. These aren’t cops, he thought. You don’t have time to turn into a child here. These people will hurt you and they’ll hurt Julie too.
He didn’t say anything to Julie as he straightened himself up. Didn’t reach up to his face, though the pain burned. He found Driver’s eyes again, Passenger having turned back around as if he’d only handed Michael a drink from a drive-thru window.
“You good?” Driver asked.
Michael nodded. Julie’s sobs were loud next to him, but he didn’t dare look over to her. He wasn’t going to take his eyes off either of these men; they were too dangerous.
“Michael, I’m going to need you to quiet her down or else my friend is going to. I can’t handle all that noise right now.” Driver dropped his eyes from the mirror and looked out the front window.
Michael didn’t need anymore instruction; it was clear what the man meant. He reached his hand over and found Julie’s, still not looking away from the front of the vehicle. He listened as she tried to stifle her crying, obviously knowing what would happen if she didn’t get it under control. Michael felt her hand on his, gripping it hard.
“Good. Now, do you remember what I asked you?” Driver said, looking back in the rearview.
“We went out there—”
“In those woods?” Driver interrupted.
“Yeah. We saw it come down and then we went out there the next night. Bryan and I.”
“What did you see?”
“Something…” And there was only one word Michael could think of to describe what he saw. He didn’t want it to be true, but nothing else described it accurately. “Beautiful. It was a big circle, a globe of some kind. Except it was perfect. Perfectly smooth, perfectly white. It glowed.” He stopped, seeing it again in his mind. Seeing the way it got brighter with each of Bryan’s steps. Seeing his fear rise as he watched his friend walk to it like some kind of deranged lover.
“What happened?”
“Bryan, he was pulled to it. He started walking into that ash and I called for him, but he wouldn’t answer. I had to go get him, and when I got to him, he wasn’t there. Like, physically, he was, but nothing behind his eyes.”
“Did he come out of it?” Driver asked.
“Yes.”
“Did he go back out there?”
“We don’t know.”
Driver looked back over to Passenger again.
“Alright, we’re going to the other car,” Passenger said, opening his door and stepping out. He went to Julie’s door and opened it—when she didn’t move, he pulled her out.
* * *
Now Will had to deal with Rigley. He couldn’t put it off anymore, not with two people infected and both of them missing. Rigley was losing it and he didn’t think anyone else knew that besides him. Certainly not her superiors; Will wondered if any of them even knew what was happening down here. If they did, she wouldn’t be in charge any longer—not if they knew what Will knew.
And she wasn’t going to like what he was about to tell her. That kid in the back might have just sealed all of their fates; Will knew that the Thera girl had been infected, but now this kid was saying she wasn’t even around it. So it could spread, and there were two people already infected. Hell, just thinking about it out loud made him understand how hopeless this all was. He thought Rigley read the writing on the wall, too, and that’s why she was cracking. This thing landed on her watch; she hadn’t reported it up, and now whatever landed was missing. She wasn’t thinking she would die, like Will, but she saw her career as over. If they didn’t contain it. And now he was about to tell her it most definitely wasn’t contained.
He sighed, looking down at his phone, and dialed. There wasn’t any use thinking about it. He needed to get this over with.
“You got it?” she asked.
Will paused for a second, wondering if he’d ever heard her this frazzled? What happened to her, the rattlesnake he used to know? “No. We found it and when we came back, it was gone.”
“What the fuck do you mean when you came back? What the fuck do you mean gone? Why would you come back?”
“It’s inside a teenage girl. I couldn’t shoot her dead at her doorstep without knowing for sure. I had to wait on confirmation. So I pulled down the road a bit, waited, and when I came back, the house was completely empty.”
Rigley laughed, high, a bit manic. “Empty? So where did they go? To Chili’s for dinner?”
“There’s more,” he said. “We found the girl’s friends. She’s not Patient Zero. Their other friend was, and somehow it spread to this girl.”
“And where’s Patient Zero?”
“Gone.”
“Jesus-Fucking-Christ, Will. Where are the two friends?” Rigley asked.
“We have them.”
“And I’m sure they’re not infected are they? You’re down there capturing US citizens and letting the real trouble disappear; is that about right?”
It was all out there, completely. He couldn’t tell her to fuck off, couldn’t tell her she wasn’t right—because she was. “Have you told anybody?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” Rigley asked, giving Will all the answer that he needed. She knew what he meant, and the fact that she asked him about it showed she was stalling, perhaps trying to come up with an answer. He didn’t respond, he just waited. “No, I haven’t, because I thought you would be able to handle this,” she finished. “And you can’t. It’s over, isn’t it?”
Will heard the last sentence, the defeat, but yet a bit of relief too. Rigley was ready to let this go, because then she could stop worrying, if it ended. There was no reason to struggle, trying to hold up a building that had already collapsed. And was it over? She wasn’t telling him anymore, but asking, simply, if there was anything else he could do. She was giving him control because she wouldn’t make the decision. Did he think it was? Were they going to lay this entire town to waste? Explode a neutron bomb above the city, leaving all the structures intact, but the place a ghost town?
And if they did that, Will would be here too.
“Will?” Rigley said. He heard her, but didn’t answer, didn’t break his thoughts.
Rigley might not survive with a job, but whoever took over would make sure that those down here didn’t survive at all. The Bolivia strategy wouldn’t be used here, where they dropped in a bunch of firefighters and killed the infection before pulling everyone out. If Will cou
ldn’t find this thing, no one else would. Once Rigley’s superiors heard what happened, they would make sure that anyone alive down here was dead. They wouldn’t risk anyone leaving and spreading this, not when they knew nothing about it, not when they couldn’t even find it.
Was it over? Will looked out his window to the car sitting in the middle of the three SUVs. Seconds of silence passed between them as he thought, trying to keep his own feelings out of it, trying to consider the truth.
That was a weird consideration, this far out. It might have been something he once wanted in the beginning, a notion like that, but not now. Not for a long time. The truth didn’t matter; it was elusive, a rabbit running through thick woods. But the truth here, it meant he lived or died. It meant the two guys he was here with lived or died. And if he was being honest, he didn’t know the truth. He didn’t know if it was over. He thought that it might be, that there was a really good chance he wouldn’t find this thing.
But maybe he could. Maybe.
“What do you want, Rigley?” he said finally, still looking out the side window.
“I want you to find this goddamn thing.”
“And no one else knows?” Will said.
“No.”
“So only the three of us down here know about it? And you?”
“A few analysts might, the people that send me the data, but that’s it.”
Will knew he was about to give away his soul here. He knew that he was giving it away for a few extra days of life, for a few extra days of life for the men with him. What was Will’s soul anymore anyway? Just a tattered flag, dragged through the dirt. Hell, he was going to risk the entire world so that the three of them could live, and it sounded like Rigley wanted him to. It sounded like she was begging him to say he could fix it.