Rage of Winter

by Sam Herrera

  MARA

  It was chaos, utter chaos. We rode in the limo, back from the church, and it was like sightseeing in Bosnia. Everywhere we looked there was nothing but pile-ups, rioting and fires with the few police vans left rushing past to tackle them.

  “Shit!” I breathed, seeing a train collision that had spilled out onto the street. People began throwing things at our window, scaring the hell out of me and leaving cracks all across the glass. What was this? I looked over at Caleb’s ashen face, feeling his hand slip into mine and hold tight. I then followed his gaze, and the sounds of screaming, to a schoolyard, littered with empty uniforms and populated by panicking parents.

  “The Rapture.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “My grandmother told me about this: two men will be working in a field. One will be taken, the other left behind. The Bible. Revelation.” I shook my head. It couldn’t be… could it?

  *

  From the balcony of Redstone House, I watched a plane that had crash-landed onto the lawn. The guys with the body bags were still out there, cleaning up the dead. All of us, me, David, Caleb and Jamie had gathered in the sitting room while David consoled Abby, over the phone, about her boyfriend, one of the workers at the stable’s, who had been injured: he’d been hit by an unmanned car and had broken his hand. I looked up as Andy and Father came in, not having a clue what to say to them.

  “Kyle? Are you okay?” I asked, answering my phone.

  “They’re gone,” he whispered, his voice dull and lifeless.

  “What?”

  “Sarah’s gone. She vanished right in front of my eyes. Michael too. When I got home, he was gone.” I gasped, my eyes beginning to fill.

  “I am so sorry. Can you come over?” I asked, suddenly needing him to, to offer what comfort I could and take what comfort he could give me.

  “Sure, see ya soon.”

  I hung up, then told my family. I hugged Father and Andy, not talking, just being with each other and mourning our loss.

  “Hi, Ron.” We broke up to look at David as he came over, standing awkwardly. “I’m very sorry.” Father nodded and they shook hands.

  “What the hell’s happening?” he asked, shaking his head. The glance between David and Caleb lasted only a second but I saw it. Jamie got up to answer the doorbell as it began ringing.

  “No, I’ll get it,” her husband said, coming up behind her. He opened the door onto what looked like a refugee migration. Abby Grey stood at the head of a vast crowd of people. “Um, Abby, who are they and what are they doing here?”

  “Many of them have lost all their families. Some, their homes and everything they own.” I saw in the crowd David’s cousin, Linda; some tall, Arab guy with his family behind him and many others, all looking equally scared and lost. Aww, shit. David sighed and his shoulders slumped.

  “I’ll get some bed sheets,” I offered.

  KYLE

  I landed on the front lawn, amazed I had made it across even this little stretch of ocean, the grieving mess I was. I was frozen, numbed to the core. Not only had I lost my wife and son, I had seen a car accident on my way over: a red Volvo that had collided with a very familiar-looking black truck and flipped it right over. I’d thought I knew that truck and had flown in for a closer look. After all that was happening, no one gave a man stepping out of thin air a second glance. I’d raced up to the crash to have my worst fears confirmed: Astrid Cole sat in the driver’s seat, her limp hands reaching down for the car’s roof as if trying to touch it with the tips of her fingers. She was dead; I could see it in her open but unseeing eyes. I’d staggered away, feeling more lost than ever.

  *

  Led by Cuffy, I walked up to the front door, on leaden legs, and rang the bell. Mara, the only one left who meant anything to me, answered and I smiled to see her again. It had been a long time. We held each other tight.

  “I am so sorry,” she said, pulling back to look up at me through eyes that were like dew-soaked petals. She took Cuffy’s leash from me and led us through to get introduced to Caleb’s family. I forgot the names as soon as I heard them. My bitterness and sorrow deepened, seeing that Caleb kid there and hearing Cuffy’s enthusiastic barking as the dog raced to greet him. Why should he still be here when my whole family is gone?

  “Excuse me one moment,” Mara said suddenly. “Some of our guests want sleeping bags.” I blinked. I seemed to have walked right into a refugee camp. The main room of Redstone was full of people, many people of many nations. I watched her walk away in disbelief. You’re gonna just leave me here? I paused for a second, as I was going past the desk, picking something up, and then carried on. Goodbye then.

  MARA

  Jamie, Abby and I brought out as many sleeping bags and roll-up mats as we could find and just left them to it. The living room now looked like a charity crisis center. I became aware of one tall guy, looking over at me curiously.

  “Hi!” I snapped, in no mood for it right now.

  “Raz Jamil.”

  “Sorry?”

  “I’m Linda’s husband.”

  “Who’s Linda?”

  “David’s cousin.”

  “Oh, yeah. Hi, I’m Mara Hale, Caleb’s girlfriend.” We shook hands.

  “How’s everyone settling in?” David asked, coming up behind me.

  “We’re good,” the Raz guy nodded as he unrolled a sleeping bag.

  “How’s your friend?”

  “Huh?”

  “Kyle Thayer. It must be utter hell: losing your whole family like that. I just can’t imagine it.” I nodded, now feeling very shitty.

  “Where is he?” I asked, looking around the empty office.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Where’s my letter opener?” David frowned, looking over at his desk.

  “Your letter opener?”

  “Yes, it was here just now.” A claw of fear suddenly gripped my heart as I recalled seeing, out of the corner of my eye, Kyle pausing for a second before leaving the room. Fuck! Mara, you idiot. Why did you just leave him?!

  “Cuffy.” I grabbed Kyle’s discarded coat and shoved it in his face. “Where is he?”I raced behind the Lab, looking wildly around. He led me to the guys’ bathroom.

  “Get out!” I yelled at someone pissing. Looking horrified, he ran out buttoning his fly. Cuffy started scratching at a stall door. “Kyle!” I yelled, hammering on it. “Kyle! Kyle, listen to me.”

  “Why?” came a hollow drone from behind the door.“What’s to say?”

  “Kyle, I. Am. Begging. You: don’t do this,” I implored, pressing my hands to it.

  “Why not?” he whispered back. He sounded like a man utterly lost and this brought tears to my eyes. The thought of him, my trainer, my father, my friend, gone forever…No!

  “Kyle, please—”

  “My family are gone,” he snapped through gritted teeth. Caleb came in and joined me at the stall door. “What’s going on?”

  “Just leave me alone. Let me go too,” Kyle moaned.

  “No, Kyle, we need you.”

  “Oh, shit,” Caleb gasped, the full horror of the situation dawning on him.

  “Fuck’s sake. Why?”

  “Because…” Inspiration in desperation hit me suddenly. “We all need you. Remember what Chloe said?”

  “Biblical bullshit. So what?”

  “It’s not bullshit though, is it? We’ve all seen it happen, all over the world. We’re going to need you to save us from what’s coming. I believe her and I believe in you, that you can help us through anything. You are strong enough.”

  “You’re going to need me?”

  “I already do.”

  “But how can I help anyone now? I’m a fucking train wreck and I’ve lost everybody.”

  “Not everybody. I’m still here and losing you would break my he
art. Kyle, please,” I sobbed. Weak with relief, I heard him unlock the door. He came out and, taking the letter opener gently from him, I slowly moved into his arms, gently stroking his back as I felt his tears create damp spots on the back of my funeral dress. All three of us smiled down at Cuffy as he presented a paw. They shook. I would give Kyle holy hell soon enough, but not now.

  *

  After promising me, on his honor, that he wouldn’t do anything stupid, Kyle had taken Cuffy for a walk, needing to be alone. Worn out from the terror and trauma of the past few hours, I stomped slowly upstairs. I left my clothes on the floor of Caleb’s room and slid into bed, closing my eyes. I felt rather than heard him slide in beside me and put his arm around my shoulders, curling me, spoon-like, around his own naked body. I rested my head on his chest, enjoying the slow up-and-down motion of his breathing.

  “You okay?”

  “No,” I sighed, “I’m terrified.” He kissed my forehead as I continued. “I don’t care what Chloe said. If Kyle, the strongest and bravest man I know, can’t take anymore what chance has any of us got?”

  “Poor bastard,” he sighed.

  “Astrid is dead too.”

  “Who?”

  “Michelle’s girlfriend.”

  “Aww, no,” he groaned. I nodded.

  “Kyle told me. Car wreck. I’m sorry,” I groaned, caving. He held as I began to cry softly. It was just too fucking much.

  KYLE

  I shot another glance at the guy in the crumpled suit as I walked back through the door, a still-terrified Cuffy beside me. The guy I’d spent a good while resenting, considering a cold, uncaring snob. He didn’t look so snobbish now. In fact, he looked the same as the rest of us: scared shitless. I’d heard, from Mara, that his girlfriend had disappeared as well. His sister and his girl? How’s he gonna survive the bombshell I’m about to drop on him after all that? I considered deeply. Was this really fair on him, considering the grief we both felt? It was crazy, truly crazy, but craziness was surrounding us and that thing’s story had me curious. I watched as Hale walked out onto the balcony. Was this a coincidence? It could be another Ron Hale that he had known. I joined him, leaning out over the rail. The horrible tragedy outside had been all-but cleared, but the chalk outlines were still dotted all around the lawn. I swallowed hard. Damnit, Sarah, Mike, where have you gone? Why did you leave me alone in this hell with this monster and why can’t you come back? I need you. I sighed as I looked at his gray face, knowing similar thoughts were going around and around his head.

  “Nice dog.” I nodded as Cuffy offered a paw that Ron ignored.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. He threw me a disparaging look.

  “Are you?”

  “No. Ethan says hi, by the way?” I added, taking the chance. I waited for him to look at me blankly and ask who that was. But when he turned to face me, his face was a mask of astonishment.

  “Where the hell did you hear that name?”

  “From the horse’s mouth or should I say, the lizard’s.”

  “You’ve seen him?” he gasped. I nodded.

  “He’s here, in the woods.” Ron whipped his head around and squinted down, leaning over the balcony, trying to see him. “Shall we?” I offered. He nodded and followed me inside. I had to drag Cuffy along with many no-fucking-way-whines.

  *

  We’d made some excuse of needing some time alone, to talk about Sarah, and had taken a walk in the woods. It had been here that I had met Chloe again. She and “Ethan” had been here for a long time, meeting in similar circumstances to her and Mara’s little Borneo adventure: she’d been fishing quietly by the same river, by the same village, and he had been drinking the river water beside her. As she’d got up to leave, her hand had brushed his arm. They’d been here, hiding out and stealing what they could ever since. It had been right here, in this clearing, that he’d pounced on me, scaring the shit out of me. I’d looked up into his eyes, as they’d shot blue flames, wondering how long I had left to live. Thankfully he’d recognized me just before bringing his claws down.

  “So, where is he?” Ron asked, watching, with distaste, Cuffy piss against a tree. I’d heard from Mara that he didn’t like dogs.

  “I see the young boy I once knew.” I swallowed hard as we both turned to look at him and Cuffy shrank away. It was always a little alarming to see a mythical dragon standing in the forest. But Ron didn’t look alarmed or terrified. In fact, he looked mighty pissed.

  “Well,” he said coldly, “this is a surprise.”

  “Ron,” he sighed, “I had to leave.”

  “Did you?”

  “Yes. Humanity would have never accepted me, I have read, in your historical records, of all the hostility and war of the past. Of races obliterated simply because they were different. How do you think I would have been treated?”

  “The way you were treated by us maybe? Did we obliterate you? No, we saved your life. We incubated you, hatched you, raised you, fed you, educated you. Gave. You. A. Home,” he hissed through gritted teeth, “and that’s how you repaid us: runnin’ away?”

  “I did not run away. Father sent me away, knowing it was no longer safe for me.”

  “I was sent to a mental hospital,” he snapped through gritted teeth, “diagnosed as delusional. After a while, I just learned to keep my mouth shut, ‘cause Dad denied everything and no one would believe me.” I swallowed hard as it looked as though Ron was pissed enough to attack him. Ethan raised his hands in a “peace gesture” as he looked away, shaking his head furiously. And I noticed, for the first time, that Ethan’s pupils were a very weird shape. I was reminded of the bishops in a chess game.

  “I did not ask you to tell everyone about me, did I? Well, did I? No, you did that yourself. You endangered me. It is because of you I left.” Ron scowled and did some more head shaking, his jaw tight.

  “For what it’s worth,” Ethan offered, “I’m sorry that happened to you. I would have visited if I could.”

  “Yeah, well… thanks for the postcards anyway,” he said grudgingly, his face softening.

  “Ethan.” We all turned at the sound of the voice. Chloe. She came traipsing out from among the trees, looking mighty annoyed. “Ethan, what happened to getting us lun—? Oh.”

  “Who. Are. Yyyyou?” Ron scowled, looking over her rain-and-mud spattered leather coat and worn hiking boots.

  “Who the hell are you?” she retorted. “Oh, hello again,” she smiled, noticing me for the first time.

  “Hi,” I nodded. She looked different. Younger.

  “Who’s this?” she grinned, kneeling down to pet Cuffy.

  “Cuffy, Sarah’s guide dog.”

  “Who’s Sarah?”

  “Excuse me, I am Ron Hale, a guest here. ‘Here’ being private property.”

  “I’m Chloe Walker and I know: I used to work here.”

  “Used to, huh? Meaning you don’t anymore?”

  Ethan sighed and spoke up in her defense. “If you are suspicious of her, don’t be. She’s been true to me.”

  *

  We took seats in the Winter while Chloe gathered my dog on her knees and told her story to Ron. She’d had to clear her throat a few times as Cuffy kept sticking his tongue down it and Ron kept looking around, amazed. Mostly it was the same story she’d spun for me, Mara and Sarah. The only difference was she included Ethan in it this time. Apparently he and his kind were known in Scripture as the Locusts. Creatures sent by God to torment the followers of the Antichrist. Ron and I smirked at each other over her head. The Antichrist?

  “You doubt her?” Ethan asked. “How else do you explain me, this ship?”

  “You’re a living creature, not a goddamn spirit,” Ron argued.

  “As are you, yet history is littered with examples of your creator using people like you for many purposes.”

  “I’ve
heard enough. Let me out,” Ron snapped, getting up. “You and I were kids together. But now I don’t even know you. And don’t know her either; therefore I have no reason to believe a word that comes out of her mouth. If you’ll excuse me, I have a family to salvage.” We watched him walk down the ramp, away into the trees.

  “Did Sarah know about you?” I asked, wondering how the hell she could have kept him a secret.

  “No, she was just a baby when I left. He’ll be back.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because the darkest days lie ahead.”

  MARA

  “Bad news, I’m afraid, Mara.” I glanced up at Father as he came back, looking very worried about something. I noticed he was just putting his phone back into his pocket.

  “What?” I asked. He sighed.

  “My company’s gone totally bankrupt. They’ve been hit the worst by all these disappearances; I’ve heard about half the workforce is gone.”

  “What does that mean, Dad?” Andy asked. My heart sank. I should have known, I thought bitterly: business first.

  “It means I’m out of work and we may have to go back to America quick if I want any sort of job at all.”

  “We’? What do you mean ‘we’?” We my ass.

  “I mean you, me and Andy.—”

  “No,” I stated flatly. “No, I’m not going with you.” I knew, of course, that I could easily cross entire oceans; one call to Kyle would do it. But I didn’t want that. I wanted more. I wanted a home and a proper family of my own.

  “Mara, I’m just getting to know you.”

  “And whose fault is that?” I frowned. “You had a million chances to get to know me and, whatever you said, whatever you promised me, you always blew ’em. I’m done being your cast-off.” I sprang up from the couch and walked out. Caleb found me, leaning against the balcony rail, watching the clouds pass by overhead.

  “You belong with your family,” he told me.

  “I belong with you. I love you.”