by Vaughn Ashby
Leaving space between us left space for other things to step in, filling in the six feet. But most of us didn’t see it. I didn’t. I still don’t. But for some of us, there is more to see. Those of us unlucky enough, the select few, well they see the world differently, and that space can be both a blessing and a curse.
But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s start at the beginning. We were all afraid. More so, we were afraid of being afraid. We were all balancing our fears with wanting to live our lives and not wanting to catch The Virus.
Those days before we knew exactly how to manage The Virus, before we knew how it worked, and how we could work around it. I’m not ashamed to say it, I was afraid. And you’re lying to yourself if you weren’t either. It’s hardwired into us humans to want to survive. Which is what this story is about.
Welcome to the Aurora Wasteland Quarantine.
Police report
The population of Town drops to Zero
Alberta, Virus Fatality, RCMP
Mountain Edge, Alberta – Mountain Edge RCMP are notifying the population of nearby communities that the town of Mountain Edge has reached a 100% fatality rate from The Virus. The town’s population is now at zero. All business and travel within the town is now closed, except for Aurora Wasteland ghost tours, to which the RCMP has given a 5-star rating.
Ok, I may have added that last part. But I mean come on, you know the tour’s going to be good right? I can’t wait to try it. If I ever get out of my house that is.
The Story
I took the police report, connected it to other sources, cross-referenced it with the Aurora Wasteland website, and well…ran with it. Below is the story I was able to piece together…
Being alone is a challenge for the human mind. We are a species designed to live together. When someone is alone for too long things can go… sideways. Normal thoughts and emotions can become skewed, and new baselines for normal can be set. Being alone can physically alter your brain. Neurons like thoughts can be realigned.
Jeffrey had lived alone long before The Virus. His home was located at the topography line of mountains and prairies. From his front window, he could see a farmer's field, a river, and a town about a 2-hour hike away. From his backdoor, he enjoyed the Rocky Mountains and all their grandeur. His home used to be in the center of town. When he first moved here the town was doing nothing but growing. But that was 20 years ago, now everyone was gone. He was the last human living in the town. When The Virus hit, Jefferey didn’t know. His world continued on like it always had. Except, like people were discovering now, being alone isn’t always in your best self-interest. Jeffery wasn’t the same man from when he first moved to Mountains Edge. His view of the world had changed.
The cold sun rose over the prairies. It was almost summer but being so close to the mountains stretched the winter season out. Jefferey pulled a half frozen log from the frost covered ground as his icy breath rolled out of his mouth. He tucked it into his bag, along with the other logs, and continued on.
He followed the stone fence, and the path he followed every morning. The footsteps and beaten trail ahead of him could attest to this. It had been over five years since the last resident in the town died. Not that Jefferey ever talked to them. They both kept their distance, and for Jefferey, it was for good reason. He was 55 now and getting older. He could feel himself slowing down. He’d never been an athlete, but he’d always been physical. He’d used his hands for work all his life. It’s partly why he moved out here. He wanted to work in lumber, and he had for over ten years. But time moves on, and technology advances. The company he’d worked for had been sold multiple times over. Eventually, Jeffery was deemed unneeded and let go. Since then, he’d done nothing. He owned his house and had no expenses except food. Even then, he grew what he could.
Jeffery picked up another log, though it resembled more of a thicker branch, and paused at a predetermined point on the stone fence. He used the stick to examine a loose stone on the top, and the pressure plate below it. Everything still looked in place. He examined the wires that ran down from it and the explosive hidden at the base of the fence. It had been years since he’d set them up. One day he’d stumbled across some explosives in an old logging cabin. He’d used them to set traps all around the fence of the town. There were nearly 30 of them, and every morning he checked that they were still there and worked.
He was alone, he had to protect himself. As far as he knew he was the last human alive. God knows there were ample amounts of non-humans out there. From his perspective, it happened overnight, but when you don’t see other humans for months on end, then anything that happens with them can seem like it happens fast. After his first encounter with the New Hosts of the planet, they’d come looking for him. Which is why he was out checking the fence explosives. He was getting older and keeping himself safe was becoming harder.
As Jefferey finished his trip around the fence, he mumbled what he always muttered 1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21. It was the numbers from an old TV show he used to watch, the numbers were part of the intro, though he couldn’t remember their significance now. But he remembered the show. It was about a family going through their daily struggles, nothing out of the ordinary, except the family actually seemed to love each other and acted accordingly. Plus, they ended each episode with the family sitting down to play a board game together. He hadn’t watched the show since he was a kid, but it stuck with him.
Jeffery placed the sticks and logs next to his fireplace and took his coat and boots off. After adding a log to the fire Jeffery checked his kitchen for food. He was running low, he’d have to make a trip soon to get some more. He… something crossed in front of one of the few windows that was open. Jeffrey ran to it and peered out. He didn’t expect to see one of the creatures that walk the world now. No, he expected to see what he always saw, The Woman.
Frantically, Jeffery grabbed his coat and threw his boots back on. He burst out his front door and ran to the window he’d seen her in. He squinted and scanned the property but saw nothing. She was gone, except… at his feet, he saw tracks, her tracks. He followed them around the house to a tree, where a single egg crate sat. He picked it up and peeked inside. A dozen eggs stared back at him.
Again, he looked around for her, again, he saw nothing. She was gone, just like always. He’d been seeing glimpses of her for years. She always seemed to appear at random times, and often left him something. But she’d vanish before he could reach her. At first, Jeffrey had thought it was just another person from town, maybe someone who’d moved into one of the long vacant houses, but it wasn’t. The longer this went on the longer Jeffrey was sure she wasn’t really real. Either she was in his head or possibly a ghost, though he wasn’t totally sure he believed they existed.
With the eggs in hand, Jeffrey retreated back into his house to enjoy the eggs The Woman in his head had left for him. As he wiped his mouth from the egg feast he’d enjoyed he thought more about The Woman, how she was always so nice to him. How if it weren’t for her, he likely wouldn’t have survived this long. He knew seeing people was likely a bad sign for his sanity, and that had to be what was happening. He had to be seeing things, she couldn’t be real. He’d know, God help him he’d find out, whether he wanted to or not.
After he cleaned up his dishes and checked the fire, Jeffrey made himself comfortable in his favorite chair. He eyed his collection of board games that had now spread across three bookshelves, soon he’d need a fourth. He’d gathered them all on his outings to get food, each reminded him of a different time he’d had to risk it and venture close to them, the New Hosts. He didn’t really have a better name than that. The New Hosts of the planet humanity used to call its own.
Just as Jeffrey’s eyes started to close for a food fueled nap, an explosion shook his house. He knew the sound, it was one of his explosives. For the third time of the still new day, Jeffrey threw his coat and boots on and sprinted from his house, hunting rifle in hand.
The smoke from the
explosion along the fence line was already high up in the sky. People from all over would be able to see it. Shit, he hoped that wouldn’t mean more of them would be drawn this way.
Before he even reached the fence, which in part had been blown completely down to the snow, he could hear voices. Their voices, the New Hosts. Jefferey brought his rifle barrel up and pointed it in the direction of the voices. He slowed his pace and scanned back and forth looking for movement, muttering the numbers from the TV show, 1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21.
Then he saw it. Just like he always did. Just like he did with other humans before, and now with the New Hosts. It was the real reason he’d moved out here, and why he had picked a town that was dying. He wanted to be alone, he didn’t want to see people anymore. He’d moved here to stop being afraid. To get space, to just be with no one else around, because being near people was… painful and scary. Even if he’d never admit it to anyone, not even himself.
Along the fence line, he could see what he knew wasn’t real. It was out of place and impossible for where it was. A creature larger than any Jeffrey had seen before swam around in the air as if it was in water. Its tentacles were massive, it looked like an octopus, only bigger. Clenched in one of its girthy tentacles was a body. One of the New Hosts he assumed. The body was lifeless, as it always was.
Jeffrey froze as he watched the tentacled creature continue to swim in circles. It ignored him. Things like that always did. They weren’t there for him to interact with, only to bear witness to.
Then seemingly from nowhere, like the octopus, a man appeared in front of him along the fence line. Jeffery wasn’t sure if it was an actual man or one of the New Hosts. While he doubted it was a man, he still didn’t know for sure. Either way, it didn’t matter, the man was distraught. He was sobbing, snot and tears streamed down his face. There was a gun in his hand. Then it was at his head. Then there was a gunshot and the man, along with the octopus, was gone. In the distance Jeffrey could hear people running away, and he was alone again.
He spent the rest of the morning repairing the fence. The explosion had mostly just scattered the rocks that comprised most of the fence. With some mortar he kept back at the house, Jeffery rebuilt the fence and reactivated the explosive trigger. After that, Jeffery napped. He was getting older. He wasn’t exactly sure how old, but he put it at between 50-60. He was getting older. Napping was becoming more and more of a priority.
A gentle sway woke him from his slumber. A train line had run not too far away from the town. It was the closest thing to it. After the New Hosts had claimed the earth it had taken some time for the trains to come back, but they did. It was a reminder of a better time. Which he hated the notion of an old guy sitting in his cabin wishing for the good old days to come back, but he did feel that way. Life was simpler when he was younger. He thought of the TV show he loved, and the games they played. He wished he could of had a life like that, but he didn’t. He was alone. A blessing and a curse.
The next morning Jeffrey got up and did his normal walk. The fence repairs had held overnight. Then, he enjoyed the last of the eggs and took stock of his food supply. He was low, extremely low. He needed to get food.
After throwing another log in the fireplace, Jeffrey retrieved an old clock radio from a cabinet next to the game shelves. He checked that it still had batteries and turned it on. It took over a minute to fine-tune the radio to the channel he wanted. It was from the nearby town. His only location to acquire food. The town had grown since the New Hosts took over. The radio channel detailed their news and current events. Listening helped him determine the best time to venture into town, but at the same time, he was certain that if he listened too long, they would come find him. The New Hosts were smart like that. They could track his radio usage.
Initially, he was only going to listen for an hour, but something had happened. A virus had spread through the town, and from what he could surmise, it had spread much further than that. The longer Jeffrey listened the more excited he became. A virus was attacking the New Host at a level he could only dream of. It had to be man made, and it had to be from other survivors like him. Finally, something had gone his way.
Later that night, as the sun vanished behind the mountains, Jeffrey bundled himself in his hunting attire, threw his rifle over his shoulder, and set out to reclaim some food. He hiked past the fence and out into the wilderness that separated his long dead town from the nearby New Host occupied town.
He always had luck retrieving food from the same locations. The New Hosts were no different from the humans who occupied the town before them. Wasteful, and quick to throw out anything. Jeffrey scavenged food from a few dumpsters, then headed towards a grocery store that for some reason left boxes of damaged food and other non-perishables out behind their doors in the alley. He wasn’t sure why they did what they did, but their lack of foresight benefited him.
As he reached the location where he normally gathered food from the grocery store, he paused at a sight he hadn’t expected. Normally everyone in the town was asleep by this hour. Meeting anyone out at this hour was unexpected, though it did happen. As he reached the grocery store, he found a body lying in the alleyway, it looked like something had forced its way out. As he examined it, he noticed small spiders crawling all over it. Jeffrey muttered the numbers he always muttered when things got uncomfortable for him, 1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21.
Then, like the giant octopus and the man who had blown his own head off, the body that had been defiled by spiders vanished. Jeffrey shook his head. The visions he saw were getting harder and harder to tell apart from reality. He hated coming to the city, everyone was so close, and even if they were a brick wall away from him, he could still feel it.
With his emotions and fear taking over, Jeffrey turned around to go home. He was good like that, he always had been. He knew when to call it quits and when to leave. Now, was one of those moments. Staying here would only lead to more bleed between the vision and his reality. Except, as he turned to leave, he froze. At first, he tried not to look, but it was too hard, there were too many of them. Hanging from the buildings above him were dozens of bodies. They swayed in the cold wind. He was mostly certain they weren’t real, he would have seen them on the way in, but he hadn’t, so they had to be visions.
Each step down the street produced a new stream of tears down his cheek. There were so many of them. He wondered what would cause so many people to do this? People? Had he just called the New Hosts people? Damn it, he kicked himself for being taken by their looks. They were using the human bodies as suits from the people they’d killed. Murdered them, causing a global genocide of the human race. Now their corpses walked the streets pretending to be them and… Jeffrey looked up. There were more bodies than he’d remembered. They were killing themselves? Was it that virus that was infecting them? Is it why the town was so quiet? He… something connected with him from behind, sending him tumbling forward.
It was a delivery van, it had clipped him as it passed. The street was dark, and Jeffrey was walking down the center of it, but still.
The van driver hopped out. The New Host that looked just like a man, that is, hopped out of the van. His hands were in the air, and there was a cloth mask covering the lower half of his face. He asked Jeffrey if he was ok. Jeffrey said nothing in return, but got to his feet and dusted himself off. The man repeated his question, but didn’t come any closer. Jeffrey, again, said nothing in return.
The man looked afraid of him. Jeffrey stepped closer and then saw the same man lying in a hospital bed in the middle of the street next to the van. He was coughing and spitting up blood. The delivery man inched back, then hurried back into his van. The hospital bed vanished as the van pulled away, leaving Jeffrey alone in the street.
He took a breath and leaned forward, panting. He hadn’t been that close to one of them in a long time. The man looked as scared to be close to Jeffrey, as Jeffrey was to be close to him. That was new, and he didn’t know how to feel about it. He wasn’t the one
who brought an end to humanity like they had. Why would they be worried about him… red and blue flashing lights broke his train of thought. Two police cars parked on either side of him. Their lights flooded the street. Then they were out of their cars. They had masks on as well. Then their guns were out, and they were yelling at Jeffrey to put his gun down. Gun? He’d forgotten about his rifle. He swung it from his shoulder and threw it in the snow.
Everything after that was a blur. They rushed towards him, threw him to the ground, put something around his wrists that were behind his back, then he was in the back of a police car driving somewhere. A hospital bed, similar to the one he saw in the street with the delivery man, rushed alongside the car. On the other side, was a man hanging himself, similar to the people he’d seen in the street.
Jeffrey closed his eyes. This was the end. They would kill him. His body would be used by a host. He’d failed humanity. He’d failed himself. He thought of the TV show where they played board games and repeated the numbers… 1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21.
Over and over, he repeated them. Eventually, he passed out. It was overwhelming and Jeffrey wasn’t as strong as he liked to believe.
The sun cut through the cheap white curtains as it rose the next morning. Jeffrey shielded his eyes and noticed there was something on his face. He touched it with both hands. Was this how they got the host into you? A mask that forced it down your throat. He pulled it free from his face and looked at it. The mask looked just like the ones he’d witnessed the van driver and the police officers wearing. It was simple and fabric. He ran his fingers along it. There didn’t seem to be anything sinister about it. He balled it up and was about to throw it from his bed when he noticed he wasn’t at home. He was in a white hospital-looking room. He recognized it from that TV show.