by Maxey, Phil
The camera then tilted upwards slightly to the southern sections of the city, which were now almost completely covered in a beige-yellow mist.
“As you can see Maria, the toxic cloud has grown to cover an area—” The image pixelated before returning to clarity. “— Of thirty-seven square miles, eclipsing the south and west neighborhoods of the city. What is strange, is that we have been informed by the weather center, that the cloud appears to be moving against the wind, which is a northeasterly. It’s almost as if it has a mind of its own, wanting to move into the more heavily populated areas. I think we have to ask the hard questions. Did this probe bring something back from Venus? Are the citizens of Denver under some kind of alien attack?”
“No shit, sherlock!” said Daryl. Josh offered him a chocolate, which he took.
The screen changed back to the studio and a smartly dressed woman. “This is what I’m about to put to the Demeter mission’s director, Dr. Art Siegel.”
“Turn it up a little,” said Jess.
As Josh pressed the volume button a few times, Landon glanced in the rear mirror. More sparkles were joining the tailback of vehicles, which were stacked up further down the hill, desperately waiting to leave the city.
On the tablet’s news feed, light reflected off the bald crown of an elderly man wearing glasses. His webcam was a little too angled up to his face, giving him the appearance of an anxious giant. “I’m having to do this on my phone, I hope that’s okay,” he said.
“That’s quite alright doctor. I don’t know what you have seen of our coverage, but the city of Denver appears to be under some kind of attack from whatever your probe brought back with it. Do you care to explain why this is happening?”
The doctor swallowed. “Well, we cannot be sure what the source of the infection—”
“Infection?”
“Yes, the cloud which is growing appears to contain spores of some kind. We do not know the origin of these—”
“You’re surely not suggesting that this could be some kind of natural phenomena?”
“I’m not suggesting anything. I’m merely stating that we have very few facts to form any opinion. The probe crashed and now we have the situation developing in Denver. Which I hope the army and other federal agencies will soon have under control.”
“The cloud is rapidly expanding, doctor. Tens of thousands of people are being affected, many tragically. And from the reports we are getting, there appear to be creatures of some kind, although details on what they are, are sketchy at the moment.”
“I cannot comment on—”
“What do you say to those who think your probe has given an alien species the key to this planet? That some form of life has now invaded our country and is killing people?”
“Well, I would not—”
The tablet screen went black.
“No, no,” said Josh, tapping the screen while the others sat back, disappointed.
“You didn’t charge it, did you?” said Sam.
“I was going to!”
“I think there might be charging cables in one of the suitcases in the back,” said Jess. “We’ll get them later when we’re outside of the city limits.”
Landon looked at a brown-pink smear on the windshield which was stubbornly resisting being washed away by the rain. Part of him wanted to call forensics. That was procedure. He was driving a crime scene. But then the whole city had become one. At least they were out of it now. The madness hadn’t stretched this far north. They just needed to get out of this damn traffic. He glanced in the mirror again. There were fewer lights. At least the build up had stopped getting worse.
He looked over to his wife who was paying particular attention to her phone, but she wasn’t watching any sensationalized news coverage, instead she was browsing and scrolling through lines of text and diagrams on the Demeter probe. He snorted. She had become the detective. “Find anything out?”
She looked up at him. “What?”
He nodded towards her phone.
She looked at it. “Oh, no, not really. Just engineering stuff mostly, nothing that explains what might have caused what’s happening.” She reached over and squeezed his hand. “How you holding up?”
He let out a deep breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding, then looked at the traffic in front of them. “Happier when we get out of the city.” He held the radio to his lips. “Ben, what’s the situation ahead? Over.”
“Not good. Moving slowly. I’m picking up chatter on some other channels that the army is tightening the ring around the city. Putting in more checkpoints. But we’re stuck here. Over.”
Landon looked in the rear mirror to the man behind him, on the far right against the window. “Where did you disappear off to earlier tonight?”
“Didn’t Valdez tell you?” said Daryl, chewing.
“No.”
“Man, that asshole. I swapped shifts with him. I knew I couldn’t trust him. Anyway, I was coming in for work, when all hell broke loose. People were running in the street, and then I see this thing, like, climbing up the side of a building, like a giant spider, except it had a face like a human. Man, I thought I was tripping. I ran into the road in front of the apartment, got swept along with the crowd. That’s when I ran into—”
“Chimerism…” said Jess, raising her head.
“Do what, now?” said Daryl.
She looked at Landon then those behind. “An animal with more than one set of DNA. It’s found in some humans and animals. There are even some animals, such as the Tuatara, which have various DNA from different species, lizard, mammal—”
“Like a duck-billed platypus?” said Josh.
She smiled at her son. “Exactly.” She looked back at Landon. “Whatever is happening, appears to be combining DNA in live hosts, and changing them in an extraordinarily short amount of time, which… shouldn’t be possible. The presenter mentioned, spores? Perhaps these spores are collecting DNA from whatever they come into contact with and combining it… that would explain the people… things we have seen.”
Landon glanced in his side mirror. The view was distorted by droplets and splatters of blood, but allowed him to see the queue behind him… which seemed darker than before.
They must be taking other routes…
“And so it had the body of a lion, a tail of a scorpion and the face of a man…” The others looked at Jacob. He smiled briefly. “It is an ancient description of a mythical beast called a Manticore… which literally translated is ‘man-eater’…”
“You a professor or something?” said Daryl.
“Used to be…” He looked at the man in front of him, who had slid his window down, letting a gust of cold air and rain inside.
“Close the window!” said Sam to her father.
Landon leaned out, looking back over his shoulder, ignoring the rain running across his face and down his neck. He blinked, trying to focus on the lights from waiting vehicles. A family, not unlike his own were arguing in the station wagon behind, a dog barking in the back seat. Behind that a man in overalls sat in a van, bobbing his head to some silent music, and then another row and another and… He squinted against the rain. Beyond the eighth row, as the road dipped further, was nothing, just a void. But there was something there, for he could see the shapes of the vehicles, it’s just no light came from—
It lasted a fraction of a second, but almost lost in the glow behind headlights, he saw a body splitting, an explosion of brown appendages, surging from an open chest and what was left of a skull, and the lights on that car instantly go out. His mind froze for an instant, not believing what he had just seen.
He flicked his head back to the front, revving the engine then hit the gas. “Hold on!” he shouted as he steered the pickup onto the sidewalk, and held the radio to his mouth, only having time to shout one word to Ben. “Follow!”
Horns filled the air, as Ben’s pickup pulled out as well, but they weren’t the only vehicles making their own way, as others
surged forward, one smashing straight into a tree, another bounced across a wall not having room to get away.
Landon’s truck cut the corner of the intersection, just missing a street lamp, but carved through bushes and a flower bed, then bumped up another curb, leaving the ground before landing on the concrete of a gas station forecourt. He had no idea what was happening behind them, his glances in the mirrors providing a jumble of red and white smudged lights, the sound of the rain having been replaced with engines and crunching of metal. He skidded to the right, just missing a parked semi-truck and then left, coming out to an alley which ran along the back of single-story suburban houses.
“Is Ben behind us? I can’t see!” he said while clipping trash cans and avoiding hitting anything less movable.
“Yes, I think so!” said Sam.
“I thought it wasn’t this far north yet!” said Jacob.
Static came from the radio, then Ben’s voice. “Swing a left at the end!”
Landon’s truck hit the concrete of a sidewalk then a clear road, as he slowed almost to a halt, then steered left.
“Is everyone okay?” he said, shooting a look to his right at Jess, who nodded, while the others agreed they were unhurt.
“Just another few miles and we should be out! Over,” said Ben.
CHAPTER SEVEN
12: 07 a.m, ten miles from central Denver.
“That’s a problem,” said Ben, as the clap of chopper blades echoed high above, lost somewhere within fast-moving clouds and swirling rain. He was leaned into Landon’s truck’s passenger side, watching the restored news feed on Josh’s tablet, which was now charging via a cable. They were parked in the center of a park, the only vehicles for a quarter of a mile in all directions. Some miles to the north the sky was ablaze with light, and the footage on the tablet showed why, being a view from the news helicopter above. Military vehicles were sat atop a raised highway, a natural defensive position which stretched for miles to the east and west. Beneath, lit by searchlights were hundreds of civilian vehicles but it was hard to tell if they were abandoned or not.
“They’re not letting anyone out…” said Sam.
“They don’t want people spreading the infection,” said Jess.
“Yeah, but the news said it was spores spreading it?” said Daryl. “Like in the air. How’s a wall of tanks and shit going to stop that?”
Jess shook her head. “I think they just want to stop the… things from escaping. They must be wearing protective clothing so they don’t get infected themselves. They train for biological warfare… This is a similar situation.” She was conscious of the fear in her children’s eyes and chose her words carefully.
Landon looked at the darkness around them. “We can’t stay here. The spores are heading this way. We need a way through that cordon.” He looked at Ben who shook his head, the older man wiping the water from his face, then looked off into the darkness.
“We might have someone who can help,” said Ben. “Depends how far they are.”
“Who?”
“The Lt and the others. They left an hour ago. Maybe they can turn around. Create a diversion. I don’t know… has to be worth a try.” Landon nodded and Ben walked back to his truck.
Meanwhile everybody else was transfixed by what was showing on the tablet’s screen, and the reporter in the helicopter who was giving a running commentary to the rest of America. “We wouldn’t usually be up in this weather, Maria, but… but we owe it to the city of Denver and those beyond, that this cloud is heading towards to show what’s happening below us. As you can see from the ring of lights, the army have established—” the view swung violently to one side as a gust of wind hit the aircraft, the engine roaring. The camera angle then corrected. “I don’t know how long we can stay up here for Maria, but we’ll be up as long as we can. As I was saying, the army has a defensive zone on the high ground to the north of the city, which is highway one-twenty-eight, and are not allowing anyone out. No families, children, elderly or the sick. The area inside the ring is affectively being left to fend for itself, which from what we have seen is a death sentence.”
Jess leaned forward, grabbed the tablet and switched it off.
“Hey!” said Josh and a few others.
She looked at Landon. “Right now we have to concentrate on getting out of here.”
He nodded as Ben walked back and leaned on the open window again.
“There’s good news and bad news. What you want first?” Conflicting answers came from those in the pickup. He frowned. “Good first. He and two others were holed up in a hotel about ten miles from here. They’re heading back as I speak. Should be at the crossover point in about twenty minutes. We looked at the map, and there’s an old creak with a footpath that runs under the highway about three miles northeast of here.”
“And bad?” said Jess.
“It only runs maybe ten feet under the road.” His eyes drew across the occupants. “We’ll be spotted easily. But Ray says he’s going to cause a diversion a bit further down. Should draw the—”
“Wait,” said Landon. “How we going to get the…” His mind answered his own question.
Ben nodded. “Yup, we can’t take the trucks. We gotta go on foot, all the—”
Shock crossed both the kid’s faces. “How we going to get to our new house?” said Sam.
Ben continued. “We follow the creak and Ray will meet us about two miles further to the north.”
“But… but…” Sam’s fear had frozen her vocabulary, until her younger brother squeezed her hand, and tears started to run across her cheeks.
Landon stretched his right hand behind him to wrap it around his two children’s, as did Jess. He looked at his wife who nodded, then back to Ben doing the same. The older man walked away, one hand holding his radio up, which he was talking into, the other sorting through items in the bed of his truck.
“I don’t like it too,” said Jess to the kids. “But we won’t get out by driving.” She almost couldn’t believe she had said those words. She was living in a movie.
Daryl’s eyes widened. “Now, wait a minute. We might not even make it three miles, before them spore things arrive!”
Jess had to swallow her anger. The man behind her wasn’t making her attempts to keep a brave face for her son and daughter any easier.
“We’ll drive a bit closer,” said Landon. “Get as close as we dare without being seen by the military.” The former doorman sat back, derision across his face, but Landon was focused on the older man across to him. “You up for this?”
Jacob smiled. “Unless I want to become a Manticore, I guess I’ll have to be.”
*****
Two miles from the cordon.
The small convoy made its way along suburban streets, full of SUV’s being filled with belongings from the inhabitants. People ran to and from their front doors, carrying things they didn’t need, while kids waited patiently in the back of their vehicles. Nobody inside Landon’s truck spoke, preferring to ignore the condemned. Hoping the memory wouldn’t stick.
They pulled out, almost into a crush of traffic. It was the hill all over again, but an even longer queue, stretching right up to where the army was turning them back. Hundreds of horns filled the air, drowning out the screams of the desperate. Not stopping, Ben steered across the four-lane road, moving eastwards. The further they traveled the larger the homes became, and the more spaced out they were, until eventually with the chorus of traffic fading, they stopped in a parking lot of another park.
Nestled amongst the dark, sparkles of light sat to the south and west, while north was a continuous glow, lighting the clouds above.
Landon, Daryl and Jacob got out, but Sam and Josh remained resolutely in their seats. Jess leaned back, grasping Sam’s hand then Josh’s. “We can’t go back. But if we walk for maybe an hour, then we will be out of this, and I’m sure the people we are meeting will help us get to our house in the mountains. You’ll sleep in your own bed, well, sleeping bag
…” Josh forced a smile. She reached and scuffed his hair. “We’ll get through. Your father and I won’t let anything bad happen to any of you. Okay?”
They both nodded.
“Make sure your coats are zipped up. You need to keep warm, and make sure you got everything you want in your packs, but don’t make them too heavy!”
They nodded again and got out.
As soon as the door closed she let out a breath. Her heart was racing, as was her mind. Was the world ending? How would they stop this thing? Daryl was right, the military couldn’t stop the spores from spreading. Would Rocky Pine be safe? Her head felt light. She swallowed, noticing the tablet sitting on the dashboard, still connected. She quickly switched it back on, and hit the ‘live’ button on the news broadcast. There was no more helicopter view, but instead a diagram of the city, with the circular cordon marked in red, and almost the entire interior section marked in yellow. She held the screen closer to her face trying to understand how far away the danger was.
Landon pulled her door open, bringing with it a rush of cold air. “We got to go.” He was holding her backpack with his own over his shoulder.
She pulled the tablet and cable from the dashboard, stuffed them in her pack, and closed the door. The rain had eased, but the wind was just as strong. She noticed Landon looking back at the pickup and placed her hand on his arm. “It got you this far.”
He nodded, waiting for her and the kids to walk ahead, then looked back to the darkness they had come from. Nothing moved amongst the absolute black, but he knew what was out there, making its way towards them. He turned and jogged to catch up.
CHAPTER EIGHT
1: 27 a.m. A mile from the cordon.
Six inches of water sloshed around Landon’s ankles as he trekked through the swamp-like ground. Josh was on his back, and his backpack was on his front. It had taken them half an hour to cover a mile, the soft terrain being so soaked through, that their boots were sucked into the ground with every step.