by Maxey, Phil
“Lower your weapon!” shouted Landon.
Owen grimaced, his hand wavering.
“Wait!” shouted Jess. “If we’re infecting people, then why aren’t you infected?”
“Uh… I don’t know! Maybe it takes time or—”
The large front window of the burger place shattered as a blur of brown stretched skin smashed through it. Landon was the first to react, firing at the thing which was the size of a large dog, each of its four legs flailing on the concrete like a newborn lamb, while projectiles slammed into it, seemingly with no affect.
“Run!” he shouted to Jess and the kids, pushing them forwards. Behind him the thing was squealing. He looked over his shoulder to see Owen and the others run into the shadows on the other side of the lot, while the thing at its center sprouted new appendages, now looking more like a spider, its hide a mixture of fur and skin.
Jess held the hands of both of her children as they pushed their legs, running across the lot that appeared to go on forever. More gunshots echoed off the concrete behind them, then came a scream.
“The building! Over there! To the left!” shouted Landon, his voice a slight relief to the panic consuming Jess’s mind.
She slammed into the door of the public library, hoping that the light beyond the glass meant someone was still there, despite the hour. Josh was crying, while Sam’s frantic shouts merged with her mother’s, both shouting for anyone inside to let them in.
Josh looked back from where they had ran. His father was running towards them and tens of yards behind, he watched the street lamps go out. One after another. Horror overtook his mind as he saw the black mass of something with legs scampering after Landon. He raised his hand, pointing into the dark as his mother and sister banged on the entrance glass. “S… som…”
Inside the library a forty something woman appeared, with an inquisitive look on her face and walked to the other side of the door.
“Let us in!” shouted Jess.
The woman scrunched her face in confusion, then backed away shaking her head as Landon slammed into the door as well.
“It’s coming!” screamed Sam.
Landon stepped back, pointed his Glock at the door and pulled the trigger… his heart and mind froze at the sound of a dull click. The magazine was spent. Josh and Sam were screaming. He slammed his shoulder into the glass, but all it did was shudder. Spinning around to face the multi-legged chaotic mess of a thing, he turned the butt of the gun around while standing in front of his family. The car-sized entity reared up, just ten feet away, showing putrid entangled organs throbbing against glistening teeth.
Jess pressed her face against the glass, her red eyes full of desperation and grief for what was about to happen.
The woman rushed forward, turning a key in a lock, then sliding latches across and the Keller’s fell inside.
“Close it!” shouted Jess.
The woman shoved it closed with Landon’s help, sliding the latches—
A heavy, moist body which made no sense hit up against the clear door, making everyone fall back, but somehow the security door held. The creature’s legs became a flurry of slices, blurs that were scratching and scraping the clear surface, each one producing a tiny crack.
“It’s not going to hold…” shouted Landon. Somewhere far away came the sound of sirens and shouts and screams. He looked to the woman who was staring at the inexplicable organism trying to get inside, her eyes were wide, trying to understand what it was. “Do you have any weapons!” He grabbed her shoulders, making her turn to him. “Weapons!”
A crack came from the door and a piece of glass dropped to the ground.
“No, no…”
“Do you have a room… somewhere secure?…”
Sam screamed as a spindly boney protrusion forced its way through the few inches of gap, trying to make the hole bigger.
“Um… uh… yes, we have a vault, where we keep valuable items…”
Landon pulled her with him and his family, moving deeper into the library, running past a counter. “We need to get into it now!”
She moved towards a door, pushing it open, while everyone looked back to the door. “Yes… umm… this—”
There was an explosion of glass as the creature surged forward. It leaped at Jess, but not before Landon pulled her back into the room and slammed the door closed. The wood splintered instantly on impact, almost knocking the detective from it, but using what strength he had left, he held his shoulder against it.
The woman opened another door, then quickly descended stairs. “This way!” she shouted.
The kids and Jess ran into the narrow staircase, quickly followed by Landon, closing the door again, just as the first exploded into a shower of wooden pieces, the creature struggling to get through the opening. This time he didn’t try holding the door, but turned and ran down the stairs. The woman, Jess and the kids were already past another heavier metal door, inside a room.
“Come on!” shouted Jess.
The door at the top of the stairs broke apart as the thing threw itself at its prey.
Landon could smell the stink of whatever combination of DNA, part human, part something else was just feet behind him. His legs threatened to give way, his heart pumping so hard it was all he could hear as he dived forward, landing hard on the solid floor as the door to the air tight vault closed behind him.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
6: 01 a.m.
“You think it’s still out there?” said Josh to his parents.
“Stop asking them!” shouted Sam.
“Hey,” said Landon. “He can ask. It’s okay.”
“They don’t know! Okay?” she said to her brother who turned his glum face away, burying it partially within his knees that were against his chest.
Distant booms and flickering lights had lasted for a few minutes after the vault’s door had been closed, but since then there had been nothing but silence. Introductions were briefly made with the woman, whose name was Meg. They discovered she was a local business owner, who had been allowed to stay late in the library to do some genealogy research, and was trusted enough by the librarian to lock up after she was done.
She shook her head. “I had no idea what was happening. I’ve been so stuck into my research all day, that, I guess, time just got away from me.” She looked at Jess. “And it’s like this everywhere? People becoming these things?”
“We don’t know. There was some footage of Colorado Springs, as for anywhere else…”
“But how did it spread so quickly from Denver?”
“Airflow, wind currents… I don’t know.” Jess didn’t want to consider the other, more probable alternative, that just as Owen said, that people were spreading it… they were spreading it. They were the last people alive from the apartment. Maybe even from the whole city of Denver. But why hadn’t they changed? She felt there was an answer just out of the reach of her mind, and that was something she wasn’t used to.
“So what brought you to Rocky Pine?”
Both the senior Keller’s thought about lying again. They looked at each other, Landon nodded then Jess spoke. “We bought a place up at Pine—”
“Pine Peak?”
“Yeah…”
“You’re the one’s that bought old Kyle Briggon’s place?”
“Er… yeah.”
“Ha, didn’t think anyone would buy that one.”
“It was all we could afford around here…”
“Yeah well, it’s remote. Not enough anymore for Kyle though. He moved to Alaska. Said the tourists were getting on his nerves… So you’re hoping to get up there? Weather turned a few days ago. You got a truck?”
“Had to leave it in Denver,” said Landon. “Caught a ride with some people, but they’re now gone.”
“When we get out of this vault, I’ll give you a ride up there. My pickup’s just outside.”
“How will we know the monster’s gone?” said Josh to her.
She smiled. “Now
why’s that big old monster going to hang around out there, when it has the whole world to explore?”
Josh produced an honest smile, bringing the same to Jess. “You got kids, grandkids of your own?”
“Me? Nah, never found the time… my sister though, she bred like a jack rabbit—” Sam giggled. “— Created seven of the little brats!” Josh smiled again. Meg looked down, her eyes in some far off place. “They all moved away two years back.” She looked back up with the rosy smile that gave those around her hope. “How about we all get some rest, and set about leaving this room, when the sun comes up?”
*****
Jess couldn’t sleep. She was also sure Landon hadn’t, despite his eyes being closed, but that didn’t matter because from their breathing, it seemed the kids were.
She usually didn’t like enclosed spaces. Her older sister had locked her in an old chest freezer when she was ten as a prank. It had only been less than a minute, but when her sister returned and said the lock had broken and she couldn’t get her out, it had been the first time she seriously considered death. The lock wasn’t broken, but Ester let her sweat a bit longer before flipping the lid.
The shelves of dusty volumes, artifacts and paintings surrounding her were a useful distraction though, from what could lay just outside the three inches of steel door. She had used the past few hours to go over the events of the previous night. From the crashed probe, to escaping the apartment, Ben crashing and everything since. Owen was right in one sense. Everyone from their former home had changed, but they hadn’t. Why? There must have been a reason. The spores were obviously in the air. The brown sludge that hit Hannah was the result of the spores interacting with other organic waste in the apartment block’s plumbing system. Landon had reported the same from outside and the store.
Karl changed, but Hannah hadn’t… her arms were covered in what looked like burns… was she immune? Was that why she never changed like her husband? Even if her neighbor had been unaffected by the spores, that wouldn’t explain why she and her family weren’t as well. The chances of that amount of people being immune, living close to each other, were… remote.
Something else had been bothering her as well. Power fluctuations. She couldn’t see how the spores would affect the energy grid, but it was just too much of a coincidence that each time there was an attack, a nearby source of power would go dark. Could the spores be drawing on the power? She couldn’t think of any example of that in nature, although all life drew on light from the sun, which is just another type of electromagnetic radiation. It would go somewhat to explaining how they were able to do what they do. Reconstitute living matter into something else. You need a hell of a lot of energy to do that.
She let her head fall back against a pillar of a shelf and sighed. Maybe if she had some sleep, answers would come to her…
“Jess?” She opened her eyes to Landon’s hand on her arm.
Josh and Sam were already standing near Meg, both holding what looked like spears, and she a knife.
Jess blinked, then with her husband’s help, stood. “What time is it? I must have nodded off.”
“About 7:15 a.m,” said Landon.
“Sun should be up,” said Meg. She looked at the children. “Hope you don’t mind, but I’ve given them some of the indigenous people’s weapons. They’re quite valuable, but right now, the fact that they are pointy is more important.”
Jess smiled with a nod. She wanted to tell both her kids that what they were holding were not toy’s, but the sentiment seemed pointless. She was glad they were armed.
Landon held out another knife. “Here.”
“You should keep that.”
He shook his head. “No. You take it. I’ll find something else outside.” She reluctantly took the beautifully carved wooden handle, with a blade that looked as if it had never been used, but couldn’t help but feel that it would be no use against whatever it was that tried to kill them some hours before.
Landon held up his radio, then handed it to Sam. “You and Josh stay close to us and each other, but if we get separated. Use this to tell us where you are. Okay?”
They both nodded.
“Are we going to find some food outside?” His sister rolled her eyes. “I’m really hungry and I can’t eat anymore choc—”
“Chocolates!” shouted Jess, making everyone jump. She looked at Josh who looked as if he had just been caught for a major crime. “How many do you have left?”
“What’s going on?” said Landon.
“Josh!” she shouted. “How many?”
“Umm…” he reached into his pocket and pulled out three blue wrapped pieces of chocolate. “Just these. Sorry I didn’t know—”
She shook her head, rushing forward and taking the candy from him. “No, it’s fine. I don’t mind.” She looked at her daughter. “You ate some of these?” Sam nodded. She looked at Landon. “And you, right?” He also nodded.
“Why’s this so important?” he said.
“Yeah,” said Meg.
Jess examined the glittering plastic covering. “We all ate these…” she looked back to her son. “Who else had some?”
“Umm… Daryl…”
“Daryl!”
“Yes, sorry…”
She shook her head, kneeling in front of her son, placing her hands on his arm. “No, it’s fine Josh. You have done nothing wrong. In fact I think you may have saved all of us. Did you give them to anyone…” She looked away, the repercussions of the revelation dawning on her. “But then… he must have known…” She shook her head, “But that makes no sense.”
“Jess! What’s going on?” said Landon.
She looked up at him. “Sorry. Amos gave me these chocolates just before I left work. He said… ‘Make sure Landon and the kids have some,’ he stressed that it was important because they’re very special. I was so distraught with what had just happened with losing my job—”
“You lost your job?” said Sam.
“Yes, it’s fine. I just took the gift. I ate half the bag in the car.”
“But… What’s the big deal about these chocolates?” said Landon.
“We haven’t been infected… or maybe we have, but somehow these chocolates have stopped us from changing…”
Landon’s face became one of confusion.
Jess looked back to her son. “Did anyone else have some? Other than Daryl?”
“Umm… yeah. Owen and Abby… I don’t think Ray had any…”
“Wait,” said Landon. “You’re saying, that your work friend put something in the chocolates, which has stopped us from being affected by the alien spores?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“But… how would—”
She shook her head. “I have no idea how they knew, but it’s the only thing which makes any sense in this craziness right now.”
“So Daryl—”
“Didn’t change at the medical center. Somebody else must have.”
Landon looked at the door. “So he could be still out there.”
Everyone looked at the one person not to have eaten any of the candy.
Meg returned their attention. “I don’t understand anything about this chocolate, but why are you all looking at me?”
Landon placed a not-so-subtle hand on Sam’s then Josh’s shoulder, moving them behind him.
“You think I’m going to become like what we saw earlier?”
“I don’t know. But we haven’t changed… and we should have.” Jess pushed her hand out. “Please, eat one of these.”
Meg looked at the strangers then back to the blue covered candy. She nodded, taking it, then carefully unwrapped it as the others looked on, and placed it in her mouth. She was ready to spit it out if it tasted anything other than like chocolate, but she couldn’t sense anything off about it, and quickly chewed then swallowed.
Jess held out her hand with the two remaining chocolates to her husband. “Keep these safe.”
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
7: 21 a.m. Town of Rocky Pine. Vault of public library.
“Remember, don’t use the radio or your flashlight unless you have too,” said Jess to her husband. He nodded. “Use Meg’s lighter.”
Landon moved to the door and listened against it. On not hearing any vibrations, he pulled his ear away from the cold blue-gray metal and nodded to Meg, who slid a key into the keyhole and turned it.
Landon and Jess stood in front of the kids, their handmade blades at the ready. A brief buzzing came from within the wall, then the door sprang open a few inches. The smell of rotting meat invaded the air inside, making everyone grimace and the adults prepared themselves for the worst.
Landon peered through the gap into darkness, trying to catch even the slightest sign of a shadow moving, but sight and sound were telling him no threat lay just beyond the vault. He pulled the door open further, his hand gripping the frame in case he needed to close it quickly. More light flooded out into the narrow hallway.
There was nothing there other than brown smears and pieces of various doors from upstairs.
He looked back to the others. “Be ready.” They nodded and he stepped slowly outside, being careful to avoid the brown stains across the beige tiles and walked forwards, pushing his senses towards the base of the stairs and then on reaching them, higher to where the light from the vault could not reach.
He narrowed his focus as he ascended, trying to see movement within the gloom, but nothing stirred so he cautiously continued, being sure to keep to the far sides of the wooden steps to minimize any creaks.
The door to the basement half hung on its hinges, while the rest was in three large pieces on the floor. He looked through the open doorway and the other on the opposite side, all the way to the lobby area which was bathed in a cold blue light, then stepped over the remains of the door into what was left of the small office. A laptop sat on the carpeted floor, smashed against a fallen filing cabinet, which itself rested on a pile of books and a tilted desk. He spotted Meg’s backpack and kneeled, then slowly unzipped the side pocket. The sound being hardly noticeable but still too loud for his liking. Sliding his hand inside he slowly pulled out her pickup’s keys, and placed them in his coat’s pocket, then stepped over the strewn and broken refuse and peered into the lobby.