by Maxey, Phil
“You’re still alive,” said Meg. “Take that as a win.”
Grace looked between both. “Have the things gone? Is the army here?”
“No, and—”
A new sound echoed through the hallway, this one with no definable location, but it sounded definitely primal.
“We have to leave!” said the doctor.
“I need some medical supplies,” said Jess. “I have to get into the pharmacy room!”
“You’re hurt?”
“Not me, someone else. He—”
A guttural roar boomed around the walls, making each woman duck, and Jess pull her handgun from her jacket without knowing where to point it.
Grace ran out of her office and immediately swiped her keycard across the lock, which promptly beeped. She pushed the door open and moved inside. Jess followed, while Meg looked nervously along the corridor.
“What do you need? What’s his injury?” said Grace, standing in front of wall-to-wall shelves full of packets and boxes.
“He’s got a slice across his lower stomach, maybe deep. He’s very pale, I think he needs—”
Something crashed outside the small room but within the building, perhaps a door had been smashed apart or a wall. It was hard to tell, but it wasn’t far.
“We need to go!” said Meg.
“Open that bag,” said Grace, then slid boxes from shelves, directly dropping them into Jess’s large plastic bag, then grabbed some plastic tubing and finally pulled open a refrigerator door. “Powers been out, but these should still be good.” She grabbed some bags of a clear liquid, then hesitated over the crimson ones. “We can’t use this blood.”
“I’m a universal donor,” said Jess.
She closed the door. “Good, let’s—”
The pickup’s horn blasted outside.
Meg looked into the shadows that resided at the end of the corridor. She had no idea what was down there, but could just make out three doors. The horn echoed out again. “Come on!” She shouted into the small pharmacy room.
Jess and the doctor ran out, Meg running with them. All three didn’t stop to look back but kept on going through the lobby and out of the destroyed entrance. Grace hesitated on seeing the devastation which covered the parking lot.
“Come on!” shouted Jess. The doctor followed her, while Meg jumped into the driver’s seat.
Abby pointed towards one of the mounds of snow. It sat alongside a wreck of a green coupe. “It moved! There’s a thing under there!”
Meg pulled the seatbelt across her, locking it into place and fired up the engine. “We’re not waiting to see what it is.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
12: 59 p.m. Keller’s home.
Landon stood in front of the quietly humming generator. The plan was to move it to the basement and somehow figure out how to attach the house’s electricity grid to it. Until then though, it would be useful to charge some of their electronic devices. A knock came at the living room’s door.
“Yup, come in.”
Daryl pushed open the door with one hand, as the other was carrying a large old gun-metal colored box. “This was in the basement. It’s an old ham radio set. Probably not working, but my dad used to tinker with these when I was a kid. Thought maybe I’d give it a try, now you got the generator working.”
“Good idea… I thought I heard Arlene with you? How is she?”
Daryl kneeled, placing the box near the generator. “She’s dealing.”
“You say anything to her about us being immune?”
“Nah… thought that would be something you could address.”
Landon let out a breath, then looked towards the double windows at the front of the room.
Daryl pulled some of the old cabling from the box, and traced along it to find the plug. “How long they been gone.”
“Almost an hour.”
“Anything on your radio.”
“Nothing.”
“Honestly, with Meg being with Jess, I’ll be more worried about the monsters.”
Landon looked back and shared a smile with the man on the dusty rug covered floor.
Daryl made sure the radio set was turned off, then held the two pronged plug in his hand. “Here goes nothing.” He slid the plug in carefully, expecting sparks and a bang, but instead only white noise came from the single speaker. “Hey, I didn’t get electrocuted.” He quickly turned the dial, but was met with only more of the same sound. “Hmm… looks like I’m going to have to improve the antenna situation.”
The sound of an engine came from lower down the valley, and without pause Landon ran outside, down the steps and across the white crusted ground, then further until he got to the gate just as Meg’s pickup came up the slope towards him. He immediately saw they had gained an extra passenger. She was wearing a big winter jacket, but guessed her profession from the white lapel visible underneath. He also marveled at just how full the rest of the vehicle was, with clothes, and other items pushed up against the windows.
Meg stopped and he ran to the passenger’s window, but Jess pulled her door open and they embraced.
“How is everything?” said Jess.
“Fine. We’ve got the fire started and the generator’s running. Daryl’s even got an old radio set working… kind of.” He looked back to the occupants of the pickup.
“Oh, yes, this is Doctor—”
“A doctor?”
“I am Doctor Haynes, but please just call me Grace.” Landon briefly leaned inside and shook the hand offered. “How is the injured man doing?”
“My son’s with him. He was sleeping last I saw, about ten minutes ago.”
“Well, I better get inside to see him.”
Soon they were all entering the house and then the main living room. Josh sat on the floor in front of the fire. Owen was still on the sofa.
Abby ran and kneeled next to him, her expression telling those around her that something was wrong. “Owen… wake up, there’s a doctor…”
Josh’s eyes widened and he dropped the magazine he was holding. “I thought he was sleeping! I didn’t know—”
Jess walked to her son. “You did fine, but we need to get out of the way so this lady can do her job.”
Grace bent over and held Owen’s wrist. “His pulse is weak. He’s lost a lot of blood.” She looked at Jess. “We need to do this now.”
*****
3: 14 p.m. Keller’s home.
The light seeping through the living room window was beginning to fade and the air within was filled with the metallic smell of blood.
Jess sat on a hastily made collection of winter clothes, a tube attached to her arm with a blood bag at the other end. That was her second, the first already being fed into Owen, who was barely conscious. Grace had examined him, and came to the conclusion that if he was still alive, his internal injury was probably not going to kill him, but exploratory surgery might be still be needed. She also said she wasn’t qualified to do such a procedure, but would do so, if it came to it.
Jess looked at the closed door to the hallway. Josh and Sam had been kept out of the room, but she could hear them talking to the others, and even though there was a simple old wooden barrier between them and her, she missed them. When she heard the noise inside the doctor’s office, she was sure a thing was about to burst through and end her, and in that moment she hated that she had gone into the town to try and save a stranger, that she had chosen him over her own family. There and then she swore that if she was alive five seconds later, she would never do it again.
Abby sat with her head against the paint chipped wall, her eyes closed. Jess still hadn’t told her she was immune. She could have done it during the journey, but her reaction would have just added another unknown and she was done with that for now. The house though contained two people that had not eaten Amos’s chocolate. Two people that could potentially turn and kill everyone else, including her children…
She sighed. She wanted to know more about the virus. How
it worked. How the spores functioned and how it changed humans. Her own company was involved, and that still made no sense. How could they have produced a vaccine on a virus that wasn’t even from earth? She felt the answers lay in their headquarters, her old place of work, but that was in the outskirts of Denver, which might as well have been on a different planet.
Amos knew…
If she could contact her work colleague, she might get answers. Her phone was charging, but she had little hope of getting a signal once it was working again. She let her head fall back, allowing sleep to take her.
In the room next door, Daryl sat with Josh, both listening for the slightest of artificial noises. Cables stretched across the room to Landon, who was holding the large antenna near the rear windows. He glanced out through the grime covered drapes to the lengthening shadows of the backyard, and suddenly felt vulnerable. If there was something beyond the yard, in the woods, it could see the residents of the house like looking into a fishbowl, but they wouldn’t be able to see it.
Need to board up the windows tomorrow…
He looked back to those trying to get the radio to work. “Anything?”
Daryl slid his hand across his head. “Nope. When I was in the town, they managed to get a signal, but maybe the mountains or—”
The white noise paused as Josh turned the dial.
“Go back,” said Daryl
Josh rotated the old metal dial in the opposite direction.
“Slow… slow…”
The white noise faded once more, being replaced with a whisper of a voice from the speaker.
Daryl quickly turned the other dials, some with hardly legible printed text, trying to boost the flicker of a sound.
“You got something?” said Landon.
“Maybe, yeah, I think so. Just don’t move. Hold the antenna where it is.”
Suddenly a crackling came from the old box, then a grating beep from the speaker, followed by a monotone voice.
“This is an emergency broadcast. This is not a test. The date this was first broadcast was 10 a.m, December 15th. This message will repeat indefinitely on a loop. The message from the president will now start. My fellow Americans. An alien biological entity has been released in the vicinity of Denver, Colorado. This entity is extremely toxic and hazardous to people and animals. The effected area has now grown to encompass most of the North American continent. Federal authorities have concluded that the biological entity can only exist within the earth’s atmosphere for a period of six days—” Everyone in the room briefly looked at each other, then back to the radio. Grace, Meg and Arlene having overhead the broadcast were now also listening from the open door to the hallway. “— The entity’s molecular structure is not designed for the earth’s environment and is already decaying. The scientists tell me that by the twenty-first it will be dead—” Arlene punched the air. “— However, before then, it is airborne and is still spreading through spores. These spores cause irreparable damage to organic matter, and can also cause electrical interference. Please stay in your homes. Board up your windows, as this may stop the spores from invading your living space. If you see electrical interference, this may be a sign that a large number of spores are nearby. In this situation, you may have to leave your homes. Local authorities will do their best to help, as will the federal ones. As a nation we have faced calamities before, and as before, we will overcome this new threat to our nation. God bless you. And God bless America…” There was a pause, before the high pitch whine began again, and Daryl turned the volume down.
Everyone let out a breath at the same time.
Grace fell back against the wall. “Six days. Thank god, I was convinced this would go on forever.”
“What happens in six days?” said Josh.
“We get our country back,” said Meg.
“But what about the monsters? Will they go as well?”
Landon was now near his son. “I don’t know, but we just got to hang out here for another six days.” He leaned forward and scrunched the boy’s hair, producing a smile from the youngster. “I’m going to tell your—”
The light on the old radio set dimmed, as did a nearby lantern equally plugged into the cables running from the generator up against the wall. Everyone held their breath, but the light returned to full brightness.
Abby appeared in the doorway. “Did I hear a voice? Was the radio working?”
“The virus can only last six days in the earth’s atmosphere!” said Daryl.
“Meaning?”
Meg put her hand on the younger woman’s shoulder. “Meaning, we’re stuck with each other for another six days.”
Abby smiled. “Really? It’s going to be over?”
“Yup,” said Daryl. “Government say’s it will be dead by the twenty-first. It’s already dying!”
“Right,” said Grace. “I need to go look in on my—”
The lantern flickered again, this time accompanied with the lights on the generator doing the same.
“No… no,” said Arlene, her eyes wide with panic. “Are there spores in here? In this room?”
Landon moved to the front and looked through the drapes to the front yard. The scene was now more blue than white, due to the sun having retreated below a nearby peak, and the forest contained rich shadows.
“Are we going to become like those monsters?” she continued.
“Calm your horses,” said Meg. “No one’s changed yet, have they?” She joined Landon looking out the window. “You see anything?”
“Getting too dark out there to see. I was going to board up the windows tomorrow, but I’m thinking we do it now.” He looked around the room, which had a few pieces of furniture, a cupboard and a few shelves. “We’ll need to use what we have.”
“Think I saw some nails in the basement,” said Daryl.
“Good, get them. I’m going to tell Jess the good news, and why we’re locking down.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
4: 02 p.m. Keller’s home.
Jess looked out of the bedroom window. It was the largest of four and resided at the east corner at the front of the house. The world outside had retreated into an almost absolute wall of darkness, with only the glow that managed to squeeze between the boards they had placed across the downstairs windows, giving any hint of what lay beyond the yard. Snow was falling again, erasing any sign that there had been a fire or that people had walked into the house hours before. Even the two pickups were being lost to the gradually building mass of white. For a moment she imagined the yard being covered in Christmas lights, and helping Josh and Sam build a snowman. The house around her was full of music, and the smell of eggnog wafted up through the floorboards. A life not yet lived…
Six days… five more to go…
When Landon woke her, and repeated what the president had said, she wanted to believe her husband, but couldn’t. Would it be that easy? The virus and spores would simply go away if left alone? That the earth would fight this Venusian interloper all by itself?
Stay alive… stay in this house…
The sound of heavy boots came from beyond her open bedroom door. Landon appeared in the doorway. She glanced at him then continued looking outside.
“Downstair’s windows are covered. Should give us some protection from anything out there that might try and get in. But it must be ten below outside. I can’t see anything wanting to move through that.” She nodded and heard his boots move closer to her, then his arms wrap around her shoulders.
“It’s just five more days, we can do this.”
“I know.” She turned with a smile and their embrace briefly become something more with their lips touching. Sounds from outside the room made each pull away.
“Hey,” shouted Daryl from the bottom of the stairs. “Meg’s made… I dunno. But it’s something, and it smells pretty good. Say’s there’s some for all of us, and you should both stop doing whatever it is you are both doing in your bedroom and come down.”
Jess st
ifled a giggle while Landon smiled. “Yup, we’re coming down now.” He started to leave, but she held on to his hand.
“Close the door,” she said, keeping her voice low.
He did. “What is it?”
“I don’t know when to tell Abby about the whole chocolate thing.”
“She needs to know.”
“I agree, but what if once we tell her, she wants to push Arlene and Grace out?”
Landon looked away, his reaction surprising her. “You can’t seriously be thinking that?” she said.
He moved closer. “Jess, if they change…”
She pulled away. “I know… I know! But then what? They will die out there.”
Landon looked down in thought. “The basement… it’s got a strong door, which locks. We can make it warm enough. It’s just for another five days. They should agree to that.”
She nodded. “Okay. Later we will tell Abby, and Grace and Arlene. Hopefully they will understand…”
*****
4: 47 p.m. Keller’s home.
Landon placed his plastic camping bowl down, and looked at Meg. “You, ma’am, are a good cook.”
She smiled. “Fed Liam for over twenty years. Never had a complaint once!”
“I’m going to need that recipe,” said Jess.
“Yeah, me too,” said Daryl.
They, together with Arlene, Abby, Josh and Sam were scattered around the ‘radio room’ as Josh called it. Some seated with their backs to the paint flaked walls, others on chairs that they salvaged from the hallway. Stomach’s were full from Meg’s soup, and all were feeling something that had quickly been extinguished over the previous twelve hours. Hope.
A floorboard creaked in the hallway, the door slowly swinging open.
“Y’all having a party in here, and I’m not invited?” said Owen, holding onto the doorframe. He looked deathly pale still, despite his smile. Abby sprang up to help him, as did the doctor.