by Sean Platt
Ed raced forward, searching for any sign of survivors. The plane was split in half, swallowed by billowing smoke and a quick-spreading curtain of flame.
Suitcases, clothing, papers, chunks of the plane, and other debris littered the field, with some of the smaller scraps sailing low in the sky. From what he could see of the cabin, nobody survived other than himself. Yet, there weren’t any bodies. He looked back into the woods, wondering if perhaps all the passengers had been ejected from their seats as he had. Perhaps some, but not all of them.
Where the hell is everyone?
The last thing he remembered was his escort, Agent Grant, telling him to shut the fuck up. They’d be in Washington soon enough. Ed decided to take a nap, but didn’t think he’d actually fall asleep. He must have. Next thing he knew, he was on the ground.
He was torn — go back into the woods and search for survivors, or run as far and fast as he fucking could. Last thing he wanted was to run into Grant — assuming Grant was alive.
He took a chance. “Hello?!” he called.
As he stood at the edge of the woods, another high-pitched sound sailed over the drone in his ears, sounding as if the sky was ripping to shreds above him. He instinctively ducked, glancing up as another airplane shot by maybe 10 stories from the forest floor, on a sharp dive, soaring past the tree line before disappearing into a deafening explosion just out of sight.
Christ on a cross. What’s happening?
Ed raced toward the crashed plane as fast as he could, pain shooting through his legs. He stumbled into the woods, but stopped short when he reached a partition of flames where a large, unidentifiable chunk of the plane had set the surrounding trees on fire.
There’s no way anyone survived that.
He retreated, away from both crash sites, following a winding path that led uphill, where he spotted power poles and lines leading toward civilization, he hoped.
“Happy 44th birthday,” he said to himself as he slipped into the black of night.
Despite being in top physical shape, Ed was exhausted by the time he reached the first row of homes. Falling out of the sky will do that to you.
Two-story, faux New England architecture lined either side of the street, barely illuminated by the half-concealed moon. Was one of those new gated communities in the suburbs, designed to look nice, but they were usually shit quality with tiny lots. As he stepped onto the first street, he realized not a single light was on. Not a streetlight, nor a light in any of the windows of the 20 or so homes on the street.
A blackout?
Ed rolled his neck, sighed, and headed toward the closest house, a neatly manicured, two-story home with a large, double door and windows on either side. Judging from the moon’s position, he figured it was around 3 a.m. Not a great time to be knocking on doors, especially when you’re bloody and in handcuffs. But options were scarce — he had to find a phone and contact Jade. No doubt news of the crashed plane would’ve already reached her.
Perhaps, though, it was best that he not contact her. Maybe she’s better off this way, thinking I’m dead.
The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. He should just disappear. It was what he did best. He had a safe house in Florida that nobody knew about. He’d just fall off the radar. Again. And this time he knew better than to trust the agents he used to work with. Maybe the plane crash was the best thing that could have happened. Nobody would be looking for him. Not hard, anyway. This was his chance at a fresh start.
Ed would live like a ghost. No relationships, no friends — just live out his life until someone found him or he died of old age. As much as he’d love to hear his daughter’s voice one more time, to let her know he was alive, he knew he’d lose what might be a golden opportunity to finally make things right. She was a big girl; she’d get over his “death.”
But he still needed to get to a phone to contact Xavier, the only person left (other than his daughter) he could truly trust. Xavier would help him get out of town.
He knocked on the first door, lightly at first. No response. Raindrops grew larger and started to fall faster, but he was mostly sheltered under the gable roof. He knocked again, louder, watching through the window into the dark house for any sign of movement or light.
Nothing.
He knocked a third time, this time with authority, like the law.
Still nothing.
Ed glanced around at the house across the street to see if he’d attracted any attention. All the windows were dark, showing no movement.
On the ground, Ed spotted a garden with large, decorative rocks. He grabbed one, gripped it tightly on the end, and tapped it hard against the window to the right of the doorknob. The glass crashed loudly, and Ed glanced around to see if anyone had taken notice.
Nothing, still.
Crackerjack gated community security, hard at work.
Ed smashed a large swath of glass away; he’d need plenty of room to reach inside the doorway with his hands bound. He swept the last shards of glass from the frame until he had room to safely reach in and twist the locks. He opened the door and rushed inside, closing the door behind him.
“Hello?” he called out, wishing he’d thought to bring the rock. “This is Officer Grant. Anybody here?”
Nothing.
He knew, from years of experience, that he was alone in the house. Houses harbored a specific brand of quiet when empty. A still you could sense immediately. This house wasn’t only silent, it was dead. No electricity meant no humming fans, electronics, air conditioning, or any other heartbeats of the average home. Sounds you didn’t even notice until their voices were taken away.
Ed made his way toward the kitchen, scanning outlets for any sign of plug-in lights. Finding nothing, he rifled through drawers until he found a flashlight heavy with batteries. To his relief, they weren’t dead, and the light was bright. He waved the spotlight around the kitchen, finding the phone. A fucking cordless, meaning it wouldn’t work with the power out.
He tried it anyway, just in case.
Nothing.
Fuck, doesn’t anyone use regular phones anymore?
He clicked the light off, thinking about his next step, then headed back upstairs, light on. Two doors were on either side of the hall, and a large, double door was at the end, which he assumed would take him to the master bedroom.
The first two rooms weren’t bedrooms at all — one was a converted office. The second was a monument to clutter, tons of boxes leaving little room to walk. Finally, he reached the double doors, drew a deep breath, and pushed one of the doors open, training his light on the king-sized bed.
Unmade, nobody in it.
He figured whoever lived here was out of town, maybe on vacation. But something reflected back as he swept his light over the nightstand — a glass of ice water. As he moved closer, he saw beads of sweat, a small pool of water around the glass, and the last remnants of ice floating.
His heart stopped as he spun the light around toward the bathroom door, which was shut.
Had they heard him and ducked inside?
Ed squinted his eyes, searching for any signs of movement. He was too old for this shit. And not at all ready to die at the hands of some yuppie with a Beretta playing Die Hard.
He considered turning around and leaving, but something rooted him in place.
The house was empty. He could feel it. And he was never wrong about these things. Yeah, the loss of power might have been screwing with his instincts, but he didn’t think that was the case. Whoever was here was gone.
He clicked off the light and began to creep toward the closed bathroom door. A closet was to his left, but it was open, and he could see it was empty. If anyone was with him, they were likely in the bathroom.
He was nearly five steps away when he rolled his neck again, then spoke.
“Hello? This is officer Grant. We’re investigating a break-in at your neighbor’s house and we saw your front door was wide open. You okay?”
&nb
sp; Nothing.
He turned on his light again.
“I’m coming into the bathroom now. My partner is in the hallway, checking out your other rooms. Do NOT shoot me. I repeat, do NOT shoot.”
He twisted the knob, pushed open the door, and thrust his light into the bathroom.
Nothing.
He caught his reflection in the mirror: dirty, banged up, bloody, and a huge knot sticking out from his closely-cropped dome. He laughed grimly at the reflection, then checked the closet for clean clothes. He would be stuck with his dark trousers, but he grabbed a black tee from the closet, which he’d put on as soon as he got the cuffs off. The shirt looked like it would be tight on his muscular build, and a bit short, but it would have to do.
Ed returned to the bed and felt the sheets. They weren’t warm — whoever had been sleeping in them had been gone at least a few minutes before he’d entered the house. He grabbed the glass, picked it up, cool to the touch. He took a long drink, the water soaking his dry throat. He chewed the remnants of ice, placed the glass down, and opened both nightstands, hoping to find a gun. No luck.
Ed moved from room to room, searching the house for anybody. At last, he reached the door leading to the two-car garage. If anyone was here, this was the last place they could be hiding, unless they sneaked into an attic or something. He did the police routine another time, with the same lack of response, then opened the door. Clutter filled one side of the garage, though more neatly arranged, and all of it boxed. The other half of the garage housed an SUV.
He flashed his light to make sure the vehicle was empty, then doubled back to the kitchen, found a pegboard with keys and an automatic car lock, alarm attached. He glanced at the fridge, where a photo in a magnetic frame showed a middle-aged guy, a middle-aged woman, and a 20-year-old girl wearing an Ohio State sweater. He pocketed the keys, headed back to the garage and was relieved to see a workbench on the far wall with a large, red Craftsmen toolbox beside it.
Thank God some people still do shit themselves.
He found a hacksaw, fastened the blade on a C-clamp, then proceeded to saw his restraints away. Once he had the middle part cut, he found some bolt cutters, sheared the bracelets the rest of the way, and massaged the red from his wrists. He slipped on the tee shirt, which fit him better than he thought it would, and balled up the shirt he’d been wearing and tossed it in the SUV.
Ed went to the fridge. Stuff was still cold. He inhaled a Coke, then grabbed a box of cookies from the pantry and threw them on the passenger seat of the SUV as he climbed in the driver’s side. He turned on the radio to a static assault and hit the scan button, watching the digital display race through the FM spectrum without slowing.
All the stations are down?
Something was very wrong.
Ed hit the garage door opener before remembering it ran on electricity. He hopped out of the SUV and flashed the light at the ceiling, finding the motor for the garage door opener. A red cord dangled from the center. He yanked it, disengaging the opener, opened the door manually, got back in the SUV, and backed out of the driveway.
He figured he had maybe two hours until the state was crawling with feds.
Five
Luca Harding
Saturday
Oct. 15, 2011
Morning
Las Orillas, California
Luca’s skin was burning. He opened his eyes and put an end to the dream where Mommy was making eggs on his arms.
But he was still too hot. The sun outside was brighter than it was supposed to be. It looked like the last day of school, but it was only a week before Halloween. Light poured through the window like Daddy was hosing it down with sunlight like he did with water sometimes when he washed the car.
Luca never slept past 6, but it definitely felt later than that. Dad got up at 5:30, even when he wasn’t working. Luca had been no more than a half hour behind him for all but one of his eight years.
I don’t like the feeling in my arms. Tingly bad and burny. I want to scratch them, but maybe it’s like the bites that Mommy says I shouldn’t scratch because it always makes it worse. The itchy hot burny will probably go away if I ignore it.
His Cars alarm clock wasn’t working, and the screen on the computer was black. The house sounded like when Mommy went across the street to talk to Mrs. Susan, only quieter. Luca went to the closet and peeled off his Lego pajamas, replaced them with jeans and his favorite Star Wars T-shirt, then went to the window, and stared at the rainbow.
It was brighter than usual. Most rainbows looked like they were already erasing. But this rainbow looked like someone just plugged it in.
The sun was past the start of the rainbow, so it was maybe as late as 8. Mom was gone, he could tell. But he couldn’t hear his dad either, even though it was his day off. Anna should be up, but he couldn’t hear her either. And he could always hear his sister.
Luca left the bedroom and looked around the house, even though he knew he’d find no one. “Mom, Dad, Anna?” Luca waited for an answer, counting to 10 as he always did when Mom said to wait.
After 10 seconds of less than nothing, Luca opened the door to a blanket of heat. The air felt like hot sand and made his hot burny feel worse. Something moved at the corner of his eyes. He turned to see his cat, Lucky, leap to the front porch, where it settled a stare on Luca and licked its paws. The cat looked somehow different than it did the day before. Luca would swear. But he didn’t know how.
Inside out. Yeah, the cat feels sorta inside out. It looks normal, but feels like someone made all its thoughts go on the outside.
Luca crossed the street to Mrs. Susan’s house, put his nose to the window, and saw exactly what he expected. Since Mom didn’t like him on that side of the street unless he was visiting Mrs. Susan, he went back home.
Instead of going back in the house, Luca decided to walk to the mailbox under the stop sign, all the way at the corner. That’s where Mr. Hassell lived. Mr. Hassell probably didn’t know everything about the entire world, but he knew a lot of things about people on Oregon Avenue. That’s probably why he was always talking about it.
Mr. Hassell’s empty house was the farthest Luca had ever walked alone. Mr. Hassel wasn’t on his porch like usual, so he rounded the corner and kept going, all the way around the block. When he got back to his own number at 314 Oregon, he sat on the stoop and looked at the rainbow.
I should go to Coach Michael’s. Mommy and Daddy said he’s safe. And he is driving close. We even walked there two times before, like that time last June. His house will be easy to find because the rainbow is pointing right at it.
The rainbow was pointing toward the coach’s house, but it wasn’t the big, bright one Luca saw when he first woke. This smaller rainbow was brighter, and sat just beneath its big brother, spilling sideways instead of south.
Luca went back in the house and filled his Star Wars backpack with two granola bars, a banana, and two bottles of Smartwater from his mom’s side of the refrigerator. The house was getting warmer, a lot warmer, but it was still cooler than it was outside.
Luca started walking toward the rainbow. He made it six blocks before he felt the headache start to hammer his skull. At least he thought it was a headache. The ouchy tingle sure seemed like the stuff mommy was always talking about.
It was easy to keep from getting lost with the rainbow showing him where to go. Luca passed all the places where no one was anymore on the way to his coach’s house. But the only things home at the corner of Appian and Monrovia were the coach’s collection of vintage cars.
Luca looked in the window. The lights were on, like most of the houses for the last few blocks. A purr at his feet pulled Luca’s attention to Champion, the coach’s cat, rubbing itself on his ankle.
Champion felt weird just like Lucky had. Comparing the two led Luca to realize that besides Lucky and Champion, he hadn’t seen a single animal since waking. Which was weird since some dog in the neighborhood was always barking.
A
ll Luca wanted was someone to explain what was happening. Like his dad always did. In simple sentences that would be easy to understand. But no one was around, and after following the rainbow 17 blocks to the coach’s house and not seeing anyone, Luca felt the sad spiders start to crawl inside him. His mom could usually get them to leave with tickles, or the promise of a salami sandwich. But his mom wasn’t there to make him a sandwich any more than his dad was standing by with an explanation.
Luca leaned against the door, slid to his bottom, put his face in his palm, and cried. He tried rubbing the headache from his head, but the headache said no. A dog cried out from somewhere in the distance. Luca was glad to hear it.
He felt a sudden icy chill beneath his burning skin, but shrugged it off and stood.
Luca looked around the neighborhood. White spots were everywhere, but he looked past them to get a good look at the brand-new rainbow. It was telling him to listen to the trees. And though Luca was old enough to know that trees couldn’t talk, they did seem to be whispering something or other.
Trees aren’t supposed to talk, but they keep telling me to follow the wind. And the wind won’t stop talking about the water. I think they like the place we go each summer, the beach in Mexico where the man makes the lobster tacos.
Mexico it was. And it made perfect sense. His parents were probably there at the small house already – that’s what the rainbow said. And rainbows were too colorful to lie.
Luca didn’t know how to drive, but he did know a car was better than walking. He would’ve gone back to his house, but his dad’s truck was way too big and his mom’s car was a stick shift she’d had since her 20s. He definitely didn’t think he could drive that.
One of the cars in Coach’s collection was a red Porsche that looked like a bathtub. Luca had ridden in it before. It was parked on the street, and he needed it, so Coach Michael would understand if he took it. His mom said that in emergencies, like when you’re bleeding or vomiting, there were special rules. Luca wasn’t bleeding or vomiting, but he was definitely having the biggest emergency of his life.