Aftermath (7 page)

Suddenly hands grabbed her from behind! She was pulled from the closet, and thrown to the floor. She briefly caught a look at the terrified woman, before the woman pounced on her, and wrestled the pistol from her hand. The woman rose to her feet, keeping the pistol trained on Paige.

“Who the hell are you?” the woman demanded, as Paige slowly propped herself up.

“Woah. Lady. It’s okay,” Paige responded, holding her hands up in a gesture of surrender. “I thought the place was empty.”

“Liar!” the woman shouted, waiving the pistol dangerously in Paige’s direction. “You’re one of them.”

“No,” Paige replied, shaking her head. “I swear, I’m not. Look. I’ll leave.”

“Like hell you will,” the woman snorted back. “I’m calling the cops.”

Paige stared at her for a moment. “Lady. Uhm, ma’am. There are no cops. Have you seen what’s going on outside?”

The woman shook her head, keeping the pistol trained on Paige. “Ain’t seen nothin’ since my husband knocked me out cold. Went all crazy on me.”

“Just look out the window. I’ll stay right here.”

“Don’t you move,” the woman ordered, waiving the pistol to show she meant business.

“I won’t.”

The woman cautiously approached the window, keeping an eye on Paige. She pulled aside the heavy drapes, and stared out. Her hand with the gun slowly lowered. “What the hell happened?”

“We’ve been invaded,” Paige replied, slowly rising to her feet.

“By who?” asked the woman.

“Look in the sky.”

The woman angled around, twisting her head to see the sky. And then she froze. She’d seen the ships. She stood like that for several minutes, just staring at the sky.

“They from outer space?” she finally asked.

“I think so,” replied Paige.

The woman headed over to the bed, and sank down on it. She looked in shock.

“Can I lower my hands?” Paige asked.

The woman just nodded.

“You should try to get out of the city,” Paige said, lowering her hands. “What you said about your husband attacking you, it’s happening everywhere.”

Again, the woman just nodded.

Then a new sound boomed through the city. Like a giant fog horn, it echoed off the buildings. The woman snapped to her feet, dropping the gun. Paige jumped back. But the woman just stood there, staring into space. Like in a trance. Paige braced herself, ready to fight or run. Then the woman took a step forward, turned, and proceeded out the door. It was like watching someone in a trance. Without saying a word, she headed down the hallway, and into the living room. Paige snatched the gun and her backpack off the floor, then followed the woman into the living room.

The woman headed out the apartment door, and into the hallway. There she joined a few other residents, as they filed down the hallway, and out the exit at the end. None of them saying a word, or even aware of each other’s presence.

Paige followed them from a distance, as they headed down the stairway mounted to the outside of the apartments, then proceeded off down the street. Paige hurried up the stairs, taking them two at a time. She reached the flat roof top deck, then hurried across it to the edge. She removed the binoculars from her backpack, and used them to scan across the city.

Below, hundreds of people filed from buildings, and shuffled off across the city like zombies.

As she watched them go, a new sound echoed across the city. This one sounding eerily like a whale’s siren. While hundreds of people continued their march into the city, others began grabbing chunks of rubble, and hauling it away.

The Guards

Just when Paige had thought the day couldn’t get any stranger, it had taken another turn towards the bizarre. As she pedaled her way through the debris strewn streets, all around her men were grabbing chunks of rubble and hauling them away. Each of them were in that same zoned out trance as the woman. Only instead of marching away towards the city, they seemed to be tasked with cleaning it up.

She pulled up to a group of men shoveling debris into wheel barrows, and carting them off.

“Hey,” she said, trying to get one of their attention. “Can you guys hear me?”

Nothing about their behavior indicated they could. Instead, they continued like robots. Shovel, dump. Shovel, dump.

“Hey! You on the bike!”

Paige spun around to see a guy in a military-style uniform heading her way. In his hands he carried a machine gun, pointed right at her. For lack of a better term, this guy was the first of what Paige would come to call the Guards.

“Dismount the bike, and keep your hands where I can see them,” the guard ordered.

“Okay, I’m doing it. Just don’t shoot,” Paige responded, climbing off her bike.

“What’s in the backpack?” he continued, his finger tight on the trigger.

Oh, shit, she thought to herself, remembering the guns in the backpack. Just try to act cool.

“Just… you know… stuff,” she responded, doubtful that would suffice.

It didn’t. He approached, keeping his machine gun trained on her. “Set it on the ground,” he ordered, “and unzip the top.”

Paige complied, slowly unzipping the top, but trying to keep it as closed as possible. Maybe this guy wouldn’t look inside.

“Now step away,” he ordered, relaxing just ever so slightly.

Again Paige complied, slowly backing away from the backpack. She took a quick assessment of her possibilities at this point. Try to make a run for it? Bad idea, unless she wanted to get shot in the back.

“Why weren’t you responding to the summons,” he asked, using the barrel of his rifle to nudge open the top of the backpack.

“I… uhm… I don’t think I heard it?” her reply sounded stupid even to her. But it didn’t matter - he had spotted the guns.

“On the ground now!” he ordered. He took a whistle hung from the his neck, and blew it hard. Alerting other guards in the area.

Paige didn’t have time to think. It was react, or get shot. She stepped in, and kicked the side of his knee as hard as she could. As he fell, she grabbed her backpack, and swung it at the gun’s barrel. The barrel spun around, firing a burst of shots through the air.

Paige scrambled back, but he caught her foot, yanking it out from beneath her. She fell to the pavement, catching herself on her elbows. She grabbed the other pistol from the back of her pants, and fired two shots at the guard. He collapsed, releasing her foot. She took a quick glance around at the work crew, expecting a reaction. But they continued shoveling debris, completely oblivious to what had happened.

Paige shoved the pistol back in her pants, then grabbed the guard’s machine gun. She scrambled onto her bike, pumping her legs as hard as she could.

Suddenly a squad of guards rounded the corner at the far end of the block. “You there, on the bike! Freeze!” they hollered.

An instant later, bullets sprayed across the rubble around her.

Paige hopped off the bike, and dove behind a pile of rubble. She pointed the machine gun around the edge, and fired a burst of shots. The guards dove for cover.

Paige hopped on her bike, and pedaled off as fast as she could. Behind her, the guards scrambled out from the rubble, now joined by other guards, and chased after her.

***

Paige kept turning down streets, trying to put as many corners between her and the guards as possible. She had the advantage with her bike, and was able to put some distance between them.

She finally turned down an alley behind the ruins of what had been a strip mall. The back door to a laundromat was propped open. She hopped off the bike, and drug it inside, pulling the door closed behind her.

The main room of the laudromat was filled with unclaimed clothes hanging from racks, and overturned machines. Paige threw a pile of clothes over the bike, then ducked behind a machine. She waited there, fearing to breath, as the clamor and ruckus of the guards stormed past the store.

She slowly eased over to the edge of the splintered boards that had once been the counter. She peeked her head around it, then yanked it back quickly. A guard stood outside the broken window.

Ever so quietly, she squeezed back behind the overturned machine, saying a silent prayer that he hadn’t seen her. Then shouts came from down the block. She listened, as the guard’s footsteps ran off to whatever the new problem was.

***

The sun sank over the skeletons of the once proud skyscrapers as Paige wheeled her bike to the end of the alley. Rapid bursts of gunfire echoed in the distance. Paige was certain it was the guards. But at least it sounded like they weren’t anywhere close.

She slipped over to the corner, then peeked around it. Other than the burnt bulks of several cars, the street was clear.

Paige climbed on her bike, then pedaled off.

Trish

Paige pedaled up to the loading dock of what had once been a large chain drug store. She hid her bike beside the dock, then crept in through the large bay door.

Once inside, she found the interior of the store in shambles. A third of the roof had caved in, overturning shelves, and scattering items across the floor. She stepped around these, as she headed to the pharmacy.

Like everything else in the city, she found the pharmacy door unlocked. The attack had happened during the day, when most stores were open, so it wasn’t surprising to find doors unlocked. It also wasn’t surprising to find dead bodies, which is what she found when she stepped through the door and into the pharmacy.

The body was of a young woman, maybe mid-twenties. She’d probably been mauled by the pharmacist when that first tone hit two days ago. Two days? Paige shook her head. Had it only been that long?

She stepped around the body, and headed for the shelves. She was looking for anything that sounded like an antibiotic. She seemed to recall that they ended in “lin.” Like penicillin, or methacylin. Fortunately, several bottles had already been bagged, with dosage instructions written on the outside. She grabbed several bottles, and shoved them in her backpack. Then she shoved some ointment in as well. Maybe some of these other pills could come in handy as well she wondered, as she scanned the different bottles.

Then a noise came from the store just outside the pharmacy window. Someone was moving around out there. Paige slid her knife from her belt, then crawled over to the pharmacy door. She peeked around it, then ducked back. Something was approaching.

Paige, tensed, gripping the knife. She would have to be fast. Slowly the shuffling approached the door. Paige braced herself, ready to make the lunge. The sound reached the door, and she lunged!

Paige came down on top of a young girl, no more than nine. Her name was Trish, and from the looks of her outfit, this girl had been living on the streets long before the world as they knew it had ended.

“Wait, please,” the young girl pleaded, stark terror in her eyes.

Paige pulled back. “Who are you?” she asked.

“Trish,” came the meek response.

“You’re okay?” Paige asked, scanning the girl for any sort of weapon.

Trish nodded, casting a worried look at the knife still in Paige’s hand. “Are you gonna stab me?” she asked.

Paige looked down at the knife. “No,” she responded, sliding the knife back in her belt.

“You’re not one of them?” Trish asked, looking a little more relaxed.

“One of who?”

“The soldiers. They’re after me.”

Paige pulled Trish back inside the pharmacy, eased the door shut. “Did they follow you?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“How many were there?” Paige asked, taking a peek over the pharmacy counter. The store looked clear.

“It was like, twelve. Maybe more. They were shooting people.”

“I know,” Paige nodded. “They tried to shoot me.”

“Why are they doing this?”

“They’re being controlled,” Paige responded. Then something dawned on her. “Let me see your ear.”

“Why? What is it?”

“Just let me see it,” Paige said, brushing Trish’s hair back. She looked behind Trish’s left ear, probed her finger around. Then turned to her right ear. There were no bumps. “You don’t have one,” she said.

“Have one what?” Trish asked, brushing her matted hair back over her ears.

“They’re these implant things they’re putting in us.”

“That’s what’s making everyone kill each other?”

“Yeah,” Paige nodded.

“Do you know what’s happening?” Trish asked.

Paige shrugged. “I think we’re being taken over.”

“By those things in the ships?”

Paige nodded. “Are you alone?”

Trish nodded. “My friends were afraid to come with me. We got attacked yesterday.”

“Where are they?” Paige asked.