Instinct
Authors: Ike Hamill
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Genre Fiction, #Horror, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Science Fiction, #Alien Invasion, #Post-Apocalyptic
Instinct
B
Y
IKE HAMILL
Special Thanks:
Cover design by BelleDesign [BelleDesign.org]
Copyright © 2014 Ike Hamill
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events have been fabricated only to entertain. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the consent of Ike Hamill.
Dedicated to:
Bruno & Finn
Thanks to Emilio Millán,
who gave me this laptop
so I could write.
Bruno tried to
eat the laptop, but it
survived.
Note to readers:
This is the second book of a pair. If you haven’t read
Extinct
, please turn back now. If you choose to press on, I’m not sure any of the following will make sense. You can find
Extinct
on Amazon, or contact me at[email protected] and I’ll help you get a copy. Enjoy!
CHAPTER 1: NEW HAMPSHIRE
“Y
OU
READY
?” P
ETE
ASKED
. His voice was just a whisper.
Brad held up a finger. He pushed aside the curtain and looked across the yard. There was just enough starlight for him to see the minivan parked at the curb. He was more concerned with the concrete walkway that led from the front door to the sidewalk.
Brad turned and pointed to his eyes. He then motioned for Pete.
Pete crawled over to the window and looked. When he drew close, Brad could smell the fear on Pete. It was the same scent he smelled on himself whenever he took off his jacket.
“That was there,” Pete whispered, motioning out the window. “It’s runoff.”
“Don’t step on it. Just in case,” Brad said. The last three words brought back a memory of his grandfather.
Pete moved back around to the boy’s feet and Brad took the shoulders. They exchanged a glance and lifted. The boy wasn’t heavy, but when they moved through doors or had to make a dash across a lawn, it was easier for two people to carry him. Pete backed up to the door and held the boy’s ankles with one hand while he opened it.
After looking back and forth, Pete moved. They barely slowed for the steps down to the walk. The only time Pete hesitated was when he reached the thin stream of water that ran across the concrete walk. It was a thin dark streak in the starlight. He took a giant step over, moved a little, and then waited for Brad to do the same. The door of the minivan slid open as they arrived. Pete and Brad handed the boy through to the hands that came out from the darkness and then climbed in behind him.
Brad slid the door closed most of the way. He waited for Romie to start the wheels turning before he latched it.
“I need light,” Romie said.
“Keep moving,” Pete said. “I’m on it.”
He ducked down under her legs before he turned on his little flashlight.
Brad helped Lisa lift the boy into place so she could snap a seatbelt over him. Lisa put her hands on his young cheeks and lifted his head up. She looked into his blank eyes and held his head for a second, like she was trying to balance it on his neck. After she was satisfied that it would stay up, she let go and moved into her own seat. Brad sat in the third row.
“Got it,” Pete said. When he popped the fuse back into the socket, the headlights came on.
“That’s better,” Romie said.
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Brad looked out his window at the passing houses. They were all dark. Some of the front doors were open, inviting him into their blackness. He tried to imagine someone asleep in one of the houses. It was impossible. It felt like these houses had been empty forever, and would always be empty. They had a derelict, abandoned look, like empty skulls. There was no life inside.
They rarely talked when they traveled. Romie would slow whenever she saw a streak of liquid across the pavement. Pete would either motion for her to drive through, or signal that they should find another way around. They made terrible progress. Sometimes they would have to backtrack a mile or two just to find another path. Pete always navigated, and he always found another route when their road was blocked by the killer liquid, but sometimes the diversion would add hours to the trip.
Brad tried to sleep. It was impossible. Every time his eyes drifted shut, an alarm would go off in his brain. He felt like he was falling and he would shoot his legs out to catch himself. His eyes would fly back open and his body would pulse with electricity.
“Stop kicking my seat,” Lisa whispered.
“Sorry,” Brad said.
When the horizon started to glow orange, Pete directed them uphill. It always felt safest at the higher elevations. They had to get in a building before the liquid started to move again. It moved more in the daylight.
Romie pulled up in front of a tall three-story house. Brick stairs were cut into the hill. The door that led out the side porch was wide open.
Lisa unbuckled the boy.
“I got him,” Brad said.
“Are you sure?”
Brad nodded.
Pete, Romie, and Lisa went around back for the bags and Brad pulled on the boy’s armpits as he backed out of the van. He crouched on the curb and pulled the boy closer until his waist was on Brad’s shoulder. He pulled at the side of the van to stand up with the load.
Brad was panting by the time he got to the top of the stairs. Lisa came out of the house after dropping off their bags. She helped Brad carry the boy into the house. They laid him out on a day bed in the den.
Lisa pulled a bottle of eyedrops from her pocket and squeezed two drops into each of the boy’s eyes. She closed his lids and pulled a blanket over him.
“He needs a bath,” Lisa said.
Brad nodded. “We all do, I think.”
“Good point,” she said. She walked out and left him there. Brad sat down in the chair behind the desk. He didn’t mean to fall asleep. He was looking through the window at the brightening sky when he drifted off.
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“You want some soup?”
Brad opened his eyes to bright sun. His eyes went first to the boy, who was in the same spot where they’d left him. He blinked and saw Lisa standing in the doorway. She was holding out a steaming bowl.
“We should get him on the toilet,” Brad said.
“He can wait a few minutes,” Lisa said. “He’s not squirming yet.”
Brad nodded. He stood and propped himself up on the desk until his legs would support him. They were nearly numb from the chair. He took the soup and thanked Lisa.
“What day is it?” Brad asked. He lifted a spoon. It was the vegetable soup with the little letters in it. His mouth already anticipated the salty taste.
“Six,” she said.
“I can’t do it,” Brad said.
“It will be tough,” Lisa said. She looked over to the boy. She walked alongside his daybed and laid a hand on his forehead. She pulled back the blankets to expose his upper body before she left.
✪
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The kitchen table was covered with Pete’s maps.
There was no reason to keep their voices down, but Brad couldn’t help it.
“I know we said one more week,” Brad said. “I can’t do it.”
“I feel the same way,” Pete said, “but we have to. Robby would be the first person to say it.”
“It’s the same as Ted,” Romie said. “It’s the same as with you.”
“No,” Brad said. He shook his head. “It’s not the same. He’s right in there, and he’s still alive. If we put food in his mouth, he swallows. If we sit him on the toilet, he goes.”
“Take a closer look at him, Brad,” Romie said. “Even if he woke up, I doubt he’d be able to walk. He’s wasting away.”
“You carried him up the stairs on your shoulder. Do you think you’d have been able to do that two weeks ago?” Pete asked.
“Maybe I’m getting stronger,” Brad said.
They sat in silence for a minute. Lisa stood and went back to the cabinets. She sorted through the contents again, looking for anything else they should take with them.
“I’ll stay here with him. This place is up on a hill. I don’t see any damp pavement around. When Robby wakes up, we’ll come track you down,” Brad said.
“How do you think you’re going to find us?” Pete asked.
“Forget about Robby waking up,” Romie said. “Who’s going to stop you if you try to walk out into the daylight? You think just because we’ve traveled a few miles, those things aren’t around to snatch you up into the air? How long ago was it that Pete tried to walk away? Three days ago?”
“Four,” Lisa said.
“Just because nobody has tried to walk off in four days, you think it’s safe?” Romie asked.
Brad waited to see if anyone else would try to convince him. He gave his final argument. “I saw Robby do this before. Granted, it was only for a few minutes, but I saw this exact behavior. Judy called it his ‘deep cycles’. When Robby is considering a really complex problem, he sometimes disappears into himself. The good news is that when he wakes up, he has the solution to the problem. Don’t you want to know what the solution is?”