Chapter 12
The next morning, the first to rise were the girls, who were found to be quite well organised when it came to general self care, by the time their mother was awake, they were both dressed and breakfasted ready for the day, and there was little doubt this promptness was affected by their desire to find out what was happening. So, by the time the men awoke, they were rather behind, and Patricia fell to making breakfast for them, including some additional bacon for the two girls. They all sat up to the large back room table, Marcus and Theodore facing Dean and Robert at one end, and the two girls facing Patricia at the end closest the kitchen. Once they had removed the sleep from their eyes sufficiently that conversation trickled again from their lips, they began to consider the plans for the day.
"So, we are really gonna stock up like an earthquake or something?" Said Laurel, excited to see the men awake enough to talk.
"Hey, Laurel, what are you talking about? I sent you two to bed last night!" Said Patricia with a stern glare. Marcus got the feeling this was the equivalent of being told off in this house. "What do you have to say for yourself young lady?" She continued.
"Im sorry Ma, but it was scary, me and Kat couldn't sleep, and so we sat on the stairs to wait for you, then Kat fell asleep, and i got to listening... I'm sorry Ma," By this point there was a tear in her eye. It was quite clear the girls were not used to being reprimanded for bad behaviour, "If it helps, Kat didn't hear much but the beginning, about the mess in the city. I told her its ok, we aren't in the city."
Patricia stood and walked around the table and gave her eldest a rough squeeze of reassurance, then knelt beside her chair to meet her level, "You are getting to be a big girl now, soon to be a woman. But for now, you still obey what I tell you to obey. Understand?" Patricia put a gentle hand to her daughters cheek, holding her gaze reassuringly.
"I'm sorry ma. I should have listened. But I was scared."
"I wasn't scared ma! I was fine! Nothing scares me ma," Said Kat, Beaming with confidence.
"It's not hard to not be scared when you're asleep!" Laurel stuck her tongue out at Kat grinning, so Kat threw a small piece of bacon that stuck in her hair, then Laurel started making faces back at her, her fingers wiggling either side of her head. Kat responded by calling Laurel a bean pole, and soon everyone was involved in a good natured insult and funny face slinging contest.
After a few minutes of well appreciated madness, Patricia called order with a broad smile, "I better calm you lot down before you destroy the room!"
Dean and Robert looked at each other then at Patricia, "Sorry Ma!" They called out in unison.
"You jokers, is this the example you want to set for your sisters?"
"Of course not," Said Robert, "This is much better," he shifted in his chair so he was lounging sideways, a leg held up high on the chair arm, and started to pretend to pick his nose.
"Robert!" Patricia said with a laugh.
Marcus' turn to call to order came, as he pointed out the pressing matters, "As much as this fooling around is a welcome tonic for a tightened heart, i do think we should begin preparations. And i have some new ideas as well, anyone else think of anything useful overnight?"
Kat spoke first, unexpectedly, "Are we gonna live in the cars now?"
Marcus smiled, "Sort of, yeah. For a while." Kat had not expected Marcus to respond directly, she was a little shy at this prospect.
Kat turned to her mother, and whispered in her ear.
"She says, 'Can we get a bigger car please?'" Patricia laughed.
"Well," Marcus said, "I think that is actually a very good idea Kat."
In her surprise, Kat forgot her shyness, "Really?"
"Yes, Kat. If we have the big Van for the men, maybe we need another for you ladies? Your mums Land Rover is a good car, but a little cramped inside!"
Kat giggled, "Yeah it is, i couldnt sleep in there!"
Marcus continued, "I think we have some other things to do first tho," Marcus picked up the list of items they had put down the night before.
"I think our first best plan is to assess the actual level of effects on the infrastructure that we can." This came from Dean, apparently one of the slower ones to waking, he had been nursing a cup of strong sweet tea, hardly contributing more than a smile or two to conversation previously.
"Another good thought, that is actually a good first step. Lets get that done, then we can continue and assess what our needs are, and will be." Marcus seemed to have a natural talent for keeping order to a group discussion, and he fell into the role naturally, a fact the others appreciated all the more for Marcus' considerate and patient approach. They all agreed to his suggestion.
"So who wants to go to town?"
The first hand up was Kat's, quickly followed by Robert and Marcus and Theodore. The first thing Marcus did was look at Patricia then Kat, and detecting an almost unnoticeable shaking of her head, he stood from the table. He walked around and very gently took Kats hand and pushed it down back to her lap. As her hand went down, so her lower lip began to protrude. Marcus tried to console her, "Sorry Little Lady, this is a grownup outing. However if you stay here with your mom, I promise to find you somewhere fun as soon as i can, maybe this evening or tomorrow. Failing that, you can take me somewhere tomorrow evening. Hows that?"
Kat was clearly still unhappy at the prospect of missing out on the trip, but she had very much enjoyed the special care Marcus had applied, "Ok Marcus." She said, still a little shy.
Marcus felt it was as good a time as any to go explore the town nearby, rather than approaching the big city, they chose to go to the more local town near to Patricia's farmstead. Robert drove Patricia's Land Rover with great reverance, treating the strong machine with a care worthy of it's owner, and Dean rode shotgun with Marcus in the back. They drove down a long road that wound around the base of a hill, and into the small town. As they approached, there was little activity. The road they were on followed quite close to the hill which obscured the view. All that could be seen was the nearside walls of an old stone bridge, and part of the path on the other side disappearing through some tall trees that obscured the rest of the town from view. As they approached the bridge, Robert slowed.
"Why are we stopping?" Asked Marcus, his view from the back was not as clear as that of the brothers.
"The bridge is down." Stated Robert. The bridge had collapsed in on itself, as if the keystone had been removed and the structure had just collapsed. He Turned the Land Rover, aiming for a spot where the slope through the river was minimal, and then proceeded to pass through the water and up the other side, maintaining just enough speed to stop the wheels from spinning.
"Interesting. that bridge looks old, and now it collapses?" Thought Marcus to himself.
They continued down the road towards the town, driving through a shadowy corridor of green leaves and branches. As they pulled out of the dappled sunlight, the brightness of the unrestricted sun blinded them slightly, so Robert pulled over so they might look around. They saw an empty ghost town, not a single person to be found. They started off by searching the public business buildings, soon finding that they were as empty as they streets, they went on to searching houses. Each building was left in a tidy state, in some there were places where it appeared people had left half way through a job. The cafe for example, showed a line of dried out burgers burned to the cooking plate, a bowl of softened lettuce half shredded, even a customer side drinks refridgerator with its door open wide. Everywhere they looked there seemed to be signs of a sudden disappearance, items left half used, half opened, jobs half finished. Some places appeared to have been subject to earth shaking motions, leaving ornaments on the floor in pieces, fallen tableware, and at worst in a couple of places weak masonry had fallen. And alongside it all, the only electronics that were still functioning were those that ran on their own power cells. It was rather eerie to come upon a supposedly empty community with the only background noise that of the occasional ticking clock, as they moved from house to house. It took them most of the day, but the town was fairly small so they managed to search every building room for any people, and none were found. As they approached the part of the afternoon where the day becomes evening, Dean made a discovery.
Dean had been exploring in search of useful items, and had found so far a white duffel bag he filled with his items. He had a collection of torches and batteries, as well as some small radios from a shop, and then some walkie talkies and a pistol he had found in the police station. The pistol had required him to break open what he could only assume was the police station boss' office, and also the desk. As he came out the back of the police station, he walked out and across the back carpark, intending to continue his search in that direction. As he walked through the carpark, he felt his toe's drop as he tried to place them down. Next thing he knew he was falling, the tarmac that had been beneath his toes had crumbled. He had just enough time to panic and begin a scream before it was cut off as suddenly as it started by his impact with the floor. The first thing his sense told him of was dripping water a short distance away. He began to roll over, unhurt but heavily shaken. As he rolled onto his back, he felt a small smooth shape poking the small of his back, and he reached behind to find a small zippo lighter that lay on the ground. He turned it over in his fingers for a moment, and then looked up at the sky through the hole in the ceiling of the space he now found himself in. He strained his eyes to look around, as the obliquely cast sunlight failed to penetrate more than a foot or so below the edge of the hole, not far enough to enter the opening and light it up. Dean stood, and felt the ceiling of the hole was just high enough to be able to stand. The distance the hole itself cut through the surface layer was another two feet or so, forcing dean to realise that his chances of climbing out alone were unlikely. He shouted for the others and then went to look around for his duffel bag. Inside he found a torch and batteries, and put them together. He then turned it on, casting the beam around the hole, seeing it was in fact a damaged area of sewers, where the old pipes above had crumbled away to the rocks and caverns below. Following the sound of trickling water, he went up inside a solid piece of pipe which was tall enough to allow him to walk, albeit stooped. he didnt go far until he feared that he may lose the hole he entered by, so he returned. On his initial foray away from the place he had fallen he had been casting his beam up high, his fears of another collapse ruling his logical mind. As he returned to the skylight however, his beam was pointing down. The first thing he spotted was an expensive looking necklace, which he collected. Then, he found a mobile phone. Next came a watch with a smashed face. After having walked the around thirty foot back to the hole, he had collected around ten mobile phones, many rings, a few more necklaces, and a wide ranging collection of assorted jewelry, from piercings for a nipple or belly button to St. Christopher's as might be worn by a christian grandmother. Among the jewel was a staggering number of heavily worn wedding rings. Dean collected all the items he could find, now forgetting he was supposed to be getting out, and his mind beavering away on possibilities. After he had been down the hole for around thirty minutes, he heard a voice shouting his name, so he returned to the entrance, and began to shout in response. When he saw a face a few moments later, it was Theodore first. He grinned down the hole, and winked, then put his hands around his mouth and bellowed," Found him!" in no particular direction. A few more moments later and Robert Marcus and Theodore were hauling Dean out of the hole. Once he was sitting above and beside the hole, he tried to explain the sights he had seen below, and the others listened, "It was like an old sewer, you know with those huge ceramic pipes you can walk in? But it was all broken, collapsed in on itself, like after an earthquake. But that wasn't the wierdest thing. That was held by this," As he had been pulled up dean had kept the duffel bag with him, which he now poured out on the floor.
They all watched as engraved jewelry, mobile phones, cigarette cases, lighters, pagers, and even a few less recognisable items were spread around the floor between them. Marcus reached forward and picked up an item, it consisted of a stainless steel ball, bright and shiny, with a small protrusion on one side. If held right it looked like it might be a fancy walking stick handle.
"I know what this is." Said Marcus. "Its an artificial hip joint." Marcus held it up and turned it around. As his view came round to show him the end of the protuberance, he saw it was a hollow tube, and inside was a piece of corroded bone. He dropped it in disgust.
They began to look through the items, checking if anything was useful mostly, but also feeling a morbid curiosity and a kind of responsibility to find out what had caused this. Many of the items seemed to be things the old residents would not have given up without threat of death - wedding rings, engraved tokens of love. Whilst others seemed like they would require the death of the owner to allow seperation from the body, artificial joints, and pacemakers too. As they looked through the collection of oddities, Theodore picked up the zippo lighter than Dean had found first. He flipped the lid of the lighter open, and a green slimy liquid poured out of the cavity that would usually hold the flame. He dropped the lighter and pulled his hand away, narrowly avoiding letting the stuff touch his skin.
"Did you guys see that?" Theodore asked, "I think we should stop touching this stuff. That green slime reminds me of the stuff from my glasses in my kitchen." At this, all of them dropped the items they had touched, and all of them began to check their hands for green slime, and were happy to see none had been touched by it. Dean retrieved a large plastic refuse sack from one of the houses, and returned, putting all the items in the bag, excluding the green slime covered lighter. As he packed the safer collections. his torches and batteries, away, Dean passed the pistol to Marcus, "I found this, but if i try and use it i'd probably shoot myself in the foot." Marcus tucked it into the waistband at the back of his trousers, first taking care to check the safety. The Magazine went into his shirt pocket.
They were overall baffled as to the reasons behind the town being in the state that it was, emptied of all life. As they began to consider returning to the farm, Theodore had an idea.
"Don't they sometimes run cctv on back power systems? They must have something like that in the new supermarket, ill go look." Theodore went to the supermarket, and straight to the security office. He found that the hope of a working camera to show what might have happened was a failure, but as an after thought he decided to take the most recent few surveillance tapes, and the machine itself as he wanted the current tape, but he could not remove it with no power.
Whilst Dean had been wandering and found the hole, the others had found some more usual supplies, everything from sealed drinks to dried and tinned foods to hygiene items such as tissues and toothpaste and other things that might allow to continue civilized behaviour whilst limiting themselves to habitation aboard their transportation. The climbed into the vehicle with a little difficulty as they had stuffed every spare space with supplies.
As they were pulling away, they discussed the town, "This place is damned creepy. I almost wish there was some kind of damage, at least then it would make sense the people are gone. And those things from the hole, I cannot begin to think about what they mean." Stated Robert. Whilst he was the most motivated member of the group, the most capable of putting daily troubles aside in favour of keeping busy, these new problems seemed to be causing robert some severe discomfort, seemingly because he was very much acclimated to those day to day reliabilities that modern life offered, such as alarm clocks, and stable routines. Now that he had none of those reassurances to hold his mind steady, he seemed to be unravelling a little at a time. Add to these troubles the presence of the data and of the apparition from the city, and he was downright worrisome.
"Don't worry Robert, you are not the only one to be finding this all creepy. I swear i went into one of those houses earlier, and i know it was just me, but i got so anxious i thought somebody was following me. I came outside, and i was ok again. Seems that all it takes for us to lose our confidence is for someone to turn off the electricity. I think its the feeling of loneliness that gets me most." Theodore's attempt to bear his own annoyances was appreciated by Robert, and they continued to debate amongst themselves what parts had been most creepy. Dean's suggestion won, when he described how he had felt in the gloom of the sewer hole. They managed to turn the feeling of creepiness into one of joking camaraderie, as they drove the short way back to the farm. They all beamed a collection of grins, Marcus and Theodore included, when they pulled up the path to find Laurel and Kat ready with a large jug of cool orange juice. They climbed out of the Land Rover, and huddled into the porch, happy to forget their troubles in the town for a few moments.
"So, how did it go?" Asked Patricia, "You guys were gone a long time."
"We found some interesting things, altho not enough to make a conclusion for. So far we have an empty town, a strange collection of personal items, and some strange green goo." This was Dean.
"Ok... How about supplies?"
"There was no lack of anything we had listed, and we found a whole heap more besides. We couldn't fit everything in the Land Rover however, so we were thinking about taking the Van down there before we leave."
"Good plan. Sounds like we shall have all we need at least to begin with. Anything else?" She kinda threw her glance towards her daughters, in the hope of conveying her meaning.
"Yes, sort of. More the small beginnings of a conclusion about what might have happened. But that can wait for now."
"I thought as much. Well, not to worry. With you boys here, and the gracious presence of Marcus and Theodore, have gone a long was to staving off the fear i most certainly would have felt otherwise. And my daughters, so mature for their years, will be fine as long as i am fine, so thank you," She turned to address the other men as well, "Thanks to all of you."
As they finished their drinks, the girls were simply curious and adamant they must help to empty the Land Rover, so the men allowed them to go ahead and do the job for them, with minor supervision, of course Dean removed the refuse bag of personal items first. As the evening wore on, they all lounged out on the front lawn, amongst the vehicles and the sun, and relaxed. All bar theodore, that is, who decided to continue his research, and in this case his specific idea was the videotape from teh supermarket surveillance system. He had found a small vcr and television in the VAn which could run from the electricity provided by the idling engine, so he began to browse through the earlier tapes first, looking for any information. Soon, he had enough interesting parts to show, and he called in Marcus, and Dean and Robert, and Patricia. Robert decided he wanted to give it a miss, but the others came, whilst he stayed outside to try and keep the girls busy.
Once the adults were sitting on the sofa opposite the vcr and screen, Theodore pressed play and sat beside them. As the video played, he kept up a commentary, pointing to one of the four squares of video that quartered the screen as each became relevant.
"This first bit appears to be recorded, according to the timestamp on screen, about the same time as the news report. It is actually just visible," Theodore pointed to one of the squares of video, "on the rank of televisions near the front."
The video showed as a group of shoppers around the television stand grew, and in the silent image, groans and fearful cries, could be imagined as they saw the same video report as Marcus and Theodore had watched live. The group of people appeared to become quite upset when the live report concluded, and then began to dissipate, some running to the exit, one or two simply stunned and sitting down where they were.
"This next bit was recorded at about the same time as the lights went off, back before we left the city."
On the screen the store was empty, the time stamp reading 8:02pm. Nothing moved, and no people were in the shot. The shot continued still, until suddenly the lights all died. The screen went dark for a moment, and then began to blend red into the otherwise black view, as the camera's infrared capabilities were initialised. Then the shot continued, as before, in red.
"This next one is from approximately 9:30 the next day. This is about 2 hours before we arrived."
This shot was particularly worrying, as they clearly saw a large number of people milling around, some attempting to buy things, others just talking animatedly with others.
"So where did they all go? The shop alone seems to have around fifty people inside at least?" Marcus was confused.
"I can't explain. Just watch." As Theodore said this, Marcus caught tell of a little more than tiredness and worry clouding Theodore's gaze.
They continued to watch, the silence between them mirroring the silence on screen. As they watched, a green cloud seemed to appear on all the screens as if it was issuing forth from the air conditioning system inside the store, but also drifting in through the windows and the open doors. The people in the screens appeared to be silently screaming, as the cloud grew, so did the hysteria, verging on the edge of mass panic. The people held steady, however, until they were hemmed in by the unknown gaseous vapour. As the cloud continued to advance, it got to a point where they were all almost touched by it around the edges of the group. This seemed to be the tipping point, and the group of people seemed to roar silently, as one being, and stampede towards the exit. As they all watched, the people ran into the cloud, attempting to cover their mouths and noses with hands and odd items of clothing, and one by one they all fell to the ground, not a single person managing to penetrate more than ten feet into the cloud before falling to the ground dead. Patricia had gasped aloud as the first person had fallen to the ground. With the small size of each quarter screen, the details were difficult to discern, but Theodore directed them to continue watching. On the now still screen, the group of people were now in a slumped pile in the area in front of the main entrance to the store, arms and legs poking out in all directions, the only thing uniting the appearance of messy limbs was the stillness with which they existed. Theodore pressed the fast forward button and the screen accelerated forwards, and the screen began to show what seemed to be the effects of acid burning away the remains of the people until they were unrecognisable. The pile began to sag, and what seemed to be a trickle of draining liquid began to wind its way towards the still open doors. as the time wound on onscreen, the pile turned green, and slowly melted, trickling away alongthe line the initial draining liquid had directed,the odd lumpy item floating along with it, until the pile had almost disappeared, and then all the remaining marks on the floor seemed to be magically wiped away as the draining liquid sucked every molecule of the pile with it. As it disappeared out the door, the green liquid disappeared from view.
The silence among them seemed impenetrable. They sat for some long moments, not able to meet each others eyes even. Like the first ice-breaker ships attempting to explore the poles, the conversation was cold, slow, and mechanical when it started.
"What?" Said Dean, his usual oral skills shocked into a lapse.
"I think it was a gaseous form of the same stuff they put in my glasses. Those people melted just like the woodlice did." Although he managed more words, Theodore spoke with a hollow timbre, his quiet voice seeming loud and clunky in the shocked interior of the Van.
"I think you are right," Said Marcus, "I think this is the answer we set out for this morning."
Patricia spoke next, her voice carrying the sharp high pitched tones of shock. "You mean the answer to the question of are we really fucked? Seems like a clear yes to me." The image of this good natured well to do woman using such language seemed a vague representation of the strangeness of the situation, so much so that even Dean failed to notice the unusually colourful language of his stepmother.
"It depends on what we are seeing." Marcus achieved a feat of impressive willpower, keeping his wits tightly under control, he set about wrapping up the shock and confusion of the others.
"Theodore mentioned something to me when we first saw the apparition of the devil rising out of that building... He said that 'what we see is not always what we perceive it to be, just because the shape of the devil was there, it does not mean that it really was him'"
Marcus paused for a moment, then continued, "I think this is likely to be a similar case. Maybe the cloud was not what it seemed to be, maybe it is something we can combat. At least we have discovered that a gas mask will certainly not work against it."
Patricia was beginning to unravel now, she was not accustomed to fear of any kind, she led a simple quiet life, and this was beyond the realms of her acceptance. She had no space for mortal fear in her heart, and its attempts to force entry were having a rather detrimental effect on her wellbeing, "How can i save the girls if this killer smoke comes? What can we do?" Her eyes had gone wide, and she was beginning to enter the realms of psychological shock, when Dean came across and took both of her hands in his. To take her focus he raised them up and held them between their eyes, "Patty, come on, you are not alone. We will protect the girls together, whatever happens, you will not face any of this alone." As he came to the end of his words, Patricia looked up into his eyes, and the artificial layer of shock flattening her features and widening her eyes dissolved into despair, and she had a flood of tears begin to fall from her eyes as Dean took her in his arms, "Its ok Ma, we will keep you and the girls safe."
Dean sent Marcus inside to find the bottle of whisky kept in the welsh dresser inside, and he soon returned with the bottle, half full, and a small glass tumbler. He placed the glass on the table and prepared to pour, but as soon as he removed the lid, Patricia took the bottle and downed half of what was left, a quarter bottle of whisky gone in a moment, and set to steadying her nerves.
It only took a moment or two longer before the whisky had softened Patricia's mind and her sense's enough to permit her to calm down, and she simply sat there, looking forlorn and staring at her hands. She had Dean to keep her company and help her relax, and as such, the others were left to their own devices, Marcus chose to go outside and help keep the girls busy whilst Theodore had had a thought or two of his own whilst watching Patricia's unfortunate loss of composure, and he went off to pursue these.
The evening closed with Dean and Theodore cooking an evening meal and the adults sleeping early, having found the stress of new developments to be rather tiring. The girls had as yet been kept unawares, with Patricia convincing them she had become a little ill, and Marcus and Robert keeping them busy. Patricia was not a regular drinker by any stretch, she had kept that bottle of whisky in the cupboard for nearly four years, hardly touched, but by the end of the evening it was gone. Each of the adults except Robert had taken a draught of their own, leaving Patricia with a final nightcap. The last thing Patricia did before bed was to go and lock every door and window that she could. Even though she knew it would afford little protection against the cloud, it was all she could do.
"So, we are really gonna stock up like an earthquake or something?" Said Laurel, excited to see the men awake enough to talk.
"Hey, Laurel, what are you talking about? I sent you two to bed last night!" Said Patricia with a stern glare. Marcus got the feeling this was the equivalent of being told off in this house. "What do you have to say for yourself young lady?" She continued.
"Im sorry Ma, but it was scary, me and Kat couldn't sleep, and so we sat on the stairs to wait for you, then Kat fell asleep, and i got to listening... I'm sorry Ma," By this point there was a tear in her eye. It was quite clear the girls were not used to being reprimanded for bad behaviour, "If it helps, Kat didn't hear much but the beginning, about the mess in the city. I told her its ok, we aren't in the city."
Patricia stood and walked around the table and gave her eldest a rough squeeze of reassurance, then knelt beside her chair to meet her level, "You are getting to be a big girl now, soon to be a woman. But for now, you still obey what I tell you to obey. Understand?" Patricia put a gentle hand to her daughters cheek, holding her gaze reassuringly.
"I'm sorry ma. I should have listened. But I was scared."
"I wasn't scared ma! I was fine! Nothing scares me ma," Said Kat, Beaming with confidence.
"It's not hard to not be scared when you're asleep!" Laurel stuck her tongue out at Kat grinning, so Kat threw a small piece of bacon that stuck in her hair, then Laurel started making faces back at her, her fingers wiggling either side of her head. Kat responded by calling Laurel a bean pole, and soon everyone was involved in a good natured insult and funny face slinging contest.
After a few minutes of well appreciated madness, Patricia called order with a broad smile, "I better calm you lot down before you destroy the room!"
Dean and Robert looked at each other then at Patricia, "Sorry Ma!" They called out in unison.
"You jokers, is this the example you want to set for your sisters?"
"Of course not," Said Robert, "This is much better," he shifted in his chair so he was lounging sideways, a leg held up high on the chair arm, and started to pretend to pick his nose.
"Robert!" Patricia said with a laugh.
Marcus' turn to call to order came, as he pointed out the pressing matters, "As much as this fooling around is a welcome tonic for a tightened heart, i do think we should begin preparations. And i have some new ideas as well, anyone else think of anything useful overnight?"
Kat spoke first, unexpectedly, "Are we gonna live in the cars now?"
Marcus smiled, "Sort of, yeah. For a while." Kat had not expected Marcus to respond directly, she was a little shy at this prospect.
Kat turned to her mother, and whispered in her ear.
"She says, 'Can we get a bigger car please?'" Patricia laughed.
"Well," Marcus said, "I think that is actually a very good idea Kat."
In her surprise, Kat forgot her shyness, "Really?"
"Yes, Kat. If we have the big Van for the men, maybe we need another for you ladies? Your mums Land Rover is a good car, but a little cramped inside!"
Kat giggled, "Yeah it is, i couldnt sleep in there!"
Marcus continued, "I think we have some other things to do first tho," Marcus picked up the list of items they had put down the night before.
"I think our first best plan is to assess the actual level of effects on the infrastructure that we can." This came from Dean, apparently one of the slower ones to waking, he had been nursing a cup of strong sweet tea, hardly contributing more than a smile or two to conversation previously.
"Another good thought, that is actually a good first step. Lets get that done, then we can continue and assess what our needs are, and will be." Marcus seemed to have a natural talent for keeping order to a group discussion, and he fell into the role naturally, a fact the others appreciated all the more for Marcus' considerate and patient approach. They all agreed to his suggestion.
"So who wants to go to town?"
The first hand up was Kat's, quickly followed by Robert and Marcus and Theodore. The first thing Marcus did was look at Patricia then Kat, and detecting an almost unnoticeable shaking of her head, he stood from the table. He walked around and very gently took Kats hand and pushed it down back to her lap. As her hand went down, so her lower lip began to protrude. Marcus tried to console her, "Sorry Little Lady, this is a grownup outing. However if you stay here with your mom, I promise to find you somewhere fun as soon as i can, maybe this evening or tomorrow. Failing that, you can take me somewhere tomorrow evening. Hows that?"
Kat was clearly still unhappy at the prospect of missing out on the trip, but she had very much enjoyed the special care Marcus had applied, "Ok Marcus." She said, still a little shy.
Marcus felt it was as good a time as any to go explore the town nearby, rather than approaching the big city, they chose to go to the more local town near to Patricia's farmstead. Robert drove Patricia's Land Rover with great reverance, treating the strong machine with a care worthy of it's owner, and Dean rode shotgun with Marcus in the back. They drove down a long road that wound around the base of a hill, and into the small town. As they approached, there was little activity. The road they were on followed quite close to the hill which obscured the view. All that could be seen was the nearside walls of an old stone bridge, and part of the path on the other side disappearing through some tall trees that obscured the rest of the town from view. As they approached the bridge, Robert slowed.
"Why are we stopping?" Asked Marcus, his view from the back was not as clear as that of the brothers.
"The bridge is down." Stated Robert. The bridge had collapsed in on itself, as if the keystone had been removed and the structure had just collapsed. He Turned the Land Rover, aiming for a spot where the slope through the river was minimal, and then proceeded to pass through the water and up the other side, maintaining just enough speed to stop the wheels from spinning.
"Interesting. that bridge looks old, and now it collapses?" Thought Marcus to himself.
They continued down the road towards the town, driving through a shadowy corridor of green leaves and branches. As they pulled out of the dappled sunlight, the brightness of the unrestricted sun blinded them slightly, so Robert pulled over so they might look around. They saw an empty ghost town, not a single person to be found. They started off by searching the public business buildings, soon finding that they were as empty as they streets, they went on to searching houses. Each building was left in a tidy state, in some there were places where it appeared people had left half way through a job. The cafe for example, showed a line of dried out burgers burned to the cooking plate, a bowl of softened lettuce half shredded, even a customer side drinks refridgerator with its door open wide. Everywhere they looked there seemed to be signs of a sudden disappearance, items left half used, half opened, jobs half finished. Some places appeared to have been subject to earth shaking motions, leaving ornaments on the floor in pieces, fallen tableware, and at worst in a couple of places weak masonry had fallen. And alongside it all, the only electronics that were still functioning were those that ran on their own power cells. It was rather eerie to come upon a supposedly empty community with the only background noise that of the occasional ticking clock, as they moved from house to house. It took them most of the day, but the town was fairly small so they managed to search every building room for any people, and none were found. As they approached the part of the afternoon where the day becomes evening, Dean made a discovery.
Dean had been exploring in search of useful items, and had found so far a white duffel bag he filled with his items. He had a collection of torches and batteries, as well as some small radios from a shop, and then some walkie talkies and a pistol he had found in the police station. The pistol had required him to break open what he could only assume was the police station boss' office, and also the desk. As he came out the back of the police station, he walked out and across the back carpark, intending to continue his search in that direction. As he walked through the carpark, he felt his toe's drop as he tried to place them down. Next thing he knew he was falling, the tarmac that had been beneath his toes had crumbled. He had just enough time to panic and begin a scream before it was cut off as suddenly as it started by his impact with the floor. The first thing his sense told him of was dripping water a short distance away. He began to roll over, unhurt but heavily shaken. As he rolled onto his back, he felt a small smooth shape poking the small of his back, and he reached behind to find a small zippo lighter that lay on the ground. He turned it over in his fingers for a moment, and then looked up at the sky through the hole in the ceiling of the space he now found himself in. He strained his eyes to look around, as the obliquely cast sunlight failed to penetrate more than a foot or so below the edge of the hole, not far enough to enter the opening and light it up. Dean stood, and felt the ceiling of the hole was just high enough to be able to stand. The distance the hole itself cut through the surface layer was another two feet or so, forcing dean to realise that his chances of climbing out alone were unlikely. He shouted for the others and then went to look around for his duffel bag. Inside he found a torch and batteries, and put them together. He then turned it on, casting the beam around the hole, seeing it was in fact a damaged area of sewers, where the old pipes above had crumbled away to the rocks and caverns below. Following the sound of trickling water, he went up inside a solid piece of pipe which was tall enough to allow him to walk, albeit stooped. he didnt go far until he feared that he may lose the hole he entered by, so he returned. On his initial foray away from the place he had fallen he had been casting his beam up high, his fears of another collapse ruling his logical mind. As he returned to the skylight however, his beam was pointing down. The first thing he spotted was an expensive looking necklace, which he collected. Then, he found a mobile phone. Next came a watch with a smashed face. After having walked the around thirty foot back to the hole, he had collected around ten mobile phones, many rings, a few more necklaces, and a wide ranging collection of assorted jewelry, from piercings for a nipple or belly button to St. Christopher's as might be worn by a christian grandmother. Among the jewel was a staggering number of heavily worn wedding rings. Dean collected all the items he could find, now forgetting he was supposed to be getting out, and his mind beavering away on possibilities. After he had been down the hole for around thirty minutes, he heard a voice shouting his name, so he returned to the entrance, and began to shout in response. When he saw a face a few moments later, it was Theodore first. He grinned down the hole, and winked, then put his hands around his mouth and bellowed," Found him!" in no particular direction. A few more moments later and Robert Marcus and Theodore were hauling Dean out of the hole. Once he was sitting above and beside the hole, he tried to explain the sights he had seen below, and the others listened, "It was like an old sewer, you know with those huge ceramic pipes you can walk in? But it was all broken, collapsed in on itself, like after an earthquake. But that wasn't the wierdest thing. That was held by this," As he had been pulled up dean had kept the duffel bag with him, which he now poured out on the floor.
They all watched as engraved jewelry, mobile phones, cigarette cases, lighters, pagers, and even a few less recognisable items were spread around the floor between them. Marcus reached forward and picked up an item, it consisted of a stainless steel ball, bright and shiny, with a small protrusion on one side. If held right it looked like it might be a fancy walking stick handle.
"I know what this is." Said Marcus. "Its an artificial hip joint." Marcus held it up and turned it around. As his view came round to show him the end of the protuberance, he saw it was a hollow tube, and inside was a piece of corroded bone. He dropped it in disgust.
They began to look through the items, checking if anything was useful mostly, but also feeling a morbid curiosity and a kind of responsibility to find out what had caused this. Many of the items seemed to be things the old residents would not have given up without threat of death - wedding rings, engraved tokens of love. Whilst others seemed like they would require the death of the owner to allow seperation from the body, artificial joints, and pacemakers too. As they looked through the collection of oddities, Theodore picked up the zippo lighter than Dean had found first. He flipped the lid of the lighter open, and a green slimy liquid poured out of the cavity that would usually hold the flame. He dropped the lighter and pulled his hand away, narrowly avoiding letting the stuff touch his skin.
"Did you guys see that?" Theodore asked, "I think we should stop touching this stuff. That green slime reminds me of the stuff from my glasses in my kitchen." At this, all of them dropped the items they had touched, and all of them began to check their hands for green slime, and were happy to see none had been touched by it. Dean retrieved a large plastic refuse sack from one of the houses, and returned, putting all the items in the bag, excluding the green slime covered lighter. As he packed the safer collections. his torches and batteries, away, Dean passed the pistol to Marcus, "I found this, but if i try and use it i'd probably shoot myself in the foot." Marcus tucked it into the waistband at the back of his trousers, first taking care to check the safety. The Magazine went into his shirt pocket.
They were overall baffled as to the reasons behind the town being in the state that it was, emptied of all life. As they began to consider returning to the farm, Theodore had an idea.
"Don't they sometimes run cctv on back power systems? They must have something like that in the new supermarket, ill go look." Theodore went to the supermarket, and straight to the security office. He found that the hope of a working camera to show what might have happened was a failure, but as an after thought he decided to take the most recent few surveillance tapes, and the machine itself as he wanted the current tape, but he could not remove it with no power.
Whilst Dean had been wandering and found the hole, the others had found some more usual supplies, everything from sealed drinks to dried and tinned foods to hygiene items such as tissues and toothpaste and other things that might allow to continue civilized behaviour whilst limiting themselves to habitation aboard their transportation. The climbed into the vehicle with a little difficulty as they had stuffed every spare space with supplies.
As they were pulling away, they discussed the town, "This place is damned creepy. I almost wish there was some kind of damage, at least then it would make sense the people are gone. And those things from the hole, I cannot begin to think about what they mean." Stated Robert. Whilst he was the most motivated member of the group, the most capable of putting daily troubles aside in favour of keeping busy, these new problems seemed to be causing robert some severe discomfort, seemingly because he was very much acclimated to those day to day reliabilities that modern life offered, such as alarm clocks, and stable routines. Now that he had none of those reassurances to hold his mind steady, he seemed to be unravelling a little at a time. Add to these troubles the presence of the data and of the apparition from the city, and he was downright worrisome.
"Don't worry Robert, you are not the only one to be finding this all creepy. I swear i went into one of those houses earlier, and i know it was just me, but i got so anxious i thought somebody was following me. I came outside, and i was ok again. Seems that all it takes for us to lose our confidence is for someone to turn off the electricity. I think its the feeling of loneliness that gets me most." Theodore's attempt to bear his own annoyances was appreciated by Robert, and they continued to debate amongst themselves what parts had been most creepy. Dean's suggestion won, when he described how he had felt in the gloom of the sewer hole. They managed to turn the feeling of creepiness into one of joking camaraderie, as they drove the short way back to the farm. They all beamed a collection of grins, Marcus and Theodore included, when they pulled up the path to find Laurel and Kat ready with a large jug of cool orange juice. They climbed out of the Land Rover, and huddled into the porch, happy to forget their troubles in the town for a few moments.
"So, how did it go?" Asked Patricia, "You guys were gone a long time."
"We found some interesting things, altho not enough to make a conclusion for. So far we have an empty town, a strange collection of personal items, and some strange green goo." This was Dean.
"Ok... How about supplies?"
"There was no lack of anything we had listed, and we found a whole heap more besides. We couldn't fit everything in the Land Rover however, so we were thinking about taking the Van down there before we leave."
"Good plan. Sounds like we shall have all we need at least to begin with. Anything else?" She kinda threw her glance towards her daughters, in the hope of conveying her meaning.
"Yes, sort of. More the small beginnings of a conclusion about what might have happened. But that can wait for now."
"I thought as much. Well, not to worry. With you boys here, and the gracious presence of Marcus and Theodore, have gone a long was to staving off the fear i most certainly would have felt otherwise. And my daughters, so mature for their years, will be fine as long as i am fine, so thank you," She turned to address the other men as well, "Thanks to all of you."
As they finished their drinks, the girls were simply curious and adamant they must help to empty the Land Rover, so the men allowed them to go ahead and do the job for them, with minor supervision, of course Dean removed the refuse bag of personal items first. As the evening wore on, they all lounged out on the front lawn, amongst the vehicles and the sun, and relaxed. All bar theodore, that is, who decided to continue his research, and in this case his specific idea was the videotape from teh supermarket surveillance system. He had found a small vcr and television in the VAn which could run from the electricity provided by the idling engine, so he began to browse through the earlier tapes first, looking for any information. Soon, he had enough interesting parts to show, and he called in Marcus, and Dean and Robert, and Patricia. Robert decided he wanted to give it a miss, but the others came, whilst he stayed outside to try and keep the girls busy.
Once the adults were sitting on the sofa opposite the vcr and screen, Theodore pressed play and sat beside them. As the video played, he kept up a commentary, pointing to one of the four squares of video that quartered the screen as each became relevant.
"This first bit appears to be recorded, according to the timestamp on screen, about the same time as the news report. It is actually just visible," Theodore pointed to one of the squares of video, "on the rank of televisions near the front."
The video showed as a group of shoppers around the television stand grew, and in the silent image, groans and fearful cries, could be imagined as they saw the same video report as Marcus and Theodore had watched live. The group of people appeared to become quite upset when the live report concluded, and then began to dissipate, some running to the exit, one or two simply stunned and sitting down where they were.
"This next bit was recorded at about the same time as the lights went off, back before we left the city."
On the screen the store was empty, the time stamp reading 8:02pm. Nothing moved, and no people were in the shot. The shot continued still, until suddenly the lights all died. The screen went dark for a moment, and then began to blend red into the otherwise black view, as the camera's infrared capabilities were initialised. Then the shot continued, as before, in red.
"This next one is from approximately 9:30 the next day. This is about 2 hours before we arrived."
This shot was particularly worrying, as they clearly saw a large number of people milling around, some attempting to buy things, others just talking animatedly with others.
"So where did they all go? The shop alone seems to have around fifty people inside at least?" Marcus was confused.
"I can't explain. Just watch." As Theodore said this, Marcus caught tell of a little more than tiredness and worry clouding Theodore's gaze.
They continued to watch, the silence between them mirroring the silence on screen. As they watched, a green cloud seemed to appear on all the screens as if it was issuing forth from the air conditioning system inside the store, but also drifting in through the windows and the open doors. The people in the screens appeared to be silently screaming, as the cloud grew, so did the hysteria, verging on the edge of mass panic. The people held steady, however, until they were hemmed in by the unknown gaseous vapour. As the cloud continued to advance, it got to a point where they were all almost touched by it around the edges of the group. This seemed to be the tipping point, and the group of people seemed to roar silently, as one being, and stampede towards the exit. As they all watched, the people ran into the cloud, attempting to cover their mouths and noses with hands and odd items of clothing, and one by one they all fell to the ground, not a single person managing to penetrate more than ten feet into the cloud before falling to the ground dead. Patricia had gasped aloud as the first person had fallen to the ground. With the small size of each quarter screen, the details were difficult to discern, but Theodore directed them to continue watching. On the now still screen, the group of people were now in a slumped pile in the area in front of the main entrance to the store, arms and legs poking out in all directions, the only thing uniting the appearance of messy limbs was the stillness with which they existed. Theodore pressed the fast forward button and the screen accelerated forwards, and the screen began to show what seemed to be the effects of acid burning away the remains of the people until they were unrecognisable. The pile began to sag, and what seemed to be a trickle of draining liquid began to wind its way towards the still open doors. as the time wound on onscreen, the pile turned green, and slowly melted, trickling away alongthe line the initial draining liquid had directed,the odd lumpy item floating along with it, until the pile had almost disappeared, and then all the remaining marks on the floor seemed to be magically wiped away as the draining liquid sucked every molecule of the pile with it. As it disappeared out the door, the green liquid disappeared from view.
The silence among them seemed impenetrable. They sat for some long moments, not able to meet each others eyes even. Like the first ice-breaker ships attempting to explore the poles, the conversation was cold, slow, and mechanical when it started.
"What?" Said Dean, his usual oral skills shocked into a lapse.
"I think it was a gaseous form of the same stuff they put in my glasses. Those people melted just like the woodlice did." Although he managed more words, Theodore spoke with a hollow timbre, his quiet voice seeming loud and clunky in the shocked interior of the Van.
"I think you are right," Said Marcus, "I think this is the answer we set out for this morning."
Patricia spoke next, her voice carrying the sharp high pitched tones of shock. "You mean the answer to the question of are we really fucked? Seems like a clear yes to me." The image of this good natured well to do woman using such language seemed a vague representation of the strangeness of the situation, so much so that even Dean failed to notice the unusually colourful language of his stepmother.
"It depends on what we are seeing." Marcus achieved a feat of impressive willpower, keeping his wits tightly under control, he set about wrapping up the shock and confusion of the others.
"Theodore mentioned something to me when we first saw the apparition of the devil rising out of that building... He said that 'what we see is not always what we perceive it to be, just because the shape of the devil was there, it does not mean that it really was him'"
Marcus paused for a moment, then continued, "I think this is likely to be a similar case. Maybe the cloud was not what it seemed to be, maybe it is something we can combat. At least we have discovered that a gas mask will certainly not work against it."
Patricia was beginning to unravel now, she was not accustomed to fear of any kind, she led a simple quiet life, and this was beyond the realms of her acceptance. She had no space for mortal fear in her heart, and its attempts to force entry were having a rather detrimental effect on her wellbeing, "How can i save the girls if this killer smoke comes? What can we do?" Her eyes had gone wide, and she was beginning to enter the realms of psychological shock, when Dean came across and took both of her hands in his. To take her focus he raised them up and held them between their eyes, "Patty, come on, you are not alone. We will protect the girls together, whatever happens, you will not face any of this alone." As he came to the end of his words, Patricia looked up into his eyes, and the artificial layer of shock flattening her features and widening her eyes dissolved into despair, and she had a flood of tears begin to fall from her eyes as Dean took her in his arms, "Its ok Ma, we will keep you and the girls safe."
Dean sent Marcus inside to find the bottle of whisky kept in the welsh dresser inside, and he soon returned with the bottle, half full, and a small glass tumbler. He placed the glass on the table and prepared to pour, but as soon as he removed the lid, Patricia took the bottle and downed half of what was left, a quarter bottle of whisky gone in a moment, and set to steadying her nerves.
It only took a moment or two longer before the whisky had softened Patricia's mind and her sense's enough to permit her to calm down, and she simply sat there, looking forlorn and staring at her hands. She had Dean to keep her company and help her relax, and as such, the others were left to their own devices, Marcus chose to go outside and help keep the girls busy whilst Theodore had had a thought or two of his own whilst watching Patricia's unfortunate loss of composure, and he went off to pursue these.
The evening closed with Dean and Theodore cooking an evening meal and the adults sleeping early, having found the stress of new developments to be rather tiring. The girls had as yet been kept unawares, with Patricia convincing them she had become a little ill, and Marcus and Robert keeping them busy. Patricia was not a regular drinker by any stretch, she had kept that bottle of whisky in the cupboard for nearly four years, hardly touched, but by the end of the evening it was gone. Each of the adults except Robert had taken a draught of their own, leaving Patricia with a final nightcap. The last thing Patricia did before bed was to go and lock every door and window that she could. Even though she knew it would afford little protection against the cloud, it was all she could do.