Inhuman [Book 1] Page 2

  Once again, Jessica seemed skeptical. “Every state? You must have heard wrong. That’s impossible.”

  “No.”

  “Then he must have heard wrong.”

  Something tells me he didn’t…

  To make her feel better, I nodded in agreement and replied, “You’re probably right.”

  Out of nowhere, I remembered hearing that a bathroom was a safe place to hide during an earthquake. “It might happen again, so take Sophia in the bathroom and keep reading to her. There’s nothing in there that could fall and hurt you. I want to go out and talk to everyone – see what they know. Maybe someone with a different company has service.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Just in case.”

  When I stepped outside, Jim was heading back from the slowly growing neighborhood meeting, and even more people were starting to wander over from the next street. He waved to me and ran the rest of the way.

  The look on his face was one of disbelief and worry. Given his usual cavalier attitude about things, I took it as a very serious sign. “Don’t bother. They don’t know shit either. No one else has service and one guy said he can’t even pick up a signal on his little battery operated radio… That’s really weird, Chris.”

  The sun was shining directly into my eyes, causing me to hold my hand up in front of my face. So I stepped next to Jim and turned the other way – blinking and widening my eyes to rid them of the lingering glare. “Isn’t that supposed to work no matter what happens?”

  “Uh, yeah. That’s the whole fuckin’ point” he remarked sarcastically.

  I folded my arms across my chest and looked down at one of the dead patches of grass in my front yard. “What should we do?”

  Jim started laughing. “What else do you do in a situation like this? Have a few beers and some shots with me man. It’s gonna be boring as hell until the power cuts back on.” A mischievous grin crept across his face and he tilted his head. “Plus I cut a few plants down last week, so it’s ready for testing.”

  Of course, I was tempted. “You know I want to, but – family. I gotta get back. You should just come over and hang out with us. We can smoke out back.”

  He waved me off. “Yeah, maybe a little later.”

  Since it had been awhile and I hadn’t felt even the slightest tremor, when I made it back inside I told Jessica that it was alright for them to come out of the bathroom. It seemed like she was right. It was over.

  All we could do for the rest of the night was talk, read and play board games with Sophia. Luckily, because of Jessica, we were fully stocked with a wide array of scented candles… It was something I’d always poke fun at her about.

  If I were a single man, I’d be sitting alone with a flashlight taped to my head or some shit like that.

  Day 2

  Alright, it should be back on by now. That’s how it always works. The power company just needed some time to fix whatever was damaged.

  I turned over to see that Jessica and Sophia were still fast asleep. After rubbing my eyes, I gently pushed the covers aside and inched my way out of bed. The blinds were open and the sun was starting to shine in the room, so I did my best to close them without making a sound. Then I cautiously staggered into the next room, picked up the remote and tried to turn on the TV.

  Still nothing?

  I didn’t even know what time it was. Everything in the house that did tell the time depended on an electrical outlet to function. The only exception was the clock in the kitchen, but that was broken.

  Before long, I recalled that my father’s watch was somewhere around. It was one of the things I made sure to keep after he died – the first time I ever saw it off of his wrist. For whatever reason, I just couldn’t get used to wearing it. Mainly because I spent so much time digging around an engine bay.

  After rummaging through almost all the drawers in the room, I found it under some old bills and fastened it around my left wrist. It was only 6:30am.

  We did go to bed early out of boredom.

  I considered giving it another half hour, but I was too anxious to sit around and wait so I headed over to Jim’s. The whole street was completely silent, making it obvious that everyone else was still sleeping.

  When walking up to his house, I could see through the front window into the kitchen. He was standing at the sink in his underwear, seemingly preparing something to eat. They were tighty-whities, so I couldn’t help but start cracking up.

  The second I banged on the door I heard a loud crash, followed by Jim cursing. He yelled out “Gimme a minute!” I just laughed a little harder.

  I did kind of bang unnecessarily loud.

  He opened the door to find me with a rather large smirk on my face. “Never would have taken you for a tighty-whitey man, Jim.”

  He frowned – clearly embarrassed. “Fuck you, man, I can’t stand boxers. They always get all tangled up!”

  I chuckled a few more times, said, “Uh-huh” and gave him a sarcastic nod. “So you never came by last night. What happened?”

  He yawned and put his hands behind his head. “I was bored, so I just got shitfaced and passed out early. I was hoping to wake up with the power back on so we can find out what the hell happened.” He pulled out his phone and shook it angrily. “Damn thing still isn’t working.”

  I shook my head. “This isn’t right.”

  “They mentioned some pretty large earthquakes. Like the kind that make buildings and shit fall down.”

  “I’m telling you, these things work off satellites.”

  “Must just mean there’s more to it than that.”

  Having no way to know for sure, it was a question I had to let go for the time being. “So who has the radio?”

  “Eric from a few houses down. Maybe he’s picking something up by now. Let’s go ask.”

  Jim started to walk outside. I put my hand out and said, “Well it’s not even seven o’clock yet. He’s probably still sleeping.”

  He let out a single, forceful laugh. “Man, I don’t give a shit. The whole country could be in a state of emergency and we just don’t know it because we’re out here in bumfuck Egypt! They said 8.0’s. Our phones aren’t working. This could be really serious, so Eric can eat a dick if he gets pissed at us for waking him up.”

  I stretched and let out a long sigh. “Yeah, you’re right. We gotta be quick though. When I left they were still sleeping, and I don’t want Sophia to wake up and worry any more than she already is.”

  “Well I don’t wanna stand around and get to know the prick. I just wanna question him and leave. It won’t take long.”

  As we walked down the street, I thought of asking Jim if he’d felt any more quakes during the night. When I looked over and saw him stagger a bit, and then noticed the “I feel like shit” look on his face, I didn’t bother.

  If there was another earthquake, he definitely wouldn’t know about it...

  Right when I took my first steps onto Eric’s driveway, I began to feel a rumbling under my feet. It was very slight, but it was more than noticeable. “You feel that, right?”

  He nodded. “Yeah of course I do.”

  It stopped for about five seconds, and then came back in full force. Both of us lost our balance and were having trouble standing. Multiple car alarms started going off and I could hear every dog within a mile radius barking.

  “This is definitely worse than yesterday” Jim yelled out.

  I just stood there trying not to fall – there was no way I could walk anywhere. The ground was just shaking too violently.

  Jim was a rather heavyset and clumsy guy, so he was actually down with one knee on the ground. “This is crazy!”

  Once the earthquake started to fade, I yanked Jim to his feet and said, “Go talk to Eric. I’ve gotta get home. That had to have woken them up.”

  “Yeah of course, go. I’ll find out what I can.”

  While sprinting back home, I could see that everyone was coming out of their houses and gathering
in the street again. I heard a man call out, “Everything okay, Chris?”

  He must have seen me running and assumed something was wrong.

  I had no idea who said it, and I didn’t even try and look to see. I just kept running and shouted back, “Everything’s fine. I was outside when it hit. Just want to check on everyone!”

  When I flung open our front door, Jessica was standing there alone. The look on her face rendered the term “afraid” a gross understatement. “Chris! Where were you?”

  I rushed over and hugged her, but she pushed me back and said, “When we woke up you were just gone!”

  “I know. I’m so sorry. I wanted to see if anyone knew anything yet. The power’s still out.”

  Jessica gathered herself during a sigh and swept her beautifully disheveled, reddish, dark-brown hair away from her green eyes. “That was really bad. Glad we didn’t bother to clean up the kitchen yet.”

  “Yeah” I said through a laugh before asking, “Where’s Sophia?”

  “I have her sitting in the bathroom reading a book. She’s fine. By the time it really woke her up the shaking had almost stopped.” She glanced around. “Jesus, look at all the broken stuff everywhere. It’s gonna cost a lot to replace all of this.”

  I moved closer and put my hands on her shoulders. “It’s okay, we’ll worry about all that later. Now I have to go back out because everyone’s gathered in the street talking. Maybe somebody knows something. One of the neighbors has an old battery operated radio, but yesterday he couldn’t get anything to come in. Hopefully, they’re putting out some type of emergency broadcast by now.”

  Jessica took hold of my arm, propped herself up on her toes and kissed me. “Go, we’ll be fine.”

  As soon as I approached the crowd forming in the street, Jim leaned out from behind a woman I didn’t recognize. “Chris, over here!”

  Mostly everyone was speaking in panicked whispers, and there were so many voices going at once that it was rather difficult to single out any of the conversations. And, of course, each person had their own wild theory about what was going on.

  The neighborhood evangelist, Ms. Cartwright, was wandering through the crowd, frantically spouting out paragraphs about the rapture and the “end times.”

  She was an older woman – going gray, but still pretty and youthful for her age. She always dressed plainly and was as nice as someone could be. She meant well, she was just a little too caught up in the fear aspect of her faith for my taste.

  Occasionally, she would hand out fliers for Bible groups in the hopes of saving everyone in the neighborhood from “eternal damnation”. I always chose to keep our conversations short, but she was especially nice to Sophia and always made her smile, so I didn’t have any problems with her.

  “So what did Eric say?” I asked.

  Jim shook his head. “Nothin’.” Then he elbowed me and whispered, “Get a load of Mrs. Holierthanthou. She’s freakin’ man. You know she thinks the rapture zombies are coming soon.”

  “Ah, she’s just scared” I said.

  He leaned his head back, put his hands straight out, started walking around like a zombie and moaning, “To feed on the flesh of the living.”

  I made him stop and then we both had a quiet laugh. I felt bad, but it was kind of funny – she was actually talking about how people could start being taken up into heaven at any moment and urging everyone to pray so they don’t get left behind. “Come on, man, don’t do that. What if she saw you?”

  After an eye roll, he groaned out, “Lighten up. She’s busy.”

  I shook my head and led Jim off to the side. “Obviously, no one here has any idea what’s going on.”

  “Yeah, no shit. We should just drive into town and see what’s happening. There might be nothing to worry about… or…”

  “I don’t know. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours yet. You think maybe we’re just overreacting a little?”

  Jim shrugged. “You’re probably right. Hey, we’re just freakin out because we haven’t been able to get on the internet in a few hours.”

  “Yeah, that’s gotta be what it is. You know people will lose their shit when they can’t use Facebook.”

  After another good laugh, we began walking back to his house and he asked, “So what should we do?

  He just wants some company.

  “Well, I have to stay with Jessica and Sophia – they’re still scared and upset. I only came out to try and get some information. I promised her I’d be right back, but you’re still welcome to come over anytime though.”

  He slapped me on the back. “Yeah, alright. Just let me do a few things and make some coffee.”

  I shot him a puzzled glance. “Coffee? The power’s out. Don’t you have an electric stove too?”

  Jim laughed and playfully shoved me. “Uh, you never heard of making a fire before?” He sarcastically nodded and followed with, “It’s how people used to heat shit up before the stove was invented.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m a city-boy, man – I’m learning… Well bring some over for us too.”

  “Will do. I’ll see you in a little while.” He kept laughing as he walked away.

  Before I went inside, I turned back and saw two of the neighbors, Joann and Carl, getting into their cars and leaving.

  I guess they had the same idea as Jim. Hopefully they come back with some sort of news.

  The lack of phone service and radio broadcasts was giving me a bad feeling, so I really was itching to go for a little drive. It was simply out of the question because I couldn’t leave Jessica and Sophia alone, and I certainly wasn’t going to take them along.

  …

  By the time Jim came back over it was almost 11:00am. There was still no power or service, so we were keeping busy by talking and reading some magazines. Jessica and I were more than happy to be holding hot coffee in our hands.

  Following a large gulp, Jessica said, “Oh, thank you so much, Jim. I did not sleep well at all last night. I’m just so worried, you know?”

  “Yeah, I hear ya.” Jim got up and walked over to the front windows to see what the neighbors were up to. “I on the other hand, need it to help with my lingering hangover.”

  I picked up the remote for the tenth time and tried to turn on the TV. “Still nothing” I said before letting out a long sigh.

  Jim pressed the side of his face against the glass, trying to get look down the street. “It’ll come back on, just wait. Shit I grew up in Florida, so every few years we’d get a really bad hurricane and it would take them a week to get the power back on.” He headed back over to the recliner next to the couch. “At least it it isn’t a hundred degrees out, huh?”

  I was getting restless as well, so I stood up and stretched. “Yeah you’re right. Something got damaged and it’s just taking a while to fix it. They’ll probably be done by the end of the day.”

  Jim leaned back and took another sip of his coffee. He really did look like shit. “Exactly. Hell, it could come back on any minute.”

  Just then my stomach growled. “You two want some chips or something? Think we have a couple of-”

  A car horn sounded off. Jim and I locked eyes. When whoever it was continued to beep, clearly trying to draw attention, I told Jessica to stay with Sophia and we ran outside.

  Joann, the woman who had left several hours ago, was parked in the middle of the street about three houses down. The car door was hanging open and she was standing there, leaning in and still hitting the horn.

  Something must have happened.

  Almost everyone on our street had started heading over by the time we made it to her. Aiming to get some answers before a mob formed, I immediately asked, “What’s going on, Joann? Are you okay?”

  She was shaking, and even though it was cold out I could see beads of sweat on her forehead. Her eyes were darting around and giving all the signs of a chaotic mind. “I’m fine… Fine… Just wait for everyone else to get here.”

  “Where’s Carl?”r />
  She didn’t answer. She just mumbled something to herself, leaned in and beeped the horn three more times – holding the third down for a few seconds. When she stopped, it traveled into the distance and echoed off the small hills and mountains surrounding us.

  Her behavior was quickly elevating my worry to fear. And when I looked over at Jim, the confusion and concern on his face told me he was thinking the exact same thing.

  There were well under a hundred people in our little neighborhood, so I was surprised to see that at least forty had gathered around within another minute. All of us just waited in silence for her to start speaking.

  Once the stragglers made it over, Joann slammed the car door and frantically climbed on top of the hood – almost falling as she tried to get her other leg up. It was a close call, but Jim was able to lend a hand before she hurt herself.

  “Take it easy, Joann. What the hell happened?” he asked.

  She was still trembling, and her heels were scraping and denting the hood, making it difficult for her to stand. Her arms flailed, searching for balance as she almost fell again. After a few more seconds, she reached down, ripped off her shoes and threw them aside.

  Everyone had formed an even tighter circle around the car, waiting and watching, growing increasingly nervous due to her undeniable state of panic. Whispers and random questions began coming from all around me until Joann yelled out, “We got about five miles away from town and all of a sudden I saw two of those green military… jeep… type things blocking the road” and silenced the crowd.

  Jim and I shot each other questioning glances – mainly filled with disbelief.

  Joann got even louder. “As soon as we pulled up, they ran out and pointed their guns at us! Then they told us to turn around, said all the roads are closed and threatened to use deadly force if anyone tries to sneak past them!”

  What the fuck? How could that possibly be true?