Inhuman [Book 1] Page 3

  My head tilted left as someone said, “That can’t be true. She’s crazy.” Then Jim started to move away from the crowd so I followed him.

  I shouted, “Where’s Carl?”

  Her head jerked in my direction. A truly wild look was in her eyes. “He tried heading the other way!”

  Everyone started yelling over each other and growing increasingly upset. Joann chose to fuel the fire by crying out, “We’re stuck here and we can’t go anywhere to get food! What do we do?”

  A man’s voice came from behind me. “What if looters come around? Everyone needs to keep watch!” That only made things worse – a lot worse. They were getting so loud that it brought Jessica out of the house to see what was going on.

  I got her attention and motioned for her to go back in. Then I turned to Jim. “Fuck. Do you think she’s telling the truth?”

  He sighed and stared off into the distance. “I don’t really know the lady, but I’ve lived here for over ten years and she’s always seemed relatively sane to me. Why would she lie anyway?” He brought his foot back and kicked a small rock down the road. “You know?”

  I nodded. “It’s hard to believe, but that’s exactly what I was thinking. So let’s say she is telling the truth – why would the military block off all the roads because of earthquakes? That makes absolutely no sense… none at all.”

  “Maybe a landslide or something like that just took out the road-”

  A yell from the crowd drew our attention. “We need to start collecting water before it goes bad from the treatment plants being offline!”

  The panic spread shockingly fast.

  “Fill up your bath tubs and any bottles you have” another woman suggested.

  The man who lived across the street from me, Hank, asked, “What do we do about food? We’re already running low!”

  Jim looked over at me and sarcastically remarked, “Wow. They’re acting like it’s been a week or something.”

  “Might be best to just stay away from everyone until they calm down. I’m not into this panicking shit, man” I replied with a deeply sardonic tone.

  Jim just shrugged and shook his head. No matter what, he always tried to look at life in playful way. It was one of the things I liked about him. He never failed to put me in a good mood. “Yeah, though this is kind funny to me. I wanna stick around and hear what else they say. I mean – Ms. Cartwright alone is putting on quite the show. Who knows what the fuck she’ll say next.”

  “Yeah I’m with you on that for sure” I said through a laugh. “But Jessica knows something’s going on and she can’t leave Sophia alone, so I have to get back and tell her. Just come with me.”

  “Alright, alright.” He pointed at me. “If I miss something good I’m blaming you, asshole.”

  As we walked away, I kept hearing more and more fear driven, absurd comments and ideas coming from the crowd. A few people were blatantly instigating panic and Ms. Cartwright was still walking around preaching.

  What are they gonna be like if the power isn’t back on by tomorrow?

  I’d been friendly to everyone and had short conversations here and there, but I Jim was the only person in the neighborhood I was close to. I had no idea what kind of people they were. As I listened to them continuing to argue and promote fear amongst each other – dangerously irrational – was coming to mind.

  “If it’s not back on by tomorrow we could be in real danger from looters!” an older man standing by Joann’s car roared out.

  For a moment, their behavior and comments made me think about the guns my father left me. “What if they’re right? Maybe we really should take a ride. I mean, we did both hear some crazy shit on the news.” I smiled. “Not that I’m getting sucked into their bullshit or anything. I highly doubt we’re going to wake up tomorrow and find ourselves living in the Mad fucking Max movie.”

  After a nervous laugh, he scoffed, “Yeah, I know. But they do make a decent point about water and food. Shit’ll run out faster than we think… I’m just still having a hard time believing the United States military is blocking the damn roads.”

  “Yeah, I’m not really all that worried about it. Even if they are it won’t be for long. And it means they’re close by to bring us emergency supplies if it comes down to that.”

  “Exactly, and if they are really there hopefully we can get them to answer a few questions. They’re just guys like us in uniforms after all. Why wouldn’t they?”

  Even though I was managing to maintain a state of rationality, I couldn’t help but have some pretty terrible thoughts softly picking at the back of my brain – It’s only the second day and they’re already losing their shit. What if Joann is really telling the truth and no one can leave? What’s going to happen when they start running out of food?

  I just had to keep telling myself not to think about it, and that I was just getting drawn into their nonsense…

  Jessica was waiting at the door with her arms folded, looking very aggravated. “Finally! What is going on? Why is everyone gathered out there going crazy and yelling like that?”

  I took a deep breath and asked, “Is Sophia okay?”

  She abruptly replied, “Yeah, she’s reading.”

  I clenched my jaw, unable to think of tactful way to relay the news.

  “What?”

  “Joann claims she tried to drive into town and was stopped by the military. They gave her no explanation, told her to go back and threatened her. Said not to try it again or sneak past them.”

  I just stared – unsure of what type of reaction to expect.

  She closed her eyes and shook her head. “What?”

  I put my hands up in front of me. “That’s just what she said, Jessica. We don’t really know what’s happening yet… She did seem really scared though.”

  She panned over to Jim for confirmation and he quietly nodded. “No. That can’t be true. Why the hell would they do that over earthquakes? Don’t they know we need to get into town for food? We don’t have that much in the house, Chris.”

  I haven’t even really thought about that yet. But if Joann was telling truth, I need to. Because something very strange is happening and we might actually be stuck here for a while.

  “Jim and I are going to drive out and see if she’s telling the truth. If not I’ll keep going and get a bunch of food and water. Someone raised a good point – if the water treatment plants have lost power too it’ll start coming out dirty soon.”

  Jessica started shaking her head again and then grabbed onto my arm, nearly ripping the seam on my sleeve. “I don’t want you to leave – not after what Joann said. Didn’t she say they threatened her?”

  “According to her, it was only if people tried to get past them.” I took on a more commanding tone. “I have to do this, just in case. If things start to escalate I won’t want to leave you two alone anymore. Now’s my chance to go stock up while you’re both safe. I’ll be fine, I promise.”

  I took her hands in mine and held them for a several moments. I did my best to soften my expression so I might help ease her angst. “I’ll be back in a few hours, so just relax and watch Sophia.”

  She (unhappily) agreed and hesitantly headed back into the house. As she looked back and our eyes met, I said, “come on” and began leading Jim to the garage.

  I hopped in our Accord – as soon as I put the key in the ignition and the dash lit up, I noticed there was less than a quarter tank of gas. After slamming my hands on the steering wheel I barked, “Fuck! I was so tired on my way home from the store Friday that I didn’t stop for gas. I knew I had just enough to make it home and back to town. If we get all the way out there and the soldiers send us away we’ll be walkin’ home.”

  Jim let out a low, nerve ridden laugh. “Me too. What are the chances?” He struggled to hide a mischievous smirk. “I know the mustang’s gotta be ready by now. I helped you weld the piping for the turbo like three days ago.”

  “Fucker, do I need to check your gas tank?” I
asked, accompanied by a suspicious glare.

  He put his hands up. “No, no I swear I’m telling the truth. It just so happens that I’m happy about our uh… predicament.”

  “Man, I hope you’re lying because I’ve only had a chance to work on the tune for a few hours. I haven’t even taken it out to test the air fuel ratio yet. Not to mention, my laptop has just been sitting around and not charging – it’s probably dead.”

  “Have you had it turned off or just sleeping?”

  “Off, I think.”

  “Oh, then it should definitely have a little juice left.”

  I chewed my bottom lip. “It could definitely blow up if I don’t at least get the tune I have loaded. And even then…”

  He waved me off and rolled his eyes. “You’re such an anal fuck. How about this – it’s an emergency and we need a ride, so just load the tune you’ve been working on and take things easy. I’m sure it’ll be fine. Annnd, if it blows up, I’ll personally buy you a new engine.”

  Jim was right – I couldn’t care about things like that at the moment. I simply still wanted to believe that Joann was mistaken or overreacting – that the power could even come back on while we were away.

  I have to try to take this more seriously, otherwise I could really end up regretting it.

  I turned to Jim and sarcastically mumbled, “Buy me a new engine.”

  “I totally would, man!”

  We both laughed and then I went back inside to grab my laptop so I could get the car ready to drive. There was a little bit of work to be done before we could leave, and it wasn’t something that could be rushed.

  …

  After an hour or so, I turned the key and fired it up. It was supposed to be a special day for me – my reward for years of saving and countless hours of hard work. Instead, that aspect was entirely replaced with the fear of what was going to happen next. It was even trumping my worry regarding unknowingly damaging the engine and shortening its lifespan.

  Jim punched me in the arm. “Man, this thing sounds mean!”

  I wrapped my hands around the steering wheel. The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and it wasn’t from excitement. “Relax. I set the boost really low as a safety precaution. This isn’t a joyride, Jim – you forget what we’re doing?”

  He jokingly tilted his head and looked at me with a childish innocence. “Well I thought that maybe since we might die… we could have a little fun on the way.”

  I knew he was just trying to lighten the mood, but I was starting to get slightly annoyed due to the situation. “Come on, man, don’t say shit like that. This could turn out to be really serious if Joann is telling the truth.”

  “Alright, alright. But, come on, even if she is it’s probably just temporary.”

  “Yeah well we don’t know that, so just please be serious about this” I snapped.

  Jim didn’t say anything back. He just folded his arms and looked straight ahead.

  …

  By the time we made it to the main road he still hadn’t said much and, even though I was right, I felt somewhat guilty for being short with him. So before going any farther, I came to a stop and turned to Jim with a comically raised brow and one sided smile.

  Air fuel ratio seems to be close enough to where I want it.

  Getting on it for four or five seconds won’t hurt… I hope.

  He asked, “What’s your problem?” and I responded by slamming my foot to the floor. We both jerked back in our seats as the rear end whipped around, desperately struggling for traction all the way up to 100mph – leaving a huge cloud of burnt rubber behind it.

  Jim yelled out, “Hell Yeah! Now was that so bad?”

  I was very much tempted to keep going but, as expected, my air/fuel gauge let me know that higher rpm’s were making the ratio lean out, which would definitely cause internal damage.

  Close, but still no good.

  At least she’s okay for normal driving.

  When I slowed down, I looked over and saw that he was still clutching the door and that his feet were firmly planted against the floor. “You happy now?” I lightly laughed. “Might wanna check those tighty-whities.”

  He gave me a “fuck you” laugh and then reached out to try switching on the radio – his expression quickly turned serious. “Still nothin’. This is so… off, you know?”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  The road was completely empty, but that was perfectly normal. I couldn’t even count the all the instances I’d driven to town and back without seeing another car.

  It was actually a wonderful drive – one of the reasons I loved living so far away from everything. It provided a type of peace you could only experience in a place totally void of skyscrapers and the other keystones of our civilization. Every time I took the drive, it became harder for me to believe that anyone would ever want to cover up such things with concrete as far as the eye could see. It truly saddened me, and would always remind me why I never wanted to live in a city again…

  Jim eventually broke the silence. “We’re about where she claimed to see the green trucks blocking the road.”

  “Something feels off. I know it’s normal for the road to be empty but” I turned to him “at a time like this?”

  He shrugged, “Well, all we can do is keep going so we can question the soldiers, or find out Joann’s full of shit and stock up on some food just in case.”

  As I said, “Yeah” the road took a curve and put the sun right in our eyes. We were both instantly blinded and had to turn down the visors. It didn’t help much and I was having trouble seeing so I began to slow down.

  Jim remarked, “Damn, that’s bad. I can’t see shit.”

  I was basically down to one squinted eye, so it thoroughly startled me when Jim grabbed my right sleeve and said, “Stop!”

  I slammed down the brakes and came sliding to a halt, thinking I was about to hit an animal or another car. The screech of the tires rang out and sent a flock of birds fleeing from the trees. As the smoke started to clear, Jim asked, “You don’t see the trucks?”

  The sun was still blaring through the windshield, so I put my hand up to my face and tried to focus into the distance. It wasn’t long before I saw them, just like Joann claimed – two green military vehicles blocking the road.

  Those are the real deal.

  What does this mean?

  Jim was stunned. When he asked, “Should we get out or keep driving?” it sounded like he’d just had the wind knocked out of him.

  I thought for a moment before replying, “They’re still like half a mile away. I think we can drive a little farther.”

  “Fuck me… I didn’t actually think this was going to happen.”

  Are we really trapped without any access to more food and water? “How could they do this to us and not at least offer assistance? We have to go talk to them.”

  Jim sighed and gave an approving nod. “If we’re gonna do it, let’s do it.”

  As we slowly approached, I considered what it actually meant, which only succeeded in making me more nervous. All I knew was that I had to find out what was really going on, because at that point none of it made any sense whatsoever.

  Why the hell would the military be blocking our only road to town because of some earthquakes?

  We were getting close, so I took my foot off the gas and just coasted forward. And when we got about a hundred feet away, just like Joann said, two soldiers got out of each truck and three of them fixed their guns on us.

  I came to a stop and just sat there in a mild state of shock – Is this really happening?

  Jim didn’t have anything to say either.

  The fourth soldier walked forward about ten feet and brought a bullhorn up to his mouth. “This road is closed by order of martial law, issued under the current state of emergency. Please turn back now. DO NOT continue approaching – I repeat – do not come any closer. You will all be notified when clearance has been reinstated. Failure to comply could result in th
e use of deadly force.”

  Jim jerked his head in my direction. “Did he just say deadly force?”

  I could feel my mouth hanging open. I tried to answer but I couldn’t right away. It was one thing to have someone tell you that it happened – to actually experience it was something totally different. It gave me chills. “This is really serious, Jim. Whatever it is.”

  “Yeah, no shit.”

  “And I have a feeling this is why there’s no cell service. They shut it off.”

  “Looks like it.” He reached for the door handle. “Should we get out and try to talk to them?”

  I grabbed his arm. “No, I don’t think so. The fuckin’ guy basically just said they’d kill us.”

  As the last word left my lips, the soldier repeated the same message. I was in no condition to judge, though it seemed like he was speaking much louder – like he was purposely trying to portray that they were deadly serious. “I don’t think they’re here to talk, man. They’re soldiers. If they’re ordered not to talk to us, they won’t.”

  Jim tightly grasped at his pants and bit his lip. “No. Fuck this, I’m going. They can’t just do this to us.” Then he flung the door open.

  The moment the hinges locked straight, the window shattered – glass flew all over Jim and onto the ground. There was no hesitation before we both frantically slid down in our seats and got as low as we could.

  I practically screeched out, “Did they just shoot at us?”

  “YES! Windows don’t just fuckin’ explode by themselves, Chris!”

  I didn’t hear a thing. They must be silenced.

  “Stop yelling for a second! Are they still shooting?”

  We both remained completely silent for what felt like an entire minute, listening for anything like bullets whizzing by, hitting the car or the ground around us. I heard nothing but the sounds of birds and the wind. “I don’t hear anything do you?”

  He shook his head. I could see that tried to speak, though nothing but a slight croak came out.

  I slowly brought my face above the steering wheel and looked through the windshield. They were in the exact same positions. Not even one of them had moved an inch.