Primitive.

"Yeah, she did," Alex said. His demeanor changed slightly. Where before his enthusiasm seemed genuine, his ease of manner seemed natural, now it seemed that he was trying to pretend everything was okay. "Like I said, she and I were on the Emergency Committee, so we gathered all the weapons and supplies we could. She also knew where all the emergency stash of food was kept at the fire station. All the canned goods and stuff. For some reason, the power was out in that part of town, but she was also able to get the generator on at the fire station and get on the CB radio, too."

"Oh yeah?" Martin raised his eyebrows. I glanced at him quickly. Don"t tip that hand yet. Martin got the message and said nothing.

"Yeah, but I don"t know anything about running it. I"ve been trying, but..." Alex let that trail off. He took a sip of water, looking uncomfortable, or maybe embarra.s.sed.

"Does Naomi know how to run it?" Lori asked.

"No," Alex said. A little too quickly again? It was hard to tell.

"Is Naomi okay?" Wesley asked. He"d polished off his sandwich almost as fast as Alex had finished his. "She isn"t sick or anything, is she?"

"No, no, she"s fine," Alex said. He turned to Tracy. "Can I get another sandwich?"

"Sure." Tracy got up and headed back into the house.

"Well, we"d like to meet her," Wesley said. He was leaning back in his chair, casual, cool, collected. "How about after lunch we head back to your place?"

"I don"t think that"ll be a good idea," Alex said. His voice had a slight stammer to it. "Naomi...well, she"s not sick, but she hasn"t really been feeling well and-"

"So she"s not well?" Wesley asked.

For a minute that almost broke him. Alex sighed, closed his eyes, and appeared to muster his emotional reserve. I thought he looked close to tears. "I"m sorry, but no...she"s not well. She"s not sick, but..."

"But what?" Wesley asked. Now we were all learning forward expectantly. Lori"s features were soft, sympathetic. We were flying by the seat of our pants now.

"What"s wrong with Naomi, baby?" Lori asked.

And then Alex started to cry.

He buried his face in his hands and the tears fell. His sobs were heart wrenching, from the gut. As he cried he tried to speak, but his emotional outpouring was making his voice break down even more. "I...I...don"t know...don"t know what happened...I...please...please don"t hurt her!"

Wesley"s posture and voice were soft, sympathetic, caring. He leaned forward, rested his hand on Alex"s shoulder. The supportive fatherly figure comforting the younger son. "We want to help, Alex. Believe me, we aren"t about to hurt you or Naomi. But you"ve got to level with us. We can"t help her if we don"t know what"s wrong-"

"She became one of them!" Alex suddenly screamed amid his sobs. He looked at us, his face red and damp with tears. "She"s become one of those things! She"s become one of them and I don"t know how it happened!" And then, as if a great weight had been taken off his shoulders, he collapsed over the table, burying his face in his hands, and sobbed.

Hearing this was like being hit in the face with a sledgehammer.

It seemed that we all froze in shock. I looked at him, and while I could see that what he was telling us was the truth, what we heard was so horrible, so unimaginable in our collective psyches, that it was too much for us to bear. Tracy came back out on the porch and I turned to her. She had a look of absolute horror on her face; she"d heard every word he"d said.

I looked at my clan and read the emotion in their eyes-pure terror, panic, and fear. Only Wesley refused to make eye contact with us. He was looking at Alex, watching him. It was hard to get a read on him, but I couldn"t help but notice the subtle emotion pa.s.s through his features and, just as quickly, go away as he regained control.

Alex sobbed. His shoulders shook. He was crouched over the table, face down, arms over his head as he cried. In between his sobs were pleas for help. "...don"t know...how it...happened...don"t know...how it...happened...oh... G.o.d..."

I felt somebody approach and looked at the sliding gla.s.s door to see Emily standing there. She was holding her doll, looking worried. She made no move to come outside. I think she knew we were hearing some very bad news.

"How long ago did Naomi turn?" Wesley asked softly.

"Auh...about...about a week ago," Alex said through his sobs. He wiped his eyes, tried to get control of himself. "It happened about a week ago...it just..." His face screwed up, threatening another outburst of sorrow. "I don"t know how it happened...oh my G.o.d, I don"t know how it happened, I thought...I thought..."

I thought it was over, I finished the thought for him. Tracy was at my side now, Emily clinging to her leg. I felt a chill run down my spine. I felt the collective vibe of our clan-Martin, Lori, Wesley, Tracy and Emily-react at what Alex had just said.

If what he was saying was right, the virus...or whatever it was that caused the flip, was still working its way through the human population.

"Jesus," Wesley breathed. For the first time since we met him, he looked afraid.

"Naomi came home the day everything happened," Alex said between sobs. As he told us his story he seemed to gain better control of his emotions. He wiped his eyes with his fingers. "She works at the bank as a teller. I was at home. I worked swing shift and was still in bed. I didn"t even know anything was happening until she ran in the house. She looked...frantic. She told me people in the bank, tellers, customers, you name it, suddenly started...you know...turning into these wild primitive things except for one of them...some old farmer who"d come in to deposit a check. The ones that were closest to him turned on him and they all just...sort of piled on him. f.u.c.king tore him to pieces. Naomi ducked beneath her station as they pa.s.sed her by and just started tearing into this farmer. That"s when she started hearing the s.h.i.t outside, heard the police sirens. It was like the others forgot she was even there, and she...man, G.o.d must"ve been on her side or something, but she saw the window of opportunity and took it. She dashed out the back door, got into her car and got the h.e.l.l out of there."

Alex continued, speaking in a less shaky voice now. He took a sip of water. "She saw the s.h.i.t go down in Manning. She like...got the h.e.l.l out of there and got on Route 1, turned the radio on and heard what was going on. We don"t have a cell phone so she couldn"t call me. She got home, woke me up, and she was in hysterics. We turned the TV on and that"s when..."

"It was like that for us, too," I murmured. I felt Tracy"s hand on my shoulder. Alex"s recount was bringing the memories of that first day back in awful clarity.

Alex took another sip of water. That seemed to be calming his nerves. He wasn"t crying anymore, but his face was red and still wet with tears. "I"m sure it was that way for everybody. Anyway...Naomi flipped out. She...she...well, she was very religious. I mean, I believe in G.o.d too, but she took it to the extreme. She got down on her knees and started prayin" and...the TV was still on and the news was just getting worse. I turned the TV off and we sat on the sofa for a while in the dark. She told me more about what she saw and that"s when she told me that...well, she was convinced it was Armageddon. That the end times had finally come."

"She thought it was the end of the world," Wesley said.

"Not just the end," Lori said. "But the beginning of Satan"s reign on earth." She was looking at Alex with what seemed to be understanding. "And I bet as the days went on, she began to question why it hadn"t happened the way she"d been taught to believe. Why she hadn"t simply been sucked right into the sky by the Lord and taken to heaven."

"Yeah." Alex said. He seemed to shiver. "At first I was like...I didn"t want to hear it, you know? I just wanted to...find out what was going on and...do whatever I could to keep us safe. Naomi wasn"t a...I mean, I don"t want you to have the impression that she was a religious nut or anything. She wasn"t like those crazy Pentecostal people that dance with snakes and stuff, but she had her beliefs and they were very strong. But she...had her...I call it her earthy side, too. She liked good rock and roll and she could drink me under the table when she had a mind to. She could shoot a mean game of pool-we used to go to Hess"s Bar and Grill every other Friday and drink beer and shoot the s.h.i.t with our friends from work and play pool. She could let loose, and she did. But she was a Christian woman and she read the Bible and went to church every Sunday. I tried to go most Sundays, but I just wasn"t..." He shrugged. He looked at us, as if he wanted us to understand his position. "I mean, I learned all that stuff in Sunday School when I was a kid. I didn"t feel the need to go every Sunday."

Tracy nodded. "I know what you mean."

"I don"t know what it was that set Naomi off, but...she was really scared it was Armageddon." Alex took another sip of water. "I was watching CNN at one point and they were talking about some DNA thing...something about a Neanderthal strain and-"

"The Neanderthal strain in human DNA," Martin said. "We heard that, too."

"Yeah. And anyway, I was like, "Naomi, come here, listen to this, they think they know what"s causing this." And I tried explaining to her what they thought it might be but she wouldn"t listen. Said she didn"t believe or trust the scientists, that we had to trust G.o.d to take us. So I sat on the couch and watched the TV until the station went off the air, and she sat in the kitchen and prayed."

As Alex told his story I could feel myself being drawn into it. It was easy to imagine myself as him; alone with his wife, cut off from the world. It sounded terrifying and claustrophobic.

"Things got kinda better after a few days," Alex continued. "We had food in the house and the electricity hadn"t been cut off yet. There wasn"t any news on the TV or the radio. After a week, we armed ourselves and tried going to town. I told Naomi, first sign of trouble we"re getting the h.e.l.l out. We still had gas in the truck, so we drove. That"s when Naomi suggested raiding the fire station and hitting up the supplies from the Emergency Task Force. She like...really took to that...really took charge. That"s when we saw the bodies...saw the things...the primitives...had left."

Suddenly, what the Primitives were drawing on walls and rocks came to mind. "Did you see any weird graffiti?" I asked. "Like a figure with wings that was drawn in chalk?"

Alex frowned and shook his head. "I don"t remember. Why?"

"Just curious," I said.

"Tell us the rest," Wesley encouraged.

There wasn"t much to tell. The trip to town had been within a week of civilization falling. Naomi had suggested snagging the CB radio from the fire station, which they did. "Only thing was I forgot to bring the manual," Alex said sheepishly. "I tried messing with it on my own, but then the power at our place finally went off."

About three weeks after the fall of civilization, Naomi started retreating again. "Both of us went through hard times thinking about our parents and stuff," Alex said. "And then...she started...I don"t know...started getting mad at G.o.d. She was having a tougher time facing what had happened than I was. It was like...she couldn"t believe G.o.d would...I don"t know...have Armageddon happen this way. Like, why didn"t he just take us up to heaven instead of having these...well, she was starting to call the primitives demons because she started to believe all these people had become possessed by the devil. She said if I"d have seen them, I would have felt the same way."

"I can see what she means," Lori said, nodding. "It was like this happened all at once, like Satan just slipped his fingers into everybody"s mind like putting on a glove and started messing with people. Controlling them."

"Yeah," Alex said. He nodded at Lori. "That"s right. And she just didn"t understand that. She believed that we weren"t supposed to be hurt when this happened. That we were just supposed to be s.n.a.t.c.hed right up into heaven, in our actual physical selves."

"So she was thinking the primitives were killing people to release their spirits into heaven?" Wesley asked.

"No. The primitives-the demons-are Satan"s minions, set to roam the earth for one thousand years. We were supposed to be physically s.n.a.t.c.hed up and taken to heaven. Believers in Jesus. Born-Again Christians. The unsaved were supposed to be left here on earth."

"So in her mind, G.o.d had abandoned her," Lori said.

"No, she didn"t feel G.o.d abandoned her. She just didn"t understand why He was allowing it to happen this way. She was confused. She started...retreating from reality more. Reading the Bible and the Jenkins and LaHaye books she"s got, trying to find meaning so she could understand everything. And then...I guess that went on for maybe five days. She just retreated emotionally, wouldn"t talk about normal things with me. I"d try to ask her what she felt about fortifying the house for winter and she said she didn"t care about that, she wanted to know whether she"d gotten wrong with G.o.d or wanted to know why she didn"t understand His word. And then..." His voice threatened to crack again. "Then it happened."

Alex took a deep breath, his eyes closed as if he were mustering the nerve to relive his nightmare again, then continued. "We were in the kitchen. I was taking stock of my ammunition, was getting my gear ready to go hunting. I"d seen some deer near the house the past few days, and there were no rangers around to enforce hunting season. We needed meat, so I figured I might as well try to get us some. Anyway, I wanted her help in bringing some stuff outside. She kept telling me that the demons were gathering. She said she could see them in her mind. They were all gathering in one place, getting ready for something and-"

"She said they were gathering?" Wesley asked. I leaned forward in antic.i.p.ation at this too. Martin and I traded a look. This sounded like what Stuart told us last night. "They were gathering in a herd, or a community or something?"

"I don"t know," Alex said, shaking his head in frustration. "I wasn"t paying attention. To me, she was going off the deep end. She was losing her mind and I was becoming a little bit afraid of her."

Alex paused for a moment to take a sip of water and resumed. "I was...I wasn"t paying attention to what she was saying. I hadn"t been for a few days. It was the same old thing about the demons. When she started making the noise...when she started growling...that"s what snapped me out of it. I turned to her and she was standing at the stove, her head kinda bowed down. She was making these weird noises, like animal grunts. I thought she was sick at first and was starting to step toward her to see if she was okay when she suddenly turned around and...I saw her face...and I saw that she was...it wasn"t Naomi anymore..."

Remembering Jessica Rendell"s voice in my ear that day telling us that Eric, our son, had attacked and killed another child that morning in day care came to mind. I could only imagine the horror Alex had gone through.

"She...she came at me...she attacked me," Alex continued, his voice cracking. "And I fought her off. She was like a wild thing, kicking and biting and scratching at me. I was yelling at her to stop but she was growling and spitting at me and...I knew it wasn"t Naomi anymore, but I was yelling at her to stop, hoping in the back of my mind I"d get through to her, but it wasn"t working. I knew she was going to kill me, and I managed to push her back and grab a skillet off the kitchen counter. As she came at me again I hit her over the head with it and knocked her out.

"Something...I don"t know if it"s instinct or what...told me to lock her in the mudroom, so I did. I dragged her in there and locked her in. When she woke up she...she was still wild. She started hammering on the walls and throwing herself against the door like a caged animal. She"s been in there ever since." He looked at us. No longer crying, Alex still bore a look of sadness on his face. "I"ve been feeding her through a small window from outside. Every time I throw food in she reaches out and tries to grab my arm to pull me in. I know if I set foot inside there she"ll try to kill me. She...she just paces the mudroom all day like an animal and at night...oh G.o.d, at night she howls like a f.u.c.king dog. Sometimes she sleeps, but mostly she howls. It"s...unearthly. It"s like she"s baying to...something...maybe her own kind...to come rescue her."

A collective shudder ran through the rest of us. I felt Tracy"s hand firm on my shoulder and I pulled Emily close to my side. Had we been sitting home as a family watching a horror movie about this, Emily would have hid her eyes, but for some strange reason she was riding this out. She was totally absorbed; fearful, but absorbed.

"I just...after awhile, I just didn"t know what else to do." He looked at each of us with an imploring gaze. "That"s why I left...to find some help for her. To see if maybe there was a cure out there...if somebody...if there"s some order left in the world..."

His eyes lit on each one of us and I felt a shadow darken us all. Last evening"s conversation with Stuart came to mind. The poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d had no idea how bad things had gotten.

"Please..." he said. His eyes met mine, held them. "Please help me."

I tore my gaze away from him, looked at Martin, then at Wesley. Tracy stiffened beside me.

Wesley drew a little closer to Alex. "Alex, I want you to listen to me very carefully."

And then Wesley told Alex what he needed to know.

The shadow that afternoon grew darker.

Sixteen.

Alex took the news better than I thought he would.

It took Wesley fifteen minutes to tell him an abbreviated version of our story and last night"s events in the radio room. He concluded with today"s events, telling Alex that Martin and I were returning from a trip to the library when he"d come across the property. "I have a rendezvous on the air with Stuart today at four," he said. He patted Alex"s shoulder. "I"m sorry the news isn"t good, Alex. I truly am."

Alex sighed. He seemed resigned to this sad fact now. "To tell you the truth, something in the back of my mind told me that this is it. That we"re finished as a race." He looked at us. "But that thing you described? That this guy Stuart says he saw? Hearing you talk about it made me think of what Naomi was telling me in the days before she turned."

"And what"s that?" Martin asked.

"When she was talking about the demons gathering... that the primitives were gathering together, I chalked it up to her...her religious mania, I guess. But still, something in the back of my mind couldn"t help but think "what if it"s true?" What if the primitives were gathering with the help of some force? Doesn"t that sound crazy?"

"No, it doesn"t," I said. Had he felt the same force we all had? "I"ve thought the same thing."

"I can"t just...leave her there," Alex said. "Do you understand? Even if she"s...an animal now...I can"t just leave her in there to starve!"

Wesley traded a glance with me and I read the intention loud and clear in his eyes. We"ve got to go out there and kill her.

As much as part of me agreed with that sentiment, I couldn"t let on to Alex that this was the game plan.

"I agree we have to do something," Martin said. Whether he"d picked up on the side-glances exchanged between Wesley and me was hard to tell, but the guy seemed to zero in on our subliminal communication. "She"ll be okay out there by herself tonight. That should give us time to try to come up with some kind of plan."

"What kind of plan?" Alex said.

"A way to help her," Martin said quickly.

"How?"

"We"ll think of something," Wesley said. "But Martin"s right. We can"t just rush over there now without thinking this through. If we open the door to that mudroom, she"ll just be on attack mode. We"re going to need some kind of way to subdue her so she doesn"t hurt herself or us."

I could see how this could turn into a full-fledged debate that would go on for hours. I glanced at my watch. It was almost four. "Tell you what," I said. "Wesley, why don"t you get on the radio with Stuart and let him know what"s going on. See what else you can find out. Lori and Tracy can help Alex get some rest. He needs it. Martin and I will come up with a way to help Naomi. Besides, I"ve got some research to do from our library trip. I might learn something that might help."

"That"s a good plan." Wesley rose to his feet. He nodded at me; he understood what I was getting at perfectly. We"d reconvene in private to compare notes later, out of Alex"s earshot. "How about we meet-up at dinner?"

And with that we broke up the current discussion. Tracy and Lori led Alex to the living room and made the sofa comfy for him to lie down on. Wesley headed off to the radio room to make his appointment with Stuart. I ushered Emily inside the house and calmed her down; she was starting to cry, and under normal circ.u.mstances I would not have allowed her to listen to Alex"s story. But these were different times. "Mommy and I aren"t going to let anything happen to you," I told her at one point. I was kneeling in front of her, at her eye level, and managed to calm her frayed nerves. "Do you understand? You"re safe with us."

Once I"d gotten her calmed down, she hugged me. "I"m going to go play with my dollies," she said.

"Okay."

I watched her gather her toys from the living room floor and head upstairs. I knew she was retreating emotionally, was going to immerse herself in play to forget about the traumatic story she"d just heard. I wished I could go with her to help alleviate those fears and play with her, but I couldn"t. Not then. I had to start cracking those books to find some clues on the primitives and their strange G.o.d.

Opposite the radio room, on the other side of the house, was a room that had once served as the former owner"s home office. It was lined with cherrywood bookshelves and office furniture. A large desk took up a portion of the wall with a computer, laser printer, and telephone. I don"t think anybody had bothered to turn the computer on since we"d settled here. I brought the books I"d gathered at the library into this room and sat down, ready to begin my research, when Tracy walked in.

She closed the door and I saw she looked troubled. "Is Emily okay?" she asked. "Where is she?"

"Upstairs in our room. She"s fine." I gave her a brief recap of my attempt to calm Emily"s fears and Tracy nodded. Somehow, I had the impression that her troubled state was not for our daughter, but for our new visitor.

"I"ll see how she is in a minute," Tracy said. She looked at me, touched my forearm lightly. "I have to talk to you about Alex."

"Okay," I said, curious.

"Keep your voice low," she whispered.

I nodded.

"I know that we"re going to have to kill Naomi," she said. Her voice cracked when she voiced what had been in my mind the moment we heard that Alex"s wife had turned primitive. Her eyes welled with tears. "And...I just want to...tell you that...when you do it, try to do it when Alex is...asleep or something. Do it when he"s here at the house and asleep and..."