Though he"d been driving to North Carolina under the illusion he had a choice, truth was, he didn"t. He was her guardian, like it or not.
"You can come with me; we"ll drive to my daughter"s."
"Are you sure?" she asked; a child afraid to p.i.s.s off a parent.
He hid his disappointment behind a smile and casual wave of his hand. "Yeah, you two will get along great."
Neither highlighted the growing certainty that Jade would be gone, like everyone else. But still, if the two yokels at the gas station had survived, there had to be others. Maybe whatever happened hadn"t affected Georgia or Florida.
"Go ahead and get whatever you want to bring and we"ll head out in a few minutes."
Ed stood in the doorway, enjoying the sound of ocean waves and the smell of salt.w.a.ter. It was the first time the world felt close to normal since the crash. He considered walking the path to the beach and sitting in the sand. It had been forever since he"d just sat on a beach and let the sound of waves, wind, and gulls set him at ease.
That"s when he realized there weren"t any gulls, or birds of any kind.
That"s weird.
As he strained to hear over the waves, he picked up on the undeniable sound in the distance.
A helicopter.
They"re coming for her baby.
BRENT FOSTER.
Three quick knocks followed the first set as Luis and Brent traded glances.
"Do you think it"s the aliens?" Luis whispered.
Brent shrugged his shoulders, uncertain what to do. If they didn"t answer, the person, whoever it was, would leave. But was it a person, or something else?
Another knock, followed by a whisper, "h.e.l.lo?"
A man"s voice, familiar, but Brent couldn"t quite place it.
"h.e.l.lo?" Brent asked.
"Mr. Foster? Is that you?" a vaguely Jamaican sounding voice asked.
"Yeah," Brent said, trying to match the voice to a face or name.
"It"s Joe from maintenance."
Joe was the elder of the building"s two maintenance men; a tall, thin man who had to be pushing 65, though he looked 10 years younger. He was always super nice to Ben, who called him Mr. Joe, whenever Joe came to the apartment to fix something.
Luis and Brent pulled the fridge away and unlocked the door.
Joe was in his red maintenance uniform, like always. But he looked 100 years older.
"Come in," Brent said, "This is Luis from across the street."
Joe smiled, and walked in, limping.
As Luis locked the door, Brent asked, "Are you okay?"
"Do you have any rice?"
"What?" Brent asked confused.
"Rice, I need some rice. Right away."
"You"re hungry?" Brent asked, thinking Joe was injured and confused.
"No, not to eat, to keep them away."
"To keep what away?" Luis asked.
"The jumbees. Rice will preoccupy them. You pour it outside your door."
"What are jumbees?" Brent said.
"Do you have rice or not?" Joe asked, raising his voice, though it was edged with fear, not anger.
Brent grabbed a bag of white rice from the pantry and handed it to Joe, who asked Luis to open the door. Joe poured half the bag onto the ground just outside the door, then turned to Brent and said, "Do you have another bag?"
"Yeah," Brent said.
"Good," Joe said, pouring the rest of the first bag on the ground. He came back inside. "You can lock it now."
Luis did so.
"What are jumbees? And what"s with the rice?" Brent asked as he ushered Joe to the couch to get off his injured foot.
"Jumbees are evil spirits. I used to think they were just old island folklore that my mother would go on and on about, but then I saw two of them tonight."
"What do they look like?" Luis asked.
"Jumbees can take different forms, but the things I saw on the street tonight, were dark, deformed, monstrous jumbees. They came after me, but I got away."
"You ran?" Brent asked, surprised Joe was able to get away.
"Yes. But they were also distracted. They saw someone else on the street and ... they..." Joe looked down, like he might not finish the sentence. "They tore her up."
"Her?" Brent asked, fear stirring in his guts, "Who did they get? Did you know her?"
"No," Joe said, "A young Puerto Rican girl, maybe 20, I don"t know. n.o.body from this building, I don"t think. They ripped her apart, though, limb from limb like some kind of wolves or something. Eating her."
Brent released the breath he"d been holding.
"How does the rice distract them?" Luis asked.
"The rice is supposed to slow them down. Jumbees are like kids pa.s.sing a candy store. If they see a bunch of stuff spilled, they have to stop and count it. By the time they"re done counting, daylight comes and they have to return to the spirit world."
Brent and Luis exchanged a sounds-like-bulls.h.i.t glance.
"I don"t think those things are jumbees," Luis said. "Because we saw some during the day. And they killed my friends in the apartment across the street earlier."
Whatever wind Joe had beneath his sails, evaporated. "So, if they can walk in the day, then the rice might not work."
All three men stared at the ground as if it were harboring answers.
"Have you seen anyone else?" Brent asked, "Gina or Ben?"
Joe"s eyes widened, "You mean they"re not here?"
"No, I woke up in the morning and they were gone, just like everyone else."
"I"m so sorry," Joe said, his lips trembling, eyes red and gla.s.sy. "Other than the girl, I haven"t seen anyone else. I went door to door. n.o.body answered in your apartment earlier. I wasn"t even gonna come back, but something told me to try again."
Joe turned to Luis, "You said you had some friends who were killed?"
"Yeah," Luis said, "Two friends."
"So there might be more people?" Joe asked.
Brent told him about the radio broadcast they heard earlier and that they"d be going to Black Island in the morning, once the streets were safer. They invited Joe to go with them. But first, they"d need to get some sleep.
Brent took the first shift, sitting in the recliner. Joe slept on the couch and Luis on the floor, which he swore he didn"t mind at all.
As the men slept, Brent reached into his pocket and pulled out Stanley Train. Its big, goofy smile greeted him.
Brent prayed he"d be able to give the train back to its rightful owner soon.
In the morning, the men loaded supplies into duffel and grocery bags and prepared for the trip.
Brent wrote one last note to Gina, telling her where they were going. He doubted she"d ever see the letter, but it still pained him to write it. He imagined her showing up an hour after they left, stuck in the apartment with the jumbees, aliens, or whatever the h.e.l.l the monsters were.
"We"ve gotta go," Luis said, likely sensing Brent"s hesitancy as Brent took forever to tape the note to the phone on the wall.
They made their way downstairs, Brent and Luis carrying bags and weapons, while Joe walked behind them, a pistol in one hand, a bag of rice in the other. Joe had never used a gun, so Luis went over the basics with him, all three men hoping he"d never need to put his lesson to use.
As they reached the ground floor, Brent feared once they got outside that one of two things would be waiting - either a pack of creatures or a demolished car. But he kept the fear to himself.
The gla.s.s of the lobby doors was shattered. Luis readied his shotgun, pushing through to the street. He scanned the avenue, then waved for the other two men to follow.
The streets were still wrapped in the eerie fog, cutting visibility to 10 yards at most. The car was thankfully intact. Luis opened the trunk, loaded the supplies, then hit the b.u.t.ton on his keychain to unlock the doors. The car"s alarm beeped twice, then bounced across the empty hallways of the ghosted metropolis. Brent cringed, hoping the sound wouldn"t attract the creatures" attention.
A shrieking sound from above crushed that hope.
They all looked up at once, unable to see anything other than fog.
"Get in the car!" Luis screamed.
The creature fell from the sky, landing between all three men.
It was at least a foot taller than Luis, its limbs impossibly long, just like its fingers. Its body was black, with lights under its wet skin. Its face was long, a giant maw of teeth for a mouth, and two almond-shaped eyes, ink black. If it had a nose or ears, Brent couldn"t see them.
It surveyed all three men, turning in half circles, body hunched as if ready to spring into action.
Luis took a shot as the creature leapt into the air, into the fog, and then came back down, landing on top of Joe. It stood up in one fluid motion, bringing Joe with it, one arm around Joe"s chest and the other around his neck.
Joe dropped both his gun and the bag of rice - which didn"t distract the creature a bit. It opened its mouth wider and made that G.o.d-awful Click Click Click Click sound, then held Joe up as a human shield.
"I can"t get a shot!" Luis yelled.
Joe cried out, trying to squirm free from the creature"s grip. As if in response, the creature"s right hand moved up and gripped Joe"s skull, its fingers covering his entire head and dripping half way down his face. Joe"s entire body began to shake violently as the lights, or whatever it was beneath the creature"s skin, pulsated brighter. Joe screamed as his body continued shaking as if being electrocuted.
"Shoot it!" Brent yelled, not confident in his ability to get a clear shot.
Luis screamed and ran toward the creature, gun raised. The monster threw Joe aside like a rag doll and brought its hands down to tackle Luis. Before Luis could take aim, Brent fired two shots - one hitting the monster"s torso, the other striking its head.
The creature dropped immediately and Luis descended, firing another shot and finishing it off.
Luis screamed, "Die motherf.u.c.ker!"
Brent, shaken, scanned around them for any sign of more creatures. Something moved in the fog above them and Brent fired into the sky.
Luis raised his gun, "What? You see something?"
"I"m not sure," Brent said, heart pounding, eyes scanning the sky above as he circled his gun in all directions, praying nothing would pop up from a direction he wasn"t looking. "I thought I did."
From the ground, Joe moaned.
"s.h.i.t!" Brent said, having forgotten that the old man was injured. He ran to Joe and noticed two things at once - the man"s eyes were white and milky, the pupils barely visible. Dark, painful looking splotches stained his head where the thing had touched his scalp.
"Help," Joe moaned, his jaw shaking, drool streaming from the corners of his mouth.