Ping - From the Apocalypse (13 page)

Chapter
Twenty-Three

Two Birds of a Feather

(July 24th, Year One, PA)

“Turn here! To your right,” Kate asserted.

The wheels screeched off of the dusty urban road into a community of homes
— some only partially built — surrounded by dry, agricultural landscape. Barely able to breathe in anticipation, Kate scanned every detail around the large houses as Sarah drove their car at a crawling pace down the wide street.

Abandoned vehicles with their doors still ajar were
resting half onto front lawns, or not quite inside garages; others were frayed along the edge of the curb. Kate and Sarah averted their eyes from the mostly decomposed bodies, those poor souls who did not make it to their homes before collapsing.

“Look Sarah, there's the fountain! That's it I bet.”

The stately home was poised on a corner lot. Four white columns supported a wide overhang with triangular brackets over the main entrance. A three-tiered fountain ornamented the parched, brown lawn. “I know that's it, look — he's put out a sign for us!”

Leaning against the edge of the fountain's rim was a medium-sized blackboard on which was
written, 'This is ware I live.'

“Oh Sarah,
this has to be him! I can't believe we've actually done this. It seems surreal.”

“We'll soon find out.” Sarah replied
, swinging up the far side of a u-shaped driveway to stop just before the home's entrance.

Sarah gave Kate's arm an encouraging squeeze and took a deep breath. “Okay
, what are we waiting for?”

They simultaneously stepped onto the driveway, leaving
the doors open for Snowy who was with the luggage in the backseat. Kate stepped up to a curved porch, where she rapped on one of the double-doors. “I hope he can hear us.” She peered through a gap in the sheers that covered the tall window flanking the door, but saw no movement inside.

They scanned the neighbourhood, knocked again, and waited apprehensively. “Why isn't he answering? Could we possibly have the wrong house?”

“No, this is it alright.” Sarah had stepped over to the other side of the fountain for a closer look at the message on the blackboard. “The chalk is fresh.”

Kate
glanced up and down the street wondering if he had gone somewhere, then strolled over to the side of the house to discover the gate to the backyard was locked, and called over the top of the tall fence. “Thomas? It's Kate and Sarah!”

She
was feeling dizzy. It wasn't her morning sickness or the oppressive heat so much as the thought that the poor boy had been alone so long in this mind-numbing void. There wasn't a breeze or bird to break the stillness. She remembered the torturous solitude while she was waiting for the thaw; it was as if she’d been sucked into a frozen black hole which had nearly killed her. The thought of a child having to endure such loneliness was almost too much for her to bear.

She went back to the front door beside Sarah
. “Maybe he’s gone somewhere. Why not contact him the way we’ve always done?”

Sarah sat down on the
wide step beside her, they closed their eyes, and in a moment had a clear but shocking vision. They glanced at each other with gaping jaws, jumped to their feet, and thrust the front door open, immediately assaulted by a particularly disgusting odour, understandable in such heat and with all the windows closed.

T
hey pressed the material from their cotton tops against their faces. The stench seemed to be funnelling down a curved staircase from the second level. Kate gagged and rushed from the tiled foyer through the dining room to the back of the house where a kitchen door provided an escape.

She dove into
the yard, falling on her knees and vomiting over the patio stones, finally lifting her throbbing head to find old food cartons strewn across the yard and piled up along the back fence where the wind had carried them.

“Kate look!
”

Sarah was crouched beside a lawn chaise where a
n extremely small-framed child of Asian descent lay with his eyes squeezed shut, his chest pitching up and down rapidly. Still reeling, Kate wiped her mouth and stumbled toward him. “Oh no! He's having trouble breathing.”

Sarah's forehead creased
and they each placed a hand on the child's cheek. “Honey, stay with him for a moment, I'll be right back,” Sarah said.

Kate observed the flushed child struggling for air.
“It’s okay sweetie, we’re here now,” she said gently. “Sarah’s getting some medicine for you so you’ll feel better, okay?” He was so small and he wouldn’t open his eyes. She should never have stayed on the beach so long.

Sarah
arrived through the gate at the side of the house with water and the medicine kit. “He's so hot,” she said, moistening a towel with cold water taken from the electric car cooler and placing the cloth over his forehead. As she did this the boy peered up at them briefly, then squeezed his eyes shut again.

“
You’re okay now. Remember, we said we were coming for you darling?” Kate crooned. “Let's get him over to the shade.”

As they lifted the lawn chair the boy focused on both of them.

“Don't worry sweetie, you’re in good hands now. We're going to look after you,” Sarah smiled.

A tear ran down the side of the child's face and his
delicate little lips arched downward. “Take a drink for me okay?” Kate pulled his head up slightly, “Just slow sips, that's a boy.”

“Sarah.
The puffers — in the side pocket I think. There are steroid tablets in there too. They’ll help his asthma. I had to have them as a kid.”

Breathing in the fine mist from the inhalers that Kate dispensed for him, the
boy gradually calmed down. He peered at them with beautiful, near-black eyes.

“
Can you swallow this for me darling?” Kate requested. She held a tablet to his mouth and obediently, he took it with a sip of cool water.

Sarah tilted the back of his chaise upright
and then handed him a bottle of cold apple juice with a straw.

“Oh my goodness,
we've finally found you,” Kate suddenly chuckled, beaming with relief that he appeared to be okay. She began to stroke his fine, black hair. “We came from so far away. You're such a beautiful little guy.”

Sarah had pulled one of the chaises right beside him and was sitting down too. “Are you feeling a little better sweetie?” The boy nodded
shyly.

Kate took his hand. “Do you remember when you phoned me? I know it was a scary time.
For me too — you probably want to forget all about it.”

He frowned, looked down and nodded.

“I see you've been able to feed yourself
,” said Sarah, turning toward the cereal boxes, pop cans, and various cartons covering the entire surface of a long patio table and the empty containers sweeping across the huge yard. “Where did you get all that food sweetie?”

He pointed at several of his neighbour's homes. “Clever of you,” she
smiled, turning to Kate. “I think he's better than we thought hon. I'll bet the asthma attack was just angst over meeting us — poor babe.”

They both smiled at him
reassuringly.

Dragging a third chaise over beside him, Kate
sat down too, twisting the lid from a bottle of water and gulping down half of it. “I wish you would tell me your name. I've been calling you Thomas, but I’m not certain I got that right.”

He lowered his head with
such a sad look of defeat that Kate's eyes began to well up. “Oh honey… that's okay. You don't have to talk. I'm so sorry.”

“I have an idea,” Sarah said. “
We saw how perfectly you can print on your clever sign out front. Would you write down your name for us? I think I have something — hold on.”

She disappeared through the side gate, returning moments later with a pad of paper, a pen, and a box full of food for their dinner. “Here you go.”
He immediately printed his name clearly.

“You
’re Travis?” Kate grinned. “Well then, Thomas wasn't that far off. I almost got it right, isn't that amazing?”

“Sure
is,” Sarah agreed. “Can you tell us how old you are?” Encouraged, Travis flipped over to the next page and drew a giant number seven.

“So bright for seven years old,” Kate praised, “and a good thing too. We're going to need a brilliant boy like you. We've got some adventures planned for the three of us.”

Suddenly Kate gasped. “Snowy! We forgot about him in the heat.”

Sarah shook her head. “I put him in the shade at the side of the house when I got the medicine. He’s okay.”

She jumped up and brought him around, cleared a spot for his cage on the table and set it down. While they ate their dinner, Kate caught Travis whispering something under his breath through the bars, while Snowy paced back and forth looking frazzled.

When the sun went down it began to get cool, so Sarah retrieved some blankets from the car. Travis had been camping outside for quite some time
. They couldn’t blame him; he had to escape the rank smells of his decomposing family but he’d obviously felt the need to stay close to them.

After they'd finished canned
pasta and fruit cocktail, and Travis had taken another dose from the puffers, they all climbed onto the chaises for the night.

Kate lay back
, feeling much better; it was quite beautiful out under the stars. A few mosquitos buzzed by her ear, leaves rustled slightly, and she could hear the child's breathing become steady and deep as she blinked up at the twinkling sky.

***

In the morning Kate awoke to someone nudging her arm and found Travis standing above her, offering a box of chocolate soymilk. “Aren’t you a darling, thank you sweetie. Uh… just give me a minute,” Kate muttered sleepily.

She scratched at her scalp, yawned
, and sitting upright, took a small sip; but the warm milk was not what her stomach wanted and she fought the urge to gag. “Ugh, I'll work on this in a bit. Um – where's my sister got to?”

Travis
had an adorable grin on his face. She twisted around to see what he was pointing at. She must have slept incredibly deeply not to have heard the hum of the humungous Winnebago at the other side of the yard. It was parked in a driveway that led to the garage at the back of the house and up in the cockpit sat Sarah.

“Come and take a look at our new home,” she called through the window.

“What on earth?” Kate staggered to her feet. “Do you expect me to drive that thing?”

“Don't worry, if I can do it, so can you. “It's cool in here
,” Sarah cheered. “Really nice air-conditioning. Check it out you two!”

Both of them climbed
inside and Travis immediately bounced onto the nicely upholstered passenger seat and swivelled it around to face the back.

“This baby is going to get us to our real home
!” Sarah announced, while Kate and Travis went to explore.

“We've got running water, a shower, and a flush toilet,
” Kate cheered. “I think I'm going to take a shower. Would you like to go next Travis?”

Chapter
Twenty-Four

Red Rain

(July 30th, Year One, PA)

Jack carried his longboard from the grove of palm trees down to the shoreline. He paused for a moment in the salty breeze to survey the curling waves further out, determining their size and power. The sea rushed across the sand, surrendering small treasures boiled up from its depths. A few sandpipers skittered along the edge searching for a meal.

He fastened a tether from the tail end of the board to his trailer foot — then
headed out into the foaming, briny waves. His arms, having regained their strength, propelled him and the board swiftly and steadily out to sea. Far from the shore Jack floated over the swells, while three gulls circled above him squawking. He peered into the depths with the water slapping against him, and waited.

Within minutes a pod of dolphins surface
d and Jack laughed as they began their usual antics. They leapt out of the dark depths in unison, sailing high above the waves, then nose-diving back into the water ahead of him. Curving around his board they repeated their gymnastics creating a spectacle for his and their amusement. Jack felt almost fulfilled with this daily routine.

When the dolphins tired of this game, and their attraction to something new made them swim away, Jack
thrust his board through the water matching the speed of an approaching wave. At the right moment he stood, the muscles taut in his shoulders, stretched-out arms, thighs and calves, as he turned three or four times back and forth along the wave's crest.

Kate was nauseous, still unable to keep much food down, and beside herself with exhaustion. Sitting in the passenger seat while Sarah drove the motorhome, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from obsessing about Jack. His baby was inside her, just beginning to develop. How could she have allowed herself to have conceived a child with such an evil person — a convicted felon?

She tried to focus on the scenery, but
the severe lack of colour was nothing to look at, it was actually quite discouraging. The few sparse patches of trees in the area needed a good drenching. Everything was dust and parched soil. The fields that were ploughed, ready to be cultivated with cotton seed, had already begun to grow wild, and eventually the winds and the rains would complete the task.

As the motorhome droned along the
half-empty expressway on the outskirts of town, she tried to record the panorama in her head, too tired to retrieve her camera as she'd planned or even to enter the details in her notebook. She looked back at Travis, and smiled, truly relieved to have him safe with them now. That gave her the comfort she needed to get through this.

He was a delightful child. All morning he'd kept his nose buried in a book – fortunately the owners of the RV had kept a small library.
But what Jack had done to her had affected her deeply. She felt completely out of commission. What she needed was closure, an explanation as to why a human being would do such terrible things.

If she couldn't speak to Jack telepathically, then
she wished she could phone him and demand an explanation for all that he’d done. She wished she could scream in his ear until he was deaf and then strangle him. Thinking about him made her want to punch something. Such pent-up anger was zapping her energy she guessed and she was afraid it was going to affect the baby. She could not even relax enough to fall asleep.

Then, a fine mist began to form on the windshield and coat the hot, wavering pavement
, turning it a darker, redder shade. Kate watched the drops grow bigger and denser and she stared at them in disbelief.

“What is that
?!”

Thick, red blobs were hitting the windows and splashing down on everything around them. Sarah flicked on the windshield wipers which smeared red streaks across the glass, tinting the world beyond, the shade of blood.

“Look at that!” exclaimed Sarah.

“What is it?”

Red globules began to bounce off the road and clang against the roof and Travis was drawn from of his book.

“
It's raining blood!” Sarah said. “Look. It's like a scene from a horror movie!”

Both
Sarah and Kate turned to check on Travis. He seemed unscathed and Sarah turned her green eyes back to the road immediately wrinkling her forehead in despair.

“Shit, I can't see in this crap,” she cried, jamming her foot hard on the brake
pedal causing the monstrous vehicle to swing sideways, the tires sliding across the glazed asphalt.

“Sarah
! Easy on the — jeez, you’re going to roll this thing!!!” Kate screamed.

In what
seemed like slow motion the RV’s back end began to swing in the opposite direction, and as Sarah jerked the wheel to try to correct the skid, they continued to skate further along the red slime. Sarah, realizing she was no longer in control, let out a scream and Kate watched in horror as the motorhome finally came to a screeching halt, perpendicular to the highway.

“Oh my God Sarah
!” Kate gasped. “What are you trying to do to us? I thought you said you could handle this thing!”

Sarah clasped her palms over her cheeks, closed her eyes and blew the air out her mouth with a loud whooshing sound. Then she rested her head on the wheel.
“Fuck! My bad.”

“What on earth do you think you are doing Sarah?” Kate muttered
after she’d caught her breath.

Sarah sat up and sighed again. “Sorry,” she said, drumming her long slender fingers on the wheel and glancing over at Kate nervously. “I have no experience driving in blood rain.”

“And would you please watch your language? We have a child
on board!”

Sarah glanced behind he
r. Kate turned as well. The boy’s eyes met Kate’s for a second and then he dove into his book. Everyone kept silent. Sarah pursed her lips and continued rapping on the wheel as the rain began to pound heavily on the roof.

“Blood rain,
” she asserted.

“
What on earth is that?”

“It's a rare
thing I once learned about. Do you want some chips hon? Travis?”

Both declined, shaking their heads.

“How about a drink?”

“Sarah
, what are you talking about… blood rain?” Kate snipped.

“Creatures from outer space
,” Sarah explained, gathering a handful of salt and vinegar potato chips. She continued speaking with a full mouth. “They enter our planet on meteorites. You know, microbes or something like that. And they come down in the rain just like that.”

She paused
, and glanced over at Kate. “They can't hurt you or anything.”

Kate
noted the boy’s sober gaze. He was listening intently.

“
Well I’m — I don't think they even have any DNA — that wasn't clear in the video I watched. It was a while ago,” Sarah exclaimed.

“Seems utterly absurd.
Don't you think Travis?” Kate laughed.

The boy
’s eyes appeared to expand as he nodded.

“This
was from a reputable scientist.” Sarah's tone revealed hurt feelings. “It is a known fact that seeds can enter our world from space and if the environment is right they grow. That could be how life started on earth in the first place.”

Kate laughed. “Do you honestly believe that's what
’s going on right now?”

“
I'm just saying it's possible,” Sarah shrugged.

“If you say so.
” Kate folded her arms and let her head rest against the window; suddenly, she was too tired to hold it upright, too tired to argue, and definitely too tired to contemplate alien-laced rain. She put her seat back and closed her eyes.

“Well I'm sorry that I can't prove it. I'm not making things up as I go along you know. I wish I had the internet to show you the video
. Anyway, it's probably just dust the rain picked up. Obviously there's been a drought.”

“Why not put your seat down and have a rest Sarah
,” Kate said with a heavy sigh. “You obviously can’t drive in this.”

Travis went into the fridge, took out some milk and brought it
over to Kate.

“Thank you sweetie, are you feeling okay?
Sarah gave us a bit of a scare, didn’t she?” Travis indicated yes with a tilt of his head, and returned to his book.

They all remained quiet for a while.
For a moment the red rain stopped altogether and a fly could be heard buzzing behind them. Kate attempted to drink her milk but only bubbles entered the straw, which must have had a hole in it. Sarah glanced sideways at her.

Kate didn't want to upset anyone – especially poor Travis who had barely got
ten to know them and had probably just been traumatized all over again thanks to Sarah – but a torrent of emotions were finding their way to the surface and she didn't know what to do with them. She folded the straw back and forth in frustration and eyed Sarah, who was in a reclined position now.

“Any more horror stories?” she said sarcastically.

“Just chill Kate.”

“
You nearly killed us. As if we needed more excitement in our lives. Poor Travis must be scared to death.” But her words dissolved into a chain of sobs as the rain pounded on the roof.

Sarah
reached over and took Kate’s hand. “I know there's a lot more going on than just hormones sweetie. But it’s going to be okay. I’m really sorry I did that. It won’t happen again. I promise.”

“
I’m sorry too Sarah. I’m trying to pretend I'm on a vacation in this mobile home. But I can’t pretend that soon we won't have any food or medicine or anyone to help us. Oh my God Sarah — now we have children! And we are completely alone!”

***

When Jack crawled out of the ocean, the pain really hit and he howled like a wounded animal – but his cry was swallowed up by the roar of the sea and only the gulls were there to hear him. It was not the gaping wound that made him cry, but the added assault to his pride.

T
he Universe was going to punish him, no matter what he did. With clenched teeth he slid through the sand fully aware from his medical perspective that time was of the essence.

He
glared back at the gloating waters. “God-damned shark. Fuck you, bastard!!!”

His
drenched hair brushed his shoulders in dark, wavy strands which hung over his bearded face as he crawled through the sand to his beach towel. He clambered on top and loosened the tourniquet made from the Velcro tether that had kept his surfboard attached to his leg, giving the compressed tissue a moment to breathe.

He
poured clean water from an unopened drinking bottle over the bite and examine the damage, careful not to touch the wound — though infection was inevitable. The foul teeth of the shark and the murky sea were filled with contaminants. Then fastening his t-shirt, which was crumpled on the towel, tightly around the calf, he rested for a moment.

The longboard had taken the impact of the shark
’s jaws, saving his leg from being severed, and because the bottom teeth had sunk well into the fibreglass, the flesh of his calf was not ripped away; but still they had sunk deep. Jack had kicked the fish in the snout just in time.

Sometimes nuggets of truth surfaced in Jack's head. For instance, at this very moment
as blood dripped onto his towel and he regretted not having another pair of hands to help him, he knew exactly why he had chased Kate away. And he'd done an excellent job of convincing her of his unworthiness.

But the truth that could really have saved him flashed like gold for
only a brief moment, giving him just a tiny glimpse of it as he stared at his gaping wound – then it dove back into his subconscious, lost in a chaos of suppressed memories.

***

Kate was grateful for the consoling words Sarah was giving her. She was almost grateful for the scare of their near accident, which had started the flood of tears in the first place — she’d desperately needed a release. Now that it was out of her system she felt so much better. To think all those years had passed without her dear, caring Sarah. She had missed out on so much time with her.

Sarah was embracing her chance to provide solace and, even now that Kate had stopped crying, she continued to assure her.
“There
are
others out there Kate; we’ve just been too preoccupied to work on contacting them. Just wait until we’re settled. Hell, all we need is a little stability in our lives — that’s all.”

Kate blew her nose and then glanced back at
Travis who’d remained on the rear bunk with his head buried in his book. Her heart sunk. She got up from the passenger seat, went over to the child, and sat beside him. “
The Philosopher’s Stone
,” she said. “It’s one of my favourites. Do you mind if I read it to you?”