Wil had the presence of mind to fill the bathtub with as much water as he could rather than sleep in it once his laughing fit had passed. True, it provided more protection from…whatever was Out There, but the power had already gone out. He figured it was only a matter of time before the water went too.

“So am I not killing myself? Why bother?” he muttered to himself in the darkness of the bathroom as the tub filled to capacity and he shut the water off. If he was just going back to the noose, he wouldn’t need a bathtub full of water.

He’d been knocking the idea of becoming one with the infinite for years now, and had done all the serious prep work for the months leading up to this. He had a will drafted, done his research on methods, made plans for the local rangers to find his body a day after the deed was done before decomposition set in and potentially ruined the cabin. Good-bye letters had been written, though since he didn’t know anybody that well, they were mostly just informative: a letter of notice to Yvonne at work, apologies to Ralph for leaving in the middle of their project, a letter clearing Dr. Carroll of any responsibility he may have had as a doctor, and so on.

The noose was still out in the living room, but Wil found its pull on his attention waning. The small oval of fine rope had been all he had thought about the past week. It had motivated his every action.

Now, his mind kept slipping away from it and to…

Pretty much anything else.

How many natural disasters had the news mentioned? At least four.

Riots and a coup in cities that weren’t even in the same state, at roughly the same time? Couldn’t be a coincidence.

Green-eyed things, long-legged things, and something that was definitely not Ralph answering Ralph’s phone? An understatement to say that was all a bit unusual.

And finally, all of this happening on the same day, the same span of hours? How? Why?

Wil had spent the last several months, years, knowing——not just feeling but knowing in his bones——that his life was, at best, just going to be one big hamster wheel. Movement, but no progress. An endless loop of exertion for no reason.

But now, he wasn’t sure what he knew. He knew something very serious and very strange was going on Out There. And that the In Here of his mind that had once been so orderly, so directed toward such certainty, was now in disarray.

Wil sat on the toilet and ran his hands through his hair.

There was something else, too.

Among the many things he had known about his own bleak and dull future, he had known that Naomi’s life would be better without him. She would be better than Fine. She would be great.

But now…

It seemed like, among the many things going on Out There, that death was among them. It was apparent from the news, from social media, from the unnatural silence outside the cabin, that death had come. Likely a much more grisly death than a noose would offer.

Wil shot up off the toilet and stared at his phone. He had deleted Naomi’s number the night they had broken up. He didn’t want to tempt himself with calling her back, but it was a symbolic act. He’d had her number memorized since the second week they had dated.

He hadn’t bothered her, not once. He knew that would only cause her pain, and that was the last thing Wil ever wanted. But he had to know. He had to know if she was okay. He wanted to kick himself for not calling immediately, but the news, Ralph’s call, the panic after, it had all happened so quickly, so arrested his attention from anything and everything else.

He dialed Naomi’s number and waited a subjective eternity.

If she answered he’d have to talk to her, apologize again, dig everything back up maybe.

If she didn’t answer what would that mean?

That she didn’t have her phone (unusual for her but best-case scenario for no answer).

That she didn’t want to talk to him (bad, but expected).

That she was dead.

Wil swallowed the fist-sized lump in his throat and felt it settle into his stomach like a hot stone.

The phone on the other end rang for the first time.

Wil let out a breath and bounced on his feet.

“C’mon Naomi. C’mon, dammit,” Wil muttered.

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Second ring.

Third.

“Jesus,” Wil said and scratched at the back of his neck hard enough to get the upper layer of skin under his nails.

“Wil?” a musical, soft, feminine voice answered the phone. Wil hadn’t heard it in a year, and the single syllable of his name said by that voice almost made him cry on the spot. He let out a shuddering breath.

“Yeah. Naomi,” he said, the first time he’d said her name outside of his meetings with Dr. Carroll. When he said it in the psychiatrist’s office, it felt like he was reciting the scientific name of some long-extinct creature: Here is Naomis Maximus, the remains of a once great person in my life, now reduced to bones.

But saying it to her brought that all back to life in a heartbeat.

“Shit,” Wil said. “I don’t…I didn’t prepare for this. Sorry. Fuck. Are you okay?”

“Wil, god,” Naomi said and her voice cracked. “I’m okay. I’m in my apartment.”

“Shit,” Wil said. Her apartment was in Portland. Not on the outer edges of the city like his shitty studio, but damn near downtown, near 9th Avenue and Washington Street. He knew it well enough. It was on the seventh floor of a converted factory on the southeast corner. He knew it well because it hadn’t always been her apartment. For a few years, it had been theirs.

“It’s crazy out there,” Naomi said. “Are you safe?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m at my parents’ old cabin,” he said.

“What are you doing up there?”

“I just…I was just getting some time to myself. Been hanging out with Ralph from work a lot, felt like I’d earned a little weekend to myself.”

“You’re lying,” Naomi said with a faint laugh. Wil smiled.

“You always did know. Are you safe? I mean, it sounds like every major city is going nuts, but is your apartment okay for now?”

“Yeah. Yeah I’m all right. I locked the door, shut the curtains and moved my book cases in front of the windows,” Naomi said and sniffled. “There have been sounds from a few floors down, though. I don’t know what could make sounds like that.”

“Do you have power?”

“No, it went out an hour ago.”

“Water?”

“Yeah, I checked.”

“Fill up the sink, bathtub, any pots and pans and containers you have.”

“Oh shit, that never occurred to me,” Naomi said and then her voice moved away from the phone, followed by the sound of rushing water. Wil waited, alternating between snapping his fingers and slapping his palms against his thighs.

“Okay, tub is filling, I’m getting my pots and stuff out,” Naomi said a short time later, and a rattling clang of metal accompanied her. Wil visualized the apartment in his head. It wasn’t hard. He did nothing but technical drawings all day during the week, had for years, and for years before that had trained his mind’s eye to soak in details for the canvas, digital and traditional. They'd shared the apartment for years as well.

“Have you moved things around much since I left?” he asked.

“What? No? I mean…why?”

“Because if you move that tacky armchair into the entryway, its big enough to keep the door stuck in the frame even if somebody breaks it down. It won’t hold forever, but its better than just your deadbolt,” Wil said. “Also my old baseball bat should be tucked up behind your shoeboxes in the back of the closet.”

“You told me you took everything of yours,” Naomi said.

“Well, I lied. Didn’t catch that one did you?”

“Asshole,” Naomi said, but there was affection there.

“Shithead,” Wil said right back with the same tone. God it felt good to talk to her again. He spared a half-second to marvel at how familiar it became, even after a year of silence, and even in the middle of everything going on. “Unless you’ve changed your mind about guns, its probably the best weapon in the apartment. Knives aren’t a bad choice either though.”

“I know, I’ve been carrying one of the kitchen knives around since shit went crazy,” Naomi said. “I’m not a complete idiot.”

“I know, I’m sorry. Just worried,” Wil said. The best place for her to hide in the apartment was likely the bathroom. The place had cost more than Wil made in a month in rent, mostly because of the expansive views it boasted, but those were a liability now. Still, they’d have given Naomi a decent view before she wisely barricaded them.

“What’s happening there? I’m out in the damn woods and I just saw the news, my social pages, but nothing here. It’s just weirdly quiet,” Wil said.

“Some kinda riots, or something. And a really weird-ass storm. And…and some thing in the streets. I don’t know. I can’t see more than a few blocks away. Smoke from fires and rain and mist from the weird storm have cut visibility to practically nothing,” Naomi replied.

“What was weird about the storm?” Wil asked.

“It had green light in it,” Naomi said. “Like the Aurora Borealis.”

Wil immediately thought of the dark humanoid shapes with the venomous green light glowing from their eyes.

“And what did you see in the streets?”

“Something. I don’t know. It was bigger than a truck, crawling on the side of a building. I only saw it for a few seconds and thought I was hallucinating. I hope I was. Jesus, I watched it kill like, five people and run off into the smoke with their bodies,” Naomi took a hitching gasp and let out a sob. “I was just glad it hadn’t seen me. Five people ripped apart in a second and all I could do was be happy it wasn’t me.”

“Naomi, it’s okay,” Wil said. “It’s not your fault. Look, I’m going to come get you, okay? You can stay with me in the cabin, it seems quiet here. We can just wait it out. Until then just hunker down and stay put.”

“No, Wil! It’s insane here. I can’t let you do that,” Naomi said. “I have an idea, I’ll g——”

And the line went dead.

“No,” Wil said in a voice like a parent scolding a naughty child. “No no no.”

He pulled his phone away and almost crushed it as the “NO SIGNAL” sign flashed in the upper left.

“NO!” Wil shouted in the darkness of the bathroom. “No you son of a bitch! You shitting piece of ass!”

He raised his hand to smash the phone in his fury but stopped himself. He was furious at the timing of it, but the signal might come back. He might still be able to get WiFi somewhere, message her or get her on video chat.

But there was no power in the cabin for wifi.

And it sounded like there was no power anywhere.

“The ranger station has a generator,” Wil said to himself. He had seen it when he had checked in and told the local ranger that he would be staying in the cabin for the week. It had been on the side of the station, black and bright yellow, like a gas-fed bumblebee. He had remembered it because he had seen one just like it on his last visit to Home Depot. A Champion 3800 Dual Fuel generator.

Of course, just because he might be able to get a signal wouldn’t mean Naomi would. It could be for nothing. But he had to try. He had to know she would be okay.

And that meant he had to go…

“Out There,” Wil said as he looked at the locked bathroom door.