Wil and Matsuda were hustled into the basement and past the embracing Gutierrezes by another woman, likely not direct family judging by her Middle-Eastern descent. She had a short, punkish hair-do, buzzed on the sides and longer and tousled on top. She was short, but not as short as Ranger Gutierrez (Guess I’ll need to start thinking of her as Rosa now, Wil thought), and sort of wiry. She was smudged with dust and a few spatters of mud or blood on a dark leather jacket she wore, and her right hand had been heavily bandaged.

The Gutierrez parents and their daughter descended the basement stairs in a sort of hugging shuffle, all of them sniffling and crying as they reached the bottom. Mr. Gutierrez waved somebody over, the and the hug huddle increased by two: a slender girl who looked like she was barely in college, and a stout man in his forties. Sister and brother.

“I’ll uh, get the door,” the punk woman said and hopped up the basement stairs. She placed a plank of wood on the stairs and tilted it so it jammed under the basement doorknob, then backed down the stairs as she studied the Gutierrez family hug pile as well as Wil and Matsuda.

Wil took a moment to study the basement. It had a simple concrete floor, a washer and dryer in one corner, a few metal shelving unites stacked with heavy-duty plastic containers, water, cans of food, and cardboard boxes with labels like “X-Mas Lights 1” and “Taxes 2015” and so on.

Sleeping bags and pillows had been laid out in a far corner, near a battered gas camping lantern and a box of shotgun shells. The lantern was lit but it was still incredibly dark in the basement because the windows near the ceiling had been painted over and covered with pieces of wood. The paint was definitely recent, as there was still the scent of it in the air.

“Can’t believe you’re alive,” Rosa said as she held her family. “I saw the house and I——”

“It’s okay mija, we’re okay. We were just so worried for you,” Mrs. Gutierrez said.

“Where are David and Raul?” Rosa asked.

“David was on duty when things started happening yesterday,” the middle-aged Gutierrez said. Wil assumed this was Hector. He had a lined face, short black hair and a neatly-trimmed goatee streaked with a few strands of gray. His hands were chapped, calloused, and despite being a little on the hefty side, looked like he could’ve punched through a wall. “He called us, told us to get to Mom and Dad’s place and hole up with them because something was happening. Haven’t heard from him since.”

“He didn’t call me,” Rosa said.

“Probably figured you were the safest one of all, out in the woods,” the young woman, Esmi, said. She was mostly Rosa’s polar opposite: a softer, kinder face, tall and almost willowy where Rosa was short and compact.

“As for Raul, he’s trying to find us a car,” Hector continued. Something crashed into the garage when things really started getting bad and totaled the truck. All the cars in the neighbors’ houses are either gone or busted, so he’s on the next block sneaking around.”

“We were thinking of heading towards Oak Rest. Is it safe out there? In the park? No people, right?” Esmi asked.

“Not safe in the least,” Matsuda said.

“Who are these folks?” Mr. Gutierrez asked as he wiped at his eyes. He looked like an older, fatter version of Hector, his hair gone stark white.

“Sorry, right,” Rosa said. “This is Mr. Matsuda and Wil. They were staying up at Oak Rest when it all happened and they helped me get out of the park.”

“Hello,” Wil said and waved.

“Was Roger not there to help you?” Mrs. Gutierrez asked. She bore more resemblance to Esmi than Rosa: thin, and with long, flowing white hair. She had a definite accent when she spoke, pronouncing “Roger,” more like “Raw-Her.”

“He’s dead, Mama,” Rosa said and her voice cracked. Her mother began to cry again and embraced her daughter.

“I’m so sorry,” her father said and put his hand on her shoulder. Hector folded his arms across his chest and shook his head while Esmi came forward to hug her sister and mother and join them in crying.

“Thank you for helping our daughter,” Mr. Gutierrez said and came forward to shake hands with Matsuda and Wil.

“She helped us just as much,” Matsuda said. “May I ask who your guest is?”

Matsuda gestured at the young punk woman standing against the far wall. She nodded, as if in mock appreciation of finally being acknowledged.

“Ah. This is one of our neighbors’ kids,” Mr. Gutierrez said. “I guess she was house-sitting while her parents were away on vacation.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Qadira,” the young woman said and shook with Matsuda and Wil. Wil found the gesture a little aggressive: her grip was too tight, he pumps a little too enthusiastic. When she was done she jerked her hand back as if she’d had it in a rat’s nest. Wil frowned at her, but she only widened her smile. “Yeah my parents were out, things started going crazy, figured I’d stop in and check on others. Wound up staying here rather than alone.”

“No car at your place?” Matsuda asked.

“Parents took it on vacation,” Qadira said.

“Mm. And I suppose you didn’t drive here?”

“Taxi.”

“Mm.”

“You’ve been down here since when?” Rosa asked and wiped at her eyes.

“Late afternoon yesterday. We saw some stuff on the news, but it looked like it was all in LA and Dallas. Then there was an emergency bulletin for downtown Portland, then the whole city,” Esmi said. “We heard explosions and sirens, and it all just seemed to go bad right away. Then something hit the house in the garage and wrecked the truck. That was when we all ran down here.

“Stayed here for a few hours while things got bad outside. We heard noises. Screaming, a lot, but other stuff, like animal sounds. Papa poked his head out for a bit and said he saw some weird things and that we had to leave the city, maybe come see you, Rosa. So Raul volunteered to start looking for cars. He went out a couple time yesterday before it got dark while we started securing the basement. Raul came back with Qadira, and we’ve been holed up since then. This is the first time Raul’s gone out today, been about an hour or so.”

“Is the park really just as bad as the city?” Hector asked.

“It’s not as crowded,” Matsuda said. “But it’s still bad.”

He, Rosa, and Wil explained the dangers of limited mobility on roads, walking through the woods, the distortions, the buck, the bear, the squirrels Matsuda had seen, and the rock with the black stuff inside that had turned Sandoval.

“Uh, that’s what hit the garage,” Hector said.

“What?” Rosa asked.

“Some roundish rock bigger than a beach ball slammed into the side of the garage and totaled the truck,” Hector said. “It was cracked open and there was slime or something coming out of it. I just saw it for a second and then came back inside because there was an explosion down the street.”

“Jesus Christ,” Rosa said and her mother slapped her on the arm.

“None of that here,” she said. “Especially not now.”

“Mama, if the lord is more upset by my blasphemy than what is happening outside——”

“Has anybody else been near the rock?” Matsuda asked.

“No, nobody,” Mr. Gutierrez said.

“Thank god for that,” Wil said.

“Nobody in this basement, anyway,” Mr. Gutierrez said. There was a lot of ruckus up there yesterday evening, after Raul came back. He…he might have gone to inspect it when he went p a little while ago.”

“No. No no no,” Mrs. Gutierrez said.

“He’s smart enough to stay away, I’m sure, but there were people, or something, up there last night,” Mr. Gutierrez continued.

“Raul should be able to find something,” Rosa said. “If not, Mr. Matsuda here is pretty good at hot-wiring things.”

“That a common skill at the old-folks home?” Qadira asked. Matsuda glanced at her and smiled kindly.

“I used to work on cars in my younger days,” he said.

“There’s an Air National Guard Outpost outside the city, near the coast. We should go there,” Rosa said. “It’s away from any major population centers, it’ll be better defended, and they might know what’s going on.”

“We were just thinking we should stay here if you or David came back,” Mrs. Gutierrez said. “Expecially now that you said the woods are no good.”

“You’ll die in here,” Matsuda said.

“Geez,” Wil replied.

“No time to mince words, I’m sorry. You’re very lucky you’ve all survived this long. Your home is open to the road, you’ve got no real defenses, and everything we’ve seen so far could smash in here within a minute or two, tops,” Matsuda said. “Staying is suicide.”

“Going out there isn’t much better,” Qadira said. “It sounds like you all spent most of your time in the woods and on the highway. How long were you actually on the city streets before that ranger died?”

Rosa grit her teeth and clenched her fists.

“Not long. A few minutes, tops,” Wil said. Qadira nodded.

“It’s dense with things out there. Black eyes, green eyes, and other shit. I saw something that looked like a cockroach the size of a station wagon crawling over a house five blocks away. It had a grown man in its mouth. Shit like that out there, I dunno. It’s a gamble either way.”

“Can’t stay here forever,” Matusda said and glanced at the shelves. “With this many people, food and water will be gone within a week, even with rationing.”

“Ah, our supplies,” Wil said. They’d had to abandon all of their supplies yet again. Worse, they hadn’t even been able to grab their bags when they’d abandoned the Ford. They were worse off than they’d ever been.

And they were still soaking wet from the fire hydrant.

Mrs. Gutierrez seemed to notice this for the first time and touched Rosa’s wet hair.

“We aren’t leaving without Raul. David…David is with the other police. He will be able to handle himself until the military or somebody comes. But in the meantime, you should all change. How did you get so wet? Is it raining?”

“Fire hydrant crash,” Rosa said.

“You’ll catch a cold!”

“I’m fine, Mama,” Rosa said.

“No, she’s right. Catching a cold or pneumonia with everything going on is as much of a death sentence as giant roaches or green-eyed creatures. I don’t see any clothes down here though,” Matsuda said and looked around.

“You’ll need to sneak upstairs. Mama still keeps a closet with some old stuff of mine and David’s and Raul’s in the spare room. David’s are probably gonna be the closest fit for you too. Raul and I are both on the bigger side of the clothing rack.”

“Thank you,” Wil said and Matsuda nodded.

“Your clothes are in the other room, mija,” Mrs. Gutierrez said to Rosa.

“WI should get changed and go,” Wil said. “Naomi is still out there.”

“Who?” Mr. Gutierrez asked.

“His girlfriend,” Rosa replied.

“Is she in our neighborhood? Nearby?” Esmi asked. “She’s welcome to come down here with us.”

“9th and Washington,” Wil said. “Downtown.”

Qadira barked out a sudden, harsh laugh that made everybody except Matsuda jump. Wil turned to look at her as she put her hand over her mouth and shook her head.

“Sorry, sorry,” she said. “It’s not funny. Just…the idea of going downtown is absurd.”

“Why? What happened?” Wil demanded.

“Did you not see it?” Qadira asked.

“It got foggy as we were coming in. We saw some smoke in the distance but nothing else,” Wil said. “What are you talking about?”

“Downtown’s toast, man,” Qadira said. “Half the buildings got blown up or knocked over by something. It’s done.”