My phone call with the dispatcher was one of the most awkward conversations I have ever had. I had spent a few moments before the call crafting out perfectly planned words and arguments to convince the operator of the plight, but after the first few words on the other end, I could hardly remember my name, much less what I had wanted to say.
I should have written it down.
Only the knowledge that phone calls to the police are tracked and prank calling them would have some terrible consequence, a fine, probably, kept me from hanging up the phone in panic.
So I ploughed through what I wanted to say like a drunken farmer behind a drunken mule. I can’t remember the conversation much, but I mentioned animated skeletons, armed and dangerous, the lake they are in and the danger to the people in the apartment complex. I think I remember trying to tie in the danger to the mysterious grey spheres that popped up around the planet, but my conversation wasn’t very organized.
It didn’t help having Bill stare at me with his eyes bulging out at me and his mouth agape. Geeze, give me some space man, I can’t think!
Only the saintly level of patience on the operator’s side was what managed to salvage the situation. She must be experienced with dealing with panicked and frantic callers. In my case though, it was the call itself that was flustering me.
“Please calm down, sir,” she said in a soothing but stern voice, like everything was already under control. “Take a deep breath and speak more slowly.”
I do just that, and give Bill a glare to stop staring at me. He doesn’t seem to get the message.
“I am sorry,” I say, gathering my wits, “Let me try again.”
I’m certain I sounded like a lunatic either way, so I am not sure how I managed it but I did convince them to evacuate the beachfront around the lake. They’ll be sending some officers over there to oversee the situation. They’ll also be sending an officer directly to me, to try to confirm my tale. I had stressed repeatedly over the phone that I could prove what I was claiming, that I would take any and all responsibility for false alarm or what not, etc.
I think that on any other day they would not have believed a word I said and sent me straight to the loony bin. Any other day, when alien pinballs didn’t appear mysteriously around the world. In the end, it was my claim of knowledge about the spheres that moved them, if only halfheartedly.
After ending the hardest phone call of my life and hanging up the phone, now slick with sweat, Bill attacked me with dozens of questions. If nothing else, it seems that he believes me.
“Bill,” I said, stopping him in his tracks, “A police officer will be coming by soon to investigate my claims. You are welcome to come with me and be there as I answer all his questions. I don’t want to have to repeat myself ad infinitum.”
Bill looked like he wanted to ask more, but nodded at that, shutting himself up. His phone rang back a second later and he picked it up quickly, wiping the sheen of sweat off the back of the phone. I am ashamed. It seems his daughter called.
I move over to the living room to see if there is anything new on the TV while I wait. Bill’s wife is giving me an odd look, skeptical, I think. I’m okay with that too, as long as they don’t write me off immediately. I try to ignore her and focus on the television
I can hear Bill talking quickly with his daughter, “Stay away from the sphere, it’s dangerous. And look out for skeletons! Yes, skeletons, animated ones. Perhaps other monsters too! I just heard that they could be appearing out of the sphere and attacking people. No, I am not joking.”
Oh boy, this is how rumors start.
As I waited for the officer to arrive I watched the television along with the silent wife. There were two spheres located in the continental US, one in LA and one in Mississippi. The one in Mississippi was not found in a populated area, so it wasn’t garnishing as much attention. The one in LA apparently had some casualties associated with it already, three people missing from inside the building the sphere was located in. Hearing that, I felt my heart sink.
I guess they didn’t make it out like I did.
A few minutes later of aerial coverage and I saw the familiar white sedan come down our drive. With a sigh and headed out the door to meet the officer and heard Bill say quietly, “Alright, I’ve got to go sweetie, you be safe now.” A moment later he stepped outside and waited next to me, not speaking.
The police car pulled up and into Bill’s driveway. The officer parked and waited a few moments playing around with something inside before exiting the car. The officer looked to be in his mid forties, a mostly bald head with a nice gray goatee. He was wearing his officer uniform, of course, and he walked up the driveway to us with an experienced gait.
I have had little experience with cops, there was only one time I was pulled over and it was for one of my headlights being out. It scared the crap out of me as I had tried to remember what my dad told me to do when I got pulled over. It didn’t help that at the time I hadn’t bothered to put in my updated registration in my glove box. See police officers always made me feel like I did something wrong.
He walked up to me and stopped, putting his hands on his hips. He was a little overweight, giving him a nice belly. He eyed me and Bill before asking, “Which one of you is Gregory?”
Bill points at me like a guilty teenager. I roll my eyes and answer. “That’s me. And this is Bill, my neighbor. He let me borrow his phone as mine got destroyed.
The officer stares at me directly with a hint of disdain for a few more moments before saying lightly, “Alright, show me what you’ve got.”
“Right,”I cleared my throat. “Follow me to my house, please,” I say leading them across Bill’s yard and onto my property. Halfway through I heard Bill give an audible gasp.
I walk up to the stone vault attached to my house, looking entirely out of place there. “This used to be my room. Then one of those spheres appeared here overnight while I was sleeping and dragged me and my room inside. When I escaped, it dragged the area around me back here, this stone vault thing. I also brought back the animated skeletons with me, I was running from them.”
I tapped on the stone in illustration, the dull knocking sound of hollow space inside reverberating softly.
The officer look up skeptically at the stone structure attached to my house while Bill does his best to imitate a fish. After a moment, Bill says, “Holy Shit! Officer, this thing was not here yesterday, I assure you.”
The officer looks around the vault, looking at the strange precise cuts in my house where the sphere took my room away and where the stone room hadn’t sealed it up. He then looks at me like he can’t believe it and then wipes sweat off his brow. He asks with a grunt, as if he can’t think of anything else to say, “What’s inside it?”
“Take a look for yourself,” I answered. I had brought over my ladder early this morning in order to get inside and cleanse the whole,top and bottom. Its nice that I have two ladder too, one for getting on and one for getting out. I offer him a climb and say, “There isn’t much. Many of the skeletons I was fighting off wore armor of some kind so the steel plating is still lying around inside it. The remains of the skeletons have dissipated though.”
He grunts at my last remark, as if I was hiding something, trying to trick him. I am not about to go over my new abilities though, not yet at least. There is only so much new info a person can take in at once, I know from experience.
The officer climbed the ladder easily, surprisingly nimble for his size. Once on top he looks down through the wooden door while drawing his maglight from his side. He shines the powerful beam down into the room while he peers in. After a few seconds of looking around, he then proceeds to climb down into it, using the ladder I left behind. I climb up after him.
Bill looks up at the ladder restlessly, but I guess he decides to wait his turn. He asks me as I climb up. “So this box came from another world?”
I pause at the question. Another world? Maybe. Another dimension, parallel timelines, alternate reality? Who knows. Could be any number of those things. I’ve seen enough Star Trek to know there isn’t much that separates them, so another world is a yes.
“I think so,” I reply to Bill, climbing up the ladder again. He doesn’t take the news well, but instead gawks at the vault and lifts out a trembling hand to touch the side. If you’re so scared of it, then don’t touch it, geeze. Or is he just exited? Despite coming from another world, I think the stone is just that, stone.
Bill speaks again before I reach the top. “Is my daughter in danger? Do you think should I convince her to leave LA?”
“Maybe, I don’t know for certain, but I think not. Inside the sphere is dangerous, but the only reason the skeletons came out was because I defeated it and accidently brought them back with me. For now, at least, I don't think anything is coming out.”
Bill seems unsatisfied with my answer, but I ignore him, clambering onto the ledge. Once there I peer down in the hole, seeing the officer look around, not touching anything. I offer some narrative, “The skeletons had chased me down into this cellar but I was able to use the small opening to ambush them as they tried to get inside. Those are the remains of the armor they wore.”
He takes my words without comment before squatting down and observing the steel closely. An obvious and undamaged helmet is lying right next to him, a shield split into two next to that. “This looks like it was cut, did you do that?” he asks quizzically, not looking up.
“Yes,” I nod, realizing how absurd that sounds. How does somebody cut tink steel plating like that without a laser tool or something? “I’ve got a spear I brought back with me that I used to fight them. It’s very sharp.”
The officer looks up at me. It’s hard to see in the dark especially when he pointing his maglight straight at my face, but I think he has a look of indigent disbelief on his face.
“Err, I’ll go get it and show you, its inside my house.”
I climb down off the vault and see Bill eagerly standing at the foot of the ladder. He looks excited to get a chance to look inside the other worldly vault, but his hopes are dashed.
“Ot, ot, ot!” the officer says quickly, shewing Bill away and coming down the ladder himself.
No civilians disturbing the scene, I guess.
I left the spear right on the inside of my door so I reach in and grab without a problem. Looking at it closely for once, I see its beautiful workmanship and deadly point. Man, this thing is so awesome.
Stepping out onto my lawn again, Bill eyes the spear impressively while the officer, not so much.
I hold it out for the officer to inspect and he takes it gingerly while Bill steps away as if the spear is a venomous snake. The officer says after a moment, inspecting the tip, “Nice craftsmanship. Where did you get it?”
“One of the creatures in the sphere had it,” I say, holding out my hand for it back. He hesitates for a moment before returning it. “Its has special characteristics and almost killed me. Surviving became much easier once I had it though. Watch.”
I hold the spear up and cast edge on it. The tip of the spear lights up dangerously and I can see Bill’s jaw drop, again. The officer is stoic though and I am suddenly irritated by his lack of impression. What’s it take, huh?
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When I bought the house last year an old rusted pole a basketball hoop would be attached to came with it, planted next to the driveway. It's in disrepair and I never played basketball anyway so I hadn’t bothered to fix it up. Moved by a sudden irrational impulse, I swing at the base of the solid pole. It cuts cleanly like butter, but I immediately regret it as the blasted thing comes falling down toward me. With a yelp, I dodge way before it hits me, the thing landing with a concussive rattling on my concrete driveway. Fortunately, the two men were far enough away to be out of the danger zone, but I immediately felt foolish. What am I going to do with this piece of junk now?
Looking back at the officer I offer him a grimace, “Sorry, that was stupid of me. But that’s how I was able to slice that steel up back there.”
The officer looks stunned for the first time, before coughing lightly into his hand and saying curtly, “Put that thing away before you get yourself killed.”
I put it back inside my garage, chastised, and return to see the officer shaking his head. I pick up the rusted pole and move it out of the way, to the side of my driveway.
“God, what a day,” the officer murmurs, wiping the sweat off his forehead again. I stand politely to the side waiting for his verdict.
“The whole world’s gone nuts!” he continues, “what’s next, UFOs sighting? Leviathans in the oceans? The second coming?”
Bill looks at me curiously, the awe in his face finally gone. “What was it like in the sphere?” he asks.
“It was bad,” I say, “I’m lucky to have survived.” I leave it at that, I don't want to talk about it yet.
The officer stares at me for a few more moments, before shaking his head. “I’m officer Grant, by the way. Any other day and you would have been chased off as a lunatic with a heavy fine, but the world’s going to hell apparently. Nobody knows what is happening, you weren’t the only one calling in with crazy stories and hysterics of the end of the world. I expected to find you putting us up with this as well, but I guess there is enough here worth investigating. Let me call into the station really quick. Then, walk me through the rest of your story.”
The officer moves way, back to his car, grabbing the radio on the inside. He pauses before he speaks and gives me an eyeful as if this is all my fault. I don't blame him, it partially is. I wouldn't want to report back to the station with what he saw either.
As the officer speaks to his radio, Bill comes up to me. “Hey, are you really okay?” he asks quietly.
I give him a shrug. “I don’t know. I actually spent a week in the instance, sphere, whatever you want to call it. I didn’t think I would make it back.”
He moves as if to give me a hug, but stops himself halfway through. I really don’t know Bill that well, but I am grateful for the thought. He adds in, covering up his awkward moment, “Your hair looks crazy, you should cut it or something, shave it maybe. It looks like nothing I have ever seen. Unless you are going for some extreme avent garde thing.” He gives fake chuckle at that.
I roll my eyes at him, “Yeah, I’ll do that, when I can. For now I’ll just grab a hat.”
As grant continues to talk into his car I walk into my house and grab a baseball cap I have in my closet, but not before looking in a mirror. Crazy, I do look that part of a mad ward. I don’t own a shaving kit or anything like that so I just put on the cap and return outside. Officer grant is waiting for me.
“They have cleared the beach like you asked,” he says reluctantly, “You said there were five of the skeletons who retreated into the lake?”
“Yeah, three of them were covered in that steel armor like you saw in the vault, they also carry long swords. One of them just has a dagger and the last is an archer variety.”
Officer grant gives me a salty look. “Archer variety?”
“Yes, sir. The arrows they shoot are barbed ad have this numbing toxin on it. Its best not to get hit.”
He shakes his head. “Show me what you went through this morning.”
For the next hour I take the officer, and Bill, who is acting like my protector, through the nature preserve, pointing out the tracks and fallen remains of my enemies. We leave the remains as they are and avoid trampling through the preserve as much as possible. The officer looks offended at the damage we created last night, but he doesn’t say anything thankfully. At last we make it down to the grassy area where the skeletons waded into the water. Their tracks are still visible in the sandy mud, hard boots for the armored skeletons, and skeletal footprints for the other two.
Looking over at the apartment complex, I see that the shore is vacated besides a couple officers looking around carelessly. I am relieved to see it, I was wondering if they actually did take me seriously. For his part, officer Grant is studying the footprints I showed him.
Bill speaks up, looking over at the apartments with me. ‘What did you tell the residents there? Surely not that skeletons were waiting for them?”
The officer grunted, “Bomb threat.”
That’s what I thought.
“The, uh, skeletons are still alive in here, you think?”
I shrug but nod. “Yes, they don’t have to breathe or anything.”
“Jesus Christ,” Grant says, standing up. “Magic?”
“I can’t imagine anything else.”
“How are we supposed to kill animated skeletons?”
I give Bill and the officer a look at that last question. “Bullets or explosives, take your pick. I imagine a shotgun will do a lot of damage. They are pretty fragile, once you get inside their armor.”
The officer just closes his eyes, wishing this day never happened. He then looks out over the lake as if one of the skeletons would just appear. Or maybe he is just wishing I would say this is all a joke. Neither occurs.
“So, what?” Grant says, turning back to me, “Are you saying that each of these spheres contains one of these worlds with these fu…” he pauses as he re-considers his words, ...messed up skeletons?”
“Or another variety of monsters, I do not know.”
“Jesus Christ,” he says again, looking back over the water.
It’s a peaceful lake now, hardly a ripple to be seen. I fidget and then add in, “I hope they are still in there, I watched the lake for most of the morning and didn’t see them leave but I was gone for a little while to call in the police. I doubt the moved in that time period.”
Grant doesn’t honor my words with a reply. Eventually, he turns back and says, “let’s go.”
We walk back to my house, I let him take the lead while Bill follows behind us. As we move Officer Grant starts talking. “People are going to want to speak with you. I don't know who yet, it depends on how far up this goes. This is way beyond anything we have seen before, Christ, this is so messed up. The other spheres are expanding with no sign of stopping. Nobody knows what the hell these things are, besides you, apparently. People are scared, you know, the government is scrambling after any leads. They are going to come down on you like a fat man at a buffet, wanting to know everything you just told me and more. Things are going to get chaotic for you.”
“I know.” I reply, stomping behind him. “I knew that would happen when I called in. But I couldn't let the skeletons just sit in the lake without anybody keeping an eye on them. They are dangerous, and will kill anybody they come across without hesitation. I can’t protect the people by myself.”
I feel a reassuring hand on my shoulder and look back to see Bill staring at me, with a comforting gaze. I give him a smile and he lets go.
We don’t talk the rest of the way back and as we enter my yard again I say to Officer Gran,. “I’m going to head up to my parents now, and spend the night there.”
“The hell you are.” Grant replied, looking back at me incredulously. “I need you to stay here and answer more questions when people arrive. Since your house is unstable, we’ll put you up at a hotel.”
I shake my head. “Don’t ‘hell’ me, Officer. I’ve been trapped in Hell for the last week, wondering if I would ever make it back alive. I’m going to visit my family and that’s just it. I can answer questions for you people tomorrow when I come back.”
The officer gazes at me hard, but then his face softens and he says gruffly, “I guess there is enough work we can do without you in the meantime. Give me a number I can reach you at at least and tell me where you are going.”
I end up giving him my mom’s number and my parent’s address. Which was very difficult as I couldnt' remember the blasted number. I ended up going inside and opening my laptop and pulling up an email that had her stinking number it it. Way too much work.
Then I shake his hand, thanking him for his time, to which he mumbles something incomprehensible about the end of the world. I also thank Bill before retreating to my house and packing up a few belonging, mostly dirty laundry I cleanse up. I also go and take the rock thing that was once the core out of the cedar chest. I don’t know why, but I want to keep this for myself for now. Forensic people are going to comb through my house I am sure, and I want to keep this thing.
There is a lot I didn’t tell Grant. To be fair he doesn’t need to know everything and I’m sure it’ll get dragged out of me eventually, but some of the stuff I know is even more groundbreaking than stupid spheres appearing out of nowhere. Magical powers? The x-men comics are enough to know how that turns out. Great.
I’ll leave those problems for tomorrow when I come back. I’ve got work on monday anyway.
As I leave the house, heading to my car, Grant calls out at me, “leave the spear! They are going to want to look at that damned thing.”
I don’t know who ‘they’ are, but I leave it in the garage. They had better return it when they are done, if I have to get a license to keep it or whatever then so be it. I’m glad I’m keeping the core with me though. The officer is just standing next to his vehicle, talking into his radio again. Soon, this neighborhood will be busy I think. I can imagine all the crazy scientists going goo-goo over the vault. And they thought moon rocks were exciting?
As I pack my car, Bill comes up and leans on it. “Are you going to be okay, Greg? Anything I can do for you?”
I give him a smile, “Do you think insurance will cover the damage to my house?”
“Better look over your policy again,” he says with a chuckle.
If nothing else, the bank I have my mortgage with will be upset if its not covered. Ha.
“I think I’ll be fine Bill, thanks for asking,” I say. “I’m just exhausted and I want to see my family again. I haven’t been able to sleep well for over a week so I’ll be looking forward to a real bed, with real food and nobody trying to kill me. It'll be a nice change.”
Bill grimaces at my last words and I sigh and add. “I really don’t know what’s going to happen from now on, Bill. I don’t know if your daughter should leave LA. Will the sphere’s explode and send monsters running through the streets?” Bill pales at my words. “I sure hope not, your guess is as good as mine. But let me tell you, if you have a gun, I would clean it. These dungeons, these spheres, they are dangerous and they are trying to build something. Something important, I don’t know what. The guy I was dealing with in my sphere was building a huge palace for somebody before I killed him.” Bill gets even more pale at my last words and I realize I just casually said I murdered somebody. Whatever.
“So maybe it is best to get her out of there. If she comes here, she’ll have the police around, protecting the neighborhood from the five rogue skeletons and whatever plans the sphere had is gone now. As for the other spheres, I don’t know, but they need to be stopped.”
Bill nods at me, his face still a little pale. “I’ll be back tomorrow evening.” I say as I get in my car. I give Bill one last smile before I close my door, “Try not to let them destroy what’s left of my home, please?”
As I back out of the driveway, Bill looks at me like it's the last time he’ll ever see me. I wave at the officer as I pass him, but he waves at me to stop by for one last word. He leans in as I roll down my window, “Listen, I need you to keep quiet about this. Don’t go spreading what you know around too much. I can tell you’ve kept a lot from me and that shows you’re not stupid so I’ll trust you not to go blabbing everything to everybody. You keep your cards close for now, only tell your family what they need to know. We don’t need a public more panicked that it already is. When you get back tomorrow, though, somebody going to be here, expecting a full debrief, you understand?”
I nod back and he slaps my car, standing up. He waves his hands forward, indicating me to move on. I do so without hesitation.
As I drive out of the neighbrohood I see a couple more police cars coming in. I’m glad I managed to avoid that.
My parents live an hour away, north of the city. On the way, I stop at a fast food and order the biggest baddest burrito available, reflecting how lucky I am to keep my wallet and keys out on my credenza every night rather than in my room. The rest of the drive I listen to NPR go on and on about the spheres with nothing new happening. I’m glad that word of my home hasn’t spread to far yet. I wonder how under wraps they will keep it? If I was the government, I would keep it a secret until they actually had helpful information to present to the public.
Other than that, I try my best not to think about it. Even looking back at the week now, it hardly seems real. The familiar peaceful roads that I travel on tell me that nothing has changed.
What do they know.
I pull up to my parents house an hour later, about three in the afternoon. My father is out in front, going to town on a pile of wood with an axe with an excited gleam in his eye. My parents have a wood burner in their basement and my dad has always had an unhealthy obsession collecting more firewood. It’s a hobby, I guess.
“Hey!” he says with a smile, taking off his gloves. “What brings you here?”
Without closing my car door or saying a word, I step out and give him a big hug. Uncharacteristic of me, I know, but he accepts it readily. Then he looks at my face as we step apart.
“What happened??” he says, shocked at my malnourished appearance.
He should see me with my hat off.
“A lot” I say, “We should talk inside.” I reach back and grab my bag while he stands still, stunned.
“Okay,” he says quickly, regaining himself. He takes my bag for me and we move inside.
Hearing the door open, my mom turns around in the chair she is in, her laptop in her lap. She has long blonde hair that would surely be gray if she didn’t keep dyeing it. She gives up a pleasant smile seeing me at first, before that too twists into shock. I can see the news is also being played n their television. I bet the whole world is watching.
“Gregory!” She practically shouts, “Are you okay?!”
“Yes,” I say quickly and emphatically, reassuring them. “I am fine. I’ve had a rough day though, but everything is fine now.”
She still looks at me agog and my roommate sister, Shelly, comes walking into the living room. Her asian features and black hair look good on her, but she is currently brushing her teeth. She certainly does that a lot, must be a side effect of her perfectionism. She comes to a stop at the entrance to the living room, oblivious, and asks hopefully, “Did you bring Pesos here too?”
…
...
Oh yeah. Stink.