Charles likened what was happening to the waves on a beach; the world they had just been standing in receded, only to be replaced by another. Or maybe instead of the worlds shifting, it was he and Wes that were the ones dissolving and reconstituting. Either way, he felt like his head might explode.
“Where are we?” asked Wes.
Charles shrugged. “Not sure. I guess – technically – we’re in the same spot…”
“But just a different…what? Existence?”
Shaking his head, Charles added, “I dunno. Maybe.”
“This is fucking crazy.”
Wes glanced around. It was evening, just as it was where they had come from. The van was there, parked twenty feet away, tucked in between rows of lush vegetation. They were on the farm, but even in the dim lighting, this farm appeared to possess legitimate rows of corn and not something…else. Not something alien to this world.
“We’re probably on private property,” Wes said. “We should get going.”
“To where?” asked Charles. “Where in the hell do we go? It’s not like we can go get a hotel room. There was no time to grab any supplies, let alone any cash we had stored away.”
Wes spun around in a circle. “Hey, where are Mo, Lacy and Grant?”
“They were right here only a minute ago,” said Charles.
A spotlight burst to life nearby. Wes ducked. “Was that a motion sensor?”
Charles shook his head. “Don’t know. Let’s get out of here.”
They headed for the van but halted as the engine started and they were caught in the headlight’s glare. “Oh, shit,” said Wes.
The van kicked up dirt and sped toward them. As they jumped out of its path, they each caught a glimpse of Mitchell behind the wheel.
*********
The ride happened in a blur. At first, they had exited a cornfield, then sped down a dark country road, all the while Eva keeping pressure on Alex’s wound and the man who looked like Alex’s father yelling for him to hang on.
In the rear seat, Alex’s head rested on Eva’s lap as she tended to him. There had been a stack of towels on the seat, as if Officer Dash had been prepared for this somehow. Eva had already gone through one towel and tossed it aside. Now, the second was quickly becoming saturated with blood.
After an eternity, the police cruiser screeched to a halt outside the hospital emergency entrance. Officer Dash slammed the gearshift into Park, got out and lifted Alex into his arms. He hurried inside shouting for help; that he had a gunshot victim.
Eva sat trembling in the back seat, covered in blood.
*********
The rig idled in the parking lot of Womack’s grocery store. Laird did not intend on turning the engine off in fear that it might not start again. With Lance and Audrey standing behind him, he aimed the Glock at Ernie.
“I’m going through,” he said confidently. “The children too.”
Ernie nodded, stroking his wiry, and strangely dry, grass-like facial hair. “Uh-hm.” He stood behind the worn-down counter of the store, glancing out over the dark aisles. Everything was dull and gray and felt ready to crumble. “Not coming back, I guess?”
“Not coming back,” said Laird.
Nodding again, Ernie pointed to Laird, then to himself. “Had an agreement, you and I. Remember that?”
Laird stood quietly.
“I’d let you go through…you’d bring me something back.” He wrenched his hands and chewed on his lip, pondering the circumstances. “Now, I let you go through…and I get nothing.”
“That’s just how it has to be this time.”
Ernie began to slowly pace behind the counter. “No…I don’t like it.”
“Just go through yourself and get what you want.”
“Can’t. Not like this,” added Ernie, gesturing to his altered self. “Can’t take this into there,” he said, pointing to the rear of the store. “Won’t do it.”
“This is no place for children,” Laird pressured. “You have to let me take them where it’s safe.”
Chewing on his lip some more, Ernie’s eyes darted from Lance to Audrey, back to Lance. “No, no place for children. But, that place might not be a place for children, either soon.”
“What? What do you mean? It’s untouched.”
His bushy eyebrows raised, Ernie responded, “Isn’t it?”
Laird had lowered the Glock in an attempt to appeal to Ernie’s emotions, but was quickly tiring of this game and raised the weapon again. “Goddammit, just let us through!”
“Can’t shoot me or it won’t work.”
Sighing, Laird was forced to give in. “What do you want?”
“Not much. Just a little keepsake, to help me remember.”
“Even if that keepsake isn’t really yours, but belongs to another Ernie?”
“Even still,” said Ernie. “Close enough. Just something from a world that was still right.”
“What do you want?”
“See if that Ernie has a 1967 Cadillac Fleetwood. I had one parked in the garage behind my house. I miss it.”
“You want me to steal a car so you can watch it sit and rot here in the parking lot?”
“Yes.”
Laird contemplated this extraordinary request. Before it had been only small tokens from the other world; a yo-yo, a Whistler tea pot like he used to have. Now, a fucking car? He looked at the children and sighed. “Fine. A 1967 Cadillac Fleetwood.”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Ernie nodded.
“And what if the other Ernie doesn’t have one?”
“Find one.”
“Christ. Fine.”
Ernie walked to the rear of the store, then turned back to Laird. “Go sit in that truck of yours and in a few moments, you’ll pass through.”
“Thank you,” said Lair.
“And remember,” said Ernie. “If you don’t hold up your end of the bargain, I’ll send someone for you.”
Laird paused, considering this threat. Then, he nodded and left the store. In mere moments, just as Ernie had promised, Laird, Lance, Audrey and the tractor trailer were whisked to another reality.
It was a warm evening, the light of town ablaze and the streets alive with traffic. The children gazed in wonder and all the automobiles and people on bicycles. The world was suddenly bursting with life and activity. Neither spoke while Laird pulled the rig behind the store, now featuring the “W” in “Womack’s.” He placed it into Park, got out and detached the trailer. He had not intended to take it with him, believing it a hindrance, but in parting Community in such a hurry, there was no time to detach it.
He hopped back into the driver’s seat, wincing as he did so. The stab wound felt like it had reopened, fresh blood seeping beneath his bandage. He took a deep breath of fresh, ocean-scented air and pulled away from the lot.
*********
Lacy clutched tightly to Mo as they sped down the farm’s dirt road. She was confused by what she saw: the rows of crops were decimated. Only a few rogue stalks stood upright, most of them bent to the ground, or collapsed entirely, rotting away on the ground. There was an ominous aura about this place. It was something she couldn’t put her finger on, but it there.
“What is this place?”
Mo nodded. “I don’t know, but it isn’t what I expected.”
“How so?”
He hesitated, then said, “I just have a bad feeling.”
“Me too.”
Pulling the cycle to the side of the dark, desolate road, Mo turned to her. “First, no Charles and Wes. I mean, nowhere to be found. The crops in ruins. Then, no signs of life besides us.”
“I’m worried, Mo.”
Mo nodded in agreement. “I know, but…”
“We’ll figure it out?” Lacy finished his thought.
He shot her a concerned look. “Yeah, I guess so. We’ll figure it out.”
Lacy smiled. “As long as we’re together, I’m confident that we’ll be alright.”
Mo returned the smile. Then, he turned his attention toward the road, staring into the distance. “Listen.”
She listened. “I hear it. A low, buzzing.”
As if sensing danger, his expression shifted. “Get off the road. Quick!”
He hauled the cycle into the forest bordering the road and laid it on its side. Then he took to the ground with Lacy. A few seconds passed and the buzzing grew louder. Then, something spherical zipped by and continued down the road until it was out of sight.
Lacy shot a hard glace to Mo. “Christ, Mo.”
“I know,” he said. “We’re back where we started from.”
They had left a reality in which the Organism had fed on all it could. The machines then sent out drones to find human settlements and new lands for it to devour. They had come to Community to at least try to save someone else’s world after theirs had been lost. Now, in some fantastic error, they been returned.
“Look!” Lacy whispered urgently. The drone had returned, retracing its path and scanning the side of the road with a sinister red light. Her gut tightened.
Mo reached for his weapon, then realized a pistol would be inadequate against the drone. Out of the night came the distant blare of a horn. Far, but not too far. He turned to Lacy.
“Was that a train horn?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yes.”
“The train takes them to the ferry and the ferry to the craft,” she whispered.
Without a word, they hopped onto the cycle, then darted from the trees, knowing the drone would spot them, but risking it anyway. Lacy knew there was an old rail line that ran to the coast, but like everything else, thought it was long abandoned. Mo knew its location as well and in a few harrowing minutes, they intersected with another road, this one a four-lane highway.
The drone had indeed given chase and was gaining on them, Lacy providing updates on its proximity and urging Mo to go faster. The train horn sounded and was close, but so was the drone and just when she thought they were out of time, Mo veered to the left and into the parking lot of a ramshackle station. There, impossibly, was the magnificent bulk of a diesel engine.
A man was beckoning them. Suddenly, he raised a weapon and discharged it. A low, thrumming wave shot past Lacy and she instinctively ducked. The drone fell and slammed into the pavement and skidded to a stop.
“EMP,” said Mo.
The two of them stared at the man, who called them closer. Then, they left the cycle and ran toward the train.