I was so startled I dropped the bag into the popcorn machine, burnt my hand on the side of it, and fumbled reaching for my gun. With frantic eyes, I looked to my ambusher and saw the curly hair of a man dressed in a black outfit with red-trimming.
He had a name tag clipped to his collar and a dour face covered with acne. I could see he was young but a few black scraggly hairs stuck to his chin and neck.
“That’ll be $15.67,” he said.
“What?” I said with a grim expression, holding the top of my hand.
“It’s $15.67 for the two candies and small popcorn. And you’re not supposed to be behind the counter.”
I stepped out from the concession stand and felt for my pockets, my wallet was back in the car. “Wait—why are you still asking for cash?”
The man shook his head, “You can try to pay with card too but our systems have been acting up lately.”
Ralph turned back from the movie halls, wide-eyed that I was talking with someone else. “Dude, the hell are you doing here?”
He raised his glasses and pointed at his name tag, “I work here, dude.” The employee’s tag read Ian Buffett. “Now pay up or I’ll have to call my manager and he’ll probably call the cops.”
“Good luck with that,” Ralph said, shoving a handful of chocolate mints into his mouth.
The employee took him up on the challenge and pulled out his phone. He put it on speaker and all we heard was the droning ring of an unanswered call.
“I’m not sure if you realized but the entire world is—” he put a finger to his mouth and shushed me.
I mouthed a quiet “Wow, guy” and watched as the phone never reached someone on the other end. The noises eventually turned into a disturbing technical noise before the phone hung up on itself.
“You’re lucky,” he snorted. “The blizzard is screwing everything up!”
Ian was going to try and call the cops but Ralph grabbed his arm before he could. It wasn’t to prevent the cops being called, but trying to recoup the time that had been wasted. I noticed his greasy hair stick to his forehead and dirty fingertips when he tried pulling away.
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
Ralph let go of his grip and threw Ian’s arm away in frustration.
“Like four days! My mom never came to pick me up and the weather has been too bad to walk in so I’ve been sleeping in the breakroom. But you better not tell my boss! They’d be pissed if they knew I was sleeping and eating from the concession.”
Ralph and I both winced and took a deep exhale. “No wonder you’re such a hardass,” Ralph said. “You don’t realize that the world ended!”
“W-what do you mean? Are you going to pay for that stuff or not!?” Ralph waved him off and took a bag of popcorn before going down the hall of movies currently playing. Ian succumbed to his defeat and put his own money in the register.
“What did he mean?” Ian asked.
I hated to break the news to him but I had no choice. He was alone and confined to his shitty place of employment with no cell service or news of the outside world.
“Was it nukes?” he asked. “Is that why it’s snowy!?”
A smile curled from the corner of my mouth, “No, it’s not a nuclear winter or any of that sort… I don’t think. We don’t know what happened but people started disappearing and the government pushed an alert on TV saying that it disbanded.”
Hearing it from my own mouth sounded even more unbelievable then when I saw it blaring in my living room a few days ago. Ian’s reaction was as I expected; a mixture of confusement, denial, contemplation, and unsure acceptance crawled across his face.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“So, it was aliens?” he asked.
“I don’t know, man. Maybe.”
“So, my mom got abducted by aliens and they fried our internet networks?”
I shrugged and gave him a lipless smile, “Probably. But I’m here looking for my brother, Donovan, have you seen him or two other guys come through here?”
Ian’s gaze wandered off and stared into the blank distance. I could tell he was gripping the counter, keeping himself from falling over. I waved a hand in front of his face until he came to.
“One is darker skinned, wearing pink gloves, and had a puffy jacket on. Ring any bell? He had two friends, one was nerdy looking, similar to you—no offense. And the other is taller, kinda olive skin, short scruffy-looking black hair. Anything?”
Ian shook his head without breaking his gaze into nothingness. “I haven’t seen anyone except for the kids that came in this morning.”
“What kids?” I asked. “Where are they now?”
“Theater 12,” he mumbled.
I joined Ralph in the low-lit halls. Dark doorways with the names of currently playing movies lined the walls. We passed by High Noon of the Dying Dead, Checkmate: The Endless Game of Predictable Patterns and Piece-Eating Players, and Lust for Wander: The Hotter and Steamier, before we stopped at the entrance of Chaos Killers 3. A repetitive theme song echoed from the door.
“The credits must be rolling,” Ralph said.
“We should hurry and check if anyone is in there, I’m sure Freddy is turning into an ice cube back in the car.”
Ralph opened the heavy door but was surprised when it was pushed from the other side. I saw a line of children exit the theater, all varied in emotion. Some looked sick while others looked starry-eyed and excited.
“I wanna see more R-rated movies!” a boy in the front exclaimed.
“You can open your eyes now, Jessie,” another said.
“I-is it over?” the teary-eyed child said, lifting the hands from their eyes.
They walked by us without a second glance. About 20 or so came out and lined up against the opposite wall, waiting for their grown chaperone to exit last. The adult was dark in complexion but a bright ashy white beard adorned his face.
“Anyone else in there?” I asked.
“Nope, just me and the youngsters,” he gave a hearty smile but I could sense the sadness in his eyes.
I turned to Ralph and he had a curious raised brow and a hand placed in front of the elderly man, barring his exit. “Who are you to all these kids? Who the hell are you?”
The man narrowed his tired eyes, “I appreciate your concern, boy, but I’m their bus driver. We’re doing a little field trip while the weather is permitting. These kids ain’t got no parents nor guardians to watch out for them. Now, if you’ll excuse me, we’re going back to Plains Keeper Elementary.” He pushed Ralph’s arm out of the way and beckoned for the kids to follow him.
I caught up with the bus driver while he was walking through the halls. I could tell he was agitated and I offered an apology on behalf of Ralph. We talked for a moment and discussed the beginning of the apocalypse. I told of my missing brother and he told of his missing kids and coworkers the first day of the disappearance. He then spoke of a plan he thought of when he went back to work the next day; he got back on his bus and went house to house on his usual route, knocking on doors every day and picking up any straggling kids.
“We’re staying at the school with a few of the other staff that’s left. We wouldn’t mind the extra pair of hands but your boyfriend has to lay off the hostilities.”
“Thank you,” I said. “If you don’t mind, we’ll stay with you for a moment until we decide what to do next.”
“Sure. What should I call you two?”
“I’m Sage and he’s Ralph. We’re just neighbors.”
“Uh-huh. You can call me Mr. Ellis, just like the youngins’ do.”
We followed Mr. Ellis outside in the darkening winter cold, passing by Ian who was wiping down the concession counters.
“Are you just going to stay here yourself?” Ralph asked.
“Yes! If my manager comes back and I was missing, they’d write me up!”
“We’re going to the elementary school, it might be safer if you come with us,” I suggested. I didn’t exactly like this guy, but I would've felt guilty if I didn’t offer him the sanctuary. But fortunately, he denied it.
“And do what there? Hang around with snotty kids all day? No, thanks!”
I rolled my eyes while Ralph waved him off, leaving him to his kingdom of butter and grease.
Headlights of the school bus burned away the tiny flakes of frost that fell from the gray clouds. Ralph turned on the SUV and honked twice to let Ellis know that we were ready to follow him to the school.
“Shit, I wish I still had GPS,” Ralph muttered.
“Surely you won’t lose the only school bus on the road,” I said.
“No, but what happens when we want to leave? I’ve been on the highway a few times and can read all the signs, but a map would sure be a hell of a lot easier.”
“We could always ask Freddy for directions,” I said with a smirk.
Ralph chuckled with his chattering teeth while I looked at the backseat. The buckled-in fish swam in circles and flared his gills back at me. I could only imagine what type of freshwater insults he was bubbling at me in his house of glass.