Alessa woke up alone again after another restless night, needing to pee, feet and back aching. Even her dreams had been filled with rain and she wasn’t surprised to hear it hammering down outside. Groping at the empty portion of the bed next to her, Alessa was almost paralysed with despair. She lay there until the pressure on her bladder outweighed her misery.
Wrapped in her bathrobe, Alessa went to the living room and opened the curtains. The grey haze and constantly falling rain depressed her. Thinking about the creature from last night, the whole storm took on a supernatural glow. The rains that fell without end, the wave that had drowned the city from nowhere. And what was that thing? An alien? A demon? A sea monster from ancient legend? Something distinctly unreal was happening, like two worlds colliding and tearing open.
“Donnie, you don’t even have to get home to us.” Alessa stroked her stomach. “Just be safe, be alive. God, I hope none of those monsters have you.”
Alessa uncapped a bottle of water and ate a granola bar for breakfast before she waddled to the couch. Her supplies were already running low, she would have to ask for more. But she thought about what would happen when they all ran low. If they were out of food and water and surrounded by flood, and monsters. Alessa no longer trusted the rain. Seeing what had come out of the storm last night, the unnatural rain did not seem safe to drink or bathe in. Perhaps it could even transform people into tentacled creatures like the one the men had shot, she thought somewhat fancifully.
“I’m not just going to give up, I’m not,” Alessa said. “I’m not!”
A couple of fighter jets streaked through the sky. Their shrieking engines were far away but could be heard through the glass. At least it assured Alessa they were not alone. She hadn’t seen any more of those helicopters since yesterday afternoon but at least the military and the government still existed. Alessa wondered how the situation was being reported around the world. The eyes of the world must be on them, however large an area had been hit, the same way they’d been for natural disasters and terrorist attacks of the past. She wondered if the world knew about the monsters.
Regardless of the fact that there were other people out there, Alessa knew she had been too passive for too long. Waiting for rescue. Waiting for Donnie. Waiting for Harvey to come and tell her what had been organised and ask her if she needed anything. She needed to take some action in case the food and water did start running out, or they had to evacuate the building. Or if Donnie didn’t come home.
Grunting, Alessa forced herself off the couch. The first thing was food and water, how much she had and how much she needed. Part of the passivity had come down to the pregnancy and being stuck at home for the last month. Her brain felt like mush. When Alessa was working and got a project in her head, she attacked it with relentless urgency until it was done, and that same urgency came back to her now. The kitchen was a mess. Dishes and cups she wasn’t able to wash right now piled up around the sink. Her food and bottled water was scattered with no real sense of organisation. Alessa pulled a notepad with a magnetic back off the fridge, tore off the shopping list that was on top of the pad, and started writing down how much she had of all the supplies.
Moving through the cupboards and the now completely room temperature refrigerator, she organised the supplies into distinctive groups on the kitchen bench. Her eyes searched boxes and jars for information on how many calories per serving was in each container and how many servings it contained. For things like their jar of peanut butter or even bottles of sauce that were half-used, she made a rough estimation. All of the information she jotted down on her pad. Alessa didn’t know much about rationing but she had books on pregnancy and some old diet books. With all the information written down, she figured she could go over the numbers and work out a meal plan that made the absolute most of her supplies, and ration out enough calories so as not to threaten the health of the baby. Then she’d know how many days her supplies actually represented. And if Harvey and the others, as he’d mentioned in the meeting, started breaking into apartments and stockpiling the available food she would know how much she needed for however many more days.
Water was probably still the biggest concern when it came to rationing. If you took into account absolutely everything in the kitchen, from dry pasta and cans of beans down to half-full jars of condiments, Alessa had a great deal more calories than she did water. It kept falling from the sky outside, but the question of whether the rain could be trusted hung over her. Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink. Ultimately, if the choice was between dying from dehydration or drinking the rainwater, then she would drink the rainwater. Besides, even if she didn’t drink it she could at least use it for flushing the toilet and maybe cleaning clothes or dishes. Harvey had mentioned putting containers on the roof to catch the rain. She could do the same. Although her balcony was covered, when the rain was coming down hard and the wind picked up it was getting a soaking anyway. Alessa got some plastic storage containers out of the hallway closet, dumping their contents back onto the shelves. The rain wasn’t howling right now, so she could set them out on the balcony without getting too damp herself. She placed them wherever she thought they might catch the most rain when the wind picked up.
Huffing, Alessa was already tired and her back was sore but she combed through the apartment looking for other useful items. The hallway closet was full of linen and towels. In the baby’s room were the flatpacks of unassembled furniture. Possibly there was something useful there, and balanced on the end of one box was a plastic toolbox of cheap tools that Donnie was supposed to use to put it all together. She left it where it was for the moment and returned to the kitchen. She dug some batteries, candles and matches from one of the drawers and left them on the end of the bench so she’d know where they were if her flashlight ran out of power.
Alessa figured she should also be ready in case she had to leave in a hurry. Funnily enough, she was already kind of packed for evacuation. She had her baby bag ready for the hospital, packed with clothes and other bits and pieces. It wasn’t totally appropriate for a situation where she might have to leave the apartment and not come back though, and she didn’t have one with Donnie’s clothes. Returning to the bedroom, Alessa pulled a second bag out of the closet and packed it with clothing for Donnie, and a few mementos. She repacked her hospital bag, leaving room in both to take food and water. Going through the apartment, Alessa went around opening up all their framed photos. So many pictures were stored digitally these days, on phones and laptops, social media pages, with the expectation they could always be revisited, but they did have a bunch of pictures of the two of them and their families framed and on hooks around the apartment. Alessa gathered them in a small stack, leafed through them, and stored them in her newly packed go-bag.
It had been over an hour since Alessa had gotten up when someone knocked on the door. Hope rose in Alessa’s chest but it was quashed. She knew who was at the door before the last knock had fallen.
“Alessa? It’s me,” Harvey’s voice came from the door. “Are you up?”
Alessa hovered in the hallway, feeling a mix of nerves and frustration. Harvey’s intensity last night frightened her. But she’d decided she was being crazy, wasn’t she? He couldn’t possibly be interested in her while she was pregnant, in the way she’d usually be suspicious of men. But a lingering wariness meant she was nervous, even a little afraid. Frustration because he had woken her up last night and kept turning up as if she were helpless. Babying her because she was pregnant.
“Alessa?” Harvey kept knocking.
Then again, going through her supplies Alessa knew she needed more water, and whatever else might be spared wouldn’t go astray. She couldn’t just pop down to the store. Maybe she actually was helpless, outside of all her planning. She was outside her realm of experience, alone, and needed to accept all the help she was given.
“Sorry, I’m coming!” Alessa said. “I’m coming!”
Making sure the robe was wrapped around her, in dirty pyjamas and socks, Alessa went to the door. Harvey leaned against the frame. He was dressed in the same black clothing as last night and he had his shotgun slung over his shoulder like it had never moved. Unshaven, he didn’t look as if he’d slept.
“Harvey, hi, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything is fine, no more signs of those things. I just wanted to apologise for last night.”
“Apologise?” Alessa thought again of Harvey’s weird intensity.
“For waking you up, I know you wondered why I woke you of all people. I was just-, I don’t know, mind blown after we shot that thing. I guess I was just thinking of you.”
“That’s okay, I’m glad you showed me,” Alessa said. “That wasn’t why I asked, being woken up, I’m not sure why I asked.”
“Can I come inside?”
“I don’t know, it’s a mess. I was trying to organise a few things but I haven’t tidied up.”
“I’m so tired from being on guard duty all night. I just need to sit down.”
“Uh, okay, sure.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Alessa backed off and allowed Harvey entry. He looked around, almost as if he were sniffing at the air. Slowly swinging the door closed, Alessa followed behind him.
“How are you for water and stuff?”
“Actually I could use a little bit more, if possible,” Alessa said. “Sorry, I don’t know if I trust drinking what’s falling from the sky after last night.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Actually, speaking of last night, I’ve got something else to show you.”
Harvey crossed into the living room and fell heavily into the armchair. He set his shotgun down by the chair. Fumbling in one of his pockets, Harvey took out a cellphone.
“Oh! Are phones working?” Alessa felt a trill of excitement.
“No signal yet, can’t call or message anyone, but this one was charged and we managed to take a video with it,” Harvey said. “Come take a look.”
Harvey pet the corner of the couch closest to him. He wouldn’t hand the phone over until she sat down and scooted closer to him. A video was already cued up on the phone’s screen. Harvey tapped the screen. The recording jittered and looked blurry, clearly shot while the camera was at its maximum level of zoom. The footage was of the nearest freeway interchange, which the building overlooked. Something long and tan wallowed in the water like a whale. Although the interchange was underwater, enough bits of ramps and signage jutted out of the water to give Alessa a sense of perspective. The tan object was longer than a semitrailer and clearly alive.
“Oh, my God, what is that?” Alessa said.
“One of the guys shot it from an upper level this morning,” Harvey said.
Alessa kept watching. She saw gleaming sections of shell that looked like a tan lobster as well as long, dark tentacles in the water. The best glimpse of it came as the creature crawled up one of the ramps. It filled both lanes. It had a half moon-shaped head, a thick body covered in segments of armour, and scuttling legs. It was only visible for a second before rolling back into the water. The video, which was muted, shook badly and then cut out.
“What-, was that thing?” Alessa said.
“We don’t know,” Harvey said. “We guess it’s connected to the tentacled things. We haven’t seen any more but there were some weird crabs, little ones, that looked like small versions of that thing. But that one is a giant.”
“Where did they come from?”
“Some of the guys think it’s aliens, others think maybe the tidal wave was caused by some big crack in the ocean floor opening up and it let these things out. Or, God, some people are thinking it’s a mix of Tribulations and Moses’ flood, demons and forty days of rain and flood let loose on the earth.”
Harvey moved in and started cupping Alessa’s knee through her gown. It might have been a comforting gesture but then he moved higher. Alessa hadn’t even realised when he’d put his hand there, she’d been too shocked watching the video to realise. Rather than push him off, Alessa stood. She walked away as if needing to process it all.
“I can’t believe-, I can’t believe this,” Alessa said.
“To be honest, I don’t care where they came from.” Harvey got up and followed Alessa as if to comfort her. “It’s a brand new world. Why it’s happening doesn’t matter, the important thing is how we deal with it. It’s all about surviving now, keeping what’s ours safe and taking-, taking what we need.”
Harvey took Alessa by the shoulders and massaged her. She quickly shrugged him off, obviously uncomfortable. Breathing short, Alessa tried to take it all in but it was too big, too vast, and Harvey’s nearness wasn’t helping. Turning to face him, she backed up toward the kitchen counter. His face, in the dim apartment, hardened.
“You never noticed me in the old world, did you?” Harvey said.
“What do you mean?” Alessa asked.
“You never really looked at me.”
Alessa looked Harvey up and down, as if seeing him again for the first time. Blandly handsome, tall and fit, she remembered that when he’d first turned up at her door after the wave she’d recognised him vaguely. He triggered no strong memory from before that moment.
“Here I am, helping you, and where’s the appreciation?” Harvey said.
“I appreciate you,” Alessa said. “I’m thankful, Harvey.”
“When you need something, you need food and water, you need protection from the things out there. But before all this you didn’t notice me. And still, still, you don’t want to let me in, you don’t let me touch you.”
Harvey loomed, backing Alessa into the kitchen counter. “Harvey, please, you’re scaring me,” she said.
“You know, before, I didn’t really mind. I’d hold the door open and get barely a thank you, I thought, just another hot bitch. She knows how hot she is and thinks that gives her all the power and doesn’t give a shit. Your type is a dozen a fucking dollar, but this-, this-,”
Harvey took another step forward and reached for Alessa’s pregnant belly. Alessa recoiled but she had little space to work with. She wrapped the bathrobe harder around her body.
“Harvey, what? I don’t understand,” Alessa said.
“Oh, yeah, I don’t know what it is about pregnant women I find so sexy,” Harvey said, eyes shining. “Soon as I saw you starting to show, damn. You know what they say, soon as a man crawls out of one cunt he starts looking to crawl back into another. Do they say that? Maybe that’s something to do with it, but I don’t know. Maybe it’s an ultimate cuck thing, you with another man’s baby in there.”
Alessa finally found some steel and stiffened, face darkening. “Okay, that’s enough! That’s disgusting, get out! Get out of my home! Out!”
Alessa tried to push him back but Harvey pinned her into the corner. Breathing hard, she looked around the room as if for another exit. Rain pounded down outside.
“You need me!” Harvey hissed. “Your weak-ass husband, where is he? He’s probably dead! If I was your husband, I’d be here by now to protect you. You need a man, you need me in this new world with everything that’s out there!”
Alessa turned her head toward the front door of the apartment and started screaming for help. She had no idea how far her voice would carry. Harvey jammed the heel of his hand into her mouth, forcing her hard against the counter. Alessa thrashed but Harvey didn’t stop until she stopped shouting.
“I’m in charge now, it doesn’t matter!” Harvey said. “They’re all listening to me! You’re all looking to me now!”
Alessa shoved against one of Harvey’s arms and he let move away from the counter. She stumbled heavily across the small living area, her movements clumsy and heavy. Turning back, she was still trapped in an apartment with a madman. She hadn’t read Harvey correctly and she’d let her guard down, or maybe the problem was she’d ignored her instincts.
“You need a man, you need a real, real man. Harvey fumbled with his belt. “To take care of you.”
Alessa backed up toward the hallway, looking with horror at Harvey’s belt. He fumbled with his waistband. His intent was obvious but Alessa was most fixated on the gun attached to the man’s right hip.
“Harvey, please don’t do this,” Alessa said.
“It’s okay, I’m going to take care of you, I’m going to get you what you need, protect you. But you got to do something for me too.”
Wheeling backward, Alessa’s movements were clumsy. She thought she should be more used to it by now but she wasn’t, her body heavy and unwieldy. Harvey was faster and could be on her in seconds. He shot across the room but didn’t grab her.
“Come on, don’t be like that. Like, don’t be a fucking tease,” Harvey said.
“Get away from me!”
Alessa reversed, nearly tripping and falling in her socks. She grabbed at the walls for support. Harvey stalked after her, making it obvious he could jump on her at any moment. The bathroom had a lock but no exit. Alessa backed past it to the two bedrooms.
“Where is he, huh? Where’s your husband now?” Harvey said. “I’m here! I’m the one taking care of you!”
Neither one of the bedrooms locked. The main bedroom had an exit onto the balcony but for some unconscious reason Alessa darted left instead of right into the baby’s bedroom. There was only a window in there, rain drumming against it. Half-assembled furniture and toys in plastic bags and boxes cluttered the room. She grabbed the door and swung it closed.
“Alessa!” Harvey shouted.
Harvey grabbed the handle and slammed the door open, Alessa didn’t have time to even attempt a barricade. She was thrown backward, falling and landing on her backside, her arm clipped by the door. Sucking air, she tried not to cry.
“Help!” Alessa screamed at the top of her lungs. “Help me!”
“No one’s coming, it’s just us.”
Alessa had landed next to the flatpacks that she and Donnie had been going to build together. Looking up, she glimpsed the cheap plastic toolbox with the clear lid resting on top of one. Alessa rammed her elbow into the box. The toolbox toppled, breaking open as it hit the ground and spilling tools across the carpet. Alessa lunged as best as she was able, her rotund stomach getting in the way, and grabbed the handle of a hammer. Rocking back, Alessa turned it in her fist.
“What are you going to do with that?” Harvey said.
Harvey took a step forward, threatening, and Alessa brought the claw side of the hammer down on his shoe. He yowled, body going stiff. The claw sunk into his sneaker, breaking and maybe even cutting through his toes. Alessa cocked the hammer back and then swung again into Harvey’s knee. It let out a loud, wet crack. The leg collapsed from under Harvey and he fell to his other knee.
“What-, are you kidding me?” Harvey said.
One of Harvey’s hands reached out to grab the hammer while the other went for his gun. He didn’t seem to really believe what was happening. Even as he reached for the gun, he didn’t appear to be in any kind of hurry.
“Leave me alone!” Alessa yelled.
Avoiding Harvey’s hand, Alessa swung the hammer into his temple. Another loud, wet crack. Skin split, spilling blood that looked very vibrant and red in the dimly lit room. Eyes rolled back into Harvey’s skull. Alessa cocked her arm back and hit him again, across the top of his head.
“Leave me alone!”
Harvey fell facedown on the floor as Alessa raised the hammer and brought it down again. Scalp splitting open, blood flew from the hammer. It arced up the wall and sprinkled the ceiling. Crouching over Harvey, Alessa hit him again and again until the skull collapsed. Blood sprayed and gore leaked into the carpet.
Shaking, Alessa burst out sobbing and dropped the hammer. Harvey was clearly dead, limbs twisted, face buried into the carpet with the back of his skull busted in. The weight of what she had done rocked her. Looking at the gun, the hammer, Alessa knew she’d been defending herself but the others had been listening to Harvey, who knew what they would believe. They’d been fooled by him, as she had herself.
“Oh, God, oh, Donnie,” Alessa choked. “Donnie, where are you?”