Abby’s arms ached. Her daily jogs had done nothing to prepare her for carrying a thirty-five-pound sleeping toddler all night over rough terrain. As dawn broke, she shifted her son yet again and stifled a yawn.
Lance stopped abruptly in front of her. “Look,” he pointed down the slope at a half-dozen red rooftops peeking through the trees.
They watched for a moment, but didn’t see any signs of life.
“Do you think it’s safe?” Abby whispered.
Lance brought the rifle to his shoulder. “Only one way to find out. C’mon.”
She trailed behind her husband, her anxiety growing as they got closer to the cabins. With every step, leaves crunched underfoot, making her cringe, but still nothing stirred.
Lance glanced back, then nodded at an older blue pick-up truck parked near the first cabin. He met her gaze and placed a finger over his lips.
Abby nodded and held Eric closer, grateful he was still sleeping. She fell back a few steps while Lance approached the truck. Once he’d looked in the windows and truck-bed, he lowered the gun and motioned for her to come closer.
“Wait here while I check the cabin,” he whispered.
Her gaze darted around the forested landscape, and she turned back to him. “I won’t be able to see anything coming through the trees. I’d rather stay with you.”
He hesitated, his eyes on his son, then agreed. “Stay behind me and keep quiet.”
Abby followed him as he crept up the front steps and peeked in a window.
With a quick look over his shoulder, he shook his head, then lifted a fist to knock.
A soft crunch nearby had her reaching for her husband. She touched his arm, then motioned to the corner of the house. “Did you hear that?”
Lance turned and cocked his head as a loud rustling sounded in the bushes. He shoved the rifle tight against his shoulder. “Come on outta there!”
A brown snout appeared around the corner, sniffed, then suddenly a blood-covered Golden Retriever bounded in their direction, half-barking, half-whimpering.
Eric’s head popped up as he let out a wail and Abby stumbled backwards on the porch, away from the dog.
Lance held out a hand. “Hey, there. It’s okay fella, I’m not going to hurt you.”
The animal slowed, its tail swishing hesitantly.
“That’s it,” Lance cooed, “you’re okay.” The instant his fingers brushed the soft fur under its chin, the dog’s entire body wagged in delight.
Abby breathed a sigh of relief. “Look, it’s a doggie.”
Eric clung to her neck, his small body trembling.
“It’s okay. See Daddy petting him?” She took a step closer, trying not to cringe at the blood soaking its fur and nudged her husband. “He’s hurt.”
“I don’t think it’s his.” Lance ran his hands over the dog. “I don’t feel a wound anywhere. There’s a collar though.” He fingered the tag. “Sadie. Is that your name, Sadie?”
The dog licked his hand, tail swinging with wild abandon now.
Lance shot Abby a quick look. “Wonder what happened?” He patted Sadie’s head. “Where’re your owners? Are they hurt?”
Eric finally peeked at the dog. “Oggie?”
“Yes, baby, that’s a doggie.” Abby frowned as she glanced around, even more uneasy than before. “Surely they wouldn’t just leave her here like this.”
Lance scrubbed a hand through his hair, pausing before turning to the front door once more. “Just let me look, I’ll be quick, I promise. Whoever’s blood that is might be inside.”
“I don’t feel safe out here alone.” She was struggling to keep Eric in her arms. Now that he was fully awake, he was squirming to get down. “That person could just as easily be out here somewhere, or worse, the person who caused that,” she said, with a nod at the blood-stained dog.
“I can check the inside faster than out here.” He put his hand on the doorknob. “Sixty seconds. Stand with your back to the wall and stay alert.” He snatched his pistol from his waistband and handed it to her. “Fire if you need me.”
Biting her tongue, Abby backed up against the wall and nodded. “Hurry.”
Lance twisted the knob, and finding it unlocked, slipped inside.
Abby settled Eric firmly on her hip, then looked at Sadie. “Can you sit?”
At the familiar command, Sadie sat, her tail sweeping the porch behind her in a continual show of happiness.
“Good girl,” she muttered, “now, stay.” Hopeful the dog would obey, Abby scanned the trees again as the seconds ticked by in her brain.
As promised, Lance was back before she’d mentally hit sixty, his face pale and drawn. “C’mon, we can’t stay here.” He jiggled a set of keys. “Let’s see if that truck starts.”
Abby’s gaze flew to the door. “What did you see in there?”
“An old couple, both dead.” He touched her shoulder. “Let’s go.”
She gripped her son a little tighter and followed Lance to the truck. “What about—” Before she could get the rest of the question out, Sadie ran down the steps and went straight to the truck, whining by the back tire.
“Guess she’s coming, too.” Lance lowered the tailgate, and she jumped in.
Abby climbed in the front and snapped the seatbelt around her and Eric, relieved when the truck roared to life.
For the next half hour, Lance systematically checked five other cabins, all with the same result. No one was left alive, and all had died violent deaths, their bodies ripped apart and shredded, he’d said.
At the end of the dirt road, back from the main cluster of homes, was one more cabin. A luxury two-story with floor-to-ceiling windows and a balcony over the front porch. Half of the roof was missing, and a thin pillar of smoke rose from behind.
Lance parked, and as with the other cabins, left her the pistol and went to investigate.
Eric fussed in her lap, so she set him in the middle of the bench seat. “Are you hungry, baby?” His little face lit up at that and she smiled as she reached for the survival bag. “Let’s see what we have in here.” She rifled through the contents until she found a sleeve of crackers. “Here we go.” While Eric munched happily, she kept watch for Lance. After several long minutes, he appeared from behind the cabin, his face grim.
She expected him to get back in the truck, but instead, he came and opened her door. “What is it?” she asked. “What’d you find?”
“There’s one of them back there. It’s dead.” His mouth tightened in a deep frown. “I think it’s what killed all these people.”
“I want to see it.” She moved to get out, but Lance stood in her way.
“I don’t want you going back there alone, there could be more of them.” He glanced at his son. “And I definitely don’t want him to see.”
“Then come with me,” she said, passing Eric over to him. “You can hang back a little, keep him turned away. I need to see it; to know what we’re dealing with.”
Lance nodded, though his frown didn’t diminish. “C’mon, Sadie, you can come, too.”
She followed her husband to the back of the truck as he let the dog out. “What if she runs off?”
“I don’t think she will, not unless she’s chasing something. She’s used to people, and now hers are gone. We’re all she’s got.” He patted his thigh as they headed around the side of the cabin. “Sadie, come.”
With the dog trotting beside her and Lance right behind, Abby approached a pile of smoking metal.
Oh, my God! It isn’t a meteor, it’s a ship!
Next to the smoldering remains, lay a body. A human body. A man.
She turned to Lance, a question poised on the tip of her tongue.
“Over there.” He nodded at the back deck.
As she approached, two more bodies came into view. One, a man with a gun lying next to his lifeless body. His throat and torso had been slashed to ribbons and blood splattered gore covered the otherwise pristine deck.
Her stomach turned.
The other body, the alien one, had a definite human-like form, with two arms and legs attached to a torso. What exposed skin there was looked like flat gray clay. The head was bald, slightly larger, rounder, with only small holes where the ears should have been. Wide sightless eyes stared up at the sky, their solid black color making her shiver. The hands were more like claws; long, skinny, and ending with razor-like fingertips. Blood-covered razor-like fingertips. The creature’s mouth was small, no lips, just an opening filled with spiked teeth. The being wore a one-piece cargo-type of coverall with clawed feet showing at the bottom. The torso was riddled with bullet holes.
She covered her mouth and nose with one hand and held her stomach with the other as she turned back to Lance.
“Inside is clear.” He passed her their son, then grabbed hold of the dog’s collar. “Take him inside, find whatever food and first-aid supplies you can while I burn this thing. Go around front. I unlocked the door for you.”
Abby clutched her son to her chest and hurried to the front of the cabin, eager to escape the stench of blood and death.
Once inside, she glanced around at the ruined space, filled with a sadness she hadn’t expected. It wasn’t as if she knew these people, yet, somehow, she mourned the loss of the man who’d died defending himself and his home. And he’d taken the creature down with him.
“C’mon, kiddo, let’s see what we can find.” She set Eric down and took him by the hand into the kitchen where she found a cupboard containing pots and pans. She left it open for him to play with the contents while she rummaged through the other cupboards, setting canned goods, packages of dried fruits and nuts, and bottles of water on the countertop.
By the time Lance joined her, she’d also collected a can opener, a couple of knives, some plastic plates, and silverware and a small pile of bandages, hydrogen peroxide, and pain reliever pills.
“It’s done,” he announced. “Let’s find something to put all this in.”
“Can’t we just load all of it in the back of the truck?”
“For now,” he agreed. “But once the gas runs out, we’ll be walking. We need to take what we can carry.”
“I’ll look around, I know the kinds of places I’d store backpacks and bags.” She left her husband with Eric and went upstairs to search the bedrooms. She found what she was looking for in the hall closet and returned with two backpacks, a duffel bag, and a shoulder tote to which she’d added soap, towels, and sunscreen.
While she packed the supplies, Lance took one of the backpacks and used a knife to cut two holes in the bottom.
“What’re you doing?” Abby frowned at him. “How’re we going to carry anything in that now?”
“It’s for Eric,” he said. “Here, put this on and let me see what else I need to do to make this thing work.” Obliging him, she stood still while he tightened all the straps, then picked up the baby and slid his legs through the holes. Eric giggled as Lance made a few more adjustments. “There we go, snug as a bug in a rug.”
Abby walked across the room and back, testing the weight. “It feels pretty stable.”
“We can take turns carrying him.” Lance grabbed the other bags. “Let’s get moving.”
Once everything was loaded, they drove, sticking to the dirt roads, higher into the mountains, until the gas ran out. After that, they took as much as they could carry and walked.
At dusk, they came across an overgrown set of railroad tracks overlooking a valley.
Hand in hand they trampled through the weeds as they followed the train tracks.
There had to be more survivors, they just had to find them
