Nathan Hystad: New Threat

Icould hear him coming from the main level, his nails click-clacking on the hardwood floors. It was his morning routine: step on my chest, lick my face, sniff Mary, and then hop down off the bed. I think he checked the back door, then the front, then a quick peek through the window. He was seeing if his previous owner, Susan, was there. She wasn’t.

I felt his pain. It was the same pain most of the world was feeling, after half of us hadn’t survived the Event . We all opened doors expecting to see someone we knew, only to see their bedroom empty. I had to stop myself at least twice a week from dialing my mom’s phone number, and that wasn’t an easy revelation to live with. The pain of loss was widespread, but the whole thing had left humanity stronger than they’d been in a long time; maybe ever.

Mary rolled over and rested her head on my chest. “You know we don’t have to go today,” she said, nuzzling in closer.

“I think we should. Plus, it’ll be good to see Magnus and Natalia again.” I stopped, and Mary turned and looked me in the eyes.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I actually think it’s time to move on. I can’t live here anymore. Not after all that’s happened, and I know it must be a little weird for you to be here too.” Even though I’d changed the furniture when Janine had died, I knew deep down the whole scenario wasn’t ideal for either of us.

“Dean, it’s okay. It’s not like we’ve lived permanently in any of these places over the last year. At least the house has more room than my condo in Washington, and Carey seems to be happier here. But I think he’d be happy wherever we take him,” she said with a smile. On cue, the spaniel hopped on the stool at the end of the bed and catapulted onto my stomach.

“Okay, Carey, what do you say? Want to come to New York with us today?” I asked the now-rolling-around dog.

“I think that means yes,” she answered for him.

Less than two hours later, we were loading the truck with our bags, for the second time in a month. It would be nice to settle in somewhere, but we had to figure out just what we wanted to do. The economy still didn’t know what it was doing, and the world powers were contemplating a global currency. There were so many empty properties now, and some estates had nowhere to go, whole families gone at the same time.

Looking around the living room, I slowly closed the door, breathing out, somehow feeling like this was the last time I’d see my house. If I’d learned anything over the past twelve months, it was to trust my gut. I locked up and glanced toward the truck. Mary was in the passenger seat with Carey sitting beside her. They were both looking at me, and Mary gave me a soft smile. Her smile managed to make me feel like a teenager again. There was a warmness I’d never known from a woman before, and I couldn’t help but feel like we were meant to meet and stop the invasion. It made us strong. It connected us forever.

Soon we were heading down the road, passing the church down the street, driving down the road I’d seen James getting almost beat up on, the day they arrived. It felt like yesterday at times, and like a decade ago at other times.

Stories had come out of the horrors from the cube ships. At the time, we hadn’t given it a lot of thought, but it made sense later. Once everyone realised they were on ships going God knew where, the trouble began. There were stories of fights, murder, riots, and rape. No one was safe from the events, and it made humanity take a good look in the mirror. There were countless survivors with stories to tell, and thousands of people were arrested afterwards. It was another gray area with no proof and no trials. There were a lot of lawyers and people smelling profit, but the government didn’t allow this.

Their process seemed to have worked, and the arrested were left on an island, fenced off from the world. It was either that or shoot them back into space, all in a transport vessel like they’d done their atrocities on. Everyone knew there must be some innocents among them, and guilty among us, but it was the best they could do at the time.

Safety was imperative after the hell everyone had been through.

My hometown was almost a ghost town. Most people had left for the big city, and over half of the town had died up there . Being a bedroom community, we had a lot of elderly; they were the first people to go, with no water, and as the illnesses spread like wildfire, only twenty percent of people over seventy survived the journey. Things had changed on Earth.

We cruised down the highway, and for a moment, it felt like a weekend drive to the city. But it seemed, nowadays, it was never just a drive to somewhere. There was always an underlying tension to life. While I was thankful to be alive and have people around me again, we all knew there was life out there , and they weren’t our friends. It was like a constant buzz in your ear… knowing. We knew a lot more about them, thanks to Mae. Half human, half Kraski. We just called them hybrids, which Mae claimed to not find offensive.

“Honey, what do you think they want to see us for?” I asked for at least the third time since they’d called Mary.

“Still not sure. But I’m hoping it’s to give us a mansion on an island to retire to,” she quipped.

“Well, if we’re going there with Magnus and Nat, I hope we don’t have to share a house with them too.”

We neared the city, and I saw the large area of fields filled with cars. All around the world, there were similar areas. Once everything had settled, the cleanup began. One of the most trying things had been clearing the empty cars off the roadways. If they weren’t claimed, they were towed into fields, where mobile crushers would eventually come and recycle the materials. The world was in a state of flux, and it was doubtful everything would be straightened out for years to come.

“It’ll be good to see Mae too. I hear they’re doing some amazing things, tech-wise. I guess there have been some dramatic medical advances just from the computers on the ships.” I could see Mary look at me from my peripheral vision. I still had this nagging suspicion she was a little jealous of the fact that Mae was the spitting image of my dead wife, but she had never acted strange about it, and she and Mae had become fast friends.

“I heard, and I doubt they’re even leaking half of what’s really going on. Top secret. But I have a feeling your charm can get us the inside scoop when we get to D.C.,” I said with a wink.

“We’ll see. If I can be honest, I want to see what kind of reverse engineering they’ve done with the Kraski ships we have. I mean, this could really shrink our universe,” Mary said, a twinkle in her eye.

“I’m happy with a small universe… a tiny one, in fact. One that just involves the east coast: you, me, and this pup here.”

In a quick thirty minutes, we arrived in the Upper West Side. As we passed the museum, I thought back to the moment I saw the ship above the truck, and Ray running at me. I’d forgiven him a long time ago for what he did. Vanessa had convinced him to turn the Shield off, and he thought he could save his family for it. We were no worse for wear, but Ray was dead, and his family would never see him again. We never told anyone what happened that day. It was thought he was killed by the Kraski, and I intended it to stay that way.

Even though it was New York on a weekend, I still found a parking spot on West Central Park. It would have blown my mind a year ago. Now the vacant streets just made me remember all we’d been through. We got out of the truck and soon we were taking a nice walk through the park, and it felt great. Carey pulled at his leash, sniffing everything he could along the way.