Steven Konkoly - The Perseid Collapse

“Afternoon, ladies. Nathan Russell. Part of the militia in charge of the area,” he said, resting his hands on his hips—dangerously close to the pistol.

“We’re gonna have to ask you to surrender those rifles and consent to a search. We can’t have people running around with weapons—uh—in the area.”

“I’m pretty familiar with the state’s firearms laws, and there’s no problem here. If you don’t mind, we have a long day ahead of us,” said Kate.

“But there is a problem. We’ve been given authority to make decisions about these kinds of things,” said Beady Eyes, drawing a quick look from Rock Garden.

“Who gave you this authority?” said Linda, straining to keep her rifle barrel pointed down.

“The local commander,” said Beady Eyes. “So I need you to clear those weapons, and we’ll get you on your way.”

“Unless you want to pay the toll,” said Rock Garden with an eager look.

Beady Eyes silenced him with a deadly glare.

“We’re not travelling with any money,” said Kate.

“There’s other ways to pay,” muttered Rock Garden.

Mouth open, he glared at Linda’s twins. Kate slowly moved her hand back along her thigh, feeling the nylon holster and mentally picturing the draw. She’d give them one more chance.

“We’re gonna get moving now. I think you should drive back to the parking lot and enjoy the rest of your beers. It’s a beautiful day. Be a real shame to ruin it,” she stated.

Beady Eyes shifted his right hand toward the pistol. “Nobody’s going anywhere until I—”

The blast from Linda’s rifle punched a small red dot through the center of his forehead. Kate drew her pistol and dropped to one knee, firing rapidly at Rock Garden’s head and chest. His head snapped backward moments before blasts from Linda’s rifle punctured his torso and shattered the window behind him. She shifted her aim to Beady Eyes, who remained upright, staring blankly past her at the kids. His mouth mumbled something unintelligible as he slowly sank down the side of the vehicle and tumbled forward to the blistering pavement.

Emily screamed, setting off a chain reaction of panic and hysteria among the teenagers. Kate’s vision narrowed to the tiny red hole in the front of his head. The hole was so perfect. The shrieking faded into a high-pitched ringing. Someone grabbed her arm.

“You all right, Kate? We need to get out of here! Can you stand?” said a familiar voice.

She broke her fixation on the trickle of blood flowing from the bullet entry wound, and turned her head to the sound. Linda stood over her, trying to pull her up. Everything snapped back into place. She thumbed the decocking lever on her pistol and holstered it.

“We need to load up right now!” Linda ordered. “We’re taking the car!”

“Everyone’s all right?” asked Kate.

“Everyone except for those two. Find the keys. I’ll get the kids in the car,” she said.

Linda glanced behind her and saw the kids cowering behind their bicycles. She pulled at her frantic daughters, urging them to get in the SUV.

Emily threw her bike down and rushed forward, crying. “I want to go home, Mommy!”

“We’ll be fine, sweetie,” Kate said to her. “We’ll be at Nana and Grandpa’s house in thirty minutes. I need you to get in the car now. Don’t look at anything but the car. Can you do that?”

Emily nodded and buried her head in Kate’s right shoulder.

“We need to get moving,” said Linda.

Kate kissed her daughter. “I love you. Get your pack off, and get in the car.”

Emily nodded, staring past her mother at the dead body. She started crying again and grabbed Kate.

“I’ll hold you later. Promise. Follow Mrs. Thornton around the back of the car,” Kate said, pushing her daughter toward the rest of the kids.

“Let’s go! In the car! Now!” yelled Linda, pulling Samantha, who looked more shell-shocked than her kids.

“Should we hide the bikes?” asked Kate.

“No time for that. We have witnesses,” said Linda, pointing to the Hannigans shopping complex.

Kate saw at least a half-dozen people lurking near the intersection, peering in their direction.

“Shit. I’ll move the bodies,” said Kate, placing her rifle and backpack against the hood of the SUV.

She grabbed Beady Eyes by his dusty boots and dragged him to the side of the road, leaving a slippery trail of gore on the hot asphalt surface. A pinkish-gray lump clung stubbornly to the road, stretching from the top of his skull. She shook her head.

I didn’t see that.

Her stomach wasn’t convinced, exploding a brownish-yellow stream onto his jeans. She kept pulling. Another involuntary spray hit the gravel on the shoulder of the road. Kate felt grass beneath her and dropped his legs, breathing heavily.

How can you push something like this out of your head?

You couldn’t. Not according to her husband. You pressed on and dealt with it later. They were counting on her to do that.

“All right. You can do this,” she mumbled to herself.

She removed the pistol from Beady Eyes’ waistline, ejecting the magazine and racking the slide to eject the chambered round. She cocked her arm to throw the pistol into the closest drainage ditch, but stopped. No reason to give the weapon back to the same community that had produced these two pieces of shit. Kate tucked it into her belt and searched for a wallet and keys. She examined his license and exhaled. Just what they didn’t need. A Waterboro local. And the other one?

“Ethan, you don’t have to do that!” said Kate, running on rubbery legs back to the SUV.

Ethan had started to pull Rock Garden away from the car by his armpits.

“I can handle it, Mom—Aunt Kate,” said Ethan.

A weak fountain of blood pulsed from a jagged hole in the back of Rock Garden’s neck, emptying into the scarlet pool beneath Ethan’s boots. He stared at the blood for a few seconds before dropping the body on the pavement. She hugged him while he sobbed.

“It’ll be okay, Ethan. We’re almost at Nana’s.”

“I know why you killed them.” He sniffled. “I saw them looking at the girls.”

Kate searched for a parental line to soften Ethan’s harsh induction into their “kill or be killed” world. She drew a complete blank.

“We won’t let anything happen to you guys. Understand?” she said, locking eyes with him.

He nodded, wiping his eyes and putting on a tough face.

“Can you help everyone get into the car?”

“I want to learn how to shoot like that,” announced Ethan.

“You’ll have to talk to your uncle. He taught me how to shoot,” said Kate.

“I thought he couldn’t hit anything with a pistol?”

“He’s better than he cares to admit,” said Kate, kneeling next to the body. “Get going.”

She fished a wallet out of Rock Garden’s back pocket and held up another blood-smeared Maine driver’s license. Wonderful. Another local.

“Forget moving that one! They’re starting to take pictures,” said Linda, pointing at the crowd back at the intersection.

Kate helped Ethan squeeze into place next to Samantha’s son and handed him his rucksack. Samantha passed two more backpacks to Kate, which she stuffed into the cargo area against the boys. Less than a minute later, the SUV peeled off down Route 5 toward Limerick.

EVENT +32:50 Hours

Limerick, Maine

Kate had made this trip enough times to recognize the landmarks as they approached, but nothing seemed familiar. Nothing at all.

Linda, who was driving, glanced at her. “You all right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just not sure… we may have passed it. If we see a ‘Welcome to Parsonsfield’ sign, we definitely missed it.”