Geoff North - How the World Ends

Morning had cast its dull grey light across the plains, but the pit was still drenched in shadows as Hayden pulled the battered Buick off the highway and onto the gravel road. He saw a wisp of white smoke rising above a pile of loose rocks and realized they were still there before Caitlan’s Audi came into view a few seconds later.

“I thought you said they wouldn’t be here,” Fred Gill said seated next to him.

“I told them not to wait past midnight. Obviously they didn’t listen.” Hayden’s tone was hard, but a big grin had broken out across his face.

Angela was sitting in front of the remains of a small fire. A heavy green comforter—one of two that Caitlan had snuck into the trunk of her car while staying at the Sandman hotel—was drawn loosely around her shoulders. Under the same blanket, something started to move by her feet. Nicholas’s head poked out as Hayden pulled up and parked across from them. The boy scurried out and rushed into his arms before he could remove himself from the driver’s seat.

Hayden kissed the mess of hair on top of his head. “Hey, squirt. Miss me?”

“I thought maybe you got lost,” the boy said in a rush. “Then I thought maybe them big bombs got you. Then I thought them dumb soldiers beat you up. Then—

“Easy, Nicholas, go slow!” Hayden nodded at Angela. “Why are you still here?”

“Where were we supposed to go?”

“North. I told you to take the kids and head north.”

The woman shrugged and found a piece of wood to throw into the almost dead fire. She stirred it into the coals with another stick until it burst into flames. “Caitlan and I decided to give you another twenty-four hours after the bombs went off. We figured something that big and unexpected might’ve altered your plans.”

Hayden didn’t know Angela all that well, but it was easy enough to hear the sarcasm in her words—the anger behind them. “I know it was dumb staying behind like that, but I couldn’t let it go… you never saw what they did to my horse.”

“Was your horse all you could think about when you sent us off?” She was looking directly at the boy in Hayden’s arms.

“It wasn’t the smartest decision I’ve ever made.” He hugged Nicholas a little harder. “I won’t do something like that again.”

Angela shrugged again, as if she wasn’t sure she could believe that, or perhaps that she no longer cared. “Who’s your friend?”

“This is Fred Gill, a doctor from Brayburne.”

Angela shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Fred. I’m Angela. So why did you leave Brayburne?”

“There’s no Brayburne left,” he answered softly.

“The bombs were that close? We thought they went off towards Winnipeg.”

“Not bombs.” He exchanged a dark glance with Hayden. “I don’t think we should discuss it around the boy.”

The back door of the Audi opened up and Amanda spilled out onto the ground from within the folds of the second Sandman comforter. Her brother followed seconds after. “You came back,” the girl said.

Michael sneered up at him and wiped sleep from his eyes. “Good. I was getting sick of all these girls ordering me around.”

Hayden thought the look was approving, but he couldn’t be sure. The twins, Angela, Caitlan, and perhaps even the doctor, were now the most important people in his life—they were the only people in his life. And then there was Nicholas… his son. The boy still believed Jake had been his father, but there was no denying the fact he had grown close to Hayden in the last few weeks. Perhaps a part of him did see the truth. Maybe that’s why Nicholas was holding him so tightly this very moment. He placed him back on the ground with some effort.

“Yeah, I came back, and I won’t let us get separated again.” It was a promise Hayden intended to keep. “Where’s Caitlan?”

He heard the leather upholstery squeak from the front seat of the Audi. “Trying to get some goddamn sleep but failing miserably.” She climbed out and gave him an even more disapproving glare than Michael. “Took your sweet time joining back up with us.”

“I was… detained.”

“Who’s the old fart?”

“My name is Dr. Fred Gill.” The old physician didn’t offer his hand out to her.

Angela cut in before things could escalate—and they usually did when Caitlan was being introduced to strangers. “Let’s build this fire up and get warm.” She looked over at the Buick’s smashed in windshield and bloody fenders. “You can tell us all about what happened back in Brayburne.”

Hayden and Fred exchanged another ominous look. “I don’t think there will be enough time to get into the specifics,” the doctor said.

“We really should get moving,” Hayden added. He was looking out over the gravel pit’s southern wall, back the way they had just traveled.

Amanda took Nicholas by the hand and led him away from the adults. Smart kid , Hayden thought. Michael looked at the others in turn and finally shrugged. “I get it… Grown-up shit.” He buried his hands in his pants pockets and kicked a stone out of his path on the way to join the other kids.

Hayden whistled at them ten minutes later to join them again. The children slid down from their gravel pile perch and ran towards the cars. Angela and Caitlan were moving fast, folding up blankets and packing their meagre collection of supplies back into the cars. Hayden was refueling the Buick, the old doctor was draining another container into the Audi. Michael had seen his parents act this way when they were still alive. It usually meant something bad was coming—a big thunderstorm maybe, or perhaps a blizzard. It’s how Angela had acted when they were trying to get out of the shopping mall without that murdering psychopath ending their lives like he had their mother’s. Calm but anxious. Quick but not rushed.

Quiet fear.

“You guys are scaring me,” Amanda said. “Why do we have to leave so fast? This place is fun.”

“You kids ever go to Disney World?” Caitlan asked.

The twins shook their heads in unison and the girl answered. “Mom and Dad said they were gonna take us there in a year or two. Guess that ain’t gonna happen now.”

“Nope, I don’t imagine it will any time soon.” She lit a cigarette and inhaled a few quick drags before continuing. “Well, children… we’re readying to travel about as far away from that magical kingdom as you can go.” She hiked a thumb behind her in the direction of the two men. “According to those yahoos, we’re heading somewhere nice and freaking cold… cold enough to freeze the life out of anything that might decide to try and follow us.”

Again the twins responded together. “Huh?”

She flicked her butt into the smoldering fire. “I’ll explain what I can in the car, but right now we have to start hauling ass.”

The sound of the walls buckling in on all sides was like metallic thunder crashing around them. “Goddamn it.” Louie wheezed somewhere beneath the behemoth crushing him. “Get the hell off me! The shed’s gonna tear apart and leave us exposed.”

Roy was no longer trying to kill Louie—or at least the energy he was now expending wasn’t going to get the job done on its own. The big man was exhausted, laboring for breath on top of the smaller man. “Where’s all the… where’s that fuckin’ crashing sound coming from? Why’s the… why’s the shed still rocking?”

A giant bovine head smashed through the window and lodged in the frame. The raging beast thrashed, and the shed moved with it.

“Fuck me!” Roy screamed. The cow’s black nose poked at his leg and enveloped an entire boot in its mouth. Roy could feel the intense heat of it, the pressure of its teeth closed in around his ankle. “Its gonna eat my foot! Jesus Christ, Louie, make it stop!” He stared into the animal’s wet, dead eyes and struggled to pull free. A grey mist was clustered to the thing’s snout—crawling, swimming, moving up in snaking lines to the corners of its eyes, and down into the maw of its dripping mouth. Roy kicked with his free foot and felt something pop under his boot heel as it stuck inside one of the eye sockets. The creature made an enraged snorting noise, and black snot shot out of its nostrils, spraying across Roy’s pants.