Морин Макхью - Wastelands - The New Apocalypse

We got a little over a mile from Frank’s place, heading east when a shadow settled over us. I could hardly breathe, the air was so heavy with the chalk smell. And before we knew it, long serrated tendrils shot down from the sky and wrapped around the limo.

Then they lifted us into the air.

Everyone was yelling by then, even me. We knew Floaters sometimes went for cars, but none of them had ever encountered Frank’s tank. We were about ten feet off the ground when a few of the tendrils snapped. It must have hurt because the Floater did its foghorn bellow and dropped us. We landed at a funny angle and ended up flipping over onto the roof. But the limo was tough enough that it held together and everybody was more or less fine and able to scramble out of the car.

The first to die was the woman whose name I didn’t know.

The moment we were outside, a tendril dropped down and grabbed her in the bear trap grippers the fuckers had at the end of their appendages. A second later, she was gone. Her husband, boyfriend, or whatever he was, ran to the exact spot where she was pulled up. I tried to grab him, but another tendril hauled his dumb ass into the air a second later.

Me and Frank, we started to run.

Frank was a desk czar who paid other people to do his running for him. Between hiding and stopping to let Frank puke from exertion, it took us a couple of hours to make it back the mile or so to his house. When we got there, Alex ran out and grabbed me in a trembling hug.

“I shouldn’t have let you go. I knew something bad would happen.”

Macy was standing in the doorway. She just turned and went inside. I looked for her for maybe twenty minutes, but the damn mansion was the size of Houston. I couldn’t find her anywhere.

I tried texting her, but it wouldn’t go through. On the off chance she’d sent me a Dear John note, I checked my email, but I couldn’t get into the site. I clicked some sites on Frank’s computer and got the same results. The mansion’s wifi was working, but it was like the whole goddamn net was down.

I went back to the living room and saw that the screen of the giant TV had gone black. Frank scrolled through the channels, but no one was broadcasting anymore. That with the net situation? Bad fucking signs. Still, we left the TV on in case something started up again.

About an hour later, I saw Macy. She opened the blast shields on the back door and went out. It was a stupid move after what had just happened with the Floater, so I went after her.

She was standing over the bodies of the ODed couple when I found her. We’d wrapped them in plastic garbage bags and duct tape, but by now in the L.A. heat they’d still gone pretty ripe.

“Are we going to end up like them?” she said.

More out of guilt than anything I said, “No way. I’ll take care of you.”

She scowled at me. “How, when you’re so busy taking care of Alexandra?”

I didn’t want to have this argument now. I didn’t want to have it ever. I guess I’m a little slow. I never really had a plan on how to deal with the situation. I just hoped that things would work themselves out. But even at the end of the world, here Macy and me were, having the same old arguments.

“Come inside,” I said. “It’s dangerous out here.”

“What do you care?”

I took a couple of steps toward her. “I care.”

“Liar.”

“Not now.”

Macy gave me a look that somehow was wasn’t all spite. She wanted to believe that we could work through this. “You mean it?” she said.

“I swear.” And in that moment I did. But while I still cared about Macy, we were stuck in this endless goddamn cycle of hurt feelings and guilt. I just wanted it to be over.

I guess that’s why, when one of the chaise lounges by the pool began to move, I hesitated for a fraction of a second before I said anything.

She gave me a hopeful half-smile just before the Stinger grabbed her leg. I remember it was the left one. Macy didn’t scream. There was just a gasping intake of breath. She reached out for me.

“Paul?”

On TV they’d said that Stingers secreted a liquid that numbed things so they wouldn’t fight and would be easier to absorb. I remembered what happened to Amped. After the initial shock of being grabbed, he didn’t yell much but just sort of let it happen.

I stepped back. By then the Stinger had both of Macy’s legs and another tentacle was sliding around her head, muffling her voice when she yelled my name one last time.

Even though she was the one full of Stinger juice, I was numb too. In the end, half a fucking second’s hesitation was all it took.

I went back inside and closed the shields. Frank was passed out on bourbon when I got back to the living room. I found a glass, filled it to the top, and drank it straight down. After a few minutes listening to Frank snort and snore, I went to look for Alex.

Geoff had his shirt off when I found them together on the bed in the ODed couple’s room. I was more puzzled than mad when I saw them kissing. Alex opened her eyes and when she saw me, she pushed Geoff off. The gun Liz and Cassandra had used to kill themselves was still sitting on the nightstand by the bed. I grabbed it and put it in my back pocket before Geoff panicked and did something stupid.

“Would you excuse us for a minute?” I said to him. He nodded and started to slink out of the room. Just before he reached the door I said, “Don’t forget your shirt, tiger.” I’d stepped back into the doorway so the little creep had to squeeze past me to get out.

When he was gone I closed the door.

At first, I couldn’t think of anything to say. I just stood there like a moron until I mumbled, “I thought you said Geoff was gay.”

“Did I say that?” said Alex like a kid caught in a lie. “He’s more like… bi.”

“And you two have been doing this how long?”

“Don’t ask stupid questions, Paul.” She started buttoning her blouse. I reached out and took one of her arms.

“I thought you loved me.”

She sighed. “I do love you, but the Macy thing…”

“That’s over. She’s gone.”

Alex looked puzzled. “What’s that mean?”

I pulled her close and whispered, “She’s gone. Dead. There’s nothing stopping us from being together. I did it for you.”

Alex stared at me for a moment like she was trying to figure out what I’d just said. Then she shoved me away hard. “Fuck you, Paul. Don’t try to put any crazy shit you did on me.”

Before I could say anything, someone screamed from the main rooms. I ran down the stairs. Geoff was pointing at Frank, who was convulsing on the sofa. Blood was already seeping through his shirt.

“Help me get him outside,” I yelled. Alex had followed me downstairs. She and Geoff grabbed Frank’s arms and I got his legs. Geoff opened the blast shields over the front door. We just barely got outside as the Floater burst from his guts and started into the air. Alex stumbled back a couple of steps.

“Get over here!” I shouted. She started for me, but she was way scared and froze. One of Frank’s tendrils grabbed her arm and pulled her up into the sky with him.

A second later, Geoff was by my side watching Alex float away. He got a funny look on his face, one I’d seen before.

“Don’t do it,” I said. “Be cool and we can survive this.”

Geoff was not cool.

He made a clumsy grab for the pistol. The little prick was faster than I’d counted on. The gun went off, almost hitting me in the leg. I grabbed him and pulled him in closer, the pistol between us. I’m honestly still not sure which one of us pulled the trigger when the gun went off the second time. All I know is that it was Geoff who hit the concrete and not me. I actually felt bad for a minute, but when the Floater’s shadow started to move, I knew what I had to do. I left Geoff’s body on the driveway, went back inside and put up the shields.