Ike Hamill - Extinct

“So you’re leaving in the morning?” Nate asked.

“Yup,” Pete said. He turned in his chair to glance over at the highway where the tractors were parked.

“I guess you’re not going to need this setup anymore then?” Nate asked.

“I suppose not,” Pete said.

“Wait a second,” Romie said. “We’ll be back. We’re not leaving forever, are we?”

“If we do make it through this thing—this morbid corpse delivery job—why would we want to come back here ?" Pete asked. “All the places we could go? We could move to Cape Elizabeth and have the best ocean-side property available.”

“There’s eye-poppers down there,” Lisa said.

“Not so many as there used to be,” Pete said. “And it wouldn’t take much effort to clear them out. Haven’t we learned that?”

“I like this place,” Romie said. “It’s south of the snow and north of Robby’s Elementals.”

“Why did you say you called them that?" Nate asked.

“What?" Romie asked. “Elementals? I thought Robby explained.”

“I only gave him a rough outline,” Robby said. “I didn’t really give him much background.”

Robby jumped down from his barstool, grabbed his bottle of pop, and moved to the small couch, next to Brad.

“Did you see anyone disappear, Nate?” Robby asked.

“No, but Brynn did.”

Brynn nodded his head.

“Have you been south? Did you see any of the moving water or the columns of fire?” Robby asked.

“No,” Nate said. “Oh, the bread smells good.” He closed his eyes and seemed to relax a little, but his back didn’t get any closer to the couch.

The aroma of the fresh bread reached Brad. Lisa had made her sourdough, and Brad’s mouth was already watering for it. He stuffed a cracker and a big hunk of cheese in his mouth.

Robby ignored the bread comment and continued his explanation—“I’ll go back to the beginning. In ancient Greece, they believed everything was made up of combinations of five elements: Earth, water, fire, air, and aether.”

“I’ve heard of that,” Nate said. His hand slipped forward and snatched a cracker from underneath a piece of cheese. He handed it to Brynn before reaching for one of his own.

“They also believed that spirits inhabited those elements. Those were called the Elementals. We’ve seen or experienced things which seem to fit this pattern. I saw sentient tornados and water. A guy named Luke from Virginia saw columns of fire patrolling the roads,” Robby said.

“I saw a rock monster,” Brad said.

“And several of us saw people snatched away to nothing,” Lisa said.

“Aether,” Nate said.

“For lack of a better explanation,” Robby said. “That’s how we’ve characterized the disappearance.”

“And which Elemental made everyone’s eyes pop out?" Nate asked.

After a short silence, Robby said, “It’s just a framework we’ve hung theories on.”

“And Elementals hate corpses?" Nate asked.

“I think of the Elementals like an immune system. They were let loose to clean up the area so something could gestate on or in the planet. We’re going to take the corpses up to the embryo and infect it with biologic material it’s not ready for yet.”

“Why do you think a thousand will be enough?” Nate asked.

“Based on the area it cleared, and my estimate of the survivors, I think it needs about eight-thousand square miles with less than ten tons of animal material. We’re going to drop over five times that amount right into its lap,” Robby said.

“It just occurred to me—it cleared out live animals, and we’re going to hit it with dead ones,” Brad said. “What if corpses have no effect?”

“The clearing it did was on a budget,” Robby said. “For a certain radius it took out everything, then left a ring of the burst-eye corpses, and then cleared out everything again. If it could deal with dead bodies, it wouldn’t have cleared everything out before the snow came down.”

“Sounds like a big butt-load of conjecture,” Nate said.

Brynn snickered and then clamped his mouth shut and twisted his face down into the arm of the couch.

“A lot of Robby’s documentation and evidence was lost in the fire,” Ted said.

Nate didn’t respond other than to shake his head and frown.

“Where are you from, Nate?” Lisa asked.

“Originally? Texas,” Nate said. “I’ve been living up this way for a long time though. I like it up here, at least I did until, you know. I’ve thought about heading back south one of these days.”

Brynn shot him a glance and then snuck a hand forward to grab another cracker. He took one with cheese on it. Lisa leaned forward and pushed the platter to closer to Brynn, but the boy took his one cracker and sat back again. He held his cracker in both hands and began to nibble around the edge without disturbing the cheese on top.

“Did anyone tell you about Luke’s group?” Lisa asked. “They headed down towards New York a couple of weeks ago.”

“Yeah,” Nate said. “Robby and Pete told me about him. I might try to follow their tracks south once I’m done with you guys. Might be safer to follow in the tracks of someone, you know?”

“Robby, have you heard anything else from Judy?” Lisa asked.

“No. She checked in by radio the first night, but she hasn’t checked in again. They’re either out of range, or the radio’s broken, or maybe… I don’t know,” Robby said.

An uncomfortable silence grew in the room.

“Nate, are you going to help us drive the tractors up north?” Brad asked.

“Why not?" Nate asked. “Trucking up into the land of forty-foot snow drifts? Sounds like my kind of fun. Beats sticking around here. Besides, I’ve never been afraid of a little snow.”

“I don’t mind say—I’m a little scared,” Brad said. “I don’t know if it’s one of the Elementals, but there’s something up there. I was moving fast on a snowmobile. I worry about what might catch up with us when we’re dragging those sleds.”

“What about you, Robby?" Nate asked. “You worried?”

“No,” Robby said. “I’m only worried about what will happen if we don’t stop that thing from maturing.”

Lisa jumped up and strode to the kitchen. Seconds later, her voice called out from the archway—“Bread’s ready. It will cool off while everyone fixes a plate.”

Brynn was the first up. He launched from the couch, planted a foot in the middle of the coffee table, and bounced over the opposing couch on his way to the kitchen. Nate smiled and stood with the rest of the group. The men and women filed through the arch to the smell of fresh bread.

NATE AND BRYNN left soon after dinner. The boy ate a huge amount of food in a short time. He looked half-asleep as Nate guided him towards the door. They declined offers to stay in an adjacent apartment and said they’d return shortly after sunrise.

After they’d left, the seven men and women reconvened in the big living room to talk about the departure. Brad was the last to join the group—he had volunteered to wash the dishes after dinner.

Pete was mid-sentence—“…with me. Put Brynn in someone else’s tractor. There’s no reason not to keep an eye on him.”

“I’m not comfortable driving one of those rigs anyway,” Robby said. “Why don’t we ask Nate to drive one and I’ll ride along?”

“You’ve seen the inside of one of those snow tractors. It’s not even as hard as driving a car,” Pete said, “and you’re plenty good at driving. You’ll be fine.”

“I had no problem with it,” Sheila said. “Besides, we’ll be going so slow that if you get into trouble, you just back off the throttle and wait for Pete to come help you.”