Ike Hamill - Extinct

On the building to Brad’s right, a door fired open with a bang and a huge hooded figure emerged.

“Get down,” a gruff voice ordered.

Brad raised his hands but kept backing away.

“Motherfucker,” the hulking figure said. “I said get down.”

Brad couldn’t see the weapon in the man’s hands, but he heard the click of a shell sliding into the chamber of the pump-action shotgun. Based on the stance of the dark silhouette, Brad assumed he was the target of the gun.

Brad stopped, but didn’t have a chance to follow the order to get down. Just as he stopped, feet planted on dry pavement under the awning of a jewelry store, another man tackled Brad from behind. Brad’s arms shot out to take the worst of the impact with the sidewalk. His face came to rest just inches from the shotgun man’s shoes—black Chuck Taylors with green laces. The stock of the shotgun plowed down into the back of Brad’s head, knocking him unconscious.

ROBBY WOKE FACING the window. It was too early—the sun hadn’t come up yet. Until he heard the door knob turning behind him, he couldn’t figure out what had roused him. Robby flipped over and threw back the covers in time to see the door pushing inward, stopping only when it hit the dresser.

He lay paralyzed with fear. He had nowhere to run.

“Robby,” Pete called from the other side of the door. “Robby, wake up.”

“Yup,” Robby said. He flew out of bed, shaking off his fear. “Give me a minute. I’ll be right there.”

Robby’s door drifted shut and Robby heard Pete moving down the hall. Pete was talking to someone else out there, but Robby couldn’t make out what they were saying.

Robby jumped into his clothes. He had laid out everything he needed the night before, and even in the nearly dark bedroom, he dressed quickly. He shoved the dresser aside enough to open the door and jogged down the hall. He found an assembly in the living room.

Sheila and Lisa sat on the big couch and Ted and Pete stood. Pete stopped talking when Robby walked in the room.

“Tell Robby what happened,” Lisa said.

“Brad’s missing,” Ted said. “I was on my way back over here when I saw tracks on Pearl Street. Two sets that I’m sure weren’t there when I went out. One of them could have been Brad’s. Both sets disappeared near an insurance building on the north side of the street.”

“He left to go check on Ted hours ago,” Sheila said.

“He never showed up,” Ted said.

“Something has happened to him,” Pete said. “Ted showed me the tracks. They end at an awning for an insurance building, like he said. We’ll start at that building; see if we can track him down.”

Their heads snapped around and Lisa grabbed her chest as the front door swung open. Romie strode in, letting the door swing shut behind her.

“What’s going on over here? I thought we weren’t getting together until sunrise,” Romie said.

“Brad’s missing,” Pete said. “We’ve got to find him.”

“I told you guys not to trust that Nate guy,” Romie said, waggling her finger in Robby’s direction. “He shows up and suddenly people start disappearing. You think it’s a coincidence?”

“Was there a sign of struggle?” Sheila asked Ted.

“I couldn’t see any,” Ted said. “But the tracks ended at dry pavement, so who knows.”

Pete stepped forward into the center of their loose group and raised his hands before speaking. “We can stay in contact with radios and break up into teams of two. We’ll start with the insurance building and work outwards.”

Sheila began to stand, but stopped when nobody else moved. The rest of the group didn’t respond or move to comply. Pete’s eyes jumped from person to person, looking for agreement.

“Wait a sec, Pete,” Romie said. “We’ve still got six people. We need to get to hauling those bodies or at least start redistributing the seventh sled.”

“Yes,” Robby said. “I’d be more comfortable if we could at least offload half of Brad’s sled to the rest. We’ve got some margin for error, but I’d rather not lose a whole sled.”

Pete’s voice started at a reasonable volume and rose to a shout—“Are you people kidding me? We’re going to move on and LEAVE BRAD BEHIND?”

Robby tightened his jaw, but didn’t respond.

Lisa was the first to answer. “Pete, listen. We’ve all lost a lot of people. All we can do is keep going. If we finish this mission, we have a chance to gain back some stability, but right now we’re living in a very unstable world.”

“Are you seriously conflating the big extinction with what’s likely happened with Brad? Like Romie said, it’s probably that Nate guy who got him. We can stop Nate. We don’t need a big plan. He’s just one guy,” Pete argued.

“By the same argument,” Lisa said, “we can’t afford to let one man stop us from finishing this. We don’t have any guarantee that Robby’s plan will work, but it’s the only plan we’ve got to take this world back.”

Their heads snapped around once more as the door swung open again.

“What are we arguing about?" Nate asked. Brynn stood at his side with one arm around Nate’s waist.

“What did you do to Brad, you son of a bitch?” Pete yelled as he lunged for Nate. Ted stepped in his way and restrained the big man.

Nate took a step backwards and pushed Brynn behind himself. “What’s your problem?”

“Let me see his shoes,” Pete said, still struggling against Ted. He was pointing towards the feet of Nate and Brynn. “I want to see his shoes.”

“Calm down, big man,” Nate said. “We didn’t do anything.” He kicked off one of his shoes and flicked it over towards Pete. Pete didn’t bend to grab it.

“Not yours,” Pete said. “His.” He pointed towards Brynn’s feet.

Nate bent down as Brynn raised one foot. He plucked the shoe from Brynn’s foot and tossed it to Pete. The shoe bounced off Ted’s arm and Pete dropped to grab it from the floor. He flipped it over and ran a finger over the tread. He narrowed his eyes and tossed the shoe back towards Brynn. He kicked Nate’s shoe back as well.

“Are we exonerated? Can we come in now?" Nate asked. He picked up his shoe and ushered Brynn towards the couch. “Can someone tell us what’s going on here?” Nate sat down and untied his shoe so he could fit it back on his foot.

“I’ll be right back,” Robby said. He walked back to his room while the others brought Nate and Brynn up to speed on the night’s events. He squeezed back through the door and opened the bottom drawer of the dresser. Under the sweatpants, he found his thick envelope. He bent the papers, stuffed them in his back pocket, and returned to the living room.

“Did you check his room?" Nate asked. “Did he leave a note or anything?”

“If there is a note, I’m guessing you planted it there,” Pete said to Nate.

“When, Pete?" Sheila asked. “I was here on the couch all night. When could Nate have snuck in and left a note in Brad’s room? You, Ted, and Robby are the only ones who have been down the hallway.”

“I’ll go look for a note,” Ted said. He gave Pete a stern look and headed down the hall.

“So we’ll just go find Brad and ask him what happened,” Nate said. He finished tying his shoe and stood up.

“Wait,” Robby said.

Nate sat back down.

“We need to head north. We can’t be distracted by losing a member of the group,” Robby said.

“So we’re all just expendable?" Pete asked. “We’re not looking out for each other anymore? What’s the point of banding together if we can’t trust each other when we need help?”