Jon Fore - Black Water

Ethan retuned his attention to the tear Stan had made and huffed breath towards it like venom. Whatever came from that smoke, Ethan reasoned, was not human, dead or otherwise. Something else had begun to hunt in the milky gray storm and it had gotten Stan.

Something came through the hole and plopped down on the sidewalk wetly. It quivered a bit then rested lazily on the edge of the curb. “Stay here,” Ethan said softly as he headed back towards the smog-wall.

“Ethan, no!” Shannon hissed at his back, but he continued, stalking the now motionless mass. He walked a wide berth as he got closer to the glistening red thing, but no matter how close he got to it, there was simply no sense to be made of it. When he got as close as he dared, he stopped, trying desperately to make something out of the shapeless mass. It was almost like a shiny red ceramic bowl with a mostly white marble to one side, but that made no sense either.

The bum came from behind him and walked right up to the bowl thing. He hooked the tip of his toeless shoe beneath the edge and lifted it slightly, showing Ethan the entire thing. In a sinfully wicked voice, he chuckled, “When was the last time you saw the back of someone’s eye?”

Ethan bit back the surge from his stomach, the sudden need to evacuate the junk food he had eaten at the drug store. He spit the excess saliva from his mouth and turned away from the bum. Shannon and Kayla were still at the end of the block watching him, clutching each other desperately. The elegant form of Shannon’s body, the parental way she held Kayla helped ease the nausea and fortify for him a reason to continue, to seek out a way to escape this living nightmare. He began walking back to them, hoping that Shannon knew how to get to the other road that would lead them out of town.

“What was it?” Shannon asked when Ethan was close enough for her not to shout.

“Nothing. We should head to the other road, see if it is clear or not.”

“It’s going to be blocked like this one,” Shannon replied hopelessly.

“We should try at least,” Ethan said. “Let’s get there and see what’s going on. It’s coming on mid-afternoon, and I don’t want to be caught here at night again, at least walking the streets, you know?”

“And Stan?” Shannon asked, already knowing the answer.

“He’s not coming with us,” Ethan replied vaguely for Kayla’s benefit and began walking back the way they had come.

Shannon watched him a moment before following him. Kayla was still thoroughly upset and clung to her like the lost child she was. It made walking difficult, so Shannon lifted the girl into her arms and carried her along with the bottle of bleach cleaner the child did not seem to want to let go.

“Do you know what time it is?” Ethan asked. “Here, I’ll carry her.”

“No, I don’t have a watch.” Shannon replied as she handed Kayla to Ethan.

The young girl took hold of Ethan around his neck and embraced him tightly. It was the first rush of pleasure he had felt in days. The tender girl in all her fear knew only to embrace and hold tightly to an adult. This pushed at the hearts of those adults, reaffirming their need to protect the child. A small side-effect to this was the adults usually fell in love with them. Ethan, even with everything that had happened in the past week, was still capable of emotional attachment, and needed only this simple invitation. He felt this love, this caring, this overwhelming need to protect the girl, and it almost manifested itself in tears.

“I got you, Kayla. Nothing bad is going to happen to you, I promise.”

Shannon smiled weakly at the pair; she too had fallen victim to this instinctual love, this parental bond, but now it was sliding towards Ethan as well, her brother-in-arms was now becoming the male side of her parental want. She knew he had problems, but there were doctors to deal with that, and even in the orange jump suit, he was an attractive man—a bit younger than her, but close enough to not really matter. She suddenly realized how lucky she was to have found Ethan in his little hospital cell.

“It seems to be getting darker faster than I had thought,” Ethan commented as he looked across the overcast sky. “We may need to hole up in a building or something, wait the night out.”

“You think that is a good idea?” Shannon asked sincerely.

“No,” he said thoughtfully, “but I am sure it would be better than being caught out here at night.”

A sudden baying screech raced down the mountain and sliced through the fog. It was the same screeching of the night before, and it raked their ears to hear it. Like the evening before, it brought their nerves to a painful grating and their teeth to grinding.

“Let’s make it back to the drug store and see if we can find a clock or watch or something,” Ethan suggested.

“How about some ear plugs?” Shannon asked only half jokingly.

The howl ripped at them again.

“Yeah, ear plugs sound like a good idea.” Ethan smiled back.

They began walking again, this time a bit faster. Ethan was able to carry Kayla without too much difficulty, the backpack full of bleach jugs counterbalancing the weight of the child. Shannon, now unburdened, was able to keep pace with him. The drug store was many blocks away, and the light bled from the sky as if mortally wounded. They quickened their pace, rushing themselves to their supposed sanctuary. Still, the distant screams reached them from almost every direction, the nail-biting screeching continued to assail them from the mountain, and now with the sound of motion, scratching, footsteps, and dragging weight as well.

As they came down the last hill, the base of which was the large parking lot of the drug store, Ethan caught movement out of the corner of his eye. In one fluid motion, he spun himself to put his body between the motion and the child he carried, drawing the gun from one of the jumpsuit’s large pocket.

Just above the sights of his gun, he saw a large crow, or possibly a raven. It was all black, at least where it still had feathers, most of which were torn off or skinned like a branch. It was eating an orange tabby cat that was lying there—still soft with fur, still flexible with its recently lost life. The strange reversal of roles, a bird eating a cat, disturbed Ethan, made his reality shift momentarily like the smog swirling all around them. The bum came from nowhere, as he always did, and strode to the cat. Ethan turned away before the bum could show him something he did not want to see and continued into the darkening parking lot.

The tall lights that illuminated the parking lot suddenly sizzled and hummed to life as the trio past underneath them, yet another indication that the day had escaped and they were not going any further. They rushed through the automatic doors and over the large scab that had developed under the heads still hanging from the stucco. Once inside, Shannon turned back to the doors, waited for them to close, and slid a lock into place to keep them from opening.

“Is there a back way into here, a loading dock or something?”

“Yeah, I’ll go check it.”

“Be careful and meet us in the sporting goods section. There are sleeping bags there and more weapons.”

“Try to find us some food …” Shannon trailed off as she reached the end of an aisle and disappeared towards the secretive behind-the-scenes area of the store.

Kayla squirmed in his arms a bit so he let her down to walk but kept a tight hold on her little hand. She was such a precious little treasure, and Ethan did not want her to wander off alone. He took her around the store with a basket and collected some frozen meats, still not ravaged by the odd aging effect, some cellophane-wrapped dessert items, and a tub of Neapolitan ice cream, a set of disposable salt and pepper shakers, and a six pack of cold soda.