Harvest Earth (7 page)

13    Gabriel

The bike ride across the city takes hours. The sun is low in the sky by the time Gabriel makes it to his daughter’s school. Rays of light are threatening to disappear behind skyscrapers as the sun begins its descent. Gabriel curses himself for not making better time. He had needed to stop several times on his trek due to roadblocks. Cars had crashed into one another at several intersections and created walls of twisted steel. Gabriel had seen more dead bodies at these places. Dead bodies were the only types of bodies Gabriel could find.

Gabriel had to make another stop when vibrations filled the scene and shook the ground again. Dropping his bike, Gabriel squeezed himself under an abandoned car to hide. The large triangular shape he had seen earlier passed overhead again. Whether it was the exact same vessel or a different one Gabriel couldn’t tell. The strange object in the sky moved in the same way. It passed over in a steady line, one tip of the triangle always pointing forward as it cut across the sky. Gabriel was grateful when it didn’t stop. He felt even more grateful that it was heading in the opposite direction.

However, the largest obstacle that Gabriel had overcome had been the bridge over the river. Most of it lay in ruin. It looked as though it had been bombed. Though Gabriel only suspected this based on what he had seen in movies. Bits of debris lay strewn across the road on either side of the crossway. Gabriel could see the shadows of drowned vehicles in the waters below. Fortunately he was also able to find one portion of the bridge where the two halves of the bridge on either side were nearly intact. There was only a small gap, maybe five feet, separating the two sides of the bridge from one another.

The ground near the gap was uneven. Gabriel was careful with every step as he neared the edge. He feared that the pavement and cement would give way under his weight and he would collapse into the river below. Gabriel first tossed his backpack over the gap and to the other side. He then hurled the bike. At first Gabriel feared it wouldn’t make it across. The bike soared through the air with its front wheel swinging wildly. A sigh of relief came as it crashed onto the other side. No doubt the bike was now more scratched up then it had been before.

When it was Gabriel’s turn to cross over the gap he wished that someone had been there to throw him. Five feet of horizontal distance seemed much farther to cross when the threat of a much farther vertical drop loomed should he fail. Gabriel tried not to think of what hitting the water would do to him. He tried not to think of all the things that could go wrong. He wiggled his toes and tested them. He warned them not to trip over one another. Gabriel even checked his shoelaces to see if they had magically been tied together this whole time as this might be his downfall. He tested her legs. Then he even tested the jump. Gabriel leapt between abandoned cars for practice. He tried his best to judge the distance and even overestimated to make sure he could make the leap.

By the time Gabriel was ready to make the perilous jump he had already planned out his trajectory and cleared out all the rocks that might have lay in his path. Gabriel sprinted toward the gap. His thick work boots pattered against the cement. When he was inches from the gap Gabriel’s mind panicked. A series of images of all the things that could go wrong flashed through Gabriel’s head. Fortunately Gabriel’s body was more focused. He soared over the gap and crashed onto the other side. He scraped his knees and palms as he braced himself and fell forward.

Rolling onto his back, Gabriel stared up at the sky and laughed. It was the only laughter heard for hundreds of miles around.

Gabriel now stands before the elementary school that his daughters attend. He is no longer laughing. Laughter had been a sound that once filled the school. It had filled the playground. Gabriel used to be able to hear the echoes of it after he had dropped his daughters off at school and all through the long workday. But now there was no sound. All that remained was a dark building. It had the same holes cut into it as if something had scooped out its insides.

It took all of Gabriel’s courage to force himself into the school. The doors were not locked. They creaked the way they always did when Gabriel pushed them open. The same way they did when he had come to the school for special events, award ceremonies, plays or parent-teacher conferences. Those events had been strange experiences. I was always like stepping into a children’s workplace. To see his daughters as little employees and this was their place of business. It was a creative and safe space where their imaginations were fueled by new facts and activities.

Where once Gabriel knew the hallways as noisy and full, now they are empty. There are divots in the tiled floor, the same ones as he has seen in the sidewalks outside
.
Something has scooped up what had been laying there. Gabriel tries not to let his own imagination wonder what that might have been. The shadows of some bizarre event paints a picture for him all the same.

There are stray crayons scattered across the floor. Sheets of homework, basic arithmetic and vocabulary, rustle down the hall. The sheets turn over with the slightest breeze. Peering into classrooms, desks are either empty or missing. Little indented circles are in the ground where the desk in a row should have been. A picture book with an image of a colorful caterpillar sits on a leaf lays open. It is one of Gabriel’s youngest daughter’s favorites. It will likely never be read again.

Gabriel nearly collapses when he finds the first body. His heart sinks in his chest as he can’t help but see the face of his own daughters on the tiny corpse’s own distorted features. “Isabel…Mary…” The two names creep from Gabriel’s lips without him knowing it. A prayer of courage in a time of need.

The body lays at the base of the stairs. A library book lays beneath her. The tiny school uniform is smeared in dark blood from a head wound. She would have died instantly, Gabriel thinks. Or maybe he just told himself that to ease the pain. She must have died instantly or else someone would have come to help. Somebody would have attempted to save her otherwise. Gabriel tells himself these things and makes himself believe them. However, in the back of his mind, in the darkness, he knows that there had been no one left to help her.

Gabriel wills himself to search the entire school. He checks his daughters’ classrooms first. The spots where he knew they sat are now empty. The desks are gone, vanished and taken by some unseen force. The sight makes Gabriel unknowingly and silently weep. The pain in Gabriel’s chest overcomes any ability to control his emotions. He is unable to resist the intense feeling of sadness. The holes that dot the city seem to be now growing in his heart. Pieces of him are disappearing with every new grisly discovery in this strange new world.

After searching the classrooms, Gabriel checks the gym. It was the preferred location for fire drills, Gabriel had learned at a parent-teacher conference. There were is no one there. He then checks the cafeteria. He only finds rotting food, a few days old, left uncovered. The only ones enjoying the food are happy flies who hum as they enjoy their newfound meal. In the library, Gabriel finds more dead bodies. A bookcase has fallen and two forms lay underneath. It takes all of Gabriel’s courage to look at them. Both are boys. Gabriel lets out a sigh of relief, which is followed by an immediate pang of remorse in his gut. These boys had a father. Where Gabriel had found empty spots in a classroom, these boys’ fathers would find that their sons had succumbed to an even darker fate.

Gabriel weeps some more. They are his final tears. He curls up amongst a stack of books. The light outside fades and the library grows dark. Gabriel cries until he can hear the sound of his own sobs in his dreams.

14    Madison

By the time Madison makes it to the top of the vertical portion of the ventilation shaft, her whole body feels monstrously broken. Though she had fought off the urge to faint, her whole body drips now with sweat. There is so much perspiration she is sure each bead of sweat is the last ounce of water she has left in her body. The dirt that she had previously been covered in from the cave-in now pours off her like a mudslide. The slick dirt leaves a trail up the side of the metallic ventilation shaft. Once at the top, Madison pushes herself onto her back and lays there. She just feels her lungs fill and empty with each painful breath.

This is to be the end, Madison thinks. She will be found in this airshaft like an idiot, only minutes from rescue likely. She daydreams that her would-be rescuers will call her a fool for even trying. All of her hope is spent.

To make matters worse, Madison had dropped her flashlight during her ascent. The sweat in her palms had served as a well-designed lubricant and the small utility flash had slipped from her grasp. She had debated dropping back down to get it. But Madison had already made it too far and knew there was no way she had the energy to make the climb all over again. Not that any of it mattered now, Madison had failed. She is in darkness, or at least she should be...

There is a faint glow. Madison drops her head back and focuses on it. The glow is coming from the far end of the shaft. She can see the outline of grating against the light. It is a way out!

This final length of shaft is quickly traversed. Madison marvels at her new found strength. The sweat that covers her body seems to ease the stress of the friction as she slides across the metallic surface of the ventilation duct. The soreness of her limbs fades as the light at the end of the tunnel grows brighter. Madison fixates her focus on it. She cares about nothing else in that moment.

When she finally reaches the grating of the ventilation plate, Madison wraps her fingers around it and pulls her lips up against it. She breathes in the pure air from beyond the shaft. She sucks in deep breaths, filling her lungs with salvation. The light coming through the shaft cover is disorienting. Being in darkness for so long, the brightness confuses Madison’s brain and her eyes take time to adjust. When they finally focus, Madison realizes she is overlooking the main entryway to the base. It is a space designed like an airplane hanger, a round steel tunnel where trucks and other vehicles pass through on their way into the base. It is perhaps the sturdiest part of the entire base. Some engineer no doubt had taken into account the importance of a facility’s only entry or exit point. It had to remain intact should those working within ever happen to be trapped inside. Those trapped like Madison. The only thing that separated the tunnel from the outside was a heavy steel door that opened wide enough for a large semi-truck. Only that door now separates Madison from freedom.

That and the grating!

The horror of the realizations strikes Madison in an instant and panic fills her chest. She claws at the grating desperately in search of her freedom. Her fingers try to work their way through the openings in the slants. She feels for any screws that she might be able to loosen. But Madison’s fingers are too short, too restricted caught between the grating. She pounds at the metal that holds the grating plates together. She pounds at it with her bare knuckles and the skin on them breaks open. Madison curses herself for not thinking it through. For not thinking of how she was going to get out of the ventilation shaft on the other end. Had she thought about it beforehand, she would have entered the shaft feet first. Maybe then she would have been able to get enough force behind her to kick in the crate. But now she was stuck. Madison was wedged in with no hope of escape. Her skeleton would eternally stare out through the grating. Her empty sockets longing for the prospect of the rescue that lay beyond. Madison screams. She pounds on the grating and she screams some more.

Madison stops when someone screams back.

15    Gabriel

In a restless sleep Gabriel dreams of his daughters. He also dreams of his sisters teasing him, his father holding a familiar revolver and of Talia staring off at a sunset. He races after each of them on his sisters’ bike that he had painted black. He races after them as each one disappears, swallowed by a dark round void. Gabriel tries to enter the void, tries to touch it, but it never comes to him. It is always just out of reach. He wants to be in the void, to be taken by the dark spherical specter. He wants to fall into it and never came out again. He wants the darkness but the darkness didn’t want him.

When Gabriel first hears the rustling he isn’t sure it is real. He thinks the sounds are coming from the void. It is trying to speak to him in a distant and foreign tongue. But as reality comes back to him, as Gabriel feels his head resting heavily on his crooked arm, he knows that the sounds are nearer to him rather than hidden in some deep abyss.

Gabriel straightens his back and perks up his head. His head is on a pivot and his eyes are wide. It is still dark, night, but the moon is bright and casts a pale gray glow on everything in the library. Gabriel listens for the rustling more intently. He pinpoints its location as coming from the opposite end of the room. There are two entrances to the library, one at either end. Gabriel has fallen asleep near the one closest to the front. He is hidden from anyone peering into the room by a wall of books, but the shelves are low, They had been built to be accessible by the intended users of the space. Every book is within reach to a curious child, even on its highest shelf.

Remembering this, Gabriel curls his head into his chest as he slowly rises to a kneeling position. The rustling sound, like papers being sorted through, is getting closer. Gabriel hears whispers too. There are two voices, one male and one female.

“Are you sure it’s here?” The male speaks. His voice is a rich and deep. An older man, Gabriel figures.

“Of course. And why the hell are we whispering?” This was the female. Her voice is soft and higher pitched. She is young,

“Out of reverence for the dead.” The male says solemnly. Gabriel can tell he means every word.

“What? You afraid of waking up ghosts?”

“Yes.” The word is like the stamp of a courtroom gavel. It is the final verdict on the matter at hand.

There is a faint glow, two of them, like distant flames. The light is accompanied by the sound of sloshing in metallic canisters as the mysterious strangers move. They have handheld gas lanterns, Gabriel figures out. The radiating beams of light shine over the bookcases as they drew nearer, and Gabriel can tell now what they are doing. He can hear them as they pulled books off the shelves. They flip through them and then toss them aside. They are searching the rows of bookshelves. It won’t be long before they get to his shelf. Gabriel wraps his hand around the grip of the empty revolver he had gotten off the corpse in the alley. He pulls the barrel from his waistband.

Gabriel slows his breathing and holds still. His grip on the gun is tight. There is no way of knowing who these people are. They may be lost ones, like him. People seemingly abandoned in this parallel world to the one they had once known. Or, they could be the ones who turned the world around to begin with? Gabriel braced himself for the inevitable confrontation.

He knows the gun’s ammo chambers are empty, but it is dark, and his companions will only be able to see the shape of the weapon in the shadows. Gabriel will have to use the time he has to gain some ground before they realize his bluff. If he is lucky, he might even get some answers. Gabriel hopes that these strangers don’t have weapons as well, and if they do, that theirs aren’t loaded as well.

“Found it!”

The words cut through the air sharply and Gabriel’s body reacts in a way he doesn’t expected. He springs out from behind the bookcase and points the gun in the direction where he had heard the voice. His barrel faces the female on the other side of the bookcase. He holds the barrel of his gun inches from her nose. She looks terrified. Her eyes are wide orbs of pure fear.

“Woah!” Says the man off to Gabriel’s left-hand side. Gabriel sees his hands are up, showing his palms. He loosely holds a lantern handle with a curled up pinky finger. He is pumping his hands at Gabriel, signaling him to stop before he can even go. Gabriel realizes he has all the power.

“We don’t want any trouble.” The man says. He is heavyset, black, and has a grey beard that wraps around his chin. He is wearing a wool sweater and khaki pants. There is a backpack on his back and a cotton cap on his head. He looks concerned.

The woman is trembling. She too is African American. She is younger, a daughter perhaps. Her hair is in braids and tied back behind her head. She wears a grey hooded sweater and blue jeans. She has her own backpack slung around one shoulder. Around her forehead she has wrapped a scarf. It has brilliant colors that Gabriel can make out even in the dim of the moonlight.

“What are you doing here?” Gabriel’s voice sounds strange when he speaks. It is odd to hear his voice out loud. It feels even stranger to be having a conversation. He tries to push these queer feelings aside and maintains his assertive stance. He keeps his gun pointed at the young woman.

“Just looking for something.” The man says, daring to edge himself closer. “Just let us go and we’ll leave you alone.” His eyes are dancing between the young woman and the gun.

“Stay back!” Gabriel shouts. The volume of his voice echoes off the walls of the library making the place seem even emptier than it is. It feels even more like a tomb. The man stops his advance and takes a step back.

“Please.” He begs, “Don’t hurt her. We’ve all lost so much already.”

It was the truth and Gabriel feels it, but he doesn’t trust these people. He wants to trust them, but he needs to stay alive. He needs to stay alive for his daughters who might still be waiting for him to rescue them.

“Answer my question.” Gabriel says. “What are you doing here? What were you looking for?”

“It’s stupid.” It was the woman this time. Gabriel turns to look at her. Her eyes are fixated on the gun. Gabriel sees her for the first time, a woman, but only just. Perhaps she is only just over eighteen years old. She still has blemishes on her skin and the lines around her eyes and mouth are faint. The signs of youth. To her chest she clutches a book, the title facing away from Gabriel.

Gabriel gestures to the book, using his gun as his indicator. “The book, what is it?”

The woman looks to the older man for approval and then stares down at her feet. “I told you, it’s stupid.” She is embarrassed. She stands at the end of a gun and she is ashamed by what she holds in her arms.

“Show him, Tayna.” The man edges the girl on. He flicks his lantern in her direction, like a gentle nudge. The light cascades over her small frame.

Begrudgingly the young woman turns the title of the book around so that Gabriel can see it. He can barely make out the cover image in the moonlight, but the glow of the fire in the lanterns of the others in the room helps. On the cover is a picture a short person, a child perhaps, only with a head that is too big and with eyes that are just two large black ovals. The person is naked and their skin is gray. Above the figure is a flat, round object with another round dome atop it. It is metallic and the whole object looks like an old time bowler’s hat. Above it are three letters that tell Gabriel that the person on the cover of the book isn’t a person at all. There is a subtitle too.

The full cover reads, “U.F.O.s: What we know about them and what they know about us.”