The Long Way To Reno (29 page)

Enough
rest. It was time to go home, dammit.

Chapter Sixteen

The
pulsing stopped as I was heading back towards the room.

After
hearing the constant sound of some massive heartbeat from the sky, the silence
was startling. I froze in the middle of the hall, and automatically looked up. People
were moving around me, involved in their own lives, and I couldn't understand
how they didn't know something significant had just happened. I veered towards
one of the exit doors, pushing my way outside to check for myself the ceasing
of this pulsing noise.

Shielding
my eyes with my hands, I examined the empty night sky, unnerved by the silence.
The world suddenly seemed threatening with the unnatural stillness –
nothing called out, nothing whistled, nothing moved. It was as if the earth
itself was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen.

            Before
I could think anything, a sudden high-pitched buzzing began, building in
strength until it was enough for me to cover my ears. It tore through the sky,
filling the valley with noisy destruction, and I stumbled about, looking for
cover and the source of the noise in one crazy movement. The new sound
intensified until it was a banging metallic vibration, pulsing fiercely enough
to cause snow-covered trees to shake overhead. Glass shuddered, noisily ringing
out in warning. I couldn’t even
think
coherently. I was so terrified of
what was happening around me that I stumbled about, looking for a place to
hide. I managed to cram myself against a trashcan, pressing my back against the
school building and uttering scared, incoherent noises as I frantically scanned
the stars.

            Eventually,
the noises finally faded away – the world was silent. Nothing moved. It
felt like forever when I finally dropped my hands. I searched the sky anxiously
for incoming lights, listening for anything unusual – I heard only
animals giving out nervous calls and humans within the school, finally made
aware of this new madness. The content of their noise was too far away for me
to catch.

            The
sky then rumbled with a sound that was more of a pulsing vibration than actual
thunder. The ground vibrated. Then came a low hum that seemed as if something
massive was shifting underneath my feet. Before I could say anything, the earth
moved. Car alarms rang out and houses shook, lurching as the ground groaned.
Glass vibrated and shattered, the metal streetlights ringing out as they
swayed. It was an earthquake, and I’d never felt one this strong, before. Reno
wasn’t stranger to them, but this was enough to cause wood to snap, for trees
to sway violently. I thought I was going to have to run out to the street, with
how violent the building shook, but the moment that thought touched me,
everything stopped.

            Silence
spilled over once more. Minutes passed without any indication of threat, the
skies finally silent. I swallowed terrified screams that had built and had been
trapped in my throat, recognizing that I’d been so scared that my own nails had
broken in my curled palms. Brushing my hair from my face, my hands so tense
that I could barely move them, I stood on shaky legs, scanning the sky. When I
saw nothing up there, I looked around myself. Car alarms continued to sound
off, dogs barked, a cat called from somewhere down the street. I heard guys
shouting, but they were too far away from me to hear properly.

            I
ventured out towards the sidewalk, wondering what was going to happen. I wanted
to go back to the school to be with other people, but once that thought hit me,
I remembered how the Rabid attacked. I
couldn’t
go back at that point. I
was terrified of coming onto that hellish scene all over again. I felt that if
I were alone in this empty area, I’d have a better chance of survival.

            Once
my panicked mind began relishing this thought, I realized someone was calling
my name. It took a few moments, panic and fear cultivating desperate hope that
it was my dad, somehow – but once I recognized Harley’s voice, nothing
felt so warm and sso good as knowing that he was nearby. It was so
freaky
– I immediately felt so much better knowing he’d come looking for me.
Even after that stupid pity-party I’d had earlier – I guess that’s what
fear does to someone. Warps their thoughts and mind and renders them this
bipolar mess.

            I
called back in response, not moving from my spot. Hearing my ugly croak made me
clear my throat and call back out, stronger this time. He rounded the corner
nearby, giving me this accusing look. He was dressed in his jacket, hunting
rifle slung behind him, and a lighter backpack. He obviously didn’t spend the
day sleeping, like normal people would. I decided that the dude was an
insomniac, or he was sharing his dad's meth stash.

            "Were
you talking to that fat guy earlier today?" he asked, and it wasn't even
relevant to the situation, so I was stupefied. I gave him a blank stare,
reaching up to straighten my blunt bangs with my fingers as he gave me a
frustrated look. "
Darrell
, were you talking to Darrell?"

            "Yeah.
He, uh, showed me a book – so what?" I asked, totally confused as to
this line of questioning.

            Harley
looked uncomfortable at that point, swallowing nervously, wiping his hands on
his pants. "I, uh…Tavis, he…uh, I guess things have been happening –
like, strange things, and there's no explanation for any of it – "

            "The
aliens haven't exactly told us why they're invading us – " I said
dryly.

            "They
found things! They found – weird things inside bodies in the neighborhood
– that guy, Darrell, he was talking about a virus, infestation, something
about…residential evils, or something…?"

            "Resident
Evil...?"

            "Yeah.
Some bullshit…thing about a virus? Anyway, he was talking about these bodies
and…no one knows what that is, what they are, and – " He rolled his
eyes, sputtering. "The way they were grilling Darrell about these things,
it sounds similar to your video games. "

            "Okay,
so
?"

            "They
want to talk to you." Harley frowned down at me, clearly unable to
understand anything about me. I gave him a confused look, followed with a
shrug. "Now. Something's happening, right now, and they need you two to…to
'advise' them."

            "I
know nothing – "

            "That's
not true. That's not entirely true." He swallowed again, and looked
irritated as he gave the area a quick scan. "You've been…you've been
right. Annoyingly,
irritatingly
right about some things, and…"

            Despite
myself, I felt my lips curl upward. There was that feeling again, the one that
made me feel like I contributed to something.

            "…I
suggested that you sit in on it," he finally finished with some trouble.
Then he really looked at me again, giving me a onceover, lingering on my bright
Adidas shoes. "Where do you find this stuff? It's completely unpractical -
! Anything can see you in the dark!"

            "You're
like an old man, lecturing to hear yourself talk."

            "You
said one of us had to be the adult in the situation!"

            "It's
amazing that you even listened to me."

            Harley
stared at me for some time, then. He cleared his throat again, looking out at
the darkness. "You're a piece of work, Edith," he finally said.
"Sometimes, I don't know whether to just walk away from it all –
"

            "
You
did. Remember?"

            He
forgot what he was going to say after that, scratching his chin.

            "Are
you breaking up with me?" I asked, outraged. "Because it was never
me, it was always you.
You're
the one breaking the rules, here."

            He
glared at me, then indicated that I follow him. Satisfied that he was incapable
of insulting me any further, I followed behind him.

: :

“No
one even
listens
to me when I start spewing references!” Darrell
protested, as we moved hastily through the main school halls. That old guy was
in charge of the school – his last name was Tavis, and I knew from his
bewildered stare in my direction that this entire thing was
all my fault
.
I hadn’t even been here for forty-right hours and I’d already caused another
alien invasion.

I
was spinning with what had happened in the past half hour that I allowed Harley
to pull me around, comfortable with his lead. Benson was at my right, and being
surrounded by a bunch of fierce military and armed civilians wasn't as awesome
as I thought it would be. I felt like a timid prisoner. Or someone drawn
completely out of their clique to another – totally out of my element. I
stared down at my muddy shoes and listened to them insult Darrell, instead.

Along
the way to some offices near the front of the school, Tavis gave out hasty
orders to those that were looking for him. The school halls were building with
rising panic, again, as people sought answers and covers. When they caught
sight of us, they gave us anxious looks.

“So
I didn’t even think it was that important to discuss it with you!” Darrell
sputtered.

Tavis
wanted both of us to share our knowledge on the things that had been found, our
theories on larvae and ‘Flood’, this information based on a variety of video
games enough to convince the others that we knew more of the situation. Darrell
was so confused about my involvement that he kept losing his train of thought
when he looked at me. I was confused because I don't know about these bodies
they were talking about, and what they wanted wasn't exactly being made clear.
It was like sputtering guesses to messed up lyrics and bad hums in order to
identify a certain song.

            “Look,
I just figured, out of theory, out of –
imagination
the things
that could have happened, and I guess we were just –somehow right,”
Darrell continued on, red-faced and sweating as he struggled to keep up with
us.

            “But
how would you have known of this? Was this something you both knew awhile back?”
Tavis demanded, glaring at him, then at me. “
What are they
?”

            "I
don’t even know what you're talking about – " I started.

            "Those
things, the huge robots," Harley supplied helpfully. "Tell them about
those things."

            "Are
they manned?" Tavis asked me, and I stared at him. How could I even answer
that? "Miss Fitzgerald, are they
manned
?"

            How
did he even know my
name
? I sputtered, "Well, yeah, in anime, they
are. They're operated from the inside by pilots, or even by remote. I don't
know if these ones are – I haven't even been that close to one. They
could possibly be
beings
themselves, like Transformers."

            "We've
discovered these recently, and I'll need your thoughts," Tavis then said,
nodding at us. One of the soldiers shoved printouts into my hands. I was
stunned into seeing two corpses lying side by side, riddled with bullets. The
gore made me sick, and I felt blood rushing from my face, again.

            "What
are these?" Tavis asked, pointing at a pulpy substance embedded within the
peoples' chests. It took me a few moments to see that there were faces there.
Sleeping baby faces, with limbs stretched deep into human tissue – like a
spider with a human face. I almost thought this was Photoshop of some kind,
taking in the picture with bewilderment.