Earth: Population 2 (Paradise Lost Book 1) (6 page)

I knocked on the doors of the coffee shop. The glass rattled, but no one answered. Why I thought the coffee shop would be different from the corner store and the Laundromat, I had no idea. At the moment, blind hope kept me walking with one foot in front of the other. I placed the tin can back where I’d found it, hoping Raggedy Al had found a home. Holding my umbrella ahead of me, I continued on.

A single black Honda hummed in the parking lot of the grocery store, igniting hope. I jogged toward it. Had I finally found someone like me? Someone left behind.

I looked through the windshield, and my stomach dropped with disappointment. The car lay empty and idling. Someone had driven it into the curb and left it running. I scanned the parking lot, but I couldn’t see any sign of life.

“Hello?” My voice echoed off the buildings, and I cringed self-consciously. Did I really sound that desperate?

I tried the driver’s side door, and it opened.

The radio played a song by Twisted Minds Think Alike, making me think again of Gale Williams.
He is probably gone, too.
Pushing the thought away, I climbed into the car. A green pine scent came from a Yankee Candle air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror. The gas gauge was close to empty, and I wondered how long the car had been running. I turned the ignition off.

At least I had a mode of transportation.

Sure, taking the car was stealing. But, I considered this an extreme circumstance. If police officers showed up to arrest me, I’d be happy to see them. Taking the keys, I checked Save ’n Shop. The automatic doors didn’t move. No one had opened the store. In any other circumstance, I would have been elated to have the day off. But, now, I yearned for my ultra-normal, mediocre life.

The same static noise I’d heard in the woods came from the stand of trees and shrubs beside the store. I jumped back, holding my umbrella. Three beeps sounded, each one lower than the last, followed by a break in the static and a series of clicks.

Crap.

Seemed like I wasn’t alone. The creepy forest imps had come down from the mountain. Did they have something to do with everyone disappearing?

Frenzied panic spread through my body like a fever. Suddenly, my umbrella sword seemed grossly inadequate. I dashed back to the Honda and slammed the door behind me. The bumper fell off as I backed away from the curb. I didn’t need it when no other cars drove on the streets, and there was no way I was going back for it and getting out of the car. I changed gears and hit the gas. My tires screeched as I peeled away.

Tommy’s Muskets. That’s where I needed to go, the local gun shop. I turned onto the main road and booked it away from Save ’n Shop. I’d seen enough end-of-the-world movies to know about the crazies out there along with the zombies and, in my case, alien forest imps. I should have gone to the gun shop first. It was stupid of me to walk around town with only an umbrella.

I’d smartened up pretty quick. Pulling up to the curb in front of Tommy’s, I shut off the ignition. I’d never been in the shop before. I only knew it existed because it stood next to the local pharmacy where some of Mom’s prescriptions came from.

Mom. Thinking of her drilled a hole in my heart. I pushed away the pain and jumped out of the car. I couldn’t deal with that and the end of humanity all at once.

Of course, the door didn’t budge, and the
closed
sign still hung in the window. No big surprise. I’d geared up the courage I’d needed on the drive over. I was going to break in.

Why not? I’d already stolen a car.
Not stolen, borrowed.
I’d give it back.

Summoning my ninja skills from watching
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
, I kicked at the glass.

A streak of pain shot up my leg, and I stumbled back, swearing. The glass didn’t even crack. Breaking in was going to be harder than I’d thought. I scanned the street around me as fear prickled the hairs on the back of my neck. How fast were alien imps? Were they following me? The sense of alarm aching in my gut told me I didn’t have all day.

I kicked the glass again and again. My sneaker ricocheted off it like a bouncy ball. I needed a damn gun to get in the gun store. I fumbled with the door handle, trying to pick the lock with one of the other keys on the key chain that came with the Honda. Nothing worked.

Scuttling came from down the street. Was it someone else?

I whirled around just as a pale leg slender and sleek as a baseball bat disappeared into an alley two blocks down.

Oh no. My chest tightened, and my pulse beat in my ears as the world closed in on me. The alien imps were following me.

I rushed back to the car and closed the door. Fighting tears, I turned on the ignition and backed into the street.

Necessity kept me from driving away. To hell with juvenile delinquency—I needed those weapons. Instead of driving forward, I hit reverse and backed up until I had a good length of street to gain momentum. I let it rip and jammed the gas pedal down.

The tires squealed, and I aimed right for the storefront.

Air bags exploded in my face as glass shattered on the windshield. The seat belt knocked the air out of my chest, and dizziness threatened to knock me out. I blinked, shaking my head and regaining my bearings. I didn’t want those things to find me unconscious. Sheer fear kept me awake.

The front of the car had submerged in the display case of the shop. Shotguns lay across the hood. Knowing I didn’t have much time, I kicked my door open and stumbled into the wreckage. Glass rained around my feet.

Static noise fizzled the air outside. They were close. My throat tightened, and I forced myself to breathe.

I scanned all of the different sizes and shapes of weapons, wondering where to start. I’d shot Hailey’s BB gun before, but nothing like this. All my knowledge came from
CSI
and
Castle
.

A series of high-pitched beeps came from outside, followed by clicks. My blood froze in my legs.

I had to learn pretty fast, or I’d have an extraterrestrial encounter of my own.

I scrambled behind the cash register and reached for the closest, smallest weapon, a black pistol. I found the gun model listed on one of the boxes of ammunition. My fingers shook as I opened the box, and the bullets fell out, rolling all over the counter.

The static noise intensified, and it sounded like they scuttled just beyond where the front window had been. The car door squeaked like something had opened it wider.

Oh my god.

I ducked behind the counter, jammed the bullets in the pistol, and cocked it. I had no idea if I’d loaded it correctly or if it would work. Glass cracked as the things moved into the store. I huddled against the wall, peering through the guns in the glass showcase that also acted as a countertop.

Please, please, please go away.
Maybe, if I stayed put, they wouldn’t find me. But between the weapons in the showcase emerged a pale silver arm glittering like a million diamonds. A sleek back with strange protruding muscles, like a backward rib cage, came next, followed by a long, winding tail with tentacles on the end glowing like phosphorescent dandelion fluff. Their wispy haired, enlarged heads only rose a few inches above the countertop, making them shorter than me by about a foot, but that didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous.

My fingers clutched the gun so hard, they hurt. My heart beat like a wild animal out of control. What did they want with me? Had they taken everyone from their beds while they slept? Maybe they’d cleaned up the stranglers.

The tail swerved through the air as if sensing air currents or sonar vibrations, or something. As it moved, the static changed like someone tuning a radio. It was as if the tail emitted energy. I held my breath even though the glass lay between us. The thing turned around, and black, oval eyes with no retinas stared back at me. It opened its mouth and hissed, revealing pointy teeth.

My sanity unraveled into blind terror. Screaming, I tightened my finger on the trigger, and a gunshot shattered the countertop, spraying glass. I closed my eyes and fired blindly, hoping the weapon was enough to keep them away from me. The sound echoed in my ears, and the kickback jerked in my hand. One of my bullets must have ricocheted and hit the ceiling because drywall rained around me. I crashed against the display wall behind me, and pistols tumbled down, hitting my shoulder and my right foot.

Silence fell as I pulled the trigger and the gun clicked uselessly. I’d used all my bullets. Gritting my teeth, I peered around the countertop. The store lay empty, and I breathed with relief. So, they weren’t all powerful. Scary looking, maybe, but shots definitely drove them away. A strange sense of justice came over me, and I reveled in the sweet aftermath of revenge. If I was right, they’d taken everything away from me, including Mom. It was time they faced resistance.

Take that, people stealers.

Glittery ooze covered the floor of the shop, and I couldn’t tell if I’d hit one of them or if they just slimed everything they touched. I returned to the car. They’d left ooze all over the dashboard and spread the contents of my backpack across the passenger seat. I counted the water bottles and granola bars. They hadn’t taken anything, so what were they looking for?

I stuffed everything back in and packed another small handgun along with cases of bullets. I strapped a large shotgun over my shoulder, refilled the weapon I’d just fired, and stuck it in the pink, metal-studded belt of my skinny jeans. Three guns. That should be enough. It was hard to believe I’d hated them my whole life. I felt like the biggest hypocrite on the planet.

I probably was, considering I might be the only one left alive.

Pushing that thought away, I considered trying to back the car out of the shop. The windshield looked like a giant spider web, and the crash had popped both front tires. The aliens—because I was pretty sure that’s what they were—could probably recognize the car and track me back to my apartment. It was better to sneak away and double back to make sure they weren’t still following me. There was no rush now because I could defend myself.

Empowered, I exited the mess of the shop and took a sharp left at the next street corner. I’d grown up in the town, and I knew the best path to take to lose them and return home.

But, I wouldn’t be able to stay here forever, not with those things around. The thought sent creepy shivers across my shoulders, and I pushed it away. Better to deal with each day as it came. Who knew? Maybe I’d wake up tomorrow and everyone would be back.

The thought brought an overwhelming ache of melancholy spiraling from the deepest part of me. Why hadn’t I been happy with the world the way it was? Sure, I worked at Save ’n Shop, but that wasn’t the end of the world. Not like this was.

I returned home two hours later, having circled the center of town and confirmed I wasn’t being followed. I jammed the main door to the apartment building with a stick and climbed the steps to my apartment.

When I opened the door and saw Mom’s wheelchair, the emptiness threatened to collapse on top of me until I couldn’t move. I walked to the wheels and knelt beside it, running my hands along the armrests, as if she’d left a clue in the metal frame.

Oh, Mom, where did you go?
Never had I felt so utterly alone. I’d always had her to come home to, and now, when I needed her the most, she was gone.

I sniffed up my tears. I had work to do if I was going to keep myself alive so I could see her again. I forced myself up to my feet. I locked the main door with the chain we used at night and dragged the bookshelf in my room in front of it, books and all.

My favorite astronomy book tumbled to the floor as I pushed the shelf into place. I picked up the book and flipped to the Aurora Borealis page, looking for some clue to what had happened.

Auroras result from emissions of photons in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. They are ionized—which means excited—by the collision of solar wind, which could be simulated by a spaceship if it was big enough, and magnetosphere particles being funneled down and accelerated along the Earth’s magnetic field lines.

I clapped the book closed and put it back on the shelf. All that talk of electromagnetic energy reminded me of the static noise and phosphorescence coming from the aliens’ strange tails. It was a slim connection, but it was all I had.

What if they’d caused everyone’s disappearance? If so, what did they want with me?

I dug in the cabinet and found a ready-to-eat mac ’n cheese meal and threw it in the microwave. Thank goodness the power still worked.

Think, Julie, think.
If I could figure out this crazy business, then maybe I could find a way out of it, a way back to Mom. First came the asteroids. Then the Aurora Borealis, and now the mass disappearance. What connected them? What made me so special?

I rushed to my room just as the microwave beeped. I wasn’t hungry anymore. I dug in my closet, pulled out the sheet, and unwrapped it. The rock fell to the floor with a thud. The strange markings glowed once then returned to normal.

This rock had to be the answer to all of this. The minute after I’d taken it, I saw one of those things in the woods. It followed us and attacked the pickup. Maybe it was supposed to retrieve the rock from the asteroid, and I intercepted.

If so, that rock was the one reason why I was still alive.

As I dug into the mac ’n cheese, I actually considered handing the rock over. Would the aliens leave me alone, then?

Yeah right, wishful thinking. I’d have no power over them, no reason for them to keep me alive, or to bargain for the return of humans on Earth. They’d probably off me on the spot—just like what they did to everyone else. To get Mom back, and everyone else in the world, I’d have to use the rock to my advantage. I scraped the inside of the container with the spoon to get all the cheese. Guess running around town like Rambo gave me an appetite after all.

After lunch, I called 911, Hailey, the local news, and anyone else I could think of. I even called Mike. Maybe he’d found a similar rock in the wreckage? I had told Hailey I wouldn’t go out with him even if he was the last guy on Earth, so I figured fate might have a field day if he really was. But his phone rang just as endlessly as all the others. My loneliness threatened to swallow me whole.