Object x, p.13
Object X, page 13
Chapter Eleven
Not a single streetlight worked along Transit Road. Traffic was moderate, with only a few cars seeming rushed. Only a house here or there had lights—from what she assumed were working generators—while headlights served as the only other break from the overwhelming darkness. It was as if the vast majority of those around her didn't have any idea of the danger they were in. To them, it was any other Friday night. They enjoyed their newly-acquired freedom after spending far too much time at either school or work. Perhaps the car passing by was a happy family returning home from a birthday party? Or maybe it was a young couple headed out for a drink? Whatever the case, the news of what had presumably spawned from the strange black object in her backyard was clearly concealed to a very small circle of people, but she didn't expect things to remain that way for long.
The radio was silent. She left it on scan, hoping to stumble across an emergency message or even static, but every station was equally mute as the last. Her smartphone didn't have a signal or an internet connection either. All communication had been cut off from the outside world as the majority of the windshield covered by the spider's black mist had crumbled. She could see out the glass fine, but she'd never felt more vulnerable than she did at this very moment. Anything could get inside the SUV now.
“Mommy?”
“Yeah, sweetheart?” she asked, coming to a stop behind a red car just outside the center of town.
“What if one of those things finds Dad?” Tommy inquired.
She didn't make a habit of it, but she lied to her son. “He'll be fine.”
“Shouldn't we go back for him, though?” Tommy continued his barrage of questions. “He might need our help.”
“Don't worry about your father,” she told him.
“But Dad could—”
She understood why Tommy cut himself off mid-sentence. Truthfully, she would've done the same. She typically wouldn't have thought much of seeing a middle-aged man riding his bicycle on the shoulder of the opposing side of the road—heading in the direction from which they'd come—in cyclist spandex with reflective gear and a bright light attached to the front of his bike. Cycling was a hobby of many of the well-to-do men in their neighborhood, after all. The fact that he was unaware and completely defenseless against what was happening fell to second on her list of priorities regarding this stranger as well. There was something else that caught her attention. It was also the culprit as to why Tommy never got around to finish questioning her about Sam.
She looked out the driver-side window to see something large swoop by the man's head. Traffic had come to a standstill in the single lane on the right side of the road, but a similar issue wasn't shared with the handful of drivers traveling the other way on the left side. Neither herself nor Tommy would've seen it without the aid of headlights from a vehicle to their rear. It was too dark otherwise. The man on the bicycle would simply register as a small moving white light if left on his own in these foreign conditions, but he was more than that if only for a moment. He would escape their light any second now if he rode on.
“YOU NEED TO GET THE FUCK INSIDE!”
The deep, masculine shout sounded from the truck behind them. She looked at her rear-view mirror to find the driver of the truck behind them hanging out his window in an attempt to capture the cyclist's attention. She was only able to see him in the darkness because just like them, he chose to leave the dome light in his truck on as well. She felt guilty for not trying to warn the cyclist herself the moment that she first saw him on his bike. So much was on her mind, though. So much had changed in such a short time.
“What?” the biker yelled back from across the road in the darkness, his voice higher and more nasally than his counterpart in the truck. He sat still on his motionless bike.
“YOU NEED TO GET THE FUCK INSIDE!” the man in the truck shouted once more. “IT'S NOT SAFE OUT HERE!”
Wendy grabbed the flashlight from between Tommy's legs and turned it on to shine it out the window at the cyclist. It was almost comical in an unbelievably sadistic way. How many people actually knew what was going on? The man in the truck behind them obviously did, and she would guess that at least some of the other drivers did too. Yet, the fact that traffic had come to a stop hinted at plenty of others being completely left in the dark regarding what unfolded in their upscale neighborhood. Society wouldn't be this calm if everyone saw what she had, because no sane person would be comfortable sitting in traffic with the monsters lurking all around them.
Her flashlight brought the cyclist out of the night and into their world. Baby blue spandex and a matching blue helmet: the man sat on his black bike as if he was taking a quick breather like he would on any ordinary ride. Her anxiety kicked up a notch. She didn't want to be sitting still, and she especially didn't want to be exposed out in the open with a broken windshield like they were. Her head told her to worry about Tommy and no one else. Her heart, far different from her mind, felt obligated to help a stranger in need.
She rolled down her window, keeping her light on him as she spoke. “GET IN MY BACK SEAT!”
“I'm fine,” the cyclist told her, clearly confused by the sudden interest in his Friday night bike ride. “I think it's just a bat or something.”
The man from the truck wasn't done voicing his opinion. “YOU'RE NOT FINE! THERE'S SHIT OUT HERE TRYING TO KILL YOU! NOW GET THE FUCK OFF THE ROAD!”
“Why don't you mind your own business?” the cyclist asked with plenty of attitude. “I don't need you—”
He suddenly disappeared.
It all happened in a flash. The man's bike clanged off the asphalt as he seemingly vanished into thin air. She recoiled instinctively, unsure of what to do as that familiar eerie feeling overcame her. This wasn't good. Something was out here with them. She felt it.
“Where did the man go, Mommy?”
“I'm not sure, sweetheart,” she answered Tommy, moving her light to the right in search of the stranger.
The blood-curdling scream that rang out in the night caused her to shift her light further to the right along the shoulder of the road. Flat on his back, the cyclist extended both of his arms skyward in what Wendy assumed was a mixture of fear and bewilderment. She struggled to comprehend what she saw as well in spite of all that she'd been through tonight. Nothing like it belonged in their neck of the woods.
It reminded her of a pelican, except larger and more muscular. Its body was black and its long beak was a beautiful shade of yellowish-orange. Its two dark wings spawned out for what felt like miles, distant from its significantly smaller and thinner legs, but similar to its massive feet. It resembled a sculpture of something not quite realistic, but inarguably majestic, created in the vast imagination of a creative child on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
Another howl sounded throughout the night when the bird slashed down with its claw, pulling a chunk of flesh from the cyclist's arm with what she guessed were talons. She was too far away to note all of its specific features. She was sure of one thing, however. Much like the spiders, these things didn't exist on this planet twenty minutes ago.
The bird looked around casually, blood dripping from the flesh in its claw as the man writhed in pain next to it on the side of the road. It tossed the piece of flesh up into the air like a clown at the circus, opening its enormous beak to catch its snack before it settled in its roomy pouch. It tilted its head back to allow the chunk of the man's arm to slide down its throat and into its stomach. It was all so effortless. It was all so smooth yet vicious.
Wendy swiftly found her latest source of dismay. She jerked her hand to her left, shining her light on a petite brunette woman who couldn't have weighed more than ninety-five pounds. Her yoga pants and tank top belonged more in a gym than out in the middle of the road. She was such a little thing, too brave for her own good, and too thoughtful for what society had quickly disintegrated into.
Wendy tracked the woman as she ran toward the wounded cyclist with a crowbar in hand. Why couldn't she part her lips to speak? Why couldn't she get herself to say anything? Her window was rolled down and she was in a perfect position to scream a warning to the naive woman approaching the large bird that she estimated weighed close to fifty pounds. It was just so thick and sturdy that she couldn't help but question what a direct shot to such an impressive specimen courtesy of someone as small as the girl in the road would even do, but she didn't expect to have to wonder for much longer. Everyone with eyes on the action would find out in a matter of seconds.
A second bird of equal size swooped in out of nowhere and buried its talons into the woman's shoulders. In one swift motion, it flapped its grandiose wings and lifted her up off the asphalt, ascending higher with her as the woman cried out in horror. The crowbar slipped from her hand and fell to the road below as she was carried off into the dark of night. It was in that moment when the reality of the situation finally sank in for anyone who still didn't understand what was happening all around them. There was no denying what they'd just seen.
Wendy jolted forward, immediately turning to Tommy to make sure that he was okay. The impact wasn't intense enough to activate either of their airbags. It was, however, enough to elevate circumstances from bad to worse. The truck behind them had bumped into their rear and pinned their SUV against the red car in front of them. One of the many vehicles behind them reacted to watching the woman in the road being swept away by a larger and more aggressive bird than any of them had ever seen, and stepped on the gas in a fit of panic, causing a chain reaction of minor accidents. Normally, such an event would've simply served as an unfortunate occurrence in her daily life, but now she failed to properly express how horrified she was by the revelation that they were trapped. She couldn't drive anywhere even if she wanted to. They were completely stuck.
Loud car horns sounded in the night. Screams rang out, fueled by both frustration and fear. The small community tittered on the brink of pandemonium. Wendy always heard that society was just three meals away from chaos, but food didn't mean a thing when monsters roamed freely. Chaos came from nightmares. It spawned from trepidation. It exposed humanity for what it truly was deep down at its core: scared of the unknown.
Another sound jarred her as she rushed to roll back up her window, but not for the same reasons as steel crashing against steel. It didn't rattle their vehicle specifically. Rather, it caused her to look forward, shining her flashlight through the large hole in the windshield. They sat up high enough in their SUV to see the entirety of the red car in front of them. It was right there, either too dumb or too confident to feel afraid of them, but close enough to reveal certain features which previously evaded her eyes from a distance.
One of the massive birds stood on the roof of the red car in front of them.
One black eye on each side of its head was surrounded by a small red circle. Its long beak appeared to turn sharper and more ridged on the sides as her line of sight approached the end, eventually forming a razor-like edge at the tip. Its enormous feet—a similar yellowish-orange shade as its beak—each possessed four extremely sizable and sharp black talons. It was some bizarre mix of a colossal eagle and pelican, but equipped with an aggression familiar to the giant spiders from mere minutes ago.
She watched it take a single stride to the side of the roof, lean over slightly, and slam the tip of its beak into the driver-side window.
Glass shattered.
Wendy unbuckled her seatbelt and reached into the back seat to collect both of their backpacks. “We have to get out of here.”
Tommy didn't say a word.
She didn't need motherly instincts to know that Tommy was mortified by the idea of stepping anywhere outside. The look on his face when she placed the lighter backpack in his lap told her everything. “Sweetheart, we have to get out of here now.”
Tommy parted his lips to speak before turning to look away from his mother and back out the broken windshield. It was too dark to see what his ears heard. Their headlights pressed against the tailgate of the red car in front of them, while any headlights to their rear fell victim to the car directly in its path. Screams. Real, graphic, horrifying screams. Sounds that he'd only ever heard on television or in movies that he wasn't supposed to be watching. He knew that the driver was being dragged out of their car through the broken window by a bird easily twenty times the size of any he'd ever seen in person. It was all too audible. It was all too real.
“Sweetheart!”
Tommy looked to his mother.
“We can't stay here,” Wendy stressed the importance of their situation to the most important person in her life as calmly as possible in spite of the havoc unfolding outside of their vehicle. “We have to go. Now.”
Tommy unbuckled his seatbelt and accepted the backpack in his lap.
Wendy helped him find the flashlight in his bag before looking back outside. Others had already started to flee their vehicles. Flashlights and bright phone screens bounced in the darkness as drivers in trapped vehicles opted to try their luck on foot. Abruptly, a truck roared past their SUV, thumping into multiple unseen obstacles before crashing into another vehicle up ahead and out of sight. The lack of light caused her to visualize every single thud that registered to her ears. It sent her imagination to dark places. A world of madness unfolded just outside their SUV, but the majority of it evaded her blue eyes.
She shined her flashlight out the window. A heavyset man laid face-down in the road, a pool of blood expanding rapidly around his head. She expected to see at least one other victim in a similar position if she moved her light further up the street. Was this life now? Did society accept running people over in the road and driving on like nothing happened? But the man could still be alive! He could desperately need help!
She reached for her door handle without properly considering the dangers. Tommy wouldn't make it without her, and she wouldn't live to see the morning if she took unnecessary risks. She didn't even have anywhere safe to take this stranger to. Still, she had to do something. She couldn't just leave him in the road to die. Ignorant or not, she had to check on him in the midst of total anarchy.
A car flew by, narrowly missing her door after she cracked it open an inch, but unable to avoid running the man over for the second time in only a matter of moments. She'd only avoided being hit because she paused to tell Tommy to stay put. It was a swift reminder of how things worked now. Nothing was safe. Nothing was civilized. The world had devolved into madness.
She shined her light on the man once more to see something in the shadows. Faint at first. Just an outline of past nightmares, distant in her memory but always lingering. It wasn't until she lifted her light to illuminate the shoulder of the road that she remembered she wasn't asleep. She didn't dream. This was her reality now. This was her new normal.
A massive black spider—even larger than the one that had broken through their windshield before jumping off to find easier prey—emerged from the front yard of an upscale brick house. It scurried into the road, carried by its many legs that covered ground in a hurry despite its little steps. It didn't seem to care about the arrival of numerous more birds that attacked people running for safety. Nor was it bothered by all the lights and commotion. Instead, it appeared focused entirely on one thing.
It scampered into the road, buried its long outer-fangs into the man's back, and dragged him off in the direction that it'd first appeared.
Another car drove by on the wrong side of the road before slamming on the brakes, quick to be rear-ended by the SUV following it. She knew that the intersection ahead was blocked without needing to see it with her own two eyes. There was too much pandemonium with only a single lane available each way. One accident was more than enough to render the roads useless, and she refused to blindly run out into the open without a plan like so many around them. She had to think. Fast.
Wendy looked past Tommy and out the passenger-side window. Thirty or so yards ahead on the right was a side street. She estimated that the length of a football field down that street was an elementary school. She already knew what these creatures were capable of. Barriers like chimneys and glass didn't do much to stop them. A school, on the other hand, presented more deterrents than an ordinary house. Surprisingly, it felt like a sliver of hope in a sea of absolute destitute.
She shined her light out Tommy's window to see a young couple run by with only their smartphones in hand acting as their flashlights. Seconds later, she heard the high-pitched screams of a young girl as her boyfriend hollered for help, his pleas promptly fading from the increased volume of everything around them. It was insanity in the same streets that she often took the long way home to decompress from a stressful day at work. Just flashes of scattered lights mixed with horrifying screams of agony. Terror had come to their safe little town, undeterred by the long history of serenity.
She placed her hand on Tommy's knee to assure his absolute attention. “Here's what we're going to do, sweetheart. We're both going to go out your door, and you're going to hold onto my shirt and not let go no matter what, okay? We're going to make a run for the school on Cedar Street.”
“Will it be safe there?” he asked with the naivety and hopefulness of someone yet to be hardened by life's many cruel realities. She expected that to change in a hurry, however.
“I hope so,” she told him, looking back out Tommy's window to catch a glimpse of a large bird swooping by. The sound of its massive wings fluttering registered inside their vehicle. It wasn't long after that she heard a male voice howl out in pain. “We're going to move as fast as we can, but we have to be aware of where we're going. I want you to hold onto your flashlight and look for anything dangerous. You have to let me know if you see something, okay?”
His voice quivered with fright. “Okay, Mommy.”
