The Apocalypse Show
Darren Kasenkow
Published by Cyberfenix Publications at Smashwords
Copyright 2010 Darren Kasenkow
Darren Kasenkow is an Australian author whose work has appeared in various street press publications as well as the anthology "Paroxysm"(Paroxysm Press). His novels include The Apocalypse Show, Dust And Devils and Masterpeace. Stepping into the digital realm, he is determined to build a reputation as an author who writes from the heart for book lovers around the world.
Alien Flavoured Pop Corn Intro.
It wasn’t easy for Jayne to keep her mind focused both on aliens and her role in a play of unfulfilled desires, especially when the stink of fresh carcasses was threatening to become a permanent resident of her senses. Even with the window wound up there was no hiding the fact that death had captured some of the night air, tainting it with a vivid and pungent reminder that even the most innocent of hearts will eventually rot.
The green glow from the electronic display on the dashboard seemed more comforting than usual, a fact that she was sure had something to do with being nearly a six hour drive from the city, travelling beneath an ocean of stars that seemed brighter with every bullet ridden sign they passed. Soft jazz oozed from the speakers while ahead, blurred images of dark dwelling animals dashed from the edges of the slicing lights, keeping her hands tight and ready on the wheel. It had been nearly an hour since her last coffee, and she could feel its stimulating effects slowly leaving her body through the knot that was the base of her spine. Surely, she thought, it couldn’t be much further.
Confident that death’s scent was now left somewhere back in the night, she wound down the window to let the icy air splash across her face. Tilting the rear view mirror slightly, she caught a reflection of her tired features and sighed a little. Her shoulder length brown hair was loosely tied back, strands having escaped to fall across her face and thin rimmed glasses. Her nose seemed small beneath her slightly magnified brown green eyes, and the tiny lines that surrounded them were more a visual history of the years she had spent squinting rather than a sign of age. Besides, although nearly thirty, with her small frame she still found it difficult to convince people she wasn’t in her early twenties, a fact that sometimes proved to be a hindrance in her line of work.
“You look tired, you sure you don’t want me to drive?”
She turned to her passenger, glad for the sound of his voice. Simon yawned and stretched his arms as best he could, and then adjusted the hat that had been pulled over his eyes. He wound down the window to capture some of the night air with his hand, tapping the side of the car as another yawn erupted. There was a brief moment of innocence in his soft blue eyes that seemed to only be possible following sleep, but like morning dew on grass, it never seemed to last long.
She tightened her grip and returned her attention to the road, quietly wondering what it would be like to wake to those eyes each morning. The thoughts had become more frequent over the last couple of weeks, but when they had started she couldn’t be sure. Maybe it had been the day he had arrived at her apartment earlier than usual, finding her asleep on the sofa and running his fingers along her cheek to wake her, but then it could have been when he told her he had finally finished his so called relationship with Sonia, the bitch that had told him he was a fool for working with her.
“I’m okay.”
“You’ve been at the wheel for hours now.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll be driving us back to the city.”
He leaned forward and grabbed a map that was sitting on the dash, flipping it over and doing his best to work out where they were without bothering to flick on the overhead light.
“Shouldn’t be long now.” He let the map drop to the floor. “Man I hope we’re not coming out all this way for nothing.”
“You heard the guy’s voice,” she replied, a sign rushing past to her right. “Grown men don’t sound like that unless they’re really scared, or really messed up.”
Ahead the road was long and straight in the darkness, the kind of darkness that held a different sway when you were in the middle of nowhere. It seemed capable of catching time and bending it like fresh bark in the hands of a child, and it could leave your eyes darting and skin crawling as though sensing things that eyes could only search for in vain. The piercing rays of light from the front of the car were swords that slashed through the black of night, and it was beyond those rays that forgotten thoughts, unwanted thoughts, were waiting on the side of the road, hoping for some sort of mechanical failure that would see them wander into the merciless shadowed void that promised to overlap realities.
Jayne adjusted herself in the driver’s seat, the jeans that had been comfortable only hours before now digging into the side of her thighs. Beside her, Simon unwrapped yet another piece of gum in his war on cravings. Since they had formed the partnership just under a year ago, she guessed he had tried to quit smoking at least six times. She didn’t hold great hopes for this particular mission, but was keeping her mental fingers crossed just the same. It had been two days now, and if he could last till the following morning he would break a personal record.
She brought the car to a slow halt as the turn off appeared in her headlights, double checking her decision with the aid of the map from the floor. Bringing the car back into gear, they left the smooth of the bitumen and were now shaking and rattling along an undulated dirt road, dust and stones flicking off into the night. The soft jazz was quickly swallowed by the noise of the turbulence, and so Jayne reached down and turned it off, her grip tightening on the wheel.
They had received the call early that morning. Peter Woods, part cattle farmer and occasional mechanic, had sounded truly terrified as he stuttered his story across the line. He had been losing cattle at an alarming rate, he’d said, and had already eliminated disease, theft and broken fences as a possible cause. Beside the odd rotting carcass left for the flies, it seemed they were simply disappearing from the property without a trace. After spending a good part of the day driving along the perimeter of the property, once again checking for any damage his fence might have sustained, he had returned to his homestead in the late afternoon to prepare a cup of tea and scratch his head a while. That was when it happened, that was when he had supposedly filmed the impossible.
The department of agriculture had first dismissed his claims as ludicrous, however his solid reputation and the fact he had filed several reports to the police persuaded them to offer him the benefit of the doubt. Looking into the matter further, and after declaring that it was not something they would normally investigate, Peter had been given a number to ring. He was told that Jayne and Simon may be able to help him.
It wasn’t the first time the department had initiated contact with them. Over the past year they had developed somewhat of a relationship with Jayne, and had got in touch with her every now and then with stories of strange sightings or damage to crops that defied immediate explanation. Although she knew well enough she was being roped in to prove the incidences as frauds and hoaxes, something the department seemed so sure of, she was glad for the work just the same. Whether they proved to be hoaxes or not, they were still stories that needed to be researched, and it was those stories that helped her pay the bills.
Beside her, Simon reached for the dash as the car bumped over a rather large rock, shaking them both in their seats. It didn’t take much for her driving to make him nervous, but then he didn’t have much choice considering his car was nothing more than scrap metal after being stolen and torched a week before. He was determined that Sonia had something to do with it, guessing that her wanna be criminal brothers weren’t too happy with his sudden decision to push her goodbye, but as far as Jayne was concerned it was a small price to pay to be rid of her.
“Why can’t we get a call from somewhere nice sometime, like along the coast or something?” she asked, more to herself than anything while quietly cursing the damage her car was sustaining.
“That’s a good point,” he offered with a short laugh. “Maybe there’s a story there. You know, the correlation between the most boring places on Earth and the high number of alleged alien sightings.”
“But as far as food is concerned, it’s the boring places that have all the meat.”
“Humans are meat, and yet the cities seem to be alien free,” he added with a smile and settling back into his seat, looking out the window into the night sky. “But it would be nice to hit the coast. It seems like forever since I’ve seen the ocean. Maybe we should take a couple of days off after this, rent a cabin somewhere where the waves are half decent?”
She stole a quick glance in his direction, hoping for the opportunity to read the expression on his face. It couldn’t be her imagination, she thought, could it? His question remained suspended in her thoughts as she analysed it from every angle. Had it just been a passing comment, or did he really want to rent a cabin? And if he did, would they still flip a coin for the bigger bed, as they always did when they were forced to spend the night in a motel while on assignment, or was this his way of showing her that he knew of the guilty thoughts she had been harbouring of late? With his head tilted to the heavens, there was little chance of finding the answer in his eyes, and she decided not to worry herself for now.
“You’re talking as though this is just going to be another hoax,” she said loudly as the road became a little rougher, “because I can’t see too much time for relaxing if there turns out to be something in this.”
“You can’t blame me for being sceptical. Whenever we get a call like this it either turns out to be Uncle Fred in a cheap party costume or a lesson in what happens when you brew your own shine.”
Jayne laughed, knowing he was right. Investigating footage of strange lights in the sky was one thing, but when they swore they had a real, true life alien on film, it was a given that there was a good chance they were being called to relieve someone’s boredom. But the call from Peter Woods had been different. There had been something in his voice, something in the fear and urgency that had convinced Jayne the long drive into the country was a risk worth taking.
“Well if it does turn out to be an Uncle Fred, you can make the call for the next week’s cases,” she laughed as faint lights appeared through the trees ahead to her left. “This must be it.”
Slowing the car down to a crawl, she turned into the driveway, the surface slightly smoother than the road had been. Simon was forced to jump out and unlock a large gate, waiting for her to pass before closing it again and jumping back into the car. Twisting and turning, they crawled along until the farm house loomed before them, light spilling out through several windows onto the dusty and rocky front yard. Several dogs came bounding from the shadows, barking and jumping around the car as she shifted the gears into park and killed the engine.
The house itself was a simple square shaped design, with a raised veranda protecting the front door and small outdoor setting that appeared almost rusted back to nothing, small spider webs glowing in the lights. On either side of the house were small groups of trees that seemed to long for water, their branches skeletal as they rested in the shadows. Still, she thought, it appeared a little more welcoming than some of the other properties they had visited.
Now that the engine was quiet the dogs decided there was no longer the need to bark, their tails wagging and noses sniffing up at the windows with excitement at the new arrival. Releasing their seatbelts, they stepped out into the cool night air, cautiously patting the cattle dogs as they jumped at their legs. From somewhere high above there was the faint sound of flapping wings, most probably a bat or owl, but then being this far from the city, it could have been anything.
An outside light flickered to life, illuminating the front driveway, and suddenly the dogs seemed a lot dirtier than they had in the shadows. With a creaking that was almost cliché, the front door opened, and out onto the porch stepped Peter Woods. His short, wet and greying hair gave away the fact that he had just showered, dressed in tan coloured loose fitting pants and a faded red Hawaiian styled shirt. Hardly what a farmer would wear, Jayne thought as she wiped her hands on her jeans and stepped forward.
“Good evening Mr. Woods. I’m Jayne, and this is Simon. I believe we spoke on the phone this morning.”
He took a moment to look them both up and down, a slight twinge of suspicion evident in his eyes, and then clapped his hands together with a loud crack. Almost immediately the dogs scuttled back towards the porch, tails becoming motionless.
“Peter’s fine,” he offered as he reached out to shake their hands. “I’m glad you could both make it on such short notice. I was beginning to think that nobody was going to believe me.”
“You sure are isolated out here,” Jayne said as she observed her surroundings. “It must be very peaceful.”
“It is… well it was, anyway. Please, come on in, I’m sure you’re not here for the small talk.”
He offered a slight smile as he stepped inside, holding the door open for them both. They were welcomed with beautifully polished floor boards and a large open living area decorated with sleek, modern furniture and electronic entertainment equipment. The living area led to the kitchen which led to the dining room, and the entire area was lit with low hanging soft globes. It was definitely a step up from what Jayne had imagined when she had pulled into the driveway, and she welcomed the warmth from the small, crackling fire in the far wall.
“You have a beautiful home Peter,” Jayne said as they stepped into the living room.
“Thanks,” he replied, leading them into the kitchen. “People tend to expect a rocking chair, some pet pigs and a dining table with left over roast.”
“Well you’ve definitely shattered that illusion.”
“How about I make us all some tea and then we can get down to business? I don’t mean to rush you both, but the sooner we get this over with, the better. I’ve organized a hotel back in town for a couple of days, because after what’s happened, I just don’t feel safe here at the moment.”
Simon looked to Jayne with slightly raised eyebrows, his strong frame appearing even bigger beneath the kitchen lights, and in return she tilted her head as if to say, see, I told you this guy wasn’t an Uncle Fred. As Peter filled the kettle, she repeated the words in her head. Don’t feel safe here at the moment. It definitely didn’t sound as though they were in the presence of someone who had put together an elaborate hoax for no other reason than to kill the boredom that could thicken the air out there, and with his comments the sense of isolation she had felt in the car had returned, a sense of vulnerability and just the faintest hint of fear. Sure, between Simon and herself and the last year of chasing strange leads they had come across a few instances that had truly installed a gently brush of fear, but mostly the source would be an unexplainable photo, strange patterns in vegetation, or a harrowing, tear filled testimony that days later would reach out for her in dreams. Now, it seemed, the hint of fear was accompanied with an old saying, be careful what you wish for.
She stepped up to the kitchen window, feeling Simon close behind, and peered through the window into the night. Bathed in shadows from the spilling light, there were a couple of trees surrounding a large open space with an outdoor table and chair setting, and two rusting car wrecks, all surrounded with a chest high wire fence. What little lawn there was appeared to be well kept, and beyond the fence Jayne was sure she could see a small swimming pool.
Finished making the teas, Peter joined them at the window to stare into the night, and spoke with a low, controlled voice.
“I’ve watched the footage a few times now, and I still can’t really believe it happened. Funny though, in the movies it always seems to be the dogs that notice things first, but when I saw it, the dogs were out the front, and they weren’t making a sound. At first I was going to grab the gun and head out there, but I couldn’t do it. It was just so unbelievable, so I grabbed the camera instead. Now though, now I wish I’d shot the damn thing.”
He turned to hand them the steaming cups of tea and then stepped down into the lounge area, where a large screen lay flushed against a curtained wall.
“Please, take a seat.”
Jayne held her cup steady and lowered herself onto one of the sofas, Simon joining her. This close, she could smell his cologne, could feel his leg on hers, and she found herself leaning forward so as not to appear too comfortable. Silently they watched as Peter went through the process of removing a small disc from the video camera that was resting on the burning red coffee table, wiping it with his shirt and then placing it into the player beneath the screen. Content that it was ready, he took a seat in the arm chair to their right and sipped his tea, eyes observing them both as though he were still deciding whether he should show them the footage or not.
“You know,” he began, “I’ve lived out here alone for six years now, since my wife died, so I guess I can understand why people might think this is all some kind of joke. People tend to think isolation can send you crazy, and maybe sometimes that’s true, but I still thought the department would have taken me a little more seriously. I figured once I told them what I had there’d be people all over this place, taking photos, soil samples, that sort of thing. But at first they just brushed me off, telling me to send the footage and they’d be in touch. Can you believe it? What I’ve got here just might change the world, and they weren’t even interested.”
“Peter,” Jayne replied, doing her best to sound soothing to counteract the anxiousness that was creeping into his voice, “as I explained on the phone, we’re both first and foremost scientific journalists, though the kinds of things we tend to report on or investigate are a little different to what most people usually expect. I guess the irony is that while we’re constantly searching for solid proof or evidence of instances that push the boundaries of what we know, companies often hire us to provide a lack of evidence, or proof that a hoax attempt has taken place.”
“But I hope you understand,” Simon added, “that we approach each and every claim with an open and neutral mind. Our job is to gather all the evidence we can, and then to pick through that evidence, piece by piece, until a picture emerges of what we have. Most people that we meet make the point that once something strange takes place, they realize that they have no idea who to contact, or what to say, and they’re right, it’s just not the sort of thing you can look up in the phone book. So don’t worry too much if you’ve been given somewhat of a cold shoulder, it seems to be par for the course. The main thing is that now that we’re here, you can rest assured that we’ll treat your claim with respect and scientific enquiry.”
Peter took a moment to look at them both, the muscles in his face seeming to relax a little. The silence was broken only by the soft crackling of the fire against the wall and the gentle rubbing of leather as Jayne adjusted her position, ready to begin the questioning process and placing a small voice recorder onto the coffee table.
“I understand that this all began with instances of your cattle disappearing?”
Peter settled back into his chair with his hands resting across his stomach.
“That’s right. I guess it took about a week or two before I really started to notice that the numbers were dropping, and I just couldn’t see it being a case of theft. I mean, look where we are. So I figured the fence must have been damaged and they were getting out somewhere, but I couldn’t find anything. I even took a drive to the other properties around here, you know, to see if they were experiencing the same thing, but they weren’t having any problems.”
He stopped and reached for his cup of tea, his voice beginning to sound somewhat dry. The flames in the fire place were beginning to die down, leaving small red coals to crackle and wink at them as Jayne patiently waited for him to continue.
“There wasn’t much more I could do, you know?” Peter stated while shrugging his shoulders slightly. “So I decided to check the fences one more time, just to be sure. This was four days ago. When I’d finished, I came back and was fiddling around in the kitchen. That’s when I saw it. I couldn’t believe it was happening.”
“How long did the event last?” Simon asked, his voice suddenly loud and deep in the room.
“Not long.” Peter shook his head. “A couple of minutes at the most, and when it had all ended, I wasn’t sure who to call or what to do. I mean, what the hell do you do? I don’t want this to be some news of the hour story. What I want is answers. I want to know if this sort of thing has happened before, and if so, what’s being done about it, because I’m going to be honest with you both, it scared the shit out of me, and now I get nervous sometimes just walking past the damn window. But there’s no real point in me trying to explain it to you both, better if you just see it for yourselves.”
They nodded with understanding while Jayne leaned forward and turned off the recorder. From somewhere outside one of the dogs barked into the night, and then it was quiet again. She leaned back into the sofa and watched as Peter reached for one of the remote controls on the coffee table, Simon’s hand now resting ever so slightly on her leg.
“So, without further due, I give you my visitor…”
The large screen crackled to life, a storm of static followed by a crisp blue. Then it began, opening with the inside of the house as seen through a shaky camera moving through the lounge towards the back door. There was the sound of footsteps on polished floors, and Peter’s breathing was just audible in the background as it moved down a small corridor and stopped just before a wooden door. A hand reached out and pushed it open, allowing afternoon sunlight to momentarily flare the screen. Then the image returned with the back yard fence coming into focus, the camera shaking more visibly now, with Peter’s breathing having become louder. For a moment it seemed to bounce from the sparsely spread lawn of the ground to the apocalyptic red of the afternoon sun which burned as though hanging from its claws to the horizon.
“For some reason the sound cuts out here. I don’t know if it’s the camera or something else, some sort of interference.”
Peter was right. As the image steadied the sound simply disappeared. There was no more heavy breathing, no more footsteps to help bring a sense of rhythm to the low symphony of suspense. The camera panned to the right, automatically adjusting focus. For a split second the entire screen flashed silver, and then the image began to settle back down. Jayne felt the muscles in her stomach tighten, threatening to let the warm tea rise back up her throat in a violent cough, and did her best to fight the urge to slam her eyes shut. Beside her, Simon was whispering something.
“Oh my God…”
As the silver wash out ended and the screen settled, something was looking into the camera, appearing more interested in the electronic gadget than the person operating it. With the fence floating in the background it seemed to stand between six and seven feet tall, and was an arms length in front of some sort of machine that was just a little shorter in height than the creature and roughly the size of a car wide, perhaps a little bigger. There were no wheels to speak of, however, and no apparent windows, just smooth, shining silver metal with what looked like scorch marks along the bottom.
And Jayne saw that the creature had hair. Not on the body, although she couldn’t be sure as it was enveloped in what looked like a neck to knee jacket that gave the illusion of being a cross between shining leather and mercury, but on its head. It was black with a few scattered wisps of red, was just short of being shoulder length and would have covered its eyes were it not for the breeze that insisted on blowing it back from its face. The face, the face almost seemed human. Almost, but for the mouth that seemed three times the size of what should have been on a face.
Jayne turned to Simon for a quick moment, looking deep into his eyes in an attempt to see if he was thinking the same thing she was. Can you believe what we’re watching? The way he gently squeezed her leg suggested he knew exactly what she was thinking, and then her eyes were pulled back to the screen. The skin tone of the creature’s face was close to a light blue, almost deathly, and across the cheeks and along the forehead there were pieces of skin, if that was what it was, slightly peeling back as though it had been slashed over and over again with a blunt screwdriver. The eyes were bulging and pure white, so white they seemed to be lit from some internal source.
The mouth, almost making up the entire bottom half of the face, was nestled beneath a small, dark little hole that must have been a nose. It seemed to be suspended in the process of opening wide, and even with the distance of the camera there was no mistaking the incredible amount of teeth that glistened behind the thin blue lips. There appeared to be hundreds of them, almost silver in colour, slippery wet and just dying for flesh to tickle the points. At this point Peter had obviously stopped dead in his tracks, for the camera was now stationary, focusing on the creature with blood pumping shakes to the frame.
They watched as the creature suddenly seemed no longer interested in Peter or the camera, turning and raising its’ head slightly as if to sniff the air, and then falling gracefully to its’ knees to reach out with long, blue fingers that dug a little into the soil. Satisfied it had scratched deep enough, it brought a sample up to its’ nose, facial muscles contorting with curiosity. Then, rubbing the soil between the blue fingers, it let it fall to be silently swept away with the wind. Still on its’ knees, it looked back into the camera with head slightly tilted, and then to the side in an attempt to look at Peter. Rather than begin to shake even more, the camera began to stabilise. Blue lips slowly closed and then lifted open a little, giving the impression of the strangest of smiles. A gust of wind momentarily covered its’ eyes with hair, and Peter gently inched closer, and then the wind was still again, with bulging white eyes peering into the camera.
From the left of the screen, Peter’s hand slowly extended forward, tanned flesh in stark contrast to the blue of the creature’s face that gently lifted its’ lips once again, though this time carried with the hint of a smile was also a mark of confusion. Suddenly the creature sprung from its’ knees, lurching forwards towards the camera and lashing out at Peter with its’ right arm, sending the screen to fill with dirt, grass and the blurred image of the back fence. The image remained for perhaps fifteen seconds, and then suddenly flying dust and grass appeared, followed by white static, and then a blue screen, and then finally an image of Peter standing in the kitchen with his shirt off, several deep cuts bleeding along his left arm. Seconds later the image flickered away.
For moments the room was silent, no longer the presence of flames to offer their crackling cries. Peter leaned forward and flicked the screen off, and then turned to face them both, his face visibly white against the red of the shirt and his eyes darting around the room when he was not looking at either of them. When he finally managed to speak there was no hiding the fear that had crept into his vocal chords.
“Before you ask, I’ve already scheduled to have the arm looked at, but I haven’t told the hospital what actually cut me.”
Jayne could feel the moisture in her mouth disappearing, her tongue threatening to stick to the roof of her mouth. Somewhere in the pit of her stomach hot acid was beginning to rise, quivering the surrounding muscles and forcing her to swallow down what little moisture remained. Sweat filmed across the inside of her palms as she blinked hard several times, hoping the action would bring her thoughts back from the swirling mess they had just become. Could this be real, she wondered? Did I just see what I think I saw? Could it in any way be some sort of hoax?
Increased pressure from Simon’s hand helped to bring her back to the moment as he turned to her with wide, shocked eyes. Lifting his eyebrows in a serious manner, he was silently asking her the same question she had asked herself. Could this be real? She wanted to say something, wanted to move her lips and make a sound, but for the moment she was utterly speechless, something she had never been before during an investigation. Simon opened his mouth and was about to say something, but Peter beat them to it as he continued.
“I don’t know how you guys normally go about things, but I’d appreciate it if you could give me a little time before making any of this public. The last thing I need right now is bus loads of alien nuts driving up here and taking over the place. And to be honest, the only reason I agreed to meet you both here tonight is because I had to come back to round up a few things. As you can probably imagine, I don’t exactly feel comfortable staying here at the moment. God knows you must have plenty of questions, but I don’t see why we can’t sort that out back in town over the next day or two.”
“I’ll be honest with you Peter,” Jayne finally managed. “Right now I’m really not sure what to say.”
“I thought as much,” he replied, running his hand through his hair and leaning forward. “The disc is yours, I don’t think I’ll watch it again. For the next couple of days you can reach me on the number I gave you earlier this morning. I assume you’ll be staying in town?”
They both nodded, a growing sense of urgency in his voice clearly indicating that he was both relieved to be handing the situation over to someone else and more than ready to conclude the evening.
“Okay. I’ll be locking up the house but you can do what you want out there, whatever tests you need. Hell, you can dig up the whole yard for all I care. I just hope you can come up with some answers, cause until someone can explain to me just what the hell that thing is on the disc, the idea of being out here alone is not something I want to think about.”
He offered the smallest of smiles as if making an attempt to apologize for not showing a little more bravery. Outside, one of the dogs barked again, and as though offering a cue he had been waiting for he stood from the chair and grabbed the now cold cups of tea to move off into the kitchen. Taking the hint, Jayne and Simon lifted themselves from the sofa, sharing a look that agreed they would wait until they were back in the car before blurting out what was on their minds.
Peter returned, grabbed the disc and handed it to Simon, who weighed it in his hand as though expecting it to be heavy before slipping it into his pocket. Together they stood in an awkward silence before Peter shook both their hands.
“Again, thank you both for coming out. I’m sorry to rush you like this but… well… let me ask you something, have either of you ever seen anything like this?”
No, they had never seen anything like that. They had seen countless photos of strange lights in the sky, had listened to story after story of abductions and midnight rapes at the hands of Greys, had photographed close to a hundred animal corpses that had been left with scorched ribs and bulging eyes, but they had never seen anything like the footage that had just been revealed to them.
The drumming of the stones along the bottom of the car helped to bring them back to reality. Outside the night temperature had dropped low enough for mist to swirl amongst the dust in the glow of the headlights, but that didn’t stop them both from winding their windows down. There was something about the crisp wind rushing along their ears and necks that seemed comforting somehow. Jayne had been glad to let Simon take the wheel, and turned so that her back leaned against the door, her eyes focussed on the side of his face and heart beating fast.
“Oh my God, Simon, tell me that wasn’t a hoax,” she said, her voice loud and rushed, “and tell me that wasn’t one of the scariest fucking things you’ve ever seen.”
“Not only did it scare the shit out of me, there was nothing there to make me think this has anything to do with an Uncle Fred.” He was shaking his head to emphasize the point, wisps of blonde hair shaded green from the dash lights. “But first thing tomorrow we’re getting the kit out and running tests on every grain of dirt in his yard, every damn stone, because if this proves to be true, then we’ve just stumbled onto the holy grail of alien research.”
He turned and threw her a smile that was half disbelief and half excitement, and for a second she could imagine him as a child being given his first bike, such was the look in his eyes. She reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder, oblivious to the night rushing by her window and high with adrenalin.
“Can you believe what we just saw? I mean, as long as this isn’t the finest damn hoax we’ve ever come across, that little disc could change the world. No, it will change the world.” There was no hiding the euphoria that had washed across her now that the shock of what she had seen had passed. “It’s everything we’ve ever hoped for, everything we’ve ever searched for. Science will have to look at the stars in a whole new way.”
“Hey, slow down a little! You know how it works. Even if this does prove to be the real thing we’re still going to have a hard job of convincing people, no matter how much evidence we manage to scrape up.”
“You’re right, I know you’re right, but that doesn’t change what’s on the disc. Besides, it’s not our job to try to convince people, it’s our job to make the evidence reputable somehow.”
She swivelled in her seat, taking a moment to peer out to the night sky. Together they had chased an endless stream of leads and promises, and only a handful had given them something useful to use, not counting of course the evidence for companies to avoid insurance pay outs. Sure, if they were just about writing stories for suspect publications they would probably have a thriving little business, but instead they had used their backgrounds and taken a scientific approach, working with various fields and departments that helped them with leads other investigators would never have known existed. Even then, the strange occurrences they had been unable to explain had been nothing more than small fragments, hints at what might have been. If anything, they tended to pose more questions than answers, but now, she thought while gently biting her bottom lip, there was the chance that all that had changed.
“You know,” she continued, still looking up to the stars, “that if this footage passes all the tests, and we can find something in the soil that can somehow back up the claim, it’s going to start a whole new debate on life beyond Earth.”
“Not only that,” Simon replied with a seriously concerned voice, “but the idea of visitors from outer space being friendly will be blown out of the water.”
“We don’t know that it was hostile!”
“You saw the thing. It was like something out of a nightmare.”
He was right. It had been something straight out of a nightmare, and when it had looked as if it were trying to smile, she had felt sick in her stomach. Even now, mentally recalling the images, she could feel the blood rushing across her chest and her skin beginning to crawl, but the feelings helped her to believe that it had been real, that an alien had truly been captured on film.
“There’s no way I’m going to be able to sleep tonight,” she said looking back at him. “I’ve got too many emotions buzzing through my head, too many questions.”
“Sleep’s going to be out of the question anyway. We need to prepare everything and be back by sunrise, before anyone else finds out about this. And we need to get the footage into the computer, start analysing it straight away. If it is an Uncle Fred or a nephew trying out his film school skills, I want to know tonight.”
With a slight thud the wheels found bitumen once again, the vibrations in the car slipping away as their speed increased. Ahead the road back to town was long and empty, nothing to dart from the piercing lights into the shadows. It was as if the animals they had seen earlier had now decided to avoid the road, no longer interested in the machines that rushed along. Jayne watched as thirsty tree after thirsty tree flashed past her window, each bathed in light for mere seconds. They seemed to be reaching out, trying to stop the car somehow, but she knew that was just a quirk of the darkness. In the dead of night, even innocent things had a way of washing themselves with torment.
She took a deep breath, trying to calm the beating of her heart. Her thoughts jumped from one scenario to the next, restless and frantic, before finally resting on a sudden realization.
“What if it’s not the only one?” she asked, pulling her eyes from the trees.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what if there are more of those things in the area, and people are just not saying anything?”
Simon thought for a second, adjusting his hat. “Peter checked with the neighbours, remember? I say we just focus in this one for now. I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with the idea of more than one of those things sniffing around.”
“We should talk to whatever cops there are in town,” she continued as though not having heard him, “see if they’ve been getting any strange reports called in. If we can find someone, just one person, who can describe something similar to what’s on that disc, then it’s going to be pretty hard to refute the evidence.”
“Remember, it’s not evidence yet, not until we’ve put it through every test we’ve got. Until then, what we have is a very strong possibility that the evidence is ground breaking.”
The soothing effect of the cold breeze against her skin was beginning to wear off, and she wound up the window, not realizing how icy her neck had become until the warmth began to return. The image of the alien, if that’s what it was, kept flashing through the back of her mind as she pushed herself back into the seat, muscles still sore at the base of her spine. Had it been trying to form a smile, or was it an obvious snarl? Was it wearing some kind of uniform, and if so, what on earth was it made of? Question after question begged for her attention like puppies at her heel, and suddenly she thought of the dogs. Peter had said they hadn’t barked at all, though in her experience if there were ever animals involved, they were usually the first to make a noise. She rubbed her hands together and took another deep breath, making a mental note to check the data base for any other silent animal claims, though she was sure there would be none. And she would have to check all the drawings and supposed photos they had with them for anything remotely similar to the craft on the disc. Any match would prove extremely significant. Simon had been right, there would be no opportunity for sleep.
She looked over to him, the adrenalin beginning to ease in her system. “Did you leave the link open on the computer back at the office?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, “but it’s on level two security. One way traffic only.”
“Good, there’s some files I’m going to want to access.”
Far off in the distance, a glowing red appeared, and she leaned forward to look through the windscreen. Squinting, she saw that there were actually two red glowing dots, far off in the distance but seeming to be moving closer. Suddenly the base of her neck felt cool again, and the adrenalin was beginning to return. For several moments her mind was playing tricks, convincing her that the glowing red lights were hovering high above the ground, but as the distance closed she saw that they were nothing more than car tail lights.
“What the hell?” Simon asked quietly, easing the speed of the car. “It looks like it’s stopped in the middle of the road.”
Jayne squinted through the darkness, hoping to see the outline of the car, but it was still nothing more than red lights in the distance.
“Could be a break down,” she said as her nose reached closer to the window, “but I don’t see any hazard lights. And it’s definitely not moving.”
“Could be chasers.”
“You think the story could have leaked already? We only got the phone call this morning.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Simon answered with a touch of spite, “but you know that doesn’t mean much. Anyone in the department could have passed on the information, especially of someone made it worth their while. I hope they don’t think I’ll be stopping to give directions.”
Jayne was about to reply that she had never really trusted the girl at the front desk of the department building when her eyes suddenly picked up something ahead on the road. It wasn’t quite yet lit up, but it was definitely a shape of some kind, and it appeared to be moving.
“Simon, can you see that…”
“Oh shit…hold on!”
As the headlights ripped through the black of night a writhing body suddenly appeared before them. Jason slammed on the brakes and clenched the wheel while the tires screeched and smoked as the car began to slide sideways. Jayne grabbed the dashboard, the top of her head kissing the windscreen and her eyes wide and frightened at the body that was rushing towards the car. Everything began to shake, and then she was looking up to the stars through lit up trees as the tires brought the car to a shuddering stop, a thumping noise echoing from the side. The engine stalled with strange ticking noises to fill the air, and as she took a deep breath she noticed she could hear her heart beating.
Simon was clawing frantically at his seatbelt, a worried look on his face as he spotted the slight smear of blood on her forehead. “Oh fuck, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so.” She reached up and dapped at the cut with her fingers, then looked over his shoulders and through the window. “I don’t believe this, they’re taking off!”
With her spare hand she pointed to the glowing tail lights as they accelerated off into the night, cursing that they hadn’t had the opportunity to see what sort of car it had been, or who might have been driving. They took only seconds to completely disappear, the road once again lost in the darkness while the call of bugs began to sound outside. She could hear Simon breathing heavily as he struggled with the door, and she was quick to release her seat belt to join him out on the road.
The air was crisp in her lungs as she ran to the back of the car, a sense of dread building with every step. Please don’t let it be that we’ve killed someone, she thought, it wasn’t our fault. As she turned on her heels she was face to face with Simon, and on the road between them was a lady in a torn blue dress. She was moaning slightly and rolling her body away from the car, her dress torn and caked with blood and long hair knotted with dirt and twigs. Jayne let out a gasp and took a step back, bringing a hand to her mouth. She looked to Simon, who was already crouching down and obviously lost as to what to do with his hands.
With another moan, this one louder, the lady was on her back and looking up at them both with wide eyes sunk beneath a bruised face. The tail lights of the car soaked her in a warm red glow, cuts across her cheeks and arms appearing black and sinister. Her chest was heaving, spittle falling from the corner of her mouth, and she appeared to be clutching something in her left hand.
“Help me,” she whispered through blood stained teeth, “please.”
With a wince she raised her right hand, and Simon held it tight while attempting to lift her as gently as he could. Jayne stepped forward and supported her elbow, noticing that she was bare foot. Her knees were shaky but she managed to stand, and she was well taller than the both of them. With a deep breath she shrugged her shoulders and then pulled away from them, head cocked slightly to the side as though listening for something that wasn’t there, and suddenly she seemed to be free of pain, the expression on her face one of anger and contemplation. Simon stepped back and removed his hat, running his fingers through his hair.
“Fuck. Are you alright? You came out of nowhere.”
She wiped something from her eye, looked at them both, and then down at the damage she had sustained. Her fingers plucked at the dress, and Jayne was beginning to wonder is she even had an idea of what had just happened to her. Around them the noise of the bugs had become louder, many of them beginning to swarm around the lights.
“Look,” Simon continued, looking around and into the darkness, “let’s just get you in the car so we can get you into town. There should be someone that will be able to take a look at you.”
There it is again, Jayne thought as she studied her face for any sign of understanding, that look of contemplation. She stepped forward and placed a hand on her lower back, ready to lead her to the car. Her skin was cold to the touch and at first it seemed as though she wasn’t going to move, but then with a heavy sigh her bare feet began to carry her to the rear driver’s side door.
Jayne’s hand moved slightly, and she couldn’t help but notice some of the blood on her dress had already begun to dry. Some of this isn’t fresh, she thought, and looking at the cuts on her arm and the swelling around her eyes, she couldn’t help but begin to question whether any of her injuries had anything to do with bumping into the back of the car.
“We’re only an hour or so from town. I’ve got a medical kit in the car, so once we get moving, I’ll see if there’s anything we can use.” Jayne was doing her best to sound confident, given the circumstances. “There’s a phone you can use, but I don’t know what the reception’s like out here.”
Simon opened the back car door with a worried look on his face, throwing Jayne a glance that seemed to say there’s something really wrong about this situation. If that was what he was trying to project, she had to agree with him, but she wanted to wait a few more minutes before asking about the car that had sped away or why the blood on the back of her dress was already beginning to dry. Instead, she was about to ask if she knew anybody back in town when the lady in the torn blue dress took a seat and looked up at them both.
“Please… don’t worry. You’re car has nothing to do with my injuries.” She turned and stared off through the windscreen into the trees. “If you can just get me back to town I’ll be more than grateful.”
Jayne stepped back as Simon closed the door, the sound echoing off through the trees and across the unseen plains. They caught each others eyes, and Simon nodded in the direction of their new passenger.
“I don’t know if I like this,” he half whispered. “It looks like she got thrown out of that car or something. We didn’t do all that.”
Jayne nodded and started walking back to the passenger side door, talking over her shoulder. “I don’t like the idea of standing out here much longer. Let’s worry about it once we’re moving.”
After a couple of false starts the engine finally hummed to life, and seconds later they were back on the road and heading for town. For a while they travelled in silence, neither of them knowing quite what to say, while Jayne stole glances of their new passenger through the rear view mirror. Her eyes were still focussed straight ahead, almost as if she wasn’t actually seeing anything, and there was the slightest movement in her lips, like she was whispering to herself, or perhaps praying. When the silence began to border on being uncomfortable, she turned in her seat and smiled at the lady who she guess could be no more then thirty.
“How are you feeling?”
As though snapped from a trance, she flicked her eyes to Jayne. “Do you really expect me to answer that?” As soon as the words left her mouth a twinge of regret swept across her face accompanied with a long sigh. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like a bitch. This has just been a really bad night.”
Jayne nodded as though she understood. “I think I can see that.”
“My name’s Amy, in case you were about to ask.” Even with a swollen and cut face, she managed the smallest of smiles. “Believe me, it probably looks worse than it feels.”
“Well then it still must hurt like hell.”
“It doesn’t tickle, that’s for sure.” Her eyes fell back to the road. “But then pain has a way of reminding us of who are, wouldn’t you agree?”
It wasn’t the sort of question that required an answer, and Jayne was about to turn back in her seat when her eyes caught Amy’s left arm. There was something about the cuts, something about the way they blended into the shadows of the back seat. They’re beginning to heal already she thought as she looked a little closer. The blood was still smeared across her skin, the bruising was still evident, but the cuts that had confronted her as she had stood from the road seemed to be getting smaller, almost thinner. Again the feeling that something wasn’t right clawed the inside of her stomach as she turned back in her chair. Beside her Simon was quietly shaking his head from side to side, obviously thinking something over, and as he spoke he leaned across Jayne’s lap and reached for something in the glove compartment.
“The car we saw back there, the one that took off, do you know who was driving?”
Finding what he was looking for, he slammed the compartment shut and returned to the wheel, flicking open a packet of cigarettes with one hand and bringing one to his lips.
“What the hell is that?” Jayne asked in a teacher’s voice.
He lifted his eyebrows and threw her a look tinged with guilt and then took the cigarette from his lip and placed it back. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll hold off till we get to town.” Letting the packet fall between his legs, he looked into the rear view mirror. “So whoever was driving that car, did they do that to you?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore now,” Amy replied, her eyes catching Simon’s for a split second. “There’s nothing you can do.”
“What do you mean there’s nothing we can do? We’re pretty much on the only road that goes back into town, so I’m sure it won’t be hard to make a call and have someone waiting for them.”
Amy was shaking her head. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter anymore. Please, I’ll be fine. A lift into town is all I need.”
Simon took one more look at her through the mirror and then returned his attention to the road, fingers drumming the steering wheel, while Jayne began to notice a strange smell creeping into the car. It wasn’t unpleasant; in fact it was quite sweet, like a fruit based perfume, and it seemed to be growing stronger with each intake of air. There was no mistaking that it was coming from the back seat. Grapes, she thought, it smells like fresh grapes.
She turned to look at Amy once again, and this time there was no denying that her injuries were beginning to self repair somehow, to the point that the blood and tears across her dress were beginning to seem out of place.
“Amy, we can’t just drop you in town, not like you are. We should be in phone range soon…”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Simon’s voice cut her off as he shifted the gears back until the car was no more than crawling. Just ahead on the left side of the road, crushed into one of the endless number of trees that reached out from the dark, was a black van with smoke billowing from the engine and headlights still burning. Jayne could hear Amy take a deep breath from the backseat, and before she knew it the car had stopped and Simon was stepping out onto the road.