Posted: 9/26/2007 4:08:55 PM EDT
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Chapter One It was a mindless, difficult task. Then the last few spade of dirt fell on the mound beside the freshly-dug grave and it was finished. Using a spade and muscles to open a 96 cubic foot hole in the earth burns more than calories. But the hole had to be dug. He tried to shrug out the knots in his shoulders. There was no one to help dig it and no sense in waiting for someone to come along. Raymond “Dev” Denton levered the home-built casket onto the planks and tied it off to the tree branch above. He said a silent prayer and removed the planks one by one, finally lowering the casket to the bottom of the hole. Leaning on the handle of his spade, he fought back tears of grief for his wife of 22 years. She was alone now, like him. No, that’s not right he thought. He is the one who is alone, throwing dirt on a box with her body in it. He just wanted to job done; he wanted to think of it as a job and not the lonely funeral it was. Not a single person had crossed the gate into the farm for weeks; not footprints, not car sounds on the county road, not a shout carried across the wind to Dev’s ear. A lot of chickens clucked. A lot of dogs and coyotes howled. A lot of cats hissed at real and imagined insults. Dev heard those. But he didn’t hear a sound made by a human other than the ones he made. He had a lot of time on his hands, and not a lot of things to do beyond the usual farm chores. He fed his chickens and collected the eggs. He ran fresh water for the cow, milked her and mucked her stall. He played with the dog, Dave. He re-read books and magazines for what seemed to be the hundredth time. Dev waited. He cast his thoughts back to the middle of summer, when it had all started. Chapter Two It was hot when Madge was sick, and it was still hot. Dev sat on his porch trying to make sense of what had happened in the past two months. One day he had gone into town to get feed and gas, buy a few groceries and pick up the mail. It was the same as every other time he had gone to town on errands. Only this time when he returned, Madge was hysterical. She had locked herself in the bedroom and wouldn’t come out. She just blabbered and screamed if he even jiggled the door handle. Dev hadn’t married Madge for anything more than love and her practical nature. His mind was completely at odds with the mental concept of Madge and the woman who now cowered in the bedroom. Dev had spent just about every day of his life with her and now he felt as if he didn’t even know her. So he went downstairs, made some coffee and sat at the kitchen table. Dev waited for Madge to come out of the bedroom. Dave lay at his feet, instead of dreaming of rabbits and squirrels; rear leg kicking out every few minutes, the dog whimpered and tried to get as close as he could. “Something scared you boy?” Dev asked. Dave cocked his head and then laid it back on his paws. Dev sat upright slowly, both his arms asleep as he had drifted off sitting at the table with his head on his crossed hands. “Dev?” Madge called softly from the doorway. “Dev, is that you?” She looked hollow-eyed and tense. Very much not how he was used to seeing Madge. ”Yes, hon. What’s wrong, what happened?” He got up from the table to go to her and she backed up into the hall. He stopped, instinctively reading her movements. “I… I… don’t know, Dev. I was out in the barn, putting a rake back in the corner. I felt someone was in there or close to me, or something.” She tried to hug herself but somehow even her own arms disgusted her. She shrugged out of the gesture and twinned her hands out in front of her. Then the words just tumbled out. “The feeling got worse, I saw something out of the corner of my eye and I jumped. I felt like a silly girl, I wanted to run out of the barn screaming but there was nothing there. Well, maybe a shadow. Maybe a thing, a snake-thing with legs or just some cartoon-like thing; I just can’t put words together to describe it. I felt a rush of air from behind me, like the shadow was there behind me and when I spun around I knocked over all the garden tools. I didn’t see what happened, but when the hoe fell it must have cut me, it left this mark on my leg, see?” She turned her leg sideways so Dev could see the back of her calf. He had to stifle a groan. It was not so much that he was squeamish, and not that the mark was so gruesome, but somehow just seeing it made his stomach flutter. “It looks like you need some Neosporin and a bandage, hon.” Dev thought he got that out without signaling his feelings. He tried to smile but it died on his lips. Madge just turned her leg back and forth, staring at the black mark, lost in thought. She finally looked up, and started crying. “Hon, hon. It’s alright, we’ll go see the doctor in the morning. Or, I guess it is morning, huh? We’ll call right now and make an appointment. If he can’t see you, we’ll go to the clinic at the hospital. Don’t worry, it will be fine.” ”Don’t say it will be fine! You don’t know! You don’t know what did this!” Dev had never heard Madge scream like that. It was some awful combination of the fear part of the scream on an amusement park ride and the moan from the blackest nightmare. The blood drained out of his face, he was stunned and stood silently, rooted to the spot. Madge turned and ran up the back stairs. Dev didn’t hear the bedroom door shut and a wave of relief washed over him. He tried to square that with what had just happened but just then the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Dev had the strongest, creepiest feeling he was being watched. He tried to move his head slowly, ever so slowly, to not spook what ever it was. One didn’t get a 12 point buck ever couple of seasons by stomping around and spooking game, he’d have to do this – WHAT THE F**K IS THAT? He jumped straight up and crashed back into the banister. A cloudy, malevolent eye on a disgusting, hairy green stalk was peering in the corner of the kitchen door window at him. He lost every ounce of composure he ever had and raced up the stairs to the bedroom. He slammed the door and dragged the chest of drawers in front of it. He then went to the night stand, took out his revolver and checked the cylinder for rounds. Snapping it shut he looked over at Madge sitting on the edge of the bed. “You’ve seen it too.” She stated flatly. |
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Chapter Three Dev sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for the little electronic beep that signaled the thermometer had finished taking Madge’s temperature. He tried to smile reassuringly while he concentrated on not fidgeting. The solar system would seemed to have taken less time to form. Finally there was a little beep. He reached for the thermometer. “Dev, I’m not an invalid!” Madge snapped after removing the plastic stick from her mouth. “There, 98 degrees. I’m not sick. I told you I’m fine.” She turned the display so he could read it. “It doesn’t mean… Well, I thought it best just to check hon. Do you want some coffee? Toast? How about I make you breakfast in bed? I’ll be right back.” Dev stopped to confront the chest of drawers in front of the bedroom’s exit. It seemed so light when he heaved it in place yesterday. Moving it back made him feel weak and foolish at the same time. Whatever it was that he saw in the kitchen door window, it couldn’t have been what he thought it was. It just couldn’t. It didn’t make sense. A man, a modern man knows what is possible and what isn’t. What he saw just wasn’t possible. Of course not, of course not. Dev finished moving the furniture back where it belonged and opened the door a bit too forcefully. Nothing in the hallway, except Dave. “Hey, boy. I’m sorry we left you cooped up so long.” Dev reached down and ruffled Dave’s fur. “How about we let you go outside boy?” Dave seemed eager enough, getting up with his tail wagging hard enough to make a whooshing sound in the quiet landing. In the kitchen, Dev put on the kettle and toasted some bread. Dave seemed to be quite happy to race around the yard and investigate the new smells of the day. Everything seemed normal, as if the events of the recent past were just a dream. Dev took the kettle off the burner and made the tea. He let Dave in and then took the tray up to Madge. “Honey, a bucket, quick!” Madge held her hand over her mouth and waved the other vaguely toward the hallway. Dev scrambled around looking for something and settled on the waste basket. He was not a moment too soon, as the toast and tea Madge had managed to get down came right back up and projected straight into the basket. And a portion of it went on Dev’s shirt. “Hon, we have to get you to a doctor.” He laid his hand on her leg above the knee, and started to pat her leg. “OH MY GOD! STOP THAT! YOU’RE KILLING ME!” Again, for the second time in their marriage, Madge had managed a scream that was part horror and part bone-chilling pain. Dev jumped up from the bed and looked around to see if anyone had heard. What am I doing, he thought. “I’m so sorry, hon.” He said quietly. I wasn’t thinking. ”No, it’s all right. I just have the sharpest pain from my knee to my toes.” Madge pulled the bed clothes back slowly. A deep, black line ran from around her shin from the spot of the original mark on her leg. Several fainter, but no less ominous lines ran up the side of her leg to the knee. “That’s blood poisoning, isn’t it Dev?” “It sure looks that way.” We better go to town and see the doctor. Dev’s pick up rolled into the last open spot in the clinic’s parking lot. He helped Madge inside and they sat down to wait. Finally they were called back to an exam room, where the noise of the waiting room faded and it was almost as if you could hear the antiseptics killing germs on the smooth white surfaces of the counters. Dev tried to figure out which organ was which on the human body poster without referring to the legend. The solar system formed a second time before a young boy in a white coat burst through the door with a chart in his hand. “Mrs. Denton? I’m Doctor Stuart. What seems to be the trouble?” All business, brusque and in a hurry. “Well, Doctor, I cut my leg on a hoe and I think it is infected.” She pulled the hem of the gown down while she raised her leg. The doctor leant forward and was about to grasp her leg when he stopped. “Oh. I see. Yes, this is happening a lot. We can give you antibiotics and you should stay off it for a few days. If it doesn’t get better when you’ve finished the pills, call back for an appointment.” He scribbled a few letters and numbers on a pad and pulled off the top sheet. “The nurse will sort out the rest of your visit. Have a nice day.” Doctor Stuart left and went to where ever busy doctors go when they have finished with you. “Dev… Did that seem… weird to you?” Madge looked at Dev. Dev just nodded. ”We’ll ask the nurse.” The nurse didn’t seem to want to answer, or for that matter have any answers, other than the option to use the clinic’s pharmacy or the Rite Aid down the street. In any event, they filled the prescription at the clinic and went straight home. Dev got the pills into Madge and once he was fairly sure they wouldn’t come back up again, he left her in bed and went down to the barn. By now the cow was about to burst with milk and the chickens were trying to make feed out of each other. Dev finished his farm chores and went back to the house to clean up. Upstairs, one foot on the landing and a hand on the banister, he could hear a slight snoring coming from the bedroom. Convinced that Dave had sneaked into the bedroom he tried to peak around the door frame without making to much noise. He wanted to catch the furry interloper in the act, the only sure way that Dave would connect the punishment with the crime. What Dev saw instead made his blood run cold. The snoring he thought he’d heard was the gurgling of mucous in an out of Madge’s nostrils. The black lines that so recently had been below her knee now ran out of the top of the neck of the nightgown and right up to her eyelids. She looked like she had insane, pointless prison tattoos all over her face and neck. Dev felt the world start to spin and had to put both hands on the door frame to steady himself. |
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Chapter Four Dev gathered his composure and moved to Madge’s side. He put his hand up to touch her face but pulled it back. A combination of concern for his wife, remembering the last time he touched her leg and a sense of unease about if the black lines might jump onto his skin made him withdraw his hand. Dev picked up the phone and started to dial the clinic. The phone number on the pill bottle just rang busy. He hung up and tried dialing zero. That rang busy. He tried 1-800 Mattress just to see. It rang busy. He put the phone down. “I’m going into town Madge. I’ll get a doctor or an ambulance and come back for you.” Something made him shove the revolver into his waistband and grab a back pack out of the closet. He added some bottled water to the existing contents. The pack was still half full from their last trip. A few bandages, aspirin, socks and a t-shirt. A pen in the top pocket. Dev pulled open the door of the F150 and tossed his pack onto the passenger side of the bench seat. Getting in, he put the key in the ignition and pumped the throttle three times. ”Start for me.” He silently pleaded. The F150 caught and ran up on cold idle, uttered a few mild protests from the belts and hoses and then settled into a fairly smooth hum. Dev pulled the selector into R and backed the truck around in an arc. He let the truck follow the gravel road out to his gate. Dev took the turn at a sedate pace by country standards – not a mile an hour less than the speed limit as judged by his speedometer’s relatively inaccurate place on the faded dial. He was concentrating on what to do next, how to handle Madge, the farm, the next few thoughts flitted by and Dev almost didn’t hit the brakes in time. There was a line of three or four cars stopped in his lane. Almost skidding to a halt, his chest hard against the shoulder belt, he realized why they were parked in the road. A 2 and a half ton military truck parked cross-wise in the road blocked all traffic in both directions. A soldier popped up from the side of the road and leveled a long black rifle at his door. ”Put it in park and turn if off, Pops.” He motioned vaguely with his gun barrel to emphasize his point. “OK, OK.” Dev shut down the old F150. It diesled a bit and then went silent. “Keep your hands on the wheel, the Sarge will be down in a minute to talk to you.” Dev kept his hands on the wheel but leaned back against the bench seat. Up ahead, he could see the soldier he assumed to be “Sarge” talking to the driver of the white Chevy sedan. All of a sudden, a popping sound came from the front of the line. The soldier talking through the car window stumbled back, a hand to their head the other frantically waving in front of them to ward off whatever terror had forced them away from the car. The white Chevy lurched forward, rocked on its suspension and then made an agonizing, jerking turn slowly toward the side of the road. The huge machine gun on the top of the truck opened up. The sound shocked Dev, he could feel the pounding of the blasts in his chest and face even behind the windshield. A bullet skipped of his hood and whistled by. The Chevy was taking a pounding. Bullet after bullet tore through the thin metal body and steam and smoke was pouring out of the car. Dev could hear shouts, the soldier who had motioned him to a stop was suddenly leaning over Dev’s fender, blasting away at the Chevy. All the firing seemed to stop at once. The soldiers ran to the spot where the “Sarge” was now lying on the ground. A new soldier came running from the other side of the truck. “Get back to your posts! Get back to your posts! Safe those weapons and establish security!” Dev assumed this new soldier was an officer, he carried only a pistol and had a black beret on; the other soldiers were wearing combat helmets that matched their uniforms. “You! Get these people out of the vehicles and secure them! Get me CASEVEC for the sergeant! Now people, now!” The officer quickly established order and a command presence. Dev was yanked out of his truck while a second soldier held a long back rifle pointed at him. He was thrown to the ground and his hands flex cuffed behind his back. The soldier started to pat him down and felt the revolver in his waistband. “Sir! Sir! I have another terrorist here! He’s got a gun in his pants!” Dev felt a knee on his back and the revolver was yanked out and tossed on the road. “Keep him there. I’ll deal with it.” Dev tried to turn his head so he could see the officer’s face but the soldier on his back poked him with a rifle. “Stay still, motherf***er!” Dev did as he was told. Dev lay on the road in the sun while a helicopter landed and then took off again. The cars that would run were started and driven off onto the shoulder. The white Chevy was shoved off the road by hand. Thirsty, confused and frightened, Dev waited for the next turn of fate. |
