The air tasted like stale oyster crackers. Even if Bobby breathed through his nose, the bready flavor clung to his palate. With every step, the liter of water he drank before following Richard and Duncan sloshed in his belly.
He figured he’d switch to something with a little more body when he got back to the Bottom.
When he got close to the trees that shielded the wreck, his legs wanted to take him to the front door. He was done avoiding, though. He stiffened his neckthen ran past the sphere. His distorted reflection kept pace with him.
The breath he had been holding burst out of his lips as soon as he passed the shuttle and couldn’t see it anymore.
He shook his head at his own foolishness.
But the thing felt like a grave. Walnut died in there. Bobby didn’t want to get anywhere near it.
His pops was scared to death of heights. At least, that’s what he always claimed, but Bobby had never seen it. He’d wheel right to the edge. Look out the window on the tallest floor. If his father could have walked, Bobby was sure he would have stepped right out on a tightrope tied to the Burj Khalifa.
Was he lying, or did he just force himself to confront his fears with a smile. Bobby sighed and shook his head. He knew the answer.
He admired the shining bar as he opened the door to the basement. The blue fire Walnut had hung up was gone. It was in the same place as that other bar. The one with the shattered windows and burning facade.
Bobby could still see by the light coming through the service opening at the bottom of the ramp. The sun soaring by outside the dome made it look like the flash of a warning signal.
There was a shelf stacked high with cans and bottles. Summer style fruit beers and ales. Not the usual heavy stuff Richard and Walnut liked. Even Jericka and Andrea enjoyed beers outside of his spectrum.
It was always high ABV IPA’s. Dank and bitter. Or stouts that hit like a falling elevator. Dark porters made out of exotic coffee with hot peppers and dragon fruit. Barrel-aged sours that sucked all the moisture out of his mouth.
He didn’t believe every beer should be an adventure. Or a meal all by itself.
The shelf held the light beers — the stuff loved by customers but was barely touched by the owners. Except for Bobby. He was surprised there weren’t indents in the floor from his feet. In the world of beers, this shelf was his hometown.
Their Leather Tongue Lager was a hit, but Bobby had wanted something more to his tastes, so Walnut had made the Clever Tongue Light Lager.
Bobby loved it. First time he cracked one open and took a long drink, he looked at Walnut with amazement. “It’s like it was made for me!”
Because it was.
They weren’t cold, but sitting in the cool basement was good enough for him. What better way to get that salty, doughy film from his mouth?
He grabbed a Clever Tongue from the front row and put the mouth of the bottle in the opener bolted to the wall. The cap popped with a tiny hiss.
Bobby wrinkled his nose in disappointment. Lifted the bottle up for a sniff. It was like it wasn’t there. Then with bubbling swell, the aroma exploded into his nose, and the foam crested the lip to spill over onto his knuckles.
He quickly covered the rising foam with his mouth, and he tipped the bottle back to knock half of it down in a couple of swallows.
The pressure of the gas in his belly. The slight warmth as it went down. The familiar flavor washing his mouth clean.
More of it when he belched out of the corner of his mouth.
He sighed and turned toward the service ramp leading outside to the shuttle. Took a deep breath. “Time to face some fears.”
Bobby marched up the ramp. Paused at the top to drain the bottle. Set the empty on the ground then walked without looking.
The sun tracked across the sky. Like it was behind a diffuser, washed out and nebulous.
His heart fluttered when he heard scraping to his left.
He jumped back, looked down.
Carter came around the shuttle. The raccoon scurried over the mound of broken dirt that made up the ridge of the ship’s crater. He sniffed at the everything in his path, like a tiny dog looking for a trail.
He stopped and looked up at Bobby with reproach.
… dog …
Bobby shook his head. “Did a fucking raccoon just talk in my head?”
Carter sat back on his hind legs and rubbed his chest with his little black hands.
… not dog …
“Fine. You’re not a dog. I didn’t even say it. I thought it, though, so stay out of my head.”
… sorry …
Bobby nodded like they had settled an argument. “Fine. So, whatcha doing?”
Carter shrugged and looked away.
… the bear …
An image of Walnut’s shaggy head rose in Bobby’s mind. He nodded and took a step closer to the ship. “Yeah, buddy. Me, too.”
He stretched his hand out. His M.C. Escher reflection reached out to stop him, and just before their hands touched, Bobby smelled the sea.
A stifled giggle behind him made him snatch his hand back and spin around. Carter was off at a waddling sprint.
Andrea and Jericka walked across the lot. They leaned on each other to give Jericka the support she needed to drag Girl Power along with her.
When Bobby tipped his ear toward them, he heard the stomp-scrape of her stride.
Carter raced up to them, darted around their ankles amid hushed laughter and murmured words.
Bobby grinned and left the ship behind him, thankful for an excuse to ignore it again.
He was only a few yards away from the rear corner of the bar at the top of the service ramp when he noticed out of the corner of his eye a flicker in the distance. At the end of the alley. At the bottom of the hill that used to blot out the sky in a frozen explosion.
He narrowed his eyes and stared. Another flicker. Like black water coming in a rolling wave.
The ghosts that Naomi saw? A busted water main?
The sun fell behind the movement, and the momentary dark of the accelerated night let the burning light of a hundred gaping maws glow in sudden intensity. A swarm of dark beasts emerged into the open.
“The fuck?”
The sun spread light across the town as it rose again. Their black hides rippled with a metallic sheen. Blue fire like the exhaust of the falling shuttle glowed in their eyes.
They seemed to wink out of existence, and when they came back, they were a step closer.
They were all points and light, and his brain couldn’t figure out their flickering anatomy. It could only scream in terror.
The sound of sod tearing up in long strips. The scrape of claws and digging feet.
Jericka reached out to him, her face creased with concern. She opened her mouth to speak, and he grabbed her wrist and yanked her back, into his arms, until he held her in the vice of a panicked embrace. She squealed in protest, but she couldn’t get Girl Power to plant. Without leverage, Bobby was able to drag her down the ramp.
Andrea staggered when Jericka was snatched from under her arm. “The fuck, Bobby?”
She looked at him, then her face went slack and she turned to follow his gaze.
Andrea’s scream jolted Jericka in Bobby’s arms. She fought to turn around, finally managed to. When she saw the coming swarm, she stopped fighting him and worked with him. Then they were at the bottom of the ramp, gasping in each other’s arms.
He jumped away, amazed they both had stayed on their feet.
She windmilled her arms for balance as he sprinted back up the ramp.
Andrea met him with a hip check that brought him up short like he had hit a wall. She powered through him, grabbed the delivery door on the right side with both hands, then pulled it shut.
A heavy cellar style door, it dropped against the jamb with an ear-splitting clang. The wet ripping sound swelled as the creatures neared. Bobby lunged to the top and grabbed the other door. As he heaved, he marveled at Andrea’s strength.
Time to feel like a bitch later.
The door paused at the apex of its swing, and Bobby grunted as he lifted his feet to hang from the handle.
The door tipped over and dropped with him. It slammed louder than the first, and the impact jammed both shoulders with a jolt of pain.
He threw the bolt, then slid down the ramp on his ass like a kid afraid of going down the hot slide in the park.
There were no words.
What could any of them ask that there could possibly be an answer to?
He heard skittering claws on the floor above them.
“Oh, shit.”
Andrea pointed to the dark ceiling. “We left Carter!”
It wasn’t the thought of Carter being trapped in the bar that ran a claw of ice down his spine. He hauled himself to his feet and slapped Jericka’s concerned hands away as he dashed toward the central room. “I left the fucking door open!”
The floor groaned with the combined weight of the creatures as they chased Carter into the bar.
Bobby grabbed the door jamb to help him tighten his turn, and he hit the bottom of the stairs in a fast stumble.
Carter’s claws slipped in a frantic bid for traction, then the critter appeared at the landing. He shot down the stairs in a tumble of grunting fur. Bobby lifted his right leg to let him pass, and he was clear of the stairs.
Whene leaned out to grab the handle of the big steel door that would seal them inside the basement bunker, one of the creatures flew at him like the nose of a rocket.
He screamed with effort and horror. The creature’s answering roar sounded like a polar bear swallowing a bulldozer.
Rippling heat washed Bobby’s hair back from his forehead.
The air behind the first creature filled with more.
Limbs or tentacles? The number of joints in each body? Bobby couldn’t tell. Every gap in the skin glowed from an internal fire. The eyes glittered with light. Their screaming mouths were full of heat and sound and gnashing teeth that looked like shards of coal.
The width of his field of view narrowed as the door closed, and he almost let go in relief. He was going to make it.
Gobs of warm spit hit him in the face, and just before the door closed, the creature flung its front arm at the gap like it was chopping wood.
The appendage split and rejoined into a blade of scaled obsidian. It cut the air with a whistle and passed into the dark of the landing in a blur.
A shock of pain lanced Bobby’s elbow as the door slammed shut. His momentum carried him back to the edge of the landing, then his heels were over nothing but air. He threw his hands out to keep from falling, and warm fluid splattered his face.
It tasted like blood.
He fell straight back, and before being taken entirely by gravity, he saw his hand still clinging to the door knob. It ended at a perfect line just below the elbow. Blood puddled below it. Seeped under the door, where he could see the restless movements of the creatures on the other side.
He brought his arms across his body, and his shirt front was soaked with spurting blood before he finished his fall. The impact drove the air out of his lungs.
Couldn’t get a breath to scream, but it sounded like Jericka and Andrea were doing it for him.
His wife’s scent filled his nose. It covered up the stench of his own blood, and he smiled into her hair. What a woman.
What a life.