Snow

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

As the milky pink of predawn bruised the sky, Todd jerked awake. Both hands were still clutching the handgun. The three of them were hidden in the back of the ambulance Todd had seen from the church’s bell tower, the doors pulled shut and locked against anything that might be out there waiting for them. Through the sliding panel of window that separated the rear of the ambulance from the cab, Todd could see daylight bleeding up from behind the distant trees. He could also see the sky, and the bizarre cloud cover that seemed to hermetically seal the town, like the lid on a boiling pot. The clouds looked dense, solid, tangible…and the color of pond moss…

Kate stirred behind him. She had curled up behind Meg and slept straight through the early morning hours, despite her initial protest that she’d never in a million years be able to find sleep. She looked at him now and offered him a crooked yet somewhat seductive smile while she ran her fingers through her matted hair.

“Sleep well?” he said.

“The best. We’re on vacation, right? In the Bahamas?”

“Of course. Would you like a mimosa with your breakfast?”

“Ooh,” she chided, playfully grimacing. “Don’t say breakfast. I could eat a whole cow right now.”

“Yeah,” he said, looking back through the sliding panel and out the windshield beyond. “I’m starving, too.”

Kate crept up next to him and looked out the window. She smelled of sleep and dried perspiration, the combination of which caused something to stir within Todd. Upon their first meeting back at the bar at O’Hare, he’d found her attractive…but something overwhelming was working on him now and he realized, with bittersweet embarrassment, that he was trying to fight off an erection.

“My God, the sky’s funny,” she said. “I’ve never seen clouds like that in my life.”

“Maybe they’re not actually clouds,” he suggested. “Just like those things out there aren’t actually snow.”

The thought caused Kate’s face to draw into a frown. He suddenly wanted to hug her, to cradle her.

“There’s smoke, too,” she said.

“It’s the church.” He’d seen the column of thick black smoke spiraling up into the atmosphere, where it flattened out and spread like oil against the low clouds.

“It burned all through the night?”

“Seems that way.”

“Do you think it’s completely gone?”

“I don’t know.” His stomach growled, and he blushed when Kate turned and smiled at him.

Then her smile faded. She was looking at Meg.

Todd looked at the sleeping teenager, who had her back turned to them as she lay curled on a gurney. She wore a threadbare blouse of thin material smudged with dirt, the collar of which had been torn away at some point during their escape from the church. What was exposed was a narrow serration in the soft flesh of her shoulder, nearly mouthlike, that ran midway down her back and disappeared beneath the fabric of her blouse. The lips of the gash appeared to respire.

“She wasn’t like that before,” Kate said, backing up against the opposite wall of the ambulance. “I checked her back at the church. It must have happened while we were escaping. One of those things must have…must have gotten inside her somehow…”

Todd pointed the gun at the back of Meg’s head.

“Oh.” Kate began to cry. “Oh fuck, Todd…”

His hand shook. He watched the girl’s chest rise and fall as she slept. No, he tried to convince himself, she’s not a little girl. She’s different now. But that did little to assuage his guilt.

He lowered the gun. He felt Kate’s eyes hanging on him, burning through him. Instead of looking at her he just nodded toward the ambulance’s rear doors and mouthed the words, Get out. Comprehending, Kate peeled herself off the wall and practically glided past the sleeping teenage girl. Kate picked up her sconce and somehow managed to unlatch the ambulance doors without making a sound. Todd crept out after her, the freezing temperatures a sudden shock to his system the second he dropped down to the slushy road.

He stood for a long time staring into the open doors of the ambulance. If this were a movie, he’d be cursing the hero, telling him to go back in there and pull the trigger, pull the trigger, pull the fucking trigger. But this was real life, and sometimes people were just as foolish as the fake people on-screen.

Let’s be honest, he thought then, his hand holding the gun trembling. I’m not even sure shooting this girl would kill the thing inside it. The one Shawna shot outside the Pack-N-Go just seemed to flit away. Maybe they’re injured and weakened when they come rushing out of people like that, but I don’t think shooting them kills them.

Fire, on the other hand…

The thought caused him to turn and watch the conical black smoke rising up from the trees. The church. It was a goddamn funeral pyre, all right, smoldering straight through the night. He wondered what was left of the building and, moreover, what remained of the creatures inside.

Kate was staring at him by the side of the road. She looked cold and wet and uncomfortable. “Are we going?” she said, her voice just barely audible.

He nodded, and they began walking down in the culvert, out of sight from the road.

In the light of day, the massacre that had come to Woodson was horrifically apparent. Blood stained the snowy hillsides and froze in red rivulets in the ravines and gutters along the roadways. Shredded bits of clothing were strung up in trees like discarded party favors. Worse still, human bones were strewn about at random as if they’d fallen off the back of a passing truck; many of the bones still had chunks of meat on them that glittered with frost. A human head caught in midscream was propped in the Y of a yew tree, its eyes frozen into black marbles, its skin a nightmarish blue-green. At one point Kate asked if she should light the torch, just in case one of those things burst out of the snow again, but Todd said it was probably best to keep a low profile. “Besides,” he said, “it seems like they’re hiding now that it’s daylight.”

“Shawna said daylight didn’t matter, that they’re not vampires.”

Todd shrugged. “Maybe they are. Maybe these things are what we’ve come to know as vampires.”

“The sky looks funny. I’ve got a bad feeling. And that swirling electrical cloud over the hill up there?” She pointed over toward the rotating black eyelet beneath the dome of clouds. “It’s unnatural.”

Todd laughed—he couldn’t help it. “This whole fucking thing is unnatural, love,” he said, sending her laughing, too. He was starving—surely they both were—and laughing only aggravated his empty stomach…but it felt good, too. Suddenly, Todd couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed.

“Where do we go now?” Kate asked after they’d walked for another few minutes, the laughter having subsided.

“I say we stick to the original plan. Hit one of those houses, steal a car, get the fuck outta Dodge.”

“What about the others?” There was genuine hopefulness in her voice that suggested she actually believed they were still alive. “I mean, once we find a car, do we…we just leave them here? Leave them behind?”

“Nan’s dead,” Todd reminded her. “That doesn’t bode well for Fred and Shawna, either.”

“But you don’t know that.”

“When I was up in the bell tower with Chris, I could see that the windows of the Pack-N-Go had been blown out. Chris said he saw two women come running out of there.”

“What about Fred?”

“He said nothing about Fred.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s dead. And what about Shawna? We don’t know that she’s dead, either. Not for sure. She’s lasted the whole week out here on her own, holed up in that convenience store. It’s possible she’s still around, hiding and waiting things out.”

“Listen,” he said, “I don’t like the idea of leaving them behind any more than you do. I feel like shit about Nan. But it’s not like we can tool around the neighborhoods honking our horn and shouting their names, Kate. What do you suggest we do?”

She paused. He thought she was angry with him, but when he looked at her, there was a strange expression on her face.

“What?” he said. “What is it?”

“I have to pee.”

He snorted, smiling. “So pee. I’ll wait here.”

“No. I’m not traipsing off by myself. Just turn around. I’ll do it right here.”

He took the torch from her, then turned around. He stared at the treetops while she unzipped her pants and, a few seconds later, he tried not to get embarrassed by the sound of her urinating in the snow. To make light of the scenario, he said, “Man, I hope you’re pissing on one of those fuckers right now.”

She barked laughter, then scolded him: “Don’t make me laugh! I’m squirting all over the place back here.”

When she’d finished, she balled up some snow in her hands to clean them, then took the torch back from Todd. Together they continued walking along the muddy culvert until they could see the houses looming up on the other side of the street. Someone had driven a Ford Taurus into a fire hydrant, the car’s occupant gone. A stop sign was bent at a perfect right angle, the large white STOP printed vertically.

They crossed up over the embankment and out into the street with considerable trepidation. Every footfall seemed to echo down the street. It was like walking onto a movie set. Nothing seemed real and everything was eerily quiet.

“Where do you think they all are?” Kate said. She was holding the unlit torch like a baseball bat now.

“I have no clue. But let’s not take it for granted.”

“Deal. Which house?”

“The closest one.”

They moved up the snow-packed sidewalk, their feet sinking straight down to their ankles in the freezing muck. Beyond a copse of pines, Todd thought he recognized the backs of some of the buildings. “I think we’re on the other side of the town square,” he said, trying to peek through the trees.

“God.” Kate froze.

“What is it?”

“I feel like someone’s following us.”

“Someone?”

“Or one of those things.”

Todd surveyed the empty road, the strip of houses, the surrounding wedges of trees. “I don’t see anything.”

“I think that’s the idea.” She shivered, hugging herself. “Let’s keep going. I feel like a moving target out here.”

They hurried up the sloping lawn to the first house, a quaint little Victorian with Christmas decorations in the darkened windows. Off to their left, something sizzled. Todd spun around, the gun aimed in. Kate said, “What was that?”

Across the street, a thick black cable snaked through the snow, occasionally spitting sparks from its truncated end.

“Downed power line,” Todd said. “I saw that from the bell tower, too.”

“You’re a regular Quasimodo.”

Kate advanced up the lawn but Todd grabbed her sleeve. “Wait. I think we should go around back.”

“Okay.”

The backyard was protected by a wooden fence roughly six feet high. Todd could just barely see over the top but there was no hope for Kate. However, an ivy trellis clung to the side of the house, flimsy but workable. Todd slipped the handgun into his waistband, then propped a foot into one of the diamond-shaped grooves. Hoisting himself up, he felt just how weak the trellis was. He managed to secure another foothold before leaning over the fence. A quick survey of the yard showed nothing out of the ordinary—a drooping hammock dipped in ice and a bird feeder that was, like everything else in this town, deserted. In fact, it occurred to him at that moment that he hadn’t seen a single animal—not a bird or a squirrel—since arriving in Woodson. It troubled him to think of what might have happened to all the little woodland creatures…

He clambered over the fence and dropped down on the other side, his boots plowing through several inches of snow. Kate’s head appeared over the fence next, looking nervous and unsteady.

“What’s wrong?” he said.

“I’m afraid of heights.”

“You’re eighteen inches off the ground. Come on.”

She managed to swing one leg over the fence, then panicked when she didn’t know how to get the other leg over. Todd lifted her up beneath her thigh and buttocks and hoisted her over and into the yard. It wasn’t until she’d thanked him and turned back toward the rear of the house that he registered his disappointment—he had hoped she’d kiss him.

Brilliant, asshole, he thought. Great time to start thinking with your libido.

It wasn’t his fault—the last woman he’d slept with had been some floozy he’d picked up in a bar in the Village; both of them drunk, they’d stumbled back to her place and he’d gored her like a bull in heat right on her loveseat. Then she’d gotten up and vomited in the bathroom where, presumably, she’d spent the rest of the evening.

What a life I lead, he thought. Makes me wonder why I’m trying so desperately to stay alive.

But he knew the answer to that.

His son.

They went to the back door, a sliding glass door behind which hung heavy drapes. If it had been his hope to peek in through the glass, he was shit out of luck. He produced the gun from his waistband and held it by the barrel, intending to use the butt of the weapon to shatter the glass.

“Wait,” Kate said. “Try the door.”

He tried the door and it shushed open, unlocked.

“I grew up in a small town,” she said, beaming. “No one locks their doors.”

Todd pulled aside the curtain to reveal a house that looked relatively unharmed. They stepped into the kitchen, a cozy little room with bright ceramic tiles on the wall and plastic fruit in a basket on the table. Photos of children cluttered the refrigerator.

Out of habit, Todd’s hand went immediately for the light switch…but of course, nothing happened. Kate went directly to the telephone on the wall, picked it up and listened, then shrugged and hung it up. “Was worth a try,” she told him with a wry grin. “You think we could hit that fridge?”

“Let’s do it quickly.”

They devoured sliced lunch meat, half a loaf of bread, two pieces of strawberry shortcake, and washed it all down with half a carton of milk.

“I think that was the best meal I’ve ever had in my life,” Kate said through a mouthful of cake.

“Those five-star dives in Manhattan have got it all wrong,” he agreed.

When they were done eating, they walked through the rooms of the lower level, but the place was deserted. The sunlight that spilled through the windows looked dirty, like a sepia-toned reel of film. It had something to do with the sky, Todd was certain, and that bizarre cloud cover. In fact, it even occurred to him that the air tasted funny, as if the whole atmosphere were slowly deteriorating. He tried to think how long the air had tasted like that and remembered some sense of disorientation when he’d followed Eddie Clement through the trees only to arrive in the field that overlooked Woodson. It had started back then…but he’d been too preoccupied with other matters at that moment to notice something so subliminal. Now, however, everything was suspect.

“Go check the drawers in the kitchen for car keys,” he told Kate. “I’m going to take a look in the garage.”

It was a single-car garage, housing a dust-covered Ford station wagon. He frowned, wondering how far they’d get on the icy roads in this piece of shit. Well, at least the tires looked to be in good shape.

Kate appeared behind him, dangling a set of keys. She peered at the station wagon over Todd’s shoulder and grimaced. “That looks like my grandmother’s car.”

Todd took the keys and headed around to the driver’s side of the car. He reached out for the door handle, then looked up at Kate. “I’m going to start the car. Once it kicks over, pull open the garage door.”

“Isn’t it automatic?” She sounded as though she wanted to get in the car with him.

“Power’s out. It won’t work.” Then he tossed her the keys. “Okay, you kick it over and I’ll open the door. Then I’ll hop in the passenger seat.” He forced a wink and it earned him a smile. “Just don’t leave without me.”

“Not on your life,” she said, hurrying around to the driver’s door. “You’ve got the gun.”

Todd went to the garage door, unlatched it, and prepared to shove it open once the station wagon kicked over. Kate climbed into the driver’s seat and sat there for a long time.

“Go ahead,” he said to her eventually.

“I am,” she told him, leaning out the door and gaping at him. “It won’t start.”

“Are you sure?”

“I know how to start a car.”

“Let me try.”

“I’m not an idiot.”

He leaned against the driver’s side door, frowning down at her. “Let’s not do this, okay? I just want to get out of here.”

“So do I.” Then with a huff, she climbed out of the car and Todd got in.

Slid the keys into the ignition. Gave it a good crank.

Nothing.

Todd and Kate exchanged a look. “I told you so,” she said.

He popped the hood and climbed out. Examining the engine, he couldn’t find anything obviously wrong with the car.

“Do you even know what you’re looking for?” she asked him, peering into the engine block, too.

“Just the usual stuff,” he said, “but I’m not an auto mechanic.”

“Wonderful. Now what?”

He chewed his lower lip. “I hate to keep pressing our luck, but I think we hit the house next door and try it all over again.”

The house next door was in worse shape. For starters, the doors were locked and they had to break a window and shimmy through it. Inside, the furniture had been toppled over and there were broken dishes on the kitchen floor. The television set in the living room was busted and the whole house smelled like it had been fried in the electric chair. In the laundry room, something that had once been a small dog or cat had been turned inside out and resembled something one might find in a Dumpster behind a slaughterhouse.

“I don’t like this place,” Kate said for the record.

“Duly noted.”

There was a set of keys hanging from a pegboard beside the pantry. BLESS THIS HAPPY HOME was painted on the pegboard in bright blue letters. Kate and Todd went quickly to the garage and found a Toyota Corolla, freshly detailed.

“Let’s try this again,” he said, tossing Kate the keys and going to the garage door. He undid the latch on the door as Kate slid into the car. This time, Todd could hear her twisting the keys. But the car would not roll over.

After several more tries, Kate got out of the car and stood there in the half light as if she were about to scream. Todd went to her and hugged her. It was a warm and lengthy hug. She smelled like Brianna’s pillows did in the morning after she’d gotten up out of bed. It made his head dizzy and his heart hurt.

“I’m starting to think…” he said after a moment.

“No,” she said. “Please don’t say it. Something is preventing us from starting these cars. Just like it cut the power and killed the phones.”

“I think so.”

“Todd,” she said, and moved in as if to hug him again. He brought her closer…then felt a rush as her lips touched his. She tasted like sea salt and felt very warm despite the cold all around them. If he could, he would have stretched this moment in time out to infinity.

A mechanical tone sounded from his pants pocket just as Kate pressed her thigh against his. She flinched at the sound, startled. “What was that?” she breathed directly in his face.

“Looks like you’ve activated my cell.” He fished his cell phone out of his pocket and ran his fingers along the keypad to activate it.

“Please tell me that’s an incoming call,” Kate said. Her hands slid slowly down the lengths of Todd’s arms until they were no longer touching.

“No such luck. You just leaned against the keypad. Still no signal.”

Then a notion seemed to strike them both simultaneously. In the dark cave of some stranger’s garage, they glanced briefly at each other, their faces illuminated by the cold glow of Todd’s cell phone.

“Other cell phones,” Kate said.

“Might get different reception,” Todd added.

“Might have closer towers,” Kate finished. It was like an epiphany.

“There must be some around the house,” Todd said as they stormed back into the kitchen. “Lying around on tables, on phone chargers, maybe upstairs in one of the bedrooms—”

Kate rushed over to the kitchen counter where a small flip phone sat in plain view. She flipped it open and beamed. “Battery works!”

Todd rushed to her side just as her face fell. “What is it?” he asked.

Kate held out the phone so that he could examine the display screen. “Look at the numerals. Look at the time.”

“I…” But then he saw it. When he looked back up at her, she had the face of a frightened child.

“How’s that possible?” she said.

According to the cell phone, the time was currently F9:KA.

He took the phone from her and scrolled through the electronic phonebook. “Jesus Christ, will you look at this…”

The first entry was nothing but gibberish: SH%AMSA <, TWSWSV 102873460128374610973917

“It’s like the goddamn thing got scrambled,” he said, flipping through more names. Each one was in some similar form of hieroglyphics. “Let me see your phone.”

“I don’t have it. It’s still in my coat, back at the Pack-N-Go.”

Todd looked around. He began going systematically through the kitchen drawers until he located a ruby red cell phone with unicorn stickers on the casing. He powered it on and the screen blinked with the following cryptic missive: DWELLDWELLDWELLDWELLDWELLDWELL. Todd scrolled through the rest of the phone, each of the alphanumeric entries comprised of similar nonsense. Frustrated, he tossed the cell phone back in the drawer.

“Our situation just got worse, didn’t it?” Kate said. “None of the cars in this town will start, will they? All the electrical shit is out and all the battery-powered things have gone to shit. Everything’s either dead or scrambled.”

“Kate,” Todd said, suddenly backing up behind the kitchen counter with his gun drawn. “There’s someone behind you.”