The Darkness (5 page)

Chapter 4

“Jacob,
Jacob, wake up,” Laura whispered.

He
turned over and looked at the dark ceiling, searching the room in a daze. It
was early in the evening; the sun was just beginning to go down and low light
still broke the edge of the curtains. Katy was sleeping soundly at the foot of
the bed. Jacob closed his eyes tightly then opened them again, blinking until
his vision cleared. He looked at Laura lying next to him. “What is it?” he
asked, still groggy.

“Someone
is—” she began as a cracking of wood sounded from somewhere outside behind
their house.

Jacob
froze and put his hand to her lips. He rolled out of the bed and placed his
feet on the floor as his right hand searched the nightstand for his pistol. He
felt its cool frame and gripped it tight. There was another bang and a thump
from somewhere outside. He got up, crept around the foot of the bed, and walked
to the bathroom window. He slowly pulled back the cardboard and looked into the
yard.

Two
crouched figures were next to the plank wood fence that separated his yard from
his neighbors. They were young—teens, maybe early twenties—wearing light
backpacks. One, a young man, held a crowbar; a young girl was close behind him.
They were looking in the direction of his back deck. There was another sound of
splitting wood followed by a loud pop, and he saw the two individuals get to
their feet and run to the deck.

Jacob
knew someone was breaking in and that they’d managed to jimmy open the French
doors off the family room. He heard them below now as they closed the door. Muffled
voices seemed to direct someone to move furniture—probably to brace the
destroyed door. Jacob looked behind him and saw his wife through the open
bathroom door, sitting up in the bed with Katy in her lap. He held a finger to
his lips as he crept toward her and stopped to kneel next to a heat register in
the floor. With his ear pressed against it, the ductwork funneled the muffled
sounds from below.

“There
isn’t shit here. Why are we stopping, Frank?” a young male voice said.

“We
need to hold up, at least until morning. We can’t keep stumbling around in the
dark; they’ll find us,” answered a gruff older man’s voice.

Jacob
listened to the two males arguing, the female remaining silent. The sound of
kitchen cabinets and the pantry doors opening and closing was followed by
complaints about the house having no food or water. He listened as they continued
to stomp through the house; opening and dumping drawers… then a foot fell on
the bottom steps.

Jacob
took his ear from the floor vent and, returning to the bedroom, moved to his
wife’s side to scoop up his daughter. He kept her head against his chest in
case she made a sound. Jacob quickly moved them through the bathroom and into
the walk-in closet. Laura sat in a corner, and Jacob placed Katy in her lap. He
told his wife to be silent and wait for him. As he crept back, she reached out
and grabbed his arm.

“What
are you going to do?” she whispered.

“Let’s
just see who they are first,” he said, walking into the bedroom. He took a
position where he could observe the heavy wooden door.

The
steps slapped against the hardwood stair treads. Whoever was attached to the
feet was not trying to be quiet. The footfalls sounded thunderous over the
silence of the room, and Jacob imagined heavy work boots. The sound dulled as
the feet left the stair treads and stepped onto the carpet at the top. He heard
them near the door. He stared intently at the knob and watched it turn side to
side. Then it rattled as someone shook the handle, the heavy door hardly
budging thanks to being locked tightly in place with the screws.

“Hey,
Joey! We got a locked door up here!” the gruff voice called out.

“Will
you be quiet?” Jacob heard another respond. “You want them to hear us?”

The
door rattled again. “Boy, they ain’t going to hear us indoors.”

Jacob
heard softer footsteps running up the treads, followed by a second set. The
lighter footsteps approached the door and Jacob could hear them shuffling
around on the landing. The knob turned and rattled again.

“Damn,
who puts a bolt lock on an inside door?” the younger voice muttered.

Jacob
heard metal slide along the doorframe then a creak and pop of splintering wood.
He knew one of them was applying a crowbar to the doorjamb. He ducked into the
bathroom doorway and leaned out, keeping the pistol in his hand. He was
confident the door wouldn’t move with the deck screws. Even if they were able
to seat the crow bar, they would need a fire axe to remove it from its frame.

“Wait,
there might be people in there; let’s just leave it alone.” Jacob heard the
girl speak for the first time.

“Girl,
you’re stu—”

“Damn
it, Frank, I told you not to talk to her like that,” the younger man said.

An
exaggerated laugh echoed in the hallway. “Boy, what are you going to do about
it? You’d be dead right now if I hadn’t come back for your ass.”

“Screw
you, Frank; we were getting along just fine without you,” the girl said.

“The
hell you were. Now shut up before I slap you both upside the head with this
bar,” the gruff voice said laughing.

There
was another clunk as the bar pried into the doorframe, causing a slight
creaking of wood, then the bar popped and the man yelped. “Dammit; smashed my
knuckles!” he shouted.

The
man huffed and breathed hard until, suddenly, a thud resonated as the man
punched the door.

“This
fucker is solid,” Frank said. “Maybe we can get some tools in the morning and
try again.”

Jacob
heard the crowbar drop to the carpet.

“Or…
maybe I should just shoot the lock.”

“Are
you crazy? They’ll hear that for sure,” the girl argued.

“Boy,
you better shut that little bitch up before I do,” Frank said.

There
was a commotion on the landing that sounded like fists being thrown. Heavy
breathing and grunting was accompanied by banging against the door as something
hard smacked against it repeatedly.

 “Stop,
Frank! You’ll kill him,” pleaded the girl. The banging against the door stopped;
then Jacob heard a loud slap and the girl whimpered. “This is your fault. If
you’d just kept your mouth shut!” Frank yelled. “Take this piece of shit
downstairs before I kick both your asses. I should have never come back for
you,” he said, grunting and breathing heavy.

Jacob
could hear the soft steps fade as they fumbled down the stairs. The other man’s
heavy breathing remained. He thudded against the door, and Jacob could hear him
slide down to the floor. He was muttering to himself. The sound of a lighter
sparked to life and soon after, Jacob could smell cigarette smoke as it drifted
through the cold air return.

He
knew the man was lying against the door. He could easily muffle the gun with a
pillow and press it against the wood; a single shot is all it would take, if he
guessed correctly. A quick shot in the night. The people downstairs would
probably thank him.

There
was a clanging as the man pried the bar against the knob. A sharp, metallic
clunk followed by a crunching sound, and the handle broke off. Jacob felt the
fear build and backed up as he observed the handle drop on his side of the
door. The man then jabbed at the knob and knocked away the core, creating a
small peek hole where the knob had been.

I
cannot allow him to enter
, Jacob thought.

Jacob
hung back in the shadows and looked at the small hole. He could see the whites
of the man’s eye as he peered in. The curtains were drawn and the room was
pitch-black; Jacob knew the man couldn’t see anything. Now was the time—if he
was going to do it, he’d do it now. Jacob raised the pistol and aimed at the
hole in the door. He’d shoot him through the eye. The gunshot would be loud,
but a single shot would be hard for the things to pinpoint.

“Who’s
in there?” the man said.

Jacob
eased back the pistol and held his breath.

“Come
on now, I know someone’s in there; I see your stuff on the bed.”

Jacob
held the pistol with both hands and sighted on the hole. He let his thumb
quietly click off the safety then cock the hammer on the pistol, holding his
breath.

“Whoa,
okay now, I heard that; let’s take it easy in there,” the man said.

“Take
it easy like you did on the boy and the girl?” Jacob asked, breaking the
silence, trying to make his voice sound raucous.

“Come
on now, I’m the only thing keeping them alive. The boy’s got some growing up to
do; I’m just trying to toughen him up.”

“Yup,
that’s your business and you can keep it out there,” Jacob said. “What do you
want?”

“What
do you got?”

Jacob
forced a laugh, wanting the man to think he wasn’t afraid, even though he was.
He relaxed his shoulders and kept the gun aimed at the door. He could no longer
see the man’s eye but from the deflection of his voice, Jacob knew he was still
resting in front of the door.

“You
can have anything out there. I don’t have enough in here to share. Take what
you need, stay the night, but in the morning you need to be gone.”

 “Oh,
come on now, you ain’t left us shit out here. We gonna need something more.
What you got? Food? Some water maybe?”

“What
I
got
is a big-ass shotgun aimed at your head,” Jacob bluffed. “I
already made you my best offer. Take it or leave it.”

Frank
let out an exaggerated sigh. “Mister, I think we got off on the wrong foot here.
We’re all on the same side. I just need a little to keep us going. Hell, give
us some of what you got, and maybe you can come with us. Lord knows I could use
someone like you; that kid sure as hell ain’t no help.”

Jacob
had no intention of letting the man in, but he wanted information from him. It was
the first contact he’d had with anyone from the outside in days.

“Where
are you going?” Jacob asked, intentionally leading the man on.

“The
park; word is that it’s safe there. The military is running an evacuation,”
Frank said, relaxing his voice. Jacob heard the sound of a lighter as he lit
another cigarette.

“Where
did you hear this?” Jacob asked.

“State
cop, two days ago,” Frank answered.

“Bullshit,
I haven’t seen a cop since this all started.”

“There’s
still some out there, mister. They stick to the highway, mostly. Won’t go into
the neighborhoods anymore.”

“Then
how is it you saw one?” Jacob asked suspiciously.

Frank
grunted. “Stupid story, really. I actually made it the hell out of here… well,
almost. My sister talked me into going back for her dumbass kid. The troopers
had school buses up at the old high school, evacuating people. I got my family
there, my sister and her little ones, but the woman refused to get on the bus.
She begged me to go back for that one downstairs.

“I
guess I am as stupid as he is for letting her talk me into it. Kid was holding
up at the house with his girlfriend. I got ’em out of there, but shit was too
far gone by the time we got back on the road. The siren that was going suddenly
shutting off really screwed us. Seems like they’re more active now than ever
and running in those large groups.”

“Have
you… have you killed one?” Jacob asked.

A
long pause. Jacob could hear Frank inhale deeply on the cigarette and let out a
muffled cough. “Yeah, I’ve killed some. You?”

“Yeah,”
Jacob answered.

“Did
you know them?”

“I
knew the last ones; they were kids from up the street, but… but they were
different,” Jacob muttered.

“They
weren’t the people you thought they were. I’m not sure what’s happening, but
they aren’t the same. This is no riot, brother; it's not civil unrest or
revolution like the radio said. Shit ain’t right out there—something’s wrong,
really wrong. I killed an old lady. She lived up the street from us, used a
walker, and rarely left her front yard. That old bitch ran at me like a kid in
her twenties. It’s not right; that's not possible. I heard folks saying they
from outer space, like an invasion!”

Jacob
thought back to the blood on his hands, how it curled against the concrete
floor. “That’s nuts; I mean, Aliens? Really? No, it’s not possible, right?”
Jacob answered.

“Really?
It ain’t so crazy if you
really
stop to think about it.”

“You
said you knew the old lady, so how could she be from outer space?” Jacob asked
unable to hide the sarcasm from his voice.

“Well…
maybe not aliens, but shape shifters, something… That old woman, she wasn’t an
old women anymore, she even smelt differ—”

A
large crash at the front of the house caused Jacob to jump. He gripped the
pistol again and brought it up. “What was that?” Jacob asked.