The Fall - Ch 5

         Mike started down the road at a slow pace so that it would be easy for Tasisure to keep up at a loping pace. He knew that the wolf could easily keep a faster pace, but there was no point to tiring him out. They would either get to the closest town before morning, or they could set up the tent in Mike’s backpack. He was hoping that they could mainly travel at night, knowing that the wolf would have less problem with that and there would be less chance of running into anyone with bad intentions. Since the road was basically memorized, Mike allowed his mind to wander to the last time that he had seen Alexis and Zoe.


         He looked up to the porch of the house in Baltimore and saw them both standing there. Alexis looked somewhat worried, but Zoe’s face lit up the way it always did when she got her Daddy’s attention. Mike was packing the last of the stuff that he was taking to the cabin that would be his home for a few months. He was hoping that eventually Alexis would consent and move here permanently, along with Zoe. If not he would come back to Baltimore once he was done with his photography session.

         The Jeep was loaded with all his equipment and outdoor clothes. Mike knew that he would mainly need cooler clothes, and the cabin was well stocked with warm clothes, so there was no need to pack them. He walked up to the porch and scooped Zoe into his arms.

         “Daddy will call every night, I promise” he told her.

         “’Kay Daddy. Yuv you! Super-squishey hugs!!!” Zoe yelled. They hugged tight and then Zoe wiggled until he set her back down. Mike then turned to Alexis.

         “Will you be okay sweetheart? You know I hate to leave you alone with her” Mike said.

         “Of course I’ll be fine. Zoe knows me and loves me. What could possibly be wrong?” Alexis asked.

         “Lex, you know I hate leaving you alone with her, and I know that watching an autistic 7 year old isn’t the best way to spend a full summer. If you would just come with me…”

         “We’ve been over this. Zoe needs other kids. You know that as well as I do. Please, lets not fight when you are about to leave.” They had found out the previous year that Zoe was somewhere on the Autism Spectrum. The current thinking was leaning towards Aspergers, but there was no definitive test for anything on the spectrum at this point. Zoe’s main struggles were speech and comprehension, about a year behind on speech, but farther than that in comprehension.

         “Ok Lexi. I love you. I will be back in a few weeks. On the bright side, what could possibly happen?”


         Looking back at that conversation, Mike wanted to laugh. The new answer to his question was “a whole shitload”. That was what could possibly happen. Like World War 3 could happen, if that’s what this was.

         Mike could see the sun starting to come up and could see the vague outline of buildings in the distance. It was weird that there was almost not motion that he could discern from this distance. Even the trees and hedges around the houses seemed to be still, as if they were worried that their motion would disturb the peace in the small village.

         As Mike passed the first houses he realized that there were no sounds. To his right there was a small white house behind the split rail fence. In the yard, which was quickly becoming overgrown, there was the skeleton frame of a swing set with a regular swing and a carousel horse hanging from it, but there were no children in the yard and no sounds of kids in the house.

         He knew that there were more stores towards the center of town, and decided to head that way. Tasisure kept pace with him to his left and slightly behind him. Mike kept the throttle on the ATV slightly above idle so that he was just creeping down the road and with his right hand, checked to make sure that he could quickly get to the Desert Eagle. Something didn’t feel right to him and he was nervous.

         They moved into the downtown shopping area without seeing any people. The entire town seemed deserted. The downtown area looked like you might expect, with the faded neon signs and the windows proclaiming SALE and Save Here Now! in all manner of colors to attract the attention of a passerby.

         “But where are all the passersby at now?” Mike asked out loud. Tasisure turned to look at him with a confused look, as if to say I’m not sure either. Suddenly there was a break in the silence from the repeated cawing of a crow. It seemed to be coming from the cross street ahead, which should be near the center of town.

         Mike slowly made his way down main street towards what looked like a pile of rubble stacked around the fountain that he knew existed there. He could see crows perched all over the pile, occasionally cawing and hopping to reposition. Mike gunned the engine on the ATV to scare the crows into surprised flight, and as they took off Mike almost fell off the ATV as he realized what he was looking at.
Mike turned wide-eyed from the pile and stared at Tasisure.

         “I guess we found all the people” Mike said to the wolf, as he turned back to look at the bodies of the people from the village stacked around the fountain.