Displacement Day

CHAPTER 3 - Displacement Day

Darren yawned and took a big bite of amultigrain bagel as he stared blankly out of the window. He decidedthat he was looking forward to his next weekend of Guard service. Anychange from food deliveries and classes would be nice. This was aboring part of the country. Only Chloe and his Guard service madethings tolerable.

"Forget about that shit and take on the day Darren." He tore himself away from the boring view of brick structures and telephone polls to make some instant coffee. As he reached for his Panda mug, the lights flickered and went off. "What?" He thought the TV next door was on. The neighbor seemed to favor CNN in the morning and PBS late at night. She also seemed hard of hearing. Now there was nothing. It wasn't just the power in his apartment then. The kitchen window caught his eye. Not so much the window, but the color of the light. It was almost salmon-colored. But it looked like full daylight at the same time. He went to the window for a better view of things. "Did a transformer blow?" He only had half a second to wonder about that before he noticed the sky. It was salmon-pink with pink-tinged black clouds. "What the fuck is this?" He knew a dust storm could do something like that, but when did storms like that reach central Tennessee? Never. Whatever else happened, the power was out in his apartment. The overhead light was off ad the clock in his little Sharp microwave was off. The lights seemed to off across the street. He wasn't sure what he'd see late in the morning, but he thought there would be a light or two, maybe the glow from a television. "Shit man! I hope this doesn't last." He debated getting a Diet Coke first or checking his smart phone. He decided to get the drink first, since coffee was off the table until the power came back. As he took his first sip, he checked the phone. The screen showed "No Signal" which is what he was afraid of. Being cheap and too dumb to have a roommate, Darren did not have to check his landline, because there was none. As there wasn't much he could do about the power, Darren finished his bagel and took a few more sips of his Diet Coke. He contemplated taking out the garbage, but there was room in the bag so he decided that task could wait. Then something outside caught his eye. The sky cleared up. A lingering pinkish tint made the sky and clouds look odd. Really odd. "Never heard of a thing like this before." A few cross words came from across the hall. He couldn't hear the words but someone was unhappy about something. You didn't need to hear the words to know when someone was cursing their fate, or the dark hallway, or whatever. "Guess I'll sit here and finish my drink, huh?" He had to remind himself NOT to speak with his apartment in the future. It was weird. Standing in semi-darkness got old in a couple more minutes, so Darren sat at the breakfast bar and sipped on his Diet Coke. Should I stay here? He thought about the last couple of power failures. Depressingly, he didn't have to think back that far. Each one only lasted a few minutes. He was almost done with the soda when he stood up. "Not staying here." He guessed it was about 10 minutes since the power went out. Darren went outside for a look. It was warm, and a little bit more dry than normal. He noticed that several people had come out of their apartments to look around. The sky and clouds had really changed color, somehow. It was hard to believe but impossible to deny now. A scrawny old guy down the road pointed up at something. Darren ignored that because he noticed something else hard to believe. The terrain in this part of Tennessee was mostly flat but his building was on a bit of a rise. Darren squinted and saw what looked like desert flecked with purple off in the distance. He blinked a couple of times and squinted. Nothing changed. Darren reached for his smart phone, to take a photo. Before snapping the photo, he looked over at the portly middle-aged lady standing about 10 feet away. She was looking at him. She was also holding a smart phone. "Does your phone have service?" She looked at the screen. "No." "Yeah, same here. I wonder what's going on." She walked away without responding. Darren took a picture of the new landscape. He thought about driving around to take a closer look but changed his mind. "I better check on Chloe."**** Sergeant Whitney drove out of the police department parking lot. He planned to drive around and then pull off the road near the Go Fast Convenience Store, where he could watch two of the town's major roads for speeders and other idiots. Like most cops he didn't care for this boring-ass traffic control duty, but it was important so he did it. It only took a few minutes to reach the convenience store from the police station/jail. Even with rush hour beginning the roads weren't too jammed with cars and trucks. All along the short drive, things were normal enough. Sergeant Whitney pulled into the parking lot and got out of his car. He didn't see any of the usual locals here this morning, but it was after rush hour and the place wasn't too busy. Only one person was using a gas pump and only one car was in the customer parking spots. Inside, Sergeant Whitney mumbled 'hello" to the clerks and paid for his coffee. Outside, he went right to his patrol car. The one car at the pump had been replaced by another car, driven by a young black woman who had just put her credit card in the pump. Everything was normal then. He looked around as he got in his car. As usual, it was busy out on the roads. Not too busy though. Traffic moved along at a slow pace because of the volume. The road through town, which formed a t-intersection with the highway was the same. Someone may have turned left after the light. As a matter of good traffic cop form, he raised his radar gun and pointed it at a couple of cars as they passed. Both were going one mile per hour over the posted limited. He pointed the radar gun at a big SUV on the cross street. It was cruising into the intersection at a respectable 34 miles per hour. Sergeant Whitney expected it to be another boring day. He told himself that he was happy about that. Then a flash of pinkish light startled him. "What in the world?" He thought a transformer behind the car blew out. Then he looked at the sky. The formerly blue sky and the clouds were all tinged with pink. He looked around and saw that all seemed normal, for a few seconds. The fields and trees outside town had been replaced with desert and a few plants. He almost missed the lights being out in the convenience store. But the lights were out. Sergeant Whitney got out of the car to look around and to ask some questions of folks at the convenience store. He got on the radio first. "Hey Iris, did the power go out?" He knew the place had a backup generator that automatically kicked on in a blackout. He'd expected an answer, but there wasn't an immediate answer. Something, he assumed, had gone seriously wrong at the police station. Iris got on the radio to tell him about the flash of light and the power failure. "Same here. I'm still at the convenience store. They lost power. One of the sales associates pushed the sliding door open. Sergeant Whitney could hear a couple of people talking about the pump, which obviously stopped when the power stopped. Sergeant Whitney went to the store. The battery-powered emergency lights were on and daylight was streaming into the store. But, the clerk had to push the sliding door open.**** Darren tried again to call Chloe. He knew what to expect and got it. The network was still down. "Well, what now?" He knew it wasn't a power failure or a cellular network failure. After all, how could both happen at the same time? They could not, not unless there was a tornado or earthquake. Whatever was up, Darren knew he couldn't figure out just standing there outside his building. He went to his car, determined to hook up with Chloe and discuss what happened. Getting in the car, he paused to look around again. The sky hadn't changed color. A few more people were outside, either looking at the sky like he just did, or talking. Out on the road, things continued to be odd. Plenty of people were on the road, but they had pulled over. The traffic lights were out as well. Not flashing or something, just dead. At the first major intersection, Darren almost forgot to stop. A black Ford Taurus that was half primer and had a plastic sheet for a rear window puttered through the intersection without slowing down. If Darren hadn't stopped he would have been t-boned. The driver was gray, and clutching the wheel like she'd seen zombies in the street. At the next intersection he slowed down to look around. This bit of the town featured a few houses and a few trees, plus it was about as flat as elsewhere. He could catch a glimpse of stuff that was outside of town. Only, there was nothing. No houses or trees, or road. He drove on, approaching the next intersections cautiously. A cop was at the second, directing traffic.**** It only took another minute to reach Chloe's apartment building. Streetlights seemed to be out. The porch lights or interior lights were all out. Near the turn leading to Chloe's place, a little convertible had run into a parked car. The unlucky guy hit literally the only car parked on a street on the whole West side of Ridgeway. The damage looked minor and two men were in the yard discussing something, probably the recent crash. Darren shrugged his shoulders and drove on. Chloe's place was a little closer to the edge of whatever the hell happened. And, like Darren's place, people were outside chatting or just looking around being rather confused. Chloe was not among the crowd so Darren pulled in and parked in the handicapped spot. He knocked on Chloe's door. She opened up on the second knock. "Hey babe! Do you have a signal?" Typical Chloe, right to problem-solving mode. "No, Detective Chloe. That's why I drove straight over. Any idea what the hell just happened?" "I slept late and took a shower. When there was no power, I assumed it was just a temporary thing. That was about 20 minutes ago." "Power's off at my building too." "Where's Susan?" "She's at the library with a study group, I think." He didn't think they'd be seeing her again soon. He was as nervous as Chloe looked, so he decided not to say anything. "Well, I don't know what else to do so let's take a look around. Maybe the power will come back on." He had no idea how that would happen or why he'd said it aloud. "Sounds like a good idea."**** They got in Darren's car and made a short trip, 600 yards and two turns, to see what the edge of town looked like close up. "Holy shit!" Chloe expressed what Darren thought before he could. He stopped the car. Two houses were on one side of the road and a small construction site was on the other. The normalcy ended there. The tattered old road ended in a line of concrete with light brown dust and rocks beyond. A car on the opposite side of the road had been cut in half. Darren pulled over and killed the engine. He could already tell that no one was inside the car, front or back. He heard the passenger door closed. "How is this possible?" He walked toward the car, not really expecting an answer from Chloe or anyone else Sure enough. The car had been cut in half by something. The front half ended at a line that divided grass from dust and rock. Chloe touched him on the arm. "What happened here? Did...whatever this was end here?" Darren could only shrug. Whatever happened must have been at a line running around the edge of town, part of the town. Was it the whole town? He heard a two-stroke engine behind him. Turning to look, he saw a skinny teenager on a dirt bike. He had a younger kid on the bike behind him. Neither kid was wearing a helmet but the older kid did have a smart phone. Darren turned his attention back to the desert. Where were they? And how were they here? "Do we dare go out there and take a look around?" Chloe hesitated when he looked, then shook her head. "Come on. Just for a minute." He reached out and she took his hand. Something made him hesitate for a second before stepping onto the sand. What id there were something about the sand that made it dangerous? No, that was silly, he thought. He stepped into the desert and felt exactly like a person stepping out into a desert on a warm afternoon. Chloe pointed at something. "Have you ever seen a plant like that before?" She was pointing at a low thorny bush with three branches coming off a tiny bulb just barely sticking up out of the ground. Groups of four or five purplish-black berries topped each branch. "I've seen some desert plants before, but nothing like that." He led the way over to it, about 20 yards. The little round things at the top berries on short, slender stems. Each seed was purplish-black and about a quarter of an inch in diameter. Darren reached out to pick one or two. "Watch out for the thorns babe." He had to admit the thorns looked nasty. He sniffed the air for some reason. It smelled kind of unnatural, like compost and an old attic. "It smells like someone's moldy basement." "What about the berries?" He held up a couple in the palm of his hand. She sniffed them. "Nothing." "I'll take these home. But let's look around a little more. Ahead of him, he could only see dust, rocks, and a few plants. On the left however, was a small sand dune maybe 20 feet higher than the closer parts of the desert. "Let's go up there and have a look around." Chloe started walking before he did. "Yeah, we might as well get a good look if we can."**** Darren stopped below the top to take a look back at town. Things looked almost normal, except for the lack of traffic and the lights, and the weird desert that ended at a gently curving line around the near edge of town. He tried to do a little figuring, to work out how big the area was. The arc in front of him was about 400 yards long and described maybe 10 degrees of a circle. That would make the whole circumference of the circle a little over 14,000 yards. He hardly noticed that Chloe had passed him and reached the top of the hill. "Hey, I see an oasis out there." Darren went to the top and looked at the oasis. The uneven ground may have hidden some of it, but there was an oasis out there for sure. The purplish vegetation looked black at this distance. "How far away do you think it is?" She shrugged. "A half-mile maybe." Maybe this desert wasn't so grim after all. "Should we go out there?" "I don't know...wait, something moved." He couldn't tell if it was a person or a large animal. What kind of animal would be out here? Now Darren put his full attention on the oasis. Something moved again. He saw it just as Chloe pointed. Someone was out there. "Is that a person?" "Can't be. They'd be the size of frost giant if we would see them from here." "I don't know. We have good eyes." The figure had stopped moving. It seemed to bob this way and that. "I wish I had binoculars." The figure disappeared into the brush. "We should go down and see if they're friendly." "No way Darren." Chloe wiped her brow. The sun was pretty harsh, for this late in the year. "Let's go then."Deputy Robert Whitney stopped when lightning and thunder startled him. He'd just made a right turn onto Highway 81 heading back to Nashville. His rear-view mirror showed all was well. He leaned out of the car and looked back. He stopped the car. "What the fuck is going on?" The sky over Ridgeway was crackling with yellow flickers of light and the sky had gone dark. Almost as soon as the oddness registered, things went back to normal. The lightning stopped and the sky turned back to normal blue with wispy white clouds. He was sure he could see a couple of houses and a car. Wasn't there a car on the side of the road back about 400 yards? "Did something disappear?" He got out of the car. A middle-aged man in the convenience store parking lot walked toward the street, looking toward town rather than looking where he was going. Robert was also fixated on the scene, not sure what he could make of it. The houses, bushes and trees were gone. In their place, all Whitney could see was sand, rock, and some spiny blue bushes, some like thorn buses and some like those thorn-tipped ornamental plants he'd seen at Green's Nursery. But, these plants were blue. He kept walking and studying what lie both ahead, and on either side of the road. The road ended in a neat line where the sand and rock began. All of the houses and cars were gone. So where the people. All that remained was some kind of odd desert wasteland. "What happened?" The man in the parking lot was asking the only question one could ask in these circumstances. He was now almost side-by-side with Whitney on the road. "If I knew that, I bet I'd be the only in the world." Some long-buried military instinct made Robert unholster his Glock. "Do you see any people out there?" "No." Robert didn't know why he expected this random shopper to be able to see anything special. Whitney spotted movement between a rock and a big, squat mass of thorns on his right. "Sir, you should go back to the convenience story. Maybe get on your way." Whitney waited for the man to walk away and he watched the new and alien desert wasteland ahead. He started walking. He immediately stopped and looked back at his patrol car, which was about 200 yards away now. A small crowd had gathered in the parking lot. Someone gasped. Whitney looked back at the rocky wastes where Ridgeway had been. The dog or coyote in the bushes walked out, giving Whitney a second to study it before it charged. It was glossy black and red, with tiny red eyes and as big as one of his brother's Great Pyrenees. It growled softly as it charged. Whitney start walking backwards at the same time he raised his weapon and fired. He took a couple of steps back and fired three more times. The creature stumbled, Whitney was sure he scored at least one hit. The creature had stopped charging for a couple of seconds long enough for Whitney to aim at its head. This time the creature charged and Whitney fired again. And again. The creature stumbled and fell about eight yards away. Whitney could see at least three bullet holes in his body. The wind shifted, putting him downwind. The smell of decay and burning made him a little nauseous. What could smell like that, like rotten meat and rotting vegetation? The creature struggled to its feet, eyes fixed on Whitney. Whitney gasped and fired, hitting the thing in the leg. It tried to limp forward, but a last shot in the face put it down. It didn't move or make a noise for several seconds. It felt like several minutes, but Whitney knew it was just adrenaline. He risked a look over his shoulder at the convenience store crowd. The were almost 200 yards away, but they were watching him. A few of the crowd were on their phones. He got on the radio again to call in what just happened. His body cam would have captured footage of, well, whatever the hell it was. With that thought, Whitney turned around to look back at the thing. It was the size of a large dog, but nothing like a dog. The mouth was a jagged bony ridge without teeth inside. He trained the muzzle of his pistol on the head and kicked it gently."What is that thing? A hyena?"