Robert was at the Army command postwhen the sky lit up. He looked up at what looked like history's mostviolent electrical storm. Blue and white flashes of lightning racedacross the sky, cutting through the wispy clouds, hitting the ground,and crashing into each other. Almost as soon as Robert had time toreact consciously to that spectacle, it stopped.
He radioed in. "Some huge energy discharge just lit up the area, like an electrical storm. I'm going to see what it was." "Negative. Stay where you are for now." Robert smirked at that stupid and useless order. He wasn't going to do anything sitting here. The place didn't need law enforcement to save it from an electrical storm. He was tempted to disobey that order for a moment, in case that electrical phenomenon meant what he thought it meant. The farmhouse door opened and a couple of guys in fatigues came out. One was Captain Bradley. Robert got out of his cruiser to see what was going on. Now that he was out of the car, he could hear faint talk coming from inside the house. "The anomaly happened again, just like 10 days ago. Drive me to town." He got back in his car. Bradley and his aide got in the Humvee. Only then did Robert notice both men wearing their sidearms. Robert got on the radio as he backed out. "Dispatch, I've been ordered to escort Captain Bradley and another soldier into Ridgeway. They think it just came back." It only took three minutes to reach the edge of where Ridgeway used to be, and it was there. "Holy shit!' Not only was Ridgeway back, but it came back looking almost the same. Almost. The first house Robert saw had burned. A few odd-looking little plants had sprouted in the yard too. Robert again got on the radio. "Dispatch, you might not believe it, but Ridgeway just popped back into existence." He saw a few yards that needed mowing, a dusty abandoned car, some boards on windows in the nearest two houses, one of which had burned down. No way of knowing when that happened. They pulled over right inside town, right in front of another house that was dark at the moment. Captain Bradley and his aide got out just ahead of Robert. He looked around hoping to see signs of life. No one would tell him what happened, so Robert almost expected to surprise a couple of teenagers making out in a car or something. When someone in the distance started shooting, Robert instinctively crouched by the car and reached for his pistol. It was only a few shots fired, and far enough away they weren't loud. "We should check it out Captain." The shooting had stopped before he spoke. The Captain shook his head. He then waved for his aide to get back in the car with him. and his aide got back in the SUV without talking. Robert looked around for a second before getting back in the SUV. He almost missed the two people walking out of a house. "Wait, I see people over there!" Indeed, two people had come out of a house down the street to look toward the middle of town. Robert yelled. "Hey! You're back!" The two people waved without enthusiasm and started walking their way.**** Darren could see the gate was open. Unfortunately, one of the nomads who had a rifle was standing guard. From here, he'd have to cover at least 30 yards before he could use the shotgun, which would be pointless because the rest of the gang would realize they were under attack. "What the fuck do I do?" He tried to think of a way around the Center, where he could get closer before rushing the place. Gunshots to his right made him perk up. The guard outside the gate unslung his rifle and move to take cover behind a tree. More alien voices mixed with gunshots coming from the east. The attack was working. Darren knew he'd be spotted though. He screwed up. There was no easy way to reach the van and power up the machine or drive away from here. "What the hell can I do?" Then he noticed a car parked 100 feet away. A crashed car and a couple of bushes would offer some concealment if he ran over there. "Ah hah." He got in the car and looked around for a set of keys. No keys. He checked the building and put the car in neutral. If anyone was watching from here, he could not tell. "Now or never." He got out and moved in a crouch to the rear of the car. It seemed like it was rolling now. He crouched behind the car and pushed. Nothing much happened. Darren pushed some more. A distant gunshot startled him. He took a deep breath and pushed harder. The car started to move. He stood up and looked. The car should run right into the ditch near the side exit from the Center. With luck, it would create enough drama to let him get close to the yard where the van sat, ready to be used by someone. He crouched and ran for bushes. Before he could look, he heard voices. A quick look revealed what he expected. The car was rolling, possibly picking up a little speed. He crept from behind the bushes and chambered a round in the shotgun. The guard who'd been standing there ran to get a closer look at the car, which rolled to a stop at the edge of the driveway Darren had hoped he could get close to. The guard behind the tree ran to the car. Darren crouched and made a run for the yard. The rate of gunfire picked up. He wished he could somehow make himself even smaller. But, before he could worry about getting shot he was at the gate and slipping inside. He seemed to be alone in the parking area. The old truck was there, no longer hooked up. Darren rushed to hook up the generator, which was easy because the back door of the van was open and the cables were right there. Then he went to the van and cranked up the engine. It made a godawful racket in the night, cutting through the sporadic gunfire and alien shouting. "Fucking shit!" While trying to cover the door with his shotgun he went back to the van and with one hand tried to set some controls. He couldn't see what he was doing in the darkness. He had to put to fish out his lighter and use that to see. "Come on!" He fiddled with buttons. Trying to look at the gate, at the machine, and at the door to the Center at the same time. "Almost there!" The device began to glow. Darren looked back at the door just in time to see movement. The door opened. Someone inside blocked the door with a foot while leveling a compound bow. Darren was a fraction of a second faster. The first shot knocked the creature off-balance. Maybe some pellets grazed it. But, the arrow went wide right, whizzing over the van. Darren fired again, this time catching the demonic archer in the chest and knocking him down. "Games up." He ran. Behind him blue lightning flickered and arched out over his head. He saw the former guard standing in the yard, trying to work the bolt of his rifle. Darren ducked his head and ran faster. The lightning became a little more intense. Almost as soon as Darren noticed that the growing intensity a bright flash of light blinded him. He stumbled and fell in the road, dropping the shotgun. There wasn't time to reflect on what happened. He scrambled on his belly to retrieve the shotgun and chamber a shell, which he was dimly aware was the last shell in the magazine. The demonic rifleman had lost interest in Darren and run toward the van. Another creature was out there too. Darren couldn't tell but he seemed to have pulled the cables off the generator. Darren got up and ran for the cover of nearby bushes. If that trick reversed whatever the hell happened, it was impossible to tell from where he was. But, then he heard music. From where, he did not know. But someone's radio had turned on. He could hear country music. They had jumped back to where they belonged. He couldn't think much about that, because one of the nomads had spotted him. The rifleman who was by the van started looking for him and stopped while looking at his hiding spot. He yelled something in their language. Darren didn't wait to see what happened. Even the nearest of the two creatures was outside the range of his shotgun, so he turned and ran into the night. He crouched and moved as fast as he could toward a boat trailer. A rifle shot made him flinch and crouch down a little more. He dove for cover, pulling himself up into a ball behind the trailer tire. The creatures were yelling at each other again. He didn't see any movement beyond the nearby bushes. At least one of them was after him. He looked around. A house was obviously right behind him. As usual, a fence surrounded the back yard. He'd have to risk going behind the house and through some yards. He rushed for the back of the house pausing only long enough to look for the demons. The guy with the rifle saw him and fired again. This was close, Darren could hear it. He fired back, the fired again. The creature crumpled to the ground as if punched in the gut. Darren looked around for the other creature while reloading. How many shells are left? No time. The rifleman was chambering another round in the rifle. But he wasn't standing. An arrow whistled by Darren's head. He raised the shotgun as the demon raised his rifle. Again, Darren was faster and fired, hitting the creature in the head. Without looking for the archer, Darren stood up and chambered another round. Darren ducked as the creature loosed another arrow. This one glanced off his shoulder. "Shit!" Darren stumbled and ran around the corner where he had some concealment from the fence.He kept running though, instead of trying to shoot it out. The deed was done and there was no sense dying in a shootout. He heard demonic voices behind him, far behind. He also heard someone talking in one of the houses. Just after hearing people, he stopped running and looked behind him, shotgun raised to his shoulder. No one, or no creature was back there. Now Darren realized how hard he was breathing. He probably covered 500 yards on uneven ground in the last 90 seconds. "Got to start working out harder." As he said that he pulled out his radio and turned it back on. "As you can tell, I did it. I'm circling back to join you, from around Elmhurst and Patton. I think." Charlie responded. "Roger that." He sounded hurt or maybe out of breath. "How are things over there?" "Not great. I got hit. We've got two more down, one dead for sure." A couple of gun shots punctuated the conversation. Both seemed to be from people near Charlie." "Heading over there as fast as I can." He was jogging before he finished talking. He turned left to run between two houses. Even from a mile or so in town he could swear he saw headlights. Maybe it was one of the locals. No time. He didn't have time to check his shoulder either. It hurt a little. A glance revealed only a trace of blood. "Just a damn scratch."**** Robert winced and closed his eyes when the sky flashed blue-white and flickered. His heart raced. His gut told him that lightning struck nearby. He opened his eyes and checked himself. He was fine. Whatever else happened, the flash of light had ruined his night vision. The night went from blackness with bits of gray to a normal night consisting of dark wispy clouds, gray or black plants, and houses and roads. "Holy shit!" He then crossed himself on instinct and looked around some more. A few other people were in windows or even outside looking at what had just happened. He was going to check in with his federal handlers when he heard distance gunshots in town. Two more quickly followed. Shootout. Robert keyed his mic. "Dispatch, uh, Ridgeway just reappeared. And I heard gunshots in town. I think we need to get in there and investigate." "Negative on that Deputy. Do not attempt to enter the affected area unless you get cleared by the Department of Homeland Security incident command." "Roger that. I'll continue to monitor from my current location." He cut off the mic. "To hell with procedures people." He headed for incident command, which was only a quarter mile away determined to insist they let him go into town and find his brother and sister-in-law. **** Darren could hear gunfire and yelling ahead. He was out of breath when he turned the corner that would hook up with the rest of the team attacking the police station. Things seemed to quiet down as he approached, as if the demons had realized something terrible just happened to them. He didn't recognize the first man he saw, but the second was Charlie being treated by a young woman. A wide line of blood had run down his arm to his hand. The young woman was sponging blood away from a wound on his bicep. "How are things going?" "The demons seemed to have pulled back to the Public Safety Center, we think. And my arm hurts like hell. One of those things, people, hit me with an arrow from way over there." He nodded toward a couple of parked cars that were at least 300 yards away. "Yeah, I noticed they're stronger and tougher than they looked." He looked around. "Do you have a rifle I can use. This thing's useless out past 100 yards." "I hope you won't need it." Indeed, Darren hadn't noticed anymore shooting or yelling. "They've pulled back inside the building." Darren didn't see the speaker and didn't recognize the voice. "Well, guys, I think it worked. I heard a radio broadcasting a station out of Cookeville a couple of minutes after firing up that machine." **** "Look, that device obviously worked. But we still have some problems." Chloe looked back in town, perhaps thinking he was talking about those desert bandits. "Some of those alien plants and animals came with us." "Yeah, but where did they come FROM. We haven't discussed that enough." "You are damn right about that, but now let's get out of town and tell, whomever, what the fuck has been going on." They began to run toward the south end of town after a moment's hesitation. Darren needed that little pause to figure out where help might be the closest to them. In about sixty seconds of jogging they got close enough to see lights in buildings and a few cars. The run was almost dreamlike at this point. Darren felt himself jogging toward civilization and not getting any closer. Maybe this was a final attack by Cat? Maybe it was fatigue. "You okay Chloe?" He looked back long enough to see her nod. She looked to be in better shape than he was. Darren jogged toward the edge of town. He didn't get far before he encountered the crowd that has been hanging around the edge of town. "Wow!" He slows to a walk. At least 200 people were out in the road or near it. Some of the people are holding up smart phones. A couple have fancy professional microphones. One of them points to something on his right. Darren kept walking as he looked around. A group of four people, ranging between ages 3 and 70 as near as he can tell, are walking toward the crowd through someone's yard. The owners won't mind because this is one the houses that got looted and burned during their recent disappearance. By now people had noticed him. A few of them approached, along with one of the reporters with her mic and her cameraman. "Sir, were you in Ridgeway the whole time?" As she asked she motioned to the little group. The other reporter, however, was heading right for them. **** Darren meets with the agents and Robert a few minutes after being cornered by the reporters. He immediately mentions the creatures and plants they may have come with them. He learns about the hell hounds that came over when the two locales traded places. "So, what the hell happened? Don't tell me some bullshit." "This is a matter of national security, so we can't offer much detail." "Look, I went to another planet or dimension or something and came back. Hundreds of us did. People are going to talk. People are going to find those alien plants or worse over here. Word's going to get around." To their credit, Darren couldn't tell what the federal agents were thinking. "We know all of this Mr. Andrews." Darren clinched his fists. "So, was it a government experiment?" They looked at each other. "An unauthorized test." "How did something like that just get carried off a military base?" He realized that was a big assumption. "It wasn't smuggled off a base." "Well?" "I'm afraid we don't know that." The other agent chimed in for the first time. "We were told by our superiors to investigate a theft from a facility in Alabama. That's all we were allowed to know." "So, you don't have any idea what really happened to us?" Again, they were silent and exchanged looks. Darren thought they both looked a bit worried. "There was an experiment in the early 1980s, to see if parallel universes could be accessible, even just for scientific analysis." A light bulb went off in Darren's exhausted mind. "And I guess it worked." "Yes, probably. I don't know any more than this." He cleared his throat. "Really." Darren tried to think of a follow-up. The distinct sound of helicopter blades caught his attention instead. "Whose flying in?" As he spoke he realized he was actually hearing multiple helicopters."**** Robert got his way. He was in the back left of a Humvee racing toward the park. They dodged a couple of abandoned cars and a few bodies in the street. "What the hell is that?" The soldiers in the Humvee ignored him, of course. They wouldn't be interested in rotting animal corpse. But, this animal was long with multiple legs like a centipede but too large, at least nine feet long. Robert made a note of the nearest cross streets. He'd come out an investigate the next day if he could. The Humvee made a sharp turn. The driver had just tapped the brakes and taken that turn at least twice as fast a sensible driver would have. He thought he heard the tires squeal on the Humvee behind them. The intense rush to get out here seemed crazy. And if this were some dark national secret, why was a Deputy Sheriff from Nowheresville riding along with the Guard? He had failed to ask some important questions before coming out here. The van was still there, just sitting like someone had parked it in a hurry and run away. The Humvees stopped and the troops got out to secure the area. Somehow, they seemed highly disciplined and organized. He didn't know what he expected from National Guard troops, but...he was just making things up. Robert continued to survey the area wishing he'd been allowed to get out but not willing to make a stink about. One of the men checked the front of the van. Another got inside and tried the engine. It sputtered, and then died. No gas. Before Robert had time to wonder what the next step was, one of the men returned to the Humvee and grabbed a gas can from the back. The man kept his head on a swivel and carried his sidearm in one hand the whole time. "What are you looking out for?" He assumed there was way more going on here than he understood but ignored that thought. And, where are the people? There should be 1000 or more in town. He hadn't seen more than two dozen residents, all leaving town as fast as they could. They were gassing up the van. One of the men who was out of Robert's line of sight behind the van yelled. It sounded like "stay inside" but then nothing. The soldier inside the van tried the engine again. This time it sputtered and started. The team moved back to the Humvees. The driver in Robert's Humvee started the vehicle right away. The van driver backed up and turned to fall in behind the other Humvee. They'd be taking up the rear. "Why the massive rush?" "We need to get the van's contents to a secure location ASAP. That's all I know." Robert took this to mean something in the van may be responsible for this mess, in the opinion of some chair warmer back at National Guard HQ in Nashville. **** Darren sat down at the edge of the Red Cross aid station, watching the re-emergent Ridgeway. Something had caught fire in the in the distance. He guessed that it was probably the Public Safety Center based on distance and direction. The relative lack of sleep and decent food had made it impossible for him to muster any strong emotions about that. He and Chloe were way behind on their studies and probably out of money and credit. That seemed like trivia. He wanted to laugh but could manage a smirk and then he turned his attention back to the aid station. Some raised voices caught his attention. The voices were just around the corner. He heard the word "snake" and stood up almost without meaning to. "Shit." He walked past a tent toward the voices. Two teenage boys were behind the tent staring down at something. "It moved!" "What's going on?" They looked back at Darren. The one who said the snake or whatever had moved stepped aside. With the light from a three-quarter moon and nothing else it was hard to be sure what he saw slithering toward a bush. "Bit late in the season for snakes. Are you sure that's what it was?" "What else could it be?" Darren had an idea. He forced his way into the sparse bushes and caught a glimpse of their "snake" – it was fat but had a flat armored body, more centipede than snake. It was slithering deeper into the woods, possibly trying to burrow in the packed earth under the Autumn leaves and rotting vegetation. He reached out to grab it by the tail. "Don't be dumb." He caught a glimpse of as it burrowed. Hell worm, juvenile most likely, but strong enough to fuck him up if he captured it. He backed out of the bushes, noting the teens had been watching. "That wasn't a snake. Don't mess with it." Energized by a fresh jolt of adrenaline, Darren marched toward the last location where he'd seen a police car. Darren looked up and saw a large bird-like creature fly overhead between him and the wispy clouds.
YOU ARE READING
Displacement Day
Fantasy9/19/24 - I will post some supplemental content that goes into more detail about what happens over on our version of earth. Expect a little monster hunting and a mysterious stranger with psychic powers. What would you do if most of your small town...