The Outside

Section IX

 "We need to board this place up." I say, breaking the silent reverie of the bathroom.

"What?" Marion looks up at me with tear-stained eyes.

"We need to board the windows and doors."

"Why?"

"To keep the creatures out."

"You think things will come through the windows?"

"They'll come in any way they can. Every window. Every door. Every crack in every wall. They're all passageways."

"But, if they can slip through cracks in walls, they can slip in through wood barricades."

I look down at her, "True." I pause for a moment and then say, "But we have to try."

"What about food?"

"We only have to last for a little bit. Until we can leave."

"But we don't have that much food."

"We'll make it. We'll find a way to make it."

"I guess so..." She trails off.

I push myself up to my feet. I dust off my pants and jacket and walk out. I scoop up the axe. I walk to a storage closet and take up a set of boards and nails. I walk to the window over the sink and hammer the nails through the boards into the walls with the head of the axe. I pour out the water in the pot. No reflections either. They can come through the reflections too. I walk back to the bathroom and board that window up over Marion's head. She flinches with each strike of my makeshift hammer. I walk to the back door and hammer boards in, criss-crossing that door. I stalk over the creaking floorboards into the living room/dining room arrangement. I pick up the carpet and throw it over the mirror. No reflections.

With my job finished, I walk back to the bathroom. I stand over Marion looking down at her. She gazes past me, staring at the wall behind me. I take her by the arm and start hauling her up.

"Come on." I say. "I need your help fixing the door."

"I just want to lay down." She says, unflinching.

"There's time for that later. We have to do this now."

"Nothing's going to come in."

"We can't take that chance."

"Why not?"

"This is life or death. Marion. Life and death."

"I don't care anymore. I just need a moment's rest."

"And you can have it after. Right now we have to work."

A creak sounds from the front of the cabin. I drop Marion's arm and swing up my axe. "It's too late." I say quietly. I strafe out of the bathroom and creep down the dark, dusty hallway.

The light falls over me and I greet my new visitors.