At first, only Frank and Luke raised their hands, but they were quickly joined by the loners on the outskirts of the group.
“We’re going to need you to help fight these things,” Robby said.
“Boy, you don’t know what yer even up against,” Luke said. “C’mon now, who else wants to look up at night and see the stars, or see the sun out in the daytime. I’ve heard you’ve seen nothing but cloudy skies here for months. Well, back at the ranch, it was sunny and pleasant.”
A few more people raised their hands, including Judy and the woman Luke called “Tib.”
“Good, then,” Luke said. “Let’s go get ready.”
Luke and Frank headed for the door and most of the other hand-raisers followed behind. Judy stayed in her seat.
“Hey, guys,” Robby began, but Ted put a hand on his shoulder and Robby stopped.
Sheila moved over to Brad’s table and leaned over towards Judy.
“You’re not really going with them, are you?" Sheila asked.
“Yeah,” Judy said, “I think I am.”
“I hate to say it,” Sheila said, “but I just don’t think that guy is safe. I don’t trust him.”
“What’s safe?” Judy said. “Safe ended a while ago. I’m sick of being here. I want to go away from here.”
“What about Robby’s idea?” Brad asked, injecting himself into the conversation.
“I can’t follow his logic,” Judy said. “He’s always right, but I just don’t have the energy for all that. He’s full of fight. Let him fight.”
Robby and Ted conferred with each other until Robby heard his name.
“It’s not time to give up yet, Judy,” Robby said. “I know you want to go back to the way it was, and we still can.”
“I’m not giving up,” Judy said to him. “I’m just moving on. I don’t even think I want my old life anymore. I just want something different than all this. What are we still doing here? There’s nothing left. I’ll be out by the truck.”
Judy pushed back from the table and fished a pack of cigarettes from her pocket before she put her coat on.
“We’re losing a lot of people, Rob,” Ted said.
After the hand-raisers left, fifteen people remained including the people at Brad’s table. When Judy got up, several others stood and started to put on their coats as well.
“We really need everyone’s help,” Robby said to the room. “If you can just stick around for a few more minutes we can start making our plans.”
Smelly, silent since the beginning of the meeting, was one of the people preparing to leave. Before he walked away, he addressed Robby—“You know I’m in for anything, Rob. Just get me on the radio when the time comes.”
“I’d like to talk this through with you right now, Glen,” Robby said.
“I’m going to get moving,” Glen said. “You just give a shout on the radio and I’ll help out however I can.”
“You guys want to pull up chairs and we’ll start hashing out some details?” Ted asked the others. His invitation spurred people to action, but not the action he requested. Even more people grabbed their coats and made their way to the door. Two women who’d been sitting together in the opposite corner conferred in their seats and then came to join the table with Brad, Robby, Ted, and Sheila.
Brad introduced himself and found out their names were Lisa and Romie.
The door closed behind the last of the defectors and then crashed back open. A burly man in a grimy sheepskin coat flipped around a chair and sat backwards while uncapping a bottle of whiskey.
“Good to see you back, Pete,” Ted said.
“Took me five minutes in the parking lot to figure out that Luke guy is an asshole,” Pete said. “I wonder how long it will take the rest of them to piece it together. Probably they’ll figure it out just west of Standish.”
“I hope so,” Ted said. “Or else it will be a long trip back.”
“So what are we talking about here?" Pete asked. “You said you want to get a thousand eye-poppers up to Augusta?”
“Yes, that’s about right,” Robby said.
“You’re talking about a thousand dead bodies. Maybe one-fifty pounds apiece on average,” Pete said. He spoke quick and low, counting on his fingers. “That’s gonna be about a hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Maybe seventy-five tons, give or take, that about right?”
“Yes,” Robby said. “And I think…”
Pete interrupted—“We can get some of those Bombardier one-eighties; probably some trailers on skids too. Might get close if we all drove.” Pete counted around the table. “All of you can drive, right? Put seven of them in a convoy and run up the interstate?”
“What’s he talking about?" Sheila asked.
“Can you drive?” Pete asked her.
“Of course,” Sheila said.
“Ever been on a snowmobile?" Pete asked.
“Maybe,” Sheila said. “When I was a kid, I guess.”
“This is just like one of those, but much bigger,” Pete said. “It’s like a big tractor on treads. They use them to groom ski trails and such. We’re going to round up seven of them and drive a bunch of dead bodies up north.”
“But why?" Sheila asked. “You just jump in and start planning, but we don’t even know why.”
“That’s little-man’s department,” Pete said, pointing to Robby.
All eyes turned to Robby and the young man cleared his throat.
“We’re going to take back Maine,” Robby said. “And if the assumptions prove true, the whole planet.”
“Take it back from who?" Sheila asked.
“It’s my conclusion that the Earth has been impregnated with a planet-sized organism,” Robby said.
The group sat silent.
Brad looked around the table at each of the people. Ted and Pete both looked at Robby. Lisa and Romie both looked down at their laps. Sheila, her eyes twinkling in the lantern-light looked up towards the ceiling. She eventually broke the silence—“A what?”
BRAD WOKE UP startled. His arm shot out from under the pillow, and still numb from being pinned under his head, swept the contents of his end table to the floor. He slipped out of his bed and fumbled around on the floor for the travel alarm clock. As soon as he had it in his hands, he realized it wasn’t ringing.
The sound that woke him up came from the handheld radio on top of the dresser. When it buzzed again, Brad snatched it with his good arm—the not-numb arm—and stared at it until a voice came from it.
“I’ll head over now. I’ve got some gear I can give them. It might help them out on the road,” the voice on the radio said. Brad recognized the voice as Ted’s.
The travel alarm read seven, but it felt way earlier. Brad and the others had stayed up most of the night talking and planning. First coming to terms with Robby’s theories and then slowly scrutinizing his plan. They’d talked until the kerosene heaters ran out of fuel and Pete started rubbing his temples and complaining of a headache. Robby presented his evidence like a dissertation. He cited details from everyone’s personal stories. Robby’s memory was so perfect that Brad recognized the pauses and phrasing of Judy’s speech as he quoted her story. In the end, Robby’s outlandish theories seemed like a logical explanation.
Brad dressed quickly in the dawn light.
Luke had said he wasn’t leaving until ten, but Brad wanted to be there early so he could say farewell to everyone headed for New York. He’d just met most of them, but felt a tight bond with the other survivors. Brad made it halfway across the yard to his truck before he stopped and turned around. Up in the closet of the master bedroom, he’d stashed a bag with the few sentimental items he’d taken from his house. In addition to that stuff, he packed a couple of shirts and some socks and underpants. As he exited the Dead Ferret House this second time, he shut off the valve to the heater, drained the hose on the water keg, and stored his food supplies in the empty refrigerator.