Big Tom bends over a smoldering campfire, picking up a blackened coffee pot,
and while pouring himself a mug of coffee speaks in a quiet voice.
Have you noticed what's happening to Tammy?
Red had been dreading this moment.
43
I think she'll snap out of it, she just misses her
doll house. The way she holds that rag doll of hers,
you'd think it was all she had in the world.
Clearly eager to talk about what he sees happening to his little girl, Big Tom
is not going to be put off so easily.
She's never been like that, so quiet! I couldn't even
get her to talk to me yesterday, wouldn't say a word.
Damned peculiar.
Martha steps out of one of the makeshift tents, brushing hair away from her
placid sleepy face. She smiles slightly at the two men in her life as she
walks over to the fire, flipping open the coffee pot lid to inspect the
contents.
I heard you two talking about Tammy. I known she's
not right, and if we could I'd take her straight-away
to Doctor Townsend, but there's no way what with the
roads torn up.
A wailing sound floats through the air, coming from a distance but
unmistakably human. Mark bolts out of one of the tents, beating back the
blankets that act as the tent walls in his haste. He has a worried look on
his sleepy face.
Where's Brian, did you see where he went?
Red points in the direction of the wail, his face blank as though this is
nothing new. Mark heads off in haste in that direction, tucking his shirt
into this pants and stomping his feet into his boots as he goes.
That's another one who's not right. The other day I
found him talking to thin air.
_______________________________
One week later some townsfolk arrive, having walked from the nearby small
town. Several people are straggling in the dim dawn, along the winding road
that leads past the farm. One of them pulls a wagon meant to be pulled by a
pony, hauling another. The man inside is gripping both sides, bracing himself
against the jolts, his bruised body complaining at the motion. Herman, a large
man in the lead, stops and points toward the ranch house and the others look
up, lifting their gaze from the road and then looking in that direction. They
move forward with more pep now, taking hope now that they have found other
survivors.
Big Tom has been watching this procession from where he is sitting at the
table with Martha and Red, his hands wrapped around a coffee mug.
We've got more visitors.
44
Red jerks his head around, and then rises to go off to get his rifle. Big Tom
puts his mug down and heads in the direction of the arriving travelers,
apparently deciding that by their appearance they are anything but a threat.
Big Tom walks with a firm step past the wreck of the Ranch House and out along
the entry road. He is approaching with his hand outstretched, recognizing the
lead man. The group closes up around Big Tom, everyone is attempting to talk
at once. Clara, a thin graying woman, has rushed up to Big Tom. She describes
fire from dropping firestorms that consumed one group, the charred bodies
found.
They were all burned, as though there was no escape,
as though the fire dropped on them from the sky!
Her husband, Len, a thin bent man, joins in.
Don't know where else, as the house was fine, and that
ain't the weirdest thing we seen neither!
Clara glances at her husband.
You talking about that man pelted to death?
Len, not accustomed to be displaced as the story teller, jumps back in.
Hailstones had killed another which they found along a road, having left his
abandoned car. This man's car had shattered windows and a pock marked car.
It was like he was stoned to death, those little
stones all over the road, and his car looked even
worse.
Clara is too excited to stay silent.
Poor man, looks like he tried to run from it when the
windows shattered, and there was just no escape.
Big Tom asks,
These town folks?
Len and Clara glance at each other, but then Clara drops her gaze, looking
down at the road with tears welling up in her eyes, temporarily overcome. Len
is pointing toward the broken farm house.
Didn't fare any better then you, and those that
survived went off just like ourselves, looking for
help.
Clara adds more detail, finding her voice again. In the town some who were
standing on a broad veranda porch at the time were thrown and dashed where
they fell, broken and bloody with no chance of surviving the experience.
Miz Farmington got throwed clear across the creek, up
against the flood wall, looked like one a them
tomatoes the boys throw on Saturday nights, all red
and smashed.
Big Tom hasn't registered any surprise at any of this.
45
Where are you headed?
No one answers, but after a moment of silence, Herman does.
Anywhere it’s not like this.
Big Tom nods in understanding, and invites them back to the camp.
We're not much better off, but we have some coffee and
fried potatoes we can share.
Then Big Tom gestures toward the camp and turns to walk back there himself.
Come on back.
46
-Friend and Foe-
In the wooded foothills fringing the valley, quiet preparations have taken
place. In the swirling mist rising from the ground after a recent shower,
construction is going on. A large silver dome is being erected, cranes
lifting a section as orders are barked. The military, it seems, were not
taken by surprise. They prepared for this day with construction supplies, and
have quickly completed the construction of a dome with military hands assigned
to the duty. The dome design is one fashioned after the remnants of sites on
the Moon and Mars, scientifically studied to withstand high winds,
earthquakes, and large enough to enclose their own atmosphere with comfort to
the inhabitants. It is also a design coerced from a contactee, a type the
Zetas inhabit. However, to their surprise and as we later learn, a second dome
has been constructed in the locale, one not inhabited strictly by humans, much
less the military.
General Flood, a vein in his bull neck throbbing, is impatient.