Chapter 100: [17] Close Encounters of the Bus Kind 17 [From Beyond Arc]

Close Encounters of the Bus Kind

[17]

The girls lingered at the threshold, uncertain whether to push forward or double back. The monster decided for them by dropping right behind and urging them through into the strange space. That seemed intentional, like a spider urging a fly onto its web. Erin tried to retaliate, but the tendrils were unrelenting and rolled through the area like a malevolent, chaotic car wash brush. Odessa shot through the doorway and pulled the lingering Gina through. Even though the creature could easily pass through physical structures, the heavy doorway provided a sense of separation.

Erin avoided shutting the door until its arms, connected to screaming buried faces, were right there. The weighty click of the lock made her heart skip a beat. For some reason, the monster didn’t advance through the door. She had no illusions that this obstacle would do much for very long, which left them with the alien geometries ahead.

Luna eased up on her dragging of Nadia and simply clung to her instead. Throughout this entire ordeal, Nadia felt adrift, as though she were simply watching events that were occurring to someone else through a dream camera. She fully expected to find herself having suddenly nodded off in one of the changing rooms. The girls would come to check on her, with bright-eyed amusement that she was so drowsy, and decide to go grab some iced coffee from the food court. But this stretch of reality persisted. Which was another mark against the possibility that she had any say in its direction.

Erin was the one with powers, and she deserved them. If Nadia wound up with a similar one then she was liable to blast open a wall by accident or collapse the entire ceiling down upon them. Her abilities were clearly language understanding along with a perception of these creepy creatures. Although, it was peculiar that this was the first time she’d actually seen what Erin was seeing. Another thing she would have to process and figure out.

The girls backed into the sprawling structure of hallways, granting the heavy door a wide berth. Despite the behavior of the hungry creature so far, it either didn’t seem to want to pass through the doorway or wasn’t able. The rules and rationale dictating its behavior felt fuzzy, but Erin was relieved that they at least seemed to have a moment to catch their breath and figure out their next step. Her eyes met Nadia‘s.

There is so much expectation in that gaze, too much. Even though the other girls weren’t directly looking at her, she could feel their perception on her. That wasn’t another power, just the weight of responsibility. She knew it well. She never thought she would become a teacher someday, vested with the hopes and dreams of so many young lives.

The worst day of it was when she had to put together the main teams. The chasm between an adult and a child felt especially vast. So many of the prospects tried to wine and dine her with gifts and words. And the heart flare anger of every girl who had to be cut remained inside her like a festering ulcer. She had to choose, she had to be the confident one. It was a challenge in something as simple as sports and impossible when lives were on the line.

No matter how she looked, she had the lifetime and experience of an adult. So did Nadia, but Erin was the one who ran after the monster. She was the one who started this, and she would finish it with all of them getting out safely. But the problem had multiplied into a labyrinth.

At random, Gina commented, “Could be worse. Could be an endless IKEA. Actually, that would probably be better, since we wouldn’t starve, because we could just eat Swedish meatballs. Doesn’t this place at least have a working water fountain?”

It had been a while since Nadia was in any sort of Sears store. But it occurred to her that there probably would’ve been something to drink from towards the restrooms. Maybe even a vending machine. They probably would’ve shut off the water and emptied everything a long time ago. However, considering this place didn’t make any sense, it still seemed like something to hope for.

Stepping over to the main juncture of several corridors, Eva crouched like a baseball catcher and rummaged around her bag. It wasn’t long before she produced a couple of plastic water bottles. Slowly, reverently, Gina bent down, pulled down her face mask, and carefully accepted the offering of one bottle, as though it were a delicate, holy relic. She moved gingerly, not trusting her shaky arms until the water was at her lips. A ragged gurgle gripped her throat, but she forced it down with a gulp. Even though it looked like she urgently wanted to suck down the entire thing, she held it out to pass along.

Odessa was the next to partake, sipping frugally. Erin took a quick swig. And Nadia just lightly wet her mouth. Luna shook her head and reiterated “run” with a quiet but urgent whisper. They had run though. What more could they possibly do? Eva was the last to drink, just taking a little and then recapping it.

Following the water, she dug out a few gently crushed energy bars. Pausing, she scolded herself for “doing it backward”. The others assured her they were not hungry. What she didn’t have though was a ball of red thread, to keep them from getting lost.

Nadia considered pulling out threads on her white cardigan to make a trail, but the stitching was too tight, and the threads appeared too thin to do that easily. Odessa mentioned that she often carried a seam ripper with her but not this time. Nothing any of them were wearing appeared hand knitted. Once again though, Eva‘s bloated bag came through.

She had a piece of pink chalk in a side pocket. During one of the pre-match strategy meetings, she used it to write out things they needed to focus on. She enjoyed the color so much that she randomly stuffed it in her bag to find some use for at home before returning it next week. Never before had Erin been so happy to know a student swiped school supplies.

It wasn’t the biggest piece of chalk and the marks needed to be significant to show up on the pale, weathered walls. For maximum effect, she focused drawing on the darkest, grungiest-looking sections. That meant she needed to carefully wipe the chalk clean with each new effort and hopefully not worry too much about what the sticky grim that got all over her fingers was made of. Eva quietly lamented that she didn’t pack any hand sanitizer. Fortunately, Gina had a big bottle and gladly squeezed some out for her.

“I’m not hungry, but I could really go for some Swedish meatballs,” Gina admitted. She wasn’t at the point of drooling, but she definitely appeared close to it. Eva again offered one of the bars, but Gina assured her she was fine. Odessa also extolled the virtues of meatballs even though she was allergic to the onions most people put into them. Gina promised that when they got out, she would make her all the meatballs without onions she could take. Nadia added, remembering something that Sharon said, that she would make Odessa peanut butter cupcakes. To this, the girl practically swooned with delight. From there, they served back and forth concepts and ideals of food like it was a game. Eva looked annoyed but kept her tongue firmly planted in her mouth.

Erin was glad that the group was keeping up their spirits. It was easy to look at everything around them and lose hope. No one had blamed her for how this started, but she did. Over the last day, she felt so frantically terrified, unwilling and unable to look out the window to enjoy the mysterious fog. Her encounter with the other type of black ceiling crawler had reinvigorated her though and it actually felt like she had punched something in the face which wanted to make her and Nadia sad.

The tar man and others had forced her back inside the safe shell but the way this creature suddenly appeared when everything should’ve been happy just ignited a spark inside her. No more being afraid of these monsters. They should be afraid of her. So, she just acted without thinking and everyone else had to pay. She swallowed hard and imagined a little pinprick of discomfort, that she couldn’t actually feel, deep in her stomach.

The girls advanced through the hallway methodically. Nadia wasn’t happy when she checked her phone and discovered it was already down to 80% but decided it wasn’t worth worrying the others until it became a more imminent issue. Some obstacles appeared but were mostly scattered, torn papers, keyboards, and random trash they could easily step around. They had easily covered the entire swath of the department store before slowing down and considering another route.

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Eva turned her head and craned her ear towards some strange noise before outright inquiring, “What is that?” The other girls paused and even held their breath. A noise was there, above both their beating hearts and the decrepit, rotten settling. It was sharp and irregular, rising and falling. The possibility that excited Erin was that it might be a slightly open or broken window with the wind whistling through a crack. And it seemed to be coming from not too far ahead of them.

While this was an impossible place, she held on to the possibility that if they explored it far enough, they might find a corner that led back into their world. Hurrying carefully, the girls kept their eyes focused on the ceiling for any signs of attack and behind them to make sure that the marks remained as a trail of breadcrumbs to lead them back.

The weird noise was louder but no more distinct. It felt like something just at the edge of perception. Just a little bit closer, and they would be able to discern it. Luna soon started dragging her sister away from where they were going, but it did nothing to slow her down. She softly whimpered and started to speak when clarity about the sound finally arrived.

It was whistling. Not some wind whistling though. It had to be the whistling of a person. Another impossibility. No one was down here. How could they possibly survive? It had to be another trick from the anglerfish monster, Erin resolved. But everyone was moving closer to it.

Loud buzzing startled the group as Gina turned around and fumbled with her purse. She explained with a stammer, “P-phone! It’s my phone. I thought I turned it off.” It soon made the default sound that it was receiving a call. They had to be close. Perhaps wherever they actually were was near enough that they could somehow get a message through.

Pulling out her phone, Gina spun around a few times and frowned as the screen kept shutting off in the dark. She puzzled over the fact that she now had 40% battery life but figured that she must’ve just misread it earlier in the dim light. It didn’t wanna stay on though, despite the improved battery. Stretching and bending with the phone gripped in one hand, Gina explained, “I can almost get it. I’m sure I can call 911 if I can just get it to stay active.” She started tapping on the screen but scoffed when it froze. Shaking it didn’t help, but she did that anyway. She also started to separate from the rotation of the group as she went deeper into the hall to pick up the snippets of connection the phone was teasing her with.

“Come on…come on. It’s right there. Connect, Dr. Bright!” Eva was the first to notice that Gina was getting too far away while Nadia puzzled at who the heck Dr. Bright was supposed to be. Before Eva could get anything out, a wet, viscous, weighty mass erupted from the ceiling and flowed into space separating them. The monster was back, just waiting to divide and conquer them.

The tangle of tendrils knotted around Gina‘s legs. She screamed and squeezed her phone to her chest. Tumbling to the cement, she fought to free herself. Her forehead had an oozing gash and her arms looked scrapped from where she protected herself from the worst of her fall.

Urgently, the other girls fought to get around the mass and free their friend. Erin begged whatever force might be responsible for her power that she needed it right now to rip this wretched monster to pieces. She clenched and strained and pulled and pressed every physical muscle in her being in the hopes that it might connect to the psychic muscle responsible for what she had been able to do. But there was nothing.

The monster whipped Gina upwards, thrashing, screaming, and kicking. The mass of tortured, ravenous faces pressed against its black surface like a sea of drowned souls struggling to free themselves from the depths. All hope seemed lost until the creature shifted and tensed, as though caught on some odd structure. It turned and twisted until Gina finally got enough leverage to pull herself free and wriggle out of its wretched mass.

Towards the side, they saw yet another impossible sight. Where there had been nothing before, now sat a large metal chair brushing up against the curtain of twisting monster tendrils. Odessa took a deep breath and glanced down at her hands and then over at the group. Gina scrambled away, still separated from the others but momentarily safe.

The creature appeared viciously upset that the chair was there. However, despite how many parts of itself that it threw at the object, it just couldn’t seem to grab it. This made it even angrier. Erin thought that some parts of it actually passed through the chair but, considering the way it was able to phase through the ceiling, she didn’t know if that was significant or not. Gina wanted to be able to sidle along the wall and get back with the group, but she didn’t have enough clearance. Getting to her feet, Gina looked around with a wince and uncertainty.

Suddenly, her phone rang. Scrambling backwards, she just barely missed parts of the creature lunging for the sound.

“Gina!” Eva screamed. Her voice got some tendrils shifting in her direction, but they focused mainly on the chair and the phone. Eva squeezed the face covering against her mouth and tried to breathe normally. As the call on the phone continue to signal, Gina looked over at it and the group. Determination set in her eyes.

She yelled sharply, “Be safe! Get out of here if you can! I’ll try to lead it away and get back! Red Rock Riders Rule!“ Rushing into the darkness, both the monster and Gina vanished from sight. 

 

[I have a question at the end of the chapter again to help with suggestions for where the story should go. I'm actually not that far ahead this time and I am wide open for possibilities for this particular story. Feel free to add an idea which doesn't show up in the options. Also, if you see any random typos or uncapitalized starts of sentences, please pass them along. I have to cut down on my editing due to release speed and my programs don't seem to be catching lowercase sentences. Thank you for reading!]

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