Free The Remaining by Travis Thrasher Page B
Authors: Travis Thrasher
that would fill it.
Many of them would be curse words.
Tommy looks down at the street and sees the jam of cars. People are running everywhere like ants fleeing a boot pounding down on them.
This can’t be happening.
A scary droning sound comes from the sky, and Tommy looks up, half expecting to find alien invaders. Yet it’s only a plane flying.
Only a plane. Flying dangerously low. Flying —
The plane slams into the rooftop across the way that held the huddled elderly couple. A series of groans andcries and curses follow. Tommy ducks and dives to the floor and hears yet another booming sound.
For a second he’s kneeling and about to get up when the whole world starts to shake. His camera slides as he tries to grab onto something but there’s nothing around.
The violent jerking lasts a few moments, then stops. And then the panicked chaos really commences.
12
STRANGERS
For a moment, Allison steps out of time and finds herself wading in a pool full of memories.
The cold water of the creek against bone-white feet. The trail through the woods. The log cabin.
She still remembers.
The tiny church on the corner with the endless steeple and the cross on top. The smiles. The pastor with the round, bald head. The coffee cakes after the sermon.
She still sees them.
Strangers surrounding us. Prayers. Unfamiliar words full of hope. Words clearly foreign to skeptical parents.
Allison still hears them.
The words. So brief. During a dark period when Mom and Dad needed something else. Something more. But nothing more came. And we never went back.
“Miss?”
Allison turns and sees the older woman from the car accident standing next to her. The look on her face says it all. Eyes almost bulging with disbelief. No color. So grave and hard and anxious.
“Are you okay?” the woman asks her.
Allison is standing by a sink in a small bathroom down the hall from the sanctuary. She’s been standing here for some time, thinking, trying to figure out what’s happening, hearing the noises continuing to go off in the distance. It sounds like a war is happening in the city of Wilmington. Yet she can’t even call out or access Internet on her phone to find out who exactly is fighting whom.
“Yeah.” Allison turns off the bathroom light. “How’s your head?”
“I’m glad you found a bandage. I’m still woozy.”
“You probably shouldn’t be walking around.”
“I didn’t want to be left alone in there,” the woman says. “I keep hearing things.”
“I don’t know what’s going on outside.”
“No . . .” The woman stares at her for a minute, then looks around them. “I’m talking about noises from inside this church.”
Allison nods. She doesn’t know her way around the building. She has only ever stepped foot through the main doors and into the sanctuary.
“Let’s try to find a kitchen, okay? Maybe get you something to drink.”
“I don’t think they have what I want.”
Allison looks at the woman and sees the slight hint of a smile coming on. She chuckles and introduces herself. “I’m Allison.”
“I’m Beverly. Bev. Thank you for helping me.”
“Of course.”
“You look all pretty and made-up. Were you going somewhere tonight?”
“My best friend got married today.”
“At this church?”
Allison shakes her head. “No. The Plantation Hotel a few blocks away.”
She knows this only fills Beverly with more questions. Before being able to answer any of them, they hear someone crying down the hallway. It’s a manic sort of wailing.
“Come on,” Allison tells Beverly as she heads toward the noise.
“They just dropped dead, all of them, right in the middle of the meeting.”
The bodies in the conference room haven’t been touched. A man is plopped over a long conference table, hishead sideways and his mouth open. Another man is lifeless in his chair, staring upward with arms hanging down. A woman is hunched halfway out of her armchair. The eyes —the ones they
Many of them would be curse words.
Tommy looks down at the street and sees the jam of cars. People are running everywhere like ants fleeing a boot pounding down on them.
This can’t be happening.
A scary droning sound comes from the sky, and Tommy looks up, half expecting to find alien invaders. Yet it’s only a plane flying.
Only a plane. Flying dangerously low. Flying —
The plane slams into the rooftop across the way that held the huddled elderly couple. A series of groans andcries and curses follow. Tommy ducks and dives to the floor and hears yet another booming sound.
For a second he’s kneeling and about to get up when the whole world starts to shake. His camera slides as he tries to grab onto something but there’s nothing around.
The violent jerking lasts a few moments, then stops. And then the panicked chaos really commences.
12
STRANGERS
For a moment, Allison steps out of time and finds herself wading in a pool full of memories.
The cold water of the creek against bone-white feet. The trail through the woods. The log cabin.
She still remembers.
The tiny church on the corner with the endless steeple and the cross on top. The smiles. The pastor with the round, bald head. The coffee cakes after the sermon.
She still sees them.
Strangers surrounding us. Prayers. Unfamiliar words full of hope. Words clearly foreign to skeptical parents.
Allison still hears them.
The words. So brief. During a dark period when Mom and Dad needed something else. Something more. But nothing more came. And we never went back.
“Miss?”
Allison turns and sees the older woman from the car accident standing next to her. The look on her face says it all. Eyes almost bulging with disbelief. No color. So grave and hard and anxious.
“Are you okay?” the woman asks her.
Allison is standing by a sink in a small bathroom down the hall from the sanctuary. She’s been standing here for some time, thinking, trying to figure out what’s happening, hearing the noises continuing to go off in the distance. It sounds like a war is happening in the city of Wilmington. Yet she can’t even call out or access Internet on her phone to find out who exactly is fighting whom.
“Yeah.” Allison turns off the bathroom light. “How’s your head?”
“I’m glad you found a bandage. I’m still woozy.”
“You probably shouldn’t be walking around.”
“I didn’t want to be left alone in there,” the woman says. “I keep hearing things.”
“I don’t know what’s going on outside.”
“No . . .” The woman stares at her for a minute, then looks around them. “I’m talking about noises from inside this church.”
Allison nods. She doesn’t know her way around the building. She has only ever stepped foot through the main doors and into the sanctuary.
“Let’s try to find a kitchen, okay? Maybe get you something to drink.”
“I don’t think they have what I want.”
Allison looks at the woman and sees the slight hint of a smile coming on. She chuckles and introduces herself. “I’m Allison.”
“I’m Beverly. Bev. Thank you for helping me.”
“Of course.”
“You look all pretty and made-up. Were you going somewhere tonight?”
“My best friend got married today.”
“At this church?”
Allison shakes her head. “No. The Plantation Hotel a few blocks away.”
She knows this only fills Beverly with more questions. Before being able to answer any of them, they hear someone crying down the hallway. It’s a manic sort of wailing.
“Come on,” Allison tells Beverly as she heads toward the noise.
“They just dropped dead, all of them, right in the middle of the meeting.”
The bodies in the conference room haven’t been touched. A man is plopped over a long conference table, hishead sideways and his mouth open. Another man is lifeless in his chair, staring upward with arms hanging down. A woman is hunched halfway out of her armchair. The eyes —the ones they