Posted on January 28, 2008
The Hole: Part 57
The creature in front turned to follow. It reared back, however, just yards away from colliding the top half of its tubular body with the concrete and steel only eleven fee above the pavement. As Elliot sped away, he saw the second creature slam into the first, both falling, and then the truck was onto the curve of the on ramp and heading back onto the highway towards the east. As they drove across the overpass, he could see the two creatures pacing randomly, twisting their front quarters, looking for the truck. They really *are that stupid,* he thought.
Evajean cheered and clapped and Elliot grinned at this small burst of luck. “Smart,” he said.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Then they both just sat quietly, breathing and enjoying the sense of relief.
“What do you think those things were?” Evajean asked after some time. She’d pulled Hope out from under the seat and now had the dog on her lap, scratching its ears.
“I don’t know.”
“It’s just that they were like animals, but ones I’ve never heard of. I guess– I mean, where could they have come from?”
Elliot thought about this, but didn’t have an answer. They were imaginary monsters, not zoo creatures, not something escaped from a nature preserve. You can’t explain stuff like that, he told himself, just like you can’t explain most everything that’s happened since pulling in to that Wal-Mart parking lot.
“It’s genetics,” Evajean said, sounding surprised. “Like GMOs.”
“What?”
“Like those frankenfoods. Genetically modified organisms. You know Jurassic Park?”
“Yeah.”
“With the dinosaurs they brought back with genes from amber? I bet that’s what happened with the plague and the crazies and those things. I bet someone engineered something, maybe was trying to build a new kind of animal, and they made the plague by mistake.”
“Maybe,” Elliot said.
“No, that’s it,” Evajean continued, excited now. “When the plague showed up, it was because someone let it out of a lab. Maybe they did it on purpose, you know, but I think it was more of a mistake. And the elderly and kids got sick first, because that’s the way it always is–they’re weaker. And then because it was, well, it was a science experiment, it mutated. It was unstable. Adults could get sick, too. And it mutated again and we go the crazies.”
Elliot thought maybe she was on to something, so he let her keep going, wanting to hear what else she had.
“And here’s the thing, Elliot. Those creatures back there, I bet they were the science experiment. The plague is just something they have, like trichinosis and pork.”
When she said this last, Elliot gave up on the idea. Genes could build a new animal, sure, and create the plague–even drive people insane. But the things they’d seen in Nahom, what Evajean had done, those just couldn’t be explained by a screw up in a lab.
“And we’re immune,” Evajean was saying when Elliot finally responded to her theory.
“No,” he said. “I don’t think so. It makes sense, but I just don’t think that’s how it is.”
Evajean stopped talking and stared at him. She didn’t look hurt–just disappointed. “But it is,” she said. “It has to be.”
“I just don’t think so,” Elliot said.
“Then what–”
“It’s Nahom. That’s what I keep coming back to. What happened there after we were attacked.”
“But I–”
“Don’t remember it, I know. But you were there in that cave when they killed the girl. You saw–”
“I don’t know what I saw.”
“Yes, you do. So do I. We saw spirits, or something like spirits–ghosts, I guess. We saw them come out of those people. And no matter how advanced the virus that came off those creatures is, it couldn’t make spirits rise from living human beings.”
Evajean was silent. She turned, looking out the window and pet Hope. Then she said, her voice small, “What do you think it is, then?”
Elliot shrugged. “The end times,” he said. “Maybe this is the end of the world.”
She turned to face him now, the excitement gone, her features slack. “No,” she said.
“That’s what I think.”
“But you don’t even– You don’t believe that stuff, do you, Elliot?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Before, no, none of it. It’s all just old books and people on TV who are clearly delusional. Like in Nahom. Those books in the house they gave us? It’s all crap, I’m sure of that. None of it’s true.” He stopped and sucked in a large breath. “But there’s something going on and I’m starting to think the only way to describe it is something like what’s in those books. Something otherworldly.”
Evajean was quiet. And then she laughed. “I just want to get to Colorado,” she said. “Or Montana or wherever. That’s when we’ll know. When we find the Hole, that’s when we’ll know.”
“What if it’s jut a body dump? A big pile of corpses.”
“It won’t be, she said. “It’ll be something more than that. Something that’ll explain all this.” She laughed again and punched him lightly on the arm. “Supernatural? Elliot, that’s silly. Those spirits in the cave? Probably just us being really tired and then all those bright torches in such a small place. When we got out, when the crazies came, I don’t know what could’ve came over me, but if I had to guess, I’d say exhaustion–a waking dream, right? Or maybe you were the one dreaming. And who knows about the crazies. Maybe they all died because they were sick. Maybe the heat from all the fires killed them. It could be anything.”
She stopped, looking at him for approval of this new explanation. But he couldn’t give it because, as much as he wanted to believe everything she’d just said, he knew none of it was true.
“Perhaps,” he said finally. “Yeah, perhaps.”
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