The Takeover, page 10
How the ovates “decided” which got to survive and which did not was a mystery, but the leading theory was that the ovates had the equivalent of a pecking order built into them. Perhaps an algorithm in their “DNA” made the decision for them. Keen observers were quick to point out that the surviving ovate always seemed to be the one located closest to an urban population center—which didn’t bode well for cities, if such were the case. If the aliens wanted to disrupt human society as much as possible, then preprogramming the ovates to selectively skew towards urban areas would certainly be a powerful way to do it.
Chapter 11
October 21 – Longmont, Colorado
Rap rap rap.
Someone was insistently knocking on their front door. When Will answered it, he was surprised to find a policeman standing there. “Can I help you?” he asked.
“Sir, I’m here to inform you your home is in the jump zone,” the policeman said. “You should be making plans, if you haven’t already, to evacuate your home in the coming days. The domes are expected to jump again on October 30th. That’s not this Wednesday but the next. You need to have yourself and your whole family out of here by then. Is that understood?”
Will stared at him speechlessly for several seconds before finally nodding. “Yes, I understand.”
The policeman nodded back. “Sorry for the bad news.”
Will watched as he headed for their next-door neighbor’s home to deliver the same grim message. On the other side of the street he could see another policeman knocking on doors.
Cynthia, who was standing just behind him, remained silent as Will closed the door. He turned towards her, reluctant to meet her eyes. “Hon, I’m real sorry,” he said. “I’m an ass. This whole time I’ve been so sure the dome wouldn’t affect us—that the authorities would take care of it somehow before it became a real problem—and yet here it is affecting us in the biggest way possible. I feel like an idiot.”
“You are an idiot,” Cynthia said, but she said it gently. She’d been getting pretty pissed off at her husband over the past week what with his refusal to accept the inevitable, but her anger melted away at the look of despair in his eyes. “The good news is, the dome only just jumped, so we’ve got nine days to deal with things before it jumps again. That means we can prepare. Figure out where we’re going to live. Clear out the house. Tell the kids.”
“Jesus, tell the kids. Ashley’s not going to like it.”
“So what else is new?”
“I’m really sorry, hon—you were right all along.”
“It’s almost worth losing our home just to hear you say that. Almost.”
Josh came pounding down the stairs. “Hey Mom, hey Dad, what’s up?” Will and Cynthia looked at each other and were silent. That really got Josh’s attention. “It’s the dome, isn’t it? I knew it. I’m not surprised.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, it was bound to happen. Our teacher has been using the domes as examples in math class. They’re following a geometric progression with a constant factor of two. There’s no way our house wasn’t going to get swallowed up soon.”
Will looked at Cynthia with one of those adult looks that was all in the eyes. “Well, at least Josh is taking it well.”
“Sure I am,” said Josh. “It’s just a house. I’m sure we’ll find another.”
“Well, aren’t you Mr. Positive,” said his mom. “I wish I could feel as calm about it.”
“Think of it as an adventure,” Josh said with his usual sunny optimism.
“Mmm. Well, since you’re so smart, where do you think we should live?”
Josh had been about to make a beeline for the front door, but now he backtracked. “That’s a good question. Dad still needs to be close to work, so we can’t light out for the high country like I’d really like.”
“The high country?” said his dad with an amused smile. “We’re already in Colorado. How high do you want to go?”
“I don’t know, some place like Crested Butte or Ouray. Or maybe even farther north like Wyoming or Montana. You know, really out there.”
“Mmm, that does have some appeal,” said Will, and he didn’t sound like he was being facetious.
“But you need to be near work, and winter’s nearly here, so that’s out. Maybe Loveland or Hygiene. Not too many domes in those parts, and they’re close by. Hey, maybe we could get a horse in Hygiene. That’s horse country, you know.”
“We’re not getting a horse,” said Will. “The last thing we need right now is more beings to take care of.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right—but don’t even think about getting rid of Woof.”
“We’d never dream of it,” said his mom. “Woof is family.”
“He sure is. Aren’t you, Woof?” Josh patted his head like he always did whenever the dog was within range. “Well, I’ve gotta go; I’m supposed to meet my friends over at Centennial Park and I’ve still gotta bike there. Bye Mom, bye Dad,” he said as he dashed out the door.
“That kid is always in high gear,” said Will.
“He sure is. His brain seems to be in high gear too. Maybe we should listen to him more often.”
Will nodded. “I should listen to you more often, too.”
“That’s music to my ears. So—let’s find a place to live in Loveland or Hygiene. If we don’t find somewhere to rent soon, all the good places will be gone.”
“All right,” said Will, “I’ll start looking on Airbnb. I haven’t even begun to think about what we need to pack—and what we need to leave behind.”
“I have,” said Cynthia. “I’ve been making lists for weeks.”
“Of course you have.”
*****
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Ashley. She was sitting on the couch with her sister Kaley. Her mom and dad had called a family meeting minus Josh, who was still out with his friends.
“We knew you wouldn’t take it well,” said her mom.
“Take it well? How am I supposed to take it? You’re telling me I’ve gotta move out of the only house I’ve ever lived in since I was, like, born?”
“Yep, that’s pretty much what we’re telling you,” said her dad. “We don’t really have much choice in the matter.”
“I knew these domes were gonna mess everything up,” Ashley moaned with a depth of despair only teenagers could muster.
“Well, I think it’s great,” said Kaley with unbounded enthusiasm. She was bouncing up and down on the couch while still technically sitting. “I’m so tired of everything being the same all the time.”
“There’s that ennui again,” said her mom.
“On what?” asked Kaley, confused.
“Ennui,” repeated her mom. “E-N-N-U-I. Boredom.”
“Not me, no ennui, not anymore. Thanks to the aliens, life is suddenly plenty interesting.”
“You can’t possibly be my sister,” said Ashley.
“I am and there’s nothing you can do about it,” said Kaley, bouncing in place. “So when do we move?”
“Soon,” said her dad. “In nine days or less. I’m glad you’re excited about it.”
“I am. Where to?”
“Maybe Loveland, maybe Hygiene, maybe Niwot. We’re still looking for the right place.”
“I can’t wait,” Kaley said. “Maybe we can live in a dome.”
“Umm, no, that’s not going to happen,” said her mom. “I’m sure you‘ve heard you can’t breathe in those things for very long.”
“You could if you had one of those scuba thingies. An oxygen tank or whatever.”
“No you couldn’t, dork,” said Ashley. “That would only last for a few hours and then you’d be dead.”
“You’d be dead. I’d just get another oxygen tank,” said Kaley, still bouncing.
Ashley rolled her eyes and didn’t bother to reply.
“Getting away from domes is the whole point of why we’re moving, Kaley,” said her dad.
“What’s the point in that?”
“To be safe, you idiot!” yelled Ashley, despite her best efforts to stay silent.
“We should just stay here and let the dome swallow us up,” said Kaley. “That’d be so cool.”
Ashley shook her head.
“Well, we might be able to arrange that, Kaley,” said her dad slowly, “if that’s what you really want. I’ll tell you what: we can stay behind, let the dome swallow us up, and then we can drive out through the dome wall with our last load of stuff. How does that sound?”
“That sounds a-maz-ing!” Kaley shouted.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Cynthia said to Will with the most dead-eyed expression he’d ever seen from her—and that was saying a lot. “You are not staying in here with my daughter and letting a dome swallow her up. Besides, you heard what the policeman said.”
“What’s he going to do, arrest us?” Will asked, sounding genuinely surprised at her resistance to the idea. “Thousands of people have done it by now. It’s safe. It’s proven.”
“What are you, a pharmaceutical commercial? It’s an alien dome, for God’s sake. There’s nothing safe or proven about it. It’s an unnecessary risk.”
“Mom,” moaned Kaley.
“Jeez, Mom, just let them do it,” Ashley said, sounding irritated. “You know they’re gonna wear you down eventually.”
Cynthia shook her head in frustration; so much for Will listening to her more often. But after stewing in silence for a few seconds, she gave in as she always did and said, “Fine, but I’m not happy about it, not happy at all.”
Kaley jumped up and gave her a big hug, and there was no resisting that.
*****
One week left to pack. One week left to cherish the home they’d lived in since before Ashley was born. Cynthia spun around in a slow circle in the living room, her eyes taking in the fireplace where the stockings hung each Christmas, the kitchen where she’d been preparing meals for the past fourteen years, the dining room where they’d shared their meals as a family. She started to get teary-eyed; she couldn’t help it. She’d thought this would be their forever home, and now she was being forced to leave it.
Looking out the window at her back yard, she saw Woof rolling around in the grass. Birds were drinking from the fountain. Two squirrels were attacking the bird feeders despite the protective cones that were supposedly guaranteed to keep them out.
She hated leaving it all behind.
They had a rental set up in Hygiene for one month. Just one month, and then what? What kind of life was it going to be from now on with no permanent home of their own and a family of five to take care of? Six, if you counted Woof.
The birds and squirrels were going to miss their food sources in the back yard, that was for sure. She wondered how they would adapt to the dome suddenly intruding on their space. Would they be smart enough to escape once the air started to run out? She hoped so. How many shocks would it take before they stopped trying to reenter? She pictured an innocent bird flying into one of the nearly invisible dome walls and cringed at the thought. Fried bird seemed like the most likely result. The cats would be happy anyway: plenty for them to eat.
Her thoughts were turning morbid, as they often did when she was alone in the house. The kids were at school (amazingly enough, despite all that was going on) and Will was at work, still soldiering away on some big accounting project. Meanwhile, a big part of her was still living in denial. Upstairs and in the basement, half-packed boxes were strewn everywhere, but on the main floor no boxes were visible at all. She wanted to keep the fantasy of normalcy alive as long as she possibly could.
She figured she had maybe three days left to pretend all was well in Longmont-land. Three more days to share breakfast with her kids at the kitchen table. Three more days to pull cereal boxes out of the cabinet, cut up a banana, get the milk out of the fridge, make some toast with butter and jam, call to her kids up the stairs, and watch them come running down (or trudging down in Ashley’s case). Josh would be late, of course; that would be true no matter where they lived. But all the little rituals that made life such a pleasure for her would soon be gone. Eight-year-old Kaley might love the idea of change, but middle-aged Cynthia hated it.
She felt especially sorry for Woof; he was so attached to his yard and his routines. He liked chasing the squirrels from the feeders and barking at the neighbors’ dog through that hole in the fence. And then there was Ashley. She was moodier than ever these days, walking around with a permanent cloud over her head. Truth be told, Cynthia understood her attitude more than she did the keen excitement Josh and Kaley seemed to feel.
Will, meanwhile, had turned into a packing fiend. He threw stuff into boxes each night with an intensity that left her breathless just watching him. Everything not coming he tossed into the garage, vowing to have the ultimate garage sale before they left—but who was going to buy all that junk now that the domes were taking over everyone’s lives? Each night around midnight he fell into bed in a near-coma of exhaustion, then he was up at five the next morning and off to work for another day. He told Cynthia he had to make as much money as he could right now because he wasn’t sure how much longer his company would last.
Will had always been a good provider, but he was an accountant and not exactly suited to all this apocalyptic stuff. It was almost a cliché, wasn’t it? Bean counters weren’t the ones you wanted around at the end of the world. But so far he was handling himself surprisingly well. In truth, Cynthia was more worried about herself than she was about him. She was the one who kept having panic attacks out of nowhere. Like right now, for instance. Just thinking about panic attacks was sometimes enough to trigger one.
She sat in the middle of the living room floor, cross-legged, and tried to calm herself, focusing on her breathing. She felt her pulse begin to slow as she meditated on what really mattered to her most in this world.
Which was easy: family.
Everything else could get stripped away: the house, the yard, even the friends and neighbors. As long as she had her family she’d be okay. So that was what she’d focus on from now on: keeping her family together. Keeping her family safe.
October 29 – Hygiene, Colorado
“I love this place,” said Kaley. “There’s a barn with real hay and it smells like horses.” She was standing at the front door with pieces of straw sticking out at odd angles from her tousled hair and clothing.
“What in the name of heaven have you been up to?” her mother demanded.
“Hay rolling,” Kaley said matter-of-factly. “There’s a tire swing, too, up in the barn loft. You can swing right out over the whole barn. Dad said he’d do it with us later.”
“Did he now? Because that definitely does not sound safe.” (Who was this man she’d married?)
“That’s what makes it so exciting,” said Kaley. She ran back outside, beelining towards a prairie dog hole with a prairie dog crouched in it. The prairie dog reared up on its hind legs, squeaked a startled warning, then disappeared down the hole. Cynthia watched her daughter peering down the hole on all fours and just shook her head.
Woof was whining and scratching at the kitchen door, wanting to get out and join Kaley in her prairie dog hunt, but Cynthia kept it firmly shut. But as Will strode in from the garage with another load of boxes from the car, Woof scampered past him through the half-open doorway. He ran straight towards Kaley, barking all the way. Cynthia shook her head again and decided to focus on the issue at hand. “What’s this about a tire swing? ” she demanded as Will strode by.
“Oh, she told you, did she?” Will laughed, stopping in his tracks. “I was going to wait to tell you until after it was all over so you wouldn’t worry too much, but Kaley’s not much for keeping secrets, is she?”
“A tire swing in the barn loft? That sounds dangerous, Will.”
“I’ll go first and make sure it’s safe. If it can hold my weight, it can definitely hold Kaley’s and Josh’s.”
“So Josh is in on this too?”
“Are you kidding me? It was his idea in the first place.”
“Why am I not surprised.”
“Look, as long as they hold on tight, they’ll be fine. The tire swing wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t safe, right? And like I said, I’ll go first.”
“That’s very comforting. I’ll put that on your tombstone: ‘He Went First.’ I thought you were afraid of heights.”
“I am. But it’s important to the kids, so I’ll just have to suck it up and get over it.”
“Don’t tell me Ashley is in on this too?”
“No way, not Ashley. Sorry but I’ve gotta put this load down—it’s heavy.” He headed upstairs to the master bedroom.
Cynthia looked around at the home they would be inhabiting for the next month. It was a peaceful farmhouse set out in the countryside, away from all domes, and it was costing them a small fortune. She could see horses grazing in nearby fields, bales of hay wrapped in white plastic, and mountains in the distance that were already turning white with snow. Cynthia shivered at the thought that winter was on its way.
Folks on the Front Range tended to think of Halloween as the dividing point between fall and winter. Snow was always a possibility on Halloween night. The kids’ costumes were often layered atop thermals to keep them from freezing to death. But what with the craziness of the move, all thoughts of Halloween had flown right out of her head this year. There were no costumes and no candy. And besides, the closest home was a good quarter mile away, so neighborhood trick-or-treating was out of the question. She should really go to the store and buy them some candy—assuming the stores still had any left.
Their old home in Longmont (they were already calling it their old home) was mostly empty now except for the beds and the furniture, which they had decided to leave behind. Two bays of the three-car garage were piled high with junk, right up to the rafters. The yard sale idea had quickly gone out the window as time had run out.
Their Ford minivan still occupied the last bay of the garage, its entire back half filled to the brim with possessions. Will had promised Kaley they could make their great escape after the dome had enclosed their home, and she was making him stick to his promise with daily reminders of just how important it was to her. Of course, Josh, as soon as he’d heard about it, had wanted in too, so now all three were going.
