m and This Bubble One

Far away noise,

Touches everything,

But keeps this silent and asleep.

Three and a half miles northeast of the wrench.

Andy and Kathrin had made it into that hallway beyond the first room when they heard the sound. Kathrin snatched Andy by the arm when she felt the movement under her feet. Andy was ahead of her, cloaked within the shadows just outside the band of light that cut across. She was there in it, drawn toward the window of that back room that brought the light in, not only hearing the sound but almost seeing it approaching.

It was at a distance still, but all around them, already touching things inside the house, for they were starting to shudder, just like the floor.

“What is that?” Andy whispered, but Kathrin didn’t answer. She just kept staring out the window, seeing the emptiness of the backyard, a patch of thick grass with a metal fence squaring it off, wrapped in overgrowth, the leaves of those vines waking to the sound as well. She knew this, because she understood there wouldn’t be a breeze. Not even after what happened downtown. That was different.

This was something else.

“Kathrin.” Andy whispered and turned to step into the stream of gray light. He gazed across the room at that window, noting the flittering leaves along the fence outside.

“You feel it?” Kathrin whispered back.

Andy didn’t look down at his feet but instead stared at the floor of that back room. It was a dining room, the table placed in the center with chairs positioned around it. He didn’t have to look at the china cabinets along the walls to know the dishes inside were clacking together. He just looked into the sound, feeling the wood underneath his shoes buzzing.

He thought about the voice he heard downtown. It was faint at first, almost nothing but a sensation just like they were feeling now. He followed this present change in the sound, like a swelling he could picture in his mind. Almost a color, like a blooming plant, a dark purple brightening to a violet, then a dark blue. Now that blue was filling with a slight green that bubbled up into brownish red, flaring to a pure red that burst into a bright orange.

There was the sound of sand filling a large bowl of glass, which made them think about the flapping of hundred of wings as a flock of birds left a tree top together, fleeing the scene at the first sign of trouble, for the big wave was approaching, already heard, just not felt.

“Is that the world waking back up?” Kathrin whispered.

She and Andy were gripping each other by the arms, staring out the window at those flittering leaves. The fence itself was shuddering in anticipation. Right then they knew where every window in the house was, because they heard the panes vibrating in their loose seals. They were able to picture the house in its entirety at that moment, making assumptions of its integrity, doubting most of it, guessing at where the stronger points were, but not moving from where they were standing to clarify each of these things, remaining, instead, bathed in that gray light.

So they waited and imaged the horizon, a setup of contrast: the dark of the earth against the gray of the sky, and the sky was taking over. The horizon was falling down out of view. The world was shrinking around them, closing in, because they knew they were the only ones awake. There had to be witnesses to what was happening just because it wouldn’t be right that there weren’t.

So, they braced themselves, waiting, waiting, feeling the buzz now a rumble under their feet, questioning whether or not the floor was warping underneath, rising up like the coming wave. Still, they waited. They waited, and then they felt the swelling under their feet deflating.

They saw the house expelling a breath long and slow. They saw the leaves and vines outside relaxing their shoulders. They heard the sand being poured from the glass bowl into an endless space.

Then they heard nothing but the hard pulsing in their ears.

They looked at each other, mouths hanging open, taking and giving air, their brows wrinkling to the change around them.

Kathrin glanced out the window again. “Is it over?”

Andy looked into the first room, glanced into that dining room, and then looked out the window. The vines and leaves were drooping once more, bored.

Kathrin looked at Andy, “Is it?”

Andy arched an eyebrow, “Well, whatever it was.”

“You think that’s what it was?” Kathrin asked. “The world trying to wake up?”

“If it’s even asleep.” Andy said. “We still don’t know.”

Kathrin looked past his shoulder down the dark hallway. Andy turned around. The rest of the house was that way. It lay open to them, just as it had before the vibration.

“You still want to go?” Andy asked Kathrin without looking back at her.

She nodded and whispered, “Yeah.” She slid her right hand down his arm to his hand, shoving her fingers between his. They both gripped each other tight. Andy led the way down the hall. There were five doors, two on either side and one at the end, and none of them were open. However, there was a faint band of light peeking out from under the farthest door on the right. It was the only door Andy considered.

He and Kathrin crept toward it. They made an effort to hide the sounds of their shoes meeting the wooden floor, but there was no helping the times when the wood gave under their weight, moaning in the process. Andy and Kathrin paused in those moments, guessing how they should bring their feet up without making a noise, but even as they moved slower, the wood complained just the same, grunting instead of moaning.

By the time they were standing in front of the chosen door, they had made enough noise to announce themselves. The house was so quiet, and there was nothing outside to draw attention. It was just them in this whole wide world and everything that was aware knew about them. So, with that in mind, Andy and Kathrin questioned whether they would find anybody on the other side of that door or not.

They wondered if that was why they hesitated. Andy hadn’t even reached for the knob yet. What if it was locked? There were other doors, but this was the only one that would show them anything. It was the light underneath that convinced them of that.

Andy reached and touched the knob with his fingertips. Kathrin pressed herself up against him, one hand still clasped in his, her other on his shoulder. She was peeking over his shoulder, pressing her lips into his shoulder blade, preparing to suppress a scream.

“This is so wrong.” she muffled against his shirt.

“But we gotta know.” Andy whispered, hearing his voice bounce back at him from this small end of the hallway. There was just no way of keeping themselves secret, was there? Yet, if there was someone on the other side of that door, wouldn’t they have done something already?

A part of him grasped onto a sense of relief that they wouldn’t find anyone. He used that relief to twist the iron doorknob. It turned with a grainy high pitched squeal that was barely heard, but it was there enough to make Kathrin think of old forgotten things. She thought of death, and squeezed Andy’s hand and shoulder harder, almost convinced they would find someone on the other side who would be dead.

The question was, would they find the dead with expressions of calm or distorted with terror? Silence had a way of calming one from stressful thoughts, but it also made one feel lonely. Someone who was too alone would cry out just to hear a voice upon the air. Could someone die by screaming themselves to death?

The knob turned as far as it would go, and the whining stopped. Andy waited and listened for anything on the other side, and when he heard nothing, he pushed. There was no resistance. The hinges gave a slight reply, but the door moved as though it was gliding just above that wooden floor.

Andy and Kathrin were drawn to the window on the opposite wall pouring the gray light in through the film-like curtains. At first, that was all they could see, their eyes having to adjust, having embraced the darkness of the hallway. Next they saw the long dresser underneath the window, the silhouettes of objects on top of it carving out darker gray streams from the light coming inside. They followed those streams toward the middle of the room where they saw the surface of thick cloth. Blankets. The bed.

A shrouded chamber with forgiving wooden walls. That’s what the couple felt when they looked at the shapes underneath those blankets. The feet first, poking up higher than the shins that formed a gradual inclining slope up to the knees, then the thighs on up to the larger portions where things started to matter more.

There were people in this room. Others. Andy and Kathrin suddenly wanted to feel alone again. Maybe they were. Maybe the two people under those covers were dead after all. They were trying to decide what it was they decided while they stood there in the hallway looking in. Andy could feel Kathrin’s fear. She wasn’t moving. She was holding on so tight that she was beyond shaking. She was frozen. If he dared look back, he might find her eyes open as wide as his were, unwilling to blink.

There was no room for words. Words would be disrespectful, for Andy and Kathrin just knew those two people were dead. But who were they? Someone they knew? It would be their luck, wouldn’t it? Some older couple who were friends with their parents? Andy and Kathrin were the wrong ones to be here, but here they were.

So now what? Neither Andy nor Kathrin voiced this question, but they were both thinking it. They had come all this way, and even though it was just from the street, up the sidewalk, across the porch, and through a room and down a hallway, it had felt like a year long journey. No, more than a year. A lifetime. There was supposed to be a reward, right?

The only reward that came to mind was one that would satisfy their morbid curiosity. They wanted to see the faces of those in the bed. The problem was that a bit of courage was required to find out. From just outside the room, all they got were shapes under the blankets and shadowed faces. No movement. How many horror movies had Andy and Kathrin seen that started just like this? They would write it off of course if only the world wasn’t the way it was outside. And who knew what that small quake was about?

Now, anything was possible. Bodies assumed to be dead could spring up from their blankets and roar or latch on with the grip of the dead. Or they could just lie there and sleep. One thing was for certain: Andy and Kathrin were there. There was no backtracking. No backing out. All that was important, the one thing that would get them to the next part of all this, was right in front of them. They were trapped.

Andy took one step forward. Kathrin’s grip threatened to pull him back, and if they had pulled a second longer, he would have let himself be pulled, but Kathrin took his cue and stepped forward with him. Her step had pressed her against him again, nudging him forward. He resisted, but it only lasted for a second, because he took another step forward, giving in. She stepped with him.

Again, the wooden floor grunted under their weight. Andy held his breath with each sound. Kathrin kept her mouth pressed against his shoulder blade. It took two steps for Andy to be beyond the threshold. The journey still had a way to go. Giving himself to the room felt like giving himself over to the grip of those lying in the bed. This was a trap, the people in bed lying as still as they could until Andy and Kathrin were close enough to snatch up. Either that, or Andy and Kathrin would finally figure out if the two people were asleep or dead.

It was a well-placed trap, because Andy wasn’t stopping. Neither was Kathrin, and he had her to thank. If it wasn’t for her unintentional push, he wouldn’t have made it these few steps.

“Can you see yet?” Kathrin whispered.

Andy thought that was brave of her. She tried to keep her voice as quiet as she could, but any noise went noticed in this room. While she could mask her voice with his shoulder, he had nothing in front of him, so instead of speaking, he just shook his head.

There was another long dresser to the left. It squeezed off the space along the side of the bed facing them. Standing at the foot of the bed wouldn’t be enough. They’d have to stand right next to the bodies to look into their faces. That narrowed space between the side of the bed and that dresser was just another trap. No room to run. And yet, Andy and Kathrin gave themselves to it.

They could at least tell the person on this side of the bed was a man. The smaller woman was on the other side, and there was something in what the light had revealed of their faces so far that said they were elderly. That made Andy and Kathrin feel a lot better. A closer look showed them the man’s gray hair. A good sign. But, still, was he alive?

Andy stopped. They were near the head of the bed, but Andy couldn’t go any further. He was already having to fight against the loud pulse in his ears that threatened to shake his body with each thump. He had done well enough to keep his heavy breathing quiet, keeping his mouth open to allow a bigger passage.

They looked down into the man’s face. He was an old man. To Andy and Kathrin’s relief, his eyes were closed. So was his mouth. No frozen scream of terror. No extra wrinkles in his brow that told of frustration or concern. His head was turned toward the ceiling. Even in that silence, they couldn’t hear either the old man or the woman breathing.

They turned their attention to the man’s chest wrapped under the blanket. His left hand was lying there while his right hand was along his side, both out from under the covers. Andy and Kathrin stared at the hand on the man’s chest. They waited, holding their own breaths, looking for any kind of shift, rise or fall. It was hard to tell in that dim lighting. The light picked up on all the dust hovering in the air, none of it moving, because the air wasn’t moving. Maybe there had been a slight disturbance in front of Andy and Kathrin’s faces, but they didn’t see it now that they continued to hold their breath. So the dust hung there in the way, frozen inside this tomb to be discovered one day by other survivors of whatever happened to the world.

There was just no way of telling anything, even though Andy and Kathrin had come this far. Andy got an idea. He started to drop from Kathrin. She gasped and had to catch herself from falling forward. Her hand that was upon his shoulder retrieved its grip. She didn’t dare ask what he was doing as he slowly squatted down by the bed. She looked up from him and eyeballed the couple in the bed, feeling the full brunt of what Andy had felt the whole time. Since she lost contact with his hand, she put that hand on top of Andy’s head, pressing into his hair. Still, she didn’t say a word. She couldn’t take her eyes off the couple whom she hoped was asleep and nothing more.

Andy had squatted to where his eyes were level with the old man’s chest, catching the light from the window at a different angle. Now the old man was just a dark shape against the gray outside world. There, he watched and waited, as the old man’s hand lay there. All of it just a fixed foreground against a backdrop.

Then it changed. The man’s hand absorbed a tiny sliver of the backdrop. It was pushed upward. The mound it was lying upon was rising, replacing a long but thin sliver of the backdrop. Andy smiled when every bit of the backdrop was then given back.

“He’s breathing.” Andy whispered, and Kathrin heard the smile in his voice.

“He is?” she said, unable to hide the trickle of excitement in her own voice.

Andy remained where he was long enough to see the slow rise and fall of the foreground. It was the relaxed but adequate regulation of air in and out of the man’s lungs while he slept. Yes, Andy thought as he straightened before Kathrin.

“They’re sleeping.” he whispered.

“They are?” Kathrin gasped and allowed herself a tiny chuckle.

“Yeah,” Andy whispered back, “I saw his chest rise and fall. He’s breathing.”

“And the woman?” Kathrin asked.

“I assume she’s sleeping, too.” Andy whispered.

“Are you sure?” Kathrin asked.

“She has to be,” Andy said, “if the old man is.”

“You think so?” Kathrin asked.

“I mean, she has to be.” Andy repeated.

“But why?” Kathrin asked. “Why are they asleep?”

“I don’t know.”

“And how come we’re awake?”

“I don’t know.”

“Can they be woken up?” Kathrin asked.

Andy thought about it and then wondered why he even considered it. Why wouldn’t they be able to wake up? Then he remembered what Kathrin said. She and he were the only ones awake, save for that guy with the weird haircut and the tanned man with the mirror. Was everyone really asleep like this?

“It should be easy, right?” Kathrin asked. “All they need is someone to wake them up.”

“Why couldn’t they wake up by themselves?” Andy asked.

Kathrin didn’t answer. She just shook her head. Then, she said, “Try it.”

Andy paused.

“Try to wake him up.” Kathrin whispered.

“You think he will?” Andy asked.

“Try,” she said.

The grin on Andy’s face faded. Kathrin said no more to pressure him, but the pressure was there. He wanted to try it anyway, but what kept him from trying to begin with, was the thought that no matter what he tried, the couple in bed would remain asleep. That would say a lot of what Andy wasn’t ready to accept about the situation. It would mean that something was wrong with the world, and as fun or fascinating as it was to begin with, later the effects of the joke would wear off. Something would have to be done and what could he and Kathrin possibly do to alleviate something like this? Then he remembered the guy with the weird haircut and the tanned man with the mirror. Two guys who could disappear just like that.

Was there hope in those guys or was there further despair?

It was something, and all he needed was something to be able to move forward, if for no other reason than to see how it would all turn out. He reached over and pressed his fingers to the old man’s chest. The man felt warm. A good sign. He pressed his fingers harder to see if that would do anything, but the old man didn’t stir. He took his fingers away, waited, and then tapped the man’s chest.

Nothing.

He tapped again.

Still nothing.

He poked the man hard this time.

Nothing.

He tapped the man hard. There was no response.

“Hey,” Andy was brave enough to raise his voice from a whisper now as he tapped again. The old man remained asleep.

“Shake him.” Kathrin whispered.

Andy didn’t hesitate this time as he put both hands on the man’s chest and shook lightly. “Hey.” he said in a normal volume, enough to wake the old woman as well, but Andy did all this with complete confidence that neither one would wake up. He pulled his hands back, stared down at the old man, and then reached down and patted the old man’s cheek. “Sir.”

The old man didn’t stir.

That was enough answer for Andy.

“What’s wrong with them?” Kathrin asked. She was beyond whispering now.

“Just…sleeping.” Andy shrugged.

“What, are they in comas?” Kathrin asked. “I mean, they’re both old.”

Andy was shaking his head. “No.”

“We could check another house.” Kathrin said. “A younger person or something.”

Andy was still shaking his head. “No.”

“But…”

“This is how it is.” Andy said. “They’re all asleep.”

“How do you know?” she asked.

“It’s the way it is.” he said.

“But why?” Kathrin asked.

“Those two guys.” Andy said.

“What?”

“The guy we saw at the coffee shop.” Andy said, “The guy with the mirror.” He took Kathrin’s hand in his and started for the doorway, “We’ve got to find them.”

“Are they…did they do this?” Kathrin said as they started down the hallway back toward that band of light.

“I don’t know,” Andy said, “but they know something.”

“What do they…?” Kathrin was asking when Andy turned the corner into that first room and came to a stop. Kathrin bumped into him and gasped at what she saw. The front door was open like they left it, but standing there in the threshold was the tanned man. This time, they didn’t notice anything else about him except for those glowing eyes. The light coming from the window at their backs wasn’t enough to expose the tanned man’s face. He was just a hunched silhouette with two yellow glowing orbs fixed into his head. No mouth. No blinking. No voice. Just two glowing orbs staring right back at them.

They wanted to think it was the same man as before. He was even propping the long rectangular mirror on his back. But not with those eyes. Him being able to keep up with their car, jumping down in front of them out of the trees was wild, but still not convincing enough that he wasn’t human. Neither was the language. This. Those emotionless glowing robs, that was the moment they knew.

Andy backed up into Kathrin and spread his arms to shield her. She gripped both his shoulders but didn’t press her mouth against his shoulder blade this time. She was unable to look away. Unable to hide. There was nowhere to hide from those eyes.

The tanned man made no attempt to approach them. He just stood there in the doorway, their way out. They never bothered to see if there was a backdoor, knowing there was a backyard. They couldn’t think of that now. Not with those glowing orbs gripping them.

Andy forced himself to remember all those instances when the tanned man showed no hostility. Sure, he had jumped in front of their car to stop them, but only to give them a chance to see the sleeping old couple in this house. Surely, the tanned man hadn’t changed his mind. Or was this someone different. The tan man left them, but instead of coming back, something else showed up instead.

Only one way to find out.

Andy cleared his throat, “S-s-so…y-you wanted…us t-to see, right? That…that everyone’s asleep?”

He and Kathrin waited for a response.

The tanned man’s magical voice sounded from somewhere around those golden orbs, “Iam ut vos animadverto, vos adveho, testis.” Then he backed out of the threshold, the mirror on his back straightening while its base remained where it was on the porch floor. Then the tanned man started to turn, and when he faced into the gray light outside, Andy and Kathrin caught a glimpse of that same blank expression they saw before, the glow in his eyes faded.

Then he disappeared from the doorway, and they saw the bottom part of his mirror as it was turned to reflect the dark interior of that first room, its base scuffing along that tired carpeted floor.

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Next Chapter: Settling and Gathering