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Don, she thinks, what have you done?

Gary leans closer.

“Do you mind if I tell you a story while you do this? ”

“What? ”

“A story. Something to keep your mind off the pain. And let me tell you that you’re doing a wonderful job. Better than my wife did. ”

Olympia’s breathing sounds bad, too labored, like she couldn’t possibly survive this.

“One of two things is happening here, ” Gary says. “Either—”

“Please, ” Malorie cries. “Please leave me alone. ”

“Either my philosophies are right, or, and I hate to use this word, or I’m immune. ”

It feels like the baby is at the edge of her body. Yet it feels too big to escape. Malorie gasps and closes her eyes. But the pain is everywhere, even in her darkness.

They don’t know he’s up here. Oh my God they don’t know he’s here.

“I’ve watched this street for a long time, ” Gary says. “I watched as Tom and Jules stumbled their way around the block. I was mere inches from Tom as he studied the very tent that sheltered me. ”

“Stop it. STOP IT! ”

But yelling only makes the pain worse. Malorie focuses. She pushes. She breathes. But she can’t help but hear.

“I found it fascinating, the lengths the man would go to, while I watched, unharmed, as the creatures passed daily, nightly, sometimes a dozen at once. It’s the reason I settled on this street, Malorie. You have no idea how busy it can be out there. ”

please please please please please please please please PLEASE

From the floor below, she hears Tom’s voice.

“Jules! I need you! ”

Then a thundering of footsteps leading back down.

“TOM! HELP US! GARY IS UP HERE! TOM! ”

“He’s preoccupied, ” Gary says. “There’s a real situation going on down there. ”

Gary rises. He steps to the attic door and quietly closes it.

Then he locks it.

“Is that any better? ” he asks.

“What have you done? ” Malorie hisses.

More shouting from below now. It sounds like everybody is moving at once. For an instant, she believes she has gone mad. No matter how safe she’s been, it feels like there is no hiding from the insanity of the new world.

Someone screams in the hall below the locked attic door. Malorie thinks it’s Felix.

“My wife wasn’t prepared, ” Gary says, suddenly beside her. “I watched her as she saw one. I didn’t warn her it was coming. I—”

“Why didn’t you tell us?! ” Malorie asks, crying, pushing.

“Because, ” Gary says, “just like the others, none of you would have believed me. Except Don. ”

“You’re mad. ”

Gary laughs, grinning.

“What is happening downstairs?! ” Olympia yells. “Malorie! What is happening downstairs?! ”

“I don’t know! ”

“It’s Don, ” Gary says. “He’s trying to convince the others what I’ve taught him. ”

“IT’S DON! ”

The voice from below is as clear as if it were spoken in the attic.

“DON PULLED THEM DOWN! DON PULLED THE BLANKETS DOWN! ”

“They won’t hurt us, ” Gary whispers. The whiskers of his moist beard touch Malorie’s ear.

But she is no longer listening to him.

“Malorie? ” Olympia whispers.

“DON PULLED THE BLANKETS DOWN AND OPENED THE DOOR! THEY’RE IN THE HOUSE! DID YOU HEAR ME? THEY’RE IN THE HOUSE! ”

the baby is coming the baby is coming the baby is coming

“Malorie? ”

“Olympia, ” she says, defeated, void of hope (is it true? is her own voice saying as much? ). “Yes. They’re in the house now. ”

The storm outside whips against the walls.

The chaos below sounds impossible.

“They sound like wolves, ” Olympia cries. “They sound like wolves! ”

Don Don Don Don Don Don Don Don Don Don

tore the blankets down

let them in

someone saw them

let them in

someone went mad who was it?

Don let them in

Don tore down the blankets

Don doesn’t believe they can hurt us

Don thinks it’s only in our mind

Gary knelt by him in the chair in the dining room

Gary spoke to him from behind the tapestry in the cellar

Don pulled the blankets down

Gary told him they were fake, Gary told him they were harmless

may have gone mad who is it who has?

(push, Malorie, push, you have a baby, a baby to worry about, close your eyes if you have to but push push) they’re in the house now

and everyone in it

sounds like wolves.

The birds, Malorie thinks, hysterical, were a good idea, Tom. A great one.

Olympia is frantically asking her questions but Malorie can’t answer. Her mind is full.

“Is it true? Is there really one in the house? That can’t be true. We’d never allow it! Is there really one in the house? Right now? ”

Something slams against a wall downstairs. A body maybe. The dogs are barking.

Someone threw a dog against the wall.

“DON TORE THE BLANKETS DOWN! ”

Who has their eyes closed down there? Who has the presence of mind? Would Malorie? Would Malorie have been able to close her eyes as her housemates went mad?

Oh my God, Malorie thinks. They’re going to die down there.

The baby is killing her.

Gary is still whispering in her ear.

“What you hear down there, that’s what I mean, Malorie. They think they’re supposed to go mad. But they don’t have to. I spent seasons out there. I watched them for weeks at a time. ”

“Impossible, ” Malorie says. She doesn’t know if this word is directed at Gary, the noise below, or the pain she believes will never pass.

“The first time I saw one, I thought I’d gone mad. ” Gary nervously laughs. “But I didn’t. And when I slowly realized I was still of sound mind, I began to understand what was happening. To my friends. My family. To everybody. ”

“I don’t want to hear any more! ” Malorie screams. She feels like she may split down the center. There has been a mistake, she thinks. The baby that tries to escape her is too big and it will split her.

It’s a boy, she believes.

“You know what? ”

“Stop! ”

“You know what? ”

“No! No! No! ”

Olympia howls, the sky howls, the dogs howl downstairs. Malorie believes she hears Jules specifically. She hears him racing a floor below. She hears him trying to tear something apart in the bathroom down there.

“Maybe I am immune, Malorie. Or maybe I’m simply aware. ”

She wants to say, Do you know how much you could have done for us? Do you understand how much safer you could have made us?

But Gary is mad.

And he probably always has been.

Don pulled the blankets down.

Gary knelt by him in the dining room.

Gary spoke to him from behind a tapestry in the cellar.

Gary the demon on Don’s soft shoulder.

There is a thunderous knocking at the attic’s floor door.

“LET ME IN! ” someone screams.

It’s Felix, Malorie thinks. Or Don.

“JESUS CHRIST LET ME IN! ”

But it’s neither.

It’s Tom.

“Open the door for him! ” Malorie screams at Gary.

“Are you sure you want me to do that? It doesn’t sound to me like a safe idea. ”

“Please please please! Let him in! ”

It’s Tom, oh my God, it’s Tom, it’s Tom, oh my God, it’s Tom.

She pushes hard. Oh God she pushes hard.

“Breathe, ” Gary tells her. “Breathe. You’re almost there now. ”

“Please, ” Malorie cries. “Please! ”

“LET ME IN! LET ME UP THERE! ”

Olympia is screaming now, too.

“Open the door for him! It’s Tom! ”

The insanity from below is knocking on the door.

Tom.

Tom is insane. Tom saw one of the creatures.

Tom is insane.

Did you hear him? Did you hear his voice? That was the sound he makes. That was how he sounds without his mind, without his beautiful mind.

Gary rises and crosses the attic. The rain pounds on the roof.

The knocking on the attic floor door stops.

Malorie looks across the attic to Olympia.

Olympia’s black hair mingles with the shadows. Her eyes blaze from within.

“We’re. . . almost. . . there, ” she says.

Olympia’s child is coming out. In the candlelight, Malorie can see it is halfway there.

Instinctively, she reaches for it, though it is an attic floor away.

“Olympia! Don’t forget to cover your child’s eyes. Don’t forget to—”

The attic floor’s door crashes open hard. The lock has been broken.

Malorie screams but all she hears is her own heartbeat, louder than all of the new world.

Then she is silent.

Gary rises and steps back toward the window.

There are heavy footsteps behind her.

Malorie’s baby is emerging.

The stairs groan.

“Who is it? ” she screams. “Who is it? Is everyone okay? Is it Tom? Who is it? ”

Someone she cannot see has climbed the stairs and is in the attic with them.

Malorie, her back to the stairs, watches as Olympia’s expression changes from pain to awe.

Olympia, she thinks. Don’t look. We’ve been so good. So brave. Don’t look. Reach for your child instead. Hide its eyes when it comes out completely. Hide its eyes. And hide your own. Don’t look. Olympia. Don’t look.

But she understands it’s too late for her friend.

Olympia leans forward. Her eyes grow huge, her mouth opens. Her face becomes three perfect circles. For a moment Malorie sees her features contort, then shine instead.

“You’re beautiful, ” Olympia says, smiling. It’s a broken, twitching smile. “You’re not bad at all. You wanna see my baby? Do you wanna see my baby? ”

The child the child, Malorie thinks, the child is in her and she has gone mad. Oh my God, Olympia has gone mad, oh my God, the thing is behind me and the thing is behind my child.

Malorie closes her eyes.

As she does, the image of Gary remains, still standing at the edge of the candlelight’s reach. But he does not look as confident as he professed that he should. He looks like a scared child.

“Olympia, ” Malorie says. “You’ve got to cover the baby’s eyes. You’ve got to reach down. For your baby. ”

Malorie can’t see her friend’s expression. But her voice reveals the change within her.

“What? You’re going to tell me how to raise my child? What kind of a bitch are you? What kind of a—”

Olympia’s words morph into a guttural growl.

Insanity fuss.

Gary’s diseased, dangerous words.

Olympia is baying.

Malorie’s baby is crowning. She pushes.

With a strength she didn’t know she possessed, Malorie inches forward on the towel. She wants Olympia’s child. She will protect it.

Then, amid all this pain and madness, Malorie hears Olympia’s baby’s very first cry.

Close its eyes.

Then at last Malorie’s child comes through and her hand is there to cup its eyes. Its head is so soft and she believes she’s gotten to him in time.

“Come here, ” she says, bringing the baby to her chest. “Come here and close your eyes. ”

Gary laughs anxiously from across the room.

“Incredible, ” he says.

Malorie feels for the steak knife. She finds it and cuts her own cord. Then she cuts two strips from the bloody towel beneath her. She feels his sex and knows it’s a boy and has no one to tell this to. No sister. No mother. No father. No nurse. No Tom. She holds him tight to her chest.

Slowly, she ties a piece of the towel around his eyes.

How important is it that he sees his mother’s face when he enters the world?

She hears the creature shift behind her.

“Baby, ” Olympia says, but her voice is cracked. She sounds like she’s using the voice of an older woman. “My baby, ” she crows.

Malorie slides forward. The muscles in her body resist. She reaches for Olympia’s child.

“Here, ” she says blindly. “Here, Olympia. Let me have it. Let me see it. ”

Olympia grunts.

“Why should I let you? What do you want my child for? Are you mad? ”

“No. I just want to see it. ”

Malorie’s eyes are still closed. The attic is quiet. The rain lands softly on the roof. Malorie slides forward, still on the blood beneath her body.

“Can I? Can I just see her? It is a girl, right? Weren’t you right about that? ”

Malorie hears something so astonishing that she is halted midway across the floor.

Olympia is gnawing at something. She knows it’s the child’s cord.

Her stomach turns. She keeps her eyes closed tight. She’s going to throw up.

“Can I see her? ” Malorie manages to ask.

“Here. Here! ” Olympia says. “Look at her. Look at her! ”

At last, Malorie’s hands are on Olympia’s baby. It’s a girl.

Olympia stands up. It sounds like she steps in a rain puddle. It’s blood, Malorie knows. Afterbirth, sweat, and blood.

“Thank you, ” Malorie whispers. “Thank you, Olympia. ”

This action, this handing off of her child, will always shine to Malorie. The moment Olympia did right by her child despite having lost her mind.

Malorie ties the second piece of towel around the baby’s eyes.

Olympia shuffles toward the draped window. To where Gary stands.

The thing waits behind Malorie and is still.

Malorie grips both babies, shielding their eyes even more with her bloody, wet fingers. Both babies cry.

And suddenly Olympia is struggling with something, sliding something.

Like she’s climbing now.

“Olympia? ”

It sounds like Olympia is setting something up.

“Olympia? What are you doing, Olympia? Gary, stop her. Please, Gary. ”

Her words are useless. Gary is the maddest of all.

“I’m going outside, sir, ” Olympia says to Gary, who must be near. “I’ve been inside a long time. ”

“Olympia, stop. ”

“I’m going to step OUTSIDE, ” she says, her voice at once like a child and a centenarian on her deathbed.

“Olympia! ”

It’s too late. Malorie hears the glass of the attic window shatter. Something bangs against the house.

Silence. From downstairs. From the attic. Then Gary speaks.

“She hangs! She hangs by her cord! ”

Don’t. Please, God, don’t let this man describe it to me.

“She hangs by her cord! The most incredible thing I’ve ever seen! She hangs by her cord! ”

There is laughter, joy in his voice.

The thing moves behind her. Malorie is at the epicenter of all this madness. Old madness. The kind people used to get from war, divorce, poverty, and things like knowing that your friend is— “Hanging by her cord! By her cord! ”

“Shut up! ” Malorie screams blindly. “Shut up! ”

But her words are choked, as she feels the thing behind her is leaning in. A part of it (its face? ) moves near her lips.

Malorie only breathes. She does not move. The attic is silent.

She can feel the warmth, the heat, of the thing beside her.

Shannon, she thinks, look at the clouds. They look like us. You and I.

She tightens her grip over the babies’ eyes.

She hears the thing behind her retract. It sounds as if it’s moving away from her. Farther.

It pauses. Stops.

When she hears the wooden stairs creaking, and when she’s sure it is the sound of someone descending, she releases a sob deeper than any she’s ever known.

The steps grow quiet. Quieter. Then, they are gone.

“It’s left us, ” she tells the babies.

Now she hears Gary move.

“Don’t come near us! ” she screams with her eyes closed. “Don’t you touch us! ”

He doesn’t touch her. He passes by, and the stairs creak again.

He’s gone downstairs. He’s going to see who made it. Who didn’t.

She heaves, aches from exhaustion. From blood loss. Her body tells her to sleep, sleep. They are alone in the attic, Malorie and the babies. She begins to lie back. She needs to. Instead, she waits. She listens. She rests.

How much time is passing? How long have I held these babies?

But a new sound fractures her reprieve. It’s coming from downstairs. It’s a noise that was made often in the old world.

Olympia hangs (so he said so he said) from the attic window.

Her body thumps against the house in the wind.

And now something rings from below.

It’s the telephone. The telephone is ringing.

Malorie is almost mesmerized by the sound. How long has it been since she’s heard something like it?

Someone is calling them.

Someone is calling back.

Malorie turns herself, sliding in the afterbirth. She places the girl in her lap, then gently covers her with her shirt. Using her empty hand, she feels for the head of the ladder stairs. They are steep. They are old. No woman who just gave birth should have to negotiate them at all.

But the phone is ringing. Someone is calling back. And Malorie is going to answer it.

Riiiiiiiiiiing

Despite their towel blindfolds, she tells the babies to keep their eyes closed.

This command will be the most common thing she says to them over the next four years. And nothing will stop her from saying it, whether or not they’re too young to understand her.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiing

She slides her ass to the edge of the floor and swings her legs over to rest her feet on the first step. Her body screams at her to stop.

But she continues down.

Down the stairs now. She cradles the boy in her right arm, her palm wrapped around his face. The girl is up inside her shirt. Malorie’s eyes are closed and the world is black and she needs sleep so bad she might as well fall from the stairs and into it. Only she walks, she steps, and she uses the phone as her guide.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing

Her feet touch the light blue carpeting of the second floor’s white hall. Eyes closed, she does not see these colors, just like she does not see Jules lying facedown along the right wall, five bloody streaks trailing from the height of her head to where his hand lies pressed against the floor.

At the top of the stairs, she pauses. She breathes deep. She believes she can do it. Then she continues.

She passes Cheryl but does not know it. Not yet. Cheryl’s head faces the first floor, her feet the second. Her body is horribly, unnaturally contorted.

Without knowing it, Malorie steps inches from her.

She almost touches Felix at the foot of the stairs. But she doesn’t. Later, she will gasp when she feels the holes in his face.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing

She has no idea she passes one of the huskies. It is slumped against the wall; the wall is stained dark purple.

She wants to say, Is anyone still here? She wants to scream it. But the phone rings and she does not believe it will stop until she answers it.

She follows the sound, leaning against the wall.

Rain and wind come in through broken windows.

I must answer the phone.

If her eyes were to open, she would not be able to process the amount of blood marking the house.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing

She will see all of that later. But right now the phone is so loud, so close.

Malorie turns, puts her back against the wall, then slides, excruciatingly, to the carpet. The phone is on the small end table. Her body aches and burns, every part of it. Placing the boy beside the girl in her lap, she reaches out with her hand and fumbles for the phone that has been ringing without rest.

“Hello? ”

“Hello. ”

It’s a man. His voice sounds so calm. So horribly out of place.

“Who is this? ” Malorie asks.

She can hardly understand that she is using a telephone.

“My name is Rick. We got your message a few days ago. I guess you could say we’ve been busy. What’s your name? ”

“Who is this? ”

“Again, my name is Rick. A man named Tom left a message with us. ”

“Tom. ”

“Yes. He does live there, right? ”

“My name is Malorie. ”

“Are you okay, Malorie? You sound broken up. ”

Malorie breathes deep. She doesn’t think she will ever be okay again.

“Yes, ” she answers. “I’m okay. ”

“We haven’t got much time right now. Are you interested in getting out from where you are? Somewhere safer? I’m assuming the answer is yes. ”

“Yes, ” Malorie says.

“Here’s what you do then. Write this down if you can. Do you have a pen? ”

Malorie says yes and reaches for the pen kept by Tom’s phone book.

The babies cry.

“It sounds like you have a baby with you? ”

“I do. ”

“I imagine that’s your reason for wanting to find a better place. Here’s the information, Malorie. Take the river. ”

“What? ”

“Take the river. Do you know where it is? ”

“Y-yes. I do know where it is. It’s right behind the house. Eighty yards from the well, I’m told. ”

“Good. Take the river. It’s about as dangerous a thing as you can do, but I imagine if you and Tom have made it this long, you can do it. I found you guys on the map and it looks like you’ll have to travel at least twenty miles. Now, the river is going to split—”

“It’s going to what? ”

“I’m sorry. I’m probably moving too fast. But where I’m directing you is a better place. ”

“How is that? ”

“Well, we don’t have windows for one. We have running water. And we grow our own food. It’s as self-contained as you can find nowadays. There are plenty of bedrooms. Nice ones. Most of us think we’ve got it better now than we did before. ”

“How many of you are there? ”

“One hundred and eight. ”

The number could be any for Malorie. Or it could be infinity.

“But let me tell you how to get here first. It would be a tragedy if the phone line went out before you knew where to go. ”

“All right. ”

“The river is going to split into four channels. The one you want is the second one from the right. So you can’t hug the right bank and expect to make it. It’s tricky. And you’re going to have to open your eyes. ”

Malorie slowly shakes her head. No.

Rick continues.

“And this is how you’ll know when that time comes, ” the man tells her. “You’ll hear a recording. A voice. We can’t sit by the river all day every day. It’s just too dangerous. Instead, we’ve got a speaker down there. It’s motion activated. We have a very clear understanding of the woods and water beyond our facility because of devices like it. Once the speaker is activated, the recording plays for thirty minutes, on a loop. You’ll hear it. The same forty-second sound bite repeated. It’s loud. Clear. And when you do, that’s when you’ll have to open your eyes. ”

“Thank you, Rick. But I just can’t do that. ”

Her voice is listless. Destroyed.

“I understand it’s terrifying. Of course it is. But that’s the catch, I suppose. There’s no other way. ”

Malorie thinks of hanging up. But Rick continues.

“We’ve got so many good things happening here. We make progress every day. Of course, we’re nowhere near where we’d like to be. But we’re trying. ”

Malorie starts to cry. The words, what this man is telling her—is it hope he gives her? Or is it some deeper variation of the incredible hopelessness she already feels?

“If I do what you’re telling me to do, ” Malorie says, “how will I find you from there? ”

“From the split? ”

“Yes. ”

“We have an alarm system. It’s the same technology used for triggering the recording you’ll hear. Once you take the correct channel, you’ll go another hundred yards. Then you’ll trigger our notification alarm. A fence will be lowered. You’ll be stuck. And we’ll come looking for what got stuck in our fence. ”

Malorie shivers.

“Oh yeah? ” she asks.

“Yes. You sound skeptical. ”

Visions of the old world rush through her mind, but with each memory comes a leash, a chain, and an instinctive feeling that tells her this man and this place might be good, might be bad, might be better than where she is now, might be worse, but she will never be free again.

“How many of you are there? ” Rick asks.

Malorie listens to the silence of the house. The windows are broken. The door is probably open. She must stand up. Close the door. Cover the windows. But it all feels like it’s happening to someone else.

“Three, ” she says, lifeless. “If the number changes—”

“Don’t worry about it, Malorie. Any number you come with is fine. We have space enough for a few hundred and we’re working on more. Just come as soon as you can. ”

“Rick, can you come help me now? ”

She hears Rick take a deep breath.

“I’m sorry, Malorie. It’s too much of a risk. I’m needed here. I realize that sounds selfish. But I’m afraid you’ll have to get to us. ”

Malorie nods silently. Amid the gore, the loss, the pain, she respects that this man must stay safe.

Only I can’t open my eyes right now and I have two newborns in my lap who have yet to see the world and the room smells of piss, blood, and death. Air comes in fast from outside. It’s cold and I know that means the window is broken or the front door is open. So dangerously open. So, all this sounds good, Rick, it truly does, but I’m not sure how I’m going to get to the bathroom yet let alone onto a river for forty miles or whatever it was you said.

“Malorie, I’ll check in on you. I’ll call again. Or do you think you’ll be coming right away? ”

“I don’t know. I don’t know when I’ll be able to come. ”

“Okay. ”

“But thank you. ”

It feels like the most sincere thank-you Malorie has ever spoken in her life.

“I’ll call you in a week, Malorie. ”

“Okay. ”

“Malorie? ”

“Yes? ”

“If I don’t call, it could mean the lines have finally died on our end. Or it could mean the lines at your place are out, too. Just trust me when I tell you we will be here. You come anytime. We will be here. ”

“Okay, ” Malorie says.

Rick gives her his phone number. Malorie, using the pen, blindly scribbles the numbers on a page in the open phone book.

“Good-bye, Malorie. ”

“Good-bye. ”

Just a simple, everyday talk on the phone.

Malorie hangs up. Then she hangs her head and cries. The babies shift in her lap. She cries for another twenty minutes, unbroken, until she screams when she hears something scratching at the cellar door. It is Victor. He is barking to be let out. Somehow, he was blessedly locked in the cellar. Maybe Jules, knowing what was coming, did it.

After rehanging the blankets and closing the doors, she will use a broomstick to search every inch of the home for creatures. It will be six hours before she feels safe enough to open her eyes, at which point she will see what went on in the house while she was delivering her baby.

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