From the Indie Side Read Online Free PDF Page A

mean… fast ?” Emily asked.
“They could still be alive—we can help them!” But she knew what
she’d heard. It was the sound of a body collapsing onto the street
outside their home.
    “No we can’t,” he answered, his voice subdued
and in a near-whisper. He lowered his hand and leveled his eyes.
“We can’t help anyone but ourselves now.”
    “But they’re right outside!”
    “Never mind them, Emily!” Her father spoke
with a hard, scolding tone. “Hurry and get your things
together!”
    Emily bit down on her lower lip, hurt by her
father’s stern voice. She rushed past her parents, keeping her head
low and her sight fixed on the floor. She said nothing more as she
crossed the hall. Another scream came from outside, slowing her
step. The sound was thin and distant, but as real as the first. She
picked up her feet, as if to run from the screams. Emily closed the
bathroom door, trying to shut out the horrid sounds. What nightmare
had she awaken to?
    Alone, hidden away from the world, Emily
began to cry. The toilet seat was cold, but she hardly noticed it.
She heard a volley of sharp words. Emily cupped an ear, trying to
make out what her parents were saying. Another set of screams crept
under the door—loud enough to momentarily interrupt their chatter.
When it became quiet again, her mother started to yell.
    “Did you do this?” she hollered. Her voice
was loud and shaking. “Tell me you didn’t do this, please! TELL ME,
PHIL!”
    “I don’t know what happened,” he snapped.
“None of our models ever showed a reaction like this. Conditions
are incorrect… it’s got to be wrong!”
    “ Incorrect? Wrong? ” Emily’s mother
shouted back sarcastically. “People are dying, Phil! Don’t you hear
them? Did your precious machines do this?”
    “I’m going to fix this,” her father stated
flatly, resigned. Emotion was absent from his voice. “I can fix
this.”
    Her mother’s crying slowed, her hushed sobs
moved past the bathroom. Two quick knocks rapped against the door,
pulling Emily’s head up.
    “Hurry it up, Emily. No time for anything
else. Okay?”
    “In a minute!”
    The bathroom lights flickered, and the
electricity shut off. Blackness swallowed everything, and Emily’s
breathing became still. A moment later the lights blinked once,
flickered back on. The lights sometimes did that when a hurricane
blew through their small coastal town. But this wasn’t like any
storm they’d been through before.
    Emily breathed again, catching the first
bitter taste of salt. Unlike the ocean breeze she’d grown up with,
the briny taste was strong and chemical.
    “Daddy, the lights!”
    “Power is going to go out soon… we’re losing
the substation.”
    “I’m scared.”
    “I know, Hon. We all are, Emily. Hurry it up
now,” he answered. The electricity popped, sounding a crisp break
this time, shutting off all the lights. The blackness came again,
forcing her eyes wide. She found a thin rail of light stretching
beneath the bathroom door. A shuffle of shadow feet passed by. The
quick pace and short steps told her it was her mother. Her father
followed behind, continuing the argument from earlier. They were on
the stairs next, moving down to the foyer.
    Her world became silent. The outside. Her
parents. She welcomed the quiet, but thought of the dead body. Or
was it bodies ? The dead make no sounds. Her throat
tightened, her stomach cramped. The taste of heavy salt returned,
and Emily had a sudden urge to heave. She coughed out the burn
until stars were in her eyes, zipping around in a swirly dance. And
at some point, her arms and legs had become itchy. Whatever was
causing the screams outside had started to seep through the walls.
Her father was right, the house wasn’t going to last. Emily wiped
herself, dropped the tissue, and pulled up her panties. Her nightie
fell over her itching legs as she rushed out of the bathroom.
    Back in her bedroom, the sun had finally
started to show. But it