Distinct Read online

  “Wait,” the voice whispered. “Ready? Now!”

  Her red light came on and they burst around the corner of the shed. The thing hovered like a hummingbird, a few inches over the wire cage. Amy Lynne moved fast, circling to the other side of the plants before Tim could take his first swing.

  His badminton racquet cut through the air with a low hum. It rang as he clipped one of the thing’s wings. Amy Lynn caught it with her own swing before the moth had dropped more than an inch. Her swing connected with a PUNG, and the bug flew off to the west.

  “Behind you,” Amy Lynne whispered.

  Tim spun. His red light picked up another of the darting insects. They moved like hummingbirds, but they were a little bigger and slower. Tim’s swing just missed, but he caught the moth on a backswing. It was sent down, on a collision course with the tilled dirt.

  Tim turned back around as Amy Lynne scanned the other plants. He waited, muscles tensed, until she said it was all clear.

  “Now we need to find them,” she said. She walked off after the bug she had clobbered.

  Tim’s was easy. The giant moth had hit the ground near his feet. He brushed aside the tomato leaves and saw the moth trying to flutter its dying wings. Tim scooped it into the paper bag. When it buzzed inside, he nearly dropped it. Amy Lynne had a bag of her own.

  “Is that it?” Tim asked.

  “For tonight, probably,” she said. She reached for his bag. “I’ll take these to Cirie. You keep watch.”

  Tim’s light bobbed as he nodded.

  As soon as her light disappeared over the hill, he turned off his headlamp and sat back against the shed, listening. The wings of the moths made a distinct buzzing sound as they dived down below the tomato leaves, leaving their eggs at the base. This patch of tomato plants was sacrificial. There was no way that Tim would kill all the Sphinx moths that might visit the plants. But, hopefully, he could get enough of them to reduce the infestation of hornworms that the moths would bring. This remote patch was the battleground so the other plants could thrive.

  Tim’s brain snapped back to the sounds of the night.

  It wasn’t the buzzing of wings. He heard the rhythmic swoosh of legs through the tall grass. He opened his mouth to call out to Amy Lynne and ask her what she had forgotten. It wasn’t her. She didn’t walk anywhere without her light on. She was still petrified of re-injuring her ankle.

  Tim waited in the dark, scanning the black horizon.

  When he finally saw the shape of the man to his left, Tim gasped.

  His light pants stood out against the dark soil. His shirt had some pattern that was impossible to make out in the starlight.

  “Hello?” Tim asked. He had no idea who the man was.

  At the sound of Tim’s voice, the man took a step backwards, towards the high grass.

  Tim reached up and tried to find the switch for the headlamp. Amy Lynne had loaned it to him and he couldn’t find the button on the top of the thing.

  “Wait,” he whispered. He wasn’t sure he really meant it. Tim wanted to know who the man was, but he really didn’t want him to come closer. The man kept walking away.

  Tim found the switch on the side of the lamp and managed to turn it on just before the man’s shape disappeared into the high grass. Tim caught a glimpse of his khaki pants, soaked at the cuffs from the dew, and the man’s Hawaiian shirt. The red light didn’t throw very far and the mysterious visitor slipped out of sight.

  Tim turned at the sound of someone else approaching from the other direction. He saw the red light and recognized Amy Lynne.

  “I told you to keep the light off,” she said. “It makes it so much easier to hear them.”

  “I saw someone,” Tim said.

  Amy Lynne didn’t respond as she closed the distance to him. She put her back against the wall and settled down to the grass beside Tim. After turning off her own light, she turned off Tim’s.

  “Who was it?”

  “I have no idea,” Tim said.

  “Was it an old guy in beach clothes?”

  “Beach clothes?”

  “You know, like that guy in the TV show that Ty is always watching.”

  It took Tim a second and then he caught his breath. She was talking about Magnum P.I. Ty had found a DVD box set of episodes and he treated himself to one each day. When he got to the end of the run, Ty started again from the top.

  Tim understood the connection. Magnum had often worn a Hawaiian shirt and tan shorts.

  “How did you know?” Tim asked.

  “Tons of people have seen him. I never have, but I don’t work much up on the hill at night. What did he say to you?”

  “Say?”

  “People say they get parts of a message. You haven’t heard anyone talking about the Beach Bum?”

  Tim didn’t go to many of the social gatherings in town. He socialized almost exclusively with Ty. They both stayed at the little clinic, operating like a two-man hospital.

  “I guess not,” Tim said.

  “That’s what they call him—the Beach Bum. Ask around. People will tell you about seeing him. He seems to mostly come in the fog.”

  “Where does he stay?” Tim asked.

  Amy Lynne laughed.

  “What?”

  “He doesn’t stay anywhere. He’s a ghost.”

  ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪

  “Is anyone sitting here?” Tim asked.

  An older guy shook his head and slid over a few inches. Tim took a spot on the bench and rested his elbows on the picnic table to claim the space. There were too many people around. It made him nervous.

  “Where’s Ty?” the woman across from him asked.

  She had a big, open smile. Tim felt a little better.

  “He’s back at the clinic,” Tim said. “Watching the dogs.”

  “You guys hardly get out. Don’t you two get lonely?”

  Tim knew what she thought. It was what everyone thought. Because he and Ty spent so much time together, everyone assumed that they were a couple. The idea was fine with Tim, but Ty wasn’t looking for anything more than occasional companionship. He didn’t bother to correct her. It would only come out sounding defensive.

  “I was told I need to socialize more,” Tim said. He tried to match her smile. It felt fake on his face.

  “Always a good idea,” she said.

  “I’m sorry. You’re…”

  “Elizabeth.”

  “That’s right. Of course. We met during the…”

  “When Ty called that meeting about airborne diseases.”

  “Oh, right,” Tim said.

  “That’s okay. I’m sure you meet a ton of people at the clinic. I really admire what you guys do down there. I guess you get that all the time.”

  Tim chuckled and shook his head. She was wrong. Trying to care for the community of survivors, they couldn’t even get cooperation half the time. Admiration was out of the question. Half the people who came by would listen to Ty’s advice with barely concealed impatience and then run through the door as soon as they had their bandage or bottle of pills.

  “You’d be surprised,” Tim said.

  “Maybe they won’t say it to your face, but people support what you and Ty are doing. Panic spreads like wildfire, but logic moves at a snail’s pace. Don’t worry—it wins in the end.”

  Tim nodded.

  “How do you spend your days?” Tim asked. He had practiced this question in his head a hundred times. It still felt unnatural.

  The woman gestured over her shoulder.

  “You know the big field down near the cedars? I’ve been working there. We just finished our second greenhouse and we have almost fifteen acres planted.”

  “Wow.”

  “It’s amazing, isn’t it? We’re going to have a surplus this year, I can feel it. Even if we lose ten percent to pests, I suspect that we could give up cans for good next year. Can you imagine?”

  “That will be a big relief,” Tim said. Food poisoning was a major hassle
when cases came into their clinic. The treatment wasn’t too bad, but each time someone vomited, rumors raced through the settlement. People saw one of their own moaning and writhing and they immediately assumed that there would be an outbreak of some terrible virus.

  “I heard from someone that you were a part of one of the midnight watches. Is that right?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Yeah,” Tim said, “with Amy Lynne. In fact, that’s kinda why I’m here. Have you ever heard of the Beach Bum?”

  The older man next to Tim grunted and began extracting himself from between the bench and the table. Tim apologized for being in the way and slid down so the man could hurry off.

  “Frank’s a little sensitive to the subject, as you might imagine,” Elizabeth said.

  Tim shook his head. “I don’t understand. What’s the connection?”

  “Frank was one of Luke’s men. They were all associated with the soldiers.” She motioned towards her shirt. “You know—the ones who all wore those casual clothes. They had golf shirts and cargo shorts. Some of the high-ranking ones had those Hawaiian shirts with collars.”

  “I’m not familiar with…”

  Tim was cut off by someone at the far end of the gathering. It was a woman standing on top of one of the picnic tables.

  “Hey there. Hey there. If I could have your attention,” the woman called. Tim recognized her but couldn’t put a name to the face. “A couple of people have signed up to make announcements. Remember—this is not a debate. If you want to challenge what a person wants to say, please don’t take up everyone’s time. We can break off into discussions after.”

  Tim swung a leg over the bench so he could see more easily.

  The woman stepped down and was replaced by a young man. As soon as the eyes were on him, he stuff his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders. He looked like he would rather be anywhere else.

  “I’m, ummm, I’m hoping that we can respect each other when it comes to shared resources?”

  “Like what?” someone yelled.

  “It’s just that, when we have a system in place to mark which houses have been tapped, and then people go around and don’t respect the markings, it costs everyone a lot of time.”

  Tim started to tune out. He wasn’t part of the crew that went around collecting supplies from abandoned houses. The process didn’t interest him at all. People were generous, dropping off food and fuel for the clinic. It meant that Tim and Ty could focus on treating people when they came through the door.

  Elizabeth leaned over the table. Apparently, she wasn’t paying attention either.

  “You could check with Patrick or Mary,” she whispered as she pointed to a table across the way. “They’ve done more night shifts scaring away raccoons than most people here. I bet they could tell you something about the Beach Bum.”

  “Thanks,” Tim whispered, nodding.

  “It’s a luxury that we even have to worry about raccoons or insects, you know? A year ago, we were pollinating by hand and worried that we were the only living things left, you know?”

  Tim nodded again. She was wrong about the timing. The bugs had come back two years before. But she was right about the sentiment. For a while, every time another species was spotted, it was cause for celebration.

  The man up front was finishing. Several people in the crowd started to boo. Tim wished he had been paying attention. He didn’t know what the man had said to cause so much anger.

  “Okay, okay, no debate, remember?” the woman said as she climbed back up. “Cirie has something she would like to say.”

  Tim sat up straight. He knew Cirie only by name. She was a botanist or something close. All questions about the crops went to her. Even Elizabeth was focused on listening to what Cirie had to say.

  She got up on the bench slowly, and with the help of several hands. Still, when she stood up there, collecting herself before she spoke, she conveyed nothing but strength.

  “I don’t guess,” Cirie said. “I wait until I’m sure before I voice my opinion, so you know that I am certain in what I’m about to say.”

  She let that sink in for a second. It seemed that everyone in the group was holding their breath, waiting for what she would say next.

  “Our trouble with the invaders…”

  She pointed to the sky.

  “…is not finished.”

  ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪

  A murmur spread through the group. Tim held perfectly still, waiting for Cirie to continue.

  “I have no doubt that the steps that were taken were correct. We are safe because of the effort and the lives that were sacrificed to get us here. Everything went according to plan.”

  Cirie paused.

  “So far.”

  She held up a finger.

  “That doesn’t mean we are finished.”

  Something bubbled through the group. Comments were muttered and mumbled. Nobody contradicted Cirie, but dissent was building.

  “Look back into the oral history that our species carries with us. When calamity threatens us, a savior rises up to lead us to safety. Before the threat can be dispelled, that savior gives himself up in sacrifice.”

  As her statement settled to their ears, the bubbling comments boiled over. One woman cried out, as if she had been struck. A group near the front stood and turned away from Cirie and then started threading between the tables to leave the gathering.

  The boos didn’t sound coordinated, like they had for the last man who spoke.

  The woman who had been moderating the meeting stood up and patted the air to hush the crowd.

  “Come on, people. Let her finish. You know how we run things. This isn’t a shouting match.”

  Her plea didn’t quiet the group. People still yelled and argued, but now they did it as they abandoned the discussion and walked away.

  Only a handful of people were still seated before the meeting was quiet again. Tim was one of them. He hadn’t stayed because he agreed. He was simply too shocked to move. Tim looked around, taking inventory of who was left. Only a few of them were familiar, and he wasn’t certain of any of their names.

  Cirie’s eyes scanned what remained of the group. She was taking stock and drawing them in. Her voice was softer when she continued.

  Tim strained to hear.

  “With just one more step, we will secure our place for ourselves and our children. With everything we’ve already given, this final token is truly a small price to pay. Then we can make peace with everyone we have left behind.”

  Some of her disciples agreed with nodding head.

  The moderator didn’t bother to climb up on the bench again. While people helped Cirie down from her perch, she dismissed the remainder of the group.

  ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪

  Coming home to Cedric almost made the pain of leaving him behind worthwhile. Tim scratched his sides as the dog wagged so hard that it looked like his back end would detach at any second.

  “He just watches the door the whole time you’re away,” Ty said.

  Tim smiled up at the giant man.

  “I just don’t feel right taking him with me,” Tim said. Cedric wound between his legs, smiling up with his tongue hanging from the side of his mouth.

  “Don’t worry about Murphy so much,” Ty said. “She’ll get used to his absences eventually.”

  Murphy, Cedric’s daughter, wasn’t nearly as rambunctious as her father. She stuck close to Ty and reflected his serious demeanor. But she didn’t like it when Tim took Cedric away. She preferred to keep her family close. With any absence, it looked like she would worry herself to death.

  Ty sat down at the table in the lounge. They kept bedrooms in separate wings of the clinic. The lounge was their common area where they spent most of their time.

  “How was the meeting?”

  Tim sighed as he sat down. “Good, in general. There’s a good group of people. I only saw a couple of masks. I think that the virus scares are fading away, and I definitely saw some cros
s-pollination in the social groups. I sat down with Elizabeth, that woman who runs one of the gardens. And, for a while, I sat next to Frank. You remember him? He was the guy that they put on trial and then acquitted.”

  Ty nodded.

  “What do you mean, in general? What was the bad part?”

  “Have you met Cirie?”

  Ty looked up and away while he thought.

  “Stout woman? Older?”

  Tim nodded.

  “Yeah. I talked to her about some bacteria that they were considering using for some infestation. Seemed stupid to deal with one infestation by causing another, but I kept my opinion to myself. Smart woman.”

  “Smart,” Tim said, nodding. “Rational?”

  “Don’t they go hand in hand?”

  “I’m not sure. She said some stuff at the end of the meeting about us not being done with the invaders.”

  “Based on what?” Ty said. He stiffened and Murphy stood up to put her head in his lap.

  “I don’t think it’s as bad as last year’s Elementals scare,” Tim said. “There were no reported sightings or anything.”

  “That’s the last thing we need.”

  “No, I know. She was saying that we’re not done because we didn’t sacrifice our savior.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I’m not sure. I didn’t want to ask. By the time she got to the end of her statement, the only people left seemed to really agree with her. I didn’t want to be the lone questioning voice in that group.”

  Ty nodded. He took a deep breath and then let it out slow. “I wish I could figure it out. People used to prop each other up and we would aggregate our courage. Now it seems like we all just chip away at each other until we all share the same fears.”

  Tim scratched Cedric’s head as he thought.

  “Maybe it’s because the world is a much more dangerous place now.”

  “I don’t think that’s it,” Ty said. He shook his head and looked down at Murphy. She put a paw up on his lap and he gave her a sad smile. “I’ve been a part of a community that faced a grave threat. I’ve seen people band together to face dangerous times. With these folks, one person gets a sunburn and everyone else stays in their basement for a week because they think that the sun is going to hunt them down.”