all god's orphans
Chapter 13

The grey man had fallen asleep under the dining table after the truck had rolled past him and the morning light reminded him that he was hungry. He crawled from beneath the table, pushing chairs aside and felt the ache in his body from having slept on the floor. He made his way into the kitchen to drink from the faucet and remind himself that he was, indeed, out of food. He knew he was going to have to leave the safety of his house soon and the thought made him ill, which made the hunger bearable for a few more hours.

He knew that moving less meant feeling less hungry, so he collapsed onto the couch again, prepared to watch the shadows make their way from one side of the room to the other. It brought him comfort to know that there would be no deviation. They always moved at the same pace, no matter what. Sometimes he dozed off and when he awoke, they had made significant progress. That, too, made him feel good. Night meant that he could sleep, but today wasn’t going to be so kind as to let him lie there and stare at blank spots in the sunshine. The emptiness in his belly was insistent.

He got up and began searching the house again for food, which he knew he would not replace. He’d already looked everywhere. Or rather, almost everywhere. Down a short hallway, the door to the garage stood, silently guarding against his cowardice. He would have to overcome it one way or another.

He stood motionless pondering if he would rather go outside where the living were or face the dead body again. Finally, he decided that he preferred the devil he knew to one he didn’t, and opened the door to the garage, stepping down into it. It seemed quieter than he remembered and then he realized that the deep freezer wasn’t humming like it had been.

Placing his hands on its lid, he steeled himself against what he knew was inside. He told himself that it would be over quickly and that he would simply reach past her and grab whatever he could replace before slamming the top down and retreating back to the house. He took a deep breath and gently pried the lid up.

The freezer exhaled a column of noxious vapor so rank, that he threw up before he even realized what has happening. It was instantaneous. As he vomited, he stumbled backwards in an effort to get away from that horrific odor. He could tell now that the smell had filled the garage, it had simply been too faint for him to detect. Hit with its full force, he could not escape its grip. He tripped over himself to reach the door and shut it tightly against the dead woman’s decaying body. Yellow bile stained his pants and shirt, leaving an acrid taste in his mouth. At least food wouldn’t be such a problem for a while.

As he was changing his clothes, he noticed there were more people in the street than usual. They were all headed in the same direction again. This time, he stayed in full view of the window, but nobody paid any attention to him. As the parade grew, he saw others from the houses next to his exit and join the throng. Nobody said anything to them or even seemed to care that they were there. Some in the crowd chatted with one another, others simply walked. There were children darting between the legs of the grownups. The man watched it all with fascination.

He knew that eventually the number of people would dwindle and that would mean he was more noticeable. If was going to replace out where they were headed, he would have to move now. He hesitated at the door, but the memory of the dead smell pushed him into the daylight. As he opened the door, fresh air rushed into his mind and blew away all doubts. He felt it clear his head and he inhaled as deeply as he could, purifying his bloodstream with oxygen, purging the putrid scent of the garage from his system.

Glancing at the crowd again, nobody turned his way, except for a few children who did nothing more than wave. He waved back and they ran away giggling, disappearing into the flow of humanity. He tried to act natural as he joined the herd, but he didn’t feel natural. His main concern now was replaceing his way back. As he walked, he made notes of various houses and landmarks so that he wouldn’t get lost. It felt good to turn his mind to something besides shadow gazing. He could feel neurons in his brain waking up and parts of himself that he had neglected began to activate.

He tried to decipher the babbling of the crowd, but nobody near him was speaking loud enough for him to catch more than a word or two. He didn’t want to know what they were talking about bad enough to ask them, so he just tried to enjoy the fresh air. It felt good to be around people, he had to admit. He now couldn’t remember what he had been so afraid of. The blue sky shone above him and it was a crisp day that felt like it might turn cold at some point, but for now, it was pleasant and beckoning onward.

After a long, slow walk, the crowd found itself in a large open area surrounded on three sides by buildings all with the same basic shape but with a few distinguishing details. They were taller than his house, but not by much and most of them were light beige for the most part. At different places, they were made of glass and large blocks of color surrounded the doors. One was blue. Another was green. Almost all of them had large white symbols on them, the kind that had been on the paper he’d found when he woke up in this life.

In the center of the parking lot, the crowd had left a large blank space. There was a squat, green box sitting there, motionless, as everyone in the crowd trained their attention on it. He was confused, but followed along for lack of any better ideas. The entire crowd stood silent, staring at this box. No one approached it, and no one spoke. Dead silence surrounded them.

Then, far away, he detected the faintest hint of a sound. In unison, the crowd turned their attention to a single spot on the horizon. The sound grew in volume and he could tell it was getting closer, but he had no idea what it might be. The noise was a kind of rapid beating sound, or footsteps moving quickly. He had never heard it before.

For a moment, it all but disappeared from his senses, and then in a rush, a giant green beast leapt up from behind the buildings. It was the size of a house and it lingered in the air for several moments before landing on its enormous feet. It had a long tail and its forearms jutted out to the side, supporting it as it whipped its hair above itself. In its clutches, it held one of those green boxes similar to the one they had all been watching.

The beast opened its mouth and two smaller creatures emerged. Their skin was shiny and green like the monster that had disgorged them, and their heads were much too large. Glistening black eyes took up most of their faces and their hands were grey. Quickly, they moved about the beast, performing precise movements, the nature of which confounded the man as he watched them. They seemed to pay no mind whatsoever to the crowd observing them.

When they were done, the smaller ones crawled back into the mouth of the beast and its black mane began to thrash wildly. It leapt slowly up into the sky, kicking up dust and wind in all directions, leaving its cargo below. Then, a kind of umbilical cord retracted and hefted the first box up and into its grasp. As soon as its hold was firm, the beast charged away into the sky, towards the horizon as the crowd cheered. He had no idea what had just happened, but the throng moved forward, so he went with it.

The green box was opened and people began to enter and emerge carrying other boxes. Inside were grey pouches, which they distributed amongst themselves or carried away. The grey man watched as some of them opened the pouches and began eating the contents. Near him, a woman strolled through the crowd, her arms loaded with several of the grey pouches.

“Is that food?” he asked, his voice cracking from suddenly speaking after having been silent so long.

“Yes.” She replied adding, “Would you like one?” He nodded enthusiastically and the woman handed him one of her pouches.

“How does it work?” he asked, looking at the austere packaging. The woman chuckled.

“You just open it and eat it.” She said, and then after watching him to make sure he wasn’t joking handed him another pouch. “Take this, too. You look like you need it.” With that she walked away, melting into the crowd who he now noticed were all holding at least one of the grey pouches.

After helping himself to two more from the green box, the grey man was eager to return home. Many of the crowd lingered in the parking lot, seemingly in no hurry to leave. He made his way towards the street but a strange silence descended on the scene. Everyone stopped what they were doing and once again turned their collective eyes in a single direction. Once again, a rumbling noise was approaching, only this time, it was lower, as though down on the ground. He stopped and watched as several gigantic vehicles rolled to a stop, forming a fourth wall with the beige buildings acting as the other three. The vehicles pulled heavy looking trailers behind them and seemed massive to him.

After they had shuddered to a stop, penning the remaining people in and leaving them with nowhere to go, a man climbed on top of one of the vehicles with something in his hand. When he spoke into it, his voice exploded into the air.

“Attention!” boomed the man’s voice. “This principality is now under martial law! Stand by for instructions!”