The Trunk Page 4

  His thoughts remained on the girl. He hoped she would still be at the house once he was released.

  Mykail tensed. If he was released.

  What if they keep me here longer than two more days? What if I’m still here when all hell breaks loose?

  If all hell breaks loose, his common sense interjected.

  “Just lie still. When I tell you to, hold your breath,” the lab tech instructed.

  There was a very good chance the girl would stay at the house. Didn’t she say it survived the bombings, or whatever it was that took out the other houses in the area?

  My basement apartment survived, he reminded himself. She’d said something about eating and drinking some bottled water. Problem was, his cabinets were as bare as Mother Hubbard’s cupboard.

  But the biggest question was, what triggered her to come to this point in time? To somehow be astrally projected to relive it all over again? If I’m to believe her story, he added.

  “Okay. Take a deep breath and hold it.”

  Mykail listened to the soft whine of the machine, followed by a click.

  “Okay. You can breathe now.”

  The tech took five more pictures—two more of his ribs and three of his back. When they were done, the male nurse returned to wheel him to another room.

  Mykail stared out the window at the bright sunshine, the cloudless blue sky, the seagulls cavorting in the distance. He wondered what the world would look like in two days, if what Emlee had told him was true. How far would it be reduced to ashes?

  He glanced around, but didn’t spot a phone, and his cell was in his pants pocket when the hospital staff had taken his clothes off of him and made him put on this gown.

  “The least they could do is put me somewhere where I can watch TV or something to help pass the time.” He made a note to ask whoever came to check on him next time.

  He touched the bandage around his waist. He didn’t have any trouble breathing. Not unless he tried to take deep breaths. And as long as he didn’t move too much, his side didn’t bother him. He guessed that was a good sign, wasn’t it? As for the bruise across the back of his neck and shoulders, he was okay if he didn’t try to raise his arms above his head.

  He heard the door open and turned his head, expecting to see a nurse or doctor. He wasn’t prepared to see Emlee come in, an apologetic smile on her face.

  “Hi.”

  She took a step inside the room and stopped, as if expecting him to order her out. “Hi. Do you mind if I…”

  “No, I don’t mind. Come in. I wasn’t expecting to see you…again…if ever.” He gave a weak laugh. “I’m glad you came, though.”

  “I didn’t know if you’d want to see me again,” she confessed, closing the door behind her. Her eyes glanced over him. “How are you doing?”

  “Well, I won’t be running the Boston Marathon this year, but I’ll be fine.”

  “Have you seen a doctor?”

  “They just brought me back from taking x-rays. I haven’t seen a doctor yet.”

  “So you don’t know if you’ll be staying, or if they’ll let you go home,” she concluded. The unspoken inevitable hung between them like an invisible net.

  Mykail blinked first. Waving for her to come closer, he dropped his voice.

  “Okay. Let me get this out into the open right here and now. I don’t know if you’re a nut case or the real deal. But considering what you’ve told me, I think you believe everything you’ve said as the truth.”

  “It is the truth.”

  “Is it?” he countered. “If you were in my shoes, would you believe me if I told you the world was coming to an end in two more days?”

  “I understand why you’re doubtful…uhh…what is your name?”

  “Mykail. Mykail Sinth.” He saw her glance at his carrot-colored hair, and snorted. “There’s gotta be an Irishman or Scotsman somewhere in my gene pool. I’m the only one in my family with this color hair, or with freckles.”

  “Mykail. I like that. It’s different.”

  “So’s Emlee. That makes two of us, I guess. By the way, how’d you get here?”

  “I took your car. It’s the red Vayva, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  She gave a little shrug. “I found your spare key fob hanging on the hook at the top of the stairs. I got in, told it where to go, and it brought me here.”

  “You know about self-driving cars?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  The implication was like a dash of cold water to the face. He realized one very important question had yet to be asked. If she knew about self-driving cars…

  “Emlee, how far back in time did you come? I mean, between the time you say the world ends, and when you found my basement apartment, how much time had passed?”

  “I can’t give you the exact date when I left my time,” she admitted. “You sort of lose track of calendar days. But going by the seasons, it’s been six years.”

  “Six years?” he repeated, incredulous.

  “Yeah. It’s been six years since the aliens came to this world and nearly destroyed every human on the planet…as far as I know,” she told him with undisguised anguish.

  Chapter Seven

  Reason

  It took Mykail a moment to digest what she’d said. “D-did you say aliens?”

  Conversation was suddenly cut off by the arrival of a doctor, who came into the room. “Mr. Sinth?”

  “Yes, sir. What’s the verdict, doc?”

  The physician gave Emlee a cautious look. Mykail intervened. “She’s my girlfriend. It’s okay for you to talk with her here.”

  The doctor nodded. “Well, things look good. We didn’t see any kind of break or fracture in your ribs. And we didn’t notice anything affecting any internal organs. You’re going to be sore for a while, but nothing’s broken. Same for the laceration across the back of your neck and shoulders. There’s bruising of the subdermal tissue, but nothing serious. I’m leaving you a prescription for some pain killers. After which, go with the ibuprofen. Any questions?”

  “When can I go home?”

  “I’ve already ordered for your discharge papers to be brought up. As soon as they bring them in, and you sign off, you can leave."

  “Thank you, doctor,” Mykail said.

  The doctor smiled and left without any further word. He waited until the door was closed before turning back to Emlee.

  “You and me need to have a long talk, got that? I want to hear everything. Everything.”

  She nodded. “I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

  “I got a hell of a lot of questions.”

  To his surprise, she flashed him a smile. “I’m sure you do.”

  He managed to sit up. With her help, he was able to hang his legs over the side of the bed. “I hope they remember to bring me my clothes,” he quipped, and noticed her rubbing her arms. “Back in your time, how were you able to get inside the house in the first place?”

  “Through the garage and kitchen.”

  “How? I closed the garage door when I left.”

  “It was open. And the door into the kitchen was partially torn off its hinges.”

  “You said the ceiling was caved in?”

  “Yeah. Almost the entire part of the roof over the living room area.”

  “What about the rest of the house?”

  “The kitchen is the only other part of the house I got to see.”

  “So you didn’t go upstairs?”

  “I’d thought about it. I thought about hiding up there. Good thing I didn’t. When the roof shifted, it crashed down on the stairs. If I’d been up there, I might have been trapped.”

  “You said it was when you were hiding under the roof is how you found the door leading downstairs?”

  “Yes.”

  “You were hiding under the fallen roof because of some men?”

  “Yeah. They saw me walking by outside and started chasing me. I ducked into the nearest house, hoping I could fin
d where I could hide.”

  “When they didn’t find you, I take it they left. And that’s when you ate some stuff you found in my fridge?”

  “No, no.” She quickly shook her head. “You don’t open refrigerators. The stuff that’s rotted inside can give off really noxious odors that can make you sick. I ate some canned pasta you had in the pantry.”

  He winced. “But won’t that make you sick, too? I mean, it would be way past the expiration date.”

  “Dates don’t mean anything anymore. Food’s so scarce, you have to take the chance. Otherwise, you’ll starve.”

  “So you eat it anyway?” Just the idea of eating food six years past its prime made him nauseous.

  “Well, first, you smell it, and you give it a little taste test. If it smells off, or it tastes bad, no, you don’t eat it. But some of the stuff has so many preservatives in it, you’d be surprised how long a shelf life it has.” She grinned again, and for a second that haunted look left her face. He caught himself looking at the red mark on her forehead.

  “When they come with my discharge papers, go get the car and have it bring you around to the front of the hospital. Before we go back home, we need to run by the market and stock up on groceries. I don’t know if you checked the pantry when you first landed in this time, but it’s bare bones right now. Same for my fridge.”

  Emlee appeared to mull over that information before looking back at him. It was then he noticed her eyes were brown with gold closer to the irises. Very unusual, and very beautiful.

  “You believe me now, don’t you?” she asked softly.

  Mykail opened his mouth to reply when the truth whacked him on the side of the head. “Yeah. I guess I do…sort of.”

  She smiled. “I can accept that.” And just like that, the haunted look returned, darker than ever. “And in two more days, you’ll see for yourself, and that’s when you’ll no longer have any doubts.”

  He didn’t know if he should be worried or terrified.

  “Is that why you didn’t turn me over to the police? Why you took up for me? Because you were starting to believe me?” she questioned him.

  “I think I took up for you because… It’s hard to explain. I mean, you survived the first time around. Hell, you’ve survived for the past six years since then. I figured if there was the remotest chance you were telling the truth, and if I was going to have any chance of surviving, too, then I’d better stick with you. Know what I mean? I mean, you don’t know if I lived through the holocaust, do you?”

  She mutely shook her head in answer.

  “Emlee, tell me about the aliens. You said the aliens came and destroyed the planet. What aliens?”

  She didn’t get the chance to answer when there was a knock on the door, and a nurse entered the room. She carried a tablet in one hand and a plastic bag in the other. Laying the bag on the bed beside him, she held out the tablet.

  “I brought you your discharge papers. I just need your thumbprint here.”

  Mykail did as he was instructed. The nurse ejected a small card from the side of the tablet and gave it to him.

  “Your discharge orders are on this, including a prescription for your pain killers. If you start to have any difficulties within the next seven days, call Dr. Clement’s office or come back here for us to check you out. Any questions?”

  “No.”

  “All right. I’m going to send a wheelchair in to take you downstairs.” The nurse turned to Emlee. “Are you here to take him home?”

  “Yeah. I have the car.”

  “That’s good. I brought you your clothes and things.” She patted the bag. “Will you be able to dress yourself, or will you need help?”

  “I think I can manage.”

  “All right. Take care, Mr. Sinth.”

  “Thank you,” he called out to her as she left the room. Setting the bag in his lap, he opened it and pulled out his jeans.

  “I’ll go get the car,” Emlee told him.

  “Take your time. It might take me a little while to get everything on.”

  “I will.” She opened the door to leave, and found a robo-wheelchair waiting to enter. She stepped aside to let it glide into the room and stop next to the bed. Glancing back at him a final time, he got the impression she wanted to say something more but chose not to. Instead, she quietly left to fetch the car.

  Chapter Eight

  Groceries

  The robo-wheelchair took him downstairs to the lobby and out to the entryway to where Emlee was waiting with his car. She opened the door and watched as the wheelchair lifted its seat, swiveling Mykail around to set him inside the vehicle. Once he was inside, she punched the button to close and lock the passenger side door.

  “Car, destination home.”

  “Car, new destination,” Mykail corrected. “Go to nearest Sav-Mart.”

  “Going to nearest Sav-Mart,” the vehicle intoned. “Destination is twenty-oh-nine Wayside Drive. Time of arrival, approximately fifteen minutes.”

  She watched the passing scenery as they entered the expressway. Sights she’d taken for granted her entire life she now observed with a new hunger. These were the ordinary and commonplace slices of everyday life that no longer existed. And, chances were, never would again.

  The sun was setting, casting a beautiful purple and orange glow over the city. Businesses were turning on their lights—night clubs, stores, gas stations, a twelve-screen movie theater.

  Movies. There are no more movies, and there will never be any more movies. Can’t even watch the ones that are out now because there’s no electricity.

  “What’s going through your mind?” Mykail softly asked.

  “I think I’m grieving.” She pointed out the front windshield. “I know it’s hard to believe, but seven days after the Tlok arrive, all of this will be gone. Our history. Our present. And our future.

  “There’ll be no more supermarkets. No more coffee shops. No more milk or ice cream, or anything that requires refrigeration because there’ll be no more electricity. I can’t begin to describe the scope of how far-reaching it’ll be after the aliens get here.”

  A school bus went by. It was filled with a group of high school students, probably on their way to a game, judging by the couple of uniforms she spotted hanging on the bus’s windows.

  “You said they’re called the Tlok?” Mykail queried.

  “That’s what we started calling them. When they first arrived, our planes managed to shoot down one of their spacecrafts. The creature inside it survived, and they took it somewhere to examine. Someone leaked a video they’d secretly recorded of the thing. It looked to me like a giant yellow squash with tentacles for feet, and a row of eyes going all the way around the top where its head was, I guess.”

  “How did you know it was called a Tlok?”

  She looked over at him. “We didn’t. That’s the sound it made, so that’s what everyone started referring to it as.” She clucked her tongue and enunciated the word to demonstrate.

  “Did you ever find out why they came here in the first place? Like, what were they wanting from us? Our water? Our air?”

  She shook her head and shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t guess we’ll ever know.”

  He stared out the passenger side window. “Back at the hospital, I was thinking a lot about what you told me. I tried to imagine, what if you were right? I wondered if there was some way we could warn our military. Tell the government what was about to happen, so that we could somehow prepare for this invasion, or whatever the fuck to call it. But then I realized they’d think I was as bat shit crazy as you are.”

  “You think I’m bat shit crazy?” She couldn’t blame him for thinking she was, but the label still hurt.

  He sighed and ran a hand through his closely-cropped reddish curls. “I don’t know what to believe, Emlee. But if there’s the slightest, even the most remotest chance of you being who you are, and why you’re here, I figure it would be to our advantage to get prepared.”

&n
bsp; “That’s why we’re going to the market to get groceries?”

  “Yeah.”

  They didn’t talk the rest of the distance to the store. Emlee brought one of the mobility carts over to the car so he could ride in comfort while they shopped. As they went up and down the aisles, she noticed what he tossed into the basket on the front of the cart, and recognized a few of them.

  “We need anything that doesn’t need to be cooked or kept cold, right?” he verified.

  “Right.”

  Pulling into the section where the canned meats were located, he held up a couple of cans of pasta and smiled. “Is this what you enjoyed?”

  “The spaghetti curls, yeah. But not that one. The ravioli one.”

  He switched out the one can and added both, plus half a dozen more to the basket. She also saw him add the loaf of bread and bag of bagels to his pile, but said nothing.

  “Mykail, I just got a weird thought.”

  “What is it?”

  “What if my coming back to this time affects the future? I mean, don’t you read about or see movies about that sort of thing happening?”

  “Like, you can’t change the past but you can change the future? That sort of thing?”

  “Exactly.”

  “But if you came back here, this would be your past, wouldn’t it? If it’s your past, then you can’t change it, if that rule holds true.”

  She had to admit he had a point. “I just can’t help but believe that there has to be a reason for me coming back to this point in time. Why now? Why not ten years from now? It’s like me being here is because of some kind of celestial calling.”

  They made their way over to the personal hygiene section. Emlee found herself staring at a can of dry spray shampoo. Picking it up, she was reading the label as Mykail motored up to her.

  “What’s that?”

  “Dry shampoo. This stuff’s like gold. Fresh water’s so rare, most people don’t bathe anymore, much less wash their hair.”

  “You don’t bathe anymore?”

  “Not unless it rains. Then you set out as many pots and bowls as you can to catch the rainwater to store and save for later.”