Tag: Short Story

A Nice Picnic in Spring

Published by NiteMayr on April 13, 2023

Woodcuts from the colonial era are being turned up every day with disturbing and indescribable scenes in them. Pictures of Inhuman Creatures taking paring in every day life, with no explanation or even an oral history to suggest why.

These latest woodcuts were found in a box marked “A Nice Picnic in Spring” with no artifacts or even a date to tell us anything about them. The Box itself was stored in an airless room that somehow maintained an ideal micro-climate. It may has well have been sealed up last week.

This image shows human-like shapes surrounding a table and sharing a meal, perhaps? The central figure resembles a Century Flower, which has a scent like rotting flesh. Perhaps the beings are observing it or collecting it? It resembles a Picnic, much as the box is labelled.

Again, the Picnic Motif is strong, and the tree is again on the right of the image. Some local investigators have tried to place the tree or the clearing that is being depicted but these images are so old some whole forests have changed multiple times.

Again, another image with a tall object bound to the right of the image, but otherwise nothing we can discern as to who or what is being depicted.

This collection was found in a sealed room in a former schoolhouse in New England, USA. It did appear on older plans, but had been erased when a renovation closed over the hallway that led to the room.

Short Story: Lights Out Part 9

Published by NiteMayr on March 18, 2009

The building shaddered in time with the sounds that woke the sleeping people huddled throughout the Feldex building. Thumping and bass-rich blows pounded the whole structure. When the people in the shaken offices looked outside, they could see buildings collapsing around them. Skyscrapers that had dominated the skyline were falling all around the Feldex building, scorched buildings gave up their skeletons and fell upon the streets. Dust and debris flowed through the streets now like angry crowds, blanketing them in brown, choking demise.

Janice had found Frank overnight; he was curled up in an empty office and had slept through the horrifying night. The corpses on the balcony had given up slamming themselves into the windows and doors and simply dived off of the edge of the building into the waiting streets.

The office was quiet now save for the noise of the Office buildings of Saint Paul dying as surely has the people that had occupied them had.

Security Chief Mike Pendegras came on to the PA:

“Ladies and Gentlemen; this is the security Chief. Our building is in no danger of falling. We have not suffered the damage that the fallen buildings have. We are intact and remain secure. We caution you again to remain in your offices and to report any activity that seems threatening or dangerous.”

After he clicked off the PA, Mike Pendegrass exhaled and tried to slump into his chair. His teams had swepth the building for any more “Zombies” and locked the main staircase tight. Nothing from the 25th floor or above was going to come down that way again; no one would be going up again either.

Chief Pendegras had received a call from his dead father overnight; he had thought it was a dream at first; but some of his team had received calls from their relatives too. Chief Pendegras wasn’t one to accept the supernatural; but his faith in the solidity of his convictions had been sorely tempted.

“Chief!, Chief! There is an APC outside of the building!” it was one of the new kids up on 13. “Chief, do you get me?”

“I get ya kid, where is it? Over”

“Chief, it’s right outside the front entrance, it’s got a scoop up front like a bulldozer, it pushed through like a snow plow! Chief, there is a sign painted on the top: 555-573-7878”

The Chief recognized a cell-phone number when he heard one; “OKay kid. Keep an eye on it. Chief out”

Chief Pendegrass picked up his cell phone and dialed the number:

“Hello, Disaster recovery. Were are you calling from?”

“This is Security Chief Mike Pendegras. Before I tell you where I am; tell me who you are.”

“Sir, I am a coordinator from a former Fema Unit stationed in Saint Paul. I am tasked with coordinating the APCs we have on hand to retrieve survivors and send them back through to Earth”

“So, the scientist on the phones was real?”

“Yes sir. Where are you?”

“I’m not sure about all of this; some strange shit is going down here Ma’am. Can you have the APC’s around the city flash some kind of friendly si..”

Outside the building, Mike Pendegras heard the thunder of a belt-fed machine gun firing.

“Chief! The soldiers in the APC, they are shooting at people in the street! Holy Shit! The people, they are getting back up and running at the APC! FUCK! The soldier on the tank blew their heads off.”

“OKay Kid, I got you. Over”

“Listen Fema Lady. What is going on here?”

“I thought that the communication last night was clear. We are on an extrasolar planet and we are sending people home as fast as we can.”

“My phone was OFF when that call came in”

“Sir, If I may be frank. If you don’t think we have the technology to turn phones on remotely, you haven’t been watching enough movies. Let me be clear, a scientist teleported a massive section of Saint Paul to another planet, turning on cell phones remotely is within our scope”

“Fair enough Ma’am. How, precisely do we decide who goes back in that APC outside?”

“You have an APC nearby? Excellent! What number is it”

“Kid, 13. What number is on that APC?”

“NG-101, sir”

“Ma’am, the APC outside is labelled NG-101”

“Thank-you Mr. Pendegrass, please send out 10 people to meet the APC and be transported to our holding facility. We will send a bus out for the rest as soon as we have up-armored enough of them for the trip. Send only the people who could defend themselves in a fight sir, they may need to leave the APC and proceed on foot.”

“I’ll send some people out in 30 minutes”

“Thank-you Mr. Pendegrass. Wil you be joining them?”

“No Ma’am, I’ll ride security until we have this building empty.”

“Alright Sir, please keep in mind that we are not sure how long we can keep sending people home”

Mike Pendegrass thought about this for a while before responding.

“You keep the door open; we’ll get people home and I’ll get home in time to complain to your superior about your flippant attitude during a crisis”

Chief Pendegras could feel the woman on the end of the line smile.

“It’s a date sir”

Chief Pendegrass flipped his phone closed and turned on the PA.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I need 10 volunteers who have either combat experience or combat training. Make your presence known to the security team on your floor and we will escort your to the main lobby. Thank-you for your cooperation”

Almost instantaneously, his radio lit up “Chief, what the fuck? Are we recruiting deputies?”

“Guys, this is the chief. We are recruiting some people to run Pony Express, escort people to the main lobby and then return to your posts. We’re going to round up ten people to make a run to the Fema center and head for home; if they make it, we’ll send more. The rest WILL be deputized.”

A chorus of, ‘okay chief, got it’ sounded back. Chief Pendegrass was left to think about the voice on his phone and the prospect of leaving on the APC outside.

Lights Out | The Long Night

Published by NiteMayr on January 21, 2009

The office shuddered with the impacts of sodden arms and bodies. Fleshy demons slammed against the glassy doors and windows that led to the balcony. Men and women franticly piled as much office furniture and cube building material against as they could, attempting to blockade the office against the bloody fiends outside. Panic and fear cemented into determination and bravery.

“Folks; as long as we keep watch and fortify the windows and doors, those things aren’t getting in!” in the gloom, no one knew for sure who was speaking. “We keep them out there until morning and then, when we can see, we figure out how to deal with them, alright?”

Mutters of agreement came from the people near the window. Deeper in the gloom of the office people were milling around each other, unsure what to do next.

All through the night, the thudding continued, slowly becoming more urgent and frightening as the ghouls wore away the flesh from their bones, slamming themselves into goo on the windows, smearing their humanity into nothing. For hours they fell upon the glassy facade of the office, never ceasing, never taking a break.

The people in the office alternated between hugging each other for comfort and steely resolve against the unknown terrors outside.

In offices around the building, fires had broken out and more of the monsters that were thrashing themselves upon the Fledex building could be seen roaming the offices and streets in the smoky gloom below. The people who now huddled in the Feldex building looked out into an alien world with a small chunk of Minnesota slammed into it waiting for an alien sky to light the dawn.

At approximately 3 am some of the phones in the building began to light up and ring; as if by magic.

Janice’s phone rang with the familiar tone for her mother; “Janice! Janice! My God! I can’t believe that you are alright! Where have you been? I’ve been calling for hours!”

“Mom? Oh my God. Mom, Don’t hang up!”

The celebrations inside of the office whipped the ghouls on the balcony into a frenzy, they surged as one at the window bone slamming glass and metal as one mass, a crack began to form in the glass of one of the doors. The hideous tattoo of bone on glass was finally moving the glass.

“Mom, please. Just tell me what is going on in Saint. Paul?”

“Janice, they are saying that there was some kind of explosion or something, it turned some of Saint Paul into dirt and sand! Janice, where are you?”

“Mom, I’m at work. All of us are. We’re not in Saint Paul anymore. We don’t know where we are. It’s night and we’re scared. The phones stopped working hours ago and now they are working again. If I get cut off again, I want to tell you that I love you mom, tell Dad that I love him too, okay?” Janice sniffed, she could hear the same sort of affirmations going on all around her, people whispering and yelling their love to people at the other end of what was an infinite gulf. “Mom, I love you.”

“IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, SAY YES” a voice boomed from every cell phone in the office. “PLEASE, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, SAY YES”

A scattered few yelled yes into their phones.

“I HEARD YOUR REPLY, THANK YOU. I AM BROADCASTING USING THIS CELL TOWER THAT I HAVE HOOKED UP AND POWERED UP. MY NAME IS NOT IMPORTANT. PLEASE DON’T TRY TO SPEAK OVER ME, IT MAKES IT DIFFICULT FOR ME TO TELL YOU THIS IMPORTANT INFORMATION. WE ARE NOT ON EARTH, WE ARE ON A PLANET SOMEWHERE REMOVED FROM EARTH. OUR BEST UNDERSTANDING OF THE STARS THAT ARE VISIBLE PUTS US SOMEWHERE BEYOND THE MILKY WAY AS WE CAN OBSERVE THE MILKY WAY IN ITS ENTIRETY THE SOUTHERN SKY. WE HAVE OPENED LINES OF COMMUNICATION WITH THE EARTH VIA THE SAME TECHNOLOGY THAT HAS TAKEN A PORTION OF SAINT PAUL TO THIS PLANET. AS LONG AS WE HAVE THE MEANS TO POWER IT, WE CAN SPEAK WITH PEOPLE ON EARTH. THE GATE REMAINS OPEN. WE WILL BE SENDING PEOPLE IN SMALL GROUPS BACK THROUGH THE GATE FOR AS LONG AS WE CAN ALONG WITH AN UPLOAD OF ALL OUR NOTES AND RESEARCH SUCH THAT PERSONS ON EARTH COULD ATTEMPT TO REPRODUCE OUR EXPERIMENT AND RETURN SAINT PAUL. PLEASE DON’T INTERRUPT! I AM NOT FINISHED. NO WE CANNOT RETRIEVE ITEMS FROM EARTH, WE CANNOT DETERMINE WHY ENERGY IS ABLE TO CROSS IN BOTH DIRECTIONS BUT NOT MATTER. ATTEMPTS TO CROSS THE GATE FROM EARTH HAVE BEEN MET WITH FAILURE AND NO FURTHER ATTEMPTS WILL BE MADE. PLEASE APPOINT A SPOKESPERSON FROM EACH GROUP AND COMMUNICATE THEIR NAME AND CELL NUMBER VIA TEXT MESSAGE TO THIS NUMBER 444-231-8899. WE HAVE AN ARMORED VEHICLE AS WELL AS SECURITY PERSONNEL WAITING TO RETRIEVE YOU. DO NOT LEAVE ANY SECURED AREA AS THE REVENANTS OUTSIDE WILL ATTEMPT TO DEVOUR OR KILL YOU. THERE ALSO APPEAR TO BE NATIVES MASSING AT THE EDGE OF THE TRANSPORT ZONE WE DO NOT KNOW THEIR INTENT AND WOULD RECOMMEND THAT ANY CONTACT BE AVOIDED. WE WILL AWAIT COMMUNICATION FROM YOU. THAT IS ALL”

“Janice… Janice, are you there?” Janice’s mother was there again.

“Mom, I think we were caught in some sort of experiment gone wrong, from the sounds of things it was a military thing.”

“Janice, what are you talking about?”

“Mom, there was a voice, it told us to sit tight and that we would be picked up by an armored vehicle”

“Janice, you’re in Hell”

“Mom, what?”

“Hell Janice. You’re being punished for your wicked ways. You lost your virginity and now God wants you dead Janice.”

“Mom, what are you saying?” Janice sobbed, “why are you doing this?”

“Wake up and smell the roses Janice. You’re damned for all eternity!”

The phone went dead again and Janie slumped against a wall and slid down, crying into the crook of her arm. People all over the office were wailing and screaming at the phones.

All of the phones in the office leapt to life at once, ringing with the same tone. People tossed them away as if they were on fire.

The pounding and cracking noises from the balcony filled the darkness as the phones died again.

“What just happened?” someone asked into the dark, “did everyone just have the same phone call? Did your boyfriends just tell you that you were going to hell?”

“Yeah, my Dad just called me a slut and told me that I was gonna burn forever” a voice near the door replied.

“Fuck me, my Grandma just called me a sinner and told me that the devil was going to eat my eyes, I’ve just realized, she’s been dead for 15 years!”

Janice stood up and turned her phone back on. It had been off the whole time.

It was 6AM.

Short Story: Lights Out Part 8

Published by NiteMayr on January 14, 2009

Janice got up from her chair sometime later and wandered back out to the veranda and looked down into the sooty streets. Screams had become moans and the sounds of fighting below had become the thudding of the crowds on random cars. Janice wasn’t paying attention to that anymore, she was looking up at the sky and seeing the stars. She couldn’t see a single constellation she recognized and as she strained to do so she didn’t notice that she wasn’t alone on the the deck.

“It’s not the sky”

Short Story: Lights Out Part 7

Published by NiteMayr on December 23, 2008

The gravel stopped crunching and Patrick thought, for a moment, that he was alone on the roof. The flopping monsters that had poured from the door had been dispatched like his former partner and he had pitched the majority into the flaming street below; crossing himself when he could for whatever passed for souls in their grotesque corpses.

Jacks corpse had stood again, stretched and began to lope at Patrick again, his face an obscene smile with mouth agape and askew.

“Jack, shit.” Patrick ran towards his partner and kicked hm in the chest, toppling the bloody thing over the side of the roof and sailing to the street below.

The roof was quiet and empty of danger now, Patrick walked with all due care to the roof door and looked down the staircase for any evidence of more monsters waiting in the dark. Finding none he turned his radio on and called out for the chief.

“Chief, it’s 13. I’m 5 by 5 here.”

“Pat? Good. We’ve just shut the tenants on 25 in the security office, join me in the main stairwell.”

“Got ya Chief. 13 coming in”

Patrick Farrel had never once killed a man in anger; not in the line of duty either. His tour in Iraq had been a relativley short one, with a leg injury getting him an early reprieve from the desert. Security work paid a bit better and couldn’t normally involve much actual fighting. The busiest days for Patrick had been chasing kids out of the stairwell after sneaking in after-hours. He hadn’t known Jack long enough for his death to really hurt, but the fight had left him like the long-termers at the VA, lost in the moment, staring into the distance for the next encounter.

He met the guys from Unit 11 as they trotted towards the main stairwell doors, they were smiling and chatting about the tenants.

“Did you see what they were doing in the one office? I think they were trying to film their own little porno in there or something… hey Pat. What the fuck was going on up top?” Patrick knew the smaller one; Henry “Hank” Jacobs. Young, former cop, fired for some kind of harassment issue.

“Yeah, they were naked, all of them, one dude had a camera and they were in a pile in the middle of the office, like 20 people all getting it on!” The bigger one had just kept on about the discovery in the office. Patrick just walked on to the door and knocked. Chief Pendegrass opened up and held the door for the Security Guards to walk out. He gave Patrick as much space as possible, given the gore that coated his uniform.

“Chief, we got some shit up here like you wouldn’t believe. Fucking Zombies or some shit. I fought about 6 of them, Jack included. I pitched them off of the roof as they came at me, I fucking shot two of them in the chest and they got right up, Jack too.” Patrick found his tongue and wouldn’t let go “Chief, Man. They kept on coming, like they was gonna tear me up like Jack. I hadda kill them.”

Patrick could feel himself losing it. He caught himself and led the walk down to the 24rth and down, sealing the doors as he went. He described the whole fight to the Chief, who remained quiet and offered no judgment or comment. When they had finished the sweep to the ground floor, Patrick had told his story a few times and the guys from Unit 11 had simply gone silent and stopped meeting Patrick’s eyes.

Chief Pendegrass put his hand on PAtrick’s should and led him to the Security offices and offered him a seat and a drink.

“Pat, I believe you. I’ve looked outside, I can hear that stuff out there. Something has happened to Saint Paul and I’m not clear as to what. There were two suns out there today, things have changed in a big way. Find yourself a clean set of clothes and dump that shit you’re wearing in a bag, tie it off and dump it deep in a dumpster or down the chute. Go nowhere alone and keep your radio on from now on.” The Chief stood up to his full height and looked deep in thought.

Patrick got up, went to his locker and stripped off his gore covered clothes, dumping them like requested. He cleaned himself up as best he could in the showers and found a new uniform and some of the tactical gear the other guys had on. When he caught his face in the mirror, he was sure that it was still him looking out, but there was a small strangeness in his eyes, like when he first stepped off of the plane at Rammstein in Germany. He had been through something and come back broken.

Short Story: Lights Out Part 6

Published by NiteMayr on December 1, 2008

The Job of a Security Chief in a private building is thankless, stullifying and for the most part as boring as Mime Church on Saturday. You clock in first thing in the morning, check over the security logs, meet with the building tenants once or twice a week and put a happy if patricial face on the security procedures that inevitably end up annoying or inconveniencing the tenants. If it has been a particularily trying day, you can get free food from one of the cafeterias in the building or sneak a drink from the executive lounges in the name of a security check.

When the call came in that the 25th was overrun, Mike Pendegrass wished that he had strayed into one of the executive lounge instead of tarrying around 23 looking at the security doors.

“Chief Responding, Unit 12, I’ll lock it down, sit tight! Units 1-10, lock down floors 23 down to 19, sweep down floor by floor, Unit 11, you’re with me.”

Two worried looking kids in Security Tactical gear appeared in the main lobby on 23, they had pulled out the private securty quivalent of riot gear from the security office on 23. Mike took a club from one of them and led them out to the central staircase.

“Guys, you know what to do, get up to 25 determine the nature of the threat and seal all exits if that threat could come down on us; now get going1”

“Yes sir!” Like military recruits, the two young men tore up the staircase to the 25th, Chief Pendegrass could hear their boots pound all the way up, then the heavy doors closing behind them.

“Chief, Unit 11 checking in, there are some people milling about out here. My partner is leading them into the secure area, we’ll get them locked into a secure area before going on.”

“You lock down that central staircase before you do anything else boys, I don’t want anything coming down those stairs until one of you boys tosses it ahead of them, you get me?”

“Yes Sir, Unit 11 locking down stairs”

One of the boys had come into the stairwall above Chief Pendegrass and used his security key to initiate a lockdown of the 25th floor. Mike had climbed the stairs behind the two security guards, keeping a safe distance until he was sure that whatever had caught Jack and Patrick wasn’t already spilling into the central staircase.

“Okay, I’ll finish the lockdown. Get in there and secure the people in the security office in the north corner, it has a chute down to 24 if things go south. Barricade them in, tell them to sit tight and wait for the all clear then get back down to this door in a hurry!”

The young guard complied and Chief Michael Pendegrass finished sealing the door, he sat down and leaned against it, calling out to his man on the roof.

“Pat, chief here, pick up on private channel” Mike swapped channels over to a private channel he knew was set aside for unit 12 “Pat, what’s your six?”

“…..ssssssSSSSSS……”

“Pat, come back”

Mike switched over to the public channel, “Unit 12, come back”

“sssssSSSS Unit 12 coming back Chief”

“Pat, switch over to private, you got me?”

“Chief, I’m kinda in the middle of something, I’ll catch you on the flip side if I get through ….sssssSSSSS”

Security Chief Mike Pendegrass, formerly of the Saint Paul Police department smiled a little to himself and thought of the times he had asked people to hold on like that, as if a life or death matter was some sort of chore that one could shrug off. Mike Pedegrass leaned his full weight into the door and listened, listened for the sounds of something going wrong, for screams, for gunshots, for anything. Beyond the murmering that once could always hear in the main stairwell, it was silence. He could hear the odd footstep beyond the door and occasional check-ins as the units swept down from 23, but the rest was silence and peace.

“Unit 12, come back”

“Chief, this is unit 11”

“Unit 11, have you secured the tenants on 25?”

“Yeah Chief, coming back to the main staircase, unit 11 out”

Chief Pendegrass stood up and smoothed out his uniform, he began the unlock sequence on the door and pulled open the heavy steel arm that secured it. He waited for the twin cadenced steps of the guards of unit 11.

And waited.

Short Story: Lights Out Part 5

Published by NiteMayr on November 11, 2008

The roof access stairs were impassible; but it was clear to Patrick that staying on the 25th was going to be a bad idea; he had just heard something wet and horrible happen to his partner over the radio and was sure that he didn’t want it to happen to him. He leaped over the bloody pools at the bottom of the stairs and caught himself on the railing of the stairs, slick footing preventing a clean landing. The stairs were gore-laden messes with what appeared to be the remains of dozens of people all over them. Patrick considered heading back down, but screaming and yelps of pain from behind him spurred him through the grotesque and up onto the roof into the inky, smoky night.

“Chief, this is Patrick Farrel, patrol unit 12, My partner was caught in whatever bingo is going down on 25. I’m up on the roof to avoid catching whatever caught him! Chief!?” his radio wasn’t coming back “Unit 12, someone come back?”

“Unit twelve, this is unit 3 on the first, we’re secure down there, what’s your six?”

“Unit 3, the roof lights are out, but there doesn’t appear to be anyone up here. It’s freaking cold up her Rog.”

“Pat, I got ya. Keep your head straight and keep an I eye on the roof”

“10-4 Unit 3. Unit 12 out”

Patrick crunched along the gravel on the roof, and looked over the edge at the city below. The streets were bathed in yellow and red, smoky and dangerous looking. Patrick turned back towards the door to the stairs and walked face first into his partner.

“Holy Damn, Jack. What’s going on, are you alright?”

Jack grabbed hold of Patrick and pushed him towards the edge of the rood, snapping at his face.

“Shit, Jack, what the fuck”

When the light from the fires below lit Jack’s face, Patrick could see that half of it was gone and there was nothing but evil intent in his remaining eye. Jack released Patrick’s shoulder with his right hand and swung a blinding punching into Patrick’s chin, stunning him. Patrick fell to the gravel next to the short wall around the perimeter of the roof. Jack began to pummel his partner, bloodying his face; between blows Patrick pulled his pistol from his belt and tried to level it at his partners knees, but Jack slapped it from his hand and over the side of the roof.

Patrick rolled to his left and escaped the rain of blows; kicking Jack’s right knee out from under him. Jack collapsed towards Patrick who had rolled to his feet and bounced unsteadily way, returning to kick his fallen attacker in the gorey remains of his face. Stomping it.

“Yeah, you like that? Huh? You like some of this?”

Patrick stomped his former partner until he stopped thrashing around and the wheezing bubbling blood stopped pumping from the ragged edge of his mouth.

“Shit..”

“Unit 12, this is Chief. Come back”

Patrick’s radio was one the ground next to the wall.

“Unit 12, Chief, we’ve got a problem up on the roof; Jack just tried to toss me over the side”

“Come back Unit 12, what was that?”

“Chief, Jack just tried to eat my face and kick me over the side of the building. I had to stomp him dead to to get him to lay still”

“Unit 12, do not leave the location.”

“10-4 Chief. Unit 12 on the roof and waiting. If whatever got Jack is up here Chief, I don’t want to meet it. Jack was all fucked up before he got to me, half of his face was gone; like somoeone ripped it off”

“Say again 12?”

“Jack’s face was torn off!”

“Chief on his way”

“Shit”

Patrick sat on the gravel with his back against the wall and stared at the body of his former partner. Patrick had been the best man at Jack’s wedding. He was Jack’s kids’ godfather. Jack’s wife would be devastated. Patrick coughed a bit in regret, but snapped his flashlight out and began to scan the roof for other surprises.

There was a bloody trail leading to him from the door, but there was no other sign of disturbance on the roof. Patrick stood up and walked to the door; from behind the door he could hear heavy, but labored footsteps and called out “Chief?”

There was no response, but a grey arm shot up from the gloom; Patrick pointed his flashlight down into the stairwell and immediately slammed the door shut and sat down against it.

“Chief, lock down the 25th, do not enter 25!”

“Unit 12, repeat?”

“Chief, get the 25th locked down. There are more things like Jack down there, they are all fucked up and dead Chief. We got zombies or some shit like that on 25!”

Weak arms began to pound the door behind him, they wanted out but couldn’t budge the door. Patrick braced himself and then ran for Jacks body, Jack’s pistol was still strapped to his waist. Patrick grabbed the gun and the extra clips stored there and turned to face the monsters pouring from the door.

Short Story: Lights Out Part 4

Published by NiteMayr on November 10, 2008

When the suns finally fell beyond the horizon, Saint Paul was dark except for the emergency lights of the buildings and the lights of cars gridlocked on the streets. In the Feldex Building, Janice McMurray and Frank James stared down into the deepening gloom below the building, trying to ignore the fights and recriminations that were happening behind them in the office.

“It’s looking crazy down there, did you see the crash along there?” Frank rubbed his head against the warm glass and stared down the streets. The dull glow that would normally accompany an evening was an inky blackness punctuated by the twinkling lights of he emergency lights and cars; it was chaos in the streets though. He could see fires and panic below.

Janice stood up and walked out of the offices, past the scuffles in the common area and walked out onto the balcony area looking down into the city. Standing in the winds; she could smell the smoke and fires out in the city, she could hear the honking and crashing and sonic violence of a city in panic. There were sirens and bullhorns bleating all around her; but over it all, there were screams and moans.

In the streets below, in the lights of the cars; Janice could see what looked like a battle; the writhing and scattering bodies of people clashing and flashing into each other in between the cars. There were, what looked like, wolf packs of figures cutting through the cars, hauling people from them and killing them on the roofs of the idling vehicles. She turned away from it and ran back inside to Frank.

“Frank, there are people being killed down there! It’s like the whole city has gone crazy at street level”

The office was in chaos, people had split into factions. Some were gearing up to leave, intending to take the stairs down and leave via the emergency exits and most were trying to convince them to stay. Janice screamed at the top of her lungs: “SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LOOK DOWN AT THE GOD DAMNED STREET; IT’S FUCKING CHAOS DOWN THERE! GET A GRIP AND LOOK DOWN!” She pointed down at the streets as flowers of fire bloomed from below the lines of the windows. It was clear that cars were blowing up in the crowded avenues below.

The Pa chirped loudly and the murmuring, yelling and crying halted in the office.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THIS IS THE CHIEF OF BUILDING SECURITY! THIS IS AN IMPORTANT NOTICE, PLEASE STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING AND LISTEN! We are sealing the ground level and first 4 floors of the building. There are a number of events going on outside and in order to ensure your security we are locking the building down. Close and lock all office doors; do not open them until you receive an all clear over the PA system or when a security officer appears in person to lead you out of the building. Under no circumstances is the 25th floor to be visited. There is an ongoing police presence on that floor along with building security personnel. Building residents on the 25th floor are asked to make their presence known via a call to the security desk. We thank you for your patience.”

The PA chirped again and the announcement was repeated, the PA then hissed and went silent.

Jance fell back into her chair next to Frank and tried to get her cell phone to work. Frank watched her; waiting for her to talk again.

“It’s a mess down there Frank, it’s like a war is going on in the street”

“I can see cars blowing up down there, Janice. It’s so dark out but there is so much light down there now from the fires. Do you want to hole up in one of the exec offices with a couch and try to get some sleep?”

“No, I’m going to stay here and watch the street. If one of the buildings around us catches on fire, I want to be ready to go it it gets to us.”

“This building is like a fortress, the fire would have to start inside the building to get us and the way the fire-prevention system is set up, it would be confined to one floor. It’d take one of these buildings collapsing into us to make a real impact. I’m gonna go and try and sleep somewhere.”

Frank got up and wandered into the gloomy areas of the office, over to the executive offices. Janice kicked off her shoes and curled into her chair, staring out into the dark and fire lit streets, unsure what to do.

The office had fallen to silence, with people barricading the doors into the halls and recriminations turning into sorrow and fellow-feeling; former adversaries turning to each other for comfort against an increasingly frightening unknown.

“OH GOD JESUS, FUUUCK SAVE ME CHIEF…SQUARKSSSSsssssss” the PA had burst to life for a moment then hissed into silence again. The effect was electric, with wails and yells going up around the office. No one in the office knew the voice, but the fear and confusion was obvious. “OH GOD, CHIEF! THEY ARE EVERYWHERE ON 25, LOCK DOWN THE FLOOR, LOCK IT D…” a warm wet squelch cut off the last word and the PA went silent again.

Janice ran to the doors and began to help with the barricading; certain now that whatever was going on was so much worse than she had even considered.

Short Story: Lights Out Part 3

Published by NiteMayr on October 21, 2008

Security Chief Mike Pendegrass spent his younger days working as a beat cop in Saint Paul; turfing drunks from bars and keeping the peace when local kids got out of hand. He never made it beyond Sergeant and didn’t aspire to anything except an easy retirement. When his Captain had decided to “clean up” his department, Mike Pendegrass had been caught up in an Internal Affairs shakedown that took out 30 police, all marked as “Dirty” and summarily dismissed from the force. 5 Years later, Mike Pendegrass was exonerated on all charges but left out of work and without his pension. Mike Pendegrass took his 20 years of beat cop and turned it into 15 more years of Security Guard at Melberton and Furlinger building Security Limited.

At 56, Mike was not a spring chicken anymore, but he was the Boss, and had a cushy desk job that paid better than any beat copy could have aspired to. Most days he came into the office, sat at his desk and confirmed and signed reports from the day before, sometimes checking security footage to confirm the the accounts of his officers. The rest of the day he could watch some TV, surf on the Internet and chat on the phone, a cushy well-paid job for the increasingly paunchy Top Security Guard at the Feldex building.

The odd crises that cropped up around large buildings tended towards power outs, fires and the odd bomb threat. Mike’s job was to coordinate the response of the Security Team with building Relations and make sure that while secure, the building’s tenants were not overly inconvenienced by any of the actions of the Security Team. This morning, there was a report of an alarm from the roof, someone had opened one of the roof access doors near the elevator engine room and left it unlocked.

“Boss, there’s a problem up on twenty-five” the radio bleated the voice of Ralph Furlinger, nephew to one of the Execs at M and F. “There’s blood all over the stairs going to the roof, man”

“Say again, roof” Mike sat up straight and tabbed through the cameras on 25 looking for the stairs. Sure enough, in technicolor there was a bloody mess all over the stairs. “Ralph, back away from the scene and close off the area. Don’t let anyone near the stairs. I’ll call the Police and get someone up ASAP.”

“Roger that” Mike watch Ralph cordon off the area with Caution signs and take up watch while Mike called the police.

“Hey, this is Security Chief M. Pendegrass over at the Feldex Building on East 7th, yeah, near the Wells Building. We’ve had some sort of incident on the 25th, there’s blood all over the place. We need someone to come check this out. We’ve secured the area, but it’s visible to the tenants. Thanks, I’ll meet your guys at the front Entrance”

Five Minutes later, two police in street uniforms arrived to accompany Mike to the 25th floor. They rode in the elevator, not speaking beyond introductions and getting basic information. They were barely beyond rookies and Mike knew that they were just there to make sure that it wasn’t some sort of prank.

When they got to the 25th Ralph stood aside while Mike and the Two officers walked over to the Roof Access stairs and got a look at the Situation. The Police asked for the lights to be dimmed, Mike radioed to the Security desk to ask for the lights in that section to be halved, in the gloom the police sprayed a small patch of the red fluid with what Mike guessed to be Luminol and passed a small black light over it, confirming that they had bodily fluids when it lit up.

Mike Radioed for the lights to come back up.

Then everything went Dark, then Blue. The Emergency lights had come on.

“What the hell is going on?” Mike asked sternly into his radio, “did you kill the lights”

“No Chief, the whole building just went red”

“Okay, Patch me into the PA and I’ll make sure that we cover ourselves…Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Security Chief Mike Pendegrass, please remain in your offices and keep the stairs clear at this time. I repeat please keep the stairs clear at this time.” He clicked off his radio and turned to the Police.

“Fellas, it looks like we have to problems on our Hands. I’ll leave Ralph here to help you guys out, I’ll meet anyone else you call in at the front, just have Ralph Page me. If you’ll excuse me” The police turned and began to scan the area with small hand-held maglites they pulled from their belts. The younger of the two began to talk into his radio, which suddenly burst to life with screams and wails.

“…SSQQQUEEEEEE… Holy Shit! Holy Shit… Do you see that in the Sky?….SSSHhhhhSSSSSSQUAAAAAaA Officer Down at 7th and Marquette, Officer Down at Aaarrrrrrgh!….SSSShhhhhh Numer 242 requesting Backup…..” The Two young officers stiffened and looked to Mike for his leave.

“I’ll call up some of my guys to lock this area down, but it sounds like there is a real crisis going on out there. Tell you what, set up shop downstairs in my Security Office and call in from there”

Mike summoned some guards from the outdoor patrol and called for all but the emergency Exits to be locked down securely. “Now Here this, this building is to be locked down, no one goes anywhere, all exits are to be monitored, all entrances are to be locked and guarded. I don’t want anyone getting in or out without our knowledge.” Mike clipped his radio to his belt as a chorus of affirmations came through the speaker.

The two beat cops beat it down the stairs leaving Mike and Ralph to look at the bloody mess; Mike found a chair in an empty office and sat down. He pulled out his cell phone and tried to call his wife, no signal. Ralph made a noise behind him.

“Chief, you gotta look out there” He pointed into the office that Mike had pulled the chair out of, “there’s something wrong with the sky”

Mike Pendegrass, Security Chief of the Feldex building stared out of a window on the 25th floor and straight into the twin setting suns in the yellow sky outside. Suddenly, not getting a signal on his cell phone was the least of his worries.

Short Story: Lights Out Part 2

Published by NiteMayr on October 16, 2008

Frank James spent all of his day at work navigating Facebook looking for his ex-girlfriends. He only had three to look for, but they never seemed to pop up. Today he was looking for variations on Trudy or Trudelle or Trish, his first serious Girlfriend in High School. They had dated right until Graduation, when she dumped him the day after Graduation, Frank had been crushed. He had expected to Marry her during College and have kids before he turned 25.

Now Trudy and Frank were both in their 30s and unknown to Frank, Trudy was single and pining for him after years of failed relationships. She didn’t use Facebook and rarely used a computer except when demanded by work and even then she left it to an assistant if possible. Miles away, Frank toiled away at his keyboard, oblivious to the world, save Facebook.

CLICK

The Lights went out and Frank’s laptop dimmed, he tapped on, but when people started to move towards the exists, he started to get ready to leave. The PA crackled and hissed then a voice came out:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Security Chief Mike Pendegrass, please remain in your offices and keep the stairs clear at this time. I repeat please keep the stairs clear at this time.” The PA hissed a bit then everything was quiet.

““Aww, what the hell!?” Frank coughed in exasperation. He plopped down in his chair and began to unplug his laptop from the wall, planning to pack up his crap except for his Laptop and leave as soon as the all clear came down. The “official” downtime would give him a chance to catch up on his real work and since the power was down, so was the ‘net. No reason to search.

Frank looked up when Janice from the next cube had rolled her chair down the aisle to the window and then got back to filling out spreadsheets and poking tracking information into different databases inside the building. In about 20 minutes, he had finished his real work for the day when the light in the office came back on. No, it hadn’t, it was brighter though.

“Oh My GOD!” someone yelled from the other side of the Office, “Holy Shit, Look outside!”

Frank looked out of the window and squinted, there, on the horizon above the buildings were two massive lights, two suns. The Sky was yellow and there were two suns! Frank snatched his camera from his carrier bag and snapped some pictures through the glass. The lights dimmed and went orange as the suns began to sink towards the horizon.

Down in the street, people were panicking and running between the cars. Frank could just make them out in the dimming lights.

Janice joined him at the window.

“Hey, did you know we were bombed” she drank from a coffee cup, “like, today?”

Frank stepped back and looked at her, “what? What?”

“Yeah, I got a call a little while back from a friend in Moorehead, he told me that Saint Paul was bombed, most of it is gone”

“You seem healthy for a bombing victim Janice. You have to tell me your secret” Frank jibed, nervous.

“It’s this double sun, you know? It does wonders for the wounds. Fuck. This is fucked up. What the hell is going on?” suddenly serious, Janice flopped back into her chair and looked around the office, people were gathering in groups and talking on their cell phones.

Frank took his cell phone from his pocket and called his mother, no answer. He called one of his friends in another office, no answer. Then, no service.

All around the office people started getting angry, yelling about service. Somewhere an argument had blossomed into a fight which was getting louder.

Frank grabbed his chair and wheeled it over next to Janice, they sat in silence and watched the suns set in the distance, noting for the first time that they were setting in the north.