The Rupture

Danny Duncan

The water burbled up brackish and brown, which Carter knew meant the filtration system was broken. It wasn’t a new problem; the system was outdated when the scouting party found it, and from the moment it had been installed the machinery never quite ran well. Still, it was too important to just disassemble for parts. Without clean water, the camp would die, or at least it would die more quickly than it was already.

Carter muttered a curse and shut off the pump. Carter dreaded the Colonel’s reaction to this new development; he hated having to throw another problem in her lap. At least he knew beforehand how he could help. That should ease her worries.

The engineer stepped out of the tent and into the seemingly never-ending wind. With each gust, Carter’s nose was filled with the acrid smells of the blasted landscape. Sickly blue-green lighting lit up the horizon, with the faint sound of thunder following behind. A storm under most circumstances would be a boon during such times, but the roiling and strange clouds made the engineer nervous.

A couple of kids ran by chasing after some large rodent. The thing was almost as big as a cat, and its fur was matted and patchy. The kids chased it around the tent city that had begun to grow in the last couple days. Colonel Brand saw fit to take them in, along with multiple other refugees from the calamity, Carter included.

The Colonel’s charity wasn’t without hardship. Her company lacked the supplies that the refugees needed, and disease ran rampant throughout the inhabitants. This didn’t even cover the radiation sickness that over half was coming down with. Even after enduring the calamity, those who survived were still doomed in some way.

Carter heard the distant thunder again, now closer. The wind had picked up and bits of dust surrounding the camp had begun to circulate in the air. He zipped the raggedy jacket he’d had since the beginning and pulled a painter’s mask over his face. It wasn’t good for much, but it put his mind at ease at least. That’s all anyone could ask for now.

“We’ll extend the perimeter fifty yards east, giving room for the more permanent shelters to be built.” Colonel Beth Brand pointed out the area on the map in front of her.

“Ma’am, with all due respect, our orders were to move further east and regroup at Washington,” Major Roberts protested. “These civilians are not our mission, and I don’t believe it’s wise to make camp here.”

“I believe our mission is to protect our country’s citizens from all threats that come, so forgive me Major, if I don’t abandon them to the goddamn apocalypse.”

Major Roberts was right, this wasn’t their mission. The company had been stationed at Fort Randolph, with none of the soldiers there even close to going on active duty. Then a call came over the radio for them to reinforce the garrison at Washington DC. As the company was mobilizing, the eastern sky lit up brighter than day, and all communications went dark. The company had found the refugees as they drove down the highway, so they stopped to help. Many in the company resented this decision, with Roberts being their voice.

A part of her felt the same, as more people that she had to care for meant more mouths to feed and more resources spent to keep them well. To cut the civilians loose and let them fend for themselves was logical, if coldly so, and would likely mean the company would get farther. A far larger part of her couldn’t turn away these people. She couldn’t send away the families, damning the children to whatever was left of the country.

“Colonel, we have the newest weather report for you,” interjected a soldier coming in.

“Thank you, Corporal,” Brand answered. “You’re dismissed.” The soldier saluted and left the room.

Colonel Brand unfolded the paper and studied it for a moment. A sour look crossed her face, and she placed the paper on the table.

“Major, inform the camp that the storm will arrive early tomorrow morning. I’d prefer if they didn’t leave camp during that time; it’s hard to keep track of everyone in a downpour.”

Major Roberts gave a curt salute and left the tent. Colonel Brand rubbed her temples and fell heavily into her desk chair. She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept through the night, and it seemed as though this night would be no different. Storms were hard enough when she just had to worry about her troops, now she had to keep an eye on a load of civilians and whatever damage the storm would do. Who knows what it could blow in?

The Colonel scratched at the back of her neck. Her black hair, usually kept short and neat, was beginning to puff out and itch beneath her cap. Her eyes lingered for a moment on the pair of scissors on her desk, but she thought better of it. It wouldn’t do for the troops to come in and see their commanding officer lopsidedly cutting her hair.

“Colonel, Mr. Carter Blake is here to see you,” said the Corporal as he leaned into her door.

“Send him in,” Colonel Brand answered as she straightened herself in her chair, attempting to present a strong exterior for the people under her care.

“Colonel, I was hoping I could speak with you,” Carter said as he dragged a fresh layer of mud into the room. He was one of the first of the civilians that she had met, and he was frankly hard to miss. He was stopped on the highway with a rickety old work van full of miscellaneous equipment and machine parts. The man’s hair, where it wasn’t balding, was sticking out in angles reminiscent of a thorn bush. With the rough camping the group had been forced to do, dark circles rested under his eyes, and his clothes had accumulated all new stains.

“Of course, Mr. Blake. What can I do for you?”

“I really do hate to put another problem on your plate,” Carter said uncertainly, “but this affects the whole camp, and I really thought that you should know about it.”

“Well, then I suggest you should tell me what it is,” Colonel Blake as she rubbed her brow in frustration. When he wasn’t apologizing for existing, Carter knew his work and helped out as much as anyone in the camp. The Colonel was familiar with his demeanor by now and was slowly discerning ways to hurry him along.

 “Right, sorry. The water purifier is leaving too many particulates in the output, and the pressure isn’t what it should be in the pumps.”

“So would you suggest we send out a boil order until the purifier is fixed?”

“Well, if the particulates aren’t being filtered out, then possibly irradiated particles could be in the water supply. Boiling will kill any bacteria, but we can’t really do anything if the water is irradiated from whatever happened last week.”

“I see.” Colonel Brand leaned back in her chair. “What do you suggest we do then?”

“The filtration system that we have is old enough that I doubt we could find new parts if we wanted to. What we really need is a replacement and I think I have an idea of where I can find one.”

Carter walked to the large map of the area on the wall, frantically looking for landmarks that he could point out.

“The State Capital is here, and the capital building should be somewhere in the center,” Carter pointed to an area around 25 miles from the camp, “which would have its own emergency shelter and water supply. If we can find the water system in there, we should be able to modify it for our own purposes. I can take a truck, get it, and be back by tomorrow.”

Colonel Brand stood from her desk, to see the map closer. There’d been no contact from any branch of the local or national government. The company was acting off of old orders to get to DC, but there’d been no contact in nearly a week. At best, there would be government workers and possibly more troops to fortify their numbers. At worst, the place was a ruin with everything having been picked over by looters.

“Do you really think you can find the right equipment?” Colonel Brand asked as she looked at the map.

“Pretty sure. Why?”

“I’d prefer the two of us not have to spend too much time away from the camp,” Colonel Brand answered. “Who knows what Major Roberts will screw up.”

“Ma’am, with all due respect,” Major Roberts interjected, “I don’t believe it to be wise to make this trek yourself. Couldn’t a member of the enlisted personnel do this?”

“I was stationed at the base nearby before the collapse and I spent quite a bit of time in the building,” Colonel Brand said as she tossed a duffle bag into the transport truck. “My ID and codes should still work, and I know how to get around the base if the power’s not on.”

“Still Colonel, I don’t believe it’s wise to—”

“And I don’t believe that I have to explain myself to you Major. You’ll be in charge until I get back tonight. Dismissed.” Colonel Brand waved him off as Major Roberts tried to offer another objection.

Carter, attempting to make himself unnoticeable, silently placed the rest of the supplies in the back of the transport truck. He had been prepared to argue the rest of the day for the permission to get the purifier and somehow, he ended up being told to come with the camp commander. At least someone else would be able to drive while he navigated.

A part of him was relieved to have someone coming with him on the trip to the building. Since the recent calamity, he’d never been far away from the remnants of civilization. It had only been a week, but already the air smelled different, and the sky shimmered with strange colors every night.

Thunder rumbled out again from the storm, nearer now. Carter watched as the clouds seemed to ripple as they moved across the landscape, like the surface of a pond when something submerged.

“Get in Blake,” Colonel Brand half shouted at the engineer. “The sooner we get going, the sooner we can get back.”

Carter climbed into the passenger seat of the truck. Colonel Brand settled in behind the steering wheel and turned the ignition. The truck groaned and whined, the engine finally turning over begrudgingly as it rumbled to life. The two strapped in as they rolled out beyond the tents of the camp, the rough terrain causing them to be rocked about. Carter’s navigational duties quickly proved impossible as he bounced about, losing the map on the floorboards and struggling feebly to retrieve it. Colonel Brand on the other hand, much more experienced with this vehicle, barely moved as she calmly drove on.

Carter was thankful when the dirt eventually became asphalt as the truck turned onto a four-lane highway. He was finally able to retrieve the map from the floorboards, with the only damage being a fresh boot print that he sheepishly tried to clean off.

The two passed by the traffic pileup where Colonel Brand and her troops found everyone else. Carter watched his van as they went by, mourning the antique equipment he’d managed to find with the knowledge he’d likely never get it back.

“Colonel,” Carter said, “can I ask you something?”

“Might as well,” she replied. “Not like we’ve got much else to do until we get there.”

“How do you think this all started?”

“Well, as far as we know it’s at least nationwide,” she replied after a beat. “There’s been no clear contact with anyone else, though that could be due to many things. It was most likely some form of nuclear attack, but we’re not sure.”

 “Who attacked us?”

 “Well, there’s no way to know until we see their troops.”

Carter was silent for a second, mulling over his thoughts. It made sense, what she said, but it had been a week and there’d been nothing. No declaration of war, no conquest, nothing.

“Do you remember the storms from a few weeks ago? Before all this I mean.”

“Sure, what about them?” Colonel Brand asked. She did remember the storms. The roof of the mess hall was practically torn off by the wind, and they lost power for a few days.

“Well, they were record-breaking storms, sheet lighting every second. And I could’ve sworn I….”

“What?” she asked probingly.

 “It looked like there was something in the clouds. Like they were moving and glowing strangely.”

The two fell silent after that. Carter was sure she thought he was crazy; he pretty much thought he was crazy too. Colonel Brand considered her options for reply, none of them being very encouraging.

“I’m sure it was nothing. The wind was very heavy in those storms, that’s probably what you saw.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Carter replied. He grew up in Oklahoma, and he knew what storms were like. They didn’t flow and bulge outward, the way water displaces when a shark swims by. He didn’t push it however, hoping to remain sane in the Colonel’s eyes.

The two fell silent again, weaving around cars stopped on the highway until they reached the city limits.

From what they could tell, Frankfort was largely unharmed. Perhaps that was the most shocking thing. There was little to no movement as they entered the city, only the occasional car pileup that they had to circle around. There was no sign of life, no sign that it had ever existed there. Windows were broken, buildings were burned down, but no one greeted them as they drove by. No birds flew in the sky or walked on the streets. There weren’t even any bodies on the ground. It was just empty.

It was an eerie drive for the two as the truck rumbled down the city streets. The only sound to answer them was the thunder from the storm coming in. Thankfully, the storm was still far away, but it would surely arrive in the next few hours. The pair knew they would have to be quick.

 As they approached the Capitol Building, the two saw multiple fortifications set up before the steps. Stacks of sandbags were arranged to provide cover, and multiple vehicles with mounted weapons pointed outwards from the building and up into the sky. They all remained unmarred, as if they were set up for display.

Colonel Brand pulled the truck around, making sure it was facing back the way they came. She shut the engine off and motioned for Carter to get out of the truck.

“Can you shoot?” Brand asked as she pulled out the duffle bag.

Carter thought back to his short time in the Scouts, recalling his perfect placement of shots around the target. The shooting instructor was never more impressed than that day.

“Not really,” Carter replied.

“I suggest you stand behind me then.” Colonel Brand unzipped the duffle bag and pulled multiple weapons out. She strapped a pistol on her hip and picked up a shotgun, loading it and grabbing extra shells.

“Are we expecting a fight?” Carter asked.

“No, but I’d prefer to be prepared anyway.” Colonel Brand racked the shotgun and began to move towards the building. Carter followed behind, hefting a bag of tools over his shoulder.

The first signs of life appeared as the two approached, with many shell casings littering the ground around the sandbags and the vehicles. They were in small piles around the area, showing where each of the soldiers had been standing before they left. The sandbags themselves were lightly burned and torn in places, though they were largely untouched.

The Capitol sat dark, looming before the two. Colonel Brand cautiously tried the door, and it swung out easily. The lobby showed all signs of business, the desk filled with papers and the phone off the hook. Purses and bags sat unattended on the benches and floor, and a janitor’s cart sat in the middle of the lobby. The mop laid a few yards away and was snapped in half.

“Come on,” Colonel Brand whispered, “stick close to me and don’t make any loud noises. If there are any survivors, I’d rather not get shot by them.”

The two made their way down the deserted halls, Colonel Brand checking every room as they went and finding no one. It was as if they were walking through a diorama, the perfect facsimile of a real place, but only a copy. Not even the air conditioning was on, making the whole place feel stuffy and humid. Carter had begun to sweat through his shirt, a mixture of the temperature and the anxiety of this place.

The place reeked with a sense of wrongness. It should have been bustling, with people running about everywhere, especially during this time of crisis. Instead, it remained empty and abandoned, with the only sign there had ever been people here being the objects they left behind. Carter swore he could feel eyes upon him as the two walked through, like the people were all just hiding and waiting to jump out and grab them. Even Colonel Brand gripped her weapon tighter and constantly looked around, scanning for threats. Nothing appeared, and the two slowly made their way into the basement.

Colonel Brand and Carter both turned on their flashlights, cutting through the oppressive darkness of the basement. The basement was full of old filing cabinets and items that were likely long since forgotten about. A thick layer of dust rested on everything, and a faint stench of mold hung in the air. It seemed that things were put down here to be forgotten about.

“The pipes,” Carter said pointing to the wall across the way. “If we follow those, we should find the water system.”

A crash echoed through the basement as Carter spoke, cutting through the silence and causing the two to spin around in the direction of the sound. The two froze, waiting to see if there was anything more, as they heard something roll across the floor.

“This is Colonel Bethany Brand of the United States Army. Identify yourself,” the Colonel called out into the basement. There was only silence in response to her question.

“Carter, get to the water system,” Colonel Brand whispered. “I’ll watch our backs.”

Carter nodded in response and practically ran to the doorway closest to the pipes. The water and heating systems were quite large in order to accommodate this building; however, the filtration system was small enough to be carried. Carter laid out his tool bag and began to dismantle the water system. He’d worked on multiple systems like this, and his memory served him well as he pulled it apart.

Carter had just managed to remove the filtration system when he heard a shout behind him followed by a gunshot. The shot echoed throughout the basement and Carter threw himself to the ground in fear.

“Carter, get out here now!” Colonel Brand called to him.

The engineer shakily got to his feet and found Colonel Brand standing over a man with a fresh bullet wound in his side. The man was dressed in a dirty dress shirt and his slacks were torn apart. A long piece of pipe lay next to him as he struggled to breathe.

“What the hell happened?” Carter asked as he stumbled forward.

“He rushed me in the dark,” Colonel Brand replied, a fresh bruise on her face. “Crazy bastard was trying to kill me.”

“It ruptured,” the man on the ground struggled out. “We hit it. We shouldn’t have hit it. Now it’s gonna take all of us.”

“What are you talking about?” Carter asked as he stared at the man. The attacker’s eyes were bloodshot and crazed. His breathing was rapid and panicked, with fresh blood already appearing at the sides of his mouth.

“It was here before, and we shot it. It turned the skies dark, and it won’t rest until it has all of us. It won’t let us live…” the man trailed off as his eyes went dark.

Colonel Brand knelt down and closed his eyes, a silent apology for killing him.

“Do you have what we need?” she asked.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Good, let’s get out of here.”

Thankfully, the system was light enough for the two of them to carry, and they quickly made their way back to the lobby. It was just when they were leaving that thunder roared above them, the clouds nearly on top of them. The pair looked up and saw the clouds above them, dark and foreboding, with the green lighting traveling throughout the storm.

“Get to the truck now!” Colonel Brand shouted as the two ran as fast as they could with the purifier to the truck.

  As they reached the truck, thunder roared again, but with another sound underneath it—a deeper sound than the crackling thunder came from the clouds. A monotone hum echoed out towards them. The pair looked up and saw the clouds ripple and pulse like a bubble. A gargantuan form moved behind the mists of the clouds, unperceivable in shape or scope. It moved and the storm shifted with it, beginning to form a canopy over the city.

“What the hell?” Carter said as he watched it roil and coil in the clouds.

  Then the rain came. Heavy sheets of rain came down over Capitol Building, causing streams of water to spill off the buildings and fall upon the ground. The two jumped into the truck and heard the rain slam into the roof. The downpour shimmered as it fell, glowing unnaturally and steaming as it hit the ground

“Hang on.” Colonel Brand turned the ignition, trying to get the engine to turn over. With a final crank, the truck started, and she immediately sped off, desperately trying to outrun the storm.

As the two followed their path back, a strange whistling sound began to be heard. The two scanned around, trying to find its source, but it found them first.

 Rocketing out one of the side streets came a fifteen-foot-tall figure. Its silhouette was human, if stretched and exaggerated beyond all sense of normalcy. The thing was paler than snow, and its arms nearly reached its ankles. The truck thankfully missed its first charge, but the thing quickly began to sprint after them.

 “Oh shit,” Carter said as he began to panic. The thing ran after them as if it was on stilts, its legs almost propelling it after them. The truck could move faster, but in the city streets the thing was quickly catching up.

“Take the wheel,” Colonel Brand said.

“What?!”

“Take the damn wheel!”

 Colonel Brand leaned out the side of the truck, firing at the creature and Carter struggled to keep the truck on track. The bullets were making impacts, but the thing ran on unbothered by the attempts to stop it. The creature’s pallid skin burbled with strange black blood that oozed out of its wounds and that burned through the asphalt on the road.

 The long-legged creature quickly gained on the truck, coming along the passenger side. Carter looked out the window, witnessing the thing’s long exaggerated strides. Carter felt the truck rock as the thing slammed into the side, swerving to try to maintain control. Colonel Brand slipped further out the window as the truck rocked, barely hanging on.

Carter turned his head again to track the creature, just in time to see its six-fingered hand burst through the passenger side door and grab him. All the engineer could do was scream as he was ripped from the cab, his head bashing against the ceiling and dazing him. All the air was ripped from his lungs as he felt the creature squeeze him.

He heard the truck skid and swerve to a stop as the creature’s not-face stared at him. It titled its head as if to study him, and a small slit began to appear in the middle of its head. The head split and revealed rows of misshapen teeth. Carter saw multiple shots hit the creature, but it remained undeterred. Carter heard a distant shout and closed his eyes as he was brought into the thing’s mouth.

Colonel Brand sped away, staring at the road but not seeing it as she drove back to the camp. The truck pulled to the left now when she tried to drive straight, and she could smell the coming rain out the burst open side of the truck.

Carter’s unwilling sacrifice had given her the time to outpace the creature and the storm. She constantly checked the remaining side mirror, always expecting the creature to be upon her with Carter’s fresh blood coating its not-face. All she could see was the storm fully covering Frankfort, roiling and twisting over the city.

The mission was successful, they had retrieved the part, and the water would be clear. Colonel Brand didn’t feel as though she had won, however. Carter had been under her care and trusted her to keep him safe. If his trust was so misplaced, what did that say for the rest of the camp?

The camp would have to move west; they couldn’t risk being caught in the storm. All she could hope to do was stay ahead of it.

Distant thunder rolled, and she could hear the low hum of the monster in the clouds follow it. Her mind went back to the words of the man she killed: It won’t let us live.

All she could do was keep moving. That’s all she could manage.