Among the Roaring Dead Read Free Page A

was a sound coming from the inside of the man’s apartment – like someone crying.
    “Oops, gotta go.”
    He closed the door.
     
    The old man waved his smartcard at the door of his apartment. Miniscule little red lasers came out from the circular black orb in the middle of the door. Toni tried to help position him toward the scanner.
    “Open your eyes,” she said.
    The scanner issued an error statement – it could not scan his eye.
    A voice issued from the orb: Are you here to visit the occupants?
    “What wrong?” the man said, turning to Toni.
    His eyes were bloodshot, possibly from the blast. She wondered if this was what her eyes looked like.
    The man was quite short – a good head shorter than Toni and she always felt like that gave him an excuse to stare at her breasts in the elevator. She noticed some white blisters on the back of his neck, each about the size of a dime.
    He finally held open an eyelid with his fingers and the scanner was able to authenticate him and open the door.
    “Hurry, hurry, come here,” he said.
    Toni slowly stepped forward into the apartment and noticed the smell. There were odours probably related to cooking but there was something else as well. His young wife was sprawled on her back on the floor in front of them. Blood had streamed down her face from a wound that was apparently somewhere on top of her head.
    “What happened to her?” Toni said.
    “She fell, when the building got hit.”
    Toni noticed a big metal wrench lying on the ground not far from the body.
    “Is she breathing?”
    “I don’t know. Can you check? Aren’t you a nurse or something?”
    “I can’t leave my children. We’re going downstairs. We’ll send you some help.”
    “What? You’re not going to help?”
    “I can’t leave my boys alone.”
    “Fucking bitch! You’re going to leave me too?”
    It was clear he wasn’t blind. Like Toni, his eyesight had probably partially returned but he seemed in worse shape than she did. He reached out at the general area where Toni stood but he swiped at thin air about a foot away from her arm.
    She ran out the door and into the hallway. The boys were still there. She heard a door slam.
    “In the stairwell, now!”
    They went down the stairs quickly, but not recklessly.
    “Did someone come out of their apartment while I was gone?”
    “The neighbour,” Michael said. “The smoking guy. He said the Superintendent heard something about a safe place up north.”
    When they got to the parking garage, they noticed that the car entrance was closed – indicating that there may have still been some power present in the building. About half the amount of cars normally present were missing. Toni unlocked the doors to her car and told the boys to get in.
    “Keep your heads down,” she said. “I’m going to go up to talk to the Super for a minute and I’ll be right back.”
    She dropped her smartcard on Michael’s lap and looked at them for a minute.
    “It will be okay,” she said.
    She leaned in and kissed them both on their foreheads. She always loved smelling their hair.
    Her smartcard vibrated as she walked up the stairs. She pulled it out of her bag and looked at the screen. Her father’s face appeared there. When she took the call all she could hear was crackling static.
    “If you can hear me, I’m with the boys. We’re okay. We’re coming to you.”
    She hung up and tried calling Jess. The call couldn’t be made. The signal strength was completely dead.
    There was an emergency backup light on in the lobby. The office was unlocked but no one was inside. The doors at the front entrance were open as though someone had just activated the electric door opener.
    Toni stood for a moment on the front lawn watching clouds blacker than she had ever seen before racing across the sky. A single grey particle floated down and landed on her arm. She raised it to her face to inspect – it had almost fluttered down like a snowflake though this was way too early