Apocalypse Weird: Genesis (The White Dragon Book 1) Read online

  “Watch where you drive, asshole!” the driver yelled at Jack.

  Jack swung around him and from there onto the expressway.

  “This is not good,” Kasey said. “This is not good.”

  Jack glanced at her briefly.

  “This is not good.” She dialed a number on her cell. “My mom is gonna know what this is.”

  “Why is that?”

  “She’s a marine biologist. Mom?”

  “Kasey?”

  “Mom!”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m… can you turn on the news?”

  “What’s happening? Where are you? Are you okay? Kasey! Are you okay?”

  “Yes. Yes, I’m okay. I’m on my way home, but turn on the news. Something is happening.”

  “What are you… Wait, I’m turning it on.”

  From the passenger seat Kasey could see the beach on their right side. It was dotted with dolphins as far as she could see.

  “Mom—”

  “There’s nothing, Kay. Nothing unusual. What’s going on?”

  “The local news. Turn on the local news.” Kasey couldn’t stop the tears. She sobbed into the phone. “We’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  “What’s going on, Kasey? Why are you crying? Did something happen?”

  Kasey looked at Jack for a moment. He was concentrating on evading cars whose drivers had stopped to see what was going on.

  “The dolphins, mom. The dolphins are dying.”

  “What are you talking about? Were you drinking or something?”

  A helicopter flew overhead. It had the SKY NEWS Channel logo on it.

  “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  She hung up.

  “Two more exits.”

  “Okay,” Jack replied.

  “What is this, Jack?”

  “I don’t have the slightest idea. Shit!”

  Kasey was pulled into her seatbelt when Jack stepped hard on the brake. In front of them, a tractor-trailer smashed into a parked car. The trailer skidded sideways and began to turn over. Kasey screamed as Jack turned the wheel to the left, evading the trailer by less than a car length. The Jeep flew into the center strip.

  “We’re okay,” he said. “We’re okay. I got it.”

  He maneuvered the car through the high grass while passing the still-turning trailer and eventually came to a stop. The trailer lay on its side. Behind them, several cars smashed into one another.

  “Call 911,” Jack said. “Tell them where we are. Tell them there was a mass collision.”

  Jack drove past the trailer and back onto the highway where he stopped the car.

  “911, what’s your emergency?” the voice on the other end came on.

  “I’m gonna see if anyone’s hurt,” Jack said, getting out of the Jeep.

  “What’s your emergency?”

  “Hello… my name is… my name is Kasey Byrne. I want to report an… accident on the freeway between… between…”

  “Ma’am, are you okay?”

  “Yes. Yes, I’m okay.”

  “Are you in immediate danger?”

  “Pardon?”

  “Are you in immediate danger, ma’am?”

  “I don’t think… I don’t think so.”

  “Okay. Where are you?”

  “We’re on Ocean State Parkway just past Cedar Beach. A tractor-trailer has rolled over.”

  “Are there other cars involved? Ma’am, are there other cars involved?”

  “Yes.”

  “How many?”

  Jack beckoned to her. He stood on top of the truck, trying to open the door.

  “I don’t know. Maybe five.”

  “Okay. Stay where you are. Don’t leave the vehicle until help arrives.”

  “Okay.”

  Kasey hung up and got out of the Jeep. She couldn’t see the beach from here but she could hear the screams of the dolphins as if they were right next to her.

  “Kasey! Over here!”

  She ran toward the cab of the truck. It lay on its side. When she got closer, she saw the blood on the windshield.

  “I have to climb in and push the windshield out from inside. Otherwise we can’t get him out,” Jack said.

  “Okay.”

  “Can you help me with the door?”

  “Okay.” She climbed up on the cab. The smell of gasoline and burning rubber crept into her nose.

  “Was there someone in the car?” she asked.

  “I don’t think so.”

  Jack pulled at the door handle but the door didn’t move.

  “We’ll have to smash the side window,” she said.

  “The glass is gonna cut the driver. I wanted to avoid that.”

  They looked at each other for a moment. Less than ten hours ago, she was still a teenager. So was Jack.

  “Look away,” he said.

  As she turned her head to the side, he smashed the window with his elbow. The glass rained down onto the driver. Jack reached in and popped the door lock. They lifted the door and Jack climbed inside.

  “Be careful,” she said.

  In the distance, Kasey could hear the sirens. The freeway was littered with parked cars. Now that the drivers had to stop, many of them got out and ran down toward the water. Kasey felt sick to her stomach. Jack kicked the windshield several times. After the third time, it cracked. A few more kicks and it began to loosen. With the last kick, the passenger side broke out of the frame. Then the rest came loose and the windshield crashed to the ground.

  Kasey stood up on top of the cab, waving to the ambulance and two fire trucks that were navigating their way through the cars. A man came running through the trees from the water and toward them. Kasey could hear him yelling something.

  “Jack,” she said. “Jack!”

  “I can’t get him out. He’s too heavy.”

  “Jack!!”

  Kasey climbed down as the man came running toward her.

  “What did you do to my car!?”

  He grabbed Kasey by the throat and pushed her against the cab’s roof.

  “What did you do to my car!?”

  Kasey couldn’t react. She had participated in a self-defense class one semester at her high school. One of the exercises had been to defend against someone grabbing one’s throat. All she could do now was gasp. She saw the rage in the driver’s face but behind that, she saw something else — a look of complete and utter terror. Jack rammed into the man from the side. His grip around Kasey’s throat loosened. He and Jack went down together. Jack was up in seconds. He grabbed Kasey’s hand.

  “We gotta go. Now!”

  He began to run and Kasey had no other option than to run with him. Three EMT’s came around the corner and toward them.

  “The driver is hurt,” Jack shouted. “We couldn’t get him out. The man on the ground is the driver of the car. He’s not hurt.”

  They ran toward the Jeep as the firemen got out of their truck and a police car stopped next to it. Jack and Kasey climbed into the Jeep. Jack started the engine and they drove off. Kasey saw a police officer behind them, gesturing at them to stop the vehicle.

  “We should stay here,” Kasey said. “Talk to the police.”

  “No.”

  “But they’re gonna think we’re involved.”

  “Did you see that guy’s face? He was ready to kill you.”

  Kasey didn’t have an answer. She began to cry while looking at her hands in her lap. They shook uncontrollably.

  “This is the end of the world,” she said. “This is the end of the world. It’s the end of the world.”

  Jack reached over and touched her face with his hand. She felt comforted, took his hand into hers and held it.

  “What’s happening?” She knew he didn’t have an answer. Maybe nobody did.

  They drove onto the freeway.

  “Maybe your mom knows what’s going on.”

  “Yeah. Maybe.”

  There was a small thread of hope still
left in her. A hope that all this would have a normal explanation, one that could be dealt with and eventually forgotten. But she knew better.

  Saturday, June 22nd, 07:20 a.m. to 09:55 a.m.

  They took the exit onto the Robert Moses Causeway. It would lead them across Great South Bay and through Islip into West Babylon. Except for one police car that passed them going toward the beach, everything seemed normal. Kasey turned on the radio. WBAB-FM, Babylon’s rock station, blasted a Black Sabbath song. She switched to WSUF-FM, public radio. There was a report on gene research in Texas. Someone had evidently found a virus that, according to the report, was able to change one’s DNA and basically help calm people who had displayed violent behavior before. They should send some of it over to us, she thought. She turned the radio off.

  “How are you?” she asked, aware of her shaky voice. Her stomach was beginning to revolt.

  “I’m okay. I guess.” Jack answered, his eyes fixed on the road.

  “Thanks for not crashing into things back there.”

  “Sure.”

  “You can get off at the exit and make a left onto Montauk Highway.”

  “Okay.”

  Jack set the blinker and turned onto the ramp.

  “Jack.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I think I’m gonna be sick.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I think you have to stop the car.”

  “Now?”

  Jack must have seen in Kasey’s expression that she’d meant it. He steered the Jeep onto the shoulder. Kasey opened the door, climbed out and threw up. She hadn’t eaten anything yet and all that came up was bile. She climbed back in, closed the door, and leaned back in her seat.

  “You okay? Should we stop and get water?”

  “I’ll be all right.” She felt hot and clammy and even though she couldn’t hear the cries anymore, they were still with her, echoing in her mind, torturing her relentlessly.

  “Where’s your car?” Kasey asked.

  “Pardon me?”

  “Your car. I was just wondering where it is.”

  “I don’t have one.”

  “So how did you get to the beach?”

  “I took the bus. Why are you asking?”

  “I meant to ask you last night.”

  “I took the bus. I don’t know anybody and I thought I’d explore the area a bit and the bus let me out just above that beach and when I walked down toward the water, I saw you.”

  “And you decided to come over.”

  “And I decided to come over. Yes.”

  “What about your parents? Where are they? Do they live together?”

  “Am I under arrest?”

  There was a pause during which Kasey became aware of her nervousness. “Sorry. Whenever I’m anxious, I start asking questions.”

  “That’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

  “Sorry.”

  “No worries. I live with my dad,” he said. There was a softness to his voice and she decided that she could probably trust him a bit more than she had. “Where’s your mom?”

  “She’s in Albuquerque. My parents got divorced. How about you?”

  “I live with my mom. My parents got divorced a bunch of years ago also. My dad stayed on Long Island but he travels a lot for business and I don’t see him that often. He got me the car.”

  “It rides really nicely.” Jack smiled slightly and she couldn’t help but smile back.

  “My mom and I live in an apartment,” she said. “It’s close to my school but away from most of my friends. I was supposed to see my dad later today but I’m not sure it’s gonna happen. You can make a left here.”

  Jack turned left and drove onto Montauk Highway. Kasey watched the people at the gas stations, the parking lots, in front of the diner and as they were leaving a grocery store. The normalcy of it all was reassuring. Even though it stood in stark contrast with what she had witnessed and felt during the last hour, seeing people running their errands and doing what normal people do on a Saturday morning made her realize that this might not be as bad as she thought it was. And her mom, she believed, would be able to explain everything.

  They heard the siren and engine of the fire truck before they saw it. At the same time, a helicopter flew overhead and toward the beach. The fire truck pulled onto Montauk Highway from a side street and went east, toward the direction they came from. Behind it were two ambulances and, a few cars past them, another fire truck.

  “Make a right at the bank there,” Kasey said.

  “Okay.”

  Jack made the steep turn onto Route 109.

  “Maybe they’re not going to the beach. Maybe there was a fire somewhere.”

  “It’s possible,” Jack answered. “But I doubt it.”

  They drove wordlessly for a while until Kasey’s phone rang.

  “Mom, we’re on 109. Should be there in five minutes… Mom? Are you there?”

  All Kasey heard was soft weeping.

  “Mom, are you okay?”

  “I’m watching the news.” It was a whisper more than anything. Then the weeping continued.

  “Stay to the right,” Kasey told Jack. “Mom, we’re on Little East Neck Road. We’ll be there in five minutes. You want me to stay on the line? Mom?”

  The call was disconnected.

  “She hung up,” Kasey said in disbelief.

  “Maybe the call got dropped,” Jack said. “There must be a lot of people trying to call right now.”

  “I don’t think so. It sounded like she hung up. She never hangs up.”

  “I’m sure she’s okay.”

  “I’m the one who hangs up. Not her. She never hangs up on me.”

  Jack pushed the gas pedal down and the Jeep accelerated. Kasey started to cry again. The terror she had felt before and that she had forgotten for a while was back.

  “It’s the one after this one,” she said as they passed a side road. “Sawyer.”

  “I see it.”

  Jack turned.

  “On your left. Number 256.”

  The tears wouldn’t stop. At the same time, the hair on her neck stood up. It was as if she knew with certainty that they drove to their death. Jack parked the car and before he came to a complete stop, Kasey jumped out and ran around it and across the street. She saw the blurry outline of the parked cars. Her mom’s white Toyota was there. She rang the bell at the same time she opened the front door. It was unlocked.

  “Mom? Mom!”

  She heard the TV in the living room. A newscaster reported on something she couldn’t understand.

  “Mom, where are you?”

  She went around the dining room table and toward the kitchen. Her mom’s foot was visible on the floor behind the doorframe.

  “Mom?”

  Part of her was aware of Jack coming into the apartment behind her as she turned the corner into the kitchen. Her mom lay on her back, her head pushed up against one of the cabinets. There were deep cuts on both her forearms above the wrists. A small razor blade swam in the pool of blood that extended under the center island. Jack was there suddenly, pushing forward past Kasey, who was paralyzed. She couldn’t get air into her lungs. He touched her mom’s neck, searched for a pulse.

  “Your phone. Give me your phone! Kasey!”

  She saw his face, the sorrow in his expression. She handed him the phone. An involuntary move. He dialed, spoke into it. She couldn’t understand what he said. And then the air came. And with it came the scream. It was hoarse and raw and shrieking. Then there were arms. Jack’s arms. Holding her. She couldn’t resist him. All she could do was stand there until the air was gone again. Jack held her face, spoke words she couldn’t hear. Then the air returned. And the scream.

  She knelt down next to her mother’s body, in the midst of the pool of blood. She touched her face, then her forearms. She put her hands over the cuts. Maybe she could stop the bleeding. But her mother’s eyes, open and fixed toward the ceiling, told her that it was too late.
Jack pulled her up and led her away and into the dining room. There he held her, rocking her gently back and forth. His embrace was gentle and firm. One last time she screamed but she already felt the dizziness and suddenly the floor beneath her gave way and she sank into merciful darkness.

  She came to, lying on the floor looking up at Jack.

  “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” he repeated over and over.

  For no good reason, she remembered that day on the beach ten years ago, when a stranger whispered the very same words to her.

  When the doorbell rang, Jack got up. “I’ll be right back,” he said and opened it. Two EMT’s came in.

  “In the kitchen,” Jack told them.

  They nodded while carrying the gurney past them.

  “How long has she been lying there?” one of them asked from inside the kitchen.

  “We came in about ten minutes ago and we spoke to her about five minutes before that, so maybe fifteen minutes,” Jack answered.

  “Did you touch her, move her in any way?”

  “No. Yes. Kasey touched her mom’s arms to try to stop the bleeding but I think she was already… gone.”

  There was a knock on the door.

  “It’s open,” Jack said.

  Two police officers entered.

  “Suffolk County Police Department,” the woman said. “I’m Officer Carpenter and this is Officer Mills.”

  Officer Mills went straight into the kitchen and spoke to the EMT’s.

  “Are any of you hurt?” Officer Carpenter asked. She was around thirty, maybe thirty-five, blond, and blue-eyed. Kasey noticed that her nose must have been broken at one point.

  “I’m fine and my girlfriend fainted but otherwise we’re okay,” Jack replied.

  “What happened?” Carpenter asked.

  “Do you mind if I look around?” Mills said. He was in his mid-fifties, short, gray hair and rimless glasses.

  Kasey nodded a yes.

  “Was this your mom?” Carpenter asked. Her voice was soft and calming.

  “Yes.”

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  “We spoke to her… on our way here,” Kasey’s voice was hoarse and she had to swallow several times. “We spoke to her about five minutes before we arrived. And when we got here, we found her.”