The Quiet

He let his eyes stare at the picture until it blurred into fuzzy colors. The cracks in the linoleum tiles blurred as his vision obscured. They started to line up with something. Then it was clear. The lines intersected completely with the tiles on the floor in front of him. They had the same pattern. The exact same pattern. Just beyond the reach of the severed hand in the picture were the blurry blue sides of the shelf that sat against the wall right in front of James. Realizing this, his heart jumped in his chest and he had to sit down.

James was sure he was going to be the next person to be photographed. His limbs were stiff and his resolve was diminishing. He needed to try and escape but he couldn’t find the strength to even move. He felt the pictures slip from his hand as he leaned back against the wall.

The padlock outside the door clicked and the door swung open. James clung to the cot and raised his arms to protect himself from whatever would come next. Mr. Flannigan stood in the doorway. He entered the room and leaned down as though James were a wild animal he was trying to calm.

“It’s okay, Mr. Benton, we’re not gonna hurt ya. We had to be sure ya weren’t one o’ them.”

Mr. Flannigan reached out to put his hand on James’s shoulder. James jerked, backing farther away and pushing himself even more against the wall.

“What did you do to them?” James screamed.

Mr. Flannigan’s shoulders seemed to deflate. “Awe, no, Mr. Benton, we didn’t do anything to them there poor souls. Some of those folks was friends o’ mine, family. It was them, Mr. Benton. The ones who make the sky turn black, the ones who’re killin’ everything.”

A chill run down James’s back. He looked at the old man before him with reservation.

“’Who are they? And how’d you know I wasn’t one of them?”

Flannigan seemed to age 20 years as he looked at James with sad eyes. “Don’t know, Mr. Benton… but…” He looked down at the floor, then said, “They ain’t human. Doc Barnes can attest to that. And I knew ya wasn’t one o’ them ’cause last one we showed them there photographs to looked right through ’em like they was blank pieces o’ paper. No sign o’ ee-motion at-all. Then the first doggone chance he got when we tried to feed him, he ripped my brother Darrell apart.”

James sat up with a shock. He knew then who was in that last picture. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Flannigan.” The old man nodded, his head still facing the floor.

“Me too, Mr. Benton.”

“Please, sir, call me James.”

“Well, James, you won’t feel quite so tender when you hear the rest. I, for one, know you’re not one o’ them. But Doc Barnes, Joey Torrence, Pastor Williams, frankly a lot of the town folks, won’t wanna go offa just this ol’ man’s whim.”

“What? Wait a minute! Can’t the doctor just look me over?” James jumped to his feet and several things happened all at once. Flannigan jumped back in reaction, Barger seemed to come from nowhere, a wild look in his eyes, and swung the butt of his rifle, connecting it with James’s shoulder. James fell to the floor and both Barger and Flannigan Jr. dragged the elder Mr. Flannigan out the door and slammed it shut, leaving James alone in the room, the air knocked from his lungs. He tried to get up, but a weighted sharp pain in his shoulder prevented him from doing so. He let out a scream. Mr. Flannigan’s voice came muffled through the crack under the door, “I’m sorry, James, even if Doc Barnes could give you a look over, we’d first have to get him to come in that room with you and we can’t do that. He’s our doctor. None o’ them’ll risk losin’ him.” James bit his tongue to try and quell the pain.

He kept expecting them to come back through the door and help him, but they never came. Unable to get up, he had no choice but to lay there. He found if he didn’t breathe too deeply, he could get some semblance of comfort. At this stage, comfort was being in pain that wasn’t completely excruciating. Eventually, he fell asleep. Those yellow eyes were waiting for him. They cast that yellow glow over him as he lay on a hospital operating table.

“Make way the path of righteousness, Brother Benton, and we will come,” a voice said in his head. He felt the presence of others coming closer, all around the table. That sound of growling metal rose as pairs of yellow eyes began to glow in a circle around him. Their bodies became even harder to see as the glow made everything else in the room darker.

James tried to move, but his shoulder became the center of all pain. He pushed through it and was able to lift his torso about an inch from the table when immense pressure like several hands against his chest held him down. He looked down at his chest and saw only darkness.

When he looked back up at those yellow eyes, they were closer than they had been and moving in. The glow enveloped him and he felt a change within himself. Inside the glow, everything made sense. He had to make way the path. He had to kill them. It was the right thing to do. They were in his Father’s house. He would make way the path. He saw a vision then. He was strong, pulling them apart, one at a time, his eyes glowing yellow. He wanted so much for it to happen.

They told him then in his head, without using any words, what would happen. His body would change, he would put on incorruption. A mortal now, he would put on immortality and swallow death in victory. Why was that familiar? In his head they told him it was familiar because it was truth. But he knew they were lying. And just like that, they were gone and he was awake, his eyes fluttering open.

It was the most hellish pain James had ever endured, but he made himself get up from the floor. Then he sat down on the cot and stared at the wall. It was a bible verse. He remembered it from his days in the church. First Corinthians 15… 50-something. He couldn’t remember exactly which verse, but he remembered the words.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

He didn’t completely understand what was going on, but he was pretty sure the yellow-eyed bastards in his dream were the ones responsible for everything. They were making way the path, but to what? Righteousness. What was righteousness? Cleanliness. What were they cleansing?

Us, they’re cleansing us, goddamnit!

James pulled himself up to his feet too quickly and the stabbing pain nearly knocked him back on the floor. He pushed with everything inside himself until he was leaning against the door. With his good arm, he beat on the door. “Open the door! I think I know, I know what they’re doing!” Voices grumbled at each other from the other side of the door. “I think I know what they want!” The grumbling became louder and then abruptly stopped. A good while passed and then he heard the now familiar click of the padlock.

He had to pull himself away from the door, but he managed. A man James had never seen before, dressed in scrubs, eased inside, Barger and Flannigan Jr. at each side of him.

“You’ve got five minutes.”

James told them about the dreams and about the bible verse and how it snapped him out of that glowing lunacy. He told them about the change he saw, about all they had “told” him. He had seen the change in his mind. It started like a seed, this alien presence inside you. Then it grew, replacing organs one at a time until, finally, it reached the brain.

“You mean they were human after all?” Flannigan Jr. asked. Before James could answer, the man he assumed was Doc Barnes leaned his head toward Jr. and spoke.

“Possibly. I still don’t trust him.” Then he looked back at James, “How do I know you aren’t one of them just telling us what we want to hear, eh Mr. Benton?”

“I’m pretty sure you already know the answer to that one.”

“A blood test would do it, just fine, but I’m not getting any closer to you, no sir.”

“Fine, give me the needle, you can watch from the goddamned camera for all I care. Just let me prove I’m still human!” To James’s surprise, Doc Barnes not only agreed, but decided to watch from the open door. He wanted to “see the blood with his own eyes,” to make sure. Lucky for James he wasn’t as squeamish as most people when getting his blood drawn. With Barger and Flannigan Jr. standing over James, rifles pointed at his head, Doc Barnes slid the medical case across the floor, his body mostly hidden behind the door.  With some minor instructions from the good doctor, James was able to fill the vial easy as pie. By that point, he was willing to do just about anything to get out of that room.

Doc Barnes took the medical kit and slipped out of the room. Barger and Flannigan backed away slowly and closed the door, leaving James alone. Then the lock clicked into place. James laid down on the cot and waited.

A while later there was a commotion outside. Barger and Junior were grunting just outside the room. The