“That.” Tucker pointed.
“What? What am I looking at?”
He lowered his hand. “It was there. It’s gone.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know.” Tucker moved toward that door. “I’m gonna find out. I saw a demon.”
Rey snorted a laugh. “I’m sorry, a demon?”
“Okay not a demon, but I swear it was a red eye like some horror movie,” Tucker said.
“Maybe it was your light reflecting off of something.”
“Maybe,” Tucker said. “I’m going to find out.”
“Tucker. Rey,” Finch called out.
Tucker was already on heightened nerves and Finch’s call just made him jump again.
“What the hell is the matter with you?” Rey asked.
“I wasn’t expecting him to call our names.” Tucker looked to the front of the restaurant. Finch stood there.
“You guys alright?” Finch asked.
Rey answered, “Yeah, we’re fine. Tucker saw a demon.”
“Tucker saw a what?” Finch asked.
“Oh, stop,” Tucker said. “I just saw something weird.”
“The buggy is ready to go.” Finch pointed back. “It’s getting late so if we want to find that farm, we need to get a move on.”
“Commander?” Tucker walked toward him. “Can we not?”
“I’m sorry.” Finch titled his head. “You spotted the farm. You were the one that told us about it. Why are we not looking for it?”
“We will,” Tucker explained. “It just that…it’s getting late. When we find the farm, we’ll find the farmer, hopefully. We need more time than just to say howdy and turn back here to the ship. Let’s make camp. I think not only would we do better finding the farm when we have a whole day ahead of us, but we need to check out this town.”
“He’s right,” Rey said.
“What’s going on?” Finch asked.
Tucker shook his head. “I don’t know. But something. We have an empty town. Very few cars. No damage other than what the passing of time would do. So no natural disasters here. There are bullet holes in here. A shoot-out in a pizza place. Food is still everywhere. It doesn’t make sense. This is just one place. There are a lot more buildings just around here to check out. I think if we’re piecing together what happened to Earth between Earth Zero and Earth-175, we need to examine what happened in his town.”
“Show him what you found,” Rey said.
Tucker reached into his shoulder bag and pulled out one of the bracelets. “Buried in the dust on the floor behind the table. A table, mind you, set up as a shield from bullets.”
“A fitness bracelet?” Finch examined it.
“Strange, isn’t it?” Tucker asked.
“It is.” Finch returned it. “Alright, we’ll set up camp and do some exploring. It’s not like we’re in a rush.”
“Thank you,” said Tucker.
Finch nodded his acknowledgement and turned. He paused and looked back. “Are you two coming to help set up camp?”
Rey glanced up to Tucker. “Did you want to check out the demon thing first?”
Tucker looked behind him to the door. “Nah, we can come back and see. Let’s help set up camp.”
The three of them left the pizza shop, but not before Tucker looked back at that door just one more time.
EIGHTEEN
Something about Tucker’s sudden switch from carefree to concerned put Finch on high alert. Tucker was an intelligent man with what Finch believed was a lot of common sense. When he suddenly stopped sightseeing, Finch felt Tucker had a gut instinct about something. He wasn’t mentioning anything, but it was there. Finch took no chances.
Unlike when they landed on Earth-175, Finch set up security measures before they left to explore. Placing the security poles in four points around the ship, Finch initiated the electric perimeter and alarm.
He’d leave it up all night while they slept too.
Even though the town seemed dead and not a soul was around, that wasn’t to say there weren’t animals.
Rules were set.
They went into the same area together. They could check buildings in teams.
No one said anything to Finch at first, they just did what was told until he gave his talk before going out.
“We will take one buggy, slow moving,” Finch said. “Tucker and Sam, I want you on point. I’ll follow behind, Nate and Rey in the buggy.” He checked the clip in his pistol.
“Um, Finch?” Nate asked. “What gives?”
“I’m sorry,” Finch replied. “What do you mean?”
“Well, no one is around. It’s almost as if you’re expecting us to be ambushed.”
“He’s being proactive,” Rey said. “It’s very strange around here and it’s not like where we were before. We didn’t know it was inhabited. This is Earth not long after things really fell apart, so there could be people around.”
Sam added, “There’s a farm. So we know there is someone.”
“I think it’s smart,” Tucker said. “Something doesn’t feel right around here. I don’t know what it is.”
“Demons,” Sam said. “Demons with red eyes.”
Tucker shot a glance to Rey. “Did you say something to him?”
“Not making fun, I swear.” Rey held up her hand. “I was telling him. That’s all.”
“Well, I saw something. It was there one second, the next it was gone,” Tucker said.
Nate suggested, “Maybe your flashlight reflected off an animal’s eyes.”
“Big animal,” Tucker replied.
“It could have been a racoon on a shelf or something,” Nate said.
Tucker nodded. “You know what? That actually sounds plausible.”
“In any event,” Finch said, “we roll out as a team, staying close. We can hit these stores in the strip mall when we get back.” He pointed. “Right now, let’s cross that road and check out those houses. I saw them when we flew over.”
“What are we looking for?” Sam asked.
“Anything and everything,” Finch replied. “There has to be a paper trail. A time stamp of events. Something.”
“Junk drawers,” Rey said. “Almost every kitchen has a junk drawer. Look there, behind the fridge, places mail could end up.”
Tucker shook his head. “There is no mail. I mean, there is and isn’t. The post office was no more when I was thirteen. There are independent letter companies, or were, but not like when you guys were on Earth.”
“Aw,” Nate said. “My friend was a mail carrier.”
Tucker shrugged. “It wasn’t
