thinking we could set up a ladder.” “It has to be at least a hundred fifty feet from that parking lot to the roof. I’m assuming that’s what you mean?” I asked.
“That’s what I’m talking about, but as for the ladder I’m thinking on a grander scale.”
“A fire truck!” BT blurted out.
“How far do those extend?” Tracy asked.
“A hundred feet?” I threw out there.
“I think some of the bigger ladder trucks can get to about a hundred twenty feet,” Jack said. “I used to work in the motor pool and I’ve done some maintenance on emergency vehicles.” “That’s still a hell of a gap,” I said, “Let’s hope my math is off.”
Our impromptu meeting adjourned, we chose sticks for the order of guard duty. I got the fourth shortest which put me at just about the worst spot. Late enough that I’d be well into my REM sleep when I got interrupted, then I’d do my duty and not have enough time left over before we got going in the morning to make going back to sleep worthwhile. Great, I got to look forward to an entire day of having heavy lidded eyes. My head had just hit my couch cushion when I was shaken awake. Jack’s face was unfamiliar and the darkness from the room made my heart skip a beat; I instinctively reached for my sidearm.
“Friendly, Mike, friendly!” Jack said, putting his hands up. “It’s your turn for watch.”
The shading of his face gave him the appearance of a wraith. I stared long and hard before the image of a floating skull dissipated and I was once again able to reconcile the parts of his face into a known entity. “Scared me,” I told him, releasing the grip on my pistol.
“Yeah well, you did a number on me too. You Marines always so jumpy?”
I dragged my hand across my eyes. “Get some sleep,” I said as I sat up. I shivered as Jack retreated into the shadows of the far corner of the room. I could not shake the feeling I had just seen a dead man.
I was in the midst of a very uneventful guard watch when I first heard the shuffling noise. It was so faint I thought I might be imagining it. It could have been a rat or even one of our party with a particularly nasty itch. That was, of course, until I saw a shadow play under the door to the apartment. Something was out there. Now the true question, was it alive or dead? There was no peep hole through which to look, and if somehow Sir Licks A Lot had made the journey I might have finally slipped over the edge I was holding onto so precariously.
I was standing no further than a foot from the door, stuck in a thought loop. Open the door, confront our guest whether friend or foe, or sit and wait and see if they tried to enter. Whoever it was had stones the size of Mount Rushmore and they weren’t zombies. I watched as they turned the door knob which spun freely, but when they pushed up against the door the dead bolt held fast. I gripped my rifle tight, wondering if I should just pop a few rounds through the door. There was no way I was missing from this range.
“Michael,” came a voice through the door. It was low and throaty and downright terrifying. Cold sweat broke out across my entire body. It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.
This wasn’t happening, Jack hadn’t really yet awakened me for my shift. “I’m dreaming,” I said aloud. But I wasn’t, I remember what I had been dreaming. Travis and I had been playing the Wii, Mariokart to be specific, and I had been winning so I had KNOWN that it was a dream.
“Michael, I know you’re there. I can hear you.” The voice, definitely female, came through the door and drilled me in the heart.
“I’m not here,” I mouthed.
“Open the door, invite me in.”
My hand was working on its own volition. I slowly brought it up and it was now resting gently on the dead bolt. I turned the lock, the resounding click disengaging the mechanism.
“Dad?” Justin asked as he came up behind me. “What are you doing?”
As I was about to turn to look at my son, the shadow under the door vanished. “Am I sleeping?” I asked him in all seriousness.
“Well if you are, so am I,” he said smiling. “Dad,” he noted with concern. “It can’t be more than 50 degrees in here and you’re covered in sweat. You getting sick?” “I think I might be,” I told him as I walked away from the door.
Justin passed by me to reengage the lock, a quizzical look on his face.
“What are you doing up?” I asked him at the end of the short entryway.
“Woke up a couple of minutes ago. I was having a bad dream that Eliza found us. She wanted me to invite her in. You alright? You’re looking a little pale.” “It was just a dream,” I told him with absolutely no conviction, and he saw it for the falsehood that it was, just empty words.
“Who was at the door?” he asked uneasily.
“Avon, I think.” I just spit it out; it was my way of diffusing the terror. “Sorry,” I said when I saw his frustration. “I’m not sure if anyone was there,” I told him in all truth.
“But there might have been?” he questioned further.
“Maybe,” I said, licking my lips.
“Was it…?” he asked the unimaginable.
“You should go back to sleep,” I told him. Of course I didn’t sleep another minute the rest of the night, wondering if I had just come that close to the end of my mortality.
The morning brought a bustle of activity as we planned our strategy. Everything came to a halt when Jack opened the door.
“Someone is messing with us,” he scowled as he held my note up. Someone had scrawled “Death Awaits” in a suspiciously red-colored medium, with the added effects of drips and all. “Anybody hear anything?” he asked the room.
Justin and I gave each other a quick knowing glance which fortunately went wholly unnoticed. What was I going to say? “Yeah, this vampire chick who wants to kill me and everyone I know was at the door last night and wanted in. Funny thing is I almost let her.” That probably wouldn’t go over so well.
