Chapter 5
Another night of fleeing led to another disheartening sight once the sun broke the mountain tops. When I escaped the scab camp, I didn’t know where I was, but I wished I had stayed lost for one more day.
Waves of nostalgia pressed me to the ground, and memories of a family trip slammed me hard.
Our parents never traveled, it was too expensive, and mom was sick all the time. Our grandparents were different. Sometimes, when school was out, they would bring us on vacation. Separated by a day’s run from where I found Andy, a weathered sign pulled me towards a place I never thought I’d visit again.
“Welcome to Lake Placid. Site of the 1932 & 1980 Olympic Winter Games.”
The birds raised their voices in chorus and turned the valley into a concert hall. Sharp screeches from above, deep caws on the treetops, high-pitched whistles, and twangs that bounced off the surrounding forest like vibrating forks. Songs that the town’s noise typically drowned out carried through the basin free of interference. Voices only bird watchers could distinguish at one time.
Unfortunately, I was the only audience member, and the beast hordes ravaged the auditorium. They wiped out most villages, especially those in the mountains, but walking through debris was like scanning the aftermath of a nuclear bomb.
I kicked a pile of bluestone bricks from the rubble of a storefront and pulled a stuffed moose from the ground. The thought of seeing the largest North American mammal excited Lia and me when we came here as children. Grandpa didn’t share our enthusiasm. We didn’t understand how big moose were back then. They were cute in the stores.
I wish I remembered what happened to the moose toys they bought us.
After dusting the doll off, I clipped it to my waistband and pressed on. The beasts leveled the tightly packed alpine shops and restaurants made from logs and stone, and they buckled the narrow street from the weight of their stampedes. The lamp posts decorated with wreaths and spiraling white lights along the cobblestone sidewalk laid flattened to the ground, bent at the base.
Twelve years passed since we came to Lake Placid during winter break. Grandpa rented a cabin for a week, where we woke to the aroma of Grandma’s chocolate chip pancakes and Grandpa’s coffee every morning. Wood crackled and popped in the woodstove throughout the night, and deer horns cast shadows on the walls.
It was probably the best week of my life.
There were hundreds of crushed cabins around me, but that cabin seemed so unique. Grandma and Grandpa took the largest room downstairs, and although there were two more bedrooms, we refused to sleep anywhere but the second-floor loft.
As captains of a pirate ship, Lia and I looked down at our deck and scanned the walls for bounty while our crew of Grandma and Grandpa maintained the vessel. Every night we played with the karaoke set Grandma gave us before bed until we got so tired we passed out. Grandpa yelled for us to be quiet, but we laughed cause we knew he wasn’t mad.
Grandpa loved listening to us. Each time we visited their house, Lia and I would watch musicals at their home. Grandma was a music teacher and wanted us to sing and learn different instruments. Grandpa played the piano for us, and I learned how to pantomime. Lia was a better singer. She said that wasn’t true, but I think everyone thought she was. She excelled at everything.
She recognized her talents more than anyone else, so she didn’t join me when I took a free ballet lesson. Lia didn’t want to ruin it for me. The classes were too expensive, anyway. Grandma and Grandpa offered to pay, but mom wouldn’t let them, saying we needed to focus on our studies.
My stomach sank when she told me that; I wanted to shine on stage. But she was probably right. Still, when we were with Grandma and Grandpa, we sang and danced as much as we wanted.
I continued through the wreckage, and my attention turned towards the lake in the center of town. Unlike the postcards, the lake only appeared blue when waves from the dusty wind crested. The water looked deep, like the lair of some monster. Perhaps some fish or giant turtle burrowed down below.
The thought of filling my canteen crossed my mind, but I decided against it. My canteen was half empty, but I didn’t want to mix the sweet-tasting brook with the fishy-smelling lake. The brook tasted just like the cabin’s tap.
On our first morning there, Grandpa raved about how good the water made his coffee and laughed at our tangled hair. Outside the big window in the living room, the snow fell so hard we could barely see, and Grandma served pancakes covered in local syrup, which had a smoky flavor.
Grandma made pancakes thin and crispy cause she said they were better when they crunched a little. Grandpa always complained about that, and they would get into an argument, but it was nothing like our parents arguing. Grandma and Grandpa used to laugh when they fought. They accepted there was no hope in changing after being married for so long. Their bickering and name-calling was always fun to witness.
Whenever we were with Grandma and Grandpa, we didn’t want to leave. They spoiled us too much.
When the snow turned to flurries, Grandpa took us outside to make a snowman. We put on our snowsuits, boots, hats, and gloves—bundled so tight we felt like we’d burn alive when we were inside—and followed him next to the lamp post in front of the cabin. It wasn’t a giant snowman, and we shaped his head all wrong, but that was the only snowman we ever made.
I kicked through the rubble and lifted signs from the street: Episcopal church, Gap, Eastern Mountain Sports, ADK, and Crepes By the Lake. The wooden awnings that once hung over the doorways were nothing more than tinder. There wasn’t a great deal in the remnants, but I found a large, rugged green hiking pack, fishing line, hooks, and a firestarter flint. Survivors and scabs scoured the village and stripped everything bare.
Not that there’d be much, anyway. Mountain villages and small towns fell apart after the fourth breach. Shop owners would have packed their belongings and traveled to the larger cities. The town was empty before the fifth breach destroyed the world.
I recognized a few of the hand-painted shop signs that once hung by chains above the glass storefronts. Grandma and Grandpa browsed the main strip every afternoon during our stay.
After dinner, we went to the outdoor skating rink, and Grandma taught us how to ice skate. We fell a lot, and Grandpa kept laughing, but he didn’t dare leave the red barrier wall to come on the ice. The falls never hurt, and the snow flurries continued the whole time. White lights and snow turned the night sky thick and gray; it never let up.
We stayed five nights in that cabin, leaving on December 27th. Two days later, mom went to the emergency room. Doctors said she had a seizure while driving, which caused her accident. After three weeks on a hospital bed, she had a massive heart attack and died in the night.
Grandma and Grandpa fell apart. Following four miscarriages, Grandma finally gave birth to Mom. They never had another child. Lia and I didn’t see them for two-and-a-half years, only talking over the phone once a week. I’ll never know for sure, but I think looking at us hurt. Grandma and Grandpa said we could have passed for triplets if we were born 34 years earlier.
My body still sinks when I picture everyone’s faces. Mom only waking from her coma once, crying and pleading with God to let her live. Grandma’s frozen face in her casket, painted like a clown by the mortician with a fake smile. Grandpa staring out at nothing on his rocking chair when we checked on him, a wool blanket covering his lap. Father’s last goodbye at the bus stop before disappearing, and Lia’s screaming face while they held her to the ground. Everyone I ever cared about went away.
Seeing what happened to the village was heart-wrenching. Restaurants with enormous fireplaces and bars that hosted local bands became rubble. Hotels, cabins, and cottages that sparkled with dancing string lights were nothing more than splintered wood. The beasts twisted the ski jump towers and wrecked the Olympic village beyond recognition.
Animals marched on the cities by the tens of thousands and destroyed everything humans created.
We didn’t understand how great things were at that age. The age when parents shielded their children from the ugly parts of the world and made it as bright as their wallets allowed. It didn’t take long for society to snuff out the stars and shatter the rainbows.
Still, those memories will never fade, and although the town sat in ruins, the scenic buildings would always hold a place in my heart. I couldn’t talk to Lia, I couldn’t see her, and I couldn’t touch her, but I knew she was with me.
Amy and Lia, Amelia. We were two parts of a whole, a hospital surprise when my mother only prepared one name. Like an amputee, Lia was my phantom limb.
The sun dipped behind the mountain forests in a purple blaze, and mist formed over the lake before spreading outwards. The temperature fell, and droplets clung to me like morning dew. Something was wrong, I didn’t know what it was, but the mist didn’t feel empty. Like something lived inside, and it advanced through the town like fingers wrapping around their prey.
I quickened my pace and searched for the road, but the light faded, and I became disorientated in the rubble. Someone panted next to my ears, and whispers trapped me in a fence. I wanted to shout, to scare whatever circled me, but nothing left my mouth.
A gust of mist pushed me to the ground, cutting my knees and palms. My chest tightened, and I held my breath; my body turned cold. Every whisper blared in my ears like a siren. Every movement in the air raked across my skin like claws. Fast, then slow. Time flowed in a series of spurts, and once the trembling in my legs came under control, I shot off like a sprinter.
Red bricks, wooden walls, and metal posts—I fell over them all. The list of injuries grew, but I never turned around and climbed through the shattered town until I found a place to hide.
The stone foundation to a shop on a hill remained intact, and the leftovers of a roof leaned on top. I dove in without caring about any occupants and kicked the beam propping the ceiling until a part of it collapsed. A rotten wood door to a cellar gave way, and I fell in.
Passing through walls like they didn’t exist, the damp air filled the room with whispers. Names, places, and thoughts traveled through the currents, then abruptly stopped. Footsteps, or what sounded like footsteps, crept in my direction.
The mist lifted, but not because the sun burned it off; it lifted unnaturally. Something pulled the fog up and pressed hot air down in a rhythmic pattern—a pattern like breathing. The foul scent of compost and rotten flesh filled the room. Then it began.
Dust fell from the floor above as the vibrations from the snore-like snarl pulsed through the shop, and shelves packed with glass jars crashed down and cut my legs. Whatever the creature in the mist was, it found me, and it wasn’t leaving.
I figured I might tell a story in the comments occasionally. It’s an unused area, so I might as well.
Lake Placid really is an amazing place, especially in the winter. I went there once near Christmas, and it was nonstop snow for an entire weekend, but it wasn’t heavy snow. Just 3-4 inches accumulation each day. The town was lit up with holiday decorations, and the scent of firewood filled the air. Every shop had Christmas ornaments for sale no matter what the shop was. And a restaurant I went to had terrific steak.
I went to a pub and had a few drinks and listened to a local group sing, though I can’t recall what they sang. The interesting part was the violinist opposed to the heavy rock voice.
Of all the times I went there, I never did see a moose, but the forest in the area can be eerily quiet at times in the summer. I’m not sure how to explain it, but if you’ve ever gone camping, you will hear certain things around you. Insects, owls, mice hopping from hole to hole. But at times, all noise stopped, and it would instantly make you shiver. I never saw anything, but I swear, I was too afraid to leave the tent at times. Afraid I’d step out to go to the bathroom and find myself with a person, or even a group of people staring back towards me. Just watching, waiting for me to do something. To this day I don’t think I’ve ever felt like I was being watched quite as hard when I camped there.
Unused. No way.
@Assurbanipal_II After chapter 4, no more comments. Pretty unused.
@UYScuti So pessimistic, cheer up a little bit.
@Assurbanipal_II Oh, umm... I typed that with the most optimistic of typing.
@UYScuti More me it was the blunt merciless analysis from someone out of the scientific community.
Your observations are correct.
@Assurbanipal_II An engineer would tell me about how the roof leaked and offer to fix it with the latest of space age materials.
@UYScuti I would lend you some buckets for the time being.
@Assurbanipal_II And then leave.
@UYScuti
@Assurbanipal_II I’m saying, you’d give me buckets and leave. Whistle on your journey as you walk home with your umbrella. Leaving me to fend for myself against those damnable engineers.
@UYScuti You really don't like engineers. Maybe they are more fancy across the big pond. Here they usually provide technical solutions and not the latest expensive space tech.
@Assurbanipal_II I have never met a normal engineer ? Everywhere they go they just need to analyze the integrity of something, or smugly tell you how they would make it better. Even the dumbest things. They’d make the best chicken salad sandwich because they would engineer the perfect tools for plucking etc etc. It just never ends with them. I’m glad I left the 5/3 engineering program I was in and switched to physics.
@UYScuti But ... But ... But it will be the perfectest chicken salad sandwich.
@Assurbanipal_II ? only took two years and three dozen prototypes.
@UYScuti It just took us 125 million of investment capital. Seems like a good deal.
@Assurbanipal_II Just add it to NASA’s budget. They have plenty of engineers over there making chicken salad sandwiches.
@UYScuti Do you speak from experience?
@Assurbanipal_II ? haha haha haha, what? No, I never went to NASA, but I’ve gone to quite a few nuclear power plants, and when I left my government job, I worked for a company that engineered the equipment for nuclear detection. I’ve been around them all my life.
@UYScuti I see. Nuclear science sounds like fun.
@Assurbanipal_II It is. We worked on stuff from Japan when Fukushima happened. Our lab helped develop federal emergency response protocols. We did some good research. Presented at conferences. Scientific conferences are more fun than people think ? The last one I went to was held at a hotel/casino. Lots of hungover scientists giving presentations. It was glorious. Thankfully mine was the day before.
@UYScuti I guess the mood was bombastic.
@Assurbanipal_II keep that between us.