Eleven.

Tracy and Emily were in our quarters, already in bed, and I was downstairs in the living room thinking how easily Emily was adapting to our new life here, and how I was going to get Tracy out of her depression over losing Eric, when Wesley called me over.

"What's up?" I walked over to the radio room, rifle slung over my shoulder nonchalantly.

Wesley's features were grave. "Come here. Listen."

The radio equipment was on, and as I stepped into the room I heard, amid the hum of static, a human voice. "...so wherever you are, please...if you hear this, do whatever you can to seek shelter..."

"What the-?" I began.

Wesley held up a hand, motioning me to silence. We sat and stood in that radio room transfixed by what we were hearing.

"-I've seen this thing and it is exactly...no it is the thing they've been drawing ever since the world changed. It's an actual being! It's f.u.c.king real, man, and this... thing...this demon...it's awake now and its always been with us, it was just sleeping, lying dormant for thousands of years because those who once believed in it and worshipped it eventually died out and it was their belief in it that sustained it, that kept it alive, but when they died it died and now they're back, they're back with a vengeance and there's more of them so now it's stronger, much stronger than ever before and it's roaming the earth, gathering all its worshippers under its power and those of us it finds it...it...ah, s.h.i.t man, I don't know how else to describe it but...it...it possesses them! It's like it gets inside them and turns them into things that are even worse than the cavemen! And the cavemen f.u.c.king bow before it and-"

"Am I hearing this right, Wesley?" I asked. I suddenly felt weak. I slid the rifle from my shoulder and leaned it against the wall, stock down. "Please tell me this is a joke."

"No joke," Wesley said. I've never seen him look so scared since this whole mess started.

If I thought the end of the world started that day when everything started falling apart, when society went awry, I was wrong. As terrible as that had been, as awful as it was to fight to stay alive, to endure what we did in fighting the primitives, escaping Los Angeles, coming across more bands of primitives and fighting them off, dealing with Heather's closet racism and her and James's deaths, coming here to this secluded cabin seemed like a glimmer of hope. There was light at the end of the tunnel and we were heading toward it.

Now that light was growing dim.

It was being closed off.

The guy on the radio was crying now. "I've been holed up in this s.h.i.thole for three days without food and I haven't seen a single real person in over a month! The primitives have found me and they've been gathering outside and...I don't think they know about my radio equipment, otherwise I think they would have smashed it, but I had to take the risk, had to see if I could contact anybody else alive and normal and warn them and-"

"There's no way he can tell where we are, right?" I asked Wesley, feeling the unease grip the pit of my stomach.

"No," Wesley said. "Only way ham radio operators can tell the location of those receiving is if you answer back with your call sign prefix. I haven't heard this guy give his, and I'm guessing he has no idea what it is. Those days are long over."

The guy stopped talking and was crying on the air now.

"So you don't know where he is?" I asked.

"No."

"Can you respond to him?"

Wesley looked at me. "Think we should?"

"Yeah." The burning need to reach out to this guy, to establish more human contact, was strong. I think Wesley felt it too. "Just don't give away our location."

Wesley nodded, leaned toward the console, picked up the microphone and depressed the b.u.t.ton. "I read you, partner," he said. "I read you loud and clear."

The sobs stopped abruptly. The guy had obviously heard Wesley.

Wesley tried again. "Please...we're here...talk to us..."

"Oh my G.o.d, there's somebody out there?" the guy said. He sounded halfway on the verge of shouting in joy.

"We're out here alright, buddy. You can count on that."

The guy started babbling again. "Have you seen it? I don't know where you are, but if you've seen it please-"

I signaled for Wesley to make sure the guy couldn't hear us talking. Wesley nodded, and I whispered. "I'm going to wake up Tracy and get Lori and Martin down here."

Wesley nodded and I headed out of the radio room.

Lori and Martin were still up in their respective rooms. When I told them the news, they headed downstairs as I went to my suite and gently shook Tracy awake. "Wesley came across a guy broadcasting on the radio," I said quietly. "We're talking to him now."

At the sound of this, Tracy was up. She was dressed in a pair of panties and a T-shirt and followed me out of our suite to the stairs. "How'd he find him?"

I quickly explained what I knew and by the time we got back down to the radio room Lori and Martin were grouped around the console, listening with grave expressions as the guy went through his previous monologue. "-this thing f.u.c.king flies, okay! It's got wings, and it flies. I am not s.h.i.tting you man, I've seen it with my own eyes!"

I saw Lori and Tracy exchange a glance as we entered the room. For the first time I noticed that Martin had his handgun with him.

"How often have you seen it?" Wesley asked.

"For the past...I don't know...two, maybe three weeks."

"Where do you see it?"

"Outside, man! It's f.u.c.king outside, in the...generally in the hours between seven and nine at night."

"And it doesn't see you?"

"No. At least I don't think it does. It's always far away. At least a good mile, maybe two miles."

"So how do you know it looks like the drawings we see everywhere if it's that far?"

"Because it f.u.c.king turns its head my way and I can see it!" It sounded like the guy, whoever he was, was beginning to get a little irritated by the questioning. "I know it sounds crazy man, but this thing is big, okay? I mean, big big. Like bigger than a f.u.c.king jet. I've been watching it through binoculars, through my telescope, and it's far enough away that it doesn't see or sense me, but I can see it clear as day and it's f.u.c.king monstrous!"

"Which way is it going when you see it?" Martin asked.

"It's flying north to south in a zigzagging direction heading west," the man said.

Wesley glanced at the rest of us quickly and turned back to the console. "The rest of our group is here now," he said. "You've already met Martin, Lori, and myself. I'd like you to meet David and Tracy."

For a minute I was stunned that Wesley had identified himself to the guy-why do something like that? As I was trying to shake myself out of that shock, Tracy mumbled a quick h.e.l.lo. I think the guy said hi to her, then I heard him identify himself. "My name's Stuart. Stuart David Schiff. My call sign's WB3SDS. What's yours?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that Stuart because I don't know," Wesley said calmly. "We just kinda came across the equipment we're talking to you on and I taught myself the ropes. I'm not sure of the previous owner's call sign."

"That's okay," Stuart said. "Can you tell me where you are?"

"Can't do that either, partner," Wesley said quickly. "No offense, but call it security."

Stuart seemed to get the message. "Okay, yeah, I can dig that. Sure."

"No need for you to give us your location," Wesley said. "I know you're somewhere east of the Mississippi judging by your call sign."

"Yeah, that's right," Stuart said. "You really think anybody else could be listening in?"

"Better to be safe than sorry later."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." The guy paused a moment. "I haven't seen anybody in weeks. Probably a month. Plenty of those crazy people...those that have lost their minds, but n.o.body like us."

"We call them primitives," I said.

"Primitives," Stuart said. "Yeah, I can see that. Like cavemen. It fits."

"You said something earlier about this thing, this thing that flies...that it was possessing people," Wesley said. "What do you mean?"

"I live downtown, okay? On the corner of First Street and Commonwealth. I'm on the top floor, and my apartment is in the corner. I see a lot from up here and what I saw...s.h.i.t, it's hard to explain."

"Just take it slow and do your best," Wesley said.

"Okay." Stuart took a deep breath and took the plunge. "About a week, maybe a week and a half after everything went to s.h.i.t, I was looking out through my telescope. I used to do that before, just to look at the stars and stuff, but when all this happened it became more of a habit in order to survive, you know what I mean? So I can check to see if s.h.i.t was happening, or about to happen. Eventually most of the chaos died down and the primitives, or whatever you call them, headed uptown. So anyway...I'm checking things out, and it's around twilight. And I see a bunch of those...primitives or whatever...I see them about five blocks north of me toward the business district. There's like a town square in that area, and they're gathered around there. At first I thought it was the National Guard or something and I got all excited, but then I saw it was them...they were all naked, some were wearing like...I don't know...fur coats or something, while others were partially dressed. And they were dancing around in front of this wall. Then...one of them...he was like...the leader I guess. He points to the sky and they all raise their hands like you do in church. I could hear them from where I was...I had the windows open...and it was like...I couldn't quite understand what they were sayin' 'cause it was all gibberish, but it just...it just felt like they were prayin' to something."

"Praying?" Lori said.

"Yes ma'am," Stuart said. "Prayin'."

"You weren't able to make out any drawings at that time, were you?"

"Oh yeah," Stuart said. "I saw those like a week after Philadelphia went to h.e.l.l." Philadelphia, Pennsylvania then. That's where Stuart was broadcasting from.

"Have you ventured outside at all since everything happened?" Martin asked.

"Yes, once or twice," Stuart said. "My neighbor keeps a supply of guns. Well, he used to. I've got them now. I went out to get more food and stuff, and that's when I saw those drawings. I didn't think much of them at first, but then..."

"Then you saw it," Wesley confirmed.

Stuart sighed. "Yeah. It was the d.a.m.nedest thing. Those...things...were praying, raising their hands to the sky like they were at a tent revival, and I heard this noise and looked up and there it was."

I felt a chill overtake me. "And it looked like the thing in the drawing?"

"It did, and when I saw it I about wet myself."

The five of us looked at each other, silent in our own thoughts.

"So it was flying above the primitives?" Wesley asked. "The ones who were...praying?"

"Yeah. It was like they were worshipping it."

I could see it all too clearly. Scattered bands of primitives making those crude drawings, gathering together in worship and then being visited by their strange G.o.d as it made its presence known to them.

"What happened then?" Martin asked.

"I watched them for ten minutes or so," Stuart continued. "And that thing...it just kinda hovered about twenty, maybe thirty feet over them. Then it took off and flew away, heading north. It was when it flew away that it freaked me out. At first I thought I'd lost my mind, that I was seeing things. But when it actually turned and flapped its wings...s.h.i.t, you could hear them. You could like...feel the vibration in the air."

What Stuart felt was probably akin to what it felt like to stand near a 747 when it took off from a runway. Especially if it was as big as he made it out to be.

"What happened after it flew away?" Wesley asked.

"Those things just kind of hollered...or gave these yells that sounded like they were happy. Kinda like, 'yaaay!' Then they dispersed and when they did I saw one was lying on the ground. I got a closer look at him through the telescope and saw he was dead."

"Murdered?" Wesley asked.

"Yeah, I think so. I saw a lot of blood. Couldn't tell how he died, though."

"Was that drawing anywhere nearby?"

"Yeah it was. On the wall where they were gathered."

"And you said this thing possessed them?" This came from Tracy.

"About two hours later I was still at my telescope looking for more of them and I saw them come running up the street. They were like...herding this other one...he was sort of in the middle of this group of them, and the others were herding him along. And they got to the place where they were earlier and sort of lifted him to the top of the wall. I focused in and...ah, s.h.i.t man, I don't know how else to describe it but...this one just seemed...different than the others. Like...you know how they are...they're like us only they act like they're f.u.c.king cavemen, right? Like they're animals. Right?"

We all nodded and murmured agreement at this.

"Well this one wasn't like that. It was like it had gained some...I don't know...some level of intelligence back. It had a more prominent gait and demeanor, and when I looked at it I saw...its face...its face was...different."

"How do you mean?"

"It was like...there was a subtle change in its facial structure. I don't know how else to describe it. It was almost like it was morphed a little bit. It probably wasn't obvious if you hadn't seen these things, but I've been living here with them now for a month, okay? I've kinda gotten to recognize their behavior pattern and the way they look. And basically they look like us, only they're wild. You know? This one seemed to have regained its civilized nature back but only gradually. Again, it's hard to describe."

"Did you see it again?"

"Yes, and that's what I'm coming to. After they left, that other one came back and ate the dead one that was lying there. I was watching it and-"

"You watched one of those things eat somebody?" Lori asked, slightly disgusted.

"It's not the first time I've seen one of them eating their own kind," Stuart said. "Or one of us for that matter. And besides, I was watching it to get a better look at it because this time it looked different again. This time it had horns!"

"What?" From myself, Lori, and Martin.

"Yeah, it had horns. Or the beginning of horns. It was also hunched over...like its body shape was changing as well."

"Have you seen it since then?"

"Only twice. And both times it's gone through additional transformations." Stuart's voice grew low. Sibilant. "It's like...it's changing into a mini-me version of that thing. It doesn't have wings or anything, but it's definitely different...way more so now than it was when I first saw it. And get this..."