Arrival: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

11

After sprinting past groups of panicked people and pushing their way through throngs of onlookers, Maya and Reno ran through the open bay door and climbed into their rig. Maya didn’t even bother going inside the firehouse to grab her uniform. Proper union dress code seemed slightly insignificant compared to what she had witnessed a few minutes ago, and they weren’t on the clock anyway.

“Which direction we headed?” Reno asked. “There are so many calls coming into 911 that dispatch can’t keep up.”

“I’m going to drive to the river. We can check the areas near the stadium. From what I’ve heard on the radio, there’s a lot of accidents happening over there.”

She pulled out of the bay and into traffic, where other rigs led the way down Charlotte Avenue and toward the Cumberland River at the eastern edge of downtown. Many people had decided not to drive, leaving their cars parked at odd angles and up on curbs—some even leaving their vehicles in the middle of the street. People lined the sidewalks, gawking and pointing at the mysterious obelisk towering over Centennial Park and now the tallest structure in Nashville—man-made or otherwise.

“Seriously, Maya. What is that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Shit don’t just pop up out of the ground. How could that even have gotten there?”

“I’m not sure. Can you please keep checking for service?”

Reno glanced at the screen. He tapped one of his contacts and put it on speaker phone. Like Maya’s earlier, his phone wouldn’t dial.

“Dammit,” Maya said, slamming her hands on the steering wheel.

“The network will come back up. Maybe the earthquake knocked down a cell tower?”

“Or maybe it’s related to the obelisk.”

“What do you mean? You think that thing could have knocked out cell service?”

“You saw what it did, Reno. That low hum and the blue lightning storm? Maybe it fried the circuits.

Reno stared off, his lips slightly parted. “What?”

“Maybe it sent out a signal. Like one of those things the preppers are always talking about.”

“You mean an EMP?” he asked, resorting automatically to the common abbreviation for an electromagnetic pulse—the type of energy wave which could come from a comet strike or a terrorist weapon and that had the potential to knock out the world’s electrical grid. “We wouldn’t be driving if that was the case. An EMP blast would’ve fried the rig’s electrical system.”

Maya stared at him, eyes narrowed. Then she turned her attention back to the road. Reno was right. The rig was fine, the radio worked, and the lights in the city hadn’t gone out. But the possibilities made her head hurt, and right now, all she wanted was to get to the stadium and see if they could save lives. Homeland Security or the military could figure out what that thing was and what had caused it.

They rolled over a hill and saw nothing but flashing blue and red emergency lights ahead.

“Damn. It’s madness here,” Reno said.

Maya sounded the siren in short bursts, warning pedestrians to step out of the way so she could pull through the intersection ahead. Officers had already roped off the scene, and many onlookers were pushing against the crowd-control barrier to get a better look at a dozen or so cars mangled in several separate accidents.

The police had set up barriers that stretched from one guard rail to another with strategic sections placed to keep people from getting by on the sidewalk.

“This doesn’t seem right,” Reno said.

“No,” Maya said. “It doesn’t. But we’ve got a job to do. Let’s grab our gear and see how we can help.”

They jumped out and grabbed their bags from the back. Pedestrians stood at the barrier, shouting at the police. Dozens of officers in riot gear struggled to keep them from surging forward.

“Let us touch it!” one man said.

“Are we really trapped in here?” a woman asked.

Reno grabbed Maya’s arm. “What are they talking about?”

“I don’t know. Flash your ID so we can get in.”

Maya had accidentally left her picture ID lanyard in her locker back at the station.

The nearest officer nodded as he scanned Reno’s credentials. Maya pushed the barrier back and let Reno enter first. She turned to ask the officer what had happened, but he was already struggling to get the barrier back in place as the crowd pushed against it.

Another officer barked orders at two firemen. Maya and Reno went to him.

“We’re paramedics,” Maya said. “We’re here to help. What happened?”

“All these cars. Crashed. Can’t you see, lady?”

“Okay,” Maya said, furrowing her brow. “But what happened? What caused it?”

“You haven’t heard yet?”

“Heard what?” Reno asked.

The cop pursed his lips. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Best just to show it to you.”

The officer led them away from the agitated crowd to where the cars had crashed. Several paramedics had already arrived on the scene and were tending to the most seriously injured. But looking at where the cars sat, Maya couldn’t figure out how they had collided with each other. It was almost as if they had wrecked in a perfect line, side by side—not into each other, or into any other object on the road or near it.

The officer stopped and held his hands up to Maya and Reno.

“Do not walk past me,” he said. “Do you understand?”

“What do you mean?” Maya asked.

“Give me your hand.”

Maya stared at the cop. His face held no trace of a smile. This was no joke. She gave the cop her hand, and then he grabbed her wrist and spun as she opened her palm. In the air in front of her face, she felt an invisible object that was rough to the touch, carried a charge like static electricity, and was as solid as a brick wall. A transparent, bluish-purple light spread from her fingertips to her wrist on the surface of her skin, and the low hum she’d heard before returned.

Maya pulled her hand away like a child at a hot stove. She stared at the spot where the officer had placed it, staring right through whatever she had touched. She saw other wrecked cars ahead, their headlights facing her. Police near those cars had erected their own crowd-control barriers as more people looked in their direction, screaming and shouting. And that was when the realization hit her.

She couldn’t hear any of them.

As Maya tried to process the situation, Reno walked up next to her and put his hand on the same, invisible spot about five feet off the ground and two feet from where they stood. The bluish-purple light crawled up his arm, and he tore his hand away.

“What the shit is this?” Reno asked.

“There’s some type of wall surrounding the city,” the officer said, his tone shaky and uneven, as if he was trying to convince himself of what he was seeing. “We’ve gotten reports from all over the Davidson metro. You felt it—it’s like an invisible stone wall. That’s why these cars crashed. Nobody saw it, and they drove right into the thing.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Reno said.

“You just felt it.” The cop laughed and waved his arm at the ever-increasing crowd on their side, the ones they could hear shouting with panic-laden voices. “That’s why they’re freaking out. People are blaming this on everything from a terrorist attack to a secret government weapons test. It’s insane.”

Maya stepped away. Her hand tingled, and the sound of the crowd swirled in her ears as she tried to get herself under control. This wall—possibly a dome—had to be the reason cell service was down. It had to be more than a simple coincidence that an invisible dome had appeared at the same time as an obelisk had risen from beneath the Parthenon in Centennial Park.

“How big is this wall? How high is it and does it go over the top of us?” Maya asked, knowing the street cop wouldn’t have any of the answers.

“We aren’t quite sure yet. Around here, the damn thing has gone straight through cars and buildings. You can see through the barrier and it seems to be holding up the structures, but there ain’t no way through or around it. I’ve heard reports of an invisible wall near the airport and as far out as Bellevue. Can’t really tell you what’s happening in the airspace above the city.”

“What about North?”

The officer shook his head. “I don’t know that either.”

Knowing the man had nothing useful to share, Maya turned around and walked toward the crowd-control barrier. She stepped around the police and through the gap, ignoring the barrage of questions coming from the people on the street. She opened the door to the rig as Reno caught up to her.

“What are you doing, Maya?”

“I can’t stay here.”

“What do you mean? We have a job to do.”

“I have to get to my kids!”

“You can’t leave. We have a responsibility.”

“I have a responsibility as a mother,” Maya said, raising her voice. “I have to get to them.”

Reno put his hands on his hips. “Maya, we can’t just—”

“I have to get to them before Gerald does, Reno! He’ll know my mom will take them back to her place as things get worse!”

She felt the blood rushing to her face and Reno took a step back, his eyes wide at the sharp tone of her voice. She understood she had a job to do. Understood perfectly. But her job as a mother was more important. And she couldn’t let go of the notion that Gerald might be looking for her mother so he could take the kids.

His lips pursed, Reno nodded. He walked around the front of the rig to the passenger side.

“What are you doing?” Maya asked.

“I’m coming with you.”

“You should stay here and help. Someone else can give you a ride—”

“We aren’t discussing this. I’m not letting you go alone. Now are we going to find your kids, or what?”

She stared at him long enough to realize he wasn’t going to change his mind.

“Good,” he said, sitting down on the passenger side and buckling his seat belt. “Glad that’s settled.”