The Age Atomic

FORTY

The eyes under the bed, the something evil in the closet, the creaking floor downstairs. The darkness moved, becoming thick, alive, intelligent, something from somewhere else. And then the pressure on the chest, someone holding him down, someone pulling the covers off and

“No!”

The woman lying next to Fulton Hall shrieked as the general sat bolt upright in bed, his skin shining with a cold sweat, his fingers clutching the sheet to his chest. He ignored her, unaware even of her presence, as he breathed and breathed and breathed, his eyes searching the corners of the bedroom, his nostrils flaring like he’d just run the New York marathon.

The woman slid her bottom up against the headboard and reached out to grab her lover’s shoulders, but he flinched at the touch and she quickly drew her hands back, using them instead to pull the yanked sheet tight to her neck.

“What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”

Hall heard her voice, somewhere in the back of his mind, but his attention was drawn to the closet, to the gap between the bottom of the door and the thick carpet. The gap was a black strip of nothing in the dark room, but when Hall blinked it flashed blue, light, the color of the sky on a hot summer’s day. The light at the end of things. The light that burned in her eyes.

Hall flinched again as Mary flicked on her bedside light, and he turned in the bed, face red, vein in his forehead pounding, ready to unleash his rage on his mistress. But as she shrank back the feeling evaporated, replaced by a creeping cold somewhere in Hall’s chest. The whole bedroom felt like an icebox.

“Fulton?” Mary’s voice was small, timid.

He let out a breath. “I’m fine. It was a bad dream, that’s all.”

He turned away, drawn once more to the gap under the closet door. Mary said something but he didn’t hear it, but her light went out and she turned over, leaving Hall to contemplate the darkness. He listened to her breathing a while, listened to her as she lay perfectly awake, terrified in the middle of the night.

Terrified? Hall sniffed and lay back down. What did she have to fear? She’d been there, at the test. She’s seen her. She knew too, she had to.

Hall lay still, as still as he could, as he watched the closet. War, she’d said. War was coming. Well, that was his job. He was a soldier. War was his business.

But… but there was no pleasure to be had in war. Satisfaction, yes. Perhaps even ambition. But war was not a thing to be enjoyed, or savored. And the way she had said it, like she was appreciating a fine vintage wine. She was looking forward to it, the woman who didn’t even exist in the same world as the rest of them.

Hall blinked, his eyes dry. The gap under the closet door remained black this time.

She was going to destroy the world. He knew that now. Mankind didn’t matter to her. The test, out there in the harbor, it wasn’t for him, it was for her. She had to be sure the device would work, not for anyone’s benefit except her own.

What did she fear, if not the end of the world? Hall gulped a lungful of air that was too cold and Mary moved beside him, clearly listening, waiting for him to fall asleep.

Nimrod. She feared Nimrod, so much so that she’d had him removed, using her puppet, the Secretary of Defense. Nimrod was the final obstacle, that had to be it.

He knew what he had to do now. She’d said he would have a part to play, and play it he would. Only there was a chance, he knew, to defy her, to control his own destiny. She could be stopped. He couldn’t do it, but Nimrod could. He held the key.

She would be angry, of course. The wrath of a goddess. Hall pulled the sheets to his chin, his body folding into a fetal position beneath the covers as he watched the closet. If he could save the world, it wouldn’t matter. He could stop her. He could also… escape from her.

Hall swept the covers off and stood. Mary turned in the bed and watched him, but she remained silent.

He felt relief and he felt a calmness, like he was floating in a warm bath. He moved to the closet, and with a final look at the gap beneath the door, opened it and took his uniform from where it hung on the back.

“You’re leaving? I thought you said you would stay the night.”

Hall paused only a moment, then slipped the jacket off the hanger.

“Sorry,” he said, knowing she wouldn’t press any further. He heard her move on the bed, but he didn’t turn around. He thought he should perhaps say goodbye, say it properly, explain everything, but knew that she could be watching, listening. He had to act now, quickly.

Dressed, he picked his cap off the dresser and turned back to Mary. She looked at him with wide eyes that glistened wetly in the dark, and he thought of the blue light that spun in the eyes of Evelyn McHale. And he thought of how he would be free at last.

He said goodbye, said he loved her, and closed the bedroom door behind him.

As Mary turned over, in the gap between the bottom of the closet door and the thick carpet, a blue light shone.