A stench slammed into us both. It was a thousand times worse than earlier. I felt my knees quaking with each dry heave towards the dirt. No idea if that was from the smell of realizing that Masha was right. Something was definitely not right here. The town itself seemed to smell our scent. Every danger ping was firing off in me and I started to tug the terrified Masha back. The moment we both took a step back. At least a dozen of those creatures were suddenly in the streets of the glowing town. Darkness overwhelmed the sky. It was as sudden as a brisk blink. No warning or nice sunset to relax to. 

‘Masha…’ I whispered as quietly as I could. ‘We have to go. Now!’

Her arms clung to that blasted radio that got us here in the first place. Wait!

‘The friggin’ radio! You need to figure that thing out and kind of like now.’ I said still being a quiet bug. 

‘It’s not dat zimple. There is no way I could be certain it would be safe.’ She whispered while staring at the glowing eyes watching us from the town. 

‘Uhh. Girlie. I ain’t sure if you’ve noticed, but it’s not exactly looking to safe for us as is.’

‘Jennifur. This is not a toy or fancy TV remote control. Highly–’ She kept going but Ugh! I could hear the damn defeat in her tone. I grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a few solid waking up shakes.

‘Woman! We don’t have time for that. I trust you can do it. Just tell me what you need.’ We both dropped the whole whispering thing by now.

‘Fine we play it dangerous and by skin of feet.’ She said with that sassy look I’ve started to expect from her. Have to talk to her about her Idioms later. We were lucky the truck’s lights worked. Illuminating the road and making Masha’s job easier. Kneeling in the road studying our ride home. She sure did know her way around this stuff for some reason. Wonder if Russia is used to this kind of thing. Sure would make for a good resume, If we make it back. Still, I didn’t like that town there. Just staring at us, but we needed the light and I sure wasn’t going to scrounge up a fire in this darkness. Probably trip and ruin my shirt, who am I kidding? With my luck I’d end up breaking my arms and legs. Masha was so focused on figuring out the radio dingus that I don’t think she noticed the growing horde looming in the town.

‘Ya’know. Here we are talking in the pitch of dark and them things ain’t tried coming closer. Kinda curious, huh?’  I said down to her.

She shrugged while continuing spinning knobs only to produce more gurgling static. 

‘If dhey come dhey do. I get feelinc we won’t outrun dhem khere. Also can you back up. Blockinc my light.’ 

Instantly I felt like an idiot. Didn’t even realize I was standing half in front of headlights. 

‘Uuuugh’ I bellowed aloud. Not even meaning to. Jesus I was really messing up. I couldn’t even use the excuse that my boss was making me nervous. 

‘kHubba khubba..would yoo. Ahck. It is so.’ Masha started partially drooling at whatever she was doing. Another set of what I was sure would be another truck was shining off down the road; and the creatures in the soul sucking village were going nuts. Squealing and screeching in a way that nearly made my neck hair just fall out. 

‘I really really Really hope you can handle pressure, because I am pretty sure they are coming now.’ I wasn’t wrong either. The sets of eyes all of a sudden were gone and my forehead became a sweaty mess. Why didn’t I bring more guns and ammo to impress? 

‘Masha. Masha! Masha Masha Masha!’ I yelled at her.

‘Oh my friggin’ god…Jennifur. I kam in de middle of very delicate ding and you yell my name ovur and ovur what do you think I am? Some kind ov dumb doorbell? Gaah it almost– oh. Wait.’ She took interest in the “Wonderful” logo and pulled the W like it was some hidden latch. It clicked and clunked as the face of the radio fell forward. I was expecting to see the usual innards of such technology. But I had no idea what I was looking at. It looked obsidian with hot lines of white and yellow streaking through it. Glowing red squares, triangles, circles all mashed up to what I’m guessing is supposed to be some freaky language that would probably chill me, if I wasn’t worried about the sounds of the brush shaking so violently. 

‘Okay okay. You opened it so can we go back now?’ I said walking behind her and looking more closely at the now humming device.

‘Huh? Oh. Yeah. I figured dat out a while ago. See these here-’ She was starting in.

‘Masha. Shut your mouth. Please. And get us out of here before we are brutally murdered. Okay?’ I was huffing and shaking my head at her. Hoping she would understand my annoyance, or maybe it was disappointment. Something strange was happening once she opened the radio though. No it wasn’t the fact that I could hear it literally throbbing like a heart of dimensional traveling doom. No. The creatures were surrounding us like a swarm of angry picketers against the raising milk prices. Not coming an inch closer than ten feet. Gah they were gross. Their smell was washing over me and testing my resolve to gag. Just as horribly disfigured and poorly clothed as the crumbled one near us. I jumped and partially yelped when Masha touched my leg.

‘kHey. It is okay. But do khold on. I dink dat is key for travelinc togethur.’ She whispered up at me and I believed her. About things being okay, a relief hit my churning stomach. The crowd of twitching hissing creatures weren’t much of a counter argument to me just squatting down and holding the Russian like I did in that hotel room. Masha closed the radio and the humming grew louder as she twisted the frequencer knob and hit the play button. Just as before I saw it start to pull that blonde’s dainty hand in. The gush of being flushed through time or space or whatever the heck was whizzing by me as I clenched for dear life to this girl who was only thrilled at the blue streaks in this vast darkness of flickering swirls of orbs. We jerked to a full stop and I felt my breath suddenly crammed into my chest. Masha and I made it. Slammed right into the kitchen counter, with me absolutely glued to her back. My eyes were wide and I was struggling to comprehend and suck in that much missed chemically clean scent of the hotel. Masha tapped my trembling hands snugly wrapped around her.

‘Jennifur. Yoo can ease up now. Makinc it a little hard to breathe.’ She spoke as she had been. Calm and collected. 

‘How..aren’t…what, s-sorry.’ Fitting for me to keep embarrassing myself. I knew my face was beating as red as my hair. I eased my death grip around her waist.  There were no creatures of pale death here. Well not the same kind I mean. Still something gnawed at me. Like a fly that just wouldn’t buzz off.

‘Masha. Are we…actually back?’ I said full of skepticism. 

‘Definitely. Look around. Room is nearly same as when we left.’ She said in such a way that made it seem like she didn’t even believe her words. The room was mostly the same. Crime scene tape was all over the busted down door.

‘What the..’ I said aloud as I noticed the blood stains on the carpet and bodies outlined with tape. Markers were placed about next to spent bullet casing. Bullet holes and splatters of dried blood were all over the walls. Clearly this was different. 

‘Huh, not just me dat does not remember dis correct?’ Masha finally, thankfully was just as confused as me.

‘Ugh thank god! I thought I was going double crazy or something.’ I couldn’t help but say it was a smile and sigh in relief. 

‘So what do we do with that? Thing.’ I asked. 

‘Take it back to my agency for study, of course.’ She said offhandedly 

‘Whoa whoa, I-wait. So the Russians knew about this kinda stuff and didn’t ever bother telling us?’ 

Masha’s mouth turned into a wide smile and simply shook her head. ‘Oh no. not dem. I don’t acktually vork for dem. Yoo know. Like a covur.’

‘Wait so when you asked or I guess brought up recruiting. What the hell were you pitching for?’ I was keeping my cool for the most part. My eyebrows were definitely showing some anger.

‘I would be way more den khappy to tell yoo, but can we get out of crime scene forst?’ 

‘Oh. Yeah. Totally. I could go for a burger and ice cream.’ I donned my best smile and she kept sharing her own. Jesus I could get lost in those eyes. 

‘Vhat?’ 

‘Huh? Nothing. Nothing, just thinking of a place while ya’know. Right? Right…okay let's ride.’