Is this really the best that I can do? Meg thought as Agent King’s car flew down the dirt road out of town. She knew they were nearly out of the boundaries of Ether Green since the paved road had recently turned to dirt and the tall, thin pine trees they passed had been growing denser by the minute. I know I really don’t have a choice but to listen to the adults here, and this guy sounds sincere, but still… once we reach the next town and he calls for backup, couldn’t it be too late? It’s nearly sunset, and whatever’s going to go down, it’s going to happen tonight. What if they can’t fight it off? What if —?

            Agent King nudged her shoulder. “Hey, stay sharp. Something’s going on up ahead.” Indeed, just a quarter mile ahead of them, there were flashing lights and around a dozen people standing in the middle of the road.

            “Are we out of town yet?” she asked.

            “Nah, but we’re close. Only about a mile out. That’s why this is making me nervous. Those are police lights up there.”

            He was right. As they drew closer, she could make out the insignia of the Ether Green Police Department. Their cars had been positioned so that the road was completely blocked off. Not only that, but several of the officers were holding shotguns and looked rigid and tense, as though they were expecting something. King’s eyes narrowed. He looked like he was searching for someone.

            “Shit…” he muttered. Evidently, he had found the person he was looking for. “Okay, kid, just stay quiet over there. These guys look like they mean business, but there’s a chance I might be able to talk us past them.” He slowed the car to a stop, turning it to the side slightly as he did so. One of the men sauntered over to them; Meg noticed he looked far more relaxed than all the rest. He was fairly young, considering he seemed to be the one in charge. King rolled down the window, resting his elbow out the side. He seemed to be trying to appear relaxed and unconcerned, but Meg saw that out of sight, his right hand gripped the gear shift, his knuckles white.

            “Howdy, Agent,” he said. “How we doing this evening?”

            “Chief Jackson, what a surprise,” King replied. Chief Jackson? Meg gulped nervously. That was the man Grandpa Tuesday warned us about. If he’s here, that can’t be a good thing. “Listen, I wish we could have met under better circumstances tonight, but we have to get out of town pronto. Got a little bit of an emergency on our hands, you see.”

            “Is that so?” the chief replied. “Well, I hate to break it to you, pal, but I’m afraid there’s no getting out of Ether Green tonight, not for anyone.”

            “Oh? And why would that be?”

            “Flooding. All that rain the other day caused the ditches to overflow. No way in or out of town for a few days.”

            “Do you think you could make an exception for us? This baby does offroad pretty well, so we might be able to find a way around.”

            “No can do, my friend. Sorry to ask, but you said you had an emergency, right? If that’s the case, we’ve got an incredible hospital right here in town. It’s a bit small, but they know what they’re doing.”

            “We’d really rather not. The girl’s a visitor here, you see, and so she’d be a lot more comfortable going back to her hometown. It’s not far.”

            “Oh, I completely understand, believe me. I suppose I must not be making myself clear enough.” He grabbed King’s arm and leaned in close to his face. Even from the passenger seat, Meg could smell the tobacco on his breath. “Ain’t nobody leaving Ether Green tonight. Understand me? So why don’t you and that stupid girl head on back to town and pray that I forget about this? Or maybe you’d like to step out of the car and have a confrontation? Maybe you can explain to me why you felt so inclined to bullshit an officer of the law.”

            King fixed him with a cold stare. For what seemed like an eternity, the two men remained locked in a silent showdown. Neither seemed willing to back off, but they both knew that Jackson had the upper hand. King was unarmed and in a vulnerable position. If he tried to do anything the chief didn’t like, Meg had no idea what he would do. They had no choice but to do what he said. On the other hand, King didn’t look like he had any intention of backing down. If someone didn’t defuse the situation, Meg worried, they might find themselves in worse trouble than before. Therefore, despite the agent’s wishes that she stay quiet, she knew that she had to do something to give the two of them an opportunity.

            “Wait!” she shouted. The two broke their standoff to look over at her, though they didn’t completely take their eyes off each other. “I really do have seizures. They’re really bad, and… he offered to drive me, so he’s telling the truth, and…” She trailed off, running out of things to say. Lying was really not her strong suit, but then again, she didn’t need to be believable for her plan to work.

            Luckily, he was on as short of a fuse as Meg hoped he was. “Listen, you dumb bitch, nobody was talking to you, so just shut your mouth and —” As he said this, he took his hand off King’s arm to stalk around to the other side of the vehicle. Seeing the look in his eyes, Meg felt her heart rate shoot up like a rocket, but thankfully, King immediately took the opportunity she had given him. The second he reached the passenger side, King shifted into drive and gunned the accelerator, taking advantage of the angle he had parked at to veer around the blockade and into the woods beyond. Meg, gripping the side handle, risked a glance behind them to see the chief on the ground, screaming at his fellow officers and gesturing to the two escapees animatedly.

            “Good thinking, kid,” said King, with tension in his voice. “That was a hell of a brave thing you did, provoking him like that. I think you just saved both our asses back there.”

            Although the praise calmed her down a bit, she knew they weren’t out of the metaphorical woods yet. “Only for a while,” she said. “I don’t think they’re going to let us go easily.” Already, the group had coordinated and were piling in their vans to chase them.

            “They saw right through us. We know more than we should. They’re not going to let us leave town in one piece,” he said.

            Meg gulped. She had been nervous before, but she was truly afraid, not just for herself, but for her friends, who she now knew were woefully unprepared for the dangers to come. All she could hope was that they were smart enough and strong enough to survive the night. For the moment, though, she had dangers of her own to face. All she could do was trust in the competence of the FBI agent whose hands she had put her life in.

            King seemed to understand what she was thinking. “Don’t worry too much, kid,” he reassured her. “I’ve been in some hairy situations before. Though I will say that you might want to hold on to something.”

            Meg thought it best to follow his advice this time.

***

            Paul stood in the living room of his house, trying to steady his nerves. In half an hour, he was set to meet Ash, Johnny, and Grandpa Tuesday to confront a monster that had killed hundreds of people. He didn’t have any particular reason to go home, but he had wanted to see his family before he left. If anything went wrong tonight, there was a good chance that he wouldn’t be here come morning. The chances of him surviving the night seemed to be increasingly unlikely.

            He lived with his mom and two younger brothers, Sam and Benny. They were both in grade school and were two of the most energetic kids Paul had ever seen, even for their age. Having them around ensured the small home was rarely quiet. He smiled. Many other people would have been driven insane by the constant yelling and fighting, but to him, it felt peaceful. Most of the time, at least. Paul was of few words oftentimes, so having to act as the mature elder brother was a role that suited him, he thought. At the very least, his mother seemed to appreciate his help, as he was probably the only person on Earth that could calm the two boys down effortlessly. Today they were playing a game of superheroes, chasing each other around the house with deadly planet-shattering weapons made of plastic and Styrofoam. They both grinned at him as they ran past.

            “Hey, Paul!” shouted Benny, the younger of the two. “You wanna come join my team? We’re gonna fight to the death!”

            “Nah, not today,” said Paul. “I wouldn’t want to interfere in a battle between men. Show him your power, Ben.” He giggled and ran away, but not before Paul whispered conspiratorially to Sam, “You better not let that monster win.”

            “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll get him for sure this time.”

            As they scampered elsewhere, Paul decided to relax in the kitchen, where his mom was sitting surrounded by various files and paperwork in bland manila envelopes. She had her head resting on her hand. Paul could tell she had been sitting there for a while.

            “Hey, mom,” he said. “Need any help with all that?”

            She looked up at him, her eyes just slightly red. “Oh no, don’t worry yourself about it, sweetie. I was just going over our budget for this year.”

            He felt a wave of worry wash over him. How odd. Finances should seem so minor given the circumstances, but he couldn’t help but hate seeing his mom stressed like this. “Oh? How are we looking?”

            “Well, it’s going to be tight, as usual, but I think I have everything figured out now. We’re just going to have to be a bit careful for the next few months.” Paul sighed, knowing what that meant. They already were quite conservative with their spending, so having to make cuts meant they would have to make some sacrifices. That meant likely turning off electricity for a few days, which meant they would be living without air conditioning in the heat of summer. Not ideal, but it was something they had all learned to live with.

            Even in a community as small as Ether Green, there were people who were better off than others. Before they had moved to the town, they had lived in the city, where they had lived quite richly, as Paul’s father had a cushy job at a highly prestigious insurance company. However, one day he left without explanation, leaving an eight-year-old Paul, an infant Sam, and their pregnant mother to pick up the pieces. Job opportunities for a woman in her forties with no formal education were slim and so they were forced to move away, where she was able to find a minimum wage job in the town of Ether Green.

Paul was now an outsider in a town full of strangers. It seemed apparent to him that he was in a place he didn’t belong. It was shortly after he moved, though, that he met Ash, a loner with few friends, and the two quickly became inseparable. Several times, she had offered to steal money from her father to help his family out, but he refused to let her take the risk. A few years later, Johnny had moved to town, a fellow outsider like Paul was, and he became close friends with the two of them equally fast. Now they had a fourth member of their group: Meg, Johnny’s cousin from the city. She had been a bit coarse on their first meeting, almost as though she wanted nothing more than to distance herself from them, but Paul could not find it within himself to dislike her. She had the same look on her face that Paul had once had, one that he had also seen on Ash and Johnny once upon a time. It was the face of someone whom society had rejected, who no longer had a place to belong. Maybe that was why Johnny was so insistent on dragging the poor girl along everywhere. Even though they had only known each other a few days, it was already starting to feel like Meg had always belonged with them. He just hoped that they could all survive long enough to give her the friendship and support that she needed.

“Paul, are you okay?” his mom asked. “You look terribly worried.”

            Paul jerked back to his senses. It seemed he had been lost in his own thoughts again. That happened frequently to him, it seemed. Johnny didn’t seem to have a thought that lasted more than five seconds.

            “I’m fine,” he said. He was, in fact, terribly worried. But how could he possibly explain everything that was going on in his head currently? “I’m just feeling a bit anxious, I guess.” He looked at the clock on the wall. It was almost time to go. “Sorry, mom, I have some things to take care of.”

            “Wait,” she said. “Do you have a date tonight? Is that why you’re so tense?”

            “Uh, not exactly.”

            “Well, whatever it is, I know you’ll be fine. Just be confident.”

            “Thanks,” he said. He turned to go. He didn’t want to worry his mom, but he had to say something, just in case this was his last chance to say goodbye to her. He decided to go with something simple. “I love you, mom.”

            “I love you, too,” she smiled at him.

            He looked towards the basement, where his brothers were playing. He thought about saying something to them too. No, he thought. I can’t abandon my family to fend for themselves. I’ll survive this night, whatever it takes.

***