The town of Ripley was usually a pretty quaint place. Not as big as a city, but not so small that one would miss it if they blinked. Just the right size to comfortably sustain several bus routes, a college, and its sixty-five thousand residents. Furthermore, it was located in the northern part of Ontario, Canada, and surrounded by mostly forests, fields, and a lake, but it never felt isolated from the rest of the world. It was just… Average. There was the occasional theft here; the post-secondary house party there; the grumpy and nosey elderly folks everywhere. Yes, it was indeed an average and uneventful place... Well, it was supposed to be anyway.
Friday, October 15th at 8:23PM, things finally became exciting, but not in the way most would have assumed. The earthquake had done a fair amount of damage throughout the town, and everyone was in a frenzy. Paramedics and firefighters were scrambling to get to as many places and people as possible; police officers restrained those who took advantage of the situation, and most of the regular citizens didn't know what to do with themselves.
"We got someone over here!" A firefighter shouted from inside of a book store. A civilian's leg had gotten trapped underneath a heavy wooden shelf and buried under a mountain of books. Another firefighter, who was close by to hear his comrade's call, rushed in to help lift the shelf and free the woman. Once freed, they slung her arms over each of their shoulders and walked her out of the shop where paramedics then tended to her.
"Jesus... I can't believe this…" One of the firefighters said as she jogged alongside her partner down the hectic and destroyed street to find anyone else who needed help.
The ditch-like crevasse in the road was still as impressive and frightening as ever, and the two firefighters couldn't help but glance at it in awe as they passed.
"Yeah... I know people who've lived here longer than me, and they've never mentioned something like this happening before," her partner replied before spotting a car that was front-first inside the deeper end of the crevasse. "But we can't worry about that now."
Both of them slowed to a halt next to the car to investigate. Through the back window they could see that there didn’t seem to be anyone inside, and the passenger door was open.
“Looks like whoever was in here was able to get out,” one of them stated.
“Yeah, but we better thoroughly check before we go. Last thing we need is to find out that we left someone behind.”
“Don’t take too long, though, if no one’s there,” the female firefighter said as she pulled up her sleeve to check her watch. It read “9:18PM.”
The male firefighter then jumped down into the narrow and muddy crevasse to double check that there was indeed no one inside the car. He looked near the back seats, the front seats, and underneath the car.
“Anyone, Asai?”
“Nope, it’s all clear.”
Asai gave one last look around himself then walked back to the edge of the crevasse. He outstretched his arm to his partner to be hoisted up to street level, but right before their hands met, the aftershock hit and he stumbled back.
Up on the street, the female firefighter lied on her stomach as she waited for the aftershock to stop. But as she looked into the crevasse, between her partner and the car, she saw something oozing out of the ground like a much smaller water main had broken. However, this liquid was black like ink yet almost seemed to sparkle like the night sky, and didn’t soak into the already muddy dirt. It was as if it glided along the ground as it spread out.
“H-Hey! You’ve gotta get out of there!” She shouted down, pointing to the unknown and expanding substance.
Asai turned towards the indicated direction, and although the ground still shook, he immediately stood up at the sight of the liquid. “W-What the hell is that?”
“I don’t know! Just get out of there!” The female firefighter extended her hand into the crevasse.
Asai didn’t protest and staggered to the edge of the crevasse to grab his partner’s hand. He struggled a bit because of all the shaking and the steep incline, but he was able to be pulled up to street level.
Once they looked back into the crevasse, however, the liquid had already engulfed the front of the car. In fact, the car was actually sliding forward; deeper into the sparkling, black liquid. And in no time at all, the crevasse was filled to the brim, and the car was completely submerged. Bizarrely enough, the aftershock ended at that very moment.
“Brooks, what in God’s name is that stuff?” Asai rephrased.
“Like I said, I don’t know,” Brooks said as she took a step closer to the liquid.
“Don’t go touching it!” Asai exclaimed and reflexively reached out to grab her arm, but restrained himself.
“Why would I do something as stupid as that? I’m just getting a closer look,” Brooks snapped, a little insulted. She then turned on the flashlight that was secured to her mustard yellow and reflective jacket to scan over the liquid, but the pool didn’t reflect the light. Instead, it almost seemed to absorb it; vanish into it. “If an oil pipe ran through here that’d explain a lot, but there’s not even one nearby… So where‘s this coming from?”
“Okay, you know what? Let’s just cordon off this whole area and let someone more qualified deal with this. People need our help right now.”
Brooks casually kicked a rock into the pool. “Yeah, you’re— No splash?” The rock had fallen into the liquid without resistance, without sound, like someone dropping a coin into a waterless fountain. But even that would have made a sound. “Go… Go get anyone who has a spare moment to help set up a perimeter. This stuff is giving me goosebumps in more ways than one…”
Brooks turned off her flashlight and turned to leave, but immediately looked back as, from the corner of her eye, she saw the black pool light up with dozens of white spots all along the crevasse; enough to make a litter of Dalmations jealous. Brooks and Asai backed away with haste and, before one of them could mumble a stunned yet appropriate question, the white spots slowly rose from the pool. No longer were they flat circles -if they even were flat to begin with- but now small, solid white, hollow spheres with holes of different sizes. They also seemed to be covered in small and delicate hairs.
As they poured out into the sky and the street, ethereal, Asai and Brooks tried to dance around them -as did anyone else who was nearby- but luckily they didn’t have to try too hard as the little spheres moved away from them if they got too close. As if there was an invisible force field around their bodies. This gave the two firefighters some relief but not much. They still didn’t know what they were, where they came from, or whether they were dangerous or not. But there was something else that was strange… Despite their concerns, they weren’t particularly afraid. No one was. Intrigued? Yes. Concerned? Yes. Mesmerised by their simplicity and calming glow? Definitely. But afraid? Not really. The spheres weren’t doing anything but floating around, so there didn’t seem to be a need to be afraid.
As the last bit of spheres exited the pool, the crevasse began to drain, leaving no residue. Brooks approached the edge of the crevasse again to see if any other unnatural thing was down there, but there wasn’t. All of the black liquid was gone, as well as the car.
“Brooks! Look!” Asai called out, grabbing her attention.
Asai motioned to the spheres which had suddenly frozen in mid-air. Brooks attempted to blow on one, but only its little hairs moved instead of the whole. But, a little further from them, something flew around the spheres. In size and shape, it was a replica of the white versions with the exception of it being red and seemingly not hollow. It also moved faster through the air, in a nonsensical zig-zag pattern.
Something about it made Brooks uncomfortable; fearful. But that feeling quickly subsided as it disappeared behind a building. She was about to let out an unexplained sigh of relief, but it was interrupted by a scream in the distance. The white spheres then instantly zipped in that direction; the same direction the red sphere went.
As first responders, Brooks’ and Asai’s instincts kicked in and they bolted towards the scream, but what they saw was horrific: a red-headed man was being consumed by all of the white spheres. They stuck to him, molded around him, as he desperately tried to pry them off, but they weren’t budging. A red glow also pulsated through the white mass that enveloped part of his head. He screamed for help, begged for help, but nobody dared get close. They could only watch as he squirmed, flailed, and gasped. Helpless.
Chapter 6 will continue...
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