The Void by Michael Bray, Albert Kivak Read Free Book Online Page B

out and wiped his clammy face with his shirt.
    “We have to jump,” Partridge shouted into the wind as he felt the house shudder once again.
    “No, no, no—I can’t do this,” Nancy gibbered.
    The jump appeared to be around twelve feet high from their spot. The landing looked rough. They had to drop down on the back porch or the soft grass of their backyard. Hopefully, it was soft.
    “It’s not a matter of what you can or can’t do. Take Victor in your arms. Aim for the shrubs. Maybe catch the hedge as you’re falling.”
    “No, please don’t make me do this.”
    “It’s not the end of the world,” Partridge said, knowing full well what his wife was thinking.
    “God is judging us,” she answered.
    “No, he’s not. You can do this.”
    “I’m tired. I’m just, oh so, tired.”
    “We have to. For the sake of our kids,” Mr. Robins snapped. “Do you want our kids to see us fail?”
    “No… but how could you?”
    “What?”
    Nancy was resolute. “How could you not know it was her?”
    “This isn’t the time dammit!” he raged. He grabbed a hold of his son, hoisted him up, cradling him on his back.
    “You killed our daughter—” she began.
    “You don’t think I know that?” he groaned, blinking away tears.
    “—she’s still in there!”
    “I’ll get her, okay? I’ll get her.
    “And Eddie, I—I saw him.”
    “Ok, kiddo, hold still and don’t let go,” Partridge said, ignoring her. His son tightened his grip, afraid of the coming fall. “This is gonna be fun. At the count of three close your eyes, okay?”
    “Dad, will we make it?”
    “Of course we will, son.”
    “What if we don’t?”
    “We have to, or we’ll die. You want to die, Victor?” Partridge said, hating how cruel he had to be to make his son understand the gravity of the situation.
    “No,” he said, mouth trembling.
    “Okay, just be brave,” Partridge said as he crab-walked to the edge of the roof and got ready to leap.
    “Don’t hurt us.”
    “I won’t.”
    “What about us?” Madeline cut in, regarding them with enormous eyes. “What about us? Don’t leave us here.”
    “I’m not, Maddy,” he reassured her. “I’ll be back.”
    “You promise?”
    “I promise.”
    Partridge Robins jumped off the peak of the building. He landed, two feet planted squarely in the lawn. The overgrowth and brambles had broken his fall, slowing him down. As he came to a rest, he set Victor on the ground. He viewed his house at the bottom and realized how different the perspective was to watch in horror the feeling of helplessness, of hopelessness, of all their life-belongings at the verge of being eaten away by the sinkhole, until there was nothing left.
    All the memories gone in a single moment.
    He needed to work fast or his wife and daughter would be gone too.
     
    V
     
    Overhead, a drone picked up signs of life on the rooftop and sent the feed to a hub center in West Virginia. In the main headquarters of the control room, men in uniforms watched the events transpire on the black and white screens, several hundred miles away.
    Many had frozen looks of consternation. Others leered with excitement. Even more personnel prattled above hushed whispers, speculating as to what they were seeing. They observed in amazement as the figure in their thermal imaging camera showed him scaling back onto the house—the house which was ready to fall inward.
    The man behind the controls, Ray Winsted, couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. He backtracked, toggling the joystick, so the drone flew by over the house on Maple St. again. Inside the window of the leaning house, a shadow drifted across the rectangular glass pane. Humans showed up as a fuzzy, grayish color. This figure was pitch black, blacker than even its environment.
    There was intelligent life inside the home.
    And the man, whom the agents had worked together to determine his name to be Partridge Robins, was clambering back into the shattered attic