light switch there to begin with.”
“That’s awful.”
“That’s life,” the woman tells her. “Maybe it’s better that you know about your boyfriend’s reluctance now before it’s too late.”
They hear something crash outside. Allison keeps breathing steadily but feels like she’s at a higher altitude, like she can’t quite catch her breath. “It sorta seems like we’ve gotten to the too-late stage already, you know?”
“We need to keep saying our prayers,” Beverly says. “That’s all we can do.”
All we can do.
Maybe I can finally start to do it.
Maybe.
Suddenly another trumpet sound interrupts any thought she might have, either in her head or spoken out loud.
The sound is accompanied by more rumbling. It’s not just the hail hitting the ground. It’s everything around them. The ground and the church and the walls and everything.
Once again, the earthquake almost seems to be coming from the sound itself.
A piercing, deafening, haunting trumpet sound from heaven.
17
THE STRANGER IN THE DARK
The figures huddled together in the shadows could be alive or dead. Tommy’s not exactly sure until he hears some muffled voices. Then whimpers, very low, as if noise will hurt and cause more pain. It’s a bit scary and he leaves the strangers alone.
It takes him a few minutes to realize where they are. Once the skies started raining icy death balls, he and the others scampered like dogs with their tails tucked between their legs. The nearest opening —broken glass doors that they dashed through —led into a large, open space with tables shuffled around and books scattered on the floor.When Tommy sees a cabinet of index cards, he finally understands.
Their shelter is the Wilmington Public Library.
Guess it takes the end of the world to get me to step foot in a library.
The humor in his head is good because if he loses it, he might lose his sanity, too.
Tommy is near the front when the trumpet blast rocks the building. Not a let’s-rock-out-with-the-band sound but another explosion of noise that literally rocks and shakes the whole building. He grabs a bookshelf and feels the rattling while the sound seems to be piercing the center of his brain.
“What the —?”
He can’t even hear his own words.
The lights inside the library go off and on, giving the room the feel of a futuristic disco. Tommy feels cold and heavy and really not so good. The way he used to feel when he did something bad and was about to have to face his parents. Or the way he feels at funerals. Awful with all this unexplained stuff deep inside him.
When the blaring finally stops, the people in the library are talking louder. More people are crying. More voices cursing and talking with question marks.
“Where’s Skylar?”
Tommy looks and finds Dan at the entrance to the library. His new wife is nowhere in sight.
“Skylar!” Jack calls out.
They head into the dark pit of the library with Dan leading the way. The books tossed about look as disheveled as the bodies they’ve seen in the hotel and on the streets. Chairs are turned over. A decorative art piece is now dangling upside down. The farther they walk, the darker it gets.
She didn’t just disappear.
But calling out for her doesn’t get them anywhere. A whole bookshelf lies facedown on the floor. The lights still twitch on and off.
“Skylar? Where are you?”
Dan’s voice sounds hoarse and weak. Silence reigns as the hallway opens up into more tall shelves of books. Dan heads down one aisle while Tommy takes another.
For some reason, Tommy expects someone to jump out of the shadows.
Maybe it’s the dead bodies that are making me think this way.
He hears Dan’s footsteps nearby, then can hear Jack calling out her name.
“Sky —”
The rest of the name is lost when the earth suddenly bounces back and forth like a yo-yo. Whoever’s holding the string is yanking hard.
Tommy goes headfirst into a shelf of books as a dozen volumes
“That’s awful.”
“That’s life,” the woman tells her. “Maybe it’s better that you know about your boyfriend’s reluctance now before it’s too late.”
They hear something crash outside. Allison keeps breathing steadily but feels like she’s at a higher altitude, like she can’t quite catch her breath. “It sorta seems like we’ve gotten to the too-late stage already, you know?”
“We need to keep saying our prayers,” Beverly says. “That’s all we can do.”
All we can do.
Maybe I can finally start to do it.
Maybe.
Suddenly another trumpet sound interrupts any thought she might have, either in her head or spoken out loud.
The sound is accompanied by more rumbling. It’s not just the hail hitting the ground. It’s everything around them. The ground and the church and the walls and everything.
Once again, the earthquake almost seems to be coming from the sound itself.
A piercing, deafening, haunting trumpet sound from heaven.
17
THE STRANGER IN THE DARK
The figures huddled together in the shadows could be alive or dead. Tommy’s not exactly sure until he hears some muffled voices. Then whimpers, very low, as if noise will hurt and cause more pain. It’s a bit scary and he leaves the strangers alone.
It takes him a few minutes to realize where they are. Once the skies started raining icy death balls, he and the others scampered like dogs with their tails tucked between their legs. The nearest opening —broken glass doors that they dashed through —led into a large, open space with tables shuffled around and books scattered on the floor.When Tommy sees a cabinet of index cards, he finally understands.
Their shelter is the Wilmington Public Library.
Guess it takes the end of the world to get me to step foot in a library.
The humor in his head is good because if he loses it, he might lose his sanity, too.
Tommy is near the front when the trumpet blast rocks the building. Not a let’s-rock-out-with-the-band sound but another explosion of noise that literally rocks and shakes the whole building. He grabs a bookshelf and feels the rattling while the sound seems to be piercing the center of his brain.
“What the —?”
He can’t even hear his own words.
The lights inside the library go off and on, giving the room the feel of a futuristic disco. Tommy feels cold and heavy and really not so good. The way he used to feel when he did something bad and was about to have to face his parents. Or the way he feels at funerals. Awful with all this unexplained stuff deep inside him.
When the blaring finally stops, the people in the library are talking louder. More people are crying. More voices cursing and talking with question marks.
“Where’s Skylar?”
Tommy looks and finds Dan at the entrance to the library. His new wife is nowhere in sight.
“Skylar!” Jack calls out.
They head into the dark pit of the library with Dan leading the way. The books tossed about look as disheveled as the bodies they’ve seen in the hotel and on the streets. Chairs are turned over. A decorative art piece is now dangling upside down. The farther they walk, the darker it gets.
She didn’t just disappear.
But calling out for her doesn’t get them anywhere. A whole bookshelf lies facedown on the floor. The lights still twitch on and off.
“Skylar? Where are you?”
Dan’s voice sounds hoarse and weak. Silence reigns as the hallway opens up into more tall shelves of books. Dan heads down one aisle while Tommy takes another.
For some reason, Tommy expects someone to jump out of the shadows.
Maybe it’s the dead bodies that are making me think this way.
He hears Dan’s footsteps nearby, then can hear Jack calling out her name.
“Sky —”
The rest of the name is lost when the earth suddenly bounces back and forth like a yo-yo. Whoever’s holding the string is yanking hard.
Tommy goes headfirst into a shelf of books as a dozen volumes
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