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He went into the kitchen to heat a cup of water in the microwave, then
added the mix
with miniature marshmallows.
“Gotta have the
marshmallows,” he murmured to himself. It wasn’t real hot cocoa without
them.
Taking his mug back into
the living room, instead of resuming his seat in front of the television,
he walked over to the glass patio doors and stared outside. The snow was
coming down harder. Already his deck chairs and grill were layered in the
stuff. He blew on the hot liquid and took a sip. He wouldn’t be surprised
if the storm left a foot of fine powder by morning.
The tiny lights
twinkling on the little tree behind him reflected in the glass door,
catching his attention. Beside it, the angel doll appeared to be watching
him.
He glanced over his
shoulder and raised his mug. “Would you like a cup of hot cocoa, too?” he
asked with a silly grin. He knew it was a goofy thing to do, talking to an
inanimate object as if it was capable of answering, but he didn’t care.
Something about that doll gave him a good feeling about himself.
He turned back to the
patio, when a streak of pure white light fell from out of the bank of
clouds and plummeted to the ground. Thinking it might be a meteorite, he
shoved open the door and rushed outside in time to see it land over on the
next block, in the undeveloped field behind where an apartment complex was
being built.
As the light from the
object gradually faded, Marq continued to stare at it, unmindful of the
cold, or the fact that his clothes were getting wet from the snow. He
focused on the meteorite and debated on whether to brave the weather and
check it out, when a movement left him breathless.
The meteorite moved.
No, his mind corrected
him. It wasn’t a piece of space debris. Space debris didn’t try to stand
up. Or could it?
It moved again.
Whirling around, he
dashed for the front door, grabbing his coat and keys on the way out. He
hit the elevator button, but the lift sat unmoving on the lobby floor. Not
wanting to wait for it, he took the stairs and hurried out of the
building.
The image of the
struggling figure in the field could only mean one thing. The space rock,
or whatever the hell had fallen out of the sky, had struck someone
crossing that field. Someone was hurt and injured, and needed immediate
help.
He was halfway to the
field when he searched his pockets for his cell phone to call 9-1-1, when
he realized he’d left it on the coffee table back at the condo. Mouthing a
curse word, he decided to keep going and help the poor sod who’d been at
the wrong place at the wrong time. With any luck, he could flag down
someone passing by and have them call in the emergency.
If there
is
an emergency,
he silently told himself. He hoped he
was wrong. He hoped he’d imagined what he’d witnessed. Or if he had
actually seen someone getting struck by a piece of space rock, that they
were okay and wouldn’t need to go to the hospital.
His pants and shoes were
thoroughly soaked by the time he reached the empty lot. The white light
had dissipated, and it was too damn dark to see if anything lay amid the
tall grass and brush. He should have brought a flashlight with him. “Maybe
I just imagined it,” he muttered as a shiver went through him. In spite of
his coat, his head was bare. If he was trying to prevent himself from
coming down with anything, he was doing a piss poor job of it.
He debated whether to
wade into the lot and keep looking for heaven knew what, or to go back to
his nice warm condo and the mug of hot chocolate he’d left on the patio,
which was probably ice cold by now. Stomping his feet, he turned to leave
when he heard a soft cry, like someone was in pain.
Shit. He hadn’t imagined
it.
He tromped into the
thicket of ice-coated grasses that swatted at him as he plowed through
them. “Hello? Can you hear me? Say something so I can find you!”
Straining his ears, he
tried to tune out the sound of traffic and focus on what might be ahead.
It came to him again. A groan, or a moan, as if someone was indeed
suffering.
He had to detour around
a large bush, and almost stumbled over the figure struggling to get to
their feet. In the dim light, it was hard to tell if the person was a man
or a woman. However, it was evident he or she was seriously injured.
“Hey, hey. It’s going to
be all right. Here, take my arm. We’ll get you someplace out of this cold,
and call you an ambulance.”
“No…’blance,” the person
muttered. A woman. Geeze, the meteorite had taken out a woman?
She grasped his coat
sleeve. Her grip was like iron in spite of her injuries. She raised her
head to look at him. In the semi-darkness, it was impossible to get a good
look at her face.
“Go,” she uttered,
swaying on her feet. “Go ‘way. Leave.” She acted as if she was
intoxicated, but there wasn’t any smell of alcohol coming off of her. Marq
knew that if he hadn’t seen what he’d seen, he might have thought she was
under the influence of something. Or maybe she was suffering from a drug
overdose. None of that mattered right now. What was important was to first
get her out of the cold so he could see if she needed medical help.
“Sorry, but I’m not
leaving you out here. Let’s get you someplace warm.” Wrapping a firm arm
around her waist, he helped her out of the brush and over to the sidewalk.
His hand clutched her hip, and he realized she was wearing a thin jacket
at best. Her steps were unsteady, her legs barely supporting her. Her body
shook, either from the cold or from what had happened to her.
He glanced around, but
the street and sidewalk was bare. The nearest building was the apartment
complex the next block over, but finding someone who’d be willing to take
them in long enough to call for help was iffy at best.
Marq glanced across the
lot at the six-story condominium. It was only a little farther away as the
complex, but it was a safer bet to take her there. He adjusted his arm
around her. “Come on. My place is in that building over there.” He pointed
to it. “It’s a lot safer than you being out here, and God knows how badly
injured you are.”
She seemed to hesitate a
moment, then slowly nodded once. “Yes. God knows,” she whispered, and
slumped unconscious against him. |
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