Read Darkness on the Edge of Town for Free Online Page B

enough to feed everybody. Cranston made a joke about Jesus and loaves and fishes. I just kept quiet, holding on to Christy’s hand and surveying the crowd. If I’d had to guess,I’d have said that about a little less than half of the town’s population was there, which made sense, given the number of people who had gone to work. Still, it was a lot of people, more than I’d ever seen gathered at one time in Walden, even counting the annual firemen’s carnival, which was always held in the very spot where we were all milling around.
    Eventually, the big guy on top of the fire engine must have decided there were enough people present. He raised a microphone to his lips and cleared his throat. There was a squeal of electronic feedback. The other fireman adjusted the sound system. The feedback faded, and the crowd fell silent, waiting.
    “Thank you all for coming—”
    “Speak up,” a woman shouted.
    “Can’t hear you in the back,” someone else added.
    He tried again, this time more forcefully. “Thank you all for coming. I know that you’re all probably just as spooked as we are right now, so I appreciate the effort. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Seymour Peters, and I’m the fire chief for Walden.”
    Christy squeezed my hand hard, and I turned to look at her. She trembled with suppressed laughter. Grinning, I mouthed the guy’s name.
    “Seymour Peters,” Russ whispered. “See more peters. Jesus Christ! His parents must have really hated him.”
    Christy snickered harder. It made me feel good to see her laughing after the morning’s strangeness. Cranston was shaking with silent mirth as well. His shoulders jiggled up and down.
    “As I’m sure you’re all aware,” Chief Peters continued, “we’ve had something of a situation this morning. Heck, I guess you can look around and see for yourselfthat something’s happened. Unfortunately, we don’t know what that something is.”
    “Succinctly put,” a man standing near us grumbled. “Tell us something we don’t know.”
    A rumble went through the crowd as people began to share their opinions and theories. The chief held up his hands and pleaded for silence, and they slowly fell quiet again. Before he spoke again, the Chief coughed several times—dry, rasping, and forceful. I made him for a smoker.
    “What we do know,” he continued, “is that our community has lost all of our utilities. We’ve tried contacting fire stations and emergency services in nearby towns, but so far we’ve had no luck. Cell phones and land lines aren’t functioning. There are no incoming signals of any kind, including television and radio. That applies to all cable and satellite signals as well. There’s nothing on the emergency or citizen’s band channels either, and the ham radio frequencies have also gone silent. My men tell me that the internet is down, too. Have any of you spoken with anyone from the outside since this morning? Friends or family? Maybe a coworker? Delivery person? Anyone like that?”
    Nobody raised a hand or volunteered that they had. The chief nodded. His expression was grim.
    “Some of you probably had—I mean have —loved ones who went to work or traveled outside the town limits. Have any of you heard from them since they departed? Have any of them come back?”
    Again, nobody in the crowd volunteered that they had.
    “The crew and I have been discussing our situation. Now understand, we live here, too, and some of us have got loved ones missing as well. So believe me when Itell you that we understand what you’re going through. That being said, we think it’s best if everyone stays in their home for the time being. It’s dark out here, and we don’t need people wandering the streets. I know it’s probably tempting to search for your families, but doing so right now is only going to create more problems. We ask that you remain indoors until we are able to better determine exactly what has happened.”
    “Fuck that