A Small Gray Dot

“As to how they got here, I did learn that and it was not by way of a spaceship. That’s one way they have taken advantage of the anomaly we call the Event.” He pointed up. “The gray film that hangs above Blue Heaven is their passageway. It is a small part of the anomaly that they have kept… for lack of a better term… wedged open. There are other transporters hidden within one of the warehouses, I think. They all interface somehow with the anomaly through the device or wedge that holds it open. They bring personnel and other items in that way. Each time they use a transporter to bring them or anything to our world, as a side effect a residue is generated, a vapor that clings to everything and leaves everyone with stinging eyes, and it emits odd frequencies that are picked up by my instruments.”

I stared at him. That answered my two-months-back question to the entryway guards of what was causing eye irritations in Blue Heaven. It also explained the oily roads, and indicated that not all the grime on the surfaces of the buildings was from fireplaces or wood-burning stoves.

I was trying to get it together and ask pertinent questions but my thoughts were scattered and the question I came up with was probably not very relevant but was all I could think of at the moment.

“Er, so, why is the place called Semptor Labs? Do they have a lab, and do they actually develop anything there?”

“They don’t have a lab. As near as I can tell, Henderson called it that because he liked the way it sounded. Perhaps the name is similar to something in his language.”

I was unable to think of what to say to that, so I nodded as though it made sense.

This was not anywhere near how I’d thought things would go after getting Morgan away from Talbert.

I ordered my jumbled thoughts. I supposed the doctor could provide an answer on why the neighborhood was so damned hard to navigate, but now I thought of the question in which I was most interested. What produced the thing that killed half the world?

“Okay, you said they didn’t cause the Event but that you know what did. You want to elaborate on that?”

Morgan gasped and leaned forward. She hadn’t heard that part, either. “What? You know what caused it?”

The doctor nodded and said flatly, “Yes, I do, and the epicenter of the interaction was right here in Blue Heaven.” He leaned back and crossed his legs at the ankles. “On the day of the Event, I stepped out on my front stoop preparing to take my morning walk when suddenly, the sun, well, it flickered. I looked up to see what appeared to be a small gray dot about the size of a dime from my perspective. I ran back inside to get a camera, and rushed back out to take pictures but the camera wouldn’t work so all I could do was watch. It grew larger and began spreading across the sky.

“It quickly grew to cover everything from horizon to horizon. I could see the gray covering wasn’t a fog, though it appeared to settle to the ground as a fog would. I could see people walking around and at the onset, because of the obscured lighting, I thought them to be some of my neighbors.

“That is I did until one came down the sidewalk and walked through my mailbox while crossing my yard, and continued through the large camellia that grows on the side toward my next-door neighbor. At that point I realized that whatever they were, they weren’t solid.” He made a huffing noise and shook his head. “I don’t mind saying that I was downright frightened. Though I felt fine, it even occurred to me that I might be having some type of ischemic episode, such as a stroke, and might be hallucinating but at that point, someone began screaming and I rushed down my walk to see what was going on. I got across the road to see my neighbor, who usually walked with me in the mornings, staring at something on her lawn. I went up to it and it was a body.”

He peered at me then at Morgan before continuing. “I don’t suppose I have to describe the condition of the poor fellow. I’m sure you’ve either seen it or heard it before. I didn’t know the man. He was a complete stranger. My neighbor and I tried to call for help but you know what happened with that. I won’t go into other gruesome details of that day, but here is something that I’m sure not many outside of Blue Heaven knows: no one who lived here died that day.”

That was shocking. It wasn’t anything I’d ever heard before. Someone in every neighborhood within the city died; in some, like my parents’, all of the residents had.

I frowned. “Sir, what of the man on your neighbor’s lawn? Where did he come from?”