Page 53 of Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World
Eventually, I retreated to my bedroom and called Eric. I expected to get his voicemail again, so I was surprised when he answered on the second ring.
“Hey you,” he said quietly.
“Hi.”
Silence descended between us. I felt awkward, unsure.
“Are you okay?” he finally asked.
“Not really.”
“Yeah. Me neither. Are you following the news?”
“A little.” I paused. “What’s kept you so busy lately?”
He didn’t reply for a long time. Finally, he exhaled and said, “Family drama. I can’t really get into it, though.”
I fought to keep the hurt from my voice. “Oh. Okay.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you. It’s just…complicated.”
“Sure. I understand.”
“My offer still stands. I can get us out of the city. You, me, and Amira.”
For a moment, I was tempted. I could walk away from what I’d started and let someone else deal with it. I imagined the three of us—and Lex, if they were still talking to me—sitting on a tropical beach, drinking mai tais while warm ocean waves lapped at our feet. Then we could start over somewhere that wasn’t slowly dying. Eric could open his Korean bakery, Amira could finish her PhD at another school, and Lex…well, they would probably run to the nearest branch office of Dark Enterprises and bury themself in weird books.
And me? I’d never have the power I wanted so badly. Instead, I’d spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder, waiting for Management to find me. Or, worse, watching as that Thing devoured the world until it came for me last of all.
“I don’t think it’s that easy,” I said at last, my voice quiet.
“No,” Eric agreed after a long pause, “I don’t suppose it is.”
Impulsively, I asked him, “You would tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you? Something I should know about?”
He took a little too long to respond. “Sure,” he said. “Of course.”
I knew he was lying, but I kept my tone upbeat even as my heart twisted painfully in my chest. “Good.”
“Let’s start checking in more often, okay? I want to know that you’re safe.”
“Okay.”
I hung up, feeling utterly and entirely alone. Amira was frightened, Lex was angry with me, and Eric was lying. I had no one to talk to, no one to confide in. And to top it off, everything I’d ever wanted depended on me accomplishing an impossible task. Despairbeckoned. Maybe I should just sit back and accept my fate. Whether Ms.Crenshaw fired me, Management obliterated me, or the Thing devoured me, the result was the same. I was so tired of striving and struggling for whatever crumbs life threw my way. Wouldn’t it be better to stop trying?
I almost—almost—gave in. But then I remembered that I’d escaped my cubicle in Human Resources, though I’d long despaired of that ever happening. I remembered howgoodit had felt to shove Andrea and Gerald into the Stygian Maw, the thrill of watching Mr.Samuels sacrifice to the Old Ones, Ms.Price promising that Dark Enterprises would give me whatever I wanted. I wasn’t ready to give up. Not yet. I’d learned that the Thing was an Abomination, whatever that meant. I was closer to answers now than I had been before. I would keep striving, even if I had to do it alone, because people like me had to make their own success.
To heck with everyone else. I was going to save the world, and then take from it everything I’d ever wanted.
Sending in the National Guardwas a tipping point in the crisis engulfing New York. The disappearances became national news overnight, accelerated on social media by trending hashtags like #Raptured and #VanishedNYC. My phone blared with emergency broadcast alerts several times during the night, announcing the institution of a citywide curfew lasting until sunrise and ordering people off the streets. As a result, I was bleary-eyed and poorly rested as I got ready for work the next morning.
“You can’t stay home?” Amira asked from where she sat at the dining table, looking as tired as I felt. Her phone buzzed in herhand—it would be her parents, calling for the fourth time in the past hour, begging her to leave the city before it was too late.
I shook my head as I pulled on my cardigan. “No. But I’ll be fine. Text me every half hour, okay?” Kissing her on the cheek, I hurried out.
I was one of only four people waiting on the subway platform when normally there would be dozens. We eyed one another and shuffled uncomfortably until we stood in a sort of clump, seeking safety in numbers. The train was largely empty as well, but that meant we didn’t have to jostle for seats. Even apocalypses have their silver linings.
Midtown wasn’t deserted, exactly, but its sidewalks were definitely less crowded than usual, everyone looking over their shoulders as they hurried along. While waiting to cross Seventh Avenue I watched two armored personnel carriers trundle toward Times Square, presumably filled with soldiers ready to quell any unrest. It was an ominous sign that things were on their way from bad to worse.
