Alan Tucker [Tucker - The Devil You Know, Episode 1

Contents

Dedication

For all those whove supported and encouraged me, the journey has been long, but hopefully worth it in the end. Thank you.

EPISODE 1

This is Lisa Hernandez, reporting live from the White House and the excitement here is palpable! The President just made his way onto the stage, along with the Vice President and Congressional leaders. Were now awaiting the arrival of oh! Here they are now. Three delegates from the alien race, calling themselves ahgralamartok. They are quite short the tallest not even reaching the Presidents chin with large heads and dark, expressive eyes. The aliens are shaking hands with each human in turn and I cant help but think back to the Close Encounters movie I watched as a child. According to the White House press release, this same scene is playing itself out in dozens of other countries around the world as we speak. The ahgralamartok are meeting with the leaders of every major nation on Earth, offering friendship and technological support to humanity as a whole. Shortly, the President will address the nation and give us more on the specifics of this momentous occasion

From a news radio broadcast on Amalgamation Day

1 Abraham

Abraham Black first heard the whispers the night his wife and baby daughter died in his arms.

Abraham

The whispers had frightened him. Had he lost his mind along with his family? Were hallucinations the first indications of the Blight? He hadnt recalled hearing that as a symptom severe headaches and the distinctive gray, clammy skin had been the only warning signs. Death quickly followed, usually within hours. Few had lasted more than a day.

Abraham

As that night wore on and the pain of his loss had sunk in, the whispers had become seductive. They had promised power and glory and, most of all, revenge.

Abraham

After nearly a year of living with them, however, the whispers had ceased to frighten or seduce. They had become an annoyance.

Hush, Demon, Abraham mumbled.

Is that all you have to say to me after everything Ive done for you? Hush, Demon?

Abraham rolled over and opened his eyes. Dust, stirred by his movement, twirled and sparkled in a shaft of sunlight fighting through a dirty window of the abandoned barn where he had spent the night. Farm implements, including a newer model tractor, sat unused and forgotten all around him. The concrete floor made his rest uncomfortable, but the building was relatively vermin free and provided shelter from a spring shower during the night. The clouds had evidently passed over while he slept, but Abraham heard a blustery wind driving against the western wall of the structure.

You know, the brooding, silent type might work with the ladies, but its a real downer for a traveling companion.

I told you to be quiet.

Oh, no. You dont get to order me around that easy. Were a team, remember? You signed on for this.

Abraham sighed, caught in the ugly truth. A moment of weakness I regret every day.

Speaking of weakness, you need to eat, Big Fella. I cant sustain you forever you know.

In echoing agreement, Abrahams stomach rumbled. He stood up and scratched his cheek, his fingers scraping through the short whiskers there. Shaking his head, he picked his way through the scattered mess of tools on the floor. Someone had come through here before him, probably months ago, maybe looking for fuel or other useful supplies. While the equipment was all essential for a life of agriculture, little of it would be helpful to someone desperately trying to escape a deadly epidemic. Abraham opened the door and stepped out into a stiff breeze. His skin prickled at the change in temperature.

Springtime in Montana was a fickle beast. Sunshine and warm temperatures could give way to clouds and snow in a matter of hours. Wind existed as the only constant, yet its strength remained as capricious as the rest of the weather. Abrahams navy blue jacket flapped away from the plaid, flannel shirt he wore underneath. He grabbed at the jackets edges before remembering the zipper had broken a few weeks back. Sighing again, he scanned the horizon, squinting into the morning sun.

In the distance, beyond intermittent clusters of trees and brush, a thin plume of smoke trailed into the sky, following the wind. A mile, maybe two, he decided while absently twirling the wedding band he still wore on his finger. Its fit had loosened during the long winter. Smoke meant habitation. Habitation meant the possibility for a meal. Abraham set his feet and marched toward a potential breakfast.

So much walking! If you followed my advice more, we wouldnt have to live this vagabond, trudge-about lifestyle.

What do you care, Demon? Abraham scoffed. Its not your feet in these boots.

It may as well be! Do you understand the energy I have to expend to keep you upright and strong? No. You dont. And do you convey any appreciation of my efforts?

Why should I? The longer I live in this world, the more I think Id have been happier to die along with my family.

Except you didnt. The Gray Blight spared your life, even as you watched your wife and child wither and expire from it.

Be quiet or be gone! Im sick of your jabbering. The reminder hurt, like lemon juice poured over a wound that would never heal, but almost as distressing was the fact the demon had become his only companion in an increasingly lonely world.

By some reports hed heard, the Blight had erased as much as ninety percent of the human population. No, erased was too clean a word for the carnage the plague had wrought. Abraham had encountered grisly examples of the Blights work on a weekly basis, at the very least, even a year later. Bodies sprawled where theyd fallen, decayed or picked apart by scavengers, especially in these rural areas where entire families had fallen victim to the indiscriminate disease. The first aliens to arrive on Earth the Grays claimed it hadnt been their fault, laying blame on the Bugs, the second extraterrestrial arrivals. In the Grays defense, they had developed a cure, though it came far too late for most. Regardless of which alien species carried the guilt, the damage to the human race had been brutal and thorough.

I picked you because I thought you were a fighter. Youre alive for the purpose of exacting revenge on behalf of your family. Cut out this melancholy shit and get your ass in gear.

Watch your language, Demon, Abraham said with a growl.

Or what? Youll appeal to God to smite me from His perch in heaven? Youve tried that before, remember? How well did that work out? Where is your God anyway? Where was He the night your family died?

Enough! Must you continue reminding me how far Ive fallen?

To be honest, it is part of the job.

Well then, consider that job finished for the day and please shut up.

Not unless you say my name.

No. Its disgusting. How did you get a name like that anyway?

Well, not everyone can have a cool moniker like Mephistopheles or Beelzebub, now can they?

The chorus of Say My Name by Destinys Child played in a continuous loop in Abrahams brain. He stopped and clapped his hands against his ears to no avail. Quit that!

It was so sad when Beyonc left the group for a solo career, dont you think?

Abraham groaned. Pus Drinker, stop the song and shut up!

The music quieted. Abraham grunted and resumed walking while feeling the demon grinning like a spoiled child inside his mind.

Birds chattered in a grove of trees off to his right. The terrain of south central Montana consisted of a transition zone from the mountainous region to the west into the largely desolate plains of the east. Fences and overgrown irrigation ditches regularly obstructed his path, along with the infrequent creek, but, being on his own, he preferred to travel cross country rather than follow the roads. People generally still used the highways, either with horse-drawn carts or on foot. He sometimes saw powered vehicles most often law enforcement or military. Few private citizens had access to reserves of gasoline after the power grid had failed around the time of the Blight. Since then, life had been dialed back a couple of centuries, with the occasional modern anachronism tossed in as a reminder of what had been mostly lost.