North

“There’s another one,” Becca said from the passenger seat. “What the hell!”

It was a man this time. He’d pulled his car onto the gravel shoulder of the highway and looked north.

“Do you see anything yet?” I glanced but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

“No. Nothing. Fields and clouds. That’s it.”

I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. “What the hell.”

This person was the third we’d seen staring in that direction. The first was a woman who pulled her truck onto a side road and stared at a very unpicturesque marshy field of weeds. The second was a woman with no vehicle who stood on the edge of the highway, arms by her side. And now this guy.

Becca peered through my side window and searched the horizon. “There’s nothing there.”

She sounded pissed.

“I’d get it if there was something out there...”

She trailed off, but I knew what she meant. Not a cloud filled the blue sky. The sun was high and hot, and the fields were open and bare.

She leaned back in her chair, and her feet went onto the dash. She was silent as she stared out the front window.

Her feet dropped back to the floor. “Can we stop and look?”

I scoffed. “No!”

“Come on. I gotta know.”

“We want to get to the hotel before nighttime.”

“Maybe we’re missing something. It will be five minutes.”

“No...” I didn’t want to be a dick, but the whole thing seemed foolish. Even if we were missing something, it changed nothing. If it were that important, we’d see it in the news later.

“Please?”

I knew she wouldn’t stop until I listened. Her mind was set.

“Fine, but make it quick.”

I slowed and edged onto the shoulder. Becca jumped out of the car and stood on her side, staring across the road.

I rolled down her window. “Anything?”

She shook her head.

Checking for oncoming cars on the vacant road, she raced across and stared across the fields. If a car passed by now, they’d think she was one of the others.

I rolled my window down. “Anything?”

She didn’t answer. “Becca?”

Still nothing.

Was she messing with me? I stepped out of the car and crossed over to her.

“Becca?” I put an arm on her shoulder.

She flinched.

“I thought... I thought I heard something...”

She trailed off before she shook her head. “Sorry, whatever it was, it’s gone now. We can go.”

Yes, we could. We certainly could, but I heard a voice.

At first, distant, then close, whispering in my ear and calling my name.

Becca yelled too and called my name, but I ignored her.

I only cared about the voice calling my name, calling me to join it, calling me to fight in its war of all wars.

I had no choice.

I looked to the north and called back yes.