On November 18th 1996, my stepfather officially went missing. My mother tearfully told me over the phone as I sat in my cubicle. I tried to get her to calm down, reassuring her that things would be okay, whispering as quietly as possible in my office, my home away from home just like any other late-stage yuppie. She muttered through yelps about how he left, said he’d be back in a few hours, hadn’t come home and the police couldn’t find anything. After a little bit of apprehension, I understood simply that she needed me, and told her I’d come back home to check in on her. With a whimper of understanding at the plan, she hung up. I told my boss I had a family emergency and fled back across the East River to get packing.
I rushed in and started to gather some clothes for the drive, and mirroring me was Nevada, packing up her stuff, preparing to move out following our break up the month prior. She was standing there in one of my flannels that had assimilated itself into her wardrobe. Because of the constantly blasting heat during the winter in the apartment, she was wearing jean shorts and no socks. Her skin was pale like mine, a byproduct of our Michigander upbringing, and her hair was silky brunette with hints of magenta peaking through where she missed on re-dying. I only stared for a second before shuffling over to my closet. Nevada and I had split amicably but trying to keep living together just made things awkward, and she felt it was time for her to get her own place. I didn’t say anything to her when I entered, but she noticed how frantically I was moving.
“What’s going on, Nate?”
I told her after a moment of recollection,
“My uh… um, Martin went missing”
“Martin, like, your stepdad?
“Yeah, and my mom kinda needs me right now so I gotta.. Head back to Arrow Creek. I’m sorry I won’t be around to help you move out. I just gotta-”.
I stopped, surprised to find her hand on my shoulder and her head against my arm.
“I’m coming with you”.
I looked down at her with a sad smile and we said nothing more, just continued to pack. It was the closest I felt to her in a while, even though things weren’t bad per se, I just missed it is all. Why she would drop everything to go back to our Michigan backwater? No clue. She liked my family enough and they definitely liked her, but she was never particularly eager to see them. Her family had left Arrow Creek ages ago, moving somewhere in the middle of Ohio, so it’s not like they were there for her to see. My insecurities wanted me to believe pity was her reasoning, but I think truthfully she just cared enough to see it was a rough time for us both, and I appreciated her tagging along despite the lapsing distance.
The next morning, we trudged through the nightly puddles about half a street away to my SUV. From Brooklyn to Arrow Creek, Michigan was about a twelve hour drive without the looming threat of traffic. Along the way, I turned the radio to a local news channel which warned of bad weather coming:
“108.4 WIMI with a breaking weather bulletin, I’m Toby Bell- we’ve got a large blizzard coming in this week, currently striking over the great lakes. Record snow is being predicted from around 36-40 inches coming in around the East Bay and Houghton Lake areas by Wednesday the 20th. It’s not particularly dangerous for you northern natives out there, but caution is advised on the roads as visibility might be impaired. Make sure you bundle up if you have to head out with temperatures dropping close to -7 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday and staying near zero until Saturday, so you might wanna stay in and get cozy while the whole thing passes. We’ll be back with more Monday Grunge-day in a bit, back to DJ Keith Hodder with Alice in Chains coming up next”.
Snow wasn’t unusual in Northern Michigan, so I was pretty unfazed as a “native northerner”, and it sounded like a decent change of pace from the cold rains in the city. Nevada had seemingly no reaction either, just her general curiosity fluttering through her brown eyes as she watched the highways drift by out the window. The ride was mostly uneventful with Nevada and I trying to stave off boredom, singing along to old CDs and playing road trip games. We stopped for a short stint at McDonalds, and afterwards the food and car heater combined to put Nevada down for a nap. I turned off the radio so as to not wake her, and in that moment, I had the time by myself to think about Martin.
Martin and I had a strange but mostly-positive relationship. He came into my life when I was around thirteen, and he tried his best to be a father figure to me. At that age though I started to not feel so keen on listening to authority, especially some dude I barely knew who was just suddenly moving in. Looking back I regret my attitude towards him, because he was always patient with me even when I acted like an asshole. He took me fishing, we went to Tigers games in the summer and Lions games in the winter. He picked me up from the police station after my friends and I spray painted dicks on the middle school, not even angry, just soft-spoken and wondering why. He tried to give me advice and taught me to be patient with myself just as much as he was me. He and mom took Nevada and I’s prom pictures, he was sad but supportive of us moving away. I don’t think I often admitted it to him or myself, but I loved Martin- I don’t think I’d be the same person without him. So while I was really coming for my mom’s sake, I also needed to know what happened. It wasn’t like Martin to just vanish like this.
By the time we arrived in Arrow Creek, snow had begun to fall pretty hard with the fresh moonlight illuminating the clouds in a reddish hue. I pulled up to my mother’s old ranch house, surrounded by tall pines starting to be dusted in white. Wind whistled off the nearby lake making the air feel colder than it was, as harsh warm light poured out through the early evening. I entered without knocking, finding my step siblings Mary Beth and Johnathan running up quickly to greet me. I was rarely around since they were born; they were kids and I was pushing 30, so they kinda just thought of me as an uncle.
“Uncle Nate!” they cried, clutching to my legs. After glancing past me they did the same to Nevada.
“Aunt Nevada!”
Nevada shot me an awkward smile as she greeted them, they didn’t know any better. Sitting in Martin’s easy chair was my mother, completely zoned out watching reruns of M*A*S*H. Alan Alda would crack a joke, and she wouldn’t even smile. Before I had a chance to go greet her, a shadow entered from the kitchen doorway on the left.
It was my father, Steven.
I stared at him, no words escaping my mouth. He turned towards me, a mug of tea in his hand as his eyes met mine, a decades worth of distance between us.
“Hi, Nate”.
“Hi, Dad”.
That was the extent of our conversation as tension filled the air. It was broken when he spoke to Nevada.
“Hi Nevada,” He reached out his hand. “Good to see you again”.
“You too, Mr. Fischer”.
She glanced at me vaguely. I could feel her discomfort grow as her fingernails dug into my sleeve as she clung close.
“What are you doing here, Dad?”
“I thought I’d check in on Sharon, given the news and all”.
He could see the doubt in my eyes as to why he was really here; he stepped closer.
“Look, I know you hate me. But I promise you I’m not trying to do anything to hurt your mother. I’m just worried about her is all .”
“Sure, Dad. It’s very like you”.
I grabbed the tea from him and walked towards my mother, leaning down next to the chair. Nevada stuck with the kids as they played with my old action figures and cars, a better choice between them and Dad. Mom stared with glazed eyes at the TV in a mindless drone, her actual thoughts elsewhere. I tried to snap her back.
“Hi, Mom”.
She blinked and turned towards me, sobbing softly and leaping into a hug over the arm of the chair.
“Oh Nate, sweetie,” she said into my jacket, “I’m so glad you’re home”.
“Of course Mom, Nevada’s here too, we’re gonna stay a day or so and help take care of you and the kids”.
Nevada waltzed over hurriedly to personally reassure her; just the kind of person she is.
“Yes, Mrs. Forster, anything you need- we’re here for you”.
Mom smiled so broken-hearted at us, but also with a lot of comfort beaming through her glassy green eyes. She wiped away a stray tear and nodded at us, softly uttering a thanks as she tried to get lost in her show once again. Nevada and I took our bags from the car and wandered towards the guest room at the end of the hall. The house had my mom’s room, the kids sharing a room, my dad on the couch in the living room, the guest room and the basement. Mom knew we were split up, but obviously in the state she was in, it wasn’t of the most importance that we be separated given the circumstances. I would have been fine sharing the bed, not as if it was the first time, but because of my lingering feelings I had to try and come up with a solution; or so I thought.
“So, you take the bed, and I think we may have a cot or folding bed, or something in the basement”.
She blinked at me.
“Nate, we can just share the bed”.
“Are you serious?”
“I mean, we’ve done it for years, what’s another night or two?”
“I don’t know, it might be weird I don’t want either of us to be uncomfortable”.
She could tell I meant that I didn’t want her to be uncomfortable.
“Me sleeping next to you is definitely a lot less uncomfortable than sleeping in the freezing basement.”
“I guess you’re right”.
As I was getting ready to sleep, I heard soft crying coming from my mothers bedroom. I inched quietly down the hall so as to not wake my Dad from his sofa slumber. I pushed the door to her room open and saw her on the edge of the bed, head in her hands; I rushed over.
“Hey, hey, c’mon Mom you gotta get some sleep.”
She was barely comprehensible through her tears.
“What if he’s dead?”
“You don’t know that, Mom”.
“What if he left me? What if he found someone else?”
“Martin’s not like that Mom, don’t think like that”.
“What am I gonna do?” she choked through her breaths.
I stopped for a moment to come up with something to give her solace.
“Alright, look, where did he say he was going?”
“He said he was going out for a bit of fishing and maybe hunting but had to stop in town first. That was the last I heard from him”.
“Alright, I’ll head out tomorrow and look for him.”
Her crying stopped and she looked up at me, wiping away her sniffles.
“You’re gonna find him?”
“I promise I’ll try, now get some sleep”.
She thanked me before laying down, I turned out her light and said goodnight. I had to really think over what I said as I walked back towards my room. It’s a promise I made in sincerity but had no idea how to fulfill. How the fuck was I supposed to know where he was? I’m an accountant not a detective. I mean, I wanted to find him too, but the likelihood of me being able to was miniscule at best. I caught Nevada up to speed when I re-entered the guest room, and without much protest she agreed to go on this sleuthing adventure. She was usually up for anything, so you’d think I’d be unphased. But to just openly agree to go on an actual missing persons investigation, I expected a bit more questioning. I think she really just wanted to help, playing along if this was a mid-life crisis.
“Anything for your family, you know that”.
I tried my best to face the wall as we slept, and Nevada was all over the place- my favorite cover hog. She looked the same as she always did, a little messy but pretty as always. I felt safe for at least those few hours, like all this shit from the last year wasn’t going on right now. Why did we even break up? I was constantly working, tired and barely around. She felt kind of stagnant, and wanted to do something else with her life, arts at Pratt affording her many opportunities that weren’t paying off in the oversaturated job market in Manhattan. Rent was convenient to split, but there was still a lot of emotional tension there. That’s why she wanted to leave, I think. I can lie to myself and pretend it was amicable, but god I didn’t wanna lose her after all this time. She was still the only person in the world I could really trust, and to just have her close by felt better than anything, even if it was only for a little while.
The next morning, we tried to head out early. I said goodbye to my Mom and gave a small acknowledgement to my Dad before Nevada and I buttoned up in our winter best and went out to search. He stopped me at the door, the wind and snow already having invaded the yard around us.
“You got your gun, Nate?”
“Yeah, I always keep it in the car. Why?”
“It’s hard to see out there, you never know if you’ll run into something”.
I nodded and walked out, into the unknown.
Overnight, the snow had only gotten heavier and a thick fog enveloped the woods. Outside was pure white with shadows of trees and signs only peeking through the dense cloud. With cautious skill, I maneuvered into central Arrow Creek and never before had I seen it so dead. Even with a population of 1,100, you’d think we would’ve seen somebody walking a dog or something but there was really no one, only the occasional state snow plow barreling through every 10 minutes or so. Almost every store in town was closed on account of the blizzard, and very few cars were parked on the street, but lucky for me, an old favorite stop of mine was still buzzing on: Arrowhead Diner.
I pulled up out front, and Nevada and I pushed past the icy winds and through the glass doors. As we entered, I saw Ted Nielsen still guarding his post behind the counter. He was nearing 60 years old at this point, but no gray showed through his bright ginger hair that sprouted heavily around his face and bald spot. Inside his goatee was his usual cigarette, only matched by a flannel rolled up to the sleeves that sported a longjohn beneath it. Over his jeans sat a greasy white apron tied around his waist, sitting tightly under his beer belly.
He spotted me and cracked a smile, quickly adding his cigarette to his collection in the nearby ashtray. He rounded the counter and gave me a big bear hug.
“Nate Fischer, how good to see you buddy!”
“Ah Ted, it’s been too long.”
I embraced him back.
“And Nevada!” he chirped in excitement. He picked her up and spun her around before setting her back down. I could tell we all needed the laugh. He went back around the counter and grabbed two mugs, instantly filling them with coffee. He hollered back to the kitchen, his wife working the stoves.
“Edna! Two classics on the house!”
I thanked him for the coffee and stared at the TV hanging from the corner. Over highlights of the Michigan State football game was a banner warning about the weather and a few missing person notices. It seemed peculiar to me; maybe people were really just getting lost in the storm, Martin included. I snapped out of my investigation when Ted spoke.
“So what are you doing here, city slicker? Feeling homesick?” he joked.
“Uh no… I don’t know if you heard but my stepfather went missing.”
“Oh yeah, read it in the newspaper and couldn’t believe it. Hope Martin’s okay out there, and your Mom of course. I literally just saw him the day before, life’s so strange that wa-”
“Wait, you saw Martin before he went missing?”
“Yeah he stopped by for lunch, he does that every other Monday.”
“Did he say where he was going?”
“Just said he was going to maybe fish a little and go hunting. I thought he was crazy with this weather starting up.”
“Shit. Do you know where he goes?”
“I mean, there’s only one lake in town, you know that. But uh, I went hunting with him a few times and usually he likes to go to Carpenter State Park between here and West Branch.”
A huge lead; maybe I wasn’t so bad at being a detective after all.
Nevada looked at me with urgency, “We should go.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Uh, Ted? Thanks for the breakfast offer but we should get back out there.”
I plopped $50 on the table.
“Oh alright, Nate… wait, what’s this for!?”
“Get you and Edna home and safe alright, get out of this storm.”
Before he could protest the money, Nevada and I already moved towards the door.
“Oh my, thanks Nate! You two be careful out there, ya hear!” he called through the dead diner as the doorbell signaled our exit.
Lucky for me, spending a lot of time around here being a delinquent youth gave me enough knowledge to know my way around, even through the minor visibility. After a while of white noise provided by blustery snowflakes, Nevada spoke to me in a concerned manner.
“Nate.”
“Uh.. yeah, what’s up?”
“Do you really think we’re gonna find Martin out here?… In this shit?”
“To be honest, no. But I promised Mom I’d at least try so, here we are.”
“Yeah, no, right. I just hope we don’t get killed in this weather.”
I nod at her reassuringly and turn back to the road. She looked worried, her eyes darting in small circles like she didn’t know what to focus on. I’ve seen her stressed of course- through tests in high school to job applications in the city, but worry was a different emotion for her, and something about that set my heart sinking as well. Was I just trying to play the hero? To prove something to myself or her in some desperate act? I wondered if my intentions were selfish, I don’t really think they were, but I knew either way that there was a lot of responsibility on me now, especially if something happened to Nevada. Pretty much at the point of no return.
We arrive at the lake barely visible by its large sign. The edge of East Bay connecting to our little hamlet was marked by a shoddy gravel parking lot that still managed to crunch under its powdery dress. No other cars were around, so still no sign of Martin. We managed to get out and find the elevated boardwalk that led to the shore because its guard rails poked out of the snow mounds. We held onto them like a connecting rope, slowly pulling ourselves towards the shoreline. When we got there, there was no separation between sand or water, everything was covered and the lake was thoroughly frozen over. There was no car on the shore, and any possible hint of fishing or ice fishing had its evidence destroyed by the frost. As we turned back, the community event board that sat at the entrance was covered in half a dozen missing persons posters. Not only were the people from Arrow Creek, but also the surrounding Houghton Lake and East Bay areas. The newest addition was Martin’s flier, flapping at the bottom right, still shiny from its industrial print job. Something wasn’t right here. How have this many people gone missing so close together and so recently? Their dates all came within the start of November till then. There didn’t seem to be a clear answer devised between either Nevada or I.
While we started our way back to the car, I couldn’t tell if the fog had grown or not, and it only got more difficult to tell as I had to wipe down my glasses every couple of minutes, Nevada farther ahead and turning back to make sure I didn’t get buried. We shivered as we started the car, her brown hair glistening with water droplets and my normally jet black hair taking a white sheen.
“Looks like we gotta go to the park.” She joked.
“Just like the good old days” I shot back.
About 20 minutes passed before we crossed the sign signifying that Carpenter State Park was about a mile on our left. I felt relief pass over me as I cruised a little faster through the mist. I felt comfortable at this higher speed until something lurched out of the woods and passed the car. I slammed the breaks and skidded off path, across the rumble strips before pulling myself to a stop on the side of the road. Nevada and I gasped in panic, confused at what had happened.
“What the fuck was that?”
“I have no fucking idea”.
I really didn’t even know what it was, it blended in with the all white surroundings. I looked around for any sight of it, but saw nothing. Other than something round and black in the uncharted woods about 50 feet out.
“Nevada, look- I think that’s a tire out there.”
“Martin’s car?”
We got out quickly, but before I did, I made sure to grab my .38 police special revolver I kept in the glove compartments for emergencies. I’d never used it before, but this felt like the right time for a christening, remembering what my father said. We waddled towards the car, and there it was. Martin’s no doubt, I recognized his Ford Explorer anywhere, buried in snow, but its red paint contrasting against it. Nevada looked around the car, trying to get inside but there was no sign of Martin. I looked further into the woods, a long stretch of trees that led to a steep, high-standing cliffside that overlooked it. A bright light peeked through a sizable crack in the cliffside, and among it stood two figures. I could barely make them out in the fog or at this distance. They looked like two men, tall and lanky, both bald and standing naked, and blisteringly pale out in the bare elements. Their frame and skin was one thing that didn’t feel out of the ordinary, but the way they stood and watched from behind the trees without any sort of clothes or uttered noises gave me pause.
I felt a chill not from the snow, and despite my fears, I felt the need to push forward.
“Keep an eye on the car” I said to Nevada who agreed, she had already started breaking into it for a sign of life, or something that would signify what had happened. As I approached the lit crack, the two figures gave ungodly clicking screeches before retreating into the fog and over the cliff. Okay, so definitely not normal. I heard my heavy breathing and my puffy jacket sliding along itself, and something else; something new. A pulsing, wet sound coming from the crack filled with light. It wasn’t just a crack, but a hole. I tried to look in with not much payoff, and finally decided after feeling around with my arm that I could squeeze myself through.
When I entered this crack I expected a small overhang of rocks, an eroded part of the cliffside that just led out into the other side of the forest, the most reasonable place for the white light to be coming from. But instead I found what I could only reasonably describe as a hive. The whole of the cave was filled with a stretchy white material, like spiderwebs made from polymer, as if the whole thing was carved from erasers. Lining walls were these pods, rows and rows of translucent eggs with.. People. The people who had gone missing, their bodies slowly digesting in one pod and replicas forming in adjacent ones. Some H.R Giger-esque nightmare, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A sick joke? An elaborate prank? That was the least reasonable justification.
One pod was empty however, and sitting at the base of its cracked shell was Martin in his hunting gear, looking frozen and wet.
“Holy shit, Martin! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine” he said, no inflection or exasperation in his voice. At that moment however, I didn’t notice.
“C’mon, let’s get you out of here.”
I grabbed his arm and yanked towards the hole. He pulled away.
“Why?”
“Why?.. Because we’re in a fucked up nest, Martin!”
“It’s so nice down here.”
I stood up quickly and stepped backwards, the white uterus around me squelching underneath my feet. This thing wasn’t Martin, not anymore. He got up and started towards me in a disturbingly calm manner. I backed up more, holding him at distance with the barrel of my .38.
“Martin, what are you doing?”
“You should join us, Nate. It’s so nice and safe here.”
I unlatched the safety and cocked the hammer back.
“STOP!”
“You won’t have to do anything again, let us do everything for you.”
“BACK THE FUCK UP, I’M WARNING YOU!”
“Give up control, Nathan. Become a passenger.”
My back was pushed against the hole.
“Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Humans can’t live through the storm inside.”
He lunged towards me, his face contorting, and without hesitation I fired a round into his forehead.
He slumped over onto the ground, a gross, fleshy film peeled off of him and lurched back towards the other pods.
“FUCK” was all I could muster frustratedly, staring down at his body. I grappled with what just happened, not able to process it as choked sobs left my mouth. My step dad was dead, his real body long gone and whatever had become him slumped over in front of me, looking just like him. I screamed loudly before forcing myself back through the hole and back into the forest. I felt hot tears quickly freeze to my face, and my breaths had become stinging and harsh through my soft crying. To my shock, Nevada was standing by a tree outside the hole. She grabbed me and hugged me for a moment, trying to ask what happened as I mumbled incoherently. A few seconds later she dug into me with her fingers and sternly urged me to quiet down with shushing and a shaky finger to her lip, her gaze turning upwards towards the cliff. I turned around slowly, snow hitting my glasses obscuring the two creatures observing us with tilted heads and clicky groans. I finally had the chance to see what they were.
The one on the left sat perched on a branch like a monkey, its eyes shone like diamonds as they grazed me, bright light springing forth from them, and its mouth, a wide slit running down its face in a twisted, pulled way towards its cheeks. The right one gripped sturdily onto a tree, peering around curiously, its body the same but face different. It had no nose but beaded black eyes that tore into me. Its jaw was splayed in a wide grin, rows of humanoid teeth multiplied and seated in a sickening display, rotting like wood in a shallow bloody pond. Both watched from the height of the fog, their presence feeling ephemeral and ethereal, like they were biblical angels.
I backed up, grabbing Nevada by the hand and slowly guiding us backwards. As the groans turned to shrieks we separated, full on sprinting through the snow the best we could. I tripped once or twice as snow blocked my vision. The second time I looked backwards, our supernatural assailants jumped through the trees and watched with an eager hunt on their faces. Nevada made her way towards me and grabbed my hand.
“Nate! We gotta fucking GO!”
We kept moving, stepping up and over the high snows, the falling bluster covering up any evidence that we were there.
Eventually we made it back to our car still on the roadside.
Quickly we dove back in and I raced full speed towards town, the smell of gunpowder polluting the cars air.
“What happened back there?” Nevada implored.
“Martin he’s.. He’s dead.”
“Wh- How?! What happened?”
“Those fucking things, Nevada”
“What do you mean?”
“Those things, they took Martin and the other people… They’re becoming them”.
“What, like.. Like clones?”
“I.. I guess.”
“So.. where was Martin?”
“Already cloned. I.. I had to kill him- it. It wasn’t Martin anymore.”
“Holy shit, Nate. What the fuck did we get ourselves into.”
“I don’t know, I’m so fucking sorry you came with me.”
She stared blankly off for a moment before grabbing my arm.
“I’m not.”
She just looked at me, her eyes big and I just sadly smirked at her when I glanced over.
We drove the rest of the way in solemn silence. When we got back in, it was way past midnight. I sat up staring at the wall and occasionally checking the windows, while Nevada sat on the shower floor for most of the night. We packed our bags and loaded the SUV through tired eyes in the morning. When I asked Nevada if she found anything in Martin’s car, she didn’t turn up any results. No information that was useful to us at the least.
I told my Mom we didn’t find anything, I didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth about Martin or anybody else. I said I had to head back to the city for work but that I’d call her when we got in. I also made sure to give my Dad a hug before I left, asking him to look after Mom and granting him the trust he wanted. We drove through town on our way out, and I had one idea before leaving. I stopped outside the diner to use a payphone. I called the FBI anonymous tip line, telling them approximately where the nest was, implying it was urgent they check it out. They wanted more info but I simply hung up, trying my best to not think about it or attach myself any further.
I couldn’t get those creatures out of my head, The Pilots as I came to call them. I remembered Martin’s clone urging me to become a “Passenger” which makes me wonder if Martin was still in there somewhere. I call them Pilots as they seem to take the host on a trip, one that you can’t come back from. All you can do is sit back and watch the plane go down, taking others with it. I don’t know where they came from, and I’m still not sure if there’s more somewhere else. I’ve had little time to really think about it at the moment.
Nevada and I were husks as we started away from Arrow Creek. She stared blankly out at the road ahead, too scared to look out the windows and into the forest, and I felt the same hesitation. But as we drove slowly, she kept her hand in mine, and her head laid against my shoulder. Despite everything we saw, maybe the one thing that was still okay was us. The silence was a lot less uncomfortable with her next to me. As we took the country roads out of town towards the highway, the wind whistled, and even miles out from town, I really couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched.