My Aunt Nancy mentioned the mosquito truck the first night I stayed with her. It was weird, not just that she mentioned it at all, but more the way she mentioned it. Almost as though she was cautioning me about a local mean dog that was prone to bite.
“Be careful if you go out at night, honey. This neighborhood is still okay, but it’s not as safe as it once was, and a few streets over they’ve been fighting a real drug problem. And,” she added with a nervous glance toward the window, “just make sure you’re back in by midnight. About one is when the mosquito truck comes around.”
I frowned at her. “You mean like one of those sprayer trucks that spray the bug poison?”
She shrugged and waved away the question. “I don’t know about all that, but I do know it’s not good to be out when it comes around.” Licking her lips, she put on a smile. “Just make sure you’re home and the door is locked by then, okay?”
Returning her smile, I tried to hide my confusion. This wasn’t like my aunt. She was older, sure, but she wasn’t dotty and she wasn’t scared to stay by herself. The only reason I was there at all was because my uncle was in the hospital, and starting the following night, Aunt Nancy was going to spend most nights up there with him and didn’t want their two cats to be too lonely with their people gone.
Still, oddity aside, I had too much going on to think about it for long. This week was supposed to be a vacation of sorts, but it was going to be a working one. I had the first draft of my thesis paper due for review the following week, and I was at least twenty pages from being done. Between that and making sure my aunt and uncle were doing okay at the hospital, I completely forgot my plan to stop by the store on the way back from checking on them, and it wasn’t until nearly midnight that my rumbling stomach forced me away from the laptop in the direction of the kitchen.
The pantry and refrigerator were both…well, they were far from empty, but between the stuff that was alarmingly old and the stuff that was just…gross-looking, I quickly went from planning to just scavenge until the next day to putting on my shoes and heading for my car. I did pause as I was grabbing my keys to think about what my aunt had said, but I immediately discounted it. I wasn’t sure if she was worried about us breathing in poison fumes or what, but it was silly. The city wouldn’t let them spray the stuff if it was that bad to breathe, and I didn’t plan on standing out in it anyway. Besides, I just wanted to grab some drinks, pizza and sandwich stuff, so I should be back before it came anyway.
When I came back and pulled into my aunt’s driveway, I found my gaze pulled down the street. She was right. It was still a cute neighborhood, but it was going down. The houses had been built probably seventy or eighty years earlier, and I had yet to see a neighbor that was under sixty. The place next door had railings coated in cracked, yellowed paint and shutters that hung crooked and wrong, and Nancy and Jack’s house looked more grey than the white that I remembered from my last visit a few years earlier. Now that I thought about it, the whole street has a feeling of age and disuse that felt a little sad and…
I felt my heart leap as I saw a pair of headlights down at the far end of the street. Glancing at the dash clock, I saw it was already 12:59. Grabbing my bags, I jumped out of the car and walked fast to the front door, fumbling for the key for a few seconds before remembering Nancy’s key was on another key ring in my front pocket. I heard the low growl of a muffler behind me and turned to look, expecting to see a big tank truck spewing white clouds of smoke out of the back. Instead, it was a small blue SUV packed full of kids that looked too young to be out so late. Shaking my head, I opened the door and went inside.
It wasn’t until I was eating frozen pizza a few minutes later that the strangeness of my reaction struck me. It was one thing to intentionally spook yourself—I think everyone has had times where they played at being scared in the dark or made a game or race out of something from their imagination. But this wasn’t that. I’d…I’d really been a little scared I wouldn’t get inside in time, though I couldn’t say why. Frowning, I put the pizza down.
Suddenly I wasn’t that hungry anymore.
“Beautiful day, isn’t it?”
I looked up from my phone to see a silver-haired lady flapping a hand covered in a gardening glove at me in an enthusiastic wave. Smiling, I stopped walking toward my car and waved back.
“Yeah. Yeah, it’s a nice day.” After an awkward pause, I added. “I’m Bryan. I’m…well, Nancy and Jack are my aunt and uncle.”
The woman walked toward me from the yard next door, removing a glove and offering a handshake as she drew closer. “I’m Gladys. I heard about your Uncle’s heart attack.” She frowned slightly. “He doing okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah, they think he’ll be home by this weekend. I’m just here keeping an eye on the house and the cats while she’s up at the hospital with him. I don’t think they like to be apart for long.”
Gladys raised an eyebrow. “Your aunt and uncle or them and the cats?”
I laughed. “I guess both, now that you mention it.”
Chuckling, she nodded and pointed back to the face of a small poodle staring intently at us from a front window. “That’s the way it is with me and Trudy. They’re a lot of company, aren’t they?”
“Yeah, they are.” I glanced back down at my phone. “It was nice meeting you. I need to head to the hospital. Going to make my aunt take a break and go get something to eat.”
Gladys smiled. “Sounds like she has a good nephew. Tell them everybody on the street misses them.”
I’d wound up spending the entire afternoon at the hospital, and that night, after an hour checking citations in my paper, I was ready to lay in bed and watch t.v. I was in the guest bedroom, which put my window toward Gladys’ house, and when I looked out I could see the dim orange glow of a lamp through what I guessed was her living room window. She was a nice old lady. Her and her little…
When I woke up, it was to the sound of a woman yelling outside, and it took me a moment to figure out it was Gladys calling for Trudy over and over. Looking out the window I saw her small silhouette, silver hair softly glowing above a blue robe as she shined a flashlight around at the bushes bordering her house. Slipping on my shoes, I went outside to see what was wrong.
“It’s Trudy. She asked to go out…she never asks to go out so late, but she acted like she really needed to go and…she ran around the house and now I can’t find her.” Her voice was thick with emotion as she looked between me and the shadowy yard. “She never runs off like that. Always comes right back when she’s done with her business. I…Trudy! Come here, sweetie! Come to mama!” She shook her head again, looking lost as she started around the house.
“I’ll be right back. Let me grab my phone and I’ll use the light to help you look for her.”
She lifted a hand absently. “Thank you, honey.”
Running back inside, I started looking for my phone. Where had I left it? I’d had it when I was on the laptop, but did I bring it to bed? Yeah, I was looking at it during that stupid show…My hand closed around it in the tangle of sheets, and as I turned it over, I saw the time.
1:02
Outside, I heard the heavy rumble of an engine as something large drew near. Turning to the window, I first saw Gladys, holding Trudy now as her expression went from one of tearful joy to a kind of terror that…I don’t think I’d ever seen anyone so scared in real life. My gaze followed her own out to the street, where the dark thing had lurched to a hissing stop.
That’s when I first saw the mosquito truck.
It had a long, angled front that reminded me more of the cowcatcher on a train than the grill of a work truck, but it did curve back to a rounded cab and then to the load it carried behind. I say curve, but in the moonlight it looked more like it flowed, as though the entire body of the truck had been made from a single piece of metal or dull grey rock. None of its lines were straight or symmetrical, making it look like something carved or sculpted more than assembled aluminum or steel from a factory floor. Behind the cab was a large bulge covered in black canvas draping almost to the street below. As I watched, two hoses slid out from beneath the edge of the fabric, and it was only as they were picked up that I noticed the figures holding them.
They must have come from the truck, though I hadn’t noticed it. Instead, it was as though they’d just appeared, stepping from the shadows under the canvas or the night itself. One tall and fat, the other small and painfully thin, they were both clad in rubber suits and full gas masks as they drug the hoses toward Gladys’ house. For her part, Gladys still looked terrified, even more scared than before, if that was possible. She started walking quickly toward the front door, clearly trying to make it before the masked figures reached her. When she spoke again, even through the glass I could hear the fear in her voice.
“I’m sorry! I just had to get my dog! I’m going in! Please, I’m going in!”
I could feel my own confused fear growing, but there was anger there too. Who were these guys, and why were they bothering that nice old woman? I headed for the door, aware even then that my indignation and willingness to help was, while well-intentioned, not really very brave. I was still traveling on the assumption that the world was relatively safe and sane. That I could step outside, make vague threats and demands (What were they doing there? Who was their superior? Did they want to get sued? Where was their authorization for any of this?), and make them cower and go away. Help Gladys a little while making myself feel good, all just by applying the slightest bit of leverage to the systems that were already in place. The social physics of a world where neighborhoods meant civilization and people meant safety. A squeaky wheel gets the grease and a place that is safe tends to stay safe.
Then I walked out the front door.
Immediately one of the two figures, the larger one, turned and headed in my direction fast. I felt a surge of panic but forced myself to hold my ground as I looked over to Gladys’ porch. She’d made it, but the little one had too, and as she turned to look back, it twisted its hose. Green smoke billowed out, enveloping Gladys and Trudy in a thick cloud even as they staggered back through the door and inside. I called out for them to stop, but then the large one was to me, grabbing my arm in a hard, implacable grip.
“What are you doing here?”
The sound was muffled and raspy because of the mask, but there was something else to the voice too. An underlying clicking sound, like the ticking of an electric meter or the scraping rhythm of an old gramophone. Yeah, that was it. It had that cold, watery sound that old recordings sometimes had, a sound that reminded you of metal on wax cut a long time ago.
“I…this is my aunt’s house. What are you doing to Gladys?”
A pause, a rasp, and then: “It’s not your time yet.”
I tugged at my arm, but it didn’t budge even a little. I could hear the high-pitched fear in my voice as I complained. “Let me go, fucker! I’m going to call the…”
Click, scrape as it turned loose of my arm and put the hand against the side of my head. “Sleep.” I tried to pull away, but it was too late. The moment the rubber glove touched my temple, I could already feel myself fading away.
I disappeared into the black.
I woke up to the sound of my phone buzzing on the porch. I was laying just inside the front door, which was standing open, morning sunlight pouring in as I tried to understand why I was on the floor and what was going on. Last night, had people come and messed with the old lady next door? Or was that a dream? My phone buzzed again as I sat up, and crawling forward, I picked it up to see it was Aunt Nancy calling.
“Hey, Bryan! Hope I didn’t wake you.”
Getting to my feet, I shut the door. I had a moment of panic, wondering if the cats could have gotten outside. Walking quickly through the house looking for them, I tried to keep the worry out of my voice. “No, no, that’s fine. I mean, I’m awake.”
“Oh good. How’re our babies doing?”
I stepped into Nancy and Jack’s bedroom to find the cats curled up together, sleeping on the bed. “They’re fine. Sleeping hard at the moment.” Puffing out a quiet sigh of relief, I went back into the living room and sat down. I considered telling my aunt about the night before, but I was still half-convinced it must have been some kind of sleepwalking nightmare, strange at that sounded in my head. So instead I just asked how things were going at the hospital.
“Well enough. They think your uncle has a mild secondary infection, but they’ve started him on antibiotics and he’s doing good. I was calling to ask if you’d bring my tablet when you come today, if you have time. My paperback and puzzle books from the gift shop are wearing thin.”
Rubbing my eyes, I nodded to the empty room. “Sure, yeah. I’ll be up there after awhile.” I found myself looking out the window at Gladys’ house. “I just need to check on something first.”
I could hear blood in my ears as I walked over to Gladys’ house, my eyes scanning for signs of disturbance or danger. There was none—in fact, everything looked better than I remembered it. Wasn’t the railing flaking paint before? Hadn’t the whole house looked a bit shabby and run down? Not now—everything looked fresh and clean, as though someone had come in overnight and…I swallowed and tried to push away the thought. It had just been a nightmare, and maybe I hadn’t paid enough attention to how the house really looked before. Jaw clenched, I knocked on the front door.
I didn’t recognize the woman that answered. She looked like she was in her thirties and was beautiful enough that I felt a new nervousness crowding in with my anxiety and fear. It must be Gladys’ daughter or granddaughter or…
“Can I help you?” She smiled at me, her brown eyes twinkling.
“Um, I…I was looking for Gladys?”
Her smile widened. “I’m Gladys. Why’re you looking for me?”
I frowned. “No, um. I mean the old…the elderly lady that lives here. Are you her granddaughter or…” I trailed off as the woman shook her head.
“There’s no one else here but me.” She laughed, her voice sounding rich and musical as she stepped back a little. “Well, me and my little dog, Trudy.” The woman cocked her head at me. “I think maybe you have the wrong place? But if you want to come in, I can help you figure out where you want to go.” Without waiting for an answer, she turned and walked in, beckoning me to follow. I stepped in, my heart hammering. This was all wrong, but how and why? There was no way that I’d just imagined Nancy and Jack’s old neighbor, and I didn’t have the wrong house either. And this woman, while beautiful and friendly, was also strange. Aside from what she was saying, she was also dressed up in a sundress and wedge heels like she was about to step out to a garden party. And maybe she was, but if that was the case, why was she wasting time inviting some strange dude into her house?
We went into the living room and I followed her invitation to sit down. I was scared, but also driven to find out what was actually going on. Was I crazy, or was it everything else that was off? Crossing her legs, the woman that called herself Gladys smoothed out her skirt and grinned at me.
“So you say you knew another woman, an older woman, that lived here named Gladys? What a coincidence. How long ago was that?”
I frowned. “Um, it was yesterday. I met her yesterday.”
She giggled. “You’re playing a joke on me.” Winking, she leaned forward. “Go on, tell me the truth. I won’t be mad.”
I felt anger stirring in my chest. “I’m not joking. Or lying. Or crazy.” I shook my head. “An old woman lived here yesterday. Eyes widening, I started pointing around the room. “Look at this stuff. This all looks like an old person’s house. It looks like my aunt and uncle’s house.” My gaze found a lamp near the window. “That light! I saw that light through my window! This is her house! Gladys…the other Gladys I mean.”
The woman had listened intently, her mouth quirking into a smirk toward the end. “Have you been spying on me, Bryan? Not that I mind, but…”
I leaned back, my scalp prickling. “I didn’t tell you my name was Bryan.” I was about to say more when a scrabbling sound erupted behind me, causing me to jump to my feet. “What the fuck was that?”
She chuckled. “Oh, that’s just Trudy. She likes to get in the walls and go hunting.” The woman wiggled her foot in my direction. “If you don’t like it over there, you can always come sit over here with me.”
My eyes were fixed on her foot more than her words. The smooth golden skin there didn’t curve away to the hidden sole of the foot that rested against the shoe. Instead it curved…it flowed slightly inward before going out to make the shoe itself, as though the woman and the shoe had all been made from the same…
When I looked back up, the woman met my eyes. “Like what you see, Bryan?”
Swallowing, I forced myself to smile. “Um, sure. I…um…can I get some water, please?”
She watched me for a moment before nodding and standing gracefully. “Sure thing. Be right back.” Quirking an eyebrow at me she headed toward what I guessed was the kitchen, she added. “Don’t go anywhere.”
As soon as she was out of sight I headed for the front door. I didn’t know who or what she was, but I was getting out of there and calling the fucking cops and…I froze as I heard a moan from behind a door in the hallway. I needed to leave, but…what if that was Gladys and she was hurt? Maybe this crazy woman with the fucked-up feet had home invaded her or something? Grimacing, I twisted the knob to the hallway door and opened it, glancing inside before stepping in and closing the door behind me.
It was a bathroom. Just a large, normal-looking bathroom with a sink and a toilet and a claw-footed tub on one end with a shower curtain that...more moans were coming from. Again I had to fight the urge to just run, but I’d come this far, and if I left without checking I’d never forgive myself. Heart in my throat, I crept over to the tub and pulled back the curtain.
I…What I saw at first was the pink and the red, just an uneven surface of those colors with bits of white and black dotting it here and there, like the landscape of some alien planet. My brain didn’t want to recognize the details at first. See the black nose and pleading eyes of Trudy melted into the congealed flesh and blood and bone impossibly pooled in the tub but still alive. Hear the rough voice of Gladys…the real Gladys…as she whispered to me from a ruined face half-submerged in the gelatinous biomass that was all that was left of her and her little dog.
Tears sprang to my eyes as my stomach roiled. This was all impossible. What had they done to them? Fucking how? Leaning down, I stifled a gag at the roiling hot stench that rose up to meet me. “I…I’ll help you.” I knew it was a lie as I whispered, knew there was no possible help for this, but I felt like I had to say it anyway. “I…I’ll come back for you…”
Gladys’ milky eyes widened. “No….just get…away…”
There was a knock on the door, and when I heard the woman’s voice on the other side, my stomach clenched painfully. “You in there? I’ve got your water for you. Got more than that, if you’ll just come on out.”
Looking around, I picked up the lid from the back of the toilet before sitting it back down. The window. If it wasn’t painted shut, I could get out without having to fight my way free. “Just a minute! Almost done in here.”
There was a slam from the other side that made the door jump in its hinges. “Hurry up. I’m getting lonely out here.”
I flipped the window latch and was about to ease the sash up when something small and pink burst from the wall over the tub. I barely dodged it, letting out a scream as it scuttled down the far wall and crawled under the corner laundry hamper. The fast-moving glimpse I’d seen was all teeth and tails, with six legs that bent more than they should as it skittered into the dark.
“Hope you don’t mind, but I sent lil’ Trudy in to roust you out.”
As though to punctuate the thought, I heard a low hiss followed by a harmony of machine gun rattles from under the hamper. Skin crawling with disgust and terror, I yanked up on the window sash. It didn’t budge.
“Fuck this!” Turning, I picked up the toilet lid again and slammed it through the window, raking it around once before climbing out. I felt sure that one or both of the monsters inside would bite or grab me before I escaped, but they never did, and when I ran to my car, I nearly wept with relief at realizing I’d never taken the keys out of my pocket the night before.
I drove to the hospital slowly, my hands shaking too badly to risk too much speed. I wanted to call the police, but I didn’t know what to say that they’d believe, and given what my aunt had seemed to know about the truck, I felt like talking to her first would be better. So I went up to the cardiac floor and stepped into their room. Jack was asleep in his bed while Nancy was watching some talk show with a bored expression. Her face lit up when she saw me, but then quickly turned to a concerned frown.
“What’s wrong?”
I glanced at my uncle and then beckoned for her to follow me outside. “Maybe we should go down to the cafeteria or something. Talk there.” Nodding, she got up and, after giving Jack another glance, she went with me.
Once we were downstairs, I told her everything that had happened. I tried to stay calm while I talked, and I repeatedly expressed how I knew it sounded crazy but I wasn’t on drugs or anything. And to my surprise, she listened to all of it. It wasn’t until the end, when I was spent and to the point of questioning her about the mosquito truck that she favored me with a frown.
“Bryan…I’ve just heard the stuff they spray is bad for you. It’s insecticide, right? I don’t want to be out in that.”
My eyes narrowed, and I could hear my voice was harder when I spoke next. “I don’t think you’re telling the truth. The way you warned me, and then everything else that happened? I don’t see how that’s a coincidence.”
She cleared her throat and looked uncomfortable. “Well, that’s the thing. I listened to what you had to say, but…well, Bryan, you have to know that’s not true. I thought at first you were just telling me a joke or playing a prank, but I can tell you actually believe it. And…well, I don’t think you’d use drugs, but if it’s not that…honey, either you had a really bad dream or you need some kind of help. That’s not normal.”
I held up the fresh cut on the side of my palm. “Is this a dream? Because I got it climbing out the fu…getting out of that house of monsters an hour ago.” When she just stared at me wordlessly, I shook my head. “Fine. If you don’t believe me, or you won’t be honest about what you know, I’ll just call the cops. They’ll think I’m crazy too, but at least I can try.”
I winced as Nancy suddenly reached forward and gripped my hand, her voice a low and urgent whisper. “No. You can’t. There won’t be any proof if you do, and if you make a fuss, they’ll just come for you sooner.”
“Who? What is all this?”
She turned and looked out the window, her lips trembling in the early afternoon light. “They…I think they’ve been coming for months. Looking for people that are outside and vulnerable. I don’t think they can come in unless they catch you outside first.”
“What are they doing to people?”
A tear rolled down her cheek. “Taking them? Replacing them? I don’t….I don’t really know. I know things are changing, people are changing, but I have trouble really knowing it. Really remembering it. I think it’s only because I’ve been away a while that…well, you saying all this is helping me remember a bit more.” She turned to me, eyes wide, as she gripped my hand tighter. “Bryan, I never would have let you come if I’d really remembered. They…they do something to you…keep you from remembering them and what they’ve changed. Even now, it’s hard for me to say what’s changed on the street. Who’s been replaced. It’s like trying to think about an old dream….”
I squeezed her hand back. “I…well, I don’t understand, but I believe you. But you and Uncle Jack can’t go back there. I’ll call Mom and…” My voice faded as I noticed something under my fingertips. It was Nancy’s wedding ring, or where that ring would be.
I knew that ring. It was silver and had been my great-grandmother’s. My mother and Nancy had a running joke that Nancy was the only one with small enough hands to wear it, and it was actually loose on her.
But this ring wasn’t loose, and it wasn’t silver. It was tight against her ring finger, almost like it was grown into it, and it was a single circle of brown ivory, the tint and texture of rotting bone. Looking up, I saw the sadness in Nancy’s eyes.
“They don’t replace everyone all at once. I think some of us, they do a little bit at a time. They caught me outside a couple of months ago, and I’m still mostly myself.” She sniffed and looked away. “But just mostly. I can tell I feel stronger. Like I did fifteen, twenty years ago. And my thoughts have grown strange.”
I pulled my hand back. “Strange how?”
A fresh pair of tears welled at the corners of her eyes. “Like locking Jack outside the other night for one thing. He was so scared the poor thing had a heart attack. Putting you in danger for another. But that’s…that’s only part of it. They don’t think like we do, and the more I change, the more I see how terribly insane they are.” Her red-rimmed eyes found mine again. “Insane and sly. Terribly, terribly sly.” Leaning forward, she went on. “They hide in the dark of our minds, you see. In the shadowy parts of the world we ignore or can’t see. Changing things, corrupting things, right under our noses because they know we can be fooled so easily.” She shook her head. “But it doesn’t matter. You need to go now.”
I stared at her in surprise. “Go? I’m not going without the two of you. I’ll go get the cats, get a hotel room, and then we can find you all a new place to…”
“This hospital is really old. Did you know that?”
I blinked. “Um, no.”
She nodded. “It is. It looks new, and most of it is new, but the main building has been here over a hundred years. They just add to it, and take away from it. It’s like an ocean eating a beach, I guess. Every time the tide turns, it adds more new and takes away some old.”
“Okay, but what does…”
“And in the bottom of the old, is the boiler room. I know because our father, your grandfather, worked here as a maintenance man back in the fifties. They don’t even use the boiler any more, but that room is still here, at least for now. Until it gets replaced too.”
Frowning, I leaned forward. “Aunt Nancy, I don’t understand why you’re telling me all this.”
When she smiled at me then, her jaw was clenched hard enough to make her cheek jump. “I’m telling you this because I’m like the hospital. Jack will be soon too. Less and less myself as time goes on.”
“Okay, I get what you’re saying, but we can…”
“And because, the entire time we’ve been sitting here, I’ve been fighting the urge to grab you by your thin neck and drag you down into that boiler room. Pour out the treatment upon you and watch your flesh be enured into the soil for something new and wonderful.” Her entire face was twitching now, and a thin line of drool stretched out from the corner of her lip as she stared at me. “Part of me wants you to stay, because soon I’ll give in. And no one will stop me. They won’t even notice as I drag you away, crying and screaming, into the old heart of this place. And then oooooh the things I will do to you down there. The things I show your flesh will be nothing compared to what I do to your soul.” She gripped the table hard enough to make it creak as she put her head down with a sob. “Please…you need to run now.”
Trembling, I stood up gingerly and backed away from the table, and by the time I was at the edge of the cafeteria’s carpet, I was running for the door. I’d like to say I went back later to help them. That I found a way to help them. To get them away from that place or get them back to themselves. But I didn’t.
Only some of it was out of cowardice. The rest was that, by the time I was driving away and calling my mother, I was already forgetting it all. I was so determined to tell her, to warn her, about what had happened to her sister, but by the time she picked up…I was just telling her I had to leave Aunt Nancy’s a bit early. I never went back for my stuff, not even my laptop, and I had to get a month extension on my paper since I had to start largely from scratch, but even that didn’t seem strange to me. I’d just…lost it somewhere, the same way I’d fallen out of touch with my aunt and uncle, and in time, with my own parents too.
That all started three years ago, and it wasn’t until last night that I remembered any of it. I’d been asleep when I heard a noise, a new and alien noise that didn’t belong in my quiet subdivision after dark. I looked at my phone and saw it was 1:03, and even as I got up and looked out the window, I didn’t understand the terrible fear that was tightening my chest.
That’s when I saw the mosquito truck rumbling by outside.
Everything hit me at once, and I let out a cry as my knees buckled and I felt the air around me grow thin. I remembered everything now—now that it was too late to do anything about it. Gasping for air, I crawled through the house, terrified of seeing a mask at the window or hearing something coming for me from inside the walls. I just had to make sure…I just had to make sure and it would all be okay, at least for now. After what seemed like forever, I made it to the front door and reached up. I let out a sob of relief when I felt that the deadbolt was thrown.
Outside, the truck prowled away into the night.
Patient.
And hungry.
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