Madison - An AJR Fic

Scheming

"I guess I'll ask you the same thing I asked Adam..." Jack fidgeted with his hands in his lap. "This whole thing, it's...sort of a swarm, right?"

"Welcome to the conversation." Sherri's voice was monotonous and sarcastic. "You're just picking that up now?"

Jack sighed. "Point being," He leaned on his fist as he gestured with his other hand. "There's way too many of them for us to just...keep fighting them off one by one. When one of them dies, another will only show up somewhere else to take its place..." He sunk his hands into his hair. "...There's gotta be a better way to go about this."

Adam pursed his lips as he shifted his gaze from Jack, then to the table, then to Sherri. "How do we kill off something that...can't be killed? At least not permanently?"

Sherri blinked a few times, and the brothers could hear her stern breath as she relayed the thought. The gears were turning in her head. She'd dealt with similar problems before; creatures had attacked her own family just as the brothers had lost one of their own to these freaks. People she knew and loved had been slain by things she was powerless against. This was no standalone incident, she knew that from the start. History was coming back to stab everyone in the back.

She wouldn't fall for it. She would have to be one step ahead of history.

Sherri clenched her fists as she glanced up at the windowsill, her eyes fixating on a lone, dusty cobweb in the lower corner. "They have to be coming from somewhere. They can't just be falling out of the sky or something."

Jack frowned with thought. "We don't know anything for sure...what if they...are falling out of the sky?"

Sherri shook her head. "Keep your head straight, kid. This is time-sensitive."

"Right, sorry."

"So, step one, we know it's not the sky, or aliens, or...whatever. Probably." Adam clarified. "And we know that there has to be some kind of a source for these things, something that...creates them, or...powers them somehow."

"Do you know anything like that near here?" Jack asked, his eyes on the proprietor.

"I've lived here fifty-six years, seen basically everything there is to see around here," Sherri remarked, glancing toward the younger brother with raised brows. "...You tell me."

"Well...what are we thinking?" Jack tilted his head. "Like, a power plant? Or...a government lab?"

"If there's anything like that anywhere near this town, I'll be damned," Sherri chuckled softly. "Vincent's Hollow's just a truck stop town with a few little gimmicky gift shops and more bars than people most times. Hell, the tourism scene's only sprung up over the past ten years or so. Dunno why we have one in the first place, what's there to see?"

Adam squinted. "...If you don't mind my asking...why are you still living here, then? Forgive me if I sound harsh, but...you don't seem the type. You don't even really seem to enjoy it here."

Sherri seemed to be taken a bit off guard by the question, no one could really blame her. She sat still and silent for a moment, processing her answer.

"...It was Jordan, er- my husband..." She explained. "I know I grew up here, but I was never intent on staying here my whole life. I didn't want to become another textbook subject of small-town syndrome. You know, everyone knows everyone, not too keen on outsiders...living your life just to work until you die..." She frowned at the floor. "Him, though..." She shook her head with crossed arms. "He would live and die here no matter how many people he pushed away in the process." She scoffed. "And now, it...seems like he got his dream."