“What did you find?” Missy asked.
“Jackpot. Shirts, pants, everything I need.”
His pants had blood on them, so a change was necessary. With much effort, he slipped off his pants and pulled on the new pair. Three inches to spare at the waist. He needed a belt.
“Okay,” he said to Missy. “Ready. We exit the car very normally and head around to the back, okay? I need a belt out of the trunk. These pants are way too big.”
“Got it.” She nodded and opened the door.
Andy retrieved a belt from the suitcase and slipped it on. He took Missy by the hand and led her away from the car. “We need to head north. Toward the river.”
In the distance, sirens howled and drew closer. Andy tensed.
Chapter 27
Quickly,” Andy said. He grasped Missy’s wrist and led her along College Avenue to the first right, Franklin. That led them to Main Street. They were off campus now. The sirens grew closer.
Andy didn’t know what kind of description of him the police had. He wasn’t sure if it included the condition of his face. The guy in the parking garage had seen Missy, though, so the police were looking for a man and woman. He also would have told the police that the man appeared to be injured. He had no way, of course, of knowing Missy was blind. In addition, the police wouldn’t know that they were traveling on foot. This was all to their advantage.
On Main Street, they headed north, Andy trying to look as casual as possible, holding Missy’s hand loosely. The pain in his abdomen was dull now and only stabbed when he twisted or contracted his abdominals.
“Just keep walking,” he said to Missy. “We’re doing fine.”
The sirens increased in number. They must have located the car in the gym’s parking lot. In the distance, he heard the faint thrumming of a helicopter.
“Let’s walk a little faster,” he said.
They hurried past large residential homes and empty storefronts. Past apartment buildings and parks. A block away, a police cruiser turned onto Main Street and headed toward them.
Andy pulled Missy into the side yard of a large home. “Kneel down and act like you’re working in the garden,” he said.
A few seconds later, the cruiser rolled by. Andy didn’t lift his head.
When the area was clear, they hurried down Main Street until they reached South Street, which ran parallel to the Mystic River.
“We need to find somewhere to wait for dark,” Andy said. It was the only way they’d make it across the river unseen. The police had checkpoints along the bridges crossing the river.
“What time is it?” Missy asked.
“A little after noon.” The sun would set in seven hours.
Where South Street met Winthrop and Winthrop crossed the river, there was a small grove of trees with thick undergrowth. Because of the nearby source of water, the trees were fully leafed, and the grass grew green and soft. The river ran narrow—not more than fifty feet—at this point and shallow enough to walk across.
Breathless, Andy led Missy to the grove and sat her by a tree. “We’ll wait here. You okay with that?”
She put her hand on his. “We’ll be okay.”
“I’m glad you’re so confident.”
.......
To pass the time, Andy and Missy talked about the events that had led them to hide among the brush and trees along the banks of the Mystic River in Medford, Massachusetts. A police cruiser had rolled by soon after they found their spot, then another about an hour later, but other than that, the traffic that passed was of the ordinary sort: cars, delivery trucks, SUVs, pickups. None of the drivers had slowed to take note of the two fugitives in the grove. Andy and Missy had concealed themselves well.
As the sun set, the temperature dipped a few degrees, and Missy shuddered. Andy scooted closer to her and put his arm around her shoulders. “Do you mind?”
She shook her head. “No. It’s okay. The air is chilly.”
“You never finished your story about Ron,” Andy said.
Missy sat quietly for a few long seconds.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Andy finally said. He could only imagine the pain she lived with every day. Losing her sight at the hands of that man. Losing her mother during The Event. Then having to deal with Ron again.
Missy sighed. “No. I guess I probably need to. I’ve never talked to anyone about it.” She nestled closer to Andy as if finding some protection from the memory in the warmth of his body. “Years went by after The Event, and I heard nothing from Ron or about him. I thought he’d either moved on to another location or died. I think I’d convinced myself that he must have died, that he must have ticked off the wrong person and finally got what was coming to him.”
“But he wasn’t dead.”
“No. One night I found some shelter in an office building. Some of the offices were empty, so I broke in and found a warm corner. It was such a cold night. I remember that. There was thunder in the distance, too, the real rumbly kind.” She paused and laced her fingers over her knees. “I woke up and there he was, standing over me. I could sense him. I could smell him. He smelled the same as he always did, even after all those years. Like he’d never left. He hit me hard, then tried to rape me. I put up a fight, but he was so much bigger than me and stronger. I was no match for him.”
Andy closed his eyes and pulled her closer. “I’m sorry.”
Missy shook her head. “He didn’t rape me, though. He would have. I have no doubt about that, but . . .”
“But what?”
“The thunder. It was loud. Close. So close it seemed to shake the building. I thought at the time he’d been struck by lightning. I could smell the burning flesh. I left him there. I was so afraid I was somehow responsible and would be found and tried for murder. I didn’t think anyone would believe that he’d been struck by lightning while trying to rape me. What were the chances.” She stopped and sighed.
“But it wasn’t lightning.”
“Nope. I had the same taste in my mouth, the same burning. At the time, I thought it was some kind of residual effect from being so close to someone who’d been struck. Believe me, I replayed it over and over in my mind trying to make sense of it, to explain what had happened and how I’d felt afterward. That was the first time it happened.”
“The fire.”
“The fire.” She turned her face toward him. “I killed him.”
“It was self-protection. He would have killed you.”
“I killed Colin’s friend and Trevor and that other guy too. I’m a murderer.”
Andy squeezed her. “No. You’re not. You acted in self-defense. Each of those guys would have killed you if you hadn’t done that.” He was right but doubted she’d see it that way. She was too sensitive. Her heart hadn’t become callous like Andy’s; it was soft, sincere. If there had been a way to defend herself and spare lives, she would have done it.
Missy rested her head on Andy’s chest, and they sat in silence until the sun dipped low in the sky.
Just after sunset, when darkness had crept into the area like a thief, Missy said she had to use a bathroom.
Andy stepped out from his cover and scanned the area. Most of the traffic had ceased after six o’clock, and what little there was would be apathetic to two people strolling down the street after dark. They’d have to find a gas station or fast-food joint. Some place where they could enter and leave without notice.
“C’mon,” Andy said, extending his hand and taking Missy by the wrist. “We’ll find something.”
Two blocks west, they came across a gas station, Rodney’s Gas N Grub. The bathrooms had an exterior entrance around the side of the building. The sign by the door instructed prospective users to inquire about the key at the register.
“Stay here,” Andy said. “I’ll get the key.”
He entered the gas station and approached the counter. The guy behind the desk was young, thin, and had a Middle-Eastern look to him. He did not look l
ike a Rodney. He eyed Andy suspiciously.
“Can I get the key to the bathroom?” Andy said.
The guy looked around. No one else was in the store. “Keys are for customers only.”
“I just gotta use the bathroom, man.”
The cashier took a step back from the register. “Customers only,” he said again.
Andy turned and headed to the refrigerators at the back of the store. He should get some food and drink for Missy and himself anyway. He grabbed four bottles of water, a bag of pretzels, some granola bars, and two bananas at the counter.
.......
When Andy left, Missy stood with her back pressed against the building. The brick was cool and rough beneath her hands. She hoped the area was dark enough that she would not be visible to any vehicle driving past. The last thing she needed was a cop dropping by to ask a few questions.
She tapped her foot on the concrete. What was taking Andy so long? Her bladder begged to be emptied. Her stomach growled. They hadn’t eaten anything all day.
A car rolled by and Missy froze, held her breath. Her heart thumped in her throat. The car moved slowly but did not stop.
Missy exhaled and slapped the brick with an open hand. They had to hurry. C’mon Andy. She inched farther toward the back of the building, away from the road.
Again, she wondered who was hunting them. And why? And how had they so efficiently coordinated their movements that Andy and Missy couldn’t travel to the next town without being confronted or chased or attacked?
Another force seemed to be at work, an unearthly malevolent power with influence and control. But what power? And again, why was it targeting her?
She had no answers, of course. Neither did Andy. Clem might have had some, but he was gone now. All they knew was that both she and Andy were different, some sort of mutants with unexplainable powers.
Another vehicle rolled by. The heavy sound of its tires indicated it was a truck. As before, she froze and turned her face away from the road.
Andy better hurry up.
.......
“Will that be all, sir?” the cashier asked.
“And the key to the bathroom,” Andy said.
The cashier reached under the counter and retrieved the key. “For customers only,” he said with a smile. “Please return it when you’re done.”
“Thanks.”
Andy took the items and key to where Missy waited.
“What took you so long?” she asked.
“The bathroom is for customers only. I had to buy some stuff.”
“Food?”
“Yeah. And water.”
“Great. I’m famished.”
He placed the key in her hand. “You have to use the men’s room.”
“Really? Aren’t they, like, gross and stuff.”
“Probably. I didn’t want him to know I had someone with me. The cops are looking for a man and woman, and they may have talked to the store owners around here.” He opened the bathroom door. “I’ll make sure it’s clean for you.”
She smiled. “Such a gentleman.”
When Missy emerged from the bathroom, Andy handed her the bag of food and said, “Wait here.”
He entered the gas station to return the key. The cashier again eyed him up and down.
Andy placed the key on the counter. “Thanks, man.”
“Thank you for your patronage,” the man said. “Are you from around here?”
He was suspicious. No doubt the police had indeed paid him a visit and given him a heads-up. “Just passing through,” Andy said. “Thanks.”
He left the store, rounded the corner of the building, and took Missy’s wrist. “We gotta move. I think he’s onto us. He may contact the cops.”
“Where are we going?”
“Across the river.”
Chapter 28
They crossed at the narrowest, shallowest point they could find, upriver about a quarter mile from the gas station. Heavily leafed trees cloaked both sides of the river in deep night shadows, and the water was only about a foot deep. The water was cool but not cold, and it moved slowly, gently splashing at their legs.
On the other side, they sat on the bank, hidden by trees and wild shrubs, and dried their feet.
“We should only be about a half mile from the reserve,” Andy said.
“As the crow flies.”
“Right. A little longer following roads.”
“We need to find some place to sleep,” Missy said.
Andy knew they couldn’t hike all night. The air would get chilly. They needed to find a warm, dry place to bed down and get some sleep. They had a long trek ahead of them.
“We will,” he said. “Then tomorrow we’ll find another vehicle and head for Portland.”
“Clem said to find Amos there.”
“Yes. Amos.” Whoever he was. And Andy had no idea how they’d find one man in a city the size of Portland.
Missy pulled her shoes on and tied the laces. When she finished, she paused and turned her face toward Andy. “What happened to Clem?”
An image of the Doberman lunging at Clem flashed through Andy’s mind. He didn’t need to give Missy the grisly details, but she deserved to know the truth. “He gave his life for ours.”
She sat quietly for a few minutes, her eyes bouncing around his face as if in her mind she could see him perfectly, without the scars, without the doubt, without the fear. Studying him. Taking in the nakedness of his soul. Finally, she said, “Will we make it?”
“To Portland?”
“No, to wherever we’re ultimately headed.”
“I don’t know where that is.”
“But will we make it?”
He thought about that. “Clem said you’re special, that all of this is about you, so, yeah, I suppose we will.”
“What’s so special about me?”
“He didn’t get a chance to say.”
“Revelation eleven.”
“You know it?”
“Nope. I’ve always been fond of the Old Testament. The stories are great.”
“I’m not too familiar with any parts of the Bible.”
“We need to find one.”
They did. Answers to some of their most pressing questions would be found in the eleventh chapter of Revelation. But Missy’s statement held a much larger challenge than the simple words implied. There were no Bibles left. Very few, at least. A year or so after The Event, Christianity was declared a “religion of hate” and outlawed in the United States and much of the world. Practitioners were criminalized. Existing Bibles were collected and destroyed; the printing of new Bibles was prohibited. Some survived, of course, but finding one fully intact was nearly impossible. “We will,” Andy said, though he doubted his words as soon as they passed his lips.
She sat quietly again, hugging her knees to her chest. The sound of the river meandering by was relaxing. Fatigue tugged at Andy’s eyelids. They could sleep there, but the temperatures would drop, and being so near the water was not safe. Besides, when morning came, they’d be exposed. They needed the cover of the reservation. They’d have to emerge sooner or later and find a vehicle, but for now, they needed to lie low until the cops gave up their search.
“How do you feel about what Clem told you?” Missy asked.
“About me being part demon?”
“He didn’t say that. He said you were all human.”
“My dad was a demon, so what does that make me?”
She put her hand on his arm. “Human.”
He wanted to believe her, wanted to believe what Clem had said about his father becoming human, but he couldn’t. The dreams he had, the things he saw—he knew now that they weren’t random thoughts and images thrown together by his subconscious filing system. They were memories, imprinted on his DNA. The creatures he saw were real. They were not of this world, not even of this physical realm.
“If I’m human, how can you explain this?” He lifted his shirt and placed her hand on his abd
omen where the bullet had pierced his flesh. It was now fully healed and sealed with scar tissue. A remnant of pain remained, but it too was mostly gone.
She said nothing.
“And how do you explain my strength, my stamina, my ability to get the snot beat out of me, then get up and keep walking like nothing happened?”
She pulled her hand away and said in a soft voice, “I don’t know.”
Andy stood. “I really don’t want to talk about this anymore tonight. We need to get moving. I’d like to find someplace to bed down before the night gets too old.”
He helped Missy to her feet, and they set out north, toward the Middlesex Fells Reservation.
Twenty minutes later, they’d reached the reservation. They walked along Border Road for another half mile, noting a few parking areas where morning hikers would leave their cars. At one of the areas, Andy led Missy down a hiking trail until they found an outcropping of rocks.
“This will have to do,” he said. “We’ll have our backs against the rocks and bury ourselves in leaves. You okay with that?”
Missy nodded. “I’ve slept in worse places.”
It pained Andy to think of Missy on her own for so long, wandering around in darkness, feeling her way through the world and navigating its dangers without protection. But somehow she’d managed.
Andy made a nest of sorts from dried leaves and held Missy close so they could share each other’s warmth. “How did you make it on your own?”
She didn’t answer right away, and he thought she’d fallen asleep. But finally she said, “The righteous walk by faith.”
He didn’t fully understand what she meant, but he was tired and didn’t feel like probing the statement. Instead, he pulled her closer and closed his eyes. Images of Dean Shannon wanted to penetrate his mind, but he fought them off. As they retreated, images of his mother’s blackened form pushed past them, but he resisted them as well. They’d haunted him long enough. He focused on Missy, on her face, the softness of her skin, the smell of her hair. The feel of her body nestled against his. And he realized that what he felt for her was more than some platonic sense of being her protector. He cared for her. Deeply. He loved her. She’d worked her way into his hardened and soiled heart; she’d brought some light into his heavy, dirty soul. She’d given him hope, a reason to fight the demon within. He’d been tottering on the precipice of hopelessness when she’d found him in that drainage pipe, and meeting her had made all the difference.
Midnight Is My Time Page 13
