by Kip Nelson
“I'm glad you feel that way, and I hope we're all together for a good long while yet,” he said, and he smiled to himself.
Although he never would have chosen for the world to end, the fact was he was meant to meet these people with whom he otherwise never would have interacted. This world had cost him a chance to be reunited with his wife, but it had given Grace and Luis a new chance in life. Both of them had been drifting down different, aimless paths, but now they could discover themselves and change for the better. It made Mack think about how he would be acting if he had been their age. As it was he had the benefit of years of experience, and he was using habits and training to make it through the new world, while Grace and Luis were reinventing themselves. Would he still have been able to make it through if he had been younger? It was a question that he never was going to get an answer to, yet it was interesting to think about all the same.
Whenever he went on these kinds of operations he liked to let his mind wander a little, just so he didn't tire himself out thinking about the same thing, drilling the operation into his skull. He still was focused. When they reached the end of the building he held up his hand, signaling for them to stop. The path between the wall and the building was about five feet wide. So they moved from the outer security wall to that of the building. The iron bars still were standing tall, but here the outside forest was encroaching upon them, coming through the gaps. He could not see through them in the darkness. His eyes had to adjust to the light since the building obscured the moonlight, but beyond the building lay the back yard. It was a long stretch of grass with a few lawn ornaments and large, thick trees. The moonlight poured into this garden and Miranda sighed as she saw it.
“I'm used to seeing this place filled with people. We used to take the patients out here a lot, especially at this time of year,” she said.
“Even at this time of night?” Luis asked.
“I know it might seem strange, but a lot of the patients found the night to be calming. I think they liked the idea that they were awake while most of the world slept. It was a way for them to feel special, but I suppose now they're being kept in the building.”
They walked along the back and the stench of trash greeted their noses. Toward the other end of the building were the garbage cans, which were filled with trash bags. The rancid smell was almost suffocating.
“We'd better get inside quickly,” Mack said.
“This is what I'm talking about, they can't take care of themselves. Much longer like this and they're going to be living in squalor,” Miranda said.
“Where's the cellar?” Mack asked. Miranda walked to the right a little and then pointed to a hatch that had closed double doors.
“There's something else you should know before we go down there,” she said.
“What's that?” Mack asked, turning his head to face her, wary of what she might say. He felt the weight of the guns pressing into his back and was ready to draw them at any moment if he thought his life was in danger. Miranda gulped and looked ashamed.
“It's just that...well, as I said, this institute is very old and there were certain practices they used when it was built that we never would dream of using now. This cellar is where they stored a lot of this equipment. I just...I don't want you to get the wrong impression about this place. A lot has changed over the years and this is just a sad reminder of the misunderstandings people had about how to treat mental illnesses.” Mack relaxed. It was simply professional pride taking over.
“I'm sure it'll be okay,” he said, and nodded to Luis to approach the door.
Mack and Luis leaned down to pull open the hatch. The doors were smooth and opened effortlessly, without so much as a sound. Luis stood at the top, not enjoying the thought of going back down into a cellar as the memories of being kept there by his kidnappers still haunted his mind. He gulped, took a look around at the quiet surroundings, and followed the others, trying to maintain control over his fear.
They made their way into the building, and so far, everything had gone according to plan. Darkness loomed before them in the cellar, but just at a distance Mack could see a staircase that led upward.
“I guess this is it,” he said, placing his foot on the stairs, ascending into the darkness above.
Miranda went next. Luis stood at the bottom, took a deep breath, and then cautiously followed the others.
CHAPTER TEN
AFTER THE OTHERS had left them, Grace and Saul were alone by the gate. They watched as the other three slipped into darkness and all they had to do was wait, be vigilant, and hope that the others managed to pull off the plan and stay away from danger. Grace's eyes peered into the darkness, although she could not see anything in the surrounding area. She decided she much preferred the daytime, as at night the darkness seemed suffocating and a chilling fear crept up her spine. She never much had liked the dark, or more precisely, what could lurk in the dark. It perhaps was a product of her tendency to stay indoors rather than live outside, for the unknown often inspired more haunting images in the mind than what was known.
Minutes passed and she became anxious. She looked up at Saul, who was gazing absently into the distance. Craning her neck over the wall, there didn't seem to be any change in the institute. She exhaled and looked down at the packs to make sure they hadn't disappeared. She began tapping her fingers against her thighs and, with nothing to do, she ended up humming. After a few moments, she noticed Saul was glaring at her, and she stopped mid-hum.
“Thank you,” he said, and went back to staring into the darkness.
“Is everything alright?” Grace asked.
Like Mack, she had noticed a change in Saul's behavior recently and was worried about him. The two of them had shared a kinship after what had happened with Mr. Smith, and Grace felt as though the two of them had a bond. Whether he felt the same, or if it was completely one-sided, was a mystery to her, however.
“Of course, why wouldn't it be?” he said.
“I think we should talk.”
“Mack wanted us to keep watch, and that's what we should do. I'm sure it'll be easier to concentrate if we're silent.”
“So now you're actually going to follow his orders? Give me a break. Look, this is the first time we've been alone together since it happened. If you want to talk to me about it, you can. I know I could use someone to listen to me,” she said. Saul didn't reply, but after a few moments he looked down at her.
“What do you want to talk about?” he asked.
Grace shrugged without looking at him. “I don't know,” she said, “I guess I just...I thought I'd feel differently about it. I mean, I was ready to kill him, and I would have if you hadn't stopped me. I've been thinking about what it means to live in this new world, and I know I'm going to have to change the way I look at things. I never thought of myself as a violent person, but I know I'm must develop a killer instinct. Otherwise, people are going to take advantage of me.”
“If you stay with Mack, I think people are going to take advantage of you anyway. That's why we're here in the first place.”
“You think that's what this is? You didn't really expect us to turn our backs on her, did you?”
“For someone who is so good at reading people, Mack got suckered in by that sob story. I don't believe her for a minute.”
“Why not?”
“It all sounds rather convincing, but I've known people to make up things before. I don't think a doctor would have switched so quickly from being like a wild animal to suddenly being able to give such a good account of what happened. It just doesn't add up, and there were a few things she said, like how she mentioned the devil, that just made me think twice about her.”
“So, even though you felt like this, you let Mack and Luis walk into a trap? From your perspective.”
This time Saul shrugged. “I said my piece and Mack didn't want to listen.”
“But if you felt so strongly about it you should have fought harder. I just don't get you. Sometimes you
have such strong feelings about things, and other times you act like you don't care at all. Is this all about your brother or is there something else going on?”
“Let's just forget about my brother. He's not worth talking about. Hopefully that leg wound got infected and he's dead in a ditch somewhere. That's what he deserves for everything he did to those people. I should have punished him more.”
“Are you upset because you couldn't kill him?”
“I don't know. Part of me thinks so, but then again, you don't go shooting family. Blood is thicker than water, no matter what. That's what I was brought up believing. Maybe I just don't like that Mack seems to have all the answers while I'm still trying to muddle through everything. It was my fault that you got mixed up with him in the first place. Maybe you all would be better off if I just went off on my own.”
“Wow, really? That's what this is about? I never pegged you as the self-pitying type,” Grace said, surprised at what Saul was revealing to her.
“The thing is, that patrol could have found us anyway, and even if they hadn’t, another one could have. If we hadn't been taken back, those people might never have learned to fight back against your brother. Don't get down about how things happened, just think of what happened in the end. We all helped out.”
“You helped more than others. I was so caught up in what my brother was doing that I lost sight of everything else. I just...I get this way sometimes, and I don't know how to break out of my own head,” he said, placing his fists against his temples.
For the first time, Grace seriously was worried about him, since she never had seen Saul open up like this. She shifted her body and looked at him with concern in her eyes, but whatever he was going through soon passed and he composed himself again.
“I guess seeing him all over again just brought it all back. I've never quite been able to forget about my family, and now he's all I have left. I doubt I'll ever see my parents again. I know I like to come across as a lone wolf, forging my own path, but the truth is that I was brought up believing family is the most important thing. The sad part is I wanted to help him, I wanted to make him see that what he was doing was wrong, but he just wouldn't listen to me. Sometimes I hate the family ties that bind,” he said with a heavy sigh.
Grace had a pensive look on her face. “I wouldn't know. I never had one of my own. Even when I was taken in by foster parents I never felt like I really belonged.”
“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to--”
“It's okay, you didn't know. Everybody has something to complain about, I guess.”
“It seems like there's a little family starting here. Maybe family doesn't have to be tied by blood?”
“Yeah, we certainly have the arguments down,” Grace said, smiling. Saul hung his head and smiled, too. “Why do you do that? Why do you always give Mack such a hard time?” she asked.
“I honestly can't give you an answer. It's like it's just a reflex. I know he's just trying to help and he's got everyone's best interests at heart. I certainly know I wouldn't want the responsibility of making the kinds of decisions he wants to make, but all through my life if somebody tells me what to do I push back. That's just the way I've always been. Sometimes I even can hear myself saying things and I'm thinking to myself, 'Saul, why are you doing that?' but I can't stop myself. Then I just feel worse for it, and I can tell Mack is getting tired of it. Maybe we just aren't supposed to get along.”
“Or maybe you're too much alike and you should give each other a break. Cut him some slack now and then, he's a good guy.”
“I just feel like he has a certain image of what I'm like and he can't get past that.”
“Mack is the last person in the world you need to be worried about something like that with. He's open minded. I've been with him since the beginning of all this, and if he can change his mind about me he can change his mind about anyone.”
Saul looked at her with curiosity. “The two of you weren't always like this?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head, “but that is a story for another time.”
“Come on, I just told you all of that. The least you can do is give me something. That's just unfair.”
Grace narrowed her eyes at him and wished she hadn't said what she did. She tried to dismiss Saul's pleas, but he cajoled her until she finally relented.
“Fine,” she said, “but you have to promise not to tell Luis, because he doesn't know, and I'd prefer to keep it that way. I don't want anybody to treat me differently. It wasn't by chance that Mack and I were on the same flight. I was his prisoner and he was escorting me back to a military base. I had hacked in and accessed some secrets, and I was his last mission. So, believe me when I tell you he can change his mind about people. He gave me a chance to earn his trust. I knew he was my best chance to survive, so I took it. You can do the same. All you have to do is show him that you trust him, and he'll do the same to you, and we all will be much better off for it.”
Saul nodded slowly, surprised at the sage advice coming from one so young. Now he understood why she had been so reticent to share that information with him, and in some ways, he felt a little sorry that he had pushed so hard. They were quiet for a few more moments until Grace craned her neck again, but still there was no sign that anything was going on in the building.
“How long do you think we'll have to wait here?” she asked.
“I have no idea. I guess we just have to wait and see what happens,” he said. Grace huffed and leaned her head against the wall, looking up at the stars. She began humming again, and this time Saul did not stop her.
MACK, Luis, and Miranda made their way down the wooden steps until they felt solid ground under their feet. The room was small and a damp smell wafted up toward them. The room was chilly and dark, as the moonlight did not reach in there. They couldn't hear anything else, so assumed they were alone. Mack told Luis to light a match, and the instant the flame bloomed they could see each others' faces. The ceiling was rather low with thick beams that proved hazardous to anyone around six feet tall. There were pillars as well, holding up the ceiling. As Luis moved the match across the room he gasped as the light fell upon an old leather chair. Leather straps lay upon it, and around the head were two metal contraptions that looked ominous.
“Like I said, there are things down here that haven't been used for a long time,” Miranda said, almost apologetically.
She gestured toward where they should head. As the match died down Luis threw it away and lit a new one. The light was dim and didn't provide them with much in the way of illumination at all, but it was better than nothing. They walked with small, shuffling steps, careful to not disturb anything that could make a loud noise. Beside him, Mack could sense that Miranda was becoming more anxious. Her breathing was erratic and she was standing closer to him than usual, which was understandable given everything she had been through. He thought it brave of her to return to this place after having escaped. The easiest thing to do would have been to run far away and leave all memories of it behind.
From somewhere in the building they heard a door clanging. It was a cold, heartless sound, and it filled them with dread. Miranda gasped and jumped a little. The three were huddled together now, knowing that once they emerged from the cellar they would be in the belly of the beast, and would have to move quickly if they were to complete their mission. Mack counted in his head to steady his breathing as he had done so many times before. He did not let his mind wander now for he knew how important it was going to be to remain focused and think swiftly. There was a chance that once they left the cellar they would have little or no time before people saw them, and they would have to make their way quickly to find Ethan.
Luis lit another match and a staircase was illuminated before them. Miranda, in a hushed whisper, told them it was what they had been looking for. Mack took the lead and reached behind his back for his gun in case he needed it, as there was no way to tell what was waiting for them once they opened the door.
> Mack was in the middle of giving instructions when suddenly the door swung open, blinding them with the light that spilled into the room. Mack, Luis, and Miranda raised their hands to cover their eyes and squinted at the man who was standing before them, a towering presence in the doorway. As his eyes quickly adjusted, Mack could see the man was wearing a white coat and had slicked-back black hair. He wore a casual smile and didn't look in the least bit surprised to see them. With hands by his sides he looked down at them.
“Welcome to the Archer Institute. And Miranda, it's good to see you again. I'm so glad you found her. We have missed her dearly. Sadly, in all this confusion a number of our patients are wandering out in the woods and we haven't the resources to track them all down. There's no need for you all to be standing down there. Please, come up and share a drink with me.”
“Mack looked at the man and then at Miranda.
“Don't trust him,” she said in a desperate whisper.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
MACK, Luis, and Miranda were halfway up the stairs, looking up at the man in the white coat who was flanked by a couple of orderlies, each holding a lantern. Miranda just had told Mack he shouldn't believe anything this man said. If her story was correct, then it was this man who had taken over the Archer Institute and turned the tables on the staff. He certainly carried himself well, and looked as though he belonged in the clothes he was wearing. A long white shirt rested on his shoulders and his black hair was swept back. His eyes gleamed and his arms were open, welcoming them in.
