by Bob Bannon
“Just hold on!” Eric yelled back, and then calmed himself. “It’s just… A friend. A friend is going to take us someplace safe. Just don’t freak out!”
Jonah had gone around one side of the dumpster. Moments later, Adam appeared from the other side. Emma screamed with no sign of stopping just as the metal door slammed all the way open once more.
Eric grabbed her, slapped a hand over her mouth and slammed them both up against the wall around the corner from the door. The man who had come out the door was one of the military men. He swung his weapon one way and then the other. As he turned to come around the corner, Adam punched him in the face. He was out cold before he hit the ground.
Emma was still screaming behind Eric’s hand.
“Listen. He’s just a friend. You have to calm down. He just saved us from that guy. He’s going to take us someplace safe.”
She stopped screaming, but was breathing very hard. Eric kept his hand over her mouth for a few more moments and then dropped it slowly.
“Alright?” He asked. She nodded.
Adam looked at Eric. “Up,” he grunted and slapped his shoulder twice. He wanted Eric to get on his back.
“Alright,” Eric acknowledged and then maneuvered himself up onto his back. He couldn’t exactly reach his hands all the way around Adam’s neck, so he ended up hanging on to the mane of hair at the back of Adam’s neck.
“Up,” Adam grunted at Emma and then cradled his arm.
“He’s going to carry you,” Eric said to Emma. “You okay?”
She nodded again. Adam slowly approached her. He looked sad that she was so frightened by him. He gently scooped her up. When she looked secure, he took off loping across the parking lot at top speed. Emma squeezed her eyes shut.
When they got to the spot in the woods where the tree-house was, Adam let everyone down.
“Wait, why are we in the woods? Where are we?” Emma demanded.
Eric pointed straight up. “Jonah has a tree-house here. It’s a secret. No one knows about it. It’s safe.”
“Oh my God, Jonah!” Emma’s eyes went wide. “We left him back there! We have to go back!”
“Take it easy,” Eric said. “Adam will go back for him. Right, Adam?” Eric was really hoping Adam understood that he should act like he was going back. After a moment, Adam scratched his chest and nodded.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Emma pointed out.
“We don’t have any idea what’s happening in town.” Eric explained. “Those guys were cutting everyone in school down. We have to stay here and figure out what to do.”
He stomped over to where he knew Jonah tied the rope ladder and untied the cord. The ladder fell to the ground.
Emma had just realized that she was much warmer in Adam’s arms. “It’s freezing out here,” she said.
“It’s warmer up there,” Eric said. It was his last nudge to convince her.
She went to the ladder and began to climb. When she was half way up, Eric said “Adam, go back and get Jonah and bring him back here.” Adam got the message and loped off into the trees.
Eric found Emma standing at the top next to the door. He opened it for her and she went in. Taking everything in, she asked “does he live here?”
“Sometimes,” Eric said, unprepared for the question. “Kind of,” he corrected.
Emma was happy that it was warmer, but she picked up one of Jonah’s sweaters and put it on for good measure. Eric went straight for the tablet to see if he could get any news. Surely the place had to be crawling with reporters by now.
Sitting down on a hammock, Emma bounced right up again. She paced back and forth and then went straight for the door. “I have to get out of here. I have to go home.”
“Emma wait,” was all Eric got out.
She made it as far as the patio when she looked down and saw what looked like half of Adam melting right into the ground and, just as fast, Jonah coming right back out of the same spot.
“Emma?” Jonah said, and Emma passed out cold.
Five minutes later, she woke up on one of the camping hammocks wrapped in the electric blanket. She pushed the blanket away and sat up. The boys were busy, huddled over the tablet. Jonah heard her move and came towards her.
“Wait,” She said, putting her hand up. “What happened?”
“You fainted,” Eric said. “Hit your head pretty hard too.”
“Are you okay?” Jonah asked.
“I saw you…” She said.
“Listen, I can explain. Just not right now. Okay?”
“But I saw…”
“Hey,” Eric cut her off. “I think I got it.”
When they went over to the tablet, there was an image of one of the local news reporters standing in front of the mall. There were huge searchlights pointed all over the older part where two of the military vehicles had been backed up through the center and West entrances. At least a dozen police vehicles with their lights blazing lined the parking lot.
The video started and the reporter began. “Once again, this is Chad Kent in Kensville, Washington where what police suspect is some kind of terrorist attack is still ongoing. Earlier tonight, a group of masked assailants attacked a school dance, where much of the population of this small town seemed to be gathered. They fired into the crowd using high-tech weaponry meant to stun the victims. Most of those have been moved from the school to the local emergency clinic where staff are still being helicoptered in from surrounding areas to help with the overload. Two of the victims who were known to be at the dance are still unaccounted for.” At this point, the reporter checked a clip board he had in his hand. “A Missus Wendy MacIntyre, a local shop-owner, and a Doctor Daniel Wong, the head of the emergency clinic here in town. The count is still ongoing, but we have conflicting reports that someone saw these two being taken as hostages.”
Eric looked at Emma, who tightly gripped his arm and looked like she might faint again.
“The group is now holed-up in the local mall you see behind me and Federal officials are said to be on their way. They’ve warned local authorities not to engage the people inside until they arrive on the scene. Once again, this is Chad Kent here in Kensville, Washington, where we’ll be bringing you more of this unfolding story.”
That was the end of the streaming video.
“I think it’s them,” Jonah said to Eric.
“But why my mom and her dad?” Eric asked.
“Because they couldn’t get you two,” Jonah said. “They must know.”
“Know what?” Emma demanded. “What’s going on?”
“Listen, it’s not going to make any sense to you, but I think those men were after me.”
“What? Why?”
“There’s no time to explain it right now, Emma. I’m sorry. Those people killed my dad and they’ve been after me ever since,” Jonah said. After a pause, he continued. “What you saw outside. That was actually real. That was actually me. I can do… things. I can’t explain it right now, I have to get over there.”
“I’m going too,” Eric said.
“I don’t think that’s such a good…”
“Dude!” Eric cut him off. “That’s my mom.”
Jonah could see he wasn’t going to change his mind.
“If Eric’s going, them I’m going.” Emma said.
“Oh no you’re not,” Jonah said sternly. “Besides, you’ll freeze outside.”
Emma, who was already wearing one of Jonah’s sweaters, kicked off her shoes, picked up the heaviest sweater she could see and then a pair of his jeans. She marched into the room with the bathtub, and with a glare at them both, slid the shower curtain closed.
She emerged moments later, wearing his sweater and his jeans, which were just a little too long on her.
“Belt,” she demanded, and held out her hand. Both boys just stared at her. “Now,” she demanded again. Jonah took off his belt and handed it to her. She put it through the belt loops and then cinched it. The jeans didn’t
fit, but it appeared the belt would hold them. She sat down and rolled the legs of the jeans twice and then put her shoes back on.
“Now, we’re going,” She said.
“This would be a lot easier if I just let Devlin do it,” Jonah said to Eric, who shrugged. Then he turned to Emma. “You know you’re going to have to ride with Adam again. You didn’t like it the first time.”
“Fine,” Emma said, and marched out the door.
A minute later, Adam came stomping out the door. He looked at her and she backed up against the wall of the tree-house. Adam launched himself over the railing and stared up at her.
Once Eric and Emma came down the ladder, Eric pulled the ladder back up and tied it off. They took their positions again and Adam took off through the woods.
This time, Emma didn’t squeeze her eyes shut. She tried to examine Adam. She knew now that this was somehow, in some way, Jonah. It scared her on a deep level, but she couldn’t understand how it could be. She looked in Adam’s face and tried to distinguish if there was anything of Jonah there. Adam looked down at her as they loped through the forest. No, she couldn’t see any part of Jonah. She looked away. Adam huffed hard through his nose and looked forward.
XXIII
Adam tried to stick to the shadows as much as possible, but the street lights seemed to glow even brighter in the falling snow that had started back up, which stuck to the ground, creating large pools of light. Because of the weather and the attack on the school, the town was completely deserted. All activity seemed to be centered at the mall or the clinic.
When they reached the Jefferson Street alley, Adam put Emma and Eric down. He motioned for them to turn around with a grunt, but neither of them understood. “Turn,” he growled.
This struck Eric as odd, but he followed the instruction. “I guess he doesn’t want you to see,” Eric said to Emma. “I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty gross.”
After a moment, Jonah said “Okay, I’m back,” and they both turned to find Jonah pulling off his coat. He handed it to Emma who almost refused and then put the coat on and zipped it up,
Across the street, they saw several police cars around the older side of the mall. It seemed like all of the police vehicles from town were there, but also a few from the neighboring towns. From what they could see, there were also at least four television vans in the parking lot and a few other cars and trucks that they assumed were other media. The military vehicles the terrorists drove were now backed up through the entrance doors of the older section, blocking any access.
They walked the perimeter of the mall parking lot and seemed to go completely un-noticed. Either the police couldn’t see them, or weren’t interested enough to come see what they were up to. They gathered that the police must have assumed that the terrorists were all in the older part of the mall because they only had that end surrounded and only one car at each of the entrances to the Promenade section. The side entrance to the newer section was left virtually unguarded. They decided that was their best chance to get inside.
They waited until a police car drove past that entrance and then made a head-long dash for the doors. In no time at all, they had crossed the parking lot and nearly slammed right into the double-doors, which Jonah found were locked tight. That was also about the time they figured out that this entrance hadn’t been left completely unattended. The police car which had passed just before they ran for the door was now circling back towards them again.
Eric and Emma took cover behind a bike rack to the right of the entrance, which was hidden from the street by a flower bed and a single small tree. Jonah hid behind a stone column to the left.
They waited a moment after the police car drove by, just to make sure it was safe. When they emerged from their hiding spaces, Emma almost screamed again, but Eric was fast enough to cover her mouth.
The Professor had stepped out from behind the column where Jonah had hidden. Eric knew who he was, Emma had never seen him before.
“Quiet!” Eric urged in a whisper. “He’s okay, he’s with us.”
“Jonah?” She asked.
“Well,” the Professor answered.“Yes and no.” He giggled a little. He seemed to be searching his lab coat.
“We weren’t really expecting you,” Eric said.
“I thought it best if we engaged a little bit of stealth here,” the Professor explained. “If trouble is inside, best you see it before it sees you, no?” He was looking at Emma with what looked like a reassuring smile, but then something caught his eye. He reached over and plucked a bobby pin from her hair. “If I may?”
He bent the pin only slightly apart and then Eric saw what he was planning. The Professor put the pin in the lock and began to move it. “The thing about picking a lock,” he explained as he bent close to the lock, “is that you must separate the upper pin, there.” He said as his hand moved slightly. “And the lower pin, there. Then you must move both pins with the same amount of force so that both pins turn over at the same time.” And they heard the lock turn over as he said it.
“You’re really going to have to teach me that,” Eric said with a grin.
“Very nice to meet you both,” the Professor said as he handed the bent pin back to Emma, who found it useless now, so she put it in the coat pocket. “Now if you don’t mind,” he continued with a whirl of his finger, indicating that they should both turn around.
Eric was the first to understand. “Oh, right,” he agreed as he turned Emma around by the shoulders.
“Who opened the door?” Jonah asked from behind them. When they turned, they saw that he was holding the door open.
As they walked through, Eric said “The Professor picked the lock. Dude, you’ve gotta get him to teach me that, it was pretty cool.”
Once inside, all conversation stopped. The electricity seemed to have been cut, so the only light was from the few emergency lights they encountered every so often. They didn’t know exactly where they were going, but if they kept going straight ahead, they would hit the center of the mall with the large fountain and the escalators and they would have to choose a direction to go from there. All of this dependant upon not getting caught first, of course. They kept low and moved from door frame to door frame, sometimes crossing to the other side by hiding behind planters, but they couldn’t see any movement at all.
As they moved into the center of the mall, they saw nothing at all out of the ordinary until they heard footsteps coming down the escalator stairs and then the cocking of guns from behind them.
“So it is you.” The man on the escalator said. “I had my doubts.”
The two men behind them had stepped out of a doorway around the corner. They wore black ski-masks and camouflage gear, the same as the men that attacked the school, but now they were holding very real assault rifles.
Jonah had been in the lead, followed by Emma, and then Eric. Emma immediately reached out to take Jonah’s hand but the man standing behind Jonah shoved him hard toward the center of the room.
“Okay!” Jonah said to the man behind him. He squeezed Emma’s hand once. “It’ll be okay. Everything will be okay.” And then he let go and moved toward the escalator, so she clung to Eric.
As he walked, Jonah took note of the men around the room. There were two men on the second floor to his left with their rifles. There were another two across the room also with weapons drawn. All counting, there were four guns pointed at him, and another two at his friends. He also noted a television had been set up near the fountain. It looked like it was turned on, but the screen was black. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered how they hooked it up without power, until he noticed the glow of a laptop near it with a long cable that seemed to tap power from one of the emergency lights.
His head finally swung around to look up at the man on the escalator. This man didn’t wear a mask. He wore slightly different fatigues from the rest of the men in the room and had a sharply cut, military-style haircut that was graying on the sides. His face looke
d worn and tired and aged. He walked three more steps down the escalator and his heavy boots clanked on each step.
“Gotta admit,” he said. “I had my doubts for a while. But then, you’re the kid who’s not in school. No medical records. No dental records. You probably don’t even have a name, do you?”
“You know who I am. My name is Jonah Havensby. Now who the hell are you and where are my friends?”
The man laughed out loud once and it echoed in the empty mall. “Mouthy little dirt ball aren’t you? Alright, fair enough. You can call me Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Jerrod,” The man said with a small salute. “Although, I’m kind of surprised you don’t remember me.”
“I just found out who I am last week. I don’t remember you. I don’t remember anything. Now where are my friends?”
“Oh, they’re safe. Plenty safe,” Colonel Jerrod said, and then nodded to one of the men off to the side. The man went to the laptop and punched a few buttons. The television screen lit up with what had to be security camera footage from inside Vineyard Clothing. Doctor Wong was kneeling over a woman who sat against the back wall. It looked like Athena Stapleton. Eric’s mom was giving her sips of water from a bottle. “Their folks don’t seem to know exactly who you really are. I wonder if your friends know,” he added with a smug smile like he might let the cat out of the bag just to see their reaction. “I knew if I tailed Stapleton long enough you might show up.”
“Let them all go and I’ll go with you,” Jonah said, looking him straight in the eye.
“Jonah, no,” Emma said. She tried to move towards him but was held back by one of the men.
“Easy there little lady,” Colonel Jerrod said. “I wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt unnecessarily here.” Then he turned back to Jonah. “Besides, you’re just a means to an end, Mud Pie. You’re just the bait. I want the other one.”
Jonah was completely lost. The other one meaning Eric? He looked over at Eric and then he looked back at Jerrod.
“C’mon kid, the other one. The one that took down three of my men and two scientists the day before you disappeared. That’s the one I want. You’re just bait.”
