Decker only nodded and they left.
Once Carson and Valie got back into the stolen vehicle, Carson took a sandwich from the backpack and handed it to her.
"Here, eat this."
She shook her head.
"Valie, you have to, keep your strength up."
"Carson," she said softly. He knew it was wasted effort, like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. She didn't have any strength left in her, a sandwich wasn't going to do anything and she wasn't hungry anymore.
He dug in the backpack and pulled out the gummy worms, offering them to her.
She smiled, took the bag and shoved a few in her mouth. Even chewing was harder than usual. "I guess I thought I would start to hurt, but I don't hurt. I don't feel anything. Just tired. I'm so tired, Carson."
He reached for her hand and squeezed it tightly, he wasn't looking at her though, he was looking out the window.
“It's not over yet, Val.”
“Carson, stop,” she was fighting back tears, “just please stop. I don't want to hope anymore. I don't want to believe that I have a chance...just let me accept this. Please?”
“Eat the sandwich,” he instructed and started the car.
As they drove, Valie forced Carson to talk to her, she didn't want to fall asleep and talking to him made her feel better. She felt a soft flutter in her heart when they spoke, even though everything else with in her body seemed to be slowing down, her heart reacted when Carson looked at her.
Valie asked him to talk to her about anything other than what was happening. She asked him about the Homecoming at his school and if he had a date.
“I've gotten some offers,” he said with a coy smile.
Valie picked her head up off the seat, “Girls ask you?!”
“Yeah,” he chuckled.
“So who did you choose?” Valie asked feeling a pinch of jealousy.
He looked at her, then back to the road, “I haven't decided yet.”
“Must be nice to have so many options,” she teased.
“Who are you ta--” he started to say, but stopped quickly and Valie could tell he was embarrassed.
“It's okay,” she assured him. He didn't want to finish the sentence; she wasn't going to be there for her homecoming. “Nobody had asked me yet.”
A couple of hours and a few gas station stops later, they were finally able to find Maddy's pendant site. It was a public park with many trees and a pond. The walkways were all lined with plenty of beautiful flowers. There were a few joggers and some small families occupying the picnic tables. It was a lovely fall day in Wisconsin.
They parked the car. Valie was anxious to see Trent. It wasn't five o'clock yet, but she was hopeful they were there.
The car didn't even come to a full stop before she got out.
“Valie!” Carson shouted. She ignored him and looked around the parking lot frantically. She didn't have to look long because there they were, sitting underneath a tall oak tree, away from the other park people.
Valie sighed with relief and a huge smile spread across her face. She waved and started to run with her limp that hadn't healed. She felt as if she looked ridiculous, but didn't care.
Trent noticed her, sprang to his feet, and started running to meet her.
"Trent!" Valie squealed, jumping into his arms.
He spun her around a couple of times.
“Am I glad to see you!” he exclaimed.
She felt so happy to see him and didn't want to let him go. She pulled away and looked at his face, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, look," he brought his hand up and showed her his pendant. Valie kissed his cheek and hugged him again.
"Did you get yours?" his eyes flickered with excitement.
Jackson hadn't said anything to him, probably holding out hope that Decker would've been able to help them. Valie could see Carson from over Trent's shoulder. They looked at each other, he put his head down.
"Valie?"
She forced a smile, "Yeah, I got it." Valie looked to Maddy who finally joined them.
“Hey, Maddy--you okay?”
She had been crying. Something was wrong.
"What? What's wrong?"
"Maddy's pendant...it's gone." Trent said sadly, his happy demeanor fading.
Valie took a step back, "No..."
“No, it's okay because we have a plan,” Trent said with confidence.
Maddy wasn't saying anything. Valie couldn't believe it. As soon as she heard it, all Valie felt was rage. She was so angry at their parents for letting it happen, for giving them life, but not securing it in every way they could. Somehow, they should've been smarter about it.
Trent and Maddy had driven to New Jersey. They were able to find Trent's pendant site, but saw the pendant was gone. They came back to Wisconsin, straight to Maddy's pendant site. That's where Phaedra and Jackson were waiting for them.
Trent had his pendant at least. Jackson had given it to him before leaving to go off with Phaedra to search for Maddy's pendant. Valie knew that her pendant had been destroyed by a couple unknowing children. There was a chance that Maddy's was just taken by Magnus Pierce or his people, that was the plan. Phaedra and Jackson were going to try and find it. They knew that Magnus Pierce would never destroy a pendant, the pendants were too valuable to science. So if he had taken it, it would still be intact and they could steal it back.
While Trent was explaining the plan to Valie and the slightly disinterested Carson, Maddy excused herself and walked to the other side of the park to use the public bathrooms. A normal person would probably need some private time after hearing news like she did, but Valie had a feeling she was washing her hands or staving off one of her headaches.
Carson went to the car while Trent and Valie sat under the oak tree and waited for Maddy.
There was a large boulder next to Valie. She started carving her initials into with a small stone as they sat in a busy silence.
It didn't take long for Trent to begin to ask questions about how Valie felt after she took her pendant. He let her know that she looked "pretty gaunt, still," Valie assured him she was fine. She couldn't tell him the truth. She wasn't sure if she didn't want to tell him for Trent's sake, or her own.
Trent said that the drive back from New Jersey to Wisconsin was the longest day of his life. He thought he was going to die, but also said that Maddy had helped him "make peace," he didn't really elaborate, but Valie was happy that Maddy had provided him solace, but now the tables had completely turned. Trent was okay and Maddy was the one who would probably have to make peace with it.
They sat there, waiting for Maddy, chattering about their trips, a nervous chatter, neither wanting to talk about what was happening around them.
Valie stayed focused on carving her initials into the boulder.
Trent announced he was going to see what was taking Maddy so long.
At that point, Valie's mind had been so wrapped up in their pendants, it hadn’t occurred to her that she could be in danger.
Until she looked up.
Valie dropped the rock in her hand, rose to her feet, using the boulder for help. At first, she wasn't sure, her ears started to ring, heart pounding and felt very cold. Her body was trembling. There were four of them, as she narrowed her eyes. She recognized the two from the train station. She blinked hard, hoping it was a mirage, but when she opened her eyes, they were still there, walking together in a force that she could feel, even at a distance. There was a woman this time and another man with the two from the station.
“Trent,” she breathed. He was about to pass them.
It struck her at that moment that Trent never had to deal with Magnus' people. He had no idea that he was about to walk right past them.
She frantically looked around for Carson and crouched down behind the boulder, watching carefully, hoping that they wouldn't recognize Trent...but they did. They grabbed him, one of the men tackling Trent to the ground. Valie jumped from behind the boulder. Trent had managed
to slip away and he was running towards her. He was fast, but he looked behind him and tripped. He fell.
“No!” Valie screamed, jumping forward, but just as she did, someone grabbed her shoulders from behind and pulled her down. She fell backwards hard with a grunt.
It was Carson.
Valie pushed his arms off her and tried to get up to help Trent, but Carson pulled her back again.
"I have to help him!" Valie screamed.
Carson put his hand over her mouth, "There are four of them and two of us--think!"
Valie smacked his hand away and tried to run towards Trent again, but Carson grabbed her around the waist and tackled her to the ground.
"Get off me, Carson!"
"You're not killing yourself! Stop it!"
"I have to help him!" Valie cried, muffled with her face in the dirt.
"They already got him, Valie! There's nothing you can do!"
"No!" Valie was trying so hard to get up, but she couldn't move under him. She screamed and tried to push herself up, dirt was getting kicked up into her mouth, but she didn't care.
Valie continued to struggle, kicking and screaming. She could hear Trent yelling her name in the distance. Carson's grip was digging tighter and tighter into her arms. He had his knee on the middle of her back.
"Carson, please!" She sobbed, but it was no use. He wasn't moving.
He didn't let her up, not until minutes later. It felt like forever to Valie, but she didn't stop trying, the entire time her face was in the dirt she tried, but couldn't overpower him.
His knee came off her back and he loosened his grip.
"They didn't see us," he said breathily.
Valie sat up, wiping the dirt off of her face. "I hate you.” She picked up a handful of dirt and threw it at him, he didn't make much of an effort to deflect it. Then, she lunged at him, punching him with her little fists. It was like throwing a pebble at a brick, it did nothing. He grabbed her wrists and spun her around, holding her arms against her own chest.
"Stop it! This is the reality of the situation! If you went over there, the only thing that would've accomplished was that they would've had both of you! We were outnumbered!"
“Let me go!”
He did.
"I don't need you to save me, Carson! You're not the hero, you're not my hero!”
Carson took a few steps back, squatted down, then popped back up with a yell.
He rushed right to Valie's face, "You don't understand this and you're a smart girl, stop acting so stupid. You make decisions based on feelings. You're brave, but that bravery mixing with your stupidity is going to get you killed and get you killed fast.”
“I can't even look at you.”
He scoffed. “Let's go.”
Valie hesitated, but she did follow him. She knew he was right, at least partially, but the image of Trent being chased and the sound of him yelling for her to help was more pain and guilt that she could bare.
She looked across the field to where they had dragged Trent away, hoping they would come back, or that she would see him running because he escaped, but she didn't. He was gone.
Then, there was Maddy. Exiting the bathroom, fluffing her hair. She strolled across the field towards Valie. Valie watched her in awe. As Maddy came closer, Valie saw that she had something in her hand.
Trent's pendant. She walked with it, dangling it by the chain. Maddy started to jog and didn't stop until she was in front of Valie.
“Hey, so what's the plan?” she asked as she approached, a little winded.
Valie opened her mouth, but words didn't come out. Maddy had no idea what just happened. Her OCD or headaches or whatever drove her to her long bathroom breaks potentially just saved her life.
“Here, I don't want to hold this anymore, it makes me nervous.” She held out Trent's pendant, carefully holding it by the chain. “I can't wait to get home. My teeth feel gross, my hair feels gross, I, in general, feel gross.”
Valie carefully held and felt the smooth, glass surface in her hand. Looking at it, she had to wonder, what about the blue gel was so special? Why couldn't it be duplicated? How was it going to keep them alive and for how long?
“Where did Trent go?” Maddy asked, looking around.
“Maddy, do me a favor and hold onto this please,” Valie grabbed Maddy's hand and gave the pendant back.
Maddy quickly snatched her hand back, “No!”
As if in slow motion, Valie watched the pendant hit the ground and roll in the grass.
She gasped. “Maddy! Why would you do that?!”
Valie quickly bent down and picked up the pendant. Luckily, it wasn't broke. “Maddy, why would you do that? It could've broke!”
“I'm sorry. I just don't want to hold it anymore.”
Valie looked at her carefully, noticing a Band-Aid on her knee. Maddy glanced up at her, only for a second, but that's all it took. In her simple glance, Valie saw it in her eyes and it hit her so hard that she felt her knees give a little. Valie took a step back, “Oh my, God...Maddy.”
“What?” she asked innocently enough.
Valie took another step back. “That—that Band-Aid on your knee...how long?”
“How long what?”
“How long has it been there?”
“Uh, since yesterday, why? Why are you looking at me like that?”
The air felt like it had been sucked right out of Valie's lungs, “Take the pendant, Maddy...I want to see you hold it.”
“Why?”
“Just take it.”
“I don't understand why.”
“Just take it!”
“No...I can't.” Her lip started to quiver and she started pleading with her eyes. “Please, Valie.”
“Oh my God,” she whispered, bringing her hand to her mouth.
"Please, please, I can explain."
"Explain what?!" she screamed, Carson appeared by Valie's side.
"What? What are you screaming for?" he demanded.
Maddy looked back and forth from Carson to Valie.
"Take it,” Valie said.
"You don't understand," she begged.
Carson took a step towards Maddy, "Okay, I'm not following, what's the problem?"
"Tell him Maddy, tell him why you can't take the pendant!"
A tear rolled down her cheek. Just one, and then she closed her eyes.
"You can't, can you?"
She didn't say anything.
“You can't hold it.”
"I'm sorry,” she sobbed. “I meant to tell you when this all started."
Carson took another step towards Maddy, "Tell us what?”
She was on the verge of hyperventilating, her little body shaking with her quick, short breaths.
"Now!" Carson ordered.
Maddy grimaced. "I can't hold the pendant because it will burn me...I am not one of The Wozniak Five.”
Chapter 18
Decker sat in his ramshackle home, thinking. He couldn't quite sit still after the departure of his unexpected guests. It could have been the ADHD he had been diagnosed with as a young child, maybe. He took a couple of pills, picked up a half-empty beer bottle from the floor and took a long sip.
He paced in his living room, kicking empty beer cans out of his way. Then sat back down and cradled his head in his hands and repeated. He wondered if he did the right thing. He didn't really know how he could help them. There wasn't much he could do, but still, he wondered.
His daily routine consisted of him pacing and sitting and jittering. He could've used his energy towards something more productive such as cleaning his home, or even taking a shower to tame his disheveled look, but he didn't. Decker knew how to sit and feel sorry for himself. He knew how to blame others for the way things turned out for him, helping other people wasn't something he was interested in, but that day was different. At the mention of the name Phaedra, he recalled a debt that he owed. Not only that, but his conscious was getting the better of him, bringing out the side that
no one saw anymore.
A few hours had gone by since his visit from “the Wozniak brats” as he referred to them, when a harsh knock came from his front door, just as he started to heat up a can of soup. He had a cigarette dangling out of his mouth as he walked to the door. No one had ever knocked on Decker's door. It was so rare that, twice in one day, it had him alarmed. Based on his first visitors, he could only imagine who was on his front steps now.
He pulled open his door. For a moment, he just stood there. Then, finally, “What do you want, Hooper?”
There stood the man who betrayed his fellow scientists, Jackson's father, Hooper Bromwell.
“Aren't you going to invite me in, Decker?” Hooper wasn't alone, at his sides were Hunter and Brutis.
Decker stepped aside and they came in, Hunter bumping into Decker with his shoulder.
“What do you all want?” Decker said casually. “I'm trying to make dinner.”
“You're pathetic,” Hooper started. “Look at this place. It looks like a pig pen.”
“What do you want, Hooper?” Decker said again, folding his arms across his chest.
“Have they been here?”
“Who?”
Hunter rushed to Decker and slammed him into the wall, sending pieces of plaster to the ground. “You know who we're talking about.”
“Have any of the Wozniak kids been here?”
“Why would they come here?” Decker asked casually, disregarding the forearm across his throat.
“Because Decker, you wrote the book, you know things. Because you're a fool!” Hooper said.
“No one has been here,” he said through gritted teeth.
“He's lying,” Hunter said, pressing his arm down harder.
Brutis came closer to Decker's face and stared at him, hoping to intimidate him into speaking.
“I told you,” Decker forced out, “no one has been here.”
Hunter continued to press his arm into Decker's throat, until Brutis commanded him that they needed to leave, they didn't have the time.
“You are not even worth the time it would take to kill and hide your body,” Hunter said and spit on the floor.
“I hope you guys find them, a few kids, being that they're so dangerous and all.”
The Pendants and the Mystery of the Wozniak Five Part I Page 17
