Old Bones (Haunted Series)

by Alexie Aaron

  Mia rolled over to the liquor cabinet and searched for something to use as a weapon. She smiled as she spotted what every wine connoisseur would never be without. She jammed the corkscrew down her bra and grabbed a few other lethal items that had been overlooked by her kidnapper and hid them on her body. She unwrapped her bandages and placed her ace in the hole there and rewrapped the injured thigh.

  The car started moving again. It accelerated and bounced over the curb, the undercarriage of the limo scraping the cement until the back wheels moved over the curb. They were now on the grass and headed across a field at an alarming rate of speed.

  Charles saw the limo headed towards him. The lights bore down on him. He dove to the side and landed in a small group of young maple trees, large enough to decorate the landscape but too small to provide much cover. Rough hands gripped him and rolled him over.

  “What do you want? What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Doctor Morrison would like a word with you.”

  “I don’t think so. He’s dead, isn’t he?”

  The two men looked at each other, exchanging looks that Charles couldn’t decipher in this light.

  “Come,” one of them said as Charles was yanked to his feet. The men were lean but very strong. Charles had no option but to go with them.

  Ted killed his headlights and coasted into the lot by the picnic area. He and Murphy left the truck and started running towards the glimmering lights of what he deduced were fires by the smell of smoke. Murphy left Ted in the dust. He prayed that he would get there in time to help Mia.

  Mia pushed the hands away from Audrey and received a hard slap that sent her reeling backwards. The limo driver and a coarse-looking man dragged Audrey out of the limousine. A moment later the driver returned with a fresh thug, and they crawled in the car after Mia. She took out the corkscrew and stabbed at the hands that bruised and tried to gain hold of her limbs. The driver slammed his hand on the top of her injured thigh, and Mia screamed and withered in pain. She dropped the corkscrew and frantically searched for it.

  “Stop it or you’ll get worse, bitch!” the driver shouted at her. He smacked her hard again. This time Mia felt a tooth loosen. But still she fought. She was at a disadvantage, cornered inside the back of the limo with the one entrance blocked by two very angry men.

  “Move out of the way,” another man said and when he advanced on Mia he didn’t try to grab her. He simply tasered her.

  The pain that went through her body in that brief moment of contact was indescribable. She shook and lost control over her body. When the spasms stopped, Mia could only stare fiercely as she was pulled then lifted out of the vehicle.

  Charles was sitting on the ground, hands tied behind his back, when they lay his daughter at his feet. He watched helplessly as Audrey had been carried past him and up the steps of the platform moments before. From the firelight he saw the dreadful bruises raising large lumps on Mia’s face. She had given them a good fight. He was proud and worried at the same time. His questions of what they wanted with them went unanswered. Finally Andrew Enrich walked over and sat down.

  “This is insanity, Charles, in this day and age…”

  “You’re going to have to be clearer than that, son, if I’m going to understand what the fuck you’re talking about.”

  “It’s that maniac. Kidnapping, pressing the homeless into labor, hypnotizing grad students to do his bidding. It’s like a bad Saturday afternoon movie. I’m just waiting for the zombies to show up.”

  Charles could tell the archeologist was exhausted and had lost hope of rescue.

  “You know he’s going to kill us.”

  “No, I didn’t know, and who the fuck is he?”

  “Good god, old boy, are you so dense? Morrison! He’s off his rocker. He thinks he’s chief of Cahokia and is preparing to sacrifice us to the Birdman.”

  “We can’t let that happen. Untie me.”

  “Oh no, not with taser man over there. I’ll take my chances when he’s not around. Look what they did to your daughter, poor thing. I heard she took two of them on and won.”

  “She’s pretty scrappy.”

  Mia moaned and tried to sit up. “Fucking hell,” she managed as she rolled to her side. She stared at her father and Enrich.

  “Hang in there, it takes some time to recover,” Enrich said. “I’ve been treated to that every day for the last few weeks. I doubt my central nervous system is functioning properly anymore.”

  “Got to save Audrey,” Mia said and raised her head.

  “Dear, you can’t even save yourself. We’re doomed,” Enrich lamented.

  There was a noise above them, and they looked up to see Doctor Morrison come out onto the platform dressed in nothing but a loin cloth. Behind him, two grad students carried Audrey out tied to a plank of wood. Her eyes were opened, but her mouth was gagged.

  “Jesus Christ.” Mia rolled past Enrich over to her father. “Knife in bandage,” she hissed. Mia painfully scooted as close to his tied hands as she could manage in her present state.

  Charles glared at Enrich and leaned over and dug his hands into Mia’s thigh wrappings and was able to manage the cheese knife. He nicked himself a few times with the forked end but managed to cut through his bonds. He watched for a chance, and when the goon’s attention was on the platform, he picked up Mia and ran for cover.

  Enrich moaned and followed them into the darkness.

  Cid skirted the borrow pit and headed for the lights. Burt and Mike had dropped him at the railroad tracks. They would circle around and head in through the main entrance causing as much noise as possible. Cid, carrying the leftover pyrotechnics from the engagement party in the pack on his back, dropped to a crawl as he approached the mound, being careful to keep out of the light.

  He heard a commotion but was too far away to determine what was happening.

  “What do you mean they’re gone?” Morrison screamed at the taser man. “You lost a tied up old man, a tasered slip of a girl and a zombie? What the fuck? Find them!” He stomped off the platform, picking up a mag light and started to search the bushes.

  Audrey twisted and turned but was unable to release her bonds. She had no idea how she got in this predicament but knew she had to get herself free if she was going to survive.

  She felt a familiar tingle move down her arm and knew instinctively that Murphy was there. “Cut me free and find Mia,” she pleaded.

  Murphy slid his axe carefully to cut the bonds and do as little damage as he could to the woman’s hands and feet. Once he released Audrey, he left her there and moved down the platform quickly in search of Mia and her father.

  Audrey flexed her fingers and got to her feet. She spied a wicked blade she had feared was going facilitate her entrance into Ghost World. She picked it up and slid off the platform, dropping silently to the mound and slid the rest of the way down.

  Ted ran and stood in position as his timer vibrated. “Showtime.”

  A truck barreled into the access drive and through the wood barrier with its horn honking. The guards moved to intercept the intruders just as fireworks began going off in the opposite direction.

  Audrey smiled and ran in the opposite direction of the noise. A hand grabbed her and another went over her mouth.

  “Come with me if you want to live,” Ted hissed in her ear.

  “Mia’s been tasered, last I saw. Her father carried her out of here heading towards the trailer park,” she told him quickly. “I sent Murphy after them. Here!” she said as she forced the weapon into Ted’s hands. “Don’t be afraid to use it. They were going to kill all of us.”

  Ted sent her in the direction of the truck and handed her his phone to call the cops. He waited until he was sure she got away before advancing towards Mound 72 once more.

  Murphy found Charles and Mia. He was stumbling towards the lights of the trailers in the distance. Murphy took Mia from Charles and changed direction. “Tracks. Train’s coming.”

  Charles gra
bbed a hold of Enrich who had fallen to the ground winded. “Come on, Andrew, just a little bit further.”

  “Is your daughter floating?” he asked, wavering as he stood.

  “She being carried by a guy in camouflage,” Charles insisted. “Come on!”

  Burt and Mike stayed in the truck. They circled around, and when someone fired at them, they headed out of the parking area. They just had to keep ahead of the person firing at them. Mike reported to the 911 operator what was happening. She assured them help was on the way.

  Cid and Ted ran into each other.

  “What a big knife you have,” Cid said as he stopped to catch his breath.

  “All the better to cut them with,” Ted said. “You see Mia?”

  “No, but sure as hell Murphy’s with her. Audrey?”

  “She’s on the way to the truck. We better beat feet there ourselves. I just heard gunshot. We’re not, well, you’re not armed. Let’s get to the rendezvous pronto,” Ted recommended as he took off running in the dark.

  Cid matched him step for step, and soon they were yards from the truck.

  Audrey saw them approach and saw the four or so men running after them. She started the truck and prayed the boys would get there before their pursuers.

  Cid got in the truck shouting, “Drive!”

  Audrey put the truck in gear. “Where’s Ted?”

  “I heard wings, and then he was gone,” Cid said. “I hope to fuck it was one of ours.”

  Audrey squealed out of the parking lot, narrowly missing the PEEPs truck. “You’d think they would use their fucking headlights!” she said and realized she didn’t have hers on. “My bad.”

  Cid, white-faced, said nothing.

  Ted tried not to wiggle as the talons held him aloft. The bird flew him to the railroad tracks where Murphy was headed. From his vantage point, he could also see the six men gaining ground on the fleeing quartet.

  “Drop me between them,” Ted ordered.

  The bird complied, and Ted stood there and challenged the approaching crowd. “You want a piece of this?” he said, waving his hands to get their attention. The beam of the leader’s light momentarily blinded him. He felt something large move beside him and heard a shriek from one of the approaching men. In Ted’s peripheral night vision he saw the moving mountain. He prayed he was on his side when he said, “Let’s get these fuckers.”

  He-who-walks-through-time grunted assent and charged the six, shouting something in a language Ted had never heard before.

  “English, Ed, English,” he shouted as he took on the first man. Ted sliced the arm that reached out to grab him. The man recoiled with a whimper. “Take that, you piece of shit.”

  “Who dares to fight a god?” the traveler asked in a booming voice.

  “I do,” Doctor Morrison said as he moved out from behind the four remaining men.

  The clouds parted, and the full moon of the solstice spotlighted the upcoming match. The man who thought he was a chief faced the man who knew he was a god.

  Ted watched the other men run off, his victim trailing blood from the gash on his arm. “Watch him, Ed, I think he has a gun, fire stick, danger danger, Will Robinson.”

  The traveler stood his ground. Morrison advanced, drawing his weapon. Ted watched in amazement as the traveler waved his hand and the gun was knocked out of Morrison’s grip from ten feet away. Morrison looked at his hand in disbelief.

  “Bow before me, and you will live,” the traveler said.

  “I bow to no one,” Morrison said and flung a knife at the traveler.

  Ted watched as Ed caught the knife blade in the air and tossed it back at Morrison who sidestepped as it whizzed by his head.

  “Stop it, doctor. This guy’s just playing with you. He could crush you with one hand,” Ted warned.

  “Poppycock,” Morrison said and withdrew another knife and ran at the monster before him.

  He-who-walks-through-time batted the man away as if he was a mosquito. Morrison flew and landed with a sickening crunch on the ground. Ted ran over to check on the fallen man and found him still breathing.

  “He’s down but not out,” he reported to his battle buddy. Ted rolled the doctor over and secured his hands with his belt. He forced the administrator to his feet. “Time to ‘slain yourself, Lucy,” Ted said and led the man to the flashing lights of the approaching police cars. He looked back to advise Ed to hit the road, but he had already gone.

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Mia sat wrapped in a blanket in the lobby of the Interpretive Center. Daylight was just advancing over the trees. The state police rounded up sixteen participants in total. Andrew Enrich sat with the Sergeant in charge in the admin office and told his story. Each of them in turn made a statement. Charles’s was the most damning. He had amazing recall and cited the action as he saw it without emotion, and without mentioning the traveler, the bird, or Mia peeing herself.

  When the reports were written and signed, the story of how an archeologist turned administrator of the most prestigious state park in Illinois had lost his nut and thought he was the chief of the Cahokian City would be told. It would be known how he pressed homeless men into service, promising them a piece of his kingdom, and about the grad students who fell under his spell and followed him blindly. Andrew Enrich was the last holdout. He was beaten and stunned to the point of no resistance, but he never believed the claptrap Morrison spouted. He looked every day for a way to escape and, after a while, lost his drive to do so.

  The summer solstice approached, and Morrison decided to sacrifice a few maidens to the Birdman. Audrey and Mia were just convenient. Otherwise two of the tour guides were slated for that honor.

  It was just a coincidence that Charles found the warehouse that Morrison had been using. He used it and the building next door to house his servants for months previously. Morrison didn’t know anything about the vortex, having never been there when it opened.

  Audrey helped Mia to the ladies washroom. Mia limped, hanging on to her, not caring that she was supposed to keep off her newly bandaged leg. She washed herself and dressed in her own clothes that Mike had brought into the center from the truck.

  “Thank you for trying to save me,” Audrey said to her wounded friend. “I saw the cuts and scratches the driver had on him. They found the real driver still alive, trussed up, and left for dead in the washroom at the hospital.”

  “Am I a bad person to not care what happened to him?”

  Audrey looked sympathetically at her friend. “You’re just tired. I know better.”

  Mia gave her a half smile. “I guess you’re right.”

  They left the washroom and found Ted waiting for her at the door. He reached down and gently lifted her into his arms. “Mia, you’ve got to curb your donut eating; you’re killing me here.”

  She giggled and put her head on his shoulder. She had seen how he fought for her. He stood side-by-side with a self-proclaimed god and held up his end of the fight. She saw the marks left by Judy’s talons on his shoulders and felt bad for giving into her own self-pity party.

  Ted set her down by Charles who handed her a cup of coffee. “They asked me to be the interim director until the board can find someone else. I wonder how your mother is going to like it down here.”

  “As long as she’s fed, has a laptop and a bucket full of coffin nails, she’ll be fine,” Mia said wryly.

  “I suppose you’re right. Maybe next time we get together we can have a meal and leave the high adventure for another time.”

  “I’d like that, Father,” Mia said meaning it.

  He smiled at her and looked up at Ted and said, “Take care of her. She’s very special, son, very special.”

  “I will, sir,” Ted told him in earnest. “You’ll have to bring the missus by to check out my farm, well, my and Murphy’s farm.”

  “I’d like that, son. Well, if you two will excuse me, I’m going to put on my administrator face, curb my colorful euphemisms, and start to clean up
the mess Morrison left.” He stood up and kissed Mia tenderly before leaving.

  “He’s a complex man, your dad is,” Ted said, sitting in his spot and putting his arm around Mia.

  Burt left the office where he was giving his report, tapped Mike on the shoulder and motioned to Audrey and Cid to follow him over to where Ted and Mia sat.

  “Seems that we are okayed to leave here. Cid, if you could drive Mia’s truck with Murphy. Mike’s got the command center. I’m going to drive the rest of us north in the van. Ted can watch Mia while she stretches out in the back. We’ve all had a time of it. If I were honest, I’d have to say it was a bit fun.”

  “Says the man who sat in the truck beeping the horn all the time,” Cid said. “Try running ten miles.”

  “Or flying,” Ted added.

  “Trussed up ready for a luau,” Audrey threw in.

  Mia laughed. “I’ve got no complaints. Let’s do it again,” she said.

  Everyone groaned and tossed their empty coffee cups at her. She fought off the cardboard containers with dignity and laughter.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Drago Basso bowed over Mia, taking her hand and placing a kiss upon the top of it. “I was so sorry to hear about your injury. I’m glad you could make it today.”

  Mia smiled up at the man. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. To see the rift mended between brothers after so long makes me a bit giddy inside. Plus, now Giuseppe and Esta will rest with family. I applaud you for doing this.” She adjusted herself in the motorized chair. “Besides, I have wheels; I can travel just about anywhere.”