“They sure didn’t want any business,” Mia says.
“I’m sure we’ll run into a house or something up ahead,” I say, trying to stay confident.
Nothing.
There’s nothing but trees. We follow the road until it abruptly stops, dead ending into a wooded area.
“Are you sure this is the place?” MJ asks, peering over Jason’s shoulder to view the map.
Jason glances down at his map, then up to scan the trees. “This is it.”
“Maybe we took a wrong turn somewhere.” Wade says.
“Check the map again,” Ms. Burgess encourages him.
Jason shakes his head. “No, I’m sure this is the place. You all saw the sign.”
“Yeah, but…” Mia turns in a circle. “There’s nothing here.”
This can’t be right.
“It’s getting too dark to tell. When the sun comes up we’ll have to search the entire area,” I say. “This is just one road. There might be something back there in those woods.”
“How many miles do these woods cover?” Wade asks.
“I don’t know, maybe twenty mile or so.”
“That’s not so bad,” I say. “We can cover twenty miles in no time at all, we’ll start early in the morning.”
Ian turns around. “It doesn’t look like anyone was here, or has been.”
“That’s because this isn’t the right entrance. There has to be a different one,” I ramble. She has to be here.
“No, I mean, wherever we’ve gone, there was always something left over. Trash, you know, something, anything. This area is clean.”
We all turn around, surveying the land. I don’t want to admit it, but he’s right. There’s nothing here.
I’m wrong. I can’t go on. There’s no point. I fall to my knees. “She’s not here.”
“Hold on, let’s try to figure this out,” Jason says. He pulls my arm, trying to get me to stand. I pull away from him. It’s no use. I’ve led them all here…for nothing.
Jasmine steps around me and into the woods. “It just seems odd that there’s nothing here. Maybe just beyond these trees…” she says, her voice trailing off.
“Halt! State your business or die.”
I don’t even care who’s threatening us. Does it even matter? How many times has someone threatened to kill me?
Go ahead. Pull the trigger.
I drop to my butt and roll onto my side, pulling my body into a ball. I just don’t care anymore.
Winston lies beside me, so that his head rests on my side. A low growl emanates from between his sharp teeth.
Jasmine backs out of the woods with her hands up, but the speaker doesn’t follow her out.
“We don’t mean you any trouble,” Jason says, speaking into the trees. “We came here on a tip. We’ll be leaving now.” He begins to back away. The others do the same, with Wade making his way toward me.
“What kind of tip?” the man asks.
“Our friend’s mother left her a note to come here. We clearly wrote the information down wrong. We’ll be on our way.”
I listen as everyone’s shoes crunch on the stones and dirt, slowly moving away. Wade reaches me and tugs on my arm. “Sinta, get up. We need to get out of here,” he whispers to me.
“Leave me,” I say. I can't go on. I just can't do it.
“You don’t get to give up in the middle of nowhere. Especially when you wouldn’t let me,” MJ says. He steps around Wade and tugs on my other arm, pulling me to my feet against my will.
“What’s the mother’s name?”
Everyone is quiet, waiting for me.
“Sinta,” Jason says. “Tell them.”
I don’t even see the point. “No. It doesn’t matter. She’s not here. I was stupid to lead you all here.”
I use all my remaining energy to turn around. The only thing left to do is to leave this place and go to D.C.
“We didn’t come all this way for you give up,” Mia says to me. “Her mother’s name is Diana Allen.”
“Nurse Diana?” the man asks.
At the recognition in his voice my heart races. I stop and whirl around. “Do you know her?” I hold my breath, waiting for his answer.
He comes out from behind the tree. He’s an older man, wearing camouflage and dark green face paint. He slings his rifle over his shoulder and assesses each of us. “Name’s Eric Benson. Welcome to the compound.”
“Compound?” Ian asks looking around. “I don’t see anything here.”
“That’s because it’s under your feet,” Eric says.
“But my mother,” I interrupt. I can hear all about the compound later. What I want to know right now is whether or not my mother is here.
“I know your mother and she’ll be happy to see you,” Eric says.
The scream I let out is loud enough to alert any alien for miles around of our position.
* * * * *
We follow him for about three miles deeper into the woods. As we do, he explains that this entire area is under video surveillance, using solar power, which is the same power that runs the underground community. He also tells us that our movements were tracked as soon as we stepped foot onto the property, not only by the cameras, but also by the people guarding the woods.
He stops at a regular-appearing bush and, leaning down, he lifts a thatch of grass, revealing a small keypad. Quickly he keys in a six digit code and one of the roots of the bush springs out of the ground. With the root acting as a handle, he pulls and lifts the bush from the ground. Or I think that’s what he’s doing. But the bush is actually fake and attached over a trap door, hiding it.
No one makes a sound as we watch what he’s doing. It’s so quiet I could hear a pin drop.
The door opens to a black hole. The only thing I can make out are the metal stairs.
Eric turns to us and we’re giving him our undivided attention. “It’s pretty steep,” he says. “I don’t know how you’ll get that dog down and he can’t stay out here. He’d only hang around the entrance, giving us away.” He reaches for his gun. “We’ll have to shoot him.”
What?
“No!” I yell stepping in front of Winston. “You can’t kill him.”
Eric holds his gun and tilts his head. “Can he climb down five flights of steps?”
I know he can’t. I shake my head. “But…he’s a good dog.”
“He’s a good dog that can’t climb.”
I look back to see Winston peering between my legs, watching Eric. I can’t let anything happen to him. “Can you tell my mom I’m here?” I turn back to Eric. “I’ll wait for her here.”
“Wait a minute.” Jason takes off his jacket and wraps it around Winston’s torso and zips it. “Give me yours Wade.”
Wade does as Jason asks. Jason makes Winston lie down and zips his hind legs into the jacket. When he’s done, he ties his and Wade’s jackets’ arms together. “There, doggy harness.” Wade helps to hoist Winston up onto Jason’s back and Jason slips his arms through the holes the sleeves made. “Let’s get going. Winston weighs a ton.”
“Thank you,” I say, my voice trembling.
Eric nods and ushers us down the stairs, one-by-one. He’s the last to enter so that he can close the door and initiate the lock. Along the way, we pass small lamps that light our descent. If it wasn’t for them I’m pretty sure I would have missed a step of two and five flights is a long way to fall.
As we go, I keep glancing up to make sure Winston isn’t slipping from his harness and that he isn’t freaking out. But when I see him looking down at me, with his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth, I know he’ll be fine. Every few steps along the way I hear Jason say, “That’s a good dog,” and I don’t know how I’ll ever repay him for saving Winston’s life.
We reach the bottom and find ourselves in a cement room with a large metal door. We move out of the way and let Eric come down. Once he’s down, he enters another set of codes at the door. We follow him through and down
a narrow corridor. Much like the room, it’s made of cement. At the end, there’s another door and, yet again, Eric enters a code.
“I think it’s safe to say no aliens are getting in here,” Ian says.
And we agree with him wholeheartedly.
The second set of doors opens into a large room, furnished with chairs and a table.
“This is the holding area,” Eric says. “Rocky is on his way.”
“Who’s Rocky?” Jasmine asks.
“Before you enter the community there are a few rules that you’ll need to agree to.”
“We’ll agree to anything you want,” I say. “I just want to see my mom.”
Eric puts up a hand. “I understand that, but we expect this war to last for a long time. We have to make sure that we keep everyone within these walls safe and that means screening everyone we let in.”
I nod. “I understand. Let’s get it over with.”
The screening doesn’t go as fast as I think it should. One-by-one, we’re taken to a separate room and grilled. Rocky, a middle-aged man with a bald head and booming voice, who is comfortable with issuing orders and also looks like he could take on an alien with his bare hands and win, wants to know our history, whether or not we have a criminal record, if we had ever been in trouble with the law, who are parents are and what our nationality is.
He also wants to know what kinds of weapons we have, what kind of weapons we’re comfortable using, our skills and if we knew how to hunt or fish. Even Winston has to go through his own kind of screening. Rocky takes him through what appear to be obedience drills, which he passes with flying colors.
Ms. Burgess is the last person to go through the screening and, after she finishes, Rocky comes back into the room. This time he keeps us all together and hands us each a sheet of paper with handwritten rules on it. He reads them to us and everyone has to swear that they will abide by them. I don’t think anyone here planned to break any of the rules, since they addressed things like rape, stealing, lying and other rules needed to foster a healthy community.
“Last part of the induction,” Rocky announces, after we each swore our obedience. “You’ll all need physical exams and much needed medical attention.”
I squeal. “My mother!”
If they’re taking us to a clinic or infirmary, then I know my mother will be there.
“Let’s see how you feel about seeing her when you see the number of immunizations she has to give you,” Rocky says.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Mom!” Just as the word is leaving my mouth, I take off for her.
She opens her arms to catch me in a tight hug. “My Shu-Shu,” she cries out, as I slam into her.
“I didn’t believe Eric when he told me you were here.”
I wrap my arms so tightly around her, planning to never let go again. I can’t stop crying and neither can she. I melt into her hold. My hands grip the back of her shirt. Energy seems to burst off of me like fireworks. Nothing else matters in the world.
She rains kisses on the top of my head and my forehead. “My baby, my baby,” she cries over and over again.
“I found you,” I mumble, as tears roll down my cheeks and fall onto her. I inhale a deep breath, she smells just like I remember.
I’m home.
Wherever she is, its home.
“Hi, Ms. Allen,” Mia says.
My mom lets go of me with one arm, only to pull Mia into our embrace. “Mia, honey. I’m so glad to see you.”
Mia sandwiches me to hug my mother and I. “It’s nice to see you too,” she says between sniffles.
I feel Mia crying onto my shoulder and I glance up at my mom. I want to tell her that Mia can’t find her family, but I think she already knows. She places a kiss on Mia’s head and pulls her in a little closer. “I have both of my favorite girls again.”
I unhook one of my arms from around my mom to hold onto Mia. To everyone else, I know we must look like a tangled mess, but I feel just right.
My mother uses a shoulder to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “Who are your friends?”
I peer over to the group of people that I owe my life to, trying to see them through my mother’s eyes.
There’s Ms. Burgess, who appears withered and worn. She’s younger than my mom, but she has more wrinkles on her face than I’ve noticed before. I try to remember her as she was. She had been the new teacher who always deferred to her elders, Mrs. Franklin and Mr. Steinberg. The teacher who came to us unsure and untested. Now, new wrinkles and all, she stands tall and sure of herself. But there’s no mistaking the sorrow that reflects in her eyes for all of the students she wasn’t able to save.
Ms. Burgess has her hands gripping onto Masana’s shoulders, as though she never intends to let her go. Masana doesn’t seem to mind. In honesty, she doesn’t really show any emotion at all. We’ve all been through hell but Masana, I think, has been through the worst of it. I don’t say this because she appears to be severely underweight or because of the infected sores on her face. I think this because of the way she watches my mother and I. Her eyes are vacant and that scares me. I don’t know if we’ve found her too late, but I do know that it’ll take a while for us to bring her soul back from whatever dark place it resides.
Wade stands next to Ms. Burgess. He’s a lot thinner than he was when we left camp. No one could ever call him the fat kid. He’s got muscles under those clothes that have been overworked for weeks. Just over forty days ago, he was a shy kid who kept mostly to himself. He changed to become our rock, keeping us calm and organized on our journey. The kiss he gave me yesterday has forced me to view him with new eyes. I have a hard time putting him squarely back into that friend category. I’m not sure why and, oddly, I’m not sure if I even want to.
MJ, my friend, has his head down, trying to hide his tears. I know that he cries because he’s happy that I’ve found my mother and I also know that he cries for his own family and because Shayla isn’t here to see our journey end. I would have never guessed that the jock with the heartbreaker good looks and promising future of fortune and fame would have a heart as pure as gold. He has been my calming force in the storm, someone whom I can share my thoughts with. Or that he would be the one who, more than once, had brought me back from my crazy place, and I would bring him back from his. We are two peas in a pod, having more in common than I would have ever thought.
Ian has his hands thrust into his pockets. At first glance he appears like the old Ian. Cocky and cool, the Ian I remember from school. But after a bumpy start, he has shown he isn’t the self-absorbed kid I had once pegged him for. Only one thing remains a constant from those old high-school days; he loves my best friend. He watches her now and I know he’s restraining himself from going to her side to offer his comforting embrace. He can’t stand to see her cry.
Jasmine is the only outsider in our group and I think even my mother would be able to pick up on this. While everyone else is so close together that they’re practically touching, she has wandered off and has begun to inspect the items in the infirmary. Every now and then she glances over at us to see what’s going on or what we might be talking about. But I don’t know what her plans are. Even after being found, she still appears to be lost. She is looking for something, what I don’t know, and I’m not sure if she does either.
And then there is Jason. The man that fought so hard not to follow in his father’s footsteps, but does it without thinking. He is righteous and courageous. From that very first night when he saved my life, I have held a flicker of an emotion for him so strong I can’t use words to describe it. Even with dirt on his clothes and skin, and his hair so long that he has to pin it behind his ears, he appears to be in charge. Without Jason we would not have made it. I know this with everything in me. I have tried to tell myself over and over again that his commitment to seeing us home is the reason why I feel the way I do. But that would be a lie.
Winston trots over to us and nudges against my mom’s leg.
“A dog! You have a dog.”
I clear my throat and, with pride, I say, “This is my family. Without them I wouldn’t have made it.” Ms. Burgess’ breath hitches and she puts a hand over her chest, as I begin to introduce them each by name.
“I don’t know how to ever thank you,” my mother says to Ms. Burgess. Then she looks at everyone. “All of you. You’ve brought my baby to me.” She turns to Winston and give him a pet on the head. “And you too.”
* * * * *
The exams don’t take long. We’re all underweight and dehydrated, but my mother promises that it’s nothing that food and water won’t cure. She gives us all a round of antibiotics and cleans Masana’s wounds. Anxious to explore our new home, we beg her to take us on a tour instead of our assigned rooms.
It’s late and mostly everyone is asleep, my mother explains, as she leads us to the mess hall. What holds my attention is how large this compound is. We walk through mazes of cement hallways that lead to rooms and more hallways. It would have taken someone almost a lifetime of dedication to build something like this. We pass only a few people on the way and my mother stops and introduces us. The people we meet are genuinely happy and welcome us. They seem more surprised to see Winston than they do us.
We enter the mess hall, and the first thing that I notice is the smell. It smells like food and it smells divine. If I weren’t underground I would think I was in a regular cafeteria, minus windows. The lights lining the ceiling make the room bright and cheery. There’s cafeteria-style tables set out in rows. On the far side of the room there’s another, larger table that doesn’t have the benches attached. I assume that table is used to hold food.
A man comes through a swinging door from the left side of the room. He’s got his hands full with plastic plates and silverware. He’s an older man, with grey hair and a big build. And although we’re inside, he’s wearing camouflage and boots. As soon as he sees us, his face beams into a warm and inviting smile.
“Ah! You finally made it,” he says.
“Everybody, this is Dave Bryant. He and his wife Jillian helped Rocky build this place,” my mom explains.
Against The Darkness (Cimmerian Moon) Page 23
