Of Lost and Found (the Kingsborough House): Kingsborough House (Virgil McLendon Thrillers Book 4)

by catt dahman

  “How many are there?”

  “No one knows. Maybe a dozen or maybe two dozen. But when they hear the bells…and those bells are all over because there are quite a few trap doors, they only think food. No one joins them. They are to themselves and everyone else is only food or for mating.”

  “That’s sickening,” Howard muttered.

  “Yes, but they don’t know any better now. You saw the Greys?”

  “The pregnant one and the smaller one?”

  “Yes. Those aren’t originals. Those are ones that came here in the last thirty years or less. One could be a last Kingsborough for all we know. They are easy to tell because they screamed for help until their voices were ruined and they use words at times. They were smarter and survived the Whites and made their own little group, but they’ve been down here a long time, and it’s a brutal, dirty, horrifying place.”

  Some went insane. Some banded together. There were less of them, but if they found someone injured, they didn’t help the person, but used them as food, instead. They used tools.

  “They know better than to eat other people,” Tina scowled.

  “Sure. They did, anyway. Look, they’re crazy now. They were starving. Imagine being here in the dark with no hope and just an empty belly. Down here a few years, and I suppose nothing matters, but they never gave up and died,” Shari said.

  “What about you? And how do you know so much?” Vivian asked

  “I was crazy a while, but I was found by the third group, four people: men, a woman, and a girl who had been down here a few years or a few months only and still hoped to be rescued. They picked up pieces and figured things out, found old camps and even had fire they made. That’s how I have fire, when I make it with flint. They didn’t eat me, but helped me with a sprained ankle. The people I mean.” Shari began to veer off topic.

  Vivian and Tina traded glances. Shari wasn’t emotionally alright, at all. She was pretty messed up.

  “Where are they?”

  “Jimmy went looking for frogs…maybe a week ago…maybe less…maybe more. He never came back and it could be the Whites or the Greys have him, or maybe he joined the Greys, or maybe one side or the other ate him. He just never returned. Macy died right before then and Jimmy was fond of her. She had fever and stomach pains and she died. We had to leave her outside so the rest wouldn’t bother us, and because down here, no one gets buried.”

  “I feel sick,” Gina said.

  “Right hand side of the stream is for that and the other businesses because it flows out. Left side is for water where it flows in.”

  Gina stayed seated, shivering. She didn’t want to go to the water, after all.

  Shari giggled. She said, “We had a fight with the Whites and Tim…we saw him ripped apart. He wasn’t even trying anymore since he had reckoned he had been down here three years now, the longest of our bunch, and he said he didn’t think we’d ever be saved. He gave up, I guess.”

  “I can imagine,” Vivian hung her head.

  “Then it was just me and Lisa. She was newest, before me.”

  “Lisa, “Vivian repeated, “We’ve been searching for her. She vanished from the woods though. Maybe it was another Lisa?”

  “No. That’s her. She fell down a hole in the woods at the edge of the property. The hole fed into the shafts here. Lisa.”

  “What was she wearing?”

  “Dunno. Short skirt. She was hurt, but she was okay. She fell in a few weeks before I did. We compared dates.” Shari huffed out bad breath, “They all died.”

  “What happened?”

  “I’m not sure. I dreamed rocks fell in on us. But Lisa was just dead when I awoke and rocks weren’t all over us, so….”

  “Did you drag her out to…those others?”

  Shari turned away.

  Ed had already seen something that made him ask. He leaned forwards, “What have you been eating down here?”

  “Jimmy didn’t come back with frogs. We were hungry.” Shari glared at Ed.

  “I would have eaten Macy. Yeah, I know…it’s wrong, but I can’t imagine the hunger. I would have anyway,” Ed said quietly. He tried the tactic police liked. He was making a connection.

  Tina started to snap at him, but caught his eyes and looked where he looked. She secretly tapped Vivian.

  “Oh. Yeah. I guess I would have as well. The thing would be to survive.”

  Shari narrowed her eyes, “Really?”

  “Sure.”

  “Jimmy said there weren’t frogs and…he wouldn’t eat and tried to keep everyone away from Macy.”

  Vivian didn’t correct Shari’s story in that earlier she said he never returned. Bones piled to the side, along some rocks, were too many to be just one or two bodies.

  “Tim was ripped apart by the Whites.”

  “I imagine he didn’t want to be your next meal.” Tina couldn’t stop her reaction.

  “How long ago did you finish Lisa?”

  “A day or so. The Greys and Whites don’t eat as often, but see, that’s why I’ve survived.”

  Ed asked, “Were you out hunting Greys and White or did you come when you heard the dinner bells?”

  Gina scooted away from Shari as she understood.

  “She’ll die anyway.” Shari pointed to Anita. “Who knows when or if anyone will come for us. You do that here, hope and hope and it never happens. They may come in a few hours or it may be a week. Maybe it will be months. Maybe it won’t happen at all, see, and once you know real hunger, you can’t stop fearing it. Hunger is worse than all the monsters down here.”

  Ed used a few strips of fabric to tie Shari, not that any of them would stop watching her, but it lessened Howard’s anxiety. Shari didn’t fight Ed. She calmly watched the newcomers.

  Howard grumbled, “If there wasn’t law here, I’d smack you for talking about Anita that way. She’s gonna be fine, you mean old witch.”

  Shari cackled. Sometimes Shari’s eyes were focused and intelligent and other times they went feral. In a place with no hope and mostly darkness, acute paranoia was like-saving; there really were always hands reaching out in the dark. Constant fear, lack of sight, and painful hunger combined to loosen the mind and cause lack of real memories.

  Shari barely recalled what being clean and warm felt like, after only a month below. Faces and memories only flitted through her head, although she tried to hold onto them. Some of her wounds were horribly painful, swollen and red with deep infections that oozed, never really healing, can that caused Shari’s fevers. The high fever caused more confusion.

  “I’m still hesitant to fire my weapon down here unless it comes to that, but we have knives and can make spears or something,” Ed Carter suggested.

  “With bones?” Gina asked, shocked.

  “It’s all I can think of that won’t cause the ceiling to fall in on us.”

  Tina grabbed a long thigh bone, shuddered with revulsion, and used old fabric and laces to tie her knife to the end. It took several attempts to get it secure. She wiped her hands on her pants, feeling a sense of grease left from the bone. She wrapped fabric as a hand-hold because she didn’t want to feel the grease again.

  “I don’t know if I can do that,” Gina said. “It makes me sick.”

  “I’ll make you one or do you prefer to use a knife?”

  “Just the knife. I feel so sick.”

  Shari smiled, “Like I said, use the end that flows out to vomit.”

  Gina glared but got up this time and heaved until she was empty. When she checked on Anita, she found the woman’s face pale, her eyes glassy with pain, and fear etched on her features. She was worried about Anita. The stench of unwashed, filth, rotten flesh, untreated wounds, urine, blood, and sweat was like a sticky cloud of odor that clung to Gina’s skin and filled her hair.

  Ed finished his spear and tested it in the air. He preferred his gun, but was unsure what would happen if he used it. He looked at the little group and wondered how much trouble they were in. H
e could depend on two; Gina might be okay if she relaxed a little. He could already, with only hours having been down here, could feel the darkness making him feel watched and always on edge. In this place, a mind would go bad faster than a body.

  “Listen,” Vivian whispered. Her hands trembled constantly from cold and nervousness. How anyone survived being down here more than a few days was impossible to imagine. She had to focus to get a breath at times, drawing air in through her mouth tasting the scent, but unable to keep using her nose.

  From some distance away, they could hear people walking, muttering low, but headed towards the little hide-out. It sounded as if they passed by. Louder noises came at once, hooting, gibbering, and hissing. The cannibals were very close to where the rest hid. Who were the ones who went back more quietly? Second guessing everything made them all more anxious.

  Then, the most heartbreaking noise sounded, echoing through the entire tunnel formation. It sounded like someone crying out with terrible agony and it didn’t stop. At the same time, screams, shouting, and howling began; there was a war happening close by.

  Vivian stood.

  “Some of those sound human…I mean sane,” Ed said. He crawled to the entryway to listen. He wasn’t sure what he meant anymore and thought of those up top as human, those below as creatures, and was unsure where he fit in. Had he not been trained in the FBI, he would be suffering tremors as well.

  Ed was aware that people grew nervous when closed in, which they were, and that the dark scared adults as well as children. He knew that hopelessness and helplessness affected the mind and being cold, hungry, and dirty weighed on the mind as well as body. The worst issue was that they were all aware that the threat was once human, but that were now creatures with no sympathy or compassion; however, the very idea that they were being hunted by cannibals was beyond horrifying. Mentally, they were all on borrowed time because every minute down below was a minute being used to disconnect with reality.

  He had spoken to Vivian and Tina about that and they agreed.

  “That’s Virgil yelling,” Vivian said. She yanked the rock and wood away.

  “Wait….” Ed wasn’t sure if she really heard her husband or if her mind were slipping.

  “I think it is him,” Tina said.

  Vivian ignored the rest and ran through the cracks, getting to the last one just as gunshots rang out. She couldn’t hear after the first guns were fired, but she felt the vibrations and ducked pebbles raining down. Her light caught the notice of those fighting and she couldn’t believe what she saw. Ahead of her was a group of men with guns and a big group of Greys with Whites standing and jumping around in the shadows. She could have wept with relief when she recognized Virgil, Terry Cromer, and Fin Carter.

  Vigil looked at Vivian, but he was still shouting, even if no one could hear him. Behind his group, rocks and dust came down in a soft rain; Vivian pointed. He turned, saw, and began pushing the other men towards his wife. Vivian motioned them to follow as she turned back and ran for the cracks to slip by, leading them to the little room where Ed yanked each through.

  The gunshots and vibrations scared Ed.

  In the cacophony of noise that followed, they all crawled around, trying to find the rest, staring at the ceiling with fear, and catching their breath. Hearing was still impossible. Virgil held Vivian tightly and rocked her, terrified.

  Beside them, George hugged Gina, and Terry grabbed Shari, hugging her, wondering why she was tied but too busy holding her to care. Shari looked at Terry with a frown, but then her memories came back partially and she was happy to see Terry again; faint hope for a rescue rose in her mind. Maybe the nightmare would end, but she didn’t’ grab onto to that too tightly.

  In a few minutes, the air settled with the dust and everyone began to hear faint noises and then to regain their hearing again. Almost at once, questions were tossed out as fast as possible as they talked over each other and demanded answers. Virgil held up a hand and whistled, asking everyone to be quiet for a few seconds, “Give us a few seconds, please. Fin, how does it look and sound?”

  Fin Carter examined the entrance to the room, “The outer room looks okay, just a few rocks down in there, but the way out is totally blocked. It may can be dug out, but I saw movement and there are a few white-skinned people out there. It would be highly dangerous to go up against them while digging out. On the other hand, I don’t know what else we can do.”

  “Whites. They are called Whites,” Gina said.

  “Virgil, I saw…was that Sheriff Thomas?” Vivian had only caught a glance but it was one that depressed her.

  “Yes, it was. He…he found Danny.”

  She cocked her head, “Huh?”

  “The grey ones….”

  “Greys.” Gina called out again.

  “Okay, got it. Danny Thomas is one of the Greys. We headed this way to find you all and those things followed. We stopped when they got too close and in the light, Sheriff Thomas recognized his son.” Virgil had seen a tall creature with grey skin step out from the rest, bare his broken, sharp teeth to hiss, and growl. The man was thin, nearly naked, had crazed eyes, but focused on Thomas.

  Sheriff Thomas wept with relief and pain as he saw his son and he called the man’s name. For a second, Danny seemed to remember something as he cocked his head to the side like a dog would; the comprehension vanished and the grey-skinned man muttered to his clan as they advanced. Sheriff Thomas wasn’t clear-minded, and he didn’t think as he mistakenly believed his son knew him. With arms opened, Thomas met his son, Danny to hold him, but his son lunged and ripped his teeth into his father’s throat.

  Virgil wanted to forget those last images of the sheriff.

  Before Virgil could get control, men had begun firing guns and Virgil saw Vivian, which was the prettiest, best sight on earth, to him. Even with smudges on her face, she looked great.

  “I thought I saw Sheriff Thomas on the ground beneath that…Danny,” Vivian said. She kind of hoped she had an hallucination. The idea that the sheriff found his child, after ten years, only to be killed by him, was too sad to accept.

  “I wish none of us had to see that. If we could have stopped it, we would, but had we harmed Danny…the sheriff couldn’t have stood that, either. It hit me like a punch to the gut,” Virgil admitted.

  Deputy Connors sat with arms wrapped around his knees, “Not the sheriff…no way….what will we do now? Huh? What will we do? Sheriff Thomas can’t be gone. He isn’t, is he?”

  “Come on, Connors, and get your shit together. You can’t fall apart,” Ben Johansson, the fireman, said. He and Doctor Everett knelt by Anita, splinting her leg and administering an IV solution and pain killer. He glanced at Virgil, hoping the other sheriff understood that Connor was about to fall apart and needed a strong shake to get him going again.

  “We lost Deputies Holt and Arnett as well.” Virgil said. He didn’t say if it was the fall-in or the creatures.

  As Johansson went to patch up George’s cuts, he splinted a finger as well. Connors had a lump on his head and was bleeding. “Everyone else okay? Anything else?” Johansson tried to keep his mind focused on dealing with injuries, something he could help with and see; the alternative, allowing the pain of losing friends, was something that had to wait until their jobs were done.

  Terry Cromer motioned him over, “Shari has a lot of infected cuts and a fever.”

  Johansson winced as he saw some of the cuts that oozed pus and looked very sore. He traded places with Doctor Everett, watching over Anita and Howard as the doctor went to help Shari.

  With gauze, Doctor Everett released some pressure and wiped away the infection he could get to come out, but the deeper stuff would have to wait for a hospital staff so the areas could be numbed. She moaned as he worked, but after cleaning her injuries and applying ointment and bandages, she said the wounds both hurt worse and felt better.

  Vivian shook her head, “We’re okay.”

  “Catch me up,” Virgil said.<
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  Tina took over and told them everything they had learned, including the details about Shari. Terry Cromer sat back, staring at her. Shari just shrugged. When Terry glanced at Vivian, she touched her head on the temple and shook her head, to indicate Shari was mentally very messed up.

  To Virgil, Vivian said, “Dr. Becket can help Shari.”

  Virgil nodded that he understood. Vivian had managed to tell him that Shari was insane and likely very dangerous. He said, “So this was what Edith, John, and Moreau were up to?”

  “And their own children…can you imagine? All the people since? Those missing town kids?” Vivian was upset. “This was worse than death.”

  “I suppose this changes the tour, huh, Gina?” George held her hand, glad she was unhurt. He wanted to see her smile again.

  “You were brave to come look for me,” Gina said. She was too miserable to smile, thinking of people falling down here and going crazy. Each time they led a tour, they were risking lives. “Are Rick, Josie, and Lana worried?”

  “Of course they are, “ George said.

  “We’re just lucky Sheriff McLendon and his group were here.”

  Tina chucked, “Yep, Gina, we feel lucky to be trapped down here, too.”

  George perked up as Gina laughed.

  “That’s what we do, we help our own.” George said, “Sheriff McLendon, what should we do now?”

  “I want everyone to drink their water, refill, drink more, and clean up. Let’s get medicine and bandages on any cuts. Let Johansson and Doctor Everett know about cuts, bruises, and scrapes because down here there is all kinds of nasty germs and bacteria and we don’t need anyone getting infected.”

  “Use the right side to do your business because it flows out. Drink from the left,” Shari said.

  “We know,” Gina snapped. She shook her head with exasperation and made head motions side to side, indicating someone who was not sane.

  Virgil made sure everyone did as he asked. Ben Johansson passed out energy bars from a pack and rechecked bandages.

  Anita’s heart beat was thready, and Everett pulled Virgil aside to tell him; the pain and shock had been hard on the older woman. “She’s in rough shape, really. The pain and conditions here…cold and all…she’s suffering.”