The Traveler's Quest (The Traveler Series 2)
Page 19
“Can anyone see Alexandra?” said Brent, looking in his rear-view mirror.
“No,” the others answered.
“Slow down, Brent,” said William. “Or we’ll be pulled over by the cops.”
“By now they’re already looking for the stolen Cadillac, aren’t they?” said Brent, his attention on the road. Traffic was light at this time of the late evening, and soon the car turned left onto the freeway.
“Let’s ditch the car in the parking lot at the fairgrounds,” said William. “It should be deserted at this time, and we can walk to the cave hideout from there.”
Brent nodded, his concentration on task.
Then the teenagers noticed the emergency lights approaching.
“Shit!” exclaimed Brent. “The cops are behind us.”
“Now what?” said Valerie.
“Pull over,” said Ellie.
“No!” said William. “Our best chance is to try to escape. Can you do it, Brent?”
“He’s right,” said Valerie. “Alexandra will find us as easy in jail as she will in the hospital. Put the pedal to the metal, Brent.”
Brent sat up straighter, stepped on the gas, and grasped the wheel tighter, his attention fully engrossed on the road ahead.
“There’s a small dirt road about a mile and a half ahead,” said Brent. “I’ll try to get some distance between us and the cops. Hopefully, they won’t see us turn in there. Then we’ll ditch the car and get lost in the woods.”
Fortunately, the V-8 engine in the Cadillac provided good acceleration, and the distance between them and the police car grew.
Highway 41 meandered at the most convenient place, and, after a few turns, the cops were no longer in sight. Brent slowed down and, a moment later, took a sharp turn to the right onto a small road lined on both sides by trees. A cloud of dust gushed out behind the Cadillac as the car sped up on the dirt road. The dimming light of the late evening would hopefully make it difficult for the cops to realize their route change.
“Are they still behind us?” asked Brent, his breath quickened by agitation. The Cadillac moved considerably slower through the winding narrow path, the tires spitting up rocks and other debris that hit the underside of the car raucously.
“I don’t see them,” said Ellie, now kneeling down on the backseat, her eyes peering through the thick smoke of dust.
The landscape drastically changed. To the right, the trees disappeared suddenly and, as if a curtain was abruptly heaved open, a huge precipice resided in their place. Brent fumbled for the switch to turn on the headlights, as the visibility was now poor without them. His apprehension escalated as he quickly glanced to his right only to see a fifty-foot drop. He swallowed hard as he noticed his white knuckles grasping on the steering wheel. The teens remained wordless, all breaths on hold.
The Cadillac turned sharply to the left as Brent tried with all his might to safely negotiate the acute bend on the road without flying off the frightening depth of the cliff. When the car came out of the curve, Brent noticed the road had both straightened and widened substantially, the abyss to the right becoming less terrifying. He gunned the engine again. The clamor of the rocks hitting the underside of the car increased to deafening decibels. His muscle tension eased up considerably, and he lessened his grip on the wheel. He let out a huge breath and glanced over at William, who was staring back at him.
“Nice driving, man,” said William.
Brent smirked, “That was pretty nice, wasn’t—”
“Look out!” yelled Ellie.
Valerie gasped.
The little albino girl stood in the middle of the road a few yards in front of the speeding vehicle. Reflexively he veered the car to the right, and, in a split second, the Cadillac was airborne. The sedan veered off the road and was now in a free fall over a one-hundred-and-fifty-yard rocky cliff, underneath them certain death.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Dr. Murphy, three police officers, and one detective were already waiting in the Memorial Hospital main conference room when the parents arrived. All sat down around the table.
Dr. Murphy began with the introductions. “Drs. Louis and Jane Januardy are Ellie’s parents, Drs. Mary and Joseph Smithson are Brent’s parents, Dr. Gus Baten and Mrs. Leona Baten are William’s parents, and Dr. Tom Rovine and Mrs. Madeleine Rovine are Valerie’s parents.”
“I’m Detective Dan Sparks.” His eyes drifted to the Batens. “We were called by the hospital to investigate the disappearance of your son, William.” His gaze shifted to the other parents. “He was last seen in his hospital room with your son, Brent, and your daughters, Ellie and Valerie. “It looks like the four of them left together and without a word.” He extended his arm, and one of the police officers brought him a laptop. “We caught their escape on the surveillance video.”
He opened the laptop and placed it where all could see the screen. He pressed a button, and the picture came alive. Brent held William under the armpit in support, and the girls walked right behind them. In front of the elevators, they pressed the down button rapidly as they looked side to side. Their faces turned into horror.
“Something or someone frightened them,” said the detective, stating the obvious. The teens abandoned the elevator area and rushed to the staircase. They disappeared from view, but the camera continued to roll, no one now in sight. Three nurses then slowly walked by, their gaze on something that wasn’t there.
The detective pushed a button and stood. “We spoke with these nurses. They claim they were looking at a very young albino girl with long white hair and wearing a red dress and black shoes. They state she was about four. When they saw this video, they claim she was there in person, yet no image of her can be seen here.” He pointed to the screen. “Do you know of such a little girl?”
The parents collectively said no.
The detective pressed another button. “Same thing here,” he said. On the screen, the teenagers ran by looking back, horror covering their faces. An older man wearing a white coat came into the view.
“This is Dr. Potter,” said Dr. Murphy.
“When we spoke with him, he said the same thing the nurses told us earlier,” said the detective. “The albino girl should be on the screen walking slowly down this corridor. But nothing on the video!”
“Detective, let me get this straight,” said Mrs. Leona Baten. “Are you telling me that some itty bitty girl is chasing our kids through the hospital and that somehow she is unfilmable?”
“I must admit I don’t understand why she escaped being on the video, but the teenagers do seem to fear her.” Detective Sparks pointed in the direction of the paused video, the teens faces painted with terror.
“So, where are our kids now?” said Dr. Louis Januardy.
“We don’t know,” said Dr. Murphy.
“They seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth,” said Sparks. “We got a call from a man who was coming to visit a family member in the hospital. He claims some kids, he believes three or four, stole his Cadillac. We think those kids were your children but have not confirmed that. As of now, we’re still looking for the stolen vehicle.”
“All along, we thought they were safe at boarding school,” said Jane Januardy.
“That’s something interesting too,” said Sparks. “Brent, William, and Ellie devised a very clever way to fool the computer at the boarding school. Even now, the computer at Austin Academy shows them going to classes, taking exams, eating meals, etc. The place is huge. They were able to create confusion about their quarters and their daily lives so the heads of the academy and the teachers and even their classmates think Ellie, Brent, and William are still attending school among them.”
There was a knock on the door, and a police officer stuck his head in. “Detective Sparks, may I see you out here for a minute?” he said. “It’s important.”
Sparks left the room and returned a few minutes later with several clear plastic bags, labeled “Evidence” in large red letters.
“I’m afraid I have bad news,” said Sparks. He placed the bags on the table, the wording on the clear plastic facing down. Inside the bags were bloodied clothes, each bag containing a separate garment. Immediately, multiple gasps burst out in the room.
“That’s my daughter’s blouse,” said Madeleine Rovine.
“Those are Brent’s pants,” said Mary Smithson. “His shirt too.”
“I thought so,” said Sparks. “If these bloody clothes belong to your kids, this is obviously a really awful discovery.”
All the parents nodded.
Sparks sat down, his demeanor mournful. “These bloody clothes were found inside the stolen Cadillac. The car was discovered this morning in pieces. It plummeted into a cliff hundreds of feet deep.”
“The clothes were found, but not their bodies?” asked Dr. Tom Rovine.
The detective nodded. “I’m afraid your kids are missing and, going by all the blood on these clothes, gravely hurt. In fact, it is very likely that your children may be dead already.”
The End
The Traveler Series
The story continues in
THE TRAVELER’S
RETURN
Book Three
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Excerpt
The Traveler’s Return
Book Three
CHAPTER ONE
When the four teenagers regained awareness of their environment, they realized they were back inside the cave, the one they had used as a hideout multiple times before. The light flowing into the cavern’s entrance was faint. The full, bright moon provided only dim illumination as it peeked through thick, scattered clouds. The teens looked at one another, puzzled.
“We’re alive!” said Valerie. “I was pretty sure we weren’t going to survive the accident.”
Ellie looked at her garments and then scanned the clothes her friends were wearing. “Why are we all wearing white?”
William shrugged his shoulders, and then the others did.
Brent squinted and shook his head slowly. “The last thing I remember was veering off the dirt road and going airborne. The cliff must have been well over a hundred feet deep.”
“I don’t remember the impact,” said William. “I just knew we were going to die.”
Ellie wandered around the cave, her gaze scrutinizing the walls and the dirt floor. Then she looked up at the others. “How did we get here and without a scratch on us?” She looked at her arms and hands and then at the others. “And where are our clothes?”
They paced around like caged beasts, their fists tight, their jaws clenched, a mishmash of feelings—doom, fear, and angst among them—stuffing their chests.
“Why can’t I remember how I got here?” said William. “How I got these clothes?”
“It had to be the creepy little albino girl,” said Valerie. “She’s the only one I know capable of—”
“Alexandra,” interrupted Brent.
Ellie gasped.
The little girl had materialized out of nowhere. Out of nothing. One second, there was only deep dark in the back of the cave, the next there was a small child, her arms relaxed at her side, her long white hair contrasting against the obscured backdrop.
“I remember leaving the hospital,” began Ellie. “And then we were here, dressed in white pants and shirts.” She took two steps toward Alexandra. “Why?”
The little girl cocked her head slightly to the right. Koo eeky. The muffled, distant, high-pitched screechy sound was familiar to the teenagers, as it typically heralded Alexandra’s arrival.
“Are we dreaming now?” asked Brent.
“We need some answers, Alexandra!” yelled William. “We need to know.”
The little girl remained standing there, undaunted, unemotional, and unthreateningly. Koo eeky…koo eeky. The screech sprung once again from behind Alexandra, deep in the cave or maybe even outside it. It was far off and barely audible. Alexandra’s lips never moved. Nor did her eyes as she fixedly stared at the teenagers. Unmoving. After several seconds, and without a word, she turned around and took a step into the deepness of the cavern. Simultaneously, the four kids crumpled to the ground, again unconscious.
CHAPTER TWO
Brent woke up first. He was sleeping on his arms, which rested on an oval wooden table. He looked all around him, his mind still nebulous, his brain slowly connecting with reality. What is this place? Where am I? How did I get here?
He vaguely recalled the events that lead him and the girls to take William out of the hospital. Why was William in the hospital? His eyes narrowed and then opened wide. The police shot him! Brent recollected as his memory sharpened. He woke up from a three-month coma. Then what? His felt his jaw muscles tightened. What about the albino girl? Is she an evil being or a friend? Either way, she’s not one of us. Outer space?
As he pondered this, he looked around the room and noticed that Ellie was to his right. She lay in the fetal position on the plush armchair, her contorted body allowing her to fit perfectly in the narrow space. Valerie was sitting opposite him, slumbering away on her lush chair, her head cocked back, her neck hyperextended. Brent touched their arms, and their eyes began to open, their awareness slowly coupling to the surroundings.
“Where are we?” whispered Ellie. “How did we get here?”
“Where’s William?” said Valerie, her voice pressured.
The three looked around the room.
“William?” called Ellie. She squinted. “He was shot. Almost died.” She frantically glared about the space again. She gasped. “Did he die?”
“No, he survived,” said Brent, now on his feet. “He woke up from the coma. Remember?”
As Brent stepped away from the oval table, he smiled. William was sprawled on the floor next to a chair meant for him. Brent bent down and touched his arm, and, just like Ellie and Valerie, the contact caused William to awaken.
“Where are we?” William asked. He stretched out and sat on the chair next to the mahogany table.
“Don’t know,” said Brent.
“Are we prisoners?” asked William.
The teenagers looked around the room. It was a small space. The oval table had four chairs around it, comfortable but unpretentious in design. The walls were off-white. Bland. The carpet was posh, but off-white, providing little contrast. No pictures adorned the walls. No coffee tables or elegant lamps conveyed decor. There were no windows to offer the teens a clue about where they were. A door at one end of the room was closed.
“Do you guys remember what’s been happening?” said Ellie.
“Yes—the killer drug, the global wars, the virus that causes sterility in everyone it infects,” said Brent. “Which is everybody on earth.”
“Time travel,” said William. “Brent, you time traveled here from the future to see us about stopping the end of the world.”
“And Ellie did too,” said Brent.
“And we both died,” said Ellie. “Our future beings, I mean. Right?”
They all nodded.
“What are we missing?” said Brent.
“The creepy little albino girl,” said Valerie.
“And the time loops,” said Ellie.
“Time loops?” asked William.
Ellie explained, “We figured out that the world has been on several loops, at least five, maybe more. Each with different events, different beginnings, different endings.”
“But all ending in disaster,” said Brent. “The end of the world.”
Ellie added, “With the end of the world came another loop. Another beginning.”
“Where are we now?” Valerie repeated. “What is this place?”
“Beats me,” said Ellie.
Brent walked to the door. Just as he was about to touch it, the door creaked open, slowly, and he stepped back. The door continued to swing gradually, but no one held the doorknob. When it was fully ajar, Alexandra walked in and stood just
past the threshold, her little hands at her sides, lightly touching her red dress.
“You have questions,” she declared, her face blank. She turned around and disappeared through the door.
The teenagers’ quizzical looks quickly abated, and they rushed out the door after her.