“Here, let me try, maybe I can open it.” I passed the small hand I was clasping into Kelly’s before reaching for the padlock.
Carl grumbled and shook his head irritably. “And just what are you going to do, tear it off with your bare hands?”
I could only stare at him. Shaking off the cold shiver running up my spine I stepped around him. Had I really ever found this man attractive? Surely there had been something more to him beneath this façade of male macho, but if there ever had been I could no longer see it. Glaring up at him, I managed to rasp a few terse words of warning, “You really need to take a step back if you don’t want to get shocked.”
Pulling the sleeve of my jacket down to protect my hand, I took a firm grip of the lock and released a small burst of electricity. I quickly released the handful of hot, rusty metal, letting it crumble to the ground before jerking the door open. I really did not need to hear anything else out of his mouth.
“Oh, yeah, right, just another one of your special little tricks,” Carl grumbled sarcastically under his breath, “just like the one that got us all into this mess.”
“What did you say?” Kelly demanded as she came to a stop in front of him and glared up into his puffy face.
“It was nothing, little sister, nothing at all,” Carl returned in his usual unpleasant grumble, but he did take a couple of steps back.
“I guess it wasn’t,” smirked Kelly as she followed the rest of the kids into the old serpentarium.
I stopped a few feet inside the doorway and stared around at the interior of the long, narrow building. Light from a series of skylights overhead allowed me to see just enough of my surroundings to make out the path leading between rows of glass enclosures along one outer wall to our left and a garden of dead plants on the opposite wall.
“What was in these glass cases?” queried Jon as he tapped his fingers against the front of one.
“I’d have to guess at an assortment of snakes and reptiles. It looks like they were all released a very long time ago, at least, I hope so” I couldn’t help a small shudder. I really did not like snakes at all. I brushed against the dried frond of a large fern and jumped nervously when the motion set off a series of rustling and hissing. If the assortment of labels that I could read along the bed were any indication, these dried husks were the remains of what had once been beautiful, exotic plants.
“What was that?” gasped Merry as she tightened her grasp on Jennie’s shirt tail.
“It’s okay. It wa-was just dead leaves and stuff,” Jennie tried to reassure her. “Hey!” She jumped sideways, dragging the little girl with her to avoid a slurping puddle of black goop that had suddenly appeared in the path.
“What’s going on?” grumbled Carl as one of his feet sank into the path. He leaped into the bed of dried plants and stared back along the path.
“I don’t know, but everybody get off the path. Now!” I dragged little Jon and the dog into the old flower bed with me and was backing toward the outer wall when it suddenly began melting like a wax figure too long in the sun.
“Watch out,” I warned the others. “Something’s wrong with the walls.”
“What are we going to do?” cried Kelly as she moved closer to me to avoid the small splashes of black tar that were popping from the surface of the sludge that was beginning to fill the path.
“Stay up here and just keep on moving,” I instructed nervously.
We were in sight of the exit door at the end of the building when Dusty began barking hysterically at the rustling plants in the pathway ahead.
“Can’t you make that damned mutt shut its face?” growled Carl. “Damn! What are those?” He jumped back barely in time to avoid a head-on collision with a pair of large grey phantoms rising from the depths of the plants.
Moaning like haunts from an old B-rated horror film, the wraiths rose into the air and swooped, passing mere inches above our heads before phasing through the glass walls of the old aquariums and back again. Bobbing about the building like escaped hot-air balloons, they soared between us humans, sometimes even brushing against us as they passed by in the manner of big cats, or maybe sharks, tasting prospective victims.
Barking excitedly, Dusty leaped into the air, managing to snag one of the phantoms by a dangling foot as it swooped past her.
Trapped, the wraith turned back and drove its faceless head at the dog. A sound reminiscent of rotten fruit striking a solid surface startled Dusty into releasing her hold. Yipping in surprise, she jumped in the air to avoid the phantom and slammed into my knees.
Gasping in pain and completely off-balance from the sudden impact, I tumbled over the top of the large dog. I barely had the presence of mind to release my grip on little Jon’s hand to keep him from being dragged into the pile-up as well.
I was still scrambling to regain my feet when I heard his frightened call.
“Halie! Help me!” he called again.
Grabbing hold of a support post for balance, I jerked myself the rest of the way to my feet as my eyes frantically searched for the child. I finally spotted him several yards away where he must have run to escape the phantom, and stepped into the black tar of the pathway.
“Jennie! Grab him!” I shouted hysterically. But no, Jennie was too far away.
“I can’t.” Jennie lunged, but her hand fell short. A large bubble of tar erupted around the child and burst with a loud pop! And little Jon disappeared from sight.
Kelly and Merry screamed and huddled together, sobbing.
“No! Damn it, no!” Sobbing, I collapsed at the edge of the path. I could hear Jennie crying softly where she lay in the flower bed, her arm still extended over the place Jon had sunk. The phantoms swooped madly, moaning hysterically, as if they, too, mourned the loss of the small boy.
When the cold dampness of the ground finally penetrated my despair I pulled myself to my feet and numbly made my way to Jennie’s side to help her up.
“Damn, hell of a thing,” growled Carl as he moved toward us. “Come on, girls, there’s nothing else you can do here.”
“He-he’s right, Jen,” I said softly. I reached down and took my friend by the shoulders and was pulling her to her feet when the thick bed of tar at our side suddenly exploded upwards in a great spout of tar-covered phantoms.
We lurched backwards, staring, as the dripping tar exposed the forms of two large wraiths and-one small boy.
The phantoms floated toward us and dropped the kicking, sputtering child in our laps before retreating a few yards away where they hovered expectantly.
“Jon! Are you okay?” we demanded as we helped wipe the muck off his face.
“Yeah, I guess so,” he spluttered but he looked as confused as everyone else. “I thought I was a goner there for a minute.”
“So did we, Jon-boy, so did we,” I said as I hugged him to me.
“Halie, I’m scared! Let’s get out of here before something else happens,” Kelly urged. “We’re almost there, it’s just a little further.” Pointing at the large exit sign on the wall she grabbed Merry’s hand and started shuffling through the dry plants.
Giving Jon another swipe to knock some of the muck off of him, Jen and I each took one of his hands before following Kelly.
By the time we reached the exit, Carl was already busy tearing away the dried growth of vines covering the doors. A sharp shake and push sent the door flying from its rusty hinges.
“This must be it! I can see the railroad tracks from here,” Kelly called back as she darted through the doorway a stride behind Carl.
Chapter Eight
The sharp sting of the wind whipping along the narrow side street made us clutch our coats tighter and hurry a little bit more to reach the arch of the ancient wooden railroad trestle silhouetted against the dusky skyline.
“Okay kids, everybody stick to the edges and walk real careful like,” I warned as I stepped back to let the younger children scramble past me onto the tracks. “We do not want anybody slipping into a hole
, or anything, again.”
When Kelly and the two younger children were securely moving along the tracks, I called to the dog. “Come on, Dusty, let’s do this.”
Dusty whined and snuffled at the wooden planks of the bridge but she wasn’t having any of this. “Come on, you can make it,” I gently coaxed and was rewarded when she took a couple of nervous steps but the sound of the churning river below was just too much for her. The dog dropped to her belly, whining pathetically.
“You can do it, Dusty, let’s go!” Jon and Merry called from where they had stopped a few yards along the tracks. The clapped their hands and held them out to her, encouraging her to follow them, but when she didn’t budge, they ran off after Kelly.
Distressed more by being left behind than the scary bridge, Dusty drew her shaking legs under her and whined, hoping her playmates would wait for her. When they didn’t, she made her choice and raced, yipping, after the children.
The bridge that I had feared turned out to be the least of our challenges. Everyone got across without incident. Unfortunately, by the time we’d reached the far side, the sun had set and the dark streets waiting for us were already filled with scores of menacing shadows and sounds.
“Okay, you little kids stick close and be quiet. And try not to slow us down too much,” Carl warned as he moved into the lead.
Sufficiently intimidated by the dark already, the children merely nodded and moved in closer to Jennie and me for protection as we began darting from one shadow to the next. We used the multitude of abandoned vehicles and piles of trash for cover as much as we could as we jogged through the streets toward the apartment building.
Several times, we were driven into the shadows by unidentified noises, but in each time proved to be only other pedestrians moving in much the same manner as we did. No one was safe at this hour in this part of town.
We were a block away and nearing the intersection that would take us into our home neighborhood when the sound of hover-craft landing somewhere nearby reached our ears. The banging of doors and sound of breaking glass was followed by shouting and a scream.
“Agents!” Kelly whispered as she leaned around the corner of the building we were huddled against. Worried that she might be seen, I jerked her by the arm and dragged her into the better cover offered behind a large pile of trash.
“And they’re military agents, which is a really bad thing,” Jennie whispered back to us from her position at the corner of the building.
Warning Kelly to stay where she was, I joined Jennie in time to see the arrival of the last of four small flitters. They were jammed along the front entrance to a large, abandoned-looking apartment building less than half a block from us—a large abandoned apartment building that was a near twin to our own. Each of the craft bore an emblem declaring them Military, the soldiers standing guard wore black uniforms and the visors of their riot helmets were closed to protect their identity.
It was quickly apparent why none of these would want their faces remembered. On the ground before the craft were three of the freaks, rumpled and bloody from the beatings they’d been given. Two of them lay limp and silent. The door to the building suddenly slammed back against the wall, releasing the sound of shrieking children from its depth. Two more of the black-clad soldiers lurched from the dark recess. Each was dragging another freak with them.
“That’s all we could find in there, sir,” growled the first as he threw his captive on the ground. “There were a couple of young kids bobbing around, but we just left them. I don’t think there was anybody else in there. What do you think, Mama?” He kicked the sobbing woman at his feet.
“Please, you can’t do this,” she sobbed as she tried to get to her feet. “We’ve done nothing to warrant our arrest. Our children will die with no one to take care of them—please!”
The soldier drew his foot back to kick her again, but the officer held out a hand to stop him. “That’s enough, Braggen, I’ll take care of this.” He bent down and grabbed a handful of the woman’s hair and raised her up to look him in his face.
“What do you think, lady, is there anyone else left behind that we need to know about?” The brutality in the man’s voice and on his face sent one of the men lying on the ground into spasms as he tried to gain his feet and reach the woman.
“No! Leave her alone!” he spat through broken teeth. The soldier standing over him promptly kicked the man’s legs out from under him and planted one booted foot on his back to keep the struggling man down.
“Guess there’s nobody left,” the officer decided. He released his grip on the sobbing woman and let her crumble to the ground.
“Okay, O’Reilly, show me what we’ve got here,” he snarled as he walked toward the soldier guarding the other live captives.
“Well, sir, I’m not so sure our tip was much good.” He bent and grabbed one of the men kneeling before them, jerking the man’s head forward so his commander could see his face. “The woman seems to be the sanest of the bunch, the rest of them pretty much look like this,” he indicated the man’s slack face and vacant eyes with disgust. “They’re pure freak and totally useless to the boys back at the labs.”
“They’re also too old,” growled the officer. “Throw them back, boys, these aren’t the fish we’re looking for.” Muttering in disgust, he turned away and climbed into the largest of the hover-craft.
“Wow, do you think they’re looking for us?” Kelly whispered in my ear as we watched the hover-craft disappear down the street.
“Very possibly,” I whispered back. “Let’s go, we have to warn the others.”
No one argued as we ducked into the street and hurried toward the alley that would take us to our own apartments, hopefully ahead of the soldiers.
When we emerged from the alleyway it was to see the first of the hover-craft coming around the far street corner. We watched silently as the cluster of flitters coasted to a stop and released their cargo of soldiers.
“Oh wow, they’re going to raid all of the buildings in the neighborhood, aren’t they,” gasped Kelly as we watched the soldiers charge up the staircase and into the tall brick building on the corner like a swarm of cockroaches.
“Oh yeah,” I answered. “But don’t worry , we’ll be long gone by the time they get here. We have alarms and traps set so we’ll know when they try to enter the building.
“Now,” hissed Carl. He darted from our hiding place and across the street into the cover of the old barrels and piles of boxes that we’d deliberately stacked around the entrance to the building to provide cover for a time just like this. When he was safe, he turned and waved the rest of us on.
In minutes, we were all through the gate and inside the big parking lot beneath the building. Darting expertly through the maze of old cars, we slid into the shadows at the sides of the elevator.
Carl reached the doors first and had already slammed his fist against the open button. Before the elevator doors were all the way open we were jamming our bodies into the small cubical.
It seemed to take an eternity before the elevator jerked to a stop and the doors rattled open.
“Jake! Zack! Where are you?” Jen and I shouted as we exploded into the hallway between the penthouse apartments.
“Hey, what’s up?” the boys queried as they appeared in the kitchen doorway. “We were just going to start dinner—” Jake began and stopped mid-sentence when he saw the look on our faces.
“We haven’t got time to explain in full right now,” I told them as I jerked open a closet door and dragged out a pile of backpacks. “Rosa and Jack were murdered this morning and the agents think we know something about it.”
“Yeah, and then this agent that was chasing us killed his partner to keep him from killing us, and, well, they probably think we did it, so we’ve got to get out of here now,” added Jennie. “Here, fill this with food bars,” she instructed as she tossed a pack in his direction.
“But why would he do that?” Zack asked incredulously as
he followed me into my room.
“Because he claims to be some kind of agent from a parallel world which he claims is also the source of the phantoms. He says he needs our help and we’ve promised to bring you all to a meeting later tonight so he can tell you his story in person,” I rattled automatically as I rifled through my few personal belongings, stuffing what I could into one of the packs.
“Kelly, there are some warmer jackets hanging in the closet over there. Get something that will fit you and one for me too.”
“What? Hey, this is really crazy, you need to stop and explain everything to us before we go running off into the night,” Zack insisted. “And where did you all get those?” he demanded with big eyes when I dropped the sword and harness on the bed and began shedding my muddy clothes.
I ignored him, there just wasn’t time to give the guys a full explanation, and hurriedly dressed in a clean shirt and jeans before reaching for the jacket Kelly was handing me.
“Hey guys, this is one of those rare times when the girls are not exaggerating!” Carl yelled from the hallway. “Just get your shit together and let’s get the hell out of here. We’ll explain as soon as we can. “Zack, hit the on switch for the security system so we can see what’s going on downstairs.”
“Right.” Zack moved into the foyer and threw open the cabinet doors that concealed the monitors for the security cameras we’d installed for just such a time as this.
Jake took one more look at the worried faces of his friends and grabbed one of the empty packs. He headed to his own room at a run.
We were still scrambling about the apartments, loading packs when the first explosion rocked the building.
“Damn! They’ve forced the garage doors,” Jake said as he began pressing buttons on the security console. One of the green-tinted screens showed the dark shapes of men swarming around the pair of big metal garage doors. The edge of the large hole they had burned into the soft metal still glowed red. A second screen showed the wreckage of the row of automobiles that had lined the front part of the garage before the first explosive charge had detonated. We couldn’t tell if the men lying scattered on the floor were merely wounded or dead.
Cry For Tomorrow Page 13
