by RJ Crayton
Had Natalie followed them back to the house and then crept in during the night to attack them? Well, she’d definitely crept in during the night and attacked. But why? When they stopped at their destination, they were taken out and marched in a line. Making a run for it would have been an idea, but Elaan was blindfolded and had no idea where to run to. She could feel a cool breeze, so she knew they were outside, but nothing else. She also had no idea who had a weapon and might shoot her should she make a run for it.
She also wasn’t sure where the rest of her party was. Were they all still with her? They’d been told not to speak, and she’d been cooperative, because her captors had guns. So, they were in silence, in darkness, and being led somewhere. Well, probably not someplace good given the circumstances.
She heard doors close and open as they marched. The wind stopped and she suspected they were inside now. Finally, she was told to stop. She heard whispers, but it was too soft to know exactly what was said. She thought she heard the words “take the others back.” Only, she couldn’t be sure. After a moment or two of standing still, she was grabbed by the arm and led for another walk. Still blindfolded, still handcuffed. “Not much longer,” a woman’s voice said.
They walked several paces straight, then a turn, more walking, another turn. They stopped, waited, and at some point got on an elevator. Elaan recognized the universal ding of it and felt her stomach lurch as the elevator went down. They seemed to be on the elevator at least half a minute, maybe more. It hadn’t occurred to her to start counting off the seconds until she was already in motion. Finally, another door chime, and they exited the elevator and walked some more. They stopped. There was a knock on the door. Then a pause.
No other speaking. Elaan heard the door open, and then she was urged forward. She stopped after a couple of paces. “I’ll leave you, then, sir,” the woman’s voice said. There was no verbal reply made, but apparently the sentiment was acknowledged, for she heard the door shut.
Then Elaan felt someone grab her hands. The person was fiddling with the handcuffs. And then they were removed. “You can take off your blindfold,” said a man’s voice this time.
Elaan didn’t need to be told twice. She ripped the blindfold from her eyes to see a tall, dark-skinned man standing before her. He looked to be in his forties, with a muscular build, close-cut hair, brown eyes with a gleam of wonder in them. In any other context, she might have even thought him handsome. But he was clearly glad to be holding them captive. As her eyes took in the room, she realized it was an apartment. It reminded her of the underground apartments of the scientist protection unit.
Is that where they were? An SPU. There were several of them in the country, so it would make sense there’d be one in Illinois. She glanced up at tall, dark, and handsome, and he was standing there, still grinning. But he wasn’t looking at Elaan. He was focused behind her. She turned to see that her mother was standing there, still blindfolded, her hands at the edge of the cloth covering her eyes. She seemed to be hesitating.
Was something wrong with her mother? Why wouldn’t she take off the blindfold? “Mom,” Elaan said, taking a step toward her. “Are you alright?”
With that question her mother removed the blindfold and looked at Elaan. “I’m fine, sweetheart.” Then she eyed the man. “Alex,” she said. “I didn’t expect this.”
Elaan looked between her mother and the guy, who was still smiling dreamily, and had a mini WTF moment in her head before voicing her confusion aloud. “You know him?”
Her mother nodded.
Alex brushed past Elaan and wrapped Shonda in his arms, squeezing her tight. He whispered something in her mother’s ear during the embrace. There was such familiarity in the way he grasped her mother, it felt like it should have been private. Elaan took a step back and tried to comprehend what was going on.
“I knew Shonda a long time ago, before you were born,” Alex said, as he released her mother. He looked at Shonda, his eyes gleaming. “I can’t believe you’re alive. I was devastated when I heard about your death. I couldn’t believe James hadn’t done something more for you.”
Her mother nodded. “It was a mistake,” Shonda said, proffering a smile to Alex. “They told everyone I was dead when I wasn’t. I got sick, but I survived. I was one of the few that healed, but the paperwork was wrong. They mixed me up with one of the other patients. Told everyone I had died. By the time I was well enough to leave the hospital, James and the kids were underground, and I realized it was best to strike out on my own.”
Alex shook his head. “I can’t believe he didn’t even come to see with his own eyes. I would’ve made sure they were right.”
“It’s almost impossible to get into death wards,” Shonda said matter-of-factly.
“You know I don’t care about impossible,” he said.
Shonda swallowed but didn’t respond directly. “James did the best he could. He relied on people who made mistakes. I won’t fault him for that. Besides, that doesn’t matter now. I want to know why you did this. Why did you bring us here, and how did you find us?”
Chapter 7 - Elaan
This conversation her mother was having with creepy ogling dude felt surreal. Yet, the guy seemed completely at ease with her mother and like he was actually planning on answering her mother’s questions about how he’d found them. So, when he offered them a seat on the sofa, Elaan simply accepted.
“Do you want something to eat or drink?” he asked, as he stood in front of a chair that was catty corner to the sofa, closest to where her mother had sat. Shonda and Elaan shook their heads, and he eased himself into the plush chair, his eyes never leaving her mother.
“Who are you and why did you bring us here, at gunpoint?” Elaan asked.
Her mother didn’t say anything. But she did raise an eyebrow as if she expected an answer.
Alex smiled. “She’s a lot like you when you were that age,” he said. Then, he took in a breath and spoke. “My name is Alexander Caldwell, and I’m the director of the Region 8 Scientist Protection Unit. I apologize for the heavy hand. I wasn’t sure exactly what I’d find. If I’d known it was Shonda, I wouldn’t have sent my people in guns a-blazin’.”
“Why did you send your people in at all?” Shonda asked, leaning forward. She reached out and put a hand on his knee as she looked him in the eye. “And where is my son?”
Alex looked at her hand, and a glow seemed to overtake his face. “Elijah is safe,” he said. “I wouldn’t hurt your son, or your daughter. Unfortunately, they’re both quite wanted right now.”
Shonda nodded, though she didn’t move her hand. “I’m aware of that.”
“Well, lucky for you that Natalie ran into your daughter today. She happened to follow the group back to the house you were in. I got orders from President Thoreaux’s office to check out an address, an address that happened to be where Natalie followed Elaan to.”
Elaan interrupted. “Who is President Thoreaux?”
Alex tore his eyes from Shonda and squared on Elaan, scrutinizing her face. “You’ve not gotten any word about anything since you left the SPU?”
Elaan shook her head.
“Thoreaux is the president of the United States,” he said. “He took over, when our president, vice president, Speaker of the House, etcetera, all died of the virus. The line of succession is deep for a reason, I suppose. Thoreaux had been a senator. Real religious zealot. Believed the virus was sent by God to take out the evils of the world. He’s not gotten the best rep his couple of months in office, but no one’s mutinied yet.”
That was nuts. The president died and no one bothered to tell the people in the SPU. “When did this happen?”
“About four months ago,” he said. Elaan tried to reconcile the timeline in her brain. That was about time the food deliveries stopped, as well as around the time when they stopped getting news broadcasts. It was odd that she hadn’t heard, but politics hadn’t been a high priority when they’d fled the SPU.
�
�You said you got orders from Thoreaux’s office,” her mother said.
“Yeah,” Alex responded. “There was a rumor that Elaan was at a location further downstate, but the house had turned up empty. There were clothes left behind, and it was clear people had been staying there, but there were no traces of whom. Except for a driver’s license under a bunkbed. Since we’re close by, I was asked to check it out. So, I sent a team of people close to me, people I could trust, and asked them to bring the residents of the house in, and I’d deal with them. My top aide, Natalie, called me when she got to the house, told me there were five of you, described you, and I realized it must be you, Shonda, though I didn’t quite understand how.”
He put his hand on top of Shonda’s and looked at her longingly. “I had them bring the two of you directly to my quarters. Your son and the other men are in a decontamination cell. I didn’t know their health status. The crew I sent is either immune or survived the disease, so they were OK going out. But I can’t expose the rest of the people here to untested citizens, even if one of them is your son.”
Shonda nodded. “You’re good to your people, Alex,” she said. “You always have been.”
“You used to say different,” he said, exchanging a knowing look with her and then smiling. “But that was when we were both young and foolish.”
Elaan stared at the two, wondering just how long they’d known each other and how close they were. She didn’t like the way her mother was with this Alex guy, but he was clearly enamored. The question was, was her mother enamored back or simply doing the best to appease the man who held their future in his hands? “What are you going to do with us?” Elaan asked.
Alex raised a hand to his chin and tipped his head back. “That’s the sixty-four thousand dollar question,” he said. “Right now, I’m going to tell Thoreaux’s office we didn’t find anything.”
Shonda’s shoulders relaxed and she offered a grateful, “Thank you, Alex.”
“Only the crew that brought you in knows you’re here, so I’d like to keep it that way. This is a two-bedroom suite, so you two can stay with me for a bit. I’ll figure out how to handle the other three, shortly. Besides your son, who are they?”
“Josh Wells, Kingston’s son, and a graduate student who’s immune and has been helping me. His name is Amadu.”
Alex nodded. “Alright, you two, sit tight. I’m going to go and talk to the folks who brought you in. I’ll be back in a few.”
Alex stood, patted Shonda on the shoulder, and exited the apartment.
Elaan waited a few seconds after Alex left the unit, and then turned to her mother. “Seriously, who is that guy, and what was all that stuff going on between you?”
Her mother looked toward the door as if expecting Alex to return. But with no movement at the door, she faced her daughter. “Alex and I used to date, before I met your father.”
“Does he realize that you’re not still dating? That you’re in fact married to someone else.”
Shonda rolled her eyes. “Of course, he knows I got married. But he didn’t want to part ways, as you can tell. He said Jim wasn’t right for me, said I was making a mistake. And he still is quite fond of me.”
That was obvious. “It’s creepy, Mom.”
“Well, he’s not turning us in, so I don’t care. We’re going to need his help, so be nice to him.”
Be nice to him! She cocked her head. “Should I pat his leg while we’re chatting?”
Shonda gave her a look that said enough. “Alex is the head of this SPU. He’s got an equivalent position to your father, except he’s at a large SPU. Generally military have final say in how the facility runs, but I don’t think there are many military personnel at this facility. If I recall correctly, Alex is in charge of everything here, both the civilian and military personnel.”
Elaan didn’t like what she was hearing. “So, you’ve kept in touch?”
Shonda shook her head. “No,” she protested. “I just kept track of who was in charge of what, when it came to the other facilities. All the lead personnel had a list of the heads of the other SPUs. Your father talked with Alex a couple of times at the beginning of the year. Before things got too bad.”
Her father talking with his wife’s ex about end of the world stuff. That seemed a bit too bizarre for Elaan’s imagination.
“We need to see Lijah,” Elaan said. “Do you really think he’s OK? Do you trust Alex not to hurt him?”
Shonda bit her lip and turned to the doorway Alex had gone through a few minutes ago. “I’m not sure I trust him, but we don’t have a lot of choices at this point.”
Chapter 8 - Lijah
The woman, the one Josh had recognized from his trip with Elaan, had brought them to a room with two sets of bunk beds. “You’ll have to stay until we know you’re not sick,” she said.
Even though the woman was alone, she didn’t seem to be phased by being alone with three men. Yes, she had a weapon, but she didn’t seem to be worried about being overpowered.
She seemed to be reading Lijah’s thoughts, for she turned to him and said, “The guys outside the door have big guns, so you’re welcome to blow right by me and try to leave, but they will shoot you.”
“Your name is Natalie, right?” Josh asked.
She squinted at him in irritation, but not denial. “Who I am doesn’t matter to you.” She started toward the door.
“You should go see your father. He’s worried about you,” Josh said, as she pulled the door closed.
They waited a beat to see if she’d come back, but Josh’s words seemed to have no effect. Josh sat on the lower bunk on the left side of the room, while Amadu climbed on the top bunk on the right. Lijah sighed, and looked over at Josh, opting to stay where he was in the center of the room. “So, do you think it’s her?”
“She looks like Elaan,” Josh said. “Lee stopped to help us because he said Elaan looked like his daughter. There was a picture of the daughter at the house. I’m pretty sure that’s her.”
“So, what’s her deal?” Lijah asked.
Josh shrugged. “I wish I knew. Her father was worried about her. Said she was in an abusive relationship with some guy. Kept looking at me like he thought I beat Elaan.”
Lijah felt a wave of anger at the notion of Josh hitting his sister. Logically, it didn’t jibe with what he knew of Josh, but he still felt the need to ask, “Why would he think that?”
Josh looked up, scrutinizing Lijah’s reaction. “Because he viewed Elaan the way he viewed his daughter — helpless. But Elaan’s not helpless, and you know I would never do anything to hurt her. Not that she’d put up with that.”
Lijah nodded. Josh was right; Elaan wasn’t weak, but he’d heard tales of plenty of women who’d been plenty strong, who’d put up with abuse. And if that woman was in fact Natalie, weakness wasn’t her problem, yet she’d still managed to live with an abuser, assuming her father had been right. “So Natalie’s father was just fixated on this idea he had about who his daughter was. Only that notion isn’t who she really is.”
Josh looked toward the door, as if a figment of Natalie lingered there. “If that’s Natalie, she’s definitely not weak. So, either something drastic happened to change her, or he’s a very bad judge of his kid.”
Lijah half-laughed, thinking of his own mother. “Parents see what they want to see,” he mumbled. He looked at the bunk situation. He preferred the top, but he didn’t want to sleep above Josh. He went to the lower bunk and lay down. “We need to figure out how to get out of here,” he said. “I don’t know why they came and got us, nor do I know why they’re keeping us, but it can’t be good.”
* * *
They’d been in there all day and they hadn’t gotten a meal. They’d spotted a small door in the rear of the room. It had almost been flush with the wall, having a nearly hidden door handle. But it led to a bathroom.
Around six o’clock, according to Lijah’s watch, the woman came back in. There was a man with a gun in the ha
llway and he shut the door, leaving Natalie alone in the room with the guys. She had three brown paper bags in her hand. “Dinner,” she said, walking around the room passing them out.
“What about breakfast and lunch?” Lijah asked. “We missed those.”
Natalie looked into his eyes, studying him a moment. “You’re not technically supposed to be here,” she said. “So, we can’t provide full rations to you. The director is working on what to do with you. Until then, this is what you get. A dinner ration.”
She turned to leave the room.
“Wait,” Lijah said. “Why were we brought here?”
Natalie shook her head. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, which bobbed. “I’m not sure entirely. I just do as I’m told.”
She knew, Lijah could tell. She’d offered an irrefutable excuse so she didn’t have to answer more questions.
“Before you go,” he said. Natalie turned to look at him. “Where is the rest of our party? The two women who were in the house with us.”
Natalie looked around the room, her eyes pausing on each face to read it, and then she said, “They’re safe. They’re with the director.”
“Who is the director?” Josh asked.
She didn’t hesitate. “Alexander Caldwell.”
Josh looked to Lijah and raised an eyebrow, as if Lijah should’ve known who Caldwell was, but he didn’t.
“Who is that?” Lijah asked.
“Director of the Region 8 Scientist Protection Unit. He’s the equivalent of your… Of James Woodson, only for Region 8, which includes—” He broke off as he realized Natalie was watching him intently.
“What matters,” Josh said to Lijah, “is that we’re in an SPU. And we were picked up by a nonmilitary detail, even though it appears we’re being guarded by one.” Josh turned to Natalie. “What are you doing here, Natalie? I spoke to your father. He was worried about you. He thought you were in danger from your husband.”
