Brendan brought the drones together. Number two was out of commission, its black body at Paul’s feet. Now a few people stood nearby watching. The neighbor who had been working on the car was running towards Paul with a broom held high. A jogger came up from the other direction.
The diversion would have to suffice. He sent the drones away so they’d be out of sight. The good people of Dutchman Springs would win this round, and Paul and Tyler would be distracted for a while. Too bad about the two drones, though.
He looked up to see the house’s back sliding door was open and Lucille nowhere in sight.
“Lucille!” he hissed.
He heard the clinking of glass and found her in the kitchen. She was going through the refrigerator. Some of the cabinet doors were open as well. She was placing jars and food containers on the floor.
“So which is it?” she asked.
“Will you wait? Did you even check the rest of the house first?”
“There’s no one here.”
He took a quick check down the hall and the bedrooms but didn’t see anyone.
Lucille now had half of the refrigerator’s contents out. She stood over it all and opened another cabinet that held dishes and cups.
“Not seeing grapes here,” she said.
“It could be anything. It could be water.”
Lucille looked at the tap.
“Probably in a bottle or other container,” he said.
“What am I supposed to do? Eat everything in her house?”
“No, we just need to be smart about figuring out what belongs here.”
“And what does belong here?” she asked. She kicked at a jar of mayo, knocking over several of the other containers. “Maybe none of this stuff is what I’m looking for. Maybe you’ve brought me here just to distract me.”
“I’m appealing to your good nature and common sense. You can use your talent and help me fight Charlotte and prevent a big disaster.”
“How can you even be sure she can cause one? You’re putting a lot of faith in things she’s said. And you accuse me of exploiting weak minds. Where’s the food I’m after?”
“We’ll need to look through everything.” He examined the refrigerator’s contents. There was no fresh produce, and it wasn’t particularly well stocked. “All of this looks like Nurse Dreyfus’s stuff.”
Lucille was studying Brendan. “It’s not here, is it?”
“I haven’t even started searching yet.”
She took her phone out.
“Paul and Tyler will be a bit delayed,” he said.
“What do you mean? What have you done?” She began to text frantically.
In the front living room, the air began to shimmer. A man stepped into the hallway and took a moment to orient himself. He was muscular and wore an undersized black tank top. Black tattoos covered his arms and neck. Charlotte appeared next to him.
“He’s right here,” Lucille said, only briefly looking up from her phone.
Brendan began to back out of the kitchen.
“Brendan, stop,” Charlotte said. “It’s pointless to run.” She gave the man a nod. He started forward.
Brendan quickly looked around for anything that might serve as a weapon. The house was sparsely furnished. He snatched up an empty coffee cup from a side table and flung it at the man. It struck him in the arm. The man uttered a low cry and charged.
Brendan stayed light on his feet and dodged, stepping out onto the rear deck.
“This pervert is molesting me!” he shouted.
This caused the man to pause and look at Charlotte.
“Come back inside, Brendan,” she said.
“Stay away from me. Just think about what you’re doing.”
“I have. It will be so easy to fix everything. I want to bring Tina back. Just stop running and come inside.”
He looked down at his tablet and ordered all the drones to him. The man moved forward. Brendan sidestepped and was about to run down the side of the house when he saw Tyler heading his way, pushing past the garbage bins. Then suddenly the man was on him, wrapping him with both arms.
“Gotcha,” he said.
Brendan jerked at the man’s grip and stomped down on his foot. The man screamed and Brendan broke free. Tyler was a second away, a maniacal expression on his face as he rushed forward. The buzz of the drones was close, but there was no time to give them further orders. Brendan retreated to the edge of the pool and looked down into the water.
“What are you people doing?” the next-door neighbor yelled.
This got everyone’s attention. Both Tyler and the tattooed man stopped to stare. The neighbor was looking over the fence, a cordless phone held high. “The police are just down the street. I called them.”
Brendan was turning to run to the back fence when Lucille appeared next to him. Before he could react, she took his wrist. “Pretty exciting for a first date.”
He felt a tingling sensation, not unpleasant, run up his arm. He knew he would regret it, but he made a snap decision.
Can’t leave her here.
He got her in a bear hug and jumped backwards into the pool.
13. The Oasis
He couldn’t breathe.
The water around him pressed in. His lungs burned as if he had been underwater for over a minute and he fought not to drown. He tried to kick off the pool bottom, but the hard surface was uneven and slick. He found himself tumbling and couldn’t see which way was up. Where was the sun? He bumped against something large and soft. It clawed at him, pulling at his sweatshirt. Arms flailed at him, and hands seized him. He could just make out her outline. Lucille. An explosion of bubbles erupted from her mouth. She wouldn’t let go, and he couldn’t get her off. He felt the world fading, the cold water and the pressure in his lungs overwhelming him.
Can’t think. Dying…
His toe found a fixed surface. He pushed off with all his might, Lucille keeping her death grip on him. They followed a stream of bubbles upward. It was too slow. The world grew darker.
Then his face broke surface. Water splashed into his mouth as he came up against stone inches from the top of the water. He struck his head trying to bob higher. He struggled to cough and breathe at the same time.
Lucille pushed away from him as she got her nose and mouth into the precious pocket of air. She was gasping and crying out.
They were in some sort of cave. The ceiling his face was up against was rough and cold, with the water lapping at it from the disturbance of their surfacing.
“What…where…” she gasped. She tried to turn towards him without moving her mouth back down in the water. Her hands probed the cave’s ceiling but could find no purchase. He saw panic in her eyes.
“Can’t stay here,” he said. “Going to look for a way out.”
“No. Don’t go.”
He took in a lungful of air and submerged. Tried to get his bearings. Light was coming from one side of the cave under the water. He surfaced, took another breath, and swam down towards the light. He felt his way along the sloping stone. The light got brighter. The oxygen in his lungs was already nearly depleted. He tried to surface, but there was no air pocket here. He had to go back. But he could make out a shimmering of the water a short distance away. He fought to keep calm as he pushed himself along with his arms. If this was an optical illusion, he was dead. The cold of the water pressed at him. His limbs were growing heavy. He focused on the light and ignored the fire in his chest.
He broke surface, gasping in as much air as he could. The space between the water and the stone was greater, and his feet grazed the bottom. He could bounce on his toes and breathe. The light came from a wide split in the rock where he saw open air. This was the way out, but to where?
Lucille was still behind him in the first cave. But she was part of Charlotte’s scheme, and Charlotte and her thug could be heading this way. What did he owe Lucille?
He took three deep breaths and dove. He made the swim back to the top of the f
irst cave and came up next to her.
“Where were you?” she screamed. She was panting and spitting water.
“There’s a way out. We have to dive and swim underwater. Less than a minute away.”
“I can’t swim that far. I feel like I’m going to pass out.”
“Try to calm down. We take a breath and swim for the light.”
“No.”
“It’s either that or you dive down and see if you can find the gate back home, if it’s even there anymore. You pick. I’m going.”
She grabbed for him. “Don’t leave.”
“Then take a deep breath and follow.”
He dove and tugged her arm. He was ready to let go if she resisted. She could try to go back if she wanted. But she followed. With her trailing along, he swam much slower. Again, the air in his lungs seemed only to last seconds. At first he thought they had taken a wrong turn. He was disoriented. He didn’t believe his own eyes, thinking the light was coming from below the water. Just a trick of the eyes. A reflection.
Calm down.
His feet found rock. Again, he pushed up. Lucille’s nails were digging into his bicep. He tugged her along and they broke into cool air. They were gasping, choking, laughing. Lucille headed towards the opening. Soon she was wading, the water just higher than her waist. She threw her coat off into the water. Her shoes were gone.
“Wait,” he said. “We don’t know what’s out there.”
“I don’t care.”
They emerged into a pool adorned with a narrow sand beach and surrounded by high walls. The rising gray stone looked like rows of dominoes that had fallen in on one another but failed to knock each other down. Smaller chunks of rubble filled the gaps between. Brendan and Lucille dragged themselves to the sand and collapsed. The sunlight felt warm. Brendan peeled his heavy sweatshirt off and rubbed his arms to restore circulation.
Lucille’s teeth were chattering. “Where are we?”
Brendan shook his head.
“Is this the headmaster’s world?”
“I don’t think so. This isn’t the next world downstream from us, either. This is someplace new. Maybe this is where the nurse is from.”
“It’s so hard to breathe.”
She was right. It reminded Brendan of the one time he had gone skiing in Lake Placid. He didn’t like how short on breath he had been then, and this was far worse, like he’d just run laps at school.
He got up to look around.
Lucille tried to rise but fell back on her butt. “Where are you going?”
“To see what’s here.”
“But we have to go back. You brought me here; you can’t leave me.”
“Then keep up.”
It didn’t take long to explore the short beach. He saw no way of leaving it except to go back in the water. It looked like parts of the stone columns above them had vines growing out of them. As he shielded his eyes from the sun, he saw what the vines really were. Rebar. Streaks of rust stains marred the stone faces near each jutting strand of metal.
“You can’t stay here forever,” Lucille said. “Just tell us where you put the stupid ring, and let’s get this over with.”
“You can head back whenever you want.”
He considered the pool. At any minute, Tyler, Paul, or Charlotte’s thug would appear. Across the water he saw a space between two of the slabs free of debris. It was narrow and its bottom edge was about a foot above the water level. He dove in and swam across the pool. Lucille was calling his name, but he ignored her. Even the short swim made him feel out of breath. He gripped both sides of the gap in the stone and pulled himself up. A narrow route led up.
“You can’t leave me here! Brendan!”
He started to climb.
A few patches of dirt and sand filled several flat spaces between the giant concrete chunks, making the pathway up easy to navigate. He saw a few partial footprints and scuffs on the stone. Whoever had come this way had worn shoes. Further up he came upon a nest of rebar he had to climb through. He could hear water running somewhere beneath him. After a while, he realized he hadn’t heard Lucille in several minutes and wondered if he should go back. But he dismissed the thought as he reached the top of a slab and got a look at what was on the other side.
A lush green treescape stretched out in front of him. The greenery looked identical to the palm trees that grew around Dutchman Springs. But there were so many of them. And where were the houses? The stone slabs formed what looked like a giant fallen wall that stretched into the distance. He realized that it looked an awful lot like what he imagined the hyperloop would look like if it fell and broke into giant pieces. The air looked surprisingly crisp and blue. His Dutchman Springs received enough pollution from post-disaster L.A. to keep a layer of light haze on the horizon.
He heard rocks shift. Lucille was clambering up the last part of the ascent. She wore a scowl on her face and was sheathed in sweat. As she got close it looked like she wanted to say something, but all she could do was catch her breath. Then she saw the view.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“Dutchman Springs. At least the same place geographically.”
“The town’s gone. What happened to it?”
He shook his head. “No way to know. Maybe it was never here.”
“Wait—what?”
He headed down a giant debris pile of broken concrete pieces. Lucille followed. Soon they were in the shadow of the stone slabs and walking on sandy ground. The sound of trickling water was louder, as if a stream was moving somewhere behind the rock. They came to a clear, shallow pool that had formed against the towering stone. They waded across to the opposite bank. Lucille plopped down on the sand.
“I need to rest,” she said.
Brendan was exhausted too but didn’t want to show it. He crouched and felt the sand. It was already hot from the morning sun. Several footprints marked the flat, damp ground near the water’s edge.
“I think there’s people here,” he said.
“Where?”
He nodded in the direction of the palm forest.
She grabbed his hand. He batted it aside and got away from her. “Don’t.”
“We can’t stay here,” she said. “We don’t know who lives here. We need to leave.”
“I’m sorry if you’re uncomfortable. You should have considered there would be consequences when you decided to work for Charlotte.”
“I don’t ‘work’ for her.”
“Could have fooled me. I’m going to look around. Wait here.”
At the tree line, the footprints merged to a single path. The air under the palms was surprisingly cool. A pair of lizards raced away from him and into the fibrous growth at the base of a tree. Some little brown birds in the upper fronds were making an excited chip-chip-chip noise. After he had walked for about fifteen minutes, the bird sounds faded, and he could smell a campfire somewhere nearby.
He came to the edge of a clearing where he saw a garden. Many of the abundant plants were supported by crude stakes, and the edge of the plant bed was lined with rough stones. He waited and listened but didn’t hear or see anyone. The walk hadn’t been a long one, but he felt like he needed to rest again.
He forced himself to continue.
The trail past the garden was twice as wide as the one he had traveled. As he followed it, he saw a long grapevine supported by a long wire trellis. Several clusters of ripe green grapes grew on the twisting vine. The fruit looked identical to what he had seen in the cooler at the airport.
Was this Charlotte’s garden? He looked over his shoulder to see if Lucille was following. This was what she wanted. If she had a supply of this food, she could maintain her heightened ability indefinitely. He touched the grapes. They were covered with a layer of dust and had a slightly sweet aroma.
He heard voices. He ran for the trees and took cover. A pair of older women wearing ragged clothes appeared. They began tending the garden with tools they carried in a plastic bucket. He
overheard a few words spoken between them. It was English, which was reassuring, but he didn’t want to be seen. He had no idea who these people were or how they’d react if they saw him.
Another four gardeners appeared, all women of varying ages. All their clothes looked old and were falling apart. Most of them were barefoot. He needed to see where they came from. If this was where Tina had been sent, maybe he could find where they kept their prisoners. He kept low and made his way around the garden clearing.
He heard more voices. One was singing, while another told a child not to throw sand. He moved towards the voices as quietly as he could.
A broad pool of water spread out before him through the trees. Plastic water bottles were being filled by a pair of women. Some children were running around nearby. Beyond was a village made up of sheets of metal, wooden boards, and scraps of debris. A thin trail of white smoke rose just beyond the first few shanties. He saw a pair of speed limit signs on one wall, while another hut had an oxidized car door incorporated into its front. Rough-hewn tarps and awnings adorned most of the homes. It looked like what people would build after surviving a boat wreck on some island. But this was the California desert. A town used to be here.
“Mommy!” a child screamed.
One of the kids standing nearby was pointing straight at Brendan. The two women looked up. Brendan got up from cover.
“It’s okay,” Brendan said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
A woman rushed forward, snatched up her child, and ran off. The others also fled, shouting as they ran. “Wait!” he called, but they were gone.
He walked around the pool and scooped up some of the water. It tasted clean. The water in the pool outside the cave hadn’t been salty either. The fact that they were taking it in bottles made him believe this was their drinking water. He saw no laundry or indications that it doubled as their bath.
From the center of the village came more voices. Men. Brendan had the urge to run, but where would he go? Three older men came in his direction. One held a cricket bat, but the others were unarmed. They wore no shirts and had shorts or wraps around their waists. Faded bluish-black tattoos adorned their necks, chests, and forearms, blocky patterns that reminded Brendan of Chinese writing.
The Supervillain High Boxed Set: Books One - Three of the Supervillain High Series Page 33
