Dead End (Book 4): A Very Dark Place

by P. S. Power

  Cam scrambled to him fast, armed with a rifle. She glared at the people that came to see what was going on from the safety of their windows.

  "Did they take you?" She actually pointed the weapon, like she was going to use it. It surprised him a little, since she was about as close to non-violent as the world really allowed anymore.

  Jake looked at the group but shook his head, since Morten wasn't there.

  "No, Mort grabbed me and dropped me off in the forest. He seemed really confused, like he didn't know what he was doing. I'm guessing someone else was controlling him." He didn't speak about the rest of what he'd seen, the visions and all that. Those might not to be real at all anyway.

  Or they might mean something. He'd seen a lot though, one way or the other.

  Cam stood, mouth open in the cold air, a bit of steam coming out as she exhaled. Vicki finished setting a line to defend them from attack and ran over, hugging him hard enough he feared for his life for a few seconds.

  "Jake!" It was too loud, but she held him and didn't let go, kissing his cheeks for a long time.

  For his portion of things he tried to return the move. It didn't work very well, as weak as he was, but it looked about right.

  "What the hell happened?" She demanded it suddenly, as if ready to blame him for it. He explained it all then, but in a few lines.

  One of the other Teleporters came over, a man that looked older, who sighed, but spoke in perfect English.

  "Damn. Morten has gone missing. Just after you did. We didn't know what to think about it, but no one thought it would be this. His wife, Tawny, is taking his job, making sure that the new nano compound is getting spread. Doing a good job of it too, from what I've heard." The man rubbed at his baggy eyes tiredly.

  They were pure yellow.

  "Tansy?" Jake said, not really correcting the man, just making sure he'd heard correctly.

  "Good. Um, hey, not to be a wimp here, but I'm going to collapse soon. Vicki is really kind of holding me up right now. Could we get somewhere safer? Or at least less chilly?"

  That got Cam to take his arm, along with Vicki and Dave, the other person he recognized. The boy hadn't run up to hug him, but the second they were in the building he took over, barking orders like he owned the place.

  "We need warm blankets and fluids. Then Jake needs to eat and probably sleep for a long time. Move!" The people around him didn't for a second, but finally one of them ran out of the visitor center with the compound making machine plugging away in the back. There were cots in the room, making it obvious they all slept there.

  The Vals had very little clue about what was going on, other than that he was back. That made sense, they didn't get hypothermia. He was shaking constantly, but he couldn't feel anything yet. Except that the place felt hot, like a sauna. After about fifteen minutes it started burning, as he got wrapped in a silver space blanket, Cam sitting in front of him held to his chest for warmth. It couldn't have been comfortable for her, or smelled very nice, but she didn't complain.

  "We all thought you were dead Jake. Everyone did. Well, not Heather, but everyone else. You just vanished. I'm going to kill Morten when I find him. Fucking traitor." She sounded serious about it, even though Jake had made sure to let them all know the guy had seemed really out of it at the time.

  "No." He didn't expand, but Dave shook his head.

  "That's for later. Right now we have to get Jake warm and then some calories. I don't know about this stuff. I'm afraid to take off your shoes right now. How many toes are we going to have to cut off?" He sounded slightly amused by the idea, but Jake got that he was covering, denying the fact that the idea freaked him out. He actually looked up to Jake, making him one of the very few people Dave considered an equal.

  The truth was he didn't know. They hurt though, now that they had a chance to warm up some. He'd tried to be careful the whole time to stay as warm as possible, but he hadn't taken his boots off a lot. Just enough to make sure his feet got to dry out and warm up each night by the fire. Shrugging Vicki took them off for him, so he wouldn't have to dislodge the warm girl in front of him, which he hugged to his chest. Technically they both should have been naked, but they just hadn't taken the time. It was a body heat thing.

  "These... reek. They look healthy otherwise. Red and like they're going to hurt for a while, but the toes are still attached and not black or anything."

  Reassured Dave looked at them and nodded, using his more complete human medical knowledge. That being basic first aid. Vicki didn't have a lot of personal experience with things like that after all.

  "Looks way better than I thought. So what's next? I mean you need to get cleaned up and sleep, food and all that, but what do we need to do when you're out? Start killing off the Teleporters?"

  Cam stiffened, but Jake shook his head.

  "No. I need Morris and... Nate. Tipper too, Vicki. No one else from the House. That's important. No one that's lived there. I also need the Linsters and..." He turned to Cam, looking at the back of her head which was too close, so he leaned his cheek against it to get her attention. She was so warm.

  "And even though I don't want to let you go I need you to find Lois and steal her ladle again. You gave it back, right?"

  Cam stiffened a little.

  "Yeah. You told me too. Now I'm stealing it again? Why, don't think I can do it?" She sounded like she was affronted as if her ability to steal was being questioned.

  "Well, what can I say? Anyone can make a sudden grab once, doing it again, especially without her noticing it, that's a lot harder. She always carries that thing, doesn't she?" He tried to laugh, but it didn't happen. Instead, finally, he fell asleep.

  It was a micro-sleep thing, head bobbing suddenly, making him feel like he was falling. They laid him on his side and let him doze then, a warm water bottle being brought in to replace the girl after a while, then an electric blanket. The Vals actually had power still after all. It was nice, reminding him of what used to be, before some jerks destroyed it all.

  Oh, he got that they were actually trying to do the right thing, just like he was when he killed people. That didn't make it good though. They were evil. So was he, but that wouldn't stop him from finding them and taking them out. Not at all.

  Someone led him through things for a while, helping him shower, shave and dressing him in new white clothes that were designed to fit a girl, but were clean and shapeless enough it didn't look that funny. He was given something like beef broth every few hours while he napped on and off. He thought it was just dozing, but apparently it was more like a hard sleep for several days. In the same room people were working too. They didn't stop, just because of him. When he finally got up to find the bathroom on his own the building was surrounded by girls and women with weapons, facing outward, in case of attack.

  He found the little room on his own, it being right outside the A-frame building to the right, and was back in a few minutes, to find that the scene inside had changed a lot while he was gone.

  For one thing people were busily teleporting into place, mainly leaders for various groups, coming to see him. It was going to get crowded though and for some reason he didn't feel like going out into the cold.

  "Hi everyone. I'm alive. Please keep working." He shook hands, hugged a few people and then asked if there was anywhere they could store them other than the room they were in. From the door Yalla suggested they remove to her space, which was larger. There were a good ten of them by the time they started leaving.

  More came after that too.

  A lot more.

  It meant that, instead of doing what he wanted to, which was to have some warm food with more substance than broth, he got to walk outside again, his old boots missing, leaving him with a warm pair of snow boots that felt soft to his feet. He wished for a second that he'd had those on his feet for his ordeal, but that wasn't a helpful thought at the moment, so he followed Dave to where the various group leaders were being stored.

  They star
ted with grumbling.

  "Those damned Scalliwagga did this! We should have a price of blood!" The woman that said this was clearly T'srith, one of the warrior groups, but he didn't recognize her. If she'd been around before he'd totally missed it.

  "Stop that." He didn't bark the words, but it got everyone to go silent anyway, as if it was shocking that he said anything at all.

  "Morten may, or may not, be working for our enemies, but he isn't his whole people. Let's not make trouble where we don't have too. From what I saw my thought is that he was being influenced somehow. That could happen to most of us. We need to figure out if that's the case and find out how to stop it, if it's going on. It... if they can do that to him, chances are a lot of people may be working for them. I have some leads to follow, but they might have just been delirium, so I don't want to say anything until I know for certain." Grinning, he walked to the woman that had spoken and touched her shoulder gently.

  "For now we need to make certain that everything keeps running smoothly. Have there been more attacks?" No one had told him, but people nodded.

  Yalla answered, her voice cautious for some reason.

  "Several. Bimps dropping more zombies at first, but then moving to fire bombs. They haven't hit anything thankfully, since Morris and his people located some shoulder fired rockets that can hit the things. After we took the first three they stopped coming. We don't know if that's because they don't have more or if they just don't want to waste their efforts."

  Jake nodded after a few seconds.

  "So we're actually calling them bimps? OK." He didn't have anything else to add, but the others did. He'd been gone for nearly a month after all and things had escalated. The more area they cleaned, the harsher the attacks had gotten, trying to stop them. They'd also had people, ones that seemed like they might really be around, like Nate and Ken, walk into the manufacturing facilities and blow up.

  There had even been a Jake making an attempt in South America. They had a test for it though, that the Linsters had come up with. Everyone had to be checked out now.

  "I see. Did anyone check me yet?" He didn't remember it, but it would have been the first thing he would have done.

  Vicki nodded.

  "Hell yeah. Before I hugged you in Manitoba. Do I look stupid or something?" She pulled out the little device that looked like a cell phone done in silver metal. It didn't flip open though, it just buzzed if it was near a biological robot.

  "Good. I hate it when I'm replaced by killer... whatever those things are called. Clone things. Bio-bots? Did we lose many people?"

  No one said anything, not for a long time, until Dave shrugged.

  "Yeah. Twenty-three. Mainly new people, but a few that you knew. Um, Robin and George from your place, got caught in a blast. Ken... He's alive, but barely. He figured out that a fake Nate wasn't a telepath in time to tackle him and save the House from another attack, but... it messed him up bad. Sammi and her Uncle are alive, but they nearly bought it twice. A lot of the bio-bots are attacking the Bawdri. Most of them. It's like they're the primary target. One tried for here, looking like Matilde, but I shot her first, before she got into the room. We had a code word that we use with each other each day and she didn't know it. That was before the sensors."

  Jake nodded, feeling pretty down about the news. It was rough, getting it all at once like that.

  "We need to find these people, the ones doing this and take them down then. Anyone have a lead?" If not he'd have to do it himself and he wasn't absolutely sure he had a real one either.

  Nate stepped forward, looking tired and worn, more so than he had before even.

  "The Linsters think that the others are somewhere in Australia. There are consistent Technologist signals from there at least. It could be a relay station though. We have some people looking into it. I can't say who." He looked around the room as if expecting an argument about that.

  "Of course not. We can't let anything slip." Jake tried to listen for a while after that, so that everyone would feel like they were being heard. Most of it was pretty self-serving, the various leaders hoping to get his support on projects that would help their own people. Finally he grabbed his forehead and sighed.

  "I'll need this in writing. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but you need to show how things help everyone. Sure, help your people too, but make sure it isn't at anyone else's expense, right? Do that and I'll probably throw in with you without question. Don't... and you may as well not mention it to me at all." Jake tried to look hopeful but it was pretty clear a lot of them were going to think he was just pushing them around, saying things like that.

  Yalla ordered them all out about an hour later, suggesting that after what Jake had been through he needed to rest, or else he'd end up being sick or something. She wasn't wrong, but he couldn't afford to just rest like she said. Not with everything that was going on.

  Waiting for them all to leave took another ten minutes, almost all of them coming by to wish him well or try for some last second lobbying. Jake smiled through the whole thing, glad for the distraction and the stalling it let him do, but knowing that what he had to do was too important to put off. Of course he was probably wrong, which made his reluctance worse.

  Who listened to fever dreams... or dementia, whatever he'd been going through in the dark cold nights? Apparently him, but he'd be damned if he wasn't checking it all out first. Even the apology to Colleen was going to take some doing.

  Had he really hurt her that much, for so long? It was horrible, but that just didn't sound right. No one had ever loved him, had they? That was his main problem. Or it would be, as long as it turned out that things seen in the woods should stay there and not be open to group discussion later.

  About ten seconds after the last person left he set the first part in motion, asking Yalla sweetly if she'd help him get some things done. It was fake of course, because he was way too numb to actually feel anymore, but she seemed more than happy to help, taking the time to touch him on the arm before leaving to talk to the needed people. The Vals were funny that way he realized. Some of them were physically friendly with him, but they didn't touch each other much. True a lot of that had kind of gone away in the last year even at the House, but people still hugged their personal friends a lot, for comfort or to reassure others. The Valkyrie just didn't. When they did, it tended to be a back pounding kind of thing instead of anything warm or overly friendly. It meant that Yalla must have been pretty worried about him or something.

  The first people in were the Linsters, having planned to come visit anyway. They weren't brought over to the visitors center until Cam came though, having lifted the ladle like she was supposed to.

  "It took hours before she set it down. I had to wash dishes the whole time too." The girl pouted a little and held up her left hand to show the pruning.

  "Much more and I'd chafe."

  The ladle didn't look special or anything, it was just silver metal with a big bowl on the bottom. Jake didn't really know what to do, it had just been in his visions, so he handed the thing off to Sara and waved at it.

  "What do you think of it?" Yalla gave him a funny look and Cam actually laughed out loud, a happy sound that Jake hadn't really heard from her before.

  "Yup, the best in modern American serving implement technology! I should have gotten her big wooden spoon set too, but I value my hide too much." Not that Lois would hurt her for real, being a pacifist.

  Sara Linster looked at it closely for about ten seconds, then pushed on the decorative end, which had a bit of texturing on it, making it look like a knob that couldn't turn. Pushing it firmly she twisted, which made a very soft beeping sound. A few minutes later there was a voice coming from the middle of the thing.

  "Is something wrong? You don't normally get in touch during the day. Tess?" They all just kind of stared at it. Finally Donald stepped forward, taking it by the bowl end.

  "This is Donald Linster. I just picked this up from a counter here... May I ask who t
his is?"

  "Linster? I didn't know you were with us. Marcus Sieve here. You might want to get in touch later. We're using L band frequencies for this. Can you get in on 304 after nightfall? Don't let them see you do it." The voice sounded pretty casual about the whole thing.

  "On it. Talk then. Someone is coming." Then he quickly twisted the knob on the top again until it clicked.

  Everyone looked at the thing for a while. Finally Jake just shrugged, feeling pretty miserable about the whole thing. He actually had kind of liked Lois. She'd always helped out and gotten her work done after all. Even when everything else was falling apart.

  "Yalla, we're going to need a full team for this. Um," he turned to the Linsters not sure what to expect from them at all. Not going directly against their own people.

  "Can you help with this? I don't know what she might do, or if you can identify her. If I remember correctly she used to look pretty young, before the whole thing happened. Now she looks about sixty-five. Is that something that can be done? Aging like that?"

  Sara looked to be thinking, her head still and face set after almost a full minute she looked at her husband.

  "Yes. She could have artificially aged herself or gone to her normal appearance depending on actual age. We should be able to undo either state if you wish. I'll need some equipment from my lab."

  Cam closed her eyes and held out a single hand, which caused them both to vanish moments after the woman touched it. They were back about ten minutes later, both with loaded arms. It was mainly techno gadgets, but there was one that looked like a ray gun from an old movie and something that seemed to be a satchel made out of canvas. It was just a tan square. It got handed off to Donald, but the gun looking thing stayed with the woman. Hal took part of the other gear, which got Jake to grab a few things himself. Only what he could hold in his left hand though.

  "I need more ammo." He was out after all. That Windigo had caused him to use it almost all up.