by Ike Hamill
He hit the button that had an arrow pointing in a circle and gripped the wheel. Without moving his legs, he imagined using them to propel himself forward. The vehicle jerked forward. One of the guards had split off from Brook and he jerked at the door handle of the vehicle. He pounded on the glass as Jacob accelerated. The man was running to keep up but Jacob was gaining speed. He finally swung the butt of his rifle towards the window. The blow glanced off the glass and the man fell away.
In the mirror, Jacob saw Brook struggling to get away from the one person still guarding her. He cheered her on as she got smaller and smaller in his mirror. He turned forward in time to see another person standing in the middle of the old road. Jacob swerved around the guy, bouncing up over a crumbling curb and then back to the asphalt on the other side.
He took the next turn, wanting to get out of town as quickly as possible. Jacob tried desperately to remember the guard schedule. He didn’t know how far their radios went, and whether they would have orders to shoot him. An idea occurred to him and he took another left. He would double back on his path and leave town the same way that they had come in. Mila and Jack had been guarding that post and they had broken off to follow the vehicle into town.
Jacob was sure that their post would be empty. After a few more turns, he was back on track. He sped towards the edge of town with his knuckles white on the wheel. When he finally cleared the post and reached a stretch of road with no signs of development, he imagined the vehicle slowing down and stopping. Jacob turned in his seat and looked back towards town.
He had to find Harper.
Chapter 14
{Trouble}
THEY PUSHED BROOK THROUGH the door. Her wrists were bound tight behind her back. Isaac was already in the room. He wasn’t even bound—someone was holding him by the arm.
Cleo came in from the door at the back of the room. She was flanked by Penny and Mason.
Brook’s guard spoke up.
“Brook is on your list. Isaac was with her in a vehicle,” the man said.
Cleo tilted her head. “So take them to the jail. What are they doing here?”
“We had to duck inside because a shot was fired. We are taking cover here until it’s safe.”
Cleo walked to the window. She pushed aside the blind and looked down at the street below.
“I didn’t hear a warning go out,” Cleo said.
“No,” the guard said. “We didn’t issue a warning. There were no positive readings to justify it.”
Cleo turned. “And yet, here you are.”
“Yes,” the guard said.
Cleo shook her head and gestured to Penny, her highest-ranking guard in the room.
Penny spoke for Cleo. “Take them to the jail. They will be addressed as soon as possible.”
“Yes,” the guard said. Brook and Isaac were taken from the room.
Cleo took a seat near the window. She looked through the glass and settled back into the chair. Penny stood nearby, waiting for instruction.
“Your division is falling apart,” Cleo said.
“We’re short-staffed since the loss of Carter, Patton, and Henry,” Penny said.
Cleo shook her head. “That’s a lousy excuse. Carter worked for me more than he worked for you, and the problems in your division go back before Henry was killed. In fact, I would say that Henry was killed because of the incompetence of some of your people.”
Penny looked at Mason. The man kept his eyes up, looking at the place where the ceiling met the wall. He knew enough to not look Penny in the eye when she was being dressed-down by their boss.
“Ryan undermined my group,” Penny said. “Luca and Alexandra were constantly…”
“Penny!” Cleo said.
Penny froze.
“Stop with the excuses,” Cleo said. “When I tell you that I’m disappointed with your performance, excuses will not sway my opinion. Do you know what will?”
Penny shook her head.
“Clearly,” Cleo said. She sat up straight and spoke slowly and quietly. “You need to perform. I judge you based on how well your team executes its duties. There were four people out there. Three were on my list. Your team let two of them get away.”
“Logan is…” Penny started.
“Stop!” Cleo ordered. “Are you starting to offer me an excuse?”
Penny had the sense to keep her mouth shut.
“I need you to do what it takes to find the others on my list. I understand that you don’t have a lot of people to work with. You’ll have to be creative with your resources. You’ll have to get the ordinary citizens on your side so that they’ll help you track those people down. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Penny said.
Cleo pushed out of her chair with a grunt. As she moved towards the door, Mason reached to open it for her.
“Thank you,” Cleo said. “I’ll be fine. You go with your boss and help her work this out.”
Cleo exited and left Penny and Mason alone in the room.
“That was rough,” Mason said.
Penny shot him a look. Mason returned to silence.
“We need the citizens to help us,” Penny said. “You saw them at the last meeting—they were ten minutes away from complete rebellion.”
She started pacing.
Mason’s radio clicked. Someone on the west side of town was reporting yells from one of the houses. Mason reached to turn his radio down.
“Wait,” Penny said. “Jump on that. Tell them we’re headed over.”
# # # # #
“You didn’t go in?” Penny asked.
“No,” the kid said. “My mother always said that people need privacy. And Ned sometimes made noises in there. Those noises today didn’t sound right though.”
“What kind of noises?” Penny asked. She looked at the house. It was barely visible through the tall bushes. She wouldn’t have guessed that anyone lived there. Maybe Ned hadn’t lived there long. A lot of people had been moving around lately.
“He liked music. He always said that people in Fairbanks used to go crazy for music. He’s lived in this town for a long time.”
“Thanks,” Penny said. “You go on home now. We’ll check on Ned.”
“Will you let us know?” the kid asked.
“You’ll find out what Ned wants you to find out,” Penny said. “People need privacy.”
The kid twisted his mouth in disappointment and nodded. Things had gotten too safe lately. People were getting bored. Penny had seen it before.
“Come on,” Penny said to Mason. There was no clear path to the house. They waded through tall grass. As they got closer to the front of the place, Mason pointed to the door. Someone had boarded up broken windows in the past. They redirected their approach to go around the side.
Penny led the way.
Mason stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
“What?”
He pointed down. The grass had grown up around a tripwire. Penny spun slowly, taking in the side of Ned’s house and the neighboring building. She didn’t spot any cameras or people watching from windows, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t there.
“Good eye,” she said. She stepped over and studied the ground carefully as she took her next steps.
“Ned?” she called. Her voice sounded strange in the quiet afternoon. They still had an hour or so before sunset. Penny always thought that the time after the horns and before the sunset was the spookiest time. People were transitioning from their outdoor life to their hiding places. The world felt abandoned.
“Ned, if you’ve got some traps here we should know about, now’s the time to tell us,” Penny said to the air.
“I think it’s only a tripwire,” Mason said. “It looks like it’s only attached to poles on either side.”
“Think, Mason,” Penny said. They crept along the side of the house, placing their feet deliberately and casting their eyes around to take everything in. “What do you think it means?”
“It means that he probably wants notice that he has company. He doesn’t necessarily want to hurt us.”
“Then he would put up a motion sensor or a camera, Mason. A tripwire is meant to impede and injure. It has no other value.” She shot him a glance to let him know that the topic was closed. The steps to the back door had been flipped over. The rusted railing had been removed and the posts had been sharpened to spikes. Above that obstacle, the back door was boarded up as well.
“Looks like a basement dweller. Let’s find the entrance.”
Mason found it a few minutes later. He waved Penny over and pointed down at a window that was just above the level of the dirt. It reminded her of a woodchuck’s warren. The ground was worn away from countless entrances and exits. The bottom half of the plywood was shiny with wear. Mason reached out a foot and pushed against the wood. It creaked on weary hinges as it swung inwards.
“Ned?” Penny called into the dark gap between the wood and the frame.
Mason pulled his foot back and the plywood shut with a snap.
“He’s not calling for help,” Mason said. “We have no reason to go in.”
“Don’t quote the regulations to me,” Penny said. “What do you call this?” She knelt down and pointed at the bottom edge of the plywood. There was a reddish streak there. The edges were already drying to brown.
“I don’t know,” Mason said. “Could it be blood?”
“Yes. It could be blood,” she said. “That means we have to go inside to check it out.”
Mason nodded.
“Hold this open for me,” she said.
He had to get close to the ground in order to push the plywood up and out of the way. Penny pulled out a flashlight and shined it through the hole. A stepladder leaning against the wall provided steps down to the floor.
“Hold it,” she said to Mason again as she put her feet through the opening. “I may to have to make a quick exit.”
She disappeared feet-first into the hole. Mason leaned in closer to the doorway in order to see the details that her light found in the basement.
“Come on down,” she said.
Mason nodded. He was careful to never let the plywood slip as he worked his feet around to get them in position. He kept his back to the wall as he worked his way down the steps. As he got near the bottom, he had to let go of the plywood. He joined Penny over near the door. Aside from the hatch where they had just come in, there was only one door to the room.
Penny knelt down. She touched her finger to a spot on the concrete. She rubbed her fingers together in front of her flashlight.
“More blood. This seems pretty fresh.”
“Should we get some more people here to help us search?” Mason asked.
“Who?” Penny asked. “Everyone is on patrol. You want to take people off patrol to help us find a guy who probably cut his leg on a fence and then limped home?”
Mason shook his head.
Penny stood up and turned the door handle.
“Ned?” she called. She pulled the door open.
They both pointed their flashlights into the hall. The basement of the house had been segmented into small rooms. Down the length of the hall, they saw the doorways that led to each of them. Penny went through first. She pointed for Mason to prop the door open with a brick that was on the floor.
“Ned?” she called. She knocked on the next door.
When Mason caught up, he had his light pointed at the floor. “Penny?” he asked to get her attention. When she looked around, he pointed at another streak of blood on the floor. They both stared down and followed the trail.
It ended at a puddle of dark blood in the middle of the hall. On the dark floor, the blood looked like black oil.
They both jumped back at the sound of a drip.
Their lights went up to the hatch in the ceiling. It was soaked through with blood.
Penny gestured and Mason handed over his light. She took a step backwards and pointed both of the lights up. “Open it,” she said.
Mason stood on his toes and pushed his fingers against the hatch. He had to jump to generate enough force. When he did, the hatch flipped up and out of the way. The dripping blood accelerated as the liquid from the top of the panel flowed over the side. Penny circled to stay out of the raining blood and then leaned forward to examine what was hidden behind the hatch.
She saw the end of a ladder there.
“Let’s call this ‘Plan B,’” she said. She handed his light back to him and they moved to the end of the hall to start there.
One by one, they opened the doors and explored the small rooms hidden behind them. They found some appliances, and some supplies, but nothing that suggested a living space. They didn’t find personal items or clothes. They didn’t find a bed.
When their search of the basement level had concluded, they found themselves back at the hatch and the dripping blood.
“He could need our help, right?” Mason asked.
Penny looked up from the puddle. “In my experience, when someone loses that much blood, they no longer need help.”
Mason swallowed and nodded.
She took his light from him again and nodded upwards. “Grab that ladder. It looks like it pulls down.”
Mason had to jump a couple of times. It was an awkward motion to leap for the ladder and not come down in the puddle of blood. Eventually, he managed the feat. Penny was right, he dragged down the spring-loaded ladder until it clicked into place.
“My father’s house had one of these,” Penny said. “People used to think that the Hunters couldn’t go up a retractable ladder.”
“Yeah?”
“My father thought that until the day they took him.”
Mason let out a slow breath.
She handed one light back to Mason and kept the other in her hand as she tested her weight on the ladder. When she was satisfied, she started climbing.
“Don’t follow me up until I say so,” she said.
# # # # #
Penny climbed. When she was growing up, her neighbor had been crazy. The old man had moved in a few houses down and started his crazy modifications. They would see him, patrolling the second floor of his place, moving from window to window. He had installed a zip-line from one of the windows to the porch across the street.
Penny begged her mother to let her go play on the zip-line, but her mom would always say the same thing, “It’s for escaping, not for playing.”
One time, when the man had invited them offer for coffee, Penny had seen the inside of the place. The first floor was blocked off so that the front door led directly to the stairs. The walls were tight and the false ceiling above had a trapdoor so the man could attack any intruders. Penny had loved that place. Her mom had made a quick excuse and got them out of there.
As she climbed the ladder, Penny wondered if the owner of this place was cautious or crazy.
The vertical shaft ran the full height of the house’s first floor. Like her crazy neighbor, this person didn’t believe in first floors. They believed in elevation, and attacking from above.
A drop of liquid hit Penny’s head. She almost fell from the ladder. She paused, touched her finger to the wet spot and then looked at her red fingers. It was blood. She should have guessed.
At the top of the ladder, she found another trapdoor. She looped her arm around a rung, transferred the flashlight to her other hand, and knocked on the wet wood.
“Ned? Are you up there? We’re coming up.”
She knew there wouldn’t be an answer. The blood was the man’s only way of speaking now.
She pushed. The door was weighted down with something.
Penny moved up a rung to get better leverage. She had to press her back against the wall of the shaft and tuck her light into her pocket, but she was able to finally push the door up.
She stopped to pull out her light again. Her hands were sticky with blood. Above, she saw a streak of blood flung against the white angles of the ceiling.
<
br /> “Come on up,” she called down.
Penny pressed herself up until she was sitting on the wet floor. She took in the room with wide eyes as Mason noisily climbed up from below. By the time he joined her, Penny had slid away from the trapdoor and sat with her back to the wall.
“Oh my god,” Mason said. He was still standing on the ladder as he swung his light around. “What happened?”
Penny saw a switch over near a battery array. She reached and flipped it. The place was lit up with strings of tiny lights. Penny kept her flashlight on. It helped her feel in control of what she was looking at. With her light, she pointed at the remains of Ned.
“Someone butchered him with a sharp knife,” Penny said. “They took organs and some of the major muscles. Looks like they pulled the brains through the sinuses.”
Mason covered his mouth and nose with his arm. The smell wasn’t precisely objectionable. It didn’t smell worse than a butchered bear, but in the tight space it was a little overwhelming.
“Why?” Mason asked.
Penny shook her head. “I don’t know.”
The bulk of Ned was in the center of the room. His body had been leaned against the hatch, perhaps to weigh it down as the door to the shaft was eased closed.
“Look around,” Penny said. “Let’s see if we can find any indication of who did this, or why they wanted to.”
Mason nodded, but kept his eyes locked on the corpse. One of Ned’s eyes was closed, the other was open, but dislodged. Penny guessed that it had been popped out when the man’s brains were removed. His jaw had been cut off and there was a dark hole instead of a mouth. Ned’s clothes were cut away and the rest of him had been dissected for parts. It was hard to look away, but Penny forced herself.
