Blink of an Eye: Beginnings Series Book 8

by Jacqueline Druga

  “Oh my God. El ... you look ... you look so ... so ... female.”

  Ellen rolled her eyes. “Gee, Frank, thanks.” She moved to the counter’s side and stood there leaning.

  “Henry, this is ... Dean, do you ... never mind.” Frank laughed once loud. “Dean, you are missing this.”

  Ellen spun her head to face him. “Frank! Will you quit gawking?”

  “I can’t help it, El. When’s the last time you dressed like a woman? Man.” He shook his head. “You know, I was starting to think I was walking around in a nightmare or something. Everywhere I went, where there was a woman, I was hearing that clicking sound. Getting on my fuckin nerves like it was Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Only instead of aliens the shoes were transforming the women into prisses today.” Frank shuddered. “But ...” His hand motioned out. “There is something to be said about those shoes if they make Ellen get dressed up.”

  “I’ll have you know, Frank,” Ellen spoke snippy. “I did it for Dean, not you.”

  Frank laughed. “El, he can’t see you to appreciate it.”

  “Asshole.” Ellen folded her arms. “Why are you here, Frank?”

  “Oh.” Frank reached into his back pocket. “I brought your jeep and ...” He unrolled the paper and slammed it down in front of Dean. “I need you to sign this, Dean.”

  Dean tossed his hands up in disbelief. “Sign what, Frank?”

  Frank snickered. “Sorry, you can’t see it.” He nudged Henry. “El, you sign this req. You’re the queen of forgery.” His extended paper was snatched from his hand. “Easy, El.”

  Dean covered his face. “And he says he wants to help me.”

  Frank snapped his finger. “Speaking of which.” He spun to Dean with a squeak of his boot. “El is at Containment at two today. What are you doing between two and four?”

  “Um ... I am at the mobile probably trying to figure out how I’m getting back. I’ll be keying in dictation.”

  “OK, then Henry will pick you up at four and you’ll go to the house. He’ll stay there with you until I get there. I will be no later than five and we’ll start. El should be home by ... what, seven?”

  “Uh ...” Ellen looked up from signing the requisition. “I guess, unless something happens.” She shrugged.

  “Good,” Frank continued. “We’ll start as soon as I get there, Dean.”

  “Start what?” Dean asked. “Frank, I’m not one of your guys you set up for training.”

  “Now you are and ... Henry, help him pack.”

  “Got it, Frank,” Henry said.

  “Pack?” Dean questioned. “Pack what?”

  “Dean,” Frank spoke sharply, “because you can’t see, I’m telling you the look on my face says I’m annoyed with you. We have to get you fully functional, which means you have to be worked with day and night. This also means Henry and I will be around you at night and El has you during the day. You want to be around the kids but you can’t take care of them yet. Three or four days, yeah. Until then, I have the bigger house. Guess what, Dean?”

  “No.” Dean shook his head.

  “Yeah.” Frank laughed. “Think of it as one big fuckin slumber party so don’t forget your pajamas.”

  Dean closed his eyes. “There is something demented about you.”

  “Me? Well, let me tell you something, Dean.” Frank leaned in closer to him. “Between this demented person and Henry, one week and I guarantee you’ll be glad we got a hold of ...” Frank’s head snapped up. “Hold on.” He grabbed hold of his headset microphone and adjusted. “Yeah, go on.” He stepped back.

  Ellen saw the lost look on Dean’s face as if he was trying to decode what Frank was trying to say to him. She whispered in his ear, “Frank is on his radio.” She gave him a tap to his back.

  Dean wouldn’t have to wait long to find out had Ellen not told him. Frank’s sudden ‘Exorcist’ turn in demeanor told him it all.

  “Fuck! When? Fuck. Where? Fuck! All right. Get a hold of Robbie have him head to the hangar. Get Team Three suited up. I’m on my way to Armory. I’m heading up and then we’ll head on out. Fuck.” Frank pulled his headset off and looked at the silent faces in the room. “I have to go.”

  Henry stood up. “Frank, what’s wrong?”

  “We got a signal coming in. Radio transmission slash phone. I don’t know but it’s coming from the west, not far from here and close to where Cole is. He only has three men with him and not one is Security. I’m heading out.” Frank charged from the room.

  Ellen’s head jolted from Henry to Dean. She too ran from the lab chasing Frank. “Frank!” She followed him through the glass doors.

  Frank stopped in his run and turned around with oddity at Ellen’s call to him. “El, what is it? I have to go.”

  “What are you doing, Frank?” Ellen asked as she ran up to him.

  “You heard me, El, I have to go.”

  “You said you’re going out there.”

  “Yeah, that’s my job.” He backed up.

  “No, Frank. It isn’t.”

  “El ... I have to go.”

  “Frank, no.” Ellen chased him and then she saw Joe. “Joe, tell him,” she spoke as she followed as fast as she could behind them.

  “Tell him what?” Joe asked

  “Tell Frank it’s his job to protect the community. It is Robbie’s job to go out there unless Frank has no other choice. Tell him, Joe.”

  Frank was past perturbed at that point when he rounded the buildings to Armory. “El, enough.”

  “Don’t go.” Ellen grabbed hold of his arm. “Please don’t go out there. Robbie can handle it.”

  Fumbling with his keys in a complete confusion spin on what was wrong with Ellen, Frank handed the keys to his father and faced her. “El, why are you being like this?”

  “Because I don’t want you to go out there.” There was a deep raspiness to Ellen’s voice as if it came from her soul. She looked up to Frank, her hand clinging to his arm.

  Frank blew out slowly and yelled into Armory at his father who already was in there. “Pull out for a basic drop-in. I’ll be right in to help.” He took hold of Ellen’s arm and led her aside from the door. “El, come on, sweetie.”

  “Frank.” Ellen closed her eyes. “I don’t care how dangerous you think it is or isn’t, right now, to me, any chance you take with your life is a chance too big. You are the strongest thing in my life, Frank. Don’t go. For once stay here.”

  “El,” he emotionally said her name. “I’ll be fine.”

  “I don’t care!” Ellen screamed. Then she brought her voice back down, “Not now. I can’t take any chances of anything happening to you. Not now. Please.” She closed her eyes tighter, her voice dropping with each word, “Please. Please.”

  He didn’t understand. Running his hand slowly down his face, Frank watched Ellen. How scared she looked. How so much in her life had to be getting to her, for her to be so emotional about him going. “OK.” No sooner did he say that, Ellen’s arms were tightly wrapped around his neck.

  “Thank you.” She buried her face at the base of his neck. “Thank you.”

  “I still have to move.” He set her down. “And I will be on standby if Robbie radios in that it’s not good. OK?” He watched her nod and he heard his father call for him. “I have to go.” He backed up. “We will talk later about this.” He pointed as he went into Armory. “We will.”

  Ellen knew as he walked away from her and as she headed back to the clinic that Frank hadn’t a clue on why she felt the way she did. That was fine with her, all that mattered was he didn’t go. If Frank took a look at all that had been happening with the men around her, first Henry almost dying, then Robbie, then Dean’s blindness, he would see why she feared so much for him, and why she worried. Maybe if he saw it, he wouldn’t have pointed that finger at her.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  His dark Asian eyes peered over the scope of the rifle. Since his black baseball cap was worn backwards to keep his coal-black hai
r out of his eyes, his eyes were the only visible portion of him on that rooftop. On one knee he perched his tall body, a body that was thin yet defined. A body, hair that came just past his collar, and a handsome face that hid his age, to Danny Hoi that had always been just fine. His forefinger rested on the trigger, so ready to shoot, watching the street below and the four men who had just arrived. He raised his free hand, lifted his cap, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and replaced it. “What are they doing?” he asked the man next to him. “Bentley?”

  “Walking?” Bentley answered. He too was in the same stance as Danny, but not having as easy of a time. His body was much rounder, yet solid. One thing about Bentley that made him look so much more different than any other Survivor who wandered about was his hair, dark, almost black, and clipped short in a man’s clipper cut. He crinkled his nose, causing his glasses to slide slightly across his sweaty nose. “Uh I uh don’t know, Danny.” Bentley shook his head and spoke with a nervous voice, “You’re wrong.”

  “No way. I’m telling you. Bent, it’s them. It has to be. Why else would we get the ...”

  “Error maybe. You’re wrong.” Bentley lowered his weapon.

  “What are you doing?” Danny asked, shifting his eyes back from Bentley to the men afoot.

  “Danny. Look. Look at the way they are dressed.”

  “So. They’re wearing military.”

  “Not typical. And there’s an old guy out there. And ... and mind you. He just went into a tuxedo shop.”

  “Huh?” Danny looked down below. “Shit.” He pulled back some but did not lower his rifle. “What the hell is going on?”

  “Cole. Cole, come in.” Joe walked into the hangar, radio in hand. “Cole, damn it. Come in!” He released the button. “Where the hell is he for crying out loud?” he asked Frank, who loaded up the chopper.

  “He’s not in trouble or he would have radioed at the first sign.”

  “What if he didn’t have time?”

  “There’s always time.” Frank looked up to see Robbie, suited up and ready. “Let’s go, Robbie. Dad, try him again.”

  Joe placed the radio back to his mouth. “Cole. Cole, come in.”

  Cole heard the static and the call. He was laughing when he heard it, talking to his two men about maybe bringing home blue tuxedos just to get the woman roused up. Then he thought about it and remembered they were women. The odds of them making their life a miserable hell until they went back out and got the correct tuxes were good. “Hold on.” He took that after-laugh breath, rubbed his eyes, tossed his rifle over his shoulder, and walked to the jeep to get the radio. Still laughing, he picked it up. “Yeah, Joe.”

  “Cole, are you all right? Any trouble?”

  “No, Joe. Why what’s up?” Cole asked.

  “We have news.”

  “Bentley.” Danny nudged him with excitement. “Pick up your weapon. Pick it up.”

  “Oh shit.” Bentley nervously fiddled with his rifle.

  Danny positioned himself better on that roof, leaning more into the ledge. “Ha-ha. I got you this time you son of a bitch. Time to tally up the card.” With his words and a bright smile, Danny began to fire down to below.

  Horror shot through Joe with a feeling of being too late when he heard the gunfire through the airwaves, then silence. “Shit. Move it out!” He hurried Robbie into the helicopter and just as Robbie and the last of the team stepped in, Joe got another call on the radio.

  “Joe ...” Static. “Joe.” It was Cole.

  Relief, a released breath. Joe picked up the radio. “Cole, what’s going on?”

  “We’re OK.” Cole closed his eyes for a second to the quiet around him. He picked himself off of the ground. “We uh ...” He shifted his eyes around, checking on his men. “We’re all fine.” Just as Cole bent down to pick up his weapon, he saw them lying not fifteen feet away. “Joe, we have three dead SUTs.”

  “Dead?” Joe asked. “Any more trouble?”

  “None that I can see. Let me get back to you.”

  “Do that. I’m still sending Robbie and another man out with you to at least to escort you back in case there’s any more trouble. We’ll be there in twenty.”

  “Thanks, Joe.”

  Joe hooked his radio to his belt. “Frank, you heard.”

  “Yeah, I did. Robbie and Dan.”

  “Sounds good.” Joe motioned his hand to the other two men waiting to go out. He sent them on their way. “Good quick action on Cole and his men. Don’t you think?”

  “Too quick.” Frank shook his head. “Maybe we should send all four out. Yeah, I think we will.”

  Robbie heard this as he stepped from the chopper. “Frank, you don’t need to.”

  “Why?” Frank asked.

  “I’ve been out there. They travel in groups of eight to ten. If there are any more there are only seven of them. We hit them with the gas first, then take out the remaining who aren’t affected by it.”

  “I don’t know, Robbie. Just to be safe, let’s send a whole team out.”

  “Frank, come on. I can take them out alone,” Robbie said with arrogance. “Ye of little faith, bro. Let me have some fun.”

  Frank breathed heavily out, looked at his father and then back to Robbie. “All right, you and Dan. But you canvass the area before you drop out and stay with them. And ... and you don’t help them scrap, you stay ready, find a rooftop or something. Got that?”

  Robbie rolled his eyes. “Yeah, Frank, whatever, I’m not a pup in this, you know.”

  “Sorry. I know. All right.” Frank waved his hand. “Move it out.”

  <><><><>

  Congratulations were in order or at least that’s what Cole thought. Congratulations to whichever one of his men had the quick insight and quick thinking to take out the SUTs so close to them. He approached his two men who stood stunned, passing Gene who took a seat in the jeep to catch his breath after the excitement. “You all right, Gene.”

  Gene placed his hand on his chest. “Will be. Give me a second.” He snatched Cole back as he walked by him. “Cole, is it safe to go back into the tux shop?”

  “Um ... give us a few minutes to check out the area. Hang tight.” He moved to his men. “Good job. Who did it?”

  “Did what?” Mark asked.

  “Shot the ...” Cheering caught Cole’s attention. Cheering and laughing, and he spun his head to see the two men moving quickly down the street. Hurriedly Cole raised his rifle at the tall, thin man and the shorter, heavier man. “Hold it.”

  Danny scoffed as he carried his dangling weapon. “Put it down. We aren’t the bad guys here. We just saved your life.” He ran past Cole to the SUTs that were lying there. Danny, using his boot, lifted the pant leg of his baggy Levis—so as not to get blood on them—and he rolled the SUT from its stomach over to its back. “There, Bentley, I told you.” Taking the barrel of the rifle, Danny nudged the SUT. “Check the other two.” He ran the barrel down the arm of the dead SUT and found the patch, pointing it out to Bentley. “There. Look. CS. I was right. Bent?”

  “Dead.” Bentley sniffed and tossed his rifle over his shoulder.

  Danny laughed loudly. “Was I right? Was I? Who’s the man? Who is the man?”

  Bentley rolled his eyes. “You are, Danny.”

  “What I tell you? I told you it wouldn’t fail. I told you. No, you had to insist it was going off for no reason. It’s perfected, Bentley. Perfected why would it ...”

  “Excuse me?” Cole made an apprehensive approach to the two. “You shot them?”

  Danny faced Cole with a grin. “Yeah. We did. We saw them from the roof. Good thing for you we were up there or you wouldn’t be standing here. Man, they are sneaky.” Danny looked back down at the SUT.

  “Let me ask you a question?” Cole slowly reached for his weapon. “How do I know you aren’t one of them?”

  A snicker, a snort, and both Danny and Bentley laughed. Danny held up his hand as if Cole had just told the funniest of jokes. “Look at us. Lo
ok at me.” He leaned in some to Cole. “I’m wearing jeans. My pal here is wearing jeans. Those things ...” Danny’s voice dropped to a whisper, “They’re wearing uniforms. The number one reason you should know I’m not one of them is the same reason I know you’re not one of them.”

  “Which is?” Cole asked.

  “You talk. I talk. They don’t. Well ... they do, but they don’t, do they, Bentley?”

  “Some do,” Bentley answered. “But never in whole sentences and never with reason.”

  “Not true.” Danny held up his finger. “Remember the one?”

  “Oh yeah.” Bentley nodded. “Though you have to admit he reasoned, but not about anything we quizzed him on.”

  “He knew why we had to shoot him.”

  “Oh sure, definitely.”

  Cole’s head spun. “Who ... who are you two?”

  Danny adjusted his rifle over his arm. “Oh hey, sorry.” He extended his hand with a firm shake to Cole and spoke rapidly which was something he did often. “Danny, Danny Hoi. Excuse the hair. And this is George Bentley. I call him Bentley or Bent for short. You?”

  “Cole St. John.” Cole retracted his hand in shock after the handshake at the rambling pair.

  “No way?” Danny snickered. “Is that really your name?”

  “Yeah.”

  “No way?” He laughed again. “It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie. You gave it to yourself, didn’t you?”

  “No,” Cole told him.

  “It’s OK, you can tell us. Changed your name because you figured everyone was dead and who would know anyhow.”

  “No!” Cole got defensive.

  “Your mother really named you Cole St. John? I guess it’s better than John St. John.” Danny shrugged. “So are you guys looking for that place?”

  “What place?” Cole asked.

  “You know, that place everyone says exists but only those who have gotten thrown out know it exists.” Danny looked at him, waiting for a reply.

  Cole was confused. “What are you talking about?”

  Bentley saw the lost look. “Here let me explain. Sometimes my friend gets a little excited. He’s eccentric. We’re looking for a place we heard is in Montana. We ran into some men a while ago, a long while, and they told us about it. One of them said they couldn’t get in and the other said he had gotten tossed out years ago. It’s supposed to be a city?” Bentley titled his head. “Have you heard of it?”