“What do you mean?” Maureen said scrunching up her nose.
Oh, dear Lord, she really was crazy.
Nick chuckled nervously. “You said we were free to go. Don’t you remember that?”
“Yeah, you were, but then you came back.” Maureen smiled. “And we’re so glad you did.”
Were they all crazy? Why were they letting her get away with this nonsense? Clearly, they knew she hadn’t let us go.
“For now, you guys can just relax, but when you’re feeling up to it, we’re going through the houses and bringing everything to our base,” Maureen said. “I know you’re tired from your travels.”
A couple of men walked out of the market smiling at one another as they walked toward the group. The grins fell off of their faces when they spotted us.
“What’s going on, Maureen?” one of the men asked as they approached. They both looked us up and down before turning their attention back to Maureen.
“We found some folks who’d like to join us,” she said.
“You remember what I told you about collecting strangers without me, right?” the man asked. “Maureen, you should have told me right away.”
Maureen looked down. Suddenly she looked like a frightened child. “Sorry, I forgot.”
“It’s okay,” he said walking over to her and placing his hand on her shoulder. He looked at us one by one. “Are you all okay?”
“Yes,” Nick said. “We’re fine, but none of this is necessary. We aren’t going to hurt anyone. We just want to be on our way.”
“I see,” the man said. “But we can’t let you do that.”
Nick shook his head. “Why not?”
“Because you’ve seen us. You’ve seen our base,” the man said. “There is no way we can trust you won’t tell them where we’re hiding and we don’t want things to get worse. No more clouds and rain.”
“Tell who where you’re hiding?” Nick asked.
The man narrowed his eyes. “The people doing this. For all we know, you’re working with them.”
“We’re not working with them,” Nick replied.
“Well we don’t know that, do we?” the man said. “As far as I see it you have two options available. You can work with us, or you can suffer the consequences.”
“You don’t want to ask about the consequences,” the man standing next to him said.
It was then that I noticed the two men were both wearing the same jacket. There was a patch that showed their names on the front… White and the other was Ripley. The round patch on their arm made sweat bead up on the back of my neck.
The two men were apparently guards… or nurses… or whatever they did at the Glendale Mental Institution for the Criminally Insane. Maureen and the rest of them really were out of their minds and not only that, but they were dangerous too.
Most of the others were wearing the same tan pants. It was like their uniform, and even though the stores and homes likely had other clothing they could have changed into, most of them apparently decided to stay in the clothing they were used to wearing.
The man, White, followed my eyes to the patch on his arm. He grinned as his eyes raised and met mine.
“That’s right,” White said clicking his tongue as he walked closer to us. “And you don’t even want to know what got them locked up in there. They are lost souls now, and they’ll do anything we tell them,” White said leaning toward my ear. “Anything.”
“And since we don’t trust you, they don’t trust you,” Ripley said.
“I don’t get it,” I said shaking my head. “If you don’t trust us, why do you want to keep us here?”
Ripley raised a brow. “I can see you here. Out there I have no idea what you’re telling them. We’re safe here, and we’d like to keep it that way.”
“Didn’t anyone else in this town survive?” I asked.
White shook his head. “A few, but they didn’t like our terms.”
“Where are they now?” Molly asked biting her lip. She looked as though she didn’t want to hear the answer.
Ripley pointed a long finger toward the edge of town. For a second, I thought maybe they had let them go, but then I noticed the rows of headstones between the leave-less trees.
“So, what’s it going to be?” White asked.
It took less than a second for Nick to respond.
“What can we do to help?” Nick asked flashing him a nervous smile.
“We’ll figure that out soon,” Ripley said crossing his arms.
White was nodding along. “For now, just take it easy. Enjoy the break.”
There was no way we were going to be able to take it easy. We were tied together and trapped with insane people who did things I didn’t want to know about. Things of nightmares. Things you’d turn off the news for because it would ruin your day.
The only thing we had going for us was that they hadn’t checked us for weapons. Nick still had his gun, but with all the armed crazy people around us, there wasn’t much he could do about it. At least not yet.
They led us into one of the nearby homes forcing us to walk in a straight line. We were taken into a nice furnished basement.
“Someone will bring you food,” White said. “Need anything before we go?”
“A bathroom,” Molly said her forehead wrinkling.
White pointed to a small room. “In there.”
“Are you going to untie us?” Molly asked.
Ripley grinned as he shook his head. “You’ll figure it out.”
I think the shade of pink that filled my cheeks matched Molly’s. If there was one thing I liked to have my privacy about, it was using the bathroom.
“We’ll keep you posted,” White said before they left us alone in the cold basement.
Nick instantly starting trying to untie himself. His fingers shaking as he worked to undo the knots.
“God dammit,” Nick said as he started to walk around the room. The rope first pulled Molly, then Bronx, then me along. “There has to be something down here we can use to cut this rope.”
We followed him around the room, but there wasn’t anything around except for the furniture. They’d cleaned the basement, and made sure there wasn’t anything that anyone could use as a knife, at least nothing that we’d been able to find.
The floorboards overhead started to creak. My eyes followed the sounds as they moved through the house, pausing at the door at the top of the stairs.
Moments later, the door opened, and a wide woman made her way down the stairs. She was carrying a tray stacked with food and water bottles.
“Mr. White said to bring this down for you,” the woman said. “Is there anything else I can get for you all?”
“Maybe,” Nick said. “How long have you been here with these people?”
“Oh,” the woman tapped her chin, “I’ve been working at the Institution since I was twenty-four so what’s that? Thirty-one years? I’m terrible at math, but it’s been most of my life.”
Nick frowned.
“You’ll all be fine here,” the woman said. “They just don’t trust you. I can tell you’re good people.”
“Yeah, we are,” Molly said crossing her arms. “But are they?”
“Some of them are, yes,” the woman said, all touches of happiness disappearing from her face. “Others have had a hard life. Anyway,” she forced a smile back on her face, “it’s better here than out there. We’ve got everything you could need.”
The woman started to walk back toward the stairs. She turned and placed her foot on the first step. “I’ll be back, but I’m not sure when. Are you sure I can’t get you anything? Blankets? Pillows?”
“Yes,” Molly said. “Some blankets and pillows would be great.”
The woman nodded and went up the stairs. I could hear her moving around. It was only a few minutes before she was making her way back down with so much bundled in her arms that she couldn’t see the stairs in front of her.
As far as we could tell she was alone. If we could overta
ke her, which wouldn’t be difficult, maybe we could fight our way out of this place.
“Here you are,” she said setting the blankets and pillows down at the bottom of the stairs. She looked at us with a smile on her face but seriousness in her eyes. “Just follow the rules, and you’ll be fine. Good night.”
“Night,” Nick said. The second she was gone he turned to face me. “I have no idea how we’re going to get out of here.”
“Wasn’t she alone?” I asked.
Nick shook his head. “No, there was a guard at the top of the stairs. This isn’t good. This isn’t good at all.”
Twenty-Five
In the morning, Maureen brought us down another tray. It was eggs and breakfast pastries, and it smelled delicious.
“Eggs?” I asked looking at Maureen.
“I know! We have some chickens. While they lay, we eat fresh eggs.” Maureen grinned. “We’re so lucky. I knew you guys would like it here.”
“Are they safe to eat?” I asked glancing at Bronx. I could still remember how sick I’d gotten from eating the wolf.
Maureen squinted at me. “Why wouldn’t they be? What are you suggesting exactly?”
“Nothing,” I said shaking my head. “I thought the animals got sick too is all.”
“Some did, I guess, but the eggs are fine. I eat them whenever they’re available, and I haven’t gotten sick yet,” Maureen said grabbing a plate off of the tray and walking it over to me. “Try them.”
My stomach felt as though it had a ten-pound weight in it. I didn’t want to try the eggs, and I was afraid of what might happen to me if I refuse.
I glanced at Bronx and picked up a fork with a shaking hand. I stabbed the smallest crumble of fluffy, yellow scrambled eggs I saw and let it touch my tongue. They were salted and still warm. They tasted like normal eggs, but the wolf had probably tasted like a normal wolf too.
“They’re good,” I said.
“Miss Lecky made them. She cooks everything. You met her yesterday, right?” Maureen asked.
“Maybe,” Nick shrugged. “Did she bring us our dinner?”
“That was her. Lovely woman.” It was obvious Maureen adored the woman. “She cooked for us for as long as I can remember. The things she’s doing now with what’s left is amazing.”
I raised a brow. “Like making eggs.”
“Exactly,” Maureen said pointing at me. “Anyway, Mr. White is still trying to figure out what we’re going to do with all of you. We’ve never had four guests before. We’ll probably just train you one at a time or something.”
Maureen snapped her mouth shut and then covered it with her hand. Her eyes were wide as she looked up the stairs.
“I wasn’t supposed to say that,” Maureen said with a frown. Her eyes became glassy. “I am honestly the worst. Anyway, I gotta go.”
She practically ran out of the room. After she was gone, Nick pounded his fist into the wall.
“They’re never alone,” Nick said shaking his head at Bronx.
“We got time, man,” Bronx said. “We’ll figure it out. They’re feeding us, and we have a roof over our head. Things could be worse, right? We just have to wait for the right time.”
Nick hasn’t ever been known to be a man with patience, but Bronx was right. We had the time to figure it out and plan our move.
There was a small window above the old washer and dryer that I liked to peek out of from time to time. I had a decent view of the middle of the town.
“Think we could fit out of this window?” I asked.
Nick shook his head. “Maybe Molly could, but they’d hear the glass break, not to mention they’d see us crawling out of it.”
“Maybe, but they come and go pretty frequently. If we timed it perfectly, it could work,” I said.
“Except for the fact that Bronx and I definitely won’t be able to squeeze out of it,” Nick said.
It was frustrating that while there was slack between us, there wasn’t that much. If I wanted to look out of the window, everyone had to be standing, and if anyone had to use the bathroom, we all had to stand outside the door until they were finished.
We’d actually gotten pretty good at coordinating our movements, but occasionally my waist would get pulled in another direction than I’d been planning to go. Bronx was always there to steady me if needed.
Nick and Molly were sitting on the sofa trying to come up with a plan when Bronx wrapped his hand around the rope and yanked me toward him. He smiled at me as I smacked into his chest.
“I could get used to this,” Bronx whispered into my ear before placing a soft kiss on the side of my neck.
He was sitting on the armrest of the sofa with his back to Nick and Molly.
“I’d rather be this close to you without the rope. And without the audience,” I whispered.
“One day,” he said as if it were a promise.
The door opened upstairs, and this time I could definitely tell it was more than one person. It sounded like the whole group trying to make their way through the house.
“Let’s go, Stephens,” White said.
Ripley and White were pulling someone down the stairs with them as they slowly descended. It was like they would take two steps down, and then one step back as the person behind them struggled to break free.
“Stop it!” Ripley shouted as he threw the back of his hand across the man’s face.
Maureen was at the top of the stairs with an armed guard standing at her side. They didn’t look at me staring at them, they were watching White and Ripley as they pulled the man down.
The second they were off the steps, they simultaneously threw the man they called Stephens onto the ground. He rolled twice before his body came to a stop.
“Don’t leave me,” Stephens begged. His eyes were wide with large dilated pupils. “I hate it down here. It’s haunted! It’s haunted!”
“It’s not haunted,” White said, kicking his foot at Stephen’s grabbing hands. “We’ll be back for you when you’ve calmed down.”
“You never come back for me,” Stephens said. “You leave me for days! Weeks!”
White took a step back, and the man lowered his face into his hands and started sobbing.
“Sorry about this,” White said rubbing his palm on the top of his head. “He won’t be too much of a problem once he falls asleep.”
“What’s wrong with him?” Molly asked moving closer to Nick.
White leaned closer and kept his voice low. “He hears voices. He’s been medicated. Take a few hours to kick in.”
“Our apologies,” Ripley said with a salute.
If it hadn’t been for Nick’s gun, I would have been more worried about being locked up with the crazed stranger. The man looked up at us and scooted himself back against the wall. He brought his fingers to his lips and started mumbling incoherently.
White and Ripley left the basement without another word. They closed the top door and locked it, checking it several times before making their way back through the house.
Our new roommate peeked at us through his fingers. He seemed more frightened of us than we were of him. Of course, we had a gun, and he didn’t, but it wasn’t like he knew that.
He continuously mumbled to himself. Every so often he’d flap his hand into the air as if he was swatting a fly.
Molly was practically inside of Nick she was standing so close. The guns hadn’t seemed to make her all that nervous, but the crazy guy on our floor did.
It wasn’t long before Stephens fell asleep curled up in the fetal position on the floor. Whatever they’d given him had knocked him out.
It wasn’t like we were going to give up taking watches just because we were locked in a basement. We were going to take turns regardless of whether or not the crazy man was locked up with us.
There were still a few hours of daylight left, but I couldn’t help but feel like we’d been locked up and forgotten. They didn’t know what to do with us, and maybe they were a little afraid of us
.
One good thing was that they hadn’t been smart enough to check us for weapons because Nick having his gun made us all a touch safer.
It was sometime after they’d brought us dinner, I heard a strange noise. I crawled up on top of the wash machine to look outside of the grimy window.
Molly glanced at Stephens who was still asleep. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure…,” I said letting my voice trail off. The noise was getting louder. It was like an audience all doing a slow clap completely out of rhythm.
When the large animals came into view, the noises made sense. I placed my hand on the glass as if that would help me have a better view, but it didn’t, and I didn’t really need one. I already knew I was looking at horses.
“Well?” Nick asked.
I looked down at them shaking my head. “Horses. Pulling a wagon.”
Twenty-Six
The men riding the horses climbed down and shook hands with White and Ripley. They took a tarp off of the wagon revealing that it was mostly empty. It isn’t long before the people in tan pants started to bring stuff over to the wagon.
“What’s going on out there?” Bronx asked.
“Let me take a look,” Molly said.
I ignored her. “They’re filling a wagon with supplies.”
“Now why on earth would they do that?” Nick pondered out loud.
“They’re on our side,” the guy in the corner said groggily as he rubbed his eyes.
“That’s not really all that helpful,” Nick said staring at Stephens.
The man held up his hands and waved them lazily. “Don’t worry about me. I can tell by the look in your eye you’re ready to jump me. After what they gave me, I’m too weak to fight back. Not to mention I have no desire to fight.”
“So, what’s up with the horses?” Nick asked.
“They’re our guys. They go out with supplies and come back with trades,” Stephens said.
“What kind of trades?” Nick asked.
The man flashed him a smile that didn’t match his droopy eyelids. “They give supplies for pharmaceuticals. The institution had a lot, and the pharmacies in town did too, but White is stockpiling it as if it’s going to be currency one day.”
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