Vanished

by Eden Darry

  Loveday heard them first. Voices. They’d made their way carefully towards the superstore in case the thing that hurt Ellery was still here. They were crouched behind a car near the entrance to the car park.

  “Do you hear that?” she whispered.

  “Yeah. Voices.”

  “How far away?”

  Ellery shrugged beside her. “Hard to tell. Sounds are carrying a lot better now the other noises have stopped.”

  That hadn’t occurred to Loveday until now. No drone of cars or planes, no voices. Except for the birds who seemed to be doing all right for themselves.

  “What should we do? Wait here? Leave?”

  “Let’s see who it is first. We should get on the other side of the car so they can’t see us. We can peer round the sides.”

  Loveday nodded, and they scooted behind the car to face the road.

  After what seemed like forever, but was probably only a few minutes, a man came walking into the car park with a young woman attached to a thin rope. He held the other end in his hand.

  What the fuck?

  Loveday looked at Ellery who seemed just as horrified as she was. Ellery held out her hand in a just wait gesture.

  Loveday looked to the road again. The man wasn’t old, maybe in his forties, but he didn’t look particularly in shape. Could the two of them take him?

  Every so often he tugged on the rope, causing the young woman to stumble and cough. Her hands were tied behind her back. Loveday wanted to kill him. When she looked at Ellery, she was sure she was thinking the same thing.

  She was also sure that this was Dani. What the bloody hell were they going to do?

  * * *

  Terry needed a nap. He’d been lugging their shit for ages, and he wanted a beer and a little sleep. He’d brought some more guide ropes so he could tie up her feet. Not much she could do trussed up like a turkey.

  The supermarket might be good place to have his nap. He could shut her in the toilets and lie down in front of them. That way, if she somehow managed to get free, she’d still have to get past him in the doorway.

  “Come on, good girl.” The rope tugging was starting to get boring, so he didn’t bother doing it this time.

  “Are we going in there?” she asked. Her voice sounded scratchy. Maybe he’d been pulling a bit too much.

  “Talk about stating the bloody obvious. What do you think?”

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “I don’t give a shit what you think, love. It’s where we’re going. Come on. I need a nap and some clean clothes.”

  “We still have a few hours of daylight left. We could walk some more.”

  Annoyed at being questioned, Terry pulled hard on the rope again. She stumbled but didn’t fall.

  “Shut up. I didn’t ask for your opinion. This isn’t a committee. We’re going inside.”

  He tried to pull her forward, but she dug her heels in. What was she playing at?

  “No.”

  “No? What do you mean no?”

  “I’m not going in there.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t think it’d be very good for me.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about? I’ve got the rope, remember? You’ll go where I tell you to, young lady.”

  “Mr. Pratt.”

  Okay, now he was pissed off. It wasn’t the black mood, not really. He was tired and hungry but it wasn’t the black mood. It could be, though, if she kept pushing.

  “I’m going to say this once—”

  “Let her go.”

  Terry spun around to face the new voice. Dani was pulled round with him.

  “Who the fuck are you?” he asked. It was two women. One of them was pretty tasty. The other one was clearly a dyke. Dani would be in good company.

  “None of your business. Let her go,” said the dykey looking one.

  “Listen, love, you might look like a man but—”

  “Oh, shut up, you horrible little psychopath,” the other one—the pretty one—said.

  “Little?” Terry was five foot ten.

  The bitch dropped her eyes to the front of his trousers. “I wasn’t talking about your height.”

  Next thing he knew, the blokey one had pulled a knife. Wicked sharp looking thing. Shit.

  “Untie her. Now,” she said.

  Her voice was shaky, high-pitched, and nervous. Terry might have thought she was bluffing, but there was something in her eyes. Something he recognized. Something that told Terry she just might stab him if he gave her reason to. Maybe she was even looking for a reason.

  “All right. Let’s not get carried away,” he said.

  He thought furiously. There was no way he was giving up Dani. She was the link to his son. He’d die before he let these two take her. But it was two against one, and one of them had a knife. Once Dani was free, it would be three against one, and he really didn’t fancy his chances then. Even if it was only three women.

  “I won’t tell you again,” the one with the knife said.

  Terry had an idea. “Okay, okay. I’ll untie her. I need to use my knife, though, because I did it really tight.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said.

  Could he take these two? Even if one of them did have a knife? If he could get it off her, maybe.

  “He’s got more rope in his bag. Tie him up first,” Dani piped up.

  Bitch.

  “Ellery?” The pretty one looked at the one with the knife.

  “Go ahead.” She didn’t take her eyes off him.

  “There’s no need for that, love. I’m not going to do anything.”

  “Liar,” Dani said.

  “I agree,” said the pretty one.

  All of them were bitches.

  The pretty one started snooping in his rucksack and pulled out beer bottle after beer bottle. “Got a bit of a problem, have you?”

  Terry clenched his fists and swallowed the angry words perched on his tongue. He needed to play nice.

  The pretty one stood, came towards him with a length of guide rope. Terry waited. He needed to time this right. As she reached out to tie his hands, he pivoted, grabbed her with one hand around her waist, spun her away from him, and put his other arm around her neck. He pulled her close.

  “Go on,” he whispered in her ear, “keep struggling. I like the way it makes you rub against my cock.”

  She stopped struggling and held herself stiff.

  “Right, now we’ve got that sorted, you”—he nodded at the dykey one—“chuck the knife away. Far enough so you can’t reach it.”

  She hesitated, so he squeezed the pretty one’s neck with his forearm. She choked and tried to claw him off. “Pack that in. Don’t fucking scratch me.” The pretty one stopped, and he let up on her neck.

  “I’ll throw the knife. Just stop doing that to her.” She flung the knife, and it skidded away and under a car.

  Now what? Dani was already tied up, so she wasn’t a problem. But these two, he wasn’t sure how to proceed. The sensible thing to do was strangle the one he had hold of. It was a shame because she was a looker, but needs must. He was doing it for Little Terry.

  “Right, me and the girls are going inside, and you are going to piss off. Got it?”

  “No way. I’m not leaving them alone with you.”

  “It’s either that or I’ll snap this one’s neck. It’ll be over before you can get near us.” He didn’t know if that was true. He’d never snapped a human being’s neck before, but he assumed it was the same principle. And dykey didn’t know, did she?

  “Fine, fine.” She held her hands out in front of her, palms up. “I’ll go.”

  “No! Ellery, take Dani with you. He can’t stop all three of us. Take her.”

  Terry tightened his grip on her neck again, cut off her air. “Shut the fuck up.” He squeezed and squeezed and squeezed, and for a moment he wondered if he was going to stop. He didn’t want to, but he needed to. She was his leverage.

&
nbsp; “Jesus, stop! Stop! I’ll go. Please!” The dykey one—Ellery—was walking backward, away from them. The pretty one was coughing and spluttering, and Dani was crying. Fuck’s sake. Bloody women.

  And what was that other noise? Sounded like a fucking earthquake. A deep rolling rumble that shook the ground and almost made him lose his footing.

  “What is that?” he heard Ellery say as she twisted around to look.

  Out of nowhere a great herd of animals, all shapes and sizes, came thundering past. Cows, deer, dogs, sheep, and horses. Pigs, donkeys, ponies, and—he swore—a kangaroo.

  What the fuck was going on? In the next instant, searing, agonizing pain between his legs. He dropped to his knees, thought he might throw up, wanted to scream. Oh, the fucking pain. He clutched himself, doubled over. Tears poured down his cheeks and he could barely breathe.

  Now his hands were being pulled behind his back. He was weak as a baby, and he couldn’t stop them. What did they do? What had they done to him down there? Sweat and snot mingled with his tears and he was really crying now. Fucking rotten bitches.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Ellery wiped at the raw skin on Dani’s neck. She struggled to tamp down her rage. How dare he. The wickedness of people sometimes left her speechless. This was why she spent all her time with animals. They were never cruel on purpose. How could anyone lead another person around on a piece of rope?

  The light in the superstore wasn’t great, but it was enough to see by. She was reluctant to come back after yesterday, but whatever chased her seemed to be gone.

  She really wanted to talk to Dani about the dreams and the weird stampede outside but decided to wait until they were away from Terry Pratt. He hadn’t said much at all. She could tell he was still in pain from the kick to the balls Loveday had dealt him. Ellery smiled just thinking about it. While the rest of them had been mesmerized by the animals, Loveday was saving the day. Ellery thought she was incredible.

  The stampede was something she’d have to think about later. All her training told her it was almost an impossibility to have such a strange variety of animals running together—working together. It just shouldn’t happen. Same species, yes. Or if there was a bush fire. But the fire they’d seen didn’t seem to be heading this way, and Ellery had seen nothing else that would explain such a large herd of animals moving together like this. But now wasn’t the time to get into it, even though her brain itched to come up with a logical reason for it happening.

  None of them bothered to wipe the dried snot off Terry’s face. The general consensus was he was a piece of shit and no one wanted to touch him.

  Ellery looked up at the sound of squeaky wheels. Loveday was back with her shopping trolley.

  “Okay, I’ve got a bit of everything. And more food for the pets,” Loveday said. “I’ll start putting it in the rucksacks in a minute.”

  They’d left Rocky and Claude at the van and Ellery wanted to get back to them as soon as possible. They’d already been away too long.

  Loveday crouched beside Ellery and inspected Dani’s neck. “That looks sore.”

  Ellery briefly closed her eyes as Loveday’s warm breath washed over her cheek. Relished the warm hand on the shoulder Loveday used to steady herself.

  “It’s okay. Just stings,” Dani said.

  The girl wasn’t much for talking. Or maybe it was the fact Terry was sitting close by, watching their every move. Ellery used the ropes from Dani to tie him up further then added some duct tape and more rope she found down one of the aisles.

  Ellery wasn’t sure what to do with him. She couldn’t let him go, but she didn’t want to leave him to starve to death either. Despite what he’d done and what he was planning to do, Ellery wasn’t without mercy. She wouldn’t stoop to his level. Convincing Loveday of that was another story. Maybe she could loosen a few of the ropes so he could eventually free himself? It was risky, but she couldn’t think of a better solution.

  “So what happens now?” he asked.

  Ellery looked up from cleaning Dani’s neck. Despite being out of shape, he was powerful. Big hands. Dark eyes that didn’t stop moving, watching, assessing.

  “We leave. You stay here,” she replied.

  “You’re going to just leave me to die?”

  “You don’t deserve any better,” Loveday cut in.

  Ellery watched him swallow whatever words were about to come out of his mouth. She got the impression he wasn’t used to women like Loveday.

  “We can’t do that, Loveday,” Dani said. “It’s not right.”

  Nor was putting a rope around a human being’s neck until her skin was rubbed raw, but Ellery wasn’t going to argue the point. She agreed with her.

  “I’ll loosen the ropes a bit. It’ll take you a while to get them undone. Too long for you to be able to catch up with us,” Ellery said.

  “Is that a good idea?” Loveday stopped filling the rucksacks and looked at Terry with total loathing. “I say let him rot.”

  “You’re a right little charmer.” Terry smiled at Loveday and Ellery shivered. Too many teeth and his eyes were cruel.

  “Ellery, I think letting him go is a mistake.” Loveday ignored him and looked hard at Ellery.

  “We can’t just leave him to starve.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s wrong,” Dani said.

  Loveday spun to face her. “What do you think he was going to do to you? Do you know? Do you have any idea?”

  “Loveday,” Ellery warned.

  “I wasn’t going to do anything to her. She was trying to run away from me.”

  Except that was a lie. Ellery was certain they’d got to Dani just in time.

  “I know what he was going to do, Loveday. I’m not stupid. He’s also planning to hand me over to that woman, Rosemary Decker. He thinks it’ll help him get his son back,” Dani said. It was the most she’d spoken. “Even so, we can’t leave him to die. It’s wrong.”

  “She’s lying. I was just helping her get north, like she asked me to,” Terry cut in.

  “Will you shut up. No one’s talking to you,” Loveday said.

  “Now listen, love—”

  “Everyone be quiet.” Ellery was surprised at the sharpness in her own voice. “I’m going to loosen the ropes. We’re going to leave. That’s the end of it.”

  Loveday huffed and silently went back to stuffing items in their rucksacks. Ellery would speak to her later. Right now, she wanted to get done in here and get back to the pets.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Rosemary dug her fingernails into her palms to keep from screaming. She felt them break the skin.

  “We should have it fixed within a week,” Gordon said. “The damage isn’t too bad. Should T-Cut right out.”

  Rosemary looked at the words someone had scratched into the side of the Ark 2. She reached out and touched them, felt where they scarred her beautiful boat. She traced their outline, leaving a thin smear of blood, bright red against the clean white.

  “Who did this?” She turned to Chloe-Claire. “Who did this?”

  “We don’t know. We’re looking into it,” Chloe-Claire said.

  “How can you not know? How can no one have seen anything at all?”

  “I don’t know, Ms. Decker.”

  “Find out. Find out. Find out.” Rosemary was aware she was spraying spittle into Chloe-Claire’s face but couldn’t seem to stop herself. Someone had dared to deface her boat, her dream, her life’s work. And no one cared. No one seemed to care at all.

  “Ms. Decker—” Gordon said, and she rounded on him, pushed him against the side of Ark 2, balling her fist into his shirt.

  “You fix it. Fix it now.”

  His eyes were wide and his face had gone red and she couldn’t stop herself, couldn’t calm down. She clutched at him tighter, twisted the rough fabric in her fist and pulled, so his sour breath washed over her face, their mouths inches apart in some sick parody of lovers. Someone had defaced the Ark 2. Scratched v
ile blasphemous words into its flank, and she was the only one who cared.

  Who would do such a thing? She knew. Oh, she knew. Those one-percenters from the other day, that’s who. Who else would scratch Burn in hell murdering bitch into her pride and joy?

  A hand touched her shoulder, and she whirled around, grabbed the hand, wrenched it away from her, and heard a snap. Chloe-Claire screamed. Rosemary pushed her away. She fell hard, clutching her arm.

  Around them, people had begun to gather. She looked at their faces, wide-eyed and afraid as though she was some kind of lunatic.

  She wiped at her chin, at the saliva which coated it. She looked down at Chloe-Claire, cowering like a beaten dog, her screams now soft sobs. Rosemary looked behind her at Gordon, standing against the Ark 2, his shirt bunched up and his hands spread out in supplication.

  The crowd moved closer to her, and several peeled away as if to come towards her. Rosemary fled.

  * * *

  Terry worked at the knots on his left wrist. His fingers were greasy with sweat, and his nails too short to pick at the knots effectively. It looked like he might die in here after all.

  Fuck.

  His balls ached. He wiped at his brow with his inner wrist, the rough rope scratching his forehead and making him itch. Loveday—nothing lovable about that cunt—got more rope from somewhere. It wasn’t smooth like the guide ropes from the tent. He reckoned she probably shopped around to find the most uncomfortable. Seemed like something the bitch would do.

  Terry gave up. There was no way he was getting these knots undone. Maybe he’d try again later. The miserable cows left him some food and water so he’d be okay for a few days yet. Of course, the longer he sat here, the further away they got, and the less likely he’d be able to catch them.

  Terry really wanted to catch them. If only to choke the life out of Loveday with the rope he was now bound with. She’d made an enemy out of him, and if he ever got out of here, she’d regret it. The other one—Ellery—he’d kill her quick. She hadn’t been too bad beyond the knife business.

  Dani was a means to an end. He’d get her to Rosemary Decker, then get his son back.