by Lukens, Mark
A rustling sound from outside.
Mike’s eyes shot to the windows and the pool beyond them, the greenish water black as night now. He studied the woods beyond the backyard, looking for any movement among the trees.
It’s nothing.
An hour passed and Mike hadn’t heard any more rustling sounds. He was still nervous, but beginning to get sleepy. He closed his eyes and slipped into a dream almost immediately.
The dream was the same one he always had these days. He was older in the dream, a man. He looked down at his muscled arms and legs, the gun holstered to his hip, a big knife (practically a machete) stuck down in a holster and strapped to his other leg with a leather string. He carried a shotgun with him.
He walked among the rubble of a destroyed building. Most of the buildings around him were destroyed, like they’d been bombed. Nobody else walked with Mike through the rubble, but he wasn’t alone; he had a dog with him, some kind of mutt that looked more like a German shepherd than anything else. He didn’t drive because he knew in the dream that most of the gas he came across had turned bad. He stopped for a moment, surveying the buildings in front of him as he hid in the shadows of a crumbling block wall. He stared at the burnt-out buildings, the metal skeletons showing through, old cars resting on rusted rims, all the rubber, leather, and cloth on and in the cars burnt away a long time ago.
He left the shadow of the wall, working his way quickly to the side of another partially standing building. He was searching for something . . . no, searching for someone. Someone he knew. That person was in trouble and he needed to save her.
But it was dangerous. Bad people were around, a lot of them. A gang like the Dark Angels. Or maybe worse.
Shots rang out in the silent air.
Mike dived behind the tower of rubble to his left, aiming his rifle at the source of the shots. He saw them, the men . . . the gang. They were coming his way.
Mike snapped awake.
It was still dark. The house still quiet.
But there was a noise.
Was anyone up and on watch?
No. They were still sleeping. He could hear all of them breathing heavily.
The noise was coming from outside, a sly noise, a sneaky movement.
Mike didn’t move from the floor as he stared out the windows. Someone was out there beyond the pool, beyond the hedges, in the backyard, a shadowy figure.
A ripper?
Maybe. But Mike didn’t think so. The person had moved a little before, but now he stood very still in the night, like he knew someone was watching him. Mike stared at the man for so long it almost seemed like the man merged into the darkness.
Mike looked away from the man, at his dad sleeping near him, his bulk visible in the darkness. Josh and Emma weren’t too far away. He wondered if he should wake them up. One of them was probably supposed to be on watch right now. He looked back to where the man had been standing, but he couldn’t spot him now in the night.
He sat up. It was almost morning. He didn’t know how he knew it was almost morning, but he did; it was like an internal clock had taken over inside of him now that he couldn’t just check his phone to see what time it was. It was amazing how the mind and body could adapt to survival whether you wanted them to or not. He got up and walked to the plate-glass windows, keeping to the side of the middle window, watching the large pool deck area, the black pool, the line of hedges and other shrubs, the wall of dark woods in the distance.
The man he’d seen earlier was gone now, but there was something out there. A few somethings. Now that he was closer to the window he could make out the objects lined up in a row, four of them gleaming in the moonlight . . . the objects nearly glowing.
A hand fell lightly on Mike’s shoulder.
Mike jumped. He turned and saw his dad standing there. He hadn’t even heard him creep up behind him.
“What is it, son?”
“Out there,” Mike whispered. “Those . . . those things.”
His dad stared for a long moment out the window, not moving a muscle, just watching. His dad knew what those objects stuck on the poles in the ground shining in the moonlight were as well as Mike did—human skulls.
PART FOUR
CHAPTER 35
Luke
Before dawn, Luke got Max, Phil, and Dawson up. Max hadn’t been sleeping, and Phil woke up with the lightest of touches. Dawson jumped up when Luke touched his shoulder, turning over and biting back a scream. It took a few seconds for Dawson to come fully awake.
“What’s wrong?” Phil asked. “Rippers?”
“No,” Luke said.
They stood in the darkness for a second, each of them listening for rippers, for the Dark Angels’ Humvees out on the streets. Everything was silent.
“It’s almost dawn,” Luke said. “We need to get going.”
No one questioned Luke.
“Rippers are least active at this time,” Luke added. “We need to get to Hell Town while we can.” He pulled out the folded paper from his pocket, opening it up and turning his flashlight on, covering most of the front of it with his hand, the light turning his fingers red, the maroon light bleeding down onto the re-drawn copy of the map Dawson had drawn of Hell Town when they had interrogated him. “Here,” Luke said, pointing down at the west wall of the town. “I want to go in there.” He looked right at Dawson.
“There’s a wall there,” Dawson told him.
“You said the Dragon’s house is here,” Luke said, pointing to the square labeled the Dragon’s house on one corner of the intersection of Elm Street and Warner Street. “It’s only a few blocks away.”
“Can’t scale the wall,” Dawson said. “Too many spotters. Too many shooters. And they’ll know we’re coming now.”
Luke pointed at the blank area outside the west wall of Hell Town. “We need to get in this area. As quickly as we can.”
“I told you, I don’t know the area around Hell Town that well.”
“He’s just stalling,” Max said. “Trying to set us up somehow.”
“Fuck you, man,” Dawson hissed, still keeping his voice low but staring right at Max in the weak reddish glow of Luke’s covered flashlight. “I’m sick of you saying that shit all the time.”
“Then fess up,” Max said. “Tell us the truth.”
“You’ve never been in these areas around Hell Town at all?” Luke asked Dawson.
The three of them waited for Dawson’s answer.
“I don’t know. Yeah. A few times. But it wasn’t like I mapped the place out or anything.”
“But you know it better than the three of us do,” Max snapped.
Luke folded the paper back up into a little square and tucked it into his pocket. “We need to go.” He looked at Dawson. “You need to remember as much as you can. We’re west and north of Hell Town right now. We just need to head southeast.”
“Maybe something will jog your memory when we get down there,” Max said.
*
Moments later they slipped out the back door of the house, out into the cold and silent air, out into the darkness. The going was slow as they made their way from house to house, then out of the neighborhood and down a narrow street through the woods. Everything was even darker among the trees. Luke stopped every so often to survey the area with his night vision goggles, the same ones he’d taken off the Dark Angels in the strip plaza near the airport where they had shot and killed Wilma. Dawson had his own pair of night vision goggles, much like Luke’s. Between the two of them, they had been able to spot any rippers around. So far they’d been pretty lucky.
They came to the next neighborhood half a mile down the road as the eastern horizon lightened up just a bit beyond the mountains in the distance. They waited for a moment behind a large block and stucco wall at the entrance to the neighborhood, hidden even more by the mature landscaping all around the sign. The housing development looked like something that had been built in the 70s: long, one-story homes with low roofs, lots o
f trees and shrubs everywhere, lots of cars and trucks in driveways, lots of stuff on porches and in backyards, accumulations from decades of living.
Luke looked at the other three, their breath misting up in front of their faces in the cold air. He was sure they were heading in the right general direction. He looked at Dawson in the early morning gloom to see if he had any course corrections. Dawson said nothing.
A moment later they were at the side of the first house. A few rippers slept on the back porch. Luke was sure there were more of them inside. They hurried down the litter-covered street, staying close to the front yards on the one side of the street, still using the cover of darkness to move. But they wouldn’t have that darkness much longer.
CHAPTER 36
Josh
When the dawn came and it was light enough to see outside—only an hour after Ray had woken up to see Mike staring out the large window—Ray was ready to go outside to take a closer look at the skulls perched on top of the wooden poles stuck in the lawn beyond the line of hedges. He had given Mike the keys to the van and told him to stay inside and watch Emma. Ray and Josh went outside. Ray hung back closer to the house, covering Josh as he crept alongside the hedges, getting closer to the skulls with his gun in his hand.
The sun hadn’t risen all the way above the trees yet and there was a twilight feel to the world, light enough to see but many areas were still dark with shadows.
Josh watched the woods all around them as he got closer to the skulls, trying to look everywhere at once. Josh didn’t believe the skulls had been left by rippers. But someone had left them. Mike said he’d only seen one man, but Ray seemed to believe there was more than just one person out there. And Josh seconded that.
There were no noises in the woods, no noises near the house except for a few birds chirping, a squirrel running around through the dry leaves and then scrambling along a tree branch.
It couldn’t have been rippers, Josh thought as he inched closer to the macabre line of trophies. They wouldn’t display the skulls like this, sticking them onto poles. Dark Angels? Possibly. But Josh figured the Dark Angels would just hide outside and shoot at them as soon as they left the house, or maybe they would just break in and start shooting.
A chill ran through Josh’s body as he got closer to the skulls. Then he stood only a few feet away, just beyond the corner of the last hedge at the far edge of the pool deck. His skin tingled. He swore someone was watching him, but he couldn’t see anyone in the woods.
He concentrated on the four skulls pushed down onto the wooden poles shoved into the grass. The skulls were clean, almost polished, the bone gleaming in the early morning light. The wooden sticks were smooth, like they’d been sanded down. There was nothing else there. No words written on the skulls, no notes attached to them, nothing on the ground.
It was time to get the hell out of there.
Josh hurried back, running alongside the hedge on the east side of the pool deck. He reached Ray. They locked eyes for a moment. Josh didn’t say anything; he didn’t have to.
A moment later they were back inside the house. Mike and Emma stood next to each other. Both of them had their backpacks on. Mike had his dad’s backpack in his hands. They were both ready to leave.
“Rippers?” Emma asked.
“I don’t think so,” Josh told her. “I didn’t see anyone out there.”
“We need to go,” Ray said.
Emma seemed to stare at Ray. Josh knew that she’d heard the tremor in Ray’s voice; she could hear his fear. Josh could see it.
They hurried from the family room into the formal living room and then out the front door, down the porch, then the walkway to the van. Ray kept an eye out as he jumped into the driver’s seat. Mike got into the passenger seat. Josh threw the bags and blankets in the back through the open side door, then he helped Emma inside and onto the bench seat. Ray started the van as Josh got in and slid the side door shut.
Ray started the van and drove out from under the breezeway, driving toward the long driveway. Josh had his M-16 ready in case he needed it.
“What was out there?” Emma asked Josh as Ray drove down the long driveway.
“Skulls,” Josh said.
Ray was quiet and tense as he drove down the winding drive a little too quickly. Josh looked out the side window at the woods whipping by. He couldn’t see anyone out there in the early morning light.
“Skulls?” Emma said.
“Skulls on sticks,” Mike told her. “Four of them. All stuck in the ground. In a line.”
“The old skull-on-a-stick trick,” Josh said, forcing a fake laugh. No one was laughing with him.
“Who left them there?” Emma asked.
“I saw a man,” Mike said, turning around to look at Emma as Ray turned from the driveway onto the road, speeding up. Ray seemed to relax a little now that they were farther away from the house.
Emma faced Mike, waiting for him to continue.
“I saw a man last night when I woke up. Right before morning. It was dark, but I could see him.”
“Only one man?” Josh asked.
“Yeah,” Mike said. “That’s all I saw.”
“What was he doing?” Emma asked.
“Just standing there.”
“Watching the house?”
“I think so. It seemed like it.”
“But you don’t think he was a ripper or a Dark Angel,” Emma said, directing her question at Ray.
“Not a ripper,” Ray said. “A ripper wouldn’t have stood so still for so long, watching the house. And he probably would’ve attacked, or he would’ve been with a pack. Same thing with the Dark Angels.”
“Unless the Dark Angels are watching us,” Josh said. “Following us.”
“Following us why?” Ray snapped.
“Maybe they’re following us to Avalon.”
“How would they know about that?”
Josh shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just spit balling ideas here. Maybe the Dragon knows about Avalon. You know, from our dreams or something.” He looked at Emma for help.
Ray shook his head no—dismissing the idea completely.
“It’s possible,” Emma said.
“What’s possible?” Ray said.
Josh stared at Emma.
“It’s possible the Dragon may know about Avalon,” Emma said.
“You think he knows?” Ray asked, not disguising the panic in his voice. “Why didn’t you say something already? We could be driving into a trap.”
“She said it’s possible,” Josh said, jumping to Emma’s defense.
“I don’t know any of it for sure,” Emma said with just the first twinge of anger in her voice. “I’m just guessing about a lot of this, just like you are.”
Ray was quiet for a moment.
“We just need to be ready for it,” Emma said.
Ray nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“If it’s not rippers or Dark Angels leaving the skulls on a stick, then who did it?” Josh asked. “The skulls, they were clean. Too clean. Almost like the flesh had been boiled off of them.”
“What are you trying to say?” Ray asked.
“Cannibals,” Josh said. “I think someone ate those four people and kept their skulls for trophies. But not rippers. I didn’t see any claw or knife marks. The skulls were clean, unbroken, undamaged.”
“You think there’s a group of cannibals running around out there?” Ray asked, not hiding the sarcasm in his voice. “That’s what you’re trying to say?”
“Maybe just one or two, but yeah, there could be a whole group of them.”
CHAPTER 37
Ray
“Here,” Emma said. “Turn here.”
Ray saw what she was talking about, a dirt drive off to the right. Since leaving the house with the skulls propped up on sticks in the backyard early this morning, Ray had driven farther up into the mountains, climbing a narrow road that wound up through the hills, through the dense trees. He’d been fol
lowing Emma’s lead—she could sense where they needed to go, like she could see the path lit up in her dark world, following a sixth sense that Ray couldn’t fathom.
They hadn’t seen many rippers since leaving the house, only a few at the edge of one town they skirted. No signs of Dark Angels, either. And no signs of the cannibal group that had left the skulls behind. The land was silent, the trees and brush thick, a forgotten road where no one had lived. Ray wondered if the government had bought up all the land around Avalon to keep people from stumbling onto it. It was quite possible.
Ray turned onto the dirt drive and the van climbed the steep grade, the road twisting and turning through the trees.
After a sharp bend, the dirt road turned to smooth pavement, the trees and brush cut back, not so close to the road anymore. A metal gate blocked the road a hundred yards ahead of them. Ray pulled up to it and stopped. A big red stop sign was attached to the metal bar across the road, with other signs on the side of the road declaring that this was government property and to turn around unless authorized, warning of stiff fines and maximum jail times of fifteen years for trespassing.
Ray left the van running as Josh opened the side door and got out. He had the bolt cutters in one hand, his M-16 in the other. Ray looked at Mike in the passenger seat. “You stay here. Keep watching for anything. Be ready to jump in the driver’s seat if you need to.”